The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 6, 1863

brought to a-close. They, have fought and bled for
it; given the lives of fathers, sons, brothers, and
husbands for it, and are not disposed to make any
further sacrifices of treasure, time, blood, or exer-
tion in its support. They once believed that the
South was merely mutinous, and could be reduced
to order and discipline in the " ninety days" of
Mr. Seward and by the 75,000 men of Mr. Lin-
coln. They have awakened to a different and
a sadder conclusion, and have learnt to admire the
Southern and to despise the Northern At:ministra-
tion, in proportion as the war advanced ; and are
convincedo
gthate thed as S
ao
nu t hi n nd oe
pt
eonndl ye
nwt illr o,
wbeu ur
.t °S ugehht
is the present opinion of the great majority of the
Irish Roman Catholic population, basing himself
upon which Archbishop Hughes has had the cou-
rage to delete himself in favour of a Disunion Peace,
if no other be practicable. To this complexion the
whole Democratic party must come at last, Many
of its leaders—in addition to Mr. Fernando Wood
and Mr. Benjamin Wood, who loudly proclaims this
doctrine in his paper—are already sensible that it
is no more possible to restore the Union than it is
to restore the empire of Charlemagne, or the domi-
nion of Powhattan ; but, being more concerned for
the future predorninacy of the Democratic party,.
and its share of the " honours and plunder" of office,
than for the immediate welfare of the country, hesi-
tate to take any step which might give increased
popularity to their rivals the Republicans. Their
notion is that whichever of the two parties makes
peace will be politically ruined for a quarter of a
century. They do not wish to remain out of office for
so long a period. They see that peace is the one thing
needful, and if the Republicans could be persuaded
or, compelled to make it upom humiliating terms,
they would only be too glad to accept the peace and
' to use the humiliations that prepared and accom-
panied it as the means of a long exclusion of their
rivals from power. The Democratic party, taken as
a whole, is too cunning and too sordid to be very pa-
triotic, except in great extremity,and relies too much
upon the innate depravity of human nature as one of
the great fulcra of Government to place itself very
much in edvance of public opinion, or that which it
believes to represent it. The day may come, how-
ever, and that much sooner than it anticipates, when
the public peril wi'l he so imminent under the worse
than imbecile mismanagement of the present Admi-
nistration, as to compel it to think less of party and
more of duty than seems at present to its mind, and
to declare itself a ready follower in that path where
Mr. Fernando Wood and Archbishop Hughes and
nearly the whole of the working classes have pre-
ceded it.

SUMMER ASSIZES.

SOUTH WALES CIRCUIT.
(Before Baron Wilde.)
THE FISHGUARD NEWER.

Lydia Williams was charged with the wilful murder of
her husband, Dan Williams, at the parish of Llanunda.
Mr. Henry Allen and Mr. Owen prosecuted ; Mr. Thos.
Allen defended the prisoner.
Various witnesses said they had seen the deceased in
good health as late as the 11th and 12th of April last.
Elizabeth Bowen saw him about six o'clock on the day
he was taken ill—he then appeared to be well. She saw
hirn on the following day in the evening, about four o'clock
—he was then very ill. He came to her house, and said he
had 'pains about him he never had before in his stomach.
She saw him again on the following Tuesday, when he
complained of the pain in his stomach, and said his throat
and tongue felt very hot. At another time he was vomit-
ing. About nine days later he was very ill, and in great
pain. He complained of pain like a cramp. Before his ill-
ness his limbs were weak from rheumatism, but he was
well in body.
Cross-examined Deceased had two sisters, who did
not live with him, but one attendedhim before he died. This
sister and the wife were not friendly. Witness and the
wife had at one time not been on good terms. Deceased
was in the habit of taking too much physic, including boiled
herbs, which were usually simmering in a saucepan on the
hob. The herb he use was called " bog bean."
Elizabeth Davies, on being sworn, said she lived next
door to deceased, whom she saw on Sunday, the 17th of
April, at six o'clock. He complained he was very weak.
Saw him again the following Tuesday or Wednesday inbed
very ill and vomiting. He said he thought he should:die.
Mary Williams, daughter of the de cased, remembered
her father being taken ill on the Sunday. She was ill her-
self that day. After the Sunday she frequently saw him
vomit, generally every day after his meals. He vomited
after the meals which witness prepared, but his wife
usually, but not always, filled the bowls. When witness
took his food to him herself de ceased never vomited. Pri-
soner left the house a fortnight after he was taken ill, and
did not return. Witness saw prisoner pour out a small quan-
tity of gin for her father into a blue basin, and take a white
powder out of some paper and put in the basin. Her father
did not drink it.

