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No. 2,919.]

THE POLITICAL EXAMINER.

If I might give a short hint to an impartial writer it would be to tell him his fate. If he resolved to venture upon the dangerous precipice of telling unbiassed truth let him proclaim war with mankind-neither to give nor to take quarter. If he tells the crimes of great men they fall upon him with the iron hands of the law; if he tells them of virtues, when they have any, then the mob attacks him with slander. But if he regards truth, let him expect martyrdom on both sides, and then he may go on fearless; and this is the course I take myself.

DE FOR.

MAD DOCTORS' LAW.

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ment, setting forth the circumstances of Townley's case, | States are entering into a large and combined scheme of
and praying inquiry into the grounds of the respite.
resistance to the two greater ones. This, we need not say,
Here is the view of the crime:
is cakes and ale to the French Government, which very
naturally applauds and encourages it.

It appears by his own undisputed voluntary statement immediately
after the murder that he committed the act deliberately, with full The English Minister here, we know, recommends the
knowledge that he was thereby violating the law, and that he had meeting of a Conference of all the Powers interested, in
rendered himself liable to be, and expected to be, capitally punished; order to consider the great question in dispute. France
he declared to Captain Goodwin that the woman who deceived him does not, could not, refuse to join in such a Conference,
must die; he alleged that Miss Goodwin did deceive him and he put
her to death. It was not the blind and furious impulse of a mad- but declares beforehand that the meeting will come to
man, but a deliberate act, which manifested the exercise of reason in no good. The Frankfort Diet protests against a Conference
his endeavour to prevail with Miss Goodwin, but, failing in his upon affairs so closely concerning Germany unless itself
object, the spirit of revenge, which was satiated by her death. His be consulted and it send Federal envoys. We shall
family treated him as sane. Neither the surgeon nor the governor
of the gaol reported him to be insane, as it was their duty to do if find that Napoleon the Third fully supports the Diet
they had so considered him.
in these pretensions, and will add, "You see, a Con-
gress would have remedied all this, for the German
"Diet would have been a party to the Congress."
It is well known that in its circulars the French
Government addressed every State but the Free Cities.
And one great objection of Austria to the French-
proposed Congress was precisely that it called in a kind of
democracy of States to discuss this question, which the
Great Powers hitherto had reserved for themselves.

And here is as correct and succinct view of the secret inquisition:

We are charged with some misrepresentation of what has been done in Townley's case, and told that there has been no reversal of the jury's verdict, no new trial in any shape, but simply an inquiry into the present state of the man's mind, the result of which has been his respite, and transfer from the condemned cell to a Lunatic asylum. In this and other like cases the prisoner has been tried by a judge and jury, acting under the sanction of an oath, aided by counsel It is thus admitted that Townley was justly convicted ac-employed on both sides, witnesses examined and cross-examined, all cording to the law of the land, but that his forfeited life has in open court. We think that respect for trial by jury, and confidence in the pure administration of justice, will be seriously weakened if a been spared according to some law unknown, and newly verdict and sentence following such a fair and solemn trial may, in devised, for law of some sort there must be in the case, as public and complete than the trial itself. this or any other criminal case, be interfered with by any inquiry less it is not one of mercy but of justice. It will probably be found that the law to which Townley owes his escape from the penalty of blood was a law of his own making for the gratification of his own passions. He knew that he was committing murder and incurring the punishment of death, but he set above the law of God and man his dictum that the woman engaged to him was his property, and that he had a right to her life for any breach of faith, and this has passed for insanity in certain quarters, and taken his neck out of the halter. Virtually he has thus been The result of these private proceedings has been a respite of the prisoner and an order for his removal to a lunatic asylum. The effect acquitted in the Home Office upon the ground of insanity has been to cause much dissatisfaction, to create a feeling greatly to upon his own evidence in his own favour, after he had be lamented-that there is one law for the rich, and another for the been convicted in the Assize Court upon other and trust-Pati that justice has been turned aside by the power of money; and if Townley and his friends had been poor he would have been worthy evidences. It follows that a man has only to feign executed, as a man named Thorley was in this county last year, for a murder under like circumstances. a preposterous reason for a crime, and to obtain impunity as mad and irresponsible.

As we have too often had occasion to observe, the Home Office is a Court of Appeal,-the very worst it is possible to conceive,-being a Court of Appeal without a Respondent, every step ex parte, moved to inquiry ex parte, and sentative of the prosecution to rebut and disprove allethe inquiry granted conducted ex parte, without any repregations; and, above all, without the publicity which is the light of justice.

Truly upon this observe the Derbyshire magistrates in the memorial:

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We find here disclosed the new policy of the French Emperor. The policy of Bourbon France was to assemble merely the great Princes, and take no account but of them. The policy of Revolutionary France was, of course, to appeal merely to peoples and populations. Imperial appeals to the small States, and seems determined to take France assumes a middle position, between both. them under its agis, and to form a nucleus of them to oppose to the big ones.

