The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-18 00:00:00

On the Ist o I October will be published, a Third and Cheap
Edition, price 10s. 6d.,
OBSCURIE DISEASES of the BRAIN and
MIND.

13: t FORBES IVINsLow, D.C.L.
Lon n : Robert Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly.

WHEAT ItE ROYAL DRURY - LANE.-
..R. Manager s, Messrs. E. Falconer and F. B. Chatterton.
THIS EVENING, the new and original Comedy, by Ed-
mund Fat one r, entitled NATURE'S ABOVE ART : A Ro-
mance of the I ursery : Mesers.Walter Lacy, Addison, Ryder,
Barrett, G. B elmore, F. Charles. Neville; Miss Charlotte
3aun, fere, Mit 1,4 Murray, Miss R. Leclercq, Mrs. Melville, and

rs. Edmund. Falconer.
To conclude: with A DAY WELL SPENT : Messrs. G.
Belmore, F. ( :harles ; Mesdaraes Murray, Harfleur, and C.
Weston.
Box-office open from Ten till Five daily. Prices as usual.

ROYA•L PRINCESS'S THEATRE,
Lossee, Mr. George Vining.
Open undET the Management of Mr. Walter Itfontgomery.
THIS EVEIs4ING, THE LADY OF LYONS. Claude
Melnotte. Vk alter Ment2omery ; Darns, Mr. C. Fitz-
James ; l'auidae, Miss Kate Saville.
To be followed by FAMILY JARS.
Commence at 7.

NW THEATRE-BO YAL, ADELPHL
6ole Proprietor and Manazer. Mr. B. Webster.

THIS EVENLNG, THE TRAGEDY QUEEN.•
Mrs.
Stirling-.
Followed by the new comic drama, THE HEN AND
CHICKENS ; or, A Sign of Affection. Messrs. Billing-ton,
R. Phillips, Stephenson ; Mrs. Stirling and Miss H. Simms.
After which, at )-past 8 o'clock, the new drama of THE
HAUNTED MAN; OR, THE G OST'S BARGAIN, in
which will be exhibited Professor Pepper's adaptation of
'he Great Spectral Illusion. Messrs. A. Wood, R. PhliMps,
Sefton C. J. Smith; Mrs. Alfred Mellon and Miss H. Simms.
To conclude with CATCHING AN HEIRESS : Mr. A.
Wood.

OYAL STRAND THEATRE
Manager, Mr. W. H. Swanborough.

THIS EVENING. HIS FIRST CHAMPAGNE. Mr
Leigh Murray.

Followed by (53d time) THE MOTTO, "I'M ALL
THERE." Messrs. Honey, Turner, E. Danvers, Collier,
Clifton ; Mesdames Ada Swanborough, P. Josephs, Maria
Simpson, Wallace, and Jenny White.
To conclude with TURN HIM OUT. Mr. Turner, Miss
Thorne.

Commence at 7.

31HE THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN,"
Containing the Latest SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,
Can be had Every Evening of

G. R. GLENIE, NEWS AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 4h. 55m.—Afternoon, sh. 16m.
To-moßnow.-Morning, Oh. 35m.—Afternoon, sh. 58m.

