The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1865.

that even repentance will not save them. From the road agents are notified that they will not forward or deliver
character of the men selected to supersede these messages, goods, wares, merchandise, or mail matter to any
officers it is evident that the President intends to person whomsoever within the department of Georgia who
cut loose from the Radical Republicans, and draw has not taken the oath prescribed in the President's pro-
clamation,,Anofa
around him the Conservatives. The new collector amnesty, of May 29, 1865.
violation of this order will be punished by a for-
is Preston King, an ex-United States Se nator, who f't y •
ei ure of all rights to transact business with this depart-
has always opposed the Radicals, and is known as a went by the offending party, and by fine and imprisonment.
Free-trader. In old times he was a Democrat. The "By command of Major-General StEsnmAN."
new naval officer is Moses F. Odell, a member of This is the only instance of military officiousness
the last House of Representatives, chosen by the that has been reported within the past few days. In
Democrats. Odell was a M'Clellanist in the last Richmond, on the 15th of August, an arsenal ex-
Presidential campaign. As Johnson sees the drift ploded, destroying $lOO,OOO worth of military stores
of the Southern States, he will gradually become and killing two men. Tobacco-smokers will no doubt
more decided in his expression of Conservative take a hint from another item reported from Rich-
mond. An enterprising Yankee has collected 6,500
opinions, and will not mince matters with the
Radicals. bushels of tobacco ashes from the burnt district, and
The Democratic Convention of Maine, the first has shipped them in a schooner to send to the North,
where they are regarded as valuable for fertilising
Convention that assembled, has given an expression
of Democratic opinion which indicates the ground purposes.
T
upon which the party stands. The resolutions were The negroes still cause trouble. It is positively
adopted with great unanimity, and have met with asserted in the North Carolina newspapers that there
is not a single citizen of that State who favours negro
approval from all parts of the country. They ex-
press profound gratitude to God that the war is over, suffrage. In Florida, however, under Federal aus-
pices, the opposite appears. In order to elect a Mayor
and advocate the banishment of its bloody and
for Fernandina whose views coincided with theirs,
barbarous spirit from the country. They assert
that it is the duty of the Federal Government to the military permitted all negroes to vote who cast a
re-establish at the earliest moment and with the ballot for the military candidate. Ten negroes voted
least possible interference the true constitutional where one white man did ; the Mayor was chosen,
and the first precedent for negro suffrage in the
relations between itself' and the Southern States,
and that each State should be the judge of its own South was put on record. Whether it will hold
electors ; and they endorse the President's recon-
good, however, is quite a different question.
struction policy. Upon this ground the Democracy Troubles between the negroes and planters are
r
will fight the Fall campaign against the Radicals,eported from various parts of the South. In Ala-
andbarna and Mississippi it is said the blacks are no doubt before long, will be in direct coalition
mur-
with the Conservative Republicans. In New Eng-
dered and their houses burnt, and that the woods
are filled with refugees who have fled there for
land, the Radical Republicans, who control all the
Conventions, are directly at issue with the Presi-
safety. Twenty-five Mississippi planters are under
dent, both on account of the leniency of his recon- arrest at Vicksburg for maltreating their negroes.
struction policy and his opinions adverse to negro In North Carolina great cruelties are sometimes
Practised upon them, and in Virginia some cruelties
suffrage. The Democrats, although they endorse
are reported, but the statements are generally of an
both of these, do not fully support him, however.
He will not secure their friendship until he changes opposite character—that the negroes, refusing to
his Cabinet and puts a stop to all military inter- work, are roaming about the country in armed
ference with elections. bands, stealing whatever they can lay their hands
on, and that the troops (also negroes) wink at these
