The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-26 00:00:00

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transported from this territory for the use of the rebels.
To check this, not one step appears to have.been taken
by the authorities of the United States. Oh yes ; let us
do justice to the single officer who did interfere. " The
Government sent its proper officer (the collector) to in-
quire what business the boat was engaged in." • • •
" The collector (lid not refuse to let me go out. HE SAID I
MIGHT DO WHAT I DID WITHOUT VIOLATING ANY LAW.
I MIGHT RUN TO NAVY ISLAND AND CARRY ARMS AND
AMMUNITION, BUT THAT I RAN RISK WHILE I WAS IN
I BRITISH WATER. And, finally, in reply to a question
from the Attorney-General, Mr. Wells says, " Iknew
what would be wanted on Navy Island, and that was why I
consulted the collector." We confine ourselves to the testi-
timony of this witness, and brief as are our extracts from
it, we do not think any dispassionate person can for an in-
stant doubt its conclusiveness to the two important points
of the piratical character of the vessel, and the bellige-
rent character of the territory in the waters of which
she was destroyed. It is not, however, for the destruc-
tion of the Caroline that M•Leod is indicted, but for the
murder of a vagabond named Durfee, who had been
waiting in the steamer to cross over to his comrades at
Navy Island. Of course, the homicide of Durfee was
justifiable or not; just as the destruction of the Caroline
will be decided to have been justifiable or not. But, in
the first place, there is no evidence as yet to connect
M'Leod with the attack upon .the Caroline. As this
portion of the case, however, is yet open, we shall offer
no observation upon it. It is clear, however, whether
M'Leod was of the attacking party or not, Durfee
was shot, not by one of them, but by one of his own
comrades. It will he seen from the evidence of every
witness examined, that all the firing by the attacking party
took place before the Caroline was cut out. Three or
four witnesses swore that "one shot was fired from the
American shore when 'the boat was going down the
stream burning." Now, a witness named Emmons de-
poses that he saw Durfee alive " after", that shot was
tired—that is, after the attack had wholly ceased, and
the attacking party had left for the Canada shore. It is
quite clear, then, that justice was, unintentionally pet-
haps, done upOn him by some of his felloW-pirates, and
not by any of the British party. The excitement created
by the trial does not appear to have been at all equal to
the anticipation of what it would be. The reporter of
the greatest alarmist ofthe press, the New York Herald,
writing from the court-house, says :—" Persons at a dis-
tance, who are wrought up to a feverish excitement on
this subject, will be astonished at the apathy felt here ;
but so it is."
POST.—The commencement of the trial of M'Leod
is now before our readers. It would be idle to offer any
opinion upon the effect of the evidence, that portion of
it which was to sustain the prosecution not having been
completed when the latest report of the proceedings was
despatched. It may have been reinforced subsequently;
and when we say that it required much reinforcement
before the prisoner could be in any danger before an im-
partial jury, we say all that the occasion warrants or re-
quires. The speech of the advocate for the prosecution
is certainly not discreditable either to the talent or the
temper of the American bar, supposing, what we are
bound to suppose, that the Learned Gentleman had
reason to believe his statement of the case as to matters
of fact would be substantiated by witnesses entitled to
credit. The only point upon which, in the present
state of our information, we feel warranted in expressing
an opinion diametrically opposed to' his, is one which
relates not to anything done, or alleged to have been
done, by the prisoner at the bar, but to the actual state
of affairs in that portion of the United States territory
adjacent to Canada, and to the law of nations in its ap-
plication to the real circumstances. Mr. Hall says:—
" Mr. Wells saw in the circumstance of the excite-
ment and curiosity, which were drawing thousands to
