The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 9, 1869.

ME7R:OPOLITIN GOSSlP—Thursday.

The least p elitical of your readers must he aware that
we are on the. eve of a grave political struggle. The Times
sneers at it in its first leader of to-day. No other journal
does. Its Teality is attested by the Daily Telegraph
(which is inspired by Mr. Gladstone himself), by the
Daily News, which represents the great bulk or the
thorough•ga&_ng Liberals, by the Protestant Echo and the
Dissenting Star and Nonconformist, no less than by the
latitudinarian Pall Mall Gazette and the High Church
Guardian. I feel as certain as I am of
any future event that the Times will find
itself utterly mistaken on the present occasion, and that
Mr. Gladstone will not accept the scheme of concurrent
endowment. I wish to say nothing as to the merits or
demerits of that scheme ; I wish to deal with facts, not
opinions ; and I will endeavour to convince your readers
why the most important of the Lords' amendments will
not be accepted by the Prime Minister. In the first place,
Mr. Gladstone has solemnly pledged himself against them ;
and though he has changed his opinions during his lifetime,
he has never broken his word. In the next place, to do so
would be fatal to his position as leaderof the Liberal party
both in and out of Parliament. Next, the forrn of concurrent
endowment which the Lords have sanctioned will con-
tinue the• very evil which the bill was intended to remedy;
it will preserve the ascendancy of the few over the many
by giving the loaves to the Church of the minority and
the crumbs under the table to the Church of the majority.
Lastly, to leave open the appropriation of the funds indefi-
nitely would he so obviously to repeat the blunder which
ruined the Liberal party thirty years ago, broke up the Mel-
bourne Ministry, and gave the Conservatives five years of
office, that Mr. Gladstone, if he assented to it, would
deserve incarceration in one of those asylums which he
proposes to build out of the Irish Church funds.
It has been noticed that throughout the recent debates
in the House of Lords Mr. Disraeli has not once put in an
_ _ _

appearance. Other leading members from both sides of
the House of Commons have been frequent in their
attendance Mr. Gladstone especially has been repeatedly
present, and has expressed his opinion of the amendments
with more frankness than discretion. But Mr. Disraeli,
who can always be sure of himself, who can always
rely upon maintaining that diplomatically impassible
countenance of his, has remained absent. Not even the
chance of compensating for overwhelming defeats in one
House by the sight of overwhelming victories in the other,
nor the remembrance of a certain bill of his own so altered
that nothing but the word " whereas" was left, has induced

him to witness the spectacle of his rival's great mea-

sure torn to rags. The truth is, Mr. Disraeli is the last
man to rejoice in the work that has been done by their
lordships. He knows that nothing will so impede his
own return to office as postponing the settlement of this
troublesome question.

The Welsh landlords made but a poor defence in the
House of Commons on Tuesday night. The case against
them was overwhelming. In fact the only thing which
surprises them in the matter is that anyone else should be
surprised. A Welsh landowner not long ago said to a
Conservative friend of mire that he would rejoice to

have the Ballot because he knew well enough who the
fellows were. It was those (blank) deacons, and the
Ballot would enable him to get rid of the whole lot with-
out anyone being able to say it was for political reasons.
No one unacquainted with Wales has the smallest idea of
what landlordism is. A very great magnate (whose family
has more than once refused a peerage, because the old
name is infinitely more illustrious in its own eyes than
any new-fangled title could be) was one day going over
one of his estates with his agent. The two came upon
a cottage where building was going on. "What
is that ?" sternly asked Sir W--. "0, poor old Jones
has such a long family that he could not bring them up
decently in his little bit of cottage, and so he is building
another room, and I thought there would not be any harm
in that ; he is a very respectable man." But an unpar-
donable offence had been committed. The great man had
not previously been supplicated, and so the new erection
was ordered to he destroyed, Now, here was a case in
which a man was actually improving his landlord's pro-
perty, although liable to be turned out of it at a few
days' notice. He was willing to make the outlay without
any security in order that his children might be brought
up decently. But landlord•dignity had been wounded,
and must be healed at the cost even of possible prostitu-
tion and incest.

I hope no English court of justice will ever witness such
a disgraceful scene as that which occurred yesterday at
Marlborough-street. When dukes and earls take to fight-
ing in the presence of a magistrate, and a police-court
is turned, into a bear-garden, the less we hear of
"American rowdyism" the better. Both of the
heroes seem to have had partisans in the court ; I doubt
if they have many outside it. No doubt it was not plea-
sant for Lord Carington to be summoned away from his
wedding trip to answer a criminal charge ; but then be
should have delayed the pleasure of horsewhipping an
editor until the honeymcon was over. As to Mr. Grenville
Murray, the attacks that have appeared in the paper
which is connected with him, if he is not connected with
it, are so ferocious that no one has the least sympathy
with him. Ile might have done a great public service.
There is reason to think even that he has conferred one
obligation upon the pahlic. Some time ago he
charged a certain public official with selling important
public appointments. He gave the names of the persons
to whom they were sold, and, I believe, the price paid.
The charge was clearly libellous, if not true. I will not
undertake to say which alternative is correct. I will add
only that the official inciiminated has not brought an
action for libel, but has resigned. So far Mr. Murray has
been of use ; it is a pity that he could not have confined
himself to this sort of work.

