The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-24 00:00:00

HUNTING.

We extract the following from a graphic sketch,
entitled " Broadbury Moor—The Chase," by M.
F. H., and published in Baily's Maga:ine for the
current month :

" On—on —they clink, with a fair and holding
scent, carrying a grand head, with a noble volume
of tongue, at which the hard-riding farmers re-
joice greatly. Oh, daag it, if we be a bit behind,
us can hear 'em,' and that's summat always.
Drat those hounds, that don't say nort about
it.' And honest John Barleycorn is right—a
silent brute is undeserving of the name of
foxhound. He is in perpetual mischief, requires
constant watching, and in a woodland, by getting
away single-handed with his fox, destroys the
chance of a run day after day. Hounds hang
back sluggishly, and do not press forward with a
hound a mile ahead; they decline to hunt his foil,
and in a continuous range of large woods the very
best of whips cannot get at the persistent sinner,
for he must trust to sight and his own judgment of
the whereabouts a fox would be likely to break, in
order to stop him. The defect is about the worst
a foxhound can have; it nullifies and renders him
improper for the chase, and only fit for a halter.
Bis apologist—if such incompetent there be—on
the plea of pace, may rest assured that true and per-
fect hounds, on the best scent and in extreme pace,
whimper on the line, flinging their tongues freely at
the several fences, and it is only when the fox is sink-
ing, and with bristles up, that they run silently in
the last few moments for blood. A hound chary of
tongue may be rendered mute by injudicious treat-
ment ; and a surplusage of whipcord, by a coarse
whipper-in at the time of entry, may dispirit a
hound, and render him anxious ever afterwards to
get away unperceived, as the French say—sans
battre tambour. Again, a hound overmatched in
pace is disposed to skirt cunningly, and avoids pro-
claiming his want of ability, Still, independent of
all plausible excuse, it must be admitted that the
vice of running mute is hereditary, and becoming
general throughout the more accredited kennels
of England. It is a fearful vice, destructive
of sport ; and the worst feature of the case is that
it is rendering that sport unpopular with its best
and truest friends, the yeomen and farmers of Eng-
land. A public writer on hunting subjects has said,
" Censure has 'been expressed concerning certain
fashionable packs of the day that they are deficient
of tongue. It is an assertion that I cannot re-
spond to." What position in the field, fore or
aft, could Providence have allotted that flatterer
of crude error ? Three of the grand packs of the
day, of hereditary and long-standing worth, are
running solemnly mute—with others straining back
to them, more or less in the same untoward pre-
dicament. The writer goes on to say, in describing
rhptrhoaaelkcineemiddle of a run :--" At this crisis there is no
great amountcetroemhtnop euaornpfada
comparatively
revy,oe
of Osbaldeston.
y ittrhheetae pacen tuirvne wn
bigl
but
scent,
tn ot
Tit
ap teewrdmi
does
will
Furrier
i rant
make
ert'
prove anything bearing upon tshilefernpeetoiiyu,ti
whereas
ncdu ea
t hot
ehn
ye.
F lady
Furrier
sretphxa pack
dog wereh o u n viciouslyds
opened
were brothers and sisters, descending from the
Monson blood famous for tongue. Was the dog
pack slow ? These hounds passed into the posses-
sion of Mr. Harvey Combe, with Will Todd, from
Badminton, as huntsman. They ran mixed, and
the bitches acquired tongue. The Furrier bitches
were afterwards crossed with fresh blood judi-
ciously selected, and produced the five couple lot,
with full and free tongue, which were bought in at
the sale at Tattersall's for 1,300 guineas. The
descendants of the Beaufort Justice, by the Nichol
Justice, by Jasper, by Egremont Justice, sent un-
entered to Badminton in 1812, were noted for voice,
and those who can remember Joiner, Jupiter,
Jericho, Jason, Jessie, Jessamine, Danger, Diligent,
and others of that race, may also recollect Will
Long's comparing them to a "ring of bells." Were
they deficient in pace ? Take the Duke of Grafton's
hounds that went to Assheton Smith with Saffron
by Belvoir Splendour, Nelson by Belvoir Rustic,
Nigel, grandson of the Berkeley Harrowgate,
with Collier and Pontiff, by the Illeynell Pon-
tiff—all of them combined foot and tongue. When
Mr. Drake took the Mostyn hounds that had be-
come voiceless from the lavish use made of their
favourite Lady, he had recourse to the Ward Ber-
tram, Pilgrim, and Rascal, the Beaufort Denmark,
Warrior, and 'Wellington, the Belvoir Fatal and
Guider, and Sir Tatton Sykes's Wildair, by Splen-
dour, by the Hill Alfred, by Lord Middleton's Dar-
ling, straining back to the Vernon Vigilant sort of
Osbaldeston, to re .4ain the lost voice; and truer hunt-
ers, quicker in their work, with freedom of tongue,
than the late Mr. Drake's hounds, were never pro-
duced at the covert side. Masters of hounds are
not ready to give two hundred guineas for five
silent hounds. The Herod, Hecuba, and Harrow-
gate descendants of the Berkeley, also, are notorious
for flinging their tongue well and musically. It is
clear that mute hounds are the consequence of a
want of attention in breeding, and a sacrifice made
to symmetry and pace, which is bringing discredit
on many a good kennel.

