The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-17 00:00:00

BRITISH

OSSESSIONS.

TLIE IiABE4S CORPUS IN 17ALY.

LZTERA TUR E .

Closifig
Pricc.

',4 r /—•
BArrinesgdone

• 7 - '
The following letter from 'Count Cavour is in
reply to a communication addressed to him by Mr
Edwin James, M.P., on the subject of the introduc
Lion of a law analogous to our "Habeas Corpus,"
and a Measure for the institution of a tribunal for
immediate public investigation into all charges of a
penal nature, similar to that in use by our police
magistracy :

ihare

IZailwnys.

7981

10 Atlantic St Lawrence
Bom.,Baroda.k.Cent
' Gu. 5 per cent. .
8 Do, Do. P
• ; Buffalo and Lake Huron'
!01 ! Do. New
O Do. Preference
0 1 Buffalo,BrantAGodrichl
6 p. ct. bds. Aug. 1, 187'2
10 IDo. do. July 1, iB7:'
t) 1 Do. do. June 1. 1874
5 rActitta.kS.Easln.(Lim'
O i Cape, Eastn. Prov. (Lima
9 ICapeTown k Dock Scrip
[Ceylon Guarantd. 6 p. C
74 Inetnernrn
1,0 Eastn. Bengal gu. sp. e
IA East Indian, gu. 5 p. c.
9 Do. F Shares Ext
O Do. Jubbulpore
03 Do. 41 p c. Debentrs
10 Do. 5 p. c. Deb., 1864
O . Geelong Sc Melbourne
lek Geelong Corporation 6
percent. Bonds . .
,ck Grand Trunk of Canada
O Do. 6 per cent. Pref
O Do. 6 per ct. Debentr.)
O Do. 7 per cent. 1862
O Do. do. 1867 ..1
O Do. do. 1872 ..1
ck t. in diaPenin. g,ua.sp. c.
0 Do. New gua. 5 p. c...
:0 Gt. South.oflndia(LlM)
guaranteed 5 per cent.
01. Gt. W. of Canada Shares
01 Do. New,
O Do. Bonds pay, '76, with,
opt, till 'GO-..,........1
100 Do. do. '7J till '6O ..1
100 Do. do: '73 without opt.!
100 Do. 51 p. e. do. '77 d 0...
stock Madras, guar., 4/ p. c...
stock Do. do. 5 per cent.
stock Do. 41 p. c. Extension
20 Do. Fourth do—.

95 . 96

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"Ministry of Foi;eign Affairs, Turin, Nov. 29.

" Dear Sir,—l hasten to thank you for the letter
in which you have suggested to me the introduc-
tion of the law of Habeas Corpus' into the system
of Italian legislation. I am fully aware of the
importance of that guarantee of individual liberty,
and I beg to assure you that we have already made
great advances in that direction.
" According to the present state of our law,
every prisoner must within 24 hours be examined
by some judicial authority, who, in pursuance of
by no means arbitrary rulers, either orders the im-
mediate discharge of the accused, with or without
bail, or continues his arrest, at the same time taking
steps for placing him at once on his trial.
" Every illegal arrest, duly proved, subjects the
functionary who shall have caused it to inquiry and
punishment.. •At the same time, I quite acknow-
ledge that the direct judicial action given ,by the
law of ' Habeas Corpus' to persons illegally arrested
assures more completely the liberty of the indivi-
dual.

20 Do. d 0...........
stock Melb.Corp. f p. c. Bnds.
20 Newßranswick& Canda
Ry..4rLan d(Lim.),T,.Bpc
Class A Capital Share
• IDo. do. Land do
20 !Do. do. B Capital d 0...
• :Do. do. Land do.
20 !Oude (Limited)
stock ,Scinde .... • ... •
20 Do. I'unjaub
20 !Do. Do. ........
stolk Do.lndus.St. Flo. a,9;
20 ;S t. A ndrews & Quebec A
10 i Trinidad (Lim.) Scrip..l

"I will at once bring the subject under the notice
of my colleague, the Keeper of the Seals, within
whose special province are all questions of penal
legislation; end I have no doubt that he will pro-
pose to the Parliament to approximate as nearly as
possible to the law of England in this matter.
" My colleague, Minghetti, is preparing a law
which will confer most complete Self-government
on all the provinces and communes. In this mat-
ter, also, it is our endeavour to accomplish by other
means the same results which England, the classi-
cal mother of all liberty, has already achieved.
"Allow me to renew to you with thanks for the
interest iou take its the cause of Italy, the assur-
ance of.my most distinguished consideration.

