The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-05 00:00:00

EPTEIVIBER 5, 1864'
THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAV atNINGs

'd 03111'1*

ienna. Bann; used to be for progress, and given to sneer
at the stationary and sluggish nature of Vienna. Now the
Berlin writers have all steeped their pens in Napoleonic
ink, and are giving vent to doctrines completely of the
French Imperialist school. The spirit of Herr von Bismark
might have inspired M. Persigny's speech of the other day
But von Bismark is, it seems, too Imperialist for the Court
of the old Caws. He finds no one there to assent to his
doctrine, save Count Reohberg. And even he smiles at
Bismark's soldatesque diatribes against Constitutionalists
Bismark and the Prussian organs denounce all Liberals as
democrats. Every person and every idea, that is in oppo-
sition to him, he stigmatises as democrat. And he no doubt
treats Schmerling himself as a democrat quite as dangerous
as Waldeck. However, the official prints of Berlin have
not arrived at a denunciation of all Austria as democratic.
Their present target is Schleswig-Holstein. Eight or ten
months ago the people of the Duchies were objects of popu-
lar sympathy and admiration to the Prussians, even to
Prussian officials. Now they are treated as mere demo-
rats, bent on anarchy, and absurdly given to independence.
According to the sound Prussian version, the only right
thinking and well-behaved portion of the population are the
Danish peasants; for the German traders of the Schleswig
towns are, it seems, deplorable radicals, who, if endowed
with freedom, would offer a worse example to Germany
than the Danes themselves. On this political plea, much
insisted cn at Vienna, Bismark would keep military posses-
sion of the Duchies, which he declares would be utterly lost
to Conservative Government if Duke Frederick were in-
stalled. Bismark abhors the Duke far more than he ever
abhorred Christian, and he abhors still more the men who
surround Duke Frederick, and who were more or less mixed
up with, and remain the friends of, the great movement of
1848. In however strong language this may have been re-
presented by Bismark at Vienna, it still did not seem to
prove to the Austrians that either Prussia should keep pos-
session of the Duchies or that she should hand them over to
an obedient nominee. Austria insists that Germany, and not
Austria or Prussia, should profit by her conquests. Prussia
had proposed to oust the Federal Commission from Holstein,
Austria objected, and the Federal Commission remains, in-
stead of the interim, which Prussia recommended. More-
over, Austria considered that Prussia had made an unfair
and unwarrantable choice in Scheele Plessen to defend at
the Conference the pecuniary interests of the Duchies.
Scheele Plessen was one of the nobles of the Duchies, who
professed attachment to the reigning power of Denmark,
yet headed the opposition in the Chamber against Denmark,
and thus upset the object of their attachment. Scheele
Plessen would govern the Duchies by a senate and without
a duke, who might interfere with the aristocracy and its
pretensions. He is, therefore, beloved of Bismark. But
the Austrian Government, more liberal, insisted that
R.eincke, the Altona banker, a truly liberal and popular
Holsteiner, who had been one of the deputation to England,
should be joined with Scheele Plessen to represent sincerely
and essentially the great commercial and pecuniary interests
of the duchy to which Altona belongs. A knowledge of
these circumstances must add to Austria's character and
influence, and thereby induce the Emperor not to hearken
to Bismark'a wild advice. It is well known that this Minis-
ter would have se:zed and appropriated the Duchies had the
King, his master, consented, and this he would still do,
even at the risk of a quarrel with Austria, could he obtain
permission. The King, however, is some check upon his
Minister's foreign policy, althohgh in domestic matters,
and in the virtual abolition of representative Government
in Prussia, King William seems to have given carte blanche
to the Prussian Strafford.

THE " SPECTATOR" ON CAPT. MAYNE REID AS THE
LAWGIVER or CROQUET.—AII devotees of croquet must
be satisfied with the progress made in the ctatics of their
favourite game during the present year. For the last three
years and more the game has gone on progressing every
day in popular favour, and gradually fascinating even the
most obdurate opponents—for croquet, like all other good
movements, has had no small amount of opposition to con-
tend with. It was soon found that the direct mode of
attack must be abandoned, and in a very short time after
the introduction of the game there were comparatively few
left who openly dared to assail it, while the majority of mal-
contents had to console themselves by malignant insinua-
tions and disparaging whisperings. It soon became clear
that a great want had been supplied—that of an out-door
game of skill and variety in which ladies could join
sufficiently simple for anybody to become a moderately
good player, and yet capable under favourable circum-
stances of being carried. to a point requiring almost as
much precision and delicacay of play as billiards itself.
