The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-30 00:00:00

THEI! SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 26, "1860.

No, the veil is not yet lifted from this most hor-
rible mystery. We have our own idea as to the
course which inquiry and the search after
" animus," should take, but we think it better not
to express it. Like every one at first, we thought
the perpetrator of the murder must be an inmate of
the house. Our faith in that view is now shaken.
If there was even an accomplice in the family, it
was the worst that now seems likely, and that is
bad enough. We particularly noticed in the sur-
geon's evidence that the stab through the blanket
and the clothing:and into the body, was such as
requited great strength to effect it. His important
words are—" it must have been done with a dagger.
shaped knife or carving knife, and it required very
great force to make such a cut through the blanket
and folded night-dress and through the side, in that
way." Was such a stab likely to have been given
by a young female or by any woman ?" and the
only man known to have bees in the house—the
father—is wholly beyond suspicion. We say no
more at present in a case in which all must be at i
present mere conjecture.

So we are to have what we are told will be a
warm "party fight," on the 6th, on the Customs
duties on paper. If so, it will be the fault of the
Government for committing the vulgar blunder of
running their heads against a wall.
Those who defend the abolition of the penny
duty, now paid by foreign paper to meet the pre.
hibition of the export of rags, tell us first, that we
have assented to the treaty, and, therefore, our good
faith requires it. To which the answer is that the
treaty was passed in regard to this particular ques-
tion, under an honourable engagement by the
French Government to modify, in a way satisfac-
tory to all parties, this prohibition—which modifi
cation they, dishonourably, have not made, and we,
therefore, cannot be asked to adhere to engagements
into which we were drawn on false pretences.
Next, they tell us free trade principles require it.
That we deny. We are older Free-traders than
our contemporary the Economist, which plies us
with this argument ; but to its long and elaborate
article of Saturday we reply, that " consumers"
cannot reasonably ask that " producers" should be
required to face the competition of Governments.
English consumers have a right to take the benefit
of all the natural advantages of other countries, for
production ; such, for instance, as soil, climate,
water-power, cheaper labour; but they have no right
to benefit by the artificial advantages conferred by,
other Governments on its own manufacturers;
for the avowed purpose of enabling them to under-
sell ours. The rag prohibition is just the gift of,
say one penny a pound, to French manufacturers,
to enable them to undersell ours by that amount in

and Hyde-park on the twenty-second of June gives
an answer to the Imperial assurances. We may
accept his friendly sentiments with reciprocal cour-
tesy, but we are much mistaken if Englishmen will
again trust their security to Imperial forbearance.
As for the commercial resources of France the less
said the better. We have done enough for them
in all conscience. Are we to be expected to make
any more sacrifices at the coat of an additional
income-tax ? or is this sentence introduced in order
to assist Ministers over the 3tunibling-block of the
Paper-duty, by hinting that "a good understand-
ing between the two great Western Powers" is de-
pendent on the sacrifice of our paper manufacturers?
All the fine phrases and decorated sentiments of
this communication have been expressed tons before,
as doubtless they have also been to A astria, Sardinia
and Switzerland, only somehow they did not pre-
vent Magenta and Solferino, or interfere with the
rectification of frontiers. It might be hinted that
finding Germany awake to the possible intentions of
her friendly neighbour, and aware that English in-
difference was at last aroused, the benevolent
protector of " peace
_throughout Europe," is desir-
ous of regaining his old position of a trusted and
valued ally. Let Lord PALMERSTON be warned,
however, by his experiment of 1858. The sound
sense and steady integrity of the nation will not
be imposed upon by a few fine phrases. Their
national instinct will prevent them from trusting
their shores to the mercy of diplomatic courtesy,
and their ardent sympathy for the Italian people
will assuredly not content itself by carrying out
the views and assisting the projects of a despotic
and irresponsible potentate.

With a feeling of no little relief our readers
must have perused the evidence against Miss
CONSTANCE KENT in our impression of Satur-
day. That evidence was nil. There really
does not seem to have been a shadow of a reason
for the Magistrates consenting to detain her in
custody, much less for the needlessly cruel act of
sending a girl of sixteen to a county gaol to await
such stories of school gossip as might be raked up
against her from the retentive memory of school-
mates. Now that the entire evidence is before the
public, they will wonder less at the officious act of
an Inspector who was sent down from London,
and who thought he must do something worthy of
a Metropolitan Policeman, than at the men who
sat as judges, yielding to his request for a remand,
and the confinement of a 'young lady in a felon's
prison.

