The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENI NG, OCTOBER 10 1855

to maintain our squadron at so enormous a cost
tf the commerce which they are directed to cut off,
be carried on under so flimsy a veil. If the
British Government be really in earnest—and we
Are disposed to place every reasonable degree of
,-.:onfldence in Lord PALMERSTON—We shall find
chat Odessa is not only summarily disposed of,
but that Nicolaieff and Kherson will also be
visited, while in the North there will be a strict
blockade of Memel and Pillau, and the restriction
of Prussian commerce to the natural products of
Prussia, and of countries not actually at war with
the Western Powers.

On this point we would earnestly invite atten-
tion to a letter addressed by "A Traveller" to a
morning contemporary, which we have extracted
into another part of our impression, and which
will be found well worthy of perusal and deliberate
consideration.

Self-education rarely escapes the attendant
result of dogmatism. However much we admire
the power of mind which has achieved in its
chosen line some almost unparalleled success, we
have generally to wish it had done so collaterally
with a multitude of other minds equally powerful,
now in honourable rivalry, now in different but
equally arduous pursuits. We are constrained
to wish also that some tutor had by his able
guidance both engendered the idea of the possible
superiority of others, and by innumerable practi-
cal experiments convinced his pupil not only that
man was fallible, but that even such a man as the
pupil himself could err. Somehow, from the in-
valuable self-reliance by whose aid many rise out
of the ranks, it is almost impossible to dissociate
an overweening opinion of their own judgment, a
slowness to suppose that what others originate
can well be right, or at least be trustworthy; and
an absolute impatience of all opposition or contra-
diction. There are, of course, exceptions to the
natural tendency of self-acquired knowledge and
capacity, and plenty of exceptions to what ought
to be the universal effect of high educational
advantages ; still, the general results of self-suffi-
ciency and contempt of those who differ, in the
one ease, aid of greater modesty and fairness to
opponents, in the other, are so obvious that we
look for them as appropriate concomitants. The
great leaders of the League are certainly no ex-
ception to the general rule.
in their respective modes Mr. COBDEN and Mr.
BRIGHT are both orators. The uniform attention
of the British House of Commons—the unsought
testimony of a PEEL or BuiwEß, if any testimony
were wanted, are proof enough of that. We,
none of us, whether political friends or opponents,
should like to miss them from the House of Com-
mons, yet men of their power and influence are
not free from the defect incident to being almost
the sole architects of their own mental fortune.
They know of but one rule for all things, one
style of building. Free Trade made them what
they are ; they in return would make Free Trade
(and its apparent corollaries) what it is not—the
test of everything. They are not probably con-
scious of this themselves ; we think them, in-
deed, two as honest politicians as ever • lived.
Still Free Trade is the code NAPOLEON of their
political honesty. Whatever does not interfere
with its working is innocent—whatever does is
treason, and must be hung, drawn, and quartered.
The sovereign idea has so long ruled in their
minds, so long had the exclusive control of all
their observations, meditations, conclusions, and
utterances, that whenever their faculties operate
on other subjects it is under the Free-Trade drill,
and to the tune of the Anti-Corn-Law march.

Al this is, indeed, most strongly developed in
the Member.for Manchester. Mr. COBDEN has
got rid of much of it, though even he can never
entirely lose it, and we believe would not wish.
Mr. BRIGHT, however, is as completely as ever
" dominated" by Free Trade. It commands the
whole of his mind. It renders it untenable by
any, even temporarily, hostile intruders. Hence
his peculiar course on the War. He has, like all
other Friends, a religious conviction on the sub-
ject, which he never adverts to but in the most
befitting manner ; having this in common with
the " estimable sect" to which he belongs,, we
all respect the sanctity of this conviction. Pro-
perly, however, refraining from " casting this
holy thing to dogs," he blazes away at every
one, right and left—the Prime Minister—or the
plain member, or the " brutal, lying, hireling
Press"—at all who are guilty of thinking this War
a painful necessity. With the Press, somehow,
Mr. BRIGHT is almost always in a state of incan-
descent indignation, while every now and then,
as on the peculiarly opportune occasion of a
Friendly Societies' meeting, he boils over with
wrath. .The Press has always done Mr. BRIGHT
justice, if it has done it to any public man, but
it thinks with the people generally regarding the
War—it sustains the feelings.which would rather
bear additional taxation, and even those which
will rather endure the sorrows of bereavement,
than see despotic barbarism and ambition
triumphant. Hence the proclaimed contempt of
Mr. BRIGHT, hence his charges of dishonesty, and
mean, even mercenary motives ! Hence his re-
gret that editors have no longer to write in gar-
rets reached by the back-stairs, but that they
enjoy the comforts provided by Free-trade in
decent rooms, " get a guinea, perhaps two, for
what they are told to write," and exercise a power-
ful influence with the people.

