The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 16, 1868.

for t he consideration of this matter, which may
never. t'aelezis be appropriately regarded at a future

paiod.

The int' )11igence which reaches us from Wash-
ington by the cable shows that the Radicals are
anxious to .f3trengthen their ranks in Congress. On
Thursday the House of Representatives passed a
bill, adm.itting five of the Southern States to repre-
sentation , on condition that they should have rati-
fied the constitutional amendment, and further that
they should never deprive of the suffrage those
persons who are now entitled to vote. That is to
say, the States are only allowed to send their
Representatives to the national assembly so long
as the 'radicals and negroes aro allowed the pre-
ponderance in the constituencies. Such conditional
legislation, pledging the future by the action of the
present, is neither reasonable nor reliable. The
Congress of next year will not abide by the de-
cisions of the Congress now in existence any more
than the Commons of 1869 will be bound by the
vagaries of their predecessors in 1868. If the
Southern States are entitled by the Constitution of
the country to a share in the representAtion, there
can be no reason for making their exercise of that
right conditional on the number or character of
their voters. This is, applying Lord RUSSELL'S
favourite "finality " doctrine on a wholesale scale,
but the march of events and the progress of time
are usually too strong for such stationary theories.
The five States honoured by this conditional ad-
mission are the two Carolinas, Georgia, Ala-
bama, and Louisiana, the very strongholds
of the Confederacy, and consequently the least
likely, if unfettered and unbiassed, to return Radical
members to the national councils. We learn by the
telegram, what we might easily have guessed with-
out its assistance, that the bill in question was passed
by a strict party vote, all the Republicans voting
for it. If it were possible to introduce a few new
members into the Senate in time for the final vote
on the Impeachment the political consequence of-I,
the measure would have been very much greater.
As it is, however, the acts of the House of Repre-
sentatives as at present constituted can hardly affect
the future legislation of the country.
The arrival of the Java, from New York on the
6th, bring us further details of the progress of the
trial, although, of course, the actual news is con-
siderably in arrears of that brought by the tele-
graph. Mr. BINGHAM, in his closing argument
against the PRESIDENT, which he com-
menced on May 4th, went over the old
ground, and declared that the life or death of the
nation depended upon the decision of the Senate.
He laid down in plain terms a doctrine that is suffi-
ciently startling to the impartial observer, and would
certainly not have been accepted by the original
founders of the Constitution of the United States.
The Senate, and not the Supreme Court, according
to Mr. BINGHAM, is the final arbiter in constitu-
tional questions, and is the supreme final judicial
tribunal of the country. If so, the name of
" Supreme Court" is a contradiction in terms, and
should belong to the Senate. All the paraphernalia
of Chief Justice and forms of law are worse than
useless, since they only assume powers which do
not exist. Coming to the popular argument, Mr.
BINGHAM affirmed that it was a fallacy to
pretend that the PRESIDENT was bound to protect
the people from unconstitutional laws, as the
people were the guardians of their own honour, and
Congress was directly responsible to them. To
judge from the results of recent elections, the people
are not very well satisfied with the manner in which
their Representatives have discharged their respon-
sibilities, and we find that the legal opinions of the
country are equally opposed to the convenient con-
stitutional doctrines of the Managers of the trial.
According to the ...Veto York Herald, Mr. FESSEN-
DEN has prepared a legal opinion that the evidence
and arguments of the Managers do not. justify a
conviction, and that STANTON'S case is not within
the Tenure-of-Office Law. What makes thii'more
noticeable is that several Republican Senators
are reported to concur in it. Here lies the
weakness of the Radical cause. Men who are
above the influence of faction, and are in-
dependent in their social and political posi-
tion, will not yield to the arrogant dictation
of such men as STEVENS and SUMNER. In the
House of Representatives the Radicals are not
only numerically stronger, but the politicians are of
a different stamp, and the adventurers and soldiers
of :fortune always go to the winning side. The
Senators have, many of them, other interests to
consider beyond the temporary influence of the
moment, and thus it is not improbable that the
elaborately concocted scheme of the PRESIDENT'S
reckless antagonists may rebound upon themselves,
and the Radical party, " hoist by its own petard,"
may owe its final disruption and discomfiture to
the long-talked of Impeachment.

