The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 10, 1869

peace and in war—during this interval of one and
twenty years—literally through good report and
through evil report (for the present EMPEROR has un-
questionably at intervals been reviled here in England
more loudly and more fiercely than any other Prince in
Christendom)—in arms and at the council board it is
impossible to deny that, uninterruptedly, from the
first accession to power of the Prince Louis NAPO-
LEON, in the December of 1848, until this present
moment, when he is still as he has been
during now very nearly seventeen years the
Emperor NAPOLEON la , that once jealously re-
garded ruler of France, has been the true, and faith-
ful, and cordial ally of the English Sovereign and of
the English Government.. His forces and the forces
of her Britannic MAJESTY, have upon many a hard
"foughten field" bled side by side--"brothers in arms
and rivals in renown." It is as spectators of no merely
empty pageant therefore that the Emperor NAPOLEON
and the Prince of WALES, that the Empress EUGENIE
and the Princess ALEXANDRA witnessed together on
Saturday that magnificent spectacle in the Bois de
Boulogne, the review of the cavalry and artillery of
the disciplined soldiers of France—in battle array,
in all " the pride, pomp, and circumstance of
glorious war." Merely pleasure excursion though
this has been for their royal highnesses, our future
sovereigns, it will leave behind it its beneficial
influences, alike in their own minds and in the re-
collections of the respective rulers of those countries
allied to England, which they have rapidly, recently,
wisely, and happily visited.

THERE is something very remarkable in the rapid
progress of the Irish Church Bill. Here was a measure
involving, on the one hand,- principles of the very
highest importance, on the other hand, the most
complicated details. Yet in the short space of three
weeks this measure has been discussed and settled.
There now remain only (so far as the House of
Commons is concerned) the third reading, and a few
amendments most of which will infallibly be rejected.
This celerity is the more remarkable because it was
possible only under two conditions, which were sup-
posed to be lamentably deficient, and which certainly
were lamentably deficient a year ago—skilful leader-
ship and thorough unity. When Mr. BoUVERIE made
his memorable accusation against the Liberal party,
he little foresaw that in the course of a few months
the skill of Mr. GLADSTONE and the hearty support
of his followers would enable that party to carry the
most important measure since the abolition of the
corn laws in "a period shorter than is often given to
a private and comparatively insignificant bill.
Contrasting this year's legislation with last year's,
the abandoned principles and forfeited pledges
of the minority Minister with the ready maintenance
of every single principle on the part of the "splendid
majority " Minister, we cannot but rejoice at the
great change which has taken place, we cannot but
thank Mr. DISRAELI for giving the country the oppor-
tunity of terminating a state of things that was
unconstitutional, and was absolutely fatal to good
Government. Mr. DISRAELI, in one sense, gave us
reform, and the enfranchised nation has given the
country a Government, strong beyond example for
many years, strong enough to do a great act of
justice, delayed far too long.
Unfortunately all is not rose colour. Britain is
doing her duty to Ireland, but Ireland is making a '
poor return to Britain. Disaffection becomes more
loud, if not more deep, as we remove the causes of
disaffection. Every act of justice is looked upon as
a measure extorted by our fears. This is the natural
result of previous postponement. The disloyal
Irish reckon that they can obtain all their ends
by appealing to the same emotion. Mr. BRIGHT
has, most unfortunately, given them occasion for
this belief. Nothing could have been more unhappy
than his declaration that he would never consent to
acts of repression without their being accompanied
by acts of remedial and consoling policy. Manifestly
a time when rebellion has to be kept down
by military force, or by the suspension of
civil rights, is the worst of all times for
considering politic ;1 and social reforms. Mani-
festly, too, this declaration of Mr. BRIGHT'S may be,
and, we believe, will be, accepted as an invitation
to the very acts which he would be the first to
deplore. Tell a people that if they behave so badly
as to require acts of repression they will receive
also some " consoling" measure, and they will be
sure to secure the second even though they have
to endure the first. They know well that the
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is merely
temporary, but that the land measure which, accord-
ing to Mr. BRIGHT, is to accompany the suspension will
be permanent. Clearly such a gain outweighs such
a loss. We are, therefore, not surprised that
the Peers should have taken this speech into
consideration, technically irregular though such
a course may have been. At the same time
they were in danger of aggravating the very
evil which they dreaded, by attaching greater
importancelcoav
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let it be clearly seen that he thought there had been
a blunder. The Cabinet does not make itself
responsible for the indiscretion of the PRESIDENT of
the BOARD of TRADE. Mr. BRIGHT, it is to be
hoped, will, by the time he has been full six months
in office, have learnt that one of the first duties
attached to office is reticence.

