The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LOMiON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 15, 1867.

The one nearest completion leaves the arches of the
ruin in shadow, while the land, the town, and the
quiescent volcano of Etna, seen through and be-
yond them, are bright with the afternoon sunlight.
The other catches the morning light upon the
arches, while heavier shadows fall over the land-
scape.
Two views of Mount Etna, by the same artist,
deserve much praise. One of these especially, gives
wonderfully, for so small a canvas, the idea of dis-
tance.

The eye is forbidden to rush over the whole at a
glance, but compelled, as it were, to travel from
point to point, detained by the delicate finish of
every part. This completeness of finish and singu-
larly just distribution of light are among the quart-
_ _ _

ties which have made the works of this artist de-
servedly admired. I noticed here also a small picture
of the " Coliseum by Moonlight," which I may
venture to term a good attempt to accomplish an
impossibility ; a fine view of Torre di Schiair, with
the Sabine hills in the distance, and a larger work,
as yet but begun, showing the Arch of Titus, with
the Coliseum in the background.
The studio of M. Vedder, who bas just arrived

from Florence, contains at present but few works,
among which I may mention a wierd and novel re-
presentation of a scene at the Crucifixion, the dead
portrayed as meeting the living, as the crowds pass
to and fro between the city and the Cross. It is a
conception which gives much room for striking effects
of light and shade, and the depicting of contrasted
feelings ; but one which we cannot but wish were
connected with some scene less awful and holy,
where the free play of imagination need not be
checked by any sentiment of religious awe. A view
of the Convent of San Miniato is very carefully and
effectively coloured, and one remarks a neat little
series of illustrations of the celebrated fable of the
father and son who bought a donkey, and haying
little of that animal's resolute independence of cha-
racter, endeavoured to please every one in the dis-
posal of their purchase, until, at the expense of the
animal, they learned the futility of the endeavour.
Should a similar fate attend the writer let no one
be at the trouble to point the moral to him, for it is
a result which has loomed above his horizon
throughout the produrtion of these sketches, which
have now finished their perilous voyage along shores
haunted by all the perils of Homeric times, where
warriors and nymphs, sirens and furies, muses,
fawns, and satyrs, Circes, Calypsos, and cupids,
sybils and angels, the pale shades of the
great, the powerful, and the rich, gathering in
long silent ranks, and volcano and wilder-
ness, vineyards and harvest-fields, cities beyond
the seas, and fair forms bright with the glances
and all but the movement of life, rising in
rich mirage, have mingled their various terrors,
blandishments, and warnings. To those with whom
these researches have brought him in contact the
author would return his thanks for the unvarying
courtesy and kindness with which he hasbeen received,
and which seem to be accorded to all who show any
intelligent interest in the works of our living artists.
It is but fair also to add that some omissions have
been unwillingly made of studios which circum-
stances rendered it impossible to visit, or which were
seen at some disadvantage of light or time so great
that no adequate criticism could be attempted. A
better chronicler of their future achievements is the
wish of the writer for those whose works and whose
acquaintance will always be to him among the most
pleasant memories of foreign travel.

STRESA, LAGO MAGGIORE, June 3.
From Florence we went to the Baths of Lueca,
which quite charmed me with its lovely chesuut and
acacia trees. The excursions in the neighbourhood
must be lovely. Hardly any one was yet there, for,
although the hotels open on the Ist May, few
visitors arrive till quite the end of the month. The
rents are wonderfully low. A villa can be secured
with two sitting rooms, two bed rooms, and three
servants' rooms for the whole season for the consi-
deration of £l4 ; this in a good situation. From the
Baths, to Pisa, for two days, and then to Venice,
where we spent eight charming days. Each visit
makes me enjoy it more, and the gondola, giving
air without fatigue, just suits the invalid travelling
in search of health and strength. The place was
crowded ; amongst others, the Duke of Brunswick,
with a suite of fifteen persons, for whom every one
in the hotel had to give way, even to the appropria-
tion of the large dining room. Venice is little changed,
except that the Austrian uniforms are replaced by
the Italian. The gondoliers grumbled and said
they missed the better payments of the Austrians,
but the shopkeepers are satisfied ; transitions are
always trying, and things are not settled yet. In
one respect there is at any rate decided improve-
ment ;—there is religious liberty now. I went to a
Scotch service at Venice, and liked it much. After
the sermon the minister announced that the commu-
nion would be administered, and he invited all, of
any denomination, who " loved Christ," to re-
main. I did. You know the forms of administra-
tion are to me matters of comparative indiffer-
ence. Many Italians were present, no less than
twenty-two, who joined in the communion
and more would have come, only the smallness of
the room, limited the invitation. An Italian gen-
tleman addressed them in their own language so
distinctly and well, I could follow and understand

