The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-29 00:00:00

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION.

The general annual meeting of this association was held
on Saturday at Willis's Rooms; his Royal Highness the
Duke of Cambridge, President, in the chair. The room was
unusually crowded, and among others present were Earl
Dude, Earl Grosvenor, Lord Elcho, Lord Bury, Lord Col-
ville, Gen. Hay, Sir John Anson, Sir James R. NPR enzie,
Gen. Sir James Campbell, Sir John Burgoyne, G.C.8.,
Gen. Boileau, Sir John Shelley, General Eyre, Colonel
M'3lurdo, Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, Colonel Loyd Lindsay,
Captain St, John Mildmay, and a large number of officers
of the Volunteers.

His ROYAL HIGHNESS, in opening the proceedings, said
that the task which he had to perform on that occasion
was a very simple one, as they had only met there to dis-
cuss what might be thought advisable to do during the pre-
sent year, and to hear a statement of the position of the
National Rifle Association as it now stood. With regard
to its financial prospects, and, in fact, generally, he thought
be was quite justified in saying that the association was
progressing in a very satisfactory manner. Their in-
come, though by no means a large one, had been sufficient
to meet their requirements, and he was happy to add, was
in a state of progressive increase from year to year.
Their funded property was still very small, not only
compared with what they wished it to be, but even with
what it ought to be ; still, it was increasing. (Hear, hear.)
At the same time, while he felt justified in speaking in this
hopeful manner of the funds of the association, he thought
it right to observe that he trusted their friends would not
press for an extra or unusual increase of their expenditure.
It would be very unwise indeed if they were to attempt any
extra expenditure merely because they happened to have a
little larger amount of funds in their hands than usual.
Until they were in a position to feel that their finances were
secure, he thought they had better endeavour by all means
in their power to increase their funded property till they
could insure their future stability. Their funded property
last year only amounted to £3,056, and to that during the
past year they had made an addition of £616, so that the
funded proporty of the association now amounted to £4,209.
It might be thought by some that as there had been this
addition the association ought to do something more to ex-
tend its general usefulness, but it had been decided by the
Council—and in the propriety of that decision he fully con-
curred—that they ought to have a much larger sum in
funded property than £4,000 before they undertook more
than they had hitherto done. The income of the association
had increased from £9,087 in 1852 to £12,004 in 1863,
showing a clear increase of nearly £3,000. The total num-
ber of prizes in 1862 was 104, their value being £3,034. In
1863 these prizes were increased to 332, of the value of £4,386,
so that there were 200 more prizes, while in amount the
value was £l,OOO more in 1863 as compared with 1862. It
would be satisfactory to know, and more particularly to
those connected with the volunteer corps of the country,
that that amount of £l,OOO so added to the prizes had been
given almost entirely to the list of long Enfield prizes.
That matter had been very fully discussed at their last year's
meeting, and a strong feeling was then expressed, in which
he to a great extent concurred, that a sufficient number of
prizes had not been given to the long Enfield, and the
meeting would now see that the Council had added nearly
£l,OOO to that class of prizes. Coming then to the subject
of enti ies, he might mention that the competitors for the
Queen's Prize in 1862 amounted to 913, while in 1863 they
increased to 1,146, showing an addition of more than 200,
The total volunteer entries in 1862 werel,2B3, while in 1863
they reached the number of 2,739, showing an increase of
more than 1,500. The total " all corners" entries in 1862
amounted to 3,269, while last year they increased to 4,684,
showing, again, an increase of nearly 800. The total amount
of volunteers' entry in 1863 was £3,059, and the surplus
over the expenditure last year was £879. That comprised
all that was necessary to state to the meeting as to the
financial position of the society, but he need hardly add that
it was very desirable to do all that lay in their power to im-
prove its position in that respect. With that view it had
been thought that by adding to the entries for the Queen's
Prize a considerable increase might be gained, and he quite
concurred in the suggestion, It was therefore proposed by
the Council that, instead of having only one competitor
from each company, two might be selected, and that the
entry, which had hitherto been only 10s„ should be raised
to 20s. Of course, the entry was purely voluntary—none
were obliged to enter or compete. But he could not help
thinking that it was a very advisable thing to adopt the
change, because by such means the financial position of the
society would be strengthened, and he thought this was a
legitimate and proper way of arriving at such a satisfactory
result. On a previous occasion allusion had been made to
the advantages which would arise if they could get county
and colonial associations to join and become affiliated with
the parent society, and in that respect there had been a
great improvement. The National Rifle Association had
now connected with it 31 county and 14 colonial associations.
He believed the Council were most anxious that they sheuld
not touch their funded property till it amounted to the sum of
£lO,OOO. That might appear to some rather a large amount,
but he certainly thought the decision was a wise and pru-
dent resolve, and he trusted no attempt would be made to
trench upon the small sum they had now in hand, which
was, in fact, all the property the association possessed. It
was true that the association had found great favour in the
eight of the public, and was increasing in favour from
Year to year ; but still it must be borne in mind that all they
were receiving was, so to speak, from casual annual receipts,
and that they were, in fact, living from hand to mouth.
What was desired, therefore, was that the association should
be possessed of a reserve fund to meet any future unfore-
seen contingencies that might arise, so as to place it on a
more secure and permanent basis. He hoped therefore that
his observations would meet any suggestions which might
arise as to extending their sphere of action for the present,
and that they might in the mode he had suggested endea-
vour to secure their permanent utility rather than merely
extend the operation which the liberality of the public had
hitherto enabled them to accomplish. The present was the
first meeting of the year. Another would be held in May,
when the details necessaryfor the arrangement of the great
Wimbledon meeting might be more fully discussed. It
would be as well, however, that even thus early the Coun-
cil should hear any suggestions which the meeting had to
make. Although it was not desirable to go deeply into
details, yet anything which required time for consideration
and decision should be brought forward now. The report
of the association showed the spirit in which the Council

