The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 12, 186 e.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 12, 186 G.

There will probably be little else talked of or
thought about in the political world to-day than
the measure which Mr. GLADSTONE is to bring this
evening before the House of Commons. A Reform
Bill is, indeed, no strange event to this generation,
even though the fever and excitement of 1830-32
has never been repeated. Successive Cabinets have
promised reform, and have, some of them at least,
performed their promises, so far as to bring in a
measure which has afterwards melted into thin air.
But the accession of Lord RUSSELL to power in the
autumn of last year was accepted by every
one as a pledge that Parliamentry Reform
should be no longer a myth but a reality.
Notwithstanding his manifest indifference of late
years, and the inclination of too many of his col-
leagues and supporters to " leave well alone," it
was felt to be totally inconsistent with Earl Rus-

SELL' s reputation as a statesman, as it
would be derogatory to his position as Leader
of the Liberal party to allow a great con-
stitutional question to remain any longer
unsettled. It certainly does not add either to the
strength of the Government, or to the dignity of
the House of Representatives of the people, that
there should be a confessed need of an alteration
which is never made. The deficiencies have been
manifest enough, and the public feeling on the sub-
ject sufficiently strong to obtain direct recognition
on more than one occasion in the Speech from the
Throne, and to induce the heads of every party in
Parliament to give assent to the principle
of Reform. It is therefore imperative, if
we 4() not wish to become a laughing-stock
for ia •
eintation and inconsistency, if we do-
not wish the people to believe, what is certainly
not the fact, that the upper classes are resolved upon
excluding them. from their share of political power,
that the session of igGG should see the vision as-
sumeadefinite shape, and
Parliamentary Reform
not merely used as an oratorical weapon or party
war cry, but brought forward for practical consi-
deration, and an honest determination to produce
actual results.

There is reason to believe that the ittssELL Re_
form Bill will confine itself to one point, cer_
tainly the most important; as it is the
most pressing. The ballot unfortunately numbers
few supporters on the Ministerial benches. The
redistribution of scats is a difficult and invidious
department of the subject, which any Minister,
not too secure of his supporters, may glady
avoid ; the duration of Parliaments is a mat-
ter of comparatively little moment. The great
point of the required Reform is certainly
the extension of the suffrage. It is the present
narrow franchise which most loudly calls for en-
largement from its manifest insufficiency and injus-
tice ; while the condition of the question supplies
a ready argument to the demagogue and agitator,
giving rise to a natural feeling or irritation and (jig-
content in the minds of a large and intelligent clx.ss.
As the extension of the suffrage, then, is nava

likely to he the most prominent, if not the only,
feature of the RUSSELL Reform Bill, it is worth
while to examine into the opinions of one of the
ans of the Whig party, as recently
recognised org
able article.
expressed in a very
In an essay on the Extension of the Franchise in
the current number of the Edinburgh Review, the
as we might have expected, by
Ilvariboteurrinbegghianr°d' to remove the stigma of delay and
indifference from the shield of our present Pre-
mier. Ile attributes a good deal of the inaction
to the natural rebound of the public mind from the
excitement of the last generation, to the great re-
milts achieved in 1832, which have left few
grievous abuses unredressed or acknowledged ;
and to the ill-advised efforts of those
agitators who have tried to identify Par-
liamentary Reform with a complete disorganisa-
tion of our social sysicAl and a servile imitation of
the political constitution of other countries. The
Englishman, averse to change, ai::1
proud of his
national history, feels something like an old man

when taught by one of the rising generation, ano.

