The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-25 00:00:00

BARO3IETER-30'27•

WIND, North Easterly; fresh, with dull weather.

THE SUN.

MONDAY. OCTOBER 25, 1858.

The difficulty between the French and Portu-
guese has been arranged ! This would be a satis-
factory announcement if the matter stopped there,
but, unfortunately, we are compelled to go a little
further—to inquire into the nature of the original
difficulty, and of the arrangement thereof, and
whether the latter has been freely and voluntarily
entered into, or under such pressure that no option
was allowed to the weaker party.

It will be in the remembrance of our readers that
Lord BROVEIHAM long since denounced the French
" emigration" scheme as neither more nor less than
a slaveArade under a different designation. The
intending emigrants were puchased at a sti-
pulated price ; they were not free to ignore
the bargain ; they were compelled to fulfil
the terms of the contract, however onerous or in-
tolerable. They had then to incur all the horrors
of the sea voyage—crowded to excess—without any
regulations to abate the annoyance or to maintain
the health of the cheerful emigrants!
The Portuguese Government, which, since the
accession of the young King, has shown an earnest
desire to participate with Great Britain in pro-
curing' the annihilation of this atrocious traffic,
had made sundry wholesome regulations for that
purpose. Amongst others, one published in the
Official Gazette at Lisbon, on the 2d August, 1856,
" prohibiting the embarkation of negroes from
Mozambique under any pretence of free-labour
engagements, such being held to be a virtual con-
tinuation of the slave trade, and consequent evasion
of the decrees of December 10, 1836, and December
14, 1854,"
The French authorities were fully cognizant of
these decrees : they could not plead ignorance, and
therefore it signified little whether it were a vessel
sailing under the French flag, or one under the
control of a government agent that had been
arrested for the violation of a notorious and binding

The Charles and George had been arrested for a
breach of these regulations, as well as for having
been a regular slaver. She had been captured at
anchor in a port which foreign vessels were pro-
hibited from entering, had on board 110 negroes,
and was fitted with false decks and other acces-
sories held to constitute prima facie evidence of her
being engaged in the slave trade.
The question was subsequently tried before a
court of competent jurisdiction at Mozambique, and
the captain was eventually sentenced to two
years' imprisonment, with hard labour, to the
costs of the prosecution, and fines amounting in
the aggregate to about £llO sterling; while the
Government agent and the crew were acquitted
on the ground that they were not proved to have
had any participation in the purchase of the slaves,
for which the captain and his interpreter were
condemned.

Nothing could apparently be fairer than all
this. But the French Government bitterly com-
plained, and rightly demanded redress. The Por-
tuguese immediately offered to abide by the
arbitration of any neutral Power selected by France
itself. But even that was not sufficient. Its
honour was concerned, and instant satisfaction
was indispensable.

It certainly seems strange that France should be
the first nation to disclaim the proposition put
forward, and, we believe, unanimously adopted at
the Parisian Conferences ; or, at least, so far fritter
it away as to render it of no practical utility.
Henceforth it must be, to all intents and purposes,
a mere dead letter. We should have thought that
questions of what have been termed " honour"
would have been those most urgently re-
quiring such mediation. Mere material differ-
ences are easily disposed of, but the most
sanguinary wars have invariably been occasioned
by the most trivial points of etiquette. It was the
most convenient matter on which any man or
nation could pick a quarrel, and therefore the whole
clause introduced into the Parisian Treaty must
fall to the ground. We must say that it is not
creditable to a great nation to resort to such subter-
fuges, more especially against one of inferior power,
and that for the apparent purpose of establishing a
slave trade, albeit under a different designation.
It uow appes, according to the telegram, that

the Portuguese Government delivers the Charles
et George to Fro.) ti ce, declaring it cedes only to the
threatened empl( -ment of force." This i a dig-
ne that ought to hay_ weight
nified protest, and o
with the Emperor• His -4nthority, or •;
other his
strength, has been 2, vett xi. That era -'ng honour
that induced him t o carr y matters with the high
hand has been satisfie d. He may now listen
to the dictates of truth and justice —may
yield to the pt o; nptings of his better judg-
ment, and consider whether any portion of
the • proceedings es n be justified, and whether
it is not he who really owes an indemnity
to Portugal, not Poi tugal to him. At all events,
that troublesome cl 3 )rnent in a French calculation,

"honour," has bee- a eliminated from the equation—
that can no long( tlisturb the result. One solu-
tion will therefor( be rejected, and the other will, we
trust,be that whit h truth and justice would dictate.
Let the investigat. Lon be of the most searching class.
But let its chara( ter be such that implicit reliance
can be placed on t J accuracy of the result. The hon-
our of France havi •ag been satisfied, the Government
of Paris should. be the most anxious to show that
it was justified in all its proceedings, and that
from the beginnii ag it had no real reason to shirk
If it should appear that its regula-
the inquiry.
tions have been. abused or perverted, it will then
feel it its duty to adopt others not so easily
evaded.

