The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-30 00:00:00

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

MAIDSTONE.—The Imperial Review states that Mr. John
[lardy, M.P., has declined the invitation to become a can-
lidate for the representation of Maidstone in the event of
Dartmouth being disfranchised.
ESSEX.—A meeting of the Conservatives of North•west
Essex was held on Friday afternoon at Chelmsford to
?romote the return of two Conservatives for that division.
in South Essex the Liberal candidates—Mr. R. B. Wing-
field Baker and Mr. A. Johnstone—have matters at pre-
sent all their own way. In North-east Essex Mr. C. Du
Cane will come forward with another Conservative.

ATHLONE.— Several probable candidates for the borough
)f Athlone are mentioned as likely to come forwardat the
next election. Foremost is Mr. Robert R. Bayley, a
Conservative gentleman of independent fortune, and
closely connected with several of the most wealthy
families of Westmeath and Roscommon. He con-
tested the borough in 1862, with Sir John
Ennis, and was defeated by a very small majority.
['he present member, Mr. Rearden, is stated to have for-
;cited the confidence of all his respectable supporters by
his recent outrage on good taste and loyalty in the House
~f Commons, and his chances of return are down to zero.
The other candidates mentioned are Sir J. Ennis and Mr.
6ollivan, the proprietor of the Weekly News, who is under-
going imprisonment for his writings and still more
seditious cartoons in the journal.
LEEDS.—The Reform League and the Reform Registra-
tion Society intend bringing forward three candidates in
the Liberal interest at the next election. The names of
the proposed candidates have been freely canvassed, but
active measures are adjourned for a fortnight.
SHEFFIELD.—The following gentlemen are named as
probable candidates for the representation of Sheffield at
the next general election :—Messrs. Roebuck and Had-
field (the present members), the Hon. J. F. S. Wortley
and Mr. Campbell Foster (candidates at the last election),
Mr. S. D. Waddy (barrister, and son of the Rev. D,
Waddy, late governor of the Wesley College at Sheffield),
Mr. Samuel Plimsett (of Whitely Wood Hall), and Mr.
Robert Leader (of Bank-street). Each gentleman has
friends in the town, and movements. are already on foot
for bringing some of the new men forward.

Mr. Labouchere's successful motion of Tuesday night is
likely to lay bare a good many arrangements of the
Foreign Office that hitherto have been kept profound
mysteries. In the meanwhile, we get from time to time a
little light thrown upon the secrets of the prison-house by
former inmates thereof. For instance, " Civilian " explains
in the Morning Post how it was that Lord Russell or Mr.
Hammond contrived to bestow £B,OOO a year upon the
late Sir Frederick Bruce without applying to Parliament
for the amount, or even letting Parliament know that it had
been granted. Up to the time of Sir F. Bruce's appointment
as Alinister:at Pekin the salary of the senior consul in China
was fixed at £l,BOO a year ; that of the junior consuls at
£1,200 a year. To provide for Sir F. Bruce, the
senior consul was transferred to Japan, the salary of the
post vacated by him was permanently reduced from
£l,BOO to £1,300 a year, and the salaries of the junior
consuls were simultaneously reduced from £1,200 to
£9OO- a year. These reductions, owing to the opening
of the new Chinese ports, the Foreign Office, by a
process of shuffling of men, were able to effect. At the
same time, regardless of the efficiency of the service, most
of the vice-consulships were abolished at a sweep. With
the paring from the consuls' salaries, and the above saving,
the requisite sum of £B,OOO was raised; and as the esti-
mates were not exceeded the arrangement did not excite
notice in this country. Thus were the interests of an
entire service, numbering
some eighty civilians, per-
manently marred for the sake of one personage. " A
Civilian" forgets to mention that Sir F. Bruce was the
brother of a Whig earl and of a Court official, and brother-
in-law of a Whig dean. Of course the interests of eighty
such small deer as those he mentions were not to be
thought of for one moment when the promotion of a man
with such powerful connections had to be effected.
The House of Commons will reassemble after the Whit-
suntide recess with the certainty that no more holidays
will then stand between that time and the day of
prorogation. From the 4th of June to the middle of
August they will find themselves fully occupied in getting
through the work which yet.-kands on the notice paper.
It seems to be taken for granted that there will be no
more ministerial crises, no further threats of a dissolution,
no more hints as to a stoppage of the supplies on the part
of the Liberal majority. With respect to the supplies it
may be mentioned that the House has made wonderful
progress with them during the past fortnight, and, follow-
ing the usual rule of slipping as many votes as possible
through a House which has not yet recovered from the
rust of the holidays, "supply" is the first order of the
day for Thursday evening. Very little more business will
be taken. On Friday evening Mr. Gladstone's Suspensory
Bill is down for committee, and, as the ciovernment will
offer no opposition to the measure at that stage, it may
safely be assumed that the Lords will very soon have the
pleasure of dealing with it as they think proper. There
is a rumour that the very Liberal Earl Grey will move
the rejection of the bill on the second reading.
On Monday, the Bth June, the Scotch Reform
Bill, the Boundary Bill, and the CorrUpt Practices Bill
are to be considered in committee. It is not anticipated
that the first and the second of these measures will occupy
mach time ; the third will necessarily demand much at-
tention. On the following day the morningsittings begin,
and the first will be devoted to the Electric Telegraphs
Bill. The Irish Reform Bill is to be taken in committee
on June 15. Other business, involving the consideration
of many questions of minor importance, stands on the
paper for successive days until July 1. Then the ad-
journed debate on the Oxford and Cambridge Universities
Bill is to be resumed. The notices of motion for which
no days have been fixed are very voluminous, and in the
present condition of public business it is not likely that
many of them will emerge from the obscurity in which
they are now enveloped.

