The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-03 00:00:00

Boners.

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Keating.)
John Johnson and Charles Sherman were indicted for
maliciously setting firo to a stack of hay at St. Giles's,
Oxford, the property of William Charles lliggins, on the
21 of February.

This case was made out by a confession of one of the
prisoners. The value of the rick destroyed was between
£lOO and £2OO, and one of the prisoners stated that ho did
it in order to get into gaol.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and
The learned Judge, remarking that the crime of arson
was rife in this county, sentenced Sherman to seven, and
Johnson to six years' penal servitude.
Mr. J. G. Ed wards was for the prosecution.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)
Shadrach Brayne was indicted for maliciously and feloni-
ously throwing a stone upon an engine passing along the
West Midland Railway, with intent to endanger the safety
of Joshua Hedges, then being on the said engine ; and upon
a second count for a misdemeawur in endangering the safety

of the said Joahua Hodges, being on the railway, by throw-
ing a stone.

Mr. Godson was for the prosecution; Mr. Sawyer was for
the prisoner.
At about 8 o'clock in the evening of the Bth of August,
1863, the prisoner, with two of his brothers, and two other
boys named Pollett and Webber, were on the Combe rail-
way bridge over the West,Midland Railway as a train was
approaching and about to pass underneath it The prisoner
got a stone from the road, and as the tram went under the
bridge, dropped the stone, though his companions had ad-
vised him not to do it. The engine was struck by the
falling stone, and a fraction of it fell on the railway, but
another fraction, weighing some 41b. or 51b., hit the fireman,
Joshua Hodges, on the shoulder. The fireman was rendered
nearly insensible, and the driver, by catching him in his
arms, prevented his falling from the engine. On their arrival
at Handborough information of the occurrence was given,
and at Oxford the fireman was placed under the care of Mr.
Symonds, surgeon, and is not yet able to follow his occupa-
tion. The prisoner was taken into custody on the 10th of
August, and said he had not intended to hit the engine
driver, At the close of the case,

