The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-12 00:00:00

TILE SIJN, LON DON, rRIDAY EVENINO, SEPTEMBER IQ 1864

proper attempt of the President to direct the
Federal troops to enforce the unconstitutional de-
crees of an illegal and usurping body, styling
itself " The Territorial Legislature of Kansas."
Meanwhile the President has given orders
to discharge forthwith all workmen and other
employes not holding commissions from himself,
whose pay, wages, or salaries are taken from the
appropriation for the manufacture of arms at the
national armouries. This is apparently the last
move on the board. He may imagine that cast-
ing a number of men out of employment, and
thereby reducing their families to comparative
distress, will heap obloquy on his opponents.
But the Americans are a sturdy race. They '
have already on many occasions exhibited un-
questionable proofs of' their tenacity of endurance
in what they believe to be a just and holy cause ;
and we are greatly mistaken if the odium conse-
quent on the movement will not fall more heavily
on the President and his advisers than on those
who have offered a constitutional opposition to
his would-be despotic will.
Already the Northerns have regained all the
advantages which were achieved by the pro-
slavery party on the first onslaught ; they have
shown themselves made of the right material, and

if the question were to be decided amongst the
real bona fide immigrants into Kansas for the
purpose of settlement, there could be no doubt as
to the result. The Missourian ruffians had every,

thing in their favour in the first instance. They
took the peaceful settlers by surprise, and came
down with an organised piratical gang, prepared
for any extremities, who plundered and murdered
all who came in their way, whether friend or foe.
Under their invasion—for it was nothing else—
every vestige of legal authority was set aside.
A so-called Territorial Legislature was appointed,
under circumstances of intimidation and duresse
that rendered the pretext of election a ridiculous
farce ; and it was this Legislature that Mr.
PIERCE attempted to support with the Federal
troops.

If such proceedings could be tolerated, it would
be for the Northerns to demand the dissolution of
the Union—a matter by which they would be
greatly benefited, while the Southerns would
speedily be compelled to cry "Peccavimus I" and
to solicit its restoration. It is scarcely to be sup-
posed that 25,000,000 of free citizens should be
compelled to yield to 300,000 burdened
with the care of ten times the num-
ber of slaves, whom, if left to themselves,
they would find it impossible to manage. Should
the separation really take place a fair division
may be made of the national standard ; the stars
will naturally belong to the north, while the
"stripes" will be the distinguishing mark of the
south, on which they have long cast an i4elible
, stain.

The result of the Presidential election offers the
only solution of the great problem. If FREMONT
be returned all will be well. Should BUCHANAN,
however, triumph, it will be but " the beginning of
the end." The model republic will pass through a
fearful trial, but we believe that it will be materially
improved by the ordeal. Until, however, that
event has been decided, it is vain to anticipate
peace or tranquillity. The Southerns will still
strike while a single hope remains. BICHANAN
is their last card, and we earnestly trust that he
may be overtrumped. by FREMONT.

The King of Nei.Lns still maintains inviolate
what he is pleased to consider his sovereign right
to "do what he likes with his own." The lesson
he learned in his youth is one a Bourbon was
never slow to acquire, nor, once having learned, to
forget. Indeed, of all principles, good or evil,
none is more religiously cherished, or held in
abeyance with more reluctance than " the right
divine of kings to govern wrong." Once embraced
in early life, nothing but death can sever the
bond. Promises are nothing oaths are of no
account— so long as a born despot has the power
to act on this sovereign principle, act on it he
must and will. The leopard will sooner change
his spots than he cast this, his only " stuff o' the
conscience," aside. So Pozaro, and other noble
martyrs,. day by day rot in their prisons, and
Naples is an earthly hell.
We don't wonder at it, so far as BOMBA. is con-
cerned. The wonder, if any, is that the people
have borne with him and his mandates so pa-
tiently. To do them justice, however, it must
be remembered that they have been and are
cruelly mystified by the French and English Go-
vernments. Knowing an attempt at revolution,
under all the circumstances, involves the gravest
hazard, they have turned to these Governments
in hope of redress, and have suffered themselves to
be cajoled from the initiation of an organised resist-
ance by the promises they have received of effective
interference, Franco and England, they are per-
petually told, have either sent in a threatening
remonstrance, or the Government of Naples is
about to receive one which will frighten it back
within the confines of the constitution. An
amnesty, they are told, will speedily be issued,
but it never comes. The KING is wiser than they
in this matter. He understands the policy of the
Emperor of the FRENCH, on which, by the direr
or indirect confession of an English governmenta
journal, that of Lord PALMERSTON depends (!) and
his subjects do not. If they addressed themselves
to an unbiassed consideration of their position,
they would soon be satisfied as to how little they
have to expect in the way of aid from either
Government. The free exercise of their own
good sense would teach them that, the man who
successfully conspired against the constitution
in Spain, and unsuccessfully against the Swiss
Republic is not the deliverer they look for, and
if he interferes at all it will be to thrust on them
possibly a less cruel, but certainly a no less iron,
despotism in subservience to his will. A change
of tyrants is doubtless a boon for the nonce, but
the Two Sicilies surely deserve something better
than that. If they do, their own wisdom and
their own right arms, in conjunction and har-
mony with those of other oppressed Italian States,
must be brought into play to insure it.

