The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 27, 1869.

doubt, a large disaffected class, whom no concession '
seems to satisfy, and who are not confined wholly to
the poorest grade of the population. In short, the
inauguration of the " Justice to Ireland" era has not
been the means of preventing another out-
break of Fenianism, less overt than the last, but
apparently marked by hostility no less bitter. It is
as the representative of the general feeling throughout
the southern counties, that this Tipperary contest is
most melancholy to contemplate. As an outward
and visible sign of widespread disaffection and treason,
there is nothing to extenuate this attempt to send an
ignorant convict to the British Legislature. It only
remains for us to meet this grave difficulty patiently
and firmly. The work of Reform must be carried
on, because justice cannot fail to tell in the
end, and more because it is England's
duty, whether it produce the desired effect
or not. The land bill must not go beyond
the limit of equity, because the agitators call
for extreme remedies; but neither, on the other hand,
must it fall short of the mark. The 'limes
suggests that the abolition of the Establishment
was only a half measure, that it has
proved less fruitful than was expected simply
because the Irish Church Act was not all that
justice demanded, that sectarian prejudices inter-
fered, and that the landlords secured most of
the Church temporalities, whereas the Catho-
lic clergy ought to have had their just
share. "Reasons of the highest policy, the authority
of an unbroken succession of statesmen, respect for
the wishes of the Irish people, concurred in enforcing
the recommendation that part of the temporalities of

the Establishment should be appropriated to grants of
residences and glebes to the priests of the national
faith." It may not be too late to remedy this,
or any other injustice which can be proved
to exist. But whilst abuses are redressed,
crime must be put down without flinching.
There is a limit beyond which forbearance
merges into feebleness, and this limit seems to have
been at length reached. It is no crime to elect a
Fonianto the House of Commons. That event is merely
an aggravated symptom of a treason epidemic, which
shews itself in the form of seditious exhortations
by newspapers, and apologies for assassination from
popular leaders such as the Rev. Mr. RYAN. The
Government, with the consent of the English people,
has long held back. But it is now unmistakeably
challenged to interfere.

THE doings of the unenviably famous St. Pancras
Guardians raise several questions of more than
parochial importance. The indifference to human
suffering, the positive and negative cruelty practised
by those officials, are, indeed, heinous ; but the cal-
lousness displayed by these men, both in respect of
human feeling and the pressure of public opinion,
is scarcely to be explained by the assumption that the
ratepayers of St. Pancras have by accident got
together an exceptionally hard-hearted Board.
For the deeds of the guardians there is no excuse,
but there is good reason to think that the work-
house horrors which have again come before
public notice aro indirectly due to the system
on which poor relief is administered. The St.
Pancras story, in short, is another plea for a redistri-
bution of local burdens. The present theory on
which the poor rate is administered—that
each separate parish should bear the burden
of its own poor decidedly works badly
in London, and to a smaller extent in other
great towns. The districts in which pauperism
is most abundant are always the least able to
support it. Where there is most wealth
the poor-rate is lowest. It is true also that
much of the pauperism collected in one region
properly belongs to another. The working man who
resides in a poor neighbourhood often carries on his
business in a wealthier parish ; but should he fall
upon the rates, it is the locality in which he
dwells, not that in which he works, which must sup-
port him. This inequality is undoubtedly an irritating
and a sore. burden, calculated, by a sense of injustice,
to faster indifference, and ultimately cruelty. The
ratepayers become tempted to resort to economical
expedients, the consequences of which they never
calculate. The rates are so severe that the
first consideration of those who bear them is
to lighten the load, no matter at what cost. A
more equal distribution of parish burdens would

iforiMpakarffg disadvantage. It is true that local
functionaries might be induced to rush from
cruel parsimony to the other extreme of
baneful extravagance. But the answer is
obvious. The Poor-law Board has now to exercise
supervision over guardians for the protection of
paupers ; it would be at least as easy to supervise
them for the protection of the ratepayers.
If the central authority can prevent cruelty,
it can prevent waste of money. The present
system must not go on. The treatment of our
poor is both a scandal and a public injury—it pre-
vents the large sums yearly raised for the benefit of
the destitute from being employed to the best
advantage.

