The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-22 00:00:00

THE SUN,i LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVE NI `Gt, JANUARY 22, 1862.

In Canada the case was one of defending those
already enjoyed under a Protestant Crown ; and
it must be said that the patriotic politics of the
Bishop of MONTREAL'S pastoral leave nothing to be
desired. He at least is not insensible to the fact
that his Sovereign's religion only prompts her, and
those with whom she aets, to study honestly and
equally the welfare of all persons in Canada irre-
spective of their sects and creeds. On Christmas-
day the celebration, as the Bishop observes, of the
birth of the Prince of Peace, he was called on to
direct their attention to topics of war; but he in-
structs his clergy to remind the people of the old
and well proved principle, that being prepared for
war was the best guarantee for peace. The
Government had called on the people to

arm, and nothing was more likely to prevent the
disaster of an invasion than a hearty response to
the requisitions of Government. "We incur," he
says, " less risk of war,'by enrolling in large num-
bers, and with heartiness, than if we stood with
our arms folded, as cowards and lazy people
generally do."

The following sentences, appropriate in language
to the religious functionary who indited them, con-
tain so much common sense, that we earnestly
commend them to the attention of the peace-
at-any-price gentlemen :—" In all wars," says
the Bishop, " there are always great evils to be
deplored. The country is devastated, the cities
burnt, property pillaged, commerce ruined, the har-
vests destroyed, and, above all, the people are de-
moralised, girls and women are insulted, and the
public morals considerably changed for the worse.
In arming for the defence of our Government it is
clear that we arm for the defence of our property
and for the honour of our families and country.
Nay, more, 'We render unto User the things
which belongeth unto Caesar,' as our Saviour so
expressly recommends us so to do in the Scriptures;
and consequently we fulfil a religious duty which
merits the eternal reward. In justice each
proprietor is obliged to defend his property
by all the honest means which the law of
GOD gives him. Now, a country is one large
property divided among the different members of a
numerous family, which is called a natic,n. It is,
therefore, the duty of all the members of this great
national family, who are all brothers, being chil-
dren of the same Government, to join in a union as
strong as it is tender to defend their common pro-
perty. They who do not understand this duty, im-
posed upon all the members of a common family, do
not possess the natural sentiments of existence."
Perhaps the Bishop was aware that some of his
flock were importations from the Green Isle, where
they had heard very different language held respect-
ing the Governors of the day, for he reads the
people a very orthodox lecture on the duty of obedi-
ence to Government, and on its bearing the sword
for the punishment of crime; but then, adroitly
using the Apostle'slanguage,he observes that the Go-
vernment, after having given them such institutions
as made them the happiest country of the earth,
offered them the sword to protect all against the
invasion with which they were menaced—offered
them " its navy, its army, its money—in a word,
all that is necessary to a people which desires to
defend at all cost its possessions." He calls on them,
encouraged by British generosity, to come forward
as an entire country—men of all origins—to join the
experienced soldiers sent over to aid them in defence
of all their privileges. He exhorts them to qualify
themselves by learning the use of arms, to defend
their own property, and not to wait till the enemy
should attack them sword in hand. He reminds
them that bands of poor, undisciplined men would
be but sheep for the slaughter, while bands of well
drilled volunteers would keep the enemy at a re-
spectful distance. He urges on them also the
increased favour with which a Government already
so liberal would regard their institutions and their
religion.

We have read this address, which, in a literary
point of view, is one of the plainest and most inarti-
ficial productions, with real interest—it is the lan-
guage of an honest, patriotic, and sincere man, such
as we wish all ministers of religion to be. There is
nothing of either official coldness or Celtic bluster
in it, but just the homely inculcation at a special
crisis, of duty, and earnest exhortation to perform
it, which becomes a Christian priest. With such
Catholics Protestants can cordially unite in public
affairs ;—they are men who feel that British insti-
tutions aro for the common good of Protestant and
Catholic alike, and demand the hearty support of
both.

