The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-13 00:00:00

BRITISH SUBJECTS IN PARAGUAY.

The Earl of Clarendon has received a despatch
from her Majesty's Minister at Buenos Ayres, under
date of the 21st of November, reporting that, as
10, it is believed, named Alonso
far as can be ascertained, there are two British
Taylorsubjects
andi F
n p. rGi s.o nm ina st e riaParaguay,n,
w
nare suspected of complicity in an extensive conspi-
racy. Mr. Stuart had also been informed that four
others, named W. Newton, IV. Edon, G. Miles,
and G. Higginbotham, who were in Government
employ, have been dismissed from it, and that the
three former of them are now at San Lorenzo and
the latter at Paraguari. Mr. Stuart further re-
ports that the Commander of her Majesty's ship
Beacon has received from President Lopez him-
self a positive assurance that every British sub-
ject in Paraguay shall receive the best possible
treatment.

Mr. Disraeli has presented the Rev. Henry Blag-
den, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, curate of St.
Nicholas, Newbury, to the rectory of Hughonden. The
right hon. gentleman offered it to the Rev. R. H. Barnes
M.A., vicar of St. Mary's Church, but that rev. gentleman
is understood to have accepted the rectory of Heavitree,
to which he was nominated by the Dean and Chapter of
Exeter.

DEPTFORD AND WOOLWICH.—It is understood
that Mr. Childers intends to effect the vast economy
which will ensue by closing the Royal dockyards of
Woolwich and Deptford with as little delay as will bo
compatible with the exigencies of the service. Two
very important pieces of patronage which have hitherto
been vested in the hands of the First Lord of the Ad-
miralty will thus be abolished—we allude to the post of
Captain-Superintendent at each yard.—Army and Navy
Gazette.

TLIE BASTARDY LAWS.—At the meeting of the
Marylebone Vestry yesterday, Mr. Surridge moved :
" That the vestries and district boards of the metropolis
be invited to join this vestry in petitioning the Govern-
ment to introduce a bill in the ensuing session of Par-
liament to amend the bastardy law, with a view of check-
ing the fearful and growing crime of infanticide." Mr.
Israel Abrahams seconded the motion, and after some dis-
cussion the whole subject was referred to a committee.

One of the latest patents taken out is that for an
improvement in the mode of fastening shirt studs, buttons,
and solitairs. The plan of Mr. Jeffery's of Tottenham-
court-road, the patentee, is the adoption of a crescent at
the back of each stud instead of the circular piece now in
use. The effect of such an arrangement is that one point
of the crescent is no sooner inserted in the buttonhole
than by a single turn the remainder of the back passes
through, and the stud or button becames in proper posi-
tion without the slightest fear of coming out. The re-
moval of the stud is effected as easily as the insertion.
From the facility and security of the fastening its adop-
tion will no doubt become universal, as it entirely super-
sedes all the inconveniences attending the plan now
in use.

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CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

!FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT:

PARIS, TUESDAY, January 12.
It is difficult for Englishmen with their political
journals, meetings, addresses by leading men, and other
means of political instruction—to form a just idea of the
utter lack of knowledge on political matters which pre-
vails throughout France. The French people, as a body,
know nothing of politics, and take a proportionately small
interest in such matters, simply because they have no
instruction. In Paris there are abundance of
newspapers, though of no very excellent descrip-
tion, and these publish restricted comments on
home affairs and the debates in the Corps Ldgislatif, as
represented by the compte rendu analytique—the official
report which alone can be published. But in the country
the means of political instruction are so meagre that the
most deplorable ignorance prevails everywhere. The
journals are smaller and, in point of quality, below the
not very high standard of the Paris papers. Very many
of them are so small, and appear at such long intervals,
that they are unable to publish the compte3 readies of
the parliamentary debates. The law is inflexible; either the
the long dreary report which is drawn up by the autho-
rities must be inserted, or none at all. It cannot be
abridged or altered in any way. Hence the inhabitants
of country districts remain from week to week and month
to month without the slightest conception of what is
going on at the Corps L6gislatif and the Senate. The
gleams of light which occasionally reach them are few,

