The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times is anxious for us to bear in mind that the
new year will not have done many mouths of its weary
work before it brings us fresh, and, perhaps, still more
painful illustrations of the evils which sit heavily on the
public breast, and disquiet the peace of a great nation.
But what remedies do we expect it to bring ? At home,
at our very doors, there is a widespread conspiracy, the
professed objects of which are ridiculous, but which is daily
becoming more reckless and more mischievous. That is
the evil case in which we begin the yettr at home, and it
cannot be forgotten that circum7tances may arise, fro
beyond the seas, which may teach us to our cost what itm is
to have a divided family. But England hardly know 6
better how to deal with her own industiial difficulties—
sometimes even more embarrassing than these fantastic
Irish delusions. Our trades unions have lately suffered
disgraceful exposures and signal reverses but the spirit
remains, and there is not a branch of enterprise that is not
endangered by it. Every day brings new proofs of the
advance made by our foreign rivals, while our masters are
engaged in internecine feuds with their men. For this
and similar evils we might look for relief to improved
education, amended law, higher commercial morality, and
a sounder state of trade. But here are the very tasks
which seen: only to grow as we gaze at them, and elude
our grasp when we would handle them. He must be a
veif sanguine man who expects to see before he dies a
national education which, without offending class preju-
dices and violating religious scruples, shall reach all the
children of industry and really prepare them to do their
duty in their station of life. Can we expect even an
earnest of such a measure this year? For some time past
Parliament has been oscillating on the subject, alternating
between liberality and cheapness, between progress and
accuracy, between insulated efforts and comprehensive
results. As to law, the stoutest British spirit must feel
itself crushed at the colossal work before it. That we are
actually driven into the path that leads to codification only
spews the general sense of impossibility that paralyse:,
law reformers. Then, we come to what seems even a snore
utterly hopelec.s affair, as beyond the reach of all laws and
all legislatures. .What is to be done to resuscitate, not
commercial credit', A commercial morality? What can
be done to close the gambling-houses which a nation sorely
addicted to respectable disguises tolerates and encourages
under the pretence of legitimate enterprise? The financial
management of the immense and complicated companies
we have allowed to grow up among us, and to share among
them these isles and this metropolis, now passes all con-
trol, all simplification, all conclusion. They defy remedy
as if they were huge natural disasters. Will the year now
commenced see even daylight in this junglepf mad specu-
lation and scarcely questionable management? England
has, it is true, taken a new lease of her public life, in the
shape of a Reformed House of Commons, which is to
be--at once popular, honest, and wise. That hope is
for future years. This year we have to complete the
great measure, the utmost possible glory of which will
be that it reflects the national character, for good and
for ill.

