The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-18 00:00:00

-ME SUN', LO.,;DON, MONDAY EVTNING, APRIL 18, 1864.

much solid sense and sterling truth in its contents,
and its prayer was one which deserved instant
attention and earnest co-operation. It set forth
that the parish was greatly overcrowded, and that
it was very important that some relief should be
afforded. It also stated that the many railways
that had been made in the district had considerably
contributed to the evil effects produced. This fact
was proved by one railway having taken down one
hundred houses, which were the residences of no
less than three hundred families. The compensa-
tion that is given for this removal does not
benefit the poor tenants, who are thrust out,
and they are compelled to remain in the vicinity of
their employments. It is impossible to over-
estimate the fearful state to which these unfortu-
nate families are reduced, forced into miserable
localities where there is no real space for health,
comfort, or decency. It is not a philanthropic
scheme, it is not a mere utopian demand that calls
for a remedy, but the question has now become a
national grievance, and should be dealt with
accordingly by the Legislature. If the session
passes away without anything being done to
readjust this difficulty and remedy this deficiency,
it will be a great scandal and disgrace, and heavy
will be the responsibility incurred by those who
neglect to do their duty in this emergency. A
proposal has been made which promises well, and
may in due time, with the aid of the requisite
appliances, go far to rectify some of the most
palpable evils that we now deplore. It is that
the railway companies should be compelled to run
two trains a day for the benefit of the labouring
classes at a very moderate cost. By this means
the families of the poor would be provided with
ample accommodation and enjoy the benefit of
fresh air, while no additional outlay would be
incurred. It is really lamentable to think that for
the wretched places in which they reside the poor
often pay as much in proportion, and even more
occasionally, than do their richer brethren for
their
,stately abodes in the West End. Such a
state of things should not be allowed to continue,
and all that has been said and written
on the subject point to an end that now is
the time for a remedy to be effected. Side
by side with the accelerations for the speedy
communications of business, the facilities af-
forded for the machinations of trade, and the
general advantages conferred upon the public
generally by the many railways that are to tra-
verse and intersect the metropolis, let the com-
fort and convenience of the poor be striven after.
Let it not be said that all else was considered;
the gain and the loss, the traffic and the transit
all noted down, and the one thing needful totally
neglected. This will not be the way to prosper,
and those who wilfully or unthinkingly neglect
the claims now urged upon them will one day
deeply rue, and bitterly bewail their unwise and
cruel conduct. If the present system be continued,
there is no saying to what dreadful evils it may
not give rise, and should the ensuing season be a
damp or an unhealthy one, all kinds of fever and
sickness would undoubtedly occur. It is a social
crime thus to compel people to be huddled toge-
ther, and no excuses can be valid that would
justify the course that leads to such a calamitous
result. It seems a wise and proper thing to make
use of the railways that have occasioned so much
annoyance and suffering to the working classes,
and to convert them into the means of trans-
porting the toil-worn artisan and the weary
mechanic to a spot where they can enjoy
freedom and fresh air. In the families of the poor
it will also be an inestimable advantage to be re-
moved from the scene of so much confusion and tur-
moil to a spot where they can bring up their chil-
dren in comparative comfort, end pay due regard to
the cultivation of those habits and feelings which,
if not implanted in early life, can never fi•urish or
take root. What was true for the last generation is
equally so for• the present, and the learned and wise
who imitate the go-a-head energy of the race across
t"e Atlantic had better take heed lest in attempting
too much, they may not do a great deal of harm. It
will be of no use to gird the metropolis with rail-
ways, if by so doing they add to the burdens that
now oppress the labouring classes, and render the
homes of labour poisonous and pestilential. Too
much care cannot be given to the subject, and there
is no excuse for those wino are qualified to act for
not setting to work to remedy the deficiencies, and
reconcile so far as is compatible the uses and abuses
of the present railway mania.

