The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-17 00:00:00

THE SUN,. LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING MAY 17, 1862.

Generals would wish to be nearer the centre of it was designed to benefit—namely, in this instance,
their operations ;at Yorktown they were at one the cab-owners and the cabmen. Soon enough
end of their work. they were ranged again at every stand, and plying
_ _

The expulsion of the Confederates from York-
town, where it is repeatedly stated in the de-
spatches that the works were found to be exceed-
ing strong, can, after all, only be regarded as a
great victory. It was followed, also, by the oc-
cupation of Williamsburg, higher up the penin-
sula between the rivers, after a fierce battle, in
which one division of the Federals suffered severely,

but as the result they took a thousand prisonera,
and, it is added, a thousand wounded prisoners.
Thus far, therefore, the Federal success seems to
hare been complete. M'CLELLAN, however, does
not count his work easy. He represents the Con-
federate army as larger than Lis own, and says
emphatically,' "We shall have other battles to
fight, before we reach Richmond." He also finds the
conveyance of supplies difficult, but "he would do
what he could with the force under his command."
These latter remarks are probably intended to put
his opponent, Mr. STANTON, the Secretary for War,
in the wrong with the public.
Whether the disheartening effect of the fall of
New Orleans and Baton Rouge, on the Mississippi,
had any influence in causing this retreat, it is im-
possible to say; but the movement, if expedited by
the Southern misfortunes, wasyet, in all probability,
chiefly decided by military facts in 'Virginia itself.
The Confederates have, unquestionably, lost, both
in prestige and substantially, at New Orleans and
Yorktown. In each of these fields they are now
pushed more closely than ever ; and a decisive de-
feat, in either, must be fatal to the military pro-
spects of the Confederacy. Even should they gain

a battle, or prolong the contest, by carefully keep-
ing to the defensive, still the North has shown such
strength as, it appears, the South have no means of
resisting, except for a short time.

Meantime there are signs of some impending
change. The Federal Government itself appears to
be really concocting measures to remove the com-
mercial blockade. The policy is, probably, to throw
on the Confederates, in the eyes of Europe, the
11
blame of withholding the cotton. The mails to
New Orleans are also to be reorganised ; and thus,
both natives and foreign countries, are to feel the
benefit of the places being brought again under
Federal Government. All pretext for foreign
intervention, unless against the South, is
thus to be taken away. Meantime the
French Ambassador, who lately went to
Richmond, is now off to Yorktown. Why he
goes, no one really knows in one case more than in
the other; still the activity of the vivacious French-
man, whose strong desire for an amicable settle-
ment is not concealed, can but lead to the supposi-
tion that he moves about, in an unofficial way, to
further the object he is known to aim at. It may be
regarded as certain that the Federals will not treat
now, except on the basis of a reunion. If, when so
long unsuccessful, they did not despair, it is to the
last degree improbable that, after the conquest of
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and the victories
of New Orleans and Yorktown, the Government
would be allowed to treat with the rebels for any
kind of independence. The South would have to
be content with the honour of a resistance,
which has been successful far beyond anything
expected at the outset. It has shown that it can-

not be trifled with, and that under every disadvan

tage. It may make honourable terms; but any

:erms now made must be substantially a capitula-
tion. It will require, in all probability, another

important victory or two to lead to such a result.

The only reason why an early settlement of this
bloody strife between brethren in race and language

can be at all feared by Englishmen is, that it ;mild

,eave the slavery question where it stands. The

North would never forward emancipation but as a
necessary measure of war. With the exception of

a small minority, the Northerns would gladly sus-
tain slavery in the plantations; and a settlement

now would be, therefore, the perpetuation of slavery
for generations to come in many of the Southern
States. If the South resist successfully till want
of money incline the North to emancipation, then,
and then only, shall we see it adopted.

business in every thoroughfare—and all, of course,
for what to them appeared the wretched
legal payment at the rate of sixpence a mile—an
arrangement they seemed hardly able to swallow,
out of their disgust for it. Different modes
were tried by the more quickwitted of the
craft at the outset of this unpalatable sixpenny
regime. Now it was articulated in the tone of the

