The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-11 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP.-THURSDAY.

The uneasiness respecting our relations with the United
States has increased since I referred to the matter a few
weeks ago. The Times and the Pall Mall Gazette of yes-
terday contained remarkable articles on the subject,
which, and especially the one in the latter paper, are well
worth reading. The position is just this. American
politicians wish to keep the Alabama sore open, both
because it serves them as a good topic in their own
political disputes, and because they believe that
England will be drawn into the Continental imbroglio
before long, and then it would be easy to enforce better
terms than can be obtained now. For instance, if, as
there is too much reason to believe, the Czar should claim
a revision of the Treaty of 1856, the ostentatious affiance
between democratic America and despotic Russia, which
has so often obtruded itself upon our notice, would bear
fruit, and the Washington Cabinet would be found siding
with the St. Petersburg diplomatists, and endeavouring
to compel us into a cession of British North
America. It is well known that we cannot even now
defend our American colonies against an invasion by land;
though we could avenge it by blockading American ports

and driving American commerce from the sea. This
weapon would scarcely avail us if we were engaged in a
conflict with so important a naval Power as Russia.
Therefore it is that General Grant and Mr. Fisk will not
consent to a settlement of the Alabama dispute. The
best Americans condemn this policy ; but unfor-

tunately, on the other side of the Atlantic,
the best men are not the most influential, and they them-
selves, as soon as they get drawn into the vortex
of the political whirlpool become almost as antagonistic to
England as that famous General General Butler of New
Orleans celebrity, who is just now coming to the front
again, this time in the capacity of politician.
The condition of our army all the world knows is so
eminently unsatisfactory that Government will certainly
have to amend it, and the subject, as I 'have before
said, is now engaging the attention of the Cabinet. It is
not so well known that the condition of the navy is by no
means what it should be. When distinguished naval
officers speak of Mr. Reed's ships as " the coffin
Audacious class," it may easily be conceived that expe-
rienced men are greatly dissatisfied with the
present position of affairs. The feeling in the
service is that Mr. Childers has taken too
much upon himself, and has endeavoured to supersede
the Board of Admiralty, though he is without practical
knowledge of naval architecture. When it is found
necessary to introduce concrete and scrap iron into the
bottom of our newest ships in order to give them stability,
it is high time that a Royal Commission should be ap-
pointed to inquire into the whole question of,shipbuilding,
with a view to securing both offensive power and security.

The rumour that Mr. Reed has endeavoured to return
to the Admiralty, is well founded. But with the excep-
tion of Sir Spencer Robinson, all the Lords of the
Admiralty were opposed to receiving the ex-Chief-Con-
structor back. Sir Spencer and Mr. Reed are great allies,
and the latter takes care to repay the debt which he owes
to the former, by praising the gallant Admiral in
the paper in Macmillan's Magazine which bears Mr.

Reed's signature. Nor is Sir Spencer Robinson the only
gentleman who has benefited by Mr. Reed's encomiums.
His, partner, Sir Joseph Whitworth, and his brother-in-
law, Mr. Barnaby, receive an " honourable mention," as
the judges at flower-shows say. Mr. Reed seems to
have forgotten that there •is such a person as
Mr. Crossland, though he, no less than Mr.
Barnaby, is one of the three superintendents of the
Constructive Department. Mr. Reed himself is an
instance of what may be done with the pen of a ready
writer. Beginning his career as the editor of the Me-
chanics' Journal, he got introduced to the Admiralty by
his relative above-mentioned, and, though without special
education for the work, he speedily rose, until he became
Chief Constructor of the Navy. It is, therefore, rather
amusing to find him sneering at the gentlemen who, with
out professional knowledge, are " at their dire work in the
columns of the newspapers and els6where."
The description given to-day by the clever correspon-
dent of the Daily News (understood to be Mr. Henry
Labouchere, ex.M.E!. for Middlesex), of the condition of
Paris and the temper of the Parisians, would seem to
imply that the surrender of the French capital is near at
hand; Ido not find that this is the impression among
London philo-Gallicans. Even if Paris should give
in, they hold that in other parts of France the war
will be carried on for ten years before peace is
asked. A quarterly reviewer who has for some years re-
sided in Paris, and who is the author of one of the articles
in the current number of the oldest of the quarterlies,
assures me that when beaten in
.one city the French will
flee to another, and that in every part of France they will
keep up a harrassing warfare until the Germans are
wearied out and exhausted, just as the Spaniards treated
the French •in the early part of the century. I con-
fess to being somewhat sceptical on this point.
In the first place the French have not, as the Spaniards
had, an English army to help them. In the next place
the French have hitherto shewn none of the resistance
which my philo-Gallican friend so largely credits them
with. Only read the details of the surrender of Dijon in
to-day's papers, and you will see what amount of resist-
ance there is left. Whether there is fighting as there was
in the capital of Burgundy, or unconditional surrender as
there was in the capital of Lorraine, makes very little
difference. Dijon has to yield in the end, as Nancy had
at the outset.

