The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Speaking of Sir Stafford Northcote's observations on
the Irish Church, the Tines observes that the right hon.
gentleman would like to ignore the centuries of wrong;
and begin afresh. Well and good ; but to begin afresh we
must start, for Irish reforms, not from the state of things
after, but from that preceding, the period of misgovern•
went by penal laws. For what was the very object of
those penal laws? It was that the Established Church
might keep its predominance over rival persuasions. It is
a pleasant fancy to say, so long as the solid profits are
retained, "We got the predominance by usurpation, and
we long kept it by violence ; but we find it was a mistake
to try to keep it by violence ; the expenditure of suffering
was brutalising ; it was even impolitic and dangerous
to our own comfort and security ; we have repented, and
will reform and amend our ways ; we will keep it without
violence." Unfortunately, there is not the slightest
symptom at present of a likelihood that the proposed com-
pact to live henceforth as brothers on the footing of the
status quo will be executed except by the party in posses.
sion. Irish Roman Catholics suspect that their adversaries
have abandoned a policy of persecution from incapacity to
continue it. In any case, they decline to withdraw their
protest against one grievance in consideration of
the relief they have already won for themselves from
another. So much for what Sir Stafford Northcote seems
to have intended as an appeal to the Catholics of Ireland
to let the Protestant Establishment ride on its way, and;
be thankful that the spirited charger is no longer trained
to kick. His appeals to sentiments and fears of a different
kind will fall equally dead, we think. Owners of property
will hardly be afraid that the Legislature will be as facile
as he shews himself in argument in confounding the dis-
tinctions between public and private property. The
friends of the Union widl net be alarmed at a policy in
conformity with the eager desires of the great bulk of
the Irish population, in lieu of one agreeable only
to an inconsiderable section. The friends of the Esta-
blished Church of England will view with philosophy the
reduction of the Church of Ireland, which now suggests
chiefly a burlesque of that institution, to a sober condition
far more consistent with its ova& favourite claim to be a
missionary Church. Finally, the benevolent in a Liberal
darty will, like the Barnstaple assemblage, accept as a
joke the appeal to them to postpone eradicating a source
of national discontent three centuries old on the ad misiri-
cordiam plea that all " ought to assist the progress made
in Ireland, and not be in a hurry to pull up plants that
are just beginning to take root."
Upon the question of policy the Standard thinks Sir S.
Northcote spoke with explicit and manly straightforward-
ness. Re acknowledged the past wrongs of Ireland—
wrongs which, he frankly said, must make us feel, as the
children of those who inflicted them, that Irish disaffec-
tion and rebellion only " saves us right." But those
wrongs have long since been redressed, and the rankling
resentment they have left behind would in no degree be
appeased by a new wrong towards a different party—a
new course of spoliation and injustice—a new policy of
confiscation. Repose and security are the vital needs of
Ireland ; and the overthrow of the Church must excite
fresh quarrels and once more shake the foundations of pro-
perty. Ireland wants capital ; capital will never go where
credit and confidence are wanting ; and the confiscation of
a property held by a prescription of three centuries must
make confidence impossible for a generation to come. It
is sufficient to call the reader's attention to the hearty
sympathy with Irish feelings, the earnest desire for justice
to Ireland, which pervade the speeches of the Conserva-
tive candidate for North Devon, and whose sincerity con-
trasts forcibly with the Liberal affectation of similar senti-
ments assumed to mask the intense selfishness of a policy
which makes Ireland the battle-ground of English faction,
and which sacrifices her last chance of peace and prospe-

rity in order to make, by the overthrow of Irish institu-
tions and the confiscation of Irish property, a breach in the
Conservative defences through which Mr. Gladstone mal
force his way back to Downing•street.
The Herald remarks that it is but a small consolation to
us, and less to those who have perished, to call to mind
that earthquakes have been as frequent in history as
battles, and even more destructive. Yet so it is. Thirty-
three years before Christ an earthquake in Palestine
swallowed up 30,000 persons ; seventeen years after

