The Sun. — London, England, 1861-03-18 00:00:00

I.? yA I, ENGLISH OPER A, COVENT-GA.RDEN Under the Manazenvnt of Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. W. Harrison, Sole Lessees. ITESDAY EVENING. for the Benefit of Mr. William "garrison, MARITANA (for this night only). Miss Louisa Irsrue, Miss Huddart, Miss Leffler; Messrs. H. Corri Durand, Horncastle, and Mr. W. Harrison. To conclude with A GRAND CONCERT. Conduotor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. Commence at T IiEATIO4:-B 0 VAL, HAYMARKET. LeMee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone. Tgis EVENING, the performances will oommenae with A DUKE IN DIFFICULTIES. Mrs. Stirling, Miss F. Illaydon, Mrs. Wilkins, Miss Fanny Stirling, Mr. tSuckstone, Xr Compton, Mr. Howe, tc. After which, a new Pantomime, QUEEN LADYI3IR.D AND HER CHILDREN. The Pantomimists by the un rivalled Leclercqs, Herr Cole, and Fanny Wrigist. Commence at 7. ..00YAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.-- Lessee and Manager, Mr. A. Harris. THIS EVENING, THE LADY OF LYONS. Mr. G Melville, Miss Heath, ttc. After which, THRICE MARRIED. To conclnde with BOWL'D OUT. ADELPHI, NEW T ter HEATRE-AL. Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Beni. Webs ßOY . THIS EVENING, AN UGLYMiss K. K ell CUSTOMER. and M Mies E. E. J. L. Toole, C. Selby , and W arde ; y, Thorne. After which. THE COLLEEN BAWN. D. Rouoicanit, D. Fisher, Bllllngton, Falconer, Stephenson. C. J. Smith, Romer. Miss Agnes 'Robertson, Miss Woolgar, Mrs. Billington, and Sirs. Chatterley. To conclude with a new Burlesque Extravaganza. entitled SLUE BEARD FROM A NEW POINT OF HUE. Messrs. J. L. Toole, P. Bedford. C. J. Smith; Miss Woolgfar, K. Kelly, Laidlaw, and E. Thorne. Doors open at halt past 6—Commence at 7. Box-of floe open from 10 till 5. No charge for booking. Boxes, Private boxes, £2 2s. ; Family Orchestra Stalls, ss. ; Balcony, 4s. ; Front Circle Stalls, s. Fit Stalls, 25.; Pit, ls. 6d. ; Amphitheatre, is ; Gallery, 6d. e; Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith. cANTERBURY-HALL CONCERTS!!! Westminster-road. Proprietor C. Morton. A Grand Selection from Verdi's new Opera, IL CORSARO, • (This opera has never been produced in this or any other country, except at these Concerts), having met with that de cided success which charactise the most popular works of this great Master, will be performed EVERY EVENING ; ogether with a Selection from LA FIGLIA DEL REGGI- IifENTO, by Donizetti, Principal Artistes—Miss Russell, Madame Maria, Miss Tyrrell, Mr. H. Herbert, Signor Tivoli, H. Drummond, and C. W. Bernard. Director, Mr. F. Jonghmans. The Comic Department comprises Messrs. E. Marshall, A. B. Hollingsworth, J. Blanchard, F. Bell, W. H. Welland, and the Brothers Conrad. John Martin's Three celebrated Pictures will remain on view a short time longer in the Fine Arts Gallery of the Establishment. HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. Tilts DAy.—Morning, sh. 38m.—Afternoon, sh. 58m. To-uoll.Row.-Morning, 6h. 18m.—Afternoon, 6h. 40m. THIC HEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, MARCH 17, 1261. THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE. 19—highest since noon yesterday. 33—lowest this morning and during the night. 43—this day at noon. BanounTuu-29.72; falling. WlND—South-Westerly--fresh and squally; with dull rainy weather. MARCH 18. THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE. 47—highest since noon yesterday. 32—lowest this morning and during the night. 45—this day at noon. Rama{l:TEß-29.46. Wm—Westerly—light ; with very fine weather. A. , ~,,,:v..,..,. 4 et . t , c,,,VI.A;Z z. A , ...M ,;f" - . 1 . --- 7 - Irii:l t.,, , ' ~..., ..,#,.. '5, 'il . ' . 4 . ' - e , 77, , - 1 --_,- --j , i. ' 'r .iinS , btzoi , l__,. A ,Z4Vis e t 9 4, ‘Nlif THE SUN. LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1881. Mr. LINCOLN has now spoken officially. The views he expresses do not differ, except in a - slighter degree of precision, from what he has already given ue in his various speeches. Indeed on one impor tant point he quoted at length, from one of his speeches as a candidate, to show thathis sentiments in regard to the slave states and their rights had undergone no change. ' We have now, however, his formally expressed opinions in full ; those on which he must act to maintain his character for consistency, and we can but note them with some solicitude. Mr. LINCOLN enters on office under circumstances but too notoriously perplexing. Seven of the provinces of his kingdom had seceded from it, elected another King, one Davis, and taken pos- session of all but one or two of his fortresses arsenals, and customs houses, before he took the oath as elective monarch of the whole confederation, seceders included. His first important declaration is that he knows nothing, as President, of all this . He does not intend to prosecute individuals or states for high treason ; he does not mean to levy war on the rebels, indeed he treats their acts as nullities. The Union was arranged for perpetuity, no state has power to withdraw from it, he will, therefore, treat as null and void, ab initio, all that the seceding states have done. The immediate corollary from all this is, that he will act in regard to the collection of customs, and the United States forts and arsenals in the seceding districts, just as if they had done nothing. In doing this he says :—" There shall be no blood shed nor violence unless forced upon national authority. The power confided in me shall be used to hold, occupy, and to possess property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties imposed. Beyond what is necessary for these objects there will be no invasion or force. Where the hostility to the United States is so great and universal as to prevent citizens from holding offices there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among