The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 3, 1862.

down to the old, weary conviction respecting both
the Whigs and Tories and their journalists, that—
"He who's convinced against his will,
Is of the same opinion still."
Secrecy seems to be the great abhorrence of
county and pocket-borough members, and of the
journals who espouse their cause, till we have been
inclined to ask with B.UDIBRAS, taking editorial

icense with a word or two—
" What makes a secret vote a crime,
The most notorious of the time—
A secret vote, which Tory saints
And sinning Whigs cry out against ?"
We hardly know what to make of all this vague
ad captandum declaration against secrecy, and in
praise of publicity. Surely each is appropriate in
its place ; the point being to show that secrecy is
out of place in giving a vote. There may be, per-
haps, at the present day, a tendency to nude
exhibition of what civilisation and modesty are
supposed to prefer concealing. Our better print
shops go a long way in this direction—and the
procession of a living Lady GODIVA was quite a
grand day for the railways to Coventry. The close
fitting " flesh coloured silk" and the "rutty sark,"
of some unknown damsel, were beauties in the eyes
of many thousands, who doubtless wished they
could have lived in the better days of PHRYNE.
We need not therefore wonder much that many
borough constituencies, and all country consti-
tuencies, are required to act the part of political
Lady GODIVAS, and to make public their moral
nudity without even the short petticoats or the silk,
or even a girdle of fig-leaves. It is asserted that
bribery, and still more overpowering landlord
influence, there must be and will be. So, undress
it—and let every county constituency unblushingly
ride the Whig or the Tory horse provided by the
county landlords—and let all the poor tenants at
will expose the naked fact of their subjection to
their landlords. On this moral nakedness depends
the charter of our aristocracy, just as that of
Coventry should depend on the physical nakedness
of Madame GODIVA.
The universal power of public opinion is appealed
to as requiring public voting for its expression.
The argument is, indeed, a curious one. Public
opinion in free countries is the means, we are told,
by wnich men climb to power. It becomes, there-
fore, so valuable that men will bribe and use un-
due influence to get possession of it—this influence
and bribery are " the proofs of the reign of public
opinion—but this cannot be done with secrecy, for
publicity is the very soul of the system." To which
we entirely assent. This bribery and undue influ-
ence are entirely due to the publicity. But surety
so far as they go they destroy public opinion, and
substitute for it the interests and ambition of those
who purchase or coerce the voters. The advocates
of the ballot desire nothing more than to give the
fullest weight to public opinion. What they affirm,
and what they prove from the experience of every
country where there is a real ballot, is that it ren-
ders an appeal to the understanding, instead of one
to the covetousness or fears, or low passions, of the
voter necessary. If by public opinion be meant the
opinion of landlords and wealthy masters, of
bankers and lawyers, of creditors and customers,
then no doubt open voting collects it accurately
enough. But if public opinion means the opinion
of the electoral constituencies, assuredly a secret

vote is its only guarantee.
It is a perfectly just remark of Mr. BERKELEY'S
that the "chief attribute of the Ballot is, that is
the barrier against the usurpation of political
power, whether by the aristocracy, the money-
ocracy, or a fierce democracy." As a means of
taking votes in a free country, it is neither, pro-
perly speaking, a democratic nor an aristrocratic
device—it is popular when the aristocracy oppress,
it is aristocratic when the people oppress ; but,
everywhere it is conservative, if by conservative we
mean the preservation of their political rights to
those from whom some kind of violence cr corrup-
tion would endeavour to filch them. At Notting-
ham and Longford it would have been found to
neutralise the unfair influence of the mob and of
the priests respectively. In an English county, in
due time, it would neutralise landlord despotism.
In corrupt boroughs it would double the difficulties
of their corrupters. Everywhere it would liberate
the timid and the dependent, in most places it
would make a bribe of little worth. This, let the
present possessors of undue influence rage as they
will, is the true account of the working of the
Ballot.

