The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-08 00:00:00

~ O

To Pehtang the American Minister was accordingly con.
veyed, and at that town his treaty was exchanged, not with
the Plenipotentiary Kweilang, but with the provincial
llang-fuh. Thus were the conditions of Mr. Read's treaty
fulfilled—a treaty which places an American Minister on
much the same footing when he visits the capital as an
envoy of Loo-Choo."
This is all incorrect, and widely different from Mr.
Ward's own version of his journey to Pekin. It differs, too,
very materially from the accounts published at the time in
British journals. Every possible respect was shown the
American envoy while in the Chinese capital, and the ar-
rangements for his visit were made under an Imperial
order. It is true that his movements were closely watched,
but proper allowances should be made for Chinese preju-
dices and exclusiveness, and for the fact that Mr. Ward
had only recently parted from the British and French am-
bassadors, then at open war with the empire. It is quite
wrong to :say that the American Minister stood on the
same footing as an envoy from Loo-Choo. According to
the report of the interview between Mr. Ward and thetelndy
perial commissioners, the latter expressly and resptae
as
O.
stated that the Emperor looked upon the
United t
y respect
a friendly nation, and their President as
inewveeirliang that
equal to himself. Mr. Ward was told by K
cted fri •
the kotou, ...miler
form of obeisancei
butary nations, like Siam, uoi._.,.n s cehxana, or
to
Annam,
case, and that ho
would not be asked or expecte d hi
was required only to kneel when he entered the imperial
itively refused to do, though
presence. This Mr.
ent in the action of Lord
he might have foundWaanrddpererPc°cdss
huller circumstanc,es. The
Amherst, who knelt Lou.
crhout was dignified, indepen-
conduct of our envoy
characteristic of an American eiti.
dent, and eminentlyin consequence of his ',awes.' to kneel,
zen ; and wign; a.,...,zraed to see him, his Majesty
the Emperor 0•
expressed regret that Mr. Ward should
at the same time
en:orin a ceremony practised at many
,
be unwilling p, ,
directed that the ratification
European Courts
exchanged at the keighbouring
of the treaty should be
town of Pehtang•
after the Anglo-French force had been re-
Mr. Ward,
the reiho, took a practical and business-like view
pulced on
of his position. Finding that ho could not pass Taku, he
applied to the Government of China to give him access to
Pekin, and the request was granted.
There is not the slightest ground for supposing that the
Chinese meant or mean now to violate their treaty obliga-
tions. Nor is there any reason why Mr. Ward should be
censured for ratifying his treaty at Pehtang -when he found
it impossible to accomplish that act at Pekin. Like a sen-
sible man he was determined to deal with the Chinese as he
found them, and did not attempt to thrust his own notions
of propriety down their throats. In a despatch to the Earl
of Malmesbury, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Bruce, the English Envoy, distinctly admitted that no
other course was open to Mr. Ward than the one he adopted,
and that there was every probability of his being received
in a friendly manner at Pekin.
American diplomacy, up to this time, has effected much
more in China than the arras of France and England com-

bined ; and while the independent attitude of the AmeeCcal2
Minister has obtained for him the confidence of the China Be
on the one hand, and the Anglo-French party on the other,
same attitude will enable him, when the proper tine*
TS, to mediate between
position
id not be more honourable than it is, and as the favoured
nation clause is in our treaty, it will be impossible for either
France or England to acquire any privileges by tho present
war that will not equally accrue to citizens of the United
States.

TEE LAW COURTS.