were acting. A rifle conference had taken place a short time
since, which had been on the most friendly terms with the
association ; and the Council flattered themselves that most
of the suggestions which had been made by them had been
most favourably received by the conference. There was one
subject touched upon at that conference connected with
which he had been requested to read a letter which had just
been received from the Secretary of State for War, on the
assimilation of the musketry practice of various rifle corps.
He believed that hitherto that had not been quite so uniform
as could have been wished. It was felt by all that to make
the practice of Volunteer corps useful, and to really test
and know their comparative merits, it was absolutely essen-
tial that the practice should in all cases be placed on abso-
lutely the same footin ; otherwise, it was obvious that the
marksmen's badges, which were awarded on the same
grounds, could not have the same value. It was therefore
essential that it should be clearly understood that that
which was the practice in one corps should be identical with
the practice of others. In order to obtain the advantage of
having an authoritative rule on that question the Council
had communicated with Earl De Grey, whose reply was as
follows

" War-office, Feb. 26.
"My Lord,—l have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter of the 15th inst. drawing my attention to
the want of uniformity that prevails in the class firing of
the different Volunteer corps, and the desirableness of estab •
lishing some general system of musketry practice and super-
intendence for the whole force.

" The subject which your Lordship has thus brought to
my notice received my special attention when the existing
regnlations for the Volunteer force were under consideration
—but at that time, after mature deliberation, it was not
deemed expedient to lay down any more specific rule for the
guidance of commanding officers incarrying on the musketry
practice of their respective corps than that the regulations of
the army should be adhered to as closely as the circum-
stances of each corps would permit. As, however, the
Council-of the National Rifle Association, basing its opinion
no doubt upon the wide experience which it has gained in
watching the progress of rifle shooting throughout the
country, appears to be now impressed with the necessity of
establishing some special rules for conducting the musketry
practice of the Volunteer force, I request that your Lordship
will have the goodness to communicate to the Council my
willingness to receive any further suggestions on this sub-
ject which it may be prepared to offer, and that these, when
submitted to me, shall be taken into attentive consideration,
provided they do not involve any principle at variance with
the system of instruction pursued at the School of Muskatry.
—I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's obe-
dient servant, " DE GREY AND Rirox."
In conformity with that letter the Council had at once ap-
pointed a committee to inquire into the whole subject, and
the result of their inquiry would at a future day be laid be-
fore the members of the Rifle Association. (Hear, hear.)
Lieut.. Col. Bioos moved, and Sir JAMES CAMPBELL
seconded, the motion for the adoption of the report of the
Council.

Mr. TEMPLER (Harrow Rifles) said that he hoped facili-
ties would be given for competition between the Enfield, the
large bore Whitworth, the Lancaster, and Storm's breech-
loading rifle, and that prizes would be awarded for them,
He also wished to draw the attention of the Council to the
necessity for an alteration in the present V notch in the
back sight of the rifle, and to impress upon them the value
which would accrue if a plain horizontal bar were substi-
tuted or it. (Hear.)
After a few words from Lord Euxo, who stated that the
subject of classification of rifles for prizes was engaging the
attention of the Council,

Lord BURY said that the question of sighting had not
only been before the Council, but had been submitted by
them to the authorities at the War-office, for the purpose of
substituting the horizontal bar at the back sight, and a line
down the middle, instead of the present mode of sighting.
As yet, however, they had not received any reply on the
subject.

