The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-14 00:00:00

Commence a 7

IZ,OYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
2-4-• Manager--Mr. Edmund Falconer.
TIIIS EVENING, Jan. 14, the new and original Drama,
entitled PEEP O'DAY; or, Savourneen Deelish. Messrs.
Walter Lacy, Hermann Vezin, Charles Selby, Edmund Fal-
coner ; Mrs. D. P. Bowers, Miss Clara Weston.
After which, a new and original Burlesque Extravaganza,
entitled LITTLE RED RIDING lIOOD ; or, The Fairies of
the Rose, the Thistle, and the Shamrcck. Principal charac-
ters by Mr. Chas. Selby, Mr. Warlow, Miss Cicely Nott, and
Miss Lydia Thompson.

Acting Manager-31r. F. B. Cluitterton.
Prices as usual. Doors open at half-past 6, to commence at
Box-ofllce open daily from 11 tills.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, JANUARY 14, 1862.1
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
41-3iighest since noon yesterday.
38—lowest this morning and during the night.
40—this day at noon.
BAROMETER—Down to 29.57—n0w 29.64.
WlND—Easterly—rather fresh ; with dirty, cold, rainy
weather

ar,4-44; t
it s ,
VZ*. V•3i 0 'brzolf
- 1,44

THE SUN.
LONDON, TUESDAY, JAN. 14, 1862.

Our contemporary the Morning Post, with whose
general views on the paestionwe quite agree, mistakes
the sense in which Mr. SEWARD'S dispatch to Mr.
ADAMS has been spoken of as a disavowal of the act
of Captain WILKES. It was obviously not a catego-
rical disavowal, probably no one thought of it as
such. It was, however, a disavowal of authorisa-
tion of the act by the Government, and the conten-
tion is that no honourable Government could for-
ward such information to another Government
without being understood to imply, that it would
not, and even ought not to have ordered the act.
With Yankee cunning, which is never ashamed of
the transparency of the cunning, direct disavowal
was carefully avoided, Mr. SEWARD said that he
attached no importance to the fact that WILKES
did not act under Government instructions, or more
exactly, that he would not say whether he did or
not. But if not, why mention it ? How could it
lessen "• embarrassment" if Mr. SEWARD did not in-
tend to disconnect the Government and its servant.
If the Government accepted the act it had Captain
WILKES on its arm, and would be as much em-
barrassed in squeezing through the narrow passage
left by precedents and authorities, as if it formally
ordered the act. For all legal purposes it was one
and the same thing for the Government to order the
act and to adopt it when done.
We will put a parallel commercial case. A re-
spectable firm finds that one of its travellers, in his
zeal to make profits for kis masters, has over-
charged some regular customer, who he thinks for
some reason or other will let it pass, say £2O on
an order for goods. The firm becomes aware of it,
before it receives any complaint from the
customer ; it writes to the customer our
traveller charged you £2O too much on your last
order ; but as it was not by our instruction, the
fact, though we do not indicate that it is of any
importance, will relieve the subject from embarrass-
ment, and we shall have, therefore, a friendly dia•
cussion on the subject. "Discussion !"—we imagine
the honest country customer would exclaim—" what,
I admit that what you knew I should complain of
was not done by your instructions, and yet not
order me to strike off the £2O. Gentlemen, I must
deal in future with some other wholesale house, on
whose integrity customers at a distance from the
great markets can rely ?" The honest tradesman
would repudiate the idea that what the wholesale
firm declared to be the sole act of its agent, was not
a virtual disavowal of the act ; at the same time he
would add —when he talks of discussing the subject
in a friendly temper, instead of making immediate
reparation, I understand him as wishing to profit
by his agent's over zeal if he can safely do so.
This is to our mind precisely Mr. SEWARD'S
position. In fact, he does two thoroughly incon-
sistent things. With ineffable meanness he does not
speak out on either; but he implies by talking
of not ordering the act that he disavows
it—while he implies, by talking of friendly con-
struction or consideration on our part, that he
adopts it ! He covets the profit of an act he dares
not say he ordered ! Cii cumstances have subse-
quently compelled Mr. SEWARD to a better course,
but, as at present advised, we must regard his
despatch of the 30th of November as the greatest
blot on his diplomacy. It is double tongued. " Out
of the same mouth cometh blessing and cursing"—
disamvaoywea dl
d, an a;;yowal. With the Quaker-like apostle
we
brethren, these things ought not
to be." We insist on the virtual disavowal, and
infer that offer of reparation alone ought to follow.
If, on the other hand, we insisted on the virtual
avowal, then we should say that the virtual disa-
vowal is disgraceful.

