The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-29 00:00:00

‘:;--tTN,
LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 29, 1860.

replied that there was no treaty ;^ and. therefore Vat
Duc DE MALAKIIOFF went out of his way to declare
" that the passes of the Alps are not in our hands,
and it is in the'highest degree important to us that
the key of them should remain at Turin solely ;" and
therefore the EMPEROR himself protested, in his
i Milan proclamation, against the enemies of France
and Italy, who were "trying to persuade the world
that he was carrying on the war for personal am-
bition, or to aggrandise the territory of France."
Why, if Mr. KINGLAKE'S information be substan-
tially correct—and the march of events certainly
favours the supposition—then it would be difficult
to find words to express the depth of the perfidy
which the project reveals. It can hardly be a matter
of doubt but that if that pacte de famine had been
known to the world LOUIS NAPOLEON would have
had, not Austria alone, but probably Europe to
contend with. It was the sympathy with the
efforts of Italians to achieve their independence
which disarmed the Continent, and induced rulers,
and peoples to stand by, reluctantly and sus-
ciously indeed, but still to stand by, and await

the issue of the contest which France and Sardinia
provoked. We know now, how that sympathy has
been abused, and how ignobly the name of liberty
has been prostituted to a vulgar scheme for French
aggrandisement. What a new light is thrown
upon the negotiations of the first three months of
1859, the ambiguity and reserve of the Moniteur,
the shiftings and twistings of French diplomacy,
all tending to one grand rasult—war. Fools only,
the proverb says, are wise after the event; and the
English nation is but now awakening to the wisdom
of that attitude of vigilant neutrality which the
late Ministry assumed, and their successors have so
weakly abandoned."
For the national honour we wish Ministers well
out of this very questionable business. We believe
that they are not in fault, but somebody is, and
that somebody may yet rue the day—
" Big with the fate of Caesar and of Rome i"

At the commencement of the late war between
France and Austria, the Austrian Government,
being unable to raise a loan, issued a certain amount
(13 millions) of inconvertible notes, through the
National Bank. At the same time the Government
decreed that the taxes should be paid in silver.
In The Sun of May 5, 1859, we pointed out that
the issue of paper money by Austria was in itself
a judicious step, but that the refusal to receive these
National Notes in-payment of taxes was a fatal mis-
take.

What, we asked, will be the.cffects of this unfor- '
tunato error ? " The immediate effect will be to
throw discredit on the National Bank notes. Go-
vernment expects the people to take money in ex-
change for their commodities which it refuses to
take itself. There will be a paper price and a silver
price for commodities. As silver is drained away
its price will rise, or, in other words, the price in
silver of all commodities will decline. The result
of this will be that the burden of taxation will be-
come insupportable, because the nferchant will have
to give a larger quantity of commodities, the farmer
much more of his produce, and the working man an
increased amount of labour for the taxation money
e., silver. Loans must be contracted on ruinous
terms. Commerce will be most injuriously affected.
Distress, panic, and financial difficulties of every
kind, will ensue. And for these the Austrian Go-
vernment will have itself to blame." How speedily
these predictions have been verified, all who have
watched the state of things in the Austrian domi-
nions know too well. The war with France, with
its attendant increase of taxation, was a great
The weak and tyrannical system of
government is also a constant drawback on
the energies and resources of the nation. But per-
haps nothing presses so directly -on the great
masses of the people, and entails so much misery,
as the bad financial system ; and of that bad finan-
cial system the issue of paper mcmey which the Go•
vernment repudiates for taxes is the most mon-
strous and pernicious. In confirmation of this, we
beg to call the attention of our readers to a com-
munication received from Pesth, under date the
11th instant, and which appeared in the Times:—
" Agitation is rapidly spreading among all classes
in the country ; among the rich from the evident
fact that the Austrian Government will not make
concessions to the nation ; among the poor from
misery. The question of misery, indeed, threatens
soon to become of fearful magnitude. Owing to.
the enormous burden of taxation imposed by the
Austrian Government, large tracts of land are left
uncultivated, and in towns the rents of houses and
lodgings hr.ve risen enormously—here in Pesth
some 60 per cent. But what causes more misery
even than taxation is the fearful depreciation to
which the paper money of the Austrian Government
is subjected. 2he great merchants and wealthy
nobles haze to submit to a loss of 33 per cent. on this
paper, while the lower orders, having for the most
part to make only petty purchases, are naturally
fleeced still more ; lucky are they if they do not lose
more than 40 per cent. Great, however, as is the
misery in Hungary Proper, that which prevails in
Croatia is still worse. 7he people there are literally
starring. The Bann, in consequence, has had to
establish what he calls a Nothlands Comite—‘ Com-
mittee of Misery !'—to distribute grain and other
articles to the suffering. He has addressed to the
Austrian Government a report stating that
he must have money to buy food for the
people, but the deplorable financial situa-
tion in which the Government is placed renders
compliance with his demand almost impossible."
It will be observed that the " fearful depreciation"
of the " paper money of the Austrian Government"
.1s here spoken of as the great cause of the misery
of the people. This depreciation is stated to be

