The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-23 00:00:00

1803. 1862.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

THE ACCIDENT TO THE CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE
HELLENIS.—Mr. J. P. Williams, late chief engineer
of the steamship Hellenis, died in the hospital at Plymouth
during Wednesday night from the injuries ho received at
sea on Tuesday morning, through having his arm caught
in the multiplying gear. An inquest was held on the body
on Thursday afternoon, when a verdict of accidental death
was returned.
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TrMEs.—The Session of the Legislature of the
State of New York opened on the sth of January.
The Senate, having legally organised itself before
the House of Representatives, commenced business
by receiving the Message of Mr. Seymour, the Go-
vernor. Those politicians who believe that an Ame-
rican State stands in the same relation to the Federal
Government as an English county to the authority
of the Crown may enlarge and correct that idea by
a perusal of this official communication. Except
foreign diplomacy and the management of the Post-
office, it includes as many points of public interest,
and is as closely connected with the national policy,
as the Message of the President to the Federal Con-
gress. The State has its treasury, its finance, its
army, is charged with the defence of coasts and
harbours, and the Governor for the time being cor-
responds on almost equal terms with the central
power and its civil and military officers. Since Mr.
Seymour was elected as Governor he has been re-
, quired to do more with the means at his command
than the Federal authority could accomplish, both
for the city of New York and the neighbouring
State of Pennsylvania. To have suppressed a dan •
gerous insurrection in the city, and aided the resist-
ance to an invasion of a bordering territory, enables
an authority sometimes called local to take the posi-
tion of a strong ally of the central power rather than
of the representative of a subordinate province. For
these reasons, independently of all political theories,
the tone and matter of the Message of the Governor
of New York have not the least resemblance to that
of an address by a Lord Lieutenant. at the Quarter
Sessions of a county. The election of Mr. Seymour
was an unexpected protest against the Administra-
tion of the President and the Republican party; but
though there may be many Democrats who secretly
condemn the whole policy of the civil war as strongly
as they blame its management, they outwardly ac-
cepted the conflict as a necessity. As a party they are
the advocates both of war and peace, consequently
the South has from the first rejected the alliance
they offered. They have obtained no material in-
fluence on events, but they have done some service
as unsparing critics of the proceedings of the
Federal Government. They have spoken, when all
other voices were silent, against extending the war
beyond the first avowed purpose. They would
regain the territory of the South, but not devastate
it or exterminate the white population, and they
have clearly pointed out the political dangers a long
continuance of hostilities will bring on the North
itself. Against their judgment and predictions
nothing can be alleged, except that the first has had
no result, and the latter are disregarded. Some of
the facts, however, that Mr. Seymour states offi-
cially are very important, and may have more effect
hereafter than his opinions, which, like all the opi-
nions of a minority in' America, are borne down by
mere force of numbers. In the first place, the con-
tributions the State of New York has made to the
cost of the war, for bounties to volunteers, the pur-
chase of arms, and other expenses, have left a defi-
ciency in the State funds of a million sterling,
which must be covered by a loan. In expenditure
the State is running fast in the same direction as the
Federal Government—towards debt. Though the
city of New York itself exhibits such an unnatural
flush of prosperity, the Governor finds something to
check its pride in the condition of the shipping in-
terest of that great commercial port. Most of the
American carrying trade has now passed into the
hands of foreigners. By the last return Mr. Sey-
mour quotes the value of the canoes carried .n
American ships as only half that of the merchandise
imported and exported ander foreign flags. But
he passes lightly over such topics, leaving the
figuree to speak for themselves, to dwell more forci-
bly on the measures of the Federal Government
which have injuriously affected all classes of the
community. He gives the first place to the con-
scription. He insists that volunteering, stimulated
by high bounties and increasing pay, is the only
means by which men can be obtained for the North-
ern armies. The conscription has been a failure
from the outset. " It wrought a change in the public
feeling with regard to military service, and all, with-
out respect to political views, tried to evade its opera-
tion." The quota of the State of New York was 68,000
men, To procure this number 77,862 conscripts were
examined, with the rather alarming result that no
less than 53,000 were found unfit for military duty,
and exempted for "physical disabilility and other
clines." The number who paid commutation money
was 14,000; substitutes were purchased by 6,619,
and out of the whole draught of nearly 78,000, only
2,557 conscripts were actually " held to service."
