The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-07 00:00:00

go along with them ; and has justified or palliated
many arbitrary acts of Mr. Lincoln and his secre-
taries, which must have jarred upon his feelings
and instincts as a sincere and enlightened lover of
freedom—for white men as well as for black. Lately
however he has awakened to the consciousness that
this poliey is wrong, and that if the States do not
jealously preserve their State rights the freedom of
America has nothing left to stand upon. Mr. Greeley
sees the right course. 17 rerient a ses premiers
amours, and acknowledges—not for the first time--
that Northern liberty is worth the keeping—a fact
which too many of his Republican and Abolitionist
coadjutors have persistently ignored. It must not
be imagined that Mr. Greeley has abandoned his
old ideas on the subject of slavery. On that point
he is true as steel to his early convictions. But the
bitter experience of the war, and especially the
failure of the President's proclamation to arouse
the anti-slavery enthusiasm of the North, or to in-
spire the Southern slaves themselves with the
faintest hope of freedom, has taught him that other
questions than those of slavery were involved in
the mighty war between North and South. Wash-
ington, the slaveowner, fought the battle of liberty,
and won it; and why should not Jefferson Davis,
the slaveowner, do the same ? Mr. Greeley does
not put the case in that form, but it is evident
he sees far more clearly than his party that he
has ranged himself on the losing side ; that the
South is lost to the North for ever, except as a
foreign ally and a good customer; and that if it
were possible to restore the Union by the means
employed by Mr. Lincoln and his generals the
result would be an imperial, military, and perhaps
brutal despotism. Many persons predicted that
the President's Proclamation would divide the
North and unite the South—a prediction early and
completely verified ; but no one predicted that it
would cause a division in the Republican ranks, and
deprive them of the leadership of the man to whose
teachings and promptings it was mainly due. Yet
this result has happened. The wise philosopher of
Abolitionists is dethroned, and uncharitable priests
and silly women reign in his stead.
There is an old Scottish rhyme which says—
" When gray beards weep and hens crow
The pride of the nation lieth low."
. _

These lines are but too applicable to the present
condition of this country. If " gray beards" do not
yet weep for the miseries and degradation of the
land it is not for want of cause; and if the crowing
of hens be a metaphorical expression for the unseemly
interference of women with the political affairs and
partisan passions of men, the crowing has begun,
and betokens a wide-spread demoralisation of the
people. A woman named Dickinson, a spinster of
25, from the city of Philadelphia, fresh, fair, and
blooming, with an amazing volubility and power of
vituperation, somewhat impaired by the nasal
twang and the Yankee mispronunciation, has been
engaged by the Contractors' League to enlighten
the Northern public on the aspects of the war and
the merits and demerits of every military and civil
servant of the Government who is prominent and
influential enough to attract her notice. This de-
magogue in petticoats held forth on Tuesday night
at the Cooper Institute to an audience of nearly
4,000 persons, at least one-half of whom ware wo-
men, who rewarded her most unfeminine utterances
with the greatest amount of their unwomanly and
unmanly applause. She has a voice, according to
the reporters, "so powerful that masculine stump
speakers might envy it," and used it to effective
purpose in denouncing every general of the Demo-
cratic party who had ever been called to command
the armies of the North. Her principal spite was
directed against General M'Clellan, whom she de-
cleared to be no general at all—or, if a general, a
traitor ; a man who knew nothing of the art of war,
or who, if knowing, used his knowledge against his
country. "Burnside and Hooker," she said, " could
fight; but this man (M'Clellan) kept out of the
battle, and sat down miles off, with his thirty
thousand reserves, drinking mint juleps and sherry
cobblers in safety. Never," she added, " did he soil
his feet by the tread of a blood-stained battle-field.
He preferred to come northward to tread on piled-
up mounds of bouquets, and to brave every element
of treason, secession, and meanness, going down in
the mud at his feet to do him reverence." There
was at least one sensible man in the crowd of lis-
teners who took offence at the silly arrogance of a
scold who presumed to criticise the actions of a
soldier, and expressed his displeasure in unmis-
takeable terms. A disturbance immediately arose
which lasted some minutes ; blows were inter-
changed ; women shrieked and fainted ; men hissed
and hooted, and the police were called for ; bat the
undaunted Miss Dickinson looked on defiant and
expectant, and as wholly unabashed as if she had
been made of marble. Comparative order having
been restored, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
stepped on the platform, and announced, amid loud
applause, " that the gentleman had been squelched,"
and that " the lady was triumphant." Miss Dick-
inson thereupon resumed her attacks on General
IVl'Clelian. She said she had understood that he had
joined a church, and " hoped he would obey holy
orders better than he did military orders." The
audience appreciated hugely this very poor joke,
and the Rev. Mr. Beecher, carried away by enthu-
siasm, acted as fuglemen to the applause. She de.
Glared that the only real soldiers of the Union were
the Republicans and Abolitionists, citing the names
of Generals Hunter, Mitchell, Roaecrans, Sigel, and,
above all, Fremont, in proof of the assertion. She
also expressed the highest opinion of the courage,
ability, and patriotism of General Butler, whom
she contrasted favourably with Gen. Banks. The
latter was much too merciful and humane to merit
her commendation—a mere milksop, unfit to grapple
with the Southern " devils," whom she held in
such abhorrence. On the question of inciting the
negroes to take up arms against their masters and
mistresses she was particularly emphatic. " WhEn
people ask me," she said, "if I would have the
barbarity to get up a slave insurrection, I
answer, Yea! When we are fighting the devil lam
glad to hear that an insurrection has broken out in
hell." At this point of the fair virago's speech there
was, according to the newspaper reports, "tremen-
dous applause, renewed so often that it was difficult
to restore silence." Referring to the danger of en-
forcing the Conscription Act she said, "If the Demo-
cratic party attempt to resist the execution of that
measure the streets will be drenched in blood."
Again there was a tempest of applause, the women
being more vehement than the men. Anything
more pitiable and painful than this exhibition it is
difficult to conceive. The speaker herself—the bigots,
theorists, and contractors who paid her to unsex
herself—the men who applauded her, and the
women who cheered her unwomanly words, were
alike detestable. A Joan of Arc who in the day of
her country's peril goes out into the battle field and
does a soldier's duty against a foreign foe is a re-
spectable, though perhaps an unnatural character;
but a strong-voiced scold, however young, bloom-
ing, and eloquent, who in a time of civil strife in-
cites brother against brother, sister against sister,
passions,
panders to the lowest and moat fiendish of Pas •
openly advocates a servile insurrection and a war of
races, and gluts over the unutterable horrors whist,
such a war presupposes, is a worse nuisance to so-
ciety than a thousand hetairce. When the French
Jacobins dressed out a faded sister of the demi-monde
in the masquerade of the Goddess of Liberty, and
led her in triumph through the streets of Paris,
they unintentionally marked the point of the lowest
decadence of public morality in their miserable era.
Miss Dickinson's appearance on the platform marks
a similar era in the decline of American liberty.

