The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LOINDOS, WEDNESDAY EVENiNG, MARCH 13 1867

Lieutenant Brand and the Admiralty.

The following is a copy of recent correspondence
between the Board of Admiralty and Lieutenant
Brand, R.N.:--

' LIEUTENANT BRAND, R.N., TO THE SECRETARY

OF THE ADMIRALTY.

" 9, Bedford-place, Feb. 2, 1867.

"My Lcr],—l have the honour to report my
arrival in England by the mail-steamer Seine, the
passengers from which were released from quaran-
tine this day. This being the first opportunity of
doing so, I beg to offer a few remarks upon the
causes which led to my supersession in the command
of her Majesty's ship Delight.
"1. I regret exceedingly that by writing in a
moment of great excitement, and under circum-
stances to which I ought to have been superior, be-
cause I could afford to be so, a letter to Mr. Bux-
ton, M.P., I should so far have committed myself
as to have fallen under the displeasure of their lord-
ships. I feel this the more acutely that their lord-
ships were pleased, no further back than the 6th
Ju1y,1866, to express their approval of my conduct,
under those circumstances in which Mr. Buxton
aspersed it, and by their approval confirming that
of the naval and military officers under whose im-
mediate command I served in Jamaica, and notably
of the commander-in-chief, who fully rewarded me
for the exertions I was called upon to make. In
the unfortunate position in which 1 find myself, it
is some satisfaction to know that it was not in the
direct course of duty, but in a matter apart from
the service, that I have offended.

"2. The circumstances under which I wrote to
Mr. Buxton were these :—Being in the Delight, at
Annatto Bay, in August last, the mail from Eng-
land brought reports of the debates, and Mr. Bux-
ton's motion on Jamaica. In the report of Mr.
Buxton's speech I read statements respecting myself
which stung me to the quick—accusations of inhu-
manity, want of personal honour, and sug-
gestions of levity and unfairness in my conduct as
president of the court-martial, which, spoken in the
most public place in the world, where I could not
answer him, in my absence, and under circumstances
of great popular excitement, wounded and irritated
me to such an extent as to make me overstep the
bounds of propriety, and to resent what I should
have left unnoticed. It might be said that, con-
scious of not having deserved these strictures, and
strong in the approval of my superiors, of the com-
mander-in-chief, of their lordships, and of all the
authorities, civil and otherwise, in Jamaica, I might
have allowed time to do me justice, and could have
afforded to wait until an undeserved storm had
blown over. But these very facts drove the state-
ments, with a deep sense of the injustice of them,
home, and I smarted under a sense of injury which
I could not stifle. In defence of the letters them-
selVes I cannot offer a word. lam very sorry that
I wrote them, and I frankly admit they were im-
proper both in tone and substance. Let me, how-
ever, mention, by way, not of justification, but of
extenuation, that I was ill and suffering at the time
I wrote, that I was alone, without any one to ask
for a disinterested view of the position, or to advise
me what course to take.
" 3. Under all the circumstances ,of the case I
trust their lordships will see that, though I have ad-
mittedly acted with indiscretion, it has not been
without great provocation, and that, in considering
their attitude towards me at the present time, they
will not forget my past services, and that the point
in which I have erred is one outside the service,
which I have ever sought to further and uphold to
the very utmost of my ability, and with the approval
of officers like Sir M. Seymour and Sir Jas. Hope.
" 4. With these remarks I venture to appeal to
their lordships' consideration, and to hope they will
be pleased to consider my heavy punishment in being
superseded as sufficient to meet the exigencies of the
case, which I shall ever remember with regret.—l
have, &e.,
(Signed) "H. BRAND, Lieutenant, R.N.
" Lord 11. Lennox, M.P., Admiralty, London."

THE SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY TO LIEUT.

BRAND, R.N.

" Admiralty, Feb. 5, 1867.

" Sir,—l am commanded by my Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty to acknowledge the receipt
of your letter of the 2d inst., reporting your arrival
i❑ England on being superseded from the Albacore ;
and I am to acquaint you that this letter, written in
the becoming terms in which it is couched, has been
received by their lordships with satisfaction.—l am,
Sr.c., (Signed) "W. G. ROMAINE.
" Lieutenant H. C. A. Brand, R.N.,
9, Bedford-place."

