The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-08 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock •• 54

Barometer-30.37.
Wind—E ; moderate breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Inial DA.T.—Morning, 3h. 3m,—Afternoon, 3h. 28m.
ro-Itoßßow,Morr.ing, 3h. 47m.—Afternoon, 4h. Gm.

t
21, 41it
-010.1 W )IP' M4LV,

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1864.

Mr. GLADSTONE'S Budget for the new year is,
all things considered, about the very happiest among
all his achievements as a financier. As his three
hours speech of last evening is certainly about the
most lucid among his highly elaborated financial
statements. This much at least it is satisfactory to
remark at once and without a moment's hesitation.
Perhaps never more conspicuously than it did last
night, did the House of Commons, while the Great
Rhetorician and it may be said also the Great Arith-
metician was rolling forth his sonorous periods—
listen delighted. It was agreeable to know for cer-
tain, as the house did from the very outset,
that the particular doubt that had to be
cleared up by Mr. GLADSTONE through his Finan-
cial Statement (subject of course when it should be
.completed to the approval or condemnation, the ac-
ceptance or rejection of the House in committee), was
—not how ranch should be put on and where, but
where and how much should be taken off. It was,
otherwise to express it, delightfully notorious before
ever the Right Hon. the SPEAKER vacated the
Chair of the House in order that Mr. MASSEY
might assume the Chair of the Committee, that
a clear surplus of some two millions and a half
sterling had to be dealt with by the Chancellor of
the E
!chequer in the way of remission or redistri-
bution. Without following the ingenious orator
through the ranges of his intcic,.:tey and yet most
symmetrically arranged labyrinth of a Financial
Statement, before the pre-arranged period arrived
when he admitted those who followed Lis foot-
steps patiently along all its sinuous wind-
ings, until after having threaded the whole
involved maze, ho cunningly let them at
the very last moment as it were into the hitherto
carefully concealed central heart of his labyrinth--
we can now simply just take one gratified glance
at what lies there in compensation before theenquirer
in that core or concentrated point of the financial
labyrinth. In brief, then, Mr. GLADSTONE avails
himself of his surplus of £2,500,000 by proposing to
remit.taxation to the tune of more than £2,225,000.

Part of this goodly total he remits from direct
taxation, part from indirect taxation. He
idrops, or proposes to drop, £BOO,OOO in
a lump from the obnoxious Income Tax, in other
words, he relieves us under that galling burthen
by very nearly £1,000,000. In point of fact, the
diminution of the rata of Income Tax from seven-
pence to sixpence, as the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer now proposes to diminish it, would repeal
upon the whole year from £1,100,000 to £1,200,000.
But, restricting our calculations under this head, as
is requisite, to the nine months of the year still
before us, it would he, as just now taken for
granted, a diminution of the most odious of all
direct taxes to the tuneof £BOO,OOO, and not as
might at the first blush appear to be to the extent
of fully £1,200,000. Again, under the head
of indirect taxation, Mr. rer—ADSToNE proposes
to remit in the shape of sugar duties an amount
of revenue representing, in round numbers,
an equivalent value of some £1,300,000.
Another item dealt with in the way of re.
mission, is one coming under the head of the taxes
levied upon fire insurances—which he conceives
may be safely as well as advantageously reduced
by about £192,000. Various minor changes are
likewise projected by him in the pleasant guise of
remitted taxation, amounting, together with three
other and larger changes already enumerated,
namely, those affecting the income tax, those affect-
ing the sugar duties, and those relating to fire
insurances, to a total amount of taxes remitted, or
rather proposed to be remitted, upon the year
immediately now ensuing, of as nearly as possible
£2,337,000 ! An aggregate amount that, when de-
ducted from the known surplus of £2,570,000,
would still leave over a quarter of a million "to
the good," for the satisfaction of the nation, and
for the advantage of the Government.