POPULATION OF QUEENSL IND.—In the colony of
Queensland, to which many of our emigrants are
now proceeding, the increase of population in the year 1862
by immigration from Europe amounted to B,oBo—namely,
4,703 males and 3,377 females; and the increase by immi
gration from other colonies was I,72s—namely, 1,285 males
and 440 females. As might be expected in so young a
colony, the population contains three males for every two
females ; but it is remarkable that in the course of the year
1862, though the male births were 110.5 to every 100 girls
born, the excess of births over deaths gave but 387 males
and as many as 518 females The total increase by immi-
gration in the year was 9,805; and the population on the
31st of December, 1862, was estimated at 45,077, of whom
27,186 were males and 17,891 females. A large proportion
of the intercolonial immigration is of men who come to take
up new country, and do not bring their families in the first
instance, or of single men who come to do pioneers' service
until their improved fortunes or their more settled habits
allow them to think of marriage. But in this small com-
munity there were 570 marriages in the year, so that one
person in every 40 married in the twelvemonths.

set in."

A letter from San Francisco, dated March 23,
says :—On the 16th inst. I wrote to you by overland
mail that a vessel had been seized on the suspicion
that she hsd been fitted out for piratical or other un-
lawful purposes. The investigation is being carried
on by the military authorities in Fort Alcatraz, the
public and the representatives of the press being ex-
cluded. The real character of the vessel and the ob-
jects of her owners have not yet been demonstrated.
The press has come to the conclusion, without wait-
ing for the proof, that she is either a pirate, a pri-
vateer, or a Confederate cruiser. Some of the cir-
cumstances circulated as connected with her are
suspicious, and give colour to the accusations.
Many believe that she herself, her armament, and
munitions were all intended for the Mexican mar-
ket ; but such of the evidence as has been made pub-
lic —letters, oaths, and papers—is contradictory. It
appears, however, that for some time back consi-
derable quantities of munitions of war have been
shipped from San Francisco to the coast of Mexico
against the repeated remonstrances of the Consul of
France, as I mentioned lately. Whatever the intended
destination of the J. M. Chapman was, the object
was a bad one ; and it is on all accounts fortunate
that the object has been defeated by her seizure.
Such of her cargo as was legitimate—quicksilver,
&c., shipped for Mexico—has been given up to the
owners, who were innocent of any illegal intention.
This matter of the seizure has created a strong
desire for further means of defence and offence, and
a call for an increase of the land fortifications and
for improvising ironclads, &c., on the part of a por-
tion of the city municipality, in whose coffers there
is at present a large surplus of money. But another
and more reasonable, and certainly a more honest,
portion of this body, as well as a portion of the pub-
lic and of the press, oppose the " ironclads" scheme,
and assert that the patriotism of its promoters is
sharpened by the prospect of being able to sell yes-
se's of their own, old and rotten hulks, for conver-
sion into men-of-war. Any way, as there is a man-
of-war in port; as the natioeal gunboat Saginaw,
heavily armed, is now here ready for service; as a
revenue cutter is about to arrive from Washington
Territory, where she is watching the smugglers of
goods from Victoria; and as a merchant steamer is
offered to the Government in the emergency, I don't
think a hosti.e vessel can leave the port; and most
persons are satisfied we run no danger from pirates,
privateers, or Jeff. Davis's cruisers, unless they come
round the Horn and capture the steamers en route
to Panama ; and of any such movement there would
be sufficient notice to warn the men-of-war in the
Pacific to protect the steamers by convoy.
The Pacific Mail Company's steamer Constitution
left this morning for Panama. She carries three
companies of volunteers, numbering 283 men and
nine officers, who enlisted in California for service
in the Massachusetts Contingent as cavalry. The
whole force required, and which is being recruited in
this country for the State of Massachusetts, is 500.
Another company will soon leave for the East, audit
is expected the full complement of 500 will be ob-
tained, which, with 200 men formerly sent, will make
700 soldiers contributed by California to Massa-
chusetts. Tte bounty is double that of the Govern.
ment, and has, of course, had the effect of attract.
ing men ; but the movement is not popular, and has
induced the remark that the "solid men of Boston"
prefer paying to fighting.
The amount of treasure shipped by to-day's steamer
was—to England, 878,524 dole. 24c.; to New York,
214,852 dols. 97c. ; and to Panama, 18,200 dols.—
together, £1,111,647 dols. 21c., which makes the
total export of treasure from this port since Jan. 1
12,436,339 dols. 48c., being an excess of half a mil-
lion over the shipments of the corresponding period
of 1862. Exchange : London, 60 days' bankers'
bills, 48d. ; private bills, 49d. Paris, 60 days', sf.
Gold bars, 830 fine, at par, are 1 per cent. cheaper
than at date of last mail's departure, in consequence
of the abundance of the supply.
We have news from Victoria to the 17th inst. by
the steamer which arrived on Saturday night. I
shall encroach on your space and patience only to
give a few extracts of interest. A merchant writing
from Victoria to myself remarks that—" Business
is dull but will improve soon. Real estate still rules
high, notwithstanding money is scarce. The re-
ports brought by miners recently from Cariboo are
most encouraging. They expect that from seven to
tee: million dols. will be taken out this year. Had
they a mint, so as to keep a due proportion of this
yield in Victoria, instead of letting it pass through
to San Francisco to swell your exports, it would
help us along wonderfully, and we could better
afford to pay for improving our young city. A gold
escort is about to be established, the merchants here
guaranteeing the Government from loss in working
it to the extent of 20,000 dols." Next to the con-
struction of roads and bridges and the establish-
ment of ferries this gold escort is the most useful
measure ever adopted.
I have been in communication with Governor
Douglas on the subject of the silver discoveries, of
which I wrote fully in a late letter to you, with the
object of obtaining further information. The Go-
vernor informs me that the statement in that letter
" is essentially correct," and adds," The silver lodes
of Cariboo, from what I have heard, are second in
importance only to its auriferous deposits. Roads
only are wanted for their rapid development, and I
am straining every possible resource of Government
to supply that want." This is encouraging; but I
feel it my duty to warn English capitalists from
hasty action until the lodes are more fully developed,
their extent and quality better ascertained, and the
roads completed. The only prudent action for the
present is exploration by competent persons.
On the subject of roads, to which the Governor
has devoted much of his time and attention, with
what success will appear from the following excerpt
from his letter, he writes :—" The carriage road is
now within 30 miles of Alexandria, some 300 miles
from the coast, and will be finished up to that place
by the middle of June next. Thomas Fraser River
is navigable to the Rocky Mountain, on which por-
tion of the river, I may remark, a steamer will be
plying this summer, carrying passengers and goods
on the way to Cariboo, taking both to within a
moderate distance of the mines." The Governor is
sanguine that his roads, which have given him
so mueh trouble, will, "in a few years, open a
commerce down the eastern slopes of the Rocky
Mountains ire° the valley of the Saskatchewan
and Red River, and finally into the British pro-
vinces on the Atlantic." He corroborates all other
accounts as to the good fortune that has attended
the miners last 'winter :—" The miners who re-
mained at Cariboo have been at work all winter,
with marked success; Barker and Co. having made
out of their claim the sum of 126,000 dols. since the
the beginning of last October. The gutter' or
gold lead has also been traced several miles further
down William's Creek than it was before known to
exist. All this is encouraging, and inspires the
public with confidence in the country."

