The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TEMRSDAInIEVENING, MARCH 13, 1862.

and-
of the confessional in this life, would command'
as many votes for Popery and the POPE'S tempo-
ralities as are obtained now. We do not believe
this. Al! Roman Catholic priests are not crazy
political faLg,tics—we have had in Ireland itself
a Mur.ltAY as well as a CULLEN ;—and we may
feel pretty sure that, with the ballot to shield the
electors, the better part of the priests would be but
too thankful to abstain quietlyfrom political matters,
and devote themselves to their appropriate spiri-
tual duties. Hundreds of the people, also, are not
so superstitious as to believe in the spiritual terrors
of the priest, when h e steps out of his spiritual
province, and supplements the decalogue by con-
structive poiitical sins in the interest of ecclesiasti-
cal ambition—a sin with which not Popish priests
alone are chargeable. The fate of a bill yesterday
w hich trod on the toes of canonical assumptions,
may be traced to clerical creation of artificial sins,
and clerical pride in being better than the Bible
itself. People, however, see through all this in
time, and whether in England or in Ireland, by the
help of the Ballot, those who in heart resent cleri-
cal inventions, superstitions, and assumptions, can
give vent to their just resentment without the
hazard of annoyance.
But the more manifest evils of the Longford
election must vanish before an honest ballot. It
would be no one's interest to intimidate and deter
voters, when, for aught the intimidator could
tell, he might be deterring from the poll
a man who
.would vote for his candidate. The
most conspicuous opponent of the ballot, in the
press, remarks that the priests did not object to
Mr. O'REILLY's support of the ballot, because they
could, even with it, enforce obedience. It is re-
markable, however, that in Australia the persons
who were, and who have remained, most hostile to
the ballot are the Roman Catholic priests! This
lis very significant. The truth is that, be it priests,
or parsons, landlords, or money lords, all the classes
who exercise undue influence are opposed
to the ballot. They hate it as Southern
slaveholders hate emancipation, and for pre-
cisely the same reason. Beth cling to the
unrighteous power which they have over their
fellow men. We do not indeed place the political
slave on the same level with the poor wretch who
has lost his personal freedom also ; but we much
question whether, owing to his different educa-
tion, and the better knowledge of his rights, the
English elector does not often feel his political serf-
dom more acutely than the negro his personal
bondage. Of one thing we are sure, that the ballot
is the Emancipation Act which England needs, and
that no liberal is worth an elector's vote who will
not give, for that Act, his Parliamentary vote.

Trivial though the theme, there was something
really touching and impressive in the official des-
patch in regard to the etiquette of the Imperial
Court of France, addressed by Mr. SEWARD on the
3d ult. to the United States Ambassador at Paris.
A chapter upon the courtly pageantries of the
Tuileries penned by a Republican Minister in
the very midst of a civil war threatening the
permanent dismemberment of the whole Ameri-
can Confederation ! A disquisition upon presen-
tations to the Emperor NAPOLEON and the Em-
press EUGENIE—the presentation, that is, of
courE e, of American citizens and American citi-
aencsses—a disquisition carefully elaborated in
the bureau of the " Department of State," for-
mally signed "IV. H. SEWARD," and actually
dated "3d February, 1862, Washington." It

seems like trifling. It reads like the record of a
picnic, not simply in the green hollow of the
crater of an extinct volcano, but rather, it should
be said, of one coolly holden in the midst of the
sulphurous clouds and cencrulent showers of some
dread eruption. It appears for all the world
hardly one jot less indecorous than would be th•
performance of a dance in between the shocks of
an earthquake. One might have supposed that a
responsible Minister of State like Mr. SEWARD
could have found something better to write about
than the readjustment of the refined and subtle,
and almost, one might say, in some respects in.
definable laws of etiquette regulating the intro-
duction of American citizens at the *lmperial
Court of his Majesty NAPOLEON 111. Or, at any
rate, if the Federal Minister at Washington must
needs descant upon these matters of vital import,
that he might at least have selected some more
appropriate opportunity than the very crisis of a
great fratricidal war between the North and the
South, the Federalists and the Confederates, those
marshalled under the rival democratic banners,
here of JEFF. DAVIS, there of AB. LINCOLN.
The theme, contrasted with the conjuncture, cer-
tainly appears to present to view the very oddest
incongruity—an incongruity all the more remark-
able when contrasting with that theme, not alone
the time itself, but the man also, and the locality,
SEWARD and Washington !

