The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 6, 1858.

THE SUN.

MONDAY. DECEMBER 6, 1858.

Queen VICTORIA is henceforth the Monarch of
India. The proclamation which terminates the
trust hitherto confided to the hands of the Company
was duly published on the Ist of November at
Bombay, Madras, Agra, Delhi, Kurrachee, Poonah,
and other presidency towns. The name of her
most Gracious MAJESTY was hailed with rapturous
enthusiasm as " Queen of ENGLAND and Empress of
HINDOSTAN." Never has a more magnificent and
populous territory been transferred by a peaceful
and constitutional act—never was such a scene
witnessed. It was a complete triumph of law and
order. One Government has expired—anoth( r,which
will maintain a still higher rrestige, will supply its
place. And these extraordinary changes have been
produced by the pen, not the sword. A single drop
of blood has not been shed in bringing about these
miraculous alterations, and transferring one hun-
dred and fifty millions of human beings to a new
rule. It is a stainless victory. There is nothing to
dim the brilliancy of the British triumph in the
events that have occurred. We can turn to the
page in our future history without wishing that a
single passage or word should be erased.
The Proclamation, without being verbose or
grandiloquent, is just what it ought to be—quiet,
but effective ; simple, but powerful. It continues
every officer of the company, from the highest to
the lowest, in the situation he hail previously held.
From the Governor-General to the humble sweeper
of an office, all remain unaltered, although, of
course, they will be subjected to such laws and re-
gulations as may hereafter be enacted.
It also lays down a broad rule for future dealings
with native princes. That was, perhaps, the
weakest point in the Company's rule. ,They were,
perhaps, but too happy to seize on any plausible
pretext to take possession of any valuable property.
The right of adoption was ignored, as well as other
principles highly cherished by the native chiefs of
all ranks. They are now informed that all
treaties made with them by or under the
authority of the East India Company are
accepted, and will be scrupulously main-
tained, and that a like observance is required
at their hands ; that, in fact, there will neither be
anything in the shape of aggression or undue en-
croachments on the rights of others, nor will any-
thing be tolerated against others. In short, the
same obligations to respect the rights and privileges
and promote the welfare and prosperity of every
one of our Hindoo fellow•subjects that has so long '
been recognised with respect to our own has been
accepted by her MAJESTY.

The paragraph relating to universal religious
toleration will command general admiration.
Firmly relying on the truth of Christianity, her
MAJESTY disclaims alike the right and the desire
to impose her convictions on any of her subjects.
She offers religious liberty to all—will not permit
any to be either favoured, or molested, or disquieted
on account of their religious convictions. The
policy of abstention is expressly imposed, and
proselytism in any form prohibited.

The unnatural war now waged by many who
had proved unfaithful to their salt could not,
of course, be passed over. It was necessary to show
in what manner the mutineers would be dealt
with. Striking effects may be produced by the
knowledge of the class of offences that are placed
altogether beyond the pale of mercy, and of others
that will be subjected to secondary punishments
only. The participation in the murder of British

subjects, there can be no pardon for such male-
factors. The blood of these victims cries to

Heaven for vengeance.
To those who gave protection to mur-
derers,— or, in the words of English law,
became accessories after the fact, o: who acted as
leaders or instigators in revolt, life only is pro-
mised, but full attention will be given to every
favourable circumstance that can be put forward on
their behalf, while full and free amnesty is offered
to all others. There can certainly be no objection
made to the plenitude of the mercy tendered. It
includes every man whom the most morbid
sentimentalist would desire to see brought
within its terms. A fair and reasonable day of
grace is also given. All who come in before the
Ist of January will receive the benefits offered by
the proclamation. There is also a promise of pro-
moting works of public utility, when tranquillity
has been perfectly restored.

While the proclamation has tendered peace,
Lord CLYDE has taken the most effectual
measures to enforceit. TANTIA TOPEE, the most
energetic and able leader of the rebels,
has offered to surrender if his life be guaranteed.
He is, in fact, driven into a corner, and, now that
additional forces are in the field, has no further
hope of evasion. Other victories, too, have been
obtained, and it may now be anticipated that the
nation has witnessed the beginning of the end of
the terrible struggle.

