The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 18, 1864.

,~- -

The French Legislative Assembly,

PARIS, lan. 15.
The Legislative Body sat yesterday—Duke de
Moray in the chair.
M. Rouher, Minister of State; M. Rouland,
Minister presiding over the Council of State ; and
the other Government Commissioners were in their

usual places.
Tll3 order of the day was the adjourned discus-
sion on the Address, the points under consideration
being the amendment relative to the electoral ques-
tion.

M. Thiers—Clentlemen, two amendments were
presented on the electoral system. The first has
been rejected, and I now rise to speak in support

of the second, not that I have the hope or the pre-
tension to obtain its adoption, but because of an
understanding come to some six weeks since, when

I wished to make some observations on the elections,
that I should reserve what I had to say till the de-
bates on the Address. In entering on this discus-

sion the first obstacle I encounter is the allegation

that our object is to weaken the moral authority of
the Chamber. Allow me to remove this obstacle.

The law has constituted you supreme judges in
electoral matters, and you have given your decisions
cn the late elections. The question has therefore
been definitely decided, and I declare to the majo-
rity, without the least intention of flattery, for at
my time of life a man has no need to flatter any
power on earth, that I deeply respect it and bow to
its decisions. Ido not hold all your opinions, nor
do you hold all mine. To my great regret I shall
be compelled to vote against you, but I neverthe-
less entertain the utmost respect for your intentions.
I must beg your permission to make one remark.
(" Go on, go on.") You are in the position of a
Power which has not met with any serious opposi-
tion ; contradiction surprises and offends you.
When, like me, you shall have passed long years
under the weight of contradiction you will bear it

better. I new come to the point underdiecnssion.
We think that with regard to principles, the Govern-
ment pushes them to extremes, and that its moles
of proceeding are not all good. You will say that
our opinion is open to suspicion, because the proceed-
ings in question have been directed against ourselves.

I admit this, but for the same reasons you are also

liable to suspicion. (Movement.) What makes
me think that our opinion is not altogether wrong is
that I do-not see among the Ministers the individual

Minister who directed the elections. I cannot think
that his services wculd have been dispensed with
had his conduct been altogether irreproachable.

Tnis appears to justify our opinion. We shall be
told that as the Minister is no longer in power our
reproaches are uncalled for. I do not like finding
fault, and should not now address you had the pro-
ceedings of which we complained ceased when the
:Minister retired from office ; but from what has
recently passed, and what is now passing in the
Bas-Rhin there seems to be a kind of persistency
approaching to bravado. That is why I insist on
this question. I do not dispute the pretensions of
the Government to have its candidates, and to mani-
fest its preference. I admit the principle c: official
candidates, but I shall perhaps he told that I do so on
t.ccount of my own conduct
.when Minister of the
Interior. It was not so, however, for I have come
to this conclusion, purely from conviction, without
any reference to my own antecedents. I have re-

eently reperused the verification of powers in 1834,

when I was Minister of the Interior. It was

shortly after the insurrection of April, and great
exeitercent prevailed. tour elections wore annulled
by the Chamber, and I beg your attention to the
grounds for those decisions. The first election was
quashed becausa the candidate, who had been a
Prefect, had not retired frcm his functions for a
spaced of six months, as required by law ; the second
on account of the candidate's electoral qualification
being disputed; and the third, because the person
elected was found to want one vote to make the
necessary majority. As to the fourth election, the
motive which led to its being annulled was remark-
able. The ballot was not commenced at the time
appointed, and only remained open four hours in-

stead of six, and. for that reason the election was in-
validated. Such was at the time the rigorous con-
duct observed in case of elections. What was the re-
proach made agaicat us? A member of the Cham-
ber spoke of de paix who had been threatened
with dismissal by a functionary, when the Minister
of /Entice ascended the tribune and said that if the
inuctio2ary who had done so we►e known he would
be himself dismissed. There were aracmg the can-

did_;tes of thL,t period a son-in-law of Marshal Mor-
tier. The Sub-Prefect of the Arrondissement, in a

private Lotter to two or three mayors, said that the

el.ection of that candidate would be agreeable to the
"Royal family. On hearing of the fact I disavowed
the Sub-Prefect, reprimanded him publicly, and
ordered that the King's name should never be men-

tioned in election matters. (Approbation on severa:

beach es.)
A Voice—You were then a responsible Minister.
rhiers—You perceive that we were then very
severe with regard to elections. Nevertheless I
accept official candidateships, but on certain condi-
tions. Where is the foundation of the right of the
Government to publicly designate its candidates to
be found? I find nits for the point in free coun-
tries, and even there the right is limited. If a dic-
tatorship exists there is no need 3f discussion. It
is therefore, I repeat, in free countries that we must
seek for the rules which serve as the foundation of
official candidateships, and I look for it in England,
the freest of all. There all opinions are divided
into two great parties, one which impels the coun-
try towards what is called progress—a vague word,
which I do not much admire, for it may contain evil

