The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-27 00:00:00

The Herald says it might be well for the English
Radicals, habituated as they are to borrow their principles
and their policy from America, if their leader had had
the prudence to emulate the " brilliant flashes of silence'',
which characterise the gentleman who, for the time being,
holds the same position in the United States. At last, but
somewhat late, Mr. Gladstone appears to have been made
aware of the uselessness of the elaborate speeches in which
he has exposed the weakness of his cause and the
dangerous character of his policy, and, taking example
from General Grant, to have resolved to impose upon
himself a wholesome abstinence from rash promises and
still rasher imputations. His retirement from the stump
is formally announced; and we doubt not that his friends
will do their best to induce him to adhere to his
judicious resolve. The occasion is a suitable one for
inquiring what has been the result of his oratorical efforts.
It is a somewhat meagre one, and he has not answered his
opponents. Mr. Gladstone's assertions are as noteworthy
as his omissions. Never were facts and figures handled
with such audacious skill. The Irish Church is the sub-
ject of mystifications that seem almost incredible. But
the most astounding of all the exhibitions of a courage
not wholly honourable with which the Liberals have
lately entertained us, is the statement that Mr. Gladstone
has a policy and Mr. Disraeli has none—because the
former proposes to destroy the Church in Ireland, and the
latter prefers to maintain and to reform it. If Messrs.
Bradlaugh and Odger propose a general redistribution of
property, are we to be told that those who maintain the
existing law "have no policy?" We might say that the exact
reverse of the Liberal statement is the truth, except that
Mr. Gladstone may have a policy which he does not think
it prudent to avow.

The Daily News thinks the people seem thoroughly to
understand that one of the questions now before the
country is whether government by a minority which steals
the measures of the majority shall be the rule in England.
Popular instinct credits the Liberal leaders with the in-
tention of submitting this question at some very early
time to the new Parliament by asking it to declare its
want of confidence in Mr. Disraeli and his Ministry.
Accordingly, Liberal candidates are often asked whether
their fidelity to Mr. Gladstone's leadership can stand
this test. Mr. Roebuck, however, is one of those
Liberals who support liberal measures without supporting
liberal men. He will not join in a vote of no confidence
in Mr. Disraeli's Government. He is ready to agree to
the disestablishment of the Irish Church, but he will wait
and see whether Mr. Disraeli will do it before he joins in
calling Mr. Gladstone to the task. Should Mr. Disraeli
treat the Irish question as he treated Reform, Mr. R oebuck
will help him. Unfortunately for Mr. Disraeli, Mr.
Roebuck stands almost alone among the Liberals. Almost
everywhere besides Sheffield a resolve to end the" organised
hypocrisy" of government by a minority is a test of
Liberalism. Liberal-Conservatism is a sham which con-
tact with the new constituencies explodes at once, but
Liberalism which is content to let a Conservative minority
carry the liberal measures it has bitterly opposed, and
keep the places which liberal men have won, is a still
greater sham. Conservatives may support such Liberalism
when they have nothing better to hope for, but the in-
stinct of popular Liberalism at once feels that it has
nothing worse to dread. _

The Standard remarks that the Times must evidently be
the father confessor of certain statesmen, for nobody
else was aware of their intentions, concealed alike from
their colleagues and from Parliament, and now first
revealed to a wondering world. The only comment we
will allow ourselves to make is this, that as there is not ono
sentence in any speech or writing of Lord Stanley or Mr.
Disraeli which affords the slightest warrant for attributing
to them the plans which the Times knows them to have
entertained, our contemporary must either have received
its information directly from them—of the likelihood of
which everybody can judge—or asserts as facts what
it knows to be the contrary. With regard to
the boast of the Times as to the large Liberal
majority at the next election, the Standard has too good
reason to believe that the general election will give us a
Parliament determined to maintain the Irish Church, to
need to indulge in the extravagant expressions of confi-
dence with which our opponents endeavour to keep up
their own courage and that of their friends who are not in
the secret. We will make no promises of enormous majo-
rities, and profess no fear lest the Liberal party should
not be represented in the next Parliament. We are con-
tent with our prospects. We believe we shall beat out
opponents ; but of this there is no doubt, that the Conser-
vative party will be stronger in the new than in the old
Parliament. There will be no " wasted band of Conser-
vatives, dragged hither and thither," a " sad spectacle"
to the eye of the Times writer. The firmness of the Con-
servative followers " will defeat his prognostications," and,
in defeating them, disappoint his hopes.
The Telegraph comments upon the altered position of
Mr. Bright. He can now command one of the highest
seats in any Liberal Cabinet. He can do what no other

living Englishman has done, excepting Mr. Disraeli ; he

can become a Cabinet Minister of leading political rank,
without ever having served in a subordinate capacity. If
ho take office, he will not only command deep popular
confidence not only remain a popular leader of
his own party in Parliament, but will be cordially
accepted by " our friends the enemy" as one
of the fairest and fittest representatives of Liberal
opinion. Such a position has been won by a man who

owed less to birth and to connections than even Mr. Disraeli
himself. The author, of " Vivian Grey" was a spoiled
favourite of London society, and had made scores of
influential friends when he turned to politics ; Mr. Bright
has won his way upwards from the ranks of trade by
sheer hard political work ; while his religious ante.
cedents were almost as unfavourable as those which
are supposed to have retarded Mr. Disraeli's
advance. It is noted that Mr. Bright's triumph
is not due to the success of the popular cause alone,
He has often directly opposed the popular will. The first
English Ministry that counts John Bright amongst its
members will command a joyful and attentive hearing for
all it says, and a generous interpretation of all it does, in
Ireland, in our colonies, in India, and in the United
States ; in fact, wherever our flag flies and our tongue is
heard. It will be a curious rebuke to the old partisans
who called him un-English, and an enemy to the empire,
to find that his influence will then be imperial, and so
happily used as to unite all parts of the empire in closer
and in nobler bonds of interest and of love.

TURNPIKE ABOLITION.—An Act of last session
provides for the expiry, on the Ist of November next,
of seven provincial trusts. The most important abolic
tions will be those at Hereford, Bury St. Edmund;
and Devizes, on account of the keen parliamentary
contests which they encountered. The Devizes gates
surrounded the approaches to the town, and the " free-
dom of the road" is to be marked by a banquet and
a bonfire, for which latter purpose two of tha
obnoxious gates were purchased at the pale of the trusi
property.