It

It must be confessed that the Emperor Napoleon did not conceive this policy at first. On the contrary, during the first ten years of his reign he sought the alliance of great countries, and even the personal friendship of their Sovereigns. If he succeeded in one or two instances it was without result. He tried England, he tried Russia, and in both cases failed, we should not say through their fault, He has since tried separately to find eternal friendship. Austria and Prussia. He has been able to make nothing of either of them: so that now Napoleon the Third has tive, and now he has got all the small States of Germany of Spain; Italy in its dynasty is his debtor and his relaturned to the smaller Powers. He is pretty well master under his net. Most of those Princes were made Kings by the grace of a Napoleon. Why should they not con

tinue so?

As to England, who was the ringleader in signing the European refusals to a Parisian Congress, she is now to be punished. And the instrument to punish her is the Frankfort The Court of Vienna has seen in the letter to the Duke of Diet. The first to perceive this fully has been Austria. Augustenburg the clear tendency of the Imperial policy, and it has just given warning to Prussia that it will withAustria is anxious, in fact, to retain the English alliance, draw altogether from the Slesvig-Holstein business. and it sees clearly that to join France and the Frankfort Diet would lead to direct defiance of, and breach with, feared that Prussia, with or without Bismark, will go on. England. Austria therefore withdraws. But it is to be

We are much mistaken if the politics of Europe do not here enter upon an altogether new phase. We do not say they will lead to war. But they may create for France an immense support beyond the Rhine, independent of the of aggrandizement as any of the Great Powers themselves. Great Powers, and quite as capable of aiding her in plans To accomplice this, in so quiet and adroit a way, would certainly earn for the French monarch the merited, but ambiguous, title of the Napoleon of Peace.

And Mr Crompton spoke out still more strongly to the Two Justices of the Peace for Derby, and two medical in the case, but that Townley, being "a man of good same effect. It is not that there has been any corruption men certified to Townley's insanity; but observe, after his "friends," has had advantages over the law that a poor conviction and when his life depended on his appearing friendless criminal would have wanted. Thorley, whose insane. If he had not been a condemned criminal, would case is adverted to, could not get the Home Office besieged, nor interest mad doctors, nor raise a clamour for miscalled those gentlemen on the evidences before them have thought mercy, nor move magistrates officiously to overstep their prothemselves justified in depriving him of his liberty, and vince of duty. There is no crime of blood more common than consigning him to a madhouse? Would his talk of a murder prompted by jealousy, and none with a stronger conspiracy, and his theory, without the criminal action, that resemblance to madness without being akin; but the an engaged woman was a man's property, have warranted vulgar offenders have suffered almost, we believe, without a judgment that he was incompetent, and required con- exception. And what is Townley's fate? He is comstraint, though he perfectly knew what he was about in mitted to a Lunatic Asylum, where for the rest of his days he will be comfortably provided for at the public cost, There has been another inquiry directed by the Home and let it remembered that these places are not what they Office, by a Lunacy Commission, but what it has found used to be, but have their amenities and indulgences. has not transpired, and perhaps it would be rash to infer Doubtless the miscreant who, with his hands red and what the effect was from the conclusion arrived at by the reeking with the warm blood of his victim, said he was Home Office. Of course the Commissioners could only never so happy, will continue to enjoy that contentment of judge of the state of Townley's mind as they found it; and satisfied revenge in the calm retirement furnished for him. the question is, whether that state differed much, or at He will not, indeed, have liberty; but which of us can have all, from the state of which the Criminal Court had evi- everything? He has glutted vengeance with impunity, dence when the prisoner was before it, and it adjudged him and a provision for life, and for haec otia, the Home Office responsible, and pronounced him guilty? and mad doctors to thank. The example concerns the public The question is not simply of sound or unsound mind-safety, and much do we apprehend that its consequences in other words, of healthy or unhealthy mind. There are will appear in more crimes of a class already too large and many minds which cannot be called sound, which are not horrible. of an unsoundness to constitute irresponsibility. There are degrees of mental disorder as well as of physical, and if no distinction were made lunatic asylums and hospitals, multiplied a hundred-fold, would not suffice to contain the Not a doubt of it, the French Emperor was piqued by THE RING, RAILWAY COMPANIES, AND THE patients. An extreme degree of perversity of mind will England's refusing to join his Congress. It was a favourite wear a close resemblance to disease of mind; but if all political Christmas toy, which would have enriched some such were regarded as insane thousands would be placed of the Parisians and amused them all during the dull In a recent article on the furtherance of a breach of the under restraint, or, if left at large, declared irresponsible winter season, the opera being below par there at present, peace in the late prize-fight, we expressed a wish to know for their actions. and literature affording absolutely nothing to talk of. The the extent to which railway companies would lend themThe postulate with which we have now to deal is that true reply of the Emperor to Earl Russell's refusal to join selves to illegal objects. We hazarded an opinion that for there shall be no punishment where there is a default of the Congress is his letter to the Prince of Augustenburg, a grand burglary they would scruple to provide a special reason, the corollary to which, as we stated in our last Being all for nationalities, he would have been so glad of a midnight train; and that certainly they would be horrified notice of this subject, is that crime must then be the Congress, that would take up their cause in Poland, in at the request for one for a murder. But still we wanted creature of reason. Has it come to this, that none but the Italy, and why not in Germany? The Italians and Poles to know where the line was drawn, as they did not scruple wise deserve the gallows? invoked nationality, in order to unite under one Govern- to promote breaches of the peace which might end in But whatever may be the law, let it at least be known. ment a sufficient population to ensure independence, murder. Justice may say with Ajax, "let me not perish in darkness, defence, financial prosperity, and military strength. Do give me light if I must fall." Whatever may have been the Germans need the addition of Holstein for these purthe grounds of the respite of Townley, certain it is that poses? they cannot be reconciled with Mr Baron Martin's defini- This is a question, however, which Napoleon the Third tion of the insanity that is not accountable to law. What did not propound. Suffice it that he has got and seized has governed the decision of the Home Office must be a an opportunity for informing the Germans that he is the law and a supreme law, as it has nullified the law pro- friend of their nationality, and may be counted upon to pounded by one of the judges and embodied in the verdict serve it. This declaration was little to be expected, of a jury; and it is surely due to the public that this mys- France, especially Imperial France, having shown itself terious thing should be promulgated. always jealous of German unity, and when the Germans More than forty Derbyshire magistrates have signed an themselves talk and strive for nationality, they really excellent memorial to the Secretary for the Home Depart-mean nothing but unity. In pursuit of that the minor

