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

bEiltIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS, 1 •DINNER TO SIR JAMES FERGUSON.

The Times says that Mr. Bright's speech at Edinburgh
was in some sort a challenge, not vain or boastful, but
still a challenge, to all the world to -examine his views of
national life and his principles of political action ; and it
is probable that no better task could be undertaken at the
present moment. Mr. Bright has arrived at a great
position. He has a right to say that he has
accomplished much, and he is justified in asking his
countrymen to consider whether they will not ge
along with him in his attempts to accomplish
more. What, then, are the reflections forced upon the
mind of any person who dispassionately reviews Mr.
Bright's career? He must frankly admit the beneficial
influence of Mr. Bright's action on all questions affecting
the internal well-being of the people. Sometimes, not
unfrequently, perhaps, his indignation led him to the use
of language which a larger intelligence of the
causes of his opponents' errors would ha ,a led
him to modify, but the special legislation he
has forwarded has been almost uniformly beneficial.
Still there are departments of national life with which
he has no sympathy, the foreign relations, for instance.
Mr. Bright's constitutional aversion to conceive the neces-
sity of war impairs to a certain extent his character as a
public man. It may be said that his energy is totally
arrested when this element of international life has to be
considered, and it must be remembered that until all
nations become just, war is as necessary an element of
politics as the intervention of a policeman is in social
life.

The Post draws a melancholy picture-of the degradation
a candidate has to undergo, and receives the announcement
of the issuing of the writs with great satisfaction. A can-
didate can hardly go through the process of canvassing
without a loss of self-respect. Not only must the candi-
date be content for the time being to degrade himself, but
he must pay heavily for the privilege of being allowed to
do so. It is only candidates and their agents who can
form any idea of the multiplicity and the variety of the
wants which their presence in a borough seems instinc-
tively to suggest to the townsmen. Dismissing for the
moment individual wants, such as the payment of arrears
of rent, satisfaction of outstanding claims, and not
nnfrequently payment of crisp bank-notes for no
ostensible purpose save the benefit of the recipient,
there are wants of a more general, and, it is suggested, of
a more legitimate kind. Local institutions need to be sup-
ported, and timely application is made, and not unna-
turally, to those who evince so much interest in the
borough or county to which they belong as to represent it
in Parliament. Lastly come the purely legitimate
expenses, at least what the agents and the electors con-
sider to be so. The process of sucking the orange is unin-
termittent, and no one need have felt surprised at seeing
so frequently of late the announcement that candidates
have retired after what is termed an unsuccessful canvass.
The fact is they overrated their powers of endurance, or
underrated the rapacity of their hoped-for constituents,
and ignobly failed to pass through the ordeal to which they
voluntarily submitted themselves.
The &raid takes farewell of the late Primate. Ener-
getic, without officiousness—earnest, without bigotry—
firm, without severity—Dr. Longley, in a great number
of important respects, realised our ideal of the ecclesias-
tical authority who is entrusted with the highest honour
and weightiest responsibilities which it is in the power of
the Church of England to bestow, causing it plainly to
be seen that in whatever he did he was acting merely in
obedience to his own convictions of what was right. It
was impossible for such a man to give offence.
Always ready to take the widest view compatible
with his sacred office of great theological questions,
Dr. Longley never failed to attract to himself the respect-
ful sympathy of his clergy, even where he did not meet
with their entire and unreserved agreement. With
administrative powers of uncommon calibre it was his
good fortune to have the opportunity of checking more
than one dissension which might have developed into a
serious schism, just as he never failed to employ the same
happy faculty in the defence of the true principles of the
English Church. He was a thorough and conscientious
Churchman, and knew no form of Anglican worship save
that sanctioned by the Church's laws. Never did bishop
sit upon the bench who exhibited both by his acts and
his speeches a more thoroughly just idea of the relative
position of matters religious and profane—of the inter-
communication and inter-penetration of Churchand State.
The loss which the Church sustains in the death of a
champion so devoted, and a worshipper so earnest, at the
present crisis, it is impossible to exaggerate. That what-
ever can be done efficiently to refill the place left vacant
by Dr. Longley will be done the latest instances of eccle-
siastical promotion of the Government are sufficient to
assure us. To the late Archbishop of Canterbury it is in
great measure due that the ranks of the clergy of the
Church of England present as firm an opposition as they do
to all attacks from without, as well as that there is so little
disaffection from within, and the task which will devolve
upon the new primate to perform it is a glorious distinc-
tion for Dr. Longley to have rendered easier and plains
than it could otherwise have been.

