The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-31 00:00:00

SKETCHES IN PARLIAMENT.

, WEDNESDAY.
Ireland is terribly avenged. Night after night, week
after week, it is the same subject. Irish wrongs, and
Irish outrages. Irish land and Irish tenants, Irish
sheriffs and Irish " bhoys," until one asks in despair will
there never be an end ? At all events the account is
balanced now. Granted that we, or our grandfathers
rather, have neglected Ireland until to-day, we the sons
have had to bear the punishment and to make the
amends. Last night I went to the House of
Lords again. It is a most melancholy place
in spite of all its grandeur. It seems as much too large
for its members as the House of Commons is too small.
A few gentlemen, most of them elderly gentlemen, dot the
red morocco leather benches. There are two ladies in one
gallery, three in the other. , Though the Upper House is
s) much the more aristocratic assembly of the two, there
is hardly any ritualism in it. The Lord Chancellor sits
on an uncomfortable seat, not raised, but rather below
the level of most of the peers. There is no mace before
him, no one bows to him on going in and out. There is no
Serjeant-at-Arms in a capacious arm-chair of his own, but
a gigantic official, about seven feet high, stands leaning
against the railing before the throne. Members of the
Lower House sit about the steps of the throne. Members
of the Upper House lie almost at full length on the back-
less settees, which look very much like the stool of repen-
tance. The clerks talk " promiscuous ;" peers who have
charge of bills fidget about. Altogether, save for the
gorgeous chamber itself, there is an absence of dignity
in this august assembly. And then the speaking ; how
dull it is, and how cold are the listeners. A very dreary
scene even on the occasion of a great party-fight, and
doubly dreary on a mere parade, such as came off last
evening. What makes the matter worse is that all the
most important bills have been thoroughly discussed in the
Lower House before they are introduced to the Upper.
Logic and rhetoric have been exhausted. Last night, for
instance, noble lords went through precisely the same per-
formance as hon. members had gone through. The first
words that a peer uttered told you what the rest
of the sentence would be. Lord Qufferin, who was en-
trusted with the duty of moving the second reading, had
to repeat the same statistics as to agrarian crimes that
Mr. Chichester Fortescue had given. And Opposition
Peers had to make the same attack upon the Government
for having incited these crimes that Opposition Common-
ers had made. Even had it been otherwise, even if the
Peers had found out a new course for themselves, you
oould not forget that it would be all in vain, that their
lordships have almost as little influence on legislation as
the two Houses of Convocation. Altogether last
night's debate seemed a mockery, and a very wearisome
and time-wasting mockery.

