The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, IRI DAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1E69.

up, with the ut moat conceivable difficulty, under tle
guise now of one amendment, now of another. 1
settles down again, at the close of each successive
endeavour, always at the same dead-level—always
bracketed, as though it were a milestone, 113, as the
case may be, or 93, or 115. In another sense, too,
looking at these accumulating amendments they are
millstones rather than milestones--millstones weigh-
ing the Opposition down, in proportion to their mul-
tiplying defeats, deeper and deeper, in the very
Slough of Despond. Seriously—again, one is really
fain to inquire—What the Opposition propose to
themselves in heaping upon themselves defeat upon
defeat, and each defeat, in turn, not a partial defeat,
but 3ne complete and overwhelming. They are act-
ing conscientiously we are firmly convinced. But
to what end? Is it to end that they may demonstrate,
more and more clearly, day after day, that their case
is hopeless, that there is no chance whatever of their
gaining a single step in advance upon any one single
amendment ? As if that were still a matter in any
way requiring further- demonstration ! Long since,
that fact is perfectly well known and thoroughly well
appreciated, and that, too, let us say, quite equally
upon both sides of the House, not one jot more dis-
tinctly upon theside of the Government than upon the
side of the Opposition. Realizing the truth that it is so,
as the House notoriously does, it is almost by a sort
of wilful perversity that it insists, in its character, as
a Committee on the Trish Church Bill, upon going
quite bootlessly and fruitlessly the same weary
round, like a squirrel in a cage, with a metallic click
at each revolution, registering as its result, now 113,
say, now 115, and so forth, upon a long succession of
Clauses, upon a protracted and, one is almost pre-
pared to call it, an interminable series of Amend-
ments. The longest lane—even down in Devonshire
—has its turning : and, therefore, come to an end of
this weary and idle work of the House of Commons
in Committee on the Irish Church Bill we shall, of
course, eventually. All the same, the mere thought
of it, is a heart-sore ; and very earnestly, indeed,
must every one, even the most conscientious oppo-
nents of the Government measure as a whole, long
for the time when labours of such undeniable futility
shall, in the natural course of things, come at last to
a termination.

THERE is a remarkable article in the Quarterly
_Review on " The Cost of Party Government." The
writer considers that we are paying far too heavy
price for this form of government ; that while it has
proved invaluable as a preservative against misgo-
vernment, as an instrument of self-government it
has signally failed. It is worth while to mention his
arguments, and to point out where we think them
sound and where we believe them to be otherwise.

