The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-18 00:00:00

THE HOP DUTY.

We are indebted to our indefatigable member,
Mr. G. Dodson, for a copy of the answer to the me-
morial of the hop planters, presented to the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer on Friday. It will be seen
that the right lion. gentleman lost no time in ful-
filling his promise of immediately taking the matter
into consideration. The following is the communi-
c Won forwarded to Mr. Dodson on Saturday
evening :
" Downing-street, Nor. 14.
"My dear Sir,—l have taken into consideration the
memorial from the hop-planters of the county of Sussex,
which was left in my hands yesterday, suggesting that
upon prompt payment of one-half of the accruing No-
vember instalment of hop duty now du; the payrner.t
of the remaining moiety may be postponed until May
next ; and I regret to say that I cannot comply with this
request. At the same time, I have no objection, under
the peculiar circumstances of the case, to accept from the
memorialists a moiety only of the duty now due, and to
grant them until the 16th of February next for pay-
ment of the remainder, on the express understanding,
however, that the duty on the first moiety of this year's
growth, due on the 16th of May next, shall be paid at
that period. Instructions to this effect have been issued
to the Board of Inland Revenue.—l am, dear air, yours
faithfully,
" G. C. LEwrs.

"J. G. Dodson, Esq , M.P."
It will be seen by the above that Sir George
Cornewall Lewis has not granted the prayer of
the planters to its full extent. Their request was
for a postponement until May, whereas the Chan-
cAlor of the Exchequer has given them till Feb.
ruary,—that is, an extension of credit for three in-
stead of six months. The remarks made by the
right hon. gentleman at the interview on Friday,
and the terms of his letter above given, sufficiently
indicate the reasons which weighed with him in.
fixing February, instead of May, for payment of
the instalment now due. Sir George Cornewall
Lewis desires, it is plain, to guard against any
further application for indulgence ; and he
obviously concludes that if the November and May
payments are divided, so as to fall due in February
and May, the Sussex planters will find less diffi-
culty in meeting theba than if they had to make
provision for both payments at one and the same
date. The Sussex planters have thus again suc•
ceeded in staving off a payment which they them-
selves openly declare could only have been duly
met by the most ruinous sacrifices. How much
longer will they be, content to submit to—indeed,
in many instances, to support—a duty the inci-
dence of which is the avowed cause of their being
periodically reduced to a condition which threatens'
them with ruin, and certainly entails no slight
degradation upon them as men of business 7 How
long will they consent to exhibit themselves
periodically before the country as suppliants at the
feet of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suing in
forma pauperis for relief from a tax which at other
moments they cling to with desperate tenacity,
avowedly in the miserable hope that it may oc-
casionally shield them from competition, and, by
preventing the importation of foreign hops, force
their own to an artificial price? We repeat, how
Mexican dollars brought by La Plata at the beginning
longhtin will
t themselves in, this wretched, nay, ill the hop planters of Sussex be content to
.g position ? For such in plain English it is."".•
of the month were disposed of yesterday at 59 being
ex
degrad-
a decline of from the price realised for those by the m
packet of last month. Sussex Advertiser of yesterday.

THE L2iIJAIRE. TRIAL.