As Christmas is now fast approaching, the Me-
tropolitan Board of Works has in due course deemed
it prudent to overhaul its accounts. At the last
sitting of the Board it was announced to the as-
sembled members that the whole sum required by
the Board, toward its expenses for the current
year, ending upon the next 31st of December,
amounted to a few shillings and pence over
£lo7,oB7—the total current ordinary expenses of
the Board being estimated at X 67,983, the compen-
sation allowances at £2,591, and the repay-
ment of loans and interest at £42,686,
Not a very exorbitant amount, not a very
extravagant calculation surely bearing in
mind that it relates to the wealthiest capital in the
world, to the twin cities of London and West-
minster. Rapidly though the organisation of the
Board of Works has developed of late years, we
cannot but regard it as now merely in its pupilage.
The lEdilship of England is yet but feeling its
way to its true, rational, legitimate authority.
Its conspicuous characteristic hitherto has been
its timorousness. But for the great fire of 1666
we can hardly conjecture what might not
now have been the narrowness, the squalor,
and the complication of our inner network
of metropolitan thoroughfares. Even when
we build a masterpiece of architectural beauty
and splendour like St. Paul's Cathedral, we
require a century or two to elapse before we ven-
ture to turn it to any account beyond that of a
mere colossal stone decoration. If we raise a testi-'
menial to our greatest hero, we accept an alms of
£5OO towards its completion from a foreign despot—
, and even then don't complete it after all! Patching
on, one by one at remote intervals, the four bronze
bassi relievo—one of which had to be taken down
bodily and replaced by another, because the origi-
nal specimen (done by contract) proved to have
been fraudulently manufactured. John Bull—
let alone his public works—has often and often
before this proved after the same fashion to have
been literally himself " done" by contract. He pays
through the nose as well as from the breeches-
pocket. He squanders large sums of money upon
monuments of his own folly in this way—
only to find them, after many years have
elapsed, left upon his hands unfinished—or finished
altogether ridiculously. The finest site in
Europe is an accumulation of the most painful evi-
dences of this. In the middle of it there is the
Nelson Column still to this day minus the promised
colossal lions for the four corners of the pediment.
There is the lamentable National Gallery in the
background—a dingy jumble of blank walls and
stone pepper-casters. There arc sparsely sprinkled
here and there, over the wilderness of flagstones—
the veriest odds and ends of bronze castings and
specimens of unmatched, and so far only matchless,
sculpture. A royal lout in one corner, straddling
a horse. In the opposite corner, a vacant pedestal.
On one side of the square, down in front, General
NAPIER standing with a little squat figure seated
beside him—the discoverer of vaccination. Oppo-
site this brace of illustrious but incongruous wor-
thies no effigy at all, either seated or standing.
Flanking the open space, stone parapets. Dribbling
in the middle of it a couple of the wretchedest foun-
tains in the world. It seems such a miserable old, old
story, that it is hardly worth the telling all over again.
Yet tell it we must and shall until the unsightly
site may have been at length in some degree modi-
fied and beautified—tell it we must and shall, if but
perpetually to point the moral and adorn the tale
of which it is, in this capital of ours, the most
flagrant and glaring illustration. Next year, let
us hope, that the Board of Works will have more
to show in the way of metropolitan improvements
for its annual £lOO,OOO expenditure.

The concentration of the Law Courts and Offices
we have recently referred to at some length as an
enterprise peculiarly entitled to the regard of her
Majesty's Government. It has long been recog-
nised as an undertaking in every respect most
desirable. Calculations of the simplest and clearest
kind not only prove it to be feasible, but demon-
strate beyond the possibility of misapprehension the
fact that it would actually, be economic. Instead
of the public money being squandered, it would
absolutely, in the end, be saved by a bold outlay of
£600,000, according to the estimate of Sir CHAS.
BARRY, or, according to a more probable anticipa-
tion, of fully £1,000,000. The immediate re-
sults, m7reover, of thus concentrating the whole of
the now scattered law courts and offices in one
noble edifice suitably situated would comprise
atvong their number—an economy of time, a sim-
plification of proceedings, some rational regard at
least to the dignity of our great judicial adminis-
tration, and at length something like a reasonable
consideration for the convenience and com-
fort of every one—from the highest to the
lowest in any way engaged in the admi-
nistration of the laws of England from
the humblest lawyer's clerk, from the very door-
keepers to the judges of the land, to the Lord High
Chancellor himself.