We drew attention some three months since to
an excellent article which appeared in the Memo
rial Diplomatique last December on the decision
of the American Prize Courts. Since that time
an elaborate test of the judgments in the cases
of the Stephen Hart and the Springbok
has been published, and the editor of the Memo..
rial Diplomatique has reopened the question of
the legality of the condemnations, and has taken
Judge BETTS pretty severely to account for the
validity of his law, and the truth of his allega-
gations. It is something new for it to be neces-
sary for a French journalist to take up arms in
the defence of the rights of British subjects, while
their own Government meekly acquiesces in the
decisions of foreign powers whenever they invade
the rights of Englishmen, but is ever ready to
set law and justice at defiance 'when the interests
of an arrogant, restless, and presumptuous belli-
gerent are supposed to be endangered by the
legitimate trade of neutrals. The French editor,
of course, has taken up the question in the cause
of neutrals generally, and France in particular.
While we cannot but feel humiliated that the task
of maintaining the maritime rights of neutrals
should devolve upon France, we must acknowledge
that at the present moment these rights are in far
safer keeping in the hands of the ever watchful
Emperor of the FRENCH, who, if he cannot inter-
fere in the outrages upon British subjects and Brig
tish property perpetrated by the American Courts
of Law, while Earl RUSSELL meekly acquiesces,
will at least look pretty sharply after the interests
of Frenchmen. Anybody who takes the trouble
to peruse Judge BETTS'S extraordinary expositions
of the laws affecting neutrals and belligerents, must
not only concur heartily with the conclusions drawn
therefrom by the able writer of the article referred
to, but will likewise consider that he is justified in
calling upon his own Government to protest against
the establishment of precedents so injurious to the
interests of all maritime nations. Until the out-
break of the American Civil War, certain laws
affecting neutrals were generally accepted by all
civilised nations, and although it was impossible in
dealing with such a delicate subject as the property
of neutrals that disputes and misconceptions should
not occasionally arise, these were generally satis-
factorily arranged. Without entering into details
we may state that in a recent remodelling of these
laws it was generally accepted as a rule, that free
ships made free cargoes, and that the property of
neutrals was not seizable even in enemies' vessels,
contraband of war excepted. These rules applied
to all ports not blockaded, but even a blockade
could not be acknowledged unless it was effective ;
in other words, that a sufficient force must be
stationed off the port to prevent a general ingress
or egress. Judge BETTS has cast aside the old law
completely, and established a special code of his

own. The main points of which are these; firstly,
that it is lawful to seize contraband of war in neu-
tral vessels trading between neutral ports, provided
that such contraband may be hereafter destined for
an enemy; and, secondly, to seize and condemn the
vessel which carries these articles, as well as the
articles of free commerce forming the remainder of
the cargo. Were such a precedent once established
no vessel would be safe from sudden seizure, for, ac-
cording to the American SoLomoN, an article which
can be of service to a belligerent, not only for the
purposes of aggression and defence, but even for the
necessaries and luxuries of life, are, in many in-
stances, considered contraband. Again, how is it
possible for the master and supercargo of a mer-
chant vessel belonging to a neutral nation, and
carrying goods from a neutral owner to a neutral
consignee, to prove that at some future time these
same goods, which are perfectly legitimate merchan-
dise between neutral ports, may not come into the
possession of a belligerent ; and yet, unless this
practical impossibility can be accomplished 'to the
satisfaction of the captor, the vessel and her cargo
are to be forfeited on the evidence of the American
supposition that the ulterior destination of the cargo
may possibly be intended for a belligerent. Let
this extraordinary mode of dealing with the pro-
perty of friendly nations be admitted, and it would
be less injurious to the prosperity of a maritime
country to engage in any existing war, where, on the
strength of belligerent rights, its navy could protect
its commerce by force, instead of standing neutral
and permitting friendly cruisers to ruin the trade
of the nation. In the case of the Springbok the
seizure was made upon the alleged ulterior destina-
tion of the cargo. The Springbok sailed from
Liverpool, bound for Nassau, havi❑g a British cargo
on board, is February, 1863. She was captured
between these two neutral ports by the Federal
steamer Sonoma, when it was discovered that,
amongst a general cargo of the value of some
£66,226, there were two cases of buttons, a few kegs
of nitrate of potash for curing of provisions,
and a couple of dozen swords and bayonets,
amounting to the value of £225. The
buttons in question, which constituted the greater
portion of the condemned articles, were adjudged
contraband because they were marked C. S. N.,
which letters, the sagacious Judge BETTS stoutly
maintained, could not signify anything but Confe-
derate States Navy. Bat that the result of the
trial of the Springbok has been her unjustifiable
condemnation, and must lead to the most disastrous
consequences sooner or liter, we might feel inclined
to laugh at such a thorough down east conclusion.
As it is, the position of a neutral consigner of cargo
is not enviable; he may please himself as to the
course he adopts, but the result will be the same in
any case. He may either declare that the cargo is
destined, after being landed at a neutral port, to
be forwarded at some indefinite time to a belligerent,
or that it is a bona fide consignment for the use of a
neutral. In the first instance the cargo is at once
condemned ; in the other, the ship's papers are
pronounced to be simulated, because they do
not set forth that the cargo is intended
to be subsequently forwarded to a belligerent
port. Credat Judceus Why, it reminds
us of the fable where, in dividing the spoil,
the one sportsman thus addresses his compa-
nion :—" Have it any way you like—either I'll
take the partridge and you the owl, or you take the
owl and I'll take the partridge." " That sounds
quite fair," replied the other, " but it seems to me
that I shall get the owl anyway." So it is with
Judge BETTS' international law. Where is this
national disgrace to and?

