The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-23 00:00:00

EPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times says the visit of the American Minister to
Liverpool has not only given occasion for a display of
mutual courtesies between the leading people of our chief
seaport and the representative of a great commercial
nation, but it has allowed Mr. Reverdy Johnson to give
assurances on important public matters which will be
received with general satisfaction. It is quite natural
and fitting that the town of Liverpool should be forward
in welcoming an American Minister. Liverpool is more
connected with America than any other town in these
islands ; one may say, indeed, that if there had been
no United States there never would have been a Liver-
pool. In this great emporium are centred the chief deal-
ings between the two continents. Those miles of docks
are filled with vessels in the American trade; American
captains and dealers are to be met with at every turn ;
huge bales of American cotton are piled on the quays
before they are sent forth to feed the countless factories
of Lancashire. The chief differences between the mercan-
tile communities of Liverpool and other English ports
arise from the close connection of that town with the
business of the Republic on whose prosperity its own
prosperity mainly rests. We may, therefore, ascribe more
than usual importance to the addresses which were pre-
sented to Mr. ReverdyJohnson. He stated that two of the
subjects in dispute were substantially settled, and that
the third will soon be settled. Mr. Johnson is understood
to refer to the dispute about the island of San Juan and that
concerning' naturalised Americans as the matters on which
the two Governments have arrived at a substantial agree-
ment. The third subject is the claim for damages done by the
Alabama. In conclusion, the Times congratulates Mr.
Johnson's hosts on the cordiality of expression they have
elicited. Complimentary words between the two countries
are, indeed, not new ; they form the invariable accompani-
ment to any meeting of their citizens ; and we must do
American representatives the justice to say that they have
never been wanting in courtesy. But there are in the
speeches of Mr. Johnson an unreserve and earnestness
which bid us believe he really wishes to distinguish his
mission by practical peacemaking between the two coun-
tries. Such an object is well worthy a statesman's ambi-
tion, and the achievement may be a fitting crown to an
honourable life.

The Post finds the prologue to the play rather wearisome,
and the speakers over many. And after? What shall we
get by way of a House of Commons, and when we have
got it what shall we do with it? It looks very much as if
we should get a House not very different in essential cha-
racteristics from that which, practically, is without
functions, and will soon have no existence. These will be
more capitalists, more new men of middle age placing their
foot in the House of Commons, on the ground of their
direct connection with great industries, and who, singularly
enough, will probably owe their return in great measure
to 'the support of the working men with whom they
'have been supposed to be in antagonism. As regards the
political aspect of the coming House, it cannot now be
doubted that the forces of the Opposition will be con-
siderably increased, and Mr. Gladstone may reasonably
hope to find himself on the first great division with a
majority at his back. What he will do with it is another
question. What his future position will be will depend
upon the manner in which be manages his majority, and
the mode in which he proceeds to carry out his principles
and put his policy in action. The Post then concludes by
asking what Conservatism means in 1868, and what its
professors propose to conserve.

The lleraN notices that the more clearly Mr. Gladstone's
"campaign" speeches are seen to be failures the louder
the Radical claqueurs become in their applause. That is
an old manoeuvre—when everything is going wrong to try
to look pleased. But if intelligent Liberals are obliged to
admit that they can no longer read Mr. Gladstone's
amazing outpourings of emptiness and misrepresentation,
the violence of his more unscrupulous devotees will
scarcely save him from collapse. Apart altogether from
Mr. Gladstone's inexcusable perversions of fact, which
no writer of the day is able to explain or defend, his
speeches are seen by everyone to be the poorest, vainest,
and most frivolous ever addressed to the public by
an eminent man. Mr. Gladstone's melancholy struggles
to be funny always awaken the deepest sympathy with
him ; he has not the faintest perception of a joke ; but of
late his uncouth gambols, his unwieldy and elephantine
jests, his paltriness of thought and language, his desperate
humility, his eternal repetitions, his puerile exhibitions of
personal spite—all these characteristics of his style must
have tended to reveal to the public on what a slender
foundation he has contrived to build a great fame. Is
there a single thought or a single expression in one of Mr.
Gladstone's ponderous and lifeless speeches which any man in
this kingdom of sound mind and understanding could call
original, striking, or happy? The Herald calls attention
to what Lord Macaulay said of Mr. Gladstone's distorted
vision and ambiguous language, and thinks the latter has
now degenerated into mere froth.