Lord Dufferin spoke for a little over half an hour. It
was, so far as I could hear (and it was very difficult to
catch a complete sentence), mere speaking without the
smallest attempt at oratory. In fact, there was no re-
cognising in him the descendant of Sheridan, or the author
of that splendid oration on the Prince Consort which
astonished the world by its brilliancy. Before he had finished,
there was a goodly gathering of members from the Lower
House, some in the gallery,. and some sitting on the steps of
the Throne like charity-school children squatting before the
altar in a city church. I noticed Sir Colman O'Loghlen,
Mr. Headlam, Mr. M`Carthy Downing, Colonel Knox,
and the young Marquis of Lorne. When the Lord
Privy Seal had finished, the Duke of Richmond
arose. This was the first important occasion
which had offered for him to assume his new dignity of
leader of the Conservative peers. He spoke with a much
clearer voice than did the peer who preceded him ; but
there was really nothing in the speech; and it might all
have been put into one sentence—" A very good bill ; but
why did you not introduce it before ?" The Duke has a
man-of-business air about him, and is a little like Mr.
Gathorne Hardy (whom he resembles not a little in tem-
perament) ; but his Grace is not so good-loOking as the ex-
Home Secretary. The Duke was succeeded by Lord
Oranmore, who divided his very long and loud speech
between the " Romish hierarchy " business and an attack
upon the Government for having fomented Irish outrages.
According to this nobleman, the Irish were the most con-
tented and best behaved of people. Such a thing as the
suspension of Habeas Corpus was never heard of, and it
was all Mr. Gladstone's doings that Rory of the Hills had
taken to tumbling his landlord. One expects to hear
something novel from a speaker who works himself up
into an impeachment, but Lord Orartm9re's speech was
neither new nor true, and it fell very flat After Lord
Oranmore came Lord Lurgan, another Irish peer of little
fame, and a Lord in Waiting to the Queen. He spoke
with effusion in behalf of the bill. Then Lord Derby,
dressed in deep mourning, rose, and made his first speech
as a peer. It was quite in his old House of Commons
style—cautious and moderate, without enthusiasm—
not altogether flattering to the Government, but thoroughly
practical, and containing, as usual, the minimum of words
and the maximum of common sense. It fell to Lord Kim-
berly, a former Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, now Lord
Privy Seal, to defend the Government against the attacks
of Lord Oranmore and the criticisms of the Duke of
Richmond and Lord Derby. He did his best,
and then the Marquis of Salisbury, that ter-
rible censor, did certainly not his worst, but
sufficiently badly to make it necessary for Lord
Granville to get up and reply. As usual the leader of the
House of Lords was full of sweetness. He thanked the
peers for their eminently calm, statesmanlike, and pat-
riotic treatment of the measure before them, and so it
came to pass that the bill was read a second time, after
less than three hours debate, and will have passed through
the remainder of its stages by Thursday night.
Your readers will forgive me if I do not say anything
about the proceedings in the Lower House last night,
I looked in for a minute, and I heard a voice only too
well known, and saw a form only too much feared, and I
caught the words " Romish hierarchy," and quietly with-
drew. This was not flight, let me point out. Let no
man impeach my courage. If I had been in the
House when Mr. Newdegate rose I would have
remained ; but Marshal Ney himself would
not have felt bound to rush into the House
if he had known beforehand that the member for
North Warwickshire was speaking. I see it stated to-day
that Sir John Coleridge slept through Mr. Newdegate's
speech. Happy Sir John! Fortunate Solicitor-General!
I don't think there is another man in the House who
could slumber while that exasperating drone is going on.
"That way madness lies."

THE COMIC PAPERS.
(From Punch.)

AQUATIC SPORTS.—A mill-race.
THE NATURAL RESULT.—Lawyers are sometimes
accused of being wanting in feeling, but is there anything
surprising in men of their profession becoming case-
hardened?

"FOOT IT NEATLY HERE AND THERE."—What should
the Commons do unto the petitioners against the Tipperary
election that floored the Fenian ? An Irish echo answers,
" Kick'am."

NOT AN UNREASONABLE PREJUDICE.—Who can wonder
at criminals disliking to have their photographs taken
when the cartes of so many most respectable persons are
said hot to do them justice ?
SHOULDERS !—M. 011ivier is a brave man. In the
midst of his own work for liberty, he encourages his wife
to discourage the low-necked dresses worn by ladies. We
are afraid that it will be found easier to reform than to
re-dress.

PRINCIPIIS OBSTA.—Punch does not wonder at certain
ultra-extreme parties being afraid lest the church-folk
should teach little children their alphabet. When one
reflects that A stands for Archbishop, B for Beadle, C for
Canon, D for Dean, and so on till we come to V for
Verger, and W for Westryman, we shudder at the thought
of the terrible engine of proselytism which may be placed
in the hands of the clergy. By all means throw out the
Education Bill.

(From. Fun.)

A JOINT-STOCK AFFAIR.—Ox-tail soup.
When does a tailor serve his customers ill ?—When he

gives them fits."

Two To ONE.—The odds are that habituds of the pawn
shops are the very dregs of the population. Too many of
them have not a " redeeming" feature about them.
THE LESSON OF HIS LlFE.—District Visitor (to urchin
who abjures school): " Boy, do you know what the end of
life `s 2" Boy : " Yes'm—the work'us !"

A NEW VIEW OF IT. —The heathen emblem of the
snake helding its tail in its mouth has always been ex-
plained to mean " Eternity." We should think it typical
of " Life " rather, as indicating a continual effort to make
both ends meet.

OLD SAWS WITH NEW HANDLES.—Beauty is only skin,
deep—but Nature did not on that account hide it. A
stitch in time may save nine—but he never seems to be
enarely sewn-up. Birds of a feather flock together—and
'et in a flock bed you will not find a feather at all !