The amount of tonnage which entered the port of
Victoria in February was 8,427 tons, of which 2,246
tons were British. Number of vessels, 44; cleared,
11,134 tons, of which 2,932 tons were British.
Number of vessels, 54.
As showing the growth of the town, I cut out the
following paragraph from the Colonist of the 9 h of
March :—" Improvements in Progress.—Every-
where around the city houses are starting up as if
by magic, and generally they are of a substantial
and tasteful appearance. On the upper part of
Fort-street several new houses have been finished,
and others are in progress. At the head of John-
son and Yetes etreets several new houses were lately
put up, and lots in that (Flirter are scarcely to be
had. If the improvements by the corporation
private enterprise, in a
Vektiiehtceyet Po
authoritiesrs pacelt ar streets
would
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up
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tractors time
oleyer weather has

The French corvette Cornelie, 24 guns, Comman-
der L'Eveque, has been in San Francisco Harbour
since the 12th, refreshing.

Pull benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur-
chasing Ilorniman's pure Tea; very choice at 3s. 4d. and
48. 4, High Standard "at 4s. 4d. (formerly 4s. Bd.), is the
strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every
town supply it in packets.

LAW INTELLIGENCE,---May 6.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT.
(Before Vice-Clianeellor Sir W. P. Wood )
GURNEY V. GURNEY.

The arguments in this case, which had been adjourned at
the conclusion of the plaintiffs' case, were this morning re•
sumed. The object of this suit, as has been already stated,
is to carry out the trusts of a settlement of £2,000 made tis
Mr. J. H. Gurney in January, 1862 (after his divorce), for
the benefit of the children of the marriage, and to obtain a
declaration that the two infant plaintiffs (born before Mrs.
Gurney's elopement), as the only children of the marriage,
are absolutely entitled to the property comprised in the set-
tlement.
The case made by the bill is as follows :—Tbe plaintiff,
Mr. Gurney, of Cotton-hall, Norfolk, was married in 1846
to his cousin, Miss Mary Jary Gurney, Previously to 1859
when cohabitation ceased, there were two children of the
marriage, the infant co-plaintiffs. On the 13th of Decem-
ber, 1859, Mrs. Gurney eloped from her husband's house in
Kensington Palace-gardens, with one Taylor, a groom in
Mi. Gurney's service. On the 23d of December she left
England, accompanied by Taylor, for France, where they
remained until the 18th of September, 1860. Mr. Gurney
immediately after the elopement commenced proceedings
in the Divorce Court, and on the 13th of February, 1861,
obtained a divorce nisi for the dissolution of his marriage,
the final decree dissolving the marriage absolutely being
dated on she 22d May, 1861. On the 4th of May, 1861,
Mrs. Gurney, who had continued ever since her elopement
to live with Taylor, was confined of a full-grown male child,
the defendant in the present suit. Under these circumstances
the bill was filed against the trustees of the settlement and
the infant born in May 1861, for the purpose of carrying
into execution the settlement made by Mr. Gurney in Jan.,
1862, for the benefit of all and every child then living of
the marriage of the said J. H. Gurney and Miry Jane
Gurney; and in order to exclude the child born to Mrs.
Gurney in May, 1861, a declaration was prayed that the
two infant co. plain tiffs, as the only children of the marriage,
were absolutely entitled to the trust funds comprised in the
settlement. Evidence was given at great length for the
purpose of rebutting the ordinary presumption of legitimacy.
and of showing, from the absence of all access after Decem-
ber, 1859, that Mr. Gurney could not have been the father
of the child born in May, 1861.
From the nature of the defence raised, it is not necessary
to advert to the evidence further than to state that the only
time during all this period when Mr. and Mrs. Gurney were
in the same country was towards the end of September,
1860. It appears that on the 18th of September in that year
Mrs. Gurney came to, England alone and endeavoured to see
her husband, who was at that time staying with Mr. de
Bunsen, at Abbey-lodge, Regent's-park. On the 22d of
September, early in the morning, she went with Catharine
Gainsworthy, with whom she was then lodging, in a cab to
Abbey-lodge, and sent Mrs. Gainsworthy into the house
while she remained in the cab. Mrs Gainsworthy contrived
to see Mr. Gurney, and the interview was thus described by
