The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-20 00:00:00

MIE SUN, LUNLON, TUESOAY EV ENING, NOVEMBER 20, 1866.

ASPIIALTE ROOFING FELT,
0 NE PENN I' per Square Foot.
CROGGON and C 0., Manufacturers,
63, New Earl-street, }
(34, Bread- str,et, " London, E.C.
5), George-square, Cila3gow ; 2, Gores ria,azaß, Liverpoo!.

NEAT Il AND BREC ON RAILWAY
COMPANY.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that a SPECIAL
GENERAL MEETING of the Shareholders of tbe Neath
and Brecon Railway Company will be holden at their
offices, No. 1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria-street,
Westminster, on THURSDAY, the Sixth day of
December next, -at One o'clock in the afternoon
precisely, to take into consideration, and, if approved
of, to divide a portion of the ordinary shares of
the Company into Preferred Half Shares and Deferred
Half Shares, in accordance with the powers conferred by
the Neath and Brecon Railway Act, 1866.
(Signed) W. L. BANKS, Chairman.
W. HOWELL MORGAN Secretary.
1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria-str3et;
19th November, 1866.

government is the admixture of parties, the repre-
sentation of different classes—aristocratic, commer-
cial, manufacturing, agricultural, industrial, whose
views on politics are essentially distinct, if not anta-
gonistic. It hag evenbeen complained of in this coun-
try that we have suffered from the too long tenure
of office by one school of politicians, although we
have never been without a pretty strong Opposition
in the Commons and a counterbalancing influence
in the Lords. Bow much more justly, then, may
moderate Americans complain that the extreme
party in their country has secured for itself
so formidable a majority in both Houses
of Congress as completely to override the sole
restraining power, the Presidential veto, and
are thus agitators, legislators, and executive,
all in one. What the result of such a state of
things may be it is not easy to foretel, but the recent
victories of the Radicals give little hope for mode-
ration on their part ; neither do they seem very wil-
ling to accept compromise or conciliation if the
other side were willing to offer it, and neither party
in American politics is remarkable for the amenities
of statesmanship. The session about to open pro-
mises to be a stormy one, and it will boast two
noticeable additions to its members, re-
markable, if not respectable, individuals.
General BUTLER, of New Orleans memory, and
and. JOHN. MonnissEY, of pugilistic celebrity, are
duly elected members of the Congress of the States.
In one of these gentlemen the pugnacious element
is somewhat too strongly developed ; in the other
cynics have hinted it is not sufficiently marked, and
the records of Fort Fisher support their views. But
it is something new even for America, who prides
herself on doing. startling things, to send a prize-
fighter to Congress. Is this a specimen of
the physical force whose judicious application
to refractory and retrogressive Parliaments
Mr. BRIGHT is inclined to favour? Perhaps
if JOHN MORRISSEY turns out a success we shall
have Messrs. MACE and KING coming forward as
candidates at the next general election. The poet
who some time ago sung the praises of " The Battle
of Belt," in the pages of Maga, showed the true
instinct of prophecy when he deplored HEENAN'S
defeat, on the gronnd of its interfering with his
political prospects on his return to his native
country :

"For though exalted office
No doubt awaits him there,
Yet, beltless, ho can scarcely gain,
What, conqueror, he might well attain—
The Presidential chair!"

The election of General BUTLER does not augur
well for the South. They will have an addition to
the ranks of their unscrupulous enemies, and though
even BUTLER will hardly recommend the hanging of
JEFFERSON DAVIS and General LEE in Congress,
yet he is certain to be found on the despotic and
vindictive side of every question at issue between
North and South. It is said that the Radicals, so
soon as they find their ascendancy in Congress
secure, intend deposing all those State Governors
appointed by the PRESIDENT, who have refused to
recommend the acceptance of the Constitutional
Amendment to their Legislatures. This sys-
tem of government can hardly be carried
on for long. It must inevitably produce the conse-
quences which in every age and in every country
where force has been e mployed to subdue an intel-
ligent and united people have resulted. When op-
pression grows intolerable the populace combine to
resist it, and if unsuccessful the fires of discontent
and disaffection to the Government go smouldering
on, taxing all the powers of the dominant party to
keep them in subjection, and thus becoming a
source of weakness to the strongest State—a
cause of terror to the boldest ruler. The
political power and financial gain which Austria
gained fwd.' her tenure of Venetia and Lombardy,
which Russia has on her hold of Poland, may be
very much questioned. Such gain the Northern
States of America will have from their oppression
of the South and no more. An immense standing
army sapping the finances of the State, an openly
disaffected community always ready to unite
and second foreign intervention, an ally
within the doors to whom every assailer
without knows he may with confidence appeal—
such will be the result of the dominion to which
the Radicals are looking forward with exultation.
What the consequences will be commercially
and productively, what will be the effect on the
trade, and enterprise, and cultivation of the fertile
Southern States, we need not pause to speculate.
America, dazzled by a career of unexampled suc-
cess and rapid progress, is forgetting those
very laws and principles which made her what she
is. The abuse of her national virtues have
become the opposite vices, and freedom, self-con-
fidence, and courageous disregard of consequences
will end, if her people do not take heed, in a repe-
tition of the Old World despotisms.