The War interferes with Free Trade, i.e, between
trade free on our part, and the extravagant pro-
tectionism of Russia ; for elsewhere trade follows
very much its usual course. Trade with all the
world, save a million or two a-year with the ob-
structer of the Danube, being perfectly open ; and
as to the price of wheat and money, America, espe-
cially in regard to the former, is proof enough that
the War is not answerable for it. Mr. BRIGHT,
however, sees the evils of the War in every depres-
sion of trade ; they incur the penalties therefore
of the highest law he knows, and all who are so
blind as to think them necessary evils are not in-
deed dismissed by him as blind merely, but as
dishonest, and aiming at selfish objects. For
the twentieth time, Mr. BRIGHT proclaimed in a
public speech that his is a perfectly honest opinion!
Does he imagine that people doubt it ! If he
does, what makes him think so
j
o? He. Nt vuee
presume, no signboard ou his mill—"
honest manufacturer." Why must he to be for
ever gilding his political signboard with what
should be such needless commendations ?
But to leave Mr. BRIGHT under the pleasing
delusion of being more honest, as well as more
humane and wise than all the nation, is not ail
this tirade about getting peace at once, and own-
iug all the objects of the War attained, mere de-
clamation ? How would he go about it ? A
duellist, when his sword had drawn blood from
his adversary, used to ask him whether he was.
satisfied. We have now inflicted a real wound
on Russia, and instead of being satisfied she an-
nounces that she cannot make peace after a defeat !
We fight, therefore, with an enemy who proclaims
war to the knife ; for since, of course, she does
not expect us to consult our own honour less than
she does hers, as we cannot, therefore, also make
peace after a defeat, the War must go on till Rus-

sia or the Allies, or both, are completely ex-
hausted !

If Mr. BRIGHT and the Quaker ambassadors
would try their hand again on the Russian Ex-
PEROR and his Court, and bring them over to
peace at any price, he would find the Allies, we
fear, but too reasonable. Alas! these modern
Quakers are the very reverse of the Great PRINCE
of PEACE, whose precepts they profess so literally
to obey. How different their smooth oration to
the man whose hands were yet red with the mur-
der of Poland and Hungary, and whose ambition
was then cloaking itself detestably under profes-
sions of zeal for Christianity—bow different from
their LORD'S denunciations of Scribes and Phari-
sees, and Princes too, who made religion a pretext
for their ambitious and covetous schemes. Old
GEORGE Fox would, we believe, have told NICHO-

LAS the truth in plain terms, had he paid him a
visit, and rather have gone to Siberia than not
do it. All of us could have at least admired such
courage as well as Major-General WINDHAM'S.
But WILLIAM PENN is the type of modern
Quakerism. Old GEORGE did the honest work of
:in enthusiast, and said nothing about his honesty.
He let prisons and the like witness for him. His
successors are fallen on easier times. Still honesty
is its own best witness, especially when unchal-
lenged.

According to a Return just printed by the Cus-
toms, the traders of the port of London, have a
real grievance to complain of in the restriction of
bonding privileges. .1
While bonding privileges to private wine
vaults have been granted to 947 peisons in the
provinces, in London they are restricted to the
London, St. Katharine, and West India Dock
Companies, and five legal quays bonding estab-
lishments. If the requisite facilities :and grounds
for perfect confidence were afforded in these the
monopoly would be provoking and prejudicial
enough ; but, in addition to the extra charges,
&c., produced. by it, recent events have shown
that much reliance cannot be placed in the safe-
keeping of wines intrusted to the Dock Companies,
and that, if a preference be given to the Quays,
they cannot supply accommodation for 1,000
pipes of wine. This is really too bad, and it
may well be asked, " Why are 142 merchants
of Liverpool, or 107 at Bristol, to have the
privilege of bonding wine at their own pri-
vate vaults, while the merchants of the me-
tropolis of the commerce of the world
are to be entirely denied that right ? The Lon-
don merchant must go to the Dock Companies,
whose servants may embezzle his wine or adulte-
rate it, or to one of the five legal quays, whose
premises perhaps cannot accommodate his im-
ports. He must submit to what monopoly charges
they choose to exact, but he is not permitted to
bond his wine in his own cellars, be they ever so
central and convenient or secure, while every
small trader in the provinces may store his wine
where he pleases, provided he can find the requi-
site securities."