Perhaps, consolingly urges the Telegraph, we must not
expect any improvement in our revenue returns while
commercial depression continues, but the most inveterate
grumbler will admit that business must revive some day,
and with it national prosperity. A very slight circum
stance may bring about a revival. An unexpected an-
nouncement that the Abyssinian war had closed might,
by giving a fillip to the languid energies of the nation, at
once start us on the road to recovery. Such would
unquestionably be the effect of peace on the Continent
and a fair prospect of an abundant harvest. We must,
further, bear in mind that the dulness of which we com-
plain is due to a complication of causes. The wants of
the world do not cease, though the operations by which
they are satisfied may for a season be curtailed, and the
industry of civilised Europe will speedily be summoned to
put forth renewed exertions. A-revival may take place at
an unexpected time and in a most unforeseen way, and
our rational revenue will at once benefit by the wholesome
impetus. Meanwhile, of course, it is not a nice New
Year's gift which Mr. Disraeli has just put on our break-
fast tables. But, in addition to the vague hope of better
things, we may console ourselves with the reflection that
we are better off than many of our neighbours. When
the tide begins to turn, Great Britain will certainly not
be the last to profit by the change.
The Herald reminds us that our merchants are conti-
nually pressing towards new points of departure from the
sea to tale great crowded interiors of the East ; and in the
long run, impatient as we may be of the process, we de
advance. Within living memory our importation of tea
amounted to no more than the sixteenth part of an ounce
a day to each individual. And so we might run through
the category, proving how large the development hat
been, but proving also how slight it is in comparison with
the practical facilities of the universal market. In Europe
ecmmercial treaties are even more difficult to negotiate
than in Asia ; but we are carrying our commerce vic-
toriously into nearly all its harbours, the statistics of
which are, on the surface, satisfactory. In reality arc they
so ? The Board of Trade return states that " the exports
are stated at their declared value, the imports at their
computed real value." This, of course, is an utterly fal-
lacious estimate, because with these declared and com-
puted values we never really know—never, that is to say,
with any practical certainty—what becomes of our mer-
chandise shipped, whether for foreign countries or the
colonies. The fluctuations of those markets consume the
profits of the home producer, and this is an active cause
of the discrepancy we behold between the nominal immen-
sity of our commerce and the frequent tremblings of our
positive social prosperity. The main figures, grand as they
are, suggest a sensation of pride, which the underlying
facts in some measure destroy. We are apt to forget that
there are panics in the East as in the West, and that we
have to deal where the exchanges are not less precarious
in their operations than those of Europe.
The Stcr confesses that it would face the future, even
when it began to brighten, with a most assured thankful-
ness and serenity if philosophers and legislators had
done their best to equalise the vicissitudes of speculation,
and to make it at once the obligation and the policy of
traders to trade soundly as well as to venture spiritedly.
If this were only a moral aspiration our contemporary
would not obtrude it in a financial article, but it believes
it to be capable of practical fulfilment by commercial
legislation, and with facts and figures to prove the
existence for nearly two years of panic and stagnation, it
is high time the question should be seriously dealt with.
People not at all bitten by currency monomania are in-
clined to: believe that Chancellors of the Exchequer
have hitherto viewed commercial crises too exclusively
through the gold spectacles of Bank directors. As to our
present fiscal condition, we are reduced to the meagre and
miserable form of gratitude which confesses that "it
might have been worse." Or, in Mr. Gladstone's more
graceful language, though absolutely the state of the
revenue is discouraging, it is better, relatively to the
circumstances we have been passing through, than we could
at any former period have expected.
The Daily News is highly pleased at the choice which
has been made at Eton. It says: In selecting the rev.
James John Hornby as Dr. Balston's successor, we
believe the Provost and Fellows have shown a wise dis-
crimination, and have deserved well of the school and of
the country. Mr. Hornby was, of course, an Eton boy,
and, we may add, a boy distinguished alike in the studies
and the games for which Eton is renowned. But he is
something more than an Eton man. He has been an
active and able tutor at Brasenose College, Oxford ; he
d h has been head of a hall at Durham ; ane was until
Tuesday second master at \Vinci-ester, where he has done
much to give a new life to that fine, but somewhat dry
and crusted old public school. It is not perhaps always
the most unexceptionable testimony to the merits of any
man in publie or in private life to say that all his friends
speak well of him. But to have been a popular and dis-
tinguished Eton boy, and in early manhood a fellow and
tutor at two universities, and second master at a public
school, and to have earned in all places and capacities, as
boy and man, as pupil and as master, the general esteem,
seems to indicate a force and superiority of character
which may be pronounced scarcely less important, scarcely
less indispensable, than those intellectual capacities and
attainments, which in this case are certainly not wanting,
to the complete fitness of a Head Master of Eton. Mr.
Hornby has a great career before him at Eton. We cor-
dially trust that a renovated Eton may date from his
reign.

There have been, the Stanlard admits, more blunders
than are necessary in the preliminary arrangements of the
expedition to Abyssinia. There has certainly been
nothing' to discourage us, or to make us lose our faith
either in the commander or in the cause. A certain pro-
portion of loss we must make up our minds to bear, as the
inevitable part of the charge of the Abyssinian war.
But it is both absurd and useless to call fortune to witness
to the dangers of the Abyssinian expedition. Whatever
those dangers are, we are bound to undergo them. We
lave, and have had from the first, literally no choice. To
mil against the war bccAuse of its remoteness and because
of iti difficulty, is surely only the part of a foolish and ill-
conditioned caild. Such as it is we have incurred it, and
WO cannot escape from it. Blunders or no blunders, we
inn4t go through with it, and the necessity- for it would be
neither greater nor less, if the whole army of General
Napier perished before it reached Magdala.

