The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-30 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LONDON, PRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 30, 1869.

rant in h;s, blood especially, as the li,. ieg chief
f the race of the I;O7APARTIZS. The memory
of Strasburg, and t'ee memory of Boulogne,
enhanced his guilt, but the guilt was there long pre-
viothly, ever since the death of his two elder bro-
thers. And yet, in point of fact, the fault commit-
ted by ilia Prince Louis NAPOLEON, first of all
at Strasburg, and afterwards at Boulogne, was only
the fault of being a very few years too soon. France
showed that, afterwards, directly the younger branch
of the BOURBONS ceased to reign. No sooner was a
Republic established amidst the ruins of Louis
PHILIPPE'S Government, than the electors of France in
half-a-dozen different directions returned the exiled
Prince as the representative of so many distinct de-
partments. The Provisional Government was jealous
of him ; and, for a while, in obedience to the dictates
of a really noble sense of civism the Prince ab-
stained from accepting the trust conferred upon him
by the electors. Those electors, however, insisted
upon returning hire again, and upon the
second occasion he decided—that time with
the assent of the Provisional Government
—upon taking his seat in the National
Assembly. A brief interval, as we all know elapsed
after that time, when, with the ballot-box held in
the safe keeping of his enemies, beaded by his prin-
cipal and most formidable rival the then Republican
Dictator of France, General CAVAIGNAC—Louis
NAPOLEON was returned by nearly 6,000,000 votes
as President. Even after this, he was said to be on
his trial. And the Legislature of two or three
years later, came to regard him as so heinous an
. offender _ against the laws that the national
representatives were upon the eve of transferring him
summarily from the Elys6e to Vincennes, when, with
! an astuteness and courage, for which his foes evi-
dently gave him little credit, ho anticipated their
coup d'e'tat by a coup d'e'tat of his own—making them
prisoners instead of allowing them to make him one,
and at the same moment gathering up firmly within
his own grasp the whole reins of the Government. The
PRINCE PRESIDENT, as he was then called, admitted
I himself, on the morrow of the coup ardat, that he
was then undeniably upon his trial. lie openly ap-
pealed to the country to pronounce him Guilty or
Innocent. The appeal was answered. The verdict
given in his favour—again by Universal Suffrage,
again through the ballot box—being cne subscribed
by not merely 6,000,000, but by very nearly 7,000,000
votes. Afterwards came the triumphal progress of
the PRESIDENT through the French provinces—during
the course of which he was hailed everywhere with
shouts of Vire L'Empereur. Again—in answer to those
acclamations—he appealed to France, and was pro-
claimed EMPEROR, under the title of NAPOLEON 111.,
by not merely 7,000,000 but by very nearly 8,000,000
votes. Still, throughout all this protracted interval,
during all these twenty years and more of power, his
enemies declare him to be distinctly and recognisably
upon his trial. Those enemies are consistent td the
last. They say he is on his trial now. His Legi,la- I
tura has been dissolve 1 by reason of the time
of its existence having run out. There is
consequently to be a new appeal to the constituencies.
And—as the result—the world is soon to see what
it shall see ! Meaning that the EMPEROR'S person
is doomed. It is a very old story, and one that
has been already, as we have recalled to remem-.
brance, conspicuously and even flagrantly falsified
Our conviction is that it will be falsified again— as
it has been hitherto, whenever NAPOLEON 111. has
appealed, either directly or indirectly, to the Public
Opinion of France.

