The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-23 00:00:00

THE SUN,' LONDON, THEIRS DAY EVENING, JA NUARY 23, 1862.

snatched from them by a dreadful death ? To
both questions the atswer at once to be given is
obviously affirmative. That the relief is possible,
that the prevention is practicable, must be obvious
to any one almost after one instant's considera-
tion. It has already been suggested by two
or three reflective observers of what has just
happened at Hartley Colliery, that the simple
and effectual means of guarding against the possi-
bility of anything at all like it happening again
must be, manifestly, to provide each coalpit in the
United Kingdom with two shafts, instead of allow-
ing them to be worked, as in the present
instance, with only one. By such an arrangement,
all peril of having the occupants of a mine trapped,
as these 215 men and boys were trapped on this
day se'nnight, down at New Hartley Colliery,
would be perfectly well guarded against.
Any accident occurring in one shaft would
still have the other as a means of escape for the
miners. Or—without requiring the owners of our
coal mines to go to the enormous expense of sinking
two shafts to each mine instead of one shaft, we
would here suggest the simple and, as we conceive,
equally effectual precartion of constructing
invariably between each seam a bye-shaft that
would admit of ready communication between
all parts of the subte-raneous labyrinth of
these profound and perillous excavations.
Another provision against the recurrence
of a calamity, such as that now horrifying all Eng-
land, would have been the
application to the beam
of the pumping engine of the same tests applied by
Government inspectors in other instances (as for
example in the instance if ships' anchors), tests
effectually demonstrating tefore use the perfect
soundness of whategver is subjected to it.
We are already satisfied of this, however—
and the reflection is replete with comfort in
regard to the probable safety in future of thousands
who are engaged night and day in a trade far more
perillous than any " samphire picking" that SHAK-
SPERE ever shuddered to write of—we are already
satisfied of this, that the session now almost im-
mediately about to commove, will not be allowed
to pass away without the Lords and Common's of
England having adopted measures for the prevention
by some decisive means calculated to ensure the
complete prevention, so fir as human foresight
can prevent any casualties of the kind, of these
appalling accidents in future, accidents more than
decimating an industrial population—sweeping
away the pith and vigour of it at a single blow !

As to the alleviation of the sorrows of those who
are now so direfully bereaved down at the col-
liery village of Hartley—that is surely as certaia
of being cared for instantly and spontaneously
by the whole community ! It is in obedience to a
simple instinct that we all of us at once think
of a National Subscription to this end—a subscrip-
tion in which all may participate, from our gra-
cious Sovereign downwards. Her MAJESTY, it
will be observed—not without emotion now that
the QUEEN herself is known to be still borne
down by a home-grief cf the bitterest character,
has already manifested a tender solicitude for the fate
of those among her afflicted subjects—her MAJESTY
having anxiously inquired yesterday afternoon, by
telegraph, as to any hops there might be in regard
to those 215 of her MAJESTY'S subjects and fellow-
creatures. It is the one means we have, all of us,
of evidencing our sympathy for these poor
desolated homes at Hartley. The one effec-
tual means of attesting this is through a National
Subscription, headed, as it is absolutely
certain to be headed (and, as ever, munificently),
by the name and donation of her Most Gracious
Majesty the QUEEN. Now that we are waiting
to record the particulars of the extrication from
that pit of death of the 215 dead bodies of the poor
miners at Hartley, it is some solace to meditate on
the assuagements of some at least of the sufferings
of their afflicted widows and orphan children
through the gentle and generous agency of this
national evidence of sympathy.

We have two objections to England breaking the
blockade of the American ports—objections which
we acknowledge seem mutually destructive. Yet
if any reader does not like the one, it may be as
well for him to consider whether there is nothing
in the other. We object to it first for the sake of
India, and next because we strongly suspect that it
will before long either break itself or be broken by
others.

