The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-20 00:00:00

STAGE FRIGHT.

I once sent " on" a young medical student in the cha-
racter of a lover, who had to make a declaration, be accepted,
be surprised by a rival, challenge him on the spot, declare
that he would not stir until this green sward was stained
with the be-lood of one if not of both, order parenthetically
pistols for two at once and coffee for one in ten minutes,
and, in fact, go through the greatest amount of bom-
bast compressible into a short time. Of course, the
love making was to be one of the most high-flown character.
On he went, and at the sight of the audience and the lady
seated at her work-table, subsided immediately into a very
abyss of fear. Instead of rushing irantically towards the
object of his affections, flinging himself on his knees, and
bursting into a tremendous rhapsody, as he ought to has, e
done, he simply stood and looked at her, twisting his hat
feebly in his hands. Not one word could he say, but in
dead silence crept across the stage, slowly took up a chair,
set it exactly opposite the lady, put his hat under the chair,
offered to sit down, looked behind him to make sure if the
chair was really in its place, sat down on the extreme edge
of it, looked at the ground, rubbed his knees slowly, and
now and then glanced up at his intended bride much as a
dog looks up when it has stolen something and knows it is
goir g to be whipped. The audience were in ecstacies. They
all thought it was pure acting, and that the part was that
of s
a bashful
Certainly, any one who could act halt
as well ought
pos-
session of the stage some seven or eight minutes without
speaking a word, when he opened his mouth once or twice,
rubbed his knees again, and at last said in a broken and
husky voice,hifortune, He had been in
"How's your mother I" A perfect shriek of
laughter burst from the audience, and gave the opportunity
for getting him off the stage. The rival rushed forward,
lover.
to
make
pounced on him, hauled him off by his collar, flung him-
self on his knees, did all the rhapsody himself, and we had
to patch up the scene as we beat could. Although so com-
plete a failure on the part of the individual, the scene was

FLINDERSLAND AND STIIRTLIND, OR THE INSIDE AND
OUTSIDE OP AUSTRALIA. By WILLIAM R. H. JESSOP,
M.A. Two Vols. R. Bentley.
These volumes contain considerable information respect-
ing Australia, through which the author travelled—we pre-
sume recently, for ho is chary of dates—and kept, it would
seem, a tolerably minute journal, not only of what he saw,
but what he thought. The commentary, however, is the
least welcome part of the book. The manner is vulgar and
braggart, and beset with affectations of expression and
criticism which, as literary efforts, are not only ill conceived,
but are excessively wearying to read. " Bumptiousness,"
in short, is the inherent characteristic of Mr. Jessop's style.
He can tell nothing in a plain and modest manner, but en-
crusts his text with a rank exuberance of apostrophe, ver-
bal conceits, and phrases couched in all the artifices of labo-
rious antithesis. To exemplify. He writes :—" One of
those memorable and few days on which the misery usually
attendant upon my existence was suspended ; when 'he
essence of felicity, as far as poor mortal man can receive it,
was imbibed by my senses ; when a sublime kind of ecstacy
was thrown, as a spell, over all my faculties; when the na-
ture within me was so exalted by the nature without, that
existence itself seemed doubtful; such a day as this was
that Sunday in September when I entered the glory of Aus-
tralia, the matchless harbour of the Queen of the South. It
is a day to be remembered. It was a great day, being Sun-
day. It was a glorious day, the sun shining with all the
majesty of youthful vigour. It was a matchless day, the
wiud and the waves being lulled till they sent forth a
gentle aerial sound. It wall a marvellous day, my good
genius having arisen in a brave good humour.
It was a splendid day, everything contributing
with might and main to create a scene which should rouse
men's thoughts to heaven. It was a happy day, a most
happy day, a complete and perfect day of bliss." (Fudge.)
Again, " How is education amongst you, good people of
Tasmania ? not very high, not very wide, not very strong.
Slow work here; slow work and bad in the Parliament
also, men, far from honourable in their position or their
talents, occupying a seat, and exercising the same great
means of working weal or woe as those of esteem ; weal to
themselves, however, if possible, and woe to all. Compar-
ing paper with paper, if you are no better in this respect
than your neighbours, you are by no means worse. You
love to lead a quiet life, but a quiet life is not always the
best. I suspect quiet people, and I have my reasons. The
most venomous thing that troubles mankind is at the same
time the most quiet—a snake, to wit. Not that I hereby
allude to your progress and proceedings being serpentine—
not in the least. Where there is overmuch quite, there
scandal takes up her residence. I hope it is not so among
you. I hope you have better work to do than to be tearing
one another to pieces. Have an eye about you, good peo-
ple, for the signs are not favourable. There are evil reports
flying abroad, flying all abroad. The land is good, say
strangers; we should like to live there, but the people are
naught." Were it possible to denude the volumes of this
tiresome overlaying of words, and the lamentable absurdi-
ties of vein into which the author's pen perpetually runs,
they would probably be read with interest, inasmuch as
they deal with countries which are daily becoming more
and more important, the inner life of which is not too well
known. Mr. Jessop's accounts of the early discoveries of
Bass and Flinders are among the best sections of the book
—that is, if the reader can stomach the fantastic and dis-
agreeable style in which they are narrated.

ADDRESS OF 7HE PODOLIAN NOBLES
TO 711 E EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

The following is the translation of an article on
this subject from the pen of M. de Sacy, which
appeared in the Journal des Debats of the 16th
inst.:—

In the beginning of October the nobility of Po-
dolia assembled at Kamieniec for the election of
the functionaries whom they are legally empowered
to appoint, unanimously voted and signed an ad-
drebs, in which they demand of the Emperor the
administrative reunion of the province to the king-
dom of Poland.

" Sire,"—such were the words of the address-
4, the situation of our country is deserving of ail
your solicitude ; in it you behold a people without
instruction, schools insufficient both by their num-
bers and the state of education ; trade deprived of
capital and devoured by usury ; the exportation of
corn rendered impossible by the want of communi-
cation by roads ; capital withdrawn from funded
property through the want of credit institutions
and of a system of mortgages; institutions opposed
to the customs, the traditions, and the normal de-
velopment of society ; the execution of the laws
rendered impossible by a foreign bureaucracy which
seeks its inspirations elsewhere than in the wants
and interests of the province; finally, a society de-
prived of organs which, elected by itself and
from its own body, would watch over the affairs of
the country.

" Such a situation, which is the result of our
separation from the kingdom of Poland, threatens
the country with complete ruin. To prevent this
there is but one means—to reunite us administra-
tively to a country whose traditions, interests, and
principles of civil and religious liberty are the same
as ours."