Not so very long ago, we had at length solved
for us, the previously (to all appearance) inscrutable
problem as to the North West Passage, Sir ROBERT
M'CLuRE demonstrated for once and for all the
existence of such a passage by sailing through it.
But, when the problem had been thus satisfstetorily

solved, the result turned out to be just another pro-
vocative to the despairing dictum of Sir CHARLES
COLDSTREAM. There was nothing in it. The
Passage, was there, but it was of no avail to wards
shortening tho coramunication between cr.ht and
west, between the new world and the old,
between Europe and America and Asia. The
channel was found to be so rarely open
to navigation, all but so uninteruptedly
blocked up by the everlasting ice of those Arctic
regions, that commerce could hope for no facilita-
tion for its advancement in that direction. At any
rate, fruitless though the result when obtained,
the result was obtained—the adventurous exploit
of APOLTIRE settling the question definitively as to
the existence of a North-West Passage.

Several years since the sometime Governor of
the Hudson's Bay Company, Sir GEORGE SIMPSON,
did by land what a century ago Captain JAMES
COOK did by sea—" put a girdle round the earth "
—a little less rapidly, it is true, than Ariel in The
Tempest. Sir GEORGE made, in point of fact, "An
Overland Journey Round the World "—traversing,
among other regions, the dense primeval forests
occupying a large proportion of the central part of
the North American continent, about midway be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans—the
core and heart in effect of that vast and almost
untrodden dominion, over which Sir GEoncE SIMP-
SON presided as virtually, in one sense, the repre-
sentative of the Sovereign, or literally, and more
strictly speaking, as the chosen head of a
great mercantile company. From seaboard to
seaboard paced the daring footsteps of the enter-
prising Governor Traveller.

Now-a-days, what M'CLURE did by the North-
West Passage, -what SIMPSON did by the Hudson's
Bay Territories—that heroic and generous hearted
Christian Philanthropist (the words, however, are,
we cannot but feel, intrinsically synonymous), Dr.
LIVINGSTONE is now gradually aiding in accom-
plishing in regard to the interior of the vast but
hitherto, in many parts (at least, by Europeans, at
least by civilised man) unpenetrated African con-
tinent. Eventually, of course, the thing is to be
done there as elsewhere. And if by no other
means, it will, first of all, be effected by the bringing
together of the extremest points of the routes tra-
versed by different geographical enquirers—here,
by a Du CITAILLU or a BUXTON, here by a BRUCE
or a LIVINGSTONE.

Rapidly, bit by bit, the vague portions of MER-
CATOR'S Chart of the World—that Chart, by the
way, which is about the nearest approach yet made
to the Squaring of the Circle—rapidly, we say,
bit by bit, the blanks upon Mercator are being
filled up by those etching needles of inexorable
precision, guided by the science of geographers and
hydrographers as skilled and as reliable as the
Member for Bodmin, or as the author of the Phy-
sical Atlas, as Mr. JAMES WYLD, or as Mr. ALEX-
ANDER JOHNSTON. Gradually, in this world, there
is no room being left for romancing. The Ultima
Thule proves to be close at hand and perfectly
accessible. Armorica, that beautiful old-world
dream-land of the fugitive Britons, dwindles down
centuries ago into the still picturesque, no doubt,
but extremely matter-of-feet Brittany—not the
least in the world like what it was once believed to
be according to HOMER and PLUTARCH, namely,
(among other things) the region where SATURN was
kept in durance by JUPITER, and the equally mar-
vellous site of the mythical garden of the dragons
and the golden apples of the Hesperides. Places
where the imaginations of the old poets and
mythologists expatiated and ran riot, are now
accurately surveyed for engineering purposes by
uupoetical men armed with a chain and a theodolite.
Insomuch is this system extending itself far and
wide over the globe, that one hardly cares any
longer to localise any scene peopled, in prose or
verse by creatures of the imagination. One has a
reluctance in this way, for example, to
recognise in the island of Juan Fernandez, the
veritable abode of that alter ego of ROBINSON
CRUSOE, the involuntary recluse ALEXANDER
SELKIRK. We prefer, in regard to all
these strictly hypothetical regions, to fix them in
that very vague whereabouts 'ycleped No Man's
Land—regions, let us say, like those up in the
clouds at the top of JACK'S Beanstalk. Besides, it
is hardly worth while, in this age of steam
and electricity, of iron ships afloat and of iron roads
ashore to go in quest (let, us suppose) of the island
of Prospero—even for that matter seriously to
identify the homes of SCYLLA and CHARYBDIS
with those vexatious Straits of Messina, where
they would be looked for in vain—or, again, to seek
the immemorial Pillars of HERCULES upon either
shore, here African, here European, of the Gut of
Gibraltar.

