The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-15 00:00:00

in America awl on the Continent are still active.

We do not, however, accept the conclusion that the
state of Ireland is worse now than it was twelve months
since because the Government asks that the Habeas Corpus
Act may be suspended for twelve instead of three months.
It has been made plain by experience that they under-
estimated the disaffection which prevailed last February,
and a renewal of the Suspension Act for three months
only was an invitation to the organisers of the conspiracy
to prepare for the time when the inclemency of spring
would give way to the milder weather of early summer.
With the very best intentions, the Government com-
mitted a double error. It was scarcely necessary for
Lord Mayo to protest against the insinuation that the
Government ha-I wilfully shut their eyes to the con-
spiracy until it ripened in open revolt. No person of
intelligence could believe such a charge. The Govern-
ment simply made a mistake. They are wiser now.
They ask a renewal of suspension for twelve months
in the reasonable hope that the impossibility of success-
fully hatching plots against a Government possessing for
a whole year the power of imprisonment upon suspicion
may become so apparent that those who foment Fenianism
may at once abandon their designs. It is hopeless to fight
against a Power which somehow or other is always well
informed beforehand of attempts against its peace, and
which has the irresponsible power of apprehending and
detaining whomsoever it will. If the Irish Americans be
not totally devoid of acuteness', they must perceive that
they are playing a losing game, and seek employment in
the civil life they followed before the war of secession
broke out. The experience of the past year has deepened
the conviction that it is to those persons who claim
to belong to two nations at once, and to owe no allegiance
to either, that the active development of Fenianism must
be attributed. That there is some indifference to the
maintenance of the Crown, if not absolute discontent,
existing in Ireland as a support to the Fenian conspiracy
cannot be denied, but those who nurse this latent disaffec-
tion and try to fan it into flame are men of Irish origin
or descent who have transferred their allegiance to
the American Commonwealth. When their mischie-
vous activity ceases, and they are again absorbed
in peaceful pursuits, the interrupted progress of
Ireland in material progress will be resumed, and
the sullenness of the lowest classes of the popula-
tion he converted into contentment. The evidence
Lord Mayo produced to the House of Commons last night
goes far to prove that the leaders of sedition have learnt
the uselessness of attempts in Ireland while the Habeas
Corpus is suspended there, and that they have directel
their energies to the propagation of Fenianism in England
and Scotland. They will soon find, if they have not
already found, that Great Britain is a soil very unfavour-
able to their designs ; and, persuaded of the hopelessness
of Fenian attempts in Ireland while the Habeas Corpus
Act is suspended, and the impossibility of spreading
Fenianism in England under any circumstances, they must
perforce postpone, if they will not relinquish, the execu-
tion of their plans.
It is a matter of experience, remarks the Post, that i
most economical way of living is on the co-operative prii_
ciple—several persons occupying a common dwelling-hoi
and dining at one table. The old saying that what -
enough for one is enough for two expresses the principl
of economy which is thus practically capable of heir,
realised. Of course it is not literally meant that two
individuals clubbing together could live as cheaply as each
could live alone ; but it is hardly an exaggeration to say
that a hundred people clubbing resources could live for
what it would cost to keep fifty if each had a separate
dwelling. The saving in rent and in food would be great in
proportion to the numbers uniting together in this house-
hold co-operation. A necessary qualification, however,
ought to be mentioned here, namely, that the proposition
applies most forciby to the style of living in which the
necessaries of life with moderate comforts are the end in
view. In the case where such luxuries as rare wines at a
fancy price, or a large mansion and grounds all to one-
self were required, the principle would not be applicable.
But even here it is certain that if a number of persons
whose rate of income would not admit of each living in
better style than a third-rate house in a third-rate loca-
lity chose to co-operate, they might live in, if not a first-
rate house, at least a much better one, and in a much
better neighbourhood.

