The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THIRSDAY EVENING. FEBRUARY 21, 1861.

-zt,t
with such a micerable majority as the present
one now has, does not care to be courteous
towards the most liberal section of its followers,
we can only hope that they will avail themselves
of the first fair opportunity to walk out of the
House on a division, and to leave them to the
tender mercies of the Tories. The Government
will richly deserve it.
There is one practical reason why the fairness
we demand for Mr. BERKELEY should be shown
him. The Ballot is voted against as a bugbear.
Members and people generally hear such strange
stories and absurd misrepresentations about the
Ballot that they are really confused, and have no
reasonable conception of what is asked by the Eng-•
lishmets who have devoted most time and attention
to it. They have heard of the American Ballot,
and the French Ballot, and the Belgian Ballot, and
the Savoy and Nice Ballot, and the Australian
Ballot—and they are told of some of them that they
are solemn
.farces, and of others that they are no
pattern for us, till they really are in perfect igno-
rance of what a fair and honest Ballot Bill really
would propose. Ifonly for this reason it is desira-
ble that, by the first reading of their bill, the advo-
cates of the Ballot should be able to point to an au-
thorised document, and thus be in a position to say
to a large class of opponents—do net talk to us of the
Ballot here or there —of the Ballot where rapidity
of voting is more an object than secrecy—or of the
Ballot where Government agents have sole charge
of the urns in which are placed the votes for and
aga just their own nonzinees—speak to us of what
we ask. Here it is—show that any man would be
endangered,
or his liberty infringed on by it—
show that great I: Ambers would not vote more freely
canvasser, briber, or in-
under it—show that the
timidator, with such an A.."t in the electors' favour,
would not create general disgue;t: and endanger his
own cause, by resorting to his Unworthy " corrupt
practices." With so much reason for ouch a course,
then, may we not hope that Government
will accept Mr. BERKELEY'S conciliatory
offer, and as he comes half-way to meet
them, show their good sense and fairness by accord-
ing him a first reading.

It is not our intention just now to repeat any of
the arguments for the protection of secrecy, to the
voter, but we just remark in concluding, that all
testimony worth attention fully corroborates the
arguments of those statesmen who prefer to base
representative constitutions on the thorough inde-
pendence of the voter. And we must be pardoned
in holding an honest ballot as being identical with
the electoral independence of the many. We pub-
lished yesterday an interesting letter from Mr. JOHN
LAZAN " the returning officer for the city of Adelaide►
and our readers would see how clear and straight-
forward is the testimony of this business-like
official to the good results of the Ballot there. It
was predicted that the electors would not care to
vote if they voted secretly, the result proved that
these assertions were without foundation ; it was
said that the less educated would be unable to use
the ballot, this Mr. LAZAN found to be equally a
mistake ; a few advertisements made all plain to
the humblest capacity. He describes the plan
adopted, which was obviously both simple and
effectual; and the social and moral results were
such as even Lord JoHN RUSSELL would think
worth something, if not worth the surrender of
aristocratic control over electoral independence.
Mr. LAZAN'S concluding words are worth re-

peating :
" During the whole of the day the most complete order
and decorum prevailed; this proved a very great con-
trast to the previous elections under the old system of open
voting, which was marked in many instances with the
most disorderly (and I may say outrageous) conduct. I
have therefore no hesitation in saying that if the purity of
election is to be maintained, the ballot is the only system to
secure it. I say this from the experience I have gained up
to the present time, having superintended five elections, and
all with the same successful results."

May English Returning Officers be soon able to
record the same experience !

Mr. GLADSTONE may console himself for his well
merited defeat on the Income-tax, by his trium-
phant victory over Mr. WILLIAMS. There is, to be
sure, the slight take off that he was triumphant
over justice in the first division, which will one
day revenge herself even on him, and beaten by
justice in the second, which seems as if her step was
not to be quite so tardy as that ascribed to her by
poets. In opposing Mr. WILLIAMS he had the
great advantage of speaking to a house of landlords,
who, almost to a man, were interested in the
barefaced injustice which Mr. WILLIAMS attacked;
he found his account in appealing to their pockets,
and he tried the same appeal against Mr. HUBBARD.
Luckily the proof was net quite so plain that ceas-
ing to rob Schedule I) would lay a heavier load on
Schedule A. It was well known, for instance, that
taxation could be materially lightened, and
Schedules A and D be relieved together, as it was
not proposed to augment the per tentage paid by
the former.

