The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-26 00:00:00

ZPIEI32._OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Tim es congratulates the House of Commons on the
amount of real business it can get through if it tries.
There was the Scotch Reform Bill, for instance. The set-
tlement of the franchise clauses of the Scotch bill would in
itself have been a fair evening's work, but the introduc-
tion by the Government of a revised scheme of redistribu-
tion and the adoption of its chief provisions by the Com-
mittee are wonderful strides towards the end of the bill.
The new scheme is a great improvement on the old, and,
though needlessly halting, it was in many respects better
framed than Mr. Baxter's proposal. There is no sufficient rea-
son whyten seats should not have been taken from England,
but the transfer of seven has been thought a reasonable
compromise, and if the eighth seat provided by the union
of Peebles and Selkirk be given to the Edinburgh instead
of to the Jedburgh or Hawick Burghs, the redistribu-
tion effected will be the best yet proposed. This
is the point to be decided on Thursday, and to
which attention should be directed. As the Govern.
ment have given up their design of weeding the
Clyde counties, they may consent to relinquish their
new proposal to weed a great noble's Border
land. A third member for Edinburgh, elected, like the
third member for Glasgow, on the minority principle,
would secure the representation of large and important
sections of Scotch society now unrepresented, and may
meet the inconvenience that might otherwise follow the
disfranchisement of Thetford. It is in this way that the
monotony justly deprecated by Mr. Lowther can best be
avoided, and the representation of Scotland placed on a
basis upon which a larger superstructure can be built
in after years. The characteristic of Scotch repre-
sentation, hitherto pecaliar to it, is that the county
members are almost entirely of one party and the burgh
members as entirely of the opposite party. So antago-
nistic a result, where there is no real antagonism of
interests, condemns the present system of representation ;
and those Conservative statesmen who desire to effect a
lasting settlement, and those Liberal statesmen who desire
the greatest possible number of voters to be represented,
should unite in supporting proposals designed to secure
both these objects.

The Telegraph has a word of serious advice to offer on
both sides. It is the obvious duty of members to drop
useless talk, and to devote all their energy to the business
before the House. It is their duty to avoid such scenes
as those of Monday night. Every member who indulges
in conversation without immediate purpose helps to delay
the anxiously-expected appeal to the new constituency.
If we finish the session at the earliest possible moment,
there will be a longer holiday than usual ; but that
will hurt nobody. While affording the Liberals
time to confront the great and qnlemn task which they
have undertaken, it will give the Conservatives time to
examine the principles of their political faith, which has
been rudely shaken by the whole march of recent events.
Moreover, it will secure to both sides an early recess,
during which they may arrange f,,r a dissolution at the
earliest possible moment. Thus Parliament may assemble
at the beginning of the year, for the decision of the main
question—Which of the, two great parties in the State is,
without loss of time, to undertake the accumulation of
important work that public opinion has marked out for
prompt and effectual execution ?

Amid the excitement of politics and the sound of par-
liamentary strife, the Post finds time to write a leader on
the constitution of our military services. Devoting espe-
cial attention to the militia, it points out that its weak
point is admittedly that of the officers, and it has been fre-
quently suggested of late that they should receive com-
missions from the Crown, instead of from lord-lieu-
tenants, as an inducement to gentlemen to serve ; and
it is to be hoped that no objections of a trivial
character may be allowed to stand in the way of grant-
ing this boon, if such it should be esteemed by the
great majority of militia officers. As regards the training
of militia officers, surely sufficient advantage is not taken
of the facilitieh offered by the regular regiments. Would
it not, asks our contemporary, be a very agreeable and
efficacious mode of learning their work if militia officers
were frequently attached temporarily to the nearest
regular regiments ? It appears to us that every induce-
ment and facility should be offered to them to seek instruc-
tion in this way.

The Daily News comments on the charge which has so
frequently of late been brought against our English inns—
that they are unsafe. To our contemporary it seems hard
that establishments which have been so eloquently praised
should be now branded as unsafe, and that " ring-men "
cannot store their gains there with security. But it is at
least consoling to know that the losses are principally con-
fined to a class, and that the depredations which follow in
the wake of race meetings rarely occur at other times. It
is on record in the pages of a popular magazine that on a
great sporting occasion at which Mr. John Heenar,
and Mr. Tom King were the heroes of the
hour, self-acting pocket instruments were displayed,
the merits of which consisted in their lodging a
bullet in the stomach of an intruder. These were
urgently recommended as useful accessories to a bedroom
door, and were inspected with grave approval by the
patrons of the ring. After much deliberation and dis-
cussion, it was, however, decided that, though "handy
things enough, and useful in other countries, they weren't
so much wanted in England, where the hotels were mostly
safe"—and this verdict we should be sorry to see upset by
the experiences of any other set of sporting men. Cool
heads and carefully-locked bedroom doors on race-nights
would do much to save the inns from scandal and their
customers from loss.

