The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-18 00:00:00

THE NEW FRENCH MINISTERS.

The successors of MM. Daru, Buffet, and Talhouet are not
so well known in the world of French politics as to render
unnecessary a slight sketch of their history and party posi-
tions. The Due de Gramont, now Minister of Voreign
Affairs, was born in Paris in 1819. After being educated at
the Ecole Polytechnique he was appointed a sous-lieutenant
at the Practical School of Metz. He resigned his commis-
sion in 1840, and remained in private life until the Deux De-
cembre of 1851. After the accession of the Emperor Napoleon
111. he was successively appointed Minister Plenipotentiary at
Cassel, Stuttgart, and Turin, and subsequently Ambassador
at Rome. He supported Count Cavour in his successful at-
tempt to induce the Sardinian Government to join the alliance
of the Western Powers against Russia. In 1861 he was ap-
pointed Ambassador at the Austrian Court. The Due de
Gramont is a Conseiller-General for the Canton of Bidache,
iu the department of Basses Pyrenees, and married in 1848
Miss Mackinnon, by whom he has four children. M. Mege,
the new Minister of Public Instruction, is a native of
Itiom, and was also born in 1819. He devoted himself to the
profession of the law, and his career was unmarked by any
striking feature until 1862, when be became batonnier or head
of the local bar; at Clermont Ferrand. Soon afterwards
he was appointed Maire of Clermont, and in 1863 he was
elected to the Corps Legislatif. under the auspices of the
Government of the day, M. Roulter being a friend and fellow.
townsman. Up to 1869 he was one of the most active
members of the Conservative majority. After his re-elec-
tioa in 1869, M. Mege joined the new Liberal Tiers Parti,
and was one of the 116 who :igned the once famous demand
of interpellation. A Vice-President of the Corps Legislatif,
his name was mentioned on a former occasion in connexion
with the department over which he is now called
to preside; but M. Segris then obtained the nomi-
nation. M. Plichon, the new Minister of Public
Works, who was born in 1814, is an advocate. He
was a deputy under the July Monarchy, and in 1857 was
returned to the Corps Legistatif as representative of the
Department du Nord. He was re-elected in 1863, and again
in 1862, this time in the character of an Opposition cand-
date. He was also one of the 116 signe sof the demand for
interpellation. It thus appears that one of the new Ministers
belongs avowedly to no political fraction, another is taken
from the Right Centre, and the third was a member of the
Left Centre. The journals representing the moderate Liberal
opinions do not appear to be very highly satisfied with these
ap, ointments, and regard them only as fresh additicns to
what must be a transitional Ministry.

We understand the marriage of the Earl of Derby
and Mary MarcbioneEs of Salisbury does not take place
before July next.

Trifling applications have' been made by men in
Chatham Dockyard for passages in troopships for Canada.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.—The famous picture of
John Bellini representing the Death of St. Peter, Martyr,
which excited so much admiration at the recent exhibition
of Old Masters, has just been presented to the nation. This
noble work of art is the munificent gift of Lady Eastlake.
Private advices received in Liverpool yesterday state
that the recent riots in Madeira were caused by a col-
lision between the clerical party and the Liberals as to the.
safety of the ballot boxes during the late elections in the
island.

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
THE OXFORD OUTRAGES,
The Times observes that astonishment, 'mingled at first
with incredulity, is the feeling with which the story storl
that comes from Oxford has been received by the public,
and especially by university men. The practical jokes o!
undergraduates are sufficiently notorious, and have 3t.
times verged on sacrilege and misdemeanour, but this ex.
ceeds anything that lingers in the memory of the oldest.
inhabitant. Truth is stranger than fiction, even on a sup,
ject which has so much exercised the invention.tor
novelists as university life. Certainly, no wrl
would ever venture to describe the fast
of
of a college as wilfully destroying the choicest
works of art which it possesses. Even the inaaginativ
author of "Formosa " might shrink from such at setch,
of the licence of fiction as conveying something too rqoo.,
strous to be accepted by a gallery of cockneys. The thin ,
however, is only too true • it is the scandal of the lava
and the Governing Body at' Christ Church is engage;l-e
investigation and deliberating on punishment. be"
thought necessarily suggests itself that there Intist te 4
faults of disci?line where the freaks of undergradua
thus culminate in an indictable offence. It nO one
becomes all at once very bad, so no society can proditc
le'
such a set of rioters unless a great deal in the same sty
though less serious, has been tolerated in former Years'
If this be so we cannot but think that it is the duty
of the authorities to intimate to the uneraduats
that excesses of the kind will be morderg serious!):
dealt with in future. These things are simplY
tradition, which each year hands on to the next. 'ln
men cannot, and we are certain do not, feel any strolg.;
desire to engage in these so-called " larks " but there jA, 3:
fashion, and it is followed. It used to' be worse in tau
e for
army not many years ago ; an unpopular newcomer,
instance, was subjected, in property and person, to Per.°
cutions that were almost incredible. Public ilidignatiorat
t
at a particular case forced the Horse Guards to act, d to
an
the smashing of furniture and so forth was put an en
at once. The same firmness would produce the sale
effect at the university. On the other hand, bad exasll) e
at
and the prospect of impunity will urge men to acts
which in the sanity of reflection and solitude they
themselves wonder. While we feel the magnitude P'
a stuk),icte
the offence, we must recognise that it is the Wilt of
artificial demoralisation from which it is in the poweriot
er
an able and active governing body to restrain those one
its charge.