Altogether different was Mr. WILLIAMS'S pro-
posal. It was, if anything, more conspicuously just.
Mr. GLADSTONE quibbled, indeed, about the
terms, but what Mr. WILLIAMS really demanded,
and Mr. GLADSTONE knew it well, was, that
whatever probate duty was paid by one class of
property passing at death to another person, should
be paid by all property. It was simply childish of
Mr. GLADSTONE to play a kind of thimble-rig argu-
mentative game with the terms "real and personal
property," and to lay stress on the fact that only
property passing by will came under the probate
stamp duty. Indeed we think the sophistical tone
of reasoning taken by Mr. GLADSTONE affords Mr.
WILLIAMS the opportunity of moving another
carefully drawn resolution, of which the purport
should be this—that, as it is desirable all property
should be taxed equally as far as practicable for
the public service, whatever duty is now paid
by property administered under a will, should
be paid by all property of every kind, on passing
by the death of its proprietor, bona fide, into othcr
hands. Mr. GLADSTONE found no difficulty in
valuing property for his succession duties, which
themselves are but a partial concession to equal
taxation of the landlord class, and there would be
no kind of difficulty in demanding, as in the
case of probate, an affidavit of the value
of property which came into any one's hands by
the death of its former proprietor. The ingenuity
of landlord's advocates, like Mr. GLADSTONE, may
find up plenty of complicated cases in which ordi-
nary arithmeticians would be a little puzzled to say
what each beneficiary under another's death actually
received; but he might also find plenty of persons
able to tell him in a few minutes the equitable pro-
portional charge on each.
We hope Mr. WILLIAMS will not sit down by this
vote of the landlords to button up their own pockets.
Nothing but perseverance, and putting the subject
in every light will make the owners of real pro-
pwerrhteyneffectuallyh however,
w e v er
w we ashamed
findo fotheir feudalrmy
estimatest i o
es
twa
tnhesdt
aant
da
nwga ra swt ahnodl ae r
ad r dmuyr i
on
fg
ep
ffie acci ee ,n t andvo tl
uh
na tt
ene or ts
itco ni s
the h high time
o prie
ttohras t ffe
theuda
soil,l e x
imn p ti
theo ngs soohdooulldd
tci ema
es
se
o
lay the onus of providing the national army ; ex-
emptions were fair then. But it is not fair that

they should saddle the country with the cost of
the army, and refuse still to be taxed equally with
their fellow citizens.

ARREST OF M. MIRES.

The following telegram has been received through
Mr. Reuter's office :—" Paris, Feb. 20.—The pay-
ments of the Caisse des Chemins de Fer of Messrs.
Mires and Co. have been suspended (ajournes)
until the inventory of the state of the bank is com-
pleted."
The writer of the Times' City Article says:—
" The Constantinople bills on M. Mires falling due
yesterday and to day amount to about £280,000,
and a strong hope was entertained that,
owing to the State having charged itself with
the administration of his affairs, provision would be
duly made for them. A telegram from Paris late
yesterday afternoon announced, however, that de-
fault had taken place. Ultimately it was notified
that a suspension of payment has been ordered
pending an examination into the condition of the
Casse des Chemins de Fer. The financial letters
mention that several persons connected with the
transactions of M. Mires have been arrested. Some
reports circulated yesterday afternoon of large
amounts of M. Mires's draughts being held by par.
ties connected with the London money market are
totally without foundation.
The circumstance is thus noticed by the Morning
Herald:—
The arrest of M. Mires, the great Parisian
financier,will, it is feared, be followed by disastrous
consequences. He will be arraigned on charges
of forgery and misappropriation, which, it is said
must lead to a variety of curious revelations. The
allegation is, that M. Mires will be prosecuted for
having diverted the funds subscribed to support
the Turkish Loan, and those paid on account
, to his own purposes.
of the Roman railways
Other individuals are asserted to be compro-
mised in the charges brought against him, and the
expectation is entertained that the French Go-
vernment will find it prudent to interfere to protect
several houses interested, and to prevent a deprecia-
tion in securities, which if realised would not cover
either the advances made upon them or the accru-
ing interest. The liabilities of Messrs. Mires
and Co. represent, it is said, about £2,000,000,
but this total may be exaggerated. The extent
of mischief which this disaster may occa-
sion cannot for the present be accurately
estimated, though it is believed that Greek esta-
blishments will prove the principal sufferers,through
arrangements endeavoured to be made to success-
fully float the late Turkish loan. During yesterday
several absurd reports were circulated with respect
to the supposed connection of London houses in the
operations of Messrs. Mires and Co. They, how-
ever, were of such a ridiculous character as almost
to carry with them their own refutation. One
especially, which alluded to the engagements of a
firm on behalf of M. Mires as representing
£1,000,000, is authoritatively asserted to have not
the slightest foundation, in fact, no transactions
having ever occurred between them.

