The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-30 00:00:00

e',_....e,c.,.

''

The Lapse of a Philosopher.

are half aol
clergymen,
rgminclineden, toox
orleogdreedt
from that
the H philosophersouse of
aCroeWmnmeotons. Philosophers are beyond price, but phi-
losophy is frail, and party politics are seductive.
And as " good things corrupted are the worst," so
philosophers, when they are once off the poise, are
apt to rush into intolerance with the fury of rene-
gades. Mr. Mill's late exhibitions illustrates this
very provokingly. As Liberals, we regret this, be-
cause, whereas formerly in Mr. Mill's alliance we had
the sentence of a judge in our favour, we feel that
we have now, so to say, only the protestations of
an advocate. But we are deeply sorry for the trans-
formation on other grounds too. Henceforth, when
Mr. Mill writes of social or political matters even,
his old admirers will read him with misgiving.
What he would write would be in too flagrant con-
tradiction to his present practice. But, indeed, Just
now the philosophical faculty has departed. He is
a lost philosopher. We should like to know what
Mr. Tennyson or Mr. Arthur Helps could say for
him now. No doubt Mr. Mill receives large com-
pensation of a kind in his political importance. But
what a, falling off there must be in philosophical
temper if such compensation can ever be sufficient
He has given up to party, and party in its pettiest
sense, what was meant for mankind. All that ab-
straction and disinterestedness which gave him
authority has vanished. He is no longer umpire,
but a party to the squabble. Instead of hardly con-
descending laudari laudatis—instead of the cold
nroud attitude which seemed to show he thought it
4.,
the estimao mercenary mercenary even to accept the esteem oX
rewarded quite
Mill now readily " help-
ded •
ing to make a mOV,
to his taste by a popularity
seemed to him misconception, if not aatiztillve once
course, Mr. Mill has not suddenly ceased to-ra
a clever man, but his words now have no more
than their own weight, and that weight is not
always great. The false oracle is detected by
the false prosody. It is not only the philosophical
temper which is impaired in Mr. Mill, but the logi-
cal mg/may. 111-e- fallacies he-fieserbeerratttitr'ns3
exposing he now finds very handy weapons. A
petitio principii is no longer the contemptible device
he once pronounced it. He says, for instance, in
his speech on the Hyde Park Riots, " the people
were already in an excited state upon another sub-
ject," &c. Although not only was it not proved
that 4' the people" were " already excited," &c.,
but it was pretty notorious that the " people " were
so far from " excited " that those who wanted to
ride them were au desespoir at not being able to
spur them into anything like peace. Hence, in
fact, the organisation of the Hyde Park demonstra-
tion altogether. Such a logical dodge, as we .must
call it, as that involved in his question, " whether
a meeting held in Hyde Park once in every two or
three years would cause one-thousandth part of the
interruption to the ordinary uses to which a park
is put that is caused by a Volunteer review" would
in the days of Mr. Mill's " Logic " have been shown
up with the coldest scorn. But when he says that
" the present Government seems determined, as
far as depends on them, to frustrate the anxious
desire of all'well-wishers of their country that the
necessary changes in the Constitution should be
made without the least alienation or ill-blood
between the governing classes and the governed "
he is trespassing very near the line which separates
the pitiable from the culpable in false reasoning,
Every one knows that the present Government is
just as guilty of " frustrating " &c. (1. e., of pre-
serving Hyde Park as a scene of beauty and plea-
sure), as the late Government, and no more. If
Mr. Mill desired to descend into the political arena
with the originality becoming him, why did he not
try candour ? Is it absolutely necessary that a
man who disdains to misrepresent the opposite
party be suspected by his own ? The Conservatives
will probably give us plenty of ground for legiti-
mate censure before we have done with them :
why should we discredit ourselves by ac-
cusing them falsely ? Oinnia dat qui fiesta
negat. Mr. Mill is here depreciating himself even
as partisan ; but, however efficient he may become
in this capacity, we for our part shall always regret
the philosopher.—Pall Mall Gazette.

