The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-09 00:00:00

THE SUI% LONDON, WEDNgSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 9, 1870.

improve the constitution and' procedure of the
superior tribunals. We may thus hope that by this
time next year justice will be more accessible and
more prompt. Ministers will also take upon themselves
the responsibility of dealing with University Tests. The
Lords threw out Sir JOHN COLERIDGE'S bill last
year. They will not have another opportunity of
passing it. Instead of a permissive they will have a
compulsory bill to pass. Mr. GOSCHEN will redeem
the promise made by Mr. GLADSTONE to Sir MASSEY
LOPES last year, and bring in a bill to extend the
incidence of rating, and to place the collection of the
large sums raised locally for various purposes on a
simple and uniform footing. Then.comes a question
which has been growing in prominence of late years.
Five years ago those who demanded an alteration in
the licensing laws seemed to be but a vox clamantis
in desert°, and had to endure any amount of ridicule and
contumely. Now, journals which affect to guide public
opinion are using the very arguments which they then
scorned; and Government, under the pressure anational
demand, has consented to introduce a measure for
dealing with the greatest of British curses. Finally,
so rich is the Ministerial programme, that it can
aflbrd to include four measures in a single paragraph.
There is so much solid-gold that it needs not to be
wiredrawn or beaten out into leaf, and so we are told
in four lines of a measure to facilitate the transfer of
land, and one for regulating the succession to real
property in cases of intestacy (Mr. LOCKE KING'S
annual), of a third for removing the disabilities to
which trade unions are subject, and of a fourth for
consolidating the statutes relating to merchant
shipping, a measure which has been already
printed, and is about the most colossal in
size ever presented to Parliament. Here is a goodly
list. How much of it will be cleared off by August ?
Here is a goodly bill of fare. How much of it will
be digested before the time for the shooting of birds
is come ? No such programme has been offered since
the Ministry of all-the Talents offered theirs seven-
teen years ago. • But abait omen.

SPIRIT OP TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times observes that the opening of the session is
at) the letting out of waters. No one quite knows
whether the streamlet permitted to flow on the first night
Hill speedily dwindle in bulk and become contemptible,
r whether it is the prelude to a flood which will increase
in power until it is irresistible. The symptoms on Tuesday
light contained no threatening element. There was a
remonstration by the leaders of the hostile forces in both
!louses, and nothing more. Lord Cairns and Mr. Disraeli
were " both of the same tale." They criticised the para-
„raphs of the Speech referring to Ireland especially
that mystic sentence, defying sense and grammar, in
hich 'some amendment of "the laws respecting the
occupation and acquisition of land in Ireland" is promised;
they denounced the Irish administration ; they did their
best to keep their followers in good spirits ; and then the
performance terminated. Mr. Gladstone in the House of
Commons, and Lord Granville victoriously struggling
with the Ileums of the season in the Lords, found it
necessary to say very little by way of reply, and the first
sittings terminated in time to allow every one to
go quietly home to dinner. But Mr. Gladstone
made two announcement early on Tuesday even-
.ng, each of which is significant. He said he
should ask the House on Thursday to order that a new
writ be issued for Tipperary, the election of O'Donovan
(Rosso), as a convicted felon, being void, and be gave notice
that on Tuesday week he would ask leave to bring in his
Land Bill. The Ministry thus proclaimed their open and
irreconcilable hostility to Fenianism, and their resolution
to prosecute the great work of Irish legislation. The
promptitude of these declarations had a visible and just
effect on the House of Commons; and the country will
gather from them an assurance that Mr. Gladstone and his
colleagues will continue their work to the end, without
precipitation, but without delay.
The Standard declares that the Ministers have given us
a Queen's speech as chill as a London fog and as murky—
as dreary as Mr. Gladstone at a Guildhall banquet—as
barren as the Barmecide's feast. In this kind of literature
we do not remember anything more cheerless or depress-
ing. If any have looked for either candour or cheer-
fulness in the announcement of the Ministerial policy,
they will be grievously disappointed. Equally clumsy
In its confidence •as in its concealments, the Speech
is remarkable not only for the little it says, and its
dreary manner of saying it, but for its palpable evasions
and its monstrous omissions. Analysing it sentence by
sentence, we End cur first difficulty to be in apprehending
what really is the business which the Government pro-
poses to undertake in :the new session. We are able to
perceive scarcely any trace of a policy such as may be said
so be peculiar to the Ministry or demanded by the voice
of the country. Joining most heartily in the prayer for a
ulessing upon Mr. Gladstone's labours, we should do
so with a clearer mind, if not with a purer conscience,
if we were able to form some more definite idea of the
nature of those labours. Upon all the most important
points of his policy, Mr. Gladstone bas chosen to preserve a
silence, or to use an equivocation, which may be safe but
which is hardly holiest. We do not yet know what the
Government propose to do in regard to those matters which
primarily demand their attention, and their capacity for
which was their title to office.We do not know what they in-
send to do with the Irish lands, and how far they propose to
administer to the Irish idea in their work. We do not
know what they will do for national education. We do
:ot even know whether, in such a simple teat question as
the ballot, they will adopt or oppose the Radical cry. -And
.he measure of our darkness becomes vastly increased
when we consider how many and how important are the
questions about which Mr. Gladstone has chosen to be
absolutely silent : the question of our colonies, the ques-
tion of State emigration, the question of our future
foreign policy—upon each of which hangs at least as
much of the national welfare as any of the matters about
which Mr. Gladstone has professed to be busy.

