The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-07 00:00:00

COMMISSION OF LUNACY.

Yesterday a commission of lunacy on Mr.
Samuel Naylor, which occupied four successive
days, at Clement's Inn Hall, was brought to a con-
clusion. Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., and Mr. Garth were
for the petitioners; and Mr. Noggins, Q.C., and
Mr. Foster for the alleged lunatic, who was a gen-
tleman with about £240 a year, and had resided in
North Wales, at a picturesque spot called "Coed
Fa," near Llanrwst, Denbighshire.
Numerous witnesses were called on both sides. Mr.
Naylor had been educated at Oxford University,
and was described as an accomplished scholar. He
had lived some years in Wales, and in answer to an
allegation that he was of "no religion," it was stated
that he was a "worshipper of nature." He resided
with his son and daughter, being a widower. He
had amassed £l,OOO, which he had funded. He had
a quarrel with a neighbour named Sharpe, and was
bound over to keep the peace. It was admitted, on
his behalf, that he laboured under a delusion with
respect to that gentleman. About the same time
his friends presented a petition in lunacy, and he
was taken to Ticehurst, Sussex, under the care of
Dr. James Newington and Dr. Turner, who were
of opinion that he laboured under monomania..
Among the witnesses for the defence was Mr.
Tom Taylor, who had known Mr. Naylor ten years,
and had visited him in Wales. He described him
as a person of sound mind, but admitted that he la-
boured under a delusion with respect to Mr. Sharpe.
Mr. Tom Taylor said Mr. Naylor was devoted to
literature and art, and was of a highly cultivated
mind. Admiral Watling and his lady gave similar
evidence.

Mr. Commissioner Barlow inquired whether Mr.
Naylor was in attendance, or was expected to attend
the inquiry. It was always satisfactory to see the
alleged lunatic.
Mr. Hoggins said Mr. Naylor was at Boulogne,
on his way from Paris, to attend the commission.
He was ill, and without funds.

Several letters recently written by Mr. Naylor
were read, and one arrived during the discussion in
which he expressed an opinion that if he came over
he might be " kidnapped" as he was before.
Mr. Hoggins said if a promise were given that
Mr. Naylor would not be taken, a telegram would
be sent for his attendance.

Mr. Commissioner Barlow could not see how such
a promise could be given.
, In the course of the case a MS. work of Mr. Naylor
in, reference to Mr. Sharpe, was produced,
and Mr.
lom Taylor said, making allowance for same gross
allusion, it was in his opinion the work of a sane per-
son. Mr. Coleridge described it as a "mesa of filth
and indecency."
Eventually the jury found Mr. Naylor to be of
unsound mind—thirteen agreed and one dissented.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

POST.—The question of how and where to find
a king, which is the Greek question, maintains its
distinction as the great puzzle of the day. One
would have thought that candidates for a crown

would have pressed forward in crowds, and that
statesmen would have had difficulty in holding an
even balance between the rivals. Far from this :

only one solitary little intrigue arose out of the
matter. The Russians made a very quiet and
subdued attempt to forward the Duke of
Leuchtenberg, who, however, vanished at once
before the letter of treaties which was held also
to forbid the Greeks from all hope of their dearly
fancied Alfred. After that came a pause. No

prince was put forward, no claims were urged
or combated, no strife sprang up. So the sceptre

,
was quietly offered to an ex-king. But Dom Fer-
dinand had had enough of regal cares, and preferred
his ease and quiet in the pleasant palaces of Por-
tugal. A wise and sensible choice then pointed to

the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in whom all good

qualities and all requisite qualifications seemed to
be united. Conditions, however, were encountered
which raised serious obstacles. The Duke would

not go to Greece unless allowed to keep Coburg
also. For many reasons this was not desirable, and
the offer was therefore virtually withdrawn, and a
tender of the Crown was made to the Prince of

