The Sun. — London, England, 1863-01-22 00:00:00

OYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT GARDEN. Under the Management of Miss Louisa Fyne and Mr. W. Harrison, Sole Lessees. THIS EVENING Wallace's new Opera of LOVE'S TRIUMPH: Miss Louisa Pyne, and Mdme. Laura Baxter Messrs. George Perren, W. H. Weiss, H. Corri, A. Cooke, and W. Harrison. Conductor —Mr. A. Mellon. After which, the Grand Comic Christmas Pantomime, en titled HARLEQUIN BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Doors open at half-past 6—Commence at 7. rir HEAT RE-R YA L, DRURY-LANE.- Lessee and Manager, Mr. Edmund Falconer. THIS EVENDIG, the Comic Drama of THE NEXT OF Aft ter which, the n rand Pantomime of LITTLE GO DDY TWO SHOES. Commence at 7. 1 1 11 EAT RE-R 0 YA 1, HAY MARKET. Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buokstone. THIS EVENING. at Seven o'clock, will be performed )(IR, AMERICAN COUSIN. Asa Trenchard, Mr. Buck rtone ; Lord Dundreary, Mr. Sothern. Alter which, a new and original Extravaganza, entitled lIASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA; or, The Happy Valley. Rasselas, Miss Louise Keeley. Concluding with OUR MARY ANNE. THEATRE ROYAL LYCEUM OPEN, under the Sole Management of Mr. FECHTER. THIS EVENING, Jan. 22, to commence with an Original Sketch, entitled A SUDDEN ATTACK. Messrs. Shore, Garden, H. Widdicomb, Miss Henrade, and Mrs. Lee. After which, at a Quarter to Eight, a New Romantic Drama, in Three Acts , and Pr3logne, entitled THE DUKE'S MOTTO, by Paul Feval and John Brougham. The principal character will be sustained by Mr. Pechter, sunrorted by Messrs. G. Vining, J. Brougham, H. Widdi combe, I'lntyre, P. Charles, Garden, Raymond, H. Butler, Dawson ; Misses Carlotta Leclercq, Kate Terry, E. Lavenue, and Elsworthy. Mr. Phelps and Mr. W. Montgomery are engaged, and will shortly appear. Doors open at half-past Six, performance to commence at Seven. Private Boxes Z 2 12s. ,3d., and £2 2s. Places registered. Stalls, 6s. 6d.'; Dress Circle, ss. gd. ; - upper . Circle, 4s. 6d. Prices at doors—Stalls, 6s. ; Dress ;Upper e, 6 Upper Circle, 4s. ; Pit, 2s. ; Gallery, l e . No half-prie,e. Box s. , office open daily from 11 till 5. The public areant entreated to take notice that no charge is made to the o ccupants of box places, or stalls, either for playbills or for the sate keep ing of hats and cloaks : and that the a ttendants in all parts of the house are forbidden to receive any gratuities whatever Stage-Manager, Mr. G. Vining. Acting-Manager, Mr. H. Barnett. ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE. Lessee and Manager, Mr Lindus. THIS EVENING, LAW v. LOVE : Miss M. Oliver. Followed by ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES AN OTHER. Mr. R. Roxby and Miss Amy Sedgwick. After which, the New Grand CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME, RIQUET WITH THE TUFT ; or, Harlequin and Mother Shipton." Mr, G. Belmore, Mr. C. Seyton, Misses Gray and Hudspeth, Mr. Milano, Mr. R. Power, Miss A. Collinson, and Mr. Halford. TH NATRE-R0 YAL, ADELPHL— j,."4 Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster. TFIIS EVENING, THE LI! TLE TREASURE. Mr Killington, Mr. R. Phillips, and Miss Marie Wilton. After which, A TICKET OF LEAVE : Messrs. J. L.Toole, r Bedford, and Mrs. Billington. To conclude with " GEORGE DE BARYWELL : or, Harlequin Folly in the Realms of Fancy." Miss Woolgar, BURS K. Kelly, Miss Seaman ; Messrs. J. L. Toole, P. Bed ford, Stephenson, C. J. Smith. Harlequin, Mr. John Lauri; C i olumbine, Miss Caroline Adams CiOV7ll, Mr. W. Hildyard ntaloon, Mr. J. Paulo. The celebrated Arthur and Eertrand. Commence at 7. The WEATIEER.—Sun Office, Jan. 22, 1863. THERMOMETER. Highest since Noon yesterday Lowest during the night This day at N00n.... Barometer-29.73. Wind—West; strong breeze, and cloudy. - ;.• Tr, k rki r at t U : t . ,, ‘‘ APJ tt LONDON, THURSD kit, JANUARY 22, 1863. In spite of Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH and his theories the welfare of our colonies is always a matter of interest to Englishmen. They are justly proud of the extent of that magnificent empire which en circles alike the snows of Columbian mountains and the rands that lie waste beneath an Austral sun ; which stretches to both Indies, and includes under its dominion every variety of soil and climate and wellnigh every race. We are proud likewise of the special gift for colonisation that seems to be long to our nation ; the enterprise and perseverance that admit no obstacle to be insuperable until they have converted nndrained swamps into fertile fields and transformed the primeval forest into cities and villages. In no direction is there a more promising field for the exercise of these qualities than in that grand new colony rescued from a long monopoly and opened to British energy under the auspices of the ex-Colonial Secretary Sir E. BULWER LYTTON. A very interesting account of the capabilities and prospects of this infant colony will be found in the address delivered by the Hon. Mr. CAMERON, at the London Tavern yes terday, Mr. CAMERON has come over in the capa city of delegate from British Columbia to represent the wishes of that country on matters of import ance. He has been for 27 years a mem ber of the Canadian Legislature, and is therefore qualified to speak with confidence the sentiments of our Canadian fellow subjects as well as those of the country he more immediately represents. It is highly gratifying to find that in both cases the sentiments of the colonists towards the mother country are most cordial and satisfactory. " As a colonist," said Mr. CAMERON, "my greatest pride is my allegiance to the British throne. I feel we are regarded as one with yourselves, under a free constitution, protected alike as citizens of one great empire." Though the Atlantic rolled between he declared his conviction that the union of a common origin, a common history, and a common interest in the welfare of the empire was stronger than any intervening barriers. He expressed very strongly the views of our North American colonies with regard to the annexation to the United States, which some have talked of. " While in British Columbia I read that one of your statesmen, and one I greatly respect, had in eloquent words given expression to the hope that the day was not far distant when the great American Republic would stretch from the frozen regions to the Southern Gulf. Permit me, as a British colonist, a Canadian by birth, the son of a British soldier, and, withal, a friend to the United States, in the name of, and for all, the British possessions in America, to say that it is an aspiration that finds no echo in a single colonial heart ; and I unhesitatingly affirm that any attempt to aecotoplish it would be resisted with our lives and fortunes to the last. In the colonies we are not Republicans; we love constitutional freedom, we respect the rights of property, and we have learned from experience to believe that, with all its faults, the constitution of Great Britain and its limited monarchy is, as affording the largest measure of liberty and the protection of a free press, the best in the world. We there foie desire never to see the British empire less." Such feelings are warmly reciprocated on this side of the Atlantic, and from the description given of the capacities of British Columbia, it promises to bee. , aae one of our most hopeful dependencies. Its gold fields we have all heard of—the rush to the Fraser River and Cariboo have made the uncouth nomenclature of those localities familiar to English ears. We have all heard, too, of the disappointment and disaster of lust year—a disaster attributable, in a great degree, to e xceptional and removable causes. The true wealth of British Columbia, however— like the fortune which the woodman, in the fable, left his &iildren in the fi rather in the soil itself than in any casual dl,3covery. vegetation says Mr. CAMERON, is forced as rapidly and into as lar ge a growth as in any other part of the Continent. The magnificent timber of the better known portion of the North American Con tinent is highly v alued, bat it is eclipsed by the trees of Columbia—the height and size of the native fir or pine tree astonishing even the Canadians. Mr: CAMERON reminds the visitors to the exhibi tion of the splendid spar, 271 feet long., sent from Columbia, and states that he has himseitseen a fir I, THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 22, 1868. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE. THIS DAY. —Morning, 3h. 56m.—Afternoon, 4h. 15m Ta-monitovr.-Morning, 4h. 35m.—Afternoon, 4h. 59m tree, and that not an uncommon one, which mea sured 327 feet:in length, and 11 feet in diameter. For 200 feet of its length there was not a single projcct ing branch. The cedars of Columbia dwarf the far famed cedars of Lebanon, and other woods are equally plentiful. As the lecturer observed, a soil which produces such trees cannot fail under cultiva tion to produce the lesser fruits. The two objects which brought him over were the desire of the Columbians to obtain a representative Government, and the proposal to open a line of communication be tween the several provinces of British North Ame rica. There is little fear that any English Govern ment of the present day will follow the example of Lord NORTH, and if it is shown that the colony is really sufficiently advanced for representative government to prove advantage ous, we cannot doubt that it will be accorded to them. All that a single man could do has been done, says Mr. CAMERON, by Governor DOUGLAS, but the time has arrived when self-government under a free constitution, is indispensable to the prosperity of the colony. A constitution has been accorded to Vancouver's Island, which is of so much less extant, and one half the population. It cannot therefore be justly withheld from a people who pro claim so distinctly their adherence to the old eoun try and their allegiance to the Crown. With regard to the principal object of Mr. CAMERON'S embassy there can be but one opinion. All must see the im portance of securing an unbroken line of communi cation between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through British territories. Those best qua lified to judge—Governor DOUGLAS, Captain PALLISER, and others—give their unhesitating opinion as to the feasibility of road-making through out these regions. "So far as the territory of Bri tish Columbia is concerned," says Mr. CAMERON, "a line of communication has been opened up ' through its centre, and the Rocky Mountains pre sent no impediment to their being surmounted by an ordinary road, owing to the existence of a natu ral pass. From the mountains to Red River and to St. Paul's, Minnesota, or to Fort William, Lake Superior, via Rainy Lake, though a rough country, it presents no real obstacle to the construction of a railway." The difficulties attending the opening of means of communication appear to have been very much overrated, the immense area occupied by water saving so much expense and labour. Canada has now nearly two hundred miles of railway completed which will probably be extended to Halifax, and then, "by making available the lakes and rivers of the West, and add ing cheap and easy roads, we shall be able for eight months in the year—and soon for the whole year round—to cross the continent in fifteen days." The advantages which the opening of such a line of communication would offer to British commerce are incalculable. There is no reason, said the able advocate, why the whole correspondence of the great East and Europe should not pass over this new American route, while the construction of the electric telegraph would open the shortest route for messages to China, Japan, and our Southern colonies. All that is needed to realise these splendid prospects is the application of British enterprise and British capital to the deve lopment of the resources of our own possessions. The settlers are cordial in their feelings towards the mother country, and eager for our assistance in a scheme that will benefit ourselves as much as them. Nature, though wild and rough, is yet favourable, and science, in the shape of engineering skill, is at the highest point. The securing of a passage through British territory, from the one great ocean to the other, will, with the aid of our naval supre macy, preserve unbroken our communication with the East in the face of every opposition, and render us independent of one of the greatest evils of war war—the interruption of our commerce. lAfter all the clamour we have had about garot ting it is surprising how small a portion of the po pulation came to grief in this way. Certainly not one in a hundred. Why so much stir about so few persons? Could they not take a broken head or a sore throat quietly, and not want to entail on the rest of the community the expense of doubled police rates, and the cost of maintaining idle fellows in prison for double the usual time ? Indeed the question might well range more widely. We may reasonably ask why, for the sake of the small minority who suffer from punishable thefts or frauds, we should uphold such a costly system of administration of justice and of penal establish ments. There must always be a certain proportion of the community who will suffer hardships from the violence and roguery of their fellow -creatures, but are we all to be saddled with, say, fully half the amount of our present income-tax, and, all things included, with much more, merely to protect or indemnify, as far as we can, the very few, rela tively to the whole community, who would suffer from violence and fraud ? Are we all to make sacri flees that here and there a man who has been robbed may see the thief, at an enormous expense to the country, sentenced to several years of penal servi tude Let no one scout such questions as absurd. We have merely applied to one kind of larceny, fraud, or felony, the reasoning one of our principal con temporaries has applied to another. It has been a favourite argument of late against the Ballot that so few persons can be found who suffer from the want of it. Ask your acquaintances, it is said, and you will find that every one says that other people , need it, but he himself does not. And who do you hear complaining that they have been coerced or bribed to vote against their convictions P The man who has been robbed of his franchise by a landlord or creditor is, after all, a rare being. There may be such a person, but who of us knows him P The inference is, why compel us all to vote secretly in order that a very small minority of the country may not be compelled to vote against their will. Vote-robbery is a thing respecting which a great deal of noise is made by the disap pointed party, but where are your robbed