The learned Judge suggested that the felony had not
been made out,

The prosecution did not press that part of the charge, and
The prisoner then withdrew his plea of not guilty to the
misdemeanour, and pleaded guilty thereto,
An acquittal was taken on the count for the felony, and
The learned Judge sentenced the prisoner to six months'
imprisonment with hard labour.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Twelve years ago, when all England
was sympathising with the terrors of Maria and the
sufferings of Uncle Tom, it was little expected that
the whole negro population of Louisiana would soon
be emancipated, and that the chain and lash would
be snatched from Legree and placed in the hands of
a great Abolitionist Power. Let people beware
how they indulge too freely in the luxury of senti-
ment and opinion, for they know-not how soon they
may be called on to prove their sincerity. So far
as regards that wide region of which New Orleans
is the centre the day of personal slavery is over ;
the African is a man and a brother ; no longer a
chattel. He is conscious of the boon; he has en-
joyed his new born liberty; he has eaten and drunk,
danced:and sung, and then fallen asleep, to dream
of new joys and awake with the sense of freedom.
But neither here nor at the head-quarters of Aboli-
tion has this glorious consummation been celebrated
as it deserved. Thirty-two years ago there was
scarce a child in England who did not on a
certain day eat plumcake and drink tea in honour
of our own Negro Emancipation. In America there
has been no jubilee; but, perhaps, what we see
there is something more serious and substantial.
Perhaps the negroes are not only emancipated, but
taught to use their freedom and made worthy of
their new ceiling. 'We omitted to do that in the
West Indies, and hence possibly our mischance and
degradation of the free negro. The American Abo-
litionist has profited by that warning, and will not
do the work by halves. Here is the sew Charter of
American freedom ; here is the birthright which
American Christianity offers instead of the curse of
Kam. Englistimen are not only familiar with the
principle of liberty, but accustomed to discuss and
even frame Constitutions. It was bat the other day
that we were giving at the point of the bayonet
Constitutions to Sicily, Naples, and Greece, to Por-
tugal and to Spain. With rather more right, and
happily more success, we have given Constitutions,
or rather conceded the power of making their own
Constitutions, to many of our colonies. So it is with
scientific zest and a practised eye and touch that we
take up the Constitution which is to regenerate the
African race, and raise the free negro himself into
an insurmountable barrier against the returning
wave of slavery. What shall we expect to find its
first axiom, its distinguishing feature, and the
pivot upon which the minor arrangements all turn ?
Lycurgus wanted to make soldiers; Solon to make
citizens; so Lincoln, doubtless, has his grand idea.
It is soon told. Every man mast do his day's
work. So that is what we are coming round to at
last. A continent is covered with fire and blood to
proclaim anew the old text, " In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread." Such is the simple issue
of all this long controversy. Hear it, Exeter Hall,
and learn at last that you must not hope to be much
wiser than your grandmother. That is what she
used to say, and her grandmother before her. But a
very rough and stern grandmother is now teaching
this first lesson to the negroes of Louisiana. Work,
Work, 'Work is the order of the day ; yes, literally,
the Order of the Day, published at " Headquarters,
Department of the Gulf, New Orleans, February 3,
1864." And when we come to the nature of the work,
and the manner of the work, and the hours, and
the motives, the superintendence and whole domes-
tic discipline, then we see that General Banks has
nor minced the matter. What chiefly marks the
document before us is a total absence of the plati-
tudes usually employed in addressing the negro race.
It commences significantly with suspending the
negro enlistment. After localising the negro in
his district ur parish, placing him everywhere under
the Provost-Marshal, cutting off the supply of dan-
gerous luxuries, interdicting arms, and making other
salutary regulations, the General Order informs
the negroes that in return for good keep and suffi-
cient wages they must and shall work ten hours a
day in summer and nine in winter, of course on the
plantations, under their existing employers. The
arrangements are evidently those heretofore in force
in those regions. GOD. Banks appears to have had
at his elbow some sensible planters, who have done
justice to both sides according to their own light,
but who certainly have not suppressed their convic-
tion that a nigger must work, and, if he does not
work, must be made to work. He is not, in-
:;d, te- be flogged, nor is he to be punished in any
d'eat manner. That is a matter for the
cruel or untie- marshal, or any that he may ap-
district Provost-„_ 'o choose his own
point. The negro
sto abide by it. Small
but having made his choice wed on private Sc-
--quantities of land are to be silo,. _lted if it can
count. Famles are not to be sepal.
-vided, the
be helped. Saving banks are to be pri..
sick and aged care for, and the Sundays nos to be
needlessly encroached on. Indeed, it must be us.`l"
ma
milted, in justice to Gen. Banks, that the negro is
here treated as an article of value, as something to
be kept alive and well if possible, and a real neces-
sity in the social system. That has not been the
case in the provision made for emancipated negroes
in the North. But after some pious regard to the
dictates of humanity and the minor requirements
of a new industrial system Gen. Banks returns to
the principles or theory of his order :—" These re-
gulations are based upon the assumption that labour
is a public duty, and idleness and vagrancy a crime."
This soundest of doctrines the general illustrates by
referring to different classes and appealing to various
sanctions. We will not dispute it. But though
labour be a terrible and universal necessity, yet we
see it usually allied with some liberty of choice, and
not made absolutely dependent on the will of cer-
tain employers, backed by Provost-Marshals. There
are men, even with the protection of a black skin,
who cannot work in the sun ten hours a day. Yet
they are to work on the plantations of Louisiana.
They are to have no choice as to the nature of the
work, for they must do the work required to be done
on the spot. The General Order fixes the pay and
other conditions of the work. What is this but pre-
dial instead of personal slavery P The negro is de-
clared a serf, bound to the soil, and yet told that he is
free. But the General Order reveals its true spirit in
the concluding articles, just as a lady's letter re-
serves its meaning to the postscript, and a re ttle-
snake puts its mind into its tail. General Banks,
in return for the labour of these negroes, expects
that the employers will troop to the ballot-box and
vote for Mr. Lincoln. The slaves are evidently the
price of their political support. Such planters as
can reconcile it to their conscience to vote for Mr.
Lincoln as President of the whole Union, and so
abandon the cause of the Confederates, are promised
a good supply of negroes, with a Provost-Marshal
to each gang, to do the usual work of their planta-
tions. Should they decline this offer, should they
even be " indifferent" and wish to keep out of it
altogether, they will be regarded and treated as
traitors. The oath of allegiance will be tendered
to all, and woe to those who refuse. They will be
put out of the pale of the law. Their plantations,
with the negroes in them, will be handed over to
more loyal and trustworthy men. This of course
adds to the completeness of these regulations. The
Federals are to take the place of the Confederates
in the possession of the Southern soil and the com-
mand of its negro population. The former would
be useless without the latter, so it becomes neces-
sary to organise a system under which the subste nee
of slavery may be retained without the name. This
is serfdom, if, indeed, without a personal tie, it is
worthy even of that name. So, while the Emperor
of Russia is abolishing serfdom, the President of
the United States is adopting it as a new institu-
tion, a new pledge of reconciliation, and a new
bond of union between the Northern and Southern
States. Such is the practical conclusion we have
cove to twelve years after the publication of Mrs.
Beecher Stowe's incomparable tale.

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