. .
Lemingen, on whose part, having no State of his
own, no such difficulties could be anticipated. It
was thought that he would certainly accept.
Princely blood has its duties as well as its privi-
leges, and one of the first duties incumbent on per-
sons born in the purple or its folds is to make sacri-
fiee of personal inclination at the call of public duty.
To the prince, nevertheless, it seemed otherwise,
and the captain of the Magicienne replied that ha
preferred his quarter-deck to a throne, and the
happy position of an English gentleman to the tur-
moils, scandals, and labours of a Court., This deter-

mination made it necessary to resort once more to

,he Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and as his highness had

given an implied consent, with conditions, it was
naturally expected that by accepting his conditions

he matter would be finally settled. It was no

doubt on the faith of this very reasonable supposi-

tion that Mr. Eliot was instructed to inform the
Greeks that the Duke would be put forward as a

candidate for their throne. It is not a little vexa-
tious, that whea the Hellenic people, recovered
from their first disappointment, had resolved to wel-
come the Duke with almost the same enthusiasm as
they accorded to Prince Alfred, it should be dis-
covered after all that the fatal conditions concerned
not only the Duke, but his people ; that it did not
suffice for him to declare that he was willing to
take Greece if he might keep Coburg, but that the
States of Gotha had a voice so potential in the mat-
ter that they could refuse to sanction any such
transaction. By the constitution, the Duke is re-

quired to reside in Gotha, and by their constitution
the States determined to abide. The Duke, in
obedience to the wishes of his own people, found
himself thus compelled to decline the proffered
honour. At least we have been so informed by:a
telegram, which has been confirmed by another
telegram, announcing the formal thanks of the
States addressed to him for his refusal. As far as
we know, his official answer containing the refusal
referred to has not yet arrived in this country, but
we are afraid that though at this hour negotiations
are thus not formally complete, all illusion as to
their issue must now be dispelled, and it will be-
come the duty of those concerned to look in some
other quarter for an eligible candidate. The young
Prince of Coburg-Kohary, who was to have been
declared the Duke's heir to the Greek succession, is
only just eighteen years of age, and is, therefore,
far too young and inexperienced to be selected,
and the " Almanach de Gotha" will now have to be
searched for some prince who may combine some,
if not all, of the desirable qualifications. We sin-
cerely regret the disappointment that this fruitless
issue must inflict on the eager and expectant Greeks.
None, however, can doubt the earnestness and good-
will with which the English Government have acted
in their anxious efforts to secure for the Hellenic
kingdom a Sovereign who would give every gua-
rantee to his subjects and to Europe for the good
government of his important charge. A variety of
names are now again mentioned, and amongst them
that of Prince Nicholas of Nassau, who is thirty-
one years of age, and who is understood to be a man
of intelligence and ability. His Highness has ab-
stained from takin g much par t in public life hitherto.
As a soldier he saw service in the Austrian camp
in Italy, but it is believed that he was there present
more with a view to the study:of the science of arms
than from any idea of identifying himself with a
policy or a cause. We only indicate his name,
however, as one of several that may be decided upon.
The present position of the Greek question must at
last prove to those foreign journals which, like the
Nord, have insisted on seeing in every phase of it,
English intrigue and perfidious designs, how
thoroughly we have acted in simple honesty. Fairly
doing our best to bring about the best result, they
may perhaps at last believe in our unfeigned regret
that a result has not yet been attained.
TIMES. —The real wish of the Northern people
was that we should unhesitatingly have sympa-
thised with a cause so holy as their own, and de-
precated with horror the attempt of a few rebellious
States to overthrow so glorious and beneficent a
Government as that of the old Union. All their
complaints come to this—that we have persisted in
regarding the contest as a struggle between two
belligerents entitled in equal degrees to our neu-
trality and forbearance. What they would have
liked was such an expression of opinion on the part
of the whole country as Mr. Bright occasionally
delivers on his own special behalf, whereas, instead
of this one-sided enthusiasm, they have met with
nothing but cold calculation and dispassionate rea-
soning. We acknowledge that the Union of the
North American States was a thing too precious to
be lost without an effort to preserve it, but we can•
not regard this Imperial Unity as indispensable to
national existence or even national grandeur. We
think that the region between the St. Lawrence
and the Gulf of Mexico is large enough for two
States, however ambitious or expansive they may be.
We cannot enter into the alleged impossibilities of a
division which, after all, would be only such a division
as every other country has witnessed. We thus regard
the objects of the war as by no means essential to the
well-being of Americans, and at the same time we
consider that, whether essential or otherwise, they
are manifestly unattainable. Inasmuch, therefore,
as they are pursued without hope at a prodigious
cost of life and treasure in America, and with a very
deplorable effect upon the industry of Europe, we
should heartily rejoice to see the attempt relin-
quished and the carnage brought to a close. These,
in a few words, are the sentiments which have
proved so unacceptable to the people of the North,
and yet, if the Federals would but weigh the re-
marks of our statesmen with unprejudiced minds,
they would see how entirely England is free from
those jealousies or antipathies which they have sup-
posed to lie at the bottom of our opinions. Lord
Derby mentioned a fact more than once recorded in
these pages—the original leaning of this country
to the side of the North. " I believe," said he, "that
at first the feelings of this country were strongly
in favour of the North, and that it was not generally
supposed that the North would have any great diffi-
culty in overrunning and subduing the South."
That was certainly the general opinion two years
ago. Few people imagined that even these results
would be equivalent to a restoration of the Union,
or that the Southern people, if they were resolutely
bent on independence, could be permanently held in
bondage ; but we considered that the South had
provoked the war, and that in the strife so caused
twenty millions of people must prevail in the field
against ten. Both these conclusions, however, have
long been superseded. We have discovered that the
South was animated by many and powerful motives
in desiring a separation from the North, and we
have seen to our surprise that the numbers and re-
sources of the North have failed to yield even that
military ascendancy which they were expected to
create. In addition, therefore, to considerations of
expediency, we have now the logic of facts. The
North can make no head whatever against the re-
sistance of the South. Though " large Federal
armies," as Lord Derby said, " are in Southern