In Ohio, the Republican candidate for Governor,
General Cox, by his repeated speeches against negro outrages.
suffrage, is giving his party a great deal of trouble. The great anxiety of the negro to imitate the
The Convention that nominated him supposed they white man has set the quack medicine vendors at
did a very neat piece of diplomacy by avoiding the work, and accordingly a compound has been in-
negro, but the General has spoilt it all. There is vented to turn black men white. Our newspapers
some talk of nominating a Radical candidate for are filled with the following advertisement:—.Governor, many preferring the division and defeat " All Negroes Notice. You Can Become White.—
of the party to the triumph of such heretical Levere's recent discovery will remove the pigmentary de-
opinions. The current set strong in this direction
posits from the skin, changing the darkest complexion to a
7 Light olive in the course of from three to ton weeks. This
but the party managers hope to check the defection compound is free from all poisonous and irritating quail-
until the election is over. After that, they say, the ties, and although its effects are rapid, yet it is perfectly
split is inevitable. Judge Dickson, who framed the harmless to the skin."
no-policy resolutions of the Convention, is " out" in As many of our whites in America, by their politi-
a letter condemning Cox's principles, but saying he cal views and general habits, show a strong desire to
will vote for the man! He says that Cox belongs become negroes, there is no doubt that it would be
to the Calhoun school, and continues—" Perhaps equally profitable to invent a specific for turning
if General Cox's views are sound it would have white men black.
been the part of wisdom, as well as humanity, for Ford's Theatre at Washington is being converted
us to have paused before we freed the slave, and into a fire-proof building, in which all the captured
I exposed him to these perils." Pausing would archives of the Southern Confederacy will be kept.
certainly have been very wise, but American Abo- They will, be under the charge of Dr. Francis Lie-
litionism never pauses. It is always on a rush. In ber, of New York.
Ohio, if the Radicals would only be quiet, they On the 17th of August, the shock of an earth-
would secure the election, but the New England quake was felt all along the Mississippi river. The
journals are urging them to desperate measures, shock was light, and did very little damage.
The Confederate privateer Shenandoah, when last
The Hartford Press, a Radical organ, expresses the
heard from, was reported to be steaming genuine New Englaud opinion thus : 0 towards
Cox shows himself to be a narrow-minded politician. Cape Behring, in the Kamtschatka Sea, and it was
There is no difference between his position and that of the feared great havoc would be caused among a fleet
most bitter democrat. He does not represent Ohio ; and of 40 American whalers that are cruising in that
if the Republican party do not repudiate him and nomi- d a i u e.
l t't
nate another candidate, they deserve the defeat we trust - -
they will meet. --
Outside of Yaukeedom negro-worshipping is uphill
[ work, and General Cox has no doubt laid an anchor
to windward. Democratic arms are open to wel-
come him.
In Kentucky it is at length settled that the De-
mocrats have carried the State by about 5,000 ma-
jority; that they have the majority of the Legisla-
ture, thus securing a United States' senator ; and
that five out of nine Congressmen are Democrats.
In Minnesota the Democratic Convention met on
the 16th of August. They resolved to sustain
President Johnson, and reaffirmed the principles
laid down by the Maine Convention, with the
addition of a resolution expressing their unalterable
opposition to a protective tariff. A partiality for
free trade characterises both parties in the Nest.
The Republican Convention of Pennsylvania met
yesterday, and its doings may be considered as de-
fining the position of that party in the Middle
States. The question of negro suffrage, as in Ohio,
was avoided, and the resolutions adopted endorse
Johnson's policy, compliment Edwin M. Stanton,
and recommend the confiscation of the property of
all Confederates with more than $lO,OOO to pay the
war debt and pensions. They also advocate a higher
protective tariff, endorse the Monroe doctrine, and
say that soldiers should be chosen to fill all the
offices.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

