The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-18 00:00:00

in frivolous discussions, and in attempts to alter
and amend what might have been just as well left
alone. Mr. lIODGKINsoN's amendment, so far from
mpeding the course of affairs, in reality serves the
Government ; and, as the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer admitted last night, there was no reason
why they should not adopt it. We think that the
Ministers have shown incontrovertible proof of their
desire to get this question settled, by their readiness
to agree to the plans of those members who intro-
duce changes and innovations. We hold it impossible
for Mr. GLADSTONE to have taken Mr. DISRAELI'S
place this year, for he would have worked himself
up into a furious or a frenzied state by this time,
under the visit ition of conflicting opinions and the
pressure of responsibilities at the same time. It
would " seem as if the compound householder,"
who has been for weeks past alternately the object
of wonder and the subject of controversy, is to
melt away like the baseless fabric of a vision. Mr.
lIODGKINSON has taken every one by surprise by
his speedy and successful accomplishment of this
amazing fact ; but so it it is, and he may well be
proud of his achievement. The change introduced
last night will allow a good opportunity
for noticing whether there was any sin-
cerity in the representations of those who
were so eager in their condemnation of the recent
scheme.

None expected much of Mr. GLADSTONE after the
way he has conducted himself of late, and his
speech last night was quite characteristic, for he
blew hot and cold, and said, at the same time, that
he would accept the amendment, though he regretted
having to do so. The right hon. gentleman is a
most unsatisfactory leader of a party, or general
politician either, for he cannot be decided ; and
there is always something that had better have been
done, and some arriere pensee that occurs to mar
the satisfaction which he would otherwise have ex-
perienced. His discourse last night was no excep-
tion to the rule, and after being tolerably quiet he
concluded with an intimation to the Government,
that if they did not take care, the work would be
taken from. their hands and transferred to the deci-
sion of those beyond the walls of Parliament. He
said it caused him " great apprehension to think
that thousands. of people were meeting to protest
against the doings of Parliament." The Chancellor
of the Exchequer treated this harangue about
" popular agitation " in a very fitting manner, and
his remarks were received with loud cheers from
both sides .of the House. Referring to the " dark
allusions" they had heard, the right hon. gentleman
said that more monstrous exaggeration was never
indulged in. We think that a better definition
could not have been given of the state of things
as regards this would-be agitation than is found in
this passage—" I have no doubt that these indi-
viduals who having long continued with what I
may call blundering hands to settle this question
may be exceedingly annoyed that those who
have been their rivals in this enterprise have
been more successful, but that the great body
of the nation is now brooding in sullen and
dangerous discontent aver the labours of the
House of Commons who are doing all
in their power to bring this question to the solution
so long desired. That is a statement which cannot
be established." Indeed, this idea is altogether so
preposterous, and sounds so strongly of the bragga-
docio line of argument, that it was quite unworthy
of one in Mr. GLADSTONE'S position to adopt. The
right hon. gentleman had better take care what he
is about with his new-born zeal for clamour and out-
of-doors agitation. It is an unwise course which he
is pursuing, and he does not fully estimate what the
consequences may be to his reputation and influence.
At any rate the Chancellor of the Exchequer was
pet fectly justified in taking up the matter in the way
he did, and in distinctly declaring that he put no
faith in the prophecies put before him in so sinister a
style, and in assuring the House that her MAJESTY'S
Government were not influenced in their course
by " the terrors which had been depicted, and the
agitation with which they had been threatened."
It would be a very good thing for the progress of
the bill if for the future hon. members would abstain
from these absurd arguments, and rest content with
doing their best ; they may be assured that such a
course will be the one most calculated to win the
confidence and respect of the people and insure the
satisfactory settlement of this long and vexed ques-
tion. Mr. DISRAELI followed the wisest course he
could last night in the view he took of Mr. IIonG-
KINSON'S amendment. He said that the principle
upon which their franchise was founded was
a true one, and the House had shown thus by over-
whelming majorities. The amendment in question
came from the other house, and had the support of
Mr. GLADSTONE, both which facts proved the
genuineness of the scheme of the Government,since
its opponents were compelled to come round to it.
There was nothing to impede the real course of the
bill in the debate of last night, and we may fairly
conclude that in a short time all remaining obstacles
will be removed, and:the desires of its well-wishers
be secured in a satisfactory manner.

