The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

'LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 1, 1863.

It was, from every point of View, the noblest
incident in the last French Revolution, the Revo-
lution of February, 184 S, when M. DE LAMAR-
TINE, in front of the Hotel de Ville, proclaimed the
abolition of the punishment of death for political
offences. The repudiation by that same poet-orator
of the red flag of the Ultra-Democrats was, it is
true, a magnificent improvisation ! That red flag
which, as the Revolutionary Leader then exclaimed
in a sudden and ever-memorable burst of elo-
quence, and at the imminent hazard of his life
while uttering the words, that red flag which
had made merely the tour of the Champ
de Mars trailed in the blood of the pee-
ple, while the tricolour bad been making
on the contrary, the tour of all Europe with the
glory and the liberties of France : meaning by the
latter, not Imperialism (of that we may be certain),
but instead of Imperialism, the pick of the doctrines
of 1789, the noblest and sublimest of the political
principles set forth by the Great French Revolution.
Another resplendent incident redeeming much that
was culpable in the outbreak of February, was the
Lynch-law applied, through an instinct of recti-
tude, by the populace of Paris to those who would
fain have desecrated the national movement by
the despicable meanness of theft. But incom-
parably beyond all other incidents of the time,
even those the most signally evidencing the
valour of individual Leaders like LAMARTINE,
or the magniminity of that general multitude
he was leading by the beck of his finger or the

tone of his voice—was the incident already parti-
cularised—the proclamation by that Poet Statesman
of the abolition, thenceforth and forever in France,
of the Punishment of Death for Political Offences.
If it but might be, in any way, possible that, from
the utterance of kindred accents, only the other
day at 'Malines, by:the lips of CHARLES, the Count
DE MoNTALEmBERT,:there might cease the passions
of fanaticism, of bigotry, of that cruel and dreadful
,zeal which has before now, at intervals, so often
during the past centuries, desecrated the hely name
of Reigion, by outraging the divine and beneficent
doctrines of the Founder of Christianity Nobler
accents than those we are about to quote as having
been so very recently uttered by the Count DE
MONTALEMBERT, in the:magcificent oration deli-
vered by him to his assembled co-religionists at
Malines, nobler, gentler, bolder, loftier accents
than these have hardly been uttered in our time.
" Can one at the present day," asked MONTALEM-
BERT, " demand liberty for truth—that is to say,
for one's self (since every one, if he be sincere, be-
lieves himself a follower of the truth), and refuse it
to error—that is to say, to those who do not think
as we do ?" And, his own question, he an-
swered at once and unhesitatingly. "I dis-
tinctly reply, 'No I'" Pausing immediately, how-
ever, upon his utterance of that monosyllable, he
added,in the spirit of FENELON, " Here, I well know,
incedo per ignes, and I hasten once more to declare
that I have no pretens;on beyond that of expressing
an individual opinion ; I bow before all the texts,
all the canons that may be cited to me, and not one
of them will I contest or discuss." So that it is a
Churchman amongst Churchman,a believer amongst
believers, an ultramontane even amongst ultramon-
hues, who is speaking what we are about to quote
as having fallen but the other day (in the presence of
the eternities, we might say but the other instant)
from the lips of the Count DE MONTALEMBERT !
And what were those words—with these
humble Prestratioes, beforehand, before the canons
what were those words he uttered, in
the hearing of four thousand eouls at Malines,
words afterwards to be echoed through the
whispering galleries of the Press throughout all
Christendom ?—e I cannot,"
he said, " to -day repress
the conviction which reigns in my conscience and
in my heart. I cannot refrain from expressing it
after having read during the
last twelve years the
attempts to rehabilitate men and things which
nobody in my youth, nobody among the
Catholics,
dreamt of defending." Mark well, now, what
follows :—" I declare, then, that I feel an invin-
cible horror for all tortures and violence inflicted

upon humanity under the pretext of serving 0, de-
fending religion. The faggots lighted by a Catholic

hand inspire me with as much horror as the scsffolds

on which the Protestants immolated so many

martyrs. (Sensation and applause:.) Tho gag forced

into the mouth of whomsoever lifts up bis voice with

a pure heart to preach his faith—that gag I feel be-
tween my own lips, and I shudder with pain. (Sell'
eation.) When 1 evoke in imagination the gloricus
martyrs of the liberty of Catholic consciences ; when
I think of TIIorvIAS Mona and the other victims of
the founder of the Anglican Church ; of all those
pious Jesuits who, with a heroism so modest and
undaunted, bathed cruel England with their blood;
the Franciscans of Gorcum ; of the innumerable
priests who ascended the steps of the guillotine or
rotted in the pontoons of Rochefort ; of La Vendee
butchered, of Ireland starved, of Poland agonising,
I will not endure that the blessed privilege,
the holy joy, of admiring and invoking such martyrs
should ever be troubled or tarnished by the neces-
sity of approving or excusing other cruelties and
other crimes, buried though these may be in the en.
sanguined obscurity of the past. The Spanish

quisitor saying to the heretic, The truth or death,'
is as odious to me as the French terrorist saying to
my grandfather, _Liberty, fraternity, or death.'
(Acclamations.) The human conscience has the right
to insist that those hideous alternatives shall never
again be presented to it. (Fresh applause.)'' And
whose heart is there amongst us here in England,
that is not moved to its innermost depths by these
penetrating and most persuasive accents, that will
not thrill as with the reverberation of the
plaudits extorted by the utterance of those
words, extorted by the genius of the great orator
who uttered them to the four thousand fellow-
mortals assembled together to hear them only a few
days since in the old Belgium city of Malines?
Such as they are, those elequent words, those pene-
trating accents, those beautilul and beneficent
utterances, we commend them to the attention of
all alike, to matter what their creed or country,
their prejudices or their predilections.

