The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-07 00:00:00

THE SITN,*.":I,ONDON, TOESDAY EVENING, MAY 7, 1867.

conspicuous, the lovers of mischief probably not
having thoughtthe entertainment worthy the trouble
of a walk. The meetings, as will be seen from the

They must bear in mind that the scene of these
contests is aannad it may
rrowrverb,e
stronglyll influencedtherefore, difficult dic to
by
judge of the speed attained in other waters. It is
not long since we gave the result of a boat race at
Shanghai, where it was held before the race, that
the Americans had no chance of coming in the win-
ners. America, however, distanced all her com-
petitors ; and not only won, but won with such
ease that JOHN BULL hauled off the course, and
frankly confessed to have been fairly beaten. The
present chance is a splendid one, and ought to be
eagerly seized. If America wins, which we consider
unlikely, it will be a grand coup. If America loses,
it is more than probable that her oarsmen will make
a hard struggle, and command the respect of their
adversaries even in defeat, while a spur will be
given to her Colleges to work up a crew to try again,
and the contest will not only be between the
Universities, but also between the English and
American winners of the national races. The
belt will thus be for the world, and the sphere of
these manly pastimes extended. If the Americans
either win or lose in Europe, when the next
exhibition is held, as it will be, in their own
country, they can accompany their invitation with
a challenge to a trial in these athletic exercises. It
would add to the f
interest o national gatherings
if they were made the occasion for a contest for
the youth of thOse countries which claim a pre-
eminence in field sports. However interesting may
be the Exhibitions of Arts and Industry, a still
greater interest will always be excited by rivalry in
those games, which from time immemorial have
excited the- keenest competition. All required is,
that the utmost good humour should be maintained
in the friendly rivalry; fiat losers should pay the
money they have staked on their champions, with-
out sulking, and the competitors should dine
together after the event and drink each other's
healths in bumpers. Let the nation that wins crow,
and those that lose listen patiently, girding up
their loins for a triumph at a future contest. All
this will tend to harmony and good-fellowship, the
competitors will learn to know and appreciate each
other, and the prejudice, arising mainly from
ignorance, will be more and more dispelled. It
will be seen when young men contest for these
prizes, how closely they are matched against each
other, that accidents and luck are most generally
the causes of victory, and there will be less inclina-
tion towards a rupture between nations when it
is known that their relative powers are so evenly
balanced, that one can scarcely hope to establishlan
ascendancy over the other, and the fight is but sure
to end in mutual loss.

