The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-08 00:00:00

r E SUN, LON CON, THURSDAY EVEN EN G, NOVEMB R 8 1 366.

Foot, and Private Hughes, of the 35th, have also
qualified as gymnastic instructors, and are attached
to the gymnasium at Colchester.

The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Lieut. A. J. O'Roskets, to the
Reindeer; Lieut. C. H. Farquharson, to the Rinaldo;
Lieut. H. F. Cleveland, to the Hibernia ; Sub-
Lieut. Alleyne P. Pascoe, to the Reindeer ; Sub-
Lieut. J. E. Bowly and Sub-Lieut. A. C. M. Coul-
son, to the Racoon ; J. M. M'Kuahe and P. C.
Underwood, midshipmen, to the Racoon ; T. A.
Brand, midshipman, to the Lord Clyde ; H. A.
Askew, midshipman, to the Reindeer ; H. Archdall,
naval cadet, to the Rinaldo ; and B. W. Slater,
naval cadet, to the Racoon.

Meanwhile, the despatch of the Secretary of State,
approving our recognition of the de facto ruler who
killed his father, and is likely to be sacrificed by
uncle, has been received. So in Burmah, front the
frontier of which Colonel Pha.yrd is still watching
events, matters have ben complicated, not only by
the formation of a second faction under another son
of the dethroned King, but by the King taking ad-
vantage of the divided counsels of his sons, to engage
40 or 50 European sailors in Rangoon, and two
steamers. Should they be allowed to arrive at Man-
dalay, the King may once more obtain the ascendant."

