The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 22, 1869.

liamentary government, can be a logical one. The
changes of last June were merely an instalment of
what is necessary to convert the EMPEROR'S rule
from a personal to a constitutional system. The
Moderates have, in fact, previously refused to take office
unless the Sovereign consented to advance further in
the direction of liberty. One of the most important
results which must accrue from this change of
Ministry will be the abolition of the odious
interference of the Government in the
choice of the national representatives. The
next French Parliament will be free. Thus,
if the Moderates do not prove equal to the task of
guiding the destinies of France, they will at least be
entitled to the credit of having effectively put an end
to the despotism which for eighteen years has defied
all attacks from within or without.

THE opening of the Suez Canal has realised the
expectations of its promoters. It is a fact that a
navigable channel has been constructed between
the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, and
that large vessels, several of a thousand tons
burden, and one drawing seventeen and a half feet
of water, have made the transit. The rest, as we
have previously seen, is only a question of time and
money. Sidings to enable vessels to pass each
other must be made, the , banks must be
strengthened, the, canal and the harbour
kept clear of drifting sand and detritus ; but these
requirements involve no difficulty save that of cost,
and there can be no doubt that the money will be
forthcoming from some source or other. The enter-
prise is a success. Most authorities in England fear
that the success is only in one sense, that as a
commercial undertaking the canal promises to be
a disaster. Elaborate calculations are entered into to
prove that on no reasonable supposition can the traffic
return a dividend on the enormous sum—thirteen
millions sterling—which has been the net outlay.
But these estimates, though not without much shew
of reason, are as yet premature. It is impossible,
until the resources of the work are fully developed,
to justly reckon either what will be the entire
tolls which the traffic will bear, or what will
be the extent of the new commerce which this
short route will create. It is agreed on all hands
that the traffic between the East and the West will
increase ; but time only can shew how great the
addition will be. The gloomy forebodings
of scientific men respecting dividends may
prove as groundless as did their assurances that
the canal itself could never be made. Whether the
undertaking pays or not, it will certainly be kept in
working order. It will prove a benefit to the world,
even if it be a loss to the shareholders. France
is pledged to maintain a work which has cost her
capitalists so dearly; England will not allow so im-
portant a commercial facility to fall into decay. But
especially will it be in the interest of the Egyptian
VICEROY to keep up the success of the canal with
which he is so much identified. It is not to him a
commercial undertaking only; it is part of the policy by
which he is endeavouring to secure the support
.or countenance of the Western nations in his
attempts to throw off allegiance to the
SULTAN, and establish himself as an independent
Sovereign. The ambition of this semi-ruler has done
much to make the canal, and the same influence is
likely to be a guarantee for its maintenance.

