The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-05 00:00:00

THEATRE-I:OVAL, OLYMPIC.

Tms EVT:SING, at 7, SLASHER &CRASHER: Messrs Atkins,
Vaughan. G. Vincent, fie.: Miss Lennox Grey and Mrs Caulfield.
After which, at 7.45, THE YELLOW PASSPORT : Messrs. H.
G. Vincent, E. Atkins. 11. Vau'glian, H. Conpor, and Ti
Wigan; Mesdames Furtado, Lennox Grey, and Caullleld

ROYALTY THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss M. Oliver.
Trrrs EVENING, at 7.30, ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT
COLD. To ho followed by THE RISE AND FALL OF
NICIIARD III.; or, A New Front to an Old Dicky: Mr. Dewar,
Mr. Danvers: Miss Collinson, and Miss M. Oliver. To con-
tlude with THE CLOCKMAKER'S HAT.

PRINCE OF WALES'S ROYAL THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss Marie Wilton

Tins EVENING, ATCEII! Messrs. Blakeley and Montague;
Misses Addison and A. Wilton. After which, SOCIETY : Messrs.
J. Clarke, Hare, H. J. Montague, Blakeley, Montgomery, and
Bancroft; Mrs. Buckingham White and Miss C. Addison.

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

ROT AL 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
SamwelPs Performing Dogs. Commence at 7.30.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLET 4,
Promenade Concert. Band of GO. Begin at 8. Is. Box-office
open from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex
cept Sundays). Admission, Is.; on Mondays, 6d.; Children
under twelve, 6d.

4,4,o4.teit*A

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 5, 1868.

Mr. GLADSTONE'S principal object will, of course,
be to form a strong Government. A host in himself,
he must not surround himself with a host of mediocri-
ties. The first guarantee against this is, as a matter of
course, the sweeping aside altogether of those old
used-up Whig Administrators of whom the world
was sick to very nausea long ago, men too utterly
insignificant individually to merit, even the
distinction of being enumerated. Those, at
least, we are at last, thank Heaven, well
rid of. But, while we aro rid of them, there are
other claimants for promotion to their vacant
places immediately surrounding the future Prime
Minister, his selection of whom as his colleagues
would be very serious matter for regret—simply, it
should be said at once, by reason of their comparative
insignificance. Precisely, however, because Mr. GLAD-
STONE is so vigorous and powerful an administrator
in himself, is it earnestly to be hoped, in the inte-
rests of the Crown and of the country, that he will
associate with himself in the Cabinet men of com-
manding ability, not mere political make-weights —the
pick of the foremost men, in fact, of what was yes-
terday the Opposition. Obviously a strong GLAD-
STONE Government would be one which would in-
clude in the same Cabinet such men of mark as the
following—under Mr. GLADSTONE'S Premiership—
Lord CLARENDON, Lord GRANVILLE, the Duke
of ARGYLL, Mr. CARDWELL, Mr. BRIGHT, Mr.
LOWE, MT. CHILDERS, Mr. W. E. FoRSTER
a Cabinet including in it, moreover, Sir ALEX-
ANDER COCKBURN (then, of course, Lord
COCKBURN) as Lord High Chancellor. There are
ten out of the fifteen names required to make up
the aggregate of the Cabinet— ten of the foremost
names of the Liberal Party. Others there are from
among whom the rest might be judiciously selected,
among them Lord KIMBERLEY, Lord I)UFFERIN, Mr.
GOSCIIEN, Mr. AYRTON---We were going to add Mr.
LAYA RD, only that Lis intollerable insolence of
temper, as so often evidenced in the House,
and as more recently and more shame-
fully manifested on the hustings in South-
wsrk, may be regarded as having in a mea-
sure shelved him. From names, such as those we
have just now enumerated, if Mr. GLADSTONE makes
a bold and discriminating selection, then but then
only, as we conceive, he may be deemed to have
constructed an administration worthy of him in its
intellectual strength andin its administrative capacity.

There is some talk however, of Lord ,Thstiee PAGE

Woon being pri•rnot7ql to the woolsack. That would
hardly strengtheu Arlui;ilibtratiou. It would
place an admirable equity lawyer in the position of
Chancellor, but it would secure but a feeble antago-
nist to the out-going Chancellor, Lord CAIRNS.
Whereas with a brilliant debater of commanding in-
tellect like the Lord Chief Justice of England, nomi-
nated as Lord CAIRNS' successor upon the woolsack,
the Liberal Cabinet might look with confidence to
the future in the Upper House in reference to
those momentous debates which are looming up
in that future in regard to the Irish Church, debates
in which Sir ROUNDELL PALMER, even if raised to the
peerage as is proposed, can in no way participate in
the House of Lords to the advantage of the Go-
vernment. With a Chancellor like COCKBURN and
a Chancellor of the Exchequer like CHILDERS, and a
Colonial Secretary like FORSTER, and a Minister
of Elucation (in the future) like LOWE, and an In-
dian Secretary like BRIGHT, and a Home Secretary
like CARDWELL, and a President of the Council like
GRANVILLE, with COLERIDGE as Attorney-General
with either Lord KIMBERLEY or Lord DUFFERIN as
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and so on—with the
offices of State thus distributed, or distributed at any
rate somewhat after that fashion, the Premier elect
would find himself surrounded by statesmen and ad-
ministrators qualified to co-operate with him in the
weighty responsibility of carrying on at this junc-
ture the affairs of the QUEEN'S Government. If, on
the other hand, the lesser names that are many
of them now in people's mouths are really the names
of those likely to constitute the majority of the
occupants of seats in Mr. GLADSTONE'S Cabinet, the
incoming Premier will be regarded as having, in
some measure, weakened the otherwise enormous
strength of his position, certainly as having to
a considerable extent foregone a magnificent
opportunity. What the Liberal party wants now for
its Cabinet is—a great man, not surrounded with medio-
crities, but clustered about with the ablest intellects,
the most vigorous administrators, the foremost chiefs
selected from the very front rank of what is still
numerically the weaker side in the Lords, but
the immense majority in the House of Commons.
Let the lesser names be introduced in place of those,
and we may almost as well have at once a Cabinet
made up once more of the old worn-out materials
—of such mere political nobodies as Lord HALIFAX
and Lord STANLEY Of ALDERLEY.

