The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-08 00:00:00

N, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 8, 1868.

ARTHUR YOUNG wrote ot the xrench pea-

santry that property turned even sand into
gold ; how much more does it turn the
fruitful soil of America ? The Irish cottier
who has been turned out of house and home by
some merciless bailiff because the rent is not forth-
coming, finds in America land which can become his
own for less money than he paid to use land in the
old country. No landlord or bailiff will vex him
henceforth. Neither the Queen of ENGLAND nor
the President of the UNITED STATES can deprive
him of his farm. A new world opens before him,
a new career into which he can put forth all his
energies, knowing that they are expended on his
own behalf, and that the more diligently he sows
the more abundantly will he reap. This position
has net been attained without some difficulty.
There were in some of the British provinces of
North America seignorial rights which had to be
got rid of. In Prince Edward's Island there were
absentee landlords who asked the absurdly
low rent, as we should deem it, of is. per
acre. Low as it was, the tenants did not like to pay
it, and some two years ago there was a formidable
agitation set on foot. The tenants refused to pay;
they laughed at the representatives of the civil
power who endeavoured to enforce payment. The
result was, that the island Government compelled
these absentees to sell their lands to the State,
which resold them to the tenants at a profit. The
Duke of NEWCASTLE, surely no revolutionist, had
proposed this very scheme, which when suggested
in Ireland is called spoliation and an invasion of
the sacred rights of property. A more important
colony than Prince Edward's Island adopted the
same plan. Certain landlords had over the lands
which had been occupied and cleared by emigrants
what were called " casual rights." These consisted
chiefly of rights over watercourses and rivers, and
percentages payable every time that an estate was
sold. These rights . became such an intolerable
grievance to the freedom-loving Canadians, that
in the Lower Province the Parliament bought them
off for about a million sterling, and made an ar-
rangement for the capitalisation and purchase of
the rent by the tenant and its compulsory sale by
the landlord. It may pacify alarmed readers
to know that Lord LYTTON approved of the land
policy above described.

There is only one other point in Mr. MAGITIRE's
interesting book to which we can call attention on
this occasion. What hold has Fenianism on the Irish
in America ? Much, we regret to say. Still more do
we regret to learn. on Mr. MAGuinn's authority,
that the Irish who have joined the Fenian move-
ment are not the rowdies and blackguards which
we are accustomed to consider them. They are
sober, hardworking, God-fearing men, who, moved
by no sudden excitement, but acting upon a deli-
berate and settled purpose, leave farm and store in
order to strike one blow for the independence
of the old country. It is not pleasant for us to
be told this ; it woutd be foolish for us not
to listen when we are told. There is abundant
room for reflection here. We find ourselves
face to face with a nation which has—whether
voluntarily or involuntarily—left our shores, bear-
ing with them undying love for the land
they have left, undying hatred for the men who
rule it. Hitherto they have not done us much
harm. The civil war found Irishmen arrayed
against Irishmen, but that is over now ; and
Irishmen, both North and South, are think-
ing how they can best . turn to account
in behalf of their native land the experience
which they have gained in American battle-fields.
This is a very real and serious danger. If all that
Mr. MAGUIRE says be true, it is far more real and
serious than we supposed. It is no longer a secret
conspiracy that we have to suppress, but a hostile
nation whom we have to encounter ; the nation
which, at first by intentional injustice, and then
by indolent negligence, we drove from our shores,
carrying with it the bitter memories of centuries
of wrong, to be cherished against the time when
England's necessity should at last afford Ireland's
unnortunitv.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The trial and conviction of Charles Reade, late a
seaman serving on board her Majesty's ship Irre-
sistible, by a naval court-martial, held on board
her Majesty's ship Victory, at Portsmouth, on Mon-
day, briefly reported in The Sun Naval Intelligence
of yesterday, on a charge---" That he, being a per-
son subject to the Naval Discipline Act, 1866, did,
on or about the 21st day of December, when ser-
vice was commanded, and the galley being manned
to make a night visit to the shore at Osborne, dis-
courage the service by refusing to receive a pistol
with which he was ordered to be armed," may pos-
sibly lead to the belief that Fenianismmay have
obtained a few converts even among the seamen of
her Majesty's Navy. This would he a gross error.
The convict Reade was certainly convicted as it
were on his own confession, made in terms that a
fiveithaswasthesentencedofall
present at the trial, and
who witnessed the prisoner's demeanour in court,
that he is insane. Clearly further inquiry should
be made ; and if he should prove to be so far in-
sane as to be labouring under delusions as regards
his duty as a seaman, and what he terms in his de-
fence " the outlaw principle," the matter should be
at once an 3 publicly set right, and the stigma of
the supposed act of treason and disloyalty removed
from her Majesty's Navy. The written defence
handed in by Reade to the court contained strong
evidence of its being the production of a man who
might, under certain conditions, become dan-
gerous to society, but who at present is but a
miserable monomaniac, and morally irresponsible
for his actions, The following is a copy of this
production :
" The reason why I refused to take arms when ordered
is because I would not be an oppressive means to an
outlaw principle that usurps public power and underlies
its political face. It has attained this position under
the caver and through the impractical influence of Pro-
testantism, and its policy is to render itself impreg-
nable by the unnecessary display of brute force for
the purpose of intimidation, and, by the most dark and
fiendish craft, to turn the current of public
opinion to its own purposes, and keep it loyal by
deception. I refused to take arms because I looked upon
the Fonians as being simply demonstrators of discontent,
and the natural turning of the worm when it is excruciat-
ingly crushed. But apart from Fenians, and under the
assumption of Fenians, the outlaw principle has been at
work, inciting to horrible and useless deeds of violence, for
the express purpose of setting every good, honest, gener-
ous, and right-minded man against it, and thereby termi-
nate its existence and its object together. From the be-
ginning intelligent men could see that Fenianism was
incapable of forcing its rights, and rightly kept clear of it
—but although its force was despicable, its existence was
significant. It was significant of discontent, and the cause
of discontent is a matter that causes most agitation among
those responsible for it." [Prisoner further condemned
putting down Fenianism by stratagem, and said the
Fenians did not evince any inclination to give their
enemies an opportunity to crush them by force. He con-
cluded by saying] :—".I believe myself to be a truly loyal
man, loyal to honest truth and virtue ; and by all that
is sacred we are forbidden to be in allegiance or to
be loyal to evil combinations or designs, and any man that
is loyal to such he either bows down in fear and slavery to
the fcrce of brutality, or he is otherwise deceived by craft.
The outlaw principle that usurps public power treads more
or less upon the consciences and interests of all that is
subject to its rule. flaying stated thus much under con-
sideration of consequences, I believe myself to be subject
to your discretion.
" CHARLES READE."

Immediately on the completion of the iron-clad
frigate Hercules, 14, 1,200 horse power (nominal),
now building at Chatham dockyard, where she is
expected to be ready for floating out of the dock in
which she has been built in a couple of months from
the present time, it is intended to commence the
construction of another new ironclad armour-plated
ship of the Hercules class, the. drawings and plans
for which are now id course of preparation under
the direction of the Controller of the Navy, and are
shortly exi ected at the dockyard. The name by
which the new ship will be designated has not yet
been officially announced. in the designs for the
new ironclad frigate now under consideration at the
Admiralty care will be taken to adapt the new ship
by giving her increased tonnage and length, to the
latest improvements in artillery by enabling her to
ount guns of the heaviest description.