The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-20 00:00:00

national question of Reform remains unsettled;
gathering force year by year, and session by session,
while the leaders of the great Liberal party con-
tinue to trifle with their own reputations, with their
faith to the Crown, and their pledges to the coun-
try. But let them take heed, for the plea of exter-
nal distractions will not avail them much longer.
The people of this country are not likely to be
affected by any of these threatened convulsions in
other States, and will be slow to accept the pretext
of the American War, or of possible Continental
disturbance, as an excuse for delaying the reorgani-
sation of their electoral system. The great princi-
ples which uphold this nation will not be influenced
by the admission of fresh electors, the shortening
of the duration of Parliaments, the alteration of
the present system of voting—unless indeed they
are more earnestly advocated than they can be said
to be at present, and our public policy represents
more fully and fearlessly the views 'and feelings of
the de.

peopl

Death of M. Proudhon.

A telegraphic message from Paris states that M.
Pierre Joseph •Proudhon, the once famous represen-
tative, socialist, and political writer, is now no more,
having died at the age of 56. His birthplace is
Besancon, where he first saw the light as the son of
a poor cooper, though descended from one of the
branches of the family of the celebrated jurisconsult
of the same name. By the benevolence of some
charitable persons he was enabled to attend the col-
lege of his native town, but, notwithstanding the
zeal he displayed, and his evident aptitude for
study, he was soon removed and apprenticed to a
printer. By determined labour and continued pri-
vation he was enabled to assist his parents and re-
commence his education, so unfortunately inter-
rupted.
His literary talent was soon afterwards displayed
by the production of several works, amongst others
an essay on grammar, which met with but a poor
sale, though it was so highly esteemed by the
Besancon Academy that the conductors of the insti-
tution granted him the triennial pension of 1,500 f.
founded by Madame Suard. Finding himself thus
in possession of unhoped-for pecuniary resources M.
Proudhon proceeded to Paris, where he wrote some
articles for a Catholic Encyclopedia, among others
an essay on apostacy and one on the " Apocalypse,"
and addressed to the Besancon Academy his " De-
fence of the Celebration of Sunday," and also his
famous production entitled " Qu'est-ce que la Pro-
' priete ?" which was printed in Paris, and passed
through numerous editions. None of his works met
with so much criticism as this, and none indeed chal-
lenged so much discussion. It is entirely devoted to
the development of the axiom enunciated by the writer,
and placed at the commencement of his pages, " La
Propriete, c'est le Vol," and of which the author
said later that two such words were not pronounced
in a century. For a time this production was un-
noticed except by the Academy, which, to mark its
sense of the iniquity of the principles sought to be
inculcated, severely censured the writer, and with-
drew the pension accorded to him. He was also
about to be prosecuted for the work, but M.
Blanqui having been delegated to examine the in-
criminated essay, declared that he found in it no-
thing reprehensible. This considerate judgment
was rewarded by M. Proudhon dedicating to M.
Blanqui a second essay on the same subject, and
in which the doctrine put forward in the first edi-
tion was sustained by new arguments.
In 1842 he was arraigned before the Court of
Assizes at Besancon to answer for having written
a third pamphlet, entitled a " Notice to Property-
holders," but he was acquitted ; and in the
same year, abandoning the printing business,
with which he had hitherto been connected, he
undertook the direction of an enterprise for convey-
ing goods on the Saone and Rhone. He continued
thus engaged till 1847, pursuing at the same time
his philosophical studies and labours, the result of
which was the publication of two of his productions,
" The Creation of Order in Humanity" and " System
of Economical Contradictions," in which he vigo-
rously opposed the Utopian reformers as well as the
economists of the English school. A work relative
to the solution of the social problem, by the organi-
sation of credit and monetary circulation, appeared
in 1848, when the revolution broke out, and M.
Proudhon was suddenly throw into the midst of the
existing struggles and events which soon succeeded
each other, although at first he acted with great
prudence, and hesitated to give his full confidence
to the leaders of the movement.