SPECIAL COMMISSIONS.
The Standard declares that Mr. Chichester Fortescue
and his advisers hope, by occasional bold strokes, to con.,
teal from the public the vacillating, feeble character.?l
their Irish government. But these enterprises unhaPPll.r,
are attempted just at the wrong moment, and only hetri
ridicule upon the officials of Dublin Castle. A spec 1-
commission is about to issue for some of the Irish cou.o.
ties that have suffered most from agrarian
lence. Its first sitting in the county a
is fixed for the first week of June. 'he
summer assizes for this county are already fixed f°l. te
first week of July. It is for a matter of f
weeks that the county is to be put to the e e
r.
sense of
rison ed a specis not large.ion The number of P,e
ons im It
that there was any good reason for this proceedht
on grounds of expediting public justice. When wt
recollect that this course is adopted by the Governor
who, when the magistrates of Westmeath asked for Pr°,
tection for their property and lives some month ehn
told these gentlemen to suggest something, its object
plain enough. It is a cheap and ingenious way of gdetitiibir_
credit for vigour. Ingenious as it seems, and was °
less intended to be, its object is too manifest. For twe vcei
months violence was allowed to rage unchecked in Ireland
monster meetings assembled to hear seditious sPeeenig
from Government supporters. Then for a change pec
commission was sped to Galway, and its proceedings rell
an utter failure in the condition of excitement vi
long impunity • had produced. The jurors dare 11,
convict, and the judges were hooted out of the tovine
Further time was allowed to elapse while Mr. Gladstone
lamented, and Mr. Fortescue asked for suggestion,s,,.%
nothing was done except pour troops into Ireland. Crepe
for activity was next claimed by the dismissal of loyal
Protestant magistrates who had ventured to criticise
Government. The violence got worse, and the public /el;
patient, and the Coercion passed, but Gov erninell"
rested on their oars, or tried an occasional proclamatfolli
until roused to activity by the attempted assassination o
Mr. Radcliffe. Agrarianism is still unchecked,
is fetir
d,
weeks before the assizes a special commission s issue
By all means let the Government take this course, or
aI
other course that will tend to restore order in Irelana
but there should be some other reason for such a measnre
than the mere anxiety of officials to wash away the di
grace of past mismanagement.

