The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-16 00:00:00

Hostilities in America,

An influential deputation from the Society for
Obtaining the Cessation of Hostilities in America
waited on the Premier yesterday for the purpose of
urging her Majesty's Government to take steps to
bring about peace between the belligerents.
It consisted of the following noblemen and
gentlemen :—The Marquis of Clanricarde, the
-Bishop of Chichester, Lord Alfred Churchill, M.P.,
Mr Yorke, M.P., Mr Marsh, M.P., Mr Repton,
M.P., Colonel Grey, M.P., Mr Danby Seymour,
M.P., Mr Spence, of Liverpool, Admiral Anson,
Colonel Halpin, Rev. F. W. Tremlett, Mr I. R.
Fernyhough, Mr C. Shand, Sir Henry de Hoghton,
Bart., Mr Bramley.Moore, M.P., Mr T. D. Trem.
lett, Rev. W. -W. Malet, Mr T. Ray, and Dr Skey,
F.R.S., President of the Royal College of Surgeons.
The deputation having been introduced by the
Marquis of Clanricarde, the Rev. F. W. TREMLETT,
hon. secretary, at the request of the chain-Alan, Ad-
miral Anson, submitted to the Premier that from a
very large number of letters whici the society had
received—especially from the rectors of parishes
and other persons—refleztting the state of feel.
ing in the country districts ; also from the
presentation to Parliament of petitions from
the clergy and laity of various parishes
in the counties of Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Cam.
Berland, Lancashire, Sussex, Somersetshire, War•
wickshire, Norfolk, Berkshire, Shropshire, Notting-
hamshire, Kent, Wiltshire, Lincolnshire, Cornwall,
Devonshire, Oxfordshire, and Middlesex; from the
counties of Meath, Cavan, Leitrim, Roscommon,
Antrim, Longford, Sligo, Queen's County, Water.
ford, Galway, Tipperary, Cork, and Dublin ; and
further, from the general tone of feeling and con.
versation in all social circles, meetings, and the public
press, there were good grounds for stating that a
strong and increasing feeling exists in the country
that Her Majesty's Government should, if possible,
avail itself of its friendly relations with the Federal
authorities to bring about a cessation of hostilities
in America ; that, looking upon the restoration of
the Union as impossible and the independence of the
Southern Confederacy as virtually a fait accompli,
any prolongation of the war could only result in
mutual slaughter, and in debt and weakness to
both belligerents ; and that, bound as both are
to us by ties of blood and interest, and impressed as
they must be after three years' experience with the
futility of any advantage from the continuance of so
gigantic and sanguinary a contest, it was reasonable
to hope that such a proposal, made bona fide, would
not only stimulate and embolden the large Peace
Party in existence in the North, but would be gene-
rally acceptable to the majority of the people of
both sections, The deputation would further re-
present that, besides the saving of many thousands
of valuable lives, the advantage of a peace to the
people of this country would be great. While the
direct sufferings of the operatives in the manufac.
turing districts for the last three years—though
borne with heroic fortitude and met with moat
Christian liberality—had been of a heartrending
character, and, though mitigated in intensity,
still continues to be deeply felt by this deserving
and industrious class, the continuance of the war
was practically levying a tax on ail (for the in-
creased price of cotton and woollen goods) equal in
amount of the interest on the National Debt. This
war tax was oppressive to all families of sma

Means, and was especially hard upon the poor.
While wages had not increased in the rural districts,
the prices of clothing for the poor had been doubled
and trebled, wool having risen from is 4d to 2s 4d
per lb, and cotton from Gd to 2s and 2s 6d. More-
over, if we turned to France the war tax was equally
oppressive there. From statements which had lately
been obtained from that country, it was estimated
that the people or France would have to pay this
year for their cotton jackets, &c., something like
1,000,000,000 f., or nearly treble the usual peace
prices. Other countries, also, had a❑ interest in
the re-establishment of peace correspondent to the
amount of cotton clothing consumed by their re.
spective populations—which was in Belgium as in
France, Cb per head, in Spain 211 b per head,
while in Russia and Italy together the consump-

tion scarcely exceeded llb per head. In the United
Kingdom the consumption was 91b per head.
The deputation Would therefore submit that the
Governments of France, Belgium, and Spain had
a special interast in acceding to any proposals
which Her Majesty's Government might in its
wisdom and humanity be pleased to make tending
to the re-establishment of peace between bellige-
rents in North America.

