The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-07 00:00:00

ecclesiastical bigotry, pride, and love of lucre, re-
minds one of the worst days of Popery. The spirit
which rules at its centre is still the spirit which has
animated the Papacy through all ages—the spirit
of gain and power.

The oddest little straw imaginable has just been

thrown up—and it certainly does contrive to show
pretty clearly, at a glance, the direction in which
the wind blows or rather faintly " sets," at this

particular juncture in the political atmosphere.
The straw alluded to is a certain letter addressed

to my Lord JOHN RUSSELL in his ministerial capa-
city as her MAJESTVS Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, by Mr. LINDSAY, M.P., and Shipowner !

The communication in question is essentially and
avowedly the emanation from the mind, the ex-
pression of the opinions, the avowal of—

" The hopes and fears that nourish hope,
An undistinguishable throng
And gentle wishes, long subdued,
Subdued and cherished long"—
of one individual. They are hopes and fears, how-
ever, not the least atom in the world like those of
COLERIDGE'S Genevieve or her lover. They refer
not at all to THE master passion. Yet they certainly
do have reference to A master passion, their inspira-
tion being not love, but---(" not to put too fine a
point upon it")—cupidity. The incentive to the
composition of the epistle in question is obviously
and indisputably the auri sacra fames—an intense
and overweening affection for the meum, and a
terror almost beyond adequate indication of the
dreadful possibility of its transformation in the
contingency of war into the NUM. While 80,000
volunteers are beginning to handle the rifle with a
view to the better defence (in the event of that
same formidable contingency) of our "hearths and
our altars"—some of our British merchants and
shipowners, it would appear, are eaten up with a
dread lest their pockets may be needlessly ligh-
tened—lest their tills may be unnecessarily ran-
sacked. They have a pleasant fancy that if war
is again to be revived, it may, at least, be revived
upon an entirely new and a far more polite system
than of yore. They conceive, it appears, that
private property might be exempted from
capture and forfeiture among the belligerents!
They have a notion somehow that all war
may heaceforth become, in the literal meaning
of the phrase, Civil War, as contra distinguished
from internecine. They say, Let the quarrel hence-

At length the full peal of the Vatican thunder
has reached the shores of England. We listen
doubtless with more curiosity than awe, knowing
well enough that to us it is sound, and nothing
else ; still we would fain learn whether there was
anything besides the mere sound elsewhere, and
we hurry along over the preamble, and over the
formal part, to ascertain whether the bolt really
has been hurled at the devoted heads of VICTOR
EMMANUEL and Count CAVOITR. But no ;—the
telegrams have told truth. The Holy Father
dared not individualise. His descriptions seem
indeed to be pretty circumstantial ; no one can
well doubt at whom the anathemas chiefly point,
yet those who are aimed at need not recognise the
description. "If the cap fits you," says the Holy
POPE, " put it on ;" but the King of SARDINIA
and his Minister may look at it very coolly, and
pass by it as not fitting them. The Sardinian
Government is indeed especially named, but Go-
vernments, like all corporations, have broad shoul-
ders, and can very easily bear their corporate sins
and submit to corporate anathemas—each indivi-
dual confessing his personal sins and performing
his personal penance with entire self-composure.
It is pleasant, certainly, to see in
_this affair
the waning of superstition. We look back to the
time when not merely a JOHN LACKLAND, but our
proudest PLANTAGENET trembled before the ful-
minations of a Pope ; and when an Emperor of Ger-
many must endure the lowest humiliation and
severe bodily inflictions to appease the wrath and
wounded pride of a Pope. Christianity and civili-
sation have visibly advanced since then ; and this
Allocution or Excommunication,or whatever we may
term it, is the last evidence of it. We have here
a Pope brandishing his spiritual cudgel around a
King, but afraid now to strike him ; and we have
on the other hand a King coolly telling the world
that when Popes wield their ecclesiastical censures
for secular purposes, Kings of SARDINIA and Dukes
of SAVOY have cared 2nd still care nothing about
them. If the POPE declares himself the Vicar of
CHRIST, the KING shares his title, for he holds
himself responsible to GOD and his people only !
Verily, excommunications are now worn to rags ;
Europe laughs at what once made her tremble ; not
a soul concerned fears for his soul's safety or com-
fort, where formerly he would honestly have be-
lieved himself devoted to purgatory, hell, and the
devil, and have been terrified into making his
peace with the being who had the keys of the In-
quisition, both above and below, in his hands.
Popes, like a judge of whom we have so often
heard, should give their judgments, but not their
reasons—indeed, an infallible judge would appear
to have little need to assign reasons. Infallibility
is surely reason enough. When the Roman Infal-
lible ventures among the facts, or would wield the