Captain WGREGOR (London Scottish) hoped that no
such important change in the targets to be used at Wim-
bledon as those exhibited on the diagrams in front of the
platform would be made until they had been cautiously
considered and tested ; and Lieut. GOODLIFFE (London
Rifle Brigade) expressed a hope that whatever change
might be made with respect to the targets, the disc-marking
principle would be retained.

After a few words from Mr. Rancurrn (of the South
Middlesex), who was of opinion that a prize ought to be
given for the Enfield rifle, to be shot for in the same way
as the Association Cup was shot for,
Lord Euxo said that many of the suggestions that had
been made had already engaged the attentive consideration
of the Council. Some of them had not been decided upon,
but yet he thought that he might go so far as to BA), in the
name of the Council that an All Comers' Enfield Prize
would be shot for by members of the association, and that it
would form part of the programme for their next prize meet-
ing. Some other of the points referred to would be found
in the report of the council. (Hear.) He thought if gen-
tlemen would refer to that report they would see that the
council were quite alive to all these subjects, and did all they
could to increase the usefulness of the association. Capt.
M'Gregor had consulted them as to the propriety of hold-
ing a rifle conference, and, being desirous of obtaining
every possible information of the slightest advantage, they
not only highly approved that conference, but sent Captain
Page to attend it. (Hear.) A very valuable paper was
read on the subject of circalar targets by Mr. Hemming.
Although the Council fully admitted the theoretical value of
the principle of the concentric circle, still there was some
difficulty found in applying it to the present square
targets. They had submitted the whole question of Mr.
Hemming's paper to a committee to ascertain how the com-
bination of the circles with the existing form of target could
be best carried out, and there could be no doubt that theo-
retically the system of circles was most perfect. The com-
mittee appointed on the subject consisted of Colonel
Kennedy, Lord Bury, and himself (Lord Elcho). They
came to the unanimous conclusion that it was desirable to
have this system of concentric circles, but that they ought
not to be more than four in number, as there was a difficulty
in applying them to the present form of target. If they had
more than four circles there would be great difficulty in
scoring and keeping a correct account. At present a bull's
eye eounted four, a centre three, and an outer two. If they
had more than four circles, therefore, the chances of error
and the difficulty of correct marking would be very great
indeed. (Hear.) The plan proposed by Mr. Hemming,
founded on mathematical calculations, was, for the first
series of targets, circles commencing from the centre of 12,
and 6 inches distance; for the second series, 18, 101,
'a, and 9 inches ; and for the third series, 24, 14, 10, and 12
inches. The adoption of the circle system would involve a
change in the marking. A bull's eye would count four,
centre three, middle two, and outer one. If the new system
were adopted it would be desirable that the targets should
be provided at private ranges as speedily as possible, in
order that the Volunteers should practise upon them before
coming to Wimbledon. As the targets were 6ft. in height,
and the diameter of the outer circle was more than aft., a
portion of the upper part of the target would be truncate(' ;
but as the deviation of the shots was most frequently in a
lateral direction rather than in elevation, the Council did
not consider it of great importance that the shot going over
would fail to be registered. Lord Ducie, he said, had re-
cently fired 150 rounds at 1,000 yards, and had only missed
the target five times. It would be better, no doubt, to have
the target mathematically correct, hut he believed this
would be impracticable. With respect to the " squadding"
at Wimbledon, arrangements would, he said, be made for
doing so with all gentlemen who sent in their names in
sufficient time. He agreed that the system of disc marking
ought to be maintained, and the Council were also of that
opinion. An estimate had been received of the expense of
converting every target to be fired at at Wimbledon into
the Swiss system of marking. The cost of the alteration
would be about £lOO, but he believed the outlay would be
judicious, and that the results would be satisfactory to all
who attended the next meeting. (Hear.)
In reply to Mr. HEMMING,

LordEBURY said that it the association could do every-
thing precisely as they wished there was no doubt but that
they would adopt the concentric circle system of targets. A
target of this kind, 12 feet in diameter, would perhaps be
the best that could be adopted, but to do this now they
would have to alter the whole of the targets, not only at
Wimbledon, but throughout the country, and if this change
were made at Wimbledon the missed shots that would pass
over the top of the target would go into Combe-wood, and
render the country behind the targets unsafe. As a rule
the misses, however, did not go over the target, but de-
viated laterally on each side.

