The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONI

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL,

A Court of Co-nmon Council was holden yesti
day at Guildhall. The Right Hon. the Lord Ma 3
presided; and the greater portion of the members
the Court of Aldermen were also present, as well
a large muster of the Common Council, the busing
upon the minutes being of considerable important
one of the matters to be disposed of being the ell
tion of a commissioner of the City Police in t
roam of the late Daniel Whittle Harvey.

At the commencement of the proceedings a sug-
gestion was made that the petitions, which are
usually dispoaed of at two o'clock, should be taken
at once, as the time at which they are generally
taken into consideration was fixed for the election,
and eventually it was arranged that this course
should be adopted.

Several petitions from charitable institutions for
pecuniary assistance were referred to the Coal, Cori,
and Finance Committee; but in one cr two in-
stances, where the cireumstances appeared to jus-
tify such a cour,e, the applications were rejected.
Deputy HARRISON took occasion to observe i❑
the course of the discussion that he had carefully
looked into the accounts of the City, and he could
not help saying that the Corporation were under
enormous liabilities, and that if they had to make
the new street from Blackfriars•bridge to the Man-
sion house, according to the present proposition,
they would have to find nearly £600,000; and it
was a question very seriously to b 3 considered how
far the Corporation was in a condition to make
grants lavishly for charitable purposes. (Hear,)

THE PROPOSED DEAD MARKET IN SMITHFIELD.

Mr. SCAMMELL presented a petition from the in-
habitants of Smithfield and its vicinity, praying the
Court to tike steps to hasten the erection of the
proposed meat market at Smithfield ; that the de-
signs and estimates for the market may be open to
public competition, and that no plan for such mar-
ket may be received which proposes to erect a dead
ivoCalreround it, the petitioners stating that they had
-liiaird-with dismay that the last-mentioned proposi-
tion had been entertained by the Court. Tne hon.
member, in moving that the petition be referred to
the Markets Improvement Committee, expressed his
opinion that the petitioners had really sustained
very great loss, first by the removal of the old mar-
ket, and then by the great delay that had taken
place in making the new one, and that they had
good grounds for coming to this Court by petition
to see whether they could not obtain some remedy.
(Hear.) The old market had now been removed
eight or nine years, and although the act of Parlia-
ment for the formation of a new one had become
law for three years, still nothing was 'apparently
being done to carry it into effect. He was free to
admit that the blame did not altogether rest either
with that Court or with the Corporation, and that
a great deal of unnecessary delay had been occa-
sioned by Parliament in tampering with details they
had nothing to do with, but still he considered the
petitioners, who were such grievous sufferers by the
present state of things, had a right to know why
something was not done. (Hear.)
Deputy OBBARD seconded the motion, and said he
was not surprised that after these gentlemen had
waited so long their patience should have become
exhausted.

Mr. BANISTER said that, on b.3laalf of the trade
to which he had the honour to belong, he had great
pleasure in supporting the motion of Mr. Scammell.
He considered it would be most objectionable for
the market to be enclosed by a dead wall, and he
hoped that the plans for the proposed market would
be thrown open to public competition. (Hear.)

Mr. H. L. TAYLOR, the Chairman of the Mar-
kets Committee, said that he fearlessly asserted
there was not the slightest ground for the sug-
gestion that there had been any delay on the part
of the committee in carrying out the formation
of the new dead meat market upon the old site of
Smithfield. (Hear, hear.) He should therefore
oppose the motion, on the ground that if it was
carried it would cast a reflection upon the commit-
tee, and would be tantamount to a suggestion that
they had not done their duty. With regard to the
statement of the petitioners that they regarded with
dismay the proposition that the market should be
enclosed by a dead wall, he could only say that in
no plan that had ever been brought forward was a
dead wall included, and the committee never enter-
tained the slightest idea of carrying out such a pro.
position. (Hear, hear.) With regard to the charge
of delay, it was unnecessary for him to say that it
was the duty of the committee, acting on behalf of
the Corporation, to take care and see their way very
clearly before they came to any decision which
might involve the outlay of money to the extent of
hundreds of thousan is of pounds ; and they would
remember that in the Act of Parliament authorising
the formation of the new market the Corporation
was saddled with the formation of a new street
before they could commence their operations in re-
ference to the market itself; and it was very impor-
tant that they should look for some other source
than the City's cash for making the street in ques-
tion. (Hear, hear.) He might mention at the
same time,that the committee had encountered very
considerable difficulty on account of the preposter-
ous c aims that had been sent to them for property,
by persons many of whom had
possibly signed this
petition, and who, by the difficulties they had
thrown in the way of the committee by this pro-
ceeding, were themselves partly the cause of the
delay of which they complained. The hon member
i-ilstanced one case where a claim was made for
£17,626, and the parties refused to submit the
matter to arbitration, and would not a gree to any
terms; but when the case went before a jury the
sum awarded was only £9,200. (Hear.) There bad
been a great many similar cases which the commit-
tee felt themselves bound to have investigated, and
had no hesitation in saying that the petitioners had
no real ground of complaint, and that a great deal
of the delay of which they complained had been
caused by themselves. He would at the same time in-
form the Court that every claim for compensation
had been disposed of, and there was not one in ar-
rear. Under these circumstances, he considered it
would be a most unnecessary proceeding to refer the
petition to the committee, who could no more than
they had done, and he should therefore move that it
do lie on the table.

