The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-17 00:00:00

THE SON LONDON, THURSD AY EVENING JULY 717, 1862.

operations of France and England are so strong
that Mr. LINCOLN has no right to set against them
the ambition of the North to rule the South, or, if
he prefers the expression, to enforce the restoration
of Federal relations between them.

It comes then to a question of policy. Looking
at India, looking at Canada, have we a right to
inform Mr. LINCOLN that with or without his
consent we shall reopen the cotton trade at the
three ports—Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile—
not now in possession of the Union ? Of course in-
forming him that we did so simply to save our
workmen from starvation, and that we should take
no part in the war, even at those ports, beyond
seeing to it that our traders went out and in in
safety.

In regard to India we see, alas! that our hopes
have deceived us. Manchester, hankering after
American cotton, and hoping against hope for
peace, did not cover India with its agents, to teach
the natives, and to buy of them, and her operatives
need, now, a speedier help than India can furnish.
As we could not get enough cotton from America
to supply our wants for years to come, India would
still have the fairest opportunity gradually to in-
crease her supply,

But war with America, and danger to Canada,
we are told, would be the immediate result ; then,
it is added, it would be cheaper for us to support
Lancashire in idleness than to fight the North.
To that we demur. We maintain that we should
give no casus bell to the North; and the South has
some claim on us; but our operatives' claim to the
cotton the South is willing to sell is of such a
nature that we cannot admit the right of the
North to prohibit our purchasing it. Then, as to
the North declaring war against England, we do
not believe it dare do so. In that case our recogni-
tion of the South must be with an offensive and de-
fensive alliance ; and the South has pretty well
shown that it could furnish the North with military
occupation. Again, France would be heartily with
us, and the North would be in turn cut off from the
world—every Southern port would be opened—the
Mississippi would be restored to the States border-
ing on it, and the Northern ports would be blockaded.
We have, however, no fear of war. The North
would be but too glad to cover its defeat by the
South under the pretext that it could not fight the
South, England, and France together.
As to trade—the South is now our only hope.
The North has out off, with its own hand, the trade
of Europe, and professes to exult in the sufferings
of Lancashire, and the manufacture of all articles it
needs at home. The South, at least, is interested
in free-trade; so in fact are the North-Western
States, for both want to sell agricultural pro-
duce dear, and to buy manufactures cheap.
We have, then, commercial hold of
the entire South, and of half the North
itself ; and it will not be easy, therefore
probably quite inigossible, to unite the whole of the
Northern States, a war with two great European
powers. The main consideration is, however—
would it be right for England and France to insist
on recognising the independence of the South ; or
to insist on—what comes practically to the
same thing—a perfectly free trade in cotton from
Southern ports which are in the hands of the South
itself, it being obvious that the South will not ship
at ports occupied by Northern troops. If this be
right, as we believe it is, then we may safely do it.
We shall be justified both by heaven and earth in
taking cotton from those willing to part with i

rather than see Manchester and Rouen starred to
death, or supported by charity.