Christ another overthrew thirteen great cities of Asia

Minor. In A.D. 79 Misenum was destroyed; and in the
year 115 Antioch was swallowed up. For 1000 years after
these frightful disturbances continued in this part of the
East, so that many other great cities were in their turn
laid in ruins. In the year 1040, 50,000 souls perished in
an hour at Tabriz, in Persia. In 1139, 100,000 more
were buried under the ruins of Gansana. In 12G8,
60,000 perished in Cilicia. In 1580 there was a great earth- ,
quake in France and England. In the next two centuries
Italy and Sicily suffered terrible visitations, and there
were great rumours of disaster in China and Japan. In
1746 Callao, in Peru, was swallowed up by the sea. In
1754 Cairo was nearly destroyed, with a loss of 40,000 lives.
In one year, 1755, Quito was thrown down, a city in
Persia overthrown with immense loss of life, and the great
earthquake of Lisbon occurred, which is said Iso have slain
50,000 victims. From that time to the 'present these
terrible visitations have been chiefly confined to the
countries of the Andes, which are now kr.awn to us as the
home of earthquakes, as the West Indies of hurricanes, and
whose giant volcanos of Chimborazo ar d Cotopaxi, flaming
rutnniits twice as lofty as the higher. .Alps, seem insufficient
to relieve them of those bursting stores of molten rock
which geologists tell us are ever, tazing and foaming not
so many miles beneath us, and.-will force their way up to
the surface from time to time, grow at one part of the earth
and now at another, shaking terribly and rending every-
thing asunder if not allowed tree exit.
The Daily News does not hesitate to assume the authen-
ticity of the despatch sera from the Foreign Ministry at
Berlin to the Praissian. Charge d'Affaires in Paris. In
that despatch the Parusiian Government made known to
the French Minister of Foreign Affairs that by the gra-
cious order of the Kkag the reserves of the Prussian army
would be discharged as soon as the autumn manoeuvres
were completed, anti that the anneal levy of recruits would
be postponed for three nionths. It may be that the dis-
missal of the reserves earlier than usual, and the adjourn.
silent of the annual levy for a few months, are in themselves
very slight reductions of effective strength ; that they are
measures of economy (are not all peaceful measures eeo.
nomical?) ; and that, according to the constitution of the
Federal army, the whole armed force of the entire nation
will be as instantly available on a supreme emergency
after these reductions as before. Still, the despatch
announcing this economical policy to the French Govern-
ment expressly declares it to be based upon a belief in the
continuance of peace ; and however insignificant may be
the figures in the budget which represent it, it is at least an
example of acts instead of words. It is because the French
Government speaks fair words which are incessantly con-
tradicted by its acts that the Emperor finds himself
obliged to make the somewhat humiliating confession that
his words have lost their credit and authority in Europe.
In taking leave of his generals at the camp at Chalons
Louis Napoleon, if we may trust the semi-official Etendaxd,
was obliged to excuse himself from saying more than that
he had been very happy at the camp, and much pleased
with the zeal and devotion' of the troops, because if he
had said more, fiis words, however moderate, would be
misinterpreted in a warlike sense by the newspapers. No
doubt it is flattering to the press to find his Imperial
Majesty so far susceptible to public opinion and conscious
of his accountability. But it will occur to many neither
captious nor adverse critics .to remark, that if the
the Emperor had said no more than the Constitutionnel
has found so insigssificant in the mouth of Prussia, he
weuld have done more to re-assure the public mind than
by imputing to " the newspapers" the prevailing dis-
trust which is engendered by the irresolution of arbitrary
power.

A large proportion of the candidates now before tt
constituencies have dealt with the unsettled relations
between capital and labour, but the Post thinks that Mr.
Lancaster, the Liberal candidate for Wigan, treats the
subject with the most particularity and distinctiveness.
He says that " conviction is most absolutely impressed
upon his mind that the time is arrived when, if the rights
of labour and of capital are to be equally secured to the
possessors of each, and if the position of the great in-
dustries in the markets of the world, whether home or
foreign, is to be securely maintained, the relations
between matters and workmen must be placed upor
a sound and simple basis universally recognised ;
and then goes on to say that " he is intimately convinced
that this object can only be attained by restoring that
directness of contact and communication between the em-
ployers and the employed which, in the rapid development
of trade in this country, has been thrust aside and tempo
rarily lost." This hits the nail upon the head. The great
error in the schemes which have hitherto been put forward
has been a fundamental one,, and it is because they have
thus been ill based that they have failed to secure con&
dence or to realise success. They have proceeded on
the assumption that the remedy should consist in
interposing some third person or third body between the
masters and the men, in the same way that buffers with
powerful springs are placed between railway carriages to
prevent or modify the shock of immediate contact. Inter.
vention by arbitrators, however able, has never prevented
an impending strike, and has rarely ever cured one or
stayed its progress. The masters have no longer the same
individual acquaintance with their hands, and the men
insist upon dealing in the market in masses. It is thus, as Mr.
Lancaster correctly states it, that directness of contact
and communication have been thrust aside and lost, and
the only remedy of a restorative character capable of
fruitful application now, and under the present condition
of industry, appears certainly to be that which would
include most largely in its composition the principle of
representation ; that principle is, in fact, the very kernel
of the organisation which has been so successful under the
management of Mr. Muudella.

