The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-18 00:00:00

rifEl rSTIN, :LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 18, 1862.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1862.

The Ballet Society deserves credit for one thing—
it does not sleep ; it hardly takes reasonable holi-
days. When an election occurs, even one which
may seem hopeless enough, it does not fail to remind
some or all of the electors that they still need the
great guarantee for perfectly independent voting.
We have long watched its proceedings, and it is
but justice to confess that, in proportion to the
funds at its disposal, no political organisation at
the present moment is so persevering, and does so
much real business. We may add that we do not
know one which better deserves to enjoy the most
liberal support of those who desire a real repre-
sentation for the country.

Both Whigs and Tories have quite made up their
inds to a political doze this session. The excuses
for it are well known, and it is equally well known
that they are but excuses. The Tories know, that
on hardly any point which could be mooted, involv-
ing the question of confidence, could they get a
tuajarity. The House, mortal though it be, shrinks
from dissolution, and it is quite aware that Lord
PALMERSTON would not hand over the reins to Lord
DERBY without an appeal to the country. Under
these circumstances the Tories will not make any
direct attempt to seize the places for which many of
them long so much; and those who do care about
offic are on the whole content to see Lord PAL-
MERSTON so effectually hanging up every Reform
Queution,—indeed, in his home policy, doing
their work better than they themselves could
do it. The recent widowhood of our beloved
SOVEREIGN, and the year of the Great Exhibition
may be plausible reasons to outsiders for political
inactivity, but those behind the scenes are not so
duped ; they are quite aware that our men in office
and their Parliamentary supporters hate the very
mention of political reform, an,i that those who are
out of office fear to make the assault.

°Fie of the consequences of this state of things is
that the Government intends to reintroduce its old
bill tor
the " Prevention of Corrupt Practices at
Elect ions ;. and the Ballot Society, ever awake to
this subject, sends forth in consequence the resolu-
tion which
published yesterday. We need
hardly say that every
word of it has our entire
concurrence. It is undeniably true—Lord DERBY,
Mr, DISRAELI, amiable" Mr. WALPOLE,
" honest " Mr. HENLEY, and the whole phalanx of
Vaose who prevent any real" Prevention Bill" from
passing, cannot deny it—
" that the experience of
recent prosecutions has demonstrated the complete
failure of direct legislation or penal laws to prevent
bribery." Never could charges be better brought
home than those made agaicst the Wakefield candi-
dates; hut never vr's it clearer ti at the very mode
in which those charges were sustained, mainly by
the individual's own confession, made the whole
country unwilling that they should be called up for
judgment. Yet no otter means than that of extort-
ing personal confession of guilt can be of much
avail towards eacvietiott ; and self-crizuination will
not suit Englishmen yet.. We may hope it never
In the face, then, of the perfectly useless
results of two costly commissions, it seems like
inanity to come forward -with nothing better than
the old miserable prevention bill. It ought rather
to be designated the " Bribk 3ry Protection Bill."
But the committee furl tier remark, that " no
attempt ever has been mi ode to put in force the

designedly delusive protection afforded by the act
in regard to intimidation," and looking at both the
facts, the committee justly challenges the sincerity
of the Government in its professed desire to remove
the evils incident to our present mode of conducting
elections. Whether the Government, the House of
Commons, or the country will hearken or not, we
can but commend the Ballot Society for calling
attention to what is now going on. The last point
they mention indicates the most deeply seated
disease of our aristocracy—the love of intimidation.
Bribery they do not dislike; but then it is costly—
still they do not like to part with the direct power
of the purse. But, far more, do they cherish the
power of intimidation. We quite well know that
they will repudiate the word, while they cherish
the thing. In its worst form they soften what is
really electoral garotting, down to " undue influ-
ence ; " and the milder forms of electoral larceny,
they term " legitimate influence."
Now, we beg to apprise these " Legitimate influ-
encers" of other's votes, that there is one indubitable
test of the legitimacy of what they do—namely,
that they should be satisfied for the influence to do
its own work ; without the addition of their know-
ing how it had worked. The man, who, after using
every argument to secure our vote for his candi-
date, still says I cannot allow you to vote privately,
shows that he is aware he has not gained our judg-
ment. He shows that he thinks fear of not acting
according to his wishes is of more weight than his
reasons. We cannot conceive, and we do not be-
lieve Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Lord DERBY them-
selves can conceive, of any influence which is really
legitimate in regard to a political vote, requiring
fear of the canvasser's eye to enforce it. That ad-
dition converts it at once from legitimate influence
to illegitimate ; in a word, to intimidation.
Mr. DISRAELI had the effrontery, the other day,
to boast of the 500,000 electors his bill would have
added to the electoral constituency. He did not
mention that it was an addition of thoroughly de-
pendent persons ; nor, that while he added the
dependent, he took away from the counties the
small portion of independent voters—those who
live in boroughs—who at present in some parts
leaven the dull heavy mass of serfdom which com-
prises our county constituency. Without creating a
single new franchise the ballot alone would doubtless
far more than double the county constituencies. At
present, on the authority of Lord DERBY, we may
truly affirm, that the landlords are the only county
voters ; we do not believe it would affect the
character of a single county election if the land-
lord 'were allowed to poll for all his tenants who