In the success of Indian cotton cultivation we
have always felt a deep interest. To make India
1 our chief supply of all possible raw materials, and
cotton in particular, is recommended by every con-
sideration, political, commercial, and philanthropic.
Sound policy asks it of us; for what can we do more
calculated to render acquiescence in our rule the in-
terest of the natives, than to have every landowner
aware that his rents, every labourer aware that his
wages, depend upon the British connection. With
the exception of the Mahotnmedans who think be-
lievers in the Prophet inherit a right
divine to rule, we believe the opinion of
NAPIER to be the true one, that the
Indian races ask only to be well and honourably
governed, and care but little who the governors
are. Our policy, therefore, is to do our best for pro-
fitable cultivation, that is, for high rents, and good
wages, in India. Commerce would reap the advan-
tage of avast and unfailing supply of raw materials,
and a proportionate market for the fabrics produced
from them; and the philanthropist must look with
pleasure on the prospect—he would see negro sla very
(
dying of inanition in the Southern States of Ame-
rica, and he would also see our civilization, our social
and religious habits following in India in the wake
of enlarged commerce and association with the
ignorant heathens who people her vast territories.
On these general grounds we must think that
every intelligent and humane Englishman will think
it an object of the highest importance to give to
the Southern slaveholders
0I In
gd ihat,
ti
of p oss
havei b lfeo,r fwe i
theadt
long ago. Our responsi-
bility for the hundred and fifty millions of
people we have conquered, and our own
pecuniary advantage as a nation are quite
at one in this case. But, as circumstances stand,
India needs the time. She is on the verge of readi-
ness, but not actually ready. Rivers, roads, and
railways will soon offer communication with the
seaports, but they do not just yet. The natives
will in a little time be prepared to clean their cot-
ton in the required wanner, but they aro not yet
gins for cluing it ; the
supplied sufficiently with
right variety of plant will before long be obtained,
but American seed has not yet been largely intro-
year or two will make all the
duced. In a wozd, a
difference of gaining for India the start she needs,
or of throwing back the growth of cotton into the
hands of men whose first act, be their professions
what they may, will be
trade, in order to beat tr, reopen the African slave
our Indian freemen. We
acknowledge the terardorary hardship and suffering
in Lancashire, but it can be only temporary. The
gain will be 'lasting.

We confess our fear
however, that the blockade
may be broken all
`too soon for what we deem to
be an object F3O suDrernely important. The incli-
nations, perfectly reasonable inclinations, of Franee
have never been concealed; but there is now
another blockade-hreaker, if we mistake nor, rapidly

coming on the scene. NICHOLAS threatened us in
the Crimea with General FEBRUARY, and, in truth,
we found him the most formidable of generals there.
And the Americans are now threatened by General
ASSIGNAT, whom we expect they will find, before
long, to be more formidable than General BEAURE-
GARD and the batteries at Bull's Run. Not, per-
haps, that he would be so formidable himself, but
his Lieutenant-General, if we may prolong the hint
furnished by NICHOLAS—OVER-ISSUE is the most
invincible of devastators; the ruin of creditors, if he
be the deliverer of many debtors. Can the North,
navy, army, and all, evade his approach? If not,
how long can a commercial people keep their navy
afloat and in pay, and their army also paid and
fed. It seems pretty certain that ncrthern taxation
can never be raised to the height requisite to obtain
loans, even at almost usurious interest--equally
certain that it will never pay the expenses of the
army and navy; what remains but that Mr. CHASE
should quickly overleap the demands of trade in his
issue of inconvertible paper, and then the result is
as certain as the action of gravitation.
When we add to this the not improbable action
of France, there are certainly two great chances for
the blockade coming to an end. We may reasonably
ourselves refuse to join in breaking the illegal
blockade, though the proofs of its inefficiency are
becoming more obvious every day—we see them in
the Liverpool papers to-day. Still we may pro-
perly allege that the temper of America towards
us is peculiar, that France would be very differently
regarded by her in doing the same thing, and that,
therefore, we leave it to her. We must, in justice,
confess that France has quite sufficient grounds
to put an end to what injures her
workpeople so much, and that too in pursuit of
an enterprise daily becoming more difficult. The
French people, also, look more to their governors
than we do, and it will not be so easy to satisfy
them, that if they pay for such an enormous army
and navy, they ought to bear sufferings from, which
their navy could free them in a week.

A correspondent in a =temporary writes :
" The announcement made a few days ago of the
fearful distress at Lyons has stimulated the zeal of
the authorities, and relief has already been distri-
buted on a very large scale ; £14,000 have been
sent by the Government to Lyons, and £lO,OOO to
St. Etienne—but, large as that amount is, it is
not likely to do more than afford a few mouthfuls
of bread and a very small quantity of fuel to
100,000 men and their families. Immediately on
the assembling of the Corps Legislatif a law (now
being drafted by the Council of State) is to be
brought forward, sanctioning an extraordinary
credit for the relief of the labourers deprived of
work by the combined influences of the stagnation
of trade, the American crisis, and the commercial
treaty. It is impossible to blame the Government
for its efforts to alleviate the sufferings of the
labouring classes in the principal manufacturing
towns."

It will then be but fair for England to say
to the French EMPEROR, if your people ask of
you not to respect this blockade, though we will
not break it, we confess freely that it does not
deserve to be respected—nor can we blame the ruler
who thinks more of his starving subjects than of
over-scrupulosity in regard to a paper blockade.
In any case we must vote at present, for leaving
the blockade to run its course so far as England is
concerned. We have more to lose in India than to
gain in Manchester by removing it too soon. And
Northern bankruptcy, and the urgent demands
of French subjects on their empire, may one or the
other of thom, put an end to it perhaps too soon for

We have a little military news by the Etna, but
it is almost all in the future tense—news of what
"is to be," and of what " is expected." Our readers
by this time have probably learned to expect no-
thing, but to wait and see what is really done, The
two certainties, as Americans seem to consider them,
are that a force is to move south by the Mississippi
and to end with New Orleans—and that another
naval expedition, under a General BURNSIDE, is
mustering in Hampton roads to make another
descent—somewhere.

