The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

'Me Saturday Review remarks that Archbishop Lohgley
succeeded Archbishop Sumner at Canterbury, the great
Metropolitan See of England, which now stands alone in
Christendom, not only in its ecclesiastical position, but in
lts dignity, importance, and influence. The Church of
England, as a mere matter of fact, is an institution of
unparalleled importance if we look at it only as a social
phenomenon. Its clergy are such, whether we like them or
not, as the world has never known, whether we regard
their education, their public and private influence, and
the strange way in which they interpenetrate, while they
represent as well as are acted upon by, the whole stream
of England's political and domestic life. To be the first
man in such an institution, in a sense to govern it, but in
a truer sense to represent it—to represent it, that is, to
friends and foes, to a jealous and divided Christendom, to
active and in some cases malicious critics, to its own despond-
ing, and, still worse, to its venturesome and over-impulsive
friends—is a work which must task the greatest powers.
Our contemporary makes comparison between Dr. Sumner
and Dr. Longley, much to the disadvantage of the former,
who is described as weak, humble, gushing, sympathetic,
fainthearted without discretion, and undignified without
modesty and self-distrust. Archbishop Longley's character
was the reverse. Mr. Disraeli is not to be congratulated
on the strange stroke of luck or misfortune which places at
his disposal so many dignities in Church and State. But
in this matter he may be fairly trusted. The peculiar
work of making such selections only requires tact and
judgment ; and in many respects the Premier has that tact
and judgment which may be trusted when his own inte-
rests are not concerned. It has for some private end
suited the Minister to undertake the championship—for
what purposes we shall not trouble ourselves to inquire—
of that phase of ecclesiastical sentiment and rule which
the late Archbishop so worthily represented and exempli-
fied. It ought not to be difficult to find on the bench one
who more or less, and the more the better, suits the
Longley practice and the Disraeli theory ; though we do
not envy the present Minister the task of finding it among
our bishops. But there are several considerations in his
favour. A Conservative Government ought to make the
best bishops, because it is an undeniable fact that the
Church of England as a whole is Conservative, and an
Archbishop of Canterbury out of harmony with the
general feeling must be a mistake. Mr. Disraeli is less to
be , commiserated on the occasion than Mr. Disraeli's
nominee. Stormy days and a troubled sea await the ship
of the Church ; a strong hand and will, and a temper and
discretion, a zeal and manners, and the confidence, if not
of all, of the best of Churchmen, are required. May such
a man be found, and if found he will be a blessing, not
only to the greatest institution of the nation, but to the
nation itself.

The Spectator says that the late Primate had that
love of the good for the good's sake which Coleridge says
is but a feminine virtue, it severed from the love of the
truth for the truth's sake ; but we see but little sign of the
latter. Stately and gentle, dignified and humble, zealous
by fits and starts, but with fits and starts also of distrust
of the policy of zeal, with a strong under-current of in-
clination to exalt the clergy above the State, and yet an
involuntary perception at times of their unfitness for that
position, the late archbishop trimmed without being a
trimmer, and dissatisfied both the sacerdotal and the
Erastian party in the Church without satisfying himself.
He was no theologian, and not even a great ecclesiastic ;
but he had at least an ideal conception of the Church
above that of its actual condition, and endeavoured with
a certain audacity, which his subsequent conduct shewed
to be rash and inconsiderate, to realise it without fully
counting the cost. When he discovered how wide the issues
might fall of his own estimate of them, he shrank and hesi-
tated, and it is quite possible that the anxieties of his
wavering policy may have shortened Lis life. We cannot
think of him without esteem and regret. It was at least
something noble in him that caused his mistakes. To him
the latitudinarian and Erastian Church which he saw in
rapid development was below his own ideal, and he could
not help striking an uncertain blow for something higher.
But his intellect was not as steady and strong as his senti-
ment was refined, and while he has left us a mild and
fascinating image of himself, he has left also an ecclesias-
tical knot far more complicated than he found when he
entered upon his archiepiscopate. The Spectator does not
wish to see a colourless man as his successor, though if St.
Paul were amongst us he would be the last man chosen.
We want an archbishop who would lead. We would even
rather see an honest attempt made by a genuine High
Churchman to turn it into an honest High Church, de-
nouncing " Protestantism" and so forth—or by a genuine

Evangelical to turn it into an honest Low Church, de-

nouncing Romanism as the Babylonish woman— than see
it ruled much longer by men whose only idea is to keep
things quiet, without putting peace on any franker basis.

