The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-17 00:00:00

13PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times says the Bishop of London has exercised an
active influence both in public and ecclesiastical affairs.
Indeed, if his promotion were ever thought doubtful, it
was probably due to this very circumstance. In spite of
weak health he has held his own against the majority of
the bench of bishops on more than one recent occasion.
It is in great part due to his firmness and moderation
that the Pan-Anglican Council ended so harmlessly,
and he has probably been the means of protecting us
from a troublesome entanglement in the Natal diffi-
culty. But in an Archbishop of Canterbury this kind of
independence has sometimes been thought undesirable,
and men doubted whether Bishop Tait's principles might
not be almost too pronounced for the post. This tradi-
tionary feeling is not, as we recently observed, very com-
plimentary to the institution over which the archbishop
presides, and it is a matter for congratulation that the
Government have been bold enough to appoint a man who
has opinions of his own, and is not afraid to profess them.
We may be glad that we have at last an archbishop who
is pledged both by his words and by his past career to an
unqualified resistance to Romanising tendencies. In the
same manner, in his contests with Convocation and the
Bishop of Capetown, he has abstained from an indiscrimi-
nate condemnation of either party, but has firmly
maintained the Royal supremacy as essential in England
to the peace and to the national character of the Church.
The Times regrets that the Bishop of London has given
too much encouragement to men without decided religious
feeling and theological learning. The Church is exposed,
in these days, to opposite dangers. On the other hand,
the people of England will not endure the promulgation
by the national clergy of Romish opinions. But, on the
other hand, they will be sensible that it is not necessary
to keep up a vast- establishment, with archbishops,
bishops, and deans, for the mere purpose of teaching the
elementary rudiments of morality and of natural religion.
The Standard thinks the righteous motives and far.
seeing discretion which have actuated the Premier in his
selection of a new Archbishop of Canterbury is only what
we might have expected to be displayed by a statesman
who the other day advanced Dr. Magee to the see of
Peterborough and Dr. Mansel to the deanery of St. Paul's.
Such a wise discrimination, such a conspicuous absence of
all considerations of party, such felicitous justice, such suc-
cessive manifestations of a determination and a desire to
have regard for nothing but the requirements of the post
and the qualifications of the candidate, form the very
coping-stone or political ability and integrity and the very
masterpiece of administrative skill. The most malignant
of critics can detect no flaw in such a wise exercise of
judgment, and it is not surprising that the public hail
with satisfaction the announcement that the Bishop of
London is to be the new Primate of England, as being
precisely the selection which, in the opinion of all thinking
men, it is to the true interests of the Church and of
the State, of the empire and our religion, should have
been made. The Standard then comments upon the
translation of Dr. Jackson to London. The Bishop
of Lincoln is known throughout England as endowed
with exactly those attributes which render him the most
worthy successor that Dr. Tait could have. Calm,
collected, and resolute, he has shewn himself also to be
willing to stretch the bonds of ecclesiastical fellow-
ship to the farthest extent, and to enlarge the
circle of the Church, and consequently its influence,
to its utmost legitimate limit. It is the specia
praise, both of Dr. Tait and Dr. Jackson, that they aro
not merely men of thought, but of action, and that they
excel not merely in the speculation of the study, but in
ability to meet at any moment the crisis of actual events.
What we have said of the Primate and his successor we
may assuredly say of Archdeacon Wordsworth. The
bishopric of Lincoln is but a fitting tribute to one who has
devoted a life to the defence of the Church and of her
truths. It is to the glory of that Church that she possesses
such men. It is to the credit of our Government that it
knows how to choose and where to find them. The latest
ecclesiastical appointments of Mr. Disraeli will be received
only as new evidence that his championship of our Church
is dictated by ;the highest principles that can animate a
statesman.

