The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-01 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP.

Tile state of business in Parliament is really amentable.
Ireland stops the way everywhere. On Government
nights there is the Land Bill ; on private nights there are
the Madden and kindred cases ; and even the Wednesday
morning sittings are not free, for yesterday saw a long dis-
cussion about the Party Processions Act. Mean-
while all other measures are shunted. Mr. Bruce, as I
anticipated in" my last, has abandoned the hope
of passing his Licensing Bill, and, although it
was thought probable at one time that he
would introduce it so that it might undergo a
thorough discussion before next session, it is generally
believed now that he will not do even this. Mr. Forster
is trembling for his measure, and we are only too likely to
have an autumn and winter of agitation, and of an unholy
alliance between the Secularists and the Noncon•
formists, united in hostility against Churchmen,
and therefore of course exciting -the last into
all kinds of bitterness, wrath, and evil speaking.
As for trades' unions, London cabs, law reforms,
University Tests, and the Ballot, there seems at present to
be absolutely no chance for them. Truly, Ireland is ter-
ribly avenged. Nor is the mischief likely to end here. It
is no secret that the report of the Royal Commissioners
appointed to inquire into education in Ireland have
drawn up this report, that this report is in the hands of
the Government, and that it favours denominational edu-
cation. This fact will give an impetus to The League,
who will appeal to the prejudices of the No-Popery
party, in the hope of obtaining their assistance in
throwing out Mr. Forster's bill. Altogether, I foresee an
unpleasant period of sectarian strife and all uncharitable-
ness.

The rumour of Mr. Bright's resignation has given rise to
regret among all parties. Strongly as Conservatives used to
denounce him, they respect him; and the most candid of
them cannot forget that he advocated household suffrage
long before they were educated into the conviction that
it was a great Conservative measure. Assuming that the
rumour is true, there will be much speculation as to the
way in which the Government will fill up the post. The
post itself is not one of great importance, but it confers a
seat in the Cabinet, and to that seat both Mr. Forster
and Mr. Stansfeld have the strongest possible claim. Mr.
Forster, however, will scarcely like to give up his Educa-
tion Bill to another person, and in order to carry
out the great reform with which he has identified his
name will probably prefer to remain outside the select
circle of the fifteen. Mr. Stansfeld, by the bent of his
mind, is more fitted for the duties of the Board of Trade;
and I am inclined to think, judging from internal proba-
bilities, and not from any positive information, that he will
be the man. Hitherto Mr. Shaw•Lefevre has done all the
work of the office. This was always Mr. Bright's inten-
tion, and on accepting the Presidency of the
Board of Trade, he made- it a stipulation that he
should have the member for Reading under him. But
Mr. Lefevre can hardly expect to be taken into the
Cabinet just yet. True he is a little older than Mr.
Goschen was when Lord Russell promoted him. But Mr.
Gladstone is scarcely likely to repeat the experiment made
by his predecessor, and which so deeply offended a large
number of leading politicians.

Speaking of Earl Rusiell reminds me that " The Com-
plete Letter Writer" has been at it again. He is still
labouring under the delusion that a Liberal Government
cannot get on without his advice. Last year he did all
the mischief he could by writing letters to Mr. Chichester
Fortescue in favour of concurrent endowment in Ireland.
This year, by a curious inconsistency, he is joining the
League in their opposition to Mr. Forster's bill;
an opposition which they base in great measure upon
the sanction which, they say, is given to that
same principle. As it turned out, the Whig Nestor
was last year merely mischievous without doing any harm;
had, that is, the will to do mischief, but lacked the power,
it is to be hoped that the same result will attend his
amiable intentions on the present occasion. By the way,
while I am still on the education question, let me advise
your readers to study the first article in the London Quar-
terly Review just issued. It is a very able criticism of
the League's tactics and policy, and is written by the
well-known Wesleyan Minister, Dr. Rigg.
The rumours respecting the retirement of the Lord
Chancellor become more and more definite. It is said that
Lord Hatherley finds the work too much for him, though
he is only 69 years old—quite a juvenile age for the holder
of the Great Seal. Certainly he looks very weary and
worn, and he has been a hard-working man for
the last twenty-five years. Still it is rather
soon to be retiring, and an economical Govern-
ment will scarcely relish paying a pension of £5,000
a year to a Chancellor who has held the seals for only
sixteen months. Lord St. Leonard's, however, held the
seals for only ten months, and has been receiving a pension
for seventeen years—i.e., £85,000. Besides him there are
Lord Chelmsford and Lord Cairns, who are receiving the

lame pehsion. bt course, if Lord Itatherley should
resign there can be no doubt as to his successor.
Sir Bounden Palmer will then be able to
take the high post which he might have occu-
pied in December 1868 but for his conscientious scruples
on the Irish Church question. By his elevation,
to the peerage the Government will obtain a much needed
accession to its ranks in the Upper House. Lord 'lather-
ley is a very poor speaker, and Lord Granville has but
feeble phalanx to oppose to the re-united Conservative
leaders who now sit together on the front bench, and in-
clude Lord Cairns, Lord Salisbury, Lord Derby, and
Lord Carnarvon, besides the Duke of Richmond. It is
expected that the change on the woolsack will take place
after Easter.

