The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EV ENING, JANUARY 5,

grievance of Ireland. They have been before
the public with assertions and counter-asser-
tions for some time ; but at length we have
the authentic evidence of the Lord Bishop
and of the Roman Catholic priest, Mr. LAVELLE,
to deal with, as given before a court of justice;
and, beyond all doubt, a hard case on the poor
peasantry it seems to be. On two points the evi-
dence is as clear as it could well be—that the Bishop,
through his agent, required his tenants-at-will to
send their children to the Irish Mission schools,
where the Bible was taught, on pain of eviction ;
and that Mr. LAVELLE had emptied these schools
of the children, and encouraged the people to keep
possession of their holdings, though possession of
them was demanded by the Bishop's agents. The
Bishop and the priest were, in fact, at open war. The
Bishop had determined that all the children on his
estate should be taught the Bible—the priest had
resolved that the Bible they should not learn; but the
Bishop wielded temporal weapons, the priest spiri-
tual weapons, in this battle for children. The Bishop
gained his temporal battle, for the strong arm of
the law was with him. The priest gained his
spiritual battle, for the children have been with-
drawn from all danger of Mission school and
Bible corruption.
But we ought to give the substance of the
evidence. The processes were against two tenants
for over-holding and non-title ; Lor d PLUNKET
was examined—to the question, whether " In this
terrific weather he was purposing to fling seventy
unfortunates on the snow-covered mountains in
Partry, and specially, whether it was really for
purposes of •victson, and not merely for non-
payment of rent, he had brought these actions,"
he answered " certainly ;" and in several forms he
firmly answered that "the sole object he had in
view was to evict these wretched people and drive
them on the world." The remark of the Bishop,
that LALLY (now sought to be ejected) was a "bad
character," led to a series of questions designed to
show that his "badness" consisted in not sending
his children to the Bible schools. These questions
the Bishop fenced; and said that his object was to
"stripe the land," and to " prevent the interference
of Mr. LAVELLE, who was acting as landlord."
Subsequent questions showed that the lane,
with insignificant exceptions, was " striped"
already ; and to the question how, therefore,
the object could be to " stripe the land,"
the Bishop would not return an answer ! The
questions then aimed at eliciting from the Bishop
his knowledge that the exertions of Mr. LAVELLE
had reduced the attendance in the Bible schools to