(Front Judy.)
COOKED ACCOUNTS—HoteI bills.
What is the difference between Gladstone, when he

frames a Bill, anCiacat?—Oneha73 his pause at the end
of the clause, and the ether her claws at the end of
440PailVel

LITERATURE.

Herodotus. By George C.. Swayne. Vol. 111. of
Ancient ClasFzic3 fur English Readers. William

131ackwood and Sons.

It was only the other day that we had occasion to
speak in the highest terms of this rea'ly chat naing
series of the Ancient Classics, as those ancient
classics are now being succinctly and graphically pour-
tray ed for the instruction of purely English Readers—
of readers not well up in regard to antique scholar-
ship, read rs, it may be, knowing "little Latin and
less Greek," I,kc their own Shakspere. Scarcely
have we thus welcomed the revelation, thus, in a
wonderfuly compact form (something like the old
proverbial " Riad in a Nutshell,) of the two grand
masterpieces attributed to Homer, " The Tale of
Troy divine," and the Sindbad the Sailor like
wanderings of Ulysses or otherwise of Odysseus,
when another instilment of the series is
forthcoming—when we have placed in our hands in
less than 200 pages (180)—the epitomised record of
the Father of all History, Herodotus of Helicar-
nassus. From it the English reader may at once,
in a very few hours' delightful reading, arrive at the
gist or purport of all the old Greek annalist has to
tell about Crossus, and Cyrus, and Cambyses, and
Darius, about Egypt and Scythia, about Platcea and
Mycale, about lonia and the Tyrants of Greece,
about Salamis, and Marathon, and Thermopylae. To
ripe scholars, a perusal of the book is full of interest,
but to purely English Readers the little volume,
penned throughout by Mr. Swayne with admirable
lucidity, cannot prove otherwise than absolutely en-
thralling !

The Feast of Famine : and other Poems. Pp. 103.
Chapman and Hall.

There is a song by our veteran lyrist, Bryan
Procter, otherwise Barry Cornwall, very much like
the first of these six-and-twenty poems by the
author of " The Last Thane, a National Tragedy."
Only, here, the contrast presented to view between
the outer darkness and the inner splendour, between
luxury 'and misery, instead of being, as it is in the
utterance of our great song-writer, pathetic, becomes
in the versification of our anonymous author nothing
less than appalling. So appalling in effect, that
when originally penned during the time of the Irish
Famine in 1846, and offered in MS. to the late
Douglas Jerrold, for publication in his then
flourishing and tolerably plain.spoken magazine,
Douglas Jerrold declined it—why ? " Because
he thought the details were too terrible even for
the dreadful reality." It is the author of the little
book now -under notice who himself acknowledges
this much "To his Readers." Crime and misery
still continuing in the afflicted sister island,
in despite of all England's efforts at more
humane legislation for its better governance, the
author not unnaturally thinks it allowable
to print and publish, at last, what even Jer-
rold regarded, nearly a quarter of a century ago, as
possibly, then (in 1846) inopportune. " The. Feast of
Famine" will be read still with painfulinterest,perbaps
with all the more painful interest from the length of
the interval which has elapsed since the lines were
penned originally. The writer of those lines and of
the five and twenty accompanying poems on various
subjects, has evidenced in many of these thoughtful
and harmonious pages the pose( scion of a true
poetic temperament, and of the earnest asi ira-
tions of a genuine philanthropist.

AN EVENING WITH "TOM MOORE."