" Hereditary bondsmen know ye not
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow 1
This is a piece of information Italy should lay to
heart at the present moment. Italian liberty, to
be established, must be based on it.
In Austrian Italy an example is being set which
is well worthy of imitation. Ultimate good can-
not but come of it even in Naples. We allude to
M. MANIN's scheme of an organised resistance to
pay taxes, as a legal means or peaceful agitation,
which might go far to force the KING of Naples
to submit to reforms. In Lombardy this scheme
has been put into operation to the great annoy-
ance of Austria. In Brescia this has been done
on an extensive scale, and the Government is

baffled by the absence of bidders for the property
it has confiscated in consequence. The scheme
should, iu our opinion, bo tried in Naples. The
Neapolitans have still a constitution entitling
them to refuse payment. The subjects of Austria
in Italy have not, and yet thousands of them are
bold enough to withhold their quota of taxation.
It is objected that BOMBS would seize persons,
and not property, and imprisonment, and possibly
death, must be looked for as the most probable re,

suit. Doubtless there is some force in the objection ;
but he is a dreamer who looks for the restoration of
liberty in Italy without bloodshed ; and if any are
prepared to devote themselves as sacrifices to
their country's welfare there would seem to be no
field at present where their devotion could be more
signally manifested and prove of more essential
service. If the operation of the scheme be pro-
ductive of the results contemplated by its con-
ooctor, well, no harm is done ; if not, and the
sodden tyrant perpetrate new atrocities, the public
ear of Europe is on the stretch to hear of them,
and every fresh act will but precipitate a revolu-
tion with which it will be dangerous to any sym-
pathising despot to interfere, and which will
be conclusive of the sway of the tyrants of Italy,
including the ever-execrable BOMBA.

ROYAL BRITISH BANK.

The failure of the Royal British Bank has led to
a variety of suggestions from those who are prone
to believe that Government restrictions to prevent
su eh disasters are better than the lessons of expe-
rience. In the face of all that has been shown of
the effect of legislative attempts to keep men pru-
dent by determining the modes in which they shall
transact their business there are always a number of
persons ready, whenever any financial disaster oc-
curs, to propose measures of control, the fact being
wholly lost sight of that a multitude of regulations
serves merely to confuse the general public and to
give adroit schemers increased openings for evasion,
while at the same time it begets a false confidence
and extinguishes the habit of private vigilance. The
evils of such a system would be insuperable even if
Parliament, instead of being constituted as it is, were
composed of persons gifted with greater discernment
as to the true principles on which financial establish-
ments should be conducted than the ordinary trader
whose dailyisersonal interests are all enlisted in the
question. It is damaging, therefore, whenever an
event occurs from which men should be taught to
gather for themselves a wholesome lesson, to seek
to divert them from the true uses of the adversity
by representing that it has happened not from any
want of wisdom on their part, but from the neglect
of statesmen to frame preventive checks. In the
case of banks, when a stoppage happens, it is
usually contended that greater publicity of accounts,
the supervision of a Government auditor, the com-
pulsory investment of the capital in Government
stocks, or other analogous provisions, should forth-
with be adopted. The whole, however, would prove
nugatory. The publication of bank accounts, unless
coupled with the names of the drawers, acceptors,
and endorsers of each bill discounted, is entirely
worthless, the supervision of Government auditors
would soon sink into deceptive routine, or be ac-
companied by vexatious formalities that would ren-
der it intolerable, and the enforced investment of
capital in any particular method would throw all
the responsibility upon the State in case through
political or other circumstances it should at any
time lead to embarrassment. Hard as the asser-
tion may seem, people who suffer from events like
that which has just occurred merely reap the con-
sequences of their own ignorance or false confi-
dence, except in so far as they are misled by such
tampering with the natural freedom of their ope-
rations as is' promoted by the protective laws al-
ready in existence, and which the theorists in ques-
tion desire to see carried further. The fact that
the Royal British Bank bad been favoured by
Government with a special charter, and the suppo-
sition that the law which renders its directors and
shareholders liable to their last shilling must afford
an ample guarantee not only for their prudence, but
for the fulfilment of their engagements under all
possible circumstances, have no doubt betrayed
many of the depositors into the blind reliance from
which they have suffered, but in all other respects
they have only themselves to blame. They could
not be expected to recognise that unlimited liabi-
lity in many cases throws the management of banks
into the hands of a reckless class, and often causes
the proprie+ )xy to be composed of persons whose
liability, limited or unlimited, is worth little; nor
could they assume that the restrictions of a charter
framed by the Board c Trade, and containing a
proviso that upon one-fourth of the capital being
lost the establishment should be wound up, were
scarcely anything but snares. The fate of the Tip-
perary Bank, some of the Newcastle banks, and a
variety of others, might have warned them, but
these examples were not likely to be potent when
throughout the last session of Parliament the in-
estimable value of such regulations in all banking
concerns was universagy insisted upon. In every
other aspect of the matfsr, however, they must be
answerable for their mistaken trust. But, although
the cry for Government meddling is unsupported
by reason or experience, and is suited for the con-
tinent instead of England, the public are entitled
to denounce, not merely the absence of such just
laws as would visit great financial offences with the
severity shown to other delinquencies, but the actual
encouragement given in such cases by the know-
ledge that a resort to the Court of Chancery will
be far more terrible to the creditor than to the
parties by whom he has been ruined. Until the
wilful concealment of losses, the misappropriation
of proprietary funds, and offences of this descrip-
tion generally, are made penal, and the prompt
and inexpensive procedure of a criminal court can
be invoked, it will be vain to hope for any improve-
ment. At present it is the offender, and not the
victim, who holds up the law as a threat, and all
the efforts of the latter, as has been seen in the
case of the British Bank, are exerted to obtain any
compromise which shall save him from the protec-
tion of the Winding-up Act. With regard to
ordinary companies, the new Joint Stock Bill
makes an important advance in the right direction,
but banks, in which more than anything else the
safety of the trader is concerned, are still left to be
conducted, like the Aberdeen Bank, the Tipperary,
or the Royal British, under;laws which seem framed
to deter prudent persons of large property from
having anything to do with them, and to insure
immunity to all who may desire to make them a
medium of depredation.—Times City Article.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