Yet, let this apparently eccentric despatch o

Mr. SEWARD, dated " Department of State, Feb.
3, Washington," be only examined into dispas-
sionately, and it will be readily appreciated at its
L true value. It will be recognised to have been
written not at all at random, or frivolously, or super-
fluously, The theme chosen is a mere peg, er, as
lone might say, a mere gilded nail—on which to
hang out conspicuously a timely word or two ad-
dressed to " each and every,"&e,, travelledAmerican !
Referring to Mr. DAYTON'S despatch from Paris
under date 14th January, the American Minister
writes on the 3d February from Washington—
with a seemingly idle particularity—" I very freely
confess to the opinions, first, that an audience or
presentation of any but diplomatic persons at Court
is to be regarded not in any degree as a right of
the person received, but as a courtesy extended to
him. Secondly, that the Imperial Court is per-
fectly at liberty to define and prescribe the qualifi-
cations, conditions, and terms on which strangers

shall he admitted into its society. Thirdly, if Ame-
rican citizens request you to present their wishes
for admission at Court, you can only present them
by complying with the terms and conditions pre-
scribed. Fourthly (and finally), referring to the
questions which have actually arisen, I think you
can properly in all cases give the occupation or
profession of any person whose wishes you present."
Mr. SEWARD going on here to remark with no less
apparently out-of-place solemnity of manner in
regard to things so intrinsically contemptible, only
one might think in themselves—" You cannot,
indeed, undertake to assign the social position of
each person, for that would be to discriminate, or
to seem to discriminate, by European rules, between
persons who, being all alike citizens, may justly
claim to be equals in social position at home, and
therefore equals in the consideration of the Govern-
ment itself when they are abroad." 11r. SEWARD
adding here with delightful gravity (is if he were
in truth, discussing affairs of the most signal im-
portance )—" It seems to me, however, that in
many cases there are circumstances belonging to
the persons you propose to present which may
be properly stated, such as official position held by
itnimdiev—idduiasltsinaettitohnestimarei,sionrgeNanddistinctiors even at
personalatsomepremveioriuts,
h as o
t er, scientific,
h car a
military, or literary, or a political
cas founders of scientific,
literary, or humane institutions." Having examined
u

Mr. SEWARD'S despatch thus far, however, the
reader finds himself at length brought face to face
with its gist or gravamen 1 After the Minister at
Washington has written furthermore to the Ambas-
sador at Paris—" But when these suggestions are
made in compliance with the rules of the Court, it
is not to be claimed as matter of right, or even as
matter of national comity, that the presentation or
audiences shall therefore be granted"—Mr. SEWARD
adds, with scornful emphasis, " I have dwelt upon
the subject longer than was due to any importance
that it can claim." lie writes disdainfully—" It is
peculiarly uncomfortable at this moment to find
American citizens leaving their country a prey to
faction and civil war, disturbing the Court of a
friendly Power, and embarrassing our representa-
tive there with questions of personal interest and
pretension." Nor is this all. " Let the Emperor
and Empress of FRANCE," continues Mr. SEWARD,
" receive whom they will, and as many or few as
they will, and let all others, as well as those who
are admitted turn their attention to the question
how they can serve their country abroad, and if
they find no better way to do it than by making
their attendance in the saloons of the Tuileries,

let them return home to a country that now, for the
first time, and not for a long time, needs the
active efforts of every one of its loyal children to
save itself from destruction." And in conclusion,
" above all things," he writes to the diplomatic
representative of his Government at Paris, " have
no question with the Government of France on
this subject. Rather"—he cries out in noble
accents, half of anguish, half of derision—" rather
introduce nobody, however justly distinguished,
than let a question of fashion or ceremony appear
in the recurds of the important period in which we
are acting for the highest interests of our country
and of humanity."

Her Majesty the Queen has graciously trans-
mitted an additional liberal contribution of £5O in aid of the
funds of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA..—Mr. W. Harrison has
announced his benefit for Saturday, when the " Lilly of

Killarney" will be withdrawn, and Mr. Balfe's opera the
"Rose of Castillo" will be given, with a new operetta to be
called " Court and Cottage," wordd by Tom Taylor, the
music by Mr. F. Clay. Mr. Harrison, of course, will sus-
tain his favourite part of Manuel in the opera, and Miss
Lousia Pyne that of Elvira. That the audience will be one
of the largest of the season we may presume ; and, indeed,
some such acknowledgment is due to Mr. Harrison for his
untiring and energetic efforts in the cause of our national
opera.

