The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MANCHESTER EXAMINER.

Dear Sir,—A. letter has appeared in your columns,
signed " Scrutator," containing the following statement
respecting the letter of Mr. Cobden inserted in the Leeds
Mercury three weeks since :
" I have heard it asserted that the first, and in some
respects the must important, paragraph of that letter, as
it emanated from Mr. Cobden, was withheld by the
'editor without his permission, because it commented
with inconvenient severity upon a leader which had re-
cently appeared in the columns of your Yorkshire con-
temporary."

The fact is correct : whether the reason assigned is so,
you shall judge. But, first of all, to dissipate all mys-
tery, and redress any possible injury which Mr. Cob-
den may have sustained, the paragraph of that gentle-
man's letter omitted in the Leeds Mercury is subjoined
"In a late number of the Mercury, which circum-
stances prevented me from seeing at the moment of its
appearance, I have read an editorial article, which, after
an allusion to the limited supply of labourers for various
bra,mhes of domestic industry, occasioned by the war
and emigration, and to the still greater difficulties with
which our employers of labour are threatened,' proceeds
to commend to the Government a plan for recruiting
our army from the ranks of the ticket•of-leave convicts.
Without pausing to snatch an argumentative triumph
upon the inappropriateness of such a proposition from
those who believe the present to bp a 'just and neces-
sary war in defence of the civilisation and liberty of
Europe,' I appeal to your candour whether such a plan
is not merely impracticable, but whether its suggestion
alone is not an insult to our army, and that of our
Allies. The writer of the article is in error in saying
that a similar system of recruiting prevailed during the
great French war. True, it was the eastern, instead of
punishing men charged with such offences as poaching
and smuggling, or the commission of certain faux pcm,
from which village life, as we learn from Crabbe, was
not exempt, to offer them the alternative of serving
the King,' and undoubtedly very many such scapegraces
found their way int.) the army and navy ; but the in-
mates of our hulks and the population of our penal
colonies were never emptied into Wellington's regi-
ments ; and be assured that any serious attempt of
the kind,, in the present improved state of the mo-
rale of our army, wou:d be viewed as so great an
insult by officers and men, and that it would be resisted
even to the extent, if needful, of mutiny in the reeks
and rebellion at the Horse Guards.

" But you have raised a question of supreme import-
ance at the present moment, on which I will, with your
pernission, offer a word or two of remark—not as to its
bearings on the employment ef labour, hut on what all
of us must regard as the honour, character, and.interest a
of the country."
Such was the passage omitted ; and as the omission
was my own individual act, I give the explanation in my
own person,--the same explanation which I gave Mr.
Cobden by the first post after receiving his letter.
My reasons f( r omitting the passage were taofold--:
namely, first, that I prfectly concurred in Mr.Cobelen s
view as to the recruiting of ticket-of-leave man, and al-
ways had done so, and that article in the Mercury ap.
pearod with.mt my knowledge; and, econdly, that the
objections to the recruiting of that class of men (though
in my judgment conclusive as .against the article in the
Mercury) had no connection with the main argument of
Mr. Cobden's letter, either as to the difficulty of recruit-
ing the army, the fir,ate of the army bef; ire Sebastopol, or
the merits of the war with Russia. If I under stand Mr.
Cobden aright, he would have (ntertained every view
expressed in his long and elaborate letter, had no' such
article as that in the Mercury appeared, and would have
thought it his duty to lay them before the public.
If we had expressed the opinions to 'which Mr.Cobdest
replied, in the course of a controversy vvith him, it
would have been the he'ght of injustice to omit his an-
swer. But his name was never mentioned or alluded to
in the article, which was n, t controversial at all wid if
by excluding the i as a,e, we deprived him of a triumph
over the Mercury, that did not in the slightest degree
weaken his general argument against the difficulties of
the war. Surely that little triumph over us was not
essential to Mr. Cobden ; if it was, that does not say
much for the general success of his letter.
lam aware that, in excluding a portion of Mr. Cob-
den'* letter, I was taking a considerable liberty with him.
But I explained the re LPOUS to hi n, and moat folly be-
lieved they would appear to him satisfactory. I told him
that I did rn-,t object publicly to acknowledge myself in
the wrong, if convinced that I was so. But the awk-
wardness wag, that I had not myself been in the wrong,
—that I was perfectly at one with him on that particu-
lar point, —that I lad actually written the very same
views to a correspondent some months before,—and that
therefore I could neither with truth acknowledge myself
to have been mistaken, nor yet vindicate the article in
my own paper. Moreover the difficulty was increased
by the fact, that Mr. Cobden's letter was addressed, not
to " Editors," as is customary with the correspondents
of the Leeds Mercury, hut to "the Editor," ar.d com-
menced "My dear Sir,"—thus as it were singling me out
personally. All that I cared to avoid was the un-
pleasantness of explaining to the public that I, the prin-
cipal Editor of the Leeds Mercury, differed from one of
my fellow-editors on a sing!e point. It rather disturbed
the harmless public illusion as to that mysterious per-
:wring?, "the Editor," who is popularly regarded as
plurality in unity and unity in plurally, besides having
other attributes allied to infallibility and omniscience. I
did not think it a very great trespass on the generosity
of an old friend to ask him to excuse me giving such an
explanation. However, I was mistaken. Of course
Mr. Cobden must have complained to others, its he did
to myself ; and therefore I now lay the entire matter be-
fore the public,—giving Mr. Cobden all the advantage
of his argument against the Mucury, and taking to
myself the whole blame of having omitted a portion of
his letter. —I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,
EDWARD BAINES.

