The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-27 00:00:00

. 2HE ANGLO-CONTINENTAL SOCIE7 Y.

the utmost use in relation to the Society Entan-
cipateice, as well as otherwise." Moreover,
the President of the Society Einancipatrice is
in the pay of the Anglo-Continental Society.
But it is hopeless to get Mr. Clay to see the
necessary connection between a conclusion and
its premises.
Mr. Clay attempts to be funny at the ex-
pense of a member of the Naples municipality,
who, lie says, had stated that " Prota had
been turned out of the building for immo-
rality," but had " declined to put his accusa-
tion on paper."
Mr. Clay received this information in confi-
dence, and he has taken unwarrantable liberty
in publishing it. But having taken that liberty,
he ought not to have state what is literally
untrue—namely, that the gentleman in ques-
tion declined to guarantee his information (not
" accusation") in writing.
There is only one more point which it is
worth while to notice.

The following letter has been addressed to
the Guardian :

SIR,—I recommend Mr. Meyrick and his
henchman, Mr. Clay, to consult their friend
Prota before they publish any more letters in
his behalf ; for the account which they have
given of his expulsion from the Convent of
S. Domenico Maggiore does not agree with
his own account of the matter ;. in fact, the
two accounts, like the pots in the fable which
went sailing together down the stream, crack
each other, and are mutually destructive.
Prota's account is, or was at the time, that
he was not expelled at all, but resigned. It is
something to have an admission from his
patrons at last that he really was expelled ;
but I beg them to observe that their admission
places me in a very unpleasant dilemma. If
I believe Messrs. Meyrick and Clay, I am bound
to conclude that Signor Prota is a liar ; and
vice versa,. The Signor's account—namely,
that he was not expelled, but resigned—is a
deliberate untruth ; and I should like to know
what Mr. Clay, who is perfectly cognizant of
the fact, has to say to it, and how he recon-
ciles it with his letter to the Guardian.

If Mr. Meyrick thinks that a frock-coat and
the absence of a cassock necessarily constitute
" the garb of a layman," I don't. But if Mr.
Meyrick had himself addressed as " F. Mey-
rick, Esq.," and habitually wore a shooting
jacket, a coloured tie, and coloured trousers, I,
for one, should not hesitate to say that he had,
as far as his own act could do it, " abjured
his clerical character." And this is precisely
what some of the " reforming" priests of Italy
have done.

I say, moreover, that the account which
Messrs. Meyrick and Clay have given of the
matter is just as unfounded as Signor Prota's.
Let me quote their t:psissima verba, for they
areimportant.
"In the autumn of 1866," says Mr. Clay,
"an arrangement was made between the Courts
of Italy and Rome, and the fugitive Bishops
were to return to their sees. A new Prefect
was appointed to Naples, to prepare the way
for the return of the Archbishop."
Here Mr. Clay deliberately states that the
new Prefect, the Marchese Gualterio, was
appointed subsequently to, and in consequence
of, Ricasoli's circular, permitting the return
of the exiled Bishops. Nov Ricasoli's cir-
cular is dated November 26, 1866, and Gual-
terio was appointed Prefect of Naples in
March, 1866, and took formal possession of
his office about the middle of April. I have
no wish to retort on Mr. Clay his charges ofl
" Pharisaical words," and " suppression of
important circumstances;" but I will ask him
to explain the inscrutable process of esoteric
reasoning by which he seeks to persuade your
readers that an e•Tent which happened in
March was the result of an event which hap-
pened at the end of the following November.
He is good enough to say that my " mind
is in a state of hopeless confusion ;" but I
venture to suggest that a gentleman who is
given to turn logical somersaults is not a very
good judge of what constitutes " confusion of
mind."
Mr. Clay says that Signor Prota received
notice to quit " soon after the appointment of
the Marchese."
" Soon after" means five months, and Gual-
terio's appointment had no more to do with it
than it had to do with the eruption of Vesuvius.
I have before me a number of the Emancl:patore
Cattolica, in which Prota welcomes Gualterio
in the following language :—" Il nuovo Pre-
fetto della nostra Citta e Provincia, Sig. Gual-
terio, prendendo possesso della sua carica di-
resse ai nostri concittadini it Seguente pro-
ciama, the not ammiriamo per it nobile patrio-
tismo da cui e ispirato, e per le precise nome
in esso tracciate della sua amministrazione."

M. MAC C 0 LL.

THE IRISH LAND LAWS.