To the Post, it is impossible to avoid feeling more or
lcs carry a'oout panic which has seized en the
public mind as to the designs of Russia in Eastern Eur,-)pe.
it would really matter very little what those designs may
be, if there are designs, for it is quite clear to all men who
know anything of the subject that Russia has no-means
whatever of executing any projects of a hostile nature.
The truth is that the very idea of a war would be in the
last degree distasteful to every man of sane intellect in the
Czar's dominions. Russia has nothing to gain by a war,
and if she had she could not afford the outlay necessary
to accomplish her object, for war is, like most other enter-
prises of importance in this world, an investment which
demands a great deal of capital to be prosecuted success-
fully. All that we hear about Russia at this moment is
mere Petersburg tea-table talk, filtered through a thousand
channels of very doubtful purity, till it reaches us consider-
abiy adulterated and deprived of its original shade of
meaning ; still people who indulge in nervous stimulants
do strange kkins.

THE FENIAN OUTRAGES.

On Christmas Day Mr. Superintendent Wrenn re-
eived informaticn that a man at Dowlais, a large suburb
)f Merthyr Tydvil, had had the Fenian oath administered
;o him. On proceeding to Dowlais ho found the man who
lad taken the oath, whose name was William Casey, and
after some trouble he succeeded in persuading him to give
nformation about the organisation in Merthyr. Casey
hen gave information as to the person who administered
he oath, whose name was Patrick Coffey, 01(03
tlaggerty. The house of this man was searched,
nit he was out ; the house was then carefully
watched until eleven o'clock that night, when the
sounds of men's voices within were heard, and on going up
Ur. Wrenn saw about fifteen men inside, with Casey and
Doffey amongst them. Coffey was singing a seditious song,
-id the company joined in the chorus. After the song had
Seen concluded, Coffey took a hammer, and, brandishing
t about his head, dared any policeman to attack him, on
aain of being brained on the spot. At that moment the
police burst into the room, and captured Coffey and
Casey, the others flying through the back door. Casey
'laving turned informer, the other prisoner, Coffey, wets
brought before the stipendiary justice, Mr. Fowler, on
the following day, and e :dense having been given to the
satisfaction of the magistrates, he was committed for
trial at the next assizes on the charge of administering an
snlawful oath to one of the Queen's subjects. After his
committal there was an unmistakeable expression of
Fenian feeling in the court, and such threats were uttered
against Casey that the magistrate deemed it necessary for
his safety to offer him the asylum of Cardiff gaol, which
he accepted. Since then the town (especially the Irish
quarter) has been in a state of excitement, and all sorts of
reports obtained belief for a time. During Monday night
eight Fenians were captured at Dowlais, and amongst
them were a head centre and two captains. *Their
names are Patrict Doran, head centre of the Dowlais
district, or circle ; Thomas Reardon, captain ; William
Holland, captain ; Patrick Casey, Robert Barrett, John
Marral, Mark Farley, and Patrick Ryan. The prisoners
were arrested, some at their places in the Dowlais Iron-
works, and others at their houses, where they were found
in bed. On Tuesday morning the whole of the prisoners,
whose ages ranged from 24 to 30, and who were all appa-
rently men from the ironworks, were brought up before
Mr.' J. C. Fowler, at the police-court, charged with
treason-felony. The chief constable, Colonel Lindsay,
was present, and Superintendent Wrenn prosecuted. The
prisoners were not defended by any attorney. They were
remanded until Monday next. Farley said it was a great
hardship to confine him—an innocent man—for a whole
week.—Mr. Fowler : If you are innocent it will no doubt
be a hardship; but for the present I have nothing to do
but discharge my duty, and it has been sworn to that
evidence will be forthcoming to justify your remand. The
prisoners were then removed from the dock, and conveyed
by the next train to Cardiff gaol. As soon as the news
got abroad in the town great numbers of the tradesmen
and middle-clans inhabitants repaired to the police-court,
and were sworn in as special constables.
At the Surrey Sessions - house, yesterday, an ex-
tremely numerous and influential meeting of the magis-
trates of that county was held, and on the motion of the
Duke of Northumberland, seconded by the Hon. W.
Brodrick, a resolution was passed expressive of the indig_
nation of the court at the recent Fenian outrages, and of
its conviction that the most severe and active measures
are necessary to suppress a conspiracy which menaces the
very existence of society.
No further light has been thrown upon the raid at Fota.
It now appears that the ladder in this as in many other
towers is a permanent fixture, and was therefore down,
although the original intention was that such ladders
should be drawn up each evening. It is supposed that
the leader of the party on Thursday night was Captain
Mackay, an Irish-American, who was tried and acquitted
at the Irish Special Commission in 1565, and who after-
wards, as second in command, took part in the attack
on Ballyknockane Police-station in March last. 'the
extra military force has been recalled, and only five men
left in charge of the tower. On Friday night a gentleman
who was driving to Queenstown about midnight met two
men closely muffled, who came out of a field as he
approached and asked the way to Carington-hill. He
pointed out the road to them, and they proceeded in the
direction as rapidly as possible.
The story told recently by the captain of a vessel ca
flaring seen boats pulling out from Cork Harbour to sea,
carrying water-casks and bread-bags, and of these boats
having been pursued by a man-of-war boat, is taken to be
mythical. On the night of the alleged occurrence there
was a furious gale blowing from the south-west, in the
teeth of which, and the sea it raised, laden boats such as
those of the supposed privateer could not live, and a man-
of-war launch or long-boat could not move.

