The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Autumn seems marked out by nature as
the season of economy, if not of penitence. The
leaves begin to fall, and November's blasts blow
chill, and we have had enough of outing and en-
joyment and are not disinclined for repose. The
jollity of summer is over, and the jollity of Christ-
mas is still a thing of the future, so: between the
two we snatch a brief period for reflection, for
vows of amendment, and for plans of retrench-
ment. This, at all events, is the regular course
of political life. The activity of our own Govern-
ment about November is astonishing ; the rumours
of important measures which are to be brought
forward in the ensuing session come so thick and
fast that the most resolute Reformer is at last
fain to cry, " Hold, enough." But, active as
we are at home, we are far outdone by our
contemporaries abroad. When did November ever
come without some munificent promises that the
expenditure of France should be forthwith reduced ?
There is a regular comedy played at this season
between the iloniteur and two or three of the semi-
official journals at Paris, which is now so familiar
to us that we all know it by heart. Some ardent
young disciple of the Empire boldly announces in
an authoritative way that the national expenditure
is to be lessened by millions ; another, with equal
boldness, utters some mystical sentences about
loyalty to: the army and the material interests of the
brave men who devote themselves to the glory of
France, and then the Monitear steps in, mildly re-
proving the excessive zeal of the first and the timidity
of the second, and prophesies that the Imperial
plans when published will show at the same time a
great reduction of taxation and an improvement of
the condition of the soldier. Unluckily, just before
the full details of this happy arrangement are made
known to an inquiring people, news arrives of some
untoward complications in Madagascar or New
Caledonia, and the magnificent result is a diminu-
tion of a whole half million upon an expenditure of
ninety millions to be brought into full operation the
year after next. There is, however, one European
Government which in November is facile princeps in
penitence. Our relations for the future are good, the
intentions of the Imperial Government are above
suspicion, Signor Sella thinks seriously how he may
be able to pay his way another twelvemonth, but
the Turkish Government is far above us all in
promises of amendment. November is the financial
Ramadan of the Sublime Porte. Government, even
in Turkey, cannot be carried on without money ;
there are soldiers to be paid, official salaries to be
provided for, greedy creditors insisting upon their
bonds, and when besides all this some demon has
whispered to the Sultan " Have a taste," whether
for palaces or fortifications, money is apt to be in
demand. Experience shows that the pressure
comes in November. The financial year of Turkey
properly begins in March, but bit by bit it has been
found possible to defer all financial plansfrom March
to November, or even December. Sometimes one
plea is advanced for the delay, sometimes another,
the last being that budgets published six months after
the year has begun mustalways be more trustworthy
than these published in advance. It never appears
to have struck the Grand Vizier that this would be an
excellent reason for postponing his budget till after
the year was over ; and, indeed, it must be said in
his defence that he never gives the world any account
of the past. Like a true Islamite, he regards whatis
done as done, and does not concern himself about it.
His estimates are always hypothetical and future,
always show a surplus, and you may search Turkish
State papers in vain to discover whether the pro-
mised surplus has ever been realised. The report of
the year 1859-60, which Mr. Foster and Lord Ho-
bart made when sent out as special commissioners by
the present Prime Minister, is the last statement of
facts which has been made anywhere. Thatshowed
an expenditure of £11,088,000, against an income
of £9,711,000, or a deficiency of -£1,377,000, and
there is no reason to suppose the deficiency has ever
been reduced. The financial operations in which
Turkey has since engaged give, on the contrary, seine
ground for believing that the deficiency has some-
what increased. Nevertheless, regularly asNovember
comes round, there appears an official prognostica-
tion of the coming year, beautiful but delusive as the
dreams of life. There is a show of accuracy about
it which would be enchanting if it could only be de-
pended upon, and the surplus is circumstantially
stated at 36,518 purses, 274 piastres, as if purses and
piastres would not both turn into mere dead leaves.