The Daily News has a leader upon the lecture lately
given by Mr. Goldwin Smith, in St. George's Hall,
London. It may be not uninteresting, perhaps, at this
critical moment in our domestic history, to take note of
the passages in this lecture on " Chatham," which roused
to applause an audienee of by no means an excitable dis-
position, who had evidently come to listen and to learn, and
not to make any show of their own sympathies or opinions.
When Mr. Goldwin Smith contrasted the cold, worldly,
sneering, vicious scepticism of Chatham's age with the
earnest and fundamentally religious scepticism of the present
day, there was an audible murmur of intelligent assent.
Applause greeted the observation that "in framing a
Constitution, you cannot divide power." A similar testi-
mony of approbation greeted the remark that the power
of political rhetoric had had its day, and that we shall now
see political questions dealt with as questions of science;
and was renewed at the mention of the name of John
Bight as the fourth of the great orators in the parlia-
mentary history of England, and the comparison of his
speeches with those of Demosthenes as being emphati-

cally not declamation, but counsels. Perhaps a still
louder burst of applause was elicited by the lecturer's
refutation of the vulgar error, that Chatham made
commerce flourish through war. " Commerce never
does flourish through war," said the lecturer,
and the audience, among whom there were probably
more small traders than small-arm manufacturers or
military contractors, cheered the sentiment heartily. The
lecturer, it should be remarked, never for a moment
deviated from his subject to personal contemporary allu-
sions. It was no fault of his if the audience pointed at a
Piemier of the day the interpretation of a sentiment
which should be " of all time "—" The first duty of a
statesman is to preserve his own honour." No sentence in
the whole course of a lecture which waa listened to with
profound attention seemed to call forth so eager and earnest
a manifestation of approval as this. With due respect to
Mr. Disraeli, we must confess this manifestation appears
to us a healthy sign.
The Standard thinks there is uo more bigoted set of men
in the world than that coterie who claim for themselves
the monopoly of free thought and liberal opinion at Oxford.
Perhaps the most notorious and one of the ablest among
them is Mr.l Goldwin Smitb, and we venture to say that
there is not in England a politician more borne, more
absolutely wedded to a few fixed and extreme ideas, or a
writer more offensively dogmatic, more prejudiced,
and more narrow-minded. Because he, and such as

he, happen to prefer a republican to a monarchical
form of government, they have chosen to repre-
sent England as no less than criminal in her
resistance to the lawless aggressions of the French Revolu-
tion, to fix the name of patriot on the men who systemati-
cally advocated the cause of the first Napoleon, and deny
it to those who made their country the liberator of Europe.
No party is more insolent in its contempt of opponents,
more bigoted in its opinions, more fanatical in going all
lengths in their support, more arrogant in the assertion of
their own exclusive claim to wisdom, virtue, and enlighten-
ment, than that Oxford coterie whom the Times repre-
sents as the salt of the university—the men of wide
minds, of liberal spirits, of enlightened thought, the cham-
pions of impartial science, and the enemies of prejudice
and intolerance.