The Dutch Chambers were opened yesterday by
a Ministerial Commission on behalf of the KING.
The Speech from the Throne was delivered by
the Minister of Justice, and seems to have been
a very fair one on the whole. Ile said, in allud-
ing to the dissolution of the second Chamber, that
the KING and Ministers hoped that on the last
decision of the electors the people,' Government,
and representatives will vie with each other in ful-
filling the constitutional task, which had for its
object the happiness of the country. It is to be
hoped that these aspirations will be realised, and
that unity will prevail. The Speech of the Danish
Monarch on the opening of the new Rigsdag was
a very good one, and it shows to more advantage
when we peruse the full text. His MAJESTY alluded
to the auspicious marriage of his daughter, the
Princess DAGMAR, and particularly adverted to the,
kind sympathy she had received from the Daran. h
people before she went. He, of course, is deliehted at
the prospect held out to him of receiving back among
his subjects those faithful Danes of. Northern
Schleswig who have mourned so bitterly over their
separation from their friends. Great stress is also
lßoafii dg
thes
du apo
army.
upon
nyt
this
hei
aRc chief
session,eceu tsubject
ynamely,
ns :le
et puo have
reconstructiona
vebeforetaugt hhet
useful lessons to the Danish, KING, and we hope
that his efforts will be crowned with success during
the ensuing session of his Rigsdag, so that he may
be able to hold his own against all intruders, and if
unhappily he should again be compelled to go to
war he may be far more able to compete with his
enemies both by sea and land than he unfortunately
was two years ago. The.financial condition of the
country is good, so that there are no grounds for
apprehension on that score.

The disaster which has visited the north of Eng-
laud is evidently of a very severe and extended
character. The unusual amount of heavy rains
which we have had during this summer and autumn
has been the theme of general remark. We were
not prepared, however, for their bringing so great
a catastrophe in their train as the floods in the
northern counties have proved. The accounts which
reach us from various quarters, from Leeds, from
Wakefield, from Wigan, from Doncaster, all tell
the same tale of unprecedented floods, of risk to
life, if not actual loss, and of terrible and wide-
spread destruction of property. At Leeds, on Fri-
day, the flood was the highest ever known, the

valley of the Aire being inundated through nearly
all its length, and for a great part of its width.
There was an immense destruction of property and
several fatalities, one of which, unfortunately, the
fall of a quay wall at Leeds-bridge, occasioned the
deaths of fifteen or twenty persons. In the Wake-
field district the height reached by the flood was
two feet half an inch more than any on record, and
here, too, there were many deaths, and £50,000 is
ranked a moderate computation of the loss sus-
tained. In Preston there was great damage,
and at Doncaster the overflowing of the
Don covered thousands of acres. All through
the counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derby-
shire, the havoc went on, and though the latest in-
telligence informs us that the floods have subsided,
yet we do not as yet know half the damage. The
isolated deaths by drowning will, we fear, prove to
be numerous, notwithstanding some gallant rescues,
while the loss of the flocks and crops is very serious.
It is a misfortune in a great measure beyond
human control, but before we decide that it is
hopeless to deal with it it would be well to have a
full official inquiry into the whole subject, that we
may learn the proximate cause of the danger, the
symptoms of its approach, and also whether there
may not be ' some precautions adopted which may
diminish the frequency and fatality of these inunda-
tions in the north.

left together apparently much in anger. A spec-
tator who had been annoyed interfered, which
seemed to increase their dispute, and the indivi-
dual was so exasperated on being told not to in-
terfere that he drew a revolver from his pocket and
fired at the elder brother. Fortunately the ball did
not hit him, but it lodged in one of the boxes.
When questioned by the police, he said his name
was Bruno de la Garza, a native of Monterey,
Mexico, aged 33. From the incoherence of his
language he is evidently insane. All the barrels of

the revolver were loaded, so he evidently meant
much mischief.