Mr. LAWLEY said he did not believe the commit-
tee had in any way neglected their duty, but at the
same time he thought that if a body of gentlemen
considered themselves aggrieved they had a perfect
right to come to that Court to endeavour to obtain
redress, and he saw no harm in this petition going
to the committee. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. DE JERSEY expressed his opinion that the
petition was founded upon allegations that were
positively not true, and he thought the Court ought
to stand upon its own rights and privileges, and not
receive such a petition. It was a most incorrect as-
sertion that the committee had done nothing ; and
' he would state that claims for property to the amount
of £165,000 had been sent in to the committee, and
they had settled those claims for more than £50,000
less than the sums claimed ; and he stated publicly
that the committee had acted most energetically in
reference to the important questions that had been
intrusted to them, and anybody who stated to the
contrary stated that which was not true. With re-
gard to the petition itself, he would observe that
one of the parties who signed it,and who represented
that he was sustaining pecuniaryloss in consequence
of the present state of things, was a lawyer in Char-
ter-house square. (Laughter.)
Mr. RUDKIN wished to be informed by the chair-
man of the Markets Improvement Committee whe-
ther the Metropolitan Extension Railway Company
hadel ed up
ivaeprpliedttootthheecm.
committee for certain land to be
d
ja Ur. H. L. TAYLOR said that such an application
,liad.been made, but not recently.
notA I 1.
wishß uDtK orscatsht any
enprobeelaemdeedutpoosna
He knew the difficulties they had to contend with,
and he believed they had done all in their power to
further the formation of a market that would be
creditable to the Corporation and advantageous to
y the that
committee.
he
mi d
t teied.
the public. (Hear, hear.) It appeared to him,
however, that the petitioners were entitled to have
the information they required, and that it would
cast no reflection upon the committee to submit the
petition to them, and he had no doubt that the

PON, FRIDiirIiVENING, MAY 22, 1861

report they would make would be satisfactory to the
petitioners and to the public.
After some further discussion, the motion of Mr.
Scammell was agreed to.

COUNTY RATE FOR THE SUPPORT OF PAUPER LUNATICS

Mr. SYMONDs presented a petition from the
churchwardens, overseers, and guardians of the
poor of the parishes of the City of London Union,
praying the Court not to sanction the making a
county rate for the above purpose, but to provide
for the maintenance of pauper lunatics chargeable
to the City from the City's cash.

Referred to the Special Lunatic Asylum Cora.
mittee.

Alderman GIBBINS presented a petition from the
committee of the British Orphan Asylum, praying
the Court to permit them to have the use of the
Guildhall, with its decorations, after the entertain-
ment to be given to his Royal Highness the Prince
of 'Wales, for the purpose of holding a bazaar in aid
of the funds of the asylum.

Mr. H. L. TAYLOR opposed granting the prayer
of the petition, on the ground that if the privilege
ere granted to one charitable institution he did
not see how the Court could refuse it to another,
and there would be no end to such applications.
The prayer of the petition was supported by
id Lott, and Mr. Anderton,
Alderman
it was pak
asultimately paugreed to, with the addition
that the petition should be referred to the City
Lands Committee for them to make the necessary
arrangements to carry out the wishes of the peti-
tioners.

Mr. Deputy and Under-Sheriff FARRER reminded
the Court that in all probability in the course of a
few days an election for the City would occur, which
must take place in the Guildhall, and that it was
necessary that care should be taken that this im-
portant proceeding was not interfered with by the
proposed bazaar.

Mr. TRuscorr, chairman, of the City Lands Coro
mittee, said that they would certainly not lose sight
of the important suggestion made by the Under•
Sher'ff'.
ELECTION OF COMMISSIONFII OF POLICE FOR THE CITY.

