The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-26 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 26, 1861,

GHiNA.

Further correspondence respecting affairs in
China has just been presented to the louse of
fiords.' It relates exclusively to the opening of the
two ports of Ilan-kau and Kin-Kiang in the Yang-
In to foreign trade, Mr. Bruce writes to Lora
John Russ!..,ii eh Dee. 2, MO, that under the treaty
of Tien-.kin t; had technically no right to insist
on the immediate opening of the river, but the
capture-. of
,Soo-chow by. the insurgents, and the
bearing of this incident and of the progress of the
rebellion particularly on the import trade, rendered
it most desirable to find an uninterrupted channel
of communication with the
.western provinces of
China.

In furtherance of this object a correspondence took
place between Mr. Bruce and Prince Rung. Mr.
Bruce informs the Prince that he regards it as
expedient that for the present but two ports should
be opened'; namely, Han-kau and lifu-Jiang;
and in order to the prevention of abuses in the
present disturbed state of the river he would pro-
pose that the trade with these be carried on under
the following regulations c—All duties leviable
under the new tariff upon import or export cargoes
on board British vessels proceeding up or down
the river will be payable at Shanghai or Ching-
kiang-fu, and the customs authorities will take'
such steps as seem to them necessary for the,
enforcement of this rule.• Every British vessel
proceeding up or down the river shall be permitted
to carry for her protection such an amount of
arms and ammunition as shall appear to the
Chinese customs to be reasonable, and this
amount of arms and ammunition shall be entered
in a certificate to be called the " Arms Certifi-
cate," which shall be delivered by the customs to
any master of a British vessel applying for it. Any
vessel trafficing in arms or ammunition, or carry-
ing any amount of either in excess of that specified
in her arms certificate, shall be liable to have her
cargo confiscated and to be prohibited from farther
trading on the river.
Mr. Bruce concludes by requesting his Highness
to issue the necessary instructions. Prince Kung
replies, agreeing to Mr. Bruce's proposals. On
Dec. 6 Lord Elgin writes to Lord J. Russell, from
Shanghai, where he was engaged in considering,
with the officers of the Imperial customs and some
of the leading merchants, the conditions under
which the opening of the river might be carried
out :

" If a legitimate trade can be established on this
river I believe that great advantage will accrue
from it, both to the people of China and to the
foreigners who engage in it ; more especially at
present, when the communication between the pro-
ducing districts and the ports on the seaboard ate
obstructed by the rebellion. It will go some way
towards affording to the inhabitants of the interior
a market and security, which are all that a China-
man requires to render him one of the most valu-
able customers. But very different consequences
will, I fear, ensue from this measure if smugglers
and filibusters, under the protection of terror and
exterritoriality, are enabled to avail themselves of
this channel of communication to introduce foreign
arms and recruits into the disturbed districts, and
thereby to extend and perpetuate the reign of
anarchy which threatens to convert one of the most
fertile regions of the earth and its industrious
population into a wilderness haunted by bands of
ruffians. Irregular
and gunpovt; 7,vrofits on consignments of guns
will be dearly purchased if they
are oh--gained by processes which will dry up the
sources of production in the tea and silk-growing
provinces of China. Your lordship can well under-
stand the anxiety which I feel to frame such regu-
lations for the trade on the Yang-tsze as shall keep
in some check, if they do not altogether prevent,
this great mischief."

