The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

It is not unlikely, says the Saturday Review, that several
new candidates may propose themselves within the next
two months, but the future House of Commons will cer-
tainly not contain more than a small revolutionary
element. At Manchester, and in some of the metropolitan
boroughs, extreme democrats may possibly find seats ; and
Mr. Mill has displayed his characteristic love of perverse
crotchets by subscribing to assist the return of Mr. Brad-
laugh for any constituency which may be anxious to secure
his services. In the midst of an overwhelming majority
of moderate or timid politicians, Mr. Beales, Mr. ?rad-
laugh, and Mr. Ernest Jones would be as powerless as
Robespierre and his associates in the National Assembly
of 1789. The cant of avoiding divisions of the Liberal
party apparently reconciles politicians of the school of
Lord Palmerston to allies who already announce their
intention of confiscating the land. Mr. Bright complains
that Serjeant Simon disputes the prior claim of a Mr.
Cossh am to the suffrages of Dewsbury, and Serjeant Simon
replies that Mr. Cossham had previously interfered with
rights which Mr. Ernest Jones had acquired as first comer.
It would be slightly interesting to know whether Serjeant
Simon and Mr. Ernest Jones really hold the same political
opinions. It is hard upon those who think that the Irish
Church ought to be abolished, and that Mr. Gladstone
would be a better Minister and a sounder financier than
Mr. Disraeli, to find themselves coalescing with the
advocates of theories which may be considerably in
advance of Jacohinism. The Liberal party seems at pre-
sent quite strong enough to bear many local divisions.
The Conservatives are embarrassed by the knowledge
that their chief regards with indifference many of the
institutions which it is their special mission to defend.
If the many honest and intelligent candidates of their
party were at liberty to express their deeper political con-
victions, they would avow their acquiescence in household
suffrage, whether it is to be considered prudent or rash,
imposes upon them the special duty of guarding against
further organic changes, while it has become more than
ever their interest to abandon the championship of abuses.
The Conservatives might divide the Liberal party to some
purpose if they would recognise the distinction between
institutions which are worth preserving, and mere occa-
sions of resistance ; but to redeem their inconsistency in
following Mr. Disraeli into household suffrage, they in-
sisted on his making an impracticable stand in defence of
the Irish Church.

The Spectator concludes that the real meaning of Mr.
Roebuck's speech requires study to be understood. Mr.
Roebuck himself interprets the drift of his remarks at
Sheffield on America to mean that, in spite of having
trusted the destinies of the Republic to electors whom he
mildly terms political buccaneers, there is reason to con-
gratulate her on her wonderful exemption from the most
natural results of such awful experiments. With "wild
Irishmen, fiery Frenchmen, assassinating Italians, and
dumbfounded Spaniards holding the balance of political
pow er, somehow things don't go exactly as badly as you
would expect from the votes of these wild Irishmen, fiery
Frenchmen, assassinating Italians, and dumbfounded
Spaniards. Hence he was prepared to argue that in
England, where we have little to fear from wild Irishmen,
nothing from fiery Frenchmen, nothing from assassinating
Italians, and nothing from dumbfounded Spaniards, we
shall get on a great deal better than we deserve, at least if
we—i. e., persons in Mr. Roebuck's position, and with
something of Mr. Roebuck's mature wisdom—don't copy
the mistaken example set ns by the non-buccaneering class
in America, by abstaining from endeavouring to influence
the elections. It was a lesson, partly of warning, partly
of encouragement, for England, from the happy and unex-
pected elasticity of American destinies, that Mr. Roebuck
was striving to enforce. His drift was expressly, that in
spite of such horrible electoral classes, in spite
of electoral classes flooded with the scum of Euro-
pean nations, in spite of buccaneering electors, America
manages to get along pretty well. He was trying with
as much delicacy of language as possible to compli-
ment and extol the actual administrators of American
affairs, at the expense of the dominant party in the con-
stituencies, who ought by all rules of political probability
to have put other and far worse men—men like Mr.
Lincoln and General Grant and Mr. Sumner, and such
politicians as those—into power. He expected, no doubt,
an executive " base, cowardly, corrupt, cruel "—that is,
steadily anti-slavery, and steadily in favour of an indivi-
sible Union. He finds one only temporising, more than
disposed to play into the hands of the old fire-eaters if it
can, and caring far less for either freedom or union than
for the ascendancy of the white race. Can he help being
gratified at this instance of American elasticity ? Can he
fail to rejoice when Mr. Andrew Johnson rules the nation
which he bad feared to see governed by Mr. Lincoln?
Such is, doubtless, the true character of Mr. Roebuck's
covert compliment to American institutious—that they
ought to yield so much worse results than they do. We
understand him to hope precisely as much for English
institutions. If he and his friends only take enough pains,
they may have a very good chance of keeping in, by
strategy, a Government like the present Governments in
England and America, which may be fortunate enough to
stem the tide of popular feeling.