Mr. SPENCE, one of the vice-presidents of the
society, said the deputation was devoid of any
party character, and would chiefly urge the plea of
humanity. At the present moment if to the battle
fields in Virginia and Georgia were added all the
other points at which blood was being shed through-
out the vast area, we should probably find that the
total destruction of human life was at the rate of
10,000 a week, or half a million a year. And if to
this there were added the amount of woe befalling
orphans, parents, and wives, the sum total of
human destruction and misery was such as
impelled au effort to bring it to an end.
There was also grave evils that would
result from a protraction of the war. The
shock to the cotton trade had been endured and
surmounted, but that trade was left, and now etood
in a most dangerous position. We had present pro-
sperity, but it was based o❑ an artificial and in-
flated price, and the longer the war lasted, and the
wider the ramifications of our trade on this trea•

cherous basis, the more disastrous and dangerous
would be the reaction when the day for it arrived.
And assuming a separation to be inevitable, it was
essentially in the interests of all that each power
should command the respect of the others, and be
able to take its proper part in the affairs of the
world. Future peace would greatly depend on some
degree of equality in power. This could not be if
the war must needs go on till it ended through the
exhaustion of one of the belligerents. If that ex-
haustion befel the South, all the old evils of the
Union would return, but aggravated a hundredfJld
by the military power and spirit now developed.
If that exhaustion befel the North, it was pro-
bable that a disruption would occur among tie
Northern States, a source of future discord, as de-
stroying those relative proportions which were
essential to future peace. The present period was
eminently favourable to such an effort as was sug-
gested. In the present posture of affairs the voice
of Europe, calmly expressed, could not fail to have
its influence. We were urged to inaction by assur-
ances that little time would be needed. Over and
over again the period of 90 days was to be final.
No less than four years had now been given for this
terrible experiment, and it had been tried in vain.

The question now before the North was whether or
not to continue the disastrous effort. There was a
peace party and it was growing, but it had no
rallying point. The action now urged would give
them a pivot on which to form, not, indeed,

the action of England alone which was to be
deprecated altogether, but that to be taken
conjointly by several leading Powers. With
such assistance the peace party would rapidly
gather strength and numbers and thus we
might reach the issue all desired. And there was
a contingency that could not b 3 overlooked with

safety. Whether right or wrong there did exist
in the South a feeling of exasperation on the sub•
ject of the policy adopted in this country, and if it

should happen that terms of peace should be offered
and accepted by the South while under this feeling,
it might readily be imagined that such terms might
be directly aimed, not only at our interests, but our

peace and safety. After alluding to the nature of
the struggle and the heroic defence of their soil by
the people of the South, Mr Spence said that the

deputation felt it a Christian duty to urge that some

effect should be made, whatever might be its form,
to influence the termination of this deplorable

strife.

Mr. MARSH, M.P., wished to call his Lordship's
attention to the fact that the opinion that an at-
tempt at mediation would be attended with good
results was not confined to England, but was shared
by the whole of the South, the peace party of the
North, and by the nations of the European Con-
tinent.

Mr DANBy SEYMOUR, M.P., said he joined the
deputation entirely o❑ principles of humanity, and

without the slightest bias towards either of the
belligerents ; he was unwilling to see slavery
flourish, but ho was equally unwilling to see a
nation forced to submit to a government which they
detested,

The Rev. W. W. MALET said that his experience,
gained from a visit both to the Federal and Confe•
derate States during the war, and from intercourse
with all classes of persons, both in the North and
South, was that there was a general weariness of
the war and a desire for peace.

Lord PALMERSTON, in reply, said that two facts
were abundantly clear—viz., that the war was
cruelly destructive to the Americans themselves,
and the inconvenience caused by it to other nations
was excessive. The question remained, whether
the Government had any rational ground for sup.
posing that the Federal Government would listen
to any proposal of mediation at the present moment.
There was an old couplet—
" They who in quarrels interpose,
Will often wipe a bloody nose."
(Laughter.) He was not afraid of a bloody nose,
but he feared that premature efforts would only have
the effect of exasperating the North, and making it
more difficult when the passions were a little calm,
to effect the object all must have in view. The Go-
vernment was led to think, from all accounts that
reached them, that this was not the moment at which
any mediatory proposals could be usefully made.
Each party was equally confident of ultimate suc-
cess, and the North equally jealous of interference.
If, however, at any future time reasonable ground
could be shown for supposing that friendly sugges-
tions would be listened to, her Majesty's Govern-
ment would be happy to use their efforts to arrive
at such a desirable result as that of terminating this
unhappy war.

Admiral ANSON, the chairman of the society,
having thanked his lordship for his courtesy, the
deputation withdrew.