The three vessels lately ordered are the large one
laid down at Chatham, and two more, which, though
inferior in dimenSions to the Warrior, are somewhat
larger than the Defence and her consort. We have
already, therefore, three classes of Iron-sides, and
we have three specimens of the first class, t*o of
the second, and two of the third. This does not
look like a very liberal provision, but the prepara
tion is more considerable than it appears. f3hips of
this kind arc so large and so costly that they will
always be few in number compared with fleets of
former days, The old 100 gun ship was about 3,000
tons, and cost £lOO,OOO. The Duke of Wellington
is nearly 4,000 tons, and cost upwards of £170,000 ;
but an iron cased vessel carrying 100 guns would,
even on the estimate of those who advocate iron,
be of 10,000 tons burden, and cost three quarters of
a million. It is obvious that fleets composed of
such vessels may be,porerful, but cannot be nume-
rous,. A popular historian has just given us a cir-
cumstantial account of the great Spanish Armada.
It was the largest, the heaviest, and the most for-
midable fleet ever teen upon the ocean. It consisted
of no vessels of unprecedented size, and its entire
tonnage was 59,120. Three Great Easterns, or ten
Warriors, therefore, would outweigh all this
fabulous artnada) and yet the Warrior apparently
is the smallest model likely to serve for our future
lino of battle ships ! Judging by this standard,
we can hardly call the estimates for the ensuing
year insufficient. It used to be said that we could
generally ekpeet to build and launch out of the
funds annually voted three line of battle ships,
three frigates, and three vessels of minor rates.
The aggregate cost of theee vessels, even at the
highest estimate of wooden ships, would be but a
million, or thereabouts, whereas we are proposing
to spend fully that sum upon iron during the year
1861. If we find ourselves at the close of this year
with seven good and efficient iron-cased ships, we
shall not have done badly, and we doubt if any
other Power will be ahead of us. It is evident that
these vessels cost time as well as money, and may
not always succeed. The only point to be observed
is, that we shall certainly not want old ships and
new ships together. If we spend our million on
Warriors, we need not spend it on three-deckers
too. If one fashion actually comes in, the other
will go out, and something, at any rate, of what we
want for new iron-sides rsay be saved out of the
28 line-of battle ships and frigates which we are
still constructing of wood.—Times.

to those who have once taken upon themselves
monastic vows. They cannot, for obvious reasons,
be permitted to reinain in their present residences ;
but others are provided for them, and a pension
sufliclent to meet the wants of the life.to which
they hate devoted themselves.. The Church of
Rome ought to be infinitely indebted to the new
King cf Napb s for relieving her of one of her most
grievous and crying scandals; and happy will be
the day when the same measure can be applied to
the swarms of ecclesiastical vermin—white, black.
and gray,' with all their trumpery—which infest
the streets of Rome, and, indeed, of every town of
the Papal Stai.e.
The first lesson which Southern Italy needs is
to be set to work, and the best example she can
receive is the emphatic discouragement of idleness,
let it cloak itself under whatever pretext it will.
We hope that our own Ecclesiastical Commission
will carefully peruse and inwardly digest these
Neapolitan decrees. Thay will observe, 110 doubt,
with much surprise that the sums realised by the
suppression of Monasteries are appropriated to
purposes very different froth those inhich
they have been in the habit of regarding
as sound and canonical. We do not find
that a single dacat is devoted to raising the
salary of a bishop, nor even of a dean, nor that the
construction of new palaces absorbs any part of the
fund, These, which we all know well to be the
chief cares of oUr Ecclesiastical Commission, have
been unaccountably neglected in Italy, and, instead
of them, money is to be spent on improving the
incomes and relieving the wants of the poor clergy.
What a pity that M. Cavonr during his many visits
to England did not place himself in communication
with some of our bishops, from whom perhaps he,
might have learnt the true principles of ecclesiasti-
cal appropriation, and thus spared us the pain of
seeing the reputation of the first Liberal Govern-
ment in Italy tarnished by practices which must of
course be wrong, since they are in such marked and
total contradiction to our own'—Tunes.

LAW INTELLIGENCE, _Feb. 25.

COURT OP COMMON PLEAS.

(Sittings in Banco, before Mr. Justice Williams
and Mr. Justice Willes.)

