The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-09 00:00:00

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.

- -
On the arrival of the Lord Mayor at Westminster
Hall, his Lordship at once proceeded to the Court
of Exchequer.
The civic party took a standing position in front
of the bench reserved for Queen's counsel.
The RECORDER then addressed the Court and
said—My Lord Chief Baron, I have the honour to
introduce to your lordship and this Court the Right
Hon. William Lawrence, elected by the citizens of
London to fill the office of Lord Mayor for the year
ensuing. The gracious approval of her Majesty has
ratified the
ehoice of the citizens, and now his lord-
ship appears before the Court to complete the forms
required for one entering upon the performance of
such a responsible and important office. The
learned gentleman after proceeded
outline of the career to give
a brief of the new
Lord
Mayor, who, he remarked, had
carried on a
very extensive business for many ; years, and in all
his dealings had been characterised by honour and
integrity. He concluded by saying that Alderman
Lawrence was held in the highest esteem by his
fellow-citizens.

The LORD CHIEF BARON congratulated Alder-
man Lawrence upon having attained the honour
so highly-prized and eagerly sought after by every
citizen, viz., that of being elected Lord Mayor of
London and Chief Magistrate of the City of Lon-
don. lie was not one of those who thought the
present proceeding an idle and unnecessary pageant,
because the new Lord Mayor appeared before the
Court to claim certain rights and privileges which
have belonged to the City from time immemorial.
He felt much gratified at the account he had heard
from the learned Recorder, and he had no doubt that
during his lordship's year of office he would exert him-
self to perform his duties in the most advantageous
and efficient manner, that he was certain he would
succeed, so that at its termination he would con-
tinue to deserve the good opinion of his fellow'
citizens. The Lord Chief Baron concluded his
remarks by congratulating Alderman Rose 00 the
manner he had fulfilled his term of effice,
ts
as it did some of the most important even embracing
that had
occurred for many years.
ed w
his ackno.
Alderman LAWRENCE then hew
ledgments.
sworn. The late
The LORD MAYOR was then
Lord Mayor was also sworn to render
unto her
" to behave
Majesty a full account of the receipts on account of
the Crown during
Mayoralty, and
himself properly" according to the old form of oath,
whilst he did O.
The other formalities having been guns through,

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the Recorder invited the Judges the (wiriirt 444'
the Guildhall this evening.
c:s 1.-
The Lord Mayor, the late Lord Ma) '0 ..7t.taM 4.4:t
officers of the City then withdrew, as
through the other courts, the Lord Mayor, .thr.'. h jI
the Recorder, invited the presiding Judges to the
City banquet.
The procession then returned to the City from.
Westminster by way of the Strand, Fleet-street;
Ludgate-hill, St. Paul's-churchyard, Cbeapside, .
King-street, to Guildhall. The London Rifle Bri-
gade met the procession at Temple-bar, and preceded.
the Lord Mayor to Guildhall, where they formed a
guard of honour.

Dlr. Cobden on the Conduct of the British
Authorities in Japan.

The following. letter from Mr. Cobden has been received
by Mr. Ashworth, Mayor of Roehda!e

Miuhurst, November 4.
My dear Sir,—Circumstances will prevent me from
paying my accustomed visit to Rochdale previous to the 9th
and I fear I shall therefore not have the satisfaction
of attending
a public meeting under your presidency as
mayor. I regret this both on personal and public grounds.
I should have taken the opportunity of calling the atten-
tion of my constituents to the last news from the East.
" I have been reading carefully the official correspond-
enrespecting our recent proceedings in
Japan. It tPiusbiShhoerd'riblenarrative, which I find difficult to
treat with calmness. It appears that a despatch was sent
by Earl Russell, instructing the British representatives in
that country to demand redress from Prince Satsuma, one
of its feudal chiefs or daimios, for the murder of Mr.
Richardson, and, in default of which, discretion was given
to our naval commander, either to seize or detain' the
prince's steamvessels, or shell his residence, or blockade his
port. Thereupon, according to his own despatch, the
British admiral proceeded forthwith to burn the prince's
steamers, and set fire to the town of Kagosima, When, to
quote his language, 'the conflagration thus created con-
tinued with unabated ardour up to the time of the depar-
ture of the squadron, 48 hours subsequently to the first at-
tack,' which, he proceeds to say, ' affords reasonable ground
for believing that the entire town of Kageshna is now a
mass of ruins;' and he.expresses his 'trust that her Ma-
j esty's Government will be pleased to approve' his deeds.
"It is stated, I know not how truly, that Kagosima is a
city of more than 150,000 inhabitants. In an interesting
account of Japan, which appeared in the Revue des -Delo
Mandes of the 15th October, from the pen of M. Adolphe
Linden, a recent traveller in that country, this place is de-
scribed as L'un des plus considerables entrepots du com-
merce de l'ile de Kiou-siou'