The reconstruction of our Navy—the transfor-
mation of our hearts-of-oak into iron-plates—a
change like this so gigantic and so comprehensive
renders the actual condition at this moment of the
British iron trade a matter of paramount import-
ance. There is not a patriotic Englishman amongst
us but will turn to the consideration of this great
subject, with unaffected interest, whenever, in its
regard, there may arise an opportunity of obtain-
ing anything like reliable information. And here
upon the very threshold, as it were, before taking
another step in search of this reliable information,
the wonderfully welcome fact forces itself upon our
recognition that " for the first time in the history
of the world" the Supply of Iron Exceeds the
Demand ! Strictly speaking, then, the present may
be called with truth the Age of Iron. Far more
even than the Age of Gold—notwithstanding the
affluent outpourings of the precious metal carried
across the ocean in shiploads from California, and
from British Columbia, and from our Australian
possessions. The Nineteenth century is literally
in a double sense the Age of Iron. It is so, be-
cause of the abundant and overflowing supplies of
that once rare and costly material. And it is so,
moreover, still more, if possible, because of the
multiplicity of its means of application or employ-
ment.
Although iron has been more or less in use from
the remotest ages, from the days of TUBAL CAIN,
downwards, the iron trade as it now is, dates
back to a period, comparatively speaking, very
recent indeed. The growth of this wonderful branch
of industry has only in fact been very lately
described in any way worthily. WILLIAM FAIR-
BAIRN, the greatest authority upon the subject of
Iron living, the greatest worker or applier of iron
(we might venture to assert without any fear who t-
ever of contradiction) either living or dead, is the
practical philosopher and master engineer whose
hand has bat very recently traced the History of
Iron, and narrated with befitting accuracy its Pro-
perties and Processes of Manufacture. Others
with him—SCOFFERN, CLAY, OXLAND, TRURAN,
AITKIN, PICKETT—had previously recorded the
peculiarities as the various useful metals and
their alloys, particularising at the same time (1857)
their application to the industrial arts. But Mr.
FAIRBAIRN it is who has still more recently (1861)
penned—it should have been either with the latest
improvement in the shape of a steel pen, or with
some classic specimen of the iron stylus—the
" History of Iron," with the record, as we have
said, of its Properties and of its Processes of Man-
ufacture. Aided by all the lights that have thus
been thrown upon the past and present condition
of the iron trade, more particularly in our own
country—we arrive at the distinct apprecia-
tion of the wonderful and vitally important fact
above alluded to. Namely, that precisely at
the very epoch when such a circumstance has be-
come, so to speak, more than ever desirable, we
might say even, in a measure, an imperative neces-
sity—for the first time in the annals of the earth,
the supply of iron exceeds the demand, within the
present century ! That although the period has
actually arrived when England has been covered
over with an iron network of more than 10,000
miles of railway
! A length of iron road recinir-
g in itB mere repair a daily consumption
of nearly 500 tons of this now all but
übiquitous
spi
enously
i As a circumstance con-
tion of iroo ative of the vast consump-
more than ten e
have mentioned these
thZs
miles of iron railway
merely to begin viithr-
Besides those we have iron
machinery construoted and con t
'We hav°eru
possible, calculation !cting beyond all
directions spanning our rivers iron bridges in all
we bay-a iron houses, sohools, 444
una our estuaries.
urcites per

