The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-27 00:00:00

OF THE PUBLIC JOITBNALS.

The Times remarks that the poWer of the existing
Government is becoming rapidly limited to the exercise of
the Royal prerogative, alluding to a report that this sacred
fund is to be largely drawn upon, in extremis, for the
creation of a dozen consolation peerages. No doubt, there
is at least that number of fitting objects for public charity
in its most splendid form. Considering the continual
augmentation that House must receive from law, from
diplomacy, and from the army, its original character as a
representation of land and property should be well
sustained. Upon general grounds, and were these or&
nary times, small objection could be made. But every-
thing that gives a character to the existing circumstances
tells pointedly and emphatically against a creation of Con-
servative peers by the moribund Cabinet. Some Govern-
ments, after long service and after a long-continued
popularity, have fallen at last upon some temporary occa-
sional issue—some neglect, some shortcoming, some
mishap—just as an old servant might forfeit his place
without prejudice to his claim to some snbstantial reward.
In that-case two or three peerages have been taken in
discharge of a just debt. But the merit of the expiring
Government cannot be its length of service or the
number and variety of its achievments. The House
of Lords is Conservative enough to be troublesome
to a Conservative as well as a Liberal Government.
The Times forsees the effect a new creation would have on
the question of the day, and thinks there would be nothtig
for the head of the new Government but to create Pe4b
enough to turn the balance their way. It would not be
right to charge on the Conservatives alone an irreverent
handling of the august assemblage under question, and a
lavish diffusion of its privileges. Both sides have offended
Tii this way. But there is this excuse for the Liberal side—
that in the majority of instances a Peerage, whatever the
politics of theoriginal hOlder and his political friends,becomes
an accession to the Conservative force of the House. The
institution itself is one of Conservative tendencies, and
in natural antagonism to popular movements. Without a
single new Conservative creation between this and the end
of the century, the House would be then found disposed
to resist all change where resistance is possible. What
the House wants is, not Conservatism, but such an amount
of popular confidence as shall widen the scope of its own
action, put more work into its hands, render it a more
serviceable ally of the Lower House, and insure more
respect for its decisions when they deserve it.
The Post asks what amount of power and what prestige
will the Conservatives carry with them across the floor of
the House of Com Mons. Upon the solution of that ques-
tion the character of the future policy and coming legisla-
tion of the country will be largely dependent. By the
attitude which they assume as a party in the face of inevi,
table defeat, and by the course they take on their forced
resumption of the duties of an Opposition, the policy of;
the Government to be formed by Mr. Gladstone must
be not inconsiderably determined. The ConservsA
tives have been thoroughly and decidedly defeated;
but they have not been humiliated. Numerically they
are weaker than when they acceded to office, but morally,
if they comprehend their position, they are stronger. The
army of Mr. Disraeli shews more instead of less confidence
is the astute and versatile strategist who leads them, their
organisation is admirable, and the general election, if it
has diminished somewhat their numbers, has added to their
ranks not a few adherents whose names and position will
make them count as court cards in the game. The Post
asks both leaders and their following " What will he do
with it ?" There is another problem with regard to which
speculation cannot much assist us, and which events aloney
can satisfactorily solve. Is the majority a majority merely
against Mr. Disraeli, as a challenger, or is it a majority
determined not only to defeat the Conservative leader, but,
in addition, completely organised to give power and place
to Mr. Gladstone, and to maintain him, come who may
against him, as leader of the nation?
The Daily News thinks Mr. Gladstone's address to the
electors of Greenwich, accepting the seat they so spon-
taneously gave him, is worthy of himself and of them. It
is something for even the leader of a great party to be
returned by a large and independent constituency without
taking any part whatever in the election, and Mr. Glad-
stone may well feel that a seat thus given him is indeed a
most honourable' one. Mr. Gladstone expresses his
belief that such generous and unasked confidence-
is unparalleled. Parliamentary leaders have before now
sought the suffrages of other constituencies after their
defeat at home, but this is the first instance, probably, in
which a large constituency has elected its representative
without any sanction from him, and while he was still
fighting his battle elsewhere. Mr. Gladstone may
well set the " generous, unasked, and unparalleled
kindness" which has given him this seat against
the failure of his too chivalrous effort to pluck a
seat frc m the very grasp of the Conservative Mentor.
A seat in Parliament so offered and so accepted is honour-
able both to the constituency and to the representative.
. Mr. Gladstone cannot be said to fall back on Greenwich.
He has not gone there as a defeated candidate to ask for a
seat. He was already the spontaneously elected member
for that constituency before the nomination in South-West
Lancashire, and was elected without any intimation from
himself that he would accept the honour. The electors
of Greenwich have well deserved the distinction whiCla
Mr. Gladstone's acceptance of the seat will confer
upon them. They have done the Liberal party a service.
They have taken all trace of humiliation from Mr. Glad-
stone's defeat by conferring on him beforehand that rarest
)f honours—an unsought seat. Mr. Gladstone might
probably have preferred to sit for his native division of
his native county ; but if that satisfaction has been denied
him, he at least enjoys the honour of a seat for which he
made no effort, and to which he was elected in his absence,
and without a sign from himself ; and that is an honour
which will be unique in Parliament.
The Summary says : It is not for us to interfere in so
delicate a matter, but we may be permitted to observe
that the difficulties of the Liberal party are as great with
Mr. Gladstone as a leader, as without him as a leader.
If he is Prime Minister, he will have to elect between the
two sections of his followers ; if he is not, there can be
little doubt that he will become rapidly still more demo-
cratic in his action. In either case, Conservatives will
probably be re-called very shortly to power. Mean-
while it is preposterous that while the Pall Mall Gazette
distrusts him for not being a man of the world, an enthu-
siastic supporter in the Daily News actually calls on us to
fall down and worship Mr. Gladstone as the only religious
statesman of the day, who is the elect of the people on that
very ground. Injudicious as Mr. Gladstone is, odd as he
has she wn himself to be, as in other ways, so, by translating
some book during the exciting hours of the polling in
South-West Lancashire, he must himself wish that so
injudicious though well-meaning a friend could be
muzzled.

