The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times remarks that the new Parliament is now
'virtually constituted, and the first conclusion to be drawn
from the results may be presented as a startling paradox.
Nothing would be easier than to argue, or apparently to
prove, from the character of the House elected under the
Reform Bill, that the Reform Bill was entirely unneces-
sary. The new system of household suffrage was ex-
pected to send us new men as representatives of the
people. It was on this presumption that Par-
liamentaty Reform was advocated. The " questions "
which a Reformed Parliament might entertain and
resolve were elaborately stated and discussed before-
hand. They were of a nature which legislators of the old
stamp could never, it was held, be induced to recognise,
and which, required, therefore, representatives of a new
temper altogether. Mr. Bright himself, in a speech
which acquired exceptional notoriety from the ambiguity
of its purport, declared that what he wanted to see done
with the land, whatever that might have been, could be
done only by such a Parliament as a new class of electors
Fould send to Westminster. In fact, it was not for the
mere purpose of enfranchising the million that the agita-
tiorf for Reform was maintained, but in the hope
that a Reformed Parliament would be so com-
posed as to admit of extraordinary innova-
tions upon the old institutions of the country.
At first sight it is not too much to say that whatever may
pe done by the new House might under similar conditions
have been done by the House just dissolved. Of course
the new Parliament will raise a Liberal Ministry to
power and disestablish the Irish Church, but the old Par-
liament, be it remembered, were perfectly prepared to do
the same. Nobody can now pretend or declare that things
would be different if this or that class had its rightful
voice in the affairs of the country. The suffrage has been
carried, we may say, to its utmost possible extent, for
it is hardly conceivable that any further addition to the
electoral bodies could produce any practical effect.
Reformers may still demand the Ballot or a redistribu-
tion of seats, but as far as regards the franchise there is
pothing further to be anticipated ; nor does it, indeed,
appear probable that any changes still to come would
modify the substantial character of the House of Commons.
If Parliament, as now constituted, should refuse to enter-
tain certain questions or to sanction certain social innova-
tions, it will be because such measures are repugnant to
the sense of the country, truly and fairly ascertained.

••

According to the Post, the change in our representative
system has failed to justify many apprehensions, as well
as to realise some expectations. The members returned
are men with a stake in the country. The distribution of
parties may, after all, depend on the judgment and discre-
tion which are exercised in leading the new House of
Commons. There are currents as well as tides in
political affairs, and all that can be said at present is
that if the Liberal leaders are content to stand on
measures of practical improvement, and to oppose
mere theoretical innovations, those who are not with them
will not be against them. What is more, too, the modera-
tion which binds up a majority may recommend itself to
the great body of the community. The country has, with
good reason, made up its mind that a truly Liberal policy
is a truly Conservative policy. Even Protestants of Pro-
testants cannot but perceive that the Liberal policy with
reference to the Irish Church is the alternative of a policy
still more distasteful to them.

