The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-15 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

-

HOUSE OF COMMONS.---This Day.

The SPEAKER took the chair at 12 o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The following bills were read a third time and passed :
Bourton on the Water Railway, Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil
Junction Railway (No. 1), Dublin and Baltinglass Junction
Railway; Dublin, Rathmines, Rathgar, &0., Railways;
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Blackburn, &c., Lines),
Lancashire Union Railways, Lynn and Sutton Bridge
Railway (Cross Keys Bridge), Southern Railway, and
South Eastern Railway (No. 4).
DUBLIN METROPOLITAN RAILWAY BILL.
Mr HERBERT moved, with respect to the Dublin.
Metropolitan Railway Bill and the Dublin Railway Bill,
that the orders of the house of the 9th of Julie be lead and
discharged, and that the bills be recommitted to the former
committee. He also moved that the Dublin Trunk Con-
necting Railway Bill be also recommitted.
Mr H. BAILEY, the chairman of the committee, whose
decision was objected to by the hon. member opposite, said,
the utmost considlration had been given to the measures,
and he hoped the house would not adopt the unusual and
extraordinary course of reviewing its decision, be2ause the
committee had not considered itself justified in passing.
Mr P. O'BRIEN supported the motion.
LEFT SITTING.

The Wholesale Emigration of the Circassians

The emigration of the Circassians to the Turkish

erritory furnishes the Siecle with matter for an in-
dignant article against the severe measures pursued
by the Russians against those unfortunate popula-
tions. Actuated by a love of liberty and indepen-
wd eanrcl
iekteo
tar ni bee t efinntd
nh
ga t,
tibs
en:
et
eol
vf teeen
bwoirt
nn
ee s sdeodw, tnh obsye
numbers and obliged to quit the mountainous regions
of their forefathers, bid an eternal farewell to
their native land, and, without resources and
almost without clothes, seek an asylum on an-
other territory. The writer, after remarking
that Turkey, formerly the land of slavery, is now
affording protection to the persecuted from every
part of Europe, goes on to give some details of
interest relative to the hostilities which have been
so long going on on the Caucasus :—" This war,
which ends in the collective emigration of the
population, has lasted ever since 1727, and no one
can enumerate the brave defenders of their country
who have perished during the long interval. Since
1783 the war has been waged with unflagging per-
tinacity ; but the Russians met with little success
until 1818, when the famous Jermnlof com-
manded. Notwithstanding the advantages gained
by him, however, the populations held their ground
against Paskiewitz and his successors; they were
led, first, by Kasi-Moulla, then by Schamyl, and
lastly by Ismail Bey : they would have maintained
the struggle still longer had they been aided. But
of late years Europe has altogether neglected them,
and not long since a small expedition of Polish
emigrants, commanded by a young French officer,
was unable to succeed, because it met with no
support. The Russians, moreover, have con-
ducted this war in the Caucasus with the skill,
cunning, and extreme means which they employ
on all occasions. The conquest of Georgia in
1787, the manner in which the will of the last
King, George XL, was made in favour of Paul 1.,
with the other circumstances of the subjection of
this small but flourishing kingdom, would furnish
ample materials for many volumes of history and
romance. After the submission of the Georgians
and the Abases, Russia undertook the more arduous
task of reducing the Tcherkeses or Circassiane.
Being unable to subdue them by open force, she
progressively surrounded them by a military cordon,
which was constantly drawn closer, and adopted
that skilful strategy of occupation of which Lord
Napier, in the apologetic despatch which we have
published, indicates the last combinations. Pre•
viously it was by pressing them at once from all
points of the compass that Russia had well nigh
succeeded in surrounding them, relying much more
on this local strategy than on fighting. Thus mili-
tary colonies of Cossacks, supported by the garrisons
of lekaterinogroi, Mosdok, Gregoroscaia, and Kis,•
liar, gradually occupied the north of the Caucasus
as its conquest was effected, whilst the strong occu-
pation of Georgia to the South deprived the Circas-
sians of support on that side. At the same time the
Russian maritime possessions of Anaps, Soukoum -
Kale, Djelendjik, and Soudjouck-Kale, intercepted
all communication with the sea, and, finally,the reduc-
tion of the Daghestan cut off all hope of assistance
from Persia, As for the Caucasus itself, we have se-
veral times explained to our readers both its aim•
tion and extent. This celebrated chain of moans
tains, of the most famous on the globe, is one of the
natural barriers of Asia. It extends from the Black
Sea to the Caspian, from Anapa to the peninsula of
Bakou. At one time it contained a population of
4,000,000 of men, of whom the Georgians, the
Abases, the Tcherkesses, the Ossetes, the Kistes, and
the Lesghuiz, were the more remarkable. The
Russians have divided it into two provinces, that
of the Caucasus or Cis-Caucasia, with Stavropol for
its capital, and the Government of the Caucasus or
frans-Caucasia, retaining Georgia or Grusia, with
Tiflis, Telaw, Erivan, Gori, Elisabethpel, and
Koutais."
The Siecle does not believe that the country thus
conquered will remain indefinitely tratluil ; insur-
rections will, it thinks, break out from time to
says the writer, " the
t e:emigrationo‘'lf :—`'Notwithstanding,"
wewhichicthi
rsi set :lane aediwei pntge be
a' in g place,
complete will
mission‘lre
d 0
not think so. There is too much hatred accumulated
in the hearts of these mountaineers for them not to
seize the first opportunity to revolt, notwithstand-
ing the depopulation and the military measures
which will be taken. Russia considers her triumph
certain, but the Caucasus will some day become
another Poland. The great shades of Kazi-Moulla
and Schamyl will reappear in the mountains, and
the war will be more desperate than ever."

