The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-17 00:00:00

A FINE ARTS GALLERY,

now in course of construction, will be thrown open in con.
notion with the above Hall.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, SEPT. 17.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
71—highest since noon yesterday.
60—lowest this morning and during the night.
72—this day at noon.
mAmostzTEß-29.90—a fall of nearly half an inch.
Wllir, South-Easterly ; light, and very sultry.

THE SUN.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1858.

It is but a few years since France and England
expended some seventy or eighty millions sterling
each, besides ly any valuable lives, in maintaing
g‘furkish independence from the Muscovite attack.
The vast political importance of preserving the in-
tegrity of the Ottoman dominions, and preventing
the dismemberment of the empire, was thus clearly
recognised ; nor was peace restored until ample
provision was made for its future security, and, so
far as practicable, its welfare and prosperity. The
state and condition of Turkey were, for many rea-
sons, objects of deep interest to the Western Powers,
and more especially so to Great Britain. Not only
was it essential to maintain the balance of power
on the Bosphorus and the Danube, to prevent the
Russian flag from floating triumphant over the
minarets of Byzantium, and thereby becoming " a
standing menace" to the peace of Europe and of
the Anglo-Indian Empire ; but the Porte possessed
other claims on our goodwill and friendly assistance
that could not well be disregarded. We had un-
fortunately contributed greatly to her present
weakness by the part taken by the British fleet in
the destruction of her naval power at Navarino.
We stood calmly by witnessing the Russian inva-
sion a few years after, and tacitly sanctioned the
stringent stipulations enforced by the Czar, and by
means whereof he hoped eventually to become " the
sick man's" heir, the chief inheritor of his coveted
possessions ! Notwithstanding all these just
grounds of complaint, the English alliance was
highly prized, and English influence was very con-
siderable at Constantinople. Our ambassador was
the friend and adviser of the SULTAN, and nothing
injurious to our national welfare would be tole-
rated by the Turipsh Government.
The commercial regulations, too, were exceed-
ingly favourable to this country. The tariff
was liberal, the duties comparatively light, and
Turkish commerce offered strong inducements to
British merchants—inducements that would be

greatly increased by additional banking facilities,
and the adoption of sound and wholesome trading
principles ; and there is every reason to hope for
great and speedy improvements on both points ;
and we firmly believe that the loan of five millions,
just contracted in this country, will prove the point
on which the restoration of Turkish prosperity will
turn.

The Times, while discouraging, or apparently
casting cold water on this pecuniary assistance,
which is but a legitimate carrying out of the aid
already rendered, hints that " the Turks have sud-
denly acquired a strange relish for this borrowing,"

adding, " But for a few short years, they were as
much strangers to the European Money Market as
the inhabitants of Timbuctoo. Now, Turkish

loans bid fair to make a periodically recur

ring appearance in the City ! It is like the
poor adv•inturer, who begs the loan of ten pounds.
and, on getting the money contrary to his expeeta
tion, comes back in an hour for five pounds more.
There is too much reason to believe that the Turk-
ish Pashas are a little captivated by this easy
means of bringing sovereigns and napoleons to
the Bosphorus. Of yore, money had to be labo-
riously squeezed out of corn and figs, or conjured
ont of depreciated pastures ; but now, thinks the
Turk, you merely send to the infidels, and say—
" Give us so much, and we and our children and
our grandchildren will pay you a little every year,"
and the money comes. Mashalla, it is wonderful !
In short, it is easy to conceive that personages like
ABD-UL-MEDJID and his Ministers are but too
likely to look upon the loan system pretty much as
ALADDIN looked upon his lamp."
Now, this is a very unfair way of putting
the question, more than usually so, even for
the Times. It can be convicted, even
from its own mouth. In the very same article in
which it descends to this pointless scurrility the
following just tribute is paid to the good conduct
of Turkey. It says—" The great resources of the
country, the industrial and trading habits of the
Christian population, the general liberality of
the Ottoman rule in respect to tariffs and Custom-
houses, are matters on which we have often dwelt ;
and, if Englishmen are to carry their capital
to foreign lands, there seems no reason why
the undeveloped regions of the East should
not offer advantages equal to any that Europe or
even the New World can afford. Nor are we
among those who despond of the political progress
of the Empire. The loyalty and good spirit with
which the SULTAN'S Government has acceded to
the recommendations of the Western Powers, both
during and since the war, are highly creditable to
the principal statesmen of the Porte ; and we may
fairly hope that the grievances complained of by the
rayahs will gradually disappear under the influence
of new ideas and the spread of material enterprise."

