The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-20 00:00:00

Mail: OF tiiiE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times is very angry with tle Queen for going off
to Scotland at a time in which her Presence in London is
so much needed as now. It is now -necessary for Ministers
to communicate with the sovereign. Mr. Disraeli is 63
years of age, and, though mentally energetic, it would be
too much to ask him to rush to the Highlands at limited
mail speed and return within forty-eight hours. So her
Majesty must be communicated with by messenger, if at
all ; and, however the communication is made, there must
be an inconvenient lapse of time before the answer is re-
ceived. Mr. Disraeli should have been able to make
some statement to the House of Commons last evening ;
but for this he was not prepared. In answer to Mr.
I)alglish, he announced that he would state to the
House on Thursday the course the Government intended
to take with reference to the Scotch Reform Bill. What-
ever may be the determination arrived at, whatever new
difficulty any new vote of the House may bring upon tin
Minister, it is impossible that he can have the opportu
nity of advising her Majesty personally on the subject.
and so far the efficient transaction of public business must
be hindered. The Times thinks, therefore, that it was
An act of culpable neglect on the part of the Minister
t to inform the Queen that the political prospects -
of ,her Government were so doubtful as to demand her
pre..ie.nce at or near the seat of the Legislature. The
Queers has always shown herself ready to fulfil her con-
stitutioxol duties, and no one can doubt that, had the case
been fu:l3,- laid before her, she would willingly have re-
mained at 'Windsor at a period of such paramount im-
portance. E.:ther by chance or through a traditional
practice of the ...Royal House, a crisis has generally found
the sovereign a.'• some distance from the capital. But
in all such cases the first person in the realm has
been readily access.'ble. In the old days a carriage
and post horses, in n:ore modern times a special train,
soon placed the chiefs of the Ministry in the presence of
their sovereign, to whom they were able to communicate
by word of mouth their deliberate decision, and of whom
they were able personally to ,ask a renewal of confidence
or the highest exercise of the riyal prerogative in the
diosolution of Parliament. It would be a questionable
innovation if this usage were abandoned, and we
we-e to come to resignations by telegraph, and
correepondence by messenger, instead of royal councils.
No one can say what misunderstandings and what consti-
tutional derangements may be the result of such an incom-
plete transaction of the highest business. The matter,
indeed, does not need argument. The sovereign is an
essential part of the Legislature, A much as the Lords or
the Commons, and when Parliament is summoned for the
despatch of business it is but reasonable that the sovereign
should be at hand.
The Post declares that the " moribund" House was not
sufficiently heroic to deal with Mr. Trevelyan's motion
abolishing purchase in the army. But although the feel-
ing of the House was against the abolition of purchase, it
was admitted by Sir John Pakington and others that if
they had to construct a system de novo, purchase could
• be admitted as the governing principle of the scheme,
md so far they allowed that that principle was not intrinsi-
cojiy a good one ; but the practical consideration affecting
th present view of the matter is that "le jen ne vaut pas
• clandelle," and that from seven to twenty mil-
lions -for these were the limits assigned—was too
high ms price to pay for that which many believed to be
a douLtinl advantage, and which more still considered
was just the reverse. The reason for this great range of

price to ;le paid in the event of abolition of purchase is,
that some Lave reckoned in the capitalised value of the
retiring pens.'ons which would be absolutely necessary to
create a flow e promotion, while others omitted this item.
It was admitt.e.d on all hands that in the event of
the abolition of purchase the country would be bound in
equity to repay tc officers retiring all the money they
had paid even ahoy e regulation prices, for that although
the Queen's regulat;ons for the army prohibit abso-
lutely such fancy prices, being paid, still the custom has
been winked at, and all but recognised by the authorities.
It has been admitted that the principle of purchase is
unsound, and when we can better afford the vast sacrifice
necessary for its abolition—perhaps in the coming and
reformed Parliament—it will be time enough to change a
system which, if confessedly not the best, or even, as we
believe, vicious in principle, is one under which we have
managed to maintain our prestige and integrity for over
two hundred years.

The Herald complains that Mr. Trevelyan, if hii speech
may be taken as an indication, wishes to set up the French
system in England. When Mr. Trevelyan and those
friends of his who are not ashamed of the name of Radical
have succeeded in establishing in this country French in-
stitutions ; when they give us universal suffrage and the
social equality, or rather the shadow of it, which French-
men regard as the great conquest of the revolution ;
when they make the State not only supreme in the
smallest questions, but a meddler in them ; when
they establish the conscription in the place of volun-
tary enlistment, and give the people of England the
habits, the traditions, and the passions of the people of
France, they may allege the example of France as a con-
cluSive argument against the purchase system. The Herald
hopes that the English army will never be officered by
men of the stamp of French officers ; but we can assure
him that, with all our respect for the military qualities of
French officers, and all our conviction of the evils of the
purchase system, we would rather keep that system and
the present class and stamp of officers in the British army
than imitate the French example.