THE NAPOLEON OF PEACE.

POLICE.

At the Lewes Quarter Sessions Mr Courthope raised the same question, and the reply of Mr Beattie, on behalf of the South-Eastern Company, was far from satisfactory:

With regard to the power given to railway companies to grant special traine, that was intended as a benefit to the public; and even have a train to themselves than be crowded into an ordinary passenger in the matter of prize-fights it was better that such parties should train. Railway companies had received complaints of such parties getting into the regular trains, and the simplest and best plan was for them to have a train to themselves. He would repeat what he had said in his letter to Mr Courthope when that gentleman had courteously informed him that he intended to bring the matter before that Court, which was to the effect that the railway company having advertised their ordinary trains at specified rates, and that special

very

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trains could also be had at special rates, they were not at liberty to pick the other German. The writer of the German pamphlet | not very wise because they are very incomprehensible. As their customers, but it was their duty to grant every such application admits part of the Danish case when, in the passage we we have said before, to put their " Schleswig-Holstein" case without inquiring into the purposes. have just quoted, he says that the German Confederacy into plain words is to put an end to it. The rule is thus the same as that of the receivers of maintains that Schleswig was an independent Dukedom, The next point in the German case is to argue from stolen goods, to ask no questions. The argument, too, for which truly did not belong to the German Confederacy, assertion that the connection in which the Duchies of letting special trains, for classification, and not to mix bad"but," &c. It truly did not belong to the German Slesvig and Holstein are de jure with Denmark, "is the company with respectable travellers, would be as good for Confederacy, or to the German Empire which preceded "same as Hanover was with England when the Princely the separate accommodation of burglars, poachers, or any the Confederacy, but notoriously it was not an independent House of Hanover sat upon the English throne," and to other sort of violators of the law, as for prize-fighters and Dukedom. The German Dukes of Slesvig and of Holstein "suppose" that some member of the English parliament their followers. The true excuse for railway companies is did separate homage for each Dukedom. They held had proposed to declare Hanover a part of England. Even that there has been so much sufferance, not to say coun- Slesvig under the Danish Crown, and Holstein under the so far as Holstein is concerned the parallel is false, and as tenance and sanction, of prize-fighting, as to have reduced German Empire. If a man rents two adjoining houses of regards Slesvig, it is for reasons too obvious to repeat, its illegality to a mere name. Such being the case, the two different landlords, and unites them for occupation, utterly and absurdly so. companies have not thought themselves bound to be stricter the two houses will not, therefore, belong to the one land- The German advocate then asks why England does not than a large part of the public, including some in high lord who happens to be related to the tenant. And that see things with his eyes, and supposes one reason to be places. This is not a defence of a high character, but let analogy but half represents the extravagance of the because "Danish diplomacy and the Danish press have been it pass for palliation, quantum valeat. German claims for the robbery of Slesvig from the Danes. "for years busy in confusing as much as possible the But what surprises us is that the Sussex magistrates, Having set up a shadow, then, to represent the Danish judicial views of the question, in order to be able better who had so much to say about the part which the South-case, the advocate of German rights proceeds to fight the "to fish in troubled water." Certainly this suggestion Eastern Company had acted in promoting a breach of the shadow, and show those historical facts which he supposes from a German cleverly illustrates the English saying peace, had not a word of animadversion upon the employ- the Danes to deny. He shows them fairly, does not that "the fastest thief cries loudest, Fie." But the fact ment of the metropolitan police in the same offence. The suppress the fact that Slesvig was a fief of Denmark; but is that the Danes, who, it is said also and rightly, "know fact that a strong party of the police were on duty to he argues that the fief quality of Slesvig was abolished at how to influence the English and French press," have keep order in the despatch of the particular train gave the peace of Rothschild, in 1658, and that Slesvig thus to a most remarkable degree shown in their books, some sanction to the conduct of the company, for it was became a sovereign Dukedom. This is, indeed, the point pamphlets, and journals a sense that their strength lies not to be supposed that the force whose special business it chiefly relied on by the more reasonable and moderate in clearness and completeness of detail, in citation and is to preserve the peace would be lent to a purpose contrary advocates of Schleswig-Holsteinism, to which the writer of recitation of the letter of deeds and treaties. This is the to a law of any living force, and entitled to respect. There, this document belongs. But what are the facts? In secret of their influence over opinion in France and Engindeed, appeared in such a guard of honour a reflected 1658, King Frederick III. of Denmark, with the consent land. The German pick his facts, in this matter is comsanction of the Home Office, unreal no doubt, but not the of the Danish Council, conferred sovereignty on himself pelled to do so, to give up his case, or confess to a bit of less misleading. It is only justice to Sir George Grey to and on Duke Frederick III., of Holstein-Gottorp, for political brigandage for the good and glory of his Fathersay that he is about the last man to approve of such an their respective shares of Slesvig, the Duke having ob- land. The Dane who may best be served by a whole truth, employment of the constabulary force, but, whoever may tained this concession by force of alliance with the and nothing but the truth, in self-defence reiterates the be responsible, a fact of such bad example, and so scandalous enemies of Denmark. It is a little matter that all Slesvig clearest narratives of fact. in itself, must not pass without notice and reprehension. was not included in this act, and that the part retained as The excuse will no doubt be, that as the thing was sure the King's share became more strictly his own than ever; The German writer whose argument we are sketching to be done by hook or by crook, it was better that it it is a greater matter that the grant of sovereignty was further supposes that the English advocacy of the rights of should be done in an orderly than in a riotous way; and expressly and repeatedly limited to the male descendants Denmark is founded upon considerations of expediency, on such we are sure was the motive, but never can be justified of the two princes; it was a grant of abeyance of the the thought that "Denmark is a political necessity, because the conversion of the appointed conservators of the peace feudal tenure for a fixed term, was described in contem"Denmark is the guardian of the Sound." Argument into the promoters of a breach of the law. And in porary documents as a remissio vassalagii,' and, for as far founded on that text is, of course, nothing to the purpose. England we have never adopted the system of regulating as it went, this reservation was agreed to by the Duke of Then follows in the sequence of false logic the old an evil which cannot be prevented. If we did so, the Holstein-Gottorp as an express condition of his sove-squabble over the rival languages in Slesvig. Upon police might be put to strange uses, and order set above reignty: this subject there is really no ground left for rational morality as it is in a neighbouring kingdom. The words of the deed are these:-"Still with this express condi- complaint. In Slesvig German alone is used for admiCertain we are, however, that the police would not have tion, that the boundaries of the realm remain at the ancient (uralt) nistrative and judicial purposes in the German districts; been employed to further an illegal object without disorder and original limits; that the jurisdiction of the realm remains undis- and in the mixed districts it is used where it is asked for. or riot, if there had been a proper sense of the nature of turbed in its extent as formerly in lay and spiritual matters; also with The primary schools in the German districts of Slesvig are this express condition, that the said part of the duchy of Slesvig is exclusively German, no Danish at all is taught; while in that illegal object. But some inconsiderate speeches, internot to be alienated to the disfavour of us, the Crown and the successors, the schools of the mixed districts German lessons form part preted for more than they meant, have favoured a belief but left in its present sovereign state and consistence as long as any of the course of education. With what reason can, let us that there is a change of opinion as to prize-fighting, that legitimate male descendant of Duke Frederic may be living." its revival is approved by the country, and that the law It is still more to the purpose that the German writer, when they themselves allow to the two million of Poles say, the Prussians denounce this liberality as oppression, bearing upon it might be considered practically in abey- leaving, of course, these inconvenient details out of his argu- in East and West Prussia and Posen not a single Polish ance. Never was there a greater mistake, for the thing, ment, is obliged to slur over the history from 1658 to 1848 with all its hateful circumstances and concomitants, is in a single sentence thus: "With later times contention of village school, not a Court, not a public office in which the more than ever condemned by the sound public opinion "the King of Denmark with the Dukes of Gottorp as to the language of the Poles is spoken. which is the ruling power. The ring has had its day with "sovereignty of the Dukedom of Schleswig, indeed at one bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and other kindred sports, but its "time it was abolished by force, but afterwards became few decent friends admit there has been enough of it, and "re-established, consequently it remains the same still to the general public are resolved there shall be no more. "the entire legal extent." What lies behind the fog of

SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEINISM.