It also says Considering what the Ottoman
Empire has passed through, few will be disposed
to say that the debt is excessive. Turkey can pay
with ease what she has covenanted to pay, and the

4. •
•
ditialtd fill, n 9 doubt, be duly forthcoming." We
estOss AO to our humble judgment this is one of
the chief points to be considered, The Mussulmsll

has established a character for honesty. Whatever
his faults (and they are numerous), a lack
of integrity cannot be :included in the num-
ber. He never appeared in the European money-
market, as a borrower, until there was an absolute
necessity. Surely that is not against him. He
avoided it as long as possible, and then resorted to
it in a far lower ratio than either France or Eng-
land.

Up to the late war there was no Turkish debt.
Indeed, it was believed that a religious principle
was opposed to the payment of interest, and we
still remember the sarcastic observations of the
Times when the SULTAN paid a heavy profit in
order to annul the contract entered into on his
behalf.

A war, on which the very existence of the Otto-
man Empire was at stake, arose. lie had long to
wage it single-handed ; while Lord ABERDEEN
hesitated, and when he obtained assistance, even at
the eleventh hour, it was only in the Crimea. He
sent his squadrons there, but he only received from
us a few gallant officers—WiLLlAms, LAKE, and
THOMPSON. No doubt a bright and glorious con-
tingent, but still not sufficient materially to lessen
the expenses of the Porte.
The first debt was but three millions—that was
taken at 6 per cent., and the Egyptian tribute,
guaranteed by the great European Powers, was
hypothecated for its payment. It amounted to
£250,000 per annum, and there was consequently a
surplus of £70,000 a year after providing for the
interest of the first loan. That was applied pro
tanto to the guaranteed debt of £5,000,000,
leaving £130,000 only to be provided from the
financial resources of Turkey—a sum ridiculously
trifling in comparison to these resources, and
for which the receipts of the Smyrna and Syrian
Custom-houses are specially pledged.

The loan just concluded is for £5,000,000, for
which the customs and octroi duties of Con-
stantinople afford ample security. It is taken
at 85, and, therefore, more than 7 per cent.
will be paid to those investing therein, and the
Times admits that "Turkey can pay, and the divi-
dend will, no doubt, be duly forthcoming." This
is no doubt a great point, for capitalists arc more
anxious for an additional 1 per cent. than the
objects for which the money is obtained. But
here they can be satisfied on every point. Their
consciences will approve the receipt of the clear
7 per cent. It is to restore the depreciated cur •
rency of Turkey, to inaugurate a sound and
healthy system of finance. There has, no doubt, been
extravagance in the private expenditure of the Se-
raglio, and that has been accompanied by something
very like peculation in the public departments.
But the SULTAN has shown that he is determined
to emancipate himself from this unseemly thraldom,
and that no further pecuniary abuse will be tole-
rated. Every step taken in restoring the financial
condition- of Turkey affords an additional guarantee
for the peace of the civilised world. There is no-
thing so elastic as British commerce, and when
once the barriers that have hitherto opposed its
extension are removed, capital will flow into the
districts where abundant returns assuredly and
invitingly await it.

Hitherto the Ottoman Bank has been the pioneer
of the movement. It was started under the most
auspicious auguries, with Mr. LAYARD as its chair-
man, and Messrs. GLYN and HANKEY amongst its
directors. Nothing could be sounder than its prin-
ciples, or more effective than its management. Its
only difficulty has been the transmission of the
profits realised at Constantinople, in consequence
of the adverse exchanges. That obstacle will now
be surmounted, and the banking facilities so
urgently required by Turkey will be supplied to
the mutual advantage of the English capitalist and
the Turkish trade.

What is a pound ? is a question which, as our
readers well know, it is not our fault if they cannot
answer; and we hope, if Oxford or Cambridge, or a
Currency Committee, should hold public examina-
tions on Monetary and National Bank systems, that
many of our pupils will come off with honours ; but
there is another question of considerable public in-
terest just now—to wit, What is a Conserratire ?
It is one respecting which doctors differ almost as
much as they do on the other. In regard to both
questions, the subjects of them are before our eyes
almost every day of our lives ; but the " knowledge
of common things" is not quite so easy and com-
mon. So, at least, one of the great House of BARING
lately told the assembled educationists of a country
town ; and everybody has echoed the cry since, till
there is some hope that a cottager's wife will be
able to make her husband's and her children's
clothes and linen, and keep them clean and whole,
and our maids-of-all-work be able to boil a
potato and roast the weekly leg of mut-
ton decently. Arc thero equal hopes of
teaching the omnipotent million what is a pound,
or failing that, of teaching them what is a Conser-
vative a " Common things," both of them, the pounds
and the Conservatives too, and the latter question
one of some practical interest just now, seeing that
gentlemen called Conservatives are just now the
Directors of our Bank Political.