indivi duals ? The worth of the argument is just the same as in the case in regard to property with which we started. We have no doubt the numbers who really need protection are / very large; but, granting tLem to be but few, why should not the rights of those few be vindicated ? If we possessed any means of preventing the few from being robbed of property at all comparable with the 11111,,t in reference to vote-robbery, we should assuredly at once adopt it, and that without hesitation. We should be thankful enough for what would be infi nitely cheaper and more effectual than punitive and deterrent systems. The truth is, in a question of justice, we do not and j ought not to consider the mere number of sufferers at all ; since no wrong, it is confessed, ought to be tolerated without a remedy. Admitting, there fore, far argument's sake, that the numbers were few who were coerced into a vote for one candidate when their preference and judgment would have given it to another, as a case of clear wrong, we ought at any reasonable cost to see that the f ew had their rights. The law of the country has created for them the right, has made it, therefore, painful to be robbed of it ; and, though the robbed were but few, the State would still be bound to protect those few from robbery. We hardly need add that, in this case, the protection would be afforded at no cost at all, but at a considerable saving. The ex pense of an election by ballot would be much less than that of an election in the ordinary way; much less to both the candidate and the public. Further, no one would he called on to suffer in any way to protect the supposed few. It cannot be called a hardship, by any honest man, that he should be re quired to give his vote so that no one knew how he gave it at the time of voting. If he wishes to make it public, he is in no way restricted from doing so. We are sometimes, indeed, told that it is unfair to compel all to give, whether they wish it or not, a secret vote. We reply, no man whose word would be taken can make such a com plaint: The voter can always, if he wish it, tell how he intends to vote, or how he has voted. The liar, indeed, conscious that no one believes him, is the only man who can complain that the ballot enforces secrecy of the vote. It compels to secrecy, indeed, in the actual voting ; hence it enables those whose vote might be garotted by a landlord or a creditor to avoid his grip, but it leaves men at liberty to make their vote as public as they please. As to those whose word would not be believed, it is not the ballot, but their own character, which deprives them of the publicity they covet. We have been led to these remarks by perusing the answers to questions sent by the Ballot Society to Southampton and to East Rent, after the two recent closely contested elections there. There was no doubt of the bribery and intimidation in the borough, or of the intimidation in the county ; but the cases confidentially communicated were few. This is almost always the case. Until a commission seises a constituency by the throat, puts it to the oath,.and compels it to confess, we are always told by the winning party that " there may have been cases of corruption, but they were unauthorised, and really few." We are told the same respecting the coercion of dependents. But the latter and more cruel form of bribery—the appeal to the voter's fears and necessities—does not permit of verification except privately. The cases which could be ascertained by a commission itself would not be many. Indeed, no one would have the cruelty to think of subjecting a body of county voters to such a test, as asking them whether they should have voted for the Whig or Tory member, as the case may be, had they at the time been living under a landlord of the same polities. We are told, indeed, at Southampton that in the afternoon the Tory bribery was both extensive and direct, but that it was the coercion which was chiefly relied on. It is notorious that the contest lay between two great companies, and it is asserted that all the numerous employes of the winning com pany voted for the Tory candidate. There is another large company in the town, with 120 elec tors in their employment, all of these, it is also con fidently said, with a single exception, voted for the Tory candidate. No one, with any knowledge of Englishmen, will believe for a moment that all these dependents of two powerful commercial com panies were really Tories, or could prefer a London corporation nobody to an intelligent and well-known Liberal. The coercion of great companies is likely to become another of the facts which will strengthen the demand for the ballot. The cases of landlord coercion in East Kent are quite of the normal type. Of the whole it may be :safely affirmed that the ballot would have redressed all the evils complained of at both elections. Fifty open public-houses, direct bribery in the afternoon, and the intimidation by employers of labour, would have been utterly useless at Southampton, and the usual intimations of landlords would have been of little avail in East Kent. The Totnes election is another case in point, the influence of a noble Duke having twice returned the member for that borough. We hope, therefore, the Ballot Society will persist in its praiseworthy efforts to keep their subject before the consti tuencies. Last night Mr. GIBSON addressed his constituents at Ashford. The right hon, gentleman's speech was received with many demonstrations of applause, but on critically examining it, it does not appear to contain much. He said that it was his duty and privilege to appear before the electors and render an account of his doings in Parliament. He said, truly enough, that of late men's minds had been diverted from what he might term domestic poli tics by the unfavourable state of the times at home and abroad. With watching the civil war in America, and regarding the distress in the cotton districts, they had not had sufficient leisure to dwell upon those minor points which, in quieter and happier times, would have assumed an import ance and significance. Mr. GIBSON paid a just tri bute to the admirable conduct of the distressed population of Lancashire ; but the following pas sage comes rather strangely from so influential a personage. It seems to presage an amount of in difference or else few resources on the part of the Government that is incredible to conceive or else strange to contemplate : " They have acted throughout like men knowing that the cause of suf fering was beyond the control of their own country, their own Legislature, and their Government, and these distresses had arisen from circumstances for which no one here could be blamed." This sounds rather hopeless, but when Mr. GIBSON tries to be encouraging the result is not much more satisfac tory. He holds out, as a panacea for the dreadful ills that these men are underg)ing, the prospect of their conduct now coming under consideration should the question of Reform come under the notice of the Legislature. Really, this seems like a mockery of woe, in every view of the case, when we reflect on the very slight chance there exists of the question being taken up by Ministers, those who have had the promise will most probably have to wait long for the performance. Again, this is not the sort of thing to suggest in connection with the subject of a great calamity, the