To begin with, the Reviewer says that the House
of Commons is not a school of statesmanship, but
only a school of oratory.
" It stimulates oratory, it
enthrones oratory, it makes oratory the indispensable
the last Government, or the present,
condition of high office." Is this accaunrdatcount Takehow
will be found that not half of them have t
many Cabinet Ministers there were or are orators.
he
smallest claim to the title. Of course they must
be able to make an intelligible statement,
must be able to answer a question relating
to their departments, or they would fail to fulfil one
of the objects for which they hold office—to be the
mouthpiece in Parliament of the departments over
which they preside. But there are not six orators
in the present Cabinet, nor were there six in the
last. The two departments whose shortcomings are
eosipfieccei aalnl yd
the censured
Btohaer d
_R ea vr ieenwnedre—r
tt
hh
ee
oHnot
rmeol
Poor-lawby
of men who rarely make a speech, and who are con-
tent with simply telling unvarnished tales concerning
the business in which they are concerned. The
next point of the Reviewer's is, that the works
of novprnment is much more difficult than it was,
because we have now a large colonial empire which
makes great demands upon our attention, and there-
fore we can the less afford to lose time in party war-
fare. The answer to this is simple enough : the less
we govern our colonies the better both for them and
for us; our highest wisdom is to let them govern them-
selves, so that this, at all events, is no argument
against government by party. It is rather
strange that the Reviewer should have selected for
his next point the want of a strong Government.
A Liberal majority of 126 ought to be strong enough
for a Quarterly Reviewer, one would think. More-
over, as a matter of fact, do we find that all the
social questions which he would have Parliament
take up were undertaken by PITT during his twenty
years of office, or by Lord LIVERPOOL during his
ai.ministration of sixteen years ? PITT gave us our
present National Debt. LIVERPOOL gave us the
(ETlrhnoegyleafnandcot t tohi s
gseltarnloodnwgae td
Ge
lob
rvbee.
ranni
ndL
eri
nvn
ttEson
Six Acts. PITT brought down the finances of
roeo n
liable
revolution.nearly
t o
lboencgo e bdo t,h‘. d eml es
irsttirca
tai
onnds
wa phaitclhi e t
nici.idelrttaihsenostootilai
legislation, but the short-lived Administrations, for
these have to seek strength in popular applause
andtion support.sincoth
Teherie
etfisonnnot
Baills,inghloewAevdemrinisbrtireaf-,
which has not done more in the way of
social reform than was done by Lord LivEnroon's.
Moreover, there is this to be borne in
mind, social reforms can to a considerable
extent be accomplished without the aid of Parlia-
ment. Emigration is one of the subjects mentioned
by the Reviewer, and we all know what is being
done in this matter by the philanthropists outside
the House of Commons. It is difficult to see what the
House could do with respect to another matter men-
tioned by the Reviewer—the improvement of the con-
dition of the agricultural labourer. On the other
hand, the measures which the House has taken up,
and which she censures, Parliamentary Reform and
the Irish Church, are just the sort of measures
with which the Legislature ought to deal. On the
one side we had a people discontented because they
were not admitted to the franchise; on the other, a
people embittered against an alien institution. Only
Parliament could satisfy either of these, and Parlia-
ment has done or is doing both.
We admit that the Reviewer has some cause of
complaint against party government. It is to be
lamented that just as men are beginning to learn
their work they should have to give place to men
who know nothing of it. There is not the least doubt
that much of the extravagant expenditure on
our army and our navy is due to the
constant alterations in the personnel of the
War Office and the Admiralty. Yet even
here there are counterbalancing advantages.
These changes permit of many men becoming ac-
quainted with public affairs, so that the death of
any one of them is not an irreparable loss. More-
over there is great danger in the existence of a per-
manent head of a department. We all know that
serious complaints have been raised against under
secretaries in certain Government offices. These gentle-
men are accused of holding too much power and
exercising it too despotically. Surely the evil would
be aggravated if it were the Secretary of State
instead of the Under Secretary, who was permanent.
In the protest against the supposed necessity for the
resignation of a Ministry, in case it should be encum-
bered with an incompetent or an erring colleague,
we thoroughly agree. Put we are by no means
certain that any such necessity exists. Lord
DERBY did not go out in 1853, but let
Lord ELLENDOR OUCH resign instead. Lord
PAL3fERSTON was deprived of Mr. LOWE,
Mr. STANSFELD, and Lord WESTBURY, but
continued Premier until his death. Altogether,
while we hope that Parliament hereafter will be
able to devote its chief energies to social legislation,
we do not think that party government, whatever
its defects, has seriously interfered with such legisla-
tion hitherto,

CORRESPONDENCE PROM PAWL

(FROli OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, THURSDAY, April 22.
Two hundred electors met at Marseilles, the other day,
and resolved, in a very flattering letter, to offer the can-
didature of the port to M. de Lesseps, the constructor of
the Suez Canal. The papers which sustain the
candidature of this very able representative of commerce
put him forward as a thoroughly independent candi-
date. He has been before spoken of, but refused,
on the ground that his great enterprise was
too absorbing to permit him to give due atten-
tion to the interests of his constituents. But the
Emperor sent him a pressing despatch, written by General
Fleury, and so M. de Lesseps consented. But though
thus directly supported by the Emperor, he will rest his
claims on commercial grounds, and everybody will be glad
to see him in the Corps Legislatif. Gambetta, the young
Democratic advocate, will oppose him.

