The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-14 00:00:00

rni SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 14, 1859.

THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONERS.

(From the Times.)
What could have induced the King of Naples to
Let Poerio, Settembrini, and the other political pri-

soners loose upon society once more ? Society,
especially society towards the instep of the Italian
Boot, is as much in danger as ever from the in-
famous machinations of those misguided men. Has
the discipline of the prisons in that pleasant bay,

where the waters on which they look out seem to

smile in mockery of the captives' anguish, been
effective to quell and crush in them the spirit of
revolt against the constituted authorities ? Shall
we see a repetition of the intellectual destruction
worked on Silvo Pellico when these prisoners are

let loose from gaol ? Will Poerio come out drivel-
ling about the Immaculate Conception and the cle-
mency of King Bomba ? Or, finally, is it that the
Neapolitan Sovereign is taking a hint from the
ethical system of the unjust steward, and making
to himself friends of the Powers under whose domi-
_ _

nion he must speedily come ? Why should that
apparently unrelenting grasp be relaxed at last ?
What reason is there why he should spare to-day—
he who never spared man before ? Why should
Shylock repent him on a Friday—late—of the
cruelties he has meditated since the last Sabbath of
his people ? The approaching marriage of the
Duke of Calabria,' either directly or by inference,
affords but a very imperfect answer to these ques-

tions.
Would, even now, at the twelfth hour, and
far on in the twelfth hour, we could arrive at the
conclusion that a saner system of government
is contemplated by those who for a time hold
the destinies of Southern Italy in their hands !
Would that we •could accept this amnesty as the
first fruits, or earnest, of that wiser system ! From
what we are about to say let no reader look for
revelations which will help him to solve the Italian
riddle of the hour. The arcana imperil of which
we are about to speak have been for the last forty
years as notorious and patent to all observers as the
fiery crown of Vesuvius on the darkest night. If
we are now threatened with war—and let each man
speculate for himself on the probabilities of it—it is
King Ferdinand of Naples and men like him, quite
as much as ambitious Kings and Emperors, who
have brought Southern Europe to that pass. If the
nations of the civilised world are arming; if mercan-
tile securities are changing into trash like yester-
day's fairy coin ; if the plains of Lombardy are
again to be steeped in blood ; if Emperors, Kings,
and their Ministers are preparing to throw old
Eson into the cauldron once more, to see what will
come of boiling him up again, it is King Ferdinand
of Naples and his peers whom we have to thank for
To anticipate such events as those of which we
are speaking is well nigh to realise them. The
immediate storm may yet be averted, but as long
as Italy is so infamously misgoverned as it has been
for many years past, the actual occurrence of the
evils we dread can but be a question of months, of
weeks, of days. Princes and Ministers may, for the
purposes of their own private ambition and for their
own selfish ends, toy and coquette with the spirit
which is abroad. They may call it into premature
action, but they cannot very long keep it under, if
they would. The elements of confusion and destruc-
tion are so plentifully scattered from the Alps to
Reggio that a child's hand may at any moment pro-
duce an explosion. A fantastic hat, the charred end
of a cigar, a mistaken cry, may suffice as a signal
where all men are prepared. It is likely enough that
the high personages whose acts and words have led to
all this turmoil may at last shrink from the spectre
they have summonedon the scene, and do what they
can to back out of so false a position ; but they may
be held to their bargain in a way they little thought.
The evil is there on which they have speculated,
I and that evil is half a century of oppression and
misgovernment.
The Neapolitan King has let his captives loose at
, last, and we presume that he has done this because
1 he felt it the most politic course for his own inte-
rests. But, as far as he is concerned, although he
has undoubtedly chosen the wiser course, it was
almost equally dangerous to stand still or to go on.
If he retained them in their fetters a little while
longer, and added a few months to their long years
of martyrdom, public feeling would have been ex-
asperated against him more and more. When he
lets them loose he simply liberates witnesses to his
own insincerity. Poerio chained is a chained wit-
ness—Poerio free is a free witness to the fact that
King Ferdinand will at any time trample under
foot his pledged faith. He has lain these long
years in his dungeon—he has suffered the utmost
extremities of human misery, simply because he
had done what the King, his master, had sworn to
do. When the storm came Poerio trusted to the
King ; when the storm abated Poerio trusted to the
King still ; but the time for trusting had passe
away. This it is which forms the chief difficulty
of the King's position, should he be advised to bend
once more to the storm, and to ask again for the
confidence of his subjects. How can they trust
him ? It is not surprising that King Ferdinand of
Naples should be taking alarm at what he sees
about him—he would indeed be bereft of reason if
he did not apprehend the perils of his present situ-
ation. He has consented to release these unfortu-
nate captives, whose lives have been turned into a
long agony by his breach of faith ; but this only
proves that he shrinks from the hour of retribu-
tion. It must indeed be acknowledged that he has
made the amende as completely as he could. King
Ferdinand has banished the culprits from his do-
minions. Such is the state of the Two Sicilies
that this is the greatest mark of favour in the
Sovereign's gift.