petually in course of tnanufaeture for " home con-
sumption," as the prospectuses say, and still more
frequently; we believe, for "exportation.' We are
spinning iron out, as a protective sheathing for the
electric core of copper, in countless lengths for
telegraphic wires, both submarine and snperterres-
trial. We have built blocks upon blocxs of iron fire-
proof warehouses. We have almost all the various
appliances of civilised life fabricated in the same
Iprotean and magically adaptible metal iron
fences, iron railings, iron gutters, iron hurdles, iron
pipings, iron pumps, iron window frames, iron
shutters, iron doors, iron spoutings, iron mile-posts,
(mile-stones becoming rapidly more and more of a
misnomer), iron street curbs, iron utensils and imple-
ments of every conceivable description, domestic and
agricultural. That inexhaustible Humourist, the
the author of the immortal ballad of " Miss Kil-
mansegg and her Precious Leg," would have found
a still more facil theme for his whimsicalities had
he imagined her leg constructed of Iron rather than
of Gold. Yet meeting us though it does at every
turn in some strange and wondrous metamorphose
—iron pours into our possession more rapidly than
we can turn it to our use. Even at this crowning
epoch in its History, when it is about to replace
in the form of iron ships -of - war the
old hearts -of - oak fleets that, manned by
other hearts of oak in the shape of our gallant tars
have won for England the glory of her maritime
supremacy. As to the rate of increase of late years
in our production of iron, as the " raw material"
for all these appliances, enough will have been said
when we have mentioned that, whereas in 1840 it
was a little less than 1,400,000 tons—and had risen
in 1854 to 2,700,000 tons—it absolutely exceeded
in 1860 the stupendous aggregate of 4,150,000 tons!
This in " pig iron," the rawest of the raw mate-
rial—in " puddlecl iron," that is iron partially ma-
nufactured—and in " wrought iron," or iron actu-
ally finished and ready for employment. A re-
viewer in the current number of the Edinburgh, in
the course of a singularly alai° and instructive paper
upon this subject, ingeniously compares these three
very different descriptions of iron to render
their difference at once perfectly comprehensible
even to the uninitiated—the " pig iron" to
flour, the " puddled iron" to dough, and
" wrought iron" to the perfectCd loaf. A
comparison, by the way, all the more art uric'
consideration, when we reflect that "the st.‘.l
of life," by the processes of digestion, yields to our
system the wherewithal requisite for the fabrication
and repair of parts of our animal economy as
various as bone and muscle, nails and hair, veins
and arteries, blood and nerves ! Typical all this of
the railroads and telegraphic wires, the houses and
the bridges, the implements and the machinery,
constantly in course of fabrication from iron by the
skill of our artificers. The Edinburgh Review, in
the brilliant and instructive article here referred to,
condenses within a very brief compass the epitome
of the " History of Iron," as related by Mr. FAIR-
BAIRN, the distinguished engineer. This survey,
rapid though it is, extends back to the Homeric
age, when, as the writer remarks, iron was so rare
that a lump of it no bigger than a man could carry,
was deemed a prize not unworthy of being
struggled for in the funeral games of PATRO-
CLUS. The manifest knowledge among the
Romans of the art of " increasing the blast and the
combustion of the furnaces," is duly recognised as
the sequel to the first of those three great inven-
tions, forming the " landmarks in the history of the
iron manufactures." The earliest of these three
great inventions, the starting point in those notable
annals being, of course the production of pig-iron—
say by TUBAL CAIN. DUDLEY'S discovery, imme-
diately before the date of the Commonwealth, of the
art of substituting common coke or coal for charcoal
in the smelting furnace being the second ! Finally
came the third and crowning discovery—the appli-
cation of the hot blast in lieu of the cold blast blown
into the furnace, thereby wondrously increasing the
combustive power obtained in the process of manu-
facture. This discovery of the hot blast dating back
only some three and-thirty-years from the present
date—the invention having been patented as re-
cently as 1829, by Mr. NEILSON of Glasgow, who
has the honour of being the inventor. From TUBAL
CAIN and DUD DUDLEY, and on to Mr. NEILSON
of Glasgow—behold the three great epochs
in the rise and development of the grand Cyclopman
system of the world's iron manufacture ! A system
so marvellously developed by this time that our car-
riages, our ships, our roads, our houses, our bridges,
are all capable of being made with iron—are being
made with iron in all directions ! That it were
easier to enumerate the things that are not made of
iron than those that are ! That our annual make
of iron—pig-iron, puddled-iron, wrought-iron—
is rapidly advancing here in the United Kingdom
alone from an aggregate of from 4,000,000 to
5,000,000 tons! Truly thig more than any pre-
vious epoch in the world's history is peculiarly
and essentially, as we have said, the Age of Iron.
One distinguished as such from all others not so
much by the universal use to which iron is put, but
by that fact over which the lovers of the arts of
civilization cannot exult sufficiently, that exceptional
fact,which we cannot repeat too frequently, that it is
the first epoch in which the supply of iron exceeds
the demand, extraordinary though that demand is
known to be.

We entirely concur with Mr. HENLEY in the
plain common-sense view which he took of the
bill for the prevention of night poaching last night.
It will lead either to doubling or trebling the
county police, or to their being half killed by
poachers_ It is a bill for the open conversion of
the police into gentlemen's gamekeepers, and thus
preserving sport for these gentlemen, at the cost of
the general public. We have said sport, we ought
rather to say diversion or amusement. The game
preserving Which
gives rise to poaching is not for
anything so manly as sport, but just enables the
effeminate modern fowl-shooter to station himself
where the game shall be driven to the muzzle of
his gun, to murder them by pop-shots. Were game
in the way and to the extent requi-
siteworthy of the name, we should hear
but little sport
of only
poachers. As to rabbits and hares,
they have no business to exist, except in very
limiyted re numbers,a
among
ng
in a cultivated district, at all.
They
root crops simple vermin which
destroy much more than they eat; and in fields of
Ta
young corn, they devour it before it comes into ear•

