The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-09 00:00:00

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rings or layers presented an astonishing chart of tree
time. When one of these aged trees was a seedling,
if we turn to profane history, we shall find that then,
when it was a young and tender plant, an event took
place , which excited as much interest as the seige of
Sebastopol—the siege of Troy ; and if we turn to
Sacred History, we shall find that it began its life in
the time of the Judges ; that it was quite a stripling
when David and Solomon ascended the throne of
Israel ; that, it bad not much more than finished 1.000
,
years of its existence when our Lord came upon the earth
—had completed its second thcusand years during the
'dark ages of the Papacy—had reached the age of 2,600
years at the discovery of America, at the end orthe 15th
century ; and when the 19th century dawned, oar tree
was approaching the end of its protracted life, the same
'century w,hict.t proved so fatal for the thrones of so many
sovereigns and rulers of the old world saw tick monarch
of the American woods fall before the ruthless axe of
European aggression. Two of these long-lived tree,
therefore, would span the whole period of recorded time
from Adam's days to the present.
In 1806 Wheeltr's " Botanical Dictionary," describing
the cypress, states that one species growing in parts of
North America rises in some places to the prodigious
height of 70 feet and upwards, and several fathoms in
circumference. Now we fine it growing of five times
those dimensions.—Building News.

THE ;YEW SPEAKER. ,

(From the Times.)

Now that we have our new House of Commons,
there comes again the question—Who is to be the
new Speaker ? That question is already answered,
as far as itcan .be at present, by the selection. of
Mr. Evelyn Denison for the Ministerial candidate.
The result of a contest, ought to be not only success-
ful, but triumphant ; and therefore it is an ob-
ject to start a candidate who will command not only
a majekty, but the tirgest possible majority. Two
other •riatterhave-been- suggested on theafiniste-
_rid side,—the Right Hon. M. T. Baines- and the-
Right Hon. H. Fitzroy ; and we will attempt a
comparison of all three. The first of these is a man
of much ability, and one who has worked hard in
his time at secondary posts. His industry and his
good.temper, his legal knowledge and his official
habits, would have been qualifications for an office
which threatens at first to be unusually harassing.
More than a quarter of the new House is made up
of new members. Whether it be a recommenda-
tion or not, the country would not have lost by the
choice of Mr. Baines either an orator or a man of
the highest Ministerial rank. It is some time since
he made speeches or entered much into debate, and
his present official position must be referred to one
of those secrets of statecraft of which the public has
not the key. Why men of large private fortune,
commercial -origin, more sense than genius, and
more ifidnstry than figure, should be selected fur
:the Duchy of Lancaster,—an ornamental place
with more pay than work,—is a mystery wholly be-
yond our comprehension. Yet Mr. Baines' and
Mr. Strutt before him, seem to have been thought
the very men for this • honourable and im-
portant pest. All that we have said hither-
to goes rather for the selection of Mr.' Baines ;
but -there were, in hii case, two objections,
both of a. pr ictical character. In the first
place, he is fifty-eight years of age, and does
not carry his years well. Now, we have generally
got a good deal of work out of our Speakers, sixteen
years out of Manners Sutton, and eighteen years
out of the now Viscount Eversley. It is an object
to have long periods of office, as it tends to the con
tinuity of the House. The late Speaker. felt it ne-
cessary to retire at the age Of 63, and if Mr. Baines
had followed his example in that respect he would
only give the country five years for his pension and
his peerage., • A still more serious Objection was,
that Mr. :Baines is so shortsighted that, even with
spectacles, he can scarCely see across the House.
Now a Speaker, if. no tongue, ought to he all eyes.
His eye is his ministerial organ. He has to catch
the member's eye, and exchange electric signals of
the most rapid and confidential character. Blind
men can do many things, but not when they can
neither touch nor speak.
Mr. H. Fitzroy younger by eight years. He
is a man of good presence and lofty bearing. He
has also the avantage of some. preparation for the
office as Chairman of Committees. No one doubted
either his ability or his experience ; it was only
suggested that his natural warmth and quickness of
manner might unfit him for a post which requires
imperturbable calmness. The post itself, however,
has evidently a large fund of tranquillity for the
benefit of its occupants, and a hasty Speaker must
be so in spite of circumstances. Mr. Fitzroy may
,or may n )t succeed to the family title ; but, while
aome`Anight have objected that he is therefore not
the man to choose for the First Commoner in the
kingdom, and others might have thought it a gain
that he would possibly not entail au addition to
the Peerage, it would at all events be very hard
that he should be excluded both from the Com-
monalty and the Peerage, simply because there is a
chance of his elder brother, at the age of 53, dying
first without issue. As a Liberal Conservative
Mr. H. Fitzroy would have united many suffrages,
and his would, we think, have been a very good
appointment.

