The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 9, 1870.

tine.nugnsn people came to a nem.= oy electing
members who would support the Irish Church Aet-
and not by voting en masse for or against it.
It may be urged that this is a question of
extending the power of the popular House, and that
therefore the Chamber itself cannot determine its
own prerogatives. The answer is ready: the present
machinery vests the power of altering the Consti-
tution in the Senate, and if the sovereign is afraid of
the Legislative Body, let the Senate do the
work. That body, which the Emperor considers" great
and splendid," but which most people regard as a
servile collection of his own nominees, is quite ready
to do anything that may be asked of it. It has sup-
ported despotism, and it is prepared with equal grace
to uphold liberty. To the Senate, then, let the new
Constitution go, without any useless, foolish, and
dangerous plebiscitum. Such an expedient is use-
less, because it is admitted by the French Premier
himself that the conclusion is foregone. It is dan-
gerous, because it is contrary to the principle of the
parliamentary system which the Emperor is supposed
to be setting up. As Prince Napoleon himself
neatly puts the case,'" To consult directly the people
is a kind of coup d'etat, and it supposes a dissent be-
tween the Emperor and the representatives of the
people. Were it otherwise, the Emperor would find
it more natural to go hand-in-hand with the repre-
sentatives themselves." Just so ; so long as a Parlia-
ment is the legislative machinery of the Government
it is to Parliament that all appeals of the kind
should be made. We see such fine things
nowadays that a time may come when Arcadian
States will be ruled entirely by the ballot-box, when
entire nations will divide on tramway bills, and &bye
elaborate amendments on compensation for eviction.
That blissful time, however, has not come yet, and
until it does there is nothing to be gained by dis-
crediting parliamentary Government.

TOWN TALK.

(From the Western Mail of this Merniig.)
LONDON, Friday Evening.

Puck's girdle before very much longer, have
made the earth's circumference. Tiilings dated
from Calcutta on the 2d, and from Bombay on the
3d, were published before cockcrow on the 4th in
London. The fasces of the British Empire are
coiled about now by telegraphic wires and submarine
cables. Rather inopportunely, as it seems to me, for
the ready carrying out of the disintegrating designs
of Professor Goldwin Smith and his unpatriotic sym-
pathisers. The rods of empire, there can be no
donbt whatever about it, just when Mr. Smith
wan's to have them loosened apart, are bang
bound more and more strongly and tenaciously
together.

A gool stand-up party fight—an incident quite
refreshing in these later days—was actually adven-
tured upon in committee on the Irish Land Bill, in
the House of Commons on Monday night, at the
signal of Mr. Disraeli's amendment. At its very
commenc..ment there was a clash of arms between
two Parliamentary athletes, as redoubtable as the
ex-Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
At its conclusion, there was a result certainly notable
of its kind, on a comparison of the aggregate
numbers for and against the amendment. Instead
of the majority, as usual, exceeding a hundred, it
had dwindled down below it to the extent of twenty-
four. The clear majority was 76, in lieu of being
over 100. Incidentally, during the course of the
debate, Mr. Osborne was loudly but vainly called
for ; his gay animal spirits being still evidently
damped through the evil effects of his immersion in
the tank at Waterford.

The insurrectionary movement which has recently
occurred in the kingdom of Italy—a movement at
once abortive and sanguinary—has again directed
attention to Mazzini as the arch-conspirator. A
letter from the hand of Mazzini appeared simulta-
neously with the announcement of the outbreak.
Cause and effect were at once apparent. Granted
(what very few, indeed, I should imagine, would feel
disposed for one instant to deny) that Guiseppe
Mazzini is a conspirator born, and bred, and in-
grained, I cannot, for the life of me, but recognise
in po'itical fanaticism like his something of a less
sordid, certainly something of a lets selfish,
charact r than the whole scheme of life laid
out for himself, from first to last, by the
royal voluptuary who has profited by the last
twenty years of this revolutionary Italian move-
ment. A quarter of a year has scarcely elapsed
since, while I was travelling through Lombardy, I
endeavoured to obtain some clearer inkling as to the
poular estimate by the Italians of the conspirator
and of the King—of Mazzini and of Victor Emma-
nuel. And what was the answer I obtained in each
instance as indicative of the popular estimate of the
two ? Speaking of the King, the reply was—" He
is a fine animal. He is satisfied with eating and
drinking, with the demoiselles, with the sports of the
field." " And what think you of Mazzini ?" I asked.
A. pause. Then—after long silence—in a voice
broken by emotion, "He is my father !"—mean-
ing pater patrig ! The contrast is certainly re-
markable.