as well as good—the other wishing to prevent the
country from going too fast. The former of those
e opinions calls itself Liberal, and the latter Conser-
vative. In England the Liberals take the name of
Whigs, and their adversaries that of Tories ; in
Belgium the corresponding terms are Liberals
and Catholics. Both of those opinions are good,
according to the time that is passing. When a
country is in the background and some of its
institutions out of date, as in the case of the
rotten boroughs in England, the Whigs are
right ; on the other hand, when the forward
movement is too rapid, the Tories do well to check
it. Although I am not quite so old as certain jour.
nala pretend, I have several times seen the Whigs
and the Tories succeed each other in power, and
always for the benefit of the country. In Belgium,
thanks to the foresight of the wise and prudent
King who reigns there—and only reigns—the
Catholics and the Liberals have succeeded each other,
and repaired their mutual faults. Both have, there-
fore, been of use. What are the rights of those
different opinions ? When the Whigs are in °posi-
tion they support their candidates by means of their
journals, their meetings, and their subscriptions,
and they certainly do not lose that right when the
party comes into power. In free countries the Go-
vernment is nothing more than an opinion which
has attained power, and does not for that reason
lose its rights; it, however, contracts duties. What
are those duties? The first is to respect propriety.
Tshis is not an absolute but a relative duty ; the ob-
servance may be less rigid in the lower classes of
society, but it is stringent in the higher degree of
propriety. The second of those duties is that of not
abusing, in favour of this or that candidate, the
power which Government places in the hands of its
agents. Under these conditions all opinions have
the right of self-defence, and even that of spreading
themselves abroad. In England, where there is
little or no centralisation, the temptation for parties
in power to exceed their duty is not very strong;
but in France, the resources which centralisation
places in the hands of the Government agents are
immense, and to abstain from doing them demands
the abnegation of a stoic. It is your part, gentle-
raeo, to become, if not absolute stoics, at least men
who respect the duties imposed on them by their
position. Of all the points of decorum that ought
to be respected, the first is not to allow the name of
the Sovereign to figure in an electoral contest. But
you all know that, in a great number of elections,
dficial eau6iUatea have been presented to the country
a 3 candideles of the Emperor.
es.—Of the Emperor's Government.
Several voic
M. Taiers—l beg pardon ; there were some, in-
deed, called as you say,
but there were others die-
tinctiy called csmdidoes of the Emperor. If the

contrary can be proved, I shall bow to the truth.
The Minister of State said the other day that the

electoral contest was only the continuation of that
which takes place here among the representatives

of the country. .1 admit that assimilation, and ask
if any one of you, gentlemen, would presume to
pronounce to us such a phrase as "The Emperor

will have it so." No one would dare to do this.

Therefore, as you would not so use the name of the

Emperor in this Chamber, why should you do so
in presence of electors ? And in what a position

you place a candidate whom you repudiate, but

who is nevertheless elected ! Yon do not contest

his oath. How, then, can you say he is the enemy
of the Emperor ? Why treat him as such ? Who
has told you that he is so ? For my part, I repeat
the words which were spoken here the day before

yesterday—namely, that all those who entered this
_ _

Chamber had but one object—to make their ideas

penetrate into the mind of the Government. That
is the truth, and it is wrong to say at elections that

a candidate is an enemy. And the electors them.

selves! What will happen if you declare them all
enemies of the Emperor? What will it be said
after the result of the late elections that during the
last few years the Emperor has made himself two

millions of enemies? - As I wish to avoid strong
language, I shall content myself with repeating that
to call a candidate or electors enemies is to commit
a great imprudence, and I dwell on the point be-

cause it is desirable that all abases of language
should be suppressed—(assent) —the more so because
when moderation is lost sight of in speecli, it is often

violated in act; and it may be feared that those

who so abuse the name of the Emperor may be
forced into active measures of a more serious cha-

racter. We make an immense concession in allow-

ing you your official candidateships ; but we give
them only on condition of the most rigorous ab.
stention on your part. Without that moderation
the danger would be considerable in presence of
our system of centralisation. Of that centralisa-
eion I myself, as every body knows, have been the
defender ; it is the principle of French great-
ness ; it has given us clearness in our ac.
counts, order and immediate readiness in our
means of action, as was seen when France
decided on war in the month of March, 1859,

and had 200,000 men in Italy in the fist days

of April. Ido not wish to compromise this cen-
tralisation. I remember what a great diplomatist,
M. Pozzo di Borgo, said to me on this subject in
1830. I was complaining of the Treaties of 1815,
and he said, " You complain that we have taken
from you a part of you: territory, bat we have left
you a unity which gives you an immense force, and
which will one day become a danger to ourselves."
I replied to him, " You have left us that unity be-
cause you could not take it from ul." (Applause.)
Therefore, as it could not be taken from us, let us
not fling it away ourselves. Allow me to indicate
briefly the bases of centralisation. In the adminis-
trative class you have the prefects, sub-prefects,

mayors, and all their agents. If we allow all these
functionaries to be nominated by the State we think
it necessary that the mayors should be taken from
the municipal council, and that they should not be
removable at the pleasure of the Government. In
the judicial order you have the non•removable
judges, who are worthy of all respect, and the re-

movable functionaries, as honourable, but depen-
dent. I can understand that theso latter should be
at the disposal of the Government; they do not pro-
nounce judgments, they merely administer justice.