There is talk of the O'Donoghue getting a Colonial
Governorship. lam sorry to hear it. Not but what he
is fit for it, but I fear his acceptance of office will destroy
the moral effect of his conversion from " Nationalism "
to the support of the present Ministerial policy
in Ireland. There are so many Irishmen
who will sell their souls for a place that
they will be sure to suspect The O'Donoghue
of having done so, and to say that his recent speeches in
defence of the Ministry were prompted by a lively sense of
favours to come. Moreover the O'Donoghue's removal
from Parliament would involve another election in
Ireland, and in the most disturbed part of Ire-
land ; and that in itself is a great evil, espe-
cially as it is only too likely that there will be
fresh elections in Waterford and Tipperary county.
Another well-known Irish member, Colonel, or Captain
White, as he is indiscriminately called—the seconder of
Mr. Bryan's motion for rejecting the Land Bill—has met
with an awkward accident while hunting with the Pytchley
hounds, and will not be able to attend to his Parliamen-
tarydnties for some time to come.
Accidents, illness, and scandals are the order of the
day. Not only are Mr. Bright and Captain White hors
de combat, but Captain Moncrieff, of gun-carriage fame,
is down with serious illness, caught on the damp and
dreary marshes of Shoeburyness ; Mr. Deutsch, of " Tal-
mud " celebrity, is invalided ; Mr. Robertson, the
dramatist, whose sad condition I mentioned in a former
letter, is worse, and I fear past recovery ; and Mr. Boa:
cault has been suffering from quinsey. As for scandals
they are past counting. The elopement of the wife of an
eminent Dissenting minister with a riding master has
almost ceased to be a nine days' wonder, so rapidly have
events of this sort succeeded each other. The
daughter of a northern peer married to an officer
in the Guards eloping with her husband's fellow officer is
much talked of ; but the scandal pre-eminently is
an approaching divorce suit, in which the Lord-Lieutenant
of a very important English county is the petitioner, ana
a very distinguished person is co-respondent I must beg
to be excused from giving particulars. Under the head of
gossip rather than scandal is the rejection of a very well-
known London journalist at the Reform Club. The nura-
ber of black balls was unprecedently large (fifty in number):
though the journalist was proposed by Mr. Brand and Mr.
Glyn. The son of a well-known M.P. has fared little
better. At the Guards' Club there is great excitement in
consequence of the discovery of serious irregularities in
the accounts, to use a mild term.

The Lord-Lieutenancy of Ayrshire, vacant by the death
of the Marquis of Ailsa, will probably be bestowed upon
the Earl of Eglinton, who, though a young man (he
is only twenty-nine), is very popular in the county, and
observed a strict neutrality as regards his tenants, during
the severe contest at the general election. Finally, in the
way, of gossip, the scurrilous Queen's Messenger has been,
revived under the title of the Plain Speaker, but as it is
published at a shilling, it is not likely to have, e larej
91re:dation:

This week has been a busy time for artists. 1 have
already mentioned some of the pictures which are
to be sent in to the Royal Academy. I may add that Mr.
Millais has a charming picture of a child floating down
stream in a cradle, and Mrs. Ward an historical picture of
an interview between the divorced Empress Josephine
and her husband's son, Napoleon 11., " King of Rome."
Mr. Sydney Hodges is sending a portrait of the Prin-
cess Claudine, sister of Prince Teck. The large
group of the Princess Mary has not been finished in time
for the Academy for a very good reason. Her Royal
Highness wished to introduce into the picture the last
new arrival, and so she is represented nursing her baby
with her two other children grouped below her. The work,
though far from finished, is sufficiently advanced
to chew that it will be one of the artist's best portraits.
Pasting from art to its anti-climax, Madame Tussaud has
aided to her wax-work exhibition the illustrious Mon-
talembert. Her last addition was Troppman, the ma'
derer. Such is fame.

The list of books to come is long and interesting. rro-
fessor Mountague Bernard has nearly ready " A Historical
Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain during the
American Civil War." Mr. Daniel Grant, one of the un-
successful candidates for Marylebone at the last
election, and who is not unlikely to represent the
borough when the unfortunate electors have
got rid of Mr. Harvey Lewis, has a work publishing by
Longmans, called " Home Politics," and dealing with the
growth of trade in its relation to labour, pauperism, and
emigration. Mr. Stewart Ross's " Ignatius Loyola, and
the Early Jesuits," will be out in April; so, too, will
Bishop Ellicott's " Comments and Suggestions on the
Revision of the New Testament." Professor M'Cosh, for-
merly of Belfast, and now of Princeton College, New
Jersey, has nearly ready " The Laws of Discursive
Thought," and Mrs. Henry Fawcett (née Garrett) has in
the press "Political Economy for Beginners." Mr. Baring
Gould has coming out "In Exitu Israel ;" Miss Yonge
a second series of " Cameos from English History." Mr.
Myers's new volume of poems, mentioned on a former
occasion, will contain his "St. Paul" and "St. John."
April will see Mr. Rossetti's poems, which I promised
many months ago ; May, Mr. Swinburne's new volume,
" Songs before Sunrise;" and I hope before Midsummer
we shall have Mr. Locker's "London Lyrics."
A book called " The Terrible Sights of London,"
and dealing with destitute children, has just
been written by Mr. Thomas Archer. Mr.
William Black, late editor of the London Review begins in
the May number of Tinsley's Magazine a new novel called
" The Monarch of Mincing-lane." The new magazine,
the American and Continental Monthly opens brilliantly
with articles by Emerson, Lowell, Beecher, and Wendell
Holmes. M. Taine, whose writings are almost as well-
known in England as in France, has just written a book
"On Intelligence," and M. Emile Montdgurt has just
translated Shakespere into French in 18 3-A franc volumes.'