But it is
.only within the last month that croquet has
gained a crowning triumph. The majesty of the law
has been invoked, and no less a personage than a V ice-
Chancellor has been occupied in determining to what extent
the rules of the game are private or public property. It has
been the great drawback to the full development of the
game ever since its original establishment that no consistent
and complete code of laws was in existence. All the toy-
makers who seised upon the game at the first as the means
of making exorbitant profits by the sale of very ornamental
but too often excessively unsuitable implements, issued
brief directions for play with their sets, but these were all
insufficient and generally worse than useless. The conse-
quence was that even if the players on any particular lawn
succeeded in agreeing upon the fundamental conditions of
the game,questions of construction and interpretation were
continually arising during the game which it was impossible
to leave unsettled without depriving the game of its main
elements of interest. Even if any community of friends ma-
naged to settle a working code of rules amongst themselves,
the establishment of the district croquet clubs now so widely
in progress was seriously hindered, as it was next to im-
possible that a match could be carried on between any two
clubs in which some difference of practice or insoluble diffi-
culty did not arise. Everybody was calling for a code of
laws which might be fairly expected to meet with general
acceptation, would provide for every situation that could
arise, and would (furnish croquet-players with a settled
vocabulary of technical expressions, or, to use a shorter
and more excressive phrase, " croquet slang." Now it
appears from the proceedings in Chancery, to which we
have referred, that ti:;s great desideratum of a croqwt-
playing generatton had s,:ruck Captain Mayne Reid some
twelve months or more agO, and with characteristic
energy he immediately devoted himself to the task of
supplying the want. He seems to have entered upon
his task with all the keenness and per,:everance of one
of his own Indian heroes on a war trial, ant; during four
months he ocoupied himself in studying ali possible
combinations and contingencies that can arise, as well as
the ; best croquet materials and other ( necessar,as
of the game. Al ter mature deliberation he formulated his
experience in the shape of 126 distinct rules, with explana-
tory footnotes, besides a vocabulary of " slang " and many
general remarks, all of his own composition, and published
the collection towards the close of last year. The code bore
the practical test of play, and before long naturally came
into extensive use amongst croquet-players. Captain Mayne
Reid was naturally desirous of securing the credit duo to
himself for his arduous labours, and he was surprised the
other day on taking up a work entitled, " The Rules of
Croquet, revised by an old hand," to find that of the ninety-
three rules contained in it the majority were simply the re-
sults of his own experience and ingenuity much abbreviated
but occasionally transcribed literally by the compiler or
"reviser," and sold by him at the price of sixpence,
while that of his own work was half-a-crown. Upon
inquiry he found the " Old Hand " had some mysterious
connection with the manufacturer of certain pat-
,erns and designs of crogieeta ie known as the Cassiobury
set, and on application to the publisher whose
name appcared to the " Old Hand's " work it came out that
the "Old Hand" himself was in reality not to be sought
for very far from Cassiobury—that the Earl of Essex was
the individual who had thus sought an aristocratic short
cut to learning in the laws and practice of croquet. Now
it seems from this that our great peers are far from being
the mere useless drones in the hive that certain classes
would have us believe. Lord Essex, being a croquet-player,
and also a proprietor of timber, thought that he might ad-
vantageously turn his knowledge of the former to business
account as well as the latter, so he accordingly set up in life
as croquet manufacturer as well as peer. Of course the
good points of crovegterie with a handle to its name were
rapidly seen by an impressionable British public, and Lord
Essex doubtless turned many an honest penny by his first
venture in business life. But unfortunately he thought it
essential to the completeness of the Cassiobury set that it
should be accompanied by a code of laws, and by a strange
coincidence those which he adopted were in numerous in-
stances verbally identical with those of Capt. Mayne Reid.
