The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-06 00:00:00

STATE OP TRADE.

MANCRESTErt., Ang, s.—The market for shipping yarns
has been a little better under the influence of rather more
favourable accounts front India. The state of the money
market has naturally had some influence on the business
of the day, but not so much as was expected, and some fair
orders have been given out at fair prices. There has been
rather a better de nand for East India yarns. The demand
also continues good for Russia, and yarns generally of good
qualities continuo firm. Inferior qualities are not so good
to sell. For home-trade yarns there has been a very quiet
market, and prices are about id. per lb. in favour of the
buyers where offers are made. Manufacturers, however,
are chary of making offers just now, and buyers generally
for the home trade appear disinclined to operate. The cloth
market is also very dull to-day. A telegram from Calcutta
dated July 16, states that shirlings had advanced 6d, to 9d,
per piece, and that stoat' were light ; but this news seems
to have fallen flat, w th the state of feeling existing here,
and has had very little influence upon shipping merchants.
Manufacturers are not much disposed to make any abate-
ment in prices, and are generally holding very full rates ;
but, nevertheless, there is rather more anxiety to sell
among some of the producers of cloth, and the tendency of
the market is to easier prices.
NOTTINGTIAM, Aug. s.—There was an exceedingly small
attendance at this Exchange-hall to-day. Manufacturers
evinced no disposition to purchase lace yarns, but the ex-
treme rates of last week were supported. In hosiery yarns
no material change took place, prices being firm. Late
rates were well supported for silks. In brown nets there
was not much doing ; prices, however, were very firm,
with a tendency to advance.

SUITOR TO HER MA,TESTY.—The French papers
contain the following odd story :—" Letters from
Abyssinia state that Theodore, Emperor of that country,
has just crowned his Imperial eccentricities by an act which
exceeds thew all in extravagartne. Having learned ut the
widowhood of Queen Vietoria, he has had a letter written
to her offering her his hand, Mr Cameron, the English
consul, was charged to forward this missive to his Sove-
reign. The reply to so unforeseen an offer not being
immediately forthcoming, the Emperor Theodore got
angry, end had Mr Cameron put in chains until his
Majesty should have obtained satisfaction for such a want
of attention towards him. On hearing of the imprison-
ment of MrCameron, her Britannic Majesty is said to have
decided on replying by a polite refusal, the sending of which
by post was more economic than a special mission to
Abyssinia."

MARRIAGE EXTRAORDINARY.—On Tuesday last
the sexton o the parish church was wedded to Miss
Barnes, a spinster lady of Ledbury. The united ages of
the happy pair amount to 164 years, the bride boing in
her 76th and the bridegroom in his 88th year,--11friningham
Paper.

