The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PDBLIO JOURNALS.

TI3IES.—A somewhat different complexion has
been given to the extradition of Lamirande by our
last intelligence from Canada. As this case will
probably engage the attention of Parliament, and
as a grave error of judgment has been publicly im-
puted to the Governor-General, it is desirable that
our readers should be placed in possession of all the
facts, so far as they are known to us. It will be
remembered that Lamirande, being cashier of the
Poitiers branch of the Bank of France, was charged
with defrauding that bank, by means of false entries,
to the extent of 700,000!. lie fled, in the first in-
stance, to the United States, and was arrested at
New York, upon an application under the Extradi-
tion Treaty between France and America. Before
a warrant could be issued, he managed to escape
from custody, and took refuge in Canada, where he
was again apprehended under a warrant procured
by the French Consul from a magistrate at Montreal.
After due investigation, he was finally committed to
gaol for extradition on the 22d of August last. In
the meantime a petition was presented to Lord
Monck, then at Ottawa, representing the probability
of an attempt being made to convey Lamirande out
of the country, without leaving time for a writ of
habeas corpus to be granted. Lord Monck, in re-
ply, appears to have given a verbal assurance that
sufficient time should be allowed for that purpose.
On the 24th a warrant of extradition, dated the
23d, was submitted to Lord Monck for his signature
at Quebec, having actually been sealed at Ottawa
on the 23d, in the proper office, and forwarded on
to Quebec. Having received a written opinion
from the Solicitor-General of Lower Canada, to
the effect that Lamirande's case fell within the provi-
sions of the Extradition Treaty, and considering
that ample time would have elapsed before the
arrival of his warrant to obtain a writ of habeas
corpus, Lord Monck signed the document, which was
despatched on the same day to Montreal, and exe-
cuted forthwith, no writ of habeas corpus having
then been issued. The fact was that, instead of
moving for the writ on the 23d—the day after the
committal—the prisoner's counsel had given the pro-
secutor's counsel 24 hours' notice, and delayed the
application until the 24th, when the warrant had
already been signed by the Governor-General. There
would still, however, have been time enough to an-
ticipate the receipt of the warrant had the writ been
issued at once. Unfortunately, Judge Drummond,
after expressing himself satisfied that the prisoner
was entitled to his discharge, consented to adjourn
the application until the next day, to give the coun-
sel for the Bank of France an opportunity of being
heard. That very evening the warrant reached
Montreal, and not a moment was lost by the French
police agents in acting upon its authority. They
demanded the surrender of Lamirande from the go-
vernor of the gaol, and carried him off by the night
train to Quebec, whence he sailed the next morning
in the steamer for Europe. Such we believe to be a
true account of the circumstances which have ex-
cited so much interest both in the colony and in this
country. That a most unfair advantage was taken
of the adjournment to hurry away Lamirande while
the application for a writ of habeas corpus was pend-
ing admits of no doubt whatever. Whether his ex-
tradition could properly have been refused upon the
grounds alleged by Mr. Justice D rumm ond is another
question. It is said that he ought not to have
been given.up under the treaty, because the, demand
was made by the French Consul-General, instead of
by an "Ambassador or other accredited diplomatic
agent" of the French Government. If this objection,
however, *ere allowed to prevail, it would follow
that in Canada and all other British colonies the
treaty must practically remain a dead letter, since
there is no official representative of France beyond
the United Kingdom except the Consuls-General.
Again, it has been urged that Lamirande could not
be lawfully: apprehended withoutthe production of a
" warrant of arrest, or other equivalent judicial docu-
ment, issued by a judge or competent magistrate in
France, authenticated in such manner as would
justify the arrest of the supposed offender in
France upon the same charge ;" whereas here the
original French arret de renroi was not produced,
and the English warrant was granted upon the evi-
dence of a certified copy. The statute (6th and 7th
Victoria, cap. 75) certainly requires it to be proved
before the magistrate, by oath or affidavit, that
the party applying for the arrest of a prisoner
" is the bearer of " such a document as is thus de-
scribed, but it does nut provide for the contingency
of its being stolen or destroyed. In this case it was
sworn that Lamirande's counsel at New York, who
also defended him at Montreal, had got possession
of the warrant and refused to restore it. It is for
lawyers to say whether secondary evidence of its
contents could legally be admitted on the proof of
this fact, but no one can feel much sympathy with
a prisoner who failed to profit by such a contrivance.