very much inclined to believe that he can teach
the schoolboy more than the schoolboy can teach
him. The writer of the article before us says truly
enough that the examples of America and Australia
have been frequently introduced on both sides, but,
in fact, they cannot actually serve as either models
or warnings, since the whole constitution of things
is different. "The orders and gradations of society
are engrained in all our associations, bound up with
our history, fixed deep in our habits and memories.
No laws can root them out, no act of Parliament
can supersede them. Thus it is the influence of
tradition which gives so much stability to our con-
stitutional mechanism ; and this is the reason why
it cannot be transplanted. We cannot create an
old people, or old associations, or an old aristocracy,
or the pride of old memories. The Reform
Bill of 1832 did nothing to uproot or diminish these,
but only brought back the Constitution to
its ancient form, and restored to its functions
their legitimate action. The extension of. the mea-
sure, so far as the franchise is concerned, will be
simply following the same course, and without doubt
with the same result." Arguing from these premises,
the writer contends that the admission of a large pro-
portion of the working classes to the franchise would,
in reality, leave the relative positions of things very
much as they are. Working men, he says sensibly
enough, are very much like those above them. They
will not all give their votes one way any more than
the men of any other rank do so. They will be
Liberals or COnservatives, as their humour or their
natural tendencies prompt them, and as quite as
likely to favour the one side as the other In fact
the Edinburgh Reviewer hints that it is quite pos-
sible the Conservatives may eventually gain an ac-
cession of strength from the votes of the working►
men, owing to the preponderance of the employers
of labour on the Liberal side. Unfortunately for
the cause the latter have in many instances, which
not only affected the interests of the workingmen, but
their own interests, ranked themselves on the wrong
side, as on the measures for reducing the hours of
labour, excluding young children from laborious
employments, &c., &c.- If these gentlemen are
taught a lesson by the class whose rights they
always loudly advocate when they do not interfere
with themselves they will perhaps profit by it.
The Ballot, to judge by the Edinburgh, finds no
place in the Reform category of 1866. It is spoken
of with a virulent animosity which betrays that
" the wish is father to the thought," of its insigni-
ficance. " The bugbear of the Ballot," says the
writer of the article referred to, "is no very awful
phantom now. Familiarity has robbed it of its
terrors, and has bred the proverb into contempt.
The sooner it is discarded, from any position
in the Liberal creed the better. It was a
mistake from the first, and nothing will
now inspire it with animation." Undoubtedly
the Ballot is a " bugbear" to a good many
professing Liberals, as well as to their oppo-
nents ; for, althoigh purity of election sounds very
well in declamation, and public virtue is always
rigidly upheld in the House itself, it would be very
inconvenient to apply it individually to every con-
tested election ! But, like other Reforms, it must
come sooner or later, and the more we enlarge our
constituencies the more necessary it will be, be-
, cause if we are to allow money to be the pre-
ponderating influence in the boroughs, we
shall by increasing greatly the number of
electors throw the representation virtually
into the hands of those who can afford to
pay the most for it, thus restricting our members of
Parliament to the wealthiest classes, and failing to
secure the great object of Parliamentary Reform—
the full and fair representation of all political
opinions by an enlightened and independent com-
monwealth.

Very brief has been the time which the wisdom
of Ministers has thought fit to allow for the con-
sideration of the Electoral Statistics. This is very
extraordinary, to say the least of it, and besides
very inconsistent ; because, what confidence can
any one have that the measure -which Mr. GLAD-
STONE is to submit to the House to-night has been
founded upon a careful examination of the reports
upon which so much stress has been laid. It is to
be regretted that a different course has not been
adopted, and that a week at any rate was not allowed
for people to .compare notes, and form opinions
upon the subject of these returns. As it
is, the public Will only have formed a
very hasty opinion, and jumped at conclusions, as it
were, before proceeding to investigate the particu-
lars of the new Reform Bill of the RUSSELL
Ministry. It is so far satisfactory to find'from these
tables that the working classes, as matters at present
stand, are more largely included among electors
than has been supposed by many. This is owingto
various causes, foremost among which may be men-
tioned the rise in rents that have gone on for some
time lately, until we find a very different
class now paying rents of ten pounds to
that which occupied these houses at the
period of the former Reform Bill. At present
the number of borough electors on the register of
England and Wales at ten pounds is 463,548, while
in 1832 the number was only 282,398. Those,
therefore, who have made no progress since the
time of the first Reform Bill in the matter of admit-
ting the working classes to the franchise, are now
convicted of their mistakes and exaggerations, which-
ever the case may be. Indeed, it is not likely that
any one really estimated how large an addition had
been Made to the voters of the kingdom of working
meninjustice until
had n
il they peortused these accounts. It is satisfac-
tory in two respects, since it shows that such great
and deserving classo,bnae
tne
hnde doneaolnsoe
thathatno d
those tt iesy politician
orulemiatecriaoa
any
yss
are wrong when,
increase to the list of voters, and, on the other, talk
as if striking organic changes would be made in
the constitution of the country and the administra-
tion of affairs if the electoral returns contained an
adequate addition of the labouring classes. Talking
all things into consideration, it seems impossible for
any measure to be successful that does not go
deeper and further than the one which the Ministry
has promised us for this evening. Merely to add to
the number of voters, without at the same time at-

