The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-30 00:00:00

The Proposed Purchase of Railways by

conference with that body, and interest it, so far as
his dignity would permit, in a prompt and pacific
arrangement. This presumption was deceived ; none
of the members of the diplomatic body thought pro-
per to visit Admiral Pareja, neither upon his arrival
nor during the four days which elapsed between the
17th and the 21st, the respective dates of his note
and of the reply. If that had taken place—if, at
least, the diplomatic body had offered in writing to
employ its good offices at a useful time and oppor-
tunity, i.e., before the refusal of Chili on the 21st—
I can confidently assure you that Admiral Pareja
would have facilitated an arrangement by every
means in his power, for such was his wish and that
of the Spanish Government. Two favourable op-
portunities were therefore lost; the first before he
forwarded his note on the 17th upon arriving at
Valparaiso ; the second before the peremptory re-
fusal of Senor Minister Covarrubias had been re-
ceived. All that was done afterwards was, perforce,
tardy, and inopportune, even looking away from the
form and matter of the communications. The de-
duction may be clearly drawn that if, inspired
be so laudable a desire, the foreign diplomatic
body had profited by these two propitious occasions,
it is very probable that the disadvantages com-
merce is now suffering might have been avoided,
and which we are sincerely the first to deplore.
" All these explanations—those contained in the
circular of this date, and the text of the annexed
documents (already published), contained in to-
day's Gazette, will supply your Excellency with suf-
ficient data to rectify the facts, and bring back to
its veritable bearings that public opinion which has
been led astray either by political causes, or by the
material interests which find themselves injured.
No one can deplore more sincerely than the Go-
vernment of the Queen the disadvantages which
may be suffered by the subjects of friendly and allied
nations which maintain close commercial
relations with Chili. A striking testimony to
the solicitude it feels upon their adbount is;
afforded by the text of the instructions given to
Admiral Pareja, in case hostilities should occur.
But, at the same time, no one can be blind to the
fact that right is on our side, and that now, when
unfortunately eventualities such as those in which
we are at present engaged towards the said Repub-
lic have come to pass, no Government can take into
account, otherwise than by lamenting and averting
it so far as possible the damage which may be
caused to the commerce of foreign nations. We
have frequent examples of blockades which have
been prolonged for months, and even for years,
during which commerce has had to suffer incalcul-
able injury ; and, in the present case, no Govern-
ment can be surprised at the measure adopted
by the Government of the Queen, which
has preferred this preliminary act of
blockade to more serious hostile acts, en-

tailing the destruction of property and the effusion
of blood ; which constitutes an additional proof of
the moderation, desire for peace, and conciliation
which have always animated, and still animate, the
Cabinet of Madrid.

" These considerations cause us to hope that the
Governments whose subjects may more directly
suffer in their interests owing to the paralysation of
commerce, penetrated with the justice and right
which are upon our side, will exert their influence
with Chili no longer to refuse us the moderate satis-

faction we ask from her for the numerous and re-
peated insults she has offered to a nation which has
always admired her and treated her as a friend and
an ally ; and we entertain that hope with the greater
reason because the satisfaction we ask contains
nothing undignified or humiliating. _ _ _

" I authorise your Excellency to read this de

spatch to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to
Senor Rosales, the Chilian Minister, in answer to
the animated observations he addressed to you at
the conference mentioned in your Excellency's de-
spatch of the 19th, to which I have had the honour
to reply.
" God preserve your Excellency many years.
(Signed) "M. BERMUDEZ DE CASTRO."

Dr. Pusey on his Hopes of Reunion.

--6

Dr. Pusey has addressed the following letter to
the editor of the IVeekly Register :

" Christ Church, Oxford, Nov. 22.