A far more serious doubt rests upon the nature of
the charge itself. The falsification of accounts is
not 'among the crimes specified either in the Eng-
lish version of the Treaty or in the Act of Parlia-
ment which purports to give effect to it. If we
refer to this Act, we find that the only offences
mentioned in it are murder, attempts to commit
murder, forgery, and fraudulent bankruptcy. But,
then, we are told that in the French version of the
Treaty the crime of falsification, in French "faux,"
is specifically designated. The argument founded
on this cannot be sustained for a moment. English
magistrates have nothing to do with Treaties, ex-
cept so far as they may be embodied in the common
or statute law, and to supplement the language of
an Act of Parliament by words found in the French,
thought not in the English, version of an Interna-
tional Convention is a perversion of the first prin-
ciples of judical interpretation. There is the less
excuse for it in the present instance because the
Act expressly extends the definition of " murder"
to certain offences of the same class described under
different names in the French penal code. The
presumption is, therefore, that our Legislature
deliberately framed the list of crimes in respect of
which extradition was to be granted. Of course,
any omissions in the list might be the subject of
complaints from the:French Government, but they
are assuredly not to be supplied at the discretion
of an English or Canadian justice of the peace.
We are unable, then, to indulge the consolatory
belief that nothing more than a technical injustice
has been committed. It may well be that Lamirande
richly deserves whatever punishment may await
him, nor is any man to be pitied when he fails to
escape from justice, and is taken back to be tried by
the laws of his own country. At the same time, it
is absolutely inconsistent with the supremacy of the
law that warrants of extradition should be granted
on illegal grounds, and it is a flagrant insult to the
law that a prisoner, whose application for a writ of
habeas corpus is actually before the Court, should
be seized by night under authority from the Execu-
tive, and carried away beyond its jurisdiction. Upon
the first point Lord Monck had, perhaps, no option
but to adopt the advice of the law officer whom he
was bound to consult. That advice seems to us to
have been highly questionable from a legal point of
view, and we are not am are that considerations of
policy are within the province of a Solicitor-Gene-
ral. Assuming, however, that Lord Monck could
not do otherwise than grant the warrant, yet it was
surely his duty to follow his own judgment as to the
time of doing so. He cannot, indeed, be held re-
sponsible for the contretemps which delayed the is-
suing of the writ, but, having received notice that
application would be made for it, he would have
acted more wisely in awaiting the result of the
motion. If the habeas corpus should have been re-
fused, there was no reason for hurry; if it should
have been granted, there was every reason for not
Placing the Governor-General's warrant in apparent
conflict with it. It makes little or no difference
whether the prisoner's counsel was vigilant enough,
or whether Judge Drummond was right in adjourn-
ing the hearing. Had they known the unscrupulous
persons with whom they had to deal, we may be
sure that both would have been more on theirguard,
and no similar mistake is likely to occur in future.
Some time ago the Moniteur formally announced
that Lamirande's extradition was managed in strict
accordance with the provisions of the Extradition
Treaty. We can only reply that a repetition of the
proceedings which the Moniteur thus sanctions would
make it impossible to maintain that treaty, for the
sake of enforcing which we have so lately modified
our own rules of criminal procedure.

HERALD.—The marriage of the Princess Dagmar,
now Maria Feodorowna, a neophyte of the Greek
Church, is an event which has attracted to St.
Petersburg the attention of Europe. Many Royal
personages have gathered, brilliantly surrounded, to
honour the auspicious ceremony. Politicians on the
Continent, of course, see in these nuptials a political
meaning. We leave them to their speculations, and
turn for a moment only to the destinies, present and
probable, of that young bride, just entering, with
the most fortunate omens in her favour, upon a
career gilded for her feet by a thousand joyous an-

ticipations. The Czar, who became heir apparent
when he was seven years 'old, and inherited the Im-
perial Crown thirty years later, is a man who has
won the love of his subjects and the respect of
Europe. From the throne, the first time he sat.