The Assault in a Railway Carriage,

At the Kingston Petty Sessions on Friday Mr.
Nash, who was lately brought before the Hampshire
magistrates and discharged on a question of juris-
diction, was brought up on a warrant charging him
with an indecent assault on Miss Mary Anne Moody.
The magistrates present were Major Turner, Cap-
tain Corkran, Captain M'Kinnon, Captain Shears,
and Messrs. Western, Gill, Brown, and Hartley.
Mr. Eve, solicitor, of Aldershot, appeared for the
prisoner; Mr. Thomas Bent, Superintendent of
Police on the London and South Western Railway,
attended on behalf of the company.
Miss Moody, aged 18, sworn and examined, said,

—On the 6th of July I left Waterloo station at 10
minutes past one o'clock. I got into a second class
carriage. The prisoner got in immediately after me.
Immediately on his getting into the carriage he sat
down opposite to me. He offered to put my parasol,
umbrella, and bag, which I held in my hand, on the
opposite side. I declined to allow him to do so. He
next asked me why I wore spectacles, and whether
I always wore them. The parasol and umbrella
were stuck up in the corner when he said that to me.
I was sitting with my face to the engine, and he was
sitting opposite to me, or rather on the opposite seat,
but not immediately opposite to me. He next offered
to shut the window on my right. That was the
window next to me. I did not object to this. Imme-
diately upon that a young woman got into the train.
He asked her where she was going, a question he
had previously put to me also. Nothing more was
said. She sat opposite to me, and the prisoner still
sat opposite to me, though not immediately opposite.
He leant back in the carriage as though he was
asleep. Nothing more was said until the young
woman got out at Surbiton. I did not know her.
While she was there either myself or she had opened
the window again, The train no sooner started than
he continued his questions to me again as to how old
I was, and almost repeated what he said before. I
did not satisfy him. He continued asking me clues.
tions, and law down along the whole length of the
carriage opposite to me, staring me in the face. I
began to be nervous, and got up to open the car-
riage door to get out.
The Magistrates' Clerk—Was the train then
moving ?

W itness—lt had hardly moved. It had just
begun to move when he said, "Don't get out." I
shut the door and turned back as if to go to my
seat. He then again wanted to shut the window,
to which I objected, and I stood up. I got up
directly opposite to him, and when I did so I felt
his hand under my shoulder, I moved as though an-
noyed, and I felt what I supposed to bo his other
hand lifting my dress. When I felt his hand about
my waste I moved again. I felt his hand placed
right round me, and just then I also felt my dress
gently raised in front. I turned round, took up my
parasol and umbrella, and went to the carriage
door and opened it, and got out upon the step, and
got out upon the ledge and ran along the carriage,
and I was getting on the step of the next carriage
when somebody caught me by the wrist and dragged
me to the step of the next carriage. Then Mr.
Stokes—whose name I was told afterwards—and
another young man, I believe, held me up. After we
had got some miles the guard stopped the train and
put me into the carriage where they were.
The Magistrates' Clerk—Whom do you mean by
" they ?"
Witnese—Why, whom should I mean but the
gentleman ? And he really is a gentleman who
pulled me into the carriage and saved my life. When
I was out on the step the prisoner shut the carriage
door that I got out of.
Captain Mainnoa—Did you see him do so ?
Witness—Yes, I believe I did. I have no doubt
he did so.

Captain M'Kinnon—Was it immediately after
you left ?

Witness—lt was just as I got out on the step. I
was not quite conscious of what was going on all
the time I was on the step.
The Chairman—Do you
remember what was
done while you were on the step ?
Witness—Yes. I just remember something—
that I was there. I cannot remember what I said.

The Chairman—When you were taken into the
carriage was anything said to you ?
Witness—Yes ; I heard the names of those who
were present. I did not know them personally.
When we got to Woking I was asked my name. I
think by the station-master. The prisoner was in
another compartment. They gave me a glass of
water. An extra guard was put on the carriage,
and I was sent on to Farnborough, and then the
station-master ordered me out of the carriage, and
I gave the prisoner into custody and went with him
to the police station.
A Magistrate—When you were on the step of
the carriage were you sensible ?
Witness—l can hardly say. All that Ido know
is that a gentleman took hold of me, and I fainted
while I was on his arm.
A Magistrate—Have
_
you stated everything that
took place ?

