The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-15 00:00:00

BPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In discussing what public economy really consists of,
the Times comes to the conclusion that our Governments,
Whig as well as Tory, have usually managed to keep
themselves perversely in arrear of the prevailing fashion,
and have thus spent money without gaining real efficiency.
In the navy, for instance, there was a time when the real
fighting ship of the day was the old sailing man-of-war;
that gave place to the screw two-decker, and that again
to the early type of ironclad, which in its turn was
supplanted by a more formidable model. All these
fashions succeeded each other within a very few
years, and the efficiency of the navy would have
consisted in providing the country with a competent force
of those vessels which were the best at the time.
But this is exactly what was never done. We never left
off the old fashion soon enough, or took soon enough to
the new one, and were generally provided with a large
stock of the models which were just going out. Mr. Glad-
stone hit the right nail on the head when he denounced
the expenditure which had been incurred in ships and
arms, "the last pattern being superseded by something
superior before it was even served out," but he was not
equally happy in explaining the policy which he thought
should be pursued. The late Government, he said, deter-
mined, in consequence of such lessons, to proceed " with
moderation—cautiously and not rashly ;" so that, as we
presume him to mean, they declined to close immediately
with the project of breechloaders, and left this work for
their successors. But that is an example not of wisdom,
but the contrary. The true rule is to proceed in such
matters with the utmost dispatch, as soon as the case for
proceeding has been established, and to reject at the same
time the fashions which have been superseded by the new
discovery. If Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues had
actually equipped the army with Sniders, instead of
leaving the work for the next Administration, they would
have done well. By postponing the change they incurred
the risk of that very result which he now deprecates, and
might, perhaps, have found the Snider obsolete just when
they began to serve it out. It is impossible for a Govern-
ment to be too earnest in keeping abreast of the age.
Here, for instance, is this Moncrieff battery, which has been
under official notice these ten years. Had the effect of the
invention been but ascertained when it was first produced,
it might have saved us millions.
The Standard returns to the question of public ex-
penditure. Mr. Gladstone caps his other statements—
falsehoods Mr. Gladstone would say—by the assertion
that, high as was the expenditure of 1859, 1860, and 1861,
it was only prevented from being much greater by his
own desperate struggles to keep it down, against the Oppo.
sition which was eager to increase it. Surely Mr. Glad-
stone suppose his countrymen to have completely
forgotten the parliamentary history of the years of
which he speaks, or he would not venture upon such a
flagrant misrepresentation. So far from the Conservative
party having laboured to increase the expenditure, the
Conservative party struggled to reduce it, and succeeded
at last in compelling its reduction. Mr. Disraeli renewed
in 1862 the efforts he had made in the previous year to
awaken the country to a sense of the extravagance of the
Government, and made in two brilliant speeches so great
an impression that the Radical party was at last aroused,
and came forward to declare itself in favour of retrench-
ment. Mr. Stansfeld put upon the paper of the
House of Commons a resolution affirming that the
national expenditure was capable of reduction, which
Lord Palmerston met with a queerly - worded
amendment expressing a hope of a future diminution.
To this amendment Mr. Walpole moved a further amend-
ment directly calling upon the Government to reduce the
expenditure so as to equalise it with revenue, and obtain
means of diminishing the burden of taxes confessedly of a
temporary and exceptional character. In the face of a
threat from Lord Palmerston that the Government would
treat this amendment as a vote of want of confidence, Mr.
Walpole did not press it, and the House adopted Lord
Palmerston's resolution. But the object the Conservative
party sought was attained.

