The Sun. — London, England, 1869-01-15 00:00:00

ETTRIVOP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. The' Times Inakes some observations on the stringency of the law in respect to election petitions, and declares that already we are beginning to understand some of the perils which beset the cause of those who are engaged either in prosecuting or resisting them. To insist that petitions should not be filed without particulars would be to prevent many of them from being filed at all. Again, it is certain that, if the names of witnesses on behalf of the petition were known from the first, they would be fre quently tampered with before the trial. Even under exist ing arrangements it is snrprising what care is neces sary to watch the witnesses, to separate them from their associates, and sometimes to remove them from their town, and place them in secrecy till the day of bearing. It is not uncommon, after a contested election which has given rise to a petition, to hear of persons " spirited away," or of sudden mysterious emigrations to distant parts of England er even to the Colonies. People who have secured an elec tion by purchasing votes are not likely to stick at tamper. ing with witnesses to a petition which is designed to upset it. So strongly were these considerations felt, that accord. ing to the old practice before the committees of the House, no particulars were ever lodged at all. The first and only notice of the specific charges was made in the opening speech of counsel for the petitioner. This, we think, was a clear hardship upon the respondent, and it is satisfactory that Mr. Justice Willes has inaugurated a more lenient practice. The Court of Common Pleas declined to modify the practice any further, and in doing so they showed, in our opinion, a wise discretion. The objection that the respon dent is likely to suffer from so short a notice would be irresistible if it were founded on fact. But the court has full power to postpone the trial of an election petition, and, as a matter of course, would exercise that power upon being satisfied that the respondent had not had sufficient opportunity to prepare his defence. The Post thinks that the recent decision of the Judicial Committee has not been all that it might have been, and has tended to make confusion worse confounded. Persons desiring to keep to the law laid down, will be puzzled to hear its definitions and cannot fail to make mistakes with all their efforts to do right. Never was a judgment so impracticable. It has, indeed, declared the law on the points raised, but it has shown that the Church of England is utterly without any really practicable rule for the per formance of public worship. The eyes of the Church must surelynowbe opened to th edisad vantage of ambiguousformu laries without anyadequate interpreting authority. If men go every one his own way—if the Act of - Uniformity be a thing impossible of performance, the reason must be found in the uncertain sound which the Church's own trumpet gives, and in the refusal of the law to allow the only interpreting voice—that of usage—to have any effect in dispelling that uncertainty. We are only at the begin ning of a great strife, and we write in deprecation of angry passions. Let the voice of reason and charity and mutal concession be heard, and all may yet be well. But if once passion and party spirit be enlisted in the struggle, evil in many dire forms must result. With regard to the great meeting of the Ritualists on Tuesday, nothing that passed there shakes the truth of what we have said. The ritualists have shown less spirit of resistance than might have been expected. They evidently mean, for the most part, to obey the law, though under protest. It remains to be seen what the Evangelical party will do. But one thing is certain, that on the principle laid down it cannot be tolerated that one party be bound hand and foot to the letter of the law, and the other be left at liberty to infringe it both in letter and spirit. The Herald remarks upon the opening of the National Association as the latest thing out in Irish politics. The reports of the meeting in the principal Dublin organs of the Liberal party give a list of seventeen persons, including the chairman, as attending on this solemn occasion. Of these, eight were Roman Catholic clergymen and one was a Liberal Protestant, whose eloquence seems to have fallen coldly on the audience. Another member was a noted orator from the Dublin corporation, and the remain ing seven were quite unknown to fame. But absurd as this assembly looks, its proceedings and history throw some light on Irish politics. Though the number attending was so small, the association includes, we are assured, many members of Parliament, and amongst the letters read were lengthened addresses of encouragement from Cardinal Cullen and from other Roman Catholic bishops. Whatever this association may be in reality, it is put for ward as the chief political organisation of the Irish Liberal party. That it has not much strength of its own is appa rent at a glance. It appears from the letters read that the association has been complaining of a deficiency of subscrip tions ; and it was evident, both from the names of those present, and from these letters, that the association chiefly existed because it was found by the guides of the Radical party in Ireland, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, to be an indispensable part of their political organisation. The Star Holds that there is a time for all things, and this is the time for revising the police system of London ; but it does not follow that this is the time for introducing a vast system of surveillance, and for making the police responsible for the way of life of all thieves at large. The two subjects are distinct, and each is large enough to give full scope for separate treatment. In fact, they cannot without disadvantage be coupled in one agitation or elucidated in one discussion. The treatment of the per manent criminal classes, if they are to have any treat ment beyond effectual punishment when convicted of crimes, is a question for Parliament. The police system of the metropolis is mainly a question for London. There is a general desire that the old plans should not be continued. There is dissatisfaction with the local efficiency of the police and with the lack of local control. There are objections to the centralised discipline of the force. There i 4 a feeling that protectively the police are sleepy, and that detectively they are stupid. Moreover, there is great impatience at the military air and aspect which the organi sation has for some time increasingly borne. This has arisen partly from misdirected zeal at Scotland-yard, which has fostered drill at the expense of individual sagacity and alertness. But it has also been encouraged by the growing tendency to make the Chief Commissioner a sort of prefect of police—an officer wholly incongruous with our institutions, and with the spirit alike of the Government and community. Whatever else is over hauled at this opportune moment, this must not be for gotten. It must be clearly understood that we have no Prefect of Police, and that whatever resemblance to that office necessarily attaches to the Chief Commissionership ought to be got rid of. A full parliamentary inquiry ought to take place before the new Commissioner is ap pointed, and by its results the people of London would be content for the present to be bound. The Telegraph takes a retrospective glance at the history of the police force, and recalls the fact that the extreme Liberal party were much opposed to the scheme introduced by Sir Robert Peel. After dwelling upon the faults and failures of the system, it declares that a great deal will depend upon the character of Sir R. Mayne's successor. When we have a new Chief Commissioner of Police, we shall begin to see our way towards making the police system more efficient, and the constables more serviceable. Once more we repeat what we have so frequently asserted of late. The new Chief of Police must not be a military man. We do not want any gallant officer, on full or half pay, or retired ; of great experience in the East, or the Antipodes, or elsewhere, and yet know ing considerably less about the criminal population of London than a London " street Arab " knows of the Arabic language. We do not want an upright but opinionated martinet, stiff with parade-ground inflexibility, crammed with orderly-room traditions. We don't want Lieutenant-Colonel Anybody. Nor should the throne of Scotland-yard be offered to any mere red-tape bureaucrat, any fervid doctrinaire. What we require is at once an educated, thoughtful, and high-minded gentleman, and a shrewd man of the world ; a thorough police-lawyer, with