The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-18 00:00:00

The official report of the American Commodore
respecting the bombardment of Valparaiso does not
tend to remove the painful impression which the
first receipt of the intelligence left on the public
mind. The fact that the ships of the three most
powerful nations of the world should quietly move
out of the way to allow a power like Spain to destroy
a defenceless city, after they had protested against
such a proceeding as barbarous and unwarrantable,
is, certainly, so startling and discreditable as to
admit of no satisfactory explanation or excuse.
Commodore RODGERS himself appears fully sensible
of this, and is evidently grieved and mortified
that no effort was made to arrest the attack.
His account gives a singular contradiction to the
statement of Mr. LAYARD in the House of Com-
mons the other evening in which he said that no
proposal had been made by the American com-
mander to co-operate with the English vessels in
resisting the attack. Commodore RODGERS dis-
tinctly states that he had told the English Admiral
that he would not only join him in preventing any
sudden bombardment, but that he would go as much
farther as he chose. The Monadnock alone, he said,
would dispose of the Numancia, and the wooden ves-
sels, English and American, could look out for the
wooden vessels of the Spaniards. In making this
offer, the American commander does not deny that
he exceeded the strict letter of his instructions, but
he adds with great force and justice, " I acted upon
the supposition that neutrality among the nations
did not preclude all well-directed efforts to keep the
peace among them ; that as a peaceable citizen is
not obliged to stand inert while another is suffering
from the unlawful violence of a third person, but
may justly interfere with force to prevent an in-
fraction of the laws—a murder for example—so a
nation witnessing a like disturbance among her
sister nations, need not rest absolutely impassive,
but with sincere neutrality might interfere, with
force if necessary, to keep the operation of belli-
gerents at least within the law for the protec-
tion of neutral persons and neutral property."
This is a reasonable application of the non-in-
tervention doctrine, which, in these days, it has be-
come the fashion to strain to an extent which par-
takes alike of cruelty and pusillanimity. The
conduct which, on the part of great and powerful
nations is applauded as the acne of pru-
dence and good policy, would, on the
part of a private individual, not only expose him to
severe censure, but to a well-founded suspicion of
assisting the criminal. Spain, as the Americtahne
commander remarks, proposes to burn
property and destroy the towns along the
Chilian sea coast. " Is it right," he asks
with honest indignation, " That she should
thus exercise her power of destruction unrestrained
alono. the 'shores of this continent?" Such pro-
ceedings, he adds, are calculated rather to excite
private animosity than to subdue the national will,
and are therefore not directed to the legitimate
ends of warfare. The English Admiral, however,
consulted the English Minister at Chili, and they
were afraid of undertaking the responsibility of
action. If the fleets of the several European
powers, however, had refused to leave the port,
it would have thrown the one of attack upon the
Spanish Admiral. He would scarcely have ven-
tured to quarrel with England, France, and
.mdiegriecit,
ay,a,t once. Even Spain, with all her
prospect.might feel a little alarmed at the
'We cannot but think that in this
case, as in
tsiomernawnoty
idothhearvrse
b others,
a little decision
sauttshe quent disasters and comcatiene. prevented,lf great
p i
instead
of all the remonstrances, appeals, an i queries,
s:
h
English and American commanders had sent a
jointte
note to the Spanish admiral, giying h ria due notice

that in case of an attack they should feel it their
duty to protect the city with their united
fleets, there is very little doubt that Valparaiso
would be now standing unhurt, much valuable pro-
perty saved, and the Spanish Government itself in
a very much better position. It is perfectly useless,
if not ridiculous, for us to be at the expense of
keeping up fleets and foreign stations, if they are to
be of no possible service to ourselves or our fellow-
subjects abroad. We are glad to see that the mat-
ter will not be suffered to rest here, but that a
meeting has been held at Liverpool, a deputation
from which is already in London-. Unless the papers
to be produced bear a very different aspect from the
present sources of information, it will be difficult to
remove the stigma from the English name.

CORRESPONDENCE FROH PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Thursday Evening.

The Moniteur, cautious ever, but more so at the
present crisis, abstains from giving publicity to the
many alarming fabrications about " wars and
rumours of wars." The Cabinet Councils continue.
That which was held yesterday lasted more than the
usual time. I often abstain from sending you the
so-called news of German and French papers, simply
because on inquiry in official quarters I find that
there is no foundation for it. At the present mo-
ment fabrication of intelligence is so rife, and pro-
ceeds upon such an organised system, that the fol-
lowing sensible commentary from the Siecle deserves
attention :