A Sample of Joint-Stock Enterprise

1 Two or three weeks ago we described a meeting
of the proprietors of some Assam tea estates, as-
sembled in the East India Avenue, Leadenhall-
street. Since then all we have alluded to have
been moving swiftly on to ruin. So extensive are
the interests concerned, so wide-spread the disas-
trous loss, that the subject is likely to be brought
forcibly before the public, and to furnish the law
courts with additional work. Perhaps there are
few better instances than these to expose the mode
of promoting and launching on their road to ruin
many joint-stock concerns. The story is not, then,
without its interest even to our American readers,
as it describes the groundwork on which the super-
structures were built, which have lately fallen with
such a frightful crash, involving thousands of
families in poverty, and damaging most fatally
the hitherto high commercial character of Eng-
land. Assam, the most beautiful province of
British India, lies to the north-east of Calcutta,
at the foot of the great ranges which separate our
territories from the Tartar dominions. The
country is intersected by noble fivers, the hills are
covered with dense forests, and being watered by
constant showers the verdure is ever green. For
many years it has been known that the tea-plant
was indigenous, attaining to the dimensions of a
tree, which furnished the planters with the best
seed. The great Assam Tea Company, after an
enormous expenditure, which brought them to the
verge of destruction, succeeded under an able
manager in establishing themselves as one of the
most successful undertakings in India. As the
tide turned with them, and the profits of the pursuit
became known, several adventurers appeared in the
field. Among these was Mr. G. R. BARRY, who suc-
ceeded in appropriating to himself some of the aban-
doned gardens of the Assam Company, and working
them to a profit. Time passed on, and brought with it a
Chinese war and Chinese revolution, which threatened
the destruction of the great tea export of that land.
The attention of the Indian Government was drawn
to the resources of their own country, and opinions
were given by competent persons that a large por-
tion of this staple might be produced in India. The
Government established gardens, imported Chinese
workmen, and proved that in various parts of their
dominions the shrub might be cultivated with profit.
Private enterprise was not slow in following in the
direction indicated by the Administration, and the
formation of tea companies became a mania in Cal-
cutta. Those who had early established themselves
in Assam seized the opportunity, and turned the
gardens they had formed into joint-stock enter-
prises. Mr. G. R. BARRY saw that what had given
fortunes to so many planters in the limited market
of India might be worked to greater advantage in
the boundless field of London. He came to Eng-
land, induced a few respectable gentlemen to take
up the subject, and brought out under their aus-
pices the Upper Assam Tea Company. The returns
under his skilful manipulation were prodigious.
The shares went to a high premium, and the pro-
prietors congratulated themselves on their splendid
investment. With such a magnificent sample of
what tea could do, Mr. BARRY found little difficulty
in getting up and disposing of other estates. He
went back to Assam, purchased blocks of land, and
such gardens as were open for sale, and made
these the basis on which be proceeded with his concoc-
tion of fresh companies. The Eastern Assam was
launched shortly after his return to London with a
capital of £250,000. This was followed by the Now-
gong Company, and the shares Df both were readily
taken. When the share mania was waning the
Chubwa was introduced, and found a sufficient
number of dupes to purchase the necessary amount
of shares. Thus Mr. BARRY on such slender foun-
dations skilfully built up these four companies, en-
tailing on the proprietors a liability of one million
sterling. Mr. BARRY, now in possession of a splen-
did fortune, purchased an estate in Ireland, and
was returned at the last election as the member for
Cork. But the day of reckoning drew swiftly on ;
the panic which culminated in London in May last
ramified over the British dominions, and was felt
with great severity in Assam. The inherent rot-
tenness of these concerns gradually became known.
The shares fell heavily in the Stock Exchange ;
calls to save the property became frequent. The
returns proved to be little or nothing, and the
alluring bubbles one by one burst, leaving the dis-
mayed shareholders gazing on the empty air. A
few days ago the Upper Assam—that ignuies fatuus
that had lured so many to destruction, with its 30
per cent. dividend—was thrown into Chancery by
the directors to be" wound up." This was followed
on Tuesday last by a meeting of the Nowgong
Company, when a report of the committee of in-
vestigation, appointed at a former meeting, was
read. It appeared that Mr. BARRY had drawn out
the prospectus, and though unsupported by any
docutnents in proof of the,statements it contained,
the directors accepted it, Mr. BARRY being hirhself
the chairman, and exercising much influence on that
body. Mr. BARRY'S co-vendor was at the time in
India, and this gentleman saw with dismay the
statements put forth, and telegraphed to London to
cancel the sale of his gardens. "No cultivation,"
he said, " so old as two years ; none will be pro-
ductive till next year." To this Mr. BARRY
replied, " Sales cannot be cancelled, agreements
" are signed, possession must be given." Mr.
BARRY, when the truth began to ooze out,
resigned his seat as chairman in favour of
Mr. MoRAN ; but the directors refused to allow him
to retire from the board, and he was compelled to
appear and listen to one of the most damaging re-
ports ever read, and substantially to admit its truth.
He stated that he had no more means of knowing,
the exact state of things than
,they (the other mem-
bers of the board) had. Mr. MORAN said that for
12 months the board were kept in the dark, and that
they had every reason at that time to feel confidence
in those with whom they were dealing. Dr. LECKIE,
the chairman of the committee of investigation,
spoke iu a complimentary manner of Mr. MoRAN.
"It needed no words of his," he said, " to insure
" for that gentleman the continued respect and con-
" fidence of his many friends in this country and in
" India." We sympathise strongly with this gentle-
man and the other honourable men associated with
him at the board in the painful position into which
they have been betrayed. After an honourable
career, while involved with his brother shareholders
in heavy losses, he finds himself compelled to stand
up and say, " It was not with very calm feelings that
" he rose to address the shareholders, inasmuch as the
" report of the committee made him appear, at first
" sight, a greater rogue than he had conceived it
" possible to be." The greater publicity that is
given to this story, the better it will be for him and
those who have acted with him in honour and good
faith. We cannot refrain from some degree of admi-
ration at the boldness with which the hon. member
for Cork, the vendor of the estates, looked on through
a pair of spectacles at the wrathful and victimised
shareholders. We trust he will display equal spirit
in meeting his constituents. He failed, however,
in enduring to the end. Mr. BURROWS rose and
directed on him a battery which appears to have
been overwheming in its force. In vain the Hon.
Member cried for protection to the Chairman of
the Board—no protection was extended. Shot after
shot from the speaker demolished, like a chilled
projectile, the slender defence the- Hon. Member
could raise, and he was compelled to beat a hasty
retreat, carrying with him the good wishes of the
assembled gentlemen. The Courts have now
opened, and an overwhelming mass of such busi-
ness as that furnished by the Hon. Member for
Cork will be brought before them. A few
ga-
rotters frightened London out of its propriety, and
induced most stringent laws of repression. But
what did these garotters do compared to the awful
injury wrought by unscrupulous promoters? Pro-
perty is said to be guarded more sacredly than
life in England—yet London, within late years,
has been beyond all question the most dangerous
place for those with any means, without one ex-
ception, all over the world. It may be said that
people should learn to take care of themselves—
the very argument that ROB ROY or any other
highwayman would use. The law protects the per-
son from a treacherous assault—it should protect
property also from unscrupulous designs, unblush-
ing fraud, and gross misrepresentation. Anglo-
American Times.

SPIRIT OP THE PDBLIO JOURNALS.

