The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-23 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Duke of Montpensier has not improved his
prospects by his inconsiderate action in reference to the
Cadiz revolt. He has lost ground in public opinion, and
of the thirty-four journals in Madrid, only four, including
the Correspondencia, now advocate his candidature. The
cause of the Republicans, whatever may be its chances at
present, is not likely to languish through the want of
encouragement from without. Kossuth has followed the
example of Garibaldi, Mazzini, Victor Hugo, and many
others, and has written a letter to the Republican
Committee, urging them not to neglect the present
opportunity.

The electoral campaign gives promise of drawing forth
all the dormant energy of the Spanish race. Canvassing
and speech-making have already begun in earnest. In the
province of Toledo there are 120 candidates for four
stpats !

MOTIVISZ.
Sir John Duke Coleridge has been giving spiteful
writers a severe lashing. The eloquent Solicitor-
General can put his anger into words, such words as
must be anything but pleasant to the ears of those
for whom they are meant. At Exeter the other day
Sir John said there were writers in that city and
elsewhere who find malice pleasant and slander pro-
fitable, whose hatred is so low, so mean, so base, and
yet so inveterate, that one looks at them not so much
with utter scorn as with a sort of wonder at the
curious but somewhat unpleasant exhibition of
human nature which their conduct presents.
They first reviled him for refusing office and
then for accepting it, and discovered the basest
and most selfish motives for both courses. He
observed that they had to make their living by these
things, and he hoped they did make their living. We
had hoped this system of attributing base motives
was now going out of fashion, and that each party
were about to fight with the recognised weapons of
civilised warfare. It is quite admissible to charge a
statesman with ruining his country, launching her
into a war, getting her into hopeless debt, or destroy-
ing her constitution, but it should always be under-
stood that he does it with the best intentions.
THE BUDGET.
A new Chancellor of the Exchequer; the estimates
unprepared, and each department of the services, to
say the least, in an unsettled state; Ministers hardly
settled down—and yet our contemporaries have begun
to speculate on Mr. Lowe's Budget. One paper has
published a statement of the extravagance of the late
Government, &c., ending in the story of a bad first
Budget with " better luck next time.' But on the
authority of some one "in official quarters " several
other papers contradict these stories. Mr. Lowe is going,
according to this account, to have a surplus
in hand. Some £3,000,000 will be struck out of the
estimates. Two millions are to be struck out in a
lump by the reduction of every regiment by one
company ; and, altogether we are going on just as Mr.
Lowe anticipated at the Fishmongers' dinner. If he
should succeed in removing all taxation, &c., what a
happy time of it England will soon have !

THE COMPTROLLERSHIP OF THE HOUSEHOLD.
The Post announces, in contradiction of several
mis-statements, that Lord Otho Fitzgerald, M.P. for
Kildare, has been appointed Comptroller of the
Household.