The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 12, 1E69.

THE CONVE.NT CASE.

:The prospect of the cross-examination of Mrs. Starr,
one of the defendants, gave a fresh impetus on Thursday
to the excitement which the Hull convent case has aroused
at Westminster. The Solicitor-General is an adept at
this operation, which, while good fun to the spectators,
is often death to the witness. " Silver-tongued" Coleridge,
as the second law officer of the Crown is not inaptly styled,
plies the scalping-knife of cross-examination with a ruth-
less hand. Possessed in an eminent degree of the suavitcr
in modo, he deals no puny blow to the fabric of an oppo-
nent's case when he takes their witnesses in hand. With-
out any approach to the Old Bailey manner—which may
be effective, but is certainly unpleasant—the Solicitor-
General has a marvellous faculty for compelling
the occupant of the witness-box to gi•,-e those
little details of evidence which the other side would much
prefer being concealed. Those, however, who were fortu-
nate enough to get into court yesterday were not imme-
diatelypermitted the treat of hearing the cross-examination
of Mrs. Starr, for she had still much to say about
the alleged ill-conduct of the plaintiff through
the medium of her examination-in-chief. Referring
to the episode of the torn veil, Mrs. Starr said :
Four or five days after I discovered the veil worn by Miss
Samln was torn, I gave her another one, which I thought
would please her better, and I gave the torn one to another
sister, who repaired it and wore it daily for nearly three
years after. I gave her anew one, fearing she would utter'
destroy the one she was wearing.
The Lord Chief Justice : Did you say anything to her
about the tearing ?
Defendant : No, I thought it useless. When stockings
were given to her they were in good repair, but I noticed
when they came from the wash that they were torn in
many places. They could not have been so torn in the
wash, or when they were worn. They were principally
torn in the legs. Once or twice, on giving her clean
stockings, I asked her for the soiled ones. They were not
torn, and had no tears in them when they came back from
the wash. I once gave her a fine toilet towel without any
hole in it, but she sent it to the wash in so torn a con-
dition that it could not be used again. Her tunic was
given to her in good repair, and of the same quality as 1
wore myself, but when it came from the wash it could
scarcely be repaired.

The Lord Chief Justice : Did this happen every week ?
Defendant: For several weeks. They were not expli•
cable by age or wear. Mine scarcely wanted any repairs.
In March 1863 my attention was called to plaintiff's
finger. She had a piece of rag or paper around hez
thimble finger. I asked her whyshe woke it, and she said
she wore it because her thimble was too large. I said she
had better have a smaller one, and I gave her a bagful
from which to choose. She said that one she had would
do. I gave her one to wear. She afterwards raid hex
finger was sore. I looked and found the finger was not sore.
I did not select a brass thimble for the purpose
of hurting her. She had a chilblain on the top of the
first finger. I did not tell her then to wash the candle
grease off her finger. It was prior or subsequent to it, I
don't know which. In 18G4 or 1865 I had found in hex
room and other parts of the house pieces of tallow.
The Lord Chief Justice : Do you mean pieces of
candle?

Defendant : Pieces of tallow she had taken from the
candles.

The Lord Chief Justice : What sized pieces ?
Defendant : Very small. I saw the floor had been
soiled by grease being trodden on, and on finding tallow
in her cell and in the community-room, where she had
been sitting, I questioned her about it, and sl:e told me
she had taken it for her chilblains. I told her she should
not have taken it, but have applied to me for a remedy,
and I would have given her one. They might take
it, but what I found fault with was, her allowing
it to fall about, and be trodden on the floors.
The witness, referring to the statement made by the plain.
tiff about the thimble, said Miss Saurin was very rude
about the matter. I required her to take one that would
fit her, and she said, " How can you persecute a poor
creature so?" That was before she said her finger was

