The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-10 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, IFS

There is internal war raging at this moment
in the sot, disant United States. Citizen is
arrayed against citizen. The only argument at-
tended to is that of " the strong arm." Law is,
for the time being, completely set aside. The
conflict is waged to the knife ; and the old
pioneers, the Boos and HARRODS, could they
again revisit the scene of their earthly pilgrimage,
might suppose that the Indians had regained
their former strength, and were onco more fight-
ing for their squaws and wigwams.

It is not, however, a contest between moo of
different races ! The "pale faces " are them-
selves avenging the wrong 3 inflicted on their red
brethren. Their victorious arms are now directed
against each other, and a war, almost of exterini-
nation, is carried oa almost without mercy or con-
sideration for the other side. Civil dissension is,
indeed, gnawing with viperous tooth the bowels
of the common weal ; for the entire community is
deeply concerned in the result. The most im-
portant problem of the day awaits the fate of the
" Domestic Institution," as it has been emphati-
cally designated ; or, in other words, slavery in
its most revolting phases is involved in the event.
The slaveowners have set their lives and fortunes
on the cast, and it is but simple justice to say
that they are displaying a degree of seal and
energy worthy of a better cause. They aro like
the knight errants of old, ready to fight to the last
drop of their blood on behalf of that which they
have determined to support, per fits atilt vefas.
The Northerns, too, aro awaking from their for-
mer apathy. They see at length the vital conse-
quence of the issue, and are exerting themselves
accordingly. But they are only actuated by the
love of truth and justice ; while their opponents
are stimulated by cupidity and the love of arbi-
trary power—the evil principles which efeite men
to the most gigantic exertions.

There is, however, a rival enlistment going ou
in the different States--nominally to encourage
emigration, but really to obtain hardy and deter-
mined soldiers, who will fight to extremity on
the side under which they have enlisted. If left
to themselves there could be but little doubt as to
the result. The cause of truth and justice, sup-
ported by the hardy Northerns, would unques-
tionably prevail. But President PlPllteg has
chosen to cast the whole weight .f his power into
the pro-slavery scale. He has instructed the
federal troops to assist the Southerns and oppose
the Northerns on every occasion when there is
the slightest possible excuse for so doing. Kansas
is for the time being the "cockpit" of the
Federal Republic. It is there that the " outposts 4
are now engaged. But it will be impossible long
to maintain neutrality. The disease will spread
throughout the entire nation, and every State will
feel bound to send its contingent to the party
which it supports. At present it is a race between
the rival points of the compass. The South has
in some respects the advantage, but the superior
stamina of the other side must tell in the long
run ; and we must remember that " the race is
not always to the •swift," although we trust that
" the battle may be for the strong."
Under such circumstances, ordinary rules must
be dispensed with ; and Governor REEDER, of
New York, has come forward with a degree of
enthusiasm which will reflect imperishable lustre
on his name. His admirable speech, which we
published in extenso in cur impression of yester-
day, places the question on a right basis, so that
he who runs may read. He declares the nature
of the only remedy that can prove efficacious :
"Unless men are raised and put upon the
soil of Kansas, supported, sustained, and
fed. there, she will be lost." This may
be considered an extreme proceeding. But the
exigency of the case requires it, and it is but fol-
lowing the example long since set by their oppo-
nents. If ever it was right to be taught by an
enemy it is so in the present instance. You
cannot meet men who set all laws at defiance
according to the strict letter of the law. In such
cases rules that WOlii under diarcut circum-
stances be excellent servants, become rigid and
Wadeable, taakmaltore. Tho Southornis hay°

subscribed and enlisted men for the contest—the
Northerns must do the same, unless contented to
be distanced in the encounter, and to be compelled
eventually to fight on behalf of their own
positions.

