The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-15 00:00:00

TTTE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY gVENING, APRIL 15, /861.

slanghter, and the laws which he has resolved to
eLforce.

The prec7amafien itself ay pears to show OT e
thing at least—that even the Government of the
CZAR has given up reliance on brute force alone.
The case is stated and argued with the citizens in
as conciliatory language as could be looked for; and
unless we can suppose it a mere bait to ensnare the
inhabitants, which is not our impression, it reads
rather like an apology than otherwise, although it
throws the blame in severe language on the mis-
guided leaders of the multitude. The Prince
speaks of "yesterday as a day of mourning for both
of us," and proceeds to give the details. On the
previous day there had been demonstrations by
great numbers " who would not listen to his words."
On the Bth, when they assembled again, the crowd
had three police orders,"at intervals of ten minutes
each, to disperse, but would not do so till charged
by the soldiers. After the crowd had been dis-
persed in one street, however, it returned, attacked
the soldiers with stones and bricks, and at the same
time an attempt was made to construct barricades,
so that "after a renewed shower of stones the
military commandant was obliged to order his
men to fire." The Prince says that only ten per-
sons have been killed, besides two soldiers.
Seventy persons have been arrested. These,
however, he premises shall be tried by
the laws which he publishes, and not
by a Court Martial. If, however, as
is :probable, the judges are either Russians, or,
what would be worse, Russianised Poles, the
accused may be as severely dealt with as they
would be by a court of soldiers. The Prince appeals
to them " in the name of GOD and of the respect
due: to the SOVEREIGN, to public order, to the
welfare and honour of the country to consider ;" if
the new law now promulgated does not calm the
madness of those who are leading the multitude to
destruction, he will be obliged to proclaim the state
of siege, for which these madmen will alone be
responsible.

The law which follows is in the name of the
King of Poland, as well as that of the autocrat of
all the Russia; and it sets forth in the preamble,
that the late disturbances "impede the free develop-
ment of the constitution granted by his Majesty."
No unauthorised assemblies may therefore congre-
gate in the public squares and streets—the civil
authorities are to disperse them—the military, if
necessary, to support them—all persons not dis-
persing or resisting the authorities are to be liable
various terms of imprisonment—and inciting to
such assemblies as are prohibited is to be
severely punished—regulations, which differ little
from those in force here, in cases in which magi-
strates pronounce an assembly riotous. The chief
difference is that the assemblage itself, however
quiet, is treated like a riot.

It is to be observed that the accounts of violence
on the part of the people are from the pen of Prince
GORTSCHAKOFF. Letters from Warsaw do not
confirm his representations in this respect ; the
people had, on the day before, thesejletters tell us,
assembled in large numbers, but without violence ;
had only demanded a promise on honour, that
their wishes should be transmitted to the EMPEROR,
and when this was given had quietly dispersed.
They stated, however, that they should renew their
demand on the following day. They did so; then
the story runs, that while there assembled a post-
boy crossing the square with his carriage, played
on his horn the national air of DOMBROWSKI,
" Poland has not yet perished"—the multitude
became excited, and, though unarmed, attempted
to force their way into the Court-yard of the Palace.
Then the cavalry charged and the infantry fired.
Still large numbers collected round, and prayed to
a statue of the Virgin, and would not desperse.
At night all retired. The question from which
side the provocation rose is thefefore still to be
settled. We strongly suspect that a General
CHRULEFF was the mover in the savage part of the
business. Prince GORTSCHAKOFF himself, so far
as he has acted on his own advice, appeared to
lean strongly to conciliation. We can only hope
the Poles will follow the example of the Hun-
garians will restrain themselves from the
folly of entering unarmed into a conflict of phy-
sical force with the master of the army, but will
firmly continue to assert their rights. In this
case England has aright, by the Treaty of Vienna
and the agreements and promises in connection
with it, to plead the cause of the Poles, and, despite
the grumbling of Prussia, we hope our Ministers
will do it, We can render efficient moral
support to the Poles. Louis NAPOLEON
will certainly be willing to join us, and
in the present position of the Russian Empire
and of Europe, the advice would not be without its
weight. Besides, though we do not forget some
harsh words of his to Poland, we are willing to
cherish the hope that the present CZAR is desirous
to govern with the good will of his subjects—he
does not adopt his father's motto, " Let them hate,
provided they fear."