The Weather—Sun Office, Sept. 17, 1863,

nent part she has taken in framing international
laws, would naturally be supposed to be correctly
informed as to the rights of belligerents and neu-
trals. Such, however, is not the case. The legis-
lature is completely at fault in the matter, while
American spies are suffered to pry into the private
yards of our ship-builders, and through the agency
of a few infatuated, or more probably interested,
individuals, to memoralise the Foreign Secretary
in order to stop the building of certain ships of
who. e ulterior destination they entertain suspicions.
Earl RUSSELL properly replied to an application of
this sort that the Executive could not act upon
suspicions, and for the moment the matter dropped.
We refer to the two iron-clad steamers nearly com-
pleted in the yard of Messrs. LAIRD and Co., at
Birkenhead. The destination of these vessels is not
manifest. They are simply being built according
to an order which the builders consider they have a
perfect right to carry out. It appears. however,
that orders have been issued to detain the vessels
until a searching investigation has taken place con-
cerning them. Had any hint been thrown out that
a commercial fraud was intended, or any evasion of
customs duties designed, the case would be plain
enough, but no such charge is brought forward.
The avowed object of this detention is that it is
suspected that these ships are intended directly
ateecsttlyosr.
indirectly for the service of the Confederate
A similar charge was brought against
ivngsttehnein erAlhex-
andra, and although the verdict was
favour in the Court of Exchequer, yetb
from law-
suitsythe tedi-
ous procrastination almost inseparable
verdict has
shaspe remainsrovepro
t:n! in
nat thliesascto,unatgryai,ntsh d
against her;
vheerr;
for
in durance vile until a reference can be
made to the court of appeal. By this
el
vseurst sustain
ndmda
y
heavy losses by failing to sheinpmb;iliedtee a
r s
mode of proceeding
ves-
sels according to contract. Oar laws ought surely
to be so constructed that they can be understood by
the simplest individual, and should not necessitate
a costly action to decipher their meaning every time
it is thought necessary to bring exceptional cases
into operation. The inconvenience to which the
trade of this country has been put in various ways
for more than two years, by the fratricidal war in
America, is in a great measure attributable to the
vacillating and pusillanimous conduct of our Minis.
ters. They have acted throughout, with one me-
morable exception, as if they wished to do right,
but were more afraid to do wrong, i.e., offend the
Northern States. Let us act according to law by
all means, only let the law be distinctly laid down
that we may conform strictly to the letter of it. It
it be ruled that neutrals may only supply one of
he belligerents with munitions of war, let it be so
proclaimed, no matter how absurd or unjust such a
regulation may seem. Though we should certainly
be laughed at by the world, we should be acting a
more dignified part than we are now doing. We
profess an impartial neutrality, and virtually by the
acts of our Legislature we ignore as far as possible
the rights of the Southern Confederacy while we
minister to the requirements of the tyrannical
North. Were we really neutral both sides would
fare alike. On these terms we might, at the request
of the North, decline to forward supplies to the
Southerners; but, at the same time, in justice to the
Confederates, we ought to veto the exportation of
contraband of war to the Northern States. This
would be strict neutrality; bat we do not think
that such a rigid practice of our professions
would please either side, any more than it
would satisfy our merchants at home. The
French Government is not tied down by
red tapism like oar own, and the ruling power in
that country has taken a bolder and more straight-
forward course. The Florida has been for some
time lying in the Government harbour at Brest,
undergoing such repairs as she requires, and it is
officially stated in the Moniteur that she is not to
be considered as a privateer, but as an ordinary
vessel of war belonging to the military marine of
the Confederate States. No doubt the prospect of
this recognition had something to do with Brest
being preferred by the commander of the Florida
to Southampton, where, before now, Confederate
cruisers, although unacknowledged, have met with
every courtesy and protection. This recognition of
a solitary cruiser, though of but little moment in
itself, is of vast importance asjforeshadowing what
is to follow—it is the advanced guard of the French
recognition of Southern independence. That the
attitude likely to be assumed by France has for
some time been well understood by the Americans,
is manifested by the bitter invectives hurled against
her by the Northern press. That the greater inde-
pendence and decision of her Government is also
appreciated by the South, is likely to be shown to
the cost of our shipbuilders by the transfer to
French dockyards of orders that would otherwise
have been given on this side of the Channel. There
are at present several steamships of war now build-
ing in Prance under similar conditions to those at
Birkenhead. Two now in course of construction in
a private yard at Nantes are designed, it is said,
for 22 guns each, with engines of 600. horse power,
while their speed is proposed to reach the extent
of 14 knots an hour. A condition of the contract
for these vessels is said to be, that they shall be de-
livered to theowners 20 miles out at sea. The rumour
of such a stipulation in our pert of the world would
at once have aroused minister, ambassador, agent,
judge, inspector, and Manchester men. Very cer-
tainly the news that the ships were to be made over
to their owners at sea would have prevented them
from ever leaving the docks, since by the ingenious I
and subtle logic which distinguish our authorities,
it is the height of impropriety to consign a war
vessel to the Confederates, while Sheffield, Bir-
mingham, and the black country may despatch
unlimited shiploads of arms and ammunition to the
Northern States, without in the least outstepping
the bounds of constitutional law and right. It is
a pity that some of the more eminent of our peace-
at-any-price men are not large shipbuilders, when
we should have the satisfaction of seeing their con-
victions and consistency put to a severer test than
at present ! The part which England is playing in
this matter is certainly not much to her credit or
profit. Consistency always commands respect, and
so does fearless independence of opinion and action ;
but a timorous, time-serving of a Power, which it
seems we are afraid to provoke, is neither likely to
conciliate nor to impress. But let France take the
glory of being the first to do tardy justice to the
efforts of a brave and struggling people, and Eng-
land
humbly follow in her footsteps. The
Yankees will certainly not hate England less, but
they
will respect p
ranee the more.