The Court next proceeded to the election of Com-
missioner of the City Police. The candidates for the
appointment were Capt. Wm. Con greve, Capt. Wm,
Frederick Portlock Dodson, Col. Wright Westcott
Davidson, Capt. Charles Cramond Dick, Lieut. Chas,
Conrad Robert Bidwell-Edwards, Major Edward
Hamilton Finney, Col. James Fraser, Capt. Charles
George Hodgson, Col. Wm, Adam Orr, C. 8., Capt,
Henry Segrave, Major Frederick Rice Stack, and
Col. William Henry Charles Wellesley.
By resolution of the Court the numbers were re-
duced by poll to four, viz., Capt. Congreve, Colonel
Fraser, Major Stack, and Col. Wellesley. The num-
bers were then in the same manner reduced to two
—Col. Fraser and Capt. Congreve. The number for
the former was 140, and for the latter 43.
Capt. CONCRETE said, seeing the difference in the
numbers, it was perfectly useless for him to contend
any longer, and he would save the Court the trouble
of voting again. He we s much obliged for the sup-
port he had met with, and he retired without regret
and without ehame.

His LORDSHIP then announced Col. James Fraser
to have been duly elected as Chief Commissioner of
the City police force.
Col, FRASER, in returning thanks to the Court,
said he was highly sensible of the honour which he
had attained on being elected to fill the appoint-
ment of Commissioner of Police for the City. He
was well aware how important were the duties and
grave the responsibilities, and he begged the Court
to believe in his assurance that his best endea-
vours would be used to prove that he was not un-
worthy of the mark of high confidence which had
been placed in him by that great and ancient Coun-
cil over which his lordship presided.

The Itmembrancer was ordered to communicate
the result of the eleztion to the Secretary of State,
and the Court adjourned.

It should be stated that previous to the election a
letter was read to the Court from Captain Hodg-
son, the Acticg Commissioner, stating that he had
withdrawn.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIM ES:—Nearly two thousand years ago a Roman
poet availed himself of a geographical fact to give
effect to a mythological story. He was desaibing
the confusion produced in the universe when the
horses ran away with the chariot of the Sun, and
he stated, as an incident of the panic, that the river
Nile fled in dismay to the extremities of the earth,
and there hid its head, "which," he adds, "remains
hidden to this day." Tbose verses of Ovid
fnoervme
ar t
og
ha vwe h
ime
hu cthh e
ythought e
dt
.0
yt heet
we
eer ilteaabr
nl e
fr
oi nms
theat all
itnhaerNile
tu nt
hkanto wt
hne,
these kw words that in the days of Augustus
wnohti
chonwlyaswnaost
fact of its being unknown was regarded as a wonder,
which is very extraordinary indeed. Why, if we
come to think about the matter, should the Romans
have troubled themselves about the Sources of the
Nile ? They were certainly no such geographers
as to be provoked by the obscurity of a single pro-
blem in the science. Their impressionsof the earth's
surface and of the distribution of its territories were
loose and fanciful in the extreme. It is a natural
thing for us to take an interest in such a question,
because we believe that we are acquainted with the
configuration of the globe, and are always ready to
despatch an expedition of discovery to any point
unvisited or unknown. We construct maps of the
bottom of the sea and of the face of the moon, so
that it is not surprising we should be curious about
the course of an African river. But why should
the Romans, who knew not much more of geography
than they did of electricity, concern themselves
about a particular watershed in the mountains of
Abyssinia ? The Nile was a great river, no doubt,
and a sacred river, but other rivers were as great,
and many rivers were sacred. The sources of all of
them were probably alike unknown, but in no case,
except that of the Nile, was this highly natural ignoe
rance ever made the subject of observation or ex-
plained by a special fable, To understand this
anomaly we must go back to early history. The
Nile was not only a great river, but it was an Egyp•
tian river, and the land of Egypt was not as other
lands. It was the country of wonders, associated by
its annals and its antiquities, with every form of
civilisation. With this country, too, the Nile was
actually identified—in fact; the river constituted all
the country that was habitable. What, therefore,
Egypt was to the world, the Nile was to Egypt and
to the world also—a species of natural marvel.
The priests of Egypt were learned, they knew that
their great river had never been tracked to its
source, and they communicated this information,
along with the rest of their learning, to others. So
everybody who had heard of anything had heard of
this, and Ovid turned the story to account, and his
readers accepted the illustration just as if the
source of all the other rivers of the world had been
so regularly ascertained that the Nile remain-
ed an almost miraculous exception. To com-
plete this story let us add that the very people who
first published the problem are now the most re-
joiced at its solution. The Source of the Nile, it is
believed, has been ascertained at last by the disco-
veries of Capt. Speke and Capt. Grant, and the in-
terest taken by the Egyptians in the announcement
is extraordinary. The Viceroy considers his rei▪
gn
has been rendered memorable by this success, and
the whole population are excited .
by the intelli-
gence. The particulars of the discovery soon be
made known to us, but it is one of the curiosities of
this most curious subject that what has been dis-
covered is simply what might have been presumed,
or, as we may almost say, what has been predicted
beforehand, As the Nile is ascended a mountainous
country is reached, and in these mountains the Nile
clearly originated. That much was known always ;
and not much more, except the exact point of the
stream's origin, can be known now. The story told
by Herodotus is exceedingly simple and natural. He
says that, as to the sources of the Nile, he never found
any man—either Egyptian, or Libyan, or Greek—
whor professed to know where they lay. The
stream,
he states, had been tracked a long way
beyond the confines of Egypt, nut it was a stream
still, and the country above was such a torrid
desert that nobody knew anything about it. In
later times a professed geographer placed the
sources of the Nile as he might very safely do, in
what he called the Mountains of the Moon, and it
seems that the final discovery, if such we may
really term it, has been made by following the route
traced out by Dr. Beke not long ago as likely to
lead to the desired spot. " The southernmost limit of
the basin of the Nile is determined to be four de-
grees south of the Equator." That in the words of
Sir▪ Roderick Murchison, is the great geographi▪
cal
fact now ascertained, and, without entering too
nic▪
ely into the intricacies of the problem, we think
we may add that the discovery does but confirmwhat
was generally presumed. A good deal of our curiosity
on this subject has probably come by inheritance. It
was natural that the ancient Egyptians should, take
aninterest in the source of a stream which was no-

