The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-14 00:00:00

,71.1? NORTHCOTE ZT BOUTHMOLTON,

Sir Si:4,ffer3. thcots, *aim:Ling the electors of the
Smthmelter. list- et on Saturday, enlarged upon 33veral
points scarcely tcached upon at Barnstaple on :iday.
It has been statzd, and made the subject of a great
deal of hostile comment by the Liberal newspapers
of the county, that when Sir Stafford went down
to North Devon in March 1867, for re-election on
the occasion of his accepting the appointment of Secre-
tary of State for India,he distinctly declared that he would
not vote for household suffrage, and that within a few
weeks he supported the household suffrage clause of the
Reform Bill. Referring to this matter, Sir Stafford spoke
on Saturday as follows :—" Since I was first honoured by
being returned as your representative I have had occasion
twice to seek re-electioif at yOur hands—once when the
Present Government was formed, and I accepted the office
of President of the Board of Trade ; and in the second
time, in the spring of last year, when certain changes took
place in the Cabinet of Lord Derby, and I accepted the
post of Minister for India, and came to you again for
re-election, (A Voice : 'And promised not to go in for
household suffrage.') I made no promise of the sort. At
the time when I was re-elected I made a statement of the
oLiinions I held on the question of Reform ; that statement
was accepted by you, and I was returned to Parliament.
I am told that my votes since have not been in accordance
with that statement. I should like to know in what
respect. These objections are made, curiously enough,
not by the Conservative party, who did me the honour
to request me to offer myself as a representative of this
constituency, but they are made by my opponents, the
Liberals ; and I can only say that if those gentlemen
who so requested me to come forward, and who did me the
honour to elect and re-elect me, are dissatisfied with my
conduct, either on the Reform Bill or upon any other
matter, I hope they will have the goodness to make that
statement to me, and I will promise that if the majority,
or any considerable portion of those upon whose requisition
I came forward, will now tell me they are dissatisfied with
my conduct, I will say, ' Gentlemen, reaign J:oy trust
into ycur hands.' But, on the-contrary, far from having
any evidence of that sort, I find, not only that my Con-
servative friends are still desirous of supporting me, but that
they are anxious to bring forward a dolleague of the same
opinion as myself—a gentleman who has pursued the same
course of conduct in political matters as I have pursued."
Sir S. Northcote then gave a history of the Reform
Bills of 1866 and 1867, and then addressed himself to the
subject of local burdens. He said : " Everybody must have
noticed a tendency to throw burdens more and more upon
the rates. Measures have been introduced for effecting
social improvements ; they have been discussed in Parlia•
meat and found to be not altogether unacceptable to the
constituencies, especially it has been found that the diffi-
culty has arisen as to the mode in which the expenses were
to be met, and those measures have fallen back into the
form, of an Act of Parliament, which I think you will
do well to guard against—l mean an Act of Parliament
w hich shall be `optional.' They are measures to carry
cut improvements, the burden of which will fall upon the
local rates, and they are said to be optional. Optional
ith whom ? Optional with the ratepayers? No, because
the ratepayers have not the control of the expenditure of
the rates. No, they are optional with the magistrates of
the county. I think you will find there is very great
danger in that description of legislation, because your
representatives in Parliament who oppose those measures
are silenced by those who advocate them saying, ' This is
only an optional or voluntary measure ; and they are only
voluntary as far as the magistrates are concerned, who are
not responsible to the ratepayers. The magistrates say, and
say perhaps quite rightly, ' These are measures which
are very much needed,' and they claim the authority of
an Act of Parliament for introducing them into their
respective districts." Sir Stafford next declared himself
in favour of county financial boards, and enlarged upon the
great and alarming increase of local burdens. Upon the
whole, he believed our present system of national educa-
tion was a sound system, but a great deal more was
necessary to be done to develope and extend that system.
The bill introduced by the Duke of Marlborough
laid the foundation of that which he believed ought
to be done, but it might::be -pessible►`-to introduce
some improvements in that measure. He was not pre-
pared to advocate, and did not. consider it necessary to
advocate, anything in the nature of a system of compulsory
education, although more ought to be done to encourage
the spread of education among the people. He was also
opposed to the principle of laying the education upon the
rates of the country; but they must recollect that upon
such matters one could not lay down a strict principle and
say nothing should be taken out of the rates, and every-
thing should come from the public purse or from voluntary
contributions. These were matters that must be fairly
considered and dealt with comprehensively, but he had
seen a tendency to throw everything upon the rates which
he thought required to be jealously watched.

3IONSIGNORE TALBOT'S REPLY TO THE

ESGLLSII PRESS.

