The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT' or THE PUBLIC JOURNAL'S,

The Times declares that it cannot but be a mat ter of
intense gratification to every well-wisher of the American
Republic that the impeachment has failed. The citizens
of the United States—above all, the citizens of the Northern
States—have prided themselves upon being a law-alas' Eng
people, and, despite occasional excesses, such as stai:n the
history of all nations, the native-born Americans :,have
been justified in their pride. The condemnation ot;Mr.
Johnson would, however, have disposed for ever of 'this
boast. It is bad enough that so large a majority should
have been found willing to convict the President ?upon
the evidence brought before them, but there haveLteen
found a few Republican senators sufficiently independent
of the tyranny of party to resist the pressure which *mild
have compelled them to violate all considerations °Claw
and justice. The names of those who voted are. not
given in the telegraphic despatches, but it was known
that Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, the senator selected by
Mr. Lincoln as Secretary for the Treasury when Mr.
Chase resigned that post, would be one of those who
would refuse to convict the President. Mr. Henderscc,
of Missouri, was another thus distinguished, and his
resolution has apparently remained firm, although the
full power of the Legislature of Missouri, to whose suf-:
frages he owes his present position, has been brought to
bear upon him. Those who know how easily men among
ourselves are turned aside from their spontaneous resolu-
tion by the action of some, it nlay be only a knot, of
their constituents, can understand the strength of pur-
pose those Republican Senators must have possessed who
have adhered to the conclusions of their own judgment
in a land where politics is a profession, where de-
parture from exact conformity with party discipline
incurs a sentence of exclusion from politicallife, and where
the machinery of party organisation and the pressure of
party opinion are the most galling and oppressive to be
found anywhere in the world. So deeply do the public
men of America feel the necessity of acting in unison
with a vast number of others to accomplish any
joint object, that it is rare to find original and
independent counsel among them, and the con-
scientious self-reliance of those who quitted their party
to vote with the minority against the impeachment de-
serves the greater honour. Nothing else, however, we
venture to say, was possible, if the law of the case was to
be regarded. Nothing else was posAible if the reputation
of the Senate was to be maintained unsullied. The con-
stitution of the Union, the articles of the impeachment,
the evidence, and the arguments are all before us, and
there is no reason why an opinion may not be pronounced
upon them.
The Herald thinks that the American people have
reason to congratulate themselves on their escape. Their
Constitution and the fate of their country has hung upon
a vote. Only by one vote has the Senate failed to pass
the decree which, in expelling Mr. Johnson from the
Pre:ddeney, would have inaugurated a new era of revolu-
tion in America. We may accept the vote on the eleventh
'Article of Impeachment as decisive, because it was mainly
on that article that the managers of the House of Repre-
sentatives relied. iThirty-five voted that the eleventh
article was sustained, nineteen that it was not sustained.
So that if one member of the minority had. voted
',,vith the majority the article would have been car-
ried by the majority of two-thirds, which is necessary
in this momentous business. This article, which was the
pith and summing up of the whole indictment, charged
the President with having denied in a public speech that
the 39th Congress had the right to exercise legislative
power ; with denying that the legislation of the said Con-
gress was valid or obligatory upon him, or that it had
power to propose amendments to the Constitution ; with
seeking to l revent the execution of the Tenure of Office
Act by attempting to restrain Mr. Stanton from exercising
his functions as Secretary at War ; and with having con-
trived to hinder the working of the Reconstruction Act,
and of the Act which provided that all military orders
should be issued through the general commanding the army.
Those who voted against this article must have refused
their c mient to the spirit rather than to the letter of it.
It was just as in those actions in this country where pleas
of justification and not guilty are put side by side by the
defendant in the cause. They voted against the monstrous
injustice of condemning the chief functionary of the
state on grounds which, if sustained, were a credit to him
rather than a crime in him. As a matter of literal
fact these allegations were true: Mr. Johnson
did dispute the competency of the 39th Congress,
;and he was right in disputing it, as it represents
only a fraction of the Union, and has arbitrarily exclnded
from its sittings the representatives of the rest. He did
not deny, and he was right to deny, the competency of a
Rump Congress to pass laws, or make amendments to the
Constitution, which by that instrument require the consent
of two-thirds of the States. He did question the legality
of the Tenure of Office Act, and, pending the decision of
that legality by the tribunals, he did suspend Mr. Stanton,
and appoint a successor to his post. Ire did interpose
his authority t. cause the incidence of the arbitrary and
cr Reconstruction Act to fall as lightly as possible on
the peoples of the persecuted South ; and he did assert
his unquestioned right, under the Constitution, to act as
Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the Union. Why,
then, did 19 senators vote against the article? They voted
against it, not as a matter of fact, but simply as a reason
for depriving of place and power the man who had rather
deserved the thanks of his countrymen for the heroic
stand which he had made against oppression and wrong.