LAW AND POLICE.

---

EI4II3EZZLEMENT.—TII7.I. CASES.—Tnrce very
painful' eases of theft or embezzlement have come befor.:
the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House. In one, a con.
fidential clerk to a firm of insurance brokers for eleven
years, was charged with embezzlement to a large amount ;
in the second, a copying clerk, nearly 50 years of age, was
sent to a bank to cash a cheque, and absconded with the
money ; and in the third, a youth of 20, a clerk in the
London and County Bank, abstracted £5 from a sum paid
in by a depositor. The two latter were committed for
trial, and the first remanded.

THE HON. MRS. 'WINDHAM SUMMONED FOR A CAE
FARE.—At the Marylebone Police-court the Hon. Mrs.
Windham was summoned before Mr. D'Eyncourt fot
the sum of 2s. cab fan. She did not, however, answer to
her name. The cabdriver said that after driving the lady
about.for a long time, be charged her 12s. She refused to
pay more than Bs. Complainant offered to take 10s., but
afterwards took Bs., saying he would summon her for the
remaining 2s. Mr. D'Eyncourt ordered the 2s. to be
paid, and awarded the complainant 7s. costs.
'WOUNDED WITH A PISTOL.— Edmund Prest, a youth,
was charged at Manchester with shooting at and wounding
a boy named George Agnew. It appeared that on Satur-
day morning the boy was passing along Slade-lane, Prest-
wich, upon a pony. The prisoner, who was shooting at
birds with a pistol, fired, the small shot with which the
pistol was loaded lodging in the boy's leg and in the side
of the pony. Mr. Mellor, to whom the pony belonged,
stated that a number of pellets had been taken out of the
boy's leg and the pony's side, but neither appeared to be
much the worse, and he hoped the bench would deal leni-
ently with the prisoner. The magistrates cautioned Prest,
and gave effect to Mr. Mellor's wish by fining him 10s.
and costs only, with the alternative of a month's imprison.
ment.

ASSAULT BY A SURGEON.=-- At Walsall, on Monday,
Alfred Freeman, surgeon, was charged with having as-
saulted a boy, aged 10 years, named John Bowring. It
appeared that some lads had rung the defendant's door-
bell, and that he came out, and finding the complainant—
who, with anotherboy, had been for some milk—and, sus-
pecting he was the party who had committed the offence,
knocked him down, kicked him, and knocked one of his
teeth out. The bench ordered the defendant to pay a fine
of 40s. and costs.

THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A POLICEMAN AT PILL.
—Edward Hicks and Thomas Bryant Lave been aga,ir
examined before Colonel Burrowes, on a charge of being
concerned in shooting a policeman named Ogborne at Pill
on the 14th ult. It will be remembered that on the
morning in question the injured constable, who is scarcel3
able to walk, was en his beat on St. George's-common,
near Pill, when he saw two men in front of him with their
peck is very much stuffed out. He hastened after
them, and had nearly overtaken them, when one of
them dropped something. He found on examination t.nat
1, was a number of fowls, dead, but still warm. He
tried to seize the man nearest him, but fell in the attempt,
the man being too far off. On recovering himself the mar
turned round and fired a pistol at,him, and the contents
lodged in the groin. The constable swore positively to the,
identity of Hicks as the person who shot him, but could
not speak so surely as to the prisoner Bryant as the com-
panion of Hicks, he (witness) having been unable to get
close enough to him. Evidence was adduced chewing that
the men had been in the neighbourhood about the tinie of
the occurrence, and that some shot which had been ex-
tracted from Ogborne's wound corresponded with some that
were found in a box belonging to Hicks. Both men
denied the charge, and declared that they were unknown
to each other, but they were both committed for trial. It
is stated that it will be several weeks before Ogborne will
be able to resume his duties.

THE LONDON WATER S UPPLY. —Professor Frank-
lan d reports :—" The results of the analysis of the Kent Corn
pony's water colleted this month at Bromley skew that ii

is of an entirely different character from that delivered.by
the same company at Deptford. Not only is the previous
sewage contamination of the Bromley water very high,but
the presence of a large amount of ammonia shews the con-
tamination to have occurred very shortly before the water-
was delivered to consumers. The use of this water for
domestic purposes is very undesirable."
A GOOD IDEA. —A contemporary says it is
intended to instruct the large population of Stratford in
the most prominent questions of the day by means of a
course of four political lectures. The first, on January 20,
is by Mr. Anthony Trollope, the well-known writer, on
" Politics as a Study for Common People." Sir Fowell
Buxton, M.P., will occupy the chair. The other three
lectures on the Mondays following are by Mr. Mason
Jones on " Work for the New Parliament ;" by Mr.
Joseph Bormond on " The Ballot ;" and by Mr. Caryel..
Williams on ".The Irish Church."

FINANCIAL EVENTS OF THE .YEAR.

Subjoined is a summary of the principal finan-
cifil, commercial, and other events of the year
1867 :

.JANUARY.

Ist, Consols 90. Bank of England bullion
£19,247,859 ; Bank of France, ditto, £28,580,000.
7th. Resolution in Congress for impeachment of
President Johnson ; subsequently abandoned. Re-
suscitation of the Agra Bank.
14th. News of great fire at Yokohama, Japan ;
less £500,000, of which £163,000 was insured in
London.

17th. Chilian loan of £2,000,000 6 per cent.
stock issued by Messrs. J. S. Morgan and Co.,
;It price equivalent to 811, secured by mortgage
on the Customs ; Flyable in instalments extending
to November. Total applications 17 millions.

FEBRUARY.
sth. Opening of Parliament by the Queen in

person.

7th. Bank discount reduced from 31 to 3 per
cent.

11th. Fenian plot at Chester to seize the Castle
discovered and frustrated.
14th. Fenian riots in the south of Ireland.
18th. Queensland Loan of £550,000 in Six per
Cent. Debentures, announced at 91.

19th. Danubian 8 percent. loan for £1,264,420,
announced by Fruhliug and Goschen at 71 (or reck-
oning allowances 684), secured by certain State
domains and Customs' dues.

MARcll.

2d.—Subscriptions invited for £250,000 deben-

tures of the Ceylon Government. at 108, redeem-
able at par in 15 years ; only £90,000 was sub-
scribed, and the balance was withdrawn until the
30th of November, when £lOO,OOO was offered and
subscribed at £lOB 13s. 6d.

