The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times notices that the Queen goes to the Alps for
the first time. For the first time she will see the transcen•
dent beauties of the Lake of the Four Cantons, the Righi
and Pilatus, with the distant mountain ranges which shut
in the view ; for the first time she will explore those shores
where every turn discloses something grand and rare,
unparalleled, at least, in these regions of the globe. How
much the Queen feels the charm of mountain scenery those
who have read her " Journals in the Highlands " need not
be told. Her surprise and delight at the objects which
she met in those northern tours are expressed with the
utmost simplicity and sincerity. If, then, the brown hills
of Scotland affected her with such emotion, what must be
her pleasure in looking for the first time on the mighty
masses of the Alps, with their clothing of snow and
glacier, their waterfalls, their pine forests, 'and all those
natural features which once seen are never forgotten ! We
sincerely hope that the Queen will have strength and
spirits to see a good deal of Switzerland. As the
" Countess of Kent travels for the benefit of her health,
and for that reason dispenses with the courtesies which
foreign authorities would offer, we hope that English
tourists will respect the privacy of the royal party.
Loya:ty is no doubt a very excellent sentiment, but it
can be cherished without invading its exalted object
at every turn of her daily walks ; nor has it, indeed,
any real connection with that vulgar curiosity which
makes a well-dressed English mob rush after a Prince as
if he were some extraordinary animal, exhibited for the
first time. It is not unnecessary to make these remarks,
since the fact that the Queen is at Lucerne, and that only
well-to-do English people are likely to be found there,
may be no protection to her ; for, unhappily, respectable
people are the greatest offenders in this respect. The
Queen has gone on a tour which we all hope will be a
pleasant one ; let all assist in making it so, by abstaining
from importunate loyalty. Sovereigns seldom have the
opportunity of laying aside their majesty with their crown
and robes ; on these rare occasions,then, let them have the
agreeable freedom of a lower station.
The Star fears for her Majesty's comfort and privacy in
Switzerland. Royalty has to pay a heavy penalty for
its greatness. " The giants," says Thackeray, " are
always lonely." Perhaps so of the giants of intellect, and
in their intellect ; but the giants of rank are seldom
let alone. We fear that from all quarters this season
there will be a rush upon Lucerne. There will
be a gathering compared with which the famous
assembly immortalised by Sehiller's verse and
Rossini's music would seem small indeed. In
the height of the ordinary season Lucerne is
always crowded to excess, and English people make up
the bulk of the crowd. This year, who can doubt that a
wild additional eagerness to pour into the town will spring
up, has already sprung up, from the fact that the Queen has
chosen it for the scene of her holiday ? When the Prince
and Princess of Wales were at Wiesbaden last year, a
regular stampede of English tourists from all parts of
Germany was made towards the favoured spot. The
Lucerne hotel-keepers, not ignorant otherwise of the
art of charging, may reap a double harvest this year.
The Queen's face will bring grace to them indeed. We
can only again express a hope that the Queen may not
be mobbed, however Lucerne may be ; that she may be
allowed sometimes the charm of loneliness, or at least of
retirement ; that she may not be condemned to keep
within the limits of her own grounds, to save herself from
unofficial and amateur trains-attendant ; that the divinity
which hedges a king and was declared to be fence strong
enough to keep treason from more than peeping in, may
be found equally strong in this case to protect against
the prying,s and the persecutions of demonstrative
curiosity.

The Times remarks that Mr. Gladstone has hit the righl
style when he boldly challenges his opponents to explain
to the electors how the national expenditure has increased
three millions during the very little more than two years
of a Conservative Government. Mr. Hunt, of course, will
lose no time in supplying these gentlemen with as many
items and figures as can be easily remembered in the face of
a British constituency, and delivered with some chance of
being understood and remembered. Of course, it may be
asked what the leader of the Opposition was about when
he allowed it ; and it certainly is the fact that much of the
increase had the hearty concurrence of Parliament, either
as necessary or justified by the general rise in prices ; but
Mr. Gladstone has only availed himself of the usual elec.
tioneering license in throwing his antagonists upon their
defence.

