The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-22 00:00:00

FUNERAL OF THE DUCHESS OF KENT.

In consequence of the Funeral of her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Kent, the above establishment will be CLOSED
on MONDAY next, the 25th inst.

TE OXFORD,
No. 6, OXFORD-STREET, near Tottenham-court-road.
THE GRAND INAUGURATION CONCERT
takes place on TUESDAY NEXT, March 26.
In addition to the Powerful Company permanently engaged,
all the available talent of the day will appear, full particulars
of which will be duly announced.
Tickets (Hall 55., Balcony and Stalls 7s. 6d.) may be obtained
of the principal Music-sellers, and at the Oxford and Canter-
bury Halls.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TlllB DAY.—Morning, 9h. 48m.—Afternoen, 10h. 36m.
To-moußow.-Morning, 11h. 17m.—Afternoon, 11h. 54m.

THB WEATHER.—SUN Orncm, MARCH 22, 1861.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADS.
45—highest since noon yesterday.
32-lowesi this morning and during the night.
49—this day at noon.

BARomETER-29.78 ; rising rapidly.
WlND—North-Westerly—fresh; with fine cool weather.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1881.

The Bankruptcy Bill is mellowing, and ripening
very satisfactorily into an enactment. Having at
length passed not only through its first and second
reading, but also clause by clause through the
Comet:lens in Committee it was again carefully re-
vised last evening—several objectionable provisions
being either bodily eliminated from the bill or as
cautiously and judiciously, as was in any way prac-
ticable at the moment, modified. Upon one clause,
clause 207, the implacable clause, through the
operation of which anyone, while mouldering in his
grave, might have been even thus posthumously ren-
dered bankrupt—upon that cruel provision which
had thence already acquired the invidious title of
the Dead Man's Clause—Sir RICHARD BETHELL
suffered his one defeat upon a division yesterday,
when the House was still carefully revising his
measure in committee. That now happily obli-
terated clause being last night struck bodily out
of the bill by the decision of a clear majority of
sixteen in a House (with Speaker and Tellers) of
258—but 119 trooping into the Ministerial lobby
at Sir RICHARD BETHELL'S instance, and 135 1
walking at the instance of Sir HUGH CAIRNS into
the lobby of the Opposition. And that result—when
it was announced that that most harsh and incon-
siderate clause (207) was thus, by a clear majority
of sixteen in a house of more than 250 members,
peremptorily rejected—was hailed, not unnaturally,
with a renewal of those ringing cheers that have
latterly been so frequently audible under similar
circumstances from the benches of the Opposition.
Not, however, that it should for one instant be
supposed by anyone who may not have scrupulously
watched the progress of this new Bankruptcy Bill
through those stages which it has already traversed
in the House of Commons, and traversed alto-
gether so very successfully—not, we say, that it
must be for one single instant imagined (from the
mere accident of that adverse discussion yesterday,
that resolute discussion striking out the " dead
man's clause," whole and entire, amidst the cheers
of the Opposition) that Sir RICHARD BETHELL'S
Bill has received from the Opposition altogether,
or from any one section of the Opposition, other
than the very reception to which it was
alone in itself eminently well entitled—a re-
ception, namely, the most frank, candid, and
magnanimous. Determined though Sir HUGH
CAIRNS and Sir GEORGE BOWYER have
shown themselves now very recently to be
in their antagonism to certain extraneous
clauses, as we may call them, clauses, wholly and
absolutely necessary to be made in this otherwise
masterly revision of the laws relating to Bank-
ruptcy and Insolvency—resolute though Sir HUGH
CAIRNS and Sir GEORGE BOWYER have both shown
themselves to be in their antagonism to these excre-
scences upon the measure as framed by her MAJESTY'S
Attorney-General, the great mass of the Opposition,
the whole bulk of the Commons generally, including
amongst them the hon. baronet the member for
Dundalk, and the right hon. gentleman the
ex-Solicitor-General, have shown Themselves to
be, as Sir RICHARD BETHELL in truth has only
in the main given them good reason to be, most
generously disposed to forward this new Bank-
ruptcy Bill on its way to its final promulgation as
part and parcel of the law of the land, as a fully
developed and perfected enactment. The rapidity
with which the Bill has already won its way so far,
through the ordeals required to be traversed by
°Y and every outline of an enactment, is proof
positive indeed of the general merit of the Bil
itselt Pia its' entirety, and of the impartial and
generous spirit with which it has been
welcomed
by all parties and sections of
parties in the House of Commons. How-
ever unwilling the Attorney-General may have
been to have witnessed the abrupt and forcible
erasure of clause 207 from the draft of his abbre-
viated but still comprehensive measure of reform
in the laws of bankruptcy and insolvency, the right
lion. and learned gentleman can hardly recognise
in the fact of Sir HUGH CAIRNS' amendment that
the clause be got rid of, in the fact that that amend-
m of sixteen
ent was carried by a majority against
the wishes of the Government, or even in that most
irritating fact of all, the cheers that greeted the
ancnonneement of the last triumph won in this way
by, her mAJEsTy's Opposition—Sir RICHARD