But what wid the Yankees think of Canada now ?
They perceive no doubt by this time, that if the
South be so hard to conquer, Canada with
England at its back will be somewhat harder. If
they find it, so difficult to advances few miles south
of ►he Potomac it will certainly not be easier to ad-
vance north of the St. Lawrence. Moreover it will
be more and more difficult every month. The hero
of Kars—himself a host—is strengthening every
weak point, and preparing to give the ball of
war a hearty reception should the south roll it
from their own border northwards. The dream
of annexation must now be over for ever. The
Frenchmen have shown that they prefer very
liberal institutions to an Imperial regime ; even the
Irish, as a body, join in the determination not to be
amalgamated with Yankees, and " manifest destiny"
finds not a class to sympathise with it
in any of the British colonies. All are co-operating
heartily for the common defence, and we read that
there is ever great disappointment that the Yankees
"caved in." Not only, it seems, has the sight of
our splendid troops encouraged faith in British
prowess, but there is a strong impression that
600,000 men will not be disbanded when peace is
made with the enemy, without attempting some
thing in another quarter. In a word, they think
that the conflict is only deferred.
Sufficient, however, indeed, unto the day, is the
evil thereof—in regard to war. Before the North
ventures on another war it will have a good deal to
do. There will be the Southern boundary to settle;
and there will be an enormous amount of assignats
to redeem by such a taxation as the North has
never yet seen. A most efficient teacher of military
moderation is paper money, when already at fifty
per cent, discount it threatens to sink to seventy-five
and to nothing; and such is, beyond question,
the prospect Mr. CHASE has before him. We
strongly suspect the present generation of Yankees
will, long before next winter, have had a financial
lesson on war, which will be as valuable to Canadian
safety as even General WILLIAM'S defences, Not
that it will do to sleep in Canada on the security
of American honour or temper—but between her
own awakening to the importance of defending her
own liberties, and the financial prospects of the
North, we believe Canada to be now safo enough
for a generation to come.

Per Laps the most appalling catastrophe that has
ever occurred in the mining districts is the one
which took place early en Thursday morning last,
and which still, unhappily, attracts to it the breath-
less interest of the public at large on this the Wed-
nesday following ! During now nearly one whole
week 215 men and boys, old and young, have been
emtombed in the depths of the earth. And not-
withstanding that every possible effort has been

making all this time to extricate them from this
frightful position, it has hitherto been found im-
practicable to afford them the slightest assistance.
Throughcut the whole of the dreadful interval
which has elapsed since the accident occurred,
these 215 have remained without food or pos-
sible sustenance of any kind beyond what we
shall now enumerate. In the position to which
those acquainted with the structure of the
New Hartley mine conjecture that the majority of
the 215, buried alive on Thursday morning, probably
escaped from the lower and more perilous cavities of
that little subterranean world, it is believed that
the survivors would have enjoyed, at least, the ad-
vantages of having an abundant supply of fresh
water—of itself some slight source of nutriment—
some preservative, at any rate for the time being,
from the absolute horrors of starvation. Added to
this, in the part to which it is supposed that they had
time to eecape, there was a pony that might in emer-
gency be destroyed and eaten. Above all, there was
comparatively wholesome air in this particular divi-
sion of the mine—air that would be supplied for
some time to come by the displacement of the
atmosphere lower down in the excavations,
by its displacement by the flooding in of vast
quantities of water now that the pumping engine
has stopped working—water rushing into the lower
passages of this ill-fated mine at the rate of 1,500
gals. per minute. It is the stoppage of the pump-
ing engine at the top of the shaft that has caused
the whole of this terrific calamity—that stoppage,
arising from the abrupt, and to this moment un-
accountable, snapping asunder on Thursday morn-
ing last of the great iron beam spanning the gulpb,
which was the one sole channel of ingress and
egress to the mine—then, at the instant of the
catastrophe, in full operation.

The situation in which the unfortunate occu-
pants of the Hartley mine were placed immediately
upon the blocking up of the shaft, in consequence
of the rupture of the enormous iron beam of the
pumping engine, can only be properly appreciated,
of course, by those who have formed some tolerably
aecurate notion first of the formation of the mine
thus doomed to be the scene of this dire destruction.
And nowhere certainly can be obtained a more
lucid description of the structure of these ill-fated
excavations, than the one which we here gladly
extract from the remarks of our contemporary the
Daily News. It is a description, in truth, so sin-
gularly comprehensive and so perfectly comprehen-
sible as to be almost equal in its vivid deliniation of
the Hartley Mine, to a diagram or sectional drawing
of its actual conformation. Our contemporary thus
depicts the living tomb of these 215 miners down
in Northumberland :

