The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 3, 1868.

late until we have satisfied ourselves of the opinions
of the English people on the point. One thing is
very certain, that if Mr. GLADSTONE should carry
his Resolutions, it will not be the solution of a
question of Imperial policy, but a triumph of faction ;
and also we may rest assured that if the Govern-
ment gain a majority the settlement of the
Irish Church Establishment will not be compro-
mised, but left open for the consideration of the
new Parliament ; and for the sake of the great ques-
tion itself, and for the credit of the Liberals, we
hope and trust that to-night will not witness the
success of an attempt which should never have been
made, for it is as plain a bid for office as was ever
seen in the House of Commons, and such a course
is not the right policy to pursue when questions of
such moment and magnitude are before us.

It is always refreshing, amidst the constant
struggle for selfish ends and personal aggrandise-
ment going on around us, to meet with those rare
cases of public spirit and munificence which now and
then make themselves apparent. Such an instance
was met with in the case of that distinguished Ame-
rican who has devoted the winnings of a prosperous
career to the lasting benefit of both England and
A merica. Such an instance was last evening
brought under the notice of the House of Commons.
We are glad to say the princely giver was, in this case
an Englishman. Mr. WHITWORTH, whose name
is well known in connection with certain mechanical
and scientific improvements, has testified the ear-
nestness of his desire to promote the education of
the people by a most liberal offer. He bas proposed
to the Government to found thirty scholarships of
the annual value of £lOO each, to be open to public
competition, and to be applied to the promotion of
mechanics and cognate sciences. The liberality of
such an offer, involving as it does an outlay of
£3,000 a year, rivals Mr. PEABODY'S noble gift ;
and the effect, we may hope, will be equally satis-
factory, and the good which is done equally lasting.
Many individuals have argued of late about
the encouragement which ought to be given
to scientific study and technical instruction. There
are no invidious conditions or restrictions attached
to the gift, no limits as to race, religion, or method
of instruction. The only question for the examiners
to consider will be the real ability and acquired
knowledge of the candidates, who will be required to
give evidence that they possess a knowledge of both
theory and practice. Natives of England, Scotland,
and Ireland will be equally eligible, and the candi-
dates may have pursued their studies anywhere so long
as they have reached the desired standard. This is
one of the cases in which good has come
out of evil. When Mr. WHITWORTH was
a young man, and fame and fortune were
yet visions of the uncertain future, he himself suf-
fered from the lack of some substantial aid and
encouragement in pursuing his studies. He re-
solved that if ever he had the opportunity he would
endeavour to give some assistance to those similarly
situated. This resolution has been faithfully kept,
and now that his exertions have been crowned with
success, and he has amassed considerable wealth,
he cheerfully sets aside a sum which is a fortune in
itself for the benefit of young and unfriended
students. The progress of that mechanical science,
in which he takes so deep an interest, was of course
one of his objects in founding these scholarships,
and be says in his letter that the scholars shall be
selected for their intelligence and proficiency in
the theory and practice of mechanics and its cog-
nate sciences. Thirty scholarships will no doubt
exercise a sensible influence on the development of
practically scientific knowledge. A hundred a year
will be sufficient to remove from a young man all
anxiety about his means of living during the open-
ing of his career. Ile will be able to devote all his
energies and all kis powers to the study of his pro-
fession unharassed by those petty cares for food
and lodging and decent apparel which every
one may affect to despise, but to which
no man can altogether rise superior. For want of
such assistance in early youth very often valuable
years are lost, and the prime of life, which should
be devoted to working out the knowledge acquired
before, has to be devoted to study and practice.
The noble liberality with which Mr. WHITWORTH
has come forward to assist those who follow in his
own track will, we may hope, act as a stimulus to
wealthy and public-spirited men in other profes-
sionss. Why should we not have scholarships in
other departments of science, of art, of
literature ? They would not only assist
and foster talent, but they would encourage
industry and application. England is but a cold
and indifferent mother to her men of genius until
they can command her attention and respect. Had
she numbered HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN among
her sons he would have missed that kindly aid from
the State which converted the young ignoramus
into the world-famed author. Mr. WHITWORTH
shows us what may be done, and what should be
done, in .wealthy England for private and public
good.