ability, culture, experience of London rascality and London misery, and versed in the ways, not only of criminals, but of constables. On such a gen tleman it would not be so difficult, we should say, for Mr. Bruce to lay his hand. But this is not all. The change in Scotland•yard should be thorough. The present Assistant• Commissioners have every possible meed of recognition for their past services, and the country is fully prepared to make every requisite acknowledgment. Tt is time, h owever, that they should be relegated to the honourable retirement which they have so fully earned ; and that their place should be taken by a young, active, and vigorous man, who can direct, organise, and reform— who can not only look after the discipline of a civilian army of eight thousand men, but bestow some thought on their mlterial comforts and their moral well-being. The Doily News comments upon the recent proeeedings at the trial at Portsmouth, and thinks that the public is not likely to understand all the facts of the case, but two or three points are quite evident. The trial was an inci dent of a quarrel which began over the wreck itself. The prosecution was evidently a mistake, and the wise course would have been to have settled the dispute without bringing it before the public. But there were more pas• sions than interests involved, and where there is passion there are always complications, amid which all interests public cannot be expected to understand the di Muted questions as to salvage and jurisdiction out of which qtiarrels rose. But what they can under- Ftand is • that one of cur mast cherished ser vices has , had• its fair fame challenged, and that in 63 result that . fair farm; is vindicated. The accusation against Captain Wilm,hurst struck at the character of the British navy. His honourable acquittal vindicates that character. Had he been guilty, the service would have received another and less satisfactory vindication. 7 he British people are proud of the men to whom they entrust the honour of their flag. Their honour is the honour of the nation, and they must be, like Cresar's wife, above suspicion. It is our national boast that where ever the flag waves or the uniform is seen right and justice have a representative in the world ; and though the boast is one which cannot always be justified, it marks out the ideal towards which the national aspirations tend—an ideal which inspires the best and noblest of our public servants, and from them spreads a--sentiment of hollow down to the humblest rpailis . . . DESTRUCTION OF A GLASGOW THEATRE BY FIRE. We (North British Mail) regret to nave to record the total destruction by fire of the Prince of Wales Theatre. It is situated at the junction of Main-street, Cowcaddens, and Stewart-street, the front entrance facing the Esta blished Normal Seminary. At a quarter past eleven o'clock, at the conclusion of the performance of the pantomime, the audience was dismissed. Nothing was then observed to be wrung, but about five minutes after twelve this (Thursday) morning some persons in the street gave the alarm that the theatre was on fire, flames coming from the roof above the gallery and that part of the stage nearest to Stewart-street. The lieutenant on duty in the Northern Police-office telegraphed the news tc the central brigade station, but ere the firemen had reached the scene of the fire the flames had got complete mastery over the building. Tinder such circumstances, and considering the inflammable nature of the materials the fire had to work upon, the roof soon fell in. It was not till near three o'clock that the flames had subsided. The.fire did not cease raging till it had burned up every thing that was combustible. It is impossible to state at present the precise extent of the loss; but so far as we can learn the building was insured by the proprietor, Mr. Hannay. Mr. Davis is insured for £2,000 ; but the value of his scenery and other properties is estimated at £B,OOO, so that his loss is £6,000. lie was a spectator of the fire, and seemed so beside himself with excitement as at times to place himself in personal danger. This is the fifth theatre in Glasgow which has been destroyed by fire. The Prince of Wales Theatre, which was opened on the 3rd August, 1867, was built on the site of the Old Colos seum, in Stewart and Cowcaddens streets. It had a neat but unpretending appearance. The gallery was seated fur 1,000, pit and stalls for 1,600, while in the boxes sitting room was provided for 700. THE HAYDOCK COLLIERY EXPLOSION. The proposal to amalgamate the funds which are being raised for the relief of the sufferers by the several colliery explosions which have occurred in the neighbourhood of Wigan meets with general favour, and a meeting is to be held at Wigan to consider the subject. The charitable in the neighbourhood of Haydock met in that township on Tuesday afternoon, when a sum of £BOO was promptly subscribed, to be handed over to the general fund, should such be formed, and if not, to be appropriated solely to the relief of the distressed in that township. One-half of this £BOO was given by the proprietors, and £2OO by Mr. W. J. Legh, M.P. The inquest on the bodies of the twenty-six deceased was resumed at the Ram's Head Inn, Haydock, on Thursday, before Mr. Driffield, district coroner. The first witness called was Hugh Arnold, the only survivor of the twenty-seven workmen who were employed in the part of the workings where the explosion occurred. He could, however, tell little about the acci dent. He felt the suck, and then he ran till he was overpowered by the choke-damp. He remem bered nothing more till a week afterwards. Joseph Marsh was the next witness called. He worked in a place next to that of his brother, John Marsh, whose shot is believed by most persons hitherto called to have ignited the gas. Joseph did not go round the pit that morning as he was ill, and so far as the evidence of the exploring party goes, the indications in the spot where he ought to have been working went to prove that the gas had come from there. It had come from a fault, and a hole there which would have been examined by the witness when he went to work on the Thursday before the explo sion had not afterwards been looked to by him, although he had fired a shot on each of the three subsequent days. The coroner pointed out to Marsh the danger he had incurred. Mr. Higson, the Government inspector, reprimanded him for his omission. The coroner said it appeared from the witness's statement that he had not been told anything about the gas at this hole by those in authority, although he was a new man, and had only worked three days in the pit. They could not say, therefore, that any blame attached to him, although he might have caused the explosion on the day before. The evidence was valuable, as it shewed the want of instructions from his superiors. The underlooker, Isaac Billinger, was again called, and re-stated his opinion that the deceased fireman Greenall was a trust worthy man. He could not, however, explain how it was Greenall or his deputy did not take Marsh to his work on the morning when he went first. The jury returned a verdict of " Death by explosion of fire-damp at John Marsh's blow-out shot ; but whether there has been an accumulation of gas or a sudden outburst, there is no evidence to show." LAW AND POLICE. A PAIN= CASE. —Mrs. Lumley, the lady whose case excited so much interest some time since, when she was brought up in a police - court on a charge of bigamy, was tried on Thursday at the Central Criminal Court. It appenrs that she married her first husband, who was a French teacher at Jersey, in 1837, when she was quite a girl, and it was stated that he had a false name and was a felon. It was contended on the part of the prisoner that the marriage was illegal, but the jury found the prisoner guilty. As her counsel raised some legal questions in her favour, she was admitted to bail pending the decision. INC E NIOUS FRAUD. —At the Marlborough-street Police court two gilders were charged with marking electrotyped copper with the silver ball-mark. The articles which they thus skilfully marked were pledged as real silver. They were committed for trial. THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION.—A charge of assault was on Thursday preferred at the Westminster Police court founded on a system which seems to be at work for getting up a case against Mr. Smith. Remuneration for confessions was said to be the order of the day. WARREN'S BLACKING.