The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 6, 1865.

The Cattle Plague.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

There was a numerously attended meeting of the
magistrates of the Petty Sessional Division of the
Hundred of Aylesbury, held on Saturday last, at the
Magistrates' Chamber, in that town, to consider the
last issue order of the Privy Council, as affecting
this important agricultural district. Some of the
justices, including the chairman, considered that the
provision which required advertisements of prohibi-
tory intention on their part to be inserted in the
newspapers of the counties adjacent to as well as of
those in which the veto of the import of cattle was
to be enforced would be difficult in its working,
chiefly on account of the improbability of unanimity
among the whole of the justices of the various juris-
dictions to be affected by the prohibition. It was
thought by others that the new order would work
hardly on such districts as did not produce much
animal food. Ultimately the Bench made the fol-
lowing orders :—" 1. That all animals exhibited in
the metropolitan market or sold -within the metro-
politan police district be excluded from this jurisdic-
tion. 2. That no animals shall be brought from any
other part of Great Britain into this jurisdiction
except with a certificate of an inspector of the juris-
diction from which such animals have been brought
or in which they may have passed, such inspector to
certify also that such animals are free from the dis-
ease and have not been in contact with any animal
suffering therefrom, and that such animals so sold
have been in possession of, and located on a farm or
farms of, the vendor or vendors of the animals for 14
days prior to the removal thereof ; and every animal
bought for the purpose of slaughter must be slaugh-
tered within 24 hours after such removal, and the
vendor of such animal shall certify the day and hour
of the removal of any such animal from his charge."
The report of Mr. George A. Lepper, the inspec-
tor for the Vale of Aylesbury district, issued on
Saturday, is more encouraging than it has been for
some weeks past, for, owing to the willingness of
farmers and others to submit to the temporary hard-
ships put upon them by the Orders in Council, and
adopt the precautionary measures prescribed by
their veterinary surgeons, such as isolation, &c., the
Vale of Aylesbury is at last pronounced " free from
the cattle plague." As, however, the disease is
raging with fearful virulence in other parts of the
county, and Aylesbury is close to the lines of rail-
way along which cattle are brought from the metro-
politan Markets, the justices are, as will be seen
above, fully determined to enforce the Orders of
Council.

perplexing case which has yet occurred east of the
Derwent. There seems no doubt whatever but that
the disease will traverse the whole of the Folds and
the North Riding districts. The apathy of the
farmers has been effectually stirred up this week.
At Helmsley, with Lord Feversham as president, a
Ryedale Assurance Association has been formed.
Another has been formed in the Melton Union
where about 70 cattle have died in a month ;
another has been formed and commenced its work on
Saturday. A similar society has been formed for
Lord Carlisle's estates, and a very flourishing one
at Driffield, where as yet there is no plague. The
Driffield society only requires adeposit of Id. in the
pound, and £50,000 are now issued, Sir Tatton
Sykes entered for £lO,OOO and Mr. C. Sykes, M.P.,
for £5,000. A similar society is to be formed for
the Pocklington district. The rapid spread of the
plague has induced the magistrates of several divi-
sions to extend the prohibition of the markets and
fairs under the recent Order in Council. The
Stokesley Bench have prohibited the markets and
fairs in the Langborough west division until the
25th of February; and the Thirsk Bench those in
the Birdforth division until the Ist of March. They
prohibit all removal of cattle without licence except
by rail, in terms of the Order in Council.

On Saturday the plague was reported spreading
at Norton Conyers, Myton, and Aldborough.

A Missionary's View of the Jamaica Revolt.