Schlosser, of whom not one in a thousand went to the
island—he saw an opportunity of making gains by his
little boat, which was hardly larger than a ferry boat,
and which was lying idle at Buffalo. With this, and no
other motive than that of profit, he started from Buffalo
on the 28th of December, 1837, to Schlosser. He stop-
ped at all the intermediate points or landing places
where boats had heretofore stopped. After reaching
Schlosser, about two o'clock in the day, he went from
there to Navy Island ; he made two trips in the course
of the afternoon, carrying passengers and such articles
as were brought to him to tie conveyed, and such as were
conveyed by other ferry boats. Amongst these articles
it will appear there was a cannon. Much stress has been
laid upon this circumstance ; and I therefore pause one
moment to comment upon it, so far that you may per-
ceive what force an act of this kind should have. It was
one of those articles which, when nations are at war,
neutrals are prohibited to convey, under pain of forfeiture
if taken. If a neutral undertake to carry arms and mu-
nitions of war, the vessel and articles so conveyed are
liable to forfeiture. But if a vessel carry such articles
to the destined point and land them, she cannot after-
wards be held liable. The moment the articles are
landed she is no longer liable to be seized or molested.
This law applies upon the high seas, the common high-
way of all nations. In this portion of the territory it
would apply only in cases of seizure within the waters
of Great Britain, and it would not extend to them the
right of coming within our own waters."
The whole merit of the case rests upon this part of
the prosecutor's speech, and if this can be shown to be
erroneous in fact and in law, as we think it can, we are
entitled to conclude, not that the trial will terminate in
the acquittal of M'Leod, but that it ought to do so.
" When nations are at war," says the New York Attor-
ney-General. Ay, but in this case nations were not at
war. There was no war—there was a rebellion; and the
law of nations, assuming that he stated it correctly in its
application to the rights of neutrals in a war between
nations, is not, therefore, the law of nations in a case in
which rebel subjects are contending against their lawful
Sovereign. The sympathisers of the United States
found within the Canada frontier, abetting in arms the
rebel Canadians, might lawfully, and in conformity
with the general usage of civilised nations, be hanged,
although the Swiss mercenaries to whom Mr. Hall
elsewhere alludes, fighting under the banners of
contending nations, are not exposed to so ignomi-
nious a fate. This is an important distinction which
the New York Attorney-General entirely overlooks.
But there is another and still more important distinc-
tion which cannot have been present to the mind of the
New York Attorney-General when he uttered his dictum
upon the law of nations as applicable to the case of Mr.
M'Leod. The conflict within the Canadian frontier was
a conflict of rebellious subjects against their lawful So-
vereign, and if the Government of the United States, as
a Government, was not, as we suppose Mr. Hall will not
contend it was, cowardly and treacherous to the last de-
gree, in its relations with the Government of Great
Britain, the aid afforded to the Canadian rebels by the
sympathisers of the United States was aid afforded by
subjects in defiance of their own lawful Government,
and in rebellion against that Government. There was
rebellion on both sides of the river—the one rebellion
acting upon and stimulating and reinforcing the
other. The cannon of which Mr. Hall speaks
so lightly is not an insignificant circumstance. Where
did the sympathisers obtain this cannon? Had they a
foundry for cannon ? Are pieces of artillery articles of
sale and purchase at the fairs on the United States' side
of the St. Lawrence ? No ! The cannon had been
taken from an arsenal of the United States, and taken in
rebellious defiance of the Government of the United
States. Nor was this the only outrage which attested
the utter impotency of the Government of the United
States to restrain the rebellious excesses of its own sub.