The naval expedition, as we have had the pro-
mises of two fulfilled at Cape Hatteras and Port
Royal, will be looked after most hopefully by us.
Its destination is said to have been changed once,
because it leaked oat, and it is now an absolute
secret. Hitherto these expeditions have not pro-
duced on the negroes, or on the imaginary loyal
inhabitants of the South, the effects which were
anticipated. The slaves do not rise—do not largely
run away ; the Unionists, from some cause, are not
heard of, and the troops can advance but little way,
indeed, inland—not far enough to destroy the rail-
road communication between the two rebel capitals,
Charleston and Savannah.

The military expedition, which is also to be a
river one, will start from Cairo at the junction of
the Ohio with the Mississippi. The last telegram
informs us that a portion of this force has already
begun to move southward. The scheme has been
long projected. FREMONT was to have been its
hero; but hitherto Missouri, with Kentucky
and Tennessee, have more than occupied the atten-
tion of all the Federal troops which can be sent to
or mustered in those parts. We are informed that
Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, is to be the first
place attacked, and then the army is to get down
five hundred miles further to New Orleans. It will
be, we expect, if persisted in, a perilous enterprise.
There are railroads from Nashville to New Orleans,
but can the generals trust their troops and com-
missariat to them through an enemy's country.
Other roads, we believe, there are none worthy of
the name. The Great River is the only road at all
trustworthy, and even that, if the rebels have any
artillery, cannot be very safe. It is, however,:use-
hss to speculate, on what may never be carried into
execution—if the difficulties are as great as we
suppose, so much greater will be the glory of
success.

The -Earl and Countess of Elgin arrived at Os-
borne on Tuesday, and returnEd to London yesterday
afternoon.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, at-,
tensed by Major General the Hon. R. Bruce, arrived at
Buckingham,Palace about 6 o'clock on Tuesday evening
from Osborne.

TIIE HOUSE OF LORDS.—Lord Dufferin will
move, and Lord Shelburne will second, the Address in
answer to the Speech from the Throne at the commence-
ment of the approaching session.

Mr. Mark Lemon is now giving the third and
concluding part " About London and Westminster ;" and
next week he continues the delivery of the series on alter-
nate mornings, and on Saturday evenings, at the Gallery
of Illustration.

It is stated the traffic is greatly increasing 01, the
Malta and Alexandria Telegraph, and that the telegrams
are forwarded over the Italian lines with more despatch,
the average time taken these last two or three days having
been about 12 hours.

The Ost-heutsche Post states that a mob assem-
bled three days since in front of the Catholic Archbishop's
palace at Limberg, and broke the 'windows with stones, the
reverend prelate having made himself unpopular with the
Poles by issuing a circular against the national demon-
strations,

On Saturday last the Very Rev, the Dean of
Cauteibury was out skating on a pond near that city, when
he ventured on a dangerous part of the ice, which broke,
and he was precipitated into the water up to the arm-pits.
The rev. gentleman was, however, soon rescued and taken
to a cottage close by. A change of clothing was here ob-
tained, and the dean soon made his appearance again on the
pond, enjoying the fun of the misadventure which hall
placed him in so awkward a position.

LATEST NEWS.

TURIN, JAN. 23.

Monsignor Carli, an agent of Cardinal Antonelli,
has been arrested at Leghorn. Ho was staying at
tho Capucin coavent.

MADRID, JAN. 22.
The official Gazette announces that Queen Isabella
1. is enciente.

MARSEILLES, JAN. 23.
M. Fould's report has exercised no influence on
;he sugar market here.

TURIN, JAN. 22.

The Turin papers publish a despatch from Rome,
dated the 19th inst,, asserting that the Austrian
Government is about to address a note to the
Great Powers, declaring that the state of Piedmont
constitutes a perpetual menace, and renders it ne-
cessary that she should be required to disarm.

ST. PETERSBURG, JAN. 22.

An Imperial ukase has been published to-day,
stating that in view of the increased requirements
of the State, an augmentation will be made in the
poll and spamp taxes and the import duties, which,
in the case of the latter, will be 5 per cent, for
articles entering Russia by the European and
Asiatic frontiers. A tax will also be levied on
registered letters.

BERLIN, JAN. 22.

To-day in the Chamber of Deputies the Minister
of Finance, amid the cheers of the members, laid
on the table of the house a bill relative to the
privileges of the Board of Control. At the same
time the Minister stated that this bill should be
considered as a token that the Government has the
completion of the constitutional edifice always
earnestly in view.
The members of the Progressist party, in a
meeting which they held to-day, resolved, after a
prolonged discussion, to abstain from making any
proposition in reference to an address to the King
in reply to the Royal Speech.