Witness—Yes ;
e
nay eerdy. th ii was quite aware that In g as far as I know.
To the Chairman—When the prisoner lifted my
dress I did not feel his hand upon me. He did not
raise my dress more than 12 inches. He raised it
my dress I felt alar
very quietly. When I felt his hand upon me under
risked my life, and I knew that if I got out of the
carriage I was liable to be fined. My character, my
welfare, everything that is worth having in this
world, is far dearer to me than my life, and there-
fore I jumped out of the carriage. I had no doubt
of his intention, and that made me act as I did at
the risk of my life. I would do it now. I did
not say anything while I was on the step. The
prisoner did not assist n., e in any way.

Capt. APKinnon—And you were willing to risk
your life ?

Witness—Yes; anythiag. If my character had
been gone my life would have been of no value to
me.

Cross-examined by Mr Eve—l was standing with
my face to the window when the. prisoner took up
my dress, and he was sitting with his right arm
next to the window on the opposite side. I had
going far, and if I was
Igognoettointhhee opposite end
lend was going
the carriage. When
Yes," but did not say
I did not answer him.
gHoeinsgpofkuertahgearitnh, aannFd alrnsahiadm.
where. I did speak to the other young woman. At
Surbitou he said "How old are you ? you are nat

very old, you are not 18." I said, " Perhaps lam
12." Nothing more was said about my age. Ido
not think I told him where I had come from. I think
I said that I had come from 100 miles below Lon-
don ; but I said that to the young person who was
in the carriage, with whom I was in conversation.
He may have heard it, or he may not, I cannot say.
I do not think I told him that I had been down in
Suffolk. He asked me various questions, but I paid
no attention to what he said. They were questions
such as any gentleman might put to a lady in a
railway carriage. He appeared to be asleep while
the young lady was in the carriage, but he suddenly
woke up when she left. I thought he had no right
to put the questions which he did. I was frightened
of him, and that was why I got out of the carriage.
I never said I was offered £2OO to compromise the
case. I would not accept of any amount to with.
draw from a case in which my character was at stake.
Mr Bent objected to the questions Mr Eve was
putting to the witness.

Mr Eve did not understand in what position Mr
Bent was there.

Mr Bent said he appeared for the railway com-
pany, who had thought at to take up the case for
the protection of those who travelled on the line.
He knew he had no legal locus stand/.
The Chairman—There is no necessity, Mr Bent,
for you to say anything. Unless a great deal of very
different evidence is to come out, neither the com-
pany nor the young lady require any advocate.
Mr Eve asked the witness whether she offered
any opposition or resistance to the prisoner. She
replied that she did not know what he meant by
opposition or resistance. She got out of the carriage
at the risk of her life, and she could not understand
what more effective resistance she could have made.
Upon Mr Eve pressing some further questions,
A Magistrate intimated that he thought the
cross.ezamination unfair.

Mr Evc—l am doing the best I can for my client
A Magistrate—And bad is the best. (Approba
tion in court.)
After a protracted cross-examination,

Mr Stokes and some other witnesses were ex-
amined, and proved the general facts, which are
already known to the public.
The prisoner was committed for trial, but ad-
mitted to bail in his own recognisances of £5OO and
two sureties of £250 each.

His father and brother gave the required sureties.
and he was liberated.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT---IVA.B.wick, July 13.
Nisi PILIUS COURT.
(Before Mr Justice Keating and a Common Jury.)
HARRISON V. DOWLING.

This was an action which disclosed a very discreditable
phase of sporting life.
Mr Digby Seymour, Q.C., and Mr. Wills appeared for
the plaintiff—and Mr. Field, Q,C., and Mr Gibbons for the
defendant.

The plaintiff, who is a horse dealer in Birmingham,
sought to recover from the defendant, the editor of Bell's
Life in London, a sum of £lOO, which had been deposited
in his hands to abide the event of a trotting match for 20
miles between a pony of the plaintiff's, called Daisy, and
another called Potato Bob, the property of a Mr Reid, a
potato dealer at Birmingham.

The case for the plaintiff was that Daisy led Potato Bob
for the first 13 miles of the race, at the end of which Daisy's
driver was desired by the referee to pull up on the ground
that the supporters of Potato Bob were continually getting
in front of Daisy, and impeding her course. Daisy was then
pulled up, and Potato Bob shot ahead until he arrived at
the Castle Donning turnpike-gate. This gate was found
closed and the road blocked up by carts surrounded by
" roughs" who refused to let Potato Bob pass, and threat-
ened the life of the referee, causing a great scene of uproar
and confusion, amid which blows were freely interchanged
between the partisans of the two ponies. The referee there•
upon said he would give his decision in favour of Potato
Bob unless the gate was opened, This was done, and
Potato Bob and Daisy, which had by that time come up to
the gate, proceeded leisurely to the winning-post, when the
referee announced that he would give his decision at his
owa house on the following evening. The parties accord-
ingly went there, when the referee announced that both
parties had acted unfairly, and the race must be run again,
The case for the defendant was that the referee had not
told the driver of Daisy to pull up, but that the animal had
stopped from exhaustion, and that at the turnpike-gate the
referee had given an unequivocal decision in favour of Po-
tato Bob. The defendant had adopted this view, and had
handed over the stakes to Mr Reid upon receiving an in-
demnity from him.