jects. In reference to such a state of things, it may be
affirmed with confidence that the right of self-defence
had superseded the ordinary law of nations, or rather,
that the ordinary law of nations in relation to the rights
of neutrals in a war between State and State was ut-

terly inapplicable to the circumstances. The letter of
Mr. M'Leod, which we subjoin to our report of the trial,
will be read with interest at the present moment.
HERALD.—We are now enabled to lay before our
readers the proceedings which hare taken place in the
preliminary stages of M'Leod's trial. It is in a remote
town in a remote corner of the northernmost of the
United States—the youngest nation in existence which
can be said to have taken rank among the maritime
powers of the world—that, the person of a private
individual no less a delinque3,c is arraigned than the
Imperial Majesty of Great Britain. It is in the nine-
teenth century—in the zenith of her power, in the per-
fection of her institutions, in the undisputed supre-
macy of her commercial capital, and her social pros-
perity—with no other interruption to the accumulated
trophies of a quarter of a century of peace (glorious
to herself and fortunate for mankind) but the laurels
newly culled by her victorious forces in the noblest coun-
tries of the east—it is in the full vigour of her political
existence, and in the plenitude of her grandeur among
the paramount empires of the old world—that Great
Britain has, by her Government, tacitly consented to
permit her own acts, in the extinction of a rebellion
among her subjects in one of her distant Transatlantic
colonies, to be Criminally challenged and adjudicated
upon by a municipal rather than :a national tribunal of
those United States. It remains to be seen whether or
not she will permit those acts, after solemnly reclaiming
them for her own to be punished, too, in the person of
that private subject, her accredited and recognised
servant. To the operation of what potent but
at present inexplicable causes, posterity 'may one
day attribute her submission to such indig-
nity and insult, it might be matter for curious
speculation to anticipate, did time or space per-
mita, us to enter upon it. But at resent all
that our duty as journalists exacts of us, itn relationthat the
to this matter, is to record the astounding
faeuestion e-
volving of nations in the old world—on. a question
volving the rights of her independence ln
repthe foreign
re-
volt among her own colonists and punishingt lerself to be
abettors of that revolt—has
cited, and, in the personunfranchisedbpeerinor
Justices of Oyer and
pro-
vincial American Court—before
subject has actually appeared—
dictment of murder ! We
Terminer—to plead to an in tae ofap eliceiresouotfraged
ewirtp,hotloiitsitchaoeln
e task
doei
od
fo ndoitsetruuassitnegurse ourselves,
questionsat present,
dsehtarolawit
and of the life or death—
underf an illegal and indefensible
practical political
owlithiceanl
the assumption.
the case ;
noCriminal Court—of a British
jurisdiction by a t.brh
tactiie whichd evenrg eoiff committed by
his duty to his
iui subject,
was
committedcsloiarg t e ..ifinn
Sovereign, and on the responsibility of his allegiance.
ftlienature of the evidence, to which we shall more
particularly recur at another opportunity, we know not

lo dai n
„an "- h ouse-
" Class 7.—Single women and widows having occupa-
tions"
Class B.—Minors of both sexes, including all who
meanskeoerf
erssu,basnisdtetnhcee,likseu.ch as dress-makers,
were minors at the time of the original deposit, and who
have since attained their majority, but have not notified
the same to the officers of the savings' bank, so as to be
comprehended in any of the above classes.
SUN.— k comparison of the Exchequer Bills so mys.
teriously hypothecated for loans in the Stock Market with
those issued by the Government, proves them to be genuine,
but the practice of issuing
.double numbers, however dif-
ferent may be the wording in the bills themselves is much
reprobated, and will, lio doubt henceforth be discontinued.
It is said there are triple bills in circulation.
The Stock Market to-day was better, but there was not
a large buiness doing. Consols were at an improv.me
from 871- to 87i and ssi for money, and from 88i. _
1 nt
881 il for account. Exchequer Bills were 10s. to .4 to
premium, and East India Bonds 2s. premium. The 12s,
Three-and-a-Half per Cents. wore steady at 9 -Ntne.27
and the Reduced Three per Cents. at 864 to 87 74
-- 4'
The feature in the Foreign Market to-day * „ ad_
Vance in Brazil Stock of 2 to 3 per cent., being ""-
a reaction upon the recent heavy depression. ----g n'erelY
Bonds improved to 20+ and 21, closing Spanish
at 204
gucse New Five per Cents, were Iv • Portu-
Bonds were dull at 18+ to 19, and. orth 29i ; Co'lornbi
Belgian Five per Cents. Mexican
were at 1021 at 2n an
to 24.
and-a-llalf per Cents. at 51s. 2, and Dutch Two-
In Shares rather more b usiness
Western were 9i- to 10. ore
• was don
ham, 60 to 671 Th.
; irds, 90
; ew ditto 41 t 3 e.
Great
, ° -.1-_; Birming-
, ,J
land, .18f ; and South West ; York and North Mid-
Brighton were 121 discount. On
13i. to 12 Premium.