And this valuable budget is always prefaced with some
solemn dissertation on the resources of Turkey. A.
few weeks before it makes its appearance a Minis-
terial report or an official pamphlet is issued, like
the premonitory symptoms of the French Budget
which may be found in the .3lonite or La
France. Last year there was an elaborate attempt
to prove that the surplus of the preceding budget
had been realised, only there had been a delay in
getting in the receipts, and a temporary loan was
necessary as a means of getting over the temporary
i difficulty. A conversion of the -Consolisles followed,
accompanied by some trifling additional accommo-
dation to the Government of the Sultan, which we
do not understand has yet been repaid. 'I he other
day we published another valuable document, which
may be regarded as the preface to the budget of
1865-6, an possibly to some further financial ope-
ration. The language of this paper, which is in the
form of a report made to the Sultan by the Grand
Vizier, is somewhat obscure, and we have to pick
our way through it with hesitation ; but this fault
I is, perhaps, attributable to the Levantine translator.
It does, however, contain some statements which
are perfectly intelligible, but very startling. The
Sultan is told that the result of the annual publica-
tion of budgets has been a considerable reduction in
the expenditure and an increase not less important
in the revenue of the Empire. The Sultan may,
perhaps, believe this statement, but it is so com-
pletely at variance with the estimates published by
successive Grand Viziers that we hardly know what
to say about it. They always made out that the
expenditure increased yearly, and the periodical re-
currence of loans seemed to confirm their estimates.
We must either disbelieve Fuad Pasha or his
predecessors, nor is the difficulty entirely got over
by the subsequent explanation that there is some
little backwardness in the coming in of receipts,
and that a deficiency has hence arisen, which causes
difficulties to the Imperial treasury without any real
deficit in the budget. This explanation, which is a
mere repetition of last year's statement, explains
what is meant by an increasing income, because it
is an income which increases only upon paper, but
it leaves us still in the dark how it can be said
that an expenditure which both on paper and in
fact is increasing has been diminished. This much,
however, is certain, that there has been a deficiency
in the past year through this strange backwardness
on the part of the collectors of the revenue to keep
up to the promises of the budget, and that in the
current year the known falling off of produce, and
the disturbances which have followed in all trans-
actions the ill effects, both moral and material, of
the late epidemic, have embarrassed and will em-
Ibarrass the proceedings of the Treasury. Something
must be done. In the language of Fuad Pasha, there
is " alnecessity of a great number of measures of
serious amelioration" to establish an equilibrium be-
tween the income and expenditure of the Ottoman
Empire. There can be no doubt, he says, that the
actual expenses of the State are reduced to the
limits assigned by strict necessity ; in fact, he adds,
the real necessities of the public service require that
they should be largely augmented—an apparent
contradiction which is pardonable in the impetuosity
of a patriot. On the other hand, Fuad Pasha looks
upon it as equally certain that the revenue of
Turkey might be easily doubled or trebled, and he
therefore recommends the appointment of a Coun-
cil whose duty it shall be to develope the resources
of the Empire, to turn its materialwealth to account,
to utilise the forests, the mines, and the other pro-
perties of the State, calling in for that purpose, if
necessary, the aid of Turkish and foreign capital
—in a word, to extract wealth from a stone, and
squeeze something more out of the unfortunate
Rayahs of Turkey. And the Father of the Faith-
ful, falling in with the views of Fuad Pasha, has
accordingly nominated a Council which shall un-
dertake these solemn functions and complete the
oft-promised task of restoring order to the finances
of Turkey. The hint that foreign capital might be
advantageously employed in developing the re-
sources of Turkey probably explains the motive of
the formation of this last Council. Otherwise it
might not be easy to detect the reason of the frequent
changes in the financial administration of Turkey.
It is no longer ago than Jan., 1862, that an organic
change took place, and this was scarcely perfected
when, in July, 1863, a Council of Accounts was
appointed in place of the Council of Control, and
now a third Council is brought into existence,
having much the same functions as its predecessors.
No doubt the finances of Turkey require a good
deal of regeneration, and no doubt, also, foreign
capital is a necessary element in regenerating them,
which this new council will probably be able, under
more or less onerous conditions, to obtain. There
are plenty of banks and societies, Credits Foncier
and Credit Companies having money to lend, and
we believe as we write a new Bank of Turkey is
being launched into existence. Nowhere are for-
tunes more easily lost or 'won than in Turkish secu-
rities ; as long as they last the interest they pay is
magnificent, and by-and-by it will be sauve qui pent.
