The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JAN UA RY, 24, 1862.

whole of the 115 men and boys unscathed to the
embraces of their weeping kindred in the upper

world.

The names of the victims of the late appal-
ling accident at Hartley have already, for the most
part (so far at least as anything like an accurate
list of them could be procured thus early), been duly
chronicled. Let us hope that the dauntless and
hardy colliers who were toiling in the choked-up
pit-shaft at Hartley, and particularly that the select
few, three altogether we believe, who were at
length lowered as we have here mentioned to the
entrance into the fatal yard shaft thence to bring
back to those who were waiting breathlessly above
for their return, tidings of the full extent of the
dreaded disaster—let us hope that the humble names
and heroic labours of these brave fellows may not
be altogether overlooked.

That the bereaved relicts and orphan children
of the dead miners will be cared for by
a sympathising and generous-hearted nation
there cannot be a doubt of : indeed already
there are evidences of the depth of the interest
felt in their behalf by high and low since the cala-
mity that befell them has been realized far and wide
throughout the United Kingdom. Her MAJESTY'S
instant and generous message of condolence is
but the forerunner of her accustomed benefactions.
Every one upon reading the simple and touching as-
surance conveyed to the poor widows and orphans,
at Hartley, though the Royal telegram, will have
said, " Just like the QUEEN !" And it is so—it is
one of the secrets of her universal popularity—Her
MAJESTY never misses an opportunity of evidencing
that gentle and womanly sympathy for those
among her subjects of all ranks and classes, who
are known to have been stricken down by some
dire and peculiar calamity. The records of little
instances like these will be among the brightest
spots upon the history of her glorious and bene-
ficent reign. Individual instances of this genial
sympathy of the QUEEN with the griefs of
others start to recollection upon the instant, Of one
the Lord Bishop of LONDON could tell—an incident
occurring not long before the close of his career in a
less elevated position as Dean of CARLISLE. The
enumeration of others were superfluous. Ex uuo
disce omnes. It is the same throughout the quarter
of a century that has now very nearly elapsed since
the accession of VICTORIA to the throne of these
realms. Wherever a gentle word or a generous
deed to assuage some more bitter anguish than
usual among high or low, wherever of course
the calamity has fallen peculiarly from the mys-
terious dispensations of Divine Providence,
that gentle word has been spoken, that gener-
ous deed has been done by our " Itody of the
Land." The present is a case in point. And the
benignity of this immediate expression of sympathy
from the Queen of ENGLAND to that poor little
desolated colliery village down in Northumberland,
will be inexpressibly enhanced in the estimation of
all by the remembrance that the QUEEN herself is
still in the freshness of her own home grief.
From all, however, the same universal and imme•
diate sympathy will flow—now that the deplorable
particulars are brought to light about the wholesale
destruction of the 215 victims without one solitary
exception, and the desolation of all the humble
homes from which they have been torn by the wrench
of that deadly beam as it swept down the main shaft,
in an instant, upon Thursday, that is yesterday
se'nnight. Corporations, public bodies of all kinds,
private individuals of every rank and class will vie
with each other, we may be certain, in swelling
the funds that will now be immediately collected
together for the relief of the destitute colliery vil-
lage ROW desolated within a single week as by a
bolt from Heaven.

Mr. SEWARD is doing justice to his conversion.
His is quite the zeal of the neophyte compared
with that of the old steady professor of his here-
ditary creed. We had recently to notice that in
three instances, without any demand on our part
having reached him, he did prompt justice to Eng-
land. In two of the cases, indeed, before he had
received official information from his own seivants.
We have now to acknowledge an act of politeness
equal to that of the PACHA of Egypt, who per-
mitted our troops to cross his country on their way
to India. Mr. SEWARD has most courteously per-
mitted our men, on their way to Canada, to pass
through Maine, and thereby to escape the severe
trials and inconveniences of a sledge journey
through Ne iv Brunswick, round Maine, to the Grand
Trunk Railway.
Round Maine—it is not easy to forget that. We
ought to do so perhaps. Yet, when confronting the
hardships of the pledge journey in an almost unre-
claimed country, or the cost of a railway which
alone can prevent the danger of similar inconveni-
ence on any future occasion, it is not easy to forget
the gross diplomatic fraud of WEBSTER, by which
he cozened Lord ASHBURTON out of territory really
British—territory, too, which connected British pro-
vinces, and the fraudulent deprivation of which has
compelled us to the alternative of asking a passage
through the land that should have belonged to us
now, or of exposure of hundreds of men to all the
inconveniences of the winter journey by a forest
route. Against all we may, perhaps, set the fact that
these troops are going, avowedly, to render the
Canadian border safe against the attacks of the
Federal States. By this, at least, Mr. SEWARD
is more generous than the PACHA—our Indian
troops were not matching to defend India against
him. The proprietors of the Portland Railway,
which connects the Grand Trunk of Canada with
the sea, were doubtless not indifferent to the addi-
tion to their dividend which the carriage of the
troops would make, and they will be quite as much
obliged to their own Foreign Secretary as we can be.
This time he was quite lucky ; he did not let the
occasion slip as ho did that of refusing to make
prisoners of the Commissioners ; he had the oppor-
tunity of pleasing at once the British Government,
people, and troops, and at the same time the Ameri-
can shareholders in the railway, and he had the
good sense to use it at once.