The Lord Chief Justice : What sort of thimble was she
wearing?
Defendant : Steel.
The Lord Chief Justice : What was the one she was
required to take ?
Defendant : Brass. They were all brass, I think.
The Lord Chief Justice : At all events it was a brass
one she was compelled to wear?
Defendant : Yes. They may be either silver, steel,
brass, or ivory. Her silver thimble was taken from her
in the previous June because it had been given to her by
an externe, Mrs. Grimston. I don't know it of my own
knowledge.
The Lord Chief Justice : She is one of the great
supporters of the institution.
Defendant : Yes ; she is one of our great benefactors.
She should have had leave of the local superior.
The Lord Chief Justice : Did you first ascertain whether
she had done so?
Defendant : No.
The Lord Chief Justice : But should you not have done
so before taking it from her ?
Defendant : It is not necessary.
The Lord Chief Justice : I understood you took it
from her because it was given to her by an extern.
Defendant : Yes; and because I did not wish her to
retain it.
The Lord Chief Justice : Why did you not wish her to
retain it?
Defendant : Because I saw in her such a spirit of appro-
priation.
The Lord Chief Justice : If a thimble is given to a sister
ror her own use, must she not keep it, but give it over for
the general community ?
Defendant: 'When a sister receives a present she must
give it up to the superioress. She cannot retain it without
the superioress's leave.
The Lord Chief Justice : Did you take away presents
from the other sisters under similar circumstances 9
Defendant : Yes ; it is the constant practice with me,
and it is done in other convents as an exercise'
of poverty. She had shown a bad temper the previous
day. Whilst she was kneeling down and acknowledging
her fault, she made an indirect charge against me. She
spoke incoherently, but it was in a tone of complaint. I
cannot give her words. She said in substance that the
sisters turned their backs upon her at recreation.
She spoke about the bread. She said it was
either bad or mouldy. She also spoke of per-
mention and tyranny. Mrs. Kerr and Mrs. Melligan
were present. She said she knew she could get into
another convent if she chose, but that she would not
go. She was very excited. I was not conscious of having
persecuted her. All I had done was to correct her, and
try to make her good. I told the sisters that the accusa-
tion of faults was not intended to give an opportunity
to the imperfect to give vent to their bitter feelings ;
that I had allowed Sister Mary Scholastica to speak
as she had done without interruption that they might
know her and judge for themselves. I addressed
Miss Sanrin and said, "I excused you yesterday because I
saw you were in a passion, but to-day you coolly and deli-
berately give pent to your bitter feelings, and accuse me of
tyranny and persecution. You have just now said you
could get into a convent if you liked, but that you
would not go." I said, "Do go," and spoke to the effect
that we should be all very thankful if she did so.
In further examination the defendant said : About the
end of May, 1865, plaintiff asked for a staylace, and in
four days afterwards she asked for another. I took her
into my private room. Mrs. Kennedy, the mother
assistant, was present. I told plaintiff to take off her
upper clothing after she had taken off her habit. I think I
put my hand ui on her petticoat, and said " Take this off,"
and she did so. As she took her clothes off, I put out my
hand, and she gave them to me. She had three small
bags round her neck. In two of them she had scapulas
and some bonnet ribbons, and in the third bag she
had some devotional object. I took the bags
off her myself. She immediately said, " Don't
take my scapulas ;" and I replaced them on
her neck. She then took off her pocket. The tunic was
not disturbed by me or Mrs. Kennedy. She made a
movement to open her tunic, and I said " Don't
do that ; you must not." Oa taking off her
pocket, I laid it on the table. She appeared
anxious to get it back again, and said she wanted
her pocketha,ndkerchief. I gave it to her. I then exa-
mined her pocket—a very large one. I found a collection
of small things, as on a previous occasion.
Amongst other things were two roughly-made tablets.
She had from time to time applied for writing materials,
and I had given her them. She had not asked leave to
keep such tablets.
Some further evidence having been given, the case was
again adjourned.

Txn RIVAL CHRISTY MINSTRELS. —The long-
pending dispute between the rival troupes of Christy's
Minstrels has ben the subject of an action in the Bail
Court. The plaintiffs are the C. C. C., or Col6nred
Comedian Christy Minstrels, and they accuse the Original
Christy Minstrels, who perform in St. James's Hall, of pub-
lishing libels upon them. They all, it seems, belonged to the
same troupeoriginally,but af terperforming together for some
years a'separation took place. The libel complained of by the
C. C. C. Minstrels was the warning on the playbills that
the Original Christy Minstrels never performed out of
London, and that consequently all others were impostors.
A verdict was agreed to for the plaintiffs—damages, 40s. ;
the defendants promising to withdraw the advertisement
complained of, and to state iu any other notices that their
Qbiection4 did not apply to the C. C. C. Minstrels.

