The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-12 00:00:00

LOSDON, THURSDAY, NOV. 12, 1368.

Before we are all of us plunged into that political
sea of troubles a General Election, from which those
stronger swimmers the successful candidates can alone
hope to emerge in any conspicuous degree invigo-
rated, there are reasons rendering it very desir-
able that we should direct attention once more to
one, at least, among the more remarkable of the
stormier contests now in preparation. We refer to that
struggle nearest at hand of all---in the very scat of the
Legislature—the conflict through which dr. SMITH,
as the Conservative candidate, is resolved, if he
possibly can, to wrest from the Liberals the power
of returning one at any rate of the representatives for
the City of Westminster. And the prospect there is
of his doing so is, beyond all question of it, very for-
midable indeed. If successful in his endeavour, very
much indeed of the result will be directly traceable
--who can doubt it for one instant?—to the extra-
ordinarily perverse, eccentric, and unjustifiable pro-
ceedings of that serene philosopher and model states-
man, Mr. JOHN STUART MILL. His malignant perse-
cution of ex-Governor EYRE alienated hundreds of
his supporters to begin with. His inconsistency
in declining to contribute sixpence towards the
payment of his own electioneering expenses at the
very time he went out of his way to forward (unasked)
ten pounds sterling towards the payment of the elec-
tioneering expenses of Mr. BRADLAUGH clown at
Northampton, went considerably further towards
shaking the confidence still cherished in regard to his
candidature by many others who gave him their vote,
and contributed for him their money at the time of the
last General Election. His dictatorial tone towards
Mr. BOUVERIE, coupled with his preposterously
exaggerated eulogiums upon Mr. CHADWICK, dis-
gusted a large number of others, among those
hitherto numbered up as his most faithful fol-
lowers. The objection already referred to, how-
ever, as having been raised against his pecuniary
contribution towards the funds collecting in favour
of the working man's candidate at Northampton, was
directed less against the inconsistency involved in his
transmission of the ten-pound note than against the
fact of Mr. BKADLAuGH being a notorious blasphemer.
in regard to the circumstance of Mr. BRADLAUGII
being a blasphemer, Mr. MILL has never had the
decency to utter one word in the way of ex-
tenuating his own conduct in picking such
a man as that out for his praises and
his pounds sterling. Noscitur a sociis is an epigram-
matic phrase having a cure of truth in it. And
with Mr. BRADLAUGH, Mr. MILL was the very
one to put himself into direct association before the
public. After the blasphemies had been pointed out
he might have repudiated all knowledge of them—
though even then he would have been just as cul-
pable in commending a man, of whom he knew so
ittle, to any liberal constituency, as Mr. GLADSTONE
was in evidencing such fatherly interest in a
man like Mr. FINLEN, a man of the lowest and most
miserable antecedents. Instead of doing alythiog
like this, however, instead of deprecating any associa-
tion of his name directly or indirectly with the
hideous impieties sat forth by Mr. BRADLAUGH, that
pet candidate of his for the suffrages of the Liberal
working men of Northampton, Mr. MILL never opens
lips even once upon the matter, never gives the
Faintest indication as to the sentiments with which he
himself regards the opinions enunciated by Mr. BRAD-
LAUGH in the matter of religion.
The Philosopher hes written a letter, however,
in answer to one of his own canvassers, in