A great number of witnesses were called, those for the
plaintiff flatly contradicting those for the defendant upon
every point of the case, material and immaterial; and after
a tedious trial, which lasted upwards of seven hours,
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for the amount
claimed, being his share of the stakes deposited in the
hands of the defendant.

SOUTH WALES CIRCUIT,—HAVERFORDWEST,
July 13.
MtiRDE a.
(Before Mr Justice Crompton.)
Mary Prout, spinster, aged 22, was indicted for the wilful
murder of Rhoda Prout, at the parish of Amroth, on the
20th May, 1864.

The prisoner had been delivered at the Narberth Union
Workhouse of a female child on the 9th April, and left on
the 20th May at 6 p.m, The child was healthy but small.
The prisoner was seen aboui. 8 a.m. on the 21st by Hannah
Davies in the road leading to Amroth Church and Colby-
lodge. She then had a child with her, and, according to
the evidence of a daughter of this witness, who also saw
the prisoner, the child was sucking at the time. The path
in which the prisoner then was led in the .direction of an
old coalpit disused and half filled up, about 26 yards deep
and about 150 yards from the place where the prisoner was
met by Hannah Davies and her daughter. The prisoner in
the evening went to the house of her grandmother about
three-quarters of a mile from the pit where the body of the
child was found. She told her grandmother the child had
died in the workhouse. On the 22d of May the child was
found at the bottom of the old coalpit mentioned above, with
extrensive fractures of the cranial bones and considerable
extravasation of blood on the brain. The left thigh was also
broken, and there were several marks of bruises and exco-
riations on the surface of the body. All the viscera were
healthy, but a little pale.
The medical evidence showed that these injuries were in-
flicted during life, and were the cause of death.
When the prisoner was apprehended on Monday, the
23d, she told the policeman, "If they hang me for it, I'll
tell the truth. I threw it, and ran away a short distance,
and then returned and found there was no noise."
After an able address by the prisoner's Counsel, who con-
tended that there was no conclusive evidence that the child
left the workhouse alive, and that it might have died of
convulsions, and that the prisoner was insane at the time of
committing the act,
The jury found the prisoner guilty, with a strong recom-
mendation to mercy on the ground of absence of premedi-
tation.

His Lordship then most impressively pronoußced sen-
tence of death.

Tho case has excited the greatest interest, as, we believe,
there has been no capital conviction and execution in Pem-
brokeshire for the past 30 years.

HOME CIRCUIT—CHELMSFORD, July 15.
CROWN Coma.
(Before Mr Baron Martin.)
The calendar on the whole was extremely light. There
were only 16 cases for trial, out of which not leas than four,
or one-fourth of the whole number, were cases of offences
against women or girls, of which one was a case of actual
rape. There were three of these at Hereford, which offence
appears to be rather on the increase. There was also a case
of administering drugs with intent to procure abortion.
There were two charges against women for concealing
births of bastard children, and one case of child murder.
So that nearly one half of the cases in the calendar wore of
that class of offences. The greater number of the remaining
cases (as many as five or six) were cases of arson. The rest
were ordinary cases of robbery, and there was one slight case
of burglary. The first case tried was one of robbery,which
resulted in an acquittal, and the case of burglary was so
alight that the learned judge only inflicted a sentence of 6
months' imprisonment, observing that it was to the credit of
the county that the calendar was on the whole so light and
contained no serious cases of robbery or burglary. The next
case taken was one which appeared to excite a painful inte-
rest in the county.

A young woman named Regina Clarke was indicted for
unlawfully and secretly disposing of the body, with the in-
tention of concealing the birth of a child of which she had
been delivered at Danbury, in this county.
Mr Walford was for the prosecution—Mr Woollett and
Mr Philbrick for the defence.