Mr. Bunsen--
"In passing along the hall, so as to have a full view of
the front door, I saw Mr. Gurney and a female standing in
the lower part of the hall. That woman was not Mrs.
Gurney. The woman was in what I must call an imploring
attitude—her hands folded, and she was impressively look-
ing into Mr. Gurney's face. Her tone of voice denoted
much emotion. I heard her while in this imploring atti-
tude utter three or four words. I heard her say, Do take
her back,' or ' Take her back.' Mr. Gurney made no
answer. I recollect his attitude, with both hands uplifted.
He moved them towards the woman. I immediately left.
It was an instant. I heard and saw nothing more."
The cab drove back with Mrs. Gurney, who had remained
in it all the time, and Mr. Gurney left London that after-
noon. Mrs. Gurney was shortly afterwards joined by Tay-
lor, and they had continued to live together ever Educe.
The Solicitor-General, Sir Hugh Cairns, Mr. Aspland
(common law bar), and Mr. Hutton, for the plaintiffs, con-
tended that the evidence conclusively negatived the ordi-
nary presumption of legitimacy arising in favour of children
born during wedlock. Access of any kind for the whole
period after Mrs. Gurney's elopement was shown not only
to have been improbable, but even impossible. The only
time when there could possibly have been a meeting was in
September, 1869, when she left her paramour and returned
alone to England, but the evidence proved distinctly that
Mr. Gurney had absolutely refused even to see her. The
circumstances as to the birth of the child, its recognition by
Taylor, the period of gestation, &c., were all conclusive
against its being the offspring of Mr. Gurney, or entitled to
the benefit of the settlement to which this suit sought to
give effect.
Mr. Walford appeared for the trustees of the settlement,
but took re part in the argument.
Sir Fitzroy Kelly, for the infant defendant, denounced
the proceedings as a mere contrivance for the purpose of ob-
taining a judicial declaration which would in effect bastardize
the infant defendant. There was no precedent for such a
suit, and the Court ought at once to discountenance any
attempt to obtain its decision upon a merely fictitious
proceeding. Looking at the amount of Mr. Gurney's
fortune, and the trifling amount of the sum settled, there
could be no doubt—in fact, it was not disputed —that
the settlement was a mere device for the purpose of
raising this question, which was of most vital interest to
this poor helpless child. If this suit were to succeed a most
dangerous precedent would be established, and it would go
forth to the world that any stranger, however malignant his
motive, however overwhelming the misery thereby occa-
sioned, would have nothing to do but to create a trust deed,
invest some hundred pounds in the funds, and then be able
to raise such a question. What an advantage would be
afforded to the rich over the poor if such a contrivance were
allowed to succeed I The question might be raised upan
most honourable, virtuous, and praiseworthy motives, but
it was equally true that a man with money at his command
might by this means be enabled to gratify his determination
to wound and lacerate the feeling of a whole family, and
bastardise a. poor infant possibly destitute of the slightest
protection. Such a suit, whatever might have been the
conduct of the mother, ought to be at once discountenanced.
The propositions that had been stated by the Solicitor•
General as to the possibility of rebutting by evidence the
ordinary presumption in favour of legitimacy could not be
disputed, but, at the same time, if there had been any possi-
bility of access, the case against legitimacy must be over-
whelming and irresistible. There must be that which
amounted to an ab'olute physical impossibility, that the
husband could be the father of the child. No doubt the
evidence against legitimacy in thiscase was strong, but not,
it was admitted, conclusive. Access in September was not
only possible, but easy; and looking at the facilities for
travelling now existing, the old doctrine that the party must
be infra quatuor maria to afford a possibility of access was
considerably modified. Could the Court say that the case
was free from doubt ? If not, then this child ought not to
be bastardised. But he would rest his defence mainly upon
the objection that he had already urged to the frame of the
suit, and the dangerous precedent that would be established
if the social status of this child were allowed to be thus
affected for life by the contrivance to which Mr. Gurney
had resorted.

