The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JDUHZIALS,

atay not bad government in the matter of Ireland, the
Times asks, be reversed by the siiple process of undoing
what has been done, and retracing our steps to the point
where we went wrong? That, indeed, is the way Mr.
Bright puts it ; and he assumes, not that we can make a
new Ireland, but that we can unmake the old one. He
gives us to understand without any reserve that this
unravelling process is to be applied to the land
as well as to the Church, and that as the
British Government formerly placed the land in few
and safe hands, so we ought now to interfere with a
strong hand to place the soil in numerous hands,
and those as much as possible of the old race, going its
own ways, holding its own traditions, and carrying out a
grand national idea. On no occasion whatever had Mr.
Bright so often to deal cautiously, if not ambiguously,
with natural inferences as last Tuesday at Limerick. But
if undoing the bad may seem to be the proper sequel
to the stage of national repentance, and if, after con-
fession, there should come restitution, we may yet ask
what it is we aro to undo. Arc we to undo the " Planta-
tions ? " Arc we to undo the Confiscations ? If so, which
of them, and how far back ; and where are we to -find
the ultimate reversionaries in this interminable, this
complicated, this multitudinoui suit ? Or are we to con- I
tent ourselves with simply undoing the laws under which
all the soil of Ireland, whether planted, confiscated, or
still in the old families, has come to its present state of
holding and possession ? The least that can be asked for
i 3 some explanation on these points, affecting, as they do,
the soil of this island as well as that of Ireland. But
whatever it is that Mr. Bright has in view, it is still only
a fresh variety and a new phase of strong and exceptional
government for Ireland.
Te Post observes that few men ever more signally belied
the expectations formed of them than President Johnson.
Elected by the voices of the extreme Republican party,
he has proved himself a staunch defender of Democratic
rights. On his first appearance as Vice-President in
the capacity of chairman of the Senate, his demeanour
and his language rendered the senators and the public
(and neither the one nor the other are particularly
squeamish) heartily ashamed of him. It was said that he
was intoxicated when he took the chair in the Senate on
the day of his inauguration ; and if he was not, it is
certainly conceded, even by his friends, that his conduct
amply excused any mistake which might have been made
by spectators on this score. When, only a month later,
the murder of Mr. Lincoln raised him to the office of
chief magistrate, many and serious wero the apprehen-
sions which were entertained respecting his future
career. That ho would he a violent Republican no
one doubted ; that he would be a statesman, or even
an ordinary prudent politician, no one believed.
Assumption and apprehensions were, however, equally
destined to prove unfounded. Whatever Andrew
Johnson may have been before his election to the office of
Vice-President, or even in the first moments after he
entered upon the duties which pertain to it, it must be
admitted that when he suddenly found himself the ruler
of the Republic he rose to the occasion. Since the eventful
morning succeeding the murder of Mr. Lincoln, on which
he was sworn in as President by the Chief Justice,he has never
demeaned himself in a manner which any one, however
straitlaced, might have reason to be ashamed of. His
policy may not have commanded universal approval, but
it has been frank, straightforward, and fearless. He was
the first person in high office in the United States who ha 4
tho courage to declare that the offence of rebellion, though'
great, was not inexpiable, and to maintain that the popu-
lation of the Southern States were entitled to enjoy the
privileges of a free people.
The Standard, in an article on the bombastic letter of
Mr. Seward, in the matter of Warren and Costello, says:
If Englishmen or Irishmen choose to abjure their
glance to the English throne, and to invest themselvel.
with the character of American citizens, well and gook
we shall be but too happy to give them up and regard
them henceforth as foreigners ; but they cannot be per-
mitted to put on and take off American citizenship as they
please; to use it in order to assail England, and then to claim
again the rights of English citizenship efther for the same
purpose or to enjoy in ease the profits they have made by
that hostility. The Englishmen and Irishmen who elm(sj
to abjure their character of British subjects must knovi,
that they take a step which is not revocable. Altogether
the arrangement of the question which the Government
and the Congress of the United States have raised in a
not very dignified manner will require considerable
care and much time. For the present they may well
be satisfied with the assurance of Lord Stanley that the
English Government agrees with them in principle, and as
Congress is about to adjourn, and holiday time is coming
on, to ber succeeded by an election in which he has no par-
ticular object to serve, we may hope that Mr. Seward will
write no more buncombe despatches, and wait for a
request of Congress when it reassembles before publishing
anything he may write."