THE BALLOT SOCIETY.—The 'weekly meeting
of the Executive Committee was held on Tuesday, at the
offices, 5, Guildhall-chambers—Mr. Mark E. Marsden in
the chair. Mr. Whitehirst, Mr. Sydenham Nodes, Mr.
Elf, Mr. Man, Mr. F. Chwes, &c., were present. Dr. R. F.
Lees (Leeds), Mr. Councillor Smith (Leeds), Elihu Finnic),
President of the LeedsW)rking Men's Reform Association,
and Mr. R. Tregamas (Pembroke), were elected members
of the council. Amongst other business transacted, a cor-
respondence was read relative to the approaching election
for the Pembrokeshire boroughs, and it was resolved " That
the recent election for Pembroke county was disgraoed by
intimidation beyond even the ordinary course of county
elections, and as Sir Hugh Owen, the defeated candidate
for the county, and now candidate for the Pembrokeshire
boroughs, declines to support the ballot, though he com-
plains of the undue influences lately used against him, and
admits that the ballot would be a remedy for such mal-
practices, this committee earnestly recommends the fiends
of the ballot in the Pembrokeshire boroughs to abstain from
voting for Sir Hugh Owen." A sub-committee was ap-
pointed to watch the arrangements for the debate and divi-
sion on Mr. Berkeley's motion for a bill to provide protec-
tion for the voter, and further arrangements were made fir
the public soiree to be held on the 6th March.
A MONSTER MAIL FOR AUSTRALlA.—Yesterday
morning the largest mail ever despatched from London to
Australia was sent from the General Post-office, in St. Mar-
tin's-le-Grand. It consisted of 1,100 boxes, each 2 feet
long by 1 foot broad and 1 foot deep, and required 19 omni.
buses and one cab to convey the vast mass of letters, news-
papers, and book parcels to the railway terminus. Notwith-
standing its bulk, however, no delay took place in the de-
spatch. From the sizes above given it will be at once seen
that not less than 30,000 letters, parcels, and newspapers
would be sent out by this despatch alone.

THE TAKU FORTS.—The following is from an
officer left with a detachment of the 31st in the South
Taku Fort :—" The fort we are in is the one we tried to
take in 1859, and, unless they have strengthened it im-
mensely since, it was almost impregnable. Towards the
eea there is, first, a pallisade of stakes driven into the bed
of the river, then, about a hundred yards of soft mud, then
a bed of bamboo spikes, then a series of pitfalls about 10
feet deep, with a path of soft mud about a foot wide be-
tween them, then more stakes and spikes, then a
wet ditch about 10 feet wide, more spikes, and
an abattis of trees, another wet ditch, and more
spikes and stakes, and then the walls of the fort I This
Admiral Hope expected to take under a heavy fire with about
800 men and a few gunboats ; showing either 'ant of pro-
per information or singular audacity. The land side is very
little better. There are wet ditches, mud, and stakes, the
only approach being by a causeway, which was, of course,
commanded by heavy guns."

FRIGHTFUL ACClDENT.—Yesterday morning an
explosion, which it is feared will proved fatal, took place
at a leather manufactory, at West Ham. A man named
George Grogan was boiling oil, when from some unexplained
cause, the boiler burst, and• the man was dreadfully scalded
by the boiling liquid. He was conveyed to Guy's Hospi-
tal, where he remains without the slightest hope of
recovery.

