The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FE BR UARY 27, 1862.

position by such a name. The Declaration is felt
justly by Dissenters to be rather an attack on them,
and they ask to have it withdrawn. As the
weaker body, they might more reasonably urge
that it should be a declaration on the part of

Churchmen not to injure dissent. Lord DERBY,
we hope, will not be found insensible to such con-
siderations as these ; he would do wisely to consult

his son on the subject.

The chief discussion of the evening, however, was
over an old quarrel. Mr. COLLIER had taken from
Lord DERBY'S Reform Bill one provision which he
thought a good one, and worked it up into a bill of

his own, and, naturally enough, he expected the
support of the Tories; he was guilty only of the
serious political blunder of forgetting that
the Tories now sit on the opposite
side of the House, where, of course, all
things appear in quite another light. In 1859
to convey borough voters in cabs to the polling
booth appeared like an abuse which it was desirable
to abolish. It was a kind of bribery then. Now it
is no abuse, but a reasonable thing ; no bribery, but
a kind consideration for the busy shopkeeper and for
the working man who has only his dinner hour for
" rushing to the poll." The Tory reformers of 1859
attempted indeed to raise up some difficulties be-
tween their own proposition and that of Mr. COL
LIER, but the only one was that they had proposed
voting papers, which had been found in committee
which examined the question to be impracticable.
Nothing remained but the fact that the same thing
looks to them very different when offered by a Tory
Government and by a Liberal member.
As to the merits of the case—the unfair tax on
the members is the real objection. It is virtually
part of a property qualification. If one member
furnishes cabs in the majority of cases, the other
member must do the same. In some constituencies,
like those of the metropolis, the expense is con-
siderable ; in the smaller ones it is nothing. But
as to the artificial boroughs, like Shoreham and a
few others, which the Reform Bill brought within
its schedules by including half the county almost
within their bounds they have no claim
to consideration whatever. They are an
abuse themselves, which any decent Reform Bill
would at once abolish. We cannot deny that carry-
ing a man to the poll, if nothing else be done, is
hardly to be called bribery. Few, indeed, will vote
for the pleasure of a cab ride. If they did, their
political indifference must be such that the bribery
would be rather bribery to vote, than to with-
draw the vote from a particular candidate. The
vote would not, as in the other case, count for two.
We take the Tory majority, however, as an in-
dication of their pleasure in opposing anything for
which a Whig Home Secretary speaks and votes, or
which has the slightest appearance of Parliamentary
Reform. It is the first Wednesday snubbing of that
subject, and is intended to warn all Bit-by-bit
Reformers that bits of reform are as unpalatable to
Conservative taste as larger portions. The Tories
desire to retain every appliance of corrupt influence
yet left them, and will not part with a single one
of the still remaining means of purchasing or of
coercing voters, or of keeping men from becoming
candidates who have not either long purses them-
selves, or the Carlton purse, if needed.

We have at length obtained the text of the re
markable address pronounced by the venerable
Archbishop of WARSAW upon the henceforth ever-
memorable occasion of the re-opening and purifica-
tion of the ancient cathedral there. It is a docu-
ment that it is absolutely impossible for any thinking
man amongst us to read without emotion. For we
read it with the remembrance, not only of recent
occurrences there in Poland, occurrences in them-
selve-Sufficiently afflicting, but in the recollection
of all the past glories and mournful b.ote.7 -e "-'
art ri e_,,,,,,,apred nationality. We read
it with an ever-present sense the while of
the infernal barbarities inflicted upon successive
generations of Poles, alike upon men and women
and children, by their banded spoliators and op-
pressors. And while so reading it we recall to
mind on one hand the resplendent heroism of the
race thus systematically trodden down into the
dust—the heroism displayed so often by that great
race. so long as it was enabled to preserve its in-
dependence among the Powers of Christendom—
and upon the other hand the noble and Christian
endurance of grief upon grief, and injustice upon
injustice by their reviled but unsullied descendants.
Than the exordium of the Archbishop's address
upon the occasion referred to at Warsaw, none
surely could have been in any way more solemn
and impressive. Adoration, submission, prayer,
endurance—these were the fitting themes selected
in the first instance by the venerable dignitary, to
be descanted upon by him before his eager and breath-
lessly listening congregation. Having thus prepared
the way for what was to follow, " I approach," said
the Archbishop, "the most delicate and difficult ques-
tion of which I have to treat. If some one forbad
you to pray to GOD, and to lay before Him the
wants of your heart, if any authority whatsoever
prohibited your praying, I should say to you, Do
not obey that authority,' for before this duty to-
wards GOD disappears all duty towards men. If
anyone forbad you to pray for your country, for
that land which we all love, if any authority what-
soever forbad you to pray for the happiness and

