The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-28 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP.-THURSDAY,

If the Constitutionnel is to be believed two royal ladies
are using their utmost efforts to, bring about peace.
Queen Victoria, says a letter received in France from a
member of tne British aristocracy, has urged Queen
Augusta to endeavour to disarm her husband's ambition.
That ambition is generally understood to consist in a reso-
lute determination to renew the exploit of his youth, to
enter Paris as a conqueror as he did 55 years ago. It is
alleged that the Queen of Prussia has sought to
restrain the King, and it is possible that she and our own
Queen may have had some influence in bringing about the
latest attempt at an armistice. In this they would be
supported by the lady who is daughter to the one and
daughter-in-law to the other, and who would sympa-
thise with her husband, the Crown Prince, in his
antagonism to the extreme measures of Bismarck, both
abroad and at home. If peace is to be restored it will
need all the efforts of those who are thus highly placed.
Even they must fail unless some great change rapidly
takes place in the disposition of the French people. I have
before me the Siecle, published as recently as the present
week, yet containing an article in which the idea
of an armistice is denounced, and the foreign diplomatists
who are seeking to bring it about are accused of
" hypocrisy," and conspiring against France. There is
the old "high falutin," style about " Prussia fouling
the sacred soil of France," about the " French nation
awakening and rushing to arms," and about " Paris in its
sublime elan transforming itself into a large camp, and
containing within its entrails (sic.) five hundred th ousand
armed men." The article concludes—" We have suffered
sufficiently to be able to suffer a few months more. Back
with those negotiators who would serve the purpose of
Prussia in their wish for peace 2 It is only a war
er, l'outrance which can give us a brilliant revenge, a
glorious peace, and an immortal republic." These re-
marks, be it remembered, appear, not in an
ultra-democratic journal like the Rappel or the Revell,
but in one of the oldest and best known papers in France.
Moreover, it is not in the Paris but in the Tours edit ion
of the paper that the article appears. Had it been othe.r-
wise, the utter ignorance which it displays as to the real
condition of France would be explicable and excusable.
But the writer must have known very well the
desperate condition of affairs. In fact, he
refers to two recent calamities.—the capture of
Orleans, and that of Chateaudun, and yet the very idea
of making peace on any terms short of their withdrawal
from France is stigmatised as monstrous. Altogether,
taking the indications afforded by such French papers as
the Siècle (which opposed the war at the outset), and Bis-
marck's semi-official journal, the Nord Deutsche Zeitung,
I see no hope of peace for some time to come. The
feelings which animate the two nations are utterly
antagonistic. There is no one point which affords even
the narrowest ground for common action. The " sixty
thousand furs" ordered for the German "Army of Paris"
are only too likely to be worn. While I write a telegram
arrives confirming all my apprehensions.
A distinguished member of Parliament who was at the
battle of Sedan, and who has lately returned to England,
gives a very graphic account of what he saw. He says a
battle is not in the least like Horace Vernet's pictures.
There is no fierce hand to hand grapple, no crossing
of bayonets, nor any of those incidents of personal
daring and individual valour which we are accustomed to
associate with the collision of armies. You hear a whizz,
and a man drops off his horse at your side. You do not
see the enemy; you discover his existence only by these
invisible messengers of death. My informant himself
had a very narrow escape, a gun by which he was stand-
ing being hit. After his return to England some nights
passed before he could sleep, for the noise of the bursting
shells which still resounded in his ears, made him start up
just as he was beginning to doze.
A well-known Yorkshire manufacturer, who was a
member of the last Parliament, and an unsuccessful candi-
date for one of the most important constituencies in the
kingdom at the last election, bears testimony to the
courtesy of Bismarck. The gentleman in question has
large factories in France, and has a telegraph laid on
between them and his English place of business, so that
he may learn instantaneously anything that goes on in his
French works. Some little time ago the Prussians entered
the town where these works were situated, and it
seemed inevitable that they must be shut up, and the
workmen turned away to starve. Representations
were made to the great minister, and he at once gave Mr.
H full permission to continue his business, and it
has been carried on ever since.

