The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-27 00:00:00

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CORK, FRIDAY AI t
The t..G. J.Examiner has the following :
The prisoners were brought up for examination
on Wednesday. The counsel for the prisoners were
Messrs. Downing and 11. P. Julin ; for the Crown,
Mr. Fagan.
Mr. Fagan opened the proceedings by a short
statement on behalf of the Crown. Mr. Downing
applied that a professional reporter be allowed to
take the evidence of the witnesses, with the under-
standing that it should not be published in the
public journals. The application was opposed by
the Crown.
After a lengthened discussion the magistrate re-
fused to allow the presence of a reporter.
Sullivan, the approver, was then called, and
stated that he was sworn a member at a fair at
Bantry on the 20th of August, He took two oaths,
one of secrecy and another of brotherhood. He
attended a meeting at Priest's on the borders of
Cork and Kerry. The object of the meeting was
to take np arms, as the Americans were expected
at Christmas, and would be joined by the French.
Ireland was then to be an independent republic.
By his oaths he was bound to take up arms at a
moment's notice, and yield implicit obedience to his
leaders. Witness also stated thafone of the patriots,
who went by the name of Shooks, was making the
necessary arrangements to rise when the Americans
should arrive.
The witness was examined at great length.
The court adjourned till yesterday, when Sulli-
van was again called and cress-examined.
Examination resumed—Accompanied by another
man on the road leading to Grimoleague, he saw a
great number of men drilling with pikes. He took
the two oaths at Bantry. He could not say whether
he intended to keep them. He had intended to do
so. He went to confess. The_ priest refused to
give absolution till he would break through the
oaths. It was at the suggestion of a police•officer
that he first went to Skibbereen. The examina-
tion of the approver then ended.
I Adjourned again to this morning. -• -••-
IThis day seven or eight witnesses were produced
who were not examined fully. The examinations
!were merely read over to them, and they were then
icross-examined. One of the constables contradicted
'the evidence of the informer as to the privacy of
the room called the Phoenix-room, in Morty Down-
ing's house. He stated that it was always open to
the public, and even the constabulary had taken
refreshment there. The form of oaths to be taken
was not produced, but the informer statedit verbally
in his evidence. Three of the prisoners—M‘Carthy,
Driscoll, and Stack—had not been examined. They
were identified by the informer.
The. examination terminated at 5 o'clock.
M'Carthy, Stack, and Driscoll were discharged .
on their'own recognisanees of £lOO to come up for
trial when called nton. Duffin, Dennis, Downing,
Patrick Downing, Limothy M'Carthy, O'Shea, and
Obson were admitted to bail, themselves in £lOO
each, and two securities of £5O each, to appear at
the assizes. Daniel M'Carthy, E. Sullivan, Dona-
ghan, M. Monaghan, W. O'Shea, and Morty
Downing, were committed for trial without bail.
The solicitors for the prisoners returned thanks
to the magistrate and the Crown solicitors for the
manner in which the proceedings had been con-
ducted.

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

protection out of their own abundance, rather than
throw the burden on their poorer fellow-citizens at
home. A colony where everybody is making at
least £3OO a-year ought, we think, to be self-sup-
porting in a very short time. All this, however,
will doubtless soon find its proper level, and if
British Columbia at present wants nothing but
populationto make it amply productive, that want
is not likely to be of long continuance after such
dccriptions as we have recently published.

RIGHT OF SEARCH AT SEA.-LORD
MALMESBU_RY AND MR. DALLAS.