A great step was taken towards the thorough educatioi
of the people when the Department of Science and Art
planned certain classes which, throughout the country,
should, after work hours, give mechanics and others the
means of studying such subjects as mechanical drawing,
mathen wies, and chemistr=y . But, says the Telegraph, :.6
Vie Yorkshire Board of Education has learned, the task
is beset with a great difficulty. Where are the scientific
teachers to be found ? How, in remote country
towns, can we- get men fit to teach organic and
inorganic chemistry ? In Yorkshire the difficulty has
hitherto been insuperable ; but the county Board of
Education has hit upon a plan which promises to be
successful. In order to teach students, it has determined
to begin by teaching schoolmasters • and a Saturday after~
noon class will speedily be opened al Leeds, where a series
of lectures on chemistry will bo delivered by the head
master of the scientific schools at Halifax and Budder&
field. In other towns similar c'asses are to be held; and
the plan might with much advantage be adopted wherever
mechanics institutes lack teachers of science. In most
country places the difficulty is to get lecturers rather than
students.

THE VOLTINTE.ERS AND THE
APPROACHING ELECTIONS.

The following circular was issued 011 Monday morning to
the lord-lieutenants of counties by Sir John Pakington :---
"War Office, Septemberll, 1868.—1 n view of the approach-
ing general election, and of the proceedings preparatory
thereto, I think it right to remind you that volunteers in
uniform should take no part in any political demonstration
or party meeting, and I have accordingly to request that
you will give directions to this effect to the commanding
officers of all volunteer corps within the county under your
charge. I have further to request that you will also inform
them that they are not to assemble their corps for drill or
any other purpose between the issue of a writ and the
termination of the election in any county or borough in
the neighbourhood of their headquarters." There is
nothing new in this circular, it being quite in accordance
with former instructions issued 7th June, 1861, by Mr.
Sidney Herbert.

THE CLAIMS OF WOMEN.

On Monday morning the female suffrage question was
argued at great length before the revising barrister (Mr.
Hosack) at Manchester. _

On the name of Mary Abbott—the first on the list—
being called,

Mr. Cobbett said he appeared for two or three persons
nominally, but in fact for between 5,000 and 6,000 women
who had sent in claims to be put upon the register, and
who were legally qualified, but who bad been omitted from
the list by the overseers because they believed them to
be disqualified. He argued that neither by common law
nor by Act of Parliament were women disqualified, and
that they were in fact qualified under the Reform Act of
1867, interpreted by Lord Romilly's Act. He discussed
the various arguments pro and con at great length, and
quoted the Lyme Regis case, in which there were three
women (two widows. and one spinster) on the roll of bur-
gesses as voters. Before the passing of the Act of Henry VI.
it was clear that the whole of the inhabitants of a county or
borough had a right to vote, and the only qualification for
the knight or burgess to be elected was—he wished it were
so now—that he should be discreet. In 1826 Lord Russell
—no mean authority—made a speech in which he stated
that universal suffrage must have prevailed in England
before the Act of Henry VI.; and Lord Eldon, in the
Privy Council, had said that all people in England had a
right to vote for members of Parliament.
The Revising Barrister: What I want, Mr. Cobbett, is
a proof that women did vote for members of Parliament.
Mr. Cobbett : Your want and mine, sir, are precisely
the same. As to the Act of 1832, people from the time of
Henry VI. down to then, were constantly being disfran-
chised, both by the Crown and the House of Commons.
In the third volume of " Luder's Report," page 116, he
referred his Honour to the Windsor case, with respect to
which Parliament passed a resolution stating that " all
the inhabitants of Windsor had a right to vote for mem-
bers of Parliament," and if he could show that women
there voted, as no doubt they did, that fact would prove his
case—that women had a right to vote at elections if pro-
perly and legally qualified. They were entitled to vote on
all local questions now, and were compelled to hold paro-
chial and other offices : and that being so, why not for
members of Parliament? The learned gentleman then went
on to quote several other cases, and concluded by urging
that if there were no legal incapacity as to women voting,
there was no common-law incapacity. He argued that
there was not now a legal incapacity existing, since, in the
Act of 1867, the enfranchised persons were " every man,"
and if there was any incapacity before it was now done
away with by the Act of 1867 and Lord Romilly's. If the
word man was used as distinguished from the word woman,
surely it imported the masculine gender, and then Lord
Romilly's Act dealt with it. If it meant mankind, why
then it meant both man and woman, and both had then a
right to vote under the Act.
Mr. H. Robinson, on the other side, argued that neither
under the Act of 1867 nor any other Act had there been
power or a right given to women to vote. Mr. Cobbett, he
considered, had totally failed to make out the casein favour
of his clients. Wherever women were included in Acts of
Parliament in contradistinction to men, they were specially
mentioned ; and he cited in proof the late Act referring to
the agricultural gang system, where men were specially
mentioned in a special clause.
The revising barrister said time question involved was so
important that he would give his decision in the morning.

A review and sham fight took place in Ileaton
Park on Saturday afternoon, and it is said to have been one
of the finest military spectacles which have been witnessed
since the establishment of the volunteer force. Major Gene-
ral Sir John Garvock was the reviewing officer, an& nearly
7,000 regular troops and volunteers took part in the move-
ments.