thing less than life to them. It was natural enough
that the inhabitan ts of other countries should borrow
this story from Egypt as they borrowed many more,
and when a question has really been raised and has not
been answered for thousands of years, the inquiry
assumes a character of importance. A problem pro-
pounded in the earliest ages of man may reasonably
be deemed a great problem in the present genera-
tion, and we are entitled to take a pride in the
achievement of our countrymen which has solved a
question so very long insoluble. But we do not see
that anything turns upon it. We know, it seems,
by actual survey that the Source of the Nile cannot
be south of a certai❑ line. We have also reason to
suppose that a certain great lake, 300 miles long
and 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, is the
true reservoir of this mysterious river. But
when these facts are accepted, they do not, as
far as we can discern, conduct us to any further
conclusions, or affect in any practical way the
knowledge which we possessed before, There is
not even the question of a new route involved, as
there was in the North-West Passage. The Nile is
proved to rise where most people thought it rose,
and the establishment of the fact will terminate con-
jectures on the subject ; but the true story is very
like that of Herodotus after all. The Source of the
Nile is so far up the country, and the country is so
impracticable, that it is barely possible fora travel-
ler to get at it. There is, however, a prospect opened
of another kind. Dr, Beke assures us that the whole
easter❑ side of the basin of the Nile is auriferous,
and he considers that gold, which has peopled Cali-
fornia and Anstralia, will some slay attract a
modern population to the " Mountains of
the Moon." Then the sources of the Nile
will be mysterious no longer. " Diggings" will
open up this land of fable, and a country which eo
Egyptian ever reached, and which Englishmen
have been the first to reveal, will be the common
property of every adventurer. At any rate, we are
gradually penetrating into the secrets of African
geography. if there is anything to be found, we
shall find it. It concerns us to leave no accessible
country unexplored, for the simple reason that until
it is explored we cannot tell what it may do for us.
Discovery terminates speculation, even when it does
nothing else, and spares us the loss of time on con-
jecture and interference. If the intelligence trans-
mitted by telegraph should prove to be as decisive
as is presumed, we shall have accomplished a feat
which was too arduous for Egyptian Kings in the
plenitude of their power. Of such an exploit we
may well be proud, and it will be a source of satis-
faction as well as credit to us that we have removed
from the region of obscurity and doubt a question
which had been fixed in that position for more ages
than we can count.

