The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times says that an intelligent Frenchman
residing in this country has remarked, almost in a tone of
complaint, that Englishmen appear to regard the Spanish
revolution with no warmer feeling than curiosity. The
'observation is not quite correct, but, if it were, we do not
see that we should be much to blame. The revolution in
Spain has given us no cause for alarm, compassion, or
anxiety. The insurrection itself was accomplished with-
out bloodshed or disturbance ; the Queen and her followers
removed themselves quietly from the scene, and a con-
vulsion which in most cases would have been attended
by grievous suffering is passing away harmlessly,
It is a matter of uncertain! y whether the Government is
to be Republican or 31( nAzchical. It is true we do not
contemplate the possible adoption of a Republic with the
all-engrossing interest experienced by those who think
Republicanism the test of political perfectibility ; bnt
neither, on the other hand, should we regard that pheno-
menon with aversion or terror if the inclination or necessi-
ties of the Spanish people should be found to take that direc-
tion. The time has gone by when the spectacle of a Republic
on European territory would alarm Monarchical States for
the safety of their institutions. The time has not come
for hailing such a spectacle with jubilation and confidence
as a manifest step in human progress. But there is
another branch to this question. The Republic which all
people who prophesy a Republic are expecting for Spain is
a Federal Republic, whereas this form of Republic is
abominated beyond measure by all genuine advocates of
Republicanism. In the eyes of these men Federalists
are as obnoxious as the representatives of the
Reform League in the eyes of Mr. Finlen
and his followers ; and just as Mr. Finlen him-
self declared the other day that, of the two, he
preferred Tories to Liberals, so a thorough-going Republi-
can might accept despotism itself rather than submit to any
curtailment of his " one and indivisible " democracy.
Spain is passing through this transition period not only
without injury, but probably with benefit, and that the
ultimate settlement, whatever it may be, is likely to be all
the more stable from the very aspect of necessity which it
will seem to carry. Whatever comes must come, to all
appearance, because it cannot be helped, 'and a nation
which has demeaned itself with such dignity through a
stage of suspense may confidently be expected to do itself
no less justice under the definite institutions which it may
ultimately approve.

The Post alludes to the Conservative victories in the
counties, which it believes are in some measure to be
attributed to the clergy. But Mr. Disraeli can hardly
dream of building upon the Constitutional triumph in
the counties. He is capable of discerning at a glance that
it would be an unsafe foundation ; and he, who has
moulded and modified the convictions of the Conservative
party, and given it a new name, is, we may fairly
assume, prepared to admit that an Opposition should he
competent to do more than stop the way, and be more
than a drag upon the wheel. Mr. Disraeli will under-
stand that in leaving Mr. Gladstone to carry out his
policy he lays down a burden of responsibility which he
may have to take up again, and, therefore, that it is
incumbent on him to indicate an alternative policy.
All that he can now propose with regard to the Irish
Church is a measure based on the report of the royal com-
mission, and there are many reasons why he should hesi-
tate to submit such a proposition to the House of Com-
mons. In the first place it is incredible that the House
would entertain anything of the kind, and in the next
place Mr. Disraeli is not less committed to the principle
of religious equality in Ireland than Mr. Gladstone is, and
to arrive at religious equality without disestablishing the
Irish Church he must trample upon the opinions which
have contributed to make his majority in the English
counties. The intolerance which has prevailed in Lan-
cashire would be a thorn in his side, and that which could
not fail to rouse the better Protestant feelings of the
country would be unhesitatingly condemned by its judg-
ment. Coalitions and compromises are out of the question,
and both parties should exercise forbearance.

The Standard returns to Mr. Gladstone's autobiography,
and is convinced that as soon as the figures in the census
return are against the Church of England he will abandon
her. He has no other alternative if he has not belied his
own state of mind. The maintenance of the English Church
he admits to be only a question of time and of expe-
diency. The root of its claims is gone already.
The exact force of Mr. Gladstone's resistance t 3
the Liberation Society may be measured. He
will say nothing at present. He will dissemble,
as he did on the Irish Church question. He will assume
the appearance of a Church of England defender, yet he
will let slip, now and then, words which some Whiteside
of the future shall he able to quote against him, as a proof
of his early conversion to pure voluntaryism. There is
nothing more unstable than the mind of Mr. Gladstone
when once it has " lifted its anchor." There is no
knowing whither it will take him or where it will leave
him. It is a mind of which nothing can be predicated,
except that by some inscrutable route it will generally
be found to have arrived, by a purely conscientious
process, at the conclusion which is most popular and
most favourable to Mr. Gladstone's ambition. There
never was a more honest mind, yet by some strange chance
it always leaves its slave precisely in the situation which
secures to him the most votes ; it is always found to be
working in parallel lines with the interests of the Radical
party. Even when Mr. Gladstone drifts without any
sails, he is somehow always carried into the port which it
is most convenient to him to fetch at that particular
moment. The ship may be wrecked, but the pilot is
always safe, never the last man out, and always full of
precious counsel when the danger is past and his own feet
are on dry land.

