The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, 1.0 M) N, SATURDAY EVENING JANUARY 4, 18C8

Noth :lig could Weaken the effect of this
manifesto with intelligent men everywhere
more than this presumption. It would be as wise,
and not less so, to suppose that the. soil of Ireland
must riot be treated in accordance with the prin.
ciplei of agricultural chemistry. It is, in fact
of the T:,est promise for Ireland, as well as for tin
rest a the empire, that our legislation is prett3
certai-a to be in harmony with the ascertained prin.
ciples which regulate the increase ald distribution
of wer.lth, and that the foremost political econo-
misti in. Parliament and in the country are amongst
these prepared to do the most for Ireland.
Wheu we assert that the power of the British
Parliament is equal to the requirements of Ireland
history seems to be against us. In reality it is
much in our favour. We have to remember that
for centuries there was no attempt to govern Ire-
land for Ireland's weal. With the statesmen of
ELIZABETH it passed into a proverb that the welfare
of England demanded that " Ireland must be
kept down." In accordance with that senti-
ment she has been governed. The attempt to
promote her welfare is recent ; the rule to treat her
as fairly as any other part of the empire came into
operation only a few years back. That every
remnant of misrule has not been swept away with
every remnant of is not wonderful. Abuses
that have had the growth of ages are rooted toe
deeply to be plucked up in a day. Our friends
across the Channel should keep in mind that the
power of the English Parliament has no defini-
tion, no limit. The weakness with which
it has dealt with Irish grievances in the past
no more bars the way in its dealings with them for
the future than its neglect of education in England
is a presumption that education will continue to be
neglected. There is no other Constitution in the
world so obedient to the popular voice, so plastic
to the national will, as that of the United King-
dom. The American Fenians take refuge in the hope
of establishing a Republic after the American
pattern. We must decline their recommendation,
with thanks. We have a political machinery which
works out its results with more certainty and with
more expedition than a Presidential Government
can possibly do. The will of the people here is
la* ; no President can restrain it ; and Ireland will
possess the power of making her will felt as effec-
tively- as England or Scotland. It is to this object
legislation should now be directed. It is not in
independent, but in unclogged political action that
the sister island will find a remedy for her evils.
Measures must be taken to effect a genuine repre-
sentation of the national will. The present mem-
bers for Ireland do not represent Ireland. Intimi-
dation and turbulence vitiate a large number of the
elections. It is notorious that in many con-
stituencies freedom of the suffrage is unknown
to a majority of those who vote. In a great mea-
sure Parliament has legislated for Ireland in the
dark, and the worst of her abuses found the
stoutest champions in Irish members. The evil is
obvious, but it is not irremediable. Of future
things few can be more certainly predicted than that
Parliament will insist on the same freedom of popu-
lar election in Ireland that prevails in Britain.
That secured, we believe all else will follow.
In short, unless it can be shewn that the interests
of England are in the way of Irish reform, which
has not been attempted, the only advantage which
can be claimed for a separate Irish Legislature is
that it would be able to devote more attention to
Irish subjects. On the same. plea, Scotland and
Wales might ask for separate Parliaments.
The experience of all nations is against
it. The Americans find •it necessary to
restrict and overrule the State Governments.
The people of Germany are tending towards centra-
lisation. The best statesmen of Hungary prefer
the Reichsrath to the Diet. And the reason is
obvious. Petty legislation has always become the
prey of faction. Without at all disputing the pos-
sibility that -Ireland could govern herself, we can-
not doubt that as a part of the United Kingdom
she will be governed bAtcr.