The decision of the House of Lords, in the case
of the Alexandra, is a most satisfactory one, and it
will doubtless afford great gratification to all who
have watched this complication from the outset. A
more complete discomfiture than that which has
befallen the Ministers can hardly be imagined. It
is singular that they should have persisted in thus
taking the case from court to court, after the de-
cided and adverse decision that was given against
them. They have gained time, if that was their
object, but it has been at a heavy cost, and the
ignominy of such a failure must surely more than
c ,unterbalance any temporary gain of the sort. It
has been throughout a harsh measure which was
dealt to the owners of the Alexandra, and now the
onus and odium of the affair has recoiled on the
originators of the scheme. It is a great shame that
public money should be so squandered as it has been
in this affair to a great extent. That, of course, is
nothing in consideration with the injury and in-
justice which w as attempted to be put upon the
defendants; but for the trustees of the welfare of
the community to disregard so recklessly sit pru
dential considerations is a great dereliction of their
duty, and must produce a bad effect on the minds
of all unprejudiced persons. It is not to be for-
gotten also that, if the owners of the Alexandra had
not been rich enough to defend themselves with
might and main, they would have fared but
badly in the momentous controversy which has just
taken place. Every means that opportunity could
bestcw, power command, or wealth impart, were
unhesitatingly and unblushingly employed against
them. The authorities of any foreign nation could
not have exhibited more eager desire, nor taken
more decided steps to crush their victims than did
the members of our Government to circumvent and
destroy the helpless individuals who had the teme-
rity to cross their path and to interfere with their
dearly cherished plans. In the midst of their well-
merited triumph, and in the hour of their success,
it cannot be wholly out of recollection that they
have run great risk and been exposed to incalcu-
lable annoyances which no one had a right to
inflict upon them with so little shadow of proxy
or four, dation for attack. It is altogether a system
of persecution which has been pursued in the case
of the Alexandra, and the spectacle which the
whole affair has presented to foreign nations has
been disgraceful in the extreme. It is to be
trusted that the complete and overwhelming
discomfiture which our Governmment has met
with may serve as a salutary check, and
prove a warning to them not to interfere again
in this unwarrantable manner with the rights and
privileges of English subjects. If so, there may yet
be what the French call un bien d'eun rnal extracted
out of this most unpropitious circumstance. It is to
be hoped also that our friends across the Atlantic
may recognise that the laws of England will not
sanction their exorbitant demands, and that they
must put a limit to their extravagant expectations.
It is as comprehensive a defeat for the advocates of
the Crown as any that has been sustained for some
time past, and, coming after the unvarying deci-
sions of the courts below in favour of the defendants,
it is the proper finish to the work, and puts a bril-
liant finale to the arduous struggle and prolonged
contest. It is curious to notice, that in the majo-
rity for the defendants were three Lard Chancel-
lors, and also that the minority was not composed
of such eminent authorities as the majority. It is
not often that the public have the opportunity of
watching a trial that is carried on with such perti-
nacity of peisecution on one side, and such courage
and endurance on the other. Itlhas been a sad era
in the records of English law, and a lasting stain in
the annals of English history. That the good cause
has triumphed, and that the right has prevailed
against might, does not remove one iota of the
stigma that attaches itself to the misguided and
misjudging men who undertook the graceless task
of trampling the liberties of the subject under foot,
and inflicting serious injuries on the trade and com-
merce of the country to suit the unreasonable
claims of foreign Powers. Nothing but disaster and
humiliation can attend such a course as that which
our Ministers have marked out for themselves to
follow at home, and such a policy as that which
distinguishes their actions and guides their tactics
abroad. It is idle to talk of the insufficiency of the
law as it at present stands with regard to cases like
that of the Alexandra. This is an unworthy sug-
gestion to come from any one who claims to possess
a particle of old English spirit. The idea of such
a thing is preposterous, and the Ministers bad better
take heed before they attempt any such thing. At
least, for the sake of common sense and simple
justice, let them not presume to alter the statutes
that relate to the building of vessels, which they
ingeniously make out are for the Coufederates, be-
fore they have rendered the laws more stringent
that regard the enlistment of the subjects of the
QUEEN by the Federals. They will find them-
selves mistaken in their venture, and defeated in
their attempt by such a decisive negative that even
their elasticity under defeat cannot survive. They
had better let well alone, and likewise make
this last lesson a precedent to guide them
in similar cases. It is quite out of character for them
to continue the investigation of the matters relating
to the steam rams, now that the highest court of
appeal in the kingdom has decided against them.
It remains to be seen what line of action they will
follow, and what turn events may take the future
can alone unfold ; as it is, we have jaet witnessed a
decisive and crowning triumph that has been moat

happily gained by those who deserved success, and
who commanded the sympathies of the great ma-
jority of the community. We have at the same
time beheld the spectacle of the defeat of the Minis-
try in a manner that is alike hurtful to their pride
and disastrous to their popularity. Any one m y
make a mistake, but theirs has been the commissi n
of a wilful error, steadily persisted in.

