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

THE SPEAKER.

One result of the GenoLeal Elections is already
certain ; the Parliament now in the process of
formation will contain an unusually large propor-
tion of new members. This circumstance will
necessarily augment the regret that bas been so
universally felt and expressed at the resignation of
the office of Speaker by Mr. Lefevre. It is at all
times an arduous task to maintain order, and insure
despatch and accuracy in the transaction of the
bewildering multiplicity of business that comes
before an English House of Commons. And the
difficulty is immensely when a considerable number
of the gentlemen who compose it have had no pre-
vious experience of the forms by which the pro-
ceedings of the House are regulated. The perfect
mastery of the forms of the House possessed by the
late Speaker—his dignified and impressive de-
meanour—his imperturbable suavity and courtesy
—all would have been severely tested by the nu-
merous raw recruits who are about to assemble at
Westminster ; and it will be no easy matter to find
a competent successor.
The qualifications required in a Speaker are such
as are rarely found combined in an individual. It
is almost unnecessary to remark that he must be
endowedjwith Herculean powers of continuous ap-
plication. The labour which he has to perform in
public is trifling compared with what devolves upon
him in the intervals between the sittings of the
House. The previous preparation and arrange-
ment of business absorbs him entirely from the
moment he quits the chair until he again resumes
it. Both in the chair and in what may be termed
bis " chamber practice," the Speaker must be able
to bring to bear upon every measure or question
submitted to the Legislature an extensive and
diversified acquaintance with the precedents of the
House of Commons. And this knowledge he must
be able to recall and apply, while the House is
sitting, on the spur of the moment, amid the dis-
tractions of debate, with question pressing upon
question, and eager speakers ever prone to diverge
from the regular tract of business. Again, amid
the contagious excitement and irritation of party
and personal feuds, and impromptu squabbles, he
must exercise a constant and stern control over his
own temper. Nor is it enough that by natural
sagacity and by a powerful will ha should have
brought his temper under complete control. He
requires to be gifted with that genial immoveable
good humour which operates upon angry masses as
if by a kind of moral contagion. In addition to
these qualities, the man who is to direct and guide
the deliberations of so numerous au assembly of
high-spirited and ambitious men, animated by
intense rivalry, with much to win and much
to lose, must, by the whole tenour of his life, have
impressed upon these discordant elements a
profound conviction -of his perfect integrity and
impartiality. The least shadow of suspicion of
an inclination to chicane or indirect practices
would neutralise all the confidence he might
have won by the highest intellect and the
most engaging manners. In our sketch of
an ideal Speaker we may not omit the considera-
tions of personal appearance and demeanour. It is
no exaggeration to say that Washington never
could have accomplished what he did for his coun-
try had not nature set the seal of command upon
that broad massive chin and erect bearing. And
so with the Speaker of an English House of Com-
mons. His presence ought to fill the eye—his ges-
tures, even his bearing in repose, should leave the
impression of energy and resolution tempered only
by urbanity and the repose of conscious power.
His utterance should be lucid, weighty, and
marked by a sustained dignity. In short, there is
needed in a Speaker an irreproachable previous
character ; extensive and accurate knowledge of
business in general, and of the forms of the House
in particular ; a commanding yet genial and love-
able disposition ; perfect impartiality, candour and
fairness in all his dealings ; a quick, instinctive
discernment of the characters of men ; a ready,
distinct, and dignified mode of utterance ; a spirit
that can preserve its equanimity and clearness of
perception amid surrounding clamour and storms
of angry passions ; a courage that quails not before
any earthly power ; a personal appearance which
is the visible expression of all these high endow,
ments.

M. ALEXANDRE Dumas.—Tite M. Alexandre Dumas
announces, in a letter to the Times, published this
morning by our contemporary, that lee, and not his son,
is the correspondent of the Presse in regard to the Eng-
lish elections. Quoth Alexandre the Great : "Je ne
suis pas M. Dumas file, mais M. Dumas pare." Adding,
"Je n' 4cris point hLa Presse h ligne, mais pour
mon plaisir." Paintani, qui meruit—et cetera /
The Prince of Wales, attended by Cel. the Hon. C. B.
Phipps and Mr. Gibbs, went yesterday afternoon to East
Greeuscich, and inspected the manufactory of the Sub-
Marine Telegraph.

The Princess Royal, attended by Lady Caroline Bar-
rington and the Earl of Caithness, honoured Price's
Candle Factory, at Vauxhall, with a visit yesterday.

I 91 141 S![
.N wiv 8.

Telegraphic despatches from Constantinople of
the 27th March announce that an energetic note
relative to the delimitation of the Turkish and
Persian frontiers has been presented to the Go-
veinment of the Shah, by the Sultan's envoy.

BERLIN, APRIL 2.

The two great German Powers have, by common
accord, declared verbally to the Danish envoy that
they will grant to Denmark a short delay for
her to do justice to their complaints. At the expi-
ration of that delay, should nothing have been
done, they will have recourso to the intervention
of the Diet.

MADRID, APRIL 2.

The Gazette publishes a royal decree announcing
that shares, to the amount of 10 millions of reals,
in the Canal Isabella IL, will be put up to public
auction on the sth May next. The health of the
King continues to improve.

It is announced, says the Pays,. that the English
Government has sent off orders to the commander-
in-chief of the British troops in Persia to evacuate
&shire and the Persian Gulf. The evacuation is
to take place before the month of June—a period
of the year when the great heat renders the climate
there most unhealthy.

