The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-26 00:00:00

Rebellion t ) be "Stamped Out."

The increasing excitement, not to say alarm,
which the Fenian movements in Ireland are pro-
ducing, is naturally suggesting the treatment to
which they must be subjected. Every one at all
informed upon public affairs in this country is well
acquainted with the views of the Tories on the
general subject of rebellion. The London Times
especially had 'very clear notions, which it freely
and candily expressed as to our conduct during
the troubles we underwent in suppressing an in-
surrection within our own borders. A mild and
Christian temper was inculcated upon the loyal
people ; separation was both advised and pre-
dicted ; the suspension of the habeas corpus and
arbitrary arrests were censured in that " thunder
and small beer" gravity which was so amusing to
Thaekeray ; and the ruin of Republican institutions
was threatened with a complacent grimace at once
consoling and encouraging to a people struggling
with a fierce, confident, and well-organised band
of rebels. But that part of our experience is hap-
pily passed, and we can afford to forget the malice
when we remember the folly of these oracular
stupidities. But the Times, which we have before
discussed, when its manifesto was quoted by the
cable, in reference to the Fenian rebellion, retains
its malice, and so far forgets its folly as to fall
into an excess of violence. Its opinions are based
upon a belief in the solidity of a movement which,
as it confesses, has hitherto been generally deemed
only the result of luxuriant Irish imagination.
Money, arms, and " Irish Yankees" that have been
seized, are too palpable evidence to be any longer
disregarded, " and there really is reason to think
that Stephens, if not already in Ireland, will soon
be there, and that he reckons if not on success, at,
least on impunity."
Now the remedy for these difficulties,—for, as the
Times observes, with charming implicity,—" Even
England has its difficulties,"—does not lie in that
beautiful sublimity of charity or even of indif-
ference which was recommended to us as a specific
for " the disease and disgrace," which, accord-
ing to the Times, now afflicts England and Ireland.
The millennium has not yet come
" When lawyers give what they would take,
And doctors take what they would give,"
and the old school practice, with boluses of cannon
balls and pills of lead with a mustard poultice of
military government of several thousand men
power, is the only hope for the patient who in
America did not require even a little confinement,
or attention to diet when fire-eating was so
common, or even the sugar-coated globules which
pro-slavery generals administered at the beginning
of the war. The result of Fenianism makes the
Times shudder to think of it. Not because it can
or will injure the British nation in any way, but
because the British nation must injure it in such
a way as will preserve the reputation which Eng-
land has acquired amor,g other people, " of know-
ing how to suppr:lss a rebellion, if it can do
nothing else." "'The rebellion would be stamped
out as we stamped out the cattle plague." A
rebel in twat country, it appears, is not the
rOnlaUtie reriionag(3 which is imagined to be iu