were on the register—just as, in another way,
the slaveholders in the slave states of America
used to vote for three-fifths of their slaves. The
Ballot would enfranchise the whole of the tenant
farmers whose votes are now but nominally their
own. Nor them only—the great majority of
county voters, of all classes, unless they happen
to be also borough voters—are at the mercy of
those rustic political despots, the Payson and the
Squire. They have grown up to do, politically,
as they are bid, and they do it without ques-
tioning. Woe to them if they dared to think !
These are some of the reasons which induce us to
think a simple Ballot Bill would be of more value
than the trumpery Old Bill which Whigs and
Tories mean to huddle through the house. We
hope the committee will see to it, that the Go-
vernment Bill receives a thorough exposure, and
that their own bill should in some shape be put
in competition with it.

Apropos to the still undecided question as to the
Good PRINCE CONSORT'S Memorial—the Edinburgh
Review, in the number but just now published,
comprises among its contents an admirable paper
on our " Public Monuments" generally. Altogether
the article is as readable as it is reasonable. It is
unobtrusively suggestive of many ingenious
changes for the better in regard to the position and
arrangement of the Monuments we already possess.
And what is more, it is yet further suggestive of
Monuments of a very different character still re-
quiring to be erected in our metropolis.
After giving a really deplorable list of the statues,
&c., already scattered as if at random about our streets
and squares and other public places, the reviewer
remarks—and who is there amongst us who would
venture to gainsay the perfect truth of this his obser-
vation —that for the most part these memorials
have been the result of a fleeting popularity,
or of miserable subserviency to the influences of
courtly adulation. With solitary exceptions, like
those Demigods of Battle by Sea and Land, Lord
NELSON and the Duke of WELLINGTON—these
public monuments are for the most part, when we
come to look at them, mementoes in stone or bronze
of royal personages not of the First Excellence in
any way, or of eminent men not by any means of
the First Rank in Art, Science, Literature, States-
manship, War, or Philosophy. Where, for example,
can we hope to find in all London, upon inquiry
livhera
aa
memorial statue of Sir ISAAC NEWToii
colossal effigy of WILLIAM SHARSPERE ? Where
a giant monument to the glory of OLIVER CROM-
WELL ? Have we anywhere about this vast
capital, in one of our public places, even a
bust of a Great National Painter like Ho-
GARTH; of a great English Musician like PUR-
CELL ; of a great English poet like CHAUCER ?
And so on through the first order of our intellec-
tual Dii Majores,eacb facile principes in his own
peculiar department. Instead of this we have
divers " cast" or " carvelled," hobgoblins of creatures
royal or loyal as the case may be, like CHARLES
the SECOND, the Prince of Profligates; like GEORGE
the THIRD with no forehead (to speak of at least),
but an immense pigtail, like hisßoyal Highness, the
Duke of Yoitx,with a form and a fame alike perched
up aloft in rubibus—together with a sprinkling of
fifth-rate soldiers, third-rate statesmen and nobles,
some of them really hardly raised one poor paltry
inch above the dead level of mediocrity. If we decide
upon some rare occasion, by a happy thought, to
erect a memorial statue to a really great soldier
like General Sir CHARLES NAPIER, we must
perforce at once spoil the idea altogether
by raising, instead of a tolerably life-like effigy,
an unwieldy and ridiculous caricature. Again,
does the genius of a foreign artist as gifted as
Baron MAROCHETTI endow the nation for once
with an exceptional boon in the shape of a really
noble equestrian effigy of a glorious Sovereign of
England, like our chivalric RICHARD CCEUR DE
LlON—we immediately contrive to spoil the whole
effect of it by placing it in an absolutely prepos-
terous situation. True, moreover, that wo do hap.
pen to possess here in the metropolis about the
grundest of all the works of CHANTREY'S chisel, re-
presenting to the admiration of posterity, upon a
colossal scale, the homely form, and philosophic
and even patriarchal countenance of JAMEs
WATT, the inventor of the steam engine,
and, as such, the Father of Modern Eugineering—
t r ue, likewise, that upon the pedestal of that
the master hand of Lord BROUGHAM
great statue
has inscribed in
enduring characters, perhaps, the
noblest monumental inscription in the language.
But—having this—what ,9
as a matter of course,
immediately done with this majestic memorial, in-
Lvested as it is with a threefold interest illustrating
as it does the glory of WATT, the akill of egAzintzy

