The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-21 00:00:00

A VERY TICKLISH POINT.

ventured to think and act for himself, the
consequences which befell him involved him
in ruin, and served as a warning to others not
to imitate his rash example. In short, the Constitution
was monopolised by a class. The result of this was that
nothing was done for the popular cause, except at long
intervals, by spasmodic efforts and under excitement
that could not be sustained. Suddenly public
opinion has veered almost to the other extreme of
deprecating interference with electoral freedom
under any pretext, and a Press daily in the hands of
millions is both the apostle and the guardian of political
liberty. What every one in a certain station once did
openly, and, as a matter of course, none can do now
with,ut incurring universal odium or personal danger.
We arc frst approaching the point when the political
opinions cf the individual will be considered as in-
violable, and treated with a respect scarcely less
inferior to that which the common consent of civi-
lised men accords to religious belief." In this position,The
O'Donoghue appeals to his countrymen to uso modera-
tion, and to let it clearly be understood what it is they
require, and that whatever measure a majority of their
representatives agree to support, the House of Commons
will pass, if it be inherently just, no matter how novel

are its features or how violent the opposition it has to
encounter.

Tax LEGAL VACATION.—The Chancery vacation
commences on Thursday and will terminate on the 6th
January. At common law the chambers will bo closed
from Friday to the following Thursday morning.
The Lancashire tenants of Lord Derby intend to
add a side chapel to Knowsley Church, in which kill be
placed a recumbent monument of the late earl. It is ex-
pected to carry out this project for a sum of about £2,000.
NEWS BY TELEGRAPH.—The Levant Times of
the 10th says that the following telegram was recently
received from Galatz :—" Aground aganem ipswich chipp
was blank delane ardella alteration compani agony orumana
elsnarth arrival ona ergo anna." The Levant Times gives
it up.

A ITALL FOR THE FORESTERS.—The long-talked
of hall for the Ancient Order of Foresters is about to be
erected. The site is at the end of Wilderness-row, on the
Charterhouse land, recently sold. Hitherto the Order, the
second only in point of numbers and amount of funds in
their possession, of the great benefit societies, have had no
general hall.—City Press.
Recent accounts of the Carnatic state that the
vessel is lying in tho clearest of water, every ror e and
port being as visible as before she went down. There lies,
just as he was pinioned coming out of a deck cabin, the
body of an officer of the ship, his head and shoulders clear
out, but his legs and body fast within. Who that officer
is no one knows; perhaps it is better that no one should
know, but his is the only body that has been seen; and it
will, if possible, yet receive becoming burial.
" FIASCO."—Ono of the French papers gives the
following 'account of the origin of the expression " To make
a complete fiasco." A German one day seeing a glassblower
at his occupation, thought nothing could be easier than
glassblowing, and that he could do it as well as the other.
He accordingly commenced operations by blowing vigor-
ously, but could only produce a sort of pear-shaped
balloon or little flask (fiasco). The second attempt had a
similar result, and so on until fiasco after fiasco had been
made. Hence arose the expression.
AN ADVENTURER WHO WON.—Photography has
played an important part in many affairs of the heart,
but it is questionable whether it was ever more implicitly

relied upon than in the case of a young German in Cali-
fornia, who, while visiting the house of a married lady of
that country, observed the portrait of her sister, a Miss
Rowe, then living at an hotel in St. Austell. Struck with
the charms of the shadow, but conceiving the substance
would be even more worthy of admiration, he wrote
to the young lady to that effect. Receiving an encour-
raging reply, by which his lo a was stimulated and
his faith confirmed, he promptly remitted to St. Austell a
sufficient sum to ray her expenses to California, adding
that should she, on arriving, be unfavourably impressed he
would not hold her bound by either law or honour to
accept his hand. Miss Rowe journeyed to the far country,
was there met by her suitor, and a letter has just been
received by her mother at St. Austell, announcing that the
nuptial knot has been tied.— Western Morning Fem. .
THE NEW OPERA HOUSE AT PARIS.—The
ceiling of the immense new Opera House in Paris will ho
as remarkable for novelty as some of those comlinations of
architectural ideas which distinguish the façade and
have excited much hostile criticism. It will be composed
of a vast number of plates of copper screwed one

to the other in such a way as to be easily put

together and taken to pieces again.

Part of the

advantages of the plan is said to be that the ceiling

can thus be raised or lowered at will. The
whole is divided into several sections, which are now being
painted with allegorical representations of the Hours of

day and night, mono than a hundred figures being included
in the whole. The place in which M. Lenepvuo, the artist,
carries on his labour is situated in the grand cupola over
the pit, and forms an immense rotunda, 120 feet in dia-
meter and G 5 feet in height. Probably no artist ever before

possessed such a studio—its size, as has been romanced,
being sufficient to accommodate half a dozen atAnzion3 of

ATe_oto;:cie higb,

A curi,us question has arisen with reference to the
ChanceEor of the Exchequer's arrangement, by which on
the let of January we are to pay our taxes in advance.
Suppose a professional man who makes £5OO a year
has paid his income tax for the year in the
month of January and dies in February, will
Mr. Lowe return the amount overpaid ? We think he will
not, but at the same time the widow has her remedy.
There is Downing-street, and there is the knocker and bell
at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's door. Four or five
hundred widows knocking and ringing until they get
a satisfactory answer must prove a great nuisance to Mr.
Lowe, and if they persevere, the probability is that some-
thing will be done. What that something will be we
cannot say—so much depends on the effect this noise
may take on the right honourable gentleman. He may bo
very much touched, and if his sympathies are roused he
will possibly put his hand into his pocket, or rather into
the national pocket, and restore his ill-gotten gains to the
representatives of the lamented taxpayer. But on the
other hand he may lose his temper; he is not a man to
be trifled with, and though, in what is called the
" recess," he rides on a bicycle, he can ride a
very high horse at other times, and he might just possibly
give all the widows into custody for making a disturbance.
Therefere, although we point out a course which may be
pursued, we do not recommend it—it is a matter which
must be left entirely to the discretion of those who have
lost a husband and several months' income-tax at the
beginning of the year.—. Pall Jfall Gazette.

THE O'DONOGHUE ON IRISH LEGISLA
TION.

The O'Donoghue, M.P., writes a very temperate and
judicial letter on English legislation for Ireland. He begins
by expressing the belief that the unconstitutional
ascendancy of the higher class no longer prevails in
the House of Commons, and those sectarian and national
prejudices which were formerly irresistible have lost much
of their power. " Two or three years ago I could
not conscientiously have spoken of the House of Com-
mons as I now speak of it. The change which has
come over the minds of Englishmen and Scotchmen with
reference to the policy which ought to be pursued towards
Ireland has been so sudden and contrary to all experience
and tradition that the Irish people, so far from having
realised its scope and tendency, as yet question its reality."
At the same time, great changes cannot be brought about
by Englishmen alone, and legislation for Ireland, which is
not also the work of Irishmen, must be necessarily defec-
tive. "In Ireland, as I have already observed, the people are
advancing in intelligence and independence, and are rising
superior to the influences which have made the parliamentary
representation of this country a mockery, a delusion, and
a snare.' Hitherto, the electoral body, as a general rule,
not daring to use their constitutional privileges for their
own benefit, have been marshalled in two opposing camps
and driven hither and thither without the smallest regard
being paid to private views. If an individual