-.0.

Ter Majesty's screw steam frigate Bristol, 39,
3,027 tons, 600 horse power, in charge of Capt. L.
E. H. Somerset, which has undergone thorough re-
pairs, both in hull and machinery, in Sheerness
dockyard, and been fitted for the first division of
the steam reserve, has been taken into No. 3 dock
to be fitted with a new poop and flag accommoda-
tion. The necessary additions and alterations will
be completed in about a month, when she will be•
placed in commission, and carry the broad pennant
of Capt. G. T. P. llornby, as commodore of the first
class. The Bristol is to take the place of the Rattle-
snake, 21, screw steam corvette, Commodore Wil•
mot, C. 8., on the west coast of Africa.
The screw frigate Arethusa, 35, 500 horse power,
Capt. H. J. J. G. Macdonald, which so narrowly
escaped destruction by fire on the recent occasion of
her official trial of speed at the Maplin Sands, is
undergoing a complete overhaul and repair to both
hull and machinery, which will detain her in har-
bour for several weeks to come. During the time
she is under repair the opportunity is taken of effect-
ing some desirable alterations and improvements in
her machinery. The Arethusa was to have joined
the Octavia and the Constance, the other frigates
selected to make a series of experimental trials in
the Channel several months since, but in conse-
quence of a series of mishaps and breakdowns she
has been detained in the Medway during the whole
of the summer. Just as she was on the eve of start-
ing for Portland to join the other vessels composing
the squadron the fire broke out on board which at
one time threatened such serious consequences.
The old screw liner Cornwallis, 200 horse power,
converted several years ago from a sailing ship to a
screw steamer, since which time she has not moved
from her moorings in the Medway, has had the whole
of her machinery and boilers removed and one of her
decks cut down preparatory to being secured and
sunk alongside the jetty, near the entrance to the
steam basin at Sheerness, in order to facilitate the
operation of taking ships in and out of the basin.
The whole of her internal fitments have been re-
moved, and she is left a complete shell.
The paddlewheel steamer Barraconta, 6, 300-
horse power, fitting for the North American and
West India station, is being prepared for sea by the
shipwrights and riggers at Sheerness dockyard. She
is now having her standing wire rigging set up, and
the mechanics are busily employed in overhauling
her engines and machinery.
The War Department vessel Inkerman arrived at
Woolwich arsenal yesterday from Chester, laden
with 120 tons of returned stores. She met with a
succession of contrary winds and calm, and was 20
days out. She spoke the Morning Star, of London,
on Aug. 21st, nine days from Liverpool, bound to
the West Coast of Africa. She was encountered off
Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, and requested
to be reported all well, but with contrary winds.
A new steam pinnace, intended for her Majesty's
ironclad steam ram corvette Pallas, was yesterday
launched at Woolwich, and went down the river from
the dockyard on a trial of her machinery and speed.
The engines, which were supplied by Messrs. Mauds-
lay and Co., and were in charge of Mr. Warrener,
are of the nominal power of eight horses. In yes-
terday's trial they made 342 revolutions, with 601 b.
pressure steam. The mean speed of six runs was
6-795. The draught of water was 2ft forward aud 3ft
aft. The size of cylinder, sin. in diameter; length
of stroke, 6in. It appears that we have now resolved
to imitate our French neighbours in all that may be
likely to benefit the service, and are now fitting our
line-of-battle ships with these useful steam launches,
which are to carry a couple of guns each, fore and
aft, and which willprove most formidable in shallow
waters out of range of ships' guns.
Her Majesty's iron troopship Dromedary, Master
Commander Allard, was yesterday hauled out of
basin at Woolwich, and went down the river on a

The conflicting reports that have been published
about Cabinet differences on the reconstruction
question have led to an announcement officially
" that there is not now, nor is it believed there will
be, any substantial difference between the President
and his Cabinet with regard to the restoration of
the Southern States," and that the President will
pursue without change the programme of restoration
already begun. Coupled with this is also an official
statement about the trial of Jefferson Davis. Some
of the Cabinet are unwilling to try Jefferson Davis
for treason, and the President declares that if he is
tried it shall be before a civil Court. These differ-
ences of opinion have prevented the trial from being
ordered before this, and, as they are now as strong
as ever, no doubt the same uncertain state of affairs
will continue for some time. There are still rumours,
however, that the trial has already been ordered.
Three of the children of 'Jefferson Davis, and his
mother-in-law, passed through New York State
this week on their way to Montreal. The entire
family is very destitute, and $6,500 have been raised
in Washington to relieve the necessities of Mrs.
Davis, who is still in the South.
Very little that is new has been developed in the
last few days in the South. The Mississippi Re-
construction Convention has been in session for
several days, and is composed of 88 delegates, all
Southern rights men, and numbering among them
nearly all the leading men of the State. No law
has yet been passed by the Convention ; but an
ordinance ratifying all judicial decisions, judg-
ments, decrees, contracts, &c., made during the
war has passed a first reading. A law prohibiting
the Legislature from imposing any disability, or
punishment, cr forfeiture of estate upon any citizen
engaged in the war against the United States, or
for political opinions resulting therefrom, was
hailed with great favour, and immediately passed a
first reading. A petition was presented praying
that steps be taken on behalf of Jefferson Davis
and Governor Clark, and ordinances were intro-
duced abolishing slavery and providing for an elec-
tion of State officers on the first Monday in October.
The proceedings of the Convention indicate the
course that will be pursued by all the Southern
States. As the delegates show a very independent
spirit, and do not seem afraid to avow their friend-
ship for the late Confederacy, it is feared the mili-
tary will step in and summarily close their pro-
ceedings. The President, however, will be far too
wise to allow such interference, as it %Till do no
good and only provoke hostilityb to, him. In Alabama
the officers appointedy Governor Parsons are
qualifying themselves in
all
parts of the State, and
military rule is gradually disappearing.r
ulis
power
the same gratifying restoration ofthe
ctvil In Arkansas
observable. In Tennessee the military
tinues as strong as ever, but a sign of its
come
ing
fall is evident, in an order just promulgated, dis-
solving all the courts-martial now sitting in middle
Tennessee. From Louisiana it is reported that busi-
ness is very active, and the receipts of cotton at New
Orleans are largely in excess of the demand. The
Canby has just
country is very quiet, and General
issued an order that all soldiers who wish to re-
main in the South shall be mustered out at such
places as they may select. In Georgia the military
are still engaged in meddling with things that do
not belong to them, as the following very foolish
pronouncianzento shows :