The Scotsman publishes a letter from a missionary
in Jamaica, dated Nov. 3, which has been received
by a gentleman in Edinburgh. The writer says—
" You will be interested to know something of the
fearful outbreak of popular violence which took place
so unexpectedly in the eastern part of the island a
few weeks ago. The savage ferocity with which
they attacked and murdered the chief magistrate,
ministers, and other gentlemen assembled in the
Court House of Morant Bay, when deliberating on
the affairs of the :parish, will be in all the public
prints. I will therefore endeavour to give you some
idea of its probable cause. The diabolical idea ap-
pears to have first entered into the mind of George
Wm. Gordon, about three years ago, of murdering
or banishing from the island all the white men and
respectable and influential brown men, and putting
it into possession of the blacks. He was a manwho
had a pretty good standing in society, and was
member of the Assembly for the parish of St.
Thomas-in-the-East, now almost desolated. He
made a great profession of religion, and was for a
time a leading member of Mr. Watson's church. He
was kind to ministers, and I have more than once
spent some time with him, and was pleased with the
Christian way in which he conducted his family, ge-
nerally presiding at worship one part of each day.
After he was elected member of Assembly he became a
loud and constant advocate for all popular rights.
On this account, and by his interminable harangue,
he disgusted many, and raised up a host of enemies
for himself in the Assembly. It was generally
thought that he was harshly treated both by the
Governor and the Custos of his own parish, now
murdered. Ar.d he got into violent quarrels with
the clergy and leading men of the parish. I have
no doubt he was mightily puffed up by the notice
that was taken of him, and especially as being gene-
rally accounted the leader of the popular party. In
all his ambitious designs, finding himself constantly
thwarted and contemptuously treated by his oppo-
nents, the thought of getting rid of his enemies ap-
pears to have taken possession of his mind. To
accomplish the infernal design, he seems to have
imagined that the only way was by an outbreak of
the people ; and that this led to the mad and
horrible thought of destroying all the present in-
fluential men in the island. It now appears that
for the last years he has been making preparations
for this general massacre, and for the last three
months has been indefatigable in maturing it * *
By the admirable skill and promptitude of the
Governor the power of the rebels was in three
days annihilated, and in three weeks almost
every vestige of rebellion obliterated. I doubt
not, that in addition to the wide-spread desola-
tion it has occasioned to the parish in which it
broke out, and to the misery of untold multi-
tudes, whose houses have been burned, and they
themselves forced to hide in dens and thickets
to preserve themselves from military execution,
more than a thousand persons have been either shot
or hanged, and a great multitude severely lashed.
Such appears to be the end of this wicked revolt.
Gordon, some time ago, joined the Baptists, and
became a preacher among them, but I fear he was
a wicked hypocrite, and a savage at heart. He was
hanged at the Court-house, where the slaughter
commenced, unpitied by all, and leaving a name to
be execrated by all good men. What gave Gordon
considerable influence was the distressed state of
the colony. For some time the price of sugar in
the home market has been very low, which has
occasioned great loss to the planting interest ; and
they were compelled to reduce wages to the lowest
possible rate. Then the high rate of clothing,
and a great drought with which the island was
visited, brought the labouring classes into great
misery. Many public meetings were held through-
out the island, and the distress of the labourers
brought very prominently into view, and also
many remedies suggested. Unfortunately little
sympathy was expressed by the leading men of the
island for the people. Though the rebellion is now
quashed, and will probably not be renewed, after
the fearful example made of the rebels, yet I fear
that there is no small disaffection still in the minds
of many of the people. The planters being brought
into great difficulties have been latterly peculiarly
severe upon the labourers. Many of the overseers
are magistrates, and often are severe in punishing
the people by fine and imprisonment, while the
people have no redress. At present a great multi-
tude are undergoing punishment for what no man
in the island ever considered an offence. The com-
mon fruits of the country, growing near the road,
in open pastures, were freely taken by all classes, I
suppose, since the British landed upon the island.
This was a great help to the labouring classes, and I
believe did little injury to any bne. It was like the
law among the Jews, by which any traveller was
permitted to pluck ears of standing corn as they
passed through the fields. Depriving the people of
such privileges, after their long enjoyment, pro-
duces a most powerful impression on popular feel-
ings. And I cannot help believing that the hundreds,
or perhaps thousands, who are now undergoing
punishment for disregarding the orders of the plan-
ters in this matter are becoming prepared for any
seditious movement."