Perhaps it may be the particularly keen edge
given to their appetite for extortion by their recent
"doings" (literally) with poor " Mussoo" on his
way to and from the Great International Exhibi-
tion. Perhaps it is the fine opportunities latterly
afforded to them in the same way by those adven-
turous " Unprotected Females" who have taken to
driving hither and thither, with an admirable au-
dacity, in your genuine patent safety Hansom. It
may just perhaps be that they have latterly had
such a glut of " fares" to choose from) now that our
London streets are so over-crowded with footsore
sightseers. Whatever the reason may or may not
be—it is quite obvious that the London cabowners
are becoming more than ever litigious, and the
London cabdrivers more than ever remarkable for
their matchless combination of cool effrontery and
flagrant extortion. The members of the former
class, that is the class of the cabowners,
possess one adventurous champion of their
rights so bent upon doing battle for their
vindication that he is actually going to carry
into the Court of Queen's Bench his disputed
claim for an odd sixpence ! The problem about to
be submitted by him to the consideration of the
Lord Chief Justice being, whether or not " a Baby"
may strictly speaking be regarded as "a Person !"
The said infant being brought or not, according
to the decision of the Court, within the mean-
ing of the Act of Parliament referred to.
It is a nice distinction enough in itself,
and one that all the mothers of England, who havo
a knowledge of its being now on the tapir, will
look for with eager curiosity. Aa.-to the cab-
drivers, considered at this moment altogether apart
from their employers, the cabowners, it will be borne
in mind, of course by all-who have ever been in the
habit
ofengaging them, that—at their best and
unde?r,iee erely ordinary circumstances—they are (as
a Perfectly unique set of specimens of the genus
shed by a variety of very interesting
peculiarities. These were some of them brought
out very vividly to view a few years back, when
the
ur at minimume infalrieen of the old eightpenny mile's
of " sixpence" was formally in-
augurated, d
worth of jangle and jolt. It will be in the recollec-
tion of most Londoners, that first of all, as the very
earliest consequence of that unwelcome twopenny
drop to the injured race of " Cabbies"—came a very
solemn and affecting display on their part of
Virtuous Indignation. Paterfamilias With the in- ,
eipient gout in his toes, Materfamilias going shop.
ping, Tom on his way to tit° ure.t Ivostern for
Oxford, Dick on his way to the Eastern Coun-
ties for Cambridge, Harry on his, to the Lon-
don and South Western, say for Aldershott—looked
to the right and the left, up street and down street
—sent post-haste across the square to the stand—
round the corner to the public-house—for a cab,
for any cab good, bad, or indifferent. All in vain.
The cabmen had turned sulky. They had struck.
The course pursued by them in this manner, was
followed, however, as a mere matter of course, for a
very brief interval indeed. Like all the Strikes
that ever yet have been heard of, the cab strike
turned out to have really injured only the very class ,

finest irony, with a disdainful glance at the six-
pence lying in the palm of the large brown hand
(and certainly looking very small there), Cabby
sarcastically recommending his fare very earnestly
not to waste his money like that by riding in a cab !
Now the sixpence, having first of all been looked
at with disgust, was pocketed with a sort of tearful
anguish—with a smothered " Well, it is enough to
break a man's heart, it is "—though, perhaps, all
the while you had just been driven round a couple
of turnings to the house of some near neighbour.
" As near as yourself," Cabby would interject, pro-
bably, if he heard the explanation. Once, after a
momentary altercation, the feeble jibe was hurled
after his sixpenny fare—the Cabman while uttering
the words, not making even the faintest show of an
intention to descend from his box in pursuit—the
loudly-shouted but excessively feeble retaliation of
" It's a bad one !" As the eels have, according to the
popular facetia, become accustomed, by long usage,
to skinning, so have the cabmen got accustomed also
to their misery of sixpence. Whenever they can,
however, by some other device—upon the principle
of diamond cut diamond—they strive, of course, to
get their compensation.