Though Civil War is nominally extinct in the
United States it is, in reality, raging in a private
sense in more than one quarter. We have the
grand campaign between Radicals and Democrats
now coming to a decisive field battle. We have
had a series of skirmishes between the PRESIDENT
and certain refractory members of his Cabinet, and
now we haxe the battle royal between Messrs.
DREW and VANDERBILT respecting the Erie Rail-
way: Those who wish to gain an insight into the
working of American commercial life, and
the vehemence of the passions which it
excites, cannot do better than follow
out this victory through all its startling phases.
The leaders of the contending parties each play a
desperate game, and the sums with which they deal
are sufficiently startling to ordinary European
imaginations. To the New Yorker, however, they
are matters of course, and great was the admiration
of Mr. DANIEL DREW'S supporters when, in order
to bring down the railway stock, he obtained
58,000 shares, and by throwing them all at once
on the market reduced the Erie shares 40 per
cent. within a very few days.
Such a man as this, if he have com-
mand of sufficient capital, can direct the
course of speculation as he will ; but as all despo-
tisms come at last to an end, he has been suddenly
checked in his progress by the appearance of a rival
general in the field. That rival was Mr. VANDER-
BILT, and the war between the two has latterly
reached its height. Carried into the law courts, it
has gained in interest and excitement, for Mr. DREW,
who ought certainly to have been a military general,
cleverly evaded an order for the seizure of therail way
accounts, and his own arrest for crossing the Hud-
son. VANDERBILT and his officers found that, by a
sudden sleight of hand, the Erie Railway Office was
no longer in New York, but in New Jersey. For
the further details of the affair, the bribes to the
" roughs" of New York, the guards at the ferries,
&c., we must refer the reader to other accounts,
but a very slight knowledge of the facts is suffi-
cient to show the spirit now beginning to prevail
among the American community.

ARRIVAL OF A GOLD Suir.—The ship Superb,
from Melbourne for London, with £27,000 sterling in gold,
arrived off Queenstown yesterday. She landed fourteen
passengers by the pilot boat. She will proceed after re-
ceiving provisions.

LAkTEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

JAPAN.

ALEXANDRIA, March 29.

Intelligence received here from Japan announces
that Hiogo had been tranquillised, and that the
war was over. No fears were entertained for the
safety of foreigners. Satsuma, Choshin, and
Zoza, had assumed the Government under the
Mikado.

Mr. Burlinghame was to leave by the Pacific
mail of the 25th February, on his mission from the
Chinese Government to the United States and

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.,

PARIS, THURSDAY, April 2.

There is really scarcely any news to-day, and the Paris
papers give up no small portion of their space to the de-
bates in the British Parliament. Nearly all of them also
publish the letter which the Duke of St. Alban's lately
addressed to the Times respecting the Suez Canal. That
letter is, of course, quite a feather in M. de Lesseps'
cap, who must be greatly delighted at seeing his perse.
verance at last appreciated in England, which has been so
long jealous.and incredulous_ of the success of his great
undertaking.

Though there is hardly any political news, strictly
speaking, there is a good deal of uneasiness, ennui, malaise;
or what you will. The country refuses to be satisfied; and
no wonder. On the one side are a scanty harvest,
diminished trade, and a huge army ; on the other side are
constant disturbances in various parts of the country, a
restless foreign diplomacy, and an uncertain home policy.
The French people, especially the Parisians, are beginning
to complain that the Emperor does not know his own
mind, and that there is no counting upon what he will do.
His vacillation is injurious to the influence of France, and
keeps the people in a state of uncertainty that prevents
them from devoting their energies to the expansion of
trade.