Thanks to Mr. Gladstone, and to " Rory of the
Hills," any subject relating to Ireland is sure, at the
present time, to command attention. English coun-
try squires, whose minds usually carry • them no
fatther than across country, and whose chief re-
s,:•arches lie " all among the barley," are now deep in
the study of " The Brehon Laws," a❑d are quite
I arned in the distinctions of " Tanistry,'' and
" Gavelkini." Ho weveropinions may differ respect-
ing Irish politics, there can be but one sentiment
common to all civilized nations as to the matchless
beauty, exquisite tenderness, and inimitable native
harmony of Irish poetry, and it ever there was an
Itishumn, in whose poetry that beauty, tenderness,
and humour shone pre-eminent, it was 64 Torn
Moore." The spoilt child of the Muses, with all
the virtues, and all the faults of his countrymen, the •
friend of " the Regent," the idol of the Irish popu-
lace, the most finished of courtiers, and the most •
daring of Democrats, " Tom Moore " has, with all
his eccentricities, so entwined his verses and his name
with the fortunea of Ireland that it would be impos-
sible to think of the one without at the same time
calling to mind the other. .Tom Moore is not only
the inspired bard of Irish nationality ; he is also the
world-wide poet of the affections. Amongst our
rising aspirants to fame, Mr. Charles Brett has for
some time been steadily advancing in public as a
lecturer, and his greatest success has been " His
Evening with Tom Moore." On Monday last
Mr. Brett gave his " Evening" to a fashion-
able audience, at the Assembly Rooms, in Leigh,
Hunt's old court suburb, Kensington. The
sentimental pieces were given with genuine pathos,
and the delivery of " Barney's Lather," and " Paddy's
Metamorphosis," showed that the lecturer possessed
a natural vis comica, which was fully appreciated by
his audience. Both on his appearing and retiring
Mr. Brett was greeted with hearty applause from
every side of the hall. Mr. Brett's voice is very
good, being both clear and powerful, capable of great
modulation, never rising so loud as to be boisterous,
or sinking so low as to be inaudible. The delivery
of the famous curse, in the "Fire-Worshippers,"
was an admirable specimen of impassioned declama-
tion. •

ANOTHER THAMES TUNNEL. _
The new tunnel under the Thames has been completed
ivithin the estimated cost (£16,000), and is now ready for
.;i3e. On Tuesday the traffic was opened by a few un-
ceremonial experiments. Brunel's famous work was a
very unremunerative experiment; but then a tunnel cost-
ing £16,000 and one costing several hundreds of thousands
are very different affairs. The opening trials were quite
successful. The access to the tunnel on either side
of the river is gained by means of lifts. That on
the north side of the river is sixty feet deep, in
the south it is only fifty. The lifts, which
may be simply described as very much like first-class rail-
way carriages, are constructed to accommodate seven pas-
sengers, though they will in fact hold ten with ease. The
motion of the lift is smooth and reular, and a system of
mechanical " clips " are provided, %y means of which, in
case of any accident, either to the main chain or
machinery below, the lift would be merely eased down at
a slower rate than the engine would lower it, and any-
thing like a fall of the lift is utterly prevented. At the
bottom of the lift is a plain, light, wrought-iron omnibus,
very much like a long railway carriage, but better
lighted. This, though constructed for fourteen passen-
gers, will, like the lift, hold at least four more. The in-
stant it is full the "'bus " starts. The tunnel is made at
an incline of 1 in 30 to midway beneath the river, when
it rises on the Surrey side at the same gradient. There is
a small stationary engine at each end, which winds in a
wire rope, to which the carriage is attached. For one-half
of the passage the incline leaves the engine nothing to do
but to haul in the slack of the rope, and, in
fact, the impetus of the carriage carries it so far forward
up the incline on the opposite side that it is only
when within a few feet of the waiting-room chamber that
the engine is used to draw the carriage at all. On Tuesday
the passage was made from Tower-hill to Tooley-street in
65 seconds, 68 seconds, and 70 seconds. Counting from
the time of the starting of the lift which lowered the
visitors, the whole journey was made within two minutes.
The motion of the omnibus was sliding and gentle, and
there was an utter absence of vibration either in
the vehicle or the tunnel itself. Tests were adopted
to ascertain the latter fact, but they only proved
the whole structure to be as rigid as a solid bar of iron.
The passage of the carriage through the tunnel create
such a draught of air that it is almost difficult for the
visitor to keep his hat on in the waiting chamber, and at
once the starting of the carriage can be known at the
other end of the tunnel by the volume of air which it
drives before it. It should be mentioned that the nes'l
subway is nowhere less than twenty-two feet from the
water, whereas the old tunnel is hero and there but four
feet below the bed of the river. Now that tunnels can be
constructed so cheaply, the application of the principle in;
other parts of the country is talked of.

Maidstone Barracks are nearly empty, nearly all
the troops formerly stationed there having left for Wool-
wich, Dublin, Dorchester, and Aldershot.

