The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-02 00:00:00

AMERICAN ADVICE TO ENGLAND.

We are indebted to a correspondent for the following
extracts from a letter he has recently received from an
American gentleman occupying an official position on
the Continent was glad to hear you say that you
thought England ought to have taken a higher stand in
the Russian question. I know no Englishman here that
does not say the same. It is as certain as anything in
the future can be that Russia and Prussia will try to
divide Europe as they see it. As the Bus
sian Ambassador said in my presence, " Russia has
no objection to England talking in a Conference, but the
Czar has already said that the Treaty of 1856 does not
bind him, and he has nothing more to say." . . . Let
England tell Prussia that she .cannot break the Treaty
of 1867 in regard to Luxemburg, and let her say to
Prussia, "Do you support Russia in. violating
that of 1856 or not ? " Russia and Prussia
understand each other, and Prussia will not forfeit
her alliance. Let England then join France
and defend herself and Europe. England can find 80,000
men, which is enough b decide the contest and put heart
into Austria and Turkey, and to make Denmark shew her
teeth. Let England land her soldiers upon the Continent
-now;tuul-tneed never strike a,.blow. . -If
she (England) would stop Russian and Prussian aggres-
sion by sii.itaining France in her struggle, America would
cheer England.. Next spring, perhaps, when England
finds Russia more arrogant than ever, Austria entirely
cowed, Turkey being dismembered, she will at length rouse
herself to fight on the Black Sea question. The fate of
France will, perhaps, then be sealed ; America will throw
all her sympathies with the Power which advocates the
right of ships of war to sail in the Black Sea—a right she
herself has never abrogated—and it may be that there
will then be a strong enough sentiment to carry my
country into war.—Pall Mall Gazette.

The Premier will probably be in London next
week for Cabinet business.
THE JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL.—Mr. J. R.
Davison, Q.C., who has been appointed Judge-Advocate-
General, has issued an address to the electors of the city
of Durham, intimating his acceptance of the office, and
asking for a renewal of the suffrages of the electors. Mr.
Davison has arrived in the city, but there is no appear-
ance of opposition. .
ANOTHER ACCIDENT FROM A BROKEN TYRE.
—A train leaving Carlisle early on Friday morning ran
off the line at Burton and Holme Station on the London
and North-Western Railway. Eleven carriages and
trucks were precipitated down au embankment, and
were much damaged, but the passengers and guards pro-
videntially escaped with a few scratches and bruises.
The accident was caused by the breaking of a tyre, and
the traffic on the line was delayed for four hours.
ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. —On
Friday morning printed bills were issued relative to the
sudden disappearance, two weeks ago, of Mr. William
Guthrie, a compositor in the printing office of a morning
journal, who left his home in excellent health to join his
regiment— the London Irish Volunteers—at Somerset-
house, to receive a mark of distinction from that corps,
and has not since been heard of. Being a man of very
steady habits and punctual at business, great fear for his
safety is entertained by his wife and family.
ANOTHER COLLISION ON THE LONDON AND
NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY.—A serious accident occurred
on the London and North Western Railway, near Man-
chester, on Saturday morning. The express train, leaving
Stockport for Manchester at 9.40, after proceeding about
a quarter of an hour on its journey, ran into a goods
engine, which was standing on the line between Laven-
hulme and Longsight, in consequence of some shunting
operation. The morning was very foggy, and the driver
of the express did not see the obstruction till he was close
upon it. The collision was very severe, and both engines
are very much smashed. The drviers of both engines and
the stoker of the goods engine were both hurt, and a num-
ber of passengers who were coming to Manchester to
attend the Exchange, were severely shaken, but for-
tunately no lives have been lost.
THE FASHIONS.— Velveteen and cloth are the
mixtures most in vogue this season. Sometimes they are
used in the same colour, and sometimes as contrasts, such
as grey cloth and tnarron or chestnut-brown velvet. The
favourite mixture for dressy toilettes is pale blue and
prune colour, and black and pink, which latter contrast
appears in the most novel styles. For evening wear a
great many pink tulle dresses are made a 'lidded with
black velvet dots and looped up with black velvet
sashes, also black tulle dresses are made trimmed with
pink ribbon in ribbled gros grain. These ribbons are
arranged on the black skirts as four sashes, each
terminating with a rosette, and so contrived that they
have the effect of looping up the bouffantes of the dress.—
John Bull.