evil.

from 33 to 40 per cent. The unhappy peasants,
therefore, find at once one-third of their
hardly-earned wages confiscated by the action of

this depreciation. The paper money, in which they
are paid, becomes less valuable by one-third than it
ought to be—Le , food and the necessaries of life
become dearer by one-third. Bnt in addition to

this the employers of labour are injured by the
same process—" large tracts of land are left without
cultivation "—and there is less demand for the only
thing which the poor man has to sell—that is, his
labour; he can sell less labour, and the little he
can dispose of is paid for in depreciated money.
A policy more unjust, more cruel, more suicidal,
than that adopted by Austria cannot be conceived.
And this was, in effect, the policy adopted by PEEL
in 1819, when he obliged the English people to
pay in gold the debt which had been contracted in
"depreciated" paper.
During the war, from 1197 to 1815, the English
people paid their taxes in the paper money issued
under the authority of Government. From 1819
to the present time the taxes are extorted from the
people in gold, or in paper convertible into a given
weight of gold. The misery endured by the peo-
ple of England has, we believe, been often as great
as that suffered at present in the Austrian do-
minions. We still endure the pressure of an unjustly
tnan
ry heavycobslducebt, and we have a panic every few years
i
qnudeenr
se.e of
NorP E
lEelt. Si
tand e OfovrE ItaS TmOoNmE
that the evils are the necessary sup-
posedent one-conseque
of a paper money system.nce&
They are the conse-

qu'ances, not of the use, but of the abuse, of
_paper
utoney. A penny postage stamp does not depre-
ciate, for it is always receivable by Government for
a pennyworth of postage tax. Did our Government
issue national bank notes, receivable for taxes, they
would never depreciate. Gold might then go in
or out of the country, and the effect would be as
innocuous as the exportation of so much iron. We
should then cease to have discounts fluctuating from
lt to 20 per cent., and the reign of panic would be
at an end.

Mr. llawKsLEY's plan for dealing with the
filthy old Serpentine is surely doosaed. There is
some satisfaction at least in that consideration.

Although much time mid some moneys have been
wasted in preparing to bring that foolish plan into

operation—although in consequence •f its adoption
not one single step has yet been taken towards the
real cleansing of the river or lake of the Serpentine,
or whatever else we ought to call it (for the claim
of that—at any rate in appearance—beautiful sheet
of water to the title of either lake or river is
certainly somewhat ambiguous)—we have reason
at this moment to rejoice over the course which
has now been taken in this matter by the right
hon. gentleman the new Chief Commissioner of
Public Works. Mr. CowPER is adopting already
the very best means for vindicating the fact of his
own preferment—for justifying his stepfather's
selection of him to the vacant post of the
FEdileship of England, but more especially of the
metropolis. If to the course just taken by the new
Chief Commissioner in regard to the treatment of
the Serpentine, be added, with all convenient speed,
the carrying out of such public works as the build-
ing of a portion of the Thames Embankment
between the river and Whitehall-gardens—doing
this, as we took occasion to recommend the other
day, with the stones and debris of the old bridge at
Westminster, now about to be pulled to pieces and
removed ! If again Mr. COWPER resolves upon
taking measures for the speedy completion of a
great national monument like the columnar testi-
monial to Lord NELSON in Trafalgar-square,
doing so by the simple device of hasten-
ing the completion of the four colossal
granite lions for the decoration of the pediment—
we shall certainly begin to think in earnest that
,he Premier has given us, in his step-son, a very

