The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-09 00:00:00

peopled, half-civilised Slave States would always
be completely at its mercy.

It is, however, to be hoped that events will compel
a bolder policy ; that all compromises which can be
suggested will be thrown to the wind. No such
opportunity as that now offered is ever likely to
occur :again. An American statesman would be
mad now not to put down for ever, the single, and
the grand disturbing cause in the Union. Along
its whole history since the declaration of indepen-
dence, not so much the pride of " the Old Dominion,"
as its slavery and that of the other planting states
has been the cause of disagreements. Wiser had
Americans been if they had nipped this monster
evil in the bud. Unhappily New York merchants
first, then the democratic party, then emigrant
Irishmen, all came, eveh in the North, to the help
of Southern slavery. The dollar interest, and party
interest, combined with the slave interest, and the
three together dominated the whole Union, cor-
rupted the presidential chair, the bench of justice,
the civil service, the Church itself, and then all
social life, till now almost every white American,
North as well as South, has no notion of carry-
ing out his own Declaration of Independence
in regard to coloured Americans ! The whole
American mind is tainted in respect to negro
rights. It is indeed to be desired that events may
take a course which will prevent reconciliation or
cessation of the war on any other terms than that
of erasing from the constitution the clauses which
parmit negro slavery. We can wish nothing better
for the Free States than that they may be unable
again to befoul themselves with compromises. They
have been the bane of the Union hitherto; they
have warded off, but in appearance, the split which
has at last come ; and they kept the Freo States
from settling the controversy in favour of liberty
when the dimensions of the strife would have been
much smaller.

Slowly and tediously, no doubt, but steadily and
surely we will hope, the Appropriation of Seats
(Sudbury and St. Albans) Bill is winning its way
onwards, until it shall have at length developed
itself into an Act of Parliament. Last evening the
dispute was as to which should be the polling place
for the southern division of the West Riding of
Yorkshire—as to which should be, in electioneering
times, the political battle field for the Sou'-West
Yorkshiremen ! Wakefield or Pontefract—that
was the question. The Opposition was in favour of
Wakefield—the Ministerialists were in favour of
Pontefract. Some few thinking favourably even
of Sheffield. " If," said the Home Secretary before
the Division was taken upon this alternative, " If,"
said the right hon. baronet, " the House would
agree to follow his (Sir G. C. LEwis's) advice, it
would imitate the lawyer in the fable, and give one
shell of the oyster to Wakefield, the other to Shef-
field, and give the oyster itself to Pontefract." At
the proposition as thus put to the house there was a
little laughter audible. But the Ministerialists must
have laughed somewhat upon the other side
of their mouths immediately afterwards, when
the result of the division was announced ! In
spite of the Home Secretary's suggestion, and of
his own and of the Prime Minister's vote, and of the
votes of not less than seven others of their colleagues
—namely, CARDWELL, COWPER, GIBSON, GLAD-
STONE, GREY, WOOD, and Vaunts—Ministers
were again (as usual) in a minority ! For Ponte-
fract, 94—against it, 107—clear majority of 13
against Sir G. C. LEWIS'S proposition ! The result
being—(for their was no division taken in favour
of Sheffield)—that here again the Opposition carried
their point,Wakefield being eventually chosen as the
polling-place for the political non-electors of York-
shire.

Her Highness the Princess de Castelcicala, with
the Marquis and Marchione9s di Spaccaforno and Admiral
Gallotti, have taken their departure from the Brunswick
Hotel, Jermyn-street, on their return to Italy.
The Earl and Countess of Aberdeen have left
town for Scotland.

The Dowager Lady Poltimore left London last
week. Her ladyship has been seriously indisposed for some
months.