The Daily News observes that the battle of Lords and
Commons in Victoria was suddenly interrupted three
weeks before the last overland mail from Melbourne ;
but when the steamer sailed the war seemed as far as
ever from coming to an end. The Governor's Ministers,
strong in the support of the Assembly and the country,
were surprised early in March by the communication of
a despatch from the Duke of Buckingham to the Gover-
nor, forbidding him to recommend the inclusion of
the Darling grant in the Appropriation Act. This
interference the local Ministers immediately re-
sented. They were ready to fight the local Council,
but not the Council and the Colonial Office together.
Moreover, the duke's intervention had the appearance of
a breach of faith. Not long before the Colonial Office
had written out that " the controversy must be locally
decided," but now it was interposing again. Under these
circumstances, they recommended the Governor to publish
the duke's last despatch, so that the people might see how
matters stood ; they declared that the interference of the
Crown in a matter so entirely within the discretion
of the Assembly as the form of a bill of supply
threatened the existence of responsible government, and
begged leave respectfully to inform his Excellency at
once that they would take no course, nor submit to
any condition inconsistent with the decision of
the people expressed at the general election. The resigna-
tion of the Colonial:Ministers was accepted by Sir Manners
Sutton on the 13th of March, and at the latest packet
date, the 31st of March, all attempts to form a new
Ministry had failed. The time seems to have come for
looking beyond the pedantries of this ever-recurring ques-
tion. The Colonial Office either does too much for the
colony or too little. If the Victorians were plainly told
by us that happiness is the only object of
legislation that has an intrinsic value ; that with the
advantage of good laws a people, although not possesse.l
of political power, may yet enjoy a great deal of
happiness ; and that we were ready to enact for them
better laws than they can make for themselves, it is con-
ceivable that many of them might be disposed to exchange
their present constitutional system for a paternal govern-
ment. But at present we play with the colonists. We
give them what we call " responsible government " as a
great boon, and then hinder its free working by imposing
restrictions on the Governor, whom we do not permit
either to follow the advice of his Ministers or act accord-
ing to his own judgment. The system cannot last.
In dealing with the same subject, the Standard remarks
that one has only to consider what would be the effect of
a contrary course to perceive that the Duke of Bucking-
ham was justified in his despatch of the let of January
—in fact, that he had no other alternative. Allowing that
there was nothing prima facie so objectionable in the
Darling grant as that Sir Henry Manners Sutton ought
to have resisted its initiation, and the Governor was not
supposed to know beforehand that its initiation was in-
tended to coerce the Legislative Council, there could not
be the same pretext for ignorance after the rejection of
the Appropriation Bill, with its obnoxious appendage
the reasons given for that rejection by the Council, and
the language held in regard to their act by the Governor's
responsible advisers. To require the Governor a second
time to recommend the Darling grant, and to assent to
the manner of its introduction insisted upon by the
Ministry, would have been at once to sanction all the fur-
ther violence which Mr. Maculloch and his colleagues
might be tempted to undertake against the Constitution.
It would have involved the Governor in all the subsequent
proceedings of his Ministers, and would have compelled
, him at least to be a silent and passive spectator in a series
of assaults upon the Queen's law and tic. written Consti-
tution of Victoria, which is a part of that law.

THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH.—The following
story was told by Dr. William Arnot, at a in Sir
Moncreiff's chuich in Edinburgh the other
evening :—"Dr. Macleod and.. Dr. Watson were in the
West Highlands together, on a tour, ere leaving for India.
While crossing a loch in a boat, in company with a num.
ber of passengers, a storm came on. One of the passen-
gers was heard to say, "rhe two ministers should begin to
p:•ay, or we'll a' be drooned.' Na, na,' said the boatman,
the little ane can pray if he likes, hit the big ane mast:
Ws: an oar."

GIBBAL2'AIt CONVICT ESTABLISIIMEN T.

The report of the Gibraltar convict establishm Vat for
the year 1867 shews a marked decrease in the nu giber of
consequent on the ticket-of-leave system. On the Ist
January there were 390 convicts in the establishi sent, 4
fresh ones were received during the year, while on the
31st December last only 180 prisoners were conthaeil. This
leaves 214 to be accounted for, and 186 are set elowia as
having been sent home to be discharged on limn se, 6 as
having died, and 22 as having been discharged. do the
spot. The general conduct of the superior officers has
been good, but among the subordinates there nee many of
whom the comptroller does not express a favourable
opinion. Four assistant-warders had been diserdssed during
the year for drunkenness and the like. rae conduct of
the prisoners has been good. There wer.e no escapes,
aFirtults, or suicides, and the report so. far is satis-
factory. With regard to employr lent, a table
accompanies the report, shewing £9,200 worth
of labour had been performed by the prisoners, at
the rate of £4O 14s. per man per annum. On
the other hand, the expenses of +ne establishment far
exceed this, amounting to £16,831, or £55 9s. per man.
'lite rev. canon's report as to the religious state of the
prisoners is satisfactory, and he fi‘tds that the magazines
'Good Words, (wiver, Leisure lbw, and Sunday at Home)
and the library books are read with avidity. Of the 180
present December 31 it, 8 could neither read nor write, 59
imperfectly, 61 fairly, and 52 well. The medical report is
also favourable. The only matter worth mentioning is
the occurrence of severe chest affections among the pri-
soners, caused by a change too early of the winter's
clothing. For the future this matter is to be left to the
discretion of the medical officer.