The Rev. David King, formerly pastor of a United
Presbyterian Church at Kingston, Jamaica, writes to the
Daily Telegraph as follows regarding Mr. G. W. Gordon :
"He was a member of a United Presbyterian Church in
Kingston, of which I filled temporarily the pulpit. He
aided and cheered me in the fulfilment of my duties. I
stayed with him occasionally, and we had excursions toge-
ther. He gave me his mind very freely on all sorts of
topics, secular and sacred, evincing no excitement or ex-
travagance in his views. I had every facility for knowing
what was thought of him by judges, magistrates, clergy-
men, and society in general; and at that time every one,
from the highest to the lowest, spoke of him with esteem.
Mr. Wemyss Anderson, a gentleman well known in
Jamaica, was one of the first who called my attention
specially to him by characterising him as "a man of
princely generosity and unbounded benevolence." To the
best of my recollection these were the very words he used
—they were certainly to that effect. A brief sketch will
indicate what foundation there was for this sort of eulogy.
Mr. Gordon was the son of a white gentleman, one of the
custodes of the island, much esteemed for his dignified,
hospitable, and obliging deportment. Like many in ele-
vated position and of refined manners he had children by
his slaves—born to slavery as their heritage. This was
the birthright of poor George Gordon. Being a very smart
boy, he taught himself with very little aid to read, write,
and cast accounts. By his diligence and intelligence he
continued to gather money, with which he bought his
freedom. Once free himself he gained enough to emanci-
pate his sisters, and afterwards sent them to Europe for
their education—first, I think, to London, and then to
Paris. Through the reverses of the colony, the father,
from being very rich, came to lose all, and the coloured son
bought his estate—not, however, to deprive him of it,
but to leave him in occupancy, surrounded by the comforts
he had been accustomed to enjoy. So acted the son of the
bondwoman when the feelings of his father's white wife
and her children would not allow him to enter the paternal
abode. Yet ho always spoke to mo with deferential regard
for his father, and never uttered a disrespectful word re-
garding Mrs. Gordon. Ho was tenderly sensitive. One
day as we were walking together he became pensive and
absorbed, and, after ceasing for a little time to speak or
listen, he requested mo to step aside with him. He stopped
before a slight elevation of the grass, and said to me, with
much emotion, 'Sly mother is buried there; she was a
negro and a slave, but she was a kind mother to me, and I
loved her dearly.' As he uttered these words his tears
trickled down upon her grave. The efforts of the son
could not make the impoverished father happy in Jamaica,
where he had long held a high position, and it was arranged
that Mr. Gordon, senior, with his family, should leave for
the mother country, chiefly or exclusively by the aid
which George's filial munificence provided. When the day
of departure was at hand the son said to me, You know
that I am not permitted to give my father valedictory
attentions. I have promised him that you will do so for
me, and will accompany him and his white family to the
ship.' I did so, and I waS struck to find that through a
distance of eight or nine miles the road, as we drove along,
was lined with groups of negroes, who had assembled to

pay their parting respects to their quondam civic superior.
Some bowed, some knelt, some waved handkerchiefs, some,
perhaps former servant; oven wept ; and it was touching
to witness such an exhibition of spontaneous, disinterested
obeisance. The late George W. Gordon was married, but
he has left no children. His widow is a white lady : she
travelled with my family in the United States of America,
and endeared herself to us by her Christian excellence."
In reference to the characteristics of the negro in Jamaica,
Mr. King says:—" As regards the alleged indolence of
the black race I may mention that I never met a negro
begging, and bad never the least difficulty in getting work
done for adequate remuneration. I took up house and
engaged black servants, than whom I never had any who
gave me more satisfaction. I observe that negroes from
Jamaica are in great demand in Honduras, and are repre-
sented as working there vigorously for sufficient pay."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-------.ok-

