The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 9, 1863.

in a swoon, his life being despaired of for awhile.
There was mourning in all the saloons of Vienna
when the fatal news spread round, specially in that
large mansion in which the splendid bal masque
had taken piece on the eve of Ash Wednesday.—
Spectator.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SPECTATOR.—No one who reads through the
papers presented to Parliament can help feeling
that the Government of Brazil has been remiss in
its duty, not from any malicious purpose, but be-
cause the Government of Brazil is not equal to its
duty. The Prince of Wales was wrecked on the
coast of Brazil, in the district of Albardao, which
belongs to the province of Rio Grande do Sul, on
the 6th or 7th June, 1861. There was admitted
delay in the proceedings of the provincial officers on
the spot. Tne inspector did not communicate the
fact of the wreck, as the Brazilian Government
admits, for two days after he might, and ought
to have done so, to the Sub-delegate of the pro-
vince. Again, the Sub delegate was accused of
acts so questionable that the Brazilian Government,
though denying that there was any evidence at all of
his guilt, thought it necessary to dismiss him, on the
ground that by these unfounded accusations "he had
lost the prestige necessary to the fulfilment of his
duties. Finally, Senhor Bento Soares, a magistrate
of the district of Albardao, whose house immedi-
ately adjoined the scene of the wreck, was impli-
cated in the suspicion of plunder by the discovery
of property from the wreck (uninjured by immer-
sion in the sea) in his house. Yet t his man's bro-
ther-in-law was one of those employed to hold the

inquest over the bodies of the dead Englishmen.
These are tlx principal circumstances which, taken
with a number of others of minor importance, bat

all tending in the same direction, go to show cul-
pable neglect on the part of the Brazilian officials.
And thus much is admitted, we must remember, by
the Brazilian Foreign Minister himself. He says,
the Brazilian Minister "ascertained that the In

