The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-06 00:00:00

mu OP TRE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

In referring to the letters of two Eastern correspon-
dents in its columns, the Times says that they afford us
no new information when they tell us that no justice what-
ever can be obtained at the hands of the Turkish or
Egyptian Government. Those Eastern communities
aro not the only ones in which either the law is defective
or it is imperfectly administered. That simple fact,
however, constitutes no special ground of complaint
for a foreign resident. It is only in the case in
which that justice is denied to him to which a native
is entitled that the interference of his own Government
in his behalf can be justified. According to all principles
of general international law, an Englishman in Turkey or
Egypt would have no more right to find fault with
Turkish or Egyptian justice than a Turk or an Egyptian
in England would have to quarrel with English justice.
It is what the country affords ; you may take it or leave
it. The Times remarks that the decisions of the
English and French consular courts may be good,
but not of all the twelve other consular courts.
We have come to an end of exceptional jurisdiction
throughout the world. Consular courts are as much out
of date as ecclesiastical tribunals, and it is some time since
the latter, in Italy or even in Spain, have been made to
renounce the privilege they once possessed of smuggling
away a priest guilty of the most heinous offences, and of
withdrawing him from the authority of the ordinary magis-
trates. Whatever our correspondents may say will not
shake the conviction prevalent among the British public,
that the consular courts in the East have been and are
hotbeds of flagrant abuses, that they have given rise to a
chaos of laws and forms of procedure which renders the
administration of justice, even among the subjects of the
various European States, an extremely complicated and
cumbrous transaction.

The Post draws attention to a memorandum of Lord
Elcho's upon the simplification of drill in the army. With
the exception of a few trivial modifications and alterations,
such as those pointed out by Lord Eleho, nothing has
been done of late to make the drill-book of the British
army represent the spirit and tendency of th 3 most
advanced military opinions of the age ; and that book is
still modelled upon the old complicated and involved style
of evolutions which have obtained, for so very many
years. And, as usual, it has been chiefly left to amateurs
and the press to urge the adoption of improvements almost
self-evident. The Post complains of circumlocution,
excess of red tape, and clerkdom in the departments, and
looks to a future Parliament to remedy this and other
matters.

The Herald thinks the report of the Irish Church Com-
mission will give that opportunity for reforming the Irish
Church which the present Ministry have always been
willing to embrace. Whether all the changes which the
commission recommend are wise or prudent can only be
decided by careful inquiry and discussion, but, at any
rate, the measures which they suggest demand considera-
tion. The Liberal party, which appointed the commis-
sion, has done its best to render their labours valueless,
but the public will be disposed to ask whether the
Irish Church is not capable of being so improved
as to do away with any pretence for destroy-
ing it. Sir J. B. Kerslake, in addressing the
electors of Exeter, has admitted,! in common with all
his colleagues, that there are defects in the Irish Church,
and in the application of its revenues, " which require to
he dealt with by legislation." This is the standpoint of
the party ; but the classes which are eager to destroy the
Episcopal Church altogether will not hear of reforms.
They do not want to render the Irish Church more useful
than it is now, but to annihilate it, in the hope that the
English Church will fall afterwards.
The Daily News has a leader on the attitude of the
clergy, and gives them advice. The theory of Church
Establishments is not now in question, except so far as
some of the clergy seem bent upon showing that the ten-
dency is not so much to consecrate authority by religion
as to make religion the handmaid of faction, and to
convert those who should be its teachers into
eager political paAisans and electioneering agents.
Let these clergymen reflect that in so far a::
they succeed in connecting the Church with a
particular party and policy, they associate its future
with the fate of that party and policy. The Church
of England has survived the uprise and the growth of
Nonconformity. It has even been purified and
strengthened by the healthful rivalry of the Free
Churches ; and its numerical losses have thus in one
respect been its moral gain. But it will not survive an
alliance, offensive and defensive, with Toryism, and a
partnership with the professional politicians of the day.
The evil spirit of privilege and ascendancy, hunted out of
its retreat in rotten boroughs, must not be suffered to
find a refuge in the sanctuary. Happily, there are
clergymen in the Church of England, and many of them,
who understand that the only politics which have any
proper place in the pulpit are those which enforce the
highest morality of nations, who feel that justice is the
first duty of a Christian State, and that the best service
that can be rendered to Protestantism in Ireland is to
withdraw it from a position which is in conflict with the
elementary principles of social and neighbourly duty.