We aro told by a metropolitan journal that
game preserving has now become assimilated to
keeping poultry. We are sure no sportsman
would allow that it is so ; unless, indeed, he were
employing such a description in condemnation of
the practice of some of his landlord neighbours.
We have no objection whatever that that should
be done. We should desire nothing better than
the abolition of game laws, and the application
of the same laws to the preservation of any animals
whatever which any person saw fit to keep
domestically, as to poultry. If I choose to keep
a tame magpie or raven, so that it can be receg •
nised as mine, why should I not be protected
in the possession of it. We only ask then
that these gentlemen poulterers who deal in
pheasants, partridges, hares, and rabbits should,
to such a reasonable extent. domesticate
and protect them, that they should lose the ollarac-

ter of -wild animals and become private property.
While they allow them to roam as wild creatures,
it is perfectly certain that the poacher and the thief
will never, in the rustic judgment, become conver•
tible terms.

We can tell the game-preserving landlords that
they are doing a very unwise thing for their order
in thus turning the police into gamekeepers. In
two houses, nearly constituted of landlords,
it is easy for them to pass the bill
now before them ; but it will not be
easy to get rid of the discredit which
will long attach to its memory, or to prevent
the great change it will produce in the character
and position of the rural police. We think Sir G.
GREY end Mr. HENLEY deserve the highest credit for
their manly resistance, in such a House, to such a
measure. They were desirous to prevent the House
from yielding to the strongest of temptations, that
of legislating for the class to which the members
almost all belong. The House has just gained itself
some credit by putting an extinguisher on the
BUCCLEUCEE job—they will lose it all, if they do
not take care, in this darker job of night poaching.

We wonder very much how many out of the
3,000,000 inhabitants of this capital will find it
possible to swallow Mr. CRAWFORD'S explanation
of the motives recently actuating the majority of
the Thames Embankment Committee ? The mem-
ber for the City of London has a word or two to
say on his own behalf and on that of his brother
committeemen. They had not the faintest idea of
gratifying in any way his Grace of BUCCLEUCH.
What he decided upon was designed by them en-
tirely pro bono publico. Just in the same
way—was it not ?—to gratify not: his sub-
serviency, but his spleen, that Mr. PECKSNIFF
summarily dismissed Tom PINCH from his house-
hold because, forsooth ! he (Mr. PECKSNIFF)
had a
duty to discharge to Society ! The Committee upon
the Thames Embankment had a duty to discharge
to society in the matter of that embankment, and
so—entirely for the general advantage—they pro-
posed to mar the whole scheme by breaking it short
off at the corner of Whitehall-gardens. It was simply
a coincidence that, by so doing the privacy of the
Duke of BUCCLEUCH'S shrubberies before the river-
front of Montagu House came to be preserved : or,
rather(h2ppily we can say this), was merely proposed
to be preserved. As good luck would have it, the
House of Commons, in committee, thought diffe-
v from the Committee. The result being that
the amet:dment was amended back again', Mr.
CRAWFORD'S letter to-day, striving to expLiin
away that blunder on the part of the melancholy
little majority of seven tof which the hon. gentle-
man himself was one), will go down, we believe,
with not half-a-dozen out of out' 3,000,000 Lon-
doners.

