The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

standing the combined influences of Germanism
and Imperialism, Sardinia cannot, and will not,
be abandoned. She therefore disguises her pro-
jects for the time being ; but the indications are
too clear and unequivocal to permit auy dispas-
sionate Government or individual to doubt the
real nature of her intentions.

sent at different periods by different prisoners.
In disproof of the first allegation in the official
defence, Louis BLANC refers to a letter published
nearly a year before the prisoners are said to have
been removed to the Continent for attempts at
escape, revolt, &c., in which it is positively said
—" The proscribed in French Guiana are sub-
jected to forced labour side by side with the
most vile criminals. The regulations of the
galleys are applied to then in all their

ped, of course, in some way, accessible to the
scavengers at all hours of the night, and must be
frequently emptied and carried off, mingled with
the sweepings. Our coal cellars and underground
rooms are supplied with coals and stores from the
street ; there is nothing wanting but well-devised
and well-placed receptacles to enable what now pol-
lutes the sewers to be removed by approaches from
the street also. Scores of miles of costly sewers will
never accomplish what a few horses and carts
before business hours would do, provided our
engineers could be humble-mindel enough to try
to effect in detail what they now drive at in one
grand and imposing scheme. Depend upon it,
the man who devised an easy plan to cart the
night soil a few miles out of London, and who
thus made us receivers instead of payers of
money, would enjoy a better reputation with his
fellow-citizens than the best of the present sewer-
constructing engineers. Health, food, and mo-
ney in our pockets !—he who gave us these
would not be forgotten.

The fortification of Pola, on which already not
less than 18,000,000 francs have been expended,
alone establishes a prima facie case against
the Government of Vienna. Under the pres-
sing pecuniary difficulties to which it is sub-
jected, and the debased state of its currency,
seventy hundred and twenty thousand
pounds sterling is a sum worth looking after.
Austria has never hitherto set up as a maritime
nation. She cannot hope to snatch the trident
from Britannia, or render herself formidable at
sea to auy of the great Powers. Why, then, is
she striving to construct a new Sebastopol com-
manding the Gulf of Venice, and threatening
Italy, if not Europe. It is manifestly a shaft
aimed against Sardinia, and even eighteen mil-
lions of francs will be but a small portion of the
outlay if the views thus indicated are to be fully
carried out. It is a new " standing menace"
against Europe, that should not be tolerated or
sanctioned by the Western Powers.
Very different, indeed, is the fortress of Ales-
sandria, which is being fortified by the patriotic
and voluntary efforts of the Piedmontese.
That is for defence ; Bala, for aggres-
sion. In the position in which the latter
is situated it cannot be raised for any legiti-
mate purpose, and it is therefore an impera-
tive duty on the Cabinets of France and Eng-
land that they should speedily interfere, so as to
prevent the complications that may otherwise
arise. Experience teaches U 3 that, however
greatly Austria may bully, she will not
fight in behalf of her notions. She may strive
to obtain every possible advantage, but she will
count the cost in the first instance, and do
nothing that may render necessary an appeal to
arms. Anything in uL uipiomatic
swindling is within her scope ; but the exhibition
of a stern and unrelenting purpose will make her
the most obedient humble servant of those who
have the power and the will to carry their reso-
lutions int 3 practical execution.

rigour. . .

