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

GrIHIT or THE PUBLIC .JOULNALS.

The Time..l.;%ii-raiiatiesemag that the Queen intends hold.
several drawing-rooms; be., this • next season, ob-
ier-e: This may immediately concern very few. E;ele
supposing these drawing-rooms as numerously. attended
as they used tope in the brighter years of this reign. and,
Indeed, to be restricted by nothing but the accommoda-
itirns of Buckingham Palace, happily larger than those of
St. James's, it is only the Court circle that is directly in-
terested, and that ciiele;: in its largest sense, does not
muster many thousands What are these, it may be
asked, to thirty Millions 2 But even ihese thirty millions
hive a good deal to say to it. We presume there is some-
thing in all the talk about absentees, about non-resident
clergy or squireS., about empty niausiOns, and the carriage
drive that knovis not the track of 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 necesity of an appeal ti
their vulgar senses. They know all about it, and don't
want to know more. But, as a simple matter of fact, Cm
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 calk I
Royalty, which else they have to understand by th
dim and uncertain twilight of their reasoning faculties.
It is not uncommon (continues the Times) to hear tl.e
remark often made, as if a singular proof of shrewd-
ness, common sense, and close observation, that the
sovereign is only 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 confronted, 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 around them. It
is at least very difficult to prove that the Crown hai lost
anything on a fair comparison with any former age. Out
sovereigns have often appeared as the heads of great
causes and fhe leaders of popular movements, but it does
not follow that they had much choice in the matter.

This summer, says the Telegraph, we shall have one o!.
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 mistak
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 tho
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 ; everyorder 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 for the
right of way in all our leading thoroughfares.
The Post announced a few days back that a noble lord,
ivho 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
£40,000, 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
betireen 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 stra.t,egy, 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
Lnncerning the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Daily NC2O3
remarks : Lord Willoughby d'Eresby is a man in high
place. He is a candle set on a bushel, and his light can-
not Le 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 faimhouse, in every cottage home
on his wide estates, his conduct exists 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 reference 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
woule. 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
arc forfeited.

Iu 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 appeais
to be high in authority in the country of Tigr4, is esta-
blishing the most friendly relations with the British arml.
Natural obstacles to our advance are all that we have had
to contend with a.l yet. We have beaten the rocks—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
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 us—only a set of complacent black fellows
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 ?

L

r, : p~C

The Standard asks whether the county 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 county-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;
lout 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 just debt. The
court fees for 1866 were at the rate of 6s. 6d. per plaint—
ovrr 14 par cent. on the total. Making all reasonable
allowance for cases in which the plaintiff fails, it follows
t or. the average the county-court system fines a creditor
4s. for trusting a claim of £2 75., and this without allow.
ing anything for the expense of reasonably legal assistance.
Ther3 is, therefore, every inducement for a dishonest
(-H.t•,r to resist to the utmost, because he knows that at
Worst he will only have to discharge the debt by easy
ii:Aalments, while his creditor must pay in advance four
or five times as much, in the shape of court fees, as he
will he able to recover.

one or the Liberal members of the Prussian Par
t are complaining- that the Government are paying too
to the dethroned German princes. Bismarck makes
" Vie admit we arc paying the fellows a good deal
hau thy arc worth, or than they ought ever to have
c;tl ; hot is it not well to stop their mouths once and
er, and not have them whimpeting and snivelling
Europe, m if they were reduced to beggary by us?°'
is, indeed, a humane way of dealing with the con•
ruered, but the Star doubts if it adds much to the dignity
of royalty. Caractacus may have seemed a forlorn spec.
twit! 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
lave been a yet more humiliating sight. 'Tamerlane
exhibited his royal captiVe like .a wild beast; Bismarck
chews off his vanquished as if they were a set of ill-
conditioned organ-grinders Who,refused to mosix'
I);Ayeceivinga.o addition'al eizonge_ niece._ •