SPIRIT OF TUB PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Tisans.--The most temperate and herd-working
of poiNcians is, more sue, taking a holiday. Day
after day throughout the session did Lord Stanley
preside over railway committees, listening to the
wearisome speeches of counsel and the one-sided
evidence of engineers, and weighing against one
another the exaggerated hopes of promoters and the
equally exaggerated forebodings of opponents; bat,
in spite of this drudgery of the morning, he was
generally in his place in the House in the evening,
and when the great fight came off he delivered one
of the most effective speeches on the part of the Op.
position. After this surfeit of work he fairly earned
hie holiday, and might with a good conscience go
down to Knowsley to enjoy it. Even if he ne-
glected the duty of visiting one's neighbours,
which is the greatest drawback to life in the coun-
try, much might be said in his excuse. But Lord
Stanley is above excuses. Work is his pleasure.
On Thursday was held the half-yearly meeting of
the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and of course
he was there. He came as a listener, but became a
speaker; and before he left the room he had de-
livered a speech in which he discussed such trivial
matters as the Indian Tariff and the Indian Cur-
rency, the consolidation of the departments of Cus-
toms and Inland Revenue, the powers of railway
companies, decimal coinage, and the patent laws.
The characteristics of Lord Stanley's speeches
are by this time tolerably well known to all men.
They are not oratorical displays, such as Mr Giad-
stone or Mr Bright occasionally makes, and it is
probable that his mind is too well balanced to admit
of flights of fancy or the enthusiasm of partial
views ; but admirable good sense is always found in
them, expressed with perfect lucidity. Beneath
this may be traced the temperament which isolates
him ftom political parties. An aristocratic culture
and a profound distrust of popular voices separate
him from the Radical Reformers, while the tho-
roughness with which he has adopted the utilitarian
philosophy removes him from the mass of the Con-
servative party. In the very first subject discussed
at Liverpool the independence of his position ap-
peared. It was natural that an ex-Secretary of
State for India should address himself to the para-
graph in the Report of the Chamber of Commerce
dealing with the Indian Tariff, and it was inevitable
that Lord Stanley should reprove the unreasoning
language uttered by some people in the' North on
the subject. The manufacturers of Lancashire con-
stantly denounce the Customs Duties of India, with-
out considering the question how the Queen's Go-
vernment there is to be carried on. They forget
that money must be had. There are two ways of
raising a revenue in India, and Lancashire critics
object to both. They cry out very properly for in-
creased facilities to redeem the Land Tax, and they
urge at the same time the repeal of Customs Duties.
This is very unreasonable. The existing Customs
Duties are very light, and they are retained simply
because it is impossible to do without the money
which they bring into the Indian Treasury. No
one at Calcutta or at home desires to keep them a mo-
ment after they have become unnecessary, and the
manufacturers of the North may disabuse their minds
of the notion that Pretectionist theories have any in-
fluence in their preservation. An import duty which
is practically less than 3 per cent. ad valorem could
in no case act as a powerful protection of the native
manufacturer against the competition of the Lanca-
shire spinner, and the large exportation of piece-
goods to India which continues in spite of advanced
prices shows the slender influence exercised by the
dreaded protection. The only third way of raising a
revenue in India has failed in practice. Experience
has proved the impossibility of continuing the in-
come-tax. It expires next July, and will not be re-
imposed. We have difficulties in working Schedule
D in England, but they are trifling compared with
the difficulties in the East. The Indian Bsboo is
wise in his generation, and when 'called upon to
make his return, if his income be 20,000 rupees, he
takes his bill and writes down two. It is impossi-
ble to preserve an impost which is systematically
evaded by all except the Europeans in India; and
in the absence of other means of obtaining an income
import duties will necessarily be preserved. As
Lord Stanley's defence of the Indian Tariff showed
his independence of popular opinion in Lancashire,
so do his bold views on the powers which should
be conceded to railway companies prove his inde-
pendence of the traditions of the Conservative party.
When he took occasion in the late session to enun-
ciate the same opinions in the House of Commons,
the opposition to them was led, if we remember
aright, by Sir Hugh Cairns. The question at issue
is whether railway companies should be allowed to
become the owners of steam vessels and run them in
connexion with their lines of railway. At present
there is a Parliamentary prohibition of the practice,
which is often relaxed, and Lord Stanley is of
opinion that it ehoald be entirely abolished. There
can be no doubt that this is the sound conclusion,
and at no distant time it will be accepted as such.
It cannot be too often repeated that absolute freedom
of combination in business speculations is now re-
cognised by the law, and the only reason why Rail-
way companies re quire Parliamentary sanction is
that they may obtain compulsory powers of pur-
chasing land. The solitary question to be considered
by the Legislature is whether the promised utility
of the undertaking to the public warrants the com-
pulsion put upon an owner who is forced against
his will to sell his inheritance, and this question is
quite independent of any further speculation into
which the company may enter. As it is, the Par-
liamentary disability operates, like every other re-
straint on trade, to the public disadvantage. Rail-
way Companies would not run steam-vessels unless
they could offer the public a service at a less price
than is now demanded for it. The objection which
some persons entertain to the proposal founded caa
the fear that the powers of Railway Companies
may grow to be oppressive—but the true way to
meet this dfficulty is to allow Railway Companies
to do what they please, subject to conditions as to
the manner in which it was to be done. Just as the
mill owners of the North are controlled by the re-
gulations of the Factory Acts, so may Railway
Companies be controlled in the working of their
tieffic—but a Railway Company should no more be
restricted from opening a fresh line of communica-
tion than a mill-owner should be restraiael from
building a new mill. We are rather disappointed
at finding the boldness with which Lord Stanley
advocates the freedom of commerce desert him in
discussing what is confessedly a great hindrance to
the freedom of manufacturers. Vrom Railways and
Decimal Coinage he proceeded to Law of Patents,
and we reasonably expect something of importance
upon the subject, as for two years he has been
Chairman of a Royal Commission appointed to
inquire into it. Those who looked fur anything of
value frem the Commission will, however, be grie-
vously disappointed. Lord Stanley tells us frankly
that after two yeses' study his own conviction is
that the chief objections to the Patent Law are not
remediable by any change in its details, and yet
changes in its details are all that the Commission
are about to reporemend. This is a very lame and
impetent conclusion. Lord Stanley seems to look
upon the evils of the law as the price which the
public pays for rewarding inventors, and asks whe-
ther the time may not be coming when some other
mode of rewarding them may be substituted for it.
We do not 4120 W to what mode Lord Stanley
alludes, biet if it be that which has occasionally
been suggested, of an inquiry by some tribunal into
the value of apy supposed invention, coupled with
a correspondent public reward, we can only express
our utter disbelief of its practicability. The true
way of dealing with the inventor is to let him re-
ward himself. Were the Petent Laws abolished to-
morrow the inventor would etillileave his priority,
he would still have his secret. If be can keep his
secret, he may reap what advantage he can of it;
but if publication to the world be a necessary con-
sequence of its use, why should the public pay for
that which is in its nature incapable of, appropria.
tion

