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

Law Amendment Society.

Last night at one of the usual meetings of the
society a paper was read by Mr. Thomas Webster,
Q.C., F.R.S., on the subject of the Palace of Jus-
tice, the site, approaches, and arrangements of the
courts of law and offices of judicature. After ex-
pressing his opinion that the site of the new courts
was well adapted for the purpose, and afforded the
means of being subservient to one of the greatest
metropolitan improvements that this or any other
country ever witnessed, the author proceeded to
argue that separation or isolation from the general
traffic of the metropolis was essential to the deve-
lopment of the advantages which concentration
would give. The mere concentration of the courts
of law, with the termini of the great metropolitan
lines of railway converging upon them, would lead
to an immense influx of persons, and would greatly
add to the inconveniences which were already found
to existfrom theinsufficiency of the means of accom-
modating the traffic. In order to obviate this in-
convenience, Mr. Webster advocated the construc-
tion of subways from the new Thames Embankment
'on the south side of the Palace of Justice, and the
utilising of Temple-bar by converting it into a via-
duct, for the same purpose. On the north side a
similar subway might be constructed under the Hol-
born-street level, in the neighbourhood of Warwick-
court, for the use of those who lived in Gray's-inn
and Bedford-row. The writer laid great stress on the
desirability of isolating the courts from the general
traffic of the metropolis. He dwelt at length on the
general divisions and internal arrangements of the
new building, and while advocating the principle
that all persons interested in a cause should be
brought into easy communication with each other,
this should be done without leading to disorder or
confusion. Increased facilities should be afforded
not only to judges and counsel and solicitors, but to
witnesses, short-hand writers, and reporters. Around
the great hall there should be 18 courts with their
distinct appurtenances, and with easy access to the
general hall. The paper went with great minuteness,
and at the same time with great distinctness, into
the consideration of the internal arrangements, and
left scarcely any class of persons connected with
the administration of the law uncared or unpro-
vided for ; but in the discussion, or rather conver-
sation which ensued, the greatest stress was laid on
the suggestion of isolating, as far as possible, the
new courts of law from the general traffic. The
paper was much applauded. In the course of the
discussion which ensued, Mr. Snell, the senior
short-hand writer of his profession, referred to the
many difficulties under which shorthand writers and
reporters at present laboured from the existing want-
of accommodation. He stated that an Institute of
Shorthand Writers had lately been formed, and that
he would communicate to that body the careful con-
sideration Mr. Webster had given in his scheme to
their accommodation and general interests, for
which in their name he begged to thank the learned
gentleman. Probably any additional suggestions
they might have to offer would be kindly received
and considered.

The thanks of the meeting were given, on the
motion of Mr. Lawrence, to Mr. Webster ; and on
the motion of Mr. Hastings the paper was ordered
to be printed and circulated, and a copy of it sent
to the Royal Commissioners. Mr. Daniel, Q.C.,
occupied the chair.

Royal Geographical Society.

~, _

Yesterday evening the special ordinary meeting
of the session of this society was held at Burlington
House—the president, Sir Rolerick Murchison, in
the chair.