" C. CAVOUR.
" To Edwin James, Esq., M.P., Bcc."

~ .. ~ t

ASSIZE .INTELLIG BNCE.

YORK, DEC. 15.
ALLEGED MANSLAUGHTER, AT PENISTONE.

Tom William Beever, (14), was charged on the
coroner's inquisition with the manslaughter of a
man, named Ashton, at Penistone. It will be re-
membered that Beever and his brother-in-law were
sleeping at Swinburn Lodge on the night of the
22d of November, and hearing a noise, the prisoner
bad fired a gun to frighten some supposed thieves,
and prevent them breaking into the house. The
shot killed the deceased. Under the circumstances
the grand jury had ignored the bill, and no evi-
dence being now offered against Beever, he was
acquitted.
THE SCALE OF FEES TO WITNESSES.—On Fri-
day, the foreman of the grand jury handed to his
Lordship a memorial with regard to the inadequate
remuneration of witnesses. Mr. Justice Hill said he
should forward it without delay to the Home-Office.
The following is ra copy of the memorial :—" The
grand jury desire most, respectfully to call the
attention of the lion. Mr.„Justice Hill to the scale
qrallowances s grid witnesses in cris
thirair esj-egs,:,..* itsBlze ;retail quarter-sessidn a, lait
being quite insufficient adequately to remunerate
those in the humbler walks of life who are neces-
sarily called away from their families and their or-
dinary occupations, for their expenses and loss of
time, by which last expression the grand jury under-
stand the statutes 7 George IV. c. 64, s. 22. and 14
and 13 Victoria, c. 55, to mean the reasonable allow-
ance for the loss of their wages during the time
such witnesses are necessarily absent from their
homes and their work. Those of the grand jury
who are acting justices are not unfrequently very
much embarrassed by the extreme reluctance of
material witnesses to come forward to prosecute
and give evidence in criminal cases of the gravest
kind, as well as in all other cases likely to be sent
for trial at assizes and quarter sessions within
their jurisdiction, by reason of the loss of
wages they thereby sustain, and the consequent
privation to which their families are subjected.
Necessary witnesses not unfrequently declare that,
from their experience in former cases, they are
reluctant, and even decline again to come forward
as witnesses The grand jury are of opinion that
justice is greatly impeded, and, in many cases,
defeated, by the inadequate remuneration awarded
wider the present scale of allowances, and from
their observation and experience they fear this is
an increasing evil."

THE MAILS.

Wolverhampton l2
Reading 14
:MBER.

SEPT'

Monmouth ............26
Manchester Autumn....n

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17. 1860.