— At the Court of Chancery, on Thursday, an appeal was beard in reference to the case of Mr. Pentelow, who applied last July for ten shares in Warren's Blacking Company, and paid the necessary deposit, Afterwards he declined to take up the shares, and asked for a return of the deposit. When the company was wound up, Mr. Pentelow applied for the removal of his name from the list of contributories. Vice-Chancellor Malins decided in his favour, and hence the present appeal. Their lordships dismissed the appeal with costs. FREEHOLD COMMON RIGHTS. —A somewhat involved case has been concluded at the Rolls Court. The suit arose from an agreement for the exchange of estates in Bromley Common, effected in 1864 by Earl Beauchamp and Mr. Winn. The year after the exchange had been effected the late Lord Beauchamp discovered among his muniments of title a deed dated in March 1799, by which the Duchy of Cornwall conveyed in fee to one of his pre decessors the East Common of Bromley and other property. The defendant denied this, and insisted that the property was conveyed . by the duchy in .July 1799 to his predecessor in title, a Mr. Angerstein. The Master of the Rolls, after a careful examination of the arguments, dismissed the Plaintiff's hill. PERFORMING ARABS. —At the Court of Queen's Bench, Messrs. Bell and Myers, the well-known circus proprietors, brought an action against the chief of a troupe of perform ing Arabs. The plaintiffs engaged ten Arabs to perform in the circus during eight months for £2O a week, subject to a deduction of £2 a week in case of sickness. Two thousand francs were to be paid on either side in case of breach of contract. After some. weeks one Arab fell ill, and another was found to fill his place, the defendant con tending that he was entitled to the full amount so long as ten Arabs performed. The plaintiffs paid under protest, and have brought this action to recover the money so paid and the damages. The case was heard before Mr. Justice Shee, at Middlesex, and the court now granted a new trial. A FENIAN CONVICT.— Augustus Costello, the Fenian convict, has been brought up before the Court of Queen's Bench. His trial is fixed for the 24th inst. Questions have been raised as to the legality of the first trial. FLOWERS; AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE.—In the Court of Common Pleas, Mr. Smith, the well-known florist at Dulwich, brought an action against the Crystal Palace Company for fl )wens supplied at the Handel Festival, kite visit of the Prince of Wales, and the visit of Lord Napier. The company argued that the charges were too high. The plaintiff, however, obtained a verdict for the full amount £lB2. Taxation is said to bear equally on all classes, from the fact that it hardly presses on the rich, and presses hardly on the poor. PROFESSOR ANDERSON AND THE JUDGE. —The Judge of the Aberdare County Court (Mr. Falconer) began his monthly court on Monday. As usual, his sittings were held in the Temperance Hal]. In the afternoon, while court business was going on, noises of various kinds were heard behind a green curtain. These noises were made by two men belonging to Professor Anderson, who is at present exhibiting nightly in the ball. They were preparing for that night's entertainment. The judge ordered them to be brought before him, and fined them ss. each. The professor, informed of this, came ti, remonstrate with the judge, who refused to listen, and ordered him to leave the court. Pro fessor Anderson refused, stating that the ball was his, that he had engaged it for a whole week without any condition or reserve, and had paid a deposit to ensure it. He had exhibited on Saturday night. Judge Falconer declined to listen, and commanded his bailiffs to remove him. A struggle ensued between the bailiffs and Anderson ; the latter had his clothes torn, and, according to his own statement, was beaten and kicked severely. Eventually the professor was got out, and business was proceeded with. It appears that the secretary of the Hall Company had omitted to mention the fact cf the county-court sittings having to be held in the hal at the time he let the. hall to the Pridener. THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 15, 1t69. METROPOLITAN GOSSlP—Thursday. Once more matters ecclesiastical have taken precedence of matters political. Tuesday's meeting at Freemasons' Tavern came doubtless to a rather impotent conclusion. But this was almost inevitable, because the High Church party are divided into two sections—that which recognises the law, and even while it thinks the law unjust will obey it, not the less striving to get it altered; and the other, which thinks that the law imposes conduct which is unchristian, and which therefore cannot be obeyed. By the one section the judgment is looked upon as a personal hardship to be suffered until it can be redressed ; by the other it is considered to involve dis loyalty to God, and therefore to be resisted. In conse quence of this divergence, all that the meeting could do was to pass a resolution embodying a protest against the judgment, in which all could agree, and to leave the question of submission open to individual decision. Since then Mr. Bennett has avowed his determination not to obey the judgment, and he will probably have with him Mr. Le Geyt, Mr. Lowder, and Mr. Nugce. Should this- prove the case they can scarcely avoid deprivation. Nor can they themselves be unaware of this result. If deprived they will hardly remain much longer in the English Church. The law of gravitation holds good in things spiritual as well as in things physical, and it would not be possible for a little knot of half a dozen or even a hundred clergy to keep themselves from approach to and absorption in the Roman Church. Detached from one large body, they will find the attraction of the other irresistible. Mr. Bennett has already got so far Romewards that he con siders it the duty of English Churchmen when travelling in Roman Catholic countries to attend Roman Catholic churches rather than churches of their own creed. In fact, Anglicanism is with him a matter of latitude and longitude, and the English Church ceases at low-water mark off the French coast. Both he, Mr. Lowder (who has made great pecuniary sacrifices for his religion), and Mr. Le Geyt have seen their own curates go over to Rome. If an incumbency has hitherto acted as a weight suff►cient to keep themselves still, it cannot be expected that they will remain stationary when the weight is removed. Meanwhile, the Times continues to write superficial and flippant leaders, which shew that it has not the dimmest conception of the nature of the present crisis and of the issue it involves. The Daily Hews, and even the Daily Telegraph, have a much clearer insight, and see that a crisis which threatens the disruption of a Church more than 300 years old is not a matter for jocular allusions, nor for satire, however smart. It is not yet definitely decided if Mr. Mackonochie shall pass through the Bankruptcy Court, or whether the High Church party shall subscribe to pay the costs. I think that the former is the more probable course, for men are not generally very ready to pay where they have been the losers. Moreover, money will be wanted to BOA the other battles which are impending. The Church Association, flushed with triumph, is determined to push its victory, and will give no quarter. If success should attend its future efforts it will have the satisfaction of hastening by a few years the event which I believe that most far-seeing men admit to be inevitable—the separation of the Church from the State. This controversy is earnestly deprecated by Dean Stanley, among others. He greatly fears that if the Church were disestablished, what he calls the hierarchical party would be greatly strengthened. Canon Gregory is astonishing the sleepy officials of St. Paul's by his energy. It appears likely that his will be the ruling mind in the Metropolitan Chapter. He has no notion of taking a thousand a year for doing nothing ; so he means to preach on all those occasions when the pre bendaries should do so, but do not think it worth while to perform their duty. This resolution has not a little dis gusted the minor canons, who have hitherto received a handsome honorarium for preaching in the prebendaries' stead. By the way, it was only through the hardest exertions on the part of Mr. Disraeli that Mr. Gregory got his canonry. A very strong objection to his appointment was felt in a very high quarter, chiefly because he had been one of the dissentients from the Ritual Commissioners' report. Yet there was no doubt that he most thoroughly deserved his preferment. He has been for many years a most hard working clergyman in one of the worst dis tricts of London. His worth is acknowledged by all parties, and I am told that so strongly did Mr. Glad stone feel Mr. Gregory ought to be promoted, that the present Premier (whose son is Mr. Gregory's curate) would have recommended him for preferment if Mr. Gregory's political friends had not done so. I find my