The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING. DECEMBER 15, 1863.

no NOT FORGET YOUR APPOINTMENT.
—We Sup at EVANS', Covent-garden, after Jullien's
Concert.

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BRANDY.
This celebrated Old IRISH WIIISKY rivals the finest
FRENCH BRANDY,
It i Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. Bd,, at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the principal towns in England ; or wholesale
al

8, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
Kinahan's LL Whisky."

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

Her Majesty's screw steam line-of-battle ship Conqueror,
78, 500 horse power, Capt. W. G. Luard, after having un-
dergone an official trial at the measured mile, off i laplin
Sands, was inspected yesterday at Sheerness, where she has
been fitted out, .by the commander-in-chief of that port,
Vice-Admiral Sir G. R. Lambert, K.C.B. She sailed im-
mediately afterwards for Plymouth, where she will take on
board a battalion of Marines, as well as a large number of
supernumeraries, and proceed with them to Japan.
The Salamander, 6, paddlewheel sloop, 818 tons, 220
horse power, now preparing for sea with all despatch at
Sheerness dockyard, and recently commissioned by Com-
mander the Hon. J. Carnegie, has reeeived nearly her full
supply of stores while in the basin of that yard. She will
be removed to moorings in the harbour this day, and soon
afterwards will be taken out for a preliminary trial at the
measured mile, which, if satisfactory, will leave her is
every respect ready for sea. If is rumoured that_thpSala;..
mander will shortly embark a detachment of Royal Ma-
rines, accompanied by their wives and families, and convey
them to Port Albany, Cape Australia, where it is intended
they shall form a military colony. The men will have
double pay, besides workmen's wages, when performing
Government work, according to their trades, and the
colony will be abundantly supplied with seeds, roots, tools,
and all things necessary to establish a new settlement.
Mr. Martin's newly invented patent anchor, which was
proved under the hydraulic testing machinery at Woolwich
on Saturday for service on board the flagship Edgar, was
yesterday submitted to a most severe fire proof. The parts
of the anchor were taken to pieces, placed in separate fires,
and heated to a low red heat. Each section was examined
and searched over with the most scrupulous care, in order
to discover any kind of weakness or flaw in the metal.
The cheeks and other portions of the anchor subject to the
greatest amount of strain were filed over, and the surface
was chiseled off where any scratches were perceptible.
The chips were then put through a course of inspection
by Mr. Wilcox and his assistant smiths, but no blemish or
imperfection could be detected, The anchor was thereupon
pronounced fit for the service for which it was intended.
Admiral Montague Stopford, chairman, Mr. Maturin,
manager of the works, and other members of the company
were in attendance. Arrangements are in progress for the
erection of premises near Charlton pier, in the vicinty of
Woolwieh Dockyard, for the manufacture of anchors, 600
of which, it was stated by Admiral Stopford, have been
already supplied to the mercantile navy, the whole of which
are of acknowledged excellence, During the late gales the
new invention is said to have been pre-eminently success-
ful and efficient.

The following promotions and appointments were made
on Saturday at the Admiralty : Commanders promoted to
the rank of Capt.,—E. Hardinge, E. Stirling, H. Harvey,
W. Graham, A. H. Hoskins, B. S. Pickard, N. Salmon,
and J. C. Soady—Lieuts. promoted to the rank of Com-
mander,—F. Howson, H. M. Miller, J. W. East, L. M.
Croke, A. IL Alston, P. R. Sharpe, P. H. Colomb, R.
Wells, and E. W. Brooker—J. Watts and S. B. Williams,
assist.-engineers, to the Conqueror.
The following appointments were made yesterday at the
Admiralty :—Commander J. E. F. Risk to the Chanti-
cleer, vice Stirling, promoted—Commander T. M. Jones
to the Chamelon, vice Hardinge, promoted—Commander
A. C. F. Heneage to the Lily, vice Harvey, promoted—
Commander C. G. Lindsay to the Zebra, vice Hoskins,
promoted—Ossian L. Carlisle, chief engineer, to the
Orestes—Henry W. Tregilgas. late of the Algerine,
confirmed as engineer. Messrs. William Colvin V.
Baker and Harry D. Law have been nominated to naval
cadetships.

MR. COBDEN AND THE " TINES,"

The following correspondence is a sequel to that
which has for several days .occupied a most un-
merited share of public attention :

To JOHN T. DELANE, ESQ.