continental politics, and, we suppose, in American
politics, too, if America has not yet risen in
English opinion to the dignity of being considered
a continent ; he is a mere robber and ruffian." "So
should there be another Irish rebellion, there will
be no false sympathy, nor even respect, for those
who take part in it." The Jamaica rebellion and
the Sepoy mutiny are referred to by the Times as
fine specimens of England's handiwork in sup-
pressing insurrections, and evidently excite
a degree of satisfaction in the perfection to
which that nation has brought wholesale " murder
as a fine act," that only the morbid hero of De
Quincey's monograph upon this subject could
thoroughly appreciate and enjoy. We will turn
you out, substantially boasts the' Times, as beauti-
ful productions of massacre and mutilation as
were ever executed with our cannon in India ; and
we will challenge ourselves to surpass the admirable
and expeditious strangulation that established
among the blacks of Jamaica our well-earned
reputation for putting down rebellion. The hang-
man of Lous XI. could not have been inspired
with greater enthusiasm nor extracted from his
dying victims ampler testimonials of his skill and
judgment in his peculiar line of business than the
Times exhibits in behalf of a government, which,
as an Irish contemporary calls it, is " the peda-
gogue of the governments which are not able to
keep their houses in order." The general tone of
public expression is scarcely less violent. The
wrongs of Ireland are to be cured by " heroic
treatment." Moxibustion which scarred and
cauterised the back-bone of the Sepoy and Jamaica
revolts• is the only relief for the diseased de-
pendencies of Great Britain. Whether they are
suffering from moral and political dyspepsia, or
from a congestion of all the vital forces under a
chronic exposure to oppression and Tory bigotry,
burning the spine is the only resort for so emi-
nent a physician whose patients lie helpless in the
India of both the East and West. That the
doctor will not shrink, however much his patient
may, in this case we have the full assurance of the
Times. Indeed that potential voice urges that pro-
fessional control and coolness will probably be lost
in the excitement of the moment, when the flesh is
seething and crisping under this beautiful curative
process. "No government on earth can tie the
hands and restrain the passions of subordinates on
the spot in the heat of the conflict and half-
maddened by the sight and report of recent
atrocities. The Englishman and Irishman, the
Saxon and the Celt of this day, are substantially
the same as they were in 1641 and 1798, and it
entirely depends, as we believe, on Ireland whether
there is to be a repetition of those dreadful scenes.
A rebellion it is always possible to stop in time,
but not its suppression. That cannot be stopped,
and most certainly will not." Experience justifies
the prediction of the Times, and another suppressed
rebellion will swell the list of triumphs which has
crowned the English nation with the fame which
the great journal of that nation raises as its standard
on the eve of the conflict. Englishmen can enjoy,
like a man whose dwelling overlooks Newgate, the
spectacle which intervening oceans have before
forbidden them to realise. Mutinous heads extir-
pated from vile bodies as it were at their own doors,
without the penalties of a hot sun and liver com-
plaint, and insurrectionists hung within a few hours
ride of London will display the developments of
English power which distance has hitherto confined
to journalists and the reports of the War Office. If
the Times betrays the governing public opinion,
and we see no reason to think otherwise, the Fenians
may expect no mercy. The Sepoys and the Jamacia
negroes are the precedents which they may study
with the most profit and the most prophetic accuracy.
England knows how to deal with rebellion, and
with a fearful and unusual meaning to the Irish
insurgents, knowledge is power. So long as this
accomplishment is esteemed as one of the noblest
traits of that nation, it will, doubtless, be displayed
with all possible effect and indulged in to all agree-
able excess. Whether Ireland will be any better
for the rebellion is, unfortunately, doubtful. That
England will be any better or stronger for its
suppression, no one, with any real sense of the
grievances of the common people, not only of
Ireland but of England, can for a moment believe.
And the penalties for striving to redress or mitigate
this condition of things seem to be the special but
specious strength of the great nation which knows
so well how to suppress rebellion. If it is as suc-
cessful as usual, we might even believe that some
countrymen of ours might be thankful that this
Government is not yet proficient in the science,
and take immediate advantage of its ignorance, by
submitting to the terms which demand that they
shall cease to treat the freedmen as Jamaicaplanters
treat the the blacks, and English landlords the Irish
peasantry.—Detroit Daily Post.