Conservative friends are not at all cast down by the present political position. They confidently predict a great Conservative reaction, such as has not been seen since 1841. They feel certain that Mr. Gladstone will have a fall over Irish matters. They point to the largeness of the demands made by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, and see in this exigence the seeds of English revulsion against the Liberal policy. Already it is rumoured that Lord Westbury will not support his party on the great question of the clay, and this det( rmination is said to be by no means entirely due to his exclusion from office, but Ito arise in no small degree from his strongly Erastian views with regard to the Church. For my own part, I have heard nothing to confirm the statement of Lord Westbury's secession. It was made first by the Echo, whose editor, Mr. Edwin Arnold, is no doubt an accomplished man, but I should think without special means for becoming acquainted with the mind of ex• Cha ncellor Westbury. It is a little singular that while the Conservative party are so hopeful about the future, the well-informed among them fully expected to be defeated in South Derbyshire election, which takes place to-day; the ground of their anticipation was that, the Irish Church question being now virtually settled, that matter would not have the same weight which it had at the general election. I have had a private view this week of the new Royal Academy buildings. The space which was formerly occupied by Burlington House and its adjacent grounds was not less than three-and-a-half acres in extent. This large area affords an admirable site for the new buildings now in progress. The old front of Burlington House, now occupied by the Royal Society, will be preserved, and will eventually be handed over to the Royal Academy. The new building of the last-named body is in the rear of Burlington House, and connected with it. It contains fifteen rooms arranged in three parallel rows of five. These are not large, for, wall space being an object, it was desirable to divide the total space by partitions. Two rooms have been painted experimentally in order that the committee, who met this week in their new quarters, might determine which colour would be the better for sheaving off the pictures. One room was painted a yellowish drab, the other a dark chocolate, and old paint ings were hung in order to try the effect. The latter colour has been preferred at South Kensington. The central room of all is octagonal, is lighted by a dome, and will be reserved for sculpture. In the rear of the Royal Academy is the London University, which will not be completed until next year. On the three other sides of the area in front of Burlington House will be erected buildings in the style of Somerset House, and here will be located the various learned societies. These buildings have scarcely been commenced at present, and will not be opened for five years. During the interval visitors to the Royal Academy will obtain admission from Piccadilly through a temporary covered passage. Before leaving this subjeet I may mention that no vacancy has been caused in the list of R.A.'s by the d , ath of Abraham Cooper, because he was on the retired list of R.A.'s The "bears" who did so much mischief three years ago are renewing their nefarious practices. Recently share holders of the Metropolitan Railway have received a large number of anonymous letters warning them to sell out. It is to be hoped that the receivers are not so weak as to be influenced by these communications. It may be taken for granted that City men are not so benevolent that they would incur the trouble and the expense of warning persons whom they did not know unless they—the City men—hoped to profit by it. But they can profit only through loss accruing to those in whom they profess to feel so warm an interest. It seems not unlikely that the vacancy in Marylebone, which the Times announced one morning, some weeks ago, may occur, after all. Mr. Harvey Lewis, an Adullamite— like Mr. Doulton, another Adullamite, and metropolitan member—is now defendant in an action, which so far does not redound to the glory and honour of the hon. gentle man. In fact, Vice-Chancellor Mathis expressed himself pretty decisively on the matter a day or two ago. Should the case go against Mr. Lewis, he can hardly continue to hold his seat. There will be plenty of claimants for it. There are to be some good papers read this session at the Royal United Service Institution. Captain Colomb, of the Royal Marine Artillery, brings forward to-morrow and on the 29th the distribution of our war forces. Mr. De Fonblanque, Deputy Commissary General, is going to discuss reforms in military administration. Recruiting, artillery experiments at Shoeburyness during 1863, recoil in guns utilised, and the mounting and work ing heavy ordnance, are to be treated of respectively by Mr. Cave Thomas, Mr. Mackie, Lieutenant-General Hutchinson, and Captain Robert Scott, R.N. For literary men and women there is an attraction of another sort. Mr. Robert Buchanan is going to give readings of his own poetry. Professor Tyndall lectures to-morrow before the Royal Society on his new discoveries of the effect of light on chemical vapours. Mr. Westmacott, R. A., the Rev. Fred. Farrar, Professors Odling, Tyndall, and Seely; and Mr. Deutsch, the author of the famous article on the Talmud in the Quarterly, will lecture at the Royal Institution before or after Easter. Literary news is very scarce this week, Another magazine has been started, called Westminster Abbey, and contains reprints of old books, such as Smollett's "Count Fathom," and pieces byAddison,Goldsmith,Suckling,and Ben Jonson —not a very hopeful venture, though the price is only Gd. and the magazine is well printed.—The letters from Nice, Mentone, and San Remo, in the Standard are by Professor Headland, one of the regular staff of leader writers, but now in the South of France.—Mr. Delane, the editor of the Times, is said to put the headings to all the letters and principal paragraphs published in that paper.—The authorof the article on Swinburne in the London Quarterly Review is Mr. Buxton Forman.—Mr. Charles Reade begins a new tale in the Corn hill of March.—Mr. Joseph Barnby's choir is to be revived, and will give six of the standard oratorios during the coming season, Sims Reeves and Foli being the principal singers. Mr. Barnby has adopted the con tinental pitch. Foreign affairs are looking very gloomy to-day. The Conference is considered a failure, but that is not the worst part of the matter. It is believed that Greece would not have raised her fatal objection unless she were supported by one or more of the Great Powers. This and the extremely unfriendly relations between Prussia and Austria— the Prussian Premier having, it is asserted, gone the length of insisting upon the dismissal of the Austrian -- give reason for great anxiety. MISCELLANEOUS NEWS. THE IRISH ROMAN ARCHBISHOPS AND THE GOVERNMENT. Cardinal Cullen and Archbishop Leahy have written to the National Society at Dublin with respect to the Irish policy of the Government. The Cardinal says that Roman Catholics cannot rest content with anything short of perfect religious equality: " and as the Catholic bishops have resolved that no State pensions or other endowments shall be accepted by them, which would deprive the Church of that liberty which is dearer to them than life, it necessarily follows that no measure save the total disestablishment of the State Church can be accept able to us, as no other measure will introduce that religious equality which we desire." The land question, he believes has a chance of settlement " from the wisdom and justice which guide such men as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright," from the desire of the English people to undo previous injustice to Ireland, and from the influence which the Irish Liberals will have. On the education question Cardinal Cullen says : " This Catholic country cannot rest content with any but the denominational system of education. Protestant edu cation we leave to Protestants. A system excluding the influence of divine faith can be accepted only by those who have no religion to lose." Archbishop Leahy takes very much the same ground. The country has decided for justice to Ireland. The time is come for legislation. "No half measures will do. No un worthy compromise will be accepted, as I believe none such will be proposed for the acceptance of the Irish people by the great statesman now at the head of affairs. The Church question must be settled on the basis of perfect equality, and settled for good, so that no after question may remain concerning even a shred of the ascendancy of any one religion over another. The mind