The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Saturday Review reminds us that in the first enthu-
siasm of the Reform Bill, when it just seemed possible
that a large measure might be carried, and hopes as well
as fears were raised, some of the more sanguine and adven-
turous young politicians of the day offered a list of the
questions with which a Reformed Parliament would have
to deal, and suggested the mode in which a Reformed
Parliament would treat them. The changes anticipated
were of a very wide and sweeping kind. Without the
slightest wish to sneer at or in any way ridicule these
enthusiasts, we must say that, to all appearance, the
chief characteristic of the new Parliament will be that it
will be eminently commonplace. That persons who are
not engaged in practical politics should try to look forward
and to anticipate in what way the stream of English
politics will go and ought to go, not this year or next year,
but in the next quarter of a century or half-century, ap-
pears to us a very good thing. But we must look at
facts as they are, and if we look at the facts we must say,
without any disparagement to the political theorist, that
the Reformed Parliament does not appear at all likely
to fulfil those expectations. It appears to be the aim
of all, or almost all, the candidates on both sides to say
as little as possible and to make that little as safe as they
can. The Liberals have only two ideas—to go in for
disestablishing the Irish Church, and to remove the suspi-
cion that they would form or enter into caves against Mr.
Gladstone. The Conservatives do not even get so far as
this. They have no notion of proclaiming themselves to be
Conservatives engaged in a great struggle against dan-
gerous schemes of revolution; they merely echo the cry,
like one parrot screaming after another, that they wish to
redress the anomalies of the Irish Church. It is evident
that they have no notion whatever of the meaning of what
they say, or of what kind of institution the Irish Church
with its anomalies redressed would be likely to be. They
have considered the difficulties of redressing the anomalies
of the Irish Church about as much as Mr. Gladstone has
considered the difficulties of dealing with the Irish land.
There is a complete absence of thought in the addresses of
candidates on both sides. The first Reformed Parliament
will evidently be a Parliament where young lords and
elderly soapboilers will reign supreme. It may be most
desirable that this should be so. It may be a great gain
that persons so eminently unimpressible should stand in
the way between the nation and change ; but the thing to
be remarked at present is that these are the persons who
will to all appearance be returned. There will of course be
some new blood infused into Parliament, but we suspect
there will not be much of it.

The Spectator holds that to confound cause and effect,
the disease with the mere symptom, is one of the most
fruitful sources of error in the world. Something is
evidently wrong in the system of the volunteers, and as
the life of the patient is one of the greatest possible value
to the country, no pains should be spared in making the
diagnosis. The symptoms which it is alleged have been
exhibited by the volunteers are (1) a general dissatisfac-
tion with their official treatment ; (2) insubordination and
non-appreciation of real military discipline. With respect
to the first, it must be admitted that the Government has
given the volunteers considerable and apparently just
grounds of complaint. It removed their late inspector-
general, in whom they trusted, and with whom they were
quite satisfied, and placed over them in his stead a general
officer who—whatever may be his real merits— has made a
very unfortunate beginning ; for under his auspices the
review at Portsmouth, although it eventually proved a
great success, was at one time on the very verge of a
collapse ; the review at Windsor, owing to faulty arrange-
ments, terminated disgracefully; and the review at Wim-
bledon was simply a miserable failure, on account of fresh
bungling on the part of the War Office and South-Western
Railway authorities, aided, it is, however, to be feared,
by the discontented spirit of the volunteers. Again :
the Government refused the extra capitation grant to
the force, on the grounds that there was no necessity
for the increase in consequence of the steady acces-
sion to the numerical strength of the volunteers.
With regard to the insubordination exhibited by the
volunteers at Datchet, and the evident non-appreciation
of real military discipline by a portion of the force at and
after Windsor, it is admitted on all sides, and by none
more than by the volunteers themselves, that at Windsor
and Datchet occurrences took place totally inconsistent
with military discipline ; but in investigating this part of
the question it is necessary to guard against rushing, as
has been done, to any conclusions of a two sweeping cha-
racter, as, for instance, that the whole force is but an
undisciplined armed rabble ; that it is incapable of
receiving proper discipline ; and that, do what we may, it
must always be unreliable. We hold that each of these
conclusions is erroneous, for at 'Windsor a large portion of
the force undoubtedly exhibited true soldierly qualities,
some of them behaving under the severe trial of the con-
fusion on the way to Datchet in a manner worthy of the
most highly-disciplined regular troops, and on many other
occasions the volunteers have thoroughly satisfied their
reviewing and inspecting officers. What, then, it may be