Following up the remarks which we laid before
the public on the death of HENRI- Lord BROUGHAM,
the far-famed HENRY BROUGIIAM of days of yore,
we cannot help observing that it is not a little
singular that he should have passed away from us
just at the present crisis. We are in the last year
of the old Reform Bill of 1832, and all readers of
the history oof the last thirty years know full well
the interest and Part he took in that great measure;
and, as it was not long ago remarked to us by our
correspondent," A Lover and Observer of Historical
Dates and Facts," Lord BROUGHAM, Lord DERBY,
Lord RUSSELL, and the present Lord GREY,
were a few weeks, not to say days, ago the only
remains of that old and time-worn Whiggery which
carried us through all the struggles of that awful
crisis and drama of 1831-32. Another string of the
harp is now broken—another stone of the house
has fallen. It is an old remark that every string
of an old harp which breaks shows that the harp is
fast wearing out, and has seen the best of its
days. And this is the case with the twilight of
that brilliant mid-day sun which, with the names
of BROUGHAM, GREY, MELBOURNE, ALTRORP,
RUSSELL, STANLEY, and llowlcK ruled this
nation between November, 1830, and May,
1831. Wo then held a position which we
had never before attained, and certainly no
Whig Ministry has ever been able to aspire
to since. Unless we except the twelve years
of the Commonwealth, there never was a time,
certainly there never was an Administration
which so much commanded the esteem, respect,
we might even say the dread and fear, of more
than one party in the State, as did that Ministry,
in which the great man, whose loss we are now
lamenting, for four years held the Great Seal, and
of which he was so illustrious and conspicuous a
member.

Now let us turn from the days of this great man's
prosperity to the days of his comparative adversity.
For all statesmen in opposition are, cmparatively
speaking, in adversity. They are like a surgeon be-
fore he obtains practice, a barrister before he ob-
tains briefs, or a solicitor before he gets into
practice. A Statesman in Opposition is, in
one sense of the word at any rate, down in
the world, and being anxious to raise himself sets
his energies and wits to work. And this was
the case with HENRY lißOUGUAll,—speaking
in round numbers, from the year 1800, when

ho was little more than 30 years of age, that
is, while still a young man, down to 1830,
when he became Lord High Chancellor of Great
Britain : in other words, during the first 30 years
of the present century. And now, last not least,
another important point forces itself upon our
consideration, namely, the wonderful contrast which
exists between the Whig Opposition when it was
headed by HENRY BROUGHAM and Lord GREY, and
the so-called Liberal Opposition of the present time.
We were then ruled by a Ministry which, though
entitled to merit in many respects, nevertheless re-
sisted reform and progress in a most unfair and
shameful manner, and which, in consequence, was
not unjustly an unpopular Government.
We then had an Opposition which was worth
something, such as the present is no more to be
compared to than is a deformed child with a
comely ancestor. Had the question of the
disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish
Church been brought forward at any time
prior to the Emancipation Act of 1829, no