There appears to be little doubt that the Duke of
Aosta will be chosen by the Spanish people as their new
sovereign. In this way Victor Emmaneul will have a son
on the throne of Spain, as well as a son-in-law on the throne
of Portugal. The aggrandisement of the House of Savoy
during the last few years has been something marvellous.
Twenty-two years have not passed since the overthrow of
Charles Albert at Novara, when, to use Cavour's words,
every day's existence was a victory for the little sub-
Alpine kingdom. Better days dawned when, ten years
later, Charles Albert's granddaughter was married to a
Bonaparte, and in the same spring the Austrians were
driven from the Ticino to the Mincio. Since then Victor
Emmanuel has witnessed a series of victories,
in no case won by his own sword. He is
a most signal instance of those who have great-
ness thrust upon them. At this present moment
he shrinks from entering the " capital of Italy," deterred,
as is often the case with men of immoral lives, by super-
stitious fears. The rapid rise of this sovereign from Sing
of a petty State, which depended. for its existence on the
mercy of Austria, into the kingdom of entire and united
Italy surpasses all other dynastic developments in our own
time. The Sonderburg-Glucksburgs have done well for
themselves by seating themselves on the throne
of Denmark and allying themselves with the
heirs to the crowns of England and Russia, but
this good fortune has not been without a mixture of ad-
versity. The defeat of 1864 and the loss of two provinces
was the price paid for the Danish inheritance. As for
the House of Savoy, it is used to vicissitudes—as used to
them as the House of Bonaparte. The experience of the
sub-Alpine family is far more extensive in point of time
than that of the Corsica. More than 800 years have passed
since this, the oldest reigning House in Europe, had its
foundation laid by Humbert the White Hand, who took an
army across the Alps, in order to compel the rebellious
Burgundians to acknowledge Ermengarda, the widow of
the childless Rudolph 111. More than 300 years have
passed since Charles 111. was deprived of his possessions
by Francis I. of France, and died in exile attended only by
his barber. The predecessor of the Bonaparte who
helped Victor Emmanuel to Lombardy, deprived Victor
Emmanuel's ancestor of all his possessions except that
Island of Sardinia which he retained by the aid of
English men of war. And now the wheel of
fortune has taken another turn, the descendant of that
Victor Emmanuel 1., whom Napoleon I. despoiled, may
get himself crowned at Rome whenever he likes, while
Napoleon 111. is a prisoner at Wilhelmshohe.
One result of the war will be the diversion of Anglo-
Indian commerce from a French to an Italian port. When
the contract with the P. and 0. Company for the Indian
mails was renewed about two years ago, the Company
was bound to start its steamers from Marseilles.
The war has rendered the fulfilment of this contract im-
possible, and the mails are now being sent through Ger-
many over the Brenner pass to Brindisi. This, as I have
pointed out before, is so clearly the best route that when
it has been properly tried and the great advantages
derivable from it have been fully realised, Englishmen
will scarcely permit the Post-office to go back to the
slower route.

Perhaps I am too sanguine on this point. The Post-
office authorities are not much accustomed to be dictated
to. Just now, for instance, there are loud complaints
against the withdrawal of the privilege enjoyed for some
time past under the name of the pattern post. By this
post it was permitted to send small parcels which were not
really patterns. To Londoners this was a very great
boon. Here the distances are so great that it is a serious
matter sending parcels by a messenger from one part of
London to another. The Post Office saved many a
family one servant. Yet suddenly, and for no
specified reason, this boon is withdrawn, and the
parcel that used to be sent for 2d. now costs Is. 4d.
Nor is this the only complaint. The introduction of
the post-cards has so enormously increased the corres-
pondence of London that the labours of the postmen have
been greatly augmented. But Lord Hartington will
neither increase their number or their pay. He refuses
to allow them to meet for the discussion of their
grievances, and he then gives out that they are perfectly
satisfied, somewhat on the same principle on which the
Russian generals at the head of enormous armies used to
declare that " order reigns at Warsaw." Meanwhile the
public suffer by the late delivery of their letters, a serious
matter to men of business who have to go to town early.
The education elections are exciting more and more

