The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-29 00:00:00

not get up and call him a Conservative in disguise,
for the manner in which he advocated the Reform
question. But, apart from the strong language con-
tained in the celebrated but unhappy speeches of Mr.
Bright, it seemed to him (Lord E. Cecil) that there
were one or two fallacies underlying the hon. gen-
tleman's fervid declamation. The first of these fal-
lacies was that the artisans of the large towns, how-
ever much we might wish to see them admitted to
the franchise, constituted the people of England;
and the second was that everything good came from
the large towns, and everything bad and corrupt
from the small boroughs and the counties. On every
occasion, too, the great agricultural interest was per-
sistently vilified, and was constantly held up as being
numerically inferior and politically of less importance.
Now, gentlemen who talked in this way entirely for-
got that the population of the counties comprised
11,000,000, and that of the boroughs 9,000,000,
and yet the counties only returned something like
160 members, while the boroughs returned over 330
members. Notwithstanding these facts and figures,
the cry was constantly raised that the representation
of the agricultural interest was too great in the pre-
sent parliament. As to nothing good coming from
small boroughs, he thought he had only to point in
reply to the excellent speeches which they had been
favoured by two borough members that evening. As
to large constituencies being a safeguard against bri-
bery, without saying whether bribery or the revela-
tions which we had lately had at Totnes, Yarmouth,
and Lancaster, he would call attention to a few de-
ductions which he had made from a parliamentary re-
turn just issued with reference to the expenses of
candidates at the last general election. According to
the published return—and he only dealt with legi-
timate and published expenditure—(a laugh)—it
was stated that at Bristol the average expenditure
of each candidate was £2,037 ; at Manchester,
£1,656 ; at Glasgow, £2,817 ; at Dublin, £4,567 ;
in the City of London, £2,489 ; in Marylebone,
£2,031 ; and at Westminster—which was always
held up as the blue riband of representation, though
bethought there was a good deal of gold tinsel mixed
up with the blue riband—£4,oll. Now, at Maldon,
which he did not suppose was the least expensive of
the boroughs of England, the average expenditure
of each candidate at the last general election was
only £643, or just one-fourth of the expenditure of
each candidate at Glasgow, and one-sixth of the
average expenditure incurred by each candidate at
Westminster. These facts showed that the tendency
of large constituencies was rather to increase than
to diminish the expenditure of candidates, and that
before any bill passed which would represent all
classes, there were many other points to be consi-
dered besides a lowering of the franchise. Looking
into the political horizon, it seemed to bun there
were several questions quite as important as reform
which demanded an attentive and close considera-
tion. There was the state of Ireland—(hear, hear)
—there was the reorganisation of the army and
navy, there was the administration of the Poor-law,
there was the insecurity of the holders of railway
property—(laughter)—besides various other ques-
tions affecting the Church and education. Whether
the Government of Lord Derby were allowed or
not to deal with these questions, the Conservatives
must not shut their eyes to the fact that they were in
a considerable minority in the House of Commons ;
at the same time there had never been the same
amount of difference in their ranks as existed
in the ranks of the opposite party, while they
would also receive support from a large amount of
the educated public opinion of the country. To that
large class who, without taking any very active part
in politics, still loved and revered the constitution,
he would confidently appeal ; and to Conservatives
he would say, adopting nearly the same language as
was used at a great meeting at Birmingham not
long since, "Remember the object for which we
strive ; care not for calumnies or for lies ; our object
is to uphold the British Constitution, with all its
freedom, for the British people." (Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN proposed " Prosperity to the Mal-
don Conservative Club," and after.some humorous
observations at the expense of thelocal Liberal party
who, lie said, at a recent meeting appeared to show
extraordinary despondency as regards the past, and
considerable apprehension as regards the future, the
lion. gentleman added that there was nothing in
Conservative principles, or in the past policy of the
Conservative party, to prevent them dealing with
the whole question of reform in a comprehensive
spirit, or to prevent them bringing in a Reform Bill
at once moregenuincly ltberalin its details and more
in accordance with the ancient lines of the Cansti-
tution than the bill of last sesiion. That was all
his friends or his opponents would get from him on
the subject of reform. (Laughter.) His esteemed
colleague (Sir T. Western), at a meeting at Maldon
last week, had remarked that he (Mr. Du Cane)
had indicated with very considerable significance at
Castle Iledingham what might be expected in the
matter of the malt tax from his friends now in power.
Well, what he did expect from his friends now in
power was that in ailmatters of taxation the claims
of the agricultural interest to share fairly in the re-
ductions made should be fairly considered ; and if
he had thought that—provided the finances of the
country allowed it—the present Government were
not prepared to deal fairly with the agricultural in-
terest in the matter of the malt tax, he should not
have felt Limself at liberty to accept office. With a
considerable doubt hanging over them as to whether
there would be sufficient surplus to enable them to deal
satisfactorily.with the malt tax, and with a large majo-
rity hostile at this moment to any proposal for the
reduction of that tax, it would not be wise for her
Majesty's Government to embarrass their position
and court certain defeat ; to do so would be fatal
not merely to the existence of the present Adminis-
tration, but also in the long run to the cause of malt
tax repeal. his friend Mr. Sandford had alluded to
certain matters connected with our naval expendi-
ture. He would undertake to deliver Mr. Sandford's
message word foi word to Sir J. Pakington, and he
had no doubt that Sir John would answer that mes-
sage in the way that Mr. Sandford would most like
him to answer it, viz., in his place in Parliament, in
proposing the navy
estimates for 1867. In other
matters he (Mr. Du Cane)
Saud-
ford would find that the
re
tsnrusttedthat3r. Sand-
p Governmentl had a
due regard for the honour and the
country over which it presided. ,
(Hear,od name
hear. of the
Several other toasts followed.

