The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-13 00:00:00

THE: &T N, LONDON, MONDAY 'EVENING, JANUARY 13, 1862.

stance of the Trent proceeding from one neutral
port to another neutral port does not modify the
rights of the belligerent Power." Then, after a
column of acute hair-splitting, with an abstract even
of which we must not weary our readers, he reaches
the conclusion, that Captain WILKEs assigned two
reasons for not bringing the vessel into port,
which Mr. SEWARD himself elaborately proves
he was bound to do. The first reason was the
necessity of the case, He had not hands to spare
for a prize crew. Had the captain stuck to this
reason, Mr. SEWARD'S argument implies that
Messrs. SLIDELL and MASON would still be pri-
soners. But the "hero" WILKEs, in his generosity,
assigned another reason—he gave up the rich booty
the Trent would have proved to his men, and let
her proceed on her voyage, on account of the incon-
venience which would have been caused to so many
innocent passengers and by the detention of the
mails.

Alas, his generosity ruined the case ! Great Bri-
tain may claim a judicial decision and refuse the
generosity ; and what could we reply, says Mr.
SEWARD. Capt. WILKES acted " from combined
sentiments of prudence and generosity on his part,
therefore the surrender of the vessel was not strictly
involuntary. The admission of kinder motives was
fatal to his claim to have acted with strict legality.
The sum, therefore, of the offence Is, that this Go-
vernment has neither meditated, nor practised, nor
approved any deliberate wrong in the transaction to
which they have called its attention ; and, on the
contrary, that what has happened has been simply
an inadvertency, consisting in a departure by the
naval officer, free from any wrongful motive, from
a rule uncertainly established, and probably by the
several parties concerned either imperfectly
understood or entirely unknown. In this
error he acknowledges that the British Go-
vernment has the same light to expect reparation
that the Federal Government would itself have to
demand reparation in a similar case. Then follow
the passages in which he mounts so conveniently
the back of former Presidents, and rides off with
gratifying declarations of Federal magnanimity.
There is, however, one passage which, we confess,
perplexes us more than all the letter besides. What
can we make of this ?—" In coming to my conclu-
sion, I have not forgotten that f the safety of this
Union required the detention of the captured persons
it would be the right and duty of this Government to
detain them. But the effectual check and waning
proportions of the existing insurrection, as well as
the comparative unimportance of the captured per-
sons themselves, when dispassionately weighed,
happily forbid me from resorting to that defence.
Will Mr, SEWARD really say deliberately that what
he had proved to be a question of justice to Eng-
land, after all, hinged upon what he deemed to be
for the safety of the Union, That, if he were an ordi-
nary debtor, for instance, he would pay his debt if
he did not miss the money from his pocket, but not
if it made him insolvent ? We can extract no other
meaning from the passage. The insurrection is
coming to nothing, it is therefore of no consequence
to us to part with the prisoners, but if it were
getting the upper hand of us, we would keep
and perhaps hang them. It would be the " right
and duty" of this Government to detain them. That
is, its duty to stand by an error for which only a
few paragraphs before he had said that " the British
Government has a right to expect reparation," and
the " same reparation" as the United States would
have a right to expect in a similar case !

Is the affair then to leave off with this under-
standing, that we are to submit to any confessed
wrong from the United States which the latter may
think requisite for its safety, and to put up with it as
we best could ? Will Mr. SEWARD abide by such
an avowed principle in conducting his affairs
with foreign countries ? If so, we sus-
pect he will have some difficulty in proving
amicable relations. It would almost come to
the boyish joke in tossing up—" Heads
I win, tails you lose." We do not know whether
our Government will think it worth while at
present discuss the two very important points to
which we have adverted. It may be better to
leave them till the war is over. Passed over, how-
ever, they ought not to be. The case of the Trent,
and its attendant circumstances in Canada and
England, will doubtless keep American captains
within bounds for this war; and when it is
over, we may coolly discuss the question whether
America, any more than other countries, is to
be permitted "to do as she will with what is
not her own."

The Superintendent's last published Report to
the General Committee of the London Fire Estab-
lishment is eminently well, and alas ! also, painfully
worth looking at. It relates, in a very startling
manner, the History of the Fires in London during
the twelvemonth last past. A year that will long
be remembered by the London Fire Brigade as that
disastrous period of conflagrations, during the most
formidable of which their gallant and excellent
chief, Mr. BRAIDWOOD, perished so suddenly and
yet so gloriously, too, for that matter—dying (as
he did) the death of a patriot Englishman, while
nobly doing his duty. It will be remembered, in-
deed, by others besides the members of the London
Fire Brigade, this year of grace, 1861—taking rank,
as it must, next in terror to the still more memorable
year of grace, 1666—dubbed by " glorious JOHN"
DRYDEN himself (by reason chiefly of the
Great Fire, beginning at Pudding-lane and
ending at Pie-corner) the Annus ik ir a bilis ! Apart
from the remembrance of that vast and destructive
conflagration down near London-bridge, 1861 is
still unhappily noteworthy as an exceptional year
in the annals of our London Fire Brigade—by rea•
son of the unusual number of fires more or less de-
structive that took place within the compass of the
metropolis between the first day of January and
last day of December.