Although the discussion and the voting of an
address which exposes the wishes and requirements
of the province was, on the part of the meeting at
Kaimeniec, an act formally authorised by law, the
governor of the town opposed it, and threatened to
bury the meeting beneath the ruins of the hall
where it held its sittings if it persisted in carrying
out this project. But neither prayers nor threats
had any effect, The address, as stated above, was
unanimously agreed to, and the governor having re-
fused to take charge of it, the marshals, faithful to
their commission, themselves sent it to the Empe-
ror. The answer was an Imperial ukase, dated 31st
October, which deprives the marshal of the pro-
vince and all the marshals of districts who
signed this address, most humble, but criminal in
its tenour, of their functions, and sends them before
the Senate for trial. The marshals included in the
accusation were accordingly, in the beginning of
November, arrested in their homes and escorted by
troops to St. Petersburg, where they are now pri-
soners. But let us return to the Imperial ukase.
"His Majesty," so runs the preamble, " after
having listened, in the Council of Ministers, to the
respectful report of the Minister of the Interior on
the illegal address et the landholders of Podolia,
finds that those who signed this address, which
was approved in the provincial meeting, have not
exposed in it the local wants which really relate
to their province, as the law authorised them to do;
but that, rashly censuring the state of the Govern-
ment established according to the principles of the
laws of the empire, they have already manifested a
tendency to change and shake the integrity and
unity of the empire.
It clearly appears from the very terms of this
ukase that the provincial meeting of Podolia was
authorised by the law to expose " the local wants
of the province"—and if we return to the terms of
the address, it will appear that it does nothing
else :—" Sire, the situation of our country is de-
serving of all your solicitude," &c. It is the suf-
ferings and the wants of the province that are in
question. The address goes no further. Not a
word can be found in it that attacks " the prin-
ciples of the laws of the empire." But at least are
its unity and integrity threatened by the wish to
see the province administratively reunited to
the kingdom of Poland and the other Polish
provinces ? This is evidently the point on which
the accusation rests ; it is this which, in the eyes
of the Emperor and his Council, has appeared to
constitute, on the part of those who signed the ad
•
dress, a crime amenable to the high.jurisdiction of
the Senate. It is also chiefly from this point of
view that we have to examine it.
The nobility of Podolia does not ask to be sepa-
rated from Russia. The kingdom of Poland,
which she asks to be administratively united, like
the other so-called western provinces, which are
once i
mentioned in the address, is subject to the
a
authority of the Czars. And, on the other hand,
Podolia cannot be considered as really forming an
integral part of the empire, any mere than the
kingdom of Poland and the other Polish provinces.
The text of the treaties by which their present
political position is regulated cannot give any open-
ing for the slightest equivocation, or leave any
doubt on the matter. The first article of the Treaty

of Vienna, after establishing a kingdom of Poland,
formed of the old Duchy of Warsaw and " united
to the Russian Empire by its Constitution," goes on
to say—" The Poles, respectively subjects of Russia,
Austria, and Prussia, shall obtain a representative
and national institution, regulated according to the
manner of political existence that each of the
useful
agovernmentsnd te which they
proper
to
grant
Thus the very treaty which makes the Poles of
tt yt bheelmon!, will judge it
the incorporated provinces subjects of Russia, gives
them the right of obtaining " a representative and
national institution." Is not this what Podolia
asks for P Administrative re-union is, in its view,
nothing but the means of obtaining and insuring
the possession of those national institutions and
that representation which were promised to the
Poles, 47 years ago, under the guarantee of all
the Powers that signed the Treaty of Vienna.
Podolia does not seek to break the bond which
unites her to Russia; she only asks that the bond
may be given its true character. She addresses the
Emperor ; she might, without any crime, have ad-
dressed herself to Europe, and Europe might have
demanded, with her or without her, what she de-
mands.
There can be no doubt as to tee tine meaning
of the provision of the Treaty of Vienna, which we
have just quoted. Another article of the same
treaty, Art. 11, says—
" The principles established concerning the free
navigation of rivers and canals in the whole extent
of ancient Poland, as also regarding the use of har-
bours, the circulation of the products of the soil
and of industry between the different Polish pro-
vinces, and regarding transit, as enunciated in two
treaties between Austria and Russia, shall be in-
variably maintained.''
Thus, although parcelled out among three diffe-
rent States, no commercial barrier was to be placed
between the Polish provinces, Their rivers, their
canals, their harbours, remained, in the whole extent
of ancient Poland, open to the products of their soil
and their industry. What Art. 14 did for their
commerce the second paragraph of Art. 1 was in-
tended to do for their nationality. The well-deter-
mined and clearly-defined intention of the Powers
was that the provinces of ancient Poland, though
placed under foreign sceptres, should remain Polish.
We shall only recal here the terms of the instruc-
tions given in 1815 by the English Government to
their plenipotentiary, Lord Castlereagh. Is not
this again all that the address of Kamieniec asks for ?
4, Institutions in conformity to the traditions and
interests of the provincs"—a representation by
means of which "organs elected by the country and
chosen from its people watch over its affairs,"
" communication by way of roads for the free ex-
portationof its produce." The very terms of the
treaty are to be found in the address, and nothing
more.

We have said and proved that the intention:of
Europe, assembled in Congress at Vienna 60 years
ago, was not doubtful; we shall soon show that
there are at least more cabinete, than one whose
opinion on this point has not changed, and that,
notwithstanding the sort of indifference (laisser-
aller) of which the Powers have given proof on
every occasion when Poland was is question, the
subject has never been completely lost sight of.
But it may be well now to observe that among all
the Sovereigns assembled or represented in the Aus-
trian capital in 1815, not one showed more zeal, or
a more anxious desire for the guarantees to be given
to the Polish nationality than the Emperor of Rus-
sia, Alexander I.
In doing this he only showed that he was faithful
to the engagements he had solemnly undertaken in
1811 and 1812 towards the Poles and the Lithuanian
provinces; but from the zeal which he showed in
this portion of the negotiations, it is easy to perceive
that this was not in his view only a question of
keeping promises, but that it was the result of a
well determined conviction, and affected one of the
essential points of his policy. He would have wished
at once to re-establish under his sceptre the whole
kingdom of Poland, such as it existed before the
three partitions ; he wished, at least, to re-construct
a Poland by the re-union of all the palatinates and
districts subject to his authority. He was prevented
by the anxieties with which such a subject inspired
Austria and Prussia for their Polish possessions.
But he wished and obtained that, though under dif-
ferent sovereignties, the various parts of ancient
Poland sbculd remain Polish ; he wished for the
existence of a kingdom of Poland, and he expressly
reserved to himself the right of giving to this king-
dom, which was to be completely independent,
all the internal development which circumstances
might seem to him to admit, viz., to augment it by
the annexation of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian
provinces, all of which formerly formed part of the
old Republic of Poland.
Thus, all that the address of Kamieniec asks for is,
not only what Europe wished in 1815, but what the
Czar, Emperor of all the Rassias, wished at that time.
This reunion of all the palatinates and districts of
ancient Poland in one single kingdom, which he had
not been able to get adopted at Vienna, and which,
so far as he was concerned, he had reserved to him-
self the right of effecting, Alexander I. did not cease
to hold out to the nation as a thing to be hoped for,
as a prize to be won by its good behaviour :—" A
few more steps directed by wisdom and moderation
and marked by confidence and honesty," said he on
openin g the Diet of the Kingdom in 1820," and you
will attain the objects of your hopes and mine ;" and
this object was the restoration of the Polish father-
land so far as it could be accomplished by Russia
alone. The same promise may be found, in termsrcore
or less explicit, in all the speeches pronounced either
at the cpening or the close of the various sessions of
the Diet, and already the Lithuanian army had been
reunited to the Polish army under the command of
the Grand Duke Constantine, and this prince has
himself pointed out, as one of the causes of the fatal
but glorious insurrection of 1830, a confidential
letter, rendered public by an indiscretion,in which
his brother the Emperor Nicholas announced to him
that he had determined not to carry out the pro-
mises of Alexander and completely to change his
policy with regard to Poland.
The intentions of Alexander I. cannot be then
matter of doubt, any more than those of the Go-
vernments that were contracting parties in the Trea-
ties of Vienna. We have said that, notwithstand-
ing the perhaps excessive tolerance which Cabinets
have shown to the Powers who partitioned Poland
among themselves, whenever the obligations con-
tracted by them in 1815,with regard to their Polish
possessions were in question, the matter was never
entirely lost sight of, and that their intentions have
not changed. Proof of this may be found in a
despatch, addressed in 1831 by Lord Palmerston to
Lord Heytesbury, the then Ambassador of the
King of England at the Russian Court.