Eleanor Williams, sister to the deceased, said she prepared
the food after the wife loft, and he was not sick after taking
it. She found a powder on the top of the press. She gave
it to Dr. Wathan.

Mr. Moses Griffiths, justice of the peace for the county,
deposed that he visited the deceased on the 20th of May,
with Superintendent Jones, and a policeman named Evans.
Jones took down the statement of the deceased :

" On Sunday, the 12th of April lasc, after I had partaken
of my dinner, prepared by my wife, Lydia, I became very
sick, and vomited very violently and threw up blood ; and
each time I partook of food prepared by my wife I became
sick and vomited violently up to dinner time on the 23d of
April, after which time my daughter prepared my food,
through the interference and suggestion of my sister Eleanor,
since which time I have not vomited. I saw my wife take
something out of a paper, which I believe she took from her
pocket, and put it in my food twice of three times, and I
vomited each time. She was standing by the window in my
bedroom the first time, and in the other room afterwards.
The first time I became sick and vomited. I had partaken
of broth, prepared and given to me by Lydia for my dinner.
The sensation I felt at the time was a burning in my
stomach; my throat was dry, shrunk up, and burning; my
tongue much swollen; my lips swollen and cracked; the
skin on my body dry, withered, and pealing off. I make
this declaration, believing that I am now dying, and will
not recover."

Mr. W. D. Wathan, of Fishgnard, surgeon, deposed that
he was called in to see the deceased on the 28th of April.
He described the symptoms presented by the deceased.
There was inflammation and numbness of the limbs, and
various other appearances which led him to form a decided
opinion as to the cause of his death; he believed he died
from the effects of an irritant poison. Bog beans act as a
tonic, and are very harmless. The package given him by
Eleanor Williams contained oxalic acid.

Dr. J. D. Brown, of Haverfordwest, deposed that he, in
company with the last witness, made a post mortal: exami-
nation of the deceased. He appeared to have died from
heart symptoms, and the nervous system seemed to be
exhausted. He could not say what caused the inflamma-
tion.

Mr. William Herapath, analytical chemist, of Bristol,
deposed to receiving a jar containing portions of the intes-
tines from Superintendent Jones. He tested its contents
for poison, and found none. There was inflammation in all
parts of the intestines sent to him. He had seen cases
where inflammation proceeding from natural causes had
caused death. Any heavy irritant poison would produce
these effects. Neither in his reading nor experience bad
he ever known poison to be found after 16 days. He had
received some powders from Superintendent Jones. One
of them was oxalic acid; the other consisted of oatmeal and
and white arsenic. It contained 27 grains of arsenious
acid and 63 of vegetable meal. Three grains of acid had
been known to cause death, but it usually required more.
Arsenic acts on the nerves where it has been administered
in small quantities; and the sufferers die from secondary
causes, In his_ experience he had never known so long a
time as had elapsed in this case before death ensued.
Mary Williams deposed that she was a servant living
at Trelleys. She saw the prisoner, • she could not say on
what day, and prisoner asked witness for something to kill
mice. Witness replied she had nothing.
Hannah Nicoloa, on being sworn, said she saw the pri-
soner at her house on the Sunday. She heard of Dan Wil-
liams being taken ill that week. The prisoner asked her
for something to kill mice, and she gave her some poison.
She had an equal quantity lett, which she gave to the po-
lice.

Mary Jenkins deposed that she knew the prisoner, who
called at the house of her master, Dr. Owen, of Trelleys,
and asked witneEs if she had something to kill rats.
Aftdr a deliberation of more than half an hour the jury
returned a verdict of guilty of the in tent but not of the
murder.

His Lordship sentenced the prisoner to penal servitude
for life.

On Thursday Francis Weeks Szlumper, late clerk to the
Milford Improvement Commissioners, was charged with
having on Oct. 3, 1862, forged a certain power of attorney,
with intent to defraud. The prisoner was fiu ther charged
in another count of the indictment with uttering a power of
attorney with intent to defraud.
Mr- Lascelles appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. T.
Allen for the defence.
It appeared from the evidence that the seal of the Milford
Improvement Commissioners was kept in a box with three
locks, two of the keys of which were kept by the prisoner,
and the third by the chairman, consequently the box could
never be opened by the clerk,
except in the presence of the
chairman. Both Szlumper and the chairman had two sets
of keys duplicates, there being six keys for the three locks.