The post of Queen's messenger is never a sinecure; just
now it is full of peril. To-day's Times contains the narra-
tive of Captain Robbins' narrow escape from being
shot for a Prussian spy by Francs-tireurs. His hours
were numbered, and no quantity of papers or passports
would satisfy his captors that he was otherwise than they
held him to be. It was only by the narrowest chance
that he was enabled to escape death by flight. Captain
Robbins is well known in West-end salons, and I am not
altogether surprised that he should have been taken for a
Prussian. His persecutors would have been even more
ruthlessly bent upon his destruction if they had known
that he has for wife a charming German lady.
Lord Mayor's Day in London was "a caution," as the
Yankees say. If to " Cimmerian darkness " (whatever
that is), you add the ninth plague, you will have some
idea of our condition at two o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Old Londoner as I am, I lost my way in going across
Hyde Park, and found myself in Pimlico, when I thought
I had been steering for Piccadilly. Recovering my bearings,
the thick pall became blacker and blacker, and the darkness
more intense as I made across St. James's Park, and
almost ran my head against the Horse Guards before I
discovered where I was. The procession along the
Embankment was thus utterly spoilt, and a spectacle
that would have been picturesque on a bright day,
became invisible except you were under the noses of the
horses. . Almost suddenly the cloud lifted, and by
half-past three we found ourselves once more in
the grey twilight of a November afternoon, through which
the procession made- its way back by the old route, to
the immense disgust of all persons whose business com-
pelled them to fight their waYthrough the crowds of roughs,
who every now and then made charges like the German
Landwehr, or through the still more formidable infantry
composed of squalling babes in the arms of irate mothers.
As for the speeches at the banquet, they were remarkably
cautious, and Mr. Gladstone, having committed himself
pretty deeply in the Edinburgh, atoned by most unusual
reticence in the City.
If the announcement made in a Dublin paper respecting
the Marquis of Lorne should prove correct, we shall see
quite a small revolution in the government of Ireland. It
is stated that after his marriage with the Princess Louise,
the Marquis (who, according to another statement, will be
made a duke, and have precedence of all other peers
not of the blood royal) will 'be made Viceroy
of Ireland. In that case the Irish vice-
royalty will cease to be a political post, will
no longer be subject to the changes and chances of Cabi-
nets, and the Castle will be a royal as well as a vice-regal
court. What will become of the present bearded peer
who now holds state at the Castle, after he has given
place to his smooth-chinned successor does not
yet appear. It is probable enough that he will
not greatly regret his return to England, for it is
no secret that neither he nor Countess Spencer is parti-
cularly fond of Dublin society, and they will be fully
compensated by, let us say, the substitution of a coronet
with two balls for one with five. The last time that a
royal person held the viceroyalty was in 1529, when the
Duke of Richmond, illegitimate son of Henry VIII., was
Lord-Lieutenant. Thirty-five years before that his
father, then Duke of York, was viceroy.

