The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOUPAVALS,

. .
The Times notices a rumour which had a Snos existence
in London. It was to the effect that the elections were to
be postponed. The postponement was not.to be for any
long period—no longer, indeed, than a week, ;but a week
would be sufficient to carry on the time for the meeting of
Parliament, the swearing in of members, the election of
the Speaker, and the delivery of the Royal Speech, to so
late a day that it would be impossible.for the debate on the
Address to be closed so as to admit of the formation of a,
new Government in time to control the policy of the coming
year. Many reasons were assigned for this p‘ostpone.
ment besides that which all who repeated the rumour
regarded as the real motive for it. It was said that it
was necessary the Court of Common Pleas should decide
the registration appeals pending before it; it was desi-
rable appointments which might be queStioncil should be-
come so overlaid by fresh events that it would be impos-
sible to disturb them ; that the postponement had been
determined by command, besides other hypotheses which
each purveyor of the rumour felt himself at liberty to
frame cee,ding to what he conceived the exigency of the
situation. 1. he Times denies its authenticity, but
remarks that it is a painful instance of the
suspicion which attaches to the tiresent Administration.
Our contemporary rcvie•vs the circumstances which led to
the present accepted arrangement,-and says; We do not
dwell on the immense inconvenience to the whole nation of
any further postponement of the general election. Already
a dangerous interval has passed, and we speak no more
than the truth when we declare that candidates and
electors are alike weary, and would rejoice at an
acceleration of the day of trial. There is, indeed,
nothing but the well•understood agreement that the
writs should issue on the 11th of next month to prevent
the elections being held before that time. The registration
is complete. There is not the slightest necessity that any
appeals from the decisions of the revising barristers should
be tried before the elections, as the statute expressly pro-
vides that the register shall be taken as it stands, without
regard to pending appeals, and that elections should be
uninfluenced by the subsequent fate of appeals. The same
reason which prevents a postponement prevents, however,
an anticipation of the day, and we may therefore repeat
with confidence that the writs will be issued on the day
already fixed upon.

The Dai Eews says a course of proceeding is believed
to be contemplated by her Majesty's Ministers which
would be incredible of any other, Government than that
which now holds power. Mr. Disraeli, it is said, has come
to the conclusion that his own political interests will be
materially served by his continuance in office until
February. With a view to this result, it is necessary to
prevent the meeting of Parliament before Christmas, and
to ensure that the vote which must decide the fate of the
Ministry shall not be taken until the second month
of next year. It is easy tO see how advantageously the
time thus gained can be abused by the arch-mystifier for
the purpose of falsifying the issues before the country, of
educating his own party, and of bewildering the more
simple of his opponents. The trick by which all this is to
be managed is a very simple one. It consists simply in
postponing for a week the issue of the writs. There is but
one man of high political position in England whom his
countrymen would deem capable of such a course of conduct.
But that man is the Prime Minister. All that people
are saying now is, " How like him !" There are no
more than a dozen politicians who would be accomplices
in such an act of treachery ; but those dozen are Mr.
Disraeli's colleagues. The decisive step is not yet taken.'
But nothing but the disclosure of the contemplated trick
and the expression of public indignation will prevent its
adoption in the course of a day or two. If the device be
discarded on the part of its discomfited authors, the denial
that it was ever entertained is a matter of course. Those
who have baffled the sharper may smile at his professions,
of innocence.

The Star mentions the report that, on the plea of a re-
quest of the Queen, the Prime Minister intends to secure at
a Cabinet Council on Saturday the sanction of his
colleagues to a postponement of the issuing of the writs
till the 18th of November. The country will ring
with indignation if this sorry manuvre prove to be
really in contemplation. The Star points out the
leading motives of the Government to be the post-
ponement of the consideration of the Church ques-
tion, and to prevent their expulsion from office until
next year. Subsidiary considerations have also their
weight. It is essential that Lord Mayo should be got safe
out to India, and there is one of Mr. Disraeli's colleagues
who particularly desires to complete, before the resigna-
tion of the Government, the term of office
which is necessary to enable him to draw his
pension. We have neither opportunity nor leisure

at this moment to pursue this miserable and tortuous
policy into its details. We simply state, fur the informa-
tion of the country, rumours which demand its immediate

and most anxious consideration. There is time before

Saturday to evoke such a declaration of public opinion as
will make it perfectly hopeless for Mr. Disraeli, bold and
contriving as he is, to think of making his col-
leagues accomplices in the design which is attributed to
him.