forth be between Government and Government—
allowing private property to pass to and fro
scatheless. It is a pleasant fancy in its way, we
will admit, but rather arcadian. It is a proposition,
so far as it goes, decidedly good, but it is one also
that is decidedly green. The appeal made is very
pathetically an appeal ad misericordiam. But so
also was that final one almost blubbered out in the
Court of the Venetian Doge by SHYLOCK—

"Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that:
You take my house whop you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live."

Affecting as this very logical argument was, how-
ever, in the instance of the wealthy father of pretty
Mistress JESSICA—it was at the same time, to ex-
press the plain truth in one of the simplest idioms
in our vernacular—unquestionably and beyond a
doubt of it, "no go." We have a shrewd suspicion
that it will be equally "no go" in the instance
of the British merchant and the British
shipowner. Indeed, they have already had
an agreeable foretaste of this in the curt
but significant reply already elicited from the
Foreign-office by Mr. LINDSAY'S rather lengthy
communication. To that -appeal quoth Mr. HAM-
MOND, our Foreign Secretary's Secretary, " I am
directed by Lord JOHN RUSSELL to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, repre-
senting the expediency of an agreement being come
to among the Maritime Powers for the exemption
from capture of private property on the high seas ;"
adding, " and I am to acquaint you that the obser-
vations contained in your letter will be duly con-
sidered by her MAJESTY'S Government, but
the proposal appears liable to grave objec-
tions." A delicate way of putting it !
" Grave objections ?" Well, yes—we suspect
Rather ! We should like Mr. LINDSAY, for ex-
ample, to hear for a few moments the style of
objection—the, the "grave objections" (that is the
phrase) indulged in by some of the good old salty,
of the good old school. We conjecture in that
case the hon. member would find his ideas (-what-
ever they may be) in regard to the vo'Jabulary
of Oaths pretty considerably extended. Why,
in very truth, the notions put forward in this re-
markable epistle by Mr. LINDSAY are, to write about
it in plain words,just simply absurd. Mr. LIND-
SAY, or Mr. Anybody else, might just as reasonably
suggest that all the cutlasses in the Royal Navy
should be wade hen ceforthw ith blades of barleysugar!
He might just as rationally put the inquiry to our
Foreign Secretary, whether it would not be pre-
ferable to substitute for those terrible pieces of
ordnance contrived by WHITWORTH and ARM-
STRONG, let us say an equal number of syringes
for the sprinkling of rose-water and eau de cologne.
Imagine a really intelligent M.P. and an eminent
shipowner—both of which Mr. LINDSAY indubi-
tably is—seriously proposing to a Minister of the
Crown, or rather through a Minister of the
Crown to the whole Imperial Government, a plan
by which war may henceforth be carried on with-
out the chance of prizes being taken on either side
as Lhe spoil of the belligerents. Fancy the epistle
in which this extraordinary plan is propounded by
a private individual being solemnly moved for in
the House of Commons, and by the House of Com-
mons, as though it was the manifesto of some great
people or of some powerful Sovereign. Fancy, more
than this, an address to the Crown being
adopted by the House of Commons in an-
a(
st the d
an-
swer to which this singular letter from the
o
hand of this isolated individual is actually published
expensean ponfbtlishehenda)tiboenf,oarendthelacidousnotlreymannlyd
printed
before Parliament. When you have imagined all
this—Sou will just simply have imagined what has '
positively just now taken place in the instance of
Mr. LINDSAY'S letter to my Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
It is a straw,
certainly, this letter, the merest
straw ; but it is one,
as already intimated, that
so far serves its purpose at the moment
by showing pretty distinctly whither
the wind tends
in the political atmosphere. The member of Par-
liament and the shipowner, who has thrown it up
—says in the course of his communication to the
Foreign Secretary, quite distinctly—": Though
offer no opinion of my own on so delicate a
subject, it is impcssiblc to shut our eyes to
the
filet, which the shipowners of Liverpool and,
Manchester emphatically express, that a deep and
abiding apprehension prevails both here and
abroad, that in the present unsettled political state
of Europe, a rupture between France and England,
if not imminent, is a contingency which many pru-
dent merchants consider probable in the course of
historical events, and which they, therefore, will
take precautions,to provide against in such a man-
ner as niayla,,,, 'totect their interests." All this,
• e ,e•
•
if it memead-•*1 ,g' else—" means mischief •
means in HAMLET'S phrase Miching Malecho!
Ajad we shall at, fist do well to look to it.
,e;ry
)•