-0-

TIMES.—King Victor Emmanuel crossed the
Lagoon yesterday morning, at 11 o'clock, and
Venice, at last and for the first time in the history
of the world, becomes part of Italy. For the last
fourteen centuries, from Attila to Napoleon, Venice
has been in Italy, yet not of Italy. Europe has not
such another instance of completely isolated exist-
ence as that of the City of the Doge, up to the last
Dege's time. Rising from the water at a time when
hardly one square inch of the mainland escaped the
destroyers of the Roman world, Venice beheld every
wave of invasion break at the foot of her sea wall.
Herulians and Ostrogoths, Longobards and Franks
built up Italian kingdoms, but their sway never
reached the Rialto. The Eastern Empire fell, the
Western Empire rose, but Venice never properly
acknowledged either Exarch or Vicar. Through
'Carlovingian, through Saxon eras, under Swabian,
under Hapsburg dynasties, Venice held her own.
Caesars and Pontiffs strove for the world's mastery.
Italy and Germany fought for sceptre or crosier;
Venice alone was unmoved, neither Papal, nor
Imperial, neither Guelph nor Ghibelline. Popes
and Emperors met within her walls as on neutral
ground, never exacting her tribute, never claiming
her homage. Lombard Leagues arose ; a new
Italian life, a life of feud and faction ; Venice
stood alone, strong, orderly, free. Ezzelini and
Este, Scala, and Visconti, crushed her inland sisters;
Doges seldom attempted, never achieved, tyranny.
She was " so framed by God, thanks to His mercy,
that any sufferance of others' misery touched her
not." Yet, though apart from Italy, Venice was
not a stranger to Italy. She met Pisa and Genoa
on the high seas. She grappled with Milan on the
mainland, she fought long and hard for her Conti
nental possessions, she stood the brunt of French,
German, and Spanish onset—the onset of each of
them, of all of them combined ; but her home in the
Lagoon was still inviolate, inaccessible to Italian
passion, out of reach of foreign inroad. The whole
of that fitful Italian life, mediaeval and modern,
began and ended, cities declined, States were ab-
sorbed, dynasties became extinct ; Venice abided.
Down to the last French catastrophe, Venice had
nothing in common with general Italian vicissitudes.
But that catastrophe at last associated Venice to
Italian destinies. Attila's work was undone by
Napoleon. That community which was severed
from Italy when the first tide of invasion set in was
restored to Italy when the era of invasion was draw-
ing to a close. For the last 70 years Venice had,
indeed, become Italian, involved in all the miseries,
overwhelmed by all the calamities, of the rest of the
country. She came in only for the last drops in the
cup, but those were the bitterest, and now can it be
said that the cup has passed away? that the hour
of rejoicing has come for all the cities of Italy, and
that Venice comes to muster with the rest ? There
are few, we fancy, who will grudge the Italians
their national jubilee, were it even prolonged for a
week or a month, were it to transcend the extremes
of frantic enthusiasm, or to degenerate into an ex-
hibition of carnival mummeries. This is a case, if
ever there was one, to justify even madness ; and if
the well-wishers of Italy abroad look more soberly
on the event, it is because they are still overcome
by its magnitude, and only take it in with some
a happy, yet a solemn, moment
effort. It is, indeed,
for Italy ! After a hard trial for fifteen centuries,
during which every foreign horde was more at home
in Italy than the Italian himself, he sees now the
backs of the last Austrian and Frenchman with the
consciousness that it must be no one's fault but his
own if he ever beholds their faces again. How it
was all brought about, how he succeeded in con-
quering his country, or who conquered it for him,
will never be quite clear to himself or to the world.
The liberation of Italy during these last fifty years
is an epic in which heaven and earth bore a hand. A
few men of genius and valour bore up nobly and
manfully, yet hopelessly, in the struggle : but the
Deus ex machina, in the shape of European
opinion, looked down from the clouds, and,
for once, a suffering nation was dealt with in
conformity with the rules of poetic justice.
The Italians have got their country—nothing
less, nothing more. All the rest is for them to
do. A wayfarer had fallen among robbers, who had
just cut and bruised him within an inch of his life
when resale came ; he is writhing on the ground,
all stunned and dismayed, and barely conscious ;
but it is for him now to be up and doing, for his
deliverers cannot stanch the blood that is fast ebbing
from him. It will be well to guard against illu-
sions. This Venice from whose limbs th Austrian
fetters have just fallen, and which is thus miracu-
lously restored to the embraces of her Italian sisters,
has nothing in common with old Venice. Of that
Queen of the Adriatic, who wedded the sea, who
stormed Constantinople, and extended her sway
over " one-fourth and a half of the Roman Empire,"
little more than the corpse is left, and it remains to
be seen whether deliverance comes in time to recall
it to animation, or simply to screen its lingering
death from that foreign outrage which hastened and

