The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 17, 1863.

to which Prince Gortschakoff added, on the following day
the threat that, ' if the Poles force us to it we will make of
Poland a heap of ashes and corpses'--a threat which the
conduct of the Russians in the present war appears to be
deliberately intended to fulfil.

"In the same month was published the Ukase ordering
that infamous proscription, or levy of recruits in Poland
which, in the month of January in this year, was endea-
voured to be carried into effect at midnight, in a mode
which has caused it to be described in our House of Lords
as a visitation similar to ' one of the plagues of Egypt de-
stroying the first-born in every family, an iniquity which h as
no parallel in Europe.'
" To the iniquity was added the insult of a representation
in the official paper of Warsaw, that the Poles went joyfully
to their fate, and that some even volunteered to serve in the
ranks of their enemies.

"All this filled the cup of national anguish and indigna-
tion to overflowing, and drove the Poles into open insurrec-
tion, after they had endured until endurance was almost a
crime, and after they had exhausted all peaceful methods
of endeavouring to obtain any real redress of their intoler-
able wrongs.

"The war, thus infamously provoked by the Russians,
thus most righteohsly embarked in by the Poles, has been
waged by the former with a savage ferocity, which is a
scandal to Christendom and an insult to mankind, and
which, instead of merely giving point to the feeble dialec-
tics of diplomacy, might well have enlisted all men, in
whose hands the love of freedom and hatred of oppression
are not utterly deadened or depraved, in an open crusade
against the unchristian and develish cruelty which spares
neither age nor sex, and revels in unrestrained and indis-
criminate pillage, confiscation, burning, torture, and
murder.

"But the Poles ask of us no armed intervaintion. All
that they ask, while struggling to the death in this frightful
and unequal contest which is seeking to make of their
country one huge grave, all that they have asked in their
late pathetic appeal to the peoples and Governments of
Europe as brethren, is that we should recognise their na-
tional and belligerent rights, and no longer continue to be
the allies of their oppressor by negotiating with and racog-
uising him as King of Poland. That we should sever all
alliance with him in that character, and openly and
honestly declare that he has no right, and that we no
longer by treaty or otherwise sanction in him any right, to
rule over them.

"To elicit from the British people, and, through them,
from the Parliament, the Government, and the Crown, a
cordially affirmative response to this noble and temperate
appeal of the Poles, and at the same time to assist them
with every pecuniary and material support lawfully in our
power in the terrible conflict into which they have been
forced for the recovery and protection of their most just
rights and of all that is dear to man upon earth, are the
objects of this league for the restoration of the independenee
of Poland.

"The original dismemberment of that country has been
pronounced to be the greatest of all political crimes, the pre-
lude and the cause of subsequent disorders in Europe, a
fatal derangement of the balance of power ; her restoration
is the only expiation that can satisfy justice and humanity
for that crime, while it will be a protection and safeguard to
Europe, a guarantee for peace,,a defence against the con-
stant recurrence of frightful and chronic convulsions, and
the only effectual barrier against the rapacious and disturb-
ing policy of all that is arbitrary and oppressive.
"All classes in Poland, without distinction of rank, opi-
nion, or creed—nobles, citizens, peasants, Catholics, Luthe-
rans, Calvanists, Jews—are united in this great struggle
for freedom, so just, so righteous, so vitally important, not
only to Poland, but to the whole world, We ask, therefore,
for this brave, this most deeply-wronged nation, the openly
avowed, the •active, and practical sympathy and support,
the generous contributions, of all classes in Great Britain.
"We ask further that, unless Russia shall withdraw
from her claim to dominion over Poland, and from all fur-
ther attempts to support that claim by acts revolting to
Christendom and to British feelings and sympathies, our
ambassador withdrawn from St. Petersburg, and all friendly
relations be suspended with a power who has notoriously
violated every condition upon which her Sovereignty over
any part of Poland was at a former period unwillingly sanc-
tioned, and who now seeks to renew and maintain that
Sovereignty by acts the most violent and uncivilised, and
productive only of general confusion and disorder.
" On behalf' of the Committee of the National League for
the Independence of Poland,
rr EDgoND BEALES, President."