There is one other point to which I wish to direct
your attention. By Art. 1 of the Treaty of Vienna
it is stipulated that the Poles, subjects respectively
of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, shall obtain a
national representation and institutions, regulated
according to the kind of political existence which
each of the Governments to which they belong shall
think it useful and fitting to grant them. It is
understood that although this stipulation has been
executed by Austria and Prussia, it has hitherto
been entirely unfulfilled by the Russian Govern-
ment. His Majesty's Government have been in-
formed by the French ambassador at this Court that
instructions have been sent to the Duke de Morte•
mart to draw the attention of the Russian Govern.
ment to this matter. . If the question
should be agitated, your lordship is instructed to
state that as far as his Majesty's Government are
informed of the facts of the case it does not appear
to them that the provisions of the Treaty of Vienna
applicable to the Polish provinces of Russia have
been hitherto carried into execution.
These explanations appear to us sufficient to
justify the importance whieli,we here attach to_the

"It has nevertheless appeared to the court that
this induction could only be justified by analogous
acts. In the absence of such acts, the thought of
the accused can only be looked upon as a wish which
they have moreover sought to excuse—
" Ist. By the expressions of the Treaty, of Vienna,
by which his Majesty the Emperor Alexander had
reserved to himself the right of giving to the king-
dom of Poland such internal extension as he may
think proper.

" 2d. By the expressions in the speeches pro-
nounced by the throne at various diets.
And in consequence of these considerations the
President declared that the Court had not been able
to " find a criminal tendency in the expression of
wishes on which the whole prosecution depended."
The position of the Marshals of the province of
Podolia is much stronger than that of the accused
of 1828. It is not as members of a secret society,
whose acts may always be, with more or less jus-
tice, likened to conspiracies, that they 'are to appear
before the tribunal of the Senate. They have not
conspired ; they have acted in broad day, with the
greatest loyalty, and in the exercise of a commis-
sion clearly defined by law. But it is no longer a
Polish Senate—it is a Russian Senate that tries
them. Will the Russian Senate, at least, strictly
apply to their ease the laws of the Empire P These
laws give the electoral meetings of the nobility, in
every province, the right of discussion on the wants
and interests of that province, and, further, to ex-
pose them, through the provincial Marshal, to the
Governor of the province, to the Minister of the
Interior, and, in important cases, to the Emperor
himself.

The nobility is forbidden to make regulations
contrary to law, and, in such case, the assembly
collectively, and Marshals individually, are liable
to penalties of from 150 to 30 roubles ; but " as for
representations addressed to a governor or an inferior
authority on the subject of the wants of the pro-
vince, the repression of local abuses, or the suppres-
sion of irregularities observed in the local adminis-
tration, even when these abuses proceed from some
general arrangement, they are not considered con-
trary to the laws, if put forward in reasonable
terms."

In the face of such provisiatis, it is difficult to
understand how the prosecution can be maintained
before any tribunal whatever, and how it will be
possible to obtain a condemnation. But it is not
for us to examine this side of the question here ;
this is the business of the advocates who will plead
before the Russian Senate. The only branch of the
subject we have in view, and to which we think it
our duty to call the attention of our readers, is
that by which this affair is connected with the
public rights of Europe, and which we have en-
deavoured to place in the clearest possible light.

DESPE.RA7E AFFRAY Wl7ll BURGLA.RS.

On Wednesday morning a house at Hazlewood,
in the Hagley-road, Edgbaston, in the suburbs of
Birmingham, occupied by Mr. Reynolds, solicitor,
was broken into by five burglars, who were fright-
ened away by a servant, severely wounding him in
a struggle that cook place. The house, it appears,
stands at the bottom of a garden, the front being
towards the town, and in the rear is a walled court-
yard, with a heavy door leading to a kitchen gar-
den, beyond which is a smaller garden and a field.
The man-servant slept in a room over a stable,which
was included in a range of houses. The burglars,
it appears, crossed the field and the two gardens
from Augustus-road, and obtained entrance to the
courtyard by the door. Having gained access, their
first step was to silence the bell by placing tow
round the clapper, and they afterwards forced open
the door of the kitchen, thereby gaining admission to
the house. It appears, in the meantime, that their
steps were heard by the man who slept in the room
overhead. He got up to a small window in his bed-
room, which overlooks the courtyard, and seeing at
a glance the position of affairs, promptly and cou-
rageously determined, if possible, to foil the at-
tempt, partially dressed himself, armed himself
with a hatchet, and taking a lighted candle, sallied
down to the kitchen where he found the men.
As far as can be gathered from his account, given
since in moments of consciousness, he attacked the
men, a scuffle ensued, in which his candle was put
out, and he himself was knocked bleeding and un-
conscious to the ground, from a heavy blow with a
sharp instrument on the head, and he was also
struck and wounded in the breast. The burglars
must also have " hocussed" a watch dog which was
kept on the premises. The young man remained
unconscious up to noon on Wednesday. Two men
have since been apprehended on suspicion of being
concerned in the burglary.!

EXTRAORDINARY CAPTURE OF A WHAM-Our
Falmouth correspondent informs us that a messenger arrived
on Monday at the office of Messrs. Fox and Co., stating
that a large whale had been seen as-lore near Portloe. It
measures 45 feet in length, and is supposed to be of 20 tons
weight. The noise of its blowing drew Mr. Blarney, farmer,
with his men, to the ,spot, when the whale was found beat-
ing itself about on the rocks. The whale was secured by
throwing ropes round it, and forms a valuable
mouth Journal.

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this is a genuine specific. The grateful and earnest testi-
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helplessness
and a condition loathsome to
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large in this place upon its extraordinary virtues. The
parts affected should be bathed with lukewarm water, and
when the pores are thereby opened, the Ointment should
be rubbed in at least twice a day. It then penetrates to
the seat of the disorder, and effects a thorough and perma-
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eamS, as mild as they are efficacious.

LIVES of EMINENT STATESMEN,
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4s. ed. ; post free, 55., the
SECOND half-yearly VOLUME of FUN, with
k-, numerous Engravings by talented artists, and humor-
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W. Bailey, Esq. W. S. Gilbert, Esq.
W. Barber, Esci, T. Hood, Esq.
E. L. Blanch ird, Esq. T. S. Jerrold, Esq.
G. W. Bridze,nan, Esq. IV. J. Prowse, Esq.
F. C. Burnand, Esq. Godfrey Turner, Esq.
11. J. Byron, Esq. &c., &c., &a.
Office, 80, Fleet-street, London.

HALF-A-DOZEN UMBRELLAS in the
Christmas Number of SATURDAY NIGHT. Con-
ducted by THOMAS HOOD.