" The Hartley pit, which has been the scene of this
deplorable misfortune, is one of the deepest in Great Britain.
Its total depth is nearly 100 fathoms. Three seams of coal
occur in this descent; the first in round numbers at 30, the
second at 60, the third at 100 fathoms from the surface.
71. he two upper seams have been exhausted ; the lower one
has alone been wrought of late years, and from its depth
and other circumstances it is stated that the working barely
paid ; it was therefore conducted on the most economical
principles. Amongst other difficulties the seam was subject
to a prodigious influx of water, so large and continuous
that it was at one time feared that the supply
was derived by infiltration from the sea itself
By obtaining an opening into another pit, and by the erec-
tion of an extremely powerful pumping engine, this flow was
at length kept under. The water was drawn out through
a shaft, which formed at the same time the sole means of
entrance for the miners, and the sole exit for the coal. It
was driven through a loose mass of soil, and was therefore
lined all the way down by a retaining frame of wood-work,
and being the only opening that reached to the bottom) it
was, for the purposes of ventilation, divided into two com-
partments by a wooden partition. But so insufficient was
this arrangement deemed by the Government Inspector,
that ho had requird a ' staple' or smaller ventilating shaft,
to be carried from the surface down to the highest
seam, and from the middle down to the lowest
seam. But between the highest and the middle seam there
was no connexion except through the main shaft. When
the huge beam of the pumping engine broke, it carried
away all the retaining timbers of the shaft, and thus
allowed the sides to close in. But this did not take place to
any serious extent till it had got below the upper seam.
Down to this point, therefore, the pit is still accessible.
Assuming that below it the shaft is wholly closed to th e
bottom, there still remains the independent aocess from the
lowest seam to the middle one by means of the air staple.
It is believed that the whole of the workmen escaped by
this and reached the middle seam, where they were at least
safe from danger of drowning by the unchecked flow of
water. But from this there is no air staple leading to the
next intermediate stage, and here, therefore, they must re-
main to await the slow efforts of the men above to remove
the accumulated rutbish which blocks up the main shaft."

Every one can readily understand, after the
perusal of the passage above quoted, the actual
situation of things, so far at least as concerns the
probable whereabouts of the buried 215. The
difficulty, however, has been to get at them in suffi-
cient time to afford them any assistance. Hitherto
every effort that has been made has failed to clear
away the impediments in the way of their would-be
deliverers. And now the time that has elapsed
since the occurrence of the catastrophe, seems
to threaten the very worst that could be
dreaded. It is, of course, just barely possible
that when the middle seam is reached, whither the
men arc supposed to have escaped, some of them
may be still found to be survivors. But there are
several reasons also compelling us to arrive at a
totally different conclusion. The mere time that has
sped by is in itself most alarming ih its destructive
influence. The possible escape into the middle
seam of mephitic vapours and poisonous
gases (gases composed principally of car-
bonic oxide)—exhalations which have latterly
interrupted the work of relief in the blocked up
shaft—this deadly peril alone may have put an end
to the sufferings and despair of all the poor fellows
who have been so long entombed.
While we are yet waiting for tidings ofsome tardy
assistance at length carried to the cavity crowded
with the miners who have been thus trapped in the
bowels of the earth for nearly a whole week, it is
profoundly affecting to know the extent of the
poignant anguish of endurance manifested in the
bereaved homes of the poor buried colliers, among
the friends and families of the 215 suddenly shut
out from all human aid. Incidents of the
most touching character have already
been related in connection with the
agony of this appalling calamity. And among all
the many beautiful evidences that have been afforded
of mingled gentleness and heroism, of the most
lowly yet the most lofty consciousness of the over-
ruling GOD whose will is visible in all the chequered
events of Life and Death around us—perhaps the
most remarkable of all these incidents, certainly the
most touching and impressive, was that related of a
young lad lowered down into the dreadful ruin, chok-
ing up the mid-passage of that shaft of destruction,
and praying there during several hours by the side
of one of those dying miners who had been mortally
wounded while ascending in the pendant cage at
the moment of the catastrophe ! Praying thus by
his side, praying with him until his long agony
was closed by death ! Surely a beautiful
incident, surely a noble incident— a natural and
unanointed Priesthood! One of those innermost
touches of nature" that make the " whole world
kin" merely to read of ! And it is an incident that
is in itself a vivid reminder to us all, of that brotherly
love which isthe bond of humanity the world over,
and far more than this the " New Commandment"
of our common Christianity—an impulse, an instinct
awakened and intensified by occasions such as
those which have now desolated the poor little
forlorn village, near the Hartley Coalmine. Obey-
ing that impulse, obeying that instinct, we may
yet assuage the anguish of those same desolated
homes, if so be, we may not still hope to be enabled
to carry aid in time to the 215 buried labourers.

