The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-29 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, JULY 28.

The Queen and Princess Beatrice drove out yesterday
afternoon, attended by Viscountess Clifton, and Her Ma-
jesty walked in the grounds this morning, accompanied
by Princess Louise.

The Dean of Westminster and Lady Augusta Stanley
arrived at Osborne yesterday, on a visit to her Majesty.

FASHION ABLE ARRANGEMENTS TO-DAY.
Last Day of Goodwood races.

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP.

THURSDAY.

Still the Secret Treaty. That is the great topic of con-
versation on all hands, and will be more so than ever at
the time these lines meet your readers' eyes, for this after-
noon Lord Granville will make a statement with
respect to the affair, and it is thought pro-
bable that Mr. Gladstone will make a simul-
taneous statement in the Commons. No event
of recent times has caused so much widespread
consternation and anger. The existence of the Treaty is
thoroughly believed, and the communication which
Napoleon made through the Daily Telegraph on Monday
with regard to Prussia's alleged proposal to take Holland,
only confirms the belief. In fact the French Govern-
ment itself does not deny it. It is only
the London Standard, more devotedly imperial than
the Journal Offieiel, which is suicidally destroying its
character and position by persisting in denouncing the
document as a forgery, in the face of all the evidence to
the contrary which is supplied in its own columns. There
is little doubt but that the document was communicated
by Bismarck to the very able Berlin correspondent of the
Times, and by him seat over to his chiefs at Printing-
house-square. The point with regard to which we are
most interested just now is, not as to the authorship of
the treaty, the treaty is so entirely one-sided that there
can be no doubt upon that point—but as to whether, as
alleged by the Brussels correspondent of the Pall
Mall Gazette last night, the four days between the
announcement of war in the French Chambers
and the formal declaration of the war to the King of
Prussia by Count Wimpffen were occupied on the part of
Napoleon in urging the prosposals of this Treaty as a last
condition of peace.
However other reputations may have suffered by the
revelations of the last few days there is nothing in them
but what redounds to the credit of Lord Granville. He
certainly is not open to the charge of having slumbered
and slept while robber-diplomatists were plotting a huge
international burglary. Mr. Hammond, who is diplomacy.
incarnate, and who told Lord Granville a few hours before
the Duke of Gramont's famous speech in the Corps L6gis-
latif, that never were continental politics so calm, never was
peace so assured, may indeed make us question the reality
of that wisdom which we used to think so profound. But
Lord Granville was new to office ; he had scarcely been
installed in Mr. Gilbert Scott's new building, which
Lord Palmerston insisted upon spoiling, when this
thunderbolt fell out of the sky that experienced
political weather prophets, like our permanent Under
Secretary for Foreign Affairs declared to be absolutely
cloudless. It would have been a trying time for Palmer-
ston or Clarendon. How much more was it trying for a
statesman fresh to office. Yet there is nothing through.
out the correspondence, so far as Lord Granville is con-
cerned, that the most critical reader can censure, nothing
but what he must praise. There was quickness to
realise the gravity of the situation, promptitude in
dealing with it, perfect courtesy to all parties, yet
no shrinking from the truth. And even when most sorely
tried, when after having offered the mediation which
France had asked, and after having obtained the solution
of the difficulty which France had demanded, that power
still persisted in its sanguinary resolve, the
exquisite courtesy of our Foreign Secretary did
not fail him ; and when all hope of peace was
at an end he still continued his efforts to narrow the limits
of the conflict, and to exempt from it, as far as possible
the commercial and trading interests of the various
States. Altogether Lord Granville has done very much
to redeem English diplomacy from the reproach under
which it has long laboured. He has shewn that it is
possible to be outspoken without being rude. The Secret
Treaty will have laid upon him a still more difficult
task.

The Duke of Gramont, whose name has become so
prominent during the present month, is well known in
England. He married the daughter of a Scotchman, Mr.
Mackinnon, formerly M.P. for the corrupt borough of
Lymington, whose town house was just opposite the
Marble Arch. Mr. Mackinnon, who was the head of the
clan, died but a few weeks ago, and his daughter the
Duchess was over here quite recently.
If the current rumour as to the identity of the " Eng-
lishman " through whom Napoleon communicated his
confidences to the British people in Monday's Telegraph
be Correct, that confidant is a gentleman with a rather
remarkable career. During the Aberdeen Administration
he was Secretary to Mr. Gladstone, and he was just
about to undertake the responsibility of a Colonial
governorship when it was discovered that he had been
doing business on the Stock Exchange. This sort of
business did not seem compatible with his re-
lations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
the appointment was revoked. During the American
Civil War this gentleman became special correspondent for
the Times in the Southern States, and his clever, but very
one-sided letters had no small share in enlisting the sym-
pathies of the upper and middle classes of England in
behalf of the Confederates. He now turns up in a new
capacity, but unfortunately for him the very morning that
his letter appeared, the Times published the Secret
Treaty, and thus deprived him of his eclat.
Mr. Woods, who was for many years engaged on the
Times, but who joined the Pall Mall Gazette when that
journal appeared as a morning paper, will represent the
Scotsman on the Prussian side. M. Thiebland, better
known as " Azamat-Batuk," has reached the Franco-
Prussian frontier, and will correspond for the Pall Mall.
lam informed that one reason at all events, if not the
sole reason, why Mr. Motley has been recalled is that he
has not fulfilled his instructions. He was ordered to
bring the Alabama question to a settlement. Instead of
doing so he wrote back to Washington that it was better
to keep it open. Mr. Frelinghuysen, who has been nomi-
nated as his successor, is said to be much more friendly
towards this country. One thing is certain—the next
move must come from President Grant's side, not from
ours, and this Mr. Otway has distinctly stated.
A paragraph has gone the round of the papers that the
Queen will be at Balmoral about the middle of August.
Probably this arrangement was intended, but it is in-
credible that it should be carried out in the present crisis.
Of course, if her Majesty were the cypher that some per-
sons suppose her to be, it would not matter if she were
in the Highlands or in the Orkneys. But as she expects
to be consulted on all foreign despatches which are not
of 'a merely routine character, it cannot be possible that
she should take herself 600 miles away from the seat of
Government when we may at any moment be called upon
to fulfil our duty to Belgium in amore decisive manner than
by pourparlers. It so happens that the present Government
is not strong as regards its knowledge of foreign affairs. Mr.
Gladstone did indeed establish his reputation by his letter
about the Neapolitan prisoners, but no knowledge of
diplomacy was necessary to write this, and since then he
has taken little part in foreign politics. Lord Granville
and Mr. Otway are both new to their work, and the
former Minister refers to his own inexperience in one
of the despatches where he laments the death of
Lord Clarendon at this juncture. On the other hand, the
experience which the Queen has gained during the 33 years
of her reign in her communications with different Ministers
should qualify her to give valuable counsel, of which there
may be great need just now.
The war, or seine other cause, has quite disorganised
our telegraphic service. The complaints of delay are both
loud and deep. They may well be both. It has repeatedly
happened during the last fortnight that the news of im-
portant events has not reached the newspaper offices by
telegraph until long after it might have arrived by train.
Last week's rise in the Bank rate, known in the City at noon
was telegraphed to a newspaper office less than 250 miles
off, at three the following morning. Very urgent repre-
sentations have been made to Mr. Scudamore, but at
present without much effect.
Mr. Gladstone has been following Dean Stanley's
example and bringing together men of different religious