TlMES.—Whether the Head Centre of the
Fenians be now in Paris, or on board a westward-
bound American packet-ship, or, as is more likely,
is still lying hidden in some out-of-the-way nook of
Dublin City, the Government seem determined, at
all events, that none of his companions shall join
him. The Lord-Lieutenant has ordered all the
Fenian prisoners who are now awaiting trial to be
removed from Richmond Bridewell to Kilmainham
Gaol, which is the county of Dublin prison, and is
presumed to have a better management and a more
trustworthy set of warders. This operation was
effected in the night of Saturday last, when the pri-
soners were escorted by a strong military guard to
their new place of detention. The Government,
resolved that no more steeds shall bo stolen, is
shutting doors with praiseworthy energy. Kilmain-
ham is described as presenting more the aspect of a
fortress than a gaol. There are soldiers every-
where, inside and out. The prison has just been
again inspected to see that all is right, and that
proper arrangements have been made for guarding
the conspirators. In the central-hall and in the
passages soldiers are under arms ; the warders are
kept close to their respective stations, and sentries
patrol without the walls. It was, indeed, time that
the prisoners should be removed from Richmond
Bridewell. How far the disaffection among the
warders and other attendants may have gone it is
impossible to say ; but it is at least believed that
the prison is a nest of Fenians. When such a thing
is even suspected, the Government could not leave
the prisoners in the place a day longer than was
necessary. The prison appears to be managed with
very insufficient strictness. The correspondence
with the Board of Superintendence with regard to
the man Denis Byrne shows how little attention
has been given to providing the place with trust-
worthy servants. Byrne was a soldier of the
Pope's Brigade, and, though that circumstance by
no means explains his Fenianism, yet we think
that politicians so ardent that they leave
their own land to fight foreign battles are
not the fittest men for situations of such trust as
the wardership of a prison, and that Byrne's charac-
ter might well have induced his patrons to provide
for him in some other way. It is also evident that
independently of his political principles he was an
inefficient person. Yet he was forced on the gover-
nor of the prison in spite of repeated remonstrances.
If this is the way in which one of the chief gaols in
Ireland is administered, the office of inspector can
be no sinecure. The Government will now, no
doubt, take the matter in hand, and insist that only
men of tried services and character shall be ap-
pointed. It is quite natural that the efforts of the
Fenians, when they found they were likely to come
within the grasp of the law, should be to tamper
with the warders of the metropolitan prison. The
Fenian organisation has served Mr. Stephens very
well. It would have been just as easy to let out
Luby or O'Leary, or any of the other prominent
members of the Association, but the call of duty
prevailed, and Stephens, in his character of Head
Centre, received the preference. The thing that
will most affect the public mind in the matter is,
not the escape of this man or that, for, provided a
Fenian is got rid of, it does not much matter how,
but the apprehension that in other departments of
administration there may be public servants affiliated
to this dangerous conspiracy. This, we must ad-
mit, is a matter for consideration and watchfulness.
There is not, indeed, reason for alarm, and we should
be the last to wish to excite any undue disquiet.
But there can be precaution without panic. It is
improbable that the corruption of public servants
can have gone very far; but it is quite possible that
it has begun ; indeed, there is strong evidence of it.
There will always be vain and restless spirits for
whom the romance and self-importance of conspiracy
will have a vague charm. There is much of this feel-
ing among the Irish, who also are attracted by all
sorts of vague expectations of worldly advancement
and by their own gregarious instincts. These things
reign for a while like an epidemic, but it is just as
well to take care that the malady does not spread.
A strict supervision of the people in the lower ranks
of the public service, the summary dismissal of any
who mix themselves up with known conspirators or
consort with them secretly, and a solemn warning
that any one who may be detected in improper prac-
tices will be dealt with in the severest manner, will
be probably sufficient to put an end to the fashion of
disaffection. We have no fear for the more steady
and responsible class of officials. There are few
Irishmen with a good income and a respectable cha-
racter to lose who will enrol themselves among the
citizens of President O'Mahony's Republic. It is for
the good of the poorer and more ignorant men that
they should be guarded against the machinations of
the conspirators, and not by their own folly bring
down severe punishment on themselves. The kind
of man who is caught by Fenianism is described in
our Irish intelligence of yesterday. Mr. Alfred
Aylward is a patriotic young lawyer's clerk, who,
in spite of his master's warnings, has taken upon
himself to join the association for regenerating Ire-
land by invasion and rebellion. Conspirators ought
not to get drunk, but Mr. Aylward not only drinks
himself into a state in which he commits breaches
of the peace, but actually goes about with the
whole scheme of revolution in his coat pocket. In
transpontine melodramas murderers carry about
manuscript confessions of their crime, which are
seized and read in the last act, but we have never
known anything like it in real life except the case
of Mr. Aylward, As for the document itself which
fell into the hands of the police, it may be presumed
that the writer had not abstained wholly from
whisky when he penned it. It opens with the sen-
tence that " powder and lead are the only remedies
for the country." If. the Fenians were quietly "to
usurp authority," they would be supported by the
constabulary, the majority of the military, and the
people. The millennium which would then be esta-
blished may be judged by the circumstance that the
Fenian Government " will hang all who say Boo!' "
It is interesting to know that the Republic will
send an account of its proceedings to the five great
Powers, and that all English prisoners will be mer-
cifully sent home. Perhaps Mr. Aylward's scheme,
being drawn up in a moment of convivial excite-
ment, may not express the real purposes of the
Fenian leaders ; but it is at least not more absurd
than others which have been made known, or than

