The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-29 00:00:00

Captain COURTENAY. Honour to those true-hearted
tars one and all, and especially to their able chief,
the one entrusted with the supreme responsibility.
Had the voyage unhappily closed with a disaster,
it would have demanded some notice. Had
the crew proved inefficient and the skipper
incompetent, they would have illicited some
passing words of reprobation. As the
event in each instance has proved exactly the
reverse, we certainly do not feel in any way either
constrained or disposed to remain silent. And
while we rejoice at the happy arrival in port of
the good ship Indian Empire, we honour and
admire, and would here most cordially commend in
a few simple, but earnest words, the gallantry,
skill, courage, and unflinching resolution displayed
from first to last by her trusty crew and her
gallant Captain.

The elaborate diatribes of certain anti-Min isterial
journals, in reference to the publication of Sir JOHN
YOUNG'S despatches, at an untoward period, have
all been thrown away. If the Palmerstonians were
to be credited, a grave mistake had been committed,
which would paralyse the energies even of Mr.
GLADSTONE, and send back that distinguished
statesman in a state of burning indignation, at the
fool's errand on which he had been despatched. It
was held forth as a formidable weapon in the
hands of the Opposition, which would inevitably
be supported by ' all the power and all the do-
quence of the Member for the University of
Oxford.

But the mare's nest so hastily grasped at has at
length been revealed in its true characteristics.
There is no Minister of State at fault, scarcely a
subordinate official, whose error, if any, was cer-
tainly not a wilful one, but arose from an undue
sense of security and too strong a reliance on the
honour of the friend whom he admitted to an
audience. It is not our practice to speculate on the
facts of a case as yet undecided, or to condemn any
man while the matters of which he is
accused are as yet sub judice. Should
Mr. WELLINGTON GREVILLE GUERNSEY be
enabled to prove his innocence lone will rejoice
more sincerely than ourselves ; but at present it is
satisfactory to know that the case will receive a
searching judicial investigation, which will elicit all
the facts connected therewith. We must here
remind our readers that but one side of the case has
as yet been heard, and that audi alter= partem is
a golden rule of British jurisprudence, which never
has, and, we trust, never will be dispensed with.
It cannot, however, do any harm to the accused
to state a brief summary of the grounds of suspicion
on which he has been committed for trial. It ap-
peared that he had formerly held a commission
in the Turkish Contingent, and has-subsequently
been in South America. On his return home he
had applied for employment in the Colonial-office,
and was very much annoyed at his applications
having met with a colder reception than he had
anticipated, holding out threats that the Colonial
Secretary "should repent it." During his career
he had become on terms of acquaintanceship
with Mr. MILLER, sub-librarian at the Colonial-
office, and he paid frequent visits to that gentle-
man. Mr. MILLER has lately been acting for Mr.
MAYER, the principal librarian, during his
vacation, and in that capacity had received
several copies of the despatch from Sir JOHN
YOUNG, which had been printed for confidential
circulation amongst certain high officials. He had
placed them on the right hand side of his table with
other papers, and a heavy book over them. lie
had probably thus placed them for the purpose of
immediate transmission, and. had not the slightest
notion that there would be any interference with
the important documents. Unfortunately, he was
suddenly called into an antechamber, and during
his absence Mr. GUERNSEY was left alone in the
room. Nothing was, however, at the time missed,
nor was any suspicion excited until the publication
of these despatches in the ,Daily News,

No blame whatever can be cast on our contem
porary. The precaution was taken of obtaining a
proper verification. The responsible party for the
production was Mr. GUERNSEY, and all the account
that he would or has condescended to render
after the mischief was effected was, that a person
had left them at his house. Amongst other cir-
cumstances connected with the -case was the fact
that sixteen official envelopes, similar to those inuse
in the Crimea, and which would have come into his
hands while on active service, were found in his
possession, and that the enclosure to the Daily
News was contained in one of a like description.

