The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-13 00:00:00

OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The following compliments have been inter-
changed between the Municipal Council of Corfu
and the commander of the garrison ;
To THE ENGLISH GARRISON.
Valiant Sons of England,—By a generous decision of
your august Queen the wishes of this Grecian land have
been granted, and you are about to leave this island, on
which you have resided with us for half a century; and
nobly have you behaved towards us.
The Municipal Council of this island, under the influence
of the unspeakable joy which it experiences in this memo-
rable change in its destiny at the mment of its entering a
new career of national existence, cannot without emotion
witness your departure and leave unexpressed the senti-
ments of sympathy that it entertains for the great nation to
which you belong.
As free citizens of a free nation you will not be indignant
at the exuberant joy of a people passing from foreign pro-
tection to national liberty, nor will you consider it in any way
connected with your departure, which affects us exceedingly
and causes us to express from our hearts the warmest wishes
for your welfare, and for that of your illustrious country to
which we feel bound by ties of gratitude and hope.
Farewell, brave sons of England, Forget, as we do,
whatever may tend to mar our mutual love. Love us as we
love you, and desire that we may imitate your national
virtues.

D. COURCOUMELY, Regent
S. A. MUSTOXIDI.
G. Tomnno.
A. TRIFONA.

M. PADOVAN.
A. DELVINIOTTI.
D. A. CouncoumELY,
Secretary to the Municipal Council.
Corfu, June 1, 1864.
The following is the answer sent to the munici
pality by Major-'general Sir Robert Garrett,
K.C.B.

On the eve of departure with the British troops under
my command, whose duty of garrisoning the lonian Islands
will this day cease, I hasten to thank you for the spirit in
which the address which you transmitted to me yesterday
for the English garrison has been framed, and for the ex-
pression of your warmest wishes for ourselves individually
and for that of our country. On behalf of the garrison I
beg most cordially to reciprocate our earnest wishes for the
welfare of yourselves and for that of your country.
To the President and members of the Municipal Council
a very large portion of the inhabitants of this island, no
doubt, look for countenance and support, and so long as
they receive encouragement from yourselves to cherish feel-
ings of loyalty to your King, to practice obedience to the
constituted authorities, to exert en:.rgy and industry in
following agriculture and commerce, and, at the same time,
living in friendship and harmony with each other, they can
hardly fail to attain, under Providence, that welfare which
our country has mainly attained by adopting and observing
these principles.

In the name of the private soldiers whom I have the
honour to command I request you will be pleased to make
known to the inhabitants of the country round Corfu, and
to those of the town itself, how fully they have appreciated
the kindly feelings which they have unremittingly evinced
towards them.

Again repeating the assurances of our very best wishes
for the welfare of you all, I now, in the name of the British
garrison, bid you most heartily farewell.
It. GARRETT, Major-General,
Commanding the British in the lonian Islands.

