The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-11 00:00:00

~~a~

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1863.

Later news from America, intelligence bringing
the narrative of the war down to the beginning of
this current month of August, shows the main
army of the Confederates, under LEE, to be situ-
ated between Culpepper and Gordonsville. There
the attitude assumed by him is said to be purely
defensive. But—simultaneously with the receipt
of this fragmentary intimation as to the Confede-
rate Commander-in-Chief—we learn in other words
that the Federal Commander-in-Chief is begin-
ning to evidence anything lent the confidence
of a conqueror. The recent movements of his army,
it is said, under data August 1, New York, will be
followed by its former inactivity ! An account
certainly not without its significance. More par-
ticularly when togither with it comes the intima-
tion that Kentucky has been invaded by the
Southerns! General BURNSIDE, in making these
latest warlike tidings known, through a proclama-
tion that, as a matter of course, speaks of the Con-
federates as " the rebels," General BURNSIDE
we say in making public this new and daring
invasion of Kentucky by the rebels pronounces
the enterprise to have been undertaken with the
intention of overawing the judges, intimidating the
-voters, and forcing the election of disloyal candi-
dates at the election of the ensuing 3d of Septem-
ber. As the instant consequence of this same in-
vasion of Kentucky martial law had been declared
throughout that State. " Military commanders,"
said the General, " will aid the State autho-
rities to support the laws and the purity of
suffrage. The judges present at the polls will be
held strictly responsible that no disloyal person
be allowed to vote, and to this end military power
will give them its utmost support." Summing up
the relative positions of the confronting main
armies in a single announcoment, one of the New
York papers says, sententiously,that the Army of the
Potomac is again upon the Rappahanock,
MEADE is there somewhere in the immediate vici-
nity of Falmouth. LEa confronting him, upon the
defensive, but prepared for any emergency, we may
be certain of that, if only by reason of his admirably
planned and deliberately conducted retreat—LEE
confronting his old antagonist at a point situated at
a mutually respectful distance,and already indicated
with sufficient distinctness as one midway between
Culpepper and Gordonsville. So situated, the
armies, it was expected on the Ist instant at New
York, could not in reasonable probability but
very soon indeed come again into collision.
An engagement —it would be difficult to
sly a decisive engagement and even if
we could say it, by whom wouid such an
intimation as that be credited ?—an engagement of
some kind, decisive or indecisive, was, when these
last advices left, per the City of London, pretty
confidently expected to take place soon :no
longer, of course, upon the Potomac, but
once more upon the Rappahannock. While such
was the situation of affairs still between Washing-
ton and Richmond, between the main armies of the
Federals and Confederates, the siege of Charleston
was yet persisted in. The Northerns were said to
be moving upon Mobile, to have recently captured
Brasbear City, to have begun a series of successes
over the Confederates both in Kentucky and in
Tennessee ! How veraciously said to have done
and to be doing all this, we shall learn through
our next jumble of fragmentary intelligence.

The weekly meeting of the Central Executive
Relief Committee which took place at Manchester
yesterday already testifies the truth of the warnings
that have been lately uttered respecting the condi-
tion of the distressed districts. From Mr. FAR-
14ALL's report it appears that the tide has again
turned, and that in the 27 unions receiving paro-
chial relief there has been an increase of 1,299 ap-
PLiyicZ Oldham,
The principal increase is at Ashton•under-
-Ihlla , Rochdale, and Blackburn, besides
many
smaller places.
mall diminution Still there are other districts
all diminution is perceptible, and the
total decrease
highly
satis4etaoinee December is 126,048. It is
signs of the sup; to find that there are as yet no
or indifference
Plies being stopped by the frugality
of he t
dred pounds hav public, nearly fourteen hun-
After the usual
'n2" been received during the week.
grants had
been
men who had assemble made the gentle-
of Lord DERBY had a d Eder the able presidency
e. •
Works Bill, just passed,a b -'inon on the Public
ment, and the probable efteY thee Houses of Parlia-
on the employment ofof some faco of its clauses
Lord EGEETON expressed son% TY operatives.
know whether in granting maneacziety to
of guardians, the Government would to hoards
`" make any
condition respecting the rate of wages.' whether
the rule would be to give "a fair dap',
fora fair day's work," or only such a Boraage as
would keep body and soul together. Mr. FAR_
NALL, in answer to the noble lord's observations,
reeaarieed that the bill was throughout per,is.
si,e, and not compulsory. P. did not compel the
locai authorities to employ factory operatives at
all, nor did it stipulate that any particular rate
of wages should be kept to. Mr. FAnNALL
proceeded to say, from his own extensive experi.
once in the matter, that be believed payment
would be made upon measaretnent of the wore
done, so that each man would receive the same
rate of wages as an independent labourer would
do. According to Mr. FARNALL'S statetuent there
ii every prospect of the bill being
of great prac-
tical utility, for it seems
probable that, all the
districts will cvail themselves of the powers it
confers, and that a very largo sum of money will
be raised in order to set the unenialtyed factory
hands to work. Tha cturdiar.s bare 1119 r..;Dd

