The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 24, 1867

when the actions of this present life shall appear
in their true light and meaning. It is of no use
to defend Fenianism now. Mr. BRIGHT does not
do that, but then he does not con-
demn it either, and at this especial junc-
ture no public speaker should think of descant-
ing upon the wrongs of Ireland without also
speaking of the grievous errors which some have
committed in pretending to set these things right.
Mr. GLA.DSTONE said, "do not confound the cause of
Fenianism with the cause of Ireland." Mr. BRIGHT
has not followed this advice, and the consequence
has been that he has delivered a speech which his
best friends and greatest admirers must regret, and
which he himself will live to wish that he had not
spoken.

The Fenians appear determined to have no
Christmas holidays themselves, and to do their best
to interfere with those of other people. Their
chances of display and even temporary successes are
likely to be so extremely brief that they are anxious
to make the most of them. The feeling of the coun-
try of all ranks and classes has been so strongly and
spontaneously manifested in consequence of the late
cruel and dastardly outrages that the days of
Fenianism are numbered. There is an end once
and for all of the sentimentality about misguided
patriotism and oppressed nationalities, and those
who were mistaken enough to manifest their
sympathy and regret for the Manchester
murderers on political grounds have now been
thoroughly undeceived. All may be fair in love or
war, and in the pursuit of a particular and pressing
object military men may often think themselves
excused for acts of individual harshness and even
cruelty. In every campaign there is much matter
for regret when the fury and excitement of the
struggle is over ; but Fenianism belongs to an en-
tirely different order of things. It is the work of a
band of assassins, who stab in the dark and then run
away, and has not the shadow of soldierly spirit to
palliate the cruelty of their hidden attacks on the
peaceful homes of honest working people. Their
present notion of mischief is directed to the gas-
works, and in more than one place there have been
suspicious indications. We hear from Glasgow of
a panic excited in the Cowcaddens district on Satur-
day by the discovery of a gutta percha fuse,
such as is used for firing blasts in mines and under
water. This fuse was found burning in an ashpit
close to the enclosure of the district gasometer,
and no one could account for its presence
there. It was shrewdly believed that some
Fenians resided in the vicinity, and this be-
lief, coupled with the fact of the discovery of
the lighted fuse, naturally put the authorities on
their guard, and induced them to take all possible
precautions. It was thought desirable to let the
description of the fuse be publicly known, to put
proprietors of works on their guard, and this know-
ledge will be no less useful in the metropolis. It
consists of a case of gunpowder enveloped in tow,
covered with gutta percha. The advantage of this
construction is that if one end of the tube be lighted
the powder will burn right through and carry fire
to a distance with remarkable certainty. It will
thus be readily seen to be a dangerous instru-
ment in the hands of insidious incendiaries.
At Warrington there has been a still more sus-
picious affair than the Scottish discovery. On Sun-
day night a police constable felt a smell of gas and
noticed a cloud of smoke on passing the gas works,
and immediately gave the alarm. It was discovered
that a plug had been taken out of the purifier, and
the gas was escaping rapidly. The furnaces had
thus been drawn, and the coke was lying in the
yard. If the escaping gas had come iu contact with
the coke a tremendous explosion must have resulted.
Several persons have been arrested, but unfortu-
nately no evidence directly connecting any one with
the affair could be forthcoming. It was providen-
tial that the discovery was made in time,
or the loss of life and property would have been
frightful. The present system of Fenian warfare
is altogether reckless and unreasonable, blowing
up and destroying, without any other object it would
seem than mere savage cruelty. The fact probably
is that plunder is the great aim in these attempts
cn gas works. In the alarm,:and confusion, and
darkness it is very likely thought that a great
opportunity will be afforded for spoil. Fenianism,
in fact, is putting itself on a level with the garotters,
and must be treated accordingly.
We are sorry to find the traditional loyalty and
good faith of the Highland regiments darkened by
the presence of a Fenian sergeant in the famous
old 72d. FRANCIS MAGUIRE, the man in question,
has just been arrested a t Manchester under suspi-
cious circumstances. He joined the regiment in
Ireland some eight years ago, and has now been re-
moved to the military prison at Weedon to await
his trial by court martial.

The
_inhabitants of the metropolis, at all events,
are determined to come loyally forward in support
of the authorities, and for the repression of this dan-
gerous and cowardly association. The swearing-in
of special constables yesterday proceeded with un-
interrupted vigour in all the metropolitan districts,
and many thousands of all ranks were enrolled.
We are glad to find that large numbers of the
working men have brought their strong arms and
stout hearts to the service of law and order.