racteristics of a good stallion, as also that of a farm
horse. The treatment of mares in foal, and colts,
and training colts, was next spoken of. As to train-
ing colts, Mr. Finlay stated that the most delicate
operation was that of haltering and leading a foal,
and quoted Rarey's advice on the subject. Mr. F.
concludes a very interesting lecture in the follow-
ing ;words :—" 1 have attempted to convince you
that all who employ work horses will find that goof
horses, well fed and well treated, will do more work
at a cheaper rate than inferior horses badly fed, and
that therefore it is their interest to procure the
best animals within their reach. I have also recom-
mended farmers to breed horses, in preference to
buying them, and to breed none but the best. I have
likewise given some general rules for the guidance of
breeders, and for the treatment of colts. I propose
still to offer some remarks on the proper construc-
tion of stables, on grooming, and attendance; but
specially on the most approved modes of feeding.
This branch, however, is so very important, and I
have already taken up so much of your time, that I
shall consult your convenience by postponing the
discussion of these points until the next meeting of
the club, when possibly your secretary will read
my remarks, as I shall be unable to attend myself."

P.RESIDENT_MON.ROE AND HIS

DOCTRINE.

(From the New York Times.)
If there be any sense of earthly things in souls set
free, the late President Monroe must look with
mingled scorn and surprise upon the scene of his
mortal labours. With scorn, certainly, as finding
that the lapse of 30 years has made men no wiser ;
that grave national questions are handled now, as
in his time they were, in the spirit of sixpenny
partisan passion ; and that the highest office in the
land has become a mere Court of Appeals for Tam-
many-hall, in which the squabbles of New York
wire-pullers take precedence of the most important
debates of war and peace as between the nations of
the world ; and surely with surprise, to find that
he himself is playing a part he never dreamed of in
his country's history ; that his venerable ghost (left
sleeping quietly so long within the borrowed rave
to which his country's prudent economy consigned
her chief's remains) has been invoked to stand be-
fore the Secretary of State's office and warn all
foreign intruders off these premises, doing a kind
of mystical policeman's duty towards the kingdoms
of the earth. .