Those who do not feel this pecuniary interest in the
policy which Turkey is pursuing cannot but see

that it is rapidly 'working the ruin of the Empire.
It is scarcely ten years since Turkey had no foreign
debt, but familiarity with the Bourses of Europe
has been to Grand Viziers like fire-water to the
Red Indians. The total debt of Turkey is now not
less than sixty millions, and the annual charge in-
curred by it bears a very considerable proportion
to what was the whole revenue of the Empire before
the Crimean War. It is obvious that this is a pro-
gress which Councils must be impotent to arrest,
and which can only have one result.
HERALD.—Mr. Jefferson Davis is not, it appears, so
near pardon and release as recent flattering accounts
from America led us to hope. He still languishes
in the melancholy casemates of Fortress Monroe—a
prisoner, not by the will of President Johnson, but
through the political difficulties with which Mr.
Lincoln's successor has to contend. Grave enough
are these difficulties when we consider that they
emanate rather from the advisers he found ready to
his hand than from the ferocious section of the
populace who made an idle clamour for the hanging
of Jefferson Davis and Captain Wirz on the same
gallows. There is confusion in the Yankee Cabinet
—mutiny, indeed, in the Government camp •, and
the question whether Jefferson Davis shall be
tried by a jury or by a military commission, or
whether his trial shall be put off for the decision of
Congress, is one on which the President, Mr. Stan-
ton, and Mr. Chase fight a triangular duel, sad
enough for the principal concerned. Mr. Stanton
is, it seems, favourable to a military commission for
bringing Jefferson Davis to account ; and a military
commission would, without doubt, either hang the
unfortunate man, or condemn hun to such a long
course of imprisonment as would in effect be a capi-
tal penalty. This proceeding is, we are told, alto-
gether repugnant to the feelings of President John-
son and the more substantial and sober citizens of
the Republic. They do not desire to see Jefferson
Davis suffer the fate of Captain Wirz ; nor do they
wish him to meet a civil death in that gloomy for-
tress which points towards the land he hoped to
emancipate from Northern control. They would
have him tried by a civil court, and as the offence
he is accused of was committed in Virginia, Presi-
dent Johnson has called upon Chief Justice Chase
to hold a circuit court in that district for the trial
of Jefferson Davis " during the autumn or early
winter." In effect, the President has done this
by asking the Chief Justice whether it would be
" possible" for him, or any of his associates, to pre-
side over such a circuit court, that the Government
might " prosecute some high crimes and misde-
meanors committed against the United States within
the district of Virginia." This is plain enough. Pre-
sident Johnson and the moderate party desire to
leave the decision of Jefferson Davis's guilt or inno-
cence to a jury taken from a Southern panel, which,
in the opinion of the United States Attorney Gene-
ral, of Mr. Caleb Cushing, and no doubt of the
President himself, would be tantamount to an
acquittal of the so-called " arch-traitor." They—
the Attorney General and Mr. Cushing—reasonably
enough assert that no Southern jury would convict
Jefferson Davis; and so the President walks upon
tender ground when he proposes such a tribunal for
the gaol delivery of the distinguished Southerner.
He meets, too, with the decided opposition of Chief
Justice Chase, who, even with the responsibilities of
his high office upon him, cannot forget that he is a
Radical politician of the most " advanced" tenden-
cies. In answer to the President's inquiry, Mr.