good mentioned does not partake of the nature of the evil. Mr. GIB SON'S ideas on this subject remind one of a facetious speech made some time ago by a gentleman who was satirizing Mr. BRIGHT. He said that the lat ter gentleman always considered public questions to the total ignoring of the private burdens of the community. If any complained of poverty he would tell them of the franchise, and to those who wanted the necessaries of life he dilated on the ad vantages of political existence. Another thing that is noticeable in this portion of Mr. GIBSON'S speech is the style in which he talks about Reform. Really the assurance with which some public men can talk of their own misdoings is quite surprising. If the Ministers had not the honesty to keep their promises they might at least have the grace not to charge others with their own shortcomings. When a Cabinet Minister has the effrontery to speak like this to his constituen t s, it isenough to make men despair —" a Ll' e h r et most Government e n d t o d u s n l o y t , t l h r ey a r o c f cc p i o r lit , i T eal ara ho li n e e r s e ty t - o . offered a measure of Parliernentary e y fo w rn i i i . e: much encoura,gement from the counittr Government silent on this poin t, surely expediency sense of propriety did not keep the members of thedi might make them abstain from these absurd and un founded statements. If what they persist in saying is true, for it is only the other de) -- that Sir CHARLES WooD, at Halifax, said very much the same —why did they aesurac, the serious responsibility of pre venting their opponents from completing what they had undertaken, The only charitable solution that can be found for these extravagant asseverations, is that that they feel their case is bad and are trying a desperate mode of disarming criticism by sounding their own praises, or at all events screening their own culpabilities at the expense of others, and also at the cost of a little veracity of statement. Mr. GIBSON glorified himself and the ministry for the repeal of the paper duty, and con tended that all he had prophesied of good had come to pass, and many additional advantages had like wise accrued from this measure to the community. It is one chief characteristic of those who have a particular plan of their own that they can never be moderate in their views, and in speaking of the ad vantages of cheap newspapers, Mr. GIBSON exag gerates so greatly that he does not do himself or his cause any service. Those who most appreciate the cheap press will not believe overdrawn accounts of their achievements, and it is no want of respect to them that forbids us to credit what their advo cate so unhesitatingly affirms. Exaggerated lan guage makes one doubtful of sincerity, and the opening sentence of Mr. GIBSON'S remarks on this point seems to hint that there is a suspicious secret of personal pique in the background of this excited eulogy. He states with some warmth that when the Government repealed the Paper Duty they were told that "it was a reckless sacrifice of re venue, with the view of pleasing somebody who had a crotchet." Perhaps it was the wrongs of that nameless martyr who goes by the name of some body that fired the speaker with so much zeal and energy. The right hon. gentleman concluded his speech with some remarks on America, stating that so deeply had we studied the case, that we had almost made the American question an English one. Mr. GIBSON denied the assertion that had been made that slavery had nothing to do with the war, and observed that in his opinion it was the primary cause of it :—" Secession had taken place, and the consequent war for the purpose of per petuating, cherishing, and extending slavery. I don't believe that an empire having slavery as its basis can be a prosperous, happy, and enduring empire; and, therefore, I cannot desire to see such a one established in any part of the world." Mr. GIBSON'S views on this case certainly do not repre sent the general feeling of the country. It is not understood that slavery is the foundation of the quarrel, nor the cause which is perpetuating the war. Slavery may be " hateful, infidel, and pesti lent," as Mr. GIBSON asserts it to be, but it will not be put down by the mode which the North are adopting. Altogether, if this speech is the earnest and forerunner of the policy about to be adopted by Government next session, the aegury is any thing but a happy one. Time must prove the efficiency or non-efficiency of Ministerial measures, but we are free to speculate, and the result of this venture cannot be otherwise than doubtful as regards the strength and stability of men who can say no thing better for themselves than is met with in these wordy speeches which, after all, only come to very lame and impotent conclusions. UNSTAMPED AGREEMENT3.—A question arose on two different eases in the Bail Court yesterday illustrating the working of the stamp laws. In both the point in the argument turned upon the form of agreements, which, not being stamped, cou2d not be produced in evi dence, and could not be stamped except on payment of a fine of £lO. In the one case the action was compromised ; in the other the fine was paid and the document produced in court. Mr. justice Blackburn observed that it would be well if the Chancellor of the Exchequer could be persuaded to alter this part of the law, as the injury often fell on the wrong party. THE NEW GAME ACT.—The Court of Common Pleas delivered judgment on an appeal case yester day, which is of considerable importance in the construction of the new Game Act. The magistrates of Essex convicted several persons of an offence under the new act whom a policeman found walking along a high road, one of them having rabbits in his possession and the others bearing evidence on their persons that they had been engaged in rabbit-poaching. The prisoners appealed on the ground that they were not seen trespassing on any land. Chief Justice Erie delivered the judgmen; of the Court that it was not necessary prisoners should be seen in the act of trespass ; it was enough if, as in this case, there was evi dence from which the trespass could to reasonably inferred. The sentence was therefore confirmed, PROFITABLE PREACHING.—On the first Sunday of the new year the Rev. Remy Ward Beecher announced to his congregation (Brooklyn, New York) that the pew-rents for last year amounted to 18,649 dols. Notice was given that the sittings for the present year would be let at public auction that evening. THE ACTON MURDER.—The inquest on the police man Davey, who was so barbarously shot at his own door in the village of Acton, was begun yesterday after noon, when the widow of the deceased man and the surgeon who made a post-mortem examination gave their evidence. The poor woman, who went to the door to answer the knock, said that when she opened it there Was no one in front, but a man's voice &am behind a pillar asked if her husband was at home. She had heard the voice once before, when her husband, with whom the man was then speaking, told her it was young Brooks. She thought she could ide n tify th e voice if she heard it again, and the inquest was adjourned till she should have an opportunity of doing so. neigh bourhood of Ottawa, Canada , have been startled SI NGUL AR OCCURRENCE. — People in the lately to find that soon after dark, at intervals of about half an hour, the ground beneath thew has been felt perceptibly to shake, accompanied with a rumbling sound somewhat resembling that of an earthquake. Nervous persons were naturally somewhat alarmed, and many were under the im pression that the phenomenon was the effect of an earth quake. Its lug c ontinuance, however, a n d it s repeated recurrencemindsof at short interva l s , f orbid such an idea in th e intelligent persons, and the theory advanced by them is that the very severe frost which has prevailed has so far penetrated the earth , owin g to the absence of snow, that it bascaused the grou nd to mo ve. In support of this view large cracks appear in the ground, extending to the length of nearly a quarter of a mile. They have been ob served to extend even under the hones._Quebec Mercury. THE COTTON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.