The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-23 00:00:00

THE MTN, LONDON, FP IDA EVENING, APRIL 23, 1869.

" NA 710 N" AND JTS' i7OI:IIFSPON-
DE..I7'S ON 7 lIE AL4BA MA CLAIMS.

(Tram the American Times)

There was a remark iu the Saturday Review last
week which strikingly illustrates its untruthfulness
when writing on anything in the United States.
The English public do not know the American press,
whc seleading papers even, are seldom to be met with
at the great clubs and libraries of London. The
Saturday Review can with impunity state the tone
of that press as far as its own readers are con-
cerned, just as it might tell anything of the political
principle-sand the moral depravities of the chief advi-
ser of the ruler of Timbuctoo. What it persistently
states, and what we, writing for men who know
these papers, persistently deny, is, that the Ameri-
can press gives utterance to unrestrained malignity
against England. Last week the. Review, singling
out the Nation as a journal intellectually on the foot.;
ing of the best in Europe, says it can never allude
to England without falling into hysterics. As these
hysterics have all been ruproduced in the Anglo-
American Times, our readers have had the oppor-
tunity of judging for themselves, and as many of
the class for which the Saturday Review writes, show
an inclination to test the truth of its remarks on
America by a reference to our columns, we will
continue our surninary_of the controversy lately
carried on in the Nation on the Alabama Claims,
which will give them further means of ascertaining
what the Saturday Review* considers Anglophobia
in a New York paper. " America," in reply to
the letters of " Integrity," and "M ," denounc-
ing the mode of reparation he advocated, says
—" England may be assured that a large num-
ber of Americans, weary of her bad faith, quibbles,
and delay, are prepared for exact retaliation, and
ready to do, delay, permit, obstruct, foster, and
abet belligerents against England, precisely as she
delayed, permitted, obstructed, fostered, and abetted
the proceedings of Mr. Laird." Belligerency once
recognized, nothing could prevent the hostile use of
American ships by the wearied holders of Alabama
Claims, an -1 it is a mis-statement to assert
that an adequate proffered compensation had
been refused, as England had never proffered it.
" Ile pays twice," says America' " who pays
quickly ; and a frank atonement from England for
her wrong, would have been accepted with a friendly
disposition to condone the irreparable injury. Hope
defer red has made the heart sick ; and many Ameri-
cans are ready to say to Eng!and, unless she at once
acts like the gallant old England of the first Lord
St. Germain's times and temper We were strong
and you hated us ; we became weak and you in-
sulted and assailed us as the late United States of
Ametica.' You prematurely recognized. our rebels,
who by your own precedents in regard to Rochelle
were your eeemies on land and sour pirates at sea,
because they were such to us, a friendly power.
Your hasty act of unfriendline:s gave a maritime
status to pirates and encouraged blockade running,
pre longed a disastrous war, filled cur Irom s with a
hundred thousand more of deal, swept our com-
merce front the seas, mid' brought our flag under
the deep humiliation of seeking British cover to
avoid corsairs that your owa loudly-cheered mem-
her of Parliament had built. We were too much
oppressed by a gigantic rebellion to do more than
protest against your wrong doing. It might have
been manly' and chivalric' to add you to our open
enemies at your strongest, and our weakest hours.
But this nation knew too much of war to court
defeat." In the next number eppeared a letter from
H. Lt e Warner, from Rugby, England, in eply to
" America's" first letter. He says the Washington
Government preclairned a blockade, and because
Eegl end accepted the state of things thus declared
America is angry. The Alabama Claims proper,
England has consented to pay. Why, asks the
Englishman, *has the Senate rejected the Conven-
tion its accredited Minister was sent to England to
negotiate. "Are we to receive him with open arms,
AS the representative of old friends an I near rela-
tions from whom we have been temporarily
estranged, or to say that we will not make a treaty
with a man who obviously does not represent
the real feeling of his country? If the latter,
we result ,your rei.resentative ; if the former,
we run the chance of being seubbe 1 in our
turn by the rejection of our treaty." He was
either A:nerica's Representative, and the Senate
was bound to accept his ac", or else to have
teca:led him during its opera'ion, as he must have
telegraphed for instructions, or i.e was not sent out
in good faith, and the English whO accepted his
compliments as your Representative have been pur-
posely insulted. Then Mr. Warner puts the same
question to the Nation that the Pal Mull .7-'azelte
peked it lait Monday. "Perhaps an iilus!ration
will help our mutual understanding. The United
States ate not only at peace with Spain, but have
only quite recently expressed strong sympathy with
its present Coverement. Yet before Spain pro-
claims the blockade of Cuba, you have hastened to
promise recognition of belligerent rights to the
rebels there. Is this justice? A long-lived nation
can wait for ample justice,' as your correspondent
says. But justice is not ample unless it is imme-
diate and consistent." The editor, iu reply,-said
oo
trmri
fiitictecahtpi
ort
proclamation
ce recognitionloafut,alit
that the main reason of American irritation was
cnt ujoitte as that it was prema-
iobrltow.,•kaasdisesiitaedd bbeefeonrerethceeivoeflid-,
or Lord Russell had had an opportunity of hearing
Mr. Adams on the condition and prospects of the in-
surrection. " That the proclamation would have
had to be issued eventually, we have ourselves no
doubt, but the unprecedented haste iu issuing it
was, or is taken as, a proof of animus; in other
words, as an indication of unfriendly feeling."
Americans recognize England's right to choose its
time, but likewise claim the right to take offence if
the time chosen be a manifest sign of hostility. We
were not angry, says the editor, because we were
taken at our word, but because England did not
wait to hear what our word was. The majority of
the Senate and of the public think the Convention
has the fatal defect of not providing proper ma-
chinery for the redress of what Americans consider,
and Englishmen now acknowledge, to have been a
great wrong. Mr. Lee Warner is reminded that the
dispatch of the Alabama from an English port was
followed by years of pillage, accompanied by the ap-
plause of the English press and the most influential
portion of English society, coupled with hearty
abuse of the North. We hate to recall these things,
adds the Editor ; but when pressed for an explana-
tion of American irritation we have to do it. No
calm observer of the course pursued by leading
Englishmen on this question, in the years 1862-3-4,
but foresaw years of mutual hate and recrimina-
tion, and the "ignorant rant" of the Lairds, the
Roebucks, the Times, and the Saturday Review are
especially mentioned. Perhaps this is the hysterics
to which the Saturday Review alludes. The Nation
then contrasts the feteing of Mr. Johnson with the
attitude of English society towards the American
Representative five short years ago, and English-
men must be sensible that the contrast is little to
their advantage. Finally, Mr. Lee Warner assumes
that belligerent rights have been promised to Cuban
rebels, while no such promise has been made, nor is
it likely to be made, until the Government are in
possession of information which vt ill justify such a
course. In the next issue of the Nation, that is on
the Ist April, the following letter appeared from
Professor Goldwin Smith, with the Editor's remarks
thereon :

