The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, _LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 7, 1.69.

lieve that be will lead public opinion instead
of being led by it. A very curious commentary
on the Alabama dispute is afforded by the Cuban
question, and the PRES:DENT, as if aware that the
instance is an unfavourable one for his cause, de-
clares the Cubans not to be entitled to recognition.
Such, however, is not the prevailing sentiment in
American circles. The detention of a priva-
teer is not so much
,ea matter of course as
American logicians would imply, if we are to
judge from the case of the Hornet at Wilmington.
The PRESIDENT, however, makes one important
admission. The nation, he says, must be its own
judge when to accord the right of belligerency to
another nation. How is it this theory does not hold
good on both sides of the Atlantic?

THE saying, "Happy is the-nation-which has no
history," is exceedingly apposite to great commercial
undertakings. The history of nations is little more
than a record of commotion, and the narratives of
peaceful enterprises become monotonous if there is
nothing but success to chronicle. The opening of
the Suez Canal has been a triumph so unchequered
by any disasters worthy of the name, that
the story of the marvellous fetes at which
so many great personages have assisted forms
the staple material of the narrator. The capa-
city of the Canal to admit large vessels from sea to
sea has been so thoroughly tested, that the last
vestige of doubt must now disappear. During the
short space of eleven days not fewer than 130 vessels
—in all 80,000 tons—passed from Port Said to Suez and
from Suez to Port Said. Several vessels, it is true, got
aground, and accidents of the kind happened to some
ships more than once. But in no case diri am
ous result follow these mishaps. Many of the un-
fortunate steamers eet themselves free without any
assistance, and in the worst cases the slightest aid
proved sufficient. It turns out, indeed, that what
was feared would be a great danger to the Canal is
really a valuable guarantee of its success. It was
apprehended that the banks, which are formed of very
soft material, would be destroyed by the agitation of
the water caused by passing vessels. It is certain,
however, that the banks can be made secure, whilst
the soft earth protects grounding vessels from damage.
They sustain no shock, and can be got off easily.
Besides, as our Special Correspondent shews, much
allowance must be made for the nume-
rous little accidents which happened during
the inaugural festivities. The ships were much
crowded together, each was hastening onwards
to avoid impeding those behind it, and no pilots were
taken on board. The ordinary traffic of the Canal will
be much lighter. There will be no hurry nor confu-
sion, and pilots will be provided—albeit the need
for them seems by no means clear. It is not to be
expected but that some few accidents of this kind
will occur, and it is, therefore, of the first importance
to be assured that no serious consequences need be
apprehended from a little grounding here and there.
The light soil of the desert is, indeed, an advantage
in several respects. It is easily manageable, and the
Canal can be deepened or altered anywhere without
difficulty. Even at the further extremity of the
channel, where it runs through a stony bed, the work
of deepening is practicable.
The remarkable triumph of M DE LESSEPS at this
opening ceremony has led the pessimists to recon-
sider their position in other respects. Some of the
trivial objections which once carried great
weight are fast dropping into oblivion. It was
urged, for instance, that a strong wind blowing side-
ways would drive a ship aground in the Canal. But
the water-way from Port Said to Suez is not the only
work of the kind in existence, and yet this side-wind
obstacle has never yet proved insurmountable. The
Great North Holland Canal has been aptly quoted as
an illustration. This passage is sixty-eight miles long,
much narrower than the Suez Canal, and more
exposed to high winds. It is worked, nevertheless,
and ships manage to get through for the simplest of
reasons—the seamen who guide them understand
their business. The question of a dividend, too,
alchough a nrnhlpm ' -,-an solve.
begins to wear a more hopeful aspect. The calcula-
tions which infallibly proved that ruin awaited the
shareholders left out one important consideration. In '
estimating what vessels would use the Canal, and
what vessels would prefer the Cape route, it has been
overlooked that if the new way be really superior to
the old one, it must be made use of. The mer-
chants who employ the former will beat their
competitors out of the field. It is true that sailing
vessels will find the dangers of the Red Sea all but
insurmountable. But the natural conclusion is, not
that the Canal will fail to secure traffic, but that the
competition of sail with steam will become hopeless.
Of course the result depends upon the issue of the
trial as to the comparative advantages of the
two routes—whether the great saving in time
will not outweigh the Canal tariff and the risks of
the Red Sea navigation—but of this issue there can
be scarcely any doubt. A writer in the Daily News,
who estimates the chances on both sides
with great impartiality, calculates that if
two ships of 1,500 tons each pass through
the channel daily each way, the revenue at the present
rate will be £873,000. This sum would give both
creditors and shareholders a dividend. The Canal has
already admitted vessels of 2,000 tons, and it is
certain that two ships a day going and coming are not
at all an excessive estimate of the traffic with the
East. These are, it is true, only calculations, but
they go to shew that there is at least as
much to be said on one side as on the other. One
important matter demands attention. The disaster
to one of the first vessels that have availed them-
selves of the new route brings the well-known Red
Sea hazards more forcibly home to us. The naviga-
tion of that dangerous piece of water must be facili-
tated in every possible way.