*** For full particulars of amusements see first page.
ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT-GARDEN.
'Phis Evening, MARITANA. _

Commenoe at 8.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
This Evening, DUCK HUNTING. Alter which, OUR
AMERICAN COUSIN. With TURNING THE TABLES.
And MY HUSBAND'S GHOST,

Commenoe'at 7.

NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.
This Evening:. AGNES DE VERE. Followed by A
TICKET OF LEAVE. And THE HONEYMOON.

Commence at 7.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
This Evening, IT MUST BE T iWE, 'TWAS IN THE
PAPERS. Followed by PEEP O'DAY. To conclude with
KILLAttNEY.

Commence at 7.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Great Windmill-street, Hay-
market. Open every evening for Promenade and Dancing.

CANTERBURY HALL—EVERY EVENING.—
Grand Selections from the Popular Operas.—The Comic per-
formances of Unsworth. Ilutrene, Little Bob, Arthur Lloyd.
Hollingsworth, E. Marshall, Miss G. Smithson, ,tc.—The
Etoile Family, &a
Commence at 7.

THE OXFORD, 6, OXFORD-STREET, EVERY
EVENING.—Re-appearance of llnsworth. the oriP.:inal of
"Or any other man' -The Colleen Bawn, by Miss Caroline
Parkes—Mr. Maclagan's Entertainment Drew Dean, the
great Flautist—the Neapolitan Minstrels—Selections from
Verdi's " II Corsaro" and "Nabnco," Donizettl's "Don Se-
baatien," Sro, with lull band and chorus.
Commence at 7.

THIS NEWSPAPER,
"THE SUN,"

Has now been finally and conclusively sold to
C. Kent, Esq., its principal editor, who was the pur-
chaser thereof at the auction at the sum of £2,420,
inclusive of the valuation of the plant, machinery,
furniture, and effects. The biddings were on Thurs-
day re-opened, before the Chief Clerk of the Master
of the Rolls, by the offer of an increase of £5OO ;
Mr. Kent then offered an increase of £BOO, and, no
further offer being made, he was, by an order of
the Master of the Rolls, declared the purchaser
for £3,220, inclusive of the plant, &c. Mr. Kent
has to pay the balance of his purchase money
into Court on or before Saturday, the 27th inst.,
and will then become the sole owner of the pro:
perty from that date.
ADAM RIVERS STEELE, Solicitor,
44, Bloomsbury-square, London, W.C.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DA-r.l Morning, 12h. 30m.—Afternoon, 12h. 58m.
To-monnow.-Morning, lh. 24m.—Afternoon, lh. 52m.

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 20, 1862.

The Royal Commissioners of the Great Interna-
tional Exhibition of 1862 have recently capped the
climax of their now perfectly consistent mismanage-
ment throughout. After inviting H.R.H. the
Prince of WALES to preside, early in the New Year
(1863) over the ceremonial of the distribution of the
Prizes awarded to the successful Exhibitors, they
have had the consummate indecorum to acknowledge
the gracious compliance of His Royal Highness
with their request by politely informing their
future SOVEREIGN that they would, upon second
thoughts, dispense with his offices upon the pro-
posed occasion—the design of a public distribution
of the medals, as originally projected, having been
abandoned as inconvenient by themselves, these
ever-blundering and ever-bungling Royal Commis-
sioners.

Nor is this all even—they have since then, in a
manner quite deliberately and gratuitously reite-
rated this flagrant indecorum and discourtesy. As
thus. It should be premised that the intention of
this Board of Sages had been in every conceivable
respect charmingly in keeping with all their other
doings from first to last. They designed to
have the ceremonial of distribution conducted
with all suitable pomp in the early part of 1863 in
the empty hideous mausoleum of the dead and gone
Exhibition itself ! They proposed to gather together
in the shuddering cold weather of the late winter,
or at the very latest of the raw early spring, thirty
thousand or so of her
MAJESTY'S lieges, presided
ever by the youthful heir to the throne, his Royal
Highness having, as we have seen, graciously com-
plied with their most precipitate and indiscretely
ill-considered invitation. There in Captain
Fosararshorribleabortion (lira Building, ridiculously
compounded of a blending of several mammoth
barns, a jumble of gigantic cucumber frames, and
a couple of colossal glass domes, worthy in their
ribbed and swelling contour of this present Age of
Crinolines—the Commissioners actually had the
inhumanity to propose assembling together in order
that they might shudder for several hours in
the cold, at the modest charge of a guinea
a-head, those who might be in any way desi-
rous of seeing for themselves how wretched the
Building looked when stripped of its costly and
many-coloured contents, while his H.R.H. the
Prince of WALES, with half frozen fingers, handed
medal after medal to the more fortunate and the
more deserving among the Exhibitors. From the
first instant of the mention of this design, the
absurdity of it was apparent to every one—but the
Commissioners themselves. It gave one a sense
of intense discomfort—the mere outline of this
most sagacious proposition. It was evident upon
tlae instant that, unsatisfactory as the appearance
of
ftise edifice indubitably was, even when adorned
—th all
ose its magnificent and gorgeous adornments
se treasures of the earth there accumulated
en /mi"4"l.._
from both hemispberes—its ugliness in
every v 0,.. architecturally would be all the more
glaringly visible from the fact of the naked shell or
husk being the arena of the assemblage. Beyond
which there
were as manifestly no facilities what-
ever for the mere
reituacanetoomfort of heating the
huge structure left v
and altogether unused
during the previous winter mouths. Eventually—
though, it is certainly to be very deeply regretted,
not till after the Prince of WAL
Es had been asked
and had graciously consented to Preside over the
.I);stribation, or rather himself to distribute the
Prize Medals to the Exhibitors—eventually
the Royal Commissioners themselves recognised
upon second thoughts what ever3body else
before them bad seen quite distinctly at the very
first blush—namely', that the thing ought never in
reason to have been dreamt of. Recognising this
even
fact at length quite unmistakeably, they
made
bad worse by writing, almost one had said
disloyally, beyond all doubt most undeserved/Y, a
put off" to his Royal Highness. A commu-
.ssication was ad tressed to his Royal High-
ness,\ intimating, in point of fact, that a little
calculation had served to convince the Royal Com-
missioners that the celebration to which his Royal
Highness had been invited, and-one over which, he