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

(From the Anglo-American Tinv.v.,
[SECOND NOTICE. j
Illy Adcenlures Afloat in the Sumter and Alabama.
By Admiral Raphael Semmes.
The name under which the Alabama sailed from
Liverpool is explained as being the 290th vessel
built by the Lairds. She was of 900 tons burden,
230 feet in length, 32 in width, 20 in depth, drawing
when ready for a cruise 15 feet of water. She was
rigged as a bark with long lower masts, which en-
abled her to carry large fore and aft sails. Her
scantling was light compared to vessels of her class
in the United States Navy, being more designed as
a scourge on commerce than for battle. Her engines
were of 300-horse power, and all in all she was a
perfect steamer and sailing ship at the same time,
though not as swift as supposed. Her propeller
could be raised in 13 minutes, and lowered with
equal facility. Her armament was eight guns, six
32-pounders in broadside, 100-pounder rifled Blakely
on the forecastle, and a smooth 8-inch bore gun abaft
the mainmast. Her crew was 120 men ,with 21 officers.
The cost of the ship complete was two hutidred and
fifty thousand dollars. The escape from Liverpool
is described, and the arming and commissioning at
Terceira, from which island No. 290 issued as the
Confederate man-of-war Alabama, and commenced
a career replete with disasters, but without a single
good—alike the destroyer of property and harmony,
marking her track with ships on fire, and leasing
behind her a heritage of discord. We do not intend,
at least here, to discuss the arguments of Admiral
Semmes to show that his career was legal and
abundantly covered by precedent even from the
history of the United States. We desire the record
of his cruise to stand alone, himself telling the mo-
tives and sentiments which moved him to action in
the despotic position he assumed. The book abounds
with proof how he regarded his enemy. He held
that the America warring against his section was only
Puritan, and he replied by a arabid hatred of the Pu-
ritan element. " With all the Puritan's pretension to
learning, and amid all the appliances of civilization
by which he has surrounded himself, he is still the
same old Plymouth-Rock man that his ancestor
was three centuries ago. He is the same gloomy,
saturnine fanatic ; he has the same impatience of
other men's opinions, and is the same vindictive
tyrant that he was when he expelled Roger Wil-
liams from his dominions. The cockatrice's egg
has hatched a savage in short, that refuses to be
civilized." This we extract at random to show the
feelings with which this judge went forth to admi-
nister international law on the high seas.
We had other grounds for asserting that Admiral
Semmes was a sea-lawyer than the long-winded
historical retrospects and legal arguments with which
he opens his book. Indeed he claimed for himself
a monopoly of law, at least in the Alabama, and to
show his impatience of any one in his company even
pretending to such a knowledge, we may quote his
own words :—" Whenever I found 1 had a sea-
lawyer among the crew, I got rid of him as soon as
possible—giving him a chance to desert. I re-
served the quids and quos and pros and cons exclu-
sively for myself." He had established a Confe-
derate Court of Admiralty on board for the trial
of doubtful questions ; but he does not tell how it
was constituted. It is clear, as he drove every
" sea-lawyer" out of the ship, that no one remained
but himself ; and although he enters the decrees
against the Lafayette and the Lauretta as if those
of a regular tout t, they could hare been but his
own /*pee dixit. The questions arising were often
sufficient to puzzle an able advocate trained to
sifting such evidence. But these questions appear
to have given very little trouble to the gallant sea-
lawyer, who almost invariably cut them short with the
sword and torch. Cargoes of coal for the Peninsular
and Oriental Company —for the Messageries Inape-
riale--and in other cases where there could be little
doubt in the mind of any rational man that the
freight belonged to a peaceful company of neutrals
unconnected with America, were mercilessly de-
stroyed, and in cases where he hit any house or in-
divAaal in his list as hostile to the Confederacy or
distasteful to himself the sea-lawyer always found
the capture a goo 1 1 raze. For instance, in the case
of the Wales, " cousigned to and probably owned
b./ the obnoxious hou-e of the Barings in Boson,
whose ship, the Neapolitan, I had burnt in the
Straits of Gibraltar. This British house had ren-
dered itself exceedingly active during the war in
the Federal interest, importing large quantities
of arms, and otherwise aiding the enemy ; and I
took a special pleasure therefore in applying the
torch to its property." Again the Ariel, which he
captured when on the lo sk out for the treasuresteamer
I from Aspinwall to New York. Unfortunately for
the Alabama she was outward bound, and there-
fore had passengers, but not gold. For three days
he kept her, in the hopes of capturing some craft
of lesser valve into which to turn the 500 passen-
gers, and burn the Ariel, which he the more ear-
nestly desired, "as she belonged to Mr. Vanderbilt
of New York, an old steamboat captain, who had
amassed a large fortune in trade, and was a bitter
enemy to the South." Here, then, he was simply re-
strained from destroying the vessel by the fact that
with it he must destroy a number of passengers, and
it was only when compelled to proceed for the des-
tination to which he was then bound that he allowed
the vessel to depart on a ransom bond, Capt. Jones
pledging his word that it would be regarded by
Vanderbilt as a debt of honour. " The bond,"
adds Semmes, " is for sale cheap to any one desir-
ing to redeem Mr. Vanderbilt's honour." The au-
thor furnishes many instances of the motive upon
which this judge of every one's property on the high
seas worked. Yet there is no better proof of this than in
the tone of the book. Let any man wholly free from
bias read it, and answer the question whether its
writer was a proper person fairly and impartially to
decide questions on Federal property. He was
always receiving batches of papers and letter-bag,s
from captures. The former he distributed to theship,
the latter he kept for his own reading, and some
curious secrets,rsahbveahag;leges he was let into thereby,
unconnected—at least in a material way—with busi-
ness.
sea AcPabpnt at ng (Olualdro
reassure
invoices
the andfa fair
billson espassionatefr()na laorz -nlge tt theer
vari-
ous raormi
of
that lading,
their butseo
rheets desiresare
safe
a tf oe
as they have all been consigned to the deep. These
letters and papers, coming from the North, had a
Northern way of putting the questions concerning
the war, which seemed to fire the soul of the equit-
able Semmes with patriotic indignation and brighten
to a fiercer flame his ever-lighted torch. Henever
seems to tire of abusing and expressing his contempt
for the Yankee arguments and the "Yankee hash,"
but, very innocently,
he winces and kicks viciously
against what he desires people to believe ho re-
garded with profound contempt. The Northern
the fs.
an
papers had another effect besides spurring
partial judge into the destruction ofNorthern
trader. When he got on the track of the American
junk fleet, as the young officers called the ships
bearing the grain to Europe of the 'Western States,
his posts came in with great regularity, for he had
only to lie still, allow the ships to come down and
deliver them, and be destroyed. He thanks the
editors of the New Yorkllerald for valuable informa-
tion regarding the enemy's gunboats, which enabled
him to take the better care of the Alabama, adding,
" The Americans effected many reforms in the art
of war during our late struggle. Perhaps this was
the only war in which the newspapers ever ex-
plained beforehand all the movements of armies and
fleets to the enemy." Nor this only ; for the New
Yor's: papers gave him information about the Ala-
bama, where she was going, and where she was ex-
pected to go, and he was glad to find that while the
cruiser was drawing in to the Empire City itself,
they were persuaded that it was on the coast of
Brazil. The accounts given of the captures he made
could scarcely have added to the affection he already
burg his Northern brethren, who he so heartily and
continuously abnes for abusing him, while all his
moralizing is iu a strain of wonder at the Yankee
hatred of the South, as illustrated by their plunder-
ings and burnings there, totally forgetting that his
miseion was to apply the torch to everything be-
longing to the North which he could lay his hands
upon. According to this legal authority the regu-
lar Government of the United States had no right
to burn anything, and, in doing so, displayed their