/ It is a common
custom, or practice ba,
Lain individuals, to discard it
available for their particular
served the purpose of eer-
practice when any institution,
advantage. This is
nuance cf the
more especially the case if thev
practice tends to the benefit of 'attic. •
others with whom
their own interests clash, or whom they
fear as
future rivals in any profession, trade, or enterprise.
This feeling is shown when
ntiit i 8 no longer
in a very marked degree by
the colonists of New South Wales, Victoria and
South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, in
regard to the importation of convict labour into
Western Australia. The question has been so often
before the public that we will not weary our readers

with going over old arguments; but while erro-
neous statements are continually emanating from
the pens of gentlemen who are considered to be
well-informed upon the subject, some remarks upon
the true state of the case may not be out of place.
In the first instance, when towards the end of the
last century it was decided to form a convict set-
tlement at Port Jackson, or as that depot was
generally called, Botany Bay, the country was but
thinly inhabited by a few wandering tribes of
savages, and covered in many parts by dense
forests, and intersected at intervals by lofty ranges
of mountains. By the forced labour of the male-
factors the country was gradually cleared around
the settlement, roads were cut through the solid
rock or carried across swamps, and the country, by
degrees, opened out for emigration, In course of
time New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land
became thriving colonks. Cattle and sheep in-
creased to an unprecedented extent, and speculative
settlers looked for runs for their flocks and herds
less remote from the coast than the back districts
to which their extending prosperity and the in-
creasing population of the colony gradually drove
them. Thus a small settlement was made at Mel-
bourne, on the mainland side of Bass's Straits.
Meanwhile, agriculturists, many of them Germans,
settled further to the westward of where the country
was held open. The prosperity of the colonies
steadily increased, and the desirability of dispens-
ing with convict labour was discussed in many
quarters when the discovery of gold, first in New
South Wales, and dirently afterwards in Victoria,
changed the destiny of the colonies. Hundreds of
thousands flocked in from California and Europe,
and among these adventurers a pretty fair sprink-
ling of roughs, and others of a questionable cha-
racter. The gold mania could supply the gaols in
abundance without the assistance of Millbank or
Pentonville. It was, therefore, quite natural that
the inhabitants of the south-eastern colonies should
refuse admission to English malefactors. These
reasonable requirements were at once acceded to by
the home authorities, and for a time the co-
lonies were satisfied. In the meantime a small
colony had been slowly struggling into existence
on the western coast of the vast continent, distant
some two thousand miles from South Australia,
the nearest of the eastern colonies, but separated
from it by barren wastes and trackless deserts.
There the soil had but few attractions for the emi-
grants, access to the interior was difficult from the
want of roads, and it seemed only fair to the colo-
nists that the home authorities should give them
the same assistance that bad been rendered to the
settlers in New South Wales and Van Diemen's
Land. Again, England was unable to distribute
her criminals satisfactorily at home; the ticket-of-
leave system, which had answered very well in
Australia, where there was a full demand for labour,
would not work for home. The released convicts,
unable to obtain work, or in cases where they had
obtained it, after discharged, on account of their
former history becoming known to their employers
through the well-meant but officious information of
the police, had nothing left them but to return to their
old pursuits. Therefore, when it became known
that the co:onists of Western Australia would be
lad to receive long-sentenced men, the Govern-
ment were but too happy to meet them half-way.
A cargo or two of these unfortunates were shipped
