The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-26 00:00:00

DON, FRIDAY EVENINa, APRIL 26, 1867.

d'Exploitation had been merged into a larger com-
pany, the Societe Generale d'Exploitation de Che-
mins de Fer, under a strong and influential body of
shareholders, and the directors had everyreason to be
satisfied with the arrangements. The report of Mr. A.
W: Chantrell, the managing director in Belgium,
stated that the works on the Roulers and Ypres line
bad been commenced, as well as those of the Dix-
mude and Nieuport. The works on the Courtray
and Denderleeuw had also been recently com-
menced, and the first section, as far as Audenaerde,
was expected to be ready by the end of this year.
The Imperial decree approving the convention
signed between the Minister of Agriculture, Com-
merce, and Public \Yolks and this company for the
concesion of the line from Hazebrouck to the
frontier of Belgium was granted on Dec. 19 last,
and there was reason to expect that the construc-
tion of the Poperinghe and Hazebrouck junction
would not be long delayed. The capital account
showed that £599,554 had been expended. The
revenue account showed that £17,262 bad been re-
ceived, including a balance of £,1,121 from the pre-
ceding account ; and the expenditure, including
interest on bonds and preference capital, amounted
to £10,228, leaving, as above, a balance of £7,034.

WESTERN SHAREHOLDERS' ASSOCIATION.

It appears that the objects of this association are
to impress upon the directors of the various com-
panies the abandonment of some or all of the
schemes for extension now projected by the respec-
tive companies in the present session of Parliament,
and, if considered advisable, to obtain the sanction
of Parliament to the abandonment of any unpro-
fitable scheme to which either company may be
considered to be pledged by Parliament. The chair-
man, Mr. R. Brent, and the hon. secretaries, Messrs.
H. S. Ellis and R. M. Daw, state that they have
forwarded copies of memorials, signed by numerous
influential shareholders, to the directors of the Lon-
don and South-Western Railway Company, the
Bristol and Exeter Railway Company, expressing
their opinion that it is most undesirable to as:4st the
formation of the Devon and Cornwall and other pro-
jected railways in the West of England, excepting
the extension from Okehampton to Lidford ; urging
that every facility be given to the public for the
interchange of traffic between the various Weitern
railways. They also state that a deputation from
this association has already had an interview with the
dir, ctors, in reference to the various extensions pro-
jected or supported by the London and South-
Western Company, at which interview the directors
signified their desire to postpone as long as possible
the construction of such branches and extensions as
are partly made, and to enter into no engagements
for the construction of other branches and lines ex-
cept such as are absolutely necessary.