But attached to these Courts there are notaries, ad-
vocates, huissiers ; and you know well what is the
influence of a Proenreur-Imperial. I have here a
letter from a huissier of the Bas•Rhin, where an
election is now about to take place, and he declares
that he cannot act by reason of the menaces he has
received. Next, there is the Finance Department,
where the subordinates are numerous and constitute
a great power in the hands of the Government. The
Ministers of Marine and War are also very power-
ful. The former holds in his hands the fortunes of
the men serving on board, and might in a few hours
send a certain number to sea-

M. Rouher, Minister of State—For electoral pur-
poses A Minister who should do that would be

impeached.
M. Thiers—l might quote facts did I not fear to
'go beyond the bounds of respect. I endeavour to
be courteous to wards my adversaries, although
you are sometimes hard upon yours. I have no
wish to weaken any part of the French Adminis-
tration, but in the election of Cambrai, which was
annulled, was there not a circular which proves the
power exercised by the NI ioister of War cver the
conscripts ? In our country the State, in fact, does
everything ; at one time it encourages science and
the arts, and at another assists communes by the
construction of a road, or by endowing it with a
school. When such a power interferes with the elec-
tors of universal suffrage, what becomes of liberty
of voting ? All the innumerable agents of the State
who were living quietly among the people become
on the eve of elections, by orders received from Paris,
first silent and then hostile. As far as regards myself
personally, I have seen agents of the authority with
whom I have been on friendly terms compelled to
tell the country that I was a dangerous man. I
accept official candidates; but on condition that the
law is respected. The execution of the electoral law
is very difficult in France, because it so frequently
changes. The Government has a right to trace out
the circumscriptions; but it is proper that on the
approach of a new or general election those districts
should be changed, in order to favour particular can-
didates ? With regard to the electoral lists, there
are some localities where they do not exist, as was
proved during the late verification of qualifications.
13 it true that the publications made by the non-
efficial candidates meet with impediments which
their Government opponents are not subjected to ?
If ao, the mayors ought to receive more formal in-
structions. The law enacts secrecy for the vote, and
that the bulletin shall be written out of the balloting
room, and be deposited in the urn by the elector ;
and yet there may be seen on the table of the office
packets of the bulletins of the Government candi-
date, but none of his opponents. When I concede
to you official candidates I can only do so on condi-
tion of respect for propriety, abstention from the
means of action at the disposal of the Government,
and strict observance of the law. If you do not accept
these conditions I cannot accord official candidate-
ships. We are in presence of universal suffrage,
which is a dangerous institution, and the Govern-

went ought to have the moans of directing it. In giv-
ing that suffrage have you given liberty to the con- '
trary ? If the former, do not employ the means you
now adopt. I know not what the result of univer-
sal suffrage may be in the future, but I see what it
is now. I am convinced that if fewer attempts were
made to enlighten it there would perhaps be more
means of control in the bodies of the State, and. in-
stead of sacrificing the Government to which you are
attached you would perhaps save it. (Interruption.)
The President—The Government has no fear of
being sacrificed, and has no need of being saved.
M. Thiers—Do not distort my meaning.
The President--I have made that observation to
you because I am sure you will give a satisfactory
explanation.
M. Thiers—Let there not ba sought for in my
words any idea of a threat of any kind. What I
wish to express is not a menace but a warning.
(Movement; approbation on several benches.)
M. Itonher—Let me be allowed to say something
also on the question of official candidates, and reply
both to M. Jules Favra and M. Thiers, the more so
that the difference of opinion which existed between
these two orators seems to have disappeared by the
last observations made by M. Thiers. M. Favre
does not admit such candidateship3 at all ; M. Thiers
does, but on condition that they shall be merely
platonic. The difference is not so great as to oblige
me to consider those gentlemen in the light of two
distinct adversaries. Let me, then, consider the
right of intervention'of the Government in elections,
and the means this latter ought to employ, and also
the part played by the Opposition during the last
elections. I shall then examine the results, and
endeavour to deduce from it the political bearing of
The election of the 31st of May. As to the right of
Government intervention, I have already defended
it elsewhere, and affirmed it here a few days ago.
The Government cannot remain a passive spectator
of an operation in which its existence is at stake as
well as its policy ; an operation in which unexpected