Discussing the chances of war, the Saturday Review
observes that, dear as military prestige is to the
French people, they like a war to bring material gains
also ; and if the Emperor does nothing more than prove,
at the cost of two millions a week, that the Chassepot
rifle is better than the needle-gun, he may not find that
war brings him any substantial increase of popularity.
But the difficulty of effecting a change of frontier is greatly
increased, in the case of France, by the want of allies.
The Imperial statecraft has been of that over-clever sort
which has left the nation without a friend in Europe.
So far are we from being in a similar position with regard
to France, that with the history of the last fifteen years
open before us it is impossible to give any intelligible
explanation of much that the Emperor has dune. Pro-
bably, if all were known, some sufficient personal reason
would be found for most of the inconsistencies that puzzle
us ; probably, too, some are only to be acc,unted for on
the principle that the man who most exercises other
people's wits is oftenest at the end of his own. But what-
ever be the theory of interpretation adopted, the fact
remains ; and the consequence is, that there is hardly a
Power on the Continent which would not rather negotiate
directly with its worst enemy than have the Emperor of
the French as a common friend.
The relations between Prussia and 'France, says the
,:mperial Review, are so extraordinary that with any other
two men at the head of their respective affairs peace
could not possibly last another week. They are of the
most definite kind that can be conceived, and they are
equally perilous. France resents the power and influence
the events of two years ago have given to the country
that it is quite sufficient offence to be obliged even to think
of as a rival ; whilst the most trivial action that could be
construed to imply present or destined superiority would
make any further suppression of the resentment abso-
lutely impossible. In spite of the amazing circumspec-
tion of Count Bismarck, any moment may give birth to
an incident that would make France perfectly unmanage-
able ; and the Emperor, who is keenly alive to that fact,
is devoting all his energies to finding allies against an
emergency which he is not gamester enough to meet
single-handed, if he can possibly help it.

THE BISHOPRIC OF DURHAM.—III consequence
of a severe domestic affliction, Dr. Baring, Bishop of
Durham, has gone abroad. It is a curious fact that four
of the English prelates who take the highest rank—the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of
London and Durham—are all away from England.
The case of Enoch Arden has been equalled in
llolyoake, Mass., William E. Marsh, of that town, has been
missing and unheard of since 1862. He suddenly appeared,
without warning, last week, to find that his brother Albert,
having been divorced from his former wife, had married
William's supposed widow a year or more ago.

In answer to a correspondent, who wished to be
informed whether the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer at-
tended church, the Rock says: —" We believe that Mr.
Gladstone has always made it a rule to attend his
parish church, when in town, as in the country.
It was told us on excellent authority that Mr. Gladstone and
Mr. Martin Tupper were about the only uncergractuates at-
Christ Church, Oxford, who in their term of residence at-
tended the Holy Communion regularly in their College
Chapel.
THE LATE FIRE-ESCAPE ACCIDENT IN THE
CITY.—The accident which occurred on the 4th inst. to
two fire-escape men, while practising on their machines in
Doctors'-commons, has resulted in the death of one of the
sufferers. The men in question, John Taylor and J.
Cheese, while on the top ladder of a fire-escape, through
some unexplained cause fell backwards, and came to the
ground, sixty feet beneath. They were both taken to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, and there Taylor died on Friday
afternoon. The man Cheese was stated on Friday evening
to be somewhat better, and hopes are entertained of his
recovery.

The following suggestion is made by a corr( spon-
clout of the Builder on the subject of locking the doors of
railway carriages :—This practice generally conduces
to the safety of passengers, that is, if ono door
only of each compartment is locked, the door on
the " six foot" (or middle of the line) side. But
of course there are occasions, and the Abergele catas-
trophe was one of them, when the power immediately
to open the locked door is all-important. Allow me to sug-
gest that in each compartment of all passenger carriages, a
door-key should be hung up in a glass locked case. 04. an
extreme emergency the glass could be broken, end the key
taken out and used. But it should be a criminal offence to
break this glass without sufficient excuse::