The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-12 00:00:00

this point. And yet a contemporary, with a forces have been directed to more important dis-.
forgetfulness of ordinary facts which is amaz- tricts, in the certainty that the issue of the war in
ing, solemnly suggests that this tribunal no way depends on any operations which may be
should be invested with additional powers in carried on to the west of the great river ; and if
order to remodel useless charities. The rea- beaten in Virginia and Tennessee and Federal
sons which have induced every person who had forces must be withdrawn or expelled from the
considered this subject for a moment to reject the States of Louisiana and Arkansas, and probably
idea of calling in the aid of the Court of Chan- from Missouri. If Grant and Rosencranz should
eery are simple and conclusive. In the first place, be thoroughly defeated it is probable that within
the Court of Chancery is too expensive. It must two months New Orleans would be the only point
be remembered that out of 28,880 charities there west of the Mississippi and south of the Missouri
are 17,972 under £lO a year, with an aggregate that would remain in Federal hands. And no
income of £58,187. And when it is added that defeats will induce the Confederates to listen to the
in the opinion of Mr. Senior, himself once a terms suggested while they can possibly keep an
Master in Chancery, "the instant a charity not army in the field. Theiall of Richmond, Charleston,
exceeding £3O a year becomes the subject of a and Mobile, would not oblige them to cede a single
suit it is gone ; one of £6O a year is reduced one State that has once joined the Confederacy ; and if
half; one of £lOO one third "—the absurdity of they were no longer able to do more than maintain
invoking the aid of the Court of Chancery in such a guerilla warfare that warfare could be main-
cases becomes obvious. Indeed, as Mr. Senior tamed even more easily and effectively on the
says, "the prudent friend of such a charity will western than on the eastern bank of the Mississippi.
submit to see it mismanaged to any extent short It would be quite as easy for the Federal Govern-
of the destruction of all its utility, rather than sent to conquer the whole of the South as to con-
risk its ultimate annihilation by the ruinous pro- quer those states whose natural character and half-
tection of the Court." If any further evidence desert condition make them far more defensible
were required of the extravagance of the Court than their sisters on the Atlantic seaboard ; quite as
of Chancery, even under the present reformed easy to subdue Virginia and the Carolinas as to coin-
system, or of the folly of investing it with addi- I pel the submission of Texas and Arkansas. And
tional powers to deal with charities, it is furnished thevery reasons suggested by the writer as justify-
by Mr. Erle, the Chief Commissioner of Charities, ing his proposal—the helplessness and insignificance
Mr. Martin and Mr. Hare, both Chancery bar- to which it would reduce the Confederate States--
risters and Charity Inspectors. The mere appoint- make it clear that those States will never consent
went of new trustees has cost near £BOO, and in to be so divided. They must be conquered altoge-
the "Attorney-General v. Corporation of Ludlow" ther. No middle term is possible. Again, the Fe-
the costs amounted to £20,929. The second rea- deral Government has no right whatever to the
son for not investing the Court of Chancery with States west of the Mississippi, and the Confederate
any new powers in matters of charity is that the Government has no right to cede them. Texas,
Judges of that Court are incompetent to deal with Louisiana, and Arkansas are members of the Confe-
such subjects. These magistrates, however learned deraey ; the two former were among the seven
in the maxims and precedents of law, cannot be earliest seceders, and all the three are as completely
expected to have studied, or to have arrived at Southern and as bitterly hostile to the North as South
any concurrence on, the more difficult principles Carolina herself. Whatever right the Lombards have
of social science, or on their practical applica- to be free from Austrian tyranny ; whatever claim
tion. Indeed, they naturally shrink from resort- the Greeks have to national independence; whatever
ing to such principles as too speculative allies for right any people has to be rid of a yoke which it
positive jurisprudence. Mr. Hare, himself an abhors, and a connection with its most detested
eminent Chancery barrister, and an Inspector of enemies, that right, and a still stronger right, have
Charities, has spoken in the strongest terms of the the South-Western States to be for ever released
incompetency of the Equity Judges to remodel from the Union—stronger, because they have on
charitable foundations. Although there is a sum of their side not merely the natural rights of a people
£3,000 a year in St. Dunstan's-in-the East which is willing and able to maintain its f-eedom by the
totally unappropriated, Mr. Hare urged that no ap- sword, but the legal rights of sovereign and inde-
plication should be made to the Court of Chancery pendent communities. It is not our business to
for a new scheme. He said, 6. The constitution of liberate them any more than it is our business to set
that court makes it the proper authority for enforc- Poland free from Russia, or to drive the Austrians
ing the execution of trusts, but not for solving the out of Venice, but to suggest that any influence or
problems in moral science, or determining the great sympathy of ours should be lent to those who desire
questions of charitable economy." "Even," he adds, to reimpose on them a hated yoke is like asking no
if it possessed materials for this great function, the to restore Lombardy to the Austrian, or to give our
subject is only presented to it in a detached and moral support to the system which has driven the
unconnected form, which renders it impossible for Poles into a desperate insurrection. Finally, it is
the Court to lay the foundation of any great insti- impossible that any arrangement could be durable
"3"
tutions for the moral advancement of the poor and which should leave the North in possession of
ignorant classes." This is not mere theory. The one of the States forming the Southern Confede-
action of the Court of Chancery in matters of charity racy, or of any portion of those States, except, per-
has always led to the most disastrous results, Under haps, Western Virginia and Eastern Tennessee'
the scheme settled by that court a whole parish in Missouri and Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware,
Herefordshire has been demoralised. In the case of might, after half their population had been driven
Sir W. Perkins' School at Chertsey, the Court of into exile, be colonised from the North, and remain
Chancery settled a scheme, in 1819, at the cost of tranquil in their connection with the Union. But
£2,898, which was so absurd that it has never been Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and the territory of
carried into effect. And the same thing occurred New Mexico, are thoroughly and completely South-
at Ludlow, where the scheme proved to be imprec- ern—Southern by climate, by institutions, by race,
tieable. At Exeter there is a very large sum an- by interests, and by passion ; they never could be
nually devoted to charity—more than £l,OOO a persuaded to remain in the Union as States, for their
year; but yet so incompetent is the Court of Chan- State authorities, chosen by the people, would be
eery considered to deal with these funds satisfac- for ever in open resistance to the Federal power,
torily that they are still administered without any and for ever passing ordinances of secession; they
definite scheme. And no wonder, for we are told could only be held as subject provinces, and then
that in this very city of Exeter the court, instead of only by the sword.
enlarging, has sometimes narrowed the scope of the
original gift ; that gifts have been appropriated to
particular. .trades which have since migrated from
Exeter; and that the trustees are now, in fact, as
much hampered by the restrictions of the Court of
Chancery as they were once hampered by the terms
of the original foundation. In fact, experience has
proved that the interference of the Court of Chan-
cery is a positive evil ; and that if charitable foun-
dations are to be utilised, some other tribunal must
be appointed to deal with them. It is notnur pre-
sent purpose to discuss what that tribunal should
be; but it is important that the public should be
misled by the ignorant suggestion that the Court
of Chancery is that which ought to be invested
with such powers. It will be as rational to invest
the Equity Judges with the nursery arrangements
of infants because it manages their property, as to
invest them with the power of remodelling
table trusts which have failed.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