This case has at length been brought to a conclu-
sion. At the afternoon sitting of the count on Sa-
turday, M. Langlois pleaded for Lemaire ; he en-
deavoured to convince the jury that, though guilty,
the man was only the instrument of Hugot and
Villet, and that the revelations he had made entitled
himto merciful consideration. M. Salmon, advocate
of Villet, contended that there was no positive
proof of his participation in the crimes committed,
and that he ought not to be condemned. on the as-
sertions of such men as Hugot and Lemare ; the ut-
most, the learned counsel said, that could be proved
against him was that he had been a receiver of stolen
goods. The same learned gentleman pleaded for
Villet's wife, son, and daughter. At the sitting of
the court on Sunday evidence was given to prove
that the elder Villet had gone to Berancourt, and
minutely inspected. the scene of the murder of De-
champs—a fact which, like all others alleged against
him, he had energetically denied. Counsel then
pleaded in succession for the other prisoners, and
the procureur-general replied. That done, the Pre-
sident asked Lemaire if he had anything to
say
for himself. "Sir," answered the prisoner, who
seemed greatly discouraged, "I have told the
ttuth—l have nothing to add I" "And you,
Hugot, have you anything to say ?" " I also have
told the truth, Monsieur le President !" answered
the man, who was deadly pale. The same ques-
tion was then put to Bourse, and he answered it
with apparent indifference in the negative. The
elder Villet was then called on, and gesticulating,
with a handkerchief in his band, he said :—" Gen,
tlemen of the court and ofthe jury, you have beard
my learned and illustrious advocate. I confide in
what he has said to you in such eloquent terms—
he has proved to you that I am not guilty.
Gentlemen of the court, and gentlemen of the jury
—I can say so solemnly, because it is the truth—
lam innocent 1 There is a God in heaven ; he
will sooner or later make known the guilty patties,
and proclaim my innocence !" Villet, who for
the last two "or three days had lost much of the
marvellous self-possession and acuteness which he
had at first manifested, displayed great agitation
as he spoke, and sat down with tears in his eyes.
The other prisoners severally declared that they
had nothing to say. The President then com-
menced his summing up, and had not concluded
when the court rose. At the sitting of the court
on Monday morning, the four principal prisoners,
on being place I at the bar, manifested much dis-
couragement. The genda, mes watched over them
with incessant attention, to prevent them from
committing any desperate act. The President then
resumed his summing up, and concluded it at
half-past twelve, by submitting not less than 800
questions to the jury. The jury afterwards retired,
and remained in deliberation until three o'clock the
next morning, when, as we learn by telegraph, they
acquitted Jean Villet and Fournier, and convicted
the other twelve. The court condemned Lemaire,
Hugot, Bourse, and the elder Villet to death ;
Prosper Villet to hard labour for life ; Villet's wife
to ten, his daughter to eight, Rabache to seven,
and lingoes wife, Pillot, Prevost, and Caron, each
to five years of the same punishment. The interest
excited by the trial in the town continued unabated
to the end, and to a late hour at night a large
crowd remained collected in the vicinity of the
Palais de Justice.

FRENCH OPINIONS ON THE FALL OP

DELHI.

Several of the journals comment with asperity •
on the events that occurred on the capture of
Delhi. The Constutionnel says :
"All Frenchmen have read with surprise and indig-
nation that passage from a letter of an officer of the
victorious army of Delhi (and not in an official report,
as was at first stated, owing to a mistake of the
translator), in which it is coolly narrated how all the
inhabitants of the town that were met by the English
soldiery were put to death. The officer says :—' Forty
or fifty persons had got together and concealed them-
selves in some houses ; they were not mutineers, but
residents, who, relying upon our habitual clemency,
hopod for pardon. lam glad to say they were disap•
pointed.' Such an act and such a sentiment require
no comment. . . . Oar neighbours have latterly
complained that they are not liked in Europa. We feel
bound to tell them frankly that acts such as these are
not of a nature to conciliate sympathy for them in
France. We cannot rejoice at their successes in India,
unless they observe the laws of humanity, and maintain
the honour of European civilisation."
The Univers exclaims :

"Disappointed ! What a delicate expression to inti•
mate the tact that the throats of these individuals were
cut for no other reason but because they resided in
Delhi ! The English journals, while gloating over de-
tails like these with delight, continue to protest against
the cruelty of their enemies !"

The Gazette de France, as might be expected, is
more violent than any of the other journals :

" We see in these atrocities, against which no voice
has been raised in the London press, a proof that Eng-
land has renounced all hope of bringing back to sub-
mission to her sceptre this vast empire which hiss thrown
off its allegiance. The war is not one of repression or
reconquest, it is a war of extermination. England
openly adopts the doctrines of terrorism, and puts theta
in practise in Hindostan England Is the
only nation of the present day capable of stretching the
rights of warfare to the extent of slaughtering, without
mercy, the entire population of a city taken by assault.
The spectacle which she has given to the world places
her out of the pale of civilisation anu humanity. It is
impossible to doubt that the sentiment of universal
reprobation which she has excited mutt have impor-
tant consequences for her. She may conquer the
Sepoys, but she cannot conquer the publsc opinion
of Europe—she cannot conquer God. No, we will never
believe that she can restore her rule over the Indian
peoples by these horrible means. Conquests, unaccom-
paeied by moderation, clemency, and that solicitude for
the wall-being of the subjugated people which springs
from a sense of right, are never durable. A ttila, and
other man-slayers of his case, pai,sed over the earth like
a pestilence; they founded nothing, never conquered any-