SHEERNESS, Ocr. 22.--Yesterday being the
anniversary of the glorious Victory of Trafalgar, the
Commander-in-Chief Vice-Admiral Sir Henry 'Digby,
K.C.8., celebrated it by giving a slendid ball. The on
pany began to arrive about ten, , when dancing com-
menced. Soon after midnight an elegant and beautifully
ornamented supper (which reflects high credit on Gunter,
or whoever undertook it) was served ; after which danc-
ing was resumed, and kept up with great spirit until four
in the morning, when the gratified guests took thciatleirm

1-4 '-i(

ENING SUN.
that we can give a brief epitome, so far as it has been
given, better calculated to convey to the mailer our own
strong conviction of its legal inadequacy to establish the
case laid in the indictment, even on the assumption that
the whole of the evidence to be adduced for the prosecu-
tion may be true, than the terms in which the United
States. Attorney-General himself summed up its bear-
ings. These were his words:—
" We -will show that previous to the expedition the pri-
soner was one of those most actively engaged in getting it
up. That the day before he went to Buffalo to ascertain
whether the Caroline was coming down to Schlosser. That
he took a deep and active interest in the affair, and that on
that very evening he was engaged enlisting persons for the
expedition. That on several occasions he exhibited a
sword, and pointing to blood upon it, said that was the
blood of a d—d 'Yankee. Other witnesses will prove that
they saw him go with the boats on the expedition, and
others that they saw him on his return from it. Such is
the nature of the testimony showing you what part the
prisoner took in the expedition to destroy the Caroline,
in which Amos Durfee met his death."

Weaker presumptive evidence it may have been at-
tempted to impose on intelligent juries in other trials
for capital felony; but surely no verdict of " guilty" was
ever returned, by any number of dispassionate and indif-
rent men, on such a case, to found such a charge!

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.
CIIIZONICLE.—The price of English wheat advanced
2s: per quarter to-day in Mark-lane, and the supply was
extremely short. The harvest may be now looked
upon as nearly over, and the accounts are precisely the
same as we have already stated. The additional supply
of foreign corn which will be required before next harvest
over and above the. 2,000,000 quarters already received
may now, beistated with some accuracy at from 1,500,000
quarters to 2,000,000 of quarters. The accounts from
Scotland to-day are more favourable than last week,
and the crops are now nearly secured ; but the greater
portion has been housed too quickly, and fears are en-
tertained that it w ill not keep in the stack. The
potato crop in Scotland has been seriously injured,
and altogether the
.yield in that quarter of the
country will be deficient, both in quality and quan-
tity. The certainty-,which • now exists that large im-
portations of foreign corn will soon be required has
produced great activity in the Mediterranean ports, and
wheat has risen in price there considerably. Orders to
the .eirteet of half a million of quarters have already been
forwarded, and will be in course or arrival throughout
the Winter. The effect has already begun to show itself
in the' fall of our rate of exchange: The following letter
from a highly respectable party at Plymouth beives an
accurate account of the state of the harvest in Cornwall
and Devonshire :
" The harvest in this part of the country is not yet
completed, for we hear that some wheat and much oats
are still exposed in the high lands, and, owing to the ex-
cessive rains for the last two months, our farmers have
had a very expensive, tedious, and unprofitable season.
" Wheat in some sheltered situations is found to yield,
but generally it is defieient in acreable produce, light in
weigt, weathered, with not a few samples sprouted, and
most of it stacked in bad condition.
" Barley is generally a coarse grain and badly sr.ted,
and much care will be required in selecting samples for
malting.
" Oats promised a great crop, but have so much suffered
by rain that the produce is lessened and greatly injured.
" Hay in general was a good burden, but much has
been badly saved.
" There are complaints of the potato crop, and though
yet too early to form an accurate
.conclusion, it
w appre-
hended that, from the excessive wetness of the lOW-lands,
there will be a partial deficiency.
" Seldom has the corn iu this district been more ex-
hausted than it was for two months before harvest, when
much foreign cern was entered at 20s. Bd. to 245. Bd. per
quarter, for want of British to supply local consumption."
There is nothing in the shape of exaggeration in the
above report, and it may be taken with perfect safety as
affordir'9, a fair average picture of the reports from all
parts of England. No doubt is entertained in the best
informed quarters connected with Mark-lane, that Sir
Robert Peel sees the necessity of proposing a consider-
able change in the Corn-laws.
POST.—The origin of the irregularities in the Exche-
quer Bill market is not yet openly, or rather not posi-
tively, stated, but we believe there is no longer much
uncertainty upon the subject.. The weakness exhibited
in the Foreign Stock market, especially in what aro
called the " Sporting securities," is thought to confirm,
to a great extent, the accuracy of the disclosure made by-
us on this point in our last City article. Suspicion
attaches very strongly to the Boulogne conspirators,
who are known to have a partiality for low-priced
stocks, as a class best adapted to their views. When
manoeuvres of a most disreputable nature are so•
readily passed over by the Committee of the Stock
Exchange, the utility of that body may, we think,
once more be fairly questioned. As long as they
were confined to the bubbles of Spain, Portugal, and
Spanish America, our remonstrances at the Com-
mittee's want of energy and straightforward inde-
pendence met, we fear, with but little attention. 1:row,
however, when the best of our domestic secr-leties are
found to suffer in character by its excesslen supineneSs,
we do not so much despair of a sal ataxy reformation.
The Committee could not, we shoulti imagine, have re-
mained all this time in ignorance of what was passing
around it.
It appears from inquiries instituted by several Portu-
guese bondholders, naturally anxious to learn the object
and result of the interview which took place between
Lord Aberdeen and h deputation from the Committee
on Saturday last &t Mr. Thornton, the Chairman, had
addressed a IV c'%Fgial to his Lordship, praying for his
mediation Wi4gebe Portuguese Government in effecting
a compromiseff' At the dividends overdue on the Old Bonds
without disturbing the original securities on which their
money was advanced, and which memorial is supported
by and recommended to his Lordship's immediate notice
by most of the first merchants and bankers of the City
of London, among whom also are several Members.
of Parliament ; and it will be satisfactory to this ill-
used class of British subjects to learn that Lord Aber-
deen most kindly and courteously promised to forward
the representation to her Majesty's Minister at Lisbon,
with instructions to his Lordship in support of their
claims. This conduct on the part of the Noble Earl
will suffice, perhaps, to remove from the mind of a
Morning Contemporary (the Chronicle) the illiberal
suspicions in which he had allowed himself to indulge
to the prejudice of his Lordship.
An outside jobber in the tea-trade stopped payment
on Saturday, but the amount of his liabilities are so
small (only about 3,0000 as to be scarcely worthy of no-
tice in connection with the ordinary operations of the
market ; nor should we, perhaps, have alluded to the
matter, were it not for the purpose of meeting any
exaggerated report that may possibly go abroad in re-
ference to it.

