The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-10 00:00:00

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

According to the London correspondent of the Leeds
Mercury Mr. Trevelyan's offered resignation in consequence
of his attack at Hawick upon the Commander-in-Chief, has
not been without fruit. One very eminent member of the
Government spoke recently of the honourable gentleman's
escapade at Hawick as being "the most fortunate fault
of his life." Hardly to be attributed directly to Mr.
Trevelyan's utterance, but, still as a result of the feeling
which those utterances expressed, we have a rumour that the
Duke of Cambridge will not remain long at the head of
affairs at the Horse Guards. For the accuracy of the
rumour at the present stage I would rather not vouch; but
there is little question that, if the Ministry retains its pre-
sent strength and temper at the close of the session, his
Royal Highness will bo led seriously to contemplate a step
which would undoubtedly be for the benefit of the country. In
the meantime ho finds at the War-office a very different
hand from that with which he has usually had to deal in
that department, and military gossips tell with 'bated
breath of more than ono passage-at-arms as having already
occurred between the rival heads of the army, in which the
Horse Guards has not been triumphant.

KING GEORGE AND THE CONFERENCE,

The London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian
gives some interesting information relative to the state of
affairs at Athens. He says : "Up to a late hour on
Saturday evening Government was still anxious and un-
certain as to the termination of the crisis at Athens.
During the three previous days the young King of the
Hellenes may be said to have stood upon the threshold of
his palace ready to depart for good and aye. The instru-
ment of abdication had been actually drawn up, and only
awaited the signature of the youthful King, already
sick and weary of the thankless duties of nominal
sovereignty. His position was, indeed, to all ap-
pearance desperate. Deserted by the Ministers whose lust
of popularity and dread of losing it had brought their
country into the scrape, he was ready to accept as their
successors any half-dozen members of the Legislative
Assembly, however inferior in the gift of talking and writing
plausibly, who would undertake to sign the protocol of
compromise offered by the Great Powers. But the in-
fluence of private intrigue and public menace deterred
M. Zaimis and his proposed colleagues from actually
taking office from the 2nd to the 6th instant. During that
interval Greece was, in fact, without any responsible
Government. Meantime the young King sought by
telegraph counsel from the protecting Powers ; and on
Friday night he filially informed the various politicians
by whom he was beset that he was resolved not to be re-
sponsible for the consequences of a declaration of war by
the Porte against Greece, and, happen what might, he
had resolved to go. The impreision both here and at Paris
is, that the pluck and persistency manifested by King
George have saved him and his intractable subjects from
disaster and disgrace. The French Envoy Extraordinary
who was the bearer of the Paris Convention easily suc-
ceeded in getting an extension of time from the Porte to
enable M. Zaimis and his colleagues to frame their terms
of submission in the least objectionable manner. That
unavoidable act once performed, they will speedily vanish
from the scene amid the sagacious shouting and hootings
of the populace, and things will resume their accustomed
way."