The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-24 00:00:00

THL SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 24, 1869

chosen the most extreme representatives they
could find. There has been no evidence either of
moderation or reaction. The voters might have
given their suffrages to M. POUYER-QUERTIEII, the
Protectionist, but they preferred a Republican by
two to one. They had it in their] power to
reject the violent ROCHEFORT, and to ex-
press some sort of moderate feeling by
electing M. CARNOT. But of these two extremes
they have chosen the most uncompromising. Whether
it counts for little or much, there can be no doubt
that between the EMPEROR and the inhabitants of
his capital there exists the most hopeless antagonism.
Another feature in these elections is deserving of
notice. Notwithstanding the fierce passions which
have been aroused, notwithstanding that this choice
of deputies has in some measure amounted to a
declaration of civil war, the actual voting :has passed
off with the most perfect order. So it mostly happens
in France. The electors are warm enough during

the period of canvassing, but they record their votes
with the utmost calmness. Seldom or never have we

in England such a display of ferment as that which
preceded this contest in Paris. • But never
have we such quiet days of voting as Sun-
day and Monday last in the French capital.
_ _

At an early hour on Sunday morning the ballot-
boxes were opened in numerous suitable places, and
the voting papers were dropped in until dusk. Then
the boxes were sealed up, put away, and brought
out again the next morning. On the evening
of the second day the result is made known.
Sometimes the electors wax angry if an unpopular
candidate be chosen, but there is never any distur-
bance during the progress of the voting. Surely
some praise is due to the Ballot as the means by
which this result is brought about. Secret voting in
France prevents one man from knowing how his
neighbour votes, and it withholds the state of the
poll until the last bulletin has been tendered. Here
we have the whole secret of electoral purity. There
can be no doubt that in some most important
respects the French elections are much
more creditably conducted than ours. Bribery
is almost entirely unknown, there is no baneful farce
like our own nomination, and. though the public
meetings previously to the voting are lively enough,
the day of election passes over quietly. These are
features which we in England might profitably
imitate.

AFTER the question whether the Fenian prisoners
should be released, the question whether the Fenian
press should be extinguished presents itself as the
most pressing feature of Irish politics. The " national "
papers do, indeed, seem to merit the atten-
tion of the Government. Even in a land
where :the most complete liberty of the subject is the
basis of the constitution, there must be some limit
to the propagation of seditious appeals. Nothing can
he more regular or systematic than the treason of the
Fenian press. Week after week the Irish public is
greeted, not with appeals for reform—the redress of the
land grievance, or the setting up of a better system of
education, but with direct exhortations to revolt.
The efforts of the present Government to pacify
Ireland are treated with scorn. The disestablishment
of the Irish Church, the reform of land tenure, and
all other improvements, past and present, are looked
upon as the effect, not of mercy, but of fear. Only
one concession can secure the favour of the People of
Ireland and its confreres : Ireland must be handed
over to the Irish. The oppressors are not disposed to
go this length, and therefore the patriots are resolved
to secure independence by force. They exhort each
other to arm, to organise, to drill, to be watchful and
ready. Their appeals are not mere vague rant.
Systematic calculations of the chances of insurrection
are, as we have seen, put forth without hesitation.
Beyond doubt it is in the power of the Government
to punish the authors of these incentives to
revolt. To publish exhortations in favour of
forcibly overturning the sovereign power is as
much a crime as to actually take up
arms ; and recent history is not wanting in examples
which go to prove that the former is sometimes the
more dangerous treason of the two. These Irish
papers are very largely circulated, and the fact that
they have so many readers proves that they have also
a certain proportion of admirers. The Fenian press is
evidently a more or less pernicious .nuisance, and it
may become—perhaps it has become—absolutely
necessary to remove it, like any other nuisance.
But the intervention of the law will be none
the less deplorable. It will be far preferable
if the Government can pursue the even tenour of its
way, give Ireland all that it ought to have, and
finally complete the attempt to win the affections of
the people by conciliation. The Irish Church
Act has had an undeniably good effect,
the Land Bill may do something more, and the
full redress of real Irish grievances may finally ap-
pease discontent. The condition of the country is
yet far from satisfactory ; but it is equally
far from being hopeless. Instances are few,
indeed, where the Government which honestly met
the just demands of its people did not
thereby secure their loyalty. Nothing could be more
apparently hopeless than the disaffection in Hungary
previously to the war of 1806. Now Hungary is
the corner-stone of the Austrian Empire. France
is another case in point. There the concession of
liberty to the press was followed by the institution
of three or four treason-preaching journals;
but the violence of these papers has sen-
sibly moderated the tone of the old Opposition
press. It will be decidedly better if the British
Government can avoid converting these patriots
into martyrs, at all events until Irish legis-
lation
is complete. The Government can take action
whenever it chooses, but having once commenced
press prosecutions, there can be no drawing back.
But it is quite likely that further toleration may
I soon become impossible.