NEW MARBLE BUST OF THE QUEEN.'

We have much pleasure (says the /and/ester Of! ran)
in being able to announce to our readers intentionthseen
to the
on the part of Mr. Alderman Barne3 p
bustto reef her most
corporation of Manchester a colossalble,t
0 be placed in
t r d
gracious Majesty the Queen, in
theto
this Town e i
tof Hall,
f li 3n
il 0
mcc. tio: commemoration
emNt r e,
is: nthlol:oßciresl:a.l:l,:ftiwr,.i.loa Inenef:3B.l of her
iylkystrt
to,ipAaonfrtw.neeajd,teertsee thathtee:s
01 visitMan-
cheater rae ri
nr.
..
but any intimation
Barnes has long had thin inwteonld,
'for obvious reasons,
of it till the present Wail
short time since, during the
tEhseq
Lis.c, i
city,
his worshipthat
l le
have been premature:
mayoralty
was
informed
vfeeeronnflateeede3befyia
chieft M
ern ve,wAt
nhisrloanosgebir6lme:t.rauEn_d
keley-square—
cheater Wellington memorial is now making rapid pro-
-1 gress towards completion—a commission to execute a
colossal marble bust of the Queen, which, when corm
pleted, it was his (Mr. 13arnes'h) intention to present to
the corporation of Manchester, for the purpose of being
placed in the Town Hall, as a memorial of the auspicious
visit of her most gracious Majesty to this city. We un-
derstand that the clay model is already in a forward state,
and that it has been pronounced by most competent
judges to be, even in its unfinished condition, a very
happy and striking likeness of the Queen. It was felt
by the mayor, as well as by Mr. Alderman Barnes,
to be very desirable to secure, if possible for Mr.
Noble, the honour of sittings from her Majesty, in order
to accomplish the most eatiefactory completion of the
bust ; and the mayor wisely determined to apply to
our noble neighbour the Earl of Ellesmere for his kind
assidance in obtaining the necessary consent of the
Queen. Lord Ellesmere readily undertook to be the
medium of presenting the humble request of the mayor
as the representative of the council, to her Majesty,s'
and in his letter to the mayor his lordship stated 'hie
opinion that Mr. Noble's works place him, y
is, in the first line of living English sculptors,
one of many who have worked their waftyvartg;t•uset:hasint;ehanencides
from a starting point of no adventitio d
kuPersonal character
that though his lordship did not of public corn-
pati knew a d
smhiosusilodosbei
nmu art,chi
t consideredwa sa satiisnfiatytchtiteohri nat
otter
him to find that
fhoormdihsitsinlcotridonshai
len
is informed that h
proud to say, has not been un-
successful; ntbicieei smwcocanrstteh wyaaogsfoai otffdionr opportunity
afforded to
:ter(); Puoncncet 8 7
gracious Queen,
smu
ac
ic
ee
is
Ltsyf
ou r
dl:s
az forgiri
eai
snel ;feu:al:it
with
thesae
oqnsuis mayoreenn subsequent communicationeg ,Theuapplicationdin Lonrde t9c oeni
London,
our
etedor
from t d 1 •
pwe c t ere long to. see n within 131
uncthh
the
Towncircum-
stancesyobexe
haea 1
Hall
bust of her Majesty, which shall be worthy not
fame of the
only of the rising young artist, but to some
extent of the great event which it is is intended to com-
memorate.
uarwijer.n3Na

THE BELLS FOR TUE HOUSES OP PARLIAMENT.
Messrs. Warner, of Jewin-street, London, are about to
cast the bells for the great clock of the Houses of Par-
t iam en t. The principal bell is to be nine feet in diame:
ter, and to weigh about 14 tons, and will be the Val
bell, they say, ever cast in England. It is eae
that the four quarter-bells will weigh about ten tone
more.—The Builder,