had generously consented to preside, must, after all
be—not postponed merely, but entirely and
definitively abandoned. As cool a proceeding,
this, in its way, as could very well have
been thought of—the last and fitting climax to
the blundering of the Royal Commissioners.
As though this,how€ ver were:not yet quite enough
as a specimen of miserably bad taste under the cir-
cumstanees—the Royal Commissioners have just
now, as one might venture to say, literally perfected
their indiscretion by the fact, nay, also by the
very manner of their declining the handsome
offer volunteered to them in their dilemma by
the Crystal Palace Company ! An offer which
if accepted might even yet have enabled
the Royal Commissioners to carry out the scheme
of a distribution of prizes, with his Royal Highness
as The Distributor, not in that hideous shell of a
used-up Building at South Kensington, but in the
lovely Crystal Palace, among the verdant and
flowery slopes of Sydenham. Instead of availing
themselves of the generously-conceived and princely
offer of the use of that charming structure, the
Royal Commissioners, obtuse with a crass stupidity,
as it would seem, down to the very end of the last
chapter of their protracted history of mismanage-
ment, churlishly decline the offer at once, and
that, moreover, without even the grace of
a mere passing show of hesitation. The
" put off " so the Royal Commissioners
thought—must perforce be looked upon as final.
Their latest blunder, and in some respects their
greatest blunder (their amazing letter to the Prince.
of WALES apprizing his Royal Highness that his
attendance, as President of the Distribution, could
be dispensed with) that last flagrant error of theirs,
the Royal Commissioners were determined, under
any circumstances, coute qui coute, to abide by.
Moreover, said they, the abandonment of the notion
of any ceremonious public distribution at all had
been intimated far and wide throughout this coun-
try—all over the continent of Europe—east, west,
north, and south the tidings of that abandonment
of the notion was flying to the ends of the earth.
Those tidings there was no time now left to
recal—so at least thought and argued the
Royal Commissioners. Therefore—they begged
leave to decline the proffered Crystal Palace
as the scene of any exhibition of the kind. The
Crystal Palace Company would really seem to have
been treated by the Royal Commissioners as though
they were "encumbering them with help," actor d-
ing to the happy phrase addressed with such de-'
lightful irony by Doctor:J*0111186N to the fastidious
and eminently supercilious Earl of CHESTERFIELD.
The Royal Commissioners were much obliged, but
they would rather not.

We would recommend to all.who wish for some
authentic information on the temper, spirit, and
resources of the South in carrying on the present
war, a small duodecimo by a New Yorker, " Thirteen
Months in the Rebel Army." After reading it,
nothing will be plainer than that any communica-
tions from " own correspondents" at Richmond, or
any other place in the South, are of the smallest
possible value. So strict is the supervision of:every
person, of all the journals, and even of the rose-
office itself, that nothing disadvantageous to the
South is suffered to leave it. The young writer of
this story was, so early as the beginning of 1861,
forced to volunteer into the Rebel army, merely in
consequence of having written in a letter home—
" This is a hard place to live in, as I had to ride
ten miles to get paper and ink to write this
letter." This led to his being brought before
a low, drinking, violent Vigilance Committee
in Arkausas, where he had been quietly
and industriously earning his living, observing the
utmost prudence on the subject of slavery. But he
was a Northern man, did not speak so well as he
ought to do of the semi-savage district he was in,
and it was by the merest good luck, the better temper
of two or three of the committee, and the exhibition of
two six-barrelled revolvers, that he got a vote of
acquittal. One fellow went out and brought a
rope to :hang him into the room; and, after his
acquittal, he thinking it wiser immediately to leave,
and having taken a boat to Memphis, one of these
fellows got there before him with the letter—a
policeman took him before another committee there,
and he was again offered the alternative, in no
equivocal terms, of volunteering into the Southern
army, or of being hung! His very entrance into
the rebel army indicates the character of the men
who have no terms of vituperation bad enough for
Mr. LINCOLN'S arrests, and for General BUTLER'S
rule. And Memphis, where he was thus dealt
with, is the commercial capital of Tennessee.

From other instances which occur in his narra-
tive it is clear that this compulsion of Union men
to serve in the rebel army was universal. We are
all shocked at the brutality of General M'NEIL, and
think that execution is too good for him; yet only
in regard to the number of the sufferers did this
savage outdo what the rebel officers also do in cool
blood. Two brothers, of the name of ROWLAND,
in Eastern Tennessee, while the rebels were raising
a force there, differed in opinion respecting the war.
The younger was vehemently loyal. They compelled
him to enlist. He protested in vain, always telling
them he would desert on the first opportunity.
The opportunity occurred at the capture of Fort
Donelson, when he joined the loyal army. After
this he was amongst some prisoners taken
at the battle of Pittsburg Landing, and was ac-
tually captured by the very regiment to which he
had previously belonged by compulsion. Some in
their fury attempted to kill him on the spot ; but
he was reserved for a more formal fate. No mere
guerilla captain like M'NEIL, but the general of
division, HARDEE, ordered him to be shot. The
general was indeed ashamed to witness the exe-
cution; but he was shot, dying most courageously
and loyally, with just the same revolting parade
and formality as that practised by M'NEIL, and
some 10,000 troops were called out to witness this
murder ! Missouri might well reply to the
demand for M‘NEIL by a demand for the
surrender of General HARDEE. That general
described ROWLAND as brooding over his fancied
wrongs, and said no sum of money could have in-
duced him to witness the execution, but that it was
necessary to prevent other desertions ! If this were
true, it gives us a protty picture of the violence
used in the South to force Union men to fight.
The system of repression is, however, seen to
be complete. The Union sentiment dare not show
itself, if it existed. We often hear of the divisions
in the North. This in truth is really, in one sense
to its credit—it allows people to think as they
like, and to a great extent to talk as they like too ;
but thirteen months' service in the Confederate

army in every capacity almost, ending as an army
burgeon, showed our " Volunteer" that no Unionism
was allowed. The South is a unit, for it is united
by terrorism. Perhaps it would be more correct to
say that it had long ago driven away every anti-
slavery man, and could only have a few right-
minded, thoughtful persons of that character, who
would no more dream of expressing their opinions
than of committing suicide ; indeed, the two things
would be identical. The South, he tells us, is ter-
ribly in earnest, and when the North becomes so,
it will no more allow the present liberty of expres-
sion and action than the South does. Even the
Northern newspapers are, he says, one chief source

through which the South learns the military move-
ments of its enemies ; while he assures us that no
Southern newspaper will ever be found publishing
any war news, unless it be either before the move.
ments are made, in order to mislead, or afterwards,
when it can do no harm.
The same remark applies to the numerous ships
which run the blockade. At first such feats were
reported with a little boasting. It was soon found
that the information was useful to the North. Such
reporting immediately ceased ; yet he saw abundant
proof that the blockade was extensively evaded.
We have wondered much how the South 'was so well
provided with arms. He mentions that the num-
ber stored by the traitor FLOYD, in Southern
arsenals, was immense; but far the greater part
are of English, Belgian, or French manufacture,
and the ammunition comes with them. As the
newspapers are all as silent as death in regard to
such arrivals, no one but those directly interested
are aware of them. They have done a great deal
in the way of manufacture also, and altogether he
the South will not, even in a long war, feel the
want of arms and ammunition.
The book itself cannot fail to interest, even as
a vivid personal romance. The writer was actu-
ally engaged on the Staff, and was badly wounded
at Pittsburg Landing, having vainly endeavoured
to escape previously to the battle, and put GRANT
on his guard. It was long after before he could
effect his escape, partly by the aid of gold, and
partly by the help of his revolver. But he has given,
as he says, facts which may be of value to his bleed-
ing country, " facts as to the diabolical barbarism
of Southern society in trampling upon all personal
rights—faith phuwing tho I.tvuasu and .covluie
earnestness of the whole Southern people in the
rebellion—facts demonstrating the large re-
sources of the rebels in arms and money,
and the absolute military despotism which
has combined and concentrated their power
—facts of the atrocious character of the gurilla sys-
tem organised and legalised among them—facts
exhibiting the efficiency of every arm of their mili-
tary course,—facts showing the necessity of restric-
tions on the freedom of the press in times of war"—
and many other facts which if duty regarded,
" would stir the North to a profounder sense of the
desperate and deadly struggle in which they are
engaged than they have ever yet felt." His book
can hardly fail to be of service to the North ; it
will open many eyes to the necessity of military
tactics more decided than those of 1114CLELLAN, and
of emancipation measures that shall at least destroy
the great advantage which the Southern armies
gain from the camp and fortifications labours of the
poor slaves. Englishmen will learn from it also
much which they had little conception of before, and
will better understand from it the conditions of this
great struggle.

