The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-23 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1858.

The Press prosecutions (as they have been
termed) are concluded, and that in a 'very satis-
factory manner. The trials of Mr. EDWARD
TRUELOVE, bookseller in the Strand, and of Mr.
STANISLAS SWIERZOWSKI, of Rupert-street, Hay-
market, for the publication of what were charged
to be " false, scandalous, and seditious libels of,
touching, and concerning the EMPEROR of the
French," had been specially fixed for yesterday,
in the Court of Queen's Bench, to which they
had been removed by writs of certiorari from the
Central Criminal Court. A special jury had
been impannelled, the highest amount of
legal talent employed on either side, and the
friends and supporters of a fr, e press anxiously
awaited the result, although confiding in the
impartiality of an English Judge, who had already
done much for the fourth estate, and of au inde-
pendent juiy.

The matter, however, was brought to a sum-
mary conclusion, thanks to the straightforward
and enlightened viewg taken by the Attorne-
y Be ha -I not directed the prosecutions ;
they had been instituted by the direction of his
predecessor. According to
custom, or rather
official etiquette, it was his duty to persevere and
bring to a conclusion the proceedings commenced
before his accession to office ; but he did so in the
kind and lenient manner for which he has been
pre-eaninently distinguished. Tempering justice
with mercy, he was satisfied with a declaration

There is at length some hope of an improve-
ment in the postal communications with the Aus-
tralian colonies. The new Secretary of State for
the Colonial department, last night, admitted the
justice of the complaints that had been preferred,
and evinced a determination to render the
service far more efficient than it has recently
been. He declared " that the existing con-
tract with the European and Australian Royal
Mail Company' would be immediately dis-
solved, and that tenders for a new service
would be invited without delay, modifying
the terms in such particUlars as experience might
have shown to be necessary, so as to place that
very important service on a satisfactory footing,
and that in the meantime a temporary arrange-
ment would be made with the Royal Steam Com-
pany, or some other Company, for conveying the
Mails between the termination of the present con-
tract and the commencement of a new one."
This is as it should be. A matter of deep interest
and vast importance, not only to the rising colonies
concerned, but also to the United Kingdom, will
I,lio most satistaotel y foundation.
The trade with Anstr..4a is now of --,-;
tude that every facility should be given for
speedy and safe communication. Without the
certainty of the early transmission of all advises
that trade could not be properly conducted. Our
merchants would be seriously damnified,
and the colonial producers more severely injured,
while the consumers would have, according to
custom, to sustain the greater part of the burden.
It is alike creditable to Lord STANLEY and to his
successor, Sir EDWARD BITLWER LYTTON, that
they have not resorted to red-tapist delays, or the
ordinary forms of the circumlocution office. A
flagrant grievance was exposed, and they at once
entered into it, with an earnest purpose to pro-
vide an adequate remedy. They have done so !
The Company that disregarded the obligations by
which they were bound will be dispensed with.
The Gordian knot is cut, and respectable parties
will be found willing to discharge the temporary
duties until proper and permanent arrangements
can be concluded. In this respect, as on the fo-
reign policy, and indeed all other points, the
nation has real cause for rejoicing at the substitu-
tion of Lord DERBY and his colleagues for the
veteran Viscount and his red-tapist subordinates.

Heartily glad must every Londoner be to find
that the monstrous growing evil of the Thames
is at length forcing itself upon the attention of
Parliament. As it is—the river is an absolute abo-
mination. It welters to and fro according to the
fluctuations of the tide—a hideous open sewer of
enormous dimensions ebbing and flowing
perpetually through the densely-populated
streets of a city containing from 2,000,000 to
3,000,000 of inhabitants. It is loathsome to
three of the senses—smell, sight, and taste. It
is notoriously and undeniably pestilential. It
pelotas not merely the bank of the stream, but
the whsle surrauuding atmosphere. It adds ap-
preciably and, during these hot summer months,
fearfully, to the aggregate amount of the morta-
lity. It holds continually is solution a revolting
mass of feculent matter—dying its current of a
deep mud-colour—and exhalng an appalling va-
riety of odours, odours as sickeiii4 as they are
undeniably pestiferous. In proportion as the
population increases the evil we speak of increases
with it. And by a corresponding ratio the
nauseating results are aggravated a thousandfold
as the mercury rises in the thread-like tube of the
thermometer. Nothing that we have here said—
nothing that anybody possibly can say—upon this
execrable abomination, is not already perfectly
well known—alas 1 but too well known—to the
two millions and a half of Londoners. The hor-
rid facts are carried directly to every individual
within range of the river, far and wide, upon the
wings of the wind. The miserable truth we are
again directing attention 1 o—as we intimated in so
many words in these columns several weeks since, be-
fore the hot weather set in—is literally a truth that
"stinks in the nostrils of 3,000,000 !" Since
we thus epitomised the whole argument in half-a-
dozen words—it has been doing so more (1,-
plorably, more unondurably than ever. Members
of the Legislature—both of the Lords and the
Commons—have seen the horrible reality and
smelt it, intensely, excruciatingly, for themselves.
We are sincerely rejoiced that it has
been so. We hope much from the remembrance
of the stench of the Thames—and from a repeti-
tion with every rise of a few degrees Fahrenheit
among the national representatives.. We believe

