The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-29 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN GOSSIP-7hursday.

Ministers have set to work in good time. For them ti e
shooting season is short indeed, for them hunting does not

exist. Ido not know if the keenest sportsman of them all
—Mr. Bright—has been able to enjoy his favourite salmon-
fishing this summer. But for him, as for all the rest, the

" season has begun ; for him, as for his colleagues, the
time of hard-work is at hand. By the way, there is a good

deal of grumbling going on just now, and likely to be very
loud before long, if it remain unheeded, as to the way in

which the duties of the Board of Trade are performed.
Mr. Milner Gibson was thought to be the very incarnation

of laissez faire; but Mr. Bright exceeds his old fellow-
Leaguer in that respect. Of two things, one—either there

is need of this department or there is not. If there is
need of it, then it should not refuse to inves-
tigate properly the numerous railway accidents
which are now taking place, or to stop the sending of
rotten ships to sea. If there is no need of the department
_ .

then we may as well save the expense of it by abolishing it.
In that case Mr. Bright could remain a Minister without a
portfolio, and would be virtually in very much the same
position that he is now—one of the most influential
advisers of the Cabinet, one of the most inefficient of
Ministers.

Your readers will probably have noticed that the Times
has suggested to the Government a solution of the land
question, the adoption, in a modified degree, of the exist-
ing tenure in Ulster. I am glad to see so influential a
journal proposing the same remedy as I mention ed
several weeks ago. Equally glad am I to see the same
journal admitting the principle of the Permiiive,
Bill, and the Globe, in its leader of list night
opposing the opium traffic. This list topic suggests
another. Why do not the Conservative party take up a
new rile? That of resistance to constitutional changes has

proved useless, so far as the country is concerned, and dis-
astrous to themselves. How much so the Marquis of

Salisbury has shown in that most remarkable Quarterly
article which, without once mentioning the name of Mr.
Disraeli, is the most fearfully severe attack upon that poli-
tician which has ever been made. But the Marquis has small
comfort for the future. The Conservatives are out of office, and
must be content to remain so, ho tells them, perhaps for

half a century. Would this be necessary if they took up
with social reforms ? If, for instance, they heartily under-

took legislation with regard to the liquor and the opium
traffic, the dwellings of the working classes, education,
sanitary reform ? Let not the party agents say that this
kind of legislation does not pay. It was this which saved
the Conservative party from an even more overwhelming

defeat than that which they sustained at the last election.
It was the prominent part which they took in factory

legislation which won them Lancashire. It would be a
fine cry to go to the country with, "Down with Party

Politics, Long Live Philanthropy ! We seek the welfare
of the many, not the aggrandisement of the few."
The recent minor Ministerial changes do not call for
very much remark. Mr. Layard's appointment has
been very variously criticised. He certainly was successful
in diplomatising the Arabs; he was certainly not suc-
cessful in diplomatising Bismarck. He accomplished his

work at Nineveh very well; he fulfilled his duties at the

Foreign Office very indifferently. He has more of tho

fortiter in re than of the suaviter in modo, and his success
in Spain will depend chiefly upon the proportionate
need that there is for these qualities. According
to all accounts, it is the first that is required at

Madrid. Sir John Crampton has let things go on
far too easily, being fonder of collecting curiosities
than of looking after British sailors whose ships have been
seized by the Spanish Government. The Tornado and
Victoria affairs were thus allowed to linger on in a very
discreditable fashion, and would have been still more pro-
tracted but for Lord Stanley's vigour in ordering the
Mediterranean squadron to move from Malta to Gibraltar.
Mr. Layard has certainly been tolerably successful as
a First Commissioner of Works, as anybody who
frequented the Row last summer must admit.
He converted the dreariest part of Hyde Park
into a veritable Paradise. He is now gilding the great
gates- by Apsley House, and very gorgeous they look, as you
walk towards them from Reformers' Tree. This tree, by the
way, has not been cut down as some of the papers assert; it
i 4 still standing, though its next neighbour but
one lies prostrate. What sort of ndile Mr.
Ayrton will make I do not know. He is
supposed to be a man of taste, and has always
interested himself in the affairs of the British Museum
and the National Gallery. He has certainly not been suc-
cessful as Secretary to the Treasury. It requires a less
egotistic man to perform the delicate duties belonging to
that office. Mr. Stansfeld will probably be more success

