The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-12 00:00:00

ED ITII N.

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP.

THURSDAY,

The absence of most of the Opposition leaders at the
close of the session would on ordinarily occasions excite
no comment, but yesterday when there was an unusually
full House for the last day of the Parliamentary year
it was very noticeable. Lord Cairns was alone
in the Upper House, Mr. Disraeli in the Lower,
and yet it was known that the Belgian Treaty would be
discussed in both houses. Lord Cairns's failure was signal
and complete. Mr. Disraeli having already approved the
Treaty as "spirited and wise," could not well re-echo
his colleague's strictures, and he sat absolutely
silent during the somewhat vehement discussion
which Mr. Bernal Osborne's strong remarks excited.
Evidently the Opposition, who rather took for granted
that the present Ministry, however powerful in ordinary
times, would break down at a great foreign crisis like the
Present, have found out their mistake. Mr. Gladstone
asd Lord Granville have shewn themselves strong in
diplomacy as in legislation. Nay, on that very point
where they have had to sustain some' very unfavourable
criticism they have been, according to the voluntary and
generous avoival of Lord Derby, particularly successful.
Speaking at an agricultural dinner yesterday, he declared
iliat in p0iht_ig.,4044,,,N0, wer we had= nev,,tr -Uses.

so strong, nor nearly as strong, as we are now,
and that our army, though small, was the
best in existence. I have little doubt that this
statement is in the main true, though I have even less
doubt that there was a serious deficiency in stores a few
days ago. This deficiency will be made up with all pos-
sible haste, and the Government have determined to con-
vertimmediately all muzzle-loaders into Sniders.
Who would have supposed that' when the Stock
'Exchange went raving mad on the 25th at the bare
rumour of a Prusso-Russian alliance, and securities were
hurled about in frantic despair, the news " Revolution
in Paris," which was shouted by the news boys yesterday,
would have caused a rise in the funds? A month ago
such tidings would have caused a fearful panic ; but yes-
terday it was considered good news.
To-day the city has witnessed the strange scene of
a body of French mechanics parading the streets, and
singing the Marseillaise. They were on their way to the
railway station, en route for France.
One lesson the war has taught us, the immense impor-
tance of secrecy as to the military operations of the
armies. We journalists thought the suppression of news
very hard and very unjust, for was not the war
made in our especial behalf The Prussians thought
otherwise. So profound was the mystery with which
they veiled their plans that even distinguished officers
knew nothing of them, and thus it came to pass that the
Crown Prince was able to pounce down upon the out-
numbered French troops, and inflict upon them a defeat
that France will not recover for twenty years.
Some little surprise is felt that the Attorney-General
should have presented himself to the valuable Recorder-
ship of Bristol. It is true that Sir Robert Collier has not
a large private practice, .and may therefore like to have
something to fall back upon, if there were a probability of
his leaving office; but this prospectis very remote. Mean-
while the Attorney-General's income from patent fees is
very large, and a recordei:ship of £650 a year should have
been an " unconsidered trifle " to him, while to many
another lawyer less fortunate than he has been it would
be almost a fortune. Surely there were some deserving
barristers on the Western Circuit, for whom this little
bonne bouche might have been reserved.
Another legal dignitary, Sir Robert Phillimore, Dean
of the Court of Arches, has just published as a pamphlet
his judgment in the Bennett case. It is edited by Mr.
Walter Phillimore, an Oxonian of considerable dis-
tinction.

Every one will regret the downfall of The O'Donoghue.
The cause of his pecuniary embarrassments I have not
yet heard, but he has become a bankrupt. Ile was a
fine specimen of an Irish M.P., handsome, and gallant,
and although when he first entered the House of Commons
he committed some serious indiscretions, such as chal-
lenging Sir R. Peel, when Chief Secretary for Ireland,
he has latterly shewn himself a real patriot, and has
advised his quondam friends, the Nationalists, to accept
the legislation of the present Government as conceding all
that they ought to ask. At one time he represented Tip-
perary County, but the constituency being too costly for
him, he became member for the little borough of Tralee.
That seat now becomes vacant.

Hitherto the Thames, or as it is now called the Victoria,
Embankment, has been very little used by vehicles.
Admirably though the broad road is calculated for traffic,
London cabmen are a conservative race, and they don't
like to leave the crowded thoroughfares, and be discharged
in a road where there is little chance of picking up a stray
fare. Foot passengers have a greater appreciation of
this noble thoroughfare, and it has become quite
a playground for children, and on Sundays it is thronged
by thousands of persons, The new gas lamps are being
erected, and are taking the place of ,the ugly temporary
wooden posts. A statue of Sir James Outram also is to
be placed someday on the Embankment. Let
us hope that this day will not be as long
as that which has intervened between the order
for the Wellington Statue in St. Paul's, and
the completion of it. A number of really good statues
Placed on this embankment, and a public garden on the
vacant space near the Duke of Buccleuch's mansion would
make this one of the most enjoyable as well as one of
the noblest promenades in the world. Already it is
one of the few things that we Londoners may be proud of.
One cannot but rejoice that poor Sir John Thwaites
lived just long enough to see the opening of this fine work.
It is not improbable that he will be suc-
ceeded by Sir William Fraser, a Devonshire
barrister, who represented Barnstaple and Ludlow
in the House of Commons, and has long taken an active
interest in the improvements of London, as is proved by
his pamphlet thereon. But there is also a terrible rumour
to the effect that just as the Attorney-General has taken
the Bristol Recordership, so the First Commissioner of
Works will take the chairmanship of the Metropolitan
Board of Works, and still retain his present post and seat
in the House of Commons. In that case London would
be wholly, as it is now partially, in the hands of Mr.
Ayrton.

The anxiety of the High Church party in England
to offer the Liberal religionists both of England and
the Continent a modus vivendi, has made them
the more vexed at what they term the Westminster
Abbey scandal. They would have been angered by it
under any circumstances ; but just now, when
they are endeavouring to hold up the English
Church as the true home of primitive truth,
they are greatly mortified that the English
bishops should have knowingly communicated with a
person whom they deem a heretic. Dean Stanley de-
fends the course which he has taken, and asks in the
current number of. the Contemporary Review if men hold-
ing the faith of Milton, and Charming are to be excluded
from communion. This is a forcible way of stat-
ing his case ; but it is unfortunate, to say
the least, that the Deam, while willing to
communicate with a Unitarian, refused to do so with the
bishops who came from all parts of the earth to be present
at the Lambeth Conference. This conduct is of a piece
with. the Dean's readiness to subscribe to the Voysey
defence fund, and his unreadiness to subscribe to
the Mackonochie defence fund. It would seem
as if the Dean were liberal only in one direc-
tion. This fact is not - forgotten by High
Church cletgyrrieri• or laymen, 'and so it comes to
pass that in certain London churches you will find near
the door a table, and on the table a memorial protesting
against the "sacrilege ". aforesaid. Meanwhile Dean
Stanley and other leaders of the Broad Church
party are not ceasing their efforts to widen
the Church so as to admit a large number of Noncon-
formists. Dean
.Alford also openly argues for the
admission of their preachers into the pulpits of the Eng-
lish Church, and reminds his readers that the founder of
the. Franciscans was, even when only a layman, allowed
by the Roman Catholic Church to preach. The warfare
against the so-called Athanasian creed goes on more and
more vigorously, and can scarcely fail to be
successful before long. Canon Liddon has indeed declared
that if the creed is expunged from the Prayer Book he
will have to reconsider his position as a clergyman of the
English Church, but he is scarcely likely to secede to
Rome now, It has been proposed to insert s rubric