HERALD.—Enlightened foreigners have looked
upon Greenwich Hospital as the most magnificent
of the charitable institutions of our country. The
best specimen of British architecture, the social uses
are as noble ad the artistic proportions are perfect,
and there can be no higher compliment paid to the
Genius of British Government than that which re-
presents her consecrating the finest and most pala-
tial structure of the country to the shelter and com-
fort of the superannuated veterans who have risked
limb and life to secure her the empire of the seas.
But beneath this magnificence of form and admira-
ble beauty of surface there has been accumulating,
thinly filmed over, a corruption which, making fetid
the moral atmosphere of the place, compromise each
of its uses, and is not without danger to other na-
tional institutions at least as important. The Great
Charity Las come at length to be little better than
a disguised pension list, and if a Whig Administra-
tion is to continue to it much longer the blessings of
its superintendence the result cannot be far off which
will give us Greenwich Hospital, will all its magni-
ficent endowments, existing for almost every ser-
vice but that of the poor men who won the title to
them by fighting the battles of their country. We
do not pretend to know what is precisely the wealth
of the institutkia, Parliamentary returns attribute
to it an income of £148,000 per annum ; and when
we count up all that must come out of the.E2,OOO,OGO
sterling which thenation hascapitalised in its favour,
" the seamen's sixpences," and the advantages ac-
cruing from confiscated estates and unclaimed shares
of prize money, we are left in no doubt that the in-
come has, at all events, not been over-estimated.
Yet, with this establishment placed on an excellent
tooting as to appointments for bed and board and
residence, with rent free, and no taxes, how many
of the hardy but aged mariners of England may we
suppose supported out of such an income ? Not
to be too hasty in our guess we will see what a like
establishment in France—the Hotel des Invalides
—is able to effect with a less income. According
to a return for 1848 it seems that the income of
the " Hotel" was £112,312 ; that there were two
establishments uuder support, one at Avignon, the
other at Paris; and that in addition to the large
staff of administrative servants—clerks, choristers,
Sisters of Charity, and out-door labourers—which
the rigid system of French routine req sires, the in-
stitution manages out of this sum to support no less
than 3,500 pensioners. In every sense the authority
of the example is complete. Paris is now, and for
a long time has been, at least as dear for provisions
as England. The military instincts of the French
people again are at least as paramount as the pre-
ference of the naval service among ourselves; and
as a matter of feeling, no less than of the highest
state necessity, the veterans admitted by the length
or extraordinary worth of their services to the pry-
taneum of the state are supported in a comfort and
respectability altogether exceptional in the system
of French public institutions. Yet with all these
disadvantages in the reckoning, matters are so much
better managed in France than among ourselves
that the Hotel des Invalides, with an income of
nearly £40,000 a year less, supports 1,824 veterans,
and 200 or more supernumeraries more than does
our Greenwich Hospital. Against this enormous
difference in the amount of funds and their applica-
tion, there is actually nothing to be urged as a set-
off but the Greenwich Naval School andits seven
or eight hundred boys. It is useless enterieg into
any rhetorical amplification after a parallelimply-
ing so startling a deduction against ourselves. The
conclusion is clear, that there must be some fright-
ful shortcoming on one side or misapplication of
funds on another, to admit of so startling a contrast
in the action of the two Governments. Unfortu-
nately, too, the conviction established by the
authority of the French institution against
Greenwich Hospital is nearly paralleled by the
authority of Greenwich Hospital against itself.
Sixty years ago this noblest of our national insti-
tutions, as we still call it, managed to support a
third more pensioners with half the income. It
cannot be pleaded either that food is dearer—for
the pensioner, who cost us in 1805 £27 10s. a year,
was found to cost in 1859 but £26 10s.---or that
there is not a sufficient supply of cannidates entitled
to the benefits of the institution. Though we are
supporting but sixteen hundred of our sailors out
of this enormous income, the numbers for which
there is accommodation are no less than two thou-
sand six hundred and forty-two men. We have
created eleven or twelve hundred vacancies during
the series of years in which a doubling of income
permitted us to support in comfort between five and
six thousand of the men who of all others heve the
first claim on the country's care. It will be urged
that if not sheltered by the institution appropriated
to them by the national gratitude, these men have
found their account in it in some other form of pa-
triotic protection. Exactly; they are in our work
houses. Singularly enough there was published in
1860 the number of seamen formerly in the Roy al
navy who were actually in the receipt of in-door or
out-door relief in the parishes of England and
Wales ; and we find they were between two and
three thousand, or actually a thousand or more
above the twelve hundred vacancies existing in
Greenwich Hospital. The immense surplus which,
under this system, ought to have arisen, and which,
accumulated, ought, by this time, almost to count
by the million, might, if existing, offer to a commer-
cial people like ourselves some respeetable compen-
sation for the injury. Bat there is little or no sur-
plus. Every sixpence, or nearly so, has been spent
just as much as if with the doubling of the income
we had increased the size of the building and
doubled the number of the inmates. The thou-
sands of old seamen who have worn out their old
days in penury and pauperism, cursing the service
that tempted them to so many perils and toils for
so ungrateful a return, have missed the provision
which the country duly paid for them, but it was
all spent not the less for that. It asked some
ingenuity no doubt to invent such an anomaly,
and we might fancy there could have been no
expectation that inquiry could ever reach the
subject; but there are few things that the Whig
Administrations which have come into power on
the plea of reform and retrenchment have not been
able to do in that long career of official jobbery
which has been the practical commentary on their
professions. The provision has gone from the men
to their officers ; and a governing staff has been kept
up for this eleemosynary establishment at an expen-
diture that might almost officer a navy. As though
an awkward claim on the Admiralty, or a friendly
relationship with one of its Lords,
ould be dealt
with by the decent provision of a sinecure situation
at the expense of the Greenwich pensioner, the in-
stitution has been systematically kept over-officered
and under-manned. While the workheuses of Eng-
land hold enough and to spare of veteran mariners
to fill twice over the vacancies of an institution
founded for the relief and support of Royal seamen
incapable of further service, we have been spending
the on we have saved from them in making
millionaires of the respectable officers who have
kindly undertaken the almost honorary duties of
assisting a few of their more fortunate brethren to
receive the benefits of the charity.
POST.--It is an unfi

