The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times approves of the appointment of the Bishop o.
London to the Primacy. With regard to Church politics
Dr. Tait has always maintained an even and liberal
course. It is creditable to the Ministry to have selected a
man who, on ordinary subjects, has, from the days when
lie was a tutor at Oxford, been a staunch Liberal ; but he
is a strong supporter of the union of Church and State,
and the Ministry may be sure of his support on the
question of the hour. If a fault is to be found with
his episcopal career, it is that, from good-nature and
too much readiness to trust everyone, he has not only
tolerated, but occasionally favoured the representatives of
extreme opinions in the directions both of Rationalism
and Ritualism within his diocese. No one ever suspected
him of any sympathy with such extremes himself, and
he has, perhaps, confided too much to the reports of
others. This, however, is the only thing which has occa-
sioned any dissatisfaction with his administration of his
late diocese, and on his commencing a new career, it is,
perhaps, the best service to speak frankly on such a
subject. As to his own opinions he has expressed a
decided condemnation of the Ritualists, and by his
writings he has materially contributed to defend a sober
theology against rationalising encroachments. In one
thing he has been honourably conspicuous among the rest
of the bench. He has frankly and firmly, .hough cour-
teously, resisted the efforts of certain partisans to entangle
the Church of England in colonial squabbles, and to
develope a supposed ecclesiastical authority in this
country. His appointment is a material guarantee
against our being disturbed by new ecclesiastical expe-
riments. There is every reason to believe that the
new archbishop will hold the scales fairly between
contending parties, and will direct the energies of the
Church to practical work. Let him only do himself
justice, and we may look forward with confidence to his
administration. We trust he may enjoy many years of
improved health, and we cannot offer a better wish that
that, when he is removed from Canterbury, he may he as
much regretted as he will be now in London.
The Morning Summary is very angry at the appoint.
ment of the Bishop of London, and says that Lord Pal-
merston would have made a better appointment. The
step is attributed to her Majesty's influence, and our con-
temporary adjures the Premier to prevent the Queen from
making another mistake. The advancement of the Dean
of Westminster would cause a religious revolution
The Queen has strong religious sympathies. No one car
doubt her right to them. It would be impertinent to A
degree to pry into them ; but we hold that it is the
bounden duty of the First Minister to persuade her
Majesty to exercise her prerogative so as not to endanger
the Church and lose the confidence of some of her most
loyal subjects.
The Standard makes a strong appeal to the electors to
record their votes against the Liberals. As seen in the
works and acts of their most able and influential thinker,
the esoteric creed of the dominant school of Radicalism is
hostility to property, antagonism to marriage, hatred to
religion, active mabenef, and universal negation. Female
suffrage ; liberty of divorce ; license of plunder; free
thought, free love, free confiscation : such are the precious
fruits of progress and enlightenment in their purest and most
perfect form. In the meantime, Mr. Gladstone will com-
mence the good work by confiscating the property and
closing the churches of the Irish Protestants ; and Mr.
Bright will inaugurate the reign of ecumlity and fraternity
by breaking up the navy and disbanding one half the
army, trusting in the generosity of foreign Powers, and in
his own capacity of concession and submission, to ensure
that no advantage shall be taken of the voluntary defence-
lessness of England. Is it really conceivable that either
the immediate or the ultimate prospect—either the pre-
sent or the future promises of Liberalism—can have
any charm for Englishmen? Or have they been careless
and incredulous, as well they might be, of the intentions
of their would-be rulers? If so, even at this last moment,
a glance at the speeches of Mr. Bright and the writings
of Mr. Mill should suffice to convince them, and to secure
their votes for anyone, whatever his views on minor
political questions, who can be trusted to offer a firm and
unswerving opposition to the great Liberal party.
The Star, in the coming elections, looks for a result very
different to any mere advantage over the Tory'party f—We
hear Liberals sometimes saying that a Conservative party
is necessary and beneficial. However this may be, we may
be quite sure that the existence of a Conservative party is
inevitable. But the existence of such a Conservative
party as we now have is not inevitable. If thg Liberals
win this week an overwhelming victory, we shall not
indeed, see the Torjes extinguished, but we shall
see them take up new ground. Certain axioms of
progress will be accepted which have never been
accepted before, and future struggles will be at least on
ground remote from certain old-world ideas, which obsti-
nately survive to trouble us in this hour of crisis. Let us
remember, then, that if this hour is one of crisis, it is
because Mr. Gladstone has summoned the Liberal hosts
to war upon these mischievous and obstinate delusions.
And let us advance to the contest intent alike upon the
most minute advantages that can tend to ageTandise and
secure our triumph and upon all those great considerations
of future progress and beneficial change which will
make that triumph memorable for centuries in our
history.