FOUR OLD LADIES.—David Garrick's widow sur-
vived that eminent tragedian 43 years, and died in 1822,
aged 99. She had before her marriage been a dancer on the
boards of Drury-lane, and was a native of Vienna. She
died in her chair, retaining her faculties to the last. Bailey
cites, too vaguely perhaps for the sceptical, the Hon. Mrs.
Watkins, of Glamorganshire, who died in 1790, aged 110.
The year before she died she made a trip from Wales to
London to see Mrs. Siddons act. Nine visits did she make
to the theatre during her stay, retiring prudently before the
after-piece; and, besides this, she sat for her portrait, and
ascended to the " whispering gallery" at St. Paul's. She
got safe home, and London did not prove her Capua, as it
did Old Parr's. A more irrefragable case, perhaps, is that
of Mrs. Williams, of Moor-park, Harts, and Bride-head,
Dorset, who died, aged 102, in 1811, and of whom her great
grandson avers that she was couched for cataract when
81, and made a speech, upstanding, to her tenantry, when
they congratulated her on her hundredth birthday. No
attempt has been made to invalidate this communication
of her descendant. The three old ladies above men-
tioned might object' to the company into which for the
nonce wo introduce them, in taking next Mrs., or, as she
was commonly called, " Lady" Le wson, an eccentric widow,
who died iu London in 1806 at the age of 103. Born in
Essex-street, Strand, and married early, she was left a rich
widow at six-and-twenty. For the rest of her days her chief
companions were an old man-servant, two dogs, and a cat.
In dress she was fanciful and particular, adhering stead-
fastly to the fashions of her youth, when George I. was
king. But she was a decided foe to cleanliness. Her
rooms were never washed, seldom swept, and. to per-
sonal ablutions she was an utter stranger. " People who
washed themselves," she said, " were always catching
cold." She used to smear her neck with hog's lard, and
to " top up," as regarded her cheeks, with rose-pink. Her
health was good to the last, and she cut two new teeth at
87. She was buried at Bunhill-fields burying-ground.—
Oiarteily Review.

