The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-03 00:00:00

the most important question of Reform—the ques-
tion how the voting power, when created, is to be
arranged. We may be sure that all the members
who have small boroughs to defend will see this,
and plain speakers like Mr. Bass at Derby make no
secret of what is intended, and expressly say that a
Franchise Bill is a good thing, for the reason that it
will place the settlement of redistribution in the
hands of constituences more democratic than the
existing ones. It is difficult to believe that the
many members who have both public and private
reasons for wishing to know what is going to be-
come of the places they represent will fall into so
obvious a trap, and by far the most direct and
straightforward course is that taken by Lord Gros-
venor, to decline to discuss Reform Bills by frag-
ments. But then the Ministry will go out if Lord
Grosvenor's Resolution is carried, and a large number
of members who quite agree with Lord Grosvenor's
wish to keep the Ministry in, provided that a mere
Franchise Bill does not becomelaw. The Government
has afforded them a loophole. They are:to vote for
the second reading, and then the Government will
so complicate and hamper the question by bringing
in dummy bills for redistribution that no one need
fear that the Franchise Bill will pass. Mr. Oliphant
and Mr. Kinglake were charmed with this proposal.
It saved their principles, and restored them to their
party, and reassured them in a variety of pleasant
ways. We do not quarrel with them for this.
Perhaps they were right in thinking themselves not
strong enough to take a bolder line. But we do
not see why a man like Lord Grosvenor should be
called a dirty conspirator because he prefers saying
what he means, and acting on what he thinks.
THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON MR. LOWE AND
" JUNIUS MINOR."—Some time ago it was said that
the newspaper most spoken of in England had
leaders superior in force and style to the remarkable
diatribes of Junius. The compliment was a bad one
every way. Junius would be a dangerous and use-
less model for imitation, but in a journal which has
daily thunder of its own we have lately seen articles
which remind us of those which Woodfall published.
As far as taste is concerned, they are not a whit
superior, and we may premise that it is in this con-
nection solely we desire to regard them. We do not
choose to advocate the policy or defend the conduct
of Mr. Lowe, but simply wish to call our readers'
attention to a style of writing which, if pursued and
repeated, would be destructive to the interests of
the press. The amenities of discussion are very in-
telligible. Every writer is supposed to be acquainted
with them, and the tone of modern journalism has
been brought to its present moderation ty the com-
mon consent and unanimity of the public, who have
decided that politics may be considered in the same
temper as that in which the other affairs of life are
reviewed. We read now with astonishment of the
days of Swift, Bolingbroke,Mrbuthnot, and Wal-
pole, when charges of bribery and lying were
brought by honourable members against each other
every night ; when filthy epigrams were flung right
and left at the Ministers by the Opposition ; and
when the Ministers paid literary hacks to retaliate
for them in kind. Ladies wore party patches on
their cheeks, and even in the theatres Whigs and
Tories refused to amalgamate. This sort of thing
was, after a while, understood to be undignified and
worthless. It lingered for a season in subsidised
journals,,but died out during the progress of true
Liberalism. The sturdy Cobbett left his mantle to
the moths ; and the journals who are understood to
be the heirs of his free thinking to their work
without scolding. We ought, indeed, to be most
careful in this respect, with the example of the Ame-
rican press held up to us. It is admitted that no
single journal can claim to represent any wide sec-
tion of our Yankee friends, and simply because our
shrewd cousins perceive that the editors are unable
to control their personal sentiments, or to measure
any question except by the narrow standard registered
in their offkces by the proprietors. Their use of
strong language is another reason of their impotence,
and their outrageous mendacity is a third. It is
human nature to believe that brag and inefficiency
go together. Fustian, literary shoddy of the poorest
description, is the staple of the Herald and the
Tribune. If an American buys these papers, he
takes care to tell you his political faith is not pinned
to them. With us the case is very different. Nearly
every Englishman has his favourite newspaper,
whose opinions are more or less the same as his own,
whose views, when they differ from his, he often
accepts upon trust, and whose conduct he expects to
find as guarded and decent as that of an individual
who desired to hold a respectableposition in society.