sense to see- that r,s they are bound to support
a great prop(' rtion of these persons in ono form
or another,. it is better by the expenditure
of a larger F rum to secure a permanent good, to carry
cut works 'which will be highly conducive to the
health, (sorafort, and convenience of the inhabi-
tants of their towns, and which will remain when
the troubles of the present time have long been
numbered with the past. The deplorable effects of
long-continued idleness are too well known not to
enter into their consideration. On the one hand,
the men employed will have the honest satisfaction
that they are doing fair work for the money they
get, and feel themselves once more on their old in-
dependent footing ; on the other, they and their
families arc left at the pauper level, to suffer all its
depressing effects on the mind and body, and its
demoralising influence morally. It was observed
by several of the members of the committee yester-
day that it was most important that the distinction
should be preserved between the men employed on
public works and the recipients of parish relief.
There is likely to be some confusion on the subject
unless this is plainly understood and impressed upon
the men at the outset. Mr. FARNALL.tn admitted
saidittd
the necessity of preserving the distinction,
that he had everywhere stated that
necessary that the men employed enpuitblwieouwlderkbee
should be struck off the list of the
relief committees, and be treated guardians'
solely
hsnadned.
earseugrlfaadeethbaetfotrheistqheuelsvtoiroln
begins, as half its g
pendent labOurers.
awould e
charitable
rliotsatbif
e
has been brought toVit-he
the employment wereootdakeenffecatss
pretence. One very satisfactory fact was elicited in
Course of the discussion. It will be remembered
that, when the matter was debated in Parliament,
the proposed employment of factory hands on out-
door works was objected to on the ground that the
change in their mode of working would be most
prejudicial to their health. It was argued, with
some show of reason, that men accustomed to the
hot, dry air of factories would suffer greatly from
the sudden transmission to cald, damp out-door
work and exposure to the weather, and that rheu-
matism and a host of kindred evils would
ensue. It seems, however, from Lord EGERTON'S
testimony, that such is not the case. He had re-
cently, he told the meeting, visited a number of the
Stockport operatives whom i.e had employed in
out-door work during the whole winter, and he
was quite astonished at the improvement in their
looks. They appeared to be better and stronger in
every way, and they assured him that they were up
to any kind' of work. It is surely better to supply
the healthy and able-bodied men with out-door work
here, to fill up the vacuum, than to deport them
across the seas to lands where they will probably
have to undertake still rougher and more laborious
tasks, and will grieve for the old home scenes while
England is missing their labour. The struggle
cannot be of much longer duration. Fortunately
we are not dependent on the fluctuations of the
American war. The numerous sources which are
open to us in our own dominions, and which we
have so long neglected, will very shortly come to
our aid. By refusing to avail ourselves of the
means which Providence has placed in our hands,
we have, in a measure, brought this burden upon
our people, but they have borne it nobly and well;
and, with the hopes gathering round the opening
of another year, who would despair, even though
we learn that the time of trial is not yet past P

Mr. GILBERT, the Secretary of the Society for the
Relief of Distress, has published a very interesting
pamphlet on the " Condition of the Wives and
Families of Married Convicts, with Suggestions for
its Amelioration." There is no class of society mort-
to be pitied than these unfortunate persons, whose
means of subsistence are taken from them, and who
are exposed alternately to cruel privations and sad
temptations. Mr. GILBERT is in a position to know
accurately the circumstances of the case as regards
many of these hapless individuals, and the details
he puts before us tend to prove that it is necessary
speedily to adopt some remedial measure. The
troubles, the crimes, and the expenses attending
the present plans all call for a speedy remedy. Mr.
GILBERT prefaces his remarks by stating that he
has seen, while acting as secretary to the society,
" such abject misery" among the families of the
convicts that he is emboldened to make the effort
to be of service to them, although so much has
already been written and said on the subject of our
convict system. Ho states that it must be con
sidered that, however great the crime of the married
convict, he has still been the support of his family,
and, to a certain extent, provided for them, and
when he is taken away his family have to endure a
punishment as severe as his own, and often as dis-
honourable. His wife and children must then work
for themselves, but who will employ the wife and
child of a convicted thief. If the woman applies to
the parish, they get rid of her by telling her to
come to the House. Not wishing to be separated
from her children, she refuses, and attempts to sup-
port herself and them. In this painful position
great sufferings await them. It has been found
that the mortality among the children of married
convicts is greater than among the poorest of the
honest poor, even under the most unfavourable cir-
cumstances. If driven to despair, the wife at last
enters the House with her children, they remain
fixtures, for no one will employ them, and
they are " a continued expense to the
ratepayers and a misery to themselves.',
The number of wives and children obtaining parish
relief is very considerable. A few instances are
given of the different parishes in London. At St.
George, Southwark, there are 57 women and 134
children; at St. Mary, Islington, 98 women and
201 children. It is truly said that the cost of the
married convict is enormous on the public purse.
Each above the value of his labour is, on the average,
twenty-nine pounds a-year, and while the whole
or part of the expense of maintaining his family is
cast on the poor-rate, it is forcibly urged that, "on
the score of economy alone, some vast reformation
managermatio
nis
required in our present system of convict