In the opinion of the Daily News it is important that
there should be no misunderstanding as to the motives of
the Oxford Convocation for refusing to grant a sum of
money out of the university funds to an institution
strangely designated as " the University of the Southern
States of America." The movement for the foundatior
of this institution, even if it was altogether free fron
political feeling, and had no tendency to perpetuate the
division between the Northern and Southern States, was
avowedly sectarian, and directed against the American
principle of united and undenominational education. The
quarter from which the proposal came, and the language
recently held by certain American bishops in this country,
left no doubt upon that subject. The University of
Oxford, in throwing out the motion for the giant to the
" University of the Southern States," simply declined to•
be drawn into anything that might wear the aspect of an
episcopal crusade against American institutions. In so
doing it shewed not only its moderation and just per-
ception of its own duties, but its right feeling towards the
American nation. Even the people of the South, the
great mass of whom are not Episcopalians, would gain
little by the erection of an Episcopal University. The
defeat of the proposal will have a very salutary effect if
it prevents these party motions from being brought for the
future before a university the strict neutrality of which in
all party questions is an indispensable condition of its
national position and usefulness.

Nobody will question the sincerity of the zeal whici.
Mr. Forster professes for the promotion of popular educa•
tion. The member for Bradford was a worker in the
cause long before the Reform Act passed. His anxietyfor
a grand, comprehensive, and compulsory Education Act is
not due, as it is with so many of his political allies, to the
calculation that popular education is a good cry with
which to seek the favour of working-class constituencies.
Still the Standard cannot believe that a single.minded zeal
for the extension of education alone actuated the honour-
able gentleman in the very unusual and mistaken course
he adopted last night. His question might have been put
without the preface of a speech raising nearly all the
points in controversy, and ought to have been put in that
*simple and customary manner. That it was not so put
may fairly be ascribed to the fact that much as Mr.
Forster cares for the education of the people, he cares
more for the fame and profit if the ex-Under Secretary of
the Colonies. The Chancellor of the Exchequer declined
to follow Mr. Forster into the desultory discussion he had
invited. The Government were quite ready, the right
honourable gentleman declared, to state their views, if in-
vited to do so by any motion which would allow their
expression, with the fullness and freeness which the im-
portance of the question demanded ; but they would not
enter into it upon an occasion when other subjects
might be imported into the discussion, and they were the
less disposed to explain their intentions then, as it was
their purpose to introduce a bill affecting the education of
the people.

There are two classss of political subjects, says the
Saturday Review, which call for the attention of England
at present. There are great subjects, such as Ireland and
everything that relates to Ireland ; and there are subjects
of less immediate urgency, such as church rates, university
tests, education, and so forth. It so happens that with
regard to the first of these classes, what we want at presen•
is not action, but discussion. We want to know more
about Ireland, to see what Irishmen really want, and what
it will be good for them to have, to estimate the degree in
which great changes would affect different sections o
Irishmen, and what the reflex. action of these changes
would be on England. For thii kind of preliminary dis•
cussion the presence in office of a Conservative Ministry is
very convenient. If the Liberal leaders were in power
they would be expected to give effect to their views before
they could at all tell how far the country Would
support
them, or what changes would be practically beneficial.
As it is, they may, if they are wise, gain time, experience.
and many most useful hints. Discussions on Irish affairs
will be forced on the House by independent members, and

especially by the Inferior sort of Irish Liberals. The
'traders of that party ought to make good use of these dis-
cussions, sheaving a readiness to take the part of leaders
when the right time comes, attempting in a quiet and
iloffensive way to form the opinion of the country, in.
stilling the belief that they are capable of framing large
remedial measures if such measures are really needed, and,
above all things, avoiding all appearance of wishing to
embarrass or bully the Ministry. That Irish affairs
should not be discussed during the present session is
Impossible, and the Liberal leaders would be quite
false to their duties, and inferior to their position, if
they did not indicate the line of policy with regard to
Ireland which, in their opinion, ought to be pursued; but
they should use this year as a year of quiet preparation
for dealing with Ireland, and carefully avoid making
Ireland the source of party animosities, or.the subject of
Party triumphs. To do thig requires undoubtedly 'fore-
Bight) 19444i9n, and good temper ; bat, it fey wish to

be thought statesmen they must display the elementary
qualities of statesmanship. Then, again, the minor class
of political subjects, which do not require discussion so
much as action, may perhaps be dealt within an easy and
effectual manner this session. No one can say that this
will be so, but it is obvious that the present Parliament
and the Conservative party are strongly interested in
making such a settlement of the questions at issue as shall
be generally cepted as fair and reasonable, and shall re-
move them from the discussion of a new Parliament. It
may be possible to come to a reasonable compromise now
which next year would be out of the question. It is true
that on every one of these questions the Conservatives
will have to give way, and to give way largely. Those
who wish to uphold the Church precisely in its present

position cannot accept cordially a series of measures the
object of every one of which is to alter more or less the
position of the Church. Bid then they will have before
them the choice of two evils, and the evil of giving what
is asked for now may seem less than the evil of having
forced on them what will he asked for hereafter. Of all

imprudences of which the friends of the Constitution and
the Church could be guilty, scarcely any could rival that
of leaving a variety of queAlons touching the Church to be
the battlefield of perpetual conflicts between a 11cformed

