The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-10 00:00:00

THE S tJ

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which the Noble Lord had edited the diaries and
correspondence of his grandfather, we could only
be aware that his intellect was distinguished by a
more than ordicary or average amount of in elli•
Bence. Therefore, when we observed the name of
the Earl of MALMESBURY gazetted as that of the new
Foreign Secretary in Lord DERBY'S AdministaaHon,
we were restricted in his regard to an isolated hope
that in his new capacity his family motto might be
found to augur agreeably for the interests of the
empire, and that he would remember his country
everywhere in compliance with that device—Uliive
patriani renanisci! A very little while had elapsed,
however, when the newly-appointed Secretary of
State for the Foreign Department was charged by a
hundred different voices with shamelessly truckling
to the Austrian Government in regard to the well-
known MATHER question, the question of " in-
jury added to insult "—and both offered
ra'her wantonly by a soldier in the service
of the KAIAER to an unarmed British subject inoffen-
sively walking through one of the streets of the
Tuscan capital. Happily, since then, the matter has
been settled amicably to everyone's satisfaction—the
credit of the result being almost universally attri-
buted to Sir lIENILY LTITON BULWER—and the
blame of the previous misapprehensions being
variously distributed—officially to Mr. SCARLETT—
and publicly to Lord MALMESBURY. Scarcely has
the MATHER question been brought, after much
squabbling, to a conclusion—when the Earl of
MALMESBURY is again accused of blundering,
or of incapability, both in his character as
a diplomatist and as an administrator, in
reference to the yet more remarkable question of the
North American Fisheries. Unlike the previous
charge, however, which was one of undue subser•
viency, the present accusation is one of unnecessary
bullying and intimidation. It was asserted in the
former instance that the Foreign Secretary evinced
a disposition to concede too much to the Austrian
Government. It is averred, on the contrary, in the
• latter, that the Noble Lord is acting with shame-
. less and unjustifiable braggadocio towards the
United States' Government. Both imputations, it
must be admitted, although diametrically opposed
to each other, are of the most serious character
imaginable, as directed against one of the principal
personages in her MAJESTY'S Government. The first
implied greater weakness and the second greater
culpability than was at all agreeable to think of in
connexion with one of the members of a British Ad-
ministration. As to the diplomatic controversy relat-
ing to the outrage perpetrated in Florence, we consi-
dered all along that Lord MALMESBURY appeared
much too yielding in his mode of proceeding towards
the Viennese Cabinet. But his early demerits in that
transaction have been since redeemed by the
satisfactory close of a very painful and, it
must be confessed, a somewhat embarrassing
correspondence. As to the fishery question, we can-
not but think, on the other hand, that the proceedings
of the British Minister have been viewed with rather
extravagant severity. A little more caution might
have been advisable in the method of conducting
those proceedings, but in regard to the proceedings
themselves, it is impossible for a single instant to
gainsay that the Earl of MALMESBURY is to the
fullest extent justified in having acted precisely as he
has—the right being unquestionably on the side of
England, and the wrong being as unquestionably on
the side of the United States.

A few particulars will suffice to show beyond the
possibility of misapprehension the accuracy of this
assurance as to the complete justice of the late
li-
nisterial doings in reference to the British North
American Fisheries.

