The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-25 00:00:00

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.

TIM EVENING, LEFT TO HIMSELF. After which, in
five acts, at a quarter to 8, TILE RIGHTFUL HEIR. To con
elude with THE LYCEUM BALLET. Messrs. Ba.ndmann,
G. F. Neville, Lin Rayne, Harding, Basil Potter, Mr. and Mrs.
Hermann Vezin, Milly Palmer, &c.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. Swanborough.
THIS EVENING, at 7.30, THE WIDOW HUNT. Messrs. Bel-
ford, Clarke; Miss Burton. THE FIELD OE THE CLOTH
OF GOLD : Messrs. Thorne. James, Fenton; Mesdames Maria
Longmore, B. Goodall. Lydia Maitland, Claire, and Hughes. To
conclude with MARRIAGE AT ANY PRICE

QUEEN'S THEATRE, LONG-ACRE.
Manager, Mr. W. 11. Liston.
Tins EVENING, at 7, THE LANCASHIRE LASS: Messrs.
Irving, L. Brough, Stephens, Wyndham. Clayton, and S. Emery;
Mesdames Hodson, Montague, and Nelly Moore. And THE
STRANGER, Stranger than Ever. Mr. L. Brough, Miss Mon-
tague,

THEATP,E-P,OYAL, HOLBORN.
Under the Management of Miss Fanny Josephs.
Tins EVENING, at 7, BLOW FOR BLOW: Messrs. Honey,
'...,owper. Haynes, Arthur, Westland, and Parselle; Mesdames
Foote,Weathersby, Rignold. At 9.30, LUC'RETIA BORGIA ;
ess Drew, G. Honey, ctc.; Mesdames Minnie Sidney, Fanny
Joseph

THEATRE-I:01'AL, OLYMPIC,
THIS EvEsiNG, at 7, SL A STIER &CRASHER Messrs Atkins,

Vaughan, G. Vin.cent;R:e.; Miss Lennox Grey and Mrs Caulfield.
',..After which, at 7.45, THE YELLOW PASSPORT : Messrs. IT.
Ne ille, G. Vincent, E. Atkins, H. Vaughan, H. Cooper, and H.
Wigan; 31eiedames Furtado, Lennox Grey, and Caulfield.

ROYALTY THEATRE.
under the Management of Miss M. Oliver.
THIS EVENING,ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT
r OLD. To be followed by THE RISE AND FALL OF
lICHARD III.; or, A New Front to an Old Dicky: Mr. Dewar,
Mr. Danvers; Miss Collinson, and Miss M. Oliver. To con-
tludo with THE CLOCKMAKER'S HAT.

PRINCE OF WALES'S ROYAL THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss Marie Wilton
THIS EVENING, ATCHI ! Messrs. Blakeley and Montague;
Misses Addison and A. 'Wilton. After which, SOCIETY : Messrs.
J. Clarke, Hare, 11. T. Montague, Blakeley, Montgomery, and
ancrOf t ; yrs. Buckingham and Mitt C. Addison.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
Lessees, Messrs. Shepherd and Creswick.
rills EVENING. THE WIFE'S SECRET. Si.• piterAymott,
r Creswick; Lady Evelina, Miss Pauncefort. After which,
AND RATS AND WATER RATS.

CHRISTY MINSTRELS, St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8.
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE AND CIRCUS, HOLBORN.

THIS EVENING, The Great Carre Troupe and magnificent Stud
of 50 Horses; also Avolo, the Marvel of the Nineteenth Century,
Alfred Bradbury, Mdlle. Montero, M. Napoli, F. Clifton, and
Samwell's Performing Dogs. Commence at 7.30.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLETS,
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. ls. Box-oftico
open from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex
cept Sundays). Admission, ls.; on Mondays, Gd.; Children
under twelve, Gd.