It seems that the fears which have been enter-
tained respecting the safety of the Atlantic cables
were not altogether without foundation, although,
as is common in such cases, rumour had greatly
exaggerated the state of the case. The telegraphic
communication between the hemispheres is uninter-
rupted, and the chairman of the company reports
that in course of yesterday 91 messages passed
along the wonder-working lines. The fact is, that
the cable of 1865, the long-lost line, is in perfect
order, and thus the communications are unbroken,
but the cable of 1866 has suffered from the
vicinity of an iceberg, though it is believed that the
damage done will be very easily rep4ired. The
advantage of having two lines is thus forcibly
demonstrated ; and we have little doubt that the
means of communication will be hereafter increased,
since the vast traffic between this country and
America is likely to increase rather than diminish
in its requirements.

The news which the line transmits to us from
New York yesterday is not of much import-
ance. The negroes at New Orleans and Mobile are
still disorderly, but no serious mischief seems to be
apprehended. The intelligence brought by the
Cuba steamship from Halifax and Boston is also of
a comparatively tranquil character. When the
chief item in the news is the strike of the workmen
it is a favourable sign of the general tranquillity of
political affairs. Nevertheless, the great strike at
Chicago is especially significant, and may teach our
trades-unionists a useful le son. America is always
represented as the paradise of labour, and every
agitator points the motal of his eloquence with
the example of the free and independent working
man across the Atlantic. Notwithstanding man-
hood suffrage, paid members of Parliament, and all
the rest of it, the disputes between capital and
labour appear to go on much the same on the other
side of the Atlantic. The great strike at Chicago
has been of serious extent, andehas resulted in
riots. The differences have been finally adjusted
by the men who resumed work on the old ten-
hours' system, receiving the regular wages,
while those who only work eight hours
are reduced 20 per cent. This is a very
fair end- ietteonable mode of &Wing the dif-

ficulty ; and we apprehend, if the English Unionists
were allowed to measure their wages by their work,
we should hear less of all this reauction of hours.
Eight hours is a very short day's labour. What is
to be done with the remaining sixteen, especially if
men may not work over-time ? The world must go
round a little slower than it has been doing of late
years, and business of all kinds, on both sides of
the Atlantic, must be less energetically pro-
secuted. The title " working man" will soon be
a complete misnomer when applied to the artisan,
since they will not be able to compete with the pro-
fessional man or the member of Parliament in the
severity of their application or the length of their
hours of labour. Instead of each man trying to
excel and to push himself forward by industry and
energy, this mischief making system discourages all
enterprise, and reduces the sober, hardworking man
to the level of the thriftless and idle. The Ameri-
cans, we should imagine, are too sharp witted
and practical a people to allow such theories
to gain ground among them. At any rate the
employers seem to have been " cute" enough to find
a very practical way of moderating the fervour of
trades-unions. If they have succeeded in appor-
tioning the wages paid to the amount of labour
done they have achieved the first and most im-
portant step towards breaking up a mischievous
monopoly.
JEFFERSON DAVIS, so we learn by telegram, dated
two days since, has • arrived at New York on his
way to Canada, a fact which almost all classes
must regard with satisfaction. The condition of
the South is very wretched, the distress of the
planters being increased by the late floods, which
have in many parts destroyed the crops, and the
people are reduced to starvation. The Northern
States go on their way seemingly contented, but
the loss is felt heavily all through the country. The
Radicals have made their tenure of power as expen-
sive as possible to the country, for by their
ill-advised legislation they have effectually pre-
vented the restoration of tranquillity and the con-
sequent revivial of trade. The capital and credit
of the South were alike exhausted in the war, and
so far from endeavouring to restore confidence and
to induce Northern money and enterprise to find its
way southwards, the Radicals have contrived to keep
a state of uncertainty and insecurity which would have
been fatal to a flourishing and prosperous country.
Sach a policy has been most injurious in its effects
throughout the whole community, because the pro-
ducts of the South were of great and increasing
value to the North, and it was no secret that one
powerful incentive,for the preservation of the Union
was the profit derived by the export of Southern
raw material through Northern ports. Having seem-
ingly secured all they had been fighting for, the
North, in obedience to the Radicals, forthwith re-
fused to profit by the hard-won victory. Instead
of taking advantage of the quiet and depressed state
of feeling in the South, and endeavouring to build
up as quickly as might be the social fabric of peace-
able and industrial occupation, the Northerners
have left the planters and their families to
starve, and the negroes to live in idleness,
to their own detriment and to the injury of others.
It is more than time these wounds of the South
were healed, and that some efforts were made to
resuscitate those great and profitable industries
which benefit all parties alike, and will afford the
best security against discontent and disaffection, by
restoring hope and confidence to the people.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Friday Evening.