hed, is the root of the evil? We have no hesitation in
assigning as the chief and if not the solo cause of the
partial failure of the volunteers, that they are not officered
as they should be, for it is even more essential in their
case than in that of the regular army that the officers
should be well up to the mark, and possess qualities and
attainments calculated to inspire their men with respect,
and to command their ready obedience.
The London _Review, alluding to the confused and con-
tradictory state of Irish politics, says that the section of
Catholics of whom Sir George Bowyer is a respectable
English type is not unrepresented in Ireland, and some of
the priests, contrary to their usual custom, favour the
Disraelite connection. That by doing so they can only
endanger their own influence, ought to be more apparent
to them. If the Irish peasantry and middle classes once
understand that the priest is about to go on the side of the
landlords and our garrison, his power over them is sure to
depart. They will not take the trouble to comprehend
his distinctions or to appreciate his conscientious reasons ;
they will simply take the facts and judge for themselves.
This would not be so desirable as it might seem to those who
are not well acquainted with the country. It is doubtful
whether the masses of the Irish people are yet fit for a
complete enfranchisement from the direction of men who
on the whole have not abused the confidence reposed in
them by their flocks. But we do not anticipate such a
severance. The movement indicated is exceedingly limited,
ana we cannot imagine that it will receive the support or
patronage of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. If the name of
Mr. Gladstone is to be made use of at the hustings, it
naturally ought to be by those whose eager policy on the
Church question he has striven so hard and so successfully
to carry out. There is a great deal of thin casuistry in
reducing a decision on this point to an examination into
the supposed private motives of statesmen. Whatever
Mr. Gladstone's private views may be, there at least, in
the face of day, lie his pledges to do certain definite
things, and, on the other hand, Mr. Disraeli has not been
in the least reticent on his part. We should have-thought
the fact of his announcing himself on the side of the
Orangemen (an alliance not so honourable to him as his
declaration of co-partnership with the angels) ought to
have shewn at once to all Romanists that they could
expect nothing from him in the way of substantial favour.
It is not unlikely now, however—indeed we have reason to
suspect that the operation has already been commenced by
a congenial club—that the Conservative party will receive
a hint from their chief that events shew the possibility of
a little dalliance with even the Irish ITltramontanes, and
that the opportunity should not be interrupted by
announcements of a sentimental nature on Orangeism
made as far back as months ago.

According to the Imperial Review the new Liberal pro-
gramme is constructed on the same principles that were
to be traced in the one which events have now rendered
obsolete. It is.marked by the traditionary concentration
of purpose. Reform has thus far engrossed the attention
of Liberal politicians. And now the Irish Church
question is to take its place. The Liberal party is in that
morbidly unhealthy state in which its existence can only
be prolonged by the application of stimulants of con-
tinually increasing strength. And as each stimulant is
applied, the question arises whether its effect will be to
lengthen life, or whether its potency will be such that the
shattered constitution of the party cannot resist its
influence, and will sink under it into utter prostration,
rather than derive from it an ephemeral vigour. When
Reform was no longer available as a stimulant, the Irish
Church question was brought forward. And for some
time it was cleubtful what the effect would be. The
doubts are solved, and a fresh lease of life is the result.
And when the Irish Church question shall cease to exec t
its present influence, we are allowed to perceive that a
still more powerful stimulant, in the shape of the Irish
land question, will be relied on— with what result it is not
difficult to foresee. The Irish Church question is for the
present to 1)1 the only one held worthy of the considera-
tion of Liberal statesmen, and the sole subject to which
Liberal politicians are to direct their attention. In place
of endeavouring to carry out those measures of necessary
and useful legislation which have been so long delayed,
owing to the Liberal tacCei in regard to Reform, the
same strategy in another field is to be pursued, that can
only bring similar results. It was too hastily assumed
that with the passing of the Reform Bill the season of
sterile agitation and barren discw*ion was past, and that
the Legislature would be able to direct its attention to the
elaboration of those measures urgently called for by the
circumstances of the country. The Liberal progran m;
announced by Mr. Gladstone ignores the extension of the
advantages of education to the nation—the amelioration
of the condition of the people—the conciliation of the
asperities which exist between capital and labour—the
amendment of the bankruptcy laws administrative
reform—legal reform —as aims which a great party
should keep in view and strive to advance. It simply
seeks to revive an old controversy by proposing_ to recon-
sider some of the provisions of lastyear's Reform Bill,
and to kindle a new strife by advocating the repudiation
and spoliation of the Irish branch of the Church of
England.