The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE .T-OITRN-AL-.

The Times declares that it is impossible that any Minis-
ter could have been accredited to us whom we should re-
ceive with more confidence as the honoured spokesman of
a great nation than Mr. Reverdy Johnson. The unani-
mous ratification by the Senate of his nomination by the
President as envoy to Great Britain is, under the special
circumstances of the case, an unexampled testimonial.
When Mr. Adams intimated his desire to retire from
his post as the representative of the United
States at our Court, the question at once arose who
could possibly be his successor. One of the conse-
quences of the struggle between the President and
the Congress was that the President could scarcely make
a selection for any office which the Senate were ready to
approve. Yet Mr. Reverdy Johnson, a consistent Demo-
crat, the representative in the Upper Chamber of the
border State of Maryland, the senator who distinguished
himself by his vigorous maintenance of the judicial
character of the impeachment trial during the whole of
its course, the judge who rebuked General Butler and
compelled that unscrupulous partisan to apologise and
withdraw his most injurious expressions as a manager of
the impeachment, has been unanimously approved by the
Senate as the Minister for the United States to the United
Kingdom. Mr. Reverdy Johnson comes to us as one of
whom all men speak well, and whose career has been not
unfitly crowned by this signal mark of confidence paid
him by his brother senators. Such a distinction does not,
indeed, even in America, argue young years, and'we may
be permitted to regret, for the sake of the new Minister as
well as for ourselves, that the honour conferred on him
comes late ; but Englishmen respect old age, and will not
reproach Mr. Reverdy Johnson with the length of his
services. This consideration apart, it would not be easy
to find a worthier successor to Mr. Adams. It is as a
lawyer that Mr. Johnson's reputation was established,
and as a lawyer he has always remained distin-
guished. Mr. Reverdy Johnson has been throughout
his life a worthy specimen of the class of jurists for which
the United States were at one time celebrated, and the
extinction of which, prematurely lamented some time
since, has been proved to be not yet realised by the argu-
ments addressed to the Senate in the recent trial. The
appointment of Mr. Reverdy Johnson as Minister at our
Court is in itself so satisfactory that it need not be con-
trasted with what might have been. It is, however,
impossible wholly to forget that, if the impeachment had
been successful and Mr. Wade had succeeded to the office
of President, we might have been called upon to
receive a Minister of a very different character.
We have much confidence, indeed, that, at the
worst, the United States Senate would refuse to
approve the nomination of a person unfit to up-
hold the dignity of the Union, or to conduct with ad-
vantage the negotiations intrusted to him. But, without
dwelling upon any violent supposition, it is evident that
serious embarrassments might have been provoked by an
unhappy selection. Mr. Reverdy Johnson, be his term
short or long, comes to us with the honours of a noble pro-
fession, and the assurance that in a time of unparalleled
animosity he has won the approbation of both the contend-
ing parties of the Union. His practised intellect will be
found trained to discuss the questions now pending or
which may arise between the United States and ourselves
with judicial precision and impartility; and we do but
express the concurrent testimony of all observers in adding
that to dignity of character and breadth of learning are
allied a peculiar charm of manner.

The Post calls attention to the principles laid down by
the Internat'onal League of Peace and Liberty. In
the first place, it is declared that religion must be abso-
lady excluded from politics and public education, in
order to prevent the future interference of the Church
with the free development of society. Secondly,
all European States must be united in one gigantic
confederation, by means of an organisation based
on democratic institutions, with equal rights, both
fee individuals and communities. Thirdly, a com-
rlete alteration must be effected in the present social
system by an equal division of wealth, labour, prosperity,
and education, with a view to the abolition of proleta-
rianism and the emancipation of the working classes. Now
we all remercber the result of the last conference of the
League at Geneva. This year their meeting is to be held
at Berne. Nothing, it must be admitted, can in the
abstract be more harmless than the topics to be submitted
for discussion, and if they should prove equally
profitless, that is a matter which exclusively concerns
those who take part in them. But when the questions to
be submitte3 to the congress are viewed by the light thrown
on them by the three fundamental principles which are to
govern any discussion to which these questions may give
rise, and when the events which marked the meeting of
the International Peace League last year are called to
mind, it becomes a matter for serious consideration
whether the Swiss Federal Council would be justified in
permitting the proposed congress to be held. The Swiss are
no doubt to be praised for the desire which they manifest
to afford in their republic every opportunity to all
corners for the free and unrestricted discussion of all poli-
tical subjects, but still, when a frank intimation is given
that such discussion will proceed on a basis subversive
of all existing rights, as well as of that sacred bond which
holds in communion men scattered over the broad
expanse of the globe, it is surely worth while to in-
quire whether any interest can be served by furnish-
lug the means of promulgating sentiments which all
sane men Must hold in aversion. If there are persons who
really believe that it would be for the advantage of man-
kind that revealed religion should share the fate of the
heathen mythology, and that it is possible to found a
United States of Europe, let them, if they please, pro-
mulgate these opinions through the public press. This
latitude will 15e allowed to them in many parts of Europe
besides Switzerland, and with this they should rest
content.

