The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-14 00:00:00

THE 'fSUN, r, LONDO

ready eye for the recognition of things as they are
—not alone apparently, but intrinsically—for which
Mr. COBDEN has been remarkable for years and
years past among his contemporaries, endowed as
he is so bountifully with that very high order of
genius, the Genius of Common Sense—he recognised
upon the instant the reasonable probability of ad-
vantages at once being likely to accrue from these
changes of Mayors throughout the land ! In other
words, from this opportune influence of the spirit of
emulation in the efforts now making in favour of the
manufacturing operatives. For the justification of
this sanguine hope—first articulated by Mr. Con-
DEN at Rochdale—we now look trustingly to Lord
Mayor ROSE and to the provincial Mayors, his con-
I temporaries.

Very earnestly do we trust that the terrible story
just brought to this country across the Atlantic
from Palmyra, in Missouri, may prove on inquiry
to be monstrously exaggerated, if not entirely a
hideous fabrication. Supposing the account as it
comes to us, and we give it in detail elsewhere in
our impression of this evening, supposing unhappily
it should eventually turn out to be true—General
BUTLER may indeed be regarded as having been alto-
gether eclipsed. This his reported rival in cruelty
and brutality being one General MVEIL—a per-

sonage ;who, if not maligned by these appalling
imputations, is likely to take rank in history, not
like BUTLER and HAYNAU, but with some such
ruthless perpetrator of refined cruelty as—the
NANA SAHIB. According to the particularly
circumstantial and detailed narrative related in
regard to these reported acts of General M'NEIL,
at Palmyra, in Missouri—ten absolutely innocent
men been inhumanely put to death in cold
blood for an offence attributed to another ! An
offence over which not one of these ten is shown to
have had any control whatsoever —the non-ap-
pearance, namely—within a given time of a
man named ANDREW ALLSMAN—those ten abso-

lately innocent men being for this reason sho
to death under circumstances of singular inhu
manity. ANDREW ALLSMAN had disappeared
during the Confederate occupation. What had
become of him nobody at Palmyra knew on
the return of the Federals. He may have
been: long since dead. He may have been taken
prisoner. He may have fled voluntarily. General
M'NEIL knows not in the least what may have
become of him—but irritated by ALLBMAN'S
disappearance, he the General issues his arbi-
trary decree, that unless he return by a
certain date, ten other men shall die the death.
It seems incredible. It reads like the mandate of
a madman, or of a demoniac. It is stated, how-
ever, quite formally. The names of the victims
of the atrocity are enumerated. The crime itself
is elaborately described. For, ALLSMAN not re-
turning by the appointed day and time—the ten
expiators of his absence were, we read, led out
with a horrible ceremoniousness, and shot accord-
ingly. Conducted, with ten coffins, in a waggon,
to a chosen spot in which the deed was to be
done—the ten men were arranged in due order,
each seated upon his allotted coffin, and
there killed in the manner following :
" Thirty soldiers of the 2d M.S.M. were drawn ur
in single line, extending north and south, facing
the row of coffins. This line of executioners ran
immediately at the east base of the pagoda, leaving
a space between them and the coffins of 12 or 13
paces. Reserves were drawn up in line upon
either flank of these executioners. The arrange-
ments completed, the doomed men knelt upon the
grass between their coffins and the soldiers,
while the Rev. R. M. RHOADES offered up a
prayer." Afterwards seated upon their coffins they
met death at the hands of the soldiery—nearly all
of them immediately. The details given in the
Palmyra Courier is needless to repeat here. We
still cling to the hope, however, that the account is
from first to last, if not absolutely untrue, at any
rate very cruelly exaggerated.

Our readers will see that again the success is
with the artillery in the battle between guns and
iron plates. Mr. -WHITWORTH is the conqueror.
His merits, long kept in the shade by departmental
officialism, have at last forced themselves into notice.
The Warrior is now to a certainty not invulnerable ;
she could resist the heaviest batteries of shot from
Armstrong guns, but Mr. WHITWORTH can send
through, not his shot merely, but his shells also, to
burst between decks. The only deduction to be
made at present from what is desired is, that
he cuts the iron plate, if a good one, with too
clean a hole, instead of shattering it beyond the
possibility of temporary repair, and that the re-
quisite strength of the shell leaves too little room
for the bursting charge of powder. As the main
object is so thoroughly accomplished there seems
little doubt that ere long all the rest will follow.
At present Mr. WHITWORTH could enable the
Warrior to sink La Gloire with impunity, but in
the present state of scientific and mechanical know-
ledge it is not likely that foreign countries will be
long without guns as good as England can produce.
In the first experiment, a 120-pounder, a shell
of 1511 b weight, and a charge of 271 b. of powder
were used. The shell, at the distance of 800 yards,
went through a five inch plate, eighteen inches
of teak, and an inner coating of iron t of an inch
thick; it seems to have been timed so as to burst in
passing through. A second similar shell again
passed through, bursting apparently in the teak.
A. solid steel shot of 1301 b went through the target,
and fell inside the box which was constructed to
resemble the " between decks" of a ship.

The 70-pounder was tried at 600 yards. It did
almost as much as the 120-pounder. It sent the
shell through the Warrior plate and wood, and
burst just inside the inner iron skin. Another
went quite through, and burst inside. Indeed, the
success of the numerous trials made was perfect,
so far as respecte piercing the strongest side with
which any vessel could float at sea. The demon-
stration is complete, that 70-pounders, guns a ship
at sea can well carry, will send even a shell with a
bursting charge of 3 lbs. 12 oz. of powder, through
anything afloat. Surely we ought to proceed very
slowly in our shipbuilding operations while the ex-
periments stand as they now do.

THE LATE LORD MAYOR. It isf a noteworthy
wsidheorlaebillyowmedoresptohnatnanasqouusarlyteiruotfo athmeilisilLann
8 ofo
nri. moneyhous in the
circumstance that during the mayoralty Cubist cen-
time to time towards one public object or another° from
me
figures, as they appear in the official records, are subjoined.
During the first year, including the severe winter of 1860-
61, £2,681 was received, and afterwards expended in re-
lieving 3,609 persons and families. The public subscrip-
tion for the relief of the distress in India consequent upon
the famine began on the 28th of March, 1861, and closed
on the 25th of October in that year, resulting in a fund of
£114,000 odd, and in the relief of the suffering which fol-
lowed so closely on the heels of the mutiny. Again, the
public subscription which was commenced under Mr.
Cubitt's auspices on the 14th January last, and is still open,
t )wards the erection of a national memorial of the Prince
Consort, now exceeds £.53,000. Towards the relief of the
widows and orphans of the unfortunate men who perished
in the deplorable calamity at Hartley Colliery, £20,853 odd
was paid into the hands of the late Lord Mayor between the
25th January last and the 22d of March, barely two months.
For the surviving relatives of the men who lost their lives
by a similar catastrophe at Gethin, 1,245 was subscribed
between the 27th of February and the 21st of April. Lastly,
on
Lancashire
It, wehlieefn
FMunr. Cduabtitt's tenure of office expired, the
the Mansion-house amounted
~2.:?..5_,90,?fm round numbers ; makinF a grand total of
;Z. i iv) which £200,098 was subscribed in the present