The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, -FRIDAY

METROPOLITAN GOSSlP.—Thursday.

The Conservative party are fairly perplexed by Mr.
Gladstone's bill. They do not know what to be at. The
measure is so much more moderate than they expected,
that they see all chance of successful opposition is gone.
The one great objection which they had intended to raise—
the secularising of religions endowments—Mr. Gladstone
has altogether avoided by applying the funds to a religious
use, and the most unfriendly critics admit that, granting the
Church is disendowed, no better use could havebeen made
of the money. There is much wild talk as to what the
Conservatives will do. They will, of course, be beaten in the
Commons, but then, they say, the Lords will throw the
measure out, and another appeal to the country will follow,
in which the late verdict will be reversed. How ? do your
readers think. By proposing to disestablish the Church
in Scotland 1 This, they say, will not only serve the
Scotch right for their support of Mr. Gladstone, but
will sow dissensions among them, and induce a
good many Scotsmen to support the Conservative party.
In other words, the supporters of the " sacred union be-
tween Church and State " will propose to sever it in Scot-
land because the Scotch wish to sever it in Ireland. If
that fail, say they, we will go in for disestablishment
altogether. Surely a madder scheme was never devised.
Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face is nothing to it;
it is cutting off one's head to spite one's nose.
It is early yet to say what will be done when the Irish
Church Bill gets to the Lords, an event which is expected
to happen somewhere about June 1. Nevertheless there
are various rumours afloat as to the course of events in
that august chamber. Great hope is expressed by my
Conservative friends that the rejection of the bill will be
moved by a Whig peer, and in that case it will,
they say, be seconded by Lord Derby. They
believe that several Whigs will support them, among
them the Duke of Somerset (for whom no place has been
found), Lord Westbury (ditto ditto), and Earl Grey
(whose idea of party consists in always voting against
his party), besides the two English Archbishops. On
the other hand, my friends are very downcast at the
reported defection of the Bishop of Oxford. This astute
prelate is said to have come to the conclusion that the
Irish Church might do very much worse than accept
Mr. Gladstone's proposals, and will have to do
very much worse if it does not accept them. This
defection has called down upon the Bishop the wrath
of Archdeacon Denison in a well-known Conservative
Church journal of old standing. But rumour says that
Bishop Wilberforce is not alone, that he will be followed
by no less a prelate than the distinguished divine whom
Mr. Disraeli brought over from an Irish deanery to an
English bishopric; the Bishop of Peterborough to wit.
This would be a terrible blow, for Dr. Magee had been
looked upon as a tower of strength by the supporters of
the Irish Establishment. They will still have
the Bishop of Derry, however. He is so fervid in his
support of his Church that he had the singular bad taste
to launch out last Sunday evening, when preaching under
the dome of St. Paul's, into an invective against Mr.
Gladstone. Bishop Alexander, no doubt, feels strongly ;
but a sermon is not the time, nor St. Paul's the place, nor
such a congregation as that which attends the special
services the audience, before whom to introduce
politics. Such breach of good manners was the
more lamentable because the sermon was really a wonder-
ful display of eloquence. Such indiscretion on the part of
the Bishop makes it doubtful if the Irish Church is to be
congratulated or condoled with upon the circumstance
that it happens to be his turn to sit in the House of
Lords this session. But if some Whig peers are
going to oppose the Government, it is fully
understood that some very distinguished Conservative
peers will, if not support, at least not oppose. It is quite
expected that the Marquis of Salisbury will vote for the
bill, and it is thought more than possible that the Earl of
Carnarvon will follow his example. Supposing that the
Peers do determine to run all the risks of a popular dis-
turbance and another general election, it is thought
that the majority against the bill will he about eighty.
The Reform League is virtually dead. It gave up the
ghost last night, when Mr. Beales and Mr. Howell resigned.
It will still continue nominally in existence, but it will be only
the" shadow of a name." It has been over-lauded and over-
vilified. Sincere Liberals cannot feel very much sympathy
with the noisy and egotistic men of whom it was
for the most part composed. Nevertheless, it had a very
large share in passing the Reform Bill. It was the destruction
of Hyde Park railings and the monster processions in the
streets which, when logic failed, convinced the Conserva-
tive party that Parliamentary Reform was necessary. The
work is not completed yet, but the rest of it may safely be
left to other hands. The next thing to be done is
to make elections no longer the scandals that they
are at present ruinous to all but rich men.
Things are not going on quite smoothly between the
Horse Guards and the War Office. Mr. Trevelyan did
but speak truth, though he spoke it indiscreetly, in his
famous speech about the Duke of Cambridge. His Royal
Highness has no sympathy with the new policy of effi-
ciency and economy in the public service, and should a
favourable opportunity arise for resisting Mr. Cardwell,
we may look for him to use it.