The City Editor of the Times considers the
weekly record of his work incomplete if without a
remark on the remittances of Bonds from the United
States in payment for the excessive importations
from Europe. But he has at last got to the length
of acknowledging that Americans do not send these
Bonds to Europe for nothing, so he bas begun to
consider what they get in exchange. If the com-
modity in return be equal in annual productive
power to the amount of interest they have agreed
to pay for it, no injury is done to either party ; but
if the received consignment be of silks, wines, or
other perishable or consummable articles of luxury,
the dead weight of annual interest in gold, or its
equivalent, would remain unrelieved for all time.
Were the return employed in the construction of
profitable railways, or other public works, or in the
importation of labour, the result from augmented
production, " might (he says) not merely compen-
sate for the payments to be made, but yield a con-
stan.ly increasing surplus. It is for those who are
interested, either as investors or otherwise, to form
their own opinion as to the degree in which these
several modes prevail." It is very kind of the City
Editor to take so lively an interest in his transat-
lantic friends, but it is just possible that they may
understand better than he can tell them how to
take care of themselves. lle starts by asserting that
the United States Government must remit to
Europe the interest on the coupons of Bonds in

foreign bands, which, if not thug sold, would have
Leen payable to. parties at home. The Government
does not remit. toil, for the coupons whether of bonds
abroad or nt lion are alike }:resented for payin,..nt

ht the :ut y in the United States. Though, vir-
tually, the result may be the s•ime, we desire accuracy,
that ill-informed bondholders may not be misled.
They receive the impression that their debtors are
individual A Incricans, into whose transactions it is
advisable that they should pry, as doubts are thrown
-on their solvency. We have repeatedly pointed out
the injustice and folly of thus discussing the sub-
ject. American families may drink the most ex-
en,sive wines and dress in the most costly silks ;
they may be unable to meet these extravagances, and
eventually be landed in bankruptcy; there.may be
thousands of such cases, but what has this to do
with the bondholder ? lie is not the creditor of

these individuals, but of the nation ; and the ques-
tion for him is, Whether the nation is solvent and
likely hereafter to be able to meet its debts ? Re-
cognizing this truth, the inquiry is easily answered.
There is no nation whose progress in material
wealth can be compared with that of the United
States ; it is, indeed, a surprise to the Americans
themselves. We will grant all that can be said on
the other side ; the corruption, bad fiscal laws, the
spirit of gambling, the decay of the mercantile
marine, the discussion of repudiation, the injurious
effects of an inconvertible paper currency ; yet, in
spite of whatever truth may be contained in these
objections, the advance of the country in wealth is
something startling. Immigration is received at
' the rate of 1,000 persons daily, States grow rapidly
from unfledged Territories, railroads so ramify as
to mice it impossible to keep the tracing in the mind,
the product of the precious metals yearly increases,
but the most surprising event is the recupera-
tion of the Southern States at this moment, which
are, or very soon will be, far richer than ever.
The flow of money there is such as these States never
witnessed before, and its distribution is so general
as greatly to enhance the value of this tide of pros-
perity. It is asserted that after ten years' trial,
stimulated by all most calculated to spur it into
activity, the world has failed to make such a cotton
ground of any other country, hence it is compelled
to look again to the old source and accept the staple
a, double the price paid before the war. Here,
then, is cotton resuming the throne, with the know-
ledge implanted in all that the throne, even when
vacant, could not be filled elsewhere ; and to re-
trieve the enormous losses sustained the South re-
produces as much as ever, but levies twice the sum
for the crop. if that trade made the South so pros-
perous up to 1860 is it not likely, under the pre-
sent favourable circumstances, speedily to restore
to wealth the devastated country? In this alone
the United States are much more than compen-
sated for the outflow of the bonds ; and in itself it
answers the question of the Times. But the sale of
the bonds to foreigners has an effect hitherto little
noticed, which daily becomes more marked. The
United States are a gold and silver producing coun-
try ; these metals are raised as is coal or cotton, and
if they be not exported in quantities equal to the
production, a balance must accumulate in the Union.
That coin is accumulating is shown by the fall in
gold. Bonds are exported instead of specie, because

the creditors prefer the Bonds, therefore the coin re-
mains, and the consequence is a gradual approxima-
tion to an equalisation in value between it and the
paner currency, which, rendered into other words,
means a return to specie payments. The wisdom
may be doubted of this perpetual harping of the
City Editor on such a string. Does he desire to check
the export trade of Europe to America ? Is there
not distress and famine enough from want of em-
ployment in the great city wherein he lives with-
out throwing the weight of the Times into the scale
against the work supplied by England's best cus-
tomer? If the Republic, during a period of tempo-
rary depression, lives up to the accustomed scale,
maintaining its wants and refinements, in the full
view of ample means of payment being supplied by
the growing industries around, is it not well, and a
subject for congratulation to England and France ?
Suppose the reverse to be the case ; that in the day
of depression all the luxuries, the tastes generated
in a more prosperous period were discarded ; that
the men ceased to drink fine wines, to value pic-
tures and objects of art; that the women no longer
purchased silks, laces, and jewellery ; while the in-
creasing export of grain, and the growing magni-
tude of the cotton crop, turned the balance heavily
against Europe, what would be the result? Tastes

