The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-26 00:00:00

POLITICAL NOTES.

The London correspondent of the Birmingham Post gives
eome interesting items of political news. He mentions a
rumour that Mr. Childers is about to show that ho is really
in earnest as to the reductions, by an act of self-sacrifice that
will sate the country some thousands a year. The First Lord
has an officsal residence at the Admiralty. The situation is
central, and handy to the other Government offices and the
Houses of Parliament. This residence, it is stated,
he is about to give up. Should Mr. Childers give
up his official residence there will be nothing to
prevent the concentration of all the Admiralty Civil
Service Departments—many of which are now at
Somerset House—at Whitehall. Every successive First
Lord has admitted the importance of transferrine
the offices and clerks of the Accountant-General of
the Navy from Somerset House to the Admiralty, but no ono
has had the self-denial to give up the officitl residence. The
evening receptions will, of course, be at an end, but no one
can pretend they were necessary to the performance of the
First Lord': official duties. For the morning lcvdes there is
a good deal :.tore to They were turn to good ac-
count bAlt by the Duke of Somerset and Sir J. Packington,
whoby this tnearsl:ept up a knowledge of the personnel of the
navy.—The same correspondent confirms the announcement
that the Government does not intend to build a new House of
Commons, but the Peers are to be tut ned out to make room
for the "representatives of the pople."— Mr. Lowe is not
quite over his troubles about the Abyssinian bills. It
will be remembered that twice one evening, when
every one who took the trouble to consider the
matter, was satisfied that Mr. Hunt's estimates would
be exceeded, Mr. i)israeli got up, and (Lclared that
he had no reason to supposo that such an event would
take place. Tho estimate was five millions, if the war
ended in May. The war ended on the 17th of April,
when Magdala was burnt, and the army immediately
afterwards started on its return home. The expedition
has already cost eight millions, and there are some bills still
to come in. It is also rumoured that the late Government
spent a million of money in 1868 in excess of the sum voted
by Parliament. No reduction of the income tax seems to
be possible for another year yet to come.

The petitions against Mr. Denis O'Conor, M.P.
(L.), and Sir R. G. Booth, M.P. (C.), the sitting members
for the county of Sligo, have both been withdrawn.

Sir Bernard Burke tells us, in his " Vicissitudes
of Families," that of the twenty-five barons who were
appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Charta,
there is not now in the House of Peers a single male
descendant.

Le Figaro of Monday says that " the Siamese
twins are in correspondence with tLe famous Paris surgeon,
Nelaton, who, contrary to tho opinion of their Edinburgh
advisers, regards an operation for their severance as very
possible."

A committee, of which Lord Northbrook is
president and Generals Lefroy and Simmons and Colonel
Jervois are members, has been appointed, and is now
engaged at the War Office considering various points con-
nected with the proposed adoption of the Moncrieff system
of working heavy artillery.
ECLIPSE OF THE Moon.—The only lunar eclipse
visible in this country in the present year will occur
during this night (Wednesday). The moon will enter the
earth's dark shadow, at a point 50 deg. from the northern-
most paint of her limb towards the east, twenty-nine
minutes after midnight. The middle of the eclipse will
occur at I'3B a.m. on Thursday, and the last contact with
the shadow at 2'47 a.m. At greatest eclipse 45-100ths of
the moon's diameter will be immersed in the shadow on
the upper part of her disc.

On Saturday morning the Royal Mail steamer
Prince Alfred, of the North Lancashire Steam Company,
was totally wrecked off the Isle of Man. She left Fleet-
wood on Friday night, and on the next morning,
owing to the dense fog, she came violently
into collision with a rock on Manghold Head,
fifteen miles out of her course. All on board were saved,
and that part of the cargo which was on the upper decks
was secured. The rest went down with the steamer in
twenty fathoms of water. The vessel was insured, but
not the cargo.

The curd of Labroze, in the department of the
Pas•de-Calais, France, has just been tried for vagabondage
and mendicity. He abandoned his flock, and ran off with
hie servant, a woman of 36, and the two, after various
vicissitudes, were compelled to beg for bread. The curd
addressed himself to a Dutch Protestant, stating
his intention of embracing the Protestant faith, and of
thus enabling himself to marry his companion. Priests
cannot marry under the Catholic law. The Dutchman's
suspicions were aroused, and he gave information. The
two were apprehended, and sentenced to seven days'
imprisonment, at the end of which time they will be placed
at the disposition of Government.

