The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-19 00:00:00

POST OFFICE LONDON DIRECTORY

FOR 1862.

KELLY AND CO., OLD BOSWELL-COURT.

There are some advantages so common as to be
hardly estimated at their real value. Year by
year Lond:iners accept the publication of the Post
Office Directory as a mere matter of course, without
rightly estimating the amount of care and labour
expended on its compilation, or realising the help-
less perplexity to which many of us would be
reduced were we compelled to thread the mazes
of this mighty metropolis without the assistance of
this potent guide. It is like the fairy Order who
disposed of all the heroine's difficulties in the old
nursery tale, for it reduces the thronging crowds
into rank and flle, subdividing them in so many
ways, arranging them in such clear and simple
divisions, that any one who can read is safe to:find
his way to any specified place or person in the
modern Babylon, althou4h the address or locality
might previously be totally unknown to him. The
current edition of this valuable work is prepared
with the usual care and precision ; the accuracy of
all the entries having been tested by special inquiry.
The Postal and Conveyance Directories have been al.
tered and improved, and the proprietors express their
well-founded conviction that the number for 1862
will be found equal to the best of its predecessors.
If is satisfactory to know that the work will be
continued in the same manner, being compiled by
the same editors, circulated in the same manner,
and printed from the type obtained expressly for
it, and always kept standing. A comprehensive
map of London is, as usual, prefixed.

THE DEPOSIT BANK.—The fact that Mr. Peter
Morrison, the managing director of the Depcsit Bank, has
been allowed to elude the inquiries after him has excited
more indignation than surprise.• When the break-up of
this concern was first announced it was suggested that the
most vigilant watch should be kept on Mr. Morrison's
movements, and an assurance was given that such would
be the case. He was then in London, and had the boldness
to write to the various journals expressing favourable anti-
cipations of the prospects of the creditors. His escape,
therefore, must, to say the least, have been the result of
culpable negligence—a negligence which appears peculiar
to cases of this description, where the offender has for
long series of years had uncontrolled command of the fund:
of other people. It seems vain to hope, after pia
rience, that much trouble will le taken in the matter, expe-
rience,
it would be a satisfaction if anything could be ascertained
as
generally
o e the
is any tnu
excuses
o.ffoen of
redforch remissness,and whether
th
institutingsuc ha pursuit as is
e
successful in the case of minor delinquents.
rfoud t
ent

" THAT'S THE CHEESE."—The Indian derivation
of this saying is well known as applying to the right
description of thing. But an enterprising and indefatigable
provision dealer, Mr. Osborne, on Ludgate-hill, has given
a graphic illustration of what can be done with the product
of the dairy—a perfect model farm, the march of a body of
rifles, the bustle of a railway, and the silent commerce of
the river, all being set forth in full relief in his shop
windows. Indeed, it. is as ingenious a display as a clover
mind could devise, and with such a one the love of art must
be be innate, while at the same time Mr. Osborne would
im-
press the concourse of people who stay to gaze and admire
that there is nothing like—elleese•—"4'

MR. COBDEN ON THE AMERICAN

CRP IS.

(Rom the _Brighton Guardian.)

The following letter has been received by our
townsman, Mr. Henry Catt, in reply to one invit-
ing Mr. Cobden to attend a forthcoming meeting
at B►ighton for the purpose of advocating arbitra-
tion in the existing dispute with America :
Midhurst, Dec. 16,1861.

My Dear Sir,—l regret that I cannot accept your
invitation to be present at the meeting to be held
next Monday condemnatory of a war with Ame-
rica. When asked to address public meetings, my
plight, just now, is that of a man who, having
sprained his allele, is invited to enter the lists for
a foot race. Though the state of my health in
other respects is good enough, I am prevented by
a local affection, for the present, from public
speaking.