All the keys much resembled each other in appearance, but
each pair of keys would only open their
,own lock.
The Rev. Mr. Leach, rector of Hubberstone, and chair-
man to the Milford Improvement Commissioners. deposed
that he remembered an application made to him for his key
of the safe containing the seal, which Szlumper required
for the purpose of affixing to a lease. After this had been
done the prisoner borrowed the key from witness on pretence
of cleaning all the locks, and a day or two afterwards re-
turned a key which was not the same as that lent to him.
No authority was given the prisoner from the board to exe-
cute a power of attorney. The commissioners had £244
stock, at 3 per cent., in the Bank of England. The witness
was not aware that the prisoner had ever accounted to the
commissioners for the £244 after he received it.
Messrs. Roberts, T. J. Lewis, G. P. Lewis, Richards,
Gould, Thomas, Davias, Williams, -Wehnert, and Durant,
all commissioners, corroborated the evidence as to the pri-
soner having never received any authority from the board
to execute the deed.

The power of attorney authorising the selling out of the
stock was produced, also letters written by Szlumper in the
name of the board to Messrs. Cancellors, brokers, of London,
inquiring as to the formalities necessary in order to sell out
stock, and receipts in his handwriting for half•notes received
from Messrs. Cancellers.

The jury found the prisoner guilty,
There were two other indictments for forgery against
him, but Mr, Lacellcs ofnred no cvle,er.co thcrecn.

