The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 19, 1870

THE LATEST EDITION of " THE SUN "
L may be seen at Eight o'clock every Evening at Mr. R.
NEWPORTS% the Oxford Arms, High-street, Camden-town

THE LATE EDITION of "THE SUN" at
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town.

THE THEATRES, &c.

DRURY-LANE—At S, v, n, Phobus's Fix. A t Eight, Peep o' Day
ADELPIII.—At Seven, Blow for Blow. At Nine, Not Such a Foo:
as Ho Looks

HAYMARKEy—At Seven. Popping the Question. At 7.40, Cur
American Cousin. And Deaf as a Post.

LYCEUM—At 7.30, Twenty Minutes with a Tiger At 8.15, Chilperic
OLYMPIC—At Seven, Little Em7y. The Princess
PRINCESS'S—At Seven, Your Life's in Danger. Paul Lafarge. A
Dark Night's Work

GAIETY—At Seven, The Happy Village. At 7.45, The First Night.
At Nine, Uncle Dick's D. rling
QUEEN" S—At Seven, Quick March. At 8.15, 'Twist Axe and Crown
STRAND—At Seven, The Heir at Law. The Toodles. Ino
ST. JAMES'S—A t Seven, She Stoops to Conquer. At 9 15, La Belle
Sauvage. An Unhappy Pair
PRINCE OF WALES'S—At Eight, School. Dearest Mamma. Quite
by Accident

GLOBE—At Seven, Whitebait at Greenwich. At Eight, Phi:omel.
The Goose with the Golden Eggs
WOODIN'S CARPET-BAG AND SKETCH BOOK, Egyptian Hall, Picca-
dilly, every Evening (except Saturday) at 8; Saturday Morn-
ings at 3. Admission, ls, 2s, 3s.
':/titiSTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8; Wed-
nesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.
MADAME TUSSAUD'S EXHIBITION, Baker-street, from 11 a.m. till F. 30
p.m., and from 7 dill.° p.m. Admission, ls. ; extra rooms, 6d.
ZOOLOGiCAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, Open daily(except Sundays).
Admission. ls.• on Mendays, 6d. Children under twelve, 6d

t
i. 91 Suit

In a word, the provisions of the measure, so tar as re-
gards these districts, amount to a suspension of the-
Habeas Corpus Act with this one important excep.
tion, persons apprehended may not be imprisoned
indefinitely at the discretion of the executive. So
far as the debate on Thursday night gave
any indication, the only one of these
provisions which is likely to be seriously
opposed is that which confers power upon the
magistrates to sen!ence summarily to six months'
imprisonment, upon mere suspicion. Remembering
how much political and religious partizanship there
is among the Irish magistracy, we are not surprised
that this provision should be viewed unfavourably
by Sir John Gray and his friends; and Mr.
Gladstone will do well to reconsider it, with a view
to securing it from abuse.

IT fortunately happens that the report of the
committee on Parliamentary and municipal elections
appears at the precise moment when we aro best
able to appreciate its merits. If it be true that the
Ballot is un-English, even Lord Palmerston himself
would scarcely venture to say that it was un-Irish.
There are many reasons which lead to the conclusion
that we need the Ballot in this country; but the
necessity for some institution of the kind in Ireland has
become so unquestionable that even if secret voting
realised the objections urged against it, the nation would
be none the less prepared to try the experiment. For
no disadvantages which the wildest Tory dream
have been able to conceive can weigh aught in thd
balance against the scandal, disgrace, and injury
which attend the practice of open voting
in the " sister " isle. If an Irish election
now ends in the triumph of the candidate
who really commands the majority of -votes, it is only
because the order-loving portion of the constituency
is so numerous that .the resolute spirits, who will
not be put down by blackguardism, are strong
enough to wiu without the help of their
more timid brethren. It is truly a creditable feature
of Irish politics that Fenianism and Nationalism
make so little headway at the polls, notwithstanding
the violence that is exercised in their favour. It is
a distinctly favourable item in the dark
Hibernian account that so many voters should
encounter danger to life to return such an
Englishman as Mr. Bernal Osborne in preference to
such a nationalist as Mr. Smith, or a landlord like
Mr. G reville-Nugent rather than such a champion of
Irish rights as his opponent. But so many elec-
tors are kept away through fear, and so great is the
danger to those who come to the poll, that an
Irish contest is little better than a lottery.
Violence triumphed on one occasion, and on two
others it missed its mark by only some half-dozen
votes. There is not a vestige of evidence in favour
of the conclusion that the scenes lately enacted at
Waterlord and in Tipperary whuld be equally possi-
ble or probable with secret voting. The least that
can be said in favour of the experiment of a change
is that it would not be possible to make matters
worse.