all he said. At the close of the service the Scotch

clergyman spoke on the worth " I will see you again."
IVe next proceeded to Milan, where we rested three
days, and visited once more the beautiful cathedral.
To me the ipterior is the most beautiful of all

cathedrals. Here we saw again Leonardo's Cenardo,
or " Last Supper," growing every year less clear
from the damp, which cannot be arreited. Many
are going to Turin to see the fetes at the marriage
of Prince Amadeus. Do you know Stresa ? Many
consider Maggiore the finest of the Itilian lakes.
I prefer Como, but this is the widest view with

more variety of outline. Many visitors are on their
way to Switzerland. I have not yet found it too
hot, though the thermometer has been frequently

73. Yesterday and to-day we have had much
thunder and lightning. On Saturday evening the
lightning was the most brilliant I had ever seen.
It was either summer lightning or the reflection of a

distant storm ; there was not any thunder. It lasted
all the evening, and the night was so dark that
the outline of the mountains could not be seen
except when the vivid flashes showed them
as clearly as by day. Yesterday (June 2) was the
celebration of the Unity of Italy. Illuminations,
bands of music, and cannonading were the order of
the day. The cannon were fired frequently during
the day from the garden of our hotel. All the vil-
lages on the lake were lighted with coloured lamps,
and the effect was very pretty. The Bishop of
Tasmania has a villa on this lake, and is there now.
There is Divine service here during summer. The
present chaplain is an Irishman, from West Meath.
Both himself and his preaching are popular. He
has also established daily family prayers at 10 a.m.,
but few attend. We leave in a few days, and pro-
pose next to halt at Geneva, a place well known to
Americans.

General Sheridan appears likely to drop between
the two stools of the Democrat and the Radical.
A number of Louisiana Republicans are at Wash-
ington, demanding his removal on the ground that
he will not punish the officials for the horrible man-
ner in which they broke up the Convention of last
July. The Conservatives join in this demand, on
the plea of the General's Radical policy. He has so
decided all doubtful questions of the right of voters
under the Reconstruction Act that the whites are
almost entirely disfranchised, and the power has
fallen wholly into the hands of negroes. A ru-
mour obtained currency that the President intended
to arpoint General Thomas to replace Sheridan i❑
the command, a rumour entirely without founda-
tion.

The Attorney-General of the United States has
at length given his opinion on the interpretation of
the Reconstruction Act. In Mr. Stanbery's opi-
nion the disfranchising clauses are reduced to a very
narrow operation from their equivocal language,
which must be construed in favour of the elector.
No one, he believes, is excluded from voting or
holding office by reason of his having exercised such
functions in the States lately in rebellion, being
purely civil, as were necessary to maintain order
during the progress of the war. Unless he had
coramittod 601110 offence, or held an office clearly re-

ferred to by the oath of registration prescribed by
the Act, he was not ineligible to vote. This will
reduce the number to mere exceptions, and render
it very difficult to exclude any Southern citizens
whatever. At the same time it will lessen the diffi-
culties of the military commanders, by enabling them
summarily to dismiss the cases brought before them
or their subordinates alleging disqualifications in
Southern citizens to exercise their constitutional right.
Indeed, if Mr. Stanbery is right in expounding the
law, that difficulty would be altogether removed, as
the power of the board of registry is confined to the
administration of the oath, which, if the applicant
takes, his name must be registered. Whether the
individual swears truly or falsely is a question for
the jurisdiction of the courts upon trial for perjury.
When the elections are made the boards are directed
to receive only the votes of persons on the registers.
The instructions were issued on the 27th ult., ap-
proved by the Cabinet, and sent to the various
commanders for their guidance.
The officer commanding at Mobile has reported
on the late riot, by which it appears that the dis-
turbance was purely accidental, being wholly unpre-
meditated, and confined to the few people who
chanced to be on the spot, which was soon vacated,
leaving the police in possession. It was not till the
police had arrested an individual that the shot was
fired which gave rise to the riot. Judge Kelley
during his address had been repeatedly interrupted,
and symptoms were plainly shown how distasteful
his sentiments were to a portion of his audience.
On the discharge of the pistol several shots were
fired, some towards the platform, some promiscu-
ously, but most into the air. The Mayor, N. S.
Withers, wrote to the commandant, Colonel Shep-
herd, in a dignified and loyal strain. At the
same time that General Swayne removed him
for inefficiency he recorded his conviction that
the police were deficient, not so much of loyalty as
of good organisatiori. He adds, however, that
freedom of speech and public order have long been
greatly outraged in Mobile by a part of the popu-
lation, which presumes upon the sympathy of the
police with rebel sentiments. In accordance with
the views of the loyal citizens, who feared an out-
break might follow the riot, martial law has to some
extent been temporarily established.