. If one of them venture to

remonstrate against the boundless insolence of
these subaltern tyrants, woe to him ! He is im-
mediately put to the rack. Starvation being added
to sorrow, and the influence of a deadly climate
to ill treatment, 35 bodies out of 200 have been
in a few months cast as prey to sharks ; for in
the Isle of St. Joseph the prisoners have no other
cemetery than the sea." These statements, he
adds, were not contradicted at the time. As re-
gards the allegation that three of these prisoners
are liberated galley-slaves, and four of them
repris de justice, it but confirms the fact that in
French Guiana political and criminal prisoners are
herded together. But is the allegation made
against these men true ? There is no proof of it ;
on the contrary, there is a strong presumption it
is not—for the allegation would appear to be
preferred in order "to assist in an estimate of the
characters of the men from whom the ranks of the
Republican party are recruited," it being notorious
that the transported victims of the coup d'etat in-
cluded men of all parties, Legitimist and Orleans,
as well as others. The assertion that the prisoners
in question were condemned by courts-martial or
commissions, if true, affords the strongest pre-
sumptive proof that they were not fairly tried, as
they allege ; and for the small mortality adduced,
it only goes to show how human nature will some-
times bear up against a pestilential climate and
the cruelty of the oppressor. Many facts
and arguments could be adduced in addition to
thcse furnished by Louis BLANo, but we fancy
the reader is already satisfi,,a 43-4.
nas received its coup de grace, and he will not care
much to know why previous statements of a like
character were not contradicted ; why it is left
to a foreign correspondent to gather up the de-
fence of the French Government ; and why offi-
cial documents were not laid open to him by way
of verification. The damning allegations of the
inhumanly oppressed exiles of French Guiana re-
main unimpeached, and their hear twrung denuncia-
tionshavesunk into every British heart. The impe-
rial monsters of fallen Rome cast their victims to
the liens to be torn and mangled—redeeming at
times imperial cruelty by giving the poor wretches
a chance of escape if they overcome their brute
enemies. It is now on record, and Europe be-
lieves it, that the EMPEROR of the French—the
ally of the freest and most merciful country in
the world—transports his elected victims to a
pestilential island, where they must " gasp for
breath," and, when the life is worked out of
them, casts their bodies to the sharks ! Is it
1856 years since the redemlition of the world ?
Is tyranny to live for ever ?

So much for the first great farmers' want ; the
food for his crops. Our towns could furnish it
much nearer at hand than Peru. We only want
some BESSEMER it) show us a plan which every
one says at once—will do—and which we shall
only wonder was not thought of before. The'
other great want is not quite of so simple al
character ; still as it has never been fairly looked
in the face. We should not despair of its
being met if it were. It is nothing less than to
conquer, as we cannot get rid of it, our fickle cli-
mate. Having turned our town guano into our
fields, we want to render the crops it produces in
dependent of a wet harvest ! The readers of the
Mark-lane Express will laugh at the very mention
of such a thing. Just let them look at its adver-
tising columns, and think how they would have
laughed half-a-century ago at the idea of the Reap-
ing Machines which they see pictured there, and
still more at the thought of steam ploughs which
have lately ilkastrated tits pages. They do not. how-
-•-us zaugh V these now; It begins to be seen
that one-half the victory over climate is already
gained by the reaping machine. To cut down a
large field the very day it is ready for the sickle
is the first thing ; the next is to render it imine-
4Eately safe against a threatening sky. A
bulky article to carry away, and to stow away
under cover, it must be confessed. Then, too,
the straw, and ears likewise, need drying in
the air to get rid of the remaining vegetable
juices, and the green weedsalso, if numerous, might
endanger heating. But weeds are to be got rid of
in modern farming. The Earl of CARLISLE has
issued an edict against them in Ireland, and Aus-
tralia has passed an act of Parliament against
thistles ; so no more of weeds in a few years.
Then as to the partial greenness of corn, we mean
to have but little of that when CROSSKILL or DRAY
march into our fields when fully ripe and level
them in a day. However, as corn will not al-
ways be dead ripe, and as it will often get wet
before it could be carried, we ask for the univer-
sal plan, the mode which every one will say, must
do, of drying a whole field under cover. A. mode
by which sheaves or loose grain could be protected
from descending showers, and exposed to hori-
zontal draughts of air, while not in such close
contact as to cause decay or sprouting of the ears.
Impossible ! Well, it may be dreaming just
ye, but we believe it will be done one day. Who
would have thought before the Crystal
Palace was built of roofing in some score
of acres with glass, and Mr. BESSEMEa is likely
to bring iron much more nearly to the price
of wood than hitherto. It may be found
advisable to cut the stubble higher, to secure the
best part of the crop, as in the bick settlements
of America, and to gather up the straw afterwards.
However, again we say we are not machinists or
engineers. We leave the practical part to those
who know all the practical points. We only say
put the end to be attained fairly before our
agriculturists, and their implement makers, and
they will some time or other succeed in attaining
it. The reaping machine will compel invention
to complete its task. The agriculturist will not
long be content after he has succeeded in cutting
down his crop all at once, and just at the right
time, if he do not find a way to carry it all at
once also out of the roach of English rains.
Perhaps this attempt will be Mr. MECIII'S next.
If he succeed in it he will earn to himself an
immortal name. He will be the agricultural
ARKWRIGIIT or BESSEMEt.