According to the Treaty of 1818 between England
and the United States, the citizens of that latter coun-
try were expressly debarred from the right of fishing
within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays,
creeks, or harbours of the British dominions.
Acting strictly in compliance with the terms of that
treaty, Lord MALMESBURY caused an American vessel
to be seized the other day while her crew were fishing
within the prohibited limits, in that Bay of Fundy the
waters of which wash the shores of the American
state of Maine and of the British provinces of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Imme-
diately after this rigorous step had been
taken thirteen English vessels of war were sent
into the Bay of Fundy news of the
transaction arrived at Washington—the Senate be-
came excessively indignant—and it was unanimously
resolved by a Committee upon Foreign Relations
that the PRESIDENT should be called upon to send
an adequate naval force as speedily as possible to
the seas adjacent to the British possessions !
Precisely thus stands the matter—and it must be
admitted that the position of affairs is anything but
satisfactory to all who are sincerely interested in the
maintenance of tranquillity. But—in regard to the
justice or injustice of our proceedings towards the
American fishermen—what can seriously be said
by way of condemnation ? They had no autho-
rity whatscever to fish where they were
fishing, and therefure were seized summarily.
In policy it would have been better, of course, to
have warned them first and then acted thus strin-
gently afterwards ; but, in strict justice, the British
officials were authorized by the Treaty of 1818 to do
precisely as they have done—to prevent the Ame-
ricans from fishing within three miles of any of
the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of the
British North American possessions. The Earl
of DUNDONALD a great and illustrious au-
thority—objects to this as follo-,vs :—" The result,"
says he, "of authentic information derived from offi-
cial documente, most of which were obligingly fur-
nished by the zealous and indefatigable Governor
than presiding in Newfoundland, proved that the
British bank, or deep sea fishery, formerly employed
400 sail of square-rigged vessels, and 12,000 seamen,
and that now not one of these follow their vocation,
in consequence of tha ruinous effect of bounties
awarded by the French and North American
Governments." Therefore, he argues, " vessels of
war are obviously not required for the protection of
the deep sea fishery, which has ceased to exist; nor
are they necessary for the security of the undis-
turbed colonial punts which fish inshore. The
stationing more vessels of war to guard the fishery
is therefore a mistake, originating in a want of
knowledge of facts." Now, so far as these
remarkable essertions go to prove that the fisheries in
those seas are virtually valueless (according to the ac-
-1 tual state of things) to England, they are, of course,
4 altogether and
by
that Admiral
late manifestly on the face of them
undeniable. But for the very reasons ad-
duced
the Earl of I) UNDONALD,
to show
proceedings were unnecessersa
for those very reasons, we conceive, that some
bold and energetic measures were demanded from
her MAJESTY'S Government. What says an emi-
nent writer, like Mr. Kano
azGoR, the gifted
and laborious Member for the city of Glas-
gow, in reference to the right of the course 1
Honourables
pursued by her MAJESTY'S Government 9 He saes
" We admit at once the right of England to enforce
:
cordially
t l
the provisions of the Treaty of 1818, but we dread the
fatal consequences of sending a naval armament
enforce the strict observancetG
oft a
that
teltetrmea
Gentleman the
aly
o,
y .''
Hereaaglsroe,ewith t
inthe exPreshe
i°ll
of i
repre-
sentative of Glasgow. et, coinciding with him in
entertaining these feelings of solicitude, we cannot
for a moment attach any blame in the matter to the
Rather does the
present Foreign Secretary.
culpability of the transaction devolve upon the
shoulders of " that dear ABERDEEN," who in
78.6", without bringing the question to any-
thing I;ke a definite settlement, intimated
a disposition to concede certain privileges
in regard to our North American Fiaheries
to the fishermen of the United States, transmitting
this intimation to the Republican councils at Wash-
ington through the medium of Mr. EDWARD
EVEILETT, at that period residing in London in the
capacity of American ambassador. Whatever dis-
creait may attach to the Foreign-office, therefore,
throughout the whole of these transactions must be
awarded by right not to the Earl of MALMESBURY
bre tto that Minister of wholesale concessions—now
to
,LOUIS PHILIPPE and now to JAMES POLE—the
ill-s tarred and
unlucky (and, shall we say, incom-
petei it ?) Earl of ABERDEEN.