THE bill to amend the law relating to Post Office
Savings Banks has just been withdrawn. The sacri-
fice of an innocent in the beginning of May is rather
an ominous token of the slaughter which may
fairly be looked for in July. When Government
bills are withdrawn thus early, the chances
of useful minor legislation appear small indeed. Nor
can it be said that in this instance the insignificant
character of the measure offered a fair excuse for its
retirement. The Post Office Savings Banks Bill
certainly was the smallest of measures on paper :
twenty-five lines of large type sufficed for preamble,
clauses, and all ; but its brief provisions were of very
considerable moment. At present no depositor can
entrust to the Post Office more than £3O in one
year, and the total sum to his credit must never
exceed £l5O, exclusive of interest, which is allowed
to accumulate to the extent of £5O more. The
unfortunate bill which has just been stifled provided
that the deposits might extend to £lOO in one year,
and might reach £3OO altogether. Some change of
this kind was much needed. The limit of thirty
pounds was quite large enough for most working
men ; but to those who could save more than
thirty pounds a year the restriction was a serious
inconvenience. Single women with small properties,
clerks of fair position, the humbler grade of Govern-
ment officials, and many others in a similar rank of
life, can accumulate no savings which an ordinary bank
would think of any account, but many have a yearly
balance considerably in excess of thirty pounds.
For these the Pest Office Savings Bank took the
place of the strong box ; the old stocking, the secret
hole ; and all the other dangerous and semi-bar-
barous contrivances by which people of small
savings contrived to hoard their balances. But
at present this large class is still under the
necessity of hoarding every penny they might scrape
together above thirty pounds, and to hoard means
often to lose, and still oftener to spend. The exten-
sion of the limit was loudly called for as a public
necessity.
It met, however, with great, and as it appears
successful, opposition. It was feared that many sums
now entrusted to the commercial banks would be
transferred to the Post Office. It -was urged that the
Post Office would become a pexmanent bank of
deposit, that the business of the ordinary bankers
would be seriously impaired, rind that forty-five
millions of capital would be withdrawn from

circulation and entrusted to the coffers of the
State. To the powerful interest which led
this opposition there is too much reason
to fear that the Government yielded, and thus the
advantage of the many has once more been sacri-
ficed to the interest of the few. Forty-five millions
is certainly not an under estimate of the sum which
would be withdrawn from the manipulation of the
bankers and banded over to the Post Office.
But even granting this strained calculation,
it proves nothing. Those who prefer the many
conveniences of the ordinary banks would still resort
to them; those who do not should not be compelled to
do so against their will. Considering recent
events the public may well be pardoned if its
humbler grades are not disposed to entrust
their all to the commercial firms. Indeed,
it is pretty certain that they will not do so, and that
the system of hoarding will be carried on still,
without the slightest profit to the bankers. More
than this, whatever objection might be taken
to an increase of the limit from thirty
to one hundred pounds, a mean between these
two sums might have been adopted without even the
chance of injuring anyone. The limit might have
been seventy, sixty, or fifty pounds, and still the
Post-office investors would have greatly profited.
There is not the slightest reason for insisting upon
the figures 30 and 100 as the only alternatives. The
haste with which this subject has been disposed
of savours strongly of that neglect with
which the concerns of the poorer classes are too
often treated by the Legislature. At the first
breath of opposition the Government has decided that
the reform shall wait at least another year. Mean-
while the bankers have achieved a triumph. They
will not take the trouble to keep small accounts,
and they have successfully determined that nobody
else shall.

r tcs,
ejlo3 Ist

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, May 9.

The Queen, accompanied by Princess Christian,
Princess Louise, Prince Lk. opold, and Princess Bea-
trice, and the ladies and gentlemen in waiting,
attended Divine service this morning in the private
chapel.

LATEST INTELL MENU

(ItEU'"EICS TF:LEGRAIIS.)

FRANCE.

PARIS, May 10.
The Official Journal of this morning publi,.ihes
the following :
" Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress
paid a visit to the city of Chartres yesterday on
the occasion of the distribution of prizes at the
Horticultural exhibition.

"In answer to the congratulatory address of the
Mayor of Chartres the Emperor said :—"fwenty
years ago when I was appointed President
of the Republic, it was the town of Chartres
which I visited first. I have not forgotten the
pleasing reception I met with. It was within four
walls that I, on the strength of my good intentions,
made my first appeal to the, spirit of conciliation,
calling up all good citizens to sacrifice for the
public good their regrets and feelings of ran-
cour. To-day, after seventeen years of peace-
ful prosperity, I am about to speak to you
in the same language, but with greater
authority and confidence than in 1848. Once more
I address myself to the honest men of every party,
inviting them to second the regular advance of my
Government in the path of liberal progress which
it lies laid clown, and to oppose insuperable resist-
ance to those subversive passions which appear
to revive only to threaten the unshaken fabric of
universal suffrage.
" In a few days the people will meet in their
electoral militia, and will, I have no doubt, choose
men worthy of that mission of civilisation which we
have to accomplish. I count upon you, citizens of
Chartres, because you are part of those eight
millions of Frenchmen who have thrice accorded to
me their suffrages, and because I know you are ani-
mated with ardent patriotism, and where genuine
love of one's country reigns, there the best guaran-
tees for order, progress, and liberty cannot fail to
exist."