I BETHELL, we say, can hardly in any-
thing of all this recognise aught that
can impress him with the most remote idea
that this Bankruptcy Bill of 1861 has, on the
whole met with a reception other than one charac-
terised by frankness, candour, and magnanimity,
Exceptions were taken—it is gratifying to remem-
ber most successfully—to the extravagant notion
of legalizing a sort of posthumous bankruptcy—so
successfully that the dead man's clause (207), as we
have seen, has been summarily struck out of the
bill altogether. Exceptions have been taken with
partial success, also, to other taws in a bill, that
lin a comprehensive view has given only
very general satisfaction—flaws, for example,
like that very recognisable one, threatening evi !IT
British traveller during his absence from these
islands with the unlooked for misery of finding
himself rapidly reduced to a state of bankruptcy
during his absence. Modifications have, in that
last instance particularly, been wisely insist ed
upon as requisite by the critics of the 8i.1.1
as it has gone on its way pretty smoothly
altogether through the House of Commons ; and
they have in several instances been quite as wisely
allowed by the author of the Bill himself to the
further improvement (in spite of himself) of his
bolt and sweeping scheme of innovation. So
satisfactorily in truth has the good work gone on
that Sir RICHARD BETHELL, in compensation for
the cheers which greeted the adverse majority of
sixteen, enjoyed the satisfaction yesterday of inti-
mating at the'close of the discussion upon his Bank-
kruptcy Bill, that immediately upon his bringing
up the report to-morrow (that is this evening)
and after moving a supplementary clause fixing an
ad valorem duty upon deeds—the Bill, as now revised
and modified and altered in Committee,will be passed
on into the hands of the QUEEN'S compositors to be
at once reprinted in readiness for the Third Reading !
That Third Reading to come on directly upon the
reassembling of the House after the close of the
Easter vacation. This, recollect, before the month
of March has yet closed, before the Easter recess
has yet commenced ! It speaks well for the spirit
in which the House of Commons has welcomed
Sir RICHARD BETHELL'S new Bankruptcy Bill,
and it speaks well, also, for the skill with which
the First Law Officer of the Crown had put his
master-hand to the re-moulding and the re-
adjustment of the whole system of English law
relating to Bankruptcy and Insolvency.

