The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-01 00:00:00

Abatto'rs for the Metropolis.

The corporation of London have now under con-
sideration a scheme for erecting, at an estimated ex-
pense of £36,550, a number of additional slaughter-
houses at the Metropolitan Cattle-market, with all
the necessary conveniences, and with the ultimate
object of connecting them by railway with the new
Meat and Poultry Market which the city authorities
are now erecting in Smithfield. The subject has
been investigated by their Markets Committee, who
have made a report upon it to the Court of Com-
mon Council, and embodying the results of a visit
made by the chairman (Mr. Rudkin) and the city
architect to the abattoirs in Paris, Edinburgh, and at
Liverpool. Their attention has been directed to cer-
tain provisions in the Building Act, under the opera-
tion of which many of the present slaughterhouses in
the metropolis will in the year 1874 cease to exist.
They have also had under consideration the provi-
sions of the Newgate-market Abolition Act, under
which the various slaughterhouses in the vicinity of
that market will, in all probability, be removed ;
and, having regard to the strong increasing
feeling, not only on the part of the Government
and the Legislature, but also of the public at large,
that every possible means should be adopted to
prevent, as far as practicable, the driving of
cattle through the streets of the metropolis, they
are of opinion that it is high-ly desirable that
additional slaughterhouses should be erected at
the Metropolitan Cattle-market. The necessity
for such an arrangement, as a preventive mea-
sure, has been impressed upon the civic authorities
by circumstances arising out of the cattle plague.
The site that has commended itself to them for the
purpose is a piece of ground, about eight acres in
extent, on the east side of the market contiguous to
the Great Northern Railway, and sufficient for 55
slaughterhouses ; but the city architect, who has
prepared the necessary plans and estimates, only
recommends the immediate erection of 22, with all
the necessary appurtenances, and the construction
of a wharf and other works with a view to their
future communication with the Great Northern
line, whenever that shall be agreed upon by the
corporation and the company. Ile has also sub-
mitted to the committee a small general plan of Lon-
don and its suburbs, with the site of the existing
market at Islington, and all the various lines
of railway round or through the metropolis, show-
ing clearly that convenient communication could
readily be made with the market and abattoirs
and the country generally, as well as the metropolis
itself. When in Paris he and the chairman of the
committee inspected the old abattoirs, and also a
very large new one, partly erected and in use, and
partly in progress, which when complete, they say,
will supply the whole of the French metropolis,
and consequently supplant all others. It is de-
signed after a plan similar to that of the old
abattoirs, and neither care nor expense has been
spared to render it perfect. Various other abat-
toirs iu different cities and towns of the Continudt
have a'so been built, following generally, in
character and arrangement, those of Paris, but the
city architect considers those in Edinburgh the most
perfect, though of course on a much smaller scale
than anything of the kind required iu London. For
the estimated outlay of £36,550 the architect calcu-
lates that an annual revenue of about £1,680 would
probably be derived by the corporation from the
slaughterhouses proposed to be erected in conjunc-
tion with the Metropolitan Cattle-market. The
proposal has yet to be confirmed by the Court of
Common Council, but, having regard to the ad-
vantages likely to accrue from it in practice in a
sanitary point of view, and Especially as tending to
the cessation of cattle driving through the public
streets, there can be little doubt that it will receive
a favourable consideration from them.

HORRIBLE 7REATMENT OF EUROPEANS BY

SAVAGES.

The Foreign Office has received a despatch from
Sir 11. St. George Ord, the Governor-General of
Penang, detailing the result of an expedition to the
Nicobar Islands to rescue some European women
and children captured by the natives, and to punish
them for the numerous murders of crews of vessels
which endeavoured to trade with the natives. The
despatch, which is very voluminous, is addressed to
his Grace the Duke of Buckingham, and is dated
" Government House, Penang, Aug. 20, 1867."
It appears that the last act of atrocity was com-
mitted on a Liverpool merchant -.vessel called
the Futtay Islam, trading to Nicobar Islands,
when she was attacked by the natives, and
21 out of 24 of her crew were murdered.
This and many other massacres led to a determina.
tion on the part of the governor to punish the
natives, but the Nicobar Islands being just without
the limits of the China station, the senior naval
officer did not feel justified in permitting one of her
Majesty's ships to proceed on a duty beyond its
limits. Subsequently the Government of India
acquiesced, but prior to an expedition being sent the
governor instructed Captain Bedingfield, R.N., in
command of H.M.S. Wasp, to proceed to the coast,
accompanied with proper interpreters, to make in-
quiries respecting the reported atrocities. That
officer proceeded on his mission, and learnt
beyond doubt that the reports of the murders
were correct; and, further, that white women and
children were held in captivity by the natives, and
were exposed to the greatest brutality. The
governor thereupon resolved on despatching her
Majesty's ships Satellite and Wasp to endeavour to
rescue any captives and punish the perpetrators of
the outrages, and to take such steps as would ha-
press upon the natives generally the danger of con-
tinuing their piratical attacks. The despatch thus

