, 1876-09-06

with his labourer should turn him out of
his own koass and give it to somebody else
at a months notice. Mr.. Lowther will
say the negro is aware Of his liability, but
what is that to the purpose ? So is a
Prussian aware Of his liability to conscrip-
ton, but that does not tighten his haver-
sack. If the negro does not build he gets
no work f; If he gets no work he starves.
The Home-rulers made another attempt
on Tuesday to procure the release Of the
nine Fenians still in durance, but were
defeated by III to 81. The debate owed
It's importance to speech from Mr.. Bright,
in which he appeared to lay down two Of
the most dangerous doctrines we ever re-
member to have read. One was that if o
single man was murdered, it was wrong to
hang three men for the murder ; and ano-
tber, that a soldier who broke his oath was
no more guilty than anybody else who
broke one. We quite admit that it is in
exPedieDt to provoke pity for criminals by
hanging men in patches, but surely il three
men intend murder, and do their best to
commit it, the three are equally guilty,
and it is only expediency, and not justice,
which demands q reprieve for two. On
the other hand, though soldier who re-
bells may be morally no more guilty than
o citizen who rebels, still his especial status
as armed agent of the lava status care
fully indicated to him by requiring Of him
On osth-makes his rebellion much more
dangerous. Punishment and guilt ought, no
doubt, to be usually correlated but society
has, nevertheless, q right to punish acts
not in proportion to their guilt, but to their
dangerousness. The armed invader may
not be guilty at oil, but the right to shoot
him down nevertheless remains.
The correspondent OF the Times at
Constantinople gives, merely incidentally,
an account of o transaction 10 the T0rkish
islands which shows. better than o vo-
lume Of argument, how Turks govern.
The people of the Southern Sporades,
about is, 900 in number living bv sDonpa-
fishing, belonged in 1882 to the kingdom
of Greece, but were handed over 20 Ter
key at the final settlement, They were,
however, allowed to continue their self
government till, in 1867. the Porte sudden.
ly subjected them to Turkish officials,
aud in 1869 deprived them, for no reason
whatever, Of all privileges, and imposed a
variety of new taxes. The islanders fed
almost en- masSe, the spooge-6sIling boats
sank from $50 to $50, and the prosperity
of the islands disappeared. The people
are ruined, and the Porte not benefited,
the whole transaction resulting only in pay
for a few officials. That is the way in
which the Pashas eas up their own re-
sources under the status quo in Turkey,
which Mr.. Disraeli calls upon all wise
EngIishmen to protect! Suppose the
Southern Sporades go back to Greece,
who except Pashas will be the losersS
The impeachment of General Belknap,
the American Secretary OF War, has end
ed in an acquittal. General BeIknap was
accused of selling the appointments of
" traders"-that is. purveyors to the
forts-and on his own confession was i'm
peached before the Senate. He had, how
ever, resigned, and the President had &C.
copied his resignation, and many lawyers
were doubtful whether he could legally be
impeached. The evidence wss'very grave,
and out of sixty Senators present on his
trial, thirty-fvelheld him to be guilty, while
several of the minority Avowed that they
only voted acquittsl because they doubted
the jurisdiction of the Senate over a man
no longer in the public service. The
Gnnstifution. houavar domonds a vote