Mr. THACKERAY'S Cornhill Magazine, while it
has proved very brilliant as a medium for the dif-
fusion of light literature, has already rather blun-
dered occasionally as a social censor and a political
instructor. It was only very recently, indeed,
that the unfair comments, or they ought, perhaps
more correctly, to be called diatribes, indulged in
anent certain of the Eton authorities and much of
the Eton discipline, by a clever writer enough,
signing himself, for the nonce, " Paterfamilias,"
called forth from a competent witness upon
the matter then and there under dispute,
what can only be accurately designated as an
overwhelming disclosure. It has now de-
volved upon General Sir JOSHUA JEBB, the dis-
tinguished Inspector-General of our Convict
Establishments, to point out (not we are satisfied
without very natural feelings of scorn and indig-
nation) one of the shabbiest little misstatements or
perversions of the truth that could well have been
adventured upon even by the least scrupulous critic
while viewing the organisation and the average
results of the organisation of that large and singu-
larly responsible department of the public service
over which Sir JOSHUA JEBB has himself indivi-
dually, during so many years past, presided.
The misstatement referred to emirs inciden-
tally in the course of an article in an otherwise ad-
mirable and interesting—certainly, upon the whole,
a most impressive—article in the April number of
the Cornhill, a paper entitled " The Irish Convict
System whyit has succeeded." Sir JOSHUA, in
his very frank and manly exposure of the erroneous
calculation which the writer of that argument has
therein attempted to fist upon the general public
as an estimate of undeniable accuracy, gives,
before pointing out its fallacy, the exact words
of the parliamentary return, from which the Corn-
hill contributor has drawn his truly extraordinary
deductions. Deductions, by the way, either based
upon the grossest ignorance, the most flagrant in-
sincerity, or—supposing the mistatement to be the
result neither of ignorance nor of duplicity—the
most unjustifiable carelessness. The return alluded
to by the writer in the Cornhill, and now quoted
by Sir Jos. JEBB in his exceedingly temperate and
perfectly conclusive letter to the chief of our morning
contemporaries, was no other than the "Return to

an address of the House of Lord, dated the 11th of
April, 1859, for a return of the number of Con-
N:CtS to wiLoni. tickets of :2:-.ve hc.ve bean ranted
during the years 1857 and 1858; syecifying the
number given each year ; also the number who dur-
ing that period have been remanded to prison in
consequence of the commission of any subsequent
offence." According to which return it appeared
in due official form, under the timbre of the Home
Office, that during the two years 1857 and 1858 the
total number of convicts released on orders of leave
amounted to-1,084. The return adding thereupon
that within the same period, during those same
two years, 1857 and 1858, the number of license-
holders recommitted to prison for fresh offences
amounted to-966 ! Showing, argues the writer in
the Cornhill—ingeniously, it may be, but cer-
tainly not ingenuously—" that nine-tenths relapsed
into crime." Upon this amazing deduction from
the figures just particularised, what is the comment
of the Inspector-General of the Convict Establish-
ments ? Why, it is simple enough as a com-
ment. But it is also, as a comment, completely
overwhelming. "Before the writer committed
himself to drawing any conclusion from these
figures," says Sir JOSHUA JEBB, " he should have
inquired whether the 1,084 convicts referred to
were the whole number out on license at the end of
1858, because the 966 license-holders reported for
misconduct or re-committed to prison for different
offences were taken out of the whole number at larg e
and not out of the comparatively few who were
released in the two years included in the return.
Under these circumstances, I think I am entitled
to state that the effect of this return to the House
of Lords has been most grossly, and, I fer, wil-
fully misrepresented. Now, what axe the real
facts ? From October, 18,53, when the first licenses
were issued, to the 31st of December, 1858, there
were released on license no less than 8,449 male
and female, convicts, and it is out of this number
that 966 were recommitted in the two years in
question." So that while the Cornhill writer is
arguing as though the 966 recommitted were to be
taken out of the 1,084 released on orders of license
—those 966 are, on the contrary, to be taken from
the whole number of convicts thus returned upon
tickets of leave ororders of license between 1853 and
1858, an aggregate number amounting not to 1,084
merely, but really and truly to as many as 8,449 !
Sir JOSHUA JEBB explains, in fact, later on in
his letter, that out of the returned con-
victs of 1857 and 1858, out of the 1,084 sent
adrift again upon society—not 966, but (how many
do the Cornhill readers suppose ?) only 117 were
recommitted within these two years (1857-1858):for
fresh offences! With perfect reason, therefore, after
this extraordinary exposure of a very gross and
flagrant misrepresentation, may Sir JOSHUA remark
at the close of his communication—While " I
refrain from now entering into any controversy
or any defence of the system of discipline which
with so much care has been established in England
and carried out with such marked success, I do
earnestly protest against the means resorted to for
crying it down." Adding, "I do also protest against
the deep injustice that is done to the whole of the
officers who have for many years devoted their best
energies to carrying out the views of the Govern-
ment in regard to the proper mode of administering
the law in connection with the highest class of our
secondary punishment." The time has certainly
arrived now in regard to this agitation
of the question as to the merits or demerits
of the discipline of our convict establishments
generally, the period has certainly arrived
now, we say, in regard to the agitation of
this delicate and important problem, when the
public should begin to bear in mind before pro-
nouncing judgment upon the system—[for as yet
they have mostly heard of late but one side, namely,
the arguments of its antagonists and depreciatorsi—
they should bear in mind the good old honest axiom,
Adi alteram partem.