Mr. Sergeant Ballantine and Mr. G. N. Colt followed
on the same side, and offered on behalf of the guardians of
the infant defendant to bring into court a sum equal to that
comprised in the settlement, and that the trustees should
be at liberty to apply the whole of the settled fund for the
benefit of the infant plaintiffs.
The Solicitor-General, in reply, said that upon the record
and upon the evidence the suit was equally just and benefi-
cial to the infant plaintiffs. A settlement had been made,
the money had been invested, and there was not a single
fictitious element in the transaction to which the infant
plaintiffs by their father as next friend sought to give effect.
In cases as to the custody and guardianship of infants no-
thing was more common than to settle some small sum for
the purpose of giving the Court jurisdiction to deal with
these questions. (The cases of Shelley's children, Mr.
Adrian Hope's children, and that of Alicia Race were re-
ferred to.) Here the object of the contrivance, if contri-
vance it was, was righteous, honest, and just. It was for
the benefit of these children—aye, even for the benefit of
the infant defendant himself, that his status should be now
determined, rather than at a later period, when associations
had been formed, and the stain of illegitimacy would be
more keenly felt. The plaintiffs were therefore entitled to
have the question now determined once for all, and as the
attempt to show that the defendant was illegitimate had been
abandoned the declaration asked by the bill must follow as
a matter of course. His Honour, in the course of the argu •
ment, observed that although the Legislature had rec .ntly
given jurisdiction for obtaining a declaration of legitimacy,
no similar jurisdiction as to illegitimacy had been afforded.
Mr. Rolt was also in the case, on behalf of the infant de-
fendant, but is still confined to his house by illness.
The Vice-Chancellor said that he had been from the
first struck with the novelty of the manner in which the
question at issue in this cause had been raised, and the ob-
jections were undoubtedly entitled to great weight and con-
sideration. Looking at the large and vital nature of the
interests involved, and the great anxiety that must natu-
rally exist in questions like the present to obtain the di-
rection of the Court, it was singular that this simple course
had never before been adopted. As to comparative justice or
injustice, comparative advantage or disadvantage, it was
very difficult to discover any consideration upon which it
could be for the interest of this child that this question as
to his legitimacy or illegitimacy should be determined after
he had attained riper years rather than now in his infancy,
when he had acquired no status whatever. There could be
no doubt that it was of the greatest possible importance for
this child's welfare that his social position should be deter-
mined at the earliest possible period. The cases at common
law cited by Sir F. Kelly did not appear to raise any real
difficulty. The Courts had said that they would not allow
their proceedings to be trifled with by having questions
submitted to them in a fictitious form. This Court, he
feared, had very often been made an instrument of by means
of proceedings which were in reality instituted for the mere
purpose of advertising particular articles, and it might be
well that some test should be adopted for the purpose of as-
certaining the bona fide nature of the proceedings in cases
of that description. In this case, however, grave and serious
interests were beyond question at stake. It was said, in-
deed, that those grave and serious interests were not those
which were properly raised by the bill. But courts of com-
mon law had never proceeded so far as to say that they
would not determine a point legitimately brought before