Turning to any one of the more ancient maps or
charts of the earth as it was formerly known but
very partially—before the notion of a globe had
been dreamt of, and therefore by necessity before
any clue whatever had been offered towards the dis-
covery of another hemisphere—it is almost in-
variably observed that the old geographers
there indulged their fancies with fantastic
" pencillings by the way " of—" gorgons and
chimssras dire." About the last of these blanks
still left upon Mercator has now to be threaded by
a thin line—a devious and tortuous line—running
to and fro, northwards, and then back againisouth-
wards, across the centre of the world's largest island,
or, more strictly speaking, its fifth continent—Aus-
tralia. Yesterday we published in our columns
an account of the return to Melbourne, not (unhap-
pily) "safe and sound," but at any rate still living,
and, we will hope, long before this restored again
to health as well as to his friends—the sole survivor
of the adventurous party of "voyageurs" who set
forth in the September Of 1860 upon the famous
and now ever-memorable Australian Exploring
Expedition. JOHN KING, when the mail left, was
the hero of the Hour. And no wonder. A man
who had contrived by a display of pluck and en-
durance to accomplish at last, as JOHN KING has
done, what no man has ever been known to have ac-
complished
before him, may well be entitled, after
all his hardships, to the hearty congratulations of
his fellow-men. Those congratulations he seems
to have had from all sides—from his Excellency
the Governor and his Worship the Mayor down-
wards. It matters comparatively little under the
circumstances to begin with that the party of
which KING was at length the sole survivor in-
cluded among its members none who could be
called in any way, strictly speaking, scientific or phi-
losophical observers. N'inzporte. To begin with—
the thing has been done, the problem
has been solved, Australia has been
crossed and re-crossed. With that fact, for the
moment, we remain contented. The rest can follow.
The rest will come, by necessity, and come after-
wards, Later on we shall learn all about the fauna
and the flora of the interior of Australia. We
shall obtain information as to its mineral
wealth, and as to its geographical peculiarities
and characteristics. What we have longed
to know for so considerable a period, we
now do know for an absolute certainty. We
now know that Australia has been traversed
from shore to shore, and that the one bold, deter-
mined traveller who has lived to tell the tale is
JOHN KING. How the feat has bean accomplished
is a matter for after consideration: At this moment

we are satisfied, we repeat, with exulting over the
announcement that the thing has been done, and
that the heart of Australia is no longer a terra

incognita.