In common with our readers we have watched
with no little interest the transformations—if we
may borrow a word from the new popular amuse-
ment of amateur entomology—the transformations,
then, of Conservatism. It was very active, vora-
cious almost in its caterpillar state ; for sometime
it has been condemned to the torpor of the chrysalis

—is it now, under the genial sun of office, about to
expand its wings, and to astonish us all by the
brilliant kind of thing it will almost suddenly
beconie ? We have had Conservatives for several
months before us in the,Vivarium of the Session; now
released from the questionings of honourable mem-
bers, they are roaming the country and disporting
themselves at public meetings, and we ought to
know something of the habits and tendencies of
these interesting creatures. They have trans-
acted business before us, and they are now talking
before us at every dinner----political or non-political
—we should have a pretty good guess, then, at
what they are.

For one thing, no one doubts that the great family
of the Conservatidee consists, in this free country,"of
several genera. There are C. Liberalis. C. Media,
and C. Innobilis, at least ; besides, as usual,
varieties, of which it is difficult to say what genus
they belong >to. But we must leave it to some
political BOSSITET to portray and contrast all the
"variations" which those exhibit who have dared
to desert the honest, intelligible, time-honoured
name of Tory—a name, alas ! it is to be feared,
gone, clean gone for ever, with the noble old oath
of abjuration. Mr. HENLEY, and he ought to be
able, if any one could, to put us right on this matter,
tells us rather what a Conservative was than what
he is. According to him, " OTHELLO'S occupation's
gone," or all but gone. Conservative meant, as he
tells us, when the name was first adopted, one who
stood up for three things—the Irish Church, the
non-appropriation of Church property to secular
and the independence of the House of
Loboiredetss.
But, he adds, all these things are quite
sat 6 now. Mr. BRIGHT and Mr. Mum, let the
Irish Church alone ; the 'Whigs have long
ago given up the Appropriation Clause,
and heartily Val that
had utterly got rid Of.,

the disgrace of doing so ; and. the Lords—arc they
not independent enough in al 1 conscience ? Could
they not beard the Common s for twenty years
together over Jew bills ? A.nd, if they did haul
up the colours last session with one hand and
pull them down with the ott ter, why, it was only
because the Commons, under 'TOM DtiNCOMBE, had
fairly boarded the vessel, ind given the Jews
everything but a nearly usel ass vote. Conserva-
tives, quoth Mr. HENLEY, are, none of your sour,
uneasy Anti's—your restless destructives—they
wanted to conserve the Church and the Lords, and
they have done their work so that Anti-State
Churchmen and Anti-Corn-La w men, indeed, all
the Anti's, are an Anti-quatel 1 race—they have
dropped their names, and hardly venture to show
themselves under less angry titles. Conservatives,
therefore, only retain their .•name masa honoris.
It is the badge of complete victory. Well, far be
it from us to disturb a pl easant vision in which
worthy men can rejoice. 'We will not, just now,
even mention certain things. besides the specified
three for which Conservativ es fought hard enough
but in vain, nor will we alarm them by the cry
that the Church or the Lord:: may yet be in danger.
What we notice, and with far greater pleasure,
is, that Conservatives could most truly take for
their motto the old saying, Tempora mutantur et
nos mutamur in illis. They hare changed with
the times. Why should they be ashamed to say
so ? There is no denying the fact ; why burke it
in long roundabout phrases, all turning on the
difference of meaning between "Progress" and
" Reform." Is not reform progress, and progress
reform ? Or, are we to have a political battle of
etymologies ? We believe it is undeniable that all
the leading minds in the Conservative ranks are in
a really different position to what they were five-
' and-twenty years back. There is among them, we
are persuaded, far more confidence in the people at
large ; they perceive that there is little of the
American domineeringly democratic spirit amongst
them; on the contrary, a tendency rather to worship
their SOVEREIGN, and to accept with cordial
applause any favour of a lord's, from a popular
vote to a popular lecture. It is seen that the
aristocracy who are equal in character and talent
to their position, may, anywhere and at any
time, command an ovation for what would
hardly be noticed if offered by one of the
people ; and, amongst all sensible aristocrats, such
facts have had their influence. We think it quite
possible that much of the professed Toryism last
session was, with many, more of a political neces-
sity than of an internal conviction, and that it is
not, with them, matter of regret that some really
liberal measures are now credited to the Conserva-
tive account.