and the eloquence of BROUGHAM ? We hide it
away in an obscure corner, in a small chapel in
the old Abbey down at Westminster ! So likewise
have we done with other statues (these even, alas !
are but very few, indeed, after all)—statues, that if
drawn to light from wholly inappropriate holes and
corners, where their merits, such as they are, are
dwarfed and obsizured, might—if but appropriately
placed now, by a few happy after-thoughts—forth-
with tend greatly to improve and adorn our unfor-
tunate metropolis. There is that exquisite work of
art, the chef d'ouvre in this way, of GRINLING
GIBBONS, the classically-clad statue of King JAMES
the Second. Where it stands now it is just hid
away from public view at the back of Whitehall.
Then there are other statues of a later date that, by
the mere circumstance of the associations of the
particular locality in which they have been erected
are rendered absolutely ludicrous. For instance,,
the really excellent statue of the late Sir ROBERT
PEEL, raised a few years back to his memory by public
gratitude in the City—placed where it is, namely,
at the bottom of Cheapside—is suggestive there, for
all the world, of a dapper and gentlemanly silk-
mercer with a roll or baton de soie propped by one
he.ud for a moment against his hip, ready at the right
moment to be unrolled with a dexterous flourish
upon the counter for the inspection and edge-mapping
of a lady purchaser. It is idle, however, to parti-
cularize farther among anomalies of this kind that
have long since grown into blots and flaws of actual
notoriety.

Any Minister of Public Works who cared to do
so might win himself an enviable reputation, by
merely devoting his time to the revision and re-
placement of the Public Monuments we already
possess. If only Mr. COWPER could but recognise
this. If—instead of any longer devoting his really
fine talents to abortive attempts to spoil as much
as possible the sylvan beauty of Kensington-gardens
—it' only, instead of doing this, he would judiciously
take our great statues in hand in the way we have
indicated !—a few of the worst among them might
follow (whither we really care not to inquire) the
dreadful straddling statue of WILLIAM the FOURTH,
that once upon a time made the cab horses shy and
the cabmen grin as they passed that then ludicrous
and degraded locality, called in honour of the
statue (!) King's Cross. The rest, when weeded
thus, might be at once wonderfully improved in
general effect immediately thereupon, by being
easily placed in more appropriate situations. For
example—let all our sea glories be gathered together
in Trafalgar-square. Let HAVELOCK and NAPIER
be removed and, with other military heroes
made to adorn (as far, at least, as they can) the
preoincts of Waterloo-place. Let GEORGE the
FOURTH, ostler•like, take his horse to water any-
where rather than to the Trafalgar-square Foun-
tains—carrying his rolling-pin and blanket some-
where else out of our sight. A suggestion casually
thrown out by the _Edinburgh is really worthy
being thought of—and we do earnestly
trust may before much longer be seri-
ously acted upon. It is a proposition made
by the reviewer to the effect that statues of our
great men should be ranged on pedestals down each
side of Westminster Hall. Directly this truly
admirable suggestion is begun to be carried out
—suppose we were bodily to move inside the Hall
that statue of GEORGE CANNING now standing
outside of it, and looking away from the arena of
his oratorical successes ! Supposing that were done,
and then supposing upon the vacated site now occu-
pied by CANNING'S statue there were placed there,
with that mighty sword pointing heavenwards
high above his head, that glorious equestrian statue
of King RICHARD CCEUR DE LION, for which,
wherever we have looked at it, even where it is
now most miserably placed, we have felt grateful
to the genius of the Baron MAROCHETTI.

