The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-16 00:00:00

THE' SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1871.

once followed extravagant utterances. The situa-
tion makes the union between the Moderate
Republicans and the Monarchists an emphatic
necessity. If these two parties dispute whether a
bran-net Monarchy shall or shall not be set up, the
common enemy will not fail to take advantage of
their divisions.

died a year ago, and thus the scandal (which is of a
type common enough in France) ought to have died
with her. Not only, however, does MiMere revive
it, but so falsefies the details as to repre6ent M.
Favre in the character of a criminal. And so the not
very squeamish Rochefort became "sick in the
stomach." But the Parisians bought Milliere's journal
at a very high price, and then elected him a national
representative.
THE IMPERIALIST PROCLAMATION.
The Germen press, which has been playing with
the cause of the Emperor Napoleon for a long time,
now giving it a little support, now " cutting " it en-
tirely, seems at length to have determined that there
is no hope at present for the Bonapartists. So with
one accord the Teutonic journals treat the Emperor's
proclamation very coolly. Some laugh at it ;
and, indeed, it is not difficult to find
matter for ridicule. The Emperor takes no account
for the past or the future ; he neither alludes to his
own doings nor gives any advice to his distracted
people ; his whole energy is devoted to condemning
the Government which strove to drive out the in-
vader whom he brought in. He alludes to the
plebiscite as confiding the sovereignty unalterably to
him. But the Cologne Gazette smartly points that
he abused the plebiscite and deceived the people.
They wanted peace, and yet he converted the plebis-
cite into a machinery for making war. The Germans
give him up. All the lively intrigues of which
Versailles, Brussels, Wilhelmshohe, and Chislehurst
were the centres, have ceased—for the time. "Many
Imperialist fugitives come here," says a Geneva
' correspondent. " They are greatly discouraged.
Wilhelmshoh.3 has no longer any hope, and says it
L is betrayed by Count Bismarck."

PARLIAMENTARY life of late years has seldom re-
vealed a more unfortunate display of party spirit
than is shewn in the various bickerings about the
Black Sea Conference. Mr. GLADSTONE commits an
error : the leaders of the Opposition forthwith rush
into the same indiscretion which they blame in him. No
doubt Mr. GLADSTONE'S. conduct was reprehensible.
The other day, in the House of Commons, Mr.
DISRAELI " drew him out" with such success that
he declared that he himself did not believe the
neutrality of the Black Sea could be main-
tained, that the British Government never at-
tached much importance to the stipulation, that
Lord CLARENDON did not consider it of any value,
that Lord PALMERSTON believed it could not last
long, and that the Austrian and French
Governments held much the same views.
Some of these statements were inaccurate,
and all were very imprudent. The British Govern-
ment undoubtedly did think the neutralisation of the
Black Sea of the first importance at the time the
treaty was made, though - public opinion now cares
little or nothing about it. Indeed, the circumstances
have changed, for Turkey has now a good fl Jet,
whereas she had none in 1850. The PRIME MINIS-
TER appears to have been strangely misinformed
when he said that Lord CLARENDON con-
sidered the famous guarantee 6f no value.
As.to Lord PALMERSTON, though he of all Eng-
lish statesmen had the greatest share in bring-
ing about the war, it seems that he had no expecta-
tion of Russia permanently abiding by these Black
Sea restrictions. But, whether accurate or not, Mr.
GLADSTONE committed a great error in so
playing into the hands of his opponents
as to make these statements, whilst the
Conference was sitting. It is the business of the
Plenipotentiaries to decide the fate of the Paris
Treaty. Mr. GLADSTONE should have waited until

THE UNIVERSITY TESTS BILL.
The names of Mr. Gladstone, the Solicitor-General,
Mr. Gorchen, and Mr. Dodson, appear on the back
of the new bill for the removal of university tests.
The measure seeks to alter the law of tests with
respect to the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and
Durham only, and it is so framed as not to threaten
interference with the system of religious instruction,
worship, and discipline established in the several col-
leges. The abolition of the rule requiring Honorinen
to place their signatures to any formulary of faith
before they obtain their proper degrees, or other
privileges, is merely what is sought for. It is very
justly stated in the opening paragraphs of the Bill
that many of Her Majesty's subjects are debarred
from the benefits of a University education in con-
sequence of the subsistence of religious restrictions,
the need for which, it is generally contended, should
only be sanctioned in reference to divinity students.

heir task was done before making statements which

go far to settle the question beforehand. All
private individuals expect that the Paris

treaty will be modified, but it is not for the PRI➢IE
MINISTER to virtually inform the foreign representa-
tives that they are only solemnly debating a few
formalities. Nevertheless, if this was an error,

