The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Even the Reform League cannot expect
to keep up popular excitement under the depressing
influence of the season. The close of the session,
the wet weather, the flight of the well-to-do world
for some warnaier and sunnier spot, and more than
all, the weariness of the public, must throw a damp
on political agitation. The long-promised meeting
in Guildhall, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor,
was held last night, but even with a large assemblage,
strong resolutions, and some fair speaking, it is not
likely to raise much interest among those who read
the report of the proceedings. Probably these
things will soon pall on the taste even of the work-
ing man. When he has shown his sympathy with.
the Reform leaders by attending one monster gather-
ing, and finds that it involves standing for three
mortal hours in a crowd and catching only occasional
syllables of some not very important orator, he is
likely to think he has done his part, and that he
may be content for the future with subscribing
an occasional shilling, and diligently perusing a
friendly newspaper. It was not to be expected that
the Guildhall meeting would muster any imposing
array of speakers. The ill success of the Isling-
ton assemblage in inducing politicians of reputation
to attend seems to have been 'before the eyes of Mr.
Beales and his friends,and, to do them justice, they
did not attract the public by announcements made
at hazard. Probably for this reason the quality of
the meeting was hardly equal to that at the Agri-
cultural Hall. At the utter there was a large body
of middle-class people who had evidently come with
the expectation of hearing some of the leading
Liberal members of Parliament. At Guildhall last
night this element was absent. There was only one
class present, and that was the working class.
Though there were no processions and no bands,
the meeting was more exclusively composed of
mechanics and labourers than any which have yet
been held. As was the audience so were the
speakers. There was Mr. Beales to begin, and
Delegates from the League and the Working Men's
Association to move and second the resolutions.
But the meeting was not graced by Parliamentary
rank, nor enlivened by political ability. Yet it was,
undoubtedly, a quiet and well-behaved assembly,
and the promoters appear to have taken care that
those admitted, or, at any rate, the great majority
of them, should be trustworthy people. Tickets
were issued, which were given up at the doors, and
we may assume that these tickets were distributed
in such a manner as to insure that the "rough"
element should not preponderate. The people came
in numbers fairly large, and the hall was at one time
filled. The Lord Mayor opened the proceedings by
a speech in which he recommended moderation to
the audience and brevity to the speakers. Both these
suggestions ' ere received with applause, and, what
is more, acted upon by the meeting. It had been
wisely agreed that the speakers should be limited to
a eertain time each, and it may be presumed that
what the speeches lost in length they gained in point
and power. The speakers were all working men,
except their President, and we are bound to say
that they most of them made very good speeches.
Mr. Beales was rather prosy and more bitter in some
of his remarks than was necessary, but the working
men themselves were, on the whole, both brief and
good-humoured. Of course the Tories came in for
a greal deal of invective, and were charged with
bludgeoning the people by means of the police, with
denying the franchise to the working men, and other
misdemeanours. Yet Lord Derby seemed not to be
personally unpopular with some of the speakers,
nor with a large section of the audience. Some of
the best speakers were comparatively moderate.
Mr. Odgers, whose name is well known in connec-
tion with Working Men's Associations, declared amid
the applause of the audience that the people would
accept a good Reform Bill from the Conservatives
if they could get it, and be satisfied when they had
got it ; and all through its proceedings the meeting
never lost an opportunity of testifying its loyalty
to the Crown, and its respect for the person and
office of the Lord Mayor. The meeting in Guild-
hall had this great advantage over its predecessors
—that it was possible for a large part of the audience
to hear. At the beginning of the meeting the hall
was filled, and an outdoor meeting was made up of
those who could not get in or were unprovided
with tickets. Even when the meeting began to thin
the hall was about three-fourths filled. Yet several
of the speakers made themselves heard even at the
further end, and the people having their attention
fixed were, of course, orderly and patient. The ex-
periment proves, if proof were needed, that it is
more reasonable to hold political gatherings in
places of moderate size, and to make the limit of the
human voice the limit of a public meeting. Even
the Guildhall, indeed, is toolarge for effective speak-
ing, and some of the speakers were scarcely audible
half-way down the hall. We trust that the League,
if it continue its agitation during the autumn, will
profit by the lesson of the last fortnight, and spare
us any more monster demonstrations. Mr. Beales
and his friends have proved that many thousand
people can be brought together to hear popular
speakers, or to show their sympathy with the cause
of Reform. So far they have achieved something
in favour of their cause; but the more reflecting
members of the League must be conscious that the
oratory addressed to these great assemblages has not
been of a high order, and even the speakers must
feel that they could do themselves more justice if
they were discussing the merits of a definite Reform
scheme, instead of shouting out generalities at the
top of their voices to an indiscriminate multitude.