git 4,, 'l3 \-Aan

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 1868,

Mr. GLADSTONE'S defeat in South-West Lancashire
has been all along anticipated. It is none the less
astounding, however, now that it has come to rase.
And there is hardly a man of generous feelings, we
conceive, throughout the country, no matter what
may be his political opinions, but will regret the indig-
nity thus cast by his native county upon the foremost
Lancashire-man of his time. It takes one's breath
away to think how matters might now have stood, but
for the provident care with which a little while
previously a seat was secured for Mr. GLADSTONE
at Greenwich, in the event (an event yesterday rea-
lized) of his failure as a candidate for the represen-
tation of South-west Lancashire. But for that wise
precautionary measure on the part of his more de-
voted adherents, we should, early in the immediately
ensuing month, have witnessed a proceeding more
ridiculous even than the hypothetical performance
of the tragedy of Hamlet with the character
of HAMLET left out by particular desire,
or at any rate by particular arrangement. It would
have been a more extraordinary spectacle—that
of the six hundred and fifty-eight new members filing
into the House of Commons in the second week of
December without including among their number the
Leader of the serried ranks of the majority—than the
proverbial procession in Old Rome, from which the
bust of BRUTES was so very conspicuously
excluded. A casualty of that extraordinary
kind, would have been an anti-climax so monstrously
ridiculous in its way that it would almost have called
down the derision of Europe upon the electors of the
United Kingdom. That at any rate we have been
spared. The country so far, at least, has not utterly
stultified itself—as itwould most certainly have done if
while returning an immense majority in favour of Mr.
GLADSTONE, it had denied to Mr. GLADSTONE hi msel
acceptance by any constituency. From this other-
wise inevitable stultification of itself, England has
been spared by the forethought of those provident
friends who so very discreetly brought Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S claims upon their consideration before the
electors of Greenwich. And Greenwich, in responding
as it did to that appeal, has certainly secured to
itself an immense and very notable recompense. It
has, by its selection of Mr. GLADSTONE as
its representative, rendered itself upon the
instant illustrious. No one would recognise that fact
more readily or more heartily—we are certain of this
—than Mr. GLADSTONE'S principal rival and antago-
nist in the House, the present First Lord of the Trea-
sury.

No matter what his Parliamentary designa -
tion—whether, as it was but a very few years ago,
the Right Hon. Gentleman the member for the
University of Oxford, or as it was until but a very
few weeks since, the Right Hon. Gentleman the
member for South Lancashire, or as it is
now fated to be the right hon. gentleman the member
for Greenwich —Mr. GLADSTONE will be there as the
recognised and authoritative Chief of the great
Liberal Opposition. That Opposition already num-
bers up an immense aggregate of 364 altogether
As many as 611 members having been returned up to •
yesterday's polling--47 additional members alone re-
main now to be enrolled. Supposing—what is to the last
degree unlikely—that every one of those forty-sfsen
members who have yet to be elected should in
the result prove to be Conservative, the Conser-
vative members already
_returned to the number
of 247, would, by the acquisition of that forty-
seven to which we are alluding, still remain in a
minority of Seventy. For, the numbers in that
purely imaginary case would stand thus-364
as the (still) aggregate of the Liberals, against 294
as the (then) aggregate of the Conservatives. As
matters now stand, the supplementary 47 will have
to be portioned out on their return—so many to the
Government side, so many to the side of the Oppo-
sition. But, of the 611 already actually completed
elections, 247 being Conservatives, and 364 Liberals,
the Liberal majority is at the present moment exactly
one hundred and seventeen. Before yesterday's polling
altered so far the relative position of parties numerically,
the Liberal majority was 131. Yesterday, however,
diminished that aggragate advantage to the Opposi-
tion by fourteen—nineteen Liberals having been re-
turned within the day's, polling, and thirty-three
Conservatives. - The result of yesterday's polling,
therefore, directly justifies what we said in our last
impression as to the probability of the Liberal
majority proving eventually, that is, upon the
return of the whole 658 members of the House
of Commons, a clear majority of, at the outside,
a very little over 100. Fifty-two seats being filled
yesterday, caused, as we have seen, the clear ma-
jority of 131 to shrink by 14, to a clear majority of
117. how many of the odd 17 will have been struck
away from the square 100 within the next two or
three day's polling that will have to take place before
the 47 still vacant seats shall have been filled up,
remains now a problem, the solution of which will
be visible to all within a very brief interval.
However the remaining (less than half a hundred)
elections may go, we are still convinced of this
that the clear majority of the Liberals will be as
nearly as possible one hundred.

SOME Conservative candidates assert that the new
Parliament will be a short-lived one. They give no
reason for their assertion, the only one we can
conjecture being King HENRY'S, " the wish
is father to the thought." There is every
reason why the new Parliament should not be
short-lived. In the first place, the late Parlia-
ment did not last its full average term, and M.P.'s
will therefore wish to prolong the present Parliament
beyond it. In the next place, the Reform question
has been settled, and therefore the main cause for
a speedy dissolution which arose in 1866 does not
exist. Lastly, the Liberal majority is so large that
Mr. GLADSTONE ought to be able to overcome all
opposition without the necessity of appealing to the
country. Even were it otherwise, we do not see how
the prospect of another election should be particu-
larly inspiriting for the Conservatives. They have
just appealed to the country with all the prestige
which always attaches to the party in office, and also
with the additional advantage of being the recognised
authors of the measure bywhich a large number of voters
have been enfranchised. Moreover, the question
before the country has given the Conservatives an
unquestionable advantage in certain constituencies
where, as in Lancashire, the anti-Catholic and anti-
Irish feeling is very strong. If, with the threefold
advantages of possession of office, a claim upon the
gratitude of die new electors, and a strong religious
prejudice in their favour, they have been unable to

save themselves from numerical defeat, what
prospec ,t is there that they will do better when out
of offi'Je, when the Reform Bill has become a thing
of the past, and when the Irish Church question is
settled ? Far be it from us to grudge the Conserva-
tives their consolation. It is well for all of us that—

Hope springs eternal in the human breast ;
Man never is, but always to be, blest.
Tb.e deeper present misfortune, the higher hope
".oars. The sterner present reality, the more airy
and unsubstantial is the vision of future happiness.
So kind is Hope, that even when a great party is
encountering the defeats of one election, she consoles
them with the prospect of another.

