The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-09 00:00:00

BIRKENHEAD ELECTION.

THE PRIESTS AND THE CATHOLIC ELECTORS.
The nomination for Birkenhead. is fixed for to-
day. The candidates are—Mr, Laird, Conserva•
tive ; and Mr. Brassey, Liberal. The Liverpool
Mercury says :—" The four Roman Catholic priests
of Birkenhead, who have for some unknown reasons
sold themselves to the Tory party, naturally wished
to carry with them into Tory bondage the whole of
their flock, and in order to carry out this project
they issued a circular to a portion of the Roman
Catholic electors, inviting them to meet at the
schoolroom in Grange-lane, in order to pass resolu-
tions which, it was hoped, would be looked upon as
binding upon the consciences of the absent. Only
trustworthy Tories were invited; and the Liberals
who presented themselves were browbeaten, abused,
and thrust out of the room by brute force—the Rev.
Canon Chapman exhibiting in this department of
his priestly calling surprising dexterity and
strength. It seems, however, that there are,
amongst the Roman Catholic electors of Birken-
head, many such men as Mr. Milner, who are
not prepared to submit to the political guidance
of the priest. These independent Roman Catholic
voters have, therefore, issued an earnest pro-
test against the partial and unconstitutional
method taken by the priests to ascertain the
opinion of the Catholic electors—a method which,
as they justly say, is calculated to cast odium on
the Catholics as citizens of a free country. That
protest is signed by 326 persons (electors and non-
electors)." A novel test has been applied to deter-
mine the relative merits of the two candidates. A
phrenologist, having examined the heads of both
gentlemen, has stated the conclusions at which he
has arrived. " Mr. Brassey had, phrenologically
speaking, large moral and intellectual powers, an
excellent memory, and possessed withal a profound
judgment, which pre-eminently qualified him for
the position he sought to attain ; whilst Mr. Laird
contrasted very unfavourably with his opponent,
and was so far disqualified as an efficient repre-
sentative."

The movements of the Court are again rendered
uncertain by the indisposition of the Prince Consort. Her
Majesty and the royal family were to leave Windsor Castle
on the 16th instant for Osborne; but unless his Royal
Highness shall have perfectly recovered from the severe
cold from which he is suffering, the departure will be post-
poned. _ _

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
received a select party of military officers at dinner last
evening, at Gloucester House, Park-lane.
The Duke and Duchess of Manchester have left
Kimbolton Castle, to visit the Earl of Sandwich, at Kinch-
ingbrook Park. •
Lord Palmerston has recently suffered from an
attack of gout, but the noble viscount, we are happy to
state, was better yesterday. His lordship is staying at his
town residence in Piccadilly.

The Caduceus, Captain Cass, 102 days from
Hongkong, has arrived with a cargo of 1,240,0001 b. of tea.
From St. Petersburg the quotation of exchange
is 33d., showing a further unfavourable movement, which
must accelerate the resumption of gold exports from that
city.

Commander Williams, R.N., the Admiralty agent
of the Trent, it is said, has received a letter from the Govern-
ment approving of his conduct.

The next examination by the Council of Military
Education of candidates for direct commissions will com-
mence at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, oh the 27th of
January next.
We understand that the Grenadier Guards have
received orders to hold themselves in readiness to embark
immediately for Canada. The three battalions will muster
about 4,000 men.
Now there are two Liberals in the field for the
vacant seat for Nottingham, Lord Lincola and Sir R. Clif-
ton.

RECRIIITING.—Orders have been received from
the Horse Guards to recommence recruiting in the Glasgow
district for upwards of sixty different cops. This looks like
an intention to deal with the American question in earnest.
—Glasyow Herald.
THE AMERICAN SHIP LADY FRANKLIN.—The
New York ship Lady Franklin, which was scuttled in Ply-
mouth Sound to put out the fire in her hold, is still aground
on Jennycliff beach. Attempts were made with Govern-
ment lighters to raise her on Saturday, and will be re.unaed
to-morrow.

It is expected that Mr. Alderman Copeland
M.P., being now the senior alderman, will be appointed
President of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, which
appointment was held by the late Sir Peter Laurie since
1833.

It is rumoured that Mr. Ayrton, M.P. for the
Tower Hamlets, has, or is about to accept an Indian judge-
ship.