Germanism is in the ascendant in Paris as well
as in London. " Steps have already been taken
to prevent the collection of subscriptions for the
purpose of purchasing 100 guns for the protec-
tion and armament of the fortress of Alessandria."
Such is the answer of the Government of the
Tuileries to the insolent demand of the Austrian
charge d'Affaires, which imperiously demanded
the prohibition of the unwelcome demonstra-
tion. It was, in fad, a labour of love,
that required no prompting ! Sardinia had
been our ally in the late war, had set
a brilliant example to the Imperial and Royal
faineants, who so grossly disregarded their duties,
and hung back in the dark hour of danger and
distress. Therefore, Sardinia should be dis-
couraged, and every effort in her favour sup-
pressed with the strong arm. Sardinia is
the recognised champion of Italian free-
dom, Austria its oppressor ; therefore must
every Austrian desire be promptly anticipated,
and every kgitini fate expression of sym-
pathy for Piedmont discouraged. This is truly
Imperial logic, but we greatly doubt if it will
find any echo either in France or England.

We ask under what /ate has this insolent de-
mand been put forward ? What power is the re
of carrying it into practical execution ? We kno w
that PETS. " the Cruel, the Cunning, the
Greedy"—(we could multiply titles far more
applicable than the abused term " the Great")—
demanded the execution of the Sheriff of Middle-
sex, who permitted the arrest of one of his Am-
bassador's servants. But even he was obliged to
be contented with the assurance that Queen ANNE
had not the power to comply with his request,
and Louts NAPOLEON might (if his heart were not
in the cause) have made a similar answer ; for
there can be no doubt on the point. There is no
war between Sardinia and Austria. There can
therefore be no breach of the neutrality laws—no
point on which any despot can take hold, or found
a just complaint. If at this moment we chose to
subscribe for the purpose of replacing the cannon
taken from Sebastopol the Government could
not interfere. Nor can they do so with Sardinia.
Austria might as well complain of the loan
granted to that Government, and if the voluntary
exertions of the peoples of either country
produce so gratifying and, probably, so useful
a testimonial to VICTOR EMMAITUEL, Austria must
simply bear it as she best can. We
say advisedly that there is no legal power to
arrest its progress either in France or England ;
and that if authority be so far strained in the
farmer country, it will only lead to its being
quadrupled, aye, made tenfold in England, where
we defy and laugh at any undue and illegal in-
terference with our just rights.

There can be little question as to the value of
transportation as a penal remedy. Hence we
are by no means surprised to find among the
resolutions of the Select Committee on the sub-
ject
oie to the effect " that the punishment of
transportation is more effectual and deterring,
better adapted for the ultimate reformation of
convicts, and more beneficial to this country than
any other secondary punishment far serious
crimes which has yet been tried." By this
description of punishment we got rid of the
majority of convicts " for good," were enabled to
deal with them effectively, and on the expiration
of their appointed term to hold out to them
every encouragement to be honest, and otherwise
to submit themselves to the requirements of the
law.

The proposition is indisputable, nay, we will go
further and cordially join in the recommendation of
the Committee "that the sentence of transporta-
tion be continued so far as her MAJESTY'S domi-
nions may afford safe and proper facilities for the
purpose." The inferiority of the present system
is palpable to the meanest understanding. Not
merely the ticket-of-leave men, but those also
whose depravity is so great that tickets of leave
cannot be conceded to them, find every one of
them their way back into society when their term
is ended, no 1 ;.,7, to its danger and detriment—
for there is but, little temptation can be held out
to them to conduct themselves with propriety
for the future. It is quite probable als)
that the locale was better adapted than the hulks
or the confined areas where convicts are now em-
ployed for their moral amelioration. Let us have
a continuation then of the sentence of transporta-
tion, if by that is implied a continuation also of
the accessories which gave the punishment its
principal value.