The discussion coming on this evening in the
House of Commons in reference to the sayings
and doings, the sittings, and the report of the
Thames Embankment Committee, must not on any
account be slurred over. There is the evidence
now in the hands of hon. members, and of the bear-
ing of that evidence they can, one and all of them,
judge. Several days have elapsed since the blue
book was published. It is ample enough in its
detail of facts in all conscience. It is, in fast—for
cynical readers especially—only too readable. As
affording evidence unmistakeable of the weak-
nesses of human nature, it is almost painfully ludi-
crous to contemplate, here and there. Some of
the witnesses go upon their hands and knees,
as it were, along one sacred portion of the
route, to wit, the river frontage of White..
hall-gardens. Yesterday we took occasion to
afford our readers a taste of this, by presenting them
with excerpts from the exemplary evidence elicited
on behalf of his Grace the Duke of BUCCLEUCH
from the lips of the Hon. CHARLES GORE, when
that gentleman stood under a cross fire of ques-
tions before the Committee. An ample banquet of
the like apretitizing tidbits the House has a fair
prospect of enjoying now at its leisure this evening.
In the enjoyment of it, however, let not the Com-
mons forget the heavy weight of responsibility that
now devolves upon them in this matter of the
Thames Embankment. The Government Commis-
sion has long ago pronounced its deliberate opinion
1 upon that subject of a Northern Thames Embank-
ment. Out of that deliberate opinion of the Com-
miasion has come forth the Government Bill mark-
ing out the whole scheme, and defining it in all its
details. The committee sat upon that scheme, upon
the Bill, upon the recommendation of the Commis-
sioners, and we all know now with what result.
At the eleventh hour all the arrangements are
changed. The grandest of all our metropolitan
improvements, has been marred to a very lamentable
extent. And all this for the personal convenience of
the Duke of BUCCLEUCH, and at a cost to the public
of an outlay—here of £90,000, there of £300,000
additional. The House of Commons has the power
to sweep away these shameful concessions to the
Duke of BUCCLEUCH on the part of a subservient
committee. Let the House, by promptly using that
power, perfect the whole project of this Northern
t Embankment.

..a

It never rains but it pours—at Turin as elsewhere.
King VICTOR EMMANUEL—if he is constrained
to put down with a heavy hand the immature
of certain
and, 48 his Ministers think, the premature move-
ments recently discovered to be in preparation on the
part
Galibaldians—receives very notable
auguries of success from remote and widely dif-
ferent directions, Imperial and Royal auguries of
success coming to him simultaneously from Lisbon

and from St. Petersburgl. The long looked-for
recognition of the Kingdon of Italy by the Russian
Autocrat is borne into hi: MAJESTY'S presence, at
length, by the hands of E Muscovite Ambassador.
And simultaneously with the arrival of this Envoy
Extraordinary from the Emperor ALEXANDER 11.,
comes an Envoy also from the young King of POR-
TUGAL asking his MAJESTY of Italy to bestow upon
that Monarch, in marriage, the youthful Princess
MARIA PIA of Savoy. :lands of fellowship tlabs
extended to VICTOR EALrIANUEL from such opposite
directions, and both of them on pleas so
eminently gratifying in themselves, will
tend, probably, to learten the councils of
His MAJESTY at Turin, in the development
of a policy strangely compounded of caution and
audacity. Meanwhile General GARIBALDI has
nothing for it but to command his impatience and
still more the impatience of his followers. How
long the present state of truce in Italy may last it
were difficult to predict. But in the meantime the
Government of Turin is being slowly but appreciably
strengthened ; while the notes of preparation for
some new outbreak of war, trumpet notes so often
sounded from Caprera fully half a year since, are
gradually, on the other hand, dying away in faint
and fainter echoes.

