The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-02 00:00:00

WITA.TMOUGH V. BARNES.

This was an action for breach of promise of marriage.
The plaintiff and defendant lived in the same neighbour-
hood, and were both in a respectable position in life, the
plaintiff's father being owner of a stone quarry and keep-
ing a publichouse, and the defendant being in the woollen
trade. In 1861 the defendant was about 29 and the plaintiff
19 years of age, and in that year the defendant began to
keep company with the plaintiff, and, although dissuaded
from doing so by the parents on both sides, on account of
his superior position, he peisisted in his attention, saying
ho was determined to have her for his wife. The mar-
riage did not take place, however, on account of the
alleged objection of his parents, and in 1862 the plaintiffs
mother died. After that the defendant took advantage of
the opportunities afforded him by his relationship to her,
and in 1863 she became the mother of a child to him. lie
appeared even after that, and until last March, to have been
much with her and her child, and not to have abandoned
the idea of marrying her, but, although his mother died,
and her objections to his marriage were thus removed, ho
did not fulfil his promise, and in March last he married
another woman.

The jury gave tho plaintiff a verdict, with £250 damages.

CROWN SIDE.
(Before Mr. Justice Montague Smith.)

The Court was occupied most of the day in trying bur-
glaries and robberies of no particular interest.
Joseph Lever and Elizabeth Woolley wore charged with
a burglary in the shop of William Griudrod, on tho night
of the 15th of May, and stealing a horse collar, whip, and
other articles.

Mr. Torr prosecuted, and Mr. Ernest Jones defended the
prisoner Lover.
The prosecutor is a pawnbroker, and his shop, which he
had left securely shuttered at midnight on the night in
question, was found broken into the next morning, and the
articles in the indictment stolen. The two prisoners had at
SOLIO previous time been living togetlier,and Lever was that
night seen running quickly close to Grindrod's shop, while
next morning the female prisoner was pledging the stolen
property.
An alibi on behalf of Lover was called by Mr. Jones, but
the jury found both prisoners guilty ; and
His Lordship sentenced Lever to penal servitude for
seven years, and Elizaboth Woolley to imprisonment for
six months.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL 6.