House of Commons and the House of Lords.
It seems to be generally admitted that Lord Derby is
holding office only as a pit oiler. He is in really weak
health, wants quiet above everything, is quite unequal to
playing the part of a Prime Minister, which is always
very laborious, even though he sits in the Lords, and the
only reason that he cannot be allowed to resign is that
there is a delicate embarrassment as to who is to succeed
him. But where, asks the Spectator, does this delicate
embarrassment arise, and whose fault is it ? Everyone
knows, indeed no one for a moment attempts to dispute,
that whoever may be First Lord of the Treasury, Mr.
Disraeli must be both leader of the House of Commons
and virtually also the controlling mind of the Government.
Why cannot the latent fact be the obvious fact? What
reason can there be why the man who rules should not be
the ruler ? It is absolutely certain that the Tories have
trusted him so far as this, that against the wishes, and in
the face of the positive declarations of the great majority
of the party, they have, under his direction, abdicated
their old position, and taken up quite a new one with refe-
rence to the greatest constitutional question of the day,
and that they now loudly proclaim the wisdom of the leader
who has so " educated " them as thus to revolutionise their
faith. It is a grave and conspicuous fact, moreover, that
Mr. Disraeli in accom2lishing this feat threw to the winds
the most positive declarations of the most trusted of his
colleagues— ignored Lord Stanley's emphatic declaration
that whatever her Majesty's Government passed it should
never be a " democratic " measure ignored Mr. Gathorne
Hardy's positive 4nd indignant refusal to give up the
dual vote ; ignored Sir Stafford Northcote's emphatic
assertion that the new household suffrage was to be only
a special suffrage under very peculiar limitations, and
by no means a mere general extension of the old
ten-pound suffrage to the lowest rating limit ; ignored the
earnest defence put forth by Sir John Pakington for the
two years' residence clause, and carried his own view calmly
over the heads of puzzled and confounded colleagues. If
the Tory party have trusted him when he thus passed
lightly by the most emphatic declarations of his colleagues
on the greatest and most permanent of all constitutional
questions, can it be doubted that they have trusted him
infinitely more than they have trusted all his colleagues
put together ? If they have trusted him for a work of
revolution, will they not trust him for the duty of ordi-
nary government ? Will they act like the man who left
thousands of pounds in the hands of a trusted agent, and
then looked at him suspiciously when he borrowed a five-
pound note ? Deeds, not words, indicate real trust ; and
if ever deeds chewed real trust in a Minister, the Tory
deeds have shewn rea' trust in Mr. Disraeli. We do not
ourselves share that trust. We have snore confidence in
almost any other man in the House of Commons, though
we admit that he has scarcely his match there in mere
ability. But we must say we feel a little wonder and a
good deal of shame when we see a great party trying to
hide the fact of their own confidence from themselves, and
preferring almost any conceivable "figure-head" Ministry
which would leave Mr. Disraeli master without seeming
o make him so, to a frank confession of the reliance they
have placed in him, and will continue to place, so long as
he leads them on to victory. We do not admire their
faith, but when their actions shew it so conspicuously, we
think it very wretched taste to try and disguise it from
themselves. Mr. Disraeli has all the real glory and
responsibility of their recent victory. What can be more
shabby than to put younger and feebler colleagues over
him, only in order to avoid the appearance of saying
openly to the world that to Mr. Disraeli, above all others,
they have committed, and wish to commit, the honour of
England ?
The John Bull gives us its opinion of the two candidates for
the representation of Cambridge Univerity. Mr. Cleasby,
it says, is eminently respectable, even to the extreme limit
of dullness ; he has passed an uneventful life, in which
juvenile promise has been fulfilled in spiritless and very
moderate success. Early in maturing, the fruit has
never become thoroughly ripe and juicy ; and verging on
his grand climacteric, one of the present candidates has
attained a name occasionally heard of in the dullest
circles of chamber pi actice, and now and then appealed
to in uninteresting arbitrations. This is hardly the
career of a leader of thought ; scarcely the eminence from
which a man can claim to represent a seat of learning
which looks back upon six or seven centuries of honour
and tame. The advantage which Mr. Cieasby has over
Mr. Hope in the present contest we cheerfully concede to
him. He has passed through forty years of what might
have been public life ; but beyond the amiable circle of
his private friends, no single voter knew till the end of
1 last week his opinions on any subject of human, still
less of academical, interest. He might have been a dis-
ciple of Comte, or Joe Smith, an adherent of Cardinal
Manning or Dr. Cumming, a follower of Mr. Bright or
an admirer of Mr. Whalley. He may, for aught we know,
or the university knows, be one of those things even now.
When a man has passed his sixtieth year, we have quite
(slough ground to decide upon his claims to represent the
university; but all we know, or ever heard about Mr.
Cleasby, is contained within the four corners of an elec-
tioneering address. It is rather an unpromising omen for
a public matt to have to begin life when most people are
thinking of quitting it, and to have to describe himself
as just beginning to proclaim his willingness to lead
the world when, if he ever had any inclination for his
task, he would long since have set his mark upon society.
Mr. Beresford Hope, on the other hand, has the sad
misfortune to be about as well known, and has as familiar
a name, as any man in England. For good or for evil
he is one of the men of our time. His private and
most rancorous enemies can write out an accurate chro-
nology of his life. They can say that he has always
been at the head of something or other ; counselling here,
directing there, speaking, and debating, and writing
on this and that subject ; encouraging one or other art
or science ; employed in some service, public or private ;
concerned in the religion, the improvement, the eduaktion,
the politics, the social questions of the day ; ranging over
the subjects which belong to the past and present of either
hemispheres ; concerned with many schools of thought, and
involved in many controversies, many disputes, many
problems. His eager activity of mind, his munificence,
his many-sidedness, present copious annals of his life. He
is vulnerable because he is a public man; he is commen-
dable or reprehensible because he has not dozed away the
difficult task of life in that luxury and ease to which he
was born.