The Philadelphia correspondent of the Times
notices a report that a foundry in New York, em-
ploying3s men, has for weeks past been engaged
in making
field artillery for the Fenians, and another
manufacturing small arms. Amongst all the
in
ma
rumours and falsehood there is little doubt of the

truth that a raid is being prepared to be made from
St. Albans, where stores have been accumulated.
Ame: aatirleoilnadl Canodunceciiluiisppdte,
o be held at Troy, New
York, during this month, and it is said a force of 10,000
many of them soldiers
in the late American war, are ready for the expedi-
tion. The Fenians now own seven newspapers in
the United States, two of which are published in
New York, and one each in Boston, Buffalo, Chicago,
Charleston, and San Francisco. 'These all advo-
cate a Canadian raid, and the Brotherhood are about
establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia.
The New York Nation, writing on this subject,
says :—" The 7 inies of this city exposes an attempt
on Friday of last week to revive the Fenian mania
by collusive telegrams of armings and preparations
in all parts of the country, which were showered
that night upon the chief newspaper offices, and in
some instances were accepted and printed for
genuine. Such an imposition upon the public in-
telligence can have no other motive and no other
possible effect than to plunder still more villanou'ly
the Fenian clientele, consisting, it is well known,
of an ignorant, humble, and poorly-paid class, mostly
servants, and largely servant girls, whom it is the
concern of every good citizen to enlighten and pro-
tect from this organised piracy. We are free to say that
we hold it culpable to so much as attach the importance
of news to the sayings and doings of the ostensible
patriots,' and that to employ reporters to retail
the proceedings, opinions,' and ' intentions' of
the Fenian headquarters is to assist in deluding
and spoiling the victims, and to prolong the vitality
of a most deplorable anomaly in our boiy politic.
The first duty of the press is to ignore the Fenians
as much as possible, and the next to denounce them
as they deserve when it is necessary to notice their
lawlessness and rascality. The Times, as we have
before remarked, is one of the few papers that ob-
serve this rule."