On April 1 of the eventful year M. Proudhon
undertook the editorship of the Repre:sentant du
;
which was suspended in the
which during its brief career
Psuecuepeleedin, a
gdaAiluygjusoutrn,
baul
undoubtedly contained articles written in a highly
vigorous if not prudent style. His popularity be-
came so great that, at the final election in June, he
was returned as representative of the Seine by 77,094
votes. At the Constituent Assembly he affected the
greatest disdain for political forms, and stood his
ground boldly as chief of a section, only taking part
in the discussions when an opportunity occurred to
point out the emptiness or puerility of the argu-
ments. After having voted with the Right
against the abolition of the penalty of death on
July 31, he brought forward his famous proposition
relative to the imposts on the revenue, by which, in
the name of the proletariat, he sought the immediate
liquidation of property, which, according to his sys-
tem, he would have transformed into transitory and
individual possessions. This proposition was rejected
by 691 votes, and was stigmatised as " an odious
attempt on public principles of morality, and an ap-
peal to the worst passions."
After having met with repeated failures in the
attempt to propagate his principles in the tribune,
M. Proudhon resumed the pen, and founded three
daily journals, which soon succumbed to the re-
peated condemnations which they met with, though
the fines imposed were paid by the subscriptions
of a large section of the French people, who
thought they saw in their champion the personifica-
tion of the revolution of February. His speeches
and his pamphlets, calculated to subvert political
and social order, were sold by thousands, but his
specious arguments did not 'remain unanswered, for
among their opponents were MM. Thiers, Bastiat,
Alphonse Karr, and others, aided in their task by
the great caricaturist Cham, in the Charivari. Pass-
ing from theory to practice, M. Proudhon founded
in 1849 the People's Bank, a commercial society,
with a capital of 5,000,000 f., which was destined to
effect the abolition of interest, the gratuitous circu-
lation of securities, and, by consequence, the suppres-
sion of capital. Notwithstanding the palpable in-
security of the commercial basis on which this bank
was founded, and the repeated attacks of the jour-
nals, subscriptions were paid into the concern, but
it never came into'extended operation, as its founder
was condemned to three years' imprisonment for an
offence against the press laws, and was compelled
to take to flight, and the doors wore closed by offi-
cial authority. After having resided for some years
at Geneva with M. Fazy he returned and gave him-
self up, when he was incarcerated at St. Pelagic, and
where, singular enough, he married in 1850 the
daughter of a commission agent.
He continued his literary labours, and, on re-
gaining his liberty in 1852, he retired into private
life, amusing his leisure by writing a satirical work
against speculations and speculators, and also a
voluminous book dedicated to the Cardinal Arch
bishop of Besancon, and, in his person, to all the
French clergy, treating of " Justice in the Revolu-
tion and in the Church," and enunciating new
principles of practical philosophy. This work was
immediately seized, and the author was condemned
to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 4,000 fr.
He took refuge in Belgium, but at the end of 1860
the pains and penalties he had incurred were
remitted.

-.-
ARREST OF A NEW YORK REPORTER.—Mr. B. S.
Osbon, naval reporter, 2, Dey-street, New York, and cor-
respondent of the English Army and Navy Gazette, has been
arrested by order of the President, and ordered to be put
on trial for furnishing to the public press and requesting
the publication of the details of the Wilmington expedition,
thereby causing the enemy to reinforce the works at Fede-
ral Point. Mr. Osbon is now in the Old Capitol Prison.—.
XllO York Times.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)

AMERICA.

(Arrival of the City of Dublin, via Crookhaven.)
NEW YORK, JAN. 8 (Morning).

The Montreal Court has reconsidered its decision
in the case of the St. Albans raiders, and has de-
cided that it has jurisdiction in the matter.
Gold closed last night at 1274 premium.

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, JAN. 20.

