The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-02 00:00:00

NITZ.

nothing to satisfy the demands of the public ;

but can nothing special be done ? The sugges-
tion of a commission to be issued direct by the
Crown has substantial objections to it. The
Constitution does not give the Crown such power ;
we all know how it was abused in the days of
the STUARTS ; the Star Chamber is become a sym-

bol for illegal oppression of private individuals
by the Crown; nothing which could furnish a
precedent for the Head of the Executive, vexing

the subjects of the realm by a process at all
similar, could be tolerated for an hour. And,
though in this instance it would be done in
furtherance of the ends of justice, yet such evil
must not be done that good may come, nor a

little wrong done to do a great right.
But is there not a course open which is
not liable to this unanswerable objection. The
judges are irremoveable, dum bene se gesserint,
except upon address to the Crown by the House of
Commons. It is felt that their irremoveability is
one of the bulwarks of our liberty, our best security
for justice, when the feeble subject stands at the
bar with the Crown for his antagonist. Yet this
all-important security is considered safe in the
custody of the people's representatives. No judge
has ever entertained a moment's apprehension of
Royal vengeance in any charge he has been called
on to try; nor even in the other direction has ho
ever feared that, in sustaining the legal rights of
the Crown, he should incur the displeasure of a
majority of the British House of Commons. Can-
not a similar course obtain for the country a
re-investigation of the Road murder case ? Par-
liament meets on Tuesday. Could not some member
competent to argue such a case give notice of moving
for an address to the QUEEN to appoint Commis-
sioners to sit and adjourn as long as they might
think it desirable, to reinvestigate the whole affair.
A Commission so appointed could never become a
dangerous precedent. No one would fear that the
House of Commons would use such a power arbitra •
rily ; while it would cure a defect in our law of the
existence of which the Lord Chief Justice has given
the clearest evidence.
We might go farther. If it should be alleged—for
who knows what quirks and quibbles lawyers will
not resort to—that the House of Commons and the
Crown together have no power thus to act; that
witnesses might refuse to answer, and be
leg ally irresponsible, even this admits of
an easy remedy. A short Act of Parliament
might be passed to authorise the course suggested;
in any case in which the representatives of the
people might think that justice required inquiries
to be made beyond those which the present state of
the law permits, it is at least as important that a
commission should issue, as that one should be
granted to look into the details of a corrupt elec-
tion. Whatever the course adopted, it is to Par-
liament only the country can now look to redress an
acknowledged error. The poor little innocent, so
ruthlessly destroyed, has become a subject of deep
and tender interest in every family in Britain. No
atrocity has for a long time so deeply touched so
many hearts ; and the country looks to its repre-
sentatives to give effect to the demands of the
universal feeling.

The " Moderator of Revolutions" has been at.
tempting to moderate between Kings. Long his
moderating efforts took the form of moderating
the fire of the Sardinians on Gaeta; now that he
has withdrawn his fleet, he has been attempting
to bend the obstinacy of the ex-King at Gaeta.
Using General CIALDINI as his postman, he trans-
mitted, it seems, a letter to the KING, suggesting
to him the desirableness of giving in now, to
avoid the humiliation of a capitulation. The
advice was good, indeed, but how much better
had it been if he had given it before he enabled the
garrison to provide itself with supplies of all
kinds, and ammunition, by his three months'
encouragement to resistance. Nothing can now
atone for having thus prolonged the unsettle-
ment of Italy. Nothing can excuse the bloodshed of
which he has thus been guilty, not at Gaeta only, but
in the Abruzzi, and in all places where reactionary
brigands pleaded the ex-King's name as a justifica-
tion for creating disturbance and plundering the
inhabitants. What answer FRANCIS ll.,late King
of Naples, returned, is not yet known, but as his
reply had been forwarded on the 28th under a flag
of truce to Admiral PERSANO, and we have not
heard of a suspension of hostilities, it could hardly
have been one of assent.