—At th e weekly meeting of the executive committee of this association, held on Tuesday last, grants of cotton seed were made to cultivators in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Now South Wales. A cotton gin was also granted to an appli cant in Qu3ensland. A letter was read advising the pur chase of a quantity of New Orleans and Sea Islands cotton seed in New York on account of the association, the bulk of :he New Orleans seed being int en d e d f or distribution by the Turkish Government in it s do minions. A. letter was also read from a gentleman in T o b ag o, suggesting that cotton cultivation sh ou ld b e car ried on them on a large scale by the aid of freed n egroes from the United States, and giving an estimate of the cost of cultivation, showing a aandsome profit to those en gaging in the proposed undertaking. ONE GAMEKEEPER SHOT BY ANOTIIER.—A shocking aff‘ir took pla2e on Saturday last, on the estate of Sir Thomas 'Whichcote, Bart., at Aswarby, near Sleaford. The head gamekeeper and the under gamekeeper were out shooting rabbits, eke former taking the line of the bottom, o hedge, ttom n a the d th the h latter ead o keeper e c eupp:g a position in the field some di s t a nce away. Suddenly rabbit started from the hedge n fired, killing the rabbit. Some of the shot struck the root a a tree, and one glancing off at an obtuse angle, entered th( eye of the under keeper, pene trating to the bra n, and kil int; him on the spot. THE BISHOPS AND TUE SUNDAY EXCURSION TR A fleeting was held l ast even ing at IN Cambridge .—A crowded hall, earnan-street, Oxford- s t ree t, M r. Loaden in the chair, fo r the purpose of publi c ly pro t est i ng against the recent attempt cf the episcopal bench to induce directors of railways to discontinue the running of excursion trains on the Sunday. The Tjhairman havimg briefly opened the procet dings, the roeutin; was addressed by Dr. Rafitt, Messrs. Medland, Slack-, Ronny, Morrell, and other gen tlemen, and a resolution \las adopted, with three dissen tients, c mdemnatory of tee proceedings of the bishops. A memorial to railway directors was also adopted, pray ing them to continue the Sunday excursion trains during the ensuing excursion seasoa. A vote of thanks was passed to the committee of the Sunday League for convening the The long -Anno unce meeting, and to the chairmul for pr e siding. - Muerte do Portici was re vived at the Grand Opem, Paris, o n Monday even ing. The housewas crowdodAnd the rept esentation of Auber's work was, it is stated, in the hi g h est degree successful. T h e Tcmps says :—" Th e celebrated duet ' Amour sacre de la Patric' produced as usual an immense effect : it aroused the enthusiasm of the entire house, and the patriotic emotion which filled the audience was a long time in subsiding." The scenery and dresses, it is reported, are very splendid. 1 FRANCE. PARIS, JAN. 22. The Illonsteur of this morning publishes a report, signed by MM. Persigny and Rouher, which is fol lowed by a decree of the Emperor opening credits of 5,000,000 f. for the Ministries of the Interior and Public Works. These credits are destined for the subvention of works of communal utility, for the assistance of benevolent institutions, and for the execution of works of an industrial character. The 'Paris papers of this morning publish tele grams from Lisbon, dated January the 21st, assert , ting that the Duke de Saldanah will take the Presidency of the Council, and that he will be re placed at Rome by the Marquis de Louie. The Pays adverts to the rumours prevalent with regard to the French successes in Puebla. It states that the accounts are satisfactory, inasmuch as they come from a quarter which would not will ingly give credit to any news at all advantageous to France. It expresses a hope that General Forey has purposely delayed the departure of the expected steam vessel, in order that on its arrival it might convey the decisive intelligence of success to the French arms, The same journal announces the death of Madame Cardinal, who had for forty years held an academy for young persons. The highest testimony is ac corded to her merits, and the zeal with which she aided the cause of literature. The Constituttonnel mentions the marriage of the Marshal Canrobert to Miss Macdonald, who counts among her ancestors the celebrated Flora Macdonald, who was of so much service to Charles Edward. It also mentions that the Princess Ma thilde has arranged to give a grand entertainment in the artistic style for which she is renowned. L' Opinion Nationale, of this morning, discusses the effects of the possible election of the Duke of Saxe Coburg to the throne of Greece. Prince Alfred, it remarks, would then become a member of the Germanic Confederation, with a voice in the Diet, and, being supported by British influence, would greatly increase the influence of his small principality. Prussia and Austria, who perform alternately the parts of Jean gui pleure et Jean gui rit, will take opposite sides in this matter. Prussia will rejoice, inasmuch as the family ties and the common religion will favour them, while the late despatch of Earl Russell will render Denmark very reluctant to see such an arrangement. Austria will look with a suspicious eye on the change, and would much prefer the accession of Prince Augus tus of Saxe-Coburg. This, however, is impossible, as the constitution does not allow a Catholic prince. France herself would not view with satisfaction any increase of English influence on the banks of the Rhine, which might arise in the uncertain times in which we live. The Grecian question is thus complicated in the extreme, but it appears impos sible to rely on the protocols of 1829 to exclude from the throne of Greece the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. BOURSE, Jan. 21.—The market has not been animated. Threes (for the Account) were at 69f 950. The Railway Share market has been heavy. Towards the close the market became very buoy ant, Stock was in demand, and business left off as follows : 4i per Cents .. Do. mid 3 per Cents Do. end month 7O 05 New 3 per Cents Do. end month - Credit Mobilier 1167 50 Do, end month 1168 75 RAIL' Bank Shares 3400 -- Credit k oncier l4BO Piedmontese Fives Italian Loan . 70 70 Russian Austrian Spanish Threes 53 Home Debt 'AYS. Cash. Account. Orleans 1690 .. 1086 25 Northern Nevi ditto 4ons and Mediterranean 1170 .. 1165 Oeneva 4lB 75 .. 416 . Southern B3l 25 .. 835 Western Eastern Sardinian - Austrian Lorpbard North of Spain Saragossa 662 50 .. 