The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 28, 1866.

Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with homes and
ladges.

TIM EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

The country had for its allies the river Mississippi, which
would not be divided, and the range of mountains which
carried the stronghold of the free through Western Vir-
ginia, and, Kentucky and Tennessee to the highlands of
Alabama. But it invoked the still higher power of immor-
tal justice. In ancient Greece, where servitude was the
universal custom, it was held that if a child were to strike
its parent, the slave should defend the parent, and by that
act recover his freedom. After vain resistance, Lincoln,
who had tried to solve the question by gradual emancipa-
tion, by colonisation, and by compensation, atlast saw that
slavery must bo abolished or the Republic must die ; and
on the Ist day of January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the
banners of the armies. When this proclamation, which
struck the fetters from three millions of slaves reached
Europe, Lord Russell, a countryman of Milton and Wilber-
force, eagerly put himself forward to speak of it in the
name of mankind, saying—" It is of a very strange na-
ture ;" "a measure of war of a very questionable kind ;"
an act of "vengeance on the slave owner," that does no
more than "profess to emancipate slaves where the United
States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality."
Now, there was no part of the country embraced in the
proclamation where the United States could not and did
not make emancipation a reality. Those who saw Lincoln
most frequently had never before heard him speak
with bitterness of any human being ; but he did not con-
ceal how keenly he felt that he had been wronged by Lord
Russell. And he wrote in reply to another cavalier, " The
emancipation policy and the use of coloured troops were
the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion. Thejob was
a great national one ; and let none be slighted who bore an
honourable part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and
come to stay; then will be seen black men who can re-
member that they have helped mankind to this great con-
summation."

of the coloured men, and on those of them who served
our cause as soldiers ;" but he wished it done by the
States themselves, and he never harboured the thought
of exacting it from a new Government as a condition of its
recognition.

The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as ho sent
by the Speaker of the House his friendly greetings to the
men of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific slope ; as he
contemplated the return of hundreds of thousands of
soldiers to fruitless industry ; as he welcomed in advance
hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe; as his
eye kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the
nation. And so, with these thoughts for his country, he
was removed from the toils and temptations of this life, and
was at peace.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief will
hold a levee at 1 o'cloek on Saturday, the 3d of
March.

Orders have been received at Portsmouth dock-
yard by the Admiralty to complete the iron frigate
Minotaur in her fittings for commission, irrespec-
tive of any future trials of the competitive gun-
carriages, provision for which has been otherwise
arranged. These future arrangements for the trials
of the gun-carriages are understood to be the sub-
stitution of the Bellerophon for the Minotaur, and
the Admiralty, in this change of ships, appear to
have been guided by sound common-sense views in
the endeavour to render the results of such impor-
tant competitive trials as complete and exhaustive
as may be possible. The Minotaur, with her
enormous bulk of hull—upwards of 6,600 tons—
could never be given on any one of her recent trips
into the Channel any motion exceeding an easy
lateral swing of 10 degrees each way, which is use-
less for proving the comparative merits of broadside
gun-carriages and their slides intended to mount
12k-ton guns. It was found impossible to attain
the necessary degree of quick lurching motion with
the Minotaur in mere Channel waves, but with the
Bellerophon—a vessel nearly 2,400 tons less in the
size of her hull—it may be attained. The question
will then be settled beyond possibility of doubt or
cavil. There are also other reasons in favour of the
trials being completed in the Bellerophon rather
than in the Minotaur. The latter vessel is greatly
deficient in space between the only ports she has
fitted for fighting 12k-ton guns through, and she
is also somewhat deficient in height between decks
and elevation of her ports for such ordnance. The
Bellerophon has none of these defects. On the con-
trary, her battery and its ports have been expressly
built and fitted for working the guns, and afford
ample space for a trial of any mechanical appliances
fitted for working them. She is also fitted with
training gear designed by Mr. E. J. Reed, Chief
Constructor of the Nayy, which possesses the great
advantage of being all fixed and worked on the deck
below the battery, and therefore secure from danger
in action, as well as not encumbering the gun deck.
It also possesses the serious disadvantages of being
very complicated in its parts, of great weight, and
excessively costly, looking at it in relation to the
simple end for which it has been designed ; the
training of heavy ordnance being the least of the
difficulties that have to be met with and overcome
in its adoption on the broadsides of our ships of war.
Mr. Reed's plan being fitted, however, on board the
Bellerophon will now have to stand its competitive
trial with Commander Scott's gear as fitted to his
carriage, with Mr. Lynn's gear as fitted to the
Woolwich carriage, and with the gear of Mr. Cun-
ningham as fitted to the Admiralty pattern wooden
carriage. The iron carriage of one of the guns on
board the Minotaur, and which was constructed in
the Woolwich Arsenal, has been returned to Wool-
wich from the ship to be fitted with a different sys-
tem of compressors, and when completed will be
sent back to Portsmouth for trial in the Bellerophon.
Sir William Armstrong's iron carriage, which has
been manufactured at Elswick, is expected to arrive
at Portsmouth during the present week, and will
enter the lists against the other carriages in the trials
on board the Bellerophon. This carriage from Els-
wick is spoken of very favourably from its appear-
ance, but anypeculiar features of construction it may
possess will be seen in a truer light when it stands on
the deck of the Bellorophon in company with its ri-
vals—the Scott and the Woolwich Arsenal iron car-
riages and the Admiralty pattern wooden carriage.
There can be no disputing the fact that with the
cruises of the Bellerophon will commence the real
trials of the iron gun carriages, the Elswick carriage
• only then entering upon the scene, and the Wool-
wich carriage having been virtually disabled on
board the Minotaur by the inefficiency of the com-
pressors. The trials will be of the highest impor-
tance, and their results will be watched with eager
interest by all who study and value the efficiency of
the Navy. For the fullness and impartiality with
which they will be conducted the professional stand-
ing and reputation of the officer intrusted with their
supervision—Capt. Astley Cooper, C. 8., Governor
of the Royal Naval College, and commanding the
gunnery ship Excellent—are ample surety.
' The following appointments have been made in
the Royal Naval Reserve :—To be Sub-Lieuts.—
William Spohr Gedyc, Squire Thornton Stratford
•Lecky.

