The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC) JOURNALS.

The Ministry, the Saturday Review says, in one respect
stands especially well with the country, for no one wishes
it to go out of office. Persons who look far ahead, and
think of the ultimate effect which such a state of things
may produce on the working of the Constitution, are filled
with alarm at such an extraordinary phenomenon as a
Conservative Government doing the work of the Liberals.
But, as it goes on, the process, although it may be
dangerous, is certainly not unpopular. The Conservative
party likes being in office. The Liberal party at such a
crisis gains greatly by being out of office ; and those who
belong to neither party are satisfied with the mode in
which Lord Stanley conducts our foreign affairs, and
wish to avoid the waste of time which would be caused
by a change of Ministry at a period of the session when it
is known tolerably well what-\pieces of legislation must be
got through before Parliament is prorogued. It is not
fair to say that the Ministry is a Ministry on sufferance.
It is a Ministry established with the general assent of all
parties. And certainly no one gains so much from its
existence as its opponents gain. If the present Ministry
really wished to save or help the Irish Chuch, the best
thing they could do would be to resign. The Liberals, if
in office, would have the utmost difficulty in agreeing
what to do with the Irish Church. Their majority might
easily be split up, and would be exposed to the greatest
danger in face of the united body of the Conservatives.
The attack on the Irish Church is infinitely more effective
than it could be if a Liberal Ministry were in office, and
had to be responsible for all the mistakes that might be
made. In order, therefore, to oblige everyone, the
Government may, it is to be hoped, last until next year
brings a new Parliament with it. It seems so natural
that a Conservative Ministry should be found passing
numberless bills under the dictation of the Liberals, that
we have no idea of thinking worse of a man who has fallen
in with the system, and keeps office under circum-
stances which theoretically are very anomalous. There
was a time, it must be remembered, when, under the reign
of Palmerston, Liberals stayed on in official life, and
devoted themselves to carrying out a very Conservative
policy. And in some measure the indifference or satisfac-
tion with which the country watches the continuance of
the present Ministry in office is due to the conviction that
it can do no harm. The Liberal victory seems so great,
and the appeal it has made to the nation so successful,
that a Conservative Government cannot, it is thought,
interfere with this success, or make things go less quietly
or less readily in the direction in which it is desired they
should go by the Liberal portions of the English and
Scotch constituencies.

The Spectator gives its readers an article in answer to
the question, " Shall Liberals take office yet ? But (it
says) for the Premier's recent finesse, which has disgusted
even politicians not usually over-scrupulous, one-half the
Liberal party at least would prefer that the change of
Government should be postponed -until Easter next. They
want to see what the next Parliament will be like before
they complete their final reorganisation. The Old Whigs
want it keciuse, though staunch enough on the Irish
church, they want to see how far they must go before they
commit themselves unreservedly to Mr. Gladstone's lead,
to ascertain, in fact, if the long regime of inaction has or
has not at length come to an end. We deeply regret their
feeling, but there is no wonder mixed with the regret.
The old peer who objected to die because he doubted if he
should be quite as well off in heaven may have been a
cynic ; but a Grosvenor or a Russell may be pardoned for
questioning if any earthly change can greatly improve
his political position. On the other hand, the Radicals
entertain a doubt, in which to a certain extent we share,
whether it will be good for them that Mr. Disraeli should
resign just now, whether the old influences are not still too
strong, whether a little more light from below might not
greatly assist Mr. Gladstone in the formation of a new
Ministry. It is not enough to have reformed the House of
Commons unless we can also reform the Executive,
unless we can secure a Ministry as advanced as the Par-
liament it is to lead. If we have the old set back again,
with their half-formed convictions and easy-going ways,
and sympathy with the Peers and deference for
the Court, and fear of every sheep which looks as if it
were going to butt, their inability to construct, and their
readiness to concede, their awe of vestries and their pusil-
lanimity towards opinion, three-fourths of the progress
gained will have been thrown away. The old Parliament
was weak, and the new one will be strong, and we do not
want to see half its strength wasted in lugging along reluc-
tant leaders, men not only unable to see whither things
ought to tend, but to perceive which way they will tend,
whether they like or no. There is arduous work to be
clone, work requiring new men, strong men, men who will
fit means' to ends without regard for anything but effi-
ciency ; who will have no esoteric creed about England
being an aristocratic republic, and no secret belief that
birth is a qualification for making treaties or devising
ironclads, who will honestly act on the maxim, "The
tools to the workman." The new Parliament, if it is not
to be superseded by something still stronger, must get rid
of some of our worn-out organisations, and should be led
in its work by men who really mean reform, and are not
afrain of seeking ideals lest some ancient interest should
he crushed by the way.