In the year 1823 Mr. Monroe, then President ol
the United States, was advised by Mr. Rush, then
our Minister at London, that the Holy Alliance of
Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France, having re-
solved to set the European house in order by knock-
ing Riego and the Spanish Liberals on the head,
had also determined to bring America to reason, to
re-establish the Castilian sway in the New World,
and to strike down, in every place within their
reach, whatever Power dared assert itself as founded
on the right of the people to self-government. This
determination, however veiled, was a virtual denun-
ciation of the tenure by which the House of Han-
over held England, as well as of the claim of the
United States to an independent existence. Eng-
land had, therefore, abstained from and protested
against the joint action of the other Powers, and,
through her Premier, Mr. Canning, she advised
America to do likewise. Inspired by his Secretary
of State, John Quincy Adams, who was always
ready to take up the gauntlet of despotism, when-
ever he found it thrown down on either side the
Atlantic, Mr. Monroe responded to the appeal of
England, and gave the rulers of Europe to under-
stand, in the mildest terms compatible with truth,
that "we should consider any attempt on their
part to extend their. 'system to any portion of this
hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."
" With the existing -colonies or dependencies of any Eu-
ropean Power," said Mr. Monroe, "we have nipt interfered
and shall not interfere. But with the American Govern-
ments who have declared their independence and main-
tained it, and whose independence we have on grave consi-
derations and on just principles acknowledged, we could not
view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them
or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any
European Power, in any other light than as the manifesta-
tion of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."
. . . . "It is impossible," he continued, " that the Allied
Powers should extend their political system to any portion
of either continent without endangering our peace and
happiness : nor can any one believe that our Southern. bre-
thren, if left to themselves, would adopt of their own accord.
It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold
any such interposition in any form with indifference."
Again, in December of the ensuing year, 1824,
Mr. Monroe alluded to this subject, for the purpose
of asserting the completeness of the organization of
the New World. The old " open territories" of
the Americas, over which, with a sublime disregard
of the heathen aborigines and their disgusting rites,
the Pope had exercised so absolute an authority—
giving them away to his faithful sons, were now,
said Mr. Monroe, to be considered as closed. No
Power was henceforth to take with the colonists of
Europe such liberties as those colonists had taken
with their tawny predecessors. We had either
exterminated or suppressed the natives to that de-
gree that we, .w ith our Spanish friends to the south
of us, had ourselves become the genuine natives.
Henceforth we should require to manage our own
affairs, and to settle our own waste lands in our own
way. This was a discrete, decisive, and authoritative
proclamation. In fact, it opened a new era of his-
tory. It announced the formation of an American
system, which might undergo many modifications,
but which must find its own law, and be within
itself what Europe was and is—a self-administered
self-controlling world of diverse interests, balancing
and balanced under the operation of influences native
to the general states. It was in this way the corol-
lary of the declaration made the year before, and,
as will be seen, had less reference to America be-
yond our limits than to Europe. It had nothing to
do with "manifest destiny," as now commonly
understood—with the extension of the area of free-
dom—with annexation, or with Filibusterism.
Judge, then, whether we are not right in saying
that the shade of President Monroe would indeed
be startled from its propriety (if there be propriety
in shades !) on finding what the Monroe doctrine
has become on the lips and from the pen of Gen.
Cass. For Geu. Cass appeals to it as his authority
for declaring that we could not peacefully behold
the exercise of a protectorate by a European Power
over any independent State of this continent, even
at the request of that state. The appeal is idle.
Not to speak of the stultification which such lan-
guage receives from the fact that we have looked
peacefully on at least two such protectorates—one
in Honduras and one in Nicaragua—at any time
these last 10 or 20 years, the doctrine of Mr. Mon-
roe will bear no such construction. It was conceived
in a different spirit and for a very different end.
We ourselves hold that Gen. Cass has merely mud-
dled a clear and sound idea. We believe ardently
and firmly that the time must come, and will, when
any protectorate but that of the United States over
an American nation will be impossible ; and when
the flag of this country will be recognised through-
out the continent as the symbol of peace and the gua-
rantee of order. But we look for the advent of that
time to a policy as unlike that of Mr. Buchantin and
Mr. Cass as any policy can be ; to a policy of jus-
tice abroad and law at home ; to a policy constitu-
tional at once and progressive, clearing away the
incumbrances of the past by reforms in the sense
of freedom, and opening the vistas of the future by
bold assertions of absolute right.
Meanwhile, let us forbear, if but for very shame,
to trouble the ashes of our dead President. We
have his family among us—its sad remnant at least
—ill-cared for, wasting away. While we leave them
to their lonely want and silent endurance, let us
not flaunt the name of Monroe upon banners that
he knew not of, nor bear it in the van of enterprises
from which his patriotism and his loyal good sense
.11 would have recoiled with indignation.
;re

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LA ir INTELLIGENCE.—Jan. 13.

BAIL COURT.
SWAYNE V. DEWDENY.
Nir. Sergeant Parry and Mr. T. Jones were
counsel for the plaintiff; and Mr. Overend and Mr.

Image for the defendant.
This was an action to recover £6O for the use
and occupation of a furnished house, being No. 2,
Inverness-place, Bayswater. The defendant pleaded

never indebted and payment.
The plaintiff is a house agent at Nottinghill ;
the defendant is a lady of fortune and respectability.
The pi.ointiff, having a house of his own, being the
house in question, which had been previously
occupied by Lord Cottenham, agreed to let it to
the defendant at a rent of £l2O, payable quarterly,
and with a payment in advance of £lO. The
defendan t entered into possession on the Bth of
March. ,:he defendant afterwards, on the 12th of
March, corn nlained that the house was in a very
d that the carpets sent did not fit.
dirty state, a\,'
The laintiff' Of!
n sent an upholsterer to put
everything right. The defendant's nephew called
and complained of the drains smelling. A Mr. Coles
acted for Mrs. Dewdenj% A complaint was made
of bugs. The plaintiff se.nt his managing porter,
who attended to those motters. Had had no
complaint before of bugs or 91.* bad smells. The
defendant left on the 3d of April.
The plaintiff, having given evidence to the above
effect, was cross-examined. Lord Cottenham was
in the house three months, and left on January 19,
IssB, and a woman remained in possession until
the defendant entered. Coles was a house agent,
living about half a mile from the plaintiff. He
sometimes let houses for plaintiff. Coles applied
to plaintiff for commission for letting this house to
the defendant, but plaintiff refused to pay him.
He believed everything had been done that he had
undertaken to do. Ho did not go to the house
once a year. Did not know that the rain came
through the roof upon the beds.
The plaintiff's manager swore that the house and
furniture were in a clean state, fit for the occupation

