The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-25 00:00:00

LONDON, SAIURDAY, NOV. 25, 1865.

The arrival of the Java, from New York on the
15th inst., informs us that the South Carolina
Legislature has adopted the constitutional amend-
ment abolishing slavery. This fact is not only
noti?.eable in itself, from the prominent part played
by South Carolina in the Confederacy, but it is
important from the adhesion of this State making
up the necessary number to render the amendment
part of the Federal Constitution. The triumph of
abolition principles is thus so far secured, and we
hope that its advocates, who have done good ser-
vice in preparing the minds of the people for the
movement, will now pause in the race, and strive
rather to complete the work they have begun than
to rush into new and perhaps dangerous directions.
They must not, in the excitement of winning a
political victory, forget the momentous interests at
stake, nor that there are grave and serious evils to
be avoided, which, in the inevitable complication of
human affairs, are mixed up with the good. The
negro is no machine which will, move just as it is
directed, whose motions can be controlled and
whose forces can be limited to a given power.
He may rather be compared to some volcanic
centre, which, when once in motion, 110 man

can guide or measure. There are the natu-
ral characteristics of the race, deepened and
increased by years of ill treatment and degradation.
His easily inflamed mind and savage nature cannot
be suddenly brought to feel all the restraining in-
fluences of civilisation and society. The outbreak
in Jamaica, terrible in itself, may yet prove useful
as a warning, not only to those in authority in the
United States, but to those well-meaning but mis-
taken philanthropists who occupy themselves in
advocating the right of the negro to the immediate
possession of full political privileges. Probably
the news from Jamaica has already produced
its effect in America, since the States of Wisconsin
and Minnesota have voted against negro suffrage.
The mortality among this unfortunate race has been
very heavy during the war, averaging, according to
the official average, from 30 to 50 per cent., and
this high rate still continues in many parts of the
South. So far as its practical and immediate fruits
are concerned, the war has not hitherto proved
much of a blessing to the negro.
The Federal Government, it is said, intend
to preserve strict neutrality in the Mexican
war, not permitting munitions of war to be sent to
either belligerent. In this respect they will certainly
differ from our boasted English neutrality. It is
amusing to find that a list of persons in England
who furnished "the rebels" with articles contraband
of war has been published. We hope, in common
fairness, that an appendix will be issued, giving the
names of the principal English firms who supplied
arms and ammunition to the Federals during the
war ! There was a rumour in New York that the
British Government made some formal demands
respecting the Fenians. These gentlemen have
fitted up a large house in Union-square for their
Government offices ! It is worthy of notice in re-
ference to the relations of the States with Mexico
that General LoGAN has just been appointed Minister
to the " Mexican Republic," of which he is said to
be a strong friend, and Mr. BROWNING, who was
President JoHNsoN's secretary, has been appointed
Secretary of Legation to General LOGAN. Orders
have been given at the Portsmouth Navy-yard to
prepare a large iron-clad and three other steamers
for sea immediately, with what purpose is not stated,
but it is possible enough that they are intended for
action in Chili= waters. A new Minister has been
appointed for Chili, who is previously to visit Spain
on an official mission, when, it is to be hoped, he
will succeed in reducing the pretensions of the
Madrid Cabinet.