The girl, who was said to be scarcely 19, had been for
some months in the service of the Bishop of Rochester,
whose palace is at Danbury, and her conduct appeared to
have been irreproachable, apart from the particular matter
in question. On the 25th April the dead body of a newly
born infant was found on a cinder heap belonging to the
kitchen offices, and it appeared that the girl had been deli-
vered of a child a day or two before. The girl had been let
out on bail, and now surrendered to take her trial. Her ap-
pearance was such as to indicate that her birth was rather
above her present position. She was fair and delicate, and
her countenance showed sensibility and intelligence. She
was in an agoniAng state of mind, and when placed within
the bar she almost swooned away with emotion, and could
scarcely be supported even in a sitting posture by tue ma-
tron of the gaol. The counsel for the prosecution, in opening

the case, said it was most distressing, and the learned judge,
observing the condition of the poor girl, suggested to h m
to cut short his statement of the circumstances, as they evi-
dently caused much pain to the prisoner, and at once to call
the witnesses. It appeared from the evidence that the cinder
beep was constantly in use and that the servants were daily
at it; and the body could easily be seen and was seen the
very day or day after it was placed there, and it was on this
it will be seen the defence was founded. The surgeon stated
that he found the poor girl very ill, pale, and almost pulse-
less, and she had evidently been delivered of a child. Its
death, he said, was evidently accidental, and the delivery
might have been so. There was no actual evidence that the
girl put the child's body where it was found.
At the close of the evidence for the prosecution,
Mr Woollett submitted that there was no case of con-
cealment within the statute, and cited from a manuscript
case of Foster and Finlason's Nisi Prius Reports, a case
tried before the learned Baron on the Northern Circuit,
in which he had held that a " penfold"—a sort of pound
enclosed within walls four or five feet high—was not a place
of concealment within the statute.

The learned Judge, however, said that was an open
place, and different from the present. There had been, he
observed, different decisions as to the construction of the
statute ; but there was, he thought, hero a sufficient place
of concealment within the statute, if the prisoner placed it
there. In summing up the case, however, his lordship said
there must, under the statate, be a secret disposition of the
dead body, and the question for the jury was whether there
was such a disposition of the body by the prisoner. If she
placed it there with the intention that it should be covered
by the cinders and thus concealed, it would be a case within
the statute. Did the prisoner place the child where it was
found r and if so, with what intention ? There was cer-
tainly no direct evidence that she placed the child there,
and it was quite consistent with the evidence that she did
not do so. The father of the child, as to whom there was no
evidence at all, might have been in or about the house, and
he might have known of the birth, though other people did
not know it ; and it was possible that he placed the child
where it was found. The jury must be satisfied before they
convicted the prisoner that she placed the child there or
was a party to the act ; and if they were in any doubt on
that point they should certainly acquit the prisoners
The jury consulted together some minutes, during which
the poor girl appeared quite unconscious. The jury returned
a verdict of not guilty, to the evident satisfaction et every
one in court.

Two sturdy-looking fellows, named "Waller and Monk,
were indicted for assaulting a gamekeeper and doing him
grievous bodily harm,

Mr Shaw prosecuted ; Mr Pearce was for the prisoners.
On the evening of the 9th March the keeper saw four men
on a bank near Holmwood-land, belonging to Lord May-
nard, and he asked them what they were doing there. They
got up, one of them saying, " Knock the old devil down,"
surrounded him, and struck him on the back of the head
with sticks, and he received a severe blow on the spine,
from which he was still suffering. The men then ran off,
and only the two prisoners were identified.
They were convicted and sentenced to 12 months' im-
prisonment with hard labour.
Several cases of arson were in the calendar, as there were
at the winter assizes, and
The learned Baron observed that he feared the offence was
very prevalent in the county.
A labourer named Guyver, aged 50, was indicted for
setting fire to a dwelling-house on the Bth inst.
The evidence was circumstantial, but a boy swore he saw
him creeping along in a field of barley close to the spot just
after the house was on fire.
He was convicted ; and

The learned Judge said he entirely concurred in the ver-
dict, and as the offence was so serious and so prevalent, he
deemed it his duty to inflict a severe sentence by way of ex-
ample. The sentence was that he undergo penal servitude
for ten years.

