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

Mina t,---tf"-iab 1111

LONDON, TUESDAY; TUESDAY; AUGUST 10, 1852.

----
Anxiety is very generally and very naturally felt
as to the probable consequences of the misunder-
standing recently excited, in reference to our North
.8' erican Fisheries, between the respective Govern-
ment of the United States and the United King-
dom. It is dreaded lest the precipitancy of the late
proceedings of the British maritime force in the Bay
Fundy mayamongthe
Americans
far arouse feelings of indigna-
tion
as to lead in the end
to the most
disastrous hostilities between the
race
Anglo-Saxon' oneither side of the Atlantic.
Against any such calamity
it is, of course, in the
highest degree
desirabl
guarded by our diplomatists. that the future should be
For upon the continued
aintanance of peace between the
and the English Monarchy the American Republic
sacred
august principles of civilization are in
interests and
mea-
sure dependent. Conscious—we may s
fittir iy confess it
great
at once—painfully conscious that the w
Ware of mil-
lions may be banging at this moment upon the settle-
ment of this somewhat intricate question,
it becomes necessary, we conceive, to ex-
amine the matter with as much dispassionate
caution as possible in justice to the Americans, and
we will add also with ezpecial earnestness, in justice
to her Britannic MAJr.,Try's Government.
It has been the lot of the Earl of IVIALmEsnunT to
be treated by the whole :Gass a the Opposition as the
scapegrace, or, at any rate, as the scapegoat of the
Administration. Whatever has gone amiss in public
affairs since the Earl of DEußr first formed his Cabi-
net in February "several things have
—and unluelivy -
gone amiss since that '
period—the blame has almost
invariably been thrown upon the unfortunate Foreign
secretary. Now, as to the
administrative abilities
of the Earl of MAL/a/811r
-RT. we must acknowledge
that from the outset of the existence of the DEBBY
Government, we, in common with the rest of the
community, were left only to a ild
v? erness of conjec-
tures. From tite exceedingly in
Wmious manner in

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 ordinary or average amount of intelli.
Bence. Therefore, when we observed the L ame of
the Earl of MALMESBURY gazetted as that of the new
Foreign Secretary in Lord DERBY'S Administration,
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 be would remember his country
everywhere in compliance with that device—libique
patriam reminisci! 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
rather wantonly by a soldier in the service
of the KAISER 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 HENRY LYTTON BIIIMER—and the
blame of the previous misapprehensions being
variously distributed—officially to Mr. SCARLETT—
and publicly to Lord MALsansisunx. 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 MALMESBII RY 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 Mi-
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--ein 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 whatsoever to fish where they were
fishing, and therefore were seized summarily.
In policy it would have been better, of course, to
have warned them firat 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 follows :—‘‘ The re snl t,"
says he, "of authentic information derived from offi-
cial document., most cf which were obligingly fur-
nished by the zealous and indefatigable Governor
then 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 the 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
aossfertfiaocnts gos." to Now,
that so far as these
remarkable
prove the fisheries in
those seas are virtually valueless (according to the ac-
tual state of thin
altogether and manifestly
England, they are, of course,
for
on the face of them
undeniable. But f
th
ad-
duced by Admiral the Earle very reasons
to show that the late proceedings
of DUNDONALD,
were unnecessary,
for those very reasons, we conceive that some
bold and energetic measures were demanded'
her MVEsTY's Government. What from
says an emi-
nent writer, like Mr. MACGREGOR, the
• s Member for the -
and laborious city of Glas-
gow,
' reference to the right of
la ? Rethe course
pursued by
her MAJEsty's Government says,
once the right of England t
" We admit at to enforce
the provisions c
of the Treaty of 1818, but we dread the
fatal consequ
es of sending a naval armament to
en
enforce the strict observance of that treaty." Here
also, in the expression
' n of that anxiety we cordially
agree with the Honourable Gentleman the repre-
sentative of Glasgow. Yet, coinciding with him in
entertaining these feelings of solicitude, we cannot
for a moment attach any blame in the matter to the
present Foreign Secretary. Bather does the
culpability of the transaction devolve upon the
Shoulders of " that dear ABERDEEN," who in
1845, without bringing the question to any-
thing like a definite settlement, intimated
a disposition to concede certain privileges
in regard to our North American Fisheries
to the fishermen of the United States, transmitting
this intimation to the Republican councils at Wash-
ington through the medium of Mr. EnwAnD
EvERRTT, at that period residing in London in the
capacity of American ambassador. Whatever dis-
credit may attach to the o. oF ' '
gle- office, therefore,
throughout the whole of these transactions must be
awarded by right not to the Earlof lf 4.-ALMESBURT
but to that Minister of wholesale concessions—now
to LOUIS PHILIPPE and now to JAMES POLK—the
ill-starred and unlucky (and, shall we say, incom-
petent ?) Earl of ABIRDEENI.

