The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The last !ntelligence from Abyssinia will not, in the
opinion of the Times, much gratify the people at home.
We have just now begun the war itself. A very unwel-
come complication, however, may be introduced by the
advance of the Egyptian troops now announced. We
might have bad the alliance of Egypt from the beginning,
but it was thought better for reasons of special policy to
decline the proffered co-operation. The Abyssinians are
suspicious of their northern neighbours, and impressed with
a belief that the Egyptians would readily avail themselves
of any opportunities of conquest or annexation. If, there-
fore, the forces of the Viceroy had appeared in the field in
conjunction with our own, all the chiefs on whose assist-
ance•or neutrality we had counted would have been turned
against us, our own professions would have been disre-
garded, and our advance must have been made through a
hostile population. These considerations deterred us
from accepting the aid of an Egyptian contingent,
but the Viceroy, nevertheless, assembled a force on
the Abyssinian coast, in the vicinity of our
own, and now we learn that at the moment
of Sir Robert Napier's advance this Egyptian army is also
in-movement, independently of our operations and without
Our concurrence. This proceeding may occasion much
trouble, for while, on the one hand, the appearance of
these troops may materially disturb our relations, hitherto
amicable, with the Abyssinian people, it will be difficult,
on the other, to interfere with the resolution of the
Viceroy's Government. The Egyptians profess to be
co-operating with us for the purposes of the expedition,
and Egypt itself, as must not be forgotten, represents the
direct line of communication between this country and
Abyssinia. We may have to choose, therefore, between
offending a valuable ally and alarming the jealousies of a
savage population. We had hoped to escape this alterna-
tive, and enjoy the goodwill of Egyptians and Abyssinians
together ; but this intelligence deranges the expecta-
tions entertained. After all, too, as must again
be remarked, we are but at the beginning of
our work. The army has but just commenced its
march upon Magdala in quest of King Theodore
and his captives. Our principal work hitherto has been
to establish a base of operations at a distance of sixty
miles from the seacoast, and there accumulate a sufficient
supply of provisions and munitions for the campaign.
This in itself has been a most arduous task, but as re-
gards the immediate object of the expedition it amounts
to nothing but the removal of an obstacle in the way of
our first advance. If we could have made this advance
from Zoulla—that is to say, directly from our own ships
and storehouses on the coast—we should have saved
three months of time, toil, and outlay, but that could not
be done. Between Zoulla and Senafe there is a moun-
tain defile which may at any moment become absolutely
impassable to man or beast. In other words, communi-
cation between a base of operations established at Zoulla
and an army moving on the highlands above could not be
ensured. Consequently, Zoulla could not be taken as a
base, and Senafe was necessarily substituted.
The Post speaking of the letter from Lord Russell to
Mr. Chichester Fortescue on Irish affairs, &c., calls atten-
tion to the passage in which Lord Russell intimates his
resignation of the leadership of his party, and points to
>Mr. Gladstone, in terms not flattering, because they are
deserved, as the statesman most fitted to carry out the
views and projects of the Liberals. It is singular that
this announcement should occur at a moment when we can
no longer doubt that the Prime Minister must resign.
Lord Derby, it is now no secret, is so ill, so debilitated,
that while we trust there is no serious danger to his life, it
cannot be concealed that his efficiency as a Minister is
hopelessly impaired. The termination of his Premiership
-is only a question of days. With the disappearance of
these two great statesmen, the last of the. antiquated
school, in the last year of the old state of things, the
Post bids farewell to a past generation. The day of
younger men and new experiments has arrived. Farewell,
not only to our old pilots, but also to the narrow seas of
oligarchy in which they guided us. Henceforth we launch
out upon the ocean of democracy, and it will require no
mean order of men to steer our course with safety.
Hitherto we have had older men for Premiers. •It is
understood, however, that when Lord Derby resigns,
Lord Stanley, who by statesmen's reckoning is a boy, and
not even a middle-aged man, will succeed to the Premier.
ship ; and that he will be immediately called to the House
of Lords, probably as Baron Stanley, to avoid superseding
Mr. Disraeli.

The Daily News discusses the same letter, but from a
different point of view. It draws attention to Earl
Russell's views on the great questim of the Irish Esta-
blished Church. Hie lordship tests that Church by asking
whether it discharges the first duty of an Establishment
by giving religious instruction to the people ; and finds
that, tried by this standard, it has utterly failed. The
Protestant clergy are now what Dean Swift described
them to be—" country gentlemen in black coats," only
much better men than in his days. Not more than one-
eighth, sometimes not more than a tenth or a twentieth of
the population listen to their religious teachings. Thus,
the Irish Establishment is like nothing else in the world.
