The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALS.

The Toww CLERK replied that it had been carefully col-
lated with the original, and that he believed the translation
to be correct.

APPOINTMENT OP AUDITORS.
Upon the motion of Mr Deputy HOUGHTON, Mr Wm,
T-arquand, Mr Henry Croysdell, and Mr John Ball were
appointed auditors, under the City of London Sewers Act,
to audit the accounts of the Commissioners of Sewers for
the year ending Sept. 29 last.
STATE OP LONDON-BRIDGE.
Mr M'GEORGE called attention to the dusty state of Lon-
don-bridge, and asked what the arrangements were for
keeping the footways clean and the roadways watered.
Mr WEBBER replied that the footways were under the
direction-of the Bridge-house Estates Committee, and that
the roadways were under that of the Commissioners of
Sewers. It seemed very desirable that the whole should be
placed under one management, There was no doubt the
footways were often id a very disgraceful state, but this was
frequently caused by the force of the wind blowing the dust
from one side to the other. He believed the watering of the
roadway was not so bad at, present as it had been during the
dry summer. The whole subject of the better management
of the bridge had been referred to the architect, and there
was no doubt that some plan would shortly be suggested by
that gentleman which would prove satisfactory to the public.
HOLBORN VALLEY IMPROVEMENT.
The LORD MAYOR here said he had a most important
communication to make to the Court, but that it must be
made in the absence of strangers.
Strangers were accordingly ordered to withdraw. On our
return we learned that Mr Deputy,Bone had moved a report
from the Coal, Corn, and Finance Committee, in which
they referred to a resolution passed on the 23d June last,
to communicate with the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, or the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's
Treasury, with a view to obtain their consent to and the
necessary Parliamentary powers for the advance of the
moneys required for the Holborn Valley Improvement, upon
similar terms to those which have been agreed upon by her
Majesty's Treasury in relation to moneys required by the
Metropolitan Board of Works for the new street to the
Mansion-house, and recommended that such reference be
discharged.
This report was adopted, and the reference was discharged
accordingly,

THE MEDAL OP THE PRINCESS OP 'WALES.
Mr Deputy CORK asked when the medal commemorative
of the entry and reception of her Royal Highness the Prin-
cess of Wales into London would be delivered.
Mr ANDERTON, the chairman of the committee, replied
that he could not exactly say, as Mr Wyon had received
half the amount of his contract, and had not condescended
to inform the committee when the medal would be ready for
delivery.

