The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-15 00:00:00

THE BUDGET NIGHT,

The London correspondent of the Manchester
Examiner thus described the appearance of the
House on the Budget night ;—‘, The House was
crammed in every part—from floor to galleries. In
those of the latter, which are devoted to members
of the House of Lords, there was a brilliant assem-
bly of the peers and dip!omatista. Viscount Eversley
did not fail, as indeed he never fails on any great
occasion, to revisit the scene of his former glory.
There was Lord Derby listening eagerly, Earl
Granville, looking smiling, bland, and good-
humoured—as, indeed, I verily believe he would
do if he were going to be hanged. Earl de Grey
and the Duke of Argyle are always certain to be
present when Mr. Gladstone is to do anything
particular, for everyone knows that he has not
anywhere two more earnest and faithful disciples
than these two young noblemen—we observe
nearly all the Opposition leaders in their places.
Mr. Disraeli is as nearly as possible opposite Mr.
Gladstone; his face, usually insorutable enough, is
screwed up to a pitch of tenfold inscrutability, He
sits with his arms folded, his chin in the air, his
eyes directed ceiling wards, immovable as a statue ;
except that perhaps three or four times in the course
of the speech he addresses a remark—you can see
what sort of a remark it is to be by the sarcastic
curl of his lip—to Sir S. Northeote, who sits on his
for the first time this
session, I think—present in his old place by the
loft hand. Mr. Cobden was --for
side of Mr. Bright. lam sorry to say that he
is looking by no means so well as his friends
could wish to see him. Lord Stanley was on
the other side of his nominal leader, but I did
not see a word exchanged between them. The
oddest thing I noticed about his lordship was that
he kept taking notes in a memorandum book. It
O the
on his legs—there plunged into his
com-
menced his statementesuchanaudie atncethethat
unusually
Gladstone
early hour
of twenty minutes before five. As if disdaining to
exciteby artifice the attention which he knew would
sbuehgjeivcetnthteo withouthmimomenthog
it,
was literally not a word of exordium or intro-
duction. For nearly three hours he held the
perfect and unbroken attention of the house.
He had had a great triumph, and he showed
that he enjoyed it. Very characteristic of the
man was the fine passage in. which he dwelt
upon the fact that her increasing commerce
makes England more and more the cham-
pion of peace and justice to the world ; and it
was delivered with a profound moral earnestness
of tone which showed how deeply it was felt. Sin-
gularly amusing—characteristic also—was the way
in which he played with the house, like a cat with
a mouse, going elaborately through all his minor
changes of taxation before he would come to the
more important remissions. lam sure that he had
a humorous deli;ht in the impatience of the house,
while the house could not help showing its amuse-
ment at the way in which the long-waited-for
morsel was kap: dangling above their heads. Mr.
Bentinek, of Norfolk, did not like the ' chaff' about
the odour into which protection has fallen, and will
resent it by.und-by in his gruff, rough-tempered
way."

THE ALEXANDRA.—Although the officers of
customs at Liverp)ol still retain possession of the Alex-
andra screw ram, it is understood that an intimation has
been conveyed to the owners that the Crown is ready to
deliver her over-to them on their lodging the usual ap-
plication.