The Express.
London, England, 1858-11-09 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS. TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBE

vindicate the honour of France from the repre‘ch of 1
the Slave Trade. Viewed in thin light, it i.
impossible not to regard the 4441 letter as a
most important commtinication,
Estrinon has
obtained a success which emoag persons of hie tem-
perament and in his position is rare. lie has
triumphed over himself. He has had the wisdom to
discern his error, and the courage to abandon it.
That he has been mainly led to this course by a
sincere desire not to irritate the susceptibilities of
English philanthropy, certainly ought not to render
his change of policy lees acceptable to the English
peopie. It is pretty certain to be appreciated by the
English Government.

A DLCISION be. jut been proem/need by the
Supreme Court of Madras which, when all its bear-
ings have been calmly considered, will give sincere
satisfaction to the consistent friends of civil and reli-
gious liberty—to all those, also, who value a sound
and impartial administration of the law. The case, u
reported in our columns on Saturday, when stripped
of extraneous matter, lies in a very narrow com-
pass. A respectable native of the Chetty caste had
a son who was being educated at one of the best
native educational institutions in the Madras
Presidency. After he had been there for
about a year the boy was induced, it does
not appear by what agency, to present himself
at the Institute of the Scottish Mission, requesting
instruction in the doctrines of Christianity. An
instructor was accordingly appointed by one of the
Missionaries, and the boy attended at the Mission
premises about three months. At the beginning of
Let September the father went on business to Pali-
cat, and the boy seized the opportunity of running
away from his home, taking up his quarters at the
Mission. The Missionaries received him there. Two
or three days after, the father, returning from Pull-
cat, and finding whither his son had betaken him-
self, went to the Mission to demand him back.
He was told by one of the Missionaries that
his son was at perfect liberty to go away if he
chose to do so. The son, however, refused to ac-
company his father. The father then obtained a
writ of Labels* corpus, and the point as to his right
to have his sou delivered up to him came on to be
argued before the Supreme Court of Madras, con-
sisting of Bit C. Itewuesox, the Chief Justice, and
Sir ADAM BITTLLSTON, the Puisne Judge. The
question on which the decision of the Court turned
was whether the boy was of age to act for himself—
the date of his birth became, therefore, the important
point in the case. Upon this point the evidence of
the father and other members of the family was
precise—they fixed the year and day of
the month ; according to them the boy
was a little over thirteen. The lad, on
the other hand, swore he was sixteen, but he had no
evidence to corroborate his statement except the
most dubious kind of hearsay—u, for instance, that
his mother (now dead) had calculated his horo-
scope when he was ill, and told him he was sixteen.

Such were the tuts and the evidence. The cue,
which excited considerable interest, appears to have
been ably argued. It was contended by the counsel
who opposed the writ that even if the boy's evi-
dence as to his own age could not be taken as con-
clusive, he was at all events old enough to act for
himself in a matter of this kind. It was also urged
that by eating food prepared by pariahs and cutting off
a tuft of hair, the sign of his caste, the bey had
lost his cute by his own act, and that, under these
circumstanses, it would be an act of great cruelty
to deliver him over to the parental authority. The
gentlemen who pressed this view were challenged
by the Court to produce any proof that a young
person, not having attained to that which by
Hindoo law constitutes the age of discretion, could
by his own act deprive himself of caste. No
authority to this effect could be adduced, and the
judgment of the Court proceeded on the single
ground that, according to the evidence, the boy was
not of an age to be considered emancipated, or to
throw off the control of his parents, when he left his
father's house for the Mission institution.
On that ground the Court made an order that
the boy should be delivered up to his father. There
was then somewhat of asceue is court. The father,
with tears in his eves, implored the boy to come
home: the boy remained firmly seated in his chair
and refused to move. Toe officers of the court ap-
proached to enforce its authority : the boy declared
that he dreaded ill usage at home, and it was not
till he had been solemnly assured of the protection of
the Court that he at length quietly w►lked home
with his father. The general feeling of the public,
wo are informed, was decidedly in favour of the
decision. We can readily believe it. The sanction
of the law of nature—of that law anterior to written
ordinances and older than all precedents—ever finds
a ready response in the general heart and the
popular conscience.

