The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 23, 1861.

—and, finally, to the absence for a long while past
of any practical :means whatever for effectually
checking the expenditure both at the dockyards and
throughout the maritime department generally,
owing to—what, in the name of fortune, is it sup-
posed to be owing to, in this nation of shop-
keepers, in this later and greater Carthage, in this
commercial chief among the Powers of modern
civilisation ?—owing to the want of accurate
accounts ! " The system of accounts," say the
Commissioners, " is elaborate and minute, but, so
far as we can judge, its results are not to be relied
upon for any practical purpose." There is every
care taken, in point of fact, to give the minutiae of
these accounts, yet the result continues in spite of
them to ensure nothing less deplorable than a
thriftless and profligate expenditure. It is, for all
the world, like the realisation upon an enormous
scale of that whimsical little burlesque woodcut
by the late THOMAS HOOD illustrative of the old
adage, " Take care of the pence, and the pounds
will take care of themselves." The Unfortunate
Wight surprised by a sudden gust while making
up his accounts at the open lattice—hastily clapping
his hands upon the piles of halfpence while the
bank-notes are flying out of window as upon the
wings of a whirlwind !
The suggestions next thrown out by the Royal
Commissioners in their Report with a view to the
ensuring henceforth of greater efficiency in the con-
trol and management of the Dockyards, and
with a view also to the reorganization of the
whole Naval Department, now number up to the
extent of no less than 20 in the first section of the
Report alone—the Second Head of the Report,
relating to the purchase of stores and mate-
rials—the third to the revision of the
Naval Accountant-General's Department the
last section of all relating to the par-
ticular expenditure involved in the alteration
and transformation of the ships of the Royal
Navy of England. Suggestion Al,as it may
fairly be designated, is to the effect that " A
Minister for the Navy Department " should
henceforth be appointed. Nearly the whole
difficulty would at once be removed as to the
want of anything like a clear and well
defined responsibility. Upon that maritime
Minister of the Crown, Secretary of State, or
whatever else he might be designated, would
devolve the entire responsibility of the Naval
Department. Parliament, or the nation, through
Parliament, would hold him entirely and directly
responsible for the control and management of the
dockyards. The country would at last be well rid
of that old anomaly—squatting astride like the
Old Man of the Sea upon the shoulders
of the kindbad among the Nations—the old
bugbear-anomaly notorious as the Board of
Admiralty. The Commissioners propose again
that the Dockyards should be looked upon hence-
forth as nothing more nor less than large
manufacturing establishments for the build-
ing and repairing of the ships of her
MAJESTY'S navy that the naval Minister
of State should have the power of nominating a
Controller-General, perfectly acquainted with
and perfectly qualified to manage such vast and
important establishments. Several of the sugges-
tions then following in the report relate to the
definition of the relative powers entrusted to this
Controller-General and to the next subordinates—
selected, these last, by him under the approval of
the Naval Minister of State—the Superintendents
of the different Dockyards. These Superinten-
dents having in turn the privilege accorded to
them of selecting the officers in each dockyard,
saving and excepting only the officers in the ac-
countants' and in the storekeepers' departments.
The Storekeeper-General to be selected by the
Minister of State, but to be under the Con- I
troller-General—the Storekeeper-General him-
self choosing the officers in his own
department. Ex uno disce omnes—in regard
to all the various suggestions thrown out in this
report by the Royal Commissioners. Enough has
been here given, however, already to illustrate the
character and tendency of these suggestions—
more than by judging simply ex pede
llerculem. We have begun, in fact, from the head
downwards : and from that " head and front" (not
of their offending), the public will be disposed to
judge well of this elaborate result of the lengthened
labours of the Dockyard Commissioners.

The KOSSUTH inquiry has advanced one little
step. It left off last time with Sir RICHARD
MAYNE. He it was who gave Sir G. C. LEWIS
the note; and the question was who gave it to
him. The answer is—" a policeman." Whether
Al, or X 21, we are not told. It might be any
one of those longeoated personages with shining
hats, who are never to be found when wanted, but
who in this case, as in so many others, are but too

