The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-20 00:00:00

SUNDAY EVENINGS FOR THE PEOPLE.

The Lord Justice of the Common Pleas has given judgment
in the case of Baxter v. Langley, in which the plaintiff
sought to condemn the Sunday evenings for the
people, which have been carried on during the winter in
London, but which were stopped on the ground that they
infringed an old act. The Lord Chief Justice said the case
stated that a number of gentlemen in Dec., 1866, formed an
association for the diffusion of religious feeling, by the edu.
cation and instruction of all persons who should join their
association or attend their services, and the defendant was
the president of the association. The association called
themselves "Recreative Religionists ;" but it was so planned
that the meaning of the phrase was not recreation
in the ordinary sense, but that what was intended
was a new form of religion by which it was hoped to
interest the people at large in religious services.
The object of the promoters of the association was not pecu-
nairy gain, as it was carried on at a pecuniary loss to the
parties. The two litigants presented themselves before
the court under circumstances that entitled them to great
respect. The plaintiff was attempting to stop by this
action what he deemed the desecration of the Lord's day,
and, on the other hand, the defendant was spending his time
and his money for what he considered the public benefit.
They had now to consider whether St. Illartiuls-hall, when so
used,was a disorderly house, or whet her the services conducted
there werepublic "entertainments or amusements" within the
meaning of the statute. It was not easy nor necessary to
define exactly the meaning of "entertainment," but per-
haps the two words "entertainment" and "amusement"
reflected light upon each other. The subsequent
statute about disorderly houses referred to houses
having unlicensed music, dancing, or other enter-
tainment of the like kind. It was not necessary to say
whether mere amusemernents would be within the statute
or whether a lecture upon the higher branches of mathe-
matics would be "entertainment." The court at all
events thought that religious services were not within the
statute ; and it was not necessary that such ser-
vices should be connected with the religion of
the State, or in accordance with it. Some stress
was laid upon the fact that the principal attraction at the
hall was the music, but if they were to decide for the
plaintiff npon the ground that it might perhaps have a
more extensive application than he contemplated. There was
none but sacred music performed ; the discourses were in-
tended to be instructive, and the objects of the promoters of
the association were to advance their own views of religion,
and, as they said, to make science the handmaid of religion,
and not to promote an "entertainment or amusement"
wiqiin the meaning of the statute. The fact that though
while the doors were open free, there was payment fur re-
served seats, would not deprive the defendant of the protec-
tion of the Toleration Act. The court were fully sensible of
the:inestimable value of the statutes for the prevention of the
desecration of the Lord's day, but they would unduly
stretch a penal enactment if they applied the statute of
Geo. 111. to the case now under consideration. Judgment
was therefore for the defendant.

The following are the days and places fixed for
bolding the following Circuits, viz. :—" Mr. Justice Byles—
Warwick, Novembor 23; Derby, December, 3 ; Lincoln,
December 9 ; Leicester, December 15 ; Northamp-
ton, December, 18. Mr. Baron Channel Winchester,
December 4; Taunton, Decembor 11; Maidstone, De-
cember 17 ; Sussex, December 2?. Mr. Justice Lush and
Mr. Justice Hayes— Chester, December 2 ; Manchester,
December 7; Liverpool, December 13. At Chester Mr.
Justice Lush will bo the only judp. Mr. Justico Brett—
Durham, December 5; Newcastle, December 10; York,
December 12 ; Leeds, December

Personation does not appear to have altogether
become an extinct crime. A porter, named Laurence Kenny,
has been brought up before Mr. Castellan, at the Liver-
pool Police Court, on a charge of having attempted to
personate a voter named Mullin, at the Scotland-road polling
booth, where he tendered a vote in that name for Massey and
Rathbone, the Liberal candidates, and was at once given
into custody. In answer to the magistrates, the prisoner,
who seemed to be a very " soft" sort of follow, said that ho
was going to his work in the morning, when his wifo told
him that Mullin was out of town, and that he had better go
and vote for him, and he did so. The prisoner, at the re-
quest of the prosecution, was remanded and ordered p find
suatitastZLl.