The case of the Germans in the Danish quarrel is before us in an able document with a semi-official aspect, printed in English for

such a sentence?

The Duke of Gottorp having forced from Denmark a remission of vassalage, and the Danish succession to the Crown having become two years later hereditary instead

reading of recent events, heaps fog upon fog; but we have The rest of the German argument, founded upon a confused lately shown the true bearing of events of our own time upon the German case, that upon this part of the subject it is not worth while again to dwell.

so

politician. In this paper the best is made that can be deprive the Gottorp family of the independence it had Marlborough-street Police-court is a complete exempli

made of the case of the Germans. Let us, therefore, look forcibly obtained.

THE GRINDING OPPRESSION. of elective, there was a frequent struggle forcibly to The case of Mr Stanford and the organ-grinder at the For the four years after 1675 the fication of the defects of the law relating to what is through it and see what it is worth, for at least we agree his land, reunited the Gottorp with the Royal share of nuisance is supported and encouraged. Duke was again a vassal; in 1684 Christian V. seized miscalled street music, and also of the way in which the with the author's introductory axiom that to enable any Slesvig and took homage of the estates as the sole sovereign one to form a stable opinion on this or any other subject, in Slesvig. France compelled restoration. In the Euro- Mr Knox, it will be remembered, was of opinion that "substance of the question, and to exhibit the object from pean wars at the beginning of the last century, the Duke the man was not legally in custody, as the policeman had of Gottorp, who had promised neutrality, secretly took part not seen him play after the request to cease, the sapient "every point in which it may be viewed." against Denmark, was therefore declared an enemy by Act requiring a constable's view of sound. But the magisThis object (he says) is the Dukedoms of Schleswig. On the part of Frederick IV., who in 1713 occupied all his lands, and at trate granted a summons, and the grinder appeared the the Danes, they maintain that Schleswig was a Danish province, and had never been united with Holstein, and had only had a united the peace in 1720 restored to him only his Holstein posses- next day, accompanied by Mr Lewis, who acted as his legal government with Holstein since the granting of a deliberative assembly sions. He retained the Gottorp share of Slesvig, reunited This gentleman attempted to take very high

"it is necessary, strictly and clearly to show the main

did not belong to the German Confederacy, but which has for centuries

adviser.

in the year 1834, and must therefore be incorporated with the it with the Royal share, and in 1721 formally re-incorporated ground, talked of the wrong done to his client by an illegal Kingdom of Denmark. On the part of the German Confederacy, they the whole duchy into the Danish Crown. The Gottorps confinement of twenty hours (what a blessing to the maintain that Schleswig was an independent Dukedom which truly held by their claim, and presently the eldest branch of the town!), and threatened Mr Stanford with an action for false been united with Holstein, formerly belonging to the German Empire, Gottorp family was coming to the throne of Russia, and the imprisonment if he should venture to proceed with his and now to the German Confederacy, with which it had a community middle branch to that of Sweden. It was then necessary complaint. To this Mr Knox very sensibly replied, that of all public rights and privileges, and Holstein had therefore a claim that the question should be settled, and in 1767 a treaty no jury would give more than a farthing damage in such was concluded, and ratified in 1773, which made an end of a case; but Mr Stanford having stated that he had no

to have Schleswig united with it.

If this be "the main substance of the question," where, the whole question. The then reigning Duke of Holstein- disposition to press the charge, the complaint was diswe ask, is an impartial Englishman to find the justice of Gottorp, heir to Russia, ceded his Holstein possessions to missed, Mr Stanford taking only by all his trouble the the German case? It does not matter whether it be a fact Denmark in exchange for other lands, and he renounced all comfort, such as it may be, of this declaration of the or not in experience of the writer, in our own experience his rights and pretensions to Slesvig or any part of it, in magistrate.