Euphrates, leaving the Deyvsim between them
and the Turkish forces at Erzingow and Erzeroum ;
and the Russians would then move through an Ar-
menian population, if not favourable, at least not
directly hostile, and exercise at every step an influ-
ence over the Kizzilbash, who would themselves be
sufficient to hold in check a large army seeking to
take the short route of their rugged mountains. But,
besides, the country is in a financial point of view
well worthy the Porte's attention, the hills abound-
ing in iron, copper, lepd, and even silver, and pro-
ducing gall nuts, and other natural productions—
all unknown to the Turks. Passing on through
other districts, the Consul found, with some ex-
ceptions, caused by oppression that is unchecked,
a prosperous population in the Erziugau Sanjak
and the Kharput plain. In this great plain there
are villages every half hour, and all available lands
groan under orchards, grain, and cotton ; the poor
emigrate for employment to the cities, and the
people, therefore, arc prosperous, the Christians
purchasing land of the Moslems freely. At Diarbekr
he found that, after five years of losses by locusts
first, and then by cholera, the Tchetchen immigra-
tion, unfortunately advocated bv the Pasha and
sanctioned by the Porte, is proving disastrous to
the province. The loss in cattle alone has been
enormous, not only from over-work in transporting
the immigrants and their baggage, but also from
the undiscriminating tastes of this half-famished
people. Unsupplied with proper rations by the
Government, they devoured every four-footed beast
that fell into their hands, whether killed in the usual
way or dead from natural causes ; oxen-, horses,
dogs, donkeys, buffaloes, and camels—nothing came
amiss to them. Within the last three months of
1866 more than 5,000 beasts of burden were lost to
the poor agricultural classes of the province, and
timber to the amount of more than £2,000 sterling
iu value from one district alone. Many of the owners
of cattle gave them up, and never attended to re-
claim, beingin fear of corvee. Artisans and labourers
have been dragged from their 'mina 80 miles off to
build the homes, Government offices, and huts for
the new city, leaving their families and business at
a season when their presence was absolutely neces-
sary, and for which the nominal dole, promised but
not paid them, can be no compensation. The Con-
sul thinks it hardly likely that a race like these new
subjects of the Porte, accustomed for the last fifty
years to a life of war and plunder, will at once
quietly sink down into the comparative inaction
of an agricultural life in a colony, composed entirely
of themselves, headed by intelligent, clever men,
formerly officers of the Russian army, and retaining
all their old Tchetchenais associations of war,
battle, struggles for freedom, and belief that riches
and plenty are dependent solely upon the single
strength of their arms. Nor will the knowledge
they are hutted in a country that for centuries has
been abandoned by the Turks—if, indeed, it was
ever really subject—from their sheer inability to held
'their own against the Arabs, contribute to their
loyalty, particularly if put to the test of taxation
and conscription. The Consul trusts that the Go-
vernment will not, by withdrawing its support,
prematurely drive the Tchetchens to brigandage for
subsistence ; and he strongly advocates the placing
a permanent regular force at Ras-el-Ain to awe the
Bedouins and force peaceful habits upon the im-
migrants. The absence of resistance on the part of
the 4rabs to the establishment of a foreign colony
in a country which they regard as their own is en-
couraging. The Pasha is a man of great persever-
ance. If the new colonists should turn out the re-
generators of this most fruitful portion of the
Turkish Asiatic dominions, and, by constantly me-
nacing the Arabs, force those useless people to their
proper localities, the arid deserts beyond the Euphra-
tes and about Nejd, foreign settlers might be at-
tracted, who would serve as a counterbalance to
possible or probable rebels. The Consul has seen no
country so well calculated for pasture and agricul-
ture, more particularly cotton. There are thou-
sands of acres of rich virgin soil completely under
the natural irrigation of the Khal)oor and its sources,
in a level country practicable even at present for
every kind of wheeled conveyance to Mosul on the
one :tide, and Aleppo on the other. A railway, so
!ong talked of, between the Mediterranean add Per-
sian Gulf would find its shortest route through Ras-
el. Ain and other districts, which it is proposed to
colonise with Tchetchens and others now under Arab
influence.