(From the New York Herald.)
Two events have occu;red to confirm in a remark-
able manner the opinion we so resolutely maintained
a few months since, that the British Government
had not given up the exercise of the right of search.
ing American vessels upon the ocean.
The readers of the Herald will remember how
tenaciously we defended our views, and how clearly
we exposed the fallacy of the contrary assertion,
with arguments drawn from the guarded declara-
tions and cautious admissions of the British Mini-
sters in Parliament, mid logical deductions from the
past history of the British. Government and its
policy. To-day we publish in another column the
official correspondence upon which the statement
that the right of search question had been settled
was founded, in which it will be seen that Eng-
land, instead of abandoning her old claim, has
taken a really more insolent position than she be-
fore held. Not being able to controvert the weight
of authority that was brought against her, she ac-
knowledges that the letter of the law does not give
her the right she claims, and now demands that the
law of nations shall be changed in this respect, so
that it may suit her whims. As if to confirm her
determination to continue the practice of the right
of search come the-cases of the American steamers
Washington and. Catherine Maria, boarded by her
officers in a neutral port, and in sight of several
American men-of-war, and full report of their
proceedings demanded.
It will be seen from the letter of Mr. Dallas, in
another column,. that on the morning-of the Bth of
June last he despaired of bringing bird Malmes-
bury to the concession of a singl point, when sud-
denly he was called- off to_ meet . that gentleman ;
and when he resumes the writing of his letter ho
tells Gen-. Cass that something within the last 12
hours had completely changed his lordship's' views.
The subsequent developments show how completely
Mr. Dallas-was hinnbugged. In the memorandum
of the conversation of that day with the American
Minister, 'Lord Mahnesbury admits that the highest
English authorities on maritime law were against
ihis claims; and that France, who vas in closealli-
ance with England,. would not submit to them. He
tells him that by an arrangement with that Power
an English boat might be sent alongside of a French
ship and ask to see her papers, but not, unless in-
vited, board the vessel. On the • 11th of June, Lord
Malmesbury elaborates in a .despatch to Lord Na-
pier his new position toward the United States. He
begins with the same admissions, that the law was
against him, with which he had humbugged Mr.
Dallas ; then he assumes the championship of-civi-
lisation, and asserts the necessity 'of a police of the
high seas to put down American rascals; and impu-
dently adds that the way things are now going on
every honest trader will soon fly from the American
flag upon the ocean as from a pirate. This neces-
sity of a "police of the high seas" he defends by an
ingenious use of a partial extract from Gen. Cass's
letter of the 10th April last, and a citation proving
that an American naval Officer had exercised the
right of search on two French vessels. We have
long ago stated our belief that it was on this slip
of Gen. Cass that Lord Malmesbury hung his appa-
rent concessions, and the fact is now proved. As for
the example cited, of the commander of the United
States ship Dale, it only proves how little some of
our own naval officers know - of their duties and
their relations to the merchant service, and shows
the necessity of ventilating thoroughly the ques-
tion of the right of visit and search by men-of-war
en the ocean. - • •
. .
Lord Malmesbury also gives, as seemingly
against himself, the'view-taken by the French Ad-
miral Hammelin, stating expressly, however, that
the British Government does not eseteorcl-in it. The
French admiral only claims that -a merchant ves-
sel shall be obliged to show her colours to a man-
- of war at sea, but without being stopped or turned
out of her course, unless there is just ground for
suspicion. This, however, is a practical admission
of the necessity of a police on the high seas. It is
in practice the European system of making a man
show his passport whenever an officer demands it.
A passport is the evidence of a man's identity and
nationality, as a ship's colours are of hers. Their
forced exhibition on the high seas during a time of
peace is an undue exercise of authority, and an im-
proper call for respect to authorities. It is the
erection of Gesler's pole and hat upon the ocean for
the citizens of every nation to bow before. Such a
practice accords well enough with the theoriea of
"the empire," which demand that every private
person shall uncover before an official, but it will
not set well upon the stomachs of the free citizens
of the United States.