MANTINEA.E—ETCEhe
How GREECEOF
STOODdying
exAcriaTmEßati:EofßEApTaTmL
iEn
on-
das—" I have lived long enough, for I die unconquered"—
was the farewell to that glory which he alone had obtained
for Thebes; and his last breath was spent in bidding his
countrymen make peace. Polopidas had fallen two years
before at the battle of Cynoscephals in Thessaly (B.c 364).
All parties, except Sparta, were content to join in a general
pacification, on the basis of the status quo, recognising the
new constitution of Arcadia, and the independence of Mem-
senCe. To this last article Sparta would not consent ; but
her spirit of practical resistance was confined to the aged
Agesilaus, who, in his 80th year, sought a new field for his
restless energy in Egypt. After aiding Nectanebo the
Second to obtain the crown, he died, on his road to Cyrene,
B.C. 361. After the pacification, the power of Thebes
speedily collapsed, in a manner that showed how completely
she owed her sudden elevation to the brilliant qualities of
her few great statesmen. Sparta was finally fallen. The,
new power of Arcadia was yet in its infancy. A dull pause
appears to fall upon the scene of energy and conflict, while
the exhausted states await the new destiny which was pre-
pared for them by the secession of Philip to the throne of
Macedonia (B.c. 359). Athens alone seemed to retain, in
her free constitution, her maritime power, and her succes-
sionvigour enough to become the cham-
piond liberty. The long train of ooff aHbelellesntaictelsimfeeann,
match-
less orators, who ruled the debates of her ecclesia and
pleaded causes in her courts, had been crowned by the first
appearance of Demosthenes, in his 18th year (B.c. 364).
I that idd
thele om
Newedom
Her drama was still flourishing, though her tragedians
were no longer comparable to JEschylus, Sorhocles, and
Comedy. It
Comedy
was
of
Euripides, and the satire of the Old Comedy had passed
ninottotitlhl the
the comparatively
generation ely pointless
manners and intrigue flourished in the hands of Philemon
and Menander. Plato was still alive, and Aristotle was
24 years old ; but the great sects of philosophy were yet in
their infancy. The art of Phidias had lost none of its
beauty in the hands of Scopas and Praxiteles ; and paint-
ing was approaching the perfection which it afterwards
reached in in the hands of Apelles. These fair fruits from
the root of Hellenic liberty attained their perfection as the
stem that bore them began to wither.--Philip Smith's
History of the World.
THE PARIS CALCRAFT.—" Since the day," says
the Figaro Programme, " when the last of the
Sansons was able, as he so philosophically expresses it, to
give himself the satisfaction of really washing his hands
and writing his memoirs, the executioner in Peals has been
M. Hendereich, who resides in a handsome house on the
Boulevard Beaumarchais. The person who liveg on the
same floor with him is the actor Laferriere, who salutes his
neighbour on the stairs, thinking him a private citizen. M.
Hendereich has living with him a youth of is, whom he is
having educated at one of the colleges. The lad calls M.
Hendereich his uncle, and is net aware that the latter is an
executioner. The youth is also ignorant that he himself is
the son of a condemned prisoner, and that he was taken
care of from charity by the man who had been charged to
execute his father."