The Dairy Yew.; says the arguments for and against the
Foreign Cattle Markets Bill lie upon the surface, and if
the matter were talked about for weeks no material altera-
tion would be produced in the opinions of the contending
parties. It may suit Lord Robert Montagu to say that
the question does not involve the issue of protection o:
frce.trade. But to anyone who understands the meaning
of the words protection and free trade, it is per-
fectly obvious that the present bill affects the food
supply of the community. All the arguments
urged in favoUr of the bill before the House resemble very
closely those by which the protection of the home-growers
of corn was defended more than twenty years ago. In the
main, as Mr. Newdegate bluntly and honestly avowed,
the measure was defended as a counter-mine against the
policy of free trade. And this being so, as the Govern.
ment themselves admitted some weeks ago, it was natural
enough that the great majority of the Liberal party, with
the exception of some members connected with agricul-
tural interests, should oppose a measure so retrograde and
dangerous.

The Telegraph calls attention to the fact that, after
some delay, a large amount of negotiation, or what the
irreverent would term " higgling," and al ample disc, s
Rion by rr en of opposite views on the select corn n:ttee,
the Electric Telegraphs Bill of the Government has at
length made decided progress. The preamble was passed a
few days ago, and now the provisional agreement made
with the various telegraph companies has been sanctioned
on the basis of twenty years' purchase of their net profits.
It may be anticipated, perhaps, that the opposi-
tion made to the terms of purchase by Mr. Goschen and
Mr. Sandford prefigures a further hostility in the House
of Commons from an economical point of view. The Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer has brought np the report of the
committee, and will take the next stage on Monday
evening; but, considering the large amount of detail still
to be arranged, it is hardly to be supposed much more will
be done this session. Nevertheless, the Telegraph feels
satisfied. The agreements with the companies and
the railways, which, thanks to Mr. Seudamore's in-
defatigable exertions were so promptly settled, are,
after all, the main points. With the cessation
of hostility from that quarter, little further difficulty is to
be dreaded ; the question of compensations is mainly a
matter for the arbiter or arbiters who may be chosen, and
the recommendation of the select committee will have due
weight with Parliament, and all the more since it entirely
coincides with the deliberate opinion of the country. The
advotes of economy may chew fight over the difference
between sixteen and twenty years, but there is no proba-
bility now of the measure's being wrecked on that point,
whether the discussion takes place this session or not.

,During the year 1865 the daily loss of service
occasioned by " contagious diseases " in the royal navy
was equal to 4GB men. The total number of cases of
sickness from this cause amounted in the twelvemonth to
4,313, and of these 130 men were invalided.—Lancet.

VIOLATING A GRAVE. —An extraordinary out-
rage has been committed at Cardiff. A young woman
recently died there, and a report was circulated that a
considerable quantity of jewellery was buried with her.
On Sunday night the husband and brother of the deceased
went to visit her grave, and found a man there removing
the coffin. The man made his escape, but the police have
since apprehended the gravedigger, who had absconded.

MA TERNAL AFFECTION.—Governor Merrill, of
lowa, has pardoned Catherine INl`Ardle,who was sent from
Jackson County four years ago to the State Penitentiary
for life. She confessed to the murder of her husband, and
was sentenced to be hanged, but her sentence was com-
muted by Governor Stone. It was afterwards found that
she was entirely innocent, anti that her son was the guilty
person. To save him from the gallows she had avowed
that she was guilty of the crime.

Boors.—Tlic official gauge of literature is

'r eight, and viewed by this dull and prosaic test it w
ippear that the demand for English books abroo
extending. In 1853 they were exported to the extei
2,781 cwt.; in 1850 the total had risen to 33,128 cwt.;
in subsequent years they were as follows :-1831, 3(
cw t. ; 1862, 27,726 c wt. ; 1863, 32,1:92e wt. ; 18`;4, 34,087(
1863, 39,525 cwt.; 1866, 45,r,81cwt.; :ail 1867, 49,906ci

ST. SWITIIIIN'S DAY. —On St. Swithin's
(Wednesday) great quantities of rain fell between Wi
field anal Fleetpond, on the South-Western line. 'I
was also much thunder and lightning in the same
At Hartley Row, in Hants, it rained all the afters
A building by the side of Winchester Cathedral, v
St. Swithin lies buried, was struck 1 y lightning,
in some parts of the neighbourhood cf Winchester 1
rain fell.