The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDoN WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBEn 27, 1867.

Some have been very active in spying out what
flaws they could in the matter, forgetting
in the excess of their indiscriminate zeal
that they were treating the honour of the
country and the safety of the prisoners in a secon-
dary point of view compared with the attainment
of party objects. Surely, however, there are topics,
and plenty to spare, upon which criticism can be ex-
pended without seeking to distort facts in a matter
of so much public interest and importance. These
are, however, but exceptions, and the Government
will be supported by the approval of the public in
their spirited endeavours to vindicate the dignity of
the Crown and to protect its subjects from insult
and from danger.

The American Congress and the English Parlia-
ment have almost simultaneously assembled in
extra session. In the States we may hope that the
course of their labours will be more productive of
public good and more conducive to the real inte-
rests of the nation than has been the case during
the last two or three years. The change which has
passed over the face of American politics since the
disperson of the members is significant and remark-
able. Tried by the test of the annual elections the
strength and popularity of the Radical party
have crumbled into dust, and their long de-
pressed and disheartened opponents find them-
selves suddenly restored to their fair share
of influence and authority. The estimated
result of the varieus elections shows a marvellous
result. The Republican majority of last year reached
the enormous number of 382,835. This year it is
calculated at 38,196, or less than one-tenthl Had
it not been for the strict registry laws in West
Virginia, Missouri, and Tennessee, it is believed in-
deed that the relations between the parties
would have been actually reversed, and the De-
mocrats would have gained a majority of 150,000.
By those laws, however, as we know, large numbers
of Democrats were kept from voting. The
rapidity and suddenness of this change has com-
pletely taken the Radicals by surprise, and their
journals cannot help admitting their defeat. The
New York Tribune, which belongs to the extreme
Radicals, in discussing the chances of the different
parties with regard to the coming Presidential con-
test, confesses that it does not think " much com-
fort remains for any political party that cannot
carry New York and Pennsylvania." The Demo-
cratic majorities in the late elections in New York
and Pennsylvania have been respectively 49,000 and
927, and the Democrats declare at the present mo-
ment that they have a majority of as many
thousands in Pennsylvania as they had hundreds a
few months since, so strongly is the tide of public
feeling setting in in their direction. When once the
spell of Radical ascendancy was broken the change
was easy enough, for the Radicals had not a single
claim to public confidence. When the Northern
people began to examine the effect of their theories
when put into practice, they found that they meant
negro supremacy and the destruction of the
national credit. The disorganisation of the
South, though it produced disastrous effects upon
the national prosperity, could not modify
the cruel intolerance of the Radical leaders.
Very lately Mr. WADE has declared that Con-
gress will never modify the Reconstruction
Laws, but will make them harder if the South does
not behave better. What the South ought to do
he is careful not to say. The chief fault of the
Southern whites of late has been their hopeless sur-
render of all effort to ameliorate their own con-
dition. The harshness and inconsistency with which
they have been treated by the dominant power has
produced a not unnatural effect in discouragi❑g
and disheartening the people, who felt it was vain
to look for help or consideration from the party
who loudly- maintained the doctrine of
confiscation and military law. The North-
erners are beginning to ask why they should
support a system which would entail upon them
the maintenance of a large standing army in the
South for no other earthly reason than the undue
elevation of the negro. It is not surprising, when
we consider the main features of Radical policy—
the desolation of the Southern States, and conse-
quent sacrifice of its commercial products, the supre-
macy of the negro, the lavish expenditure of public
funds and the repudiation by inches of the national
obligations, the substitution of military for civil
law throughout a large proportion of the country—
that the collective good sense of the people should
have unmistakeably pronounced against it.
The Democrats rejoice in the elections, and are
confident that they are every day gaining strength.
The Presidential contest will no longer be a mere
Radical nomination, for the issue of it depends very
greatly on the New York and Pennsylvania votes.
Each State is entitled to as many electors for the
Presidency as it has members in Congress, and
every voter votes for all the electors, so that the
majority is certain to save the whole electoral votes.
New York has 33 votes and Pennsylvania 26, while
the other States have usually less than a dozen.
Ohio is the only one over 20, and it is ranked at
present among the doubtful States. The highest
number of electors in any purely Republican State
is in Illinois, which boasts 16, but this is not half
the New York figure. General GRANT is the hero
of the day. By a singular coincidence, while his
election seems almost certain, it is doubtful to which
party he really belongs. He is too wise or too
cautious to commit himself, notwithstanding the
eager appeals to him to declare his policy.
Seine of the extreme members of the Republican
party are disgusted with this reticence. WADE
announced his conviction that GRANT ought not to
be nominated ; and the Tribune, which is the organ
of the party, considers that such Republicans as
nominate the General as their candidate are hoiat'-
ing a signal of distress. One of the strangest
signs of the times is the splitting up of the
Radicals into factions, which abuse and sus-
pect each other with full party zeal and bit-
terness. Discord is always significant of weakness,
and whatever chance they had of improving their
position is likely to be thrown away by thorough
disorganisation. No one who wishes well to either
North or South will regret their fall ; it is only a
matter of rejoicing that it has occurred before they
have further complicated the affairs of the nation.

