The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-23 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 23, 1863.

MANHATTAN speaks pretty confidently, under
date the ninth of this present month of October,
about the all but certainty of a war between the
French and the Federals. " I will bet two thousand
dollars," he says, " that war is declared against
France before the first day of January." It would
almost seem that the Northerners were " beside
themselves," by reason of the very agonies of the
frightful civil war in which they are engaged.
Like that tuft-hunting old lady at Mr. Spenlow's
dinner-party in " David Copperfield," the old lady
who was such a stickler for long pedigrees wherever
they could be found or affected—all they want
(apparently) is blood ! As if the hideously de-
structive struggle, which they have now for the last
t wo or three years been engaged in, with their own
brethren of the South, were not nearly enough to
satisfy their greed of ruin and lust for slaughter—
the Federals have been howlinz all this while alter-
nately for an additional or supplementary war, now
with England, now with France. France and
England all the while, on their part, having re-
peatedly to exercise an extraordinary amount of
self-control and forbearance, if only out of sheer
Pity for the straights to which the North
has been and is still being put—by the
Confederates. If France and England had not
exercised pertinaciously an extraordinary amount
Of forbearance and of self-control, in one word of
( magnanimity," there must inevitably have been
„w 1
...n war already with one, or the other, or with both.
In of all kinds of revilings, insults, and out-
rages, unprovokedly directed against the two great
European Powers, from the opposite side of the
Atlantic, England and France have all through the
war maintained an attitude towards the bellige-
rents in North America of the very strictest neutra-
lity. To maintain otherwise would not only be a
violation of all truth, but would be one so
extravagantly flagrant
simply ridiculous. 0 of its kind as to be
it is true, when the
British flag and the gneee'
's uniform had been
insolently outraged upon tl:e 11hi
ral Swashbuckler, wildly high seas by a Fede-
ral bent somehow, or rather
anyhow, upon distinguishing
himself
esl
began to arm. The attitude —England
as
this country, was not one in
any
assumed even then by
his
fist,
o that of a
ayt equivalent
to that of an athlete shaking
knight of old flinging down his
gauntlet—it
was
simply as the buckling on of the armourßu But,
it
was sufficient. Tardily, grumbling,
reluctantly
the North made the amende honorable. However it
made it—it made it. That for England was enough.
The armour was unbuckled again. The storm-cloud
blew over. And•—cordially or not it matters little
—the Northern Government and their repre-
sentatives, naval, military and diplomatic,
have since then, in regard to England,
been tolerably on their good behaviour. Not so,
however, has it been with them, in their bearing
towards France, that is towards the French Go-
vernment. More particularly since the successful
occupation of Mexico by the French troops under
Marshal FOREY. From that date the malignity of
feeling against France, against the ruler of France,
on the part of the Federal Power (or Weakness'
whichever we may like to call it) has been
holly undisguised. The North hates France, hates
the French EMPEROR, with both a lively and a
"MY hatred. MANHATTAN, as the most uncom-
promisingly outspoken among his countrymen, utters
the wish of his • ,
brain,
When
wriuntart, as well the thought of his
has just now
writltng, as we have shown that he
lie predicts plainly enough,
but it is with the
ii.ourish of a Yankee Bombastes
Par:oso. He not only sassquite confidently, "I will
bet 2,000 dollars that
January'
is declared against France
before the Ist day
of
e but
thathe addstime
will
I will
wager that Calforniray:d
before
be ready to place 100,000 soldiers, with rifles and
bowie knives, in the very heart of''w'
Mexico, without
asking the aid of one of her sister states, and I will
wager that force will whip 200,000 Frenchmen, f
LOUIS NAPOLEON can get up that quantity of men i
to
go into Mexico to assist in in aug urating the Austrian
Montezuma-" It is the very c row of chanticleer I
But of chanticleer at a moment of the highest ex-
citement, perched on the extreme top of his own
dunghill, with his comb broken and bleeding, and
With his spurs dreadfully sore. Of one thing, in

regard to France, the Federals may be
absolutely certain—namely, that the ruler of
France is one in no way to be sneered,
or even for that matter to be reviled, into a war.
We know that ourselves here in England—from
experience. NAPOLEON 111. is one who can bide
his time (the time of his own choosing) with extra-
ordinary equanimity, we will even say with extra-
ordinary magnanimity.

