The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-04 00:00:00

FRANCE.

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND THE
PRIVATEER FLORIDA.

PARIS, Sm. 4.
The lloniecur of this morning says :—.".rhe pri-
vateer Florida, sailing under the Confederate flag,
has entered Brest to repair damages. Her recep-
tion was in accordance with the ordinary principles
of international law. At the opening of the war
the Emperor's Government, in accord with other
Powers, recognised the Confederates in the cha-
racter of belligerents, and declared its intention of
observing a strict neutrality between the two
parties. In like cases it is the right as well as the
duty of neutrals to permit the vessels of belligerents
to procure themselves means, not for fighting pur-
poses, but for navigation. It has, therefore, been
decided that the Florida could be rermitted to pro-
cure all that was indispensable to maintain her in
a good and navigable state, without being able to
make purchases tending to recruit her armament of
vier."

BOURSE, Sept. 2.—The market has again be-
come buoyant, and a good amount of business has
been done at improved quotations, Threes, for the
Account,
Share Market has been equally well supported, and
Citrepdeirt
i‘Cieonbtisi
i.e.:
being now firm at 69f. sc. The Railway
prices are up to this time generally higher. The
market closed as follows :
CDroe.dit endk
olun
co
inotrh
Do. end month.... _
3 per Cents ..... 68 90
Do. end m0nth....1217 50
Bank Shares ...... 3385
.;::::.;11
42
01698098
_7O-55

Italian Loan 74 05
Do. end month 74 10
New ditto ...... 73 90
Do. end month 74
Russian
Austrian
Spanish Threes., ,
Home Debt .. 5l 75
,WAYS.

RAIL"

.... Cash. Account.
Orleans lO4O .. 1045 --
Northern ....
New ditto ............ % — • '
Lyons and Medituranean 1047 50 .. 1050
G 493 75 **
Southern 750 .. 745
Western
Eastern . ...
Sardinian..........
Austrian
Lombard .
North of Spain
Saragossa. - ..

LORD CLARENDON.

Lord Clarendon has
awbfferaititirhnseg;reansvdhile the grea:gtu
Sovereigns goes on, to
o
a memorialrheemciandsalluds that keeph gather
bteeoertFi ntbkhfefotirbnt
the German
information
to the Foreign.° himself up with the current of
he is now, we are told, engaged ins
Clarendon happens
professional statesman,
on the German question. This
reminds may probably return some day
of a ceband makes us think what we
shall gain or lose ybhaving him there. Lord
to e an excellent representa-
tiveparticular class of politicians. He is a
and about up to a fair ave-
rage. Happening to have an hereditary access to
political life, he
Went p
pa throughapproved; he gave al theae preparationi:ll2ls
u
for it which is most p
to the work of his department with a regulation
measure of official zeal; and when he is out of office
he takes an interest in public business, and, by mak-
ing himself master of what is going on, holds him-
self in readiness to take office again. Such a career
is commonplace, but it is creditable and useful. It
may seem as if it were a very simple thing to get
such a man as Lord Clarendon, and to give him
such a prospect of office as will encourage him to
keep himself from stagnation. And, in one sense,
it is easy to get such a man. The educated classes
of England can always furnish statesmen of this
calibre in abundance. If we take Lard Clarendon
in the Upper House, or a man like Mr. Cardwell
in the Lower, we see at once that they are on a
level with men who succeed in intellectual oro-
fessiona. They might have made good working
Judges, or Colonial Governors, or Indian offi-
cials. Possibly, if they had been Bishops, they
would have been a little above the average. They
do not rise above the standard of educated gentle-
men of good ability, but then they do not fall below
it. There are very few men who come up to Lon-
don with a high University reputation of whom
there is the slightest reason to suppose that they
would do better if the chance were given them.
There are astonishingly few men in England, sup-
posed to have an aptitude for public life, as to whom
even their warmest admirers can seriously believe
that it makes any difference to the country whether
they are in Parliament or not. If. Lord Clarendon
or Mr. Cardwell had never been in Parliament,
there is every reason to hope that some other men
of their mark and standard would have been. But
then it is a very great gain to the country that
this should, be the type of our professional statesmen,
and that, having a class of persons like Lord Claren-
don and Mr. Cardwell in society, we should get
them to devote their lives to public affairs. It can
scarcely be said there is any other country but En-
gland in which it can be confidently expected that
the bulk of the Cabinet will be on a par, in intellect,
honesty, manners, and character, with an English
judge. Such a man as Lord Clarendon is an im-
possibility in America. There he would have to
write a history if he were industrious, or to import
marbles and correspond with European noblemen
if he were idle ; but there would be no more
opening for him in public life than there
is for a Sunday opera in Edinburgh. It may
be said that it is one great aim and result of the
British constitution to produce, rear, and reward '
men like Lord Clarendon. And if sneerers remark
that this is rather a little fruit for such a big tree,
they may be reminded that even much more romantic
things than the English Constitution have a pro-
saic as well as a poetical side.