that which is being carried into practice at the
Fenian Capitol in New York. The Fenians all
seem men of pretty much the same stamp. They
are O'Mahonys, Lubys, and Aylwards multiplied
indefinitely. ach is very paltry in himself, but,
unfortunately, Ireland possesses so many thousand
specimens of the race that their combination may
be exceedingly troublesome to the cause of peace
and order.

POST.—Much has been said against Governor
Eyre, of Jamaica, in regard to the treatment which
the inhabitants of that colony have received at his
hands in suppressing the recent outbreak. He has
been accused of illegality in the execution of Gor-
don, as well as in other cases, and a popular crusade
seems on the eve of being made against him and his
coadjutors, who are now accused of murder. De-
mands are made that the Government shall order
him home, and put him upon trial, and these de-
mands are backed by prominent and influential
members of Parliament. But in all this excitement
and commotion we should not lose sight of that
great characteristic of the English nation—fair play.
There are always two sides to a question, and when
the other side of the case may be presented it may
be ascertained that all the charges made against the
Jamaica officials are unfounded. We hope so for
the good fame of England ; for if there has been
illegality in the trial and execution of the rebels,
we could not and would not offer a defence of any
official therein engaged, even though the guilt of
the persons executed should be rendered more
patent than the glaring facts now prove. The
question in Jamaica is one which may come home
to any English family hereafter. It may involve
the life of one most dear to any of us, and destroy
that precious fabric, which it is easy for mortals to
dissolve, but never to re-establish. There may be
commotions and tumults in England ; and mili-
tary officials having the temporary power may
order the trial of offenders by court-martial, and
execute them upon conviction. This power must
be defined, and the present is as goad an oppor-
tunity as any which could be presented. Un-
doubtedly, it is the duty of her Majesty's
Government to uphold any subordinate who has
performed his difficult task with credit. Lord
Palmerston always supported au official against
charges until they were distinctly proven, and
the will of the nation shown. His motto was
that of English law, always to deem the defendant
innocent until his guilt was proven. So in the
present case we have not evidence to show what
were the causes of action or the motives which
prompted an apparently illegal action. It is as-