Accounts vary much as to the effect of the
besiegers' fire. That much damage has been done to
the place may well be supposed true, though other
accounts deny it. The sea face of the batteries is
evidently very strong ; and it seems not improbable
that PERSANO'S chief services will be confined to a
blockade. His first attack was a very furious
one, but he seems neither to have sustained
nor inflicted much damage. The Cavalli guns
appear both in range and power to rival our Arm-
strongs. The Sardinians have several more batteries
ready to open fire soon, and the attack will then
be made, it is said, with not fewer than 180 guns.
As so little'can be done by sea, a naval brigade,
like ours at Sebastopol, is talked of.

The duration of the siege will, however, be a
matter of little consequence if Venetia is to be let
alone this spring. The Sardinian Government,
bound over to keep the peace by the Emperor of
the FRENCH, is not likely to commence hostilities,
and the elections have gone by immense majorities
in favour of CAVOUR. The Italians most certainly
cannot be charged with visionary enthusiasm, nor
even with yielding to their natural impulses in
regard to Venetia. The conduct of the EMPEROR,
of CAVOUR, and of Austria, all seem to
show in different ways, that they calculate
on peace for this year. Austrian reaction
in Hungary could hardly be explained
without it. Yet just in this last fact lie■
the possible danger. If Hungary persists in
fighting the legal battle with the perfidious and
revolutionary HAPSBURG Government, peace may
continue; but should Hungary be provoked to
insurrection, then GARIBALDI, and other patriots
too, would soon be at their posts; the Hungarian
and Croatian regiments in Venetia would render
the whole force there untrustworthy; Italy would
rush in, despite CATOUR and Louis NAPOLEON ;
and we might have a vast political and military
conflagration. Would that Austria might perish
is it! is the prayer of every Englishman.

The Road murder case may seem now to be
effectually shielded against all further legal in-
quiries, and the discovery of the murderer to be
left to one of, those unlooked-for revelations which
have generated the common proverb that " murder
will out." The chief coroner of England, and the
judges with him, have unanimously refused the
writ for making a better inquiry than the one
which few will have the hardihood not to pro-
nounce one of the worst ever made in England.
We need not impute corrupt motives to the Coroner,
but it cannot be denied that in a matter calling so
imperatively for the utmost efforts of inquest he,
as it were, in "twice ten minutes, huddled up the
case, and with a well-bred whisper, closed the
scene. There was," to say the least, perfunctori-
ness, and rejecting of tendered evidence, -which the
Lord Chief Justice himself admitted should have
been received. if it was not an error to refrain
from summoning suspected persons, it was certainly
an error to refrain from hearing the evidence of any
of the suspected who volunteered :themselves for
examination. But the cardinal error was closing
the inquest. In a case so full of a strange combi-
nation of certainty and mystery, when almost every
one felt certain that the murderer was one of the
inmates of the house, and when yet the utmost un-
certainty exited as to which it could be, what
could be a more obvious course than to retain the
inquest open for almost any reasonable length of
time; and thus to have a court ready legally autho-
rised to assemble from time to time to consider and
examine into any fresh facts or incidents which
might occur. This is, we believe, the grievance
which is felt by the whole country. Individuals may
have their private opinions as to the motives of the
Coroner, but his closing the inquest in such an
atrocious and mysteriously certain case, is felt by all
to have been equivalent to a denial, or at least to
a miscarriage of justice.
It id now seen that the common law can do,

ARYGLLL Rooms.—Mr. R. Bignall's Second
Subscription Ball takes place at the Argylle-rooms on
Monday evening, and will no doubt be fully attended
The band under the direction of Mons. A. Lamotte will be
considerably increased on this occasion.