• ~
ffarrative of the Canadian Red Km. and ABsin•
niboine and askatchew3n exploring Expedition
in. 1857 and 1858 By llSoule Hind, M.A.,
S. Longman.
The discovery of gold in the British possessions
on the N.W. coast of America has had one good
effect,
and perhaps in the end one which will be
more conducive to the prosperity of our transat-
lantic colonists than the discovery of the existence
of the precious metal, which after all only repre-
sents value. Still gold has a charm, the un-
educated mind looks upon this precious (because
scarce) metal in any land as a source of wealth and
considers it an El .Dorado. It is unnecessary to
state that in golden Australia individuals have been
found starved to death with many ounces of gold
in their belts. It seems to us that Prlvidence has
ordained that our representative of all human hap-
piness should be so diffused over the earth as to
lead us to cultivate and render productive rich
tracts of country, which but for the golden bait
held out would never or at least very tardily be
explored by the European. The discovery of gold
in British Columbia roused the Canadian Govern-
ment, and induced them to send out an exploring
expedition to the Far West, a country until then
only known by the backwood's men and Hudsons
Bay Compaay's employers. It was necessary to es-
tablish a road, and open an overlandcommunieetion
between the two extremities of our vast American
possessions, and the success of the explorations as
far as Mr. Hind's narrative takes us, augurs well
for the ultimate success of Canadian enterprise,
which stands in strange contrast with the imbecility
of the Australian Government, who, do what they
will, are always left behind by private individuals.
We cannot say much for the first volume as regards
interest, it being too much confined to uninteresting
incidents of detail ; nevertheless the author con-
tinues to introduce some curious traits of character,
as the following extract will exemplify :—•
"We soon began to find that no feeling of sympathy
existed between our Iroquois and Ojibway voyageurs; nor
was any effort made by individuals of either nation to assist
orenliven those of the other. As an instance of their utter
indifference and selfishness, the following trait may be men-
tioned. One of the Iroquois from Caughnawaga was very
ill at Fort William, and not only incapable of working, but
unable to walk without assistance. He suffers much from
chi,ll§.ind cramps, and was thought to be in-a very dauger•
ous condition ; with care, medicine, and a good constitution,
he grew a little better, and was able to eat, but the salt
pork and salt beef we had with us were not very well
adapted for a man so much reduced in flesh and slowly
recovering from a severe illness. I shot a pigeon, and in
the hearing of the Ojibways stated that it was to be cooked
for the sick man. The following day I found that the
Ojibway who picked up the pigeon had not only eaten it in
the presence of the invalid Iroquois, but he and his com-
panions had devoured two partridges which had also been
reserved for the Iroquois. Another day, passing near the
tire of the Ojibways, I found them roasting a pike which
was intended for the dinner of the invalid. In future we
committed the pigeons into the sick man's charge, and they
were cooked by his friends, but the Ojibways laughed loud
and long at the excellent practical joke they had enjoyed,
and for many days after they reminded Lambert, the inter-
preter, about the sick man and his pigeons and partridges.
Tell him,' said one waggish fellow, pointing to me,
shoot pigeon for Iroquois, Ojibway eat it, do Iroquois
much good.' A joke lasts an Indian a long time, and is con-
tinually repeated, both in canoe and in camp ; it never ap-
pears to lose interest or grow stale."
As geologist and naturalisrto the first exploration
of the Red River, Mr. Hind had ample opportunity
for making general and minute investigations re-
garding the lertility of the soil, and by scientific
experiments to ascertain the probably mean tem•
:pergare of. the various seasons. The reader must
mii4.tlint_tlke calvary. which Mr. Hind has
eitplired, although not altogether unknown to the
white man, the territory of the aboriginal Indian
(India so called, because Columbus thought when
ho discovered America that he had reached the
Asiatic continent, and had opened a short road to
India), being, nevertheless, part and parcel of the
British possessions. In both expeditions, the latter
of which he conducted as chief, he met with a natu-
ral opposition from the natives to a too close inspec-
tion of the country and its resources, they knowing
by experience that the European colonist carries
out Caesar's terse despatch of Veni, vidi, vita. So
much has been already written about, and so many
speeches composed for, the American, that the
following extract may seem superfluous, but we
beg to remind the reader that this is a genuine
translation of what the savage (as our friends at
Exeter Hall would call him) gave as his reason
for refusing to let Mr. Hind and his friends pass
by a particular route :
" Chief—' The reason why we stop :5 ou is because we
think you do not tell us why you want to go that way, oLnd
what you want to do with those paths. You say that all
the white men we have seen belong to one party, and yet
they go by three different roads, why is that ? Do they
want to see the Indian's land? Remember, if the white
man comes to the Indian's house, he must walk through
the door, and not steal in by the window. That way. the
old road, is the•door, and by that way you must go. You
gathered corn in our gardens and put it away; did you
never see corn before ? Why did you not note it down in
your book ? Did your people want to see our corn ? Would
they not be satisfied with your noting it dawn? You cannot
pass through those paths'
"We ask you now to send us one of your young men to