We are happy to see that the effort made by Mr.
LAIRD, last session, to introduce a bill to render it
compulsory on shipowners to supply their vessels
with proved cables and anchors has not been with-
out fruit. It is true that from the factious opposi-
tion of wealthy and interested individuals the bill
was so mutilated that Mr. LAIRD very properly
withdrew it, expressing, at the same time, his inten-
tion of introducing a similar one next session, but the
ventilation given to the subject by the! debate in
question has aroused the dormant energies of the
committee of LLOYD'S. They have at length done
what we have pressed on them, time after time, and
taken the matter into their own hands. Life and Fire
Insurance Companies require certain stipulated rules
to be observed, otherwise the policies are null and
void. When a steam engine is on the premises in-
sured, if flooring, or rather combustible material be
erected in too close proximity to the furnace, the
office is not held responsible for the loss sustained
in case of fire. Why should not Marine Insurance
Companies act on the same principle with regard
to anchors and cables ? The first step in the right
direction has now been taken. Heretofore, while
the Government, the India Board, and the Emigra-
tion Commissioners refused to charter any vessel
unless a certificate were produced showing that the
anchors and cables had been tested up to the Admi-
ralty proof; merchant vessels have been allowed
to proceed to sea, fully insured, with defective and
worn-out cables, a fact of which owners, crew, and
captain were alike cognisant. The owners had
nothing to fear, as in many cases a loss might prove
a gain. The captain and crew had no voice in the
matter, they had only the alternative of sailing in
the ship as she was, or of giving place to others,
less particular, who were willing to run the

risk. The result of all this has been the loss 'of
hundreds of lives and millions worth of property.
As a matter of economy it is obvious that the
underwriters of LLOYD'S should do something, and
we are glad to learn that their eyes are at length
opened to the fact that their own interests as well

as those of humanity are involved in the question
whether ships shall in future go to sea efficiently
equipped or no. Last Thursday a number of scien-
tific gentlemen, at the Proving-house of LLOYD'S
committee, in the New-road, Poplar, met for the
purpose of witnessing the mode designed by Mr.
T. M. GLADSTONE, C.E., of testing the merits of
chain cables and anchors. This Proving-house was
erected last year, under the direction of this gen-
tlemen, the engineer to the Committee of LLOYD'S;
its ostensible object being to enable the owners or
vessels who require certificates of the efficiency of
their anchors and cables to obtain them readily.
They have, therefore, made arrangements for prov-
ing all chains and anchors brought to the Proving-
house, and arrangements are now being made with
a view to the construction of similar houses at the
principal seaports. The establishment at Poplar is
about 500 feet in length, and a chain cable of 75
fathoms can be proved in one operation, whereas
formerly it was necessary to test it in sections of
12 to 15 fathoms, a tedious and less satisfactory
process. Mr. GLADSTONE deserves great credit for
his ingenuity, and for hhe thorough and scientific
manner in which all the details of the work are
carried out. By the use of a travelling crane of
peculiar construction, styled the " Dromedary," all
the work is performed iu a few minutes, but little
manual labour being required. Thus far the work
has progressed satisfactorily. It yet remains for
commercial enterprise and sagacity to enact and
enforce laws for the protection of life and property,
which hitherto the House of Commons has been too
indolent or too indifferent to enter on the statute-

book. Let it be once clearly enunciated by in-

swarm) companies that the production of a test

certificate is a sane qua non before a claim for in-
demnity can be entertained, and let this rule be

strictly enforced, and the employes at the Proving-
houses will soon have plenty of work on their hands,
and the strength of Mr. GLADSTONE'S dromedaries
will be tested more severely than ever were those
of their namesakes on the sands of Egypt. Life
and property will be more secure in our coasters,
and the wives and sweethearts of our small traders
and sailors will not run so great a risk of bidding
them a long farewell when they leave port on a
few days' voyage.

inventions, especially
All great discoveries and
those from which large profits may be derived, are
for a long period retarded in their development,
both by factious opposition and by the obstinacy of
interested parties, whose profits may ho endangered
by the adoption of the new invention, or whose in-
terest may be best served by the application of
only a certain portion of it. It is not to be sup.
posed that the electric telegraph has escaped this
trial any more than other great discoveries. As
regards the lines of communication which traverse
all parts of the civilised globe, the competition of so
many electricians, extended as it hes been over so
vast a field, has resulted in the great improvement
and simplification of electric telegraphs. We wish
we could say the same regarding the submarine

telegraphs. Money has not been wanting to carry
out these undertakings on a large scale. Fortune
seemed to favour such enterprises; for just when
doubts were being raised as to what substance
would serve as an insulator, and yet resist the strain
and wear and tear to which a marine cable would
be subjected, Nature solved the difficulty, and gutty
pereha became at once an article„of commerce, and
was generally adopted for marine telegraphs. Yet
since the first attempt of the kind, undertaken I
within a comparatively recent period, to lay down
which, although a fai
a convecting link between England and France,
lure in the first instance, was
shortly afterwards successfully accomplished, but
ping
eliffittelaeeyproofgerleescstrbiacscubrereen made in develo the
nts,under advantageous ar-
to transmit intelligence along the bed of
rangmentE,
the ccean. Great difficulties have no doubt been
pur-
suing thisriencc complex by electricians and engineers in
owpiex and novel subject, but we
cannot
shut our eyes to the fact that progress hasbeen greatly
retarded by petty jealousies and sordid motives.
In too many cases private interest has carried the
day, to the detriment of the general public. Where
many projects and plans are started, all cannot be
right, aed some NI ill do doubt be found wanting.
We therefore think that, in justice to proprietors
(to say nothing of the public), vogiatvria aLd direct-