The Telegraph trusts that the Queen will lend the lustre
of her station and personal assistance to the ceremony of
the opening of Parliament. Even as a stately pageant of
our political life the opening of such a house at such an
epoch deserves to be rendered complete. The empty
throne must seem more unsatisfactory than ever
when nothing but its occupancy is wanted to
restore the half-forgotten splendours of that which
is still the most august and ancient assemblage of
lawgivers in the civilised world. Ceremony may be over-
valued ; but while a just and due solemnity is confirmed
by traditional customs, and while the stateliness of
monarchy is found useful to deepen the reverence of
popular power, the grandest function of the sovereign
ought surely to have all the majesty and effect which it
can borrow from the visible presence of Royalty. The
Queen's appearance, nttering such words a-s should alone
be in her mouth, will seasonably reassure the country
against sinister forebodings ; and the Telegraph is
equally ready to affirm that it will imply a
like abstinence from personal feeling as regards
the statesmen who will be charged with the adminis-
trative and political duties of the day. On all
accounts, then, the' presence of her Majesty is most
desirable, since it would not only signalise the beginning
of a new parliamentary era, but would place before the
newly-constituted assembly, at the very beginning of its
life, the august figure of the hereditary sovereign in that
impartial and inviolate position which she holds between
all rivalries of policies and parties.

The Times warns statesmen not to rely too much on the
weak elements of our parliamentary system. If anything
be certain in English politics, it is that the redistribution
of seats will be carried much further, and that members
will within a few years be justly apportioned to population.
For good or for evil, the number of small boroughs will be
diminished, and the Marylebones and Lambeths will be
divided and more • fully represented. Though nothing
can be pleasanter than a quiet little constituency,
which gives no trouble, and regards its member with
almost superstitious veneration when he makes his rare
appearance, yet such constituencies must for the most part
pass away, while the few that remain will be fought for
with desperate energy and lavish purse by the ambitious
rich, by the local magnate, or his rival, the merchant
from town. Statesmen and men of political genius
generally must, therefore, make up their minds to woo
and win large popular constituencies.
The Poet says the Reform Leaguers have been made tools
of by their selfish superiors in Liberal society. They were
never intended by the higher Radicals to sit in Parliament.
There is a Liberal scoff at their preten§ions; there are 'a
thousand Liberal mockeries over their universal failure.
And one, no doubt, has been cleverly played off against
another. The evidently approaching dissolution of the
Melt-Ali-terrace Reform League, through deficiency of
funds and the withdrawal of popular sympathy, renders
this perhaps the less regrettable, but it will entail
the loss in public life of Mr. Edmond Reales -M.A.
He does not sit for the Tower Hamlet's ; he
will not be much longer the head of an asso-
ciation which professes to govern the world, even
as far as Spain. But we have our comfort. Such spirits
do not rest. When they have settled their charges of
mutual peculation, when they have arbitrated between
the atheism' of Mr. Bradlaugh and the P
Mr. Beaks, when they have discovered who,lal)nlic a
oicilgittsmof-
selves, connived and confederated against the rest- , when
the probled Of the " mysterious funds" has
and when it is explained why hardly one woribr2 ,:!as4
candidate went to the poll, or paid the returning "leers'
charges, then we may learn that a new and even a I, i:,her
destiny is reserved for the dispersing. patriots of 'the
AdelpLi-terrace. Until then, vale, and good rillanee