The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-12 00:00:00

THE StN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1868.

i u that country. Leaving that vexed question, he
comes to more general topics, and though opposed
to the Ballot he is anxious to check, if possible, by
other means what he admits to be the growing evils
of bribery and corruption, ant reminds the electors
that he vot3d for every amendment which was
likely to increase the efficiency of the Government
bill. The absorbing interest of party contests has,
as Mr. DIMSDALE remarks, obstructed the passing
of many measares needed by the working classes.
First and foremost of these is Popular Education,
which, in the belief of the member for Hertford,
must be one of the first subjects discussed by the
new Parliament. lie declares himself opposed to
a compulsory system and to an exclusively secular
one, but would rather solve the problem by extsnd-
ing the present grants to all schools submitting
themselves to annual examinations, modifying at the
same, time the existing replations, so as to bring
the poorer and more neglected districts within the
reach of State aid.

On the very important, though hitherto neglected,
subject of the equalisation of the poor-rates, we are
glad to find Ar. DIMSDALE speaking with decision.
There is good hope that we shall soon see this long-
delayed reform begun in earnest, since several of
the candidates for election and re-election have ex-
pressed themselves in its favour. Indeed the in-
equality and injustice of the present system are so
marked, the burdens press so heavily on the very
classes least fitted to bear them, and the paupers in
the poorer districts suffer so greatly from the en-
forced economy of the parish officers that
it is only marvellous the evils should
have been left so long unredressed. On
this subject Mr. DIAsDALE says—" A change
was made in 1865 from parochial to union rating,
but further alterations remain to be carried out in
the rating area; and as a first step in the right
direction I would support the equalisation of rates
within the metropolis. All such changes are, how-
ever, steps, gradual yet sure, towar.ls the certain,
inevitable goal—a national rate. A more equitable
system of levying poor-rates is required." Of the
public expenditure Mr. DDISDALE says that he is in
favour of judicious econo:ny, provided the interests
of the public service be duly regarded. It is plain,
he adds, that in the present state of things a largo
reduction in taxation must not be looked for ;
but whenever there is a surplus to dispose he
shall repeat his vote against the. duty on fire in-
surances.

Mr. SCLATER-BOOTII having accepted office under
the present Government of course is a supporter of
their policy, and in addressing his constituents of
North Hampshire. for re-election declares the "per-
fect satisfaction" with which he sees that extension
of the franchise which for the past ten years he has
regarded as an " impending necessity." Mr.
BRAMSTON BEACII, also for North -Hants, is opposed
to the overthrow of the Irish Church, but is
strongly in favour of some measure of relief for
the Irish tenant. lie thinks that if an act were
passed to secure the tenant a fair compensation
for his improvements, it would tend greatly to re-
move the discontent so unhappily prevailing in
Ireland. To relieve the increasing pressure of local
rates he would bring within the area much pro-
perty now exempt. If the constituencies can suc-
ceed in refreshing their members' memories, when
they have once passed the Rubicon and another
general election is far in the dim future, we shall
perhaps obtain some useful legislation on social and
domestic matters from the new Parliament, now
that the great stumbling-blockof Reform no longer
stops the way.

Startling news reaches us from China and Japan,
which, if confirmel, is likely to give us serious
tro•sble. A telegram, dated Yokohama, Aug. 23,
tells us that a Japanese imperial decree forbidding
Christianity has been posted on the gates of the
town, and intelligence from Hong Kong some ten
days latter announces that serious outrages on
missionaries at Wuchang have taken place, calling
for the immediate interference of the British Go-
vernment. This is very unwelcome news, since
we hid reason to hope that our footing
was fairly established. in the East, and that
our presence in those parts had indirectly fostered
the progress of civilisation and toleration. The
dislike of the Japanese to the presence of foreigners
is nothing new, but they had of late years learned
to modify or at least to conceal it. The lesson so
sternly taught to the insolent and overwhelming
Daimios some years since was not soon forgotten
by them, and since they had learned to fear and
respect us they were willing to accept the advan-
tages which our commercial enterprise placed
within their reach. Their exclusiveness generally
concerned all the outer world beyond Japan, and
was not specially directed against Christianity.
The almost simultaneous news from China seems to
indicate some organised movement in those parts
against Europeans. The Chinese, at least, know
too much of British gallantry to think they can so
easily shake off the presence of their countrymen,
and we must hope that matters may prove less seri-
ous than they now appear.