England and Wales 41
Scotland 32
Ireland .. .. • • 24

logic of ordinary mortals, we are apt most in-eve-
rently to criticise his reasons, and inquire into his
alleged facts. Even those who have learned against
the testimony of five senses to believe in transub-
stantiation, may find it hard work against the dic-
tates of their understanding to believe in transub-
stantiation of bad arguments into good ones, and of
Papal fictions into mundane facts. A preamble,
therefore, intended to prove that a spiritual bishop
needs secular power, leads its readers back to the
times of the old Book, which the POPE at once pro-
hibits and quotes, and where unfortunately for in-
fallible arguments, we find the highest spiritual
authority destitute of as much secular
power as the humblest policeman—where,
also, we find " the First Bishop," as the Marquis
D'AZEGLIO terms him, renouncing such power alto-
gether ; and the awful conclusion forces itself on
the minds of even sincere Catholics, that his In-
fallible Holiness argues very fallibly.
And then, if the arguments be worthless, why
fear the conviction and the punishment? The parties
arraigned—if such a general accusation can be said
well reply, what we are ac-
to criminate any, may
cused of, is no crime—no crime so far as depriving
a Spiritual Ruler of temporal jurisdiction is con-
cerned. He never ought to have had it. View the
POPE as a temporal ruler only—then, in that ca-
o other
pacity he is as responsible to his subjects
a s m
T erg e
at their mercy to retain or to cashier, as herh
rulers ; but, view the POPEb a s
w Spiritual
atR him-
self
i n
SE ovE
and he has lost nothing ylosing
and his master equally renounced. The poor old
man indeed resuscitates the old tale that secular in.
dependence is essential to the head of the Catholic
Church—to which the answer, of course, is, that he
cannot be, in the secular sense, independent unless
his empire be so large that he need lean on no other
state—that he has been anything but independent
ever since he had a petty kingdom, and notoriously
so of late years—and that the Great Founder and
subordinate founders of Christianity sought secular
independence not in wealth and territory, but in
poverty, and in manifestation of truth to the con-
sciences of men.

The whole document is evidence enough that the
POPE and his advisers live not in the " wide, wide,
world"—or that, if they do, they are not.very
" wile awake" in it. All the nonsensical
stuff about the rights of the POPE to secular do-
minion, about the wickedness of those who seek to
subvert that dominion, about the intrigues of Sar-
to kiellJ-I.64esff
dinia being:ablei to bring about a unanimous vote
cl: priveti ? '',-. the ,41-
eery light of the Holy Spirit,"
like, pi,..4 7.444:1..)(
tl*ii.te
,AL4 ;,.. „.,
Aout of the Romagna, and the
ely smile—but, when we read
s and curses, of prayers public
earthly objects—of curses of all
'sorts irtemoveable except at the moment of death,
and to return if the man recover—the hateful mix-
ture of oily hypocritical cant with the malignity of

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY': EVENING, APRIL I, 1860.