interest every day. They are inducing a class of persons
to take part in local affairs who have hitherto refused to
do so. Holding aloof from vestries and boards of
guardians, they have happily not held aloof from the
education boards, and men of the calibre and station
of Lord Lawrence (the late Viceroy of Indi▪ a)'
Lord Sandon, M.P., for Liverpool, .11r. Dudley
Baxter, Dr. Rigg, Sir Francis Lycett,
M'Cullagh Torrens, M.P., and Mr. W. 13. Smi▪ th,
M.P., are offering themselves as candidates. The further
.sappy result of a union of political and religious parties
has also been obtained, and thusthe Boards which the
League declared would set every parish in the kingdotabl
the ears, have so far proved the most signal instrument of
conciliation and concord that we have seen in our time. There
is one other point in which the League will find itsell
wrong—compulsory attendance. Coercion in London,
at all events, and I presume in all the large towns,
prove impossible, however desirable it may be. The little.
ragged boys who sell Echoes in the streets, and
whose condition is a disgrace to English thrill! _let
tion, have no settled home, and even if they had
they change it. every few weeks. How are they to be
forced to school ? are the police, already odious by the
way in which they interfere with, costermongers to drive
these lads from the streets or carry them off to the pollee
cell en route for school?
The National Society is not doing at this educational
crisis what might have been expected of it. Though the,
Archbishop of Canterbury has made a special appeal, en,'
himself and most of the bishops have given £lOO, and thon'
an offering of £l,OOO has been made by " A Priest," the
total already subscribed is only about £13,000, or only
fifth of the sum which the small and comparatively Pee!
Roman Catholic Church has raised.
Another failure is the Irish Church Convention. 14.°t
only has the endowment fund fallen far short of what was
anticipated, no very serious matter, perhaps, seeing hev:
generally endowments are misapplied ; but, wha"
is really serious, the divergence of opinion on religious
points is so wide that a schism seems almost inevitable.
One party wishes to modify the Liturgy, and would not
unwillingly, the Archbishop of Armagh among the mite'
ber, substitute Presbyterianism. for EpisCopacy. The other
Party, of whom the Archbishop of Dublin is the most
conspicuous member, resist any change in the services, the
discipline or the doctrine of the Church. Things have
come to such a pass that yesterday one of the menabere,
the Convention called another "double-faced" and "d'
honest," and there was such a truly Irish row that the
Primate at last threatened, in company with all the othe!
Bishops, to leave the Convention. It would seem as if
the party differences in the Irish Church were as great
as
in the English, and as if the antagonistic factions rLed
~
been kept together only as the staves of a barrel are kel'
together—not by any internal homogeneousness, but by an
external bond, the iron hoop in this instance being the

union of Church and State.
The Earl of Onslow, who has just died at the advancea
age of 93, was a schoolfellow of Lord Palmerston at ll°.
row during the last years of the eighteenth century'
The other boys at the same time were the late Earl of
Aberdeen, afterwards the Premier, the two Pepr'e,
of them afterwards Lord Chancellor cottenham and th
.7,
other Bishop of Worcester ; the late Earl Spencer, Is'
as Lord Althorpe, was Chancellor of the Exchequer'
Augustus Campbell, for many years Rector of Liver•
pool, and the Earl of Lonsdale, the only survivor,
and who is now 83 years old. Palmerston left
a name behind him literally in the lettere
"H. Temple," carved upon one of the panels
a
in the fourth-form room, and still to be seen close by the
,
names of " R Sheridan " and " Byron." At that brae
there was =aster at Harrow named Bromley, whom, froillia
a fancied likeness to one of the heathen deities the
."0".

Pam" of sixty-five years later used to dub " old Pan."
The magnificent displays of northern lights (which bi
the way, were in London particularly brilliant in the southern
horizon) and the abundant suprly of acorns and berries
are supposed to indicate a severe winter. I need Wall
say that all these meteorological presages are almost base"
less. There is just this foundation for them so far as the
berries are concerned ; an abundance of berve°
is due to a hot summer, and a fine, hot
summer will, if the average temperature is to be preserved,
be followed by a cold winter. But this sequence, is by no
means invariable. The summer of 1868, was the hottest
on record ; the autumn berries were proportionately abllll-
- ; but the winter of 1868-9 passed almost without
frost. The most singular thing about the recent display
aurora is that it should have been simultaneous in :Su
land and America. Here it interfered terribly with the tele"
graphs, and the Scotch papers could get scarcely a single
n
telegram from London all Monday night. The Atlantis
telegraph does not seem to have been affected.
lam glad to state that Mrs. Burgoyne, widow of the
gallant commander of the Captain, is somewhat recover:
ing from the' shock caused by the terrible disaster el
September. At first she seemed hopelessly stunned by her,
misfortune. She is now better able to realise it ; but she still
alas cherishes the hope that her husband has been savealti
the pinnace, and will yet reappear on these shores. 111
connection with this matter your readers who Perileedl
naval intelligence of the daily papers will have notice
how completely the inquiry into the stability of our irellt
clads has justified my assertion of some weeks ago tha