The " Letter to an Elector," which it was hoped would
gain over so many votes to the Government, has just been
followed up by another publication of the kind, " Progress
of France under the Empire." The title of this pubEca-
tion explains its object. It has just appeared.
The fraud by the cashier of the Union Insurance Com-
pany is likely to develop into a pretty story when the
whole of the facts are known. M. Pic, the manager of
the Etendard, is, as I have said, in custody, for having
received half of the money appropriated by the cashier,
and applying that half to the support of the semi-official
paper. A paragraph in the Etendard says that M. Pic
did indeed receive the money, but " didn't know that it
was stolen." Now there is clearly much in the background
here. Not only has all this money been appropriated to
keep the Etendard afloat, but the paper has undoubtedly
received, as a semi-official journal, subventions from the
Government. It is equally little in doubt that the pro-
prietors were not averse to certain " tips " furnished by
contractors of public works who hoped to gain an indirect
recompense. But, in spite of all this " alimentation," the
Etendard was unable to pay its staff. Its writers were not
seldom obliged to have recourse to a law-court in order to
get their salaries. Certainly, the semi-official print, like all
others of its race, was by no means a lively commercial
speculation ; but surely things ought not to have been so
bad. We shall soon see, doubtless. These numerous
frauds by cashiers have led a wag to propose a company
of insurance against the defalcations of these gentlemen.
But there is a difficulty in the way—the insurance com-
pany must contrive to do without a cashier, or the remedy
may be as bad as the grievance. It is reported that the
Etendard will disappear, and that the France will reign
in its stead, and receive the Government advertisements.
Some time ago M. Pic founded a bank, and it is believed
that he may have used some of the money advanced by
the cashier to support his financial operations.
The Emperor has clearly set his heart upon a tunnel, or
a bridge, across the Straits of Dover. The official papers
are constantly reminding us of the scheme. A model
of a bridge has just been constructed. This is composed
of a single arch, reduced upon an exact scale to the hun-
dreth part of the size of one of those of the great
bridge. It presents an absolute rigidity through-
out, that is to say, it is not subject to any
movement or oscillation ; there is, consequently, no
vibration calculated to disintegrate the metal. There is no
more elasticity perceptible under foot than in walking on
a pavement, and it can support without any deflection a
weight greater than twenty trains, proportioned to the
same scale, meeting in the middle of the arch. The weight
of ten men does not produce a deflection of more than a few
millimetres in its whole length, and as soon as it is relieved
of its burden it recovers exactly its first position—indeed,
it was not necessary to employ several of the parts prepared to
ensure rigidity. The deduction from this interesting
experiment is that bridges of any length may be built
from bank to bank in a single arch. Orders have already
been given for several bridges of this description to be con-
structed in different parts of the country. A second
model, double the size of the first, is now being con-
structed.

The orators—men and women—of the public meetings
must be going mad. 3ladame I%finck has already been in
difficulties, and during the last few days she has received
two warnings from the Commissary of Police. At
La Redoubte the discussion was on !House-rent, and
Madame Minck vaguely assured her hearers
that society was sleeping on a volcano. "This
aphorism." says the Union, " may be interpreted in many
ways ; but what appears to us less elastic is the motion
made by the speaker who preceded the lady in the
tribune ; he simply demanded that all house-owners
should be guillotined !" Some of the proceedings at
these meetings do not, however, reflect any great credit cn
the Government. A M. Ruffier, for,instance, has been sen-
tenced to two months' imprisonment and a fine of £2O,
not for unlawful speechifying., but because he vio-
lated a formality prescribed by the law. The
'rho n
rupt ty sign the declaration necessary to the convening of
a public meeting. M. ltuflier was one of the proprietors
of a company which had been declared bankrupt, but as
the bankruptcy was not personal, it was a question whether
the law on public meetings applied to such a case. The
tribunal decided that it did ; but evidently the penalty is
excessive.

The news from Algeria is to the effect that all is not so
,ranquii in that quarter as could be wished.

THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND THE
CUBAN INSURRECTION.