The Daily News says the old and intelligible language o '
English Constitutionalism has been abandoned by the
Party which, to hide its apostasy even from itself,
assumes the name of " Constitutional." The political
dialect now fashionable in Tory speeches and essays is
borrowed in about equal proportions from the slang-
dictionary of American democracy and from the vocabu-
lary of French Imperialism. The phrase of which
lately we have heard most is " the popular vote." It
is used in disparagement of the constitutional
Majority gained by Mr. Gladstone in the House of Com-
mons by the votes of the constituencies. The term is
borrowed from the political vocabulary in America, in
which it is used to distinguish the votes given by the
States from the sum total of individual votes on either
side. Tolook behind the verdict as constitutionally given
does not strike one as being either a very conservative or
a very constitutional proceeding. The Daily News
concludes by alluding to the Tory victories in
the counties, and says : The ballot, which is
the essential condition of honest voting everywhere,
is more indispensable in the English counties than else-
where. The necessity of the ballot has been brought home
to the minds of the doubters by the experiences of the last
election. It is essential to the honest and incorrupt exer-
cise of a,wide suffrage, embracing the poorer and more
dependent classes of society. The Conservative party, who
have learnt to " Americanize " in so much else, must
make up their minds to Americanization in this matter
also. They have the instinct of yielding when they see
defeat imminent. It is probable that in the next general
election the voting will be by way of ballot.
The Herald remarks that there is an expressive
"Americanism " which the Radical party might do well
to remember in the midst of their rejoicings over a showy,
but brittle majority. It is the phrase "on the fence."
A politician is said to be in that predicament when he
is not quite certain which side of a question it
will be for his future interest to take. Assum-
ing that the " fence " will be invisible when the
abstract motion to disendow the Irish Church is brought
forward, how many members are likely to jump upon it
the moment a direct proposition is made for the disposal
of the funds—the " plunder ?" Putting aside Liberals
who have declared that they will not support Mr. Glad-
stone's policy as it stands--men like Sir Roundell Palmer,
Mr. Briscoe, and others—what will become of Mr. Glad-
stone's Nonconformist supporters when his scheme for
dividing the spoils is plainly submitted ? If he suc-
ceeds in satisfying them what will his Church followers
say to the arrangement ? If none on either side
were to be found "on the fence" Mr. Gladstone would
probably be more amazed than any of his adversaries. The
most skilful party manager in the world would find his
hands full in the attempt to keep in working order an
untrustworthy majority in such a policy as Mr. Glad-
stone's. Let him do what he may, he cannot fail to give
deep and serious offence to his own followers. And no one
has ever pretended that Mr. Gladstone is remarkably
skilful in conducting a difficult and irritating question
through the House of Commons.
The Star notes that it is a favourite doctrine with certain
new lights that the system on which the beads of
our great Government departments are changed by
the vicissitudes of party ought to be abandoned,
and that certain eminently competent public men
should be permanently installed to manage those depart-
ments of which the business is not affected by
party considerations. One great argument against this
proposal is that the departments not liable to be affected
by questions which may at any moment become of party
import are very difficult to discover. The army, the navy,
and education, for instance, are not political departthents,
but it is quite on the cards for a great reduction of our
armaments or the withdrawal of education from the
domination of a clerical monopoly, to become a party
issue. And in that case a permanent War Secretary, First
Lord of the Admiralty, or Minister of Education, ap-
pointed under the old rbiinze, would most likely prove a
very awkward obstacle, if Parliament resolved to adopt a
new cue. Ent an evally stning argument against per-
manent chief.administiators may be drawn from the prone-
ness of eminent men to dogmatise and to force their
crotchets cn the country. Mr. Lowe's late pamphlet
on middle-class education is quoted as an instance of this.
It will be time enough to argue against public schools
from University endowments when those endowments
have been tardily restored to the popular and democratic
uses for which they were given. And
time the universities will form the s
ilendidycetnt‘ret
of an edifice of graduated public instruction such as must
either annihilate private schools or compel them to be
what -" supply and demand" are quite incapable of
snaking them at present. We regret that Mr. Lowe is
not disposed to help forward a consummation which he
certainly wiliNtk AKe to PNYcAt.