Sir,—lt is with unfeigned hesitaticn and diffidence that,
as a strtnger resident in this country, I say a word on any
question connected with its public affairs. But lam
moved to io so by your reterex.ct-i to the impression pre-
valent am..ng Americans, and apparently shared by you,
that the ti ae choser by the British Government for the
recognition of the Conference as belligerents was a mani-
fest sign of hostility to the Union, and may be taken as
evidence of animus in interpreting the conduct of the same
Government on other occasions. That an irresponsible
though large and pov erful party in England was actuated
by the bitterest hostility to the Union of course cannot be
denied. But I speak of the responsible Government of
the country. As one of those who believed that the cause
of English liberty was bound up with that of the Union,
I jealously watched, in the interest of both causes, the
actions of our Government. Though perfectly independ-
ent of it. and on many questions opposed to it, 1 had per-

* " Tho Natton, which stands on the intellectual level
of the best Europt an periodicals, descends into a blind
sind hysterical fury whenever it refers to England."—
.Saturclv lericir, April 10.

sonally. goo' opportunities of informing myself as to Um
real disposition of its members. And it is my firm con,
viet!on that its settled policy from the outset and through-
out the struggle was strict neutrality, practical as well as
legal ; and that if it erred (as I am myself inclined to think
that it did) in its choice of the time for the recognition of
the Confederates as belligerents, .the error was the result
not of any sinister bias, but of misconception alone. Of
this I assure you upon my honour. My testimony is that
of s-t Englishman. But it is that of an Englishman whose
feeling on this subject was as keen as that of an American,
and who has as little inducement as any American can
have to defend against truth and right the conduct of the
gavern:ng class of England.--I am your obedient servant,
GOLDWIN
Cornell University, Ithaca, March 27.