ready with their services when not wanted. " A

policeman "—well, a public functionary at any
rate; Sir RICHARD MAYNE can tell us, therefore,
not only who he is, but how the functionary under
his orders got the note; how the official who
could not read a word of tie Hungarian
language was made aware of the nature
of the document ; who, in fact, suggested to
the policeman what the note was, and enabled him
to procure it. We can now learn whether the
Austrian Ambassador applied to an English police-
man and paid him for his services, whether he was
a detective creeping into the office under the garb
of a workman, or whether Mr. X. Y. Z. paid some
workman to get the note for him.
Sir G. C. LEWIS'S explanations do not at all touch
the original fraud by which the note was surrep-
titiously obtained. He said Mr. DAY showed Sir
R. MAYNE two sheets of the notes, and that Sir
RICHARD might have seen them in the
printing-office if he had wished—that there
was no secrecy in the printing. True, but
it would appear that there was honesty in the print-
ing. It is not even hinted that Mr. DAY parted
; w
ofe
giving
ve
ncgo ntvoi nacne
any
with one of the notes himself
Mr. DAY would never think
third party a specimen of anything he was doing
for a customer, and which had not been made public.
Without inquiring of M. KOSSUTH, how could
Mr. DAT tell that it was not essential to KOs-
SUTH'S object that he alone could issue them ?
Sir G. C. LEWIS might ask in vain of Mr. DAY
for a copy of anything he was printing for a
customer, if the customer were the humblest
tradesman, without that tradesman's consent. Thus
far, then, the last answer only requires another'
question and answer, which will certainly not be
wanting. We shall persist in asking yet—Who
stole the note ? We shall ask that question till some
one shows us that he came by it honestly. We put
the question, publicly, before it was put in the House
of Commons, and we shall continue to put it till
Mr. DUNCOMBE obtains a full and frank confession
from the Home Secretary.
Mr. DUNCOMBE had, however, other counts in
his indictment of British Ministers for Austrianism.
One was placing the Foreign-office at the service
of Austria, by sending the note there to get it
translated. When translated, we should say that
the complaisance of sending it to the Austrian
Ambassador and of troubling the law officers of the
Crown Ny„ a great deal more than Englithmen will

thank their Ministers for; we would have left Austria
to help herself how she could. Sir GEORGE quoted
the opinions expressed in the debate on the GARI-
BALDI subscriptions, as to the offence of an
individual, here, doing anything which should
embroil us with a power with whom we were on
terms of amity. It was a misdemeanor he said—
yet we do not remember that the opinion of the law
officers of the Crown was formally taken on the
GARIBALDI subscription, or even any warning
issued. On the contrary our Foreign Secretary
justified it by his own subscription in bygone years
to the cause of Greek independence. But FRANCIS
11. and FRANCIS JOSEPH are very different persons
in the eyes of our Ministers, though in the eyes of
England there is nothing to chose between either
the individuals, or the dynasties which they repre-
sent. Indeed FRANCIS JOSEPH is, so far as years
go, and a long series of brutal atrocities perpetrated
under his twelve years' reign both in Italy and
Hungary, the worse despot of the two.
Another and a worse charge of Austrianism is
one supported by the telegrams of to-day. The
correspondence of yesterday is verified by the
news of this morning. Yesterday a letter from
Constantinople told us that the writer " was
afraid that her MAJESTY'S ship Banshee was
going to Galatz" to take on board there the arms
which the Hungarian soldiers in Italy had for-
warded from Genoa to their compatriots at home.
Like a genuine Englishman he adds, " What on
earth our Government has to do with the matter,
I confess my inability to understand." Simple
man ! Did he not know that to pat Austria
on the back, and to keep Hungary beneath
her hoof, if possible, was a special business of
our Government. His wonder must have been
increased when he saw the Banshee arrive at Con-
stantinople on the 15th with 10,000 stand of arms
on board, which had been taken from Galatz amidst
great excitement there while they were being put
on board.

And well might there be excitement. We hope
Lord JOHN RUSSELL will find great excitement
here when he meets us again after Easter. To find
the Banshee, a British vessel belonging to the Royal
Navy, burning good coal and using up her engines on
voyages in the service of Austrian despotism will,
we should think, not be forgotten. We had almost
as soon she had been engaged in the slave trade !
Will the English people endure spending one shil-
ling of the public money in seizing the arms of
Hungarian patriots ? Will they put up with it
more than they would have done with seizing the
arms which were being forwarded to GARIBALDI; if
the heroes of Spoleto were allowed to enlist in the
service of Perugian ANTONELLI, and volunteers
and arms to go to GARIBALDI, will this country
tolerate such gross intervention against oppressed
subjects seeking their legitimate rights ?

There must be a public stir on this Austrian
question. The foreign policy of the Cabinet, while
Italy was the object of it, kept it in office. But
for Italy, the two leading lords could not have held
their ground with the country for an hour. They
have, however, done their work. The turn of Hun-
gary is come, with a cause as just as that of Italy, and
with a behaviour, on the part of the people, quite
as admirable ; yet we may defy Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL to produce a single despatch in which he has,
even in a private and friendly way, supported
Hungarian rights, and admonished Austria that
she was bound to restore them. On this very
question of arms, Lord JOHN knows, if he be
not far more ignorant than we take him
to be, that the existence of an Austrian
army in Hungary is an explicit violation of the
acknowledged compact howepn the Hapsburg
dynasty and the Hungarians. Not a single
non-Hungarian soldier can enter Hun-
gary without the permission of the
Diet: It is a part of their Magna Charta, it is no
obsolete law, but one recognised so late as in 1848
by the last King of Hungary, FERDINAND, who is
indeed the only legal King of Hungary yet. And
here is our Government,while Austria illegally keeps
an army of hated foreigners in Hungary, prevent-
ing Hungarian patriots from sending arms to
their comrades at home It is evident that both
our Home and Foreign Office are sold to the revo-
lutionary despot of Vienna, and it is for the coml.
try to speak out and tell the Government that it

will not tolerate an Austrian and Anti-Hungarian
Ministry, any more than it would have endured an
Anti-Italian Ministry.