ful. The Mazzini fiasco has been forgotten, and everybody
knows that the member for Halifax is a very
able man, though of somewhat " Red " procli-
vities. Tile office which he vacates will not be
filled up, and so everyone is asking why it was created.
Miuiiterialists say by way of experiment. Oppositionists
say by way of a job. The second accuse the Government of
having, in spite of their professions of economy, created a
post in order to supply a place for an adherent whom they
could not afford to omit. The first say that the arrange-
ment was made with a view to the public service, and to
assist in the policy of retrenchment, which has been so
largely successful. I am not called ullon to decide between
these two explanations. Another post will probably
be vacant very shortly. Mr. Walsh's death leaves one of
the most valuable legal posts in Ireland vacant, and it falls
of right to the Irish Attorney-General, Mr. Sullivan, who
gave the Government such valuable help last year in the
Irish Church Bill. In fact, his help was so valuable that
it is possible Ministers may not, with an
Irish Land Bill before them, be able to dis-
pense with it next session, and may, therefore, ask Mr.
Sullivan to waive his claim. This is the more probable as
the present Solicitor-General, Mr. Barry, is not in Parlia-
ment, and, as he prosecuted the Fenians, it would be diffi-
cult to obtain a seat for him.
It is rumoured that the the vacant Lord Justiceship has
been offered to Mr. Mellish, and that he, who has formerly
more than once declined a judgeship, has also declined this
post. It seems more probable that it will be conferred
upon Sir W. James.
I believe that the Liberals will not fight Lynn. They
have lost influence in that borough lately by the disasters
of the Gurney family. Moreover, what influence the
Gurneys still possess cannot now be counted upon. Last
year it was used in behalf of the Conservative candidates.
I find that the impression still prevails in influential
quarters that the present Government will not be in exis-
tence this time next year. I cannot ;learn any good
reason for this impression ; but it seems to be thought that
the Ministry will break up from internal dissensions on
the land question. The article in yesterday's Times
indicates that a different conviction prevails in Printing-
house-square. The leading journal did its best last session
to bring about that result; but it now speaks of the attempt
with a sort of half censure, as though it were entirely
guiltless.
Mr. Gladstone has been greatly surprised by the extreme
hostility which has been shewn to the appointment of Dr.
Temple. I have reason for believing, however, that he did
not consult with the Bishop of Oxford before making the
appointment, as was stated by the London correspondent
of the Manchester Guardian. The Bishop does not approve of
the appointment. But neither he nor any of the other
bishops is likely to take an active part in preventing it. The
Bishops of Gloucester and Lincoln are among the warmest
in their condemnation, and Dr. Wordsworth especially,
would be glad to see the nomination set aside. But they will
not take upon themselves the responsibility of an opposition
that would deal a serious blow to the union of Church and
State. There will be no lack of bishops to consecrate Dr.
Temple at the proper time. One of the most remarkable
incidents of the agitation is the conversion of Archdeacon
Denison into an anti State-Churchman. At the
memorable Bristol Conservative dinner, two years
ago, the Archdeacon of Taunton went so far as
to say that the people of England might before
long be called upon to take up arms in defence of the
State Church ; and now the appointment of one Broad
Church Bishop out of six has made him declare for separa-
tion. It is in fact he who is urging on the Dean and
Chapter of Exeter to reject Dr. Temple ; he who will lead
the opposition in spirit: while Bishop Trower leads it in
person. As for the opposition in London,that has somewhat
revived since my lastletter. Now that the Low Church party
are not called upon to associate with that " leper " Dr. Pusey,as
Dean M‘Neile politely calls him, they see their way to an
agitation on their own account, and so the Church Associa-
tion, with Lord Shaftesbury at its head, have sent up a
memorial, said to represent 7,000 English Churchmen ;
not a very large number out of ten millions certainly.
The original memorial is also receiving fresh signatures
among the High Church party now that Lord Shaftesbury
has withdrawn from it. Among the signatures there are
two which are somewhat remarkable, those of canon
Gregory and the Rev. R. T. West, of St. Mary Magdalene,
Paddington. The first has Mr. Gladstone's son for his
curate; the second is brother to Mr. Gladstone's secretary.
I hear also that nearly all the Windsor clergy and the
Queen's own organist, Dr. Elvey, have signed thememorial.
On the other hand, such High Churchmen and keen Con-
servatives as Dean Duncombe and Earl Nelson have not
only refused to sign, but have expressed somewhat warmly
their dislike of the present agitation. The peer has with
expressions of anger withdrawn from the Church Institu-
tion, because that body lent its rooms for the furtherance
of the opposition. A meeting of the original opposition
takes place to-morrow. It is probably that Dr. Posey will
resign the vice-presidentship, and will be succeeded by