trial trip. She is now about to load at Deptford
with provisions for the West Coast of Africa, where
she is to relieve the iron storeship Wye, Staff Com-
mander Valentine Roberts.

Yesterday a detachment of 90 non-commissioned
officers and men of the Ist battalion Coldstream
Guards, under the command of Capt. Burnell, left
the Infantry Barracks, Sheet-street, Windsor, and
marched to the station of the London and South-
Western Railway, whence they left by the 2 30 p.m.
train for Vauxhall, en route for New
Chelsea Bar-
racks, whither the rest of the battalion proceeds to-
day (Friday) at 9 o'clock. The 2d battalion Grena-
dier Guards, from Aldershott, march in to Windsor
to-day.

" Head-quarters Department of Georgia, office of the
Proyost-Marshal General, Augusta, Georgia, Aug. 3.
" Orders.—Telegraph operators, express agents, post-
masters, forwarding merchants, common carriers, and rail-

It was Capt. Henry Nangle, of the 15th Regi_
ment, and not Staff-Sorg. Naugle, who embarked
with other officers in the Himalaya on the 28th of

August.

Highway Robbery and Attempted Murder
near Dublin.

On Tuesday night, as a man named Joseph Cummins
and his son were bringing home to Garristown their
empty carts, after delivering two loads of hay in Dublin,
a man came up, seized the bridle of his first horse, and
called upon Cummins to deliver up his money. The de-
mand met a refusal, whereupon the man took a revolver
from his breast and fired at Cummins, the shot taking
effect in the left eye. Cummins then jumped off the cart,
and as he approached received another shot in the left
thigh, within an inch of the femoral artery. Cummins
closed with him and seized him by the collar, whilst his
son, a fine intelligent boy of about 15 years of age, laid
vigorously about bis head with the butt end of a whip, in-
flicting severe punishment, under the effects of which the
ruffian fell to the ground. During the struggle a third shot
was fired from the revolver, which grazed one of the
fingers of the assailant's left hand, and passed harmlessly
over the shoulder of young Cummins. The elder Cum-
mins, who is a powerful man, although suffering from the
wounds in the eye and thigh, succeeded in keeping the
man down whilst his son ran to the nearest police-station
for assistance. On arriving at Finglass Constabulary Bar-
racks he reported the occurrence—whereupon Constable
O'Neill, with Sub-Constables Vaughan, Kelly, and Willis,
at once proceeded to the spot, Constable O'Neill pressing
into his service a hackney car which he found driving
along the road. When the party reached the place indi-
cated they found Cummins still keeping the man beneath
him, but in such an exhausted state that only for their
timely arrival he would unquestionably have been obliged
to release his hold. The prisoner was very seriously in-
jured about the head and face. There was a large wound
on the top of the head and other wounds. A portion of
the head was also beaten to softness. The right ear, the
eyes, and the forehead, presented a shocking spectacle.
On being questioned he stated that he was a native of
Spiddal, in the county of Galway, but had been brought
to America, when an infant, and that he had resided
there ever since. He had lived in the Confederate
States, he said, and was understood to add that he had
served in the Confederate army.