SPIRIT OP THE piTBLIC JOURNALS.

---
SATURDAY REVIEW.—The appointment of the
Archduke Maximilian to occupy an Imperial throne u
g
the accomplishment
in Mexico is surprising event, both in itself and as
wholly chimerical. Napoleon III• belongs to the
performers.. Not
of a project which seemed
highest order of thaumaturgic
contented with the mere display of unexpected skill,
he challenges the scepticism of his audience by an-
nouncing beforehand the almost in credible feat
which he afterwards proceeds to perform. When
Prince Louis Napoleon ascended the
-
Mr. Disraeli became a leader in the House of Com-
mons, when
throne of France, the adroitness of both achieve-
ments was enhanced by the recollection that neither
aspirant to power had ever doubted of his own ulti-
mate triumph• The Emperor of the French has
since that time ventured upon many enterprises,
without wearing out his astonishing good fortune.
When he embarked.
ower of a
speculation, and more especially
against the wish of his subjects,
of his forces on their way to
in the Mexican
but the
during the long delay
the capital, it was thought by many that his demon
France
berforuesm thatthe
expenditurea n y solid a d veafnttraegae..
or guadian angellt is
had at last deserted him.
rl fleuxouu
Ist conquest;n
the p
swrii ll ll
accrue no ntacr ;
armysure and d
tlhifee
Sovereign who can create and give away empires.
It was as unlikely that an Austrian Archduke
should accept a crown from a Napoleon as that a
i!relo:lesuwPi6l
French garrison should occupy the chief city of
The splendour of the transaca
Spanish America.
%ion will compensate for its inutility or improvi
dance, and new strength will be added t.
the popular belief that civilisation is borne
°
round the world on the wings of the Imp
The new Monarchy must neces-
rial eagles. e-
Barfly rely on the protecting power of France, as
Austria has neither ships nor money tosend
crusading errands across the Atlantic. It . on
is said,
indeed, that Frenchmen hope to be relieved by an
Austrian force from the burden of the M
yen if the
cupation • but e Emperor Francis Joseph
and the 'Council of the Empi!e were disposed to
undertake the task, the
n
appearance of
army in Mexico would be a curious modea German
of com-
mencing that establishment of a great Latin and
Celtic State which Napoleon 111, proposed in his
letter to Gen. Fore,' as the main object of the war.
It is not by Austrians that the
Teutonic supremacy
of the United States can be balanced on the Western
Continent, The Archduke or Emperor Maximilian
must be content to acknowledge the patronage of
the real founder of the new dyene
EXAMINER. --A fellow ri,e,
.asty.
nto a railway car-
riage, and presently indecentlybta 1
assaults a married
woman. The husband interferes,
threatening him
with chastisement if he does not desist. The ruffian
pulls out a clasp knife, and
makes a dash at the
husband, and a desperate struggle follows for about
ten minutes. Fortunately
there
v
the carriage who assists the husband, and between
is a passenger in
the two the ruffian is overpoweredßrighton case, the last out-
rage of the kind that we happen to be informed of,
but not the last we shall have to notice if it be true
that lenient punishments
Finigan was brought b encourager
before the Sussex county
magistrates (Messrs. Scott and Warner) for exami-
nation, and the
charge of outrage
For the defence drunkenness was fully proved.
master of the prisoner was was
pleaded, and the
his man a good character Nowbrought forward to give
~ air. Scott, in pass- • mark what follows :
of the offence, and saidi sentence,. dilated on the enormity
of if they it had been a question with they
taking into consideration ought not to commit him for trial, but
the fact that he Was d ion his previous good character,' and
had determined to treat the
and did not injure any one, they
him to two months' t ? offence summarily, at d sentenced
It would have imprisonment with hard labour.
dilated on the beenmie, much better if Mr. Scott had not
to treat as :if Ay of an offence which he in-
tendedconsiderations
which no. enormity whatever. The
pass so light
a sentence induced the magistrates to
offence were, nce for so wanton and savage an
Let us
askprevious good character and drunken-
ness.weight and earth ii whether the two were of equal
to character is of In cases of doubt, evidence as
proof of the value, but when there is positive
most blackguardly and ruffianly con-
duct,show that the geod character will only serve to
a prisonerword,
d had passed for better than
lie was—in that he was a successful hypo-
crite.
But
reason for dealing character was not the magistrates' only
worshipful bending mildly with the offence. inc
drunk, for it had to consider that Finigan was
seems that,
accepted in a"in Sussex, drunkenness is
are directions mitigationforgross all who may be desirous of com-
mitting 0
they have outrages at the smallest cost. First,
they bydese hypocrisy to get better characters thee
by these ery
two ' and next, they must get drunk, and
drink, recommendations together, deceit and
few days they
will
secure lenient treatment. Yet a
ago we saw it laid down by the highest
the
authority,Chief Justice of England, that
drunkenness
was an aggravation ut offence. The
occasion was a charge of unskilful treatment by a
midwife,
and Sir
A. Cockburn directed the jury that 1
if they believfact aggrav ed the cause to be drunkenness that
sound is
thet aed the offence. And thoroughly
reasoning, for the wilful act
of getting drunk worked the incapacity causing in-
jury. And
so, too, in Finigan's case, the wilful act
of getting
drunki made a filthy and dangerous
ruffian of him. But the Sussex justices, instead of
regarding drunkennessaesse
aggravation of offence,
wilful an
or, in other words,of indefinite offence,