Mr. M. W. Thompson, M.P. for Bradford, has
presented to the inhabitants of Guiseley a Town Hall,
built at a cost of upwards of £3,000.

PRINCE LEOFOLD.— Prince Leopold has continued
during the week to make rapid progress to convalescence.
The tendency to accidental hemorrhage, from which the
prince has now suffered severely on more than one occa-
sion, is one of those anomalous conditions which sometimes
unaccountably affect persons otherwise perfectly sound
in constitution, as it is the good fortune of all our royal
princes to be. But this condition will undoubtedly, and
throughout life, require Prince Leopold to abstain from
violent exertion of any kind, or from indulging inthe more
active departments of professional activity selected by the
Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Arthur.—British Medical
Journal.

AN IRISH IDEA OF DESPOTISM."—The Coma
Chronicle mentions that a few dayi since, in the midst of
Fenians alarms, and while the Government were in posses-
sion of such information as necessitated the adoption of
precautionary measures in several districts of Tipperary,
an application was made by the military authorities to the
local Poor Law Board for accommodation in the Thurles
Workhouse for troops, there being no other place in the
town available. An extraordinary meeting of the board,
according to the journal named, was held, and it proceeds:
" As we learn,. the rural guardians mustered strongly upon
the occasion, and actually outvoted the members who were
anxious to meet tl.e wishes of the Government," as the
guardians of the Tipperary Union had before done, in
giving up a wing of their workhouse for the troops. "As
might naturally be expected, their decision created much
indignation outside, and we are lea to suppose that an in-
fluential portion of the inhabitants took immediate action
upon the matter, and called upon the authorities to enforce
a demand made in the interests of the safety of the public.
Be this as it may, the Government lost no time in issuing
a military commission to take such steps as might be
deemed necessary for the temporary accommodation of a
sufficient number of troops" in the workhouse. A local
paper of another form of politica describes this as a
•` shameless and unscrupulous act of despotism, which
no Goverment in Europe, save the British, would per-
-04001".