The Post observes that the most important of the many
struggles which have taken place in Austria in connection
with the establishment of liberal institutions in that
empire has now come to a close. The Emperor has given
his sanction to the bills relating to education, civil mar-
riages, and the footing which shall for the future be occu-
pied by persons of different religious denominations. In
a word, the Concordat has been swept away, religious
equality has been established, provision made for educa-
tion on a system recognising differences of creed, and
marriage made a civil contract, independent of ecclesias-
tical sanction. Seldom, if ever, perhaps, have such
mighty changes been effected in the institutions of a
country by simple legislative action as those which
have been brought about in the course of the past
twelve months in Austria. It is only natural, therefore,
that there should manifest themselves some symptoms of
what is termed reaction. There is always a class of per-
sons who are terrified by progress, and whose breath is
taken away if the course of events is rather quicker than
they expeee 1. Many persons in this country in 1832
believed that we were on the road to ruin when we abo-
lished the rotten boroughs and passed the first Reform
Act. And in like manner in Austria, independently ot
the Illtramcn'anists, there are many who confound
political liberty with anarchy, and who believe that the
only safeguards which society possessed were supplied by
the autocratic system which has been swept away.
It is a custom of old observance for the Lord Mayor of
London to entertain the judges and serjeants at an annual
dinner, and on Monday night the customary entertain-
ment was given. A large general company was present,
for the guests, as might be supposed, were selected with-
out reference to political opinion. Tory and Whig peers
and judges and distinguished laymen sat side by side. In
such a company, if anywhere, the Star would have ex-
pected the Lord Mayor to have suppressed or moderated
his fiery zeal for the Irish Establishinent. Common
courtesy would have dictated such a course, not
to speak of those responsibilities which should
attach themselves to high civic office. The
Lord Mayor, in proposing the health of the House of
Lords, whether through mere ignorance or negligence,
displayed a bad taste that is positively amazing, both in
the tenons of his remarks and in the selection of the person
on whom he called to respond to the toast. It is scarcely
to be credited that any man occupying a position which
demands of its tenants common decorum and politeness
could invite Lord Dunraven, himself a Catholic
peer, and one whose name had been promi-
nently affixed to the Irish Catholic laymen's decla-
ration in favour of religious equality, to reply to
a speech which denounced Mr. Gladstone's [Suspensory
Bill, and challenged for it in prospect the hostility and
successful opposition of the House of Peers. It was suffi-
ciently startling to invite Lord Dunraven to return thanks
for the Lords, and to accept a policy thus dictated by so
high an authority ; but it was still more unprecedented so
to plunge from the ordinary commonplaces of civic feasts
into the stormy sea of party politic; and, in the presence
of the eminent Liberals whom we have already named, to
revile the Liberal party, its policy, and its leader. The
Live:y of London must really take steps to instruct the
Lord Mayor in the limits of his duties, and the conven-
tional courtesies of which he has shewn himself ignorant
or careless.

TILE QUEEN'S RETURN FROM • BALMORAL.-
Her Majesty the Queen and the Royal Family are expected
to nturn from 13:amoral about the lath cf next month.

ANOTHER. TRADES' PROSECUTION AT PARIS.—
veral members of the management of the International
Worldn Men's Association have apin been tried by the
Correctional Police, Paris, on a charge of violating the
law by establishing a society of more than twenty mem•
hers, without authorisation. This was a second offence,
ns tsio oaths back the same association was condemned
and dissolved, and the persons then accused fined 100 f.
each. An appeal was then lodged, which has not yet
been heard, Meanwhile the defendants persisted, and
declared their intention to disobey the judgment of the
That Court. Having repeated the offence, and now avow,
ing it, the Vribunal has again declared the International
Association of 'Working Men to be dissolved, and eon,
donned the accused, nine in number, each to OM uMitilie
kopriMMlellt Racl 1491, fine,