The condition of affairs in the Southern planta-
tion as described by General GILLEN, Freedmen's
Commissioner for Mississippi, is anything but en-
couraging. We publish today the news brought
by the Russia, from New York on Christmas-day,
and it will be seen that matters southward are
assuming a very serious aspect. The difficulty is
not one which takes its origin in political ambition
or any interested agitation, but it owes its existence
to practical necessities. The planters are unable
from the failure of the cotton crop to pay the freed-
men, who are consequently discontented, and are
forming organisations and threatening the public
peace. It is no great wonder that they should
feel incensed and irritated. They have been
told to work for their living and not to
rely upon the aid of Government, and yet
when they have worked they find themselves
without their reward. They may justly complain,
that neither are they free from all care for their
own provision as in the old days of slavery, nor
are they able to provide for their own necessities
by the fruits of their own labour. It is only fair
while censuring the negroes for the excesses which
they are committing, to remember the painful and
distressing position in which even those negroes who
are willing to exert themselves are now placed by
the prevailing scarcity and destitution of the
South. On the other hand, the planters can
hardly be blamed, for as a climax to their long
series of misfortunes the cotton crop has this year
fallen far short of the estimate. In Missis-
sippi, General GILLEM reports that it will, not
half realise expectation, and so threatening is the
aspect of the negroes that the civil authorities
are apprehensive that they will be unable to avert
collisions without military aid. General ORD has
directed General GILLEM to proceed to Washington
in order to represent the starving and discontented
condition of the freedmen, and the necessity for
devising sime national measure to feed them and
avert a war of races. General ORD has commanded
the arrest of all able-bodied freedmen who refuse to
work, and this is a wise and reasonable measure; only,
as we have seen, it will not meet the difficulties of
the case, since, even if they work, they are not cer-
tain to receive payment. In the interior of North
Carolina armed bodies of negroes are committing
excesses. In Louisiana the Freedmen's Commis-
sioner has announced that henceforth the agents in
that State are only to act as attorneys for negroes
in legal disputes in the civil courts. Two perplexi-
ties arising from the State Conventions are an-
nounced. In Georgia the State Treasurer has
refused to pay the expenses, and in Alabama
General POPE has declared that the ordinances
passed will not be recognised until the new State
Constitution has been ratified. The evils wrought
by the Radical policy cannot be undone in a day,
however complete the change in public opinion. At
the close of the war, when the Southern people
accepted Northern government, and the whole
oountry was exhausted by the struggle, the efforts
of Northern statesmen in the interest of all
parties should have been directed to healing
the national wounds, rebuilding public credit,
restoring confitler,ce, and resuscitating enterprise.
Under the best of :management the task would not
have been an eas y one, for the Southern States
had been for the most part completely desolated
by the ruthless armies of the North. Crops and
plantations, horaesteals and manufactories, cities
and villages load been wasted by fire and sword,
and the bloo4 and treasure of the people poured
orth with a lavishness that had exhausted the
energies of the country. Still, under happier
auspices, yyp might by this time be con-

templating a very different state of things.
The influx of Northern capital which would have
accompanied the restoration of confidence and tran-
quillity would have helped to rebuild trade and
revive commerce, and the people themselves when
they had once roused themselves from the shock of
defeat, would have laboured with a will in the re-
storation of their fortunes. But where there was
no security for life, freedom, or property, where the
processes of the civil courts were liable to
interruption by military orders, there was no
chance of a social and commercial revival.
The lesson has at last been learnt by the majority
of the body politic, but worlds of loss and suffering
might have been spared both North and South by
the earlier adoption of a more truly national and
magnanimous policy.

CORRESPONDENCE PROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, FRIDAT, Jan. 3.

I commence my letter by writing a curious fact. Isaron
Marochetti died at Passy, yet the Paris papers of to-day
contain the announcement of the fact in the shape of a
telegram from London !