The Post reviews Mr. Bright's late speech, which seems
to indicate that he considers a very fair instalment of what
he has asked has already been accorded, and that he may
therefore begin rather to fight the old battles over again
than to look out for fresh fields of conflict. He positively
asserts, with reference to the recent great concession of
power to his special clients, that "power is not necessarily
happiness, and that a vote is not necessarily wisdom ;" and
actually goes on thus : "Although I believe that a Parlia-
ment elected by a nation is not likely to be selfish, it is pos-
sible that a nation may at times mistake its own inte-
rest on some very great question." Surely this is rather
a new Mr. Bright who admits that much ; but the fact
itself is beyond contradiction, and it is useful and appro.
priate to insist upon it at this time, when there is a ten-
dency to throw up all hats over Reform, and to believe that
all possible good things are certainly to come to us from
household suffrage. In Mr. Bright's eyes the Liberals are very
virtuous and the Tories very wicked. The Post believes
better of the Tory party than Mr.. Bright does, and would
like to retain the hope that, having now helped itself to
the names of Liberal-Conservative, Conservative-Liberal,
Constitutional, and so on, it will, with the new titles, have
acquired a new power of being occasionally in the future
less wrong than Mr. Bright says it has consistently been in
the past.

The Standard remarks that the stump vacated by Mr.
Gladstone-has been occupied by Mr. Bright. The master
succeeds to the pupil—the oracle to its interpreter. The
lisping tones of the neophyte in democracy are exchanged
for the round and full utterances of the arch-demagogue
himself. We hail with a kind of relief this change from
the tinselled imitation to the rough reality. We would
rather deal with the maker of Libeials than with the
crude article of his manufacture. We prefer to know the
stump in its true character. In Mr. Gladstone's hands it
had descended into something between a hedge-parson's
block and an auctioneer's platform. In Mr. Bright's it
recovers its ancient and normal tone, as a place for the
cursing of one's political enemies, rather than for the deli-
verance of newly-discovered principles.
The Times remarks that Mr. Bright assumes the exist-
ence of two great parties as individual as a human being.
Giant Tory and Giant Whig have been fighting for forty
years in Mr. Bright's story-book, and here they are with
bold and vivid illustrations. But what is the fact ? There
are no such individual existences. There are no such
identities. This nation is not divided thus sharply into
two classes, thus directly antagonistic. Mr. Bright, over
and over again, has to force and strain the fact in order
to shape it to his purpose and create two distinct
antagonists. There are many parties, many
classes, and many schools of opinion, many interests,
many policies, many philosophies, in this country and it
these isles. Compelled as they aro by stress of circum.
stances and the necessity of coming to decisions to arrange
themselves on sides, they continually exhibit cross divi.
sions. Conservative and Liberal are but a rough classifi-
cation, and, what is more, it changes its ingredients every
year. There are Conservatives too old, interested, or
hampered to like change of any kind, but there are Con.
servatives as progressive as many Liberals. None knowB
better than Mr. Bright that if the Conservative party ham
to thank the Liberal for the progress they both make, the
Liberal party is under equal obligations for the assistance
it receives in maintaining a steady pace.

The Herald considers the address of the committee foz
securing Sir Roundell Palmer's election perfectly colour
less. Ten years ago that lawyer seemed to be in advance
of Mr. Gladstone ; his general tendencies are rather Radi,
cal than otherwise, and he opposed Mr. Gladstone'?
scheme rather as a lawyer than otherwise. He was
silent ai a time when a few emphatic words of
his might have ensured the defeat of the entire
scheme, and overwhelmed the enemies of the Church
with discomfiture and confusion. No doubt he acted
according to his conscience ; he is not a man who could
ever do otherwise. He thought that he should do more
harm by throwing the Radical party into disorder tha;
good by defending the rights of property and the interests
of the Church. But the very fact of his having so thought
should prevent any Churchman or Conservative from sup,
porting him. A man who thinks the success of Liberalism
more important than the safety of the Church and the
maintenance of the rights of property is thereby com.
pletely disqualified for the representation of the Universik
of Oxford.

The Bristol Post says a Cardiff journeyman pain.
ter, named Aston, is at present in London "completing hio
arrangements for coming into possession of estates of ttq
value of about £BO,OOO, left him by clincO4dikOPlleW.