The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 5, 1869

THE CATTLE PLAGUE.

Two deputations on similar subjects on Thursday waited
on members of the Government. The first, from Cheshire,
urged on the Prime Minister the injustice of recent legis-
lation with regard to the payment of compenbation for
cattle compulsorily slaughtered under the Cattle Disease
Prevention Act, and to ask that the uniform rate provided
for in the law passed at the time of the plague for Ireland
should be adopted inthis country.
The PRIME MINISTER, after hearing the addresses, said:
—With respect to the Act of 1866 I should not like to
snake any independent suggestion until I have consulted
my colleagues connected with the departments that had
to deal with that measure. The case is no doubt a most
grievous one ; but I should be very sanguine if I hoped
that you could induce the Legislature, with or without
our support, to do what you ask, for I think the
support of the Government would have very little influence
indeed upon a question of this kind. It is difficult to in-
duce Parliament to retrace its steps. Ido not deny that
the Government of 1866 were hasty in passing the Act you
refer to, but I cannot admit as you asked me, that they
acted unjustly. It would be absurd on my part to under-
take on my own responsibility a step in which I could not
feel a perfect confidence.

The Eight Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P., Vice-President
of the Council, received on Tuursday afternoon a deputa-
tion of members of Parliament and gentlemen on this
subject. The deputation was introduced by T. Bazley,
Esq., M.P.

Mr. ORMISTON observed that the object of the deputa-
tion was to point out the serious loss and inconvenience
that arose from the present restrictions on the importation
of foreign cattle, the trade having diminished about 80 per
cent. in Newcastle during the last three years. The depu-
tation asked the Government to assist in removing the
restrictions. Since the removal of restrictions upon the
importation of sheep at Newcastle, the results had been
most beneficial to the town.

Mr. J. W. S. YOUNG (West Hartlepool) confirmed
Mr. Ormiston, and stated that there was no instance in
his knowledge of a diseased ox or cow having been im-
ported from Hamburg to Hartlepool. The slaughter of
cattle at the port of debarkation was a serious incon-
♦enience. As an instance of the injury to the trade, the
importation of sheep in Hartlepool was, in 1866, 48,000
head, and in 1868 only 20,000. On the removal of the
restrictions on February 26, the importation increased
from ten or twenty a day to 873 on that day alone.
Mr. W. MonsusoN, M.P., for Plymouth, said that at
Plymouth a large quantity of cattle were imported. from
France, Spain, and Portugal, where no diseased cattle
were found ; but no distinction was made between the
Spanish cattle and cattle from infected districts. The
cattle were required to undergo twelve hours' quarantine,
and when the cattle ships arrived on market-day (the
markets being held twice a week) a delay of three day.
took place.

Mr. CLAY, M.P. for Hull, stated that Hull was the
inlet and outlet for a large manufacturing district, but
owing to the cattle restriction it was impossible to supply
the district sufficiently, and the Hull market was subject
to an occasional glut of foreign cattle, rendering the trade
so precarious that foreign exporters hardly cared to carry
it on. He hoped that the Government would so remove
these restrictions as to permit cattle to be sent inland
without being slaughtered.

Mr. HEADLA3I, M.P. for Newcastle, said that the im-
portation of cattle in that town had fallen from 6,000, in
1866, to 1,000 in 1868, and the price of meat was so hial
as to be beyond the reach of working men.
Mr. GLOVER represented the Hull Chamber of Com-
merce, and read a series of resolutions for the removal of
restrictions passed at a meeting of persons interested in the
cattle trade.

Mr. FORSTER promised to give the matter his most
serious consideration, but pointed out that the Legisla-
ture had to consider interests of a very conflicting
character in meeting this question. He could well under-
stand the disadvantages under which the foreign cattle
trade laboured, and was about to bring in a bill that even-
.ng on the subject which the deputation would be enabled
to read.

METROPOLITAN GOSSlP.—Thursday.