of the nation is already made up on the question of justice to the tenant without injustice to the landlord. Then education, high and low, ought to be free—ought to be Christian, for Catholics ought to be Catholic. If the Church and the land questions vitally affect the legal and mate rial status of Catholics, the education question as regards the future of Catholicity in Ireland must be considered by any one having the smallest degree of foresight as the question of questions." In other words, the nationalists expect Mr. Gladstone not only to disestablish the Irish Church, not only to give tenant right, but to abolish the system of education which was built up with so much labour by the late Protestant and Roman Archbishops Whately and Murray. muddling ana pottering aoout tnese questions, spending in law money enough to build and endow places of worship and schools without number. If we are to go to Rome, let us go ; if we are to remain reformed, let us remain reformed, and let those who are dissatisfied please themselves else where. Do not let us be everlastingly halting between two opinions, and trying to become " hono rary members of every school of religious thought." Let us avail ourselves of the laws and customs we have, in order to obtain changes where they are wanted. Above all, let us, giving a reasonable latitude to our clergy in matters unessential, make such things as are essential so plain that he who runs may read." THE CHURCH IN NATAL. Mr. Green, the Dean of Maritzburg, is about to return to the diocesefrom which he has been long absent, and before doing so wishes to establish a guild, of which the Bev. E. N. Chaplin, rector of Chilton, Berks, is to be the warden. The principal rules of the society are as follows :—" The members shall engage (1) to intercede for the Church in Natal at their daily prayers, and especially when present at the celebra, lion of the Blessed sacrament." (2) "To contri bute according to their means in money monthly. One penny per month will be received as a sufficient contribution when given in the love of Christ." DIRECTORS IN THE DOCK, There is at least a possibility that we may shortly have another spectacle of directors in the clock. While the Overend and Gurney case is still unsettled, the shareholders in the Royal Bank of Liverpool, having another call impending over them, are con sulting as to whether they will not prosecute the fraudulent directors who paid large dividends out of capital, and announced handsome profits when there were heavy losses. The directors in question were, of course, highly respected, and gave away large sums in charity—we presume on the old mediaeval principle, that God would condone a robbery if a tithe of the proceeds were given to the Church. CHANCEICY DELAYS. A solicitor writes to the Times complaining of the increasing evil of Chancery delays in the chambers of the chief clerks. The clerks are, he affirms, very efficient men, and work unceasingly, but affairs, nevertheless, are apt to come to a dead lock. The solicitor gives three samples. In one case a small sum is paid into court to be dis tributed among the claimants, but nearly three months have to elapse before a simple debtor and creditor account can be examined. In the next instance, the accounts in a charity case were left in October 1868, and are not yet half com pleted. In the third, a document is wanted before the case can be proceeded with in court. The junior clerk drew it up in March, but the chief clerk has not yet had time to settle it. The remedy for all this is to have more chief clerks, who, it is evident, are greatly needed. EMIGRATION OF PAUPERS. Some remarks are made upon the question of emi gration for paupers as recommended by the Times, and it is said that the Poor-law Guardians will not forward the scheme. The farmers form the great majority of the guardians in the country, and they beliew it to be for their interest that a certain amount of unemployed labour should be supported by the Union. They dread the increase in the rate of wages which would follow upon the absence of unemployed labour. There are exceptions to the rule, but it seems to explain the reason why country guardians are so unwilling to encourage emigration. THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. The discussion on the police and the repression of crime, is spreading from the rooms of the various associations which discuss social science to the more practical but decidely less logical Vestries and Town Councils. While the debate was confined to discus sion societies, one was hardlyprepared for action. But now that the matter is being generally taken up it is not too much to hope that "something will be done." The suggestion as to the commitment of " known criminals," who, as engaged in nothing else, may be reasonably supposed to be living by crime, does not meet with general approval. A memorial to the Home Office has been adopted at the Mary lebone Vestry, and although the proposal was allowed to stand, many of the speakers objected to it, and the Star echoes their objection. MR. MUNDELLA, M.P., ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION. Mr. Mundella, whose defeat of Mr. Roebuck at Sheffield caused so much stir, spoke again on technical education at Nottingham on - Wednesday. The occa sion was that of distribution of prizes to the local school of art. He pointed out that in consequence of that school the class of work—lace, carpets, and nearly everything had been more artistic. Designs were no longer made up of pomegranates and baskets of impossible fruit, but were neat and beautiful. The improvements, too, in the taste of the working classes was very marked ; as those who compared the kind of ornament most li!;ed some years ago and now would admit. "Amongst those who have attended the school," continued Mr. Mun della, " I find thirty-three joiners, twenty-eight lace draughtsmen, twenty-seven machinists, nine lace makers, eighteen lace manufacturers, to say nothing of the stonemasons, brickmalcers, &c. Well, it is gratifying to find out of that number that twenty seven machinists have learned to make their draw ings. Does not this prove that the working people appreciate technical education ? I believe if the Government gives more liberally than it has hitherto done—supplemented by local aid—we shall have in a few years as many persons receiving instruction in science as we have at this moment in art." GIBRALTAR. Admiral Grey writes to the Times in answer to Sir Edward I3elcher, on the Gibraltar question. Ile admits that Gibraltar is strong by land and sea, but he repeats his former statement that it does not possess a good harbour in time of peace. With respect to Ceuta he considers it as healthy as Gibraltar, and it would be well worth while to con struct a harbour there. He would throw out a break water similar to that at Portland. A s f ar as h e i s con cerned, the Admiral would w illi ng l y d rop th e subject, concluding with his fo rmer sugges ti on , th a t Ceuta should be delivered to us for the formation of a breakwater ten years prior to th e d e li ver y of Gibraltar, and this would be the best bargain for England. FOREIGN NOTES. OUR RELATIONS WITH ROME. We have no ambassador at Rome, nor has the Pope any direct representative in England. Mr. Odo Russell manages all our business at the Papal Court, but though he is really an ambassador he is not accredited as such. His real duties have been for years at Rome, but he is nominally attached to the English embassy at Florence. Why not, asks the Telegraph, abandon this sham, make Odo Russell our charge d'affaires at Rome, and resume diplomatic relations with the Pontifical Government? "The Papal Court has, we believe, no objection whatever toaccre diting a Nuncio to the Court of St. James's, and thus re suming international relations which are important simply because the (been has under her sway so many millions of Roinan Catholics. But, we understand, a recent offer to that effect was refused, because the British Government still objects to the appointment of an ecclesiastic as the representative of the Pope." This is simply acting upon the old traditional absurdities. What should we say, asks the Telegraph, if the American people dictated that no titled envoy should be tolerated at Washington? This is not the first time a chance of useful negotiation has been thrown away. ROME. More than one Paris journal affirms that the mission of General Della Rocca to Rome produced an u nfavourable impression, and that it diminished the prospect of a pardon for Ajani and Luggi. It was rumoured at Rome that the Pope had expressed himself very bitterly at the last consistory, declaiming against " brigands demand ing pardon for their accomplices." It is now believed that a singular