rwe did not ourselves believe that the hasty recogni-
tion of the Confederates was duo to animus. We have
always supposed that it was one of Lord Russell's little
bursts of blundering impetuosity; but it can surprise no-
body that it should, when English society went over to
the Confederate cause a year later, have been set down as
the first expression of a prevalent feeling of hostility.
Americana naturally, and indeed inevitably, viewed the
fleet official act of the Government in connection with its
subsequent official acts, and viewed all acts of the Go-
vernment in connection with the state of public feeling,
as revealed by the more influential portion of the press,
and by the tone of conversation in society. As far as our
own limited experience went the English public was in a
state of doubt and bewilderment until the battle of Bull
Run. By that
.time tho despatches of Mr. Seward, and
the articles of a portion of the New York press, showing
first that slavery had nothing to do with the contest ; and,
secondly, that the right of the Federal Government to co-
erce was at least doubtful, coupled with the appearance of
Mr. James Spence's "great work," showing the rotten-
ness of Northern society and the madness of the North-
ern enterprise—his statements, too, receiving a kind of
confirmation from Federal reverses_ in the field--turned
the scale against the North, an I prepared the way for the
insane demonstrations of hostility which marked the years
1862-3-4. Already in 1862 a man who veuture:l to main-
tain in most English circles that the cause of the North
was a justifiable one, and would probably succeed, was
apt to be set down as a mixture for the silly crea-
ture and low fellow. The best ho e,ould hope for was
to be treated as an nntiablei eethusiast. Now, thostewho
were on the spot, as Mr. Goldwin &pith was, and, above
all, who enjoyed as he did exceptional opportunities of
watching the various stages in the growth of English
opinion about the war, and the influence of "society" on
the Government in its dealings with the belligerents, can
readily draw the lino between the mistakes of the Go-
vernment and its wilful wrong-doing. But. it is easy to
see how and why the American public, looking on from a
distance, saw in the whole course of the Government and
people one transaction only, an I found in the IThsty- re-
cognition of the slate of war an explanation of the escape
of the Alabama; end in the enthusiasm for Semmes, and
the toleration and even app'ause of Laird, and the monu-
ment-building to Stonewall e-ackson (a foreign general
fighting for slavery), support for the belief which to-day
is as strong as ever, that the Alabama was employed by
Liverpool merchants, with the connivance of the Govern-
ment, to sweep American shipping from the seas, and
transfer the American carrying trade to English bottoms.
A more maddening belief could hardly get into.the heads
of a commercial people, but there it is. Professor Goldwin
Smith did his part in fighting against the folly which put
it there ; but we doubt if he, or anybody else who has the
faculty of seeing the two sides of a question, can th:nk
the prese•nt state of mini of the American public anything
wonderful. It is nor, we almit, the most exalted or
philosephical or Christiaa frame of mind; but there is
something thoroughly human about it, and, in our opinion,
time will change it.- En. _Natio/Li
As the Saturday Ikviac has selected the Nation, we
ask if there is any hysteric tl hatred of England in
these remarks? Ant we honestly state that we
have picked out the mo:t severe that we have seen
in that paper, after a careful perusal, almost from
its start.

METROPOLITAN GOSSlP.—Thursday.

The Ministerialists preserve an unbroken phalanx. The
prophecies so loudly, but perhaps not very confidently,
made a few weeks ago, that the "unnatural coalition"
between the Ultramontanes and the Nonconformists—
between Cardinal Cullen and Mr. Miall—would not last,
have, so far, been completely falsified, nor is there the
slightest prospect of their realisation. Night after night
Liberal M.P.'s answer to the Whip with an alacrity
which skews how determined they are that there shall
be no repetition of the blunders of three years ago. On
the other hand the Opposition are getting discouraged,
and the natural result of discouragement—absence—
follows. Mr. Disraeli was not present in the House on
Monday. He was kept away, his friends said, by a severe
attack of the gout. That inveterate foe of statesmen proved
akind friend on the present occasion, for it spared the Con-
servative leader the pain of three overwhelming defeats in the
course of one evening. The same foe she wed himself equally
kind by taking his departure as soon as that humane
purpose was served. Mr. Disrael;, the martyr to gout on
Monday, was the genial host to a very distinguished circle
of guests on Wednesday.
But while all is going so well with the Government as

