The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-23 00:00:00

THE THEATRES, &c.

DatritY-LANt—M Sohn, Phobns's Fix. At Eight, Peep o' Day
ADELPHI.—At Seven, FT Precious Betsy. 'fhe Prompter's Box.

Whitebait at Greenwich.
HAYmArticxx—At Seven. An Alarming Sacrifice. At 7.40, Our
American Cousin. And Shocking Events.
LYccum—At 7.30, Twenty Minutes with a Tiger. At 8.15, Chilperic
OLYMPIC—At Seven, Little Em'ly. The Princess
PainEss's—At Seven, Your Life's in Danger. Paul Lafarge. A
Dark Night's Work

GAIETY—At Seven, The Happy Village. At 7.45, The First Night
At Nine, Uncle Dick's Darling

QUERN'S—At Seven, Quick March. At 8.15, 'Twist Axe and Crown
TRAND—At Seven, Sisterly Service. Widow's Weeds. Ino

. _
ST. JAMES'S—At Seven, She Stoops to Conquer. At 9.15, La Belle
Sauvage. An Unhappy Pair

PRINCE OF WlLEs's—At Eight, School. Dearest Mamma. Quite
by Accident

GLOBE—At Seven, Whitebait at Greenwich. At Eight, Philomel
The Goose with the Golden Eggs
WOODIN'S CARPET-BAG AND SKETCH BOOK, Egyptian Hall, Picca-
dilly, every Evening (except Saturday) at 9; Saturday Main-
. _

ings at 3. Admission, Is, 2s, 3s.
CERISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8; Wed-
nesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.
MADAME TUSSAIID'S EXHIBITION, Baker-street, from 11 a.m. till 5.30
p.m., and from 7 till 10 p.m. Admission, ls. ; extra rooms, Gd.
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, Open daily(except Sundays).
Admission. is. on Mrndays, 6d. Children under twelve, Gd.

°W4JIZ -14-4t1441k kb

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 1870.

THE Emperor has taken another step towards
" crowning the edifice." He has become so en-
amoured of constitutional government that he thinks
he cannot have too much of it. So he has addressed
a letter to his chief Minister, in which he says that he
thinks it expedient to adopt all the reforms required by
the Constitutional Government of the Empire, so as to
puVan end to the immoderate desire for change which
prevails in certain minds. Perhaps the owners of these
"certain minds " will declare that the Emperor has
himself shown that they were not immoderate by
granting them one after another the reforms which
they have been urging for many a year. He has
just granted another, and this is not to be the last.
By the Constitution of January 14, 1852, there
were established five powers in the State—the
Executive, represented solely by the Emperor; the
Ministers, nominated solely by the Emperor ; a Coun-
cil of State preparing laws under the direction of the
Ministers; a legislative body nominated by universal
suffrage, and entrusted with the duty of discussing
and voting laws ; and "a second assembly, formed of
eminent men, acting as a moderating power, the
guardian of the Constitution and of the liberties of
the nation." This lastbody was the Senate, and was to
be nominated by the Emperor, and to be composed of
cardinals, marshals and admirals, and a number of other
members, not exceeding 150 in number, nominated
by the Emperor. Each member held his post for
life, with a salary of £1,200 per annum. No
vote of the Legislative Assembly was effective
without the sanction of the Senate. It was
the especial duty of the Senate to oppose
the promulgation of all laws contrary to the
constitution, religion, public morals, freedom
of conscience, individual liberty and equality
of all citizens before the law. Changes in the funda-
mental laws of the realm might be proposed by the
Senate, with the concurrence of the Ministers, and
when such modifications had been approved by the
Emperor they were called Senatus-Consulte. Last
year the Emperor allowed the Corps Legis-
latif to share with the Senate the power of initiating
legislation. A further step is to be taken now. The
Emperor promises not only to " divide the legisla-
lative power between the two Chambers," but
also to " restore to the nation that portion of consti-
tuent power it had delegated to me." In other
words, as we infer, the Senate will henceforth be an
elected body, and the constitution of France will to
that extent resemble the constitution of the
United States. Nor is this all. The
Emperor intimates that he has not yet
come to the end of his concessions.
There are other gifts in store. This is well. It is a
peaceful revolution instead of the bloody and violent
one that a few months ago seemed inevitable. The
Bonapartists are showing that they are not like the
Bourbons. They can forget, and they can learn

Tort several months past the War Office has been
in a state of perpetual committee. Lord Strathnairn't
was the first to sit and report, and its example ha►
just been followed by Lord Northbrook's. This
latter committee consisted at first of Lord North-
brook, Under Secretary of War, Mr. Stansfeld, the
third Lord of the Treasury; and Mr. Anderson, also of
the Treasury. Subsequently, Lieut.-General Sir E.
Lugard joined the trio. The results of the labours of
these four gentlemen have been made known within
the last few days. They did, indeed, make a first and
a second report some time ago ; but it is the third
report which contains the fullest information. Never-
theless, the three may be taken as one document,
and from the three we gather the opinions of the
committee, and also of the many distinguished
witnesses whom they examined, as to the defects of
the present system, and the remedies which they
would propose.

The committee strike at the root of the evil ix.
their first report. They say that there are twc
totally different conceptions of financial control
between which it will be necessary to choose before
entering upon the question of departmental organisa•
tion. The first and traditional theory is that ad-
ministrative departments are to be distrusted,
watched, and checked, and the function of finance
is, from this point of view, confined to
watching, criticising, and checking the expendi-
ture. The practical tendency of such a theory is
towards the creation of twin rival antagonistic
powers. The Administrative branch seeking to
spend, the Financial branch to check, expenditure,
economy and efficiency are at war. The result
is a never-ending routine and costly delay; a general
disposition to avoid all responsibility, and to shift it to
the shoulders of others ; and a framing of the army
estimates in a most unsatisfactory manner, inasmuch
as they aro put forward without any sufficient sense
of responsibility for financial results, ultimately to be
cut down to suit the financial exigencies of the time
The other theory of financial control involves the
union of finance and administration, so that financial
considerations may attend and determine adminis-
trative policy from its rinception, as well m
control it during its progress, and re-
view it in anticipation of each new financial year
Wre need hardly say that it is the first theory which
has prevailed hitherto, and that it is the second whici
Lord Northbrook and his colleagues recommend
for our adoption.
There is ample room for the application of their
principle in all parts of the administration of the
army departments. For instance there are
at the present time no fewer than 7Th
persons engaged in the administration, and
they cost us the respectable sum of just under a
quarter of a million a year. This is by far the
largest staff, in proportion to the numerical strength
of the army, which exists in any country of Europe,
and probably it is the most inefficient. The com-