The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-04 00:00:00

SIR ROBERT CLIFTON.

The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post gives
some particulars respecting the late Sir Robert
Clifton which the kindly spirit that will always
prevail with regard to the dead should make as
widely known as possible. The correspondent says :

" The late baronet arrived in Paris after horseracing and
the Jews had consumed a magnificent fortune, and here
he lived ten years on a small income, but always exercising
great hospitality, for he was of a generous nature. Those
who knew the baronet as a Turf man only were little
aware of his real character. He took a great
interest in foreign politics, and corresponded with
foreign statesmen. Soon after the Crimean War he
published a pamphlet in French and English on
the condition and prospects of the Ottoman empire, and
for which he received the thanks of the Turkish Govern-
ment through the then Ambassador at Paris, his
Excellency Vefyk Effendi. Sir Robert had just inherited
property, from the death of his uncle, Sir Arthur Clifton,
and only very lately wrote to a friend in Paris saying that
he was determined to repair past errors, dedicate his time
to parliamentary duties, and do what good he oould for
the workmen of Nottingham."

TIIE EARL OF CARNARVON ON LORD PALMERSTON.

It is, we suppose, a sign of the times that at the
unveiling of the statue of Lord Palmerston the
principal part of the ceremony should be entrusted,
not to a Liberal, but to a Conservative statesman.
No doubt Lord Palmerston was more of a Conserva-
tive than of a Liberal, and it was, therefore,
quite fitting that the Earl of Carnarvon should
make the inaugural speech. Lord Carnarvon said
that one great cause of Lord Palmerston's popularity
was that he was " emphatically an Englishman.—an
Englishman as much in his faults as in his virtues."
This is true enough; but it is to be hoped that we
have improved since then—that we 110 longer love a
statesman because of his faults. One great fault
possessed by Englishmen generally,. and by Lord
Palmerston to an intensity, was insularity—the
idea that England was not only better
than any other country in the world, but
that all • other countries were made for her
special advantage, and must therefore
give way to
her even when she was wrong. It was this which
made him wage that wicked Chinese war a dozen
years ago. It was this which prevented him from
seeing that the highest aim of a statesman is to be
not a national egotist, but a cosmopolitan. The con-
trast between the two was typified by Palmerston.
the "thorough Englishman," and Cobden the " inter-
national man." Fortunately it is the second, rather
than the first, who has now become our model.

THE PRINCE OF WALES A FREEMASON.
The probability has become a certainty; the
Prince of Wales is, now an acknowledged Freemason.
There was much speculation about the matter some-
time back; and the craftsmen. professed themselves
in doubt as to what Order his Royal Highness had
joined in Sweden. But at the quarterly communica-
tion of the United Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons of England, held at the Great Hall,
Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn, the Earl of
Zetland announced, on "Wednesday last, that the
Prince had joined the fraternity. Her Majesty's
birthday prevented the Prince from attending, but
he was immediately promoted to be Past Grand
Master.

CONSERVATIVE BANQUET AT COVENTRY,
The Conservatives of Coventry held a banquet on
Wednesday, attended by Messrs. Eaton and Hill, the
members for the borough. They both denied that
the election in the borough was won by a local
question ; and both made a great point in their
speeches of the French Treaty—the local question
itself. They promised their constituents that they
would endeavour to obtain a revision of this treaty.
This, with the stereotyped denunciation of the Irish
Church Bill, made up two average speeches. Hr. Hill,
however, gave an amusinginstance of party journalism.
He said he read the local Liberal paper, and was much
surprised by a criticism on his speech and vote in the
matter of Mr. Russell Gurney's Married Women's
Property Bill. First of all, the writer put in an
account of men beating their wives, then said that
Mr. Gurney's bill was to prevent men beating their
wives ; " and yet Mr. Hill," continued the writer, "is
against this bill—he is in favour of those men who
beat their -Wives."

DEAN STANLEY ON NATIONAL EDI:CATION,
Dean Stanley loves no word better than the won)
unational.7 Hardly a sermon but it occurs, hardly
a speech but he impresses it upon
iviskn his ht2Aer4
continually enforcing dit
Associating party with weakness
tl'2"-ts need of breadth of, vitt
ana comprehensive t:011-tiathy. At an anniversary of
the NationA
!Sorjjet for P •
yPromoting the Education
of the
Poe: he is, therefore, eminently at home.
-
Albelt;iiie does not sympathise with the societyin the
e.:;ntcst it has •bceii waging with Parliament anent
the Conscience Clause, ho knows well how to
sink such disagreements when it is advisable to do
so. Preaching at the Triennial Choral Festival of
the society at Westminster abbey on Wednesday,
he took for his subject Compassion, and laid down
that there was hardly a higher work of compassion
than education. We learn from all history, he said,
that ignorance and the want of education tend to
foster weakness and division in States; and that as
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