people that object. The mails, unless re pelled, will continue to be furnished to all parts of the Union." We cannot doubt that Mr. LINCOLN shrinks as much as any of us would do from bloodshed ; he also ought to know far better than we can pretend to do, whether what he proposes to do would lead to bloody resistance or not; but cer tainly all accounts we have been accustomed to receive of the Southerns are that they are men of the revolver and the bowie knife, men ready to kill each other on the slightest provoca tion, and who therefore would be not less likely to dill the Northerns for what they deem a great one ; that though there may be plenty of bullies amongst them, there are yet also plenty of men who are ready to fight duels armed with half a dozen formidable weapons, from the rifle and revol ver to the dagger; and in this country we should expect, therefore, a resistance as fierce, merciless, and deadly as from the least civilised mountain tribes of Asia. Alongside the resolution of Mr. LINCOLN just men tioned,lof what avail will it be to repeat his declara tions that the Republican party never thought of "Y invasion of the domestic institutions of any °I. the States, or that they recognise the obligation of that clause in the constitution to whi ch every member of Congress has sworn respecting the rendition of fugitives from slavery ? The acts of the, t southern States are not an ebulli tion of a mere 'ephemeral feeling. They have hitherto been the ruling power, and they are resolved rather to rule in separation than to be subordinate ir a Union. The fugitive slave business they have themselves declared to be merely a pretext--the runaways are not worth to them the cost of their recovery. But the two great and sore pointe, i n addition to that of loss o f anpre macy as Par • tv ' h ave been the exc l usion of eL slavery fro m the territories, and the hostile tariffs of the North. Wi t h these three grounds (f antac , onisn I left untouched, it is vain to think of If political ascendancy restoring a real union. were given up, the struggle for increased area of slave territory would be considered a life and death one. And as to the tariff, the South has the best reason to complain of the insane attempts of the North, since their members seceded, to augment the protective to restrictive duties. How can the South, whose interest is free trade, re unite with the North, which is selfishly and blindly set upon protection ? On the whole, we cannot but regret that Mr. LINCOLN did not act upon patent facts rather than on legal fictions. He may have special informa tion which dictates to him the course he has chosen, but if not, it seems to us that he had better have left the seceders to go on with their scheme, and form, if they please, a feeble Slave Confedera tion. lie cannot conquer and hold the vast terri tory of the South if it resists, for he has next to no army ; he cannot efficiently blockade the Southern ports, for his whole navy is insufficient, and most of it far away. The wisdom of his plan all depends on whether he has better reasons than we yet know of to think that the seven States will return o the Union. Time only can tell us this. It will be a grievous thing indeed if we don' after all have some changes for the better at the Admiralty secured to us before the close of the present session of Parliament. An immediate and comprehensive reconstruction of the whole depart ment may be a prospect in many respects altogether too grand and too good to be true—but at any rate we cannot but insist that it will be absolutely grevious if we don't contrive to have some changes for the better brought about under the shadow of the sea-horses at Whitehall, before —at the first crack of the autumnal grouse-shooting—the Lords and Commons shall have been prorogued. There is the Select Committee to begin with. There are the various returns that are being moved for just now very opportunely. There are the revised Navy Estimates submitted to the House in Com mittee of Supply by the noble and gallant Secretary of the Admiralty, in a spirit evidencing, at least, a willingness to retrench, so far as may be rationally practicable in this department —a willing ness, in this way, to economise reasonably, not only manifested by the Board of Admiralty themselves, bat more or less by the whole six teen responsible members of her MAJESTY'S Go ♦ernment. Then there are the occasional reso lutions interspersed, while these Naval Estimates are passing, item by item, through Committees of Supply—resolutions emanating from independent members, from whose practical knowledge many valuable hints may be not injudiciously derived, even by the most skilled of the professional administrators in our maritime department. If nothing comes of it, after all these strenu ous efforts to insure improvement, it will be really and truly something lamentable, and some thing also, as the Americans say—cautionary. That such will be, in this direction, the anticlimax to the session, we cannot, for an instant, believe. On the contrary, without being so extravagantly sanguine as to anticipate anything like a complete reconstruction of the Admiralty, within the present twelvemonth, we do, nevertheless, look forward with confidence to the inauguration of a series of improvements and modifications in that department such as may (and will, we believe) eventually lead to the desired work of total re construction. Mr. LINDSAY'S intended resolutions we have already commented upon ; but, as they are down upon the notice paper for to-night, we can hardly do better than remind those who are the most interested in the prospects, visible more or less clearly here and there, of changes for the better down at the Admiralty, that the following are the precise terms in which these resolutions are expressed by the hon. member for Sunderland :—" I. That it is inexpedient to sanction any further expenditure for the construc tion or conversion of wooden line-of-battle ships. 