- The decision, however, is not only agreeable to the
principles of natural morality—it not only supports
that upon which all society ultimately rests—the
security of the family—but it is, as the members of
the Supreme Court are careful to point out, amply
warranted by precedent. The principles upon which
the English Court of Queen's Bench acted in the
well-known case of ALICIA RACE (a case somewhat
complicated by the opposition which there prevailed
between the will of the dead Protestant father
and the scruples of the living Catholic mother) were
invoked by Sir C. RAWLIKSON and Sir A. BirrLE-
STON in support of their judgment. It is somewhat
remarkable that, in delivering the opinion of the
Court of Queen's Bench in thecae, of ALICIA RACE,
Lord CAMPBELL referred for illustration to certain
decisions of the Supreme Courts in India. In one of
the cases thus referred to, a Parsee family having
detained an infant child from its father, a Parsee, on
the ground that the father had embraced the Christian
religion, the Supreme Court of Bombay had, on habeas
corpus, ordered the child to be given up to the
father. In another cue, the facts of which
were very similar to that just decided at
Madras, the same Court, on the like application,
ordered a Hinduo boy of twelve years of age, who
professed to have embraced Christianity, to be deli-
vered up to his father, who adhered to the Hiodoo
religion ; Ind the Judge. refused toexamioe the boy
as to his capacity and knowledge of the Christian re.
ligion. The principle on which those decisions pro-
ceeded has received the weighty sanction of Sir
John PATTEBON, and been confirmed by the autho-
rity of the Court of Queen's Bench. It really re-
quired no such support. It commends itself to every
reflecting mind. It is obvious that no civil tribunals
can sanction the rapture of home ties or parental
authority in the ease of children under the age of
discretion who have been persuaded, whether for
better or for worse, to forsake the parental religion.

RUPTCT AIfEIeDVENT.—A meeting of mar-
ceos.o and rowel readers took place yeetertlay, Mr. Craw-
f in the shale, to consider the two B•okraotry
rentectivsly lea bets* parliament by Lord /ohm
Rummell Is the Rowe of Comuose, sod the Lord Chancellor
In the I,r+% The meeting bed besn called on account of
the rereAurione leteey pureed no the Put Jai at the Social
*deer. Congress. The two Lille mere Analysed sad their
swims defeats pointed out, en 1 a maakin!, wee apptineed
to e,neider spin say a/teratioos, and 'o report to • Inturs
mewing It emit mated that the Vellum dealt with oat of
the R.okroptry Crewe, either by In•per,lno or o:beret..., are
ten tun.% wore aninerotts than those cowing before thee
tanned.

• 4 Eel 001111.
- •
•
wnipsoß,•atoir. 1.
The seen end „Prince Consort, accompulled by
the Primes of Langone., Prim Arthur, and Prisons
Louisa, walked in the Hones Park this leorning.
Princes. Helena rode in the riding-hokse,

The Right Hon. Sir & Balser Lytton end the Hon. Mr.
Cartier (Prime Minhder of Canada) left Windsor in the fore-
noon for Loudon.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the offi-
cial residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in Downing-street. The Ministers present were :
The Earl of Derby, the Right lion. B. Disraeli,
the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Salisbury, the
Earl of Hardwicke, Mr. Secretary Walpole, the
Earl of Malmesbury, the Right Hon. Sir E. Bulwer
Lytton, General Peel. Lord Stanley, Sir John
Pakington, the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, and Lord
John Manners.

The Queen will hold a Privy Council on Saturday neat,
at Windsor Castle.

Despatches from the Governor of Canada were received
yesterday at the Colonial-once.
Despatches were sent to the Governor of the Falkland
Wands.

PRINCE ALFRED AT CORIJNNA.—Prince Alfred
arrived at Corunna on the 2nd, at 11 cm., on board the
Spanish eteamer Santa Teresa, which had been rent by the
captain-general of the department. The prince was received
on landing with the salutes and honours bestowed on an
Infanta of Spain. He visited the spot where the battle of
Elvin was fought, and also the tomb of General Moore.
Ha afterwards partook of a collation at the captain-general's.
At half-put four the prince returned to Ferrol on board the
Santa Tanis.

The birthday (the 17th) of his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales was celebrated In the metropolis, to-day,
by the customary ringing of bells in the royal parishes,
displays of fags at the Horse Guarda, Admiralty, &0., and,
at daybreak, with a few &Jose la St. James's Park.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wale. paid a
visit to Ham House last week. His Royal Highness was
received by the Roe. Fredrick Tollentadas, M.P., who con-
ducted the Prince over the mansion, pointing out the numer-
ous objects of historical *tercet. The Equerry In Waiting
and Mr. Gibbs wars in attendance.

The Duke and Dachas d'Atimale, their two sone,
end the mother of the Dachas., the Princes, of Salerno, left
Brunets yesterday morning for England.