The Star holds that it is not easy to gather from a neces-
sarily imperfect newspaper report all the lessons which
Mr. Goldwin Smith drew from the career of Chatham,
a id the manner in which he applied them to the duties of
the English citizen and the English statesman in our
own time. But one plain lesson and one simple
application, which, if tho speaker did not directly
point out, he left consciously to be discovered by

the common sense of his hearers, cannot escape notice. It

is this ; Whatever qualities a statesman may lack, there
is one that he must have if he hopes to shape the policy of
a nation and to set his mark upon its history. He may
want eloquence, as did Cromwell ; or prudence, as did
Chatham ; or administrative capacity, as history will pro-
bably say of Earl Russell ; but he must not be deficient in
earnestness. That is the salt of political life. Without
that, no industry, no prudence, no prescience, no
eloquence, no administrative successes, will obtain
for a man the enduring fame of true statesmanship. It is
because he was earnest that we call Cobden a statesman,
though he never held office in the State ; it is because he is
intensely earnest that we foresee for Mr. Gladstone a
career of splendid statesmanship ; and because Mr. Gold-
win Smith himself infuses into everything he writes and
everything he says a spirit of earnest devotion, that we
most deeply regret the decision which, at an exigent time,
has severed him from an active political career in his owr
country.

On Wednesday, as five men were Lo7sting some bags
of rice by means of a chain C.:ng and crane in r.T'ADoley-street,
ito baps slipped aid fell upon them. killing cne . -to injuring
very seriously.

THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S VISIT TO

LIVERPOOL.

Mr. Johnson's replies to the numerous addresses which
were inflicted upon him on Thursday at Liverpool all
pointed to a speedy settlement of those questions which
have so long agitated England and America. To the
mayor and corporation he replied : "It would be a
departure from the reticence which belongs to diplomatic
intercourse to tell you at this time how far the
negotiations between your Government and mine have
gone ; but it is no departure to add that they have gone
so far as to assure me, and to assure your Government,
that there is nothing in the past, and that there can be
nothing in the present, which will disturb the peace which
now so happily prevails. Two of those subjects of differ-
ence are now substantially settled upon terms alike
honourable to each ; and the third—l leave it to you to
imagine what that is—will soon be settled upon terms
equally honourable to each ; and these severally removed,
there can be no peril in the future which will for a moment
interrupt the peace which is so essential to the happiness
and prosperity of both nations." In answer to the
Chamber of Commerce, too, be repeated that everything
tended to peace, and :spoke of the country he zepresented
and this as "rivals in peace." On the question of free
trade, however, he forebore to express an opinion.
The tone of his speech at the banquet, too, was " forget
old differences." " I had been advised," said he, " that I
should not be present upon an occasion like this, because
there would be at it certain gentlemen who byword ,by speech,
or by act, aided or encouraged my Southern brethren during
our late unhappy conflict. My answer was, that if it should
be so, so much the more gratifying would it be to me,
because it would afford an assurance to the people of my
country and to my Government, as well as to myself,
that former differences are forgotten, and that the heart
that beats in Liverpool is like the heart that beats through-
out the kingdom—a heart full of friendship for the people
of the United States." Adverting to the bonds between
the two countries which existed in the large trade, he
declared there was no possibility of a rupture. " Because
of the close connection between your land and my own, it