These various points will have to be explained,
if possible. At all events, her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment are exonerated from all censure, and we
believe that the clerks in the office are also freed
from what must have been a very unpleasant sus-
picion, until the most stringent and searching
inquiry had been instituted into all the circum-
stances of this very untoward transaction.

It was but seldom that prosecutions for commer-
cial frauds, or of absconding bankrupts, appeared
in our criminal courts. They are now, unfortu-
nately, of frequent occurrence, and the conduct of
the offender proves the necessity of making strik-
ing examples. New modes of deceiving confiding
creditors are daily practised, and few- can escape
the ingenious snares spread for their capture. It is
no longer by open violence, or sleight-of-hand, that
parties are plundered._ A gang, assuming the
appearances of respectable tradesmen, or a man
setting up in business for • the purpose of fraud,
contrive to obtain goods, which are immediately
converted into cash, and the beguiled creditor de-.

prived of the slightest chance of payment. And.
these persons have the audacity to think that 'they'
will be regarded as mere debtors, and that they can
escape the penal consequences of their offences
under cover of the laws intended for the protection
of honest, although unfortunate, debtors. They
will, however, speedily discover theirmistake ; and
if the precedent afforded by the proceedings of
the Central Criminal Court, on Thursday, last,
be properly, followed up, the distinction
between the eases:of bona fide debtors and unprinci-
pled 'swindlers will soon be clearly manifested.
On Thursday, a man named LEWIS LEWIS was
indicted for omitting to surrender on being declared
a bankrupt, and for removing and concealing his
books. After the messenger of the court was in
his house, he had started for New York, carrying
with him property to the extent of about £l,OOO
sterling. He was promptly pursued, and the de-
tective officer was enabled to recover about £377
for his creditors. With extraordinary fatuity he
fancied that the surrender of a portion of his ill-
gotten gains would exempt him from all further
liability. He returned to the scene of his iniquity,
but was speedily uadeceived when a sentence of
six years' penal servitude was accorded as the fit-
ting penalty of his misdeeds.
Another bankrupt, LEWIS ZUCKER, was also con-
victed for having made false entries in his books,
and giving pntrue evidence before the Commissioner
of Bankruptcy. The fraud was very clearly displayed
in this case. It was proved beyond the possibility
of doubt that the paper on -which the entries of
what purported to be his transactions for the three
last years had only been purchased in 1857, and,

therefore, the books were manifestly concocted fir
a fraudulent purpose. He, too, wag sentenced to
six years' penal servitude ; and when the vast im-
portance of commercial rectitude is taken into con-
sideration it will be seen that these delinquents
have escaped more easily than others adopting
similar courses can hope to do. The daring high-
wayman, whose life would be forfeited on convic-
tion, could never inflict an equal amount of injury
on society than those dastardly swindlers who,
under false pretences and mendacious professions,
reduce respectable persons to ruin, and blast the
prospects of their future lives. We trust, however,
that the examples of the present session will induce
men of similar dispositions to pause in their
reckless career, and to remember that if there be
present temptations there are also stringent penal-
ties looming in the future.

THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN

PARIS.

The Sun, Globe, Daily News, Express, and
Morning and Evening Herald, were seized in Paris
on Saturday. The subscribers to Galignani's
rooms had nothing to read bnt the Times, Post,
and Chronicle, in neither of which was there any
report of the Montalembert trial, which was the
very thing that everybody was anxious to see.
The Times was detained with the other papers in
the morning, but as usual was released later in the
day by special orders from the Ministry of the
Interior. .

The Nord was first stopped on account of a
very short report, which was all the correspondent
of that paper could give ; but the .Nord is as much
the organ of the French Government as that of St.
Petersburg, and accordingly the seizure of the
.Nord was not maintained.

