The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

" EPIGRAM ON OLD ABE."

Some months ego the following epigram appeared.
It is doubly applicable since the last proclama-
tion :

" Honest Old Abe, when the war first began,
Denied ' Abolition' was part of his plan I
Honest Old Abe has since issued decree,
The war must go on 'till the slaves are all free.
As both can't be honest, will some one tell how,
If ' Honest' Abe then, he is Honest Abe now ?"
" MR. LINCOLN'S LONG FEATHER."

A very curious statement has been made by a
person who must be upon excellent terms with
Minister Adams. I presume the person is Beecher.
He says that when Mr. Seward was absent in the
West skylarking with Lord Lyons and the other
foreign Ministers, Mr. Lincoln got excited and went
to letter-writing. He addressed a letter to Mr.
Adams. It contained this :
What do the British Government mean ? What do they
want ? Do they really want war ? It may be the moat
disastrous thing in the world for us ; and it is certainly
what we most earnestly desire to avoid; but if those rams
are permitted to leave England the people will force us into
war, whether we wish it or not. We shall not be able to con-
trol their exasp ration, and the British Government ought
to understand this.

Mr. Adams was delighted at getting a letter in
the hand-writing of the President. He called upon
Earl Russell and said :

I do not call upon your lordship in my offlcial.irer%
city. But 1 have received a plain, outspoken,
letter from President Lincoln, which, though addressed
I
me as a private epistle, and not as an eflic.
it, your know •
am sure was not designed to be withheld from
ledge.
and Adam.
Earl Russell listened attentively,
hduressed to
concluded :
This is not diplomacy, your lordship, but the honest,
straightforward dealing of a Plain,blunt, honest man,
as is
Mr. Lincoln.
Within twelve hours after the order for the
detention of the rebel rams was promulgated, and
Presidentis due the credit of effecting what
tos h
e
could never halve done. Old Abe considers
thistaserod long a feather in his cap that he will keep it
locked up until he gets back to Illinois after his
Presidency. The question is—Who made that
letter public p Was it Minister Adams, or Mr.
Lincoln, or Earl Russell? lam afraid we cannot
fasten it upon the British Secretary, as it does not
appear that he had a copy furnished to him ; his
memory at his age could hardly have retained the
exact words.

t•-•
(tritlrt trmlar.

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Dec. 28.

The Right Hon. C. P. Villiers arrived at Osborne
on Sunday, and had an audience of her Majesty.

Dr. Watson and Dr. Jenner also arrived from
London.

The Queen and Princess of Wales drove oat this

morning.

The Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred went out
shooting, attended by Lieutenant-General the Hon.
C. -Grey, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. D. de Ros,
and Lieutenant-Colonel Keppel.

The Right Hon. T. H. S. Sotheron-Estcourt
M.P., and Mrs. Sotheron-Estcourt, have left Farrance's
Hotel for Estcourt, near Tetbury.
The Hen. Capt. Elphinstone has left the Bruns-
Wick Hotel, Jermyn-street, for Newport-Pagnell.
Major and Mrs. Wombwell have left the St.
George's Hotel.

Madame de Pereira and family have left the
Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, on their return to Paris.

Mr. M'Cann, M.P., and Mrs. M'Cann have left
Brown's Hotel.