At the County Police Court, Congleton, Joseph
C. Washington, late manager of the Congleton branch of
the Manchester and Liverpool Banking Company, has been
charged with embezzling divers sums of money belonging
to his masters, the trustees of the said bank. It appears that
the defendant's duties were to discount bills at a certain rate.
entering the amounts charged into the books of the bank.
The case was that ho had charged customers certain sums
for discount, but accounted in the books foi sums consider-
ably less than the amounts actually paid to him. Evidence
in support of the charges having been given, the bonch
committed the defendant to the Chos:er assizes for trial.

The New York papers report a case as to authors,
which has just been decided in the Supreme Court. In
that case the court holds that the author of an un-
published manuscript has at common law an exclusive
right of property therein, the violation of which may be
justly protected by injunction. But this exclusive right
pertains only to the unpublished manuscript, without
copyright protection. After unrestricted publication to
the world, neither the author nor his assignee, whether a
foreign or domestic writer, can assert an exclusive right
to property in the future use and publication of the compo-
sition. Unrestricted representation upon the stage is a pub-
lication ; and if spectators carry away in their memory the
whole or any part of the play, they cannot be restricted by
an injustion frcm panting it.

The insurrection in Cuba continues to gain ground.
If the insurgents receive the arms they are expecting it is
likely they will give battle, if not they will maintain a
guerilla warfare. Advices received from Havana, Jan. 7,
report that General Cespedes, the provisional President of
the Republican Government, and Senor Aguilera have pro-
claimed the emancipation of the slaves. Tho Spaniards
profess to believe this a despemto measure, and
the Spanish authorities, on their part, are mak-
ing concessions. They have proclaimed the liberty of
the press and the abolition of militsry commissions for the
trial of civil cases. A commission of influential citizens of
Havana left that city on the 11th to meet the revolutionary
leaders and try to effect a compromise. It is said they are
empowered to concede pardon and political rights on the
basis that Cuba shall continue under the flag of Spain.
The Dean of Carlisle has published a protest
against the letter written by the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie
upon the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council in the St. Alban's case. Dr. Close says
the letter is a " criminal document " " couched in lan-
guage of intolerable arrogance and indecency," and asks if
there is no remedy against such a libel upon her Majesty,
the archbishops of the Church, and the chief judges of the
land. He expresses a hope that " this convicted offender,"
whose spirit is chafed by defeat, will on reflection perceive
that " he has published words which every gcod man of
every sect and every party mustblush to read." Observing
that M r. Mackonochie avows that he remains in the Church in
order to "move every power to obtain a dissolution of this
ungodly alliance " between Church and State, the Dean
says : If these are his principles, and this the spirit
of the men who are to stand at the helm of our beloved
Church when divorced from the State, if the English
Church Union and the Ritualist faction can have their
way in these matters, it is time that all true-hearted
members of the Reformed Church should rouse them-
selves, and determine whether such seditious slanders as
these are to be tolerated within the Church."
TUE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES IN
DENMARK. -- A correspondent at Copenhagen writes that
the greater part of the time passed in Denmark by the
Prince and Princess of Wales was spent in the Castle of
Fredensbor-g, in the neighbourhood of Elsinore. The
Princess particularly enjoyed her rambles in the company
of her brothers and her sister through the fine woods, or
along the shores of the magnificent lake of Fredensborg,
and the Prince was so pleased with his stay in Denmark
that be remained considerably longer than had been
intended. A short time before their Royal Highnesses'
departure the Court left Fredensborg for Copenhagen.
All the festivities in honour of the Prince and Princess of
\Vales had, therefore, to be crowded into a few days.
The first was the ball given by her Majesty's envoy, Six
C. Lennox Wyke. The King and Queen of Denmark,
the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince of
Denmark, and Prince John of Glucksburg were
amongst the first arrivals at the ball. The Mar.
Odorless of Carmarthen, Lord Carrington, General
Fir W. Knollys, Hon. Oliver Montague, and Colonel
Keppel were amongst the guests. Sir Charlei
Wyke being unmarried, the company was received by
Mrs. Strachey, wife of the First Secretary of Legation.
The Prince and Princess of Wales remained till the close of
the ball, which was not till four o'clock in the morning.
On the following night there was a State ball at the
Palace of Christiansborg, and two nights later a brilliant
ball at the house of Baron de Mannheim, the Russian
Minister,