SPILUT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

~-

TIMES.—So far as M. Paulin Limayrac and the
Constitutionnel may be taken to be the expression of
the Emperor Napoleon's mind, it would seem easy
to acquit the French Government of all blame in
that unfortunate matter of Luxemburg. Prance,
we are told, seeks no quarrel ; she neither offered
nor intended any provocation. She only comphins
of Prussia's dog-in-the-manger policy. She cannot
conceive why that Power, which made so good a job
of its last year's venture, should grudge its neigh-
bour a little business in the same line, and stand in
the way of a bargain in which France was ready to
pay down hard cash. France looked upon the Grand
Duchy as no man's land—a mere waif thrown upon
her borders by the great wreck of the old German
Confederation, an " unconsidered trifle," which
she might as well "snap up" as anybody else.
The question, no doubt, lies on the very terms
set down in the Constitutionnel. Long before the
Luxemburg quarrel presei.ted such terribly serious
aspects as it has now assumed, when the very name
of the Grand Duchy hardly conveyed to most men
a distinct idea, it was Count Bismark who, volun-
tarily and gratuitously, from his place in the North
German Parliament, informed the world that the
King of the Netherlands, by the dissolution of the
old German Blind, recovered the full sovereignty of
his out-lying territory, that the Luxcinburgers
showed no sympathy with the Prussians, and no wish
to be incorporated in the new Confederacy, and that,
for his own part, he, Bismark himself, was desirous
to break off all connection with non-German Poten-
tates. It is true that, in the same breath, the
Minister expressed a confident hope that "Prussia's
undoubted rights would never be challenged," but it
was hardly to be suppose 1 that the same Power
should put forth claims to mere barracks and store-
houses, after so distinct a renunciation of the grounl
on which those buildings stood. That Prussia could
continue to be at home in a place which was, with
her consent, to become French territory was a con-
ceit which Count Bismark could not hope to pass off
even as a sally of Brandenburg humour. The mo-
deration and liberality of the Count's answer to Herr
Bennigsen at that juncture took the world by sur-
prise, and was naturally construed into a confirma-
tion of the vague surmises connected with Bis-
mark's visit to Biarritz. Those rumours, as we all
remember, were that the neutrality of France
during the late war had been purchased at that
famous interview by a promise of Prussia's
connivance at an eventual French annexation
of Belgium, or that a partition of the Nether-
lands territories, and the advance of France and
Germany on either side to the Scheldt, had
been hinted at between the two secret nego-
tiators. All this conjectural edifice had no other
foundation than the fact of France's neutrality.
The transfer for Luxemburg, had it been peace-
fully effected, might have been looked upon as a
first step towards the fulfilment of the alleged
bargain. But, however earnest Couut Bismark
may have been in his engagements, he either had
ceased, or wished to appear to have ceased, to be a
free agent when called upon for performance.
Events were too rapid, and German patriotism was
too ramp uit for him. National enthusiasm was the
holy water and the Fade retra by which the fiend,
was baffled when he came forth and claimed his
bond. Under such provocation there is something
almost angelic in the temper with which the semi-
official organ, assuming to speak in the name of the
Imperial Government, assures us that France " puts
aside every claim," and is willing to allow the ques-
tion to be considered as a European one. Europe, we
know, or the three mediating Powers, England,
Russia, and Austria, are supposed to have come to
the conclusion that Prussia has no longer a right to
the place she has for above half a century occupied
in the Grand Duchy, and have sent a note to Berlin
conveying their views ou, the subject. Count Bis-
mark, however, has a habit of being from home at
the right moment, and the official answer has been
put off for a few days. in the Minister's absence,
however, the North German Gazette intimated that
" the Prussian garrison would never be withdrawn
from Luxemburg." Possibly, however, that decision
may gave to be reconsidered. There has been in this
affair something like precipitation on all sides. Thii
matter has too soon been suffered to get beyond the
control of statesmen. The French, who, only a few
(lays ago, had hardly heard of Luxemburg, found
out all at once that the existence of its fortress in
German hands was au insult and a menace to
themselves ; while the Germans, who, in the re-
constitution of their country, had left the Grand
Duchy out in the cold, are now quite sure that

