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

METROPOLITAN GOSSlP—Thursday.

Mr. Glyn seems to have had no difficulty in forming a
' House on Tuesday, albeit we are still within the " octave"
of Christmas. About a hundred and twenty members were
present, and a little liveliness was imparted to the scene
' by the applause with which the new Ministers who have
obtained re-election were received as they went up to take
the oaths. They did not all perform that formality.
The Right Hon. John Bright " made affirmation"
only, being, as the official records of the House say, " one
of the people called Quakers "—one of " my own people,"
as he would say. It was noticed that the new President
of the Board of Trade had received the seal of advancing
age during the last few months. His hair has become
c al most white ; yet otherwise he looks rather younger than
older, looks as a man has a right to look who sees the prin-
ciples for which he has been battling all his life, some-
, times almost singly, but never faintheartedly,
triumphant. Having taken his seat on the Trea-
sury Bench he went away, not alone, but
with that one man who of all others most
vigorously opposed Mr. Bright's principles —his
late antagonist, his present colleague—Mr. Lowe.
These two Ministers of the Crown walked together arm-
in-arm—a sight for politicians and philosophers to ponder
over. It was only one of those many results of the Con-
servative opposition to a mild Reform Bill which has
fairly bewildered the county squires who cheered so
lustily the denunciations of the member for Caine.
A Cabinet Council was held on Tuesday. After that
Ministers dispersed. They mean to take a fortnight's
holiday, and they will then return to town to work like
giants. They are fully alive to the great expectations
which they have excited, and they mean to strain every
sinew to justify those expectations. Just now the most
pressing matter is the Turco-Greek difficulty. This was
the main subject of discussion at Tuesday's Council, which
was held at the Foreign Office. There is now good hope
that war may be avoided. The Conference is considered
certain to take place ; some sanguine persons have fixed
January 2 for the first meeting. But this is wholly
out of the question. All the arrangements have
to be made the various plenipotentiaries fixed
upon, and the programme drawn up. It is determined that
the Conference shall be held at Paris. I cannot state
positively who will attend on behalf of this country, but,
remembering that Lord Lyons, our Ambassador at Paris,
has a special acquaintance with Eastern affairs, derived
from his position for some years as Ambassador at Con-
stantinople,
it seems not unlikely that he will be our
representative. When Ministers return to town each will
have to prepare his contribution to the Ministerial list of
measures. This list is likely to be an extended one, and it
will also be marked by a more than ordinary degree of
unity. There has not been for many years a Ministry
whose members are so thorougly in accord as the present.
It may seem strange to say this, remembering that the
Cabinet contains Mr. Bright and Mr. Lowe ; but these
have almost everything in common. Mr. Lowe was always
a Radical so far as political work was concerned; he was not
a Radical einaply 19 fax Alf referred to political machinery,

