The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-06 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICIP.

THE CUNARD LINE OF STEAMERS. —The late Sir Edward
Cunard, Bart., and his brother Mr. William Cunard
were the owners of one third of the well-known
line of steamers bearing their name, the shares
according to the last valuation being worth
£290,000. A contract had been entered into pro-
viding that in the event of the death of one of the part-
ners, the survivor should be at liberty to purchase the
share of the deceased at a sum corresponding with the
last valuation. Sir E. Cunard having died, an application
was made in the Court of Chancery to autho-
rise the purchase of the share in question by Mr. Cunard;
and no objection being offered on the part of the several
persons interested, Sir R. Malins consented to authorise
the purchase.

A CASK OF WINE.—An action has been brought in the
Bail Court, against the London and South-Western Rail-
way Company. The plaintiff had ordered a cask of wine
abroad and the defendant's were to deliver it
at his residence. As the cask would not go
into the house the plaintiff's wife sent it on
to some mews near, giving the carter a receipt for the safe
delivery. The man, who was out of temper, let the cask
fall in lowering it, and it was broken, the wine being lost.
The question was whether the carman being required to
deliver the cask at a fresh place relieved the company
from liability. The jury found for the defendants.
THE MURDER AT STEPNEY.—WiIIiam Redhead, who
stands charged with the murder of his stepmother, has
been comitted for trial at the Central Criminal Court.
ROBBERY OF MAIL BAGS.-At Bow-street William
Folkard, a stamper at the Post-office, and Richard Bow-
man were charged with stealing letters and money-orders
from mail-bags arriving from Derby at the Midland Rail-
way Station, St. Pancras. The prosecution not being
completed, Mr. Flowers remand the prisoners.
THE LICENSING LAWS.—At Marlborough-street a man
named Ray was prosecuted for keeping a refreshment-
house without being licensed. He had to answer five
informations. He was fined in the full penalties, amount •
ing to 2160.
THE MERTHYR TYDVIL BOARD OF HEALTH. —An
appeal has been heard in the Court of Chancery on behalf
of the Merthyr Tydvil Board of Health, the Master of
the Rolls having refused to suspend any longer the execu-
tion of a writ of sequestration against their pro-
perty. The order for sequestration was made some
time ago in consequence of the Board not having obeyed a
previous order restraining them from polluting the river
Taff with the sewage of the district. Execution was post-
poned to enable the Board to carry out a process of deodo-
rusation pending the acquisition of land and construction
of works necessary for a sewer farm. These temporary
works having failed to abate the nuisance, the board ap-
plied for a further extension of time, which the Master of
the Rolls refused. Lord Chief Justice Giffard said if the
parties were acting contumaciously he would not hesitate
to grant the injunction, but the defendants had shewn
that they only wanted time to set themselves right with
the court. He therefore proposed to direct an engineer
to report whether anything could be done to diminish the
nuisance in waiting for the completion of the permanent
works. The execution of the sequestration must be sus-
pended until the engineer's report was made.

GOVERNMENT PROSECUTION AT HULL..--A prosecution
of some importance is being carried on at Hull, at the
instance of the Board of Trade. The defendant, Mr.
Edward Nicholson, is charged with removing shingle
from the beach, near Withernsea, within the port of Hull.
The counsel for the prosecution, sold the injury done by
such removal was very great and it was calculated within
fifteen years something like 250,000 tons had been car-
ried away, the result being, according to evidence of
sceientific men who could be produced, that the several
works which had been erected at Spurn Point for the pro-
tection of the Humber from the influx of the German
Ocean had become endangered, as well as the lighthouses
which cost such an enormous outlay of money. The at-
tention ( f the Board of Trade having been called to the
matter, they instituted several prosecutions last year when
nominal penalties were inflicted, on the understanding
that no further depredations would be committed
Recently, however, they had been renewed, and the de:
fendant (who, it appeared, had acted for Sir Clifford Con-
stable, the lord of the manor) was prosecuted for the re-
moval of the shingle. For the defence it was at once ad-
mitted that the shingle had been removed, but
the jurisdiction of the magistrate was disputed,
as Withernsea was not within the port or harbour
of Hull. Upon those facts Mr. Travis, delivered a writ-
ten judgment, convicting the defendant in a nominal
penalty, which would have been of greater amount, but
that Sir Clifford Constable's solicitor asked for a case for
argument in one of the superior courts, which was agreed
to be given, at the same time undertaking that until
judgment thereon should be obtained, the removal of
shingle should cease.