We must have patience with America. Pro-
gress towards anything decisive is very slow
yet; the President cannot act if he would, and
probably, now, would not if he could. The Senate
confirms his appointments, accepts his refusal to
produce correspondence with Major ANDERSON,
and declines to cote resolutions calling on him to
withdraw the Federal troops from the States
which have seceded, and to decline collecting the
revenue there. On the other hand, a resolution in
favour of enforcing the Federal laws in these
States is equally shelved. To do nothing is the
sum of the policy indicated by the course of both
Congress and the President up to the date of
the last advises.

The Senator from Ohio earnestly contends, how-
ever, that the people have no voice in the Govern-
meet which has been erected in the South, that
they are trampled down by a military despotism. A
General LIMON also has returned from Fort
Sumpter and reported favourably on the state of
the garrison, although he speaks of the Southern
preparations as so considerable and so skilfully
made, that the fort could be reinforced only with
hazard and loss. It is, however, rumoured that
the Government has introduced into Fort Pickens
several hundred troops by night, and has sent
orders to the West to confiscate all goods
which enter without payilg the F.laal duties.
The difficulty would be to find the force
requisite for confiscation; the populace of the Free
States on the Mississippi probably do not love the
Federal Government so well as to pay willingly
the protectionist duties of the new tariff, or even
those of the old one; and for ten per cent. would
probably send the few helpless officials of the Fede-
ral Government about their business, while they
cleared out a cargo of cheap English manufactures
at St. Louis in Illinois. " Why should they not
get all the goods in return which they could for the
corn they had sent to England ?"
" Old Virginy," though she has not joined the
Secession, is acting strongly in favour of slavery.
She has voted that " African slavery is a vital part
of the social system of the States in which it exists,"
but declined to add that it was also "part of the
political system of the Federal Government." There
is still, we suspe2t, every reason to fear that the
Free North will purchase the support of the border
States, by retaining a vigorous Fugitive Slave Law,
and thus still marring their whole republic by the
blot of slavery. If the North temporises and con-
ciliates the South, it can only be on the condition of
the North be coming, as before, slave hunting ground
for the South.

A brilliant contralto has recently been added to
of Miss Sullivan. Those who
at
' the number of our lady
havesingaea ,a idny thheeapr
de person
accomplished artiste m'uwst
ordinary accessions to—what luve
hreesrrhjvc.oguised in her
ample range of voice, and ine n
n finishedow,
sostyle,eff enco.
Wally the art-loving million to i musicalwh
have
enter-
tainments of the Metropolis. Those
:rot heard Miss Sullivan have a likelihoood oafvdeo'nogt
:JO upon many future opportunies. This evening,
far example, she is announced to sing the popular'
and well-known lyric " To Thee" in the first part,
and the yet more famous "II Segreto" in the second
part of a concert given by Mr. Petters (a blind
pilmist) at the Literary Institution, at Bayswater.
Tc-morrow evening (Tuesday), at the New Vestry
Hull, in the King's-road, Chelsea, Miss Sullivan is
announced, moreover, for a far more arduous under-
taking, a far greater test of her abilities andleapa_
bilities as a musician, namely, the taking of the
principal contralto in the grand oratorio of " The
.Nesgah," ,

L A.rt E
n
111 k, •

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

PARIS, APRIL 15.