THE FINE ARTS CLUB.,

This distinguished association gave last evening
its concluding and most attractive conversazione
when Miss Burdett Coutts, one of its members, very
kindly placed at its disposal the spacious and ele-
gant reception-rooms of her residence in Piccadilly.
The club were accordingly enabled to issue invita-
tions to all the leading literary, artistic, and scien-
tific visitors of our oapit.l, as well as to to most of
the notabilities of our own fashionable and artistic
circles, and the result was one of the most numerous
and brilliant reunions of the season. The company
began to assemble shortly after nine o'clock, and
before eleven must have amounted to above a thou-
sand persons. The Fine Arts Club which, we may
be allowed to mention, has no public aim what-
ever, but is simply a society of ladies and gentle-
men, which meets for the promotion of an
artistic taste by discussing questions, and
exhibiting Ppecimens illustrative of art in general,
fulfilled, it will be seen, on this occasion, a very
graceful public duty, in placing itself in harmony
with the immediate spirit of the time. tPerhaps,
we ought rather to say, that, in so doing, it obeyed
an impulse which was not more natural to it than
praiseworthy. Art, which is cosmopolitan, cannot
restrict itself on great occasions to any social limi-
tations. The love of the skilled and beautiful springs
out of a general faith, which, however iemay in-
quire in secret, always tends to worship openly.
Whilst our religious and political systems have yet
got to devise the syncretic scheme, which shall en-
fold, in one loving family, all parties and denomi-
nations, art,—humanity's great harmoniser, from
the earliest hour that a sense of beauty dawned in
the soul of Greek or Assyrian, has gently, persua-
sively, and increasingly woven the ethbrial
mental bonds that unite the heart of man,
as a preparation for his highest ties.
Artistic clubs therefore, however private, must
always indirectly exert some general influence.
Each of their members, as he continues to enlarge
his knowledge, and deepen his sympathies, becomes
the centre of a refining action in less artistic circles
than his own, which cannot fail, however, gradu-
ally to adjust others to his own standard. These
remarks are naturally prompted by the rounion of
last evening, whether in respect to the means it
afforded for an exchange of thought and sympathy
—so much in harmony with the Exhibition—or
whether in reference to the evidence of the superior
taste of the association as presented in their striking
display of articles of vertu about the rooms. A
more valuable or unique collection has rarely been
submitted to inspection. Porcelain—Sevres, and
Dresden, of the most exquisite colours and pattern,
miniatures and enamels of the most perfect finish,
—r Qtrilz;nci rahurnness- together
with antiques of various kinds, but all of the
utmost value and rarity covered the tables, and
raised the regret that so little time was afforded the
visitor to do them the justice they demanded. We
may refer to one specimen especially as a tolerable
type of their worth and beauty—a magnificent
cameo contributed by the Right Hon. W. Glad-
stone—an illustration of Jupiter and Thetis, which,
whether in respect to the size of the figures,
or the sharpness and clearness of their exe-
cution is one of the greatest triumphs of the kind
which we have ever had the pleasure of seeing.
In conclusion, we feel some acknowledgment is due
from the visitors to the refined and hospitable
hostess under whose roof they were enabled to
assemble, and who, by the distinguished part she
has taken in the leading movements of our time,
religious, social, and artistic—nobly devoting her
resources to the noblest of all ends, has done so
much to elevate the character of Englishwomen
in our day. We are unable to append a list of
the eminent assemblage on this occasion, and can
only supply the names of a few we were able to recog-
nise, viz., the French and Turkish Ambassadors, the
Duke D'Aumale, the MarquisD'Azeglio, the Marquis
and Countess Dell Carat°, the Marquis and Coun-
tess Villamarina, the Count and Countess D'Audine,
the Bishop of London, the Lord Chancellor, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of Welling-
ton, Earl and Countess Grey, Earl and Countess
Stanhope, Earl and Countess Egremont, Lord
and Lady Manley, Lord Talbot de Malahide,
Sir George Ellis, Sir Frederick Madden, Sir
John and Lady Bowring, Sir Roderick Mur-
chison, Professor Owen, Professor Huxley, Mr.
Layard, Sir Edwin Landseer, Messrs. Stanfield,
Roberts, Ward, Millais, Frith, and other artists.

DESPATCH OF AMERICAN AND CANADIAN MAILS.
—Yesterday the Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia
Company's steamer City of New York, Capt. Petrie, was
despatched from Liverpool for New York, with mails for
the United States, a large number of passengers, together
with cargo, &c. To. day the Quebec and Montreal Royal
mail steamer Norwegian will leave the Mersey for Quebec,
with mails for Canada and the United States. On Satur-
day the Cunard Royal mail steamer Persia will be de-
spatched from Liverpool for New York with mails for the
-uutt..a A mprira, R.harn.., And
Havannah.