2. That it is inexpedient to incur, during the present year, the expenditure requisite for the completion of the line-of-battle ships now on the stocks ; and, that during the present year, it is not expedient to commence the construction of any wooden vessels which carry guns on more than one deck. -3. That it is inexpedient, without further experience, to sanction the expenditure of any money for the purpose of adapting her Majesty's dockyards for the construction of iron vessels." And we have the less hesitation in recalling these three important resolutions of Mr. LINDSAY'S to recollection upon the very day upon which they are announced to be brought before the House in Committee of Supply—because it affords us the opportunity of remarking that the hon. gentleman the member for Sunderland has himself explained away the unwelcome construction originally placed upon the third and last of these same resolutions. It is not by any means his wish, he has now remarked, to put any impediment whatever in the way of our constructing iron vessels—it is only that he deems it inexpedient that money should be precipitately expended, as yet, in adapting her MA• JESTY'S dockyards to their reconstruction ! Already also we have directed particular attention to the important and suggestive returns which are about to be moved for by Sir MORTON PETO. Yet nere also, for the self-same reason—because of their intrinsic importance, and because like wise of their being down upon the notice paper for this evening—we are impelled to re call to remembrance the precise wording of Sir MORTON PETO'S notice of motion, a notice couched in the pithy terms now following—" Return of the number of departments in the Admiralty at Somerset House and Whitehall ; the number of persons employed in each department, and their designations and salaries, together with the hours of attendance; the number of rooms occupied by each department ; the number of rooms occupied for records ; the number of rooms occupied by messengers ; the number of messengers employed ; and the amount of the yearly disbursement for messengers." Returns like these are surely well calculated to flutter the occupants of all the numerous and comfortable pigeon -holes in those amiable civil service dovecotes of the Admiralty at Somerset House and at Whitehall. The mere motion for the returns will certainly be like the apparition of CORIOLANUS among the Voscians at Corioli. And it is worthy of consideration that in regard to mere" num bers,"as surely, in a Parliamen tary sense, as the Registrar-General's returns have long since proved it to be in a sanitary sense, these is something especially wholesome, beneficial, and salubrious in—ventilation. Happily, the overcrowd ing in these densely-packed offices of Somerset House and of the Admiralty at Whitehall, is about to be very decidedly ventilated by Sir MORTON PETO. Another return moreover—a return of a very different character—is down upon the paper of the House for to-night, under the name of . Sir JAMES ELPHINSTONE—that honourable and gal lant member having there announced his intention to move for a " return of the names of all captains, commanders, and lieutenants commanding, names and complements of ships commanded, present pay, proposed pay, proposed reduction of pay, proposed command money, proposed pay and command money combined, and consequent gain or loss." There are besides other returns, resolutions, and amendments, besides these already here particularised, which, upon the House going into Committee of Supply upon the Navy Estimates, will be duly forthcoming. So that altogether we cannot but believe that the House in Committee of Supply has for once its weather eye fairly open, and keenly fixed upon those Estimates. Our sympathies are few indeed with what has'come to be denominated Puseyism, and we have enjoyed the truth as well as the humour of SYDNEY SMITH'S pun that it was " a thing of position and imposi tion ;" and, if clerical vagaries in worship were ever a topic we thought appropriate for frequent notice in our columns, we could find as much to amuse as to censure in the performances of the St. Barnabas Knightsbridge School. Still, however opposed may be the creed and worship of any section of clergy, Dissenting or Established, to our unprofes sional notions of Christianity, we are ever ready to do justice to Religious manliness, earnestness, and consistency, find them where we may. We must say, then, that one of the great leaders of the priests of St. Barnabas has just published a pamphlet on church rates which does him, as a churchman, as a Christian minister, and as an Englishman of the latter half of the 19th century, the highest credit. While perverse lack-a-daisical young lords, while old political leaders, while bishops and some High Churchmen, while country rectors, vicars, and churchwardens are pitifully whining for some COM promise which shall spare them a little of the dear old rate, and while Low Churchmen are contending for the whole rate in their section of the - press , and in. public with their usual Calvauistic bitterness—here we have a St. Barnabas Church man, vicar now of Froome in Somersetshire, man fully publishing to the world his reasons why church rates should be abolished.