- .4.-

LYNN-TUESDAY.

We have to report an average show of wheat, and the
value was is per qr less, with a moderate demand. Barley
is dearer.
White 50s to 638 1 Barley 38s to 39e
Red .. ..49s to 51s I grinding .. 32s to 330
Beans .34s to 408 I Oats .22s to 260
New —a to —a I Peas --8 to —4

HERALD.—It is, we think, at least 12 months
since some of our most impartial contemporaries
urged that the North, abandoning the hopeless
attempt to subjugate the Confederate States, should
confine itself to the more possible endeavour to se-
cure a good boundary; should, at least, admit to
itself, if not proclaim to the world, that it must
hope and would fight only for a frontier. A long
series of defeats and disasters has induced the more
judicious friends of the Northern cause to look on
this advice with less disfavour than they at first
felt towards it; and we have now before us a little
pamphlet embodying their idea of the frontier
which their clients should demand, and which
Europe ought to extort for them, since they cannot
possibly obtain it for themselves. We cannot com-
pliment the anonymous writer either on the ori-
ginality, the ingenuousness, or the good sense of
his proposal. The frontier which he has traced on
the map annexed to his two or three pages of ad-
vice is the same that was suggested some months
ago by at least one newspaper devoted to the Fe-
deral party ; the map is so unfairly drawn that no
one would guess from it that Texas is an organised
State and one of the most important members of
the Southern Confederacy ; and the suggestion that
Europe should recognise the Confederate Govern-
ment only on condition of the cession of two-thirds
of its territory, and the insinuation that European
influence should be used to compel its acquiescence
in such terms, are simply and utterly absurd.
The frontier proposed is defined by the Missis-
sippi, the Cumberland River, the range of moun-
tains which divides North-Western Virginia
from the rest of that State, and the Potomac. It
would give to the Federal Government the States of
Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Ken-
tucky, with portions of Virginia and Tennessee, and
the territories of New Mexico and Arizona, besides
the States of Maryland and Delaware, which it at
present holds by sheer force, and would surround
the Confederate States on every side with the domi-
nions of a hostile and an aggressive power. The
proposal is made and defended chiefly on the ground
that it would thus injure and imperil the rising na-
tion—a nation with which, for many reasons both
of policy, interest, and sympathy, England should
desire to be on good terms ; and though the proposer
pretends to impartiality his one object evidently is
to make the successful and peaceful development of
Southern resources impossible, and to strengthen as
much as possible the worst enemy of Great Britain
and the most inveterate disturber of the peace of
the world. It is open, besides, to three conclusive
objections—it is impracticable, it is immoral,
and it could not establish a lasting arrangement.
It is impracticable, because no European power
will ever intervene to assist the North in establish-
ing its authority over a vast territory whose popu-
lation is intensely hostile to Northern rule, and
because the North has not the least chance of
conquering that territory by force of arms. The
Federalists have been driven from their foothold
in Texas ; they have nothing more than a foothold
on Louisiana and Arkansas; and they have not a
secure possession even of Missouri and Kentucky.
It is true that they have the power to ravage and
plunder the plantations along the banks of the
Mississippi in Louisiana and the neighbouring
States, and that the marauding expeditions of Gen.a
Butler have spread devastation and anarchy
very considerable portion of the former country. It
.
on of
is true that New Orleansis in their hands,
and tbat
possession
while the war lasts, and they retain p over
thet
they
the sea and the lower part of the river,u d Crescento not
City cannot be wrested from them.B
govern in Louisiana ; they
are there not as rulers,
yas invaders; and
tohreevoenniyasrecoasnoqnuewrohly.s,tbhueitrsimphas not been
i l
invasion
more effeotiyely resisted s that the Confederate