The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-20 00:00:00

sviinantTlieFeercehaitniEizscmeae.ncep. eesrossHhir.ooeunolfd;hteheFrere
b• ::
n*;:.1k...1!•03.01s
NEWSPAPER
tieth year. The Times, in c: 0 • ! 1_,..., ~ 4'.A..,
where
yearswt hiee rl
de
sli t during:asbile
eetnh the
Emperorwh
labouringo l e ohfasuldli:
SPIRIT OF THE • i11iq.,,.,...„-.
there are confesaeitods
alpimowmiteasruthooef ththhaees
I,
o
evreil:m7a,n,y7yrseears:f aski.angsin.i,
I-
:van'oeervul idetir, ea:
echooefolldh i In,
Fs hrralensNlie,do
observer, and could form a correct estimate of whatever
came immediately before his eyes. But for the last twenty.
face to face. He must either take her at a rude
guess, or see through the medium of that cumbrous
scaffolding of official administration which he has
reared between himself and the nation, instead o•
the regular edifice of a representative government such
France as M. de Persigny or M. Rouher choose to describe
to him—a France ready to uphold Imperialism against
the Emperor himself. Would it be impossible for the
Emperor, on his sixtieth birthday, to turn over a new
leaf ? Could he not extricate himself from his present
embarrasSing position by the partial abdication of his
absolute power? Could he not atone for any error that
may have occurred in the past by relinquishing undivided
responsibility for the future? With all that may be
deemed problematic and unsatisfactory in the Emperor's
character, it would be impossible not to credit him with
uenerous impulses. Something like regret and misgiving
seems at times to assail him in the dreary solitude of his
elevation. It was not for his own sake, as he has often,
hinted, not for the gratification of personal or even dynastic
ambition, that he accepted unbounded power. He has
described Imperialism as by its nature progressive ; as a
temporary structure ; a means to the end ; the application
of force to the establishment of legal authority. When
the end was attained, when order could be pronounced
secure, the superstructure should be removed, and the
" crowning of the edifice" would follow. There never,
perhaps, was a moment when the fulfilment of these
promises would come with a better grace. We would not
presume to suggest what institutions may best suit the
French temperament, though something might, perhaps,
be contrived better than a Stale constituted in the shape
of a pyramid, with nothing between the electing masses at
the base and the elected autocrat at the summit.
The Post is of opinion that the period for which the
militia is called out is insufficient for drill, manoeuvres,
and musketry practice. It points out that this latter might
be attained by calling them out for rifle practice by com-
panies, and, for two or three days beyond the usual time of
training. It is certainly most unsatisfactory that this force
should have no ball practice whatever, and the com-
paratively small sum required to effect this could not, be
refused by Parliament if the case were properly represented
to it. Before the Easter recess there were undoubted in-
dications in the House of Commons of an earnest desire
to adopt whatever measures were likely to be advan.
tageous for the militia ; in fact, the feeling was strongly
in favour of this great and truly national force,
and therefore there are really no grounds whatever for the
assertion, now frequently made, that the force is likely to
suffer froth neglect. The volunteers, from the verynature
of their being, from their marvellous and unexpected
development, from the sustained energy of the movement,
and from the novelty attaching to the force, are undoubtedy,
and very rightly, great public favourites ; but the militia
occupy a very different position, and can afford to be quite
above the smallest trace of jealousy. The tendency of
modern military organisation is entirely in the direction of
the appreciation and development of just such a force as
our own militia, as a support of and an auxiliary to the
regular troops, and occupyinl a distinct and honourable
and superior position between them and the volunteers.
The weekly article of the Daily News on trade and
finance deals with the recent Railway Conference at Man-
chester. Our contemporary observes as remarkable that
little stress was laid upon the power of a railway company
(that is, the direction) to pledge the credit of the under-
taking in indirect debts, by Lloyd's bonds, temporary
loans from bankers, overdrawn balances, financial transac-
tions, and the whole machinery for going to ruin. Rail-
way finance has always been discreditable. The practice
has been to borrow from the banker upon future traffic
receipts. The banker naturally lends upon a good margin,
especially to a railway company receiving each week a
large revenue ; but the principle is the same as in private
life, and fundamentally wrong : it is the anticipation of
profits, instead of a prudent reserve from those already
gained. Year after year the balance-sheets of dividend-
paying railway companies are accompanied with
additions to capital, which make the practical reader
ask himself wistfully, " Has any dividend been really
earned ? " It is impossible at present to foresee what will
be the end of such practices, although some of the inevit-
able consequence to shareholders it would be equally im-
possible not to perceive. One thing is certain, that unless
a complete revolution takes place in railway management,
ordinary shares in this class of property, which the public
has been for thirty years learning to regard as capable of
being held as a security only a little inferior to consols,
will before long he avoided by all but the speculator. it
won'..dbe a great mlifortnne, and a great aisgrace to Eng-
land, if so vast a system c I administration were to be thus
discredited, and a legitimate business capable of being re-
duced to the simplest administrative rules depraved by
vices of management, and on that account every serious
endeavour to bring it again under the control of sound
principles should be applauded.