If an inquiry were made into the expenditure on the
Abyssinian expedition, there would, I am assured by those
who ought to ienow, be some curious revelations as to tha
way in which the money went. For instance, when
Government had to purchase a number of mules
some gentlemen who were well acquainted with
that sort of work, and who had a good knowledge of
Spanish, offered themselves. But this was an opportunity
for obliging political friends ; so the offer was declined,
and other gentlemen were selected, whose knowledge of
the animals and knowledge of the lingo were equal. What
that was may be gathered from the fact that they were
obliged to conduct the negotiations by the aid of inter-
preters. Anybody who has had to do with those gentry
can imagine the percentage which we—the taxpayers--
had to pay for their services.
There is good news for South Kensington. The Jermyn-
street School of Geology, having for many years struggled
bravely against its omnivorous neighbour, has at last suc-
cumbed, and will shortly be devoured. In other words,
the school, which is now in a very central position, will be
removed to that remote region variously known asAlbertland
and Dilkooshia, and be amalgamated with the School of
Naval Architecture. King Cole *ill now add another to
the many crowns which he wears upon his head.
Alas for the " legitimate drama" ! There is now but
one theatre in London where Shakespere is acted, and
there by no means with brilliant success. The modern
impressorio, if he would make his fortune quickly, must
either get up a sensational play—in which the poverty of
plot and the inferiority of the acting are compensated
for by clever mechanical contrivances, such as an
underground railway and train on the stage—or he must
open a music hall and introduce dances which
even the by no means prudish Parisians refuse to suffer.
There is one well-known place of this kind (I have no
intention of advertising it by mentioning its name), whose
directors have just declared a dividend of 25 per cent.
A gentleman, who shall he nameless, has been
setting up as a philanthropist with scarcely so much suc-
cess
Wright. The gentleman in question gives
readings
and
Wrig
leetures, ostensibly in behalf of charitable
as
gr
institutions, but some persons suppose that in that case
the lecturer would have to be considered as an institution.
It is his custom to write to big men, and ask them to
take the chair. They generally send no reply, and
Mr. —, acting on the principle that silence gives con.
sent, advertises Lord So-and-so as having graciously con.
sented to preside. The other night the Earl of Lichfield
was announced in this way. To the lecturer's immense
surprise, his lordship entered the room just before the
lecture began, and going to the front of the platform, said
that he had been announced to take the chair, that he had
no intention of doing so, and that he considered Mr.
an excessively impertinent person. His lordship then
left the room. Mr. —'s disgust may be " better imagined
than described,"

Another change in journalism is announced. The
Church News is for sale. This very abusive organ of the
ultra Ritualists has for a long time endeavoured to serve
two masters, the ultra High Church party, who are just
now bitterly denouncing the Erastianism of more moderate
men, and the High Tory party, who uphold the "sacred
union of Church and State." It is the old story
of sitting between two stools, with a fall for the
result, just as happened to the Glowworm in
attempting to obtain support from the " Constitu-
tional" party and the music-halls. Still speaking on
journalistic matters, I may mention that two new English
papers have been started in Paris by way of opposition to
' Galignani. The first is a weekly, called the European
News, and has been out some weeks. It is an
eight-page, very neatly got up. The other paper
has not yet appeared, but I hear that Mr. Blanchard
Jerrold (who edits Lloyd's Weekly News from Paris) is to
be the editor, and Mr. Stigand the " literary" editor. A
' new monthly paper, entitled the Chnrch Chronicle, is to
appear on May 1. It will be a record of Church life and
Church work, and contain notices of the London and
suburban churches. Its editor is Mr. Charles Mackeson.
There is little literary news going. The Gentleman's
will shortly have a tale from Mr. Percy Fitzgerald author
of "The Life of Sterne," and also some hitherto unpublished
letters of Walter Scott's. The forthcoming number of the
London Quarterly will have an article on Mr. Ffoulkes's
Pamphlets ; and the forthcoming number of iLfeliora one
by Mr. Edward Spender, on " Our Colonies." Mr.
Stuart Trench has received the handsome sum of £l,OOO
for the first edition of his " Realities of Irish Life." The
new volume of Keble's poems will be out in a few days.
Mr. Swinburne is said to be seriously ill.
We are having winter at last. To-day has been bitterly
cold, with frequent falls of snow, and a biting.east wind,