Sir, —You and I have been long personally acquainted;
your handwriting is known to me, and I know you to be
the chief Editor of the 7imes. Under such circumstances
I cannot allow you to suppress your individuality, and
shield yourself under the third person of the editorial nomi-
native, i❑ a correspondence affecting your personal respon-
sibility for a scandalous aspersion on myself (as I now learn
from you) as well as on Mr. Bright.
Your refusal to publish my former letter is a matter so
entirely within your own province that I have nothing to
say upon it, except to congratulate myself on the recent
revolution in the newspaper world which renders your de-
cision comparatively harmless. A few years ago the Tunes
possessed almost a monopoly of publicity. Four-fifths of
the daily newspaper circulation issued from its press. How
it constitutes, probably, one-tenth of our diurnal journalism,
and my letter will be only the more generally react from
having been excluded from your columns.
But your letter proceeds to offer some most singular argu-
ments in justification of your attack on Mr. Bright. You
state that your journal had previously contained two lead.
ing articles casting the same imputation on both him and
myself. that you had challenged us to disavow your interpre-
tation of our speeches, and as we had failed to do so you
accepted our silence as an acknowledgment of the truth of
nur interpretation ; in other words, as a proof of our guilt I
Here we have, in a compendious form, an exhibition of those
4wilities_a mind which vhurfethrise-the-editorial manage-
ment of the Times—of that arrogant self-complacency, that
logical incoherence, and that moral bewilderment which a
too long career of impunity and irresponsibility could alone
engender. I will not stop to remark on your demolition of
your own pretence for rejecting my championship of Mr.
Bright by the admission that you had included us both in
a joint indictment.
Now, that which forms the basis of this reasoning, if
such it may be termed, is an inordinate display of what I
will call Times egotism. Notwithstanding that your journal
has now but a fractional part of the daily newspaper cir.
culation, you complacently assume that all the world are
your constant readers. The Times never enters my house,
except by rare accident. This I know to be also the case
with Mr. Bright, who will, in all probability, never have
seen your attack until he reads it in my letter. It is only
during the session, at the Club, that I am in the habit of
seeing your paper. The chance visit of a friend last Friday
placed in my hand the Times of the previous day, when that
scandalous paragraph caught my eye which formed the text
of my letter to you. I was entirely ignorant of the two
former attacks, which by a droll process of reasoning you
now ask me to accept as a justification of the third. Now,
let me ask you to descend for a minute from your editorial
chair while I illustrate this logic by a hypothetical case put
to Mr. Delane, the barrister. Suppose that the constituents
of Mr. Bright were to indict your publisher for defaming
their member, and that it was proposed in a consultation
of lawyers, at which you were present, to set up as a plea
of justification at the trial that the same libel had been
twice previously published against both Mr. Bright and
Mr. Cobden,—would it fail to occur to you that, in the eyes
of an honest judge and jury, this defence would be con-
sidered an aggravation of the offence?
But we will assume, for the sake of argument, that Mr.
Bright and I are regular subscribers to and diligent readers
of your newspaper. Is it seriously contended that as often
as you choose to pervert the sense of our speeches, and
charge us with schemes of public robbery, the onus lies
with us to disprove the imputation, and that, neglecting to
do so, we have no right to complain if we are thenceforth
treated as thieves ? Would it not occur to any one but an
editor of the limes that, before we violate the ninth com-
mandment, the obligation lies with us to know that we are
not bringing a false accusation against our neighbour ?
Now, a word upon the subject which has given rise to
this correspondence. Nobody knows better than yourself,
except the writer who actually penned the scandalous pas-
sage in question, that this charge of wishing to divide the
land of the rich among the poor, when levelled at Mr Bright,
is nothing but the resort to a stale rhetorical trick (though
the character of the libel is not on that account altered) to
draw away public attention from the real issue, and thus
escape from the discussion of a serious, but for the moment
an inconvenient public topic. In order to trail a red herring
across the true scent the cry of spoliation was raised. You

and your writers cannot be ignorant that the laws and poli-
tical institutions of this country tend to promote the agglo-
meration of agricultural land in a constantly lessening
number of hands—you and I know, by a joint experience