MEXICO,

A letter from Mexico, dated June 10, says :

The French still remain stationary at Orizaba, and from
all I can learn there appears to be little chatlce of an im-
mediate advance upon the capital. They have been joined
by some 5,000 reactionary troops formerly under the com-
mand of Cobos, Marques, and others. These are beiLg
drilled and placed under the command of French officers.
Zuloaga, Cobos, and Padre Miranda were shipped off by
the last packet ; the country is well rid of such scum.
Marques has joined the French, and has since been em-
ployed in escorting 250 waggons from Vera Cruz to
Orizaba, laden with provisions and stores for the army.
This would seem to indicate a lengthened stay at OrLaba,
and the general opinion seems to be that Lorencez will not
attempt any offensive operations until he has received re-
inforcements from France. Ortega, with the San Luis and
Zacatecas contingents, amounting to about 4,000 men,
passed through the capital a few days back, with the in-
tention of joining Zaragoza, who is supposed to be stationed,
with the main body of his forces, at San Augustin de
Palma, midway between the cities of Puebla and Orizaba.
The latter, when all the reinforcements have joined, will be
able to muster between 15,000 and 18,000 men. This force
once disposed of, the country at all events between Orizaba
and Mexico will lie at the mercy of the French; and, as
the interior has been drained to get together this force, I
doubt much whether any further opposition will be
attempted, except such as may result from an ill-organized
guerilla warfare, which would be easily put down. The
present party have little to hope from the enthusiasm of the
nation. Proclamations calling upon the people to arm in
defence of their liberty and homes have been tried, but
failed of effect; and nothing can better prove the complete
apathy of the nation than the fact that not a single volunteer
corps has been raised, and that Juarez is left dependent
upon the forces originally levied to combat the reactionary
party, and which are now recruited solely by forced
conscription. The idea, therefore, entertained by portions
of the English press that the French had only to show
themselves as invaders for the Mexican people to rise en
fume is purely absurd. The fact is that the great majority
of the nation dread European policy far less than they do
American; they are capable, moreover, of discriminating-
between war declared against the party now ruling in the
capital and war declared against the nation generally ; and,
although they deprecate in strong terms the course pursued
in putting forward Almonte, still they are rather disposed
to view the French as friends than as invaders who seek to
destroy their nationality. The conduct of Sir C. Wyke and
General Prim is much criticised by the French and Spanish
residents here. They argue " that the English and Spa-
nish Commissioners might reasonably disapprove the con-
duct of M. de Saligrj, and refuse to allow the Spanish
forces to take part in any aggressive movement, but that it
did not therefore follow that they were warranted in order-
ing the re-embarkation of those forces, thus leaving the
French entirely to their own resources; that before taking
such extreme measures they might, at all events, have
awaited further instructions from home," Certainly it
does appear strange ships should have been placed at the
disposal of General Prim, that his troops might be con-
veyed to Havannah with the least possible delay, and that
the very first act of Sir C. Wyke upon his arrival at Puebla

should be to sign a treaty with the party against whom our
allies had only a few days previously declared war. All
these extraordinary circumstances may be easy of explana-
tion, but to uninitiated here they are utterly incompre-
hensible. It 15 asserted in well-informed circles that Gene-
ral Prim was, in the first instance, instructed by O'Doi2lel
to back the Frena2 policy, but that when it became known
to the Queen of Spain that Archduke Frederick Maxi •
milian was likely to be put foi'ward as a candidate for the
Mexican Throne she took umbrage, Jpnceiving that a Spa-
nish prince ought to have been preferrea that other in-
structions were afterwards sent him, and hence the present
comp ' ica lion.

Juarez and his party are flow building all their hopes
upon the Corwin Treaty, and they have already, by antici-
pation, disposed of the greater part of 11,000,000 dais thereby
secured. Many doubt whether the United States, notwith-
standing their recent successes, will be willing to involve
themselves in Mexican affairs. A few days will solve the
mystery. No one believes that the `'Dyke-Doblado Treaty
will be ratified by our Government, therefore few trouble
their heads about it.
Reports are current to-day that Zaragoza is only waiting
the arrival at Ortega to at tack the French in Orizaba. The
reception his troops met with in the " Barranca Secca" on
the 18th of last month will, in my opinion, be sufficient to
deter him from such an act of folly. Ido not believe that
the Mexicans will ever again meet the French in the field ;
they may, perhaps, make a stand behind walls, but even
that 1 consider doubtful. It is asserted, with how much
truth I know not, that a French foraging party was at-
tacked by General Negrete at the head o f a large force, but
that the latter was completely routed.
The ridiculous proclamations put forward by the Govern-
ment and its Generals to the effect that the French soldiers
have come to deposit their decorations at the feet of the
Mexican braves, coupled with the report, now generally
believed, that several French wounded were bayoneted
on
the field after the affair of the sth, have excited
the French only to be washed out by blood. This is much
to be regretted.

