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

TUE )11N', LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUG UST 12, 1870.

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OPERAS, THEATRES, AND AMUSEMENTS.

PRINCE OF WALES'S--A 7.30. Quite by Accident. M.P. Dearest
Mamma.
QTTEN's—At Seven, ISly Wife's Dentist. 'Twixt Axe and Crown.
VAUDEVILLE—Cupboard Love.. Two Roses. Don Carlos.
CHRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every :Sight, at 8; Wed-
nesiays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.
ZO LOGICAL GARDR'NS, Regent's-park. Open daily (""except Sun-
days). Admission, ls. on Mondays, 6d. Children under
twelve, 6d.
MADAME TUSSAUD'S EXHIBITION, Baker-street, from 11 a.m. till
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6d.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning .33 after 1 1 Afternoon ........59 after 2

FTN
.7
74 Er:
.14.1 ttirg

larger amount of ocean than the Dauntless, spite of
all the excuses to the contrary made for the latter.
The Fuperiority of the Cambria in an ocean
taco with a lair wind may therefore be
looked upon as established. Mr. Ashbury's men last
saw the Dauntless two miles in the rear at a late
hour un the first night of the voyage. The distance,
however, between the yachts seems to have been at
one time much greater than this, the Cambria being,
on the thirteenth day out, 240 miles nearer New

York than her rival. - The Dauntless after this, it is
said, made great progress. Both yachts when nearing
the American shores passed the same pilot within 12
hours of each other, and even this difference of time
was considerably shortened afterwards. An unfair piece
of discourtesy, it may be added, was at a critical
period shown to Mr. Ashbury. When passing Cape
Race he signalled to a coastguard, " Has an American
yacht passed," and no answer was returned to his
question. The Dauntless, on the other hand, on
signalling a similar question at another point, was
answered that the Cambria was ahead, and in conse-
quence of this intelligence her owner considerably
lightened his vessel and saved much of his distance.
The Cambria endured very severe weather; on one
occasion thunder and lightning, on another a deluge
of rain necessitating the pulling down of canvas
prevailed for hours, and two or three
times a half gale blew; yet in all her troubles
she behaved admirably and never lost a man, though
she did a spar. On one evening the ship at midnight
went into a dense fog, and when it cleared off the
men on watch saw, to their horror, a number of huge
and mountainous icebergs floating about around
them.

t
,;

SKETCHES IN PARLIAMENT.

THURSDAY.

The last day of the session was a failure so far as the
Upper House was concerned. The notice which Lord
Cairns had given that he should make some remarks upon
the Belgian Treaty drew to the gilded chamber a goodly
force of strangers, reporters, and able editors. But the
Peers were conspicuously absent. The Ministerial bench
was well filled, and the Duke of Argyll, Lord Granville,
Lord de Grey, Lord Kimberley, Lord Halifax, and the
Marquis of Lansdowne, made up a very fair phalanx.
But on the front Opposition bench there was not a single
leading peer except Lord, Cairns himself. The Duke of
Richmond, the nominal leader, the Marquis of Salisbury
and the Earl of Derby were all absent. Even Lord Mal-
mesbury was not attracted by the promise of a debate on
foreign politics. This desertion, coupled with Mr.
Disraeli's silence yesterday, and his commendation on
Monday with respect to the Treaty, lead to the inference
that the strictures of Lord Cairns are not approved
by his colleagues. Nothing could well be weaker
than his speech. It was tame and dispiriting to the
last degree; and though he spoke for half an hour, he
never once approached eloquence, but seemed to be speak-
ing with the consciousness that he was the counsel for a
client who had no case. Lord Granville, on the contrary,
was full of fire. He spoke with unwonted animation, and
was frequently cheered by the scanty audience which
listened to him. He had the consciousness of
success, and made a sharp thrust at the
only representative of the Opposition present when
he reminded him that whereas Lord Stanley's treaty for
the neutrality of Luxemburg implied that England did
not mean to enforce it if the other parties to it violated
it, the present treaty would be enforced. In a word, if
France or Prussia violated the neutrality of Belgium,
England would call the delinquent Power to account.
This was the most decisive statement which has yet been
made with . regard to our intentions as to Bel-
gium. White-haired, patriarchal Lord Stratford de Red-
cliffe got up when the Foreign Secretary sat down,
and spoke in so low a voice that it was
difficult to hear a word that he said, but the purport of
it was approval of the Treaty. The Duke of Cleveland
made a lengthy speech, which, owing to the peculiar in-
tonation of the speaker sounded like a sermon preached
by a rousing evangelical parson. The resemblance was all
the more close because the Duke once or twit: tantalised
us with the idea that he had come to the end
of his discourse, and then began again. Lord
Shaftesbury, who had been sitting on the front
Opposition bench, next to, though longo inter-
vallo Lord Cairns, followed the DUke, and in a score or so
of words gave the most hearty praise to the Government
for their spirited conduct with respect to Belgium. After
a few words from Lord Redesdale, Lord Denman, the
eccentric, got up, amid a half-suppressed groan from their
lordships, and uttered some not very relevant remarks,
while his hands were busily occupied in going round and
round his hat. With him the debate collapsed. There
was then an exodus of peers. The one solitary
bishop who had represented the Lords Spiritual
retired, so to did the Duke of Cambridge,
Lcrds Harrowby and Shaftesbury, Lord Cairns and all
the members of the Government. Plump, florid Lord
Westbury, who had been sitting on the woolsack chatting
to spare, pale, ascetic Lord Hatherley— the past and the
present Chancellors, presenting an almost ludicrous con-
trast—also took his departure, and Lord Hatherley retired
in order to robe himself. About a score of ladies came in
and went, not into the gallery, as on ordinary occasions,
but into the Peers' seats, where they seemed quite
as much at home as if Miss Lydia Becker's good time
coming were really come, and England was governed by
her wisest women, instead of by her Denmans and Camp-
bells.