its stronghold is the key to the gates of . Berlin.
There is not much that can be taken as serious
in any of these assertions. The importance of
fortresses in the issues of modern warfare has
been reduced to its true proportions. Fortresses
may be of avail to small States unable otherwise to
take the field, as the Dannewerke and Duppel were
to Denmark, but only for a short and puny effort ;
but the destinies of empires are decided by the shock
of vast masses in the open, and under the walls of
their capitals. What good were Josephstadt and
Koniggratz, or even Olinutz itself, to Benetlek, when
Sadowa was lost ? Or where would have been the
Use even of the Quadrilateral had the Archduke
Albrecht been worsted at Custozza, and Cialdini
been enabled to cross the Alps to Vienna? The
pretext of the fortress deceives no person ; and if it
were indeed true that France renounces all hopes of
the territory, and that Prussia, acknowledging the
repugnance of the people to her rule, is willing to
release them from all German allegiance, if it were
true that the question is reduced to the mere ram-
parts of the citadel, the solution would only be too
obvious. What Prussian pride might refuse to the
peremptory demands of France might with a good
grace be granted to the representations of friendly
Powers. The demolition of the fortress of Luxem-
burg may be an impracticable and, perhaps, an un-
desirable undertaking. But a more plausible
arrangement suggests itself. The destinies of the
Luxemburgers should be left in their own hands,
and, whether they declared in favour of an indepen-
dent Government or voted for re-union to Belgium,
the fortress should by all means be made over to
the latter kingdom. The danger in all these con-
templated changes presses most heavily upon that
free but defenceless Belgian community, and the
first tramp of warlike feet in the apprehended out-
break would do away with the inviolability of that
neutral territory. if there is any State on the Con-
tinent to which we are really bound by clear engage-
ments, that State, as we learn from Lord Stanley, is
Belgium ; and, however indifferent we might other-
wise be to to the havoc which the two great rival
nations might, in the indulgence of their mad
passions, inflict upon one another, we can hardly
help wishing that their difference should be termi-
nated in the manner which could best screen our
Belgian friends from their neighbours' ambition.
The degree of authority that the mediating Powers
may exercise ou the interested parties will depend
on the earnestness and unanimity with which they
go to work. France, if we may believe M. Paulin
Limayrac, shows sufficient deference and complai-
sance. She even holds aloof from the negotiation,
not to embarrass the mediators' actions, and seems
willing to await their award. Notwithstanding any
amount of blustering, we should not expect to find
Germany more intractable. Bisreark has at all times
shown himself a deep gamester, fully competent to
reckon the terrible odds. He is not the man to be
led astray by the mere outcry of beerhouse enthu-
siasm. Ile is fully aware that in many of the newly
annexed districts loyalty to Prussia has struck no
very deep roots. Ile knows full well what reliance
may be put on the fidelity of his Southern allies.
However desperate he may have seemed in his ven-
tures, there has always been method and calculation
in his audacity. Had not Austria's trial been Italy's
opportunity, it is questionable whether Prussia would
ever have struck a blow for German supremacy.
There are but few instances of a big bully fairly and
deliberately coming to blows with another equally
big. A single-handed encounter with France offers
Prussia hardly any chance of certain success, and if
she looks round about her and sounds the disposi-
tion of Denmark, Austria, and other countries,
except, perhaps, Russia, she must see how far more
numerous than the friends who would back her
would be the enemies arrayed against her. If the
mediating Powers know how to make the best of
all these cirzumstances, they will have, perhaps, a
less arduous task beiore them than is gene-
rally imagined. Whatever may be the mood of the
would-be belligerents, the neutral Powers should
never forget that they are three against two. Inde-
pendent of the sacredness of their peace-making
mission, they should feel how easy it is for Might
to throw its weight into the scales with Right.
There was a moment, as the world is aware, in
which a decisive attitude on the part of France
would, in the summer of last year, have damped the
warlike ardour of Prussia and Austria, and pre-
vented the hostilities out of which the present corn-
, plication arose. Only those who undertake to
curb other people's ambition should themselves be
. inaccessible to all covetous longings. "He who is
without sin let him cast the first stone." The want
of the policeman has long been felt in Europe. But
how can the office be intrusted to any one who is
not above the temptation of his neighbour's pockets?
' had Russia nothing to gain and Austria nothing
to retrieve by war, it is not likely that a cannon
could be fired on the Rhine without their permis-
sion.