His Lordship suspended his decision till Friday morning,
when he sentenced the prisoner to four years' penal servi-
tude.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REVIEW,—We are deeply sorry to
hear of a proposed scheme for commemorating the
merits of Sir George Cornewall Lewis by the erec-
tion of a "bust and tablet" in Westminster Abbey.
It is said that the plan has secured the approbation
of the Dean, but it is to be hoped that either the
Dean or those who have undertaken the manage-
ment of the Memorial may be induced to think bet-
ter of it before the mischief is irrevocably done. We
need hardly explain that, in thus saying, we are not
actuated by any disrespect to Sir G. Lewis. It is,
on the other hand, the very honour which we bear
to the memory of that illustrious scholar and states-
man which makes us even more anxious than we
should be in another case to save his name from
be
tfi hg
ei
un
rtgewinome
fnab tire el
on
nnagntsh
eec excuse
for
noblest
possibly
siebhl
ye
rclash,e ninflictingin anotherwEeegl
a might
d .
say is-
If
that, much as we respect Sir G. Lewis, we respect
Westminster Abbey still more; but there is really
no need of any such collision. It is alike in the in-
terest of the memory of a great man and of the pre-
servation of a magnificent building that we plead
against reverence for the one being perverted to the
mutilation of the other. A similar blow was once
threatened by way of commemorating Mr. Hallam.
That blow was happily averted; so there is, per-
haps, hope that some means may be found for doing
honour to one of the greatest English scbolars with-
out inflicting further damage on the work of the
greatest of English kings. The true doctrine of
monuments and memorials is a very simple one, and
one which we have done our best to set forth on
other occasions, A monument is simply a man's
tomb. It must, therefore, be in a church, church-
yard, or other cemetery, and it cannot properly fol-
low more than two or three types, in har-
mony with both the religious and the archi-
tectural character of the place. A memorial
may be of any kind, and may be set up in any
place where it is thought good, and it is subject to no
restrictions beyond the general laws of art and
good taste. The monument is something purely
ecclesiastical; the memorial may be ecclesiastical
or secular, just as may
happen. A memorial may
be indoors or out of doors; it may assume the form
of bust, statue, cross, picture, anything that is most
liked. And it may be set up in any place whatso-
ever, while a monument is absurd in any place save
the place where the man is buried. It is perfectly
right to commemorate Sir George Lewis by a
strictly ecclesiastical monument in the church where
he is buried. It is equally right to commemorate
him by a mere memorial statue, picture, or
whatever is liked best—in any fitting place either
in London or Oxford. But it would be foolish to
set up a strictly ecclesiastical monument, of Sir G.
Lewis in Westminster Abney, because he is not
buried in Westminster Abbey. It would be equally
fooiish to set up any other sort of memorial for him
there, because Westminster Abbey is—what some
people seem to forget—a church, and a church isno
place for memorials of any but the ecclesiastical
kind. It is especially foolish to set up a tablet and
bust in Westminster Abbey, because such tablet and
bust will certainly be incongruous with the archi-
tecture of the building, and can hardly fail to in-
volve the destruction or concealnient of some portion
of the original work. For all these reasons, the
proposed scheme for commemorating Sir G. Lewis
is one which we trust will never be carried into
effect.
SPECTATOR.—Mr. Roebuck on Tuesday night
paid an unexpected compliment to his countrymen,
He announced—and by acts, not words—his belief
that the national character is greatly changed. That
insular self-esteem, that haughty impatience of in-
terference from abroad, that ignorant inability
rtobeeras with rforeign dictation, of which fo-
eign used so bitterly to complain, has, he
conceives, departed. The Englishman has be-
come a cosmopolitan, and, like most neophytes,
betrays the novelty of his convictions by their un-
bounded ardour.
foreigner not only He is ready to welcome the
as a brother but as a bosom
friend; to learn from him not only how to act but
even how to behave ; not merely how to treat his
neighbours but how to guide the proceedings of the
family circle. These are lessons the meekest of men
are seldom willing to receive, yet Mr. Roebuck
obviously believes that his fellow citizens here, after
centuries of stiff neckedness, attained eeen to this
height of Christian humility. At least, that is the
only theory 11P"
which we can explain the auda-
city with which be conveyed to the House of Com-
mons a rebuke addressed by the Emperor of the
French through him to the Government of Great
Britain. Mr. Roebuc, it appears, had heard that
the Emperor had changed his mind on the subject
of the recognition of the South, and, taking "his
Majesty" to be the natural dictator of English po-
licy, went ecross to ask him the question with as
little scruple evidently as he might address an in-
terpellation to the Under Secretary for Foreign
Affairs. The Emperor, with that maganimity which
has in it so much either of Christianity or contempt,
as if Mr.
spoke as franklyßoebuckhad never de-
nounced, as he Sh
did in effield, the "perjured lips
which polluted the Queen's cheek." " I said, Your
Majesty
may make a formal application to Eng-
land.' He stopped me, and said, No, I cannot de
that, and I -sill tell you why.
Some months ago I
did make a formal application to England, and
England sent my despatch to America. That de-
spatch got into Mr. Sew_ ard's hands,and was shown
to my ambassador at W
ashington, and it came back
I
to me, and I feel that was ill treated by such con-
duct. (Hear, hear, and sensation.) / cannot
f to the
mysel
subjectdanger of similar
treatment; but I will do everything short
of it—l will give you full liberty to state
to the English House of Commons that this is
my wish, and to state that I am determined in all
things to act with England, and more than this,
that I wish to act with her as regards America.'"
The intent of that sentence is clear. The Emperor,
if M, Roebuck reports him truly, thinks himself
betrayed by the British Government, and appeals
from his betrayer to the House of Commons. So
earnest is he in the matter that he does not even
respect ordinary forms of international courtesy.
Instead of inserting his complaint in a despatch,an
then suffering that despatch to ooze out through
special
c
an " officious" print, he selects a spe • envoy, that
envoy an Englishman, that Englishman a Radical
representative notorious for his anti-Napoleonic
speeches, and bids him carry a verbal reproof of the
Government of Great Britain into the British Par-
liament. That reproof, moreover, is made formal
by his consent to its publication, and couched in the
form of a charge of treachery a against Government
with which, adds his Majesty, " I am determi • ned
in all things to act." No incident could be better
calculated to expose the mischief of a practice now
In'cominr, too prevalent that of
"members of the
Lower House turning themselves at their own dis-
cretion into volunteer ambassadors.

LONDON REVIEW.—Mr. Roebuck, arriving at
the Tuileries with his umbrella, and honing he
will ho a spectacle of which
well She-
ffield be proud. Whenever there is a
d don't i
maynt intrude," u d e,
difficulty this busy
gentleman repairs straight to
the scene of action,
and sends in his card. The
lamented Mr. Edwin James once upon a time—as
we all must well remember—adopted this admirable
expedient when the Italian question was attracting
universal notice. He took upon him the high
mission of representing the Maylebone Beadle
and the Parish Pumps of Old England
at the court of General Garibaldi. Armed
with credentials from himself, he conversed
freely with the General, and wrote an
account of his conversation to the Times. Mr. Roe-
buck flies at higher game, though he is equally con-
versational and equally communicative about his
conversation; and the Sheffield Foreign Affairs
Committee have the satisfaction of knowing that
their member only accredits himself to crowned
heads. There Will soon be no palace in 'Europe
that does not know the sight of Mr. Roebuck's
umbrella. He has also looked in on Austria in a
family way—be has looked in on France, and we
have no reason for supposing that he does not mean
to ook in upon Prussia, Russia, and America. Mrs.
Candour, in the " School for Scandal," had not a
more successful way of arriving just in the nick of