Occasionally, of course, in this doubtless (from
their own point of view) laudable effort, going just
a trifle too near the wind in their attempt to " do"
their passengers, and yet to steer clear the while of

that emporium of cheap justice—the very sound of
the name of which is " unpleasing in a cabby's ear"
—the office of the police magistrate ! As about the
last case in point in this way—a case in which not
one cabman only, but three several cabmen in
succession came to grief—there was the charge
brought home the other day before Mr. ARNOLD,
a charge really brought "home" to three cabmen
one after another by Dr.BucHANAN, of Widham Hill,
Ware. It was the cool and deliberate refusal in
each instance of a fare—there being a heavy rain
at the time—and a lady :in company with
the complainant. A refusal by three different
cabmen of a fare, under these circumstances, be-
cause the direction or the distance happened not
perhaps to be to the liking of these amiable pick-
ing and choosing Jehus ! After fining and repri-
manding the three delinquents in turn, the
worthy magistrate, we cannot but rejoice to ob-
serve, intimated very pointedly to Dr. BUCHANAN
—who is described by the reporter as a gentle-
man "far advanced in years"—that " the public
were greatly indebted to him for bringing these
cases forward." An acknowledgment all the more
deserved by the complainant, when it is borne in
mind that he had taken the trouble to travel thirty
miles for the express purpose to take out the
three summonses. If ever the cab fraternity have
wanted well looking to, it is certainly the case
that they do now, while the Exhibition is at its
height.

For the benefit of Mr. SOTUERON ESTCOURT,
and of the 288 political Churchmen who stayed to
the last and followed him into the lobby to vote
for his resolution, we transcribe the following from
a Liverpool paper :—" Above EIGHTY FOUR THOU-
SAND POUNDS has been subscribed to the fund for
building a memorial hall in the metropolis, and
erecting new ,Ltapola in me provinces, in ceitb..tion
of the Bicentenary of Nonconformity. Some pro-
moters of the movement are sanguine that even this
magnificent sum will be doubled during the current
year." Lest our readers should have forgotten it,

we add Mr. ESTCOURT'S resolution, which the poli-

tical Churchmen thonght bettor than the abolition
of Clanrch-rates, or than the proposal of Mr. BRIGHT,
to take away the power to enforce the rate ; this,
then, is his resolution :—" That it is unjust and in-
expedient to abolish the ancient customary right,
exercised from time immemorial by the ratepayers
of every parish in England, to raise by rate
amongst themselves the sums required for the
repair of their church, until some other provision
shall have been made by Parliament for the dis-
charge of those obligations, to which, by custom or
statute, the churchwardens, on the part of the
parish, are liable."
Now we have heard of a former House of Com-
mons so wise that it voted a pound-note and a
shilling to be worth a guinea, when not a
member who voted would have parted with

the guinea, if he had it, unless the holder
of the pound-note offered him the note, and

seven shillings additional, instead of one for his
guinea. Much the same is the wisdom of the 288 who
actually voted that the churchwardens were liable

Ito obligations, meaning pecuniary obligations, when,
by the confessed law of the land, they are not liable,
except in conjunction with a majority of the rate-
payers ! The late Home Secretary, in the absence
of the present one, showed them this beyond dis-
pute. We pass by this Hibernicism in the alleged
facts of the ESTCOURT resolution—and just ask the
hon. member, and his majority of one, what " otber"
provision they want Parliament to make. Why
cry to Parliament like the Waggoner to Hercules
when they see Dissenters everywhere putting them
to open shame. It was but the other day that the
Baptists, not the largest sect by several of Dissen-
ters, wanted £30,000 to build the largest plaee of
worship in London for a popular young preacher of
their body they put thcir obouldvc to llio -'hoot,
and the noble building, near the Elephant and
Castle, was opened without a penny of debt upon
it. In the paragraph we have quoted, the Inde-
pendents, we are told, intend to celebrate the ejec-
tion of their forefathers from the Church of England
through the Act of Uniformity, by erecting new
chapels, and a hall in commemoration of the event;
—forthwith we learn that £84,000 are raised al-
ready, with the prospect of the sum being doubled
before the Bicentenary year is expired !