THE controversy which has been waged for some
time past between Mr. ASHWORTH and Mr. POTTER
is a noticeable illustration of the error that the
converse of a false proposition must necessarily
be true. Mr. ASHWORTH holds that trades'
unions have greatly injured trade,,
in the long run they have secured no real
good to workmen. Mr. POTTER replies that
the injury to trade is to be ascribed to other causes,
and that the unions have gained substantial advan-
tages for their members. There is reason to fear that
the latter is wrong, but his error by no means estab-
lishes the full accuracy of Mr. ASHWORTH'S reasoning.
The evidence goes to prove that the unionist
demands have operated prejudicially on manu-
factures and commerce in certain districts.
It is a fact that the excessive requirements
of the shipwrights in East London combined with
other causes to drive the shipbuilding trade of the
Thames ;to the North. The London shipwrights
fixed a wages' limit which was from 20to 30 per cent.
higher than that which satisfies the men of the Clyde
and the Wear. The result is that the yards at Black-
wall and Millwall are empty. A similar effect is
noticeable in the iron trade. A foreign iron firm
employing 2,000 men spends £30,000 a year less in
wages than an English firm engaging the same
number. The manufacture of locomotives and other
kinds of work which were once exclusively
English have partly passed over to foreign hands.
The unions have done much harm in this way.
They have striven to secure a rate of wages
which the profits of trade would not admit of. But
it does not follow, as Mr. ASHWORTH seems to hold,
that the working classes would have been in a better
position without any organisation whatever. It does
not follow that the wages-receiving class should be left
unprotected because their means of protection have
been abused hitherto. It is true that demands
for high payments, regardless of the condition of
trade, are injurious alike to capitalists, artisans, and
the country. But are there no instances to be found
of the opposite species of injustice—of the employer
refusing to allow the employed a just proportion
~of his gains? Poets it not happen that rhea i

trade is brisk and profits high, the master often
endeavors to secure the entire advantage to himself ?
The truh is that neither one side nor the other is
immacuate, that the party which is most powerful is
likely tooppress the other, and that neither ought to
be without reasonable means of defence.

It is clear that the trades' unions have their place
in the economy of the nation, and it is still
more cletr that they are a great and unalter-
able fact, which must be unflinchingly met.
All new organisations run into extremes at
first, and all new inventions are liable to mishaps in
their earlier experiments. As the first popular effort
on behalf cf freedom led to the Reign of Terror, so the
earliest attempts to secure an independent position for
the working man have led to great follies and
disasters. But there is no reason to apprehend
that the artisans of England are incapable
of learning by experience. If strikes and
similar ecinbinations have injured the trade
of the country-, what infinite suffering have
they inflicted upon the workmen themselves !
The lesson cf the past ought not to be lost—there are
signs that it will not be lost. Already working men
are beg,inniig to perceive that an appeal to arms
against the capitalist seldom gains anything and
always loses :something. Mr. ODGER, in his
" platform " to the working men of Southwark, has
made a great point of the theory that " the
day of strikes has gone," and that "people
who feel aggrieved now look upon boards
of arbitration and conciliation as the best
medium for redress." Should this principle meet
with general recognition, and it has been recognised
to some extent, the trades' union will fall
into its proper place. As a means of pro-
viding for the hand-worker in illness or lack of
h.lninc, his family after death,
and equally as a means of resistino those g'f'
tyranny of which' employers are sometimes guilty,
the union cannot fail to have an influence for good.