FIRST SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE

AT ST. PAUL'S

Yesterday, being Advent Sunday, was appro-
p,riately made the occasion of the inaugural evening
service at St. Paul's Cathedral.
The event was attended with some drawbacks, or
rather with one involving some incidental disad-
vantages. There were too many persons anxious
to be present on the occasion, and hence the vicinity
of the main western entrance to the cathedral—by
which the'public were to be admitted—was thronged
in a manner not in unison with the solemn cha-
racter of a religious service. In fact, Ludgate-hill
for a considerable distance . down presented a
spectacle which carried one's mind back to the
funeral of the Duke of Wellington. Two thousand
five hundred was, as previously arranged, the num-
ber to be comfortably. accommodated, but probably
with the choir and the persons between the dome
and the organ there were in all not less than three
thousand persons assembled. The choir itself com-
prised 500 singers. With regard to the congrega-
tion, the most noticeable feature was the extremely
small proportion of ladies—a fact which can sur-
prise no one who remembers how terribly females
suffered on the first night of the opening of West-
minster Abbey.
Shortly before .7 o'clock the Lord Mayor arrived
in the civic equipage. The Bishop of London, who
was the preacher on the occasion, the Dean of St.
Paul's, and the members of the chapter present, sat
lose to the pulpit stairs.
The Bishop commenced his sermon about five
minutes after eight. His text was taken from the
Ist chapter of the Ist Epistle of St. Paul to the
Corinthians, and the 7th verse.
The Bishop's discourse occupied fifty-five minutes,
making the entire service of more than two hours'
duration. _ _

The result as regards the audibility of the
prayers, the lessons, and the sermon was by no
means so satisfactory as could be desired.
Outside the cathedral the scene was still rather
indecorous for Sunday evening. A large number,
of those who had been unable to obtain admission
to the service were lingering about the south door,
and as the carriages of the Lord Mayor and the
other civic dignitaries were leaving with their
occupants the assembled crowd gave vent to their
feelings by unmistakeable groans of displeasure, as
if they considered themselves to have been unfairly
excluded. The -unreasonableness of this feeling,
however, is manifest, as the entire cathedral would
scarcely have contained all who wanted to obtain
access to it.

CABINET COUNClL.—Summonses have been issued
for a meeting of the Cabinet Ministersto-morrow afternoon,
Ott the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in Downing-street.
'The Earl of Derby left town on Saturday evening
for Osterley-park. The Marquis of Salisbury left London
on Friday for Hatfield-house. The Right Hon. J, W
Henley returned on Friday afternoon to Brighton. Lord
John Manners, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord
Chancellor, Lord Stanley, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, and Mr.
Spencer Walpole remain in the metropolis. The Cabinet
Councils are expected to be resumed this week.

Mr. Ralph Osborne,.M.P., is now convalescent.
The Lord Chancellor has conferred the rectory of
St. Stephen's, rendered vacant by the lamented death of
the Rev. C. Buck, on the Rev; Richard Williams' vicar
of Dacre, Cumberland, and brother to the Dean of Liandaff.
The appointment to the Chaplaincy of York
Castle is likely to be warmly contested. We (Yorkshire
Oazette) have already heard of the following candidatgs :
The Rev. C. Watson, of York ; the Rev. T. Irvin, of
Ormesby ; the Rev. J. Wainwright, of York; the Roc J.
C. Thompson, of Beverley, &c.
The Rev. Alfred Poole has, it is said, abandoned
the action for libel which he had commenced against th
son. and Rev. Mr. Baring.
REPRESENTATION OF BRECON.—Mr. Godfrey.
Morgan, son of Sir Charles Morgan, of Tredegar-park, will
offer himself as a candidate for the seat rendered vacant by
the death of the late Sir J. Bailey. In politics Mr. Morgan
is a Liberal Conservative.
The Sunday evening services at Westminster
Abbey will recommence the first Sunday of the new year.
We have to record the &Anise o Lady Cranstoun,
mother of the present peer. Her 'ladyship was eldest
daughter of the late Mr. John Macnamara, and married in
August, 1807, James Edmund, ninth-Lord Cranstoun, wh
died in 1818, by whom the deceased lady had a family of
two sons and two daughters.
The Illustrated limes gives a rumour to the effect
that Lord Stanley is about to be married to the eldest
Oaughter of Lord, John Russell. If there be any truth in
the rumour the fact will exercise undoubted influence on
the 0-ate of political parties.