He believed that if the lower classes were enfranchised
they would, by yielding to corrupting influences, become
obstacles to real Radical reforms. The change has been
,made now, whether for good or ill, and Mr. Lowe is not
the man to cry over shed milk. He will simply acknow-
ledge the inevitable, and endeavour to make the best use of
the new materials with which he has to deal.
Some little surprise was excited among the uninitiated
that no writs were moved for on behalf of the Marquis of
Hartington and Mr. Bruce, who are still without seats.
Rumour says that a seat will be found for one of them at
Morpeth by the retirement of Sir George Grey with a peer.
age. This would be a very suitable arrangement. Sir George
deserves his peerage, if long years of official life entitle a
man to that reward. The only question is, if he, being by
no means a wealthy man, and being one of the four ex.
Ministers who are in receipt of a pension, would care to
accept a dignity that implies a substantial income to sus-
tain it. It is still thought not improbable that the Marquis
of Hartington will be raised to the Upper House, and in that
case only one seat would have to be found. As for the Minis-
ters against whom election petitions were threatened, they
a re, with one exception, no longer troubled. Viscount Mahon
seems to have been advised by his seniors not to fulfil his
threat of petitioning against Mr. Gladstone; the petition
against Mr. G °schen has been withdrawn; and yesterday
it was decided to withdraw that against Mr. Moncrieff,
the Lord Advocate. This step, I believe, is due to the
influence of Mr. Gordon, the ex-Lord Advocate and
defeated candidate. He bas always been adverse to the
action of his committee. There now remains only Mr;
Forster, and he, it seems, will have to stand a trial ; for a
recent effort to bring about a reconciliation between the
two political sections at. Bradford, with a view to the
withdrawal of both petitions, has failed.
Sir Henry Bulwer has decided not to make his motion
with respect to the Ballot whereof he had given notice
Mr. Henry Berkeley, the antiquated and should-be-super-
annuated member for Bristol, claims the Ballot as his own
peculiar property, and to him the member for Tamworth
yields place. It was but in accordance with human nature,
I suppose, that Mr. Berkeley should, now that it is on
the eve of success, have insisted upon bringing forward
the subject with which he has been associated all his life,
but that success would be more assured if the matter were
entrusted to an advocate who has not passed into the
stage of old fogeyism.
Politics are just now of subsidiary interest to ecclesias-
tical affairs. The ritual judgment is discussed on every
side, and the more it is discussed the less it is liked. The
party which at first claimed it as a triumph now find that
they are affected by it in a way they never contemplated.
It appears that Lord Cairns has, inter alia, ruled that
the proper place of the celebrant during Boly Corn.
munion is in front of the Holy Table, with his back to
the people, and it is even affirmed that the judgment
renders compulsory the use of the eucharistic vestments ;
so that the prosecutors, while endeavouring to curtail the
liberty of their opponents, have curtailed their own still
more. Yesterday there was a large gathering of High
Church clergy and laity at the Freemasons' Tavern, to
consider their position, About 200 were present, and
Archdeacon Denison presided. There were several
speakers, and it was mentioned as a matter of fact that
the judgment was not the finding of all, but of a bare
majority, Lord Westbury and Sir William Erle
being opposed to it, Sir J. Colvile being neutral,
and Lord Cairns, Lord Chelmsford, and the Arch-
bishop of York being favourable to it. This was
thought to weaken in no small degree the force
of the judgment, especially as the Archbishop of York
had pronounced an opinion upon the question before he
heard the arguments. Eventually it was resolved to
adjourn the meeting for a fortnight, and to appoint a
committee who should report upon the matter. I believe
that Mr. Perry, of Brighton (one of the Royal Commission
on Ritual), Dr. Littledale, Dr. G. F. Lee, Mr. Carter, of
Clewer, the Hon. C. L. Wood (President of the E. C. U.),
and Mr. Turner are on the committee, and that they have
power to add to their number.
Last Sunday, at a well-known church in London, a last
sermon was preached by the curate, a gentleman who is
known in the literary world. He ceases henceforth to
take part in clerical duty, or to retain any clerical dis•
tinction of title or dress. He is on the staff of a
very well-known evening journal, and that same
journal has among its writers two other ex-
clergymen, one of them the son of a distin-
guished litterateur and the son-in-law of another still
more distinguished. There is also at one of our principal
hospitals and schools of medicine a physician who has
been in holy orders ; and there is another, the defendant
in a trial for heresy, who is now on the Stock Exchange.
They have all abandoned their original professions from
dissatisfaction with the stringent formalities of the Church.
I believe that the number of these is much larger than
is generally supposed. Of course the world does not hear
of these secessions. There is no party interested in pro-
claiming them.
Christmas all but suspended the play in the British
Chess Association tournaments. The numbers of games
remaining to be played is not large. The Challenge Cup
rests undecided, Mr. Blackburn and Mr. De Vere,
who now hold the cup, having scored the largest
number of games. In the Handicap Tourney,
only Herr Steinitz, Mr. Wisker, and Dr. Murphy,
the two former of the first, and the latter of the second
class, remain. In the Glowworm Tourney competition rests
only between the Rev. G. A. Macdonnell, Messrs. Black-
burne, De Vere, and Wisker. The contest in this last
match promises to be very keen. Chess never, I
believe, flourished so vigorously as it does now
both in the metropolis and in the country.
The Westminster Chess Club has taken up its
quarters at the old Divan, and now numbers
between 200 and 300 members. In addition to the
St. George's in the West and the London in the City, a
new club is being formed under the direction of the well-
known author and player, Mr. Staunton. Its head-
quarters will be at the Westminster Palace Hotel. Chess
literature is on the increase. It now includes one
quarterly and two monthlies, four weekly and one
biweekly columns in London newspapers, and others in
the provinces.