Chase pleads two obstacles to the holding of a
circuit court for the trial of these " high crimes and
misdemeanors." The first is, that the civil pro-
cess should not interfere with the course of mar-
tial law in the revolted States ; the second, that
" there would be no time for the transaction of
any business of moment." To English ears,
the former excuse will seem very like a degra-
dation of the civil court below the military tri-
bunal ; a scandalous plea, indeed, on the part of
the Chief Justice to avoid his duties for the sake of
satisfying his political rancour. As to the excuse
of " no time for the transaction of any business of
moment," that, in such a case as the trial of a
prisoner who has languished for so many months in
gaol is a gross and ridiculous device indeed. But
these facts will show the awkward position in
which President Johnson finds himself placed. His
voice for mercy, or at least for a fair trial of
Jefferson Davis by a jury of hig countrymen. He
urges on such a trial ; he pleads for its occurrence
in the " autumn or early winter," and so poorly is
he served, that a political Chief Justice answers him
by an opposition founded on what we cannot help
looking at as a complete derogation of his judicial
functions. In older societies, where we are apt to
regard the civil power as the palladium of our liber-
ties, such a reply as President Johnson has received
from Chief Justice Chase would be met by general
reprobation, while the man who had written it
would be deemed unworthy to sit on the judicial
bench. But unhappily in America things are diffe-
rent. There party politics canker the very foun-
tain head of what should be justice ; and the Presi-
dent, in-addressing his chief law °lncur, is addrcrim-
ing a man who has his own political interests to
serve, and who, while sitting in the Supreme Court,
has a keen eye to his chance of occupying the Pre-
sidential chair. With this feeling he proposes the
delay of Jefferson Davis's trial till it can be decided
upon by a Congress in which Northern proclivities
are in the ascendant and the South is as yet prac-
tically unrepresented ; and he pretends to a fear that
it circuit' court held in a district under martial law
,would .be overawed by the military power, and thus
be involved in an " unbecoming" proceeding. This,
then, is why Jefferson Davis still lies a prisoner in
Fortress Monroe. He is the victim of Northern
divisions • and President Johnson, in the present
state of affairs, either wants the hardihood, or lacks
the substantial power, to bring him to trial, or to take
the plainer or more arbitrary course of granting him
a free and _ immediate pardon. "The chief of the
state is hampered by his Cabinet, his Chief Justice,
and a certain section of his people. He has
around him a set of men who watch his every
movement with a view to his slips and to their
chances of future advancement. He would be mer-
ciful, but he cannot. He would do justice, but the
ill-placed representative of justice pleads the old
Popish formula of non possumus. This is a very
lamentable state of things, difficult to understand
in countries where the purity of the ermine is a
source of national pride, and where judges would
stand aghast at the idea of martial law usurping
their functions in a peaceful state. The South is
no doubt sufficiently crushed and conquered.
" Rebels" have been pardoned by thousands • and
the Southern people are resuming their ordinary
avocations, with the simple comment of " God's
will be done." They have yielded to the full, and
martial law is wasted upon them in their dire ex-
tremity. And yet we have a Chief Justice of the
United States pleading the supremacy of military
power as a bar to the exercise of his proper duties.
Witlr the consent of Mr. Chase, Jefferson Davis
would now be upon his trial and the Government be
relieved of a crying scandal. His prison doors
would be opened to free him for ever, or to close
again upon him as a convicted traitor. He would,
at least, be receiving the weed that justice awards
in all constitutional European societies. But Chief
Justice Chase says, " No." He has not time to
try this distinguished prisoner. If he had time he
thinks that it would not become him to exercise his
jurisdiction. And, in the end, he prefers to leave the
matter to a Congress composed chiefly of the ene-
mies to the South. Simply put, this is malversa-
tion of the worst kind. It is playing with a man's
life for political purposes; and English notions of
justice revolt at it. We have before spoken of
Andrew Johnson's humane tendencies ; of his states-
manlike desire to heal the wounds of distracted
America ; of his being, in fact, a much better man
than the world thought him to be. He has not,
with his undoubted popularity, power to sweep
the political self-seekers from his path and to be
truly President of the United States. A work that
would shed lustre upon his name, and confound his
enemies by his boldness, would be the complete
pardon of Jefferson Davis, despite Mr. Chase, de-
spite Mr. Stanton, and the other log-rollers, who
dam up the founts of mercy that they may achieve
their petty ends or pander to the political passions
of their party.