We believe that it is the intention of her Ma-
jesty's:Government, immediately after the meeting
of Parliament, to introduce a measure for the pur-
pose of giving effect to the recomviendations of the
Commissioners who, a short time
ego, were ap-
pointed to inquire into the expedien.V of bring-
ing together into one place or neighbourhood all
•
the supreme courts of law and equity, the Probate
and Divorce Courts, and the Court of Admiralty,
and the various offices belonging to the same, and
into the means which exist and may be sup
for
providing a site or sites for carrying out Ois
object." The Commissioners were Sir J. T. Cole-
ridge. Sir W. P. Wood, Sir George Cornewa 11.
Lewis. Lord Wynford, Dr. Phillimore, and Mr..
Johu Young ; the last being of considerable expe-
rience and standing in the profession as a solicitor.
After a careful and laborious inquiry these gentle-
men came to the conclusion that the interests of
the profession, as well as that of the public, would.
be suhOrved by giving to the administration ofjus-
tice in the superior courts a local and permanent
habitation. Every student of constitutional history
knows perfectly well that provision of :Magna
Charta which declares that justice shall be admi-
nistered in " certain fixed places." The practice of
English law in modern times has, however, evinced
a most unaccountable departure from the wise deter-
mination of our ancestors. We take the metropolis
as a case in point. There is little difficulty as to
the certainty that a particular Court wile
different
l sit in a
particular place on a given day ; but th
tribunals are distributed over an enormous area,
which places one at the west-end and the other at
the east-end of London,
and, as a necessary conse-
quence, interferes most seriously with the conve-
nient administration of justice and the ordinary
conduct of legal business, Mr. Gregory, a most
intelligent and experienced solicitor, in his evi-
dence before the Commission, has pointed out the
inconvenience and costliness of the present system.
&arting from tho City, you have in Basin hall-
' street a tribunal which dispenses one species of
liss;olvency law with respect to traders, and in
po,-iugal-street you have another tribunal which
deals' with insolvent non traders and bankrupt
traders* whose debts do not exceed £3OO. Travel-
ling wesa, ward you come to the Probate, Divorce,
and Adminalty registries, at Doctors' Commons,
which are coVnected with courts which sit at West-
minster, in root,
as lent by the Lord Chancellor and •
the Master of t.
he Rolls. Lincoln's-inn, we all •
know, is the home and centre of Chancery admi-
nistration, and that the common law courts in term
time sit in Westminster, and out of term in the city.
But this is only a small part of the evil. The offices ,
attached to these several tribunals are distributed.
in the most absurd and arbitrary way all over the
metropolis—at Lincoln's-iire, the Rolls-yard, the
Temple, Staple's-inn, Linc•oln's-inn-fields, Ser-
geants'-inn, and Lancaster-place. The Commis-
sioners state—" The superior courts of common.
law and equity are very commonly sitting in 11
places, and often in more, at the same hour, and.
single judges are frequently required to be sitting
at two places at different hours in the same day.'
A common law judge, for instance, although sitting
at 'Westminster, has to attend at chambers in Ser-
gessits'-inn at the bottom of Chancery-lane. The
inconvenience of such a system to the Judges, to ibe
bar, and to the solicitors and attorneys, cannot be
exaggerated ; but we will not rest the case upon
merely professional grounds. The public, who con-
stitute the body of suitors, have to pay for these
changes not only in the shape of unnecessary rent,
and increased costs, and augmented delays, but the
general administration of the law is injured by that
unwholesome separation of business, which can.not
be excused, even on the ground of the division of
labour. On this point a great authority, the Attor-
ney-General, states—" I regard the concentration
of the courts as likely to lead togreat public ad-
vantage by making the different courts of law
and equity familiar with the procedure of each
other. Cases constantly occur in which a judge
sitting in a court of law is desirous of having
an opportunity of consulting a judge sitting in
a court of equity, and vice versa." If this in-
tercommunication could take place parties would
often be spared the expense of issue* at law to
ascertain matters of fact, and the com.mon law
judges would have no excuse for refusing to enter-
tain, as they have hitherto done, equitable defences.
But whilst everybody, on professional and public
grounds, has been in favour of the concentration ,of
the courts, two difficulties have presented therar
selves. How was the site and how were the neces-,
sary funds to be obtained ? The late Sir Charles
Barry many years ago proposed that a Palace of
Justice should be erected in Lincoln's-inn-fields ;
but this idea was speedily given up because it was
thought that in a sanitary point of view it would
be extremely inexpedient to build- over an area
which is one of the most important lungs of the
metropolis. The Commissioners, whose decision
has by personal inspection been confirmed by Lord
Palmerston, are in favour of a more eligible site..
They propose—disregarding the historical memo-
ries of Westminster, where, in fact, no available
land is to be obtained—to devote to the concentra-
tion of the law courts a block of buildings which •
comprises " close and ill-built streets;. badly venti-
lated and drained, and which, in respcct of part at
least, is very discreditably inhabited.' The pro-
posed site will be bounded by Carey-street on the
north and the Strand on the South, Bell-yard. on
the east and Clement's-inn on the west. The svol
required for the purchase of land is estimated LA
£675,000, and the same, it is stated, will be required
for the erection of the Palace of Justice—making,.
in the whole, £1,358,000. The Commissioners,
with the exception of Sir W. P. Wood, have recom-
mended that this expense should be defrayed by
the suitors' fund in Chancery—a fund which now
possesses a capital of £1,291,629. We believe that
this charge may be incurred without the slightest
risk to the Chancery suitors, who already possess
another fund which is more thanl sufficient for the
ordinary expenses of the Court. The Government
has acted wisely in having determined thus early
to carry out this great measure of legal and muni-
cipal improvement—one which will not only
toat tend
to improve the administration of the law, butt
happily be effected without entailing any aPPre"
ciable charge either upon the Chancery
the general public of this country. We 11157:11
that the site now about to be adopted POW Origill.vo.
suggested by Mr. Commissioner Hill, whose aarm
suitors
dodr
eacy of every measure of practical and useful reform
is beyond all praise.—iforning Post.