Every succeeding account from Australia brings
confirmation of the existence of gold deposits in that
continent to an extent that it is becoming bewildering

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 extraor-
dinary and increasing amount. The number of
ounces declared is, from Ballarat Diggings, 32,285,
and from Mount Alexander Diggings, 266,698.
From the latter locality, which may be termed a
veritable throne of PLUM, 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 alone, and the re-
mainder conveyed privately. It is hard work, how-
ever, this gold-grubbing, and would appear not to be
very pinguefying 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 Creek 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, sore 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
somewhat 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 30,0001. 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 us 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 4, 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
sixpences
The thing is enough to make 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," for 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 be in legitimate vogue among the myriads who
are fast peopling those distant and magnificent shores.
Settlers and cfficiala 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-
pire. 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 fur labour to an extent that might
most sensibly ease our internal pressure, whilst
it would transform the squalor ,and 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 hut 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 ...11oniteur, granting an amnesty
to fifteen of the persons who had been exiled after the
coup d' itat 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 uhconditional
amnesty, even the most violent and most
influential of his adversaries would be un-
able to give serious uneasiness to the Go-
vernment ; but there might be partial commotions,
which it is well to avoid, and some credulous partisans
who are now calm might be 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 now 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 Huoo stood high on
the list for amnesty a few days ago, and that it
was only removed when he had published a new
excite public
'ork against the PRINCE PRESIDENT grossly of-
fensive even in its title, and had besides declared that
nothing should him from endeavouring to
.p.revent
onThtheeuni
opinion against his Government.
differs from some of its contemporaries
2d DecemberPu
PROUDRON subject
that M. Paounnore
publish
the permission granted to M.
Tish his work on the coup d'etat of
a cause best by attalcsk'he Constitutionnel has observed
one of those writers who serves
that the observation attacking
has put forth many theories which and facts have shown
haveich have been refuted
had not been made so public
justified.h. M. PROUDHON
certain
tai
n events,in influence
butue
oe
if which
they
appreciate them and- watch
n kTehye reel i isro bas sayt °g
moreinhshown America,
still possessed a
he
e
that everybody could
thhiasttthile
aud this may be said of the schemes and theories of
hthigeihrerfaialurme.
M. PROUDRON. 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, aed what could be more miserable than his
failure ? The Union, however, seems to think that
M. PROUDIION has still the power of being ads.
chievous, It says—
" It is said that M. Proudhon's book is quite the rage,
that it is sold by thousands; and yet, this pamphlet
attacks everything, insults everything. Let it not be
said that the eccentricity of the theories put forth re-
moves their danger. Nothing pleases minds worn out
with emotion as exaggeration in what is false. At a
time when publications are rare, such an amusement runs

the chance of being anything but salutary. But who is
to be blamed for this? Is it the authorities which have
not prohibited the work? No, for they have acted on
their own responsibility, and ought to know far better
than we what they had to do. Is it the press which
heralded in the work? No, for it has rosily done nothing
more than quote a few pages of it, to hold them up to
public indignation. Is it the nation, the buyers, the
readers of the pamphlet? O Yes. It is they who are the
real culprits, because itis they who give to the work its
reputation. In a society, strong and sure of itself, such
a work would have been received with silence, or, at
most, with a sort of compassion which a greatly dis-
ordered mind inspires. It would have gone to find, in
the dust of forgetfulness, the wretched reveries of Cam-
panella and so many others. But what can be said of a
country so blind and so weak, so much the slave of its
deplorable curiosity, as to accord attention to a mad-
man! _ _

