The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-01 00:00:00

LIBERTY.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
An interesting inquiry is raised by the question
whether Mr. DISRAELI or the American Minister is
right—the former in asserting that the English en-
joy more personal liberty than any other people in
the world, and the latter that if he went to Ame-
rica he would quickly find out his mistake, and that
if Englishmen had more, the sooner they lost it the
better. There is one striking difference between the
personal liberty of the people in each country. The
Englishman is bound by old habits, traditions, and
recognized grades in society, of which he is more or
less the slave. Many feel weak-knee'd in presence
of a Duke ; a hare can safely grin out of a furze
bush at a starving peasant, and if the wind has car-
ried his cap into a field, his Worship might give him
a week at the treadmill for trespassing i❑ picking
it up. To an American it is slavish to make the
hare and the field greater than his sovereign the
people, and to elevate, it may be, a bloated, sensual,
stupid, and worthless Duke into a deity because of
his title. On the other hand, the American submits
to conduct on the part of paltry officials which no
Englishman brooks. Policemen break the heads of
the people—aye, shoot them, almost as a pastime ;
conductors promptly ditch their passengers on the
slightest provocation, ani often without any what-
ever. Take up an American paper, glance at the
contents, and ten to one you will see some outrage
by these jacks-in-office patiently borne by the
majesty of the people. The stranger who sit-
ting next you, may be telling how he purposes
to run for the Presidency, when he is ejected
by an official of the class who in England touch
their caps to him. Here is an instance in one of
the first papers we take up—" A passenger in one
of the Greenpoint cars, yesterday, presented a $5
bill in payment of his fare, but the conductor ob-
jected to changing it, and after intimating pretty
plainly that the bill had been presented for the pur-
pose of evading payment entirely, ordered the
passenger to leave the car. This the gentleman
refused to do, when the conductor attempted to
eject him by force. Further than the breaking of
a window or two, and the frightening of half a
dozen ladies, no damage resulted from this extra-
ordinary conduct on the part of the conductor."
If this had occurred in England, the conductor
would have been thrust out of the window, not by
the individual, but by the men present, who would
have resented his conduct as an attack on society.
'I he English insist on what is termed civility from
all brought into contact with the people. To an
hotelkeeper or a shopkeeper a charge of incivility is
fatal, and there is no business or profession in which
it is not injurious. Railway guards, station masters,
steamboat stewards, are compelled to courtesy, a
quality those who select them are careful to ascer-
tain they possess. This civility Americans, on
first landing in England, attribute to a fawning de-
sire for fees, which is amusingly illustrated in Dr.
HOLLAND'S account of his travels, now being pub-
lished in the Springfield Republican. Quoting
some person well known in his town, who runs a
train,' he exclaims, just imagine him looking for
such paltry contributions—he to whom the citizens
presented a silver service ! But the fact is that
in Massachusetts the man was lord of the train, but
in England he would be a common workman. If
Dr. HOLLAND thought that there was any want of
independence in those who treated him with what
he considered fawning civility, were he thrown into
their society, he would soon discover his mistake.