_e_

TIMES.—The Emperor Adrian was accustomed
to say that " a Sovereign ought to be like the sun,
and visit successively all his doininions." The
maxim has met with much approbation from poli-
tical Iciitet, aud receives a, practical approval from
the annual custom of our own Board of Admiralty.
Nothing can appear at first sight more reasonable
than that a Department intrusted by our Legisla-
ture with the expenditure of a sum of money which
would form a very respectable revenue for a third-
rate kingdom should spend a few days out of the
year in visiting each of our dockyards in succession,
in looking with their own eyes into these several
great gulfs into whose insatiate maw so many mil-
lions of our revenue are annually cast, iu seeing
how the money goes, what kind of machinery is
provided for its expenditure, and what are the
practical results obtained for it. It would seem at
first sight a paradox to impugn the wisdom, ex-
pediency, and economy of this proceeding. We
have a host of homely proverbs against us as to the
folly of leaving our own affairs to be transacted by
delegates, and much more to the same effect.; yet
experience tells us that even the presence of the
master, though undoubtedly necessary in private
affairs, is by no means free from certain grave in-
conveniences. Who does notknow by his own costly
experience what fresh expenses the gardener or the
coachman has always to suggest whenever his im-
prudent chief gives him the opportunity of opening
his lips on the subject? There is always something
that craves amendment, something that is not ex-
actly as it:should be, something to repair, to enlarge,
to pull to pieces and to put together again, 'some-
thing which will not bear comparison with our
neighbour's, something which is not on a proper
footing with other arrangements of our home. Fru-
gality has no friend, and every one considers that
he is only discharging his duty by suggesting means
of weakening and impoverishing the common enemy.
So entirely is this truth felt and acknowledgedin the
affairs of Government that we have constructed a
department—that nominally of the Lords, but really
of the Secretary, of the Treasury—whose whole
business consists in continually saying " No." We
have no difficulty in finding persons to whom to in-
trust the great offices of State, but to the very per-
sons to whom we intrust these offices we will not in-
trust the power of increasing the expenditure allot-
ted to them. They are fit to judge in their own
departments, but not fit to judge between those
departments and the general interests of the country.
Suppose, now, that the Secretary of the Treasury,
instead of sitting at home and waiting till he is
asked for more money, were in the habit of, going
round himself to the places where our revenue is
principally expended, of inspecting the whole pro-
cess, and of calling upon anybody to come forward
who has any increased outlay to suggest, either for
his own benefit or that of any other person, or,
dearer still, for some favourite prOject or improve-
ment, what would be the result upon our na-
tional expenditure ? Assuredly a very large in-
crease. It may, indeed, be said that, provided the
checking officer does his duty, nothing would be
spent except what we ought to spend ; but we fear
it would be found true of nations as of individuals,
that, spending, as both of them undoubtedly do, and
will always continue to do, much 'more than they
need, they cannot afford to spend everything which,
by analogy to their present rate of expenditure, may
be proved that they ought to spend. The Board of
Admiralty stands with regard to the different dock-
yards much in the same position as the Treasury
stands in with regard to the different public depart-
ments, and the same arguments which show that it is
impolitic to offer too much facility for pressure on
the revenue are just as true in the one case as in the
other. The construction of the Board of Admiralty
also--consisting partly of statesmen and partly of
naval officers, the former of whom alone can be re-
lied on as efficient barriers against the desire for
expenditure, whilst the latter participate in all the
feelings of the profession, and are naturally anxious
to obtain for it the largest amount of support pos-
sible--furnishes an additional reason why it should,
above all other departments, abstain from placing
itself in the way of solicitation and importunity.
The Parliamentary Lords of the Admiralty are
civilians ; they are not, and cannot be, at home among
the technical details to which they are introduced
face to face ; and if they are really disposed to fight
the battle of economy they do so under the greatest
disadvantage. The Duke of Somerset and Mr. Chil-
ders,together with two naval Lords of the Admiralty,
went down on Saturday to Woolwich Dockyard.
They carefully surveyed the ironclad ram Pallas—
by which the ram profited probably as much as they
did—as well as the various building slips and sheds
at the east end
,of the yard, and entered into the
question of the extension of the smithies and work-
shops there, thus laying the foundation for anew item
in next year's estimate. They inspected the Sylvia,
partially completed, but not in progress, and went
over the cupola ship Prince Albert, approaching
completion ; they saw the new wrought-iron carriage
and slide mounted with a 300-pounder ship gun
intended for the Pallas ; they inspected a process
for using petroleum instead of coal ; consulted as
to a more copious supply of water to the yard,

and took into consideration the sinking of a well
of 600 feet. They then went to the Commodore's
offices, and received deputations from persons de-
siring an increase of pay. The deputations con-
sisted of representative smiths, shipwrights, joiners,
sawyers, plumbers, hose-makers, painters, and la-
bourers paid 135., 13s. 6d., and 14s; per week only.
All were favourably received, and those not provided
with written memorials were desired to prepare them
and send them in through the Commodore. They
reviewed the Marines, they visited the recreation-
room, they went to the gun-drill battery, they
passed through the hospital, and returned to London
by the 4.15 train. One of the successors of St.
David of Scotland said that " he was a sair saint for
the Crown," and we fear the Lords of the Admiralty
on Saturday last did a " sair" day's work for the
country. The same thing was done yesterday at
Deptford, and will be acted over again at all our
other dockyards ; it is the manner in which the
Board of Admiralty, usually spends the month of
August, and is almost as much an institution of the
country as the observance of the Queen's birthday.
Now, considering that the persons who are to decide
on the Estimates of the coming year are civilians,
we think no one can doubt that, so far as the inves-
tigation of technical details is concerned, this visit
is, for all practical purposes, utterly worthless. The
First Lord can, of course, review the Marines, but
neither the Marines—according to the sailors an
exceedingly credulous body—nor any one else, will
believe that a statesman who, in the distribution of
Cabinet offices, happens to draw the Admiralty ashis
lot instead of India, the Home-office or the Colonies,
becomes on that account in the least better able to
judge of the manoeuvres of a body of troops. The
First Lord may inspect cannon, and ships,' and
factories, but all the inspection in the world cannot
give his opinion on such subjects any practical
value. He must place himself in the hands of some-
body. This part of the proceeding, however, if
useless, is at any rate harmless ; but the case is
very different as regards that part of the morn-
ing's work which consists in presenting the head of
the Department in this solemn and official manner
to the artificers, labourers, and officers for the ex-