cupidity and malignity, but he, as the servant of
the pretended Government at Richmond, had the
right to burn and plunder, not only Federal pro-
perty, but that of neutrals, which in any way might
be used to strengthen and to comfort the North. It
is ludicrous to observe the tone of this gentleman,
indeed some of his moralizing is worth noting. The
prize Parker Cooke on fire, lighting up the mountains
of St. Domingo then in sight, induces the following :
" Sixty years before, the negro had cut the throat of
the white man, ravished his wife and daughters, and
burned his dwelling in this island. The white man
in another country was now inciting the negro to
the perpetration of the same crime against another
white man whom he called brother. The white
man who was thus inciting the negro was the
Puritan of New England, whose burning ship was
lighting up the shores of St. Domingo !" There
may be something remarkable in the connection,
in the chain of evidence, and in the eventud
pun'shment, to have induced these reflections which
seem to have so highly gratified the legal subtlety of
a Semmes' mind. But we cannot see it; in truth, un-
less we had heard it from so great a legal authority
we would have applied to this the pithy Persian
word, signifying nothing, L'osh ! Nor could we have
found any other word more aptly to express our
meaning for what follows :—" That Puritan, only
a generation before, had entered into a solemn
league and covenant to restore to the Southern
man his fugitive slave if he should escape into his
territory. This was the way in which he was keep-
ing Lis plighted faith ! Does any one wonder that
the Alabama burned New England ships?" It is gra-
tifying to see that the interpretation of law laid down
by such a master, and the precedents thus established,
have not been lost to the world ; but were these reflec-
tions extracted from the " Alabama Confederate
States Admiralty Court" decision on the prize Parker
Cooke? Again he visited this island, and again he
moralized, for the scene of negro triumph and negro
cruelty seems to have had a strange power of fasci-
nation over the mind of the Alabama's captain.
"The old city of S. Domingo, how many associa-
tions does it not call up ! It was a large and
flourishing city a hundred years before that pesti-
ferous little craft the Mayflower brought out the
cockatrice's egg that hatched out the Puritan." His
descriptions of the Yankee captains captured are in
the same strain. " The captain of the Wales,
though a Northern man, bad very few of the ear-
marks of the Yankee skipper about him. He was
devoid of the raw-boned angularity which charac-
terises most of them, and spoke very good English
through his mouth instead of his nose. His pro-
nunciation and grammar were both good—quite an
unusual circumstance among his class." Yet quali-
fied judges, and British too, have lately pronounced
a strong opinion that English is spoken in America
in far greater purity than in Great Britain--the
exception being the people who speak good Eng-
lish taking the English in a mass, and the excep-
tion being those who speak bad English in America
taking the Americans in a mass. He gives an
account of a consul he captured in the Union Jack,
on his way to Foochow. The Rev. Franklin Wright
was " an ex-New England parson, editor of a re-
ligious paper, in a New England village. He had
Puritan written all over his lugubrious countenance,
and looked so solemn that one wondered how he
came to exchange the clergyman's garb for the
garb of Belial. But so it was. Franklin was going
out to India (sic) in quest of the dollars. We de-
prived him of his consular seal and commission,
though we did not molest his private papers, and of
sundry very pretty consular flags that had been
carefully prepared for him by Mr. Seward (fits), at
the State Department at Washington. I am pained
to see by that little bill of Mr. Seward (i)re)
against the depredations of the Alabama, before
referred to, that the Rev. F. Wright put his dam-
ages down at $10,015.. I had no idea that the New
England parson carried so much plunder about
with him." The legal acumen of Semmes does not
prevent his falling into many conspicuous little
blunders. In the instance we have given, Foo-
chow appears to be in India, and a few pages before
he makes the strength of the U.S. gunboat Hatte-
ras, he Lad just sunk, officers and crew all told, to
be 108 ; yet, almost immediately after, he says he
lauded 130 of the men of the Hatteras at Kings •
stows, Jamaica. But we must hurry on, fur, as it
is, we have dwelt sa long on these details that we
cannot give an idea of Semmes' account of the
Alabama without a Third Notice. Next to the
vi the
tn
g incident,l\betweenartin which h excites most inter,st is
action which closed the career of the Codederate
nadn
dt hceoaglui
nucrb ooant it /hLeit
rteo) :cis;
,ct‘hrfeat
iescreollm. leaving
Semmes ran into the Gulf of Mexico to strike a
blow at Banks' expedition, then organizing to in-
seGtetsneproallithiceiand,esNeNrhiboeshaads 'n'
oa
prominent
a s
sort of military talent, having risen to
the surface
among other scum, amid the bubbling and boilin g
.of the Yankee cauldron. Banks had mounted a stud-horse on Boston-common on militia review
days before the war, and had himself lithographed
stul-horse, cocked hat, feathers and all ; and these
were credentials not to be despised." The Confe-
derate hoped to effect a night surprise, setting fire
to the large fleet of transports, and getting off un-
harmed. It was on his way to Galveston,while '
keep-
ing a look out as an interlude for the California trea-
sure ship, that he captured the Ariel, his 1 be ep ant, as
he truly calls her, not knowing what to do with the
ponderous brute. When he sighted his
port he
found five Federal war ships shelling it, which was
the first intimation he had that Magruder ha I re-
captured it, and that Banks had therefore changed
the direction of the invasion. When the Federal
fleet observed him, one of the steamers immediately
got under way, and it was then he conceived the
notion of drawing her from her consorts under the
supposition that the Alabama was a merchantman,
when he might capture her if he had reason to be-
lieve he was superior in force, or run if the strength
lay on the Federal side. The Hatteras followed
him for 20 miles, when night fell; and suddenly the
Alabama, with her steam up and all cleared for ac-
tion, turned. The Hatteras ran close up and hailed,
and the answer was " Her Britannic Majesty's ship
Vixen." The Hatteras said she would send a boat
on board, which was immediatelydropped, and it was
not till then the announcement was made that the
strange vessel was the Alabama which reached the
United States gunboat almost simultaneously with
a broadside. The action lasted only thirteen minutes,
and in a few more the Hatteras sank. She was an old
tub, totally unfitted to cope with a new vessel of war,
like the Alabama, even had her battery been equal.
Her engines were not protected beneath the water
line, like those of the vessel built by Laird, and
the eight-inch shells crashed through them, quickly
disabling the Hatteras, and rendering her unma-
nageable. However Captain Burke fought Ler
to the last, leaving barely time to get out with
his crew, before she went down. The weight of the
metal and the quality of the armament were much
superior in the Alabama, though there was little
difference in the tonnage or in the strength of the
crews. This was Semmes' great feat, and we do
not desire to detract from its merit ; for though the
result could not be doubtful where two such vessels
were handled by brave seamen, yet neither knew
against what odds he might be matched, and both
gallantly took their chance. Nor can a sailor, as we
shall hereafter have occasion to say of Semmes him-
self when it comes to his turn to sink, do more than
fight his ship till she goes down under him. We
may, however, just now allude to the strange retri-
bution which overtook this man. He had the pain
of seeing his own vessel destroyed by an adver-
sary fairly matched against himself, her career
ending in a way similar to that which, through his
agency, had overtaken the Hatteras, while even-
tually the very torch he had so ruthlessly used iu
burning merchantmen he was himself compelled to
apply to the last squadron of his Government and
thJ last ships he ever commanded.

