The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1870.

until it was buried. This intense grief has made the
Imperial family anxious for the Princess—all the more in
her present delicate condition. It was on account of the
d.ath of this little nephew that the Princess of Wales was
in mourning at the opening of London University.
It is said that Mr. Tennyson is going to accompany
the expedition which is to watch the eclipse of the sun
next 'December. The Government have, I believe, re-
fused to furnish any funds for this expedition, or to follow
the example of Lord Palmerston who about nine years
ago placed the troopship Himalayai at the disposal
of the astronomers. It is even reported that Govern-
ment have objected to pay any longer for printing the
" Nautical Almanack." Should it be printed as usual it
will be in consequence of the strong remonstrances of
practical and scientific men.
Fortunately for England and for the world the love of
science and literature in this country is too great, to be
extinguished by any amount of official cold shoulder. If
the astronomers cannot get a grant they will do without
one. As for men of letters there are still among them those
who think of something more thaw's& many guineas a
sheet. Some of your readers may have seen the noble
edition of Bacon's works which has been in progress for
several years. It was edited originally 'by Messrs. Ellis,
Spedding, and Heath. Mr. Ellis died soon after the com-
mencement of the enterprise, and a double share of work
fell to Mr. Spedding. Yet he has never received a penny
for his many years' labour. The matter was undertaken
by several bookselling firms, 'who subscribed £l,OlO as
capital to bring it out. The cost of the seven
volumes was £3,278, the sales from 1857 to
1870 produced 'but £2,656, leaving an apparent deficit
of 622 ; against this is to be set the value of
561 volumes in hand and the stereotype plates and copy-
right. Mr. Spedding retains the copyright of "the Life
and Letters of Bacon."

The 'Gentleman's Magazine has once more changed
hands. It will-henceforth cease to be published by Messrs.
Bradbury and Evans, and will be issued by Mr. Allen
ex-Lord Mayor of London. Mr. Blanchard Jerrold will
edit it. Victor Hugo's story, " L'Homme qui Bit," has
been a sad loss for this periodical. Perhaps now that
most unreadable tale is finished the magazine will
make a new start. M. Hugo's place is to be
taken by Mr. Sutherland Edwards, late editor of the
Graphic, will commence a new tale next month.
The same number will contain a poem by Mr. Bailey, the
author of " Festus," whom I met the other day, looking quite
the venerable bard. Tom Taylor, the art critic of the
Tivr.es ; Shirley Brooks, the novelist, and London gossip
of the Illustrated News ; Mr. Joseph Hatton, editor of the
Worcester Journal ; Mr. Capern, the Bideford Postman-
poet ; Mr. Edwin Arnold, one of " the young lions of the
Daily Telegraph;" Mr. Dickens's son Charles; who has
not hitherto done much in the way of literature ; Mr.
Mark Lemon, editor of Punch ; Miss Dora Greenwell,
the poet and the biographer of Lacordaire, are in the list
of writers ;—a staff strong enough to establish " the
oldest and the youngest of the magazines," as it is called.
The editor of the Photographic Art Journal is Mr. Sutton
not Mr. Rivington, as stated in a former letter ; the latter
gentleman is the publisher.
The chief work coming out within the next few days is
the collected edition of Mr. Cobden's speeches, edited by.
Mr. Bright and Professor Rogers, volumes which, I ven-
ture to say, will display more sound philosophy and. shrewd
political foresight than any other work of our time. Of a
very different class is " Songs before Sunrise," the title of Mr.
Swinburne's new volume, which is being published byMr.
Ellis, who bids fair to become the poets' publisher.
Lady Lytton has just published The Household
Fai ,
ry."
Mr. Anthony Trollope, who • has already done a good
deal in thd war of travelling, having visited the United
States and the West Indies, and written capital books
about.both countries, talks of a visit to Australia. After
the enthusiastic welcome just given there to Mr. Charles
Mathews, we must look for all our literary men and actors
to be taking a trip to the Antipodes.
A new evening paper has made its appearance in Lon-
don this week. It is called the London Figaro, is a four
page paper of six columns, and is gpt up in the style of the
Paris Figaro with plenty of gossip in short paragraphs and
large type. I should think that there was room for this
sort of journal, although its pabulum is of the lightest
and most unsubstantial character. Another paper of a
low class has been hawked about the streets during the
last week or two.. It has a wretched illustration, and is
called The Devil. Nevertheless it does not tempt.