Lord Clarendon is not a great statesman, nor even
a party leader. He has none of the qualities that
lead to eminence of any sort. But it ought to be
observed that he is much above the usual feeble
Whig who is put in at the end of Cabinets to please
the great families. Sir G. Grey is the price we pay
for having Lord Palmerston. The Premier will not
allow us to love him without also loving his dog;
and both Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell have a
persuasion, from which they will never get free,
that any Whig is fit for any place he can get, except
for the very big places that ought to be reserved for
the very big Whigs. Lord Palmerston never found
any incident of his varied career more incompre-
hensible than that the public should have been dis-
pleased at his appointment of Lord Clanricarde.
But humbler people think it an object of no small
importance to keep clear of the very objectionable
type of official. It was a great thing that India
should pass from the hands ot Lord Lyveden to those
of Lord Stanley, and it would be an excellent thing
if Sir G. Grey were replaced by Mr. Cardwell.
The Houses of Parliament and the country at large
take the measure of public men with tolerable ex-
actness, and perhaps statesmen are more often
underrated than overrated. Only a very small
portion
of Lord Melbourne. of the British
public
iyn
ewould
oud
understoodl
muchthe
merits
rather have to go on a matter of public business to
Lord Palmerston or Mr. Gladstone than to Sir
Charles Wood. Even when Sir Charles Wood is
right, and takes a sensible independent course, he
is one of the least Accommodating, sociable, and
courteous of men. He makes things as unpleasant
where a superior man would make them as pleasant
as possible. Lord Clarendon may again, in the
nr.tnral course of things, return to the Foreign
Office, and if we cannot get any better man there,
we may be content he should have his turn. We
are not sure that it would he any loss if he suc-
ceeded Lord Russell. It is undoubtedly desirable
that, at a time when foreign affairs occupy exclu-
sively the attention of England, and when every
month brings with it the danger of a new war
somewhere or other, there should be some one at the
Foreign Office whose name itself carries weight, and
whose character and position ensure that his opinion
will generally be the opinion of the Cabinet. But
then Lord Clarendon would be much more easily
kept right than Lord Russell. He would not be
nearly so offensive. He would not have the auda-
city to job in a first-class way, and would never
venture to torment a diplomatist of the highest
ability and reputation into resigning. in order to
make room for 13 Villiers.—.Saturday Rerfew,

Lord Russell and the Steam-rams in the
Mersey.

The following answer to the memorial on the
subject of the steam-rams in the Mersey, addressed
by the Emancipation Society to Earl Russell, was
received last evening :

"Foreign-office, Aug. 31, 1863.
" Gentlemen,--I have received your letter, calling m 3
attention to a subject of very grave and pressing importance
—namely, the fitting out and equipping of two powerful
iron-plated steam-rams, which you are informed are in-
tended to commit hostilities against the Government and
people of the United States of America.

" ➢iy attention has long been directed to this subject.
Both the Treasury and the Home Department have, at my
request, made the most anxious inquiries upon the subject
of these steam•rams.

"You are aware that, by the Foreign Enlistment Act, a
ship is liable to be detained, and its owners are subject to
penalties, when the ship is armed or equipped for purposes
of war, and its owners intend to use it against some State or
community in friendship with her Majesty. It is necessary
to prove both the equipment and the intention. But in
order to prove the equipment and the intention it is neces-
sary for conviction in a British court of justice to have the
evidence of credible witnesses. I was in hopes, when I began
to read your memorial, that you would propose to furnish
me with evilence to prove that the steam-rams in question
were intended to carry on hostilities against the Govern-
ment and people of the United States of America ; but you
make no proposal of the sort, and only tell me that you are
informed' so and so, and it is believed' so and so.
"You must be aware, however, that, according to British
law, prosecutions cannot be set on foot upon the ground of
the violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act without affida-
vits of credible witnesses, as in other cases of important
misdemeanours and crimes.

" Such, likewise, is the law in the United States o:
America.

" I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedien
humble servant, RUSSELL.
"Messrs. Evans, Taylor, Malleson, and Chesson."

A LADLE-FULL OF PUNCH.