To recognise at a glance how obviously these and
a variety of coneomitant advantages must accrue
from the long projected change referred to, it is,
really, only necessary to take into consideration for a
few moments the actual condition of things as the y
exist at present in this particular department of
the National Administration.

Recollect, for a moment, how preposterously the
Law Courts and offices are scattered up and down
this huge metropolis ! How meanly the highest
dignitaries of the profession are housed ! How
inadequate are the miscalled accommodations sup-
plied to those entrusted with the administration of
justice ! How dark and close, how- obscure. and
miserably ventilated, how narrow in space and

wretchedly mean in appurtenances are the most
august judicial courts in the Empire ! The Courts
of Equity are located in this way in Lincoln's-
Inn—the Common Law Courts in Westminster.
Nearly two miles of intricate and crowded
thoroughfares intervene between the two. And
while the Courts of Common Law and Equity
are thus absurdly separated from each other,
the Legislature is gradually imparting to
them a certain rational concurrence of juris-
diction—enabling the Courts of Common Law, for
example, incidentally to administer equitable relief,
while, on the other hand, empowering the courts
of equity to exercise some portion of the jurisdic-
tion hitherto belonging to the courts of Common
Law exclusively. Simultaneously with which
wholesome tendency of judicial legislation, we
repeat the street traffic, rolling to and fro per-
petually between the divided sites of the courts of
equity and common law, is fast increasing, and in-
creasing with the steady development of the com-
mercial enterprise of the capital—raising higher
and broader a barrier already sufficiently formidable.
Remember, again, what are some of the more
glaring makeshifts consequent upon this preposter-
ous separation. In order to accommodate the courts
of Equity in Lincoln's, the Old Hall has been, by
a master-stroke:of architectural vandalism, boldly
divided into two compartments. Here, in one of
these, sit the Lords Justices of Appeal. There, in
the other, sits the Lord Chancellor. The Master
of the Rolls is hid away in the Rolls Court, Chan-
cery-lane—his honour's chambers are in a separate
tenement in the latter thoroughfare. The Vice
Chancellors, or at least two of the three, are afforded
temporary shelter in a couple of exceedingly
primitive courts constructed in Lincoln's-innrser-
tainly not from the designs of a BARRY or
a PALLADIO. The Taxing Masters are- banished
away in Staples' Inn. The Judges' Chambers are
in Sergeant's Inn. The Court of Bankruptcy is in
Basinghall-street. The Court of Insolvency is in
Lincoln's-inn Fields. The Courts of Queen's Bench,
of Common Pleas, and of Exchequer are pigeon•
holed off Westminster Hall. The Court of Probate
yet remains unsheltered by any permanent roof-
tree. And so on with the Chief Clerks, the Regis-
trars, and the Accountant-General Sergeants
and Queen's Counsel, Barristers and Solicitors,
flitting hither and thither in this sordid and
distracting maze of muddle and confusion. Hence
delays are multiplied, expense is incurred, comfort
is unknown, splendour and dignity are attributes
in connection with our law courts altogether non-
existent. These are the evils requiring removal
by means of a comprehensive enterprise like the
very alluring one referred to by us at the outset of
these remarks—the choice and purchase of an
appropriate site for the concentration of the
hitherto scattered law courts and offices, and the
construction upon that site of a Palace of Justice,
within the walls of which the ancient laws of this
realm might be fittingly administered.

PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM
COMPANY.