But how are we to set about it ? The reader
will have noticed the qualification of the recom-
mendation of the Committee—" so far as her
MAJESTY'S dominions may afford safe and proper
facilities for the purpose." Here is the rub.
Whore are we to find colonies wherein to subject
our convicts to the discipline needful for their re-
formation, and to offer them when liberated oppor-
tunity readily to obtain the means of living so as
to be preserved from want, that all-powerful
temptation to crime ? Western Australia is the
only receptacle at present available, and. Western
Australia takes only a small proportion of the best
class of males, and rejects female convicts alto•
gether, besides being very expensive. In the five
years ending 1855, we are told upwards of
400,0001. had been spent in getting rid of less
than 4,000 convicts, of which sum a considerable
item was devoted "to finding employment for
ticket-of-leave men, who, in so small a colony,
cannot find private masters." Islands may doubt-
less be found wherein to pour the black tide of
our criminals, but where shall we find any in
whioh the honest men shall be so numerous and in
such a condition as to be able to employ and re-
strain the thieves? The transportation we could
desire differs widely from the only transportation
apparently open to us. Is the latter worth what
it will cost ? Doubtless so far as transporta-
tion operated as a determent it will
to the full as effective, more so, possibly, at
Gibraltar or Bermuda, than it was at the Anti-
podes. Tu be rid of our convicts as we wish,
however,
employment must be found for them
abroad, and to this a host of objections will be
started, including, perhaps, the fatal one that
such a scheme would be found impracticable.
The suggestion of some of the witnesses, appa-
rently adopted by the Committee, " that in more
serious cases a sentence should be passed of
transportation or penal servitude to be carried
is worthy of consideration.
out in prisons abroad"
Its adoption would lead to the settlement of a
very difficult question, for it would then be seen
what advantages convict establishments abroad
and if
have over such establishments at home,
these proved great the obstacle of increased
expenditure might be surmounted.

Vi connt Palmerston arrived in town yesterday morn
ta oin S.. Le,inard's OL•ki, a.
Lord Rivers has left town for Donetshire.
About 15,0001. in Australian gold was taken ti) the
Bank yesterday.

LATEST EWS.

THE SUN, 14f)P.; DON, WED NESD IN EPTEMB ER 10 i s's

him, when a royalist, seeing the danger of his chief,
endeavoured to stab the republican with his bayo-
net. The latter seized hold of the musket by the
barrel, and, turning it aside, laid the man dead at
the feet of the Count do Pourtales with a blow from
a hatchet. He then secured his prisoner, who had
been before this severely wounded in the head, and
would have been now killed by his capturer, had
not some one interposed and prevented it. it. de
Pourtales offered the man I,ooof. if he would allow
him to make his escape, but the volunteer rejected
the offer with disdain, and tearing off the decora-
tions which the count wore, threw them in his
face. Colonel Denzler at this moment came up,
and the count was removed to a place of safe cus-
tody. The prisoners, to the number of 500, are
confined in the church. Count de Pourtales
Georgier, and MM. do Rougemont, Tarrisse, de
Petitpierre de Wesdehlen, and Lardy, an advocate,
were arrested in a vineyard. Colonel de Meuron
was taken at Fribourg, and another of the counts
de Pourtalbs at Estavager. There were three
members of the family of Pourtales engaged in the
affair. One was killed, and the others are pri-
soners."
The New Gazette of Prussia attributes the late
outbreak at Neufchatel to the rivalry which exists
between the railroad company of Verriere, which
is supported by the Royalists, and the line of the
Jura, which is favoured by the Radicals. The
Belgian and German papers very deservedly ridi-
cule this absurd interpretation of the unsuccessful
royalist attempt.

THE PEEL PAPERS.

Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart.,
M.P., &e. Part I. The Roman Catholic Ques-
tion.lB2B-9. Edited by Lord Mahon (now
Earl Stanhope) and the Right Hon. Edward
Cardwell, M.P. Vol. I. John Murray.
Opening this initial volume of the posthumous
explanations, or autobiographic memorials of Sir
Robert Peel, with eager curiosity—we close it and
lay it aside with mingled feelings of chagrin and
disappointment. Not but that it is completely
triumphant as a vindication. For it is that—and
much more than that : it is, in its way, to our
thinking, a masterpiece of lucid condensation, a
comprehensive repertory of political arguments re-
lating to a theme of the very last importance, and,
above all, a revelation of elevated principle, and of
conscientious scrupulosity eminently well-befitting
the foremost statesman of his generation. The
source of disappointment, therefore, be it said, at
once is discoverable neither in the theme of this frag-
ment of an autobiography, nor in the person of this
fragmentary autobiographer. It is traceable
solely to the inappositeness of the period selected
; for its publication. Time was when the volume
11 now exam• •
inea, comparatively speaking,with so much
1 apathy--would have set the whole of the political
mind of England in a flame. The all-exciting in-
, finance of the question it relates to having long since
passed away like the enthralling glamour of some
bewitchie,g legend of romance—its interest, the in-
,terec:, "Dead and gone" of a tale that is told ! It is
loft only nowadays for some fanatical prig like the son
of Spencer Percival toavew in so many words(as that ,
unworthy offspring of a worthy sire has recently
avowed in so many words)—" So cordially do I
hate all Papists that I would, at the beginning of
every Session, place a notice of motion on the votes
of Parliament for the repeal of the odious act of
1829 ; and if the only voter in its favour I would
resolutely divide against it"—adding with little less
than blasphemous indecorum " I am a Protestant,
and as a Protestant I revere and almost to idolatry
adore, our Most Gracious Sovereign ; but oh, and
' absit omen,' if she became a Papist, I for one
(and I have no doubt I should be followed by mil-
lions, nay, tens of millions, of stanch Protestants)
I would hoist the standard of rebellion against her."
Needs it to be whispered, upon all which, that the ,
day has gone by for the echoing, either within the
House or without the House, of the ravings of any
such ribald and ridiculous rhodomontade ? One
can no more resuscitate the agitation about the 1
Act of 1829 than one could possibly do the same
by the Act of 1846. It wore nothing less of a
miracle than the creation of a soul under the ribs
of Death. The epitaph of each has been long ago
written and emblazoned in very legible charac-
ters over its tomb, and that, moreover, without
the consolatory promise, to the more infatuated
adherents of an expired cause, implied by the pro-
phetic verb Resurgam ! In either case, the corse
has, ytars and years ago, crumbled away utterly
into dust, and " even in their ashes," lives not one
spark of those wonted fires that time atone lit up
thecountry from endto end, far and wide, in one vast
social conflagration. The Catholic Question is done
with—the Corn Law Question is dcne with—for
once and for all—the former since 1829, the latter
since 1846. As well attempt to restore the villan-
ous old Penal Enactments to the statute-book, and
to enforce them when so restored, as hope for one
instant to close the ports against the free imports.-
tion of grain into England, as in the narrow-minded,
close-fisted time known as the evil days of Protection.
Mr. Percival's son may foam over with a religious,
or perhaps we should rather say more correctly an
irreligious, rabidity like that of Lord George Gor-
don. Mr. Ferrand's lineal descen3ants to the third
and fourth generation may babble out the old
sophistical platitudes familiar to the agricultural
mind before the well-remembered apparition of
the famous League of Manchester—but, in spite of
all, in each instance the Question has been dofi
naively settled, the die thrown, the stake seized,
the goal passed, the crown won, the Giant of
Bigotry in one instance, the Giant of Monopoly iu
the other, toppled down, beheaded like Goliath
"with his own sword," buried, forgotten, obliterated.
And so destroyed—both of them—that neither can
be revived even hypothetically for the simple pur-
pose of any lengthened re-examination. Ifoonclusive
testint my of this be required, it is discernable at once
in regard to the Catholic Question, in regard to the
Act of 1829, as recalled to popular remembrance
under the illuminating influence of this really
luminous and indisputably important fragment of
Sir Robert Peel's deliberate and candid Autobio-
graphy. Time fame of Sir Robert, his resplendent
popularity, his lofty and dignified reputation fail,
