The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-19 00:00:00

ADDRESS OF CATHOLICS TO THE POPE

The Pope has received a deputation of 300 Ca-1
tholics from different countries, presenting an ad-
dress of fidelity and devotion to the Holy See, and
protesting against usurpations and sacrileges.
His Holiness replied that he desired to leave the
patrimony of the Church intact to his successors.
He wou'd consequently not enter into any arrange-
ment or treaty contrary to that end. He placed his
confidence, not in the strength of arms, but in a
protecting Providence and justice.

MEXICO.
PARIS, JAN. 19.

Official advices received here from Vera Cruz an-
nounce that the French had entered and dismantled
the port of Champoton on Campeachy Bay. They
also sunk the Mexican schooner Raffaela, which
had disturbed the trade of the ports, submitted to
the French authority.

i
The following s the result of the election at
Nismes for a MQmber to the Corps Legislatif.
M. Bravoz, 1672; M. Boyer, 835; and M. Brun,

189 votes.

SAXONY AND SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.

The following further despatches have been ex-
exchanged between Mr. Murray, the English
Minister in Dresden, and Baron von Beust; the
Saxon President of the Council, upon the Schleswig-
Holstein question

MR. MURRAY TO BARON VON BEUST.
Dresden, Jan. 8, 1864.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the note '
which your Excellency has addressed to me under date of
the sth inst., and which was handed to me upon the evening
of the 6th. I have not failed immediately to forward a copy of
it to Earl Russell, Minister for Foreign Affairs in London.
Although it will be the part of his Excellency to express
himself subsequently upon the observations you have ad-
dressed to me in the above onentioned note, I cannot allow
them to pass entirely without reply, for fear your Excel-
lency should think I admit their justice and validity.
You will permit me to observe in the first place, that the
note I had the honour to address to you did not contain a
word attacking the honour of the Saxon flag, for if the
English Government has found something blameable in the
conduct of the German troops in Holstein, where they are
placed in a country making part of the Confederation, and
in which they have encountered no opposition, no attack is
made upon the honour of the flag, for all the responsibility
for their acts is attributed to the Commissioners charged by
the t'iet with the actual government of the provinces where
they are stationed. What was, then, the motive actuating
Earl Russell to observe that their conduct in Holstein had
been contrary to the resolutions of the Diet, as well as to
justice ? It appears to me that it is not difficult- to find.
The German troops entered Holstein to carry out a Federal
execution ordered by the Diet ; the object of this formal
act was known by all Europe ; it was to take pdssession of
this province and to govern it until certain differences
existing between the King of Denmark in his quality as
Duke of Ileirein and the Confederation should be settled
in a legal and satisfactory manner. This decree
of the Diet imposed upon its officials charged with
the administration during the execution the duty of
exercising their functions with impartiality and rigid equity,
and above tall controlling the movements of hot and unre-
fleeting persons, whose object was, under pretext of main-
tainirag German rights, to overstep all the measures autho-
rised by the Diet, and to tread under foot the treaty of 1852,
slgned by the five great Powers of Europe. Let us see how
the Commissioners have fulfilled these duties. The troops
of the King of Denmark had scarcely withdrawn from Hol-
stein and the forces of the Confederation entered that duchy
before the Prince of Augustenburg arrived, and caused
himself to be proclaimed legitimate sovereign of the duchies
of Schleswig-Holstein in various places, without any oppo-
sition upon the part of the Commissioners, and (if the re-
ports in the newspapers are to be credited) the acclamations
of the Saxon troops were joined to those by which the Prince
was greeted by the population of Holstein, Ido not at-
tempt, M. le Minister, to prejudge the final solution which
will decide the question of the succession in the duchies,
but I venture to affirm that the above cit d facts give every

impartial man a right to say that the Federal execution, as
administered by the German authorities in Holstein, has
been not only opposed to the order of the Diet, but also to
justice

Your excellency is pleased to say that the conduct of the
Federal troops in a country of the Confederation in which
they are stationed in consequence of a decree of the Diet is
a subject which in no degree concerns a foreign govern-
ment. This is a proposition which no ono would have dis-
puted if these troops and the authorities which direct
their movements had kept themselves within the limits of
their competence; but when they suffer that, under their
eyes, a Prince, who without their protection would not
have been able to set foot in the country, openly proclaims
himself the sovereign of two duchies long appertaining to
the Danish Crown and devolved upon the reigning King by
a treaty signed by the five great Powers of Europe, your
excellency will excuse me if I am unable to admit that this
is a subject which in no degree concerns one of the signitary
Powers.

