The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-27 00:00:00

TII=E SUN LONDON, MAY: 27, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEiVS.

_gloolny,prAage. _,Uunnning, since .the exposure or
the Lancashire earthquake hoax, has none.

AGRICULTURAL COTTAGES.

The problem of how to give farm labourers good
dwelling-houses is still practically unsolved. Many
plans have been put forward. But while it has been
admitted that the hovels in which our agricultural
population dwell are wretched, it has been often found
that good cottages do not pay. Christopher
Nevill writes to the Times, giving a description of
some cottages which he has raised, and which he
thinks fulfil the conditions required :

"They cost rather under £l7O per pair; they are let to
pay 5 per cent., which is rather more net interest, calcu-
lating everything', than buying either land or Consols.
The great difficulty has always been as to the three
sleeping-rooms. Either the living-room and scullery must
be larger than necessary, or the bedrooms must be very
small indeed. If half the number of cottages have three
bedrooms and the other half two, the supply of bedrooms
is ample. A pair of cottages mightAherefore, be built having
five bedrooms, the middle bedroom being thrown to either
cottage as required. This arrangement has been carried out.
The cottages have been examined by the President of the
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and by one of
our largest laud agents, and they have both expressed a
most favourable opinion of them. They have everything
an agricultural labourer can want, and nothing he does
not want. I allot to all my cottages half an acre of garden
ground at a full rent, they all pay 5 per cent. on the cost,
and in forty years I have never lost one shilling by any
arrears."

THE ENGLISH PRESS ON THE ALABA3IA

DIFFICULTY.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The Times on Wednesday, alluding to the in-
structions given to the American Minister, Mr.
Motley, on the Alabama difficulty, observes that it
would be left open for future occasions unless Eng-
land, uneasy under the suspense, is willing to treat
on the basis of Mr. Sumner's speech, shorn of its
extravagance. On this ground only America will meet
England, and the Times considers it is judicious so
to instruct him that the overtures must come from
England, for the certain refusal that would follow
a proposal based on such terms might not be con-
ducive to the results all are bound to desire. Whe-
ther the alternative of simple suspense will prove
equally politic remains to be solved. The grievance
is sentimental, and material only so far as is neces-
sary to frame it into a tangible demand. What is
required is an apology for the "massive grievance."

We shall do both countries good service by saying in
the fewest but the p'ainest words possible that it will never
be given. We may add just one more remark; that never
before in the history of civilized. Stairs was such a thing
so much as asked for.

The undisguised sympathy shown by Americans
with England's enemy during the Crimean War and
the Indian Mutiny, and the unqualified delight at
her difficulties and disasters, would form more than
a set-off to England's sympathy with the South,
America's true grievance, if such questions could be
adjudicated upon. The leaders of Secession confi-
dently calculated on English intervention, believing
cotton to be king, and considering the pressure
would be sufficiently great to drive English manufac-
turers into raising the blockade. Nor they only, for
the Federals thought so too, and their expressions
of alarm and remonstrance beCame louder "and More
earnest by every successive maiL. " There was a time
when the Americans would have made any bargain
with us to avert-this dreaded intervention, and at
that same time, as they well know, we were pressed
to intervene by an ally so powerful that if the com-
bined weight of the two nations :had been thrown
into the scale against the North, the Southern half
of the Union would never have been recovered.
Yet we resisted these solicitations, and we endured
the less of the greatest trade in the world rather
than depart from that neutrality for which we are
now prosecuted." If Mr. Sumner says England is
chargeable for half the war, Mr. Jefferson Davis
asserted that it would not have lasted six months if
it had not been for the prodigious supplies the
Federals drew from England.

The Morning Advertiser, while treating the
Alabama questio❑ with moderation and fairness in
its leading articles, at the same time publi-hes
letters from correspondents cAlculatel to excite
anything but kindly feelings. On Tuesday, for
instance, (me of these appeared which could scarcely
be surpassed in bitterness. The writer observes
that had English statesmen, like true men, recog-
nized the independence of the S3uthern States, " a
million of lives would have been spared from going
down into the pit, and a Leantiful country would
have escaped the curse of that man who has risen
to the Pr...kident's seat on hecatombs of his own as
well as of the Confederate soldiery "
" England will not suffer at the hands of a reck-
less, unprincipled, and lawless mob, led on by mad
demons in the shape of men." We find so much
that is fiendish in the writer that we should Chick
him to be no Lad judge of demons.

The Star of Ttursday publishes a list of the
vessels destroyed by the cruisers, and the valu.s, so
far as ascertained, as fixed by their owners. That
list was published by us two years ago. The amount,
calcu!ating dollars at their present rate, the star
estimates at £2,614,286. It-consders, however,
that England is only unmistakably responsible for
the work of the Alabama, and it recommends that
the claims arising from her proceedings should be
separated from the others, that an English commis-
don should be appointed to appraise the losses
caused, and that the Government should express
sorrow that such a vessel should have escaped from
an English port.

A letter from Sir Francis Head was yesterday
published in the limes toui;hing on the reference
in Mr. Sumner's speech to the incident which oc-
curred in Upper Canada in 1837 as one of the
offences to the United States by the sovereignty of
Great Britain. At that tine Sir Francis was
• Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and be
applied to Mr. Marcy, Governor of New York, for
the arrest of Milienzio, the leader of the rebellion,
whom he accused of arson, murder, and robbery,
and detnanded his person under the Extradition
Treaty. The matter was referred to the Attorney-
General, who, on the plea tl at open, public, and
notorious war existed in Canada, said the refugees.
had a right to an asylum in an independent State, and
the Governor therefore declined the request. This
abrogation, as Sir Francis considers it to have been
of the Extradition Treaty, then but lately passed, he
alleges to be a proclamation of neutrality between
two belligerent forces ; the one was the authority
of Great Britain, the other a gang of desperadoes,
commanded by an American General, all from the
United States, who had seized on a little British
island in the river Niagara, waged therefrom war
on Canada, drew all the supplies from the United
States, and used 22 pieces of artillery captured from
an arsenal •of the Republic, beside 3 thousands of
small arms.