POST.—We published yesterday some additional
correspondence bearing on a subject which, though
of considerable importance, was not brought under
the notice of Parliament until the eve of the proro-
gation. We refer to the enlistment of British sub-
jt cts, and more especially of Irishmen, in the mili-
tary service of the Federal Government. When
we used the word " enlistment" we employ a term
which is scarcely appropriate. The municipal laws,
not only of this country, but of the United States,
prohibit the enlistment of the citizens of either for
the purpose of being employed in the prosecution
of hostilities against a State with which the Go-
vernment of the country in which such persons are
enlisted is at peace, and none have heretofore shown
themselves more jealous of any infraction of this
law than the Executive authorities of the United
States. But althonzh the enlistment of British
subjects by the Federal Clove:mm=o for the pui poet
of making war against the Southern Con tederacy
woaki have been a grave offence, it siaks into coin•
parative insigniricinee beside that with which we
are now compelled to charge the Government at
Washington. Everything is proverbially fair in
war, and it might seem that the emissaries of ,
the Federal Government persuaded a number of
it
English operatives or Irish peasants to emigrate to
America, and take up arms either for the sake of
the high bounties or the renown which rewards
those who join the armies of the North, they were
not guilty of any serious moral offence. Any Bri-
tish subject who likes may leave his native country
and enter the military service of any State which
chooses to receive him, and the mere act of
inviting hies to do so, though prohibited by
the municipal law, will not consequently
strike many as being extremely flagitious, It ,

