The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MNING, JUNE 7, tz69.

But their resolution has been honestly framed, and
the dominant party in England may feel sure that,
though the peers will thus endeavour to defeat the
wishes of the national majority, they do so only
because their sense of duty leaves them no alterna-
tive. They have decided to meet the danger of
opposing the bill, even though at most its rejection
can ensure only a very brief delay. With the full
knowledge that nothing in their power can prevent
the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish
Church, they have chosen to incur the unquestion-
able jeopardy of staving off the inevitable end for a
little while. They might plausibly have urged
upon their party that the die was cast, that
the bill must become law, and that a few months'
gain of time was not worth fighting for at
so much risk. They might have pointed to the
impolicy of hazarding all for a very trifling advan-
tage. They have not done so, and their decision
must command at least respect. Liberals who
loudly condemn the peers for opposing the bill of the
nation, ought not to forget that the peers them-
selves have nothing to gain by their policy. Quite
the reverse. The rejection of the bill will, as we
have shown, be followed by such an infusion of
Liberalism into the Upper house that the Conser-
vative majority will be lost. Is it desirable that the
party which has lost its supremacy in one House should
abdicate it in the other ? This fruitless hostility to the
decree of the nation is deplorable, but the onus of it
must not be thrown upon the Peers, but upon their
party. That party will, doubtless, learn as salutary
a lesson from the Irish Church Bill as they did
from the Reform question. They have found out
that political advantage is not to be gained by the
abdication of political principle. They will, if
the Irish Church Bill be not read a second time, dis-
cover that the Constitution is not to be uphold in
one part by violating it in another. The Conserva-
tive's cannot save the Irish Church by defying the
House of Commons. The Constitution now is that
the voice of the nation must prevail, and if the
opposition of the House of Lords end in rejection,
this great fundamental principle will be decisively
confirmed.

EIGHTY thousand pounds and nothing to shew
for it ! Such was the burden of Mr. ILtDFIELD'S
very just complaint to a Ministry whose forte is
economy. And the Ministry had no answer to the
complaint, except that the waste was none of their
doing. Six and thirty years ago a commission
was appointed to revise the statute-book and
codify the law. For the greater portion of that
time the commission did nothing but spend money
profusely. It dwindled down at last to one commis-
sioner, " a notorious individual," as Mr. I.ocxE KING
called him. But at last the commission was broken
up altogether, and we still have to seek our laws
through fifty ponderous volumes, costing about £l3O,
quite a fortune for a briefless barrister. It is
very sad, very disgraceful. The first NAPOLEON
found time in twenty years not only to
conquer Europe, but to codify the French
law, and the Code Napoleon will be remem-
bered when Marengo and Austerlitz are for-
gotten. But our peaceful legislators have spent
nearly forty years, and produced absolutely no result.
Mr. GLADSTONE did, indeed, announce that a new
commission had been appointed, without salaries.
But if well-paid commissioners, appointed especially
for that purpose, have done nothing, what hope
is there that amateurs with abundance of other and
well-paid work on their hands will do more ? It
must be confessed that he is a very sanguine man
who trusts that he will live to see the Code Victoria
which was promised us some thirty years ago.

THE present tone of public opinion in England
and the United States warrants the conclusion, not
only that the relations between the two countries
are peaceful and likely to remain so, but that
the moment is highly propitious for a settle-
ment of the difficulty which at one time
seemed to threaten war. The balance of informa-
tion is to the effect that Mr. MOTLEY is not autho-
TifaV,AreUeMiTtieliTillsg A.
question which is not to be reopened would, one
would think, disappear from discussion, but
the Alabama question is more vigorously dis-
cussed in the United States than at any
previous time. The telegrams we have received
spew clearly that Mr. SUMNER'S speech has been
utterly discarded by statesmen and journals, that the
Americans will take a moderate settlement, and that
they would wish it to be speedy. We publish another
message of pacific tone to-day. The people of the
United States may well discard the bellicose advice
which has been tendered them. Experience has
shewn that bullying England and keeping the
Alabama difficulty open is a costly sort of
pastime. If it does not lead to war,
it leads to rumours of war, which are
also very disastrous. There is a large
section of the American people who have everything
to lose by the present state of suspense, their com-
merce is injured by uncertainty almost as much as
by war, and it is the policy of this class that must
prevail in the end.