Woolwich.

'ortunate circumstance for the

credit of the French army in Mexico that they
should ho engaged upon a campaign the difficulties
of which have been already overcome by a much
smaller American force a few years ago, and that
the enemy, which has up to this point resisted their
picked troops so successfully, should be the same
which was obliged to give way before the impetu-
osity of Yankee volunteers. It is not often that we
have the opportunity of thus reducing the opera-
tions of our allies in the field to their exact value.
Generally we are compelled to accept their achieve-
ments at their own estimate, and if we are now
grateful to tkie Americans for having given us an-
other standard by which to measure them, it is
not from any desire to depreciate the courage or
military qualities of the French army, but because
we are perpetually expected to accept without
reserve their highly-coloured official reports.
In the course of the wars undertaken both in
the Crimea and in China in conjunction with our
allies it has always been the fate of the British
army to suffer by the invidious contrast which
could be drawn to its disadvantage from the ac-
counts furnished by out press and Government.
Our failures were genet ally exaggerated; our suc-
cess never. Had a British force engaged in a Mexi-
can campaign achieved no greater results than have
fallen to the lot of the French, the whole of Europe
would have been caller' upon to witness the ineffici-
ency of our troops. The experience which we have
already had of the fighting qualities of our allies,
whenever unusual difficulties attend military opera-
tions, does-not, however, lead us to suppcse that we
should have employed so large an army to so little
purpose. There is no more marked feature in their
mode of warfare than the pedantic caution by which
their distant enterprises have always been charac-
terised. Toe very perfection of an organization
adapted only for European wars on a grand scale
becomes an embarrassment to them, while they are
trammelled by rules of civilised warfare to an ex-
tent which paralyses their energies in barbarous
countries. A petty war is an abomination to a
Frenchman—who fig tits,not for the love of the thing,
but for promotion or glory. He can gain neither out
of guerilla tactics with a semi-civilised enemy; and
the more he is engaged the more demoralised does
he become, The army in Cochin China, for instance,
which was generally maintained at an effective
strength of about 6,000 men, failed to take the
capital—Hue—a city only twelve miles from the
sea coast; and the Emperor was glad to conclude a
peace putting him in possession of a seaport which
was never well defended, and of the small, valueless
district which surrounded it. In China General
Montauban protested against a march to Pekin
with only 10,000 men as contrary to all the recog-
nised principles of war, and in Mexico General
Foray is applying the rules of St. Cyr with an effect
fatal to the reputation of the troops he commands.
A comparison of the achievements of his army
with that of General Scott will enable us easily to
appreciate the merits of their relative performances.
General Scott landed in Mexico with 12,000 men,
and in two months and three days he entered Puebla
as a conqueror with only 4 500 men, having taken
the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, fought the bloody
action of Cerro Gordo, and taken the castle and town
of Perote. During the whole of these operations he
never received reinforcements. The French army
has now been nearly 17 months in Mexico, during
which time it has been constantly reinforced, and
for some months past has numbered at least 30,000
important
operation It has signally failed in the only
operation it has as yet undertaken, having upon the
first occasion been compelled to retire from Puebla,
under General Lorencez, with the loss of more than
1,000 men. This estimate, however, is not according
to the official returns, which are rarely accurate.
It has again invested that city, and after a siege of
24 days, the positions of Loretto and Guadeloupe,
which command the town, were yet untaken, though
the French loss had already exceeded 800 men. The
apparent facility with which the American General
achieved his results induced the belief that theenemy
opposed to him was contemptible, and doubtless led
the French to suppose that the Mexicans would be
found inferior in courage to a European enemy. A
comparison of the per-tentage of loss suffered by the
American army in Mexico with that of the French
and Sardinian armies in the Italian campaign will
serve to correct this impression. Out of 244,000
men engaged in this latter war, the allied armies
lost 24,460 men, or about 8 per cent. The Aus-
trians, out of 305,000 men, lost 38,650, or about 10-1
per cent. In Mexico, ont of 28,347 men actually
engaged, the American loss was 3,861, or about 15
per cent., nearly double that of the allies in
Italy. The Mexican loss was probably over 15
per cent. ; but we have no data upon this point.
The recent accounts from Puebla fully corrobo-
rate the fact of Mexican bravery. When we
compare the composition of the French army,
its corps d ecite, and its highly disciplined and well-
tried Zouaves, with the raw levies commanded by
Scott; when, moreover, we remember the improve.
ments which the material of war has undergone
during the last 18 years, and the advantage of
which is all on the side of the French, the oppo-
site results of these two campaigns are still more
remarkable. This retrospect of the past will enable
us to form some idea of the task the French still
have before them. In spite of the superior tactics
and impetuous courage of the American army, it
cost the United States 7 3,260 men to conquer a
peace from Mexico, and then they were only too
happy to abandon a country which they would
certainly have annexed had it been possible. The
calculation resolves itself into a rule-of-three sum.
It 12,000 Americans can take a town in two months,
which 30,000 French cannot do in 17, and it needed
73,000 Americans to extort a peace, how many
French will it require to do the same ? There can
be little doubt that the successful resistance which
has been offered by the garrison of Puebla will in-
duce the Mexicans, even though that city should fall
speedily, to defend Mexico with a like determina-
tion, and the French will, in order to reach the
capital, be compelled to overcome the obstacles
which 90 miles of mountain road interposes, and to
protect a line of communication 300 miles long
against an enemy experienced in guerilla warfare,
and animated by the strongest sentiment which can
operate upon a people, that of expelling from their
soil an army of foreign invaders. The clerical party,
on whose influence and sympathy the hopes of the
French were founded, have proved a broken reed,
and success in military operations will by no means
secure the realisation of that programme which has
been announced as the object of French interven-
tion in the internal affairs of Mexico.

