The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 5, lB7O

fault With the Government, because on account of the
timidity of one or two members of it, it has resolved
to introduce :us Irish Land Bill, which will not be
satisfactory to " us all,"—the philosophic Radicals that
is. It is by no means certain that Sir CHARLES is
right in his facts. The retirement of Lord BEss-
BOROIJGII from the Ministry because the Land Bill is
too sweeping, certainly does not look like excessive
caution on the part of the Ministry. And, after all,
it would be extremely unwise for Ministers to intro-
duce a bill which the bulk of their followers could
not support. We do not want to see this
matter extended over several years. A succession of
Ministerial crises, changes of Cabinet, and dissolu-
tions of Parliament may be all very well for those
who love political excitement, but there is already
enough excitement, and to spare, in one part of the
kingdom, and it is time that we devised some means
of pacifying it. Then, as regards the next question,
Education, we find ourselves partly disagreeing with
Sir CHARLES DUKE. lie is a member of the League,
and he is chagrined because it has just offered a com-
promise by which the reading of the Bible should be
left optional in schools. Ho would have them wholly
secular, and he would have them supported by the rates,
and education made compulsory upon all children.
In other words, he would have the greatest amount
of change in order to produce a result which other
educationists wish fully as much as he. We have
already expressed our opinion that there is no need
for such a sweeping reform as this. Compulsion,
for instance, may be obtained without resorting
to the policeman, by simply extending the Factory
Acts to all employments. The proposal to throw the
cost of education entirely upon the rates is unadvisable,
because it relieves parents from the responsibility
which lies upbn them of paying for the instruction of
their children. Sir CuarmEs and the League have
hitherto failed utterly to shew why the children's
pence, which now constitute so large an aggregate
sum, should be abandoned, and why the working
classes, whose crying fault is that they are already
far too little independent, should be relieved of a
bounden duty, or why that duty should fall upon those
who already find it a hard matter to pay for the
schooling of their own children. It is satisfactory to
find that the Radical member for Chelsea is in
accord with the Conservative member for South
Devon upon the injustice of the present system
of rating. "Nothing," as he well puts it, "can be
more flagrant than such cases as those which exist
in London, of peers who draw an income of £OO,OOO
or £70,000 a year from a single parish, without con-
tributing a sixpence directly to the rates." This is a
matter which must be set right, and that shortly, for
the burden of local taxation is becoming unbearable.
The Government are, the member for Chelsea
tells us, going to set a good example
by introducing a measure next session which
will repeal the exemption of Government property
from local rates. Hitherto the theory has been that
a town has benefited so greatly by the presence of
Government property in a borough that this property
might well bo relieved from contributing to the local
revenues. In reality the injury has often been as
great as the benefit. When the Admiralty, for
instance, absorbs all the riverside, and the War Office
all the best land, and whale villages are rased to
make way for fortifications, the presence of
the Government is not so great a boon that it ought
to be paid for by what is equivalent to a yearly fine
of some hundreds of pounds. Finally, we will notice
Sir CHARLES DILKE'S admirable letter, which appears
in the Times simultaneously with the report of his
speech. In that letter he warns English politicians
against the browbeating policy of the Anglo-Chinese.
That policy, whereof Lord PALMERSTON was the
great advocate, and which consists in forcing
all nations, who are weak enough for us
to coerce them, to give up their customs
and laws at our dictation, is even now
upheld by a large number of English residents in
China. Mr. COBDEN was the most earnest in denounc-
ing it, and the present Lord DERBY and Lord CLAREN-

DON have abandoned it, and substititted for it a

policy of equity and peace. But there is need of
great watchfulness on the part of Parliament lest we
should return to the old, bad days when a populous
city was bombarded because we chose to take the
side of a pirate to whom we had hired out the
British flag at 2d. a day. It was a shameful episode,
but it was only one manifes'a'ion of a principle which
even nowrc is only scotched, and not killed—the principle
that the earth was made for the children of Englishmen,
and for them alone.

TUE French Official Jovraal has prepared a pleasant
surprise. Just as we were all lamenting that the
new PREMIER should have constructed a Ministry
that could not last a month, we find that that
Ministry has not lasted half a week, but has
already given place to another. The first was
ridiculous, impracticable. The second is really
very good, and we see no reason why, if
the time for an Imperial Cabinet is not gone by
altogether, this one should not stand. M. OLLIVIER
has prevailed upon several of the most eminent
members of the Left Centre to join him, and the
EMPEROR has accepted the list. In fact, the only
alternative he had was a Ministry of the
Irreconcileables and the downfall of the
Empire. We imagine that this new Ministry
finding itself, as it will, numerically in a
minority, will before long see it expedient to
get rid of the present Chamber. It is the offspring
of scandalous corruption and intimidation, and in no
way represents the nation. We may be quite sure
that a new Chamber would be very differently con-
stituted ; and we trust that when the country once
saw that the EMPEROR was in earnest, that he really
meant to give responsible Government, and so " crown
the edifice," it would support the men whom he had
called to his aid, by such a majority that they would
be able to suppress both reaction and anarchy.

