The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-04 00:00:00

EPIRIT OF THE rUIILIC .Jo'ol,ll'3lB.

The Titri6"7ix sing that the Queen intends him.
Ineseveral drawing-rooms; &c., this next season,
z This may immediately concern very few. Even
igposing theie drawing-roonni as numerously attended
'll
_they used to De in the brighter years of this reign, and,
indeed, to be restricted by nothing but the accommoda-
Vsnii of Buckifighiin*Palaee, hap Pill larger than those-of
st. James's, if isalYllie'Court circle that is directly in-
terested, aid' that circle, in its largest sense, does' not
muster
_many What are these, it may be
,
askid, to thirty Millions t But even these thirtY millions
hEve a good deal to say to it. We presume there is sOme-
thing in all the talk about absentee; about non-resident
clergy or squires; about eniptYilinsilini;ind the carriage
drive that knows not the ttack7of wheels. There) is-some-
thing more, too, than the material interests affected.
This British Constitution, Society, and State becomes a
heavy, unintelligible thing when it ceases to be well
represented and visibly enacted. Of course there are
persons happily far above the necessity of an appeal tc
their vulgar senses. They know all about it, and don't
want to know more. But, as a simple matter of fact, tht
greater part of mankind only apprehend what they see or
what they hear of second-hand, in the common talk of the
day and through the newspapers. When they hear of a
sovereign performing a succession of important or interest-
ing public acts, assisting at ceremonials, taking a part
pageants, presiding over the highest ranks of her subject,
and otherwise appearing as the bright and attractiv
centre of our political system, they realise what is calls'_
Royalty, which else they have to understand by the
dim and uncertain twilight of their reasoning faculties.
it is not uncommon (continues the Times) to hear the
remark often made, as if a singular proof of shrewd-
ness, common sense, and close observation, that the
sovereign is cult' a pageant, and has no real power.
If anybody could tell us what person has power,
what class has power, what institutions ;have power, be-
yond that of just holding their own, he would be better
able to inform us in what respect Royalty has declined in
this country. One complaint is universal, and it is that
everybody finds himself confrontedi baffled, overruled, and
reduced to just what he is by everybody else. It is not
only the holders of ancient and privileged positions, but
even still more the spoilt children of fortune, who fret
aL...inst the bars and fetters they find all around them. It
is at least very difficult to prove that the Crown has lost
anything on a fair comparison with any former age. Om
sovereigns have often appeared as the heads of great
causes and the leaders of popular movements, but it does
not follow thatthey had much choice in the matter.

This summer, says tne Telegraph, we shall have one or
the old-fashioned seasons, and the consequent harvest will
be a " good thing " for the people who share it, and also
for the countless crowd of respectable vocations and trades
which live upon the business of pleasure. But no raistak
could be more extravagant than to imagine that the
altered aspect of the season will affect only the fashionable
quarters : it will extend to the entire round of this urban
province. The magnificence of the Court, the radiant
enjoyment of Belgravia and Tyburnia; will awaken the
life of every quarter within the postal frontiers. The
public :entertainments will borrow light and animation
from the sunshine above ; the usual attractions of the
metropolis will be at their brightest ; every order of society
will have its share of visitors from the country, from
abroad ; every suburb will be thronged, and the hired
carriages of the middle and humbler classes will contend
with the luxurious vehicles of wealth and rank fur the
right of way in all our leading thoroughfares.
The Post announced a few days back that a noble lord,
who had entered the turf under the assumed name of Mr.
Jay, was about to close his career, at barely 22, having
got largely in debt by borrowing money. Even the worst
of the discounting brethren, the Christian section, have
hitherto refrained from eating the bird before it has chipped
the shell, and have let the corn catch just a sun colour
before attempting to pass it, through the mill, but the
child of the turf, rumour says, was "planted" while he
was yet a boy-earl, and one at least of the money-lending
fraternity contrived to get at him while he was at Eton.
This man alone, it is reported, has managed to build up a
claim amounting to not less than between £30,000 and
240,000, and the ante age liabilities of the victim are 'sup-
posed to reach in the gross nearly £lOO,OOO. When a
man of mature age, with his eyes opened as a few
years in London or regimental life opens them, elects to
borrow of a-professional discounter, because he either has
nothing but personal security to offer, or because it would
not answer to submit his difficulties to the " governor,"
it is a matter between his present and his future, or
betiveen himself and his family ; but when a boy who has
succeeded to an earldom in his boyhood, having been
detected through the aid of the peerage and tracked by
the bloodhounds of marauding capital to his school, is
stalked and bagged with well-devised strategy, and his
estates drained of their life-blood, it becomes an affair
between society at large and the money-wolf. It becomes
both the duty and the interest of society to drive the wolf
out of the sheepfold and hunt him down. Yet it is rarely
done. The family of the victim shrink from exposure and
keep the matter quiet, which means that it is not known
and talked of except in every club and at every dinner-
table in London.

