The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Saturday Review observes that the programme of the
new French Ministry may be expected to include a reform
of the machinery by which elections are now conducted in
France, and a new appeal to the country. It must be
difficult for any thoughtful Frenchman to look forward
to such a prospect without serious apprehensions. France
has not had a representative Legislature for eighteen
years, and the disclosures of the wants and aspirations of
her people which may be anticirtted from a really free
election may perhaps be extremely startling. The
great towns consistently return candidates of various
shades of Republicanism; the country districts have been
so very well looked after by the Government that they
have usually returned the official candidate without
troubling themselves as to the cut or colour of his political
views. When this external pressure is withdrawn, who
shall venture to say what direction the rebound will take?
The new Ministers may find themselves stronger after a
dissolution, or they may find the elements of their power
absolutely and hopelessly scattered. And yet, notwith-

standing this possible overthrow, the moderate Liberals
will be acting wisely as well as honestly in insisting upon
a now election as soon as the electoral system is sufficiently
purged to make the result of any value. An early dissolu-
tien is the only expedient by which the new Cabinet can
hope to convince France that Parliamentary Government
has really started on its way. The character of the exist-
ing Corps Ugislatif is gone beyond recall. It may dis-
play all the virtues that have ever fallen to the share of
representative Assemblies without clearing itself of its
original vice—that it is only by a misnomer that it can be
called representative at all. Consequently a Cabinet
which shrinks from a dissolution cannot escape the charge
of being a Cabinet which shrinks from knowing the
truth. A reputation of this kind will be fatal to its in-
fluence alike with Republicans and with Imperialists.
The former will have it in their power to say, You do not
dare to look facts in the face, because you know that the
verdict of the country, if hone, tly taken,would be unmistake-
ably against you. The latter would be able toargue that the
only alternative for France are a Republic or Personal
Government, since the compromise of a Constitutional
Empire is condemned by the virtual admission of its
creators. A Liberal Ministry in France can only look to
holding its own against the reactionary tendencies of tin
Court by making it clear that the French nation is
behind it

The 6-pedalo says that the Tory papers evidently feel
sensitive at the somewhat cynical interest displayed by
the Liberal journals as to the prospects of their party in
the Lords. They snap at all suggestions and condolences
with a sharpness which betrays their real irritability and
anxiety on the subject. And really they must be in a
great strait, if the rumour which the correspondent of the
.Beot3stan,—a very shrewd man, who generally knows some-
thing of what is really going on,—has circulated, is true,
that the favourite just now for leader in Tory circles is the
dismal duke, the Duke of Marlborough. Why, the resus-
citation of Lord Malmesbury as leader would be nothing
to such a fiasco as that. Lord Malmesbury is in his way a
man of the world, with a Crtain good-humoured though
shambling sense. Dismal eten for a duke, sermonic even
for a religious coterie, without frankness or generosity as a
politician, without a single quality of a statesman, how
can the jolly old Tory peers endure their lives if they are
to be led by,this Duke of Marlborough? Why the session
will be one long season of Lent to them; and before it
closes they will feel as if they had been doing nothing
but confessing their sins, and acknowledging their
wretchedness from one end of it to the other. They will
begin to feel sentimental about Lord Cairns. They will
exalt the late Lord Derby till his memory is enveloped in
myth. Indeed, we could not lend even a momentary cre-
dence to the rumour which designates this penance for the
Tories of the House of Lords, if Mr. Disraeli's designs
were less deep than they often are. Who knows but that
in order to educate his party, he intends to place the
Tories.of the Upper House under a severely chastening dis-
pensation for a season—that he wants to deliver them into
captivity till they shall be willing to receive the present
Lord Derby on his own terms, and with open arms, and
ready to bow to his suggestions even if he tells them to
give up university and college tests absolutely and at
once? Mr. Dirsaeli may be desirous to chasten the Duke
of Rutland, and Lord Harrowhy, and the rest, till hebends
them to his purposes—to make them hang their harps
upon the willows by the river of exile, till they are wil-
ling to kiss the feet of any deliverer, even though he come
to them with the calm and frigid face of Lord Stanley. If
there be no deep design in it, it must be baseless rumour,
The Duke of Marlborough leading the Tory Lords! You
might far more sensibly propose him to the Spaniards for
the vacant throne. If Spain wants a dull grandee, with a
dash of the obstinate schoolmaster in him and but little
head, add is not afraid of a little dodginess in such a one,
she could not possibly do better.

