The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-30 00:00:00

THE CANADIAN DOMINION.

The negotiations for the incorporation of the Hudson's
Bay Territory in the new Canadian Dominion are not
in a promising condition. All that is required to transfer
this vast tract of country is the payment of a
money compensation to the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, but this is by no means likely to be made.
The Canadians doubt the title of the company to the
territory, and, further, have no funds at disposal. The
Canadian News is in a position to state that the expecta-
tion that any money will now be paid by the Government
of Canada may be at once abandoned, and an announce.
ment to this effect will most likely be forthwith made.

TIIE CANAL ACROSS THE PANAMA ISTHMUS.
A letter in the Standard draws attention to a considera-
tion of much importance in connection with the canal to
be constructed across the Darien Isthmus. He says that
the "Washington Government has endeavoured to obtain
from the Columbian Government powers to construct and
to keep possession of the canal, fortifying the entrances
under certain conditions. Is this true? If it is, such a
bargain cannot fail, as the writer says, to provoke tl •
distrust of all maritime nations.

MR. .AIILNER GIBSON AT A51170,.V.

MANCHESTER, Thursday Evening.

Mr. Thomas Milner Gibson met this evening the
new portion of the constituency of Ashton com-
prised in the township of Hurst, and was most en-
thusiastically received by a crowded meeting; Mr.
Oldham Whittaker presided.
Mr. GIBSON said some doubt had been attempted
to be thrown upon which party in the House of
Commons the people were indebted for the new
Reform Act and the extension of the franchise to
the great body of the people. They were all well
aware that the Government of Lord Russell intro-
duced a very moderate measure of Reform, but
which many thought to be a much larger mea-
sure than ought to be carried, and was termed
by the Conservatives a measure which would
tend to Americanise our institutions, and was
calculated to turn England into a Republic.
The bill was defeated, and Lord Derby's Go-
vernment came into power, professing to resist
the tide of Democracy and put an end to all
progress. They had not been in power long before
they found that they must do something to
extend, and, as Mr. Disraeli phrased it, degrade
the franchise. They underto A to settle the ques-
tion of Reform, and he gave them credit for it. He
admitted they had a difficult task to educate their
party and to allay their fears while endeavouring to
satisfy the country. Mr. Disraeli had to satisfy
two parties—the Liberals that something real was
about to be accomplished in the form of household
suffrage, and the Conservatives; and thus, by means
of checks and counterpoises, the apparent exertims
of the power of the people would be defeated. The
first of these counterpoises was to give certain men
of property two votes, while working meu had one ;
the next was that the new voters were to have had
two years' residence in their houses before becoming
entitled to the suffrage; and the third was that no
person was to have a vote if his landlord paid the
taxes. There was little doubt that if these had
been carried, the Reform Act would have been of
doubtful value. But who got rid of these
checks which were intended to defraud the work-
ing man? There could be no doubt the credit
belonged to the Liberal party. (Cheers.) He
c mfessed he thought the time was come when we
ought to put aside this question as to ratepaying,
and he would like to see the Reform Act sup-
plemented by the ballot. (Cheers.) The 1 anger he
lived the more he was convinced that in a country
like England, where people were so afraid of offend-
ing their neighbours, and wished to live at peace
with them—where there was so much social caste—
the protection of the ballot was necessary. Nothing
would tend so much in Ireland, where land was
held under a yearly tenancy, and the landlord
pulled one way and the priest another, to put the
tenant at his ease as vote by ballot. Rdlot would
give freedom and power to those who who had the
franchise, and if they ought not to possess it then
our policy had been wrong in giving it. (Hear.)
A good deal bad been said about the public expcu-
ditnre. It was claimed that the Whigs were quite
as extravagant in that department as the Tories.
Going back over a period of 50 to 100 years—he
confessed he could not speak with confidence, but
he could speak limiting retrospect to a reasonably
limited period, because he had been a member of
the Liberal Governments and knew what they did
during the time they were in office, and he did
know that there never was a man more earnest
and determined to reduce the expenditure of the
country than Mr. Gladstone was as Chancellor of
the Exchequer. (Cheers.) His exertions were
not very popular with the Departments, but dur-
ing the period he held office, some five or six years,
he did reduce the permanent expenditure by some-
thing like more than £3,000 per annum. But for
that he could not have repealed such duties as that
on paper (upwards of a million), and reduced the
duty on wine and other articles. And yet no one
could say that the naval and military services were
not as efficient as at any time during the war. It
was to be regretted that in so short a time es the
present Government had been in office the whole of
this expenditure had been reimposed. But he must
say that lie thought nothing effective could be done
in relation to real economy in the national expen-
diture unless we were prepared to encounter the
question of the great magnitude of our military and
naval armaments. He W 33 not exactly a Qtaker ;
he knew, as the world was now constituted, we had
not arrived at the period when we could trust to the
forly,arened of everybody, and leave the interests of
the country undefended ; but there was a limit that
ought to be obserVed in times of pelc.L lie be-
lieved, not only in England, but throughout Europe,
the opinion was gaining ground that the enormous
military and naval armaments maintained were un-
necessary ; that they were oppressive and ought to
be diminished. (Cheers.) lie believed that sen-
timent was Gaininh
g ground in Feance; ati,.l ,ill
through Europe ;
Ley were nor, owi,ig t , the wish
of the people, but were m.tiAlainel t!!ro,tg,i the
power acquired by tue In litany elases in toe -%sa.i-
Qu6 GOverumuto. Ile found Mr. Disraeli in 1.851