A YEAR ago Mr. DISRAELI claimed that he had
educated his party. There is no doubt that the claim
was well founded. But Mr. DISRAELI has
not been the only schoolmaster. Lord STANLEY
has been carrying on the process of instruction with
less outward manifestations, but perhaps with even
greater success. Mr. DISRAELI at times found his
pupils recalcitrant. They rebelled against his rod ;
the task was too hard for them ; and so he had to
lead them on by degrees, and teach them line by line,
precept by precept, until the whole lesson of house-
hold suffrage and " confidence in the working
classes " was learnt. It is thoroughly learnt now,
and on every hustings Conservative M. P.'s are
repeating their teacher's last words of instruction.
Lord STANLEY had an easier task, just because
he had not to unteach to the same extent
that Mr. DISRAELI had. Foreign politics interest
none of us so much as our own politics do ; and we
are therefore more ready to accept what is told us
in the former class of subjects than we are in the
latter. Thus it has come to pass that while Mr.
DISRAELI had to overcome tears and sullen
obstinacy in converting the great Conservative party
to rational views on Reform, Lord STANLEY
has found no resistance when converting them to
moderate views on foreign affairs. Step by step he
has led them on to accept non-intervention, arbitra-
tion, and, if we are not very much mistaken, he means
to carry them to " renunciation." Three years ago
they would, no doubt, have resisted the reference
of the Alabama claims to the decision of another
Sovereign. Now they consider it Lord STANLEY'S
greatest triumph. Washington and New York, once
the abodes of all that was detestable are now courted
and flattered and almost fawned upon in the per-
son of Mr. REVERDY JOHNSON, Mr. JOHNSON him-
self very eagerly returning the compliment.
But, as we have said, the lesson is not com-
plete yet. Lord STANLEY, it is said, is seriously
contemplating the cession of Gibraltar to
Spain. Now, there is no other single spot outside
England upon which so much English blood
has been spilt, and with whose retention English
honour has until now been so inseparably united. It
was but a few months ago that Professor BEESLY
was rebuked as an enthusiast, even in a Liberal
journal, for declaring that England was bound
by considerations of honour and justice, as well
as expediency, to surrender this stronghold.
Ind yet we have no doubt that, if Lord STANLEY
should remain in office, he will, during the coming
session, propose to yield up this much-prized trophy
of English victory and supremacy of the seas.
Could he have the support of England ? A month
ago and
,we should have said " No," if by England was
meant the electors. Now that the new Con-
stituencies have been created, and the old
ones enlarged, we are inclined to say " Yes."
We believe that the Liberal party would endorse
this policy as they have done Lord STANLEY'S policy
all the way through. They see well enough that it is
akin to their own policy, because they see that England's
greatness and England's strength consist not in the
multiplication of fortresses which guard nothing and
" keys " which open nothing, but in her reputation
as a just nation, willing to do right everywhere,
willing in this latter half of the nineteenth century
to make restoration for the wrong done in an age
when might prevailed over right.

LATEST INTELL IGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

GE L'

ATHENS, Nov. 21.

The Extraordinary Session of the Chamber of
Deputies has been opened to-day by the President
of the Council.

THE PACIFIC AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.
PLYMOUTH, Nov. 25, 9.30 a.m.

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's steamer
Neva, with the above mails, is new entering this
port.

PLYMOUTH, Nov. 25.

The Royal Mail Company's steamship Neva,
with the above mails, arrived this morning. She
brings 58 passengers, 93 sacks of mails, specie
valued £186,816, and 2,084 packages of cargo.
Twelve passengers and the mails were
landed here. The mails were forwarded
to London by special train at 11.30 a.m. Among
the passengers are Judge Chapman and lady, frora
Otago. Her dates are—Sydney, Oct. 2 ; Welling-
ton, 8 ; Valparaiso, 17 ; Callao, 25 ; Colon, Nov.
5 ; Jamaica, 9 ; and St. Thomas, 13.

RIOT AT BLAENAVON (MONMOUTHSHIRE).
The following telegram has been received in
London this morning
" Most serious riots last night. Town for some
hours in the hands of the mob. Military called
out. Riot Act read. Forty prisoners taken.
Great destruction of property in town. Order
now restored.