The political position suggests that of 16 years ago,
yet it is widely different from that. There had been a
general election in the summer of 1852, which was carried
on under the auspices of a Conservative Ministry. The
question before the country was whether the principle of
Free Trade which had been adopted in 1846 should be
reversed. The country decided that it should not, and
returned a Parliament overwhelmingly opposed to such a
reversal. Mr. Disraeli was willing to bow to that decision;
for six years and a half having passed since the great fight
came off on the Corn Importation Bill, he thought that
the speeches and votes of solong ago might well be ignored.
The present position is widely different from that. Only I
a few months have passed since the great debates and
divisions on the Irish Church. There has been
no time to get rid of the impedimenta of " prin-
ciples." They must for decency's sake be maintained
a little longer. So though Mr. Disraeli met the hostile
Parliament of 1852 as a Minister, he resigned before
meeting the hostile Parliament of 1868. On the former
occasion there was, moreover, a division in the Liberal
ranks. The League were for carrying their victory to an
extreme. Mr. Villiers moved a resolution in favour of
free trade,which Mr. Disraeli was either bound to accept,
and in doing so make a public confession and recantation
of error, or to orpose, and thereby expose himself to
overwhelming defeat. The old Whigs had no notion of
seeing the bread taken out of their mouths. Lord
Palmerston stepped forward and moved an amendment to
Mr. Villiers's motion, which at the same time gave the
Conservatives a means of escaping from a dilemma and
shewed how numerically weak the League were. The result
was that Mr. Villiers's motion was rejected by a majority
of 80 votes, and Lord Palmerston's amendment was accepted
by 468 against 53 ; the latter figure representing the num-
ber of Protectionists. Having thus effectually snubbed the
" Manchester" party, and postponed their entry into office
for six years and a half (until the Willis's Rooms compact),
he proceeded to deal at his leisure with Mr. Disraeli,
defeated him by 19 votes on the budget three weeks later,
and then came into office with cc cher Aberdeen; the League
who had really borne the burden and heat of the day
being left out in the cold. Times are changed since then.
The Manchester party are now the most influential section
of the Cabinet. Mr. Bright might have had almost any
office that he chose. The Liberals are united, and numeri-
cally stronger than they have been for 35 years. Mr.
Disraeli has not ventured to meet the new Parliament,
knowing that though he must for form's sake resist the
disestablishment of the Irish Church, he is as powerless to
hinder it as he was in 1852 to restore Protection.

The Pall Ai all Gazette is publishing some remarkable
articles on " Ministerial Journalism," in which the rela-
tions of the late Government with the press are very
severely handled. It is complained that Government
advertisements were given in the most reckless manner to
obscure journals where the advertisements would be use-
less, and that special information was given to certain
journals as the price cf their support. As regards this
second count, I do not think that the late Government
was any worse than the present one. I happen to know
that two London journals have been selected as the special
depositories of Ministerial communications, while another
journal, of much higher character than one of the two,
though of smaller circulation, has not been included in
the favoured list.

The Glowworm has ceased to glimmer, and no one
has noticed the fact. Its faint light disappeared about
three weeks ago, I believe. It was started some four
years back as an organ of Conservatism and of the music-
halls (a strange combination), by a Captain Bachelor, a
man of fashion. It had one or two gentlemen on its staff,
among them the son of a former Shropshire M.P., Sir
Baldwin Leighton, of " rabbit " fame. It used to obtain
a certain amount of circulation at the Alhambra and
kindred places, by printing on its back page the pro-
gramme of the evening's entertainment. But it never
throve. Mr. Beeton, the publisher of cheap serials, took
it up, and had it for about six months. He could do
nothing with it. It disappeared from the railway stations
and book-stalls, and then from the streets, and then
altogether.