which neither of us is likely to have forgotten, how great
are the obstacles which the law interposes to the free trans-
fer of landed property in this country. Now, the policy
which sustains this state of things is a public question,
which is not only fairly open to discussion, but invites the
earnest attention and study of public men. In this, as in
every other human concern, we must bring the matter to
the test of experience, and in no way can this be more
effectually done than by a comparison between the condition
of the great majority of the agricultural population in this
and other countries. The subject of our land laws has en-
gaged the attention of eminent statesmen and our highest
legal authorities; but I will venture to add—and it is all I
shall condescend to say in refutation of your aspersions—
that if there are two persons who, beyond all others, have
given pledges throughout an ardent discussion of kindred
topics during a quarter of a century, that in debating the
question of the tenure and transfer of land they would ob.
serve the restraints of law, justice, and political economy,
they are the men whom your journal has dared to charge
with the advocacy of a scheme for robbing the landowners
of their property for the benefit of the poor.
Judging from past experience, this intrusion of a gross
personality will tend only to attract public notice to a matter
which it was meant to put out of sight. It has been the
fate of the Times to help forward every cause it has opposed.
By its truculent, I had almost said ruffianly, attacks of every
movement while in the weakness of infancy, it has roused to
increased efforts the energies of those it has assailed ; while,
at the same time, it ties awakened the attention of a languid
public and attracted the sympathy of fair and manly minds.
It is thus that such public measures as the abolition of the
corn laws, the repeal of the taxes on knowledge, and

the negotiation of the treaty of commerce with France
triumphed in spite of its virulent, pertinacious, and unscru-
pulous opposition—until at last I am tending to the con-
viction that there are three conditions only requisite for the
success of any great project of reform—namely, a good
cause, persevering advocates, and the hostility of the Times.
I shall forward this correspondence for publication in the
.Rochdale Observer, that it may at least be perused by the
community which has the greatest interest in a controversy
which concerns the reputation of Mr. Bright and myse
—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Midhurst, Dec. 9.

R. COBDEN.

To RICHARD COMDEN, EsQ,, M.P.
Sir,—l have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter o:
;he 9th inst.

y:yufmoopuryo
upon
whatndyiovui
professeddr
ysu:alltfi
ot
ayadnr,
e'
and
It is quite true, as you say, that we have been long per-
sonally acquainted. You had no need to identify my hand.
individuality
su e m
om
momentous
oi which
ewrrittiengd.enly hmayvepnerosodheasilreretosp‘o‘ussuipbpilriets
pleasedu r.B r i
gt to callßright.
You"scandalous as saplel rst ihoants
isnidyeroautretleathtder
fteremthewehdiiethoryoetuthaenitiiciinpesated
consequences. You will therefore have no difficulty in
rendering me responsible to the verdict either of a court of
cheerfullyl aw o r oof t the l
acceptgeneral
their body od y o f
decision, o
You proceed to attribute to " limes egotism" my
countrymen, and I shall
sup-
position that you had read the articles upon the report of
your speech. Is it, I ask, egotistic or unreasonable to sup-
pose that you, who had pounced so promptly upon a single
phrase in an article of much inferior interest to yourself,
should have read the articles which discussed your own
speech ? Or could I be expected to know that you, who
once preferred a single copy of the Times to all the works of
Thucydides, did not admit the Times into your house?
You say that you seldom read the Times, and it is proba-
bly because you take your opinions of it at second-hand
from its rivals that you apply to it such terms as arrogant
and truculent, and only hesitate over ruffianly. I appeal
from your professed ignorance to the better informed judg-
ment of that large majority who do read the Times, and who
t
have discovered in it no such qualities.
landdeliberate misrepresentation
between the rich
tthan
other interpretation
amendingo
fY oyouru meaningattribute r
the
hb et
unequal
ander il tuha
that
hTdaitt:tere
of Mr.
distribution
tri.
o Bright
roifg
h as to the means of
str
instalment and
seaeneththheeas
twpaoisloci:i.ibneldm thattyroeeptpheiaenmtie.n,
I bfe arn
certain passages in your
you
merely intended to ro-
commend measures for facilitating the conveyance of land,
strangely
of law reform.
yexaggerated that
wasour ever used
toh ea your reference to our transaction at Ascot would suggest,
Sour
If you had read the Times, instead of condemning it unread,
you would know that it has always advocated the simplifi-
cation of means for the transfer of land, and that its advo •
language
was
further t the
er a m
humbleost
racy has not been altogether unsuccessful. But just as no
simplification of conveyance will compel the rich to sell
land or enable the poor to buy it, so no legislative measure
will render the purchase of land a profitable investment for
the poor. _ _

The possession, the transfer, and the tenure of land
are, however, public questions, which are best discussed,
not between Mr. Cobden and Mr. Delane, but as it has
always been the practice of the English press to discuss
them—anonymously. That practice was not invented by
me; it will not be destroyed by yourself. It has approved
itself to the judgment of all, whether statesmen or public-

ists, who have appreciated the freedom and independence of
the Press, and I believe it to be essential to the interests not
only of the press, but of the Public.
Although, therefore, I have accepted your challenge in
this instance, I shall decline to make any further contri-
bution to the Rochdale Observer.—l am, Sir, your obedient
servant,

16, Serjeantr-inn, Dec. 11. JOHN T. DELANE.