protesting against these enormous armaments, and
most recently Lord Stanley saying the policy of
England was a policy of peace. But why could
not some step be taken with a view to mutual re-
duction of armaments ? The main expenditure of
this country was upon the army and navy, and it
was his firm belief that unless the electoral body
took the matter in hand themselves, so great was
the ascendency of the military power in the con-
trol of the Departments, no military reduction would
be effected. The success of such an attempt would
depend upon the foundation of public opinion, and
he hoped that Ashton would not be backward in
supporting the great cause of retrenchment, be-
cause if any community had an interest in peace
and retrenchment it was this town. 'The hon.
gentleman concluded with some remarks on educa-
tion, and referred to the advantages secured by the
repeal of the newspaper stamp and paper duties.
He was enthusiastically cheered, and a vote of con-
( fidence in him was carried by the meeting.

NO DERBY .NEX7 YEAR.

,0,--- -

" I lelieve it because it is impossible," wrote a
defiant disputant of old ; and it is only on that
principle that we can give any credence to the ter-
rible report that there will be "no Derby next
year." We feel what a shock it must be to every
well-regulated mind even to real these words ; and
we should be loth to circulate such peculiarly pain-
ful intelligence, had not a sporting contemporary
already broken the news. It is asserted that the
part of the Derby course which extends from Tat-

tmliam Corner to the furzes is now the property o

a Mr. Studd ; that he demands a thousand a year
for it, instead of the three hundred a year obtained

by the former owner ; that the Grand Stand Com-
mittee rejected the demand, believing that they
could make a new course; that they now find out

they cannot; and that Mr. Stull, incensed at
the quarrel, declares that, "no matter what terms
they offer," there shall be no racing on his

grounds. As most people know, the entries for
the Derby are made long before the event, and the

conditions precisely specify the very course which
is now Mr. Studd's property; the race could not
be run elsewhere; and all the arrangements for the
Derby of 1869 would be null and void—entries
bets, and all—should the landowner refuse to
give way. In fact, there could be no Derby next
year! But, as we have said, the tiling is impos-
sible. As Mr. Pickwick remarked, when he and
his friends were forced to lead about the country
a raw-boned white horse, " This is like a horrible
dream." But there are dreams that, even when
we know them to be such, leave a painful impres-

sion ; and the bare thought that in any year there
may be " no Derby" is really too much for ordi-
nary human nerves. We might as well be told
that there is to be no sunrise next Moaday, or
no Wednesday next week. To liken it to "no
daily papers" were feeble ; for there are several
parts of the world, even of England, where,
strange to say, the people live on after a fashion
without the morning journals. But no Derby !
Nero wished that all mankind had one neck ;

and if Mr. Studd be an unrelenting enemy of the
human race, he must rejoice to find that so many
millions of the English people have one amusement.
and that he can stop it at a word. Savage tribes
believe in the power of their medicine-man to bring
on an eclipse ; but here, through the combination
of legal rights with . some committee blundering,
the eclipsing power rests in Mr. Studd's hands,
so that he can " throw several families into mourn-
ing," and " eclipse the harmless gaiety of a nation,"
sin.ply by refusing to let his land. We suppose
that he has the legal power ; but is not the safety
of the people the supreme law, and are the English
people " safe" if enraged at such a calamity, un-
precedented in the history of the world ? The worst
Roman Emperors never dared to curtail the circenses

of the populace. Senators or patricians might be
cut off, but the games for the masses went gaily
on; yet what a Caesar could not do is done by a
plain Englishman, who tells us that his foot is on
his Epsom Heath, and that his name is Stull. In
the courts of the United States writs of error are
sued out in the form of " Hiram and Jenks against
fhe People ;" and this Derby case is simply a suit
of "Stull against the People of England"—twenty
millions to one against Stuld, and yet that awful
outsider may win. _ _