unconnected, and useless. For all practical purposes they
might as well be ignorant of the existence of the Legislative
Assemblies. Surely this is not a satisfactory state of
things, even in the eyes of those who hold that the multi-
tude is better off without meddling with politics. Some
notion of what is going on in the council of the nation
ought to be open to all who choose to seek it. Now that
the opening of the session draws near an agitation is
being got up on behalf of a second and shorter
report of the debate. Those now supplied are
much too long, so much so, that if a shorter were fur-
nished even the Paris journals would publish it in pre-
ference to the other. But it is demanded, and not
unjustly, that the Government would not lose much by
furnishing two reports, so as to give the people of the
capital a choice, and to afford provincial journals an
opportunity of publishing the shorter one. The demand
is reasonable, but I have, nevertheless, very little hope
that the Government will accord it.
I need hardly say that the Budget report has not met
with a favourable reception. No Budget under the
Emperor ever did ; and it is scarcely too much to affirm that
the time when the financial statement may meet with
approbation from any but the supporters of the Govern.
ment is yet far distant. As I said in my last, the report
is favourable in details, but the main principle of all the
Imperial statements of finance is left untouched. The
surplus is not a real surplus. It is applied to " extraor-
dinary" purposes, Ivhich arc really very ordinary and
common indeed. From the ordinary Budget are left out
many items of expenditure which are put in the extraor-
dinary Budget, but which ought never to have got
there. They are regular charges, which should be
included in the ordinary Budget. This expedient, of
course, greatly lightened the ordinary Budget, so as to
leave a surplus. But this is by no means applied to the
reduction of taxation. It goes towards the extraordinary
Budget, which invariably converts the surplus into a
deficit ; instead of having so much to spare, the
Government is always obliged to borrow so much.
In spite of the unquestionable ability and care with which
this report is drawn up, the absence of affectation, and
even the candour of AI. Magne's confession that the
finances were not as they should be, the reception of the
new financial statement was very cold. It is, in fact,
simply the old story, and it excites neither admiration
nor surprise.

It is now feared that the Marquis de Moustier will not
quit the Foreign Ministry alive. He is said to have
recovered a little, but the rally, I am informed, is both
slight and temporary. The medical men have abandoned
hope, though, happily, they sometimes do this too soon.
Of course there is no thought of removing the invalid.

Your readers will remember the case about the Exhi-
bition chairs. It has again made its appearance in a court
of justice. At the former trial the Imperial Com-
mission which had granted M. Bernard a monopoly
of chair-letting at the Exhibition, but which after-
wards allowed the proprietors of cafes to place seats
outside their establishments, was condemned in damages
of £9,160 and costs. The Imperial Court reduced this
sum to £4,800 and costs. Another suit tried in the
Imperial Court also dates back to the time of the Exhi-
bition. This was brought by Blondin, who was
then performing at the Park of AsniZTes, against
M. Arnault, director of the Hippodrome, who had
brought out a rival tight-rope dancer under the same de-
nomination. Tn fact, the name does not belong to either
of the men, that of the hero of the Niagara Falls being
Gravelet, and of the pretender, Corelly. The tribunal
first applied to, however, considering that the former had
acquired a certain notoriety in different countries under
the appellation in question, and that Arnault, in an-
nouncing the appearance of Corelly as Blondin, was com-
mitting an act of unfair competition, had condemned him
by default to pay Gravelet £4OO as damages. On a fresh
trial the sum was reduced to £2O. Arnault again appealed,
but the Imperial Court now confirmed that decision, and
condemned the director of the Hippodrome in the payment
of all costs. The real Blondin has therefore come off vic-
torious at the third trial. He does not get much in '
damages, but the costs will doubtless give him a poor sort
of satisfaction.

M. Rouher's daughter is to be married to 31, Edouard
Andre, Deputy Von Gard. It will be a pompous affair,
I understand,

MORE WAR SYMPTOMS.