There is again some talk of new dignities. Some of
them at least are not well founded. A little while ago it
was stated that Mr. Cowen, the member for Newcastle,
was so ill that he was about to resign his seat, and then
that he was so well that he was about to be knighted.
Neitber report was true.

Of aristocratic gossip there is no stint. It is said that
one of the heroes of what is likely to prove a cause cilibre
in the Divorce Court, and who has left the army not
entirely of his free-will, is, in spite of these circumstances,
to be married next week. A very distinguished lawyer
has recently, at the dying.request of his only daughter,lately
deceased, married that lady's mother, with whom he had
long cohabited. A very wealthy earl, known to be eccentric,
but not supposed to be insane, is labouring under the delu-
sion that he will shortly be undergoing labour in a more
technical manner, and has engaged a nurse in anticipation
of the event. That a distinguished statesman, not now
in office, has been suffering from kleptomania, is now an
old story. The latest morsel of the kind is the elopement
of the daughter of a member of Parliament, under circum-
stances that do not redound to the credit of certain
persons concerned in the transaction. The young lady
has a very large fortune in her own right. Some time ago
a gentleman, aware of the fact, obtained the assistance
of a lady friend of the heiress, with the understanding
that if an introduction led to a satisfactory result, the
introducer should receive a portion of the inheritance.
The introduction was given, and was turned to such good
account that the fair inheritress of £lOO,OOO was induced to
elope with her admirer. The pair were, however, stopped by
the irate father within a few miles of London. A second
attempt has proved more successful, and no doubt
Mrs. - has by this time received her commission of
£lO,OOO.

Everyone knows that the - Prince of Wales has lately
become a Freemason. This circumstance has induced a
brother mason to send a letter to his Royal Highness
offering him advice in language not often addressed to
Royalty. The Prince is told in words more emphatic
than I care to repeat that he has two roads open to him—
roads described with considerable power of language, and
he is solemnly asked which be means to choose. The
threatening state of the Continent, and the terrible condi-
tion of the English poor, arc urged upon his consideration.
The life of Father Faber has just been published. It
consists chiefly of his letters, and these have been edited
by Father Bowden. A large amount of valuable corre-
spondence between him and Dr. Newman was destroyed
a year or two ago by accident at the Birmingham Oratory.
I understand that letters to the same eminent man from
Keble, Pusey, and Hurrell Froude suffered the same fate
at the same time.

Frances Countess of Waldegrave, whose fourth husband
is Mr. Chichester Fortescue, is rumoured to have become
the proprietor of the Morning Post. Mr. Agnew, the
well-known picture-dealer of Manchester, is also reported
to have bought Punch. Most of the literary staff of Judy
hare resigned, and have announced the fact publicly.
Under the Ovum, a shilling magazine, has ceased to
appear, and the prospectus of a new weekly organ of
the Civil Service, the Civilian, is announced. Mr.
Hamerton, the well-known art writer, is editing a new
art magazine, published by Messrs. Seeley, and called the
Portfolio. A new illustrated paper, to be called the
Illustrated Midland News, is about to be started at
Birmingham.
A good deal has been said about Mr. Lowe's needlessly
offensive refusal to sanction a grant for a statue of Faraday.
Before blaming him it will be well to inquire about the
Wellington Statue. The Duke died in 1852. Soon afterwards
a commission to execute a memorial of him was entrusted
to a young sculptor, and £14,000 was the estimated cost.
From year to year inquiry has been made as to the fate of
this work. No less a sum than £10,266 had been paid for it
on account up to the end of last year. Another sum of
£2,800 is to be asked this year, making in all over
£13,000, and yet this work still exists only in plaster. At
this rate it is scarcely
likely to be completed this century.

eIDV.ERTISEMENTS OFFERING REWARDS
TO PAWNBROKERS.

The case " Varley v. Ellis" was brought before
;he Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday. It was an
talon brought against the publisher of the Daily
Telegraph to recover penalties to the amount of £1,500
`.or the insertion of a number of advertisements in
;hat paper offering rewards to pawnbrokers for the
7ecovery of property lost or stolen contrary to the
Act 4 and 5 George 111. Mr. Serjeant Robinson appeared
`.or the plaintiffs, and Mr. Gifford, Q.C., with Mr. Lewis,
!or the defendants. The action was very simple in its
letails, the several papers in which the advertisements
IPPeared being put in as evidence. On this Mr. Gifford
submitted that there was no case to go to the jury, inas-
much as no evidence had been adduced to show
that these advertisements had reference to anything
stolen or lost. Another objection, which he might call
iris first objection, was that the statute under which
the action was brought was repealed by the statute
/th and Sth George IV., c. 27. The learned counsel
read the statute in question, when his lordship said
there was some doubt in his mind whether, from the
wording of the Act, it was not a provisional repeal, and
that the prohibition still existed. It was floating about
in his mind that such was the case. Under the circum-
stances, he should direct the jury to return a verdict for
',he defendant, with leave for the plaintiff to move the
court above as to whether he should have a verdict entered
fur him in all the penalties. Verdict accordingly.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.