Audi alteram partem. The maxim is too Eng-
lish not to meet with acceptance from The Sun
and its readers. So giving the -- his due, let
us listen to the defence of Louis NAPOLEON
against the allegations preferred against him in
the letter of Lours BLANC, published in The Sun
of Monday.
Before we do so, however, it must be premised
that the defence in question bears no stamp of
authority upon it, and may without difficulty be
repudiated, should such a course be deemed neces-
sary. Not that we would have it inferred it is
not the defence of the French Government, nor
the best the tools of Lours NAPOLEON have at
present to offer. On the contrary, the presump-
tion is exceedingly strong that it is the defence
of that Government, and the best it could impro-
vise. Nevertheless, we have it from an hadirect
and somewhat shadowy source. It is from a
nameless correspondent of the Times, who has
obtained it from equally nameless French officials.
The public are, therefore, entitled to attach what
degree of credibility they please to whatever ex-
tenuating, we will not say exculpatory, allegations
it contains, unless supported by reliable authority.
In the first instance it is said—the political
offenders condemned by courts-martial, or mixed
commissions, were assembled on the Isle du
Diable (it did not get the name, be assured, with-
out reaion), where they lived at liberty, subject
to surveillance. Secondly, in consequence of
attempts at escape and disturbance, and plans of
revolt—(charges easily made)—which were
discovered, their place of residence was
changed to the continent, and. by a decree
published in August, 1855, they were ordered
to work, and subjected to military discipline,
which was employed in its mildest form. Thirdly,
The decree of amnesty on the birth of the Impe-
rial PRINCE reached French Guiana in M %rola
last. The exiles were offered to make their sub-
mission to the EMPEROR, which a number of them
did, and a great number of requests for pardon
were forwarded to France. Until the replies
could be received the work continued, and the
regulations were enforced as before ; but 30 or 40
of the prisoners refused to work, and their names
were transmitted to the Minister of Marine, and
are identical with those appended to the letter of
Louis &axe. Fourthly, All these men were
arraigned before courts-martial, or mixed com-
missions, by which they were regularly tried and
sentenced. Fifthly, As a means of estimating
the characters of the men for whom Louis BLANC
claims sympathy, it is stated seven of these indi-
viduals had previously undergone punishments to
which they had been sentenced by ordinary
criminal tribunals. PELLETIER, CAYET, and
PADOUANI are liberated galley slaves ; DES-
SALLE, DOPE, PRIoL, and AILHAUD, are repris
de justice, men who have been punished for
offences against the laws, and not of a political
nature. Sixthly, The cruelties alleged to have
been practised on the prisoners ; the chains with
a cannon-ball attached, which they were compelled
to drag ; the floggings at the stake, &c., are de-
nied, the only punishments inflicted being im-
prisonment and stoppage of their wine, or some
other portion of their rations.

THE DARTER EXPEDITION.

The reader is now in possession of this precious
defence. Let him turn to another column, and
he will find a reply by Louis BLANC. At the
outset lie very justly remarks the alleged atroci-
ties "have taken place in a very remote country,
whither no mau is likely to go for the express
purpose of verifying them. The French Gc
vernment is perfectly aware of the fact, and
this is the reason why it screens so confidently
behind a bold denial of some of the statements
held forth the moral responsibility it has incurred."
In the face of this denial, to what can he have
recourse? "Fortunately, the question is one of
common sense. Is it conceivable," he demands,
"that 38 men, living at the mercy of their ene
mies, in a plsue so far distant, with no pros-
pect of material assistance, shovld be ma
enough to sign a letter falsely stating as
practised upon them such cruelties as these—
the chains with a cannon ba" attached, the
floggings at the stake, the blows and brutal out-
rages ? Is it credible that, while their most
obvious interest is to soothe the feelings of those
on whom they so entirely depend, they should as
much as run the risk of inflaming into frenzy by
signed calumnies the anger of their gaolers ?"
Not in vain does he add for to the
British mind the conclusion is inevitable—that
" the very fact of so many persons having, under
such circumstances, appended their names to a
letter expressly intended for publicity, is a decisive
proof that their denunciations are not only true,
but have been forced out of them by the agony
of despair."
The vraisemblance of these denunciations is fur-
ther enhanced, he proceeds to urge, by the fact
that "there is no discrepancrtti be found concern=
ing the cruelties is question ;A the various roports

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENINGS AUGUST 30, 1856.