THE intelligence from New Zealand grows more
and more gloomy. It is unsatisfactory enough to
find, after several years of conflict with the native
race that our position remains very much where it
was at the beginning of the outbreak. If the
colony has not retrograded in its relations with
the Maoris, it has certainly not progressed ; the
chance of a settlement with that warlike people is as
remote as ever. But the gravity of the situation is
greatly increased by the fact that the recent disasters
are not due to accident or unforeseen causes, but are
the direct result of mismanagement. There
can no longer be any doubt that the
disgrace which has befallen the colony is
largely owing to errors both of design and
execution, to the inadequacy of the means at the
disposal of the authorities, and the unskilfulness
with which they were put into operation. The task
of keeping down the Maoris is one of great diffi-
culty; but of this the Colonial Government was
fully aware, and ought to have been prepared
accordingly. The war which employed the Imperial
troops so long resulted at last in the accumulation in
the islands of no less than ten thousand soldiers. As
the entire native population numbers not more than
forty thousand, and as the colonists themselves bear
a proportion to the Maoris of five to one, this army
was preposterously large. But it is not the less evi-
dent that the force which the authorities have kept
in hand is altogether too small. The onus of pro-
tecting the colony was recently thrown upon the
colonists themselves, and the troops were withdrawn.
The result was very significant. So long as the
English taxpayer was willing to pay the cost of
defending New Zealand, ten thousand soldiers—who
were not unprofitable residents—were not too many;
but when the local Legislature had to find the money,
a wretchedly equipped detachment of two or three
hundred inexperienced recruits was deemed sufficient.
It is not surprising that such a body, ill-disciplined
and badly led, has been signally beaten in the
woods of New Zealand, that the natives have gained
a material and moral triumph, and are making the
most of it.

This is by no means the only shortcoming of the
local arrangements. If the vice of intemperance is
not rampant throughout the colony, there is too
much reason to believe that it is unusually prevalent
amongst those who ought to have been the guardians
of the public safety. The information furnished on
this subject is extraordinary, but too precise and well
authenticated to be incorrect. Not only has drunken-
ness been very common in the New Zealand " army,"
but it has largely prevailed amongst the officers, and
some of the couriers charged with the important
duty of transmitting despatches have been stopped
on their journey by intoxication. The primary cause
of this last outbreak was the escape from the Chatham
Islands of a large number of Maori convicts. This
escape was effected with great skill, and, be it said to
the credit of the natives, with no violation on their
part of the laws of humanity. It now transpires
that the convict establishment at the Chatham
Islands is under the care of twenty-eight constables,
and that there are two public-houses in the place,
each of which does a " roaring business." The
number of regular customers necessary to support a
public-house may best be estimated by those who
keep them, but fourteen individuals must do some
tolerably hard drinking in order to secure the
prosperity of a house which has no other rescources
whatever. It is not stated that the constables were
all drunk when the prisoners escaped ; but it is-
affirmed that the success of the attempt was owing to
the negligence of the police. These details are suffi-
cient to point out, the causes to which the recent re-
verses are to be attributed. The authorities have notkept
up a force in any respect equal to defending the
property of the colony, and they have not exercised
sufficient care in choosing the men to whom this
important duty should be entrusted. The love, or
the want, of money seems to have been the root of
all the evil. The Government could not, or would
not, pay for a sufficient force, and it did not suffi-
ciently remunerate each individual. The wages
paid were so low that only the scum of the
colony could be found to undertake its defence.
The authorities have saved their money. But in
the recent battle they lost the lives of several valu-
able officers; part of the territory has been handed
over to the natives—conquered, in fact ; and much
valuable property has been destroyed. This is not
economy.

THE hesitation of the Reform League to testify
their admiration of America through a medium so
" tainted " and generally unsuitable as Mr. REVERDY
JOHNSON is not very important. But it is unfor-
tunate, on the eve of the settlement of a great
difficulty, and at a time when the relations between
England and America have assumed so promising
an aspect, that Mr. REVERDY JOHNSON'S conduct
should have caused so much dissatisfaction in
America. That the dissatisfaction is great and
general cannot be doubted. That it may lead to
unfortunate results is much to be feared. The
.merican press is, almost without exception, engaged
in crying down the policy of their Ambassador, and
even his recall is said to have been decided
upon. Such an extreme course can scarcely be
justified by the evidence against Mr. JOHNSON. The
people of the United States are best able to decide
for themselves on this matter; but there is an Eng-
lish as well as an American side to the question,