The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-28 00:00:00

ance.

Startling as the Budget Speech of the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer was, however, it was
by no means so startling as several of the statements
set forth by Mr. LowE last evening in support of it.
So astounding were some of these that the House
could only laugh as theatre-goers laugh at the more
bizarre and incomprehensible puns in a burlesque.
According to the argument of Mr. LOWE—an argu-
ment, serious ? comic? or serio-comic ? which is it ?
—five quarters' income tax are always collected in
every twelvemonth ! According to Mr. LOWE—the
payment of five quarters' income tax is not a bit
more onerous to the taxpayer than the payment of
four quarters ! According to Mr. LOWE—five quar-
ters being paid in one year, the number of quarters
paid in two years would be nine! And so on. No
wonder the House laughed. No wonder the Gover-
nor of the Bank of England, who rose immediately
after Mr. LOWE bad resumed his teat—no wonder,
we say, that Mr. CRAWFORD began his remarks upon
the right hon. gentleman's astounding state-
ments, by saying that it was rather a fortunate
thing for him that he had not had to undergo
a Civil Service Examination before assuming office
as Chancellor of the Exchequer. But, seriously,
all this is past joking about. What, in the name of
common sense, is the meaning of observations such
as those coolly articulated yesterday by the lips of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer? Fribbling quips and
cranks like those are about as relevant as the inco-
herent words of JACK BEINSBY when called in by Cap-
tain CUTTLE to pronounce as to the fate of Mr.
DOaEBEY'S missing ship, the " Son and Heir." The
" bearing of the observations" may provoke a laugh
by their very absurdity ; but the laugh is empty.
and, when it is over, the listeners are left quite as_
much at sea as ever even in their conjectures.
With something like au aspect of rebuke, and cer-
tainly in words of solemnity, Mr. CRAWFORD.
as Governor of the Bank of England, and
as member for the City of London, depre-
cated the "airy tone" in which Mr. LowE repu-
diated anything like official responsibility, on his part,
in regard 1.0 the Money Market. The Money Market,
said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, must take care
itself ! The Bank of England was not to be cockerel
up by the Government ! " Cockered" is Mr. LOWE'S
own phrase. Yet, hardly can it be thought as pos-
sible in any way to apply to hitnsylf—he who, in
violation, or in defiance of the elementary dictum of
CocKErz, that two and two in ke four, startles the
House of Commons into a laugh, by insisting (as
though he himself were an Iris', man) that in one
sense the year always has jive quartos, and---imin_•-
(lately thereupon—that twice five make nine !

IT was a foregone conclusion that the general elec-
tion in France should terminate in the return of a
large majority of Imperialists. So powerful is
the influence of the Government in the rural
districts—so unsparing is the labour, so un-
scrupulous the agencies employed to preserve
and strengthen it—that except in town constitu-
encies, the opponents of the Empire enter
the lists with very meagre chances of success. The
rustic representatives of universal suffrage are
bribed by the prefects, exhorted by their priests, and
bullied by their employers into voting for the official
candidates. The secrecy Uf the Ballot is viol.tted, for
the voting ticket 3 are, in the country, supplied to the
elector in front of the urn, the authorities watch
every voter, and the name he deposits in the box can
always be known. If lie votes for the " wrong
man," i.e., for the Opposition candidate, he loses the
situation which the Prefect or Maire had promised
to him or to his son. The priest discountenances
him. lle is in great danger of being dismissed by
his employer. Knowing and caring little about
politics, it is hardly likely that he will
sacrifice any material interest for the Liberal
cause, and hence universal suffrage in the
vast majority of French constituencies is only an
Imperial tool. The contest is therefore only a rela-
tive one. The Imperialists must have a large
majority ; the Opposition can gain only in the sense
of increasing their diminutive force. This sort of
success they have undoubtedly attained. In the
first Parliament under the Empire the Left was
so small that all its members could have been com-
fortably conveyed in a hackney coach. In 1857
this forlorn hope had increased, in 1863 it was much
greater, and in 1869, though the contest is not yet
over, there can be no doubt that it will be larger
than in any previous Chamber. More than this
could not be expected.

So far as regards the respective forces of the
Government and its various opponents, the contest
of 1869 has achieved no remarkable result. But
with respect to the principles advocated by the
Opposition, a singularly decisive change has been
effected. The Empire was founded in 180 in
face of the hostility of three important parties.
The Republicans had just been overthrown by the
coup cretat; the Orleanists had fallen when Louis
PHILIPPE, the chief of the Orlesnist House, was
driven from France; and the hopes of the Legiti-
mists—the supporters of the direct line of the Bour-
bons—had been wrecked at a still more remote date,
at the revolution of 1830. But all these parties
have up to the present time preserved more or less
of vitality, and each. of them has contrived to secure
a certain influence in the Corps L6gislatif. The
general election of 1860 will ever be memor-
able for the final downfall of the two
royalist sections. France has finally renounced
her allegiance to both branches of the House
of BOURBON. The Orleanists, who were re-
presented by numerous candidates in different
parts of France, have everywhere been beaten by
large majorities. Of more than a dozen repre-
sentatives it is probable that only one, M.
THIERS, will get a seat in the Corps Legislatif.
Of the Legitimists but two, to all appearance, will be
successful. The minority against the Empire has
not only slightly increased, but it has gained
strength by concentration. The Opposition, small
as it is, will gather under one standard. The French
electors have rejected the claims of the Royal houses.
They have chosen only the most extreme Radicals to
sit on the Left of the Chamber ; and the issue is
now reduced to a contest between the Republic and
' the Empire. This is the chief result of the elections
of 1869.

SPANISH INTRIGUES.
It has long been known, on the cmfes3lon of the impru-
dent Admiral Topete, that the Dukc of Montpensier took
a leading, though secret, pert in the overthrow of Queen
Isabella. Since then the Dt.ke las not c,:;sel 'o aspire
to the throne from which he assisted to expel his sister•in-
law, and the Orleanist family in England have given him
cordial support in the shape of money. But the
Duke has apparently very little chance at present. The
London correspondent of the lifertellester Guardian says
the Orleanists in England are "much excited" at the ill
success of their intrigues. Moreover, the discovery that
the agents of the Duke de Montpensier ;mid been actively
engaged in plotting the overthrow of Queen Isabella's
throne has stimulated, if not in some degree justified, the
altered attitude of the French_ Government. The Emperor
is nolouger spoken of in diplomatic circles, or in the
journals under his influence, as inflexibly neutral. His
visits to the exiled Queen are more frequently and osten7
tationsly made than formerly, and her partisans are loud
in his praise.