The Moniteur of to-day publishes an account of
the indirect revenue for the first three months of
the present year, which shows a decrease of
5,931,000 f. as compared with the same period in
1860.

The Moniteur also announces that the pamphlet
entitled " A Letter on the History of France," by
Henry of Orleans (Duke d'Aumale), has been
seized.

COPENHAGEN, APRIL 14.

The commanders of the 22 Danish battalions
recently formed were appointed yesterday. Two
battalions will proceed to Schleswig to-morrow.

TURIN, APRIL 13.

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
the President read a lett& from Garibaldi, in
which the latter declared that in his reply to the
deputation from the workmen's associations of
Milan he had no intention of offending either the
King or the Parliament; also, that his devotion to
the King was too well known, and that conse-
quently his conscience would not allow him to
descend to justify himself against the charge of
offending his Majesty.
In the same letter he said, also, that his acts in
favour of the country were also too notorious to allow
it to be supposed that he wished to insult it. He
added that the manner in which the Southern army
had been treated filled his soul with disdain, and
concluded by proposing a project of law for a vast
nation al armament.

No sign either of approbation or disapprobation
marked the reading of this letter.
The official Gazette of Turin publishes a decree
ordering the formation of a volunteer corps, to
comprise three divisions, in which the Garibaldian
officers will hold rank.

TURIN, APRIL 14.

General Fanti has presented to the Chamber of
Deputies a project of law for levying 18,000 men in
the Neapolitan provinces.
The Marquis de Montezemolo, having tendered
his resignation, has been replaced in the Lieute-
nancy of Sicily by Signor Dallarovera.

THORN, APRIL 14.
Arrests continue to be made at Warsaw.
Two members of the former delegation of citizens
have also been arrested.

It is said that Count Zamoyski has been ordered
to leave Warsaw.

The Governor has refused to grant an audience to
citizens of high standing.
The energetic attitude assumed by Prince Gort-
schakoff is attributed to the influence of General
Chruleff.

VIENNA, APRIL 9.

The Oesterreichische Zeitung denies in the most
positive terms the news published by the Vienna
papers of this morning that the Government intends
to grant an independent Ministry to Hungary, and
that it no longer requires the Hungarians to send
deputies to the Council of the Empire.

BERNE, APRIL 14.

A general committee assembled in this city, and
affiliated to the German Central Committee in
Genoa, has issued a manifesto calling for the forma-
tion of a German national army, which should
enter the Austro-Germanic provinces through the
Italian portion of the Tyrol, and proceed thence to
revolutionise the whole of Germany.

AMERICA.

QUEE/sISTOWN, MONDAY.

The Royal Mail steamship Canada, Captain
Anderson, from Boston on the 3d and Halifax on
the 4th inst., arrived here at 5 a.m. to-day.

The Canada brings 70 passengers. She landed
nine passengers and all mails' except those for
Liverpool, and proceeded at 5.20 a. in. All well.
She experienced easterly winds on the passage
home.

The Africa, America, New York, Borussia, and
North American had arrived out.

President Lincoln had become severely indisposed
from constant exertion.

The Government forts at Key West and Tortu-
gas had been reinforced.
The Southern Commissioner for Europe embarked
at New Orleans on the 31st of March.