NEW ZEALAND.
New Zealand, says the Post, is itself again.Cheerful'ness has supplemented gloom, and resolution has su,c_
ceeded the paralysis of panic. The true policy for_ tla°
development of the country, as well as the security of V°
settlers—namely, that of constructing roads—is ttld
energetically advocated and put into practice. It w°
~,e
seem that the inconveniences necessarily attending we
distractions that have agitated New Zealand so long hav
impressed the natives with the idea that the double rule
of the Maori and the European is incompatible with Pro
::
gress, and they have been shrewd enough to see which
the stronger side and to contemplate joining it. They 1
freely offering their lands for sale, and requesting that
roads may be made, to enhance the value of those lax
At a time when many of our workmen 3!."
anxiously looking for employment here or else-
where, the news that New Zealand is on the point of,
maturing a magnificent scheme of immigration corarf
opportunely. It seems that, roughly speaking, one
of the loan of one million sterling is to be applied to the
purpose of assisting some fifty thousand persons to ell,
grate to New Zealand, while the other half will be be
voted to the construction of roads. Doubtful as t
policy of guaranteeing colonial loans must generally beTel
this particular case commends itself for approval. .r
only will the guarantee testify. to New Zealand of ot;
good will towards it, but it will indirectly tend to bei?e,r4
the Mother Country. Mr. Gladstone not long ago ain- 3
down as an axiom that no such guarantee should be gilie
that had not this tendency ; and, therefore, while "-
colony will be benefited by the liberality of the Ge.,ive"b ~/1e
ment, no fundamental principle of State policy "V
violated.
Mr. Monsell said truly on Tuesday night, remarks t.hoea
Telegraph, that it was not the policy of the InWerin-
Government to guarantee colonial loans, save in exe.ea'se
tional cases ; but the circumstances of the present side.
certainly gave New Zealand an especial claim on
ration. The withdrawal of our troops and the estabiisio
ment of the principle that with the colony itself must
to:.
the duty of settling its internal disputes, have ,osf.
doubtedly placed New Zealand in a worse
.!'llen
tion than it occupied, say, five years ago, ,ops
the war was in full swing, with Imperial IriZreif
under an English General. The money wanted by for
Zealand is to be spent in enabling the colonists to de lea
themselves what the Imperial Government had our the
them to expect that it would do, and our persistence in
resolution to withdraw the last Imperial soldiers tn,F;ice
more than ever on the colony the task of self-de-Leibe
against its internal foe. Hence there is fair ground fertee,
request, that at least we should, by giving our guar° to
enable the money needed for prosecuting the war the
be borrowed at 2 or 2} per cent less than be
rate of interest which New Zealand would
nt.
made to pay if she borrowed on her own aeclee,
Besides, there was a precedent for the guars n the
in the shape of nearly a million sterling secured by o•
Government when the colony borrowed some years 'll,
But we heartily endorse the assurance of Mr. Mlthe
that a sincere desire to prove the cordial good will °' eng
Mother-country to her dependencies was influential alntee•
the motives that induced the granting of the gliaretne,
And we can only hope that, not in New Zealand „al,O
but throughout the Empire, the action of the /1-`'.. of
Government will be read as an emphatic disclaiinelbe
those selfish and cold-hearted purposes, in regard to
01,..
Colonies, which some time ago were imputed in the re
lessness of jealous alarm.

THE GREEK MURDERS.
The Daily News thinks that a mischievous questi°nsir
the House of Commons has received a sensible replY• ent
J. Elphinstone wanted to know whether our Gover°,lTihe
will send the Mediterranean fleet to the Piraeus to aners
" Greek authorities" in investigating the recent 11111r-de ry
of our countrymen. Perhaps, if he could have ro3 try
speech he would have told the House of some couotbe
with which he is acquainted where it is found that of
assistance of admirals and captains—and cili
foreign admirals and captains—is found useful in fa
tating the labours of Crown prosecutors and detective P,°.e-ex
We have a grave demand to make upon the
Government and nation, and in presenting it weiewi
know nothing whatever of parties, nor must the sc"tioe
cause we represent become mixed up through any ac
of ours with the quarrels and recriminations of f3c ect
Whoever may rise or fall at Athens, we shall e_l2tir.
complete and impartial justice to be done upon the may
derers of our countrymen, and all who were in a.„nYi of
accessory to the crime. This demand the -u-'3lr,a,u-
Clarendon has made in the most formal 700
ner and care has been taken that the ,
by
shall be investigated and the trial watchea this
able and courageous representatives Of roll!
country on the spot. The Greek Goverlitaiesl'
is bound, as much in policy as in justice, to give the
satisfaction to our righteous demands, and our consttitil
tion in the Mediterranean is not so poor and dowroe
that before the legal proceedings can properly b.„.egtelfore
must needs support it by fluttering the Union 0,". will
the Greek Judges. Every functionary
understand that whenever Great Britain sPeanictswoe
speaks with the voice of the whole Empire. Mr. have
reply to Sir J. Elphinstone was just what it ought °, ger
been. He declared his opinion that the presence o% the
Majesty's Fleet in the Pirnus was not necessarY.te
can
ascertainment of truth. The suspicion that iostichoula
only attained under the pressure of armed force 0
not be lightly ad opted or countenanced. in Greece
sue

An iiish genleman, parting with a lazy ant
elev
woman, was asked with respect to her indus„trdrilwhetne_,
ott7
she was what is termed afraid of work.
all," said he, "not at all ; she'll frequently lie down L'
fall asleep by the very side of it." 011-
MALLOW AND LONGFORD.—The Dublin corro- that
dent of the Daily Telegraph " can mate for certain rlr.
there will be no petition against the return of
~,1 be
Waters for Mallow. He believes, also, that there
none in the case of Longford. 1 at
RIOT BY WO3IEN.—A feminine riot oceurreubat
Comment ry (Allier) a few days back. The women of t to
town, considering the articles brought from the country s,
the market too dear, attacked the dealers, broke the
threw the butter in the dust, &c. They were a,ssisted
~e
a number of idle boys, from 12 to 15, whop elted .t.'er
unhappy stall-keepers with their own goods. .A. n°lll.,,•ng
of the latter took refuge in the church, the rest nifinito
the best of their way home. The following clay Øi
1100II01$ were repeated at Diontltwon.