660 Ditto to Barcelona MADRID, JAN. 21. It is stated that Marshal Serrano is desirous of re-establishing a good understanding between France and Spain. EGYPT. ALEXANDRIA, JAN. 21. The Consular Body was received by the new Viceroy yesterday, and presented the following address : "The Consular Body has the honour to present to your Highness its sincere felicitations upon your happy accession to the Viceroyalty. Each of us has had the honaur to know your Highness in private life, and on more than one occa sion to appreciate the eminent qualities which led your Highness to avoid, with a reserve as dignified as it was wise, taking any part in public business during the late Govern ment. Your Highness knew how to obtain respect by respecting the rights of others. By devoting all your activity to improve the condition of your vast estates, your Highness afforded a model of good Government. During the Regency which your Highness was called upon to assume you were able, despite the difficulties of the position, to secure the earnest sympa thies of the people whose destiny was committed to your charge, and in dealing with the foreign representatives your Highness gave proofs of firmness and justice that inspired the profound respect of the whole colony. Such ante cedents offer the best guarantee for the future of Egypt. The European Powers all have the same interest in the progress of a country, as important by its geographical position as by its fertility and wealth, and in the develop ment o: its commerce, the source of prosperity as much for the different nationalities which we represent as for the inhabitants of the country which your Highness is called upon to govern. That this common interest cannot be more surely attained than by the serious and enlightened mind of your Highness, the Consular Body is deeply con vinced, and, therefore, unites in one and the same wish that Heaven may preserve your Highness during many long years for the well-being and prosperity of Egypt." After having thanked the Consular Body for the good wishes expressed in the above address, the Viceroy said : " I am deeply impressed with the task which God has imposed upon me by recalling my uncle, and placing me at the head of the Government of Egypt, and I hope, under the auspices of his Imperial Majesty, my august Sovereign, to be able to worthily fulfil it. 2" I am firmly resolved, gentlemen, to devote to the pros perity of the country which I am called upon to govern all the perseverance and energy whereof lam capable. The base of all good administration is order and economy in the finances. This order and economy I shall follow by every possible means, and, in order to give an example to all, as well as a proof of my firm intention, I have resolved upon abandoning the system of my predecessors, by fixing for myself a civil list, which I shall never exceed. " This measure will enable me to devote to the develop ment of agriculture all the resources of the country. I shall thus also be able to abolish the fatal system of forced labour (corvees) hitherto followed by the Egyptian Government in its works, and which is the principal, and I may say, the only cause which has prevented, and still prevents, the country from taking all the development of which it is susceptible, Due consideration shall also be paid to the system of free trade in Governmental measures, which will cause comfort to be diffused among all classes of the popu: lation. As regards moral questions, public instructions, which is the basis of all progress, and a good administra- tion of justice, which is the basis of public security, Rill have all my sr licitude, and from order in the finances and the public administration and the good administration of justice will result greater facility and security in the relations of Egypt with European Powers. I hope, gentle men, that, convinced of the sentiments by which I am animated, you will always afford me your loyal and en• lighted support." M. Beauv4l, the French r9cirfientative, then spoke, and said that the French Government had always recommended that the system of forced abour should not be applied in the works of the Suez Canal. The Viceroy replied that he had never thought that France was ready to favour such a system, and that he had no intention of alluding to the works of the Suez Canal in his remarks. The Viceroy's speech :has produced a great effect. CAIRO, lAN. 21. An envoy of Ismail Pasha will leave for Con stantinople to notify his Highness's accession to the Viceroyalty, LITERATURE. Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea. The Invasion of the Crimea; its Origin and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord. Raglan. By Alexander William Kinglake. Vole. I. and 11. William Blackwood and Sons. One of the most remarkable historical works of this century has here, at length, made its appear ance. Long and eagerly as it has been expected, it will be none the less cordially welcomed because of the protracted delay of its publication. That delay has rather whetted curiosity than blunted the edge of it. Civilian though the author is, and there fore disqualified, to a certain extent, from assuming any very conspicuously recognisable place as a dis tinctly military historian, he, nevertheless, is known far and wide to have been so lavishly endowed with many rare ana exceptional qualifications of another kind—qualifications peculiarly fitting him for the very task he has here undertaken, that of penning this elaborate record of the Invasion of the Crimea, that soldiers even have not disdained to look forward with solicitude to the appearance of Mr. Kinglake's annals of the Great Warlike Enterprise of our gene ration. As those of a Master of mere Style, our author's abilities were known to be consummate. And as according to Buffon's terse and truthful axiom, le style c'est l'homme—the writer of " Eothen" may well be considered to have long since assumed high rank among his contemporaries. By this second and grander contribution to our national literature, that position, won for himself at a single bound, as it were, upon the apparition of " Eothen," has been not simply confirmed, but in contestibly advanced and elevated. The exquisite finish of " the Style" (here, in very deed, " the Man") has,moreover, been wrought out during nine years of deliberate study by this pen of power and fascination. Mr. Kinglake thus consuming precisely the mystic number of years recommended by Horace under the symbol of the wine cups— tribus aut novem, Miscentur cyathis pocula comraodis, Qui Musas amat impares, Terms ter cyathos attonitus petet Yates." Sentence after sentence has thus been touched into beauty, and tempered to a marvellous flexibility and keenness—each, as it were, as one of those ribbon like blades, from the City of the Rose and the Aloe, glittering, incisive, and damascened. In the mere manner of it, the work here submitted to us is, in fact, as near perfection as could well be. The writer has not alone, always completely at his command a most copious and ornate vocabulary—he evidences perpetually, in prose, that rarest gift of the lyrist, the curiosa jelicitas verborum. His nar rative is ever pre-eminently picturesque. Mr. Kinglake's version of History never reads like an old Almanack. It has the charm of romance and the passion of oratory. One of the distinctive marvels of the work is this, that a result so symmetric—(we speak here