Organ News.

(From the Musical Standard.)

A new organ has just been erected by M. Ca-
vaille-Coll in the Ronan Catholic Church of St.
L-imon btOelc,, at .ii.ensington. This, we neneve (says
the London Review), is as yet the only organ in
England by this maker, whose name, however, has
long been celebrated even here as the' constructor of
the magnificent instrument in the Madeleine at
Paris, besides others in various churches of the
same city and the French provinces. Our contem-
porary goes on to express his hope that this impor-
tation "will act as an incentive to English organ-
builders to enter into a nobler competition than that
of rapidity and cheapness of production." After
expressing his opinion that M. Cavaille-Coll is
" perhaps the most complete and satisfactory of all
organ-builders, past or present, scarcely excepting
even the great Silberman," the same writer ob-

serves:--
'" The organ at St. Simon Stock is not an instru-
ment of very great size, but it is an admirable ex-
emplification of those high qualities which have
placed its builder at the head of his profession, and
entitle him to rank as an artist rather than a mere
manufacturer—in the same way as the constructors
of the best old cremona violins are not to be con-
sidered as mere fiddle-makers, but as the producers
of works of art. The organ now referred to (which
is rather disadvantageously placed, out of sight, in
a corner recess of the church), has two rows of keys
(claviers) from C C to G (fifty-six notes) ---two and
a half octaves of pedals, with four independent stops;
besides many pedals of combination (composition
pedals and twenty stops in application to the keys.
The instrument contains one thousand four hundred
and thirty-four pipes, the deepest note being that
known as sixteen feet C" (C C C as the Germans
would call it). The quality of tone, whether in
combination or in detail, is of the highest order of
beauty—the reed stops are admirable for their round,
full, yet mellow quality and promptness of speech
—the flute, violincello, and vox-humana stops are
all remarkable for their resemblance to the originals
which they profess to imitate—and the mixture stops
are bright and sparkling without the least approach
to harshness. In short, the organ, in its full powers,
is characterised by resonance and grandeur of tone,
while the soft stops in detail are extraordinary for
. their delicacy and sympathetic quality. The instru-
ment possesses the advantage of theopfntehuemmatoicstlever
apparatus. This mechanism, one im-
portant
nof Mr. Barker, an
improvements in the art of
organ
b building,
din allgs modernthe
Englishman ; who,
rt
invention once
consists
o n adopted s bs
meientvinegio
withi
no recognition in
his own country, some years since carried his dis.,
ccovert' t
attaching a valve, filled with wind derived from
the main reservoir, to the mechanism of each key;
and exercising at the instant of pressure a counter-
acting influence so as to relieve the finger of the
c: Paris,oll whre.e
Barker's
. t
player from nearly the whole labour which it would
otherwise have to exert.. In this and in other me-
chanical respects, M. Cavaille-Coll's instruments
are almost as admirable for their ingenious construc-
tion as for their musical merits."
We quote the above without undertaking to en-
dorse the opinions of the Review's advocate of M.
Cavaille-Coll.

Several friends of Italy having expressed them-
selves ready to subscribe on behalf of the Italian wounded
soldiers, the Marquis d'Azeglio states that, although he is
not instructed by the Government to open a list to that
effect, he shall consider it his duty to receive and forward
to the central committees privately organised in Turin or
Florence any sum of money or parcels destined to the
wounded Italian soldiers, volunteers, or sailors. Subscrip-
tions and parcels will be equally received at any of the
Italian consulates in the kingdom.

At Darmstadt a Russian envoy has arrived with
orders to look after the interests of the Grand Duke, the
Czar's brother-in-law, the town being occupied by the
Prussians. With him came a number of Russian gentle-
men, who, taking up their quarters in the houses of the
aristocracy, hung out Russian flags, as so many claims to
exemption from having soldiers quartered upon the pre-
mises. The Prussians have pot thought it worth their
while to dispute the justice of the claim.