DEATH OF MR. TALFOURD. —We regret to
announce the death of this estimable gentleman and gifted
dramatist, which took place on Sunday last at Mentone, in
the south of France, where he was staying for the benefit
of his health. Mr. Talfourd was in his 35th year, and was
the eldest son of the late eminent judge and author, Sir T.
N. Talfourd, D.C.L. He was educated at Eton, and, we
believe. at Oxford. He was called to the bar in due course,
and occasionally went circuit, but was better known as an
accomplished literary man than as a lawyer. He began a
series of burlesques and travesties with the "Willow Pat-
tern Plate," which was produced at the Strand, and, we
believe, " Alcestis." In society Mr. Talfourd was univer-
sally beloved. He married a daughter of Mr. J. Towne,
a solicitor, of Margate, 4 or 5 months since.
The folloNs ing is a translation of a letter from the
Emperor Napoleon to Mr. Everett, the American states-
men :—" Compiegne, Nov. 24, 1861.—Sir,—I have read
with the most lively interest the speech which you de-
livered at the dinner at which his Imperial Highness Prince
Napoleon was present, and which you have transmitted to
me. lam happy to have found, in language full of cor-
diality and frankness, the animated expression of the sen-
timents which have for so many years united America and
France. I have also been particularly touched at the just
homage rendered to the genius of the chief of my family.
Receive my sincere thanks, and have the goodness to be
my interpreter to your honourable compatriot Doctor
Holmes for his song—so full of inspiration—of Vive la
France.'—Believe, sir, in my distinguished consideration,

NAPOLEON.—Mr. Everett, Boston."
How THEY Do THINGS IN THE NoRTH.—The
firm of Messrs. John Foster and Son, spinners and manu-
facturers, are about to erect, at their own expense, an
appropriate and beautiful memorial of the late illustrious
Prince. It is to be erected in the village of Queenshead,
near to their extensive works.

THE NEW FELLOW OF ETON.—On Tuesdaymorn-
ing the Provost and Fellows of Eton College (with the ex-
ception of the Rev. Charles Luxmoore, who is ill at his
rectory, Worplesdon) met in the College Chapel, and elected
the Right Rev. James Chapman, D.D., late Bishop of
Colombo, to the Fellowship rendered vacant by the appoint-
ment of the Rev. Edward Balston to the head mastership
of the school,