It is impossible, however, that such a measure
as the adoption of the Ballot can bo of
partial application. It must be applied to
the whole country; and in sooth, the superiority of
English constituencies over those of Ireland is by no
means so great as to warrant the plea that the
remedy so urgently needed in the one case would be
superfluous in the other. if we cannot rise to the
sublime beauties of. Waterford, we have some fair
exhibitions of rowdyism, which secresy would do well
iii checking, and some furious displays of partisanship
which ignorance of the state of the poll could not
fail to keep down. It is undoubtedly true that election
riots in nearly all cases are caused by statements of
the competitors' relative positions. As the Ballot, by its
nature, conceals the progress of the voting during its
continuance, this alone is a powerful, if not a suffi-
cient, argument in its favour. The same plea may
be urged in respect of bribery. It is not everywhere
that the science of corruption is so thoroughly appre-
ciated as at Beverley. It is not everywhere that bribery
is a regular system. Men commence a contest
with a fixed determination to act honestly; but in
the heat of battle these virtuous sentiments have less
weight. Human nature gives way to temptation ;
and when one side sees the other but half a dozen
votes ahead, and an ample supply of voters "standing
in the market "—as they literally did at Norwich—.
waiting to be bought, it is not surprising that bribery
is often committed where none was intended. It is
not pretended that the Ballot will make bribery
impossible. But it will do much if it dimi-
nish the inducement to corruption ; and if
the Australian trick of voters bringing their tickets
out of the booth and selling them be prevented—as
it may be—it is difficult to imagine that agents will
readily buy men who may with perfect impunity
break their contract.

The report of the committee is hopeful of the Ballot
as a remedy also against intimidation. This evil exists
extensively, both in counties and boroughs, and the
committee state that the fear of intimidation is more
prevalent and injurious than intimidation itself. The
late extension of the suffrage has not diminished the
exercise of this unjust influence. There are many
who believe that it can never be restricted ;
'At most plain people agree that the power of
a landlord who knows how his tenant votes is likely
to be much less than the power of one who has no
means of determining whether his " just
influence " has been acknowledged in a

proper spirit. Still more forcibly does this
distinction apply to the frequent mob intimidations„
at the polling booths. Nor is this argument
merely -theoretical. The Ballot is part of
the electoral 'machinery of almost every.
country . except Great Britain, and wher-
ever it is fairly applied, it renders intimilftt-
tion out of the question. The C9rqmitil.-
recommend the Ballot. The major* believe
that it will diminish rioting, bribery, and
intimidation ; and against these advantages there
appears to be nothing of a counterbalancing charac-
ter. People nowadays are not so terribly afraid of
things that are un-English ; and the time is past
when the average-Englishman can be deluded by the
impudent plea that a vote is a public trust, whilst
voters are being carted oil wholesale to exercise
that trust at the bidding.osome one in power over
them. Of the other regimaniendations of the coin-
mitteeit is sufficient to say that they are good as far
as they go, but do not go far enough. Certainly, Mr.
Fawcett's proposal to throw the expenses of elections
.on the constituencies might have been advanta-
geously adopted. It wad; lost only by the casting
vote of the chairman:

TOWN TALK

(From the Western Mail o:this Morning.)
LONDON, Friday-Evening.'
Although Ireland still holds her own in public
view as the theme of paramount consideration, atten-
tion has been drawn of late in the opposite direction,
namely, towards the European continent, by two
recent and both of them calamitous occur:euces.
There is that duel near Madrid, in which another
Prince has appeared in the character of a homicide
There is that announcement from Paris of the death
of another of the really great men of our genera-
tion—a man, great Loth as a writer and as an orator,
but (greater than in either of those capacities) great
also Millis own individual character—Charles, Count
de Montalembert. In remembrance of the bitter
sufferings he was fated to undergo during these last
five years, excruciating agonies, produced by the
dread disease of cancer, one could hardly-wish to
have had the existence of Montalembert prolonged—
an existence otherwise so precious to all who had
the happiness of knowing him. lie had the spirit of
a Knight-errant of Catholicism. lie was at the same
time one of the most liberal-minclei and enlightened
statesmen of our generation. Himself the descen-
dant of one of the old crusading houses of the ancient
noblesse of France, the Count de Mont alembert was
born, as it happened,' in London, and politically in
many of his sympathies was more than half an Eng-
lishman. Dear to his heart were two other nations—
besides his own country, France, and his birthplace,
England—Poland and Ireland. Another grand mas-
terpiece in literature has, by his lamented death,
been left unfinished, "The Monks of the West,"
which he had designed to bring down tofte days of
St. Bernard. Five volumes have already been pub-
lished, both in French and in a very admirable
English translation. One or two other•volumes, in
continuation of the narrative, the noble author, in
the intervals between his frequent and often pro-
longed paroxysms of pain, was, until very recently,
prep .ring for publication. Knowing Lim, as I did,
to my great happiness, will you rermit me to say
that I can only think of him, and can, therefore,
only write of him, with mingled affection, respect,
and admiration. Among my most recent regrets
was miising him just before his last return to Paris,
as 1 stool in the inner porch of thitt well-known
house of his, in the Rue du Bac; di appointed in find-
ing him not yet arrived from his chateau, but con-
soled by the glad tidings of an imirovement in his
health, that was, alas ! only too illusory. By his de-
mise one of the brightest names is struck off the roll
of the French Academy. As for the death of the
Prince Henri de Bourbon, shot down, with all pos-
sible deliberation iu a duel,' by the hand of the Due
de Montpensier, the inenent just caps the climax of
the whole of that miserable Orleans story of the Spa-

ni h marriages.
From Wednesday's debate upon- the ballot you
must have seen that :Mr. Bernal Oiborne's rheumatic
attack, consequent upon his sousing in the tank at
Waterford (that lamentably appropriate borough last
returning him), while it in no way precluded him
from entering the House in the midst of the heartiest
" hear, hears," of welcome, has not proved very much
of a dathrer to the hon. member's exhilarating and
most vivacious manner as a parl;amentary hutnourist.
Sorely we wanted him ; for, as a rule, the dis-
cussions until now have dragged on very
drearily. 'I here are: two: or three members the House
laughs at, but hardly one. the House laughs with,
besides the right hon. gentleman, the leader of the
Opposition. As for-the leader of the House, he is
by temperament, if not as grave as a mustard-pot,
as seriously and deliberately in earnest—always--as
a great political chief well could be. One longed,
therefore, for tha return to the discussions of the
House of Commons of Bernal Osborne, as the very
salt of debate ! Or, shall I call him the yeast with
wh.ch the hither to heavy and indigestible batch of
&ugh may Loon be quickened and marie to rise, and
to I: ecorne light and palatable.
R,cently, there has been held the final meeting of
the Leigh hunt Memorial Committee. At that
final rneeCng tl:er3 was handed to Mr. Jcseph Dar-
h on, A.lt.A., an additional Eum of £29, so that, in
point of fact, the architect has received in all £179
for what he or'ginally agreed to do for one hundred
guineas. Mr. Durham, voluutecring to give his
artisic services gratuitously (erecting the work for
the committee at cost price), has obtained over and
above his original offer to raise the memorial for
£lO5, this supplementary £74, not altogether very
agreeably ! Thanks to the energetic l,bours of Mr.
S. R. Townshend Mayer, the subscriptions, after lan-
guishing in a hopeless way for two or three years,