Shakspere Events of the Coming Week,

(From the Athenceum.)

On Monday, in the afternoon, there will be a meeting of
bankers and merchants at tha Mansion House, to hear
addressee from Mr, Cowper and Mr. Tite, on behalf of the
Sbakspere Committee, the Lord Mayor presiding. In the
evening there will be a performance of " The Merchant of
Venice" at Sadler's Wells, for the benefit of the Monu-
ment Fund. Miss Marriott and G. V. Brooke will sustain
the principal parts; Mr. Buckstone will appear in the
farce of " Box and Cox ;" and Mr. George Cruikshank and
Miss Heraud will play the dagger scene from " Macbeth."
On the same evening a Sbakspere concert will be given by
the Philharmonic Society, at which Miss Banks and Mr.
Lockey will sing, and Signor Sivori will perform Mende's-
sohu's violin concerto. _ _

On Thursday evening a festival concert and dramatic
entertainment will be given at the Agricultural Hall, at
which Mesdames Lemmens Sherringt.n, Sainton-Dolby,
and Parepa, Messrs. Reeves and Weiss, with many others,
will sing ; and Mr. Phelps will read the first act of Shaks-
pere's " Tempest,"
On Friday, a grand concert will be given, under the di•
rection of M. Jules Benedict, at St. James's Hall. The
most eminent of our musical artists will give their ser-
vices,
- • ''

On Saturday morning, the London trade societies wilt
assemble on Primrose Hill—from that day to be popularly
known as Shakspere Hill—where the bands of her Ma-
jesty's Household Brigade will execute some of the most
favourite Shakspere music. A space of ground will be
marked off on the southern slope, by direction of the Chief
Commissioner of Public Works, in which the working mtn
will plant an oak sapling from Windsor Forest in memory
of the day. The procession will
then form and march
round the tree'.
In the evening these societies will assemble in the Agri-
cultural Hall, Islington, to witness a Shaksperian Concert
and Recital, At Drury.lane, the "First Part of Henry
the Fourth"
" Twelfth Night," with " Venus and Adonis" as after.
will be performed. At the Haymarket,
piece. At the Princess's " Comedy of Errors." Perform-
ances in commemoration of Shakspere, and for the benefit
of the Monument Fund, will also take place at the New
Adelphi and the St. James's Theatres. At the Surrey
Theatre will be given the " Second Part of Henry the
Sixth." On the same day there will be a festival at the
Crystal Palace, for which a temporary monument has been
erected in the gardens; and a banquet, at which Lord
Carlisle is announced to preside, at Stratford.