LETTER-CARRYING.—The railways of the United
Kingdom are to receive from the Post-office £558,891 for
carrying the letters this year; mail coaches only £13,509.
Carts, stage coaches, and omnibuses, however, will get no
less than £124,910. It will cost £7OO to provide clothes for
the mail guards, £16,150 to pay their wages and the wages
of mail porters, £10,960 for the supply and repair of mail
bags, £2,080 for apparatus for exchanging them on rail-
roads. The whole cost of the conveyance of mails in the
United Kingdom this year is taken at £755,980. But for
the conveyance of mails abroad—the packet service—the
country is to pay above £900,000.
CURIOUS EN DING OF A FOX HUN T.—A fox hunt,
which took place in Northumberland on the 20th ult., had
rather a singular ending. The hounds found in Chiving-
ton Wood, about 11 miles north of Morpeth. The fox ran
to Cresswell, and got into a drain in a wood close to the
hall. Permission was obtained from Mr. Baker Cresswell
to dig him out. Some of the party at the hall prepared to
go and witness the process. Meanwhile one of the ladies
of the family was about to go out on the lawn to enjoy the
mild air. She had just reached the entrance hall, when she
saw two hounds pass very near; she therefore contented
herself with looking through the glass door, and was stand-
ing with her face against it, when bounce up against the
glass came the fox, closely pursued by the hounds, and in
less time than it takes to write it they had effectually de-
stroyed him. Had the glass not been of extra strength and
thickness the whole pack must have run over the lady, who
was the unwilling witness of the scene, and who was thus
"in at the death."—lnverness Courier.
Duchy OF CORNWALL.—The annual account of
the revenues of the Duchy has been laid before Parliament
as usual, The income of the year, including the annuity of
£16,216 received from the consolidated fund as compensa-
tion for the abolition of tin coinage duties in 1838, amounted
to £61,319. Of this amount the snm of £30,840 was paid
over to the treasurer of his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales, Duke of Cornwall ; and of the residue £3,581 were
laid out in repairs and permanent improvements of the
estates or in new purchases ; £5,874 went chiefly in pro-
perty•tax, donations, and charities, and the payment from
the duchy towards the salaries of the officers of the Stan-
nary Court, and £6,496 in salaries of the functionaries and
officers of the duchy, and charges of collection of the re-
venues and management of the estates. The balance at the
bankers' at the close of the year was £14,000 more than at
its commencement. Besides the estates of the duchy there
is a large amount of money in the funds, now no less than
£85,208 Three per Cents., the produce, it would seem, of
enfranchisements and sales of estates.
THE FRENCH BAKERS.---" The syndics of the
bakers," says the Sleek, " have just addressed to their con-
stituents an account of the steps which they have taken to
arrive at a solution of the questions concerning their trade.
On the 24th Jan. they solicited an audience of the Emperor.
Being admitted on the 2d Feb., they presented to his Ma-
jesty a memorial, and on the 15th forwarded a petition with
962 signatures affixed. The memorial and petition showed
that the bakery trade has been placed since 1804 out of the
pale of the common law. The money remuneration to the
baker has remained stationary since 1823, notwithstanding
the progressive increase of rent, taxes, cost of living, and
trading expenses. This sad condition has shown itself by
55 failures between the Ist Jan., 1857, and the 20th July,
1860, the liabilities amounting to 3,500,000 f. In 1853, the
bakery fund was founded, by means of which bakers sell
bread above the real price in times of abundance, in order
to be able to sell it below in times of scarcity ; the amount
received above its value serving to reimburse the amount
advanced. The syndicate sees in this system of compensa-
tion the inconvenience that the bakers, the responsible re-
ceivers, mu t, even when they suffer losses from their eu s-
tomers, pay to the administration the difference fixed by it.
Marc than that, the necessity of keeping a stock of flour
equivalent to three months' consumption requires a capital
of from 20 to 25 millions of francs, and, besides, causes con-
siderable expenses. What is the evident remedy for thoseevils? Three systems have been proposed :—To maintain
the pry sent state of things,
allowing to bakers a remunera-
lion rccordtcg to their expenses; to return to absolute li-
berty of trade, as asked by M. Lo Play in the Council of
State ; or to preserve the present organisation, creating a
certain number of large establishments as proposed by
the
prefectoral administration of the department of the Seine.
The Syndicate rejects OIL, latter project ; and. without de-
aling between the two others, it thus states the problem, a
prompt solution of which it demanded ; that the bakery
trade should be free, and be brought within the reach. of
.
the common law, or, if the present organisation is main-
tained, that a fitting remuneration be assured to the persons
engaged m the trade,

LATEST NEWS.

AMERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY MORNING.

The Hamburg and American Company's steamer
Teutemia, Captain Taube, from New York on the
22d ult., has arrived.
She brings 60 passengers, 293,836 dols. in specie
for England, 78,840 dole. for France, and 1,800 dols.
for Hamburg.

On the 25th and 26th of February she encoun-
tered a hurricane, and was compelled to heave to for
36 hours. She lost yards, sails, boats, &c.

MADRID, MARCH 12,

The Government has determined upon assuming
a firm attitude in regard to the question of the
Melilla frontiers. It has also decided not to receive
Mr. Roos, the Commissioner of the Confederate
States of America.

BERLIN, WEDNESDAY.

The semi-official Preuesische (Stern) Zeitung of
to-day publishes an article upon the circumstances
which led to the late crisis, and the reasons for
which the Ministers tendered their resignation.
The article states that the resignation has not
been accepted by the King. " But by maintain-
ing the resolutions taken in November, 1858, and
by dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, his Ma-
jesty again affords the country an opportunity of
proving its determination to support a policy
which is in conformity with his Majesty's inten-
tions to continue the gradual development of well-
considered reforms. The Government, in making
an appeal to the country, remains firmly resolved
to act in conformity with the general interests of
the nation, and having settled the question of the
taxes on landed property in a satisfactory man-
ner, thinks it will be able to vanquish the less stub-
born resistance which is offered to the projected
measures of reform, and to insure their satisfactory
accomplishment. In view of the instructive events
of the last few days all thoughtful men should strive
to secure the return of prudent deputies at the
approaching elections."
The article concludes thus :—" It will only be
when such results have been obtained that the
country will possess sufficient guarantees of a flou-
rishing development of its welfare, its power, and
its freedom."

The official Staataanzeiger of this evening pub-
ishes a royal decree appointing Prince Hohenlohe

Ingelfingen, President of the Upper House, to
preside provisionally over the Ministry, in the
place of the Prince of Hohenzollern.
This decree is countersigned by the Minister von
der Heydt.