Tho latter not seeing why Lord Essex, whether in his capa-
city of peer or manufacturer, or under his incognito of "An
Old Hand," should be entitled t ; the results of other people's
work, demanded an explanation and the withdrawal
of the work. Lord Essex being, as he now alleges, igno-
rant of the extent to which the piracy had been carried, re-
fused either, and Captain Reid then had recourse to Vice-
Chancellor Kindersley, and Lord Essex, who apparently
became aware how untenable his ease really was, agreed on
Friday last to withdraw the book, to destroy all copies re-
maining unsold, to pay Captain Mayne Reid £125 as com-
pensation, and also to pay all costs of the suit—a result
which must materially disturb the proportions of the new
manufacturer's balance-sheet for his first year. Lord Essex
has scarcely yet attained a degree of circumspection and
acuteness in business commensurate with the ingenuity of
his operations. He is now at least too old a hand to allow
a friend to compile a book of croquet rules without his own
superintendence. There were no pre-existing laws of
croquet, and Captain Mayne lleid'a work was to all intents
and purposes an original composition,the result of consider-
able exertion and thought, and no ono can complain be-
cause he has been (protected in reaping the fruit of his
labours, even though a slight check has been inflicted upon
the business enterprise of a noble Earl.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE PENALTIES :or
GREATNESS.—The peculiar development which hero-wor •
ship has recently taken in this country makes it very de-
sirable that people in exalted positions should not be afflicted
with the misfortune of shyness. In America, popular good-
will has to be conciliated by direct personal appearance
before the people, and to a great extent by contact with
them. " Going on the stump," and " the pump-handle
movement," are the two tributes paid in the land of freedom
to the supremacy of popular principles. With us matters
are not quite so bad, although they are getting worse every
year. The oratorical treadmill upon which our chief states-
men have to ,o in the season of the year when they are

- supposed to take a holiday is of itself a sufficient warning
to ambition ; and, from the celebrated " Give us your paw
young'un" story, it is evident that when Lord Palmerston
visits a go-ahead town like Bradford, he thinks
that something of the Yankee pump-handle must be
introduced. But it is pictorially that our principal
statesmen are chiefly doomed to suffer. The
enormous facilities for multiplying likenesses which have
been created by modern discovery are in perpetual requisi-
tion to introduce the ruler the ruled. One of the newest,
and at the same time one of the most cruel, devices of this
kind is one that has been conceived by an enterprising tailor
for the purpose of bringing the peculiar cut of his garments
before the public eye. Eighteen victims of more or lees dis-
tinction are selected, and portraits of them are circulated
wearing 18 of the habiliments upon which the ingenious
tradesman chiefly pride' himself. The Queen serves as an
advertising block for a Basque habit, and the form of the
the Princess Alexandra is di voted to displaying the elegant
proportions of the swallow-tail. Lord Palmerston figures
in a negligtle suit, Lord Russell is selected as the fittest,
model for exhibiting the merits of a " ridiog suit," Lord
Derby wears the honours of a "Chesterfield overcoat,"
and Mr Disraeli, from some ethnological confusion in the
mind of the artist which it is difficult to trace, appears
as the ideal wearer of the "Inverness cape." But
the chief sufferings of our public men are from the new art
aphotograploy. Since the cheap carte de visite came into I
fashion, and still more since it became the correct thing to
have a carte de visite album on everybody's table, the furious
demand of the public for likenesses to fill these albums has
been quite uncontrollable, and the consequent labour thrown
on photographers and their sitters has been very great.
There is no need to pity the photographers, for they are
well paid for their labours, and the more furious the de-
mand becomes the better they will like it. But the Cabinet
Minister's case is a harder one. There are three principal
duties which attach to his eminent position. He has to
manage his department,to attend in his place in Parliament,
and to sit for his carte de visite. The first two duties are
considered in the estimates; but the last, and (upon a hot
day) the heaviest, has to be performed gratuitously. Of
course it is necessary, in so many sittings, to contrive a little
variety, and the ingenuity which must be brought to bear to
attain this end cannot but be very exhausting. The Bishop
of Oxford, who, in this as in other matters, loves to accumu-
late labour, is photographed as often as a Cabinet Minister, is
satisfied with striking out as many attidudes in relation to a
curtain and a pillar, as the restricted number of human
limbs will permit. But the changes which can be rung
upon this combination arc necessarily limited. You cannot
do much with a pillar except lean upon it, and, unless you
stand in front of a curtain, you can do nothing else with it
except get it between your legs, Mr Gladstone has pre.
ferred the more fertile reseurce of different changes of dress
and with no little ingenuity he has made them symbolise
the particular phase of political existence through which he
happens to be passing. When he was the great Finance
Minister carrying out the great treaty, he presented himself
to the photograper in the official dress of a Chancellor of
the Exehequer. But finance has fallen a little into the
background of late. Other aspirations have taken the place
of those of the pure financier; other claims to a possible
Premiership than those which rest upon the suffrages of
the trading community are being sedulously cultivated.