three, " the Master, the Mistress, and the Piggery
Boy." These questions the Bishop also fenced.
Finally, came the questions, intended to prove,
what in an English county election we should call
" undue influence" of tenants-at-will, or of any
tenants. As a Tory or Whig almost never says in
direct terms, vote blue or vote yellow, or quit next
year—se Bible school Bishops in Ireland do sot,
personally, at least, employ the threat direct. The
examiner, therefore, dropped the plain word
" force," and put to the episcopal landlord of the
poor potato-growers, the question, " Did you ever
express your ' earnest desire' to the parents, that
the children should attend your school, and did you
impress this ' earnest desire' on them, at every op-
portunity :" BISHOP (warmly), " I did, and I will
continue to do so." The question, with some
appearance of surprise, was repeated, and the
Bishop firmly repeated his answer, " Idid and 1
will." Undue influence is, indeed, a thing hard to
define, but were this an election case, we imagine that
the most Tory judge and jury in England would
agree, that this, at least, was "undue influence."
The Bishop, however, could not perceive that it
was equivalent to a command—" No," said he, "it
is no command," which was not the question ;
and fairly enough his examiner retorted—" No, my
lord, not in words; but every right-minded man
will pronounce it nothing less than a most stringent
command." After some attempts by the examiner
to instruct the Bishop in episcopal duties from the
Apostle PAUL'S charge to Bishop TIMOTHY, which
the judge stopped—the examination of the Lord
Bishop was concluded.
Mr. LAVELLE'S examination followed, and as
Lord PLUNKET had virtually attacked his charac-
ter he was, very fairly, allowed to give his own
explanation. Its substance has been given in the
statements we have already made. His " acting as
landlord" resolved itself into advising the tenants
not to quit voluntarily. But to a Roman Catholic
priest the circumstances were not a little provoking.
After he had rescued the Roman Catholic children
from the teaching of the Bible, twice, with a short
interval, several members of the Bishop's family
' and the agent present in court, assembled the
tenants at the school-house, and demanded of each
of them separately, that he should send his children
to the school. On both occasions the tenants re-
fused, and were told on the spot they should be
evicted, The agent came the day following that of
the second refusal to take possession of the land,
because " Lord PLUNKET would have no tenants
who did not send their children to the school."
Hereupon Mr. LAVELLE advised the people! to
refuse ; which he—firm as the Bishop—said he
would do again.
Such is the sum of the evidence as given by
the Dublin Morning News, and, assuming the
correctness of the report, very little can be said
for Lord PLUNKET. It must have been very
annoying to find his schools, previously
full, dwindle down to one scholar, " the Tour-
makeady piggery boy." For an Anglo-Irish
Bishop to be beaten by an unauthorised Dissenting
parish priest, of whom no one ever heard before,
was mortifying enough to Episcopal flesh and
blood ; but it was a religious battle ; the Bishop
had no moral right to " impress his desire" on his
tenants, and to permit his family and agent to
follow up non-compliance with that desire by the
severest of temporal penalties to an Irishman short
of death. It is like a soldier using his bayonet
or swordbelt in a struggle with a civilian.
We recently had occasion to reprobate similar
conduct on the part of a Welsh lady, at the
instigation of her clergyman, towards English
Protestant Dissenters; it is equally unchristian
and equally unrighteous towards Roman Catholic
Dissenters, According to his own statements, we
can perceive not a shadow of justification for Lord
PLUNKET'S conduct; nor do we see how the evidence
can easily be explained away. Accepting the un-
contradicted facts, we can only say that the conduct
of Lord PLUNKET, in the Partry evictions, would
justify any persecution whatever for conscience
sake ; for if landlords have a moral right to turn
out of house and off the land, those whom they
cannot convert to their own views of religious
duty, Roman Catholic proprietors on the continent
would be justified in doing the same—the great
landlord, the Government, might plausibly follow

them; and Roman Catholic countries might adopt
towards Protestants the language of Ancient
Rome towards early Christians—" Non licet vobis
ease"—you are not permitted to exist. We await
explanations, but we must confess with little hope.
- '

A morning contemporary, in an article on the
Canada extradition case, in which the impossibility
of the surrender is strongly asserted, yet leans to

the view that legally the fugitive ought to be
surrendered, The writer does not appear to us to
meet the strong legal objections to surrender from
the fact that the homicide was not culpable homi-
cide, according to the law of the place in which
the refugee was found. Our law knows of no
such crime as that of killing, in self-defence, the
man who endeavours to kidnap you—while social
law or sentiment exalts the homicide into a duty.
But the strong point, our contemporary thinks,
is that DIGGES was acting according to the law of
his State, Missouri. By the State law "it is the duty
of every man to arrest a slave found distant more
than 20 miles from his master's plantation."
DIGGES, therefore, was constituted, by Missouri
law, a policeman, and was lawfully engaged in the
capture of ANDERSON when he was killed. The
inference is, we are legally bound to deliver up a
man who killed another, the latter being in the
discharge of a duty imposed on him by law.
The fallacy seems to us plain. The argument
assumes that we are to take the slaveholder's code
as our test of crime, The crime was a black one,
according to that black code; but according to
English law and judgments, that code is itself a
crime. We denounce making a man a slave, selling
him as a slave, keeping him as a slave,
preventing his escape from slavery, as a
series of crimes—as nothing better than land-
piracy. Slaveholders, in their slaveholding
relations, are outlaws, according to British
law. It seems therefore plain that on the facts
before the Court—namely, that DIGGES was killed
in obstructing a slave while escaping from his
kidnappers—we are. bound to protect the refugee.
Those who made the treaty on both sides well knew
that Great Britain would no more concede that
homicide necessary to an escape from bondage is a
crime, than that the Americans would concede the
Right of Search ; and no accidental phraseology
could possibly admit of such a construction. It isja
solemn thought, that when the ALMIGHTY once
undertook the emancipation of an enslaved people,
and could not otherwise coerce the stubborn will
of the great Egyptian slaveholder, he deemed the
homicide of all the first-born not too high a price