upon it, he declared his resolve to maintain the
policy of Peter, of Catherine, of Alexander, and of
Nicholai. This, in his own sense, he has done, but
he has done more; he has economised the finances
of the empire ; he has liberated twenty-three mil-
lions of peasants from serfdom. To his power will
succeed, in the course of nature, Alexander, third
of the name, now twenty-one years old, the heir
apparent having died at Nice in the month of April,
1865. The young girl, whose wedding now re-
joices all Russia, is the daughter of a King, whose
other daughter h destined to be an English Queen
Consort. She is in the spring-time of life, a beauty
of nineteen, and millions of good wishes will accom-
pany her to the altar. But, while rejecting the
sinister theories of Brussels concerning the objects
to be promoted by this alliance, we may neverthe-
less perceive in it .a policy. The rite itself will
dazzle the second China of the earth with its mag-
nificence. The " purple Testament" is to be
opened; the Imperial city is to be draped with velvet
and embossed with gold ; the paop.e are to gaze
upon processions until their eyes are dim with de-
light ; iu the capital of chrysolith the Danish maiden
will ride, amid a forest of red-shafted spears and
rainbow pennons, in a Cinderella carriage, escorted
by blue-vested Gouriels, each a prince—by the
crested casques of the Guard:by troops of nobles in
golden coats, by the green and yellow Guard of the
Emperor, and upon her head will be a trembling
brilliance of diamonds, significant of the crown she
is one day to wear. For a few hours St. Peters-
burgh will wear the robes of Babylon, and will pay
a million sterling to paint, from dawn till sunset,
the Imperial city. Yet there is in all this more than
the meaning of a theatrical pageant. It is the
custom of the Russian monarchs to amaze their sub-
jects by their magnificence, to impress the Bashkir
and the Circassian with an admiring awe, and to
show the proud-hearted Karrapappaks that however
they may sport gold coins in their hair, or stud their
sheep-skins with jewellery, the splendour of their
plains and mountains is mere barbarism at St.
Petersburgh or Moscow. In fact, all such spectacles
amount practically, in Russia to a deification of the
Imperial family in the sight of the populace, and
naturally so, The Czar is father in the eyes of all
his nations ; his sons and daughters are of a Divine
kindred ; for them, this week, myriads of men,
women, and children will kneel ; for them not only
Kurd and Bashkir, but tens of thousands of citizens,
French-polished in the West, will pray ; for them
ring the bells of a hundred cathedrals ; for them,
at the palace doors, and in the sacred porch, all
bright with crimson-plumed eagles, the multitude
will congregate, as rejoiced to catch one glimpse of
the Danish girl as a poet might be to have seen
Diana, with her phalanx of lovely virgins. Nor is
it tinsel that will be displayed, but pure, solid
malleable gold. It is not a vision, not a drama,
it is the sweet child of Denmark, made an Im-
perial lady by her marriage, who, we are duly
informed, is to wear a diadem of brilliants,
to shine through a cloud of gauze, to sit in a
red and gilt carriage, with a crown on the top, and
eight cream-coloured horses harnessed with gold,
palfrenniers leading them, and little auburn curled
pages perched up aloft, perhaps to screen the un-
courtly coachman's back a galaxy of fairy-like
chariots following, and chivalry, Amazon and other,
all around, as though the bride of Charlemagne
were coming along, with a cavalcade of damsels in
violet cloaks, pranciag upon snow-white palfreys.
This is the Princess Dagmar's entry into life as a
woman. Thus does Imperialism turn forth its purple
lining to the day. The marriage feast is held amid
an Assyria of pomp and brilliance—the Czar, as
usual, being the simplest figure in the show, with a
zodiac of blazonry around him. It is the same all
over the world—at Teheran, at Shoa, at Pekin.