EEADE V. CONQUEST-THE RIGHT TO DRAMATISE

NOVELS.
This case involved the question whether the
dramatising a novel Without the consent of the
author is any breach of copyright.
Mr. Justice Williams, in delivering judgment,
said that the declaration alleged that the.plaintiff
was the registered proprietor of the copyright in a
' tale called Never Too Late to Mend," and that
the defendant, without the consent of the plaintiff,
dramatised the said novel and caused the drama to
be publicly represented at the Grecian Theatre for
profit. To this count there was a demurrer, and it
was insisted by the defendant that what he had
done was not an infringement of the plaintiff's
copyright therein. The Court was of opinion that
in this the defendant was right. The right claimed
by the plaintiff was two-fold ; and first he con-
tended that his statutable right had been in-
fringed by the defendant. It was laid down in
"Coleman v. Wathen " that the public repre-
sentation of a dramatic piece on the stage was
not a publication within the meaning of the
statute of Anne ; and the sth and 6th Victoria,
cap. 45, defined copyright to be " the sole and
exclusive liberty of printing, or otherwise mul-
tiplying copies.' This seemed to furnish a com-
plete answer to the plaintiff's claim under statute. '
The plaintiff's main reliance, however, was placed
upon this, that even if his statutable right had not
been infringed, he had a common law right concur-
rent with but more extensive than that possessed
under the statute, and that such common law right
had been invaded by the defendant. It was net
necessary to consider whether anterior to the statute
of Anne there existed a copyright at common law
in published books ; but there could be no doubt
that in Lord Mansfield's time the weight of autho-
rity was in favour of such a right, though the doc-
trine had found less favour in more modern times.
But the continued existence of such a copyright
after the statute of Anne was distinctly denied, in
the celebrated case of Donaldson v. Buckett, by
the majority of the judges, and the case itself de-
cided that no such common law right existed after
the expiration of the period for which the statute
gave copyright. The question therefore was nar-
rowed to this—whether the statute of Anne, having
put an end to such right after the prescribed period,
it was yet preserved during that period. His
lordship having quoted some cases, expressed the
opinion of the Court.that copyright in published
works existed only by statute.
Judgment for the defendant.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—CARLISLE, Feb. 22.

Thomas Scott was indicted for an assault with
intent to commit a rape upon Margaret Agar, at
Dalston, on the 13th of January last.
Mr. MiOubrey prosecuted, and Mr. Campbell
Foster defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prisoner is an innkeeper at
Dalston, and the prosecutrix was his female ser-
vant, who had been in his service about a fortnight.
The prosecutrix (by no means a prepossessing-look-
ing young woman) wore that on Sunday, the 13th
of January, her mistress and three of the children
were driven out in a gig by the servant boy to a
neighbouring village, about two o'clock, to make a
call, leaving her master and his eldest child, a
girl nine years of age, at home. Her master sent
the little girl to a shoemaker's for some shoe-
strings, and during her absence he followed
the prosecutrix upstairs to her bedroom, and threw
her down on the bed, where she struggled with
him for 20 minutes, screaming out as loudly as she
could for assistance, when her master said " whist !"
jumped off the bed, and ran behind the door,
and immediately afterwards she heard a foot
on the stairs, and her mistress entered the
room, having returned from making her call. Her
mistress immediately said to the prisoner, " Oh,
Tom, Tom ! what have you been doing to that poor
girl ?" Her master said "Nothing," and " I beg
your pardon, Betsy; I will never do so again."
The prosecutrix followed them downstairs, and saw
the servant boy in the kitchen, to whom she showed
a tear in her frock, and said her master had been
ill-using her. She then went to a neighbour woman,
who lived in the yard, and showed her her frock,
and told her the same thing. At night she went
to the constable and told him, and next morning
got a warrant against her master and went home.
On cross-examination the prosecutrix stated that
she kept screaming as loudly as she could all the
time. She denied that she had tried to conceal

herself under the bed when her mistress had entered
the room. The church was close to the house, and
the people were leaving the church at the time.
The other witnesses called confirmed the prosecu-
trix's statement that she had complained to them
and shown them her torn dress; but none of
them heard any outcry whatever, and the ser-
vant boy was in the yard putting up the pony a
quarter of an hour before he went into the house
after his mistress, and was in the kitchen a short
time before the prosecutrix came down stairs, and
heard no cries.
For the defence it was contended that, though
the act of the master in pulling his servant girl
about was most improper, yet that whatever had
been done was with her perfect assent, and that
her statement about her outcries and struggles was
not to be believed ; for not a soul in that quiet
village on a Sunday afternoon had heard any out-
cry, nor had the servant boy, who was actually in
the house at the time. As the prisoner's mouth
was closed, and his wife could not be called to give
evidence, the jury must weigh the girl's .evidence
with the facts proved. It was suggested that,
having been caught by her mistress, sne had sud-
denly turned round and accused her master of
assaulting her in the way she had described to
save her character, and, to make good her story,
had shown a tear in her gown to the servant boy
and the neighbour ; and except this evidence,
which she had made for herself as an afterthought,
there was nothing to corroborate her story.
His lordship having summed up the evidence
with much care,
The jury, after a short consultation, acquitted
the prisoner.

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