Astley's Royal Amphitheatre is announced for
sale by auction at the end of the present month.
Yesterday the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council granted Mr. Hoe, an American, a prolongation f.
five years of his patent for improved printing machines.
The fifth Royal Dramatic Performance took
place at Windsor Castle last evening. The }laymarket
company had .the honour of performing Tom Taylor's
comedy, in three acts, "The Contested Election." Charles
Matthews sustained his original part of Dodgson.
The navigation on the Saone in the neighbourhood
of Lyons, which had been interrupted by the frost and the
high waters, is now resumed.
The cause of the resignation of M. Jacini, Pied.
montese Minister of Public Works, is said to be his not
having been returned at the late electious,

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING; FEBRUARY 2, 1861.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in
Downing .street. All the members wore present.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince
Consort, and the youthful members of the Royal Family,
will arrive at Buckingham Palace on Monday from Wind-
sor Castle. The Queen will hold a Privy Council the same
afternoon, when the Royal Speech to be delivered at the
opening of Parliament the succeeding day will be settled.
Owing to the very dangerous illness of a member
of the family of bis Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the meeting of the Convocation of the Province of Canter-
bury on Wednesday next will only be pro forma, and due
notice will be given of the further meeting of the body for

business.
SIR BENJAMIN BRODLE.—The scientific public
will be glad to know that the learned President of the Reyal
Society is recovering from the operation for cataract, which
was performed upon the right eye, and which promises to
be successful.

DEATH OF THE DAUGHTER OF ROBERT OWEN.
—Mrs. Jane Dale Fauntleroy, only sister of Hon. Robert
Dale Owen, died at New Harmony on the 10th inst. She
was the widow of a United States officer. This celebrated
family is now reduced to two brothers—Robert Dale and
Richard.—New York Herald.
DEATH OF MR. BURFORD, THE ARTIST.—Mr.
Robert Burford, the well-known artist and respected pro-
prietor of the Panorama, Leicester -square, died on Wed-
nesday last, at his residence, 35, Camden- road Villas,
having attained the age of 70.—Era,
THE RoYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS.—Mr. Paul
Falconer Poole, A.R.A., has been Elected a Royal Acade-
mician, and Baron Marochetti and Mr. R. Ansdell, asso-
ciates.

The Submarine Telegraph cable between Port-
land and the Channel Islands is again out of order.

The letters from Berlin meition the failure of a
money dealer in that city, who hai absconded after commit-
ing forgeries. His liabilities are aot supposed to be exten-
sive.