Extraordinary Charges of Cruelty by Parents
to their Children,

HERTPOItD, Saturday Evening.
This day, at the sitting of the county magistrates at the
Town-hall, Hertford, Mr Besley, barrister, made applica-
tion for summonses against John Joseph Slowe, a bailiff and
head gardener to Mr Baker, chairman of the bench of ma-
gistrates of the county, and Caroline his wife, for inhuman
and gross cruelty to Annie Slowe, his daughter, 17 years of
age, by beating, dragging her about by her hair, and other
acts of an atrocious description. There are a number of
other charges of a similar nature against other members of
the family, but action was only taken at present as regards
the one above stated. The magistrates on the bench were
W. R. Baker Esq. (chairman), W. Parker, .&q., J. True-
man, Esq., H. Gusling, Esq., Wynn Ellis, Esq., and C. J.
Dims(iale, Esq.
Mr Besley, barrister, instructed by Messrs Sheen and
Roscoe, on behalf of the Society for the Protection of 'Women
and Children, appeared for the complainant, and having
stated the matter to the bench,
Mr Longmore, the Town Clerk, suggested that they
should take sufficient evidence to warrant the granting of a
summons.
The magistrates said that the complainants had better be
sworn, which was done.
Mr Longmore then read the following statement :
Annie Slowc—l am servant to Mr Bussey, of 14. Eton-
villas, Haverstock-hill, London. lam a single woman. I
was 17 in December last. I lived with my father and
mother, John Joseph Slowe and Caroline Slowe, at Bay.
ford bury, till September last, My father is gardener and
bailiff to Wm. Baker, Esq., and we lived on his estate. I was
away from home once for about twelve months at Sheffield
with my brother. With that exception I have always lived
at herne till I left last &Wernher. My father and mother
have both constantly beaten and otherwise ill-used me as
long as I can recollect anything. For the most trifling
offences I have been most severely beaten with whips, ropes,
and sticks, When I was very young I was constantly
severely beaten by my mother because I could not say the
word temptation in my prayers, On one occasion, about
four or five years ago, I was tied quite naked in an arm
chair, and my father threw several bowls of cold water over
me, after which I was taken from the chair and severely
beaten. On another occasion my mother threw a saucepan
at me because it was not cleaned properly, and then she told
my father to punish me for it. My father then seized me by
the hair of the head and threw me down with my face upon
some rough matting, and knocked my face upon the mat-
ting till it bled from every part, I received the last beating
from my father in August last, because I had not cleaned
the house to my mother's Bath faction, She complained of
nee to my father, and he said, " Now, my lady, I give you
ht If and hour. Clean the furniture in this room, clean the
grate, and set the room in order," I could not get the
work done in the time, although. I tried to do so; and my
father then took a strong stick, held tea
by one hand,
and got a table between us, so that I could not close with
him to avoid the blows, and gave me a roost severe beating.
Sooh after this in consequence of the threats of my father
and mother I ran away from home to avoid further ill-
treatment. I believe it was on the 2d September when I
left home. I have lived in London ever since. Up to the
time that I left home my sister Isabella, who is about two
years younger a an myself, was treated with greater severity
than I was, both by my father and mother. My xis' er Caro-
line, who is several years older than I am, and has very
bad health, was also subjected to the same ill-usage when-
ever she was at home. lily mother generally instigated
my father to beat us.
Annie Slowe said the statement read was quite true.
Mr. Besley wished to state the reasons why this matter
had remained over since August. About this time an aunt
named Hills was staying with Slowe and his wife for a few
days, and her presence caused partly a cessation of the
punishment, but Annie was promised a double quantity
when she left, and those threats so operated on her feelings
that on the 2d of September, before her father and mother
had come down stairs, she determined on running away,
and as she had no money of her own she took 8s from her
aunt's pocket, She walked to Cole-green station at an early
hour in the morning, and made her way to London. She
wanted to go to Mr. Bussey's, at Haverstock-hill, where
her sister was, but she could not find it, and she then made
her way to the Servants' Home, where her father found her
and took away all her clothes except what she was wearing.
She remained at the Servants' Home for three weeks, and
was protected by her sister's mistress until a situation was
found for her with a Mrs. S. Ford, of Long-acre. She re-
mained with her for three months, but taking the small-pox
she became the inmate of an hospital for two months.
When she came out she went for a time to her sister's, and
after wards to Mrs. Buesey's, as nursemaid, where she was
at present. That would account why the matter had nut
been brought forward before.
Mr. Longmore asked the girl why she had not complained
before, and she said she waa afraid to do so.
The Chairman said there had been a private investigation,
and as nothing had subsequently occurred how was it that
the subject had been brought up again ?
Mr Besley said the reason was, that a scrap of paper,
evidently posted surreptitiously, was received by Mrs.
Winston from her sister Caroline, in which she alluded
to her sister Isabella, who was still at home, and about
whom she was most anxious. In this paper she
said that Isabella was undergoing the most severe
tleatment, and that unless soon rescued would sink
under it, and she went on to say that a fortnight after-
wards the same sister was seen with a severe cut on the face,
known to be result of her father's brutality. She went on to
allude to two other younger sisters, Mary Ann and Florence,
aged 9 and 11 years, and she said she believed they had
been well treated up to the present, and had not received
corporal punishment, but these children from their infancy
had suffered great mental agony in consequence of being
compelled to he witnesses of the euff rings of their sisters,
The object of this application was mainly for the protec-
tion of the younger children, and it was with this view that
the society felt it to be its duty to make the present appli-
cation to the bench for a summons against the parents of
these children.

The magistrates having conferred for a few minutes toge-
ther, Mr Dimsdale said that the summons would be granted
The hearing of .he case will therefore stand for a future day.

AN AFFECTING SCENE!—When the name of the
French 'winner of the Grand Prix was announced, says the
Spectator, the Due de Morny, President of the Legislative
Body, wept upon the bosom of the owner, M. Delamarre,
as an evidence of his patriotism.