The British and North American Boyal Mail
steamer America (in lieu of the Australasian), sailed
from Liverpool on Saturday for New York. Besides the
usual mails the America also took out upwards of 40 pas-

imagers.
At the Marylebone Police-court on Saturday a
woman named Puzey was sentenced to two months' impri-
sonment for stabbing Ellen Breen, who had been a witness
in the charge against the husband of the former, who is in
custody for being concerned in the attempted murder at
Paddington.
COURT of DIVORCE.—In the case of Seddon v.
Seddon and Doyle on Saturday, the jury, after a short de-
liberation, found that the respondents had committed adul-
tery with each other, that the petitioner bad committed
adultery with Martha Finlaison, and that he had been
guilty of such neglect and misconduct as had conduced to
his wife's adultery. They assessed the damages sustained
by the petitioner at one farthing, the amount he had claimed
being £3,000. The verdict was received with some ap-
plause,
DEATH FROM CRINOLINE.—An inquest was held
onFriday last before Mr. Coroner Swann at Eastwood, near
Nottingham, on the body of Mary Ann Rowley, a young
married woman, 20 years' of age, who died on Wednesday
last from injuries she .had sustained from burns. It ap.
peared from the evidence of the witnesses that on the morn-
ing of the 19th ult. the deceased, who is a collier's wife,
and was wearing at the time an extensive crinoline petti-
coat, was stooping down to take her baby up, when her
clothing came in contact with the fire, and almost instantly
she was in a blaze. She at once ran into the haus° of a
neighbour, who got her into the yard, and attempted to
extinguish the flames with a wet towel. In this, however,
she was unsuccessful, and another neighbour came to her
assistance with a blanket, which proved more effectual, and
the fire was got out, but not before most of her clothing
had been consumed, and she was severely burnt on the
breast, arms, neck, and other parts of her body. She was
at once taken to bed, and the surgeon attended her daily,
but his efforts were unavailing, and she died on Wednes-
day. The jury returned a verdict of " accidentally burnt."
FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—Mr. Noakes, the
Portswood Station-master on the South-Western line, was
killed on Friday night. In saving a woman from being run
over by the train that left London at 4 p.m., he slipped on
the rail, and his body was cut to pieces, Portswood is a
new station which has just been opened near the ruins of
St. Deny's Priory, about two miles from Southampton.
PRAYER FOR THE PRESERVATION OF PEACE.—
Yesterday it was announced from the pulpits of a large
number of churches and chapels of the metropolis that on
Thursday next—being the day on which the message of
the British Government to that of the United States is ex-
pected to arrive at its destination—an aggregate meeting of
Christians of all denominations will be held in Exet r-hall,
to beseech Almighty God in His providence to guide the
counsels of the two governments, and preserve to both
countries the priceless blessing of peace.
THE LATE EXPLOSION AT CAMDEN-TOWN.—Alfred
Jones, one of the victims to the destructive explosion of a
cask of Paraffin oil, which occurred at Mr. Masteries oil
and Italian shop, College-street, Camden-town, on Mon-
day last, died on Saturday, after enduring great agony from
the effect of the burning oil. His fellow-sufferer, Thomas
Bailey, remains in the University Hospital, and although
the injuries he sustained aro extensive, and of a dangerous
character, hopes are entertained of his ultimate recovery.
DEATH FROM CHLOROFORM.—On Saturday Mr.
Brent held an inquest on the body of Charles Gibbs. De-
ceased, on the 3d inst., had, whilst intoxicated, met with an
accident by which one of his ankles was fractured. On
being taken to University College Hospital, it was deemed
necessary to administer chloroform while the fracture was
being reduced, and under its influence he died. Verdict—
" Accidental death from chloroform, administered in a sur-
gical operation."

SOMNAMBULISM AND PROVIDENTIAL' ESCAPE.—
On last Saturday night Lydia Burton, aged about eight
years, daughter of ,Mr. George Burton of] Roce,ter
(near Uttoxeter), got up in her sleep, opened the window of
the attic in which she slept, and leapt down into the street,
a height of many feet. Her parents, who had not retired
to rest, rushed out on hearing the noise, and found her
prostrate on the pavement. Fortunately she was not se-
riously injured by the fall.—Staford Advertiser.
THE SEIZURE OF THE TRENT.—The members of
the Royal Western Yacht Club at Plymouth will, on
Thursday next, entertain at dinner Commander Williams,
who was the agent in charge of mails on board the Trent at
the time of the capture of the Southern commissioners.
This dinner has been got up in order to express their
admiration of the conduct of Commander Williams on that
oecaeion,

•
T E T N •

ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
PARIS, DEC 9.