MARKE7 S-2 MS DAY.

METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.

We have again a large supply of beasts, but the average
quality is very middling. Choicest descriptions meet pur-
chasers at about late rates ; and other kinds are lower,
and several remain unsold. The number of sheep is rather
smaller than on Monday last ; it, however, exceeds the
demand. Trado is very slow at that day's quotations.
Choice calves are still scarce and dear. Our foreign supply
consists of 2,8J7 beasts and 74 calves. From Scotland
there are 23 beasts; Ireland, 623; Norfolk and Suffolk
20 ; and 2,06 from the midland and home counties.

•
CORN.
At Mark-laue there was a fair attendanceof the trade.
COTTON.

LIVERPOOL, October 12. Sales probably 12,000 or
15,000 bales. Market upward tendency.

The will of Sir James South, F.R.S., astronomer,
formerly- president of the Royal Astronomical Society, was
proved in the London Court under £l,OOO personalty.
The will of Effingham Wilson, bookseller and publisher,
was proved under £4,000; and the will of Henry Groom-
bridge, publisher, under £4,000.
GAB EXAMINER TO THE CITY OF LONDON.—,
Another candidate for the Wilco vacated by Dr. Letheby
we learn, is Mr. W. I'. Fewtrell, F.C.S., whose name is
well known in connection with chemical porio dical litera-
ture, and who was for a long time associated with Dr.
Letheby in the examination of the gas supplied to the
City.

MUSICAL ITEMS.--A Conservatoire de Musique
has been founded at Stettin. Naudiu, the tenor, has ac-
ceptel an engagement at Frankfort. A new opera, en-
titled " Puy Bias," by Marchetti, is to be performed at
Milan. The order of the Italian Crown has been conferred
on Sivori, of Genoa, the celebrated violinist. After a for-
tunate escape in a railway accident, Mdlle. D. Artot has
arrived in Moscow, where she has been most warmly re•
ceived. A musical festival at Bonn has concluded the in-
ternational archaeological congress recently hold in that
city. At the festival a fine performance was given of some
of Beethoven's works. The English composer, Alfr, d
Holmes, has fixed his residence in Paris. He is at wok
on an opera, and also a grand orchestral symphony, un-
titled "La Jeunesse do Shakespeare." Could not one of
our English institutions give a performance of this com-
poser's heroic symphony for orchestra and chorus, "Jeanne
d'Arc," which has bean so great a success at St. Peters-
burg lately ?--.3lusical Standard.
LUXURIANT AND BEAUTIFUL HAIR.—MRS. S. A.
ALLEN'S WOULD.S HAIR RESTORES OR DRESSING never fails to
quickly restore Grey or Faded Hair to its youthful colour cud
beauty, and with the first application a beautiful gloss and de-
lightful fragrance is given to the Hair. It stops the Hair from
falling off. It prevents baldness. It promotes luxuriant growth;
it causes the Hair to grow thick and strong. It removes all
dandruff. .It contains neither oil nor dye. In largo Bottles—
Price Six Shillings. Sold by most Chemists and Perfumers.
Depot, 266, High Holborn.

TOPICS OF ME DAY.

---~• ---

POLITICAL ITEMS.