proceeds :
"The ships returned to Penang about ten days
since, and the substance of the reports, which will
be sent in detail to the Admiralty, is as follows :
They first visited the island of Great Nicobar, whore
they discovered ample evidence of the islanders
having been the authors of the attack on the Futtay
Islam. . . No natives were seen, and no communica-
tion could be held with them. The village in which
these relics and those of other ill-fated vessels
were found Was burned to the ground, and a
placard stating why their town had been burnt was
affixed to the trees for the information of the natives.
The expedition then visited the central group, and
experienced the greatest difficulty in communicating
with the natives, although promised that if they
trave up any captives they should not be m)lested.
They were too conscious of their misdeeds to be
willing to trust themselves in the power of the
ship. One of the natives, however, who was in
the expedition ascertained beyond a doubt that a
white woman and her two children had been a few
months before alive on the island. The unhappy
lady is supposed to have been the wife of some per-
son on board one of the ships seized by the savages
about two years since. She gave birth to a child
almost immediately after her capture, and after
suffering the most terrible indignities, on its becom-
ing known that she had been seen by the merchant
captain before alluded to, it was considered dan-
gerous to allow her to live. After an ineffectual
attempt to poison her and the two
.children, they
• were mercifully released from further suffering by
being taken into the j angleand knocked on the head.
The principal actor in this tragedy eva led capture
and got away to the island of Katcheive, where,
from its inac essihle character, he was safe from pur-
-1 suit. He is said to have carried with him a white

woman and two children. One of the little children,
however, after great exertion, was rescued and
is now in my charge. On searching the villages,
although they had been very careful to remove, as
far as possible, everything that could give a clue to
the detection of particular piracies, enough was
found in the way of tools, seamen's chests, cabin
fittings, and ship stores to show that a large number
of vessels had been, from time to time, plundered by
them, and as no wrecks wore visible, it is almost
certain these things were obtained from vessels cap-
tured and afterwards mink in deep water, a pro-
ceeding which they admitted they always adopted
in these c ices. Enough was, however, dis
covered to justify the expedition inflicting on the

natives a severe retribution for their crimes, and the
officers and men accordingly proceeded to destroy
their houses and canoes, many of which were war
canoes, 70 feet long. The cocoanut trees, \vith the
produce of which they carried on their trade, were,
in compliance with the Governor-General's sugges-
tion, spared. After compl&ing their work at the
central group as far as was considered necessary,
the man Johnson (the native who had accompanied
the expedition) was put ashore, a promise being
held out that if he disclosed all he knew his pro-
perty would be spared. lie was entrusted by Capt.
Bedingfield with a book, in which was written in
English and Malay a notification that the natives
of the islands had been guilty of acts of piracy,
plundering vessels, murdering their crews, and
carrying off white women and children, who, after
the vilest treatment, were put to death. This book
was left with Johnson, to be shown to captains of
men-of-war and merchant vessels visiting the island,
who are requested to write in it the particulars of
each ship's visit. The utmost efforts of the expe-
dition to obtain any trace of the names of the four
ships which, by the admission of the savages, have
been captured and plundered, proved ineffectual.
Although unsuccessful in rescuing the people who
were iu captivity, it is satisfactory to know they
have been released from their terrible sufferings by
death, and although there aro possibly still some
more persons in captivity, they are probably of a
class not much above that of the natives themselves,
and therefore their condition is not one of extreme
hardship. I deem it of great importance to the
future security of passing and trading ships that the
islands should be frequently visited by men-of-war.
If her Majesty's Government should be pleased to
instruct me to hoist the British flag on these islands,
I believe such an act would be attended with the
best results, and would probably lead to the early
settlement of a people desirous of turning to account
their prolific soil."

REPUDIATION-THE APPEAL 10 LATV.

General Bu run's argument for Repudiation is
of so clangorous a nature that it cannot be too care-
fully investigated and exposed. When men cover
fraud by law they do a twofold injury—they cheat
_ _

their fellows and cheat law also. It is possible for
a man who has committed a murder to make his
crime, though regarded by law as the worst, three
times more criminal. Suppose, for instance, he
succeeded in fastening the guilt on an innocent
person, and permitted that person to ba executed.

The first murder could scarcely be so wicked as the
last, nor anything like so injurious in its moral
effect. Justice should not only be pure, but
unerring, and even when not so, still should have
the semblance. Shake general confidence in the
administration of the law, put a fool on the judo
ment-seat, and idiots in the jurors' box, and the court
becomes the arena for knavish lawyers, with thieves
and blackguards for clients,—how long then would
society hold together? Generally, before a man
carries his case to a judge, he persuades himself that
law and justice are on his side. Yet he accepts the
judge's decision though against him, unmurtnur
ingly, when he believes in his impartiality and in
the wisdom of the law, though the points on which
the judge grounded his decision may not be under-