press purpose of hearing any suggestion they can
make as to burdening the country with new and
expensive works, and raising salaries beyond the rate
warranted by the state of the labour-market. Is
there any one working for wages who does not con-
sider that they ought to be increased ? Is there any
manufactory or building-yard in the country, pub-
lic or private, that could not be improved by a large
expenditure of public money ? It is quite right that
all these things should be submitted to the First
Lord of the Admiralty, but they should reach him
in the ordinary course of business in the Board-
room at 'Whitehall, and not be pressed upon him
at these visits to the dockyards by crowds sympa-
thising heartily with each other, and probably with
several of his naval colleagues, in the desire to ex-
tract every possible farthing from the public purse.
In such a situation the First Lord is placed at a
great disadvantage by his ignorance of technical
matters with which everybody around him is fami-
liar, and by the opinion and genius of the place,
which are sure to be all against him, and exercise
an influence that even the strongest mind finds it
very difficult to resist. The Admiralty has always
enjoyed among public departments the bad emi-
nence of being at once the most prodigal and the
most parsimonious. We are constantly informed
that the plan of an administrative board, now so
generally discredited, is the very Vest that can be
applied to the management of the navy. It may be
so, but for our own part we are strongly inclined to
connect faults of theory with faults of practice. If
the constitution of the Admiralty be good, it ought
to yield results exactly contrary to those we see. In
no department is the expenditure so enormous, and
the available and ascertainable return so small. We
are for ever reconstructing, but the reconstruction
never begins until we have accumulated whole fleets
of useless ships, which serve no other purpose than
to commemorate our failures and our extrava-
gance. We know not how long these things are
destined to go on unremedied ; we must hear
them with such patience as we may till the hour of
deliverance arrives ; but there is certainly no neces-
sity to add to an evil sufficiently flagrant by send-
ing the Board of Admiralty round the coast to beat
up for grievances and canvass for fresh claims
against the Exchequer.