.
is not, however, of enlisting, but of kidnapping'
Our fellow-citizens that, in the present instance, we
complain. If Federal recruiting agents made their
appearance either in 'ride villages or in these nian.o
facturing districts of the north of England ID
.whicht
unfortunately at the present time scant labour.
..
be found even for the most industrious, and if (whao;,,
ever. deception they sought to practise on the autb
cities) they frankly stated to those whose services_e
they needed the nature of the duties they would be
expected to perform, then, however etrenuously
tires, we should at least feel that those who hand
might urge the Government to repress sucb roc.
been induced to enter the service of the Americ.iit.
and with
Government did so with their eyes open,
a full knowledge of the con segue n ces which mig,u,,
probably ensue on the election which they tosur;
But such has not been the conduct of the Federal
emissaries. They have not recruited, they have !
veigled ; they have not found soldiers by seauctie
promises of large bounties, high wages, plenty
of
prize money, or of the pleasures and the excitement
of a military life, but by treacherously concealing_
from the recruit the fact that he was wanted Ss 5
soldier, by cajoling, and not unfrequently drugging'their victims, and by coercing them when utt6vrire
helpless to enter a profession from which they ive,
averse. It is thus that for many months the wasted
ll
ranks of the Federal armies have been in n° saiad
degree recruited from the British population; aof
It is against this practice, not only in the Wawa s
ee.
offended law, but of our ontraeed fellow eitienin t
that we protest. The correspondence publish" of
our columns yesterday bears on the enliOnept d
ortlner;
seven Irishmen, who, having arrived at p
were induced—by means which have since be 0
he
admitted by the Federal Government to have bete
grossly illegal—to enter the military service 0f
Northern States. As soon as the facts were laroufht
on
to the notice of the British Minister at Waseeine'ral
a formal demand was made by him on the reue-ost
Government. for their liberation, and the lied
material portion of the despatches now Publish.ca
refers to the scandalous treatment to. wee-lio
these
.men were subjected after their right ce
be discharged had been to all aPPei.arired
established and allowed. They had been enhs•-0
into. the 20th Maine Regiment, and sent to sec
with the army of the Potomac,' and, by the tip
that the order for their dismissal from that —yllinrar
had been granted by the Federal Secretary for
one of them had been killed in action. It is, h°.wth
ever, to the treatment which the survivors met with
after. they had virtually ceased to belong 1e,,,101
service. of the United States that we invite e5,v13,,111.
attention. In a letter addressed by Thomas
one of these men, to Consul Murray, and 0° id
quently transmitted by Lord Lyons to Mr. Sevlaer!
the. usage to which they were submitted ins the
tioned in simple but graphic language.
~'efieVer
receipt of the order from the Secretary o'
they were
the
by direction of the provost
placed in the bull ring, an open space in efi i
surrounded. by armed men, in which are Pl,,,acere
prisoners of all grades." Subsequently "they "t-he
transferred from one bull ring to another fr"ih-eee
9th of June until the 23d of the same month, W,-ne
.they were well-nigh starved, as they hal hei,"„-t
time to march three successive days w't"-e-d to
.mouthful of food, and consequently were redt,re "
eating clover and green apples to support nalLeest
Despite their remonstrances, and their essu,rit. ea
that they were not prisoners, they were fLoiD,';'.',,h.
the 23d, " sent with convicts under guard toli%l.
ington, and then transferred to the Old CaPitt";
from thence they were sent in irons to ,13°,$:htt
where they were left handcuffed together 81,23'g to
but for the purpose of getting sleep thel utit—hel
break the cuffs. The consequence was
were marched. through Boston tied that ;,„6
of
and ultimately arrived in Portland." with ver,
On the 71',.de
July Lord Lyons addressed a letter to Mr Sevre,i't,,"
enclosing. a copy of Thomas Tull 's statemen.t, 'to
mending that no time should be lost in ea111,13,g, t-
account those who are responsible for the . aeh
meat of these unfortunate men. To this de,ePT,ted
no reply had been received at the time °'°ll.
Lyons's latest communication to Earl 11119,!,ch
When we call to mind the extreme measure v1"`..6
the British Government had recourse to nearly
years since in order to enforce reparation ft oi
the Brazilian Government for indignities allegedt.
to have been offered to some English officers' , ,611.9
subsequently disproved, we sincerely trust that d
the present instance ample redress will be exuea
for misconduct which appears to have been prove,,,
by the moat conclusive testimony 'and which it NO.;
be found impossible to justify. It
War gay.
that. although the Federal Secretary at
directions for the transmission of Tully and hi
companions to Washington, he bas not as yet al's'
lutely. authorised their discharge from the Foal t
service and Lord Lyons's repeated applications Jf.
their dismissal have elicited no other then at"r
10 observable
i
stereotyped official reply that the matter is 1113;‘,-
the consideration of the Secretary for War. ,
should. not be. inclined to criticise too miuutel:
little delay, if, meanwhile, the men alleged to he,:
been. illegally. enlisted were treated with t7-rit
consideration which persona under the protect'ed-
of the British Government have a right to der°sl3,-0,..
The treatment to which these unfortunate Irishn)
have been subjected has been entirely unprovoke, ;
and seems to have been dictated solely by a de9s
on the part of the military authorities to insult 5-10
injure those whom they could no logger employ ei
retain under their jurisdiction. Largo allowacco
must. be made for the license of American aarl?,?,,n:
but if the facts, as stated, are proved, the 131,,1714
Government should not be satisfied with AnYt""ho
less than the exemplary punishment of all
.s/ or
have been concerned in a commission of a series
the grossest outrages,