In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Spanish-place, on Sun•
day, Monsignore Talbot, while addressing the congre-
gation, took the liberty to say that he had been attacked
by the public press because he had recently declared in
another place that the predominant idea in Rome was
religion. Though he had been attacked he had not
been convinced by the arguments or the logic of
his reprovers, and was prepared to reiterate all he
had said in favour of the morality of Rome. Venice was
remarkable for her wealth, Bologna for her university,
Milan for the splendour of her palaces, but Rome was
renowned throughout the world for her piety. The
mariner, when sailing by that plain called the Campagna,
sees only one speck rising up before him ; that speck is the
dome of St. Peter's, beneath which are deposited the ashes
of the fishermen of Galilee. Pilgrims—devout, Christian
pilgrims—from every nation of the earth, when they
behold from the mountains overlooking Rome the dome
of St. Peter's, kneel down and venerate at a distance the
temple rising over the tombs of so many saints and martyrs.
That temple is built upon the site of the Circus of Nero.
The Coliseum and Pantheon have been converted into
Christian sanctuaries ; religious asylums and schools have
been founded upon the sites of Pagan temples; as "if the
Popes were anxious to make 'reparation for the crimes
committed in those places ; the.Tarpeian Rock itself has
been changed into an hospital. When Constantine pro-
claimed that all his subjects were free to follow their reli-
gious belief, he removed from Rome. Rome, he said, was
the city of the successor of St. Peter, and out of respect for
the Vicar of Christ he removed his seat of empire to Con-
stantinople. Alaric approached the Eternal City with awe
and reverence, and when he entered it he gave orders to
his soldiers to respect the sacred places. But what had she
done for Christianity? How many nations are indebted to
her for their knowledge of the Christian faith? The Pope.
sent St. Boniface to Christianirie Germany; he also sent
St. Patrick to Christianise tl'ie pagan Irish ; and he sent
Augustine and his twelve 'monks to carry the message of
truth to the shores of Ent)and. Pilgrims from all parts of
the world visit her to pw.ticipate in her devotions, to pray at
the shrine of Peter, tr, see those places consecrated by tin
blood and hallowed 'by the footsteps of saints and martyrs
without number. B ome is hallowed ground. The very atmo•
sphere is religious. The people give up whole days in order
to celebrate the Iv oly mysteries of their religion. Still he was
censured by tb.e press of this country because he said
Rome was a n'Loral city. He had lived there for eighteen
years, had every opportunity of judging of the state of
morality, aad he had no hesitation in saying that it was
the most moral city on the face of the earth. An ex•
President. of the United States paid a visit to Rome.
When. he had been there a few months he (Monsignore
Talbot) called upon him, and asked his opinion of the
Eternal City. He replied, " I have now been here several
months, and have never seen a single case of drunkenness
or anything else to offend my eyes."

THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S.—On Sunday prayers
were offered up fc r the Dean of St. Paul's, at the cathe-
dral. Dr. Milm an was seized with an attack of paralysis
some few days since, and great anxiety is felt as to his
condition by -his family.

DISCOV7ZRY OF A LEAD MrNE.—The other day,
whilst sr,me men were employed on a farm in Thornley,
near P"..eston, recently purchaled by the Earl of Derby,
they came upon a vein of lead. The quality of the
lead is superior, and the mine will be a good one.
The name of •Alboni, although she is in Paris
at present, does not appear in the published list of per.
formers for the Italian Opera. There are three new female
singers, all you;;;. Millie. Minnie 'Hauck is an American,
Madal,:e d Murska comes from the Imperial Tbei•tre,
Vienna, and has sung for two seasons with success at lies
Majesty's, in London. -Mlle. Ricci is an Italian,
daughter and neice of tl;e brothers of the same name;
authors of " Crispin() e la Comore." Tamberlik, ~ti he
will alternate with Fraschini, ha 4 arrived in Paris, with
his family from his country house at La ,Parrella, in the
Appenines, near Pistoja.

The Earl of Dunraven and Dr. Stokes, of Dublin,
have visited Dingle in the course of their antiquarian ex.
cursion through Kerry. They have with them a lahographe:
and a sketcher. In the course of his visit Lord .Dunravet
was afforded a specimen of the way the precious antiqui
ties of the ccuntry are being swept away. He fourvl to hi
astonishment that Kilmurry Church, or rather oratory,
had disappeared. A farmer on whose lands the rains ha':
been situated explained to his lordship that abtlit ter
years ago a proprietor had thrown it clow4 to empl( tb
)ns4csriaLs is building his ONVI; boose,