A meeting of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Company took place on Saturday, Mr. B. M. Will-
cox, M.P., in the chair, when the report was
adopted unanimously, and a dividend declared for
the past half-year at the rate of 3 per cent., with
an additional payment of 1 per cent., be,ides 2 per
cent. on the underwriting account. The chairman
observed that the purchase of the four new steamers
was negotiated within the last week, and that the
operation has been highly satisfactory in a financial
point of view. After a passing allusion to the Aus-
tralian contract and the cordial assistance the com-
pany formed to carry out that service in 1856 had
ever received from the Peninsular and Oriental, he
announced that the late Pasha of Egypt had agreed
to lower the terms of transit on the Suez Railway
on its compl.etion throughout. As the line will now
shortly be finished, Mr. Anderson, one of the ma-
nagers, is about to proceed to Egypt to adjust the
question with the present Government. In answer
to a shareholder it was mentioned that the Suez
Canal might undoubtedly afford great facilities in
enabling the company to send ships through to
India, but that the matter was of little consequence,
as it was very improbable that- the undertaking
would be completed either in the time of the pre-
sent generation or their sons or grandsons. It was
explained that the loss by claims against the com-
pany in connection with the cargo of the Ava
arose from the agent having irregularly used some
old bills of lading, which did not give power to de-
viate. The local insurance offices relied upon the
Ava's touching at Trincomalee as a deviation, and
refused payment—a course which was not followed
by the London establishments. Annexed is a list
of the company's fleet :

Tons,
Customs' Horse-
Measure- power.
ment.
Alexandria Line :
Pem (screw) ZOI4 • . 450
Ceylon (screw) • 2,021 .. 450
Indus (paddlewheel)
Ripon (paddlewheel)
Sultan (screw):
Peninsular Line :
Tagus (paddlewheel) 782 .. 280
Alhambra (screw)
Marseilles and Alexandria Line :
Euxine (paddlewheel)
Vectis (paddlewheel)
Panther (chartered and paddlewheel)
Calcutta and Suez Line :
Simla (screw)
Bengal (screw) 2,185 .. 560
Alma (screw)
Nubia (screw)
Nemesis (screw)
Candia (screw)
Bentinck (paddlewheel) 1,974 .. 520
Hindostan (paddlewheel)
Oriental (paddlewheel)
Bombay and China and Bombay and Suez
Lines :
Ganges (paddlewheel)
Cadiz (screw)
Norna (screw) 969 .. 230
Ottawa (screw)
Malabar (screw)
Aden (screw)
Singapore (paddlewheel)
Madras (screw)
Bombay (screw)
Pekin ,(paddlewheel)
Pottinger (paddlewheel)
Hong Kong and Shanghai and Hong
Kong and Manilla Lines :
Chusan (screw)
Shanghai (screw)

- . .
Formosa (screw) 675 .. 155
Lady Mary Wood (paddlewheel) 553 .. 260
Canton (paddlewli6el) -- -- - 348 .. 150
Rajah (screw)
Manilla (screw)
Mauritius Line :..
Azof (screw)
Granada (screw) 561 .. 160
China station :
Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy (paddlewheel) 126 .. 3
Ships on the way to India and Australia :
Malta (screw)
Benares (screw)
Salsette (screw)
Northam (screw) ......
Emeu (screw)
Mazagon (pad.-wheel, st. tug, Bombay) 86 .. 45
Ships just Purchased :
* , * * about 1,650 .. 350
• • * * about 1,650 .. 350
• * * -*-
• * a a about 1,650 .. 350
Ships Building and under Alteration :
Colombo (screw) 1,864 .. 450
Valetta (paddlewheel)
Jeddo (screw) o m l,BOO .. 450
Nepaul (screw)
Union (screw) 341 .. 60
Delta (paddlewheel) o m 1,877 .. 400
Massilia (paddlewheel)
Transport, Store, and Coal Ships :
liaddington 1,460 ..
Precursor 1,817 ..
Zenobia 9OO ..
Fort-William
Santa Anna 1,500 ..
Ariadne 9OO ..

Total 81,615 18,610

Sir William and lady Middleton have arrived
in town, from Shrubland Hall, Suffolk.
Mr. and Mrs. Ladbroke have left Farrance's
Hotel, Belgravia, for Worthing.

-We .regret to say that we fear the health of the
noble Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, the Marquis
Dalhousie, is failing so fast that his medical attendants
hesitate even advising him to risk seeking a warmer climate
for the winter. It was intended, as before announced, that
the noble marquis should proceed to Malta ; but, desirable
as this is for many reasons, there are grave doubts now that
the time has come for him to take his departure whether
his strength is sufficient to enable him to bear the fatigues
of travel, or the disturbance of a voyage. Lord Dalhousie
still remains at his ancestral castle, and there is little pro-
I spect of his being able to move.---.Dovvr Chronicle. . -

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegram was received at Mr.
Reuter's office, December sth :

MADRID, SUNDAY, Dec. sth.
THE QUEEN'S SPEECH.

