The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-23 00:00:00

bly determined on separation. As among indivi-
duals so it is among nations. The sins of early days
rise up in after times to clamour for judgment
against the wrongdoer. The leading politicians of
the dominant party recall their former utterances
on the subject of the recognition by the United States
of all de facto Governments, whether in Europe or
America, and feel uneasy lest the European Powers
should apply to them the doctrines they applied to
others. In the celebrated case of the United States
against Peru, in which the Government of Mr.
Buchanan hastily, Nit peremptorily, recognised the
revolutionary Government of that State, Mr. Black,
the then Attorney-General, emphatically declared
that " it was the duty, the interest, and the invaria-
ble policy of the United States to recognise all de
facto Governments." Though the pamphlet in
which Mr. Black's argument was widely circulated
has been as far as possible bought up and suppressed
by the existing Government, it is to be found in the
library of (Congress, to give the weight of Mr.
Black's then unquestioned, and, as it appears, un-
questionable authority to the doctrine when the
Powers of Europe may now or hereafter see fit to
embrace with reference to the South. Mr. Seward
himself too—a more important witness than Attor-
ney-General Black—may be placed in the witness-
box to testify what his opinions were on a similar
subject before he trammelled himself with the re-
sponsibilities of office. On the 9th of March, 1852,
he proposed a resolution to the Senate, in which he
set forth that the United States, " in consideration
of the exigencies of society, habitually recognised de
facto Governments," and that a certain people, whom
he named, had in the " exercise of a right secured to
them by the laws of nations, in a solemn and legi-
timate manner asserted their national independence,
and established a Government by their own volun-
tary act, and successfully maintained it against all
opposition by parties lawfully interested in the
question, were fully entitled to their recognition by
the United States ;" and that the Government which
denied and combated their independence, which he
also named, " would have no casus belli against the
" United States," if this recognition were forthwith
and solemnly proclaimed. The people struggling
at that time for independence were the Hungarians,
and the opposing Government was that of Austria,
and if the Mr. Seward of 1865 were the Mr. Seward
of 1852 in principles and opinions, and looted upon
facts with a vision undisturbed by party exigencies,
or national pride, it would task all his well-known
ingenuity to prove that the Southern people had not
even more solemnly and legitimately than the Hun-
garians asserted their national independence ; and
that they had not far more brilliantly and success-
fully, and for a longer period of time, maintained it
"against all opposition by parties lawfully interested
in the question." The hope of one section of the
Northern people and the fear of another that Euro-
pean recognition will shortly follow the entrance of
the South into the path of negro emancipation lends
additional interest to the bygone opinions of a
statesman in the position of Mr. Seward. Doubtless,
however, should the contingency arise, it will be
discovered that the circumstances are not parallel,
and that it was perfectly right for a republic to do
against a monarchy that which it would be utterly
wrong for a monarchy to do against a republic.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

It has been decided that the camp at Colchester
shall accommodate two depot battalions of eight
. _ _

depots each, and the following depots have been

ordered to Colchester:—The depot, 41st Regiment,
from Preston, Capt. Peddie, Capt. Lowry, Lieut.
Brook, Lieut. Taylor, Lieut. Michell, and Ensign
Duncombe, to join the 4th depot battalion; the de-
pot 63d Regiment, from Belfast, Capt. Fitzroy,
Capt. Moore, Lieut. Smyth, Lieut. Burton, Lieut.
Beere, and Lieut. Bayle, to join the 4th depot bat-
talion ; and the depot 84th Regiment, from Pem-
broke, Brevet-Major O'Brien, Capt, Heley, Lieut.
Simpson, Lieut. Murray, and Ensign Reckitt, to
join the 10th depot battalion. The two battalions
stationed at Colchester will therefore be composed as
follows :-4th depot battalion, comprising the de-

pots 41st, 54th, 56th, 63d, 70th, 82d, 98th, and 103 d
Regiments ; and 10th depot battalion, comprising
the depots Ist battalion tat Foot, 2d battalion 6th
Foot, 34th, 38th, 44th, 66th, 84th, and 97th Regi-
ments.