An imperial rescript, addressed to the Ban of
Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, has been published
to-day, ordering the assembly of a conference of the
highest functionaries, for the purpose of discussing
the manner in which the elections to the Diet of
those provinces are to be conducted next spring.

TURKEY.

THE PROPOSED CONSOLIDATION OF THE

TURKISH HOME DEBT.

CONSTANTINOPLE, JAN. 11.

According to the Levant Herald of to-day, the
Imperial Ottoman Bank has protested against the
scheme of the General Credit and Finance Company
for the consolidation of the internal debt, and the
conversion of the existing Consolides into a foreign
stock. It pleads its charter-right to be the sole
financial agent of the Government abroad—a right
which would, it considers, be infringed if the con-
duct of such an operation as the London Company
proposes were intrusted to the latter's hands.

The scheme is, therefore, said to be for the mo-
ment, at least, shelved, and the ground so far left
open for the new foreign loan, the project for
which is in course of incubation for the coming

spring.

FRANCE.

MARSEILLES, JAN. 19.

The Messageries Imperiales mail steamer Peluse
left this day with 84 passengers, 637 packages,
£116,023 in specie for India and China ; and 59
passengers, 1,155 packages, and £52,080 in specie
for Alexandria.

BOURSE, Jan. 19.—The market is rather heavy,
but with little variation in prices. Threes, for the
Account, are now at 67f. 7ic. Mobilier have been
done at 956 f. Railway Market firm, and well
maintained. The market left off as follows :

4 per Cents 95 50
Do. end month —
3 per Cents. 66 85
Do. end month 67
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month
Bank Shares 3505
Credit Foncier 1280
Roman

Italian Loan 65 25
Do. end month , 65 30
Ditto Threes 46 75
New Mexican
Russian 9O
Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt
Deferred

RAIL'

'AYS.

Cash. Acct.
Orleans
Northern lOOO ... 1000
Lyons and Mediterranean 930 ... 931 25
Southern 578 75 ... 577 50
Western 536 25 ...
Eastern
Sardinian 3OB 75 ... 307 50
Austrian
Lombard 540 ... 541 55
North of Spain 352 50 ... 352 50
Saragossa 426 25 ... 418 75
Ditto to Barcelona lB7 50 ... 190

Destruction of her Majesty's Ship Bombay.

--~:----

We have received the following from the Admi.
ralty, with a request to publish it :
" H.M.S. Stromboli, Montevideo,
Dec. 15, 1864, 8 a.m.

Sir,—l much regret that I have to report the
total loss by fire of her Majesty's ship Bombay.

" She left this anchorage under sail at 7 a.m.
yesterday, when I transferred my flag to the Triton.
About 5 p.m. of the same day I received intelligence
that the Bombay was on fire near the English Bank,
on Flores Island, about 13 miles from this place. I
immediately despatched the Stromboli to her assist-
ance, and proceeded myself in the Triton, but so
rapidly had the fire extended that the ship had been
deserted long before assistance could reach her.
" The ship's company had been at general quar-
ters in the afternoon till a little after 3 p.m., the
foremost lower deck guns were then told off for
divisional exercise, but firing had not commenced
from them, when about 10 minutes after the retreat
had been beat fire was reported to have broken out
in the after part of the ship about the after hold ;
the fire bell was immediately rung, and with the
greatest order and promptness an abundant supply
of water was obtained, but the fire appears at once
to have spread with uncontrollable rapidity, which
gives me the impression that it originated very close
to the spirit room, and that the spirit casks must
almost immediately have burst and ignited.
"At 3.35 p.m. the fire was reported. At 3.52,
finding the fire was quickly gaining, the boats were
hoisted out. At 4 p.m. the boats were out with the
exception of the second launch, when the flames
coming up the hatchways, the awnings and sails
having been burnt, rendered it impossible for men to
work. The sick had already been passed into the
boats, and the rest of the ship's company followed.
At a quarter-past 4 the mainmast went over the
side, the boats then being scarcely clear of the ship,
and many officers and men were still holding on to
ropes alongside and to the fore part of the ship, and
others floating on the spars, &c. Soon after the
mainmast fell, the stoppers of the anchors being burnt
through, the anchors fell, and it seems many men
who were upon or near them must have lost their
lives. _ .