CONSECRATION OF ST. JUDE'S CHURCH, SOUTH
KENSINGTON.—On Friday morning the Bishop of London
consecrated a new church which has been erected in a
district which until lately was composed of uncultivated
fields and small market gardens lying between the Fulham-
road on the north, and the town of Kensington on the
south, but which has now beeome one of the well-inhabited
districts of South Kensington. The church, which is
dedicated to St. Jude, is a very handsome structure, in
the early decorated style of architecture, from the designs
of Messrs. George and Henry Godwin. By a very inge-
nious contrivance very light galleries are introduced, and
the nave and aisles so widened that the great bulk of the
nuegation is brought towards the east end of the
church. It will seat about 1,600 people, and the whole
cost, including adjacent rooms, which will hold between
300 and 400 people, is about .dl,OOO.
ale
MANUFACTURE OF GUNS IN PARIS.—L'Avzi
la France, a microscopic journal, which is published in
Paris, has furnished some details respecting the
facture of weapons. It says thatfew days six hun-
dred breech-loading guns will be handed to the army of
Paris. The greatest credit is due to those who have
undertaken the work, and who have had to resort to con-
trivances on some occasions in order to execute their task
for want of proper tools. For the most part the guns
constructed at Paris are most excellent, and an experi-
ment made under the surveillance of a captive balloon
shewed that their range was considerable. The Prussian
cannon was inferior in range and in precision also. The
Potier gun, as this is called, was proppsed under the
Empire, but was not favourably received by the autho-
rities.

THE WEEKLY PI WASS.
THE MINISTRY.
The Saturday Review says that "Mr. Gladstone and
any of his colleagues who may be admitted to his intimate
confidence, must find a sensible addition to their labours
and anxieties in the necessity which has arisen for a
partial reconstruction of the Cabinet. The loss of strength
which the Government incurs by the resignation of Mr.
Bright scarcely involves immediate danger to its existence.
Notwithstanding the practical changes which have been
made in the Constitution, it is still necessary that any
party which proposes to overthrow a Government should
have an alternative Cabinet ready to take office. The
Conservatives have the same respectable body of adminis-
trators at their disposal who formerly served under Lord
Derby and Mr. Disraeli ; but in the present Parliament
it is impOsSible that Mr. Disraeli should form a Govern-
ment. The extreme Liberals, on the other hand, though
they might possibly withdraw their support .from the
Government, have no organised staff of their own. Mr.
Gladstone is their natural leader, inasmuch as he does .
more for their cause than any champion whom they could
select among themselves ; and they have a special element
of weakness in the fact that they are entirely •unrepre-
sented; except perhaps by the • Lord Chancellor, in the
House of Lords. It would be a strrin on the resources of
the party to supply the placeS of Mr. Lowe, Mr. Card-
well, and Mr. Childers ; and they are certainly not pr,
pared- at the srame time-to find ,neeessors to Lord Gram:
the Duke of Argyll, Lord Kimberley, and Lord De Grey.
It is a great convenience to have a considerable number
of qualified candidates for high office who are not corn-
' gelled to submit to the chances of popular election ; and
any list which could be drawn up of the most capable
statesmen and adminiStrators in the country would at any
time include a number of peers. On the whole, Mr.
Gladstone may safely and prudently choose the best men
whom he can find, without thinking it necessary to count
the Votes which he may gain or lose. rt is satisfactory to
be assured that Mr. Ayrton, who was supposed two years
ago to have a chance of a place in the Cabinet, has by his
administration of the Board. of Works made it impossible
for the most partial of his friends to recommend his further
promotion.

JUNKERISM.

