The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-30 00:00:00

THE THEM RES, &c.

DRURY-LANE—At &Ten, I'm not Myself at all. At Eight, Peep o'
Day

the -Prompter's Box

PRINCHSS'S—At Seven, Your Life's in Danger. Paul Lafarge. A
Dark Night's Work

GAIETY—At Seven, The Hanny Village
At Nine, Uncle Dick's Darling
QUEEN s—At Seven, Quick March. At 8.15, 'Twist Axe and Crown
STRAND—At Seven, Sisterly Service. Widow's Weeds. Ino
ST. TAMES'S— t Seven, She Stoops to Conquer. At 9.15, La Belle
Sauvage. An Unhappy Pair
Pr.RICE or WALES'S—At Eight, School. Dearest Mamma. Quite
br Accident

7.45, The First Night

GLOBE—At Seven, Whitebait at Greenwich. At Eight, Philomel
The Goose with the Golden Eggs

WOODIN'S CARPET-BAG AND SKETCH BOOK, Egyptian Hall, Picca.
dilly, every Evening (except Saturday) at 3; Saturday ➢iotn
inns at 3. Admission, is, 2s, 3s.

.311RISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at S; Wed-
nesdays and baturdays, at 8 and 8 all the year round.
MADAME TUSSAUD'S EXHIBITION, Baker-street, from 11 a.m. till 6.30
p.m., and from 7 till 10 p.m. Admission, ls. ; extra rooms, 6d.
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, Open dally(except Sundays).
Admission. ls.• on Mondays, 6d. Children nnder twelve. ad.

4 17
(mil k Suit

LONDON, "WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1870.

The overwhelming preponderance, numerically, of
the Government supporters, over the members of the
Opposition, has been often enough before now pretty
• plainly indicated. All through last session, on the
occasion of great party divisions, whenever there
was a grand muster upon both sides of the House,
the net majority was always considerably over a
hundred. During the month which has already
elapsed of this present session, it has only-
been necessary upon field nights, with-
out taking the trouble to count noses, as the
absurd phrase is, to take the instant testimony of
one's eyesight—in order to recognise, at the merest
glance, the hopeless minority into which the great
Conservative party has lapsed in the existing Par-
liament. If the House of Commons be only looked
upon as one of the pleasantest Clubs in London, it
must certainly be admitted at once that a vat
upon the left-hand side of Mr. SPEAKER is far*
preferable to one on the benches directly fronting
that nominal moiety of the popular representatives.
For there, and there only, on those fields is anything
to be found like elbow room. The squires of Eng-
land and their ass- c•ates can sit during the most
crowded nights with personal comfort on the green
benches of the Opposition. While opposite them
are wedged togeth r in close contiguity the densely
packed ranks of the supporters of her MAJESTY'S
Government. The habitué of the House knows all
this perfectly well. The contrasting aspect of the
two sides is a sight fami iar to him. Whenever a
great party division is called for, the strength of the
Administration is only proved all over aga;n quite
easily and quite unanswerably. Knowing all th's,
thoroughly, as we all of us do, not only we
Londoners, who have the facts here alluded
to immediately under our observation, but

all the electors of the United Kingdom, whe
ther IVhig or Tory, Liberal or Conservative, i

certainly does strike one as rather prerosterols
when— by a lu,ky stroke, that a billiard player would
once call a fluke, upon a matter as far re-

moved from a great party que3tion as the
motion submitted to the house last night
by the sepulchral member for North Warwickshire,
the division scales just barely tip by a hair's brealth

towards the side of the Opposition, the morning
organ of the Conservatives should forthwith blow a
flourish of trumpe's over th 3 defeat of Alibisters—

announcing a faint little majority of two (it con

scarcely have been smaller) as—what ?

crushing defeat" of the Government ! The as

sertion is simply preposterous. The " tremendons
cheers" with which the announcement by the tellers was
received last night by the members of the Opposition,
only emphasis. s in a rather odd and whimsical way
the acknowledgment thereby blurted out of the really
hopeless minority in which they now stand upon all

,he great questions of the day, when contrasted with
he formidable and Eeried ranks of the Liberals at

Le back of her MAJESTY'S Government.

LORD URANVILLE, we all know, has abundance of
sweetness. But what we want from him just now is
more light. We want to know what he is doing
with our colonies. We every now and then get
glimpses through the darkness, and what we see
renders us very uneasy. For instance, within
the last few days there have been three inci-
dents which seem to have a close affinity,
and if they have, they mean that the Secretary of
State for the Colonies is bent upon abolishing his
office and breaking up our colonial empire. First of
all there was the reply of the New Zealand Govern-
ment to Lord Granville's too famous New Zealand

despatch ; and in this reply our fellow-subjects state

with great regret their opinion that " The tone and
purport of the despatch are scarcely susceptible of
any other explanation than a desire to abandon

this country and to sever its connection
with the empire." Then we have news from
Cape Town, stating that an address to the Crown was
being prepared, in which the colonists declined to
assume responsible G.vernnient, declared their wish

to remain an integral portion of the British Empire,
and dreaded lest throngh the adoption of responsible
government, the Cape would cease to be either
actually or virtually a British colony. But the most
remarkable incident of all refers to a much more im-
portant colony than either the cape or even New
Zealand. It concerns that great country which we
thought we had just consolidated by forming the
various states of which it is composed into one great
confederation—the "Dominion" of Canada. The

facts have. already been alluded to by our London
correspondent, and may be very briefly stated. Sir
Alexander Galt is one of the ablest statesmen in
Canada. Ho has held the post of Finance Minister

in many Ministries, but is now out of office.
In September last ho was offered his old
post by the Cartier Ministry; he declined the oar
on the ground that he held decided opinions with
respect to the independence of the Dominion: never-

tbeless he gave the Government a general support.
Recently he has gone Over to the Opposition, and
that step has led to further correspondence iu which

he not only re-asserted his opin:on with respect to
independence, but statal that when he was off[3rel
kniglithoollast year he would not accept it until he
had made known his -views to the Home Govern-
ment, and received the assurance that he would not
compromise them by acceptance. More than this,
according to Sir Alexander Galt, the independence
Of the Dowinion is the wish of the British

ADELPIIL—At Seven, My Prec'ous Betsy,
11 hitebai. at Greenwich.
EIAYMARKEL—At Seven. An Alarming Sacrifice. At 7.40, Our
American Cousin. And Shocking Events.
LYCEUM—At 7 30, Sampson's iVedding. Le Compositeur Toque
At 8 3 ~ niipetiE
OLYMPIC—At Seven, Little Emily. The Princess