* It is a pamphlet really worth reading, and that is saying a great deal for a pamphlet on church rates now. The subject has been so long discussed that even to freshen up the old matter is no easy task. Mr. BENNETT has done more than that. He has surveyed the whole subject anew from his position as a church clergyman, adducing church men's testimony, lay and clerical, in favour of his own view ; and we can at least say, in a manner and style which induced us, much as we have ourselves written on the subject, to read every page. If any of our readers desire to see the subject of church rates handled in a manner worthy of a Christian minister in England at the present day, we can with confidence recommend him to Mr. BENNETT'S pamphlet. He will there find the matter treated of from the commencement of Christianity itself, through the Reformation and the times following it, down to the present time. We trust that most readers beginning to read, with different views to himself, would be convinced by his arguments, but if not, all would acknowledge that they were worthy of a sincere believer in the power of Christianity as taught by himself. He first examines the " Laws of Ancient Custom concerning the Church," and beginning with the Apostles, and citing authorities downward to the time of HENRY VIII. he substantiates the conclu sion of ATLIFFE respecting the repair of the Church, that " of common right the laity are not compellable thereto." The Bishop was responsible for doing it out of his " fourth part" of the oblations. Thus he sums up this section— " From all this it clearly follows that the whole question of repairing churches and supplying what is necessary for the offices of divine worship is one of religion, and not of state authority. Springing from the Bishop, as the foun tain head, it flows backs to him in his spiritual court. By common right it is his affair as the chief director of things ecclesiastical. If a common custom has thrown it upon the parishioners in this country, yet it has only so thrown it, on the understanding that the paliehionere, the yeeple, and the State, are one with the Bishop in religion; that they recognise his spiritual power, and that a punishment in flicted on them in a spiritual character would be felt and recognised by them as one affecting their soul salvation." He then turns to " Modern Laws of the State concerning Dissenters." We wish we had room to quote from his fair and impartial account of the intolerance of all dynasties, and all parties of Protestants till the time of WILLIAM 111. He thus describes how things were left then : " After WILLIAM 111. we do not find much advance in Dissenters' legislation until quite close to our own times. The free opening of conventicles and license for Dissenting ministers to preach was certainly a boon. Yet there was very much still left undone. The Test and Corporation Acts still remained. Men might worship, pray, and preach as Dissenting Protestants, but that was all. Marriages were still withheld. Burial of the dead was still with held. To enter any corporation, or serve the State in the army and navy, without the Sacramental Test, was still impossible without violating the law. All through the reigns of the GEORGES men looked on, and though not satisfied submitted, and it was not in effect till the close of the great revolutionary wars of France that any further at tempt to relax the bonds of religious exclusiveness was at tempted. Then indeed things took a sudden start afresh, and Roman Catholic emancipation became a great political watchword under cover of which the Dissenters' privileges took a wide range." A glowing account of the new equality of all sects with the Established Church follows : " But what is the case now between the Church and the Dissenters ? There is no one rite, form of wor • ship, ceremony, or sacrament of the Church to which any person having a conscientious scruple is compelled for a legal object to witness or receive. Not one. Year by year, and one by one, as seen by the laws above recited,' every impediment has been removed, which acted as a bar to perfect religious freedom. Neither tender nor malicious consciences have any longer the com pulsion or the opportunity of desecrating holy things by Act of Parliament. In every religious community, from the Jow down to the lowest Ranter, holy things are separated from legal things, and true religion is relieved at least from the open violations of decency which the last generation witnessed. Dissenters of every shade, and Non-Confor mists of every degree are now recognised as religious com munities equally with the Church." He next considers the " position of the Church at the present time." He shows that the history of toleration proves that we are in the midst of a stream of liberal ecclesiastical legislation, which it is vain to think of resisting ; that Non-Confer mists of all classes have a grievance for which they will obtain redress from the spirit of modern legis lation. He shows that church rates are substan tially a personal charge, and thus concludes:— " But we must view the question in its deeper aspect, we must recur to the first principles from which it has arisen. These principles are religious toleration, and freedom of private judgment. If we please to accept these principles, realise them, legislate towards them, believe them to be God's will, then we must not be surprised by the results. These results are accidently mischievous, but not essentially so. The refusal on the part of the people to pay church rates is simply the unavoidable result of religious toleration." Lastly, he asks, " What is the remedy." Here he discusses all the usual schemes; 1. Registration of Dissenters; 2. Pew Rents; 3. A Commutation by way of Rent Charge ; 4. Transferring the charge to the National Exchequer; and of each of all of these he shows the utter impracticability and the mischief's which would result, supposing any of them to be adopted as law. We must here re mark that, in propounding his owu remedy he speaks from having put it to the test. For nine years, at his wish, church rates have been given up in Froome, and he has, by the means he sug gests for universal adoption, found supplies for the public worship of the church, schools, parish chari ties, and choir, and other incidental things. Here, then, is the Froome remedy— " We have