THE PURCHASE SYSTEM. •
Major Anson writes another letter on the purchase
system. He considers the expense of abolishing it
has never been properly reckoned, for that when the
existing system is done away with, we shall find our-
selves with an army possessing no system of retire-
ment. Our present full pay retirement is only
£05,500, whereas an enormous increase on Sir Charles
Trevelyan's original estimate of £512,271 would be
requisite, in Major Anson's opinion, to secure a pro-
per flow of promotion for the whole army. By the
abolition of purchase we shall break down our
present regimental system with its attractions and
the facilities for exchange. This will turn the atten-
tion of men more to the actual value of their pay,
and as Major Anson thews that a cornet's payi when
divested of the charges for horses, servants, uniform
and accoutrements, leaves £lB ss. 9d. as a balance
for his remuneration, he is not sanguine as to
the result. He believes that th© abolition of pur-
chase will be " the first nail driven into the coffin of
our Asiatic and Colonial Empire." He foresees
the time when the expense of officering the army
will be so great that a spirit of discontent will spring
up. The defence of the country will be handed
over to a sort of embodied militia, while India and
the Colonies will be provided for by local forces.
SELLING GOODS ON SUNDAYS.

the course adopted by Lord CAIRNS of
raising a debate Upon it was not less so.
Mr. GLAD ST ONE'S declaration could dot have
passed unnoticed ; but this conflict of statesmen in-
tensifies its effect. The error is one which real
patriotism would have passed by. The Conserva-
tive leaders sacrificed the public interest to a party
triumph.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The tranquil career of Mr. Bee Wright and the
other gentlemen whose chief business under the
celestial hemisphere seems to consist in prosecuting.
needy fruit-women, confectioners, and news-
boys for attempting to turn a penny on a Sunday,
is at last threatened by something like a cloud.
The laws of Sunday Trading, like the statute
which compels public houses to be kept shut
for certain hours, and, open for certain other hours
on Sunday, i. to be so amended as to sanction the
opening of small shops, and the exposing for sale any-
where of articles of food before ten o'clock on Sun-
day mornings. Eating houses and coffee shops are
to be privileged in an especial manner by Mr. Thomas
Hughes's new bill, inasmuch as they may not only
be legally open before 10 o'clock a.m., but also after
Ip.m. The regulations of the new measure have been
from time to time to a great degree enforced, but
the law has been found miserably, insufficient for the
undeistanding of the poorer classes of shopmeu.
Hence it may be supposed that the bill now about to
be introduce I will satisfactorily enact such bounds and
privileges to Sunday trading and selling as will leave
the matter no longer in doubt, and remove the
necessity for Mr. Bee Wright's eye, which was inva-
riably being levelled at the right spot, when petty
tradesmen were (for the most part unconsciougy)
found.to be assisting in a breach of the Sabbath.
THE TRUCK COMMISSION.

The Commissioners who are inquiring into the
hardships of the Truck system are continuing their
labours, and have ndw held a sitting in London, at the
Law Institution, Chancery-lane. The Secretary
of the Ebbw Vale Iron Company, which employs a
large number of men, and owns four stores, was
examined at some length. He had had twenty
years' experience of Welsh ironworks, and believed
that stores conducted on the company's principle
were beneficial to the workmen. The company did
not make more than 3 per cent, profit. A private
.trader would not be content with so little. A gentle-
man from the Laboratory, Woolwich, said that
8,000 workmen were employed and paid weekly in
cash. It was better for the men to pay
them weekly instead of monthly because
when paid monthly they must either borrow
or get into debt. The Truck system, it may be re-
, marked, is based on a system of perpetual credit. The
Commissioners afterwards took the evidence of a
Shetland fish-curer, so that they will be able to draw
their conclusions from a wide range of evidence.
ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.

A prodigious number of scented and flowered mis-
sives were, as usual, despatched on St. Valentine's
eve and St. Valentine's morn, from the General Post
Office, London. A. wicked bachelor, who contrived
to steal into the precincts of St. Martin's-le-Grand,.
discovered, what might otherwise have
remained secret, that on Monday night
250,000 valentines entered the Post Office,
and that on the following morning the supply was
increased by 200,000 more. This enormous quantity
of love symbols, only judged of by their suspicious
shape as they lay in heaps on the Post-office floors,
is, moreover, not supposed to include the regular
town delivery of London. For: the 'first. time
messages in honour of St. Valentine, if the pseudo-
nious expression may be used, were this year sent
over the wires to many an expectiint
.haind. We
understand the work accomplished in the delivery of
valentines by the Post-office authorities, the
carriers, the telegraph boys, and the rail-
way officials, has been carried out most rapidly,
and efficiently by all, this year. The usual long de-
lay of the mails in London did not take place, and it
is a notable fact that the Great Western "valen-
tine" train of Monday night was only one minute
beyond its time at starting.

as any even Mr. Browning has hitherto written, how
a common Breton pilot, by a wonderful com-
bination of skill and audacity, saved the
whole French fleet from the imminent danger of
capture. The most beautiful and pathetic lines of the
poem are those in which the pilot, after the danger
is past, and when he is told by the High Admiral to
choose whatsoever thing in all France he most desires,
asks simply for a day's holiday to see his good wife and
his children. It would scarcely belair to anticipate
the publication by a further revelation of the struc-
ture or beauties of the poem. It consists, however,
of about one hundred lines, for which Mr. Browning
received, from the proprietors of the Cornhill, as
many pounds. This purchase money he at once
handed over to the Paris Relief Fund, as a poet's
contribution to the unfortunate Parisians. We aro
glad also to notice Mr. Tennyson's name on the com-
mittee list of the Relief Fund.