General HAY said that in this matter of the targets, as in
every other, there were two sides to the question. He alto-
gether differed from the opinion of Lord Bury, that the de-
viation of the shots was mainly lateral. On the contrary,
his experience led him to believe that the chief difficulty
was in the elevation. If the concentric circle system was
to be adopted, they should certainly have a target of more
than six feet in height. He was afraid, however, that the
association was rather losing sight of the chief object with
which it was formed. The object of all the training of the
volunteers ought to be to teach them to fire at something in
the field, and not at a bull's-eye. What they would want
in the field was either oblong or square ; there was nothing
circular except great guns, and even those were changing,
(Laughter.) By the proposed system the outer circle cut
off the upper corners of a target. A shot there would not
count, but it would cut through the head of an infantry
soldier at that height. (Hear, hear.) A man might win
the Queen's prize at Wimbledon, but in the battlefield he
might not be worth sixpence as an effective shot. He hoped
that they would not hastily abandon a system of targets
which was eminently fitted for making volunteers useful in
the field.

After some further observations against any change of
the present system of targets, the vice-presidents and mem-
bers of the Council were unanimously re-elected, ani on
the motion of Lord Elcho his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge was chosen President of the Association for the
fifth time.

The Duke of CAMBRIDGE, in returning thanks, said he
certainly was very much disposed to concur in the opinion
expressed by General Hay that it would not be wise to
attach too great importance to mere prize match shooting•
The association had nothing to do with volunteers as such,
but it shou!d not be lost sight of that the object of all the
shooting was not that of the mere gratification of one gen•
tleman shooting better than another, but for the purpose of
getting such a system of rifle shooting throughout the country
that, if at any time it should happen—though God forbid
that it ever should happen—the volunteers might be relied
upon to act in the field es the regular army. Neither him-

THE SIDN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 29, 18640

self nor General Hay would be performing their dutyif
they did not encourage Close efforts which they believed to
be conducive to the real efficiency of the volunteer force of
the country. If great delicacy of shooting was alone ro
quired, then this system of circular targets would no doubt
be very valuable, but something more than that was required,
which was that they shoild have such shooting as would
make them useful in the field. (Cheers.)
The proceedings were then brought to a cioso.

and sickening spectacle wee only tolerated this
week because of its imperative necessity, for strict
justice towards the murderer in the long run is
mercy towards society. Tee rough and hybrid
crews of vessels which, though nominally English,
never approach these shores, know little law ; and
appreciate only the plainest lessons. Many a
wretched sailor's life on board hangs by a thread.
The English Merchant service is itself in reality a
colludes pentium. Ships engaged at a distande in
the foreign trade are usually manned by a eomplee
ment of men, who, it may be, neither speak our
own language nor have a single feeling in common
with. us. Malays, Chinamen, half-east Spaniards,
Italians, Greeks, Egyptians, all mixed together by
the fortune of the seas, and talking a barbarous
patois that would be only half understood in any
European port; these are the erews that navigate
the ocean under England's flag and English papers.
Awful tyranny, cruelties, such as it is only given
to fierce and unreclaimed vagabonds to devise, bes-
tiality, lawlessness, and misery, are often the rule
and not the exception in such an occupation. Often
—but how often remains a secret with the deep—
murder stalks with a ghastly boldness across the
deck; now releasing the tortured victim of oppress
sion from his burden of life, and at other times in-
flicting retributive vengeance on the oppressor,
It is for the sake of the long and dreary hours
spent by unnappy seamen on the deep seas hun-
dreds of mile*tway from any land, or from any
controlling eye,'" that London has endured the pollu-
tion of such aspactacle. No Englishman, high or low
—from the judge on the bench of the Old Bailey
to the ordinary villain who stands below—has or
can have the least conception of the kind of mis-
creant to whom this terror is meant to be addressed.
There are, no doubt, masses in England altogether
out of the reach of the sympathies or influence of
the educated classes of society—abandoned men,
women, and children, whom charity seldom reaches
and to whom religion is a thing unknown. Even
these have ties among themselves which they
acknowledge, and social restrictions of however
rude a character. It is different upon the seas.
There men who are to roam together have hardly
the connecting link of a common enterprise. Their
few months or weeks over they will drift away into
fresh sinks of iniquity, having gained only some
new and brutal experience by their last voyage.
From such a class the unhappy men are drawn who
suffered last Monday upon the scaffold; and to such
a class their ignominious end speaks. The details
of the scene have been painted with more horrible
power than usual by the newspaper press. We
prefer to believe that in the almost pictorial de-
scriptions that have been given by e wespondent
upon correspondent, the object has not been to pan-
der to any mere taste for sensations. If there ever
was an execution that it is a mercy to make notori-
ous it was this. Perhaps it may at some critical
and lonely hour strengthen the terror with which
the name of some British consul is regarded by the
villainous offcasts of the sees. Nor can it be said
that the men who died on Monday died in heroical
guise. The murderers of the day in this country
frequently display upon the gallows as indifference
and a callousness that arises less from ferocity than
from ignorance of what deathis. The miseraable cri-
minals who never hesitated about shedding blood
wholesale upon the Flowry'Land showed, when they
came to die, how little was their nerve when it was
a question of dying like dogs amidst the execrations
of a mob. There was little courage, and, strange to
say, less bravado in their demeanour, as they cowered
in a row upo❑ the brink of death. Lopez, the man
who had planned all the murders and executed at
least one, came out of his cell alone with a defiant
air, Before the end of a few minutes he shook almost
to falling, Hs lips were parched, his bands clasped
and pinched one another, and his eye wore the
frightened look of an animal just before its death.
Duranno, whose crime seemed the cruellest of all,
was deadly pale, and trembled and shivered limb
by limb. Blanco—a giant in physical strength, who
had struck down the mate, and who made it his
boast that he had flung him while praying for mercy
into the sea, who stabbed the sleeping captain, and
heat to death the captain's brother—came forth, says
a spectator of the scene, "as if the very agony of
death was on him,"—so strongly did be show his
fear. Raw spirits ware given him on his way to
the scaffold, and yet, eve e with this, the rope was
no sooner put about his neck than he fainted, and
had to be propped up in a chair till the drop fell.
A terrible and sickly scene ! There was nothing in
it to move admiration even among the most hardened
of their species. It recalled none of the days when
bold highwaymen, amid the laughter and congratu-
lations of their friends and the nosegays of their
women, were drawn jaunty and defiant to Tyburn,
encouraging one another and encouraged by the
crowd. When the five men on Monday were led out
to death, the swooning agony that came upon them
was the agony of men who knew well that they
died the outcasts that they had lived, and that no
living thing would shed ono tear when they
were gone. The most wretched consideration
connected with a most wretched spectacle is
that there is scarcely a way of reaching
the class of criminals to whom these five ruffians
belonged, except by brute fear, and that even this
argument makes itself heard but faintly. Tamp.
sands of unhappy men who have been from their
childhood enemies of mankind this hour are living
the kind of life that was the life on board the
Flowery Land. There seems no hope for humanity
in respect of them. No philanthropist can ever
reach them, for they form a world to which there is
no access. There are some evils in the world which
seem irreparable, and all that men can do in an
ordinary way is to banish thought of them. Life is
full of misery; but no misery or wickedness is pro-
bably so intense or so unchecked as that which is
the lot of those most interested in the fate of the five
pirates who last Monday paid the penalty of their
misdeeds.