welfare of our country, again I should say to you,

'Do not listen to such authority, for that would be
wrong.' In truth, if we were ever to cease to pray
for our country, I should pray God that he would
remove me from this land, and that the Polish
women might be stricken with barrenness. But
no one can prevent us from praying for our coun-
try." Having said this much, the Archbishop then
went on to remark :—" A question has, however,
now arisen with regard to certain songs and hymns
which the church has not authorised, and which 1

require you to no longer sing. To give up certain
hymns is not to give up prayer. We can and we
ought all to present to God our dearest wants. I
am happy to open to-day the churches in which we
can again meet to pray ; but I conjure, I entreat
you, for the good of the country, to cease for a time
from singing the prohibited hymns. Those hymns
were good, for they expressed to the authorities
what were our wishes; but now the autho-
rities know our desires and what we desire."
That was the gist of the Lord Archbishop's
charge to his people—but with this injunction he
coupled many fair auguries of happier times to
come, of a fairer epoch for them all. The learned
and virtuous ecclesiastic manifestly spoke of his
own reawakened hopes from the fullness and the
depth of his own earnest convictions. He had seen
himself, he had talked himself with his Imperial
Majesty the Czar A LEXANDER IL—and fresh from
those interviews, fresh from those conversations,
the Archbishop of Warsaw avows him-
self to be sanguine of good days for
Warsaw and her citizens, nay, for all Russian
Poland and its population. Not only does he hope
thus himself, but wearing upon his head the mitre,
and bearing in his hand the crozier, he solemnly
avows in the reopened cathedral of Warsaw:—.“ Thus
I come and desire you to share in a blessed hope. The
Sovereign wishes to satisfy the wants of our
country. I have conversed with the Sovereign at
length, and he his told me that he wishes to

,deprive us neither of our rationality nor of our re-
; that he will fulfil his promises and give us
all thd ve want; but he makes it a condition that
the country shall be tranquil, and the prohibited
hymns no longer be sung, Therefore, my brethren,
I conjure and impl9re you, in the name of GOD, of
peace, and of the country, &quo for a certain time
from singing those hymns." It must Cfqtainly have
required a remembrance cf the worth of the ma^ who
uttered these words, to render them endurable among
those who listened to their utterance. Cease from
singing the proscribed hymns and songs the Poles
of Warsaw may do, out of respect for the urgent
entreaties and impressive mandates of their revered
archbishop. But—hope in the fair promises of
the autocrat ALEXANDER 11. ! Ah, that is most
certainly quite another thing. Seeing the fulfilment
and realisation of those fair promises, will be be-
lieving them, with the citizens of Warsaw—not
simply talking about them, or thinking about
them. The Polish nation has been so often before
now and so frightfully deceived that there is no
possibility any longer of their falling again under
the glamour of their old hallucinations. The time
for such lovely but illusory day-dreams at ,War-
saw has, alas! long, long since passed by.