Oa Tuesday, the Gth of July, Mr. Akroyd is to move
for leave to bring in a bill to amend the law relating to
accidents; and to provide for the more general education
of young persons above thirteen and under sixteen years
of age employed in factories.
It is tolerably certain that the Queen of Spain will
come to visit the Empress in the month of August. The
Villa Eugenie has room for her Majesty, or for any
other royal guest.
The shipment of silver to Bombay has received a
check from the turn in the exchange announced by the
last mail. The steamer of the 26th, as far as is known at
present, will not take out more than 50,0001.
Rumour says that Mr. Dallas, the representative of
the United States in this country, has expressed his
satisfaction with the arrangements of our Government
respecting the cruiser question, and it may be expected
that in a short time we shall hear the news that this
turner ri,r4ga-office diffienlre has h..,"
settled by the present occupants of Downing--treet.
DUBLIN, Tuesday.—The trial of Colonel Browne was
resumed this morning. The case for the Crown was
closed at noon. Mr. O'Hagan opened the case for the
defence ; be spoke for nearly four hours, and at the con-
clusion of his speech the Court adjourned.
We mentioned lately that a Roman Catholic clergy-
man was'drowned at Calais while bathing. An accident
of a similar kind has just occurred at ierismes, where a
Protestant preacher, M. Garden, died soon after having
been bathing in the Canal de la Fontaine. He was car-
ried to his house in a senseless state, and died two hours
after.
THE CAGLIARI.—TLe steamer Lombardo, which
arrived at Genoa on the 17th brought the news that the
Cagliari had left Naples on Monday, and that the Eng-
lish consul was to leave Salerno on the 15th, to take
charge of the crew, and see it embarked on the Cagliari.
The vessel was expected to make the port of Genoa on
the 18th. •
Two SICILIES. —From and after the 101 July next all
ships arriving in the Kingdom of the Two Siciiies must
be furnished with a clean bill of health. from the Neapo-
litan Consul at the port of loading, and if with Brazilian
produce on board, certifying that it has been duly aired
and shipped in free pratique. In the absence cf such cer-
tificate vessels will be subjected to quarantine.—Oessette.
GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION.—The Government emi-
grant ship Escort, 765 tons, Captain D. Smith, which
sailed from Plymouth on the 27th of November, in
charge of Surgeon-Superintendent C. Weymott, with 21
married couples, 113 single men, 98 single women, 16
boys between the ages of 1 and 12, 16 girls between the
same ages, one male infant, and three females, making
a total of 289 souls, equal to 269 statute adults, arrived
at Sydney, New South Wales, on the 11th of March.
Five deaths (infante) and four births occurred during
the voyage.
RUSSIAN MERCANTILE STEAM FLEET —LIVERPOOL,
June 21.—The "Russian Steam Trading and Naviga-
tion Company" are rapidly increasing their Black Sea
and Mediterranean ftet, which now numbers 30 or 40
full-powered screw steamers cf large capacity. Toe last
addition to this fleet has just been finished budding on
the Mersey, having been constructed by Mr. John Laird
at his new works at Birkenhead. She is named the
Emperor Alexander, and is the second screw steamship
of 1,100 tons and 350 horse-power built for that com-
pany by Mr. Laird. Oa Saturday the Emperor Alex-
ander made a trial trip in the Channel, having on board
a full load consisting of 600 tons of dead weight, with
,vatertanks full and store:. She attained an average
.peed of 13. f knots, or about 15 ini'es an hour, which,
being fully loaded is considered highly satisfactory.
PRIVATE ARMED VESSELS IN THE UNITED STATES.
—The it.timatiou from Washington to the effect that
gr. Sickles intended to introduce a bill into Congress to
authorise the arming of private vessels, that they might
rape', any attempt on the part of a British man•of- war
to overhaul them, has naturally caused some curiosity
among our shipping men to know what the pro% isions
of the bill will be. Merchantru,n have the right already,
which they have always enjoyed, of carrying what-
ever arms may he deeined -necessary to protect them
from the attacks of ocean freebooter:, and no act of
Congress is necessary to secure such a privilege to
teem; but there are very few ships that ever avail
themselves of the privilege, or that carry anything more
than a small gun, to be used for firing a signal of
d stress. It can hardly be the intention of Mr. Sickles
o propose that the Government shall furoish guns
and ammunition to our merchantmen, to be used
against British cruisers, for it would prove a most costly
experiment, and be utterly useless for the purpose in-
tended. If any fighting is to be done, let it by all
means be done by men-of-war, who are properly pre-
pared for such terrible work. Our merchant vessels have
no conveniences wh .tever for naval engagements, and in
an encounter with a regulerly arm: d vessel would be in
a perfectly helpless condition. It is idle to think of
adopting any half-way measures ;we must either make
up our minds for war and prepare for it in earnest, or be
content to settle our misunderstAnding with Great Bri-
tain in the ordinary method of peaceable and dignified
diplomacy. The last thing we ought to do is to bluster,
and the idea of authorising our private vessels to carry
guns soure's a good deal more like bluster than a serious
desire to inset an irependieg danger.—Nou York Times,
June 8.
FAINTING IN CRINOLINE.—The fashion of crinoline
has received a severe check in Vienna, where the actresses
of the Carl Thea•re have been prohibited from wearing it.
Tuffs measure vsa-i rendered necessary by the fact that
an actre-s, who, in the character of an orphan, was to
Lave tainted awey and fallen to the ground, found it
impossible to realise tie Latter idea with anything like
nature, from being so strongly cased in her steel-bound
framework.