THE TOILETTES AT THE CITY OF PARIS BALL.
—We may state that more irreproachable toilettes had
never graced the Hotel de lle of Paris, and that flowers
Vi
and other ornaments of preceding years had given way to
lace in all its forms. Brussels-application ; roint-d'Angle-
terre ; black Chantilly ; Alengon, yellow with age ; and
quantity of fine old Vene-
nrueedhsaatin as would have equalled
even old Argentan, known to connoisseurs as having been
made with the needle, were to bo seen in wonderful pro-
fusion.the value of a knight's ransom. Happy woman to possess
happier still, to be able to show it to
the world ! Happiest of all to display it in such a pre-
sence ! Galignani.
tsucn 1 point
a r treasure aonsneu ar
el
MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS.--The Board of
gldof:Zeo
Trade have received a despatch fron the British Consul at
New York of the murder of the chief mate, Mr. Tingley, of
the English schooner Ottawa, by tho master of that vessel,
Captain William Pyo, who had arrivedthere, the crew hav-
ing secured him and placed him in irons. The chief mate
lived several days after the ship's arrival at New York.
He was taken to the hospital, where he made the follow-
ing statement to Mr. Washburn, the acting surgeon :
I was first mate on board the schooner Ottawa,
Captain William Pyo was master. -vro sailed from
Para (South America), on the 3d of March, for New
York. On Tuesday, the 19th March, about seven p.m.,
I was standing by the mainmast taking the altitude of the
Polar star. The captain came along and asked mo what
those men were doing in the cabin, who I supposed to be
the second mate and the steward. I told him I did not
know, when ho fired at me. The shot took effect in the
boom,main
n effect in my left side, just above
when he ran after me and
fleshy part of my thigh, which was lot serious. I then ran
rfitohrueendhdaipg. I uanidn7the
ee ball taking
hallooed out, and the steward, who was in the
cabin, came up, when the captain fired at him. I ran to
the forecastle to get out the crew, and called to them to
secure the captain, which they did, as I suppose. I cravrled
into a berth in the forecastle. I had done my duty faith-
f ally, and I gave no cause or provocation to the captain to
shoot me. The captain was excited by jealousy. I had no
difficulty with the captain on the homeward passage, but
on the outward passage there was a difference between us
as to the position in which I was shipped, but that was
settled at Para." The mate died two days after Captain
Pye was in custody of the police, but there being no law
to take cognisance of the charge the Consul succeeded in
getting the accused removed into New Brunswick (British
colony), where he underwent an examination. The evi-
dence of several of the crew confirmed the dying testi-
mony of the mate. One of them added that when he
secured the captain ho made an effort to jump overboard,
but was prevented. The witnesses spoke of the d..:ceased
All the defence the priso
as a good seaman, and never gave any cause for complaint.
Court was that he shot the mate without intending to kill
him. He was fully committed for wilful murder.
ner made when called upon by the

THE INCOME
Ta.X.—A letter from the Commis-
sioner of Internal Revenue states that last year, out of the
35,000,000 people in the United States, only 450,000 paid
tax upon incomes.
This year the proportion who pay
tax will be much smaller, for the exemptions have been
increased and the returns made are not one-half those of
last year. The largest income this year in Phila-
delphia is that of Jay Cooke, who was formerly the
Government loan
agent, who returns $205,636, as com-
pared with $651,636 last year. I give also a few other
returns of income. The largest return in Washington is
that of Henry I).
°coke, brother and partner of Jay
Cooke, $69,080. In Washington, also, W. W. Corcoran,
banker, reports
; General Grant reports $4,800
over and above his salary of about 618,000, from which the
tax is deducted before it is paid him ; the Secretary of
War, Mr. Stanton, reports $3,500 over his salary of $3,000;
and the Postmaster-General, Mr. Randal, reports $2,800
over his salary of $3,000. Ia New York, n,303 Taylor, a
large shipowner and extensive shareholder in the Atlantic
Cable Company, return $316,407. Last year his return
was $339,912, so that, even with the large ,profits of the
Cable Company added, his present return is smaller than
the previous one. Henry Keep, the president of the New
York Central Railroad, returns $32,163 ; Auguste Belmont,
banker, $106,091; Marshall 0. Roberts, $74,500; A. A.
Low, a leading merchant, $429,859 ; and Matthew T.
Brennan, a well-known New York politician, $10,355. In
Connecticut, Governor English returns $27,950, as com-
pared with $87,060 last year, and ex-Governor Buckingham
$5,943, as compared with $38,936 last year. In Boston
Charles 0. Rogers, publisher of the Boston Journal, returns
$69,000; Patrick Donahue, publisher of the Boston Pilot,
an Irish newspaper, $20,700 ; James C. Little, of Little and
Brown, book publishers, $124,500 ; Abbott Lawrence,
$27,800; and Royal E. Robbins, a manufacturer of American
watches, $133,300. In New Hampshire, George G. Fogg,
formerly Minister to Switzerland, returns $9,672, and ex-
' Fresideut Franklin Pierco $47394-

Spirit of the American Press.

" THE GUILT OF THE REBELLION."