-0--
tending to the task of redistributing the suits will ba
at once absurd and inconclusive. Indeed it will leave
matters in a worse state than they are at present,
and produce discontent in a great degree. The
small and corrupt boroughs, which ought by rights
to be sacrificed, may possibly be inconvenient to
part with, but not the less must they be put aside
to allow a more correct wad honest representation.
Another mistake that some earnest and zealous re-
formers make is to be one-sided in their calculation.
To obtain a fair representation the claims of
the counties should be considered as well as
those of the boroughs, neither more nor less,
but in proportion to their requirements. A
measure that accurately defines the wants of
the population and adjusts the balance of power
is not likely to affect any particular party in
the State, or to, disturb the existing state of things ;
but it will be productive of general advantages, and
prevent the possibility of that agitation and excite-
ment so injurious to the interests of the community
at large, and that disaffection among classes which is
above all things to be regretted. Any measure which
e^lls Short of these requirements can neither obtain the
1,._
• ne of the House nor the country; and a bill
confiden,
• Ilete. or prejudiced, will only

'neomy ~
that is partial, .._
liat it deserves, for tampering
meet with the failure (~..
-ment is an insult to
with a question of so much in,...
the people.

It seems doubtful whether the everlasting alb.—
of the Duchies will be settled without an awkward
contretemps between the two great German Powers,
although it is constantly being stated that this and
that proposition has been made, and will most
likely bring matters to a satisfactory issue. On
the other hand, it is as often declared that if the
Prussian statesmen do not meet with the approval
of the Austrian Cabinet serious results will fol-
low. At present the appearances are against a
fearful solution of the mystery, and it is affirmed
that in Vienna persons are speculating upon the
probabilities of war between the two Powers.
The Generals that had to discuss the ques-
tion of a war with Prussia before the EMPEROR
were doubtless well informed of the nature of such
a struggle, and it is certainly a significant circum-
stance that Field-Marshal RENEDELL has been
telegraphed for from service. Of course, in the
event of such a catastrophe concluding the vexed
affair of the Duchy question, both countries will be
on the alert to secure allies of more or less value.
Much as this discussion between the two allies will
be rejected, it will form an admirable satire upon
the conduct and character of the two kingdoms and
their respective Cabinets. The chief sign of a
dangerous condition of things may be seen
in the fact that the Gastein Convention
is now made a fertile theme of discussion, and its
test is differently interpreted to meet the views of
the rival powers. Ac,cording to the judgment of the
nations of Europe the terms of this Treaty conferred
a great privilege upon the two Powers who had made
the war and retired from it as conquerors. Expe-
rience has shown us, however, that nothing of the
sort has taken place, and that neither party can
agree as to where the power of Prussia begins and
the authority of Austria shall end in these coveted
places. Herr Von BISMARCK has over-reached him-
self, and trespassed too far upon the patience and
forbearance of Austria. The result has been that
the Vienna Cabinet has demurred to all his
recent proposals, and flatly contradicted all his asser-
tions as to the meaning of the convention. So far
as right and reason go the Austrian authorities
have the best of the argument; for, read by the
light of Prussian justice, Prussia would virtually
rule in Holstein, besides actually doing so in Schles-
wig. It is difficult to judge of the case as it now
stands, but a mere unpromising condition of affairs
could hardly exist than we see at present in Prussia.
On the one hand there is great discontent among
the people at the conduct recently pursued by the
Government ; and, on the other, the ally who has
been faithful so long to her interests, now threatens
to prove a very troublesome, if not a very dangerous
adversary.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

~_~_____

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Sunday Evening.