them because that determination might involve in its con-
sequences large and grave interests far exceeding the matter
originally placed in issue. As to the jurisdiction of this
Court, the cases cited by the Solicitor •General as to the cus-
tody and guardianship are entirely applicable. This Court
had acted and continually acted in cases where the mat er
upon which it had atquieed jurisdiction was for the very
rj2E e of raising these larger and more important quest ions.
CtiAttas to theitifiedianship and custody of children in-
volving quite as important interests as in this case were of
frequent occurrence, in which some provision had been made
fur the purpose of giving the Court jurisdiction. In many
instances this had notoriously been done for the express
purpose of taking the child from its father's custody, or of
educating it in a faith different from that of its surviving
parent ; and with what success he need only refer to the
case of Shelley's children, before Lord Eldon, and to that of
Allele Race, before Vice-Chancellor Kindersley, within the
last few years. On the settlement now before him, how
could he escape from determining who were the objects of
the trust by the circumstance that be might happen to know
the position and fortune of the father, and that he had made
the settlement for the express purpose of raising the question
of who were or were not his children? It was said that the
peace of families ought not to be disturbed by allowing a
stranger to come forward and make such a provision in
order to raise a question of this kind. Courts of common
law had no doubt refused to countenance wagers, as interfere
ing with the peace of families. (His honour referred to the
case of the notorious Chevalier D'Eon and the wager as to
his or her sex), and there were instances in which this court
had struck out provisions from settlements when inserted
for an ob%iously improper purpose. The answer to all these
objections was, that the Court dealt with such cases as it
found them. The case before the Court was that of a father
who had good reason to dispute the legitimacy of this
child. He had other children, and considered it fur their
happiness, and even for the happiness of that infant, if it
were his child, that the status of the family should be at
once ascertained. A more proper object could hardly be
suggested. The settlement was made, and the infant plain-
tiffs, by their father as their next friend, sought to have its
trusts carried into execution. No one could dispute that it
wes for their benefit that their interests in the trust fund
should be ascertained and determined. The mode of meet-
ing the case which had been suggested at the bar, via., by
lodging in the hands of the trustees a sam of money equal
in amount to that settled by Mr. Gurney, could not for a
moment be listened to. Besides protracting for this infant
the period at which his status would be ascertained, it would
be altogether stultifying the proceedings of the court to
allow the suit to be thus bought off. Some argument had
been founded on the circumstance that the Legislature
had recently sanctioned proceedings for the purpose of ob-
taining a declaration of legitimacy, but had not given a cor-
responding power for the purpose of obtaining a declaration
of illegitimacy. The Legislature might have thought that
the peace of families would be disturbed by allowing pro-
ceedings for that purpose to be instituted by any stranger ;
but it must have been aware that in various collateral pro-
ceedings these questions constantly had to be determined.
He could not, therefore, draw any inference from that cir-
cumstance either one way or other. Having had full op-
portunity of considering the case since it was first opened,
he saw nothing to lead him to say that he ought not to
entertain the bill. As to the facts, the case was in effect un-
defended. Every step, no doubt, had been taken that was
possible, and this infant had not suffered from any lack of
means for having its interests protected and asserted. It
gave him the greater satisfaction in determining the case
that all that was possible had been done for the purpose of
proving the child's legitimacy. It was hardly necessary to
dwell for a moment upon the evidence. The case was very
much stronger than that of "Morris v. Davies," 5 Cl. and
Finn (in the House of Lords), for it was proved, so Far as
negative evidence could establish the fact, that never for a
single moment were Mr. and Mrs. Gurney even within
sight of each other from the first moment of the elopement
down to the birth of this child. The time of Mr. Gurney
had been so accounted for that there was not even a pre-
sumption upon which to go to a jury that he ever left this
country for France during all that time; and so with Mrs.
Gurney in the same way. It was quite true that in Sep-
tember, 1860, she seemed to have some wish for a reconci-
liation, and that she came over to England alone, and made
an attempt at an interview with her husband (whose ad-
dress she clearly did not then know). But it was clear
upon the evidence that the attempt utterly failed.
Even if the husband had not been active from
first in taking proceedings in the Divorce Court to separate
himself from this woman, there was every possible reason
for presuming, under the circumstances, that an interview
between them was impossible. Every circumstance in this
case was much stronger agsinst the legitimacy of this child
than in "Morris v. Davies," and the only conclusion that
he could come to was, that it was the offspring of the un-
lawful union between Mrs. Gurney and her paramour.
There must accordingly be a declaration that the trusts of
the settlement of January, 1862, ought to be carried out,
and that the infant plaintiffs, as the only children of the
marriage, were absolutely entitled as tenants in common to
the whole of the trust funds comprised in the settlemen