Some sarcastic Frenchman, who, I suppose, disapproves
of the commercial treaty with England, has published a
pamphlet describing the riots at Toulouse, Bordeaux, and
Montauban, with the fantastic and satirical title of " Les
Joujoux de M. Cobden" (Mr. Cobden's Playthings.)
It is now stated that Prince Napoleon, when discussing
at Berlin the disarmament of France and Prussia, declared
that France could not possibly reduce her army below
200,000 men, as she would otherwise break up the cadres,
or skeletons of the regiments. This assertion is said to
have brought the matter to a conclusion without any
result.

The Liberte declares that it has authentic intelligence
from Vienna to the effect that neither Baron von Beust,
the Austrian Premier, nor the Marquis de Moustier, our
Foreign Minister, " has believed it opportune to abandon
the strictest reserve with respect to the last measures
taken by Russia towards Poland. There is no despatch
on the subject at the Chancelleries of Paris and Vienna."
I dare say the Lederte is rightly informed. It was not
likely that France or Austria would get up a quarrel
about so hopeless a matter as the more or less servitude of
Poland.

M. Duruy, the Education Minister, who was to have
resigned if there had been a dissolution, has been making
a tour in the West. At Rouen, which has for some time
been disquieted by rumours of intended disturbances, he
inspected the lycee. The pupils were all drawn up at the
gate, and he thanked them for this mark of respect, and
told them they should have a holiday, which was not to
be confounded with the Easter holidays. At Havre, too,
he visited the lyeee. I do not- hear that he went to
Yvetot, which is but a little way from Havre. Had he
done so he wouhl have found the place in some commo•
tion, in consequence of the appearance of seditious placards
on the walls. The police tore them down, of course ; but
how is it that they permit them to be posted up ? Do the
guardians of the peace sleep at night when they ought to
be watching ?

Yet another press prosecution. Two of the staff of the
Progres du Nord, published at Lille, have been condemned,
the one to eight days' imprisonment and £2O fine, the other
to 15 days' and £4, for " exciting the military to disobe-
dience and attack contrary to the respect due to the law."
The accused appealed, but of course with no other result
than an increase of their costs.
The Exhibition at Havre opens on June Ist. It will
consist of every kind of article relating to the sea, from
ships down to fishhooks. I t will remain open until
October 31.

Att entionbas been called in Italy to a kind of slave traffic
which goes on in that country. Speculators enter into formal,
but worthless, contracts with the poor inhabitants of
Southern Italy, chiefly the province of Basilicata, for the
hire of their children as organ-grinders. The children are
taken away in gangs, boys and girls, of from two to a
dozen, and are at once compelled to beg along the roads
for the benefit of the vadronc. The route is usually along
the seacoast, and they enter France by the Corniche, and
thence to Marseilles. Here they are handed over by their
conductors to a second lot of speculators from Paris and
other large cities, and this act of white slave trading being
concluded, the same operation is recommenced in Calabria.
The wretched life which the poor creatures lead in Paris
is well known. They are badly fed, scantily clothed, and
subjected to ill-treatment by their masters.

The somewhat musty quotation from the Latin grammar,
that " No one is wise at all hours," must be changed into
"No one is virtuous at all hours." Nearly 100 years ago
M. Monthyon founded a yearly prize for virtue, to be
bestowed by the Academy upon the person deemed most
worthy to receive it. In 1366 it was awarded to a woman
turned Jeanne Dessite, who was described as quite a
prodigy of vii tue. They stated that " becoming
a domestic at the age of 16, she gained by her assi-
duous labour and, her excellent conduct the esteem and
confidence of her employers. Subsequently, misfortune fell
on her master, M. de Besse. His property was sold, and
he was reduced to destitution. To serve him faithfully,
broken down as he was by infirmity ; to take care of him,
and watch over him night and day, was not sufficient for
Jeanne. She sacrificed to the wants of her master all her
savings ; she continued to serve him gratuitously ; and in
order to do so refused the most advantageous offers, both
of marriage and a position more lucrative." This model
of domestic servants appeared a few days ago, so the
Gazette des Trilmnaux tells us, in the Correctional
Police-court on a charge of having swindled some unfortu-
nate peasants of 700 f., and was sentenced to a year's im-
prisonment and 50f. fine.