of a lady.
%Mr Overend saidhis defence would be tnat Coles
had let the house, as the agent of the plaintiff,
to the defendant, and had undertaken to do certain
repairs, which had not been done ; that the house
was infested with bugs ; and that the drains were
so bad that the house was not habitable, and the
defendant was obliged to leave at the expiration
of three weeks.
The Judge said he should not interfere, but the
defendant had signed an agreement with the
plaintiff.
Other witnesses stated that the roof and drains
were in complete repair, and the former tenants
found no inconvenience from drains or bugs. Some
bugs were found in the furniture of one bed, which
furniture was then taken away and cleaned, but
was not returned until the lady was gone. There
were not more than 100 bugs found.
Mr. Overend addressed the jury for the de-
fendant, urging that the defendant had believed
she was acting with Mr. Coles as the agent of Mr.
Swayne. Putting that aside the house was not
habitable, and the defendant had a serious illness
in consequence of the state of the drains. The whole
house so swarmed with bugs that the deceased was
justified in leaving it.
The Jude said, that no one would say that a
tenant finding one bug would write and say, instead
of sending the rent, " I enclose you one bug I have
found," and so evade the payment of the rent. If
the fact should turn out to be as Mr. Overend had
stated, he would give the defendant leave to move.
The defendant said, she complained of the dirty
state of the house, which was as dirty as dirty
could be ; also of the bugs and the drains. The
smell was dreadful. She was obliged to leave her
room and throw the windows open. She complained
to Mr. Coles, who she believed to be Mr. Swayne's
agent. She complained daily. It was a continuous
bad smell. Her health was affected, and she was
obliged to have medical attendance for two months.
There was great want of water, of which she com-
plained to Mr. Coles, who never acted as her agent.
The water closet could not be used. The bed in
which she slept swarmed with bugs. They crawled
about the room; all her person was bitten. There
were bugs in the other rooms.
Cross-examined—Could not have the bath because
there was not water Complained of the bugs the
first morning. Has let her furnished house in May-
fair. The bugs were down stairs as well as up.
Mary Hudson, lady's maid to the defendant, said
the drains were dreadful. There were bugs in
every bed ; there were a great number. They were
in the bed and on the washhand stand. Was obliged
to get out of bed at night they bit her so. She was
obliged to have a doctor. Wrote a letter to Mr.
Swayne, making complaints, but did not mention
the drains or the bugs, as her mistress wished to
speak about those things to Mr. Swayne herself.
Charlotte Grant, servant to the defendant, said
the drains were so bad they could scarcely eat their
food. There were a great many bugs.
A surgeon stated that he was called in to attend
the defendant. She was in a degree of low fever,
such as would arise from living in a house with bad
drainage. She was in good health before March.
The learned Judge, in summing up, observed that
the plaintiff's case was a most ordinary met but
after the defence set up, he should lay down the
law in order that there might not be any mistake.
If the plaintiff allowed a fair examination of the
premises and made no false representation so as to
have deceived the defendant, and in the agreement
there was no stipulation that the drains should be
sweet or that there should be no bugs, he was of
opinion that if a party after such an examination
chose to take that house the party was bound by
the agreement, although something took place she
did not expect, and made the bargain an unpleasant
one. That would not be a valid defence. But
because there had been a question about the law, if
the jury found the proposition he should put to
them in the affirmative he would take care that the
defendant should be entitled to succeed, provided
the Court should be of opinion that the defence was
a valid one. The question, then, he would ask
them was this :—Was there anything about the
house so noxious as to render it, in their judgmant
uninhabitable, and not reasonably fit for tke defend-
ant to inhabit ?
The jury found a verdict for the .plaintiff for
£5O 12s.