regards its main business, there are murmurs of complaint
scarcely faint with respect to other matters. Mr. Lowe's
Budget does not improve upon closer acquaintance, and
French journalists, whose liberalism is undoubted, are
severely criticising the new Chancellor's coup de theiltre.
Our own M.P.'s are. grumbling against him because of the
way in which he treated them with regard to the site of the
new law courts. They ask, and with some show of justice,
why it was that at such a time as this, in which every
night is of importance, lie allowed a whole evening
to be wasted iu discussing the advantages and the dis-
advantages of the Carey-street site when the Government
had fully determined to abandon that site. They
say that these theatrical surprises can be bought too dear,
and they hope that Mr. Lowe will not make fools of them
again. Then there is perplexity, to use no stronger word,
at the seemingly erratic way in which the Home secretary
counsels the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy.
Men cannot understand the recent numerous reprieves,
especially that of Wiltshire, the atrocious monster who
first violated a woman and then murdered her. The
explanation which is to be asked for to-night by Sir George
Jenkinson may perhaps prove satisfactory; it is certainly
expected with some anxiety by the friends of the Govern-
ment. But the most serious matter of all is the conduct
of the Government with regard to the Irish land question.
Even the Liberal journals, and especially the Times, have
severely censured the Cabinet for not introducing a
measure this session, or, failing that, adopting Lord
Clanricardes. It is asserted that delay in this matter is
exceedingly dangerous, and that the Irish tenants and the
peasantry are entertaining the wildest expectations of what
the Government mean to do for them next year. Mean-
while these are resorting to agrarian murders in the hope
that they may frighten Ministers into a scheme of whole-
sale confiscation, believing that it was the Fenian outages
which frightened them into disestablishing the Church.
Clearly this is a very undesirable state of things, and
ought not to be allowed to continue.
I have still nothing definite to tell you with respect to
the course which the Lords will take on the Irish Church
Bill. The rumour gains ground that they will
" transmogrify " it so effectually that the Commons will
refuse to accept it, and that when all the lab. ur of this
session will have to be repeated next year. The large and
sustained majorities in the Lower House are scarcely
likely to encourage the Peers to such a course. More
probable is the supposition that amendments will be made
which the more Conservative Liberals will accept rather
than bring about a collision between the two Homes. Much
will depend upon the conduct of a few whig peers like
Lords Russell, Grey, and Westbury. All three of these,
it is pretty well known, are favourable to a concurrent
endowment of the three Churches. •But it is early yet to
talk of what-tl,e Lords will do.. The bill is not nearly
through the Commons, and as there are no fewer than
fifteen printed folios of amendment notices, it is clear that
the Lower House has plenty of work cut out for it. There
is a rumour that Mr. Gladstone will knock off the Whit-
sun holidays if these amendments are not quickly dis-
posed of.