Arbitrary power in the hands of an ill-con-
ditioned man like Mr. William Scully, has
resulted in the death of two innocent men in
the discharge of an office imposed upon them
by the temper of Mr. Scully and the permis-
sion of the law. Not only the tenants who
resisted the service of a notice of ejectment,
but the landlord, who, by his harshness and by
the flagrantly unjust terms of his leases pro-
voked the murderous assault, must be ac-
counted guilty of the deaths of thetwo hapless
policemen.
It is time that legislation should take from
the hands of Irish landlords the arbitrary
power they now possess, and which such land-
lords as Mr. W. Scully are not slow to exer-
cise, of reducing the tenants to a state of
semi-serfdom. Such power is degrading, not
only to the tenant who suffers from its exercise,
but to the landlord who is tempted, by its pos-
session, to treat his tenants like mere chattel,
and to eject them at will as if they had no inte-
rest and no rights in the soil they cultivate.
The relations subsisting between Mr. Scully
and his tenants are, as we learn on all sides,
quite exceptional. They need be so ; for if
there were many men who behaved towards
their tenants with a like harshness and wanton
disregard of what is due to their rights and
interests and feelings, as Mr. Scully so ob-
stinately and offensively exhibited, there would
be an end to the hope of restoring order and
goodwill between the owners and the cultivators
of the soil in Ireland. _ _

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 27, 1868.

(From the Spirit of the Times.)

(Front the Nation.)

THE POLI7ICAL BETTING MARKET.

On the 25th July we reprinted the following
article from the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury of
July 19 :
" PUT UP OR SHUT UP blatant Radical,
a few days since, happening to be in company with
some gentlemen in this city, offered to bet $lOO that
Governor Seymour would not carry his own State
(New York.) One of the company, a responsible
and well-known citizen, agreed to take it, and
offered the following open to all Radicals :—He will
name 12 States, and he will bet $lO,OOO on each State
that Seymour will carry them; $20,000 that Seymour,
if he lives, will be the next President ; and $5,000
that no Radical will dare to accept the proposition,
and put up the money. This is a fine chance for
Wilkes, of New York." To this we appended the
following response :—" This is a fine chance, in-
deed, but it significantly measures the true fears of
Seymcur and his friends.' The first proposition
is simply a bet that Seymour will carry six States ;
because, every State got by Seymour beyond that
number would be $lO,OOO in the pocket of the
Mercury's man. Taking this to be a concession of
Seymour's defeat, the supplementary bet of $20,000
that he will be the next President, if he lives,
only increases the six States to eight, while the
$5,000 extra merely adds a fraction, and makes the
whole a bet that Seymour will carry eight and a half
States in the November election. Now, though our
polite friend of the Mercury thinks this to be so
very liberal that it ought to make us shut up,' we
will do a little better : we will bet the Mercury, or
its man, that we will name thirty States (which are
twice as many and half as many more as he agrees
to name), and will bet $lO,OOO on each State we
name that Grant will carry it. We will then bet
$20,000 to $lO,OOO that Grant will be the next
President, and give $5,000 to the Mercury if it will
get any one to accept these propositions, and put
up the money. This is a much finer chance for the
Mercury and its man than the Mercury's offer is
for Wilkes ; for, in place of the twelve States it
will name for Seymour, we will name thirty for
Grant, and give two to one in the remaining bet in-
stead of betting even. We await the Mercury's reply."
To this the Mercury has made no answer, having
concluded to "shut up" itself. We also reprinted,
in connection with the above, the following para-
graph from the New York World of July 21
" We have received a note from a person who offers
to bet from $5OO to $5,000 that Governor Seymour
will carry this State by 70,000 majority ; and the
same sum that Governor Seymour will be the next
President of the United States. If the enthusiastic
bettor desires us to hold the stakes, he has addressed
the wrong journal. His note should be addressed
to Mr. Theodore Tilton, editor of the Independent,
who was mentioned in the Washington telegrams
as a prominent bottle and stakeholder during the
impeachment farce." To this paragraph we made
the following response :—" The above offers can be
met and covered, at this office, for the highest sums
named,—to wit, for £5,000 each,—and we will then
bet $5,000 to $3,000 we will win the first bet, and
$lO,OOO to $5,000 that we will win the second—
that is to say, that Grant will be next President in-
stead of Seymour. We have no objection that either
the editor of the Worldor Mr.Tilton shall be the holder
of the stakes. Will the World please name its man ?"
The World, however, has not named its man, and
we do not expect that it will. The offers it heralded
may therefore be regarded as withdrawn. As to
the State of New York the betting may be quoted
even. The last transactions we have heard of were
that Seymour would carry the State by 20,000, and
au contraire. This, however, was ten days ago,
since which time we have heard of no more bets
upon the State. On Grant, however, bets of two
to one are constantly offered, with no takers.
This accurately gauges the pretended confidence of
Seymour and his friends.

WHERE SHALL HONEST MEN GO?