then yet to find the real remedy. It is neither in the registration of dissent, nor in pew-rents, nor in a commutation for a rent charge, nor in an appeal to the Go vernment. It is simply to be found by having recourse to the first principles of Christianity; to disown legal inter• * Why Church. Rates should be Abolished. By William J. E. Bennett, M.A., Vicar of Froomc-Selvood, Somerset. London : Whittaker and Co., 13, Avo Maria lane, THE SUN, LONDO, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 18, 1861, ference ; to cast as!ie Acts of Parliament ; to get quit of all questions involvrg a collision with Dissenters; and to appeal not as an E i - ablishment but as a Church to the com mon right by whici she was regulated in her primitive ages." " And what is tlat common right ? The offerings of the faithful out of thei abundance in recognition of a spiritual duty. At the alta, in the Holy Eucharist, as the Church directs, lct those oferings be made. Exclude others—Let the Church suppot herself. This is the remedy. You may have recourse to as many healing substitutes as the inventions of compromise may suggest, but you will have ultimately to be beaten back to this only substantial ground on which to rest. There is nothing short of it. The fatal words must be spokes. First there must be to appease the law, a total abolitionaf church rates, and then there must be a recourse to the encient voluntary principle. " Now it is the fitaion to decry the Voluntary principle, to be frightened at t! - B very sound of it. Men say that it is a mere visionary d earn; an ideal Utopia, a chimera, which it is useless ti look upon as any practical remedy. Does not this betoken somewhat of a want of faith in the first principles of a Clurch? If the Holy Scriptures and the precepts of the Aposles bear any weight in the direction of Church government, ought they not to apply here. In all other countries but cur own they do apply. Church rates are not known in foreign countries. What is the peculia rity of the English Church that it should be forced to rely on the temporal power, and not on its own internal spiri tuality ? Can it be oberwise than to our shame and disgrace that it should be tlought for a moment possible that the Church has so littlehold either on the affections or on the duty of her people, bat she could not be supported by those who profess to be her children. If this be not true, we belie her. If it be rue, our business is to begin de novo, and preach in the dreets and lanes, from house to house. But we will not imagine it even for an instant. We cast ourselves fearlessly on the only true remedy which our faith sets before us, namely, a simple return to the ancient com mon right not of the land but of the Church." How noble is Ell this, and page after page which we might quote, compared with the miserable pulings of the Blenheim saint, of Lords MONTAGU and CECIL, of the Committee of Laymen, and of the Low Church clergy. So is his manly appeal to Churchmen on the supposition of their occupying, legally, the place of Dissenters. But we must con clude. We hops that the pamphlet will find its way into the Muds of all our Legislators at least, and make half of them ashamed of the ground they have taken. LATI EST NEWS. TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE. FRANCE. PARIS, MONDAY. The Illoniterr of to-day says :—" Some news papers have announced that M. Mocquard was about to resigi the post of Secretary, which he occupies in th 3 Emperor's Cabinet. His Majesty never had the intention of separating himself from M. Mocquard, with whose services and devotion he has not ceased to be satisfied." POLAND. POSEN, MONDAY. A proclamction of the Governor of Poland, Prince Gortscliakoff, warns the inhabitants of Warsaw in a most serious manner against making any demonstration. This warnilg refers especially to a projected procession of the ladies of Warsaw. Laszczynski replaces Alukhanoff as Curator of Poland. INDIA. CALCUTTA, FEB. 16. (BY TELEGRAPH TO POINT DE GALLS.) Gray shirtings.—Heavy advanced la., and light 2a. Mule twist advanced 2 pie on 40's and 50's ; other numbers no change. Raw silk quiet. Indigo no change. Copper sheating in good demand at previous rates. Copper tile—English better inquiry, 4a higher ; Australian unaltered. Sugar, nothing doing. Rice, drooping ; moderate shipments. Saltpetre, no transactions. Linseed, Small stocks, shipments trifling and no tonnage available. Jute quiet, exports moderate. Hides, little doing for Europe and supplies short. Shellac nominal. Exchange on London.—Baring's credit, 2s. Id. Government Securities.—Four per Cents., 80; to 801; Five-and-a-Half per Cents., 101 to 1011. Bank discount unaltered. Money easy. Freights advanced 55., and very firm. EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS. ST. PETERSBURG, SUNDAY. The following is a summary of the imperial manifesto proclaiming the emancipation of the serfs, dated the 3d March (19th February), and published this day : The proprietors of landed property preserve the rights attached to the same. The landed proprietors are, however, to cede to the peasants, for their permanent use, the dwell ings, with the ground which will be allotted to them anew by law, in consideration of the payment of dues. During this state of things, which will form a transition period, the peasants are to be designated "tributary peasants." The peasants are to be permitted by law to pur chase all their dwellings, and, with the consent of the landlords, the land also. The peasants will then become free landed pro prietors. _ The new order of things is to be carried out throughout the empire within two years, and unti then the peasants remain in their formal state e, dependence upon the landlord. HANOVER. A letter, dated Hanover, 10th March, says : " France is making large purchases of horses in the north. Within the last few days 23 vessels, fr.i g ht,c.a with Itutaca, oailcd from tho vest cvaat of Friesland, and large numbers have gone by land by Magdeburg, Salzwedal, &c., so as not to go by the same route. Mules are also bought up. The French agents pay good prices, and are not particular in their choice." THE HEART!