The repeated postponements of the second conscrip-
tion appears to confirm Governor Seymour's asser-
tion that it is impossible to enforce such a measure
in the Northern States. He says it not only fails
to recruit the armies, but is "opposed to the genius
of the American political syste.m," alienates the
people from the Government, and blights the
industry of the country. The reorganisation of the
Militia of every. State as a reserve, and volunteer
enlistments for bounties and pay, rising with the
wages of labour and the depreciation of the cur-
rency, are the remedies proposed for these evils.
But against the more distant political danger of
making the Federal Government by a long war a
great military Power he can do little more than
warn his countrymen. Supported by Congress and
the army, it has already " wrought a revolution,"
through which the Republic is passing almost
blind to its significance. The people are living
under a military Government, which claims the
highest prerogatives, and founds them on " martial
law and military necessity." This revolution,
" if permanently accepted," will be an overthrow
of the whole Republican system. He hopes the
people will return to the principles " from which
they have been drifting," when they have seen more
of the nature and results of a military despotism,
but is evidently alarmed by their present apathy. If
anything will rouse them from it, it will be the em-
ployment of the army as a machinery for the elec-
tion of Presidents. This danger Mr Seymour thinks
is by no means remote. Supposing any of the Con-
federate States are conquered or occupied, the army
by which they are held must be still maintained.
Then' under the conditions of Mr. Lincoln's last
Proclamation, one-tenth of the population in any
such State may by taking an oath of allegiance bring
it into the Union again, or fix new boundaries, and
come in as a new State carved out of the old one.
As such it will have two votes in the Federal
Senate, and political influence equal to the State of
New York itself. The States so formed would re-
present the interest of the power that created them.
They would not only govern the territory mapped
out by Executive decree, but the North also. Four-
teen hundred citizens in Florida would " balance in
the Senate" the whole population and wealth of
New York. " Less than seventy thousand voters
in the nine States mentioned in the President's Pro-
clamation would wield a power sufficient to weigh
down that of nine most prosperous States of the
the Union." This, with the nominal States already
created in Eastern and Western Virginia, would,
Mr. Seymour asserts, create so "many rotten
boroughs" which would govern the Union, and de-
stroy the representative system of the Republic
altogether. "It would be a dangerous invasion of
the rights of the majority of the American people;
it would enable an Administration to perpetuate its
power." Without expressly stating it, Governor
Seymour implies that this is really the object of
President Lincoln's offer of pardon and amnesty to
the people of the South. Of peace, as at present
sought, he has no hope; but he has forebodings of a
war carried on to exhaustion, national bankruptcy,
and ruin. He calls now for statesmanship to avert
the many calamities impending ; yet he can only
propose to moderate the unscrupulous policy of the
extreme Republicans. As a "war Democrat," he
can go no further. But had the whole party ex-
pressed their full convictions in time, they might
have had some chance of reversing it.
POST.—We believe that early next session a
measure will be introduced by her Majesty's Mini-
sters to alter and extend the jurisdiction of the
county courts. The history of the course which the
Legislature has adopted in reference to this class of
tribunals is curious and instructive. The great and
comprehensive scheme which Lord Brougham pro-
posed more than 30 years ago was defeated princi-
pally through the opposition of the bar, who thought
that Westminster Hall and the superior courts
would be deserted if Lord Brougham's plan of
bringing home to every man's door cheap and sub-
stantial justice could be accomplished. The credit,
however, of having induced Parliament to confer
upon the people 'the benefit of the county court
wasreswerhvoe dinfotrh
ea
Sear 1845, h
sHyeantermy
Fitzroy,the opposition and dislike of the bar sat,ndienolafstpeit Mr.
metro-
politan o
f
t
attorneys, succeeded • n
T county court, in reality,
he
was
the
carryinghe mere r
et
vhiev
aalcot f
.
the shiremote established by Ring Alfred, which,
in the progress of time, had been permitted to fa 11
into disuse. These new tribunals speedily became
so popular that Parliament from the year 1845 has
on various occasions increased their jurisdiction both
as
to amount and also by adding additional powers.
For example, little more than two years ago every
county court was converted into a court of bank-
ruptcy in cases where the amount of debts did not
exceed £3OO, and thus a great boon has been con-
ferred upon small tradesmen, who have been spared
the needless expense of travelling up to London or
to the district court to prove a debt or to oppose a
dishonest debtor. The experiment would, we be-
lieve, have worked more successfully if a simple
bankruptcy machinery had been supplied to the
county courts in place of the costly and cumbrous
processes which may
still be requisite in Basinghali.
street whenever a great commercial estate has to be
administered. It may therefore be hoped that in
the preparation of the new measure this point of