have treated it so as to recommend it as qualifica-
tion for outrage with a view to lenient treatment.
Pretty much what benefit of clergy used to be in
feudal times, benefit of drunkenness is now, accord-
ing to a part of the magi& racy, a specimen of
which we see on the Brighton bench. There was a
third circumstance regarded in Finigan's favour
which must not pass without notice. Forsooth, he
had not injured any one! He had drawn a knife
against a husband proteetieg his wife against in-
decent insult, he had been for 10 minutes struggling
violently with the husband and another passenger,
and being overmastered, and forcibly prevented from
doing any mischief witn the knife, he is recom-
mended to the mercy of the Brighton bench by the
fact that he did noc succeed in injuring any one !
Can the force of noodleism farther go ? When we
see a decision like this, we are tempted to ask
whether certain adjudications do not require the
plea of drunkenness? Can men in their sober senses
be pardoned such mischievous absurdities ?
SPECTATOR.—Captain Marryatt once wrote that
nothing could beat a London sparrow for impu-
dence except a midshipman, but the novelist had
not the ill fortune of knowing the chairman of the
Sabbath Alliance of Scotland. The Channel Fleet
has been recently at Leith, and it appears that the
vessels, like the shore, and the sea, and the green
fields, and the river, and other things which God
has made, may be seen by the public on Sunday.
This greatly offended the Alliance and its chair-
man, a Mr. Blackadder, and he actually wrote
by their order to Admiral Dacres requesting him to
prohibit the public from going on board. The ad-
miral, in a very quiet but slightly scornful reply,
pleaded his orders, and Mr. Blackadder, conse-
quently, proceeded to issue his mandate to the Dake
of Somerset, of all men on earth. There is this
use in an aristocrat. at all events, that he has never
the. slightest idea of giving way to priestly imper-
tinence, and accordingly the Alliance were calmly
informed that his Grace " was not prepared to les-
sen the facilities at present afforded to the inhabi-
tants of the ports at which the Channel Fleet
touched," and declined to obey their ukase. Greatly
aggrieved, the Alliance handed the correspondence
to Dr. Begg. who read it aloud to the Assembly of
the Free Church—who resolved to move all their
presbyteries throughout Scotland to stir in the
matter, with the view of coercing the Admiralty.
In other words, Dr. Begg and his colleagues, irri-
tated that their own eloquence does not succeed in
inducing their own people to obey their favourite
dogma, are determined to call in the secular arm.
Dr. Begg, being at heart a great deal better than
his doctrine, stops short of effectual measures, and
only exposes his wishes without enforcing his will.
We wonder if he ever glanced at a rainbow on Sun-
day,. or sent up a memorial that that opportunity
for " desecration by sight-seeing" might be removed.
LONDON REVIEW.—The public will learn with
much surprise and apprehension that Mr. Oliver
Lang has resigned his position as master ship-
builder of Chatham Dockyard, and that the Admi-
ralty have accepted hie resignation, but requested
him to continue the superintendence of the construc-
tion of the sechilles—the noblest of our ironsides—
until she is launched. The question will naturally
be asked, Why should Mr. Lang suddenly throw
away the advantages of the position which he
has so laboriously achieved with so much cre-
dit to himself and with such great benefit
to the State—high official rank, good pay, and
the certainty of ample provision for his old age ?
wnen he may be said to have reached the topmost
place in his profession in reality, if not in official
rating. Nor are Mr. Lang's the only services the
country is threatened wish losing, for several of the
master shipbuilders in other of her Majesty's yards
haveintimated their intention of resigning also; so
that there is every probability of the country losing
the services of the ablest of its naval architects,
whose education and great practical experience are
the. results of costly experiments for which the na-
tion has been heavily taxed. Upon their skill and
practical knowledge we have been taught to rely,
to supply and maintain out first line of defence.
The services of such men we are to lose. And what
are we to have in exchange ? A protege of his
Grace the Duke of Somerset; by name Mr. E. J.
Reed. It is no secret, that the discontent which
prevails among the master ship-builders of all the
yards arises from the appointment of Mr. E. J.
Reed to be Chief Naval Constructor; and when the
facts are known, the public will most likely think
that Mr. Lang and his colleagues have only exhi-
bited a proper spirit in their courageous opposition
to a system of jobbery in the administration of our
naval affairs. It is but the other day that the soli-
citor to the Admiralty was awarded a retiring pen-
sion, long before he had earned it, in order to make
a place for a country attorney who was thus in-
duced to resign the representation of Kidderminster,
which he had obtained by the merest chance as a
pis
aller, and by a freak of the proprietor of the
town ; so that Col. Luke White, a Junior Lord of
