The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Un the subject of the elections on Monday the lima
remarks that those who turn to the speeches of the
Ministers re-elected in quest of significant hints on the
future policy of the Ministry will be disappointed.
How could it be otherwise ? It is but three weeks since
the close of the general elections, when the several candi-
dates for the suffrages of their countrymen, including
those who have just been compelled to seek reelection,
explained at great—it may be said in some cases•
nate—length their views on the political questions which
will occupy the attention of Parliament. Since that
time a Ministry has resigned, and a certain number „of
gentlemen have agreed to form a new one ; but the Ad-
ministration is still, it is not too much to say, a collection
of atoms. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in addressing
the electors of the University of London, went so far as to
declare the Government was really not yet fully con-
stituted. Mr. Bright at Birmingham expressed the same
truth in the statement that the Administration has only
been just formed, and its members have only once
met. " There has been as yet," he added, "no
time to discuss and determine any of those
questions which must necessarily claim the atten-
tion of the Government and of Parliament."
The Times then adds that Mr. Gladstone had a word to
say about many things—Parliamentary Reform ; bank.
rnptcy reform ; education in its three branches—higher,
middle, and primary ; the relations lcottween capital and
labour ; public expenditure ; the Irish Church ; Irish
land ; and Irish education; Mr. Bright's explana-
tions of his doubts and hesitations about accepting
office are commented on and approved as some-
what attractive. The whole speech, it is said,
stands out among the speeches of Monday as an indi-
vidual utterance. Mr. Bright's diffident hope that a man
might be honest even though a Cabinet Minister ; his
'reference to the visitation which for a time incapacitated
him for public life ; his plea for sympathy and the lenient
judgment of his friends ; his request that his career as a
Minister might be scanned as &whole rather than tortured
with minute inquiries into every individual act, were all
apparently at variance with the tone of the self-confident
orator and bold Reformer we have known, but they only
complete the picture of the man by bringing contrasted
sentiments and diverse modes of thought into one whole.
The Daily News says that at Greenwich an air of
•Christmas cordiality and seasonable good wishes was
apparent everywhere. Greenwich in old times was the
scene of many State ceremonials and historic greetings,
but it seldom witnessed a more interesting spectacle than
the first interview between the Prime Minister and his
constituents. Mr. Gladstone gave warm and full ex-
pression to the gratitude which the generosity and
chivalry of the river town has awakened in his mind.
The political vagrant, as he choose to call himself, has
sound a settlement in Greenwich ; and, in the ordinary
course of things, it will be a settlement for life. Mr.
'Gladstone is not likely to sit for any other con-
stituency than that which has adopted him. Little
is said about Mr. Gladstone's future policy. Mr.
Lowe is advised to take heart. It is remarked :In his
monody to the University of London yesterday he seems
to have given way to the desponding impression that a
Chancellor of the Exchequer must necessarily be an odious
character. Mr. Gladstone has shewn him that the success-
ful tenure of that office may make the statesman who fills
it the most popular man in the kingdom ; and, in the chief
. under whom he serves, and in the colleagues with whom
he acts, Mr. Lowe has advantages which Mr. Gladstone
lacked.

The Star contends that Mr. Gladstone's speech was
more than a re-vindication of the course of the Liberal
party on the question of the day, although that topic
naturally occupied a large share of the attention of the
orator. It may be taken as an indication of the line of
policy which the Ministry intend to follow, not as to
matters of principle, for on that head the public is already
perfectly informed, but in the selection of the subjects
which are deemed of most pressing importance. On the
Irish Church question it is said that Mr. Gladstone
happily ridiculed the fears of those who lament, or pro-
fess to lament, over the prospect of Catholic ascendancy.
and it goes on to remark that those sincere but deluded
Protestants who imagine that they prevent Catholic
ascendancy by the degradation of Catholic belief, only
prevent that free inquiry into the principles and practices
of Catholic faith which is now in full sweep in every Papal
country but Ireland. In Austria, Italy, and Spain
patriotism is at war with the priests ; in Ireland we have
forced patriotism into an indissoluble alliance with the
Church as it is, until bigotry seems but another form of
love of country with our Irish fellow-subjects.
According to the Standard, Mr. Gladstone is diffuse and
vague. He cites the various questions which he thinks
should engross the attention of the Legislature, but he is
careful to avoid any explicit statement as to the mode in
which they should be treated, while he more than hints
that the Government will have quite enough on their
hands in accomplishing the destruction of the Irish Esta-
blishment. Messrs. Lowe and Bright make no pretence
of letting out the secrets of the Cabinet, if any there be.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer intimates that he is quite
prepared to ;act up to the traditions of his office, and
something more. He intends to be a ferocious econo-
mist, and to " make himself disagkkable to everybody all
round." It will be his business to interfere with every
department, and to be perpetually refusing "what may
seem to be most reasonable and proper demands." He
has contracted " a passion for saving money," and is pre-
pared to scent a job in everything. Of course the new
broom will sweep uncommonly clean, but it will be the
duty of the Opposition to take care that the new order of
economy is not identical with that costly niggardliness
which, under Mr. Gladstone's regime, brought the army
and navy well-nigh to ruin.