Outdoor meetings have a disquieting effect on the
neighbourhood where they are held ; it is impossible
to make sure that they will not be the means of
bringing together numbers of persons who care less
for Reform than for riot and mischief. Immense
indoor assemblages like that in the Agricultural
Hall are less inconvenient, but they are useless
for any practical purpose. When the Reform
League discusses its principles in a place not be-
yond the Ihnits of the human lungs, we may expect
it will make more clear to the world the nature of

the measure it demands and the reasoning by which
it associates the late Alinistry with its cause. At
present we can only see that the League is for uni-
versal suffrage and the ballot, while the statesmen
whom it calls its leaders in Parliament are opposed
to both these measures. While the Leaguers are
thus uncertain as to principles, it can hardly be ex-
pected that they should be very accurate in the
details of what has passed during the session now
coming to a close. That Mr. Gladstone's Reform
Bill was a most imperfect measure, and introduced
in a manner which provoked almost universal dis-
trust in the Commons, is well understood by every
one who has made himself acquainted with recent
politics ; but all the arguments of the League and
the Working Men's Association are based on the
supposition that the majority of the House of Com-
mons, composed of Tories and Liberal renegades,

have absolutely declared against Reform in any
shape. The same wildness of statement and vio-
lence of denunciation run through most of the
speeches, but such language can have no real influ-
ence. We think the audience themselves will feel
surprised this morning at the difference between the
speeches as they heard them and cheered them last
night and as they read them printed in the news-
papers. When the loud voice, and the energetic
mariner, and the sympathetic crowd are gone, and
when nothing remains but the naked words, then
comes the test of public speaking. Speeches that
do not bear reporting can have but little effect in
this country, and the audience may judge for them-
selves whether these speeches of last night, which
were so animated and successful, really add much
to our knowledge either of Reform or the working
class. The only argumentative speech of the even-
ing was that of Mr. G. Potter, who cited the indus-
trial associations of the artisans to prove that they
are capable of intelligent combination, and have
that stake in the country which the Conservatives
affect to consider so important. This was legitimate
reasoning, and we cannot but regret that it stood
isolated amid the declamation of the evening.
HERALD.—The information derived from the
speeches of the leading members of both the past and
present Administrations as to the existing political
state of Ireland is indeed lamentable. After sixty-
six years' union with Great Britain, during which a
full equality of constitutional rights has been con-
ceded to the Roman Catholics of that country, ac-
companied by an abolition of tithes, at least in so
far as the occupying tenant is concerned, and a re-
duction of nearly one-half the bishoprics of the
Protestant Church—those important measures being
also supplemented by an extraordinary exemption
from direct taxation extended to all classes of the
Irish people—disloyalty is said, by those supposed
to be well informed on the subject, still to prevail
there to a hitherto unequalled extent ; and to stay
its further progress the Conservative Ministry have
been compelled, not only by a sense of duty, but
from the necessity of following up the policy of their
predecessors, and partly, we may say, in deference
to their urgent appeals, unwillingly to demand from
Parliament a still further continuance of the sus-
pension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. But
while the public exhibition of offensive party feel-
ing has been steadily discountenanced by those in
authority, and prohibited by legal enactments until
it may be said to have ceased to trouble public tran-
quillity—at a period, too, of unexampled prosperity
amongst the class of small landholders, as is proved
beyond dispute by their enormous and prodigiously
increasing deposits in the local and savings banks—
we cannot avoid expressing our surprise that the
Roman Catholic portion of the community should
be represented by their late Lord Lieutenant as
traitors to their heart's core, who are ready, not-
withstanding their remarkable progress in the
acquisition of wealth, to join in a rebellion, hatched
by Yankee emissaries, should they only perceive
the slightest chance of its success. Lord Kim-
berley admitted—what indeed has been made
patent by the reports of the public press .that at no
period of her history has Ireland been in a state of
such perfect tranquillity as at the present moment.
There has been absolutely no criminal business
whatever to be disposed of at very many of the past
assizes. Agrarian disturbances have notoriously
altogether ceased, and as their evidence has been
always assumed as the surest test of popular discon-
tent, and their extent taken as the measure of the
occupying tenants' wrongs, we may fairly set down
to other causes than the ill-treatment of the small
class of farmers by their landlords whatever of dis-
loyalty may still exist in the sister country. The
Earl of Derby very fairly based his application
for the extraordinary powers he sought on the heavy
responsibility which must devolve on any Govern-
ment, who, during the recess of Parliament, should
permit those persons now imprisoned, " and who in
point of fact still maintain the language of defiance
to the authorities," to go at large without any
security for their future good conduct, or who
abandoned the only means by which they could deter
equally mischievous individuals from invading the
country and propagating their pernicious doctrines;
and he justified the utility of the measure he pro-
posed by the well-known fact that—to use his own
words—" at the time of the passing of this act we
know that a large number of persons were in Ire-
land spreading their opinions amongst an impulsive
and easily deluded population. When they found
this act was passed they returned to America.