The Illoniteur in its bulletin of to-day says :
" The American journals credit the idea that
England who, until now, has been so accommo-
dating to all pretensions of the United States will
yet yield in the affair of the Trent. This arro-
gance offends British pride and deters it from
any desire to modify the conditions upon which
an arrangement may be effected. To know,
however, what will take place, it is necessary to
await the hour when the illusion of the American
people will be dispersed, when they will know per-
tinently that England demands, before all, repara-
tion and the release of the prisoners."

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.
NEW YORK, Nov. 26.
(Per Niagara, via Boston and Queenstown.)

Messrs. Mason and Slidell were landed at Fort
Warren, Boston harbour, on the 24th inst.

The municipality of Boston waited upon Com-
mander Wilkes and tendered him a welcome.

In reply to an address from the mayor, Com-
mander Wilkes said—" I am deeply sensible of the
great kindness you have shown me.' I depended
upon my own judgment in doing what you all
flatter me was correct, and I am exceedingly grati-
fied with the manifestations of approval I have met,
and which have been, I may say, a spontaneous
outburst from all parts of our country. I have
only to say that we did our duty to the Union, and
are prepared to do it again." This speech was re-
ceived with immense cheering.
A complimentary dinner is to be given to Com-
mander Wilkes at the Revere House, Boston.
It is stated that no depatches of any description
were found in the baggage of Messrs. Mason and
Slidell.

The New I'ork Herald of the 26th, referring to
the speech of Mr. Adams at the Lord Mayor's
dinner, says :
" The response which it elicited from Lord
Palmerston is marked by better feeling than any-
thing that has dropped from him in reference to
us since the beginning of the war. The news of
the arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell will alter
for the moment this agreeable state of things.
There will be a vast expenditure of indignation
and hard words on the part of the journals that
have been working so assiduously in the rebel in-
terest, whilst those who are well affected towards us
will be taken aback by the boldness of the step.
" When the facts of the case, and the legal autho-
rities and precedents bearing upon it, come to be
investigated, it cannot, however, fail to have the
best effect. No people are greater admirers of
pluck than the English, and they will see in this
readiness to beard the British lion just as he is
beginning to indulge in incipient growls at us, an
unmistakeable evidence of our contempt for his
ungenerous menaces, and of our determination not
to be intimidated from prosecuting our just rights
wherever and by whomsoever they are contravened."
The Richmond Inquirer, in an article on the arrest
of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, says :
" This extraordinary act of the Lincoln Govern-
ment must be followed by important consequences.
It is impossible for the English Government, without
disgrace, to fail to exact the fullest reparation. If
Commodore Wilkes acted under orders, we do not
see how Lincoln can possibly escape the most seri-
ous complications with the English Government.
If it be said that England in 1812 claimed the right
of visitation of our national vessels and seizure of
our subjects on board, it will be replied that our
Government denied the right and resisted it with
war, and that England, in consequence, abandoned
the practice. Nay, so sensitive have we and so
deferential has England since been on this point
that even suspected slavers sailing under our flag
have been protected by it from English visitation,
although we agreed with England in denouncing
the slave trade as piracy.
"Can England, after conceding all this to our
claim, and after having so long abandoned the exer-
cise, if she has not disavowed the right of visita-
tion and seizure, now submit to the hardships of a
theory the benefit of which was denied her, and
that, too, at the hands of the Government which
denied it ? Will she allow what still claims to be
the Government of the United States to have the
benefit, and herself the disadvantage, of both sides
of the question. It is not possible.
" England has acknowledged us to be a belliger-
ent Power, and declared that she would maintain
a neutrality. To allow her mail steamer to be
stopped on the ocean and persons taken from under
the protection of her flag by a jurisdiction as to
whose quarrel she is neutral, is as much at war
with all her practice and traditions as it is opposed
to her honour. England, like America, has ever
been a hoase of refuge among the nations, and the
stranger under her flag has always found the pro-
tection due to her own subjects extended with all
the generous sensitiveness of an honourable host.
Lincoln will have to apologise and restore the status,
or fight. We see no other alternative."
The World says: _ _