M. Rouher's magnificent banishment to the south
of the Mediterranean, as Viceroy of Algeria, is,
beyond all doubt, one of the most extravagantly
daring projects recently. imputed to, the Emperor.
It might be regarded as a sort of left-handed or
vicarious reactionary movement. And the rumour
of it becomes audible at the very moment when the
intimation of a coming plebiscite for the Democratic
sanctioning of the constitutional changes recently
introduced, has elicited from the anguish of M. Tbiers
the witty ejaculation that Liberty is, thug, being
horn by a Cmsarean operatimi.
Aprop, s to the discussion as to whom the French
Ac idemy should select as successor to M. de Lamar-
tine, it is almost pitiable to notice that M. Guizot,
three-and-twenty years after date, has just now in-
dulged himself with a senile sneer at the Ilistoire des
irondins. It is only when the great poet-historian
and orator-statesman, and hero-philanthropist, is in
his grave that the Ministerial chief of the Govern-
meet, which was scattered into space by that grand
history, in the beginning of 184 e, when its lublica-
don was like the detonation of nitro-glycerine, blurts
out his abhorrence for the cause of bis political ex-
tinguishment.
Reports still fitfully arise every now and then of
Mr. Bright's intended resignation. Nor can it be
wondered at, seeing that the I'resi lent of the Board
of Trade has been s) long invalided. It is certainly
remarkable, as things go, that since the first forma-
tion of the present Ministry under the I'remiership
of Mr. Gladstone, the fifteen members of the Cabinet
remain to the last unchanged.
Meanwhile the Austrian Ministry reigns en masse;
because of the Kaiser's refusal to dissolve those pro-
vincial diets, the deputies from which have left the
Reichsrath. The transference of power at Vienna
now is from Count Beust to Count Potozki, the
former Minis. er of Agricul ure. .
Seeing that the Budget is delayed until just before
Easter, it is, at any rate, a consolation to know be-
forehand that the surplus attained is variously put at
from £3,000,000 to £5,000,000. Whatever the actual
aggregate of the Budget may prove to be, certain it
is that the whole of it cannot possibly in reason be
dealt with. And this, for the sample reas ,n that, by
his hocus-pocus F olicy of last year, Mr. Lowe antici-
pated the future, seized Time by the forelock, ran
five quarters instead of four into the current twelve-
month—in point of fact, adventured upon deeds of
financial legerdemain that can never by any possibility
he repeated.
The Ernperer Napoleon's reservation to himself of
a power to elect his successor from among the sons of
any one of the brothers of Napoleon the Great—in
the event, that is, always, of the premature death of
his own son (now legally of age), the Prince Imperial
—opens up to view two notable possibilities. The
possibility of "Pion-Plon" being still kept on his good
behaviour by reason of that reserved power of selec-
tion by which his claims might, at any emergency,
be overlooked. And the possibility, held in terrorern
over the Irreconcilables, that one of these fine days
Prince Pierre, of Auteuil, might exchange his favou-
rite six-shooter revolver for the sceptre of Charle-
magne. Happily, there is one barrier as yet left to
any such arrangement—the historical fact that the
Lucien branch of the Bonaparte family is not, strictly
speaking, Napoleonic. They have to be made
Imperial before any one of them can possibly become
Emperor.

IVithin a few days after the publication of No. 1
of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," the enormous
supply of 40,000 copies had been exhausted. The
serial is now in its fiftieth thousand. This, remember,
before a single week had elapsed, was a fact already
accomplished.

As I told you in my last, I was then on the eve of
attending the private view of three pictorial exhibi-
tions. I can now look back to them retrospectively.
Regarding them according to the order of seniority,
I have first of all, of course, occasion to speak of the
forty-seventh annual exhibition just now opened by
the Society of British Artists in the suit of rooms
known ; s the Suffolk-street gallery, situated at the
back of the Haymarket theatre, aril a little to the
nor.h of Pall-mall-east. The society has thirty-
three ny mbc‘rs, exclusive of two who are simply
honorary. Its pres •nt vice-president is Mr. G. Cole ;
its new j re ident is Mr. Alfred Cl nt ; its treasurer is
Mr. J. Noble ; its secretary is Mr. T. Roberts ; and
its two auditors are Mr. Wyke Bayliss and Mr. E. J.
Cobbett. Duting the last thirty years of the forty-
seven during which the society has been flourishing,
the late Frederick Yeates Hurlstone has been installed
there as president. No one can wonder, therefore,

to find that one of the conspicuous features of the
exhibition in Suffolk-street Gallery for the present
season is a collection of some of the choicest works by
the late president—works brought together, for a
while thus commemoratively, from many scattered
collections. One of the most ambitious and
effective cf all there pictures by Mr. Hurl-
Aone is (229) " Columbus asking alms at the Con-
vent"--a wholly apochryphal incident, seeing the,'
Columbus never did anything of the kind. " Salute
Signori" (52) is among a'l these pictures by Mr.
Hurlstone the most brilliaetly chat aeteristic. Two
of Mr. J. J. Hill's rustic pictures adorn the wa'ls of
the exhibition ; and Mr. Woolner aga;n attracts the
eye askance by his nullities.
The Frenat and Flemi,hExhibition at 120, Pall
Mall, upon this, the thirteenth annual occasion,
charms the London visitors with the sight of a very
choice collection of masterpieces. Ilenriette Browne,
famous as the painter of the " Sick Child," arrests
one's attention almost on .the threshold with her (3)
" Egyptian Boys chanting the Koran"—one of the
urchins giving it voice like an embryo boats-
wa'n in an mai;inary gale of wind. There
is a world of humour in Weisz's " Foster
Brother and Sister" (14) hardby. What shall be said
of Rosa Bonheur's (48) " Quiet Spot in the Forest of
Fontainebleau," but that the fawns and the dappled
shade and sunshine are simply delicious and inimit-
able? What of Meissonier's (55) " Halb ,rdier on
Guard," but that while it has the grand effect of a
colossal painting, it might be examined through a
miscroscope. The place of honour in the gallery is
worihily accorded to J. Bertrand's (143) " Virginia
drowned"—a noble and pathetic rendering of one-half
of the tragical close of Bernardin St. Pierre's exqui.
site story of " Paul and Virginia." As you gaze on
the picture, you can hear the thunder of the boiling
surge !