CHARGE OF FRAUD.—Two men of gentlemanly appear-
ranee, named Gibson and Yeomans, have been charged at
Manchester with defrauding a Mr. Horsley, of Liver-
pool, of £2OO. Advertisements had been inserted
in the newspapers and prospectuses issued respecting
the North Caradon Mining Company, of which Messrs.
Gibson and Ware were the agents: The prisoners ob-
tained from the prosecutor a cheque for £2OO, in the be-
lief on the part o 2 the latter that he was purchasing shares
in the company. The case for the prosecution was that
there was no such company in existence, and that the
transaction was, therefore, a fraud. After the examina-
tion of Mr. Horsley and another witness, the prisoners
were remanded to Wednesday, bail being refused.

CONVICTION OF AN AGENT OF A BUILDING SOCIETY.—
In this case the prisoner was the agent of the South
Lancashire Benefit Building Society, and in this capacity
he took £460 from a depositor named Susan Ambler.
He told her that he had received forty-one pounds
as interest, and this on her request he said he should
add to the other deposit. On the secretary of the society
absconding, the books were examined, and there was no
" order of payment " to Ambler ; and the prisoner was
brought up for feloniously embezzling the money.
The jury found that the " order of payment "
was • a " request to pay " or a " warrant
to pay" money. The question for the decision
of the court was, whether the indictment was good. For
the prisoner it was contended that this was a " receipt "
for money, and that it was not in the section, and that
therefore the conviction was bad. The court held other-
wise, and confirmed the conviction.
DEALING WITH PARTNERSHIP PROPERTY. —The prisoner
Jesse Smith was convicted at Leeds of having feloniously
received goods from a co-partner who had stolen them ;
and the prisoner knew of this, The court pointed out that
though the Act of last session made a partner dealing with
partnership property liable to be dealt with as if he had
not been a partner, still that did not apply to persons
receiving from such partners, though they had guilty
knowledge. The conviction must therefore be quashed.

AN UNGALLANT VOLUNTEER.—A somewhat curious
case came before the Edinburgh Small Debt Court. A
prize-winner at a competition of the Edinburgh and Mid-
Lothian Rifle Association, having won a Cup inferentially
described in the list of prizes as of a certain specified
value, successfully pleaded his right to hold the Associa-
tion to the precise terms of their announcement. The
defence of the Association virtually was that, the prize
having been presented by a lady, the pursuer should have
been content to abate at least 50 per cent. of his demand.

rt SERIOUS JOKE.—A young, man has been coin-
tted for trial, at Blackburn, on a charge of administer-
snuff to another in a glass of beer and nearly killing

A Juvenile horse stealer, a lad 11 years of age,
has been brought up at the Police Court, for stealing a
horse. He went to some livery stables, and said he
wanted a horse for his father to go to Woodolumpton,
giving a name known to the livery man. He mounted
the horse, rode off, and was discovered endeavouring to
sell the home for £7los, lie was remanded.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 6, 1870

COMMISSIONER WELLS AND THE COM-

MIT FEE ON MANUFACTURES.

SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE " NEW YORK TIMES."

WASHINGTON, May 2Q.