Ministry trying to
*.q believe that
her is

TIIE
SPECTATOIt.ea.Te
trick the country ? We feel it hR19.4
a Cabinet of which Earl LRussell is e meu-
lending itself to any attetapt of the kind, but facts
begin to look very like it. Certainly if they were
trying to obtain a position in which they could be-
tray Denmark without risk of a sudden explosion
of wrath from the constituencies and Parliament
they:would do very ranch what they are doing now.
Ten days ago they had apparently reached the very
last limits of concession, surrendered the honour of
Denmark, and seriously risked that of England in
a last endeavour to conciliate men who are under
a monomania. They, the authors of the treaty of
1852, who had pledged themselves that if Den-
mark were assailed she " should not stand alone,"
who had admitted in writing the duty of main-
taining the " integrity and independenee" of their
little ally, had proposed her dismemberment, had
proposed to give the assailant a limb if only he
would consent to spare the rest of the bleeding
trunk. Denmark, after a natural emotion of dis-
gust, remembered that she was weak, and that jus-
tice had ceased for the moment to be a principle in
politics, and accepted the neutral offer as her own
ultimatum, Her representatives had, to show their
sincerity, declined to extend the armistice beyond
a fortnight, preferring rattier to perish in a new
campaign than to suffer the enemy to live at ease
in Danish provinces, and lose all chance of inflict-
ing retribution by sea. The Germans not only
declined the neutral offer, but actually demanded
instead of the line of the Schlei a line drawn
through Apenrade, a territory equal to
more then three-fifths of Schleswig, full of
purely Danish villages, and far to the
North of the only frontier which Denmark in any
f uture coneession could h@pe to defend. The object of
course was simply to make such arrangements as
should make the annexation of Jutland a year or
two hence an easy and comparatively bloodless pro-
ceeding. The old game of partition was to be played
over again, with England and France for duped
spectators. To this decision the invading Courts,
though sorely annoyed by the refusal of the Prince
of Augustenburg to promise that he will enslave
his subjects as they have done, still adhere, the
organ of Herr von Bismark declaring in words
which must be his own, that they have such a ring
of his voice, that the allies have only to remain in
the Duchies they have conquered, and " see who
will drive them out." Instead, however, of accept-
ing this reply, declaring the Conference at an end,
and proposing to Parliament a definite line of ac-
tion, Earl Russell assents to an extension of the
Conference for a fortnight, fixes the next meeting
at an interval of seven days, gives Parliament no
information, and to all human seeming intends,
when the war recommences, to allow Denmark to
be swallowed while standing idly by. After actually
proposing the dismemberment of the Power he pro-
fessed to defend, after consenting to reward the
Germans for an act of aggression without a pre-
text—compliance with their demands having been
guaranteed by England, Russia, and France—he
has not the nerve to enforce his own proposition,
and allows himself to be beaten from point to point
till, as was lately observed, "He won't give up
Schleswig to Germany, but she may have the two
halves." This will never do. Whatever the diver-
sity of feeling in Parliament on the subject of war
tor the Danes, we do trust there will be sufficient
spirit )eft in the House of Commons, if the Confer-
ences rises re infecta, and the Premier declines to
propose action, to punish the Ministry which has
covered England with such disgrace. The internal
difficulties of the Cabinet are no excuse for the
conduct of its chiefs. Earl Russell has already
stated that whatever the Queen's opinions,
ger Majesty has always accepted constitutional
advice, and it was no part of his duty so to frame
that advice that it would be certain to be accept-
able. If he believed the circumstances demanded
the despatch of the fleet to the Baltic, he should
have sent the fleet to the Baltic or resigned. Nor
is Mr. Gladstone's opposition to be considered a
reason for quiescence when the dignity of Great
Britain demanded energetic action. The Ministry
may lose with him a strong section of its supporters ;
but the whole nation is al ways in the majority, and
it is to the nation that the Premier should have
appealed. There is not a class in the country which
would not have eagerly responded, which is not
weary of German arrogance, sick to rage of Ger-
man interference in our affairs. So strong is the
feeling, that were it not even now befooled by the
false hopes held out by diplomacy the middle class
might take the bit in its teeth, as it did in the days
of the Crimean war, and read the Parliamentary
chiefs a lesson which would send a dozen old men
out of power, and bring the Times round one sud-
den gyration as the mouthpiece of war feeling.
Uhfortunate as the position of parties is, with the
Court hampered by p,-.rsonal ties, the Cabinet in two
by financial fears, the Tory leaders either German
