The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT; vii..4_ll L1970'

Mr. Disraerbeitillid,-witn Derne 7eason, sis Bard fate
in that, before he had been a meek in office, the vast, long-
standing Irish question was thrust on him, and was made
specially his, and he was Called on to settle it. What he
meant, says the Saturday Review, was, that thl Irish ques.
tion is, as he frankly expressed. it in a lat4rart of his
speech, an artificial question 'altogether, 'kot up by Mr.
Gladstone for his own advantage. That Mr. Gladstone is
uncommonly glad Of the Irish, or any other Ceestion., that
affords him a reasonable prospeet of annoying, defeating,
and possibly turning but his rival, may be sufficiently
gathered from Mr. Gladstone's own speech. But it is part
of the great mistake into which Mr. Disraeli has fallen,
on his entrance into a new phase of public life, that he
should believe that the Irish question is no question at all,
and that Mr. Gladstone. or any other adroit, revengeful,
and unscrupulous opponent, could have got it up. It is
very annoying, and, in a certain sense, hard on Ministers,
that all of a sudden the attention of England should be set
on Ireland ; but as it happens to be so set, it is very
poor policy to pretend to think lightly of an occasion
that every one outside the Ministry thinks very grave.
For four long nights the House of Commons has discussed
Ireland and everything Irish, and the general result is
that Parliament has decided that there is something wrong
in the state of Ireland which it lies within the duty and
power of the Imperial Legislature to remedy. A states-
man would have recognised the growth and the justice of
the feeling, and would have tried to direct, to modify, and
to utilise it. It is hard on Mr. Disraeli that, when other
Prime Ministers have sometimes gone on for years without
being found out, he should have been so unlucky as to
have his statesmanship tested at the very outset of his
tenure of office. Of the mode in which the Ministry have,
in fact, dealt with the great question brought before them
it is impossible to speak too strongly.

Mr. Gladstone's deliberate declaration that " the Irish
Church must cease to exist" was not only, the Imperial
_Review points out, a grave expression of personal opinion ;
it was something more even than a manifesto of a
body of politicians. It undoubtedly marks a turning
point in contemporary politics. It is certainly by a
singular destiny that Mr. Gladstone should he the leader
under whom the discordant sections of Ultramontanes and
Nonconformists, Radicals and Infidels, should unite to
attempt the destruction of the Irish Church. Mr.
Gladstone has been too constant and consistent, how-
ever, in tergiversation to render it possible to express
surprise, or natural to feel indignation, at his
last proof of apostasy from the faith of a lifetime.
He has now hazarded the fortunes of his party on a policy
of revolution. It is scarcely possible to doubt what the
result will be of the issue that he has raised. Whilst
the debate on Ireland "practically resolved itself
into declarations by the Liberal leaders of a policy of
ecclesiastical spoliation, it is remarkable that no attempt
was made to demonstrate the benefits that would
result from the destruction of the Church. Vague asser-
tions were abundant ; arguments were totally wanting.
Mr. Gladstone could only advance an opinion that
the question of the Church was " at the root of all other
questions, surrounding and pervading them, and con-
stituting, as it were, the very atmosphere within which
all these other questions have to be touched and handled."
But this eloquent and hazy rendering of the wild declama-
tion of the opponents of endowments has yet to be
justified. It has yet to be shewn what practical evils
the existence of the Church involves, and how far it is
responsible for the prevailing discontent. It has yet, too,
to be proved what practical benefits will be derived from its
abolition. The political evils that will follow on the spoil.
ation of the Church are apparent enough. The alienation
of the Protestant people is the almost inevitable result.
No slight ingenuity will be required to shew any advan-
tages that can be hoped for sufficient to outweigh even this
peril. On the higher ground of moral right and justice,
the supporters of the Church hold an unassailable position.
On the lower ground of political expediency, the argu-
ments against confiscation of the Church revenues have
not yet been met.

Mr. Disraeli is, remarks the John Bull, blamed for not
seeing that the time has arrived for a settlement of the
Irish question. No one is more desirous than the Govern-
ment that some steps should be taken that would pacify
Ireland, and they propose measures which, if modest, are
at least practical for that intent. But the Government
may well ask for answers to two questions. Why for so
many years, when the Liberal party was in power, was no
measure brought forward for the disestablishment of the
Irish Church ? and what security have we that if the Irish
Establishment is swept away to-morrow, the agitation
which is unconnected across St. George's Channel with
the Church will cease ?