And from the time of their going, it was not so
much from the imprisonment of those who re-
mained, as the absence of those who went abroad
from a fear of the law, that peace prevailed. The
repeal of this act at the close of the session would
give those persons an opportunity of returning
with perfect impunity, and of renewing designs
which they have never abandoned, but which they
still put forward with the utmost confidence and
effrontery." As an extension of the time during
which public liberty must remain in abeyance in
Ireland has met with the almost unanimous appro-
bation of all political parties, the Conservative
Premier cannot justly incur any odium for placing
his Government in such a position as may enable
it to deal promptly and successfully with the unfor-
tunate state of things which the Whigs, after their
lengthened enjoyment of power, have left him as an
inheritance. Lord Derby, while addressing the
house, most properly confined his remarks to the
subject under discussion, and reserved to himself a
perfect freedom of discussion as regards the nature
of any future legislation he might consider neces-
sary to promote the interests of Ireland. Had
Lord Kimberley limited his observations in support
of the Government proposition to a confirmation of
Lord Derby's statements and a coincidence in his
views, such conduct must have entitled him to our
respect and approbation ; but unfortunately the
ex-Viceroy could not resist the opportunity of doing
a little stroke of party business, and he therefore
touched upon two subjects, the advocacy of which
he no doubt thought might place his political
adversaries in an awkward position, and at the
same time impress the leaders of Irish agitation
with the conviction that the Whigs were now more
than anxious to carry out measures which while in
office they studiously declined to deal with. Those
measures were the adjustment of the land question
in such a manner as to satisfy the professed friends
of the Irish tenant, and the confiscation of the
temporalities of the Irish branch of the Established
Church. He professed his confident belief " that
it is impossible for England to perform its duty to
Ireland so long as no attempt is made to deal with
the important question of the tenure of land ;" and
he described " as a great and formidable evil with
ivhich, he was convinced, Parliament must some
day deal," the existence in Ireland of a religious
establishment to which no more than 700,000 out
of a population of more than five millions and a half
belonged. It is indeed true that at the last moment
of their existence Lord Russell's Ministry intro-
duced a bill for the arrangement of the Irish land
question on terms which would have virtually de-
prived the Irish proprietors of all control over the
management of their properties, by permitting the
tenants, at their expense, to make any so-called im-
provements they pleased without their knowledge or
consent ; but they could not and did not expect that
such an act of positive confiscation would have been
sanctioned by any Parliament recognising the rights
of private property. It was introduced, like Mr.
Monsell's Oaths Bill, at the close of the session, and
when the Government was in the very throes of dis-
solution, and it was abandoned when it was no
longer available for its designed purpose, without the
slightest attempt being made to carry it through.
That the possession of its temporalitiesby the Church
cannot, even according to Lord Kimberley's own
showing, be considered such a grievance by those
who, to a large extent, bear the burden of its sup-
port, is evident, for he tells us in his speech "that
he cannot omit the opportunity of stating how cor-
dially he was supported throughout the whole of his

proceedings by all persons of respectability and posi-
tion in the country, irrespective of creed or party."
The noble earl waxed warm as he advanced in his
address, and concluded by a most unjustifiable and
uncalled-for attack on Irish landlords. " I know,"
he said, "it is most distasteful to gentlemen living
in that part of the United Kingdom to be told that
their condition requires exceptional measures, and
that they are not to be treated in the same way in
which those holding land in England and Scotland
are treated. Exceptional measures in regard to the
tenure of land are absolutely required in Ireland,
and I believe that the question of land tenure is the
one which most interests the people, and it is the
one with which Parliament should deal first." It
is impossible to avoid remarking the exactitude with
which Lord Kimberley adopts the programme of
the Irish National Association—fixity of tenure
first, and the despoilment of the Church after—.
and we cannot doubt the source from which he
drew his inspirations. For this libel on Irish pro-
prietors the ex-Viceroy was most sharply and pro-
perly called to account by the Marquis of Clan-
ricarde, who accused him of entire ignorance
of the. subject on which he touched, and asserted,
what is the undoubted fact, " that Fenianisin had
no connection whatever with disputes between land-
lord and tenant, as it had been concocted in Ame-
rica, and supported by American gold." To coun-
tervail Lord Kimberley's assertion as to the mis-
conduct of the Irish landlords, we may appeal to
the condition and conduct of the Irish tenants ; the
cessation of agrarian outrage bears ample testhuony
to their contentment with the existing situation,
while their accumulated wealth gives convincing•
evidence of their increasing prosperity; and we sin-
cerely trust that the Conservative Government will
not fall into the fatal error of accepting the un-
founded assertions of those who are in some quar-
ters supposed to represent them as a true exposition

------- e
of their real sentiments. That the law requires t
theso
amendments file
right we do not seek to dispute. Le ie
Fight of the tenant to a due remuneration for
improvements made with the consent of pis land
lord be established beyond the reach of controversi.
or cavil ; but this can be easily and safely auntbe
plished without having recourse to what T
considered as nothing short of social revolution.