The Standard calls the Dissenters to account for filch
conduct in the struggle upon the Irish Church, and con-
gratulates the Bishop of Carlisle that he prefers his Church
to his party. As the influence of the State Church wanes,
the power of the Papacy will be advanced. There is no
question, as Dr. Waldegrave says, that the only power
which can gain by disestabli iliment is the Church of
Rome, because the Establishment is the one effectual
barrier against Roman aggression, and its destruc-
tion can but weaken the other non-established forces
arrayed with it for the same end. We cannot under-
stand how it is that certain of the dissenting communities
have become so strangely insensible to this obvious truth.
If the English Church were arrogant or intolerant
towards them, such a falling away would be intelligible
enough ; but considering the ample liberties they enjoy,
and the concessions which, year by year, are granted .t
their solicitation, this policy of " judicious neutrality," of
which we hear so much, seems as ungrateful, selfish, and
cowardly as it is ill-judged. They will have only them-
selves to thank for the consequences which will infallibly
recoil upon their own communities if, either actively or
passively, they join in the conspiracy set on foot by the
grinding despotism of Rome to destroy the most tolerant
Church on the face of the earth.
The election struggle is at last beginning in good earnest,
and the Star notices this with satisfaction. Addresses,

signed by familiar names, are appealing to the memory of
past and faithful services ; new men, full of vigorous pro-
mise, and, apparently at least, of genuine political prin-
ciple, are coming to the front. Men like Mr. Thomas
Hughes and Mr. Stansfeld have only to point to
the part they took in the past as an earnest
of what may be looked for at their hands in the
future. One reads with pleasure and hope such addresses,
among the new men, as that of Mr. Ernest Noel, for
instance, who promises to add fresh worth and distinction
to a worthy and distinguished name. We have not
often read anything more vigorous and straightfor-
ward in its Liberalism than the address of Sir Henry
Bulwer Lytton, whom in one sense we may regard
as a parliamentary veteran, in another as a parlia-
mentary novice, and who seems to offer to the
Tamworth constituency all the fresh energy of the
latter and all the skilled resolve of the former. But
the great event in the English electoral campaign so far it,
that the chief of the party has formally taken the field.
Mr. Gladstone has actually addressed a portion of his
Lancashire constituents, and announced himself as a can.
didate for that division of the county in which he spoke
yesterday. " The King himself is rode to view their
battle." Mr. Gladstone is in the field—the struggle has
fairly opened.
The Telegraph never heard that the advocates of the
triangular constituencies intended their plan as an indirect
lesson in arithmetic, algebra, electoral discipline, and
severe party drill. If to their mind these were
"unshunned consequences" of the scheme, verily they
have their reward. The humour of the thing is, that the
original patentees of this three-cornered plan upheld it
as especially favourable to the individual independence
of the electors. But it will act exactly the other
way. The result of the election in those triple
constituencies will entirely depend on elaborate calcula-
tions, first-rate management, splendid discipline, and
exact obedience to the word of command. A man who
will think for himself will be treated with fierce contempt
as the fellow who tends to spoil a splendid plan of cam-
paign. "Go it blind" will be the watchword fro:u each
camp ; "Vote the exact ticket' will be the shibboleth of
salvation.

The Queen has forwarded a dr cation of £lOO
to the Metropolitan Prinking Fountain and Cattle
Trough Association.

At the Wesleyan Conference now holding its
sessions in Liverpool, an address to the Queen was read
by the Rev. Dr. Jolson on Tuesday, and was adopted by
a rising vote, all the members of the Conference standing.
Immediately after its adoption, the first verse of the
national anthem was sung at the request of the president.

A FAT 4L CLIMB.—A party of young men, three
in number, recently took a boat from Bridlington Quay to
Flamborough Head, and one of them attempted to climb
the high and precipitous rocks which skirt the sea. After
ascending some distance he became unnerved and was
anable either to ascend further or descend. He called for
his companions to come to his assistance, but scarcely bad
ho done so than he lost his hold and fell upon his head
from a height of about MO feet. He received such
injuries as caused his death in about fourteeu hours, am'
was never conscious after his fall. -