BUKBAY (HEAVY) MAIL.

GaIIi:ALTAR, May 9.

The Peninsular and Orkntal Company's steamer
Syria, leaves at 9 p.m. to-day
for &utbampton,
whera she may be looked for about the morning of
the 14th instant. All well.

ELECTION PETITIONS,

The hearing of the North Norfolk election petition has
been postponed until the 17th inst. It appears that Mr.
Justice Blackburn, who will dispose of the case, will be
detained at Stafford longer than had been anticipated.
The Stafford election petition is still under hearing. On
Saturday Mr. Thomas Lawrence Brough, solicitor and
agent to Messrs. Pochin and Chawner, was examined.
He denied that anything was done with his knowledge in
the way of encouraging violence or intimidation, nor had
any bribery been committed. The extent of his own
expenditure during the whole canvass was ss. 6d. one day
and 12s. on another day. He was agent for Mr. Bass at his
election in 1865. No corrupt payments whatever were made
at that time; the money paid to conunittemen and others en-
gaged in that election on Mr. Bass's account was £1,900. At
Christmas 1867 there was the usual gift of coals, blankets, and
10s. a head on behalf of Mr. Arthur Bass. The distribu-
tion on that account cost about 2720. Donations of the
same character were made on behalf of Mr. Bass at
Christmas 1865 and 1866. Mr. Bass's bounty was not
confined to voters. Mr. Bass still continues his gifts.—Mr.
R. C. Chawner, one of the candidates at the late election,
was then examined. He said that a deputation waited
upon him and invited him to come forward. He ex-
plained to them that not one shilling was to be expended
but what was legal. So far as he knew, his views were
carried out ; he was not aware of any other expenditure
beyond that which had been returned.—Mr. Brough was
recalled at the suggestion of the court. In reply to his
lordship, he said that the expenditure, 2720, at
Christmas 1867 was exceptionally large ; the average was
£3OO. Mr. Bass left the matter entirely iu his hands.
Mr. Justice Blackburn said he had an important question
to settle. Supposing he came to the conclusion that Mr.
Bass, through his agent Mr. Brough, spent a sum of £720,
or whatever it might be, to secure a future election, and
then afterwards Mr. Chawner took the place of Mr. Bass,
and adopted his agent, thereby undoubtedly getting the
benefit of the corrupt expenditure, how would that affect
Mr. Chawner? The same thing would, in a minor
degree, affect Mr. Pochin, he having coalesced with Mr,
Chawner.

THE .MILITARY PRESS ON THE
AMERICAN QUESTION

- -~

The relations between England and Kmerica are dis-
cussed in the professional journals. These are inclined to
think that we have already conceded too nine)]. The
Broad Arrow cannot look back with any feel-
ings of complacency to the part our Govern-
ment has played. Whichever party has been in
power, our negotiations with America have been
conducted in anything but a dignified manner. Forced back
from one position to another, we have yielded, and yielded
in every instance with a bad grace. As each concession has
been wrung from us, our adversaries have advanced another
step in their position. Our willingness to make any sacrifices
to obtain their goodwill seems only to have incited them the
more obstinately to withhold it, It is probable that a
firmer and less vacillating attitude on our part from the
beginning might have been better calculated to achieve
the desired result. There must be an end of concessions
to America, an end of humouring, an end of all
attempts to keep peace between the two countries
except by acting so as to allow the Americans to realise
the fact that, nation for nation, we are, and shall probably
continue to be, their masters. The citizens of the United
States will not remain united. The President and his
compatriots may fancy they have only to await a declara-
tion of war to overrun Canada, but they are
mistaken, they will never incorporate the Dominion.
In the distant future Canada will more likely
annex some portion of the States. The conceited blind-
ness of the Americans prevents them from realising the
strength of Canada. Let us put more confidence in our
North American fellow-subjects. They will bear their
part nobly in any war, and both the great parties in
England are agreed as to the advisability of
looking on Canada as an independent empire, and
abandoning our military hold of the Dominion,
in the determination to exert the whole force of the
British nation in her defence. The Broad Arrow thinks
it time to give up talking about kith and kin. Our
American kin seek to place their knuckles at our throat,
but have not the power to keep them there. If it must
be, we will fight them, and to a certainty we shall
thrash them. The United Service Gazette has no
doubt that the conduct of the ruling classes
in America is steadily tending to excite and extend
a feeling of hostility between the two nations which may
ultimately lead us into a war, and this belief is not
weakened by the American descriptions of what
their governing classes are. The New York papers
speculate pleasantly on the ultimate possession
of Canada; but it is well to remember that, with
all their resources and with all the poverty of the
Southern Confederacy, it took the North four years to
annex the Southern States. How about Canada with open
ports and England at her back ?. The whole affair is too
ridiculous for serious thought, and we may rest assured
that Jonathan has no wish to burn his fingers by war with
England. Whether it may not become necessary for
England to bring him to his senses by open war becomes
every day a less doubtful question. The United Service
Gazette advises the Government to meet the Alabama
claims by a counter claim regarding the Fenian invasion.
Firmness and self-respect are the best preservers of peace
and prosperity.