EXPERIMENTS AT SHOEBURYNESS.—Since the last
experiments tried with the new wrought-iron smooth-bore
Armstrong gun, other trials have been made with the same
piece of ordnance to prove its power. During the course of
these it has been tried with a 501 b. charge of powder against
a target of three five-inch plates of wrought-iron bolted
together—a mass of wrought-iron, in all, of 15 inches thick
—or, as nearly as possible, four times the thickness of the
Warrior's plates. Two or three shots were fired against
this, and each broke all three plates, crushing the first,
ripping and splitting the second, and ripping the third in
such a way as to show that even 15 inches of metal was an
insufficient protection against ordnance of this description
at close ranges.

The Crown Solicitorship of Cork has been con-
ferred upon Mr. Philip O'Connell.

The celebrated Yelverton case is likely to occupy
the Dublin Court of Common Pleas this term, probably
after the Easter holidays. Mrs. Yelverton's legal advisers
have filed notice of a motion to amend the bill of exceptions
taken after the trial. If leave be granted, the effect will be
to somewhat simplify the case, by expunging from the bill
all the exceptions relating to the Scotch marriage, leaving
the validity of the ceremony performed by Father Mooney,
at Rostrevor, the only subjec` for consideration.

A large number of Dublin shopkeepers have been
lately imposed upon by three fashionably-dressed men who
arrived a few days since from Holyhead, and contrived to
pass a large number of forged notes, purporting to be of the
National Bank of Scotland. They decamped after pur-
chasing a considerable quantity of jewellery, &c., but were
subsequently arrested by the constabulary in Cork.

The Clare _Freeman states that at the " quarter
sessions of Kilrush, this week, the chairman of the county
felt it necessary publicly from the bench to denounce the
fearful extent to which perjury had been committed by a
number of the parties to the various civil bills which were
heard before him." This is not the first time, it adds, that
his worship has had reason to deplore the prevalence of this
crime

THE EX-KING OF NAPLES AT HIS DETOTION.-
-The ex-King of Naples has commenced a course of spi-
ritual exercises in the Church of St. Andrea della Fratte, a
church belonging to Calabrian monks, whose exhortations
are delivered with all the volubility of southern eloquence,
and whose mixture of things sacred and profane, biblic a
and political,:render their sermons probably mere attrac-
tive, at the present moment of overweening temporal
excitement, than more strictly spiritual discourses would
be to a congregation composed of royal refuge es
and their adherents, The seats occupied by the
royal family are rallied before the side chapel of St.
Francis of Sales, the King's patron saint. The Queen
Dowager and the junior members of the family usually
arrive first. When his Majesty enters the Prince
and Princesses rise and remain standing until the King
has kissed his stepmother's hand and taken his chair.
The young Queen has not as yet accompanied her husband
to these afternoon preachings, but the whole body of
Neapolitan courtiers and exiles rally round on the occa-
sion, so that the church, independent of the merits
of the preachers, has become a great point of at-
traction, and is crowded to excess. Yesterday
the King entered in the m'ddle of a monsignore's sermon,
bat another sacred orator soon ascended the pulpit and de-
livered a most energetic discourse evidently at the King,
whom he exhorted to profit by the example of Job, and to
suffer spoliation, humiliation, and calamities of every sort
with the resignation which renders all trials eventually be-
neficial to the supporters of them. It must have been en-
couraging to the dethroned monarch to perceive with what
positive predictions the triumph of the Church and of legi-
timacy were announced, the subtlety of Napoleon inveighed
against the iniquities of the Liberals held up to universal
detestation, and their attempts to render Italy one and
nutted derided as likely to be crowned with no better suc-
cess than the futile endeavour to twist a rope of sand.—
Letter from Rome. _ _ 1

