The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EV EN 1N G, APRIL 2G, 1867.

mercial relations of Luxemburg, and of devising
means for lessoning the shock that its trade would
receive from the country's being suddenly trans-
ferred from one Government to. another. The in-
habitants, on being told by their French visitors
that their birthplace, and they with it, had been
sold, felt mortified as well as surprised, but a cer-
tain number of persons seem from the very first to
have looked upon annexation to France as a good
escape from a forced entry into the North German
Federation. The Government of Luxemburg (which
consists of three directors-general, one of whom is
president, with the title of Minister of State) had
neither been consulted, nor was it informed of the
cession to France until after it had actually taken
place. When I say " actually had taken place," I
am• adopting (temporarily) the opinion of some
Luxemburgers, who are convinced that the Act of
March 27 between the King of Holland and the
Emperor of the French was signed, and declare that
they know it, and even explain how they came to
know it. Persons of this way of thinking maintain
that the transfer to France is only a question of
time, and that time a few weeks ; and they ask how
French officials could have come here with the ac-
knowledged view of taking possession unless Count
Bismark's consent to the transaction had been ob-
tained beforehand.

This, they say, explains Count Bismark's per-
fectly true statement that the Luxemburgers have
no wish to belong to Germany ; and they declare
that the report of their having carried black flags
about the streets on the anniversary of Sadowa was
intentionally spread in order to' discredit them in
the eyes of the North Germans, and thus reconcile
the latter to an entire separation from them. This
seems queer on all sides ; but it is certain that the
lie is used as a weapon in connection with this Litz-
etaburg question, though it is often difficult to un-
derstand with -what particular aim it is being em-
ployed.

As for M. de Lavalette's reported visit to Luxem-
burg, it has not taken place. Neither has the Baron
de Tornaco, Minister-President at Luxemburg, been
to Paris, as some French and Belgian papers have
asserted.

It seems to have been thought that after the deci-
sion of the Dutch Government to keep clear altoge-
ther of the Luxemburg affair, and consequently to
cease to represent it diplomatically abroad, M. de
Tornaco would proceed to Paris as Envoy from the
Grand Duchy. All he did, however, was to go to
the Hague, where it is believed that he did not suc-
ceed in obtaining an interview with the King.
From this it is concluded that his Majesty, like so
many of the Luxemburgers, looks upon the arrange-
ment with France as a settled affair, and wishes to
hear no more on the subject. Otherwise the local
Government would naturally protest against a ces-
sion of any kind, to no matter what Power. A
Minister is somebody in Luxemburg a Sub-Prefect
is next to nobody in France.
To-day it is announced that M. Fohr, Director-

General and Judge, will go to Paris to represent the
interests of the Grand Duchy; and that M. Jonas,
IZegistrar-General, will proceed on the same mission
to Berlin. The Baron de Tornaco remains at Luxem-
burg. The Luxemburg Government has for some
time past been kept fully informed of all that takes
place in connection with its affairs ; and a telegram
was received from Paris this morning by a person
in authority stating that the cession to France
would be carried out with the consent of Count Bis-
mark, who, if his conduct in the matter was not ap-
proved, would resign. Senders of telegrams, how-
ever, like the receivers, are sometimes deceived.

Railway and other Companies.

METROPOLITAN.

The general manager of this company, Mr. Myles

Fenton, states that the number of passengers con-
veyed on Easter Monday last over the Metropoli-
tan and Hammersmith and City lines was 101,493,
against 87,662 on Easter Monday, 1866, and 66,232
on Easter Monday, 1865, showing an increase of
13,831 passengers over Easter Monday in 1866, and
of 35,261 over the same day in 1865.

d'Exploitation had been merged into a larger com-
pany, the Societe Generale d'Exploitation de Che-
mins de Fer, under a strong and influential body of
shareholders, and the directors bad every reason to be
satisfied with the arrangements. The report of Mr. A.
W. Chantrell, the managing director in Belgium,
'stated that the works on the Roulers and Ypres line
had been commenced, as well as those of the Dix-
'nude and Nieuport. The works on the Courtray
and Denderleeuw had also been recently com-
menced, and the first section, as far as Audenaerde,
was expected to be ready by the end of this year.
The Imperial decree approving the convention
signed between the Minister of Agriculture, Com-
merce, and Public Works and this company for the
concession of the line from llazebrouck to the
frontier of Belgium was granted on Dec. ,19 last,
and there was reason to expect that the construc-
tion of the Poperinghe and Hazebrouck junction
would not be long delayed. The capital account
showed that £599,554 had been expended. The
revenue account showed that £17,262 bad been re-
ceived, including a balance of £1,124 from the pre-
ceding account ; and the expenditure, including
interest on bonds and preference capital, amounted
to £10,228, leaving, as above, a balance of £7,034.