complications and secret passions may be brought
into play, and during which imprudent promises may
be whispered into the ears of misery or excitement;
an operation which sets 10 million of electors in mo-
tion in the midst of conflicting passions, the conse-
quences of which might become dangerous. The
passiveness of the Government in such a question
would be tantamount to abdication, and to this we
cannot consent. The intervention of Government
at elections is justified by common sense and the
nature of things, as well as by tradition; and to
prove this I will merely quote all the declarations
made on this right under the system which was the
cradle of that constitutional monarchy which you
love so much, the Government of July, and also
under the Republic. If these quotations are not
useful to the Chamber, they will be so out of doors.
In 1816 Duke Decazes wrote to the prefects :—"The
confidence of his Majesty in the prefects will not
be deceived. They will leave nothing undone to
keep away from the Chamber about to be elected
both the enemies of the throne and legitimacy who
are desirous of overthrowing one and destroying the
other; and the imprudent friends who have the pre-
tension of serving the King otherwise than he
wishes to be served." On the 20th of January, 1824,
the Minister of Justice wrote to the Procureurs-
Generaux, " The Government requires the Pro-
=ours du Roi, the officers of justice, and ministerial
officers to co-operate loyally, actively, and effica-
ciously in the elections. The Government appoints
to public offices in order to be served and seconded."
On the 20th of March, 1826, M. de Martignac, in
his report on the bill relating to the permanence of
the lists, declared that " the influence of Government
over elections is necessary to counterbalance that
which is exercised against it, and that it could not,
without failing in its first duty, give itself up un-
armed to its adversaries." We come to 1830—a
revolution has occurred, passions are over-excited,
the electoral struggle begins, and M. Casimir Perier
Minister of the Interior writes to the Prefects " that
the Government does not intend remaining neutral
in the elections, and that the Administration must
not remain so either. Between the impartiality
which it must always observe," he adds, " and
neutrality the distance is immense." I would not
quote M. Theirs's opinion. He has described the
ejections of 1831 with great sincerity ; as to his
exactness, M. Glais-Bizoin, who was elected in 1834,
will tell him that he considered those elections to
have been the most detestable and odious operation
possible.
M. Glais-Bisoin—l think so still.

M. Rouher—Has time filled up the gulph that existed
between you and M. Thiers ? 1 should not be astonished if
it had, for of late I have observed that time has filled up
abysses still deeper than that. (Much applause.) In. 1834,
as I was saying, the elections took place in the midst of an
agitation caused by events that had ensanguined the streets
of Lyons and Paris ; and the same principles were prevalent.
In 1846 Count Duchatel wrote, on Sept. 6 :—" There aro
certain absolute opinions which pretend that the Adminis-
tration ought to remain impassible and inactive during the
elections. No Cabinet has ever done so; we do not com-
plain of attacks, but what would become of a Government
which, when unremittingly assailed, should abstain from
defending itself ?" The elections took place, and were veri-
fied with extreme ardour. Doubtless, M. Thiers himself
did not find that all properties had been respected, for the
word corruption resounded throughout the whole of France.
The year 1848 arrived. M. Jules Fevre has not recoiled
from the task of defending with his great oratorical energy
the acts of that epoch; he has told us that the Government
of those days had no official candidates ; that it exercised no
pressure on elections ; that it saved France, and that it
found all Frenchmen rallying themselves around it with an
ardour unknown under a monarchy. And can you then
affirm that the Government of 1318 did not intervene at
elections ? I assert that it not only exercised its rights; but
even abused them. A few citations will show this. In the
month of March the Minister of the Interior wrote to the
Commissaries of the Republic, "You mast now occupy
yourselves with the elections—your powers are unlimitedf;
agents of a revolution, you also are revolutionary ; the
victory of the people has imposed on you the mandate of
consolidating the work in the name of public safety." Pub-
lic safety I A sinister expression which carries us back to
another epoch I On March lath the second bulletin told
the Commissioners to be on their guard against the Royalist
party. Vie were the Royalists of those days. "Paris,'
said that bulletin, "is the heart and the brain of France."

Several Voices—That is it.
M. Rouher—l have been asked what I was doing at that
time. I was struggling against the violence of the Ultra-
Republicans in my province, and I remember that they
threatened to throw us inw the Seine if we wero elected.
On April 15, 1848, it was written that if the elections did
not ensure the triumph of truth, they would be the ruin of
the Republic; and that then the people who made the bar-
ricades woald have but one course for safety, that of mani-
festing their will afresh, and adjourning the decisions of a
false national representation. "Is it possible," it was said,
"that France can desire to force Paris to have recourse to
this extreme and deplorable remedy ? ' (Sensation.)

M. Pelletan—These words have been disavowed.
M. E. Picard—Did you contest the bulletin when it ap-
peared ?
M. Rouher—To M. Pelletan I reply, Yes, the bulletin
was disavowed, but after the elections had been made.
(Noise.) It was said that it had been published by mistake
instead of another, but it nevertheless weighed on the mind
of France, and excited general indignation. M. Picard asks
me if I protested.
M. Thiers-1 ut we are not in the question.
M. Rouher—l can understand the interruption of M.
Thiers. His recollections are painful, but we must know
how to accept all solidarities—those of the past as well as
those of the present.
Some Voices—No, no.
M. Picard—Confine yourself to your own parts. (Noise.)
M. Thiers—At the epoch of which you speak I was on
your side. (Renewed noise.)
M. Rouher vindicated the right of the Government to in-
terfere in the elections, alleging the examples of all previous
Governments from 1815 to 1848, in favour of the practice.
He alleged that the Government could not make further
concessions whilst there were hostile parties whose hopes
were still directed to the overthrow of the Government.
Jules Favre could not obtain a hearing, and the amend-
ment, affirming the principle of non-interference of the
Government in the elections, was negatived—but the large-
ness of the minority, 44 votes, is considered as a triumph
for the Opposition.