is impossible that anything but absolute insanity upon
the part of the members of either of the Governments
can involve us in any serious conflict. (Loud cheers.)
I make that remark, gentlemen, for the future, and not
for the present, for you will not be surprised when I tell ;
you that the furthest thing from my mind—and I
should be insane if I indulged in any such thought—
is that there is any insanity on the part of the minds
of the present Government, or on the part of
any Government which might in future time suc-
ceed them. (Loud laughter,) I have alluded to the
present Government, gentlemen, for the purpose of
saying—what I hope my noble friend next to me
on the left (Lord Stanley) will pardon me for saying—
that so long as he represents the foreign relations of his
country, and I or any other man feeling as I do shall
represent the foreign relations of my own Government in
this kingdom, the preservation of pea"e between the two
is placed beyond the possibility of a doubt. (Tremendous
cheers.) We have thrown aside—indeed, we never felt
it—we have thrown aside all mysteries of diplomatic inter-
course. We have been frank to say what each wanted, and we
shall be to the end frank and free to ask from the other what
is thought to be right, and to expect to receive from the
other what he may think to be wrong." What had been
done he left them to guess. In his " peroration" Mr.
Johnson lauded commerce and its effects. Commerce held
the world in its grasp, and it had led to the bridging of the,
Atlantic. That would bring the countries into closer com-
munion. In former days we were separated by an ocean
which it was perilous to pass ; now there is a bridge of
boats, upon which you may go in a few days from shore to
shore in perfect safety. That has been the result of the
joint enterprise, the joint wealth, of our two countries.
But more has been accomplished still. By means of the
same joint enterprise, of the same skill, you have enabled us
to grasp the hand of friendship beneath the sea, although
above its waves were running mountains high, threaten-
ing destruction to all within their reach. And we arc
indebted for this, the marvel of the age, to your wealth
and
.your enterprise; to the skill that your engineers
and your scientific men, amongst whom, as well as
I remember, worthy of special note, are Sir C. Bright and
Mr. Whitehouse, Professor Faraday and Mr. Morse,
aided by the never-failing energy, the never-despairing
confidence, of our countryman Mr. Cyrus Field. We
expect to remain under the Government which
we enjoy; you to remain under the Government
which. you enjoy. They differ but in form. Now,
Mr. President, the foundations of each are those princi-
ples essential to the preservation of human liberty, the
just rights guaranteed by Magna Charta, the personal
security afforded by writ of Habeas Corpus, and all pro-
tected by the right of trial by jury, and satisfy us that
throughout all time, if we are true to ourselves, our
respective Governments will last. They may for a
time be interrupted in their actual operation, there may
be some error in some portion of the structure of
each, but that we will correct ; we will be able to remove
the nuisance without defacing the shrine, and at the end
I speak it with all the confidence with which a man can
speak—at the end we will remain in unity. The unity of
my own government is now established, the unity of yours
has never been seriously threatened, and God grant it
never may. (Loud cheers.)
Lord STANLEY, in his speech, took up the subject of the
over-armed nations of Europe. He claimed that there
was one principle on which both political parties agreed to
act. " 1 think," said he, " that there are general rules of
conduct which are equally acceptable, equally endorsed,
by Goth the great political parties into which this
great country is divided, and which are therefore
quite certain to be carried out by the Foreign
Office of this country, whether the guidance of
that department be iu my hands, or whether it
passes into the hands of any follower or colleague of the
eminent statesman who, with us, is entertained as your
guest to-night. And it will be a happy day for England,
for Europe, and for the world, when those ideas and those
feelings, which in this country are not merely dominant
but universal, which pervade every class of society, from
the highest to the lowest—the desire for peace and absti-
nence from aggressive designs and the respect for interna-
tional rights—shall be universally diffused among the
populations of those great neighbouring nations on the
continent of Europe with whom we have so many ties.
Then we shall see, and not until then, an end put to that
which is at once the greatest drawback to material pro-
gress and the great blot and scandal upon the civilisation
of continental Europe—l mean the necessity, be it real or
imaginary, for those enormous military preparations which
in our day have attained proportions never, I believe,
approached before ; which are increasing our taxation,
depressing our industry, and drawing heavily upon the
resources of the future ; which introduce iu the time of peace
a social condition only one degree removed from war, and
which, if the system is to last for two or three generations,
can only end in one of two results, financial ruin or dishonest