Euphrates, leaving the Deyvsim . between them
and the Turkish forces at Erzingow and Erzeroum ;
and the Russians would then move through an Ar-
menian population, if not favourable, at least not
directly hostile, and exercise at every step an influ-
ence over the Kizzilbash, who would themselves be
sufficient•to hold in check a large army seeking to
take' the short route of their rugged mountains. But,
besides, the country is in a financial point of view
well worthy the Porte's attention, the hills abound-
ing in iron, copper, lepd, and even silver, and pro-
ducing gall nuts, and other natural productions—
all unknown to the Turks. Passing on through
other districts, the Consul found, with some ex-
ceptions, caused by oppression that is unchecked,
a prosperous population in the Erzingau Sanjak
and the Kharput plain. In this great plain there
are villages every half hour, and all available lands
groan under orchards, grain, and cotton ; the poor
emigrate for employment to the cities, and the
people, therefore, are prosperous, the Christians
purchasing land of the Moslems freely. At Diarbekr
he found that, after five years of losses by locusts
first, and then by cholera, the Tchetchen immigra-
tion, unfortunately advocated by the Pasha and
sanctioned by the Porte, is proving disastrous to
the province. The loss in cattle alone has been
enormous, not only from over-work in transporting
the immigrants and their baggage, but also from

the undiscriminating tastes of this half-famished
people. Unsupplied with proper rations by the
Government, they devoured every four-footed beast
that fell into their hands, whether killed in the usual
way or dead from natural causes ; oxen, horses,
dogs, donkeys, buffaloes, and camels—nothing came
amiss to them. Within the last three months of
1866 more than 5,000 beasts of burden were lost to

the poor agricultural classes of the province, and
timber to the amount of more than £2,000 sterling

in value from one district alone. Many of the owners
of cattle gave them up, and never attended to re-
claim, being in fearof corvee. Artisans and labourers
have been dragged from their homes 80 miles off to
build the homes, Government offices, and huts for
the new city, leaving their families and business at
a season when their presence was absolutely neces-
sary, and for which the nominal dole, promised but
not paid them, can be no compensation. The Con-
sul thinks it hardly likely that a race like these new
subjects of the Porte, accustomed for the last fifty
years to a life of war and plunder, will at once
quietly sink down into the comparative inaction
of an agricultural life in a colony, composed entirely
,of themselves, headed by intelligent, clever men,
formerly officers of the Russian army, and retaining
all their old Tchetchenais associations of war,
battle, struggles for freedom, and belief that riches
and plenty are dependent solely upon the single
strength of their arms. Nor will the knowledge
they are hutted in a country that for centuries has
been abandoned by the Turks—if, indeed, it was
ever really subject—from their sheer inability to held
their own against the Arabs, contribute to their
loyalty, particularly if put to the test of taxation
and conscription. The Consul trusts that the Go-
vernment will not, by withdrawing its support,
prematurely drive the Tchetchens to brigandage for
subsistence ; and he strongly advocates the placing
a permanent regular force at Ras-el-Ain to awe the
Bedouins and force peaceful habits upon the im-
migrants. The absence of resistance on the part of
the Arabs to the establishment of a foreign colony
in a country which they regard as their own is en-
couraging. The Pasha is a man of great persever-
ance. If the new colonists should turn out the re--
generators of this most fruitful portion of the
Turkish Asiatic dominions, and, by constantly me-
nacing the Arabs, force those useless people to their
proper localities, the arid deserts beyond the Euphra-
tes and about Nejd, foreign settlers might be at-
tracted, who would serve as a counterbalance to
possible or probable rebels. The Consul has seen no
country so well calculated for pasture and agricul-
ture, more particularly cotton. • There are thou-
sands of acres of rich virgin soil completely under
the natural irrigation of the Khatioor and its sources,
in a level country practicable even at present for
every kind of wheeled conveyance to Mosul on the
one side, and Aleppo on the other. A railway, so
long talked of, between the Mediterranean and Per-

sian Gulf would find its shortest route through Ras-
el-Ain and other districts, which it is proposed to
colonise with Tchetchens and others now under Arab

.nfluence.