LAW INTELLIGENCE--(This Day.)

DIVORCE COURT.
KELLY V. KELLY.

Lord Penzance gave judgment this afternoon in
the extraordinary suit of Kelly v. Kelly, which has
caused so much amusement and disgust. His lord-
ship decided in favour of the petitioner, and decreed
a judicial separation with costs.

POLICE INI ELLIG EN CIE.-7M: Day.

BOW-STREET.

STEALING CHEQUES AT DRURY-LANE THEATRE.—Owen
Gilroy and Hanuall, his wife, were charged with stealing
cheques, the property of A B. Chatterton, Esq., the lessee
of Drury-lane Theatre.

From the evidence of Frederick King, a money-taker at
the theatre, it appeared that an evening or two ago, the
prisoner came and asked if ho could "do" a few cheques.
He told him he did not know what he
meant, and then the prisoner said they could share the
profit. He (witness) told the treasurer, Mr. Guiver, of
the circumstance, and received certain directions from
him. When the witness next saw the prisoner the subject
of the cheques was again spoken of, and the witness
told him be was ready to "do" a few. Prisoner said
they must be careful and not "do" too many, after
which he (witness) about 10 o'clock on Friday night, re-
ceived ten pit cheques from the prisoner, who was on the
pit cheque, and sent him 55., being half their value. Last
night prisoner's wife brought him ten more, and then the
prisoner was given into custody.
Mr. Guiver, the treasurer, said the prisoner ought to
have put the whole of the cheques presented to him in a
box, and then return them to the treasurer's office. The
fraud was one that caused great loss to the managers of
theatres.

The prisoner, who holds a situation in the Excise, said
he had nothing to say to the charge, he had done the
same thing before, and he had given Mr. Chatterton all
the information in his power, and a conviction would be
his ruin.

Mr. Vaughan said the prisoner, if dissatisfied with his
wages, should have given up his situation rather than
commit a robbery. His statement, he thought, rather
aggravated than palliated the offence, and he should
therefore commit him to prison for two months. He
ordered the woman to be discharged.

THE GREAT FoRGERY ON ROTHSCHILD'S THE BANKERS
IN PARlS.—Albert Buehler, who stands charged with
forging cheques on the Messrs. Tintn""""',4, •••
was to-day placed before Sir T.
-
itenry for final examination. The person of the prisoner
is demanded under the Extradition Treaty for examina-
tion in Paris.

The necessary documents having been signed, the pri-
soner, with .E 4,000 found on him at the time of his arrest,
was handed over to inspector Druscovich for conveyance
to Paris.