of the mere arrangement of the narrative)--should have been evolved, apparently with the utmost facility, from a mass of evidence, both oral and written, in itself, one might have supposed, as bewilderingly chaotic as it is voluminous. State papers, public and private correspondence among administrators, and warriors, and diplomatists, and sovereigns, military despatohee, ministerial documents, the blue-books of England and the livres fauna of France, these, and multitudes of other printed mat ters, have been pouring in, all the while he has been preparing this History of the Crimea, upon Mr. Kinglake—pouring in upon him singly or in showers—always bringing, to his serene and medi tative intellect, help, and not (as another might have dreaded) embarrassment. The Raglan papers alone might, from their very abundance and diver sity, have confused a less sagacious or a less con templative intelligence. With masterly discrimi nation, however, Mr. Kinglake has extracted from these multifarious sources of information only what was really of worth to himself as a narrator. And with the facts thus collected he has tessellated his his tory. Now that that history is finished, or at least that one part of it lies before us completed, we can recognise in it the minute elaboration, the perma nence, and the splendour of a masterpiece of enamelling. Slowly, as the work has been growing up, under the careful hands of this great artist craftsman—the Ministers, the Admirals, and the Generals of England, knowing all the while what work it was that was in course of fabrica tion—" I declare," he exclaims, looking back down the perspective of his silent labours during these last nine years, " I declare Ido not remember that any one of these public men has ever said to me that there was anything which, for the honour of our arms, or for the credit of the nation, it would be well to keep concealed. Every man has taken it for granted," he adds, "that what is best for the repute of England is the truth." The circumstance is one not unworthy, indeed, of being thus noted down, for while it will not, as the writer observes, in any way surprise his own countrymen, it can hardly fail, we should imagine with him, to appear "passing strange" in the eyes of foreigners. The History of the Crimean War, as here related by Mr. Kinglake in these two opening volumes, carries the reader on through more than 1,000 pages from the Origin of the War itself to the close of the Battle of the Alma. When the Second book is shut, it leaves the banners of the Allies fluttering in triumph, bullet -riddled and blackened with gunpowder, upon that blood stained plateau of Crim Tartary, thenceforth famous in the annals of France and England. It is not in his description of a military exploit, however, in his delineation of the vicissitudes of a battle-field, or in his enumeration of the intricate movements of armies confronting each other in deadly strife, that Mr. Kinglake's chief excellence can be said, to our thinking, in any way to consist. There he is beyond all doubt of it, immeasurably surpassed, not only by the great military annalists of our own and of other literatures, from Zenophon to Jomini and Napier, but by such luminous narrators among civi lians as M. Thiers and Lord Macaulay. It is in his limning of men rather than of events, in his por traiture of the actors rather than in his representa tion of the scenes themselves, that the author of this extraordinary work may be said in some respects to surpass almost all the historical contributors either to ancient or to modern literature. Dead and gone many of the personages here depicted are long since—the Emperor Nicholas, Lord Raglan, Mar shal St. Arnaud, Admiral Lyons, the Earl of Aberdeen -- yet one after another they are brought before us on this magic mirror of the past by a touch from the potent wand of this magician of the pen. A sentence often, a single phrase sometimes, depicts the individual referred to, not partially or faintly, but vividly and com pletely and instantaneously a s i n a photograph. Nov it is Admiral Lyons, with that "anxious, craving expression of features," having about it something that reminded men of a greater name ! Now it is that other gallant Sea-Captain of ours, Admiral D uncles, with his " square Scottish head and his rough, shrewd, good-humoured eyebrows, grown grey in the service of a political party !" Living and dead, the chief characters in the history of the time here flit across the disc of our vision. Sir Strat ford Canning rivets our attention one whik, upon a mere passing glance at those "thin, tight, merci less lips" of his, or at another charms us with "the sea blue depth of the eyes that lighten upon us from under the shadow of that Canning brow." Here, however, is Mr. Kinglake's more careful pencilling of— LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. " Whether men studied his despatches, or whether they listened to his spoken word, or whether they were only by standers caught and fascinated by the grace of his pre sence, they could scarcely help thinking that if the English nation was to be maintained in peace or drawn into war by the will of a single mortal, there was no man who looked so worthy to fix its destiny as Sir Stratford Canning. He had faults which made him an imperfect Christian, for his temper was fierce, and his assertion of self was so closely involved in his conflicts that he followed up his opinions with his feelings and with the whole strength of his imperious nature. But his fierce temperbeing always under control when purposes of state so required, was far from being an infirmity, and was rather a weapon of exceeding sharpness, for it was so wielded by him as to have more tendency to cause dread and surrender than to generate resistance. Then, too, every judgment which he pronounced was enfolded in words so complete as to exclude the idea that it could ever be varied, and to convey therefore the idea of duration. As though yielding to fate itself, the Turkish mind used to band and fall down before him." In startling contrast to whom, appears, close by there on the historic canvass, the great opposing combatant. The mighty potentate, that is, who, far away from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe (then Sir Stratford Canning), far away there in his palace home at St. Petersburg, was ever liable to be half maddened at the mere mention of the name of that arch-thwarter of his despotic policy, the formidable Euglish Ambassador at Constantinople! Here, in: fact, is Mr. Kinglake's outline of the stately pre sence and gigantesque form of— THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS. " Holding the boundless authority of an Oriental Poten tate, the Czar was armed besides with all the power which is supplied by high organisation and the clever appliances of modern times. VVhat he chose to do he actually did,. He might be sitting alone and reading a despatch, and if it happened that its contents made him angry, he could touch a bell and kindle a war without hearing counsel from any living man. In the room where he laboured he could hear overhead the clicking of machinery, and he liked the sound of the restless magnets, for they were giving instant effeot to his will in regions far away." Admirably depicted thus, moreover, in a few mar— vellous words is— MR. GLADSTONE. "If he was famous for the