The Washington correspondent of the New York
Tribune, writing on the Bth instant, says: "Cuban
matters are becoming more important and interesting
each day, the interest being enhanced by the action of
our own Government, and the presence here of intelli-
zent representatives from the insurrectionary forces,
who are daily gaining influential friends by the repre-
sentations which they are enabled to give. There can
no longer be any doubt of the attitude of our Govern-
ment in reference to the American prisoners held
by the Spanish authorities, nor of the decision to main-
tain a faithful neutrality as between the contending
parties on the island. There is no doubt, however,
that our Government will unhesitatingly demand the
immediate and unconditional release of all the American
prisoners, and that all efforts at interference
on the part of citizens of the United States will be peremp-
torily dealt with. This is rendered more apparent each
day by the action of the President and heads of
departments. The Navy Department is especially ac-
tive in its preparations to prevent interference by our

citizens.

STARTLING PUBLIC FRAUDS IN
AMERICA.

The Congressional Committee appointed last year to in-
vestigate certain suspicious doings in the Department of the
Treasury which is devoted to tho printing of notes and bonds
has issued a remarkable report. The committee say that
they have found, with regard to nearly every description of
Government securities, discrepancies in the accounts be-
tween the number printed and number issued, showing that
some of them disappeared after leaving the printing press;
they have found the Looks kept in the most careless
way, no record at all being preserved of many very im-
portant transactions, and a very imperfect one of others;
that no pains whatever have been taken to secure the proper
numbering of the Government bonds, the work being actually
left, without verification, largely to the memory of the
person in charge of the printing machine. The testi-
mony tends to show, the Committee say, that " the
numerical registers of issue are rather theoretical than
actual records of transactions; that is, that the clerks in
charge did not compare each issue of their bonds by their
consecutive numbers with the registry entries, or make the
entries in the register from such comparison ; but that they
made up the entries in the register, as a rule, by
taking the first and last number of any particular lot of secu-
rities, and making the entries from those, and assuming that
all the numbers between were consecutive regularly, and not
duplicate. It is also suggested as to the duplicate coupons,
that as they are numbered at a different time from the num-
ber on the bond, they may have been duplicated and the
bond not."

A telegram from Oxford states that a challenge
from America to row a four-oar race in August from Mort-.
lake to Putney has been received by the president of the
University Boat Club and accepted.
The great "penknife question" in the Civil
Service has been set at rest by the cancelling of the order
that no more penknives should be issued. The matter
was, it is stated, carefully considered by the Cabinet.
At the last meetine, of the Royal Humane
Society the bronze medallion was given to W. J. West, a
bandsman in the 19th Middlesex Volunteers, for saving
the life of Mr. Pairbourne, a private in the 4th Middle-
sex, at the Dover Review, under the exciting circum-
stances detailed at the time.
The engineer, Benjamin Panics, who recently
caused the death of a man named Careless, a doggy and
underlooker at the &Udall Hill colliery, by drawing the
skip
in which the men were being pulled to the top of the
pit over the pulley, has boon committed for trial on a charge
of manslaughter.

On Wednesday a gymnast, called Alvantee, was
performing on the high trapeze at Day's Concert Hall, Bir-
mingham, he lost his hold, and, hurled beyond the net in-
tended to meet such accidents, he fell upon the footlights.
The unfortunate man was seriously injured'in the iack
limb& ••••,. , l‘

MURDER AT GREENOCK.