Buitson, a reactionary chief, still holds his ground in the
mountain de las Cruces, a few leagues from the city. He
levies contributions, robs diligenees, seizes conductas, &c.
Only a few days back he attacked and destroyed a small
Government force stationed about two leagues from Mexico.
In the face of all this we are gravely assured that the pre-
sent Government are capable of restoring peace and tran-
quillity throughout the republic, and, what is still more
astounding, there are some people' who are fools enough to
believe in these assurances. Don Manuel Escandon, the
great Mexican capitalist, died on the morning of the 7th.
By a decree of the 27th of May, Goods coming from Vera
Cruz are to pay importation, internation, and all other
extra duties which would have been recovered in that port
if in Possession of the Supreme Governments. Merchants,
therefore, wishing to bring up merchandise must pay double
duties. Such an enactment is, of course, tantamount to a
prohibition.

IBITION.—The number of
INTERNATIONAL EXH
visitors yesterday was—By season tickets, 6,297 ;by season
tickets for Is, days, 1,042; by payment, 50,578. Total,
57,917.

LATESr NEWS.

LISBON, JULY 16.
The AlessagEir ies Imperiales steamer Bearn,
with the above mails, arrived here this morning
at 7 o'clock.

Rio, June 25—Exchange on London, 251 26;
on Paris, 365 370. Coffee, good first, 6,800 to 7,000.
Shipments of coffee since the departure of the last
mail, 29,700 bags, of which 28,000 are for the
Channel. Stock of coffee, 280,000 bags.
At Bahia.—llschange on London was quoted
25,1 26.

At Pernambuco the quotation of exchange on
London was 251.. Sugar, 2,100 to 2,400. Cotton,
10,200 to 10,600..

The Royal M. ail steamship Magdalena arrived
at Pernambuco o n the Ist of July.

PALERMO, JULY 17.
Garibaldi has left this city for Trapani.

PARIS, JULY 17.

The Moniteur of this morning publishes the fol-
lowing report irrom General Lorencez, dated the
11th of June :

" Our communications with Vera Cruz have been
re-established. A portion of the troops of Marquez
have assured the maintenance of this communica-
tion since the 20th of May.
" Zaragoza is posted between Cumbres and Tees.
mulncat with 10,000 men, but has not yet made an
attack. I have thrown up entrenchments at
Orizaba, which prote2t us from a sudden assault.
Similar works have been constructed at Cordova.
Marquez has warned me that Zaragoza will attack
to-morrow."

The Moniteur also announces that M. Rouher
will fulfil the duties of Minister of the Interior
during the absence of M. de Persigny.

CONSTANTINOPLE, JULY 15.

Official intelligence was received here yesterday
that Dost Mahomed was marching upon Herat, and
that the Persian Government had asked assistance
from the British Minister.

The withdrawal of the Raimes from circulation
commenced yesterday. 18 millions were withdrawn
on the first day.

Reinforcements are being sent to Montenegro.

RAGUSA, JULY 16.
A desperate contest took place the day before
yesterday in the vicinity of Zutta River.
The Turks obtained the victory, and marched
towards Cettigne.

THE BRAZILS.

BUENOS AYRES, JUNE 16.

The delegattes sent by the State of Cordova have
not been admitted to the Assembly of Buenos
Ayres.
The number of beasts slaughtered at Montevideo
is 468,000; at Buenos .ti,vres, 269,750; at Entre-
rios, 155,000. Total, 892,75b‘.

MONTEVIDEO.

Exchange, 401, declining. Wet ssAlted ox hides,
62, quiet ; dry hides, 58; wool, no stoc.k ; tallow,