A DESPERATE OFFEN DER !-At the Tinahely
Petty Sessions, the other day, a little girl was prosecuted
for taking up, when passing through a bog, two wild
ducks' eggs. The bench imposed a fine with costs, orim-
prisonment, on this famishing little child of a poor labourer,
—Freeman's Journal.

CENTENARY OF MACHIAVELLI. The fourth
centenary of the birth of Machiavelli has just been
celebrated in Florence. In the morning an address was
delivered over his tomb in the church of Santa Croce, and
other addresses were given during the afternoon in the
palace of Princess Orloff, which had been placed at the
disposal of the committee. In the evening Machiavelli's
translation of the" Andria" of Terence was represented at
the Nicolini Theatre. The American poet Longfellow
was present at the ceremony.

G]IETNA MA RRTAG Es. —A paragraph has been
going the round of some of the papers, copied from a
monthy magazine, to the effect that Gretna marriages are
still legal. That is undoubtedly the case ; but such a
simple announcement is calculated to mislead ; and as the
Whitsuntide likings are approaching, when many mar-
riages take place among agricultural and domestic ser-
vants, we would draw attention to the fact that in order
to render Scotch marriages legal, one of the contracting
parties must have lived in Scotland for twenty-one days
next preceding such marriage.— Carlisle Journal.
HORRIBLE MURDER OF A YOUNG GIRL.—One
of the most atrocious crimes ever committed in this
country, and which has caused the greatest pain and
indignation among all classes, was perpetrated a few days
ago in a field in the vicinity of Casal Musta, a village about
six miles distant from Valetta. The victim—a young
countrywoman, Domenica Galea—had been missing from
her home for two or three days, and on Saturday last
her corpse was found in a well in a field into which she
had been thrown, after having been barbarously assaulted
and murdered, the body of the poor girl bearing marks of
atrocious violence, and a knife wound in the abdomen.
A peasant, who lives in the vicinity of the field, has
been arrested by the police on suspicion of being con-
cerned in the perpetration of this horrible crime.—Malta
Observer.

A ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.—We (the Bir-
mingham Gazette) have just heard a capital anecdote,
which our relations with the narrator warrant us in
endorsing in every particular. Som eeighteenmdolnths ago
two gentlemen—one young an. d the other mid e-aged
F.
leading Jamestoa
spacious would
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e r et
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osge en,
theirot,
way as
uopu
the
hfene
avenuend G
.
say, wending
, &c., but quietly taking an evening stroll into the
neighbourhood of Temple Bar, where they encountered a
damsel of the "period," of course, crying bitterly.
The sympathies of the younger of the two were at once
enlisted, but the elder, whose chivalry had been quite
extinguished by long knowledge and experience of Lon
don "dodges," treated the affair as a hoax, and exhorted
his companion to "come on." Our hero gallantly refused,
and the two parted company, when the lady informed het
knight that she had that day come to town for the first
time in the company of her father, a Warwickshire clergy.
man, that they had repaired to an hotel of which she did
not remember the name, and that sauntering oat to do
some shopping, she had been absorbed by some novelty,
and " missed papa," and consequently knew neither
what to do nor where to go. The gentleman
was placed in rather an embarrassing position.
Of the truth of the lady's story he entertained no
doubt ; he soon discovered that she was a lady, and like 9
sensible man he determined to do his utmost to set hex
right. Ordering a cab, she was conveyed to an hotel and
located for the night, her rescuer appointing to meet
her in the morning, convey her to Paddington, and
despatch her back to Warwickshire. He did so, and a
few days afterwards the genuineness of the case was con-
firmed by a visit from the clergyman, who after heartily
thanking his daughter's deliverer for his kindness and j
chivalry, invited him down to the rectory, where the
intimacy was renewed and soon ripened into affection,
which was consummated last week by the matrimonial
union of deliverer and delivered. Moral: Never refuse
help to a lady in distress if you can be sure she is a
la{ly, and not an impostor, since by assisting her
pal may be entertaining an angel and a future wife
unawares.