ANOTHER HORRIBLE STORY.

A writer in the Times says ;—After I had de-
spatched my letter on the subject of. the Flushing
lunatic, which you did me the favour to insert in
your paper of Thursday last, I felt some compunc-
tion at having ended with the inquiry, " Are there
any similar cases demanding investigation ?" It
seemed to me too dark a reflection upon the age to
suppose that parallel cases could exist. I almost
felt that I had done an injustice to humanity in

propounding such a question ; but, sir, compunc-
tions are cast aside in the presence of the appalling

facts that are forcing themselves upon me.
Even in the short interval which has elapsed
since the publication of my former letter four fresh
cases have come to my knowledge, not all of them

of equal atrocity, it is true, but still so dreadful

that, had I not been somewhat inured to such hor-

rors by the experience of the Flushing case, I should

have considered these equally incredible, and the
terrible truth is becoming manifest that these rank
blots on our social system are scattered broadcast
throughout our rural and, possibly, our civic dis-
tricts, shielded from public view by ignorance, cun-

ning, and the reluctance of neighbours to become

informers against those with whom they are living

on amicable terms.

Two of the cases to which I refer, of recent
occurrence in an adjoining county, have been hap•

pily disposed of. One—the details of which, as
narrated to me, were as loathsome as in the Flush-

ing case—was exposed by a solicitor, a friend of my
own, practising in the county to which I refer; the
other, not so aggravated a case, for the patient was

kept clean, resulted in the death of the sufferer.
By yesterday's post, in consequence of my former
letter, I received an intimation of a case nearly as

bad as the one in Cornwall still existing in a dis-
tant county, which I have this day forwarded to
the proper authorities for investigation. This case
is stated to be " well known to several persons, but

up to the present time has not been made known
through fear of the persons concerned in the atro-
city." The fourth case was revealed to Dr. Byrne,
and was made the subject of our immediate and
conjoint inspection. At present it is not de-
sirable to mention the names of those implicated, or
the locality; but I would wish your readers to dwell
upon the following picture, which gives bat a faint
idea of the picturesque horror with which the case is
invested :—A lonely cottage, surrounded by woods
and orchards, standing close down by the waters of
a remote creek, opening into a well-known river of

this district. This cottage is to outward appear-
ance an ordinary working man's abode, with the
single significant exception that the door is fastened
on the outside by a padlock. We enter this cottage,
we will suppose, at night, which was the fact in our
own case. The partition walls have been removed,
the whole ground floor thrown into one, and is used
as an apple store. We know that we are within the
solitary abode of a lunatic, and by the light of one
tallow candle we look cautiously around to see if he
be at large among the apples. Nothing visible but
the piles of fruit extending to the outer walls, in-
terspersed with the common lumber of a barn in a
farm-yard. We stumble up a staircase, or rather
ladder, to the upper floor, gaining it rather cau-
tiously, for the lunatic may encounter us awkwardly,
as our heads rise above the floor. Another large
square loft—apples again extending to the outer
walls. A corner, screened off by some hoarding