it is the reverse of true that the Danes maintain Slesvig to favour of the Danish crown. The two other branches of The inhabitants of this district should have all the protection he be a Danish province that "had never been united with the House of Gottorp made similar renunciations, and the could afford them, and for the sake of all authors he would in all "Holstein, and had only had a united government with incorporation of 1721 was thus fully and formally acknow- of a constable," and he had no doubt that if application were made to proved cases fine the defendants 40s. each. The law said, "in view "Holstein since.... 1834." We never read or heard of ledged and ratified. These are the facts which the German Sir R. Mayne that a plain clothes constable would be placed near Mr such an assertion as coming from any educated Dane or advocate steps over with the sentence we have quoted: Stanford's residence, and that the nuisance to him and his neighbours ány moderately informed Englishman. We ourselves are "With later times contentions of the King of Denmark would very soon be abated.

not advocates of Dane or German, but of justice simply," with the Duke of Gottorp is to the sovereignty of the This may be all very well as regards the special case of and in the name of justice have opposed the greed of the "Dukedom of Slesvig, indeed, at one time it was abolished Mr Stanford, but what is to be the protection of others in German Fatherland for lands and harbours that are not" by force, but afterwards became re-established, con- every part of the town who are subjected to the same her own. Yet it has been a distinct and even an "8 sequently it remains the same still, to the entire legal annoyance? Will there be an officer in plain clothes in essential part of the case for Danish rights that there "extent!" If a moderate and competent German every thoroughfare, and is there a street in which there is was a long period during which Slesvig and Holstein politician can thus fog over so plain and notorious a fact as not an organ-grinder, one or more, almost in every hour of were both subject to German Dukes, whose patron- the renunciation of their rights in Slesvig by the House of the day, for the town swarms with the vagabonds? And age, in Slesvig as in Holstein, all tended to create Gottorp, we need not wonder at the extent to which why does Mr Knox propose to confine such poor protection, in each Duchy a German aristocracy, and to tempt the wilder German politicians muddle themselves out of as he suggests, to authors? Why are people who happen German immigration; but that while Slesvig and Holstein the simplest perception of the difference between black and not to be authors to have the quiet, to which all are entithus formed between their aristocracies a 'nexus socialis,' white, and call black white, or Slesvig German property, as tled, disturbed? Is not objection to an unnecessary and and certain customs which are to this day respected by often as it pleases them; really without a true sense that they disagreeable noise reasonable? But here is the stupidity the Danish Government, one Dukedom was Danish and are calling anything out of its true name, or that they are of the Act, which requires what will be differently con

I reside near Mr Stanford, and can say that the organ nuisance is abominable. The men begin about nine in the morning, and do not leave off until half-past ten at night. There are sometimes from twenty to thirty organs in one day in the place.