A well-informed paper, in reference to the coming
Conference at Paris, says the Cabinet of Vienna is
determined to maintain the Treaty of Gastein until
a definitive resolution in regard to the Duchies
shall have been taken. The Prussian Cabinet still
decrees the annexation of the Duchies. Accounts
from Berlin to the Bth of March state that in his
reply to the address of the twenty members of the
Equestrian Order of the Duchy of Holstein, Count
Bismarck repudiated the personal union of Prussia
with the Duchies, but he openly declared himself
in favour of the union of the Duchies with Prussia.
He even announced that he should use his renewed
efforts to obtain the consent of the Austrian Go-
vernment to this proposal. This is the first time
that the Prussian Government has officially declared
itself in favour of the union of the Duchies with
Prussia. The letter of the Count de Bismarck is
more important from the fact that for several
weeks all diplomatic and official communications
between the Cabinets of Berlin and Vienna had
entirely ceased.
The Legislative Body yesterday rejected the
amendment of M. Pouyer Quertier for a 2f. duty
upon corn by 192 against 37. M. Thiers resorted
to his favourite tirades against free trade, and de-
nied the increasing abundance in the produce of
corn made out by the statistics recently published.
He said that France was now exporting corn to
England, which was the cause of the low prices of
which the French agriculturists complained. The
Government said to the agricultural interest make
progress, but it ruined that interest. M. Rouher,
Minister of State. That is the question ; it is you
who ruins it. M. Thiers-1 withdraw the word if
it wounds. M. Rouher—Then I withdraw the in-
terruption. M. Riess proceeded to argue that
neither the Credit Foncier nor the Credit Agricole
could benefit agriculture. Nothing could make agri-
culture prosper but remunerative prices. France
need not imitate the example of England in this re-
spect. The position was not the same, and she could
not, like England, take two-thirds of her consump-
tion from abroad. He contended that since the re-
peal of the Corn Laws prices had internally declined.
When England had the great temerity to open the
markets she obtained a great outlet for her cereals,
and she did it for great reasons not applicable to
France, and this market had become the universal
compensator for universal, climacteric, and political
circumstances. To continue in France the system
pursued in England would be to commit a great
imprudence. France could not always struggle
against the universal market. A good or bad har-
vest could not change the state of things. M.
Rouher replied very briefly to M. Riess, who, he
said, had spoken in the dangerous spirit that cha-
racterised him. (The Chevalier assented.)
For many months there has been not a strike, but
a want of that harmony which ought always to pre-
vail in the orchestra between the musicians and the
director of the opera. The latter has now granted
the increase of salary claimed by the band. The
increase of salary granted is, for the first class, 300 f.
per annum, and for the second class, 200 f. The
total increase will amount to 20,000 f. The 100th
representation of Meyerbeer's " Africaine" has just'
taken place. The receipts of the evening amounted
to 11,000 f. The total amount received for the re-
presentations of this opera has reached the enormous
sum of 1,600,000 f. Vive la Musique. Dauton's
bust of Meyerbeer has just been placed in the saloon
of the theatre.
The pig disease excites increased interest. In

addition to the despatati of two veterinary surgeons
to Gerniany and Belgium to study the disease, AL
Bouley, Inspector-General of Veterinary Schools,
has been charged by the Board of Agriculture to
collect information upon the subject. He has sent
a report, of the salient points, of which I make a
summary. It states that it is only in particular
parts of Germany that illness. from frichines has
been traced. In France, says M. Bouley, although
the attention of medical men in all parts of the
country has been awakened to the subject, no case
of disease has yet been met with, neither amongthe
rural population, nor in the army or navy, where
the use of salt pork is so general. The same is the
case in Belgium, for the fact of trichinose, said to
have occurred in the province of Liege, was investi..
gated by two learned professors and disproved by
their investigations. The use of salt pork, coming
from beyond the Rhine, is very general in France ;
and the question to be investigated is why the disease
has not been manifested here, particularly as it is
known to be highly infectious. The reason, no
doubt, is simply because the people on this side of
the Rhine and the other have different habits and
modes of living. In Germany the breeding of pigs,
chiefly of English race, is very extensive, because
the consumption of pork is indispensable to the
working population, who for the most part eat it
raw. Emigrants from the poorer parts of Germany
go to the various othei states where there is great
industrial activity, and they eat scarcely anything
but pork. It is used for sausages which are not
cooked, but merely dried and smoked for 24 hours.
The .report then adduces various facts and argu-
ments. The chief argument is that pork
-nlv unwholesome when it is.not properly cooked.
is 0- •
- says there is no cause for alarm or
M. Boulez -.my, however, to repeat that some
anxiety. lam
Gera y
-ciion exist.
real grounds for appreheu..• Societ ^raphical
a curious
At r theousandinteresting
last
meeting o f the
paper was I- ad describing
--the journey of M. Guillamme Rey in the mountains
of the Ansanes, which form the northern prolonga-
tion of the chain of the mountains of the Lebanon.
This region had only been traversed in 1810 by
Burckhardt, and in 1812 a French traveller—Cap-
tain Bonton—was murdered there. Towards the
end of the 10th century this territory was inhabited
by some of the Mussulman sect of the Ismaeliens.
The chiefs of this dreaded fraternity persuaded their
followers that the taste of the hachich was so deli-
cious as to give a foretaste of the delights of para-
dise. (The kachich was the flesh of men boiled by
the hache or chopper), :and during two centuries the
sect of the Hachichans, fun
whence the word
assassin is derived, spread terror' And dismay
throughout the whole of the East.
After two or three days of terribly cold wind,
enlivened occasionally with snow, sleet, and rain,
to-day has been a real day of spring. It has been
warm, bright, and sunshiny.