The comparison between the relative conditions
of the agricultural labourer and the felon has very
often been made, and recent discussions have
tended to bring it once more to the surface. The
degree of comfort, and even luxury to which a
man may attain as a reward for breaking the
laws of his country and injuring his fellows, con-
trasts more effectively than edifyingly with his
miserable condition as an honest labourer. The
hours of rest, the amount of labour, the food, the
clothing, the habitation, are all startlingly diffe-
rent in the prison and the cottage. The convict
enjoys his ten hours of undisturbed repose in a
comfortable hammock all to himself; the tasks re-
quired of him are light, and the regulations as
to the quantity of work to be exacted from him
are by no means rigidly enforced. We are
speaking of the county gaols as being those most
nearly connected with the agricultural labourer.
The convict enjoys a liberal supply of good and
wholesome food, pleasantly varied, and above all
he lives in a dwelling well warmed, drained, and
• ventilated. The home, if home it can be called,
of the rural labourer is the very reverse of all this.
His food is of the coarsest and scantiest description,
his hours of labour long and laborious, while the
place he lives in has been described as considerably
lower in the scale of civilisation than the dwellings
of some savage races. Drainage is incomplete and
ineffective, heaps of decaying vegetable matter is
suffered to poison the air with hurtful gases. The
roofs and walls of his cottage suffer the winds and
rains of winter to find ready admittance, while his
family, huddled together, are suffered to grow up
in utter disregard of the commonest laws of health
and decency. Such being the facts, we need not
feel surprised at their producing the natural conse-
quences. The agricultural :labourers, as a class,
have sunk into a state of degradation from
which it is difficult to raise them, while
the general low order of morality which pre-
vails among them is only too clearly traceable to
the miserable condition of their homes. It is per-
fectly useless, perhaps even worse than useless, to
send a child to school to learn lessons of morality,
order, and cleanliness, and then to send it back to a
room in which five or six men and women, of all
ages, are compelled to sleep. Precept and practice
when directly at variance are always dangerous
opponents, but in this case they are perfectly irre-
concileable, and we can conceive no greater mortifi-
cation to the conscientious teacher than being
obliged to dismiss a hopeful pupil from the class in
which he has been learning;the plain duties of every-
day life, to the hovel which renders it simply im-
possible to put them into practice. The consequence
of this state of things is a degree of moral and social
depravity that is really startling. The old pleasant
tradition of the purity and innocence of rural life is
completely exploded. A Suffolk vicar, writing to
a morning contemporary on this subject, gives some
highly suggestive statistics of the degree of guilt in
town and country. It seems that whereas in 15
towns in Suffolk, with an average population of
5,000, the annual proportion of criminals
is 1 to every 593; in 15 ♦illages, averaging
820 inhabitants, the number of criminals reach
' the ratio of 1 to every 317, Among the culprits
• actually in gaol the proportion is equally striking.
In every crime in the list the country far outstrips
the towns, and the darker the offences, the heavier
the preponderance. In burglary it actually amounts
to 16 town against 41 country, and in arson, to 4
town against 72 country: The burning of
hay-ricks is, of course, a very different thing
from firing houses, but the degree of vice
and immorality existing among our rural
population is a startling evil. The want of decent
houses is so great an impediment to all benevolent
efforts to bring about a better state of things, that
it has lately been said that " There are none who
believe that, with the existing social condition of
the working class, they can be raised much above
the standard they have now reached." This re-
mark, too, is made, not by an interested declaime r

against existing institutions, or an angry censurer
of the upper classes, but by an established publica-
tion, belonging to the Church of England, which
would scarcely, therefore, he unduly eager to over-
throw the social fabric. It is high time that this
matter were looked into, and this disgrace removed
from English rural life. No attempt is made to
contradict the terrible assertions so positively and
perseveringly made by gentlemen, whose position
gives them every opportunity for accurate observa-
tion. On the contrary, the accounts from one
part of the country only too painfully confirm the
revelations made in the other districts, until special
blame can be attached to no particular quarter or
county, but a general state of things is brought to
light which calls loudly for examination and reform.
We cannot afford to lose the qualities which have
made our sturdy Englishmen what they are. It is
directly ridiculous, as well as unjust and cruel, to
look for a strict observance of the laws of morality
and order from a population brought up under such
fearful disadvantages, while even the pure air of
the country will not serve as a preservative against
bad drainage, leaking roofs, and stagnant water.
Our social reformers will find enough to do, if they
wit:elm:tan their attention in this quarter, for al-
though much rests in the hands of the landowners,
the influence of public opinion is all powerful. All
at intellectual training, and endeavours to
raiseand educate the masses, should b© preceded
Procuringbythem clean, healthy, and decent habi-
tations
ifst: that they are to effect any wide-spread or
lasting good.
Our e
e ed, will, rapidly
o
the
increase,
evils,like
most other the population
heevi i
lifunchs k
increase instead of diminish.
The position
test of the civilisation
has often been cited as a
of
a State, and the statistics
of crime above referred to eh
fatal effect produced ow only too plainly the
'Poo era b them
condition of the hovels in y the miserable
which they live. The
poorer classes cannot help themselves
engaged on an estate cannot build ; the labourer
himself a decent
cottage; the tack and the duty lie at the eoors of
those above them, and heavy will be tb •
eir respon-
sibility if they continue to neglect them.