PRESENT OF GUNS TO THE KING OF DENMARK.—
The _Hampshire Independent of Saturday states that
Mr Waterman, a working man residing at Shirley, near
Southampton, lately addressed a letter to Viscount Palmer-
ston, asking his lordship whether it would be proper for him
with
icorrespondent© which the
to present to the King of Denmark a small park of artillery
of which he is the owner. To this application Mr Waterman
receivedt
idepend:vnliti.ph passed betweenublis publishes, together
h a a
subsequentreply,
this patriotic Englishman and General Knollys :—" 10,
Downing-street, April 6, 1864. Sir,—l am desired by Lord
Palmerston, in reply to your letter of the 3d inst., to say
that he does not conceive there would be any impropriety
in your giving to the Danish Government the guns which
you describe, but that he should be inclined to think that
the Danish Government is sufficiently supplied with field
AsssLET.artery
,Iv.rwremaatienrrayaonu,rsocll7,dien,, Sir,--I am the pro-
servant, EYELYN
prietor of the small park of artillery represented above.
consisting of 14 4-pounder field-pieces, properly mounted,
together with two gun carriages. They have been used
upon many loyal and festive occasions during the seven
years I have had them, as a proof of which I have expended
upon those occasions more than a ton and a half of gun-
powder. They have been inspected by many military men,
who have pronounced them to be faultless. My object,
Sir, in now addressing you is to request you will do me the
favour to represent to his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales that it is my wish and desire to present them to his
Majesty the King of Denmark. 1 feel, in common with a
very large number of my countrymen, that his Majesty
is nobly sustaining the honour of his country in the un
equal strife in which he is now engaged, and nothing would
afford me more pleasure than to be allowed as a proof of my
sympathy to be permitted to carry out my wishes. I have
written to, and received a reply from, Lord Palmerston,
stating that he could see no impropriety in my presenting
them to the Danish Government, and I should feel greatly
honoured by receiving the sanction of his Royal Highness
the Prinie of Wales. I am only a working man, and in but
humble circumstances, but will hope that my motives may
nevertheless be rightly appreciated.—l remain, sir, your
humble and obedient servant, Wst. WAIERMAN. General
Knollys." " Sandringham, King's Lynn, April 12, 1864.
Sir,—l have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the
10th inst., with the offer of a small park of artillery for the
use of the King of Denmark, and have laid it before the
Prince of Wales. His Royal Highness has desired me to
I forward your letter to a general officer in the King of Den-
mark's household, which I have done this day, and will not
fail to communicate to you any 'eply I may receive should
the General employ me as the medium of conveying his
Majesty's pleasure.—l remain, sir, your obedient servant,
W, WcttermAnt".

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LREITTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

FRANCE.

LETTER OF THE EMPEROR. TO M, FOULD.
PARIS, APRIL 18.

The Emperor has addressed the following letter,
dated the 15th inst., to the Minister of Finance :
"The happy solution of the Mexican affair creates
iv me a desire to see the country profit by the
first repayment of the expenses of the war by
diminishing the taxes on landed property.
" Be good enough, therefore, to see if it be not
possible to effect the immediate suppression of the
second decime registration fee, only preserving of
the general law prepared by the Council of State
those arrangements 'which may be strictly neces-
sary for balancing the budget. This measure, to-
gether with the hopes of peace, which every day
become more certain, will contribute 1 trust to the
development of public prosperity."
The Moniteur of this morning publishes the fole
lowing telegram ;
VERA CRUZ, MARCH 19.

There is no military news. The army of Juarez
no longer exists, Juarez himself being a fugitive.
His whereabouts is unknown.

There are only some bands of plunderers wander-
ing about the country.

THE NEW MEXICAN LOAN,
PARIS, APRIL 18.
The subscriptions to the new Mexican Loan
are already very large.
The scrip is quoted 1 per cent premium.

FINE ARTS,
Institute of Painters in Water Colours,
(THIS DAY.)

