The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-24 00:00:00

CIISTOM-HOU3E, TUESDAY, DEC, 23,

ENTERED INWARDS.—Oriental, from Madras, &c. ; Bee-
cher Stowe, Alexandria; James It. Keeler, Now York;
Hastings, "Madras ; Lady Beta, .Tainnica ; Pearl, Quebec ;
Gen. 'Williams, Genoa, -Leghorn, and Massins. ; Baretto,
jun., Quebec; Marianne. Dantsic ; Enterprise, Mogadore ;
Lord Palmerston, Rangoon ; Mystery, New York ; Elphin-
stone, Honduras ; Zephyr, Umea.
ENTERED OUTWARDS.—EcIipse, for Cienfugos ; Pearl,
Quebec ; Uncle Billy, Dunkirk; Dreadnought, Cape of
Good Hope ; James It. Keeler, New York ; Oriental,
Hobart Town ; Premier, Demerara ; Royal Charles, Ade-
laide; Admiral, Rotterdam; Imo, Antwerp; Vicar of
Bray, Valparaiso.
CLEARED OUT WITH CARGO.--Herzog Paul, for Mel-
bourne.

The German customs conference which had sat
at Eisenach from the 15th July to the 12th Octo-
ber, and from that date to the 17th December,
closed its session on the last-named day.
PRlVATEERlNG.—Accompanying the President's Mes-
sage is a letter from the Russian charge d'affaires at
Washineton, in which he says :—" His Majesty the Em-
peror accepts, for his part, the conditions under which
the United States consent to the abolition of privateer-
ieg, viz., that the private property of the subjects and
citizens of the contracting parties shall, in times of war,
be respected by their respective naval forces, as well as
by those of all the powers which may join in this decla-
ration.—New York Journal of Commerce.
WHY SAILORS DESERT FROM AMERICAN SNITS.--The
desertion of seamen from American merchant ships in
foreign ports has latterly, we regret to say, become an
event of frequent occurrence. Last summer a rather
remarkable case of this kind took place in England.
Several sailors who had contracted on American soil for
the voyage out and back, absconded from their vessels
at Nolo h Shields, in the river Tyne, and thus violated the
engagements to which they had voluntarily become par-
ties, in this, their native, or adopted country. When the
details of this case first reached us we could perceive no
valid excuse for such conduct on the part of the abscond-
ing seaman, and at once denounced it as unjustifiable and
criminal—nay, we went so far on that occasion as even
to cry out for a remedy for an evil which appeared equally,
injurious to the interests of our shipowners and our com-
merce. In this particular instance the conduct of the
sailors was probably what we described it ; but our sub-
sequent experience in oases of a similar class has led us
t 3 the conclusion that oppression on the part of ship
captains and their subordinate officers too often con-
strains seamen to abscond from their vessels and violate
their engagements. The Liverpool correspondent of the
London Times, in a recent communication, reports
shameful things of some officers of American merchant
ships that have visited that port. Outrages by officers
of United States' vessels, as well on the high seas as in
the Mersey, are, according to him, of common occur-
rence. Seamen, he assures, are not unfrequently seen
to jump into the river on the arrival of our ships, that
they may swim ashore and escape the brutality of our
mates. Nor is this the worst. Numerous oases are
admitted into the hospital in which men have been
beaten, he asserts, " within an inch of their lives ;"
while for several days before the communication in
question was penned Mr. Mansfield, the stipendiary
magistrate of Liverpool, had been engaged in the in-
vestigation of charges against three of the mates of
the American ship Ocean Monarch, and hearing evi-
dence which disclosed a series of atrocities of the most
dreadful and disgusting nature. The result of this in-
vestigation was that the three officers were found guilty,
and fined in proportion to their respective criminality.
Now, these cases reveal a state of things which is not
less discreditable to our national character than injuri-
ous to the interests of our commercial marine. Of course,
such disgraceful conduct is far, very far from being
characteristic of the officers of our mercantile navy as
a class. But there can be no question that it is too ex-
tensively prevalent among them, and that in every ease
where it exists it not only induces desertion on the part
of our seamen, but renders desertion under such circutu-
stnneee jast:ilAbio zwd eNcns,lble. Le, re e crity ieNs
of tyranny and brutality on the part of our officers, and
they may depend on it that there will be less desertion,
and more fidelity to their several engagements on the
part of our seamen.--Neon York Tinto.