What has become of Sir Colman O'Loghlen ? He used
to be a most indefatigable speaker. Surely the perennial
spring of his Irish oratory has not been altogether dried
up. There was one subject which he made peculiarly his
own, but which he seems to have dropped when he was put
into office —the law of libel. The prosecution of Mr. Leng

by the Earl of Sefton should quicken the Judge Advocate
General into some of his old activity if anything can.
Rarely has a harsh law been so strained as the law which
makes a journalist criminally responsible for the deeds of
another, has been in this case. As on many previous occa-
sions Lord Chief Justice Cockburn shewed himself
strongly in favour of justice to journalists. It is
greatly through his aid that they are no longer the
pariahs of the law which they once used to be. But
there is still great room for improvement in their
position, and English journalists should combine to
obtain for themselves immunity from a peril which does
not exist in the case of their brethren north of the
Tweed.

I began the last paragraph with a question. I did not
know then that I should be able to answer it ; but even
while this letter is going through the press I find out
where Sir Colman O'Loghlen is. Alas ! he is in the
Bankruptcy Court, and, I suppose, he will have to
give up his seat, Clare County—which once made itself
famous by electing O'Connell—and his post, which, with
its salary of £2,000 a year, will be available for some other
Irish supporter of. the Government.

Among those who have suffered by the war is Mr'
Lecky, who, intending to pursue his studies on the
Continent, with the view of writing another book,
has found it impossible to carry out his inten-
tion, greatly to the regret of the literary
world. Per contra the Quarterlies, like the newspapers,
have benefited by the war. The Quarterly went into a
second edition immediately, and has now reached a third,
no unfrequent event since Mr. Elwyn resigned the editor-
ship to Dr. W. Smith. The Edinburgh was lagging behind
until the Daily News announced that the last article Was
written by Mr. Gladstone, and then the rush
.
for the periodical was so great that a new edi-
tion had to be issued at once, and Mr. Reeve's aspira-
tions must now in great part be fulfilled.
Of another literary man I .am grieved to give bad
tidings. Dr. oeorge Macdonald, who has long suffered
greatly from ill health, and whose continued existence is
almost a marvel to his friends, is again hors de combat,
and is compelled to leave London during this season of
atrocious fog and smoke. He will, however,
continue to edit Good Words for the Young'
Since Dean Afford resigned the editorship of
the Contemporary Review that magazine has been
conducted by its publisher, Mr. Strahan. The present
number contains an article on the war by Mr. William
Stigand, author of the article on Baron Hiibner's "Sixtus
V.," in the Edinburgh Review. Dr. Macduff, a Well-
known Scotch clergyman, has retired from the
ministry, in order to devote himself to liters"
ture, which .he finds much more lucrative. This
step has been somewhat severely criticised by
his reverend brethren, who think that he ought
not to have abandoned a higher calling for
a lower. Dr. Hannah, who was till lately
warden of Glenalmond College, and who is known
by his literary works, and not least by his edition
of Wotton and Raleigh's poems, has adopted the opposite
course to Dr. Macduff s, and has returned to minis"
terial labours by accepting the vicarage of Brighton,
vacant by the death of Mr. Wagner. But then it is
not every day that a living as valuable as this is available
Mr. Wagner died worth £90,000, having held the prefer-
ment since the days of the Regency, and having owed his
promotion to the late Duke of Wellington, who made
him tutor to the present Duke. Brighton offers a combi-
nation of advantages—good society as well as a handsome
income. This not always the case with good livings, and
I suspect that Dr. Irons almost repents his promotion t 0
a Lincolnshire village, where there are only farmers an d
peasants to converse with, and would gladly return to
Brompton, with its West-end society, even at a pecuniarY
sacrifice.