"Now, let me ask you to consider for a moment what is
really implied by the destruction, with incendiary shells
without previous warning, of a city of even 100,000 inhabi-
tants. There is always in such towns hundreds of infants
at their mothers' breasts, thousands of children under five
years of age, hospitals with their sick, and numbers of
aged and infirm, tottering on the brink of the grave ;
there, too, must bo women over whom the pangs of
maternity are impending, and there will be found homes
filled with mourning, for the dead who are awaiting the
rites of sepulchre. Such is the normal condition of every
large city, whether in Asia or Europe. Now, picture this
great commercial entrepot, with all its contents, reduced in
4S hours to a heap of ashes ; try to realise in imagination
the fate of its population ; and then ask yourself what great
crime they had committed to bring on themselves this havoc
and destruction. To our shame and confusion the answer
must be that this is the way in which Englishmen, under
the command of Admiral Kuper and Colonel Neale, ad-
minister justice for the murder of an individual 100 miles
away— of which crime the inhabitants of Kagosima were as
guiltless of all knowledge and complicity as your own
neighbours in Rochdale. It is precisely as though an
enemy should lay Bristol in ashes because an individual
had been murdered on the highway between London and
Brentford. And the chief actors in this outrage on
humanity, instead of expressing one word of regret or
emotion, coolly lay claim to the approbation of their Go-
vernment.

" There has been much criticism in this country on the
manner in which the civil war has been conducted by tho
Americans, We have been prompt to condemn a people,
over whom we have no control, for acts for which we are
in nowise responsible. I remember the indignation with
which the Prime Minister denounces General Butler's pro-
clamation in which he threatened to consign to the cala-
house those women who should insult his soldiers in the
streets of New Orleans. Will he and his colleagues now
make themselves and the country accomplices after the
fact in these atrocities of their own agents, who, in con-
temptuous disregard of the instructions of their Govern-
ment, have brought this heavy disgrace upon the country ?
I trust not. But, at all events, let us not forget that our
moral power in the world is at stake ; that if, as a people,
we condone such crimes as these, when penetrated in our
name by those for whom, under heaven, we are alone re-
sponsible, we shall only invite the scorn of mankind by
assuming to sit in judgment, as moral censors upon the
delinquencies of other nations.—Believe Inc, yours sincerely,
"Mr. G. L. Ashworth. Mayor." "11. COBDEN.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE
Irmicr the Sole Management of Mr Pechter.

BEL DEMONIO (a Triumphant Success) will be repeated
Every Evening until further notice.
THIS EVENING, to commence with a Comeclietta,
by W. Gilbert, tesq , entitled UNCLE BABY: Mess s. .J. G.
Shore, Widdicombe, Charles, Miss P. Le:lercq, and Carlotta
Leclercq.
After which, at a Quarter-past Eleht, BEL DEMONIO,
a Love Story, in Twelve Tabieaux, taken from Stendhal's
Ita,ian Chronicle ," by John Bromr,,am. Principal c'iarac-
ter by Mr. Fechter, supported by Messrs. Jordan, Charles,
Brlut,:h-im, Emery, Raymond, Moreland, Smith, Clifford,
Collett, Andrews, Sims; Miss Kate Terry, .Lavenue, alrb.
Lee, and Miss Elsworthy.