The prejudicial results of the monopoly are
apparent in the fact that the increase of the stock
of wine in London, for the year 1855, is only
726,565 gallons on 6,129,990 ; while in the
favoured provinces it is 788,830 gallons on an
aggregate of only 4,342,442. Why the London
merchant should continue subject to so great a
discouragement, unless it be for the convenience
of the Customs and the profit of the Dock Com-
panies, passes our comprehension. Surely he is
quite as able as any provincial to construct vaults of
adequate security ; and if mechanical or technical
difficulties stand in the way, it is the duty of the
Board of Customs to seek out a mode of surmount-
ing them. It cannot be consistent with the spirit
of free trade, it cannot be right that the fair
trader, and the public whom he serves, should
suffer, as both do, for the convenience Of the Cus-
toms and the profit of the Dock Companies. This,
however, is not the only reform 'needed in connec-
tion with the bonding of wines. Monstrous as it
may seem, the Board of Customs actually pro-
hibits the merchant from bottling wine in bond,
and to enable him to do so he has either to pay
the duty years before the wine is fit for use,! or
vat it in his private cellars until it is ripe, or else
to re-export it, bottle it in the Channel Islands,
and re-import it as it becomes seasonable for con-
sumption i No wonder, with such disadvantages
and obstructions to contend against, the London
wine trade languishes, and the consumption' of.
wine and the revenue derived from it throughput
the country have not kept pace with the increase
of wealth and population. The London merchant
is extra-weighted, and the outlay needlessly called
for in the trade generally makes good wine dear,
because the capitalist alone can lay out of i his
money long enough for the required improvement,
which he takes good care the purchaser shall pay
for. Is Mr. COBDEN at one with the Turk re-
specting wine that ho makes no stir in 'this
matter ?

Chevalier Bunsen, lately Prussian Minister at, our
Court, has been named as one of the Liberal candidates
for the representation of the city of Berlin in the Prus-
sian Chamber.

Yesterday morning the marriage of Lady Charlotte
Elliott, daughter of the Earl of Mint°, with Mr. Portal,
M.P., was solemnised at the Church of St. George's,
Hanover square. Amongst the friends and relatives of
the bride and bridegroom present were Lord and Lady
John Russell.

THE TURKISH CONTINGENT.—A further body of arti-
ficers, clerks, interpreters, &c., is being organised for
this corps.

BANQUET TO CRIMEAN HEROES AT GLASGOW.—A
grand banquet is to take place in Glasgow on Friday
next in honour of the Crimean heroes.
A scheme is now before the Governor of New south
Wales for a steam-packet communication between
Panama and Tahiti, with branch steam lines between
Tahiti and Sydney and Melbourne.
The steam-frigate Darien, having in tow the, gun-
boat FL1403, entered Toulon on the 6th, coming from
the Black Sea.

TILE GUIDING STAR.—Great anxiety is at present felt
for the safety of the above fine vessel, which left the
Mersey in January last, with a large number of Govern-
ment emigrants, for Melbourne, and had not arrived at
last advices.

PREFERMENT.—The Rev. 0. F. Owen, M.A., to the
vicaraze of Child's Wickham, in the county and diocese
of Gloucester ; patron, the Rev. Thomas Marsden.
CRYSTAL PALACE.—SHILLING DAY.—Monday, Oct.
8, 1855.—Admissions on payment, 5,807 ; do. by sea-
son tickets, 402 ; total visitors, 6,209. Corresponding
day last year, 4,174.
_

A GeCioa 'newspaper states that Pietro Freccia, a
well-known Italian sculptor, recently became raving
mad at Castelanuova, his native place, and that his
brother Giovanni, who lives at Florence, was so affected
on hearing of his misfortune that be flung himself out
of a high window and was killed on the spot.
FATAL ACCIDENT AT BLACKFRIAR'S-BRlDGE.—Yes-
terday morning, between eleven and twelve o'clock, a
man named James lost his life off Freeman's wharf,
nearDaocknferioa:lso-cbkri.dge, while in the act of leaning over
a barge to secure a piece of floating timber. He fell
overboard, and was drowned. The body was not found
till peat
NUMEROUS DEATHS BY DROWNlNG.—Yesterday Mr.
Baker, the coroner, received information of the deaths
by drowning, of no less than four persons, three of
whom were males, who are unknown, and whose bodies
were found in the river Thames and in .the East India
Dock.
BANKING AND COMMERCTIAL LAW.—Last night Leone
Levi, Esq.,`F.S.A., delivered an introductory lecture at
Kinz's College on banking and commercial law, to a
highly respectable and crowded auditory, amongst
whom were the Rev. R. NV. Jelf, D.D., the principal ;
Mr. Gilbart, manager of the London and Westminster
Bank ; and several other gentlemen engaged in banking
and comnit:rcial pursuits.
LAYING- THE FIRST STONE OF CANONBURt CHAPEL,
ISLINGTON .—ln consequence of the deficiency of church
and chape I accommodation in this locality, the committee
of the London Congregational Chapel Building Society
have recently
put-road, reo:nt,slypad,
urchffaisgehdbaunry, whereoneligibleplotto eroffercet a eholdland
in St. chapel.
Yesterday the foundation-stone was laid by Henry
ladies Spice and gentlemen.r,E., inthepresence of a large asseimblage of