serted that Governor Eyre transcended his powers
in trying Gordon at Morant Bay instead of in
Kingston. And, without waiting to impartially
examine into the case, a sweeping verdict is given
by a large portion of our population that the Gover-
nor acted from improper motives, and preferred to
send his victim before a court-martial, where he
knew a conviction would be prompt and execution
speedy; and that in sending Gordon out of a dis-
trict where he could have been tried before a civil
tribunal, to one where martial law prevailed, the
Governor has judicially murdered the prisoner,
and is himself accountable to the law for man-
slaughter, if not for murder. But this is not at all
a necessary sequence. One point seems to have been
entirely overlooked in this matter. It may be that
Governor Eyre has acted in perfect and strict ac-
cordance with law. When a criminal is to be tried
for any offence committed against English law, it is
imperative that his trial should take place in the
district or locality where the imputed crime has been
committed. This is always done in England unless
a change of venue is granted for some good and
sufficient reason, either to the Crown or to the pri-
soner. If any rebel from Jamaica should surrender
in London we should not try him here, but certainly
would send him back to the jurisdiction of Jamaica
authorities. If he should be executed there in ac-
cordance with law, no charge could be preferred
against the Colonial Secretary here for judicially
slaying him. In the ex parte evidence presented
against the Governor, the fact seems to have been
entirely overlooked that Morant Bay was the scene
of massacre and crime for the incitement of which,
though not actual participation therein, Gordon was
tried and executed. The question then will be,
could the Governor do otherwise than remit the pri-
soner to the jurisdiction prevailing in that district,
where the slaughter had been committed? If this
be the case, the whole charge of illegality falls to the
ground. The district being proclaimed, civil law
' was ignored, and the court martial was the only tri-
bunal which could have jurisdiction, and the prisoner
would have had no more right to a trial in King-
ston than in London. We do not absolutely assert
the correctness of this hypothesis, but it is one
which strikes the mind as the probable solution and
explanaticn of the case. There is at the present
moment a parallel case in the United States, which
gives rise to great perplexity on the part of
the United States authorities. There, as in Eng-
land, the law compels the trial of a prisoner in the
district where a crime has been committed. Mr.
Jefferson Davis must therefore be tried in a Southern
State. But as no jury can be found to pronounce him
guilty, his trial and acquittal would be a virtual
endorsement of the theories of secession. And the
difficulty of getting around this imperative clause
of constitutional law, so as to carry out the theory
of the successful party, is and has been so great that
the prisoner has remained for months in close con-
finement. The great misfortune in this Jamaica
business has been that in the outcry raised by a
number of persons whose zeal in favour of the negroes
perhaps induces a prejudice against the whites, who
have had to contend for their lives, the main facts
of the great atrocities committed and in contempla-
tion may be lost sight of in the smoke and dust
about the so-charged illegal transfer of Gordon to
Morant Bay. In all outbreaks, especially where
savages or semi-savages have to be dealt with, stern
and prompt measures must be executed. Rebellion
must always be nipped in the bud, if its consequences
and wide-spread outrages are to be checked. The
speediest and most approved method is to execute
the ringleaders. And this seems to have been done
by the military authorities. Of the guilt of Gordon,
so far as we have seen, there can scarcely be a doubt.
He seems to have been the chief conspirator, and to
have been constantly consulted by those who actu-
ally participated in the massacre at Morant Bay.
And there is not a doubt that he was aware of or
counselled the intended massacre of the white popu-
lation on the 26th December next. We trust that
the horrid scenes perpetrated by the savage and in-
furiated negroes will not be lost sight of, and that a
false sympathy will not be engendered for them
under the agitation of the legality or non-legality of
the trial and execution of any individual. " Fiat
justitia, ruat coelum," is the motto for our guidance.
Let us neither commit grave injustice against the
unfortunate white victims of negro barbarity, nor
consent to brand Governor Eyre with perversion of
law, until the whole facts can be presented and all
sides be heard calmly and impartially.

The Confederate Etate Debts.

The debts of the Confederate Government, contracted
for the purposes of war, and for all other purposes, were
swept away when the Confederacy fell. All its currency,
bills, bonds, treasury notes, and "promises to pay" of
every kind, became worthless to the holders, even though
those holders had given for them real property or services
of a positive value. After the fall of Richmond, hundred-
dollar bills, based on the faith and credit of the Confederacy,
were sold for a nickel cent a piece, and thousand-dollar
notes were exchanged evenly for three-cent shinplasters.
There is little' if any talk in any part of the South about
assuming any part of this debt. Its magnitude is appall-
ing, and the States of the South did not become respon-
sible for it in their individual capacity. On its face it was
declared to be payable upon the establishment of the inde-
pendence of the Southern Confederacy—thus linking its
fortunes with that of the rebel government; and it was
but logical that the Confederacy's credit should cease to
have a value when the Confederacy itself ceased to have
an existence.

