The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY i;:EVENING, JULY 4, 1861..

posed to be removed ! The Appropriation of Seats
Bill having been pushed through Parliament,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer is to claim the
recognition of his new Radical, Free-trade, ex-Con-
servative opinions by winning the day as the new
representative for South Lancashire. And—(don't
you recognise the adroitness of it all at a glance ?)
Mr.ROUNDELL PALMER, the new Solicitor-General,
the Puseyite Mr. ROUNDELL PALMER, iS to Slip
quietly and snugly into Mr. GLADSTONE'S aban-
doned post as M.P. for the University of Oxford."
How far this prediction may be fulfilled yet re-
mains, we repeat, to be recognised. It is certain,
however, that Mr. PALMER still lacks a seat in the
House of Commons, and that a seat somewhere in
that House he must have by necessity as Solicitor-
General. It is equally well known that Mr. GLAD-
STONE, finding Oxford University long ago too hot
for him, has had set apart for himself as a far
more congenial constituency the bran new
constituency about to be called into existence
by the fat of Sir G. C. LEWIS'S Appropriation
of Seats Bill, down in South Lancashire. Created
that new constituency, or rather that additional
seat for the better representation in Parliament of
that old constituency— passed Sir GEORGE LEWIS'S
Bill in its amended form—chosen Mr. GLADSTONE
as the third knightly representative of the southern
division of the county palatine of Lancaster—Mr.,
or (as he will forthwith be of course from
the magic accolade with the Sword of State in the
hand of the Sovereign) Sir ROUNDELL PALMER
may then readily step into the vacant place of M.P.
for the University of Oxford, immediately that
place has been conveniently left vacant for him by
the removal northwards of the ex-Tory " Captain "
among "PEEL'S Boys" at length developed into
the radical, free trading, experimental Financier,
the Unicorn leader in the henceforth team-of-three
?or South Lancashire.

We have so very frequently before now written
—and always we can honestly aver with such
deep and earnest solicitude—in reference to the
appalling magnitude of the annual destruction of
life and property along our coasts by Shipwreck,
that we may for once content ourselves with a
merely cursory allusion to the revival of this theme
for discussion, the night before last in the British
House of Commons by Sir JAMES ELPUINSTONE.
The simple consideration of this one dreadful truth

—that the sacrifice here referred to amounts year
after year to a frightful average of about
£1,500,000 sterling—the mere knowledge of
these " totals" will be enough to justify
any one who, as Sir JAMES ELPIIINSTONE did, on
Tuesday evening, recalls the attention of Parlia-
ment yet once more to the need there is for legisla-
tive interference here—if such legislative inter-
ference can be proved in any way to be possible, to
be practicable. The peg or hook upon which the
hon. baronet hung his new argument upon this old,
old theme wae, after all, however, nothing more than
a broken chain-cable of a merchant-ship. As a plea

—that is, for legislative interposition—it proved to
be utterly insufficient. In demonstration of which
insufficiency, by the way, the right hon-
ourable gentleman the President of the
Board of Trade bad merely to ask rather pointedly
what proportion of wrecks occurred annually in
consequence of imperfections in the ships' anchors
and chain cables. In answer to which query of
Mr. MILNER GIBSON'S, it must be perforce admitted,
even by Sir JAMES ELEHINSTONE himself, that the
flaw he had indicated is no more than a single item
among the many (almost countless) causes of these
dread calamities. Tests ought certainly, obviously
to be applied to the chain-cables and the ships'

anchors of our merchantmen, but—by Government ?
Under the supervision of agents employed by Go-
vernment ? If it were thus decided in
regard to anchors and cables, it might
be just as reasonably, and indeed quite as
imperatively (because of the precedent) in-
sisted upon for every other portion of the vessel
from her keel to the topmost point of her jurymast !
From the heel of her rudder to the tip of her bow-
sprit! If nothing practical, however, in the way
of improvement came from Sir JAMES ELPUIN-
STONE'S humane but mistaken proposition, the
hon. baronet at any rate did so far good service
in a noble cause by bringing anew under the
notice of the Legislature the need there is for
striving by every means that may be in any
way practicable to diminish this fearful annual
sacrifice of a thousand gallant tars and others, as
well as of a million and a half of property by ship-
wreck along our coast line.

According to the telegrams Austria has gained a
double victory. Not only has the Reichsrath at
Vienna accepted with commendation the Imperial
rescript to the Hungarian Diet, but the House of
Magnates in Hungary itself has done the same.
We are even told that it has sent a deputation to
the EMPEROR, to express its approval of a docu-
ment which the Lower House in the Diet would
barely read. If this is true, we are rather at a loss
for an explanation of such conduct, since the
Upper House passed the Address which the rescript
so haughtily censures at least nernine contradicente.
The Upper House did indeed object to the small
majority of the Lower House having amended M.
DEAR'S draft address ; the Magnates thought it
would be better to acknowledge FRANCIS JOSEPH
as exercising de facto sovereignty in the country,
but all the Magnates were as unanimous as all were
in the Lower House in regard to the demands, and
the reascnings in support of them, contained in the
address. Indeed the Vienna Press acknowleged
that the unanimity of all the nobles of ;Hun-
gary on the great points—strict personal union
only, involving separate civil, military, and financial
a dministration—was complete. Is it conceivable that
the Upper House has really separated itself from
the House of Delegates.

That the Upper House in Vienna should be for-
ward
to approve is natural enough. The members
were nearly all Germans, or under court influence.
Their single object is to make up, if they can, for
the insignificance of the Austrian Archducal estates
in the councils of Germany, by incorporating
Hungary with those petty territories. Hungary is
a Kingdom larger, more populous and powerful,
and infinitely nobler minded than any of the
German Duchies, and yet these selfish Germano
want to aggrandize themselves by suppressing the
ogreat e a
Ireland, nationality.
dh a d w
anlttedistoasanifn
'Wales, a
andl es, o r
amalgamate
England' This is no exaggerated
illustration.
Indeed it would have been far more feasiable for
Scotland to annex England than for the heir to the
hereditary Duchy of Austria to annex Hungary.
We may hope that the so-called Emperor of AUS-
TRIA will ruin himself in his present attempt. He
has concentrated a host of Germ an troops in Hun-
gary, though it is treason to have them there with-
out the consent of the Diet; he has placed his most
anti-Hungarian commanders there, and he will be
as ruthless as a HArSBuRG, if he ciares. Perhaps,
however, the attitude of Baron I! -ICAVSOLI may con-
vince him that all is not over in Italj yet. In any
case Hungary has the grand resour co of passive
resistance,

The Court will leave town terncou for
Osborne for the aeaeorL,