SMUT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-

TIMES.—SO far as M. Paulin Limayrac and the
Constitutionnel may be taken to be the expression of
the Emperor Napoleon's mind, it would seem easy
to acquit the French Government of all blame in
that unfortunate matter of Luxemburg. France,
we are told, seeks no quarrel ; she neither offered
nor intended any provocation. She only compliins
of-Prussia's dog-in-the-manger policy. She cannot
conceive why that Power, which made so good a job
of its last year's venture, should grudge its neigh-
bour a little business in the same line, and stand in
the way of a bargain in which France was ready to
pay down hard cash. France looked upon the Grand
Duchy as no man's land—a mere waif thrown upon
her borders by the great wreck of the old German
Confederation, art " unconsidered trifle," which
she might as well "snap up" as anybody else.
The question, no doubt, lies on the very terms
set down in the Constitutionnel.- Long before the
Luxemburg quarrel presented such terribly serious
aspects as it has now assumed, when the very name
of the Grand Duchy hardly conveyed to mist men
a distinct idea, it was Count Bismark who, volun-
tarily and gratuitously, from Ys place in the North
German Parliament, informed the world that the
King of the Netherlands, by the dissolution of the
old German Bund, recovered the full sovereignty of
his out-lying territory, • that the Luxeniburgers
showed no sympathy with the Prussians, and no wish
to be incorporated in the new Confederacy, and that,
for his own part, he, Bismark himself, was desirous
to break off all connection with non-German Poten-
tates. It is true that, in the same breath, the
Minister expressed a confident hope that "Prussia's
undoubted rights would never be challenged," but it
was hardly to be suppose i that the same Power
should put forth claims to mere barracks and store-
houses, after so distinct a renunciation of the ground
on which those buildings stood. That Prussia could
continue to be at home in a place which was, with
her consent, to become French territory was a con-
ceit which Count Bismark could not hope to pass off
even as a sally of Brandenburg humour. The mo-
deration and liberality of the Count's answer to Herr
Bennigsen at that juncture took the world by sur-
prise, and was naturally construed into a confirma-
tion of the vague surmises connected with Bis-
mark's visit to Biarritz. Those rumours, as we all
remember, were that the neutrality of France
during the late war had been purchased at that
famous interview by a promise of Prussia's
connivance at an eventual French annexation
of Belgium, or that a partition of the Nether-
lands territories, and the advance of France and
Germany on either side to the Scheldt; had
been hinted at between the. two secret nego-
tuitors. All this conjectural edifice. had no other
foundationr than the fact of France's neutrality.
The transfer for Luxemburg, had it been peace-
fully effected, might have been looked upon as a
first step towards the fulfilment of the alleged
bargain. But, hOwever earnest Count Bismark
may have been in his engagements, he either h
ceased, or wished to appear to have ceased, to be a
free agent when called upon for performance.
Events were too rapid, and German patriotism was
too rampant for him. National enthusiasm was the
holy water and the Fade retra by which the fiend
was baffled when he Came forth and claimed his
bond. Under such provocation there is something
almost angelic in the temper with which the semi-
official organ, assuming to speak in the name of the
Imperial Government, assures us that France" puts
aside every claim," and i:; willing to allow the ques-
tion to be considered as a European one. Europe, we
know, or the three mediating Powers, England,
Russia, and Austria, are supposed to have come to
the conclusion that Prussia has no longer a right to
the place she has for above half a century occupied
in the Grand Duchy, and have sent a note to Berlin
conveying their views on the subject. Count Bis-
mark, however, has a habit of being from home at
the right, moment, and the official answer has been
put off for a few days. In the Minister's absence,
however, the North German Gazette intimated that
‘. the Prussian garrison would never be withdrawn
from Luxemburg..." Possibly, however, that decision
may have to be reconsidered. There has been in this
affair something like precipitation on-all sides. :The
matter has too soon been suffered to get beyond the
control of statesmen. The French, who, only a few
days ago, had hardly heard of Luxemburg, found
out all at once that the existence of its fortress. in
German hands was an insult and a menace to
themselves ; while the Germans, who, in the re
constitution of their country, had left the Grand
I Duchy out in the cold,' are now quite sure that

its stronghold is the key to the gates of Berlin.