Wednesday sittings are usually uneventful, but
often they are the occasions of the completion of
those necessary Parliamentary forms which are in-
dispensable to the legalising of useful measures.
O❑ Wednesday last, the Chain Cables and Anchors
Bill, which we have strenuously defended on former
occasions, passed through committee after some die•
cession on the various clauses. The opposition,
which was so strongly shown to this measure on its
introduction and during its progress, has not yet
aitogether died out, and we are sorry to find tee
President of the Board of Trade still prompt to
depreciate and ready o disparage it. Even so late
as the close of the debate, Mr. MILNER GIBSON
took occasion to observe that he hoped the delusion
would not get abroad that this testing would give
all the securities required. Upon this Mr, LAIRD
complained, with a good deal of justice, of the un-
fairness of the President's disparagement of the test
which was adopted by the Government itself for
the protection of its own ships, for he had founded
his Bill on the Admiralty standard, which has been
tried for many years and proved effectual. Sir
MORTON PETO said, with much common sense, that
at ail events the public would have the guarantee of
the chains and cables which had undergone the test
being originally made of suitable material. Such
reasoning as Mr. GIBSON'S is quite untenable, since
it is not possible to secure perfection in any manu-
facture or material ; but the application of
tests and trials is intended to secure the
public from any flagrant defection in either sub-
stance or workmanship. The fact of 80 per cent.
o` the cables tested breaking down under the trial
is surely sufficient to prove that such a measure was
needed, and that, however difficult it may be to
secure a really good article, there is certainly more
chance of doing so when a preliminary test is ap •
plied. If a cable is going to break on the first
severe strain it is certainly better that that strain
should be applied in the testing house and not on a
storm beaten coast, and we find,it difficult to under-
stand the motives of those gentlemen who, with
such startling facts before their eyes, persist in
opposing a measure which can do no harm, and wifl
probably be the means of effecting much good. A
very large proportion of the wrecks round our shozes
are the ill found coasting traders, whose owners are
utterly regardless of the ship whose value is gene
rally more than covered by the insurance, and indif-
ferent as to the danger of the men. The men on
their part cannot afford to quarrel with their em-
ployers, so there isnothing to protect them from such
want of conscientiousness and humanity. It is in
cases like these that the interference of the Legis-
lature will prove so great a benefit, end the com-
pulsory testing of cables and anchors will, we may
hope, produce a sensible effect upon that disma►
wreck chart which year by year increases its
gloomy catalogue. The public owes a debt
of gratitude to Mr. LAIRD for his efforts
in this matter, whose importance has naturally been
frequently impressed upon him in the course of his
business. He has been ably seconded by LLOYD'S
Committee, and most of the principal manufac•
turers ; the former being probably wise enough to
see that the measure will save them from paying a
good many insurances. It is greatly to the credit
of the manufacturers that they should have so wil-
lingly supported an interference with their trade.
The active interest which they hays taken is the
matter has been show❑ by their sending a deputa-
tion from Newcastle and Staffordshire to confer
with Mr. LAIRD on the subject; and one result of
that conference was the retention of clause 8 in its
entirety—a very important gain, as its effect is to
prohibit any maker or dealer in chain cables and
anchors to sell, or supply for the use of any vessel,
any chain cable or anchor which should not have
been previously tested and stamped, thus rendering
it necessary to test all exported cables. Besides
the manifest unfairness of selling to foreigners
goods which are not considered good enough for
home use, there is no doubt that such latitude would
lead to very mischievous results. The chief part
of the discussion was as to the right of test. We
should prefer to see this point settled by the erec-
tion of testing-houses at all our principal ports,
under Government control, where cables and
anchors could be tested in presence of a Govern-
ment inspector. The Select Committee have
given their opinion in favour of allowing
private persons and public companies to
share in the privilege, on the ground that there
might not be a sufficient number of testing houses
to meet the wants of the trade. An amendment
was proposed with a view of confining the right of
test to public companies, and excluding individuals.
Mr. LAIRD, although he did not oppose it, reminded
the House that so late as Tuesday 1 st the Admiralty
bad announced that in future they would not eccepi
tests from any private manufacturer, and that all
their chain cables and anchors must be tested by a
public Board. We hope that the measure will be
fully and fairly carried out in letter and spirit, that
no vessel will be allowed to put to sea without
, having her cables and anchors tested under Govern-
ment inspection, so that at least the natural dangers
of our coasts, and risks of our immense marine
►.reffic may not be doubled by a carelessness and
indifference which would be tolerated in no case
where property was at stake, and not men's lives.

