The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-26 00:00:00

the belligerentl3, it is probable that all the guaran-
tees in the world might be set aside alike by the
Danes and by the Andra-Prussians. At the best,
the augury to be drawn from this proposed and
accepted Conference is very doubtfully.auspicious
indeed. It rests upon so many vague, and shifting,
and unimaginable contingencies. It rests its
chief reliance,. in effect—as does the present
Cabinet of England for that matter—upon the
Chapter of Accidents. " Vivo la Bagatelle," almost,
one might take to be the watchword of the Ad-
ministration. And so—Ministers are evidently
exulting, as at a signally triumphant manoeuvre,
over this left-handed acceptance of the offer of a
Conference, the war itself still continuing.

Lord PALMEItSTON showed his usual tact and dis-
cernment in coming down to the House last night.
It showed that the noble lord understood the exi-
gency of the case, and was willing to conform to
the expression of opinion so decidedly expressed
by members on both sides of the House. The
Premier had also good intelligence to communicate
relative to the Tuscaloosa. Here, again, Ministers
have yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and
relinquished their unfair and unjust attempt to in-
terfere with the 'rights of other nations. Credit is
due to them for sending out those orders for setting
her at liberty, which the noble lord referred to last
night; and it is satisfactory, of course, to obtain
such information. At the same time, it cannot but
occur to the mind, on the receipt of this intelli-
gence, that it would have been better to have acted
with less haste, and to have studied the bearings of
the question a little more carefully before proceed-
ing, to such extremities. It is not consonant with
the dignity of the country, it is not consistent for
the reputation of our Government, to be constantly
changing about in this manner. Precipitancy on
one side and recusance on the other, a general dis-
cussion and confusion all around, heartburnings and
murmers of discontent seem to mark the progress of
our Administration. There is one thing reassuring
at all events in this affair, and that is the encourage-
ment given to independent mindi to persist in
ferreting out these unjust machinations, and in
setting forward the true state of the case in the
light of day. Had there been a timorous course
pursued in' this matter restitution would never
have been made, and a gross injury would have
been perpetrated by our authorities. Lord R.
CECIL very properly asked whether compensation
would be given for the injury, but Loid PALMER-
STON would not be compromised into giving an
assurance to that effect. This must be the next
cases beEi, and the champions. of international
rights should strenuously insist on justice being
done to the parties Whsii have sustained a loss by
the hot haste and misjudged partiality -of their
assailants. Many may think that too much fuss
has been made about this icase altogether, but
nothing can b 3 small which concerns ,truth and
justice, nothing unimportant that relates to the
honour of our country; and nothing not worth
striving for that result's in rendering jistice to any
Power or. State which has been oppressed or
wrong-
fully injured by any mistakes—real or intentional. If
the Ministers hope in any way to retrieve a portion
of their damaged reputation they *must finish their
task of making the atrtirlde honorable, and imme-
diately bestoW that compeniatiOn which the Con-
• federates have a right to expect.. The possession of
that moral right should be as powerful to insure its
reception, as if armed hosts- could command the
restitution, or hostile fleets wore bound to enforce
the claim.

Lord DERBY last night called attention to the
very strange manner in which the Government are
acting in regard to the production of the papers
asked for by various members in both Houses of the
Legislature. The general result proves, as the
noble Earl remarked, that there is a want of com•
munication between the members of Her MAJESTY'S
Government. It is, indeed, a very peculiar manner
of conducting the affairs of the State, and its effects
must be very prejudicial to the interest of the pub-
lic service. It is very essential that we should have
the papers which have been laid before the Ameri-
can Congress, and Lord DERBY again requested the
Foreign Secretary to state on what grounds he re •
fused to comply with this reasonable demand.
Lord RUSSELL made one of his extraordinary re-
plies. He said that he only withheld those that
related to a question now pending before the courts
of law. The Attorney-General had advised him
not to produce these documents, but he_believed he
had since changed his opinion. Can anything be
more- unsatisfactory .than this dilleedallying with
questions of so much moment. Lord CHELMSFORD
very properly asked to know when the change bad
taken place. This, however, he was not Permitted
to know. It is idle for Earl RUSSELL to attempt to
get himself out of one difficulty by plunging into
another, and he is only laying himself open to re-
newed attacks and redoubled criticism. One
House is refused to be allowed to see the
papers relating to the SaxOn, - and the
other is put in possession of them. All
this beating about the bush cannot possibly
serve the' turn of Ministers, and must sooner or
later overwhelm them with discomfiture. There
are many montlis of the session yet to run, and it
is preposterous to imagine that the most dexterous
jugglings and complipated combinations can put off
all awkward inquiries, and keep the pertinacious
questioners at bay., Public inquiry will not be
stifled in this fashion, and the voice that now feebly,
perhaps, is heard, will be raised to a pitch, and be
endued with a meaning that Cebinets must hear and
heed, It will not benefit the position of the Govern-
ment to put off . the evil day now and alight on a
worse one some weeks hence. They had better
totally Alter their' tadtieh, and like men of spirit face
the worst, and 'not give their Opponents such; a
handle against them as to say that private interests
are sacrificed 'to political prejudices, and the dignity
of the country compromised; to keep one particular
set of men in office to, carry out notions
_which
militate againit the spirit of the age.