PHILIP AUGUSTUS' FORTRESS DISCOVERED.—III
the course of recent excavations made in the Court of the
Louvre, the workmen came upon the foundations of the
fortress built by Philip Augustus. This sovereign con-
siderably enlarged Paris. In his reign (1180) Notre Dame
was commenced, and the city surrounded with a wall, hav-
ing on it 500 towers, with 130 gates. It is stated that the
exact site and plan of the fortress in the court-yard of the
Louvre were known from various historical documents
preserved in the Imperial Library ; the portions discovered
consist of on© of the principal entrances and two flanking

towers.
DEATH OF GAVARNI.--The arts have just sus-
tained a very serious loss. Gavarni, the well-known hu-
moristic draughtsman, whose pencil had seized different
types of contemporaneous society with so much truth and
versatility, expired at Paris on Friday night. Ife was born
at Paris in 1801, and was originally- an engine-maker. It
was only at 31 that ho obtained an engagement to sketch
the fashions of the day for a weekly journal. Ile speedily
acquired a considerable reputation, and undertook the
management of the Journal des Germ du Monde. Ftolll that
time his position was assured, and he began a series of
lithographic sketches exhibiting cleverness and philosophy,
and which at a later period he continued in the Charirari.
He received the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1852.
To him we owe the illustrations in " Juif Errant" of Eu-
gene Suo, in tho "Diablo h Paris," and in the works of
Balzac. He also produced a great number of water-colour
drawings of great merit. Among his compositions may be
mentioned the " Lorettes," the " Artistes,"the "Coulisses,'
the " Debardeurs," the " Bals Masques," the " aticards,"
the "Balivernos de Paris," the "Enfant, Terribles," the
" Impressions des Voyages," the "Maria Venges," tire. It
is related of him that in 1819 he intended to como to

live in London, but that his spirits all at once gave way to
the spectacle of the terrible misery he witnessed. The fre-
quenters of taverns, thieves, street-sweepers, the beggars
of St. Giles and Whitechapol, became the subjects of his
Pencil, but even rags themselves acquired a kind of dig-
nity under his touch. It was in Paris, however, that he
delighted—in Paris he remained, and it is Paris life in its
gaiety and pleasure that is chiefly reflected in his light and
facile compositions. He took the name of Gavarni after a
sketch by him of the Circus of Gavarni, one of the most
beautiful situations in the Pyrenees, which appeared origi-
nally in the "Musee des Families." Of late years Gavarni
gave much attention to the study of aerostation. It may
be as well to state that hia real name was Paul Chevalier.