General BURNSIDE has taken his first step to-
wards Richmond. He has crossed the river, the
Rappahannock, in the teeth of the Confederates.
The town of Fredericksburg lies, on its south side,
but within range of the north.side. The' Confede-
rates were prepared with batteries, which they
opened at once on the troops employed in making
the bridges, but their fire was so successfully replied
to that the Federals crossed at last with slight op-
position. The Confederates, we are told, retreated to
their line of works outside the town, probably from
motives of humanity, as Fredericksburg is in Secessia,
as much as for military reasons, and there our in-
formation ceases for the present.

The weather has been very bad, which,. however,
brings one military compensation with it. The
rivers rise with the wet, and the Federal gunboats
are able to exert themselves so much the more
effectively. On this very occasion, we are
informed they shelled the Confederates fifteen
miles below the town, where they had concentrated.
Indeed, wherever the boats can turn, the Federals
are masters of the passage of any river. The
Federal position in regard to Richmond now, is
that they are with an army probably 200,000
strong at Fredericksburg, which is sixty miles
from Richmond by railway direct having
there the Confederate army of probably
about half their number to dispute their passage.
If beaten, the Confederates would retire, of course
destroying the railway as they retired, and render-
ing the Federal advance necessarily very slow, as
the railway roust be repaired merely to keep up the
requisite supplies for the army: Next, the state-
ment has been of late that a co-operating
expedition is to advance from Fort Monroe
along the James River, and a land force
on the south of the river, to take Richmond in the
rear and destroy its southern railroad communi-
cations. Such combinations are always difficult,
and it would seem easy work for men of STONE-
WALL JACKSON'S stamp to interfere with them
successfully.

But in this immense continent the war is car-
t
ried on at vast distances. In the far west of
Arkansas we find the two parties engaged in mur-
derous conflict in bodies of considerable size, re-
mote and unsettled as the country yet is. We
are told by the Federals that their opponents
numbered 24,000 men, they themselves at first
only 7,000, though afterwards reinforced by
5,000; yet the smaller body held more than
three times their number at bay all day,
and on the arrival of the reinforcements com-
pletely routed the Confederates. It is impos-
sible not to suspect some Federal exaggera-
tion here. Probably the combatants, on both sides,
were rude and rough backwoods-men, with little
military discipline, fighting very much in the style
of our ancestors in the wars of the Roses.

The political news is not much. The Republicans
have of course a large majority in the present Con-
gress, and appear to carry their point easily, The
opposition endeavours to embarrass the majority as
much as it can, in the hope of delaying business
till after the 4th of March, when an extra
session must be held to vote the appro-
priations. This would, of course, shorten the
time during which the Republican party would
have free play, through the PRESIDENT, to carry
on the war according to their own views. The
coming year is therefore the most important one of
the war. If the Confederates are ever likely to
feel the exhausting effect of the war, they wili feel
it during the winter, spring, and autumn of 1863.
If during that period the Federals can make their
emancipation policy tell pretty widely, it
will decide the conditions of the war.
Even the Damocrats, if - they see slavery
practically abolished to a very great extent—
knowing as they do that it is the perennial root of
all their difficulties—even they, will be warm abo-
litionists. They will feel that it is not worth while
to preserve a remnant of slavery, though they
would have strongly resisted its abolition while
almost half the States were practising it. All
therefore depends, apparently, on what the Federals
can achieve during the coming year, and before the
Democratic congress meets in December, 1863. May
it achieve a general emancipation. " Compensated
abolition" to be compled by the beginning of 1900 is
better than nothing, but better far—indeed Ameri-
can experience has already proved it—to emanci-
pate the negroes at once and for ever. Wherever it
has been done, they are working better than they j
did before.

7HE LANCASHIRE RELIEF FUND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

you allow me, through the columns of Thci
Sun, to inform the thousands of people who will be seek-
ing for instruction and amusement in Christmas week,
that Handel's oratorio, " The Messiah," will be given by
the members of the National Choral Society, at Exeter
Hall, on Monday next, in aid of the Lancashire Relief
Fun,
.9 The band and chorus will number 700 performers,
offices of the National Choral Society,
. ,iekets will vary from Is, to 10s. 6d and they
al!, so :lid all classes may, while en-
joying h4aoaynpbrleclehsao
dLE.-xaett
etrhncl
a rational evening's pntertainnient, contribute to
the fund for the relief of the dire necessities of our brothers
and sisters of the North.—Your obedient servant,
GEO. W. MARTIN.
14 and 15, Exeter Hall, Dec. 19, 1862.

MURDEROUS ATTACK ON A CONVICT WARDER AT
PORTSMOUTH DOCKYARD.—Another diabolical attempt to
murder a convict keeper wasperpetrated yesterday, at Potts-
mouth dockyard, under the following circumstances. It
appears that while a party of convicts were employed in
the old rope store of her Majesty's dockyard, under a keeper
named Deane, who had incurred the animosity of a convict
named Frazer, the latter seized an opportunity to make a
murderous assault on the keeper, by striking him on the
for ehead with a piece of teak wood about three feet in length
by five inches in circumference, which formed one of the
steps of what is termed a " Jacob's ladder." Other prisoners
are said to be concerned in the outrage. This is the second
case during the past week of a similar nature, and only last
week a convict belonging to the same prison was sentenced
to 15 years' penal servitude for assaulting a keeper named
Martin Gibbs.
SHOCKING OCCURRENCE IN THE A DELPHI.—
Yesterday much eritement was caused in the neighbour-
hood of the Adelphi, by the report that a gentleman had
been found dead in a room, at No. 12, York-buildings, with
a bullet wound in his body. It was soon ascertained to be
the bony of Mr. S: F. Nicholson, a solicitor, who occupied
chambers in the above house. He was about 30 years of

age, and has left a wife. Dr. Duncan was called in, and he

stated that the unfortunate man had been dead some hours'
death having been -.toed by the bullet wound in his body.
pistm was found lying by Ins smo, 0.. a sd ;d mionosed h
committed suicide. Information has been sent to the co-
roner of the sad event.
Garibaldi's Hymn was called for by the audience
the other night at the Andrea Doria Theatre, Genoa, and
received with much applause. The orchestra afterwards
played the "Marseillaise," but this was hissed.
The Zenzero of Florence announces that Gari-
baldi now leaves his bed, and can walk about on crutches
in his room.

A correspondent of the lndependance Beige states
that according to reports which have reached him, M, Thiers
is about to come forward as a candidate for a seat in the
Corps Legislatif, and that he has determined to speak upon
three delicate subjects—the Roman question, free trade,
and the affairs of Mexico.