" The ship was under sail, hove to, when the fire
occurred, steam not having been up.

"At 8.25 the after magazines blew up, and the
ship sunk in about 8 fathoms.
" Among the officers Mr. John K. Smallborn,
Assistant-Surgeon, is the only one missing, and who
was drowned alongside.
" The French mail packet being at this moment
on the point of departure I am not able to give a
more detailed report ; but I am endeavouring to
ascertain the number and names of men missing,
which, I am sorry to say, amounts to about 93 ;
but, the boats having been picked up by vessels
proceeding to different places, we cannot as yet get
a correct return.—l have the honour to be, &c.,
(Signed) " CHAS. G. J. B. ELLIOT,
Rear-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief.
" To the Secretary of the Admiralty."

No list of names has been received at the Admi-
ralty, and that whenever any further information is
received it will be made public.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—Professor Anderson and his
daughters will repeat their entertainment entitled " The
World of Magic," including several new feats, at the palace
this day, when the pantomimic ballet and the performances
of Le Petit Blondin will be repeated for the last time. The
palace will be well warmed and lighted up.
At the meeting of the Middlesex magistrates
yesterday Mr. Swift brought forward a motion condemning
the chairman, Mr. Pownall, for having printed and circu-
lated a pamphlet against Roman Catholicism at the expense
of the county. Mr. Pownall stated that so soon as he found
the cost of the .pamphlet had been borne by the county he
repaid the money. The motion of censure was pressed to
a division, when only 2 voted for it and 52 against it.
PRESENTATION TO A YOUNG LADY.—On Satur-
day evening last upwards of 200 ladies and gentle-
men assembled at the offices of the London District Tele-
graph Company, Cannon-street, City, to witness the pre-
sentation of a testimonial to a young lady, Miss S. Oppen-
heim, on her leaving the service of the above company,
where she had been for a number of years. The testimo-
nial consisted of a fine gold brooch, chain of elaborate
workmanship, with a brequet chain to match ; both enclosed
in an elegant casket, having a gold shield of the Saxon
order upon the outside, on which is engraved the following
inscription :—" Presented to Miss S. Oppenheim, by the
staff of the London District Telegraph Company, for her
unremitting kindness since its formation."
PROPOSED RAILWAY UNDER THE MERSEY.—The
Mersey Dock Board have expressed an unanimous opinion
in favour of the project for uniting the Liverpool and
Cheshire sides of the Mersey by means of a subiluvial
railway.

LITERATURE,

- ••C'.---

Broad Grins from Yanteeland.

The American Joe Miller. A Collection of Yankee
Wit and Humour. Compiled by Robert Kempt.
One Vol., pp. 215. Adams and Francis.