THE OPENING OF SOUTHWARK-BRIDGE FREE OF TOLL.
Mr WEBBER presented a report from the Bridge-house
Committee, which had been delivered in on the 6th inst.,
referring to a letter addressed to the Lord Mayor by the
chairman of the Southwark-bridge Company, and moved
that the recommendation of the committee—namely, that
the proposal by the Southwark-bridge Company to open the
bridge to the public free of toll for the period of six months
for the sum of £1,834, with the option of continuing such
opening for 12 months for the further KIM of £2,750, be
adopted. He was aware that this was a very vexed ques-
tion, and that there existed an idea in the public mind that
the Corporation were slow to take the initiative in any
improvement conducive to the public welfare. He be-
lieved there was now an opportunity for trying on a small
scale what would ultimately tend to the public benefit, and
that the Southwark-bridge Company had met them in
a very liberal and handsome manner. This was only a pro-
position for expending £l,BOO in throwing the bridge open,
and gentlemen often made propositions there, not for ex-
pending £l,BOO, but £lB,OOO, and they suceeeded in carry-
ing out their views without a cavil being raised. It was not
a proposal to purchase the bridge, but simply to try the ex-
periment of making it toll free for six months. If at the ex-
piration of that time it was not found to answer the expec-
tations of the committee, and if the corporation did not obtain
the support of other parties—because it would be unfair for
the whole burden to be thrown upon the shoulders of the
corporation alone—then the project could be abandoned. He
believed the people resident on the southern side of the
Thames would be es much benefited by making the bridge
free as the citiznis themselves; but as the bridge came into
the very heart of the City, there was no denying that it
would be of incalculable benefit to the City itself. He was
not for driving a hard bargain with the bridge company,
and he certainly thought that the recommendation now be-
fore the Court contained a fair and reasonable offer.
Mr H. L. TAYLOR said that, although he was of opinion
that the utmost facilities should be given to the public, he
considered the recommendation objectionable. He always
liked to see the end where there was a beginning. In the
present case there was a beginning, but there was no con-
oioetoo to it pointed out. He was very much interested him-
self in &llama k bridge, and should wish to see it thrown
open, but who was to pay for doing so, and vhat was the
proper mode of doing it ? It was impossible the corporation
could negotiate with the bridge company on such a subject,
because it was only with the authority of Parliament that
the bridge could be sold, and it was always to be recollected
that the feelings of the original shareholders must be con-
sulted. It might bo said that if they opened the bridge now
they could negotiate afterwards. But this was a great mis-
take. If they were to try universal suffrage at the next
election, could they go back to the present mode of voting
afterwards ? And they might rely upon it that if once they
opened Southwark bridge they could never shut it again.
If the press made up their minds and said it was essen-
tial it should be kept open, the corporation would not
dare to close it again. (Oh, oh.) However unpalatable
the sentiment might be, he had no hesitation in broadly
asserting it. He concluded by moving, as an amendment,
that, inasmuch as there could not be two opinions as to the
itnportanc3 of opening Southwark-bridge to the public, the
Court considered that no experiment for a limited period
was at all necessary to demonstrate the advantages attend-
ing it, and were decidedly of opinion that if the bridge was
thrown open it should, be permanent, and, by virtue of en
Act of Parliament, the funds to be provided by a charge on
the metropolis, in accordance with the report of the Select
Committee in relation to metropolitan bridges in 1854, and
that it be referred to the Committee to negotiate further
with the proprietors of the bridge, in order to ascertain the
lowest price at which it could be obtained, and to communi
cate with the Government as to the best means of complet-
ing the purchase, and to report to the Court.
Mr Deputy BONE seconded the amendment. He observed
that he had always been in favour of making the bridges
free of toll, but that he objected to the Corporation being
made to bear the whole of the expense of doing so.
The RECORDER suggested an alteration in the motion,
with the view of making it conformable with the Standing
Orders. This alteration was that the report of the Bridge.
house Committee be adopted, and that they carry the same
into effect when they should have referred it to the Coal,
Corn, and Finance Committee and reported to this Court
the means by which it was to be done.
Mr Alderman SALOMONS said the real object of the
amendment was to postpine the subject to an indefinite
period

Mr H. L. TAYLOR denied that he had any such object in
view.

Mr Alderman SA.LONIONS was prepared to show that the
assent of Parliament could be obtained to any contract
entered into by the Corporation with the view of making
Southwark-bridge free. He complained that the metropolis
now was very nvich in the same state in which it stood a
century ago with regard to its limited means of bridge ac-
commodation across the Thames, and contrasted that accom-
modation with what was afforded at Paris, whero all the
bridges with the exception of one had been bought by the
authorities in order to benefit the public. The court might
depend upon it that the ball as respected free ingress and
egress had been sot rolling in London, and that if they did
not purchase Southwark-bridge the matter would fall into
the hands of the Metropolitan Board of Works. (" No,
no I")

Mr Deputy DE JERSEY supported the amendment, and,
in doing so, commented in severe terms on the bill which
had been introduced into Parliament by Mr Alderman
Salemona, and which, he said, contained a clause disrespect-
ful to the Court, inasmuch as therein the Alderman evinced
his anxiety that all the bridges should be purchased by the
Metropolitan Board of Works. That bill had failed in the
House of Commons, and now the dodge was being tried of
having the bridge purchased by the corporation. The open-
ing of it for six months was a sidewind to effect the pur-
chase, because if it was once opened it would never be shut.
Then, was it wide enough for the traffic, and, it wide
enough, was it strong enough ? Nobody knew ; and it was
like buying a pig in a poke to enter on the purchase under
the circumstances. He believed that nobody in his senses
would say the gradients would answer, and that it would
take an xpenditure of £650,000 to put the bridge into
proper working order.
Mr Alderman RosE implored the court not to be led away
by the amendment, because if that were adopted they would
openly proclaim to Parliament that they wore unable to
carry out their functions, and they would still further in-
cur the grave responsibility of leaving their street accom-
modation in its present lamentably inadequate position.
After some further discussion, in which Mr Hartridge,
Mr Kearns, Mr Deputy Fry (who proposed another amend-
ment), Mr Deputy Elliott, and Mr Woodley took part,
Mr Webber replied, and
Upon a division the amendment of Mr Taylor was put
and lost by a majority of 42 81 to 39.
Mr Deputy Fry's amendment was put and lost by a ma •
jority of 19-64 to 45.