Thanks to the spirit of .daring and adventure-
which VSPeein-ny ebarieteriies Englishmen', there
will soon be feW spots in the habitable globe with
which we are ,not. in some degree fainiliarised.
Within- the :last few. years the savage tribes who
inhabit the central tracts of Africa, have been
visited for the first lime- by-white men, and the
sandy Wakes which Stretch • across the great
S3uthern. continent have beCeri eipl6red by a band
daring of colonists.' Englishmen have descended
the Russian, mines, have ridden the wild horses of
the Kirghis, have penetrated the mysterious empire
of lapin; an-d' rat habitable -land-behind them on
their voyage northward, The proceedings of the
loyal Geographical Society have become no sine-
care, and its niFettega have lately become deeply
interesting. It is but. a feW weeks since the
asseinbly -listened with breathless interest to the
account 'Of the " hairlreadth 'scapes and snares"
Of Captains SPENE and GRANT in their expedition
to L-Ike Nya'nz Thin recital of the dangers- they
encountered from tr(e_erafty,"and..,eethens'kings of
some of the, trihes, the, risks, through. which their
firmness and tact carried thpin and the
strange scenes and habits of the sava-: o people they
tntlitalted:' attention of the.
listeners, Who thus learned from tile words Of an

eye-witness , his impressions of those races and
countries where a white man was hitherto `tin-
known. At the meeting at Burlington House on
Monday evening, the audience were transported to
what might seem almost to be part of another
world. Instead of the rude and primitivn• usages
of Central. Africa—the rough huts and want of
almost the common necessaries of life—there
was called before them a vision of mosques, bazaars,
and handsome cities, of stables full of Nedjed steeds,
of worshippers kneeling to the glowing sun of the
East. Despotism ais strict as that of the • African
kings prevail in these sunny Arabian scenes, the
tyranny of Islam, supplying the place of the irre-
sponsible will of the black monarch. Mr. PAL-
GRAVE, the son of the late Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE,
whose name is well known to English literature, has
passed the last eighteen years in journeying across
the northern part of Arabia, from Gaze in south-
ern Syria to El Khatif, on the Persian Gulf, and
hence to the kingdom of Oman at the eastern
corner of Arabia. This, expedition, whose exploits
and adventures were happily described by the pre-
sident, as the thousand and second Arabian Knights,
was full of danger and difficulty. A sufficient proof
of the rarity and danger of such a journey is afforded
by the fact that Mr. PALGRAVE'S experience con-
tradicts nearly all the little we were supposed to
know about the countries in question. The general
notion of 'the more distant parts of Arabia is a wild
expanse of sandy desert, where wandering Bedouins-
pitch their tents, and the whole life 'of the inhabi-
tants is nomadic and desultory. In place of this we
find large and populous cities full of shops, bazaars,
and all the accessories of Arabian life in the better
known districts, with houses of two and three
stories, built with a degree of taste that eclipses
European competition. Nevertheless the ignorance
and misapprehension on these points is not
surprising, for so great is the jealousy with
which the Arabs regard the intrusion of
any Europeans, that it is by no means an uncommon
thing for travellers who have ventured so far to be
put to death. Mr. PALGRAVE assumed the charac-
ter of a wandering doctor, and his medical know-
ledge stood him in good stead. The whole party
had to disguise themselves at Gaza, and were by
no means reluctant to accept the explanation gene-
rally given 'of their journey—that Mr:' PALGRAVE
committed some civil crime, and had fled from his
native Damascus. In his medical capacity Mr.
PALGRAVE achieved some striking successes, and
once nearly got into serious trouble by doing so.
He had cured a case of partial paralysis by a careful
external application of strychnine. He was then
in the Wahabite territory, and the KING, whnheard
of the wonderful cure, sent for him to beg for some
of the marvellous powder. A refusal, founded on
its danger in unpracticed hands, produced no effect,
his MAJESTY hinting that its fatal qualities would.
by no means diminish its utility as a political agent.
A stormy scene ensued, after which it was thought
moreprudent for the party to efrect a secret escape
from thneountry., At the Wahabite capital, before
this contention, the supposed doctor had been called
upon to attend to oue of the. Royal steeds, and had
consequently an' opportunity of inspecting those
celebrated stables where the finest of the Arab horses
are collected. These beautiiiii creatures are describad
by Mr. PALGRAVE as the beau ideal of the horse. The
state of Oman, at the extreme east of Arabia, is
s strange to E iropean visitornas the wildest die.
tricts of Central Africa, being entirely cut off from-
the rest of Arabia by vast deserts. ' It is,' according
to his description, the most beautiful part of
Arabia, with a climate resembling, that of India,
and traces of the old fire-warship of the country
left lingering among the people. Mr. PALGRAVE
has collected a vast amount of information, as yet,
of course, only given in outline, respecting the reli-
gious, political, and social condition of the people.
In addition to thedangers he most with from hostile
natives, he passed through perils by land and
water, narrowly escaping death in a simoom in the
desert and a shipwreck on the coast of Oman.
Fortunately, however, he Las reached home in
safety, after an absence so protracted that his
native tongue has grown strange to him, to be
warmly welcomed by his countrymen, and to add
his rich and varied experience to the stores of our
geographical knowledge.