The following is the summary of the Queen's
speech at the opening of the Cortes.
The Queen expresses her satisfaction at the re-
ception she has met with in her recent progress
through the provinces. The Government has given
instructions to the ambassador at Rome to settle
vending questions. The relations with foreign
powers are intimate and cordial.
Her Majesty hopes that the difficulties with
Mexico may be shortly solved, but states that ener-
getic measures have been decided upon in the event
of a contrary result. Morocco has made reparation
for the vessel which had been plundered—a cir
cumstance which the Government hopes will pre-
vent the renewal of depredations by the Riff-
Pirates in future.

The expedition to Cochin China has been under•
taken in contort with France.

The internal condition of Spain is satisfactory,
and measures will be introduced by the Govern-
ment affecting the Municipalities, the Provincial
Deputations, the Press, and redemption of Quit-
rents. Her Majesty concludes with promising to
accelerate the formation of public roads which tend
to develop the resources of a country.

ST. PETERSBURG, DEC. 4.

The .2Vorthern Bee of this day publishes a lead-
ing article stating that the English Cabinet will
be obliged to present a Reform Bill to Parliament,
in order that other political leaders in the house
should not anticipate them in this measure.
The bulletin published by Government an-
nounces the fact that the cholera has ceased in
St. Petersburg. The disease was not epidemic.
Tomorrow a Te Deum will be sung in ad the
churches of St. Petersburg.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SUNDAY.

An Imperial decree, dated the Ist December,
issued on a report from Prince Napoleon, charged
with the Ministry of Algeria and the Colonies, de-
clares that for the future the position of judges in
the higher courts of law in the colonies shall be
assimilated to similar functionaries in Algeria.
To that effect, the judges and other officers of the
Imperial Courts and Tribunals of the Colonies shall
be considered as detached from the Ministry of
Justice, and placed under the authority of the
Minister of Algeria and the Colonies ; but that
the disciplinary measures which may have to be
taken with respect to them shall be concerted
between the Minister of Algeria and the Colonies
and the Minister of Justice, without, however,
encroaching on the powers assigned to the Gover-
nors, Courts, and Tribunals of the Colonies. Like-
wise, all degrees nominating or revoking members
of Courts and Tribunals in the Colonies shall be
issued on the joint proposition of the Minister of
Algeria and the Colonies and the Minister of Jus
tice, and shall be counterigned by them.
BOURSE, Dec. 4.—The article published by the
3loniteur produced a slight improvement in the
first quotations of the Rentes, but further sales
have since depressed the market. Threes have
been done at 74f. 20c., but have receded to 74f. ;
Mobilier varied from 995 f. to 975 f.; Orleans, 1,390 f.
to 1,382 f. 50c.; Lyons, 876 f. 25e. to 872 f. 50c. ;
Southern, 577 f. 50c. to 575 f. ; and Austrian 648 f.
75c. to 645 f. The following are the last quota-
tions

It per Cents. .... 96 20 Credit Fonder
Do. end month .. Belgian 4t . —
3 per Cents. 73 95 Piedmontese (5) 94
Do. end month.... 74 Roman 93 50
Bank Shares 3165 Austrian
Credit Mobilier .. 972 50 Spanish Threes
Do. Account ..... 978 75 Home Debt 43

eek information through an organ independent of
past lonian politics as to the causes of those embar.
rassments and the best means of removing them.
" On the one side the British Protectorate over
these Islands, on the other the substantive exist-
ence of the lonian State and its title to Constitu-
tional Government, having their respective roots in
the treaty of Paris, are derived from a source
higher than the will of any single State, whether
Sovereign or subordinate. They form a portion of
the public law of Europe. They cannot be in-
fringed or altered by any authority inferior to that
from which they flow. It is therefore readily to
be understood, alike from the terms of the Com-
mission and from the reason of the ease, that my
mission avoids every ulterior question that
could derogate from the relations in which, by
the concert of so many great States, England
and the Islands have been reciprodally placed.
The liberties guaranteed by the Treaty of Paris
and by lonian law are, in the eyes of her Majesty,
sacred. On the other hand, the purpose for which
she has sent me is not to inquire into the British
protectorate, but to examine in what way Great
Britain may most honourably and amply discharge
the obligations which, for purposes European and
lonian rather than British, she has contracted.