spector had been negligent, delaying one or two
days the communication of the event (the
wreck) to the competent authority ; and that the
Sub-Delegate, from accusations (unfounded), had
lost the prestige necessary to the fulfilment of his
duties. Consequently both were dismissed, not for
culpable neglect, which would have had to be
punished by legal means, but the first for wilful
negligence of the short delay in announcing the
event, from which neglect no prejudice or harm
arose to the action of justice; and the second, for
not possessing moral strength enough for his eharee.
Thus there was no culpable neglect; and as to the
Justice of the Peace (Senhor Bento Soares), the
fact of his not having been convicted of the conni-
vance attributed to him by Mr. Vereker ought
necessarily to exempt him from all and every cen-
sure." It is obvious that these admissions go a
long way towards proving that our wrecked sailors,
or (if they were really drowned) their property,
had not the earliest and fullest protection which
the Brazilian law could have given them; and,
as we have said, many of the minor and incidental
evidences elicited, confirm this into a moral cer-
tainty. There can, then, be little doubt that our
Government had a legal claim on that of Brazil for
compensation for any additional loss suffered in
consequence of this negligence ( whether culpable or
not, and, of course, all such negligence is culpable)
in the Brazilian officials. The only question that
really arises is as to whether this loss was fairly es-
timated ; and next, whether our claim was decently
or indecently enforced. As to the first point, Mr.
Christie was duly instructed that if the Brazilian
Government admitted the principle of compensation
" Her Majesty's Government are prepared to ac-
cept a fair arbitration on the question as to the
actual amount of compensation to be made,"
—and though, therefore, the estimate was cer-
tainly rather calculated as if Brazil were
wholly responsible both for the sea's destruc-
tiveness and for the plundering of the wreck—
no reproach arises on this head. As to the secured
point,—the mode in which our claim was enforced,
—we cannot but think that it was unnecessarily
arbitrary and humiliating. The claim for com-
pensation was made by Mr. Christi , on Lord Rus
sell's instructions, on the sth December last; and
the British Government did not, it seems, give time
even to receive and consider the answer of Brazil
before enforcing the demand. Lord Russell's de-
spatch of October Bth, directing- the claim to be made,
was followed very quickly by his despatch of No-
vember 4tn, directing reprisals to be made by Ad-
miral Warren, in case the Brazilian Government
should refuse. Accordingly, when Mr. Christie
first asked for compensation, on the sth December,
he was already authorized to compel it, and before
the last day of the month Admiral Warren had,
in fact, made the reprisals agreed upon. Now
we submit that this is rather insolent diplo-
macy. It may be true that the Brazilian Govern-
ment had shown but languid interest in the
vindication of its own proceedings. The affair had
been hanging on for a year and a half before the
final demand. Still, the demand for compensation
was not made till the end of that period, and it was
scarcely decent to make this demand for a some-
what doubtful claim and enforce it without leaving
space for a discussion, almost in the same breath.
There is no analogy between such a case as this and
that of the Trent. Here, at least, there was no
question of an insult to the British flag. The Bra-
zilian Ministry had taken many steps to bring the
offenders to justice, and had disgraced two officials
for their inadequate or unsatisfactory conduct. The
claim for compensation was, we think, good, and
doubtless it would have been essential firmly to en-
force it, if only to make the Brazilian Government
more careful in future for the lives and property of
English ships. But the manner of the proceeding,
for a case of mere pecuniary claims, was more than
imperious, and has, we think, overleaped itself.
LONDON REVIEW.—It is not for the interest of
Europe that the Polish nation should once more be
crushed to the ground by the iron heel of Russia.
The Cossack nightmare, which used so heavily to
bestride the breasts of European statesmen,
is becoming, it is true, a thing of the
past. The Sheffield Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee and the coterie of wiseacres on whom
Mr. Urquhart's mantle has descended, are
left almost alone. Nobody believes that it is re-
served for some coming Czar to make a mouthful of
modern civilization. But the future power of Rus-
sia must continue to be a source of disquieting spe-
culation to all English and continental politicians
who are interested either in the politics of the East
or in the gereral progress of freedom. Russia is
now passing through a crisis. What will be the
character or the tendency of the Russia of the
future it is difficult to say. But one thing is cer-
tain, that the Russia of the future will be powerful ;
and that—unless it departs very widely from the
traditions of the old Russian school—it will be,upon
the whole, aggressive and pushing. Yet the bar-
rier which Europe has hitherto been content to
(rase against the Cossack is one that seems only
half-suited to the age. Turkey, said Napoleon the
Great, is a marsh which defends our right flunk. It
would be unwise to look upon the marsh as
permanent, or to regard it as a satisfactory
guarantee against all the chances and
changes that may befall the world. It is a
grave question how far the Turkish Empire is
capable of reformation. Its very existence is
threatened both from without and from within;
and the day is perhaps not indefinitely distant when
the public opinion of the Continent will refuse any
longer to tolerate the maintenance for merely
material purposes of a Power at once unchristian,
semi-barbarous, and tyrannical. Great Britain in
particular has already begun to excite the murmurs
of foreign nations on account of her loyalty to the
Turks. She seems to jealous foreign eyes to care
more for the high road to India and for the Sultan,
than for the oppressed Meronites, or for the name of
the Redeemer of mankind. The position is a false
one for a great and generous nation. It brings us
into continual conflict with the religious sentiment
of Europe. It is true that the Christians of the East
are distinguished neither for their piety, their guile-
lessness, nor their honesty. If Religion is to be
found on the side of the true believer, Justice some-
times takes up her abode with the Mahommedan.
But only the imperative exigencies of policy can
reconcile us to a state of things for the security of
which it is necessary that Christianity should
not advance too swiftly or suddenly in the East.
The right of England and France to interfere be-
tween Russia and her victim rests upon indisputas
ble ground; it is only the expediency of interfer-
ence which can be questioned. For moral purposes
the two great Powers of the West are the legally
constituted protectors of the Polish race ; for it is
idle to draw the fine distinction that our original
compacts authorise us to intervene, when we wish,
without binding us to interfere when we ought,
Powerful empires are bound by the clearest of
moral obligations to use all lawful opportunities to
succour the oppressed, and redress wrong ; nor_
when intervention is legitimate according to the
strict letter of Euorpean trestles—is it anything but
a Christian duty to intervene. Even if Poland stood
to us in no nearer relation than any other suffering
people, it would be possible to press the theory of
non-intervention too tar. Nun-intervention, rightly
understood, is the only safe rule of political con-
duct. But non-intervention certainly does not
mean a passive endurance of allspectacles, however
repulsive, provided they are are enacted within
the frontiers of a foreign State. All that we signify
by the term is, that nations should be free to regu-
late their internal concerns, and to choose their own
forms of government. It cannot be seriously main-
tained that we are bound to look on silently while
hordes of Russian soldiery sweep over Poland with
the announced programme of extermination, blood-
shed, and plunder; while they slaughter the inno-
cent, torture the guilty, and indiscriminately out-
rage the women. Non-intervention is a sacred
principie, but it does not bid its adherents It,
acquiesce in sights at which humanity revolts. There
is a limit to the patience of England and of France.
I'he question is simply whether that limit has been