one could have wondered at or condemned

the movement ; that is, no one at all desirous
of civil or religious liberty. The Ireland of
the present dLy is no more to be compared to the
Ireland of fifty, or even twenty years ago,
than summer is to be compared to winter, or rain
to sunshine. Where are the awful accounts of the
murders which crowded our newspapers but a
few years ago ; where are those agrarian outrages
since the death of The Liberator, in the days of
SMITH O'BRIEN, and of the last French Revolu-
tion ? But even at that period Irel Ind was
by no means in the disturbed state and condition
she was in during the years 1833 and 1834; or,
when O'CoNNELL was fighting hard for a Repeal
of the Union. Referring, again, to the present
Opposition, however, we would reiterate our re-
mirk that were we now in 1828 instead of 1868,
there might be some excuse for pressing forward
so very expeditiously the abolition of the Protestant
Established Church in Ireland, even at the fag-
end of a moribund Parliament, considering the
state and condition of Ireland at that time. The
perpetuation of the State Church in Ireland we
have now for many years resolutely opposed.
But we do decidedly object to the conduct of Mr.
GLADSTONE and his colleagues in having brought
the subject forward at such a time, and in such a

manner as they have done, considering that during
all the years they were in office they never thought
of mooting the question. It could therefore have
been brought forward from no other motive than

that of faction and place-hunting. Reverting,
however, to the lamented death of Lord BROUGHAM,
we would recall to mind the fact that he was
Lord Chancellor in the only strong and really
respectable Whig Government England was ever
governed by, and that there his Whig career
may be said to have ended. For never, during
any one of the Ministries that ruled us from

1835, whdn the late Lord MELBOURNE re-
turned to office, and for the second time in his
life became Premier, down to the dissolution of
Lord RUSSELL'S Ministry in the summer of 1866,
could Lord BROUGHAM be called anything mare
than a most qualified supporter of the Government.
During the five years of the late Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
Administration, Lord BROUGHAM was far oftener
to be found voting with the Government than
with the Opposition. And it is a remarkable
fact that the old income-tax, which was so strenu-
ously opposed by HENRY BROUGHAM in 1816,
when Lord LIVERPOOL'S Government proposed
to make it a perpetual tax at £5 per cent.?
so streuously opposed by him that upon the motion of
HENRY BROUGHAM every paper connected with the
tax was burned, that same individual a quarter
of a century afterwards was the first to uphold its
reimposition by the Ministry of the late Sir
ROBERT PEEL. Ho voluntarily gave his support,
in fact, to many, if not to most, of the admirable
measures brought forward by that illustrious states-
man. We have cause, therefore, to recall to mind,
with grateful admiration, the memory of HENRY
Lord BROUGHAM and VAUX, as a leading member
of the Whig party governing Great Britain, both
in Opposition and in office, from 1800 to 1834,
but as no member of the Whig or Liberal party in
any subsequent date, from the last-named year
downwards.

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS.

MARSEILLES, May 16.
Ihe Delta arrived at 5 a.m. to-day. The mails
leave by the 11.30 train.

SOUTHAMPTON, May 16.

The Hamburg and American Co.'s steamer
Germania, from New York, arrived off the Needles
at 9.35 a.m. to-day.

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN
MAILS.

(Via Panama.)

The Rakaia, with advices from Sydney to the
Ist April, and New Zealand to the Bth instant,
and 50 passengers, arrived at Panama on the 4th
inst. (one day early). The mails are due by the
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's steamer
Douro, expected to arrive at Plymouth on the
28th inst.

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

LIVERPOOL, May 16.

The Royal mail steamer, M'Gregor Laird, arrived
in the Mersey this morning from the West Coast
of Africa and Madeira. Her dates are—Fernando
Po, April 11 ; Cameroons, 12 ; Brass River, 15 ;
Bonny, 15 ; Benin, 17 ; Lagos, 19 ; Accia, 21 ;
Cape Palmas, 24 ; Sierra Leone, 28 ; Teneriffe,
May 7 ; Madena, 9. Health and trade on the
coast were generally good. No news of import-
ance. The M'Gregor Laird brings £420 and $2,000
in specie.

TIIE BRAZILS.
Rio DE JANEIRON, April 21.

Two Paraguayan steamers have been sunk by the
Brazilians. A heavy bombardment of Ilumaita is
going on, and the assault will shortly follow.
It is reported that the British war steamer
Linnet, was fired upon, and damaged, while pass-
ing Ilumaita.