Yesterday, at the Mansion-house, Edward
Devillers, a well-dressed man of gentlemanly
demeanour, and described as of Barnham-house,
Bromley, Kent, was brought up in custody by
detective officers Webb and Brett, and charged
before the Lord Mayor with forging and uttering a
bill of exchange for £1,120 10s., in May, 1864,
with intent to defraud, and also with forging and
uttering divers other bills with a like intent.
Mr. Poland, instructed by Messrs. Freshfield, ap-
peared as counsel for the prosecution, and Mr. Had-
dock (ef the firm of Parker, Lee, and Haddock, of
St. Paul's Church-yard) attended for the prisoner.
Mr. Poland in opening the case stated that the
inquiry about to commence would, in its progress,
develope one of the most gigantic frauds ever per-
petrated in this great commercial city, and he had
been so recently instructed that he was not in a
condition to go into the matter at any length, but
he should put in evidence sufficient to enable him
to ask for a remand to a future day. The charge
against the prisoner was for forging and uttering a
number of bills of exchange, and with conspiring
with one Thomas Edgley, who was not yet in
custody, to defraud by means of these forged
securities. The bills purported to be drawn by the
eeblkFed in Forest
Servia, and which professed
was engaged in
gydatoabeesmtpaish
felling timber and forwarding ittothis country, and
were signed by the prisoner and forwarded from
time to time by Edgley to the Leeds Banking Com-
pany, by whose manager, Mr. Greenland, they had
been discounted to the amount of no less than
£lOB,OOO. It would be remembered that the Leeds
Banking Company had become bankrupt, and that
the manager, Mr. Greenland, had been convicted at
the Central Criminal Court of falsifying the ac-
counts of the company, and was now undergoing his
sentence under that conviction. lie should now put
in the informations on which the Lord Mayor has
granted his warrant for the apprehension of the
prisoner, and then ask for a remand.
Detective officer Fred. C. Brett was then sworn,
and deposed that on Saturday last he receiyed the
warrant, which bore date 15th April last, and pro-
ceeded with it to Dieppe, where he found the pri-
soner residing at No. 19, Rue de Rouen. He told
him that he was a police officer, and held a warrant
for his apprehension, and that he should have to give
him up to the French police,
he would return to England,
would be detained in prison.
prisoner accompanied him, where he was told he
Theto prisoner
thenffi c e r
said
and was conveyed by
the French authorities on board the steamboat, and
on arriving at Newhaven he took. the prisoner into
custody, and read to him the warrant, on which the
prisoner replied that he was innocent, but that be-
fore he went abroad he had authorised Mr. Edgley,
who was his uncle, to sign his name for him for all
purposes.
The sworn informations on which the warrant had
been granted were then put in. The first was that
of Mr. Geo. Chandler, clerk to Messrs. Turquand
and Co., the official liquidators appointed to wind
up the affairs of the Leeds Banking Company, and
he proved that in going through the affairs of the
company he had found the dishonoured bills of the
Maydampeck Forest Company, drawn on their be-
half by the prisoner, to the amount of £lOB,OOO,
still unpaid, with the exception of about £9,650
which had been received from a bankrupt firm. The
next btformation VMS that of Mr. J. Grant, who
proved he was one of the clerks of Messrs. Link-
later, the solicitors, and had examined the books of
Thomas Edgley and Co. ; that he bad been in the
service of Edgley, who went, in 1864; to Servia,
and on returning to this country asserted he had ob-
tained a concession of a tract of forest land, and has
established the Maydampeck Forest Company, and
had commenced felling timber. Bills then began to
be drawn in the name of the company, and were
forwarded to Greenland, the manager of the Leeds
Banking Company, for discount. The name "E.
.I),:villers" was always written at the foot of the
bills by Edglcy, an I not by the prisoner. The third
information was that of Mr. Bertram Smith, clerk
to Edglcy, and who had filled in the body of the
bills, and had been in the habit of forwarding them
to the Leeds Banking Company. No letters were
ever received from the alleged Maydampeck Forest
Company, and his only information as to its exist-
ence was frbm the statements made by Eigley. The
last information was that of Mr. 11. Dawson, who
proved that in November, 1864, he went to Servia
to ascertain the value of property belonging to the
allegedco mpany in
company,
and though there was aFrertch min-
ingoperation, no such concern as the
Maydampeck Forest Company has ever had any
existence.
Detective officer Henry Webb was then sworn,
and proved that he had been engaged in making in-
quiries into this matter for some time, and that on
the 15th April he went, accompanied by a gentle-
man from Messrs. Freshfield's office, to Barham-
house, Bromley, in Kent. •The prisoner admitted
them into the house, and was shown a vast nutuber
of the bills in question, and amongst them one for
£1,120 103 , and he was asked whether those bills
were signed by him. He looked at • the whole of
them, and after hesitating he said that the signature
"E. Devillera" was in his handwriting. He denied
that he had ever been in Servia, but added that at
one time he was going there. At last he refused to
answer further questions, but said he would come
to make inquiries, saw no-
esimprilsOner until he arrived from
up to London and call on Messrs. Freshfield. Wit-
ness, who had no instructions tQ take the prisoner
Mr. Poland intimated that he was not in a condi-
tion to go further with the case to-day, and asked
itDnhtiieonpgcpusemiotnordetyhefbcatustody of Brett.
the
for a remand.
The Lord Mayor acceded, and remanded the
prisoner. to Monday next, refusing to admit him to

bail.
On the application of Mr. Haddock, a gold watch
and chain and some money found upon the prisoner
was ordered to be given up to him, and he was then
removed from the dock.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Eaaottvelevereasi
nrwtnithshaaeoytuaibstufeestahtethetiooosurnmygol ahlthlteoahstfettrllhtiheoyetedooe6nrptdhaurockf
oi‘fiTatyhe Government
meeting,
i mhaEss
.passe,
sWi.sse,d
dis-
turbance. Yesterday evening the Park was given up
absolutely to Mr. Beales and his followers, and the
League held its meeting amid as little excitement
as if they bad been in Trafalgar-square or on Prim-
rose-hill.. After the commotion of the last few
days it might have been expected that, even though
the opposition.. of the Government had been with-
drawn, political feeling curiosity, or a suspicion
that after all something unusual might occur
would have brought the great mass of the London
Population to the scene, and that when there their
sentiments would be anifested with more than
ordinary force.
This , however as far as we were
able to judge,, was not the case. The meetings re-
sembled in every way those which may have been
The
elsewhere during the last ten months.
fhecrowd was not excessive, the enthusiasm was
not intense; there was universal good huinour, nor
did there. seem to be any overweening exultation at
.ment.
the victory that had been won over the Govern-
in a great degree due tot he comparatively early
hour at which the meeting was held. Although
The quiet of the oceedings was, perhaps,
half-past six may be a time of leisure to the labour-
ing class of Loudon yet it is not sufficiently long
after the end of the working day to enable a multi-
tude, to ass,miblo from the more distant parts of
London. ]lad there been any prospect of a collision
with the police, no doubt work or play, or anything
else, would have been forsaken for the clianci of
seeing the fray ; but as it was, the Park, at the
time appointed for the meeting, was not half as
well filled as it had been on the previous after-
noon. Mr. Beales and his friends were punctual,
and they were not very prolix ;
the proceedings,
consequently, were far advanced before the people
came in any large numbers. They
.did, however,
to
come at last, and at about the time when the
habitual visitors of the park retire it was taken pos-
session of by a fairly large concourse. flies;
however, bad nothing
in the cool' of a delicous do but to stroll about
evening, and one may
suppose that the influence of the first balmy Mon-
day of the year made itself felt, for there was
as little of excitement or indignation, or even of
curiosity, among them as can be conceived. No one
would have supposed that they were taking part in
a political demonstration. The large majority of
the assemblage, of course, belonged to the working
people, but the class called "rough" was not very