There is no fear that our law makers will ever run short
through lack of lawyers. There, aro for instance, no fewer
than ten barristers; candidates for constituencies in Ireland
'alone. This is not surprising, considering that the Con-
servative Government has changed its law officals (by
promotion) about once a month.
A novel electoral incident took place in Lambeth
on Saturday. A number of ladies presented Mr.
Morgan Howard, the " Constitutional" candidate, with a
number of banners, worked by their own fair hands. The
rector of St. George's, Peckham, presided, and announced
with much effusion that " Lambeth expects every man to
do his duty." A Mr. Kelham then presented the flags,
plus an address, in which he spoke of the crisis in our
history, and said that it was on this account the ladies
had conceived the idea of working these flags, and giving
them to the " Constitutional" eancliapete, 'Ti►@ were
Intended for display in processions and on the hustings,
the fair donors evidently being ignorant of the law whipb
prohibits such manifestations. Mr. Howard, to ivlioin we
will charitably ascribe similar ignorance, received the
flags—metaphorically, that is, for they were far tco large
and too numerous for 444 to take them litczally— and
made a speech upon the importance of lalie:4 taliing part
in such a political crisis as the prcsent, and conc:nded
with the highly logical deduction that " there was only
one woman who ought to be entrusted with political powers,
duties, and responsibilities, and that was the Queen "
a sentiment rapturouslyapplawlgd by his female audience.
. _

The Morning Advertiser announces, with mush redl4ll-
- of language, that an attempt has been made to
"assassinate" Mr. Homer, the ex-publican candidate for
Hackney. It appears that a man succeeded in "hustling"
himself through a crowd until he got behind Mr. Homer,
where he was found with a large open-bladed knife
in his hand, " prepared to strike." It appears that
this is not the first time this kind of political
argument has been used in this highly-interesting
borough. Both Homerites and anti-Homerites have been
indulging in the logic of cold steel. The odd fact about
this affair is, that Mr. Homer was quite ignorant of the
escape which he had had, and that although a large
number of persons witnessed it, no one informed him of it
until Friday, when he at once turned it to good account
by announcing his intended "assassination " in large posters,
thereby exciting sympathy in his behalf, which will be
highly useful on polling day. No doubt we shall hear
before long that the other candidates for Hackney have
been more or less nearly "assassinated." Only, if the can-
didates continue to multiply after their present rate, the
story will soon become hackneyed.
A correspondent of the Morning Star gives an account
of one of Mr. Homer's meetings which by no means gives
the idea of martyrdom which the ex-victualler is so anxious
to excite. The correspondent says that at a meeting on
Thursday there were fifty or sixty roughs, including
some notorious pugilists, directed by a sinister-looking
blackguard in the gallery, who kept shouting for
Homer, and, when they got hoarse, fell upon
those who did not shout, especially one man who
had manifested sympathy for Colonel Dickson. He
and several persons near him were set upon and fearfully
maltreated ; fights were going on all over the building,
and several unoffending people were—after being soundly
pummelled up above—hurled head foremost down the
gallery stairs. This continued during thewhole of the meet-
ing, until the turbulent element were perfectly hoarse and
exhausted. An attempt was made, in the sheerest
dumb-show, to put a resolution, and the roughs,
being in this particular ill-informed, held up
their hands both for and against it, and so
the meeting broke up in the direst confusion. Fortunately
for Mr. Homer, he must be well used to this sort of thing.
The scene of Thursday must have reminded him of the
time when he kept a gin-palace, and made his fortune
while his customers were getting black eyes and broken
noses.
Mr. Mines Gaskell, who has represented Wenlock
without a contest since 1832, is about to retire. He is a
Conservative, and has been a Lord of the Treasury ; but he
is convinced that the Irish Church Establishment ought
not tobe maintained. In this he concurs:with two other Con-
servative M.P.'B,'Sir George Stucley and Sir W. Stirling-
Maxwell. -

Mr. Bright addresses his constituents in the Birming-
ham Town Hall on the 2Gth, which we need scarcely say
is " Saint Monday."