It is very difficult to realise a No Derby year.
It would take a five-hundred Frith power to
paint the results of the n ttional holiday on
such a day. But, like Sterne, taking one cap-
tive to illustrate slavery, let us take a single
jockey, and imagine the blight falling on his
young life, when he hears that the Derby is to be
run no more. No more for him the dear delight
of being the familiar of Dukes, Marquises, Earls,
and, greater still, trainers of valued studs. No
more for him unlimited adoration, champagne in
tropical showers from titled friends proud of his
friendship, and cigars, bigger than himself, from
generous young " swells." Think, also, of the
humbler stableboya, whose few ideas run round
Derbies alone, who—as Churchmen date Sundays
before or after Trinity—fix events as before or after
the Derby of each year, and look to the fateful
Wednesday as the central day of the thre_! hundred
and sixty-five. But the Derby, as we all know, is
not the holiday of any one class. Men who never
devote a thought or a shilling to another race yield
to the national frolic or mania on that great day,
and stake something or other on the result. On that
day Englishmen speak to one another without being
introduced. On that day a costermonger and a
Duke have a fellow feeling ; a beggar might, unre-
baked, ask a banker the tidings of the hour. In
every club and public-house, at every street corner
of every town, in every theatre and coue,rt ball,
in railway carriages, omnibuses, and cabs, the
Derby becomes the event of the year, and when it
is run the result is the news of the day. Fancy,
then, the change 1 All this central interest
crowding round one day and round one event,
would be completely gone. Imagine London not
poured out of town in a long parti-coloured stream
—a hundred thousand human beings with one goal
in view—but doomed to stay at home. Gloomy
groups stand about discussing the disaster, as if the
earth had opened out to swallow up the national
holiday. Fancy the Epso:n road, with its desola-
tion and alarming, amazing silence. Fancy all the
female inhabitants of all the villas and all the
boarding-schools looking out of windows like Sis-
ter Anne to see if anybody is coming, and not dis-
cerning the habitual clouds of dust—the poor girls
with repartees ready for the jokers who do not come
with bright killing glances, and nobody eager to
be killed. The thought is too much.
Let us suppose, on next "Derby" day, Studd, in
a brown study, alone, rejoicing over his decision ;
Epsom silent and neglected ; and then, companion
picture, the people of England in anger and in
gloom 1 We do tot believe in the being who could
face such a fact—" There's no such man." Could
he calmly "lay his head on his pillow,' like a jury-
man, and hear in fancy the chorus of condemna-
tion from the enraged Britons cheated out of their
day ? Could he, unmoved, see in his mind's eye
the teats that trickle down the lovely cheeks of
those deprived of that ‘• litJe trip" which they had
been promised so long? Could he face unflinch-
ingly the possibility of a deputation of co3ter-
mongErs coming to hear what lie had to say in
extenuation of his unprecedented crime. But we
have no fear that extra legal means will be
necessary. After all Studil must be, tn•-ist pro-
bably is, human. Children have climed his knees
---at least we hope so ; he has " sat at good men's
feast's ;" lie may have had his troubles like the rest
of us, but they cannot have altogether soured his
disposition. The Grand Stand Committee may have
offended him ; but what crime have we—the people
of England—committed, that he should hate us with
such a deadly hate? What shall we do to appease
him Would he like to be " Marquis, Duke, per-
haps Lord Mayor"—Governor-General of India, a
Life rem ? lie has but to name his terins, and
sooner than lose the Derby we will grant anything
be asks. Of course, like Erostratus setting fire ti
the Temple of Diana, he may covet the immortal
•i fame hat u ou!d surely await the destroyer of the
D by ; eut i:• is bett.T for Stull us be reineinber,cl
wit 4 laimeings than to go down---down very low—

to posterity with execrations vented in every Eng-
lish dialect from all classes, occupations, and ranks,
and consoled only by the consideration that he could
never do anything worse, for " nothing could he to
damnation add greater than that."—Telegt aph.