good successor even for Lord LLANOVER. At any
rate, we must allow at once, without a moment's
hesitation, that Mr. COWPER has made an admirable
commencement. He has acted in the wisest way
he possibly could have acted in reference to that
unfortunate pnol or stream of the Serpentine. On
accepting the ministerial and administrative post he
now occupies, Mr. COWPER was, in reference to
this particular matter, the treatment of the Serpen-
tine, in a somewhat difficult and even, it might ap-
pear at the first blush, a rather bewildering position.
He could not very well act according to the dictates of
his own judgment. He could not treat the subject
upon his own responsibility. His predecessor had
blundered, somehow or another, to the conclusion
that this really ludicrous scheme of Mr. HAWK-
SLEY'S was, for some mysterious reasons, utterly
incomprehensible to us at the present moment, a
thing to be desiderated. Mr. FITZROY was en-
couraged, strangely enough, to arrive at this amaz-
ing conclusion by one of the greatest engineers
incontestibly that the world ever possessed—Mr.
ROBERT STEPHENSON. Acting upon the advice of
Mr. FITZROY, but .still more urged on by the
persuasive recommendations of Mr. STEPHENSON,
the House of Commons adopted Mr. HAWK-
SLEY'S plan, and voted a sum of no less.
than £17,000 for carrying it into execution ! This
astonishing plan, which was to leave all the filth
and all the inequalities of the Serpentine at the
bottom of that pestilential and perillous sheet of
water—restricting itself to pumping some of that
water alone out of it—carefully draining what was
pumped up, and then pouring it back again into
the dirty basin and the rest of the dirty water—
and.'so going on pumping and draining and pouring
back, pumping and draining and pouring back in
seeculce serculorton ! It certainly required not all
iota of the engineering skill of Mr. ROBERT STE•
PIIENSON to recognise at once the absolute
absurdity of such a mode of proceeding as this.
And so. we protested against Mr. HAWKSLEY'S
plan from the first as a plan utterly futile, and
at.the same time utterly preposterous. We have
continued protesting against it since then at every
available opportunity. We did so the last time as
recently as forty-eight hours ago. And at length
we have the gratification to note that the argu-
ments we have endeavoured to enforce, have so far
" told" that the right hcin. gentleman the Commis-
missioaer of Public WorkS will, this afternoon,
move for a select committee to inquire thoroughly,
for once and for all, into this long-vexed question,
namely, as to the best mode of cleansing the Ser-
pentine. The names set down on the Parliamentary
paper for this committee are as follows—
some of them we cannot but think
admirably well selected :—Mr. Cowper, Lord John
Manners, Sir John Shelley, Mr. Blackburn, Sir
Morton Peto, Mr. Joseph Locke, Mr. Walter, Sir
Joseph Paxton, Lord Fermo y, Mr. Byng, Mr.
Algernon Egerton, Captain Archdall, Sir Frederick
Smith, Mr. Beach, and Sii Mattlrow White Ridley.
In Sir MORTON PETO, Mr. HAWKSLEY will find
the most generous advocate .yet loft to him, now
that his two chief supporters, Mr. FITZROY
and Mr. STEPHENSON have both unhappily been
removed from amongst • us. But no ad-
vocacy whatever, we conceive no matter
how ingenious or energetic it: may be, can possibly
secure, to such a plan as Mr. HAWKSLEY'S, the
countenance of a Committee of Inquiry, such as the
one this afternoon proposed by the Chief Commis-
sioner. If the works actually commenced with a
view to the carrying out of that 'plan be promptly
and peremptorily put a stop to, until the report of
this Committee shall have been laid before Parlia-
ment, we shall rest perfectly contented. For
we are as firmly persuaded as we can well be
of anything that the Committee in its report will
urge upon the House of Commons the immediate
abandonment of this absurd and costly scheme of
Mr. HAWKSLEY'S—substituting for it the far
simpler, far cheaper, and perfectly effectual plan
by means of which, at the instance of Lord LLAN-
bO
eVeEnR h
r,
et
n de
eorrenda mp
eern
et ac wy astae rn S e
salubrious,
St. J rn e '
as James's-park rk
be has
tl au-
tiful. What hue beendonef iu St. James's-park we
want to see repented in the instance of the Serpen-

We are informed that Mr. W.Fairbairn, of Man
cheater, will read his remarkable paper on iron ships to the
members and friends of the Institution of Naval Archi-
tects, on Friday morning (March 2d), at 11 a.m., at the-
society of Arts, John-street, Adelphi, London.