exactly 6ft. by 7ft., hardly attracts our notice, for
we are stilt looking all round for the lunatic. But
the father, aged 74, approaches this " box" in the
corner, and pointing to a small door says "Now,
this is the p!ace we are obliged to keep him.'' There
is still some hesitation, for the mother, over 70, who
is always with us, is a little nervous. The doctor
seizes the candle, and without hesitation throws
back the bolt. The well •known sickening stench
meets us as we enter. There lies the lunatic
crouched with the updrawn knees, which seems
the rule in these cases. A raven black moustache
and beard, a face pallid as snow, cramped, ema-
ciated limbs, nails that might be measured by the
inch, the limbs spotted with filth, cobwebs de-
corating the walls, and some mildewed spots
upon them and on the bedstead which have an
ugly look. But we have seen Porter in his den,
and we don't think so much of this case. This
man has a straw bed beneath him, a clean shirt on
him (is it possible a visit was anticipated ?), and
some sacking, and an old quilt to cover him. We
could hardly expect more—" He tears everything
up." Still, for two years, confessedly, to be shut up
in a box in the corner of an apple loft ! No sweet
breath of Heaven in summer ; no fire, no light in
winter; no companionship at any time, for he is the
sole occupant of the house, his relatives living in
another some 200 yards away. There is no window to
this box, the only light that ever reaches its interior
struggles over the top of the boarding, in the small
space between that and the unceiled roof. I pause
to ask myself as I write whether I am not penning
the page of some old romance rather than the de-
scription of a hard fact that came under my obser-
vation only last night. I have visited asylums and
felt my heart sicken as I have watched the group of
lunatics congregated in their vatious rooms, and
thought that the world cc:mid scarcely show a
sadder scene ; but, Sir, the condition of a
pauper lunatic at an asylum is a blissful heaven
compared with that of this poor wretch, rotting
in a loathsome den, the bare remembrance of which
makes me shudder—the home of noisome insects,
and the probable battle-ground of vermin in the
dreadful midnight gloom. I no longer ask the
question, " Are there any other such cases ?" I
ask now how many such cases there are throughout
our land, if in my own experience of a few days I
can enumerate so many ? In this case also our guide
to the spot told us it bad been long talked of ; that
his wife had said that very night " this ought to be
inquired into." "The poor man has been like one
dead to us these six years past," he added. The poor
wretch had been sick upon his pillow when we saw
him, and the foul stuff was still there, not likely to
be removed until the morning, as he was shut up
for the night. This was about 7. He is fed three
times a day regularly, however, and eats well. Re-
ferring to his sickness, his mother told us he was
like that once a, month—" o wing to the moon, sir."
He had been at the asylum some seven years before,
and was returned to his parents in a somewhat imn
proved state. Without, I fully believe, any abbsaod"
lute intention of cruelty on their part,
aid,
gradually grown worse and worse and
down to this condition. With your Sir, it Is
things
dwindled
down
possible my words may penetrate t
the
inmosti‘iay
hearts of the dwellers in our humblesitf
not for the
homes.
I entreat them for the love of
love of their fellow-men, nottoGobdlind themselves
wilfully to the enormity of such cases as those I
of
have described ; not to let any
scruplesfalse
intimacy or friendship prevent their making some
effort to relieve a fallow-creature with an immortal
soul like themselves from Bo dreadful an earthly
doom? How many such cases may yet bz brought
to light, who shall tell? But there is a stain upon
our country which no self-adulation can ronove so
long as one is left unrevealed.
Your readers will be glad to learn that the Tre-
re
gony case,referred to by your correspondent Mr.
Charles Reed—who in " doubly convicting" Corn-
wall seems to forget that he convicts himself by his
long-continued reticence--was brought to the notice
of the Commissioners two years ago. Will you
allow me also to state, in answer to numerous in-
quiries which have reached me privately, that

PRICE..... —..4c1.
STAMPED ....6d.

Porter was, of course, an imbecile when first con-
fined ? I never imagined that my letter would
convey the impression that he was incarcerated
when in a sound state of mind, The tale needs no
romantic addition to intensify its naked horror.
Falmouth, Dec. 13.

THE ALABAMA AGAIN.

Two More Vessels Destroyed.
LIVERPOOL, Dec• 14.

. _ .
Ey the arrival of the India and China mail we learn that
the statement that the Alabama had gone to the eastward
is correct, and that she has already signalled her arrival in
the Eastern waters by the destruction of two large Ameri-
can merchantmen off Java Head. From the particulars at
present to hand we only know that the Amanda, which is
one of the vessels destroyed, under the command of Captain
Larrabee, left Manilla on the 18th September last, bound to
Cork for orders. The Amanda was a fine clipper barque,
built at Maine, in 1861, and was owned by Messrs. J. T.
Stevens and Co., of that city. Her cargo was a very valu-
able one, being comprised principally of coffee, indigo,
pepper, hemp, and tobacco. The other vessel burned was
a fine square-rigged clipper ship, called the Winged Racer,
Captain Cummings. This vessel left Manilla about the 4th
of September (we are not certain as to the exact date), and
was also fallen in with by the Alabama off Java Head, cap-
tured and destroyed. The Winged Racer was laden with a
most valuable cargo, and bound for New York. She was
built at Boston in 1852, was 1,767 tons burthen, and was
owned in New York by Messrs. R. J. Taylor. The latest
intelligence received from the Mauritius states that the
United States war-steamer Vanderbilt, Captain Baldwin,
had left that place in search of the Alabama, Captain Bald-
win having been apprised of the new cruising ground of the
notorious Confederate cruiser.