A telegram from New York states that the treaty
for the purchase of San Domingo is now acknowledged
by the friends of the Government to be a failure.
A Liverpool contemporary says there is a very
current rumour that a noble earl having a seat in
Lancashire has filed a petition in the Divorce Court, in
which a duke is named as co-resnondent.

THE MONEY MARKET

AND

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, Two O'CLOCK.

The weekly meeting to-day in the Bank Parlour
has not resulted in any alteration of the official rate
of discount. Consols are steady ; and in the Foreign
Market there has been an improvement in Spanish ;
and in railway shares an improvement has to be
noted for Caledonian. Banking and Miiscellane-
ous shares show no alteration.

Consols are now at 931 to 93a for money; ditto,
account, 931 1 ; Three per Cent. Reduced, 91/ ;
New Three per Cents., 91/ 2 ; ditto Annuities,
1885, 11 ; Bank of England Stock, 41 per cent., —.
Exchequer Bills £l,OOO, 21 per cent., March, 5
prem. ; ditto £lOO, £3OO, and £5OO, June, 4 prem.
India Stock, 101 per cent., April, 1874, ;
ditto 5 per cent., July, 1880, 113 / ; ditto 4 per
cent., Oct., 1888, 100 1 1 100 ; ditto Enfaced Paper,
5 per cent.,—.
In the Foreign Market Stocks are dull. Spanish
are 28 to 281, better ; Danubian, 67 to 88. Tur-
kish Five per Cents. are 47 to 471; Egyptian, 811
to 811; Italian 551 to 551; Peruvian, 84* to 841;
and Chiliao, 974 to 981.
In the Railway Market Metropolitan are now
quoted 771 to 781; Caledonian, 78 to 781; Lanca-
shire, 1261 to 1261 ; Great Western, 671 to 671;
Great Eastern, 371 to 38 ; Great Northern (A),
1171 to 1184 ; London and Brighton, 43 to 431 ;
London and North Western, 1221 .to 1231 ; Mid-
land, 734 to 74 ; and South Eastern, 731 to 74.
American Five-Twenty Bonds are 90/ to 901 ;
the Ten-Forty Bonds are 861 to 87 ; and Erie Shares
are 211 to 211.
Anglo-American Telegraph Shares are 171 to 171 ;
British Indian, 9 to 91 ex new ; China Submarine,
1/ to 1/ dis ; Falmouth, 9/ to 91; and Construction
and Maintenance 351 to 36.

The America, from New York, has brought £B,lOO
for London.

According to letters from Falmouth the experi-
ment of importing live cattle from the River
Plate, although successful as regards the safe
transport of the animals, has had a pecuniary re-
sult which, unless it can be accounted for by
some exceptional reasons, must preclude the hope of
a continuance of the system. The cargo brought
by the Ariadne was sold yesterday. The oxen,
of which there were 175, brought, it is said, only
an average of about £5, the highest price given
in any single instance being £9. Six cows brought
about £4 10s. each, five calves £1 each, 200 sheep
108. 6d. each, and six horses £ll 10s. each. As
the price paid for the oxen at Monte Video is
believed to have been about £4 each, a heavy loss
Must, it is apprehended, have been sustained from
the adventure.
A prospectus has been issued of the Victoria Han-
som and Brougham Company, Limited, with a capital
of £lOO,OOO, in shares of £2, to provide " a superior
olasS of vehicles at reasonable fares."

Subscriptions have been invited by Messrs. Turner
Brothers for poo,ooo fist mortgage 7 per cent.
bonds of the Indianapolis, Bloomington, and West-
ern Railway of Indiana and Illinois, at the price of
£l6B per $l,OOO.
At the meeting of the Bank of !Scotland the avail-
able total was stated at £68,776, from which the
directors recommended a dividend at the rate of 4
per cent. per annum, with a bonus of 1 per cent.
In connexion with the suspension of Messrs. Joseph
and Edward Lumsden, shipbuilders, &c., of Sunder-
land, it is stated by the Liverpool Journal of Com-
merce that the liabilities will reach £26,000.
The Land and Mortgage Bank of Victoria
(Limited) have declared a dividend at the rate of
10 per cent. per annum, which is now payable to
the shareholders on the London register.

At a meeting of the creditors of Messrs. R. and S.