A CURIOUS BATTLE.—A fight of more than ordi-
nary interest took place on the bank of the canal near Kid_
welly Quay a few days ago. A cat, making her usual walk
in search of prey along the embankment, was attacked by
an otter of no small dimensions, and was in an instant
tossed into the middle of the canal, and there had to fight,
not for the "belt," but for her life, in an uncongenial ele-
ment. But, very soon they were observed by some sailors
and shippers, employed nut far from the scene of the coo-
test, who hastened to witness the strange occurrence.
Either from the fear of the men, or of its formidable anta-
gonist, the otter relinquished its hold, and poor puss safely
landed amid hearty cheers and congratulations. But puss
not being content with the laurels she had won in the first
contest, went out again the following day, and, strange to
say, the old combatants met again, and the otter with rm.
diminished pluck attacked the cat on land. The contest
became very severe, but ultimately the otter was glad to
regain its watery refuge, and leave puss the victor the se-
cond time, without suffering very considerably from an en..
counter with such a formidable ioo.—Swansea Herald.

LATEST NEWS.

BERLIN, APRTL 17.

The official Staats-.Anzeiger of to-day publishes
the following Royal decree, addressed to the Mini-
stry, and countersigned by all the Ministers.

The King says :

"In consequence of the report made to me on the
present state of the Budget, I sanction that the bill
relative to the continuation from July next of the
collection of an additional tax of 25 per cent. on the
income, class, mill, and slaughter-house taxes re-
spectively, shall not be submitted to the next Diet,
as it is possible to cover the deficit partly by an in-
crease in the public revenue, and partly by a
diminution in the expenses of several branches of
the public administration.
" In so far as concerns reductions in the Military
Budget I willingly consent, in conformity with my
previous declarations, to sanction at the present
moment any savings which may be provisionally
effected. I must, however, most positively repeat
my former declarations, that in the department of
the military administration such reductions must be
avoided as would endanger those principles, the
maintenance of which is necessary for the strength
and effectiveness of the army, and consequently for
the safety and independence of the State."

BRESLAU, APRIL 17.
The Schlesische Zeitung of to-day says :
" We hear that General Luders intends retiring
from the Governorship of Warsaw.
"It is considered likely that the Duke of Olden-
burg will be his successor.
"Apprehensions are entertained of demonstra-
tions taking place at Warsaw at Easter.

MADRID, APRIL 16.

It is asserted that, should the French troops enter
the city of Mexico, the Spanish forces will do the

same.

TURKEY.

MOSTAR, APRIL 15.

The Montenegrin tribe of Uskogs and the insur-
gents of Piva have profited by the passage of the
river Tara, near Ogradjanitze, to make sanguinary
incursions into the district of Taschlitze. To pre-
vent these invasions the Ottoman troops have con-
structed a large guardhouse near this passage, de-
fended by 400 irregulars, under the command of
Dervich Bey.
The insurgents having occupied the village of
Naratin to prevent the construction of this build-
ing, Dervich Bey passed the river and attacked
them.

During the combat the Agumen (chief of the
convent) of Piva hastened with 50 men to the
assistance of the insurgents.
The fight ended with the flight of the insurgents,
who left the priest and 11 men dead on the field.
The Ottoman loss was two dead and six wounded.

A sufficient Ottoman garrison having been left in
the newly-erected fortifications of Zubsi, 10 bat-
talions of the Turkish army, with some irregular
troops, marched towards the district of Banyati,
Five of these battalions were then detached to pro-
vision Niksich.