THE Abyssinian expedition has added import-
ance to our Indian communications, and no
means should be neglected which will give us
earlier information from -what we must now desig-
nate the seat of war. It is, therefore, difficult to
understand why the Government and the enter-
prising proprietors of the London newspapers do
not avail themselves of the Brindisi route for the
conveyance of information. As tho Italian
steamers are running between Alexandria and
Brindisi, there can be but little difficulty in for-
warding duplicate despatches by this route. Care-
fully-considered arrangements will have to be
made before the whole of the Indian traffic
which now reaches us via Marseilles can
be conveyed via Brindisi ; but we could
at once avail ourselves to some extent of
the energy of the Italians, who are running
steamers from Alexandria to Brindisi, and are
conduc the traffic with an obvious desire to
afford the necessary accommodation. By this
route the newspapers and despatches which were
delivered in London yesterday could have been
delivered on Friday evening last, thus affording a
clear gain of sixty hours. The 'passengers who
availed themselves of this route reached London
on Friday evening, whereas the passengers via
Marseilles could not, with continuous travelling,
reach London before Monday morning. Moreover,
the Brindisi route is more economical, effecting a
saving of five or six pounds to each traveller,
and the pa,ssengers who have just arrived by this
route speak in the most satisfactory terms of the
accommodation afforded by the Italians, and of
the desire manifested to meet their requirements
in every respect. A glance at the map will shew
that the route via Brindisi and Turin is almost a
direct line from Alexandria to London ; and as
every one knows that a straight line is the shortest
distance between any two points, it will be clear
to all that this route possesses natural advantages
superior to all others. At present the want of a
railway over or under Mont Cenis causes a loss of
several hours in crossing this pass ; but even with
this disadvantage, we have shewn an actual gain
of sixty hours by the adoption of this route.

It the railway over the ruountaali is' made to
succeed, the difficulty will soon be removed. But
if this should fail, the time is, we may hope, not
far distant when the persevering efforts to make
the tunnel under the mountain Will be rewarded by
success, and an additional saving of ten hours will
thus be effected.

Although the telegraph has partly superseded
the old means of conveying information, yet the
transmission of mails and passengers is scarcely of
less importance than formerly, inasmuch as the
traffic has largely increased, and we still obtain the
bulk of our information by letters, newspapers, and
despatches. If, therefore, the adoption, or partial
adoption, of the Brindisi route involved the outlay
of a considerable sum of money, it would still be
desirable to avail ourselves of it ; but in this case
we have only to make use of the means already pro-
vided in order to shorten materially the delay
which now arises in our communications with Aus-
tralia, India, and Abyssinia. If we get no other
good from the Abyssinian we hope it will lead
to an early improvement in the mail service between
this country and our most imprtant possessions.

THERE was one unfortunate hiatus in the accounts
of the Clerkenwell explosion which has at last been
supplied. The Fenians, or their friends, after
their usual manner, gave ample notice of the plot
to attack the prison. The Home Office was ap-
prised of their intention more than four-and-twenty
hours before the time appointed to put it into
execution ; information was forwarded to Sir
RICHARD MAYNE, and by him to Governor CODD,
at the House of Detention ; and the public were at
a loss to explain by unaided reason why, with all
this warning, the plotters were permitted to cart a
barrel of gunpowder and deliberately explode it
in front of the prison wall. The inquest
has cleared up the mystery. We regret to state
the explanation is by no means satisfactory.
It appears that there was some official jealousy be-
tween the Chief Commissioner of the Police and
the Governor of the Clerkenwell House of Deten-
tion, and the light in which they appear is that of
men immensely more solicitous about their
respective powers and dignities than about the
public safety. Sir RICHARD MAYNE, at three
o'clock on Thursday afternoon, forwarded to
Governor CODD the information received from the
Home Office, and therewith a series of instructions
or suggestions delivered viva voce by the messenger
as to the measures the Governor should take.
However well meant this message may have
been,. it was not well taken. The mes-
senger was requested to tell the Chief Commis-
sioner to mind his own business, and in the eyes
of the Governor it was Sir RICHARD MAYNE'S
business to protect the outside—the shell, as ho
called it, of the prison, while he guarded the inside,
the kernel. How this return message was delivered
and received we are in ignorance. All that is
known beyond this is that Govornor Conn took
such measures to protect the kernel as have elicited
the commendation of his superiors, and that Sir
RICHARD MAYNE did not protect the shell.