THE MEDICAL REFORM ASSOCIATION AND
THE GOVERNMENT BILL.

Yesterday a deputation from the British MediCal
Reform Association waited upon Earl de Grey and Ripon,
President of the Council, for the purpose of representing
their views in reference to the Medical Acts Amendment
Bill which has been recently introduced by the Govern-
ment into the House. of Lords. Earl Grey was accompa-
nied 'by the Right Hon. W. E. Forster. The
deputation was introduced by Dr. Chadwick, pre-
sident of the . Medical Reform Association, and
a large number of the medical profession from
various parts Of England and Ireland were present.
—Dr. Chadwick explained that the association which he
'represented consisted of no less than four thousand mem
bers. They had considered the questions which the Go-
vernment had undertaken to solve, and in some instances
went with and in others against the . measure. At a
meeting of the association, held yesterday, one of the
great principles of the bill was cordially ap-
proved, and that was the admission of the pro-
fession through one portal. A strong desire was
also expressed that the examinations 5114.),u1d be conducted
through one board, and the bill as it now stood contemp-
lated three. The question upon which more anxiety was
felt, however, was that relating to the formation and con-
stitution of the medical council. The profession as re-
presented in the association very decidedly desired direct
representation by appointing members irrespective of
any board or corporation through which they might act
in an indirect method. _ _ .

Dr. Waters, of Chester, said he had presided over a corn.
mittee of the British Medical Association, on whom the
duty had devolved of endeavouring to obtain the direct
representation of the profession in the General Medical
Couricil. That committee was appointed first of all by
the of the association, and at the annual meeting
in 1867 they brought foward a resolution asking the eight
representatives on the Medical Council, to be elected by
the body of the registered pt actitioners throughout the king-
dom. At the meeting in Dublin that resolution was most ably
discussed, and was eventually -carried; the only dissen-
tients being two influential members. Since that time the
mover of the opposition had seceded from his then opinions
and was now heartily with the association, and yesterday
seconded a resolution affirming the, principle, giving a
complete adhesion to it. Since that-time there had been
two occasions on Which the principle had been unani-
mously affirmed ' • he referred to the meetings which
had been held at Oxford and Leeds. Since
the introduction of the Medical Bill into
the House of Lords various meeting s had been
held throughout the country. The Lancashire and
Cheshire branch of the British Medical Reform Associa-
tion, numbering three hundred members, and comprising
a large proportion of the teachers in the medical schools of
Liverpool and Manchester, and a great majority of the
hospital surgeons and physicians of the various hospitals
in the district, passed a resolution unanimously in
favour of this. The South-Eastern and the
Northern, comprising Hull and the surrounding
neighbourhood, the Yorkshire, the • East York-
shire, the North Lincoln, the Metropolitan, and
Counties, the Bath and Bristol, and 'the North Wales
branches of the association, had all passed resolutions de-
manding that this representative principle should be em-
bodied hi any bill passed by the Legislature. The Cam-
bridge branch, while admitting the necessity of modifying
the constitution of the Council had passed resolutions in
favour of indirect representation; but it was notorious
that the making of the declaration was due in some degree
to the considerable influence exercised by the president
of the Council. The representation was' in fact a com-
plete anomaly, for while Durham had its representative,
the great schools of Manchester, Hull, and Leeds had no
representative whatever; and yet those schools them-
selves were governed by the Council—a body in which it
could scarcely be said they placed the slightest confidence.
He, on the part of the deputation, would therefore request
his lordship to insert in the Government bill the following
amendment :—" That the General Medical Council
shall, after the passing of the Act, always contain four
representatives elected by the registered members of the
profession in England and Wales, two of Scotland, and
two of Ireland."

Earl de GREY promised to consider the, representations
which had been made to him by the deputation. Of
course there were various questions to be considered
besides the abstract question, whether the changes they
advocated were desirable. ne of these was whether the
alterations should be effected by the present bill, and he
did not anticipate that the measure would precisely be of
a completely permanent character. Whatever decision
the Legislature arrived at must be based upon the abstract
advantages of the proposals, and the opportunitieS for
introducing them. He did not wish to express a decided
opinion, but the question had suggested itself whether
the functions of the General Judicial Council demanded
that they should be discharged by a representative body.
He would, however, give due weight to what had been
urged on the part of the deputation.