the Bellerophon as she is to the Warrior. And in
the same proportion smaller, cheaper, and in every
wev more efficient. At last we may come to a float-
ing
.- ee fleet
;9n-carriage, a vessel of the grs ateet speed
and handiness, abi,
to carry one or two guns of
the longest range and hell/nal weight of metal, and
this is the great desideratum.
SATURDAY REVIEW.—If any one with an imagi-
native mind were inclined to personify so prosaic an
idea as the ten-pound county franchise, he might
make of it the subject of a truly tragic tale. A
touching myth might be constructed out of its sor-
rowful story. The enthusiasm it ones inspired, the
uses it has served, and the nneomfortable dislike
with which its advances are repelled reeve that It is
no longer needed, naturally suggest the similitude
of the maiden Wooed, persuaded, and betrayed.
Unhappily for the political Don Juane in whose
honour so ill-requited a confidence was reposed, the
simile seems likely to be followed out still further.
Their heart-broken victim, though driven from their
door, will not submit in silence to her qv rongs, and
her importunity is becoming exceedingly vexatious.
Those who in times past overstepped the bounds of
a mere flirtation with her have mended their ways.
They desire to keep sober, settled, respectable so-
ciety now. They wish to forget the unseemly in-
timacies in which they once delighted, and to keep
clear of such low company as reform projects? frens
chise extensions, and the like. But their victim will
not leave them to fulfil in peace their resolutions of
amendment of life. She will put them to the blush
by her unwelcome presence just at the most incon-
venient moments. Is there no remedy ? Must
they always have the sins of their youth cast in
their teeth, now that they have reached sober and
tranquil middle-age, aad have put aside the guilty
sentimentalisms of their youth? Is there no
way of reducing Mr. Locke King to silence ?
When a fashionable young man, having duly har-
vested his wild oats, resigns himself to respectabi-
lity and a bride, it is usual, in the interests of order,
to station detectives in plain clothes at the door of
the church, in order, in the language of the police,
"to keep an eye upon previous attachments." Can
no similar protection be afforded to the once wild
but now repentant leaders of parties in the House
of Commons? Stern moralists may think that any,
compassion for those who are undergoing the na-
tural retribution of their own errors is overstrained.
Be this as it may, at least some pity is due to those
who are suffering for the sins of others. The ma-
jority of the present House of Commons have never
bowed the knee to Baal. It seems hard therefore
upon them that they should be doomed to an annual
discussion, or rather two or three discussions, which
can issue in no practical result. The measure pro-
posed by Mr. Locke King obtains an illusory sup
port from members who have pledged themselves
to it in days when reform of any kind was thought
to be the winning cause, or who may now repro.
sent constituencies that have been taught to apply
this particular cry as a test of political orthodoxy.
A few of the most extreme men may perhaps sup-
port it from the mere desire to get the crowbar any-
where into the fissures of the building which they
are eager to pull down. But it is very doubtful it
there is a single man who supports it upon its in-
trinsic merits. The angry controversies of the last
15 years, if they have done no other good, have at
least had the effect of thoroughly discrediting what
is called bit-by-bit Reform. At the commencement
of those discussions an impression prevailed, even
among practical statesmen, that the reform of the
Constitution was a very simple matter. It was merely
a question of addition and subtraction. Add a little
more power to the poorer classes here,take a little away
from the richer classes there, and continue that pro-
cess until the supremacy of the one over the other
should culminate in manhood suffrage. Some men
might wish to go further than others ; some might
hope to stop short, at least for a considerable num-
ber of years, at some intermediate stage. But the
only difference was one of degree. There was no
contest whatever as to the direction of the movement
which the word reform was meant to imply.- The
vehement controversy which has since taken place
has operated a great change in the modes of thought
under which these proposals are examined. Mr.
Bright's failure to influence the middle classes, and
the curious lessons which are being taught by the
working of practical experiments in America and
France, have dispelled the sentimental and practi-
cal halo which surrounded the question of reform.
Mr. Bright's speeches have shown that reform has
a hard pecuniary meaning. The object at which, by
his own avowal, it is directed is to transfer the
possession of land and money from the hands of one
set of people to the hands of another set of people.
If Mr. Bright knows what he is about, it has be-
come clear that the transference of political power
would carry with it a transference of a more mate-
rial and sensible kind. On the other hand, the
examples of America and France have convinced
people that things which to some minds are of more
consequence even than the rights of property are
placed in hazard by democratic change. It is now
no matter of theory, but of plain fact, that demo-
cracy necessarily carries with it equality ; and that
equality, by the operation of an irresistible law,
verges to the concentration of power in a single hand.