We read in a Paris letter, published by the Inde-
pendance of Brussels :
.. A few days since M. Areke Houssaye, Director of
the Comedie Franeaise, received an application for a
ticket, in a note signed Pierre Corneille. He imme-
diately went to the address of the note, one of the most
wretched streets in the Cite, and there found, in the
person of an ecrivain public, the sole and septuagena-
rian descendant of the greatest dramatic poet of France.
The news of this fact was not long in reaching the
Prince President, who immediately ordered M. Pierre
Corneille an annual pension of 2,000 f. from his privy
purse."
The Moniteur du Leiret of the Bth says
The President of the Republic passed yesterday
on his way to his property of Lamotte-
The President left the Elybei in an open
a
coloured clothes, and without escort, accom-
ctrßhi
terrraoi
viueargrio:no
n. Orleans,
r
by some of his aides-de-camp, also in plain
clothes. He took his departure from the Paris terminus
by a special train at half-past four. He arrived at Or-
leansat the curve near the Pont de le, Bootie, he passed on to
about seven, but, turning aside close to the town
the Vierzon line, and arrived at Lamotte-Seuvron at
half-past seven. He will return to Paris this evening or
tomorrow. This excursion of Louis Napoleon to his
property in the Sologne was made with such secrecy
that none of the Paris journals have even men-
tioned it."

The municipal council of Toulouse has just voted
a credit of 50,000 f: for the fetes in honour of the in-
tended visit of the PRINCE PRESIDENT of the Re-
public.
The following are the performances fixed for the
gratuitous representations at the theatres on the
14th :—The Opera, the Favourite and the Diable a
Quartre ; Theatre Francais, Cinna and Le Malade
lmaginaire; Opera Comique, Giralda and Le Caid;
Theatre National, Murat. The performances will
take place in the day-time, at one o'clock for the
Opera, and at two for the others,
The Bourse opened firm, and Public Securities were
quoted at an advance on the closing prices of Saturday.
A reaction, however, took place subsequently, and
Public Securities were all lower at the close of business.
The Four-and-a-Half per Cents. opered at 105 f. 200 ,
and closed at 104 E 90e. for the end of the month; the
Three per Cents. closed at 75f. 15c.; Orleans Railway
Shares, 1,387 f, 50c.; Rouen, 850 f.; lavre, 3651.; Great
Northern, 657 f. 50c.; Avignon, 4721. 50c,; Basle, 305 f.;
Paris and Strasburg, 645 f.; Paris and Lyons, 7551.;
Western of France, 6001.; Lyons to Avignon, 5901.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE

Dijon
LONDONsib& EXCHANGE, Aca. 9.
. Dijon and Besangon, 3—Dutch Rhenish, 6—Great In-
plan Peninsula, 6%B—Grand Junction of France, 51/2—Lux-
”abourg, 59 —Pladras, 2% p.—Namur and Liege, 698
Northern of France, 201. 3 per cent. Bonds, 133/—Paris and
Lyons, 1934—Paris and Strasbourg, 2533—Rouen and
Havre, 14%-
-Western of France, 9%.
Sambre and Meuse, 7',3B—Tours and Nantes, 13

SPAIN.

Our accounts from Madrid are of the 4th inst.

The QUEEN MOTHER was still in the Asturias, where
her MAJESTY intends to remain until the end of
August. _ _ _

a. CARLOS VILLANUEVA having been accepted as
editor of the Nacion by the political governor of the
province of Madrid, that journal had re-appeared.
A weekly journal, entirely devoted to railway en-
terprise, is to be published in Madrid.
The Government bad authorised Belgian securities
to be quoted on the Madrid Bourse.
The Three per Cents. were done at 45 5-16; the
New Three per Cents. at 22i ; the Debt of the First
Class at 11; and that of the second at 51.