The Daily News, remarking that the Republicans are now
sure of another lease of power, says that in the past
summer the game seemed to be in the hands of the Demo-
cratic party. It had nothing to do but to accept cordially
all that the war had accomplished, to sustain the laws
actually in operation, and to nominate as its presidential
candidate such a man as Chief Justice Chase ; and it
might possibly have fought a winning battle in the present
campaign. But reaction triumphed in its counsels. It
clung to a policy which the success of the war had made
to be an anachronism. It asked the nation to yield
to the South in peace some of the fruits of the Northern
victory. Meanwhile, its friends in the South did their
best to shew the Northern people what would be the con-
sequence of leaving the negro to their tender mercies, and
giving them back their old predominance. The mere
anticipation of a Democratic victory inaugurated almost a
reign of terror in many of the Southern States. The
people, as usual, discounted the Northern concessions
before the people had even consented to make them, and
effectually warned them against conceding anything.
Hence the present Republican reaction.
The Standard says : The failure in Pennsylvania may,
perhaps, be regarded as fatal to the prospects of Mr.
Seymour and his party. We have prepared our readers to
regard this result as probable, by pointing out from time
to time tho intrinsic weakness of the Democratic
ticket, and the immense effect produced by the
revival of the old war cries. No argument can
prevail against such prejudices as the Republicans con-
trived to conjure up after the Democratic Convention in
New York. The Democratic speakers tried in vain to
convince the people that their opponents were misleading
their minds by all kinds of unscrupulous slanders. The
mischief was done ; the people received the impression
that if they elected Mr. Seymour the negroes would be
thrust back into slavery, the South would be allowed to
form a separate Government, and the public debt would be
repudiated.
The Post observes that the control which the Republi-
cans will obtain over the Executive in Pennsylvania by
• the vote of Tuesday last will be exercised with no little
effect at the coming Presidential election. A Democratic
governor gives place to a Republican, and the same change
takes place in the Senatorial representatives of that State
in Congress. The great battle, it is true, has still to be
fought, but the decision pronounced by the three States to
which we have referred has deprived it of the slight in-
terest with which the more sanguine amongst the Demo-
•crats sought to invest it.
The herald ridicules the Times for treating affairs on
the Indian frontier so lightly. Amongst other serious
symptoms is that according tc current accounts the Per-
sians, in violation of the treaty with England of 1857, are
occupying two places in Affghanistan, Seisteen and Mero,
and have acquired by that means peculiar facility for
assisting Russian aggression. It is not to be
conceived that conduct like this will pass unnoticed ;
and although a British invasion of Affghanistan is not
likely to be the mode adopted, the Government will
doubtless take whatever steps may be considered neces-
sary in vindication of our position. It is greatly to be
regretted, as we have again and again pointed out in
these columns, that measures were not adopted long since
to revive the alliance with Shere Ali, which was neces-
sarily abandoned by the recognition of his usurping
brother Afzul, and of Afzul's son and successor Azim.
Even now it might not be too late to effect the object,
were overtures made in a friendly spirit, and the friendly
intentions of this country placed beyond a doubt. But it
would be mere folly to suppose that such a purpose could
be obtained without the assumption of a certain degree of
responsibility. No country, as Lord Stanley said last
session, can gain influence, or retain such influence as
she has, while governed by no other principle than
that of non-intervention whatever may happen. And no
country can maintain even that policy beyond a certain
extent. Sooner or later some definite declaration will be
forced upon her, to be evaded only at a cost far beyond
any consequencA which she bad sought to avoid. It is to
such a position as this that we are fast arriving at Cabul,
and we are much mistaken if our rulers have not provided
for the crisis. The obvious course at present open to us is
to regain, if possible, the friendship of Shere Ali, by
guaranteeing the independence of Affgbanistan, with such
stipulations as may seem advisable ; accepting the respon-
sibilities incurred as the best security for peace and a
necessary safeguard to our empire in India.
The Telegraph says the member for Nottingham knows
Ireland well, and is a resident landlord ; and yet, returned
by an English constituency, he can have no difficulty in
speaking out his mind and dealing impartially between the
rival sects. Thus he will stand almost alone as a thoroughly
well-informed and fearless witness of the truth respecting
Irish affairs and the local details that are so neces-
sary to fill up the picture. On Monday he usefully
contrasted the comfortable Protestant church in his own
neighbourhood, where " twenty excellent Protestants"
pray, with a barn-like building in the neighbouring
parish, where eight hundred Roman Catholics kneel in
the mud. Such facts as these enable us to understand
how Irishmen feel when they see established at
their doors a stately church to which the law
compels them to contribute, while their wretched
means cannot afford a decent chapel for themselves.
Take this instance alone : forget theories, principles,
nationalities, and historical origin ; but simply let
any man ask whether it is right that a tax on the
land of that parish—a tax which enhances the rent paid
by the occupier—should be levied to support the church
where twenty rich Protestants worship God, while the
occupiers, who virtually pay the tax, have to pay in addi-
tion, out of their small means, another and voluntary tax
to their own miserable chapel and their own priest? No
amount of sophistry can reconcile an honest man to such
a wrong, when it is once brought singly, locally, and
c9ll 11_4c499 awl heart,

THE PRINCE CONSORT MEMORIAL, AT

HULL.

On Wednesday the Mayor of Hull (Alderman G. O.
Roberts), unveiled a memorial statue of the late Prince
Consort in the People's Park, Beverleproad. It
had been expected that some member of the Royal
Family would have attended to perform the cere-
mony, in which the Queen was known to take
peculiar interest, but the hopes of the local autho-
rities were doomed to be disappointed, the Duke of
Edinburgh having to join the Galatea for foreign service.
The disappointment of the inhabitants was very great,
they having but few opportunities of personally shewing
their loyalty and attachment to the Throne, and it was
enhanced by the fact that a general understanding
had existed that on this occasion royalty would
once more visit Hull. The ceremony was a very
imposing one, from the vast numbers who were
present to " assist " at it. At one o'clock the
invited guests assembled at the Town Hall, where re-
freshments were provided by the mayor. Afterwards a
procession was formed, comprising the mayor and council,
the candidates for the representation of the borough, the
cs;rporations of the Trinity House and Hull Dock Com-
pany, the consular body, Chamber of Commerce officials,
and other representative gentlemen. The route of the
procession (a very long one) was through the principal
streets of the borough. At the gates of the park the
procession was met by the park committee, who then led
the way to the platform, which had been specially raised
for the occasion. The proceedings commenced by the
mayor formally presenting the statute, which Alderman
Ellison, the chairman of the park committee, accepted,
and requested the mayor to unveil it. During the process
the band of the Hull police force played Martin Luther's
Hymn, and the ceremony closed. In the evening there
was a grand banquet at the Town Hall, and a display of
fireworks at the park.