overstepped, whether or no it is expedient at this
juncture to say so, and in what way a warning may
be given to Russia without irritating the pride
of a northern despot, and plunging the Conti-
nentinto the horrors of a bloody European war.
SATURDAY REVIEW.—A bribery debate does not
add to the credit of the House of Commons. No-
body believes the house to be in earnest, and long
experience has fully satisfied the public that nothing
will result from its sharp war of words and close
divisions out a string of inoperative clauses. The
truth is, thet in such discussions the house feels it,
self in an embarrassmg position. The elections or
many who sit there are not reputed to have been
quite pure from the offence; and many more have
been at one time or another charged with it. To
call upon them to affix new and more stringent
penalties to it is something more than asking them
to kiss the rod. It is asking them to select the
twigs that are to compose it, taking care that there
shall be plenty of buds upon the ends of them. The
result is much what might be expected if a similar
commission were entrusted to a party of Eton boys.
The members made a great parade of weir anxiety
in general to find the most elastic switches, and the
most abundant crop of buds; but when any parti-
cular twig of a formidable appearance is offered for
their acceptance, they always detect some foal
weakness or undue stiffness in some part of it,
which absolutely precludes them, as a' matter of
conscience, from tying up so worthless a bit of wood
into the rod. It is no matter for surprise, therefore,
that bribery debates should resound with profes-
sions of purity sublime enough to bring down an
admiring and awe-struck nation upon its knees,
but that the bribery acts which are the result of
them should present a very attenuated and impal-
pable structure to the eye. There is another and a
better reason why the House of Commons should
wince visibly at the proposal to pass more rigorous
enactments against bribery. They are not only a ter-
ror to evil doers, but a fearful engine of oppression
against unlucky partisans. A man's election may
have been as pure as driven snow, but if an unscru-
pulous Parliamentary agent thinks fit to inflict on
him the expense of a few hundred pounds he can do
so by the simple process of presenting a sham peti
tion against his election. As soon as the unlucky
member has engaged his lawyers and marshalled
his witnesses in his defence, the petition can be
quietly withdrawn. The fate of those whose cases
wa on to trial is still less enviable. They are tried
before a committee of five—composed of men every
one of whom, if it were a criminal case, and they
were jurymen, would be challenged as a hostile par-
tisan by one side or the other. I' his committee, so
constituted, does not bind itself either in its inquiry
or its judgment, by the rules of English law. It is
fettered by no laws of evidence except such as the
chairman pleases to enforce ; and in deciding upon
the guilt of those whom it condemns it does not pro-
fess to require legal proof. Evidence of agency to
which no court of law would listen—l. e., evidence
that the candidate was cognisant of the bribes which
his over zealous partisans had offered—is frequently
accepted by committees. They merely require to
be morally convinced of the fact. It is surprising
how rapidly moral conviction can be accomplished
when the majority of the committee differ in
politics from the member who is being tried.
It is an ideal representative Government wnere all
interests are allowed to battle freely with each
other, and their respective claims are ultimately
adjusted according to the intrinsic importance of
each. But it is idle to expect the elector in a small
town to believe that his vote is a sacred trust, when
this race of enlightened selfishness is being run be
fore his eyes. A philosopher may draw a distinc-
tion between the pecuniary benefits which will re-
sult to you, as one of a class, from the adoption of a
political measure, and the coarser form of pecuniary
benefit which results from the insertion of a five-
paund note into your pocket. But the electors can-
not be expected to exercise so subtle a discrimina-
tion. He sees that others get a money value for
their vote, and he asks why he should not do the
same. He may possibly belong to a constituency
too small to have any local interests to serve
He can only make his vote pay by directly taking
money for it. Small constituencies are generally more
tainted with this practice than large onts ; and
part of the reason may be that they cannot be bribed
in any other way. But the elector of Huddersfield
will never be induced to see anything disgraceful
in accepting £5O a piece for his pigs, so long as he
sees that the elector of Liverpool or Hull is allowed
without reproach to use his political influence for
the purpose of perpetuating the local dues on ship-
ping, and so lessening the borough rate he has to
pay. If bribery is ineradicable, it is a consolation
to reflect that the consequent loss to the constitu
tion is not very great. it is a curious but not un-
common fallacy to suppose that an elector, when he
has been prevented from taking a bribe, is straight-
way invested with the virtues of a patriotic politi-
cian. A Gloucester elector who is cut off from his
customary gratification by a stringent bribery act
no more becomes a patriot than a cat ceases to be
carnivorous because the larder is locked up. It it
quite certain that a man who would take payment
tor his vote if he could get it, can have, in default
of it, no worthier motive to fall back upon. Om
constituencies are disfigured by a certain number o;
persons who have no political opinions to our wail; l:
the natural desire of gain. If by any Parliamen
tart' clairvoyance it were possible to discover thest
backsliding patriots their removal from the register
would be a salutary reform. But so long as they
remain there it is a matter of no vital moment to
the working of the constitution whether they vote
under the influence of bribes or not. It may be de
sirable, in the interests of public decorum, that the
scandal of their proceedings should if possible be
abated ; but when that has been effected their votes
will operate on the selection of candidates neither
more nor less mischieveusly than they do now.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—WORCESTER, March 7,
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Crompton.)