. .
OF RocIII:STER.—W© hare authority to
state that after some hesitation Dr. Vattglian haS:finally
declined the Bishopric of Roche tor.

• •
The Agra Bank has declared. a dividend, at the
rate of 10 per cent., with a bonus of £1 per share, being
equal to 12 per cent. for the past year. . •
At a meetin,, of the British Empire Mutual As-
surance Company yesterday the report stated the amount
of assurances now in force to be £1,723,115. The annual
income arising from premiums is £53,835., and frourinte-
rest on capital invested, £5,499.
DEATH OF THE DEAN OF LINCOLN.—For some
few days past the Very Rev. John Giffard Ward, D D.,
Dean of Lincoln, had been confined to his room from ill-
ness. On Monday last the rev. gentleman was worse, and
during the night expired. This is the second cathedral
dignitary who has died within a year.

LATEST NEWS.

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

PARIS, FEB. 28.

The Pays and Patrie of this evening give a de-
nial to the news of an offensive and defensive
alliance between Russia and Austria.

MADRID, FEB. 27.

The Spanish squadron has bombarded Larache
and Arcilla, causing great destruction in those two
places. Some of the Spanish vessels were slightly
damaged. The Spanish loss was one man killed.
It is said that Rabatt has been also bombarded.

BELGRADE, FEB. 27.
A new Ministry has been formed as follows :
Minister of Justice
Minister of the Interior
Director of the War Department Schujevits.
Minister of Police
Prince Milosch continues ill.

The Paris correspondent of the Times (second

edition) says :

" The fact of something positive by way of an-
swer to the repeated inquiries of Piedmont as to
her position in Italy being sent on Friday last, is,
I believe, beyond doubt. As I mentioned on Sun-
day, Tuscany, most people agree, is not to be an-
nexed to Piedmont ; but the Tuscan people niay
choose whom they please as their ruler, with the
exception (which, doubtless, is very disinterested on
the part of France) of Prince Napoleon—l mean
the son-in-law of King Victor Emmanuel, and,
I believe, the Prince of Carignan. Modena and
Parma will, should they desire it, be annexed
enc
to Piedmont. TG Romag, „s also, if it suits them
(because, of course, absolute freedom of choice is
allowed), may, as I have said be governed by a
vicar from the family of the King of Sardinia ; and
the Romagnas will have to pay a certain yearly
tribute to the Pope as Suzerain, and which may be
fixed at 3,000,000 francs, more or less, pretty much
as the Moldo-Wallachians do to the Sultan. It is
said that the King of Sardinia has accepted this
proposal for the settlement of the Italian ques-
tion,' and that Piedmontese troops will soon
occupy the Romagnas."

that God will bless and recompense their noble con-
duct, as the Queen blesses and will recompense
it !" The French Ambassador had given a grand
ball. The progressist press was attaking England
in violent terms. The censorship had prevented the
circulation of the I‘ovedades for that reason.

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, FEB. 28.

The Montreal Ocean Company's steamer North
Briton, Capt. Borland, from Portland, Blaine, on
the 18th of February, has arrived. She landed the
Irish mails only.
The Bohemian, from Liverpool, arrived at Port-
land on the 14th ; the Prince Albert, from Galway,
arrived at Newfoundland on the 15th ; and Arabia,
from Liverpool, reached New York on the 18th inst.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17.—A resolution has been
adopted calling for a letter to the French Emperor
on the subject of commercial relations and free
trade. The Senate has expressed its gratification
with the proposal of Paraguay. The bill abolish-
ing the franking privileges has been passed, and
referred to a select committee. It is stated in
democratic circles that if Kansas admitted the
Wyandotte constitution the President would veto
the bill.

The Treasury balance was last week nine millions,
subject to reductions for drafts drawn.

Francisco dates are to the 23d January. The
markets were dull and unaltered.

NEW YORK, Feb. 17.—Stocks firmer, but no
material change has taken place. Money and ex-
change unaltered. Ashes firm. Cotton lower for
grade below middling. Sales, 10,000 bales. Mid-
dling Uplands, 111 c. Flour more active, and prices
are a shade better. Wheat and Qom quiet. Pro-
visions—Sugar and coffee firm. Freights to Liver-
pool drooping; for cotton, 3-16 to 7=32; Orleans,
7.32.