Constable James Kane, of the Clondalkin constabulary,
had a report made to him by a cardriver, named Edward
Sherlock, badge No. 1,469, to the effect that between 8 and
9 o'clock on the night of Sunday last, a man, whom he did
not know, employed him at Sackville-street to drive him
to Dolphin's-barn. On arriving here, he desired him to
drive along the Crumlin-road. This he did for about a
mile, when the man ordered him to stop. He got off the
car, and retired to the side of the road. On returning, the
cannan saw him put his hand to his breast, and take out a
pistol. The pistol he put to Sherlock's face, and com-
manded him to deliver up his money. On Sherlock refus-
ing to do so he, still holding the postol to his face proceeded
to search his pockets, but could only find 6d. He then
forced Sherlock from the car, told him to stand back, and
drove off in the direction of Dublin. The car and horse
were found next morning at Donnybrook by the police, who
put them into livery. On hearing of the arrest of O'Flynn
at Finglass, constable Kane procured the attendance of
Sherlock, who fully identified him as the man who had
robbed him. The other case was that of Thomas M'Kenna,
badge 2,172, who was hired at Dominick-street, by a man
whom he to-day identified as O'Flynn, and desired to drive
to Blanchards-town. On the road he attempted to plunder
him, but, very fortunately, was not successful.
The unfortunate man Cummins, who is in extreme
poverty, and has a family to support, was visited this morn-
ing by Dr. Tuffnell, who was humanely sent for by Capt.
Lindsay, and by Dr. Fleming, whom Mr. Fennelly called
in. The report is not favourable. It is questionable
whether the balls can be extracted, and neither gentleman
will apparently pledge himself to the poor man's ultimate
recovery. Early in the afternoon he was removed to the
Richmond Hospital, whore he at present lies.
Captain George H. Lindsay, J.P., D.L., held an inquiry
into the circumstances of the outrage, on Wednesday, at
the Glasnevin Police Barracks.

The adjacent parish church is of about the year 1200,
with later additions. The chancel has been recently re-
stored with great care, so as not to destroy the original
features. The early lancet windows are retained on the
three sides, and the walls, though rechiselled, are not con-
cealed by modern plaster.
This morning the Congress concluded its round of ex-
cursions by visiting the remains of Norhameastle, a border
stronghold in Northumberland, which is said to have been
built by the warlike Bishop Flambard in 1121, and restored
by Bishop Pudsey after its partial destruction by the Scots.
The date of the erection of the great tower has been ques-
tioned, but Mr. Roberts assigned the remains to about 1150.
As the castle belonged to the See of Durham, no baron
lived there ; but it was the constant scene of border war-
fare, and was besieged on several occasions by the Scotch,
and was sometimes taken. Edward I. frequently visited it,
and John Balliol swore fealty there. The visitors were
conducted to the castle by the rector of Norham, the Rev.
Mr. King, under whose guidance they also inspected the
church, which contains some handsome Norman arches with
zigzag work, and has recently-been restored with good taste.
After luncheon at Mr. King's the Congress was declared at
an end, but a few of the members, headed by Mr. Roberts,
resolved to cross the border and try to "view Mel-
rose aright." A more successful meeting has never,
perhaps, been held, by the association. Thanks
to Colonel White, the chairman, to Mr. Fowler, one
of the secretaries, and other active members of
the local committee, the arrangements at Durham were
complete, a point of great importance at these meetings. It
would be unjust also to leave unnoticed the tact and good
humour of Mr. G.Wright, secretary of the JuniorAthena3um
Club, who had charge of the general arrangements of the
Congress, and was able to smooth over many difficulties.
The local hospitality was unbounded. Then almost every
village in the district is classic ground. It has its ruined
chapel or ruined keep, or is connected in border minstrelsy
with some wild legend. For all these reasons the choice
of Durhaniwas a happy one, and the Congress there will
long be pleasantly and profitably remembered.