The night dress is yet missing—that is the single
fact. But it had been !seen, and examined
on Saturday, the morning of the murder, by
the family surgeon, and was remarkably clean,
—what it might have been if worn for a week by a
young lady sleeping alone. It had been seen by the
servant, who noticed no stain on it, and placed it
in the soiled clothes-basket, on the Monday after,
to go with the other things to the wash—it was
soon after in the custody of the washer-woman,
and on the Tuesday, the latter denies that she re-
ceived the nightdress.! The last dressis plainly the
one which the surgeon and servant saw, but which
conta-ined no evidence of guilt. Miss CONSTANCE
KENT could therefore have no object in effecting
its abstraction ; and, with it, the number of her
dresses is correct. Bad any party an interest in
abstracting it, to suggest the idea of the sister being
the murderess ? Unless the dress were stolen,
which is, of course, possible, though, under the cir-
cumstances, unaccountable, this question seems to
point to the reason of its loss, and certainly sug-
gests the importance of the most careful inquiry, as
to where, and in whose custody the basket was, up
to the time of the complaint by the washer-woman,
that three nightdresses were set down in the list
while she had received but two.
The evidence of animus, on the part of the ac-
cused girl, was ludicrous indeed. Every parent
who has children of the same family, of which the
ages vary from 10 to 16, will smile at it. All is
but a picture of every-day family life, even when
there are not two families. An elder girl put out
with the parents petting the younger ones, and
talking about it ; yet playing merrily with the
petted youngster on the evening before the
murder, and on the united testimony of the female
servants, never evincing towards the child aught
but kind and sisterly feeling. And then stories of
her mother getting her a black dress when she
wished for a brown one—as if such disputes
between even the fondest mothers and children
were not as numerous, perhaps, as families in
which the mothers attend to the childrena' dress
at all.

England. We trust the English public is too high
spirited to take cheap paper like paupers from the
French Government, as if it could not afford to pay

the price of unrestricted and unpatronized compe-
tition. Sophistry, in plenty, there may be on the
6th, but none we hope which will blind the eyes of
Englishmen to the degradation of being for ever
shamelessly tricked by the EMPEROR, or of wishing
to have our paper to us cheapened by the French
Government, not by its manufacturers.

Next we are told that the French rags will soon
rise to the same price as ours. Let those who use
this argument go to France, and try how much it
will effect there. If it be so, why then the French
must be mad in desiring to retain the prohibition.
But they know one of two things. Either that the
price will not naturally rise, and that capital and sk ill
will flow from England to France, because of the
cheapness of the raw material; or that the process
will be so slow that the English paper trade will
be materially injured, their own substituted for it,
and that then the English manufacture will not be
easily restored.

We look, however, at the question in a broader
view. We think the entire behaviour of the French
Government has been such in this affair, as renders
it unworthy of us to succumb to it. Our language
to it, if we have any self-respect, should be—" As
soon as you fulfil the expectations you created in
the House of Commons, which induced the House
to pass the treaty ; as soon as you abolish the pro-
hibitive or export duty on rags, we will forthwith
abolish the extra penny on your paper." We have
now the card in our own hands, and the House of
Commons would be foolish indeed to hand it over
to our faithless neighbours.

LATEST

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

PARIS, JULY 30.

PARIS, JULY 29,

FLORENCE, JULY 29.
The Nazione of to-day contains the following in.
telligence :
" Garibaldi has taken Melazzo and entered Mes.
sina.

" The Royal troops still occupy the citade;
" Baron Ricasoli has left for Turin."

NAPLES, JULY 24

Sixteen persons belonging to the Court have
been exiled. Numerous refugees have returned to
Naples, among whom are General Ulloa and Signor

Davala. The existing municipalities are to be
renewed on the 6th of August next.

NAPLES (via Genoa), JULY 25.
The Commander Pianelli has promised to dissolve

;he foreign troops.

NAPLES, JULY 27,
Tranquillity has not been disturbed at Naples,

NAPLES, JULY 28,

The ;King has accepted the resignation of the
Marquis d'Antonini, the Neapolitan Ambassador
at Paris, who is to be replaced by the Commander
Canofarri. Until the arrival of the latter the First
Secretary will conduct the business of the Legation.