The Suicide at Guildford.
„____

On Monday evening the inquest on the body of
Elizabeth Wesley, who drowned herself in the river
Wey on the 18th inst., was opened at the Railway
Arms Inn, Guilford by Mr. Bridger, acting; on
behalf of Mr.Capron, the borough coroner, through
the indisposition of the latter gentleman. The evi-
dence revealed that the unfortunate woman hadbeen
the subject of most cruel treatment at the hands of her
reputed husband. From the statement of the wit-
nesses, it appeared that in August last the deceased
was acquainted with Wesley, who was her senior
by 16 years, and she announced her intention
of getting married to him. Her brother
strongly opposed the match on the ground of
Wesley's bad habits ; but soon afterwards the de-
ceased, who was in service at Shalford, near Guild-
ford, took a cottage and furnished it, in order, it
was supposed, that Wesley might visit her. She sub-
sequently took away the furniture, and went to re-
side for a short time with her brother at a place
called Peasemarsh, between Guildford and Godal-
ming. Wesley did not claim the furniture, nor did
he then claim deceased as his wife. She seemed
cheerful and happy while staying with her brother,
although her manner was sometimes strange, and
one day she said, " I am sure that old devil Wesley
will kill me." She left Peasemarch in September to
go to Norwood, as her friends supposed, to getmar-
ried to Wesley, and the next evidence, that of Mrs.
Robinson, landlady of the Three Tuns Inn at Hen-
ley-on-Thames, went to prove that immediately
afterwards Wesley, who had been lodging at
her home, brought the deceased there as
his wife. For a short time they appeared to
live happily, but one day the deceased told Mrs.
Robinson that she had drawn £9O or £lOO from a
savings bank and had given itto Wesley, who placed
£3O of the money in the bank at Henley-on.-
Thames in his own name, saying that he could not
place in more. When the deceased said the money
ought to have been deposited in her own name We-
sley replied, " If you say anything more about it 1
will throw you and the - book behind the
fire." Some time after this incident they agreed to
take a publichouse at Wargrave, near Henley, and
paid a deposit. From this period the deceased com-
plained bitterly of the treatment she received from
her husband. She told Mrs. Robinson that he beat
her in bed, threatened to split her head open with
a poker, and drew a knife upon her. On the night
of her narrative of this ill-treatment she said that
Wesley stripped her stark naked, threatened ,to rip
her up, and made her go dowstairs, naked as she
was, to fry some pig's liver for him. Further de-
tails of shocking treatment were given, which treat-
ment caused the deceased to prosecute Wesley at
Henley-on-Thames on the 14th inst. When he
was sentenced to six months' imprisonment she
appeared very sorry, and, after an unsuccessful at-
tempt to get some portion of his punishment re-
mitted, her manner appeared to the superintendent
of police and others to be very strange, and her
eyes were observed to roll with a peculiar wildness.
She appears to have sold off her furniture, and re-
assumed her maiden name, with the idea of obtaining
a situation. She left Henley on the 17th inst. for
Reading. She previously told the landlady of the
Three Tuns that she was married at Shoreditch.
There was no direct proof afforded as to Wesley
having another wife living but several hearsay state-
ments upon which such a suspicion might be founded.
Evidence as to the deceased sleeping at Guildford
on the night of the 17th inst., and her suicide by
jumping into the river on the following morning,
was next given, together with the fact of a savings-
bank book, £l6los. in gold, Bs. 4d. in silver, and
some coppers, besides a portion of her clothing,
being found in the room in which she slept. The
jury returned a verdict "That the deceased com-
mitted suicide while in a state of temporary insanity,
brought on by the ill-treatment received at the
hands of her husband."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