The Morning Summary holds that the new House will
not be a bad one. The ultra-Radicals are nowhere. The
Pressure from without may be great on Liberal members,
but this Parliament will not last long. On the use the
Conservatives make of its short life depends the future
of the country. They have seen that the working
men are with them ; while the shopkeepers in small towns
alone sustain the Liberal cause. Mere party organisation
has miserably failed. Whenever the people have taken
up Conservatism themselves it bas succeeded. Let the
registration be well looked after; let Conservatives of all
classes keep up that mutual good will which has been
fostered at election times ; let Conservative tradesmen
and working men be encouraged in preference to Radicals;
let political clubs be formed ; political reunions be held in
every constituency ; and when next the House of Lords
intervenes to prevent revolution and anarchy, the verdict
from the boroughs will, we are convinced, show that the
people of England are not willing to have their time-
honoured institutions destroyed at the dictation either of
the Liberation Society or the Vatican.
The Standard fears that those who should seek in Mr.
Disraeli's speech for evidences of his penitential state and
contrite spirit are likely to be disappointed. Nothing
more unlike an appeal for mercy ever emanated from a
statesman than this address to the electors of Buckingham-
shire. In the first place, Mr. Disraeli could hardly plead
before the court is formed. In the next place, he was
speaking to the electors of Buckinghamshire as their
representative of twenty years. lie could confess no
defeat, as he had sustained none. He could not demur to
a verdict before it had been pronounced. No one knows
better than Mr. Disraeli his weakness and his strength.
No one is less likely to be guilty of any self.deception
in regard to the basis of his power. He must
have known, at least as well as any of his critics,
what were the grounds of his reliance upon the opinion
of the country. He has learnt nothing since the commence.
ment of these elections to make him despair of his cause—
nothing which should make him plead for mercy. lie is
the last man in the world to abandon his cause at the
moment of learning the strength of the enemy. He would
not be where he is now had he been one given to despair
at every reverse. He cannot forget that he became the
leader of the House of Commons just twelve months after
that House had been elected, by a majority which his
enemies claimed to be ninety-three, pledged to support
the Liberal cause. What is there in the present aspect of
affairs more unpromising for Mr. Disraeli than in July
155? As the Times itself reminds us, Mr. Disraeli
is still First Minister of the Crown, still the leader
of a great party. It has yet to be proved that he is
unworthy of the one place ; it can never happen
that, while living, he will lose the other. The general
election is only half over. The battle is not lost till it is
won. Even in spite of some early reverses, and allowing
that the Conservative minority is not to be turned into a
majority, it is still the duty of the leader of his party to
carry himself as though his final victory were possible.
There is nothing whatever in Mr. Disraeli's speech to
warrant the assumption either that be is praying for
mercy or that his political dissolution is near. It is only '
a vulgar trick to pretend to the contrary— a trick whose
hollowness and impudence are sufficiently exposed in Mr. I
Disraeli's calm, deliberate, and impartial review of the
political situation—a speech which is in most 'striking
contrast to the impatient, petulant, and passionate
harangues of his chief adversary.

The Didly News says the people of the United Kingdom I.
nave not merely ratified the principles laid down by Mr.
Gladstone. The elections mean something more than this.
They designate Mr. Gladstone as the future Chief Minister
of the United Kingdom. They are a vote of confidence in
him personally. An Administration of which he should
merely ben member, in which he should occupy the place
that he filled in the Governments of Lords Aberdeen,
Palmerston, and Russell, would not correspond with the
demands of the people. They desire an Administration
of which he shall be the head, an Administration
constructed by him and directed by him. Mr.
Gladstone, however, is not content with being member
for all England unless he be member for South-west
Lancashire too. The strength of local attachment and
the clinging to early associations, which have been
touchingly betrayed in many of the speeches which he has
made during his candidature, were once more forcibly
expressed in his speech at the nomination. The home
feeling which leads a man to desire to close his political
life 'where his natural life began ought to meet a response
among the people who are the objects of it. Mr. Glad-
stone
is one of the glories of Lancashire. He confers
more honour on it than it can give him. It owes more t
him than it can repay.

The Telegraph has a leader upon Mr. Gladstone's
" Chapter of Biography." One day Peel announced to
his young colleague that he meant to propose the remodel-
ling and increasing of the Maynooth Grant. 'That inti-
mation gave the first blow to Mr. Gladstone's political
convictions. . At last he found the whole country
had drifted hopelessly away from his position. Even
the highest and driest of the Tory party did not dare to
subscribe the doctrine that, having a conscience, the State
must teach a religion, and teach but one religion, whether
that one were Romanism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism,
Brahminism, Bhuddism, or Paganism. Thus left alone,
Mr. Gladstone reviewed his main argument, and at last
he saw "how untenable was the doctrine which had
been riddled- by Macaulay's shot. On the 4th
February, 1845, Mr. Gladstone uttered the last con-
fession of his old creed. "From that day forward, I
have never, to my knowledge, said one word, in public or
in private, which could pledge me on principle to the
maintenance of the Irish Church." With reference to
the letter to Dr. Hannah, when he wrote it he had been in
the House of Commons for thirty-three years ; with twc
exceptions, there was not a single man in Parliament
who had completed his fortieth yea: of equally laborious
work ; to the grave Mr. Gladstone had followed the re-
mains of " almost all the friends abreast of whom he had
started from the university in the career of public life;"
and hence he had ro right "to reckon for himself on an
exemption from the lot of greater and better men ;" he
bad no right to anticipate that he would live until the
policy of disestablishing the Irish Church should enter the
list of public questions. The English people trust that
Mr. Gladstone will live, not only to settle that question,
but to settle a crowd of other great questions whic4 etand
on the threshold of Reform.