It has pleased Earl GREY to express, in his place
in the House of Lords, the same opinion as we have
already given on our wisest policy in regard to the
lonian Isles. We totally disbelieve that they have
the shadow of a grievance to complain in our ad-
ministration of the protectorate confided to us in
1815. The Protectorate itself is the only grievance,
if they choose so to consider it. It is, however,
plain enough that there is a party there, whose
extent and influence are as yet doubtful points,
who desire to get rid of us and our protection, and
to unite the islands to the adjoining kingdom on the
mainland, to which they are bound by the ties of
race and language. We have not the least doubt
that they are politically deeply indebted to us. We
took them under our wing when Greece itself was in
Mahommedan hands; and had abyContinental Power
been entrusted with the charge, they would have:had
a rule which, while giving " patriots," as they call
themselves, plenty to complain about, would have
taken care that, if they opened their lips in com-
plaint, they should have done it the second time
with the walls of a dungeon for auditors, and per-
haps hardly able to stand upright from the effects
of the bastinado and weight of irons.
How far the desire for union with Greece extends

among the populace, is not easy to guess from the

language of acknowledged demagogues. Some
accounts tells us that these patriots were unwilling
to bring about a dissolution or prorogation of their
parliament, for fear of losing their pay; and that
when the Lord High Commissioner did send them
about their business, they were jeered by the
people. They must be singular Greeks if they
were indifferent to pecuniary considerations;
but the islanders also must be very unlike
the race they belong to, if they do
not view the political question chiefly
through the pecuniary one. There are times of ex-
citement in almost every community when the
national feeling overpowers every other, and when
even the bourgeoisie are carried away by it. If
there is anything like this among the Islanders at
present, then, indeed, we can hardly doubt what
would be the course most consistent, most dignified,
most conducive to the spread of English influence
throughout Europe.

England has applauded as one man the language
of her Foreign Secretary, " That the people were the
only judges of whether their grievances were such as
to justify a change of dynasty." We cannot de-
fend Lord JOAN by saying, with the Duke of
NEWCASTLE, that this has no relevance to the de-
sire of the Islanders to get rid of our protectorate ;
we must agree even with the Marquis of NORMAN BY
for once, that this language is altogether relevant to
their case; indeed, it is a case a fortiori, for we are
purely foreigners at Corfu, and it must be admitted
that, unless for some very weighty reasons, any
people are justified in regarding the rule of
foreigners as itself a grievance—such a grievance
that it is likely to magnify the most unintentional
errors into grave delinquencies, and to cause even
good to be evil spoken of. Lord JOHN'S having
used the language referred to before all Europe,
and it having been notoriously popular in England,
strengthens the case for taking the high position
of declaring that if they wish us away we certainly
deem it no advantage to ourselves to keep there;
but even had these words never been written the
same course would have equally been the wisest
and the most dignified for England.
We cannot conceive a step we could now take
more popular than that of ascertaining thoroughly
and honestly the sense of the population of the
Seven Islands, and of acting upon it. We would
not even address to them a word in favour of our
protectorate. We would take care to make it dis •
tinctly known, with the4most unequivocal
pledge
of the national faith, that should the majo-
rity of the Islanders prefer retaining our
protectorate, the minority, their leaders in-
chided, should not experience any disad-
vantage, not even mere coldness from our Govern-
ment in consequence of their votes. We would offer,
not a sham, a Savoy ballot, but an effective and
independent one, with every assurance that we were
perfectly willing to part company with them if they
did not think our company worth having. We
must believe that an act of this kind would render
England the most popular power in Europe. The
sympathies which France is now attracting from
the reviving nationalities would be at once trans-
ferred to us. France would be regarded as the
selfish appropriator of all she could grasp; Eng-
land as the consistent giver up of those who had
the claim of nationality only against her rule. Our
absolute power over the Islands, and the perfect
elaarsietywith which we could do what we pleased,
would
obruttheenahcat.nce the generosity and the popu-
i