repudiation. Well, gentlemen, if you ask me, having
said that, what is to be done to supply a greater degree of
mutual confidence between the various powers of the
world, I must say frankly that I am not ready with an
answer. The man who shall solve that problem will be
perhaps a greater benefactor to humanity than this
present generation has seen. Ido not profess to do it. All
I say is, that it is competent to point out the evil, and
to show where it lies, even if you cannot indicate the
remedy. I will say this, further, that though it is utterly
absurd to suppose that if any two great nations are deter-
mined on fighting one another, the amicable interposi-
tion of anybody else can hinder them doing it, yet in nine
out of every ten of the quarrels which arise, if they are
dealt with at the outset, a great deal may be done to atop
them by the frank and friendly interposition of
neutrals, who are perfectly well known and understood
to have no object except that of the general interest.
Speaking of the general idea that a general war was
inevitable, Lord Stanley exclaimed : I do say this,
having some means of knowing what I am speaking
about, tat I do not believe that in any cabinet
of Euro sp there is any statesmen who looks at
the prospect of a general war with any feelings except
those of aversion and apprehension. There may be
men who look upon such a result as inevitable, or at any
rate as probable ,• but, without being too sanguine, there is
every reason to hope that that which everybody depre-
cates and desires not to happen will not happen." On
America Lord Stanley said, very little. He declared that
it was a pleasure to do business with Mr. Johnson, and
repeated that two of the outstanding questions between this
country and America had been settled, and the solution
of the other was not, he hoped, far off. " I for one take
this for granted, that as civilised men on both sides of the
Atlantic it is our duty to be friends ; as kinsmen, it is the
wish of an enormous majority of us to be friends;
and, as a commercial country, carrying on already a
gigantic business, and wishing to make that business a
good deal bigger before we have done, it is very decidedly
our interest to be friendly. Now that is rather
a strong combination of motives, and where you have got
men with feelings and pecuniary interests all pulling the
same way, I think it will take a very strong disturbing
influence or adverse force to, overcome this inducement to
remain on good terms." In conclusion, he commented on
the honour of ,being able to settle these questions,. which,
he said, compensated him for the anxiety of the not always
enviable position of Foreign Secretary.
Mr. GLADSTONE, replying to the toast of "The House of
Uommons," after thauking them for allowing him the plea-
sure of being present, thus alluded to Lord Stanley's
speech :—"I have heard the speech of the noble
lord. We are separated, to my regret—l cannot
dissemble it—by differences upon pending questions
of domestic interest of the deepest importance ; but
to the speech which he has delivered—setting aside
only those sentences of the speech which refer
to his official knowledge, in which it would be presumption
on my part to pretend to intermix—l am ready to subscribe
to the whole of 'that speech with a cordial agreement."
Mr. Gladstone then referred to the wars which had
devastated the earth. In most cases—though not in all—
both parties had been in the wrong. But dynastic
ambition had been narrowed. New forms of government
(or, rather, modifications of old) had been introduced.
Truer notions of political economy prevailed, and now
our commerce led us to hope for peace. Lord Stanley, in
introducing his speech, spoke of the flood of matter which,
in consequence of the election, as now
some
lmitehNigvhii:ifiwioctueldd
on us, and hinted that there ini gvit be
wish that there was not so much talk. Mr. Gladstone,
" by way of returning good for evil," alluded to this, and
stated amidst much laughter that lie had read Lord
Stanley's address to his constituents, and had come to the
conclusion that no censure in that way could possibly be
applied to the noble lord. The address concluded by a
compliment to Messni. Adams and Johnson, the former
snd present envoys at this Court from America.
Mr. REvERDY JOHNSON, in proposing the toast of the
President's health, said : I was struck when at Sheffield
with the wisdom and good semis of the motto
which the Cutlers' Association had adopted—`To ensure
succcss, preserve your credit." That principle is as
important to nations as to individuals. What would
England have been if she had not strictly observed it?
What would the 'United States have been if they had not
strictly observed it? What would they now do if they
should disregard it? I forbear to look upon the dark
picture which would then be presented ; but I desire not
to look upon it ; nor, as I know, can I with propriety look
upon it, because I am satisfied that for you to disregard
your credit is impossible, and, as I believe, for us to dis-
regard it is equally impossible. There may be some doubt
about the matter of creditors, but policy requires justice,
requires honesty ;. requires, if there be such a doubt, that
doubt should be given to the benefit of the creditors,",