The mischief this war is working in Germany itself
comes out, says the Spectator, more strongly every day.
Its first effect has been to develop what is called in India
and America "land-hunger,"—the thirst for territorial
acquisition irrespective of the uses to which the territory
can be put; in other words, a spirit wholly inconsistant
with the permanent maintenance of peace, the first con-
dition of which is immovable frontiers. Nations must
fight if their frontiers are threatened, for otherwise they
cease to exist. The second result has been to strengthen
immensely the power of the armed caste which, under the
name of Junkers, has for two centuries governed Prussia.
This caste is absolutely peculiar to North Germany,
and has no equivalent in any European country,
or in any phrase ever employed in English politics..
This, the master evil of North Germany, has been
enormously intensified by a war the first effect of which
has been to justify the system. You say, argue the
Junkers, that we are slavishly loyal. Our loyalty has
made the Empire you desired. You protest against our
militarismus, but without it the Turcos would have been
ravaging your homes. You denounce our caste arrange-
ments ; what are they but bonds of the discipline which
has done what all your anarchical chatter has for ages failed
to do ? There is just enough truth in those arguments to
make those who use them positive and those who deny them
hesitate, and for years to come it can hardly be questioned
that unless the Kaiser should abandon the Junkers they must
prevail. Liberty in Germany, if the Empires continues
as victorious as the Confederation, will be further off than
ever. But if it does not ? Then we conceive the first of
the many things that must fall will be North-German
Junkerism. A great defeat, a raising of the siege of Paris.
a retreat without Metz and Strasburg, and Junkerism will
have received its death-blow. Like Napoleonisni, its
only justification is permanent success. For the repres-
sion of all freedom, the extinction of all individuality,
the denial of all equality, the stifling of all true natural-
ness of life, it has but one compensation to offer,—
efficiency in war, and that compensation wanting will no
.more- be burue than a uniform,
_would be permanently
borne as a night dress. It was becoming intolerable be-
fore, and now, when it has een re-invigorated, when every
band has been pulled tighter and every garment cut
sharply to regulation, when the Kaiser is avowedly
Commander-in-Chief, and a diplomatist apologises for
mastering Europe by boasting that his highest title is
that of major of dragoons, nothing but success, magnifi-
cent, unbroken, unmistakeable, can give it continued
safety. And yet there are English Liberals, men jealous
of a monarchy which is to the Prussian what a cap is to a
helmet, men intolerant of an aristocracy which, compared
with the Prussian, is what Lord Granville is to Bismarck,
who half wish that Chanzy should not break through that
beleaguering line.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
The President of the- Special Committee on Breech-
loading and Muzzle-loading Rifled Field Guns is Major-
General Sir John St. George, K.C.8., Royal Artillery.
The Army and IVami Gazette says that when the Royal
Military College is carried out the system of " Com-
panies " will be abolished.—A story has been going about
the clubs for some time, to which we hesitated to give
currency until we learnt it to be authentic in all the main
details. It strangely illustrates the extreme want of
officers in the Loire Armies. It seems that a young
-gentleman of Irish family, lately a cadet at Woolwich, with
not long to wait for his commission, took it into his head
that it was a pity to lose so much good fighting as he
lately was daily hearing of. So one night he was wanted
at tattoo and not
.to be found. Nor was he heard of for
some days, and then only because he wrote of his having
departed to join General D'Aurelle. Since then various
accounts have been received of and from him. He not
only reached the Army of the Loire, but succeeded in
proving his military education to the satisfaction -of Gam-
betta's bureau, and, aided possibly by his Hibernian
extraction, was forthwith gazetted as a captain of artil.
lery. One can well imagine that a young man with the
sort of energy'which carried the hero of this story so
far in search of service may prove of value to his new
masters in his new field of artillery study. We lately
commented on certain irregular punishments administered
on the crew of her Majesty's ship Chanticleer on the
Pacific station, and we have heard that Rear-Admiral
Farquhar has so admonished Commander Bridge that
there is no likelihood of any recurrence of the conduct
which has been complained of, and which created so much
dissatisfaction amongst the crew. _ _ _

The United Servie Gazette says the First Lord of the
Admiralty is progressing rapidly towards complete reco-
very.—The post of assistant-controller at Chatham will
shortly become vacant by the transfer of Mr. Adams
to a foreign station, probably Singapore. Surgeon-Major
F. J. Mouat, M.D., of the Indian Medical Service,
has been permitted to retire on a pension of £550 per
annum. Deputy-Inspector-General of Hospitals J. C.
Brown, C. 8., has been appointed Inspector-General, vice
Dr. J. Murray, M.D., whose period of service has ex-
pired.—The "Beaufort" testimonial has been awarded to
Lieutenant Alfred A. C. Parr, RN., 1870.—Their
Lordships have been pleased to grant a gratuity of .£2O to
John Guyer, a West Indian pilot, for assistance ren-
dered to H.M..S. Myrmidon, by which that vessel was
prevented from being wrecked on Key West, not that
blame could in any way be attached to the Navigating
Lieutenant of the ship, who is well known in the service
as a careful navigating officer.
The Broad Arrow stays Lord Dufferin's Committee to
inquire into the future designs of our war vessels will com-
mence its sittings at Whitehall in the early part of week.
Colonel Pasley, Royal Engineers, has been appointed
secretary to the Committee.—The rumoured changes at
the Admiralty will not, under any circumstances, take
place for the present.—A reward for distinguished service
is at the disposal of the Crown, in consequence of the
death of Major-General Robert Henry Lowth, C. 8.,
Lieutenant-Colonel retired. full-yay, 88th Foot.—With
reference to the proposed reduction of the Military Head-
quarter Staff in Dublin, it is the opinion of those persons
most conversant with the requirements of the service in
Ireland, that such reduction would be highly impolitic,
and that under existing circumstances it cannot possibly be
carried into effect.

THE NEW STAMP ACT.—We are enabled to give
an unqualified contradiction to the statement made by
" A City Solicitor," in the Daily News on Saturday with
respect to the Stamp Act. His allegation was that "on
and after the Ist of January cheques payable to order
are subject to an ad valorem, stamp duty as bills of ex-
change." No such regulation as this has been even con-
templated.