MADAME LIND GOLDSCUMIDT.—This distinguished
lady, with her husband and two children, a bon and
daughter, arrived in Londou last week, with the in
Lennon of residing in England for some time. The
hole family,
.including domestics, have taken pos-
session of a neat villa, called " Roehampton Lodge,"
situated near to the south side of Barnes Common,
and about a mile from Putney. The house is in a retired
position, and in the immediate vicinity of Putney
Common and the pieturebque village of Rothaiipton.

" Thera will not be any commission ad hoc
charged to proceed to the spot, to effect the delimi-
lation of the territory occupied by the Montene-
grins, but their possession of which is contested by
the Porte. Such a solemn mode of proceeding,
in presence of the victorious Montenegrins and the
vanquished Turks, might particularly suit Russia,
as it would be, in some measure a tacit recognition
of the independence of that country, according to
the wish of the Russians ; it would elevate the
Montenegrits in face of their coreligionists of Tur-
key, and in the same proportion humiliate the
Turks, by proclaiming the success of the former,
and the impossibility imposed on the latter by the
will of Europe to avenge the honour of their arms.
Itwould also increase the displeasure felt at Vienna
at the inactivity imposed on the Porte in this matter
and give more eclat to the triumph of the orthodox
Czar. At Paris and in London, attention has been
pat dto t e representations of the Porte audit has been
thought necessary to avoid aggravating the check
which the latter has experienced by more clearly ex-
posing the consequences of it before the eyes of the
Christian populations. It has been therefore de-
cided that engineers named by the five great powers
shall proceed to the disputed territory, and, in
concert with their respective consuls, draw out a
map which shall be submitted to the examination
of the five representatives at Constantinople, who
will assemble in conference with the Ministers of
the Sultan. The line of frontier drawn out by the-
engineers will probably become the definitive one."
Another let'er contain the following ;
" The fetes for the Imperial marriages terminated
the day before yesterday ; they lasted a fortnight,
and, including the two wedding outfits, have cost 80
millions of piastres (each piastre is worth about 5
sous.) In order to pacify public feeling on the
subject of this expenditure, it is given out
T11..,rn; vrms(-in-lau, of the
Sultan, will take on himself half of this enormous
Outlay ; but even. admitting that his father, Abbas
Pacha, had left him money enough to support such
profusion, there still remains 40 millions of piastres
which will go to swell the deficit of the civil list,
already amounting to 620 millions of piastres. In
order to be just towards every one, and give to etch
his part of the responsibility of such inopportune
prodigality, it must be said that the Sultan, before
giving orders for this unproductive outlay, thought
it necessary to consult his Ministers on the possibi-
lity of celebrating these marriages with the pomp
and magnificence usual on such occasions at the
Ottoman Court. No one of his advisers had the
courage or honesty to dissuade him from his inten-
tion."