great Cause to be
Tiling -WILLIAM' has certainly
disappointed at the result of the elections, it would
have been almost impottsible for the result to have I
been mere adverse to the wishes of those who seek
to establish absolutism in the land, and, by fair
means or foul, to put down the struggling attempts
at liberty with a strong hand. All lovers of pro-
gress will rejoice at the failure of these manoeuvres,
and exult at the prospect that seems to open before
us of Prussian liberty making again a decisive
stand against the inroads of oppression, and this
time with renewed vigour, and refreshed spirit. It
is not always fair to make hasty conclusions respect-
in t g the conduct of a people under trying circum'
maces. What bears evidence of the wrath and
c 1 ntempt of one nation may not do go of Another;

and the apparent quiescence that has reigned among
the Prussians does not testify their ignorance nor
yet their indifference to the momentous events that
have been taking place around them. There are
two ways of offering resistance to an inimical pros
ceeding, which are equally valuable in their ulti-
mate consequences, and produce about as much
effect the one as the other, according to the adapta-
bility of the occasion on which they are severally
employed. The active mode of opposition is the
most congenial generally, and most frequently su-
persedes all others; but experience has shown that
a tacit line of defence has often proved the most
efficacious. Much may be done by those who bide
their time, and maintain their purpose unflinch-
ingly, without making any unnecessary confession
in so doing. Thus it has happened that those
whom many have called indifferent, and some even
denounced as faithless to the interests of their coun-
try, have, at the opportune moment, come forward
and vindicated themselves from reproach, while
they have effectually served their cause. The
accounts given of the results of the different elec-
tions are most significant, and augur a period of
vast moment as approaching. The present peace
and future 'welfare of Prussia may depend on the
issue of the struggle now impending. In Berlin,
which is, of course, the centre of power, and the
most trying test of strength for either side, the
majority of liberals has been increased. This
speaks volumes for the fact that independence is
cherished in the heart of the kingdom. It may be
for a time stifled in its utterance and stultified in
its course, but its source springs eternal and incon-
trovertible in the heart of the nation, and the stead-
fast spirit that can move mountains and combat un-
numbered difficulties seems to be vital and vigorous,
notwithstanding all assaults and in spite of
all rumours to the contrary that some
have propagated so lavishly around them.
So far as discernible at present the provinces are
following the good example. Without going so
far as to quote the old adage in regard to Prussia
that has been circulated relative to France, Paris
c'est l'empire, it may be confidently expected and
fearlessly reckoned upon, that the capital will in-
augurate the idea, and lead the van in the march
of improvement. The question that now occupies
men's minds is the inquiry regarding the course
likely to be adopted by the KING and his Ministers.
Will they accept defeat as a conclusive answer to
their late proposals of remodelling the Constitution,
or will they be goaded on by the mortification to
continued resistance, and even incited to fresh acts
of retrogression, and new attempts at absolutism.
Unhappily there is but too much reason to dread
the more litigious course will be the one that is
chosen, and that this success for the time being will
have to be followed up with zeal and activity, or
the time will be lost that is precious and unredeem-
able. King WILLIAM cannot be persuaded by his
advisers that there is no cause for fear regarding
the tone and temper of the people. They have
manifested their displeasure with dignity and de-
corum, and the result is as effectual as if they had
signified their discontent with all the fierce de-
fiance and loud vociferations with which some
nations testify their love of liberty, and their
hatred of oppression. A change has come over the
spirit of the dream as regards the satisfactory state
of public political existence in Prussia, dark clones
are lowering in the horizon, and wise men
shake their heads at the prospect that may be
before them. It is surely a significant fact
when a calm and cautious people are so wound up
by the recollection of their wrongs,
and so fearful
for the maintenance of their rights, that they can-
not be induced to exhibit any tokens of respect for
their Sovereign ; and that King, who was once so
popular, has to keep aloof from any occasion that
may bring him into immediate contact with that
people he has assumed to govern by Divine Right.
Well would it be if, at this eleventh hour, the voice
of reason, the claims of justice, and the welfare of
his kingdom, could form pleas that might be urged
upon the KING to pause before it is t)o late. It is
lamentable to reflect into what fatal errors many
distinguished individuals have fallen in their rash
resolves to maintain at all hazards the line of policy
they have marked out for themselves, it may be in
pride, in obstinacy, or self-aasertion.
annals in Dark are the
but no
such courses. Thus far shalt thou go,
which history has traced the sequel of
further, might be the motto of such lives, and it is
sad to find a prince in this enlightened
age clinging
so pertinaceously to the vanishing customs that im-
provement and intelligence have banished from the
foremost nations of the world. The new Chamber
is not likely to abrogate its rights, and it cannot be
wished that it should do so; but before the trial of
strength is begun in good earnest, it is to be trusted
that timely concessions may be made to prevent the
conflict assuming that dangerous and disastrous
character which future generations will regret to
chronicle as a disgrace to the advance of civilisa-
tion, and a slur on the memory of their KING that
no time can efface, nor circumstances extenuate.