Mr. Layard is not likely to have an easy berth. The
contest which is going on respecting the new courts of
justice is very animated, and almost acrid. The lawyers
are for Carey-street, the public for Thames-bank. There
is no saying yet which will win. There is a good deal
of grumbling because the First Commissioner has deter-
mined to surround Regent's Park with an iron railing
of the ordinary ugly spike shape. We shall be
obliged to get up a reform riot in order to knock these
railings down and have a handsome set like that which
Lord John Manners put up around Hyde Park. Mr.
Cowper who was First Commissioner in the last Liberal
Government, and is rather sore at being left out from the
present Ministry, is evidently bent on mischief, and he,
asked Mr. Layard, very sarcastically, on Monday night,
whether the refuse from a brickyard, which had lately
been tilted into Hyde Park was intended for rockwork.
The parks looked most brilliant yesterday in spite of the
cold. There had been a hard frost in the morning (as
there has beento- day ), but the knowledge of the Queen's visit
to London, and the reception at Buckingham Palace, at-
tracted an enormous throng of carriages to the neighbour-
hood. A large number waited in the open space by Apsley
House, their occupants expecting that the Queen would
return to Windsor the same afternoon. But her Majesty
remains in town until to-morrow, and the Royal standard
will thus float over the Palace for three successive days,
an event that has not taken place for many a year.
This is nominally the season of penitence, yet it does
not prevent a good deal of festivity. The Roman Catholic
Lady Edward Howard has been the most notable enter-
tainer of the week. On Tuesday evening she gave a series
of tableaux vivants at her house in Rutland-gate, and all
the world, including the Duchess of Cambridge and her
daughters and a large number of the foreign ambassadors,
was present. Among the actors were Lady Diana
Beauclerk (of Norwegian fame), Lady Sebright,
Lady Alexina Duff, Mrs. Gurney, Miss Sothern,
the Marchioness Townshend, Mrs. Sketfington Smith,
Count Maffei, Mr. Priusep, the artist, and some others.
The subjects illustrated were " The Spirit of the Waters"
(represented by Lady Di), "Watteau," " The Sleeping
Beauty," "Queen -Margaret and the Robber," " The
Fair Rosamond," and "Guinevere.""
Babes in the Wood,"
The performance is to be repeated to-night. I should add
i
that it has been undertaken in behalf of the distressed
Irish ; is, in fact, one of those numerous forms of , charity
made easy for which our upper classes are so justly
renowned.
The new Royal Academy is all but finished, and enthusi-
astic (but I should imagine untravelled) persons declare
that it will he the finest gallery in the world. It certainly
will not be that. Nevertheless Mr. Smirke has turned out
a good and commodious building. Artists will
rejoice to hear that it is not intended to hang
the pictures quite close together ; there will be a space
between each, and so the hangers will no longer be
tempted to select an inferior picture because it
will fit in better than a superior one. It is calculated that,
even making allowance for this alteration, and also for the
fact that pictures will not be hung above a certain height,
there will be thrice as much space as in the old building. It
is to be hoped that the Academy will, with their enlarged
premises, enlarge their body. There are at least a dozen
artists waiting to be admitted as Associates who have as
much claim to admission as the recently-elected Messrs.
Poynter and Mason. Artists seem to be a particularly
jealous race. The Water-Colour Institute, for instance,
which was founded as a protest against the exclusiveness
of the Water-Colour Society, recently met to elect new
Associates, and came to the determination to elect none.
The consequence of such exclusiveness has been the for-
mation of the society which exhibits at the Dudley
Gallery.
Among the pictures to be exhibited at the Royal
Academy are three by Mr. Leighton ; one of them,
representing St. Jerome in the desert, with his
attendant lion, will be a chef d'ceurre. Mr.
Sant will probably send a picture of a child
in the snow, the novelty of which will be that the
child will be clothed in white, save a scarlet headdress.
Few artists would venture to try such an experiment as
this. Mr. Sydney Hodges, who some years ago painted
for Miss Burdett Coutts Dr. Tait when Bishop of
London, has been selected by the committee of laymen
to paint a portrait of that prelate, which they are about to
present to Fulham Palace. The work will be full length, and
although it is yet far from completion, it will, I think,
add to his reputation as one of the most rising portrait
painters of the day. Still on art matters, I may mention
that the exhibition of French and Flemish pictures is to open
on April 3 ; that there is to be a new exhibition of Dore's
pictures; that Bierstadt has sold his greatpicture, "A Storm
in the Rocky Mountains" for £4,000 ; that Mr. Durham,
the sculptor, is so out of health that he has had to give
up work for the present, and is gone to Rome ; and that
there is to be an International Fine Arts Exhibition at
Munich this summer, to which English artists, mindful of
the scurvy treatment they received at Paris, are not likely
to be large contributors.
Lord St. Leonards's reply to Lord Campbell's " Lives of
Lyndhurst and Brougham" will be published next week.
It will assuredly be a unique incident in literature that
an ex-Chancellor aged 87 should reply to a book published
by a Chancellor who died at 80, referring to two other
ex-Chancellors who died at 90 and 92. Mr. Lecky's
new book will be out next week, and is anti-
cipated with much interest. Professor Plumptre
having succeeded so well in translating Sophocles, has
now in the press a translation of .rEschylus. Mr. Collett
Sandars has coming out a translation of Uhland's poems,
a work in which; as an old translator of the same poet, I
way be permitted t 9 fed spacial intend, Mr, Chalets

Lever's tale "That Boy of Norcott's," which has been
appearing in the Cornhill for some months, is published in two
volumes, and Mr. Trollope's " Phineas Finn " appears
in like form. Mr. Charles Reade's new tale in the
Cornhill will shew up Trades Unions. Mr. Woods, one
of the chief writers on the Times staff, has joined the
Belgravia. The story now being published in the Victoria
Magazine is by Miss Caulfeild, a Bath lady, and "Estelle,"
which is now appearing in Macmillan's, is, I believe, by
Miss Olney, the author of several tales which have
appeared in the Western Morning News. The same maga-
zine will, in its May number, begin a new story by the
authoress of " John Halifax."

MISCELLANEOUS ArETITS.