Much sympathy ;s felt for the Bishop of Limerick,
Dr. Graves, whose eldest son has just died from the effects
of sunstroke, in the 27th year of his age. The deceased be-
longed to the India Civil Service, but in consequence of im-
paired health came home on leave of absence. A few days
since he went to Cahir foi a game at cricket, and became ill
on the field, and never rallied.
The area of land under cultivation in the Aus-
zalasian colonies, according to the last returns, is 2,500,000
acres, and the live stock consists of 600,000 horses, 4,000,000
cattle, 38,500,000 sheep, and 400,000 pigs, giving a total of
more than 43,000,000 head of stock.

THE QUEEN AND DR. NORMAN MACLEOD.—Her
Majesty has kindly permitted Dr. Norman Macleod to
write a description of Scottish scenery for the illustrated
edition of " Our Life in the Highlands," which is soon to
appear.

PARTY SPIRIT. —When I was young I was
ecustomed to hear pronounced with abhorrence, almost
with execration, the names of men who are now hailed by
their former foes as champions of grand principles, and as
worthy of the highest public trusts. This lesson of early
experience, which later years have corroborated, will never
be forgotten.—Dr. Channing.

A Derry paper hints that the meditated visit of
the Lord-Lieutenant to Donegal, before returning to Dublin
Castle, is to be turned to electioneering purposes. A
requisition is now in course of signature calling upon Lord
Francis Conyngham to come forward as a candidate for
that county in the Liberal interest; and the journal
referred to conceives that, only for the threatened opposi-
tion to Viscount Hamilton, the visit would not have been
undertaken.

Sir Edward Lechmere, a well-known High Church-
man and Conservative member for Tewkesbury, has pro-
posed to settle the Irish Church dispute "by ceding the
precedence of the Irish Establishment, by removing the
Irish bishops from the House of Lords, and by placing the
legal and social position of the archbishops and bishops of the
Roman Catholic Church on an equal footing with that of the
Anglican hierarchy in Ireland."

A letter from Berlin, in the North-Eastern Cor-
..espondence, says :—" Lord Stanley has written limn
Lucerne to Lord Loftus, directing him to congratulate
the Prussian Government on the measures of disarma-
ment adopted here. The English Ambassador, before
leaving for Dresden, had a long conversation with M. de
Thiele, in which he declared that England could not but
render horhage to the dignified and significant attitude of
the Government of King William, and that she would sup-

port with all her influence this pacific policy of Prussia."

We bare to announce the clFath of Sir William
.uegge George Floste, the second baronet. He was L'orn in
1818 ; was a Rear- Admiral of the Navy, a Groom in-
Waiting, and naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen. He
served in Burnish and China from 1852 to 1857, and was
married in 1858 to Caroline Dorothea, daughter of Mr.
C. P.. Brune. He is succeeded by his son, William Henry
Charles, who was born in 1860. The first baronet was a
naval officer, who particularly distinguished himself in gain-
ing a victory over the combined French and Italian fleets at
the head of four frigates off the Ibland of Lessa hi 1811, and
the baronetcy was conferred in 1814, on the recommendation
of the Earl of Liverpool, who was then Prime Minister.

GENERAL ORDINATIONS. The Archbishop of
CanterburY will hold a general ordination on Sunday next,
and on the same—clay ordinations will .be held by the
Bishop of Durham, at Auckland Castle ; the Bishop of
Ely, at St. Paul's Church, Bedford ; the Bishop of St.
Davids, at the parish church of Abergwili ; the Bishop of
Oxford, at Cuddcsden ; the Bishop of Lincoln, in his
cathedrai ; the Bishop of Ripon, in his cathedral ; the
Bishop of• Carlisle, in his cathedral ; and by the Bishop
of Hereford, in his cathedral. Bishop Trower, acting for
the Bishop of Lichfield, will hold an ordination in Lich-
field Cathedral on St. Mat tl t,'w's Day, Monday, September
21 ; and the Bishop of London, at the Chapel Royal,
Whitehall, on Sunday, December 20.
On Sunday, the 13th inst., the remains of the
late Madame Musurus, wife of his Excellency Musurus
Pasha, were removed from their temporary resting-place
in Kensal-green Cemetery, and were placed in a " chapel:e
ardente," specially constructed, on board the steamer
Parana, for conveyance to Constantinople, where a hand-
some mausoleum has been erected for their final reception.
It was originally intended to convey the body overland ;
but, owing to the difficulty of having a " chapelle
ardente " erected on board of one of the steamers of the
Memageries Imperiales, that idea was abandoned. The
removal of the body was undertaken by Messrs. W.
Garstin and Co., of Welbeck-street, and all the arrange-
ments were carried out to the Wire fiAitigaction of the
iMgetited Particib