The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-22 00:00:00

taxes, if any, he was likely to remit, and as to what
reduction he conceived might be possible in

GLADSTONE is clearly open to conviction upon that
point ; and if we do not greatly mistake, we shall
see that measure receiving an amount of
support in the new Parliament which it has never
received before. These questions—and they arebut a few
of the many mentioned by the PREMIER—wouId be
enough for one session even though there were no such
matters as foreign affairs to be discussed. We
devoutly hope that these will not interfere with the
real work which Mr. GLADSTONE means to lay before
the House of Commons.

GUItILi S

the aggregate of the national expenditure.
Yesterday's speeches, in fact, at Greenwich, at the
University of London, at Birmingham, and. else-
where, were simply formal addresses from Ministers
of the Crown speaking in their representative capa-

city, and greeting their respective constituents.
"There are circumstances connected with Mr. GLAD-

_
STONE'S appearance before the electors of
Greenwich which naturally enough imparted a
peculiar interest to the occasion of his re-election
by them as their representatives. As is npt usually
the case, there was a sentiment between the consti-
tuency and the representative. During the turmoil
of the General Election, the electors of Greenwich
spontaneously, unasked, without a " with your leave
or by your leave," had chosen Mr. GLAD-
STONE as the colleague of their old member,
Alderman SALOMONS : instigated so to do through
a conjecture, through a fear, it should rather
be said, then very general among the Liberal
electors of the United Kingdom, lest the Leader
of the Liberal Party should be rejected—as in the
end the result proved him to be—by the consti-
tuency of South-West Lancashire. The forethought
was provident. Mr. GLADSTONE, discarded by his
native county, found the constituency of Green-
wich to have been, in his regard, faithful
among the faithless. Greenwich had not
only done him that good turn by elect-
ing him thus unasked, it had conferred an enor-
mous obligation upon the whole Liberal Party by
guarding it thus from the ludicrously anomalous posi-
tion in which it would have been placed had its
Leader been found to have been returned nowhere
to a seat in the very Parliament of which
his own followers formed the immense and
overwhelming majority. Talk of yeoman's service
—here it was ! And yeoman's service done with a
heart and a half, in the very nick of time, and with-
out its having been in any way solicited. It is a
memorable incident, and one which will always be
associated with the name of the Greenwich consti-
tuency. It has at once and permanently raised
its reputation among the great metropolitan con-
stituencies. And it is hardly probable that at any
future time Mr. GLADSTONE will be tempted to seek
elsewhere the suffrages of his fellow-countrymen.
The member for Newark, the member for the Uni-
versity of Oxford, the member for South Lancashire,
has settled down now permanently, we may pre-
sume, in the position of member for the borough of
Greenwich. In that position as M. P. for Green-
wich ho inaugurates his career as First Lord of
the Treasury. And as a husband is said to raise his
wife to his own social elevation, even though his posi-
tion happens to be of the lowliest, so may it be said
in regard to a great statesman, in respect to the
obscurest of constituencies. The obscurest, Green-
wich is not by any means : but, even supposing it to
have been so, its importance would at once have
been enormously increased by Mr. GLADSTONE'S
election and re-election, as its chosen representa-
tive. As to the relation in which Mr. BRIGHT
stands towards the constituency of Birmingham, it

LATEST INTELL MENGE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(Per the City of Antwerp, via Queenstown.)
NEW YORK, Dec. 12.
The Senate finally consented on Thursday to hear
the President's Message read.
The Senate continues the Committee charged
with the investigation into the alleged bribery and
corruption of the Senators during the Impeachment
trial. •

A resolution by Mr. Wilson, providing for negro
suffrage in all the States, has been introduced into
the Senate by Mr. Wilson, and has been referred to
the Judiciary Committee.
Tat cases, involving the constitutionality of the
Legal Tender and Reconstruction Acts, have been
brought before the Supreme Court.
It is rumoured that President Johnson, at the
request of Mr. Seward, has sent Mr. Caleb Cushing
to Spain, to open negotiations for the purchase of
Cuba.