intrigue and conversation. Francis Joseph and the 1
Archdukes may wall have been astonished at their
visitor three years ago, when he presented himself
with the firm intention of taking up the rege-
neration of Austria as a personal matter. An an-
cient Briton in his war paint could not have been a 1
more astonishing arrival at Vienna. The experi-
ment, however, seems to have had so pleasing an
effect upon his fortunes and his character that he
has tried it again. Attired, like (lodiva, in nothing
but his native modesty, he saddles his favourite
animal and rides, with Mr. Lindsay for his hand-
maid, into the middle of the haunts of Tyranny.
The monarch of France and Mr. Roebuck have thus
met at last. Caesar has encountered with impunity
the gaze of Brutus, and Brutus has returned to
humble life a mollified and mitigated patriot, his
face glowing with the delight of having conversed
with one more Emperor. Mr. Roebuck went to
the Imperial Palace a bitter-blowing East wind ;
he has come back ail South-east and South. The
sour grapes of Sheffield have been ripened by the
sun of Fontainebleau. Mr. Roebuck has frequently
received merited castigation, both in the House of
Commons and elsewhere, but he has seldom received
a better dressing than he got from the bitter tongue
of Mr. Bright. Mr. Bright pointed out, with truth
and plainness, that Mr. Roebuck is hardly the man to
play the British Paul Pry to Imperial personages,still
less to represent the French Emperor iu tiie house of
Commons. The manner in which he chose, two
years ago, to speak of Napoleon 111. makes it ludi-
crous in the extreme for him to assume the charac-
ter of Ambassador Extraordinary from that monarch
to the English Legislature. Nor do we want an
official of the kind. All the notes of private inter-
views that Mr. Roebuck has taken are thrown away.
It is highly inconvenient that the attention of the
house should be taken up with tittle tattle to which
it is undignified to listen, and which it would be
still more undignified for the Commons of this coun-
try to regard. What Mr. Roebuck chooses to do on
the American question somebody may do upon the
subject of Turkey, or the lonian Islands, or the dis-
tress in Lancashire. I( the private wishes of Napo-
leon 111. are indeed to be perpetually dragged into
the deliberations of Parliament, let Baron Gros have
a seat below the bar, accompanied with the privi-
lege of stating succinctly to the house, before each
division, what the French Emperor is likely to think
of it. The Imperial will may thus at all events flow
to us in a responsible and accredited channel, not
filter down to us through half a dozen periaatetic
gossips, who are neither fitted for the part of Impe-
rial parrots by their accuracy of memory or their dis-
cretion. if this be objected, let Mr. Nassau Senior
be sent round every summer in an official cap,city;
and let a committee of the house sit upon his note
book when he comes home. It is needless to observe
that the Bashi-bazouk diplomacy which Mr. Roe-
buck and the Liverpool merchants have endeavoured
to bring into fashion increases infinitely the diffi-
culty of all regular and official authorities. When
every Briton who pleases is his own ambassador,
Lord Russell will have an uneasy time of it. All
this is quite unconstitutional and out of place. What
Napoleon 111. wishes the House of Commons to be
told, he can always ask Ministers to tell them. So
long as we have a Government at all, it will be
better for his Imperial Majesty to confine his confi-
dence within recognised bounds, or he must not be
surprised if they are treated both with neglect and
indifference. The less Parliament hears of the pri-
vate wishes of Emperors and Queens and Princes,
the better it will discharge its duty to the constitu-
encies that returned it.