BANKRUPTCY COURT.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Pane.)
A CRIMEAN SPECULATION.

The bankrupts were described as of Great St. Helen's,
London, St. George's Stores, near Sebastopol, Russia,
and to-day came up to pass their last examination on
accounts, prepared by Messrs. Thomas and Copley,
Gresham-street.

The balance-sheet shows debtor to creditors, 4,5421. ;
liabilities, 8381. 63. 11d. ; profits, 1,5991. lls. ; capital,
April, 1855, 7671. 15s. ; creditors, by good debts, 3561. ;
doubtful, 6961. ; property, 251. ; trade expenses, 3,9301.
lq. ; losses, 1,6351. ; partners' drawings, 2661. The
heavy expenses and losses are attributed partly to the
difficulty of getting the stores from Balaklava to the
front of the camp, and further by the loss sustained on
the realisation of the property on the sudden termination
of the war.

The bankrupts passed without opposition.
IN RE STERNBERG.

This bankrupt was described as of Northampton,
wine merchant, and today came up to pass his last
examination on accounts prepared by Messrs. Thomas
and Copley, which were satisfactory, but a question was
raised as to allowances made by bankrupt as excessive
interest.

Mr. Chidley supported, and said that the accounts
being satisfactory, the bankrupt was entitled to pass.
The bankrupt accordingly passed.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

BOW-STREET.

ASSAULT.—SamueI Joslyn was placed at the bar, on
remand, charged with assaulting an elderly woman,
named Mary Pleasance.

The man was first placed before the magistrate of this
Court on Wednesday last, but in consequence of the
woman not being in attendance he was remanded till
to-day.
The woman Pleasance slowly entered the court
this morning, and delivered a medical certificate
to Mr. Jardine, which stated she was suffering
from blows and bruises. On being sworn, she
stated that on the morning of Tuesday last
as she was proceeding to her work she was followed by
the wife of the prisoner, who threatened, for some cause
or other, to give her into custody. To get away from
the crowd, she then went an indirect way, and succeeded
in getting in-doors. As she was returning home in the
evening between eight and nine, she found that the wife
of the prisoner was waiting for her, and she be-
gan to speak to her daughter about the cir-
cumstance. While she was so engaged she
heard somebody say "Here she is ;" and immediately
after she received a blow at the back part of her head,
which felled her insensibly to the ground. She was
conveyed to the hospital by some women, and a con-
stable coming up the prisoner was given into custody.
Mary Sullivan stated that about half-past eight she
saw the woman Pleasance pass along Bream's-buildings,
and shortly afterwards she saw the man at the bar strike
her a violent blow on the head.
Prisoner—You was in a public-house. How could
you see it /
Sullivan denied the assertion that she was in a public•
house at the time. It was true she had been brought to
this court, but it was fer an assault, and she was now
on bail. She did not know the man at the bar, neither
had she ever had a quarrel with him.
Another witness, named White, saw th• assault com-
mitted by the prisoner.
In answer to the charge, Joslyn said it was all a
made-up affair. He certainly pushed the woman down
to prevent her scratching his face, as she had made an
attempt to do so after having abused him very much.
He had been to the surgeons she had mentioned, and
they said she had nothing the matter with her.
Mr. Jardine said the certificate from the hospital
proved the contrary. He should, therefore, sentence the
prisoner to six weeks' imprisonment for the assault he
had committed upon the complainant.

THE EXPEDITION FROM THE TIRAGO.