" Sir,—l thank you with all nay heari, for your
kind-hearted and appreciative review of my Eireni-
con.' I am thankfal that you have brought out
the main drift and objects of it, what, in my
mind underlies the whole, to show that, hi my
conviction, there is no insurmountable obstacle
to union of (you will forgive the terms, though
you must reject them) the Roman, Greek, and
Anglican communions. I have long been convinced
that there is nothing in the Council of Trent which
could not be explained satisfactorily to us, if it
were explained authoritatively, i. e., by the
Roman Church itself, not by individual theolo-
gians only. This involves the conviction on
my side that there was nothing in our Articles which
cannot be explained rightly, as not contradicting
any things held to be de fide in the Roman Church.
The great body of the faith is held alike by both •,
on those subjects referred to in our Art. XXII., I
believe (to use the language of a very eminent
Italian nobleman), ' your [our] maximum and our
[your] minimum might be found to harmonise.'
" In regard to details of explanation, it was not
my office, as being a priest only, invested with no
authority, to draw them out. But I wished to in-
dicate their possibility. You are relatively under
the same circumstances. But I believe that the
hope which you have held out, that the authorities
in the Roman communion might hold that a re-
union on the principles of Bossuet would be better
than a perpetuated schism,' will unlock many a
pent-up longing, pent-up on the ground of the ap-
parent hopelessness that Rome would accord to the
English Church any terms which it could accept.
" May I add that nothing was further from my
wish than to write anything which should be painful
to those in your communion? A defence, indeed,
of necessity involves some blame; since, in a quarrel,
the blame must be wholly on the one side or on the
other, or divided ; and a defence implies that it is
not wholly on the side defended. But having
smoothed down, as I believe, honestly, every diffi-
culty I could to my own people, I thought it would
not be right towards them not to state where I con-
ceive the real difficulty to lie. Nor could your
authorities meet our difficulties, unless they knew
them. You will think it superfluous that I desired
that none of this system, which is now matter of
pious opinion,' should, ike the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception, be made de fide. But, in
the view of a hoped-for reunion, everything which
you do affects us. Let me say, too, that I did not
write as a reformer, but on the defensive. It is not
for us to prescribe the Italians or Spaniards what
they shall hold, or how they shall express their pious
opinions. All which we wish is to have it made cer-
tain by authority that we should not, in case of re-
union, be obliged to hold them ourselves. Least of
all did I think of imputing to any of the writers
whom I quoted that they took from Our Lord
any of the love which they gave to His Mother.'
I was intent only on describing the system which
I believe is the great obstacle to reunion. I had not
the least thought of criticising holy men who held it.
"As it is of moment that I should not be mis-
understood by my own people, let me add that I
have not intended, to express any opinion about a
visible head of the Church. We readily recognise
the primacy of the Bishop of Rome ; the bearings of
that primacy upon other local Churches we believe
to be matter of ecclesiastical, not of Divine law ;
but neither is there anything in the supremacy in
itself to which we should object. Our only fear is
that it should,through the appointment of one bishop,
involve the reception of that practical quasi-autho-
ritative system which is, I believe, alike the cause
and (forgive me) the justification in our eyes of our
remaining apart.
"But although I intended to be on the defensive,
I thank you most warmly for that tenderness which
enabled you to see my aim and objects throughout
a long and necessarily miscellaneous work. And I
believe that the way in which you have treated this
our bone fide ' endeavour to find a basis for reunion
on the principle debated between Archbishop Wake
and the Gallican divines two centuries ago' will,
by rekindling hope, give a strong impulse towards
that reunion. Despair is still. If hope is revived
in the English mind that Christendom may again
be united, rekindled hope will ascend in the more
fervent prayer to Him who maketh men to be of
one mind and one house,' and our prayers will not
return unheard for want of love.—Your obedient
servant, " E. B. PUSEY."

UNHOUSED IN GLASGOW.—We learn that 24,480
persons will be turned out of their homes should the Glas-
gow Improvements bill be passed. This number does not
include a goodly population who will be removed by
the proposed alterations of the twelve streets to be
widened. No provision is to be made for the unhoused.—
Building News.

Government.

.-.4p.,...__.___---.

This subject was introduced last night at the
Society of Arts, Adelphi .(Lord Lyttelton in the
chair) by Mr. W. Hawes, F.G.S., and chairman

of the council.

The attendance of members and

visitors was numerous. The paper (a very
lengthy one, which if printed in extenso would fill
seven of our columns) controverted " the proposi-
tion that Government should purchase and take the