The cold still continues. The thermometer tins morn-
ing is rather more than nine degrees below freezing point.
The announcement has been received that at the request
of a high personage, whose name may be left to your
readers to guess, the Holy Father has conferred the car-
dinal's hat on M. Darbois, the archbishop of this city.
For those who like romance I give the following.
There is a restaurant in the Route de Vincennes, which is
kept by a young widow. Ono, of her waiters, named
Apo?Hilaire, a few days back ventured to address her
in a letter making a formal proposal of marriage,
saying that a refusal would be his death. The
only answer he received was a summary dismissal
from his employment. Two evenings ago he suddenly
presented himself before his late mistress whilst she was
seated at the comptoir, and saying, " I told you that you
would be the cause of my death ; I shall die on the scaf-
fold !" he took a pistol from his pocket, and pointing it
at the woman, drew the trigger, but fortunately the arm
missed fire, and he was secured by the police.
A letter from Florence informs me that the efforts to
form a Ministry have not advanced to a successful issue.
I see it stated by L'Etendard that in spite of the reco,g-
mtion of the union of Northern Germany, the envoys
of Saxony, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-
Altenburg, Saxe-Meiningcn, the two Mecklenburgs, and
the free town of Oldenburg, still retain their posi-
tions as representatives of those States at the Court of
Paris.

No less than eight newspapers are accused of furnishing
" unauthorised reports" of the debates in the Corps
lAgislatif. These are the Temps, the Opinion Nationale,
the Avenir National, the Epoque, the Journat de Paris, the
Gazette de France, the Intent Public, and the Constitutionnet.
The prosecution is really directed. against the leading arti-
cles, for all the papers in question have published the
Governmental reports of the proceedings. M. Pinard
seems determined to act with rigour, if not with wisdom,
in his new office.

Let me give you an illustration of the way in which art
collectors may be deceived. In 1864 M. de Nolivo bought
at Florence a bust of Girolamo Benivieni, the friend of
Pico della Mirandolla and Savonarola, which was
exhibited in Paris. It was there pronounced by
connoisseurs to be the work of either Minoda
Fiesole or Benedetto du Majano, date 1490-1510. When
M. de Nolivo's collection was brought to the hammer here
last year, the Government paid an enormous price for the
bust, which was placed in the Louvre. It now turns out
that the work was executed by a living artist residing at
Florence, named Giovanni Freppa. Of this there is no
doubt. Certificates have been produced in the proper
quarters, from Freppa himself, as well as from a sculptor
of Florence who saw him model the bust, and a workman
in a tobacco manufactory, who declares the bust to be an
excellent likeness of a comrade who sat as a model to
the artist.

The brother of the Tycoon had an interview with the
Emperor and Empress this morning.

The Prussian Ambassador has left Paris to-day for
Berlin. He is expected to return in ten days.
The second meeting of the Council of Honour has been
held at M. Berryer's. ViscouLt de Kerv6guen requiring
another month for the preparation of his defence, the
Council has adjourned till the 17th.

In the opinion of the Temps, Europe was never in such
a position as at present. Public opinion, though enlight-
ened enough to see the dangers of the future, is not strong
enough to avert them.

The Debats, judging from the tone of the Austrian press,
puts credence in the imminence of a crisis in the East.
The Wanderer, of Vienna, argues that Russia must either
compromise or lose altogether her prestige in the eyes of
the Christian subjects of Turkey, or she must apply the
match to the combustibles which she has been accumu-
lating for many years in the East.
The Vienna Official Gazette characterises the statements
of a Russo-Prussian alliance against Austria as untruths
designedly promulgated.
Intelligence has been received from Constantinople to
the effect that General Ignatieff had been received by the
Sultan in secret audience, a fact which had given rise to
considerable discussion. It is also asserted that officers of
the Russian staff were engaged prior to the journey of
General Bibikoff in taking plans of the Bosphorus and the
environs of the capital. The question of the Principalities
had been discussed at an interview between the Sultan and
the Austrian Ambassador, and a deputation from Monte-
negro had arrived to ask for the cession on the side of
Albania to a territory almost equal to the Principalities.
At the time of his death Baron Marochetti was staying
with the Countess de Sade, his sister-in-law, at Passy. He
was on his way to Brussels, to be present at the marriage
of his eldest son.
A letter from Alexandria mentions that general conster-
nation prevails amongst the trading classes. The Govern-
ment is dismissing its servants, being largely in their debt,
and the Treasury is empty.
Lord Ranelagh at length formally announces himself as
a candidate for the representation of the new borough of
Chelsea. Sir Henry Hoare and Mr. Wentworth Dilke
have for some time been in the field in the Liberal
interest.