AUSTRIA AND ITALY.

The following circular has been issued by the
Sardinian Minister of Marine to the Captains of
Ports, dated Turin, March 13 :

" It has happened of late that some of his Ma-
jesty's ships of war were forced, by contrary winds
and serious damage caused by stormy weather, and
which called for urgent repairs, to take refuge in
ports of Dalmatia.
" Reasons of humanity and international law
would have led the functionaries of any civilized
nation to follow a course very different from that
which was adopted by the commanders of the Aus-
train ports on the Dalmatian coast towards the
ships of the Royal navy, to whom they did
. not even allow an anchorage in the roadsteads,
but bade them leave immediately, notwithstanding
the stormy weather. Such conduct might, no
doubt, entitle his Majesty's Government to use like
treatment towards the Austrian ships of war which
might seek refuge in the ports and bays of the
kingdom. But the King's Government, being very
anxious to maintain its reputation for humanity
and generosity, and on every occasion to conform
its conduct to the principles of international law,
the undersigned has to direct the Captains of Ports
to use all the means and facilities which may be
suggested by the sentiments of humanity and by
the urgency of the case towards ships of war, of
whatever nation they may be, which, in conse•
quence of stormy weather or of serious damage,
may take refuge in the ports of the kingdom. With
the present circular the Ministry intends to reply
to the question recently put by certain Captains
of Ports as to the course they are to follow on
similar occasions. " CAVOUR.
" Turin, March 12."

DEPUTATION OF PAPER IW_4NUFAC.

TURERS TO LORD PALMERSTON.

ut at
manufacturingpaAperdepEngland and Scot-
land, consisting of about GO in number, yesterday
deputation
f
waited on Lord Palmerston, for the purpose
of representing to his Lordship the groat
injury done to their trade by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer's measure of last session.
Although no reference was made by the deputa-
tion to the paper duties question, Lord Palmerston
expressed himself to the effect that no alteration
would be made this year in the Excise laws as
regarded the duties on paper. The interview lasted
about an hour and, a half.

LONDON COAL AND WINE DUTIES.—Sir G. C.
Lewis's Bill, which has been printed, continues until July,
1872, the duty of 4s. a tun on wine imported into the port
of London by way of merchandise, and also the duties,
amounting to 13d. a ton, on ooals, but these duties are only
to be payable on coals in ships mooring at or 'westward ofGravesend, or brought by inland navigation or other mode
of conveyance within the limits of the metropolitan police
district. The 4s. wine duty and the unappropriated 9d. of
the coal duty are to be paid into the Bank, to form a
" Thames Embankment and Metropolis Improvement
Fund," to be applied by the Board of Works to the improve-
ment of the metropolis in such manner as may hereafter be
ditermiaed by Parliament.

LATEST NEWS.

VIENNA, MARCH 23.

An Imperial decree, published to-day, convokes
a Servian National Congress, to be composed of 25
clerical and 50 lay members.
It is also ordered that in place of the Government
Chancellery for the administration of Croatia and
Sclavonia, now located in Agram, a Royal Govern-
ment Council shall be established in that city for
the administration of the kingdoms of Dalmatia,
Croatia, and Sclavonia.

TURIN, FRIDAY.

It is asserted that Count Cavour will this even-
ing submit for approval by the King the following
list of members of the New Ministry :—Count
Cavour, President of the Council and Minister for
Foreign Affairs and Marine; General Fanti, War;
Cassinis, Grace and Justice; Minghetti, Interior;
Desanctis, Public Instruction ; Natoli, Agriculture
and Commerce; Bastogi, Finances; Peruzzi, Pub-
lic Works; Nuilta (?), Minister without portfolio.

AMERICA.

QUEENSTOWN, MARCH 23.

The Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Company's ship
Adriatic arrived here this morning, with her
Majesty's mails, from New York on the 13th inst.,
which were to have been conveyed in the Cunard
steamship Anstralasian.

The Adriatic landed passengers and mails, and
proceeded for Southampton at 6.30 a.m.
The Niagara, from Liverpool, had arrived out.

President Lincoln had declined to hold any inter-
course with the Southern Commissioners.
Colonel Bachus was reported to be en route to
take the command of Fort Brown.

The New York vessels seized by Georgia had been
advertised for sale at Savannah, by way of reprisal,

Nothing decisive had yet been done in the Vir-
ginia and Missouri State Conventions.
The Constitutiot of the Confederate States had
been pudlifhed. Under it no foreigners or any
person not a citizen of the Confederate States are
allowed to vote for civil or political State and
Federal officers.

The President and Vice-President are to hold

office for six years.

despatched from Sambuca, Girgenti, and Palermo
to put down the disturbance. The whole popu-
lation was disarmed, and ten men arrested, who
are now awaiting their trial.

The committee for the Garibaldian fund, for the
purchase of a million of muskets, has published its
accounts, from which it appears that it had re-
ceived 1,939,577 fr., which were all employed in
purchasing arms and stores for Garibaldi's expe-
dition. The committee, in conclusion, declares
itself dissolved, "the object for, which it was
formed having been attained."