Mr. Greeley, as we attempted to show last week,
struck a formidable blow at the theory that there
was any moral guilt in the rebellion when he volun-
teered to become bondsman for Jefferson Davis.
The few shreds of the doctrine which were left were
carefully removed on Monday last by an article in
The Tribune, showing that the rebellion was a "civil
war," in all respects like the War of the Revolu-
tion, and that therefore the punishment as traitors
of persons engaged in it would be cruel or improper.
During the progress of the struggle this view of the
position of the Confederates—we ought now in
decency to give up calling them " rebels"—was
vehemently urged both by the Southerners them-
selves and by foreign orators and writers. When
Americans, led on by the Tribune, filled the air with
reproaches against Europe for not sympathising with
the North, our claims to this sympathy were stoutly
denied, on the ground that the war was a civil war
like the Revolution of 1776, that the issue was simply
a political issue, and that it was impossible to tell
which of the parties was in the right till the contest
was brought to a close, and therefore the English
maintained that in the meantime they were justified
by every consideration in giving their sympathy and
countenance to " the weaker party." To this our
reply, and the reply of our friends all over the world,
was that the Southern attempt at revolution differed
widely frcm the Revolution of 1776 in this, that the
South revolted against a Government under which
it had voluntarily placed itself, and from which it
had received no injury, and that the avowed and
sole object of the revolt was not political inde-
pendence simply, but the perpetuation of human
slavery over half the American continent ; not free-
dom for the revolters, for that they had, but bondage
for others ; not, in short, the object which had made
almost all preceding rebellions justifiable and glorious,
but another and most detestable one—the creation of a
political system based upon the doctrine that God
had made the poor and weak to be the cattle of the
rich, bought and sold and bred for simple gain. The
Republican press, to its honour, never tired of
dwelling on this distinction between this rebellion
and the rebellion of 1776. It was by the aid of this
distinction that we won the support of the best and
purest men of European countries ; it was this that
supported the Lancashire operatives under their
privations, and it was this, too, that comforted
hundreds of thousands at the North-when the tide
of suffering and sorrow had risen so high that no
merely political gain seemed worth the prolongation
of bloodshed and devastation. The Tribune, too,
which has all along been the great preacher of
" moral ideas" during the war, rendered good ser-
vice in upholding it ; though often exceedingly
weak as to the political value of the Union, on " the
guilt of the rebellion" it never ceased dilating. It
now appears, however, that there really was no guilt
in the rebellion whatever. There was no legal guilt,
for there can be no treason, it appears, committed
in " civil war ;" and if Davis and Co. could make
a civil war without legal guilt, how could they incur
moral guilt? If they had a right to make war on
the United States at all, they had a right to make it
for any object that seemed good to them. It is
none of our business to spread our social and po-
litical theories on foreign soil at the point of the
sword. We should not be justified in declaring
war against Great Britain in order to rescue her
agricultural labourers from degradation. The rea-
son why we made war on the South was because the
soil in which it sought to lay broad and deep the
foundation of its accursed system was American
soil ; because the men engaged in this detestable at-
tempt were American citizens; because the laws
they broke were American laws ; because the shame
of their doings was our shame, and because their
success would have proved to the remotest ages
a hateful monument of our dishonour. We
ask any honest man in the country to look
back to 1862 and 1863, and think if, in those
dark and trying hours, he was not supported and
consoled by this consideration ? if, when armies
were giving way, when fleets seemed powerless,
when Copperheads were joyous, when the whole
civilised world was either mocking or pitying us,
he did not draw confidence and courage from the
consciousness that there was, after all, a moral ele-
ment in the struggle, such as no other war ever
had ; that the rebellion was not simply a legal
dispute, but a crime, and that the rebels were not
simply bellicose publicists, but unscrupulous slave-
holders raving for " niggers"• and cotton? The
overthrow of this theory by the Tribune and the
assimilation by it of our position to that of Eng-
land in 1776, and the position of the South to
that of the revolted colonies, if acquiesced in by
the public, will certainly be recorded in history
as the most remarkable piece of self-stultifica-
tion on record. Self-stultification, too, is a
very mild term to apply to it. Future genera-
tions will argue, and argue with reason, that
there could not have been much moral sense left
amongst a people who, after treating rebellion for
four years as the blackest crime ever committed,
denied when it was all over that it was any crime at
all. Decency requires that we should keep up the
humbug, if humbug it be, till our wounded and
cripples have died off, and the files of our blattering
moral newspapers have been removed out of sight.
The world can stand a good deal of hypocrisy, be-
cause the hypocrite, as has often been said, at
least respects virtue; but knavery which impudently
avows and laughs over its own cheats, and, more
than that, claims for its self a place amongst the
virtues, the world cannot stand.—The Nation.