SARDINIA AND AUSTRIA.

NOTE FROM COUNT CATOUR, TO THE SARDI•

NIAN CHARGE D'AFFAIRES AT VIENNA.

TURIN, MARCII 24.
Monsieur le Marquis,—The day before yesterday
Count Paar came to communicate to me a de-
spatch from Count Buol, who, after repeating the
grievances that the Government of the Emperor had
enumerated on several occasions against Sardinia,
he concluded by enjoining him to demand his pass-
ports, and quit Turin with all the Imperial Lega-
tion.

Although in this despatch Count Buol declared
that this retirement would not be an obstacle to
your remaining at Vienna as our Charge d'Affaires,
the King has not deemed it advisable to continue
the residence of a diplomatic agent near the Court
of Austria in the absence of an Austrian diploma-
tist at Turin.

You will in consequence have the goodness to
communicate this decision to the Minister of Fo-
reign Affairs of Austria, and immediately take
measures for returning to Piedmont with all the
Legation.
In making to Count Buol this communication
you will give to him the assurance that Austrian
subjects will continue to enjoy in the States of the
King the protection of the laws and the rights
which the treaties accord them ; and you will add
that the Sardinian Government will do all that de-
pends upon it to insure that private interests shall
suffer the least possible by the interruption of di-
plomatic relations between the two countries.
We have taken note with pleasure of a similar
declaration contained in the despatch addressed to
Count Paar. In adding thereto the most reliable
good faith we are induced to believe that no griev-
ance can ariso to aggravate the situation which
results from measures the Imperial Government
has just taken.
Hardly had your recall been decided upon when
I gave directions by telegraph to the Marquis Villa-
marina to entreat the Government of the French
Emperor to have the kindness to take upon itself
the protection of Sardinian subjects in Austria.
Having received a reply altogether favourable, you
will be pleased to acquaint Count Buol of this fact.
If, as I do not doubt, Count Bourqueney has re-
ceived instructions in conformity from his Govern-
ment, you will deliver to him the archives of the
legation, and make with him suitable arrangements
for the expedition of current affairs. The high posi-
tion which this diplomatist occupies, thanks to the
eminent qualities which distinguish him, as well as
the personal knowledge rhave of his benevolent in-
tentions with regard to us, affords me the satisfac-
tion of thinking that the interests of our fellow-
citizens cannot be confided to better hands.

Count Buol, in his despatch recalling Count
Paar, requests him to render an account imme-
diately of any fresh explanations with which I
should be in the course of supplying him. I regret
not having been able to satisfy this expectation
From the moment that the recall of the Imperial
Legation was announced to me in an official and
definitive manner, it became no longer possible for
me to enter into any political discussion with Count
Paar. I have been obliged, in consequence, to
limit myself to manifesting to him the regrets that
a measure which appeared to me by no means jus-
tifiable, caused me to experience—regrets rendered
the more painful by the retirement from Turin of
a diplomatist who, in the accomplishment of a mis-
sion frequently difficult, had given to me proofs of
a character as honourable as it was conciliatory.
I have too much confidence in the high impar-
tiality of Count Buol to doubt that he will hit Upon
the true motives for the observations which I have
thought it right to make in attributing to him the
intention of aggravating:a difference which we have
the consciousness of having done all that depended
upon us to prevent.
In taking leave of Count Buol you will read to
him this despatch, and leave him a copy of it, if
such should be his desire.—S:c.

(Signed)
M. le Marquis Cantono, Vienna.

0. CAVOUR.

FRANCE.
PARIS, FRIDAY EVENING.
There has been another Conference to-day on the
affairs of Neuchatel.

It is not probable that there will be any further
meeting before next week.
The Moniteur publishes the report of the jury
charged to award the prize of 20,000 f., given by
the Emperor annually, for a period of five years
from 1853, as an encouragement for the cultivation
of cotton in Algeria. Six plantations competed for
the prize, viz., that of the Compagnie Meridionale,
represented yM. Rouchouse, 80 hectares ;M.
Graillat, 46 hect. ; M. Peres, 26 hect.; M. Colonna
de Tinarca, 18 hect. ; M. Beringuier, 38 hect. ; and
M. Grima, 24 hect. Each of thee plantations is
spoken of in terms of the highest praise. To the
first as being the largest in extent and in the finest
condition, the jury proposes that the prize of
20,000 f. shall be awarded. It also recommends
that a gold medal shall be given to M. Graillat, not
only for the perfection of his cultivation, but for
the organisation of a manufactory at Mostaganem
for cleaning cotton ; and an honourable mention
to M. Peres."

The report isfellowal by a request to the Emperor
from Marshal Valliant, _Minister of War, praying
his Majesty to sanction the awards proposed by
the jury.
BOURSE; April 3.—The following were the last
quotations : _

Cash. fr. c. End of Month.
4i per Cents
3 per Cents ~ 69 50 70 65
New Loan -

Bank Shares 4,175 Roman
Credit Mobilier 1,455 Austrian
. .

Belgian 41
Piedmontese (5) 9O 50 Home Debt

RAILWAYS-FOR CASS,

fr. c. tr c
Orleans 1,575 Western
Northern 1,040 Strasburg
Lyons 1,582; 50 Now Ditto
Mediterranean 2,175 Grand Central
Lyons Geneva
Midi - Austrian Corn. ..... 767 50