L,
IV *la Tat

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL CASTLE, June 5.

The Queen, accompanied by her Royal High.
ness Princess Louise, walked out yesterday morn-
ing.

Her Majesty drove out in the aftenoon to the
Glass-tit Sheil, attended by the Dowager Duchess
of Athole.

The Mince and Princess of Wales attended
Divine service yesterday morning in the Chapel
Royal, St. James's.

LATEST INTELL EGENCE

(R EU"'ER'S TELEGRAMS.)

BOMBAY (HEAVY) MAIL.

G IBRALTAR, June 6.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Ceylon left at eight this morning for Southampton,
where she may be looked for on the evening of the
10th instant.

A:.IERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, June 7.

The North German Lloyd steamer Deutschland,
from New York on the 27th ult., arrived here this
morning. She brings 264 passengers, 45 sacks of
mails, $194,624 in specie for London, and $100.50
for Bremen.

because the last appeal to the couary was made
upon this very question of the r.rish Church
by the Conservative party themselves—suppos-
ing it were necessary for the now Prime
Minister to appeal once more tc the country
for its decision because of the rejemicn of the Bill
by the House of Lords in spite of its having been
carried through the House of Common by a series of
overwhelming majorities, the result would, in all
human probability, be this, that afer one of the
stormiest General Elections that hs ever taken
place in the United Kingdom, the liberal Party at
Mr. GLADSTONE'S back would be morenumerous even
than it is at present. Such au appea' to the consti-
tuencies, however, is altogether sulerfluous. The
appeal has been made already—it vas made, as it
were, but yesterday—it was made upon this very
question of the Irish Church —and it was
made by the Conservative Party themselves, then
in power, under Mr. DISRAELI'S Preniership. The
Government, as it is, therefore, has r perfectly con-
stitutional right to act, as it is declared to have
the intention of acting immediately after the Irish
Church Bill has been thrown out )f the House of
Lords by the Conservative Opposition—namely,
without appealing to the country to do with the
Bill precisely as if the country had been appealed to
on it. That is to say, Mr. GLADSTONE and his col-
leagues will in that conjuncture have a perfectly con-
stitutional right to cause the Houses to be prorogued
as soon after that as posaible, simply for the purpose
of their being convened again iamediately after-
wards, so that the Irish Church Bill may, in the
second Parliamentary Session of 1869 be passed
anow rapidly and silently through the House of
Commons, and thereupon taken anew up
to the House of Lords with that suffi-
ciently familiar threat (not hinted at now for
the first time in our Constitutional History) of
transferring the Liberal Minority in that House into
a Liberal Majority by means of a wholesale addition
to the number of our hereditary Legislators. A
threat of that kind was muttered ominously, it can-
not but be remembered, at the period of the stormy dis-
cutsion which took place a very few years ago in refer-
ence to the remission of the Paper Duties. At the crisis
of the History of the Firt Reform Bill it was held—
that same threat—in terrorent over the House of Lords,
and worked its way, as it will probably work its way
even now, that is to say, by inducing the
Conservative Peers when the time comes to
absent themselves from the House, and thereby
deprive the Liberal Government, in regard to
their threat, of any plea for carrying it into execu-
tion. One fact ought not to be lost sight of at this
critical juncture, one truth ought to be especially
borne in mind, that the determination of the Conser-
vative majority of the House of Lords is perfectly
constitutional. Their lordships have a full and
an undoubted right to resolve upon acting as they
have now intimated their intention to act. It is a
case of diamond cut diamond. It is the action of one
" tyrant majority," if you may please to call either
so, against another—the hereditary majority of the
Conservatives in the Lards as opposed to the
Liberal majority at the back of Mr. GLADSTONE
and his Irish Church policy in the Commons. Be-
tween the two that policy of the Liberal Party in
regard to the disestablishment and disendowment of
the Irish Church Bill is certain to triumph, though
it may for a brief interval be delayed. Our one
earnest hope at this juncture, as Consti-
tutional Liberals, is that in the delay the
dignity, and the power, and the influence of the
House of Lords as one of the three great component
parts of our admirably-balanced and wonderfully-
adjusted system of Government, may not be in any
way wantonly or needlessly jeopardised.