the Treasury, and the rejected of an Irish constitu-
ency, might obtain a seat in the house. What is
the consequence ? The country is saddled with
two salaries for one officer, and the present soli-
citor is, as was naturally to be expected, ignorant
of his duties, and inapt for their performance.
Next, Sir Richard W. Bromley retired on full pay,
end, as though this were not enough to recompense
him for his official services, the Accountant-General
for the Navy was in addition appointed Civil Com-
missioner to Greenwich Hospital, an office next door
to a sinecure. And, lastly, Mr. Isaac Watts is
ousted from his situation with scant delicacy and
considerateness, to make room for Mr. E. J. Reed,
who leaps into the place of Chief Constructor of the
.Navy, over the heads of men who have grown grey
in the service, and whose fitness for their positions
has never been called in question. Of Mr. Reed
we know nothing beyond what has been published
through his friends and acquaintances connected
with the cheap press. From this source we learn
that he was educated at the Naval School, and by
his good conduct attracted the notice and obtained
the patronage of Dr. Wooley ; that he was ap-
prenticed in Sheerness-yard, where he served some
time in the drawing-office; that he subsequently
quitted the service rather than join the dockyard
brigade; that he was next engaged as one of the
editors of the Mechanics' Magazine, in which capa-
city he read a paper at the Society of Arts " On the
Navies of France and England," and that he got up
the Institute of Naval Architects—obtaining the
appointment of secretary—which led to his connec-
tion with the Admiralty.
COURT JOURNAL —Tt e Liberalism of the Em-
peror Franz Joseph and his talented and conscien-
tious advisers has first been appreciated in England
by his expression of noble and manly sympathy for
the brave and struggling Poles. Nor has Austria
played a hesitating or a timid part during the
whole course of negotiations which have taken place
on behalf of the Poles. On the contrary, site has
acted in a far moie independent spirit than our own
country, and we believe that the people of Englund
have to thank her that we were not blindly led by
the deceptive proposals of the Emperor of the
French. The Emperor of Austria saw through them
from the beginning, and was fully aware that, how-
ever much he might sympathise with the Poles, it
was a primary duty on his part, as a German Sove-
rign, to prevent any designs which Napoleon might
entertain for annexing certain portions of German
territory to his own dominions, To England and
Austria it is, perhaps, almost equally important
that the Rhine should never become a purely
French river; it is bad enough that our neighbours
on the other side of the Channel have ever been
allowed to retain possession of Strasbourg and the
German provinces adjacent to it. On the reply of
Prince Gortachakoff being received at the three
Couris of London, Paris, and Vienna, it is said that
the Emperor Napoleon was bent upon immediately
despatching an ultimatum to the Emperor of Russia.
But Austria wisely determined to act independently
of French influence in this as in every other matter,
and despatched a note on her own account, which,
although boldly and decisively worded, contained
nothing in it that could leave the Cabinet of St.
Petersburg no other alternative but war. To the
influence of Austria, also, may be ascribed the ap-
parent indecision which has lately been displayed
in the counsels of the English Ministry, but which
in reality has been produced by a willingness to
aid the Poles in a material manner without being
driven into a war which would only further the
interests of France, and would be productive of no
benefit whatever to Poland. On the contrary, that
country would be still further converted into a scene
of bloodshed and desolation, and became the theatre
of operations for the armies of the three greatest
Powers of the world. It is hard, perhaps, that the
counsellors of England should not be farseeing
enough to have come to this conclusion of their own
accord, but, as we know such not to be the case, we
may well he thankful to Austria that she has been the
means of saving England from the designs of a Power
which, however friendly it may be to the Poles, is
still more mindful of its own advantage, and is ever
bent upon one favourite and predominant idea—the
rectification of its territory. In the same spirit
which has induced her to take a prominent, and
perhaps, the most useful, part of any in behalf of
the Poles, Austria has determined to take the lead in
the introduction of reforms for those people to whom
her own population is allied by ties of blood, lan-
guage, and manners—for the whole of the States of
Germany. The Austrians themselves are now, un-
doubtedly, the freest and best-governed people of
Germany. But the other States were sadly in wan*
of a strong Power to befriend them, and to unite
them all in an effective and national bond of brother.
hood and consanguinity than has hitherto existed
in the smaller German Dukedoms and Principali-
ties. To the honour of Austria be it said, she has
come forward at the right and required moment.
and has now offered her services, as the greatest