They who govern barbarous or semi-barbarous races
must from time to time make an exhibition of the
traditional barbaric pearl and gold. The ministers
who consecrate their nuptials must wear burnished
brocade; the diadem, the globe, and the sceptre must
be seen by the people, the bells of 400 steeples heard
pealing, and these things, too, talked of by the in-
habitants of the outer provinces. The ceremony in
which the Princess Dagmar has the principal interest
will be witnessed by tributary chiefs from the val-
leys of the Caucasus and from the Asiatic steppes,
and by representatives from the White, Black, and
Baltic Seas; the flush of that day is intended to
dazzle, by a hunted-tinted masquerade, the strangers
who will throne-, from far and wide, where not a
newspaper can be spelled, to behold the procession
of glory, from the palace to the cathedral, and be
fascinated by the splendour amid which, henceforth,
the adopted child of Russia will move. The rustle
of purple and the gleam of jewellery have more effect
upon the simple imagination of mankind than any
ukase, and the second Alexander, whose coronation
was a picture of unexampled radiance, casting all
manner of special correspondents into dangerous
raptures, understands perfectly well the policy of
display. Amid all this a young girl ascends and
seats herself upon the highest step of a throne which
she is probably destined herself to occupy—the lof-
tiest summit of an empire wider than the realm of
Tamerlane, mingling the civilisation of the West
with the barbarism of the ast, great as the
dominion of Constantine, greater than that of
Justinian, containing a hundred peoples, speaking
as many different idioms, and expanding daily. It
is a wonderful position to occupy. Tne Princess
Dagmar is of a dynasty which has not been fortu-
nate of late in politics or in war, but which, never-
timeless, has contracted splendid alliances. Her
sister, as the Princess of Wales, stands near a
throne which has a history of a thousand years un-
broken from the days of Egbert, and -is now the
cherished child of England. She herself is in sight
of a coronal not less splendid than the diadem of
that other Alexander who regretted that the world
was too narrow for his conquests. At the same time
her fortuue.is peculiar. She is not, like the Princess
Alexandra, taken from the simplicity of the Danish
Court into the heart of a richer, a more polished, and
a more vital civilisation—she is transplanted amidst
a state of manners and society, whether we regard
it from the aristocratic or a popular point of view,
totally dissimilar from that prevailing in the rest of
Europe. Her world, for the future, will be in fact
half European, half Asiatic. Still the modern Russ
is an improvable and improving being—he works,
and saves, and travels—he is no longer looked upon
as among " the miasma of Europe ;" in a word, -he
is acquiringboth knowledge and experience,
and
profiting by them. And the young daughter of
Denmark is now welootned as the mistress, at a
time to come, of him and his stupendous country—
her name is to be saluted from Kalisch to the re-
motest frontiers of Kamschatka, from the Lapland
to the Persian borders. She is to be hailed as the
`hereditary " mother" of all those millions—for
everything in Russia is maternal—from " Mother
Church" to " Mother Volga;" and, as we have said,
her accession to this rank, the second in the empire,
is to be signalised by a blaze of Imperial magni-
ficence. The army, of course, will appear in its
most gorgeous colours; the Church will glitter like
stars ; the pomp of the palace will be as that of a
coronation ; and the nation, 400 years old, and
young in comparison with the blood of 14 centuries
that beats in the West, will, amid this sparkle and
dazzle of material pride, accept her warmly as a
true lady of the land. It is the Russian system, in
every respect, to appear to give the effect of magic.
The Czar gilds the domes of his capital and the
masts of his ships ; not personally, but by tradition,
his taste for splendour is Oriental ; his son, pro-
bably, will inherit, in this as in other respects, his
policy ; but through all this may shine a gentler
light—the grace and the goodness of the young
girl who, daughter of a King, and destined wife of
an Emperor, may, in her day and generation, bring
a blessing of her own to the multitudinous peoples
of Russia.

WRESTLING.—The Cumberland and Westmore-
land Wrestling Society, which combines sport with charity
in its public distribution of prizes, has now a private act
of charity on hand. John Smith, at one time the cham-
pion, and who for years by his skill conduced so much to
the enjoyment of admirers of wrestling, is, we regret to
say, hopelessly paralysed, and unable to do anything to
support himself and wife. A subscription is now being got
up for his benefit, and a meeting for that object will be held
this (Friday) evening, at the " Salutation," Newgate-street.
We wish the good cause every success.
VIVIPAROUS FISH.—Soon after arriving at Van-
couver Island I commenced investigating the habits and
periods of migration of the different species of fish which
periodically visit the north-west coast. The sole means
then at my disposal to obtain specimens of fish for exami-
nation was to employ Indians, or to catch them myself. So
it happened some of these fish were first brought to me by
Indians. Cutting down the side (the plan I usually adopt
to skin a fish), to my intense surprise out tumbled a lot of
little fish! My wildest dreams had never led me to sup-
pose a fish I then thought a bream, or ono of the perch
family could be viviparous. I at once—perhaps hastily
arrived at the conclusion that the greedy gourmand had
eaten thorn. Dropping my knife, I sat in a most bewildered
state, looking at the fish ; I soon observed that each little
fish was a facsimile of the larger, and in shape, size, and
colour were exactly alike. From the position, too, they
occupied in the abdomen of the larger fish, I was led at
once to see the error of my first assumption that they had
been swallowed. Carefully dissecting back the wall of the
abdomen, I discovered a delicate membraneous bag or sac,
having an attachment to the upper or dorsal region, and
'doubled upon itself into numerous folds or plaits, and be-
tween each-of these folds was neatly packed away a little
fish. The bag was of a bluish white colour, and contained.
14 fish. I had no longer any doubt that the fish was Vivi-
parOus.—Hardwicke'B Science Gossip.