TIMES.—War proceeds so much by laws of its
own, and the Americans have so thoroughly ac-
cepted those laws in their utmost rigour, that every
fresh inhumanity we read of in this never-ending
affair can only be regarded as the caprice of an ir-
resistible power. They who cast the die of war have
simply turned things upside down, introduced
agencies they cannot control, and have turned not
only the heart of man but nature itself from its
course, So we read the diary of a Volunteer on board
the Tallahassee as we should an account of the
ravages of a tornado or the vagaries of an imaginary
demon. In this case it must be. We would rather
not be the agents in the business, but as the business
must be done, we must not blame the agency. The
Tallahassee went out from Wilmington on the 6th of
last August on an errand of simple destruction. She
went out to wage war, not with soldiers or ships of
war, but with merchantmen, coasters, fishing
schooners, market boats, packets, pilot boats. What
pleasure there might be in the work, it Was that
which the incendiary feels as the rick flares up or
the workshop breaks into a blaze, or which the
wretch feels when he has poisoned the pool, maimed
the horse, or clogged the machinery. But the Talla-
hassee did not sculk on her errand, or seek the aid
of night. She had to run the gauntlet of many Fede-
ral guns as she ran out, and again when she ran in.
She found herself one day alongside a Federal fri-
gate, and seems to have been let off easily, as if
neither of them wished to interfere with so respects
able a craft. About half a dozen bigger ships
steamed out of New York in one day to catch her,
bat only ascertained where she had been_ So it is
hard to say why the work is to be thought odious.
It is nothing to what had been done and will be
done on shore. An eye-witness describes the
track from Washington to Richmond, or at least
to within a few miles of those cities, as one
scene of destruction far as eye can reach; not a
building, not a fence, not a tree, not an animal, not
anything to support life, where four years ago it was
a garden of Eden. It is worse elsewhere, for whole
cities and well inhabited valleys have been thrown
into the furnace of war, and converted into ruinous
heaps in the midst of blackened wastes. The 'Alla.
hassee brought the hideous, or rather in this case,
the disagreeable reality of war much nearer New
York than the denizens of Broadway had ever ex-
pected. Off Long Island an unhappy pilot, misled
by the stripes and Stars, and bearing up in the con-
fident hope of a good job, to his horror found him-
self in the very jaws of the enemy, and had to see
his beautiful and fast sailing schooner, the James
Funck, destroyed, not, however, till she done a little
work for her new masters, and brought in a bark.
The day after a large ship, carrying 163 passengers
from London to New York, on being ordered to heave
to, either purposely'or not, nearly ran down the Tal-
lahassee, broke her mainmast short, and swept her
decks clean. The captain was an Englishman, and
was under an impression that his personal na-
tionality would cover the ship and cargo. He
found himself mistaken. The passengers, who seem
to have had no idea of danger, no sooner discovered
their situation than they made up their minds to
the worst, experting to be burnt in the ship. Re.
lieved from this fear, and being told that they
would be simply taken out and put on shore, they
seem to have undergone an almost equal amount of
vexation in being compelled to confine their luggage
to a moderate selection of pots and pans, birds, cats,
dogs, and other pets from the Old World, The
Tallahassee sacrificed two precious hours to a deli-
cacy which was overstrained, compared with other
operations of war. Though the ship and her cargo
were sent to the bottom, the comic prevailed over
the tragic in this encounter. The former element,
however, always found a place, a capture being so
unexpected, so provoking, and so utterly irremedi-
able an occurrence to the victims that peculiarities
of character were sure to be brought out. Happily,
too, the finer and heroic qualities sometimes showed
themselves in their usual antithesis to the coarse and
mean. Such a contrast the " Volunteer" describes
in the respective bearing of the captain's wife and
the wife of a passenger, also a sea captain, on board
a noble ship, with a valuable cargo, captured and
destroyed the next day. The latter was a termagant,
who raged as a woman might rage who found her
• husband unable to help her against the loss of half
her luggage. The former was herself a witness of
the sad toss of a ship in which her husband bad in-
vested his life's earnings for their little ones at home.
She bore it nobly, acquiesced in the necessity of
the case, and observed that she had often read with
pity the sufferings and privations of the Southern
ladies, adding that she hoped her own loss might
do them some good. Such a trait of real goodness
under the most adverse circumstances—indeed, at
the very last wreck of cherished hopes, and with im-
pending difficulties in their stead—will survive the
fleeting record of captures and destructions, as they
affect our poor earthly gear. Ai' hen the Tallahassee
has told its long and terrible tale, the incident of the
" brave, sweet woman" who bore her losses without
a murmur, aad who, while dropping a tear for her
husband and chilaren, pitied not less the wives and
children of her captors, will leave a deeper and
more abiding trace on the memory than all those
other " moving accidents" of sea and strife. Com-
pared with the classes taking a prominent part in
the war, the Tallahassee struck into a new vein of
American life, and tapped a new spring of feeling.
The great majority of the victims were people
quite outside the political action, pursuing trade
and commerce, but of course somewhat benefited
by the war expenditure. They loved their ships
" more than his wife, or his old woman," one of
them said; they thought the Confederates: had
something to say for themselves ; they would not
lend a hand to them except for peace sake; and
they immensely appreciated the value of the parole
given upon their release, as an immunity from the
draught. On this point, indeed, they became quite
excited, estimated a parole as worth many hundred
dollars of greenbacks, and were most particular to
have the document all right. It may seem hard
that these people should suffer, and it is certainly
cruel that poor little men taking their fish, their
sheep, their poultry, their vegetable to a good
market, should be suddenly stripped of everything
and landed penniless a good way from home.
Few modes of warfare can bs less agreeable to a
man who takes the romantic and heroical view of
war. It is piracy with a pretence. But it is
impossible to distinguish between these proceedings
and the like acts of destruction on land done by
the Federate whenever they have had the opportu-
tunity ; indeed, by both sides now. The "Volunteer,"
at a pillage of this sort, was robbed of everything,
down to a much-used toothbrush, which his plun-
derers 'vented for some purpose or other. The cone
sternation the Tallahassee everywhere excited—
the ideas of burning hanging, drowning instantly
suggested to the victims, and depriving them of
their self-possession and self-respect—itself justifies
the foray. Everybody, at least in a State professing
to be constitutional and to govern itself, should be
made to take his share in the consequences of war,
and not leave one of his neighbours to tight, another
to pay the bill, and others to take the trouble and
worry of it. These trading sailors and fishermen
were making a good harvest on a disaster which
is ruining half the world, and it is only fit they
should have their risks. We confess, however,
that we should not like the task of teaching them
that lesson.