strued by different minds, and what cannot be understood shabby and tardy acknowledgment of the forethoughtful We lately noticed the case of a pauper who pleaded at all by the party warned. It is as faulty as regards the wisdom shown in the scheme of a European Congress. guilty to a charge of stack-burning, explaining that he did disturber as the public. When the German horn-blower, His Imperial Majesty can afford, it is said, to forgive the it to obtain the benefit of a long term of penal servitude or Savoyard grinder, is told to desist or that he will be given grudging spirit that refuses him the credit of a great and the comforts of a convict prison. The Judge very into custody, how is he to know that the objection to his design, and then prigs a bit of it for parade as its own. obligingly gave the man ten years. noise is reasonable? How is he to be satisfied that the He can listen with amusement to the emphatic reading of Rick-burning has lately been alarmingly on the increase, person ordering him away is sick, or an author engaged his first chapter, just after the book has been shut in his and one of the Judges having commented at some length in composition, or a mathematician occupied with his face, as an improper one. His supreme magnanimity will on the necessity of repressing the crime by severe punishcalculations? Make the rule absolute that he is to desist not frustrate, it will even favour and further the provisional ment, passed sentences of six years' penal servitude. Ten from braying or grinding when ordered, and there can be counsel for the settlement of the Slesvig-Holstein difficulty; years had been given to the pauper who committed the no misunderstanding; for clearly it should not be the for once met, they will not soon separate; and the crime expressly and avowedly for the (so-called) punishright of any one to disturb the streets by any noises way once being shown to the top of Olympus, Jove ment. The same sentence has this week been passed in not necessary to their traffic. This the Legislature will easily find pretexts for retaining his visitors there. the Criminal Court upon a fellow who fired a valuable admitted when it prohibited the ringing of the dust- If all this fanfaronade be useful in restoring the mind stack to get out of the army into a jail. The Common man's bell. But we shall be told tastes differ, and of the Tuileries to its self-complacency, we need not Serjeant told the man he would find the penal service some people like the sounds that torture the ears of complain; it is enough for us to bring about what harder than the one he had escaped, but the fellow smiled, others; and so, too, there may be people who like the ought to be done, and to prevent being done that knowing better. clash of marrow-bones and cleavers, but should they be which ought not to be done. Nobody on this side of the For the repression of this most wanton and mischievous indulged in that sort of music at the expense of the Channel is likely to be mystified by the jingling of words crime, destroying the property of an individual and quiet of their neighbours? Certain it is, however, whether of a similar sound, but of diametrically opposite meaning. diminishing the common stock of food, the Home Secrefrom vulgarity of taste or force of extortion, that organ- To apply the same phrase to an arbitration asked by Den-tary has advised an increase of the constabulary force, but grinders and horn-blowers levy a daily contribution which mark for the defence of her settled frontier, and to an it would be much more to the purpose for him to turn his would go far to the relief of the Lancashire distress. And international gathering to authorise the unsettlement of all attention to the attractions of the convict prisons, in which sad it is to reflect that honest hands are wanting em- boundaries that a few great Powers dislike, is little better is to be found the root of the evil. Multiplying constables ployment, and the bread it would earn, while lazy Italian than a sort of diplomatic punning, a bastard kind of will avail nothing when men are giving themselves up vagabonds obtain an easy subsistence by twirling round joking, devoid of the wisdom of wit. spontaneously, avowing the crime they have committed, and round a handle like that of a small coffee-mill. We It remains to be seen, notwithstanding, whether the pru- and its object. A lighted match is thrown into a stack, are afraid to cite the estimated number of this vaga- dent expedient suggested by Lord Russell will, after all, be the mischief is done, and the candidate for convict treatbond fraternity, lest we should be charged with exaggera- found available. There is about it something too much of a ment gets what he wants. By the system established tion, but that it is immense must be painfully certain to precedent applicable to the case of Poland, to be very accept- nominal punishments have been converted into temptations every one, there being no thoroughfare north, south, east, able to Russia: and Russia has reasons of her own for not or rewards. and west for miles unvisited by the nuisance, and often desiring to see Denmark kept too strong or independent. But it is when we pass to offences against the person many times a day. In support of Mr Stanford's complaint According to the Danish law of succession, recognised that we find the most revolting disproportion of punishment a witness stated: by the Treaty of London, the Czar was within five of to guilt. This week, at the Criminal Court, two miscreants the lesser Scandinavian Crown. He is now within three, were convicted of indecent assaults upon girls under the the death of the late Sovereign without offspring, age of twelve years. One of the wretches had tied his and the renunciation of King George of Greece having victim to a table while he shut up his shop, preparatory to got rid of two obstacles in the way of Muscovite the commission of the offence. Mr Baron Martin sentenced And can we wonder at this, when we learn from Mr ambition. Who can tell what casualties may still further the miscreants to eighteen months' imprisonment with hard Stanford the patronage attracting to the spot: abbreviate the span between St Petersburg and Copenhagen? labour, the measure of punishment commonly allotted to I wish to state on behalf of the prisoner that I have received a This may one day be a very serious matter for Western trespasses against property of no great magnitude or turletter from Sir John and Lady Mitchell, expressing a hope that I Europe; but it is no paradox to say that the danger to the pitude. Yet what crime could be more cruel or wicked would be favourable to the man, as they were somewhat to blame peace and freedom of the Atlantic States that would arise than this. The girls are probably ruined