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 17.—Sales of cotton, 6,500
bales, at easier prices, but not quotably lower.
Freights to Liverpool, 9-16. Exchange unaltered.
MOBILE, Feb. 16.—Sales of cotton, 3,000 bales;
middling, 10 to lOac. Market firmer.

MONTREAL, Feb. 17.—Flour steady. Numerous
petitions have been signed for the repeal of the
newspaper tax and the 10 per cent. duty on books.

CUSTOMS,DUTLES DURING THE PAST

YEAR.

The following account of the gross produce of
the Customs' duties during the past year, con-
trasted with the two previous years will possess
peculiar interest as the last of the period before the
complete adoption of free trade. Each article is
arranged in the order of the amount yielded, sugar
being at the head of the list—a place recently oc-
cupied by tobacco. Among the principal items
which will never appear again—the duties having
been entirely abolished—are silk manufactures,
which gave £307,561; butter and cheese, which
gave £154,343; and tallow, which gave £75,602;
wLile among those on which reductionc will operate
to the largest extent are timber, wine, spirits, and
fruit :

Sirgar ..
Tobacco ..

Tea..

Spirits ..
Wine ..

Timber .. .. •.:

18. W.

4,942,081
5,2 i 3,431
5,060,032
2,366,494
1,965,341
580,725
353,080
473,383
456,805
250,995
2/8,336
160,308
112,5511
110,593
74,776
65,231
48,200
21,109
28,154
14,555
11,554
10,669
8,224

Fruit

Corn .. .. .. ..
Coffee ..
Silk manufactures
Refiuyd sugar ..
Molasses ..
Spices ..
Butter ..
Tallow .. _

1858.

5,786,987
5,444,214
5,186,170
2,216,481
1,827,111
576,797
494,985
586,783
44 ?,120
270,540
. 2.15,891
200,418
127,395
95,489
87,655
58,117
44,369
22,426
33,036
15,133
12,796
8,521
7,748

Leather manufactures..
Cheese ..
Eggs

Watches .. .. ..

Cocoa

Embroidery ..
Clocks •• .. .• ..
Caoutchoue

flops .. .. .. ..
Woollen manufactures • .

1859.

8,952
32,459
1,936

3,663
37,320

1,5t9

5,891,192
5,573,463
6,408,924
2,462,112
1,982,302
629,868
597,170
532,900
431,381
307,561
223,273
158,638
131,916
104,587
75,502
73,431
49,656
24,787
24,503
16,267
14,501
9,554
8,798
7,157
4,434

Worsted yarn ..
Other articles .. .. • • .
Total ..

1,776
265,553

!,956,371

2,207
289,911

124,155,852

3,808
3,148
311,060

125,065,06 e

KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL.