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TIMES.-It would be idle to disguise the fact that
the course of Government since the meeting of
Parliament has been such as to excite the gravest
anxiety among the friends of a Liberal Administra-
tion. People have gone about assuring one another
that everything was going well, but they did so in
tones which ill corresponded with the words of en-
couragement they uttered. The Administration has
not been called upon to do much, its trial has been
but short, and yet what it has done has exhibited a
spirit of vacillation and uncertainty which augured
ill for its future. It has seemed as if anything like
unity of principle was absent from its deliberations ;
the Cabinet has been divided against itself ; what
one man has proposed another has rejected, and no
one has been able to guess what would happen to-
morrow, because it was impossible to say what spirit
would then be predominant. We cannot be sur-
prised, then, to hear it rumoured that, under such
circumstances, Lord Russell has asked her Majesty
to relieve him from duties which have proved too
irksome for him, and has begged permission to re-
sign once more the office of First Minister of the
Crown. We are not in a position to affirm posi-
tively the truth of this rumour, but the existence of
such a rumour• so substantiated is a fact in itself,
and we shall proceed to discuss it and others which
have obtained equal authority as if they were well-
founded. It is the usual and proper sequel to the
resignation of a Minister to summon the leader of the
Opposition to form a Cabinet. Such a course is most
forcibly recommended, because a resignation ordi-
narily follows a defeat, and is the consequence of a
transfer of confidence from the Government to its
opponents. The Administration of Lord Russell,
however, has not succumbed through any defection
in the House of Commons. If it has fallen, its faults,
or, at least, its imperfections, have been its own.
Lord Russell has therefore been justified if he has
believed that some other combination of the Liberal
party might be formed, capable of carrying on the
Government of the country. There are, moreover,
grave obstacles to the creation of a Conservative
Ministry. It is understood that many of those who
are regarded as the leaders of the party in the House
of Lords, and who formed the Cabinet in the last
Conservative Ministry, are unwilling to undertake
once more the cares of office. Lord Derby himself
is believed to be strongly disinclined to encounter
again the arduous task of fighting against a majority
in the Commons, if, indeed, under any circumstances,
he could be prevailed upon to return to the Treasury.
Lord Russell has therefore, if the rumours we have
mentioned are not unfounded, recommended her
Majesty to send for the Duke of Somerset. It is,
of course, premature to say what might be the re-
sult of an attempt on the part of the Duke of Somer-
set to form a Ministry. He has many qualities
fitting him for the highest office, but there are others,
and those, perhaps, more important, in which he is
believed to be wanting. There can be no doubt about
his energy and resolution ; and his friends claim for
him a singular administrative ability, which cannot,
however, be said to:have been exhibited during an
apprenticeship of seven years at the Admiralty. On
the other hand, the Duke of Somerset is little
known in the House of Commons, and is absolutely
unknown in the country. The most serious diffi-
culty, however, would lie in the question of the sub-
ordination of the other members of the Cabinet.
There are men who were content to serve under
Lord Palmerston, and who have been content to
serve under Lord Russell, but who would be disin-
clined to accept their proposed successor. Lord
Palmerston and Lord Russell were the titular heads
of the Liberal party. They had been in the front
rank for many years—we may almost say for gene-
rations--and it was an honour to be their second.
No one can pretend that the Duke of Somerset has
achieved any such reputation. He is able, and he
holds a distinguished position, but more, we believe,
would be wanted to soothe the just ambition of those
who must be his subordinates. It is, of course, con-
ceivable that some other name than that of the Duke
of Somerset might be submitted to her Majesty as
the head of a new Ministry, but it is not easy to dis-
cover any which is not open to some objection. We
trust it might be overruled ; but, if not, there are
two other courses possible—the formation of a
Coalition Cabinet and of a Conservative Ministry.
The first would be a doubtful expedient, especially
with a new House of Commons, which has yet to
organise itself, and which does not, in fact, at pre-
sent know its own mind. We have already referred
to the obstacles to the return to office of the Con-
servative party ; but it must be acknowledged that,
under certain defined conditions, they might for a
tune render useful service to the nation. There are
some questions which have long waited for a settle-
ment, and which may perhaps be best settled by the
Opposition. Catholic Emancipation was at last
carried by a Tory Minister, and it is evident that
whenever the Conservative party are honestly per-