The Senate cannot forget the Trent affair yet.
Mr. SUMNER'S long oratorical speech fills the
columns of the American papers. Mr. SUMNER is
a noted abolitionist— a martyr for abolition—
though evidently now quite recovered from the
effects of Mr. BROOKES' cudgel. He had naturally
therefore, a more marked leaning than most of his
colleagues to Abolition ist England. Hence he seemed
to feel that some vindication of his Amerieanism
was necessary ; emancipation, and partiality to the
country which had emanipated its slaves, rendering
his Yankee orthodoxy rather doubtful in the North.
He has put all right by an elaborate speech, of
which one great merit, the American papers tell us,
is that it does not even mention the negro. The
other, that he proves that America has, if she has
stooped at all, stooped to conquer. He showed,
beyond all dispute (in an American Senate), that
England had got the worthless prisoners, but had
given up her old and persistent claims; that
England, in fact, is beaten. He went at
great length into the legal question, threw
the blame of the brave WILKES' acts
upon his reliance on British text-books, and
proved to the satisfaction of every true American
that the hero WILKES and the statesman SEWARD
had gained between them "a political and diplomatic
triumph of the highest value." Well, be it so, if

Mr. SUMNER likes. For our part, had we been one
of his hearers, we must, we fancy, have quitted

the Senate House humming over to ourselves
certain nursery ditty beginning—

" A hungry fox one day did spy," &c.
We must, add, however, that we are really sorry
Mr. SUMNER should make such an exhibition of
himself. If such oratorical Blondinism serves hus-
tings' purposes in America, we do net grudge Mr.
SUMNER the means necessary to catch Massachu-
setts' votes ; we only regret that such men should
have to purchase them by such means. Mr. SUM-
NER must well know that England conceded nothing
which she has not long conceded ; but seem totally
ignorant that she never asserted that a neutral
vessel between neutral ports could have contraband
on board of her at all ; that, indeed, her own deci-
sions to the contrary stand on record in her favour.
Mr. SUMNER is a "charming man" as an aboli-
tionist ; but when the great Negro Liberator gets
into discussion on international law, we are com-
pelled to exclaim, " 'Tis a pity that charming men
should talk of things which they don't understand.'

It will soon become apparent that Austria is the
power which keeps up the war armament of Europe.
She of course says it is Italy, because Italy claims
Venetia and Rome. The fact is that Austria accu-
mulates an enormous army in Venetia, and con-
structs immense and ever-enlarging fortifications
The Venetians pass for nothing. The fortifications
and the army are everything. The EMPEROR goes
and reviews his troops, and old BENEDEK, an
able general, but a renegade Hungarian, violates
the etiquette of Reviews to deliver a long homily
to his SOVEREIGN on Divine Right and military
fidelity. He and the army had but one com-
mander in Heaven, and but one on earth. What-
ever the diversity of their races, they were one
in fidelity to the EMPEROR. They knew nothing
of Constitutional Austria, but they did know the
Emperor to whom they had sworn allegiance.
Nevertheless, Austria is uneasy because Italy
arms, and because the Parliament of Italy speaks
the mind of Italy. She is about to protest to all
Europe, while France has already, in the'blandest
terms possible, protested to her. The truth is, the
question is neither more nor less than this—to
whom ought Venetia to belong. Austria points to
treaties, and there she is strong enough.
Italy points to facts, and then Italy is
far the strongest. All the Italian peo-
ple claim brotherhood with the Venetians, and
the Venetians claim brotherhood with them. It is
facts, therefore, versus treaties—Venetia versus
Vienna in 1815—and as Venetia was no party to
that transaction, but is a party to the present case,
she fairly says, now is the time for me to claim a
hearing, which I never got before.
Now as Austria holds Venetia and the Quadri-
lateral solely for the nefarious purpose of one day
coercing Italy again, she holds it against the
will of the people, and the arrangements of
nature—as the Italians cannot let her rest
in it. It is quite plain that her obstinacy is
the sole reason that she keeps an immense and ruin-
ous army herself, and compels the Italians and
French to do the same. As to treaties, she is the
most shameless and perjured violator of them
in Europe
; for her to plead treaties
against nationality in Italy, while she
breaks the most venerable and repeated,
engagements in Hungary, in favour of despotism,
is not to be tolerated. If she asks Europe to
respect treaties in Venetia against the people
let Europe bid her respect them in Hungary for'
the people. In either case liberty would be the
gainer. We must have a strong and free Italy,
or a strong and free Hungary ; and one would
be the precursor of the other.