As to the phrase in which Earl Russell mentioned Bavaria

and Wurtemberg as sharing with Saxony the responsibility

of the consequences which might result from the manner in
which Federal execution has been carried out in Holstein,
I ought to inform you that the note which I had the
honour to address to you on the sth instant was only the
translation of a telegram which I lad received from his
Excellency ; and although in messages sent by the telegraph
it is the practice to give the outline of an idea and not to
state it in detailed explanation, I found no difficulty in un-
derstanding by means of the context the sense of the phrase
in which your Excellency conceives you have found a proof
of ignorance of affairs passing in Germany. The respon-
sibility which the phrase (as I understand it) attributed to
Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtentburg referred to the assistance
which these three Governments have given to the preten-
sions of a Prince who has proclaimed himself sovereign of
the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein before the question of
his rights had been decided by competent authorities, by
placing himself at the head of the movement in Germany
which exercises a pressure upon the two great German
Powers, and the object of which is to compel them to violate
the obligations which they had contracted in signing the
treaty of 1852 (to which the majority of the German States
have also adhered or assented). Earl Russell considers that
these three Governments share a grave responsibility, and
when his Excellency adds that " if the troops of the Confe-
deration invade Schleswig before the Powers who signed
the treaty of London have been able to make known their
opinions upon this subject, the most serious consequences
may result," there is not the slightest intention or idea of
menace in his expressions. They constitute a simple affir-
mation of his opinion that this step might bring about con-
sequences now unforeseen and dangerous to the repose and
1 wellbeing of Europe.—Receive, &c.,
(Signed)

CH. A. MURRAY,

BARON VON BEUST TO MR. MURRAY.
Dresden, Jan. 10, 1864.
The note which you did me the honour to address to me
upon the Bth instant reached me yesterday.
I cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your ex-
tremely obliging conduct in thus explaining to me the real
subject of the note which you were good enough to forward
to me upon the sth inst. It is impossible that I should not
experience the most lively regret that I was not earlier
placed in a pos.tion to understand it, that I might have re-
plied in a manner more satisfactory to you as well as to
myself. If I had known that your office extended to ac-
quainting me with the objections that the Government of
her Britannic Majesty believes itself bound to make in re-
latipn to the manner in which the Federal Commissioners
execute their task, I should have confined myself, as I do
to-day, to requesting your obliging intervention in asking
Earl Russell to address himself to the Diet. It is the part
of that body to determine what effect it might, in such a
case, think fitting to give to the representations o. a foreign
power.

But, M. le Ministro, permit me to recall to your recollect

tion that you alluded to reprehensible conduct on the part
of the German troops, including therefore the Saxon troops,
in Holstein. A reproach of this kind strikes at military
honour, therefore at the honour of the flag, and I owe it to
the brave army of the King to repel the reproach with
energy. You cite one single fact in its support, If this
fact be correct, which remains to be confirmed, I have no
doubt it will meet with disapproval, although it would not
in any way justify the accusation of conduct "contrary to
justico." It is, nevertheless, my duty to repeat once more
that when Federal troops occupy a territory of the Confe-
deration by order of the Diet, we cannot recognise the right
of any foreign Government to demand in any quarter an
explanation of their conduct.
I trust I may hope that after having laid my last note
before Earl Russell you will have the kindness to pursue the
same course with the communication I have the honour to
address to you to-day.—Receive, &e.
(Signed) BEL'ST.

HODGES' FIRE BRIGADE.—A very elaborate and
interesting report has just been published, contain-
ing statistics as to the number and character of fires which
have been attended by the fire brigade maintained at the
expense of Mr. Hodges, the distiller, of Lambeth, from
which it would appear that the public are very vastly in-
debted tolthat gentleman and the men under his command.
Daring the past year the total number of fires attended was
108, whilst in 1862 they only amounted to 60. Of the
former, 84 took place on the south, and 24 on the north side
of the Thames. Two steam fire engines, the Torrent and
the Deluge, have been added to the plant of Mr. Hodges'
fire establishment, and have proved very effective. Two
thousand two hundred feet of hose and all other ap-
pliances are kept in thorough repair and in readiness at
a minute's notice. Notwithstanding the eminent services
which Mr. Hodges and his fire brigade render to the
metropolitan public it is to be regretted (as a correspond-
ence published in conjunction with his report intimates)
that he has grounds of complaint at the want of courtesy,
as well as obstruction, he receives at the hands of the
authorities and eseployds of the London Fire Brigade, at a
time when the most determined energy and unity of
action are necessary to prevent the destruction of valuable
life or property.
RAILWAY BARBARISM in re THE BARTLOW
TUMULIS.— On Friday, last week, Mr. Parnell laid
before the Arcbzeological Institute a profile of the Bartlow
Tumuli, which had been prepared by the engineer of the
Great Eastern Railway, in order to show the manner in
which he proposes to bring a new line through these
interesting relics. At the same meeting a communication
from the Society of Antiquaries was received. That body
' expressed its entire concurrence in the Course taken by the
Institute, and promised, by resolution, to offer strenuous
oppoi•ition to the passage through Parliament of any bill
that shall give power to the Great Eastern Railway Com-
pany to injure the Bartlow grave-mounds. Several mem •
hers of the Institute having condemned the wanton and
daily increasing disregard of public opinion shown by rail-
way companies, it was unanimously resolved, "That the
proposed method of carrying a line of railway through the
Bartlow Hills is objectionable, and that no scheme would
obtain the sanction of the Institute, the adoption of which
would in any degree deface these singular monuments of
antiquity,",---The Reader.