The Government Annuities Bill,

A public meeting was held last night, at the
Whittington Club,. Strand, to consider the best way
of opposing the Annuities Bill, lately introduced by
the Government. In the absence of Mr. Thornton
Hunt, who was unavoidably prevented from attend-
ing the meeting, the chair was taken by dllr.,Faulk-
net, the editoz of the News. In opening the 'pro-
ceedings, the chairman said that a meeting of
working men had been convened to express their
opinion on the subject of this bill,
,which aimed at
the destruction of all industrial benefit and assurance
societies. He denied that those institutions were
failures, and he was, sure that he carried the meeting
with, him when, hesaid that working men knew per-
fectly well how to take care of their own,savings. He
would introduce to the meeting several working men,
who would give their opinions on the subject. Mr.
Worley moved the first resolution, to the effect that
the principle of Government interfering with com-
mercial enterprise was a most mischievousone, and
deserved the strenuous opposition of all
,classes of
the community. He believed that the bill origi-
nated in a desire on the part of the. Government to
exercise a monopoly in these matters,,and on that
ground he objected to it. He theug,ht the Govern-
ment suspiciously kind to working men lately, bat
ho was sure, the less they had to do with them the
better. The greatest objection to the bill was that,
the business matters of the society were to be taken
out of the hands of the men who were best fitted
to . transact them. The motion, was seconded
by. Mr. Wheeler, of tb.e Xriend-in-Need Benefit
Society, principally on the ground that the Govern-
ment always, failed when they,,undertook any ell.ss
labour, and that if the bill passed a similar failure
would take place. ,He looked,p4 the measure as,
the thin end of the wedge for the introduction of
Government . interference in all trades. The bill
had been brought in in indecent baste, and the very
name of it was :a blind. If the working-men, whose
greatest interest it, was. to carry on these societies,.
sometimes failed. there was still less % probability
of the efforts of the Government., being crowned
with success. The motion ,having been car-
ried, 'Mr. Shrubb. desired to state, in, correction
of a statement made by the laet -speaker, that:the
large insaranco societies had not, taken up this
matter, and that the representatives of nearly all
the old and new offices had already, met and passed
resolutions condemnatory of theaneasure. In mov7
itlg the next resolution, to the effect that the second
clause,, giving power to the Government to com-
pete with benefit societies and insurance com-
panies, was uncalled-for, Mr. New made use of
most of the arguments advanced by the previous
speakers. He thought if the Government
proposed to take life assurances into their hands,
they should also take under their protection the
sick funds throughout the country. Ho feared,
however, that the profits were too small, and the
trouble too great, for the Government to touch this
portion of the business of ber.efit societies. Mr.
Nash seconded the resolution. If, as had been
stated, working men's benefit societies were badly
mansged, it was the business of the Government to
reform them, and not to destroy. them.- He sug-
gested that a deputation should be formed to,wait
on the Chancellor of the Exchequer.; also, that a
petition to Parliament should be adopted and signed
all those piesent. Other revolutions condemning
the bill and its,principles.were thenc-p4ssed,atudAtte
meeting separated.