The Spectator takes Mr. Bright to task for his opposition
to the minority principle. lie is said to have burst out
with an impatience, and almost passion, which he has not
exhibited for two years, when the proposition to adapt
this system to the city of Glasgow was made. Mr.
Bright's objection to the plan is, that if three members are
Proposed and the electors have only two votes, the " can-
vassers " cannot canvass for all three, but for only two out
of the three. This, our contemporary says, is one of the
great benefits instead of evils of the method. " The truth
is," continues the Spectator, " Mr. Bright does not care for
a representation of the people ; he wants—and he admits
he wants—a representation only of the majority of the
people."

The report that Lord Strathnairn is about to give up
his command of the forces in Ireland is contradicted by
the Army and Navy Gazette. There is no foundation for
the rumour, and it is his lordship's intention to resume
the command in Ireland on the expiration of his leave in
July.—Referring to the statement that a mutiny bad
broken out on board H.M.S. Phoebe, in the West Indies,
our contemporary says that nothing of the kind had been
heard of at the Admiralty up to Friday evening, but that
it may be quite possible that some discontent might exist
in the ship, as she was reported not to be "comfortable"
before leaving Plymouth.
Professor Newman writes to the Star, advocating the
organisation of a system of national militia in this country.
He points out that while a large 'navy is an implied threat
to foreigners (and therefore an incentive to quarrels), it
does not give us perfect security from foreign invasion.
His hope, therefore, is in a militia, to resist foreign aggres-
sion. But how, he asks,• are we to form a powerful
militia ? Ought all men in their turn to be
trained, compulsorily, or ought the matter to be
left optional ? Professor Newman, while deprecating
compulsory foreign service, is in favour of conscription for
home defence, and, therefore, is of opinion that the
whole English nation should be trained to become soldiers.
His argument is that soldiers are only justifiable in that
they are a necessary police, that conscription for special
constables is not merely defensible but necessary in many
cases (as at Manchester in 1842) ; and, therefore, com-
pulsory service may be taken by the nation from indi-
viduals without any outrage on the laws of personal
liberty.