The Daily News comments upon the remarks of Dean
Alford, that the late archbishop broke through the iron
fetters of conventional precedent, and, in placing himself
in close contact with the working classes, did that which
was not expected of an archbishop in fashionable society,
but which was the duty of a pastor in the eyes of the
Shepherd of Souls. In these days our bishops are
expected, in the intervals of confirmations and prosecu-
tions of Ritualists, to climb up into lofts over stables and
address the horsekeepers, and we are all glad to hear of
it. But in Dr. Longley's early clays it was not so :
bishops thought it enough if the people were properly
ministered to by the parochial clergy. He did his
duty conscientiously and lovingly according to the
views of duty which then prevailed. But he lived to
see and feel that that the Church of England must free
herself from the trammels of a false dignity, and,
pious old man that he was, he no sooner gained this en-
larged view of his duty than he set about performing it.
Concerning the customs and ways of thought which rear
these artificial barriers between the pastors of the Church
and the flock, there is much to be said, which possibly
might be just in proportion as it was severe ; but to our
minds there is something touching in the spectacle of the
aged archbishop, at a time whc n many wculd have consi-
dered themselves entitled to rest from their labours, setting
himself to learn, by the example of younger men, the best
way to fulfil his duty as a bishop in the altered condition
of society which he lived to witness.

The Standard complains that Mr. Goschen claims the
Foreign Secretary as a Liberal. We know what are the
principles which guide Lord Stanley's foreign policy ; he
expressed them very powerfully in his recent speech at
Liverpool : scrupulous respects for the rights of other
nations, of the weakest as well as the strongest ;
strenuous maintenance of our own rights ; a study
to preserve, in the first instance, the peace of England,
and next, as far as in us lies, of Europe and the civilised
world ; to seek no narrow, no exclusive good, but to con-
sider that our interests are indissolubly connected with
those of neighbouring nations. These are the principles
upon which Lord Stanley says the foreign policy of Eng-
land should be based, and upon which, since he accepted
the seals, it has been based. gut what have the Liberal
party to do with these principles? Their principles
of foreign policy must be found in their admi-
nistration of foreign affairs. If we want to
know what they are we must look at what Lord
Russell did, instead of listening to what Mr. Goschen may
talk. The principles of the Liberal party are embodied
in Lord Russell's meddling and muddling. It is idle for
Mr. Goschen to attempt to ring the changes. He cannot
pass off Lord Stanley's principles of foreign policy as
the principles of the Liberal party. The country has too
much reason to remember the mischief Lord Russell did,
and too much cause to congratulate itself upon the good
Lord Stanley has achieved, to be caught by such a clumsy
device.

The Daily Neirs agrees with Mr. Mill as to the evil of
folding out to ambitious men all over the country induce.
ments to become Tories to serve their ambition. Most
men will concur with him in thinking that human nature
has not yet reached that stage of improvement that the
cause of progress and justice can do without these people
who during the time of Oliver Cromwell used to be
called self-seekers. The first duty of a Liberal
majority, on these grounds and on many others.
is. to place a Liberal Government in office. To
defer till February what can be done in Decem-
ber would be to lose not only the time between
December and February, but a great part of the session
of 1869 also. The month of January may be very con-
veniently occupied with the new Ministerial elections
which must take place if the House of Commons should
proclaim its want of confidence in her Majesty's present
advisers, and with the deliberations and preliminaries of
legislation which will be equally- necessary, whether Mr.
Disraeli keep, or Mr. Gladstone gain, power.

The Star looks hopefully to the result of the elections.
Those who argued that under an extended franchise the
representation of the country would become the prey of
needy or illiterate adventurers must be thoroughly
ashamed of their foolish vaticinations. It will have pre
cisely the opposite effect : and if such a reform in the
machinery of elections were instituted as would enable men
of moderate means to take the field as candidates, we are '
convinced that the House of Commons would undergo a
still greater improvement ; and that, while more truly
representing every class of the people, it would exhibit in 1
a yet greater degree those high qualities that befit the
foremost representative assembly in the world. Professor ;
Fawcett's proposal with reference to election expenses'
would have remedied a great evil, and it cannot be doubted
that beforro another general election tikes place candidates
will reiAncst & tigt, 14pinst wit ikinjulfr.lB(

A complimentary dinner was given on Tuesday to Sir
James Fergusson, prior to his leaving England to assume
the governorship of South Australia. The entertainment
was given in Willia's Rooms, St. James's. About 100
gentlemen were present. Lieutenant-Colonel Palmer was
in the chair, having on his right the guest of the evening,
General Ramsay, Sir George Grey, Hon. A. Blyth, Sir H.
Young, Mr. Shaw, Colonel Torrens, and Mr. Grieve
Walters ; and on the left Sir John Pakington, Admiral
Sir John Hay, Colonel Gawler, Colonel Freeling, Hon.W.
Duffield, Mr. W. W. Hughes, Mr. Jacob Montefiore, Mr.
W. J. Browne, Mr. E. Stirling, Mr. Dalrymple Hay, and
Mr. Vansittart.

Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, in responding to the toast of the
House of Commons, said he thought no reflecting man
could have long sat in the House without feeling increased
respect for representative institutions, and for the national
character of his country. It was a great institution, but
it vas an institution which no nation must for a moment
suppose they could create for themselves. It required
long training for a nation duly to appreciate or success.
fully to work such an institution ; but, without exaggera-
tion or mrlue national pri le, he thought he might say
the House of Commons was a model of a representative
assembly which rising nations would do well to study,
(Cheers,) And when he spoke of rising nations, to what
rising nation could he turn, either with such pleasure,such
interest, or such confidence, as to those great nations
which were rising in Australia? (Cheers.) It would be
for his hon. and excellent friend near him to preside
over one of those growing communities. With regard to
our own prospects here, also, be would only add that he
felt great confidence they would have no occasion to
repent the extended franchise they had granted to the
people.

Col. GAWLER, the oldest Governor of South Australia
present, proposed the health of Sir JAMES FERGUSSON, who,
in the course of his responding speech, said Australia
had within a comparatively short period become one, if not
of the first, at least one of the second rank of the colonies
of Great Britain. He believed that the people of this
country reciprocated the regard with which those of Aus-
tralia contemplated their mother country. The people of
this country were eminently proud of the Australian colo-
nies. They saw in them, perhaps, a more faithful reflex
of the virtues which had distinguished Great Britain than
in any other colonies which this country had founded.
Those who in this country could view with indifference
the intimate connection between Great Britain and those
great colonial communities must, indeed, be insensible to
one of the great facts which contributed so much to the
dignity of this country and its estimation in the world.
They saw their neighbours on the Continent using
great artificial efforts to found colonies in other parts
of the world, having regard to the great advan-
tages we bad derived from these possessions. Then, if
we had received great advantages from them, we should
not forget how little was expected from us. In these days
Australia was self-supporting. He thought the governor-
ship of such a colony was an object worthy of the ambi-
tion of an English politician. The time had gone by when
tie ability of a governor was all in all to a colony.
However inferior his talents, be could not by his
failure impose a great check on the prosperity of the
colony. The people of the colony managed their own affairs.
South Australia had been formed on the highest principle
on which a colony could be established ; it was indepen-
dent and self-supporting, asking nothing from the mother
country but the foundation of authority and law ; and
though it had been struggling for a time of difficulty and
danger, it had now arrived at a position of sound and stable
prosperity. It could not be doubted much still remained
to be accomplished. In the wilds over which the adminis-
tration of South Australia held sway communication bad
to be made and railways to be constructed. But the
spirit which had actuated the people of South Australia in
time past would not be wanting for the future. The
failures, if there had been failures, the errors, if there had
been errors, would not be lost on the administrations of
the future. He would add that the zeal of the Governors,
his predecessors. whatever the difficulties they had to face,
would not be lost upon those who succeeded them. He
was glad to know that there bad been that public spirit
shown by the South Australians both in their administra-
tion and in their Parliaments which gave the best security
for the future.

KILLED BY A METEOR.

-s-

The Brisbane Courier of the 25th of August states
that several of the vessels just arrived from the south-
ward reported that there was a great deal of electrical
atmospheric disturbance on Monday and Tuesday nights,
but whether it was the effect or was simply coincident with
the eclipse our informantscould not say. In one case it was
attended with fatal results, and a man was killed on board
the schooner Urania by the explosion of an electric
meteor. The v‘s e' was off Ceowdy Heal on Monday,
August 17, about midnight, when a heavy south-easterly
squall came ca, and ell hen-'s were called to shorten
sail. A seaman named H. G. sales was steering, and t.t
12.30 a.m. on Tuesday, the 18th, a meteor, like a ball of
fire, fell immediately over the vessel's stern, and exploded
with a loud report resembling that of a heavy piece of
ordnance. Sparks of fire were scattered all about the deck,
and the steersman was killed by the shock. Every one on
board felt a violent shock like that of a galvanic battery;
but none of the crew were injured except Sales, who was at
his last gasp picked up. His body shewed no marks, but ap-
peared to be blackened, and some six or seven hours after
decomposition set in, and the poor fellow was buried over
the side. He was a young man, about 23, and a smart
seaman. The fire-ball apparently travelled with the wind,
which was from the south-west, and when it burst the
flash was so intensely brilliant that the steward, who was
lying in his berth below, declared that he saw the fire
through the seams of the deck. The cabin at the same
moment was filled with smoke, which blackened papers
lying about. Captain Johnstone says that the discolora-
tion of the paint was like that produced by " smoking
the ship" with charcoal. A peculiar and indescribable
smell was perceived for some time after the explosion,
and a quantity of flakes like the soot from a steamer's
funnel were scattered about. Captain Milman states
that on his last trip to Sydney a fire-bail was observed
passing ahead of his ship, about one a.m., on Monday,
the 17th. It travelled in a horizontal direction from
north-west to scuth-cast. Apparently it was so near the
ship that the officer of the watch altered her course to
avoid it, when it burst, and for the moment the whole
heavens seemed to be in ablaze of light, and at the same
time there was terrific thunder. Lightning and thunder
continued at intervals throughout the night and next day
(Tuesday), until about half-past eight o'clock, when the
veather cleared up.