The John Bull confides in the new constituencies of the
Reform Act to reverse the decision of the present Parlia-
ment. The remarks of those writers who attempt to show
that the Ministry are merely endeavouring to gain time,
by refusing to resign till next year, seem, to our contem-
porary, founded on the false assumption that the
new constituency cannot by any possibility return a
Conservative majority. Believing as it does that
this is a fallacy, and refusing to regard the attack
on the Irish Church as anything more than the
commencement of an attack on the Church in this
country, and on all other institutions, such as the House
of Lords and the Throne, which might stand in the way of
so-called Liberal ascendancy, the John Bolt contends
that it is the duty of the Government not to resign, even
if Mr. Gladstone had the same majorities in committee,
which will, however, certainly not be the case. The
majority would not have been nearly as great had
it not been arranged in the earlier part of the evening
that the Government would not accept the vote as one
of confidence ; and it is notorious that many Liberals voted
against their consciences to please their present constituents.
We do not think so badly of them as to believe that they
will sanction a factious interference with necessary public
business which can serve no possible end. The question
is one with which the new House of Commons must deal ;
and it certainly seems singular that the Liberal party
should not patiently abide the issue, when they pretend
that the verdict will be so undeniably in their favour.
The Imperial Review complains that the Liberal journals
are never weary of pointing to Lord Cranborne as the
representative of the genuine feelings of the Constitutional
party. But one swallow does not make a summer. And
Lord Cranborne occupies a position conspicuous enough,
it is true, but chiefly remarkable as that of an excep-
tion, such as is said to prove the rule. If the noble
lord the member for Stamford is indeed what such nice
Judges of honour and consistency as are to be found
among our Liberal contemporaries affect to hold him, the
exponent of the true Conservative policy, how is it that
the bitterest diatribe which he can utter fails to bring a
single recruit to his standard ? For, in spite of all that

was said by the exulting gossips of the Reform Club
during the week which culminated in the great
division, the Government was never more loyally sup-
ported by its own party-following than on the memorable
night of the 3rd of April. Nobody, of course, can deny
that the Opposition mustered on the same occasion in
much greater force than they have been able to display
since their exit from power. But it is not very easy to see
what special significance is to be attached to such a demon-
stration so far as anybody out of doors is concerned. For the
first time since Lord Palmerston's death, his following was
brought together to support a proposition he would be the
first to resist. And though one grudges no credit to Mr. Glyn
for the efficacious use of the whip which he has so recently
assumed, one is at a loss to perceive what lesson is to be
drawn from the demonstration of that numerical superiority
of the Liberals with which everybody was perfectly well
acquainted. Whatever may be the fate of Mr. Gladstone's
resolutions in the present Parliament, and it is not diffi-
cult to foresee what the Liberal party may be expected to
do after what they have done, the matter is really of very
little consequence after all. With the country must rest
the ultimate appeal.

The London Review, in an article on bankruptcy,
remarks that although the bill of Lord Cairns goes a very
short way to remedy existing evils, yet any change cannot
fail to be welcomed. It is impossible to do more than
speculate upon the effect of a great deal contained in the
bill ; but if we are to be guided by past experience., many
of the provisions are not likely to be very productive of
benefit to creditors. The provision with respect to after.
required property is at best doubtful in principle, and it
likely to be comparatively inoperative in practice. There
are many persons who fail in consequence of no fault of
their own, and who notwithstanding may not he able to get a
release from their creditors; and to hang round the nee4
of sneli a person the dead weight of liabiiities of perhap.

