The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-13 00:00:00

LYNN—MARcH 12.

A moderate supply of wheat to-day, which was in better
demand, and prices not much altered. Barley a dull sale,
but fally.easier. Oats scarce. Beans firm.
Old white 56s to 608 I Old red 48s to 54s
Barley. 33s to 44s I Oats..
Beans .40s to 7 3 6 s I Peas

CANTERBURY-HALL CONCERTS!!!
Westminster-road.
Proprietor ........C. Morton.
A Grand Selection from Verdi's new Opera,
IL CORSARO,

(This opera has never been produced in this or any other
country, except at these Concerts), having met with that de-
cided success which charactise 4 the most popular works of
this great Master, will be performed EVERY EVENING ;
together with a Selection from LA FIGLIA DEL REGGI-
MNTO, by Donizetti,
Principal Artistes—Miss Russell, Madame Maria, Miss
Tyrrell, Mr. H. Herbert, Signor Tivoli, H. Drummond, and
W. Bernard. Director, Mr. F. Jonghmans.
The Comic Department comprises Messrs. E. Marshall, A.
B, Hollingsworth, J. Blanchard, F. Bell, W. H. Welland, and
the Brothers Conrad.
John Martin's Three celebrated Pictures will remain on
*view a short time longer in the Fine Arts Gallery of the
Ystablishment.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Z• eta MY.—Morning, 3h. 12m.—Afternoon, 3h. 26m.
To-MORROW.-Morning, 3h. 40m.—Afternoon, 3h. 54m.

THS WEATHER.—SIIN OFFICE, MARCH 13, 1561.
THERMOMETER, IN THR
48--highest Ainoe noon yesterday.
3.ss—lowest this morning and during the night.
45 —this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.90 ; rising.
WlND—Northerly; with fine weather.

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L3"THE SUN,
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1861.

Committees of Inquiry—so often of late an-
nounced among the Notices of Motion—are certainly
by this time the Order of the Day. As the riiht
hon. gentleman, the leader of her MAJESTY'S Op-
position, took occasion to remark last evening, the
House of Commons has done quite enough during
the first month of the present session, the month
-which has but just now elapsed, in the way of ap-
pointing these Select Committees of Investigation.
A systematic course of proceeding upon the part
of the House of Commons, by which it ap-
propriates to itself very many of the most
vital functions of the Executive while re-
lieving the Cabinet from much of the re-
sponsibility which must otherwise have devolved
-upon the various members of her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment. Already, according to this summary
arrangement, the national representatives, as they
-were reminded last evening by Mr. DISRAELI,
havo nominated, during very little more than
one calendar- month, no less than six select com-
mittees of inquiry of the utmost importance, of a
character the most exceptional and extraordinary.
Delegating to one committee—a scrutiny of the
whole of the elaborately jumbled and unsatisfac-
tory scheme of our Poor Law Administration ! To
another—the consideration of the long-vexed
question as to whether or not the entire Criminal
Law might not be at length consolidated ! To an-
other—the examination of the scale of our military
expenditUre throughout the whole of our colonial
possessions! Another of those committees having
to investigate the machinery of our Board of Ad-
miralty, with a view to its comprehensive recon-
ctruetion ! A fifth committee having deputed to it
the labour of a searching inquiry into the man-
ner, of the assessment of the obnoxious Income-
tax, particularly in regard to Schedule D—
a conscientious and laborious reconsidera-
tion in point of fact, of the whole prin-
ciple on which the chief amount of our
taxation, an amount yielding annually from
X 10,000,000 to £12,000,000, is being from year to
year realised. The sixth and last of these remark-
able committees of inquiry suljecting the entire
tliplomatie service of Great Britain to a pitiless
investigation. Whether or not the appointment of
co many of these select committees of inquiry may
be calculated to prove advantageous to the country
nt large, to the Legislature, or to the Government,
may remain still a moot question, and one upon
-which opinions may continue, for a long while to
come, diametrically opposed. Whatever the even-
t ual decision arrived at upon tLis point, there is, at
3east, no doubt at all as to the fact that the half-
cozen committees above enumerated have within
the month last past been definitively appointed
---not a jot more doubt being entertained
t ither as to the necessity for an inquiry of
tome kind being instituted forthwith into
ele4 and all of the six topics submitted to the said
committees now for most serious investigation. The
Vogr Law Administration—the Criminal Law and
its Consolidation—the Colonies and their military
e xp endituxe—The Income Tax and its assessment—
the Admiralty
andits reconstruction—the Diplo-
mat is Service and i
b,iog upon the its total rehabilitation—all these
instant suggestive of some amongst
the_ most notorious exigencies of our time. They
are indicative in their more titles of some among
the great national
grievances the most clamour-
ougly demanding
investigation,

