FROM PHILIP DRUNK TO PHILIP SOBER.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 761, 28 November 1876, Page 3

FROM PHILIP DRUNK TO PHILIP SOBER.

(From the World.) The recent outburst of public feeling on the subject of the Bulgarian atrocities ought to teach many of our public men a severe lesson. No one who carefully watched this "great national uprising," as it was misnamed, can come to the conclusion that it was creditable to the good Bense of the country. When we find bishops and clergymen, and other responsible public iD si ructors carried away by a mere whirl of emotional excitement, and doing their utmost to force the Government into a policy which would inevitably plunge the country into a long and bloody war, one is inclined to have grave doubts as to the value of our teachers and guides in any hour of danger. In the midst of sudden agitations it is one of the highest duties of the press and the pulpit to endeavour to bring people back to reason and commonsense. It is always an easy matter to emphasise the choruß of an overwrought crowd and endeavor further to inflame its .passions. But journalists and preachers should abstain from that kind of work. Unfortunately only in two or three quarters were attempts made to introduce moderation into the recent discussion. Some journals which might have spoken to good purpose seemed for a time to be utterly cowed by the hot-headed letters and speeches which they had to publish. The Daily News has undoubtedly done good service; but it has has made capital out of the recent explosion in a remarkably business-like way, and its correspondents have received immense credit for doing a work which has iuvolved scarcely any risk and very little inconvenience. After all it is surely not a very astounding thing that many others besides the Prime Minister were inclined at first to receive with prudent reserve the statements of a correspondent who writes in the following strain :—" Mr Disraeli once described himself ns being on the side of the angels He is on the Bide of the devils now ; but the stars in their courses are on the side of the Servians. Time, the finest general in the world, fights for them, if only they do not baik him. Their troops are like a tough beefsteak ; they are improved by being beaten." We see during an emergency of this sort of what stuff some of our public men are made. Not a few of them seem to lose their h'jads altogether. Perhaps it is not very surprising that Lord Russell should insist that England ought to put a stop to the Turkish atrocities by landing " a thousand men" from our fleet in Besika Bay. " If they fail," he adds simply, " they might be reinforced." Wehaveheard before now of a nation drifting into war, but never in quite so imbecile a manner as this. Mr Lowe, like Mr GladI stone himself, has shown that he can make

a fervid speech to a sympathetic crowd ; and both of them must have been glad once more to find themselves loudly cheered by large audiences. They have not unnaturally tried to make a little political capital for a temporarily bankrupt party out of an accidental crisis. It may seem a hard thing to say, but it is no doubt true that the "Turkish atrocities" are regarded by many Liberals as having happened at an opportune moment. No doubt they are deeply disgusted and horrified at them ; but having occurred, it appears to be a duty to turn them to some account. Domestic politics are obviously not in a condition to afford any hope or encouragement to leaders or followers. The session did nothing whatever for the Opposition. Amid the scramble for leadership which has been going on since the nominal retirement of Mr Gladstone, " solemn principles" would receive very little consideration, even if there were any to consider. Luckily Mr Gladstone has now shown that, as soon as there is any chance of vitality being restored to his party, he will immediately present himself, with a pamphlet or a speech, and claim his old post, The leaders whom we have lately seen trying their 'prentice hands are mere warming pans. When the cold wind of adversity ceases to blow, the " people's William " will once more show himself at the head of a victorious party, with all the insignia of actual or anticipatory triumph. The Spectator will then, we trust, be consoled for the acute anguißh it has undergone in seeing its idol eclipsfd by the Man of Belial. Whether it is wise, or even right, to make use of grave foreign issues for party purposes is another question. There are those who cannot help recollecting that Mr Gladstone did not always take the ground that the Turks ought to be swept out of Europe. And the extermination of the Turk even now might not be so easy a job as some of the provincial orators imagine. If the Government went into a war, these rowdy speakers are the very men who would anathematise it most vehemently, especially when the first bills on account of it were presented for payment. Probably, hr.d Mv Gladstone been in office, he would have acted pretty much as tho present Ministry has done, for responsibility is apt to bring sobriety even to the judicious of men. But if we are to suppose that the tone and sentiments of his pamphlet would have been held and expressed under him in the Foreign Office, we need not deceive ourselves as to the result. There would have been lists of "killed and wounded " in the papers long before Christmas, and empty chairs by many a fireside. That is what this sort of " spontaneous movement of the people " on foreign questions ends in. If such a movement is unreasonable in its nature, it ought to be checked by all public men, whether statesmen or writers. The Marquis of Hartington was one of the few who took that view, and acted upon it in the midst of the late tumult, and against the " swing " of the great bulk of his party. The only ecclesiastic who has passed through the trial with equal credit is Cardinal Manniug, who, being asked to attend a public meeting, replied that he was " unable to 830 the benefit, of holding public meetings which propose no definite policy ;" and that he could " see no policy in any movement which may convert the war in Servia into a European conflict." We are sony to say that the Bishop of Manchester and Canon Liddon cut very sorry figures in this discussiou by the side of the Catholic prelate.

We may now hope the that the paroxysm ia over, and that the whole question at issue will be treated In a spirit becoming a great nation. It does not much matter what be comes of the Turks, but it is a question of considerable moment what part England shall take in the great events which are pending in Europe ; and that question ought not to be decided by rattle-brained speakers in provincial townhalls aud chapes, or oven by newspapers which have fitted themselves out with a whole cartload of "sketch-maps," in the delightful expectation of a general war. The day appears to be approaching when the Government of the country will be more directly under the influence of momentary popular cries and demands than it ever was before; and that may not, prove to be a change for the better. But let the affairs of the country still be managed by a Government, not by a mob. Let us know where the responsibility really rests. The readiness of great statesmen to fly out at the first " call " of what is termed the "people" is by no meaDs a cheerful sign of the times. Even in the United States foreign affairs are not decided by a popular voic, and there are few countries in the world which could less afford to be absolutely governed by the mob than England. We hope that in future our public men will leave the sentimental method of treating politics to men like the Bishop of Manchester and Mr Spurgeon, the latter of whom recently prayed that " God would cause the Turks to be defeated." The impolicy and the temerity of offering up such petitions were once more illustrated by the fact that a few days afterwards news was received of the most disastrous defeat which the Servians have sustained during the present war.