THE DRAMA IN THE PROVINCES.—The experiment
of testing the merits of a new piece before a provin-
cial audience, with a view of ascertaining its defects, and
of making it quite worthy to be submitted to the critical
judgment of the metropolis, has been again attempted at
Liverpool, a town which has of late taken a great stride in
theatrical matters. On Monday night a now domestic
drama, something in the " Porter's Knot" style, was played
for the first time at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, with
Mr. Toole in the principal, character. It is by Mr. Byron,
and is entitled "Dearer than Life." The Liverpool jour-
nals describe the production as a great success. At times
the audience heartily relished the efforts of Mr. Toole,
whose appearance in the first act was the signal for enthu-
siastic cheering. He was brought out after every act.

FIVE FRUIT CLIPPERS LOST.—Every autumn a
small fleet of fruit clippers leave the ports of Devonshire
and other southern counties for St. Michael's, where they
take in cargoes of oranges. They are, however, frequently
overtaken by the fierce equinoctial gales which sweep the
Atlantic, and every year several aro lost. Yesterday a
telegram received at Liverpool reported the sudden wrack
of no less than five of these fruit clippers, all belonging to

Brixham and Salcombe. No mention is made in the tole-
gram of the crows, and it is to bo hoped that they were all
on shore at the time clamed in packing and sorting the

sargoes.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Tuesday Evening.
The Itioniteur announces that King Louis the
Second of Bavaria has just appointed as Minister
at Paris Count de Quadt-Wickradt-Isny, who has
for some time represented Bavaria at Brussels.
The app iutment is in the room of Baron de
Perglass, who will now fulfil the same functions at
the Court of Prussia. The nomination will entail
several other diplomatic changes. M. de Segmund
is appointed Minister at Rome. Count de Horn-
peach leaves Florence for Rome, where ho will be
replaced by M. de Baumgarten. Baron de Reigers•
berg will succeed Count de Quadt at Brussels. The
Baron's position at the Legation at Stuttgard will
be occupied by Baron de Gesser, previously con-
nected with the Legation at Berlin. lam informed
that other diplomatic changes will shortly be made
public in the !loniteur.
A double crime has been perpetrated at the Pres-
bytery of St. Istnaer, in the department of the
Isere, the motive for which is at present quite in-
explicable. Two ruffians entered the Presbytery at
night, one armed with a hatchet and the other with
a bar of iron, and prcceeded to the bedroom of
Madame Jacquenet, the mother of the curate, an
old lady of 70. They struck her on the head and
neck with such violence that it is astonishing death
did not ensue immediately. It is almost impossible
that she can survive. The curate hearing the noise
rushed from the bedroom to his mother's assistance,
and was met in the passage by the assassins, who
precipitated themselves upon him. The curate
being a powerful man defended himself, but he re-
ceived a violent blow on the head with a hatchet.
The wretches in their flight were heard to say,
"We have done for him." The curate's wounds
are dangerous, but not mortal. The pOlice have not
yet been able to find the assassins.
A lady named Dantin, has just died at Pau, in
the Lower Pyrenees, who. was up ffards of a hun-
dred years of age.
Last week a large case arrived at St. Cloud, ad-
dressed to the Empress. It was found to contain
one of the most magnificent pianos in the world,
the manufacture of a celebrated piano-maker at
Vienna, a masterpiece of art. It is of rosewood,
but gilt and ornamented iu the most elaborate and
tasteful manner. The lock is described as a mar-
vellous specimen of the locksmith's art. The initials
of the Empress and the Emperor of Austria are
splendidly worked upon the front of the piano.
There happened to be present with her Majesty the
Countess de la Tour d'Auvergne, Viscountess de
Viry, and Prince Poniatowski, all excellent musi-
cians. A trial of the instrument was made at once,
and it was found that its tone is as splendid as its
exterior. This piano is a present from the Emperor
of Austria.
Poets are allowed to let their imagination roll