The return of Mr. Henry Winterbotham as M.P. for
Stroud has been celebrated by a dinner. Many of the
local Liberals expressed themselves as dissatisfied with Mr.
Florsman's political conduct in the present Parliament.
Mr. Winterbotham, in reply to the toast of his health,
expressed his confidence in the politi. al character and
honesty of the new constituency. He fears 1, however,
that the operation of the Boundary Commission would in-
crease the power of the landed proprietors. The hon.
member recommended, as a cure for Fenianism, the abo-
lition of the " standiLg insult to Ireland --the Irish
Church."
Considerable dissatisfaction has been felt at what has
been thought the abrupt conduct of the Colonial Secretary
to Sir George Grey, who has been recalled from the gover-
norship of New Zealand. The John Bull points out that
Sir George Grey's term of office had expired. He has not
been recalled, but simply not reappointed. However
successful in his first governorship of New Zealand and at
the Cape, he has, by the admission of all parties, failed at
the last to sustain his reputation.
A recent letter from "A Briton," in the Times, recom-
mending the adoption of martial law in Ireland, has
attracte.l some attention. The writer argued that Eng-
lishmen had not dared to give the words full utterance,
" because the cruel and cowardly treatment of Mr. Eyre is
in their memories. A cowardly Secretary of State, with
his dastardly colleagues, gave up to the fury of leagues
and conventicles a man who braved all to save Jamaica.
The men who now tremble at the undeveloped dangers of
Fenianism are haunted by the memory of their own part
in that miserable persecution, and dare not ask boldly for
that which they know can alone save Ireland." The
Star expresses its astonishment that a respectable
English journal should venture to give publication
to a letter applying the most outrageous epithets to Mr.
Cardwell and his colleagues. It maintains that if we
cannot by statesmanship cure the Irish distemper, we
must prepare for a mighty struggle at no distant period
such as America has lately passed through, in which every
family must be prepared to sacrifice its best and bravest to
defend the supremacy of the English race over a discon-
tented dependency.

The Spectator reminds the Times that it at least sup-
ported " the cowardly Secretary of State and his das•
tardly colleagues." Does it now repent, or fancy that
Englishmen repent, of the bare justice they did
Jamaica? If so, it is about time that the said ex-
Secretary and his colleagues should return to office to save
England from bloodthirstiness like that of this silly, slan-
derous, and anonymous " Briton." The Daily News speaks
of the letter in terms of the strongest condemnation. For
the sake of English spirit and character, the Telegraph
thinks that such a whisper of blind vengeance must meet
with stern denunciation. If the civil arm, sustained and
obeyed by the military, and fortified by all the loyal
and peace-loving millions of this realm, be not enough to
save Ireland from her Fenian enemies, till we have
time to do her legislative justice, then already she is .lost
to us.

The Bishop of Capetown is still in London, appealing
for funds on behalf of South African missions. At a
recent meeting in Lambeth the right rev. prelate said that
he considered it a reproach to England that it had done so
little for his diocese and the district around. He was
anxious to procure more bishops for it, and was collecting
money for the purpose. He, however,had notyet obtained
any one to take the place of Bishop of Natal. He spoke
of Sir George Grey, the ex-Governor of New Zealand, in
high terms, and thought the Government had not acted
well in recalling him.
The Bishop of London has addressed a pastoral letter to
his clergy, in which he hints at a change in the conduct of
his future confirmations. His lordship, who is in his 57th
year, finds that age and hard work are beginning to tell
upon him. Therefore, he will be present annually only at
a certain number of the principal churches, while Bishop
Anderson, the chancellor of St. Paul's, will be his deputy
in those cases in which the right rev, metropolitan is un-
able to appear in person.