YORK CHRISTMAS HoRSE FAlR.—This great
annual fair commenced on Monday last. During the week
there has been a good supply of all descriptions, and a brisk
demand has been experienced for hunters, some of which
have been purchased to send abroad. Prices vary from £lOO
to £3OO each. There was a good demand for carriage horses
at £4O to £100; for nags lower prices had to be taken; the
best sorts made £5O to over DO ; secondary, £2O to £45;
cab horses, £l5 to £26; ponies, £l5 to £2B each. The de-
mand for agricultural horses was fair, and tolerably good
prices were made. There has been a numerous attendance
of buyers from various parts of the country.
SALE OF THE ESTATE OF NETHERLEY.—The
estate of Netherley, Kincardineshire, has been sold by Mr.
Horatio Ross to Mr. W. N. Forbes, of Auchernach and
Dunottar, for £53,000, being at the rate of 30 years' pur-
chase of the present rental.-4berdeon Herald.
Among the officers who have returned from
Mexico with General Lorencez is Commandant Detrie, who
so highly distinguished himself at the Borrego. He left
France for Mexico, it may be remembered, with only the
rank of lieutenant.

ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.—The Governors •of
this institution are now understood to be negotiating with
the Fishmongers' Company for the purchase of a plot of
ground in the Walworth•road, a little beyond the Elephant
and Castle, as a site for the new hospital. A deputation of
them, headed by the treasurer, had an interview on the
subject yesterday with the committee of the Court of Fish-
mongers, of which Mr. Cubitt, the late Lord Mayor, was
chairman for the occasion, at their hall, near London-
bridge. The piece of ground is between seven and eight
acres in extent, and is nearer the more populous portions of
Southwark than the Surrey-gardens, and on a better level.
The building in all its parts, it is said, could be erected
simultaneously, whereas in such a locality as the Surrey-
gardens it would have to be put up in sections. The Fish-
mongers' Company are understood to have offered the site
to the hospital authorities for £40,000, plus certain expenses,
which are not to exceed £5,000. The negotiation, of course,
cannot be concluded without the approval of the Governors
of the hospital. The Court of Common Council, who are
largely represented in the governing body, showed by the
complete unanimity on a 'very recent occasion that they
are thoroughly alive to the question of locality in the in-
terests of the poor, and there need therefore be no appre,
hension now that anything will be done in a corner in this
important matter.

Two men of the Beni Hayane tribe, named Abd
ben Kouider, and Youssef ben Kouider, who were con-
demned to death by the military tribunal of Blidah for the
murder of another man of the same tribe, have just beeu
executed on the market-place of Teniet el Had, in Algeria.
All the male portion of the Beni Hayane tribe were sum-
moned to the execution, and formed one of the three sides
of a square in which the two men were shot. After the
execution, the bodies were given up to the families to which
they belonged.

The captain of the French merchant brig Miltiade,
which was lost at Tabarque, near Tunis, has written a letter
to the Semaphore of Marseilles, in which he expresses the
gratitude felt by himself and crew towards the captain of
the Tunisian vessel Mansour, who conveyed them, to Tunis
after supplying everything of which they stood in need.
The Bordeaux journals announce the sudden
death from apoplexy, of M. Gout-Desmartres, of that city,
member of the Council7General of the Gironde, and Presi-
dent of the Societie Philomatique of Bordeaux. When re-
turning home from hii club, he suddenly alighted opposite
the octro:office, close to his own residence, exclaiming,
" Delp I help ! I am suffocating I " and fell dead in the
arms-of one of the men on duty,

A FE4T OF Anias.—A feat of arms (says the
Constitutiofrinel) has just been performed in Senegal which
is worthy of mention. A detachment of 14 French Marines,
under the: command of a sergeant named Burg, who were
entrenched in the post of Kaolakh, kept in check for 14
hours, and finally repulsed, a body of 6,000 fanatics, under
the orders of, two desperate chiefs, named Maba and Ma-
cedon. When the enemy retired before such an heroic
resistance, there were found lying round the post the bodies
of 250 men and 70 horses. The remainder of the army had
fled in disorder across the Saloum.

SOUTH YORKSHIRE COAL TRADE.—Businesa has
been very brisk during the whole of the past month at all
the collieries in the district, and the demand both by land
and water carriage appears likely to continue good. There
has been a large increase in all kinds of coal carried into the
metropolitan district, especially by the Great Northern.
The quantity carried by that line was 46,652 tons, against
30,717 tons in Cctober. The London and North-Western
carried 63,512 tons ; Midland, 22,986 tons ; and the Great
Eastern, 10,392-tons. Although there has been a falling
off in the total quantity carried by the various lines of
railway for the eleven months of 1862, as compared with
the same period of 1861, yet there has been a large increase
for the month over that of 1861. The returns are—
November, 1861, 139,568 tons ; November, 1862,
151,819 tons. The principal supplies have come from Earl
Fitzwilliam's Elsecar Collieries, 3,671 tons; Newton and
Co., 5,210 tons ; Wharncliffe Silkstone, 5,880 tons ; Clarke's
Old Silkstone, 3,281 tons. There is a brisk demand in the
southern and midland counties for the Silkstone nuts, for
gas purposes, so much so that some of our largest proprie-
tors have been obliged to refuse orders. The Lancashire
market continues dull for steam coal, and but a limited busi-
ness is done on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire
line. The prospects, of the trade just now, however, are
much brighter than at any other period of the year.

DESTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS BY GALVANIC AC-
TION INDUCED ET PREPARATIONS OF COPPER.—Tho
French floating battery La Gloire has lately been examined,
and found to be seriously injured by the action of copper
on her iron plates, the whole of which, below the waterline,
will have to be removed, being converted into a kind of
plumbago by galvanic action. We had occasion some time
since to call attention to the extraordinary state of her Ma-
jesty's ships Triton and Sharpshooter. On their being
docked for examination, the iron plates were in some
places reduced to the thickness of writing paper, and in the
Triton the scrapers actually went through the plates when
removing the tons of oysters, barnacles, &c., attached to
the bottom. It appears that the ship had been coated with
a preparation of copper, and the destruction of the plates
and rivets arose from galvanic action on the exposed sur-
faces of the iron, where the undercoating has become rubbed
off under the bow and forefoot and along the light-load
water-line. The salvation of this ship from foundering was
no doubt occasioned by the adhesion of the shell-fish. She
has just been thoroughly repaired at Devonport Dockyard;
and is now coated with Messrs. Peacock and Buchan's pre-
paration, which is superseding the copper preparation
hitherto used in her Majesty's dockyards. We understand
that Captain Peacock, formerly a master in her Majesty's
navy, who published &Pamphlet on this subject some years
since, actually warned the late Ministre de Marine in Paris
against what has now taken place, two years ago ; he also
waited on the Minister of Marine in Madrid, on the same
subject, and has been for several years in communication
with our own admiralty authorities on the importance of
preventing galvanic action upon the iron ships of the
British navy, and we are glad to see that the lordships and
our dockyard offlcials are at length alive to this important
subject-411faing Gazette,

LATEST NEWS.

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, DEC. 19.

The Royal Mail steamship Africa arrived here
at 5.30 p.m. She brings 60 passengers and 227,581
dols. She landed in all 65 sacks of msils, and
proceeded at 0.45 for Liverpool, all well. The
Africa left Boston on the 10th and Halifax on
the 12th inst., thus making the passage from
Boston to Queenstown in the short space of nine
days. The following is a summary of her news :
NEW YORK, DEC. 2, EVENING.