When a bishop has so- many titles to honour as Dr.
Tait, it would be idle, says the Daily News, to ask for
which class of merits he has been preferred to the very
highest post. It is easy, however, to see that Bishop
Tait's decided Erastianism must have made him accept
able to more than one eminent person, and given him.
great superiority over other distinguished prelates at a
time when the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Crown is sc
much canvassed. Dr. Tait, it is said, is, and always has
been, a Liberal in Church politics. His liberality,
however, is of that kind which leans on the law for
support. No bishop attended more punctually in his
place than he when a Church Rate Abolition Bill was to
be voted against, and he was the prelate who warned
the Liberal party that twenty thousand clergymen would
make their voices heard azainstmovements like that for dis-
establishing the Irish Church. The far-seeing Church-
men who, during the last few years, have endeavoured
by calling out the latent power of the Church and devising
forms and organisations through which it maylearn to act
so as to be prepared for whatever may befall, have little, if
any, aid to expect from the new Primate, who has once or
twice spoken of remedying the evils of the Church by
external legislation, but never, we believe, in favour of the
extension of the principle of self-government in the body.
There can be no greater objections made to Dr. Tait as
Primate than might be raised against any other appoint-
ment, and he is no unworthy successor of the best of those
who have gone before him.
The Post remarks that Mr. Disraeli made a great
blunder when, as Prime Minister, he made a proposal to
the Foreign Secretary at the Guidhall to mediate between
France and Prussia. Our contemporary remarks that the
leading members of the Government are afraid to avow
their views on the Irish question on the hustings. It
depends on the result of the elections whether we are to
proceed in the way of progress steadily, and in the light
of our understanding, or whether we are to be " educated"
by demagogues in Conservative clothing, and, to suit their
convenience, be led unawares to some " leap in the dark."
Let Conservatives ask themselves what security they
have that the Government of Mr. Disraeli will not
pursue the policy of concession and subserviency which
the Government of Lord Derby pursued, and to the sam;
end. In their hearts they must acknowledge that thei
most honoured and trusted chief deceived them. We ar

not imputing the deception to Lord Derby as an ad
of political wrong-doing. History will judge of that. Foi
the present, it is enough to refer to the fact which Aln.
Gladstone has opportunely underlined—that the Conser.
vatism of the so-called "Constitutional" party is a sham,
a delusion, and a snare. But if the institutions of this
country are to be maintained, the principles which con-
stitute their foundation—truth, equity, and justice—must
be vindicated, courageously and consentieutly, by a
Government which, strong in its own convictions and
representing public opinion, is competent to fulfil all it 4
constitutional obligations.

The Morning Summary inquires whether the machine I
which we are now so busily engaged in constructing is
well adapted to its end. At the end of every session there
is a 1\ I assacre of the Innocents—that is to say, in plain
English, measures which are required by the public are
postponed for want of time ; at the end of every session,
critics of all shades of political opinion shake their heads
sadly, as they point out how much has been promised and
how little has been done. The real remedy for the heavy
burden of work laid upon the House of Commons would
seem to lie in a careful classification of the topics which
are at present brought under its notice, and the removal
of some of these subjects to other deliberative bodies.
But there are many subjects not well adapted for discus-
sion in the House of Commons, as, e.g., our railway
legislation, which is unanimously acknowledged to have
been wofully mismanaged by Parliament. Indeed, it
may be said broadly, that though our ten-pound Parlia-
ments which have just ceased to exist, after ruling the
country for six-and-thirty years, have done excellent ser-
vice in the way of abrogation, they have shewn marvel-
lously little constructive talent. It is enough in support
of this charge to point out the proverbial character of an
Act of Parliament—an obscure and contradictory docu-
ment, full of ambiguous meanings, the delight of chamber
barristers, the terror of plain men. It is sometimes so
remarkable that it is either loudly repudiated—as, for
example, the Streets Traffic Act—or it is at once shelved
by the public for whose benefit it is intended. Most of
the defects in our legislative enactments are produced by
the changes which they necessarily undergo in their pas.
rage through the Houses of Parliament, the extent of
'bleb few are aware of.

THE METROPOLITAN VESTRIES AND THE METRO-
FOLITAN POLICE FoucL—The agitation on the question
of the inefficiency of the police and the increasing violence
of the criminal classes, which originated with the Maryle-
bone Vestry, is daily obtaining support in the other dis-
tricts of th,! metropolis. Besides St. Pancras, which
quickly gave in its adhesion, the Kensington Vestry have
detcrokind to join the di,putation to the I louse Sucre.
tart', as also have the Vestry of St. George's-in-the-East.
At the Vestry of St. George the Martyr, Southwark, nc
persuasion was needed, one of their own body (Mr.
Walker) having been lately knocked down in the Borough.
road, robbed, and so maltreated that he died a few days
afterwards. Great dissatisfaction prevails also al
Hackney, the police rates, in that parish having increased
from £G,522 in 1858 to £10,43.1 in 1808, being an increase
of sixty per cent. in eleven years ; and yet robbery, vio-
lence, and prostitution have greatly increased in the
parish. On this subject, at least, the vestries seem to
be wonderfully agreed, there being so far not . a sine/
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