The election of members to Congress in Connec-
ticut will probably result in favour 'of the Repub-
lican party.
It was stated that troops, provisions, and ammu-
nition were constantly reaching the Southern

army. •
Yellow fever was reported to be raging at Rio

Janeiro.
The Haytian papers publish a proclamation
against Spanish aggression, stating that the only
way to save the country is by revolution.
The Morill tariff came into operation on the Ist
of April, and created trouble, confusion, and annoy-
ance.
The New York Bank's returns show an increase
in specie of nearly 2,000,000 dollars.
NEW ORLEANS, APRIL 1.
Cotton sales to-day 8,000 bales. Middling, 1211.
to 13c.
(LATEST BY TELEGRAPH via HALIFAX.)
NEW YORK, APRIL 4.
Judge M'Lean, of the Supreme Court, is dead.
Fort Sumpter is on the point of being evacuated.
Two officers have arrived from Charleston, and
hold an interview to-day with the Ministers at
Washington.
The Secretary for the Treasury refuses to receive
any bids for the new loan under 94.
The Nova Scotian and Kangaroo have arrived
out.
The British brig Newnham, from Rio for Liver-
pool, has been lost on Anegua (?).
Extraordinary activity prevails in the navy
yards.
It is said that Fort Pickens will be reinforced at
all hazards.

have been completely submerged, and the roads
have been everywhere rendered impassable.
The telegraphic communication has been inter-
rupted, and the destruction of houses, crops, stores
of all kinds, roads, &c., has been such that many
millions will not compensate for :t.
The Government has despatched Mr. Van der
Wyck, a member of the Supreme Council, to the
scene of disaster, and placed 800,000 florins at his
disposal.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SATURDAY.

The following observations from M. Odilon
Barrot's interesting little volume on centralisation
are singularly appropriate at a moment when mili-
tary armaments are going on in every country in
Europe :

" Between two nations that shall meet in conflict
the first success is pretty certain to be for the one
which can most easily and most rapidly dispose of
all its resources in money and in soldiers,—conse-
quently, for the one whese Government is the most
centralized. But if the conflict be prolonged, the
chance will infallibly turn to the advantage of the
free Government, and this for reasons which every
one can understand.

" In our days war no longer supports war, and
as the Treasury, particularly of Governments the
condition of which is to always keep on foot great
armies, can barely suffice for peace expenditure, in
case of war it must of necessity have recourse to
credit. Now, credit exists on the great guarantees
which free institutions alone can secure. Despotism
may inherit and make use of it for some time, but
it will very soon exhaust it, while in free countries
credit is not exhausted. The more imminent the
danger the more is the patriotism of all roused, and
the more will it aid the State. And if it be true
that triumph is finally to the last crown, it is the
people who enjoy most liberty, and consequently
the greatest credit, who shall win.
" I will add that absolute Governments have

not, in order to repair a defeat, that moral
elasticity which, with free nations, doubles
their forces and their sacrifices after a
reverse. Free people only have the privilege of
being able to suffer more than one check without
being depressed, and to supply material loss by
moral force. Absolute Governments do not possess
this advantage, and these are condemned to always
conquer."
The decree in the Moniteur of Thursday, raising
to 2,500 f. the sum fixed by the Government to be
paid by conscripts who desire to be relieved from
serving in the army, has given rise to various
erroneous reports. The reason the Government has

adopted this measure is that it wishes to encourage

old soldiers to renew their engagement when their
period of service has expired. For this purpose the
Minister of War has raised the bounty to be given

to an old soldier on his re-engagement to 2,200 f.,
and an addition of 10c., or id. a day, to his pay. It
is to create a fund for that purpose that the French
Government has raised the sum to be paid by con-
scripts for exemption from the service to 2,500 f.
BOURSE, April 13.—The market has been rather
inanimate, at prices nearly the same as yesterday.
Threes opened at 67f 45e., and are now at 67f 500.

Very little doing in Railway Shares.
The following were the last quotations:—
ft per per Cents 95 Credit Fonder 925
Do. end month.... 95 2:5 , Belgian 41
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 50 Roman
Bank Shares . 2390 Austrian
Credit Mobilier.... 645 Spanish Threes 4Bl
Do. Account 647 50 Home Debt

RAILWAYS.
Cash. Account.
Orleans 1325 .. 1327 50
Northern
New ditto BBO
Lyons and Mediterranean. 946 25 .. 946 25
Geneva 386 25 .. 390
Southern 530 50 .. 532 25
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian 455 .. 457 50
Lowbard
WARSAW.

THORN, APRIL 11.