The Pall Mall Gazette thinks that the knowledge that
;he land question would certainly be dealt with this
session may have had some share in the recent outrages is
quite possible. Any prospect of the kind is calculated to
have such a result upon men of exceptionally violent
sharacter, quite irrespective of the particular ahem,
tions locked for. Still, though individual outrages
may be accounted for in this way, it is safer, as
regards the outrages generally, to ascertain in the
first instance what class of persons it is that is
most likely, or may think itself most likely, to profit by an
agrarian reign of terror. If there is any way of stopping
Parliament from legislating on the land question, it is by
murdering landlords; and if there is any class of persons
whose object it is to stop Parliament from legislating on
the land qnestion it is the Fenian and Ribbon. agitators,
who can haye no hope of carrying out their designs es:cept
by keeping alive the discontent of the peasantry. It has
tell along been rreclicied shrewd observers that
the I.l.noncement of a ce naprehensive Land liii
would rrolably be the'signal for some such effort en the
Fait of those who wish to convince the Dish 1-collo-that
nothing. is to be eNpeeted from Parliament. Is it not
obvious that if the Queen's Goveinnient had been driven
to announce yesterday that in consequence of the recent
outrrgcs the introduction of the Land Bill had been post-
poned, rad a coercion bill would be brought forward in its
room, ibis design would have been completely successful?
Unhappily, we cannot be quite sure that these
miserable fanatics may not yet gain a initial success. To
have to lay the Land Bill on the shelf for how shoit
;ime soever, in order to secure the undivided attention
of Parliament for measures of exceptional coercion, would
inflict on Mr. Gladstone the keenest suffering; and the
avowal that such a necessity has entered in any way into
his calculations is sufficient evidence that he is under no
" hallucination " as to the condition of affairs in Ireland
or as to the serious responsibilities which that condition
lays upon the Executive.

'We should have the late Lord Melbourne "alive
says the Telegraph, to express duo horror at the quantity
of hard work that the Queen's Ministers have cut out for
themselves. " Can't you let it alone?" was his favourite
formula; and he might certainly discern in the programme
of the Royal Speech many questions which, if Ministers
had consulted their case, they would decidedly have
let alone. Even he who was the second in the
dynasty of "jaunty" Premiers—Canning being the
Ent, and Palmerston the third--would probably
'Omit that an Irish Land Bill was needful; but on slimes
every other question suggested by the Speech he would
have pleaded earnestly and with scree plausibility in
favour of absolute inaction. Ile would have said, Why
touch national educati( n ? the agitation shout it has only
just commenced? V meddle with University Tests ?
that is a thorny religious topic. Above all, why
disturb the minds of the country gentlemen by
your Real Estate Intestacy Bill? it is a measure
for which there is no popular demand. But,
granting that there gather at the Cabinet Councils
men who think it their duty to do as much good as they
can during their political life, their resolution to grapple
with more than one great and difficult question may
appear not only natural, but imperative. A successful
Irish Land Bill &Tone would stamp the session as great ;
if, in addition, we have a good Education Bill,
the liberation of our universities from the vene-
rable sectarianism that has made them the appanage
of a class, and the redress of a time-honoured
injustice► as regards succession to -cal property, we
shall be able to say of the present Ministers that,
whatever other faults they may have had, they did not
shrink from responsibility or shirk hard work. Doubt-
less on all these questions sonic great or some small
Ministers may make mistakes which, as they snake them,
we shall be most ready to expose; but we admit in ad-
vance the spirit of industry that has prompted them
to undertake so much. Let us hope that, when
later in the year the Day of Innocents comas,
the inevitable massacre may happily be reduced to a
minimum.

It may fairly be supposed, remarks the Daily News, that
M. 011ivier, in demanding authorisation to prosecute M,
Rochefort, in making that authorisation a Cabinet question,
and in insisting on the execution of the sentence of the
Correctional Tribunal, has been actuated by considerations
of public policy, other than those which he has pub-
lished to the world. He ought to know better than
most of his countrymen, and than any foreigner
the peculiar conditions under which he and his friends
have exchanged the lonely independence of oppo-
sition for the responsibibilities and restraints of office,
He must know what amount, and what kind of moral
force M. Ro'clicfort, or rather the metropolitan consti-
tuency which sent him to the Chamber, really represents,
not in the capital only, but throughout the country. Look-
ing, as a wise stateTnnan looks, before and after, he cannot
he satified with the fact that he has an army close at
hand, for the repression of any disturbances in the capital,
!urger than the whole g.trrium of the United Kingdom.
The army, it i; said, may be depended upon ;
but do not repeated e pi3OllC3 in French history
since the Revolution begin, declare that there
come; a time, sooner or later, when French soldier;
grow weary and ashamed of firing upon French working
men, and that on the first sign of the bourgeoisie faltering
in allegiance to the Government, the army hesitates, and
the Government is lost? But who can be familiar with
such reflections and experiences as these, if not M.
011ivier ? Yet, with the knowledge of these
facts, he has deliberately provoked the risk of an
imeute ; and, therefore, we are bound to suppose
that 31. 011ivicr was influenced by reasons not
patent to foreign observers. In the Chamber, 31. Roche-
fort was at least innocuous; his action in the press had
certainly not become more dangerous from impunity. L►
the seclusion of St. Pelagie he will be something of a power,
and perhaps an increasing power, if, instead of defying
military generals he appeals (to borrow a joke from Lord
Lytton) to that unknown and incalculable element in the
future politics of France--"Geueral Election."