A very startling statement was made the other
day by one of our judicial authorities, to the effect
that the number of persons killed and injured in the
streets of London during the year was greater than
the number of those killed and injured on all the
railways in England. We are so much accustomed
to regard railways as an exceedingly convenient and
rapid mode of conveyance, whose only drawback is
its danger, as contrasted with the greater security
of humbler and more tedious means of transit, that
this assertion may probably create considerable
astonishment. But it is undoubtedly founded on
fact, and, indeed, were it not so it would scarcely
have been made by so competent and temperate an
authority. It is quite time attention was drawn to
the increasing dangers of our various thoroughfares.
Railway accidents have been unusually frequent
and fatal during the last year or so, and have formed
a subject of common remark, so as to provoke rapid
inquiry into their origin, and to induce the several
companies no doubt to redouble their cautions and
regulations. But the dangers of the public high-
ways and byeways are nobody's particular business.
Every one must take his chance the same as in a
railway journey, but there is this difference that in
the one case persons are taking every care to
insure his safety ; in the other it is only his
own concern, and he will receive very little
assistance in looking after it. The traffic in the
streets of London is immense, it is true, and the
dangers are, consequently, great, but they have no
need to be enhanced, as they very often are, by
rapid and reckless driving. The mortality from
street accidents is something startling. An average
of six or seven accidents in the week produces at
the end of the year a formidable list, and there is
no reason why, in this case, we should not follow
the ordinary rule, and when a number of deaths
arise continually from a preventible cause, inquire
into the best means of diminishing them. The
public are much indebted to the Grand Jury of the
Central Criminal Court, who, on the completion of
their duties on Wednesday last, came into court,
and through their Foreman, made a special present-
ment in reference to a case of reckless driving
which had come before them in the ordinary course.
They had found it necessary to return a true bill
against a driver for feloniously killing and slaying
a poor old woman, while crossing a street, and the
circumstances of the case induced them to take a
decided step for the protection of the public. They
represented the extreme danger to foot passengers
in London by the fast and reckless driving of trades-
men's carts, vans, cabs, omnibuses, &c. &c., " and the
urgent necessity for some greater security and facility
for foot passengers than now exist." The jury
added that they did not so much advocate increased
severity of punishment as preventive measures by
municipal and police ordinance, and they added,
emphatically, " We do most earnestly deprecate the
prevailing idea of drivers of public and private
vehicles generally that foot-passengers are allowed
to cross the streets by sufferance only and not by
right." The reading of this presentment excited a
murmur of applause throughout the court, and the
Jury were publicly thanked for it by Mr. Justice
BYLES, who said that in the last session of that
court a cabman had been convicted of manslaughter
before him, and that it was a lamentable fact that
such cases were occurring every day. He added
that he trusted their representations would have due
weight in the proper quarter ; a hope in which the
public May well share, and if the Grand Jury suc-
ceed in drawing the attention of the Executive to
this great and increasing evil they will have earned
a good right to general gratitude. In spite of all
our metropolitan railways, and the various new
streets opened up with the view of relieving the
pressure, the chief thoroughfares of London are
constantly thronged with passengers. The acci-
dents, it is true, often occur to old or infirm per-
sons, and to children ; but as these two classes
form a regular proportion of the passengers,
that rather increases than lessens the blame
due to the driver. In one instance, the
other day, a child was run over and seriously hurt,
because the driver (if he can be called so) of a cart
had no reins, and could not stop or turn aside his
horse when the child fell before it ! But the acci-
dents occur so very frequently to active and able-
bodied persons, of au age to take care of themselves,
that it,is quite evident the danger is a real and sub-
stantial one, not the special liability to accident of
ignorance or infirmity. The police might possibly
do something to lessen the danger by a special
vigilance at dangerous parts; but the plan fre-
quently talked about of throwing a light bridge
across the most dangerous parts, such as we see at
bye-stations on the railway lines, or of opening a
aeoettll.
I Thecommunication underneath the road, would be far
more Eithereffectual.pue
easily
bridge would be the cheapest

and most readily done, while the subway—surely
feasible enough in these days of undergrcund tra-
velling—wou.ld be more durable and possess other
advantages. If either plan were followed at our
principal crossings, such as the Oxford-circus, the
crossing from St. Paul's to Cheapside, from Fleet-
street to Ludgate-hill, at the entrance to London-
bridge, and at that great centre of City life, where
the Mansion-house, the Bank, the Exchange, Lom-
bard-street, Cornhill, the Poultry, King William-
street, and half a dozen other great highways, send
forth their streams of vehicles and their crowds of

hurrying and eager passengers in never-ceasing con-
fusion. We need not talk of the disfigurement of a
bridge when we allow the heavy, gloomy railway
bridges to be thrown across our streets unmercifully;
neither need we object to the loss of time by using
a subway, since every man who values his life and
limbs must frequently waste many minutes at these
inevitable crises of his passage. Surely so sensible
and needful a reform will not be much longer over-
looked, for it is one in which every one who walks
the streets of London is personally interested. It is
fortunate that the Grand Jury have embodied the
popular convictions in so sensible and practical a
manner, and we trust, with Mr. Justice BYLES, that
their representations will have due weight with the
Executive.