and freest Power in Gerrriany, to extend some pflrt
of her iwn greatness and freedom to the remainder
of the German people.
ATHENEUM —Having tailed in laying a wire in
the restless trough of the Bee Sea, but having on
our hands the duty of completing our lines of com-
munication with Bombay and Calcutta, we are now
about to adventure money and hope on the rival
route of the Persian Gulf. The temptations offered
by this line through Asia Minor are so great, that
nearly all eastern travellers, and many of our best
engineers have long been in favour of making the
valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris our main roads
of communication with India. It may sound very
strange in ears accustomed to the tales of the
Three Ladies to hear that telegraphic communica-
tion is even now open between London and Bag-
dad. But this is true. The Turks, who are not so
far behind other nations as some men dream, have
laid down a line of wires from Scutari, on the Bos-
phorus, by way of Disrbekir, on the upper reach
of the Tigris, and the rich valley which once held
the cities of Assyrian empire, down to Bagdad, the
chief seat of oriental romance. There our Indian
lard lines will commence; one running due south,
through a wild Arab country, for about SOO miles,
to the head of the Gulf; a second proceeding through
Ispahan and Shiraz to Bushire; each joining thesab-
marine cable in the Persian Gulf. From Bushire the
wires will catch at Cape Mussendom in Arabia, and
thence at Gwadel, a bold headland on the Beloo-
chistan coast. From Gwadel to the most western
station of British India, Kurrachee, in Scinde, a
telegraph is already made. Of course, from Kurra-
chee the whole empire can be reached in a few
minutes. Next year, it is hoped that the whole
line will be open; in which case it will be possible
for a man to ask a question in London and receive
an answer from Calcutta on the same day.