CURIOUS DISCOVERY OF PICTURES AT GLOIL
CESTER.—The town-house of the wealthy family of •
Guise, a mansion of about Queen Anne's period, has lately
been occupied as a school of art; and during the alteration
for this purpose, a projection of panelling in a small
sitting-room, called "Pope's room," was removed, when a
fine portrait of Pope was discovered behind it. On re-
moving the panelling on the opposite side another painting
was revealed, since said to be the " Temptation," by Guido.
A man in a rich dress of the time'of Francois I. is holding
up a string of pearls to a woman, who appears to be resist-
ing his tempting offer. It is described as a remarkably fine
painting. The pictures are now in the possession of Mr.
Baylis, Thames-bank, Fulham.
RAILWAY OPENINGS IN LONDON.—A railway,
with branches, for the Isle of Dogs, 13 new bridges
over the Thames, one new Thames Tunnel, two railways to
go through the existing Thames Tunnel, a railway in the
middle of the river itself, with stations at each of the
bridges, new docks in the Isle of Dogs, nearly as large as
the East and West India Doeks put together, a dock in
South Lambeth, new Courts of Justice, the crossing of Hol-
born Valley by a viaduct, Pneumatic Despatch tubes, a
new arcade from Regent-street to Bond-street, a railway
diagonally across Hyde Park, another transversely through
Kensington Gardens, two lines down Constitution Hill,
going on through St. James's Park and under, or over, the
Admiralty; the classic land of Alsatia, or Whitefriars,
scored for nine branches or junctions,the single street called
Houndsditch contended for by four competing lines, that
Paradise of Mr. A. Smee's imagination,Finsbury Circus, the
Promised Land of engineers, demanded by three companies,
and—before our breath is gone, let us condemn the last we
can contrive to name—a bridge to connect the thickly po-
pulated and highly salubrious district of Battersea with
Chelsea—a thing fatal to the beauty of Cheyne Walk, the
most picturesque street near ;—these are a few of the sub -
jects.upon which the House of Commons will have to de •
tide in the approaching session.
No llo3in complete without a WILCOX AND Gums'
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noiseless. Warranted to fulfil all the requirements of a
perfect family machine. Prospectus free on application at
No. 135, Regent-street, W.—[ADVT.]
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Police. Cure, No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley
Surrey, of ili:tty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver
derangement. and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Miss
Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion,
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I grocers and chemists in every town of the Vatted Kingdom.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Jan. 16.

At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in
Belfast yesterday a very interesting report was read upon
the linen trade and the growth of flax. It states that the
past year was one of general prosperity. All the machinery
used in its different branches was in active operation, and
the production of linen yarns and goods has exceeded that
of any former time. Operatives were in constant employ-
ment at good wages, and the general trade of the town was
consequently very favourably affected. The crop of flax in
1863 was unprecedented in extent, no less than 214,000
acres having been sown. The yield per acre was also
above the average, and the crop was estimated at 60,000
tons, producing to the cultivators upwards of £5,000,000.
This is an immense amount to receive for a single crop in
one district of the country—but, unprecedentedly large as
the produce was, it found a ready sale at highly remune-
rative prices. Nor has the manufacture of linen been
overdone in Belfast, which is to the linen trade what
Manchester is to the cotton trade. On the con-
trary, the year closed with stocks of yarns and
linens reduced to the lowest point. It has been
stated that when the American war is brought to a
termination the demand for linen will be much reduced.
The council adduce arguments to prove that this will not
be the case. The supply of flax from all quarters has
hitherto been inadequate to meet the constantly increasing
requirements of the trade, so that in Scotland, where the
coarser descriptions of linen are made, large quantities of
hemp, jute, and other substitutes have been employed. The
United Kingdom imports on an average of years seven-
tenths of- its supply of flax, the greater portion of which
comes from Russia, where it is grown of inferior quality
under great disadvantage as regards climate. In Ireland,
on the contrary, there are all disadvantages of soil and cli-
mate, and if it could meet the demand the importations
from Russia would be•immensely reduced. The council,
therefore, come to the conclusion that not only the inte-
rests of Belfast, bat the well-being of the agricultural
classes of the whole of Ireland, depend very much on the
extension of flax cultivation. The council report also that
the external trade of Belfast is making such progress that
the existing docks are quite insufficient for the commerce of
the port, and that the Harbour Commissioners have conse-
quently entered into contracts for the construction of a
large floating dock and a large graving dock, the works of
which will be immediately commenced. Shipbuilding
flourishes there also. Last year 80 vessels, all iron, of an
aggregate tonnage of 7,070, were launched, one being a
screw steamer of 2,000 tons, and there are now five ships on
the stocks. The report was unanimously adopted. Mr.
William Ewart, president of the Chamber for last year, was
succeeded by Mr. Robert Henderson, who on taking the
chair thanked the meeting for the honour conferred on him.
A vote of thanks was then moved to the late president,
which was passed with acclamation.
The North-East Agricultural Association held its annual
meeting in Belfast yesterday, its founder, the Marquis of
Downshire, in the chair. Mr. Bingham, the secretary,
read the report for the last year, from which it appeared
that the prizes offered in money, medals, and honorary
certificates were increased last year to the sum of £440, in
addition to the challenge cups, value £lB6. The report
notices with regret that there were no entries of farms in
the past year for the prizes offered for improved cultivation.
The committee refer with satisfaction to the attention paid
to their rules for the cultivation of flax, and give expres-
sion to the strong claims of the association on all persons
connected with the linen trade, in consequence of the
great expense incurred by it in promoting the cultivation
of flax. Res dutions were moved and seconded by the
Mayor of Belfast, Mr. w. Longtree, the Rev. Dr. Mont-
gomery, Major Maxwell, and Mr. Getty, M.P. •
The industrial exhibition of the 12th Regiment, the
opening of which has been already noticed in The Sun,
was closed last night. The 12th Regiment furnishes occu-
pation and amusement to its literary members by the
publication of a Gazette, and it is interesting to learn from
heir own " organ" what they think of this industrial effort,

especially as it furnishes such an excellent example to
every other regiment, showing how the men may be saved
from the temptation and evils of idleness, The editor of
the Gazette says :