A capital name, an excellent notion, and a de-
lightful book is this compilation of " The American
Joe Miller." It already, at starting, numbers up
671 more or less broad Yankee Facetim ! But
compilations of this kind obviously are made to
grow ; and we certainly hope to see many a new
edition of a work of which the present imprint
marks the first publication. As the compiler ob-
serves, with congenial humour, in his Preface, when
alluding to the ultra-extravagant means by which
the Yankees raise the laugh—" Their ordinary
speech is hyperbole or tall talk !" Adding, " they
never go out shooting unless with the long bow !"
Speaking afterwards of the gigantic scale upon
which Nature herself appears, there, in America—as
let us say, in her prairies, and rivers, and cataracts
—he remarks, also, in a kindred mood, that " into
this Brobdingnag of our. cousins, Munschausen
emigrated early !" Turning over the pages of this
comical little book, the reader will find himself
somehow always on the broad grin. He will recog-
nise many an old familiar joke cracked originally on
the other side of the Atlantic, and welcomed long ago
by a hearty roar of appreciative laughter from us
Europeans ! We hear again, thus, of the man who
was so tall that he had to get up a ladder to shave
himself ! And of a Fog so thick that you could cut it
with a ham knife ! But other and far better jokes,
some of them, he will find that the compiler of the
Yankee Joe Miller has altogether overlooked.
As, for example, that about—The Scythe that
was so sharp that the shadow of it cut a man's leg
off ! Or about—The Oyster that was so large that
it took two men to swallow it whole ! Or about—
The Pat of Butter that was made out of the cream
of a joke ! Or about--(this one, by the way, being
Washington Irving's, vide " Bracebridge Hall ")
The little dog whose tail curled so tight that it
lifted him off his hind legs! Nevertheless—numerous
though the racy pleasantries that one remembers to
have sprung originally from Yankee Land, and that
we look for in vain in this volume—the collection upon
the whole, as a commencement is admirably good.
Here and there we should like to weed out a silly
profanity—but otherwise the work may receive, as it
certainly deserves, our ready commendation. In it we
light, turn by turn (as the compiler forewarns us in
his Preface that we shall do) upon " the wise saws of
Sam Slick, the broad grins of Artemus Ward and
Joshua Billings, the marvellous (impossible ?) feats
of the renowned Major Longbow, and the cute
remarks of those notorious personages, the Down
Easter and the Western Editor." Several of the
specimens of Yankee exaggeration here recorded are
deliciously absurd—some few among them being
entirely new to us. For example—

DRAWING THE LONGBOW.—A fellow was kicked out of
an editorial room the other day for impudently stating
that he had seen in Germany a fiddle so large that it re-
quired two horses to draw the bow across the strings,
which would continue to sound six weeks !

Delightful, too, is the record of the eminent Ameri-
can artist who recently painted a snowstorm so
naturally that he caught a bad cold by incautiously
sitting near it with his coat off ! A wonderfully good
reason, again, Why cream is so dear, is mentioned on
the authority of the Boston Post, namely—Because
the milk has risen so high that the cream can't get to
the top of it ! Another Yankee journalist—evidently
suffering from defalcations among his subscribers—
gives us a vivid notion of his sense of their villainy in
so doing, by observing that the man who would take a
newspaper for a length of time and then send it back
refused and unpaid for, would swallow a blind dog's
dinner, and then stone the dog for being blind ! How
to get "up a tree" many know full well on both
sides of the Atlantic, but How to get down a ladder
seems to be a very different undertaking indeed,
judging from the young Darkey who sings out—

"Mass Tom ! Oh, Mass Tom! How's Ito get down dis
ladder ?" "The same way you went up, you blockhead,"
replies the master, running out to see what's the matter.

"De same way as I come up, Mass Tom ?" " Yes, con-
found you, and don't bother me any more !" " Well, if I
must I must"—and down comes the little darkey head-

foremost !

Reasons enough certainly (and to spare !) are those
by which a Yankee editor sums up the causes of his
not being able to sleep one night—a squalling baby
sixteen months old; a howling dog under the win-
dow ; a cat-fight up the alley ; a nigger serenade
over the way ; a wracking tooth-ache ; and a pig
trying to get in at the back-door ! As exemplifying
agreeably the Law of Compensation, commend us
to Joe's reply to the Sunday School teacher, who
had remarked that he hadn't apparently a good
memory—" No, ma'am," says Joe, hesitating,
" but I've got a first-rate forgettery 1" The Reason
Why More Marriages take place in Winter
than in Summer—(we don't know in the
least that they do, but no matter !)—an
American wag obliges us with, when saying that
it is simply because in the winter season the gentle-
men require comforters and the ladies muffs Quite
a companion picture to Sydney Smith's famous
sketch of a Fat Woman, is Sam Slick's mere outline
of a Spare Gal—" I had to look twice at her before