" served out." If to sell for profit ba the distinc-
tion, as every reasonable man must see it ought to
be, then the gin palace stands alone, and the Club
and the private dinner party and the family go
free. There is no principle' upon which Mr.
Gladstone csn put this tax which will not go very
much further then he is now prepared to go, or
than the English publie will ever permit a Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer to go. The principle of
English taxation, so far as we understand it, is to
get as much money as possible at the smallest pos-
sible interference with individual liberty of action.
The only principle discernible in this new etotchet
is to impose an indefensible restriction upon indi-
vidual action without any advantage to the revenue.
To grant a licence i 3, as Lord Russell and Mr.
Adams now know, to assume a power to refuse a
licence. It: you can insist upon a club taking out a
licence to serve out wine to its members, of course
you can refuse the licence, and thus at the will of a
Government department shut every club which
rents a house above £10t) a year. The whole thing
is so utterly unarguable that we might suppose
that it was produced like the tail of Alcibiade's
dog, and intended to be cut off to distract attention
from weightier matters. Well, cut it off, Mr.
Gladstone, and have done with it. It is not a
creditable thing to do, and it is not a profitable
thing to do.
Posee—When the news reached Poland that the
three Powers had determined to address their re-
spective notes to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg the
more shrewd amongst the Poles found little diffi-
culty in guessing at their probable tenor, or at the
nature of the replies which 'hey would evoke. Few
were deluded with the idea of supposing that this
description of diplomatic intervention would in any
way advance the national cause, or practically affect
the question at issue between the nation to which
they belonged and the Russian Government. That
question is one of life or death to Russia or to Po-
land—it is a duel a most; and it is past the power
of the most skilful or well-disposed friends to pro •
yoke explanations or apologies which will be ac
cepted on either side. Prince Gortschakoff, in his
reply to Lord Russell, argues the point of regrant-
ing the constitution of the Emperor. Alexander upon
its legal grounds. He maintains that the Poles
have forfeited their right to that constitution by the
Revolution of 1830. This is the old story, which
does very well for foreign Powers, but it is not the
real reason. The Russian Government would be
thankful to pacify Poland by that constitution if
the concession would ensure its loyalty ; but Poland
does not look to a constitution as an ultimatum.
Nothing but absolute separation and independence
—the status quo ante 1772—wi1l satisfy hey. Every
concession granted by Russia will be eagerly seized,
but only to be converted into a weapon against that
Power. The constitution accorded by the Emperor
Alexander led to the Revolution of 1830, and the
same constitution granted again would simply be
to purchase tranquillity for the moment at theprice
of a still more formidable revolution a few years
later. It might easily be shown that from those
reforms, which the present Emperor prides himself
upon having introduced, the insurrection derives in
a large degree its force—while during the reign of
Nicholas the policy of terrorism kept it quiet. There
is no alternative for Russia between a recurrence
to that policy or the dismemberment of the empire.
It is a painful but undeniable fact that those
national institutions, for the most part elective,
with which the country has been endowed," al-
luded to by Prince Gortschakoff, have been of
the greatest possible assistance to the Central Com-
mittee at Warsaw, by enabling it to thwart the civil
and military action of the Government; while that
"social transformation which has been undertaken
and accomplished in a few years, and that system
of gradual development which has been applied to
all branches of the public service and to the exist-
ing institutions," has really ha f the effect of render-
ing still more impossible the task of governing a
nation in whom the sentiment of independence is
paramount, and who, in proportion as their moral,
material, and intellectual resources are developed,
become more and more able to give it expression.
It is only natural that such should be the case, but
it also explains the unsatisfactory nature of Prince
Gortschakoff's reply. The position is one which it
would have been impossible for a Russian states-
man to explain to England, and he therefore pre-
fers arguing the point on legal grounds; but it is
as well that the Powers should clearly appre-
hend the nature and extent of the difficulties by
which the Russian Government is surrounded,
in order that they may be able to measure
accurately the value of their interference. Any
compromise short of Polish national independence
may produce a temporary lull, but that European
peace of which the Emperor Napoleon speaks
with such tenderness will not be ensured to Europe
so long as a spark of Russian authority remains in
the powder-magazine called Poland. Inasmuch as
by the treaties of 1815 Poland is guaranteed by
this country, as one of the contracting Powers, to
Russia, we have no difficulty in perceiving why
Prince Gortschakoff accepts with such readiness
those treaties as a basis. He possibly foresees the
day as not far distant when he in his turn may wish
to appeal to the Powers to adhere to the engage-
ments which they entered into upon that occasion.
Meantime, in his note to the French Emperor, he
contents himself with a few significant allusions to
what he terms " the party of disorder" in Europe.
There can be no doubt of the existence of this
party, or that to their efforts is due the spread of
" the cosmopolite elements of revolution" through-
out the Continent. That they have done their best
to produce agitation in :Poland is also extremely
probable, and that, owing to the Russian system of
government, they found there a soil well adapted to
receive the seeds of revolution, is not to be wondered
at; but, to suppose that the insurrection would have
assumed its present proportions without the exist-
ence of a strong national sentiment to give it vitality,
is simply ridiculous. The whole of the Polish aris-
tocracy is deeply compromised in the movement ;
it extends from the most wealthy and powerful
members of the oldest noble families to the humblest
stable-boy, and though the train may have been
lighted by some enterprising members of the party
of action, the fire bas spread far beyond their con-
trol. It is a blaze of patriotic ardour, not of demo-
cratic principle; and when Prince Gortschakoff
endeavours to persuade Europe that the Polish
national movement derives its inspiration from the
European party of disorder, in the hope of frighten-
ing timid autocrats abroad, his misrepresentations
will certainly not have the effect of alienating the
sympathies of the British public from those whose
only aspiration is national independence. Fortu-
nately in this country the machinations of the
"cosmopolite revolutionary party" do not in the
slightest degree alarm us; but we can make allow-
ances for the tone of irritation which occasionally
peeps through the Russian note. It must be acknow-
ledged that the treaties of 1815, though an inexer-
ab:e political necessity at the time, have embarrassed
a good tn#ny people during the last 50 years. They
imposed upon Russia an impossible task. When
they placed within her frontier a nation with great
historical traditions and an invincible determination
never to remain there, they perpetuated an act of
injustice which had already been committed against
that nation, and they at this moment bind us by
obligations which are diametrically opposed to
our sympathies. " Why," insinuates Prince Gort-
schakaff, "if you are so exceedingly tenacious in
the matter of the treaties of 1815, do you openly
express sympathy with a nation whose whole aim
and object in the present struggle is to destroy
them ? We are not to blame ;we have tried evety-
thing. The constitution which the Emperor
Alexander gave led to a revolution ; the iron
rule of Nicholas was eminently conducive to
peace; the reforms of the present Alexander,
taken advantage of by the party of disorder, have
produced the present insurrection." Such is in fact
he condensed reply of the Russian statesman, who
naturally found some difficulty in conveying the lest
idea, and therefore wrapped it in so much obscurity
that we have come to his assistance and cleared it of
all ambiguity for the benefit of our readers. They
will perceive that the rejoinder affords scope for
that exercise of ingenuity and logic which we shall
doubtless find exhibited in the next blue book ou
the affairs of Poland.

