The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-13 00:00:00

THE WANDERING MINSTRELS.

The band of accomplished and fashionable musical
amateurs, who, under this title, have for some time
past delighted select audiences among the upper
ten thousand have recently placed their talents at
the service of a very excellent institution. The
claims of the British Home for Incurables must force
themselves upon every reflecting mind, when it is
considered that for those dismissed from our nume-
rous hospitals and infirmaries with the terrible
verdict of " incurable," but one small place of refuge
remains whose wards will not of course
accommodate a tithe of their number. We have
already learned, through the medium of Miss
Twining'schaiitable labours, the wretched condition
of the Workhouse incurables, and we cannot suppose
that any persons, even one degree:above pauperism,
would either avail themselves of such a shelter or
allow their suffering relatives to have recourse to it.
The British Boas for Incurables has been esta-
blished to meet the wants of the vast middle class
who are too poor to obtain the costly advice and
necessary comforts demanded by the affliction of
these unhappy
sufferers, and when we remember
teat from three forms of hopeless dis ease alone
80,000 persons die
annually in England, who sink
doubt that the demand will exceed even this fresh
supply of aid. With praisewortby economy the
board of management have purchased the lease of
the premises recently occupied by the British
Orphan Asylum
at Clapham, a precaution which
bas avoided the preliminary outlay of building.
We cannot doubt that the charity will receive very
cordial help from the benevolent public, and the
gifted band of Wandering Minstrels have done
good service to the cause by bringing it so promi-
nently into notice by their brilliant concert of
Thursday last.

A HANDSOME APOLOGY.

(From the Examiner.)

We have received the foilowhag communiea

Lion :

" Will you allow me to correct an error into
which the writer of the article in to-day's Examiner,
entitled ' Mr. Disraeli and President Lincoln,' has
fallen. He comments with great severity on a pas-
sage
n clearly Mr.w
Disraeli's
to
speech, alluding, as the con-
test Lord George Bentinck, under
speaker was referring to Sir
i e
the idea that the
Robert Peel. .
"The only ground for the error is that the death
of Bentieek is spoken of as occurring twelve years
instead of fifteen years ago. But this inaccuracy is
corrected by
the description given in the speech
of the condition of the 'Tory party at the time al-
luded to, which answers very well for 1848, but is
entirely inapplicable for 1851. I should have
thought, moreover, that Mr. Disraeli's antecedent,
would have precluded the idea that he could dwell
on the memory' of Peel with ' admiration and afec
hon.' The last term, however, is most appropriate
when we recollect his intimate relations to Lord
George Bentinck.—l am, &c.,
u 4th July, 1863." ``A. C.
i
Oar correspondent s right, and we desire all we
said, under the
impression that Mr. Disraeli's allu•
sion was to Sir Robert Peel, to be considered as
unsaid. The fault, however, is not solely ours. It
was Mr. Disraeli's exaggeration that caused our
mistake. We could not recognise Lord George
Bentinck in the eminent man of great sagacity and
great beart. The description sufficiently fitted Sir
Robert, and the circumstances referred to were cir-
cumstances of the Tory party under his leadership,
but anterior to the date mentioned. The idea never
struck us that any other Tory statesman of recent
times could be spoken of in such exalted terms of
praise, Nor was our false impression corrected by
the recollection of 31.r.Disraeles former judgments,
as "A. C." thinks t should have been, for we are
i
certainly not unprepared for inconsistency in Mr.
Disraeli's sentiments. The profession of affection
was indeed rather startling, but Bacon tells us that
" good things are never seen in their full beauty
till they turn their backs and be passing away ;"
and Shakspeare to the same effeet,--
u . • . . It so falls out,
That what we have we prize not to be worth,
Whiles we enjoy t ; but being lack'd and lost
Why then we rack the value ; then we find '
The virtue that possession would not show us."
Undeniably there was a time when Mr. Disraeli
must have thought well and kindly of Sir Robert
Peel, and these sentiments might have been revived
after party differences had been closed by the tomb.
But we were
wrong, misled by Mr. Disraeli's pre.-
posterous estimate of a very mediocre politician,
whose place in memory is not of a magnitude tc,
dispense with name. We say this without meaning
any disparagement of a nobleman who had
manyhigh qualities commanding the respect of opponents,
as well as winning the love of followers • .but emi-
nent statesmanship is another matter.
The Sun has lectured us very severely for our
mistake, and we have profited by its lesson, as it
will see, in the spelling of Mr. Disraeli's name,
which, for want of knowing better, and not in
"spiteful pertinacity," we have 1t JJ'i rsrae ,
Veili, as
his father spelt it before him. We did
not know the
offence that lay in the D'.

The Sun charges us with
a doggedly-cherished
antipathy to Mr. Disraeli, an implacable enmity,
over-bitterness of feeling, yet we have repeatedly
seized occasion to blame Mr. Disraeli's party for its
nman whose talents have made it
itiwhatartie
tlat: thed without wborn it would be as a rope
of sand.

Our lecturer also rebukes us for faults of manner,
homely or familiar
figures and expressions, to which
we cannot reply Without repeating our offence. We
must drive our ass in our own way,for no g, od ever
came of counsel taken in that business. Or
if the metaphor of the ass be too vulgar for ears
polite, let us resort to another, and avow that we do
not pique ourselves on dancing our bear to genteel
tunes, but to any
that are appropriate.

for two
Mr. FRITH is workinggdiligently at his picture of
the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The
Prince gave him a sitting on Tuesday last.
DR. COLENSO'S LAST l—`` Why is it impossib:e
Bishops to row in the same boat ?" "Because
Lhey are in, different seas (sees) 1" Not bad—for Coleus°.

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