Upon their return from this place they were
attacked in the defile of Douga by a large number
of Montenegrins and insurgents. The assailants
were routed, leaving 100 of their number on the
field, with abo'it twice as many wounded.
The Ottoman troops had two officers and 29
privates killed; one officer and 28 men wounded.

in possessian of what be still holds. His Majesty
may be more flexible about the King of
Naples. Since M. de Lavalette's arrival in Paris
there have been indications that the King's resi-
dence in Rome, with which the brigandage in
Southern Italy is so intimately connected, will at
no distant day come to a close. The outcry on all
sides is too great to be much longer resisted ; and.
even should General Goyon retain his command, the
Papal Government will be under the necessity of
getting rid of its obnoxious guest. If King Francis
quit Rome under compulsion he will probably take
refuge at Trieste. No doubt, at Trieste the expe-
ditions to Naples would go on as before. Remon-
strances would then be made at Vienna, and Vienna
would perhaps plead the same ignorance that Turin
pleaded when the expedition to Sicily was planned
and prepared at Genoa. In such case there would
be some danger of a rupture between Austria and
Victor Emmanuel. To obviate this difficulty Bar-
celona is suggested as a suitable residence for the
Royal exile.
BOURSE, April 17.—The market continues firm,
with a fair amount of business doing. Threes, for
for the Account, are now at 70f 45c. The operations
in the Railway Share Market have not been gene-
rally animated, the movement being confined to
some few of the leading lines. The market became
rather heavy towards the close, and closed as foi-
-1 lows :

It per per Cents ... 98 25 Bank Shares 3105
Do. end month.... 98 40 Credit Fonder 1505
3 per Cents
Do. end month.... 70 35 Piedmontese Fives 6B 95
New 3 per Cents .. 69 50 Italian Loan 6B 50
Do. end month.... Austrian
Credit Mobilier..,. 823 75 Spanish Threes 52 25
Do. end month.... 827 50 Home Debt

RAILWAYS.
Account.
Orleans l2CBaOBll . . 1277 50
Northern
New ditto

Lyons and Mediterranean 1135 1132 50
Geneva —
Southern 796 25 .. 791 25
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard

NAVAL WARFARE,

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—Looking over the pages o“ a very remark-
able work on Naval Timber, written more than 30
years ago by Mr. Patrick Matthew, I came upon
the following passage, which, read by the light of
modern science, appears so prophetic that I am
sure it will interest many of your readers. I have
no acquaintance with the writer, but the volume to
which I have referred shows him to be a man of no
ordinary genius and capacity, and I strongly recom-
mend it to the perusal of every one who, either as
a planter or a builder, takes an interest in the
growth of timber.—l am, Sir, your obedient ser-
vant, J. W.

" Larch, from its great toughness, particularly
the root, and from its lightness seems better adapted
for the construction of shot-proof vessels than
any other timber ; and, opposed endway to shot in
a layer, arch fashion, several feet deep round a
vessel, would sustain more battering than any other
subject we ara acquainted with, metal excepted.
Were the part above water of a strong steam ves-
sel, having the paddles under cover, a section of a
spheroid, or half-egg, cut longitudinally, and covered
ail round with the rootcuts of larch five or six feet
deep, with the hewn-down bulb external—well
supported inside, having nothing exposed outside
of this arch, and only a few small holes for venti-
lators and eyes—there is no shot in present naval
use that would have much impression upon it. Had
such a vessel a great impelling power, and a very
strong iron cutwater, or short beak, wedge-shaped
(in manner of the old Grecian galleys), projecting
before the vessel under water, well supported
within by beams radiating back in all directions,
she might be wrought to split and sink a 'set
of men-of-war, lying becalmed, in a few hours.
This could be done by running successively against
each, midships, and on percussion immediately
backing the engine, at the same time spouting forth
missiles, hot water, or sulphuric acid from the bow
to obstruct boarding. . . . To prevent combus-
tion by red-hot shot, the larch blocks, after drying,
might have their pores filled by pressure with alkali,
However, the employment of bomb cannon about
to be introduced in naval warfare, throwing ex-
plosive shot, regulated with just sufficient force to
penetrate, without passing through the side of the
opposed vessel, will render any other than metallic
defensive cover ineffectual; but this circumstance
will, at the same time, completely revolutionise sea
affairs, laying on the shelf our huge men-of-war,
whose place will be occupied with numerous bomb-
cannon boats, whose small size will render them
difficult to be hit, and from which one single explo-
sive shot, taking effect low down in the large ex-
posed side of a three-decker, will tear open a breach
sufficient to sink her almost instantly."