We are now in the first spring of the picture season. Almost

every day there is some fresh exhibition either of a single
picture or of a collection. Among the first is " The Last
Supper," by Bonifacio; of Venice. It is a very fine work,
originally painted for the Ligh altar at St. Mark's Cathe-
dral, more than WO years ago. When Napoleon took to
ravaging the galleries and churches at the beginning of
the century this work was stowed away, and after the
conclusion of the great war was discovered
rolled up in a place of safety. It was thenmbought
by an Englishman, and remained in his possession until
his death, which has taken place quite recently. The pict-are
is now for sale. It is in wonderful preservation, and, with
the exception of a few minor details, the colouring is as
fresh and brilliant as though the work had been painted
but fifty years. To-morrow I go to the private view of a
painting which is likely to cause no small sensation, " The
Death of Rossini," by Gustave Dora. Friends who have
seen the work in the artist's- studio at Taris, speak
in the highest terms of it, and consider it his masterpiece.
Saturday is the private iew ( f the Old Waft'. Colour
Society. On Monday the National Gallery reopens, after
having been closed two months fur extensive alterations,
caused by the removal of tie Royal ACademy to Burling-
ton House. On the following Saturday the Royal
Academy dinner takes place ; and on the Monday after-
wards all the world will be thronging to Piccadilly to see
the Academicians in their new quarters.
The Institute of Water Colours had its private view on
Saturday. The collection is a good average; but there
are few striking pictures. Mr. Corbould is nowhere this
year, and his " Joan of Arc " is one of his least satisfac-
tory 'works. Carl Werner has but few of his striking
Eastern interiors. Mr. Vacher has been in Italy and the
Tyrol, and his picture of Desenzano, on the Lago di
Garda, is a fine view of one of the most beautiful spots
in Italy. Mr. Tidy has but'ime, and that a not important
work. Mr. Prout has a few exteriors of Norman and Breton
churches, and Mr. Haglee some fine ecclesiastical interiors.
Mr. Philip Mitchell is better than usual, and his various
moorland pieces shew that land rather than water is
his proper element. Mr. Henry Warren's chief contribution
is a fine study of Eastern life, representing Abra-
ham's purchase of the Cave of Machpelach. Mr.
Edmund Warren has four works, two of them harvest
scenes, one of them a study of beeches, for which
he is renowned, and the fourth sheep-washing. But
undoubtedly the gems of the exhibition are Guido Bach's
studies of heads, which are marvellously fine, and Hine's
landscapes, which are absolutely perfect in their
atmosphere. Mr. Mogford follows hard upon Mr. Hine's
heels. I must also notice Mr. ICilburne's clever picture
of " Enoch Arden," and Mr. Hayes's " Commencement of
a Gale," which is redolent of the sea.
The last flower show at the Royal Horticultural
Society's Gardens, in South Kensington, was unusually
poor. The attendance was small, and the people seemed
more bent in mobbing, after a genteel fashion, a young
Indian girl, dressed in gorgeous costume, than in listening
to the music or looking at the flowers. Loyalty, of the
old-fashioned demonstrative kind, has disappeared
from the capital simultaneously with the Court. When
the "National Anthem " was played only about three bald-
headed old gentlemen, evidently of the straitest sect
of the Tories, uncovered. The rest of the people took no
notice. I suppose it is a case of out of sight, out of mind,
though one would have thought that there, if anywhere,
on that spot which is known as Albertland, and which
has been specially favoured by the Queen, the old marks
of homage to royalty would have been preserved. Close
behind the great conservatoryrises the Central Hallof Arts
and Sciences, a building something like the Colisseum at
Rome, and not quite so useful. It is intended, I believe, to
give lectures in it on art and science, but the lecturer will
simply be inaudible in a space as large as the transept of
the Crystal Palace. Behind the hall rises Mr. Gilbert
Scott's great Gothic cross to the memory of " the great
and good," which has now attained its full height. It is
still very far from completion, for though a few coloured
marbles have been introduced, the greater part of the
decoration remains to be done. The presiding genius
is, of course,' King Cole, C.B. He intends to remove, if
ho can, all the Government departments of science and
art to this district. Even the School of Mines will go
there in time, and the artisans of East London will have
to find their way to the extreme South-West. King Cole
is not a man to be baffled. Between him, on the one
hand, and Mr. Beresford Hope and the late Mr. Cook,
almosttnhar
et
ieofneorrtoocfi
otoiluiprs
-review
el paidiriNtcll some
Isnbgy tle
on the other, there was personally no love lost,
and the Saturday
in its attacks upon him. The Reritlo put a stop
to
thousand'
0 thetla
proprietorsndp rpe coof l unt sdb
se schemeees t
foro byba
ed which
his Majesty's arte
quietly
ac adtvaelrotgi
sui en.g. Bt t
in Nt hoeteirrepressible
eszn,
aonn
da racsh
fei sw n o w
that publication, no one has called attention to the monasttseere.
One good thing the King has done. He has promoted a
series of lectures for ladies, which are now being delivered
,ja,thte feehe S
chargedouthKensiis mngstonall‘l Museum
smeummboyre hretallaynfiroo l
t-claaiesdsmseant.
once joined the classes. It is better for them to be hearing ;
science in the Museum than playing at Mumbo-Jumbo in
the I
have
Gardens,reierred to the School of Dunes. One of the meat I
gratifying features of this institution isith.e eagerness
which
iiuxiev7o;kyinndgailz
Mr. attend
Etheridge,lectur
lectures
snd gltheen otherbPro l eectu ssr°ersrs 1
attached to the institution. The room , crammed ;
every week with an attendance twice as large
as that it will comfortably 1.01.1 So great