HZRALD.—Now, if ever, is the moment for a per-
manent and peaceable solution of the Polish ques-
tion. The Russian Government responds with
courtesy to the appeals of the Western Powers, and
declares its determination to develop in Poland an
administrative autonomy, on the basis of provincial
and municipal institutions like those of England.
Practically, although not in terms, it renews the
engagements it had long repudiated, and recognises
the right of England to see to their fulfilment. That
is to say, it allows everything which a regard for
the interests of the Poles and the dignity of its own
country will allow the English Government to ask.
There is no English statesman who can believe that
the immediate attainment of complete independence
by Poland would be desirable in the interests of
Europe or of Poland itself. There is no one who
believes the attainment possible, and therefore there
is no one who would commit England to the Quixo
tic task of demanding it. What the Czar now ex-
presses his readiness to give Poland—an adminis-
trative autonomy—would undoubtedly, if homstly
carried out, pace the Poles in a better position than
at any time during the last four hundred years of
their existence. A distinct administration and na-
tional institutions would satisfy every real want of
thepeople. Such an autonomy would allow the fullest
liberty of religion and instruction, full personal free
dom, and every opportunity for the solution of those
great social questions which, if Poland is to remain a
nation, must be taken in hand for settlement at once.
Her aspirations after an independent existence
would indeed remain unsatisfied; the dream of

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