off, and all seemed to promise well until the eastern
colonies rose in arms to veto the proceedings, because
they were not in accordance with the sovereign will
of two or three colonies in the south-eastern extre-
mity of a vast continent, who, if their territories are
vast in proportion to their populations, are, com-
bined, but a patch in a vast region of which they
form integral parts. These colonies, except in their
relation to E :glaod, are as independent of each
other as are the various continental nations of
Europe. What would Europe say, if Swed( n,
having agreed to receive our convicts, France or
Italy, or the Sublime Porte were to interfere,
declaring that English convicts must be kept at
home for fear that they might escape from Sweden,
and trouble them with their presence. Ridiculous
as this may seem, it would be more rational than
the absurd demand made by the upstart colonies,
who, not content with the above assumption, would
deny England the right to found penal settlements
1 on the yet but casually explored region on the
North-Western and Northern coast of Australia.
The sooner these gentlemen who, no matter what
be their motives, whether they be sincere or deluded,
or obtrusive and impertinent, who inundate the
Press with voluminous and wonderful letters on the
ruin which the transportation of felons to distant
parts of Australia will bring upon their own loved
spots at its other extremities, be taught to mind
their own business the better for all parties. Why,
the Yankees, with all their bluster and bounce, do not
come up to this. The smartest nation in all creation
has not denied to us the right to send convicts to Ca-
nada, and, when they can pay their own passage, re-
ceive them kindly until they misbehave themselves.
We have not paid any special attention in the
above to the supposed cause of complaint, ground-
less as it is, namely, the injury which the moral
status of the old colonies would sustain by the in-
troduction of convict labour at a distance of some
two thousand miles and upwards from the South
Eastern Australian colonies, and double that dis-
tance from New Zealand, to open up the mineral
wealth, which we are informed upon undoubted
authority exists in Western and North-Western
Australia. We simply wish to draw attention to
the absurd presumption of a few colonies arrogating
to themselves the right to sanction or negative the
enactments of the Home Government regarding a
colony with which they have no connection, and
over which they hold no jurisdiction. Nor can we
see by what right theyintertfoeruetiwliistehththoeseaputohrotirointy
of her Britannic MAJESTY
of unreclaimed territory, as yet a wilderness, which
she may think fit to turn to account for the benefit
of her subjects.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE,

Last night Mr. Walter Montgomery appeared
in
"StillL o n dwo na t
ei nrs TRo
umn T
Da yeleopr
aandd-
mfoirr
at hb
lee first
comedy,time
Colman's play " The Iron Chest." In the former
he sustained the part of John Mildmay, and in the
latter that of Sir Edward Mortimer, and it is but
justice to say, that a more admirable performance
has not been given during his brief management at
the Princess's. The opposite nature of the two
characters represented, to en ordinary actor would
have been an insurmountable difficulty, but with
Mr. Montgomery the circumstance only tended to
show the versatility of his genius. His John Mild-
may was everything that could be desired, and it
entirely removed the impression that only one per
son on the London stage could effectually embody
the part. As Sir Edward Mortimer Mr. Mont-
gomery
has immensely added to his reputation, and
proved beyond alt dispute that in eccentric comedy,
as well as in the higher walks of tragedy, he pos.
Eesses powers of no ordinary description. To-mor-
row evening, being the last night of his term, he
takes his benefit, on which occasion ho will
appear as Virginius, and Captain Frank in the
laughable farce of " Bamboozling," and it is to be
hoped his exertions will be rewarded by an over-
flowing audience.

CONTRACT FOR RUM.—The Government contract
for 50,000 gallons rum was taken by the undermentioned
firm—Meyers. Thomas Lowndes and Co., and Mr, Alfred
Lamb.