A. correspondent of the Times, writing from Pesth,
refers to the alarms which had followed the first rejoicings
at the passing of the Civil Marriages Bill, and says that
there was no good ground for apprehension. The Emperor,
who is at Buda, did indeed send for two of his chief
Ministers to know if, in order to quiet the conscience of
those who might be against civil jurisdiction in matters of
matrimony, the word " exclusively " might not be left out,
and thus a choice given to the parties themselves to go to
whatever tribunal they please. The Ministerial explana-
tions seem to have quieted the apprehensions of his
Majesty on this point.
The tone of Lord Stanley's speech on Monday night has
revived the old distrust in that noble lord's fidelity to the
principles in which he was bred. Many of the more
uncompromising Conservatives have indeed expressed
a wish that, able Foreign Minister as he un-
doubtedly is, he would take his seat on the
Opposition side of the House. It would cer-
tainly be a curious coincidence if the question which
drove the father from the Whig into the Conservative
ranks should induce the son to desert from the Conserva-
tive 'o e I.il cal banner. That he was dis:,:ttislied with
the tone of Mr. Disraeli's letter to Lord Dartmouth t ere
can be little doubt. In it the Premier suppressed
that which he concurred with Lord Derby and Lord
Stanley in contemp'ating, namely, the equalisation
of creeds in :reland by the endow:, cut and establishment
of all. That party which is most hostile to Lord Stanley
waited curiously for the break-up of the Cabinet on Wed-
nesday afternoon, in the expectation of hearing the first
whisper of his resignati.m. But they listened in vain.
Lcrd Stanley was present in the course of the evening at
the rival receptions given by Mrs. Gladstone and Mrs.
Hardy, as if to dispel the dream of those who prema-
turely reckoned on his retirement.

A defender of Mr. Gladstone's consistency in the matter
of the Irish Church appears in the Times in the person of
Mr. Vernon Harcouri, who looks forward to being a
member of the next Parliament. Far from the conversion
of the right hon. gentleman having been a sudden one,
the writer recalls the speech of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer on Mr. Dillwyn's Irish Church motion in
March 1865. That motion was to the effect
that the position of the Establishment was un-
satisfactory, and demanded the early attention of the
Government. On th'tt occasion Mr. Gladstone said :
" The dictates of propriety and good sense must govern
the proceedings of any Administration which means to do
its duty to the country. These principles must govern
us on this occasion, whether or of we may be able to deny
the proposition of the hon. gentleman with reference tc
the position of the Irish Church, and I, for one, am not
able to deny it." Mr. Whiteside, now Lord Chief Justice
of Ireland, at once told the present leader of the Opposition
that " his object was to lay the foundation of another
scheme—a policy of another and not very distant day—whet
he might be able to say the time had come and a change of
feeling had been provoked out of doors that would
enable him to do then what he feared to do now.'
Mr. Whiteside was followed by Mr. Grant Duff, who con
gratulated Mr. Dillwyu on the success of his motion. He
said :"If he does not carry his motion—if lie does not '
gain the present, he has at least gained the future. The
debate will be historical, for in the speech of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer I see the beginning of the end of the
great Irish difficulty." Under such circumstances, Mr.
Harcourt ventures to ask whether Mr. Gladstone's con
version can be justly called " sudden," and whether then
is the smallest truth in Mr. Disraeli's assertion, that unti:
the resolutions now under discussion were placed on the
table of the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone had
" clone nothing but make speeches in favour of the Irish
Chiach,"_