At the Glasgow Spring Circuit Court, James Guilin,
or Gillen, was charged with the murder of Police
Inspector M`Kinnon, of the Greenock constabulary in
that town, on the Ist of January last. The prisoner
was also charged with stabbing a joiner, named John
Thomson, who attempted to apprehend him after stabbing
the inspector. The prisoner pleaded Not Guilty to both
charges, and the case went to trial. From the evi-
dence adduced it appears that on the night in
question Gillen went into the shop of Mr.
Simpson, a confectioner in Hamilton-street, to ask for
drink, and on being told that no drink was sold there,
but that he would get what he wanted in a neighbour.
ing public-house, he attempted to go inside the counter,
and then struck Mr. Simpson a blow which broke two of
his teeth. Thomson then interfered, and seized Gillen,
till a policeman could be sent for, and in the encounter
was once or twice stabbed by the prisoner. On the arrival
of the constable, Gillan was quietly asked to go to the
office, but, instead of obeying, he struck Inspector M`Kin-
non a full blow with his knife behind the ear, and then ran
off along the street. The unfortunate inspector had only
time to cry, " Catch that man ; I'm done for," when he stag-
gered, and was carried into the nearest shop, where he died
in a few minutes. Gillen was captured a short distance off
by Thomson, who was again stabbed in the scuffle. Evi-
dence was led for the defence, which bore that the prisoneron
the day when the murder was committed was considerably
the worse for liquor. The Lord Justice Clerk having summed
up the evidence, the jury retired, and, after an absence of
twenty-five minutes, brought in a divided verdict, six find-
ing the prisoner guilty of murder, eight of culpable homicide,
and one of " murder without premeditation." The prisoner
was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude. At the
same time Neil Lingstone was charged with the murder
of an engineer named M`Mutrie in Greenock, on the 20th
of March last. The prisoner pleaded guilty to assault and
robbery, and as the circumstance of the case shewed that the
prisoner had no thought of murder the plea was accepted,
and he was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. On the
previous day, before the same judge, a man named
Shaw was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude for
killing a woman during a drunken brawl in the Gallow-
gate, Glasgow. -

The first cricket match ever played in Constan-
tinople has come off betweeh Eleven of the Constantinople
Cricket Club and as many officers and crew of H.M.S.
Ariadne. The game ended in the triumph of the Turks.
Mr. Gold win Smith, after a short absence from
the Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, has returned,
and is now busily engaged on his work so long an-
nounced, "A Short History of England Down to the
Reformation."

DEATH OF A NEPHEW OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
—William Scott, the nephew of Sir Walter Scott, who
has been for some time a sick inmate of the St. Andrew's
Home in Montreal, died in that institution on the 9th
instant, from cancer in the stomach. He was 64 years of
age.

MR. CHARLES DICKENS.—Mr. Charles Dickens,
who was to have given a reading at Preston on Thursday
night, was taken suddenly unwell. His medical atten-
dant, who was summoned from London, has certified that
the state of Mr. Dickens's health, by reason of excessive
travelling and fatigue, was such as to render it impossible
for him to fulfil his engagement.

A CANDID SPINSTER.—Miss Dalyrmple, sister
of Lord Hailes, was a dwarfish and deformed figure, while
amiable and judicious above the average of her sex.
Taking into view her beautiful place of residence and her
large wealth, she remarked to a friend one day, " I can
say for the honour of man, that I never got an offer in my
life."—Chanibers's Traditions of Edinburgh.

DEATH FROM BEE STINGS.—Mr. D. Thompson,
of Launceston, relates, in the British Medical Journal, a
case of death from bee-sting, occurring within little more
than a quarter of an hour after the sting had been inflicted.
He adds the account of two other cases of a similar kind,
not before published, of which the particulars have been
furnished to him ; and refers to two other cases in this
country, published in 1860. Such accidents are extremely
rare, and very few have ever been recorded.

At the Clerkenwell Police Court on Thursday Mr,
John Condon, a salesman in the Metropolitan Cattle Mar-
ket, was fined ss. and costs, or in default five days' im-
prisonment, for exposing sheared sheep for sale at so early
a part of the year, and in the wet and cold. The prosecu-
tion was instituted by the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals.

A trapeze performer, named Trevanian, had a
narrow escape at Cheltenham, on M onday night. He was
going through a performance called the "Leap for Life," in
company with his brother, when, instead of being caught
midway, ho fell into the arena below. The excitement
among the spectators was intense, but fortunately his in-
" -` - -I,‘naerous character.

The marriage of Lady Agnes Courtenay, daughter
of the Earl of Devon, with the Hon. C. L. "Wood, eldest son
of Viscount Halifax, was solemnised on Thursday at St.
Paul's Church, Knightsbridge. There was a large assembly
of friends. The service was performed by the Bishop of
Oxford, assisted by Canon Courtenay and the Hon. and Rev.
R. Liddell. The Earl of Devon gave a grand dejeuner after
the ceremony. The happy pair leave to-day for the seat
of Lord Henry Scott, near Southampton, en route for the
Continent.