stool. Undermine this confidence, and the man
goes forth to the world with a grievance to swell
the crowd of unsuccessful litigants. Henceforth a
wrong festers in his heart, for the law, which
ought to right all, becomes the means of wrong. A
cheat perpetrated through its agency is doubly
prejudicial, for it not only injures those
robbed, but injures the whole coammuity. When,
therefore, General BUTLER attempts to cover by
the laws of the United States the robbery of the
nation's creditor, he strikes two blows the
heaviest at the source of justice. If the United
States repudiated openly and without advancing
reasons, the injury would not be so great as under
shelter of the law. the act of an unreasoning mob
might account for the former, while the latter would
bear an interpretation more lastingly prejudicial
to the nation's honour, and therefore to its
interests. If the law can be construed to justify
repudiation, the borrower who made that law will
be accused of having deliberately introduced the
flaw with the intent to take advantage. Now what
does this mean ? It implies that the Government,
aided and abetted by the representatives of the
people, deliberately and with malice aforethought,
concocted a scheme to defraud ; that they gave cur-
rency and effect to that fraud by written de-
clarations, untruthfully advanced by their re-
sponsible ministers, and on the strength of
these promises, and a belief in the nation's
honour, obtained both at home and abroad
the supplies they needed. General BUTLER argues
that it was not without intention that the framers
of the Act introduced the words " Shall be paid in
lawful money." If he be correct, he accuses the
legislators of the United States of a crime from
which every honest man shrinks with abhorrence
for he insinuates that those elected by their country-
men to represent the nation and transact its business,
deliberately planned and perpetrated a fraud. It is
apparent to all that the lenders gave on the clearly
understood condition that they were to receive back,
when convenient for the nation to repay, within a
certain fixed period in the metals which pass current
among nations as money. These loans were offered
to all, and lawful money implies the same thing in
every civilised land. It is of coarse practicable for
Congress to enact that anything be lawful money.
They might stamp on the soles of old shoes a nomi-
nal sum, and hand them to their creditors as lawful
money ; but in doing so they would be violating in
a hateful way their contract and cheating their
creditors. No arguments, no precedent, no
national legal right could change, even to the
mind of the most unsophisticated, the simple
nature of such a transaction. It would still remain
an impudent and barefaced theft. It is vain for
General BUTLER to urge that the holders of the
Five-Twenty Bonds would still be gainers if paid in
greenbacks. He can no more tell what the effect
would be of the measure he proposes than any one
else. Greenbacks might sink to the level of the old
shoes, or United States' promises to pay might still
retain some value. This is a question on which he
has no right whatever to enter. The lenders con*
tracted to receive within a certain period a fixed
quantity of an article, and they have a right
to receive that, and nothing else. It is just possible
that:the discovery of a mountain of gold might reduce
materially within the specified period the value of
the thing they were to receive. This would be no
fault of the contractor on the other side—it would
be his good fortune, as he would thus be enabled to
fulfil his engagement on easier terms than he
expected. On the other hand, the scarcity of the
article might make it difficult for him to redeem his
pledge. But this is no argument for substituting
anotherarticle, although General BLYTLEtt endeavours
to make it one. The gain or to sof the nation's
creditors in this bargain is not the subject to discus?,
though we might observe that the steady fall
in the value of gold may in twenty years
reduce the debt to little more than half its
present value. Of this the creditors take their
chance, and they would have as little right to insist
on the United States paying them in something else
to make good such loss as the United States
have now to pay them in old shoes. When men
of honour enter into a contract, and the terms
are clearly understood however imperfectly
expressed in writing, they endeavour to fulfil
the engagement acccrding to the spirit. If both
parties gain largely, so much the better ; but if
one accepting the advantage tries to deprive the other
of his share, he acts dishonourably ; and if, being

strong in law, he avails himself of the written terms
to make the law a pirty to his fraud, he perpetrates a
hateful crime, which involves every one in the
consequences. But is he strong in law ? This
question has been ably discussed by a corres-
pondent of the Boston Advertiser, signing himself
" \V. E."—a letter which has appeared in the
London papers—and by the Notion in an article
which we transfer to our columns. These docu-
ments are conclusive on the subject, and General
BuTLEu has made. no attempt to answer " W. E."
The spirit and intention of the law bring clear, and
even the strict letter favourable to the bondholders,
no appeal to it will be made ; and while we continue
our discussion on this subject, we 410 so with the firm
conviction that no argument for repudiation or par-
ing down the National Debt will ever be seriously
listened to iu the United States. What, then, is

the use of the discussion ? We believe it to have
been a most ill-ad vised and injurious question to raise,
but being raised for a political object the injury has
been effected, and the best means of counteraction
is by full ventilation. There are few in Europe
who either have invested in 5-20 Bonds or con-
sidered the advisability of such purchase, who have
not carefully weighed Mr. BUTLER'S arguments.
The open repudiator advises the measure, view-
ing it from a financial stand-point—the legal
repudiator stands on the strict letter of the law, and
it is well worth a careful inquiry what the value is
of the argument in both cases. The question in
the United States involves two points—first, the
matter of gain or loss ; second, that of right
and honour. On both we believe the answer
to be conclusive. As a financial question it would
be madness in the United States to introduce any
measure of repudiation. The question of right and
honour is so clear that no sophistry can cloud it.
But of all means to accomplish the end the re-
pudiators have iu view an appeal to law would be
so palpably and clearly foolish that we dismiss it
as wholly improbable.— Anglo-..4nzer ic an, llmes.