MUNICH, JULY 29.
The King of Bavaria will leave in a few days
for Potsdam, whero he will pass 10 or 12 days with
the Royal Family of Prussia.

BERLIN, JULY, 21.
The official Prussian Gazette contains a leading
article, of which the following is a summary :
"The hopes which had been entertained in refe-
rence to the meeting of the two Sovereigns at Top-
litz have not been disappointed. The approach to
a better understanding between the two Cabinets
has been promoted by this meeting in the manner
to be desired.

" The frank and friendly meeting of the two
princes and their principal advisers, and the mutual
exchange of their views, have brought the relative
positions of the two States into a clearer light. A
mutual understanding on the most intrtant ques-
tions of European policy has also been found to
exist. It therefore became possible to arrive at the
conditions of a sincere union. In this union Ger-
many will find fresh guarantees for her security,
and may hope that in future the importance of her
interests will lie heavier in the balance of pc wer in
Europe.

" Europe will by the Toplitz meeting obtain fresh
guarantees for the maintenance of public peace and
for the respect of the equilibrium."
The article then points out what connection exists
between the new path Austria has taken in refe-
rence to her interior policy and her approach to
Prussia, and thus continues :

" There is no doubt but that Austria will con-
tinue in the path upon which she has entered, and
that she is resolved upon following her new policy,
not only as regards religious questions, but also in
reference to the different nationalities of the empire.
Thus Austria will obtain a position which will in-
crease her strength at home and abroad."

The article concludes by refuting the opinion of
those who expect from the meeting at Toplitz a
change in the interior policy of Prussia, and shows
such a change to be impossible, from the known
policy and character of both the Prince Regent
and his Ministers.

PARIS, JULY 29.
The Marquis de la Greca was entrusted with
the mission of proposing to France and England
that they should direct a French and English fleet
to cruise off Calabria and Naples, in order to pre-
vent any landing of Garibaldians.
[The French Government signified to the Mar-
quis de la Greca its assent to this proposal.
In order to obtain the adhesion of England, the
Marquis do la Greca proceeded to London, and

was supported by Count Persigny in placing his
demand before Lord John Russell. M. Thouvenel
also transmitted a note to Lord Cowley stating that
France is ready to employ all necessary means for
preventing Garibaldi's landing on the mainland.?
Nevertheless Lord John Russell declined to accede
to the proposal of the Marquis de la Greca, on ac-
count of the principle of non-intervention which
England desires to maintain.

The .lfonzteur publishes a decree augmenting the
number of the officers of the general staff from 560
to 580. This decree is preceded by an explanatory
statement, to the effect that the, staff is not, even in
time of peace, sufficient for the necessities of the
service, created by the increase of the army atten-
dant upon the aggrandisement of French territory.
The Moniteur also publishes a correspondence
from Constantinople, dated 18th inst., which states
that Fuad Pasha, before leaving for Syria, sent the
following message to the Marquis de Lavalette :

" Tell the Ambassador that, at the risk of my

* We are inclined to GA* that this intelligence is totally
incorrect,

GENOA, JULY 29.
News received here fully confirm the entry o;
Garibaldi into Messina.

The Constitutionnel of to-day expresses hopes
that the convention in reference to Syria will be
signed to-day.

Up to yesterday the Turkish Ambassador at
Paris had declared to M. Thouvenel that, being
without any instructions from the Porte, he could
in no other way take part in the conference rela-
tive to European intervention in Syria than ad
referendum.

Yesterday (Saturday), only at 1 p.m., the Turkish
Ambassador received his instructions, which were
immediately communicated by him to M. Thouve-
nel, who thereupon convoked a second conference
for to-morrow (Monday). On Friday no conference
took place.

PALERMO, JULY 23.
The electoral committees will not enter upon
their duties until the 6th of August next.

The official journal contains an article express-
ing regrets at the hostile aggressions made in Sicily
whilst negotiations are being carried on for the
solution of the pending question at Turin, Paris,
and London ; and notwithstanding that the Nea-
politan Government had given orders for the eva-
cuation of Sicily by the Royal troops in order to
avoid the shedding of Italian blood.
The same journal repeats that an alliance be-
tween Piedmont and Naples is necessary for the
welfare of Italy.

Fifteen steamers of the royal fleet have left
Naples for Sicily.

An ordinance has been published by the Prefect
of Police against abuses of the liberty of the press.