show us the road ; we shall pay him well, and send back
presents to you : what do you wish for ?'
" Chief— It is bard to deny your request; but we see
how the Indians are treated far away. The white man
comes, looks at their flowers, their trees, and their rivers ;
others soon follow ; the lands of the Indians pass from their
hands, and they have nowhere a home. You must go by
the way the white man has hitherto gone. I have told
you all.'
" At the close of the council the ohief said to the inter-
preter, ' Let not these men think bad of us for taking away
their guides. Let them send us no presents—we do not
want them. They have no right to pass that way. We
have hearts and love our lives and our country. If twenty
men came we would not let them pass to-day. We do not
want the white man; when the white man comes he brings
disease and sickness, and our people perish ; we do not wish
to die. Many white men would bring death to us, and our
eople would pass away ; we wish to love and to hold the
land our fathers wox, and the Groat Spirit has given to us.
Tell these men this, and the talk is finished.' "
he country, explored during the two expeditions
extends from the 90th to 105th deg. west longitude,
and from the 48th to 53d deg. north latitude. To
those who wish to form a correct opinion of the far
back settlements, of the trials which the early set-
tlers underwent, and what prospects are now open
to the immigrant, we recommend the perusal of
Mr. Hind's narrative. We cannot afford space for
the many extracts which we could give to exem-
plify the character of the inhabitants and their
social condition, to which Mr. Hind devotes the
greater part of the second volume. The establish-
ment of the first colony on the Red River will be
read with pride by our persevering brethren north
of the Tweed, who, after all, beat the Anglo• Saxon
for energy and perseverance under difficulties :
" The first attempt to found a colony in the country now
occupied by the Red River settlements was made in the
year 1812, under the patronage of Lord Selkirk. A large
tract of country, extending from the sources of the Winni-
peg to Lake Winnipego-sis, and stretching from Lake
Winnipeg far beyond the United States boundary, was
purchased from the Hudson Bay Company by Lord Sel-
kirk in 1811, for the establishment of his contemplated
colony. The colonists consisted of several Scotch families,
who. after they had reached the spot which was to be their
future home, were met by a large party of half-breeds and
Indians in the service of the North-West Company, and
warned not to attempt to establish a permanent settlement.
They were conducted by a number of these wild and reek
less children of the prairies to Fort Pembina, a post of the
Hudson Bay Company, where they passed the winter in
Buffalo-skin tents, and soon adopted the habits of life be-
longing to the savage and half-savage natives by whom they
were surrounded. In May, 1813, the emigrants returned
to the neighbourhood of Fort Douglas, about two miles below
the present site of Fort Garry, and here commenced their
agricultural labours. In the fall of the year they again
sought refuge at Fort Pembina, and after a winter of much
suffering, revisited, in the spring of 1814, the scene of the
previous year's attempt to plant themselves on the banks of
Red River, with a determination to make it a permanent
resting-place. During the summer, however, their houses
were destroyed by the wandering half-breeds, who were
opposed to the establishment of a colony ; and when, in Oc•
tober, 1815, the main body of emigrants arrived from Scot-
land, they found poverty, ruin, and despondency prevailing
where they had hoped to meet with a warm receptiou and
comfortable homes. The provident care of Lord Selkirk
prevented the colonists from suffering all the horrors of
starvation during the inclement winters of this region. His
lordship had established a general store of goods, implements,
arms, ammunition, clothing and food at Fort Douglas,from
which the impoverished emigrants were supplied on credit.
This store was erected in the first year of the colony, and
regularly replenished from time to time by shipments from
England.
" In 1816 a serious conflict took place between the colo-
nists and the native employes of the North-Western Com-
pany. Many were killed on both sides, and the settlement
was again destroyed, the settlers dispersed, and some of
them le,nished by the half-breeds to Norway House.
" At the time when these disastrous occurrences were
taking place, Lord Selkirk was on his way to the Red River
with about 100 disbanded soldiers of the De Meuron Regi-
ment, composed chiefly of Germans, French, and Swiss.
After Lord Selkirk's arrival order was restored, the Scottish
~,,igTants recalled, the Do Meuron soldiers rewarded with
grants of Land on German Creek, a town was laid out on
Point Douglas, and such arrangements completed for the
government of the colony as the position of the Hudson's
Bay ComThep sociala nyand
conditionthe interest s
uopf thee rt,
sfur
Landtrad ea
twtohuilsd
yaedrmi.oidt
con-
flict just referred to :—' I have trodden the bur
may be gathered from the following brief descriptiont b
Governor Semple, who was killed in the unfortunta e
houses, barns, a mill, a fort, and sharpened sto k
scale.
adreusi,nbsuotf
none of a place of worship, even on the smallest 1
blush to say that, throughout the whole extent
and
~
The work is illustrated with many woodcnts,f the Hud-
son's Bay territories, no such building exists
greatnrei
River
e skill
kr
from
na
and
sd t
judg-
ment. uc
Aali-
executedltiikese,wwisheicshevaerreal
equal- credit on the artist
ment. The view of the
n-
tildwt'eellnugre-calle"ee-rett; le:lf:et, the pilings and fence in
engravi engravings
he odf
front of the river look so natural that one almost
feels inclined to climb over them.