Last Sunday Westminster Abbey was thronged
with people to hear the Bishop of LONDON'S Funeral
Sermon on the late GEORGE PEABODY. So great
was the crush that the vergers fearing accidents to
the eager pushing crowd had to send for the police
to guard the portals. HANDEL'S Anthem, " When
the ear heard him," vibrated on the ears of thou-
sands, between whom a pin dropped from above
could not have reached the Abbey floor. Clear as
was Dr. JACKSON'S voice, it penetrated but a short
way over the heads of such a congregation, for one
knew and felt the presence of a mighty mass in that
indescribable sound which effectually prevents silence
wherever the people assemble in such a multitude,
even though it be in a church. 'The number alone
was enough to give a certain grandeur ; but the
congregation stood (for the far greater proportion
were standing) in a cathedral which has few eqcals,
and no superior in the solemn and imposing beauty
of its Gothic architecture, in age and in the memo-
ries of the past, in the epitaphs sculptured around
its time-honoured walls, and the renowned dead en-
closed within i.s ancient vaults. Not far from the
grand entrance a railed space in the centre of the
aisle spread with a black cloth marked the spot
where lay the remains of GEORGE PEABODY, whose
name had drawn that throng together eager to see
the last of the philanthropist in the great city to
benefit whose poor he had given away xvbat would
have been to others many fortunes. Next Friday
that coffin. will be received on board her MAJESTY'S
turret ironclad the Monarch to be conveyed to
Portland, Blaine, escorted by an American man-of-
war if one can reach Portsmouth in time. Thus this
simple unpretending citizen who avoided ostentatious
displays in life, will be the recipient in death of cere-
monies never before conferred on a foreigner by the
British nation. From the Cathedral, held most
sacred in the empire, and where none but Britain's
greatest children have found a last resting-place, his
transfer is to the newest and most powerful of a
fleet that for ages has held the highest rank, so
while in her keeping, England rays to PEABODY the
tribute it only bestows on its own most mighty
dead. During his funeral the large cities of the two
great nations showed signs of mourning ; his cha-
racter and gifts were discussed by millions, and the
newspapers, many edged with black, recorded the ca-
reer and qualities which had raised the American ci-
tizen upto the most wealthy of men, and the acts which -
had placed him among the most honoured. The
sermon of the Bishop of LONDON was on that " rest"
spoken of by ST. PAUL, in Hebrew, iv. chap., 11
verse, from which, after an eloquent explanation,
he turned to the memory of the man whose remains
had sought a temporary "rest" within the Abbey.
Many a procession had borne the dead along those
lofty aisles whose deeds filled the pages of history,
many names were incised on the marble monuments
ranged along these crumbling and hoary cloisters;
there were those most remarkable in literature, in
science, and in art; yet there was not a name there
recorded more remarkable for munificence to man-
kind than that of GEORGE PEABODY. From humble
circumstances he had raised himself to great opu-
lence, for what his band found to do he did it with
his might; not slothful in business, but his labours
were not for himself only. His work was to acquire
wealth, his delight was to expend it in advancing
the interests of others. The two nations which had
contributed to his enormous fortune were the reci-
pients of his princely munificence, and in each his
earnest purpose bad been to promote the physical,
moral, and intellectual well-being of his fellow-crea-
tures. lathe disposal of hisgifts hiskeen intelligence
was as manifest as in the acquirement of his wealth.
What he did he did wisely, thoroughly, and well.
He left no unfinished house, what he undertook he
completed, and his undertakings were on a magni-
tude so vast as to require no ordinary mind and no
ordinary means to complete. It is this which has so
captivated the Anglo-Saxon race. What the Spec-
tator says is true, that many a hungry labourer
earns a shilling, of which he gives away sixpence,
and sinks into a nameless grave ; and were it not so,
life for most of us would become an intolerable bur-
den, for we want to feel, to see, and to know that
there is virtue not recorded on granite. But ni tg-
nitude makes all the difference in this as in every-
thing else, and when we glance over the history of
the world we know how few have been the ex unples
left for GEORGE PEABODY'S guidance. Millions
before him have made fortune=, and tens of thou-
sands have willed them away with a free and cha-
ritable hand to benefit their fellow-creatures after
thd donor's death. Hundreds have given lavishly
during life, and the world is filled with the self-
denial of the poor labourer, as well as the gifts of wi-
dows' mites. But what GEORGE PEABODY did was not
only to amass with an extraordinary skill, but with
as great a skill to expend for the benefit of his na-
tive and of his temporarily adopted country. He
used the same judgment in his gifts as in his busi-

ness, and in both his success was alike remark-
able. The American philanthropist did not do-

moralize by doling out charities, but he gave on
that scale which alone could tell when dealing with
the masses, and the design ever tended towards in-
culcating knowledge, energy, thrift, and higher social
surroundings. He saw that the greatest require-
ment of his ownland was the education of the South ;
that the greatest requirement of his adopted coun-
try was in its mighty metropolis to elevate the lives
by improving the holing of its industrious labourers.
Vast as was his fortune he knew how futile would
-
be his efforts to deal with its pauperism, with its vag
rancy, or, doubtless, his charity would have taken
that direction. But his was a keen, shrewd, prac-

tical mind, and knowing the limits of his power,
he attempted only that in which he could suc-
ceed, and London gratefully recognizes his success,
for manya man might actually have worked mischief
with his half million sterling ; while his motive might
have been as good, his bounty as princely, he would
have earned but little thanks from the nation for
his ill-directed charity. It required three qualities
to make a PEABODY, that by which the money is
amassed, for when inherited, in few cases would it
be his thus to deal with—the keen discrimination
which points the direction and the tact not only to
take it, but to take the best way—and the mind,
when the direction is seen, which can make itself
up (knowing the magnitude of the undertaking) to
strip off the ripe fruit whose culture and growth had
cost him so much to produce for distribution among
those he knew not, to whom he had not belonged,
and with whom he had never associated. It is an
ascertained fact that in nine cases out of ten (most
likely the ratio is far larger) accumulation narrows
instead of opening the mind, and the Spectator's
hungry labourer, who gave the sixpence out of the
shilling he had earned, would have given nothing
had he earned £5,000. The truth of this is attested
by all men who have been extensively engaged in col-
lecting and distributing charities ; and the reasons,
we think, are two—First, that the objects are then re-
movedfrona the sight and its influence, as well as that
sympathy with the distress which tells the man it may
be his own turn to-morrow. The other is the bane
of the labouring classes, they can save only in sums
so small that they think they are not worth saving,
hence much of their improvidence, as well as of