The Times, speaking of the p'-ogressive Conservatm,
as enunciated by Lord Stanley, likens the Tories to men
who, having long been accustomed to fight only from be-
hind walls and earthworks, are agreeably surprised to find
they can hold their own in the open field. Their political
country has hitherto resembled the geography of the re-
zit-as with which we are just snaking military acquaintance-
They held positions and passes, impregnable rooks, tracks
of which the secret was known to but few, gorges and
defiles of which the terror even exceeded the physical
difficulty. Ensconced behind the institutions of the
country, and whatever they chose to call an institution,
they left the plains, the people, and the natural resources
to the invader. Under these circumstances, though the
Conservative citadels remained intact, the Whigs throve,
prospered, and multiplied, eating the fruits and gathering
the harvest. The Conservatives have been at length
starved out, wearied, and compelled to break covert,
rather to the surprise of the foe, and, it would seem, not
quite to his satisfaction. Lord Stanley is evidently
determined to say and do as much as a Conservative
can say and do, and at the same time what no
Whig can object to. He claims for free consi-
deration in the political balance any institution and
law upon which there can be two honest opinions,
and he also claimsthe right and duty of indefinite post-
ponement, according to circumstances. He cannot be ac-
cused of having said too little at Bristol ; but, on the
other hand, he has not committed himself beyond existing
arrangements and absolute necessities. We have to finish
the great wotk which occupied nearly the whole of one
long session, and which has left as much to be done as
would well employ another. There are also other points
on which nearly all sides, if not criite all, have come to
some sort of agreement, eithimt by slvw conversion or by
the surrender of hobbies anebszetries, stleh as the neces-
sity of giving England some form of that national educa-
tion already enjoyed by Ireland and Scotland, and the
wisdom of satisfying, if possible, and within the bounds of
reason, the Irish demand for tenants' compensation. These
are now open questions. They represent principles
which conflicting parties have come equally to recognise ;
thebe pc aleoledr s po
of
rtl ihaempe ne
rt
faorn
ny
enr
se g, o
thet i a tpi oa nWt
patience and accordingly there exists the basis of what may
ohfatthempourbelici:
it necessary to add to a programme already likely to task
and the limits of the time ? Lord Stanley does not see the
absolute necessity of settling the question of the Irish
Church before next August for ever and for aye. When
a great politician was once asked how he contrived to do
so much, his reply was, " By doing one thing at a time."
We shall have to do a good many things this year, and it
is so completely sufficient to say that there is not time this
year to put the Irish Church on the table of the House of
Commons that the postponement cannot be considered in
the slightest degree prejudicial to a future treatment of
the confessed difficulty. This is very different language
from that which, thirty-five years ago, and still more
recently, expressedthe common creed of statesmen, divines,
philosophers, sages, madmen, and impostors landed by
stress of politics on the Conservative shure. In those days
the object was to discover a watchword which could divide,
an accusation which could exasr erAte, and a challenge
which could never possibly come to a reasonable issue or
amicable adjustment.

The Standard claims for Lord Stanley that he has
spoken the views of the people. He has given concise and
vigorous expression to the national sentiment. He spoke
as a party leader, but he spoke, too, for the country. In
the great questions which now occupy the public mind
there is really but one party, although partisans may
attempt to get up others. Earl Russell is as isolated as
Mr. Bright and Mr. Bcales. They may try, as Mr. Hardy
said, in his powerful speech, to make Ireland the battle.
ground of party ; they may endeavour to make a profit
even out of Fenianism, but they will not succeed in the
endeavour. The country prefers that the present MinistrY
should retain office ; it expects from Lord Derby and hit
colleagues that they will complete their great Reform by
Acts for Ireland and Scotland, by a Boundaries Bill, and
a bill for preventing bribery and corruption ; it knows that
they will maintain order at home, and, as far as it is in
the power of any English Government, peace abroad. It
feels that the honour and interests of England are safe in
their hands, and it will not tolerate the attempts of a
faction to drive them from office by making party clues.
tions of great social reforms, which require for their success,
that they should be considered without party bias, and for
the preparation of which no men are better qualified the;
the present Ministers of the Crown.