STATE OF TRADE.

- ....--40----7
LEICESTER, Nov. 7.
ryovahlreg'rrt. . h in haTheaetaisftt
hosiery trade in many
business generally
branches continues in—aa ; t
to
or
ny ec. o
In
nd i
tt
hi oe n
c, 0 aunncl
I_ uhgashborough and Hinckly trade
operatives both in town and.
try districts of
hde°l-hebetter employed. Wools re-
price. There is no im-
and hig
icinso
aul
imnntPrfi r m
portant change in the price of yarns, spinners mak-
ing full time.
NoTTINGEEAm, "d th.—The lace trade has been very
quiet this week, and much less than an average
business is doing at the warehouses. The home
demand is dull, and up to the present time the
buyers from the United States have purchased only
to a limited extent. There is no change in the
demand for plain goods ; bright foundation nets aro
slightly in request. Cotton fancies are a dull sale.
The silk lace trade continues extremely quiet, and
no material change is expected in any branch until
of business doing in some
after Christmas. In hosiery there is a fair amount
departments,
...id the
trade generally is becoming mor,. ..etive, particu-
larly in the foreign bra Yarns are without
material change. .4. price. At a meeting of the
' lacem.i...,.s on Saturday it was stated that the
strikes which had been pending in the Mechlin
branch for four months had terminated, and that the
men were to resume work on Monday morning.
A deputation of the workmen waited upon Mr. Tid-
Illas (whose hands had been on strike) on Monday,
and he states that no difficulty was experienced as
regards price ; but conditions were attempted to be
forced upon him to which he would not accede:
a:
The first was that he should abandon all legal
ct 4
ceedings in a recent intimidation case now e_
the decision of the Quarter Sessions ; second,
he he should re-admit the defendant into his. t w
third, that he should discharge all non
said to have
Consequently, the lock-out, which wnasie
nt on
been brought brought to an amicable arrange
day, still continues. non-society y men.

REPRESENTATION OF WEST SUSSEX.—The death
candidate. for the vacant
of his Grace the Duke of Richmond having caused a vacancy
in the representation of West susses, by the elevation of
the Earl of March to the peerae, a
seat, Mr. Walter B. Barttelto.t, of Iyhers, yesterday issued
an address to the electors, in which. he states, " that
although diffident of my own qualifications for so honour-
although
My political principles are so well
tsot.rtohneglryefsourpmpeodrtCedhurch of
able a position, I feel bound to respond. to the wishes of my
friends and nei
known to you that I need hardly assure y©u I am a Con
servative,
this realm."
snd l‘wf a.r.mßlaryatettlatocthe'ids by the
leading Conservatives in each pollin-
g district.