if St. Cuthbert. Attention was called to the evident effects
of the pressure of the vaulting on the walls, a very usual
result in Norman buildings, whose walls, even with the
later adoption of the slight projections—the rudiment of
the buttress—were insufficient for the enormous thrust of
the barrel vaults which covered the more important build-
ings. These walls are eonsiderabby inclined outwards, and
clearly show the cause of the fall of the vaulting. Of the
conventual buildings little remains, but the few walls show
their extent. They were on the south side of tho church,
and appear to be unusual in extending southward instead
of eastward from the prior's lodgings.
The interior is now roofless ; and of one side of the nave
with the aisles only the base of the columns remains, and
the tower is gone. The spoiler's hand has, indeed, been
laid heavily upon the structure :

The prisoner, who seemed extremely weak, and was ac-
commodated with a seat, was committed for trial at the

"Has worn the pillars' carving quaint,
And mouldered in his niche the saint,
And rounded with consuming power,
The pointed angles of each tower."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TI lES.—No one has paid any attention to the
government of India without coming to the conclu-
sion that our Eatern Empire is too big and too far
off to be ruled with success by any single authority.
We at home have long since come to the conclusion
that we had better abstain from interference except
upon rare occasions, and that then we should con-
fine ourselves to the enunciation of principles, and
not venture upon the elaboration of details. It is
often difficult to determine where principles end and
details begin, but we have on the whole succeeded
in making the distinction, and we have undoubtedly
been stimulated to do so by the sense that no admi-
nistrative ability could rule India from England.
The men who are to hold the chief offices in the
East are chosen at home, and are sent out with some
general instructions for their guidance, but a wide
latitude is allowed to them in interpreting them. All
this is perfectly understood, but it is not sufficiently
acknowledged that India is as much too big for the
Governor-General in Council as it is for the Secre-
tary of State at home. Two papers recently issued
from the office of the Secretary of State for India
strikingly show the amount of chance that exists in
the Indian Government. They give the results of
so-called reproductive works undertaken in different
parts of the Empire, and it is impossible to look at
them without perceiving how much the success or
failure of these works has depended upon the good
or bad choice of the officer of Engineers who con-
structed the one or the other of them pretty much
on his own responsibility. One of these returns re-
lates to the reproductive works undertaken in the
Presidency of Madras. The figures contained in it
are not altogether trustworthy, for the accounts
upon which it is based are, as often happens in India,
improperly made up; but, after making every al-
lowance for errors, enough remains to strike us with
astonishment. It is evident that there are almost
unlimited opportunities for the construction of pro-
fitable works if they are properly planned. The re-
turn is made up in the following fashion :---In the
first column is a statement of the actual amount
standing to the debit of the capital account of each
work—that is to say, the total sum expended on its
construction, less such portions of it as have been
written off from time to time on account of the de-
terioration of the work by wear and tear. The
next columns contain the net profit or the net loss
for each year, after deducting from the income
actually received interest at the rate of 4 per cent.
on the capital standing to the debit of the work,
and also the estimated deterioration. The last
column gives the aggregate sum of profit and loss
realised from the work in question. Thus we have,
with reference to the Godavery Anicut and its sub-
sidiary Works in the year 1862-3, the following
figures :
Capital. Year's Profit. Aggregate Profit.
£337,750 ... £145,992 £949,839
the meaning being that the actual sum expended on