The Alhourum states that the thirty-eighth meeting of

she British AsEociation will commence at Norwich on
August 19. Dr. Hooker, curator of Kew Gardens, will
preside.—Mr. Horace Greeley has sent over from New
York 100 copies of his " History of the American
Conflict," to be distributed among the most frequented

libraries of Great Britain and Ireland. The work
consists of two large volumes of 1,430 pages and 222
illustrations.—Sir Henry Ellis is the present father
of the Society of Antiquaries, having been elected in

1807. Next to him are the Earl of Lonsda/d and Mr.
George Ormerod.—Lord Clermont is editing the works of
Sir John Fortcscue and writing a history of the Fortescue

family.—Mr. Blades, author of the monograph on Caxton,
has been for a long time engaged on a work on typogra-
phical numismatics, which will contain engravings
of all the well-known medals of ancient an 4,
modern printers, with a notice of each.—Letters
from Melbourne state that the association formed for
exporting meat to Europe has decided that meat can best
be conveyed spiced. Measures are being taken to send a
large quantity of spiced mutton to England. —Dr. Rietz
is publishing, at Leipzig, a new and complete edition of
Mozart's operas in score.—Mr. A. Stevens has promised
the House of Commons that his statue of Wellington shall
be "approaching completion " in 1869.—1 t is proposed to
erect a statue of Mr. Peabody on a
,sity.,Far t4e_;loysik
Exchange.

Fvrt,-7-7-
Ctalltt eirtniTar
(7-it

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL CASTLE, May 27.
The Queen drove out in the morning, accom-
panied by the Prince and Princesses ; and her Ma-
jesty again drove out in the afternoon, with the
Duchess of Athole and Miss Macgregor in attend-
ance.

LITERA.I.UaE.

Charles Dickens and Amer"cl.

Among the three latest reprints of Mr. Dickens's
Works, in his own, " The Charles Dickens' Edi-
tion," we would especially direct attention to the
one most recently published—the reissue of " Ameri-
can Notes." The other two volumes itntne liately
preceding it are noticeable merely as reproduc-
tions in a compact and beautiful form of books
already dowered with an immense popularity—
works as strikingly dissimilar as well could be--
" The Sketches by Boz" and "The Tale of Two
Cities." But " American Notes" demands at this
moment more than simply a passing mention of the
fact of its reappearance. It does so by right of a
Postscript which was promised by our great novelist
a little more than a month ago, while he was
yet on the other side of the Atlantic, in a
speech in which he far more than merely compen-
sated, and that, moreover, in words as graceful as
well could be, for whatever had caused most gra-
tuitous misapprehension among the population of the
United States,
,through his humorous and trenchant
commentaries upon theM in this and in another more
famous book of his-=-that inimitable story of
" Martin Chuzzlewit,'.' in which he made the world
familiar with such great originals as Mrs. Gamp,
Mr. Pccksniff, Tom Pinch, M. 'codgers,
Bailey junior, Mark Tapley, Mrs. Prigg, and last,
not least among them all, Mrs. Harris. Already in
his Preface to his Library Edition of the former
book, the " American Notes," Charles Dickens had
s aid very distinctly—" Prejudiced, I am not, and
never have been otherwise than in favour of the
United States." Aiding, "I have many friends
in America—l feel a grateful interest in the
country—l hope, and believe, it will successfully
work out a problem of the highest importance to
the whole human race." And remarking thereupon
finally and very emphatically—" To represent me
as viewing America with ill nature, coldness, or
animosity, is merely to do a very foolish thing :
which is always a very easy one." These things
he had written in the form of a Preface before
his second (and but just completed) visit to Ame-
rica. But, now, in fulfilment of the pledge spon-
taneously proffered by him to the American people,
and welcomed with enthusiasm by the two hundred
representatives of the Press of the United States
who were listening to him upon the occasio❑ when
they were entertaining him at a Public Dinner
in the City of New York—the author of " Ame-
rican Notes" reproduces at the end of that
work, in the form of a Postscript, the expres-
sion there and then made of his opinions 71010
in regard to America, on Saturday, the 18th
of April, in the present year of grace 1868.
Words more cordial and genial he could not have
uttered, and he reproduces them here in the boldest
type—appending to them the following two sen-
tences additional, dated " May, 1868," and signed
" Charles Dickens"—" I said these words," be
writes, " with the greatest earnestness that
I could lay upon them, and I repeat them
in print here with equal earnestness. S 3
long as the book shall last I hope that they
will form a part of it, and will be fairly read as
inseparable from my experiences and impressions
of America." Words so repeated and so endorsed
will be a pleasant greeting to the Americans from
our great author, upon the morrow of their mag-
nificent reception of him wherever he appeared
in the chief cities of the American Republic.