The PRESIDENT opened the proceedings by ex-
pressing his great regret that disastrous accounts
had been received of two expeditions in Africa which
had for some time past been looked to with great
interest. In the first place the expedition of Baron
Vander Deccar, from the cast coast of Africa into
the interior, had come to an end. The baron had,
on previous explorations froui Zanzibar, discovered
tile highest mountain in Africa, Kalb!, anj aro,which ,
though within the tropics, was covered with perpe-
tual snow. He undertook a further exploration in
two boats provided and fitted at his own cost, in
which he endeavoured to penetrate to Central Africa
by ascending the river, but information had just
been received that both the boats had foundered, and
the baron and his party had been obliged to return.
The other expedition wasthat of his gallant friendM.
Du Chaillu, who, as was well known, undertook to
penetrate Africa from the western coast by land. He
had encountered many difficulties before he started,
having lost all his instruments by the upsetting of
a boat, and he had to wait until fresh instru-
ments could be sent to him. In the meantime he had
employed himself assiduously in collecting gorillas,
insects, and other objects of natural history which
he had forwarded to the British Museum. The ex-
ploration was undertaken at his own cost, he having
devoted the money obtained by the publication of
his book to that purpose. For some time it was
hoped he would succeed in his object, but the small
pox having afflicted the negroes in the interior they
attributed the disease to him. Hence they became
very hostile and he was forced to return, having
been twice wounded and been plundered of nearly
all his property. He had succeeded, however, in pre-
serving his astronomical observations. The president
read a telegram he had that day received from M.
Du Chaillu, from Plymouth, announcing his arrival
in this country, and that he should probably be in
London that evening.
Three papers on Australia were then read in suc-
cession. The first described an overland journey
from Rockhampton to Cape York, by Messrs. Jar-
dine, who set out for the purpose of taking a supply
of cattle to the colonists at Cape York. The journey
occupied about 12 months, during which time the
two brothers, both young men, suffered great hard-
ships from the difficulty of cuttingtheir way through
the bush and of crossing lagoons and large and deep
rivers; and they were several times attacked by the
' natives, armed with spears. Most of the horses and
cattle died on the journey, some of them having
been stung by poisonous snakes. The appearance of
the country gecerally seemed far from favourable
for settlement, though millions of acres of rich-look-
ing soil were seen on table laud at a great elevation
at one part of their progress. The second paper
gave an account of the discovery of a route between
Rockingham Bay and the Valley of Lagoons, by
Mr. Dalrymple. The difficulty of effecting a pas-
sage across the ridge of mountains near the coast
was described to be almost insurmountable, except-
ing by taking advantage of occasional gaps
through which water-courses traverse to the sea.
Rockingham Bay, where the flettlement of Card-
well has been established, was represented to be the
finest bay, with the exception of Port Jackson, along
the whole coast of Australia, and the natural ad-
vantages of the situation were said to be very great,
but an immense amount of labour seems to be re-
quired to clear away the impenetrable masses of
mangroves that everywhere abound. Mr. Dalrymple
underwent many hardships in his exploration, but
he succeeded in making his way inland to a distance
of about 100 miles. The foregoing paper had been
sent to the society by the Governor of Queensland.
The third paper described a boat voyage of 1,600
bma
coastyipl eA;ts a
ri
try.
01 osfontf
Australia,
tswe settlers
northitlelrts and
aaptppaenoadrr,ts
some
thato westme
keo
Adam,
iro a.
dissensionsnssttt
oh of
ewf
nlvoAustralia,artsihoi
north-west
en osgtf
arisen among them, he and a few others purchased
a boat from the captain of a ship, and sailed west-
ward in the expectation of arriving at some place
where they could settle. Their expectations were,
however,
a te
theh
disappointed.soren
a c
The
islands coast
was
completely rose
d perpendicularly in most parts, rendering-navigation
extremely dangerous, and more than. once their boat
was nearly upset. Their food ran short, and they
were in danger of starving, when they reached
a small settlement at Port Camden, but the
position of the settlers was not much better than

their own. The absence of any sign of life and of
vegetation along a great part of the west coast was
most depressing, but the party gallantly pursued
their way, and at length arrived at Port Adelaide,
where they felt delighted at coming again within
the range of civilised life. The paper was in the
nature of a diary, and it was so long that a large
portion of it was necessarily omitted.
Sir CHARLES NICHOLSON made some observations
on the suitableness of Queensland for colonisation,
and on the extreme fertility and beauty of its east
coast, which contrasted remarkably with that of
the west. In his opinion a meridian line at 150
deg. of longitude would divide that vast territory
into habitable and uninhabitable parts, most cf
the eastern portion being eminently adapted
for occupation by a civilised population ; while the
western seemed incapable of profitable occupation.
After a fed* observations from Captain Richards
and the president, the meeting adjourned.

An American Railway.
-•-

A correspondent of the Anglo-American Times
writes as follows :