NAVAL AND

7ELLIGENCI.

Yesterday the troops composing the Aldershott
Division, under the command of Lieut.-General Sir
James Scarlett, were actively exercised in various

ways. Shortly before ten o'clock the 2d Infantry
Brigade, under the command of Major-General J.
G. Carey, C. 8., formed up in complete marching,
order on the brigade parade, Centre Block, Perma-
nent Barracks, and soon afterwards proceeded on
route-marching duty, taking the direction of Farn-

ham. After marching about two miles beyond
that town on the Alton-road, they returned to

quarters, at which they arrived at half-past one
o'clock, having executed a march of about ten miles.
The brigade was composed of the 2d Battalion I;_',Cl
(Prince Albert's) Light Infantry, under the com-

wand of Col. Maunsell, the 4th Battalion 60th

Royal Rifles, under Col. R. B. Hawley, the 67th
Regiment, under Major Miller, and the 4th Bat-

talion Rifle Brigade, under Col. F. R. Elrington.

At half-past nine o'clock the 3d Infantry Brigade,
under the command of Col. Glyn (2d Battalion
Rifle Brigade), Acting-Brigadier, and composed of

,he 2d Battahou 3d Buffs, under Lieut.-Col. C. K.

Pearson ; the 35th Regiment, under Col. Atkinson ;

and the 2d Battalion Rifle Brigade, under Colonel
Walker, marched out independently—the Buffs and
the Rifles over the Farnborough-road, and the 35th

Regiment by way of the North Camp Station—to
Frimley, where they threw out outlying pickets.

They returned to quarters shortly after 1 o'clock.
The Ist Infantry Brigade formed up in march-

ing order in line of contiguous columns on the
brigade parade, South Camp, about the same time

as the other two brigades. It was under the com-
mand of Lieutenant-Colonel J. 11. Cooper, 7th

Royal Fusiliers, Acting Brigadier, and was com-
posed of the 2d Battalion Royal Fusiliers, under
Major Waller ; Ist Battalion 12th Regiment, under
Major M‘Kay ; 2d Battalion 23d Royal Welsh
Fusiliers, under Colonel the Hon. S. Mostyn; and
the 42d Highlander; under 'Major Macpherson. At
ten o'clock the brigade marched to the Long Valley,