The DeclaraVou of Paris must be

Rezeincled.

-.).--

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

" In my mind it (the Declaration of Paris) is the most im-
portant subject that can engage our attention. In
impprtance I put it far before the question of Parlia-
mentary Reform, even when that question was a reality."
—Mr. Disraeli, 17th March, 1862.
ST. JAMES'S HOTEL, March 9.

SlR,—Having seen in your impression of yester-
day that you treat as a proposition to be entertained,
and consequently as of the highest importance to
entertain and carry the reversion of the Declara-
tion of Paris, which deprives England of her mari-
time strength, I beg leave to address to you a
letter, in answer to the idea that has arisen since
Mr. Gi-egory's motion of the 2d of March, that the
proposed change would be invaluable to this country
as well as desirable for humanity at large.
I put to you the converse proposition, that the
only way to make the interests of this country and
of humanity at large identical is to re-establish
the law as it existed from time immemorial
before a few individuals in a room in
Paris, possessing neither delegated nor inherent
authority for that purpose, by signing a piece of
paper, pretended to alter it. The danger to Eng-
land, which it is said would be remedied by the
abolition of capture at sea, arises, according to
the statement of the new Doctrinaires themselves
from this : that no enemy's property is safe under a
neutral flag. They certainly do not exaggerate the
change that that act has made in our position; but
what I have to controvert is the deductions they
draw from the events of the late American wan
which, if true, would also apply to the case of our
exercising our full maritime rights. Those deduc-
tionssuperiority of ships and
il
superiority of power in naval
sailors
aarofraaar doesme. o u
Becautosenotgive
i s h
w,
eth aat ve
more ships at sea than
other nations, they say that we must lose more. But
surely the measure of our loss will be the measure
and no other. Our
sohf
itphsew ishipsll bee ee m
liablepl oy
teod
caagpatiu
ru set i ii sa,
proportion, not to
their number, but to the num
l'itr of the enemy. If
we can send out more cruizers than any other
nation, and if our ships are better manned and
worked, we, exercising our natural belligerent rights,
will destroy the commerce . of our enemy, as
we have done over and over again in former
The exploits of the Alabama and Shenandoahwars.
are quoted to show the facility with which mer-
chantmen may be captured. '
Is this to be used as
an argument against En gland and
rnea,their
having
maritime
depredations
no Pw
p oo
ports
es rso ?f
built and manned, and
wTe
entering
ei
novngel syEs enal
ghs
lil
ews
het rope
ocrEat r
ran gty
ol i
on
h
toe loir own.
asludehc T
pour
ra
ft;
forthhe anshe ve
ssels
ncgrhaafvt have i
tprovedthe h
atE efficacyngiand
by
taerchantment into pri-
tethha. It
att
we
is
he
eDeclarationh thisav e l
hearde g i t i -
mvo
faat
tepee pri-
vateers,
has
assaes
otsfoh
ohc
roe
nvr e rsht
eer
rev
ne
orgyft,hsa
'nothing new by the American struggle as to the
practice
raoenfe
ckwh
Na
or
Navy
v yt
hluenhievhrejLecaot;drhigpahv!nntgdo,onhsapyiedma,kpyrosoenbravthhilciyes
had more experience in practice of searching neu-
tral vessels for enemy's property than any of the
present officers of our Navy. In consequence of
that experience I have been in the habit of saying
" that the strength of England lay in her fishing
boats ;" meaning, that for the purpose either of cap-
turing enemy's merchantmen, or neutral vessels
carrying enemy's property, the smallest craft suf-
ficed. The capture, by the Greeks, in their war
against the overwhelming force of the enemy, was
effected principally by row. boats. The American
war is now history. If
we are to study history in
relation to this subject, let us go a little further
back. The clauses of the Declaration of Paris of
1856 were, only
fifty-five years before (1801),
Russia's " Armed Neutrality." •
Our best modern writer on international law, Mr.
D. Harcourt (Historicus), after quoting the second
clause of the Declaration of Paris, " a neutral flag
covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contra-
band of war," adds—" that is establishing the doc-
trine for which the armed neutrality contended."
That is the real state of the case. It is not merely
a Russian design, and a Russian design against
England, but it is the basis of her whole scheme,
and upon effecting it rests her chances of domina-
tion over the world. It is not England only against
whom the blow is directed, but against France also.
She is thus made to sacrifice all means of coercion
or resistance against Russia and the United States,
the sole Powers from whom there is anything to
apprehend.
England, then, little more than half a century
ago, resisted the whole world in arms against her,
rather than yield up that right which was secretly
given away at Paris, and afterwards justified by the
mere suspicion that one Power (America) might
have opposed us had we refused to do so. We
have here a test of the capacity of our present pub-
lic men, as compared with those of the beginning of
the century. We now . give away our power to
make war, because we fear that the assertion of that
power may involve us in war. It is a capitulation
without a contest. It has made it a peace which
closed what we were told was a successful war.
Whether successful or not, this is certain that the
experience of the war (during which had waived this
right) proved, if proof were required, the powerless-
ness of England without the right of search. Dur-
ing the course of the war forty Russian merchants