The House Committee on Manufactures are in a state
of ferment to-night. They have learned, some of them at
least, that in their report submitted yesterday they are
literally " Hoist by their own Petard." The fact was
developed to-day that the report of the minority of the
Committee is chiefly a sharp and pungent letter from
Commissioner Wells, in which he overturns their argu-
ments and positions with great force and completeness.
What renders the thing worse for Mr. Morrell and his
followers is the fact that the minority report was ordered
to be printed • with the majority. The scheme
of the Committee was to present a report reviewing
the report of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue,
in which every one who had a grievance against the
Special Commissioner, by reason of his recommendation,
was to be allowed to make out the best case possible
against him. For this purpose all their resources were laid
under contribution. The wool manufactures, under the
lead of Mr John L. Hayes, of Boston, furnished
anew the pamphlets issued by them inthe early
part of last winter ; and the four cotton manufac-
tories of Boston have also embodied their recent letter
denying the accuracy of the statistics of the cotton manu-
facture presented by the Commissioner, and which he
subsequently answered and demolished. In addition to
this the report contains a summary of the editorials
of the New York Tribune on wool, the petitions
of pig iron makers, and various other statements
gotten up by different parties in respect to gunny
cloth, webbing lumber, and the price of wheat ; the
whole winding up with the conclusion that the. Commis-
sioner was not only entirely wrong in all his statements
and calculations, but that he meant to represent and mis-
state the questions at issue, and had also entirely over-
stepped the legitimate province of his office. This report
has been in course of preparation for a long time, with
great secrecy, and it was intended to submit it to the
House, and have it printed and circulated without giving
the Commissioner or his friends the opportunity to sub-
mit any rebutting evidence or explanation whatsoever.
But, as " the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft
aglee," so this of Messrs. Morrell, Oakes, Ames, and Co.,
unexpectedly came to grief. A portion of the committee
not being willing that the Conmissioner should be con-
demned unheard, secured the privilege of furnishing him
with the points of attack, with a note requesting that he
would submit such answer to the same as he might think
proper. But the whole of the joke has not yet been told.
The innocent Mr Morrell, and the shrewd Mr Oakes Ames
did not conceive it possible that the minority of the Com-
mittee would attempt anything more than a feeble effort
in the way of a protest to what was clearly an
ex-pa rte statement, and so when the minority asked the
unanimous consent of the House that they might print
their statement in connection with those of the majority,
the permission was unhesitatingly granted, and the
two documents, if circulated at all, will have to be circu-
lated together, As one illustration of the way in which
the Commissioner has demolished his adversaries, the case
of the article of webbing may be referred to—and this ar-
ticle seems to have been a sort of pet thing with the ma-
jority of the committee, for they enlarge upon it to the
extent of several pages, and endeavour to show that the
Commissioner, who talked of the reduction of duty on the
essential raw materials of our great manufactures, in
reality through ignorance or carelessness, proposed to
increase the duty on this particular article to
the extent of several hundred per cent. The Com-
missioner has demolished their whole fabric by simply
going to the New York Custom-house, and taking a copy
of the first invoice of webbing imported duriiig the present
month. This he presents entire, and leaves every one to
see for himself that the duties recommended by him are
simply a practical conversion of the present ad valorem
into specific rates, and are nothing more ; a practical argu-
ment from which there can be no escape. So, also, in re-
gard to pig-iron, cotton, wool, lumber, comparative prices
of agricultural product, and other matters, the Commis-
sioner brings such a vast amount of additional information
as renders his letter to the minority of the Committee on
Manufactures second only in importance to the report
presented by him at the commencement of the session.
The report of the minority is strongly in favour of the
Commissioner, but points out that the question really at
issue is not whether Mr. Wells understood the cost of
freight or manufacture, but whether a burdensome system
of taxation shall be maintained upon the whole country
for the benefit of a few special interests. The business of
the country is, they point out, extremely depressed, and
the only marvel is that the energy and resources of the
country have enabled its commerce to bear up against
such an oppressive burden.

THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES IN FOREIGN
COUNTRIES.

The reports to which we have hitherto called attention
relate to the condition of the working-classes on the Con-
tinent of Europe. There remains to be noticed the Report
on the condition of similar classes in America. The sub.
ject is highly interesting, for, if there is any country which
deserves to be called the paradise of the working man, it
is the United States of America. Here. as Mr. Ford's
report puts it, the labouring classes may be said to embrace
the entire nation. " Every man works for a
living, follows a profession, or is engaed either
in mercantile or industrial pursuits." No profession
and no calling is a bar to political promotion
or social elevation. The tailor or bookbinder of to-day
may aspire to Presidential honours, not exactly, as Mr.
Ford puts it, " to-morrow," but within a defined and not
remote time. The son of the President offends no social
prejudices by taking a farm or a dry goods' store. All this
_ _