Americans are for ever protesting that English-
men cannot understand them or their institutions;
of that we are not so sure; we fancy, as impartial
bystanders, we often understand them better than
they do themselves. But, on the other hand, Mr.
GLADSTONE thinks that, at the present time, Ame-
ricans do not understand us. " I heartily wish,"
he says, "it were in our power to exhibit to the
community of the United States the precise and
exact state of feeling that has subsisted in this
country ever since the beginning of that tremen-
dous convulsion which now agitates that continent,
and threatens its peace and prosperity."
He truthfully describes the general feeling of Eng-
land at the commencement of the struggle to have
been that the prosperity of America was intimately
connected with our own commercial prosperity, and
that we had, in truth, a selfish interest in the wel•
fare of the country. When the struggle began,
however, and its proportions became apparent, Mr.
GLADSTONE says, " There is no doubt I think of the
fact that the thinking men of this country did come
to the conclusion that in that war which had com-
menced the party which was apparently the stronger
had committed itself to an enterprise which would
probably prove to be entirely beyond their powers.
We saw there a military undertaking of tremendous
difficulties, and a military undertaking which, if it
could be successful, would only be the preface and
the introduction to political difficulties far greater
even than the military difficulties of the war itself."
In that opinion we should have shared from the
beginning had we supposed the Northern people
could have pertinaciously forced upon their Govern-
ment the non-emancipation policy. As it became
apparent that the clearest military and political ne-
cessity could not overcome the northern aversion
to the innocent negro, we began to share with
most others the views indicated by Mr. GLADSTONE.
It is these opinions of Englishmen which Mr.
GLADSTONE thinks Americans cannot comprehend,
and the results could not be better be described
than they are by our eloquent finance Minister,
through a happy though very obvious illustration.
" There is no doubt we know," he observes,
" that in private life the same thing constantly
happens. It constantly happens that when a man
is engaged; with his whole heart and soul upon some
enterprise that he thinks ♦ital to his well-being,
and when some other person is known to have said
that he thinks that enterprise had much better not
be undertaken, great offence, great irritability great
susceptibility is the result, and a state of things
arises, in spite of the inclinations of men themselves,
in which there is a predisposition to quarrel and to
contention. I believe that it is a true and fair de-
scription, on the whole, of the state of things be-
tween England and America at the time when that
which is now so well known as the case of the Trent
occurred and produced so profound a sensation in
this country."
Mr. GLADSTONE cannot help adverting to what
every one who has only glanced at the American
correspondence, is compelled to ask—Why, if the
law of the case be as Mr. SEWARD states it, did he
not give up the prisoner at once. Most good
humouredly our Chancellor of the Exchequer gets
over the universal question—" I," says he, am the
man, who, if any, ought to complain—lt is I who
must have my budget spoiled by Mr. SEWARD'S
inconsistency, but I hope the'question will not be
put—l mean in Parliamentary phrase the previous
question. Let us think of their reception of the
Prince of WALES—when men by the thousand, by
the ten thousand, by the hundred thousand trooped
together from all parts to give him a welcome as
enthusiastic—as obViously proceeding from the
depth the heart—as if those vast countries had still
been portions of the dominions of our Queen. Nor
was the past to be remembered only; we must regard
their position and conduct as a whole—
" Let us look," he said, " to the fact that they are of
necessity a people subject to the quick and vehement action
of opinion, liable to great public excitement, intensely eager
upon the subject of the war in which they are engaged,
naturally raised to a high pitch of exultation by hear-
ing that one of their vessels of war had laid hold upon
the Commissioners of the Southern States, whom they re-
garded simply as rebels—let us look to the fact that in
the midst of that exultation, and in a country where
the principles of popular government and of democracy
are carried to extremes—that even there, in this state of
struggle for life and for death as they think it to be—
that even there, while ebullitions were taking place
all over the country of joy and exultation at this capture—.
that even there, this popular and this democratic Govern-
ment has, under the demand of a foreign Power, written
these words—for they are the closing words in the despatch
of Mr. SEWARD—" the four commissioners will be cheer-
fully liberated." Let us take those words, I say, without
minute criticism upon anything that may have passed at
former times, and may have been open to a difference of
view. Let us accept them with thankfulness to the
ALMIGHTY for having removed an apparent cause of deadly
collision, in which the hearts of the people of this country
were united as the heart of man to defend, in all circum-
stances and to all extremities, the honour of the British
flag, and to discharge the duty of protection to those who
had placed themselves under its shelter."

These are at least generous sentiments, and if
they be but reciprocated, as they should be, from
the other side, may soon bring about a considerable
change of feeling here. We can well afford to
forget and forgive many things, but we are en-
titled to ask that they be not repeated. Forgive-
ness is useless when it is certain that the offences
will be renewed. We can most heartily shake
hands with Mr. SEWARD over his cheerful sur-
render of the prisoners. We can even excuse his
verbose despatch written for America, not for
England, and necessary probably there; but, he
must permit us with perfect good nature, to justify
ourselves and to repudiate his legal reasonings, and
his worse obiter dicta, and not s uppose that we are
desirous of prolonging a mere wa r of words. For
nothing have we less inclination.

SEPTENNIAL AV_ERAGES.-TITHE

co3rmUTATIO Y

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—AB many of your readers may feel anxious to know
the result of the corn averages for the seven years to Christ •
mas, 1861, published by authority in the London Gazette
of Friday evening, v'z.,—
Wheat 7s. Oid. per imperial bushel
Barley 4s. 7:ld. ditto
Oats 3s. ld. ditto
I beg to state for their information, that each £lOO of tithe
rent-charge will, for the year 1862, amount to £lO9 13s 6d,
or very nearly 21 per cent, less than last year's value. The
value for the year 185.5 was only £B9 15s Sid, or nearly 20
per cent. below the amount of the present year.
The following statement from my "Annual Titho Com-
mutation Tables" will show the worth of £lOO of tithe rent-
charge for each year since the pAssing of the Tithe Com-
mutation Act, viz.,—

1837
1833
1839
1840
1841
1542
1843
1841
1815
1846 ...... 102 17 87
1847
1818
1849

1850 .. £9B 16 10
1851
1852
1853 .. 91 13 51
18.54
1855
1856
1857
1858
18.59
1860
1861
1362

26)2619 16 7

General average for 26 years £loo 15 3
I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
CHARLES M. AVILLILH,
Actuary University Life Assurance Society.
15, Suffolk-streeet, Pall Mall East, S, W.,
11th January, 1862.