for the delivery of the Israelites; and when the
Monarch afterwards attempted to stop the refugees,
he drowned him and his host in the Red Sea.

61.

The Prince di Carriccialo, with the Count and
Countess Castellac, and Chevalier Miniati, have left the
Brunswick Hotel, Jetmyn-street, for Paris, on their way

o Rome,

The Hon. Frederick and Lady Elizabeth Villiers
have left Thomas's Hotel, Berkeley-square, for Sulby Hall.

Miss Nightingale has returned to her residence
at the Burlington Hotel.
THE LATE COUNTESS OF EGLINTON.—The death
of this lamented lady took place in Edinburgh, and not at
Egliuton Castle. Her ladyship's illness was scarcely of a
sudden nature, having supervened on her confinement,
which took place on the 7th ult., when she gave birth to a
daughter, which, with another infant born in August,
1859, survives its parent's premature decease.

Major David Mortimer Murray, eldest son of the
Rev. David Murray, rector of Brampton-Bryan, county
Hereford, was married, on Thursday last, to Ida, youngest
daughter of the late Capt, Fenton, M.P., of Spring-grove,
county York. The bride was attended to the altar by six
bridesmaids, and given away by the Hon. R. Chetwynd.
The ceremony was performed by the Rev. R. Margesson,
assisted by the Hon. and Rev. R. Liddell, at St. Paul's
Church, Knightsbridge. The happy couple afterwards,
accompanied by a small circle of friends and relatives, pro-
ceeded to Ford's Hotel, Dover-street, where a dejeuner was
provided. In the afternoon Major and Mrs. Murray left
for Southampton, en route for the Isle of Wight.

THE NEW PEER.—The Right Hon. Sidney Her-
bert, about to be called to the House of Peers, by one of the
subsidiary titles of the earldom of Pembroke, to which he
is heir presumptive, was born on the 16th of September,
1810. He married,*on the 12th of August, 1846, Eliza-
beth, daughter of Major-General Charles Asbe a'Court,
and niece of Lord Heytesbury. He was educated. at Har•
row, and afterwards entered Oriel College, Oxford, in
which university he graduated in 1831, taking a fourth
class in classics. At the same time Mr. W. B. Gladstone, of
Christ Church, the present Chancellor of the Exchequer,
took a "double first"—Mr. F. D. Maurice, of Exeter
College (whose name has of late been so much before
the public), and Dr. Robert Phillimore taking respec-