THE OUTWARD WEST INDIA AND PACIFIC MAILS.
—SOUTHAMPTON, July 2.—The Royal Mail Company's li
steamship Atrato, Captain 11. oolley, sailed hence to-day at
3 o'clock, with the fortnightly mails for the British ;rid
Foreign West Indies, Mexico, the Pacific, California' &c.
She took out 119 passengers, including Sir B. Clarke and
lady, Staff-Assistant Surgeon Ferguson, Easign Allison,
and Lieuts. Temple and Gaya], for Barbadoes ;
Col. Peady, for Demerara ; and Deputy-Commissary-
General Edwards, for Jamaica. The Atrato took out en
freight, English gold and silver coin, value £19,575;
jewellery, &c., £972; French gold and silver coin, value
£5,172; jewellery, &c., £6,975, and a general cargo of
French and English merchandise.
THE LATE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY ACCIDENT.
—Mr. Jay, the railway contractor, by the aid of a powerful
pumping engine which he has had at work for the last few
days, yesterday succeeded in clearing the water out of the
railway works, and a large body of labourers were at once
set to work to clear away the pieces of broken timber and
brickwork, preparatory to the rebuilding of the buttery
wall. Messrs. Dethick and Cooke, the contractor and sur-
veyor to the Board of Works, have also had a large pumpißg
engine placed at the shaft of the sewer, immediately above
where the fracture took place, and which, being kept con-
tinually in Wier, effectually presents any flow of
the
sewage into the railway, by turning it into the new cuttings
or pipes. The efiluvium arising from this open cutting. is
a great annoyance to the inhabitants in the neighbourhood,
and the above gertlemen are devising some measures by
which th.s evil may be lessened, if not altogether removed
HORSE RAILWAYS IN SWITZERLAND.—The horse
railway from Geneva to Carouge—the first section of the
lines of horse railways to be constructed in the Canton of
Geneva under tits concession granted to Mr. Burn, C.E.,
was opened with the greatest success on Thursday, the 19th
ult. The onenins of the line was celebrated by a
local fete
at Carouge, when 7,000 people were carried from Geneva
and back. The fares on this line are the lowest ever at-
tempted, and 2tmpunt to a fraction more than id. per pas-
senger per !Lilo This is the first line of horse railway
that has been laid down on the Continent on the American
system. Ihe rail used is a grooved rail of peculiar form,
which presents no obstruction or inconvenience to the ordi:,
nary traffic of the roads.

LATESr NEWS.

WARSAW, JULY 2.

The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Constantine
arrived here at 6.30 p.m. to-day, and were warmly
cheered by crowds of people who awaited their

arrival.

THE PENINSULAR MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY MORNNG.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw
steamer Alhambra, Captain J. D. Steward, arrived
at 1 a.m., with mails in charge of Commander
Bingham, R.N., naval mail agent, 14 passengers,
£2,319 in specie, a box of precious stones, 12 boxes
of machinery, 120 chests of oranges, 62 boxes of
lemons, 5 boxes onions, 193 boxes of eggs, and 20
packages of general merchandise.
This packet left Lisbon at 9 a.m. on the 27th ult.,
Oporto at 10 a.m. on the 28th, and Vigo at 7 a.m.
on the 29th, and had fresh N. to N.E. winds, with

overcast, hazy weather.
Off Finisterre, on the 29th, the Alhambra spoke
the Company's steamer Delta, bound south.
There were no English vessels of war at Lisbon
when the Alhambra left. The usual Portuguese
squadron was lying in the Tagus.
The exchanges this packet were, at three
months. for London, 53", to 531 ; Paris, 530 to 532 ;
Hamburg, 48 ; Amsterdam, 421 ; Genoa, 527.
Three per Cent. Stock, 461 to 461. Bank of
Portugal Shares, 558 to 560; Bank of Oporto
Shares, 258 to 260.