Death of Mr, Weld, of Lulorth Castle.

f thi

The death is announced of the head of one of _e
most distinguished Catholic families in England,
Mr. Joseph Weld, of Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire,
the fine old English gentleman who received Charles
the Tenth at his noble ancestral seat, the popular
yachtsman who continued to compete in aquatic
contests even to the last years of his great old age.
Mr. Joseph Weld was born on January 27, 1777,
and was the third son of Mr. Thomas Weld, of
Lulworth (the founder of Stonyhurst College), by
Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Stanley Massey
Stanley, of Hooton. He was the third child out of
16. His eldest brother, Thomas, on the death of
his wife in 1815 took orders in the Church of Rome,
and became a bishop in partibus in England for
some time, till the ill health of his only child, the
wife of Lord Clifford, of Chudleigh, induced him
to go to Italy. In 1829 Pope Pius VIII. made him
a cardinal--the first English cardinal since the pon-
tificate of Clement IX. Cardinal Weld transferred
his estates to hie brother (though he himself did not
die till April, 1837), and so it came to pass that Mr.
Joseph Weld received the royal family of France
in August, 1830. Lulworth Castle had previ-
ously been visited by royalty—James 1., Charles
11., James 11., George 111., and George IV. (when
Prince of Wales), and in the middlo of that month
of August it opened its gates to the royal exiles,
after the " glorious days of July." The king and his
family remained the guests of Mr. Weld for some
days, till their removal to Holyrood Palace. Mr.
Joseph Weld virtually succeeded his brother in
1837. He had married, Nov. 23, 1802, the Hon.
Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Charles Philip,
16th Lord Stourton, by whom he had issue three
eons and two daughters. He is succeeded in his
Blun-
dell estates by his eldest son, Edward Joseph, born in
hatholic, as
1806, and married in 1838 to Ellen Caroline, daugh-
ter of Sir Bourchier Wray. His second son is Mr.
Thomas Weld-Blundell, who succeeded to the
Property in Lancashire. Mr. Weld was a
his family had been for centuries, but
.e was a liberal and a tolerant gentleman, and noto-
ry_ajoverouoeresentahlairteelynebve.efrorfeeltth
rionsly averse to any of the proselytising intrigues
whichtenant h
the pressure public.
pre s
8
the religious is screw "ugrHe oisf
the estate that, and it was known through-
outthe word and the honour of
" Weld of Lulworth"
were
pledged to abstinence
from religious bigotry. Mr. W
largely known for his prowess iel, who has been
Weld,
always very fortunate in the construction
yachting, was
sail-
ing of his vessels, and his in
and e
many con-
tests in which his yachts have been engaged was
proverbifil.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE,

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

ST. PETERSBURG, OCT. 23.

The Journal de St. Petersburg of to-day declares
as completely false the rumours circulated by the
Austrian press relative to an interviewof a threaten-
ing character between the Russian ambassador and
Aali Pasha on Polish Effiirs, and says :—"Neither
the attitude of the Porte nor the present relations
of Russia and Turkey justify such a report."