The appeal of Mr. rode is fixed for hearing
before the Judicial Committee on Tuesday next. Mr.
Poole will be represented by Dr. Phillimore and Mr.
Coleridge ; and the Bishop of :Jondon by the Queen's Ad-
vocate (Dr. Harding), Dr. 3wabey, and Mr. Montagu
Smith.
MR. lorrN COOPER.—This veteran actor, whom
most playgoers, whatever be their age, will recollect as one
of the well .tested props of the "legitimate" drama, gene-
rally visible in those parts in which much declamation is
required, has at last retired from the stage, which had be-
come to him a second nature through a service of 40 years.
But from his other profession, that of a teacher of elocu-
tion, in which he has acquired equal celebrity, he does not
retire, and he has warned the public not to confound one
retirement with the other.
EFFECT OF INTOXICATION.—Yesterday morning
at half-past five o'clock a Marine named James Mugg was
found dead in the fore cockpit of the Hero, 91, under repair
in Keyham Steamyard, Plymouth. Ryan, another Marine,
was lying near almost exhatsted, and Kilroe, dangerously
intoxicated, was discovered in the 'tween decks. All be-
longed to the night guard, and while on duty broke into the
wardroom stores and drank wiisky to excess. Mr. Foster,
surgeon, applied the stomact pump to Ryan and sent him
and Kilroe on board the hulkßellona. An inquest will be
held to-day respecting Mugg by Mr. Eastlake, Admiralty
Judge-Advocate.
AFRICAN AID SOCIETT.—At a meeting held in
Birmingham yesterday, the dayor in the chair; present
also, Lord Calthorpe, Lord Afred Churchill, Mr. Spooner,
M.P., it was resolved to form t Birmingham auxiliary to the
society above-named. The desirability of so doing was
urged by Lord Alfred Chnrclill in a speech of great length,
who spoke of the usefulness of this object as a means of
obtaining a supply of cotton from that quarter. Labour
was, he said, to be obtained at an extremely low rate, and
there were from 40,000 to 50,000 coloured persons in Canada,
who had escaped from the United States, ready to emigrate
to Abbeokuta and form a great negro nationality.
SIX FIRES IN ONE NlGHT.—During the whole of
Thursday night and yesterday morning the firemen of the
London Brigade were attending fires, not only in the metro-
polis, but in the suburbs. Dne, nearly attended with a
lamentable loss of life, happened at No. 3, Brunswick-
place, Lower Tottenham. The premises belonged to Mr.
J. Bettington, shoemaker, wiz also occupied the next house,
No. 2, as a beer-shop. Another fire, in Pheenix-place,
Ratcliff-cross, destroyed the cabinet-makers' workshops
belonging to Mr, C. Smith. A fire likewise happened in
the premises of Mr. J. Milsma, a hatter, 134, Drury-lane.
Another fire took place in the premises of Messrs. Cox and
Gould, manufacturing chydsts, No. 8, Chicksand-street,
Brick- lane, Whitechapel. A 'fire likewise broke out in the
second floor of the premises lelonging to Messrs. Bentley
and Co., 46, Gutter-lane, bat the damage done was not
very considerable. The other fire happened in the pre-
mises of Mr. Pittman, tobacconist, in Cambridge-road,
Bethnal-green ; a portion of the stock was destroyed.
THE GUANO TRADE AT LIVERPOOL.—At the
/wily meeting of the Mersey Dock Board, held yesterday,
a considerable amount of discussion arose on an application
on the part of Messrs. Anthony Gibbs and Co. to have a
reduction made on the charges for warehousing guano at
Birkenhead, which at present amount to 3d. per ton, and
it was proposed to reduce the charge to ld. In the course
of the discussion it transpired that Messrs. A. Gibbs and
Co., through their agents, Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co.,
paid on guano the sum of £7,000 in warehouse and dock
dues, and it was intimated that if the reduction referred to
were not made they would order their ships to other ports.
After a protracted discussion, :t was resolved to adhere to
the present rate of 3d. per ton for warehousing.
A CHILD SAVED FROM DROWNING AT FOLKE-
STONE.—A very generous and noble act was witnessed
several days ago on one of theWilliamsburgh ferry boats,
which is worthy of record. A3out 6 o'clock a little boy in
stepping from the bridge accdentally fell into the water.
The child was carried out b: the current caused by the
motion of the paddles, the caltain having reversed them,
and sank. No person seemed cmfident enough to undertake
the rescue. A gentleman, seeing what was the matter,