Hie Excellency the Ambassador of France and
the Dachas, de Malakoff will leave town to-morrow, on a
Melt to the Dake and Duchess of Manchester at lilmbolton
Castle,

The Duke and Duchess of Bucelengh intend to
leave town on Thnuday next for Bowhill, Selkirkehirs. As
soon as the valuable paintings and (amino.° are removed
to the late Earl of Sefton's mansion in Bslgrove-equare,
Montagu Boum will be razed, and a palatial structure erected
on Its site.

The Duchess of Grafton hu returned to town from
Euston Hull, Suffolk.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury come
to town to-day from Hatfield Howe, Herts.

The Earl and Countess of Yarborough and Lady
Sophia Pelham arrived in town yesterday, from the family
sea
t in Lincolnshire, and propose to leave to-morrow for
Brighton. The noble earl is improved in health.

The Countess of Malmesbury received a select
circle last night, at the private redo:knee of the noble Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs, in Whitehall-gardens. Among the
visitors were the representatives at our wart of all the great
powers of Europe.

Lord Pevensey, M.P., has just returned from a
flying trip to Egypt, Cairo, and the pyramids. His lordship
was able to spend three days at Cairo and the Pyramids, and
to be in England within a month.

Mr. Gladstone set out yesterday on hie way to
Corfu.

Mr. and Lay Mary Craven have left town for
Comptettne, on the invitation of the Emperor and Empress
of the French, to pees a week with the imperial 000 rt.

The marriage of Major Lindsay'rwith the Hon.
Mien Jose. Loyd, will take plea an the 17th Inst., at the
ehtuch d St. Martia'e•ia-thrFhido.

On Sunday last the Lord Bishop of Oxford
preached a sermon In the parish church of Frant, in behalf of
the free whoosh of that village, established for the gratuitous
education of the poor, sad numbering now 196 boys and 102
girls. The church woe crowded to excess, Tunbridge Wes
'frosting a large portion of the coogregation.

We (Scotsman) rejoice to learn that there is every
probability of the banquet in thle city in oomtnensoration of
the Brat centenary of Robert Borne' birthday ►eing presided
over by Lord Brongbam. Ruch an set would, we are atire,
be very grateful and welcome not only to the ciliates of
Edinburgh but to a flocachnsen, end to the admirers of
Beim throughout the world.

On Thursday evening Sir H. C. Rawlinson,
K.C.8., delivered a lecture at Reigate on behalf of the
Mechanics Inatitution, taking for his subject, " Recent
Discoveries in Aseyria and Babylonia applied to the illus-
tration of Scripirve." The Town Hall was filled by a highly
respectable sadism's.

The Rev. Chu. Tynen Jenner Tyrell, only brother
of Sir John Tyrell, of Bonham Hoarse, and heir, we (Riser
Heralll believe, to the baronetage, died in London, on
Wenn ay. The dammed gentleman, who sewerned the
wan* and arms of Jennie, in addition to thaw of Tyrell, by
royal license in 1828, held the motorist of Midley and Buck-
land, In Kent, of which Sir John le the patron.
_ _

At La Saila (Milan) Norma is being played with
Mdlle. bibs. Mdlk. Bazzuri, and M. Bsrti.

M. Berlioz is reported to have written a new opera
to We own Libretto.

From Trieste we learn that the Italian Opera is
re-opened, Ginglfni being the sueotesful star of the new
troupe.

The mu+ical journals of Italy ray Miss Victoria
Halfe will sing at the Reggio (Torts) during the carnival
arena.

The event of last week at the Italian Open at
Paris wee the reproduetion of Barbieri, with Marto and
Albool, Corsi, Zucchini, and Angrlini. Mario is eongratu.
Wed no the admirable condition of his voice. " Repose at
►is villa neer Florenee has dons wonders," says a letter
from Paris, "if we may judge from his admirable singing
the other night. All the rare and charming guiltier/1 of his
voles were displayed with that natural perception of how to
nee it which belongs, one often thinks, to the inspiration of
the moment rather than premeditated study."

The second and only surviving eon of Mozsrt
died at Milan on Ootober 30, in bd. 80th year.
The Paris Preue says:—•' We seem to have re-
turned to the blamed time of miracles. La Selene and the
grotto of Lourdes have encouraged innators, and the Uewn
Malosini of Saint Maw relates that a few days ago a deaf
end dumb person was miraculously cured; whilst the Corer-
rise de Champagne records the wondrous curs of a paralytic
women. The larger miracle, it swat, was accomplished by
Saint Csprsis in person, he haring appeared to the old
woman •aa a venerable old man in the midst of a blaze of
light more splendid than that of the sun' !"