I could see her at all, for I warn't sure she warn't
her own shadow !" Everybody, pretty well, we
suppose, is already acquainted with the rough-and-
ready Yankee's definition of Steam, when a con-
sequential dandy, in reply to a lady's query as to
what steam really was, had answered, pompously,
" Steam, ma'am, is, ah !—steam is, ah ! ah !—steam
is—steam !"—" I knew that chap couldn't tell ye ;
but Steam is a bucket of water in a tremendous
perspiration !" A pleasant little tid-bit, in the way
of an exemplar at once of Nigger Explanation and
Nigger Indignation, is the following :

"Where's the hoe, Sambo ?" "Wid de rake, massa:"
" Well, where's the rake ?" " Wid de hoe." " But where
are they both ?" " Why,. bof togeder. By golly, ole
massa, you 'pears berry 'tickler dis mornin.' "
A charming bon mot of Longfellow's is recorded
here by the compiler of this little volume of Good
Things, in No. 428, upon the authority of the Cin-
cinnati Gazette. "Young Mr. Longworth," runs
the anecdote, " on being introduced to the Poet,
some one present remarked upon the similarity of
the first syllable of the two names—' Yes,' said the
Professor, but in this case, I fear, Pope's line will
apply :
Worth makes the man and want of it the fellow."

--
Brevity, and not a doubt about it, is, as the poet
has it, the soul of wit. Yet, once in a way, never-
theless, our Yankee Joe Miller contrives to spin
out his yarn of joking to advantage. Witness the
pertinacity with which, upon a very close cross-
examination, Sam the Nigger insists, as follows, upon
the utter isolation of his individuality :
" What's your name ?"--" My name's S am." " Sam What?'
—" No, sah; not Sam Watt. I'se jist Sam."—" What's your
other name ? "—" I hasn't got no other name, sah. I'se Sam—
dat's all,"—" What's your master's name ?"—" I'se got no
massy now. Massa runned away—yah, yah ! I'se free
nigger now."—" Well, what's your father and mother's
name ?"—" I'se got none, sah—neber had none. I'se jist
Sam—ain't nobody else."—" Haven't you any brothers and
sisters ?"—" No, sah ; neber had none. No brudder, no
sister, no fadder, no mudder, no massa—nothin' but Sam.
When you see Sam, you see all dere is of us."
Another dialogue, full of fun in its odd way, is
the.one here immediately subjoined :
" Bring the prisoner into court !" shouted the red-nosed
judge as he took his seat. " Here lam bound to blaze, as
the spirit of turpentine said when he was all a-fire," said
the priioner. " We'll take a little fire out of you. How
do you live ?" asked the judge. "I ain't particular, as the
oyster said when they asked him if he'd be roasted or fried.''
"We don't want to know what the oyster said, or the spirits
of turpentine either. What do you follow ?" " Anything
that comes in my way, as the locomotive said when she
run over a little nigger." "Don't care anything about the
locomotive. What is your business ?" " That's various,
as the cat said when she stole the chicken off the table."
"If 1 hear any more absurd comparisons, I'll give you
twelvemonths." " I'm done, as the beefsteak said to the
cook." " Now, sir, your punishment shall depend on the
shortness and correctness of your answers. I suppose you
live by going round the docks." " No, sir ; I can't go
round the docks without a coat, and I ain't got none."
" Answer me, sir ; how do you get your bread ?" "Some-
times at the baker's, and sometimes I eat taters." "No
more of your stupid nonsense. How do you support your-
self ?" " Sometimes on my legs, and sometimes on a chair:,
" How do you keep yourself alive ?" "By breathing, sir.',
" I order you to answer this question correctly—How do
you do ?,, "Pretty well, I thank you, judge ; how do you
do ?" "I shall have to commit you." "Well, you've com-
mitted yourself first, that's one consolation."
Altogether this queer little pocket volume of The