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

THE GREAT TENOR,
Herr Wachtel, in "Il Trovatore."

Yesterday will be remembered, we feel cer-
tain, as a date marking a distinct epoch in
the history of this great lyrical establishment.
For, it is nothing whatever of an exaggera-
tion to say that last evening's performance
at the Royal Italian of Signor Verdi's four-act
opera of "11 Trovatore" was the occasion of a
triumph as signal, as complete, as enthusiastic
as we can call to recollection. Herr 'Wachtel, who
was the achiever of that triumph, had already, it is
true, made his appearance two years ago before a
London audience upon that same stage of Covent-
garden Theatre—his debut then being in fact one
among the lesser, one among the now almost for-
gotten, incidents of the season of 1862, the season
of the Great Industrial Exhibition. Having re-
ferred to %Hen e ;elier appearance of the young
German Tenor, as a debut clready almost lost to the
remembrance of London opera.goers, it is certainly
needless to add that Herr Wachtel in 1862 made
little or no impression. Daring the brief in-
terval (of two years), however, which has
since then elapsed, his advance as an artist,
he cultivatio❑ of his many great natural
gifts and endowments, above all the development
of the capabilities of his magnificent voice, are
proved now t) absolute demonstration, by the result,
to have been something truly extraordinary.
So complete has become the transformation of the
prima tenore, in this instance, that his appearance
last evening as Manrico, in "I 1 Trovatore" may be
said to have b'en quite accurately defined as Herr
Wachtel's debut. For what he is, as an artist, yes-
terday was, in truth, the occasion of his "first
appearance." In the recollection of hie achievement
last evening, the remembrance of his apparition for
three nigets only during the season of 1862 may be
said to have been utterly obliterated. Whether or
not, it arose from some faint momentary reminis-
cence of what was so speedily afterwards to be thus
obiiterated from the memory of some among the
Royal Italian audience, Manrico received no wel-
come whatever from that audience, when, in the
fifth scene of the first act, he emerged to view, for
the first time, in the moonlit garden, shrouded in
the cloak and visor of toe Troubadour, immediately
after his mournful chanting, behind the scenes, of his
sad yet hopeful serenade, Deserto sulla terra. For
this neglect or forgetfulness of any greeting whatever
to him, if only a greeting of the merest courtesy and
encouragement, Herr Wachtel, later on in the even-
ing, was to win for himself, as the event showed, the
very amplest compensation. It came not, however,
in anything like earnest, this far more than
simply compensatory applause, until the clos•
ing scene of the third act of the opera,
the scene between Manrico and Leonora. Herr
Waehtel's rendering then, at the very commence-
ment of that henceforth memorable scene of the ten-
der love song " Ah! si. ben »rio, coll'essere" was so
conspicuous for the chastened beauty and refine
ment thrown by him into every dulcet cedence, as
to win for him an instant and cordial encore—an
encore that was nevertheless only the prelude for
what proved immediately afterwards to be the oc-
casion for him of as sienel a triumph as any we
can recall to our remembrance. That triumph,
in effecr, arising out of Herr Wachtel's superb
delivery (upon the direful tidings brought by Ruiz)
of the Dr quella pira l'orrendo joco, the thundering
and prolonged app ause at the close of which wts
literally mingled with what the parliamentary
reporters would call "cheers "—these cheers, of
course, coming, for the most part, from the
more demonstrative occupants of the amphi-
I heatre. Altogether the plaudits, however,
it should be said, at once, came not from