Their Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess
Leiningen have arrived at Howchin's Hotel.
The Prince and Princess Koutchakoff have
arrived at the Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, from St.
Petersburg.
The Count and Countess Metaxa have issued
cards for dinner parties and a ball on the 14th and on the
20th of February, at their house in Cheltenham,
Captain Still and Mrs. Still have arrived at
Howehin's Hotel.
Mr. and Mrs. Baron Frank have arrived at
Thomas's Hotel, Berkeley-square, from Campsall Park,
Doncaster.
Mr. Thompson, M.P., has left Thomas's Hotel,
Berkeley-square, for Kirby Hall, Yorkshire.
An Imperial decree appoints M. Ingres, the
painter, member of the Institute to form part of the commis-
sion on literary and artistic property.
M. Belmontel, member of the Legislative Body,
has been promoted to the rank of Officer in the Legion of
Honour.

The Permanent Commission of the Orphan
Asylum of the Prince Imperial, presided over by the Mi-
nister of the Interior, has just admitted eight children into
that establishment, thus bringing up the number to 306.
General Count de Fitte de Soucy died the day
before yesterday at his residence at Versailles.

The Pays contradicts the assertion made by it
of the young Berthier who was stabbed by a girl in the
Rue Rochechouart being grandson of the Prince de Wag-
ram. That journal now declares it has been requested to
state that the young man is no relative whatever of that
family.

DEATH OF COLONEL COLT.—The New York
papers received yesterday announce the death of Colonel
Samuel Colt, at Hartford, Conn. Mr. Colt was born in the
city in which he died on the 19th of July, 1814. He was
the inventor of the celebrated revolving pistol, the wooden
model of which, it is stated, was made on board a vessel
while the inventor was on a voyage to Calcutta, in 1829.
He received his first patent in 1835, and established a fac-
tory in Paterson, N. J., but met with indifferent success.
Colonel Colt afterwards invented a submarine torpedo,
which was intended for the destruction of vessels. He gave
two exhibitions of the power of his new invention in the
bay off Castle Garden, by blowing up first a schooner and
afterwards a large brig. He then established a line of tele-
graph between New York and Sandy Hook and Montauk,
which was intended to announce the arrival of vessels, and
to facilitate the despatch of important foreign news; but
this enterprise failed, and Mr. Colt became reduced in cir-
cumstances. A year or two later be again got possession
of his patent for the revolving pistol, and with the assist-
ance of a few capitalists who joined him a company was
formed, and a manufactory established at Hartford, which
has proved very successful, not only in the making of pistols,
but in the manufacture of a revolving rifle, which was also
the invention of Mr. Colt. The factory at the present time
is supposed to be worth nearly five million of dollars. Mr.
Colt also leaves a large landed estate.

-- ---
THE WAR IN THE SOUTII.—The following is
an extract from a private letter which has been re-
ceived in Liverpool. It is dated :—" Charleston, Nov. 29,
1861.—They (the enemy) have done little or nothing
since the taking of the Forts Beauregard and Walker.
They have landed a few troops on the islands, and are
gathering all the cotton they can find, which is known to
be very little. They keep the negroes hard at work during
the day, and chain them at night, to keep them from run-
ning away. The soldiers take possession of everything that
looks like a woman. This has a good effect upon the negro
men. It has exasperated them very much, and induced
them to keep away and return to their masters. Our plan-
ters have destroyed, and continuo to destroy, all their crops
of corn, cotton, and rice, and also their dwellings—in fact,
everything that is in the least danger of falling in the hands
of the Yankees. The possession of our Sea Islands will
avail them but little. We have no fear of the result when-
ever thoy meet us on the land—can take care of them with
any kind of odds against us, but we aro not prepared as yet
to meet their navy."

THE MEMORIAL FUND.—Last evening the fund
which is being raised at the Mansion-house for a memorial
to the late Prince Consort had reached considerably more
than £1,1,000. Of this sum upwards of £2,360 was sub-
scribed in the course of yesterday alone, including £5OO by
the corporation of London, The Goldsmiths' Company
sent £2lO ; the London and Westminster Bank, £lO5 ; Sir
George Grey, £5O; the Dowager Viscountess Hardinge,
£5O; Peek Brothers and Co., £105; Ransom°, Bouverie,
and Co., £100; Stevenson, Salt, and Sons, £lOO ; Samuel
Scott and Co., £100; Capel and Co.,
£52 10s.; General
Stovin, £5O ; Colonel Harcourt, £5O ; Lady C. Vernon
Harcourt, £5O ; Colonel T. M. Biddulph, £25 ; the Hon.
Mrs. T. M. Biddulph, £25; Harvey Brand and Co., £100;
J. and J. Colman, £5O ; Vice-Admiral Moynell, £25 ; Sir
John D. Bligh, £2O; Thomas Davis and Co., £25, and
Lieutenant-General Bentinek, £25.