The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-04 00:00:00

OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times declares that now the case of Governor Eyre
is sent up for history, it is not a matter for justices,
lawyers, and juries, but for politicians, including in that name
every educated person in this country for a good many
ages to come. In fact, the trial has only begun, and will
acver end. Governor Eyre will be always in court, for
'lot even the stern functionary who relieves the worst
2riminals from their penalties and pains will stay the
;nterminahle pleadings for and against him. In the
)pinion of the Times ho is not to be envied even for his
present and, as one sincerely hopes, final escape from his
,egal persecutors. Two years in a healthy gaol, or the pay-
r. of a thousand pounds, are a trifle compared with a posi-
tion by the side of Nero, Colonel Kirk, Judge Jeffreys,
Claverhouse, the Duke of Cumberland, and similar
netorieties in books for the young and religious periodi-
But this is the real burden of political life, and
e7.ielly of power, in that autocratic form happily so rare
under a constitutional Government. Woe to the man
obliged to act on his own responsibility, perhaps on the
advice, suggestion, and information of the unknown,
the sheltered, the dishonest, or the incompetent !
Those in power feel most of all that power is not made
for man. It is they that make history, and history
reviews them as saucy children do the doings of
their fathers. An insurrection suppressed with a
Lalance of some five hundred lives to set against
less than a score white victims, with a multitude of gro-
tesquely cruel incidents, absurd extravagances, and trials
almost worse than the momentary acts of vengeance or
alarm, will always occupy a prominent place in our annals.
It will always be canvassed freely and passionately.
Messrs. Mill, Buxton, and their friends ought to be
content v.-ith this. The best judges of political
offenders, however, are political men, and our
statesmen at home have already acquitted, or at
least absolved, Mr. Eyre. His real indemnity is not
the Colonial Act of which Mr. Justice Blackburn does
not appear to think much, but the thanks and compli-
meats of his employers at home. It is quite possible they
have their own private opinions about his qualifications
for office ; and it is possible they migtit hesitate to
employ him again ; but we have very little doubt they
feel also that, perhaps, they owe to him the safety of
Jamaica, and the prevention of a hideous and unparalleled
catastrophe.

2a!s.

The Post wants to know what Grant will prove as
President. He has taken particular care never to allow
his political opinions to be known. He never makes
rail lie speeches, and in private he invariably resists every
attempt to draw him into the field of political discussion.
" Whenever," said one of the chiefs of the Republican
party, who some time since sought to obtain from the
General some expression of opinion respecting the course
pursued by the President, " whenever I talk politics to
General Grant, he always talks horses." And by
this constant habit of " talking horses" Grant
has probably secured that unprecedented unanimity on
the part both of Democrats and Republicans in nominat-
ing him for the Presidency. No one can say what he will
turn out when he obtains the supreme power. He may be
a second Johnson or a second Lincoln. His early associa-
tions were Democratic. Shortly after the beginning of
the war he was violently " anti-abolitionist," and went se
far as to declare to the troops under his command that if
they were told that in the event of their being successful
slavery would be abolished, they would be justified
in laying down their arms and returning to their homes.
The Daily .Are?rs commences a leader on the defence
which has been set up for Murphy, with some remarks on
Calcraf t and the character given to him by his pastor. It
suggests that the rev. writer of this character has been
hoaxed, and the whiteheaded old cordwainer whom he
takes to be Calcraft, knows nothing more about public
strangling than his minister, and has no idea that he has
been taken for the common hangman. Quite by accident,
this odd defence of a man whom nobody had attacked
has-been immediately followed by a vindication offered on
behalf of a very different public character. Mr. Murphy,
the lecturer, has no other connection with Calcraft than
that he is in a fair way of cutting out for him a good
amount of work. Dr. Hugh M`Neile says that he
knows nothing of Murphy, and will not answer for
him ; but the Rev. S. Walker, rector of St. Mary-le-Port,
Bristol, knows him, and in the columns of the
Times deprecates hasty judgment against him.
Mr. Walker, hov.-ever, seems to forget the scene at Dukin-
field, in which Murphy produced a revolver, telling the
people he was a queer lad. All this is condoned—nay
more, is extolled, for Mr. Walker is quite sure that he
could not do Murphy's work so well as he does—because
Murphy " not only desires to warn his brother Protes-
tants against the errors and designs of the Church of
Rome, but to lead sinners to the Saviour." He is much
more likely to lead well-intentioned, but weak and fo.na-
Ccal people to crime and the gaol, perhaps to the gallows.
It is truly shucking to find Murphy defended by men
publicly appointed to teach the religion of Christ and of
Paul. But for this there is a cause which we need not
seek far to discover. Meanwhile, Murphy's acts speak
for themselves.