STATISTICS OF •REPRESENTATION,

The above will be sufficic
and results of this plan.
As an interesting statistical inquiry I have calcu-
lated the index number or claim of each borough or
county, and the following summary of results may
be interesting

t to show the principle

Comparative table, showing the index value of the
population and property which now returns one
member to Parliament (£lO,OOO of property and
10,000 population, being the unit of index value) :

Index Value of each M.P.

In
Counties, oroughs
14
25
7

Total of Counties
and Boroughs.

LATEST

We are accustomed to consider, that if population
be admitted as an element of representation, Ireland
is not fully. represented. The above table shows
that by uniting " population" with the " value of
property" (the best known standard of the intelli-
gence of a people) Ireland is really over-repre-
sented.

This plan aims to secure the full and fair influence
of both elements—people and property. It can be
applied in any way, according to any scale ; it
simply acknowledges that people and property, the
very objects of representation, should be fairly
taken ; and where large numbers of people exist,
as in some parts of Ireland, without a correspond-
ing amount of property, that they should lose their
proportionate share of representation.—l am, Sir,
your obedient servant,

DAVID CHADWICK.
Borough Treasurer's-office, Town-hall,
Salford, April 5.

TILE FRENCH NAVY.

An eminent shipwright of Bordeaux has pre-
sented to the Emperor the model of a gunboat con-
structed on a system to be propelled without steam.
The Emperor has approved the model, and has
vommanded the inventor to build a gunboat accord-
ing to his plan.
The steel-plated frigate Normandie, launched at
Cherbourg on the 10th of March, is being prepared
for sea with the utmost despatch. It is expected
that her trial will throw great light on the efficacy,
during a maritime war, of ships cased in a species
of cuirass.

FRANCE.

The Toulon fleet has sailed, but not on a political
mission as was asserted by the French papers, but
merely to exercise the crews, and to try some new
naval manoeuvres suggested by the Emperor, The
Toulon fleet, which is now at anchor in the roads
off the islands of Hyeres, is cownanded by Admiral
de Tinan, and is composed O. the screw ship of the
line Bretagne, bearing flag; the screw ship
Donauwerth, bearing tide flag of Admiral Jehenne,
and the screw ship Alexandre, Eylau, and St.
Louis. Admiral de Loan is to be reinforced by
the Brest fleet, ',:ernmanded by Admiral Paris, corn
posed of thread ships of the line—the steam-frigate
Foudre, now at Nice, and by the steel-plated fri-
gates the Glr.Are and the Normandie.

OFFICIAL INQUIRY INTO THE STATE
OF .17/1; GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

In consequence of the statements recently made
public as to the inefficient working of the circula-
tion department of the General Post-office, a com-
mission has been appointed to inquire into the facts
of the case. The commissioners are daily engaged
during the hours of duty at the chief department
in St. Martin's-le-Grand in collecting information
by personal inspection and by association with the
officers, the whole of whom have been invited to
furnish information in conformity with the follow-
ing minute (5,613) :

" To TUE OFFICERS OF TILE CIRCULATING DEPARTMENT.
" The Postmaster-General having appointed a commis-
sion to inquire into the working of the circulation depart-
ment of the General Post-oflice, the committee is prepared
to receive from the officers of that department any sugges-
tions, in writing, which they may wish to make. Should
any class or separate section of clerks, sorters, or messen-
gers, or letter-carriers, attached either to the chief district,
or suburban offices, desire to make observations on the re-
lative positions and duties of the men employed in that
class or section, the committee is ready to receive any dele-
gates whom the classes or sections may choose to put for-
ward. In such case the names of the delegates must be
previously communicated to the committee through the
Controller of the Circulation Department, not later than
the 21st inst.
" General Post-office, April 5, 1860,"

SALE OF TEE LORD MAYOR'S STAT.,

BARGE.