RAILWAY NEWS.—The delusion of " cheaper
fares and rates of the Continent" is one so wide
spread and general in this country that it seems
well worth while to oppose it by a few facts. Be-
fore us lies Bradshaw's familiar Guide, and at its
side its French brother, Indicateur Universel ; Bul-
letin Official Chemins de Fer. Ihe Indicateur is not
only the orother, but the twin-brother of thlich •
abused, useful Bradshaw, for, leaving aside that its
form is four times as large, it is arranged exactly on
the same plan and after the same system, the diffe-
rent lines being divided in groups and branches,
the trains classified, and the mileage and fares run-
ning aside of the different stations. Thus, compari-
son between French and English fares becomes easy,
and all we have to do is to translate kilometres into
miles, and francs and centimes into pounds,
shillings, and pence. We open our Bradshaw
at the beginning, and passing over a few columns
of abridgements, find that the first railway
of which mileage and fares are given together
is the Great Northern. We read :—London to
Aberdeen-559 miles ; first class, 80s ; second class,
60s; third class, 40e. In other words, first class,
1 5 7d ; second class, 1 2-7 d ; third class, 6-7 d,
Now let us open Bradshaw's French brother, the
official " Indicateur." It begins with the line from
Paris to Marseilles, styled, in full, " Chemin de Fcr
de Paris a Lyon et ala Mediterratee." The line
we fie(' is of a length of 863 kilometres, or 515
miles, and the fares for the whole distance aro :
First class, 95fr 65c, or £3 16s 6d ; second class,
72fr 50c, or £2 18s; and third class, 53fr 15c, or
£2 23 6d. In other words, the French fares are at
the rate of 1 4 5d per mile first class, against 1 5-7 d
English; of 1 3-7 d second class, against 1 2-7 d Eng-
lish; and of very nearly ld third class, against
6-7 d English. These are very notable figures, par-
ticularly as regards third class fares. The third
class traveller pays actually less for going over 559
mites of ground in our own country then for a rail-
way journey of 515 miles in France. Surely there
is nothing here in favour of the generally accepted
belief in " the cheaper fares and rates of the Con-
tinent."