On Tuesday night last the Russian troops were
encamped in the squares of Warsaw. The public
buildings were also occupied by the military. All
the shops, workshops, and offices were closed. Great
crowds of people were assembled in the streets, but
it was forbidden them to stand still. The national
costume and mourning are no longer to be seen.
No newspapers are published. Among the per-
sons killed and wounded in the recent disturbances
were several women and children. At present all
is quiet.

The following proclamation has been issued by
Prince Gortschakoff :

" The numerous appeals that I have made to you
have remained without effect. Yesterday was a
day of mourning for us both on account of the fol-
lowing events.
" Already, the day before yesterday, various
demonstrations were made by the masses, who would
not listen to my words. Yesterday, at half-past 6
in the evening, a considerable crowd assembled on
the Sigismund-square. To put a stop to the
demonstrations a company of infantry, supported
by gendarmes and Cossacks in reserve, were ordered
to intervene • but they were preceded by a func-
tionary of the police, who, to the sound of the drum,
called upon the crowd to disperse. After a first
summons, he made a second 10 minutes afterwards,
and then, after another delay of 10 minutes, he
made a third.

" The order had been given to disperse the crowd
by mounted gendarmerie without using their swords
and that the infantry was only to act in case the
troops were attacked.
" Two charges of the gendarmerie sufficed to
disperse the crowd, without a mishap ; but the
boldest of the band returned in numbers, and
pelted the troops with stones. The commander of
the troops remarked a man of tall stature who ap-
peared to be the leader of the band. He ordered
him to be captured, which was not effected without
an obstinate struggle.
" At this juncture a body of men, led jby a man
carrying a cross, arrived on the spot from the Cra-
cow faubourg, singing a song. A half company
dispersed this body without using their arms. A
compact body now approached from the Rue des
Senateurs and struck up a song. The Cossacks or-
dered to disperse it were strictly ordered not to use
their weapons. This body was dispersed at first
without au accident. But as soon as the Cossacks
had retired behind the infantry, the crowd advanced
again and pelted them with stones and bricks. At
the same time an attempt was made to barricade
the entrances to the Podwall and Senator streets,
by accumulating hackney coaches and droschkis,
so that the military commandant was obliged, after
a renewed shower of atones, to order his men to fire.
To prevent the crowd increasing, which refused to
withdraw, he ordered three volleys to be fired.
" According to the reports returned as yet ten
inhabitants and two soldiers have been killed ; 70
persons have been arrested. By such acts mis-
guided and incorrigible men disturb us in the
solemn moments devoted to the labour and deve-
lopment of the institutions granted with benevo-
lence by his Majesty to the country.
" The Council of Administration has issued an
ordonnance respecting the disturbances, which I
publish.
" I shall not submit the persons arrested te-day
to trial by court-martial ; but they will be tried
according to the terms of the ordonnance issued
to-day, which will be carried out to the letter.
"In the name of God, in the name of the respect
due to the Sovereign, to public order, to the wel-
fare and honour of the country, I beseech you to
consider, for if this new law does not suffice to calm
the madness of those who are leading you to your
destruction, I shall feel myself obliged, after having
shown too much patience, to proclaim a state of
siege, and the subsequent misfortunes that may
ensue would fall upon the heads of these madmen.
" Prince GOIITSCHAKOFF,
" Lieutenant of the Kingdom."
The following is the decree issued by the Council
of Administration :

"In the name of his Altijesty the Emperor Alex-
ander 11., Autocrat of all the Russias, King of
Poland, the Council of Administration ordains,
considering that the repeated asset blages in crowds
disturb public order and impede the tree develop-
ment of the constitution granted by Majesty,
by order of his Majesty, as follows :-
1. All assemblages not authorised by the Go-
verment in the public squares and streets are pro-
hibited.

" 2. In case of assemblages in the public squares
or streets, the burgomaster or functionary next in
rank will call upori the people to disperse by sound
of drum. After two summonses to disperse have
not been attended to, h 3 will make a third sum-
mons, and if the crowd does not then disp-rse he
will employ armed force. If necessary, armed force
may be employed after a first summons.
" ' 3. All persons not immediately dispersing will
be arrested and sent to some fortress, to be tried
before the competent authorities.
" '4. Any person not 'ming the crowd at once,

after a firFt summons, is liable imprisonment for
eight to 20 days ; after a second summons, to
from three to six months' imprisonment in the
house of correction ; after the third summons, to
imprisonment from six months to two years.
Any person resisting in any manner the armed
force is liable to five years' imprisonment in a
fortress.