An attempt is being made to rem3ve the Quarter
Sessions now held at Wrexham to the town of Ruthin.

The young man, Stansfeld—the Sheffield lover
who induced his sweetheart, Miss Shaper, to rob her father,
that they might have money to marry upon—has been com-
mitted for trial by the Sheffield magistrates.
At the Dublin Freemen Commission yesterday a
medical student, named Wright, admitted Laving distri-
buted ten tickets as tokens for bribery, and having himself
£5 for his services. The inquiry proceeds, and will pro-
bably last at least another week.
%Vlldam Staple, a farmer, residing at Aldwiek,
near Winster, was yesterday summoned before the Chester-
field magistrates and mulcted in a penalty of £5 and costs
for exposing for sale in tho Market-place there a quantity of
beef that was totally unfit for food.

A Greek Archbishop is in Liverpool—the Arch-
bishop of Syra and Tenos. The object of the visit of his
grace (who is accompanied by the Archdeacon and Deacon
of Syra), is to consecrate a beautiful new Greek Church,
rapid!y approaching completion.
A correspondent states that one of the direct lineal
descendants of Archbishop Parker, the second Protestant
cf C!,.ntt;tlJury, vet. km yeara r:iscaal
friend and confidant df Queen Elizabeth, is now an appli-
cant for admission into the almshouses at Croydon for de-
cayed householders of the parish of Lambeth.
Mr. Baines was present last night at the annual
soir6e of the Woodhouse Temperance Hall and tho Me-
chanics' Institution at Leeds, and advocated the necessity
of greater improvt mout iu art and science instruction to
working men, if this country was to maintain its pre-eminence
es a matairacturing and iLdustr:ous nation.
Lord will probatq be elected an
Irish representative peer, in the room of the into Lord
Crofton.

Another death has o;curr3l from the accident at
Bristol. William Gamblin, aged 13, died this morning
hem the injuries he received.

The sum of £3,CCO Las been lately given by Sit
D.wid raster, cf Kilmason, towanls the erection and en-
dowment of an inslitution f(,r the education of younr
ladies at Cupar Fife.

The BrooUsn C rand. ..ur.•: has indicted sixty per-
sans for committing frauds in tit; recent elections thete,
among the indicted being justice 3 of the peace, constable*,
and other public ofi7citls.
Thomas Lightfoot, the A r clats tradesman, charged
with cruelty t!.) his imbecl'e lrother, was committed for
trial, at the Manchester Police-court, ou Saturday. Ho was,
however, admitted to bail. . .

AFTER TWENTY-SEVEN -UARS'
IMPRISONMENT.

Mr. Barnacles was released on Saturday from White-
cross-street Prison, after an imprisonment of twenty-seven
years, and we earnestly hope that when, according to the
account given, he "stared about," he slid not stumble
up against any of the favoured ones of the Home
Office. However hideous may have been the clinics
which Barnacles committed, and which justified
his detention for more than a quarter of a century, they
could hardly have exceeded some of the garotte rob-
beries and brutal murders which have been committed
by some of our ticket-of-leave men who commenced
their imprisonment long after Barnacles and have
been released long before him. If Barnacles is
puzzled and shocked at this inequality of our punish-
ments we can assure him he is not more so than every-
body except else except our legislators and those to whom
the administration of our affairs is entrusted. We must
also apologise to Barnacles for the little progress we
have made in some matters since his confinement.
Twenty-seven years ago he left us discussing the
lamentable state of affairs in Ireland and passing
the Irish Arms Bill. He finds us still engaged in the
same discussion, with every probability of its lasting
another twenty-seven years. lie will doubtl, ss remember
we then had just arrested Mr. O'Connell; we have now
just elected Mr. O'Donovan Itossa. We hardly know
whom we are likely to arrest and elect during the next
twenty-seven years; but we think we may promise Bar-
nacles that our proceedings are likely to be as attractive
and exciting a;s ever.—Pall Mull Ga:ctte.

AN ALLEGED RUBEN'S DISCOVERED.

A journal from Finland states that a painting by Rubens,
representing " Descent from the Crow," has ju,d, been (I,s-
-covert(' iu the Church of Elenas. The inhabitants were not
aware that they possessed such a treasure, although
the picture had al ways attracted the attention of
connoisseurs. Last summer three artists, named Schestrand,
Lowgreen, and Munstheltn, being on a vi:dt to the town,
declared positively that the work was a Rubuns. An in-
quiry was then instituted, and showed that the painting
bad been Lrought from Germany in 1650 by Count do
Loewenhaupt, who presented It to the town. It is said to
have been restored by the artist Lindau in 1821.

A formidable addition was made to the Britibh
navy on Monday by the undocking, at Messrs. Lairdib
works, of lI.MA Vanguard -, an armour-clad vessel
of the Invincible class.

A Conference of South Staffordshire and East
Worcestershire colliers will be held on Monday next to
discuss "over-production," "long hour system," "ten hours
p.2r day work," and the policy of helping colliers in Lanca-
shire, Yorkshire, and North and South Wales, to obtain the
advantages sought by them. Wages will be discussed, trade.
being good and the men scarcely satisfied.