poured in upon his hands, as the honorary treasurer,
EO abundantly tbat the committee, long ago, adopted
two rea)lution's. They increased the original award
to Mr. Durham of 100 guineas (the sum he had him-
s if named as Eufficient) to the award of £l5O, and
they closed the subscription list. The architect was
present when both these resolutions were passed ;
Mr. Robert Browning, the poet, being in the
chair on that 'occasion. Yet, lo ! and behold,
months afterwards, the A.R,.A. brings in his
bill for £i over and above the £l5O granted to him
by the committee. llence the supplementary ap.-
peal made sub rosy to several among the original
sutscriberl. That appeal, pretested against all
through by Mr. Mayer, the honorary treasurer,
.and a'so by the members of Leigh Hunt's family,
as any4hiu4 but satisfactory to themselves, and as
spoi,lirrg,.the whole4lffegt of this otherwise charming
memorial, resulted in. £l5 14s. which, with the

trivial balance still lying at the bank, ware handed
n 1 13
,ov as a final quittance to Mr. Durham, 3; the de-
c. nof a majority present at this final meeting of
ire e;gh Hunt Committee. A poignantly expressed
a exquisitely logical amendment, condemnatory
'lf e whole proceeding, was moved by Mr. To wns-
hend Mayer, but fell through for want of a'seconder.
4ember of the committe,, who was hfrnself one
of the original, and also one of the supplementary

-subscribers, would, I know fur certain, have se-
conded that amendment, had he fully realised the de-
claration afterwards formally announced by the hono-
rary treasurer, that the whole of the £l5 14s. thus
swept into Mr. Durham's pocket from the committee
table will be immediately paid back to the Siipple-
mentary subsObcrs by the members of Leigh Hunt's
family, as their tbrmal and emphatic protest against
the who're transaction. " Write me as one who
loved his fellow men" is the golden* line inscribed
over the memorial. Pity it is that, by a final blow
struck by his
,mallet and chisel, the artist, whose
skilled genius has otherwise been 'BO well applied in
the prcductioitif the.morrument, should have thus
(for a demanded £4l, and an'accepted £29) inflicted
an incredible and damning flaw upon that same
beautiful memorial and inscription.
A melancholy incident recently followed upon two
very joyful ones, in the midst of the home circle r-f
the late revered author of " The Christian Year "

fervid considering the insignificance cf the opposition
to which it was addresicd. Once, as though a Blon-
din bad tottered in the midst of E's' ground-and-
' lofty tumbling, Mr. Gladstone almost 'came to grief
with a jumbled metaphor, having reference to the
much-abused lions a Sir Edwin LandFeer in Trafal-
gar-square. At his fi:st mention of them, there was
a titter ; for an instant or two the master rhetorician
hesitated—it seemed all but touch and go whether he
w; ul.l fall on the side of the sublime or of the ridi-
eulcu3—when, in another instant, the great orator
had cleverly righted himself, like the Platonian
" balanced man " that he is. The extrication, how-
ever, was as by a hair's breadth. It was ai pain-
ful, and almost r.s ludicrous, as Mrs. Gamp's remini-
scence of Poll Sweediepipe's agitation, when, nearly
shaving the nose off the face of the father off as fine
family as ever was, " he Eee'd it a-goin' in the glass,
and dodged the rrijor !"
Very brief but very impressive was the announce-
ment made by the Premier on Monday evening, in a
crowded house, and under the scrutiny of a densely-
crowded strangerS' gallery, as to the trending of
the policy of the Government in vindication of law
and order in Ireland. I have seldom heard a heartier
cheer in the Ileuse of Commons than the one that
roared applause- to the intimation that measures in
vindicotion of order would have reference to the in-