an enormous amount would deprive him f all incentive tt
activity and would arter all produce nothing for the cre
ditors. Even were this otherwise, we know that thoze
clauses of the Insolvent Act as to after-acquired property
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred remained a dead
letter. The Scotch system might possibly work well,
although it is more than doubtful whether, when applied
to our extensive system of commerce, it would not be
found thoroughly inadequate. The provisions as to person,
becoming bankrupts on their own petition, and which
restrict composition deeds within due bounds, must be
preferable to the existing law ; but if arrest fur imprison

ment is abolished, the necessity for all this machinery
ought in a great measure to go too. A man who is not in
a position to pay his debts ought not to be at liberty to
deal with what assets he may possess—they are not his,
but belong to his creditors ; and if bankruptcy be neces-
sary to secure an equal division of them among the cre-
ditors, it is for them and not for him to call in the aid of
the court. The law will protect his person from arrest,
and if he desires to have, in addition to that, a release
from his liabilities, he surely ought to make out a
stronger case than mere indebtedness. There is one
portion Lord Cairns's bill, however, upon which
it is impossible to speak with approval. We
mean those sections which, although they deprive the
superior courts of the power of imprisonment for debt,
retain the power of commitment which has been un-
wisely conferred upon county court judges, and is largely
exercised by them. Few will deny that imprisonment
'or debt is a relic of barbarism, seldom resorted to among
ommercial people, and mainly used by the worst descrip-
tion of money-lenders as a terror to their dupes ; but if
we look at the actual working of the law, we shall find
that, so far from there being any reason why the rich
man should be favoured above the poor man, there are the
strongest and most urgent reasons for doing away at once
and for ever with imprisonment in county court actions.
Lord Cairns points out that the number of county court
commitments do not exceed a thousand every year, and
this he seems to regard as a comparatively small number.
Others think it enormous : and we have only to reflect
upon the nature of the demands, and the positions of those
who are committed, to see the vicious system which the
Practice fosters.

The Saturday Review has something to say in answer to
the criticisms sent forth against it for its denunciation of
the girl of the period. This, we are told in a tone of
pathetic resignation, is a day of hard sayings for women.
It is, we will venture to add, a day when women have to
meet hard sayings with replies a little less superficial than
the conventional stare of outraged womanhood or the
rrivial retort on the follies of rc en. Grant that woman's
censors are as cynical and hollow-hearted as you will, there
can be no doubt that their criticisms are simply the
expression of a general uneasiness, and that that
uneasiness has some ground to go upon. It is
possible that observers across the water may be cynical
in denouncing the "magnificent indecency" of the heroines
of New York. It is possible that the schoolmasters of
Berlin may be cynical in calling public opinion to their aid
against the degrading exhibitions of the Prussian capital. It
is possible that the thunders of the Vatican are merely an
instance of Papal cynicism. It is possible that the pro-
test of the Bishop of Orleans is as hollow-hearted as the
protests of censors nearer home. But such a world-wide
outbreak of cynicism without a cause is a somewhat im-
probable event, and the improbability is increased when
we remark the silent acquiescence of the women of
America and the Continent in the justice of these
censures. Having thus justified himself, the reviewer
goes on to deal with British mothers, whom he criticises
with no light pen, as the following closing passage of the
article will show :—By the sacrifice of womanliness, by
the sacrifice of modesty, by flattering her wooer's base
preferences before marriage, by encouraging his baser
selfishness afterwards, by hunting her husband to the club
and restricting her maternal energies to a couple of infants,
woman has at last bought her freedom. She is no slave
of her husband as her mother was, she is not buried be-
neath the cares of a family like her grandmother. She
has changed all that, and the old world of home and do-
mestic tenderness and parental self-sacrifice lies in ruins
at her feet. She has her liberty; what will she do with
it ? As yet, freedom means simply more slang, more
jewellery, more selfish extravagance, less modesty. As we
meet her on the stairs, as we see the profuse display of her
charms, as we listen to the flippant, vapid chatter, we
turn a little sickened from woman stripped of all that is
womanly, and cry to heaven, as Madame de Campan cried
to the Emperor—" Give us good mothers."