reports we.publish, were of the usual character, but
the speeches were fair and moderate. The League,
content with its triumph over the Government,
exulted less than might be expected, and even de-
nounced less than usual. It, even by the mouth of
the O'Donoghue, accepted as a compromise the bill
now before Parliament, demanding only that it be
made a fair and honest measure. As the twilight

deepened into dusk the people began to depart, and
long before night settled on the Park it had been
deserted by the great mass of its unusual visitors.
So has ended the great Demonstration of the pre-
sent session The issue has been fortunate,
though the affair has inflicted a humiliation on the
Government such as has been seldom suffered by

Men in office. It is, indeed, difficult to exaggerate

the folly, the recklessness, and the perversity which
have brought the Cabinet of which Mr. Walpole is
a member to its present position. Their confusion
is so complete that it is almost needless to recapitu-
late their mistakes and to dwell on the undignified

result. They may be left to the ridicule of their
adversaries, the reproaches of their own indignant
party, and the murmurs of all who have a regard
for the honour of the Crown and the Executive.
If it were not that important interests are still in-
volved we should be inclined to leave them alone,
conscious that they will have enough to do to re-

move the obloquy that has fallen on them. But we
cannot forget that Mr. Walpole has before the house
a bill for the regulation of the parks, and that any
attempt which may be made to place the holding of
political meetings in the parks at the will of a Mini-
ster will be declared to be an invasion of the rights the
people have conquered. We cannot, therefore, pass
over in silence the history of this transaction, which

has so important a bearing on future legislation.
Our readers know that in N ovember, 1856, the law
advisers of the Crown, Sir Alex. Cockburn, Sir
Richard Bethell, and Mr. Willes, three of the most
eminent lawyers of our time, signed an opinion on
the right to exclude the public from the Parks. We
need not enter into technical details. It is enough to