Radical Greenwich, says the Herald, has not shewn
itself equal to the occasion. Although assured in the
morning by the party organs that the day was to be the
most memorable in their annals since Henry VIII. was
born among them, and adjured to assemble in tens of
thousands upon Blackheath to welcome the foremost man
of the British Empire, the constituents of Mr. Gladstone
stayed in their warm and dry homes, and left him to
address a select audience whom every day's and every
night's exposure had rendered indifferent to wind or rain.
Mr. Gladstone is blamed for having no policy to state
except his views on the Irish Church. His promises of a
large reduction in expenditure, it is remarked, will not
get beyond his estimates. Mr. Bright is commended for
his frankness, but it is suggested that he was more pointed
than his colleagues will like. The change in Mr. Bright,
however, is regarded as merely superficial. He has kissed
the Queen's hand, and he has accepted the heavy
responsibility of a large, we may say a leading, part in the
Government of his country ; but he remains as intolerant
as ever of all dissent from his opinions, and as uncharitable
as ever towards his antagonists.

The Telegraph, referring to what Mr. Gladstone said at
Greenwich on the subject of the Ballot, remarks that
its advocates may well take comfort from his words.
Referring to the open and systematic intimidation which
disgraced Blackburn at the late elections, he declared that,
though personally in favour of open voting, he would
insist that voting should at least be free ; and that if so
indispensable an accompaniment of electoral choice could
be secured by no other means, secret voting must be
authorised by law. This declaration does not actually
commit Mr. Gladstone to supporting the ballot ; but
language so favourable to that measure has never yet
been uttered by a Prime Minister of England; and when
the Court of Common Pleas shall reveal the outrageous
length to which intimidation has been carried, we may
confidently hope that the ballot will find in Mr. Gladstone
its foremost champion.
On the same subject the Daily News says : Mr. Glad-
stone's rejection for the great county whose suffrages he
solicited is likely to be a step towards the accomplishment
of a great reform. It has opened his eyes to the means
ty which elections are too often won in England ; and with
a man of his intelligence to see the evil is not to be very
far off from the discernment of the remedy. " I have at
all times," says the Prime Minister, "given my vote in
favour of open voting ; but I have done so before, and I do
so now, with this important reservation—that whether by
open voting, or by wha' soever means, free voting must be
secured." In these words, the Ballot, we venture to say,
is prefigured as clearly as the Reform of Parliament was
foreshadowed in the memorable sentences of 1865, and the
disestablishment of the Anglican Church in Ireland in
the declarations of 1868.
Referring to the subject of the Presidential Message, tne
Post says, in regard to the quarrel, that never since the
foundation of the Atherican Republic basso marked and so
irreconcileahle an antagonism arisen between the President
and Congresg.as that which, without the slightest inter-
mission, has subsisted during the past three years between
Mr. Johnson and those to whom his last message has been
addressed. Opinions may vary in respect to the sound-
ness of the policy which he pursued, but none can doubt
that it was one which absolutely lashed to fury
tho”, with whom it certainly was for the. interest
of the State that he should have cordially co-operated.
\Whether it was his fault or theirs we leave to historians
to decide, but that there were faults on one if not on both
sides is unquestionable. For the first time an attenipt
was made to unseat the President by process of impeach-
ment, and the ill success of this mark-nut-re certainly
did not tend to render the victor more conciliatory in his
manner, or the vanquished less sensitive to any future
attacks' which they might conceive were made on their
independence. Under these circumstances, therefore,
and on the eve of quitting office, the duly has devolved
on M,. Johnson of meeting Congress and of offering to it,
in accordance with custom, a reszimb of the past and a
progranime of the future. Can it be a matter for surprise,
then, that on such au occasion that which should he a'
sober, statesmanlike document should be made the vehicle
for recrimination and abuse? In conclusion it is remarked
that having wasted its resources and paralysed its ener-
gies, Air. J ~
Johnson recommended that Con should now
blast its reputation. As a stroke of sarcasm, the proposal
may be regarded as excellent, but then it must be borne in
mind that President's Messages are not fitting vehicles for
satire and irony.