Thursday Messrs. Pullen and Son, by order of the City
Lands' Committee of the Corporation of London, put up to
auction the Lord Mayor's state barge, at Messrs. Searle's
yard, Westminster-bridge, where site had been moored for
sonto days past. She was built by Mr. Searle in the year
1807, at a cost of 12,000, and was launched from his yard
on the 9th of June in that year. Her length is 85 feet, her
breadth 13 feet S inches, and she is constructed of British
oak. Her inventory included 2G silk curtains, table and
velvet covers, carpets, the state chair, 18 ears, flagstaffs,
&c. ; and the grand saloon is extensively fitted with plate
gloss, and ornamented with carved and gilt pilaster scroll-
work and other decorations. The stern, as is well known,
is richly gilt, and Ims on it the City Arms and large figures
of Neptune with his trident, and a Nereid. Among the
conditions of sale there was a stipulation that the purchaser
of the "barge" should deposit ss. in the pound in. part
payment, and should pay the remainder of the purchase
money within six days after the sale. The property was
offered in one lot. The auctioneer, having stated the cir-
cumstances which led the committee of the corporation to
part with the vessel, and which was in consequence of the
procession by water having been done away with, asked for
a biddin?:. After a pause the sum of £2O was named. For
some time there was an active competition. Eventually it
was knocked down for £lO5. The competition for the civic
relic was between some gentlemen connected with the boat
clubs of the University of Oxford and with the City of
London, these wanting to make use of it for a pleasure boat
or a boat of excursion on the Thames. It was won by the
latter,

,
A VALUABLE WIT:AM.—At the Norfolx assizes
on 'rues,lay, a rather ludicrous incident varied the mono-
tony .of a will case which occupied the court for two days.
One of the witnesses called by Mr. Sergeant Parry on behalf
of the plaintiff was Mr. C. P. Gale, solicitor of Cheltenham,
who, on coming into the box, declined to answer any ques-
tion until he had received his expenses.—viz., £3 3s. per
day for loss o time and travelling charges at Is. per mile.
Mr . Gale stated that he had passed six days in Norwich,
waiting for the case to come before the court, and he
claimed £29 125., of which ho had received £5 on account
7,
before leaving home. The associate said the witness could
only claim ;£1 Is, per day,
and nis actual travelling charges.
Mr. Gale cmteucial that he was entitled to £3 3,?. per day
when he was away from home. Eventually the Court
ordered that he should receive £1 is. per day for eight days
and his travelling expenses, including an allowance of
for railway fares, in all about £l6. As no arrangement had
been made for Payment at the moment, Mr. Gale was
directed to leave the box, and another witness was called.
Shortly afterwards he was again presented for examination,
upon which he raised the objection that ho was still unpaid.
After some little delay, a check for the balance due to the
witness was handed to him, and he then consented to b•
examined. In reply to a question, whether ho had made
any communication to Mr. Hamilton, his town agent, with
reference to the will the validity of which was disputed,
he said he believed' he had not, and Mr. Hamilton did not
recollect anything
being said on the subject. Mr. Sergeant
Parry then, amid much laughter, observed that he sup-
posed the witness could not afford any information on the
matter, to which he replied, " I told them I could not tell
them anything about, it when Lthey subpoenaed me to
IsTQxivich,"

NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, APRIL 7.

The Moniteur of this morning announces that
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Thouvenel,
has informed the Municipality of Thonon of the
intention of the Emperor to protect the commer-
cial interests of Faucigny and Chablais by establish-
ing a commercial zone in their favour similar to
that for Gex.

MADRID, APRIL 6.

The, Commander of Alcanis has announced to
Government that five persons have been arrested
at Calanda, and that he believes one of them to be
General Ortega.
Tranquillity prevails everywhere. It is asserted
that the Emperor of Morocco has ratified the bases
of the treaty of peace.

MADRID, APRIL 6.
Three personages of the highest rank have been
arrested with General Ortega at Calanda.

BUCHAREST, APRIL 5.