COMMERCIAL _ STATISTICS-P.RIVI-

LEGES OF THE PRESS:

mer-
A. case of very considerable interest to the
involvingcantile community, and in its more im-
portant aspect the freedom of the press, in which
,certain Custom-house officers, residing in England,
who claim to be proprietors of the Clyde Bill
have prosecuted the Glasgow Mercantile Advertiser
for publishing the commercial statistics contained in
their sheet, occupies a considerable share of public
interest. It has been brought under the notice of
the Treasury by the merchants of Glasgow, and by
the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, but remon-
strances have been of no avail in staying the pro-
ceedings instituted in the Court of Session against
our contemporary. Of course, pending an action
at law, we give no opinion on the legal merits o
case. There may or may not have been an in-
fringement of a legal patent right. But the ques-
tion with which the public and the press have to
do lies entirely beyond this domain—and if the
Glasgow interests, backed by the public opinion of
Scotland, had but a tithe of the spirit which ought
to actuate bodies and public men, they would
strangle this disgracefuLprosecution ere it had
yammer-step.-
The case is shortly this : a fund has been esta-
blished for the benefit of Custom-house officers ;
and taking advantage of the access which their
official connection gives them to the shipping and
commercial statistics of the Clyde, they publish
these in the shape of a thrice-a-week Glasgow news-
paper, called the Clyde Bill of Entry. The Glas-
gow Mercantile Advertiser extracts as much of
these as it deems interesting to its readers, a course
followed in similar circumstances by every journal
in the kingdom, witness the tables of the 11.1-ark
Lane Express and Economist, which are regularly
transferred without challenge into all newspapers
of a popular character ; but, say the proprietors of
the Clyde Bill of Entry, who are handsomely paid
by the country for doing their legitimate work as
public officials—" You shall not copy from our
sheet, because we have secured a copyright in it,
and if our monopoly is invaded our , gains will be
diminished, and this fund of ours [which, by the
way, is not distributed for the benefit of Scotch
officers at all] would suffer." The question is thus
simplified and stands thus :—Whether in the latter
half of the nineteenth century, the interests of
commerce and the press, or the advantage of a
small Government-sanctioned monopoly, shall be
preferred P Whether the trade of Glasgow and of
Scotland is to be vexed and annoyed and subjected
to restraints, or a peddling bit of official exclusive-
ness put down ? To state the question is to answer
it. The plea that these over-burdened officials, who
copy out the list during the hours doubtless for which
they derive their salaries, should be protected
law, is a piece of pure fudge. Why should they
have a protection which is extended to no one else ?
Nobody wants their exclusive labours. The Custom
House books are for the use of the public as well
as of the Crown, as the publication of this sheet
abundantly illustrates. ' Let the books be thrown
open, under proper restriction and regulation, and
neither the Glasgow Mercantile Advertiser nor any
other paper will interfere with their Bill of Entry.
It would thus compete in the open market, and the
result it needs no seer to prognosticate.
The uroprietors of the Mercantile Advertiser are
contending against heavy odds. The law 'may find
them wrong, although they have right and justice
on their side, and the spirit of the age will not only
justify, but commend them. But the case reaches
far beyond a single newspaper. It aims to explode
a cherished remnant of an antiquated and vile sys-
tem, which—as cooks lick their fingers—allowed
official men to have pickings out of public interests.
We trust both the press an the public will not be
slow in speaking out—the contention is theirs—and
that they will not allow a journal to be trampled
down under the Treasury hoof. Were the members
for Glasgow, backed by the commercial and munici-
pal authorities of the two chief cities, to take up
the c.ndgels, the monopoly would be extinguished
without loss of time—leaving the Government to
provide for revenue officers by some more legitimate
method than by allowing them to compete in a field
where they have no business, and where their sel-
fish ends can only be pursued with injustice to the
press and injury to the public.—Scottish Press.

But the last two paragraphs of Lord Malmesbury's
letter to Lord Napier are the most remarkable of
all. They convey as distinct: a threat as ever was
conveyed in diplomatic language. lie tells us that
we must admit the establishment of this police of
the seas, for " these irritating controversies are in-
evitable as long as the letter of the international
law is made to over-ride these measures" which
British exp&ricnce and arrogance " recommend for
the security of life and property on the high seas ;"
but which neither the United States nor France

have ever acquiesced in. How Mr. Dallas or
General Cass, or any other man possessing common
sense, could conceive that this letter of Lord Mal-
mesbury was a satisfactory settlement of theright
of search, we cannot understand.