Francis Stabenon, a young Prussian with half a
dozen aliases, who has been stopping for some time at the
Everett House, New York, was arrested on the sth inst.
on a charge of being a deserter from the regular army. The
prisoner has been received in certain circles as a Prussian
nobleman, and has victimised a great many foolish people
in large amounts of money by adroit misrepresentations.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A BALE OF COTTON ?—.-A cor-
respondent of the Liverpool Post, signing himself "An 01(1
New Orleans Merchant," writes as follows to that paper :
"As there are rumours on 'Change that much of the
cotton in the Southern States of America has been packed
in. unusually small bales, an important service would be
rendered to the whole trade if an authorised statement of
the average weight per bale of the American cotton now
arriving were published. I have been shown invoices of
American cotton recently imported from New York, the
average gross weight of which did not exceed 3301b5. per
bale. I have heard of many more such invoices, and to-
day I notice in Bill of Entry of the Liverpool Custom-house
No. 14,504, dated Saturday evening, 18th instant, the
arrival of the Albina, from New Orleans, with 5,367 bales
of cotton, and 320 sacks of cotton seed oil cake, although
this vessel is only of 742 tons register. Before the war
commenced, when cotton was in all probability both
better compressed and also more effectually screwed into
the hold of the ship, a vessel of this tonnage could not
have carried 2,000 bales of Now Orleans cotton. I think
this question is of so much importance to all parties in
the trade, that I beg you to publish my letter, in the
hope, that by doing so attention may be directed to the
subject, and the real state of the case made known."

The Confederate Bondholders.

(New York _Herald)

Certain English financiers are just now agitating
an odd question. They suppose that if a rogue steals an
honest man's watch and buys a dozen shirts with it, the
honest man when he reclaims his watch is the "successor"
of the rogue, and can be sued for the shirts. They propose
to apply this notion to the case of the United States and
that great rogue the Southern Confederacy. Having
smashed the rogue, we, they say, are the " successor," and
must pay his debts. Doubting the reasonableness of this
conclusion, very properly, they have applied to Mr
Fleming, Q.C.," to give them his opinion on it. The
learned Fleming, having considered the matter with much
anxious misgiving, has assured the financiers that they are
quite right. We would advise them before they go allY
further to consider the two recent letters on this topic of
President Johnson—one to the Governor of North Carelina, the other to the Governor of Georgia. Those
letters are from a man who can tell more abofit that
subject, without any anxiety at all, than Fleming can after
puzzling his brains with the most exquisite intellectual
torture.

(New York Times.)

The report of the Committee of Confederate
Bondholders which was read to a small meeting of those
unfortunates at the London Tavern, on the 18th of
October, contains so many extraordinary, and even ludi-
crous positions, that we hardly know where to begin to
discuss them. It opened by setting forth a correspondence
with the house of Erlanger and Co., the contractor of the
loan, the amount of which was that that shrewd -house
announced that it had no property whatever of the rebel
Government, or anything else that could help the bond-
holders. It would seem as if that fact made any further
report utterly useless, but the committee seem not to have
been at all discouraged by this fact, but proceed with es
long a report as if there were millions of property within
their reach.

Fortified by the opinion of one Mr. Fleming, Q.C.I
which they gave at full length, they declared that there
is no doubt but that "sooner or later either the United
States or the States which lately formed the Confederation
will recognise and pay the loan." They could not but feel,
however, that Mr. Seward's letter on the decision in the
case of the " United States v. S. Prioleau" made the as-
sumption of it by the United States a most unlikely event,
and they attack the letter most sharply, and undertake to
teach Mr. Seward a lesson on international law, which
reminds one of the proverb—" Teach your grandmother
how to suck eggs." Next they regret so much that we
should have thrown away so " glorious an opportunity" of
establishing our credit in Europe. Really, when our Five-
Twenty Bonds are going abroad at tho rate of about
million per week, it is ridiculous enough to suggest that
we should have paid these "heaters of the poker" for us
from any such considerations. Europe does not seem to
have been very much "shocked" by our "proclaiming s
policy of repudiation," and if it were, what Europe
thinks is not of so much consideration here as it was once.