Brear, of Bradford, the liabilities were stated at
£10,395, a❑d a composition of 10s. in the pound was
accepted, payable in four instalments, in three, six,
and twelve months.

According to the Leeds Mercury, a first meeting
of the creditors of Mr. Samuel Campbell, who held
the contract for the execution of the works at Sefton-
Park, was held on Monday, when the statement
showed liabilities for £13,820, and assets (including
an item of £13,594, "balances in hands of the Cor-
poration of Liverpool, and plant and material in
Sefton-park"), £16,198.
At the meeting of the Cana'la Company the direc-
tors' report was agreed to. It referred to the in-
creasing activity in the company's disposals of laud
and collections of money. The amount divided as
dividend in 1869 was 10s. per share, and a further
811111 of £2 was returned to the proprietors in repay-
raent of capital.
The dividend declared at the meeting of the Mutual
Tontine Association was at the rate of 3} per cent.
per annum for the six months.
The annual meeting of the Royal Mail Steam
racket Company will be held on the 27th of April.
A petition for the winding up of the Great
Oceanic Telegraph Company (Limited) is to be
heard before Vice-Chancellor Malins on the 22d of

Messrs. Debenham, Storr, and Sons, of Covent
Garden, announce by circular that Mr. Puttick,
auctioneer, lite of No. 47, Leicester square, joins
their firm as partner.

BRITISH FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
n GOVERNMENT EUND S.
3 Per Cent. Consols
Ditto for Account 93
8 per Cent. Reluced 9l* i
•••
New-3 per Cent ..... ,„. 91i 2
Now 2 per Cent. Jan. 1894
Do. 0 per Cen Jan. 1873
A.auuities, 30 pre, expire sth Jan., IbBo —
Do. for 30 yrs, expire sth April 188 Z, .11
Do (Red Sea Telebraph), Aug., 190 k —
Exchequor Pills, 41,000, 2-/ p. Ct. 5
Do DO. 2k do. June —
£lOO, 4200 & £5OO 4 pm
Bank of England Stock, 4} per Cent
De. opening —
Cinacla 4 per Cont. Bonds
later-Colonial Cranium
INDIAN dOVERNAINNT ISECURITIEb.
India Stock, 10* per Cent., April 1874
De. Opening, for Account...,. • • •••
Do. o per Cent. July, leBo *****************
Do. 4 per Cent. Oct.
plBol.BBonti...i• : 11,30 lOO
D 3. Enlaced Pape, 4
D). 5 per Ceet., Jan. 1872 . •••.,:“ ******
D ). 5i per (lent. May 1879 .. .."
- " "
......... •- .. ---
Do. 5 per Cent., Rnp. Dal% 1872.-. ...
' Di do 18'"
~...
Do. do. 1882 . . ... ....... ...-
D ~ Deb., 5 per Cent., Aug. 1873 ..... _
1)0: Bolide; 4 per Cent., .41,000 ......•,...
___.
Do. under £l.OOO —
Pm
FOREIGN FUNDS—CLOSING PRIOES.4
Argentine Republic, 1; per Cent
Do Account —
Aultrian Bonds 5 per cent —
Do. 1859 .............. ~.. . ......
Brazilian 6 per Cent
ilo. 4i per Cent. 1852 —
Do. do 1858—,
1)0. cto 1860
Do- do 1868
Do. 5 per Cent., 1865
D. Account
.Isnenos Ayres 6 per Cent. .. ...
Do 2 per Cent. (Deferred 3 per Cent.' —
(111011, 6 per Cent.
e rillan 6 per Cent
no. 4* per Co/1L.... ....... •••
Ipso. 3 per Cent.,
~s."O. 7 per Cent., 1866
auo. 6 per cent. 1867......... .......
~s lotribtan, 6 per Cent.
I,anisu, 3 per Cent., 1825 e•
Oaniq)ian Principalities, 7 per Cent —
DoA.ccount -
-, 8
e per Cent., 1867
uador New Consolidated, 1 per Cent
'Plan, 7 per Cent B5 i
0 Second Issue ..
"0. £so(Bonds ••• —
Do. 1864
Do, Do
Account
~,• 4500 Bonds
1)). 4100 Islands
°' 7 PeC Cent., 1868 .r.,• Bll 1