threw off his coat, and plunged into the water without a
moment's hesitation. The child had come up, and now
sank for the second time, and when the swimmer got out
far enough was out of sight. He instantly dived, and after
a brief interval rose to the sueace with the boy in his arms.
The child grasped the arm o; the swimmer with a deadly
clutch. They were hauled nit of the water together.
Measures were taken to resueitate the child, which was
effected by the time the boat arived at Williamsburgh, and
the rescuer quietly went his vay home, a gentleman lend-
ing him an overcoat without iiquiring his name, saying ho
was not afraid that the coat vould not be returned. The
name of the brave rescuer was Richard Marsh, a merchant
in William-street, son of M,. Richard Marsh, Victoria-
grove, Folkestone.—Kent Herald.
LORD DUDLEY ON DRUMENNESS.—Lord D udley
in the course of a speech at be Dudley Mechanics' Insti-
tution soiree, onToutehrsedayinzennienegs,
theyr exerted,emaredth tended
tsudcehd
institutions, among
to make home duties more 'egarded, and also struck at
the root of that greatest of all mrses—the curse of drunken-
ness, (Cheers.) Twenty-fm years ago, individuals of the
class to which he belonged vere too often so inebriated as
to be unable to walk up to bd. The society of ladies was
given up immediately after tie dinner was concluded, and
the men finished their eveniags by themselves, often in a
most degrading way. But a great change had taken
place since then, and now f a man was pointed at in the
higher ranks as being Indicted to intoxication, he
was at once a marked man, and lost caste and
rank completely. The class next to the rank he had
spoken of was perhaps nct altogether so severe as the
higher class, but still from he moment such a feeling took
root it must grow, and it was impossible at the present day
for a man to take a high stand among his fellows if he
gave way to such practices. With the middle class, how-
ever, unfortunately, the improved state of things stopped
—it went no further. He (the president) could confidently
appeal to those who lived in the town and district for sup-
port to his observation that drunkenness was the one great
vice of this place, and led more than anything else to the
productioß of that great calendar of crime which they saw
from time to time. (Hear.) There was nothing that he
knew of which could be put into the scale to counterbalance
its evils.. The one great source of nearly all the evil
authority and power had to contend with was the drunken-
ness of the lower classes, and the temptations presented by
the flaring ginshop, and the society it offered was too often
more than enough to induce men to leave their miserable
dark houses to be taken care ofbyththeetirownwiv,easnadntdhcohseildwrheno
as best they could. If this were a true representation of
the state of things existing in
started the Mechanics' Institution knew it was so, and if
they were striking at the root of se huge an evil. then the
work they were engaged in was so important and onerous
that everybody would be justly held responsible for the
consequences of withholdinghiscosuupldpoerxtcaenedd countenance
from from it. (Loud applause.)
As regards the Savoyards whom we saw at Aix
and the neighbourhood, nothing
mild, and amiable manners—civility without servility.
With above six thousand visitors to a small town, con-
verted for the season into one vast lodging-house or hotel,
nothing of the corruption of manners of such places seems
to have taken place. You are asked in a mild, gentle voice
if you want a carriage, or a boat, or a nice donkey. No
pressure, no crowding, nor abuse. The peasants have the
same mild manners. A family out of Aix were gathering
their grapes, much cut up by the mildew and the bad sea-
son; nothing could exceed the gentlemanlike manner
in which the father, assisted by wife and daughters'
selected the few ripest of the red grapes to give us, saying
of the white ones, " I should offer you some of those, but
but they are not ripe." The very dogs are quiet and well-
behaved ; and there was one lame bey on crutches, just out
of Chambory, with a beautiful face and a pair of gold ear-
rings, who submitted himself as an object of charity by
reason of his lameness, with a delicacy of manner that made
Sterne's beggar mot a caricature. This lid nothing in it
of the Italian lady begging with fan ancr mantilla, or the
Spanish beggar who collected from the ch:hritable
back.—Once er Week.