The Post attaches peculiar importance to Mr. Glad-
stone's speech, as being an announcement of the Liberal
platform, addressed not only to his constituents hut to the
country. " Justice to Ireland "is the main point in that
policy. The gist of Mr. Gladstone's address is that he and
his party will sedulously devote themselves to the sacred
duty of doing for Ireland what, as be expresses it, we would
expect that Ireland, if our positions were reversed, would
do for us. If generosity of sentiment could be accepted
as a pledge of flame generosity of action, the Irish
people ought forthwith to hail Mr. Gladstone as their
greatest champion ; but although our experience of man-
kind, and especially of politicians, sh mid lead us to pause
until words have been followed by deeds, we may still
applaud the justly Liberal policy which Mr. Gladstone
has enunciated, and trust that, when the opportunity
presents itself, he and those with whom he acts will do
everything that in them lies to carry that policy to a
triumphant conclusion.

The Herald says that Mr. Gladstone is aniious that the
electors should question his opponents upon the point.
Let them do it by all means. There is a very easy answer,
an answer given to Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Childers, and the
Marquis of Hartington in the House of Commons, and to
which they did not dare to offer any rejoinder. This in-
crease of expenditure was necessitated in the largest part
by the scandalous mismanagement and paltry parsimony
of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues. To enable
the Minister to bring forward his scheme of
reducing the debt, and so sacrifice several branches of
revenue raised without any burden to the community, or
any disturbance of trade, the army and navy were
starved ; we had neither guns, ships, nor men. When the
Conservative Government came into office it had to repair
the effects of this disgraceful maladministration ; it had
further to expend large sums of money in the supply of the
weapons and the ammunition which the lessons of the war
of 1866 permitted no delay in providing ; it has, with the
consent of Parliament, increased the pay of the troops,
and provided the vessels and guns which are absolutely
necessary to enable us to maintain our position as a naval
Power.

The Daily News, in criticising Mr. Gladstone's address,
draws particular attention to the Reform Bill, which it
considers little more than a " rough sketch."
The Standard comments upon Mr. Gladstone's career
and his late address. It is the boast of a certain section
of the Liberal party that they have " educated " their
leader, and there is some truth in the boast. When Mr.
Gladstone, in 1859, finally made his election, and threw in
his lot for ever with the Whig-Radical Coalition against
the party in whose ranks he was born and brought up, he
still retained some Conservative opinions, some traces of
his early training under Sir Robert Peel, and of his long
and intimate connection with the University of Oxford.
He was counted by the more moderate section of
the Liberals as one of themselves ; he was believed by
the public to be one of the least Radical members in Lord
Palmerston's Cabinet. But it very soon became evident
that this was not to be his permanent position. He was
an ambitious man, and ill-disposed to accept contentedly
a subordinate situation. He aspired to leadership ; and
it was plain that he could not attain his object through a
connection with the " Left Centre." The Whig element
was predominant in that section ; and the Whigs, in the
first place, did not like him, and in the next place had
men of their own whom they preferred to him. He has
been gradually making friends with the extreme Radicals,
and the last barrier between them, the Church, has been
cast away. The tone of Mr. Gladstone's speech through.
out is venomous in its malice towards opponents ; disin-
genuous in its statements ; unscrupulous in its suppressions
of fact ; shallow, uncandid, unsound, from first to last.

The Telegraph has a leader mainly relating to that part of
Mr. Gladstone's speech which refers to the Irish Church.
Not even now can Mr. Gladstone conceal from himself
the great difficulties of his task. When the country
endorses his policy, and sends him up a House of Com-
mons of his own, if we may use the expression, his hardest
work will only have begun. Even when the principle of
disestablishment is granted, the details are full of
the most complicated considerations, and nice, knotty,
delicate points of adjustment. If we leave any-
thing—churches or glebes—to the Episcopal Protes-
tants of Ireland, we must ddine what an Episco-
pal Protestant is—no very easy task. We must
disentangle State and private endowments, sometimes
curiously dovetailed in many parishes. We must take care
that no honest life interest suffers injustice. We must do
this, not on a clear road, but on a path bristling with the
embittered opposition of Tory foes, fighting fiercely for
chat they call their faith. Ent the highest praise we
could give Mr. Gladstone is the expression of our belief
titht he is equal to the task. lie has undertaken the work,
and he will "put it through."

TilE PRINCL'ES Louis OF ITEssE.—The accouche-
ment her Royal llig,huess the Princess Alice, Princess
Louis of Hesse, is expected in November. Tier Royal
highness has, on precious occasion,;, availed herself of the
services of Dr. Priestley ; but, in cons!deration of the
increasing engagements of that physician, she has con-
siderately allowed his plac2 to be filled this year by Dr.
Brodie, who will be enabled to stay during the month with
less sacrifice.—BriCsh Medical Journal.