went to the Foreign Minister to urge him to stop
the trade with Russia, because it would cripple the
2:esources of the enemy. He refused, because he could
not afford to go to war with Prussia, to whom we
had given a beneficial interest in the war by not
searching neutrals for enemy's property. They had
thus been let into the neutral trade, making profit
of the blood of the belligerents. Mr. Collier stated
in the House of Commons, Feb. 21, 1855, " that at
the outset of the present war, the rouble fell from
38d. to 32d., and it was calculated that a financial
crisis would have ensued had it fallen much lower ;
that it would bring ruin on the landed proprietor,
and bankruptcy on the Czar himself." He described
the actual state of things in these words " The
commerce of Russia had not been injured ; ten
millions of British money had gone to Russia since
the commencement of the war, and the rouble was
again at par." This is England in 1855 and 1856.
Trembling before such a Power as Prussia, and not
seeing that, if it were true that Prussia would have
declared war against us if we had resumed our
natural right and stopped her from carrying Rus-
sian produce, it would have been far better for us
than the actual position ; because any injury that
she could have inflicted upon us as a belligerent
would have been trifling compared to her interposing
to prevent us from injuring our enemy.
In 1801 England not only resisted, but successfully re-
sisted, all the European powers when they set up the same
pretension, and did so by treating them as enemies. We
find in the pages of Alison, " that on the 14th January,
1801, the British Government issued an order for a general
embargo on all vessels belonging to any of the Confederated
Powers (armed neutrality). Letters of marque were, at the
same time, issued for the capture of the numerous vessels
belonging to these States which were working to tho
Baltic ; and with such vigour were these proceedings fol-
lowed up that nearly one-half of the merchant ships
belonging to the Northern Powers at sea found their way
into the British harbours."