PossEsslNG that simplicity which is allowed to be
the perfection of genius, the work of Mr. BENJAMIN
lIIGGS must be deemed eminently artistic in
its way. Like all great men he reduced his
operations to one uniform rule, and conduct el
his swindling on the broadest of general
principles. The inquiry into the affairs of the
Central Gas Company has not yet revealed all
that it is desirable to know, but enough has been
told to illustrate lIIGGs's power of generalisation,
and to furnish another instructive exan pie of
the style in which the business of com-
panies is managed by directors. The system
of accounts at the Central Gas Company
was originally quite unexceptional, and if conducted
properly, a sufficient safeguard against fraud. The
sums due from the company's customers were
gathered in by collectors, who received their
account books from the accountant and his subordi-
nates. As money was paid to the collectors
it was handed over to the bankers, never going
through the office of the accountants at all. Nothing
could be more secure than such a system. The
clerks knew how much was due, for they supplied
II
the accounts to the collectors. They knew how •
much had been received, for a list of sums paid was
furnished to the accountant's office by each collector.
The balance that ought to stand to the company's
credit at the bank could thus be seen at!
a glance. But in 1802 lIIGGS, who was a
clerk in the accountant's office, managed to alter
this system, at least so far as he was concerned.
Whilst the accounts and the cash were dealt
with by different parties all was safe ; the
genius of Mr. HIGGs blushed unseen. But he I
persuaded the collectors—we have yet to learn how
he succeeded—to pay the money to him, and "lie
would pay the money into the bank." Whether the
collectors had any inducement to do this, or whether
their confiding simplicity alone led them to such an
act of folly, is as yet an open question. Certain it is
that they consented, and for years Mr. lIIGGS was
in the habit of receiving the lists of sums collected
and the cash itself at the same time. He abstracted
any sum he thought proper, paid the balance into
the bank, and " arranged" the lists so as to
conceal his peculations. He continued these frauds
from 1862 to 1869, robbing the company to an
average extent of £B,OOO a year. Of course there
was one defect in his system : the sums originally
due from the customers were largely in
excess of the total collected. The item of
"arrears" rolled up to an alarming extent.
But in this respect the books of the company were
ill-kept; it was impossible to tell whether any one
customer had paid for all the gas he had consumed.
The arrears were put down in a lump sum. It is true
that this sum at length reached the total of £60,000,
but such a trifle—one-sixth of the company's capital—
passed unnoticed. People do get into debt, and
nobody cared to inquire why the company's cm.
tomers were so exceptionally bad. It is with a
feeling of relief that the world at last learns the
grand total of these robberies-271,214. The
business of the company was so supervised that it
might have been twice as much.
It remains for the directors to convince the
shareholders that this long series of frauds was so
skilfully managed that it might reasonably have
escaped their detection. With every desire to be
charitable, we fear that the task will be a hard
mightwnotria directors knew that the company's
slccieeerasepstiNi:7:hlellleleyaitrlheesharuiugsspilell:cl;
sa' arrearstcltue
suspicion—that
enormousthey
ahc
deficit
et madeet
col-
lectors caitt
paid their receipts to lIIGGS instead of to the
clue to
taphwolte.eeatrioel
yairnoeeciux
bankers—they were utterly ignorant until the great
discovery was made. The natural inference is that their
acquaintance with the mode of conducting the com-
pany's business was not remarkably intimate. Of
course it is possible that the very simplicity of
HlGGs's contrivance secured him against detec-
tion. A more complicated fraud would have broken
down with its own weight, but this impudently plain
expedient flourished unchecked. Unfortunately for the
directors, it was matter of notoriety that limos, an
ordinary clerk, lived like a lord. He had a large
house and grounds at Teddingtou, kept nume-

roux sorvants, indulged himself with such
a luxury as a " model farm," ' his table
was liberal, his parties numerous, and he gave private
concerts at which first-class singers appeared. Had
he hoarded his gains, the directors might have found
a more hopeful plea, but it is impossible to get over
the fact that the stolen money was openly lavished in
riotous living. The slightest attention to the company's
business would have shewn that HIGGS had changed
the system of accounts, and very little further inquiry
would have been needed to discover the origin of the
yearly deficit. The only conclusion is that the
business was allowed to take care of itself.

1.
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HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, April 29.
Her Majesty, accompanied by Princess Christian
and Princess Beatrice, drove out yesterday after-
noon.

The Queen, attended by the Marchioness of
Ely, walked out i❑ the grounds his morning.
The other members of the Royal Family also
went out.

LATEST INTELL LGEN GE

(REU-"ER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE WAR IN PARAGUAY.

The following telegram has been received by the
steamer La Plata, from Lisbon, dated April 28 :
" Count d'Eu, General-in-Chief of the Allied
Army, bad left Rio for Paraguay. His appointment
to that post was cordially greeted by the Allied
Governments.

" Lop; z was at Ascurra, in the mountains, within
reach of the Allies ; he was to be attacked in the
beginning of April."
" Navigation and commerce of the rivers Para-
guay and Parana thoroughly free.
"'The defeat of Brazilians on the Luque Railway
by Paraguayan forces completely false."