11 U L,l IIG 1111,gtiatimait .1/1 Mahe 11lciL j V v
dilemma in which the Conservative Peers found
themselves last week; for no true Englishman wishes
to see any important party in the State distracted and
divided. The Constitution, in the widest sense of that
word, works best when every part of it is performing
its proper function. But sometimes the great
difficulty is to be sure what that function is.
Let even the most Liberal of our readers put
himself for a moment in the place of the
noblemen who met in St. James's-square on Satur-
day, and, if he be not devoured by partizanship, he
will feel keen sympathy with those illustrious men. It
is easy enough to do one's duty when one is quite
sure what that duty is ; but all is anxiety when
one has to decide between two courses, for each of
which there are powerful arguments. It is just in
this position that the Peers found themselves. On
the one hand, they were told that if they allowed the
Irish Church Bill to pass they vould estrange the
Irish Protestants and that important class through
whose efforts they carried the English counties last
autumn—the country clergy; that they would break
up their party; that they would prepare the way for
the destruction of the English Church ; that they
would abdicate their functions as a legislative
assembly ; and that they would be indirectly
the authors of a civil -war in Ireland.
All these arguments were urged upon them
with a vehemence and a clamour whereof the
newspapers give no idea. Day after day deputations
waited upon this great nobleman and upon that ; day
after day floods of angry letters came pouring down
upon them in a resistless stream. It seemed impos-
sible that such tremendous pressure could be
resisted. On the other land, the Peers
having among them such a man of genius and
foresight as the Marquis of SALRBURY, the dangers
of yielding to clamour were sire to be vividly
represented. Granted that the bill were thrown
out, what next ? The Conservative peers could not
complain that they were left in the dark as to the
intentions of the Government. The course was plain
enough. A Conservative Ministry had appealed to
the nation with special reference to the Irish Church
question. The nation replied to that appeal in so
unmistakeable a manner that they who made it
did not venture to meet the Parliament which they
had summoned. The majority. which passed the
Suspensory Bill last year was almost doubled this
year. There was not the smallest sign that the nation
had regretted its decision ; on the contrary, the
Liberals have gained a majority in the House
of Commons by the elections. Clearly, there-
fore, if the bill were rejected by the Lords, Mr.
GLADSTONE would neither resign nor appeal
to the country. The country has not lost confidence
in him ; the country has by anticipation answered
that very appeal. The only course to take would be
to wind up the present session immediately, to begin
a new session as shortly afterwards as possible, to
pass the bill through the Commons sub silentio, and
to ensure its passage through the Lords by the
creation of sufficient Liberal peers. Thus the rejec-
tion of the bill would save neither the Conservative
party, the Church, nor the country from all those
terrible calamities which the Irish deputation
threatened. It was not a question of will, therefore,
which the Conservative peers had to discuss, but a
question of power.
Beyond doubt all these considerations have been
well weighed by their lordships before arriving at
the grave decision which was the result of
the meeting in St. James's -square. They have
had every opportunity of appreciating the
difficulties of either course, for the duty of the
Lords with respect to the bill has been discussed
almost as exhaustively as the bill itself. Never-
theless, with the consciousness that the country so
anxiously awaits their decision—that this is
one of the most momentous crises in their
history as a legislative body, the Conservative
peers have decided that the second reading
must be opposed. We regret this determination.
Of two evils the peers have chosen the greater,

COBBESZONDERCE PROM PAWL

(FROM On OW COBItESPONDENT.)

PARIS. SUNDAY, June 6.

Once more we may say Alm jacta. est. The two great
struggles fixed for this day have commenced; one has
entirely terminated, and the other is half complete. The
Grand Prize of Paris has been 'won, and the first day of
the second polling is over. Horseflesh being of so
much more importance than the destinies of
nations, it is seemly to begin with the Grand
Prize. The Drummer, the hope of the English party, has
been defeated. On the other side of the Channel your
sportsmen were confident of The Drummer's success, and
racing authorities here were much afraid of him. Galignani,
which has started the system of prophecy so much
patronised in England, pronounced for The Drummer. Most
of the English prophets did the same. But whilst human
affairs in general ure uncertain, and all is vanity and
vexation of spirit, this is specially the case with horse-
racing affairs. Neither the best English nor the
best French horse (so esteemed) have won this extremely
valuable stake. Glaueur, the successful animal, was
only third in the betting. The Drummer, who,
however, was not the favourite at starting, got
second. It is believed that the English horse would
have won but for a collision. Boulogne struck
both The Drummer and Tim Bobbin, causing
the former to fall on his knees, and considerably
injuring his chance. But defeated horses, like men, always
would have won but for -something. Wild Oats, who at
one time came to a short price, made a miserable figure.
He gave up the contest altogether after the first half-
mile, and was walked home. The weather has been
dreadfully hot and the crowd countless. The Emperor,
Empress, and the Queen of Holland were present. "All
Paris," in fact, was there, except the working men who
remained behind to vote.