Commenting on the Foreign Minister's speech at King's
Lynn, thec Herald observes that just as in all questions of
domestic policy Lord Stanley is one with his colleagues,
so do his colleagues share with him the glory of a foreign
policy which has been successful beyond any recent pre-
cedent. Lord Stanley's individual credit is that
he has devoted himself with singular zeal and judg-
ment to the carrying out of principles which, when
thus expressed, appear to every man of sense to be
the true principles. The fact that they are declared
to be principles not the exclusive property of
the Conservative party only proves them to be intrinsically
sound and irrefragable. The merit of adopting them
practically belongs to Lord Stanley ; the merit of sanction.
ing them is shared by the whole Ministry. By one side
we are told that this is only Mr. Bright's policy ; but how
comes it that the party with which Mr. Bright is con-
nected never thought of such a policy ? How came Lord
Stanley to succeed where Lord Russell failed in the
Alabama difficulty? Was it in accordance with Mr. Bright's
Ideas that the Government took the step of rescuing the
A.byssinian prisoners, and of avenging our insulted honour
upon Theodore ? Was not the Abyssinian expedition
denounced as fiercely as any other Government measure,
by Mr. Bright's organs and by Mr. Bright himself, so long
as it appeared to be dangerous and costly? Was the active
interference of England in the Luxembourg affair in
accordance with Mr. Bright's principles ? According to the
true Radical theory, shoul dwe not rather have said "Perish
Luxembourg ; let France and Prussia manage their own
quarrels ?" To preserve peace at all cost used indeed to be Mr.
Bright's maxim ; but to preserve it, and at the same time
to maintain the honour and to extend the influence of
England—suffering no one to presume upon our pacific dis.
position, requiring that others should obey the rule which
we have imposed upon ourselves, chewing ourselves ready
at all times to assert the right at any cost—this nas been
the policy of the Conservative Government. and this
policy it carried out in a manner which compels his oppo-
nents to clamour for a share in his success.

The Post considers that Lord Stanley went somewhat
out of his way in speculating on the completion of the
unity of Germany at no remote period. There is nothing
so likely to offend French susceptibilities, and, while we
may agree in the opinion which Lord Stanley expressed,
it is quite another thing whether the Foreign Secretary
should proclaim it from the hustings. We are, too, at
a loss to conceive how a Minister so cautious and
usually well informed came to speak as he did of
the internal dangers which, as he fancies, threaten
the Ottoman Eipire. Trouble may be gathering in
the East, and there is no doubt that Powers which dream
of aggrandisement are fostering disturbances in that sense,
but Lord Stanley has made another mistake in describing
Turkey as a house divided against itself. For the rest, as
to the foreign policy of this country as a whole, he holds
that "our rule ought to be goodwill towards all nations,
and, as far as we can help, entangling alliances with none."
We are satisfied that under any Government such a policy
will have to be observed, and, let us hope, with the judg-
ment and discretion which Lord Stanley has generally
displayed.

The Daily News thinks the proceedings on nomination
day are now little better than a farce. Of old, when free-
holders or burgesses met every fortnight or month hi their
shire-motes or borough-courts, the choice of members to
represent them in the House of Commons was but the
special business of an ordinary assembly. The presence
of men in these courts was proof of their right to be there,
and of their possession of the electoral qualification.
The shew of hands truly indicated the choice of the
majority ; for the burgesses and freeholders who
were absent were in the position of the electors of the
present day who will not come to the polling-booth. The
modern nomination, with the fictitious election by shew of
hands, has no affinity with the old procedure. The casual
crowds who gather together resemble in nothing the bur-
gesses assembled in their borough-courts and the shire-
motes. Idle lookers-on, hired ruffians, heated partisans,
meet to stare at the candidates, to prevent their being
heard, and to excite angry passions, personal and political,
in preparation for the performance of duties which require
a collected mind and a calm judgment.

Tho Worshipful Company of Salters, who,
through their large estates in the North of Ireland, are
specially connected with the Protestants of Ulster, have
just unanimously elected the Bishop of Oxford a member
of their company; an honour which he alone of the Bench
shares with 1.4 e ve.nerable Irish Prinaa%e,—./9104, stilft