ment." Still sadder are the details concerning those
children whose parents have brought them up in
crime. In some cases where the mother is a de-
praved woman, she has been kuown to pursue her
children from place to place, until she at last has
.got them turned out into the streets and driven as
t were to crime. It is here mentioned that the
children of
the married convicts in the Australian
colonies are rarely thieves.
The chief cause is said
to be that they can more readily obtain work. Sir
WILLIA:NI Ait
gave late Supreme Judge of
Vinccvteorria,
knew
convict turn cut
0:e
t as his opinion that he
a thi;fner ionf Australia all boys
a transported
hapndd.the primary tempta-
may obtain employm„.,
tion to the child's becona
is wanting. The plan propgoe:d by Mr. GILBERT
dishonest—privation.--
is
in the way
is a good one so far as it
there would be found many • ' though doubtless
of carrying it out. He advises the estabr h
a community, where, to us© his 0„,„ 18-ment °I
words, " the
means of employment should be abund ra_....
- , and in.
dustry compulsive during the whole period of his
sentence ; where idleness should be i unished as a
crime ; where it shall be imp)ssif•Jle to purchase in.
toviatiDg drink i. 3, and vincre cid a!,,socia:es, =lca

reformed, shall be difficult to find." Of course
this must be done abroad, and Mr. GILBERT
mentions the Australian colonies as a suitable place
for a reformatory settlement for married convicts.
The northern portion of Western Australia is a very
suitable place, it is mentioned ; and, as up to ti e
present time there is not an acre of ground inhabited
by a white man, it cannot be likely to offend the
Australian settlers by making a penal settlement
among them. From the inhabitants of Sydney,
for instance, the settlement would be at the dis-
tance from London to Constantinople. There are
carrying oat of this or any
sure to be plenty of obstacles interposed
similar plan,
butin the
carrying
the
facts here adduced speak for themselves, and call
aloud for redress. The present system is
unfair and cruel to the women and children, while
it really imposes a heavy burden on the State.
It is not in accordance with the principles of poli-
tical economy, and neither does it seem right or
fitting that so many children should perish miser-
ably from want, and disease occasioned by want, or
grow up to become thieves or dissolute characters.
Those who do not agree with Mr. GILBERT'S sug-
tgheestnioencewssiiltlyneefv
some
ertmheelmesesaancs he
accord
deviseddtheir recognitiontore
m remedy
this evil, and to ameliorate the condition of those
whose
noin
emseets van
apart by
T
y the rules
krutlaese thofsoecsie euetyttoebaescts ome
thieves
at
home to a country where employment is certain,
old associations removed, and a new life put before
them, is surely a safe means of remedy, and one
that, though not certain to succeed, may in all
human probability do so. Mr. GILBERT has a right
to speak, for he has seen the miserable results and
pernicious consequences of the present system, and
therefore he has essayed to find a remedy for the
glaring evils that are so constantly brought under
his notice. It is highly requisite that the Legisla-
ture should do something about this anomalous
condition of so many women and children. At
present the seeds of vice are sown broadcast among
the community, and nothing but evil consequences
ensue therefrom. It cannot be impossible to pre-
vent all this misery, crime, and death, end no diffi-
culties that arc in the way should be allowed to be
insuperable.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

MR. ALFRED MELLON'S CONCERTS.