" We look for little more logic and much less
courtesy in the treatment of the affairs of the Trent
by the London journals. We look also for contra-
diction among themselves, and between them and
their continental neighbours; but beyond ample
and acrimonious discussions to which the affair will
give rise, we expect no serious consequences. Con-
fident that the strength of our position will be
acknowledged by the equity of England, however
unwelcome it may be to find those doctrines of the
law of nations turned against her as a neutral

which she has done so much to establish for her
own advantage as a belligerent."
The Message of the President will not be long.
It is intended to be a plain business document,
setting forth the condition of public affairs and the
policy of the Administration, and referring for de-
tails to the reports of the several heads of depart-
ments, which are to be unusually full and complete
in all particulars.
The report of the Secretary of War will be com-
pleted to-morrow. It will show the cost and varied
operations of that department of the public service
since the 4th of March, and the estimates of what
will be required for the maintenance of the im-
mense army now in the field and expected to be
brought into active service, and for the vigorous
prosecution of the war to a successful termination.
The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will
not be completed for several days. The prepara-
tion of the details of this report has required a great
deal of labour and careful attention.
Mr. Chase has not yet prepared any portion of
the report relating to the public policy of the
Government.
It has been intimated that the Secretary of the
Treasury and the President would recommend the
establishment of a new fiscal agent in the nature of
a national bank; but in view of the aid rendered
by the banks in the first 150 millions of the new
national loan, it is not probable that any proposi-
tion will be made to set up a Government institu-
tion that will be oppressive to them.
The financial ability and ingenuity of the Secre-
tary will unquestionably suggest some plan for the
maintenance of the public credit, and the satisfac-
tion of all the requirements of the Government,
without injury to the institutions that came most
promptly to the relief of the Government in the
hour of need.
It is stated upon reliable authority that the esti-
mates of the requirements of the Government dur-
ing the next fiscal year will make it necessary to
call for appropriations amounting to 1,060 million
dols. (160 millions ?)
General Dix has received despatches from General
Lochwood announcing the capture of three rebel
officers and seven cannon, the latter all new and in
good order. All traces of disloyalty appear to be
disappearing from both Aecomiac and Northamp-
ton counties.
About midnight on Friday last the gunboat Cam-

bridge, one of the flotilla at Fortress Monroe, pro-
ceeded up the James river as far as Warwick, where
she engaged a rebel, which she succeeded in silencing

after a spirited interchange of shots, in which the
Cambridge sustained no particular damage.

The retreat of the Union forces under General
Schoeff from their advanced position near Cumber-
land Gap to Lancaster, was in consequence of a
report that the rebel general, Johnston, was ad-
vancing with 40,000 men, and threatening Louis-
ville, Lexington, and Cincinnati. The order to
retreat is said to have come from General Nelson,
through General Thomas, but there appears to have
been no cause for it. The retreat appears to have
been a very disastrous one, both to the men and to
the property of the Government. it is believed
that 20,000 men and 5,000,000 dols. will not now put
the campaign in Kentucky in so favourable a con-
dition as before the retreat was ordered.

It is reported from Osceola that Price has already
again crossed the Oregon River at Hoffmann's
Ferry, and that his advance guard was expected
at Osceola on Saturday last.
The Richmond Inquirer says that the Confede-
rate Congress has passed a bill for the removal of
the capital from Richmond to Nashville, and that
the Congress will soon assemble there.

Joshua R. Giddings, Consul-General for the
British North American provinces, has accom-
plished the object of his visit to Washington,
namely, the removal of the delay and inconvenience
attending passports to British subjects on taking
passage for Europe at Portland, Maine. Hereto-
fore passports were required to be countersigned at
the State department, but that business is now to
be performed by a Government agent.
The 37th Congress convenes at Washington on
Dec. 2.

Mr. Purviance, of Pennsylvania, recently ap-
pointed Consul-General at Calcutta, has declined.
The steamship North Star, from Aspinwall,
Nov. 15, arrived at New York on the 25th with
829,807 dole, in specie. The intelligence from New
Granada is unimportant; the foreign consuls have
been officially notified of the change of the title of
the Republic of New Granada to that of the
United States of Columbia.

The .Richmond Inquirer confirms the statement
of the arrival of the steamer Fingal at Savannah.
Her Britannic Majesty's gunboat Nimble arrived
at New York on the 25th Nov.

Gen. Fremont is shortly expected at Washington.
The burning of Warsaw, Missouri, has been con-
firmed.

A deserter from the rebel camp came into Ge-
neral Blenker's camp yesterday, He reports the
rebel force about Centreville, where head-quarters
are established, as numbering 60,000 men, and as
many more all along the Potomac lines. Centre-
ville, he states, is well defended, but has no siege
guns. At Manassas, however, there are some heavy
guns. He describes the troops as being in good
spirits, pretty well fed, clothed, and armed, and
under the impression that the war is one of subju-
gation, devastation, and abolition. This impression
they receive from their officers and chaplains.
It is the intention of the Government to put all
the coast defences of the Northern States into com-
plete working order immediately for protection
against foreign foes, in case that such defence should
become necessary. The governors of the States are
authorised to carry out the work. This precaution
is highly commendable.