The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-16 00:00:00

THE SUN_ LONDON, WEDNESOAY EVENING, OCTOBER 16, 14,i.

being 131 and the former 272; but this is accounted
for by the fact that frequently in cases of supposed
infanticide, when a verdict of murder is given, the
result at the trial is a verdict of concealment of
birth. In such cases the coroner of course retains
them as cases of murder, while the police return
them according to the finding of the jury at the
trial. There is a decrease in the number of in-
quests, while the verdicts of murder show an increase
of 19.8 per cent. Verdicts of manslaughter and
suicide each show a considerable decrease. Out of
the 6,872 infants under seven years of age upon
whom inquests were held, it is interesting to re-
mark that 5,523 were legitimate, and that only
1,349 were illegitimate. This is a sufficient answer
to those who allege that illegitimate children are
usually the subjects of infanticide ; and, in addition
to this, while infanticide has most undoubtedly
been on the increase, there has been for the last three
years no material variation is the number of
children dying a violent death upon whom %quests
were held.

The costs of coroners' inquests, including salaries
and travelling allowances, show a remarkably steady
continuance at ono average. In the year 1856
the average cost of an inquest was /3 ls. 7d.,
and in 1866 the cost was exactly the same
amount, while the greatest variation in the in ter-
mediate years, with the exception of one, was no
more than 3s. I.ld.

extensive, the Powell Duffryn - Company alone
having shipped 7,665 tons in the last six days, and
for the past fortnight or three weeks they have
shipped something approaching that average. The
exports during the past month reached 184,514
tons as compared with 151,720 tons in the corres-
ponding period of last year. For house coal pur-
chases on account of the coasting markets will bear
a fair comparison with the corresponding period of
last year, and the cold weather which set in for a
few days has had its influence on the local consump-
tion. Coastwise the shipments last month were
70,899 tons against 59,503 tons in the month of
September, 1866. The iron trade has not materially
altered its position since last report, and the same
degree of quietness which has characterised busi-
ness for so long a period still continues. The ex-
ports of iron for the past month were 12,123 tons,
the greatest portion of which was sent to Russia
and the United States.

LEEDS, 15.--There was only a small attendance
in the cloth halls this morning, neither buyers nor
sellers being present in full force, owing to the
weather being thick, as well as to the generally quiet
tone of trade. At the close of the markets no great
amount of goods Was removed from the halls, the
sales having been confined to small selections of
seasonable goods, including witneys, beavers, and
hair lists, and a fair quantity of tweeds. The
heavier makes in lower and medium qualities of the
latter class of goods were most in request, and they
fully maintained late prices. The flax trade is rather
dull, and prices are irregular.
ROCHDALE, 14t11.—There was a rather better at-
tendance in the flannel market to-day than last
week. The market, however, was not brisk, buyers
not being inclined to buy much nor to give out large
orders. Operations extended as much to fancy as to
plain flannels, and for both prices were generally
firm; but if there was any change it was-a slight
reduction.

CON? LY ENTAL ALARMS.

--,9. -

(From the Economist.)

It cannot be denied that the prevalent uneasiness
in Europe, far from subsiding, appears rather to in-
crease. • We think little of the agitation and disturb-
ance manifested on the Paris Bourse, nor of the
rumours of ministerial changes and diplomatic com-
munications to which that agitation is in a great
measure to be attributed; for these things among
our neighbours, far more frequently than with us,
are artificial effects got up by jobbing speculators
for their own sinister ends and to aid mere tempo-
rary operations, which the very next week they
might find it for their interest to reverse. But the
mere prolongation of anxiety and expectation in a
case of this sort is of itself an aggravation of the
danger, and has a tendency both to realise men's
fears and to render the state of fear by degrees
almost more intolerable than the reality would be.
The subject of war, and the Mutual distrust and
irritation which alone make war likely, are kept
perpetually before the public mind, and discussed,
often with ill-temper and insulting comments, in

the journals of the countries more immediately
concerned. It is notorious that France and Prus-
sia are both vigorous and incessant in military
preparations, so as to be prepared for any emer-
gency ; and now the disturbances, local, isolated,
and thus far insignificant as they appear to be,
which have occurred in Italy in consequence of
Garibaldi's mischievous projects, and their judicious
prevention by his timely arrest, have come to com-
plicate the position and augment the peril. Still, in
spite of all these obvious symptoms of excitement
and sources of danger, we believe the alarm felt at
this moment to be exaggerated, and we regard the '
probabilities to be in favour of present, and, we
would fain hope, of ultimate peace. Almost the
most menacing feature; of the case in our judgment
is the alarm itself ; because, if that cannot be
allayed, commerce will not revive, enterpr'se must
be suspended, industry will languish, employment
will decrease ; and in all countries, and not ably in
France, an unemployed and suffering population
always become dangerous to a Government which
ref LiSCS to occupy their minds and divert their pas-
sions by a foreign war. Neverthel Cap, and giving
full weight to all these considerations, we incline to
a tolerably hopeful view of the position for the fol-
lowing reasons :—First. There is the vagueness of
the subject matter of the quarrel. It is difficult
even for the French to go to war from mere jealousy
of the increasing power and prosperity of a rival
n ation which has done them no wrong, which has
offered them no insult, which has taken no action