. : .
'44
vivis- Nl*
4, ul

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Feb. 8.

The Queen drove out to-day.
Their Royal Highnesses Princess Louise, Prince
Leopold, and Princess Beatrice also went out.
The Duc,hea of Sutherland has left Osborne.

LATEST INTELL IGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

FRANCE.

PAINS, Feb. 9, 6 am.

According to the last reports only one serious
conflict has take❑ place, and this occurred in the
Rue Oberkanipf, where a barricade was removed
by the Gardes de Paris. The troops did not make
use of their arms.

Some stray revolver shots came from the ranks
of the rioters, and one police agent was most severely
wounded.

Only ringleaders and others carrying arms
were arrested, the total number being one
hundred.

Rente quotation on the Boulevards was 73f 20c.
PAras, Feb. 9.
_

It is stated that ten strong barricades were still
left during the night, chiefly in the Rue du Temple,
Rue Sr. Maur, and Rue 0 berkanipf, and also on
the Quai Val►ny. They were formed by overturned
carriages, omnibuses, and building materials. None,
however, of those obstructions were defended by the
rioters, who only smashed some street lamps.
It is also asserted that the sergents-de-ville made
a charge upon the rioters with drawn swords, in
which several of the latter were wounded.

A body of Chasseurs co-operated with the Muni-
cipal Guards to free the streets from obstructions.

A rumour says that some shops were fired by the
rioters, but not by the police.
At one o'clock this morning tranquillity was
everywhere re-established.

The Gazette des Tribuflaux mentions some at-
tempts at throwing up barricades in the guarder
du Temple, stating, however, that no resistance was
offered, and conkquently no conflict took place.
The latest reports say that the Quartiers la
Villette and La Bastille was perfectly quiet, as also
was the Faubourg St. Antoine.

The news is confirmed that the greater part of
the editorial staff of the illarseillaise has been
arrested. Moreover, M. Valoe, the printer or the
journal, refuses to act in this capacity any longer.
Accounts, published both in the Pigaro and the
Gaulois, confirm the statement that a large num-
ber of the rioters bad been severely wounded by
sword cuts or staves in the encounters which had
occurred at various points. The disturbances were
confined to the Quartier du Temple.
The Gaulois says that a strong feeling of

excitement against the rioters prevails among the

troops.
BOURSE, Feb. B.—Three o'clock—The ma. ket
closed as follows :

Bank Shares 2885
Its Pan wives 54 40
Austrian Fives
Ottoman Loan
Do. Debt 44 10
Spanish Threes
Home Debt
Deferred —
_s, Cash
Orleans
Western
Northern
Strasburg
Lyons and Iledite;raueau
Soutbern..... 615
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard
North of Spain .
Saragossa
Roman..

4i per Cent.
3 per Cent

End of month 73 2
Credit Mobilier 205
Transatlantic 221 25
Credit Foncier 1728 75
Paris Gas 1682 50
Suez Canal 337 50
RiILIVAI

7FO
£l2}
• • oti,i

AMERICA.
(Per French Atlantic Cable.)

Ni.w YORK, Feb. 8.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

Gold closed at 1201 ; the highest quotation dur-
ing the day was 1211; the lowest, 1201.
Sterling Exchange on London lO9.

5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1889 llsf.
,t " ISBS ll5.

tt " 1867 ll4.
10-40 '4
Illinois
Erie
Cotton—Mid. upland 2sic.
Petroleum—Standard White ... 30ic.
Flour, extra state, $4.90e. to $5.50c. Corn, old
mixed, sl.6c.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 8.

The Supreme Court of the United Stites on
Monday decided one of the Legal-Tender cases.
The majority of the Court decided that Congress
has no right to make greenbacks a legal tender for
private debts existing before the Legal-Tender Act
was passed, but the opinion does not touch the
question of contracts trade since the Act was passed.
Four Judges, including Chief Justice Chase, con-
cur, and three Judges dissent, holding the Legal-
Tender Act to be entirely constitutional and an
incident of the war power. Other cases yet to be
decided involve the direct question whether the law
is constitutional with reference to contracts made
since the Act was passed.