The following is an abstract of despatches pub
lished to-day, addressed by Mr. Adams to Mr.

Seward:

In June Mr. Adams writes that the darling
desire of the governing classes, that America may
be divided, though subdued in expression by
events, remains as strong as ever.
Mr. Adams writes in October that he has had
an interview with Earl Russell, in which, refer-
ring to Mr. Gladstone's speech, Earl Russell said
it was not for him to disavow anything on the part
of Mr. Gladstone, but that Mr. Gladstone had
no idea in saying what he had that there was
serious intention to justify any inferonces of a
disposition of the Government to adopt a new
policy. Earl Russell stated as guardedly as pos-
sible that Lord Palmerston and the other mem-
bers of the
.Cabinet regretted Mr. Gladstone's
speech, but it was still their intention to adhere
to perfect neutrality, and let the struggle eme to
its natural end without the smallest interference,
direct or other otherwise. Earl Russell, however,
could not say what circumstances might happen
from month to month in the future.

Mr. Seward's recent communication to Mr,
Adams are summarised thus :

In June Mr. Seward writes that a list of pur-
chases made for the Confederates in England, which
list had fallen into the hands of the Federals, shows
that the complaints made to Earl Russell fall short
of the real abuses of neutrality committed in Eng-
land in the very face of the 13ritish Government.
" The revolution," says Mr. Seward, "is now ap-
proaching its end, and it is just at this moment proof
becomes irresistible that if it had succeeded it. suc-
cess would have been due to the assistance derived
from the English people." Mr. Seward says the
President thinks it desirable that the English
Government should consider before the war closes
what are likely to be the sentiments of England
and America towards each other after its termina-
tion.

In August Mr. Seward writes that a war with
England could not fail to unite North and South.
In November Mr. Seward writes that while Euro-
pean parties are more hostile than ever to America,
America herself is stronger to resist intervention
than at any former period. Intervention would
only afford an additional motive for America to sus-
tain her resolution to remain united. Less than
three years ago all England showed itself desirous
of friendship with America, and a similar desire
may before long recur.
On the 3d, same month, Mr. Sewald states that
the President is compelled to regard the destruc-
tion of ships by the Alabama as having been made
by British subjects in violation of the law of nations.
"It is presumed," says Mr. Seward, " you have
already brought the subject before the British
Government in that light. Legal proofs to support
indemnity claims will be collected and transmitted
as soon as possible."
A despatch from Mr. Seward to Mr. Drayton is
also published, stating that America has a right to
insist that France shall not make use of the war she

is carrying on in Mexico to raise an anti-republioan
or anti-American Government, or maintain such
Government in power. France having disclaimed
such designs, America is bound to wait, and not
anticipate their execution.
A despatch from Mr. Clay, in Russia, to Mr.
Seward, dated January last, urges him to offer to
the Canadians union with America, and to send
men and money into Ireland to stir up revolt.
"Vengeance will sooner or later overtake England,
the perfidious aristocrat," says Mr. Clay.
The cold is very severe in Virginia, and every-

thing is frozen.
The Confederate General Stonewall Jackson has
joined General Lee at Fredericksburg.
It is rumoured that the Confederate cavalry
under General Stuart is on the north side of the
Rappahannock, moving between the Federal forces
of Generals Burnside and Sigel.
The Southern journals say that the Federals are
croasing the Rappahannock at Port Royal. The
same journals think that an attack on Richmond
will be made simultaneously by a Federal column
from Fredericksburg and another from Suffolk, and
by the fleet on the James River, but that the Con-
federates are prepared for such an attempt.
The Confederates have again been repulsed in an
attack upon Cave-hill, Arkansas.
It is rumoured that the Federal expedition under
General Banks has been landed at Petersburg,
Virginia.

The committee of ways and means has introduced
a bill into Congress providing for an issue of
1,000,000,000 dols., in bonds similar in amount and
form to those authorised by the act of February,
1862, with the interest payable in United States
lawful money, and the principal payable in 20
years in gold or silver coin of the United States.
Also the issue of legal tender notes, the amount
not to exceed, with those already authorised,
500,000,000 dols., in order to enable the Secretary
of the Treasury to call in all 5.20 and 7.30 Treasury
bonds now in eirenlation, and to cancel them ; and
authorising the Secretary to redeem legal tender
notes held as loans, and bearing interest.
The committee has further proposed that the
law authorising the payment of interest on United
States bonds in gold should be repealed.
The bill aims at the virtual suppression of the
banks, by imposing a tax of 50 per cent. upon all
their circulation over one-half of the amount of
their capital paid in.
The House of Representatives has passed a bill
indemnifying President Lincoln for suspending the
writ of habeas corpus.
Large quantities of horses are being purchased
in New York for shipment to the French army in
Mexico.

A meeting has been held at the Produce Ex-
change for the relief of the distress in Lancashire.
Speeches were made urging British and American
philanthropy to meet half way, and build up a new
temple of reconciliation, in which Americans and
British could join hands once more, and swear to
be true to each other and to all principles of civil
and religious liberty.
The subscriptions on behalf of the Lancashire
operatives reach over 100,000 dols., and large
quantities of grain.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Money easy. Gold, 32 prem. Exchange on
Louden Bankers' bills, 1461. Stocks steady. New
York Centrals, 103; Illinois shares, 781; Erie, 611.

(Per Africa, via Cape Race.)
Early this morning a portion of Gen. Burnside's
army attempted to construct bridges across the

Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg. The Con-
federates immediately opened fire. The Federals
persevered, and the army is prepared to cross as
soon as the bridges are completed.
Gen. Franklin's division crossed the river about
three miles belew the city, meeting with slight op-

position.

The Federal gunboats are shelling the Confede
rates 15 miles lower down, where they have con

cen trated.

A battle has occurred at Fayetteville, Arkansas,
between 7,000 Federals and 24,000 Confederates.
The fight lasted all day until the Federals were
reinforced by 5,000 men, and fell upon the Confe-
derate rear. The Confederates were then repulsed
and retreated across the Boston Mountains, the
Federals remaining in possession of the field. The
Federal loss is stated at 1,000, that of the Confede-
rates at 2,000 men.

The steamer Alabama has captured and burned
the ship Starbuck in lat. 35.30, long. 66; also the
ship T. B. Walis, from Calcutta, in lat. 28.30,
long_ 66. The Alabama arrived at Martinique on
the 17th ult., and landed the crews of the captured
vessels. The Federal steamer San Jacinto arrived
at Martinique the same afternoon, and waited out-
side the harbour for the Alabama. The Alabama,
however, escaped from Martinique on the 18th.

A despatch from the American minister in St.
Petersburg states that Prince Gortschakoff told
him in October last he thought the hope of re-union
was daily growing less, and impressed upon him
that Russia would regard a separation as the
greatest misfortune. The Prince stated that Russia
would refuse to aid in intervention, but was most
anxious for some means to be adopted to prevent
separation.

A resolution has been offered in Congress that
an American war vessel should accompany any ship
carrying provisions for Lancashire, to protect her
from pirates.

The financial measure introduced into Congress
by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means did not receive the sanction of the com-
mittee or the Secretary of the Treasury.
The repairs of the Great Eastern are completed,
and she will resume her trips immediately.
The Hansa, North America, and Arabia have
arrived out.

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