expedient will be adopted to bring about a commutation of the capital sentence. According to the Papal law the punishment of insurrection is death, but for conspiracy the galleys is the highest penalty. Ajani and Tuzzi were found guilty of the greater offence; the Sacrum Consultum has determined that they have committed only the lesser, and thus the dignity and the independence of the Papal Government will be upheld. Another difficulty arising out of the unhappy Garibal dian invasion threatens to cause further trouble. The Papal Government has demanded that four Romans who have escaped to Italy be given up on a charge of murder, according to the Extradition Treaty. These four men were implicated in the conflict at Ajani's shop ; they saw a Zouave leave his comrades, and, fearing that he was about to obtain reinforcements, they stopped him. A fight ensued, and the Zouave was killed. The Italian Minister of Justice holds that this offence was of a political character, and does not, therefore, come under the terms of an extradition crime. He has refused to give UP the men AUSTRIA AND PRIISSrA. The Liberte partly confirms the intelligence that a serious rupture between Austria and Prussia may occur if Count Beast be retained as the Austrian Chancellor. It hci received information from Vienna to the effect that Count Beust will soon " retire." His removal from power will, however, will be due rather to the increasing influence of Count Andrassy, the Hungarian Minister, than to the demands of Prussia. It would be strange indeed if Francis Joseph consented to re-model his Ministry at the dictation of a foreign Power, but the wisdom of removing a statesman like Count Beust upon any consideration remains to he seen. It was but recently declared that Count Andrassy and his rival had been reconciled. It is not a little amusing to find the Prussian journals, in the paper war with their Austrian contemporaries, repeatedly exhorting the klunmrians to,perqcvere in their enaeavours to obtain a tree I.l — m or government. lnn fact is, that the constitution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is far more liberal than that of the Prussian. The Berlin papers say that the Hungarians have no influ ence on foreign affairs. The truth is, that whilst a Prus sian elector has not the smallest influence on the foreign policy ;of his country, the Chancellor of the Austrian Empire is responsible to the delegates chosen from the Parliaments of Vienna and Pesth, and thus the electors of all the provinces exercise a very positive influence on the general policy of the Government. IRISH CRIME• The Freeman of Dublin rings a man on the recently published statistics which shew Ireland to be comparatively free from crime. Our contemporary seems rather disgusted with those " solitary cases" of murder, but is reassured by discovering that " two or three murders a week are the usual thing in England. Yet no Englishman asks for extraordinary powers of repression." But murder must (so to speak) be weighed as well 'as counted. 'Tis not so much the number, as the peculiar facts connected with each one, which has so alarmed the country. It does not take a very discriminating mind to see the difference • from a national point of view between a man m urdering his comrade or wife in a fit of drunken fury and an Irishman shooting a (may be) tyrannical landlord with something like the idea that he is only doing his duty. This idea, by-the-by, is impliedly taught in several of thg " national " newspapers, which hold that where CO law does not punish an injustice the person wronged. may revenge himself. Bacon came to Very much the same conclusion, but he adds that the revenge must also be such as the law cannot deal with, or it becomes that " kind of wild justice" which it is the duty of the State most diligently to repress. These outrages have an influence on the prosperity of the country. A. significant proof that a different value is set upon landed property according to the i character of the county n which it is situate was afforded a day or two back in the Dublin Landed Estates Court. An es tat e in the town and county of Tipperary was offered for sale, b u t n o bidder could be found for it. A large p ro p er t y i n th e coun ty of Tyrone was afterwards sold for over twenty-five years' purchase. THE RITUAL JUDGMENT. It has been asse rted in more th an one p a p e r that the judgment in the suit of Martin v. Mackonoehie was not unanimous, that Lord 'Westbury and Sir William Erie were opposed to it, Sir J. Colvile was neutral , while only Lo r d C a i rns , Lord Chelmsford, and the Archbi s h op o f Y or k w ere favourable to it. Canon Trevor doubted the truth of this statement, and wrote to the Archbishop of York to know if it were well founded. The follow ing is the Archbishop s reply :—" I suppose your question refers to a letter of Dr. Littl e d a l e ' s in the Daily News, quoting an averment of the mode in which the judgment of the Privy Cou n cil in the Mackonochie case was arrived at. Th e w h o l e story is an invention, with no ground of truth. More you will not expect me to say. If I said less you might, perhaps, infer assent from my reserve." gauntletTh The Rev. f R e Orl r e . jd E. Bennett has thrown down the Crown to take up. He has issued a declaration, to which he invites signatures, and in in all ca ses ecc l es i as ti ca l a nd which hedeclares that w hile y i elding to non e in devoted loyalty to her Majes t y th e Queen, and the Crown realms,cof lvil the su se preine, he as is nevertheless c ons t ra i ne d, by prior obedience to the Catholic Chu rc h o f Christ, to repudiate the authority of the Court of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which has lately pronounced a judgment in regard to the rites and ceremonies of the Church." The rev. gentleman states fully the g rounds on which thi s re p u diation is based, and proceeds: "In consequence, therefore, and in fulfilment of these premises, we, the under signed priests and deacons of the English Church, feel ourselves bound to continue as heretofore in our several c hurches those rites, ceremonies, and usages of the Primitive Church which have been condemned by a court purely secular and con trary to the English constitution. And this we do accordingto our Divine Lord's precept, which, while it enjoins us to obey Cmsar in the things of 0 - tsar, clearly enjoins to obey God in the things that are God's." This is a very serious step, and must, if persisted in, bring. about a collision between Mr. Bennett and his co-signatarieson the one hand, and the Crown on the other , which can have no other result than their deprivation. In that case no one could be surprised if this section of Churchmen seceded to Rome. CnUncH nrsonm. ----- A week after date the Times publishes a letter from Lord Ebury, apparently in reply to that from "A. Berkshire Incumbent," praying the bishops to take counsel together with the view to ascertain the effects of the late judgment, and to carry out its injunctions. Lord Ebury, writing on January 7, complains that English Churchmen are halting between two opinions as ,to the mode in which the Church should be governed. The central point of our Church con stitution he holds t o be " that nothing can be changed affecting th e whole body of it either in doctrine or i n discipline, in these realms, without the consent of Queen, Lords, and Commons." He adds : " Now, this may be a very bad polity, it may be wrong in principle, it may be very distateful to borne excellent men, and objectionable in its operation; but in the name of all that is honest and straightforward, if we think so, let us say so, and not go dodging- about with consecrations on the high seas, and Pan-Anglican Synods collected for the purpose of giving a go-by to the law, and trying to persuade people that it is not what it is, or that somehow the really insuperable diffi culties may be overcome by such miserable chicane." If we dislike our form of Church government, there are two kinds either of which we can adopt. There is the purely hierarchical Roman form, and there is the form prevailing in the Protestant Episcopal Churches of the United States and Canada, where the prelates constitute all Upper House ; and there is a Lower one, consisting of about an equal number of clergy and laity. Neither of these, if endued with full powers of legislation, could be Established Churches in the sense in which our own is. The first would be the British branch of the Established Church of Rome ; the latter a Free Church, like any other religious body. Are we pre pared for either of these ? Lord Ebury holds that the first would never be accepted by the people, and that the secondwould deprive us of the many large advant ages which we possess under