I Altogether, during the 365 days of this last
twelvemonth, there have been recorded in the
books of the Brigade upwards of 1,400 calls—to be
precise, exactly 1,409 calls. And of these less
than 100, in fact, no more than 89, proved to be
"False alarms." A little over another hundred
turned out upon examination to be alarms confined
to the state of the chimneys—the rest, that is to say
1,183, being bona fide fires—Fires in 53 cases result—
ting in the total destruction of the buildings
ignited—in 332 cases causing very considerable
damage, and in 798 cases causing damage of a par-
tial character. So that, to apportion these totals
among the 52 weeks of the year—we have for every
week one building or cluster of buildings
totally destroyed—one of those clusters in 1861,
as we all but too well remember, being
of appalling magnitude ! We have besides this—
for every week in the year nearly seven fires, caus-
ing serious destruction, that is one for almost every
day of the 365 making up the twelvemonth. While
we have, in addition to this, more than sixteen fires
in every week causing a lesser amount of damage.
To sum up all—for each week nearly two false
alarms regularly—with but very little short of three
chimney alarms as well—together with one fire
(larger or smaller) 4otally destructive, nearly seven
fires seriously destructive, and more than sixteen fires
causing a lesser amount of destruction. Every week in
1861 that was the average. And besides what has thus

been recorded on the books of the London Brigade in
reference to the actual calls made upon the brigade
for assistance, there are understood to be annually
now as m!iny as four thousand fires causing trifling
damage to
.property—fires in regard to which the fire
men are newer called upon for their attendance. To say
nothing, moreover, about the ordinary calls for chim-
neys on fire—calls which, says the Superintendent's
report, "may be roughly estimated at three thou-
sand." So that actually in 1861, there were 3,000
chimneys on fire about which the brigade were
never troubled-4,000 fires, ditto, causing a trifling
amount of damage—and 1,409 "calls" upon the
brigade, as we have seen, a very few of them
false alarms, and a few more mere chimney alarms,
but the majority causing destruction more or less
serious, 53 total, 332 considerable, 798 slight. After
examining into which aggregate, we cannot wonder
very much when we learn that the fires of 1861
show an increase of 127 upon those of 1860—and
an increase of 391 (but nine short of 400) upon the
average of the last 28 years, the period during
which the London Fire Brigade, as at present orga-
nised, has been in existence and in active operation !
This increase of 127 in 1861, as compared with 1860,
and of 391 as compared with the average of the pre-
vious eight-and-twenty years, having reference, of
coarse, to the gross amount of fires within the year
calling for the actual assistance of the firemen.
Examining into the more terrible minor list of 53
totally destructive fires—that lamentable aggregate
in 1861 proves to have been 25 in excess of the num-
ber set down for 1860, and 13 in excess of the
average number during the 28 years of the Brigade's
experience ! The subjoined .-iemorandum excerpted
from the Report of the Su) xudent is especially
entitled to consideration. _ in every particular
worth looking at, and in some curiously suggestive :

" The totally ,destroyed list, 53, is 25 in excess of the
same list for 1860, and 13 in excess of the average propor-
tion for the 28 past years. Of the premises burned, 20
were from two to seven miles distant from the nearest sta-
tion!; 25 were used for the carrying on of hazardous trades,
such as cabinet-makers, carpenters, hay and straw sales-
men, steam saw-mills, &o. Three were completely on fire
before the arrival of the engines, and of the remaining
number some through imperfect construction, and one
from its great magnitude and infbmtnable contents based
all the efforts of the firemen. In the last-mentioned case,
which occurred in Tooley-street, on the 22d of June last,
and resulted in the almost total destruction of 33 buildings,
there is every reason to believe that, but for a serions delay
and deficiency of water and seine violent explosions which
took place at the commencement, the firo would have been
confined to the building in which it originated. In six of
the cases mentioned in the totally destroyed list, the supply
of water was either late or insufficient."

The superintendent's account of the progress made
in the new applications of science in aid of the
exertions of the firemen, will be found in the next
extract from the report now lying before us, re-
plete with encouragement. He observes :
g 4 The land steam fire-engine continues to render valuable
service. In this engine a great difficulty has hitherto been
experienced in getting up steam in a sufficiently short space
of time ; this difficulty is now obviated by the introduction
inside the fire-box of a small jet of gas, which keeps the
water constantly boiling. By this simple and inexpensive
method two advantages are gained, one is that it entirely
does away with the great risk to the boiler and machinery
caused by the sudden expansion which takes place when
steam is raised in fifteen minutes from cold water, and
the other is that it insures the raising of suffi-
cient steam in less than five minutes, which is
all that is ever required for practical purposes. The
three new land steam fire-engines recently ordered
,of
the same makers, Messrs. Shand and Mason, will be finished
in about six weeks from this date, and as they will always
be kept ready for immediate use by the expedient already
mentioned, I confidently anticipate that they will be
found more effective, and at the same time more economical
than those worked by manual power."