LATFST NEWS.

TRIESTE, Aua. 28.

Advices from Constantinople, dated Aug. 22,
state that the Porte was preparing an expedition
against Montenegro.
The English fleet had lift Trebizond.
Kupresli Pacha was on the point of starting
for St. Petersburg.

Intelligence from Athens of the 22d inst.
gives reason to expect some modification of the
Ministry.

BERLIN, Aua. 28.

The Princess of Sweden has arrived at Sans.
Souci. Baron Budberg had yesterday an audience
of his Majesty to take leave.

The Times' Paris correspondent (Second Edition)
says :—The French press continues mute on the
subject of the accusations brought by Louis Blanc
against the civil and military authorities of Cayenne,
and I know that this silence is the consequence,
in some instances, of strict injunctions to that
effect, while other papers doubtless fear to enter
upon the matter. It is sometimes difficult to under-
stand the tactics of the French Government with re-
gard to the press. The spirit of compression and re-
striction seems at times to be carried to an unwise
length. If M. Louis Blanc's letter contains exag-
gerations and mis-statements, why should the
French papers be prevented exposing them, and
supplying proof in refutation ? The cockade ques-
tion, to which I yesterday alluded, is another case
of the kind. Grave and influential partisans of a
political party, which, if not numerically strong, is
at least respectable and of some importance, des-
cend to the puerility of a squabble concerning the
solour of a riband. To have let the satirists of the
press loose upon them would have been quite as
effectual, and a much more damaging way of die-
nnsinr of so silly a controversy than treating them
serioithiy auu giving tuem importance ny a Aaicial
warning.

FRANCE.
PARIS, FILID iLY EVENING.

" The Emperor and Empress and their suites,"
says the Messager de Bayonne, " took another
excursion at sea on Tuesday in the boats of the
Newton and Pelican. On landing, their Majesties
entered their carriage on the Place de l'Eglise, and
followed by the persons of their suite in other car-
riages took a drive on the road leading to Gramont
and towards Spain. The Empress is in excellent
health and bathes in the sea every morning. M.
Amilibia, the Governor of Guipuscoa, has been re-
ceived at the Villa Eugenie, having come, as well
as the Captain-General of Navarre, to offer the
congratulations of Queen Isabella. On Wed-
nesday their Majesties visited the establishment
of the Refuge of the Abbe Cestac. The Prince
Imperial is in excellent health. He is every day
carried out into the Park of Gramont, where he
can breathe in the shade the invigorating sea-
breeze. Marshal Serrano, the new Spanish am,
bassador at the court of the Tuileries, has arrived
at Bayonne, and has been received by the Empe-
ror. The marshal was accompanied ny Mme. Ser-
rano ; by an officer of artillery, his aide-de-camp,
who served with distinction as a volunteer with
the army in the Crimea ; and by M. Potestad, an
attache to the embassy."
The Moniteur nys :—" The evacuation of the
army of the East is completely terminated. The
vessel on board of which our last soldiers embarked
left the Bosphorus on the 16th. Rear-Admiral
Pellion, the superior officer of the navy at Con-
stantinople quitted the port on the 12th, leaving
for a few days longer in the Bosphorus the Belle
Puule and Orenoque frigates in order to definitively
settle some administrative details."

The Moniteur publishes a decree, founded on a
report from the Minister of War, modifying pre-
vious decrees for the encouraging of colonisation in
Algeria, and ordering that until the year 1859 the
State shall purchase on its account the cotton
grown by planters in Algeria at a price to be fixed
on beforehand each year, according to the kind and
quality of the article produced.
BOURSE, Aug. 29.—The following were the last
quotations :

Cash. fr. s. End of tfonth.
LL per Cents S4 C —f. —o.
3 per Conte 7O 35 70 20

N-ew Loan

Bank Shares 4,150 Eto man
Credit Mobilier 1,622 50 Instrian___ .8i 4

Belgian Fivas ...... Spanish Throes
Piedmontos6(s)...... 92 50 Home Debt . ..... 391

RAILWATS-rOB C.A.SII.

fr. C. fr. n
Orleans ......,„ 1,385 Western 943 75
Yorthern .1,0:31 50 Strasbucg
Lyons ..... —...,.... 1,362 50 New Ditto
Rediterranoan 1,793 Grand Central
Lyons Geneva 795 Teste
Cette