Sonic experiments have been made on the Royal
Engineer field-works, Chatham, during the last few
days, with the view of testing the resisting powers
_ _

offered by targets -covered with coatings of corn

pressed paper of different degrees of thickness. The
experiments produced some rather surprising and in-
teresting results, and would appear to prove that
paper presents a remarkable power of resistance to
shot. Until now it has not received that attention
which it would seem to demand. The official re-
port of the trials will be transmitted to the Ord-
nance Select Committee, under whose directions
they were carried out.
Major-Gen. R. S. Armstrong, of the Royal Ar-
tillery, is to have the " distinguished service" re-
ward of £lOO per annum, vacated by the appoint-
ment .:of Major-Gen. Dupuis, C. 8., Col.-Com-
mandant of a Brigade ; and a similar reward, va-
cated by the death of Major-Gen. Palliser, has been
conferred on Major-Gen. Francis Warde. The an-
nual pensions of £9l 55., held by Major-Gen. Arm-
strong and Major-Gen. Warde, have been bestowed
on Major-Gen. Burke Cuppage and Major-Gen. J.
St. George, C.B.
The screw steam gunboat Rind, tender to the
Coastguard ship St. George, arrived at Plymouth
on Friday to embark stores.

The screw steam corvette Cadmus, 21, Capt.
Alexander Gordon, which arrived on Friday at
Plymouth, will probably leave the Sound to-day for
the West Indies.

The screw steam-frigate Aurora, 3, Capt. Sir F.
Leopold M'Clintock, left Plymouth Sound, at 4 on
Saturday afternoon for Bermuda, en route to the
West Indies.

The paddlewheel steam-sloop Geyser, 6, Corn-
manderArthur T. Thrupp, left Plymouth on Friday
night for Portsmouth, to embark supernumerary
officers and men for Gibraltar.

The paddlewheel steam sloop Virago, 6, Com-
mander William G. H. Johnstone, from Bermnda,
arrived in. Plymouth Sound on Friday evening.
When entering Bermuda from Halifax, about four
p.m. December 4, and being about eight or nine
miles from the island, she struck on an outlying
rock, one of the Bermuda Reef. The Virago was
as the time under steam, and going from six to
seven knots per hour. Her timbers were started
from the stempost as far up as the 6-foot mark,
the keel of her stem was started, and the bolts
driven back ; two or three streaks of copper were
ripped off, and the whole of the starboard side
severely shaken. Had the sloop been a sailinc, ves-
sel she would have sunk in less than three hours,
but being a steamer she was kept afloat by the action
of her bilge ejection pipes. She entered Bermuda
the next morning, and was repaired by a diver
alongside the jetty. The Virago left December 31, -
for. England, in company with the screw corvette
Challenger, 22, Capt. John J. Kennedy, C. 8., but
parted from her four days afterwards. On the
homeward voyage ,heavy gales from south-west,
veering to north-west, were experienced, and
on Saturday, Jannary 14, the first gig was
washed away, carrying . with it part of the
starboard paddlebox. On 'Thursday last, when
off Ushant, about thirty bales of cotton were
passed. The Virago was commissioned July 26,
1861,
1863, when she left Plymouth
for the West India
was engaged in the Channel until August,
station. Her engines are in very bad repair, and
of the Steam Reserve
on Saturday some of the Staff
at Devonport were sent on hoard
ltior inspectther
dutythem.h
t
Should they be found capable of f
Virago will receive additional coal and proceed to
°lle. of the eastern ports, where it is probable her
crew will be
Terror,
striking on thereefcourt-martial assembled at
paid off. In consequence of her
Bernincia,
Capt.
. James F. B. Wainwright,
presiding. The ;Court reprimanded
Com-
mander Johnstone and illof the
IThe screw cory
t
power, Cap J. j.
at the Nore from theßenT
Indian station, will,
at Chatham, he
thei master, Mr. Hammond.
ire Challenger, 22, 400-horse
Kennedy, C. 8., just arrived
inN North American and West
accordance. with orders re-
ceivedpaid off and put out of com-

mission without any of her bulkheads of internal
fittings being disturbed, while the whole of her
stores are to be returned in such a manner that they
may be available at the shortest notice should the
vessel be required for early commission. The crew
have commenced dismantling her and returning her
stores into the dockyard. The Challenger hasbeen
in commission nearly four years.
Her Majesty's steam storeship Dee, Master Com-
mander Raymond, sailed from Woolwich Dockyard
on Saturday morning at six o'clock, her hold filled
with naval stores, for Liverpool, and boilers, &c.,
on her deck for the 24-gun iron ship Lord Clyde,
4,067 tons, and 1,000-horse power, building at
Pembroke. Soon after her departure the river and
the town of Woolwich and neighbourhood became
enveloped in a dense fog. From the well-known
experience of her commander it was expected that
the Dee would not proceed, but would lay to m
the river until the following morning. Prepa-
rations were in perfect readiness at an early hour
on Saturday for hoisting the new iron sheers in
their place, but the work could not be carried out
on account of the fog.