" The gravest positions have their comical side.
If important events were not to be feared, if the
whole of Europe were not threatened with long and
terrible agitation, one would laugh at the succession
of contradictory news brought by the telegraph. In
the morning we are told that Hanover has
quarrelled with Prussia, who orders her to disarm.
In the evening the account is that they are on the
best possible terms. Yesterday the news was that
all the military preparations were suspended. To-
day the statement is that they have not been inter-
rupted for a moment. (The Siecle then contradicts
the report of the arrival of the Archduke Renier at
Berlin with proposals of peace, which news, I told
you yesterday had no foundation in truth.) Would
not one say that all- these telegrams have but one
object—what is called, in the slang of the Bourse,
a coup to raise prices or a coup for decline ?
Our fellow-citizens who go to the Bourse not
to speculate, but to invest their capital, would do
well not to attempt to make a profit by these oscil-
lations. Gambling at rouge et noir is less dangerous
than that species of gambling in which the chances
of loss or gain vary at the will of the inventions and
informations of a few anonymous correspondents.
What may be considered as certain, in the midst of
so many incoherent rumours, is that both Germany
and Italy persist in arming."
Letters from Italy announce that another warrior
of note, Kossuth, has arrived at Florence to aid in
the supposed coming struggle against Austria. As
to Garibaldi, although his acceptance of the com-
mand of volunteers has been officially announced,
the Unita Italiana says that the following letter has
been received at Parma from the General :
" Caprera, May 8, 1866. I have not given orders
to anybody at Parma to enrol volunteers. Young
Italy knowns it duty, and will know how to avoid
disputes (brouillons). At the call of entire Italy I
shall assuredly not fail. GARIBALDI."
The following is from the Constitutionnel:—" The
armaments proceed with extreme energy, both in
Germany and Italy. The armies approach the
frontiers. From instant to instant war seems im-
minent. But in proportion as the situation is
aggravated, in the midst of those levies en masse
and reports of guns, public opinion in Europe is
occupied in considering, with a feeling becoming
more and more earnest, more and more pressing,
what means can be adopted to preserve peace."
Another eminent politician and man of letters
has been " gathered to his fathers"—M. Ferdinand
Flocon. He died in exile at Lausanne, after a long
and painful illness, in his 67th year. M. Flocon
tocik an active part in the Revolution of 1830, and
the Democratic party confided to him the editorship
of a Radical paper, the Tribune. He was after-
wards chief editor of La Refot me, during which
period he steadily opposed Louis Philippe and his
Government. At the Revolution of 1848 the people
hurried him from the office of the Reforme and pro-
claimed him a member of the Provisional Govern-
ment. He became Minister of Agriculture and,
Commerce, in which capacity his labours were well
appreciated. Popular feeling, however, changed
and turned against him ; and although he had, in
1848, 128,000 votes for the Legislative Assembly,
he was afterwards rejected, upon -which he retired
to Colmar, where the malady which caused his death
first made its appearance soon after the coup d'etat.
In his retirement, however, he wrote many works
which have increased his literary reputation.
The following are the arrangements for the ensu-
ing races. The Versailles races are 'fixed for Sun-
day next. On Monday next the Military Steeple-
chase will take place at La Marche. On the 26th
and 27th inst. the races will take place in the Bois
de Boulogne, on which days the grand prize of
£4,000 sterling will be run for.
The Journal des Debats says it has no news about
the war, but adds :—" In the States of the Confe-
deration there appears to be little sympathy for Prus-
sian policy, and public opinion pronounces itself
against it."

I am sorry tosay that the cholera has re-appeared
in France. It has made several victims at Guerande,
in the department of the Loire, and has since broken
out at Nantes. The cases at the hospital, however,
are not numerous. In general the patients are
women, whose indulgence in drink rendered them
susceptible of the disease. In the Rue de la Bastille,
at Nantes, a workman died in two or three hours
after the attack.

The trial has commenced, before the Court of
Toulouse, of M. Aspe, the keeper of a drinking
house in that city, for the murder and mutilation of
his servant woman, named Marie Guillonet. I gave
you some particulars of the case at the time. The
murder took place in January. The head was severed
from the body, and portions of the trunk were
found in the Canal du Midi. The prisoner Aspe is
a married man. The supposed motive for the crime
is that being in embarrassed circumstances he wished
to get rid of the woman, who had lent him money
to the amount of-between £3O and £4O.

The weather is becoming gradually more settled,
and the wind has abated ; but it has been very cold,
although the sun has been shining brightly all day.
This morning the gardens in Paris and the fields in
the country were covered with white frost.
There have been races at Angouleme and Poitiers,
but they are hardly worth notice, except that at the
latter Viscount Talon's Grand Clos was killed in
jumping a bank.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—At the
monthly general meeting, held yesterday at the so-
ciety's house in Hanover-square, the Right Hon. Sir
George Clerk, Bart., president, in the chair ; Sir George
Armytage, Bart., Major-General John St. George, C. 8.,
ILA., Lieutenant-Colonel Wm. G. Dawkins, Lieutenant-
, Colonel Henry Hardinge, Colonel G. Gambier, C. 8., R.A.,
Major Kerr, Captain the Hon. John F. B. Elphinstone,
Captain Richard Coote, Captain Walter C. Wingfield,
Captain Forbes, R.N., the Rev. C. Fryer, Mrs. Henry,
Mrs. P. I. Salomons, Mrs. C. H. Jay, Miss A. Braham, and
Messrs. IL W. F. Bolekow, E. F. Davis, S. Saunders, H.
J. Turner, F. J. Underwood, C. E. Stubbs, R. Dames, E.
Langton, C. J. Mander, Nathan Meyer de( Rothschild, M.P.,
M. yatt, Roger Ey kyn, Alfred Charles do Rothschild,
Stephen Dowell, J. H. Jonas, V. Hampton. C. Weguelin,
Robert FOwler, T. rsborne, M. Herrmann, P. H. Berthone,
C. H. Fes, H. Herbert, B. Wontner, C. H. Dashwood, B.
Westby, B. C. Greenhill, Montague Guest, lon Trant
ilamilton, M.P., F. Claudet, H. W. Scott, A. Beauclerk,
S. T. Cooper, J. Weis, G. C. Douglas, W. H. Allies, W.
J. Whyte, E.,H. Blackett, H. Maudslay, Hector Essex,
and M. D. Wyatt, were elected fellows; and Mr. Wm.
Sweetland Dallas, keeper of the Museum of the Yorkshire
Philosophical Society, and Herr Otto Freisch, curator of
the Museum of Natural History, Bremen, corresponding
members of the society. Seventy-five new candidates
were proposed for election at the next meeting in June.
On the sth of June there will be a grand dinner
at Willis's Rooms to present Capt. Maury with a testimo-
nial, which will take the monetary form of 3,000 guineas.
lOlul Dikirigtoa will provide.