whatever in their concerns, which is simply
endeavouring, with singular conseutaneousness of

feeling and wonderfully prompt success, to carry
out those doctrines of nationality which France has
always proclaimed as sacred. Secondly. There is
considerable reason to doubt whether any great
majority of the French nation do seriously just now
desire war with Prussia. Parliamentary orators and
Orleanist or Legitimist journalists, whose patriotism
is not always pure nor often very enlightened, may
desire it. The excitable population of Paris and
some of the great cities of the empire, who have got
a dim and angry notion that French honour has
been tarnished, and that French preponderance is
threatened, may long for the recurrence of those
days of turbulent passion and• disorder which con-
stitute the element in which they love to live ; and
it is possible that ere long, if the present uneasiness
continues to paralyse industry and commerce, their
ranks may be swelled by hosts of unemployed arti-
sans, in which case the danger would be much in-
creased. But the peasantry, to whom war means a
doubled conscription, on whom the chief weight of
the conscription falls, and among whom the con-
scription is of all their burdens the most unpopular,
are certainly not anxious for war, and, indeed,
seldom can be so, unless under the pressure of
actual danger or artificially excited passions. Com-
mercial men, as distinguished from speculators and
stock-jobbers,
t cky
c- joonbsbt
constitute
ear e always averse to hostilities, and
a far more influential class in France
than formerly. It is very doubtful, too, from all
that we can learn, whether the army itself is sin-
cerely eager for a struggle with an enemy whose
real prowess and resources they feel unable to cal•
culate or measure with any confidence. They bate
the Prussians, no doubt, and long to humble them,
but we have reason to believe that among the offi-
cers of the French army there is not that conviction
of easy and certain superiority in such a conflict
which hitherto they have been wont to feel ; while
among the private soldiers there prevails a kind of
vague alarm at the possible powers of the new
weapon which did such powers at Sadowa, and an
unavowed but still widespread feeling of doubt, and
almost of discouragement, at the prospect of en-
countering troops who overthrew in a short cam-
paign and in a series of desperate encounters the
adversaries whom they themselves found so hard to
beat at Magenta and Solferino. Thirdly. But it is
on the statesmen at the head of the two angry nations
that we mainly rely for our hopes that peace will be
maintained. The times are changed since eager
rulers dragged reluctant peoples into war. Now, it
is the people who are ready to fight, and monarchs
and ministers who hold them back. We believe
that both Count Bisruarek and Napoleon are anxious
to avoid a rupture, and have good reason to b 3 so,

and will do all that can be done to avert it. As
fur the Prussian statesman, his work of unifica-
tion is going on at least as fast as he can desire
—perhaps even faster—aud a war with France, if
it could not prevent it or retard it, would either
complicate and perplex, or, at all events, precipi-
tate his schemes. his ultimate success is certain,
and that success will be complete and beneficent
probably just in proportion to the gradual and
spontaneous manner in which it is wrought out.
His great desire now must be to consolidate and
fuse the already vastly increased dominions of his
master—not to repeat the policy which Garibaldi
in 1860 forced upon the Italian Government. He
can have no possible motive to hasten an absolutely
certain issue—still less to have it precipitated and
confused by a foreign war, which, however glorious
and successful it might possibly be, would be
long, desperate, bloody, costly, and desolating.
The Emperor of Austria has even stronger mo-
tives to withhold him from allowing France to
drag him into a struggle to prevent that German
unity which has now become the cherished hope
and dream of the entire Fatherland. Such a blun-

der, he must be well aware, would probably cost
him his German subjects, and relegate him to the
inferior position of the chief of a mere mass of mis-
cellaneous Sclavonic and Hungarian provinces ;
while any hope of regaining ascendancy, either in
Italy or at home, is obviously futile. But it is on
the sagacity and self. interest of the French Emperor
that we place our principal reliance. Napoleon
knows well that a war with Prussia would be a war
with all Germany ; that it would be a long and
desperate war, with a doubtful issue as to military
glory, and with scarcely a possibility of success in
preventing the ultimate fusion of the German
States, even if it did not assist that hated result.
He sees clearly, too, no doubt, that with the Teu-
tonic idea and passion for national grandeur and
unity so fiercely aroused as it now is, the prospect
of seizing and retaining the cis-Rhenane provinces
of Prussia and making the Rhine his boundary is
all but hopeless.