T.HE

SUN,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Timcs thinki the close of Mr. 'Si:ie.-eel to
his constituents on being re-elected was conceived in a
serious and even solemn spirit not unbecoming the occa-

sion, and truly characteristic, as we believe, of the better
nature of a Minister of whom it may be said that none
but himself can be his parallel in English history. Mr.
Disraeli feels that the verdict of the nation has gone
against the Administration ; his words are words of abdi-
cation. Mr. Disraeli does not redeem the character of
his Government for thriftiness, and he is equally unsuc-
cessful in his oft-renewed attempt to claim exclusive
credit for the conduct of foreign affairs. It it were true,
as Mr. Disraeli now suggests, that the state of our
foreign affairs in 186 G was due to the personal
influence of Lord Russell alone, the argument would be
worthless as a reason for retaining the present Ministry in
office, unless the alternative were that Lord Russell must
again obtain complete control over our foreign relations.
The moment Mr. Disraeli confesses, as he now does by
implication, that the management of the Foreign Office is
not an art peculiar to Lord Stanley, his claim for support
on account of it falls to the grtund. The Times declines
to accept Mr. Disraeli's miserable diagnosis of the disease
of the Irish nation. The wrongs we have remedied
have been followed by a great improvement of
the people, though it has not, rrhaps, been
rapid enough for those who do not recognise how
slow must be the advance of a nation ; if we pro-
ceed to redress the last traces of injustice, we may
reasonably hope for a more rapid and constant progress.
The contrast between Mr. Disraeli's speech in Bucking.
hamshire and the speech delivered ten days since at the
Mansion House marks the approach of another crisis in
his mixed career. As he told the electors of Bucks, " a
great deal has been said during the past fortnight without
much regard to precision of statement," but he practically
acknowledged that the time to be frank, to be simple, to
be open had arrived. 'We hear no more of " tom-toms "
and " arms of precision." We have instead an appeal to
the sympathetic criticism and judgment of his contempo-
raries, and we make bold to say that, whatever be the
issue of the coming month, the severest political condem-
nation of Mr. Disraeli the Minister will always be
tempered by feelings of personal kindness towards the
ma 1.

The Telegraph remarks that no one can read that long
harangue without admitting that Mr. Disraeli's thoughts
are all in the past, and that his political future has, as
regards the questions of the day, neither hopes, aims, nor
policy. He dwells with painful minuteness on all that,
his party has accomplished in administration during the
period they have held office ; but he has not; an opinion to
express on the conspicuous problems of the day. To him'
the future is only an unintelligible void, whence in due time
something may emerge, but which he cannot at present
fathom. He does not, indeed, even seek to do so ; he
retire:: from the effort, and abandons the task to others.
Skilled in deciphering the present and its signs, the
Premier has read the fate of himself and party at
hundreds of polling - booths, and prepares to
bow before the mandate of the British people.
He announces no policy. The explanation is simple,
Now that, for good or evil, the Imperial Parliament is all
but constituted, nothing said at Aylesbury can do much
to modify its elements ; yet, such as it is, the speech of
Thursday challenges doubt and denial. If the English
people had been at all disposed to hesitate in their
verdict on the First Minister, such a speech must have
decided them. They demand a politician who entertain
clear convictions as to the needs of the time, and has the
will to carry those convictions into fruitful action. They
seek, in two words, a statesman and a policy for the
future, and they have now learned that all which the hea4
of the Conservative party can offer is aimless criticism on,
the measures of his opponents, bookish theories on tl4
origin of existing evils, and expressions of a vain hope
that those ills may work out their own cure—if statesman-
ship will hut stand aloof, with hands folded and averted
face.