the Anicut up to 1862-3, after allowing for dete-
rioration in the work, was £337,750, the profit in
that year upon this capital was £145,992, and the
total sum returned to the Government by ,these
Irrigation Works was £949,839. The only objec-
tion to this statement at the first sight is that more
than 4 per cent. ought to be charged by way of
interest on capital expended. The Indian Govern-
ment pays its creditors more than 4 per cent., and
it ought to charge at least as much as it has to pay.
A, more serious objection, however, appears when
we examine the way each year's profit is calculated.
This is got at by deducting from the revenue re-
ceived
from all the land irrigated by the Anicut the
average revenue of the same land in the five years
previous to its construction, and the balance, less
the allowance for interest, &c., is all put down as
the profit of the Anicut. It is obvious this is much
too favourable a mode of calculation. The land
revenue or rent may have risen, and in fact has
risen, from circumstances quite independent of the
improved irrigation of the land ; prices have gone
up in Madras as in the other Presidencies, and rent
has risen with them, although more slowly. The
Indian Government, in attributing to its Irrigation
Works the increase of its land revenue, has acted
as a landowner would who, possessing a farm
near a rising town, should attribute every in-
crease of rental to his expenditure upon
drainage. The true plan would have been to
ascertain, from the comparative rentals of
lands which had not been benefited by Ir-
rigation Works, how much of the increase in the
land revenue where they existed was directly due to
them, and how much to the general progress of the
country, and until this is done a certain suspicion
hangs over the Returns. We may, however, be
satisfied that a considerable part of the increase is
due to Irrigation Works, and the increase is such
that ample allowances may be made for other causes.
Thus the Godavery Anicut, as we have seen, re-
turned in one year a profit of £145,992 on an out-
lay of £337,750, or 43.2 per cent. ; an Anicut in
South Arcot, which cost only £11,647, brought in
in 1862-3 a profit of £39,924, or 342 per cent. ;
in another case £8,215 produced £lO,lBO, or 124
per cent. ; and an Anicut in Tanjore, which cost
£23,986, returned £175,090 in 1858-9, or 730 per
cent., though it must be added, the profit on this
Work fell in later years to 265 per cent. These are
among the most profitable Wo.ks in the Madras
Presidency, but most of the Anicuts in it have been
more or less profitable, and those which have re-
sulted in losses have, with the single exception of the
undeveloped Works in the Coimbatore district, only
small balances against them. There is enough variety
to show the existence of chance in the Public Works
of India, but the Engineers of Madras have, on the
whole, been able and successful. Simultaneously,
however, with the Madras Return has been issued an
account of the Canals in the North-Western Pro-
vince, which tells a very different tale. Among them
is the notorious Ganges Canal, upon which alone
more than two millions of capital have been sunk,
with such results that in 1862-3 the expense of its
management and maintenanance exceeded the in-
come by £17,860. This unhappy canal, with a
discharge of a cubic foot per second, irrigates on an
average no more than 77 acres, while the East
Junina Canal irrigates 236 acres ; and the con-
sequence is that, instead of the loss on the Ganges
Canal, a capital of £143,449 sunk in the East Jumna
produced a net income in 1862-3 of £11,871, or
more than 8 per cent. The incomes of these and
the other Canals in the North West are made up of
actual payments by the cultivator of the soil of
so much per acre for the irrigation done, and in
this respect the administration of these Provinces
has an advantage over the Madras Presidency, but
otherwise the Canal accounts of the North-West
appear to be in the greatest confusion. The sums
levied by way of charge for irrigation vary consider-
ably, the work done is extremely irregular, and though
it is difficult to discovers hat is the cost of manage-
ment in each case, it is sufficiently evident that it is