A. Carlisle correspondent telegraphs :—The City of
London, TOO tons of sugar on. board, struck on a
sandbank of Heston Island, Auchencairn Bay, on the
coast of Kirkcudbright, on Tuesday afternoon. The
crew, seventeen in number, stuck to the ship fourteen
hours, a-ad then landed in boats. The vessel is breaking
up. She was bound from Trinidad to the Clyde.
M. TN 4
_ii.ANDELARICE AND M. DE GutAnDiri.----The
Marquis d'Andelarre has addressed a letter to M. Emile
de Girardin, editor of the Liberte, in answer to an attack
which that gentleman made on the policy of the Left
Centre. M. de Girardin declared the Left Centre
was dead, owing to' its refusal to take part in the
plaiscitary vote, and asserted that the retreat of three
eminent men who represented it in the January Cabinet
was the deathblow of its fortunes. The alliance
between the two Centres is, he avers broken ' • but
M. d'Audelarre replies that, even should that be
the case he will not regret the efforts he made to consoli-
date it, nor the powerful aid which the Left Centre lent
to the Government. There is, he thinks,_ some rashness in
M. de Girardin's statement that the Left Centre
is dead ; it has only withdrawn into its tent
because the situation neither permits it the means of
attack or defence. As for the withdrawal of the three
members of the Left Centre from the-Cabinet, M. d'An-
delarre' remarks that their influence is greater out of
office than in it, and it is not the Left Centre
who has most reason for regret. In return for M.
011ivier's reproach that the Left Centre was constantly
endeavouring to diminish power, the leader of 'the Left
Centre asks whether pruning the dead branches from the
trues is the work of the destroyer? 'Who was it that
" The problem to be solved in the nineteenthcen-
t- - i 3 to constitute a strong power and a strong liberty?'
Wa it not de Girardin himself ?

THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE.

The Select ComMite° of the House of Commons ap-
pointed to inquire into the subject of the Diplomatic
and Consular Service met yesterday, d proceeded
with the examination of the ate Minister Brazil, who,
with reference to the marriage of British subjects abroad,
expressed a strong opinion that there should be two or
three weeks' notice to the Ministers or Consuls whose duty
it was to marry them, as foreign capital Ministers were very
subject to be imposed upon by strangers. They could
not possibly provide for- all cases, but he recommended
that the same notice now required to be given to consuls
should be given to Ministers. He had himself commu-
nicated with the Foreign-office on the subject, and was
informed that it was his duty to exercise a discretion on
the subject, and he thought it would be advisable that
there should be a general circular issued on the subject.
Under the present regulations it would be quite possible
for a runaway couple to cross over from England to
France to-day and to be married at the British Embassy
at Paris to-morrow. The advantage of the notice being
would be that in most cases irregularities of that character
would be put an end to.

RELIGIOUS TREATMENT OF ROMAN
CATHOLIC PRISONERS.

The select committee of the House of Commons on
prisons and prison ministers resumed their sittings yes-
terday afternoon, when
Captain Ducane, Inspector of the Government Prisons,
was called, and stated that he had eleven prisons under
his control, which it was his 'duty to visit and inspect.
At each of those prisons, when a prisoner was admitted
he was required to state his religion, and a notice was
read over to him, together with the prison rules,
regulating the religious instruction of the prisoners.
These rules stated that Roman Catholics shauld have the
opportunity afforded to them of seeing a priest of their
own religion, and that they should be permitted to attend
the Romad Catholicservice. When each person thorougly
understood the rules, and was made acquainted with
the privileges accorded to these of different religion, he or
she was required to state their religion, but when once
they had declared it they were not allowed to make auy
change in their declaration . until it was satisfactorily
proved that they had made a wrong declaration.
He had always found the' best feeling to exist between
Roman Catholic priests and Protestant clergymen, and
that they worked together with perfect accord and in
harmony with the prison authorities. He ' was of
opinion that .it would be adviiable that
the same regulations existing in' the Government gaols
should be extended to every county prison. In Millbank
the average number of prisoner was 1,185 in the year, of
whom 385 were Roman Catholics ; Portland, 1,540 ; Dart-
moor, 1,030 ; Portsmouth, 1,230 ; Chatham, 1,600 ;
Woking, 701 males; Brixton, 566 ; and Ful-
ham, 330. Of the total number of prisoners
under his inspe'etion, the Roman Catholics numbered about
2,000. The Act of Parliament was clear and specific
with respect to their treatment, and since it had been in
operation, and the Roman Catholic prisoners had been
allowed to he visitedby their priests, their general conduct
had been much improved.
On the conclusion of Mr. Discane's evidence the com-
mittee adjourned.