territory," they are only on its fringe. The largest
army of the whole cannot accomplish a day's march

into the nearest Southern State. In fact, the
advantage of the war is decidedly with the Confe-
derates, and if we were to form our estimate from
these results, we might say that one belligerent was
just as strong and as powerful as the other. The
exhaustion of Southern resources, so repeatedly
predicted, has never come to pass ; the last battles
have been the most desperate of the whole war, and
few indeed are the people, even in New York itself,
who now txpect that the South can be subdued.
Lord Russell said rather more than Lord Derby.
He went so far as to state that in his opinion there
could be no end of the struggle so calamitous to the
Americans themselves as that end which we have
been abused for not desiring and anticipating. He
would gladly see the Union restored if such a resto-
ration were conces.vable, but, failing such a chance,
he thought that two great independent republics,
each endowed with ample resources, would promise
far better for the interests of humanity thana single
State divided against itself, and compelled by that
very division to stifle freedom and rule by mere force
of arms. The success of the South would leave the
North at liberty to pursue its original policy on the
original principles of the Constitution, and to pre-
sent itself to the world as a great and free Govern-
ment still. The success of the North, on the only
conditions possible, would encumber it with a re-
bellious and impracticable dependency, in the ad-
ministration of which all the maxims of civil free-
dom must necessarily be discarded. 'Chose who
assert that it is incumbent on every friend of liberty
to take part with the Federals had better answer
this argument of Lord Russell's. With regard to
the propriety of attempting some mediation be-
tween the belligerents, the unanimity of opinion
was almost as remarkable as on the prospects of the
war. Lord Grey approved cordially the Ministerial
policy of forbearance. Mr. Disraeli did the same,
and expressed himself even in language of com-
pliment, though of course he could not refrain from
a thrust at the varieties of opinion which he as-
sumed to exist in the Cabinet. Lord Malmesbury
alone conceived that at any cost, save that of dis-
honour, we should have joined the French Govern-
ment in an endeavour to stop so dreadful a war.
But even from this point of view our duty was evi-
dently to do what was best, and it was better to
avoid any chance of embittering the strife, and to
reserve our good offices for a possible opportunity,
than to intrude ourselves at a moment when it was
all but morally certain that our intervention would
be rejected. Lord Derby observed that on this
point Ministers might reasonably be supposed to
have the best information, but no one who had
watched the course of American politics could have
considered the result as even doubtful. These, then,
after a recess of six eventful months, are the con-
clusions to which statesman of all parties have been
brought. There is not of them who believes that
the restoration of the American Union, on the terms
of its original Constitution, is a possible event.
There is not one who believes that the forcible sub-
jugation of the South is a possible alternative,
though there is one who declares his opinion that
such a conquest, if it were practicable, would only
prove the political ruin of all America together.
We arrive, then, at the one conclusion remaining,
that a separation on peaceable terms and at the
earliest moment is the result which the friends of
America ought to desire. That is precisely the
opinion we have been advocating from the beginning
of the war. It is obnoxious, we know, to the
thorough. going partisans of Democracy, but it has
now been adopted and confessed by common con-
sent on the very first night of the Session.