tively a second class in classics. His first connection with
official life was under Sir Robert Peel's Government in 1841,
when he was appointed Secretary to the Admiralty, the
duties of which office he discharged until Feb., 1845, when
he became Secretary at War. He has represented the
southern division of Wiltshire uninterruptedly since 1832.
PROROGATION OF CONVOCATION.—Yesterday
the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy of the Province
of Canterbury was prorogued in the Jerusalem Chamber,
Westminster, by Dr. Travers Twiss, the Vicar General of
the province, under a commission from his Grace the Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury, pursuant to the Royal writ,
until Wednesday, the 6th of February. Mr. F. H. Dyke,
her Majesty's proctor, having read the schedule of proro-
gation, the proceedings were brought to a close.
DR. MARK AND HIS LITTLE MEN.—This distin-
guished impressario took his annual benefit at the Man-
chester Free Trade Hall on Wednesday and Thursday last,
giving on the first day a morning and evening concert,
with his Little Men as the instrumentalists, and Mr. Frank
Reid and Master Tendall as the vocalists ; and on the
second his annual juvenile ball. On the second occasion
the hall was splendidly decorated by Mr. Tyrer, of Man-
chester, and every effort was made to secure the comfort
and enhance the delight of all present. Two immense
Christmas trees were erected at the end of the hall, and
the " Doctor" distributed their fruits to the juvenile dancers.
There were about 300 dancers present, and upwards of
1,800 spectators. Dr. Mark will appear with his " Little
Men" at the St. James's Hall, London, for the first time,
on January 11th.—Era.
NARROW ESCAPE NEAR WITHAM.—As the Rev.
G. P. Bennett and his lady, accompanied by a friend, were
returning to Kelvedon from Rivenhall Rectory, on Tues-
day evening, owing to the darkness of the night and the
flooding of the road near Rivenhall Fax, the carriage was
driven into deep water, and their lives were placed in great
danger. Happily their cries of distress were heard by
some men, who promptly came to their rescue, and con-
veyed them on their backs to land. Had the carriage
progressed a yard further, the party, in all probability,
would have met with a watery grave.—Chelmsford Chro-
nicle.

A CHAPEL BURNT DOWN AT BURTON-ON-
TRENT.—On Monday last, an alarming fire broke out in
Salem Chapel, Station-street, which has completely de-
stroyed the interior wood work and both vestries, some
portion of the roof excepted ; and the injury the roof has
sustained, in order to get at the fire within, will, it is
thought, render its entire removal necessary. The chapel
is insured for £3OO, but this amount will not nearly cover
the injury sustained. As to the origin of the fire nothing
certain is known.—Derby Reporter.

SINGULAR CASE OF CONCEALMENT OF SEX.—
Last week died in Rigby's-yard, Scholes, Wigan, aged 97,
a woman, whose name is believed to have been Betty
Lavin. For about 50 years Betty has resided in Wigan,
and during the whole of that period she has been known as
John Murphy, having appropriated the garb and assumed
the habits of a man, and this so successfully, that none dis-
covered the deception. During her residence in Wigan
she has followed the occupation of a hawker, and as such
has become known to a large circle of customers ; she has
also been on the relieving officers' books for the last 12
months, and having been ill, she has been visited by
Mr. Heaton, union surgeon. To all these she has been
known as the man John Murphy, and, what is still more
singular, she did not previous to her decease inform any
person of the disguise she had so long assumed. As John
Murphy she lived and died, as John Murphy her death
was registered by the surgeon, and it was only when the
final offices previous to interment were being performed
that her sax was discovered.

STREET SLIDES.—Every one knows how the
perils of pedestrians are increased by such frosts as we have
recently had, but few are aware of the number of persons
who are thus injured. The records of the Accidental Death
Insurance Company show no less than 22 serious accidents
from this cause alone in the space of the last fortnight, in-
cluding three broken legs and two spinal concussions. We
believe the whole number of persons insured in this corn.
pany does not exceed 50,000, and, consequently, if out of
that number 22 have been injured, the whole number of
persons in this country who have been injured by falls
from the frost during the past fortnight cannot be much
under 10,000.
DEATH OF SIR PETER FAIRBAIRN.—Sir Peter
Fairbairn, Knight, of Woodsley-house, Leeds, who has
beeu extremely ill for the last two months, expired at his
residence at an early hour yesterday morning, in the 62d
year of his age. Sir Peter Fairbairn, youngest son of the
late Mr. Andrew Fairbairn, was born on the 11th Sept.,
1799, at Kelso, in Roxburghshire. Mr. Andrew Fairbairn
had a large family, of whom only three now survive—Mr.
William Fairbairn of Manchester, and two daughters. As
as inventor and improver of machinery applied to the useful
arts, Sir Peter stands high in the estimation of his country,
which opinion is endorsed by the whole mechanical world,
for his machines are known and appreciated in every part of
the globe where such implements are required. He was one
of the improvers of the roving-frame, and assisted Mr.
Henry Houldsworth in the application of the differential
motion so admirably adapted and so usefully employed in
that machine. Although not the original inventor, he it was