25th.—Strike of engine-drivers on Brighton Rail-
way ; terminated on the following day.

APRIL.

4th.—Budget introduced by Mr. Disraeli. Sur-
plus for past year, £2,654,162 ; estimated re-
venue for current year, £69,340,000 ; expenditure,
£68,134,000, showing surplus of 21,206,000. Pro-
posal to cancel 24 millions of debt held by Savings-
banks' Commissioners by granting an annuity of
£1,776,000 for 18 years, the extra annual expense
of which will be £1,056,000, although the increase
for 1867-8 will be only £750,000. Also, proposal
to reduce marine insurance duties to uniform rate
of 3d. per cent., absorbing £210,000, and thus bring-
ing surplus down to £246,000.
sth—Expiry of annuity from Government to the
Bank of £585,740, granted in 1823 for 41 years,
and commonly called the " dead weight."
6th.—Fall of 2 per cent. in the French funds on
apprehension of war with Germany on the Luxem-
burg question. Three per Cent. Rentes, 66.
Bth.—Panic on the London Stock-Exchange from
apprehension of war between France and Germany.
Consols, 898. Despatch of two ironclads in Gib-

raltar in relation to the question of the capture of
the Victoria, which was shortly afterwards satis-
factorily settled by the Spanish Government.
20th.—Improvement in the Stock-markets by re-
moval of apprehensions of war between France and
Prussia—a Conference on the Luxemburg question
having been agreed to at the instance of the neutral
Powers.

30th.—During the whole of this month, and
mostly through the rein:tinder of this year, con-
tinued and extreme depression characterised the
railway market, owing to adverse disclosures re-
garding the financial position of the Brighton
and subsequently of the Caledonian.

MAY.

11th.—Treaty between France, Prussia, and the
other leading Powers for the neutralisation of Lux-
emburg signed in London.
13th.—New South Wales Five per Cent. Loan
for £832,000, subscribed at 851.
30th.—Bank of England rate reduced to 21 per
cent.

31st.--Bank of France rate reduced .to 21 per
cent.

During this month a rally of 5 per cent. was esta
blished in Consols.

JUNE.

6th.-- Attempt at Paris to assassinate the Em-
peror of Russia.
Sth.—Russian Loan of £2,000,000 in 5 per cent.
guaranteed bonds of the Oriel and Vitebsk Railway,
at 77i, introduced by Messrs. Thomson, Bonar,
and Co.

11th.--Bill introduced in the Spanish Cortes for
settlement of the Passive Debt. The terms pro-
posed practically involved confiscation, and excited
great dissatisfaction on the part of the bishops. The
Government, however, declined every appeal for
less inequitable conditions.

19th.—Disclosures before the Sheffield Trades'
Union Commission of a series of assassinations and
other crimes during a period of ten years by Broad-
head, secretary of the Sawgrinders' Union, and trea-
surer of the National Organisation of Trades'
Unions, numbering 60,000 members.

28th.—Chilian 7 per Cent. Loan for £1,120,920.
introduced by J. S. Morgan and Co., at 89i, reck-
oning allowances.

JULY.

2d.—Receiver in Chancery appointed for Great
Eastern Railway.

3d.—News of the execution of the Emperor
Maximilian at Queretaro in Mexico on the 19th
of June.

12th.—Arrival of the Sultan of Turkey.
18.—Fete to the Sultan by the Corporation of
London.

23d.—Departure of the Sultan.
25th.—Bank rate reduced to 2 per cent.
AUGUST.

3d.—Russian Four per Cent. Railway Loan of
£12,000,000 nominal capital, introduced by Messrs.
Baring, in £2O obligations at 45., but without
obtaining any material subscriptions.

15th.—Judgment delivered in the House of Lords
against appeal of shareholders in Overend, Gurney
(Limited), to escape liability.

21st.—Parliament prorogued.
27th.—Temporary opening of the Mont Cenis
Summit Railway.
28th.—Tenders received by the Government for
steamers for war against Abyssinia.