lost are not easily reacquired. It is not every wo-
man who understands how to dress, and but few
men can truly appreciate a picture, or even the
flavour of a delicate wine. These may be useless
luxuries but useless to American purchasers, not to
European sellers, and American journals might fitly
urge their readers to dispense with such super-
fluities. But the case differs widely as regards the
leading paper on this side, which appears to advocate
the retrenchment from which, though France would
suffer most, both those nations would suffer much.
Breadatuffs could not be imported if America ceased
to be a free buyer in Europe, for they could not be
paid for, and while European industries languished,
as the bread would not cross the ocean to the people
here, they would have to go to the bread in Ame-
rica. Both the attractive and the ejective powers
being increased, emigration could not fail to be
enlarged in a corresponding degree ; so its direct
effect would surely be to drive Englishmen out of
England. It is impossible for the Times to discuss
this subject without insinuating something against
the credit of the United States. It seems never to
weary of its platitudes ; of taking up and repeating
as new matters settled by the nation, and worn
threadbare by discussion.
"At the same time it is always necessary to recollect
that people who aro liable for a debt are apt to complain
of its burden while they entirely forget the benefits it
may have brought to them, and that an annual heavy pay-
ment to foreigners has a much more dangerous element of
unpopularity than would exist in the case of a liability
held exclusively at home,"
Those not aware of the value of reiteration might
wonder why these words should be repeated for the
u e
at indns, but to speak of
thousandth time ; but, in truth, they do contain the
point cf all the Times has to say. To speak of the silk
worn and the wine consumed by individuals as a
reason for casting doubts on the repayment of the
besidebthoendNsaistiownhaollplyebtin foreign
the question, o
hands
as being an ad-
' ditional inducement to repudiate, is another thing.
Had not the Republic been again and again tested
on this point, had it not been tried at the ballot
box, in Congress, in the Executive, and fully dis-
cussed in the press, it might form grave matter for
the consideration of the purchasers of the bonds.
But the writer well knew that in the United States
the question had been decided. Now it is of this
we complain, that in the Times, as well as in the
numberless little journals which slavishly follow its
lead and accept all its statements as facts, the circum-
stancesshould be systematically misrepresented. The
writer knows that the mass of those he addresses
are ignorantof the subject, but instead of endeavour-
ing to enlighten that iznorance, he avails himself of
it to injure the credit of a nation he detests. It
may, however, be worth his while to consider whe-
ther in the process he may not be doing a greater
injury to his own country, and more so still to the
journal whose columns he thus usese—Anglo-Ame-
rican Times.

ROBBERY OF PLATE.-HEAVY SE

TENCE.

At the Central Criminal Court George Stephen Smith,
30, and Walter Smith, 18, brothers, were indicted for
stealing a soup tureen, and other articles of silver plate
value £250. The younger prisoner was a manservant in the
service of Mr.Bonstead, of Craven-street,who was entrusted
by a Miss Wright with a box containing a large quantity
of silver plate for safe custody. The box, it appeared, was
kept in the prissner's pantry, and it was returned to Miss
Wright in October last, when it was discovered that the
greater part of the plate had been abstracted. Inquiries
were instituted, which led to the apprehension of Walter
Smith, and he made a statement admitting his guilt,
and inculpating his brother, who was a clerk out of
employment. Evidence was given to show that the elder
prisoner had endeavoured to dispose of a silver tureen,
which was part of the stolen property, and the jury, after
a short consultation, returned a verdict of guilty. The
Commissioner said there was no doubt the crime had been
committed at the instigation of George Stephen Smith,
and sentenced him to fourteen years' penal servitude. The
ether prisoner was sentenced to five years' penal ser-
vitude.

7'l!'o ACCIDENT'S SIHULTANEOUSLY
THE NORM BRITISH RAILWAY.

A collision took place on the North British Railway at
Illerningside shortly before eight o'clock on Tuesday morn-
ing. The line is a single one. At twenty minutes to eight
a passenger train had just left Morningside, and
got about 200 yards, when it was run into by a mineral
train that had passed the previous station with-
out stopping, as it should have done. The driver of
the passenger train saw that the collision was inevi-
table and reversed his engine, and thus lessened the shock.
The collision, however, knocked him off the engine, and
the fireman having jumped off, the reversed engine drove
the train back through Morningside Station on to the
Caledonian line. The guard was stunned, and it was some
time before he could put on the brakes and stop the train.
Six or seven passengers were much injured, but no one was
killed. It was feared that the train would be run into
by a train due on the Caledonian system, but that
train was delayed by another accident which had happened
at Garringill Junction. By some means a mineral train
had got into its way at that junction, and at 7.10 the

limited mail from London dashed into it. No ono
was much hurt, but the mineral train was smashed
to pieces, and the mail train detained. Garringill is only
three or four miles from Morningside. The morning was
foggy.