at any rate, who worked out and rendered really valuable
the motion known by the nime of " screw gill," by making
it of easy practical application. He moreover introduced
the rotary gill, which has been most extensively applied in
tow machinery. These improvements effected almost a
revolution in flax and hemp-preparing machinery, and
enabled spinners to produce a very superior article at less
cost than formerly, although from the same quality of ma-
terial. In addition to the above, Sir Peter had of late
years entered largely into the construction of engineering
tools of all descriptions. At the beginning of the Crimean
war the firm of which he was the head was invited by the
English Government to commence making speeial tools,
and has since constructed a largo number of machines for
the manufacture of firearms and other warlike implements
both at Woolwich and Enfield. Sir Peter for many years
took an active part in the local affairs of Leeds, and his
fellow-townsmen showed their appreciation of his charac-
ter and conduct by electing him a member of the corpora-
tion, or "local Parliament"—first, as a councillor for one
of the largest wards of the borough, and subsequently as
an alderman. He was also appointed one of her Majesty's
justices of the peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire and
for the borough of Leeds. Sir Peter was married in 1827
to Margaret, daughter of the late Mr. Robert Kennedy,
of Glasgow, by whom he had his present family, ono son
and two daughters. His first wife having died in 1843,
he was married, in 1855, to Rachel Anne, fourth daughter
of the late Mr. Robert William Brandling, of Low Gos-
forth, Northumberland, who survives her respeoted hus-
band,

FLOODS IN THE EAST.—The thaw in the early
part of the week produced a great accumulation of water in
Suffolk and many parts of the adjoining counties, the low-
lands in the neighbourhood of the rivers being covered in
some places to a considerable depth. Much damage has
been done to property in many cases ; but there appears to
have been no loss of life, although one or two narrow escapes
are reported. Mrs. Brown, of Brant Eleigh Hall, while
returning in her carriage from Tostock, was placed in a
perilous position in crossing the river Brent at a ford near
Brettenham Mill. The vehicle and horses became im-
mersed, and Mrs. Brown and the coachman were only
rescued by means of ladders and ropes. A youth in the
employ of Mr. Davis, butcher, of Great Beddow, while
driving from Danebury to Sandon, was also oapsized in a
stream running by the side of the road. The stream was
much swollen, and the youth only managed to save him-
self by climbing up a tree. The pony which he was driving
was drowned, and the whole contents of the cart, which
consisted of household goods belonging to a young woman
about to be married, were sacrificed with the almost ludi-
crous exception of a pair of bellows. The driver of the
Haverhill mail cart also met with a serious accident on his
return to Halstead. At Hepworth-bridge the road was
flooded to the depth of three or four feet, and the torrent
carried the horse off his legs. While the animal was strug-
gling the shafts brokP, and both man and horse saved their
lives with difficulty. The mail bags were lost. Up to
yesterday great sheets of water—now frozeni over—met the
eye on every side.

LArf E rr
sE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

ROME, JA.N. 1.
This being New Year's Day the Pope received
he French officers.

General Goyon, following orders from his Govern-
ment, made no political allusions in his speech on

he occasion.

His Holiness expressed his approval of the expe-
ditions to Syria and China.
His Holiness also said that in defending Gaeta
the Freneh fleet serves a just and holy cause. The
Pope avoided making any other political allusions,
and said nothing concerning the Emperor Napoleon.

TURIN, SATURDAY.

The Opinione says :—Prince Carignan and M.
Nigra will probably leave for Naples on Tuesday
next.

The same paper publishes a telegram from
Palermo, stating that the Lieutenancy Council hai
tendered its resignation.

BERNE, SATURDAY.