Away up in the Alleghenies a little rill gushes forth, so
small that an ox could drink it dry ; trickling down the
rocks it increases as it travels on, till finally it spreads
itself out into a mighty river which rolls its treasures into
the lap of Old Ocean and becomes a part of it. So, I re-
member, the Atlantic and Groat Western Railway was com-
menced, four years ago, at Salamanca, in the State of
New York. It was a feeble line when I first knew it, but
twenty-seven miles in length, and ran but one passenger
train a day. But under the exhilarating influence of British
gold, aided by the far-seeing sagacity of a PETO and a
M'lclENnst, and the engineering skill of a KINNAIRD, it has
been rapidly extended, until now it is one of the great
leading railways of America, forming an important link in
that iron chain of railways which already stretches half-
way across the Continent, and which, when the Great
Pacific Road is completed, will bind indissolubly together
the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. A road destined to
play so important a part in the future is surely entitled to
a history by itself.
In my last article I reviewed the Erie and Illinois
Central Railways. I propose this week to trespass on your
space with a brief account of the Atlantic and Great
Western. Although no road in the United States
was so quickly built, no road is more substantially made.
No expense has been spared in the construction of cars,
station houses, machine shops, or in the grading of its
broad bed ; but to the traveller its elegant passenger cars,
palatial dining halls—unequalled in any part of the world
—and the promptness and speed of the trains, render it a
most pleasant road to ride over, and so well is this fact
becoming known in America that many go out of their
way, and are actually put to extra expense in order-to en-
joy the luxury of the superior accommodations of this rail-
way. But to particulars. The Atlantic and Great Western
Railway leaves Salamanca, whore it connects with
the Erie by an unbroken six-foot gauge, 412 miles from
New York as its eastern terminus, and passes through the
heavily-timbered countyof Cattaraugus, thence through rich
pastureand dairylands to Jamestown, Now York. Leaving
this enterprising and growing town of 5,000 inhabitants, it
passes along the banks of that beautiful lake, which lies a
sparkling jewel set in between the green hills of the ever
fertile Western Now York—Lake Chatanqua, I mean—
the highest sheet of navigable water on the face of the globe,
and a sight well worth a trip across the Atlantic to see. Pro-
ceeding westward, we cross the State line, which divides
the Empire State from Pennsylvania, 60 miles from Sala-
manca, and arrive at Corry, the first place of any note in
the last-named State. Like Minerva, who jumped front
the head of Jove, thisi town sprang into existence almost
in an instant. Four years ago a dense forest stood, and
not a home was to be seen, where now there is a young
city of 10,000 inhabitants, with a mayor, an opera house,
a daily newspaper, and all the institutions pertaining to
cities. What has wrought this change ? Simply the mar-
riage of three railroads, which were made to intersecteach
other at'this particular point, some three years ago, viz., the
Oil Creek, the Philadelphia and Erie, and the Atlantic and
Great Western Railways. Corry is but 25 miles from the
celebrated Oil -Wells, and the principal business of the
roads connecting at thispoint is the transportation of petro-
leum. Leaving Corry, and proceeding 40 miles further
on into the heart of Western Pennsylvania, we come to
Meadville, a thrifty town of 8,000 inhabitants. Here are
located the extensive locomotive and machine shops of the
Atlantic and Great 'Western Railway ; also its principal
offices, and the celebrated M'Henry House, owned by the
railway company, and one of the finest hotels in the
country. Hero also the Franklin and Oil Creek branch
of the Atlantic and Great Western commences, and at
the distance of 33 miles taps the great oil region of Oil
Creek and Pitt Hole, whore oil is spouted up out of the
ground at the rate of 10,000b1s. a day, to be barrelled
and sent off for the illumination of the world. The rail-
way of which I am speaking has the monopoly of the
carrying business of petroleum. But leaving the oil
regions at Meadville, we soon enter the granary of America,
the noble State of Ohio. Hero, travelling for 200 miles
through countless wheat fields, and alongside or in sight
of scores of pretty villages, surrounded by a thickly-settled
agricultural people, limo Atlantic and Great Western Rail-
way proceeds westward, at different points forming
important connections with no less than thirteen other rail-
roads, till its western terminus is reached at Dayton, Ohio
—a populous city of 40,000 inhabitants, having the best
water-power in the State, and being the seat of extensive
flouring mills. From Dayton the Atlantic and Great
Western Railway connects by other roads with Cleveland,
on lake Erie, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and
all the great cities in the north-west; while by a broad gauge
track of 60 miles, south-west from Dayton, is the splendid
city of Cincinnati with her 200,000 inhabitants. Here con-
nections are made with the Kentucky Central, which pene-
trates into the heart of that beautiful country—the
garden-spot of America—viz., the Blue Grass regions of
Kentucky. At Cincinnati, also, important connections
are made with the fast steamers that incessantly plough
the Ohio and the Mississippi from New Orleans to Pitts-
burgh. But by far the most important connection the
Atlantic and Groat Western Railway makes at Cincinnati
St. istwLitohutisheoOnhthiee
MississippiandMississiwppitihati Railway,cincinn on the Ohio, which connects
and which will soon connect the last-named city with San
Francisco rid the Groat Pacific Railway, which has its
eastern terminus at St. Louis.

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the
Pacific Road. Under Government patronage, it is being
rapidly pushed forward, opening up as it advances those
inexhaustible gold and silver fields, and those almost
boundless prairies and timber lands, which stretch for
twenty-eight hundred miles over a region now com-
paratively luninhabited. But infinitely more important
than those developments, the Pacific Road, when com-
pleted, will give to America the monopoly of the carrying
business between China and Europe, the rich commerce of
the 400 millions who inhabit the celestial land. Already
a gigantic line of Ocean steamers has been started between
Pekin and California. The route to Europe from China
and the Indies is several thousand miles nearer this way
than by any other. And when the Great Pacific Road is
completed, who can estimate the business that must
naturally come to it? The commerce of all Europe as well
as America with China will soon be changed to this new
route. But, asks some one, What has China to do with
the Atlantic and Great Western Railway ? It has every-
thing to do with it. The Atlantic and Great Western Rail-
way is the most important link in that grand chain of rail-
roads which is destined to connect New York and Liver-
pool and London and Paris with California on the Pacific,
and the far distant China and Indies of the East.