they urgently need examination.
Mr. Ruskin has not been best pleased at the critique
upon him in Macmillan's Magazine for October, ale
it is probable that the forthcoming number of the Pole
magazine will have something more upon the subject'
The critique was by Mr. Stopford Brooke, and was
larly able and fair. But Mr. Ruskin labours and
the idea that he was born to be a political economist, an
he bitterly resents any doubts as to his fitness for the
science in behalf of which he has abandoned his favourite
studies in art.

Connoisseurs have just now a great treat offered to them'
The Marquis of Westminster and Lord Elcho have lent
some of their finest pictures to the South Kens'Bgt°-
Museum. The works of the first-mentioned noblen3°i
were exhibited at the winter exhibition of the BOY
Academy. But Lord Elcho's pictures will be new to the
majority of the public.
hree words about the Royal marriage. It will Ot
take place until after Parliament has met, because Pa'
ment will be wanted to vote a dowry for the bride. This
the first word. The second is, that there is a very general fee'
ing that, now the marriage between a member of the
Royal Family and a subject who is not a member has bee°
sanctioned, Miss Farebrother, who has for many years
been the wife of the Duke of Cambridge, should be t'eci:
knowledged as such, and their numerous familylegitimise
Finally, there is no truth in the rumour that Mr. Vern
Harcourt Harcourt is about to be betrothed to the Pritiebi4eP-
Beatrice. There are two obstacles in the way of
affiance, the learned member for Oxford is just thirtJe
years older than the Princess, a disadvantage Which he
Queen might have overlooked for the sake of the hie°
which would have been shed on the throne by her 138:t
coming the mother-in-law of " Historicus," were it vsa
for the other objection—Mr. Harcourt is already Prcwide
with a wife.

An explosion of gunpowder took place on WeuApes
"
day morning at the works of Messrs. Sharpe, at Ew,t.ed.
which one man was killed, and two others were irir—od
The accident took place in one of the corning-houses,

was confined to that building. -
ter
THE DEVIL IN ENGLAND. The Manches-
papers describe a new instrument of torture which haS
5 a
been set up at several works in that city, and is illtellAise'
to arouse the workmen from their slumbers. each
" American devil " is set to work at half-past fiv.,e.:
morning, and it wakes up everybody within two row.-
usess
The Augsburg Gazette announces further Pre)0(1
of the Russians in Central Asia. They annexed Sam,- te
in 1868, and now they have swallowed up a small -ts-ii4is
south of that place. It has been handed over to the
of Bokhara, who is but a Russian vassal.
THE POPE.—A communication from Rome state;:
that there is not the slightest hope of the Pope yieldiug t'm
his pretensions to be still considered the ruler of the st"),e
occupied by the Italian troops. He will ackxl°lve•°-
neither La Marmora, Victor Emanuel, nor the of Itali;
nation. He firmly relies on the restoration the
Emperor Napoleon by the King of Prussia, and the
ho
restoration of his States through clerical influence cm
Emperor.
THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACT.—A LUIS
correspondent of the Scotsman is enabled to state thans
following gentlemen have consented to act as
sioners to inquire into the Contagious Diseases Actf,',
The Bishop of Manchester, Mr. Mundella, M.P. ;
Dalrymple, M.P. ; Dr. John Chapman, Dr. Bridges'a be
Mr. Applegarth. The names of these gentlemen vrl'i
sufficiently familiar to the majority of readers; but it Olt,
°'
be mentioned that Dr. Dalrymple is the member for )331,d
and has recently investigated the operation of similar 1,.,,
in Algeria ; that Dr. Chapman is the editor of
Westminster Review, and the author of several
ec
well-kuovof
articles on the object; and that Dr. Bridges is an inspll.,,
the Poor-law, and a leading member of the Comtist Par,Vr,
The above names, however, do not exhaust the list.
W. M. Fowler, M.P., was invited to sit on the 0°11;0
sion, but declined. It is expected that the inquirY
a very protracted one.