all of them together, aided as they are in the in-
stance before U 9 by all the graces of his rhetoric,
totally and signally fail to rekindle in the pub-
lic mind anything like an earnest interest in
the gradual rise, and prolonged agitation, and
conclusive settlement of the Catholic Question.
People nowadays are too much engrossed in con
sidering the vital interests of their own age, in-
terests involved first of all in a bungled War,
and afterwards in a disgraceful Peace—to care
very much for "pottering over" long-forgotten
blue-books, for turning over old files of news-
papers, for ransacking any of the far back pages of
Mansard in relation to triumphs won in 1846 by
the " unadorned eloquence" of Richard Cobden,
or to victories no less signal in their way achieved
as far back as 1829, by the highly-coloured oratory
of Daniel O'Connell, the Tribune of the Irish de-
mocracy ! Granted, as we have already explicitly
granted, that the important volume under con-
sidetation—the initial volume of the " Memoirs
of Sir Robert Peel," Part I. The Roman Catholic
Question, 1828.9—is complete, is perfect, as far as
anything of the kind can be perfect, as a posthu-
mous vindication. Granted all this : and
yet must we add to all this that the
book is read with weariness, and laid aside
at last with feelings of disappointment. The
truth of the matter being that it appears too late I
It ought to have been given to the world sooner.
Why it was not given to the world sooner is best
known, of course, to the Trustees of Sir Robert,
appointed as such by a memorable codicil to his last
Will and Testament. Lord Stanhope and Mr.
Cardwell, as joint editors of the work before
us (in their capacity as Trustees of the
" Peel Papers,") seem to imply, by one brief
passage in their singularly curt and un-
satisfactory "Preface," a certain consciousness
that they may possibly have been at fault in their
lengthened and altogether unaccountable procras-
tination. Otherwise, after the extraordinary de-
lay that has taken place since the lamented death
of Sir Robert Peel in 1850, and thia tardy publieas
tion of 'Volume One of hie Memoirs in 1856, they
would never have gone perversely out of their way
to remark that." Considering the perfect order
and arrangement in which these, and nearly
all the other MSS. were found, it would have
been easy for the Editors to send them to
press forthwith"--eappending somewhat flippantly
to this blunt acknowledgment the assertion f
"That was not, however, tticitown opinion of their
duty." Observing, after this, with a view, of
course to the extenuation of their conduct in re-
gard to the delay : " When the claims to an en-
during renown are only few, or slight, it may be
necessary to catch the popular fa-vour as it flies.
But in the case of a truly great statesman, his
fame has everything to gain, and nothing to lose,
1 by well-considered delay in the publication of his
papers. Such delay affords a proof that there
are no party or personal MotiteS to stileserVe ; it
allows the party spirit in all other quarters to sub-
side ; it both induces and enables every reader to
contemplate every question iii a calm, historic
point 'of view," The trustees and editors of Eiir
Robert Peel might have added, that it also allows
the whole interest of the nation to die out in re-
gard to any particiilar toilio; shell tie this one of
the " Qathelic question"—and reduces the entire
voblern under our more immediate considera-
tion
(that affecting their own Conanet rathor
than the conduct of the great departed Statesman)
to the estimate formed by different minds as to
what previous delay ought most accurately to be
designated as " well-considered." Leaving this
still a moot-point with their readers, Earl Stan-
hope and Mr. Cardwell content themselves now
with the vague promise of giving to the world tWO
other volumes "after a certain interval," volumes
following each other in chronological order, relat,
ing (vol. ii.) to the circumstance., attending did
formation of Sir Robert Peel's.. as'
1834-5, and (eol :"` ' _. s first iviinistry in
of 1810 • - _..iis to the inauguration of the act
LI. , the trenchant Alexandrian Act severing
ec—els of the Gordian Knot of the Corn Law
question. " After a certain interval" these
volumes are to appear, rather we are disposed to
conjecture after a most uncertain interval,
judging from the tardy advent of this pro-
' limmary publication. Delayed as the work
has been, it will prove inestimable nevertheless
as an authority for consultation by the future
Lingard or Macaulay—remaining, however, as we
are firmly persuaded it must remain from first to
last,-a sealed book to the vast majority of the popu-
lation. Apart altogether from the tardiness of its
appears Pe., its contents, consiFe•ing rather of tine
raw Materials of history than of the mellowed and
ripened fruits of a 'systematic Autobiography.

CUX • 14,

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