"It is an exhibition of our industry—industry carried

on in hours that heretofore we have wasted in riot and
id:mess ; industry that has benefitted us in health and
feeling; industry that will prove
.to the world at large

and to our own personal friends that, soldiers though
we be, we have not forgotten the trades and teaching of
our early life, and that we are fit for something more
than mere food for powder.' One of the first and,
we think,' the most important features in our exhi-
bition, a feature which was early impressed upon
the men of the regiment, and has been attended with
the greatest success, was that the exhibition was open
to all ranks, from the colonel to the drummer boy, from the
recruit to the veteran of nigh 30 years' service, from the
latest denizen of the cells to the proud owner of five good
conduct stripes—to one and all was our exhibition open.
Character was to be of no account, for, indeed, it was
mainly for the sake of those of indifferent characters, and
whose weakness mad:natural infirmities led them into temp •
tation and inevitable punishment and disgrace, that our
present undertaking was attempted. Many there were who
were without funds to purchase the materials fur carrying
out their designs, and as it would have been mistaken kind •
ness to afford pecuniary assistance to those whose worst
enemies were themselves, a uniform system was adopted of
giving orders on tradespeople in the city through the trea-
surer, by which means the required material were delivered
to the men in barracks, thereby saving them a long walk,
and keeping the weak from temptation. All have worked
with ready zeal, all have been animated by the desire to up-
hold the credit of their regiment, and it is no small gratifi-
cation to reflect that, limited as our tines has been, in no
way has the discipline of the regiment been relaxed, on no
account has working for the exhibition' been put forward
as a plea for exemption from military duties."
The oyster fisheries of Ireland are now attracting serious
attention. The dredging system is fast exhausting our
most celebrated and productive public beds, such as those
of Carlingford, the Foyle, and Swilly. Mr. Barry, Commis-
sioner of Fisheries, has been making a series of inquiries at
Westport, Newport, and Sligo on the subject of oyster cul-
ture on the Atlantic coast. It is believed that were this pro-
perly attended to the oyster fishery would be far more valu-
able than the salmon fishery. No less a sum than £B,OOO
was paid at Arklow, on the Wicklow coast, for oyster brood,
to be laid down on French and English beds. Each brood
oyster casts off myriads of young during the spawning sea-
son, each being furnished with a transitory swimming ap-
paratus. They float about on the surface for a while,
and finally drop down to the sea bottom, and attach them-
selves by a natural gum to the pebbles, shells, and other
hard substances. Tne coasts of Ireland are peculiarly suit-
able for oyster culture in its highest perfection. Clew and
Newport Bays, the subject of the late inquiry by the Fishery
Commissioners, have upwards of 50 miles of sea bottom ad-
mirably fitted for this purpose. That coast is indented with
innumerable well-sheltered creeks and inlets, and an abun-
dance of fresh water flows into them under the most favour-
able conditions. Upon these facts the Freeman's Journal
founds a sensible exhortation to the inhabitants along the
Irish coasts :-
4' Let, then, the fishermen and the proprietors of the fore-
shores cordially combine in tuning to profitable account
these great physical advantages. Let them, by benefiting
themselves, save from destruction this abundant source of
food, wealth, and employment. By pursuing the judicious
course of culture so advantageously adopted in France and
England the oyster fishery of Clew Bay alone will, upon the
Whitstable; extensive and profitable employment will be
secured for thousands of our poor countrymen; and the
fishermen, by cultivating the now neglected mine of wealth
testimony of most competent authority, surpass that of
which lies at their own doors, and enriching themselves to
the public advantage, will dismiss from their thought that
besetting desire for emigration, which can only result in tha
ruin of our country."