The Admiralty Committee was the one, it will
I e remarked through the Parliamentary reports
of yesterday's sitting in the House
of Com-
mons, which again occupied the attention
lur some considerable time of our national rc-
pre,4entatives. The discussion which _ensued
immodiately upon Admiral DUNcoMBE's moving
the nomination upon this particular coin.
mittee of the fifteen members selected to constitute
it—elici 'teii the comments of a great variety of
Ipeakers, •apoii both sides of the House, speakers

enunciatingviews of the utmost conceivable diversity.
Conspicuous upon the list of the Fifteen appearing
the nanies of three right hon. baronets who have at
different times occupied the post of First Lord of
the Admiralty under different Governments—to
wit, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Sir FRANCIS BARING,
and Sir Row PARINGTON. Against the selection
of which three ex-First Lords of that very Admi-
ralty whose acts of omission and commission are
about to be examined into, the hon. member for
West Norfolk (himself one of the chosen fifteen) at
once protested in no measured tone, and really
we cannot but admit not very surprisingly
under the circumstances. True, no doubt, as the
Premier very justly remarked later on in the dis-
cussion as to whether the three ex-First Lords of
the Admiralty should, upon reflection, be allowed
to remain members of the Committee—true, not a
doubt of it, the objection raised by Mr. BENTINCK
might be waived not very rashly by the House
upon the mere consideration that the mission of
the proposed Committee is one to inquire into the
working of a system, and not one to examine into
the conduct of private individuals. Nevertheless,
this much may be said, not unreasonably, in sup-
port of Mr. BENTINCR'S objection of last evening,
that the assistance to be looked for at the
hands of Sir JOHN, of Sir JAMES, and
of Sir FRANCIS, might come more usefully
in aid of the collective judgment of precisely such
a Committee as this one of Admiral DUNCOMBE'S,
in the shape of actual evidence elicited from them
catechetically as witnesses summoned before the
fifteen. Eventually, however, in spite of any and
every objection, the particular fifteen originally
selected to constitute the committee were duly
nominated, including among them the three ex-
First Lords of the Admiralty aforesaid. A decision
nevertheless not arrived at by the House, it should
be observed, until after Mr. DISRAELI had moved
the adjournment of the debate : so unlikely
did it at one time appear last evening that the
differences of opinion expressed in this matter in
the course of the discussion would be thus
summarily reconciled. It was characteristic of
one eminent member of the committee, namely,
Mr. HENLEY, that he only consented at last to
allow his name to appear upon the list of the selected
fifteen—conditionally. The right hon. gentleman
protesting from first to last that the recall of Admi-
ral Sir BALDWIN WALKER was regarded by him
as a sine qua non for his own retention of the post
allotted to him as one of the fifteen committeemen.
Upon the contingency of the run-away ex-Sur-
veyor of the Navy not being brought back to give
his evidence before the committee, Mr. HENLEY
inti-
mates his fixed determination to wash his hands of
L what he manifestly for one will then regard as the
whole farce of this sham investigation. It matters
nothing that the Earl of GIFFORD assures the
House of Commons quite confidently that so soon
as the report of the Dockyard Commission shall
have been laid upon the table, as it is now pretty
certain to be very shortly, any further evidence
from Sir BALWIN WALKER will be looked upon by
one and all as little else than absolutely superflu-
ous. Have Sir BALDWIN before this new com-
mittee of inquiry in regard to the Admiralty, Mr.
HENLEY will—or—he will respectfully beg leave to
withdraw his name as one of the fifteen committee-
men. Whatever the Earl of GIFFORD may say to the
contrary, we cannot but think that Mr. HENLEY
is in this matter very much indeed in the right.
If Sir BALDWIN has nothing in the shape of evi-
dence that he is reluctant to have wrung
from him before the Select Committee—Why,
Why, Why, did he fly off at such a tangent
the other day, with such suspicious precipita-
tion, in a gale of wind, as though he carried his
flag aboard not of the Narcissus but of the Flying
Dutchman ? Unless the " powers that be" had
been anxious, moreover, to connive at, and in every
possible way to facilitate the gallant Admiral's
escape from his otherwise inevitable subjection to
the interrogative thumbscrew of the Parliamentary
Inquisition preparing to squeeze the whole truth
out of the Naval ex-Surveyor—will any rational
man say that the Government might have
readily prevented his taking his departure, or,
supposing him to have taken his departure before
they stopped him, that they might even then, had
they so pleased, have brought him back easily
enough immediately afterwards ?