Here wo have, then, a road which, with its branches,
is over 600 miles in length, built in the short space of
four years, and doing a business already of £7O per mile a
week (earnings unprecedented in a road so young), costing
only about one-fifth as much as railways in England of
the same length (but a trifle has to be paid for the right
of way in America), and earning almost as much per mile
as some of the best English railways. But what will its
earnings be in that glorious future now opening up in the t
great and expanding country in which it is located ? Tho
Atlantic and Great Western Railway runs through
a rich and prosperous country, constantly increasing in
population—a population whose business alone would
support a road built so cheaply as this. But, in addi-
tion, the road is intersected by no less than twenty other
important railways, all of which bring business to the
roads leading into New York.
New York city may be said to be the lungs of America
—it draws in and sends out the blood of the nation. It is
the groat money centre—the shipping centre—the foun-
tain-head of commerce. The centre of gravity in America
is in New York. The business of all the States, north,
east, south, and west gravitate to and from, and is regu-
lated by this great centre. When the metropolis is agi-
tated its throbs are heard and felt in every hamlet in the
land. And those railroads that have direct connections
with New York, like the Atlantic and Groat Western
Railway, the Erie, and Now York Central, can never fail
to have all the business they desire. The Atlantic and
Great Western is a great and a noble monument to the
sagacious Englishmen who built it. With a grand track
of 400 miles there are a score of feeders to the main line
—each feeder a powerful arm in the service. With one arm
she draws in the rich freight from a thousand gushing oil-
wells in Petrolia ; with another she soon will reach
across the International Bridge over Niagara, and shake
hands with the Canadas, supplying them with the coal
that cold country so much needs ; with another arm she
gathers in the copper and other ores of Lake Superior;
with another she touches the five-fold chain of northern
lakes—lakes covered with the white birds of commerce.
She stretches out another arm, and millions of corn and
wheat are transported eastward ; and still another pierces
the coal beds and iron mines of the Keystone State. The
cattle from a thousand hills are transported over this road.
Her ramifications extend to the lordly Mississippi and the
swelling Ohio ; and her long arms draw in business from
all over the groat West.

To conclude, Mr. Editor, the time is not far distant

when the traveller, seated in an Atlantic and Great
Western carriage, can cross the Continent from the Atlantic
to the Pacific without change of cars ! drawn by the great
pioneer of the age, the Iron Horse, with his tramp of
thunder and breath of fire.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

- - -.,. , --- - - -

TlMES.—Autumn seems marked out by nature as
the season of economy, if not of penitence. The
loaves 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 Moniteur 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 milliond ; 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 allfinancial plans from 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 those 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 what is
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 as November
comes round, there appears an official prognostica-
tion of the coming year, beautiful but delusive asthe
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 al ways 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 Moniteur 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
difficulty. A conversion of theConsolides followed,
accompanied by some trifling additional accommo-
dation to the Government of the. Sultan, which we
do not understand has yet been repaid. 1 he other
day we published another valuable document, which
may be regarded as the preface to the budget of
1865-6, and 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
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-
barrass the proceedings of the Treasury. Something
must be done. In the language of Fuad Pasha, there
is " ajnecessity 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,
I 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 material wealth 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 him 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.
Ile 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 Lis for mercy, or at least for a fair trial of
Jefferson Davis by a jury of his 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 tg sit on the judicial
bench. But unhappily in America things arc 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 officer, is address-
ing a man who ha.s 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
a 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.
With 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 meed 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 tho
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 largo amounts of money by adroit misrepresentations.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A BALE OF COTTON ?—A cor-
respondent of the Liverpool Post, signing himself "An Old
Now Orleans blorchant," 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 bo
rendered to tho 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 Now York, the
average gross weight of which did not exceed 3301b5. per
bale. I have beard of many rliore 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.A.lbina, 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 New 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 nlay 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 ic Mr
Fleming, Q.C.," to give them his opinion on it. Tho
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 any
further to consider the two recent letters on this topic of
President Johnson—one to the Governor of North Caro-
lina, the other to the Governor of Georgia. These
letters are from a man who can tell more about 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 tho 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 as
long a report as if there were millions of property within
their reach.

Fortified by the opinion of ono Mr. Fleming, Q.C.,
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'a 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 rogret 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 the rate of about a
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
policy of repudiation," and if it were, what Europe
thinks is not of so much consideration here as it was once.