Apropos to the last " JOB at the Foreign Office," says
Punch, "And so Sir James Hudson is choked off to be
superseded by an Elliot I It is a wonder that Earl Ruo ell
is not tired of finding places for the Elliots, of whom there
are so many. He must be very patient. The continual
task of placing out those Elliots is enough to tire the patience
of J 013."

A Curious Equestrian Feat—is gravely thus announced :
"A well-known licensed victualler the other day seen can-
ter ing up Rotton •row upon one of his owti Screws.' "
Unaer the head of " Hydrostatics ; How to move a body
of Water," we are told, " go out into your garden, and drag
the pond from one end to the other 1 "
"RATHER A KITCHENY WAY OP PUTTING IT."—John.
Leech funnily illustrates, in reference to this underground
confabulation :—"lfousentaid.—‘ Oh—but it couldn't a bia
'er "—" Cook.—' I tell yer it were— she called upon miscue
this morning, and she 'ad on a Pork Pie 'at, and half a
pheasant stuck in it.' "

STREETS OF PARIS.—One of the sections of the
report of the committee on the nomenclature of the
Paris streets, just presented to the Prefect of the Seine,
refers to the different terms used to designate the public
thoroughfares according to their form, dimensions, situa-
tion, or importance. Thus the use of the m ord Square,
which had been adopted from the English, will be discon-
tinued, and that of Place in future applied to all open
spaces, whether planted as gardens, like the ground before
the Arts-et-Metiers and around the Tower of Saint-
Jacques, or left entirely open. The Barrieres no
longer existing, that word will be abandoned, as also
those of Route, Chemin, Sentier, Chemin de
Ronde, Alhle, and Chaussee. The name of the Rue de
la Chauseee d'Antin, which is so universally known, caused
the committee to hesitate a little before deciding on the sup-
pression of the latter word. The name Chaussee-d'Antin
being applied not only to a street but also to a whole dis-
trict, the determination was come to, to preserve it for the
latter; as an exception, and restore to the street the name of
Mont-Blanc which it had previously borne. That street has
in tact often changed its name, and been successively
called Chemin de l'Egout-de-Gaillon, Chemin des Porche-
rons, Chemin de la Chaussee-d'Antin, Rue de l'Hotel-
Dieu, hue de la Chaussee-d'Antin, Rue Mirabeau, and
Rue du Mont. Blanc. The Empress Josephine occupied
the house No. 62, before her marriage with Gen. Bonaparte,
and Gen. Foy died in the same residence in 1825. Close
by was also the hotel of Cardinal Pesch. The use of the
word boulevard is also to be circumscribed. That term
generally signifies a rampart, and should only be applied to
roads which follow the line of the ancient fortifications, or
which at least run in a circular direction, and suppose
more of less the traces of an old municipal boundary. The
wide thoroughfares which traverse the city in an oblique di-
rection, or run from the centre to the circumference, are in
reality Avenues. The designation Boulevard as applied to
some of the transversal thoroughfares recently opened in the
centre of Paris will however be retained. The attention of
the committee has also been directed to the abuse of certain
names in the nomination of the streets or public places, not
less than 18 bearing the title of Egliso, 7 of de la Mairie,
16 that of Marie, and the words Notre Dame forming part
of the appellations of 16 others. Such a state of things call
loudly for reform, and will shortly be remedied.
FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT OFF THE ISLE OF MAN.
—A fatal accident happened in Douglas Bay, Isle of
Man, on Tuesday afternoon. Six young men, visitors, of
respectable connections, hired one of the slight rowing gigs
(named the Willie) which are let to persons desirous of
visiting the numerous picturesque little creeks which
abound in the neighbourhood of Douglas Bay. The
names of the young men are Henry Whiteside, of Liver.
pool ; Henry Hollands, of Manchester ; E. G. Henshaw, of
Shrewsbury ; Armstrong, of Ormskirk ; Byers, of
Ormskirk ; and J. S. Cooke, in the employ of Messrs. B.
Smith and Sons, Back-square, Manchester. At the time
they rowed out into the bay it was blowing a stiffish
breeze from the south west. They proceeded to the
northern part of the bay, opposite the Castle Mona Hotel,
which portion of the bay, under the influence of the wind
blowing from the quarter mentioned, is generally covered
with short chopping seas, peculiarly dangerous to small
rowing boat-, especially if they are manned by inexpe•
rienced amateur boatmen, such as these were. They
were turning the little craft, scarcely broader than a plank,
with a view of returning towards the harbour, when,
caught by a wave, she swamped, and the Fix young men
were thrown struggling in the water. 'their screams for
help attracted the notice of a Mr. J. P. Thomas, of Man-