The Attempted Murder and Suicide at

Yesterday afternoon a young woman, named Frances
Eliza Paxton, aged 18, was placed at the bar before Mr.
Maude, at the Woolwich Police-court, on a remanded charge
of administering poison with intent to murder Mrs. Eliza
Roberts, of King-street, Woolwich, in whose family the
prisoner resided as servant.
It will be remembered that the prisoner gave herself into
custody on the charge, and stated that she had been incited
to commit the act by her master, who had seduc©d her, and
who committed suicide on Thursday, the 14th inst,, shortly
after the accusation was made against him.

Tho case excited the utmost interest, the court being
densely crowded, and many hundreds of persons were un-
able to obtain admission.

Mr. Farnfield, solicitor, appeared for the prosecution, the
prisonet being undefended; and the following witnesses
were now examined :

Inspector James Linvell, of the R division, recapitulated
his evidence as to apprehending the prisoner, on. her own
confession of having attempted to poison her =atm s on
the night of Sunday, the 10th inst., by mixing a quantity
of vitrol with her beer. The prisoner stated to witness that
the bottle containing the vitriol was handed to her by her
master, who saw her mix the poison with the beer, and
said, "There, that will settle her." The prisoner gave her-
self into custody on Thursday morning, the 14th inst., and
witness then proceeded to the residence of Mr. Roberts,
who, on being informed of the charge made against him,
promised to attend the police-court on the same afternoon,
but committed suicide before the opening of the court.
Mrs. Eliza Roberts, widow of the deceased, stated that
on the evening of Saturday, the 10th inst , she went to
chapel, and returned home about eight o'clock. Sho after-
wards went out and returned home at 11, her husband being
in the parlour waiting for her. She saw about half a pint
of beer in a mug, but did not drink it, as she had partaken
of supper at her brother's house. Sho noticed that the beer
had a curious smell, and left it until the following day,
when she took it to Mr. Bayne, a beerhouse keeper, from
whom it was purchased, and who at once said he believed it
had been mixed with poison. Witness and Mr. Bayne then
accused the prisoner of having poisoned the beer, which she
at first strongly denied, but subsequently admitted she had
done so. The prisoner then said "If Mr. Roberts leaves the
room, I will tell you all about it ;" and at the request of
witness her husband left, when the prisoner said she was
induced to commit the act by Clifford (a young man who
had recently been discharged by the deceased). Witness
then told the prisoner at once to leave the house, and she did
so, but returned on the following day with her father, when
the latter informed Mr. Roberts that his daughter accused
him of inciting her to poison her mistress. The prisoner
then made the same statement, when the deceased said, " It
the Almighty was to strike me dead this moment, I know
no more about it than a child unborn."