The Spectator seems to regard a change of Ministry con-
sequent on Mr. Gladstone's resolution as certain. It does
not go quite so far, however, as to name the new Cabinet.
It would be easy, though it would he premature, to name
a Cabinet at least as anti-aristocratic as Mr. Disraeli's,
with its four dukes in esse or in posse, and one which would
leave the country nothing to regret in the change of
Ministry, except, perhaps, the removal of Lord Stanley
from the Foreign Office. That, no doubt, is to be re-
gretted ; first, because the country has a confidence in his
judgment which, whether well or ill founded, is of itself a
source of strength, enabling him, as it does, to act with
decision even against the prejudices of his own followers;
and because the Liberals happen to be without any
man marked out by common consent for the Foreign
Office ; but it must be remembered that for the day our
important foreign business is with America, that the
Cabinet must contain several men who understand our
relations with the Union as well even as Lord Stanley,
and that one office, even when well filled, does not make
a Ministry. The work to be done is not foreign work, and
in every other department, from the Chancellorship to
the Ministry of Education, the country will gain by the
vofe which, we trust, will at the same moment terminate
an injustice which has endured for three centuries, and
expel a Premier who in thirty years of parliamentary life
has carried but one measure of importance. Mr. Disraeli
has had his chance ; he has chosen to yield to men less
keen-witted than himself, and for the sake of the empire
as well as Ireland, the Liberals must resume the respon-
sibility of the Imperial policy, of which they have never
abdicated the control.

The London Review protests against the sensational
portion of the leading columns of our newspapers. Are
there any people, asks the reviewer, who enjoy their
breakfast better by becoming at the same time sentimental
over a murder ? If such there be, for them are murder.
leaders written. The murder-leader has no other excuse
for its appearance. The writer knows nothing more about
the murder—oftentimes he knows less—than the man who
has just read in another column the details of the crime.
He has nothing to say in accusation or defence which is
likely to throw any light on the affair ; and while the case
is not concluded, he has not even the chance of trying to
do that. Murder-leaders are the merest catchpenny
efforts in newspaper literature ; and are written in order
to make capital out of the temporary and morbid excite-
ment of the public. Now, as the writer of these cheerful
essays can tell us nothing new about the crime which has
been committed, he restricts himself to firinga volley of
moral warnings over the criminal's untimely end. He
never hints, for a moment, that society ought to be secretly
glad of the excuse to get permanently rid of a ruffian ;
for the sentiment of the day does not lie in that direction.
He carefully avoids, as far as is practicable, hurting the
feelings of the man about to be hanged. He points
out to the public and to the cianvicted person that,
after all, the latter was a ye/. wicked man to do
as he did, and that we really must stop this sort of
thing, painful as it must be to him and ourselves.
These articles our contemporary would really like to see
abolished. Whoever wishes to vary his boiled eggs, chops,
or red mullet with a good dose of murder can always turn
to the orcFnary reports, which are surely copious enough.
The emotions to be awakened by this pleasant occupation
are sufficiently obvious without the aduitional infliction of
a sentimental article, The ri.isthetic aspects of a brutal
murder are a study which we should prefer to see trans-
ferred to the Police .News, where alone it can be treated
sympathetically and fairly. It is degrading to newspaper
men to force them to become the purveyors of essence of
murder, even were the commodity more savoury than it
is. Murders arc so common nowadays that one's impres-
sion of their novelty has entirely disappeared ; and it is
•na,
surely aggravating the unpleasant consaquences of this
prevailing disposition to kill to insist upon our gloating
over every possible view of the crime just after we get
out of bed.

The Soturdail presents its readers with one of the very
class of leaders objected to the London Review. Our
contemporary deals with the argument that murder cannot
be eradicated by education There is, indeed, some troth
in the assertion. As a rule, owever, we may hope that
murderers even of the
persons
class will tend to
become rarer, as sanguine
moralists
entertain a similar
hope about that which some irilumdeclare to be an
organised system of public murder.
cannot be doubted
gh we have not
reached the period of universal peace, it
btenrds more
if
that, on the whole, wars tend to become
tl)ferent
diffi-
cult than heretofore. Everything which
nations together makes war a snore costly and o
ctin-
able amusement, and intellectual improvemeje
equally to bring them to a quicker conclusion and totepnrdos
vltle a greater variety of distractions fir reasonable--
Iy.2ings. This last circumstance must tell to some e.
tent in the case of war- between individuals. It 1;
very sehlom worth while fora man in a tolerably com-
f„rtol,l,2 position to dwell upon such uncomfortable feelings
palonsy or revenge. A man suffering from the ennui
of ignorance, without books or newspapers or any variety
of antus.2ment, had time to nurse his revenge, and was
prohahly in the constant presence of his enemy. In a
more complex and exciting state of society he has infinite
distractions, and finds it simpler to cut his adversary than
to ki'l him. If he is jilted by, a yoang lady, he can easily
lose sight of her, and find an hid finite mintier of conso-
la,Lioes in any pursuit fur which be has a fancy. A certain
school of moralists is apt to complain of the growing want
of energy and originality in modern days. The fact is,
that the condition of things which stimulates eccentricity
and is favourable to strong outbursts of passion is that in
which men are comparatively isolated, and left to brood
over their own feelings. If we are apt in the present day
to be rubbed down in the social mill, and lose some pie.
thresque figures in consequence, we have the advantage
that, along with some loss in originality, we also lose the
tendency to exaggerated vices and crimes of the more
brutal stamp. And, after all, however much murder may
Lc refined, it will always be liable to shock people of cul-
tivated taste and the self-control which becomes a second
ricture decent society.