chester, who was in a sailing boat about a hundred yards
/ from the scene of the disaster. He immediately steered
his boat towards the drowning men, five of whom were
endeavouring to keep their heads above water by means
of the oars, two being attached to one oar, while the other
scrambled on to their boat, which was turned bottom
upwards, but he was washed off three times, and as often
struggled back again. Mr. Thomas, with the aid of two
harbour boatmen, named William Kernan and John Todd,
who were in his boat, succeeded in picking up all the
young men except Whiteside, who sank within six minutes
after the accident, and did not riseagain. The unfortunate
young man, we are informed, was an assistant in the Liver-
pool branch of Messrs. Copestoke, Moore, Crampton, and
Co. - Liverpool Mercury.
MELANCHOLY CASE OF DROWNING AT LEEDS.—
Mr. Blackburn, borough coroner, held an inquest
on Wednesday, on the bodies of two boys, one of whom was
drowned whilst bathing, and the other in attempting to save
the life of his companion. The names of the deceased were
Squire Broadbent, aged 13, and George Edward Shippen,
aged 12. On Tuesday evening they went to bathe in a re-
servoir adjoining Mr. Parker's mill at Hunslet, and when
they had been in a short time Broadbent went out of his
depth, and being unable to swim began to sink. Shippen,
who could swim, seeing that his companion was drown-
ing, dived in to his assistance. Unfortunately, he came
in contact with Broadbent before reaching the surface of
the water, and the drowning lad seized him and held him
so tightly that he was unable to liberate himself, and
both remained under water for some moments. At length
Broadbent rose to the surface, called out " Mother 1" and
sank. Immediately afterwards Shippen was seen. On
reaching the surface of the water he tried to swim, but was
completely exhausted, and went down after the companion
whom he had so bravely attempted to save. At that mo-
ment a young man named Joshua Watkinson, who lives in
the neighbourhood, and who had dressed himself up for a
walk after his day's work, was informed that two lads were
drowning, and he ran to the reservoir, and without remov-
ing any of his clothes, jumped into the water. The bodies
of the deceased were found lying about a yard apart, but
life was quite extinct, The jury returned a verdict of acci-
dental death, and it was ordered that the reservoir should
be fenced eff.—Leeds Mercury.
GROSS SUPERSTITION.—Ia one of the streets of
Taunton there resides a man and his wife who have
the care of a child. This child was attacked with scarlatina,
and to all appearances death was inevitable. A jury of
matrons was, as it were, empanelled, and to prevent the
child "dying hard," all the doors in the house, all the
drawers, all the boxes, all the cupboards, wore thrown wide
open, the keys taken out, and the body of the child placed
undr.r a beam, whereby a sure, certain, and easy passage
into eternity could be secured. Watchers held their vigils
throughout the weary night, and in the morning the child,
to the surprise of all, did not die, and is now gradually re-
covering.— Bridgewater Mercury.
LAUNCH OF AN AUSTRALIAN PASSEN GER STEAM-
vEssEL.—Yesterday afternoon, at five o'clock, a
splendid iron screw steam-vessel, named the Nu*tfield, was
launched from the, premises of the builders, Alessi's: James
Ash and Co., Isle of Dogs, Poplar, in the presence ira a large
number of spectators. The ceremony of christeninc; was
performed by Abs. Stewart, and after the launch the vessel
was removed into dock, to be fitted with her machinery
and boilers, previous to being forwarded to her owners in
Australia, where she will be used for river passenger traffic.
The Nuffield is 1,77 j touz burthon ; length, 215 feet ; and
breadth, 25 feet 6 inches,

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

The following vessels have been chartered by the
Government for the conveyance of troops and stores
to India and the colonies, namely the Canning, 923
tons, and the Percy Douglas, 781 tons, for Bombay;
the Saladin, 865 tons, for Calcutta ; the John Ban-
field, 508 tons, for Hong Kong ; the Fontabelle,
537 tons, for the Cape of Good Hope; and the
Frances, 310 tons, for Trincomalee.

The French Imperial screw yacht Jerome Napo-
leon, Captain Du Boisson, at anchor off Ryde, Isle
of Wight, had her steam up at seven p.m. yester-
day, in readiness to convey his Highness Prince
Napoleon over to Havre or Cherbourg. The Prince
was expected to embark from Ryde last evening.
The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Commander Chas. A. J.
V. Robinson, Inspecting-Commander of the Coast-
guard, to the Ajax ; Commander John Murray,
Inspecting-Commander of the Coastguard, to the
Cornwallis ; Thomas H. Hayman, master, to the
Indus for the Royalist; and Friend Stow, chief
engineer, to the Indus for special service..