This morning the junction of the Midland (Metro-
politan Extension) Railway at Kentish-town with the
Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway was opened
for goods traffic, and two or three trains have passed to
and from the goods station at Agar-town to the Londo❑
Docks. The lino will shortly open for passenger traffic,
and will be a great accommodation to Irgligato and tipper
Holloway, there being a station near St. John's Church, in
the Holloway-road.

Foot an:l mouth disease and pleuro-pneumonia are
decreasing in Cheshire. During the past quarter 130 cattle
were attacked with pleuro-pneumonia, and 2,505 animals by
the foot and mouth disease. Of the total, 2,237 Nava re-
covered, and 206 are under treatment. The Cheshire ma&s-
trates have decided that a rate of three farthings in the pound
of the general county rate will be sufficient, the boroughs to
be recouped the portion allotted to them.

A suspicious death has occurred at Gorton, in
Lancashire. On Sunday morning the body of a man was
found near the bottom of the railway embankment, about 200
yards from Ashbury's station. There was a wound at the
back of the head, and bruit es on the body. The body was
identified as that of Thomas li‘Loughlin, of 3, Pitt-street,
Ancoats. The man had been out drinking, and on Saturday
night when he left a beerhouse to go home he was in-
toxicated.

Of the 210 petitions for private bills &posited in
the Private Bill Office of the House of Commons, 91 are kr
railways ; but they aro generally for further powers, aban-
donment, amalgamation, capital, &c. No new line of im-
pertance will be brought forward during the session. The
bills most contested will be the tramway bills. Of these
there arc 24. Th, re are 59 gas and water bins, and 65 mis-
cellaneous bills. With respect to these soma strong local
fights are anticipated ; tu', as a whole, the private bill busi-
ness of the session is likely to be unusually short.

The New Suffragan of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury will in all probability (says the Sussex Express) take
the title of Bishop of Maidstone or Bishop of Croydon.
Amongst the names prominently mentioned are those from
whom his grace will elect his suffragan aro Archdeacon
Parry ; the lit,!v. C. F. Tarver, vicar of St. Peter's, Thauet;
the Lev. W. P. Erskine Knowles, rector of Saltwood; the
Rev. J. Hodgson, vicar of Croydon; and the Rev. J. Bate-
man, vicar cf Margate.

The Recorder of Leeds has presented a beautiful
paten to the parish church. It is of saver, and in the centre
and round the ed,;.e are set, jewel-wise, a number of gold
coins of Spain, England, and France. The inscription runs
thus :—" The coins in this paten were found on the 'mody of
George Panjamin /daub., Esq., who was killed, together with
1; fellow-travdlers, on the night of the 14th of September,
A.D. 1850, by being washed down a mountain torrent into
the sea, near thopesa, on the coast of Valencia, in the king-
dom of Spain."

The unseemly squabbles in Ruch:laic Parish Church,
on account of the ritual, still continue; yesterday they
formed the subject of au inwstigatiou before the local ma-
3istrates. A Mr. Nicholson charged the vicar, Dr. Moles-
worth, with assault. The choir has lately left the church
in procession before the people, the latter standing. Mr
Nicholson objects to the choir going out thus, and in his
hurry to get home disarranges the procession. The other
Sunday he knocked up against the vicar ; and Dr. Moles-
worth pushed hhnon one silo. For doings° the rev. gentle-
man was fined 2s Gd.

The mysterious affair at Derby—the case of the
married couple, found dying in their bed room, with no
trace of foul play—is now explained somewhat. Mrs. Ford

is dead; the Wall FOrd stilt Tires, and at intervals becomes
conscious. On these occasions his brother and others
put the question to hint whether he poisoned Lis wife, and
he reeled that he did ; but on beieg asked what he gave
her, he made no reply. 'The surgeons have still hopes that
be will rally. Y,,sterdny surgeons made a post mm tem
examination of the body of the woman, and tJok front the
stomach a qu a:thy of irritant poisoa.

At the IlanTshire E'Fiphaoy Sessions, yesterday,
at Winchester, a ,übscriptiun portrait of Sir WilliArn Heath-
cote, Bart., p:dnted by Mr. G. Richmond, R.A., w.►s pee-
seated, on behalf of the subscribers, to the county.
In moving that the picture be accepted, Lord
Carnarvon paid a graceful tribute to the honour-
able baronet. The resoluti n was seconded by Lord
Northbrook, who dwelt especially oa the fact that Sir
William Heatheote left his position in the House of
Commons with the respect of all political parties.
Mr. Nl'. W. Beach, M.P., Lord Eversley, and Mr. J. Bon-
ham-Carter having cordially endorsed the observations of
Lord Carnarvon, Sir 'William IL'athcote expressed his
gratification at the manner the committee had managed
this most gratifying affair, combining in an extraordinary
way all that was likely to do honour to so unworthy a
recipient, and give hint pleasure also.