In the tabulated lists that follow these, and other
introductory remarks signed by EYRE M. SnAw,
the Superintendent—lists making up the bulk of
his report—in fact, we have, the last painful illus-
tration of the truth of POPE'S sibillant but truth-
ful verse :

" What mighty contexts rise from trivial things."
Under the head " Causes," for example, do we not
find iterated and reiterated in the most astonishing
manner ? Candle Spark from fire Smoking
tobacco Escape of gas Hot ashes Lucifer
matches—Curtains—Oil boiling over—Do. grease
—Heat from stove—Clothes-horse falling on fire—
Paraffin lamp upset Plumbers Copper flue
Lighted paper, &c. The precautions taken against
fire in truth are literally but as nothing to the
wanton exposure of life and property to its peril,
day after day, night after night, either through lack
of thought or the cruelest want of care.

An earnest letter from Mr. G. J. HOLYOAKE ap-
pears this morning in the columns of our contem-
porary the Lady Noce, in reference to the Rev.
CHARLES KINGSLEY'S warning letter upon the late
Sheffield trade outrages—a letter addressed to the
Rev. GRENVILLE J. CHESTER, but which has since
found its way into the Skeffield Independent. Al-
though the suggestions thrown out by Mr, HOLY-
OAKE, in his comments upon Professor KINGSLEY'S
epistle to his brother clergyman, partakes some-
what of the roundabout character of the
old woman's proceedings in reference to that ex-
tremely obstinate pig that would not get over the
stile, on the oldllady's journey home from market—
it is really and truly in itself, as it appears to us, a
very excellent, because a very practical suggestion.
Mr. HOLYOAKE finishes his remarks by saying
" Let Professor KINGSLEY ask Mr. HUGHES to ask
Mr. POTTER to ask Mr. HEAP to ask Mr. NEWTON
how long these outrages are to go on ; and there
will soon be an end of them." But another
part of Mr. HOLYOAKE'S letter to our morning con-
temporary explains his meaning in throwing out
this otherwise bewildering suggestion of a very
circuitous remonstrance. " There are," says the
writer,with a rather questionably indifference to the
proprieties of grammatical construction in his sen-
tences, " There are a certain 'set' (not to use that
term in a disrespectful sense) of gentlemen in Lon-
don who act with Professor KINGSLEY and the
Rev. Mr. MAURICE, who write generous letters in
the Spectator on behalf of workmen, who have in-
fluence with the leaders of the great trade societies
of London and the provinces—societies free from
the stain of violence. Let these leaders
be called upon by Mr. KINGSLEY and his
friends to send a powerful and resolute
deputation from the United and Amalgamated
Societies to Sheffield, to inquire into these
trade murders. They can get to the bottom of the
thing when Parliament, whom Mr. KINGSLEY
points to, cannot. They can put an end to it. Let
them give the Sheffield trades fair warning, that if
any further case is suffered to occur, the society
in which it occurs shall be held responsible ; that
it shall be both renounccd and denounced, and that
a reward shall be offered for the detection of the
miscreants, who deserve death for their crimes, and
infamy for the disgrace they bring upon their own
order." That, in effect, is the gist of Mr. HOLY-
OAKE'S proposition. And it certainly appears to us
worthy of being acted upon—if only upon the chance
of its possibly putting an end to these frightful
outrages.

THE COURT,—We believe that her Majesty will
return to Windsor Castle in about ten days or a fortnight,
subject, however, to alteration from the arrival of Prince
Alfi ed, and the date fixed for the departure of the Prince of
Wales for the Holy Land. The Queen removes to Windsor,
in order to be nearer to the metropolis, and to enable the
Ministers to communicate more rapidly with hen—Court
Journd.

LATEST NEWS.

• -

THE PRIVATEER SUIITER.
MADRID, JAN. 12.
The report that General Serrano has been created
a duke is unfounded.

The American Consul has protested against the
admission of the Sumter into the arsenal at Cadiz

to repair damages.

PARIS, JAN. 12.

The llioniteur of this morning says:—

" The Emperor, having taken into consideration
the wish of the Masonic Order in France to main-
tain a central representation, has appointed N ar-
shal Magnan as Grand Master of all the Masonic
Lodges in France for three years."
The Moniteur also publishes a decree regulatinz
the taxation on transactions in shares, bonds of com-
panies, and other foreign undertakings, as follows,—
" Those companies whose shares and bonds are
negotiated in France and in other countries will be
subjected to a tax upon half their capital.
" In the case of those companies whose bonds cir-
culate principally in France the whole capital will
be taxed."

The it oniteur publishes a letter from M. Rowland,
Minister for Public Instruction, in reply to the
Bishop of Arras, who had complained of the Circu-
lar of the Minister to the Prefects in reference to
religious congregations.

M. Rouland criticises the assertions of the Bishop,
and cites several facts which had compelled him to
insist upon the execution of the laws.