The Standard, dissecting Mr. Vernon Harcourt's letter
on the Irish policy of the Government, contends that in
substance there is no contradiction between the opinions
and the acts of the Ministry in the matter of the Roman
Catholic University. As even " H." could not have
failed to understand, had he lowered himself to that 'duty,
the Government proposed nothing but to do an act of
justice to the general body of the Irish Roman Catholic
laity, not to endow or to support the Roman Catholic Church.
They expressly stipulated as a necessary condition of the
boon they were willing to concede, that the priests should
not have the exclusive control of the funds to be bestowed.
It is in this respect that the Irish policy of the Ministry
has been deliberately misrepresented, as Mr. Disraeli
complained, and by none more grossly than by " H." him-
self. As to the greater number of his quotations, they
only prove this—that four of the Ministers did not always
express themselves in precisely the same terms in regard
to the Irish Church. We need not defend the Govern-
ment against a charge so trivial as this. We know of no
principle of political duty which requires that every
Minister shall think exactly alike with every other Minis-
ter on all points of policy. It is possible that there may
be honest and truthful men in the Cabinet, who still are
unable to express themselves in precisely the same lan-
guage on all occasions. It is incomprehensible that there
should be found a critic at once so arrogant and so narrow-
minded, so lofty in his ideal of morality and so low in his
imaginings, so exacting of purity and yet so prone to
think evil, as to utter a solemn accusation of falsehood,
deceit, and duplicity upon grounds so paltry and foolish v
those which " H." has selected.

The Herald comments on the defence set up by the con-
vict. It says :In the interest of justice it is well that
the hollowness of the artifice should have been thoroughly
exposed, and that even by an extra-judicial and some-
what irregular investigation the falsehood of the defence
set up should have been. once more demonstrated. Had
au inquiry been refused, Barrett would have had some
shadow of pretence for giving himself the airs of a
martyr, and undoubtedly there . would have been
some who would have believed, or affected to believe,
in his innocence. All pretence for this kind of
romancing has now been taken away. Repeatedly
respited, that no opportunity of arriving at a correct
conclusion might be missed, the prisoner has had a fresh
chance of life, in the course of which he has again been
proved to be deserving death. This being so, it is well for
society that Mr. Gathorne Hardy has stood firm to his
duty, and has allowed no weak sentimentality to induce
him to grant a life which the law has declared forfeit, and
which it would have been a sacrifice of the interests of
society any longer to spare. We regret the stern necessity
which requires the sacrifice, as we lament the wretched
delusion which instigated the crime. But having regard
riot only to individual suffering, hut to general well-being,
We must accept inevitable severity as the truest clemency,
and 'must hbpe that Barrett's fate may not be without a
salutary influence upon those who have shared or sym-
pathised with him in his desperate enterprises and in his
atrocious offences.

Several military enter.
tainments took. place on Monday evening. A large party
of the Ist (Royal) DraL,onns sat down at the London
Tavern ; at the Albion, Lieut.-General Hamkey presided at
the annual regimental dinner of the 3rd Hussars ; the sth
Lancers also dined together at the Albion, under the presi-
dency of Captain Vandeleur. The annual dinner of the Bth
(King'sßoyallrish)Hussars took place at theLondonTavern,
General Lawrmson iu the chair. The 9th Laticers dined
at the Albion ; and the 71st (Highland) Light Infantry
Irwt at the London Tavern, Lord Methuen presiding.
The Right Hon. E. Cardwell, M.P., and the Right
ilon. Robert Lowe, M.P., have during the past few days
been visiting Oxford. Their presence in that ancient city is
attributed to recent political events, as in case of an elec-
tion a Conservative candidate is threatened ; while Mr. Lowe
is likely. to be unoccupied, owing to the proposed disfran-
clu.sement of the borough of Caluc, which the right hon.
gentleman nowyepresents. Mr. Charles Neate has given no
nucleation of forsakin,, his friends at Oxford, although it
has been taken for granted, in consequence of something
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