We wish we could say as much for the Whigs.
We wish we could quote the Horatian line for
them also. We must confess, however, that whether
it be or not more or less true of the Conservatives
it is certainly not true of the Whigs. The times
have certainly given them the go-by ; and, instead
of moving on with them, they stand gaping after
the train, till they seem likely to be benighted
where they are. Stiff as hundreds of old Conser-
vatives may be, every one will admit that their
best men are ahead of their followers ; but it is the
very reverse with the 'Whig leaders : they can
hardly be said to have followers ; for those who
should follow are ahead of their leaders, and the
latter are behind the vast majority of their sup-
porters. Let the Whigs then look to it. The
plain fact is, that the country cannot feel very
angry with a Ministry which seeks to liberalise its
friends, and it does not care for the accession to
office of those who are less liberal than the great
body of their party.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—You have given to your readers, in a recent
leading article, some interesting information from
Australia, confining it, however, to the colony of
Victoria. lam persuaded that many of your read-
ers would be glad to know how the colony of South
Australia progresses. It was only founded in
Dec., 1836, and its majority was celebrated in Dec.,
_ _

1857, a week after I left Adelaide. Because that
colony is no expense to the mother country, and
never appears in the Blue Books of the British
Parliament, it attracts but little public attention in
England. You can judge from the statistical
account herewith whether it ought to be so.
That statement I have drawn up from official
documents, and can vouch for its being correct.
Surely it is a proof, not only of the skill and
industry of the people, but of the great natural
resources of the colony, that it exported last year's
produce to the value of £1,686,212 sterling, con-
sisting chiefly of copper, wool, wheat, and flour,
and that after supplyihg all its own wants—paying
the expenses of government, including £l,OOO, the
salary of the governor—erecting innumerable sub-
stantial private and public buildings, roads, bridges,
schools, places of worship, &c.
The exports are nearly equal to £l5 per head
for every man, woman, and child in the colony,
including the aborigines ; and, besides these things,
there have been from £150,000 to £200,000 per
annum appropriated out of the public revenue of
the colony of South Australia, with a population of
only 110,000 souls, to defray the cost of passage-
money of British and Irish immigrants to its
shores.

Surely, sir, the men who have added such a
colony to the Queen's dominions during the past
twenty-one years do as great a service to the state
as those who have gained a great victory over her
enemies, more especially as it has been achieved
without the expenditure of either blood or treasure
to the state, and takes off, chiefly British manufac-
tures, tothe value of £1,300,000 annually.
I am, sir, yours obediently,
GEORGE FIFE ANGAS.
Bideford, 15th September, 1858.

CO WES, ISLE OF WIGHT.—Sept. 16.

ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON INTELLIGENCE

ARRIVALS, Sept. 12.—Caprice, Lieut.-Colonel
Charles Baring, from the westward. 13th. Capri-
corn, Vice-Commodore C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., M.P.,
from the western ports. 14th. petrel, Philip Per-
ceval, Esq., from the westward. 15th. Imogene,
Lieut.-Cplonel Plunkett Purton, from Plymouth
and 'Weymouth ; and Rattlesnake, G. R. Duff, Esq.,
from the westward, bound for Ryde. 16th, Ondine,
Mortimer Ricardo, Esq., from Lymington, for
Southampton.
YACHTS AT AND ABOUT THE STATION.—Her
Majesty's yachts Fairy and Elfin ; Capricorn, Vice-
Commodore C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., M.P. ; Titania,
Robert Stephenson, Esq., M.P. • Alea, Capt. Philli-
more ; Petrel, Philip P
Perceval, Esq. ; Dream, Geo.
Bentinck,, Esq., M.P. • Imogene, Lieut.-Colonel
Plunkett Burton ; Ondine, Mortimer Ricardo, Esq.

FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.—A good many
families have left during the week, and there are
several fresh arrivals for the bathing season. The
departures rather exceed the arrivals, but this town
was never so full of company at this season. The
Duchess of Somerset, the Earl and Countess of
Munster, Lord and JLady Dufferin, Miss Masse,
and a number of other fashionables, have been at
Aris's Hotel this week.

COURT OF COMMON COUNClL—Yesterday' the
first meeting of the members of the Court of Common
Council, since the expiration of the summer vacation, was
held in their Council Chamber, at the Guildhall. The
Right Hon. the Lord Mayor presided. Mr. Valiance, the
chairman of the officers' and clerks' committee, again ad-
verted to a report delivered in to the court on the Ist of
April, relative to the retirement of the town clerk (Sergeant
Merdwether), and recommending 'a retiring allowance to
him of £1,400 per annum. Mr. H. L. Taylor moved, as an
amendment, that the retiring allowance to the town clerk
should be £l,OOO per alumni, which was carried by an
oveniti4MiLlg majority,

•
•
goT.CLU M 4, ji
k LP'
- ,44
ik
;;;IrMIP
pt *non A Z.
mr. AIN m ", •