As a matter of course—as we intimated yesterday
would infallibly prove to be the case in the evening
—upon the Premier's motion the order of
the sth, for the appointment of the select
committee proposed by Sir J. ELPRINSTONE,
was discharged. It was discharged too summarily,
and without any attempt at a division. The
reference to the Admiralty Committee of the
duties which were about to devolve upon that
other now abandoned committee, being carried
upon Lord PALMERSTON'S second motion
upon the subject last evening, by a majority
of 96, against no more than 33 dissentients. Now
that the matter is thus simplified, now that
the various evils complained of are brought
under the scrutiny of one comprehensive
committee of investigation, let us hope that
the fifteen members of the new Committee
will labour, with a will, in veritable earnest,
heart and soul, con amore, conscientiously, patrioti-
cally in carrying their inquiries to an issue that
will sweep away the thousand and one abuses so
long festering in the Admiralty, and lead, with all
convenient speed, to its solid and satisfactory re-
construction.

"Peace at any price"—is the proposal of the
now famous Peace Conference at Washington. It
was held to bring about reconciliation between
slavery and freedom, and the Border States were to
be the mediators--the result of their conference in
this critical juncture is now before the world, and
the world will certainly be •of opinion that if the
Republican party accept it their position in history
is disgraced for ever. It is a proposal again of
compromise ; of that which has worked so fatally
for the Union hitherto, and which if accepted
would as certainly be again fruitful in heartburn-
ing and disunion.
On the face of it the plan of the conference damns
slavery while seeking to save it. It is, and rightly
enough, ashamed of the very name of its client.
It dares not use the word slavery. Through-
out the seven sections, it does not venture
to call a spade a spade. It must find some
such expression for slavery, as an implement for
loosening and inverting the earth would be for a
spade. " Persons held to labour," or "to servi-
tude," and " involuntary servitude," are the cant
beneath which the moral obscenity of slavery is
concealed. After all the praises bestowed on this
diabolical institution, its advocates dare not in the
face of the world introduce the word " slave" into
their proposed amendments of the Republican
Constitution. Can anything mark more emphati-
cally the real conviction of these YELVERTONS of
liberty. They do not like the lawful relation
between master and workman. They want service
for their own advantage and gratification, without
the reciprocal obligations due to the other side; so
they think it.no harm—if not exactly laudable, yet
nothing moron
g—to appropriate the services of those
who are not of the white skin ; just as OUr YEL-
would
, YERTONS appropriate to themselves, if they

could, the persons of the most accomplished ladies

who were not of " gentle blood." The almost ex-
tinct moral sense of these creatures is, however,
awakened a little from .its slumber when it con-
fronts the moral feeling of the great world ; and
the wretches who hold their fellow creatures as
mere goods or chattels, who buy and sell them
as they please, who part husbands, wives, and
families with as little feeling as a farmer sells his
rams, ewes, and lambs separately, who flog and kill
them at their pleasure—these wretches are ashamed
of the only word which means all this, and simper
out instead the delicate phrase, " involuntary ser-
vitude."

As to the proposed compromise itself, though
there are doubtless thousands in the North who are
willing to accept that or any thing else, provided
" the hope of their gains" is left them, it is one
which would disgrace Mr. LINCOLN'S great
party for ever. Mr. SEWARD and the trim-
mers would doubtless take the bait ; but
though not without many misgivings, we have
hope in " honest ABRAHAM LINCOLN." The old
Missouri line of 36 deg. 30 m. is its basis. North
of that line Slavery is not to enter the territories—
South of it may. States formed out of territory on
either side are to enter the Union with or without
Slavery—we beg pardon, "involuntary servitude,"
as they please. The Chicago platform, on the con-
trary, forbids extension of Slavery into any part
of the territories. Other sections protect the slave-
holders in the acquisition of territory by conquest,
with an eye, of course, to Mexico. Others provide for
for the transit through the States of " involuntary
servants," and for their recovery when they have
become voluntary fugitives from involuntary ser-
vice. If the fugitives escape the Marshals of the
United States from any cause, the States in which
they do so are to pay the full value of the fugitive
to his master ! One good section alone appears
among the seven—a clause prohibiting in
every form the foreign slave trade for
ever. To crown the whole, lest these
noble republican enactments should ever
be changed, it is proposed to render them all im-
mutable. At least the consent of all the States is
to be necessary to their alteration ! So far as we
can see the concession is to be all on one side. The
old Missouri line is revived to be sure, but it is after
Kansas had proved that it could be maintained even
if the South abolished it.