for life, polluted in the matter, having promised the man a gratuity at Christmas. from the annexation of Jutland to the dominions of the in body and mind, and too likely to find their early wrong Here we have the root of the evil. The grinder was autocrat, is in the inverse ratio of the size and their lasting injury throughout life. It will stand in the way subsidized, and a dozen inhabitants were to be disquieted strength which the Danish monarchy is enabled to main- of their employment, and of their marriage, and it will and annoyed for the delectation of Sir John and Lady tain. As now constituted its possession by the Czar, how-facilitate the advances of a seducer. They have suffered Mitchell. The fact gives us the measure of their ears, and ever arising, would be inevitably regarded by the Western the worst robbery in the present and future, and the doubtless they descend in a direct line from the illustrious half of the Continent as a thing intolerable. At any punishment of this monstrous wrong is, forsooth, eighteen house of Midas, famous for wealth and peculiar taste. The cost it would be resisted; and the resistance would very months' imprisonment. Out on it! pleasures of the kitchen and drawing-room are indeed often probably end in the re-construction of one great Scandinaprecisely the same, master and footman, lady and scullion, vian State on both shores of the Baltic. The sagacious having taste in common, and a gratification level to the Muscovites know this well; and therefore they believe it coarsest capacity. They feed on garbage without a suspi- to be for their interest that Denmark should first be broken THE ENGLISH AND SWISS RIFLEMEN. cion that it is not a choice delicacy. They listen to a in pieces, and that half of it should be held out as a bribe The Report of the Proceedings of our National Rifle horrible discord, piquing themselves on being fond of to Prussia, in order that the remainder may not seem too Association, published this week, testifies to the growing what they call a tune, and therefore it is that we are so great to be hereafter appropriated by the Czar. The strength and importance of a really national movement. tormented with hackneyed slang music on crazy instru- policy of dismemberment piecemeal is one of the fixed tra- It is admitted that hitherto the action of the National ditions of the House of Romanoff. By adherence to its Rifle Association has tended rather to the making of a Never let us forget our obligations to two members maxims, their power has come to be what it is. The certain number of first-rate shots, than to the creating of for the part of the town most afflicted--Marylebone and bones of every successive victim have been broken by the such a nation of riflemen as the Swiss. The Swiss say Westminster. Lord Fermoy and Sir John Shelley have snake before it has been devoured. The pride and pluck of that to make a people of good shots there must be the stood forward as the champions of the street nuisances; Sweden was seriously damaged by the forcible alienation encouragement of prizes, to the winning of which there and at the next election they may fairly be left to the of Finland; and no better expedient to restore her strength goes plenty of chance. This was tried at the last Wimbledon support, such as it is, they have the best right to claim, could be found at the Congress of Vienna than to commit meeting by setting a target up for central shots, which was the votes, or rather notes, of the organ-grinding and a similar injury upon Denmark by robbing her of Norway, crowded throughout the whole meeting, and at which the brass-band interests. and handing it over as a compensation to Sweden. The first prize, so distinctly did chance rule the issues, was Germans now seek to take away Slesvig and Holstein. won by a youth of sixteen. But the fact is that a nation Bereft of these, Jutland would be too weak to make any of riflemen is not to be made by any proceeding of any serious resistance to a sudden descent by the Russians; Association in a highly-cultivated country, with little or and in a day of disunion and distraction among the no wild land, and all the game protected savagely. It is A jury rightfully empannelled does not differ more other Powers, its prolonged "occupation as a material the abundance of wild land and free game that puts a gun widely from a self-organised gang of bullies than a Con- guarantee" by the great aggressor, may not seem to be into the hand of every Swiss, and the rifle matches in ference of neighbouring Powers, asked to decide a par- obviously a question of vital importance. We all know Switzerland are, in fact, the consequence and not the ticular dispute, differs from a congress of potentates what a prolonged occupation turns to when the occupying cause of the common habit of shooting. assembled for mutual help in spoliation. The one has a power has the strongest motive for holding its ill-gained Our National Rifle Association is a capital institution, specific aim, the other is bounded by no assignable limita- ground, and when the local means of resistance have and we do not care how many impossibly grand results of tion of purpose. The one springs from the wise dictates become insignificant. If we want to keep Russia from its energy it may choose to set before itself as objects for of necessity; the other from the vain impulses of wanton the shores of the Ocean, we must keep her out of Jutland; attainment. It works so sensibly that it can arrive only at choice. The one is the recognised expression of public and out of Jutland she will not be kept very long if excellent ends, by the good practical means it uses. law; the other the mysterious utterance of lawless will. Denmark be broken in twain. For this reason we believe if the English is to be a nation of good shots, the people The one is arbitration invoked by the injured or the weak; that the Court of St Petersburg, whatever it may say to must have something besides targets to fire at. Wherever the other a scheme for intervention by the aggressive and the contrary, will thwart the adjustment of the present they go are cattle and sheep, cats, dogs, deer, hares, pheasants, the strong. The military absolutism of France suggests quarrel between the Germans and the Danes; and for the partridges, which in the rich peopled and cultivated lands the one; the peaceful constitutionalism of England recom- other reason already stated, we entertain no doubt that it are all somebody's property. As for the small birds we are will insidiously labour to avert the setting of anything now being told, not without truth, again and again, that it like a precedent for arbitration of its own controversy with is a sin and a shame, and a ruin to the farmers' crops, to the Poles by an international jury.