Speaking of the tale just told in the Queen's Bench
L.Oncerning the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Daily Ncws
remarks : Lord Willoughby d'Eresby is a man in high
lace. He is a candle set on a bushel, and his light can•
not be hid. He is a hereditary legislator, and has to vote
on laws affecting the morality of the public and the sanc-
tity of wedded life. He is an officer of the Court, and has
to usher the nobility of the land into the presence of a pure
and virtuous sovereign. He is a landlord, and among all
his neighbours, in every farmhouse, in every cottage home
on his wide estates, his conduct eiists as a living example
of what men may do and yet retain honour in England.
What sort of influence is this to exercise ? What sup-
port are womanly innocence and manly honesty to draw
from such a conspicuous instance ? And all for what ?
All this scandal —bad enough in its commission,
tenfold worse in its publication —is flung into the face of
the world to save a peer with an illimitable rent-roll from
restoring a few hundred pounds' worth of goods he had
withheld. All is incurred rather than resort at first to the
means which the strong language of the judge compelled
to be adopted on the second day—a refereace of the facts
to some gentleman of character who could have arranged
them privately. We do not say the sin would have been
made less by such a course, but surely its evil influence
would. Though hypocrisy be but the homage vice pays
to virtue, yet it is a homage which virtue has a right to
demand. Lord Willoughby d'Eresby refuses, however, to
confess that public decency has any claim upon him. That
claim is founded on the position which the institutions of
the land give to him, and when duties are denied, rights
are forfeited.

In telling the tale of the progress of the British troops
In Abyssinia, the Herald observes : We have no enemy as
yet, nothing having been heard of Theodore for some time
past, except a vague and unreliable rumour that he and
his army are stuck fast in one of the ravines between
Debra Tabor and Magdala. We have no further mention
of the Waagshum Gobazye. Prince Kassai, who appears
to be high in authority in the country of Tigrd, is esta-
blishing the most friendly relation.s with the British army.
Natural obstacles to our advarice are all that we have had
to contend with at yet. We havebeaten the roeki-;•our
machines have sucked water out of the waste. We cannot
tell how far the rains may perplex us, or cause unhealthi-
ness among the troops. It will be a great disappointment
if we cannot meet with an enemy in human shape. " The

, 4
shell batteries will be moved to the front. One shell
battery will accompany the advance troops." What if it
should happen that we have no fortresses to shell, no
enemy to resist ua—only a set of complacent black fe"ows
to open the gates wherever we may wish to enter ? Sup-
posing Theodore really hors de combat, who else is there in
Abyssinia so foolish as to wish to quarrel with us or dis-
pute our advance ?

The Standard asks whether the comity courts really
nave done their work. For very small causes, involving
only a few shillings, it is admitted that the more modern
tribunals may do '
very well • but when the facts are com-
plex, or the sums in dispute large, most suitors would
prefer a mode of investigation more nearly resembling
that of the superior courts, if obtainable without any dis-
proportionably heavy increase of expense. This is shewn
by the fact that only 19 per cent. of 6ounty-court cases
have hitherto related to questions involving more than £5.
Where heavier amounts are at issue, the suitor is almost
of necessity, compelled to obtain
Professional assistance;
but the county-court allowances under this head are so
meagre, as practically to punish the plaintiff for having
taken legal steps to obtain payment of
a lust debt. The
court fees for 1866 were at the rate of ge, 6d. per
plaint_
over 14 per cent. on the total. Makin all reasonable
allowance for cases in which the plaintiff fails, it follow's
that on the average the county-court system fines a creditor
4s. for trusting a claim of £2 75., and this without allow-
in anything for the expense of reasonably legal assistance,
'There is, therefore, every inducement for a dishonest
debtor to resist to the utmost, because he knows that at
the worst he will only have to discharge the debt by easy
im4talments, while his creditor must pay in advance four
or five times as much, in the shape of court fees, as he
will be able to recover.
Some of the Liberal members of the Prussian Patha-
n, ark: complaining that the Government are paying too
ru.,:it to the dethroned German princes. Bismarck makes
• iv• " We admit we are paying the fellows a good deal
tban they are worth, or than they ought ever to have
; Lot is it not well to stop their mouths once and
ever, and not have them whimpering. and snivelling
p•!:,ait Europe, as if they were reduced to beggary by us?"
This is, indeed, a humane way of dealing, with the con•
cuered, but the Star doubts if it adds much to the dignity
Of royalty. Caractacus may have seemed a forlorn spec.
tacle when he graced a conqueror's triumph ; but we
question whether Caractacus wrangling for another pound
or two as the annual stipend of his surrender would not
have been a yet more humiliating sight. TameTlana
exhibited his royal captive like a wild beast; Bismarck
shews off his vanquished
.as if they were a
set; of 111.
eonditi9ed Qrgan-gr-hadera -wholefused to maiS§lfirf-h- -
putrcktivingcm eisutuckintecc.i