Nowhere but in Ireland Is the religion of the minority the
religion of the State. No foreign writer on British
affairs, whether Protestant or Catholic, Conservative or
Liberal, partial to England or prejudiced against
her, but expresses his amazement that such an institu-
tion should exist among reasonable men. If it is
desirable that this state of things should be reformed, the
plea of prescription, urged by Lord Cairns and others, is
no bar to a change. Without alleging that the Irish
clergy have violated their trust, it is enough in this case
if the nation has changed its mind and policy in regard to
the application of the funds. Both in England, at the
Reformation from Popery, and in Scotland, when Episco-
pacy was abolished under William 111., the clergy were
deprived of their property, although they had fully com-
plied with the conditions on which they had received it.
What the laymen and members of the House of Commons
of the Roman Catholic faith want is, that the four mil-
lions and a half of Roman Catholics in Ireland may be
placed on an equality with the seven hundred thousand
Protestants of the Episcopal Church. Earl Russell main-
tains that this is a just demand, and he quotes a speech
which Mr. Disraeli deliverer in the House of Commons
four-and-twenty years ago, to the effect that ecclesiastical
equality is one of the indispensable conditions of order and
prosperity in Ireland.
A most ludicrous outburst of what the Horning Herald
calls Austrophobia has just been produced by the emigration,
from Switzerland to France, of the so-called Hanoverians
who refuse to return to their country to be made Prussian
soldiers of, and whom King George keeps in his pay. The
movements of these several hundred men have occasioned
the Prussian Government much very unnecessary anxiety.
After leaving the Austrian dominion they went to Swit-
zerland, and thence a few days ago, as we have said,
crossed into Alsace. The Prussian press was at first in-
dignant with the French Government, which it accused of
high crimes and misdemeanors against Germany because
it did not at once handcuff the poor devils and drive thug
to the nearest Prussian frontier town. However, theils
anger is now concentrated on Austria. It turns out that
the Hanoverians were provided with Austrian passports,
without which they could not have entered France. The
Prussian Government was indignant. If the poor fellows
had been hemmed up in Switzerland their extradition
might have been obtained; but it is not possible to bully
France into the surrender of exiles whom Prussia chooses
to call deserters. Complaint was made to Vienna, and
the Austrian Government, insisting upon its right to grant
these passports, fortifying it by Prussian precedents, and
protesting against any unfriendly intention, admits that
there was an excess of duty on the part of certain sub
ordinate officers, who have been censured.
The Standard thinks that, on the whole, it must be con-
ceded that the judges were right, and that the reluctance
to accept a new responsibility has been satisfactorily
explained. In the first place, it is to be observed that
this unwillingness on the part of the bench is not the
result of divided councils. Among its fifteen members
are many who have been prominent politicians, and several
who, like the late Mr. Justice Wightman, knew no politics
but special pleading. Yet the letter of the Lord Chief
Justice shows that, without exception, one and all of them
charged him to Canvey to Lord Chelmsford " their strong
and unanimous feeling of insuperable repugnance to
having these new and objectionable duties thrust upon
them." If this " insuperable repugnance " were a matter
of
feeling simply, Parliament. might perhaps take upon
itself to adopt the
with it which Mr.somewhat Ingh-hande.d mode of dealing
Lowe seemed to desire. Of course, it
would be quite within its to were public servants—wer ."". tell .
ihe judges that
receiving
.public pay, and
therefore bound to do whatever the üblic by their consti-
tutional representatives, the
to t.hem. Still, this
would only be to aggfavate the evilslwhich their lordships
nut unnaturally deprecate,an_dafir_ead. They grey
now
respected and influential
present
itth, office is
'ally because they are
independent and impartial. At
invested with a halo, because by attaining the dearest
day-dreams of a hi g, h and honourable ambition are sup-
posed to be realised. Butit would be quite another thitng
if it
were understood that one consequence of accepting •
constrained entering into a stipulation perforce tochaasrga
duties for which those who undertake them feel themselves
unfitted, and upon the performance of which they will entere
With well-grounded apprehensions that portions both of the
press and the public will be ready to suspect them of
deflection from the strict impartiality which ought to
characterise their prcceedings.

Both Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone have (the
.Ti .1 effraph points out) declared that the representation of
,tl.Lecl ought to be increased. There is this difference
between them, however : Mr. Gladstone gave seats to
Se..tland at the -expense of the small English boroughs ;,
Me. Disraeli, on the contrary, said that the seven new
seats were to he obtained by a net addition to the aggre-
gate nuniker of the House of Commons. To the kingdom
at large, it will at once he seen, the issue thus raised is far
more important than the slight contemplated accession to
the power of the North. For, if Mr. Gladstone's views pre-
vail, the lom“hreatened nomination boroughs of England
are at last destined to lose their franchises. Mr. Disraeli's
scheme contemplates an addition to the total number of
members in the House of Commons. Instead of 658, he
proposes that we shall henceforth have 665. The plan of
the Conservative Minister is to put additional weights in
the lightest scale ,• that of the Liberal leader is to shift
weights from the heavier scale to the lighter. The obvious
disadvantage of Mr. Disraeli's plan is, that it adds to the
load of a machine which is already over•weighted.