The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING,- MARCH [B, 1869.

THE COMIC PAPERS.

(From Punch.)

THE QUEEN'S LEVY.—Taxes.
THE PAYAIASTER-GENERAL.—Mr. John Bull.
AGRICULTURAL MACHINES.—Farm labourers.
" PARTY PEocEssioNs."—Going down to supper.
THE HEIGHT OF FASHlON.—Ladies' Hair as now worn.
A SWEET IDEA.—Giving sugarplums to children, if not
an act of bonhomie, may surely be regarded as an act of
bonbon-homie.

BIS DABIT.—Mr. Eastwick has postponed his motion on
Central Asia. We thank him. If he would only add tc
his kindness by going thither and delivering his speech,
our happiness would be complete.
LEGAL CHARGE.—A contemporary stated that "The
trial of the great Nun case cost about two hundred and
fifty pounds a day." A Cockney friend adds, that was
about a Nun•dred every two hours.
A SAINT REHABILITATED.—St. George, in his character of
a gallant knight on horseback, spiking a dragon, was dis-
gracefully removed from the sovereign ; and Mr. Punch has
scarcely cared to take a sovereign since. if ho does, it is
only to do like other people, and because that coin does as
well as au other to shy at a waiter after dinner, and in ex-
change for the,cigar-l.gbt. But St. George, as the jolly rap-
padocian Baker, has never had half justice done him, and
Mr. Punch inclines to consider him in this light. The notion
came into h's head at St. George's own Hall, nearly opposite
the Polytechnic, the other night, while he was listening to
the Christy Minstrels, who made musical the echoes of that
highly superior edifice. It occurred to Mr. Punch that
be would write them an opera, to be called George, the Cap-
padocian, or the Brace British Baker. We hereby copyright
the idea.
,There be passages in the life of St. George which
would not only delight, but inQtruct. We should not leave
out the Dragon, but should put him in a new light. George
was brave, but a cheat. The Dragon was the type of the
Magistrates who seek to prevent bakers from cheating. Wd
should not give George the victory, though he gets it now-
a-days, thanks to the imbecile idiotcy of Vestries, but we
should repress him by means of the beautiful Princess. We
forget whether Cappadocia is a place where blacks live ; but
no matter ; we should certainly let the Christy Minstrels
wear their sable, though we never could comprehend why
really charming melody should come more pleasantly through
redded lips than from an artist's natural mouth. Yes, we
are rather nuts upon our Cappadocian opera, and shall pro-
bably give the scenario at an early date. Meantime, go to St.
George's Hall, and hear the Minstrels ; for they are exceed-
ing good, both in serious and comic work, and they have
excluded all the vulgarity which used to make Punch long
to break the woolley heads of other days.

(From Judy.)

" A STRAIGHT TIP."—" Direct bribery."
THOUGHTFUL HOSPlTALlTY.—Entertaining an Idea.
A " HANGING MATTER."—The Sword of Damocles.
To BANDMASTERS.—Does the " March Wind" enter
into the composition of a "Military Air ?"
A METROPOLITAN PECULIARITY.—It's strange that
Bow should lie in the East, and Harrow in the West !

DISTANCE " LENS " ENCHANTMENT, &C. - Artist
(Photographic) : " Oh yes, Mum, we can take anything—.
we can take the sun, which is millions of miles off." Old
Lady (struck with an idea) : "Oh, you can. Then, if you
would besergood aster take half-a-dozen of my son in
Austeraylia, which it's only thousands of miles off, I
should take it as a favour."

(From Fun.)
THE END OF A " FAST " LIFE. —Starvation.

THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE.— Mr. Iron-
monger, Mayor of Wolverhampton.
A HERO OF FinaxcE.—Mr. W. E. Edwards, Ex-Official
Assignee in the Court of Bankruptcy.
A " TRULY" LIBERAL POLICY (recently displayed by the
Crystal Palaca Company—read this announcement, never
mind the bull).—" Guinea Season Tickets Free I "

PITCH AND Toss.:—lf instrumentalists require new horns
in consequence of the alteration of the pitch, does it follow
that mad bulls will require new horns for their toss ? The
question leaves us on the horns of a dilemma.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

the establishment will remain open unto every arvUici.
in pawn is redeemed by the owners." The result of
the debate in the Lords was, however, no sooner made
known than this and similar announcements were
withdrawn.

from having the slightest public effect. The result
is natural ; on these topics the public become more
and more ignorant. Fifty years ago the foreign
relations of America were more equitably adjusted
than those of any other nation in the world ; to-
day they are assuredly not in a good way. It, was
only the other day that a number of discontented
Irishmen planned, under the protection of our 11,1 g,
the invasion of a country with which we were- at
peace. They organized, equipped, and despatched an
army across the Canadian frontier. It seemed as
if we were returning to a stateof nature when a nation
pretending to be civilized could permit such prac-
tices. Many of our newspapers and orators ap-
plauded, and when President Johnson, prompted
by the simplest dictates of duty, doing what he ab-
solutely had to do, arrested the movement, and per-
formed the one act which entitles him to the respect
of the country, abuse was showered upon him from
every side, and the affair was spoken of in many
quarters as if one of the inalienable rights of man
was to take advantage of neutral territory to orga-
nize thieving, murdering attacks upon his neigh-
bours. Again, a little later some of these same in-

vaders, being captured, were held for trial. The
law was simple enough ; they were on the same
'ooting with pirates. But a cry was raised that
their being American citizens made a difference, and
the trial was spoken of as an insult to this country
and the invasion of American rights. The Admi-
nistration was reqr,ested to expostulate, and, al-
though nothing had been done except to treat a
crime as a crime, we seemed for a while to be really
nearing war." It considers such humiliations might
be avoided if the people could hear the reasons
which influence the most intelligent and cultivated
body in the country, and thereby escape th injury
done by the House of Representatives, whose de-
bates are published, wherein are prescribed the rela-
tions of nations to one another. Although the Senate
is the assemby which ratifies treaties the House
is the great forum of debate on Foreign relations,
and ➢lr. Banks, and Mr. Robinson, the " faithful
Fenian," are the instructors of the people on inter.
national law. The Tribune argues very forcibly the
injustice done to the United States by the conduct
of England in permitting privateers to prey upon
American commerce. Remarking on the correctness
of the New lurk limes that the war would have
ended at least a year sooner than it did, had
England not taken so unjustifiable a course, it says :
—" But from this sound premise it proceeds to
deduce the curiously illogical conclusion that the
Senate should declare war or confirm the treaty.
The right to declare war is one thing, the duty of
declaring it is quite another ; and when there is a
reasonable prospect of obtaining reparation without
war, an unnecessary declaration of war would be
at once a blunder and a crime, and especially would
this be so in the case of England and America,
which are closely allied by kindred blood, one lan-
guage, an identity of interest, and a commom
heritage of freedom. . . War may arise suddenly,
especially since Mr. Reverdy Johnson's too amiable
and too undiscriminating affability, and where then
would be England's commerce?" Undoubtedly
there is a strong belief on this side the water that
America has no sea-going ships that could for a
moment stand against those of Great Britain, and
that her powers are much smaller in constructing
such, although very powerful in floating batteries
and vessels for coast defences ; and expresssion was
given to this by the Right Hon. Hugh Childers in his
speech on the Navy Estimates. The London Times
also signified this in a recent article, wherein it
expressed disbelief in the power of America to sweep
England's commerce from the ocean, while it laughed
to scorn the idea that it could be done by vessels of
the class of the it'abanza or Florida, alike devoid
of speed and strength. As regards the capture of
the British possessions in North America, the result
is beyond doubt ; what the Tribune states being the
only course open to the Canadians, viz., quietly
to enter the Union and avoid a desolating war,
ending in an inevitable conquest. The concluding
remarks of the Tribune are in accordance with the
opinion of no small section of the English people ;
it will take some time to grow more general ; but
we verily believe that the end will be what the Tribune
suggests, on which we have frequently written, and
which forms the subject of a chapter in Mr.
Mike's work, Greater Britain. At present we
will content ourselves with giving the words of the
Tribune, but we will hereafter offer our reasons for
advocating such a policy :—" The London Tintes
of Feb. 19, in an article on the Alabama Treaty,
says: 'We have done our best ; we have gone
to the verge of national humiliation to secure
a settlement of the question at issue. We sha

PARAGUAY-THE STORY OF MESSRS.