Eve 17 succeeding account from Australia brings
confirm ation of the existence of gold deposits in that
continent to an extent that it is becoming bewildering

M 1) 0 N,

to contemplate. The supply appears to be altogether
inexhaustible. The official statement of the number
of ounces of gold which arrived in Melbourne and
Geelong for the six months ending the 31st of March
last, by the Government escorts, shows an extreor-
dinary and increasing amount. The number of
ounces declared is, from Ballarat Diggings, 32,285,
and from Mount Alexander Diggings, 266,398.
From the latter locality, which may be termed a
veritable throne of Patrus, the first instalment
received was 228 ounces, on the 29th of October)
whilst the last, namely, that on the 31st of
March, was 60,824, throwing its rival quite
into the shade, and rendering it quite
a secondary field, both in extent. and richness. It is
said that the present weekly produce of the Mel-
bourne gold fields is fully 30,000 ounces, or about
100,0001. in value ; two-thirds thereof being brought
down by the Government escort clone, and the re-
mainder conveyed privately. It is hard work, how-
ever, this gold- grubbing, and would appear not to be
very picguefying or beautifying to the operators ;
for, in one of the letters by the recent arrivals, we
read---" From the Post-office to the River Lod-
don, a distance of six or seven miles, the bed and
slopes of Forest Clods present the appearance of being
covered with a series of gigantic mole-hills, inter-
spersed with miserable small tents of every description,
the occupants of which have a very squalid, un-
healthy appearance, from exposure, privation, and
dust, sole eyes being universally prevalent." With
such miraculous supplies of the yellow ' springing
from the bowels of the earth it is nothing very in-
credible that philosophical equanimity should be
eomewhat at a discount. The maxim of the labourer
is worthy of his hire' is acted on to a sublime exten-
sion. " Only fancy," says one astonished narrator,
" a fellow asking me ss. for taking a case of goods
across a street; an engineer, to drive a steamer,
getting 301. a month, a joiner 14s. a day,
a woman
asks 301. to 401. a year, with nothing but plain
victuals to dress up." In these cases there is, at all
events, something in the shape of equivalent, but
other individuals of still more elevated ideas adorn
the country ; for twenty armed adventurers made a
midnight sally to visit a gold ship in harbour, the Nel-
son, from which they carried off in safety eight thousand
some odd hundred ounces of gold, amounting in value
to 30,000/. A very fair night's work,
and on a par with the swagging practice
of those excellent men in our own imme-
diate neighbourhood, the betting office keepers,
of whom it delights U 3 to record that some twenty
likewise lately evaporated with a satisfactory portion
of plunder. Why don't some of the London cab-
men emigrate? It is recorded that cabfare in Port
Philip is "at the almost incredible price of two
guineas an hour, with no hope of ever getting a cab
at all unless you have the orthodox moustache, long
beard, striped shirt, and general devil-may-care ap-
pearance of a successful miner." And here we
haggle with the amiable Automedons for sixpencec!
The thing is enough to maks the shades of those de-
funct cab-reformers who vegetated for a season wail
eternally.
Yet, despite these little drawbacks to temporary
ease, there can be no doubt that the gold
fever will lead to results of the greatest benefit
to the Antarctic world. The great labour and preca-
riousness of " digging," fur there are blanks in it as
well as prizes, will compel many who have gone out
to array themselves in the spoils of Ophir to confess
that it does not always answer to "make haste to be
rich," and to turn their energies to ordinary indus-
trial pursuits. There are wholesale finders of nuggets,
but there are infinitesimal ones as well, and after the
rage and novelty have a little abated, and things
settle down in some degree to their natural level,
agricultural, and pastoral, and commercial vocations
will b 3 in legitimate vogue among the myriads who
are fast peopling those distant and magnificent shores.
Settlers and officials are suffering sad inconveniences
from the frenzy that possesses the labouring and
servant class; yet it is but a temporary pinch,
and the hosts encamped on Mount Alexander will
gradually flow back, some wealthy, some regularly
surfeited and glad to return to a normal industry.
The great capabilities of the country will be descried
by the throng of immigrants who are fast pouring in
from the northern country, and the more they are
appreciated the larger will be the influx of our coun-
trymen. The tide has been long flowing westward
from our shores to what we have been accustomed to