M. Gounod's " Faust" has been produced at New
Yhrk, with Miss Kellogg as the heroine.
___

TRACTION ENGINES ON COMMON ROADS.--A spe-
cial meeting of the waywardens of the Faversham
Highway Board was held yesterday for the purpose of con-
sidering a resolution, of which notice had been given at
the previous meeting, to the effect that in the opinion of the
Board the use of locomotives on the public highways is
dangerous and inconvenient to the public, and therefore
that an application be made to the Home Secretary, under
the powers of the 24th and 25th of Victoria, cap, 70, to pro-
hibit the use of all kinds of locomotives on any highway
whatever within the district. The motion was supported
by Mr. Carter, the deputy-chairman, who contended that
the engines were altogether unsuited to the roads in the
district, and that their passage to and fro was exceed-
ingly dangerous. An animated and lengthened discussion
took place, from which it appeared that steam traction and
ploughing engines were now most extensively used in Kent,
there being as many as 20 working in that district alone. It
was also contended that there was more danger by the
passing of traction engines by night than by day. Several
of the owners of the engines, including Messrs. Aveling
and Porter, of Rochester, who have made upwards of 100
of the engines, attended, and argued against the suicidal
course proposed to be adopted. On a division only two
hands were held up for the prohibition, and more than 50
against it, Lord Harris, who is a large Kentish landholder,
voting with the latter.

THE QUEEN AS A RULER.—Of the deep and
ready interest which the Queen has manifested in
every great public event, whether calamitous or glorious,
which has occurred during her reign, she has given more
than one memorable proof. We most of us remember a re-
markable letter from her Majesty to Lord Palmerston which
was read in the House of Commons on the occasion Of
certain Ministerial explanations between that nobleman
and Lord John Russell, in which she intimated her
pleasure that no important despatch should be issued
from the Foreign Office until she should have been made
acquainted with its contents, and her pleasure taken
thereupon; and it is well known that she required to be
kept thoroughly informed as to the nature and the grounds
of every Ministerial decision on the great questions of the
day, so that, without in the least degree hampering the
action of the Cabinet, she might be able to exercise an inde-
pendent judgment on the course 'of affairs, and to discuss
them intelligently with her advisers. During the Crimean
war her sympathy with each day's tidings was painfully
intense ; no one who witnessed it can ever forget the eager-
ness with which she questioned every competent messenger
from the scene of danger as to all the details of that heroic
struggle, and the prompt and spontaneous tenderness with
she sought to alleviate the sorrows both of sufferers and
mourners can never be effaced from the memories of either.
There was a vigilant solicitude in her every word and
action throughout that sad and terrible crisis of our history
which perhaps did more than any other incident in her reign
to endear her to the nation's heart. It was a perfect coin
munily of feeling, reaching from the hovel to the throne.
Victoria Iltagazine for January.

A WOMAN KILLED BY HER HUSBAND IN LIVER-
POOL.—Oa Saturday evening last an unfortunate
occurrence took place, resulting in the death of a woman
named Catherine Lewis, wife of Richard Lewis, a master
carter, residing in Church-street, Soho. It appears that on
the evening in question Lewis returned home and found
his wife in the yard preparing provender for the horses
which he kept, and the dwelling -house which adjoins the
yard being closed, he asked her for the key to
open the door. She was then partially intoxicated, and
was unable to furnish him with the key, and
getting alarmed she ran to her sister's in Bennett-street.
The house in the meantime had been entered by means of a
ladder, by which a man named Radcliffe, in Lewis's employ,
sealed the outer wall, and Lewis then went to his sister-in-
law's and brought his wife home. Radcliffe and a man named
Williams, also employed by Lewis, accompanied the latter
into a publichouse, where they had some drink, and the
deceased also bad drink in the same place. On reaching
home Lewis and the deceased remained together apparently
on friendly terms, and nothing more was thought of the
unpleasantness which had originally arisen. It seems that
Lewis, when alone with his wife, made come further mix'
understanding with her respecting the disappearance of
some bed-clothes, and while she was sitting in a chair be
dealt her a blow on the neck with his hand, which caused
her almost instant death. He made every exertion to revive
her, but his efforts being unsucce:sful, he obtained the atten-
dance of Dr. Taylor, Springfield, but the medical gentleman
on his arrival pronounced lilt) to be extinct. Lewis, who
has been habitually a sober man for a considerable tine,
was deeply affected at the unfortunate issue of the dispute,
and when taken into custody shed tears copiously. He will
be brought before the magistrates for examination this dal
(Monday).—Liverpool Courier.