EXAMINER.—Mr. Bright never made a more earnest
and impressive speech than that of Tuesday last in
opposition to the recognition of Confederate inde-
pendence. He carried with him the complete at-
tention of the house, and secured for his eloquence,
at least, the admiration of his bitterest political op-
ponent. But the just hatred of slavery led in his
fervid mindto the use of some bad argument. Take,
for example, what he said on the subject of cotton
supply, for which some zealous abolitionist must
have been furnishing him with fabricated statistics.
Trusting to these he comes to conclusions in direct
contradiction to the entire history of our cotton
manufacture. Every one had believed that the
greatness of our manufacture was owing to the
capacity of the Southern States of America to pro-
duce a cheap and good raw material. Seventy years
ago, before the culture of cotton was introduced in
America, the value of our woollen manufactures
greatly exceeded that of cotton, and when, on the im-
portation of American cotton, Mr. Pitt told that the
cotton would in time exceed in value our great na-
tional staple, he would not believe it possible. But
our exports of cotton goods have exceeded those of
woollen at least fivefold, all the result of the pro-
ducing capacity of the Southern States of Anglo-
Saxon America. Mr. Bright is stone-blind to all
this, and his charge against the slaveholders of the
South is, that they have failed to produce it in the
requisite quantity and cheapness. These are shortly
the facts. Before the cultivation of the cotton plant
was introduced into America, and especially before
it was pushed into the valleys of the Mississippi
and Alabama, and when our main supply was de-
rived from the West Indies, the price of a pound of
cotton ranged from two shillings to half-a-crown.
For some years before the breaking out of the pre•
sent civil war the Southern Americans, favoured by
a superior fertility of soil, adaptation of climate, na-
tural facility of transport, and skill in production,
had brought the pound of cotton down to one-
fourth part of the first named price, and one-fifth
part of the latter, yet Mr. Bright is not
satisfied, and blames them for not doing more. By
war the American supply has in a great measure
bean withdrawn, and the price of cotton has risen
to something very like what it was 70 years ago.
For the last two years India, Egypt, Brazil, and
other countries have had enhanced prices, a bounty
equal to from 200 to 300 on every pound of cotton
they can bring to market, but they have miserably
failed to supply the place of the southern American
States.

WEEKLY DISPATCH.—We have another publics
tion of a quarter's revenue and another boast of
prosperity. New we own to a superstition against
this self-glorification ; it is generally the symptom
of that kind of security that leads to errors and
heralds reverses. We see nothing in the returns to
show that, in spite of the Lancashire distress, Great
Britain is not holding its own ; for that we are
grateful. To make what we can of the figures be-
fore us, we find that the increase for the factitious
year is £998,072, a very pleasant balance in itself,
but utterly counteracted by the equally patent fact
that the " Miscellaneous" is larger than in the for-
mer year by £1,025,517. If tbs. readers of the
Dispatch required to be told that this " Miscellane-
ous ' is no revenue at all, but either repayment of
advances or of debts, and therefore so much con-
sumption of capital, or accrues from the sale of
stores and bad bargains at a frightful sacrifice, we
have on many occasions taken care to give them the
information. However, the Excise has declined in
the course of the year no less than £1,373,000; on
the quarter, £481,000 ; and we believe that this is
occasioned mainly by remissions of taxation calcu-
lated upon, and partly by credit given for malt-
tax, the partial return to a system which Mr.
Gladstone, had broken in upon by a very stringent
exaction of prompt payment. So when the
Custorni, Stamps, Taxes, Property-tax, Post-office,
and Crown Lands, give us an increase on the
year of £1,345,555, and on the quarter of
£486,500, we are quite content to believe in a real
elasticity, and grateful to consider the permanent,
solid resources of the count' y capable of meeting the
shock of an almost unexampled misfortune without
crumbling under the blow. A somewhat kindred
topic is the attempt to decimalise our weights and
measures, to adopt a French scientific standard as
our meter, and to put ourselves in accord with the
continent by reckoning in tens from that point.
Now, as a matter of theory, quite apart from practice,
this would, doubtless, be very desirable. We do not
greatly admire the objection that- begins by admit-
ting.-." it it were to be done afresh, it would be
right to do it," but in this case it is undoubted'y
applicable. It is altogether a matter of convenience
as to reckoning. We might, undoubtedly, facilitate
our dealings with foreign nations by adopting their
weights and measures; but for one large transac-
tion well worth the careful calculation of a compe-
tent man, which we enter into with foreigners, there
are about a million small dealings between our-
selves, entered into by mere habit by those who
have scarcely the power of making a new reckoning.
We should say, tnerefore, to Mr. Cobden and the
parties who mooted the question in the House of
Commons on Wednesday, and who gained a ma-
jority against Mr. Milner Gibson, affirming their
principle, Go very gently. It is easy to do serious
and wide-spread injustice by any precipitation.
CIVIL SERVICE GAZETTE.—Just on the eve of the
publication of the Report of the Royal Commission
on Penal Servitude, and when all the subjects
connected with his department were about to
receive the fullest consideration by the legis-
lature and the public, Sir Joshua Jebb, in
apparent possession of his usual health and mental
vigour, has by a most sudden dispensation of Pro.
vidence been " removed from the evil to come." The
awful and distressing circumstances of his death
would of themselves disincline tt ose who were ar-
rayed against him on public questions from any
unnecessary criticisms, and for ourselves we can
sincerely say that even if it had been impossible for
him so far to modify his very tenaciously held opi-
nions as to have become useful in building up a new
convict system in this country, we should certainly
have devoutly wished that the most influential and
pertinacious opponent of reform in convict adminis-
tration had vacated his official seat by any other
means than those sadly impressive ones which at-
tended his departure. Putting Sir Joshua Jebb's
motives at the very best, and acknowledging that