According* the Dairy Nels, there existed at the close
I the last; century, society in London containing a great
many members eminent in literature and science, which
was known as the Dining Club. Her Majesty's present
Ministers constitute a similar society. Their chief busi-
ness during the reqess seems to be to dine out. They will
be known in history as the Convivial Administration.
Government by banquets is a part of the new Conserva-
tive theory of politics. Bristol has followed the hospitable
example of Manchester and Edinburgh. It has not been
quite so fortunate in its guests. Lord Stanley is an
exceedingly able man— the one member of the present
Administration in whom any confidence is felt
outside_ the limits of his party. But 'he does
not add to his other eminent qualities the merit
of being an attractive after-dinner speaker. His
speech might have been delivered after a repast of
herbs and :eater. The partakers of the Lenten entertain-
meneproyided for them .at Bristol might well sigh fortbe
strong wine of Lord Derby's eloquence and the stimulating
bitters of Mr. Disraeli's sarcasm. Possibly, Lord Stanley
was weighed down by his companion Secretaries of State.,
He may have thought that it was his duty to keep him-
self on the level of Sir John Pakington and M. Gathorne
Hardy. If this was his aim, he achieved a very tolerable
success. A duller piece of festivity than the Bristol dinner
cannot be imagined. The Conservative party in a few of
our larger towns appear to labour under an extraordinary
delusion : they believe that the banquets which they
themselves give to their leaders are expressions of popular
sympathy. The elections go against them in towns ano
counties. Local massagers send invitations to Cabinet
Ministers, order a profuse entertainment, induce a thou.
sand or fifteen hundred well-to-do gentlemen to buy
tickets—and popular sympathy with Conservatism is esta-
blished.

The magnificent ovations which have been paid to her
Majesty's Ministers during the last few months are well '
calculated, in the opinion of the Herald, to atone for the
fatigues and trials cd a session in Parliament almost un-
precedented in the difficulties which had to be grappled
with by the Government which came in with a minority.
Latest and not least of these compliments was that
grand banquet of Wednesday last at Bristol. The
1,400 gentlemen of the loyal West who assembled
under the presidency of the Duke of Beaufort,
on the banks of Avon, were of one mind in their
opinion of the conduct of the Government, and raised
one voice in testimony of their sympathy with the great
battle that had been so bravely fought. It is true the
two chiefs of the Conservatives were not there. They de
their duty and they do enough if they appear once
or twice in public during the recess. Lord Derby.
and Mr. Disraeli have had their say for the present. Lora
Derby, on Wednesday, was worthily represented by his
son. Mr. Disraeli spoke by. the mouth of three of his
colleagues, of whom the foremost is only second to himself
in position and influence. The speech of Lord Stanley has
always been characterised, not by a partial pen, as one of
the happiest of his efforts. Though we trust it may be
long before he is called to bear the mantle of his father,
we cannot speak of Lord Stanley as only of the statesman
of the future. He is not only the practised orator and the
teixeparl btusloigniecsis ofan hgeohvasernamceqnut. H
ittedheihmasselftriwedell a
finadthaendprgaoct-
the best of it, with the veteran Machiavel of Western
diplomacy ; he has skilfully extricated himself from all
committal in European complications which do not directly
concern us ; he has boldly grappled with the Abyssinian
It
Americanquestion.now
lays down that the Reconstruction Bill, which has
bdiefficocmuletsya,nanEdngfliacshedmatnh!
The Post devotes a leader to the Am issue with patriotic fortitude as
passed the House of Representatives in the United States
by a majority of about three to one, absolutely declares all
possesses"chief f
uonth
of the political rights of
millions of American citizens
d. Perhaps, however, the
which they are now depri
f the bill to which the ower
most remarkable feature. o .
its assent is supplied by
has- just given end, and rteosesrovmees
six
House of Congress
EcowmilegfouvteurrnemacetntofinletrslaStoi
it makes on one of the most
the deliberate attack which
i ht say one of the most necessary,
valuable, indeed_wleermre
gsident. As the depository of the
prerogatives of tale
the military and naval thei a ure
appointment and dismission of
Csounpgrreernsse,mtliiiietalartytearutehoonritetnydrinesgtetdhaint the
all those rights of
which are incidental to such a post. When the bill
creating military governorships in the South passed
both Houses of Congress last spring, Mr. John-
sen proceeded to exercise his undoubted right of
executive power, the President
forcesresidenotf
theis Republic,
iearn-i(ni
appointing and removing military governors, accord.
ing to his pleasure. This led to a collision
rights exercised by Mr. Johnson solely devolved on
General Grant, who held the office of commander of the
Mthmatanthde
forces. After some discussion General Grant, however,
hands of the President, and the wishes of Mr. Johnson
were accordingly carried into execution. The House of
admitted between
Representatives has now, however, resolved on clearing
away any doubt which may have existed in reference to its
previous intentions, by tranferring all powers of appoint-
ment and removal under the Reconstruction Act from the
President to General Grant as commander-in-chief of the
army. It will be recollected that in his message to Con-
gress the President declared that he would resist, if neces-
sary by force, any attempt to deprive him of the preroga•
tives of his office, and the present bill may therefore bo
regarded in the light of a direct challenge from Congress.
That Mr. Johnson will refuse his assent to this bill in the
events of its being _ sanctioned by the Senate may be taken
for granted, and if, as is most probable, his veto is over-
ruled by Congress, an inevitable collision between the
araideat mul kg l'arlianna will takil-PlaCe*.