A sixth exhibition of water-colour drawings at
Mr. Arthur Tooth's gallery, of fine arts, at No. 5,
Haymarket, tempted me in there also, on Saturday
afternoon, to another of these private views ; and I
was rewarded with a sight of several charming
sketches by Birket Foster and Rosa Bonheur, Fre-
derick Tayler and David Cox, Clarkson Stanfield
and J. M. W. Turner, David Roberts and George
Cattermole ; so that dead and living artists, it will
be understood at once, are there competing•together
for admiration.

Au extraordinary attraction will be contributed,
by the way, to the forthcoming Exhibition of the
Royal Academy by one of the most gifted and
renowned of the foreign artists of genius. M.
Gerome, the painter, among other great works,
of the " Gladiators in the Amphitheatre," Ave
Ccesar ; 2llorituri Te Salatent ! will display to view
here, in England, his great historical picture of Mar-
shal Ney lying dead on the ground after he had been
cruelly shot down by the fusillade at his military
execution in the garden of the Luxembourg.
DU you remember the closing sentence of my letter
three weeks ago ? Permit me to repeat the very words
I then used—doing so, shall I confess it ? with some
degree of exultation. They were these, under date,
Friday, the 18th March.
"Let me give, as the last tip of the 'Varsities, in reference
to the great boat-race—news that I believe will gladden
all England—that the exceeding probability is that at last
Cambridge will again have her turn, and come in the winner."

Wednesday last, the 6th April, has shown how far
I was right in my information. After an interval of
ten years since their last success (in 1860), the
Cantabs again were victorious, to the satisfaction,
one could almost fancy, even of he conquered.
Among those who were presented on Wednesday
last at the levee, thousands will have noticed with
interest the name of Mr. Charles Dickens. It
seems only fair to add, in regard to it, that the
great author's attendance upon the occasion was
in obedience to the gracious suggestion of the
Sovere'gu.

WILL OF THE LATE EARL OF DERBY.
The will of the Right Hon. Edward Geoffrey, Earl of
Derby, K.G., P.C., late of Knowsley Hall, Lancaster,
and gt. James's-square, London, was proved in he...
Majesty's Court of Probate, on the 2nd instant, by his
eldest son, the Right Hon. Edward Henry, the pre-
sent earl, the sole executor. The personalty was sworn
under £250,000. The will is dated February 21,
1865; and there are three codicils dated May, 1868,
March and September, 1869. His Lordship died Octo-
ber 23 following, at the age of seventy, having held the
title since 1851. The will is of considerable length,
extending to 179 folios. His lordship has bequeathed to
his Count9ss, Emma Caroline, daughter of the
first Lord Skelmersdale, an immediate legacy of £3,000
and an annuity of £3,000, in addition to a like annuity
under settlement, and closes the bequest to her lady-
ship in the words—" To whom, under God's providence,
I have been indebted for more than thirty nine years
(then in 1865) of much domestic happiness and un-
interrupted harmony." He also leaves to her ladyship
all his plate, with the exception of his racing
cup and racing plate, and a selection of his books from
his library, together with furniture. He devises to
his eldest son and successor the manor of Knowsley, with
the estates at Hayton, Eccleston, and Bickerstaff, and
all his other estates in the counties of Lancaster, Chester,
Westmoreland, York, and Middlesex, and to his issue
male ; and leaves to his trustees, the Hon. Charles James
Fox Stanley, his brother, and the Right Hon. Edward,
Lord Skelmersdale, in trust, all his racing cups and racing
plate, to be held and pass as heirlooms with the title of earl-
dom. To his second son, the. Hon. Frederick A. Stanley,
he leaves his estates in the counties of Limerick and Tip-
perary, and elsewhere in Irelandoviththe option of taking
within six months, the sum of £125,000 in lieu thereof.
His Lordship has made provision for his daughter, Lady
Emma Charlotte Stanley. He leaves to Colonel the
Hon. Edward Bootle Wilbraham (Scots Fusilier Guards)
and Lord Skelmersdale each a legacy of £l,OOO. Legacies
are left to his cousins, nephews, and their children; and
legacies and annuities to servants. To his stud groom,
Timothy Forshaw, he leaves an annuity of £5O,
when he may cease to be employed as stud-groom to his
successor. To his valet, Joseph Blake, he leaves an
annuity of £5O and all his wardrobe, with the exception
of his robes of state and the Order of the Garter. The
testator appoints his son, the present Earl, residuary
legatee.--Illustrated London News.