EXAMINER.—Two or three years ago there was
great activity in the French dockyards, so, says
Lord Clarence Paget, it was necessary that we
should go ahead, le hick we did at a great rate in
blunders. We capped all the errors in the French
yards. We built huge ships which would not turn,
naval crocodile>, and when the defect was discovered
we only built more of them. The Warrior and the
Black Prince having been found unhandy, the
Minotaur, Agincourt, and Northumberland, the
largest ships ever built, as Lord C. Paget says,
were added to the unwieldy class. It had then been
ruled that an armoured ship of the greatest speed
could not be of less tonnage than 6,800; but Mr.
Reed, the present constructor, represented to the
Admiralty that they were building ships of an
enormous tonnage and proportionate cost, having
the fault mentioned of steering badly, which would
expose them in action to be outmanoeuvred and
run into; and he undertook to furnish
vessels much smaller, handier, and well pro-
tected, at a much cheaper ra'e. And accordingly
he has built a vessel under 1,000 tons, which, plated
fore and aft, will carry the heaviest guns, also,
another, somewhat larger. Lord Clarence is not as
communicative as could be wished about the per-
formances of these vessels. He says in general
terms that their behaviour at sea is satisfactory, but
not a word about their rate of speed, which is the
main point. For if Mr. Reed's ships, thoroughly
well protected, can carry the very heaviest guns at
the highest rate of speed, they must be more than
equal in efficiency to the huge unwieldy ships which
cannot turn within the compass of a league or so.
And farther, Mr. Reed's success would dispose of
the assumption that short of the tonnage of 6,800
the highest speed is not attainable together with
complete armament, defensive, and offensive. But
Lord Clarence Paget is unfortunately generally re-
served upon the point of speed. He tells us, how-
ever, that a vessel is building of great promise in
this all important particular—the Pallas. indeed,
he goes so far as to say that if she succeeds she will
lie the most remarkable vessel the country ever pos-
sessed. Her model is copied from the French, and
its peculiarity is what Lord Clarence Paget de-
scribes as as elongated bow, which we take to be an
upright stem, to support her in a head-sea and pre-
vent pluneing. Lord Clarence says the prin-
ciple is adopted by the Admiralty, and oddly
enough in the next breath proceeds to state that
two small vessels are building, one with the elon-
gated bow and the other without, which is a whim-
sical mode of `.adopting a principie. But so it is,
that every thing is experimental in our naval con-
struction. And it is not much to the honour of our
science in building that we have always to follow
the French, and as we servilely do so in improve-
ment, we do also blindly in their faults. We have
repeatedly adverted to the delusion that pre-
vails as to the Warrior's reputed suc-
cess. The Bellerophon has put her to
shame. Instead of the Warrior's 6,000
tons the Bellerophon is 4,200. and with 1,800 less
tonnage she carries plate of 6 inches instead of the
Warrior's 41 inch, and an armament that will throw
a broadside of three-quarters of a ton of iron or
steel, which is more than the Warrior can do. Her
speed is expected to equal what is also expected of
the Pallas, but here again Lord Clarence Paget deals
in vague generalities, and does not specify the rate.
If these vessels prove successful the Admiralty will
deserve great credit for the improvement. But still
we have to ask at what minimum of tonnage, and
with what build, is to be obtained the maximum of
speed, combined with the best proteetion and the
most effective armament-•effective not in the mere
number of guns, but range and weight of metal.
As for complete protection against improved and
improving gunnery, it is confessed to be impracti-
cable. It. will be something gained, however, to
have got from the unwieldy, unhandy Warrior of
6,000 to the Bellerophon, her superior both in de-
fence and power of attack, of 4,200, and in process
of improvement a vessel may be built as superior to