" It has been remarked," says the Carriers Mer-
meta. of Genoa, "that a vast number of Turks end Chre-
dans from the Levant have been for come time put bnyieg
up arm* here, paying dearly for them, and pending them off
to the Etat. The object they have in view has not trim-

The following are some of the sumptuary epid-
urals*. Jost adopted by the Ottoman Porte :—P.pes encircled
with weskits stones are forbidden. In the public offioes
neither oAss, pipes, nor forbear, are henceforth to be waved.
TM tsootionarise above the grade of bele le the Itigkeet
one 'lose to be snowed to have two home In their carriage',
and are forbidden to bays several domestic* on horseback.
From the grade of Ws downwards, functionaries so only
Me am-horse carriages, sad boat, with two Fairs attars.
Some sensation hes been caused at Madrid by M.
Martinez de la Rosa. the Vice-President of the Council of
Suite. having delivered a speech at the Atom Clean/leo. is
whit* he istrvighel with much eloquence soled the Inqui-
sition, still the theme of admiration in clerical journals and
Amon the absolutist party. He could not, he said, conceive
the existence of the Inquisition on the Spanish soil, one
that the peninsula was bring intersected with railways and
emeered with telegraphic wires. In the same speed; Id.
Ilmeines de le Roes .poke of the English domination is the
East ladies to terms similar to those lately aropkled by M.
lhaisistabert.

'RUSS FROM PARIS.

(MON ONS OWN 001111PONDENT4
' •

PARIS. MOIND&T XVIMIIO.

My brief letter of yesterday, lamenting the
scarcity of news in Paris, betrayed a presentiment
that something wu in the wind at Compiegne, and
so there was, for at the cabinet council held there it
was resolved to sead to the Mositsur the Emperor's
remark►ble letter to Prince Napoleon, which you
will have seen and commented upon before this
reaches you. It may, I think, be readily ad-
mitted that this letter is as full a concession

to the public' opinion of Europe, and as
candid an admission that he has been hitherto
pursuing a wrong course, as s powerful and de-
spotic monarch can well be expected to make.
When he tells his "dear cousin" to inquire with
that " zeal and intelligence" which distinguishes
everything he does, whether the traffic in blacks on
the African coast be not in reality " a slave trade in
disguise," the French Sovereign confesses as plainly
as self•love will allow that he knows it to
be nothing else. The inquiry committed to
such hands is a pleasant fiction, for Prince Napo-
leon's opinions on the subject are well known.
Ever since his appointment as minister of Algeria
and the colonies, he has steadily opposed the "free
emigration scheme." I remember calling your
attention, nearly a month ago, to a paragraph in
the Prase, foreshadowing the decision which the
Emperor has now publicly announced as one
probably inspired by the Prince. That paragraph
stated that when once the affair of the Charles-
Georges was settled, there might perhaps be
grounds for reconsidering the whole question of
free emigration. The Presse of this very evening
says, in noticing the Emperor's letter :

A question of such importune deserves indeed to be
thoroughly examined. We ourselves have already insisted
upon the neoessity of an investigation. The debate is now
open end the question will be discussed in the light of day,
f,r both the foreign and French press will be eager to take
pert in ea inquiry in which all maritime nations and civiliia-
tion itself are deeply interested.