The John Bull considers that while it would be
wicked in the Prime Minister to refuse promotion to the
best bishop because he was a Whig, it would be the height
of Quixotism and ingratitude to pass over the claims of a
Wilberforce or an Ellicott, who alone of the bishops sup-
ported him nightly on the Reform Bill; or of a Selwyn,
or a Claughton, all of whom, in our opinion, have on
ecclesiastical grounds far higher claims for translation
than those Liberals who, with the Bishop of Chester,
would, had the Liberals been iu office, have been the
prelates from whom the choice would have been made.
The Liberals broke the tradition of translating the Bishop
of London to Canterbury, when they passed over the
greatest prelate who of late years has occupied the see of
London, and they cannot grumble if like measure is now
for the Church's good meted out to them.

The London Review holds that within a few months
Mr. Gladstone will be Prime Minister of England. We
seem to have passed through a whole age of change since
men muttered in Pall-mall that " it would never do," and
whispered in the corridors of Westminster Palace that
" Halifax was the safest man." That a Halifax Premier.
ship should ever have been thought of seems incredible--
so incredible that in all probability it may not find a place
in history. If so, our times, or at least our official Liberal
politicians will have the better prospect of escaping con-
tempt. But that Lord Halifax—a dry official, pledged only
to the fortunes of his party—was gravely spoken
of as our next Liberal Prime Minister, is as
true as it is likely to be hereafter forgotten.
Why do we rake up these wretched bygones? Not, cer-
tainly, because the conjunction of Gladstone and Halifax
is likely to represent the coming phase of Liberal Adminis-
tration. The idea never had much life, and is now stone
dead. It was the last remnant of the old Whig feeling,
which shuddered at the supremacy of a leader who had
not entered the Liberal sanctum through the portals of the
Whig school, and that feeling is now, if not entirely extin-
guished, entirely exorcised by the free air of popular
opinion. Let those, therefore, who deem Mr. Gladstone's
leadership adverse to the union of the party— let these poor
official gadflies who look upon Mr. Gladstone as merely a
rather dangerous instrument which they must use in order
to buzz back into Downing-street—let Mr. Gladstone
himself, when he is tempted by generosity and esprit de
corps to accept too absolutely the responsibilities of the
old official Liberal party—understand and remember, firstly,
that the party as reunited is a Radical party ; secondly,
that it is so because Mr. Gladstone chose, with the people
to back him, that it should be so ; thirdly, that with any
relapse into Whig quietism the union of the party would
be dissipated ; fourthly, that Whig quietism is to be
avoided by Mr. Gladstone continuing to sever himself
from it, and to make activity in amelioration the tenure
by which his party shall hold power.

The Saturday Review holds that there ought to be ample
time to settle the fate of the Ministry before Christmas if
the elections are decisive. If parties are nearly balanced,
things might go on as they are, for if a Liberal Govern-
ment came into office, it would not have strength enough
to carry the great measure with regard to the Irish
Church. It could serve no good purpose to turn out the
present Ministry too suddenly, and the Ministry is not bound
to go out of office simply because it has not a majority.
But although it is right not to count on a large Liberal
majority as an absolute certainty, and to consider what
would happen if the Conservatives had the remarkable
success on which they profess to reckon, still it is not
worth while to waste time on what is grossly improbable.
It is not easy to imagine how there can be anything but a
large Liberal majority. Nearly half the seats in the
three kingdoms are uncontested, except by members of
the same party, and these uncontested seats give. the
Liberals a majority of over ninety. The Conservatives,
therefore, must expect to win three out of four of all the
contested seats, in order to be on a bare equality with the
Liberals. Who can believe for a moment that they will do
anything of the sort?
The Imperial Review thinks that the world is naturally
not a little perplexed by the terribly contradictory
accounts which are furnished by the organs of the rival
parties. A man who pads bath the Times and the Standard.
must, by this time, have reached a state of bewilderment
from which ho can hardly ever hope to rally, if he is
assiduous, as most people are just now, in studying the
columns headed " Election Intelligence," in both papers.
Without echoing the excessive confidence of either of the
leading journals, or, on the other hand, subsiding into the
languid indifferentism affected by the Saturday Review, we
may be permitted to express our own belief that, while we
can hardly count upon such an expression of public feeling
against Mr. Gladstone's new policy as will convert the
majority of last session into a minority, the prospect of a
considerable accession of strength to the Ministerial ranks
is one which an impartial observer can scarcely contrive to
ignore. Take Lancashire, for instance: the foremost
county in England, whether we estimate rival pretensions
by intelligence, wealth, as political prestige, must neces.
early speak with no ordinary authority in deoidm the
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