Which of these officials was to blame ? We sus-
pect that public opinion will condemn them both.
Unless Governor CODD can substantiate his asser_
tion with good authority, that he has nothing to do
with any attack on the prison from without when
the police have been duly apprised of it, the public
will think that he drew the line of his duty too
sharply. He should prove that his distinction
was understood and recognised by Sir RICHARD
.MAyNz as well as by himself. Moreover, if
it was not his province to guard the exterior, it
was not beyond it to see that it was guarded. He
may have been right in offering to protect the
inside if the police would protect the outside ; but
it would have been a laudable zeal to have left no
"if" in such a matter. Did the Governor not
know that no sufficient police force was present, and
if so, why not suggest as much to Sir RICHARD
MAYNE or the Home Office With regard to the
inactivity and apparent indifference of the Chief
Commissioner of the Police, he has made no expla-
nation, and we arc at a loss to conceive one.
The Home Office clearly imposed upon him the
responsibility of seeing that the intended attack
was averted. He was not to be an assistant, but the
principal, in the matter. There could be no Ques-
tion of the desperate character of the assailants,
and it was not for Sir RICHARD to ponder the
likelihood of the attack. The only discretion left
to him was to proportion the means to the end.
He had at his command an army of 9,000 police.
How many of these were available is not for us
to say, but it is quite certain that a stroke of Sir
RICHARD'S pen would have been enough to
frustrate this wicked plot and prevent its cruel con-
sequences. We know, in fact, that it might have
led to the revelation of the conspiracy, and the
capture of the conspirators red-handed. Sir
RICHARD, notwithstanding what had been done at
Manchester, sent three detectives to play at hide-
and-seek around the prison and through a network
of narrow streets and alleys, with desperate men
who mocked the futility of his protection by firing
a barrel of gunpowder under the very eyes of the
protectors. After this, no wonder that our police
system is being held up to derision throughout
Europe, and that despots improve the event by
declaring liberty and security to be incompatible.
The matter ought not to be allowed to rest here.
It is one calling for further investigation. A grave
responsibility rests somewhere, and it is immensely
important to the public that it should be known
where.

The Hon. Colonel Thesiger, eldest son of the
Lord Chancellor, received on Saturday last a telegram from
Sir Robert Napier offering him the appointment of Adju-
tant-General to the force destined for Abyssinia. Colonel
Thesiger has telegraphed his acceptance of the appoint-
ment, and will start on the 26th inst. to join the expe-
dition.

SOUTHAMPTON, Monday.—Their Royal High-
nesses Prince and Princess Christian embarked from the
Docks this afternoon, at four o'clock, on board her Ma-
jesty's yacht Alberta, Captain his Serene Highness
Prince Leiningon, en route for Osborne, on a visit to the
Queen.
GRAHAM OF CLAVERIIOUSE. Dundee died
bravely fighting for the last of the Stuart kings ;
Lord Eilsyth, equally devoted to his exiled son, the Cho
valier do St. George, shared in all the hardships and dis-
appointments of the campaign. of 1715. When all hope
was past, he made one of the band of proscribed Royalists
who ended their days in exile, far from the land which
gave them birth. Title and estates forfeited, and in danger
of his life, ho fled to Holland, whence he came over several
times to this country, but no longer as the Viscount of
Kilsyth. In the guise of a common beggar, he went among
his former tenants and lay concealed in their houses until
he had secured the greater portion of his plate. His pro-
perty recovered at no little risk, he quitted Scotland, never
to see it again. One can, in some degree, imagine his feel-
ings while surveying, for the last time, the ancient castle
of his ancestors, knowing, as ho did, that it had passed
away from him for ever, and that in his person would ex-
pire the honours borne by his race.—Once a Week.

FATHER O'CONNOR.— Canon O'Neal, Vicar-
General, in a letter to a contemporary, says:—" In the evi-
dence of James Vaughan on the Fenian prosecutions it is
stated that a ceri.ain Father O'Connor took part in a meet-
ing of a seditious character in London. I therefore beg you
to pub:ish the following statement. Among the Catholic
clergy of London there is only one bearing that name. Ho
has for more than four years been confined to his room by
palsy, and had ho been in possession of his health and
strength would have been among the first to protest against
all seditious practices on the pail of Catholics, or any sub-
jects of her Majesty. 1 take this occasion to express 0)3
profound souse of the horror felt by the Catholics, both
clergy and laity, at the recent atrocious outrage ; aud the
satisfaction I feel at perceiving the just uud accurate dis-
tinction drawn by you, and all the public papers, between
the handful of desperate persons who perpetrate those
things and the Catholics of England and Ireland."
Hon. G. A. Tulin, Ex-Consul General of Sweden and
Norway, and of Prussia, in Genoa, writes Dec. 16, 1865, to
Hon. Amos Perry, United States Consul-General, Tunis:—
"Dear Sir,—Accept my thanks for this third supply of
Davis' Pain Killer. It has often relieved me of serious in-
disposition,. and I would not, on any account, be without it,
both for myself and my family. 1 have recommended it to
my late colleagues and friends in Tunis and Genoa, and at
my request ono of the largest druggists in this city has
sent an order to Now York to meet the demand for it here."
—Beware of fraudulent imitations. None genuine without
Perry Davis and Son's trade mark, PAIN KILLER, on the
Government stamp. Sold by all chemists. Principal depot,
I.7,.Svut,4tnp_t2ll-TOIV, Holborn (W.O.)—(ADYT•)

CORRESPONDENCE PROM YAMS;

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Mom)Ay. Dec. 23.