On Monday the French Moniteur de l'Armie declared
that France was so well prepared she did not fear war,
though she desired peace. The statement in the
organ of the French army derives confirmation from
the Independant of the strongly fortified town of Metz. It
says " Are we at war ? For the lust week the military
aspect of our streets has been extraordinary. We see
continual movements of troops and long processions
of waggons laden with munitions and barrels of powder."
We read in the Courrier de Bourges :—" Orders have
arrived at the pyrotechnic establishment here to complete
with all speed a number of rifles to be sent to Marseilles.
Upwards of 4,000,000 cartridges for the new Chassepots
are already packed up, and ready to be sent by rail
on the first signal, and still the manufacture of cart-
ridges goes on with unremitting activity." A letter
from Bucharest, in the &bat; says :—" The eagerness
of the Ronmain Government to manufacture war material
allows the supposition that it is preparing for speedy
action. At this moment at least 50,000 cartridges are
being made per day. The purchase of arms is also
being continued, and on a very large scale. Besides
the needle guns from the Prussian factories and
the Belgian percussion muskets, a large number of
Peabody rifles have been ordered in America. Two arri-
vals of them are expected ; the first of 10,000 and the
second of 12,000. Moreover, the old muskets have been
transformed into breech-loaders ; the Government, there-
fore, can dispose of a very considerable number of weapons.
If these armaments are continued at the same rate,
Roumania will soon become the arsenal for the whole
East."

A melancholy accident has just occurred at Ade-
laide Colliery,near Sheldon, by which two brothers were killed
Whilst standing side by side, a large stone, some tons
weight, fell upon them, killing both on the spot. The eldest,
Thos. Pratt, aged about 30, leaves a wife and three children ;
the younger, George, has been recently married. It may be
mentioncd that the father of tho deceased and a man named

White were killed in a similar manner at Eldon Colliery,
28 years ago• Another brother was killed at Inkerman, the
whole of the family having thus met their deaths by ac-
cident. •

It is stated by the Western Daily Press that the
behaviour of Bisgrove since his respite has tended to
justify the discretion exercised by the Home Secretary in
intervening between the convict and the hangman. There
has been a renewal of the epileptic fits which he has for
some time past suffered from. As has been the case in
other instances, each attack seems to weaken the control
which his not over-strong mental powers have over his
passions and impulses. It has oven leaked out that but for
the unremitting watchfulness of the gaol authorities he
would have himself terminated his own miserable existence.

It will probably be some question with the autbqrities
whether he can continue to be treated as a sane prisoner.

The trials arising out of the Bristol election riots
have commenced before the Bristol Recorder. Yesterday
William Theodore Pitt Watkinp, a solicitor, and John
Cunnin&-ham and George Lawrenco, wore indicted for
having been engaged in a riot, and also for damag-
ing property. The defendants all pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Ribton, in stating the case, raid that the 17th Novem-
ber being the polling day at Bristol there was great anxiety
manifested to induce voters to poll early. In the course of
the day, at somewhere between eleven and twelve o'clock,
a riotous mob collected in the neighbourhood of Col-
lege-green, and afterwards did considerable damage,
attacking among other plaees the Conservative committee-
room. Mr. Watkins was, it was said, present on horseback,
and incited the rioters. Several witnesses were called in
support of the prosecution, some of whom spoke to Mr.
Watkins' presence at the attack on the committee-room,
but some important discrepancies in qt? eildinlgOygitlAicl
,Paro by Mr. fiergfiAiit