Several other speeches delivered in the provinces
have again to be recorded. Speeches upon the
increase of Ragged Schools, upon the improvement
of the labouring classes, upon the spread of the
knowledge of Christianity. Lord JOHN RUSSELL
is again the orator in the first of these instances--
the Noble Lord advocating on Friday the interests
of the ragged and industrial schools of Ardwick-
green, down at Manchester. The speaker in the
second instance—that referring to the amelioration
of the social and domestic' condition of the labourer— '
being Mr. WILLIAM LONGMAN, the eminent
publisher, that gentleman (in the absence of Lord
Entity) addressing himscl: in -very earnest words
on Friday (as Chairman of the evening) to
the members of the Chorleywoood Asso-
ciation, down in the parish of Riekmans-
worth. The individual referred to in the third
and last instance—that relating to the dis-
semination of religious knowledge—being no less a
personage than the Lord Bishop of OXFORD, who
descanted also on Friday upon the subject particu-
larised at considerable length, down at Bradford,
addressing himself, there and then, to a somewhat
excited, not to say occasionally even uproarious
assemblage.
The Statesman spoke on Friday in a tone emi-
nently dry, didactic, and deliberate—the Publisher,
in an argument as genial in spirit as in purport it
was really practical and straightforward the
Prelate in terms so thoroughly independent that
they tended simultaneously to rouse the ardour of his 1
supporters and sympathisers, and to irritate the op
position of his antagonists.
The different receptions accorded to these three
very different speakers on Friday evening at
Bradford, at Chorleywood and at Manchester con-
trasted as strikingly as the themes, the localities,
and the auditors. Lord JOHN in the midst of
his humane statistics is greeted with an occasional
"hear, hear," 'ty the philanthropists of Manchester.
Mr. LONGMAN is listened to with serious and lively
attention by the cottagers of Chorleywood. The
Bishop of OXFORD is perpetually interrupted at
Bradford by alternate or mingled cheers and hisses,
applause and disturbance—retaliating upon the
dissentients by referring to what the Right
Reverend SAMUEL WILBEItPORCE calls " a few
nasty articles in newspapers," and (when greeted
upon this remark with snore outcries of opposition)
with yet more irritating allusions to what the
Prelate hesitates not to designate in the heat of the
moment " a few nasty hisses from nasty mouths'
—a retort polite followed by blended cheers, hisses
and laughter.
Although the last-mentioned speech is of course
the most important of the three, by reason of the
superior dignity at once of the subject and of the
speaker—it is by many degrees, to ourselves, at
any rate, of all the three, the least interesting. We
turn with a sense of satisfaction from the stormy
and, at times, tumultuous assemblage at Bradford,
to the more orderly and sedate meetings, upon the
same day, here at Chorleywood, there at Man-
chester.

It is encouraging, moreover, to find such good
fruits growing abundantly out of the efforts made
—yonder, in behalf of the poorer classes of our
crowded cities—yonder in behalf of the labourers
in our rural population. The development of the
beneficent scheme of the Ragged Schools through-
out the United Kingdom is marked in a very signal
manner by the proceedings of Friday, at Ardwick-
green, Manchester. Those proceedings consisted
of nothing less than the public inauguration of the
Ragged and Industrial Schools of that particular
locality in that great metropolis of the manufac-
turing districts. The whole system of
these admirable establishments was explained
by Lord JOHN as lucidly as succinctly to
his attentive audience. It is interesting to note
in this way from authoritative lips the record of
" A Day," passed by these poor Ragged School
Children. At six in the morning the inmates
lodged and fed in the institution rise and prepare
the rooms for the reception of the poor out-of-door
children. At seven the little ragged urchins
from the streets have assembled. They wash and
breakfast at eight—then they have prayer, reli-
gious instruction and reading from the Scriptures.
From nine to twelve—three important hours—they
are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and geo-
graphy. At half-past 12 they have dinner. From
Ito half-past they wash themselves (a rather
curious arrangement) and have recreation. From
half-past Ito a quarter past 4 they are busily em-
ployed in various industrial occupations—winding
bobbins, sorting bristles, making paper and canvas
bags for tea and coffee dealers, weaving, clogging,
tailoring, and shoemaking ; the girls learning
needlework and housewifery. From half-past 4to
5 there are prayers, singing and oral in-
structions. At 6 all are assembled together
for family worship. Afterwards they have
tea and recreation. At 9 o'clock the indoor
scholars retire to rest, and the out-of-door scholars
are dismissed. Such is the wholesome system
regulating one of these north country Ragged
Schools. No less encouraging in its way is Mr.
LONGMAN'S account of the benefits already accruing
from the influence exercised upon the locality by the
Chorleywood association for the promotion of
industrious and provident habits among the labour-
ing classes in that part of the parish of Rickmans-
worth. The history of this association during the
last four years is illustrative anew, and that, more.
over, very happily, of the good resulting from the
once much controverted system of Allotments. It
signalises, in a remarkable manner, also the extra-
ordinary advantages arising from a cordial
co-ope-
ration between landlord and tenant, employer and
employed, rich and poor, with a view to the amelio-
ration of the social condition of the latter—namely,
the poor, employed, tenant population.

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