There cannot have been much devotion in this city
to-day. The polling-booths in the four undecided
circumscriptions were again crowded, and the renewal of
the struggle seems to have awakened even more interest
than the first encounter a rum:right ago. Well it may.
Everything—the position of the Liberal party and the
future of France—depends upon the contest which will
terminate to-morrow. Now or never will the Opposition
establish itself. The men of both parties are well aware
of this. Their writing, speaking, and propaganda have
been incessant and terribly earnest. We now wait to see
what they have been able to achieve.
The authorities have managed to get up another fright-
ful story of revolutionary proceedings. A night or two
ago two manuscript placards announcing a public mani-
festation on the Place de la Mairie were posted up in the
town of Vierzon, in the Cher department. The authorities
imagined that these two placards afforded due justifica-
tion for alarm, and they accordingly sent to Bourges for
assistance. A detachment of about one hundred men was
immediately despatched, but tranquillity was undisturbed,
and the men went back to garrison the next clay. There
was not the slightest ground for the apprehension that a
riot was projected. This is another specimen of the style
in which revolution and insurrection are hatched by those
who have an interest in frightening the middle class.

The Imperial Court of Paris, after several adjournments,
has just given its judgment on racing sweeps, and what
is called the mutual betting system. It is decided that
sweeps are really lotteries, which, not being authorised,
were illegal. But the "mutual betting system, the court
decided, was not a game of chance, and could not, there.
fore, be termed illegal. Everybody knows what a sweep is.
But the mutual betting process is not so generally known,
and as it has been pronounced legal, and is carried on
to a fabulous extent here, I think it will be well to give a
description of this system, which I find in one of the
Paris papers. Mutual betting is based on the
" immutable laws " of demand and supply ; the
odds obtained reing more or less, according to
the smaller or greater number of persons who
have backed the winner. A sum, which may be a franc
or a louis, is fixed for the unity, but each person who
wishes to invest a larger sum can purchase several
chances. Subscribers, on paying their money, name
their horse and receive a ticket bearing a corresponding
number; when the race is about to be run the operations
are closed, the stakes put together and afterwards
divided among the supporters of the winner. Supposing
the total to amount to 500 louis, in 500 tickets at 20f.
each ; if a favourite, on which say 200 persons have
placed their money, wins, each would receive 2i
louis, or 50f., making the odds 30f. to 20f,, or
3 to 2 ; that is, they win 30f, and might have
lost 20f. ; if, on the contrary, an outsider only backed by
five persons comes in first, each gets 100 louis for his
20f., or odds of 99 to 1. In all cases a commission,
generally of 10 per cent., is made by the keeper of the
agency, which is consequently a safe and lucrative specu-
lation. Those operations, which are controlled by a
system of dials and tell-tales visible to the public,
agencies receive stakes as small as one franc, the
immense business done by them is almost incredible.
One of the principal establishments of this kind received
and paid out last iceason millions of francs. Each of the
agencies has, besides, large vehicles fitted up as offices,
and affording room, some for as many as a dozen
clerks, which travel about from one race meeting
to another and conduct their business on the ground.
Considering that little capital is required for this business,
and that there is no risk whatever, the commission of 10
per cent, is decidedly too high.
Brussels has gone into raptures over the birth of a son
to the Count of Flanders, the brother of King Leopold and
heir presumptive to the throne. The Belgian capital
was illuminated on the occasion, and all the journals
were filled with exordiums on this fortunate
event, which affords " a fresh guarantee for the future
prospects of the dynasty in default of a direct heir of the
elder branch." The joy of the Belgians is to be respected.
It chews, at least, that they prize their independence.
The Marquis of Bute has just passed through Lyons, on
his way to England from Jerusalem.