There is—not much that can be taken as serious

in any of these assertions. The importance of
fortresses in the issues of modern warfare has

been reduced to its true proportions. Fbrtresses
may be of avail to small States unable otherwise to
take the field, as the Dannewerke and Duppel were
to Denmark, but only for a short and puny effort ;
bat the destinies of empires are decided by the shock
of vast masses in the open, and under the walls of
their capitals. What goad were Josephstadt and
Koniggratz, or even Olmutz itself, to Beuedek, when

Sadowa wai lost ? Or where would have been the
use even of the Quadrilateral had thc Archduke
Albrecht been worsted at Custozza, and Cialdini

been enabled to cross the Alps-to Vienna? The
pretext of the fortress deceiVes no person ; and if it
were indeed true that France renounces all hopes of
the territory, and that Prussia; acknowledging the

repugnance of the people to her rule, is willing to
release them from all German allegiance, if it were
true that the question is reduced to the mere ram-
parts of the cifadel, the solution would qnly be too
obvious. What Prussian pride might refuse to the
peremptory demands of France might with a good
grace be granted to the representations of friendly
Powers. The demolition of the fortress of Luxem-

burg may be an impracticable and, perhaps, au un-
desirable undertaking. But a more lausible
arrangement suggests itself. The destinies of the
Luxemburgers should be left iu their own hands,

and, whether they declared in favour of an indepen-
dent Government or voted for re-union to Belgium,

the fortress should by all means be made over to
the latter kingdom. The danger in all these con-
templated changes presses most heavily upon that
free but defenceless Belgian community, and the
first tramp of warlike feet in the apprehended out-
break would do away with the inviolability of that
neutral territory, if there is any State on the Con-
tinent to which we are really bound by clear engage-

ments, that State, as we learn from Lord Stanley, is
Belgium ; and, however indifferent we might other-
wise be to to the havoc WhiCh the two great rival
nations might, in the indulgence of their mad
passions, inflict upon one another, we can hardly •
help wishing that their difference should be termi-
nated in the manner which could best screen our
Belgian friends from their neighbours' ambition.
The degree of authority that the mediating Powers
May exercise ou the interested parties will depend
on the earnestness and unanimity with which they
go to work. France, if we may believe M. Paulin.
Limayrac, shows sufficient deference and complai-
sance. She even holds aloof from the negotiation,
not to embarrass the .mediators' actions, and seems
willing to await their award. Notwithstanding any
amount of blustering, we should not expect to find
Germany more intractable. Bismark has at all times
shown himself a deep gamester, fully competent to
reckon the terrible odds. He is not the man to be
led astray by the mere outcry of beerhouse enthu-
siasm. He is fully aware that in many of the newly
annexed districts loyalty to Prussia has struck no
very deep roots. He knows full well what reliance
may be put on the fidelity of his Southern allies.
However desperate he may have seemed in his ven-
tures, there has.always been method and calculation
in his audacity. Had not Austria's trial been Italy's
opportunity, it is questionable whether Prussia would
ever have struck a blow for German supremacy.
There are but few instances of a big bully fairly and
deliberately coming to blows with another equally
big. A single-handed encounter with France offers
Prussia hardly any chance of certain success, andif
she looks round about her and sounds the disposi-
tion of Denmark, Austria, and other countries,
except, perhaps, Russia, she must see how far more
numerous than the friends who would back her
would be the enemies arrayed against her. If the
mediating Powers know how to. make the best of
all these circumstances, they will have, perhaps, a
less arduous task beiore them than is gene-
rally imagined. Whatever may be the mood of the
would-be belligerents, the neutral Powers should
never forget that they are three against two. Inde-
pendent of the sacredness of their peace-making
mission, they should feel how easy it is for Might
to throw its weight into the scales with Right.
There was a moment, as the world is aware, in
which a decisive attitude on the part of France
would, in the summer of last year, have damped the
warlike ardour of Prussia and Austria, and pre-
vented the hostilities out of which the present com-
plication arose. Only those who undertake to
curb other people's ambition should themselves be
inaccessible to all covetous longings. "He who is
without sin let him cast the first stone." The want
of the policeman has long been felt in Europe. But
how can the office be intrusted to any one who is
not above the temptation of his neighbour's pockets?
Had Russia nothing to gain and Austria nothing
to retrieve by war, it is not likely that a cannon
could be fired on the Rhine without their permis-
sion.