The reply of the Federal Council to Count
Cavour's note of the 20th Nov. last will be
despatched to Turin to-day. The Federal Council
maintains the sequestration of the .property in the
Canton Ticino, the revenues of which belong to
the bishopric of Como, and expresses the hope
that the supervision of that property by the
Federal Council may be considered as offering
sufficient guarantee until the final settlement of
the affair.

MADRID, lAN. 4.

The Correspondent-la Autografa gives a denial
to the report that the Moors refuse to pay the
remaining portion of the War indemnity.

It also denies the rumour that the Minister
Fomento had tendered his resignation.

BERLIN, JAN. 4.

A deputation from the municipality presented
to-day, in the name of the City of Berlin, an address
of condolence to the King.
His Majesty, in reply, expressed his deep grief
at the heavy loss which had been sustained by the
Royal family ; and recalled how the late King,
in addition to his high intellectual attainments,
always took the most heartfelt interest in the wel-
fare of his people, and how the Princes of Hohen-
zollern had always entertained feelings of affection
for their subjects, whose interest they considered
identical with their own.

The King continued as follows:—" Perhaps you
have already discovered that in this respect I hold
the same opinions. Formerly, perhaps, I was mis-
understood, but I can assure you that I have always
had the same love for my people. I should not be
misunderstood. I stated the principles of my
government when I assumed the regency on the
Bth November. 1858. I shall invariably and in-
violably maintain those principles during my future
government. I gladly accept the expression of your
loyalty. A time may come when I shall remind you
of those expressions, for I reckon on the fidelity of
my citizens, as the loyalty of my people has extri-
cated us in situations of difficulty. Many changes
have taken place in the course of the past year, and
all that has been done has not always been done
rightly. No one shall induce me to abandon the
principles which I have pronounced, and I give
you the assurance that I shall, with true affection
for my people, abide by these principles. I autho-
rise you to communicate to the citizens of Berlin
the sentiments which I have expressed to you, and
I thank you for what you have expressed in the
name of the municipality.

MILAN, JAN. 4.

The Perseveratzza publishes a despatch, dated
Rome, Jan. 2, stating that a manifestation was
attempted by the Sanfedisto party on the 31st of
December, but failed. Pontifical and French patrols
were traversing the streets of the city. " Order
and tranquillity prevailed at Rome."
The same journal also states that Count Trapani
was organizing the reactionary movement in the
Abruzzi, and had published proclamations. Two
hundred Bourbonian volunteers had arrived at
Frosinone, and had been despatched to the Abruzzi
by permission of the Papal authorities.
General Goyon had ordered the inhabitants of
Frosinone to be disarmed.

The French authorities had seized several chests
filled with arms.

PARIS, JAN. 4.

The Patrie says :

Two vessels hoisting the Sardinian flag have
been stopped at Galatz. Their cargoes have been
seized, and deposited in the Custom-house.

It is asserted that 12 rifled cannon and 15,000
muskets, ammunition, and gunpowder, formed
part of the cargo. .

Russian, Turkish, and Austrian guard vessels are
keeping a strict watch at the mouths of the Danube.
The same journal states that the retirement of
Mgr. Merode from the Papa] Cabinet is looked
upon as decided, and adds :—" It is said that M.
Bella 'will succeed him in the office of Minister
for War.

The Patric also asserts that the Neapolitan
royalists have succeeded in supplying the small
fortress of Civitella with provisions.

BERLIN, FRIDAY.

A telegram has been received here from Naples,
dated Jan. 3, according to which negotiations had
been opened between the Sardinian Government
and King Francis 11. for the conclusion of an
armistice of longer duration.

INDIA.

BOMBAY, DEC. 12.

Campbell's force has been repulsed from Sikirs
with the loss of between 30 and 40 men, and one

gun.
Darjeeling is in a state of alarm.
Income tax riots have taken place at Surat and
Bassein; the tax collector was beaten.
Capt. Cox and Lieutenants Alexander, Brown,
and Patten have. been brought to trial for the
outrages committed at Cairo, in Egypt.
The import trade is wholly suspended.