nto " fine pbrenzy," and they are not called into
strict account if they give a little twisting and
turning to the facts and incidents they describe. It
is the same seemingly with dramatists. At all
events, Messieurs Cremieux and Cormon, the manu-
facturers of the libretto of Offenbach's new opera,
" Robinson Crusoe," hare a little changed the
eventful career of that well-known youth. Here is

the mode in which it is displayed in this opera.
Robinson's father, who is tolerably well off in the
world, wishes his son to become a lawyer, but
Robinson is sailor struck, and is determined to face
the charms of " the sea, the sea, the open sea." His
cousin, a very fine young girl, like the rich mer-
chant's daughter of the song, loves him, and wants
him to stay at home, marry, and get settled, but he
declines the proposal in a song, or rather
there is a beautiful love duet between the

two, presaging Robinson's departure. So finishes
the first act, and Robinson. embarks. The
second act transports us to Robinson's island,
where things take place never dreamt of by
Defoe. Crusoe finds on the first day of his arrival
that the savages are fond of eating men and women,
and he sees the preparations for a dinner composed
of a young husband and wife who, like himself, have
taken refuge on the island. Worse than all, the
savages soon bring in a young girl, who is destined

_ .
to serve for a dinner more than usually delicious.
Horror ! the young girl proves to be his cousin, to
whom he ought to have been married. She, how-
ever, is saved by Robinson's man Friday, whose
revolver produces magical effects upon the savages,
and the young husband and wife who were to have
been eaten remain to love. The music of this opera
is light, original, and pleasing. In operas people do
things which are not usual in other cases. For in-
stance, at the very moment when the young couple
are in expectation of being boiled, stewed, or roasted,
they sing a duet, and even the savages are pleased
with the " concord of sweet sounds." As to the
audience, they were enraptured, and they wanted
the song again while the pot was boiling. Robin-
son's man Friday is personated by Madame Galli-
Marie with extreme finesse, courage, and presence
of mind. Of course Robinson and his cousin get
married before the business of the opera is over.
It seems likely that it will prove what is called a
great success, albeit for a comic opera very un-
pleasant things loom in the distance at the com-
mencement; for instance, when it appeared evident
that the savages had made up their minds not only
to cook their goose, but their visitors.
The weather continues excessively cold, but dry
and agreeable for the season. It is what Shakspere
describes as " frosty, but kindly."
r
may now be consi-
dered or rather as a
derielde
amseeatnin,g‘
aocfcothmepClisohnegdre
fact which will soon be accomplished. The only
difficulty seems to be as to the place of meeting,
but Munich is mentioned as the most probable,
should Bavaria consent to take part in it.
A despatch has been received in Paris from
Florence, stating that Messrs. Crispi and Manchini,
chosen by Garibaldi to defend him, have made a
formal application to the Italian Government claim-

ing his immediate and unconditional release. One

of the grounds of the application is that a deputy
cannot be arrested or placed upon trial for any
alleged offence whatever, without the consent of

Parliament.

ST. GEORGE'S OPERA HOUSE.

-o---

We understand that Mr. German Reed has taken
the St. George's Hall, Langham-place, in order to
carry out his design of- establishing in -the metro-
polis a comic opera, derived both- front native and
foreign sources. We are glad the task has fallen
into such able hands, for the experience of the public
taste and requirements through many years, both as
composer and performer, will enable him to select
materials calculated to ensure success. Efficiency
in all the branches of such an undertaking we
are now, for the first time, likely to attain ;
and we only hope it will furnish a strong proof that
the cause of failure heretofore was to be found, not
in a distaste or apathy for English composition, but
in a lack of means or ability in bringing together
good musicians, able authors, and clever artistes.
Our advance in musical knowledge, in fact, has
been so rapid and universal that audiences have
become highly appreciative of merit, while defects
are no longer tolerated. .

The St. George's Hall is undergoing the necessary
alterations, in the construction of private boxes,
and the enlargement of the stage for the produc-
tion of opera and extravaganza. An undertaking
like this interests all classes ; and it has been in-
timated to us that the prices of admission will be
within the range of the poorest amateur.
As an earnest of good intention a new operatic
extravaganza will be immediately announced, from
the humorous pen of Mr. F. C. Burnand, whose
works are " legion," and Mr. A. S. Sullivan, a young
and rising composer, whose sparkling and melodious
conceptions have already placed him in a high
position.

Our favourite place of resort, the Gallery of
Illustration, will of course be unaffected by Mr.
German Reed's connection with the St. George's
Opera llouse. The present entertainment there,
which is still running a prosperous career, will, we
bear, be replaced by novelty before the present year
runs out.