HERALD. Despite their abusive language and
their violent resolutions, the meetings that have been
held to denounce the Government and the Reform
Bill afford abundant testimony to the wisdom of the
one and. the popularity of the other. The assem-
blages
are not formidable in point of numbers, and
they are so insignificant in point of influence and
character as to show plainly that the true feeling of
the country is against them. The resolutions them-
selves point to a similar conclusion. It is found im-
possible to get up a demonstration in favour of any
practical counter-proposition. The mass meetings
of Birmingham and Leeds do not. express their ap-
proval
of a £5 rating limitation, or their preference
for a rental qualification ; they demand that which
they know no. Government will propose and no Par-
liament will ever concede—that which is popularly
understood by the phrase " universal suffrage." Last
year similar meetings passed votes of confidence in
the late Government and satisfaction with the £7
franchise; this year they confine themselves to de-
clamations that have no practical sense at all, and
demands in which their leaders refuse to concur. It
is plain, then, that the agitation out of doors is
wholly unreal and artificial ; that it is confined to
that class which
has not and never will have any
practical weight in English politics— the class with
which wild declamation passes for argument, and
abstract dogmas for statesmanship—the class of
theorists and
.revolutionary dreamers. There is no
sober, thoughtful, orderly opposition to the Minis-
terial measure ; no genuine support of Mr. Glad-
stone's obstinate. adherence to the fatal error of 1832
and the fiasco of 1866. We are entitled to assume
that the practical political sense of the nation is con-
tent
with the Reform Bill of Mr. Disraeli ; and we
assume th's the more confidehtly that its opponents
direct their attacks not so much against the mea-
sure as against the men by whom it is brought for-
ward. They dare not cope with the provisions of the
bill, and the reasoning by which those provisions are
maintained ; they prefer to elicit clap-trap cheers by
panegyrics onl4lr. Gladstone, the friend of the people,
and denunciations of the. Ministers, the inveterate
enemies of reform. " Codlin's the friend, not Short."
This is the substance of all that Mr. Forster and Mr.
Stansfeld have to say; this is all that Mr. Bright
can urge, beyond a deliberate misstatement of the
nature of the measure, and an appeal to local preju-
dice and local circumstances. Coarse personal abuse,
false personal charges, vulgar railing, or impudent
imputations of fraud and collusion, as unfounded in
fact as unscrupulous in assertion, form the staple of
Liberal harangues. Could there be a stronger testi-
s mony to the unanswerable force of Tory arguments
and the unimpeachable honesty and equity of the
Tory Reform Bill ? Evidently the old word has once
more been passed along the Radical ranks--" No
evidence for the defence ; abuse the plaintiff's attor-
ney." The speeches of Mr. Forster and Mr. Stans-
feld are significant both in their omissions and their
admission. Both are in some sense representative
men, both are extreme Radicals, both have some
practical experience in politics, both are warm per-
sonal friends of Mr. Gladstone. It is noticeable
that neither has much to say against the bill or in
favour of the defeated amendment. The former,
i indeed, seems to prefer the ratepaying franchise to
the rental limit, which he frankly admits to have
been formally and finally condemned. He voted
for the amendment ; but he must, in so doing,
have had a struggle with his conscience, for he cer-
tainly does not approve of the scheme of which that
amendment formed a part. He commends the Con-
servative Government for having done away with
limitations based on accidental distinctions of value,
and placed all householders on one footing, though
he thinks that the conditions imposed on all are too
l speaks
stringent and unequal in their operations.iAs
often—unhappily not always—his wont,
like a man of sense and of business. He understands
the question with which be .deals, and when he
lleases he can support his views, but not by the sense-
ess appeals to abstract theory which suit the mob,
but by the arguments which influence practical men ;
not by reference to imaginary rights of man, but by
such considerations of policy and prudence as have
had weight with his own mind. He holds extreme
opinions ; but he is not a man of extreme mind. His
habit of thought, his manner of regarding political
subjects, are those of a businesslike and often a
statesmanlike intellect, not
.those of a fanatical
imagination. Wherever the interest and rights of
Ihate; the Conservatives too heartily to speak of them,
' livednsi'ellvfiest
oeh I lcoonara ()Ln candour
con-
spirators,closely with their
white men only are concerned Mr.. Forster is
capable of judging and arguing on practical grounds,
and his speeches in Parliament upon the question
of Reform have certainly contributed to throw light
upon some important points. Mr. Stansfeld is a
clever men,latt unhappily on this subject he is led
into injustice and absurdity by. two of the dominant
defects of his character. He is vindictive ; and he
apielrdhcaopisitetveseyn. to
Atiiniidikh
and associatoeefdhtahlisitm