A telegraphic notice from the Admiralty to the
Naval Commander-in-Chierat Portsmouth (Admi-
ral Sir Michael Seymour, G.C.8.), relative to the
loss of her Majesty's ship Bombay at Montevideo,
was posted outside Portsmouth dockyard gates on
Friday evening. Shortly afterwards Lieut. Stirling,
late of the Bombay, arrived at the official residence
of Admiral Seymour with despatches from the Ad-
miralty, which were forwarded to her Majesty at
Osborne by the Fire Queen, Staff-Commander Paul.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—Commander John D'Arcy
to the Osborne, commissioned; H. D. Sarratt, master,
to the Osborne ; G. B. Hill, surg., to the Osborne ;
Alexander Murphy, assist.-surg., to the Cumberland;
J. E. Skinner, assist.-surg., to the Osborne ; N.
Stearn; engineer, to the Osborne; and J. B. Stevens,
assist.-engineer, to the Osborne.

Repeal of the Malt Tax.

An influential county meeting was held in the Corn Ex-
change, Leicester, on Saturday, in furtherance of the objects
of the Leicestershire Anti-Malt Tax Society. Lord Berners
occupied the chair, there being also present Sir Fitzroy
Kelly, M.P., Lord John Manners, M.P., E. R. Hartopp,
Esq., M.P., Lord Curzon, M.P., Davenport Bromley, Esq.,
M.P., Busfield Ferrand, Esq., M.P., Sir Frederick Fowke,
Bart., etc.
In opening the meeting Lord BERNERS read a letter from
one of the county members, Mr. Packe, regretting that he
was not able to attend and advocate the repeal of the malt
tax, and stating his belief that the only way to ensure re-
dress under pressure of any grievance is to maintain un-
flinching perseverance until the object is gained; and he was
fully prepared to support any measure which shall ulti-
mately effect the total abolition of the malt tax. If, on
financial grounds, the whole of so large a portion of the re-
venue could not be immediately given up, he should, as he
did last year, be ready to assist in binding the Government
so to frame their finances as to ensure a total repeal of the
tax, and he hoped the country would continue to be ani-
mated with the same determination as at present until that
was accomplished.