ABOLITION OF UNIVERSITY AND
COLLEGIATE TESTS,

A meeting was held in the Common-room of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, on Saturday, consisting almost
entirely of resident graduates of the University of Oxford
favourable to the abolition of tests in the university. The
Dean of Christ Church in the chair. There were 80 per-
sons present. The following resolutions were carried unani-
mously :—" 1. That this meeting gratefully acknowledges
the debt due to Sir J. D. Coleridge for his services in
moving the University Tests Bill in the two last sessions
of Parliament, but further consideration has convinced
them that there are strong reasons for desiring that any
Bill to be hereafter introduced should provide for a more
complete abolition of tests. 2. That a deputation be
named to ask for an interview with the Prime Minister,
and urge upon him to lend the support of Parliament to
bill which shall prohibit the impositions of tests, not only
upon graduates of the Universities, but also upon Fellows
of the Colleges. The Dean of Christ Church took the
chair, and opened the proceedings by briefly stating
the object of the meeting, which was not to consider
whether or not it was expedient to abolish tests but to
what extent it was expedient to abolish them; whether,
in other words, the meeting would be content with the
bill of last session, or whether they desired a larger and
more comprehensive measure.
The Principal of BRASENOSE, in moving the first reso-
lution, said he felt sure of the entire concurrence of the
meeting in the proposed vote of thanks to Sir J. D. Cole-
ridge. The failure in the Lords was not due to him. He
trusted that the failure might prove a success, and that a
better bill might be offered to their lordships and
gratefully accepted by them in the next session.
Time had brought many to think that a general
bill was much preferable to a permissive one. He objected
to a permissive bill on the ground that it wanted a 'clear
principle. Whether the Nonconformists should be ad-
mitted to fellowships or excluded from them was not a
matter for the opinion of the majority of a governing body-
but a question of principle. If it be just and expedient
that they should be admitted into one college (and if not
they should b. ...Omitted tutu ftml
expedient that they should be admitted into all. While
some colleges might cheerfully accept and act upon an
enabling bill, it would introduce into others a chronic state
of mischievous agitation, interfering with the main duty of
colleges.

Professor JowErr, in seconding the resolution, said :
The chief point to which he had to draw attention was
the change of the bill in that part which related to the
colleges from an optional form to a compulsory. Hitherto
they had asked Parliamont to remove the restrictions which
were imposed upon the colleges by the Act of Uniformity,
leaving to the colleges themselves to deal with those
which were contained in the ordinances of the Commis-
missioners. But as they approached nearer to actual
legislation they found that the original proposal was faulty
in principle and unworkable in practice, and would not
satisfy the present demands of public opinion. It exposed
every College to a struggle between Liberals and Conserva-
tives, High Churchmen and Broad Churchmen, to be re-
newed, perhaps, at every election to a Fellowship. It would
be ineffectual in practice (at least at Oxford), because altera-
tions in the ordinances of the Commissioners could only
bo made with great difficulty, and appeared to require,
besides the consent of the Privy Council, a majority
of two-thirds of the College and the consent of the
Visitor. But they all knew that in Oxford on behalf of
any change which was supposed to affect the temporal
interests of the Church of England a majority of,two-
thirds in any college was difficult to obtain, and the consent
of the Visitor, if he was a Bishop, almost impossible. The
time had passed for an optional measure. What was
appropriate two or threo years ago was no longer appro-
priate. When not only fervid and generous youths, but
grave and reverend persons holding high positions, who had
all their life long been attached to the Church of England,
asked for a removal of tests (and there were such in
Oxford as well as at Cambridge), then statesmen knew, not
only that the measure must pass, but that the time for
its passing could be no longer deferred. Besides, the
University was moving on, and persons everywhere were
becoming more and more convinced of the falsehood and
injustice of religious tests. It was true that they had
admitted Nonconformists in name sixteen years ago, and
a few had straggled in, and in some colleges had been
allowed to absent themselves from chapel and from
divinity lectures. But now we hope to receive them, to
welcome them as friends and equals, "to try and heal a
political and social division of more than two centuries
standing seems to us a worthy and Christian aim." The
resolution was carried unanimously.
Sir BENJAMIN BRODIE, in moving the second resolution,
said that he felt that ills delay caused by the opposition of
the House of Lords had been really an advantage, for that
now there was agreater probability of the question of tests
being considered upon important
pecuniary advantages contingent upon a declaration of
moral and religious belief was to associate together
two things which it was the very essence of morality
to keep distinct. They had recently heard a great
deal from high quarter:, as to the importance of not
placing stumi.ling-Llocks in the way of conscientious
men; but what, he would ask, was to be thought of
these persons who made the sum of the benefits which
a young men was to reap in the university from his pre-
vious ability and industry to depend entirely upon his
expressing his unfeigned and immediate assent to a scheme
of religious doctrine ? He would ask whether this was a
proper opportunity for inviting a young man to form an
absolute and final conclusion upon his religious belief ?
The search for truth was among the highest of the duties
of an intelligent being, but no man can search with much
advantage if serious penalties are to be attached to a
change of opinion. He also considered that the indefinite
character of the subscription required really increased the
evil, for it threw upon each man the responsibility of de-
ciding for himself and in his own case the interpretation
to be placed upon the Act.
The President of TRINITY seconded the resoltition for the
appointment of a deputation to wait upon the Prime
Minister.