embittered it. Neither is Venice all of Italy that
is half dead. Pavia and Pisa, Ferrara and Piacenza,
Ravenna, and a score of others, are mere spectre-
cities. It was ungenerous on the part of the French
poet to describe Italy as the " Laud of the Dead ;"
but it is for the Italians to prove that " she was not
dead, but sleeping." It is with no little expectation
that the world will be looking forward to Italy's
awakening. The wedding of the Adriatic Bride
will be a five days' ceremony, and the turn of the
Papal city, with or without the Pope's blessing,
will closely follow. The question will be, What
next ? The Italians will have full possession of the
land of their fathers—a land of beauty and re-
nown, of health and wealth, of wondrous achieve-
ments, crying out to them from her ruins, from
her monuments, " Noblesse oblige !" The land is
theirs ; may it for ever be theirs ; may it be for-
gotten that it ever was other than theirs ! The
land is theirs to do with it as they please, to do
with themselves as they please. Should they aspire
to do no more for themselves than Solferino and
Sadowa have done, should they wrap in a napkin
the talent that has been confided to their steward-
ship, the world would, of course, have nothing to
say to it. A great wrong bas been redressed in
their case, and the ends of justice are fulfilled. But
the cry of distress which went so straight to the
world's sympathies was less for Italy's actual suffer-
ings than for her forced inaction. The complaint
was not so much that the Austrian tortured the body
as that be killed the soul. The Italian panted for
freedom, not as a source of enjoyment, but as a
stimulus to exertion. Were the vows of adversity
not to be forgotten in the hour of prosperity, what
a vast field for activity would now be open to the
emancipated people ! The very soil of the country
is more than half to be redeemed from long ages of
neglect. No one grudges the Italians these days of
festivity, but they surely bear in mind that it is not
by banners and tapestry, by stars and spangles, by
lights and fireworks, that air and water, and fresh-
ness and sweetness, can be restored to Venice ; that
it is not by shouts of joy and songs of triumph that
the deathlike silence which inhabits her choked-up
harbours and her stagnant canals can be efficiently
banished ! The Austrian is gone ; the Pope,—át
least so far as he is a King,—will follow ; but what
a gang of other tyrants, as grim and ruthless—King
Dirt, Queen Beggary, and all the dynasty of Sloth,
Improvidence, Superstition, and Bigotry—still re-
main to be hurled from the throne ! With these
hideous monsters it behoves the Italians to grapple
for themselves, for in such a contest it is little they
can hope either from French chivalry or from Prus-
sian community of interests. The Italians are a
gifted race. The cause which, after half a century's
struggles, is now triumphant required no less than
the high character, the devotion, the endurance of
their leading patriots, aided by the moderation, the
docility, the sense and tact of the common mass.
Give the Italians an object, and they will lack
neither wisdom nor heroism for its attainment. The
difficulty will lie now in their just appreciation of
what has actually been achieved and what remains
to be done. The cry has hitherto been " Italy for
the Italians." It should now be reversed into " The
Italians for Italy," and it should impose upon every
man the duty of exerting himself to the utmost to
restore the land to thatdegree of material and social
wellbeing, and to raise the people to that intellectual
and moral eminence, which may cause even the
French poet to acknowledge Italy as a " land of the
living."

POST.—Statesmen as well as ordinary politicians
who are educated to believe in the necessity of a
" balance of power" inlEurope will watch with con-
siderable interest what is now taking place in the
Austrian empire. The next few months may tell us
in all probability whether the Austrian empire ruled
by Francis Joseph is to be effectually reconstituted,
and to remain one of the great Powers of Europe,
or whether her polyglot millions will become power-
less from division. The two important facts of the
day are the convocation of the Hungarian Diet on
the 19th of this month, and the nomination of that
eminent Saxon diplomatist, Baron von Buest, as
Minister of Foreign Affairs. This appointment
appears to have given great satisfaction at Vienna,
and created a dawn of confidence amongst the
friends of the House of Hapsburg. Called upon to
direct the domestic, internal, as well as foreign po-
licy of the Austrian empire at a most critical
moment, Baron von Beast's diplomacy will be fol-
lowed at each move by the statesmen of Prussia,
who cannot fail to discover in the nomination of this
active spirit of the late German Confederation an
attempt to dispute the ambitious designs of King
William and his Prime Minister. In a circular
note lately issued by the new Austrian Minister of
Foreign Affairs he tells his own agents abroad that
he will immediately give his attention to the inter-
nal or domestic affairs of the empire. This is a