BLONDlN.—Blondin exhibited his surprising
feats yesterday, at Aston-park, in the neighbourhood of
Birmingham, to an enormous number of visitors, assembled
for the purpose of celebrating the annual fete of Odd Fel-
lows. In spite of the rain, which fell very heavily the
whole time, there were no less than 80,000 persons present.
He will make his 11th ascent at the Crystal Palace to-mor-
row. He will also make an extra ascent on Saturday.
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.—A special
general meeting of this society, for the election of Fellows,
took place yesterday (Monday), in the council-room, at the
gardens, South Kensington, Mr. S. Holmes Godson in the
chair, when 57 new Fellows were balloted for and duly
elected, including Sir William Abdy, the Hon. Miss Arden,
the Marquis of Donegal, the Dowager Countess of Elles-
mere, the Countess of Longford, Lady Wiseman, the Coun-
tess of Yarborough, &c.
We are informed that the Danish concession upon
which the report of the North Atlantic Telegraph is
founded, and all that pertains to the surveys, &c., is about
to pass into new hands, through the medium of a debenture
subscription, as the basis of a proprietary company, preli-
minary to the establishment of a working company for
laying down the cables. These debentures, for from
£15,003 to £30,000, are expected to be taken up by a pri-
vate canvass among capitalists and others interested.
MADAME GEORGE SAND.—This lady writes as
follows to a friend respecting the rumour current in Paris
that she had accepted 20,000 f. sent her by the Emperor, as
a compensation for the prize which the academy declined to
award her:—" My friend,—There is an on dit which I
authorise you to contradict. It is quite true that gracious
offers have been made me; but I have thought it my duty
to accept none of them, having neither desire nor need of
any recompense, or any distinction from any Government
whatsoever.—Yours cordially, GEORGE SAND."

A journal of Tournai, in Belgium, says that the
bishop of the diocese has not taken lessons in hospitality
from the Scotch Highlanders, since he has claimed from the
Provincial Council nearly four thousand francs for a day's
occupation—not including dinner—of the episcopal palace
by the King last year.
A despatch from Smyrna, of the 2d inst., states
that Osmanli Pacha, governor of the town, had caused to
be seised in the port, at the request of the English Consul-
General, a vessel laden with gunpowder intended for the
lonian Islands.

We (Herald) understand that the question of the
legality of the proceedings which the two Houses of Con-
vocation
have adopted in reference to the publication of
" Essays and Reviews," is to be raised at the meeting of
the House of Bishops on Tuesday next, and that in all pro-
bability the action of their lordships upon the report of the
lower house will be arrested in liminc, on the ground that
in pronouncing a censure upon the above work they are ex-
ceeding the powers vested in them by the law and by the
terms of the Queen's writ under which the bishops and
clergy are authorised to sit in convocation.
A HEROINE.—The following account of the heroic
conduct of a woman in saving the life of a girl on the Irish
coast has been forwarded for the consideration of the Na-
tional Lifeboat Institution by its Wicklow branch, where
that society has an excellent lifeboat est-.blishment.
Mrs. Brownri,gg, wife of the rector, whose daughter wit-
nessed the woman's noble services, states that on Monday,
theist inst., the girl,who was bathing, suddenly disappeared.
spot,to another ti ed
B. Byrne, who was at the time at some distance from the
sthceene of danger, without a moment's hesitation rushed to
rep©omraon t o round
nd
holdh er , w
anda i s, t , thewith
alle end
her
rf
clothesw h which alts
gave on,
dashed in, and diving, found the body of the girl at the
bottom. Seizing her by the hair, Byrne providentially suc-
ceeded in bringing her to land before the vital spark hd
fled. This is the third life that this brave woman has
saved, but whose services have never been e
previously made
I public.
CURIOUS ANECDOTE.—There is a story, says the
Illustrated London 11'e2rs, about the death of AlAul Medj id's
father, the formidable Malimoud, which will bear telling,
the more so as we heard it from the lips of a young. Turk
just arrived in En,glnrl, and that it has never to our know-
ledge been in print. When Mabmottd lay on his divan of
death, he remembered that a great review of the garrison
of Constantinople was to take place under his palace win-
dows in three days' time. He desired that, at whatever
moment he might expire, his death should be kept secret
from the troops until the review was over. Sultan Mah-
mond died on the same night ; but three days afterwards
his dead body, covered with his well known cloak, and
capped with his well-known fez, bearing a diamond aigrette,
was propped up, an opera-glass in one of his cold hands, at
an open window, beneath which the troops defiled, shout-
hnr, "Long live sl3e Sultan 1"