The news published by some Paris papers that
Prince George Stirbey, eldest son of the former
Hospadar of Wallachia, had been arrested for high
treason is unfounded.

PARIS, ArRIL 6.

The reported negotiations for the conclusion of
an offensive and defensive treaty between France
and Denmark are contradicted by the following
official facts :

M. Dotezac, Minister of France at Copenhagen,
was recalled in the month of December. Baron
Baudin, his successor, is still in Paris, and will only
leave, to take possession of his post, a month hence.
On the other side Baron Derkink Holmfeld, Danish
Minister at Paris, was recalled two months ago,
and is about to be replaced by Count Moltke. Baron
Derkink Holmfeld will deliver his letters of recall
after the Easter holidays.
It is therefore evident that such important nego-
tiations could not be commenced between the two
Cabinets at the very moment when their representa-
tives are recalled, and when their successors have
not entered upon their functions.

PARIS, FRIDAY.

It is believed that the Government has taken into
consideration the proposition for a treaty of navi-
gation with Great Britain. The Government is
likewise actively engaged with the construction of
railways in Algeria. It proposes to contract with
public companies for the completion of three lines :
—l. From the sea to Constantine ; 2. From Algicy s
to Blidah ; 3. From St. Denis-du-Sig to Oran, with
a continuation to the port. The capital not to ex-
ceed 58,000,000 f., of which the Government will
advance 6,000,000 f. as a bonus to the contracting
company. The Government will further guarantee
5 per cent. on the capital subscribed, to commence
10 years after the date of the concession. The Go-
vernment will, moreover, grant a lease of 99 years
to the contracting company.
Admiral Baudin, who has been lately appointed
to the command of the Marine Department at Al-
giers, has quitted Paris to take possession of his
post.

The new Sugar Bill appears to have been objected
to by the French refiners as fixing at too high a rate
per cent. the yield which is to enable the exporter
to claim the restitution of the duty paid on the raw
article when brought to France. At present that
rate is fixed at 75 per cent. for inferior qualities,
and at 78 per cent, for the better kinds. The bill
proposes to raise those figures to 80 and 83 per
cent. respectively, and it is that change which is
objected to. The Constitutionnel supports the op-
posite view of the question, and maintains that the
French sugar refiners need not fear to compete cm
such conditions with any rivals in foreign markets.
The Constitutionn©l says :—" The administrative
organisation of Savoy and Nice required some pre-
liminary examination ; and the task of making it
has been confided to two functionaries of acknow-
ledged talent. M. Pietri, senator, was selected for
Nice; while the journey of M. Laity, senator, to
Chambery was for a similar purpose."
BOURSE, April6.—The market is steady, with a
limited amount of business. The dividends of 67f.
on the Orleans and 17f. 50c. on the Western shares
have been deducted to-day. Threes, after having
been done at 69f. 90c. and 70f. 5c., receded to 69f.
95c. ; Mobilier have ♦aried from 790 f. to 797 f.
50e. ; Austrian, 530 f. to 532 f. 50c. ; Orleans, 1,360 f.
to 1,367 f. 50c. ex div.; Western, 570 f, to 575 f. ex
; Lyons, 925 f, to 927 f. 50c.; S)uthern, 520 f.
to 525 f. The following are the last quotations :-
44 per Cents..... 96 Credit Foncier 765
Do. end month .. 96 Bel an 41
3 per Cent 5....... 70 Piedmontese (5)
Do. end month.... 69 95 Roman
Bank Shares. 2820 Austrian
Credit M-4Alier .. 791 25 Spanish Threes
Do. Account ..... 790 Home Debt 441
RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans
Northern 961 25 .. 060
New ditto 866 25 .. 867 50
Lyons and Mixliterranean 927 50 .. 922 60
Geneva 432 50 .. 432 50
Southern
Western 565 .. 571 25
Eastern
Sardinian 407 50 .. 415

530 50
Austrian
Lombard ..
Exchange on London, at sight, paper, 25f. 14c.; money,
25f. 130. ; three months, paper, 24f. 85c.; money, 24f 82ic.