HERALD.—The condition of the North American
States has ceased to excite in us those lively emotions
which were naturally awakened by the spectacle of a
deadly struggle between kindred races which con-
tended, apparently on very equal terms. The war
is over, the sword is sheathed, but it has not been
exchanged for the ploughshare. The arts of peace
do not readily resume their place in a country whose
social relations have been dislocated by civil strife,
whose landowners have been slain or dispossessed,
whose tillers cast adrift. The South never had
manufactures on any large scale ; it was, and is, an
agricultural country. The Southerners planted corn,
they raised cotton and tobacco. They did it by the
forced labour of a race of dark-coloured men im-
ported from the tropics--men who could work in a
climate where labour was impossible to the white—
men always treated by the whites as belonging to
a race intellectually and morally inferior, and re-
quiring to be held in subjection in the same manner
as children. It is not our business at present to
inquire into the correctness of this theory of negro
slavery, which is repugnant to our English notions
of fairness and humanity, and to the modern doctrine
that individual freedom is the common right of man-
kind. It is admitted that in practice it was open to
the most scandalous abuses, and the simple fact of
the abolition of slavery, supposing that it had been
effected without any great wrong or violence to
counterbalance the gain, might be welconied as a
step forward in civilisation, and as marking an era
in the history of the whole race of man. ,But the
spice loses its flavour amid noxious drugs, the plea-
sant cordial may be drowned in a draught of poison.
Four millions of negro slaves have been set free in
the South, six millions of whites have been violently
relieved of the responsibility of holding them in ser-
vitude. What is the result of the separation of em-
ployer and employed ? The blacks are starving and
the whites are starving. The blacks are cast adrift
upon the face of the earth, wanderers like Cain, and
with the brand of Cain upon their brows. The
whites are deprived of the means of cultivating the
soil. It is true that they may. yesort to a system of
paid labour. But the negroes are idle, and will not
work without exorbitant wages. Their late masters
are utterly unable to pay them. They have been
impoverished by their gigantic efforts to ensue the
independence of their country during a four years'
war. They dare not embark what small capital
they have in the soil, for their claim to the posses-
sion of their lands is at present in abeyance. It-is
impossible for the Northerners to restore the prospe-
rity of the South while they hold the threat of con-
fiscation, like the sword of Damocles, over the heads
of the Southern landholders. If President Johnson
should really carry into effect the iniquitous project
of refusing an amnesty to every Southern citizen
possessed of more than $20,000, the result will be
the utter extinction of the whole class of planters,
the collapse of Southern agriculture, the end of
Southern productiveness, to the South ruin and
death, to the North impoverishment and a dead
weight round its neck, while all the fertile fields be-
tween the Potomac and the Rio Grande will devolve
to new comers, who, without the means to cultivate
them, will let them run back into the wilderness of
primeval forest. If the whole social state of the
South has relapsed into chaos, the condition of poli-
tical affairs is scarcely less confused. 'When armies
were marchingand countermarching ; whenwe were
daily on the eve of some battle on which the fate
of an empire seemed to hang ; when the doom of
this or that city, this or that fortified place, and
the prospects of the foe who environed it, seemed
suspended in the balance ; when statesmen in
council and generals in the tented field seemed to
hold in their hands the issue of the doubtful
war, the eyes of Europe were eagerly fixed on
the scene, and hearts beat high as the chances
wavered to and fro. But now it is all different.
The battle has been lost and won, and they are
quarrelling over the spoils. We cannot take much
interest in what we do not understand. There is
nothing melodramatic, there is little to awaken en-
thusiasm, in the hesitating and double-faced action
of ruler. and,. Cabinet, in the bickering of office-
mongers and place-seekers, the screams of the dogs
and birds of prey who are feasting on the bones, the
philosophic discussions of th• anatomists who are
dissecting the carcase. There might be something
to be said about the policy of Mr. President John-
son, if we could make out distinctly that he had a
policy at all. We arc fairly puzzled with the man
who one day pardons some of his deadliest enemies,
on another day condemns to death an innocent wo-
man, and spurns from his presence a deputation of
Virginians who pray that their property may not be
confiscated wholesale. We are utterly unable -to
comprehend why in one state—South Carolina to
wit—he has appointed as provisional governor a
man of Southern tendencies, who has openly ex-
pressed his sympathy with the fallen cause ; while
in others, such as Tennessee, he has chosen fanati-
cal Northerners or Southern renegades, who are at-
tempting to govern by the sword, to disfranchise
the whole class of gentry and confiscate their pro-
perty. On what principle is President Johnson pro-
ceeding, or is he guided by anything beyond the
mere wantonness of power ? It would be premature
to hazard any opinion as to whether the reconstruc-
tion of the Union, the reincorporation of the South
with a settled system of government, can be success-
fully carried out on such a composite plan. The
President may be an enlightened statesman, of con-
ciliatory views ; he may be an exterminator of the
fire-and-thunder order. Again, he may be both, or

neither, in the ever-changing moods of his chame-
leon mind. The Government of the " United"
States under his guidance, or no guidance, seems to
be drifting along the current, to what goal we know
not. The problem will be left to work out to its
end by itself. The liberated negroes are loafing,
thieving, fighting, murdering, starving. The
Southern whites, reduced to the last extremity of
misery, are perishing without complaining, too sad
to know that they have lived to see the ruin of their
country. The planter and the negro used to get on
together somehow. They cannot thrive separately.
We cannot tell what new arrangement will replace
them.

HEALTH OF LONDON.

Tram the Registrar-General's Weekly Report.)