The prisoner was removed from the bar protesting his in-
nocence, which he continued to assert while the Judge was
passing sentence.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

POST.—The present occasion is one which cer-
tainly appears admirably fitted for the consideration
of the precise nature of the obligations subsisting
between ourselves and those colonial dependencies
which at the same time constitute our strength and
our weakness. We cannot therefore complain of
the discussion to which the motion for the second
reading of the New Zealand Loan Bill gave rise
last evening. However successful we may have
been of late in maintaining, under the most difficult

circumstances, peaceful relations with the great
Powers of the world, we have unfortunately become
engaged in two or three little wars in distant parts
of the globe which have certainly redounded neither
to out credit nor advantage. It is scarcely a month

since the public learned that we were engaged in
hostilities with a savage tribe on the Wrest Coast of
Africa, and that although not a single shot haci been
fired nearly half the entire force we brought into
the field had been swept away or invalided by
disease. It is needless now to recapitulate the sad
history of the Ashantee war, so fresh in the memory
of our readers, or to refer to details which shocked

the country, and compelled the Government to
abandon forthwith an enterprise which should never
have been undertaken. But it was not alone on the
coast of Africa that British troops were being em-
ployed during the past few months in vindicating
the honour of our flag, nor was it there only that
valuable lives were being sacrificed in a war with
savages. For close on a twelvemonth the native

tribes of New Zealand have been in revolt, and
during the same period the Colonial Government,
with the assistance of her Majesty's forces, have
been engaged in endeavouring to reduce them to
subjection. The accounts transmitted from time to
time to this country of the progress of the war
might, on the whole, be considered favourable; and
the intelligence forwarded by one of the recent
mails led the more sanguine to conclude that the
revolt was on the point of being suppressed. The
latest tidings, however, which reached this country
must have dissipated such an impression. In one
of those military operations which the general in
command found it expedient to execute the troops
employed sustained a serious reverse. The object
to be gained was to dislodge a few hundred savages
from a pah or earthwork, of which they had posses.
sion ; and in accomplishing this the attacking force
lost no less than 32 killed, of whom 9 were officers,
and 72 wounded, including four commissioned
officers. The 43d Regiment lost its lieutenant-
colonel, four captains, and two lieutenants, whilst
a captain and a commander in the Royal Navy were
also amongst the slain. Before the sad intelligence
reached this country the Government had brought
in a bill guaranteeing a loan to be raised by the
Colonial Government to meet the expenditure occa-
sioned by the war, and last evening its second
reading was moved in the House of Commons. In
presence of the facts recently brought to our know-
ledge it was, however, impossible that the proposed
measure should receive the sanction of the Legisla-
ture as a mere matter of course. When the proposal
of the Imperial Government to guarantee the New
Zealand Loan was mooted in the House of Lords a
few weeks since, we directed attention to the rela-
tionship which, in our opinion, ought to subsist
between this country and its colonies. It is for the
interest of the empire that its colonies should in-
crease, and so long as the colonists observe their
allegiance to the Home Government they are entitled
to claim its protection. But this general principle,
however true in itself, is subject to certain important
modifications. In the first place, a distinction must
be drawn between that protection British colonists
are entitled to claim from the aggressive acts of
foreign Powers, which have no pretensions to exer-
cise jurisdiction in the new settlement, and that
protection which they may demand in the prosecu-
tion of their work of colonisation against the original
owners of the soil. This is a distinction of a very
important kind, though constantly lost sight of or
ignored. For instance, if France ought to dislodge
our colonists from their settlements in New Zealand,
no one can doubt for a moment that it would
be the duty of the Imperial Government, with all
the force at its command, to reEist such aggression.
But whether it is also the duty of the Home Go-
vernment to aid settlers in intestine wars which
arise from attempts upon their part to enlarge their
dominions, and the continuance or cessation of
which is exclusively under the control of their own
Legislature, is open to considerable doubt, Now,
without inquiring into the origin of the Maori war,
or into the Grounds assigned by the natives for the
present revolt, it is abundantly evident that it de-
pends almost exclusively upon the Colonial Legis-
lature to determine the conditions upon which the
war shall cease, short of the extermination or corn.
plete subjugation of the aborigines. Under these
circumstances, the question is certainly a legitimate
one how far the taxpayers of these islands should
be called upon to provide for an expenditure over
which they exercised no control.

HERALD..—The end of the session is at hand.
Parliament will be prorogued early this year. As
well it may. It has been ask'd by the Ministry to
do nothing, and with the exception of its labours in
the way of private legislation it has done nothing.
Two or three amending bills, to remedy the grosser
and more intoleraNe blunders of previous Whig
legislation, constitute the only chapters of the year's
statutes which have the slightest public interest or
importance. The Ministry, to do them justice, did
not promise much ; but, small as was their promise,
they have not performed it. We do not regard
paucity of ,egislation in itself as an evil; on the
contrary, we believe that the fewer the acts Perlis•
ment passes, the more likely it is to have deserved
well of the country. But, unfortuately, Parliament
has been, in previous sessions, unwise enough
to legislate too much ; it has adopted a number of
crude, incoherent, and mischievous measures of
legal and social reform brought forward by
the present Government ; and, by the confession