<5. Any person inciting resistance to the armed
force is liable to doable the above penalties.
" 6. Any person inciting or provoking assem-
blages prohibited in Article 1, is liable to imprison-
ment in the house of correction from six months to
two years ; the same is applicable to persons issuing
lithographic sheets or handbills of an insurrection-
ary nature. Any person distributing such hand-
bills is liable to imprisonment for eight days to 20
days.
" 7. Should other offences be committed in these
assemblages not here notified, they will come under
the regular laws.
" 8. Should assemblages or disturbances occur
frequently in the same locality, the instigators and
promoters of the same will be conveyed to a for-
tress, to await their trial.

" 9. The Director. General of the Interior and of
Justice is charged with the execution of the present
decree, which is to be inserted in the code of laws.
" ' Issued at Warsaw on the Bth of April, 1861.
" Prince GORTSCIIAKOFF.
" WOLOUSKI.
(Countersigned) „
6 KARNICRI,'"

• LI7'ERA7 URE.

Silas Marner, the Weaver of Ravetoe. By George
Eliot, author of " Adam Bede," &c. William

Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London.

A new work by this celebrated author is sure to
attract a considerable share of attention, inasmuch
as nothing has proceeded from the pen of the com-
poser of " Adam Bede" that is not worthy to hold
a place among the best attainments of the day, and
to rank high in intellectual supremacy over many
superior and standard books. This last produc•
tion is much simpler in style and shorter in length
than its predecessors, but it is more pleasing than
the • " Mill on the Floss" in some respects. The
character and career of Silas Marner are admirably
conceived and executed. He is a perfect specimen
of his class of disposition, and more talent is dis-
played in the short sentences that tell us of the
lonely silent man, who is the humble weaver of the
rural district, than is often met with in the elabo-
rate details that swell the records of the magnates
and potentates that shine forth conspicuous in the
golden legends of romance. The story itself is
not very complicated, but one or two points of
importance are strikingly introduced. In particu-
lar may be mentioned the discovery of Dunstan in
the stone pit sixteen years after he had robbed the
weaver of his hard earnings, and departed hidden
by the friendly darkness, as he thought, from all
unfriendly watchers. He rushed away from the
blazing hearth of the man he had robbed, but the
avenger was even then on his track, and he sunk
into destruction with his precious treasure. A more
sudden and solemn judgment could hardly be
afforded to the guilty beings who might have been
present at his finding. Ther© lay the gold in its
case even as it had gone down on that night long
years ago, but the man, then in the flush of youth
and the pride of strength, what was he? A blanched
and withered skeleton, while his undying part
they knew had been removed at once to its account,
gone to stand in that world where the deeds of
darkness are brought to light and the secrets of
the innermost heart shall be revealed. The
brothers of the "Red House" were pot very
shining lights to their humbler neighbours. The
eldest son, Godfrey Cass, was far superior to Dun-
stan, but he was easily led, and very deficient in
moral courage. He had contracted a mar-
riage with a woman of low rank and
unsuitable habits for one in his position.
He concealed this from his father and friends, and to
all appearance was devoted to a beautiful young
lady of the village. One New Year's-night another
visitant came to the weaver's cottage—not a guilty
man, but an innocent child. Silas, on searching,
found its mother lying perished in the snow outside
the door. He hurried to Squire Cass's, where every
one was assembled, and there the father saw his
child in the weaver's arms. All he thought of and
trusted in was that its mother's sleep amid the
snow might prove to have been her last long rest.
It was found that the sleep was indeed that of eter-
nal silence, and then the deceitful man would not
claim his child. He left it in the hands of the kind
but eccentric man, whom injustice and cruelty had
hardened, but whose heart ever softened at the
sight of sorrow and suffering. Godfrey, however,
did not escape without retribution. In the eyes of
men all prospered, he married Miss Lammeter, who
proved an excellent woman, but disappointment
marked him for its own. He had set his heart on
children that he should not blush to own, but the
only one that came was early taken away. While
he saw his eldest one blooming in health,as the rose
of the village, and filling the gloomy house of the
weaver with the light of radiant youth, and cheer-
ing him with the gaiety of the joyous spirit un-
dimmed by care and anxiety, which can only
belong to life's fresh morning, the halls of the rich
man were deserted, and his hearth remained deso-
late. At last, when the finger of heaven seemed to
point out his brother's crime, Godfrey was fright-
ened ; he told his wife his fatal secret, and proposed
that they should claim the neglected child, but
here again he was inet with a failure. Silas sternly
told him that he had no right, as he had not done
so earlier, and had lived all these years in the im-
mediate vicinity without making a sign that the
outcast child was the heiress of his estates ; also
Eppie refused to accede to the request that had
been tendered too late, and proved unwelcome to
her feelings. She had beentbrought up to consi-
der the weaver her father, and she could not be
reconciled to the thoughts of transplanting herself
to grandeur that could never be congenial. The
most pleasing portion of the story is that which
records the change that came over the spirit of
Silas from the day when the child appeared
as an angel visitant on his threshold.
It seemed as if, with . the disappearance of
his dearly-loved gold, had vanished his bitter-
ness, hatred, and contempt for the human race,
and that with the presence of the child dawned a
new day on the sad night of his dreary existence.
The loss he so bitterly lamented at the outset was
his gain indeed. It brought better thoughts to
his mind, it forced him to mingle with his fellow-
men, and it showed him the futility of setting the
affections of his heart on the perishable treasures
that were the heritage of moth and rust, or the
future harvest of thieves. At the right moment