A DELIRIUM OF NIGHTMARES.—Every supersti"
tion that has ever disturbed the soul of ignorant
man lent some one awful feature to the crowd of hideous
images uprising in this man's mind. Awful Chaldean gods
and Carthagenian goddesses thirsting for the hot blood of
human sacrifices, greedy for hecatombs of children flung
shrieking into fiery furnaces, or torn limb from limb 11
savage beasts ; Babylonian abominations; Egyptian Isis or
Osiris ; classical divinities with flaming swords and pale,
impassible faces, rigid as the destiny whose type they were;
ghastly Germanic demons and witches—all the dread
avengers that man, in the knowledge of his own wicked-
ness, has ever shadowed for himself out of the darkness of
his ignorant mind, swelled that ghastly crowd until the
artist's brain reeled, and he was fain to sit with his head in
his hands, trying, by a great effort of :the will, to exorcise
these loathsome phantoms.—Xiss Bradclon's Alm Marcie
lames Legacy.
BAVARIAN MORALITY AND INFANT MORTALITY*
—ln Lower Bavaria, illegitimate births are one in four ; in
the Palatinate, w,here freedom from vexatious love
(through the introduction of the Code Napoleon) produces a
less proportion of crime, more contentment, and far greater
prosperity, they are one in nine—and in Saxony and Frits.
sia, one in 13. In Munich, in one year, there were 1,762
legitimate and 1,702 illegitimate births—nor is it rare for
the illegitimate births in one month to exceed the legiti-
mate. But the worst side disclosed by these statttimesorie
than 69,000 children
Of these chil-
the proportion of deaths. In the whole of Bevli
die under 14 than over—and the number thatthe
nubmefboerer
attaining one year is four times as great as die between
die
which comes next to it, grown-up people who
60 and 70. That is, in one year znore_t.
died, and only 62,000 persons are ever
whereas the greatest
dren 53,000 were under one year'
were 13,000, of people between
TILE GOLDEN EAGLE.—OiI
number of deaths above 14
._ ,e Iu jrunich.
60 and 70. Wilberforce's Social
lacohnradrsct chartered dnweebayrnyewdtiiiahe
tcahoenes
consignees. Eagle, a sailing
vessel of
Messrs'
general
property of Captain Martin, and
about 590 or 600 tons, t
m'oMniadaTylNlYa
stOtNheßGooAli?
fowls and Co., sailed from the Mersey
cargo, of which Messrs. Poole
gnees. On Sunday she returned to
ttohdeyriovnera, charge of mutiny onthe h
e crewhi
ghwsaesa takenseas.
Abionuttoseven
o'clock Captain Martin arrived at the police-office in Dale.
street, and made the statement which led to the interfe:ence
of the police. He stated that a day or two after he left
Liverpool, When the ship was off the coast of Wales, some
distance from Holyhead, the crew mustered and came aft,
requesting to see him. He asked whether they had anY
complaint to make, and said if they had he would take it
down upon his official slate for transfer to the log. They
did not, however, make any complaint, but returned for
short time forward. Afterwards they again came aft, seized
the captain, tied him with a rope, placed him in his state
room, and stationed a sentry at the door. At the same time
they secured the two mates. They then reversed the course
of the ship and came back to Liverpool, keeping the captain
a prisoner until their arrival in the Mersey. Soon after the
vessel entered the river a boat came off, and the steward,
acting under the captain's orders, got the boatman onboard. The captain lay upon the table in the cabin and
feigned sleep, while the steward got the log-book and other
documents, tied them about him, and got into ,the boat,
leaving a rope hanging over the ship's side as be did O.
The captain then jumped up, rushed past the sentry, 0,
upon deck, slipped over the side into the boat, and escapee
to shore. Upon the receipt of this information at the po'
lice-station, Inspector Horne, Inspector Cairns, Detective
Beattie, and 12 constables went off to the Golden Eagle'
and there took into custody ten of the crew. Yesterday the
ten men were brought up at the police-court, when the
captain's statement was received, and the case adjourned.