The position of our government is directly anta-
gonistic to it in all its points ; and that position is
clearly laid down in General Cass's letter of the 30th
of June. The American idea is there set forth, that
the occasional abuse of a flag is a far less evil than
the establishment of England's pretensions would
be, and that the freedom of all merchant vessels
from detention upon the ocean concerns every
nation. It is now evident that the question of the
right of search is not settled, and that our govern-
ment and that of England are in direct conflict
upon it. England has now extended her claim to
exercise a police right upon the ocean, to its exer-
cise in the ports and rivers of neutral weaker
nations. The recent proceedings of. the British
officers in :the harbour of San Juan del Norte and
the Colorado branch of that river are of a far more
flagrant character than were the proceedings last
spring in the Cuban waters. The freedom of our
commerce on every sea and in every harbour is
involved in the question. The-administration and
Congress must take it up at once, and maintain the
liberty of the American sailor and the American
flag everywhere. We are on the eve of an impor-
tant conflict with the Western Powers of Europe.
If we cede our rights now, we shall never recover
them again without a bloody conflict, that will rock
the whole world, and no present cession on our part
will secure peace to us. Concession, once begun,
knows no end.

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.—A meeting in sup-
port of this great and popular movement was held on Friday
night in the hall at Elliot-street baths, Glasgow. Mr.
John 11PAdam occupied the chair ; and the audience,
though certainly not overcrowded, gave unmistakeable evi-
dence of being in earnest in their desire for reform. The
following resolutions were unanimously adoptod, after able
speeches had been delivered in support of them by, among
other friends of progress, Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. John Nichols,
Mr. Little, Councillor M'Adain, and Mr Troup, all oi
whose utterances were enthusiasticallyreceived:-1. " That
the meeting of Oro western district hails" with pleasure the
national expression of parliamentary reform elicited since
Mr. Bright's appeal to the country, and consider that we
will best respond to his appeal by asking what is equally
just and politic—trusting to his political inte g
) Tit and s-
di cretion, on any measure of reform that may be introduced
in the next session of parliament. 2. That we therefore
adopt, as the plainest and best adapted to the opinions and
circumstances of the majority, the programme and consti-
tdtion of the Glasgow Parliamentary 'Reform Association
—manhood suffrage, with a residential
qualification, vote
by ballot, electoral districts more equally districts moro
equally distributed, and
triennial parliaments. 3. Tlurt
we now proceed to organise this district, and to enrol mem-
hers for the Glasgow Parliamentary Association, as the
best means of attaining the objects of this meeting, and to
enable us to co-operate more effectively with all classes of
reformers throughout the country.-6/qsg2t t ' .8
_The Royal bAairr.onmoigfhebseeoff WINDSOR CASTLE.
was this year
noble joint was cut from a prize Highland ox fed at Norfolk
Peascod-street, Onnee.rolkflitahj.eeslito3b7lll bu'..ehers. This
3 cwt. It was, as is customary, decorated and
Farm by his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, and
weighed
placed cold on the side table in the 'Royal Dining-room,
with the boar's head and woodcock-pie, on Christmas-day,
where it will remain until New Year's-day.. A baron of
beef has also arrived at the Castle as a present to Her
Majesty from Earl Ferrers. It was taken from a wild ox
and sent to Windsor under the charge of two of the Earl's
keepers. Dr. Bennett's " Mav Queen" will be performed
at St. George's-hall on New Year's-day instead of Costa's
" Eli." The second part of the performance will consist
of selections from "Der Frieschutz." Sims Reeves and
Clara Novella, we understand, have been engaged, and the
choruses will be sustained by members from Exeter-hall. ,