You may perhaps suppose that the Pays, which
has repeatedly, pertinaciouly, and even within the
last four or five days denied, in the most blustering
tone, that there was any thought of giving up the
exportation of African negroes, and which, in the
teeth of all that has been adduced by the English
press (and more particularly, and in the first in-
stance, by the Daily News), has never ceased to
swear that the traffic was nothing at all resembling
the slave trade ; that no single negro was ever put
on board a French ship but of his own free will and
accord; that the "emigrants" were, to a man,
happy, contented, and comfortable on their voyage
to the colonies; and furthermore, by way of a
clincher and conclusive estoppel to all argument,
that because some small colonial clerk with the
high-sounding title of " government delegate" was
on board, it was " manifestly impossible" that
anything like the slave trade could have been carried
on by the Charles-Georges, or any other ship in
like case—must feel some embarrassment to square
accounts with its readers now that the Emperor
says officially—My mind is not easy about this matter,
I will have it thoroughly sifted, and " if "—(oh !
most significant " if")—it shall turn out that the
negroes are not in fact free agents—if the traffic is
in reality nothing but a slave trade in disguise, I
will have none of it at any pries. lam not the man
to protect any undertakings in any part of the
world which are contrary to progress, humanity,
and civilisation. Count Walewski's organ, how-
ever, betrays no hesitation or vexation. The
hardened sycophant, without a word of apology or
explanation to those that it has misled. says, simply
and unblushingly : "The noble words of the Emperor
will create an immense sensation in Europe ; they
are a new proof of the policy at once firm and mode-
rate, inaugurated by the Emperor Napolon, and
which has already had such happy results u regard•
the peace of Europe." The Petrie, however, which
for some time past has manifested honourable long-
ings after independence, shows its sense of h►ving
been made a fool of by the Foreign-office by pub-
lishing the Emperor's letter in a second column, in
comparatively small type, and without comment.
I apprehend that the most immediate consequence
of the appearance of the imperial letter will be a
considerable modification in the drafts of the
ministerial speeches for the Lord Mayor's dinner
to-morrow. It was probably not without an eye to
the coming off of this annual event that the publica-
tion of the letter was decided upon. The date (Oct.
30) bears evidence of much hesitation before the
step was taken. The letter will also, I venture to
think, change the tactics of those members of par-
liament who intended to make the Charles• Georges
the rallying cry for a mortal onslaught upon the
present ministry. Without expecting private indi-
viduals to believe that the French Emperor, who
personally directs every important act of his govern-
ment, is the worst informed person in his dominions,
and is only just now alive to the fact that
the odious slave trade has been for a long time
past going on under his protection, it may be highly
politie on the part of the English cabinet to receive
with official cordiality a manifesto which on the
face of it is highly praiseworthy. If acted up to
the entire and absolute renunciation of the traffic in

African negroes will be the oonecquence. This
would be a grand result, and one which it is impos-
sible not to see must be due in great part to remon-
strances on the part of England. If Lord
Derby's government have taken a creditable part in
bringing about this result, their conduct in tills
respect may be well set off against any hesitation in
the very difficult ewe of Portugal. Lord Malmeebury
was doubtless told by the law officers of the crown
that (apart, perhaps, from a question not yet eluci-
dated, about the precise part of the Mozambique
waters in which the Charles-Georges wail at the
moment of the seizure) Portugal had, in point of
strict international law, no right to seize the vessel,
even if it had been beyond all don.ht that she was •
slayer to all intents and purposes. This, therefore,
was not a case for England to go to war about.
Occasions of quarrel will not, I greatly fear, be
wanting. It is apprehended that France will
systematically pursue a harassing policy, plac-
ing England continually in a painful dilemma
between suffering humiliation and taking
umbrage too readily. England can, however,
afford to be long suffering, and should not
be swift to imitate the alarming and startling policy
of France as exhibited by the hostile demonstration
against Portugal. That policy hex already brought
its own punishment, and terhaps the end is not yet.
The Emperor's letter produced an excellent t ffect
on the Bourse, the Rents rose 40c. for each, and 45e.
for account, closing at 73fr. 60c. and 73fr. 75e.;
Mobilier rose 27fr. 50e.; the Orleans Railway rose
17fr. 50c., and the other lines from Mfr. to 10fr.

A telegraphic summary of the following letter from
the Emperor to his Imperial Highness the Prince,
who is chargcd with the ministry of Algeria and the
Colonies, appeared in the Express of last erentatt
" Saint Cloud, Oct. 30, 18.58.

"My dear Cousin,—l earnestly desire that in the
very moment of the termination of our difference with

9.

Portugal toting the Charles-Georges, the question
concerning this eogasement of free labourers from the
coast of Afric► maybe examined once for all and set-
tled in accordance with the true principles of right
and humanig. . I energetically demanded from
Portugal the restoration of the Charles-Georges,
because I shall always maintain intact the indepen-
dence of the national flag ; and in this circumstance
I needed the profound conviction of my good right
to risk a rupture with the King of Portugal of those
friendly relations whioh I feel a pleasure in main-
taining with him.
" But, as to the principle of engaging the blacks,
my ideas are far from being fixed. If, in fact,
labourers recruited on the African coast have not
their free choice, and if this enlistment ie nothing
more than a disguised slave trade, I do not desire it,
at any price. For enterprises contrary to progress,
humanity, and civilisation, will not find a protector
in me.

" I beg you then to inquire into the truth, with
that zeal and intelligence you bring to bear on
everything you take in hand ; and u the best mode
of putting an end to continual causes of conflict
would be to substitute the free labour of the Indian
Coolies for that of; the Negroes, 1 invite you to
come to an understanding with the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, for the purpose of resuming with
the English Government the negotiations that were
commenced some months ago. Whereupon, my dear
cousin, I pray God to have you in his holy keeping.
" NAPOLEON."