The Standard expresses a high opinion of the way in
which the Boundary Commission did what they were
appointed to do. They discharged with great ability and
p(Tfect fairness- the duties entrusted to them by Parlia-
ment. Their instructions were to inerase the limits of
all boroughs by including in them all districts which,
belonging practically to the town, ought to be included in
it for the purpose of parliamentary registration. No
one denies that these instructions have been fully adhered
to. But the changes resolved upon in principle by Par-
liament, and left to be carried out in detail by a com-
mission, because Parliament could not trust itself with
such a work, have proved disagreeable to a number
of short-sighted Radical politicians, who, in pre-
sence of the vast revolution just accomplished,
are filled with anguish at the thought that a part of a
great town should cease to exercise its improper influence
in a county. The party might lose, and therefore the
recommendations of the commissioners, which could only
fairly be assailed on the ground of incompetency and un-
fairness, were objected to, and referred to 'a select com-
mittee, which has taken upon itself, after the smallest
possible inquiry, upon the most insufficient information,
and in direct disregard of the Act of Parliament, to recom-
mend that the conclusions of the commissioners should, in
all important cases, be upset. Unfortunately, we cannot
hope that the House will show itself more mindful of the
public interest, and more careful of its own honour, than
its committee.

The Telegraph, judging from the various brochures
which are published on the vexed topic of the Government
acquisition of the telegraphs, thinks it would appear that
some of the directors at least are determined to make a
good fight for continued existence, even if the shareholders
should remain perversely supine. We bear little as yet
of the views and feelings of the shareholders, who are
wisely waiting to see whether or not they can make a
good thing out of the proposed transfer. But
heir representatives in the board-room are not so
reticent. The Electric and International Telegraph
Company directors rush into print with a haste and
fehemence to be paralleled by nothing short of the odium
theologicum. A. pamphlet, professedly under their aus-
pices, was issued some weeks ago, and a second has since
:appeared, the latter signed by no less a personage than
the Hon. Robert Grimston, chairman. It is a notable
production, slashing, passionate, one-sided, tremen-
dously vigorous in its language, conspicuously weak
in its arguments. No mercy is shewn to oppo-
nents ; the Post Office authorities get it hot and
strong. We look in vain, however, throughout the
long tirade for any satisfactory rejoinder to the overwhelm-
ing arguments adduced in favour of the Government
proposal. An interview is mentioned between the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Grimston, in which the
very outspoken chairman, without waiting to hear parti-
culars, denounced the plan as " pure and simple confisca-
tion." But it is absurd to use such language in reference to
a plan which would not make the proprietors sell against
their will, and which, in any dispute as to the value, would
permit them to obtain the decision of an independent
arbiter. Further, the pleas put forward by Hr. Grimston,
if they prove 'anything, prove too much for his purpose.
He defends the companies for what they have done
within the last fifteen years in the way of extending ope-
rations and reducing rates. Well, all that must have
involved either a loss or a profit. If a loss, whence have
come those new profits of 14 or 15 per cent. which have
been earned, and which the honourable chairman himself
ber.,ted were "much safer than your Three per Cent.
'Consols, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer?" If a profit,
what is the value of all those denunciations of cheap and
uniform rates, and extended facilities, as impracticable,
'and sure to result in loss, with which the pamphlets are
stalled? Have the existing rates and accommodation pre•
cis.,Ay reached the limit where profit is earned, and will a
farther progress in the same direction not yield similar
results ? What the companies have to do is to prove that,
to a void less, reduction of tarifi must stop abort affits present
p ):11t ; that the wide and elaborate organisation of the Post
o.lice cannot overtake public wants much faster than the ex-
perimental etTort3 of a private company, which looks first to
its own gains and limits its operations accordingly ; that
the large amount annually disbursed in dividends is not
;equivalent to facilities retarded or rates unnecessarily
high ; and, finally, that what has succeeded in
Vio most prosperous and compact of the industrial
States of the Continent, in the most enterprising of our
,•own trans-oceanic possessions, is in some mysterious way
unsuited for this country. Until those points are affirmed,
such matters as the wrongs of the post-office employes, or
air accasional slip of the pen on the part of an official, are
mere irrelevancies, which may give pungency to vitupera-
tion, but throw no light on the point at issue. One
memorial from a chamber of commerce, representing the
Juterests of the many, is worth any number of such
pamphlets, echoing the prejudices of the few.