The Thirtieth Annual Exhibition of the New
Society of Painters in Water Colours—the Society
founded in 1831, under the patronage of her Most
Gracious Majesty the Queen, and re-christened a
season or two back as the Institute of Painters fn
Water Colours—opened this morning to the general
public; the private view of the Gallery having
been duly afforded to tilt. critics and the privileged
few on Saturday. Against the effect of the pictures
at the private view, the gloomy atmosphere of
Saturday militated very considerably. While it
did so, however, it had something of compensation
in the fact of its also thinning the customary throng
in attendance. The seasonable transformation of the
weather to-day has had, of ci,urse, a totally contrary
result in each particular. The effect of the collection
is enlivened by the brilliant influence of the change
of weather, while the genia4 spring air and the
April sunshine have tempted into the Gallery of the
Society during this afternoon a crowd of visitors,
eager to inspect the works there displayed upon
the walls by the competing contributors. From
what could be seen of the collection, through the
gloom of Saturday and through the throng of to-
day, it is manifest that the Exhibition for the pre-
sent season may vie in many respects with the most
successful of its predecessors. There are not many,
though there unquestionably are some, among the
pictures in this collection of the very highest merit
as works of art—works achieved through this exqui-
site medium, that is, through the medium of water
colours, handled as those water colours are in the
select instance referred to, by some of the most
skilled and gifted among our living water
colourists, While, however, there arc but
very few in this highest class of water colour pic-
tures—there are fewer this season than usual of
those more mediocre and insignificant contributions,
ordinarily making up the balk of our annual art
exhibitions. The few more conspicuous pictures
in the gallery this year we can alone now find
either leisure or space to particularise. Among the
foremost of them, by reason of its ambitions character,
is Mr. Henry Tidey's "Night of the Betrayal" (No.
253), an import int work, in three compArtmeats,
suggested probably by Paul do lalLoho'm renowoad
Good Friday pictures. Mr. Louis Haghe's two
pictures this year, for he has only two pictures in
the exhibition, Nos. 38 and 83, are worthy of him :1
the former representing " Torquato Tasso Seeking
an Asylum in the Convent of St. 0 nazi°, at home,"
the latter a splendid production, the interior of
" Jlhe Cathedral of Munster." No. 100 in the
catalogue will—trite though its theme—the por-
trait-painting in the " Vicar of Wakefield"—be
turned to with interest and from with reluctance,
it being a sufficiently favourable specimen of Mr.
John Absolon. As for No. 282, knowing what is
the subject and who the painter (the former a scene
from Tennyson's " Morte d'Arthur," the latter, Mr.
Corbould), the visitor to the Gallery will not marvel
at the difficulty he has in obtaining anything like a
satisfactory peep at it. Another favourite painter,
Mr. Augustus Bouvier, a.tracts more nume-
rous admirers than usual this to
one of his contributions espeeially, meaning
No. 184. Where the lovely Maids of Honour sung
of by Alexander Pope—radiant butterflies, not
mere houseflies, congealed in the an ber of his verse
—the coquettish Bellenden and her gay compeeresses
are portrayed with a brush of bewitching grace and
fascination. Mr. Carl Werner has, according to his
wont, a number of resplendent Oriental sketches.
Mrs. Margetts, with her plums, in No. 92, touches
our sense •of taste almost through the palate, and
with her lilacs and laburnums, in No. 26, almost one
might venture to say, gratifies our sense of taste
through the nostrils—so blooming are the spring
flowers there in their tifl)rescence. Mr. Aaron
Penley dazzles us, in No. 29 (hard by the lilacs),
with a radiant sunset at Windermere ; and Mr.
Whymper makes us long for a stroll through the
meadows by a glance at his (No. 257) Haymaking.
Altogether (we are tempted to repeat) the contents
of the gallery at 53, Pall Mall, this season are in
the highest degree satisfactory. It should be ob•
served, however, in justice to ourselves, that we
have restricted our remarks to-day to the merest
pick from among the more meritorious contributions
I to the walls of the Exhibition.

GENERAL GARIBALDI AT MELAZZO.—A picture,
painted by the celebrated Italiin artist, Signor
Panebianco, is now on view at Messrs. Moore and
Macqueen's gallery in Fenchurch-street, represent-
ing General Garibaldi at the battle of Melazzo. The
General is represented leading the attack, and
although the incident is depicted with spirit, there
is evidence of hurry in the execution of the work
which detracts somewhat from its general appear-
ance. The picture, notwithstanding, will be sure
to attract crowds of visitors.

Mr. Jerry Barrett's Drawing.Rootn picture was
privately exhibited on Saturday at 28, New Bond-
street. It represents a scene at Buckingham Palace,
and in the portraiture of the celebrities Mr. Barrett
has been peculiarly happy. The harmony of colour
is very beautiful, and a more interesting specimen
of fine art has not been presented to th© public for
a long time.

AN AFTERNOON AT HAMPTON COURT.—This is
the title of a picture, painted by Mr. Lucy, now on
view at the Egyptian Hall. It represents the Lord
Protector, OliVEr Cromwell,' surrounded by his
family. The chiet figures are well executed, and the
minute details are carefully finished. The painting
is a work of real excellence.

The number of visitors at the :Crystal Palace
on Saturday was as follows :—Admissions on payment,
16,884; ditto by season tickets, 7,907—t0ta1, 24,291.
MASSACRE OF POLES.—A Warsaw letter says:
—" A terrible but authentic piece of news has come
to hand. In the western portion of the Government of
Warsaw are three villages almost exclusively inhabited by
Russian peasants, only a few families of Poles remaining
there. An official report status that all these latter have
been massacred without exception by the Russian peasants,
who also set fire to the houses of their victims. The cure
of the Catholic church, the only one remaining in the three
villages, shared the fate of his parishioners, having been
thrown into the flames by the Russians.".,