HERALD. - Despite their abusive language and
their violent resolutions, the meetings that have been
held to denounce the Government and the Reform
Bill afford abundant testimony to the wisdom of the
one and the popularity of the other. The assem-
blages are not formidable iu point of numbers, and
they are so insignificant in point of influence and
character as to show plainly that the true feeling of
the country is against them. The resolutions them-
selves point to a similar conclusion. It is found im-
possible to get up a demonstration in favour of any
practical counter-proposition. The mass meetings
of Birmingham and Leeds do not express their ap-
proval of a £5 rating limitation, or their preference
for a rental qualification ; they demand that which
they know no, Government will propose and no Par-
liament will ever concede—that which is popularly
understood by the phrase " universal suffrage." Last
year similar meetings passed votes of confidence in
the late Government and satisfaction with the £7
franchise; this year they confine themselves to de-
clamations that have no practical sense at all, and
demands in which their leaders refuse to concur. It
is plain, then, that the agitation out of doors is
wholly unreal and artificial ; that it is confined to
that class which has not and never will have any
practical weight in English politics— the class with
which wild declamation passes for argument, and
abstract dogmas for statesmanship—the class of
theorists and revolutionary dreamers. There is no
sober, thoughtful, orderly opposition to the Minis-
terial measure ; no
genuine support of Mr. Glad-
stone's obstinate adherence to the fatal error of 1832
and the fiasco of 1866. We are entitled to assume
that the practical political sense of the nation is con-
tent with the Reform Bill of Mr. Disraeli ; and we
assume th's the more confidently that its opponents
direct their attacks not so much against the mea-
sure as against the men by whom it is brought for-
ward. They dare not cope with the provisions of the
bill, and the reasoning by which those provisions are
maintained ; they prefer to elicit clap-trap cheers by
panegyrics on Mr. Gladstone, the friend of the people,
and denunciations of the Ministers, the inveterate
enemies of reform. " Codlin's the friend, not Short."
This is the substance of all that Mr. Forster and Mr.
Stansfeld have to say ; this is all that Mr. Bright
can urge, beyond a deliberate misstatement of the
nature of the measure, and an appeal to local preju-
dice and local circumstances. Coarse personal abuse,
false personal charges, vulgar railing, or impudent
imputations of fraud and collusion, as unfounded in
fact as unscrupulous in assertion, form the staple of
Liberal harangues. Could there be a stronger testi-
mony to the unanswerable force of Tory arguments
and the unimpeachable honesty and equity of the
Tory Reform Bill ? Evidently the old word has once
more been passed along the Radical ranks--" No
evidence for the defence ; abuse the plaintiff's attor-
ney." The speeches of Mr. Forster and Mr. Stans-
feld are significant both in their omissions and their
admission. Both are in some sense representative
men, both are extreme Radicals, both have some
practical experience in politics, both are warm per-
sonal friends of Mr. Gladstone. It is noticeable
that neither has much to say against the bill or in
favour of the defeated amendment. The former,
indeed, seems to prefer the ratepaying franchise to
the rental limit, which he frankly admits to have
been formally and finally condemned. He voted
for the amendment ; but he must, in so doing,
have had a struggle with his conscience, for he cer-
tainly does not approve of the scheme of which that
amendment formed a part. Ile commends the Con-
servative Government for having done away with
limitations based on accidental distinctions of value,
and placed all householders on one footing, though
lie thinks that the conditions imposed on all are too
stringent and unequal in their operations. As is
often—unhappily not always—his wont, he speaks
like a man of sense and of business. He understands
the question with which he deals, and when he
phases he can support his views, but not by the sense-
' less appeals to abstract theory which suit the mob,
but by the arguments which influence practical men ;
not by reference to imaginary rights of man, but by
such considerations of policy and prudence as have
had weight with his own "Died. lie holds extreme
opinions ; but he is not a man of extreme mind. His
habit of thought, his manner of regarding political
subjects, are those of a businesslike and often a
statesmanlike intellect, not those of a fanatical
imagination. Wherever the interest and rights of
white men only are concerned Mr. Forster is
capable of judging and arguing on practical grounds,
and his speeches in Parliament upon the question
of Reform have certainly contributed to throw light
upon some important points. Mr. Stansfeld is a
clever men, but unhappily on this subject he is led
into injustice and absurdity by two of the dominant
defects of his character. He is vindictive ; and he
hate; the Conservatives too heartily to speak of them,
perhaps even to think of them, with common candour
and courtesy. And he has lived so long among con-
spirators, and associated himself so closely with their