-711E HEART! The heart—the heart I Oh 1 let it be A true and bounteous thing ; As kindly warm as nobly free, As eagle's nestling wug. • Oh %keep it not like mier's gold, Shut in from all besites ; But let its precious stops unfold, In mercy far and with. The heart—the heart tlat's truly blest Is never all its own ; No ray of glory lights he breast The beats for self alcie. The heart—the heart loh I let it spare A sigh for others' pen, The breath that soothe a brother's care Is never spent in vai,. And though it throb atgentlest touch, Or sorrow's faintest all ; 'Twere better it shoulatche too much Than never ache at tl. The heart—the heart hat's truly blest Is.never all its own No ray of glory lightlhe breast That beats for self gam). ELTZA COOK. BERLIN, Sunday.—Het Royal Highness the Princess Frederick William Crown Princess of Prussia) left this morning for London n account of the demise cf the Duchess of Kent. BANK OF AUSTRALASIA—The half-yearly meet. ing of proprietors was he'd tlis morning, at which a divi dend was declared at the ratiof G per cent. per annum, or 245. per share, and a bonus e the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, or 16s. per share, freef income-tax, being togett or it the rate of 10 per cent. peiannum. • THE UNITED STATES. ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICA. QUEENSTOWN, SUNDAY MORNING. The royal mail steamer America arrived here at midnight. She left Boston on the 6th March, and Halifax on the Sth. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL SPEECH. NEW YORK, March 5. President Lincoln delivered his inaugural speech at Washington yesterday. After a few prelimi nary remarks, Mr. Lincoln said : FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES In compliance with a custom as old as the Go vernment itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath pre scribed by the constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office. I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that, by the accession of a re publican administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. Ido but qnote from one of those speeches when I declare that " I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the• institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclina tion to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with a full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic reso lution which I now read : " Resolved—That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclu sively is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as the gravest of crimes." I now reiterate those sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the ease is suscep tible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the con stitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States, when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another. There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labour. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the constitu tion as any other of its provisions. No person held to service or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due. It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Con gress swear their support to the whole constitution, to this provision as much as any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of this clause, "shall be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath. There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority; but surely that difference is not a very material one.- If the slave is not to be sur rendered it can be of little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And should any one, in any case, be content that this oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept ? Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safe guards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave ? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the constitution which guarantees that " the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to con strue the constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules ; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform and abide by all those acts which stand marepealed, than to violate any of them, busting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. It is seventy-two years since the first inaugura tion of a President under our national constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession adminis tered the executive- branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that, in con templation of universal law and of the constitution, the union of these states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied if not expressed in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that government proper never had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national constitution, and the Union will endure for ever, it being imposssible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can it as a contract be peace ably unmade by less than all the parties who made it ? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so to speak—but does it not require all to law fully rescind it ? Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was fur ther matured, and the faith of all the then 13 States exifressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778 ; and finally in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the constitution was to form a more perfect Union. But if the destruc tion of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less than before, the constitution having lost the vital ele ment of perpetuity. It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere notion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that act of violence within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary - or revolutionary, according to circumstances. I therefore consider . that, in view of the constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part. I shall perfectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner direct :the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there need be no bloodshed or vio lence, and there shall be none, unless it is forced upon the national authority. The , power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion—no using of force against or amongst the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people that object. While the strict legal right may exist of the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly imprac ticable withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices. The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people every where shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favourable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless cur rent events and experience shall show a modifica tion or change to be proper ; and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised accordingly to the circumstances actually exist ing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such I need address no word to you. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak ? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be well to ascertain why we do it. Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any portion of the ills you fly from that have no real existence ? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from ? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mis take? All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the constitution, has been denied ? I think not. Hap pily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a ma jority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view justify revolution : certainly would, if such right were a vital one. But such is not the case. All the vital rights of minorities and of indivi duals are so plainly assured to them by affirma tions and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in the constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically appli cable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labour be surrendered by national or by State authority ? The constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories ? The constitution does not expressly say. From ques tions of this class spring all our constitutional con troversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce the majority must, or the Government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the Government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will secede from them when ever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as por tions of the present Union now claim to secede from it. All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to comprise a new Union as to produce a harmony only and prevent renewed seces sion. Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.' A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a true people. Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossi ble. The rule of a minority, as a permanent ar rangement, is wholly inadmissible. So that, re jecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and considera tion in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government, and while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government; upon the vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme,Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own, unless having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only sub stantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can over be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry, legal obligations in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now im perfectly suppressed, would be ultimately re. vived, without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking, we cannot separate —we can not remove our respective llwsaectiobnestwfreoemn etahcohtno.theAr, nor build an impassable husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other but the different parts of our country cannot do this ' They cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after sepa ration than before ? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends ? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always, and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the iden tical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or over throw it. I cannot, be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desiwus having the national constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendment, I freely recognise the full authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favour rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not specially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish themselves to accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the constitution—which amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institut;ons of States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstrue tion of most I have said I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments, s , J far as to say that holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. The Chief Magis trate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the States. The people them selves also can do this if they choose, but the Execu tive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people ? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right ? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal --the American people. By the frame of the Government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mlbatief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short inter vals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deli berately, that object will be frustrated by taking time ; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it, while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you whoare dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is :no single reasou for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favoured land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow country men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect and defend" it. lam loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory► stretching from every battle field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union► when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. During the delivery of the inaugural, which cone' menced at half-past one o'clock, there was much cheering, especially at any allusion to the Union. President Buchanan and Chief Justice Taney lie tened with the utmost attention to every word Of the address, and at its conclusion the latter admi nistered the usual oath, in taking which Mr. Lin coln was vociferously cheered. VISIT OF THE NEW YORK DELEGATION TO MR. LINCOLN. Washington, March 4, 1861. In pursuance of previous appointment, a delegs' tion of New Yorkers numbering nearly 1,000, headed by Marshals Gavitt and J. H. H. Ward, of Newyork, proceeded in a body this evening from Willard's Hotel to the White House, to pay their respects to Mr. Lincoln. Among the number were Thurlov , Wood,J. Kelly, and Senators Ferry, Tiero, M'GraW , and Bell, of the New York Legislature. On reach' ing the White House the crowd formed in a square about the main entrance, and a committee, consist ing of Senators Ferry and Bell and Messrs. Kell,' and Ward, was sent in to notify the President of their presence. The committee found Mr. Lincoln in the famous East Room, and were severally intro - duced by Senator Ferry. In response to an invitation to go out and address the crowd, he said he had just sat down to the dinner table, and had left his company there, but he would go out and make a very brief speech. On appearing he .was received with immense cheering, which was long continued. After co' parative silence had been restored, Senator Ferrf introduced Mr. Lincoln to the audience, and be spoke substantially as follows : FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS ---I understood both before I appeared from your committee and by the intro' duction of my friend that you were, from New York. Ye ti seem to be in good humour after the proceedings o f the day. If I have been fortunate enough to contribute 0 your good feeling I amglad, and I shall re j o i ce if w h e t , have said may cause the friends of the Union South to fee l good when they hear it. I made it as near right as I could in my poor humble judgment, and in accordance with the principles of the constitution and the perpetuity of freedorn. (Cheers.) He made it as well for the good of those Who lived south of Mason's and Dixon's line as you who liv e north of that line. (Cheers.) As ho arose from the dinner table to speak to them; he hoped that it would not be amid to bid them good night. Immediate applause followed and he retired, aftq narrowly escaping a general handshaking. When he had retired a gentleman in the crowd proposed to visit General Scott, at his residence, ill Tenth-street, and it was carried by a tremendous shout. Arriving at his quarters, the crowd, which had received strong accessions to its ranks, again dreg up, and a committee was sent in to invite the old chieftain to address the audience. The appearance of the gigantic form o f the venerable Commander-in -Chief upon the stoop e l his house was the signal for the wildest outburst of enthusiasm that ever greeted him. Nine rousing cheers were given him, which affected him a lmost to tears. On being introduced by Senator Fiero' Gen. Scott drew up his form erect, and, with voice thick with emotion, said : Friends,—Whether from New York, Pennsylvania, N° ll Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Kentucky—it would make 1 1 ° matter from what quarter you may come, you are el countrymen. (Great cheers, and cries of " You are I/ noble man," " Our saviour.") I can find no words t ° express my sense of the honour you have done ute. Felie ssi citizens, I receive these cheers with deep thankfulnes s ' One of the great saturnalias of the nation—the inaugur s ; tion of the Chief Magistrate—is safely passed—a Chie f Magistrate elected by the voice of the people. I pray W it/1 you that the adminstration may be as happy every day of its existence as has been this of its commenceme nt ' May the sentiments of good feeling expressed by the pre sident to-day be the sentiments of every one before the e' d ministration closes. M ay G o d so command that at t h e end we may be one pe o pl e , one b rotherhood, and one Union. ni was highly gratifi e d th a t a f ter paying respects to the Chic: Magistrate they should think it proper to make so corePl i i mentary a call up on hi m . H e was t h e oldest serva nt ° f this mighty republic, of which we are all pillars and our ports. Ho had laboured fifty years to serve the country? and he felt cheered by their presence here, and fully repaid for all he had d one . H e closed by i nvo ki ng t h e blessinge God upon the country, upon the audi ence an d their famili e ; and again and again thanked the m f or th e great honour they had done him. Immense cbeering followed, and the audience cried out t—" May G u d bl ess you, " " You are th,. e e savour of the country," " G oo d by e ," and many of e audience shed tears w hil e the old marl wasi