CANTERBURY HALL.—The lesees of the London
theatres have made an onslaught on Mr. Morton, the pro-
prietor of the above well-conducted place of amusement.
An application was made yesterday on behalf of Mr. Ben-
jamin Webster, the lessee of the Adelphi Theatre, to the
magistrate at Lambeth Police Court, for a summons against
Mr. Charles Morton, the proprietor of Canterbury Hall,
calling on that gentleman to show cause by what authority
he permits stage plays to be performed on his premises in
the absence of a licence to do so from the Lord Chamber-
lain. After hearing the gentleman, Mr. Elliott at once
granted the summons as requested.
Mr. Dentu, the well-known publisher at Paris,
has protested against the act of piracy committed by
several French journals, which published the whole of M.
de la Guerronniere's pamphlet, and thereby enabled the
public to buy for three sous that which would have cost
them thirty at his shop. He abstains from a prosecution
this time, but gives it to be understood that he will not be
so indulgent in future. There can be no doubt that M. d•
la Guerronniere's profits have been considerably diminished
by the piracy in question.
FRENCH SPOILS FROM CHINA.--The articles taken
from the Summer Palace at Pekin, and offered to the Empe-
ror and Empress by the army in China, are now exhibited
in the gallery of the ground floor of the Pavilion Alarm,
in the Tuileries. Visitors especially remark among them
several gigantic vases in enamel of different colours; a
magnificent pagoda in bronze gilt, chased, and several idols
in gold and enamel, with singular features and postures;
also a figure seated on an estrade, with the splendid costume
of a Chinese Emperor, consisting of several garments placed
one above the other, some decked with gold, others with
steel, and all surmounted by a silk mantle of the imperial
yellow colour, richly embroidered, and decked with buttons
of gold and precious stones, and on the head of the figure
is a helmet of gold and steel, having somewhat the shape of
a tiara, and terminating in a long steel point. Two sceptres
of gold, ornamented with jade, are to be seen; they are in
the form of the letter C very much lengthened. There are
likewise two figures of monsters in gilt copper, each of
which weighs at least 300 kilogrammes, and is of such com-
plicated workmanship that wonder is felt how it could have
been cast in one piece, as it evidently has been. Among
various admirable articles in porcelain attention is attracted
by a large vase of the imperial yellow, ornamented with
representations of branches of a tree of a charming green
colour. Some blinds of extraordinary dimensions are also
remarked. The same gallery also contains the fine collection
of ancient armour of Europe which belonged to the cabinet
of Prince Soltikoff. A suit of steel armour, inlaid with
gold, of the most beautiful workmanship, is more particu-
larly to be noticed. There are in all about 40 suits, which
occupy all one side of the gallery.
THE SHERIFF SUBSTITUTE.—The Sheriff substi-
tute of —shire is one of the most facetious members of
that order. Be has fallen into the habit of crooning, or
whispering in an under tone, some of the more popular
Scottish airs. A youthful panel was, in his Court, found
guilty of larceny. After pronouncing the sentence of im-
prisonment, the Sheriff added, " Take care you don't comp
here again, or --" he closed the sentence by humming
the tune, " 0 wre the water to Charlie." The hint was no
doubt understood. A tailor was summoned before his
court, charged with having unjustifiably dismissed a ser-
vant from his service. The defendant pled that the girl was
so enormously voracious that he could not keep her in food.
" Will four and sixpence a week (the usual amount of board
wages allowed a servant) keep her ?" inquired the judge.
"No near," replied the defendant. "Will six shillings do ?"
requestioned the Sheriff. "No, that wadna keep her."
" Now, take care," said the judge, "and answer cautiously.
Will seven shillings do ?" "It will tak eight," said the
persisting defender. "Then," said the Sheriff, "I decern
that you pay eight shillings a week to the girl till the ex-
piry of her engagement." The justice of the decree was
unquestionable.—Dr. Rogers' Familiar IgustrOicini.

LATEtNT NEWS

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
CONSTANTINOPLE, FEB. 16.
The _Levant Gerald states that the Hasne Ta-
vilis are to be renewed for 14 years.
It also says that a general suspension of the
Galata bankers and merchants is threatened.

PESTH, FEB. 21.
The Judicial Conference demands the immediate
re-establishment of the Hungarian laws relating to
letters of exchange.
The municipality of Buda has resolved upon
excluding all non-Hungarian residents in that city
from the exercise of electoral rights.

TURIN, FEB. 20.
The Opinione gives a denial to the rumours of
negotiations between Sardinia and Rome.

Admiral Persano and General Cialdini, with
troops, have left for Messina.

General Mezzacapo, with a body of troops, has
proceeded to wards Civitella, on the Tronto.
Both fortresses will be attacked immediately if
their commanders refuse to surrender.

ST. PETERSBURG, FEB. 20.

The Emperor has appointed his Aide-de-Camp,
General Count Stackelberg, Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of Russia at the
Court of the Queen of Spain.

MADRID, FEB. 19.

The Epoca says—" Spain and Morocco have
agreed that the Moors shall immediately complete
the payment of 200,000,000 reals."
The Customs of Tangier and Mogador will be
mortgaged to the Spaniards as a guarantee for the
payment of the remainder of the war indemnity.
The evacuation of Tetuan will take place at a
fixed date.

THE PENINSULAR MAIL.
SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Alhambra, Capt. Steward, with the above mail,
arrived off the Needles at 12.5 p.m.