The great topic of the day is Italy. It is the subject of
manifold leaders and letters, the tones and views of which
are as various as their numbers. The vote which has
given the coup to the Ministry of Menabrea is certainly
in no sense complimentary to France, and the official
journals are consequently enraged. The Etendard gives
a somewhat different version of the motion upon which the
Italian Ministry went out to-day. The semi-official
French organ says: "General Menabrea declared that
the Government adhered to the order of the day compre-
hended in the following terms : The Chamber, which
wishes to preserve wholly the national programme de-
claring Rome the capital of Italy, grieves that it is wished
to realise this programme by means contrary to the law
of the State and to the vote of Parliament ; and, con-
vinced that the guarantee of Italian liberty and unity lies
in the observance of law, approves the conduct of the
Ministry and passes to the order of the day.'" This motion,
too tame in its tone, and glancing with too much severity
upon the various ' attempts' of Garibaldi to please the
deputies, was rejected by a majority of two. Eightmem-
bers declined voting on the question. Commenting on the
vote, the Etendard say*: " We belieVe that the vote, if it
does not satisfy the Government, displeases even more the
Party of Action and the parliamentary sections who
are resolved to recal to power either Rattazzi
himself or a coalition of the Left `pure ' and of
the Opposition dynastique.' As for ourselves, we
would doubtless have preferred a vote of the Chamber
of Deputies more decisive in its character, either for or
against the Monarchy." Unquestionably, however, France
would have preferr6d that the motion had been carried by
a substantial majority. Had such been the case, one of
the serious difficulties that at present hamper the Empire
would have been disposed of, at least for a time. In the
meantime there is nothing for it but reoccupation of
Rome by the French troops. The weary story of the Italian
struggle will not allow itself to be told out—" the pig will
not get over the gate, and the little old woman will never
get home."

In the port of Toulon at the' present moment great
activity prevails. Several ships have entered for the pur-
pose of boing armed and equipped, and a war transport
has been fitted out. In many of the workshops of the
arsenal the workmen are kept at their labour till eight
o'clock at night. It is commonly reported that orders
have been received at Toulon commanding the authori-
ties to hold themselves in hourly readiness to embark
numerous contingents of troops should any necessity imme-
diately arise for directing the armies of France against the
enemies of the Pops.

There has been much talk about an arrangement into
which it was believed France was ready to enter with
Italy, and the purpose of which was to supersede or carry
out the stipulations of the Convention of the 15th Sep-
tember; but the vote in the Chamber of Deputies in
Florence the other night has no doubt rendered any such
arrangement impossible in tho-tmeantime.

M. de Lamartino is at present exceedingly ill, and his
friends have given up all hope of him. His intelligence
has become by degrees so clouded and darkened that he
does not seem to have any perception left at all.
The nomination of M. Nisard as honorary professor to
the Faculty of Letters has given general satisfaction. M.
Nisard. is a scholar as well as a litterateur of the most
pleasing description.

Tht%dor° nousseau, the famous landscape painter, is
dead. He was born in ISI2, and from the year 1834,
when br first exhibited, he continued assiduously and
unfailingly to produce works which have taken a per-
manent place in the history of art. Among the best
known of his pictures are " The Edge of the Wood," " An
Avenue," " Landscape in Autumn," " Effect of Morn-
ing," " Effect of the Sun after Rain." In the last picture
Rousseau surpassed himself, and executed a tour de force
which astonished his age. It catches the exact effect of
one of the most characteristic and one of the most
evanescent and impalpable phases of the French climate.
At present a trial of exciting interest is going on in
Paris. Twelve persons are being tried for stirring up
hatred against the Government, and belonging to a secret
society, the objects of which are seditious. M. Jules
Favre is retained on behalf of Accolas, who is supposed
to be the leader of the society. I shall have more to say
on this sub,;ect when the trial has been concluded.

