The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-15 00:00:00

PRICE 16
STAMPED 2d

THE WEEKLY PRESS.
THE HOME OFFICE.

The Saturday Review observes that the Government has
achieved two great successes this session ; and has also
achieved nearly two dozen failures. Our immediate com-
ments are not on Lord Hatherley's 'failure with law re-
form—not with the miscarriage of the repeal of the Eccle-
siastical Titles Act—not with the break-down of the Uni-
versity Tests Bill—not with the absence of any attempt,
less sterile than Mr. Goschen's essays, to deal
with the administration of the Poor Laws—but
we are now only dealing with the Home Office.
We hardly know which department was respon-
sible for the attempted waste of the land reclaimed from
the Thames by the new quays ; but the defeat of the
Government on Mr. Smith's motion may be reasonably
assigned to Mr. Gladstone's obstinacy combined with the
absence of confidence under which, as regards all public
works, a Ministry which includes Mr. Ayrton not un-
reasonably suffers. But the general temper of the Go-
vernment as regards domestic and internal reforms is
sufficiently evident from the apology offered by Mr.
Bruce for Mr. Bright's celebrated declaration in favour
of dishonest tradesmen and false weights. The Home-office
is a drowsy, sleeepy refuge for placid good intentions and
vague hazy promises ; but its administration is a national
misfortune.

IN PARIS.
`'"4lCilte Ve.creitor'sa,y§ that France will survive all this; but "41
nothing • but victory in the field, victory immediate,
complete, and dramatic, can now save the Empire. For
eighteen years Napoleon has made a monopoly of states-
manship, has been the single politician in France at eine
powerful and independent—has preferred servants to
statesmen and parasites to advisers, and, now, in the
supreme hour of his life, he has been as feebly served in
his capital as on the frontier. Not one among his thou-
sand servants has shewn a sign of real devotion. The
first thing done by his Council was to omit his name in
all proclamations, the first idea of his Empress was to place
her boy in safety, the first thought of his Ministry was
to summon the rival power, the Legislative Body. The
conduct of his chief agents in the crisis would suggest the
idea of treachery, but that nothing so definite could have
been so weak. We would not give the Empire three
days of life after another defeat; and its successor for the
time at all events, can only be the Republic, with General
Trochu, under one title or another, as ad interim Dictator
of France. Some observers predict, we see, that the
empire will die hard, but for whom are the troops to
fight ? For a Sovereign whose claim to rule is that he can
lead, and who has led the armies of France to a series of
defeats ? There is no personal loyalty in France. For a
woman, supposed to be a slave of the priests, a Spaniard,
and an ab%,olutist ? It is not with a German army upon
the soil that France accepts a woman's rule. For a child
of fourteen ? For the Army? The Army under the Re-
public will be where it was under the Empire, and with
an abler Commander-in-Chief. We believe if another de-
feat arrives, the Corps L6g,islatif will be within twenty-
four hours surrounded by menacing masses against Whom
neither troops nor National Guard will act, the Republic
will be proclaimed, and a Directory constituted, of
which General Trochu will be the soul • and then—then
let Germany look to herself, for in Vrance to become
a General it will no longer be necessary first to adore a
Caesar.