In the week that ended on Saturday, July 29,
the births in London and ten other large towns of
the United Kingdom were 3,810 ; the deaths 3,001.
The annual rate of mortality in the week in those
eleven towns was 28 per 1,000 persons living.
In London the births of 1,005 boys and 942 girls,
in all 1,947 children, were registered in the week.
In the corresponding weeks of ten years, 1855-64,
the average number, corrected for increase of popu-
lation, was 1,906.

The deaths registered in London during the week
were 1,414. It was the 30th week of the year ;
and the average number for that week was, with a
correction for increase of population, 1,345. The
present return is in excess of the estimated number
by 69.

The deaths from diarrhoea were 261, against a
corrected average of 202. • The mortality arising
from this disease is still high ; but it is satisfactory
to find that it has not shown any further increase
since the first week of July. Twenty-three deaths
are also referred to cholera or choleraic diarrhoea,
20 of which occurred to children. Diarrhoea was
fatal in 16 cases in Marylebone. The registrar of
the sub-district of St. Mary in that district returned
5 deaths in the week, all of which were from
diarrheea. There were 23 deaths from it in
Pancras, and 18 in Islington. There were Bin the
sub-district of Tottenham-court-road, and the same
number in that of St. Giles South ; 9 in the sub-
district of St. Peter, IValworth, 6 in that of St.
Paul, Deptford. Out of 44 deaths from typhus, 15
occurred in the East districts.

Three persons were killed by horse conveyances
in the streets. The following are the particulars of
the cases :

At 29, Boston-place, Marylebone, on 21st July,
the wife of a seaman, aged 61 years, " run over by
a cart."

At Spencer-street, Goswell-street, on 16th July,
a waiter, aged 53 years, " by a cab."
On 21st July, a cabman, aged 43 years, " fell
from a cab on London Bridge."
A sugar baker, aged 23 years, from Whitechapel,
died in the London Hospital on the 26th of July,
from sun-stroke ; and the daughter of a journey-
man carpenter, aged 2 years, died on the 25th July
at Clapham of " meningitis from sun-stroke ; coma
from effusion." A shoemaker, aged 47 years,
died of ptyalism.

The rate of mortality last week was 24 per 1,000
in London, 28 in Edinburgh, and 24 in Dublin, 34
in Liverpool, 37 in Manchester, 28 in Salford, 26 in
Birmingham, 31 in Leeds, 21 in Bristol, 31 in Hull,
and 36 in Glasgow. The rate in Vienna was 30 per
1,000 during the week ending the Bth July, when
the temperature was 4.4 deg. Fahrenheit higher
than in the same week in London, where the rate
was 27 per 1,000.

In Liverpool the births were 346, the deaths 315 ;
in Manchester the births 220, the deaths 253 ; in
Salford the births 73, the deaths 60 ; in Birming-
ham the births 241, the deaths 164 ; in Leeds the
births 203, the deaths 135 ; in Bristol the births 111,
the deaths 66 ; in Hull the births 82, the deaths 62 ;
in Edinburgh the births 120, the deaths 95 ; in
Glasgow the births 310, the deaths 291; and in
Dublin the births 157, the deaths 146. There wero
322 deaths in Vienna during the week ending the
Bth July.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 30.000 in.
The mean daily reading was above 30 in. on five
days. At the beginning of the week the barome-
trical pressure was 29.63 in., and it rose to 30.20 in.
on Wednesday. The mean temperature of the air
in the week was 66 deg., which is 4.1 deg. above
the average of the same week in 50 years (as deter-
mined by Mr. Glaisher.) The thermometer in the
shade attained its highest point-85 deg.—on
Thursday ; its lowest was 51.4 deg. on Saturday.
The range in the week was, therefore, 33.6 deg.
The mean daily range was 23.8 deg. The thermo-
meter in the sun rose to 149 deg. on Wednesday.
The mean degree of humidity of the air was 71.
complete saturation being represented by 100. The
air was calm in great part of the week ; at other
times the direction of the wind was variable. The
rain-fall was 0.15 in., all of which occurred on.
Sunday.