A great deal of trouble, annoyance, and delay has been
the consequence of not sending a sufficient staff of disci-
plined and tractable labourers with the advanced brigade
of the Abyssinian expedition. The muleteers and the
miscellany of untrained vagabonds from Egypt, Persia„
and Arabia, upon whose services dependence had un-
wisely been placed, were found to Le almost worse than
useless—driving the officers wild with the pranks they
played. " They cut up the equipments for their own pri-
vate use, turning girths into belts, and lashing
their huts together with the loading ropes." • They
had always a ready pretext for rows, and in such
pastimes it was their habit to spend the leisure hours
—which comprised the greater part of the day. Many
of them ran away, and in consequence numbers of mules,
wandering loose about the country, died from want of
food and \\Tate The work of unloading the ships went
on slowly ; nd with much difficulty, though the superin-
tending officers worked like slaves. On the Ist of
December, however, the Kooria Mooria arrived out from
Bombay with stores and camel-drivers, and it was ex-
pected the work would afterwards go on more expe-
ditiously.

In the Abuna Abba, Salama the European captives in
Abyssinia lost a most kind and useful friend. He was the
head of the Abyssinian Church, and though he did not
bear an exceptionally high character, he was friendly and
useful to the English, and hostile to Theodore. Some
apprehension is felt as to the line of policy which will be
adopted by the new Abuna, who is consecrated by the
head of the Coptic Church at Alexandria. In rousing
the fanaticism of the country against us he might do
incalculable mischief. As it is, it is difficult to persuade
the natives that the expedition is not a religious one, and
that we have not gone out to enforce by the sword what
the missionaries failed to accomplish by persuasive
means.

The route to be pursued by the advanced brigade of
the expedition had not been made generally known, but
the common impression was that it would be by Ategerat,
Antalo, and Sokota. Ategerat is about 90 miles south
of Senafe ; Antalo is 100 miles south of Ategerat ; and
Sokota is 60 miles south-south-west of Antalo—
allowance being made for the usual deviations in
the line of march. Arrived at Sokota, the British
force will find itself about ninety miles from Ma,gdala, on
the left, and about the same distance from Debra Tabor--
a few miles from which Theodore was said by the latest
telegrams to be encamped—on the right ; and the choice
will thus be offered of striking either at the camp or at
the capital of the enemy.

CURIOUS MIS PRIIM—A singular misprint appears
in the Cork Examiner. " Could anything be more unfair
or unjust," it truly asks," " than to hold unoffending
Irishmen in England responsible for their commission, and
to doom them to penury and want because of their
nationality ?" It is in the next sentence that the blunder
occurs: "We cannot conceive anything more monstrous
than a policy so utterly indispensable" is the rejoinder it
makes to its own question.

BLEEDING NOT OBSOLETE. A quack doctor
named Shea, in custody in Cork, has been charged with
causing the death of a young man named Burrowes,
whom he had bled rather freely ; but, on the medical
evidence being given at the inquest, he was discharged.
The wife of the deceased and the " doctor " gave some
curious evidence. Shea, she declared, " took a big quart
basin of blood from her husband." On examining her
own arm he said she had as much blood as would kill
tv.-caty people, and wanted to bleed her. Shea replied,
with considerable warmth, " You asked me to bleed you
to produce a ' rush of childre.' "

A DRUNKARD'S END.—At 3.25 on Sunday morn-
ing last the house No. 7, Old Bank-street, Blackburn, occu-
pied by John Duckworth, aged 68, a loomer in a cotton-
mill, and his wife, was discovered to be on fire by the police.
man on that beat. An alarm was immediately given, and
on the house being entered fire was observed to be dropping
from the ceiling. On going upstairs into the bedroom, the
remains of Duckworth were found on the floor. Portions of
his legs and arms were burnt away, the bones protruding,
and the body was reduced to a shrivelled and blackened
mass, totally unrecognisable. Near the deceased was
found the body of his favourite dog, which had kept by its
unworthy master to the end ; its legs had been burnt away.
The furniture in the room was quite destroyed, and a large
hole had been burnt through the ceiling. The fire was
got under in about an hour. It seems that the deceased
had for a long time been in the habit of getting intoxi-
cated on Saturday nights, and when in that condition he
was so violent that his wife was accustomed to leave him
till the following morning. Deceased came home drunk
about six o'clock on Saturday night last, and at eleven
again went out, and obtained more beer at a neighbouring
inn. His wife left in the meantime to pass the night at
her son-in-law's. When deceased came back he
" punched " the door open, and appears to have gone
o bed without closing it. From that time he was not
wen alive again. It was his custom to smoke in bed, and
se appears to have fallen a victim to this and his intem-
perate habits. On each of the two previous days a man
ilicd foul exceptiye drinidpg in Diackburn. '