any isolated portions of the audience, but from
all parts of the house simultaneously. It was an
enthusiastic and unpremeditated greeting of admi-
ration, extorted by the singer from the whole mass
of his hearers, extorted by him even from the more
blasé occupants of boxes, stalls, and amphitheatre,
frequenters of the opera who are seldom if ever
capable of being roused to anything at all like
demonstrations of delight. Yet, whatever the au
dience, no matter bow phlegmatic or how unde-
monstrative, the result could hardly, by any possi
bility have been otherwise. It was not simply that
there was something contagious in the very
enthusiasm, and verve, and passion of the young
singer—it was, beyond all this, the possession by
him of a magnificent organ, with which he appears
to be capable of doing (often with admirable auda
city) just anything he pleases. In demonstra-
tion of which, surely, it is only needful to mention
his marvellous achievement in the delivery of that
full, high, clear, ringing chest C above the line—
that C in petto, not to falsetto—that C which
pealed from his lips with a metallic resonance
like the note of a silver trumpet—radiant,
one is almost tempted to say, like the flickering
of the sword he waived defiantly at the
very same instant above his head, in the midst
of that cry of mingled rage and anguish—
Madre infelice, corro a salvarti, 0 teco almeno
corro a morir ! Nor was this wonderful note
the result, as one might say, of a happy
accident, the achievement of a mere momentary
audacity. Thrice last evening that C above the
line, in the full chest voice, rang vibrant and rever-
berant upon the hearing of the enraptured audience
—the second time upon the tumultuous encore—the
third time, as by a crowning feat of daring on the part
of the young Tenor, the same wondrous note ringing
clear and distinct above the choral chaunt of the
soldiers, above Verdi's proverbially sonorous orches-
tral accompaniment, above the noise even of the
arms and warlike instruments notified among the
stage directions crowning the tumult of the finale
to that third act, what the libretto defines as
the fragor d'armi e di bellici
stramenti. When
the curtain tell last evening Upon the close of that
third ant, Herr Wach:lel was twice summoned be-
fore it by the audience, there to receive each time, in
a crashing round of applause, the tribute of their
admiration. The success could not have been more
complete or more unmistakable. Rather, it should be
said—the triumph (for it was nothing less than a
triumph) of the new Tenor could not have been
more signally demonatratsd. The feeling on the
part of the audience appeared to be one of absolute
exultation. The youthful singer, with his radiant
look and bearing, with his noble voice, with his ap-
parent capability, as already intimated, of doing
just any thing he pleaseswith that
ud voice,lece com-
manded the sympathies of an
natu-
rally gladdened by such an apparition at the very
commencement of the operatic season. Manrico's
anin plaintivethe t
odeath-song,throughs e
o n tocol san
the
dlluune ni
dungeon
bars,
io, ob-
tained for Herr Wachtel yet another encore before
the opera was brought to its conclusion. The dulcet
and lamenting sound of the refrain, Addio, Leonora
addl.° ! resounding with a bewitching pathos
" through" the 0 con to pee senipre undo nella tomba
in scendero of his weeping
beloved, and " through"
the muffled chaunt from within of the !liserere,
Miserere But the third act, or rather
backrtheclouspeoonf
the third act, was the occasion of Herr Wachtel's
success, a success that he may now look
as complete and triumphant:,
Trovatore," mean-
The loveliest melody in
ing, as a matter of course, the famous Il balm del
suo sorriso sung by the Conte di Luna, won
equally, it may be said, as a matter of course, the ac-
customed encore—an honour that we venture to
think, 'however, was accorded to it last night in
tribute rather to the composer, Signor Verdi,
than to :the singer, Signor Greziani. The
noble chorus of the soldiery Squilli echeggi
la troniLz, guerriera was most admirably ren-
&red, as could only be looked for indeed
from any chorus so completely under the
sway of Mr. Costa's baton. The debuti. ate of the
night, Madlle. Destinn, threw extraordinary effect
into her impersonation of that tawny hag of a
gipsey, Azucena : Madlle. Fricci singing, more-
over, it should be added, very brilliantly through-
out as Leonora. Besides which, let us mention
that Signor Tagliefico made, as ever, a mist
Mephistophles like Ferrando. The house, accord-
ing to custom, was brilliantly filled; and, for certain,
those who were there will long bear Herr Wachtel's
first night very vividly in their remembrance.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

`RE'UTER'S TELEGRAMS.]