the present system. He concludes by warning Churchmen " not to go SPAIN. Three ladies of high rank have presented to Marshal Serrano a petition, signed by 15,000 Spanish women, pro testing against religious liberty and religious toleration. This document was drawn up in no measured terms ; in fact, the Spanish ladies seem to have resolved to give the Provisional Government " a piece of their mind." The men in power were upbraided for the impious and sacri legious line of policy they have hitherto followed, were Jared to persevere in such a course at their peril, and warned %hat they were bound to maintain the Roman Catholic :with in its integrity and purity. The Times correspon dent attributes this open defiance to the tardiness with vhich the revolution has been accomplished, or rather to the indefinite postponement of its accomplishment. The Provisional Government began with religious liberty, but did not finish it. They expelled the Jesuits and shut up the convents, but they left the rest for the Cortes. The Spanish ladies now come forward and demand, not implore, that the whole question shall be left to the Cortes. They have got over their dread of an assembly elected by universal suffrage ; it is by no means certain that the issue will be against them, and they therefore insist that the nation should wholly decide what it is called upon to decide in part. THE EARTHQUAKE EPIDEMIC. 1863 will long be remembered as the year of the great earthquake visitation. Such widespread devastation, such a number of shocks in so many different places, are wholly without parallel. From the great catastrophe in Peru to the slight perturbation in Englsnd, a disaster of some kind has assailed almo3t every part of the earth's surface. A curious incident has happened in Denmark, the last country attacked. A celebrated cliff, the " Queen's Seat," has just fallen bodily into the Baltic from a shock of earthquake. The rock, about four hundred feet high, was an object of great interest to tourists from the magnificent view to be had from it. On a clear day, Rugen and the coast of Pome rania could be plainly seen. Everything has disappeared ey , -ept come masses of chalk, which form a sort of island near the shore. AMERICAN LITERATURE. (From the Anglo-American Times.) Report to the War Department. By Major-General Lewis B. Parsons, Chief of the Rail and River Transportation. People speak glibly of the movement of armies, of victories and defeats ; and while discussing the battles, their mind's eye only sees glancing bayonets, reserves hurrying up, squadrons of cavalry hulled against the enemy's flanks, and batteries unlimber ing to drive their shot through the advancing lines. It is in the roar of the cannonade, in the rush of ca valry, thundering through the smoke and fire, with death around, that interest centres and excitement rises. Few but the tactician, the statesman, or the pro fessional soldier give a thought to the prodigious ef forts by which alone the combatants, on a great scale, with all their material, are placed opposite to each other in fighting array. The American war bewildered the European more than any other, for the distances were so great, the places where battles were fought so widely separated and so unexpected, the means so unknown by which armies supposed to be directed on one point, suddenly appeared some 300 miles away, being found to be directed against another, so that Englishmen could not trace the strategy of the war. and were content to drift, many believing that it was an affair of chance, the one army endeavour ing to meet and annihilate the other wherever it appeared in force. This is due to the geographical features of the continent, whereon a flood of light is thrown by the circumstances related in the report of General B. Parsons, Chief of rail and river tran sportation. To understand the civil war in Ame rica, the first thing is to have a general idea of a country differing in many features from any other in which grand military operations were carried on before. The valley of the Mississippi was, in truth, the theatre of the struggle, of which to con vey a conception to the mind of an Englishman, we may say is drained by twenty-three thou sand miles of navigable water. When hostilities commenced this gigantic network of rivers was more or less in the hands of the Confederates, the struggle from the beginning to the end being to wrest it from them, when the Confederacy, pierced to death, fell a prey to the Northern general in the position to seize the prize. "At the commencement of the war the Government held no point south of Cairo, and all Southern rivers were blockaded till the fall of forts Henry and Donelson in February, 1862, which opened the Tennessee and Cumberland, and also the Mis sissippi to island No. 10. The fall of island No. 10 and Corinth iu the spring of .1862 led to the fall of Memphis, and opened the river to that place. But it was not until July, 1863, after the capture of Vicksburg, that the Mississippi from Cairo to New Orleans was at all passable for Government transports, and even till May, 1865, the enemy claimed to hold most of the rivers through the Southern States by his moveable batteries and roving bands of guerillas so as to prevent their navigation being of any practical advantage." The rivers most used were the Cumberland, the Ten nessee, Lower Mississippi, White, Arkansas, and Upper Missouri. The means of transportation on all were of a similar character, and available for service at any point, and Gen. Parsons, in detailing some of the army movements through their agency, gives an idea of the immense advantage the Govern ment derived from the organization he and others had effected, and we select an instance to con vey to our readers the nature of these services. In the fall of 1861 the Confederacy made its final effort to raise the States behind Sherman and check his march on Atlanta. Price invaded the State of Missouri in force, and it was necessary to gather an army at the shortest notice. Seven thousand cavalry were transported as by magic from Cape Giradeau to Jefferson city, and at the same mo ment Capt. Metcalf, who superintended these opera tions, carried the army corps of Gen. A. J. Smith, num bering 16,000 men, from Jefferson city to Franklin on the Pacific Railroad, whence they marched to Dozier's landing on the Missouri River, where seventeen steamers waited to carry them to Jeffer s3n city, where the two commands united, and the rebel General at once checkmated had to commence his disastrous retreat. The same officer then carried Smith's corps to the Tennessee to strengthen General Thomas at Nashville, then threatened by the last great military movement of the Richmond Govern ment, that of Hood, after he had doubled round Sherman's army in the vain hope of drawing back that General, by operating on his line of communi cation. General Smith's command, although at the time 500 miles away, was so speedily thrown into the State capital of Tennessee that it took a decisive part in the brilliant series of actions which struck the death-blow to the flickering life of the Confederacy. The perfection to which this machi nery for water carriage had attained may be seen by comparing the first movements in boats, with the abi lity in the end to convey armies on the grandest scale, and in the shortest periods vouched for by Gen • Par sons, and in some instances performed. On the Ist August, 1861, four thousand men under Gen. Fremont were embarked in eight boats at St. Louis, and this was termed in the papers of the day " the great fleet." It is now practicable, says General Parsons, on 24 hour's notice, to embark at Boston or Baltimore a larger army than those with which Napoleon won some of his most decisive victories, and landing it within three days at Cairo, 1,200 miles distant, there embark it on transports, and within four days more time disembark it at New Orleans, 2,200 miles from the point of departure. Boats could easily be gathered at Cincinnati, Louis ville, and St. Louis, which could within a week precipitate two hundred thousand troops, with all necessary munitions and supplies, upon Cairo or Memphis. A despatch to the Secretary of War detailing the movement of the 23d Army Corps shows that this is no vain boast. It begins with the laconic announcement that, " in accord ance with your orders, Major-General Schofield and army have been transferred from Clifton on the Tennessee to the Potomac." This letter is dated February 2d, and the transfer was made in the middle of the previorts month ; that is, in the bit terest period of winter. The corps consisted of 10,000 men. They appear to have commenced the move on the 17th January, the order having only reached a few days, but before the month closed Schofield and