It is quite true that Lord JOHN'S despatch had
nothing to do with the present political rebellion

in th e Corfu Assembly.. We all remember how the
"pat riots," after becoming unmanageable under a
lenie att High Commissioner, were visited by the
great English critic on HOMER, who effected,
however, but little, and who was followed
by the present "King STORK." The uneasi-
ness is not one of last year, or the
year before it only. But this, if it shows that
Lord JoHN's despatch did not create the mischief,
shows also that it is one which ought no longer to
be trifled with or palliated. The dissatisfaction
was one which found appropriate fuel in the de-
spatch, or at least an irresistible argumentwn ad
kominem, as against the noble lord, and an argu-
mentum ad populum against the whole English
people, who exulted in the despatch. We cannot,
however, imagine that the people need any such
argument. Lords may not like undoing the work
of 1815, but the people of this country are almost
as willing as those of France to tear the treaties of
that year to pieces. Our " interests in the Adria-
tic," it will be generally thought, are to get rid of
a protectorate which is only a cost and a
burden to us, and to set Austria, Russia, and
Prussia, the example of giving nationalities
their rights. How much should we do for
Hungary and for Poland, by a cheerful
concession to the great European principle of the
day; a principle which even Lord PALMERSTON
and Lord JOHN RUSSELL cannot deny commands
the enthusiastic support of the country they
govern.

As to the military view of the matter, we cannot
set that against the right of the people to choose
their own rulers. It is, however, grossly exagge-
rated. The harbour of Corfu, which is a fine one,
would be as free to us as ever, though we
should not be its masters. But with Malta
so near, we have little need of another
naval station at Corfu. It might perhaps
be fair to secure, by tteaty, that it should never be
placed, for any consideration, in the hands of any
of the greater powers—France, Austria, or Russia;
and if it were not, we should practically lose
very little of our strength in the Mediterranean.
There are, indeed, several easy arrangements
which we need not now specify, by which we
might, at the same time, take the dignified posi-
tion of not forcing ourselves on those to whom
British rule was unwelcome, however advan-
tageous, and yet not suffer in a naval point of
view. We must, however, keep in mind also that
even some little loss, in that respect, would be
more than compensated by the position England
would gain with every people in Europe.

It is not a little singular that the Turks, whom
the patriots at Corfu implore all Europe to " im-
prove off" the face of the country they occupy
should be amongst the most advanced free-traders
of Europe. The Northern States of America have
had the benefit of a visit from Mr. COBDEN, but
such inapt scholars have they proved, that no
sooner could they filch an opportunity than they
changed a tariff already far too high, for the inte-
rests of consumers, into a protective one. They
hazarded alienation of England, and defiance of the
seceding States, by hostility to Free-trade and a
ruinously protective tariff. France, too, has had
the advantage of fifteen months' scholarship under
the popular Free-trade teacher; a teacher, too,
who was quite in love with his pupil, as well as
with his own doctrines ; yet she has got no further
than a first step towards Free-trade—a very
faltering one, and, as the debates in the Chamber
show, she is almost frightened at the step she has
made.

Not so, however, the good Mussulmans who
"blight the fairest portion of Europe." Their
tariff was liberal enough, as a tariff, before. Their
heaviest duties were not on foreign but on
home productions. They levied twelve per cent.
on exports, and only five per cent. on imports.
This is temporarily changed to a uniform charge
of eight per cent. on both imports and exports ;
the working of which should be that exports
from Turkey will be, more frequently than they
now are, paid for by imports, and not by silver
and gold. But the duty on exports is to be
gradually reduced—one per cent. annually—till it
is to remain at one per cent. on all exports from
the country. Imports will continue to pay the
eight per cent. duty. There is also to be a con-
siderable reduction on goods in transit through
Turkey. A Government monopoly will, it
appears, remain in Salt and Tobacco, two
articles commonly selected for that purpose.
The treaty is to last for twenty-eight years, and it
is to bind all parts of the SULTAN'S dominions, even
those over which his rule is little more than nomi-
nal. Our merchants may find, perhaps, in the
Mediterranean and the Levant some compensation '
for the foolish and selfish protection tariff, signing
which was the last important act of poor Mr.
BUCHANAN'S not verytenviable reign.