There are, of course, people who like hot articles,
but most assuredly the paper condescending to cook
them will derive no credit from its patrons. Our
readers will remember the speech made by Mr. Lowe
on reform. We repeat, our intention is not to de-
fend that gentleman's principles, but that he has a
right to deliver them without being subjected to a
series of pasquinades nobody can doubt. It is not
fair criticism to keep on calling names. To speak
of a public man using a journalistic connection for
ulterior political ends, to assert that his nature is
malicious, cynical, and unstable, to' jeer at him as a
disappointed speculator for office, is certainly carry-
ing the controversy a little beyond the bounds of
discretion or decency. The " fiend in human shape"
should be left to the marvellous constructors of
penny novels. We ought to have done with Mr.
Potts and the Independent (Eatanswill) long ago ;
3et here is the hand of Potts or of a lesser Junius ;
there is no mistaking the thick and slab epithets,
the turgid flatulence, and the profound bray of the
Pottsian style. We insert it as a sample :
Prostitution in any form is sad and bad ; but it always
seems saddest and worst when gifts meant for the gracious
uses of home, like youth and beauty, are paraded and traf-
ficked in the streets. So the misuse of any talent is evil ;
but to prostitute the very highest and richest, deliberately
to bend intellect, scholarship, taste, and the experience of
grey hairs to the task of caressing a contemned party, and
of coquetting with a prospect of stolen power, is shameful,
sorrowful, and in Parliament has hitherto been happily
rare. Last evening, however, Mr. Robert Lowe afforded
an exhibition," &c.
The strain being pitched in such a key, it is easy
to surmise how the article proceeds. The art of this
composition is worth a moment's attention. It has
become the fashion with " Junius Minor" to use the
social evil largely in illustration. Its metaphors are
naked, and (being so innocent) are never ashamed.
We have heard it remarked, however, that another
motive induces this practice. " Prostitution "is
not an unattractive word to head an article with ;
people will follow it up for more reasons than one.
To get from it to Mr. Lowe is an agreeable task,
and performed in that spirit of Christian charity so
finely signified in the bit of Dumas fits morality
twanged in the first sentence. A man who feels
that prostitutiodis " sad and bad," and who has a
mind for domesticities, must be terribly pained to
turn all this against a gentleman who differs from
him in politics. Elsewhere Mr. Lowe is said ele-
gantly to commit " debauches in composition,"
o, in other terms, is suspected of writing leaders
forr the Times. Does the reader see the force of
" debauches in composition"? The sense is sus-
pended for one delicious instant between the word
" debauches " and " composition," during which
the fancy is tickled with an unqualified image very
creditable to the taste of " Junius Minor." Again
" debauch" belongs to the gutter vocabblary, and
is own brother to prostitute, with which we
set out so boldly; the phrase is charmingly consis-
tent. Junius Minor" is itself a model of tempe-
rate composition ; a violent teetotaller, who wouldn't
for the world use strong adjectives. Seriously, is it
right to publish that a member of Parliament is
(metaphorically) prostituting himself, debauching
himself, and " purblind?" How does this stuff differ
from the scurrility of the Neu, York Herald? If it
is not stopped in time, the old cheap and nasty pro-
verb will once more be singularly exemplified. We
will make every allowance for the temptations of' a
daily paper—so many columns to be filled up, room
enough for a pillory, a subject to hand, missiles on
stock, and the little game to be witnessed for a sum
not worth mentioning. On the famous principle
that those who drive fat oxen should themselves be
fat, there are those who imagine that the user of
strong language ought to be an intellectual Her-
cules ; but we need scarcely say that there are one
or two reasons for doubting the reasons of this
theory. When Mr. Swiveller was hard up, he wrote
a begging letter, which he made quite touching with
the aid of a pepper-castor. " Junius Minor" re-
sorts to the pepper-castor evidently—for spice
though, not for tears. The danger of this condi-
ment is that it invariably causes a writer to argue
after the lucid manner of Mr. Unsworth of the
Christy Minstrels. Why this should be we know
not, but the fact is undeniable; he begins to stump
and wander, and at the finish, so to speak, drops
under the table with his pen and appears all abroad.