THE LICENSING SYSTEM.--Tbe Birmingham
borough magistrates, at a sitting on Tuesday morning,
adopted an important memorial, praying the Government
to introduce a bill speedily into the llouse of Commons,
taking away from the Excise the function of ]icencing
beer-houses, and vesting the power in the magistrates of
the boroughs and counties.
DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, • are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re-
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exports.
lion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Danville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buiMings, Strand, London W.CI,--[Ad
Tortionient.]

METROPI

P—Thursday.

The week has been rife with rumours of Ministerial
differences. These rumours are not unfounded. The old
story is being re-told. There is a feud between the Whigs
and the Radicals, and it is quite within the range of possi-
bility that the Liberal party may be broken up. Lord
Russell's proposals with regard to the Irish Church, which
were contained in his third letter, but which to ordinary
readers seemed entirely out of date, have proved by no
means so. The Whig party generally are for accepting
these proposals, or something like them, and it will be
remembered that they were long ago advocated by
Earl Grey. The Radical party are, of course, for
entire disendowment, and strongly adverse to
the levelling-up policy. This difference of opinion has
broken out in the Cabinet, and it is by no means certain
which party will prevail. It seems strange that there
should be any doubt on the matter, inasmuch as Mr.
Gladstone has pledged himself against any appropria-
tion of the Irish Church revenues to the Roman
Catholic Church ; inasmuch, too, as the country
deliberately pronounced against that policy at the
general election ; inasmuch, moreover, as when
Mr. Gladstone formed his Cabinet it was understood
that on many subjects there would be latitude of opinion
allowed, but on the subject of the Irish Church agree-
ment was essential. It is stated to-day, in well-informed
circles, that the measure for dealing with the Irish Church
will not be brought in during the first fortnight of the
session, but that it will be laid on the table on a day
famous in the annals of legislation—the clay on which
Lord Russell brought in his successful Reform Bill
of 1832, and (Liberals will say absit omen) the
day on which he brought forward his unsuc-
cessful Reform Bill of 1860—the first of March.
Of course, a measure of such importance, and one with
which Mr. Gladstone has so completely identified his
name, will be intreduced by the Premier himself. This
announcement, which is made on what I believe to be
good authority, would seem to imply that the differences
spoken of above had been surmounted. That is not neces-
sarily the case. It does not follow that the bill
which Mr. Gladstone brings in will be the bill to
pass. It is by no means improbable that Lord Russell
will move an amendment when the measure reaches the
Upper House, embodying the proposals of his letter, and
that the Conservatives and Whigs will agree to support it.
In that case it is intimated Mr. Gladstone might be found
submitting to the inevitable. There is nothing in his
past history which seems to warrant such a supposition.
At present the situation is not a little critical.
The report of Lord Clarendon's illness, started in the
Echo, was quite unfounded. Not only has the Foreign
Secretary not been unable to attend to the business of his
department, but he has been peculiarly active in conduct-
ing it during the last two or three weeks. I may state
that he has been the foremost in counselling the Greek
Government to accept the protocol of the Paris Conference.
It was only with the greatest difficulty that this concession
could, be obtained, and to our Foreign Minister Europe
owes it that she is not witnessing now the beginning of a
great war. It would be too much to say that the
danger of war has been altogether surmounted. There
are many symptoms, especially the large importation of
French arms into Civita Vecchia, which seems to show
that France, at all events, considers the conflict only
postponed. But Lord Clarendon will say with Canning,
who, when some member declared that war must come
sooner or later, replied, " Then, sir, let it be later."
All doubt respecting the leadership of the Conservative
party in the Upper House is now apparently set at rest
by the seemingly official announcement that the duty will
be entrusted to Lord Cairns. This is a position of which
he may well feel proud. Fifteen years ago he was only
Mr. Cairns, member for Belfast, a barrister in good
practice, though not a Q.C., and not known as a debater.
In 1856 he took silk; in 1858 he became Solicitor-General;
in 1866 Attorney-General ; in 1867 Lord Justice; in 1868
Lord Chancellor ; and now, in 1869, this undistinguished
barrister of fifteen years ago is put over the heads of mar-
quises and dukes, takes precedence of the noblest and
oldest blood in the kingdom, and, risen from the people,
leads the most aristocratic assembly in the world. This
speaks much, not only for his abilities, but for the paucity
of ability among the great ruling families. No single
incident of recent times marks so strongly the
decaying power of the peerage as the fact that the great
Conservative party is led by a gentleman of the Press in
the Lower House and by a gentleman of the long robe in
the Upper.
Among the unfounded rumours of the present week is