splendour of his eloquence, for his unaffected piety, and for his blameless life, he was celebrated far and wide for a more than common liveliness of conscience. He had once imagined it to be his duty to quit a Government, and to burst through strong ties of friendship and gratitude, by reason of a thin shade of difference on the subject of white or brown sugar. It was believed that, if he were to commit even a little sin, or to imagine an evil thought, he would instantly arraign him self before the dread tribunal which awaited him in his own bosom ; and that his intellect being subtle and micro scopic, and delighting in casuistry and exaggeration, he would be likely to give his soul a very harsh trial, and treat himself as a great criminal for faulty too minute to be visible to the naked eyes of laymen." Or Mr. Bright, as the Peue-at-any-Price Cham pion, the author remarks felicitously, that "he had the advantage of being generally able to speak in. a state of sincere anger." Referring hardly less felicitously, and far more gracefully, upon the very next page, to Mr. Bright and his great co-operator, Mr. Cobden, as those " two orators who had shown with what a strength, with what a masterly skill, with what patience, with what a high courage they could carry a great' scientific truth through the storm of politics." Of the then Prime Minister, the Earl of Aberdeen, the historian dexterously observes at once, in condemnation and in extenuation, that his " hatred of war Was so honestly and piously entertained, and was at the same time so excessive and self-defeating, that in one point of view it had the character of a virtue, and in another it was more like a disease." Adding, shortly after, that, " Lord Clarendon's pithy phrase was less applicable to the country at large than to the Prime Minister—lt was strictly true that Lord Aberdeen drifted!" About the most bril liant delineation, however, among all the many mar vellous portraitures displayed upon these pages, is Mr. Kinglake's really wondrous presentment of--- MARSHAL ST. ARNAUD. "He impersonated, with singular exactness, the idea which our forefathers had in their minds when they spoke of what they called a Frenchman' ; for although (by cow ing the rich, and filling the poor with envy) the great French Revolution had thrown a lasting gloom on the na tional character, and left this one man untouched. He was bold, gay, reckless, and vain, but beneath the mere glitter of the surface there was a great capacity for administrative business, and a more than common willingness to take away human life. In Algerine warfare he had proved himself, from the first, an active enterprising officer, and in later years a brisk commander. He was skilled in the duties of a military governor, know ing how to hold tight under martial-law a conquered or a half conquered province. The empire of his mind over his actions was so often interrupted by bodily pain and weak ness, that it is hard to say whether, if he had been. gifted with health he would have been a firm, stedfast man; but he had violent energies, and a spirit so elastic, that when for any interval the pressure of misery or of bodily pain was lifted off, he seemed as strong and as joyous as though he had never been crushed, He chose to subordinate the lives and the rights of other inen to his own advancement. Therefore he was ruthless, but not in any other sense cruel. No one, as he himself said, could be more good natured. In the intervals between the grave deeds that he did, he danced and sung. To men in authority, no less than to women, he paid court with flattering stanzas and songs. He had extraordinary activity of body, and was highly skilled in the performance of gymnastic feats. He played the violin; and, as though he were resolved in all things to be a Frenchman of the old time, there was once at least in his life a time of depression, when (to the astonishment of the good priest, who fell on his knees and thanked God as for a miracle wrought), he knelt down and confessed himself, seeking comfort and absolution from his Church. When first I saw him, in that year, he was moving with his force to wreak vengeance on a neighbouring tribe, and he was to march five weeks deep into the desert. He spoke with luminous force, and with a charming anima tion; and it seemed to me, as we rode along by the side of the heavy-laden soldiery, that the clear incisive words in which he described to me the mechanism of the moveable column' were a model of military diction. But his keen, handsome, eager - features so kindled with the mere stir and pomp of war; he seemed so to love the simple going and coming of his aides-de-camp, and the rolling drums, and the joyful appeal of the bugles ; he was so content with the gleam of his epaulettes half hidden and half revealed by the graceful white cabaan, so happy in the bounding pride of his Arab charger, that he did not seem like a man destined to be chosen from out of all others as the instrument of a scheme requiring grave care and secresy. Yet of secresy he was most capable, and at that very time he had upon his mind, and was concealing, not from me only (for that would be only natural), but from every officer and man around him, a deed of such a kind that few men, perhaps, have ever done the like of it in secret." Following close upon which, let us here place this instant glimpse of Marshal St. Arnaud's inscrutable Sovereign— NAPOLEON 111. " If he had been open in disclosing the ambition which was almost cast upon him by the circun3stances of his birth, he had been as successful as the first, Brutus in passing for a man of a poor intellect. Both '.33 France and in England at that time men in general imagined him to be dull. When he talked, the flow of his ideas was sluggish; his features were opaque ; and after years of dreary studies, the writ ings evoked by his thoughtful, long-pondering mind, had not shed much light on the world. Even the strange ven tures in which ho had engaged had failed to win towards him the interest which commonly attaches to enterprise. People in London who were fond of having gatherings of celebrated characters never used to present him to their friends as a serious pretender to a throne, but rather as though he were a balloon-man, who had twice had a fall from the skies, and was still in some measure alive. Yet the more men knew him in England the more they liked him. He entered into English pursuits and rode fairly to hounds. He was friendly, social, good-humoured, and willing enough to talk freely about his views upon they throne of France. The sayings he uttered about his ' des-. tiny' were addressed (apparently as a matter of policy) to casual acquaintances, but to his intimate friends he used th e language of a calculating and practical aspirant to the em pire," That momentary touch (seemingly so casual and o careless!} the passing compa r i son of Louis Na- S leonanidtte First Brutus, is nothing less than a. very master-stroke. It is here, however—upon this mention of our Imperial Ally throughout the Rus sian War (our ally then in arms, as before and since then continuously in peace), that we would direct attention to what we cannot, in our heart and conscience, but deem to be the one gisrir.,g and abiding blemish of the work before us —one in a manner, we grieve to think and feel, tainting its exoelienoo throughout. kIAG !~ `~ 6► I. ~, .t r,