LATEST NEWS.

THE FRENCH BUDGET.

PARIS, JAN. 22.

The Noniteur of this morning publishes the re-
port on the state of financial affairs, addressed by
M. Fould, Minister of Finance, to the Emperor.
The Minister commences by stating that he pro-
poses to establish, in the budget, a great distinc-
tion between ordinary and extraordinary ex-
penses. He announces that the ordinary expenses
of the budget of 1863 show, in the aggregate,
an increase of 70,000,000 fr. over the estimated
expenses of 1862, but this surplus of expenses
is only apparent as the supplementary credits,
voted or decreed, which have been added to the
provisions of the budget. There were in 1860
131 millions, and in 1861 152 millions. M.
Fould then continues :—" The expose of the budget
will contain special details on these questions, but
I believe it my duty to at once state that there will
be in the Ministries of Marine and War an increased
expenditure of 4 millions calculated on an effective
of 400,000 soldiers and 85,700 horses. But these
figures, compared with the real effective of last year,
show an important reduction, as the average effec-
tive of 1861 was 467,000 men, which, by the Ist
January, 1862, was reduced to 446,000. By the
Ist January, 1863, it will be reduced to 400,000.
In the budget of the Ministry of Marine, the credits
amount in the aggregate to 168,000,000, for the
ordinary and extraordinary service which forms an
important diminution in the expenditure in preced-
ing financial years. In fact, notwithstanding the
increase of 70,000,000 f. in the supplies for 1862, the
budget of 1863 will show a real and considerable
reduction.

M. Fould then proceeds to give an account of the
ways and means of the budget, and states that he
will exonerate from all personal taxes, and taxes
on personal property, every individual who has
nothing but his work to obtain a livelihood. Every
workman who works alone will be exonerated from
the tax of a patent for the exercise of his trade.

M. Fould will also reduce to 1 per cent. the
duties on valuables transmitted by post.
In order to ensure the regularity of those
branches of the public service in which the esti-
mated expenditure might be exceeded, the Minister
proposes to modify certain taxes as a means of
increasing the revenue.
These taxes are a new tax on horses and carriages
of luxury, which is estimated to produce 5-1 millions
francs.

The augmentation of the fixed dues and fees at
the public register offices which would produce
10 million francs.

A modification is also proposed in the method of
collecting the proportional registry fees, which
would produce a revenue of 10 million francs.

A slight increase of the stamp duties is estimated
to yield 9,1 million francs.

An increase in the 'stamp citifies, on bills of stock,
and licensed brokers, which would produce
1,200,000 fr.
A fixed tax on bills of account and on receipt
is estimated to produce 12,500,000 fr.
The total of these new resources is estimated at
50,000,000 fr., which will all6w of the settlement of
the ordinary budget of 1863, and leaves a surplus
of revenue amounting to 20,000,000 fr.
M. Fould then discusses the general financial
situation. Ho estimates the deficit at the end of
1861 at 1,008,000,000 f., and says:—
"It will be wise to take advantage of the peace
we now enjoy to bring about a reduction of our
deficit. I believe myself to be able to assure your
Majesty that it will not be necessary for that pur-
pose to have recourse to a loan, which would add
a fresh burden to the public debt."

