The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-25 00:00:00

e-icer
FORETGN NO
THE ALABAMA C:
The Owl gives vent to a mournful.
question. The negotiations have \
change of Government in America, b.
proceeded they have not advanced. say
ouic,tioh,
~ays the Owl, is as remote as ever. Th
has been complete : a few weeks since a thorough settle.
ment seemed likely; now fresh difficulties have arisen.
GREAT DROUGHT IN AITSTRALLL
The colonies of Victoria and New South Wales are both
suffering terribly from the want of rain. The drought is
universal. From Melbourne in the south to Queensland
in the north:sheep are perishing by thousands from want of
water. On one " run" 30,000 have been lost in this way.
Horses arc offered at eight and ten shillings each,
and sheep can find no purchasers at sevenpence
a head. In New South Wales the Times correspondent
met with a horse-breeder who had sold 400 horses from
five to twelve years of age, and unbroken, for fivepence
head. The oases in the desert are extremely few, but, in
order to find them, the settlers have to imitate the rtag-
tice of th?, patriarchs of -Id, nod tape their flocks and
herds from one placo, to another. =Much of the distress has
apparently arisen from oversto;•king runs. Irrigation
promises to become an A stralian as well as an Indian.
cuestion.

SOLUTION OF THE LELCIAN DIFFICULTY.

There seenis to be a difference in international parlance
between a solution and a settlement. A settlement is pre-
sumed to be the end of a question ; a solution is the menus
to an cud. It is now certain that the Belgian difficulty
has been " solved," and that the terms already published
are corrt,t.. The convention between the East of
France :A the Luxemburg Railway Companies is to
be submitted to a mixed commission, which will also con-
sider the general industrial relations between the two
States. The Times approves of this decision. If our own
commercial relations with France have been a fitting
subject for negotiation, there must be room, it thinks, for
a revision of the arrangements which at present exist
between two States whose territories adjoin, and whose
capitals—the one looking like a miniature of the other—
are separated only by a few hours' distance.
Belgium, indeed, is likely to gain even more
than France by a revision of commercial arrange-
ments and by increased facilities of communication.
The Belgians have many advantages over their
French neighbours. They have the materials of manufac-
ture in greater abundance ; they-have a dense population,
very sober, very hard-working, and with a good deal of
the hereditary skill and ingenuity of the Fleming. On
the French side of the frontier are 40,000,000 of the best
and most easily-supplied customers, and for these Belgium
might become one great workshop. The position of the
smaller country is such that it ought to afford every
facility for traffic through its dominions. At the same
time France ought to be careful not to advance claims,
the concession of which must humiliate the Belgian
people.
" Cosmopolitan" writes to the Daily News from Paris,
expressing his suspicion of this contract between the two
companies. The East of France guarantees to the Luxem-
burg Company a sum of money considerably in excess of
the total receipts of their line—which was never very
lucrative. " Cosmopolitan " asks, " Who is to bear this
loss?" and gives his opinion that the French Government
has guaranteed the Eastern Company. Last year the
same company acquired the right of working a railway
running mostly through the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg,
and in this case the French Government secured the cola•
pany against loss.

HETERODOXY IN RUSSIA.

Dissent appears to flourish in Russia, but, judging by
the arbitrary acts of the Government, the triumph of
heresy must indeed be a triumph under difficulties. The
Russian Government is now considering a measure of
very great importance. It is proposed to abolish the
special administration of the United Greek Church and
transfer all affairs relative to this offshoot of the
orthodox Greek Church to the Ministry of Public
Instryetion. The seat of the United Church, is at
Warsaw, but the measure now contemplated is not exactly
a raid against Polish liberties. It is a blow at Rome.
The United Greeks are Christians who follow the Greek
rite, observe the general discipline of the Greek Church,
and make use of the Greek liturgy, but are nevertheless
united to the Church of Rome. They admit the supre-
macy of the Pope, and acknowledge all the deci-
sions of Rome subsequent to the Greek schism.
They number 4,000,000 in Austria, 250,000 in
Poland, and about 80,000 in Italy. The Eus&an
Government has from time immemorial regarded
this sect with dislike. It has been considered merely as a
Jesuit organisation for drawing the faithful Greeks into
the arms of Rome.- The Emperor Nicholas made war
upon the sect with such virulence that it was almost driven
out of Western Russia, took refuge in Poland, and assi-
milated its doctrines and practices nearer and nearer to
the Roman type. Poland will in all probability be no
longer a place of shelter for the United Greeks. The
Government has sought to forcibly unite it to the orthodox
Greek Church, and. this placing the two branches under
one Government will all but annihilate the independence
of the lesser.