The Deputy Senor Joas Selveira de Sonza has
been appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs ; Senor
Pereira de Andrade has been nominated Secretary
of Legation at London ; the Chevalier de
Albugnergue at Lisbon, and Senor Mill o Aldine
at Washington.

Senor Soubragy has been charged with the mis-
sion of arranging the Pernambuco and San Paulo
Railway question.

The Sarrazinto (Sarmiento ?) ticket has been
voted in Buenos Ayres for the Presidency of the
Argentine Confederation.

Specie payments will be resumed at Montevideo
on June 1.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.—The following
gentlemen having been elected Fellows of the College at
previous meetings of the Council were admitted as such
on the 14th inst., viz.—Messrs. Robert Pilkington Linton,
of her Majesty's Indian Army, diploma of membership
dated November 16, 1832, and George Woods, of South-
port, near Liverpool, May 25, 1810. At this meeting
Messrs. C. Heath and J ohuson Smith, Fellows of the Col-
lego, attended and received from the President the Jack-
sonian prizes recently awarded to them for their essays on
professional subjects.

CO:iiiESPONDENCE FRO 7 );Ititla

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS. FRIDAY, May
No one believes the statement of the Opinion Nationale,
Lhat our Government is preparing a new expedition to
Rome. There is no. doubt, however, that the relations
between France and Italy are very far from cordial. The
marked unfriendly reception given to Prince Napoleon,
and the enthusiasm shewn for the Prince of Prussia, has
produced an unfavourable impression here. It is believed
also that the Tunisian imbroglio has been caused
by the intrigues of the Italian Consul at Tunis.
A. long interview on this subject took place yesterday
between the Marquis de Moustier, Lord Lyons, Baron
von Colts, S. Nigra, and Djemit Pasha. It was time that
the consultation took place, for, if we are to believe the
avening papers, the French Consul at Tunis has already
presented an ultimatum.

The failure of the Chemin de Per de I'Est Company to
purchase the Luxemburg Railway has, I hear, caused con-
siderable chagrin to Marshal Niel, who had counted upon
acquiring that line, for strategical purposes. Now that
the matter has fallen through, the Paris journals are
beginning to take note of the fact that the Dutch Govern-
ment has not yet begun to demolish the fortifications at
Luxemburg. The &hie states that your Government has
made representations on the matter.

Prince Napoleon's next visit is giving rise to much
speculation. He is going to Vienna, and thence into Aus-
trian Poland, where he will meet Prince Czartoryski and
Prince Sapieha. This interview seems to confirm the
impression that the Polish question will shortly be re-
vived, and that Austria and France have common views
respecting it. The black spots just now are blackest and
largest in Central and Eastern Europe.
The debate on free trade was resumed this afternoon by
M. Pouyer Quertier. lie contended that the commercial
treaty between France and England was agreed upon by
the Government and Mr. Cobden without taking into
account the adverse advice given by the Superior Council
of Commerce. He declared that all the promises of cheap
manufactures and food, and of French agriculture raised
to the foremost rank, had been falsified. The only sub-
ject of congratulation was that in February 1870 the treaty
would be binding only from year to year, and that France
would resume her liberty of action.
For once the G overnment is supported almost unanimously
by the Parisian press. M. Thiers finds scarcely a single
supporter. Opposition papers, no less than Government
organs, denounce the idea of returning to protection. The
Daats is astonished at the blindness of the historian of
the Revolution to the changes which have taken place. Ind
at his belief in the possibility. of a retrogressive ITt,
which would be as absurd as the re-establishment of the
355 petty principalities and bishoprics of eighteenth.
century Germany.
The Presse announced that there would be, an amnesty
to persons suffering imprisonment for press offences. But
the Monitocr has nothing about it, and I fear Saint
Pdlagie is not going to open its doors just
yet. In connection with this matter, M. Baudrillart,
the new editor of the Constitutionnel, has written a very
good article in that paper advising the Government offi-
cials to use lightly the powers conferred upon them by the
new press law, so tliat journalists may not be turned into
martyrs, • and reminding editors of their duties and
responsibilities. He says that if French journalism is
to obtain that consideration which is due to it, the
press must be an instrument of progress, not of disorder,
and that a journal should be a tribune, not a 1 o ,th.
One of the first fruits of the new Press Law is a
weekly review, which is to be started under the editorship
of Messrs. Jules Favre, Picard, and Marie. It is to be
entitled L'Electeur, and is to be devoted to the advocacy
of principles of parliamentary government.
Wonderful to relate, an appeal against a press convic-
tion has been admitted. The proprietors of the Mar-
seilles Se'nvil ii ,re and the Gcz-tte du Midi had been con-
demned for publishing an unauthorised account of a trial,
but, on appealing, the sentence has been reversed. The
case of the Courrier Francais was to have come on
to-day, but it has been postponed and transferred to
another court, it is said at the request of the president
of the court in which these cases have 'usually been
tried, and who is notorious for his severity. Let us hope
we are about to see a milder regime.