There was an interesting Christmas dinner given on

Tuesday by the manager of the Australian Meat Agency.
Some forty persons sat down to feast on Australian meat
dressed in various forms. There were several Australian
notabilities, and in reply to the toast proposed by one of
them in honour of Mr. Tallerman, the manager of
the company, that gentleman described the pro-
gress which was being made in the introduction

Of Australian meat. In 7867 only £3,500 worth was itn-

ported ; in the first nine mouths of 1868 the amount was
£lO,OOO. A description was given of the apparatus used
in preserving the meat, which, by the way, was somewhat
highly spiced ; and it was stated that sufficient encourage.
merit had been given for the experiment to be carried out
on a large scale.
The increase in metropolitan railways makes it very
important that a coal should be consumed which is not
sulphurous. Until lately, it was a real penance to go into

any of the stations on the line between King's-cross and
Baker-street. But recently an anthracitic coal from

South Wales has been used, with a manifest improvement
of the atmosphere. It has been found also that the

coal is economical. Not only is it less sulphurous,
but it possesses more heating power, and, weight for
weight, will do more work than other coal. The result
will be that a saving of £3OO a week will be made on the
Metropolitan Railway alone, and that more trains will be
able to run.

No appointment has yet been made to Sir Richard
Mayne's place, but Captain LabaLmondiere is acting pro

I mentioned in my last letter that Mr. Tennyson had
transferred the copyright of his poems from Moxon and

Co., to Messrs. Strahan. These latter gentlemen advertise

the works at the same price as before, but it is rumoured

that they are about to bring out a cheaper edition. The
firm of " Moxon and Co." is to be reconstituted with the
new year. Mr. Bertrand Payne, who has hitherto con-
ducted it in the interest of the widow of the

late head, retires from business, and devotes himself to
literature, and Mr. Arthur Moxon takes his place.
A dinner was given to Mr. Payne a few evenings back by
way of celebrating the production of Dore's illustrated
edition of the " Idylls of the King." Another publishing

change is the dissolution of the old firm of Smith and
Elder, and the removal of the new firm from Cornhill to
Waterloo Place. There seems a tendency on the part of

the book trade to push westwards. Mr. Masters has long
had a West•end as well as a City place of business. Messrs.

Allen moved from Leadenhall-street to Waterloo-place
about ten years ago, and in that same place Messrs.
Rivington are established.

Of new books there is still a limited supply, considering
the season. The new novel " Wife and Child," is by Miss
Whitty, sister of the late Edward Whitty, who wrote
" Friends of Bohemia." Captain Semmes's book on the

Alabama is just out. One of the most charming gift-
books of the season is Mr. Warne's. " The Nobility
of Life," edited by L. Valentine, and inns-
_

trated in coloured engravings and printed borders,
by J. D. Watson, P. Hundley, Le Jenne,
Francis Walker, H. C. Selous, E. J. Poynter, Dalziel,

Thompson, Green, and Wehnert. Messrs. Routledge
have just made another agreement with Lord Lytton
for the right of publishing his novels. Their first

agreement was a payment of £20,000 for ten years' copy.
right. At the expiration of that time they paid £lO,OOO
for a further five years, and now they have obtained

another term of six-and-a-half years. The new agreement

is to be signalised by the apperance of all Lord Lytton's

novels in two-shilling•volumes, each volume containing a
complete work.