next assizes.

British Archaeological Association.

NEWCASTLE, Wednesday.
The ruins of the Priory Church of Lindisfarne, or Holy
Island, possess from their historical associations an interest
which attaches to no other ecclesiastical remains in the north
of England. Here was the oldest monastic church in Nor-
thumberland, founded in the first half of the seventh cen-
tury, by St. Aidan, a monk of lona. Earlier in the century,
when Edward was King of Northumbria, and had agreed
that his wife Ethelburga should enjoy the free exercise of
her religion, Paulinus was sent there from Kent, and was
consecrated missionary bishop in 625. His arguments and
the influence of Ethelburga induced the King to abolish
the Pagan worship and undergo baptism at York, which
then became the seat of a bishopric. When Aidan was
invited to Northumbria Christianity had become almost
extinct there, but his piety and zeal made converts far and
wide, and Bede says that in seven days he baptised 15,000
persons. He built a rude church at Lindisfarne and estab-
lished a Benedictine monastery. His successor, Finan,
upheld the celebrity of the new church, and baptised there
Penda, King of Mercia, and Segbert, King of East Anglia,
who sought for and obtained missionary priests from
Lindi:sfarne to spread the Christian faith throughout
their dominions. But the prime glory of the island
was St. Cuthbert, who was first prior, then withdrew
to a hermitage on tiro neighbouring Fame Island, and at
the request of King Egfrid became in 685 Bishop of Lindis-
farne. The see was then endowed with the whole city of
Carlisle and other land, and as St. Cuthbert enjoyed the
repute of performing miracles, even raising the dead and
turning water into wine, the monastery became celebrated
all the country through. Worn out at last, the saint again
retired to Fame, where he died and was buried in the stone
coffin given him by the Abbot Tuber, wrapped in the sheet
presented to him by Virca, Abbess of Tynemouth ; and 12
years afterwards his body, which had been placed near the
high altar near Lindisfarne, was found unchanged, as
though he was still asleep. In proof of his popularity, it is
said that 40 churches in the north of England were dedi-
cated to him ; and Guthred and Alfred granted inviolable
sanctuary to any place wherein St. Cuthbert's bones might
rest, giving also to his successors the sovereign power of
the Crown in respect of the land held by them. It was thus
that, when the see of Lindisfarne became merged iu that of
Durham, the Bishops ruled there as Princes Palatine.
Egfrith, who was Bishop of Lindisfarne at the end of the
seventh century, wrote here the well-known " Durham
Book," now preserved in the British Museum—a
Latin translation of the Gospels, which is splendidly
"illuminated by Bilfrid, the hermit, and interlined with
Saxon by Aldred, the priest..' There is a record of at least
one Saxon King who became a monk here. In 793 the
Danes landed and pillaged the cathedral, and upon a second
visit they destroyed it, the monks flying from the island
with the bones of St. Cuthbert and of other saints. In 1093
a Priory Church was erected upon the ruins. Here, remote
from the turmoil and the cares which beset those monastic
communities which enjoyed greater power and more central
situation, the monks gave themselves over to works of piety
and benevolence, and in the reign of Henry 11. their com-
munity was known as " The School of Saints." An inte-
resting series of "Account Rolls" of Lindisfarne remains at
Durham, from which, says Mr. Gibson, "we may read the
story of the house from year to year, and see the monks at
their employments—at one time dispensing a yearly income
equal to £2,000 in our money, and at another, by the failure
of crops, reduced to the low ebb of .£32. They maintained
a great sea fishery, and sold to their brethren at Durham
porpoises and other fish, then esteemed as delicacies for
episcopal feasts. They protected and never presumed to
destroy those eider-ducks, of which Fame had ever been
the abode—a bird about which they cherished the harm-
less superstition that it had been miraculously preserved
since the days of St. Cuthbert." Even the Scotch ma-
rauders respected the sanctity of this retreat, and fore-
bore to molest the monks who dwelt there. But at the
dissolution of the monasteries the Priory Church, like the
cathedral which had preceded it, fell into decay, and the
ruins crumbled above those of the Saxon foundation.

It was to inspect these remains that the archaeologists
set out on Tuesday morning, and on arriving at Belford
station, on the North-Eastern line, were taken in carriages
across the sand "links" which skirt the Northumbrian
coast opposite Holy Island. At low tide there is a ford
which may be waded, but it is hardly necessary
to say that the party, which numbered several ladies,
preferred the ferryboats, for which they furnished re-
munerative employment. Arrived at the ruins, Mr.
Edward Roberts pointed out their most noticeable fea-
tures. He said that the plan of the church remained
much the same as when it was originally built, the main
change having been made at the east end,where the apsidal
"presbytery" has been converted into a rectangular choir.

The remains of the old work are mixed up with renovations

which are recognisable by the most inexperienced eye, but

enough exists intact to show that the arrangement was

cruciform, the nave only having aisles, and the eastern
end of both choir and aisles were with semicircular apse;

a plan purely basilican, and probably like no other in Eng-
land of which we have any remains. There appears to

have been a gallery for women rather than the ordinary
triforium on either side, and no clerestory. These galleries,

from some slight remnants at the ends, were pointed to as
_ _ _

probably being simply arcaded, in tha manner of the early
basilicas. The whole building was of nearly ono date,
and showed fewer marks than usual of the gradual con-

struction from east to west ; the date was about 1090 to
1100. The rich west doorway was probably an after-
thought, and comparison was made between it and tho

arcade of five arches over it, the centre opening being
wider than the others, and having (though undoubtedly
Norman like the rest) an almost Saxon appearance. The
choir extended as far as the west pillars of the intersec-
tion, and was very small. This portion had undergone the
greatest alterations, the east window and two side windows
having been inserted more than a century later, as were
also au aumbry and piscina. There were no stone sedilla.
The indications of the varying levels of the groining of the
vault show that the high altar stood just to the west of the
higher level,
and beyond, eastward, would be the Lady
Chapel. The side apses would have shrines, one being that