The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-21 00:00:00

quote it here exclusively from memory, a passage
running, we believe, verbatim as follows
We were now treading that illustrious island which
was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence
savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of
knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the
mind from all local emotion would be difficult if it were
possible, and would be found impossible if it were endea-
voured. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our
senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future
predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity
of thinking beings." Far from me and from my Mends be
such frigid philosophy as should conduct us indifferent
and unmoved over any ground which had been dignified
by wisdom, learning, or virtue. That man is little to be
envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the
plains of Marathon, and whose piety would not grow warmer
among the ruins of lona."
Those, " we believe," are JOHNSON'S ipsissima
verba—a fragment of which, dwarfed and distorted,
was indecorously dragged into his speech on Wed-
nesday by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the
purpose of a bizarre travesty, through a most ludi-
crous application. The quotation from POPE, how-
ever, as before intimated, was as admirably applied
as that from JOHNSON was misapplied—and, cer-
tainly, reading those three familiar couplets (from
one of the earliest effusions of our English ALEX-
ANDER the Great) by the light of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
comment, the poet's verse seems distinctly prophetic
of the repeal of the Navigation Laws and the
triumph of Free Trade principles—so happily pro-
phetic that we are fain to repeat them here in our
leading columns
The time shall come when free as waves or wind,
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind,
Where nations enter on each swelling tide,
And seas but join the nations they divide;
Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold,
And the New World run forth to seek the Old."

Reverting, however, to our consideration of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer's last after-dinner
speech, as a whole, we would earnestly recom-
mend him, the next time he displays his rhetori-
cal abilities over the dessert, to moderate his im-
mense powers of eulegium, and, above all things,
to remember SCROOGE'S deprecatory appeal to
the ghost of Marley—" Don't be. itneery
JACOB!" •

A delightful contrast to the ornate but really
empty oration of Mr. GLADSTONE, was the emi-
nently sensible and practical speech delivered to
that " incomparable company" on Wednesday
evening by Sir JOHN PAKINGTON. If for nothing
else that speech of the ex-First Lord of the Admi-
ralty would have been worthy of all praise and of
prolonged remembrance for the following :
" I think" said Sir JOHN "we cannot come
to Holyhead, we cannot look at this great and noble
harbour, without recollecting that that harbour
has arisen from the grants which have been given
by the House of Commons, and I hope and trust
that the House of Commons will be wanting in the
great duty which devolves upon them at this mo-
ment of providing harbours for England. Ido not
believe that two more important steps have ever
been taken towards the naval strength—towards
the defences—towards the commercial prosperity of
England—than the creation of those two noble arti-
ficial harbours of Portland and Holyhead. It was my
duty to come here a year ago officially, although I am
not now a member of the Government, and I was
then delighted to hear it very often happens that 200
or 300 vessels at a time during the winter find shelter
in this harbour of Holyhead, which vessels would
otherwise be buffeting about with great risk to life
and property in St. George's Channel. Now, I
trust that the liberality of the House of Commons
will not be restricted in this great item of public i
expenditure. I cannot help here appealing, not to
you the constituents, not to my brother members
in general—but if it is no very unfair, and if
my right hon. friend will kocgive me—l hope 1
may appeal to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
upon this subject, with respect to a report not long
ago presented to Parliament and the public, from
the commission on harbours of refuge. I had the
honour myself of appointing to preside over that
commission Admiral Hope. I appointed Admiral
Hope because I believed then, as I believe now,
that he is a man not only of distinguished gallantry
and professional skill, but a man of great ability.
The report which has been presented justifies that
which it recommends—an extension of the
system of harbours of refuge— and I hope
and trust that the House of Commons will
be liberal in this respect." Admirable words, ad-
mirably well applied, and upon an occasion in every
way most felicitous. We earnestly trust that they
w ill be taken well to heart by the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER, by the British House of Commons,
and by the English people generally. It would
be an appropriate incident worthy of com-
memoration hereafter in the history of the
greatest maritime nation the world has
ever seen, if the multiplication, and com-
pletion, and perfect organisation of the whole
system of harbours of refuge were to date in effect
from that wise and patriotic appeal made by Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON to the people and to the Parlia-
ment—an appeal made by him with a force so
familiarly felicitous upon the Great Eastern's
crowning inauguration.

In returning thanks for the House of Commons
last Wednesday, Sir JOHN PAKINGTON very pro-
perly began with confession of sins. Not that he
has himself, as we consider, much to answer for,
we mean in respect to bribery—the topic to which
he was adverting. Let it be remembered that, as
Lord BROUGHA3I reminded us at Bradford, it was
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON who co-operated with him
in endeavouring effectually to put down bribery;
and to do it by means which we must acknowledge
would have gone very far towards accomplishing
the object. Lord BROUGHAM and Sir JOHN had
prepared a declaration to be made by members on
taking their seats, so stringent that no member
could have done what, for instance, Sir 'Wm.
HATTER, Messrs. PRICE and MONK, Alderman
CARDEN, and Messrs. LEATIIAM and CHARLES-
WORTH have just confessed to having done, with-
out blasting their reputation for ever.
Sir JOHN has, we believe, done his best to purify
the borough constituencies by any means short of
the Ballot ; and had not the House of Commons
opposed his proposal, and refused to require its
members to make an effective declaration, we
should have had no Wakefield and Gloucester
commissions ; it would have been impossible for
gentlemen who had sent above £4,000 each to com-
paratively small constituencies, to have professed
their solemn belief, that, in no way, directly or in-
directly, was their return duo to bribery and cor-
ruption.

We may hope, as Lcrd IlnouGrum and Sir JOHN
PARINGTON have bath spoken out so boldly on the
present disgraceful revelations, that the House will
be compelled to do something bona ftJc against
blibery. "I am sure,"—said the L•on.Member—
" thatall will agree with me in saying that this vile
system is demoralising to the people, discreditable
to our who:e representative institutions, and ren-
ders an appeal to the people not a test of enligh-
tened opinion on any matter of public policy, but a

mere question of who may have the longest purse,
or the most unscrupulous partisans." This is, in-
deed, but a repetition of Lord BROUHAM'S observa-
tions at Bradford—we may say of the opinion of
every unbiassed man. Look at the last Parlia-
ment. Who. can deny that Lord PALMER.-
STON'S majority was a purchased majority ?