Extension of the Coinage of France.

We have not heard of late what progress has been
made in the matter of assimilating the coinage in
the various countries of Continental Europe which
have been in treaty on the subject. Everything
which tends to remove the barriers that obstruct
free intercourse are steps in the right direction. The
multiplicity of coins, not only differing in size and
weight, but also in the standard of the metal used,
the different denominations as well as difference
of values, and the complicated calculation by which
the merchant or traveller could only arrive at the
cost of an article he desired to purchase, have tended
materially to check commerce and travel. Bankers
and merchants have, no doubt, hit upon means of
lessening difficulties thrown in their way by the cur-
rency laws of the countries with which they deal.
This, however, is only attained by study, and an
intimate knowledge of exchanges. The case is very
different with travellers. It is said that a man
might start from England with a hundred golden
shoisverweaigynsouita
ofhisanoptaheekret,p u
rasned,
merely
while y
byh
payingte
loss on the exchange, while turning this
£lOO into the currency of the different coun-
tries through which he passes, without other-
wise expending one farthing of the money, ex-
change it all into nothing, or what is little
better than nothing, into the base coin of Turkey,
or the paper money of Austria. Even this loss,
great as it is, is not the worst evil. An unfortunate
traveller is puzzled and worried the moment he
crosses the frontier of one nation into another. He
is unconscious of the change while sitting in his rail-
way carriage, and pleasantly gliding over the
ground. He is soon made aware of the fact when
his destination is reached, and the endless process
of paying again begins. The first feeling which
seizes an irate JOHN BULL is that he is being
cheated, and the chances are that in this particular
he is right. The improvident man who has not
carefully provided for the change finds that he has
to pay for his neglect. If he has procured sufficient
coins of the country to pay for his immediate re-
quirements, and a circular letter of credit from his
banker, he is all right; but what can be expected
from the general mass who leave their coats, hats,
and even trousers behind them in the railway car-
riages ? The chances are that the majority become
the victims in a greater or lesser degree of unscru-
pulous money-changers ; the more so as the trans-
actions of the mere traveller are riot sufficiently
large to warrant his application in the emergency
to respectable banking houses. The system in vogue
among Americans gives to them a great advantage.
In whatever city an American may find himself, of
suffi.ient importance to call for the establishment
of an American banking and commission agency,
he can always apply in his straits to the friendly
advice or even succour of the house. These esta-
blishments are generally founded on so liberal and
comprehensive a base as to embrace all the require-
, meats of the strangers. There they can obtain
every information respecting the city, the value of
its different coins, the proper places at which to make
purchases, and indeed, in the most comprehensive
sense of the word, the house becomes a guide to their
ignorant and uninitiated countrymen. But where
these houses do not exist, and the stranger is
thrown on his own resources, he is apt to fall into the
hands of the Philistines, and end by shaking off the
dust from his feet and leaving the town, having
purchased some experience at a rate he considers
by no means cheap. The perplexity can well be
imagined of a man unaccustomed to travel shot
• from a railway train into a city with his pocket full
of foreign coins and not speaking one word of the
• language. Much of this annoyance, loss, and dis-
comfort would be obviated by the adoption of

the measures proposed in the convention between
several countries lately discussed. We believe
the plan is to use the coinage of France, both of
gold and silver. This coinage is not only the most
simple and easy, being founded on decimal calcula-
tion, but the nation preponderating so vastly as i;
does in political influence and commercial wealth
would tend to make the change less felt in the
neighbouring nations, and bring that currency more
quickly and with fewer objections into universal
use. Among the vast benefits conferred on France
by the Imperial dynasty has been the coinage now
in use, and if NAPOLEON can use his over-
whelming influence to extend the French system
beyond the frontiers of France he will mark his
reign by another of the great benefits he has
already conferred on Europe. If Italy, Switzer-
land, as well as Belgium, come into this measure,
an immense extension and consequent power will be
thrown into the scale, which must sooner or later
force other nations into the adoption of the same
system ; and in proportion to that extension will be
the facilities afforded to commerce and to travel.
Of course the greatest boon that could be con-
ferred would be the general adoption in Europe
of the French language ; that other, in addition
to their mother tongue, might carry the citizen of
any nation in peace and comfort over Europe. Time
is gradually working out this desirable result. We do
not despair of seeing the day when a knoWledge of
English and French will carry the traveller over by
far the greatest part of the civilised world. Nar-
row and restricted legislation is giving way to
broad and comprehensive measures ; and. to the
Imperial dynasty of France will be due the credit of
having led in these grand and cosmopolitan ideas.
France cannot now truly estimate the full value of
the changes wrought by the present EMPEROR.
History will do him justice, and among the mea-
sures which we hope will be inaugurated and carried
out in his reign will be an extension over the
greater part of Europe of the coinage of France.—
Anglo-American Ttmes.