Some very interesting details have been submitted
to and approved of by the Emperor connected with
the census which took place in the latter part of
1866 relative to the population of France. They
have 'been arranged by the Marquis de la Valette,
the Minister of the Interior. It appears that in
spite of the evil influence of the epidemics which
have prevailed during the last five years in nearly
every part of France, in spite of the causes
of indisposition which particularly affected
certain regions, for instance, the 'silkworm
disease and that of the vines, the cotton crisis,
and other circumstances, the increase of popu-
lation was not reduced. The 89 departments of
France contained, in 1861, 37,386,161 inhabitants.
According to the census of 1866 it amounted to
38,067,094 persons, thus giving an increase in five
years of 680,933 inhabitants. In this calculation
the soldiers and sailors who, on the 15th of May,
1866, the date of the Army census, were employed
in Algeria, Rome, Mexico, and in the colonies, and
naval stations, amounting to about 150,000
men,
are not included. The population is thus divided :
Males 19,014,109 ; females, 19,052,985. Total,
38,067,094. The increase during the five years
(1856 to 1861) in the ancient 86 departments was
677,738. In 1866 it was 673,797, or a compara-
tive diminution of 3,941 ; but this small
difference is more than compensated by the
increased number of troops who were absent from
France, and was, consequently, not included in the
census. The three new departments give 787,392
inhabitants to the general increase, which thus
amounts to 680,933. Fifty-eight departments are
in progress, and give an excess of 787,392 inhabi-
tants. In the other 31 departments the diminution
is 106,441. The chief increase, of course, was in
the department of the Seine, which includes Paris.
It amounts to 197,256. The greatest diminution
was in the department of La Manche, and amounts
to 17,522. In the Bouches du Rhone there was an
increase of 16,155. In 1861, of 86 departments,
57 showed an increase, and 28 a decrease. The
proportion was about the same in 1866. The
*decrease is chiefly to be attributed to the
emigration of the inhabitants to more in-
dustrial localities, where higher wages are
paid. This change, however, does not exclusively
refer to large towns, as the tables prove. As a
summary these tables show that there has been a
sensible amelioration in the movement of the popu-
lation after 1856. The increase in the last ten
years (exclusive of the three new departments) was
1,358,671; whilst for 1846 to 1856 it was only
738,878. A comparison of the figures shows that
the population progresses, and is commensurate
with the development of the general prosperity.
From the last census it appears that there are
eight cities in France with more than 100,000 in-
habitants. Paris, 1,825,274 ; Lyons, 323,954 ;
Marseilles, 300,131 ; Bordeaux, 194,241; Lille,
154,749 ; Toulouse, 126,936 ; Nantes, 111,956 ;
Rouen, 100,671. Fifteen cities have a population
of mo're than 50,000, viz., St. Etienne, Strasburg,
Brest, Toulon, Havre, Roubaix, Amiens, Rheims,
Nimes, Muli.oaze, Montpellin, Metz, Angers;
Limoges, and Nice.
The course adopted of abandoning discussion on
the address has long been talked of, and therefore
the letter of the Emperor to M. Rouher has not
taken anybody by surprise. There seems to be
almost general concurrence in the arguments and
explanations of the Moniteur upon the subject. The
official journal says :—" Everybody has been struck
with the fact that discussions on the address tend
more and more to divert attention from the topics
mooted by the hour in the speech."

LAW IN f ELLIGENCE, Jan. 25.

COURT OF ADMIRALTY.
(Before Dr. Lushington.)

THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND THE PUBLIC.--
THE BEATRICE, OTHERWISE THE RAPPAHANNOCK.
This case was mentioned on the last motion day,
and in consequence of a report being circulated
that the matter had been compromised by the United
States Government, a public statement was made
iu court when the case was now called on. There
were two suits in respect of the one vessel ; one
was on the part of the American Government• to
obtain possession of the Beatrice, on the ground
that she belonged to them, having been used by
the Confederates ; and the other action was against
the Government, for an equipment in the nature of
cordage supplie I.
Dr. Travers Twiss, Q.C., applied in the first
suit for possession of the vessel to be given and for
costs. lie appeared for the United States Govern-
ment, and wished to make a few remarks on the
Government asking for costs, as it might seem to
be unusual.

His lordship asked whether the application was
opposed, and no answer being given in the affirma-
tive, thought it was unnecessary for the learned
counsel to go into the matter. He might be satis-
fied of the contrary. (A. laugh.)
Dr. Twiss had no desire to go into the matter of
costs, as no opposition was made. Ile was, how-
ever, instructed to make a statement in consequence
of a report in the papers that the matter had been
" compromised." The United States Government
wished it to be distinctly understood by the public
that there had been no compromise, and he hoped
the statement now made would go forth to the pub-
lic, and that the impression would be removed.
His lordship said, as the motion was not opposed,
it was no use saying anything further in the matter
than that it would be granted.

The Court decreed possession of the vessel to be
given to the United States Government, with costs
against the defendants.
The second action was then called. It was
suit against the American Government.
Dr. Travers Twiss, Q.C., said they were defend'
ants in this action. He had to ask that it might be
dismissed with costs.

Dr. L-ashington—ls it opposed?
Dr. Twiss said he believed not.
Mr. Brett, Q.C., mentioned that the suit was
abandoned.

His Lordship made an order for the dismissal of
the suit, with costs, and thus the case of the Bea-
trice, alias the Rappahannock, which has been some
time pending in the court, and in which the Awn'
rican Government appeared both as plaintiffs and
defendants, was brought to a termination with the
disclaimer in their behalf that there had been 0°
compromise made between the parties.