The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 19, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

TEE LATEST CANARD.
The TDekly Register says :
" 'Chat some remarkable change in the political horizon
may shortly be expected seems to be pretty certain.
Tl'.ere is no doubt but that Ministers—at least many of
ti.,"ein—are most anxious to get the Irish Church Bill
passed and done with, and yet to do so without a com-
promise appears to be impossible. In what people call
the best informed circles' it has been rumoured during
the past week that the Lords will agree to disesta-
blishment, but not to disendowment, and that the
Ang,lican Church in Ireland will be left with allits present
worldly goods, although no longer a State establish.
ment. This, it is said, has disgusted the more liberal
members of the Cabinet. and that a break up, followed by
a remodelling of the Ministry, is likely to take place.
Rumour even goes further, and says that Lord Stanley
is not unlikely to take office under Mr. Gladstone, and
that the new Ministry will be formed of the more con-
serva-,ive Liberals and the more liberal Conservatives."

There is not the smallest sign of any such confede-
racy as our contemporary supposes. The increasing
majorities of the Ministry are certainly not a sign
of a Ministerial rupture. They are far more likely to
indicate the determination of the Lords not to resist
a measure which becomes more numerously sup-
ported every wee', . And yet we are told the rumour
was very current in the lobby of the House on Friday
night.

DR. LIVINGSTONE.

What has become of Dr. Livingstone P The
rumour of his murder everybody thought had been
sufficiently cleared up in the autumn, and Sir
Roderick Murchison was expecting him in England
to eat his Christmas dinner. But Christmas has
passed, and we have gone through winter into
spring ; but there is no Dr. Livingstone. His con-
tinued absence is beginning to cause great interest,
if not anxiety. His scientific friends, how-
ever—and they may be supposed to know
most about him—feel quite hopeful as to
his safety. His ambition to explore as much
as possible, his absolute determination and indomi-
table perseverance will lead him, they say, to go on
until he shall have a tale to tell worth the hearing.
It is now hoped that Sir Samuel Baker, in his Nile
expedition, will meet him. Livingstone has evidently
taken another route than through Zanzibar, and it is
conjectured that lie is following the course of the
mighty river of Egypt.

women.

copy as the standard predicting that America will re-
quire a century to grow to it, for although she has
the wealth and luxury, she has not as yet had the
time. Congressmen might employ the interval till
the Gth December (the next session) in practising
the epigrammatic style in society, and as Americans
do things in a month which would require a
decade with other nations, they may come out
full-blown "aristocrats" with the New Year, now
that they know the distinguishing mark. The
Pall-Mall traces some of the habits which prevail
in the Republic to the early necessities of a young
country. American hospitality and the self-devotion
to the guest, are derived from the times when the
stranger was guided through the impervious forest
and his host considered his duty towards him only
ended after he had placed him in safety, either at his
destination, or in a neighbour's charge. The gran•i-
son of the man who so acted conducts his guest
through the labyrinth of his city, showing him
everything, and permitting no expense to fall on
him. The habit of " treating," comes from the time
when the backwoodsman shared his last ration with
his mate ; and from something similar is derived
that self-denial in trifles, mutual consideration in-
stead of the " devil-take-the-hindmost" system, ten-
derness for the weak, above all, chivalry towards
women, merely as women, which distinguishes
Ame-rican society. The American correspondent
contrasts the American snob abroad with the Bri-
tish snob abroad, and his argument is simply un-
answerable. In no country in the world are there
SO many nouveaux riches as iu the United States,
and it is their habit when they acquire the means
to take a European tour ; consequently, not only
are there more of them, but that more is more seen
by foreigners ; hence, it is to their good sense in
the main, as well as to the institutions of the
country, the nation owes the fact that they hare
not made the American naMe- a by-word of vul-
garity. It is surprising, under the circumstances,
that there should be so little under-bred ostenta-
tion and diSplay, not that so much is to be seen. In
the Republic the difference between the poor and the
rich is not marked asin England; that Americans are
not separated by such an almost impassable gulf is
shown by the numbers who cross it; and as wealth
does not create such social distinctions it is less
valuable, while all grades are more on a par. Hence
when a man does scramble across, he is not con-
scious of having accomplished any marvellous feat ;
to him it is the mere reward of sobriety, industry,
and good judgment. It can readily be believed
that such a case will contrast favourably with the
purse-proud arrogance of the Englishman who has
achieved the wonderful task of crossing the gulf.
He has one of two objects, both equally offensive ;
either to obliterate every trace of his ever having
been on the other side, or to take all to the brink
that he may indulge in self-glorification ; the first is
a pretender and his life a lie, the second is an egotist
and an unmitigated bore. The nouveau rich Ame-
rican has then the great advantage of not being to
the same degree in a false position, and therefore
carries his wealth with more grace and ease. Sup-
pose these things were reversed, and that a vast
crowd of Englishmen, suddenly enriched from the
mills of Lancashire, from the furnaces of the Black
Country, from the meadows of Leicestershire and
the mines of Northumberland, as well as from the
workshops of London, Birmingham, and Manche&
er, were without any previous training to inundate
Europe and America, where would the horses be
driven which carried these beggars? As what here
is termed the lower class, is in America brought
up socially and the upper class brought down, where
members of the one get into the other, they are akin,
and assimilate the more readily, that socially but
little difference has ever been acknowledged, and
politically none. In another column of the same
number of the Pall Mall Gazette. which contains the
article to which we have referred, is a good illustra-
tion of the manners and customs of Americans. In
an " Occasional Note," that is, among the para-
graphs coming from the hand of one of its writers,
a story is told as having occurred at Lebanon, In-
diana, intended to illustrate the necessity for
civilising the States in the Union before the Re-
public endeavours to add to its territory. A file of
persons there passed through a church, each in turn
touching a corpse laid on the communion table, the
object being to discover at whose touch the corpse

would bleed. When this is the sort of information

supplied to the upper classes of England about

America, who can be surprised at the ignorance
with which they go there? and it is vain to say it

was merely copied from an American paper—for
there are no men who more amusa themselves by

.•
invention, who make more wonderful discoveries in
their sanctums, and describe with more elaboration

of detail the marvellous remains of extinct animals,

cities, curious antiquities, and subterranean works,
with an occasional three-headed birth, an eagle that

flew away with a team of oxen, or the detection of

a murderer, by the corpse announcing who did it.
But we must add, in justice to the Pall Mall, that
if quick to pick up JONaTIIAN'S shortcomings, it
does not spare JohIN Buhr,. " A Bloated Aristo-
crat.," from the House of Commons, writes to that

journal in strong terms of censure of a member
whom he must have bad before him at the time.

He had settled himself in the reading-room of the
House to enjoy his book, and as a preliminary had
taken off his shoes! Nor does it less censure im-
morality, as the account it gave of the " Ladies'
Mile" testifies. It is to be hoped that women of
rank in London will take the hint, and if they can-

not suppress such action on the part of young men
at least drive them out of the society of virtuous