he was himself thoroughly convinced of the sound-
ness of the peculiar theories which were advocated
by him, it is impossible to deny that owing to his
special tenacity ef opinion, and a peculiarity of
mind which prevented his adapting himself and his
syitem to the further discoveries and experience of
others, he constituted himself for many years an in-
vincible obstruction in the practical advancement
of reformatory science; and that, not being willing
himself to carry on a bona fide ticket-of-leave
system, he has caused a powerful popular
prejudice
to attach itself to anything bearing
that name, by the substitution of such a
spurious anomaly as the granting conditional
liberty to criminals on conditions which he
purposely made no attempt to enforce. He had ap-
parently possessed himself of the idea that his pri-
sons were such self-acting purifiers that it was un-
necessary, if not impertinent, for the public to de-
mand any further proof of changed character in
discharged convicts than the fact of their having
duly graduated in his department. Giving Sir J.
Jebb full credit for sincerity in the belief that his
own reformatory processes were he best, it must
also be admitted that lie was a most assiduous and
painstaking public cffieer, and that is many
minor respects he was a very va'uable contri-
butor to the improvements in prison
Sensibly alive to comment on his official conduct,
he was always desirous to do that in which he lat-
terly so very signally failed, namely, to enlist public
opinion and the press in his favour. It is owing to
this, and the great desire which he manifested to
enlighten and set right on matters upon which we
had ourselves commented, that we are able person-
ally to bear testimony to his agreeable bearing and
urbanity, while it enables and compels us also to
state that the great failing of his mind was a total
incapacity for argument. He could always give,
and was at all times ready to afford a complete his-
tory of a case, and all the information in his power,
but he could not argue upon it, and was almost in-
variably led to mistake reiteration for reasoning.
With this paramount mental fault, he was to a great
extent unqualified for high administrative responsi
bility, and it explains and in some degree excuses
many of his most prominent errors. By Sir Joshua
Jebb's decease three most important offices become
vacant, each requiring special talent, and which
should never be again held in combination by one
individual. They are the Chairmanship of the
Board of Directors of Convict Prisons, the office of
Surveyor-General of Prisons, and the Inspector-
Generalship of Military Prisons. If the occasion be
properly used, tee removal of the late Chief Direc-
tor of Convict Prisons may be made to facilitate the
speedy and more satisfactory settlement of a much-
vexed question, and if the Government neglects
the opportunity now afforded it may never return.
It is, under the circumstances, clear that nothing
seould be determined on as to the chief government
of the convict service until the report of the Royal
Commission is in the hands of the public, and an op-
portunity has been afforded for its decisions being
canvassed in the Legislature.
WEEKLY REGISTER.—The Eniperor Napoleon
has just proposed a practical reform, which, if he is
able to carry it out, will make him the greatest bene-
factor France has known for centuries. The great
evil of France is too much government. Hitherto
this evil has been left untouched under every suc-
cessive change of government. Legitimate Kings,
Republics, Directors, Consuls, Empires, Citizen
Kings have equally left unchanged this, which lies
at the root of more than half of the social evils of
France and most other Continental States. It has
arisen more from the desire to provide places under
Government for the greatest possible number of
persons than from any anxiety to extend the di-
rect power of the Administration. Whatever has
been done in France for some two centuries past has
been done by Government end its officials, and the
people have at length learned to look to the Go-
vernment to do whatever has to be done, instead of
doing it themselves. We some time back pointed out
an instance of this in the relief of the cotton manu-
facturers in England and France. Nowhere is
charity more hearty or more active than in France:;
yet the instinctive feeling of a Frenchman in the
presence of that calamity was, "Government must
do something," while the instinctive feeling of an
Englishman was "I must do something." This was
not because Englishmen are more charitable than
Frenchmen, but because the Englishman has always
been used "to administer," and the Frenchman
"to be administered." Elsewhere on the Conti-
nent the same system has produced the same result,
a miserable system that has too generally passedifor
the deepest statecraft. In truth, nothing could be
more fatal. It has corrupted the people, and the
Government instead of being strengthened has been
undermined. In all the revolutions of late years,
worthless functionaries have been the class by whom
it has been betrayed. The Emperor Napoleon has
shown by his late letter to the President of the