in tone or afraid of responsibility, and all parties,
so to speak, deprived of their natural chiefs, there
is still, we trust, energy enough in the Commons to
recognize and to brand failures° conspicuous. The
Tories, so far as public declarations go, are in this
matter no more prepared to uphold the honour of the
nation than the old Whigs, but at least they have not
so mismanaged diplomacy as to make England the
executioner of a victim on whose behalf her Premier
had threatened war; they can stand aside, and let
the burial proceed in a silence which, if it has in it
little dignity, has at least less humiliation. Eng-
land has had many squeezable Ministries, but a Cabi-
net which could retreat five separate times from its
own ultimatum rather than risk the anger of
Herr von Bismark, which, after a voluntary pro-
mise of aid, could surrender first Holstein, then
Schleswig in occupation, then Lauenberg, then
schleswig south of the Schlei in Perpetuity, and
now, perhaps, Schleswig south of Flensburg, and
all this without a defeat, is a phenomenon in our
annals. We trust Germany will not ask for Kent
as inheritor of the Angles, for, for all that appeals,
these men would make that a " basis of a negotia-
tion." There is but one hope that we can perceive,
either for the Ministry or for English honour.
Lord Palmerston, unwillieg to close a grand career
as the laughingstock of Europe, may at the eleventh
hour insist on having his own way, declare that con-
cession has reached its limits, and at any risk, either
of income-tax, or what he deems much more, upris-
ing of the nationalities, propose publicly that if the
line of the Schlei is passed, Great Britain will ap-
peal from the justice of Germany to that of the God
who for ten centuries has blessed all English action.
It he does, the position of parties in the house does
not matter much, for the constituencies will be
masters of the position, and we would not gnarantee
even Mr Gladstone a seat; if he does not, he may
leave the task of safe inglorious government to Lord
Clarendon, but his retirement will be passed among
a people finally disenchanted of a long enduring
faith in his honour and hie pluck.
THE LONDON REVIEW.—The policy of her Ma-
jesty's Ministers with reierence to the Danish
question formed the subject of a short but interest-
ing and animated debate in the House of Commons
on Monday night. Mr. Disraeli became for once
the organ of a feeling thoroughly general, both in
Parliament and in the country, when he complained,
in ind gnant language, of the manner in which the
Government are concealing from the nation their
course of action or inaction. It was, he argued,
rather too much that the representatives of the
English people should be the only persons kept, or
supposed to be kept, in ignorance of the proceedings
of the Conference. They did not desire to be ad-
mitted to a knowledge of the right of negotiation,
but they had a right to know on what basis this
was being conducted. Lord Palmerston bad ob-
tained their confidence by stating that he and his
colleagues were about to uphold the Treaty of
18.52. They had been willing to abstain from
embarrassing discussions, and to restrain their
natural curiosity, lest they shoula endanger the
success of policy of which they approved. But
it was rather too much that the Government,
having thus obtained complete freedom of action,
should use it for the promotion of a measure—the
dismemberment of Denmark—to which the house
of Commons had never assented, and from whicha
large portion of them were entirely averse. As the
right hon. gentleman observed, with unanswerable
force, "no Minister is entitled to ask for parliamen-
tary reticence and reserve during the progress of
negotiations, if he has not first fulfilled the
t
condition of such parliamentary reserve—that
h
policy shall be known to the country a generally
approved by Parliament. ho
follows
anda
policy
t
totally contrary, it may be right, it may be possible
to justify it; but when
like
th
that change takes place,
especially at a moment
present, when the
continuation of an armistice is in question, he is
bound to come forward and frankly tell us, Our
policy is changed. We are perfectly prepared to
vindicate our course. All we ask is that you should
continue your confidence to us, or at least that you
should call our conduct in question, and let it
receive either the sanction or reprobation of the
House of Commons."' This is laneuage con-
sistent both with the principles of the constitution
and the aietatea of common sense. Confidence in
a Minister must have its limits. It is monstrous
that he should assume an authority to commit the
countryirrevocably to one course, under pretence
of pursuing another. And it is idle to justify his
reserve towards the House of Commons—if, indeed,
we should not characterise his conduct by a harsher
word—on the plea that frankness would imperil
the success of negotiations which it may well be
that they are prepared to condemn. Lord Pal-
merston could make no reply—attempted to make
isre.
presentation of Mr. Dier
no reply to arguments so obvious and. Bo
sound. He took refage in a
eteli's speech, and palpable
imn the