BLISS AZVD .11ASTERAN.

These gentlemen arrived at New York in the
Brazil mail steamer Mississqvi, Feh. 21, and after
a short stay proceeded to Washington for an inves-
tigation of the charges made against them by Lopez.
Mr. Porter C. Bliss, from Western New York, is
about 30 years of age, and eight years ago accom-
panied Minister Webb to South America, where he
studied the languages and the geopraphy of the
continent. His appearance indicates what he ha s
suffered, and tends much to confirm his story, a
does that of Mr. Masterman, an Englishman, who,
in 1861, entered the Paraguayan service a, chief
military apothecary, on an engagement made in
London. In substance their tale is as follows.
Benigo, the brother of Lopez, having access to
the Treasury at Ascuncion, abstracted a large
sum, for which he was tried and found guilty.
To avert punishment, he professed to know of
a conspiracy, to further which the money had
been taken. Minister Washburn, the Paraguayan
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Berges, the Portuguese
Consul, 'Masterman, Bliss, and others, were accused.
Many were arrested, as were Messrs. Bliss and
Masterman when on their way to a United States
steamer in company with the United States Minis-
ter, to whose Legation they were attached. They
were placed in irons, weighing about 401b5., and
taken 36 miles from Ascuncion after being rifled
of everything they had. For weeks they were kept
in an open field without shelter until some branches
were tied together and covered with grass. A
sentry kept watch and allowed no communication,
the monotony only being broken when they were
taken beforo the revolution try tribunal. Both
prisoners were tortured, a musket being placed
under the knees and another over the neck with
connecting thongs, which, on being tightened, force
the head between the knees. When thus fastened
the executioner strikes the muskets with a mallet,
while a priest urges confession. Under this pro-
cess, the prisoners, who knew of no conspiracy, in-
vented one, and Mr. Bliss was compelled to write
a pamphlet, and it was from this Lopez made his
extracts which so astonished Mr. Washburn, giving
what professed to be a full, true, and particular
account of the conspiracy in which he had engaged. -1
At the time Mr. Washburn expressed his belief
that a narrative so untrue had been extorted only
by torture, and Mr. Bliss, now in the United States,
solemnly asserts that such was the case; that he
knew of no conspiracy, but that he was compelled
to save himself from so horrible a death to invent
the story. In this Mr. Masterman fully bears him
out. Mr. Bliss adds that he lived on terms
of the closest intimacy with Mr. Washburn, as
well as with the most prominent foreign families
in Ascuncion, and that they could not have been
engaged in a conspiracy without his knowing
it, yet 500 of these foreigners have b-en :hot for
this phantom conceived in the Dictators' brain, a
man as cowardly as he is tyrannical. Mr. Bliss
alludes to Lopez as a wretched fool, and speaks of
him personally as a poltroon ; and he considers it a
strong proof of his folly that be should have ac-
cepted as truth these statements, wrung from men
under torture. The greatest care was taken in re-
vising his pamphlet to make it complete, and in every
particular to bear out the charge. He was kept in-
cessantly at work often 14 hours a day, and some-
times roused up at midnight. He had to alter and
revise the fictitious history at the dictation of the
authorities, which, of course, under the circntn-
stances he readily did, and he attributes his preser-
vation to having made Lopez believe every word.
,During the time he was writing be had at least a roof
over his head and was better fed. Mr. Masterman,
after five years service with Lopez, had been thrown
into a dungeon for not obeying an impossible order
by telegraph. He was kept in a loathsome cell for
eleven months, and being close to where the poli-
tical prisoners were confined he could hear their
shrieks and groans, and see them carried back
covered with blood from torture. When released
he accepted the post of surgeon to the American
Legation, offered him by Mr. Washburn, scorning
to return to the service of one who had thus treated
him ; a proceeding Lopen!ver forgives. He had
been most useful as a chemist in improving gun-
powder works, making fulminating powder, extract-
ing sulphur from pyrites, and designing terpetios,
for he was thoroughly Paraguayan in sympathies,
regarding the inhabitants as a brave and noble
people, who freely poured out their best blood " in
defence of the most hideous tyranny the world could
show—for the Republic existed but in name—Lopez
ruled alone, with a power so absolute and neves-
tioned that no one who has not lived in the coun-
try can form any adequate conception of it."
After bring arrested with Mr. Bliss, and hurried to
Villeta on mules, with 401bs. of irons hanging to
their ankles, he was brought up for examination,
brutally flogged with a stick, and then thrust into
a hut, where he found Capt. Falcon, and a priest,
who acted as secretary. The former said, "A h !
we have got you at last ; now confess that you are
a traitor, and that Washburn is the chief in the con-
spiracy." He replied that he could make no such
confession, since, to the best of his knowledge, no
conspiracy had ever existed, and that the charges
against Mr. Washburn and himself were false
Falcon shouted savagely, "Then you will not con-
fess; I will see if I can make you." He was then placed
on the ground outside the hut and close to its thin
straw wall, so that the captain, seated within, could
hear al that was said, while the priest superin-
tended the application of the torture called the
" Uruguayana"—by which the prisoner had his
arms tightly bound behind him by two soldiers, and
then being seated on the ground with his knees
separated, and a musket bound beneath thorn,
one of the men put his foot between his shoulders,
and forced his head down until his throat
rested on the musket. Another was then placed
on the back of his neck, and the two tied firmly
together with thongs; at intervals the execu-
tioner struck the ends of the muskets with a
mallet, while the priest continually exhorted him
to confess and claim the forgiveness and
bounty of the President. After a time he
was unbound and another musket added to the