the child came to claim his eare, to reive the dor-

mant flame of love that had so long been extin-
guished in his breast, and 'to raise up the thoughts
that had grovelled in the dust, to the exalted goal
of which they were worthy. He then beheld a
true motive and a right incentive for toil in the
helpless innocent; his earnings no more should be
buried in the ground, useless to others and perni-
cious to himself. •He had no further call to wor-
ship at the shrine of Mammon a helpless slave and a
soul-bound suppliant, for brighter and better work
awaited him. His was now a noble toil, and a
blessed endeavour : to protect a wandering child
from a cold and cruel world, in whose rough high-
ways her feet had so early strayed, to train up a
young being in the ways of peace and pleasantness,
that she might walk in uprightness in her pil-
grimage below, and to influence and inform the
spirit that was to survive the fleeting and fading
fashion of this world, to exist in a glorious immor-
tality beyond the bounds of time and space. The
effect produced on him is finely portrayed in the
following passage :—" In old days there were
angels who came and took men by the hand and
led them away from the city of destruction. We
see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are
led away from threatening destruction ; a hand is
put into theirs, which leads them forth gently to-
wards a calm and bright land, so that they look no
more backward ; and the hand may be a little
child's !" There was more of her father than her
mother in Eppie. She had inherited none of the
vulgarity that had been the characteristic of that
unfortunate woman, who, in her desire for ven-
geance on her neglectful husband, had taken that
desperate walk in the bitter winter night whose
snows had stopped her on her cruel, errand, and
shrouded her in their icy folds of sepulchre till
she should wake to the everlasting morning. The
village of Raveloe, in its poor simplicity, was rich
in illustrations and rife with warnings that were
as the handwriting on the wall, to teach
the careless and inform the ignorant. Silas
made an idol of his gold, aad it vanished as if by
magic, and for long years no trace could be found
of its whereabouts. Dunstan Cass had seized
another's right to enable himself to indulge in sin
and rioting, and a dark and sudden doom overtook
him. The unhappy wife had rushed on in heedless
haste to annoy her husband and disgrace him before
his father and his friends, when a numbing power
stayed her, and she was frustrated in her purpose.
Effie had the inherent grace of her father's gentle
blood mingled with the rusticity in which she was
nurtured. She was likewise brought up in a
superior style to the herd around her. " Perfect
love has a breath of poetry which can exalt the
relations of the least instructed human beings, and
this breath of poetry had surrounded Eppie om
the time when the had followed the bright gleam
that had beckoned her to Silas's hearth." She had
,sense, jus,ice, end reason on her side when she

elincd to follow her haughty father to his graul
abode. Her home was fixed, and her heart could
not falter in its path or waver in its allegiance. H
WilP Jag donned hor mother, denied his child, and