TIMES.—A circular has lately been issued to the ac-
tuaries of savings'-banks by the Controller of the National
Debt-office, directing them to prepare, on the 20th of
next month, returns, descriptive of the occupations
and rank of the depositors, distinguishing minors
from adults. The idea of these returns, which will
in England, and the habits and conditions of various
contain a curious illustration of the state 'of society
classes, is taken from the French, who have pub-
lished such returns for some years. It is obvious
that the utility of the returns will greatly depend on the
adoption of an uniformity of classification by all the
savings'-banks, since, if each adopts a different arrange-
ment, it will be a work of great trouble to draw front
them an intelligible result, even if it could be effected at
all. It is, therefore, singular, that no instructions for
the classification have been given to the banks, who are
left to their own discretion. The actuary of one of them
suggests the following division, to be adopted by them
all, so t the desire uniformity may be produced:—
" Class I.—Domestic servants of every description,
ver
~ ncesisaesss,
male and female, including stewards, companions, go-
bourers, shopnaen, mechanics, handicraf tinen, la-
and others engaged in manual opera-
tions, and receiving wages therefor.
" Class 3.--Tradesmen, shopkeepers, and others car-
rying on business on their own account,
and working for
themselves, or employing others under them.
" Class 4.—Soldiers, sailors, and police.
" Class.s.—Officers and clerks in the Government ser-
vice, persons engaged in commercial, literary, and
scientific pur3uits, whether employed by or employing
others, and generally any individuals not comprehended
in the above classes.
" Class G.—Married women ; also widows
and single
their women without occupation, either living
pa-
rents or friends, or living by themselvesmeans. 07: with
dtpendent