Now we know not how the 288 feel when they
read such facts. We can only say for ourselves
that we blush for the political Churchmen who
urge all sorts of sophisms in favour of casting their
Church on parish relief, while the Dissenters are
above taking it, and not only support themselves
honestly by independent effort, but support them-
selves handsomely. Mr. ESTCOURT'S resolution
conres to this—that it is " unjust and inexpedient"
to deprive the Episcopal Church of parish relief
where she can get it. Where the parishioners will
let her continue tt poemp4l". maintained by the parish
rates, she may ! Like the parish stone-breakers,
she cannot subsist without compelling relief ! She
has not, like the Dissenters, the inherent vitality
cannot which lives and thrives by its own vigour. She
cannot beg; to giroshe
nfoi,s.
enforce
help unwilling.from thAe
llisup
with her if she
parish
—if she cannot, like other paupers, drag those
who refuse her parish relief before the magistrate.
and force them to give it.

_
Now, on behalf of our venerable old Church, we
beg to differ from such a notion of -her. Not a
great many years ago it might indeed hays gone

hard with her, if she could not have relied on the
parish. She was a pauper in spirit, as well as in
feet. Things are changed now. Her pauperism is
the remnant of a bygone age. She only wants to be
shut out of the workhouse, and she could main-
tain herself as well as the self-supporting churches ;
not only as well, but better. For, in the first place,
she has endowments worth, some say, altogether,
ten millions per annum; while the Free Churches
of the land, as Mr. BRIGHT termed them, have
hardly any. In the next place, indeed, the can-
sequence of the former, the Dissenters have to
raise not only the funds for purposes corresponding
to the parish rates voted for the Church, but also the
funds requisite to support their own clergy. Then,
again, it is indisputable that, as the rule, the wealth
of the country goes with the Parish Rate Church,
and that the middle class incomes, and weekly wages,
are what enable dissent to keep off the parish books,
and to live independently. Shut the workhouse-
door on the Church, deprive her of compulsory out-
door relief, and she has life enough, and health
enough, and wealth enough to maintain herself,
and all her children. To us this political pauper-
ising of the Church seems ineffably disgraceful. For
the honour of the Church the sooner the disgrace is
confessed, and the ignominious dependence cast off,
the better. The best of her sons feel this deeply,
and blush to be dragged through the mire by such
model Churchmen as the Duke of MARLBoRouGu
and Mr. DISRAELI. The Tories once followed him
and Protection, that is, State relief, for landlords,
just as they now follow him and rates, that is,
parish relief for the Church. They will, if he live the
ordinary life of men, be as ashamed of his leadership
in the latter cause as in the former. In each
ease he came in at the eleventh hour, to
use a failing cause for party objects. He will fail
in the second as ho did in the first. The Act of
Toleration and Parish Rates for the Church can no
more co-exist, when attention is called to their in-
consistency, than the great maxims of ADAM SMITH
and protection.

Mr. ESTCOURT is not very likely to heed our
advice, but we can have no doubt that he and his
party would deliver themselves from a great plague
if they would adopt it. It is, that they would
march off with the honours of war, by accepting
Mr. BRIGHT'S compromise, offered them, as they
confessed, in a kindly spirit, and so pile their arms,
which they have been wont to brandish when Dis-
senters objected to relieving such able-pursed
paupers at the parish cost. Retain, says Mr.
BRIGHT, all the machinery by which you have been
accustomed to levy your rates—Churchmen are
used to this machinery, and probably can work best
with it ; but, renounce the power to enforce the rate
against the unwilling. So you would relieve your-
selves from the stigma of parish pauperism ; you
would manage according to your old habits, while
those habits would be invigorated by the conscious.
nese of an appeal to generous independence.

We have certainly reason to thank Lord ELCHO
for one of the most delightful hoaxes ever auda-
ciously perpetrated upon a Lord High Chancellor.
Quite unintentionally on Lord ELCHO'S part—but
still a hoax. The explanation given last evening