The annual court of the governors of the hospital
was held yesterday, at 2 o'clock, in. the board-room
of the hospital—Dr. Jelf, of King's College, in the
chair. The secretary, having read the minutes of
last meeting, and their approval being carried,
proceeded to read the 21st annual report of the
commit tee of management. It was therein stated
that the number of patients admitted during the
year was 1,485, being a decrease of 137 in-patients
compared with the admissions of 1858, but an in-
crease compared with the number admitted any
previous year. There were 693 cases of midwifery
at the patients' owh homes, being also a slight de-
crease as compared with those of 1858. The num-
ber of out-patients who received advice and medi-
cine far exceeded that of any previous year, hav-
ing amounted to no fewer than 33,781, being 4,855
more than in 1858. The average period during
whiek each patient remained an inmate of the hos
pital was 29 days, and the average cost of each
patient was £3 18s. 2d. The total income of the
charity, exclusive of legacies above £lOO, had
amounted to £7,366. The annual subscriptions
amounted to £1,507, being a larger sum than during
any previous year, and the donations to £2,821.
The total ordinary expenditure has been £6,402,
and in addition the committee had been enabled to
pay off the sum of £l,OOO borrowed in 1858. The
outstanding liabilities at December 31, 1859,
amounted to £1,339. The committee acknow-
ledged the following valuable legacies, which had
been bequeathed to the hospital during the year :
—By the late Miss Margaret Makepeace, of Wor-
thing, £260; the late George Biggs, £100; the
late Charles L. Beard, of Camden-town, £lOO ; the
late Mrs. Mary Johnson, of Nottingham-terrace,
Marylebone, £5OO ; the late Mrs. Mary Ann
Worley, of Stratford; the late J. C. Cording, 19
guineas; the late Chas. Tellard, Strand, £10; and
the late John Nicholl, of Piccadilly, a sixth of the
residue of his estate, payable on the death of his
sister, estimated at £6,000. The committee have
also received final payments of legacies amounting
to £3,185. In regard to the building operations,
the committee are happy to be able to announce
that the second and largest portion of the new erec-
tion is rapidly approaching completion. This struc-
ture includes several large wards and day-rooms
for convalescent patients, a new board-room and
building offices, apartments for the ladies of St.
John's-house and the resident officers, and also
the great staircase, one of the most important
features of the design, inasmuch as it will serve
as a source of warmth and ventilation to
the entire building, the want of which
has been greatly felt in its present incomplete
state. In consequence of the unhappy differences
between masters and men engaged in the building
trade, the works were unavoidably delayed for a
period of more than three months, which was the
more to be regretted as the building is to be de-
voted to the alleviation of sicknoss and suffering
among the class to which the workmen on strike
belong. The building is now, however, ready for
the roof, and the committee expect that it will be
in a fit state for occupation by the end of the pre-
sent year. As soon as possession is obtained,
the old buildings at present in use will be
pulled down, and the continuation of the Carey-
street wing, which has been already contracted
for, at once commenced. Thus the large por-
tion of the new building will probably be com-
pleted in the autumn of 1861, when the governors
will be in possession of a hospital replete with
every comfort, and which will bear comparison
with any similar institution in the country. The
committee further paid a grateful tribute to the
memory of the late Dr. Todd, who was so devoted
to the interests of the institution. It was intimated
that a subscription had been opened. with the view
of raising a sum sufficient to place a statue or me-
morial of him in the hall of the new hospital. The
report being unanimously approved, the ordinary
routine business of the meeting was goen through.
The thanks of the governors was duly moved to the
committee of management for the past year, and to
the various persons who have benefitted the charity
and other committees were nominated and elected
for the ensuing year. On the conclusion a cordial
vote of thanks was moved to Dr. Jelf for his con-
duct
in the chair, and for the warm interest he has
always taken in the management of the hospital.

FINE ARTS.—Several very beautiful water-
colour paintings are now being exhibited at the French
Gallery, 120, Pall-mall. Amongst those on view are three
rustic sketches, by a Mr. Edwin Toovey, that deserve
notice. They are—" A Cottage in Prussia," " A Study of
Trees in Durham," and "Leddington Stone, Scotland."
The "Study of Trees" is a drawing of: considerable merit,
and evidences on the part of the artist who executed it
great power of landscape painting. We understand that
Mr. Toovey has hitherto pursued his stn4lies in trUssels,
but he intends to follow fox the future in
London. If the "Ws.tp-r JPI°IU 6acibty could procure for
their appro,iching exhibition these drawings, they would
add considerably to its usual attractims,

LORD ELGIN AND SIR Of. SEYMOUR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

enclose a copy of a letter which I have
received from Lord Elgin, and of which he has
authorisQd me to make any use I please. I shall
feel much obliged by its insertion in your columns.
—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
LAURENCE OLIPHANT.
4, Mount-street, Feb. 28. .

" 110, Eaton-square, Feb. 27.
" My dear Oliphant,—As I see that you are
blamed for some statements in your narrative of my
mission to China and Japan, I think it due to you to
state that I was cognisant of your intention to write
that book, and that my advice to you was, that
you should give to the public the fullest informa-
tion on all topics of general interest, and that when
you were compelled to touch on political points
you should confine yourself strictly to what had
been made public in the despatches already sub-
mitted to Parliament, abstaining from reference to
matters with which you were acquainted through
the confidential relations in which you stood to me.
Having seen your work both in proof and in a pub-
lished form, I am bound to say that I think you
have adhered very faithfully to this rule.
" The best evidence of the care with which you
conformed to my advice will be furnished by a com-
parison of your work with the papers which have
lately been submitted to Parliament.—Yours, very
truly, " ELGIN AND KINCARDINE."