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times remarks that the inauguration of the new
procedure for the trial of election petitions is an epoch in
constitutional history ; a change in the place of trial is
in itself significant, and will tend to produce a salutary
effect. The new court has not, it is true, in the
course of a single afternoon thoroughly emancipated
inquiries into charges of bribery from their traditional
character of something exceedingly humorous and
comic in the eyes of bystanders. The removal of
the investigation from Westminster to the very scene of
the subject of trial has in some measure even aggravated
the evils of this tendency by increasing the number of im-
mediately interested spectators. The laughter which
welcomed a telling question or answer, together with the
reception accorded by the crowd outside the Town Hall
to particular persons, might seriously embarrass the course
of justice if repeated on the scale of Bristol or
Nottingham. Further on, in alluding to the
increased confidence which the country will repose
in the exposition of legal principles of the
judges, instead of by Parliamentary Committees, the
Times declares that the end to be desired in this new pro-
cedure for the trial of election petitions is that it should
be assimilated, so far as is practicable, to ordinary trials
conducted by the judges of assize. One great difference
there is, and must remain. There is no jury, and there
could not well be one, since a jury chosen from the locality
would be obviously too partial, and it would be invidious
to allow a jury chosen elsewhere to decide on the exercise of
the franchise in another community. But the want of a
jury will not in all our judgments be a defect in the con-
stitution of the tribunal. Courts of equity succeeded to
their own satisfaction formerly, and still, in the majority
of cases, succeed, in arriving at conclusions of fact without
such external auxiliaries. The spectacle of common law
judges, with the assistance of members of their own
common law bar, dispensing with juries in election
petitions, and no failure of justice ensuing, may prove a
formidable argument in favour of the heresy that juries,
even in the common trials of fact at common law, are
not indispensable for the extraction of truth.
The Post thinks that the change which has now Peen
effected will probably conduce as much to secure purity
and freedom of election as did the first assumption of juris-
diction by the House of Commons in similar matters three
centuries ago. It is, however, remarkable that the pro-
posal to transfer this jurisdiction to the common law
judges should have been mainly opposed by them
and that, notwithstanding a strong protest addressed
in their name by the Lord Chief Justice of England
to her Majesty's Government, the House should
have insisted on their accepting these new functions. It
was perhaps reasonable that the judges, jealous of their
character and desirous to keep aloof from political strife,
should be unwilling to adjudicate in matters in which rival
factions muster all their strength against each other; but,
on the other hand, every one must feel that the appre-
hensions expressed by the judges, that their decisions
should be questioned on the ground of partiality, were
and will be utterly unfounded. A judge, and least of
all an English judge, should not fear to act in a matter
judicially in which he is personally uninterested ; and
we may say with confidence that whatever dissatisfac-
tion the decisions which within the next few months will
be pronounced by the learned judges who have under-
taken the trial of election petitions during the
present year may give to the partisans of disappointed
petitioners, or unseated members, it will not be due to
any suspicion of those decisions having been prompted by
political bias. If dissatisfaction is occasioned, it may be
owing to the time that will be exhausted in trying so
many petitions, and the consequent delay in pronouncing
on the claims of several who have been returned to the
House of Commons. It is at present quite uncertain
how long an election petition will take to be tried, but
it is supposed that the Windsor trial will exhaust a
week, if not more, and others will probably occupy
the judge two or three weeks. If this should be
so, months may elapse before all the present petitions are
tried. Power is, however, reserved by the Act enabling
the election judges to seek the assistance of their co:

leagues in the different courts if necessary. On one
point the House of Commons and the public may rest
satisfied. With such able and experienced judges as those
who have been appointed there will be no lack of efficiency
or promptitude. The experiment which is now being
made is in every respect novel, but we have every confi-
dence that the results will be such as to induce a regret
that it was not adopted long ago.
The Herald, in examining the arguments respecting Mr.
Baxter's pamphlet, observes that it is not a question of
seats gained or lost. The Radicals have more votes than
before, but they represent a smaller number of the popu-
lation. In the new Parliament the Radicals represent
16,811,000, and the Conservatives 12,106,000. In other
words, the reduced Conservative minority represents
a population nearly half a million in excess of that
which it represented in the old Parliament, and that excess
means a loss to the Radicals to that extent. This is a fact
which cannot be diluted or obscured, and to honest and
thoughtful Radicals it should suggest materials for serious
reflection. We are told that the Conservatives are
" nowhere," and that they have no policy. The Herald
thinks that they will be found in tolerably imposing
strength when the House of Commons resumes, and
that if their ranks are thinner, their cohesive power
will be conspicuous. As to their policy, it is for the
Ministry, and not for the Opposition, to supply occasions
for declaring it and enforcing it, and when the time
comes it will be found that there is no lack of unanimity
in asserting it. Let Mr. Gladstone make known his
intentions, and the judgment of the Conservative party
will be prompt and decisive. If it is his policy to sweep
away the Irish Establishment and appropriate its
revenues regardless of justice or decency, it will be their
policy to offer him that " uncompromising resistance "
long since announced by the Conservative Premier. If it
is his policy to create a surplus by starving the defensive
services, cutting down the strength of the army, and
abolishing dockyards and arsenals, it will be their policy
to restrain him by every means of opposition within their
power. He has but to say what he means to do, and he
will find that the Conservative party are strong enough
and united enough to make their principles heard and
respected.
The Daily News remarks upon the meeting of the
ritualistic clergy, and says that it contrasted in its calm
and orderly tone with the one held a month ago to discuss
the Natal grant. Differences of opinion were great, how.
ever, for some of the clergy desired to conform to the
judgment of the Privy Council, while others were for
ignoring its effect. The situation, indeed, was very
simple. Resistance to the law is contumacy, and con-
tumacy on the part of a clergyman involves a forfeiture of
position and privileges. To " await the Providence of
God" in Mr. Bennett's sense, is to await the arrival of
the officer of the law who will inevitably turn you
out of your church. Much wiser were the counsels
which prevailed, although of course no clergyman is bound
by anything that was said or done at the meeting. If the
Vicar of Frome is really "unable to reconcile submission"
to the decree of the Privy Council with " his paramount
and primary duty of obedience to the Church," his fate
may be predicted, and we can only feel sorry for him.
The whole meeting agreed with Mr. Bennett that the
judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
is wrong, and that the court is incompetent to declare

the mind of the Church of England upon any subject
whatever.

The Telegraph believes, from the meeting at the Free-
masons' Tavern, that the " Anglo-Catholic Party " does
not mean to leave the Church of England, or to propose
an open defiance of the law. In commenting upon the
future that lies before this extreme section, the Telegraph
observes that the best course for the ritualists to pursue
was that suggested by one of their cleverest advocates,
the Rev. Mr. Littledale. In effect, he advised them to

accept the recent judgment, to accept it readily, and to
strive for such an alteration of the Prayer Book as would

give the Anglo-Catholic party more room for action. By
the help of their position as members of the Esta-

blishment, they had, he said, done much to change
the features of the Church ; why then, he asked, give

up that advantage at the very hour when it tae

most needed ? Precisely the same question is asked even
by those who stand farthest apart from the ritualists in

doctrine. With ritualism the bulk of the English people

have but little sympathy—on that point it were fatal to

use ambiguous words ; but the English people have no
objection to give the most extreme High Church party
fair play and plenty of room for honest discussion. Least

of all do the Liberals wish to see the Church split up into

;wo parts on account of a difference of opinion respecting

;he value of altar lights and genuflexions. If, indeed, the

Anglo• Catholic doctrine should some ds.y be found to

conflict with that of the English Establishment on a vital

point, such as the Real Presence, and if no common term
should be attainable, then, indeed, many might deem
themselves bound to leave the Church. But that day has
not yet arrived, and the meeting of yesterday wisely
rejected the proposal that for the love of altar lights the
extreme High Churchmen should resist the law—or, in
other words, banish themselves from the Establishment,
and forfeit the possession of its magnificent appliances for
the spread of Christian truth.

Tho installation of the Right Hon. the Earl of
Carnarvon as P.G.M. of Somerset, has just taken place at
the Masonic Hall, Bath. The ceremony drew together a
very large number of the fraternity, not only from the
immediate, but from other provinces.
The following; gentlemen were ou Monday called
within the bar in the Court of Queen's Bench, and took their
seats accordingly :—Mr. W. G. Lumley, Mr. Edmund F.
Noor,e 9 vi 1. japacioLr jlt