Accordingly, Mr Gladstone presents himself before the
lens in the Court-dress of a Privy Councillor. It is not a
pretty dress. On the contrary, a profane stranger,
unacquainted with its sacred associations, would describe it
as something between the dresses of a postilion and a buf-
foon. It is, in fact, rather an extreme specimen of the
taste which governs the selection of most of our Court cos-
tumes. It required some courage in a grave statesman to
have himself immortalised in white kerseymere shorts; but
no doubt Mr Gladstone felt that the dress, though ugly,
was symbolical of a present policy, and prophetic of a bril-
liant future, But it is upon Lord Palmerston that the
chief burden of the Administration falls in the photographic
as in every other department of Ministerial duty. We are
informed by the journals most in his confidence that, at the
end of July last, he honoured the Stereoscopic Com-
pany with a sitting at which no loss than four dozen
' negatives were taken. There are very few people who
are not able, from their own recollections, to illustrate
the amount of endurance which this announcement
reveals. The retreat of a photographer, built at the
top of a tall house, roofed in with glass like a hot-house
and concentrating the rays of the sun almost with the force
of a burning glass, is probably the hottest place of confine-
ment known to human suffering on this aide of Calcutta.
Allowing two minutes and a half to each negative—and
very few sitters escape from the oven at half's° cheap a
rate—the Prime Minister must have undergone at least a
good two hours' thorough baking, under the full power of
a July sun, in his anxiety to "spread his likeness broad-
cast o'er the land," When he took office, he probably
never calculated on labour such as these. The Treasury
Bench does not look comfortable, and there must be a
monotony in the sensation it communicates when you
have to sit on it for nine or ten hours a day,
But it must bo pleasant, and even luxurious,
compared to a protracted session in a photographer's
bakery. Listening to his own colleague, Mr Denman,
upon the case of the Baron de Bode, is usually supposed
to have been the severest trial to which even the veteran
Prime Minister and the well-seasoned officials of the house
were ever exposed; but it must have been an exciting pas-
time compared to posing for two hours before a lens in a
pothouse. It cannot be said that all this labour has pro-
duced much variety in the resulting portraits. The object
of them all is much the same as the objedt of the nume-
rous speeches which the Premier has spent the month of
August in making. Both equally serve the purpose of
advertising unabated juvenility to the world, This ob-
ject the photographs undoubtedly effect for the
positions are carefully selected, and great vigour of posture,
and some vivacity of expression, is preserved. No one
would gather from them that our Prime Minister was a
joker of jokes, or that he owes much of his continued success
to the dexterity with which he deadens the thrust of an
attack by shielding himself behind a defence of particu-
larly bad chaff. The face is anything but merry or cheer-
ful. It is the weary face of one who has been much in
courts, and knows how to go resignedly through any
amount of ennui. In some, probably those which came
early in the portentous sitting, there is an expression
of business-like attention, as though the sitter was
still fresh, and could fancy himself transacting his ordinary
official duties: Some even look contemptuous, and half-
smiling, as though he enjoyed the absurdity of the position.
But as the series goes on, the countenance becomes more
and wore dead, the eyes more and more destitute of ex-
poession, as though his force wet() yielding to the op-
pressive influences of the hour. At length this change
of feats...re culminates in one which must evidently have
been the host of the series, and which is deeply pathetic.
It bears the jineaments of a man heroically struggling,
but on the point of giving way. The powers of
endurance have failed at last. It seems to say, in
tones of despairing remonstrance, " I am but a man of 89,
after all; you have put me through what half my colleagues
would have fainted under—how can you expect me to stand
quite still and wear a tranquil expression of countenance
for the 48th picture ?" A copy of the carte ought toabie
presented to all promising undergraduates in either u .
versa), who are likely to take to politics, as a warning of
what successful statesmen have to go through.