their generosity ; but the moment these sums grow
large, avarice is excited ; they have become worth
saving, and many then close tight their fists.
But whatever the reason, the fact is indisput-
able, and we faii when glancing through eminent
lives to come across many instances of a GEORGE
PEABODY. We have philanthropists who devoted
themselves and their fortunes to an idea ; but that
was again of a different character, though we acknow
ledge it to be the better. HOWARD, for example, was
of a higher order of philanthropist than PEABODY;
yet there is something grander and more striking in
PEABODY'S acts than in HOWARD'S. Personally the
former was in no degree interested ; there was no
enthusiasm, no devotion centreing every idea on
one focus. Isolated from all these powerful sym-
pathies as a plain man of business, he stripped
himself of the work of his life to benefit his fel-
low-creatures, doing so with a rare business ability

But to return to the words of the Bishop of LON-
DON, we may notice a subject he dwelt on with great
He said :

force.

"Henceforth the name of GEORGE PEABODY will b 3 the

common property of both nations—another strand in the
great bond of unity which drew together the people
of two eoun:ries having a common origin, language, and
laws, and in whose union and peaceful progress side by
side in the work of civilisation and social improvement
was involved the true welfare, not of themselves only, but
of the entire world."

it is, as we once before observed, in his character of
an Anglo-American gentleman that this philanthro-
pist will do most good. There are three ugly splits in
the race—that between those who dwell in England,
those who dwell in the Northern States, and the in ha-

bitants of the Southern States. Now if GEORGE PEA-
BODY intended to introduce another link to bind the
three, he could not have done so more skilfully ;
and the Prime Minister of England but justly stated
the case at the Lord Mayor's banquet in these
words, that " with the country of Mr. PEABODY we
are not likely to quarrel." There may be something
of ostentation in the honours paid to the American
philanthropist; but this arises from a genuine feeling

now prevailing, not only of admiration for the man,
but from ee desire to cultivate friendly relations
with his country. England now knows more about
the Republic. Her ignorance bad been a good deal
imposed on by people as ignorant, as well as by the
designing, for which there prevails a general regrLt,
and this is not ungracefully shown over the remains
of one who so sincerely loved both lands, and did so
much for the advancement of either people.—Anylo-
American Ti►;mes of Saturday last.

The late Rear-Admiral Frederick Warden, C. 8.,
who at his death held the office of Senior Naval
Officer at Queenstown and on the coast of Ireland,
was buried at Southsea Cemetery, Portsmouth, on
Saturday, with all the public honours due to the
rank of the deceased officer. The pall-bearers were
Vice-Admiral Sir S. C. Dacres, K.C.8., Senior
Admiralty Sea Lord ; Rear-Admiral A. C. Key,
C. 8., F.R.S., Superintendent of Portsmouth Dock-
yard ; Captain George Hancock, her Majesty's
ship Duke of Wellington, Flag-Captain to and re-
presenting Port•Adrniral Sir James Hope, K.C.B. ;
Captain Willes, C. 8., R.N., of Coastguard and
Reserve Department, at Whitehall ; Colonel Com-
dina Schomberg,Talbot, R.M.A., C.B. ; Ad-
mirala sltir b
K.C.B. ; and Vice-
dmi ar
anWake Walker, K.C.B.
Am nGs r Aa
B. r
laeisdT.
Next to the coffin followed the immediate re-
latives present and friends of the deceased, the
latter including Rear-Admiral G. A. Halstead,
Commander Hon E. Stanley Dawson, Flag-Lieut.
to the deceased during the period of his command,
and a large number of other officers, including
the captains of all her Majesty's ships in com-
mission in the port. The body was received at the
gates of the cemetery by the Vicar of Portsmouth,
the Rev. E. P. Grant, and conveyed to the church,
where he read the first portion of the burial service.
The service concluded, the procession proceeded to
the grave, where the coffin was deposited, and the
remainder of the service read by the vicar. At the
end of the prayers the naval battery fired 11 guns
in minutes' time, the number due to an officer of
Rear-Admiral's rack dying during a period of
command.