But I am glE.d to hear that the working men of
Brighton are promoting a meeting on the American
question. The object of all rational men and true
patriots at this moment should be to enforce upon
the Government that principle of mediation or
arbitration which was proposed by the British
Plenipotentiary and sanctioned by the Congress
of the Great Powers at Paris in 1856. The pro-
tocols of the Conferences then held, which were
laid before Parliament at the time, but to which
few persons have now access, disclose to us the
excellent motives alleged by Lord Clarendon for
proposing this " happy innovation," which he
designed as "a barrier against conflicts which
frequently only break forth because it is not
always possible to enter into explanation and
to come to an understanding."
The question thus enforced in the name of the
British Government was solemnly debated, every
Plenipotentiary taking a part, and was adjourned
for two days to enable Count Orloff to obtain the
" definitive adherence" of the Russian Government,
when the following declaration was unanimously
agreed to :

" The Plenipotentiaries do not hesitate to express,
in the name of their Governments, the wish that
States, between which any serious misunderstand-
ing may arise, should, before appealing to arms,
have recourse, as far as circumstances might allow,
to the good offices of a friendly Power."
Now, is it pcssible that any case will aver arise to
which this principle of mediation can be more appli-
cable than the present? In perfect ignorance of what
the answer of the American Government may be, I
will assume the worst,—that they refuse to surrender
the captured envoys, and offer to justify their course
by appeals to international law. What can be
more within the scope of the Paris resolution than
that where two interested parties differ on a subtle
point of international law it should be referred to
the decision of a disinterested third Power ?

Looking at it even with a view to a practical re-
dress of our present grievance, what other ccurse
offers so good a hope of success ? The object
desired is to place at liberty gentlemen who were
taken from a British vessel. I happen to know
Messrs. Slidell and Mason personally, and to the
latter I am indebted for many courtesies at Wash-
ington ; and, although, as they must know, I can
have no sympathy for their cause, few persons
would more rejoice than myself to see them released
from an irksome confinement. But assuming that
to effect this object we declare war against the
Federal States, and that these gentlemen are in
consequence transferred from Boston harbour to the
interior, does any one acquainted with America
believe that it would be possible for England to
release them ? We could destroy each other's com-
merce and spend countless treasure, we might pour
out blood like water, and ruin for a generation two
great civilisations, but the object aimed at could not
be accomplished.
On the contrary, if we submit the question to the
adjudication of a third Power, the first step will be to
place the two envoys at the disposal of the recognised
tribunal. Should it be decided that they were ille-
gally captured, they will be released; if their seizure
be pronounced justifiable by international law, they
will be liable to detention as prisoners of war only,
and not as rebels, for the Government of Washing-
ton can have no right of appeal to the law of nations
in justification of their act except by acknowledg-
ing the belligerent rights of the South.
But it has been Reid that the Washington Go.
vernment wish to insult us, with a view to provoke
a war. There may be traitors or madmen in the
North who would like to see their Government in-
volved in the embarrassment of a war with Eng-
land ; but that a Government and people, who re-
quire at this moment half a million of men in arms
to meet a civil war and guard their capital, should
look with anything but dismay at the prospect of a
war with the most powerful maritime State in the
world is too monstrous a supposition to be seriously
believed by those who pretend to entertain it.

At all events, the true test of the disposition of
the American people will be the expressed willing-
ness on our part to resort, if necessary, to the
mediation of a third party. Should such a concilia-
tory step meet with no better response than a de-
sire to insult and wrong us, we should be united as
one man to repel the outrage; and, unless the
solemn declaration of Paris is to be impotent for all
practical good, and a mere dead letter, all the
Powers of Europe would in such a case be ranged
on our side, and ready to brand with outlawry a
nation guilty of so barbarous and wanton an aggres-
sion.

Entertaining these views, I recommend the work-
ing men of Brighton, and ail who take part in
similar demonstrations, to raise their voices in
favour of arbitration. The cry for peace alone is
hardly enough at the present moment. What we
require is peace on the principles of impartial jus-
tice ; and the truest way of insuring this in case of
dispute, whether in the affairs of nations or of
individuals, is by calling in the services of a disin-
terested arbitrator.—l remain, very truly yours,
Henry Catt, Esq. 11. COZDEN.