M. Bogier, the Belgian Minister for Foreign
Affairs, on Wednesday communicated to the Bel-
gian Senate the circumstances connected with the
signature of the Treaty by the London Conference.
He said, " The independence and neutrality of Bel-
gium not having been at all in question, our Pleni-
potentiary had special instructions to assist with all
his power and influence in any pacific solution in
conformity with our rights and interests. The
Grand Duchy remains under the Sovereignty of the
House of Orange Nassau. It is declared to be a
neutral State, and its neutrality is placed under the
sanction of the collective guarantee of the Powers
who signed the Treaty. Belgium, in its quality of
neutral State, does not come within the stipulation."
After some further explanations on points already
known, the Minister concluded by saying—" This
Treaty removes great difficulties which had unex-
pectedly arisen between two powerful neighbours,
and thus augments the security of Belgium. It is
not without interest for our country, as the Senate
will understand, that it has for the first time been re-
presented at a political Congress, and that it has had
the good fortune to preserve to Europe the benefits
of peace, that:greatest of all advantages for nations."
A despatch from Gibraltar announces the arrival
at that port of the Italian corvette Le Comte de
Cavour, having on board Vice-Admiral Anguisola,
on his way to La Plata. The American turret-
monitor Miantonomah, escorted by the corvette
Augusta, had also just anchored at Gibraltar.
The Paris papers continue their appreciations of
the Treaty, but their remarks begin to be somewhat
" stale, flat, and unprofitable." The satisfaction
is great that Prussia consents to evacuate the for-
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A woman of 30, named Viteline Legraud, has
been tried before the Court of Assize of La Seine,
for having through jealousy killed her lover, a man
named Maguoy, a workman, " without having the
intention of killing him." The two lovers had been
on very intimate terms, but the deceased having
heard that the fair one was of immoral habits re-
f used to perform his promise of marrying her. She in-
vited him to come to her lodging and take tea with her.
She then formally asked him if he intended to make
her his wife, and on his reply in the negative she
threw the contents of a bottle of sulphuric acid in
his face. He was taken to the hospital Beaujou,
but the injury was so severe that he died in two or
jury convicted her, and she was
sentenced
to eight The Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duke
The
years' imprisonment.
and Duchess of Manchester, went on Tuesday
performed was the " Grande Duchesse de evening to .the Theatre des Varietes. The piece
Gerol-
stein."
It is said that the Emperor and Err.press were
to give a grand fete to-morrow evening at the
palace of the Elysee to the sovereigns and princes
now in Paris.
Count Rostopchen, son of the celebrated Governor
of Moscow, who gave orders to set fire to that city
on the invasion of the French in 1812, has just ar-
rived in Parii.

_ .
Pope Pius the Ninth on Monday last entered
his 76th year. He was born on the 13th of May,
1792. On the 16th June he will have occupied the
Pontifical throne for 21 years.

A German paper gives a programme of some
splendid fetes which are to take place at Pesth
ou
the occasion of the coronation of the Emperor of.
Austria as King of Hungary. The Emperor and
Empress will make their solemn entry into Pesth
on the 30th of May, and various ceremonies will
take place in the following days. The coronation
is appointed for the 3d of June.
The opening of the Reichsrath will take place
previous to the coronation. The Emperor will open
the Session in person, with a Speech from the
Throne.

The chignon has been applied to A purpose which