(R►EUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

FRANCE.

GAETA.

,
LA 1 ESI N IN b.

PARIS, FEB. 2.

The Moniteur of today announces that the
Senate has agreed, by 122 against 2 votes, to the
Senatus Consultum, in reference to the publication
of the reports of the sittings of the Corps Legis-
latiff.

It also announces the close of the extraordinary
session of the Senate,

PERUGIA, FEB. 1.
Four hundred muskets, destined for the reac-
tionists in the Abruzzi, have been seized by the
French at Ticovaro.

ROME, FEB. 1.

Reports are current in official quarters here that
last night the firing at Gaeta was very violent
on both sides, but that little damage was done

in the city.
For several hours a Sardinian gunboat fired
near the Convent of the Holy Trinity, but when
the battery Transylvania replied the gunboat re-
tired.

NAPLES, JAN. 31, 4.54 P.M.
The elections are favourable to the Govern
meat.

The Republican party has been beaten at Naples
and in the provinces.
The siege operations before Gaeta are being
actively continued by the Sardinians. The firing
is feeble on both sides.
Prince Carignan has left Mola di Gaeta.

TURIN, FEB. 1.

On the 28th ult. General Sonnaz attacked the
reactionary bands, who were entrenched at Banco,
and obliged them to surrender.

PESTH, FEB. 1.

In to-day's sitting of the municipality of this
city M. Deak read the projected address in reply
to the Imperial rescript. This address was opposed
by M. Szilagyi as being too moderate, but was
defended by M. Eotvos, who caused its adoption
by the Municipality:

PARIS, FEB. 1.

The Pays says :—" Admiral Le Barbier de Tin au
has arrived here on a special mission, and has de-
manded instructions before reassuming the com-
mand of the fleet in the Mediterranean."

PARIS, FRIDAY.

We learn that General della Marmora, sent by
the Piedmontese Government to present the con-
gratulations of Victor Emmanuel to the King of
Prussia on his accession to the throne, is much
dissatisfied with his reception at Berlin.

A telegram from Constantinople, of the 29th
Jaivary, announces that the Turkish Government,
being requested by Russia to require the prolonga-
tion of the French occupation in Syria, replied
that it would insist on the faithful execution of
the convention with France.

Accounts from the ports of Brest, Cherbourg,
Lorient, and Toulon state that large supplies of
copper and iron have been received there for the
use of the dockyards. Orders which were given
at Rochefort to construct two steel-plated frigates
have been transferred to Brest and Cherbourg.
Nine hundred seamen have arrived at Toulon to
complete the crews of the ships of war in that
harbour.

Some of the provincial journals having stated
that Marshal Niel would this year be appointed
to command the camp at Chalons, the Propagateur
of Lille contradicts the report, and states that it
has grounds for asserting that Marshal de Mac-
Mahon will again have the command. The camp
is to be formed in the beginning of March, and
to consist of 60,000 men.
The aSemaphore of Marseilles states that nume-
rous detachments have lately passed through that
town, on their way to Rome. On Wednesday
last, 90 men of the 19th Regiment of the Line
embarked on board the steamer Carmel for Civita
Vecchia.

Preparations are now in propress for establishing
a new line of electric telegraph between Paris and
London by Dieppe and Newhaven. Three wires
from Paris will meet one from Havre at Malaunay,
and the four will cross the Channel from Dieppe
to Newhaven. When this line is completed France
will be connected with England by 12 wires—four
from Calais to Dover, four from Boulogne to Folk-
stone, and four from Dieppe to Newhaven. These
last are especially intended to connect Lyons, Bor-
deaux, and Marseilles directly with London.
BOURSE, Feb. I.—The following are the last
quotations :

4t per per Cents ... 97 20 , Credit Fancier --
Do. end month.... —1 Belgian 4
3 per Cents
Do. end month 67 90 I Roman
Bank Shares 2900 ' Austrian
Credit Mobilier.... 660 Spanish Threes 47i
Do. Account 662 50 ; Home Debt

RAILWAYS.
Cash. Account.
Orleans 1395 .. 1387 50
Northern
New ditto

Lyons and Mediterranean 915 .. 917 59
Geneva — .. 370
Southern 513 75 .. 516 25
Western
Eastern
Sardinian 383 75 .. 380
Austrian
Lombard 472 50 .. 473 75

Exchange on London, at sight, paper, 25f. 22ic.; money.
2.5 f. 191 c. ; ditto, three months, paper, 24f. 87e. ; money.
24f. 85C.

A letter from Gaeta of the 29th states that the
fire of the besiegers had become heavier during
the last day. The fortress had fired moderately,
chiefly for cutting off the convoys of munitions
going to the Piedmontese. The fleet, since the
22d, remains quiet at Mola. Another letter from
Gaeta, dated the 30th ult., says :—" Last night
the Piedmontese threw two thousand shells into the
town. The houses have suffered a little, but not the
fortifications. Today the firing is not heavy.
The Piedmontese have unmasked another battery,
but they keep as far off as possible. The fortress
uses rifled cannon.