Those who entertained hopes that the cooler
weather of autumn would cause a change for the
better in the cattle plague have been disappointed in
their expectations, and there is much to discourage
us in the perusal of the present returns. Certainly
the Commissioners were fully justified in their prog-
nostications a short time ago ; for if anything events
have proved that they fell short of the mark instead
of going beyond it. The increase of the disease is
alike alarming and distressing, and the worst of it
all is that no available remedy has been met with.
It seemed already unfortunate enough, when we
studied the matter a month ago, but
the uninformed will be shocked to find
that the sad tale is increased twofold,
for whereas in the returns made up to the
21st of October there had been 14,083 animals
affected by the disease, we now find that as many
as 27,432 have been attacked. This proves be-
yond doubt that the calamity is uninfluenced in a
favourable degree by the cooler weather, and like-
wise that our means of prevention and cure have
signally failed. Doubtless things would have been
worse had not care and caution been employed, but
at the same time it must be confessed that we
have not stemmed the tide in a successful or satis-
factory manner. The new Order in Council is
very appropriate at this juncture, for it makes suit-
able provisions for the new emergencies that have
arisen, and prohibits the removal of cattle in those
districts where infection exists, except on certain
conditions. Another advantageous arrangement is
found in this order, for there is at last some restric-
tion put upon the indiscriminate slaughter which
has lately taken place to such an alarming extent.
The inspectors' powers are to be limited to cases
where the owners of cattle have wilfully disobeyed
orders and refused to comply with needful direc-
tions in a precautionary sense. "Diseased" or
" suspected" animals are to be kept apart,
and if this reasonable injunction is not obeyed,
it is quite fair that the owners should suffer the
penalty of their unwise and inconsiderate conduct.
At any rate it is satisfactory to find that the
recoveries are in some degree in a more hopeful
proportion, although the number of those attacked
has so greatly increased of late. In Scotland,
especially, do we meet with the greatest success in
the curative attempts, and this should encourage
us in this country to exercise more patience, for it
is by this means only that any hope can be reason-
ably entertained of ultimate success. Had more
care been taken to prevent infection, and less haste
been used in ordering the destruction of so many
animals not actually infected, no doubt things
would now be in a more satisfactory state.

It seems that we are not to hear the last of the
Fenians for some time to come, and that their
conspiracy is not to be so easily extinguished in the
punishment of its ringleaders as had been con-
fidently expected in many quarters. The last news
that has reached us is, indeed, of a startling
nature, and the public will learn with surprise that
JAMES STEPHENS has been allowed to escape. This
is vexatious intelligence, not from the importance
of the fact, or from any danger to be apprehended
in STEPHENS being at large, but on account of the
doubts that arise as to the honesty of those
entrusted with the charge of the prisoner.
To connive at the escape of a prisoner charged with
high treason is indeed a grave offence, and it seems
rather singular that some one of known character
and tried fidelity should not have engaged to super-
vise those who are employed for the ordinary pur-
poses of prison officials. Of course a strict inquiry
will be made into the circumstances of the case, but
it may in all probability be too late to repair the evil
done, and, although the Government has offered
a thousand pounds for the re-capture of this
important person, the head and front of the offend-
ing Fenians, it does not follow that the tempting
bribe may secure the desired object. it is evident
that STEPHENS is a man of most ready resources,
and well calculated to provide against emergencies
with unusual dexterity and decision. He has dis-
played a genius worthy of a better cause, and those
who denounce the extremes to which he was led
must admit that he wanted not in abilities
and in energies for the task he had undertaken
of leading a party in a desperate venture.
It must be a great mortification to those
authorities who have taken so much time and trouble
in conducting the prosecution and arranging the
affairs in the management of the prisoners in Dub-
lin to find themselves checkmated, as it were, in
this extraordinary manner. Altogether, it must be
confessed that the Fenian devotees have exhibited
a considerable amount of cleverness, and this last
exploit of their quondam chief has been the crown-
ing point of their deterity. The public will look
with interest for further intelligence connected with
this daring and successful attempt to elude the vigi-
lance of the authorities, and also for a more detailed
account of the manner in which the singular escape
has been effected.