Council of State, that he has not watched with an
unobservant eye the affairs of a country in which it
is a fundamental maxim that every man is to attend
to his own business, and the Government merely to
keep peace and order. According to our notion,
there would be no need of Government at all, if all
men paid willing obedience to the laws. Govern-
ment is necessary to enforce the laws, because
men will not obey them unless they are enforced.
According to the Continental system, Government
would be necessary, even if all the subjects were
saints, because they must still have it to think
and act for them, and in their stead. We much fear
that the public mind of France has been too much
accustomed to the working of an evil system to
appreciate the immense value of the reform pro-
posed by the Emperor. If he has firmness and
courage to carry it out, he will be the greatest bene-
factor France has known for centuries.
ATHENZUM.—The number of visitors to Kew
Gardens last year exceeded that of any previous one
by 70,000, mainly due to the visits of foreigners to
the International Exhibition. The total number of
visitors was 550,000; this multitude did no harm to
the gardens, plants or buildings; of the whole, more
than half, or 267,935, came on Sundays. At Kew
no new buildings have been erected during the past
year, but seven of the largest tropical and temperate
houses have been re-arranged. Among these the
architectural hothouse, near the entrance, has been
refilled with aroids and other tropical large-leaved
climbers, the splendid foliage and peculiar habits of
which attract attention. The old orangery, built
either in George the First or Second's time, has been
found useless, a curious comment on the progress of
botany in this country. The palm-house has been
rearranged. Important contributions of plants and
seeds have been received from West Africa, Japan,
British Columbia, also of bulbs and orchids. The
cultivation of Chinconcas in the Neilgherries, Hima-
laya, Ceylon, and the West India Islands is described
as highly satisfactory. It is to be hoped that the
medical world will derive benefit from this effort ot the
authorities, and not forget to be grateful to Sir W.
Hooker for it. In the scientific department of the
gardens the acquisition of valuable specimens has
been unprecedented, and mainly due to the Inter •
national Exhibition having brought a vast number
of the productions of all parts of the globe together.
Almost the whole of the vegetable productions of
our colonies is now represented at Kew. Costly
and nearly complete collections from Tasmania,Vic-
toria, North, South, and West Australia, Queens-
land, Canada, Guiana, Natal, and Dominica, have
been received in perfect classification, Fine collec-
tions of woods from the same places, and British
Columbia, Vancouver's Island, Trinidad, Cape of
Good Hope, Mauritius, St, Helena, Bahamas, New
Brunswick, Ceylon, lonian Islands, Russia, and
Austria, now tax the space at command to hold
them. Besides these, fruits from Venezuela—vege-
table oils and varnishes from the Messrs. Wallis—
perfumes from Messrs.Piesse—preserved fruits from
Messrs. Fortnum and Mason, boxwood for engrav-
ing from Mr. R. J. Scott—illustrations of toy manu-
facture by turnery, from Leipzig; by Prof. Reichen-
bach, jun., have been added. One of the most re-
markable donations is that of vegetable substanoes,
illustrating the costumes and food of the inhabitants
of the ancient lake dwellings of the pre-historic
races of Switzerland, a highly curious collection
presented by Prof. 0. Hear, of Zurich. The addi-
tions to the Herbarium have been very large, and
include the British Herbarium of the lateW. Borrer,
representing the rise and progress of botany in the
British Isles through more than half a century.

ACCURATE REPORTING. —Had the report of the
proceedings in the Court of Queen's Bench, in the
matter of Zadkiel and his glass ball, been as correctly given
in all the papers as in the Dmly Telegraph, there would
have been no need for us to refer to that trial. Zadkiel sent
us an account of Sir John Franklin, seen in his glass ball
darkly, which we printed to laush at, as an impertinent piece
of drollery—not, as might be inferred from some of the re-
ports, because we thought it of any value. Anybody may see
this for himself by turning to the Atheneum for February
9, 1859.—ilthenceum. [Our contemporary the Atheneum
is apparently not aware that the report of Zadkiel's trial
published in the Dal@ Telegraph of Tuesday, saving and
excepting only the omission of a fragment of a sentence,
was word for word the same as the report which appeared
in The Sun of the preceding evening.

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curative rather than a palliative tseatment. Holloway's
Pills should be taken without one moment's needless delay
when disordered stomach, headache, restlessness, or general
feverishness betoken some derangement or debility of the
frame. The true art of conquering disease lies in obeying
nature, and surely quietly getting rid of lurking poisons
and overcoming their pernicious effects is the safest course
for the physican,