say that the tenour of the opinion was that the Crown
had the right to close the gates and exclude the pub-
lic, or to exclude persons without closing the gates;
but that persons who had once entered could not be
turned out without notice that the license was with-
drawn. This opinion having been submitted to Sir
H. Cairns and Sir W. Bovill at the time of the riots
last year, they were requested to say whether there
was any legal authority to disperse by force a meet-
ing for political purposes. Their answer was that
no such power as could be practically used exists,
for that persons who have once entered can only be
ejected after notice served upon each person in-
dividually. The Government was advised that it
had nothing to rely upon but the common law of
trespass ; that each man must be turned out with
no more force than is necessary, and that he must
be let go as soon as he has passed the precincts.
The military cannot be legally employed, except in
case of riot; the Riot Act cannot be read, except
when people have been " unlawfully, riotously, and
tumultuously assembled to the disturbance of the
peace." Even then the military must waj an hour,
unless the public proceed to actual " insurrection
or felonious mischief." These are the principal
points of an opinion which ought at once to have
convinced the Government that it had no practical
power under the existing law to prevent public
meetings in the parks ; for though it may legally
turn out any person, or any number of persons, this
power cannot be used against a great multitude. Its
only course—that of refusing permission to well-
known leaders to enter, or gently expelling them
when they have once entered would, perhaps,
avail to prevent Mr. Beales from haranguing, but
would not hinder speeches from any of his fol-
lowers. The employment of soldiers, too, under
such conditions is of such doubtful legality, and a
matter so dangerous if proved to be illegal, that
under the present law, as expounded by its law ad-
visers, the Government should never have planned
a general clearing of the Park by such a force.
Now, this opinion was given at the very beginning
of the controversy, in the summer of last year. It was
therefore clearly the duty of the Ministry eit. er to
announce that the law as it stands does not fortid,
or, at any rat cannot prevent, political meetings,
and that therefore resistance to
.them would cease ;
or they should have come to Parliament for fresh
powers, so as to give the Crown that right of re-
gulating the use of the Parks which it had been
supposed to possess. If it was too late to legislate
last sesssion, the bill might have been brought in
this year. The L-ague has never allowed the ques-
tion to sleep, and for some time past it has been
known that they were pledged to some trial of
strength such as that of yesterday. If Mr. Wal-
pole had frankly laid these opinions before the House
of Commons, and asked for an act defining more pre-
cisely the rights of the Crown, it would, no doubt,
have received a dispassionate consideration. Instead
of this, he keeps the opinion of his lawyers in his
pocket, affects to believe that the law is all that
can be desired, and publishes his proclama-
tion iu the hope of deterring his antagonists,
though he knows that if they are not frightened he
has no means of doing what he threatens. They,
having possibly some inkling of the real state of the
case, have persevered, and at the last moment Mr.
Walpole has been compelled to succumb. It was
in the interval between his last bravado and his
final submission that he brought forward the mea-
sure which is now before Parliament. It will have
every disadvantage to contend with, and a measure
which might have been fairly discussed will now be
the object of invective and derision. We trust that
Mr. Walpole will either desist from any attempt to
legislate, or intrust it, after a decent interval, to
other hands.
THE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " ON CATHOLIC
Pourics.—After speaking ix a frank and cour-
teous manner, though, indeed, in terms far too
flattering, of the WESTMINSTER GAZETTE, and after
congratulating us on having already attained "
respectable circulation,"—which, apropos of Mr.
Formby's kind remark as to our serving as a chan-
nel of communicating Catholic ideas to the general
public we may add, is not inconsiderable among
non-Catholic readers—the Weekly Register observes
that, although " in foreign news, and in discussions
upon general topics, both concerning home and
abroad, it is hardly to be surpassed, the WESTMIN-
STER does not take any very marked line in Eng-
lish politics." Upon this observation it is neces-
sary to make a few remarks. It is our intention, as
we announced in our first number, to take up a very
marked and distinctive line on the matter of Eng-
glish politics. Politics, however, may be treated
either as a matter of principle or as a matter of
party, or, again, as principles em bodied in a
party and carried out by its agency ; but this
latter form, in which speculative principles are put
in action, presupposes and requires complete iden-
tification between the thinker and the active agent,
between principles and political parties. Now, the
question at once arises, or, at any rate, arises
on the least reflection is such an identification
possible of Catholic principles with either of the
great parties in the State? If not; then, any such
attempt can only lead to disappointment, to
wrangling and recrimination, and to years of
wasted energies, and to that final enervation—the
too natural consequence of an obstinate persistence
in an erroneous course—full of acrimonious com-
plaints over resultless labours and over forgotten
services. But it is no true service to the Catholic
cause to identify it with political parties at the
expense of those principles which are dearer to
Catholicism than any seeming or immediate advan-
tages which it may draw from an alliance with
either of the great parties. For no such complete
identification as is required for proper and effec-
tive Parliamentary action is, a
we maintain, possible
in a Catholic party without waiving or a sacrifice,
greater or less, of Catholic principles. In Catholic
politics there are certain broad principles unfortu-
nately repudiated by both of our political parties,
.such as that politics are apart of morals, and as such
come under the cognizance of religion ; that it is
the duty of the State to aim at the spiritual as well
as the temporal welfare of the nation, and. to rank
even the spiritual above the temporal power, and
this not for personal or passing gains to the spiri-
tual power, but for the highest permanent inte-
rests of the State ; that in matters of a mixed cha-
racter, such, for instance, as marriage, the spiri-
tual rights and interests are supreme ; hence the
civil order must in nowise violate or infringe in the
least on the ecclesiastical law ; that the child be-
longs to the parent and not to, the State ; and
that it is a matter of conscience that education in
all classes should be based on religious teaching,
and that the range of subjects affected by these
principles are of infinitely higher importance than
the question of finance or of Reform which now
divides parties; an "l that, finally, on these political
questions, involving spiritual interests the Catholic
episcopate has a voice, the Pope an infallible
authority. For a Catholic party holding such
political principles to identify themselves with
either the Whig or Tory party is a mere fallacy;
they can only really do so by subordinating
Catholic to party principles, and content them-
selves at such a sacrifice to snatch a temporary
gain or a passing triumph for the Catholic cause.
But, by such a subordination, how small is the
gain, how great the loss. The gain too often is
but partial, whilst the loss sometimes is a sacrifice
of the highest principles of Catholic conduct. To
illustrate our meaning by 'a recent familiar inci-
dent : The terms of the Catholic Parliamentary
oath repealed last session were, as is well known,
most offensive and mischievous ; but its repeal or
modification would have been dearly bought at the
sacrifice of the principle that no such oath can be