Saints and Sinner., or, in Church and about it.
By tir. Doran, F.S.A. Two Vols. Hurst and

Blackett.

This is one of Dr: Doran's very intereating col-
lections of anecdotes culled from an infinite variety
of sources. It might perchance be very correctly
averred of this work, as was once wittily ob-
served of an ebb Jrate speaker, "he 1230
said many things that are new and many
things that are true, but unfortunately those
things that are true are not new, and those
that are new are not true !" Flavoured, not with
the conventional grain of salt, but with a whole
bushelful of that purifying condiment, these volumes
make very pleasant reading, and, opened at hazard
at any leisure moment, are pretty sure to provide
matter for entertainment. Dr. Doran deserve 0
credit for his wonderful powers of research. His-
tory and romance, both sacred and pro-
fane, from the most ancient times till these
present days, have been the subjects of his close
investigation, and very abundant are the results of
his literary gleaning. The first volume begins with
the "Magnates of the Old Church," and " The Old
Folk of the Old Churches," and goes on to describe
"Life round St. Paul's Cross," " Sceptre and
Crosier," "Throne and Pulpit," " Ordination,"
"Preferments," "Congregations," " Pews," "Stray
Sermons," " Font, Altar, and Grave," " Irregular
Marriages," " Long and Short Sermons," and con"
eludes with " Texts and Church Stones." Tbo
second volume tells about " Style at Home,"
" Titles and Dress," " Sports and Pastimes," " The
Joy Songs of the Church," " Royal Chaplains,,,
Military Chaplains," " Naval Chaplains,
,‘ Family Chaplains," " Chaplains Abroad,"" No"
gate Chaplains," " Popular and Fashionable
Churches," " Fashionable Congregations at IWO
and Abroad," " Country Clergymen," " Honora-
rium," " Slavery in High Places," " Axe and Cro'
sier," and " The Pulpit and the Boards." Without
giving them a picture of the actual edifice our
readers may, from this enumeration, have some idea
of the variegated and diverse bricks of which it i 0
composed. A good deal of information may be
picked up by a careful reader of this book ; but it
is one, nevertheless, which is not very well calcu-
lated to prove attractive to the " saint" or profit-
able to the " sinner" who may chance to turn oust
its pages.

Lore's Matchless Might ; or, Blanche—her Choice•
By Henry Hopkinson. One Vol. Chapman

and Hall.

Love is proverbially allowed to laugh at lock-
smiths and to despise conventionalities, and in the
little story now before us, these same convention-
alities are indeed set aside with a vengeance. Thi°
fair Blanche, who electrifies her family and frien"g
(and the readers of her history also) by lief
amazing choice, is the only daughter of a rich an
indulgent father, who allows her in most matter°
to please herself until it comes to the choice of
husband, and then the father and daughter are 8
variance. When we first meet the fair Blanche vie
find her engaged in a mission of charity, reading
the Bible to a poor old man. This poor man's o°l3l
a young mechanic, who has a mind above his ell:
and has read a great deal and can ,‘ tala
like a book," returns from some journey had
becomes acquainted with the fair visitor. Ile 11%
the good luck to protect the adventurous damsel la
a crowd, and to save her from a mad bull, auci
the fair Blanche, who has ref usei every offer, $/3,.0
is cansidere inaccessible to love, at once surrender
her heart to this poor working man ! Having
set at defiance the ordin try laws of social ordetiot
this good and pious maiden, who has been wont
pass her leisure hours in giving religious instrile:
tion to the poor, now enters into a clandestine is
gageinent with this young workman, and ste,ilea
from home to take evening strolls with him
his day's work is over, giving all sorts of false ,%g
cuses for her absence to her kind over-confill,l 0
father ! Such is the " Might of Love' the
portrayed in this history, and such ill oat
" choice" of " Blanche !" We cannot saY cell
either the one or the other is very. doa
calculated to enlist the sympathy or adtanr3
j 3
of the reader. The working out of the st°lllot
well contrived, but the main incidents of the P
will preclude it from becoming popular.