" Further correspondence " on the affairs of
Italy, has just been presented, through the Lords,
to the public. It contains little not known before,
excepting the three closing letters, and these we
may hope are the last which will ever pass between
our Foreign Office and the representative of any
monarch of a part of Italy.
On the 20th of February Lord JOHN RUSSELL
writes to the Chevalier DE FORTUNATO, late repre-
sentative here of the King of Naples, to apprise
him that since Gaeta has fallen, and FRANCIS
11. with his Queen left their late domi-
nions the Chevalier " can no longer be accre-
dited at this Court as the representative of the
Government of the King of the Two SICILIES."
Lord JOHN is, at least, guilty of no hypocrisy.
He says,—" I will not on this occasion indulge in
vain regret at the catastrophe which has befallen
the BOURBON dynasty in the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies." We had long foreseen it all, says his
lordship ; we warned you, we warned the late
Monarch ; and so, with every assurance of my per-
sonal esteem, and so forth, farewell.

The ex-ambassador, poor man, cannot help
replying with a rather long justification of his
master and his cause. He too did not play
the hypocrite, he "was not surprised," though he
was pained. The British Government had long
shown such "want of sympathy, of good will, he
would even say generosity," to the King's cause,
that we had paralysed the action of the King, and
emboldened the revolutionists. He wishes Italy
joy of her proposed unity—may she get it ! As to
the young King, he had always sought the good
and prosperity of his subjects. He was not respon-
sible for the faults of the police, and abuses of ad-
ministration which had been left to him; he gave
a constitution, offered Piedmont an alliance which
she was too ambitious to accept, he would have done
anything to be kept on his throne. The writer
might have added that,' unfortunately, there was
one thing he could not do—he could not change the
fact that he was " his father's son"—a BOURBON.
However, now all must be left to the verdict of
History. The ambition, cruelty, and tyranny of
the King of PIEDMONT will be recorded there, and
it will be severely impartial on the disloyal and
immoral means adopted in the south of Italy.

Lord JoHN's reply is of the briefest. Poor Che-
valier FORTUNATO is now out of court. He has no
locus standi in writing to the Foreign Secretary of
.England? he no longer represents any foreign
power. " The same reason," says his lordship,
"which caused me to make the former communi-
cation to you, preclude my replying to your
letter of the 22nd. Personally, he wished to
show the ex-ambassador all courtesy, but their
political relations were at an end—and so
end the relations of England with the kingdom of
the Two Sicilies, for the kingdom itself is no more.
CIALDINI, quite justly tells the Commander of the
garrison of Messina that, he can no longer deal
with him as a soldier but as a rebel. No capitulation
will be accepted—he must surrender at discretion and
if he ventures to fire on Messina, he and his will
soon be handed over to the justice of the in-
habitants. Thus falls, unwept, falls amidst the
joy of all free nations, another hateful dynasty.
Freedom asks but similar sacrifices at Vienna and
at Warsaw, and then Europe would begin to
breathe again. The HAPSBURGS and the ROMAN-
OFFS swept from civilized Europe, and what an
era of progress, of internal improvements, and poli-
tical liberty might at once begin.

THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA V. LOUIS KOSSUTH.
—A case is now pending in the Court of Chancery,
in which the Emperor of Austria has obtained an injunction
to restrain Louis Kossuth from publishing certain notes,
which he has been advised, on high legal authority, that he
can publish without the slightest infraction of British law.
Several gentlemen, including Messrs. White, Coningham,
Stansfeld, M.P.s, and Professor F. W. Newman, feeling
that the resources of the noble exile, who has sacrificed
his all in support of constitutional liberty, must be unequal
to cope with those of Imperial Austria, and desirous of
securing a full and fair hearing of the case, have resolved
(without prejudging the question between the parties) to
endeavour to provide a fund for the purpose of having the
issue raised fairly tried out. They are prepared to act as a
provisional committee to receive subscriptions and see to
their due appropriation. For the present any sum may be
remitted to Mr. J. F. Bontems, 14, Moorgate-street, E.C.,
the hon. secretary.

THE ARMY.—The number of effectives (not in-
cluding officers) on the Ist of February, 1861, is returned
as follows :

On the British establishment—At home . 82,410
In the colonies ..54,907
On the Indian establishment—ln India ...67,909
At home.., ~, 15,429
Embodied Militia

Total
223,723
The average number of effectives (not including officers) on
the British establishment and embodied Militia in the year
1850 51 was 106,191; in 1855-56 (Crimean war), 214,165;
in 1859.60, 136,456. The average cost per man, calculated
on the absolute expenditure on votes for pay and allowances,
miscellaneous charges, clothing and provisions, fuel and
light, was £46 18s. Bd. in 1850-51, £97 14s. 6d. in 1855-56,
£54 48.5 d. in 1859-60,