COURESFONDENCE FROM P&IUS.

(nor OUR OWN cor.r.EsroiMENT.)

PARIS. THURSDAY, April 29.

There is some probability that the coming elections
will be conducted more fairly than any of tha
preceding general contests. But previous appeals
to the country have been such utter shams that
the Government may introduce a good deal of.
improvement, and yet fall far short of perfect impartiality.
For instance, the directors of the Post Office, on an appli-
cation from M. Dejouve-Denuncques, a candidate for the
fourth circumscription of the Euro, has replied that
voting-tickets may be sent as a single packet
with election circulars,. if placed under one band with
the address of the person for whom they are destined.
The charge will be fixed according to the weight of the
packet. But though this " concession " is made, the official
candidates can distribute their propaganda wholesale at
no cost for postage whatever. The postage tells very
heavily upon the unfortunate aspirant to the Left
of the Corps L6gislatif, but the candidate who
will take his seat on the Tight may declare his obedience
to Imperial decrees by circular, record his servility in
print, and distribute it to all the world, without
incurring any debt to the postal department. Again,
M. de Forcade la Roquette, Minister of the Interior,
has issued a circular recommending the use of
ballot-boxes, shutting up with a lock and key. This is
a much-needed change, for previously the voting-papers
have been thrown into an open receptacle called an urn,
but much more like a small cauldron, and in consequence
there has been no real secresy. Unfortunately the change
is not compulsory. The Minister of the Interior recom-
mends, not enjoins, the use of proper boxes. The 7,500
communes are not obliged to change the existing soup.
pot, and in all probability they will not.
It is amusing to note the change which has come over
the policy of the Constitutionnel. As I noted in my last,
this semi-official paper has commenced to teach the
Government its duty. Its editor has been changed with
the understanding that it was to cease semi-officialism and
start constitutional opposition. But it scarcely seems to
have done this. It preserves its semi-official
smack. It contains to-day some information which
none Lu' an Imperialist organ could readily obtain.
At the same time it is strongly recommending the
independent dynastic candidates to the favour of the
Government. It is proud to state that in the Pas-de-
Calais an independent candidate is likely to beat the offi-
cial representative. At Boulogne another inde•
pendent is fiercely combatted by the Government ;
but the Constitutionnel is able to inform the public that
the efforts of the Administration will be of no avail,
the chances are heavily in favour of the Independent.
This is certainly a curious way of doing semi-official busi-
ness, and excites the wonder, not to say the admiration,
of everybody here. It seems to confirm the
advancing impression that the Emperor is feeling his way
to a change of policy. Meanwhile the prospects of the Left
become more gloomy. An attempt has been made to
settle the difference between the Liberte and the Steele by
a jury of honour. But nobody can be found to serve on
Cais jury. Hence the differences remain unhealed, and M.
Emile de Girardin announces that he will only support
two of the Paris candidates. This is not the way to win.

It is not often that one meets with a man of the calibre
of Count de Waldeck, the artist. Although no less than
103 years of age, he has sent to the Paris Fine Arts Exhi-
bition, which will open on Saturday, a picture representing
not fewer than 255 persons. The veteran artist enjoys
excellent health, and takes strong waking exercise
every day. He is married to an Engiidh lady of 40, and
has a son aged 13. Blessed is the man who bath his
quiver full ; but twice blessed is he who can commence
refilling it at the age of 65.

Dr. Epstein is nearly out of danger.
The state of industrial affairs in the Netherlands
seems to get worse. The Avenir Nationale publishes a
vague telegram stating that a workmen's riot had broken
out on the island of Waleheren, and that five men wero
killed and several wounded. Nothing is said as to the
cause of this affair, but it may be set down
as a continuation of the industrial outbreaks
which are spreading throughout Poland and
Belgium. The strike of colliers in the Borinage, the
district round Mons, has now lasted ten days, and there
are no signs of a speedy termination. So extensive is this
strike that even in this short period of time it has cost the
workmen the sum in wages of £15,000. The International
Society of Workmen, to whom the turn-out is owing, may
congratulate itself upon having at least achieved some.
thing. It cannot increase the wages of its adherents, but
it is very likely to end their troubles by starving them
outright.

The ball given on behalf of the British Charitable Fund
has proved very successful. A sum of nearly £560 has been
cleared for the benefit of the Fund.