The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-24 00:00:00

THE stiN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 24. 1863.

a fair Ballot. It rebelled, indeed, but it never de-
nied the fairness of the Ballot. We are pointed
again to France—there, too, the Ballot has " enabled
every man to do his own Toting. It is no fault of
"
the Iliallot that the peasantry at the time of the
EMPED.OR,S election were Napoleonists ; it is no fault
of the Ballot that, now, the masses of the people are
favourable to an Emperor who has so cleverly con-
ciliated their good will; the Ballot is not answer-
able for the motsures taken by French Prefects to
deter opposition candidates from coming forward,
or to mislead the voters. The people, after all,
vote as they please. But the grand proof of the
efficiency of the Ballot is that, even in France, first-
rate opposition candidates can get a seat in the
Chamber in the teeth of the Minister of the Interior,
the Prefect, and all the influence of Government.
It may be safely asserted thqt, with open voting,
not one opposition member would be returned. The
experience of all other countries, specially that of
our own Australian Colonies, is not denied to be in
favour of the reasonableness of the Ballot. To term
it a superstition, where it had been some time in
practice, would but expose a man to deserved con-
tempt. If there be superstition anywhere we should
say it is amongst those who oppose and dread the
Ballot. It is superstition to shrink from reason, and
this they do. The only alternative—and we fear
the true one—is that their fear is not superstition,
because it is a fear of losing what the Ballot would
certainly deprive them of—the power to bribe, inti-
midate, and coerce those who ought to be the free
and independent voters of Great Britain and Ireland.

We publish in another part of our impression an
account of the recent tyrannical proceedings of the
Russian Government in Warsaw, which can scarcely
fail to excite the reader's indignation. It is a re-
cital of the means adopted to carry out the recruit-
ing, by which Polish youths were to be forced
into the service of their country's oppressors.
As might be supposed the mere threat of such an
act aroused the deepest indignation among the
injured Poles, and had it not been for an
appeal judiciously circulated by those who have
the true welfare of their country at heart, there.is
little doubt that it would have been the occasion of
a violent outbreak. It was addressed to those who
were likely to be the victims of this unjust con-
scription, and conjured them, for the sake of their
oppressed country, to submit quietly to this fresh
act of tyranny. It reminded them that, although
torn from the country they longed to serve, and
associated with her enemies, their life and actions
might still be of service to Poland. They might carry
with them their sentiments of freedom and indepen-
dence to diffuse them among the Russian soldiery.
These and similar exhortations produced the desired
effect, for although, as our correspondent informs
us, it were impossible to describe the lamentations,
and the gloom that hung over the city after the
forced conscription was carried into effect, no vio-
lent resistance was attempted. '[he manner in
which the recruiting was carried out could only be
attempted in a semi-barbarous country. At an
hour verging on midnight the streets were cleared
of stray passengers, every street being occupied by
he military, while strong patrols perambulated

_ .
the town, and cannon were pointed at each

extremity. When these preparations were com-
pleted, the superintendent of police, with
a military policeman and six soldiers, all armed,
approached the doomed houses, and knocked. No
sooner was the door unfastened than in they rushed
like a band of brigands, dragged from their beds
the victims of the conscription, and conveyed them
to the citadel. In some instances the young men
qualified for conscription had contrived to leave
Warsaw, and in these cases they seized on their
fathers or younger brothers as hostages. In one
instance a middle-aged man, the father of five chil-
dren, was dragged off because his eldest son bad
contrived to elude the police. No plea for exemp-
tion was admitted—age, sickness, the care of a
family, the support of a widowed mother, were dis
regarded alike. There was scarcely a house, we are
told, in which there was not one taken, and from
many five or six were carried off. We can fancy
the desolation of the city—the lamentations of the
bereaved mothers, wives, and children, the burning
resentment which smoulders in the hearts of the
captives. Forced into the ranks of their hated op-
pressors, torn from their homes, and, in many in-
stances, conscious of the distress and poverty of
their deserted families, it will be with little heart
that they will fight the battles of the CZAR. The
account given in the Monde of these tyrannical
proceedings coincides with all we have heard from
other sources. A complete razzia, we are told,
was made among the officials of the railway
from Warsaw to Vienna, and the University
itself, notwithstanding the fine promises made to it,
was not spared, several young students being taken.
The numbers arrested amount, it is conjectured, to
several thousands, and when we remember that
these include tradesmen and workmen of all kinds,
we can have some faint idea of the injury inflicted
on the city in a commercial sense. Who can help
regretting that the youthful monarch who seemed
at first so willing to redeem the errors of his father,
and to whom so much praise is justly due for carrying
out the emancipation of the serfs, in the face
of his powerful nobility, should permit his reign to
be tarnished by such acts of cruel oppression.
Surely the teachings of history, and even the
experience of his own times, might convince him
that thrones built on tyranny rest on a hollow
foundation, and that the extent of his empire,
and the irresponsibility of his power, may not
suffice to save him from the fate of despots who
',empt too far the endurance of suffering humanity.

At a special meeting of the Nottingham Town
Council on Thursday, a resolution was adopted
'appointing a committee to take steps for the fitting Telelii:l7-
tion, in that town, of the:occasion of the marriage of his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The magistrates, it
was said, were prepared to co-operate with the Town Conn-
oil in the matter.

ST. THOMAS'S AND BETHLEM HOSPITALS.—Whea
St. Thomas's Hospital was required for railway
purposes the site was valued by Mr. Currey, the surveyor
to the governors, at £478,000; underthe award of the arbi-
trator only £290,000 was obtained for the property. On a
recent occasion the actual value of Bethlem was brought in
question, when the authorities appealed against their as-
sessment to the parish of St. George's, and valued them-
selves, or rather placed their then estimated value on their
own property, which result, by being made public, may serve
thatpvbraa erl sugexaanti
1n ti
valuation,
ordwpa
which,
year was sa
correctrrt.
Paine,
ae ien,foet
r,h utmostseui
ratingrrr esv nue ryt
avopler
ayu,
sorprt
whoh, thenaosi
us
acted
ged contendedtoseododf
hffooirsr
:ae
sale.l is
the Home-office, under the sanction of the Poor-law Board,
&c.,/on behalf of St. George's, contended for £4,200. The
award of the arbitrator was £3,728. Mr. Johnson, the
Governor of Bridewell and Bethleis, and Mr. Lee, his sur-
ve3 or, argued that Bethlem was almost worthless, because
at the present time it, wa- " totally unfit for the purposes
and practice of a lunatic asylum under the altered and
almost reversed system of treatment of lunacy ;" therefore
£l,BOO a year was an adequate rent. Such being the case,
certainly 30 years' purchase, or £54,000, will approximate
towards the current value of the property in tee.
AMERICAN SYMPATHY WITH LAN CASHIRE.—The
ship Hope arrived at Liverp Joi yest
the erday from Ne w
relief of the dis-
York, with a cargo of flour, &c., for t
tress in Lancashire. The Hope, which is a fine new vessel,
is commanded by Captain Hancock, who, we believe, gave
his services free. She left New York on the 22d Decem-
ber, laden with 1,010 barrels of flour, and 987 tons guano,
all of which will be sold, and the proceeds forwarded to the
relief fund. The vessel is, we understand, consigned to
Messrs. Babcock and Co., of Liverpool, who undertake to
unship the cargo, free of expanse. The Hope was towed
up the Mersey, free of charge, and all the customs and
harbour, dock, and
other dues will be dispensed with in
this mid other similar cues,