management of the railways," and, taking the recent
publications of Mr. Galt and Mr. Chadwick as
" embodying all that can be said in its favour," was
in fact a reply to those gentlemen. Mr. Hawes
admitted that the present system " placed a limited
monopoly for carrying passengers and merchandise
in the hands of the railway companies, but that did
not justify, on any ground of principle or expediency,
the conversion of that into a huge monopoly managed
by Government." The only instance that could be
quoted to prove that under Government direction
success had been achieved in the conduct of a large
commercial establishment was the Post-office, but
even in that case the administration of that depart-
ment was extremely faulty. It was a political de-
partment presided over by a Cabinet Minister, and
it was notorious that the appointments in it were
regularly sought for and 'given to the supporters of
the political party in power—a mode of appointment
certainly not to be desired for railway officials.
Then, again, whatever amount of success it might
be said to have achieved, could that have been done
but for the active co-operation of the railway direc-
tors in the rapid conveyance and early delivery of
the mails ? and indeed there was often less irregu-
larity in the time of transmission from London to
Holyhead than in the conveyance of the bags from
St. Martin's-le-Grand to Euston-square ; and to
argue that Government would have sufficient enter-
prise
to make railways better than public companies,
to make them, in many eases, before they appear to
the general public, to be absolutely required, as was
now done by those acquainted with each district, to
anticipate a coming trade--or that without competi-
tion it would introduce improvements, or would
manage them cheaper or better than at present, was
to ignore all experience. In fact, to place our rail-
ways in the hands of Government would be to stop
improvement for years to come, and to extinguish
one great source of public enterprise—and it was
hardly possible to see how improvements in such a
vast machine could be made, if instead of a limited
and divided monopoly, with sufficient competition

for healthy action, it became one huge monopoly in
the hands of the Government.

Mr. GALT acknowledged the courtesy by which

ante,

he had been invited to be present to hear and to re
ply to the statements and arguments in answer,. to
the proposition he had made with regard to railways,
but complained that the whole paper was directed
against the idea of Government management—a
matter of detail, though no doubt a most important
one, upon which he had not insisted. It might be
supposed that there was in existence a Government
scheme to take the management of the railways, but
so far from that the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in reply to a suggestion made by Mr. Monsen last
session that it might be desirable for a short time for
the Government to take charge of the Irish railways,
said "No, not for an hour, or under any circum-
stances." What he (Mr. Galt) proposed was simply
this, that the railways having become the highways
of the nation they ought not to be managed with a
view only to put profits into the pockets of private
individuals, but they ought to become the property
of the State and managed with a view to the benefit
of the public. If that were done he should expect to
find one low uniform rate of charge per mile all
over the kingdom, and that reduction might go to
the extent of one-third of the present charges. The
last time he was in that room-21 years ago—he
read a paper advocating similar views, but the idea
had latterly gained much ground. The municipal
bodies were taking up the principle, and at Manches-
ter, for instance, the corporation had taken the sup-
ply of gas into its own hands. In London there were
13 gas companies, but he did not think the public
were so very well satisfied with the result of this
private competition. (Cheers.) It was high time the
railway tariff should be rescued from the individual
caprice or interests of private bodies, and arranged
only with a view to the public benefit.
Mr. F. HILL, of the General Post-office, denied
that appointments in that 'department were made
from political considerations. Not a single appoint-
ment of any importance was made out of the service
itself, and the Postmaster himself could not intro-
duce a stranger unless he was prepared to report to
tho Treasury that there was not a single person in
the department fit for the vacant office. In the
country even the appointment of clerks and letter-
carriers was left with the local postmasters them-
selves. He admitted the courtesy and attention of
the railway directors, but demurred entirely to the
accuracy of the statement that the success of the
Post-office was caused by the railways being the
property of private companies.
Mr. HAWKS-HAW, E.C., did not not believe that
any Government would ever do so unwise an act as
to buy the railways on any such grounds as those
set forth by Mr. Galt. It was often said by those
who held that gentleman's views, that the cost of
making railways in future would be less than for-
merly ; but that was a mistake. Every element
which entered into the expense of making a railway
—brick, stone, labour, and everything else—was
higher than it was 20 years ago ; and how could
railways be cheaper? The fact was that every year
added to the capital of an old railway—increased
traffic demanded further accommodation in stations
and sidings and more rolling stock, all of which pro-
perly went to the capital account, and it was utterly
futile to compare such a railway with one newly
started. If the present management was bad—and
he did not think it was—they could not help it, and
Government could not make it better. The proper
function of Government was to examine frequently
into the management of the companies, and see that
all proper care was taken for the safety, welfare, and
convenience of the public. (Cheers.)
Mr. STUART BARKER asked if the dockyards and
other Government establishments would bear favour-
able comparison with the railways.
Mr. CHADWICK, as one of the persons attacked
by the paper of Mr. Hawes, moved the adjourn-
ment of the debate, in order that he might have an
opportunity of replying, which was agreed to ; and
the meeting separated.

FRENCH WINES.—The movement in favour of
the diminution of the customs duties upon French
wines into England is becoming every day more decided.
We have already shown the present tariff upon the light
wines of France, especially when imported in bottle, is
almost equivalent to a prohibition. It would be desirable
that any modifications introduced into the tariff should be
sufficiently great to be permanent. The French wines
can only bear a very small duty on account of the expense
of transit. This Mr. W. Ray Smee has ably proved in his
pamphlet already copied into our columns.— L'lnter-
national.

MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF ATLANTIC MUD.
—A portion of the ooze or mud brought up from
the bottom by the ropes and grapnels employed in the at-
tempts to raise the Atlantic telegraph cable after it had
parted has been carefully examined with the microscope
by Mr. Sidebotham, of Manchester. He describes the mud
as looking like " dirty clay," and remarks that " under
the microscope it reminds one much of chalk from Dover ;
indeed it has all the appearance of being a bed of chalk in
process of formation. It is compbsed entirely of organisms,
chiefly in fragments." Mr. Sidebotham, aided by the mem-
bers of the Microscopical Section of the Manchester
Literary and Philosophical Society, proposes to compile a
complete list of the species to which these organisms be.
long.—Mechanics' Magazine.
STRANGE SCENE IN A C HURCIIYARD.—The other
evening, between six and seven, a funeral party
might have been seen gathered around a grave, in a church-
yard not a hundred miles from Trowbridge, and a clergy-
man was performing the burial service by the light of a
candle, which the sexton held in his hat. Now and then
the nocturnal luminary went out, and the service was
stopped while the official went and lit it again. Was this
a self-murderer that was being committed to the earth in
this manner ? No, the fact was the parson promised to
meet the relatives of the deceased at the church at half-past
three in the afternoon, and after waiting there till nearly
six without seeing the slothful shepherd, they were obliged
to send to an adjoining parish for another clergyman.
The sexton said the parson was gone for a drive, and if he
should not be back in time he would send somebody else.
But he forgot all about it.—Bristol Post.

R_
COUrt eb
!ifiL 4- - Randal:

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, NOP. 29.

Their Royal Highnesses the Crown Prince and
Princess of Prussia and her Royal Highness the
Princess Helena honoured the performance of the
Sacred Harmonic Society, Exeter-hall, with their
presence last night, and afterwards returned to
Windsor Castle.

Baroness Dobeneck, Count Eulenburg, Colonel
and the lion. Mrs. Ponsonby, were in attend-

The Queen, accompanied by the Crown Prince
and Princess of Prussia, drove out this morning in
a carriage and four, attended by Lord Charles

Fitzroy.
Her Royal Highness the Princess Helena, at-
tended by the Hon. Mrs. Bruce, also drove out.
The Queen held a Council to-day, at one o'clock,
at which were present Earl Granville, Earl Russell,
Earl De Grey and Ripon, and the Right Hon. Sir
George Grey.
Mr. Goschen was introduced and sworn in a
member of the Privy Council.
Earl Russell and Earl Granville had audiences of
the Queen.
Mr. Helps was Clerk of the Council.
Lord Methuen and the Hon. Mortimer Sackville
West were the Lord and Groom in Waiting.

The Prince and Princess of Wales.
SANDRINGHAM, Wednesday.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with
the Marquis Bowmont, General Hood, the Hon.
T. De Grey, M.P., and Mr. W. Bagge, M.P., went
out shooting yesterday in Mr. Villebois's pre-
serves, near the Hall, called the Shrubberies.
Mr. Villebois was present throughout the day
with his Royal and distinguished guests. His
Royal Highness left Marham-house about 5 30,
attended by Major Teesdale and accompanied by
Mr. H. Villebois, to the Narborough station of
the Lynn and Swaff ham Railway. Here a special
train was in attendance, and his Royal Highness
having entered it was conveyed to Wolferton, where
his Royal Highness's private carriage was in waiting.
The special was under the care of Mr. Sproul, dis-
trict superintendent.
A large party arrived at Sandringham yesterday
on a visit to the Prince and Princess of Wales, in-
cluding Lord Newry, Lord Dunmore, Viscount
Royston, M.P., Capt. Park Lane, Hon. C. Car-
rington, &c.
His Royal Highness having accepted the invitation
of Lord and Lady Suffield to visit Gunton next week,
it has been decided that their Royal Highnesses
should go on Monday. His Royal Highness will
post from East Dereham. At this flourishing little
town a public meeting has been held, and subscrip-
tions are being raised for the purposes of decoration,
so that a public reception may be given to their
Royal Highness on the first occasion of their passing
through this part of Norfolk. It is understood that
his Royal Highness will shortly visit General Hall
for a few days' shooting, and that the Earl and
Countess of Leicester are to be honoured with
another royal visit immediately after Christmas.