of the members of that Government, those acts
require very considerable amendment. Two or
three very gross blunders have been rectified, but
no serious attempt has been en ade to amend laws
which have almost taught the commercial publw.
to curse the very name of lay r reform. Mr. Bass
will probably be the hero o f the session, and
whatever opinion people may aold upon the great
question of street music, only a very few fanatiGt,
per o contro la musica will hold the passing of
his bill sufficient to redeem th a session from the re•
proach of barrenness. It is tr ue that the Ministry,
although they have brought forward very few bills
themselves, and of these few have withdrawn the
most, have given their waem support to a good
many bills introduced by pri v ate members. I.ll°
usual attempts to despoil the Ch. arch and un-Chns-
tianise the Universities, to reduce the franchise, and
transfer sovereign power to the mob, have been
made by Radical members, and haa-e received the
votes of the immense majority, and the enthusiastic
advocacy of some, of her Majesty's Minimters. Un-
fortunately for the Ministry the lustre of success
has not redeemed the discredit of the wretched
effort to recover a little Radical favour; their ap-
pearance on the floor as advocates of a naeasure
has been the signal, as Mr. Gladstone will lo.ogree
member, for its immediate and ignominious rejec-
tion. The Ministry passed their Budget because
they proposed no new tag; they carried their esti-
mates because they asked less than in previous
years; but they were defeated whenever they p:°'
posed any decisive legislation, and made to suffer
humiliation and mortification which no body of
men with a thought for anything nobler than the
flesh-pots of Downing-street would have endure&
Happy England, which rejoices in a Ministry all
the members of which, in their intense devotion to
her interests, in their overpowering conviction that
to commit the rudder of the State to any other
hands would be an irreparable misfortune, are pre,.
pared to sacrifice their reputation for truth, honour,
and principle, and consent to hold power at the
hands of a majority which, whilst keeping them in
office, tells them, with the most offensive plainness.,
that they are as unprincipled as they are incapable!
In no other country in the world could statesmen
of a patriotism so extreme, and, to decent people,
so disgusting, be discovered. Looking at the
position from the stand-point of her Majesty $
Ministers we can well understand that they
are satisfied with the session. They will
be at the end Ministers of the Crown, and
that is much more than they hoped at the
beginning. That they have been universally blamed,
that the House of Lords has formerly censured
them, and the House of Commons has, whilst de`
dining to record a formal condemnation, d eclared
by the mouths of the representative speakers of
the majority its dissatisfaction and disgust, ma!'
ters nothing to men whose only object is to keep in
office. What do Lord Palmerston, to whom office
has now become a necessity of life, and Mr Layard,
to whom it is equally so, care about the conden
tion of Messrs. Cobden, Bright, Roebuck, H ors'
man, Forster, and Goldsinid, so long as those ;Zee'
tletnen give their votes to keep them in office.
Wise in their generation, her Majesty's MinisterS
will take abuse with complacence whilst they can
get votes, and t hey are chuckling now over the et e'
cess of the dodge by which they prevented all die
cussion of their policy until their condemnation
would have been too late to save Denmark, and
Liberal members could find an excuse for voti.lg
for them in the impossibility of retrieving the
blunders they had committed. It will be a cheer's
jovial meeting at Greenwich on Saturday nes.t.
None of those who will be present dared to, hope ti
few months, or even a few weeks, ago the re
would be such a reunion, As their hearts war°
with the assurance that they have another .
months of office and patronage secured them---.3,s
.
the more fortunate of the band grow elated with
the promise of a pension, their voices will join 111
grateful acknowledgment of the cleverness with
which their chief has jockeyed Parliament, end
they will vie in cutting sneers at the Liberal critics
in the House of Commons, who making a great
parade of scolding them, voted to keep them to
office, and at the independent Liberal newspapers,
which threatening war up to the very evening that
the Premier declared peace at any price would be
his policy, immediately discovered that peace Wee
the only course for sagacious statesmen, and that
war was a policy only fitted for the Tories, who
had entered into an alliance with the Pope to pro-
tect Denmark against Austria, and—horror of hors
rors—light the torch of insurrection in Venetia and
Hungary. The Ministerial party may well laugh as
they sip their wine at Trafalgar. They have accord'
plished all they care for. Although they ha`re
degraded England they have kept their places-
The people hiss them, but they may count, if no
accident occurs upon six or even nine months more
of office and its accompaniments.