But thorn has appeared in many of the States, and still
appears in some of them, a strong party desirous of assum-
ing the payment of the debts contracted by the various
States individually, in aid of rebellion, and while members
of the Confederacy. It is the repudiation of these which
has been effected in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina,
and, in Georgia, at the suggestion of the President ; and
it is the failure to repudiate this debt by South Carolina
which has disappointed the intelligent supporters of the
President's policy of reconstruction. This debt has been
the subject of earnest debate in the Georgia State Conven-
tion now in session at Milledgeville ; and it was in refer-
ence to this debate that the President sent a despatch to
the Provisional Governor of Georgia, in which was
pointedly and vigorously set forth the course that ought
to be followed by the convention. He remarked :
" The people of Georgia should not hesitate one single
moment in repudiat'ng every single dollar of debt created
for the purpose of aiding the rebellion against the Govern-
ment of the United States. It will not do to levy and
collect taxes from a State and people that are loyal and in
the Union to pay a debt that was created to aid in taking
them out and subverting the Constitution of the United
States. Ido not believe the great mass of the people of
the State of Georgia, when left uninfluenced, will ever
subm to' the payment of a debt which was the main
causekif bringing on their past and present suffering, the
result of the rebellion. Those who invested their capital
in the creation of this debt must meet their fate, and take
it as one of the inevitable results of the rebellion, though
it may seem hard to them. It should at once be made
known, at home and abroad, that no debt contracted for
the purpose of dissolving the Union can or ever will be
paid by taxes levied on the people for such purpose."

We have in the Georgia papers reports of the convention
debate on this topic. It originated in a resolution intro-
duced by a member on the 28th ult., in the following
terms :

Resolved—That the President of the Convention ap-
point a committee of five, who shall wait upon his Excel-
lency the Provisional Governor and inquire of him
whether he knows, from his official connection with the
authorities at Washington, that the repudiation of the
debt incurred by the State of Georgia during the late civil
war is essential to the resumption of amicable relations
with the United States Government.

The debate was one of great interest and not a little ex-
citement, but it covered very narrow ground. The argu-
ments, on one side, were simply protests against disgracing
the State by repudiation, and, on the other side, assevera-
tions of the absolute necessity of this action, if Georgia
were to be admitted to the Union as one of its loyal and
trusty members. One speaker got upon broader ground,
in putting forth the idea that the legitimate State Govern-
ment of Georgia being overthrown when this debt was
contracted, and an unlawful combination having usurped
the functions of the State, the debt had no legal basis what-
ever, and, without any action of the convention, was in
itself null and void.

Notwithstanding the warmth of the debate, Georgia has
prudently adopted the course previously pursued by Ala-
bama, Mississippi, and North Carolina. President John-
son said that " it should at once be made known, at home
and abroad, that no debt contracted for the purpose of dis-
solving the Union can or ever will be paid by taxes levied
on the people for such purpose ;" and the wisdom of this
view no doubt commended itself to the convention. The
entire amount of the debt contracted by the State during
the war was about eighteen millions of dollars ; and the
greater part of it was in the bands of a few holders, so that
the people of the State will be no losers by its being wiped
out.

It is a noteworthy fact that of the three or four great
subjects before the various State Conventions for their
action this has been the only one upon which there has
been any very marked division of opinion or any very
vigorous debates. The repeal or nullification of the ordi-
nances of secession has been effected in each State almost
without discussion, and by nearly unanimous consent.
The abolition of slavery in the respective States has been
recognised by each of them without contention or opposi-
tion. But in every State there has been a strong effort
made to secure the recognition and payment of the State
debts contracted during the rebellion.—New York Times.

A frightful attack of neuralgia in the face and
mouth cured by a few doses of MORISON'S PILLS, the vege-
table universal medicine of the British College of Health,
Euston-road, London, after other means had failed, Sold
by the hydeian agents and all medicine vendors.