Confiscation, says the Daily News, appears to be once
more the order of the day. The violence of the highway-
man levying his contributions by the pistol has long
yielded to the gentlemanly swindler, who in the capacity
of a banker or financial agent contrives to rob the public
of twenty times more than his prototype. He has also
the belief that if detection ensue he may receive the sup-
port and assistance of the most persistent advocates of
commercial morality. Modern Governments are not slow to
take note of this apparently strange alteration in public feel-
ing. The inference is inevitably drawn, that if a railway does
not pay debts sanctioned by Parliament, foreign Govern-
ments can hardly err in following so tempting an example.
To get the money at any cost, and leave the ultimate
reckoning for others, is too often their aim. A worse or
less politic course could scarcely be adopted. Two
leading- States of Europe—Austria and Italy—have
now decided to pursue it, unhappily for them.
Whatever the immediate gain, faith in the honour
of these Governments is seriously shaken. If a
Government security of 5 per cent. can be suddenly
reduced by legislative action to 4 and 2-10ths,.why may it not
be lowered on a similar plea to 3 per cent.—perhaps
pilstponed indefinitely ? The promise that the measure
shall be final is about as trustworthy as the pledges of the
Emperor Napoleon, who with peace on his own and his
Ministers' lips raises a loan of some sixteen millions
to increase his military force nearly a third, and
hurriedly arms all his soldiers with Chas•epot rifles.
Austria and Italy are both making rapid progress, not
towards the material prosperity to which their immense
though undeveloped resources entitle them, but towards
national bankruptcy. Those who have hail experience of
their straits and the measures to which they have been
driven to pay the dividends on their funded and unfunded
debts, can easily attest this assertion. It has not been of
late a question of 10 or 12 per cent. to obtain temporary
loans, but of getting them at any price, by means of
larger commissions, so as to save national credit. If a
nation is suicidal enough to sanction a large annual deficit
for excessive expenditure, either on military rivalry or
unproductive work at home, the end is very clear. It is a
mere question of time.

The Herald smartly criticises Mr. Vernon Ilarcourt's
speeches at Oxford. The would-be member for the univer-
sity city gives speeches which, it says, are Bright-and,
water, with a large preponderance of the latter.
instance, he contends that Establishments are a hindrance
rather than au assistance to Protestantism, and the
grandest achievements of the latter have been accom-
plished without their aid. " Was it an Establishment,"
he asks, " which supported Luther at the Diet of Worms ?
Was it an Establishment which gave strength to the
Huguenots at the massacre of St. Bartholomew ? Vas it
an Establishment that conquered the Spanish Armada,"
Certainly not ; the Herald cheerfully concedes the point.
It goes further still, and registers its frank admission that
Establishments are equally guiltless of such cognate
achievements as the Thames Tunnel, and the Duke of
York's column, and the invention of the needle.gun and
the sewing machine, and Crosse and Blackwell's pickles.
Mr. Toots, says the Telegraph, had a very happy, harm-
less way of keeping up his own sense of his own import-
ance : he was constantly engaged in writing short notes
from illustrious personages to himself, so that his desk
might generally found covered with scraps commencing
" The Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to
Mr. Toots," or other scraps beginning " Dl3 dear T00t,,,',
and signed "Yours truly, Devonshire." We coninueld this
practice to Mr. Denis Rearden, the irrepressible frislmmu
of Piccadilly. It would be a great improvene!nt
on his present practice of putting foolish questions in the
House, and of pestering statesmen with long letters refer-
ring to a matter so very small as Mr. Rearden's political
character. This very queer member for Athlone was
referred to in East Worcestershire as a " follower of Mr.
Gladstone's." The leader of the Liberal party at once
repudiated the alliance ; and Mr. Rearden takes
pains to confirm the repudiation by writing to
Mr. Gladstone two long letters, full of in lilt
and insinuations. He indicates pretty plainly that if
there are Liberals who follow the right honourable gentle-
man, Mr. Denis Rearden is not amongst them, and that a
future Gladstone Administration cannot count on his con-
fidence and support. This a serious blow to the Liberal
party, which must. bear up as best it may. It is only
another proof of the diabolical ingenuity with which Mr.
Disraeli has woven his web, that while on the one hand he
has alienated from Liberalism the furious Protestant
Record, he has also seduced the fiery Papist of Piccadilly
from his straggling position as a kind of camp follower or
Bottler in the Liberal ranks.