The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 20, 1E69._

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

THE HOUSE OP LORDS.

The Marquis of Salisbury has evidently no inten-
tion of being a member of the Upper House and
doing nothing. Already he has begun to chafe under
the idleness and dulness which have so long marked
the Lords. "If the Lords have nothing to do, give
them something," he cries to the Government. "If
we can't deal with the Irish Church or with party
questions at the beginning of the sessions, we can
with bankruptcy bills and other matters which do not
come under the denomination of Liberal or Conser-
vative. If we are not so constituted as to be able to
legislate, then let us reform ourselves." Lord Salis-
bury's complaint reminds one strongly of the wail of
the frozen-out gardeners, " We've got no work to
do." And they don't do it when they have got it,
Professor Thorold Rogers says in the Star. Very
violently indeed he assails "the ancient and honour-
able house." The bench of bishops seems to be his
special aversion. They have done more, he says, to
identify the Church in the minds of the people with
ostentatious selfishness and shameless nepotism than
any public functionaries in the kingdom, and they
have made the clergy to be treated by the people
with social courtesy but secret contempt. As to the
whole house, the best thing that anybody ever said
of it is that it " hinders hasty legislation." This
phrase Mr. Rogers unmercifully picks to pieces, and
puts down the Lords as a political barrier, for the
maintenance of which we have to pay very high
indeed. We suffer on its account the monstrous
immorality of primogeniture, and all the evils of the
land laws. We permit the process of parliamentary
representation to be poisoned at its birth,
and commit the conduct of public affairs to
" men who have " nothing to recommend them but a
name. When these men do act rightly and wisely,
according to Mr. Rogers, they do so either by chance
or by compulsion. " Irresponsible legislators" cannot
initiate legislation, and they stop the way of all social
improvements whatever. And yet Mr. Rogers adds,
for the sake of this house "we have
pauperised the peasant, have destroyed the
yeoman, are beggaring the farmer, are driving
the best of our people in bitter anger to foreign
institutions, are crowding the residue into large
towns, are substituting an indigent Irishry and a
sewage of Continental outcasts for those of our own
countrymen who will not live with us." Mr. Rogers
exceeds for bitterness Mr. Bright in the stormiest
and angriest period of his prm-official career.

worst or crimes now tnat we speak or tnem in much tae
same way as we would of the most ordinary event.
To-day's papers for instance tell of " a singular
murder," as though it were some phenomenon
natural history, a toad in a stone, or a singing-mouse
that they were speaking of. 1 his " singular "
murder seems to us only too ordinary in its details.
A man was found with his head beaten in, the
supposed object of the murderer being the possession
of a large sum of money which the murdered man
was known to have received just before his death.
At this rate we shall, soon come to speak of
4' curious," and then of " clever," and then of
" interesting " murders. At last we shall come to
forget the heinousness of the crime in the skill of the
criminal.

ureez uovernment aaneres completely to the aecislon of
the Conference in a juridical point of view. The note,
however, adds that the Zaimis Ministry has assumed a
heavy responsibility in accepting the same ; that the dis-
content is very general in Greece. Lastly, it expresses a
hope that Europe will give the new Cabinet credit for the
efforts made to maintain peace. The same journal adds
that the reply is not accompanied by reserves, for the
terms of the Conference did not admit of any.
The re-establishment of diplomatic relations between
Turkey and Greece will now take place without difficulty,
but, as is usual in such cases, the representatives of till
two countries will be changed.
Letters from Athens throw much light upon the violent
agitation which preceded the acceptance of the declaration
by the Greek Government. For a long time the
young King seems to have been in real danger
of losing his throne. He was willing to yield
to the Powers ; but he could find no Ministry to
help him. According to a letter in the Daats, no sooner
was any statesman summoned to the palace than twenty
anonymous letters threatened him with immediate assassi-
nation if he accepted office. This lasted for three days—
the entrances to the palace and the legations being care-
fully watched. Even the King himself and his young
Queen were threatened with assassination. The bulk of
the people, however, were not answerable for these out-
rages. There can be no doubt that they were got up by
the friends of Bulgaris, the late Prime Minister, and his
Cabinet, to prevent the formation of another Ministry,
and to favour the policy of aggression upon which they
had staked so much. The people fully acknowledged the
wisdom of the King's decision, which was, indeed, sup-
ported by the most tangible of arguments ; the Greeks
were in no condition to repel the large Turkish army
which was preparing to cross their frontier. But though
the Greeks gave way to necessity, they still maintain their
right to interfere on behalf of the Christian subjects of
the Porte, and will resume that policy as soon as an
opportunity may present itself. Bulgaris found no
support, not because he was the supporter of a policy
adverse to the sentiment of the nation, but because he
wished to stake the national existence upon it.
The efforts of Bulgaris to compromise his country
abroad brought it to the last extremity of misery at home.
He packed the Chamber of Deputies, bought the votes of
the members, and excluded some of the most influential
politicians in the country. The new Ministry will have a
series of Herculean labours to perform. Faction
governments must come to an end, credit be restored,
swarms of robbers exterminated, and agriculture revived.
Otherwise, says a correspondent of the Times, " a revolu-
tion may come like a thief in the night."