Mr. Disraeli makes, so far as the Daily News can judge*
only one contribution to the settlement of the Irish quell
tion. The Irish people rebel for the fun of the thing
" The Irishman is a very imaginative being. He lives in
an island with a damp climate, and contiguous to a
melancholy ocean. With extraordinary talents, he has
no variety of pursuits. Well, then, these men are
discontented because they are not amused." If
this be the real explanation of the matter, Mr.
Disraeli is certainly a statesman qualified above
all others to abate and remove Irish discontent ; for no
one can deny him the faculty of being amusing. The
theory that the whole Irish nation is suffering from
nothing worse than ennui, and that it is bored by the
material prosperity of which Mr. Disraeli describes the
growth, does not promise much in favour of the industrial
remedies at which he hints. The Prime Minister's view
is briefly this, that the Irish people feels itself " blue-
moulded for want of a bating." This doctrine of governing
by amusement originates, we fancy,rather in Mr. Disraeli's
taste for imperialism than in any deep study of the Irish
temperament. But it is very characteristic of the author.
Mr. Disraeli's speech was generally a dull and common-
place one, and might have been made by Mr. Ward
Hunt or Sir John Pakington, or any other of the
heavy respectabilities of the Government, with perfect
dramatic propriety. But this is of little moment. Mr.
Disraeli sees that the end is coming, and he
drapes his robes gracefully around him and falls with
decorum and dignity. The indulgent interpretation he
claims for the incidental errors of a long career will not
be denied him by any generous opponent. We have not
the slightest disposition to doubt that the good opinion of
his countrymen has always been dearer to him than any
sinister self-interest. It is to be regretted that he has so
often mistaken the means by which alone that good opinion
can be won and securely retained.
The Standard says :—The importance, however, of the
elections decided on Thursday lies, we must repeat, not in
the personal changes made in the three or four seats
gained by the Conservative party. Their significance is
their further testimony to the Conservative sympathies of
the great constituencies which really govern England,
although their votes may apparently be neutralised by
those of the small boroughs, in which the supporters of
Mr. Gladstone have bribed and intimidated with so much
success. We will not say that Mr. Gladstone may not
have a majority of sixty in the new Parliament, although
we have very good reason to believe that he will not, but if
he has, what would it represent? The great commercialand
industrial centres of England? Certainly not. Themass of
the population or the electors? As certainly not. It will
represent the small boroughs which he of late years has
denounced as corrupt and stupid, which Mr. Bright
insists should be disfranchised in the very next se& ion of
Parliament. We do not envy him such a victory. We
know well enough that, with a majority furnished by the
small and the priest-ridden Irish constituencies, he will
not dare to act with any energy or decision, and will soon
be at loggerheads with his few honest supporters. The
Government, on the other hand, whether it has a majority
or not, will feel that it is supported by the country, and it
will meet Parliament strong in the consciousness of the
confidence of, the largest, wealthiest, and most intelligent
constituencies.
According to the Post, it is p'.ain that the country is, as
it ever was, averse from piliCcal or social innovations.
No one can fail to remark that a gr, a', Liberal majority
has been returned with a Conservative end in view.
Apprehensions respecting the English Church Establish-
ment have, perhaps, exercised some influence, but
generally we believe that the views which have made
the Liberal majority a real constitutional security
have contributed to the Conservative gains. The
circumstance that the majority against a professedly
Conservative Government is a majority in favour
of a truly Conservative policy explains itself. The
country is prepared to support any Ministry, Liberal
or Conservative, which consults its interests and inspires
its confidence—that is to say, on the understanding that
measures of improvement are to be practical measures,
that progress shall be steady and safe, and that there is to
, be no running off the line ; but a Ministry which is all
things to all men, which makes expediency the rule of its
conduct, and denies to argument what it concedes to agita-
tion, is neither Liberal nor Conservative, and, in its
infirmity of purpose, a danger as well as a delusion.
The Morning Summary notices that the Liberal papers,
notwithstanding that their outrageous prophecies regard-
ing their own gains are by no means likely to be fulfilled,
ontinue their strain of jubilant exultation. They each
blow their own trumpets ; some sonorous and deep, others
shrill and clear as penny whistles, with praiseworthy
energy. Disappointments are cleverly kept in the back-
;round, and nothing is done to dishearten their deluded
followers in the counties that eventual success is certain
and further failure impossib!c. Added to the sound of
their own self-blown trumpets, we get a hammer-
lnd-tongs chorus from eethesiastic correspondents ;
while the intricate mathematical calculations regarding
the election returns, the artful contrivances for making
the best of their case, and the unblushing impertinence
of the advanced prophets, shew most clearly that the
boastful confidence of a month past is by no means so
sure as it then was. So that the grand and magnificent
flourish of trumpets in which the Times and other Liberal
papers have indulged may be found, after all, to .have
been singularly premature and complete'y a mistake.
Amid the thunder of the Cockney thunderer we hear the
undignified brag of Mr. Gladstone in his lat2st speech.
The thunder is only of the stage, stagey ; the brag, though
grand and high-sounding, is premature and poor.

The rioting at Newport has caused the death of a
woman and her son, who were in the crowd when the mili-

tary charged, and wore caught by bayonets. Another boy
Li :rell iu tlie same way is not expected to Lye out the
da7