The resolution was carried unanimously,
A deputation was then named, and after some observa-
tions from Messrs. Neate, Rogers, Fowler, Thorley, Sidg-
wick, Auberon Herbert, and Williams, the meeting con-
cluded.

A man in Tonganoxie, Kansas, thus encourage'
the editor of his favourite journal :—"Continue to pour
red-hot thunderbolts right into the teeth of the leeches
and sharks that are sucking the life-blood from the people."
A melancholy accident lately occurred at Chicago.
A German named Sehmakel was celebrating his daughter's
wedding when the guests were startled by a pistol shot,
and a brother of the bride, a lad of 19, fell dead. It
seemed that he and a young companion had been playing
with a revolver, which was accidentally discharged.
The pillow of a Japanese bed is a wooden box
about four incises high, eight inches long, and two inches
wide at the top. It is covered with a cushion of folded
papers ; and instead of serving as a head-rest, the neck
only is supported, the elaborate style of dressing the hair,
especially among the women, forbidding the pressure of
the head against a pillow.

WA TER CRESS Fon TOD AC C o.—A correspondent
of a Calcutta paper makes a, cnrious suggestion to tobacco
smokers. Alluding to the alleged discovery, by a Parisian
chemist, that watercress is a perfect antidote, be says :
•` It lately entered into my head to try how some of
it dried would smoke. To my great satisfaction I found
that, when put into my-ripe, after a couple of days' drying
in the sun, it had all the flavour of the best Cavendish
without the treacle, and it was even stronger than
Cavendish! Here, then, is a perfect substitute for
tobacco, without the deleterious and deadly poison so
freely contained in the latter; and it is at the same
time cheaper. 'Watercress, with its fine stalks and
'caves! when dried, requires no cutting to fit it for the
ipe ; and while 4 pound of cut tobacco ranges from
Rs. 2 to Rs, 4, here we have an article a rupee's worth of
which, when dried, would weigh more than a couple of
pounclia,"

Tuu TREASURES OF THE DEEP.----A submarine
exploration of much interest has lately been carried on in
the Delaware River, near Philadelphia. A British ship,
the Augusta, grounded on the 20th October, 1777, while
engaged with some other British vessels in attacking the
fortifications of the city. Tho Americans fired red-hot
shot into the grounded vessel, and, she was speedily
destroyed, 150 out of her crew of 300 being drowned or
,tuned. The wreck of the Augusta has remained imbedded
'n the mud of the Delaware during all these years, but
eece:itly a party of five men resolved to attempt raising it.
titer much labour and outlay, they have succeeded in
moving the wreck into a mition in which it is visible at
'ow water. Many curious relics have bean discovered.
,nieng them soma old silver spoons end seven-guinea
.:iieces with dates from 1760 to 1770 ; sense SFanish silver
dollars, three guns of heavy calibre, which now lie on the
lieach at Red Bank ; about 60 tons weight of balls, and
,I.bout 100 tons of Kentlidge iron, which Lad evidently beet
-.teed as ballast. The iron is in square pigs, and hears the old
English brand--an arrow head. Three human skulls have
also been found, one of which is remarkable for its thick-
ness. There has also been found a small piece or strip of
copper, about three inches in length and one inch in thick-
ness, upon which is stamped the Lord's Prayer, with the
words, " David Pyeth, Delt, and Cult., Edinburgh, March,
1774," the lettering being all in capitals. The vessel had
been constructed of Irish oak and joined together with
trueuiels of the iamO material, not a single metal bolt being
'seed. The timber is to-day pronounced a! good as !"49Z.
tOqtar!--' • -