M. Fould further states that it would be desirable
to arrive at a unity of the public debt, and says ;
" Would it not be possible, without neglecting
the interests and rights of the State, to insure to
the holders of public bonds the continuance of their
present income, by offering to the holders of the
Four•and-a-Half per Cent. Rentes the option of
exchanging their bonds for new bonds, insuring
to them the same income in Three per Cent.
Rentes. In March, 1862, the State will withdraw
the option of conversion or redemption. If the
holders of the Four-and-a-Half per Cent. Rentes,
in order to insure themselves against the re-
demption, would wish to effect the conversions
themselves, they could do so by exchanging their
bonds for an inscription of Three per Cent. in
the public books, which would produce the same
amount of Rentes without the expenditure of any
considerable sum. At present the only difference
between the two funds would be about 800 f. for
every 450 f. of Rentes. The bondholders, however,
would be justified at present in awaiting more
favourable conditions than those which would be
obtainable when the State will have reassumed its
right of redeeming these Rentes. The payments
which would be made by the bondholders to make
up the difference (soulte) would amount for all the
bonds of the Four-and-a-Half per Cent. Loan to
about 300,000,000 francs. It would be necessary that
a law should have the faculty of fixing, according
to circumstances, the payments to be effected by the
holders of the Four-and-a-Half per Cent. Rentes
for making up the difference. These payments
could be made in several instalments, which it
would be best to make coincide with the period of
the annuities in arrears. This conversion would be
entirely optional, but there is no doubt as to the suc-
cess of the operation. If by some fortuitous causes
this conversion was only partial, at all events the
magnitudoaf the Four-and-a-Half per Cent. Rentes
would be diminished, and their redemption would
be therefore more easily effected afterwards.
"As soon as circumstances would permit the State
could proceed to the redemption, by making more
rigorous use of its rights in this respect.
" The extraordinary budget for 1863 will be made
the subject of a special law.
" The extraordinary resources of the State con-
sist of 57,500,000 f., consisting of the balance in
bonds of the Obligations Centenaires, and
10,000,000 f., the amount of the third annuity of
the Chinese indemnity.
" As these twossums will not allow of the con-
struction of railways and the carrying out of other
works of public utility, I do not doubt that the
Corps Legislatif will not refuse to vote the means
for the execution of works of incontestable utility
by the temporary establishment of a sur-tax on two
articles of extensive consumption—namely, by an
augmentation by 10c. per kilogramme of the duties
on salt, which would produce 33,000,000 f. The
trades which make use of salt as a principal manu-
facturing staple would be freed from any comple-
mentary dues, in order to place them in a position
to withstand foreign competition.
"The reduction in the sugar duty begins to have
its effect. Nevertheless, we should continue to
collect a duty of 42f., which would include the pay-
ment of the decimes. Thus sugar would still enjoy
half the reduction of the duty which was formerly
effected.

" The temporary augmentation of the sugar duty
would produce about 29,000,000 f. The extraordi-
nary receipts would thus be 130,000,000 f., and

might be 150,000,000 f., by adding the credits
'unemployed in 1862, which would form more im-
portant amounts than those employed in 1861 and
1862 for extraordinary works."
M. Fould employs in the regulation of the
Budget of 1861 the 25,000,000 f. of the extraordinary
debt due by Spain to France, which, it appears,
will shortly be settled, and the 10,000,000 f. form-
big the second annuity of the Chinese indemnity.
IC these resources should not be sufficient,3o,ooo,ooof
would be added by commencing to levy the two
temporary surtaxes on sugar and salt from July,
1862.

In conclusion, M. Fould states that the ordinary
Budget of 1863 will be balanced by the surplus
revenue of the ordinary Budget, and by other re-
sources which would be sufficient for the national
expenditure. There would still remain the deficit,
which, however, would not only cease to increase
brit would soon diminish.

AMSTERDAM JAN. 21.
The Bank of Amsterdam has reduced its rate o.
discount to 31 per cent.

TURIN, JAN. 21.

The Opinions of to-day says :
" There is a question of substituting Italian for
Pontifical troops in the Patrimony of St. Peter, or,
at least, of establishing mixed garrisons of French
and Italian troops, in order to insure tranquillity
in the interior, and deprive the brigands of all
refuge.

" Rome would contibue to be occupied by the
French.

"The Pontifical Government would thus be
enabled to dismiss almost all its troops, and be re-
lieved from a heavy burden."

The Opiniono also states that the Emperor of the
French is taking steps with Russia for the recogni-
tion of the Kingdom of Italy by that Power.

SOUTHAMPTON, JAN. 22.

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company's steamship Alhambra, with the Penin-
sular mails, arrived off the Needles at 10 a.m.
to-day.