supreme necessity, for it is not until Austria is
consolidated at home that she can hope to hold
any influence even over a Southern Germany,
whilst internal discord weakens her voice at every
European Court. If the Emperor and his de-
spoiled friends ever hope to regain what
Prussia has conquered, Austria must first make
herself strong and united politically, whilst
her financial condition must be very different
from that which her budgets now display. The
first and most vital question is, How to bring
about a reconciliation with Hungary and Croatia 7
We all know that negotiations have been going, on
between the Vienna Cabinet and the leading patriots
at Pesth in order to enable the Diet, when its meta"
bers come together, to accomplish a solid and per-
manent incorporation with the rest of the empire.
Now, if we are correctly informed, up to a very
late date the Emperor and his advisers at Vienna
have shown great hesitation and vacillation in treat-
ing with the Magyars and those leading political
men in whoa, the Hungarian people have full con-
fidence. Francis Joseph may be willing to accord
the Hungarians a national administration and an
unlimited municipal authority ; but the Emperor
cannot be persuaded to let the Hungarians manage
their own affairs as regards finance and war. The
Hungarians have hitherto kept away from the
lteichsrath, or Council of the Empire, and have
consequently never voted the ruinous taxation in'
posed upon them. The Diet of 1861 was little
short of a protest against the past and present
frauds and injustice traditionally practised on the
nation by the Hapsburgs, and which Baron rod-
manicky and Count Alexander Carolyi intend to be
heard in sympathising and constitutional England.
The Hungarians are a conservative and loyal
people ; they really desire to put faith in Austria,
although the representative so long of absolutist,
feudal, and Church oppression ; but, unhappilit
they have no faith in the integrity of Austria ; that
is the great difficulty of the moment. Past history
has taught them that the House of Hapsburg is more
generous and just in the hour of fear and humilia-
tion than in the hour of prosperity and power. The
leading men of Hungary ask that the concessions
Austria may be disposed to make shall be protected bY
guarantees. The Hungarians may have made up their
minds to accept the national debt of the empire as it
now stands ; but they say—For the future let us have
some guarantee that the taxes we pay to the State
shall not be expended in useless wars to maintain
thrones and systems of government we desire to see
rather swept away than perpetuated by militaryde-
spotism. Another demand made by the Hungarians
is that they should be permitted to possess a limited
national guard. There are no doubt other minor
questions to be disposed of, but the above form the
more prominent difficultiesfor negociation. If Baron
von Beust can bring more confiding and generous
counsels to the Court and Government he may in-
duce the Emperor to abandon the advice of those
who have lost him Venetia and destroyed Austrian
influence among the German people, if not amongst
the small Princes of a Royal German Confederation,
in which Austrian ' influence often triumphed at
Frankfort. He commences his difficult task with
more promise than any recent principal adviser of
the Crown could indulge in. There is no Venetian
question to encumber domestic rule and oblige a
large standing army. Austria is not only free of
Venetia, but she is thoroughly' disentangled from
the politics .of ;the Italian peninsula, and we may
presume, at least, relieved from the exigencies of the
Papacy. Austria, too, is no longer the protector of
those German States whose princes and armies were
of so little use to her in her late struggle with Prussia,
But there are yet enough discordant elements to be
reconciled and ingeniously patched into an imperial
and harmonious political mosaic. Hungary, Croatia,
Dalmatia, Galicia, Austria Proper, Styria, Carinthia,
Buckowina, Transylvania, Silesia, Moravia, the
Tyrol, Istria, &c. Such varied districts and people,
have to be yet governed from Vienna, made loyal
and confident towards a dynasty which is just not
suffering under a cloud of gloom and distrust. But n
Hungary is reconciled the main work is accomplished.
Already the various provincial Diets have, with th,
certainly important exceptions of Hungary an?
Croatia, subscribed to the Constitution of 1860-611
and, after what has taken place in 1866, we WO'
expect the Court of Vienna to show more respect an-,
consideration for the various nationalities than 01
old. We should witness with regret the destruction
of the Austrian empire, and we should regret even,
its fall from a great Power to a disjointed and went
amalgamation of small States. The treaties of 181'
placed Austria in a false position, and she never was
able to right herself. She has lost many Sovereign,s
their thrones and considerably damaged the legiti-
mate influence of the Roman Catholic Church ; but
we can ill spare her as a great Power in the centre
of Europe in days like ours. We hope Franc's
Joseph will sincerely make friends and consolidate
a real friendship with Hungary, and even remove
the Court to Pesth for a few mouths every year. It
,
he takes to himself new and intelligent constitutional
Ministers, and turns his back on those who have
brought about so much disaster to his dynasty, the
Austrian empire may be renovated, and become one
more of great political value to the European family
of nations and the people over whom Francis Joseph
is called to rule.