- _
SIR B. BRODIE.—We (Lancet) have reason to
believe that Sir B. Brodie is to be raised to the' peerage
with the ‘qtle of Baron Betchworth.
It is rumoured (says the United Service Gazette)
that Mr. W. Balfe, the celebrated composer, is to succeed
the present superintendent of the musical instruction de-
partment at Kneller Hall.
The report of the attempt to poison Madame
Ristori, we have good authority for stating, was a mere
canard.—Court Journal.

4AYMARKET ni lIEATRE.—The highly-successful
engagement of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mathews at this
popular theatre'was brought to a close on Saturday evening,
when the performances consisted of the comedy of " The
Belle's Stratagem," and the burlesque drama of " The
Critic." The house was brilliantly and numerously at.
tendel, and the performances passed off with the greatest
eclat.

The report of the directors of the African Steam
I
ship Company, issued on Saturday, recommendsia
divldend of 10s. per share for the year; being et
the r:lte of 5 per cent. per annum.
DEATH OF LADY CHARLOTTE BRIDOEMAN.—We
regret to ,have to state that death has terminated the suffer-
ings of La dy Charlotte Bridgeman, the daughter of Lord
Bradford, w, ho was recently so dreadfully burned by the
accidental cat 'ching fire of her dress. She died. at the noble
lord's seat, N L'reston, Shropshire, on Friday last. Her
sister, Lady Lacy', still lies in a very precarious state.
ur
THE CURISIIIAS HOLIDAYS.—As Christmas-day
will this year ex on Saturday, the tradesmen of Derby
intend closing onl'llontlay as well, in order to allowtheir
assistants an o tinily to visit their friends. No doubt
tradesmen in other 'mu; of the kingdom will do likewise.—
Staffordshire Advert iser.
THE ROUGH W BATHER IN TUE NORTH SEA.—
SHIELDS, Saturday N fight.—Last night about 7 o'clock, the
schooner Minerva, M. ann, of Colchester, in ballast, in at-
tempting the anchorag -el in Coquet-roads, with the wind at
S.E., blowing very hai tl, and thick rainy weather, could not
fetch the roadstead, an d having let go the "anchors to lee-
ward drove on the Pal z ; crew saved. At thesame
time the brig Protect() r, Warkworth, which sailed from
that ;place,. for Brugc o, coal laden, on the 23d instant,
having experienced -very heavy weather, the vessel
became so leaky, an d the crew so exhausted by con-
tinually pumping, tha t she was obligedto run for the beach,
a ; quarter of a mil 'O3 south .et Warkworth-harbour.
having, five feet of w a ter in her hold at the time, The
crew we?e all saved, but the vessel is :likely to become a
wreck. 'The Great N 'orthern screw steamer, which came
ashore at :Sunderland on Thursday evening, now Lies just
within high-water maz midway between the pier and
Roker. She, is a tigh t iron vessel, the property of Mr.
Young, of Wisbeach, az Ld commanded by Dlr. Cook. She
is but slightly Llamaged at the bows and has lost her bow-
sprit. She lies broadsit le on the sea at present, but it is
intended to get her head on, and let her lie till next spring
tides. The crew' and th a captain's wife, who happened to
be in her when the
vessel struck, were all taken off with the
rocket lines. Abou tl5 1 eet of wall at the pier head, formed
of huge blocks of sto
peg two feet think, and weighing about
•
over and broken to p
.
four tons each, cement Id ft:icl tied with iron,' were thrown
brought heavy "freshets'
ieceL by the 'force with which the
the Wear. Yesterday aftc .The rains of Thursday have
steamer struck the pie],
ice floated down with the e
' down into Shields harbour and
srno on a great quantity of loose
tide from the upper reaches
of the Tyne, and caused a unsiderable amount of incon-
venience, more especially wsite the business parts of
North Shields. op,