MR. STANSFELD ON THE NATIONAL EXPENDITURE.

Mr. Stansfeld appears to be fighting his battle at Halifax
on the question of the national expenditure. Several
times he has taken up the subject, and his opponents have
given the rejoinder every time. A few days back he held
forth on the same question. his speeches generally bristle
with figures, and this was no exception to the rule. Omit-
ting these, however, his argument was as follows :
The question was, he said, whether the bare and isolated
fact of the expenditure of the Government of which
Mr. Gladstone was a inember in 1853 exceeding that of
the Conservative Government In 1852 was any argument
of evidence to prove that Mr. Disraeli was an economist,
and not Mr. Gladstone. Tho truth was very simple.
That was a period of ascending expenditure ; it was the
period after the repeal of the corn laws, when they were
approaching the eve of the Crimean war, and when people
were beginning to feel uneasy about the military condition
of the country. lle reviewed the whole expenditure year
by year, until he came to the year 186 G. In 1866
Mr. Gladstone spent £66,780,396, and in 1867 Mr.
Disraeli spent £69,236,000 ; so that in that last
period, a [period of fair and possible practical com-
parison, when Mr. Disraeli and the Conservative party
bad been long enough in office to have a financial policy,
by their own figures, and the confession of their own
Chancellor of ;II Exchequer, they had increased the
expenditure by upwards of £3,000,0003 and had
swallowed up the whole of that saving of more than
£2,000,000 which he assisted to effect by the motion of
1862 ; and they had returned to that inflated expenditure
to which he (Mr. Stansfeld) was then opposed.

" TELL MU TO STAND !"

While in the administration of nearly every Govern-
ment patronage the principle of merit before party has
long been recognised, in the distribution of peerages and
minor titles this arrangement has, most unfortunately for
the country, never been adopted. Instead of the men of
weight being selected from the House of Commons for the
Upper House, we have had the mediocrities selected—
men, to use the common expression, who "vote straight."
Baronetcies have been even more recklessly thrown broad-
cast. In nearly every case have they been given to
party men. A story has been circulated which raises the
question whether the whole system of patronage ought not
to be revised. It is to the effect that Sir Samuel Bignold,
being anxious to induce " a certain gentleman " to stand
for Norwich, received from him the answer that he would
do so only on his claims to a baronetcy being recognised
by the Premier. Sir S. Bignold then commu-
nicated this statement to Mr. Disraeli, who
replied to the effect that if the gentleman in
question would contest the [city he should be made a
baronet. Can this story be true? Who is the "certain
gentleman" to whom it refers? Mr. Darby Griffith writes
to the Star : " A statement involving such important
constitutional considerations ought not to remain without
an authoritative elucidation."

or -those wnu sine wan me in supporting Dr. Colenso.'
Permit me to observe that we—that is, at least, half the
clergy of the Church of England in this diocese, and a largo
majority of the laity—are taking part together in support.
ing, not Dr. Colenso, but the law of the land, declared
not only by Lord Romilly's judgment, bitt by the
more recent decision of the Supreme Court of this
colony. . . . W e feel it to be our plain duty, whatever
our religious views may be (in respect of which many of
us differ widely on some points from Dr. Colenso), to
recognise his authority and render to him all duo canonical
obedience, unless and until the principles laid down in the
above two judgments shall be set aside on appeal to the
Privy Connell. As clergymen of the Church of Eng.
land, desiring to be faithful to our ordination vows,
and as loyal subjects of the Queen, we could not do other.
wise, And J )11.4.4 41.1 all possible respect for
your Grace's eminent position, that we should have hoped
to have been encouraged and strengthened in the dis-
charge of this our duty, under peculiar, and to many of
us somewhat trying eirewniitaupo, by one; you;
Grape, filling the Wiest 01-49 iu the Church wider
her Majesty, and one of the highest in the State, instead
pf being taunted inwlylng reproach and
censure.'!