Foremost among the books of the week which ha/
reached me are three : the first a reprint of a book pub-
lished many years ago, the second and the third the
commencement of new works not yet completed.
All three writers are notable men, all three
are statesmen as well as men-of-letters. The
first is Lord Lytton, erst Secretary of State for th e
Colonies, and whose "Sing Arthur" has just been hand'
somely republished in a volume of 443 pages by Captain
Charlton Tucker, of Northumberland-street. It contain
a new preface in which Lord Lytton gracefully withdraws
the sarcastic criticism which he once dealt out to his riva
worker on the Arturian Legends, Mr. TennY•
son, "Miss Alfred," as his lordship then called
him. The second work, for which I 103
indebted to the illustrious author himself, is by Lot.
Lytton's not less famous brother. I refer to the Life o 1
Lord Palmerston, by Sir Henry Bulwer, published by
Mr. Bentley, a work, far too important for me to dea
with in this correspondence. The third is by M. Guizot
and is entitled, " The History of France from
the Earliest Times to the Year 1789, Relate
for the Rising Generation." This work, of which
two numbers have appeared, is being published in monthl
2s. parts by Messrs. Low and Marston, It Ills been tran-
lated by Mr. Robert. Black, and each part will contain
several illustrations by De Neuville. It is very sad to rea
M. Guizot's opening sentence—" Young France inhabits
a country long ago civilized and Christianized, where,
despite of much imperfection and much social misery.
38 millions of men live in security and- Peace
under laws equal for all and efficiently up•
held. There is every reason to nourish great hopes
of such a country, and to wish for it more and more.ol
freedom, glory, and prosperity." As the publishers re-
mark, "M. Guizot's opening sentences are a little out of
time, if not of place, but it should be remembered that he
wrote them in those days of peace which must come round
again, and which universal hope sees not far
off." But as I have said iu an earlier p
of this letter, it is those who love France most
who believe least in the near approach of peace.
The art season promises to be unusually good. The
number of exhibitions already open is very large, and it
will shortly be increased. Mr. Wallis's French exhibi-
tion in Pall Mall is always one of the most interesting of
the year, and this year proves no exception to the rule.
Not only will the visitor have an opportunity of seeing
there the works of many eminent foreign artists, but he will
also, if he has admission to London art salons, have a
chance of meeting some of the most eminent French
artists, wh ) have by the war been driven over here to
work, and who must have been uttering maledictions upon
our climate during the past two or three weeks. Gerome,
whose death of Marshal Ney was in the Royal
Academy this year ; Fleury, best known by his
picture of Charles V., at Saint Just, which was in the
London and French International Exhibitions of 1862 and
1867; Daubigny, who exhibited in the Royal Academy
this summer ; Saintin, who exhibited last year ; and
Perrault, are all here, as well as Yvon, whom I mentioned
in a former letter. Per contra, Mr. Jones Barker, the
pupil of Horace Vernet, is gone to France to paint one or
more battle pieces. Subscribers to the Arundel
Society will regret to learn that the plates in'
tended for this winter's issue are shut up
in Paris. By way of consolation let me announce to them
a welcome piece of news. They will shortly have an op-
portunity of seeing some of the originals of the old
masters, as it is intended to have a second Winter exhi•
bition of these great painters at Burlington House. This,
if it at all approaches last winter's exhibition, will be
grand success.

A Cambridge correspondent says that at the
corporation dinner on Wednesday night, the Rev. Dr.
Atkinson (the late Vice-Chancellor) congratulated the
university upon the fact that the entries this year were,
larger than ever. He alluded to the noble offers made of
late. These gifts enabled the university to bring certain
studies up to the requirements of the age, and girt
impulse had been given in this direction by the munifi-
cent offer of the Chancellor. Dr. Cookson, the master of
St. Peter's, expressed the hope that one of the earliest
topics to engage attention would be the purification of the
river Cam.

THE HOME ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION.—Life
assurance, in principle, is an admitted duty of the fathers
of families. The only objection to the existing highly
respectable societies is that, owing to unforeseen acci-
dents, impoverished insurers may find it inconvenient to
continue the payment of their premiums, and so lose
their policies. The " Home Assurance Association.
(incorperated under Act of Parliament) anticipates this
very reasonable objection to insurance of life on the part
of those persons with limited and temporary incomes,
'whose name is legion. The " Home " association is
founded on a combination of the mutual and proprietarY,
systems—in other words, it is composed of policy and
share holders. 'The idea involved in the corporation is the
maintenance of a Hume for families and friends, through
the medium of life assurance (as thus organised), on the
early or remote death of the father or supporter of a fam)l9-
But more than this—the actual regulation of the institu-
tion that policies are irrevocable and cannot be forfeited
will at once, and without additional specification, strongly
recommend this form of life assurance to the public. Till
full value of the policy (after the payment of three years
premiums) is placed under the personal control of the
assurer. The rates of premium are reasonable, and 910
forms of policy are drawn up in a simple and definite
style, with a view to-grevent disputes and litigation.