The monitor Rochambean, which our Government
bought of the United States about a year ago for about
£300,000, has just come out of dock at Cherbourg, afterbeing
in there for nine months, and having about £120,000 spent
Upon her. This costly vessel will, it is said, be unable to
keep the sea for more than four or five years, on account
of the wretchedly bad wood of which she is constructed.
Our journals are writing a good deal about your political
crisis, for it gives them an opFortunity of declaiming
against " personal " government, which, they say, Mr.
Disraeli is seeking to introduce at the expense of the par-
liamentary system. The Etendard has a notable leader
on the Tr:sh Church question, and, taking for granted that
Mr. Disra.e3i lc:presents the .English natiorl, laments that
you should, when all the world, except Russia, is becoming
liberal in matters of religin,n, ha adhering to the old
intolerant stAn. This is how the Etendard's article
concludes : " Singular spectacle ! Of the four chiefs of
religion who divide the world, there are two, the Pope
and the Sultan, who are really tolerant ; and two, Queen
Victoria and the Czar, who are intolerant." I hope you
will duly take to heart this cutting rebuke.

correspondent of the Times at Pesth, whose letters
are always worth reading, writes a column and a half
about Turkey, Servia, and Roumania. He says that
Turkey has always looked upon Austria as her chief ally,
and that in proportion as that country was strong Russia's
intrigues might be defied. There was lamentation
at Constantinople when the Hapsburgs were beaten
at Sadowa, no less than at Rome when they were
beaten at Solferino. Now there is rejoicing at the
renewed strength which the Imperial House has gained

by its concessions. At the same time these concessions
have somewhat startled the Turk, because they will
inevitably lead to like changes in his own country. There
is, too, some little uneasiness as to whether Austria will
not be looking for compensations on the Danube, to make
up for those which she lost on the Po. Nevertheless, the
Austrian archdukes who have just been visiting Constan-
tinople have been received with truly imperial magnifi-
cence, to the chagrin of General Ignatieff, who sees hi.;
master, the Czar, flouted more and more every day.
The recall of Baroa Budberg from Paris coincides with,
if it does not result from, the failure of France to establish
an alliance with Russia. For this alliance the Baron has
long laboured bard, but in vain. Russia will not detach
herself from Prussia, and this Power absolutely refuses to
enter into any arrangement with France. •

A letter from Vilna, dated May 11, speaks in strong
terms of the persecutions to which the Poles are exposed
on account of their religion. The Roman Catholic bishop
has been suddenly sent into exile, and a large number of
priests have followed him. But while the ministers of the
Church are openly persecuted, it is sought to win over the
laity. It, is tacitly understood that if a layman will
renounce Catholicism and join the " Orthodox" Church,
he will find favour with the judges and the magistrates in
any case in which he may he interested. Another means
of propagandism is the remission of taxes to all those who
forsake the old faith for the new.

