The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-09 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP.- THURSDAY.

The Eastern Question has been followed by a Western
Question. The former became a perfect bore, and when
a topic gets into that stage there is an end
of it as-a rule, no matter how importanti Nothing could

be neater than the style of cooling popular excitement

adopted by the Ministry. Englishmen were'quite ready
to go to war when the first Gortschakoff epistle arrived.
Ministers waited a day or two, and then inflicted a heavy
dose of " firm and conciliatory" despatches upon their un-
fortunate countrymen. A second speedily followed. Blow
succeeded blow. The defeat was soon accomplished. The
Englishman might have voted his money and gone into
war with all its consequences ; but to read bale after bale

of despatches upon an old worn-out subject, to arrive no
nearer any sort of consummation after some weeks'
torture, and yet to keep np the proper degree of patriotic
heat, was impossible. The excitement has given way to
utter indifference. The case would be one of incredible
flatness were it not that no substantial interests
are affected by the Black Sea problem.

A Conference to settle the matter now seems sure.
What line will the Government take ? I hear it said in

..
several quarters that the open sea alternative—that is
making the Euxine free to war ships of all nations, instead
of forbidding the entrance of any—will be urged by Earl
Granville. There are many arguments in its favour. If

Russia over chose to send a fleet to Constantinople we
should have the option of deciding whether we would
send another force to sink lb or not. More-

over, the " open sea " stipulation would be one
which Russia could not well violate. She might main-
__ _ .

twin as many vessels as she chose in the Black Sea, but
by no means—short of war—could she prevent another
power from acting similarly. This mode of
settlement, too, has charms for some because
it does not concede all that Russia desires,
which is merely that her own navy may be free
of the Euxine, not that all nations may have the same
liberty. In this way we should "keep up our prestige."
The chances of such an expedient being adopted are con-
siderable. It would, however, be by no means correct
to conclude that the whole Cabinet is in favour of

it. Earl Granville is, I believe ; but some
of the more pacific members see the source
of future troubles in the liberty' of sending a fleet to
the Black Sea. If we had the power to do so we should
be expected to use it on inconvenient occasions.
Far more serious is the Western Question. It may be
less immediately exciting, but it is matter of enduring
difficulty, and contains one or two elements of danger which
are most difficult to get rid of. Public men here are ex-
ceedingly uneasy about President Grant. His Message is
a most hostile document, reviving the great old sore, and
opening some smaller but fresher ones. Nor is it the
document alone that is disquieting : menacing Messages
are no new thing in American politics ; but it is
notorious that General Grant is in difficulties, and it is
deemed possible that he might try some grand coup in
order to save himself. Generals do not often make ad-
ministrators, and the President of the United States is no
exoeption to the rule. As a politician he is a failure.
He has alienated the leading members of his party ;
that party has seen its strength seriously weakened by the
late elections ; and strangest of all, President Grant has
thought to strengthen himself by accepting the alliance of
Republican adventurers of the lowest stamp. The better
Republican journals loudly complain of his connection with
men who are unfit for public trust. It surely cannot be con-
soling to Englishmen to know that General Butler is the
friend and counsellor, and may be the minister, of the
American chief ruler. Very wrong would it be to impute
any lesign of war to President Grant. But it is scarcely
surprising that men should be uneasy whe n theysee his
political position falling lower, when they know that the
settlement of the difference with England would retrieve
him, and when they consider what mode of settlement
would recommend itself to a successful general but most
unsuccessful minister. On the whole the aspect of American
politics has not improved for Englishmen.
I see from ce telegram to-day that the Message has
-stirred up a strong spirit of opposition in Canada.
A member of the London School Board tells me that
majority of votes for the chairmanship its secured to
Lord Lawrence. I give the statement from this source,
though always. chary of prophesying the results of
elections. His lordship is not the only suitable
candidate, but his position is higher than that
of any other member of the Board,, and he com-
mands the confidence of all parties. Miss Garrett,
as the "highest scorer," will take the chair at the first