The candidate on whom the choice of the Go-
vernment has ultimately fallen, Mr. Evelyn Deni-
son, has in an unusual degree all those personal
advantages which we are accustomed to look for
in a Speaker. A tall, handsome man, with a good
.voice and manner, must be very wanting to his
natural endowments if he cannot command the at-
tention and respect of a body of English gentlemen
'Mr. Evelyn Denison, though connected by mar-
riage with the house of Portland, is a thorough re-
pressntative of the Corethons of England. His
seat for the Northern Division of his county will
make him acceptable to the county members. He
has sufficient fortune, and is altogether what would
be called a singularly unexceptionable candidate,
which in these critical days is more than half the
battle. In ability he is quite up to the mark—
more so, indeed, than his performances in the
House hitherto would appear to promise. He is
willing to be put in nomination, and will have the
support of the Liberal members. It is true he is

not 'so young as would be desirable, being in his
fifty-seventh year, but he has the look of health
and strength ; and his long Parliamentary career,
beginning with a severe contest for Liverpool, will
be fitly concluded with a peerage. What tells
more, however, than all we could say of hini. ii
that he will probably be chosen without a contest.
It is not for us to pronounce very confidently
which of these very dissimilar candidates would
have proved the best qualified for the work of com-
bining the various elements of the new House, com-
manding their common respect, and moulding the
whole into a legislative unity. The task will be
one of some difficulty. There never were so many
new members. The losses are those of men who
have been brought into harness, who have learnt
the rules of the House, and submitted to its
discipline ; and the gains are problematic. The
survivors of the baffled factions may well be
furious at the retrospect of their suidial folly,
for certainly, if ever men did dig a pitfall and
tumble into it themselves, this feat has been suc-
cessfully achieved by Conservatives, Peelites, and
Leaguers. The only chance for those who remain
is to recruit their thinned ranks from the 150 new

men, and no arts of debate, no powers of declama-
tion, will be spared to entrap or seduce the more
hopeful novices. All this might not bring much
work for the Speaker, were it not for that con-
tinual obstruction which in these days is the great
engine of Parliamentary warfare. Everybody now
does his best to prevent everybody else from doing
anything, in order that no one may be able to make
a better list of political merits. The genius of the
age is critical and obstructive. Thirty years agowe were pulling down institutions; now we pick
plans to pieces, and have the most excellent rea-
sons, not against all that is, but against all that
might be. When Ministers meet Parliament, and
gradually unfold their budget of reforms, they will
have to encounter a motley. phalanx, earnest no
longer in defence of corruption, but in opposition
to all possible remedies. Such a cause has less to
be said for it than even the frantic zeal of those who
fought for their ancient strongholds in the genera-
tion gone by. The battle will be waged with less
heart and less principle. This conflict with obstruc-
tion it is that awaits Mr. Evelyn Denison, and it
will tax all the powers we can find in one man. A
perfect Speaker, as it seems, is not easily found.
When shill we find a fit man for any place 1 It is
only some consolation to know that there have been
the sae difficulties before, and that men have
i growninto their places. The office not only tries
the man; it often also makes him. We have a
strong faith in the divinity that hedges round the
Speaker's chair. We do not doubt that we shall
see the new house yielding its wonted homage to
its elected chief, and obeying the national instinct
of order. Whence the genius, the vigour, and the
patriotism are to come that are to guide the house
and inaugurate new measures time alone can show.

IRISH A.ll3lY.—The 4th King's Own, now stationed
at Enniskillen, will shortly leave that place, in order to
embark for the Mauritus, Lieut.-Colonel Williams, corn
manding.