The open way in which the German, Austrian, and
Polish papers, inspired by the Vienna Cabinet, are dis-
cussing the probability of war, is exciting considerable
notice. The ex-King of Hanover a few days ago drank a
toast to speedy war i.etvieen France and Prussia, and
he has just issued an order to those of his troops who
remain faithful to him, and are self-banished at Nancy, in
France, in which he promises them a speedy invasion of
Prussia at the side of the French. It is mentioned that
the Dutch have not begun to demolish the fortifications of
Luxemburg., as they were bound to do by last year's Treaty
of London.

Prince Napoleon is, it is caid, to be one of the sponsors
to the new Austrian princess, though, as his Imperial
Highness is avowedly an unbeliever in Christianity, it
seems difficult to believe the rumour. He is thought to
be very sore at his reception in Italy, and the papers say
that he left the country in order to avoid the insults to
which he was daily exposed. On the other hand, his
the Prince of Prussia, was forced to leave off his inspection
of the works at Mont Cenis to avoid the ovations to which
he was exposed.
According to the Cerrespondance Bullier there is little
fear of war, for France would not venture to commence
hostilities without the co-operation of Austria, and
Bismarck has taken effectual steps to prevent that.

rhe newvapera which lately aesigned the Crown Princo
of Denmark to our Princess Lonice have now found
another wife fer him, the only child of the King of
Sweden. This match has been talked of repeatedly, and
would be an important diplomatic move tending to the
realisation of the Scandinavian idea. But we require
better authority than the Paris journals for believing that
it is to take place. •

Herr Van flynen has failed to form a Ministry, and so
Holland is still in the midst of its serious political crisis,
which has lasted far too long. There is now fear of another
dissolution.

According to the John Bull, the consecration of the new
Bishop of Hereford will take place. if the legal formalities
allow, on the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The scene
of the ceremony will most likely he Hereford Cathedral.
The assistant prelates are to be the Bishops of Gloucester
and Bristol, Ripon, and perhaps Oxford. The sermon
is to be preached by the Des4n of Chichester.

THE QUEEN VERSUS EYRE.

Mr. J. S. Mill, chairman of the Jamaica Committee,
ias received from Mr. C. Buxton, M.P., the following
etter

" 7, Grosvenor•crescent, S.W., April 20, 1868.

"Dear Mr: Mill,—l see by the newspapers that the
famaica, Committee have applied for a summons against
.fr. Eyre, upon a charge of his having committed misde-
neanours in his capacity as Governor of Jamaica, under
;he Act of 11th and 12th William 111., cap. 12, to the
'fleet that if any Governor should be guilty of oppressing
my of his Majest's subjects in the plantations, he might
)e indicted and punished in England, and also under
he 42nd George 111., cap. 85, and 11th and 12th Victoria,
;ap. 42.
" Now, when the Jamaica Committee decided to prose-
mte Mr. Eyre on a charge of murder, I withdrew from it
Tartly on the ground that I did not consider that Mr.
Eyre's acts, however outrageous, amounted to murder;
mad, secondly, because I thought it would tend to reinstate
Nlr. Eyre in public opinion, and have in every way a
iisastrous effect if an unsuccessful attempt were made to
bring him to trial on such a charge.
" Neither of those objections apply to the course now
:aka' by the committee, and though I deeply regret that
such a long time should have elapsed before this step is
taken, yet I am decidedly of opinion that Mr. Eyre
might not to escape due punishment for the awful cruelties
that were committed with his express sanction in Jamaica.
E trust, therefore, that the committee will permit me to
zo-operate with them in their present attempt, and as it
will no doubt involve a large expenditure, I shall be happy
o subscribe £3OO towards it.—l am, dear Mr. Mill, yours
very truly, " CHARLES BUXTON.
" J. S. Mill, Esq., M.P."