It was treating the neutrals as enemies that England
put down that Confederacy. But it was especially Russia
that felt its effects. A domestic revolution was the result
9f the action of England's privateers against the commerce
of Russia, and the Confederacy was at once dissolved.
Russia still remains vulnerable to the same weapons.
Hero is the secret of the Declaration of Paris. But it is
also the solution of how we are to escape from it. A
Russian manifesto, in 1828, contained the words —" The
Bosphorus is closed. Our commerce is annihilated.,
The armed neutrality was not only dissolved, but every
single power that had joined it acted upon the old law as
soon as each became a belligerent ; notably Prussia her-
self ? Is not this an answer to the "irrevocability" of
that declaration as attested by those who propose to go
further ? Sir John M'Neil lays it down that this "effec-
tive check on the ambition of Russia" is held by Great
Britain in trust "for the common benefit of weaker
nations." It is as being then a protective power with re-
ference to others, as well as our only defensive power for
our own security, that I invoke your aid in calling for the
~4nudiation of that unauthorised declaration. The ob-
stacle iu the way is the delusion which some aro seeking to
spread, that the new scheme is something either better in
itself or more practicable. If it is not practicable, it is useless
to discuss its value, 1240 French Government attempted
to have some stipulations introduced into the Treaty of
Amiens in this matter. The reply to which on the part of
the English Government is worthy of ali our attention :
"It is wholly unprecedented to stipulate in a treaty of
peace any limitation of the powers which the parties may
think it expedient to make use of in case of war. His
Majesty will never consent to place out of his hands in a
treaty of peace those means which may be necessary for
the sec:Pity of his dominions in time of war." The implica-
tion here is :!tat the use of our strength against our enemy
is`a natural right, n•nd therefore one that cannot be given
away. No Government can have power either in law or in
sense to do so. But the especial folly of the project is this
—that it is an engagement to be fulfilled only in the case of
war ; that is when the nation in whose honour you are to
trust has broken faith with and wronged you. While you
cannot revert to the exercise of your rights without giving
occasion to all other nations to accuse you 'of faithlessness,
as the whole scheme rests upon all the powers becoming
parties to it. Now let us look at it in its internal applica-
tion. The nation would be divided into two hostile camps,
the ono part becoming rich itself and enriching the very
country, in fighting whom the remainder was spilling its
blood. The originator of the Right of Search and Seizure
gives the neutral the means of making profit out of the
blood of the belligerents. The private property scheme
would enable tho merchants and shipowners of a nation to
make profit out of the blood of their fellow-citizens. This
must happen if you are to trade with and fight a nation at
the same moment. The advocates of the new code, who
have not, as some do, entirely overlooked the question of
how England is henceforth to make war, seeing that if
rated only a military power she sinks below Prussia, or
even Italy or Spain, supposing that blockades;are still to go
on. The country, therefore, should know that already
they are given up by the same persons who originally im-
posed the scheme of Mr. Gregory. Mr. Cobden has argued
that they should be abolished. Mr. Sumner, speaking for
America, and M. Hautefeuille for France, have done the
same. Mr. Sumner entirely threw off the mask. After
the affair of the Trent, speaking in the Senate, he pro-
claimed the abolition of all belligerent rights
..?t sea, immunity of private property, contraband of war,
to lid abolished and blockades ; using the words " The
statutes o{the sea, thus refined and elevated, will be the
agents of peacd instead of the agents of war. Ships and
cargoes will pass znchallenged from shore to shore, and
those terrible belligeren: rights under which the commerce
of the world has so long suffered will cease from troubling."
We must remember that it is our dyna act that has given
occasion to these big words. A treaty between America
and Russia on the basis of the neutral flag covering the
cargo was only signed in July, 1854, that is after we had
waived our maritime rights by Order in Council, and the
act was avowedly our own act. " When Great Britain and
France, at the commencement of the present war with
Russia agreed to act upon that principle for the time being,
the Government believed that a fair occasion was presented
for obtaining the general consent of commercial nations to
recognise it as a principle of the law of nations."*
The United States is also the very Power who has not
given up her natural rights. She was made the bait for
us, and has been kept out of the trap herself, not having
joined the Declaration of Paris. This at least is clear,
that there is no alternative between a capitulation into
which we were cheated, and renouncing all means of
naval warfare. For by what possible arguments could we
uphold the interference with private property in blockad-
ing the ports of a country while we protect as sacred the
merchantmen on the high seas ? Blockade affects neutrals
far more than the right of seaech can do, the intention of
it being to prevent all trade with the onomy.—Your obe-
dient servant, D. URQUHART.

* Mr. Marcy to Mr. Buchanan, August 7, 1851.

