The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-31 00:00:00

LONDON, 'TUESDAY, 111AY 31. 1870.

Again, the wonder is as to who may be the Leader
of her MAJESTY'S Opposition. People are once more
asking themselves as to whether the Conservative
party has any Leader at all. The Tory Chieftain
confronting Earl GRANVILLE in the House of Lords
was yesterday no doubt Lord CAIRNS, is to-day no
doubt the Duke of RICHMOND. The Tory Chieftain
confronting Mr. GLADSTONE in the Honse of COM-
MODE; is still, of course, the right hon. gentleman
the member for Buckinghamshire. But—the

Leader of the Opposition, as a whole—who may

he be ? " That is the question" over which all the
more, inquiring spirits in Clubland are just now, with
a renewed relish, marvelling to one another in be-
wildered amazement. Why—itinly be asked--these

revivified doubts and uncertainties ? Well, the
reason is obvious enough, to even the most careless
observer, on glancing through the chief monthly
organ of Conservatism in the United Kingdom—an
organ hitherto most loyal in its allegiance to
Mr. DISRAELI, but which has now thrown

off, in his regard, the merest semblance of
consideration—scattering the last rags of its
hitherto merely affected respect for him, for his abi-
lities, or for his position, far and wide, north, south,
east and west, to all the winds of heaven. The
closing article in the current number of Blackwood
recalls to one's mind inevitably the closing article a
year or two since in the then current number of the
Quarterly. The authorship of the latter, it may be
remembered, was instantly recognised by poli-
tical experts—perhaps, because of its dis-
tinctive lack of " finish"—as another viru-

lent emanation from the spleen of that right
,00d hater (of one man, at any rate) the Marquis of
SALISBURY. As to the authorship of Maga's unmiti-
gated and most uncompromising diatribe on Lothciir
—well, in regard to that, it may be said at once that
the peculiarities of the style are not by any means so
clearly marked or so readily traceable. One inciden-

al touch there is by which the writer of the review
n question might, perchance, be identified—

if the clue thus afforded were but keenly
and perseveringly followed up. It occurs where
I;e is referring superciliously to the rivalry
of the social parasites who are contending
for the possession of supreme influence ov‘r the all
but fabulous fortunes of LOTILAIR, as being, " though

more decorous, hardly more respectable, and much
ess amusing than that of a crowd of Moors whom we
once saw in Tangiers, tearing each other's beards and

Willing off each other's turbans, in a mad struggle
or a fourpenny piece which an English btranger
:the Ex-Premier's Reviewer in Blackwood ?] had

dropped from a balcony." The import-
ance and significance of . the whole onslaught,

however, must - defined as consisting
in this, that one of the Conservative organs hitherto
mist loyal in its support of Mr. DISRAELI, sudelenly,

unhesitatingly, and absolutely, throws off its al-
lvgianee t.) him altogether. The Quarterly did
some time ago. Blackwood has now followed

suit. It only remains for the Standard to cover
the Leader of Conservatism with ridicule as un-
compromising—to show that the Member• for Bucks
is regarded by the principal organs of the party he has
SO long led in the House of Commons, and thrice to
power(thelasttitne under his ownPremiership)is hence-
forth under a political taboo, in the '' cold shade of the
aristocracy." Realising that much, however, one
asks, again, in the interrogative phrase familiarised to
us by the title of Mr: COBDEN'S list Irrtichui e, " What
Next, and Next ?" It seems—this last and not least