n the Commons shows the whole affair to have
been, from first to last, the merest equivoque. The
noble and gallant Colonel of the London Scottish
Volunteer Corps on Tuesday has a few minutes
hurried talk with Mr. SPEAKER—Lord ELCHO
standing by the Speaker's chair while they are
chatting together—the right hon. gentleman's at-
tention distracted all the while by the presentation
of petition after petition by various members. A
rifle match was then talked of, in fact, by Lord
ELCHO as in preparation, the noble lord add-
ing that many members of the House of
Commons felt particularly interested in it,
his lordship at the same time showing a
roll of paper that he carried in his hand, and
asking the Speaker's name to it. " I answered,"
observes the Speaker afterwards in explanation,
"that I was very busy, that I could not spare a
moment to read the paper, nor did I see a single
word it contained." And later on he remarks, that
4' Wishing to dismiss the subject, I said in joke the
only part I could take would be to fire a shot with
the Lord Chancellor." Thereupon—himself " fired"
by this good-humoured intimation in an off-hand
way on the Speaker's part, that he was what
you call " Game "—Lord ELMO darts off at
a tangent. His lordship happens by good-luck
for the lovers of a joke, by ill-luck for the
gravity of those august personages the Speakers
of the Lords and Commons Lord ELCHO
happens to light upon the Lord Chancellor in the
nick of time just as he is quitting the House of
Peers, and thereupon gives him the challenge
—vicariously ! " I have heard with amaze-
ment," writes the Speaker afterwards to
Lord ELCHO .--" I have heard with amazement
that the Lord Chancellor announced last night
in the House of Lords that he had received a
a challenge to a rifle match from the Speaker of the
House of Commons—a challenge from the House of
Commons to the House of Lords." It should be
remembered, however, by all, that the announcement
was not at any rate volunteered. It will not be for-
gotten that it was- extorted from the Lord Chan-
cellor by the solemn inquiries addressed to him on
Thursday evening by the Earl GRANVILLE. It is
a ludicrous affair from beginning to end. And yet
one that appears to have originated in the most
natural manner possible. The result of it all being,
as the result is almost invariably with nearly every
official inquiry that was ever instituted, that—
nobody is to blame !

MISSING VESSELS.—The Modern Times sailed
from Now Vorlr nn tha 6th of February fnr Prietnl, nntl h..
not since been heard of. The Beatrice, of Boston; sailed
from Cardiff on the 10th July for Hongkong with coals, and
has not since been heard of.

INNS OF COURT RIFLE VOLUNTEERS.—The bat-
talion of this corps will parade in marching order in the
King's Bench-walk, Temple, at 3 15 p.m. to day (Saturday)
previous to proceeding to Epsom to take part in the field-
day there, under the command of Colonel, M,Murdo, C.B.
THE YELVERTON MARRIAGE CASE.—In the
Edinburgh Court of Session, on Wednesday, Mr. Fraser
opened the debate for the pursuer (Mrs. Yelverton) on the
completed proof; and after speaking for about three hours
the case was adjourned till Thursday morning. The Scot,-
man says :—" It is expected that, owing to the extent of
the proof and documentary evidence printed in the record,
each counsel who is to speak will occupy several morning
sittings, and that the debate will, therefore, extend over
two or three weeks."

THE ROBERTSON COURT-MARTIAL. - DUBLIN,
Friday Evening.—This day Sir George Brown, Comman-
der of the Forces in Ireland, had before him the officers of
the 4th Dragoon Guards at the Royal Hospital, Kilmain-
ham, and announced to them the final decision of the Horse
Guards in reference to the late court-martial. Colonel
Bentinck retires on half-pay. Lieutenant Herren loses his
adjutancy. All the officers who signed the "round robin"
were severely rebuked.

LADY WYNDHAM'S JEWELS.—Yesterday the
action, Garrard v. Giubelei, was brought befora rho jnii goat
in the Excbeaurr Oli.mber. It was brought against the
defendant for goods supplied to Lady Sophia Wyndham
before her marriage with the defendant, An objection was
taken that this being the debt of the wife before her mar-
riage, the wife ought to have been joined as a co-defendant.
The learned judge before whom the case was tried was
applied to to amend by adding the name of the wife, and
the amendment was made, but leave was reserved to move
to set aside the verdict for the plaintiff if the Court was of
opinion that the learned judge had no power to make the
amendment. Tho Court of Common Pleas having heard
the argument upon motion, came to the decision that the
judge had not the power to make the amendment. Their
lordships affirmed the decision of the other courts.

The new guest of theimperorNapoleon, Said
Puha, Viceroy of Egypt, has arrived at Toulon,