Two evils Mr. Mellon has had to contend with in
renewing his excellent annual entertainment—the
hot weather and the month of August—the one of
which drives people from theatres, and the other
drives them from town. The various merit, how-
ever, he he.s assembled, and the force and skill
with which he directs it, enabled him last evening
to encounter these objections in a manner that
gave the best assurance of the entire success of his
experiment.
Not a slight element in this result is his being
able to secure again the superb arena of the Italian
Opera as the scene of his exertions, where the
requisite space is not more pre-eminent, and its
attendant coolness and convenience, than the
adaptation of the building to sound, and the
agreeable influence of its noble proportions. The
stall and pit portions as bolero having been
raised to a level with the stage—the orchestra,
capable of containing one hundred performers, rises
on the latter with its old aspect of a huge citadel of
harmony, thronged with executants, who proclaim
its influence over the crowds that swarm about it.
All the other arrangtnents for the comfort of the
public have been as carefully attended to—such as
the ease of access to the promenade by a variety of
entrances, the rows of seats placed before the
orchestra for the accommodation of the weary, and
the superior refreshments supplied by Mr.
Brunetti on the stage, at the bides of the
orchestra. The musical attractions of the night,
however, were of course the chief consideration--
and these it will be seen were not to be regarded
as either inferior or few.
Mr. Mellon presented us, in the first place, with
such a vocalist as Carlotta Patti. The great sensa-
tion which this lady created on her debut at this
theatre in April last, as one of the most gifted
and surprising singers of her time has
been extended to every concert room in
which she has since appeared, and to none more
than the arena which so warmly confirmed her
claims last night. INladlle. Carlotta Patti sung four
times, and in evidence of her variety, in four
different schools, Swiss, Italian, French, and
English, in each of which she raised the audience
to the highest point of enthusiasm. Her delivery
of the Swiss Echo Song by Eckert, with its extra-
ordinary vocal resources—of the Rondo Finale
of the Sonnambnla, "Ah non Giunge," with
its profusion of embellishment—of the Laughing
song from the " Manon Lescaut," with its wonder-
ful high note ; and last not least, of the simple
British ballad, " Coming through the Rye," which
she gave in lieu of a repeat of the " Laughing
Song"--and which had nothing striking about it
but its perfectly simple and pure expression—
had each its characteristic that found a warm
response in the audience. The instrumental
star of the evening was not less extraor-
dinary than the vocal, though scarcely to be
classed with it, whether in respect to dignity or
agreeableness. This was a Signor Gianni Vailati,
who gave a performance on the mandolin, an old
rustic Italian instrument, the precursor of the guitar,
to which, however, it is as inferior as an ancient
tabor to a modern drum. In handling this very
limited and imperfect instrument, Signor Vailati
certainly exhibited a very striking amount of
facility, and in the execution of comic and fan-
tastic music we can conceive his capability of
producing eoc.e good effects ; but in the attempt he
made last night of giving expression to the
" Miserere,' from the " Trovatore," one of the
most pathetic compositions to be found in modern
opera—and which only the prolonged notes of a
cornet or a violin can give any adequate idea of—
the rapid thrumming of Signor Vailati was not
merely an incompetence, but what appeared to our-
selves and others as a something approaching to I
burlesque.
For the remainder of the entertainment we have
nothing but the highest praise. We had, among
the other solo features, the " Fandango" of Herr
Molique, admirably performed by Mr. Carrodus,
who is rapidly taking his place as one of the first
violinists of the day. We had a solo on the flageo-
let by M. Bonnissoan, which was equally striking
and agreeable, and a selection from the " Puritani,"
which gave scope to the several powers of Mr. Levy
on the cornet, Mr. Hauser onthe bassoon, Mr. Bar-
ret on the oboe
Sidney Pratte!:
on Mr.t Lheczasnodn thiure.
Hcluagriethoenso,nAtlhre.
ophecleide—the greatest masters of their respective
instruments that are probably tobe found in Europe.
Of the band , containing such solo talent, selected
from that of the Italian Opera and the Musical So-
ciety, and amounting to more than 80 performers,
all praise would be superfluous. Their execution'
of each of the substantial attractions of the night__
the adagio and Eellen:o of Beethoven's Choral Sym-
phony, the Laternetional Ai arch of Auber, the Ex-
hibition Overture of Neyerbcer, the overture to
Fra March)," and Mellou's spirited Dramatic

College Quadrillt —Wrs distinguished by a fire and

precision, a mingled force and colour, that could
❑ot poi•iiibly be exceeded. Lastly-, let
as not forget t'2.3 acknowledgments due

:3 Mr. Alfred, MeErm himud.f, to whose

vigour, taste, and judgment so much of the Band's
success was owing, as well as the general arrange-
ments and impressions of the night. He has rarely
sustained with more distinctness his claim to the

position he has gained—as the very first of English
conductors, and sole successor to Mr. Costa. We
must add that the programme of the week is suffi-
cieutly attractive. On Thursday we are to have a
.I°2"Art night—on Friday, the "Creation''--and on
‘lSaturday,viun a night for every one's heroes--the
leers. Before the W44 erowd,:d to the roofeio.ht, was over the ~ hou
e °