The Economist condemns the conjectural system adopted
in Indian Finance. A Finance Minister at Calcutta can
never say what exactly the regular estimate is ; he knees
it is a great deal guess, but how much conjecture and how
much ascertained truth he cannot say in a sentence. He
must go through the accounts item by item to say it. And
it is no wonder that such a system as this leads to grave
errors. The Budget estimate must be wrong when the
regular estimate
,is: wrong, and it is often very wrong.
In India the Budget is not as in England--
an estimate grounded on experience ; on the
contrary, it is a conjecture founded on a conjecture.
In any country such a system would be dangerous; but in
India it is more dangerous than elsewhere, because of the
nature of the revenue. A very important part of the in-
come of India is derived from a business. The Govern-
ment grows and sells, and has a monopoly in growing and
selling opium, And it is plain, of course, that the profits
of a business must always be more difficult to estimate
than the proceeds of a tax ; in this country, if the income
of the country depended upon the income of the cotton
trade or of the woollen trade, who who would venture to
calculate it a year beforehand ? But in truth the system
of calculating yearly the profits of a precarious business
like the opium trade is liabe to grave objection. It, cannot
be done accurately. Sir R. Temple says that he thought
he had been careful ; that in March last he thought that
the trade was not in its usual state ; that the demand
was of a " speculative" character, and therefore he did not
calculate on so much as he might. Mr. Bullen, an eminent
mercantile member of the Council, said too that the esti-
mate was too low, yet now it turns out, or is thought
likely to turn out, to be very much too high. In fact,
human forethought is not able to anticipate what the pro
ceeds of a trade will be a year beforehand. And this is
far from being a mere matter of theory. No sensible
man counts on a business income beforehand, as if
it were a certainty, and no State should reckon
on it either. If a State does reckon on it, and
it does not come, the difficulties are serious.
The only safe mode for a Government which, like the
Indian, lives upon a business, is to set aside a "rest," as
the Bank of England accounts call it, to equalise the
profits of that business. Only a fixed sum, lower than is
in the least likely to be realised, ought for some years to
be reckoned,and the rest should be carried to an "equalisa-
tion fund." In after years this fund could be used so as
to make the yield of the opium revenue as certain as the
yield of any tax. A Finance Minister might safely
calculate on an average result, for if there were a casual
deficiency he would have a purse out of which he could
take money to fill it. We should not then, as now, have
to change our policy with varying conjectures, or regulate
'our public works' expenditure, in which regularity and
foresight are absolutely required, by a source of income
which cannot be regular, and to which foresight is
inapplicable.

The John Bull thinks the Ministerialists are quite elated
at the success of the union between the landlords and
pries 4 in the county of Longford. They seem to forgot
tha4 they have ever denounced as demoralising and tyran
nigal the union between the landlords of English counties
and the clergy of the English Church. Far be it from us
to desire the time when the influences of religion shall
cease to have any bearing on politics ; but :direly there
should be some consistency in the combination of political
forces, at least, if it is deSired to draw from a temporary
coalition any general deductions. Rather do we see in the
result of this election—and such, if we mistake not, will
be the judgment formed at Rome—a formidable revolt
against the Roman Catholic priesthood. For the moment
they have triumphed, but for thd first time the Irish lower
orders have been arrayed against their priests. If this
state of affairs continues, it will add another to Ireland's
difficulties. 'What the results will be none can foresee; but
tnis much is evident, that as day succeeds day the mischie-
vous policy cf the Gladstone Ministry is more clearly
apparent. Having alienated the loyalists, they have now
caused a quarrel between the / riest4 and the masses; and
the only way in which the daily-increasing murders end
atrocities can be put down must be by a military force.
For hitherto, to a certain cetent, the Priests Dave secured
a certain observance cf the law ; but if once the people
think that they are in league with the Government, their
control will be gone. And CO the last state shall be even
worse than the first. We believe that the Conservatives