meeting.
The Belgian press has said much lately respecting
Bonapartist plots for a restoration. The statements so
persistently urged by the Inclependaneo Beige, and so
gravely discussed by the Times, are not without
some substratum of fact. There is good reason for
thinking that the Emperor and his wife are far from agreed
on the proper course to adopt, and that something very
like a difference has sprung up between them. lam
told by a gentleman who is of necessity in constant com-
munication with Chislehurst that the Empress will assu-
redly never be reinstated in a throne by a released army
of prisoners, and, in Booth, nothing could be less in keeping
with that lady's well-known spirit than such a degrading
expedient. My informant adds that misfortune has bred
the usual contempt for the pomps and vanities of this
wicked world. The Empress is much changed. She fre-
quently expresses her satisfaction with the quiet life of
Chislehurst, and her desire under no circumstances to
endure again the gilded horrors of a throne. Whether
this resolve would be proof against very strong tempta-
tion is more than I can say.
The 50,000 or so negative votes which so alarmed the
Emperor on the occasion of the plebiscite, are now fully
explained. The Republican leaders, knowing well where
Napoleon's strength lay, had latterly made great efforts
to spread Republican doctrines amongst the troops, and
with some success. Melly of the soldiers who fought
under MacMahon at Sedan were enrolled—so Mr. Archi-
bald Forbes assures us in this month's St. Paul's—in secret
societies ; and he adds that this meddling in politics
seriously impaired their discipline. Political soldiers
seldom, indeed, turn out well. The combination of the
two professions does not answer, whether they be com-
bined in the ranks or in the higher grades—as witness certain
remarkable examples across the " herring pond." One
thing is certain, these French Republican soldiers by their
'negative votes did much to bring on the war.
In the Fortnightly Review of the present month an
article on Trinity College, Dublin, intended as a reply t
Mr. Max Cullinan's recent contribution on the same sub-
ject, has been inserted. The writer is the Rev. J. P.
Mahaffy, at present Junior Dean of the University and
one of the Junior Fellows. His argument is to shew that
not one-third of the revenues of Trinity College is
absorbed by the Fellowships. Perhaps, considered
merely with respect to the salaries of the Fellowships,
Mr. Mahaffy speaks most correctly, but it is a
well known fact in Trinity College, Dublin, that the
Fellows have means of securing many offices and large
emoluments distinct as it were from the fellow-
ships, but which none who are not Fellows
have the same chance of obtaining. Mr. Ma-
haffy himself is not only the happy possessor
of the income attaching to a junior Fellowship, but he
also has that pertaining to the office of junior dean, that
pertaining to the office of Kappel Meister of
the College, and, if I mistake not, that
pertaining to the Professorship of Moral Philo-
sophy. Remembering these circumstances, Mr. Mahaffy's
anxiety as to the inadequate share of the college revenues
which belong as it were to the Fellowships is not
altogether justified.
speaking on Irish subjects, admirers of Samuel Lover's
novels, poems, and ballads will be glad to learn that the
author of " Rory O'More" is remembered, as he ought to
be, in his native land, and that Irishmen have just erected
a simple, but pretty monument to his memory in St.
Patrick's Cathedral.
Aristocratic bankruptcies seem just now in the ascen-
dant. The reason is pretty obvious. Some tradesmen
prefer a high sounding title and long credit, to having a
plebeian patron with ready money. A grant ad eollegentla
was made to a creditor in the case of the estate of the
late Lord A. J. Somerville, which was before Lord Pen-
zance this week. The deceased lord's four sisters—two of
whom are titled—declined the grant, or, in other words,
"sent in their renunciation." Some odd things turn up
in these law courts ‘4lllCh never find their way into the
papers. In the Probate Court it transpired the other
day that a gentleman, " who left his country for his
country's good," and that " for the term of his natural
life," had in former years appointed as his executors two
well-known stipendiary magistrates.
If Englishmen were more of bippophagists than they
are, the gourmands might well look with anxiety at the
present price of horses, and give a sigh of regret at the
large numb= of them which are constantly hying ex_

ported. The figures given for some animals are astonish-
ing, and the breeders are reaping a fine harvest. One
London-firm—certainly one of the largest—has during the
current year sold something like 15,000 horses, a large
portion of which are or have been used in the Franco-