TEWS PAPE It
.1.1*017:1\
A correspondent Of the Mann "t,
'rom Malton :—" The present is a , gr
the labourers in the agricultural divisk of trks e•
"he fine autumn enabled thf) farmers to get very forward
ith work on the land, and gave them the whip hand at
'sta' tr- hirings,' where a decided and successful
mslaught a made against high wages. This same
•eason has caused work to be very scarce, and it is
)itiable to see in every town and village natabers of
villing workers standing about without any hope of
'mployment. Even the usual 'spell' of road-clear-
ng from snow, and parish pay for it, has failed this
Tear. With no work, coals advancing, flour 3s. per
tone, and potatoes (as retailed to the poor customer in
mall quantities) from ss. to 6s. per bushel, the miserable
;ondition of the labourer with wife and family may be
)otter imagined than described. There is a general
mpression that wages, with the present price of food,
tre too low, but want of work is worse. Upon the Wolds
here is another feature which is now productive of much
suffering. A custom prevails of ` meating ' the labourer
n the farmer's house, and paying him additional wages of
)erhaps 7s. per week, upon which he has to clothe himself
slid family, pay house-rent, and keep possibly a wife and
'our or five children—in many cases not more than is. per
lead per week. The state of poverty and utter want with
which these poor people arc surrounded only now and again
tomes before the world, when a coroners inquest on some
:ase of starvation affords the material. One of these cases
)ccurred last week in the family of a labourer employed at
fiarpliatu, East Yorkshire, and the DriffieM correspondent
)f a local paper has given these details :—' The deceased,
Esabella Dixon, was the child of John Dixon, labourer,
who, while he got his meals at his master's house (three
piles off), had to keep a wife and five yotmg children
)n 7s. a week. One morning last week the mother and
cer five children rose from bed, and the only breakfast
their cupboard afforded was half of a cold, sad dumpling,
tnd a turnip from the field. These they warmed up for
;heir morning's meal. They had then to fait until might,
when by some means they got a little flour. With this a
lake was made, some kind neighbour giving a little
tripping to it. After the day's fast the meal was vora-
ziously devoured. The consequences were indigestion,
liarrhoea, and convulsions in therehild, for which a dose of
salts and senna was axlrain.s4ter‘eci, and tchild died. The
coroner and jury iinnacllbe house in a wrePl64 state, anti
the mother and children without food, and had to sub.
scribe to relieve their immediate wants.' The correspon•
dent referred to says this is far from being an isolated cans
.n the Driffield side of the Wolds, and says hundreds of
families of five to seven members have to subsist on Gs, to
7s. a week."

OLBORN THEATRE ROYAL.
gA Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Sefton Parry.
THIS EVENING, at Seven, THE FLYING SCUD. Messrs.
Atkins, Price, Garden, Arthur, Westland, Wilmott; Mesdames
Henrade, Goodall, Lennox, and C. Saunders.
After which, the Grand Comic Pantomime of VALENTINE
AND ORSON; or, Harlequin the Big Bear and the Little Fairy.
Mesdames Saunders, Goodall, White; Messrs. Garden, Odell,
Arthur; Mdlle. Montero, Miss Ellis, Lupino, Green, and the
great Little Rowella.