of Ireland have only cne policy to pursna, viz., to lake no

part in electious thoy cannot return their own oral-
Mates. Captain Madden, too, we hope, will not lack
Ly?..rs; for it is quite certain that so_long M Mr. Glad-
c'i'9'—ains Prime Minister, confusion will only grow
'f.
Onded in Ireland. And Constitutionalists ,
't tvernment which has brought such evils on
'ist in prolonging her

LITT:RA.IIZ SCIENTIFIC, AND AIVI aosw
The Athenmiin states that Professor Maurice has i triple
subject in hand, for which he is autuently fitted,
" Hnss, Wycliffe, and Latimer. If (adds the Atheiteetifit) he
will fix, olioo for all, the spelling of the second initM, he
will oblige many persons who are at present perplexa-r
The Rev. Dr. Gibbings has given hii theological library to
tho University of Dublin,—attaching it permanently to
the chair of Ecclesiastical History, for the benefit of its
occupant for the time being, and we suppose, of students of
that branch of learning. Among the treasures are the ori-
ginal editions of Luther's works, the Commentary on St.
Mark's Gospel, by Druthman, a monk of the ninth century, in
which he speaks of Tiansubtantiation as a novelty (this
work was printed in 1514), and the refutation by 2Eneas
Sylvius, of the spurious " Donation of Constantine,"—a
refutation he retracted when he became Pope.—lt is
rumoured in America that Victor Hugo is writing a new
novel, to be called " The Crime of the Second of Decem-
ber." This report prolably arises from his being engaged
cn the work en Revolution, which will eventually be
needed to complete the Trilogy of which " L'Hernme qui
Rit " forms the first l art.
Xature says that the tri,gonometii,al survey of England
and Wales, cn the scale cf cue inch to a mile, has been
completed during the past week. It was commenced in
the year 1701.—The Council of the Society of Arts have
decided to create a new office, that of Inspector of the
Educational Department, and have selected for ibis
appointment Mr Critchett, who has been for thirteen years
Assistant-Secretary. The latter office will not be filledup.—
The culture of the Chinchona, or Peruvian bark, in St.
Helena is progressing satisfactorily. The plants are all in
excellent health, and have a fine, green, vigorous appear-
ance. There are now about 5,000 planted out, and it is
thought a sufficient number can be obtained from them to
stock the whole colony.—Professor Giebel, of Halle,
reports the results cf some interesting experi-
ments which he has made with the object of ascertain-
ing the correctness of the popular notion that sparrows
are destructive animals, feeding chiefly on grapes and
stone-fruit. He found, on examining the intestines of
seventy-three young sparrows, between the 18th of April
and the 24th cf June last, that forty-six of them had fed
exclusively on insects (beetles, caterpillars, &c.), and seven
only exclusively on stone-fruit, the rest having all more
or less fed on insects. An examination of forty-six old
sparrows gave similar results; three only were fruit-
eaters, and the rest chiefly insect-eaters.
Mr. T. W. Robertson (says the Orchestra) is preparing
a new drama for the Adelphi Theatre.—Mr. Ella, we see,
announces a course of lectures on harmony—a
branch of musical education sadly neglected in this
country.—The library presented to the South Kensing-
ton Museum, from the Musical Union Institute, Hanover
square is accessible to the public, and contains valuable
scores of sacred and secular chefs d'oeuvre. On the comple-
tion of the buildings, we hear that the director of the
museum will set aside a room for a complete collection of
scores of all the modern lyrical compositions. These are
not to be seen in any public library in this country.