_
thlng in reality. And eo will it be with the English in
India ; the blood they have shed will cry out against
thcin and engendernewmartyn.." _ _

It is a relief to the foregoing to quote the follow-
ing remarks from the Presse
"The English victory at Delhi, at which we rejoice
with all our hearts, was accompanied by some acts of
excessive severity. These acts arc to be regretted ; but
let us beware of exaggeration ; and, above all, let us
avoid that ridicule which must ever attach to a displAy
of indignation in cold blood. We love clemency, we ad-
mire generosity, and we are not of those who think that
to strengthen the foundations of any power whatever it
can be a good thing to bathe them in blood. This, in
our view, is but an elementary teaching of morality, or
of what is the same thing, policy enlightened by
experience. But, although these doctrines cannot be
too often called to mind in the face of parties who
forget and Governments which violate them, can
it in conscience be said that they ire rigorously applic-
able in India after the frightful tragedy which has been
playing there for the lae6 four months ? Is it possible,
is it just, to institute a comparison, as certain journals
have done, between the Sepoys and the English sol-
diers—between Nana Sahib and General Havelock?
The Sepoys surprised and cut the throats of defence-
less English—men, women, children—without allowing
them time to escape to the mountain and the
jungle, there to trust to the tenderer mercies of
tigers and hyenas. The English showed no mercy to
scoundrels who had ripped up, cut in pieces, burnt, and
violated their wives and children. There is, it appears
to us, a very considerable difference between the two
cases ; and therefore the Spectateur very sensibly re-
marks when we think of the savage acts committed by
the Hindoos, and the horrible situation in which the
Euglish troops were placed during upwards of four
menthe, one can neither wonder at their exasperation
nor judge their conduct harshly.' "

THE LATE SIR T. ST. GEORGE. —Sir Theophilus John
St. George, Bart., whose death at Port Natal, in Au
gust last, is just reported, was the second but eldest sur
viving son of the late Sir Richard Bligh St. George, of
Woodegift, co. Kilkenny, by his second wife, Bridget,
West daughter of Theophilus Blakeney, Esq., of Abbert,
co. Galway. He was born in 1810,and succeed ed to the title
at his father's decease, in January, 1852. Ile was twice
married ; Ist, in 1830, to Caroline Georgiana, 2d daugh-
ter of Mr. Joseph de Lautour, of Hottom House, Herts;
and secondly (having been left a widower in 1842), in
1847, Maria, eldest daughter of Mr. John Power, of
Csurchtown, county Waterford, who survives him, and
by whom he has left a daughter. By his previous
marriage he had a daughter and two sons, the
elder of whom, Richard dt. Latour, born in 1837, has
succeeded as fourth baronet. Sir Theophilus, who bad
boeu a magistrate at Port Natal, since December, 1852,
traced his pedigree up to Captain Richard St. George,
who went over to Ireland in the early part of the 1 7the
century with the royal army, and became governor of the
town and Castle of Athlone, and whose elder brother
wa
raised to the peerage of Ireland as Lord S. t. Georgein
1715—a title which, having been again revived in 1763,
grandson in 1775,
JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES—ROYAL
WINDING-UP OF
bweictahTtlet extinct at
matalethisesodee.ath of his
expected will be the last, was brought in
which it is
BANK OF AUSTRALIA..—Yesterday an additional claim,
before Master in Chancery Richards, under the estate
of the Royal Ban's of Australia, in respect of one of
its 1,0001. bonds. The claim is opposed by Mr.
Wrvghte, the official manager, on behalf of the share.
holders.
CRYSTAL PALACE.—Ono Shilling Day, Tuesday, Nov.
17.—Admissions on payment, 718; do, by season tickets.
212 ; total visitors, 930.