MURDER.

Timothy Grundy was indicted for the wilful mur-
der of Emily Jones at Newtown, in the parish of St.
Martin, near Worcester, on the 29th of April last.
The prisoner pleaded not guilty, and appeared to
pay great attention to the evidence.
Mr. Powell conducted the prosecution, and Mr.
Cooke defended the prisoner.
The prisoner was to have been tried on this charge
at the last summer assizes, but he was at that time
confined in a lunatic asylum, from which he has
ieee been discharged as cured. The circumstances
under which the alleged crime was committed lef,
little doubt that the prisoner was the murderer, the
only question being to his sanity at the time
when the deed was done. It appeared from the
evidence, which was very lengthy, that the prisoner
had for some time been keeping company with
the deceased, who was the daughter of poor people
in Worcester, and that he had been in an asylum in
1861. He was ratheraddicted to drinking, and had
latterly been very unsteady and had threatened to
poison himself ; he had for several days carried a
bottle of laudanum in his pocket, and had on the
28th April been taken before the police magistrate
at Worcester (Mr. Sidebotham), who had ordered
the poison to be taken from him and the man to be
set at liberty. His friends then persuaded him to
go to Birmingham in search of work, and on the
evening of the 28th April he went up to the railway
station, and on his w-y met the deceased and her
sister, and walked about with them for some time.
The sister afterwards left them, and the deceased
and the prisoner walked into the country and sat at
a public-house until 10 o'clock, when they left. It
seems they then wandered about until after mid-
night, when they went to a hut where a railway
gauger was stationed, and remained with him until
daylight, when they left. Then were Been be-
tween six and eight o'clock in the morning walk-
ing about the fields, and the last that was sec, of
the deceased was at about a quarter to nine, when
she was walking with the prisoner along a certain
field, in which was a7pool. They were walking in
the direction of the pool, and the man lost sight of
them behind a hedge. Half-an-hour later the pri-
soner was seen hurrying across an adjoinirg field
(in which there was no footpath), and he arrived at
his mother's house in Worcester about ten o'clock
when he said to an acquaintance, "I've done it; I've
knocked her over." He was much excited, and his
friends got a policeman to take charge of him while
inquiries were made about the girl. At eleven
o'clock the dead body of the girl was found in the
pool near where she was last seen alive. There was
a hedge stake lying near her in the pool, and she
had received a heavy blow on her head.
The jury found a verdict of acquittal on the
ground of insanity.
The Prisoner—What are the grounds of insanity ?
lam an innocent man. Areyou going to put me in
a lunatic asylum, where there is no prospect.
He was then removed.

MAILS FOR SWEDEN.—A notice from the Post-
master-General, just issued, states that the mail
steam packets under contract with the Swedish Govern-
ment will recommence their voyages between Bull and
Gothenburg this day, the 7th inst. Mails for conveyance
by these packets will, therefore, bo made up in London,
and on the evening of every subsequent Friday until
further notice. All letters and newspapers addressed to
Gothenburg and Uddewalla will be forwarded by these
packets unless directed to be otherwise ; but letters and
newspapers for other parts of Sweden intended to be trans-
mitted by these packets must be specially addressed "By
Swedish packet."