weight on his neck, but as they were forcing— his
head down he threw it forward to avoid the pressure
on the throat, and his lips were so severely cut that
his mouth was filled with blood, nearly choking
him. The pain was so excruciating that he fainted,
and on recovering consciousness found himself
lying on the ground, while the priest, who had left
for a short time, came back saying that Bliss was
already confessing, and urged him, as the only means
of saving his life, to follow his example, while dull,
heavy blows, each followed by a shriek from the

negro servant of Dr. Carreras, who had been also
arrested, showed that they were inflicting some
other form of torture upon him. It was, therefore,
useless to hold out longer; Don Benigno, Jose
Berges, Carreras, Rodriguez, and Bliss, with many

others, hai all been made to say that Mr. Wash--
burn was guilty, and with a sense of bitter humi-
liation he told them, as they were about to apply

;he torture for the third time, that he would confess

all he knew—that is to say, falsely declare that a
conspiracy, which he was positively aware had never

existed, bad been organized and presided over by
Mr. Washburn. The confession was interrupted by
incessant threats of the reapplication of torture,

for not knowing what he was expected to confess,
and forgetting what the others had stated, he was

constantly at fault. After the execution of Drs.
Carreras and Benitez, both of whom had suffered

excruciating torture, and some fifty Paraguayan
officers, they were a little better treated. Finally,
they were summoned before the revolutionary tri-
bunal, and informed that their evidence would he

read over in presence of two officers of the United

States, and that their lives dependel on their ad-
hering to the depositions. Captain Rains ty was

about to ask Air. Masternian a question in presence

of two Paraguayans who understood the language,

but he entreated him not to do so. The officers evi -

dently regarded them as criminals, and treated tht,in
superciliously. About midnight of the 10th De-
cember they were put on board the Wasp, when
the following scene occurred :—Commander Kirk-
land, without replying to their salute, called the

Master-at-Arms, and said :—" Take these men

:orward, put a sentry over thew, and dou't let