The following document removes all uncertainty
as to the ultimate destination of the head of the
beautiful Princess de Lamballe which was cut off, and
duringcarried
thethrough
te
terror
r thein
h els7t9r3:eet_s of,, 'Paris, at the end of a pike,
and I. of Equality. Citizen Jacques, Pointel of the Corn-
market, 69, Rue des Petits-Champs,
e applied to the com-
mittee for permission to inter the head of the ci-devant
Princess de Lamball
Year IV. 5
,-,
f2O u.y
Per-
manentrt,
committee.
possession of. AsseptembeSreC3tdio.ll
of
the patriotism and humanity of the said
citizen 'could not but be commended, we immediately pro-
ceeded to the cemetery of the Enfans-Trouves, near the
1 which he had succeeded in obtaining
place where our committee met, and within our section, 1
where we had the said head buried, and we have given the
present act to serve the said citizen as a dischage and
authorisation. Dune in the committee, on the above-men-
tioned day and year.—DESEQUELLE, Commissioner of the
15-20."—This document was lately disposed of at a sale of
autographs in the Rue Dreuot.
An Artesian well is at the present moment being
bored in the neighbourhood of La Chapelle, and another at
the top of the Butte-aux-Cailles, near the Gobelins. This
latter, from its great elevation, will supply water to the
highest parts of Paris on the left bank of the Seine.
The first steamer for conveying passengers to
Upper Egypt started last week.
The arrangements are very
good. The cabins, 52 in number, are large, airy, and well-
furnished. The dining room is on deck, and holds over
60 people. A doctor o.oes with every steamer. The charge
is £3O first class, and £2O second, and the trip takes 20 to 25
days,
[A DvEnTismENT.:l-11olloway's Ointment.—All va-
rieties of ulcerations, bad legs, sores, wounds, and erup-
tions can be cured by the diligent use of this cooling,
soothing, and healing unguent. The old and often failing
fashion {of strapping
the edges of ulcers together with
plaster has entirely given way before the more reasonable
treatment by Holloway's Ointment, which builds up from
the bottom of the wound with sound and healthy. granula-
tions; these gradually grow till they reach the lever of the
surface, then contract harden, and immediately become
covered with a new and' wholesome skin. The proper
ca
apupshecsa
tt
hi oen
uonf
ht
ehai
Ist
hOyi ndt
ims
eehnatr dgiemfii
rill:
ts ht
toes s g
rt ho
we itnhfli
cakm, mt
haetni o nt
0,
cease, when the swelling disappears and the natural shape
is restored.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REvlEw.—We do not intend to weary
ourselves with recounting all the little squabbles of
the Shakepeare Memorial Committee. The com-
mittee has attracted to itself, somehow or other,
names honourable and dignified ; but the original
promoters have not as yet sold out. The secretaries,
who, we suppose, appointed themselves, as most
secretaries do, have contrived to make the Shak-
speare Memorial a very unpleasant chapter in the
annals of contemporary literature. And now many
of the gentlemen who have been imported into the
committee are doing their best to preserve, if it be
possible, from utter shipwreck the whole scheme,
which, merely as a scheme for honouring Shak-

speare's memory, deserves every encouragement.
The past, however, cannot be undone. The ugly
little episode in which an affront was intended, or
at least inflicted, on the late Mr. Thackeray, must
remain as a piece of personal pique and very bad
management, as well as bad taste, exhibited by
somebody. The misunderstandings between Lon-
don and Stratford ought to have been prevented.
Such an unseemly meeting as that of last Monday

ought never to have been necessary. An executive
committee which is so badly administered that its se-
cretaries permit the newspapers to publish a draft
report which had never even been considered in com-
mittee, is evidently unfit for the functions it has
assumed. The gentlemen of this committee have
done the work of " promoters" by getting some good
and honourable names added to their body, but it
is quite plain that they are fit for nothing else. Nor
is this to be wondered at. If such veteran students
in Shakspeare as Messrs. Collier, and Dyce, and
Knight are not entrusted with devising the best
means of honouring Shakspeare' it is no great won-
der that small authors and small artists, editors and
paragraph writers, surveyors and popular journal-
ists fail. If this Shakspeare Memorial is not a
genuine mice, -3, it will be a very disreputable na-
tional failure. As was very properly observed on
Monday, " the Committee was compromised in the
face of Europe." The name and fame of Shakspeare
are too precious and too solemn a trust to be com-
promised by even an approach to those little arts of
jobbery and self-seeking of which we have seen too
much in Albert Memorials and Great Exhibition
Memorials. Certain names and certain influences
recur periodically in these Memorial Committees.
The Society of Arts, according to its wont, has im-
parted its usual spirit of meddlesomeness into an-
other" national" commemoration. We have no
great wish to see a great Shakspeare statue erected
—and of course it is hoped to erect it in that chosen
home of all jobs, the South Kensington site—and
decorated with an inscription as brazen and preten-

tious as their own estimate of their own merits, re-
cording all the Presidents and Vice-Presidents and
Secretaries and Committees who have made capital

out of the name of Shakspeare. We have an anti-
cipatory dread and horror of Mr. Bellew and his
lectures. We see in the threatening distance fancy
fetes and Crystal Palace celebrations to eke out the
funds. The vision of pretty actresses exhibiting
themselves and their admirers under the mighty
name of Shakspeare is not encouraging. The
provincial programme proposed by the Committee
scarcely reassures us. To order a national holiday
for the 233 April is a feat of self-confidence
which savours somewhat more of boldness than pru-
deuce. To declare that the committee will on that