In the Lower House there had been rather a lively scene.
Mr. Bernal Osborne had made a rather fierce attack upon
the Treaty, and had said something about England's
safety not being worth twenty-four hours' purchase if
France got hold of Belgium. This called up Mr.
Gladstone, who made a very spirited reply,
repudiating any such idea as that. Thereupon
Mr. Osborne explained that it was not he but Napoleon
who had made the statement. Mr. Gladstone replied that
he would not take Napoleon's estimate as to the power of
England to defend herself. Just about two o'clock five
personages in gorgeous robes, four of them in cocked hats,
and one of them in a - three-cornered hat, entered the
Upper House, in state ; one of them with a long staff in
his hand. The last was Lord Sydney, the others
were the Chancellor (who had the three-cornered hat
aforesaid), and Lords Kimberley, Halifax, and Normanby.
They sat in a row on a bench before the throne, and
would have looked very imposing but for the fact that they
seemed to be in want of elbow room. The Chancellor bade
the messenger summon the Commons, and a few of them,
not many, obeyed, with the Speaker at their head, and
stood at the Bar. Then followed a very tedious ceremony;
first the reading of the Commission under which the five
crimson-robed lords were empowered to act. As each cf
the Lords Commissioners' name is mentioned' by the
clerk who reads the Commission the clerk bows and the
Lord Commissioner raises his velvet hat. The Commission
read, the Chancellor tells the clerk to read the. names of
the various bills to which the Queen has given the Royal
assent. Thereupon Mr. Bethel stands at one side of the
table, quaint old Mr. Lefevre at the other, and both face
the five Lords Commissioners and have their backs to the
faithful Commons. As Mr. Bethell reads the title of the
bill, he and Mr. Lefevre bow to the Chancellor, who bows
in return, and Mr. Lefevre, looking back over his
shoulder, but thinking it beneath his dignity to turn
round towards the • Commons, tells them "La Reine
le veult." As this goes on for some five-and-twenty or
thirty times, the proceeding, humorous enough at first to
make the ladies titter, becomes very monotonous, and it
was a great relief when Lord Hatherley, in his strong,
clear voice, read the Queen's Speech. Then he declared
Parliament prorogued till October 27, and straightway
the Sergeant seized the mace, and the Chancellor's purse-
bearer walked off with the gorgeously-embroidered bag
which would move the envy of a Ritualist parson, and the
Chancellor followed them, nothing loth ; the four other
peers departing by the opposite door. The Commons
returned to their own House, and there the Speaker read
again the Speech which they had just heard. Then he
shook hands with the various members present, just as the
schoolniaster shakes hands with his boys before breaking
up for the holidays, and they departed in groups, rejoicing
—those of them who were not Cabinet Ministers—at the
thought of the rivers and the moors. Thus the memorable
session of 1870 cam to an end.