suaded of the necessity of a change, the change can
be more easily effected under their auspices than
against their opposition. It is, perhaps, not chime-
rical to believe that a satisfactory measure of Reform
might be introduced by a Conservative Government,
and, indeed, it is generally confessed that the bill
brought in by Lord Derby during his last adminis-
tration could have been more easily moulded so as
to have met the just expectations of the people
than any other scheme which has since been sub-
mitted to the Legislature. It is quite certain that
were a Tory Government in office with a minority
in the Commons, the question of Church Rates
might be settled, just as the Jewish Disabilities Bill
was passed on a former occasion. If a strong Libe-
ral Government, either under Lord Russell or some
capable successor, can be maintained, we should,
of course, greatly prefer it; but if this is rendered
impossible by internal difficulties, we may call at-
tention to another advantage which would accrue
from a Tory interregnum. The country is at pre-
sent embarrassed by what we may venture to call,
by a metaphor borrowed from the Naval Service,
" Yellow Admirals." Men have come to the fore
by mere seniority and the course of promotion, who
inspire no confidence, and have neither knowledge
nor genius to justify their position. It would be
invidious to mention them individually, but it is
only necessary to recall the names of Ministers, past
and present, to be aware that there are some from
whose claims both the great parties would gladly be
relieved. They exist, and it is hard to displace
them, but if they were once relegated to obscurity,
no one would think of recalling them to a position
of distinction. Nor must it be forgotten that a short
period out of office is an alterative and a tonic. In
the bracing air of Opposition Whigs grow strong,
and achieve an audacity which they lose when long
debauched by the sweets of place. With nothing
to do but reflect upon their sins of omission and
commission in office, they are like hermits under-
going a forced penance in the desert. They re-
member what they might have done and what they
failed to do, and they make a thousand good reso-
lutions, some of which they press so loudly that
they are obliged to perform them when they are re-
called to the service of their country. We desire
above all things a good, sound, strong Liberal Go-
vernment, There are plenty of things for it to do.
There is Ireland to be settled, a Colonial policy to
be determined, a Foreign policy still in progress of
transition, the permanent question of Reform to be
laid at rest ; but if these things cannot be accom-
plished at once, we are content to wait for a sea-
son that they may be accomplished at last S more
effectually. No one of these can be settled without
a united Cabinet, possessing a definite policy, fol-
lowing the inspiration of a single leader, and
although the promise of such a result may at pre -
sent be dim and uncertain, we think we discern
signs that a period of darkness and of germination
might bring it to light.
PosT.--Mr. Goschen has a light and happy way
of touching on public affairs, which has the good
effect of disarming criticism without committing the
speaker to anything in particular. When he ad-
dressed the electors of the City of London on Mon-
day he was in the pleasant position of an unopposed
candidate and a Cabinet Minister. He had there-
fore too good reasons for not saying much. As he
had no opponent on the hustings there was no need
to declaim at length upon public grievances, and
the popularity and certainty of the remedies which
he would bring to pass if returned. Thera was no
need for him to show himself a good speaker, or a
stanch Reformer, or a thorough Liberal. On the
contrary, there was every reason for reticence. As
a Cabinet Minister, he is supposed to have certain
grave secrets in keeping, and it is at once dignified
and prudent not so much as to hint at them. There
is nothing like the seal of office for covering
cloudy views of policy. Mr. Goschen knows as
well as any one how vain is every effort to satisfy
Ireland by remedial legislation, so he says not a
word of Government measures, knowing full well
that on that subject, for the present at least, it has
none. He knows the emptiness of the endless
whine about the Irish Church, and tenant right,
and absenteeism, and paid magistracy, and syste-
matic neglect. le knows that if the Irish Church
revenues were settled on Romish priests to-morrow,
and every tenant had every conceivable or incon-
ceivable right, and landlords lived on their pro-
perty, and were made county justices as in Eng-
land, there would still be the same song of discon-
tent, the same murmurs about bad government,
the same clamour to have something done by Eng-
lish Ministers, and the same neatly-disguised
threats of popular indignation. Mr. Goscheu does
not need to be told that, with all their con-
tinual grumbling about the state of their coun-
try, Irish members have never done one hand-
stir to bring abaut a reform of the evils they com-
plain of ; and it is not likely they ever will. He is
therefore very wisely guarded in his utterances, and
leaves us about as well convinced as we were before