surgent press. •
At the irivate view of the New British Institution,
in Old Bond-street, No.. 39—(though that, by the
way, is small clue for country cousins hi search of
the Gallery, for there are three Nos. 39- thereabouts)
—I was particularly struck by the coincidence of the
extraordinary chequer-work of light and shade, of
sun and shadow, scattered here and there all about
the landscapes. It reminded me of that memor-
able Friday morning in May, 1-13 W a good many
years ago, when the private view of the Royal Aca-
demy for that season showed, as one may say, the
choral response of the artists to the casual sugges-
tion thrown out a few months previously by Mr.
Ruskin, that they should some of them .try their
kill in the delineation of apple blosopms. ?hen,
the walls of the Old Royal Academy Gallery were
like a very orchard in siring time—a blaze and
glory of delicious apple blossoms. .Now, the walls
of the New British Institution Gallery arc alive
with the mingled sunshine and shadows of
April. The landscapes- thus characterised are
many of them charming. Let me iostanc
no more than two of them—No. 46, W. Linnell's
" Study in the Fields," with a lovely vista of
a meadow path by the side of a hedgerow, and
No. 50, W. ll&yoake's wcodlaud rendering of an
iccident in the Lord of Buileigb, of Alfred Tennyson.
Commend me also to No. 58, A. Gilbert's" Mermaid's
Cave by moonlight," and to No. 92, 11. Wallis's
mea'?ow stretch, all sheening over with "Blue
Bells."

Charles Dickens's farewell reading on Tuesd-iy
night; in the St. James's-hall, Piccadilly, was the
occasion for what in classic slang is called an ovation.
Mr. Dickens never read more superbly, and was
never more_ applauded to the very echo. His few
words cf farewell were just exactly what they ought
to have been. They were manly and affectionate.
They were spoken and listened to with very great
emotion ; and, at the close of them, the
audience gave forth a very ro,.r of acclamations.
Even when Mr. Dickens had gone, the cheering was
so loud and lou,gei continue 1 that he had to return,
and, kissing his band in alien, give Lis last bow of
farewell. One of the gr eat novelist's younger sons,
Mr. Henry Dickens, now a student at Tiinity Hall,
Cambridge, and of the Inner Temple,. Loudon, on
the very morning of that day of the farcAll
Tut sd ry, the 15th inA., had won the prize essay this-
year of his college, the subject of the essay b..iug
"Simon de Mon. fort." A few days previous'Y-the
young ess yist had very successfully made h's
debut as a debater at the famous Union of Cambridge,
the subject there being " Compulsory Education.'
Ilia Liberal cave on Educator), by the way-, is
rtp.dly, I be'ieve, Lecoming more form:d.,ble.
ForemoA among very recent literary exploits I
am fain to mention with unstinted pra'se Mr. Law-
rence Olii,hant's bizarre but brilliant book, entitled
" Piccadilly." For de:icate and radiant persiflage I
know nothing like it for a long while past. It has a
flavour of wit throughout, and of wit the most auda-
cious. It originally appeared a few months Lack in '
instalments in Blackwood's Magazine, but has now
been issued from the press by the publishers of
Maga, in the form of a handsome volume, admirably
illustrated by that long hidden but always most
welcome and delightful artist, Richard Doyle, the
-Doyle of " Ye manners and ye customes of ye Eng-
lizhe," but better still of "Brown, Jones, and Robin-
son." As the embel'isher of the conceits of
" Piccadilly," the son of H.B. is, indeed, redivivus.
Part I. of a new weekly called The Christian has just
reached me ; and also a specimen number (and No.
I.) of a new bi-monthly journal called The Music
Master. The great continental venture in journalism,
the European News, a daily, admirably well done
throughout, threatens to banish to the limbo of
forgotten successes our old friend Galignant's Mes-
senger.

Let me give you, as the last tip from the Tar-
sities in ref,rence to the great boat race—news that
I believe will gladden all England, that the exceed-
ing probability is that, at last,. Cambridge will again
have her turn and come in the winner.