It is with considerable satisfaction that we call
attention to an account of Mr. GREGORY'S explo-

ration of the North-West portion of the Australian
continent, which will be found in another part of
_ . .

this day's publication. It is gratifying to find that
this expedition has succeeded in its object without
the loss of any of the party, and that the re-
sults of the inspection are most satisfactory.
The plan of the expedition was well conceived and
ably carried out. The party proceeded to Nicol's
Bay, which is situated about 20 deg. 40m. South
latitude and 116 deg. 45m, East longitude, and there
disembarked their horses and stores, the ship (the

Dolphins Captain Dixon) remaning in the Bay
until their return. The first expedition
was to the South-west, and Mr. GREGORY
succeeded with a portion of his party in reaching
the Lyons River at a point to which a
former survey of his of that river had extended ;
he then retraced his steps, partly on his outward
track and partly by a circuitous route reached the
bay, having travelled in this, the first trip, 780
geographical miles. After a short rest, to restore
the fatigued horses, the party set out again, this
time taking an easterly direction. The country
thus explored is well watered, two larg
rivers running from the interior having
been met with and followed up for a considerable
distance. One of these Mr. GREGORY considers to
be a main artery of the continent, and regrets
that he was unable, owing to the lateness of the
season, to follow it up farther. Besides these, there
are numerous streams and tributaries. The country

thus partially explored extends between the paral-
lel's 20 deg. 24 deg. Booth latitude, and 116 deg.
121 deg. east longitude, This is of course a rough
estimate, but it will serve to show the extent of
the exploration and its position on the map. The
ground is in many places rocky and sandy, but
wide tracts of grazing land are to be found on the
banks of the streams, and much of it is highly suit-

able for agriculture. For a district situated in the
tropics the climate seems to be most satisfactory ;
but it must be remembered that it was during the
winter that the observations were taken.
" Of the climate I can only say that during the five
months we remained on the coast we never experienced the
same inconvenience from it that we frequently have done
within the limits of the settled districts of the colony ; the
weather was, however, principally fine, and the sky clear
during our stay, only two showers having occurred, one at
the latter end of May and the other in June ; the meteoro-
logical register at Nickol Bay shows the following results,
from observations taken at all hours of the day and night :
Thermometer. Maximum. Minimum.
May BO .. 65
Juno • • ..... 'l6 63
July --, -0,,

August
September
October

Under the peculiar circumstances of the thermometer being
placed on a sand-bank in the sun during the hot days in
October, it rose to 178 deg. of Fahrenheit, whiist the lowest
it ever fell to was up the hills in July, when it was 2 deg.
below freezing just before sunrise."
Mr. GREGORY considers that this district is
highly calculated to produce cotton. In concluding
his narrative, he states, after summing up his ob-
servations, that it only remains for him to give an
opinion on the capabilities of the country for
colonisation :

" It would be almost impossible to particularise the poi

tions or define the limite of country adapted for grazing
purposes, beyond the reference already made to them. The
total amount of land available for this purpose within the
limit of our route I should estimate at not less than two or
three millions of acres, and of this I may safely say 200,000
are suitable for agricultural purposes, the greater portion
of which lies on the two flanks of the Hamersley Range, on
the banks of the De Grey and its tributaries, and on the
lower Sherlock.
" Of the fitness of this district for the growth of wool,
which, on account of its being an intertropical country, it
is generally supposed it would be unsuitable, I would re-
mark that its elevation above the sea appears likely to
obviate the objection, and render it probable that cheep may
not degenerate in the same way they are found to do in
other tropical countries ; at any rate, flocks are now being
pushed over on the same latitude in Queensland, and we do
not hear of the wool-grower complaining that such is the
case there.
"As to its fitness for the growth of cereals, it is
quite possible that wheat and barley may not come
to the same degree of perfection they do in the more
temperate latitudes of Australia, but there is no reason to
doubt its capability of growing sufficient grain for the sup-
port of a numerous population.
"What it appears more highly qualified for than any-
thing else is the growth of cotton—a question which at the
present juncture cannot be lost sight of. From my per-
sonal observation of the cultivation of this plant in Egypt,
and the attention I have recently paid to this subject while
in Europe, I feel confident that a very considerable portion
of the arable lands on the De Grey and Sherlock are pre-
cisely the soils adapted for the production of this valuable
commodity. As, however, I purpose to make this the sub-
ject of a more lengthy paper at a future period, will not
now venture to enlarge upon it."
In concluding these remarks on the rapid deve-
lopment of this fine country, we heartily congratn•
late the inhabitants of Western Australia in having
succeeded so well in this, the first step towards the
exploration of the interior; for we cannot believe
that Mr. GREGORY will rest content until he has
followed one of those fine rivers to its source, and
penetrated into the heart of the as yet terra