Mr. Bayne, landlord of the Railway Tavern, King-street,
corroborated the evidence of the last witness.

Mr. Blagg, assistant to Mr. Rastrick, chemist, of Church-
street, Woolwich, proved that during the past six months
he had frequently supplied the prisoner with pennyworths
of vitriol, which she stated she required for cleaning a cop-
per. The liquid he supplied was half oil of vitriol and half
water, but in that state it was a powerful corrosive poison.
On the morning of Tuesday, the 12th instant, he tested a
mixture of beer and vitriol. whirl,

Sessions.

lb.

Mrs. Roberts, and found it to contain rather more than a
table spoonful of ♦itriol to half a pint of beer. This would
be a sufficient quantity to cause death.
Other evidence of an unimportant nature was adduced,
and in reply to the magistrate the prisoner declined to ques •
tion any of the witnesses.
Mr. Maude, addressing the prisoner, said she was now at
liberty to make any statement, but as she was undefended,
he suggested that she should confer with her father before
she replied, and he would at once say that nothing would
alter his decision to send the prisoner for trial on a charge
of feloniously administering poison with intent to cause the
death of Mrs. Roberts.

The prisoner, alter some conversation with her father,
stated that she would reserve her defence until her trial.

The depositions were then formally made out, and the
prisoner was fully committed for trial at the Old Bailey

POLICE INTELLIGENCE---May 21.

MARYLEBONE.—" FORSTER No. 2" AND " Fons-
TER No. 3."—Raymond Forster, a commercial traveller,
residing at 2, Church-terrace, Kentish-town, appeared to
answer a charge of assault upon Mr. Edwin James Forster,
clerk in an Indian bank, and residing in the same terrace,
next door to the defendant.

In reply to Mr. Yardley, Forster No. 3 said they were
not in any way related to each other.
Mr. Vann appeared for the defence.

Forster No. 3 said—On the 12th inst. defendant came to
my house and I said he had spoken disrespectfully of mY
wife. He then sprung at me, shook me, tore my waiscoat
and the button from my shirt.
Cross-examined—l was at home the day before the 12th,
and did not attack Forster No. 2's wife with bad language.
I only asked her to be quiet and desist from making a noise.
Did not calla lot of boys to hoot her.

Mr. Yardley—l think it is very indiscreet for parties ill
the position of the complainant and defendant to have this
case brought into a public court. No doubt the parties are
highly respectable and might get some friends to settle this
affair.

Elizabeth Price said I am servant to Mr, Forster, No. 2
(Laughter) Forster, No. 3, said " your eyes, you bitch,"
to Forster, No. 2's wife—(laughter)—" and what do you
mean by making such a noise." Forster, No, 3, bad his
head over our railings. He said "we were all and
Mrs. Forster, No. 3, said Mrs. Forster No. 2, I mean WY
missus, " was a low disgusting woman," which she isn't•
(Loud laughter.) Mr. Forster, No. 3, brought a lot of
boys and said "hoot them" meanit g me and Mrs. F Wert
No. 2, and this they did and threw mould at us, and we bad
to run in. My master, Forster, No. 2, came into town the
following day, and went to Forster, No. 3—(laughter)—and
asked him what he meant by calling Mrs. Forster, No. 2,
bad names Mrs. Forster, No. 3, said "so she is a bad
woman." Then Forster, No. 3, said " she was," and was-
ter shook her.

In reply to Mr. Yardley, witness said--I have been with
Forster No. 2 for two years. (Laughter.) Forster No. 3
was there before I went, Mrs. Forster No, 3 came and
knocked at our door and asked us not to make so much
noise, and we shut the door in her face. We were dancing
in the passage. Mrs. Forster No. 2 and her friend were
dancing, and I was looking on. (Laughter.) We were
not singing and shouting. Ido not know the cause of the
dispute.

Forster No. 3—They were singing and shouting. The,'
called me blind Susan—(loud laughter)—(witness wore
spectacles), and my wife they call Betty. (Renewed
laughter.)

Mr. Yardley (to Price)—Now, have you ever heard your
mistress call the complainant Blind Susan.
Price—l have seen my mistress put pieces of blue paper
on her eyes, and say " now I am Blind Susan."( Laughter.)
Mr. Yardley—This is one of the most childish cases that
I have ever heard. I shall order defendant to pay 24'
without costs ; and I hope for the future you will allow yea
wives to settle their own quarrels.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

MANCHESTER—MAY 21.
A moderate attendance to-day, with a quiet demand Of
most articles. Buyers operated merely for the supply of
their present needs, while on the part of holders there 05
a decided firmness.