where it was exercised in various field movements,

While the movements were in progress the Artillery
division, consisting of A battery C Brigade, B bat-
tery B Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, and C and
G batteries of the 11th Brigade Royal Artillery, was
fully exercised. The Cavalry Brigade, consisting of
the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 6th Inniskilling
Dragoons, also marched out, and took up a line of
outposts. The weather was peculiarly favourable
for the march and the manoeuvres of the different
branches of the service.
The general Court-martial sitting at the Marine
Barracks, Chatham, for the trial of Lieutenant
George Frederick Henry Rule, of the Chatham
Division of Royal Marines, on a most serious
charge, sat for the fifth time yesterday, and con-
cluded its proceedings for the present. The Deputy-
Judge-Advocate, Captain Blake, Royal Marines,
barrister-at-law, summed up the whole case. His
address was listened to with profound attention by
the Court. He said the Court had been called
together to try a charge of scandalous conduct
against an officer, and according to the G7th
Article of War, if such a charge were proved
against an officer, the penalty was for him to be
cashiered. In his defence the prisoner had urged
that there was no fraudulent intention ; but it re-
mained for them to decide whether the evidence
before them was sufficient to prove the fraudulent
appropriation of the money to his own use, and
whether the charge of scandalous conduct had been
maintained. The principal witnesses were Capt.
Morris and Private Rowsell, whose evidence he re-
viewed. He referred to a letter sent by Lieutenant
Rule to Colonel Clavell on the 24th of October, in
which he stated that he was " urgently pressed for
money at the time" he used it, consequent on bring-
ing home a sick wife and child from India, and
offering to resign his commission. The prisoner
had objected to that letter being read, but he (Cap-
tain Blake) was of opinion that it should be ad-
mitted as evidence. Captain Blake then read the
letter, and said it rested with the Court to decide
whether Lieutenant Rule had been influenced by
anything said to him to write that letter, after
having received the usual caution that anything he
wrote might be used against him, and whether the
contents of that letter were true or false. It was
his painful duty to give his opinion in this case,
which would be most destructive to the case set up
in the defence. It was urged in defence that the
prisoner had no fraudulent intention in appropriat-
int, the lIIDEIey to his own use. As to irtontinn the
‘4% 13 must clear, tnat it presumes tliat a man in-
tends the natural consequences of his actions ; but
it was for then) to decide whether there was any
fraudulent intention in Lieutenant Rule using the
money, which bad been intrusted to him for in-
vestment, to pay a debt of his own, and thus de-
priving the owner of the use of it for several weeks.
The room was cleared in order that the Court might
consider their verdict. What the finding of the
Court is will not be known until it has been ap-
proved by the Queen.
The iron screw steam troopship Tamar, 2, arrived
yesterday (Friday) in Plymouth Sound. She
conveyed the 29th Regiment from Quebec to Hali-
fax, where she arrived on the 3d of November,
and left again on the 12th. In the early part
of the passage strong north-west winds were ex-
perienced, and strong south-west winds in the
Channel. The Tamar brings six naval invalids.
She will probably go into Hamoaze to have defects
made good. On the passage out, when proceeding
up the Gulf of St. Lawrence, she struck on a sun-
ken rock, which damaged her stern, and there is a
beam across the after rails of the poop from which
three chains are suspended on each side, for the
purpose, apparently, of sustaining the after part of
the keel.
Mr. Robert Wilson, a leading man of the ship-
wrights in Chatham dockyard, died in Melville
Hospital, soon after two o'clock yesterday after-
noon, from a fearful accident which befel him on
Tuesday morning. While at work on board the
Sultan, iron ship, in No. 2 dock, he by some means
fell from one deck to another. Though the fall
was but seven feet, he fractured his skull, and sus-
tabled a concussion of the brain. He was taken
up unconscious, he never again became sensible,
and his death was expected from the first.
Yesterday George White, remanded from the
previous Friday, on a charge of attempting to de-
fraud the Government of £1 125., bounty money,
by producing a false discharge, and enrolling him-
self twice in the Army Reserve force, was placed
at the bar of the Woolwich Police-court, before
Mr. Maude. The War-office, however, declined to
prosecute, and the prisoner was discharged. Faulk-
ner, who was committed for trial last week, has
been sentenced to six months'
imprisonment with
hard labour.
The 14th Brigade Royal Artillery, on passage
home from India, will arrive at Portsmouth ix the
Serapis on or about the 23d of next month. On
disembarking they will leave by train for Wool-
wich, where they will be stationed.
Increased military precautions have during the
last few days been taken at St. Mary's Convict
Prison, adjoining the dockyard extension works at
of the prison containing
Chatham, all the officials showing the utmost
vigilance, in consequence
a remarkable convict—O'Donovan Rossa, the Fenian
offender, who has just been elected as member for
Tipperary. He has been for some time at this
prison. The extra precautions are taken with a
view to frustrate any desperate attempt to -rescue
Rossa. The military guard at the prison, instead
of being removed as usual in the afternoon, after
the convicts have done work on the islandand have
returned to the prison, is now maintained during
the night.

NEW NATIONAL. STANDARD TII EATR E.—OfTen-
bath's operatic extravaganza, "The Grand Duchess of
Gerolstein," the English version of which is now given at
this theatre by Mr. J. Russell's Covent-garden operatic
company, is received with immense favour by the audi-
ences at the east-end of London. Since the opera was pro-
duced a few weeks ago, and during the temporary indis-
position of Miss Julia Mathews, the part of the GI and
Duchess has been interpreted by Miss Emily Soldene. To
a handsome person Miss Soldene superadds rare vocal
qualifications, whilst she contrives to infuse all the neces-
sary grace, verve, and spirit into the character. In the
famous "sabre song" she commands an inevitable encore,
and altogether the performauce ie dulling to a. degree.