a so much in harmony with the opinions and sympathies
of our working-men that it is no wonder that they should
wish to Americanise their own country. Never, indeed,
in any one country were all the conditions favourable to
their prosperity so signally combined as they are in
America. An immense and unpeopled area, a climate for
the most part salubrious, a soil for the most part fertile,
an ample seaboard indented with capacious harbours, an
exuberance of metallic wealth—all these advantages con-
curto attract and to employ a continuous influx of labouring
immigrants. Line after line of railroad is constructed,
city after city is reared, factory after factory is set agoing.
Every kind of work that can stimulate industry and re-
ward ingenuity is persistently and continually developed.
New works bring new wealth, new wealth craves new
luxuries. New luxuries set new trades in operation.
The circle of demand and supply goes round, and with it
grow the importance and employment of the working
classes. There is rarely a long stagnation of work. There
ought never to be an utter want of money. Wages are
high enough in the generality of towns to admit of saving
quite enough to meet such bad seasons as do occasionally
occur. All these circumstances are favourable to the
operative, but they are more favourable to the opera-
tive of foreign than of American extraction.
California is the seventh heaven of the working-man's
paradise, i.e. if the enjoyments of a paradise may be
measured by money payments. Here, bricklayers get
from 18s. to £1 4s. a day ; blacksmith's helpers, Bs. to 10s.
a day ; brush and broom makers, " £l5 a month and
found ;" " coachmen trom £7 to £lO a month and
found ;" carriage builders, 14s. to 16s. a day ; -farm
labourers, " £6 a month and found in winter, £8 a month
and found in summer ;" gasfitters, 14s. to 18s. a day ; gar-
deners, " £6 to £8 a month and found ;" miners, " Bs. to
14s. a day and found ;" quarrymen, 10s. a day ; sawyers,
" £8 to £2O a month and found ;" waiters, "£4 to £8 a
month and found." Fortunately for the European em-
ployer of labour, California is a very long way off, and it
requires far more money to get there than the improvident
habits of our artisans allow them to save. Those
who aspire to settle there must make up their minds to go
through a long apprenticeship in Canada or the Eastern
States before they have earned sufficient to carry them to
the coast of the Pacific. Mr. Ford thinks that the golden
days of the Californian labourer have passed away. But
we question the correctness of his judgment. He hardly
seems to make the requisite allowance for the inevitable
consequences of the railroad which now unites the
Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. It is impossible that the
vast area traversed by this line should long remain sterile
and unpopulated, or that cities should not grow around
the metallic wealth of Neveda and California, or the
agricultural wealth of the plains watered by the Arkansa
River. A more formidable obstruction perhaps to English
immigration is the increasing immigration of Chinese, a
people whose skill, industry, and perseverance make them
invaluable in the development of large but sparsely
populated countries. Were there a much easier access
than there is ever likely to be for English and
German' immigrants, the popular prejudice against the
Chinese labourers would probably assume the form of a
harsh and prohibitive policy against their introduction.
But as the competition lies between them and the Irish,
the popular sentiment allows its hatred of yellow-skins to
be merged in its detestation of Irish factions and rowdyism.
After a strike of white shoemakers at San Francisco, the
people were in despair at how to get boots and shoes. At
last Chinamen were introduced at wages of 16s. a day.
" So successful was this importation that the managers
report they will soon require as many, white men for over-
seers as were previously required as working hands."
Certainly, if the whole tribe of Irish unskilled labourers
'and waiters were swept away, not a single American
capitalist who was not a railway contractor or a manipu-
lator of New 'York elections would regret it. But, much
as all American genslemen would rejoice at
this catastrophe, their joy would be as nothing
compared to that of the American ladies if
they could but find themselves emancipated from
the tyranny of their Irish cooks and chambermaids.
Mr. Ford's Report confirms all that we have been told or
have read of the dirt, slovenliness, ignorance, and inso-
lence of a class of people who combine the rudeness of a
savage with the wants and exactions of the most civilized
life. On the whole, this report shews cause for relaxing
some of our Malthusian strictness. Our English working-
folk may marry and multiply, provided only that they
lay by sufficient to enable them to emigrate to new fields
of labour. Between the Pacific States of America and our
own colonies of Canada and Australia there is ample room
and employment for thousands of English men and women
who do no work in England. But they must save here in
.order to go thither, and many of them must consent to
'earn in Canada the means of transit to California. It
will never do for benevolent societies to come to their
rescue by winking at their improvidence when they are
well paid, and sending them out of the country at other
people's expense as soon as work falls slack and wages go
down.—Saturday _Review.