SENTIMENT AND FACT.---lt h said that when
Lord Byron sent to his wife the well-known touching
lines—

" Fare thee well ! And, if for ever,
Still, for ever fare thee well !"
he enclosed in the same envelope a butcher's bill, with the
pencilled remark, "Please look over this ; I don't think
we had so much meat." The conjunction of ideas was
truly affecting, and we commend the anecdote (told by a
lady to whom Lady Byron banded both documents to
read) to the careful consideration of those romantic minds
who think of the English Manfred as a sublime being,
whose " soul was like a star, and dwelt apart," far above
sublunary cares—not to speak of butchers' bills.
THE CONVENT CASE AND THE IRISH ROMAN
CATHOLICS.—In accordance with an announcemen'
previously made throughout the diocese of Meath, a
collection took place at the chapels on Sunday last, for the
purpose of defraying the legal expenses incurred. by the
defendants in the late extraordinary trial, and which were
set down at £5,000. Many—almost all the con-
tributors—subscribed on the express understand.
ing that none of the funds were to be devoted
towards paying plaintiff's costs, but for the express pur-
pose of re-establishing the Sisters of Mercy in the Hull
Convent. There was one parish of the diocese where no
collection took place—that of St. Mary's, Drogheda—the
parish priest of which is the Rev. Thomas Mathews, who
is uncle of Miss Saurin, and under whose advice the
action was pressed from the outset. The collection is said
to have realised the anticipations of the projectors ; and
it is now sought to make a general appeal for the same
object to the Roman Catholics of the other diocesesin the
country,

CREOSOTE AS FUEL.—With reference to the use
of creosote as fuel, a correspondent writes to the Daily
News, in which the account originally appeared. "I have
nothing whatever to say against the heating properties of
creosote, or the way in which the use of it puts money into
the pocket of Mr. John Schwartz, sugar-refiner, of
Pelham-street, Spitalfields, or, rather, Mile-end New
Town ; but this I do say, that I am one of some hundreds
of poor unfortunates living in the immeaiate vicinity
I of the refinery, and that the unbearable stench caused
by its use is producing sickness all around, necessitating
the interference of the Inspector of Nuisances and the
Board of Works. My own family is repeatedly suffering
from it. As there is no accounting for particular taste,
some may like it, but surely it will only be those whose
purses get heavier by its use, and who live away from the
neighbourhood where it is used. The inhabitants of Mile-
end New Town hope that the Board of Works will he
successful in the prosecution now pending for the suppres-
sion of the nuisance."
AN IMPORTANT DECISION.—The Chester magis-
trates have just decided that an important parental
function may not be delegated to another. A certain
master pipemaker in that quaint old city is blessed with
an apprentice, unruly to a degree even in these times of
universal license. This lad recently absented himself from
work for an entire week, and his mother, on taking him
back, requested the master to thrash her son, as
he was wholly beyond her management. In the
%;(e stl
pno2int to bis admonitions,
penny in the pur-
chase innocence of his heart the master complied with
tchheaseunofiquae
craenqelie.to g
t, ini
It is not alleged that the master used unnecessary violence
in inflicting the punishment. He was, however,gnilteynocfe
the offence of taking the law into his own hams, and this
aeed that the
was an enormity which the law, at any
rate,i was
wasnoat
likely to overlook. The magistrates gr
offender deserved, we will not say chastisement,
pecuniary punishment. It was shown that but
he
kind and not a cruel master, that he f -l'
his apprentice better than he deserted, In"tlY treated
in this instance he had Simply flogged and that
his mother's express solicitation. the 14(1 at
had dared to usurp magisterial functions, tit
the master
10s. and costs for his presumption.and 11
e was
fined
unruly apprentice is guilty of miscond The next time this
he be possessed of anything like a a uot, his roaster, If
will take him before these same Chen" of
4Plin
humour,
then, in lieu of a thrashing with a penny
magistrates, and
probably be sent to prison for It weeknylitlitne' the
led will
extremely probable event, the Chester tut then, In this
selves will have had a hand In the magletratee therm
oskaiittitiipagtidablit 411pLe &Io"
mmerelling