incognita.
One of the great secrets of the satisfactory
issue of this expedition is, that there were
not too many masters, and that the party
seems to have been properly organised.
Had the expedition of the bold but unfortu
nate BURKE not been divided against each other,
and acted with one accord, the catastrophe might
have been averted. The matter is under investi-
gation by the proper authorities in Victoria, and we
will not prejudge the case ; but we cannot but
lament that such an energetic and devoted explorer
as BURKE should thus have been sacrificed to mis-
management. He had at least the proud satisfac-
tion of being the first man who had ever succeeded
in crossing the continent, and although fate denied
him the satisfaction of receiving the honours which
awaited him in Melbourne, he must have felt that
his fame would live after him and his name be
remembered as one of the benefactors of his country.

ILLNESS OF LORD CHIEF JUSTICE COCKBURN.
—Last evening, on the learned judge's return home from
Guildhall, he was seized with severe illness, so much so
that he was precluded from sitting in his court this morn-
ing. On inquiry this morning at his Lordship's residence
the answer given was, that the learned judge was
in much
the same state, but nothing serious was anticipated.

LATEST NEWS.

PARIS, FEB. 27.
Tho Moniteur of today contains the following
order of the Minister of Public Instruction :
"Considering that Professor Renan, in the speech
delivered by him at the opening of his course of
lectures, put forward doctrines offensive to Christian
belief, and which might bring on lamentable excite-
ment, the lectures of Professor Renan are suspended
until further orders."

The Moniteur also announces that the applica-

tions for the conversion of 41 per Cent. Rentes now
amount to 65,500,000 f. The number of Obligations
Trentennaires presented for conversion is 306,296.

TURIN, FEB. 27.

The Capitular Vicar and the clergy of Messina
have signed a respectful address to the Pope, setting
forth the necessity of a separation between his tem-
poral and spiritual power.
The address expresses confidence that the Pope
will accept the wise propositions of the Emperor of
the French and of the King of Italy.

The clergy throughout the whole of Sicily will,
prbably, follow the example set them by their
brethren at Messina.

VIENNA, FEB. 26.

Upon th© anniversary of the promulgation of the
constitution the Emperor in person conferred upon
Baron von Schmerling, minister of state, the Grand
Cross of the Leopold Order. It was accompanied
with an autograph letter recognising his services.

PARIS, FEB. 26.
In to-day's sitting of the Senate the discussion on
,he address was continued.

The paragraph upon an increase of taxation being
brought forward, M. de Beaumont expressed his
regret that such an increase was considered neces-
sary.

MADRID, FEB. 26.

In to-day's sitting of the Congress Senor Sala-
manca spoke in favour of the construction of a rail-
way to the Alduides. No decision was come to
upon the matter by the Chamber.

SOUTHAMPTON, FEB. 27.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Ellora, sailing to• day for Bombay, takes out in
specie—bar silver, £220,447; sovereigns, £lO,OOO ;
bar gold, £750.

The Tagus, sailing to-day for Lisbon, takes on'
£40,000 sovereigns.

The Hamburg and American Company's steamer
Hammonia, which sailed hence last evening for New
York, with the United States mails, took 160 pas-
sengers from Hamburg, Havre, and this port, and
a full cargo.

THE INTERVENTION IN MEXICO.
A private despatch (says La Patrie) which has
reached us via Cadiz, says that the allied Com-
manders have each selected an officer from their
respective staff, and that those officers left Vera
Crtz on the 20th on a mission to the city of Mexico.
The Commanders continued to act in perfect con-
cert and in the sense of the proclamation recently
issued by them to the Mexican people.