day lay the first stone of a memorial for which most
inadequate subscriptions are as yet forthcoming,
and for which probably no design is prepared, is a
little strong, not to say premature. To offer medals
for prize poems on Shakspeare revives horrible re-
miniecenees of Mr. Phelps speuting Miss Isa Craig's
dithyrambics in honour of poor Burns at Syden-
ham ; and the Shaksperian Soiree to be held in
Westminster Hall suggests speeches which it is a
nightmare oven to speculate upon. It is all very
well to nominate Archbishops and Dukes and Pre-
sidents of Artistic Societies to do this, that, and the
other; but will they come when they are called?
and aro the provinces of the Site Committee, and
the Address Committee, and the Dramatic Com-
mittee, and the Finance Committee, and the Feecu-
five Committee adjusted and understood ? The un-
toward circumstances connected with the Aston
Park job, and the use that was made of distin-
guished patronage on that discreditable occasion,
render us, if not suspicious, at least cautious. As
things stand, the managing "parties" have done
little to attract, much to alienate, public confidence.
The national honour is concerned in everything
connected with such an undertaking as a Sheiks-
peare Memorial. If good taste, perfect straight-
forwardness, and entire self-renunciation do not
connect themselves with the scheme, let it perish as
an abortive instance of bad management, bad taste,
and bad feeling—characteristics which we regret to
see aro not altogether absent from the proceedings
as they stand. Our national neglect to render the
honour due to the name of Shakspeare, and the un-
happy absence of a public monument, may still
plead Milton's noble apology :
What needs my Shakspeare, fur his honoured bones,
The labour of an age in piled stones ?
Or that his hallowed re!iques should be hid
Faddr a star-ypointing pyramid
Dear Son of Memory, great heir of Fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou, is our wonder and astonishment,
Host built thyself a live-long monument.
For whilst, to the shame of slow endeavouring art,
Thy easy numbers flow; and that each heart
Hath, from the leaves of thy unvalued book,
Those Delphick lines with deep impression took;
Then, thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And, so sepulchral, in such pomp dost lie,
That kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die.
And we had rather that this disgrace, if such it is,
should contiuue than that an attempt should be
made to redeem it by anything which even looks
like meanness, bad taste, and a job.
READER.—With all due deference to the Anti-
Commemorationists—and we confess to a sympathy
with Anti ••Commeniorationism in general—we sub-
mit that their interpretation and application of
Milton's lines are capable of being disputed, We
do not see that, Milton's though they be, they need
smash Tercentenary. " What needs our Shake-
speare for his honoured bones ?" is Milton's ques-
tion; and if that were the question now,
the answer would still be, as Milton volun-
teered it, "No visible monument at all, but
only that reading and re-reading of his works
which makes ourselves his marble." But that is
not the question now: Two hundred and thirty-
three years have elapsed since then ; and Shah-
spears is not now to us the Warwickshire poet and
player recently dead, and whom we might have
seen many a time in Fleet-street or Blackfriars, but
an olden hero of our nation, whose form and man-
ner as he lived we strive eagerly to fancy through
the mythical mist, and whose name and fame are
identified with our highest intellectual exultations,
and all our notions of the historical greatness of Eng-
land. The question no iv is not" What needs Shale-
speare ?" but "What needs our feeling for Shale-
speare?" There is a considerable difference. It is not
for Shakspeare's sake, nor because any honour can be
done to hire, that the Tercentenary Commemoration
is proposed ; it is because the strength of cur na-
tional feeling about Shakspeare would vent itself,-
according to a natural instinct which has existed
among men since the beginning of the world, in
some suitable form of expression on an occasion so
marked as the three-hundredth anniversary of his
birth. This is the true principle of monuments and
commemorations—it is not that they do anything
for the dead; it is that the feelings of the living,
require them, or find delight in them. The pas-
sion for such public celebrations is, no doubt,
weaker in these recent times than it was in times
of old ; and there is at least a considerable sect who,
as opposed to all such shows and excitements, may
be. called Anti-Commemorationist on principle.
But the Corememorationists—those who think
that it is a right and proper thing to have occasional
public celebrations of important anniversaries—are
still in the majority; and on the present occasion.
it would appear, they are overwhelmingly in the
majority. While a few people here and there are
in ill temper with the whole Tercentenary business
of which they are hearing so much, and keep mum-
bling to themselves Milton's words, "What needs
my Shakspeare ?" as if these words settled the
question, the overwhelmning majority seem to have
made up their minds that, for once, Britain may
try a celebration on a national scale, and that, if
only proper arrangements are made for such a cele-
bration on the next 23d of April, they will go
heartily into it. When it is remembered that our
Poet-Laureate has signified his approval of the in-
tended Commemoration by accepting a Vice-Presi-
dency in connexion with both the London
and the Stratford-on-Avon preparations, it will
be seen that this is a case in which many in
whose nature it would be rather to discourage
public celebrations than to delight in them have
concluded that an exception may fitly be made.
But all depends on the nature of the arrangements
that are made beforehand. The willingness of the
public to join in a national celebration of the Ter-
centenary, if they can be told the proper way, is
nearly all that has yet been avowed ; and the cele-
bration may yet be wrecked, or crippled, or dwarfed
by mismanagement on the part of those who have
undertaken to organise it. Whether, as far as Lon-
don is concerned, irretrievable damage has not
already been done by recant unfortunate occurrences
, remains to he seen.
LONDON REVIEW.--Why should Shakspeare
have a statue? There are no distinct memories of
the greatest poet of the world. In spite of Gervinus
and the Germans he has neither is history nor a
personality. To Englishmen and to mankind at
large he has become a voice. Like Homer he has
passed out of the region of statues and of portraits
into the re„ ni 9f mists and shadows. A agnate the