LAW TIMES.—Sir George Grey haft introduced
his Bill for the Improvement of Convict Discipline,
based upon the recommendations of the commission,
some of which are adopted, others rejected. He
proposes to extend the term of penal servitude,
slightly to curtail the dietary of prisons, to retain
the ticket-of-leave, but to make it the reward of
good conduct. If the holder should relapse into
crime, he is to be remitted to serve out the re-
mainder of his original sentence, in addition to the
sentence for the new offence. The Government
prudently abandon the proposition for transporta-
tion on a :large scale to Western Australia, but
only in deference to the feelings of the Eastern
colonists, protesting that there is no equity in
the demand, and no foundation for the objections
raised. It is indeed monstrous that a colony at
one end of a great continent should forbid the
mother country to send her convicts to another
colony that wishes to have them at the other end of
that continent, separated as they are by 3,000 miles
of impassable desert. We fear that, as is customary
alike with communities and individuals, the assigned
reasons for the objection are not the real ones. How-
ever, they have prevailed, and there is an end of it.
This is the substance of the Government scheme. It
is a very modest measure. Its weakness is that it
steers timidly between two systems. There is the
theory of punishment for the purpose of deterring
the criminal by memory of pain and others by his
example. There is also the theory of treatment for
the purpose of reform and not of-punishment. This
last is the system which we have been trying for
many years, and which has proved an entire failure.
The former one remained to be tried. Philanthropy
supported the one, reason the other. A great deal was
to be urged in favour of both, and opinion has been
tairly divided between them. But few will approve a
middle path, and it will probably be found to fail in
practice. In truth, the two systems cannot be com-
bined. Punishment, to be effective, must be sharp,
and if sharp it must be short, or it will lapse into
cruelty. But reformation is a very slow process,
and compels long confinement and that demands
abundant food, comforts, and even luxuries, to which
the honest labourer is a stranger. Sir George
Grey's bill is not framed for the perfecting of either
system. It is, however, quite necessary to its work-
ing that sentences to penal servitude should be ex.
tended. Complaint was made that judges had been
too lenient. But the public do not think so. When
longer terms have been inflicted, what a bawl of
reproach has been raised by the penny press, and
what torrents of abuse have been poured out
upon the judge for his severity. So long as
the law allows a large limit of discretion, it will be


id

for the most part exercised on the side of mercy, an'
in the majority of cases the smallest penalty PFr'
mated by the statute will be inflicted. Only by in-
creasing the minimum can judges be secured against
tho D';;;:tour that is sure to attend upon large 00'
tenees of e,, Imes that appear tp be small. It is on
of the merits 01 I,`l'n " punishment" theory oathst it
permits of the apportiu3 Penalty
crime. It is one of the meat of the
10 the subjection ot,
formation " theory that 5.t compe.
all crimes to nearly the same appaont arootllit of
gm vest defects of the " re:
punishment.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LEICESTER—SATURDAY.
There Wat moderate show of wheat to-day, with a fair
attendance of the trade. Business was flat, and in most
instances prices were 6d to is per qr lower than last week.
Oats in slow demand. Beans quiet. Flour a dull sale.
Barley in fair supply, and sales were made to a fair elten
—New white wheat, 42s to 1455 ' • red, 39s to 42s Plo.
stone. Old red, 38s to 42s per 36 stone. Ba}:leY,
new, 31s to 36s per qr.; grinding, 27s to 28s; oats,
2as to 28s; new oats, 21s to 23s per 24 stone. J3e4Ds' •
old, 40s to 42s per 38 stone ; flour, 26s to 32s per 20 stQlle

YORK—SATURDAY.
There was a limited show of wheat at market to-dalf
and the sales were slow—former quotations being ratilec
easier. A middling supply of barley, with a steady de-
raand, and at about last week's rates. A quiet demand for
oats, at previous prices, Beans as before, but scarce.
Wheat, red
White do .40s to 45s Beans ........... 38, to v.
Barley .26s to 32s Peas ..••
Malt, 58s to 608 per37s qtor.4:sryeO,at3Bo.s..p.e.r. .q r..
..
—s
to --
flour, 293
to 31s per sack.

GRANTHAM—SATURDAY.
Old white wheat, 43s to 47s - red, 40s to 43s per 36st-;
new white, 42s to 465; red, 39's to 425. Malting ~,,rl,,eYt;
33s to 36s per qr ; grinding, 28s to 30s • oats, old, Jr
265; new, 20s to 24s ; beans, 34s to 37s ; Peas, 348 to °°'

NORWICH—SATURDAY.
There was a fair supply of wheat, and prices were about
the same as on this day se'nnight, with a very dult tad!.
There was a fair demand for fine barley, which sold at
fully

late rates ; other sorts dull. - to
el
414
White wheat. 44524 Red wheat........
40`
.
Malting barley ...35s to 37s 1 Chevalier barley.. 244 to
Distilling d 0..... 29s to 30s I Oats.. ..........
Flour, 28s Od to —s ed per sack from the l ler
ail
. Fto v 3,

NOTTINGHAM—SATURDAY. heins
The supply of wheat to-day fair,( demand
a was pretty there - A
a sprinkling of red and white descriptions. Ibe Barley
was slow, and late prices were hardly realised.
came to hand rather freely, but sales were slow. An;de.
rage show of -oats, with a flat inquiry. Beans unaltevs,
—White wheat, from 42s to 478; red wheat, 40s W oats
Barley—malting, 30s to 37s • grinding, 27s to 3N.at ss,
old, at 24s to 30s Od ; new, 19s to 2.55. Beans
to to 42s per qr. ; new, 34s to 365.
Flour, fine, 345 to 388; seconds, 29s to 32s per sack'

Foreign Mail Packet List.