wild fancies and credulous assertions, that be 1.5
ready as Signor Mazzini himself to believe in
'her.
ginary. plots and secret treaties concerted by othe4
Signor Mazzini used to tell us of treaties bets'
e'n
sardine's;
Austria and Russia, between France and
.containing compacts of unheard-of villany ; keno
in what pigeonhole they were lodged, and could
they
the breadth and colour of the tape with which t
were tied.. So Mr. Stansfeld has imagined 3 eftes
pact between the Conservatives and the
in virtue of which a restriction of value is to be
added
to that of ratepaying—so that Mr. Gladstone 's r'of
strictive proposition may be combined with that iv
the Government, and the franchise confined note eil6
to ratepayers but to householders of more than
~s
rental. who pay rates. This shameful compact s'n'ot
the price of Lord Grosvenor's support. Vie aref-re.
told. why the majority of the resolute partisans °'.os-
strictions on both sides of the house, voted agal.na
the Government, for little difficulties of this be-
never disturb the implicit faith of a Mazzinise, e.
liever. However, notwithstanding Mr. Stansfeld sour
peated asseverations, we venture to tell him, c'e
own responsibility,
. that the charge he has so reekl,To
made is utterly unfounded ; that Ministers
soon abandon the first of their propositions—theo3l
soiialpayment of rates—as that second and co-el, na
principle of the bill—the removal of all absolute
r,3
arbitrary exclusion ; and that if Lord Grosireeetho
proposition. were accepted it would not have the
effect which he supposes, but would. still leave
small householder free to achieve his own enftarlAel„Tity
meut. Apart from this ebullition of spiteful creu",,i,
or unscrupulous. malice, Mr. Stansfeld's sPet,
and, in a less explicit manner, Mr. Forster 's sn:
indicate a disposition to take a course the verl
posite. of that insisted on by Mr. Gladstone and
Bright. Instead of denouncing the bill as mewritt
lessly bad, and wishing to reserve the vote of
13th , they accept that vote and conceive it to be ;he
wow
er.
business
the
.. of the Liberal party to try to improve tof
bill in committee, retaining the personal parnelto'
rates as a settled question. They use stronger 'eit
guage than is at all just or consonant with tro,
real meaning, and indulge in useless insult and P of
vocation, by way of reasserting the supreniaeY,s
their party ; but what they really intend is, it seicuit;
that the two years' residence should be reduced
one, and that the case of the compound houselial"b- le
should be met by some compromise more favours r
than that contained in the bill—for instance, t,11;
as Mr. Hibbert proposes, the tenant slinniu,.o..
allowed to pay only the reduced rate which he c.
covers from his landlord, instead of the full..,e;te
This is clearly the proper and the only legitll 00
policy of the Opposition. Any further attack. us
the integrity of the bill would be simply fact,leify,
and mischievous. But they are entitled to itoeir
if they can, its more obnoxious details ; and "'the
success would not be a reason for abandoning,
bill. On both the points raised we think t'hi`en
wrong. Especially absurd does it seem that, "0
ratepaying is made the test of enfranchisement, oell
man should pay 10s. and one 7s. on houses of ego.
v.alue in the same street, merely because at %Phi
vious period the rates on the latter were pal" ea
the landlord. It is clearly just that all ra,tepai.„,o
who claim to vote as such should stand on the sacer
footing ; that there should be no excusals, vvh.etno,
total or partial. But the matter is one for €l.othe
lion,
and perhaps for compromise ; and if
Liberals are willing to act in a fair and loyal
to accept the bill and to try to make the best iteoi
it will become the duty of Ministers to meet„""ds-
in a like spirit, and endeavour to settle all
puted details as equitably and liberally as F 3,1; of
done without sacrificing any essential prinell';',.
to
necessary precaution. In the meantime, if this —pet
be the policy of the Opposition, let them disconnAs,
themselves at once and peremptorily from the :10f
graceful attempts at a renewal of the outrage'let
last year, which are avowedly in preparation; w
th.em. prove their sincerity and good faith byreljoi
diating and reprobating those breaches of the"
which are directed to overawe the respectable eta ea
and influence the action of Parliament by bring
~,du
the ruffianism of London in close and unfri e:Leit
proximity to its undefended wealth, and use wnt
best endeavours as good citizens should, to Pre.eg.
a. painful collision and avoid the necessity of brl,,
mg to justice the ringleaders in riots and disordent
whose avowed purpose makes it impossible to trielif
them with the lenity which English law conlinna.
shows to disturbances untainted by actual se der
While the Liberal party in Parliament remain tl,llof,
the suspicion of complicity in the rowdyism 01 'pet
Beales and his associates, they can hardly elcP,;(l,
that their good faith should be taken for grae"-
or that the consideration due to loyal Parliarneoo
opposition should be conceded to men who are ,if
least willing to profit by, if they have not dircc;n,
encouraged, an attempt to intimidate a Parliao-0
tart' majority by raising fears for the peace 3
security of the metropolis.