In their official capacity they are servants of the pub-
lic, who oblige them to act respectfully as such, and
they find that civility pays best, and gives least
trouble in performing their duties. The conductor
who broke the windows in his effort to eject a gen-
tleman from the car because he had no smaller
change than a five-dollar bill, took much disagree-
able and unnecessary trouble, costly too, which as
easily could have then been avoided, as in a thousand
instances every day in the States, if the people in-
sisted on that respect in practice for their persons,
readily accorded in theory. Now this is what puzzles
Englishmen in the United States, for they cannot
understand how the sovereignty of the people can
be universally acknowledged, yet the people them-
selves be treated so rudely by their officials. It
does not seem to strike either the jack in office or
the atoms of sovereignty who happen to be within
his reach that he is the servant, and they are the
sovereign. On the contrary, his idea is, "I am
the master, and these are my slaves ;" and the sur-
prising thing is, not that he should thus act, but
that the people should submit. This thought does at
thug ouggest Anil, here and there, a ih the following

instance; "Make way, gentlemen," cried a fussy
office-holder to some people the other night at a
political meeting, " make way, we are the Repre-
sentatives of the people !" " Make way yourself,"
replied a sturdy member of the throng, "we are
the people themselves." The difference most no-
ticeable to strangers between the nations is cer-
tainly this. Mr. JOHNSON spoke sarcastically when
he alluded to the liberties his countrymen take with
their neighbours, and it is probable he had in his
mind's eye the late liberties of the Republican
press with himself. I 3 is a curious fact that, at the
same time, those who allow such latitude to the
smallest official with whom they come in personal
contact, know little or no respect for the incum-
bents of the highest posts, wherein the want of re-
verence contrasts ridiculously with their recent and
uncomplaining, though ignominious, ejection from
a railway car by conductors. Imagine an un-
known English traveller going the round of the
British Ambassadors and Consuls, picking up gos-
sipping stories in the kitchens, throwing the whole
into an official report, and sending it to the Prime
Minister of England for her MAJEsTy's consideration.
To complete the parallel imagine the Secretary
for Foreign Affairs selecting him, of the greatest
celebrity and distinction, from whom curtly and
impertinently to demand an explanation. The in-
dignant Ambassador, as might be supposed, tenders
his resignation, which is actually accepted, and we
have an instance of the liberty to which Mr. JOHN-
SON objects. We must confess to agreeing with
his Excellency that some of the liberty should be
taken away, and more curbed by society, when
those who lost in doing what they please would at
least gain in manners—on the whole a good ex-
change. Most people like doing things which in
no way please their neighbours, and many, unless
restrained, are simply offensive. The liberty of doing
what we like may as a rule be construed into the
liberty of making ourselves disagreeable, and any
moderate restraint, is in the interests of society.
The Times objects to the liberty which allows of
such a gathering as that last Sunday in memory of
the " martyrs" ALLEN, GOULD, and LARKIN, which
it states uo other country would tolerate, even the
Reform League describing it as a caricature of English
liberty; and it declares that one of the results of a Re-
formed Parliament will be a Government hampered
with fewer scruples in preserving public order. Eng-
lishmen would prefer the bolder exercise of Govern-
ment authority, unless it be against a general move-
ment ; but we doubt the wisdom. What harm
followed the triumph of the mob in Hyde-park last
year ? That Sir RICHARD MAYNE got a black eye
and divers other bruises is now remembered with
intense satisfaction by most people; that Park-lane
has become a handsome thoroughfare is not a mat-
ter for public regret; nor that the shabby park
railings should have given place to that grand
gilded ornamented iron. What have been the
other results? Not a member of the Reform League
even got into the Parliament they claim to have re-
formed ; and the world knows that it was not to Mr.
BRADLAUGH or to Colonel DICKSON that a measure
dictated by the progress of the times was due.
Look at other than FINLAN'S Fenian meetings—vici-
ous as all were, theygot rope, and hanged themselves.
If there be anything just and right in the agitation
it will come out, and, very properly, eventually be
remedied. But if there be not, let the orators rave,
and hundreds of their hearers will detect that
they might as well listen to a bagpipe, which,
however entertaining in sound, is but wind. Re-
fuse the opportunity—shut the speakers up—and
the people imagine there is a grievance of which
the Government dreads the discussion. All that
is required is education, but educated or not, the
unanimity of feeling, the sameness of the groove of
thought running through every grade of society in
England has surprised, as so unmistakably mani-
fested in the votes cast for the members of Par-
liament just elected. It is evident in England
that the people think they have liberty enough,
but in America the question is, whether there be
not liberty too much. An amendment to the
Constitution will be proposed in the next Con-
gress, making suffrage universal, but many think
the tendency is to restrict suffrage instead of to
extend it, more especially in the direction of natu-
ralized citizeua. This subject will eouie up for
discussion, and it is not improbable that the
frauds perpetrated notably at New York and at
Philadelphia, may lead to very important altera-
tions in the law.