the report that the Government did not intend to carry
out the project of purchasing the telegraphs. There has, I
am assured, been no hesitation about the purchase, but
there has been some consideration as to whether the terms
mentioned last year were not too high. The bill passed
last year simply enabled Government to purchase on
terms not exceeding twenty years' profits ; but this clearly
leaves the Government open to purchase for eighteen years'
profits, if it can. I believe that at the present time certain
Government officials are now in various atices of the
telegraph companies, learning the way to work the wires,
so that the Government may not be left stranded when the
transfer is made.
The death of Mr. Charles Bell, the member for the
City, was announced before the event by one of the
London evening papers, and that announcement was tele-
graphed to all the country papers. About noon on
Tuesday a message was sent from a well-known adver-
tising and newspaper agency in the City to all the London
evening journals to the effect that Mr. Bell was dead and
that Baron Rothschild would come forward to take his
seat. At two o'clock, just as they were going to press,
a second message was received requesting that the first
might not be used, and that request was com-
plied with by all the editors except. that of the Echo.
The morning journals of the next day stated that though
hopelessly ill, the hon. member was still living. As a matter
of fact, he died at Richmond during the night. This
makes the fourth death which has taken place since the
elections, both sides having suffered equally—Wareham
and Renfrewshire by the death of Mr. Calcraft and Capt.
Speirs, South Derbyshire and London by the death of Sir
Thom Gresley and Mr. Bell. The latter two bad not been in
Parliament before. The Liberals lost a seat at Wareham
by the death of Mr. Calcraft, but will gain a far more
important seat in London by the death of Mr.
Bell. He was the minority member, and although
the Conservatives have met to discuss if they should con-
test the constituency, no one believes that they would have
the smallest chance in a single-handed contest ; and as
nothing is sai3 in to-day's papers with respect to their in-
tentions, it may be assumed that they win not attempt to
fight. Mr. Bell was member of a firm which had three
partners in the House of Commons. He is to be succeeded
by a commercial magnate who has an equal number of
relatives in the same assembly. Baron Rothschild has
been selected because it is supposed that the seat is
due to him. There is no great amount of enthusiasm
in his behalf, for he is no speaker, and a rare attendant at
the debates, or even in the division lobby. A certain
section, consisting chiefly of the London tradesmen,
would have preferred Sir Benjamin Phillips, who as Lord
Mayor of London won their hearts. But the men on
'Change think that he would not have been "big "
enough, and prefer an inefficient Rothschild to an efficient
Phillips.
Mr. Glyn and Mr. Hart Dyke will have plenty to do on
the first night of the session. There will be no fewer
than nine writs to move for ; four of these—Bradford,
Drogheda, Wexford, and Radnor —were filled by Liberals ;
five—Bewdley, Norwich, Dublin, Westbury, and London
—by Conservatives. Probably we shall hear something
also about Nottingham, where Colonel Wright some
time ago announced his retirement. It is not the
fault of the Conservative party that other seats have not
fallen vacant. Ten Liberals have been unsuccessfully
petitioned against. Clearly, Mr. Spofforth has found himself
all at sea witt this new-fangled petition apparatus which
his clever chief devised. Like household suffrage, it has
hurt its inventor rather badly.
The birth of a "Duke of Orleans" has caused no
little excitement in Anglo-French circles. It is
another guarantee for the continuance of the Bourbon
line, for the supply of claimants to the French throne
whenever it becomes vacant. Among our own upper
circles the event has caused great satisfaction. The
English Royal Family and English statesmen may recognise
the ruling French dynasty, but the English noblesse do not.
A very well-known English Parisian who has been over
here for a few days told me that our aristocracy almost
invariably keep away from the Tuileries when in Paris.
The men who used to be friends with Napoleon when he
was an exile will not pay court to him now that he is an
emperor. They are rejoiced at the " accident " which has
placed in the English Embassy an unmarried ambassador,
and thereby interposed a serious obstacle to the pre-
sentation of English ladies at the French Court.
The Emperor, I am assured, feels this cold-
ness not a little, the more so as he knows that
English nobles would crowd to Paris if " Henri Cinq "
were to be master of the Tuileries. As it is, the number
of English residents in the French capital has long been
steadily diminishing.
A new protest of Ritualists against the St. Alban's
judgment has been published. It is subscribed by very
few persoas of importance, and the fifty dissentients at
the great meeting in the Freemasons' Tavern appear to
have diminished just one-half. Even the other moiety do
not say taey will disobey the judgment ; they simply pro-
test against it. At the church of one of the signitaries, St.
Michael's, Shoreditch, it is said that the Sarum
use will be introduced after 'Easter. If this be
true, Mr. Nihill would do well to read the
preface to the Prayer-book " Concerning the Service
of the Church," where it is said, "And whereas hereto-