TURKEY.
CONSTANTINOPLE, OCT, 22.
The publication of the Budget has again been
postponed.
It is said that the Sultan now proposes a reduc-
tion in the direct tales iqual to the amount of the
surplus.

PLYMOUTH, OCT. 23.

The screw steamer Golden Fleece passed off this
port yesterday afternoon, with over 100 passengers,
for the Cape and India. Among the former are
Lieutenant-General Sir Percy Douglas, the newly
appointed Commander•in-Chief and suite.

FRANCE.

TOULON, OCT. 22.

The squadron which has been recalled from
Ajaccio will arrive here this evening, and be
present at the departure of the Ring of the Greeks.
PARIS, OCT. 23.

The Moniteur of this morning states that the
Emperor has received the Mexican deputation
charged to express the sentiments of gratitude felt
by Mexico and the new Government of that
country.

Preparations are making for taking down the
statue of Napoleon I. from the column of the Place
Vendome. On the same site stood formerly a
colossal equestrian statue of Louis XIV. in bronze,
which was erected in 1669, and demolished in 1792.
The statue of Napoleon which surmounted the co-
lumn, made out of the cannon taken by the French
during the German campaign in 1805, was torn
from its pedestal in 1814, to the shouts of the Paris
mob. It was melted down the same year, to form
part of the horse of Henri IV. in the Pont Neuf ;
and during the Restoration, a flagstaff and a fleur
delis occupied its place. The statue, as it now
stands, was replaced by Louis Philippe on the 28th
of July, 1833, and the King, the Princes and
Princesses of his family, his Ministers, and the city
functionaries attended on the occasion. The pro-
ject of removing it is not recent ; it was contem-
plated by the present Emperor soon after the estab-
lishment of the Empire, and he has not abandoned
it. The statue represented Napoleon I. in the mili-
tary costume—the cocked hat and the redingote so
familiar to everyone; but his nephew would rather
see him in Imperial robes, with the crown on his
head and sceptre in his hand, not so much as the
general as the founder of the dynasty. It is in this
new form he will reappear--not, however, on the
column of the Place Vendome, but at the Rond
Point of the avenue of Conrbevoie, where his re-
mains, brought from St. Helena by the Prince de
Joinville, were landed in 1840.
BOURSE, Oct. 22.—There has been little or no
change in the market. A slight &eine took place
at the opening,
but it was soon recovered, and
Threes, for the Account, are now, as yesterday. at
67f. se. Mobilier is also about the same. Rail-
way Shares quiet, but firm. The market became
more buoyant towards the close, and left off as
follows

per Cents 95
Do. end month
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 20
Credit Mobilier 1122 50
Do. end month 1125 --
Bank Shares -
Credit Fonoier l3OO
Italian Loan 73 25

Do. end month 73 25
New ditto
Do. end month —
Russian
Austrian
Spanieh Threes —
Debt —
Deferred
Roman
WAYS.

RAIL

Cash. Account.
Orleans
Northern .......... 985 .. 985
Lyons and Mediterranean 1008 75 .. --
New ditto ...... :. 912 50 ..
Geneva............
Southern
Western
Eastern .... .......
Sardinian .. 415 .. 415
Austrian
Lorctmrd
North of Spain
Saragossa 637 50 .. 635
Ditto to Barcelona

LITERATURE.

Kilsorrel Castle An Irish Story. By the Hon.
Albert Canning. Two vols. Chapman and Hall.

This is an interesting tale, but the interest is of
a serious and even painful nature. Mr. Canning
tells us in the preface—" In this story, a few cha-
racters are drawn, to a certain extent at least,
from actual life," and he adds, "the account given
of the general sympathy shown towards the fugi-
tive murderer Lynch will not be considered, I
believe, exaggerated by those well acquainted with
the social state and feelings of the lower classes in
many parts of Ireland." The effect of this feeling
is, indeed, exhibited to the uttermost, for Daniel
Lynch, or Devil I)an, as he is very appropriately
surnamed, is a most repulsive character, little likely
to excite any individual sympathy in his own be-
half. One of the principal actors in the story is
Milly Ryan, a domestic amazon, whose character
is depicted with the blackest shadows by a pencil
borrowed from Rembrandt or Salvator Rosa. In
her very first introduction she presents us with the
following very unattractive specimen of