is the rush for tickets when they are given out
on Monday morning that policemen have to guard the
doors. lam sorry to say that this is not the only duty
which the police have to perform. There have been some
serious robberies from the Museum in Jermyn•street
lately. In some instances the thefts have been serious,
for the articles stolen have been not only intrinsically
valuable, but absolutely irreplaceable. Among these
is an ancient gold chain, worth as old gold
£2OO, but as an antiquity far more. Quite
recently, on one of the working men's evenings, a
beautiful tazza of some rare material was stolen while the
policeman did but turn his head. It was impossible to
search six or seven hundred men, and so nothing could be
done. This conduct is.very disheartening to those who are
labouring for the improVement of the working classes, and
who give them their time and thought without the smallest
remuneration.

I paid a visit last Sunday to a district of London which
is little known to us in the West-end, but which is well
worth visiting. It is called Haggerston, and has a popu-
lation as large as that of many an important town. Ad-
jacent to it, but actually within the region of Bethnal
Green, I passed a striking group of Gothic buildings,
and on asking what they were, learnt that
they were a church, a model lodging-house, and a
public library, all built by Miss Burdett Coutts. The
last building is a magnificent structure, quite putting to
shame the library in the Temple Gardens. A little
further on I came to a lofty brick church • this was known
as St. Chad's, and was to be consecrated on
the following day. This is one of four
churches built for districts carried out of the
old parish of Haggerston. One London merchant
has contributed #lO,OOO to sards the erection of them. • I
then went to the mother church, a quasi-Gothic structure
erected some forty years ago, and at the time without
chancel, but with galleries. The present rector, Mr
Ross, has completely transformed the building. He
has pulled down the galleries, erected a very
handsome chancel and a reredos of costly and
beautiful marble, and has filled the windows with
beautiful stained glass. He has abolished the pews,
and adopted the weekly offertory, established a capital
choir, has daily prayer and weekly communion, and
gets his church thronged with the working classes. All this
energy is the more praiseworthy because he has powerful
attractions elsewhere in the shape of a pleasant country seat.
He has refused preferment, and labours among the poor of
this squalid part of London with an energy that deserves
all praise. He has avoided the mistake of adopting ex-
cessive Ritual, such as, unfortunately, has been adopted in
some of the district churches, with the result of almost
empty benches. The incumbent of St. Chad's, for
instance, intended to have introduced a second altar for
low celebrations, and the sanctus bell; but the Bishop
absolutely forbade these novelties.
The arrangements for the new civil Service Journal,
which I mentioned in a former letter, are progressing
very favourably. The promoters certainly may say with
reason that they intend to supply an acknowledged want.
It is really surprising that so powerful, influential, and
numerous a class should not before this have established a
journal which will give them the latest information in
their departments. The new journal will be owned and
conducted by gentlemen in the Government offices, and
will, therefore, have the earliest information of the
changes which are constantly occurring in the service. It
will also i.e rinewspaper for the general reader.
We are to have another new theatre—the Royal Charing
Cross, in King William street, Strand. It will be ready
in May. Her Majesty's will not be used for opera in
future. The Lyceum will open with operatic per-
formances on Monday week.

The parks are now thronged every afternoon,
and, though in saying so I may seem a
Cockney to your readers, I affirm that they are
really beautiful in their fresh and varied spring tints.
Alas that the smoke should make their beauty so short-
lived ! An addition has been inade to Rotten-row.
The new Row starts from Albert-gate "and runs
beside the carriage drive to Queen's-gate, where
a loop joins it to the old Row. This ride will
form a delightful lounge under the trees in summer
evenings. But why is it that the loungers persist in the
heresy of preferring to gaze upon the houses in Knights-
bridge instead of on the Serpentine ?
I have no literary news this week, except that Mr.
Walter Thornbury is writing a novel on Wiltshire life,
entitled "A Vicar's Courtship ;" that Mr. W. B. Scott
is writing an account of Albert Diirer and his works;
and that an addition is to be made to the numerous exist-
ing Christologies by Mr. Henry Ward Beecher, who has
just written a Life of Christ.