THE " BOHEMIAN GIRL" OF MR. BALFE is to be
shortly produced at the Theatre Lyrique.
THE TYCOON OF JAPAN has made a present to
the Emperor Napoleon of 15,000 papers of silkworms' eggs,
which have arrived at Marseilles.
Tier Majesty the Queen has forwarded through
Colonel Sir Thomas M. Biddulph, K.C.8., to the National
Lifeboat Institution her usual annual subscription of £5O.
The Right Hon. B. Disraeli gave a Parliamentary
dinner on Saturday evening, at his residence, Grosvenor
Gate. There were present—Viscount Courtenay, Viscount
Curzon, Right Hon. Lord Claud Hamilton, Sir John Walsh,
Sir James Fergusson, Colonel BrownlowNorth, Mr. Paget,
Captain Surtees, Mr. Selwin, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Baggallay,
Mr. Severne, Mr. Gooch, Mr. Grant, Mr. Forsyth, Mr.
Stearn Miller, and Mr. Treeby.,

PORTRAITS OF PITT AND 6ARRICK---reputecl to be
by Gainsborough.—ln a recent auotion of miscellaneous
old pictures, at Messrs. Foster's, two portraits, one of Wm.
Pitt and the other of Garrick, sold, the former for 195
guineas, and the latter for 160 guineas. They wore both
the property of a gentleman deceased, at Hammersmith,
and were believed to have been painted by Gainsborough.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS' LATEST ODDITIES I—" Daniel
Lambert" is the title of Alexand Dumas' new drama,
now in rehearsal at one of the Paris theatres. Dumas has
just signed a new contract with the New Free Press of
Vienna, to give it a novel drawn from life in Paris, the price
£l,OOO. Very recently he was at Pesth, where the extra-
ordinary costume in which he delivered a lecture was the
cause of considerable laughter. The lecturer appeared in
the Hungarian national costume.
OUR FRENCH NAMESAKE.—The Soleil of Paris
contains a letter from Victor Hugo, in which the
veteran writer declines the offer made by the editor of
£20,000 for his new work, "Les Travailleurs de la Mer,"
which he intended to publish in the shape of a feuilleton.)
Victor Hugo says : " Your offer is one of the most splen-
did ever offered to a writer. I aditit its magnificence, but
the question of art is for me above all considerations, and
your offer of £20,000 cannot overcome my scruples as an
artist. lam convinced that Les Travailleurs de la Mer'
ought not to be cut up into feuilletons. Perhaps that mode
of publication would suit the romance of Quatre-vingt-
Treize,' which is the work I am at present engaged on."

SILK IN LYONS.—The town of Lyons consumes
annually about 1,000,000 kilogrammes (about 1,000
tons) of silk prepared or spun in different ways. It takes
four cocoons to weigh a gramme of silk ; the Lynonnese
consumption amounts to 4,200,000 cocoons ; counting the
length of a thread of cocoon equal to 500 metres, the
amount annually spun by the Lyonnese industry would
make, altogether, a thread of silk 2,100,000 kilometres long,
or more than 14 times the distance of the earth from the
sun, and 5,494 times that of the moon from us. It would
pass round the earth at the equator 52,505 times, and 200,000
times round the circumference of the moors.—Builder.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

MEXICO.

By the arrival at St. Nazaire of the French mail
steamer Louisiane, news has been received from
Mexico to the date of February 13. The Moniteur
in its bulletin records several engagements between
the Republicans and the Imperial troops, which
have resulted to the advantage of the latter. The
Emperor Maximilian had returned from Cuerna-
vaca to Mexico, but after :arranging some impor-
tant affairs in that city he again quitted it on the
12th to rejoin the Empress, and to complete his
contemplated excursion.

The news from the district around Vera Cruz is
favourable. The garrisons of Alvarado, Medelin,
and Catastla, composed exclusively of Mexican
troops, were behaving well. The line of railway to
Orizaba and the road leading to Mexico had ceased
to be interrupted by the bandits, the rural popula-
tion now taking measures to protect themselves.
At Barrancaseca, a small town near Solidad, the
inhabitants arrested and conducted to Vera Cruz
three brigands, one of whom, Marco Vela, had been
one of the leaders in the attack upon the railway
on the 7th of October.

The situation of General Mejia at Matamoras
was satisfactory. The capture of Bagdad had
caused an amount of agitation in the State of Ta-
maulipas, and had increased the audacity of Pedro
Mendez, who had made an attack upon some local
depots, in which, however, he was reported to have
lost his life. The interior of the Empire was tran-
quil, and the sanitary condition of the expeditionary
force extremely satisfactory.