Her Majesty's Indian relief screw troopship Cro-
codile, Captain Watson, embarked troops at Ports-
mouth on Saturday as per subjoined list, and yes-
terday morning sailed for Alexandria :—Lieut.-Col.
Macpherson, 2d battalion 24th Infantry, in mili-
tary command of all troops on board; 66 other
officers of various corps, nine officers' wives and
families, 1,000 non-commissioned officers and men
to join various regiments in India, with 112 soldiers'
wives and 120 children. The naval passengers
taken out by the Crocodile included Navigating
Sub-Lieut. Henderson, to join her Majesty's screw
troopship Malabar, and three warrant officers and
10 men to join her Majesty's ship Forte, at Aden,
for disposal.
Another large reduction in the number of work-
men employed in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, is
expected to be made before long, as, we under-
stand, instructions have been received from the
War-office, for an estimate or return to be pre-
pared, showing the inarillest possible number of
men required to be retained in the various depart-
ments, with the idea of merely keeping the estab-
lishment open and in perfect working order. The
reduction will be made as gradually as possible, so
that all the departments will be on the reduced
footing by the commencement of the coining finan-
cial year. A return is also called for of the
names, ages, and length of service of all the work-
men at present employed in each department in the
!loyal Arsenal.

The .Nlegmra, screw store transport, Sniff Com-
mander Sarratt, arrived at Spithead on Saturday
from the eastward, and is expected to sail from
Portsmolvh to-day for Ascension and Sierra Leone.
She will call in r.t Plyinouth Sound on her way
down Channel.

The 'reazer, twin screw gun vessel, left Spithead
on Saturday, under steam, for Sheerness, to take
the place of her sister vessel the Thistle, commis-
sioned for foreign service, previous to the ac-
cider.t to one of her boilers, by Commander Blom-
field.

SIIIPTVBECK AND LOSS OF FIFTY LIVES.

A letter from Montevideo just received in London re-
ports a dreadful shipwreck on the Spanish coast during a
severe gale on the 18th ult. The Spanish barque Adela,
which was bcund from Barcelona to Montevideo with
passengers and a general cargo, stuck on the English Bank,
and before assistance could be rendered, went to pieces.
All the passengers—thirty-seven in all—were drowned,
and the master and crew, two men excepted, shared a like
fate. The dreadful occurrence has created a painful
feeling in Montevideo, to which many of the passengers
belonged.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY REFORM.

+r-

The Hon. Lyulph Stanley has written to the Manchester
Examiner on the question of University Reform. He
thinks that reformers should prepare for energetic action
next spring, and considers the rejected bill of last session to
have been very inadequate. The real point at issue is the pos-
session of the higher dignities and emoluments of the uni-
sities, and the granting of the MA. degree to Nonconformists
was so obviously a necessary concession that he does not
attach much importance to it. The object in view is not
so much the admission of Nonconformists to a participation
in the higher advantages of Oxford, as the principle
of unsectarian, undenominational culture in the national
universities. One of tho first steps in academic
reform is the absolute removal of the bishops from their
offices of visitors, and the substitution of trained judicial
persons. Parliament should also next session repeal all
clauses which make Church membership a condition of
holding any office or emolument.

A GUESS AT THE FORTHCOMING

BUDGET.

The Birmingham Gazette has the following:—" It is very
early in the day to speak of next year's Budget, but we
learn on good authority that the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer intends making a bid for popular favour by intro-
ducing certain fiscal reforms calculated to make Mr. Blight's
free breakfast table somewhat of a reality. The duties
on tea, sugar,and coffee arc to be readjusted, and materially
lessened. Before next April Mr. Lowe will want all the
popular favour lie can possibly get, for as soon as people
begin to feel the way in which they have
to provide his `magic surplus' of last year there
will be a pretty storm. The time is fast coming
when the payment-in-advance system comes into
operation, and we should not be surprised if the Chan-
cellor be forced to afford some relief out of whatever sur-
plus he may have scraped together to lessen the suffering
that will be produced by the change, which looks very
well on paper, and charmed the House by its daring
novelty, but will be altogether another matter when put
into actual operation."