fore there hath been great diversity in saying and singing
in churches within this realm, some following Salisbury
use, some Hereford use, and some the use of Bangor, some
of York, some of Lincoln: now from henceforth all the
whole realm shall have but one use." One of the clergy
who refused at first to comply with the judgment, the
Rev. R. T. West, of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington,
has, in consequence of a friendly conference with his
new diocesan (whose command he was willing to
obey, though unwilling to obey the State), followed
the example of the majority, and at the eight
o'clock celebration yesterday (Ash Wednesday) the altar
candles were for the first time unlighted. The new
bishop seems anxious to shew as much consideration as he
can for the Ritualists. In his old diocese they were rani
nantes in gurgite vasto; in his new, he finds them so
numerous that they cannot be put down. His first public
act will be performed to-morrow, when he will consecrate
a church near the Commercial-road.
No little scandal has been caused in metropolitan
Dissenting circles during the last few days by the dis-
appearance of a Nonconformist preacher from the north of
London. The person in question was a pupil of Mr.
Spurgeon, had a very comfortable livelihood of £7OO a
year from his chapel, and was blessed with a wife and four
children. But these various good things did not content
him : he must needs run off with another man's wife, and,
to make the matter worse, the wronged husband is his own
brother.
Of literary news I have a little to-day. Mr. Josiah
Gilbert, the editor of Murray's Guide to the Tyrol, and
the joint author with Mr. Churchill of the book on the
Dolomite Mountains, is engaged in writing a Life of Titian,
with criticisms on his works. The book will be beautifully
illustrated, and published by Longmans. Messrs. Parker
are about to publish a concordance to Keble, by two
ladies, which will be a remarkable work, inasmuch
as one of the editresses is blind, but has
nevertheless —( r • hat account— a
most perfect knowledge of Keble's poetry, having learnt it
by heart. Messrs. Parker have issued Sir John Coleridge's
Life of Keble, whose intended appearance I mentioned in
a former letter. The " Hymns for the Sick and Suffer-
ing," which have had a considerable sale, are by Miss
Priscilla Maurice, sister of Professor Maurice and of Mrs.
Hare, widow of Archdeacon Hare. The editor of Mr.
Ciabbe Robinson's diary is Dr. Sadler, a Unitarian
minister, of Hampstead. Mr. Robinson himself was
a Unitarian. Mr. Edmund Yates has since his bankruptcy
resigned the editorship of Tinsleys' 111agazine. This gentle-
man found his first attempt at playwriting by no means
satisfactory, having, as he stated in court, cleared only
about £l5 by his "Tame Cats," a fact which will not
greatly vex the soul of Mr. Swinburne. Mr. Stigand, the
author of the noticeable paper in Belgravia on " Byron,"
is a contributor to the current number of the Edinburgh
Review, havinsr- believe, written the article on "Spain
under Charles 11." Everybody is talking about Professor
Beesly's article in the For/m*97/11y, which is not only
unusually brilliant, but has a special interest in it,
because under the characters of two French statesmen of
the last century, he has dealt with two most eminent
English statesmen of our own day. I should add that
Mr. Beesly is not only a Radical of the extremest kind,
but a Comtist, and has therefore no sympathy, nor
indeed patience, with a mind like Mr. Gladstone's, which
is so powerfully influenced by religious motives. The
article in the Quarterly on Ritualism is attributed to Canon
Robertson, of Canterbury, the author of "Sketches of
Church History during the First Six Centuries." Captain
Byng Hall, who was said to be the editor of The Queen's