Three very serious and destructive fires have
taken place—one at a manufactory for sawing by
machinery, at St. Denis, near Paris, and another at
an extensive timber yard at Caen. The property
destroyed at St. Denis is estimated at 100,000 f.
The danger done at Caen is to the amount of
300,000 f. Happily there was no serious personal
injury. The third fire was at a manufactory at Cas-
tres, near Toulouse, where immense damage was
done. By this latter casualty more than 200 work-
, men are t brown out of employ.
The London papers lately gave a curious story
respecting a man named Vital Douat, who followed
his own coffin. He has been tried before the Court
of Assize at Antwerp upon the charge of forgery
and attempting to set fire to a vessel. The jury
found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death.
A. man named Martin Rean is to be tried on the
3d of December before the Court of Assize for the
Deux Sevres, at Niort, charged with murdering his
first and second wife, and his son by the second
wife. There is also an accusation against him of poi-
soning, with corrosive sublimate, Pierre Rean, bro-
ther of his first wife, on the 2d of February, 1853;
but by the law of France it appears that
there is prescription in this latter case, and
he cannot be tried for the crime in conse-
quence of the lapse of time. The motive was
to obtain possession of property. It is a remark-
able circumstance that 25 years ago another inhabi-
tant of the same commune of Presigny was con-
victed before the same tribunal for having from
similar motives of cupidity poisoned with arsenic
his two wives, his mother, and brother. The greater
portion of these crimes was also barred by prescrip-
tion, and the jury had only to decide upon the charge
of the poisoning of the second wife. They found
him guilty, but with " extenuating circumstances,"
and the prisoner, a man named Auger, was con-
demned to hard labour for life.

Another victim, making the fourth, of the bruta
attack by the soldiers at the wine-shop at Levallois
Perret, of which I sent an account, has expired.
M. Bouramier, the bricklayer, has just died at the
Beaujon Hospital. M. Vitte, the proprietor of the
shop, is in a hopeless state at the hospital.
General Dix, the new Minister from the United
States to the Court of France, has arrived in Paris.
A swindler, who traded upon an extensive scale,
and under the name so renowned in France of
Count de Guise, has been condemned by default by
the Paris tribunal on the triple charge of fraudulent
bankruptcy, illegally wearing a decoration, and
various acts of swindling. The sentence was five
years' imprisonment, a fine of 50f., and to pay the
expenses of the prosecution. The real name of the
accused is Padorani. He is an Italian, and it is
supposed that at present London is favoured with
his residence. In Paris he called himself Count
Arthur de Guise. He obtained goods from many
Paris tradesmen to a large amount. One was r,io
infatuated with his promises as to give him his
acceptances to bills of exchange to the amou of
about £3,000 sterling, but he told the Court he was
fortunate enough to escape with a loss of only
8,000 fr., as he was able to get back the bills. A
jeweller gave the supposed Count 4,000f7,. under the
idea that he could obtain for him the ';,ustorn of the
Imperial Court.

A lady swindler has victimised a poor priest to
the tune of some three or four t'uousand francs, all
he possessed. Dressed as a s'aster of charity she
accosted the victim in the streets and told him she
was charged by a lady of iminense property to select
objects for charity, hinting- also that he ought to
participate largely in the donations himself. She
said she should like to Ede his apartment that she
might report to the lady the simple style in which
she knew he lived. Toe priest allowed the swindler
to accompany him horle, and pointing to his trunk
said it contained all, he possessed in the world. The
lady asked to 100% at the gold, and said she wished
to replace the ly-4g containing it herself. A cab was
then hired to corivey herself and the priest to the
Princess, who. -would give her a large sum of money
for him to ,:listribute in charitable purposes. On
the way s'..te said she wished to go and pray at the
Chamber .of St. Roch for a few minutes. She left
the chrmber by the back door, and when the priest
returr
_Led home he found that she had contrived to
extract the bag of money which he had showed to
heir. This sister of charity has not been traced.