his army were encamped on the banks of the Potomac ready after Hood's decisive defeat to take part in the great attack soon after to be made by General Grant on Lee's lines covering Richmond. The distance was 1,400 miles, equally divided between land and water ; the time but eleven days of a severe mid-winter, without any pre paration beyond the means upon which Gen. Parsons could at once put his hands, and the only soldier even hurt owed she loss of his life to his own imprudence, for the bard frost having injured the rails, be considered himself in danger at some spot, sprang from the car, and was killed. This is an extraordinary feat, and shows with what im mense power the North was then operating, for la five days after the movement was decided on at Washington the march was commenced in Tennes see, 1,400 miles away, and in eleven days more that corps, with its baggage, its animals, and its great military trains, in Mid-winter, was betw,en Washington and Richmond. We have shown the power thrown into the hands of the North by the use made of the marvellous net work of river communication, and we wish now to direct attention to the ability with which every difficulty was surmounted. Col. Arthur Edwards, one of the General's subordinates, was directed by Rosecrans to put steamers on the Tennessee river above the Muscle Shoals. As these shoals are an effectual bar to steamboat navigation on the Upper Tennessee from the Ohio these steamers had to be built, and Colonel Edwards bad not a scrap of material except what he could extract from en old dilapidated saw-mill, the only structure which marked the spot on which once stood the village of Bridgeport. The war had spread wide destruction for hundreds of miles around, and Colonel Edwards had before him only the primeval forest, too often the cover for the enemy's picquets. The saw-mill was immediately repaired ; spikes, nails, iron, paint, pitch, oakum, were brought from the North, and fourteen barges were at once constructed. Govern ment steamers on the Cumberland river were dis mantled, and this officer, in the month of October, after making his barges, built a steamer, the Chat tanooga, which ascended the river to the astonish ment of Rosecrans' army, which, by her timelY services, was probably saved from a disastrous re treat. He then repaired the Dunbar, in time to render valuable cervices in transporting troops for the splendid victories of Look-out Mountain and of Mission Ridge. Perceiving the necessity of steam power and machinery, and regarding the waste of muscle from a stand-point peculiarly American, Colonel Edwards confiscated an engine and boiler, which he found at Stevenson, Alabama, and setting it up beside his old mill at Bridgeport, b° built a machine shop, and proceeded to turn out four gunboats ironclad from the main to the upper deck, and nine other transports, making 13 steamers in nine months ! having cut up 750,000 feet of lumber, out of logs dragged a distance of from one to three miles. We would like to know what other service in the world could parallel this instance ; an d we doubt whether the whole range of the Ame rican war tells with more force the aptitude of the people to do " any mortal thing." On the grand march until reaching the sea for Sherman operations, Nashville was the base whence his arta and the enormous force operating in Tennessee wer e supplied. During the months of February, Marebt April, and May, 614 steamers and other boats arrive d there, and discharged 158,016 tons. By changing the contract for transport from the day to the piece , in the carriage alone the Government was saved t he enormous sum of three millions of dollars ; and o° , well was the system conceived that the cost of moving troops did not average a third of a cent per mile for each soldier, with gold ranging from 200 to 280. An army of 20,000 men, with officers and baggage, would be moved 400 miles on the Mis sissippi for $25,000, while stores and animals wer e conveyed at a similar ratio. On the 30th of Jun e ,' 1865, the Government owned 114 boats prope lled by steam, and 486 barges. During the war t he loss of the United States Navy was two boa ts destroyed by torpedoes, eleven by batteries, four t° prevent them falling into the hands of the wolf , and seven sunk. The number of boats destroyed from all causes was 335, of 152,450 tons, valuedi at 8,255,000 dollars. An idea may be fortneu,, of the trust imposed on the Transport Departm ent as well as of the cost of the work to the United States, and of the magnitude of the carriage, when We 5511 that, for the fiscal year, ending June 30, 186 1 $48,491,132 were disbursed, including all kinds 0' Army Transport throughout the United Stat e !: Over a fourth of this was paid for the Wester; rivers alone. The number of officers and w e carried was close on 4,000,000, and the cattle over 700,000. A quarter of a million men were prison ers of war. It is generally supposed that the Gover n ' ment worked most of the railways themselves, b ilw this is a mistake, as it was only where they we re abandoned, and had been damaged by the enemy' that they were repaired and run o n G ov ernme nt , account. During that year the ra il roa d s o wned 137 companies transported 5,614,537 tons of store s ' while the Government carried but 354,638 tot The proportion, however, was in favour of the I - I° o vernment as regards steamers and barges, but presume that the boats generally belonged to P r vate persons, and were taken up by the Qua rtey ro master's Department for the time. We maY ' e a add that the officers never hesitated to seize 3bp 13 appropriate anything required on emergenc9. l „ the State, but almost invariably with such con slu ;, ration that the owners were compelled to a dll ' a however inconvenienced, that they were jus oe by the necessity. Amidst the " shoddy" forth made out of the country's emergencies it is s 3ti , factory to turn to the able and upright admints tr e i tion of these difficult departments by United Stator, officers, who, while fingering millions, a nds , e a rounded by dishonest contractors, seldom incor'eic even the breath of suspicion. Grand as were.t i b be ac hi eve ments, furnishing a history which "111,10. read with as much astonishment as interest 0 3 rope when fully told, yet, perhaps, their high est t he uour, reflecting most credit on their country, I s e ll purity of their administration, contrasting strangthe with the shameful peculation which marked conduct of many loudly professing patriots, so P wirably satirised by Artenius Ward. Va e ti ADVERTISEMENT:I—HoIIoway ' s Pills—Healthy — cl e tiov —How melancholy to a sensitive mind is the refle,. pe that in addition to a grievous and painful illness thvoia cuniary means of himself and family are rapidly bel ta ge' exhausted. Nine-tenths of our ailments might be a et io o tiler prevented or directly cured if the first fault" p,' were set right. This great eud is accomplished wit?ti ate derful certainty and safety by Holloway's Pills, will e u alli adapted to the stout as well as to the frail, and are eq ur iff suited to every constitution and climate. They P a i 0 the blood, that seat of life and source of health, snail; revivifying streams diffuse regularity and vigour thN to ro out the system, and give every organ its proper, function. Births. Cl CLARKE -On the 13th inst., the wife of H. Saville - Esq., Bayswater, of a daughter. 0 HAMILTON —On the 12th inst., at Charlton, the W ife Cat. R. V. Hamilton, R.N.. of a daughter. Aof 41"- WHIN p NEY—On the 14th inst., at 90, Regent's-W U the wife of F. Whinney, Esq., of a daughter. Marriages. Of t '; STEPHENS —BYNG—On the 13th inst., at St. Pete r' ";clo, „'f slow-gardens, Frederick Stephens, 2d Life Gu..„ 9. 5., Cecilia Mary, eldest daughter of Captain Byng , -1 " . Quendon Hall, Essex. : tOP" SWINTON —KENDALL -On the 14th inst., at Dm,- Iw o , H. Swinton, Commander R.N., to Caroline Jat'efyig daughter of Henry Kendall, Esq., Sussex-squar e, ton. Deaths. 9 0i B RO OKING—On the 13th inst.. at 9, H o rbury-c -r e P'' f ' Lad broke-square, Thomas Hol 'sworth Brooliipg' (1' aged 78. tl f ' " CHINNOCK —On the 12th inst., suddenly, at 37, 'v-0 1. ~,A, PI place, Fred. Cliinnock, Esq., aged 63. es, o JONES -Oa the 12th inst., at Kingston-ston-on-Thnni on ward Jones, Esq., of the Bank of England, e ld- R. 11. Jones, Esq., of 11, Holford-square. o ld' S MANLEY- On the 12th inst., at Bedford, John t Esq., aged 52. ng tolY r/ t NASH —OR the 13th inst ,at 2, Windsor-road, ..ri hill, S., Alfred Nash, Esq., Retired Payinit s ' or aged 52. T ap- London : Printed and Pahlished by WILLUSA go o of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Oita SUN 01°' 00 0t 1 Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in th. Micicllesex.—Friday, January 15, 18(0.