POST.—Lord Stanley and Lord George Manners
remind us that there is a great distinction between
Tories by nature and Tories by the mere accident of
birth. Lord George and his brother, the Duke of
Rutland, who have just been addressing an agricul-
tural audience, are still orthodox believers in all the
theories of their party. The Duke still ho!ds to the
doctrine of protection, while Lord George, more
moderately, is content with calling for a reduction
of the malt tax. But nothing less will content
Lord Stanley than a sweeping away of half the
landmarks of Europe. M. Biemarck now knows
that he has the ex-Indian Minister's full permis-
sion to swallow up the coveted kingdoms of Ha-
nover and Saxony; and the inferior populations
of the Turkish Empire will now be made aware
how much the heir of the House of Derby wishes
to see them triumphant over their old masters, and
placing a final extinguisher upon the Ottoman
Empire. All those who boast of our possessing an
empire on which the sun never sets will now also
learn that the future candidate for the English Pre-
miership looks forward to the creation of a Cana-
dian Empire, and an Australian Empire, free from
British superiority, and to the formation of a king-
dom or republic of Canada, and to a kingdom or
republic of Australia. Well, this is a mighty
ascent above the mere malt-tax themes of the Duke
of Rutland and Lord George Manners, New ideas
are proverbially carried out by original minds; but
it is the greatest marvel cf all that such new ideas
and such original minds should dwell in Tory
ranks. Nor is Lord Stanley sparing of the language
in which he clothes these gigantic views of change.
As for the Germanic Confederation, he plainly en.
tertains the utmost contempt for it, and for the fas-
tidious recognition of existing rights on which it is
avowedly based. " The existence!" he says, "of
these petty German sovereignties is useless ; they
multiply, as we have seen, the risks of war; they
serve, as far as I can perceive, no single political
purpose; and the sooner they disappear from the
map of Europe the better, in my judgment." This
is bold language, and it needs no great insight into _