Messenger, the new weekly spoken of in a former letter,
has publicly denied it. It was a connection of which he
could scarcely feel proud.
Artists are now deciding upon the pictures which they
will send to the Royal Academy. Mr. Frith has several in
hand, among then a modern subject called "Hopes and
Fears," a scene from "Don Quixote,"and another study of
Caroline times (though very different from his famous

picture of 1867), Nell Gwynne selling oranges. Both
Mr. and Mrs. Ward will exhibit. The first will
have the Introduction at Court of Grinling Gibbons,
the wonderful woodcarver whom Sir Christopher
Wren brought from the Netherlands, in order to do the
stall work at St. Paul's. Mr. Ward's other picture will
be "Luther First Studying the Bible." Mrs. Ward's
subject is "An Incident in the Life of the First Pre-

tender." Mr. Pettie has selected a very notable subject,
"The Fall of Wolsey." Mr. Calderon has two pictures—
one has for title the first line of Marlowe's well-known

song, " Come live with me and be my love," and represents
two figures in fifteenth - century costume. The other

represents an incident in French history—the widow of the

Duke of Guise persuading Clement to murder Henrylll.
Mr. Armitage bas a scriptural subject, and a picture of

Hero and Leander. AT;. Leslie has two pictures—one;

single female figure reclining in an arbour ; the other
founded on the old song, " It's best to be off with the old

love before you're on with the new "—a girl standing with
her recreant lover's portrait in her drooping hand, while
her mother is reading the letter in which the rupture of
the tie is announced. Mr. Marks has a large picture,
" The Minstrel's Gallery," a major-domo of the Middle
Ages shewing a number of minstrels to the gallery whence
they are to enliven a festival which is being carried on
below. Mr. Mason, whose "Evening Hymn "was thegem of
last year's Academy, and won for him the large number of
forty votes at the late ballot for two associates, has two
pictures, one a rustic party taking refuge under a tree
during a hail-storm, and the other an evening on a
moor, with the bright light of the sunset reflected
on a stream. Mr. Watts has on hand several pictures, among
which are " Diana and Edymion ;" a single figure, larger
than life, of Hyperion sitting on the clouds just ere the
sun breaks forth upon the night ; " Una and the Red
Cross Knight," the first riding on her lowly ass, and the
knight on his war steed ; also, a portrait of a lady. Mr.
Watts will probably send these, and perhaps more, to the
Royal Academy Exhibition.