call the New World, but here is a newer world still,
even at the present day the germ of a mighty em•
pine. The surplus population of England for whom,
under the present social system, sustenance and la-
bour cannot sufficiently be procured, have in Australia
a grand and rich field thrown open for the employ-
ment of their energies. There is space and
room there for labour to an extent that might
most sensibly ease our internal pressure, whilst
it would transform the squalor tend penury
of thousands into health and competence.
The colony had been but too long in need of an
irrigation of British labour, and now that the recent
gold discoveries have made it suddenly a magnet of
attraction, they cannot but be viewed as pregnant
with extensive social results, largely beneficial to the
old country, and of incalculable importance to her
gigantic dependency in the Southern Ocean.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The decrees in the Mon:teur, granting an amnesty
to fifteen of the persons who had been exiled after the
coup d'etat of the 2d December, have called forth
strong expressions of satisfaction from the Constitu-
tionnel and the Pays. The Presse also approves of
this act of clemency, but thinks it might have been
more extensive, or even general. It is willing, how-
ever, to admit that the restricted nature of the amnesty
is not the result of a disposition against the principle,
but of the opinion entertained by the Government
that it would be better and safer to proceed slowly.
There are many of the exiles who would long ago
have been permitted to return to France, if they had
been willing to promise to abstain from political agi-
tation, and no reasonable person will pretend that the
Government had not a right, even for its own in-
terest, to require that such a promise should be given.
It is probable that if the PRESIDENT of the Repub-
lic were to grant a general and unconditional
amnesty, even the most violent and most
influential of his adversaries would be un-
able to give serious uneasiness to the Go-
vernment; bat there might be partial commotions,
which it is well to avoid, and some credulous partisans
who are now calm might bs: excited to manifestations
which would necessitate repression, and make vic-
tims of those who, if deprived of excitement, may
soon recognise the hopelessness of assistance. As a
proof that personal feeling has had no influence as
regards the partial amnesty which has just been
granted, we have only to examine the list of names.
It will be seen that there are those of persons who
were said to be most deeply engaged in a political in-
trigue to prevent the re-election of the PRESIDENT,
and that the majority of the persons from whom
the restriction to residence in France, temporarily
ordered, has new been removed, are leading mem-
bers of the Orleanist party—that party against
which precautions were considered, whether with or
without cause it is not for us to say, to be essen-
tially necessary. It is said in the political circles
that the name of M. VICTOR HUGO stood high on
the list for amnesty a few days ago, and that it
was only removed when he had published a new
work against the PRINCE PRESIDENT grossly of-
fensive even in its title, and had besides declared that
nothing should prevent him from endeavouring to
excite public opinion against his Government.
The Union differs from some of its contemporaries
on the subject of the permission granted to M.
Paoupuors to publish his work on the coup d'etat of
2d December. The Constitutionnel has observed
that M. PROUDRON is one of those writers who serves
a cause best by attacking it, and facts have shown
that the observation was justified. M. PROUDHON
has put forth many theories which have been refuted
by events, but which would have still possessed a
certain influence if they bad not been made so public
that everybody could appreciate them and watch
their failure. There is a saying in America, that the
higher a monkey climbs the more he shows his tail,
and this may be said of the schemes and theories of
PROUDIION. If, for instance, he had been re-
strained from trying his banking system, many per-
sons would still believe that there was some sense in
his ideas of finance. He was permitted to put it to
the test, and what could be more miserable than his
failure The Union, however, seems to thick that
m. pilouvii9ll has still the power of being mis.
chievous. It says—
ng. Let it not be
thousands; and
" It is said that M. Proudhon'a book is quite the rage,
that
yet this pamphlet
a
'aid that the eccentricity of the theories put forth re-
„heir danger. Nothing pleases minds corn out t tac ki st
i
moves . '
re l
taggeration in what is false. At a
with emotion as - ease, sucfa an amusement runs
time when publications an..
(croyiiZ insults every thi