" Junius Minor" is more consecutive than Mr. Uns-
worth, though not, on the whole, so funny. The
comicality of a gibe should not be encouraged. We
arc not taking up cudgels for Mr. Lowe ; but any
journal may challenge or strive to arrest the course
of a literary Malay running a muck and striving
to stab the repute of a political opponent. If
a critic to-morrow was to attempt to smother Byron
or snuff out Keats, a host of pens would defend
the poets, and the feeling of the country would not
permit genius to be slanged to silence. Mr. Lowe
may be profoundly wrong in his thinking, harsh in
his language, and irritant in his Parliamentary de-
meanour, but he has a distinct title to form and
speak his opinions without being branded for them
by " Junius Minor." The latter may find fault
with those opinions, deride them and put them in
italics (the process of italicising is both able and
argumentative), but Mr. Lowe 's private aims and
occupations, whatever they are, ought to be left to
him in peace. Evidence of malice aforethought
deprives a stricture of its power to hurt. " Junius
Minor," too, might, as the saying is, take it easy.

An awful disaster befell a frog who would puff him-
self as big as an ox. Drawing it mild by way of
a change would serve " Junius Minor." If people
were to hear a railway alarum perpetually cream-
ing, in the end they would pay no more attention
to it than they would to the tune of a penny whistle,
and they possibly might confound the voice of the
engine with the latter cheap and melodious instru-
ment. What a sad day that would be for "Junius
Minor ! "

American Securities in England.

The British writers upon financial affairs zra
puzzled at the manner in which United States
securities in the London market set at nought their
wisest predictions. They have laboured faithfully
to show that those securities ought not to advance
in value, but, ou the contrary, ought to subside to
low prices. They demonstrate, entirely to their
own satisfaction, that the United States will never
be able to meet their own responsibilities, and that
all who dabble in American stocks and bonds will
suffer immensely. They are learned upon this sub-
ject, and produce a startling amount of so-called
" facts," and more startling inferences. But their
logic seems to be unavailing to stem the torrent.
When the Bank of England, in order to repress the
tendency in speculation, put up the rate of interest
to eight per cent., the securities which these news-
paper financiers pronounced good were depressed
in value, but the securities of the United States,
which they declared at the least to be doubtful, not
only held their own, but advanced in price. In a
few days Five-Twenties mounted up from 63 to
71i. The financiers are disgusted with the stupi-
dity of their own countrymen. They have warned
them faithfully against their rashness, but they do
not listen.
There must be a a cause for this, and it may be
found in the fact that JOHN BULL has discovered
hqw much he had been previously deceived by
listening to the oracles of the Stock Exchange. He
has come to the conclusion that the United States
are not so desperately involved in their affairs that
they cannot pay the interest upon their obligations,
and he believes that they will eventually be able to
pay every dollar of their indebtedness. Confidence
is a plant of slow growth, but when it takes root it
is difficult to blast it. United States bonds for
$lOO, interest payable in gold, are cheap at $714.
The prudent Englishman who buys at that rate
receives eight per cent. on his money. Consols
bring him no more than three or four per cent.
He argues that the profit is so great that he can
afford to take some risk, and if he is a man who
examines for himself, he cannot but acknowledge that
the prospects of receiving this interest from the
United States are very good. The English financial
writers are in the interest of the London bankers,
and the cause of their anxiety to repress dealings
in American securities is now understood.. Hence
they have lost their influence, and men take the
.berty of acting upon their own judgments.—
vlo-American Times