The noble CHAIRMAN said that having for thirty years
been an advocate-for the repeal of the malt tax, he felt gra-
tified to find that in this and other counties the subject was
now so freely and openly discussed. The recommendation
he would make to them was to act with moderation, union,
and indomitable perseverance ; moderation, because be be-
lieved that if theypressed on the Government an immediate
reduction of the whole of a very oppressive duty they
would not succeed in attaining that end ; union, because in
all their struggles to obtain a mitigation of whatever pressed
injuriously upon the agricultural interests they had failed
in those instances in which perfect unison had not pre-
vailed ; and perseverance, because he was quite sure that
the advocates of other interests would set them the ex-
ample in the fuitherance of their own peculiar views, and
therefore if the farmers of England were thrown over in
their present enterprise, it would be mainly attributable to
their want of union and perseverance. (Cheers.) They
might remember that some years since the leading men of
the day of all political parties, Sir Robert Peel, Sir James
Graham, and others, admitted that if the corn laws were
repealed, there were heavy and peculiar burthens borne by
the land which could not be defended, but must be revised.
Little revision had, however, yet taken place, and therefore
it was the more important that they should pour in peti-
thins, and instruct their members to unite in Parliament,
and press upon the Government the abolition of this tax.
It was not a political question, but a great social question,
affecting alike the consumer and producer of malt, and there-
fore involved the interests of the community at large. In a
report of a committee of the House of Lords in 1846, it
'was clearly proved—and afterwards admitted by several
leading politicans—that the impost was oppressive and un-
justifiable, and therefore one that ought to be repealed, in
order to enable the farmer to make the best of his produce ;
because it was acknowledged that the inferior barley did
not meet with that ready sale Which it would find were the
malt tax no longer in existence. It had been shown, too,
that under the five heads of tithe, land, tax, highway rate,
poor rate, and church rate—the land contributed a sum
which was equal to an income tax of 23 per cent. on the
rateable value of real property in England and Wales. Cer-
tain proposals had been made to confer upon the agricultural
interests what the present Chancellor of the Exchequer con-
sidered a great boon. (Laughter.) Instead of that it had
proved a delusion, a complete delusion. That measure of
Mr. Gladstone's was like throwing a tub to a whale, in order
to direct the attention of the farming community from the
total repeal of a most obnoxious tax, under the pretext of
enabling them to make malt for the feeding of animals. A
gentleman connected with Norfolk, Mr. Charles Turner,
had published a letter addressed to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in which were such passages as these :—" On
the passing of the act it was enacted that the details should
be settled by the Board of Excise ; and my experience as a
producer of malt duty free leads me to the conclusion that
either the Government is anxious the bill should be a dead
letter, or the system of red tape prevalent at the Board of
Excise will make it so. The regulations and hindrances
in the making of malt duty free are so vexatious and ab-
surb that those who have embarked in its production must
either charge for the same at almost the cost of that which
is subject to Excise, or give up its production altogethe r
For six long months I have been in correspondence with
the Excise. The board require a large outlay upon malting
premises for making feeding malt above what is required
in ordinary maltings. Then the linseed required to mix
with the malt must be of so fine a quality that it is almost '
impossible to get it to come up to the standard they re-
quire. After the malt is made the Board of Excise require
it to be ground so fine that nothing but steam power can
produce it to their test ; and then the farmer will risk the
losing of half the feeding power should he take it into his
fields to his stock on a windy day. But the absurdity of
the matter did not end here. The board will not allow the
malt and linseed after it is ground to be mixed, as it might
be, by hand and shovel, but they have decreed that an
elaborate mixing hopper shall be invented, so ingenious
that export machinists have withdrawn from the attempt'
in disgust. Again, lam obliged to give in writing notice
twelve hours previous to steeping the barley, drawing
sprinkling, loading kiln, turning on kiln, measuring fromi
kiln, moving from store, moving to mill room for grinding
mixing, and other operations, such as weighing, measuring,
&c. ; but all these in their absurdity are as nothing com-
pared to the burlesque of making malt duty free, as carried
out by the Board of Excise, and which, if enforced, was to
effectually put a stop to making malt for feeding purposes.
I have, after unheard of difficulties, succeeded in getting
two lots of malt off the kiln ; but guess my astonish-
ment when the exciseman charged me several shillings
duty for each lot for this duty free malt ; and his reason
is, that though I steeped only 21 coombs of barley and
took off the kiln 22 coombs of malt, he assumes that I, or
some one, extracted some bushels of malt in its making ;
and therefore he charges the duty each time I make, be-
cause by the theory of the Excise, I ought to have had
five bushels more malt on each making. I therefore have
to pay 275. for 42 coombs of malt under the absurd regu-
lation, and by an act of Parliament for the making of malt
duty free. Now, if malt can be made at 2s. per coomb, I
am satisfied all those extra expenses that I have above
adduced will be 2s. per coomb more, or 4s. per coomb--
nearly half what the duty is on malt." The Chairman
then referred to some letters, addressed to the editor of the
Mark Lane Express, by Mr. Wm. Gurdon, a barrister of the
Norfolk Circuit, who proposed that instead of a duty being
enforced on the quantity of malt made, it should be enforced
in respect of the area of the kiln.

Mr. Ixnrr moved, " That in the opinion of this meeting,
the principles of free trade having been adopted by Govern:
m manufacturee n t o f many
of duties
native pprreovai oulic
es
yti
Govern-
ment in the repeal of the corn laws, and in the abandon-
arheleyusein and
poe
taxseudpoonn barley
manufacture of malt ought not to be an exception."
Sir FITZROY KELLY, M.P., upon rising, was received with
loud cheering. He said they would hardly expect from him
a speech upon the general subject of the malt tax, or the
numerous evils which resulted to the community from that
most unjust imposition. (Hear, hear.) They were better
acquainted with the weight and oppression or those evils
than he was. Perhapy he might be permitted, in a few
words, to call their attention to the true position of that im-
portant question at the present moment, and if he might
venture to do so, to throw out some suggestions which
occurred to his own mind as to the course which he consi-
dered it incumbent to pursue, if they required the present
or ultimate repeal of the malt tax. The hon. member here
described the operation of the tax, from its being first im-
posed as a war tax in 1797 to the present time, and observed
that it had been going on increasing in time of war, and re-
mained altogether undiminished in time of peace, without
any hope of reduction until 1863, when the pressure, the