It is reported that prominent repeal agitators in
Nova Scotia have been notified that the Canadian
Government will increase the Nova Scotia subsidy
50 per cent. if the repeal movement be abandoned.
Whelan has been respited until the 29th inst.

is simply absurd to speak of him as the least consi-
dered of its three Liberal representatives. He was
there the last upon the list in the recent contest sim-
ply and solely for safety's sake—so as to prevent the
hazard of one or other of his colleagues miss-
ing the chance of election with him. Fears were
entertained as to their election, none as to his—and
hence his name was at the bottom of the list
when the aggregate rolling was announced. Yes-
terday, however, he stood forth alone and unop-
posed for re-election, and, as was only fitting un-
der the circumstances, was so re-elected by acclama-
mation. Restored to their position as members of
Parliament, Ministers of the Crown may now de-
vote their time and attention undisturbed to the
preparation of the great measures, but more particu-
larly of the great measure with which in a few weeks
more they will have to meet in earnest, and for
genuine work, the recently elected Legislature.

IN the midst of pelting rain from murky clouds
that made darker than usual the darkest day in the
year the PRIME MINISTER of Great Britain was
re-elected by his new constituents. It is but four
weeks since Mr. GLADSTONE was, to use his own
expression, driven a vagrant from his native
county, amid the jubilant shouts of his
political opponents. In that short period he has
seen his opponents overthrown, and the rejected of
South-west Lancashire installed in Downing-street

leader of the nation. Mr. GLADSTONE'S position
is unprecedented. To be rejected by a great
constituency at the very time that he was being
chosen by the great majority of the nation, to be
called upon to form a Government without the usual
preliminary conflict in Parliament, to have to return
thanks to a constituency for re-election before he
had had the opportunity of returning thanks in
person for his first election, are circumstances so
strange that Mr. GLADSTONE might well be par-
doned for dwelling upon them at greater length than
he did. But the PRIME MINISTER cannot afford
much time for retrospect. He has his hands full,
his head full, his heart full, and out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh. It was not sur-
prising, therefore, that a considerable portion of his
speech should have been devoted to the Irish
Church. This is the most difficult question
which has been presented to statesmen for
many a generation. Other important measures
have taken far longer to pass than this is likely to
take; but a delay in their case arose from the reluc-
tance of Parliament to accept the principles which
they involved. It was easy enough to admit Roman
Catholics into Parliament, to abolish the Corn Laws
when once the country was resolved to do so. But,
while it took only a few days to persuade the nation
to disestablish the State Church in Ireland, the
details are so complicated that they will need
many months to elaborate, Under these circum-
stances it was not to be expected that Mr. GLAD-
STONE would give more than a general idea of his
policy on this intricate question. The nation knows
that he is determined to disestablish and partly dis
endow the Irish Church, that he has promised that
no part of the funds accruing shall be devoted to the
Roman Catholic Church ; and knowing these two
foundation principles, it can afford to wait
Mr. GLADSTONE'S time for raising the superstructure.
The nation is the more willing to do this because the
details must necessarily be somewhat dry, not to say
unintelligible, to a large number of persons.
But the Ministerial bill of fare is not confined to
one dish. If the Irish Church is the piece de resist-
ance, there are other dishes nearly as substantial.
Perhaps if the nation were polled it would be found
that it cares rather more for the reduction of
the estimates than for the reduction of ecclesiastical
establishments. The one was almost as prominent a
feature in the Liberal election programme as the
other, and Mr. GLADSTONE had the satisfaction of tel-
ling his constituents that already Ministers had begun
to retrench, and that the estimates would show the
result of their labours. Reduced estimates mean
reduced taxes, and so Mr. GLADSTONE'S information
is good news at this season, when most of us are
anticipating an influx of tradesmen's bills. On the
other subjects adverted to by Mr. GLADSTONE there
was one concerning which his rather ainbiguas votes
were significant by their very ambiguity. Mr. GLAD-
STONE announces that while he has always preferred
open voting he wished that the voters should be pro-
tected. But how if the two conditions are found
incompatible ? how if the late elections, with their
enormous pressure of squires and. clergy upon the
county voters have shewn that " protection" is essen-
tial, and can be secured only by secrecy? Mr.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 1868.

PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, MONDAY, December 21.

I regret to say that the bulletins of the Marquis de
Moustier's condition grow rapidly worse. The malady
from which he is suffering, disease of the heart, makes
such advances as to give rise to the gravest apprehensions
of the result.

His successor, the Marquis de Lavalette, has not
inherited a sinecure. The outbreak in the East is evi-
dently becoming a serious matter for Europe, as much
from the difficulty of securing joint action amongst the
Powers as from thebitterness of the quarrel between the two
principals. It is to France that the heavy work of
diplomacy must fall. Other Powers are hampered by
their well-known predilections for one or the other party.
The Western States alone are perfectly free, but the
Ministerial crisis in England has left the first place in
diplomatic action to France. M. de Lavalette has, it
is confidently reported, submitted to the other Cabinets
a scheme of action which is likely to settle the difficulty.
The new Foreign Minister is an indefatigable worker,
attending every day at the Ministry for a considerable
time. His policy is so decidedly pacific that the
appointment must be regarded as a demonstration in
favour of peace. He is especially disposed to a good under-
standing with Prussia.
Similar gratification can scarcely be expressed at the
appointment to the Ministry of the Interior. The
deposition of M. Pinard is beyond doubt a great
triumph for M. Rouher, who has put one of his
own partisans in his place ; but this change is by no means
to be accompanied by a. radical reform of internal policy.
M. Rouher believes in a restrictive Government ; what he
does not believe in is foolish restriction. He is determined,
for one thing, that the system of official candidatures
shall be applied with greater vigour than ever at the
forthcoming elections. An extreme exercise of the Im-
perial prerogative has signalised the advent to power of
the new Home Minister. It has been determined that
none of the various vacancies in the Corps Ltgislatif
shall be filled up until the general elections. This
means that several departments shall have no representa-
tives for six months. One of the vacancies is, of course,
that caused by M. Berryer. Here the Government would
certainly be defeatel, and it might sustain a check else-
where. It has, therefore, been decided to prevent all
this by the coup de main of holding no elections.
The net result of the change at the Home Office is, on the
whole, adverse to liberty. M. Pinard was, indeed, no
advocate of the freedom of the subject, but he was also no
friend to M. Rouher. Now that the Minister of State
adds the command of the Home Department to his
immense influence in the Corps L6gislatif, Imperialism
will gain strength in every department of Government.
There will be no power whatever in France, except that
centred in the Emperor and his lieutenant.
M. Gressier, the new Minister of Public Works, is a
barrister of great reputation.
The official announcement of the receptions of the
First of January has been published. The Emperor and
Empress have already exchanged visits with the King
and Queen of Spain.
Marseilles has not yet got rid of the great poisoning
case. The paramour of Madame Ville, the most notorious
of the offendors, has been pursued and mobbed in the
streets. He shaved off his beard in order to disguise him-
self, but he was recognised immediately, and mobbed
again. A hostile demonstration also greeted the two
women, Dye and Flayol. These two were acquitted, but
their part in the Gabriel tragedy was not of the most
creditable character.
Unjust suspicion may frequently impel people to
desperate deeds, but the suicide of a man and his wife
through the fear of suspicion is rather remarkable. A
tax-collector at Boussac has just committed suicide,
because, as he alleged, he apprehended the imputation of
having stolen three bags of silver money recently sent to
Boussac by the Strasburg Mint, and which are missing.
His wife refused to survive him. The honesty of neither
had in the slightest degree been called in question.

THE WEATHER TABLE.-THIS DAY,