The Herald remarks that nothing is more obvious or
more certain than that, as far as legislation is concerned,
the Whigs linve never been in earnest ; and the Radicals
—whatever Lise we may have to say of them—always have
been. The Radicals seriously and honestly wish to
extinguish the House of Lords, or to turn it into such
a Senate as one may see in France or America; seriously
and honestly wish to alter, not only the constitution
of the constituencies, but also that of the House of
Commons ; not only to give votes to working men, but
to send working men to Parliament ; seriously and
honestly wish to destroy the royal supremacy, to secu-
larise the universities, to destroy the union between
Church and State ; in a word, to Americanise the land
and its institutions. The Whigs, on the other hand,
do not seriously and honestly wish to accomplish these
results, but they pretend to wish to accomplish something
like them—something that shall be thought by one set
of people to help to bring them about, and by another set
of people to help to stave them off—in order to keep them-
selves politically going. That is why they are invariably so
anxious to get hold of Radical schemes, to toy with them,
to parade them, to pretend to be half in favour of them,
all the while that they cut their claws, stop their growth,
and virtually immure them. No doubt they thought to
do this with the question of the Church in Ireland. Earl
Russell's speech of last year and Mr. Gladstone's letter to
one of his constituents at Oxford three years ago, are there
to prove it. But this time the Radicals overtook them,
and were not to be trifled with. The Irish Church ques-
tion had to be surrendered to its real parents. In Radical
hands it now is, and naturally enough is growing apace.
Let there be no mistake. It is not the Whigs—it is not
Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone— who are the real parents
of the famous resolutions. They were conceived by Mr.
Bright and Mr. Miall ; and it is by them, and in obedience
to their instincts, that the joint production of revolution
and nonconformity is let loose upon the empire.
The Telegraph replies to the criticisms of certain papers
to the effect that there is something rather odd, not to say
unworthy, in this relish of the Irish people for royal
courtesy; but in truth the English nation is just as suscep-
tible of what seems like slight, and just as ready to recog-
nise good feeling. The very organs of opinion that express
surprise at the success of this visit expressed themselves in
language hardly loyal because Queen Victoria, with only
too sufficient cause, withheld from London for a few years
the light of her countenance; and we can easily imagine
the tone and thoughts of all Englishmen if her Majesty
thought proper to live entirely in Scotland for ten orfifteen
years. Can we wonder that in Ireland the traditional
feeling of estrangement from English rule has been
deepened by the absence of the sovereign, and that a
people swayed by sentiment and apt to give way to
emotion has felt sorely the slight indicated in the continued
absence of the Queen? The Telegraph has never joined
with those who wished to degrade Royalty into a mere
social figure-head, and who thought that the Queen's
highest function was to receive young ladies at drawing•
rooms or to give grand balls. But a sovereign is above
all things the personal representative of the nation—she
stands for the Empire. She is the sole " institution," to
use the cant phrase of the day, that unites Englishmen,
Scotchmen, Irishmen, and Colonists in one Imperiailt of
feel-
ing ; she is the outward and visible sign of eouun,hty
tc
which the majority of us are, and all
af.eustsy,
her
is indirectly an exaltation of our own
be,th rc'reoreumd.onyAas
eldest son, is tliilesdninrlhleugsaatrrdiositivsmitbrie:
of
I nationality.o of
alolr;
representative
'we surround and
r
Ili
),rvehhsieiecirni.tp,ll:t:

The Bishop of Winchester has so far recovered
from his late attack as to be able to take an airing in his
carriarre. His lordship has not yet, however, recovered
the faculty of speech.
TRIPLE BIRTH,—The wife of a joiner, named
Whitehead, residing in Calverley's-yard, Knareshorough,
has given birth to three children. They are all girls, and
along with their mother are doing well.
THE CITY RATCATCHER. Samuel HUIRM
petitioned the Court of Sewers on the 7th inst., that he
might be permitted " to go into the City sewers to catch
rats, in which he has for the last eighteen years been en.
gaged," and the surveyor having been heard thereon, the
said Humm was solemnly informed by Mr:De Jersey that
lie must not in:future go below the surface,