Prussian war.
One of the minor topics of the week, after we had all
tired of great battles, and the boring Eastern. question,
has been Jenkins. "Jenkins at Versailles" is
the title of an article in the Saturday Reticle,
and is devoted to ridiculing the description Dr.
Russell gave in the Times of his dining with the Kin; of
Prussia. The article is one of extraordinary virulence.
It has been noticed in several London papers, and the
Daily Telegraph devoted a special leader to the subject—a
sage procedure, for as " the young lions" get dreadfully
mangled by the Saturday themselves, it is as well for
them to seize a favourable opportunity of retribution.
But why this savage animosity against Dr. Russell? The
editor of the Saturday may soon assure himself that the.
public interest does not require these diatribes against
the Times' special, which appear almost every
other week ; and if there be no other interest
to serve, they might profitably be allowed
to drop. Dr. Russell is very servile at Versailles. But
what can these poor men at headquarters do ? They are
forbidden to speak about the siege guns, the food supplies,
the health of the German armies, or in short to describe
anything of much interest here. As they cannot be always
telling how the white smoke puffs out from Mont
Valerien, how shells rush through the air like blazing
'comets, or estimating the precise day next week when
Paris will undoubtedly surrender, they naturally turn,
therefore, when there is no battle, to tl-e worship
of King William. Some people may reasonably think
that his Majesty is a view to which distance decidedly
lends enchantment, but this is a world of different opinions.
Anyhow, if Dr. Russell writes balderdash at times, so do
others of his kind, and really in so persistently persecuting
him the Saturday overshoots the mark almost as much as
it does in the compliments it now and then pays to Mr.
Gladstone. _

It is a great pity that another special correspondent did
not favour us with a little of his experience. It ought to
have been interesting. Mr. Home, the spiritualist, has
been with the King of Prussia since the opening
of the war, but, alas 1 he has remained silent. Mr.
Home has undoubtedly spent his time amid surroundings
highly calculated to extend his knowledge of the
spiritual world ; but there are two parties to a visit of
this kind, and we are not informed as to King William's
object in securing such a companion. Mr. Home left
headquarters about three weeks ago. It is noticeable that
during this period the Germans have found themselves in
a more critical position than at any previous epoch of the
war, and it would be but natural to attribute this
menacing aspect of affairs to Mr. Home's untimely de-
parture, were it not that the Germans are once more
triumphant. But it will be well not to draw
hasty conclusions. We may not yet have seen all the
consequences of Mr. Home's desertion. On the subject
of " specials," I may mention that Mr. Kirwin Adams,
who has rendered excellent service to the Standard, has
returned to England.
Mr. Gilbert's " Palace of Truth " is one of the most
satisfactory theatrical productions of the season. It is
founded on an interesting story, the " points"
are clever, and the verse flowing. It is hard for such a
play to gain admiration at the Haymarket, of which the
average audience is of all in London the most difficult to
please in such a department as that of fairy comedy ; but
Mr. Gilbert has deserved well even of it—the average
Haymarket audience. The name of " Jezebel," Mr. Dion
Boucicault's new play, is not enticing; but everybody
says it is a great success. The cause of this triuniph
appears to be the extensive admixture of the Miss Braddon
element in the new venture. " Jezebel" is an exaggerated
Lady Audley. •
Those who are desirous of a creditable acquaintance
with the affairs of Russia, cannot do better than consult

the book by Dr. Julius Eckardt, " Modern Russia.," I find
its information very extensive and correct. The Eastern
question is on the wane at present, but it may revive
again, and Russian affairs are likely always to be impor-
tant to us. Mr. Patterson's work about the Hungarians
Is of kindred excellence. Mr. Beresford Hope is publish-
ing a later addressed to the Archbishop of Armagh on the
Irish Church Act and its formularies—a timely step, for
the Act comes into operation on January 4.. I have
looked into some of the war books, and find Mr.
Shand's " On the Trail of the War " very good so far as it
goes. It does not, however, deal with the most stirring
events of the time, Count de la Chapelle's, " The War
of 1870," is a. review of the whole contest up
to the battle of Coulmiers (November 9th),
but it Is full of exaggerations and inaccuracies
such as one found in the Paris journals in the third and
fourth weeks of August. Several more war books are
announced, but none of such consequence as the Daily
News correspondence. It is an astonishing thing to be
able to announce a really good novel. Such a one, how-
ever, is " Bitter is the Rind," by Mr. Smart. On Mon-
day will appear the conclusion of Mr. Morris's " Earthly
Paradise."
Of Christmas books there is an immense host out and
coming, but it is impossible to make any selection.
Punch and Judy has died, but very hard. A new satirical
paper, the Grumbler, takes its place.
Mr. Shirley Brooks is better, and has returned to his
post. Sir Roderick Murchison unfortunately is almost
despaired of. After seventy-eight years of life so lengthy
an illness may well cause alarm.