themselves in any given number for places beside
their brethren in the dock of the Old Bailey. The
fact is that England, in the face of her professions,
dare not act with such inconsistency as a rigorous
course would indicate, and she is reaping the re-
ward of her sentimentality. It is earnestly to be
hoped that hereafter England will maintain the
attitude she has all along assumed of moderation
and conciliation. The day of a little wholesome
severity has gone bye, and the green fields of
Ireland must be stained with blood. But England,
who has led on these ignorant peasants, by com-
fortably providing for captured Fenian conspirators,
who have regarded their mission as one of pleasant
excitement, almost wholly free from danger, ought
not now to turn savagely on the people their own
conduct has permitted to be duped. Of course, we
will read of brutal murders and outrages.
These are the direct consequences of such
proceedings, and, if the conspiracy is per-
mitted to be hatched, it is surely folly to stand
aghast with horror, on beholding the chicken.
England can now show that its philanthropy is not
the skin-deep thing we more than half believe it to
be. People are inclined to deal with increased
severity with those who have persisted in aggressive
conduct in spite of generous forbearance, and it is
not improbable that thus England will argue, and
the feelings of the people be impelled in consequence
into a fiercer and more summary course. If so, the
ignorant peasantry will become the victims alike of
the assumed philanthropy and genuine ferocity of
of the English character. We advocated an early
severity in dealing with the concoctors of this ter-
rible crime for the reasons we have already given ;
but valuing highly English honour, English huma-
nity and consistency, we will hereafter strenuously
advocate a-temperate and merciful course. We know
it is almost vain to expect anything at first but an
outburst of national fury, to be followed as usual by
a strong reaction, which will make the instruments
of this fury its victims—if men are so misguided
as to act on the savage instinct of the nation
which is roused by blood, and lasts only so
long as it flows. Of course a large por-
tion of Ireland being in insurrection force has
to be met by force, and the appeal' to steel and
lead settled by steel and lead. A vast number
will fall in battle if the insurrection really has any
heart ; and fall they must, for all must concede that
Irish rivers would flow with blood before the
foot of the last English soldier retreated from Irish
soil—a case possible only in the face of a European
combination against Great Britain. But it is now,
however, in battle that the question of humanity,
versus ferocity, has to be considered. There men
meet on terms on which they have deliberately
pitted themselves against each other, and fall with
arms in their hands and the excitement of battle
in their hearts. The horrible part is —first, in the
murders and outrages of the insurgents ; next, in
the retaliation ; and, finally, in satisfying the venge-
ance of the violated majesty of the law. If Irish
weather has been anything like that just experienced
in England, the young men from the drapery stores
will get a taste they little anticipate] of what the
real work is they have undertaken. To sleep in a
" shanty," or perhaps in a snow-covered bog, will
not be an agreeable pastime, and will be found a
cooler of patriotic ardour. There is no great
difficulty in attacking a few police-stations, cutting
telegraph wires, and tearing up the rails of the
iron-road. But it requires real and heartfelt griev-
ances, and to make men endure the terrible expo-
sure and great hardships through which they must
pass when fairly engaged in a revolt which promises
any chance of success against an established Govern-
ment. A horrible shadow lies heavy on the minds
of men when fairly committed—the conviction that
these hardships will end on the gallows. It is one
thing to discuss treason and apportion estates in a
grog-shop. It is another to bear up with a firm and
undaunted front against the crushing forces put in
motion by a powerful Government.—Anglo-Ameri-
can Times.