" For this object, then, I earnestly invite you,
the Chief Executive Authority of the State, and all
other persons representing or having an interest in
the Government, the institutions, or the people of
the country, to assist me freely with all such infor-
mation and counsel on the state of the Islands and of
their laws as ought to influence the conduct of the
protecting Power. For it is only by this efficacious
aid that I can hope to give effect to those affict
tionate wishes for the welfare of the Islands which
have been permitted to hear uttered personally by
her Majesty.
" It has pleased Almighty God to endow the
lonian people with remarkable gifts, and also to
try them in other times with many vicissitudes.
May it please Him now, in an age alike of peace
and of hope, to afford them more and more all the
blessings of civilised and Christian life ; may your
countrymen find in the subsisting relations, wisely
developed, a position worthy of their best energies
and of their ancient and distinguished traditions,
and may their happiness ever be secured by the
double union of freedom with public order and of
knowledge with the Christian faith."

ANSWER OF HIS HIGHNESS THE PRESIDENT OF
THE SENATE.

" Excellency,—l beg your Excellency to accept,
through me, the thanks of the Senate for thehonour
which you have been pleased to confer by the ad-
dress which you have pronounced.
" If the subject of your Excellency's mission had
not already engaged the attention of the Senate, I
should have had to solicit your Excellency to appoint
another day that their reply might be sub-
mitted ; but, as the subject had been previ-
ously communicated to the Senate through the
special medium of his Excellency the Lord High
Commissioner, Sir John Young, I feel myself au-
thorised to state that the Senate regard it in the
obvious and dignified sense in which your Excel-
lency has been pleased to explain it, and that they
feel a deep sense of gratitude towards Her Majesty
the Most Gracious Sovereign Protectress of these
States for the new proof now afforded of her
constant solicitude for the happiness and the welfare
of the people under her protection.
";Certain of the sentiments of the Senate, I can
assure your Excellency that, in the fulfilment of
your high mission, they will be ready to furnish
every information—every document and every
assistance—that may become necessary in the
course of your functions, in order that you may
attain your high purpose.
" I thank your Excellency, in the name of tha
Senate, for the kind wishes expressed in favour
of our fellow-citizens; and I venture to manifest a
hspe that the expressions contained in your learned
address will tend to infuse tranquillity in the minds
of the lonians, as a condition necessary to insure
their progressive welfare, under the auspices of the
high protection that shelters them."
The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone has personally
made a most favourable impression with all classes
here. The real interest he has shown into everything
connected with this country, his eloquence and cap-
tivating address, and the earnestness which charac-
terises his research into the causes of their mal-
content, have clearly convinced all lonians, with
whom he has been brought in contact that there is
no lack of goodwill towards them on his part. Yes-
terday morning he held a public levee at the palace
of St. Michael and St. George, which, in spite of
the unfavourable weather, was attended by num-
bers of the most respectable portion of the inhabi-
tants. The Greek clergy, the officers of the garri-
son, and all Corfiotes of any note were on this
occasion presented to him.
Her Majesty's steam frigate Terrible has been
placed at the disposal of Mr. Gladstone during his
stay in Greek waters. He is accompanied by Mrs.
Gladstone and his daughter, the Hon. Arthur
Gordon, his aide-de-camp, and a Neapolitan gen-
tleman who acts as his secretary and interpreter.
On the 6th of next month he leaves on a tour to
Cephalonia, Zante, and the more southern islands,
and, after a visit to classic Athens, is expected to
return to Corfu by Christmas.

. • :
T' \ ~::, '••
__TIVL,.:7 \`:_416,014,j6 :-N ;,,
4'
.4
44--7-;i74'41011110\ 11.4
. '''
\ lt , , .. A , ,_ .
.
.......z.j-„,