ments.

ARBITRATION versus INTERVENTION.

mends the other.

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DISCREPANCIES IN PUNISHMENTS.

But

There cannot be a more striking political antithesis than the general Congress proposed by Napoleon III. to reconshoot them, because they are required for keeping down the struct the map of Europe, and the Conference proposed by ravenous hosts of the insect world. There remains nothing our Government, at the desire of that of Denmark, to reguin the way of game upon which it is allowable to the man late the enforcement of the specific terms of the Treaty of who represents the English at large to fire his gun London. No particular complaint of injustice called for without incurring fine, imprisonment, or ignominy, except the Imperial device; nothing but the redress of a particular Lord Carnarvon and the Hampshire Magistrates are it be a wasp, an earwig, a cockchafer. No doubt it may wrong lies within the province of the English proposition. endeavouring to realize punishments, and to introduce, at be good practice to take a long shot at an earwig, but there So far from being a short or a halting step in the same least, some approximation to uniformity into prison disci- has not existed any people yet that considered it worth while direction, it is emphatically a distinct and definite step the pline. To effect this will be much, but more remains to to burn powder for such game. Good shots, and familiar other way. It is a positive, precise, and practical measure, be done to put the administration of justice in thorough use of the gun, are the rule among the limited class of which if taken, so far from opening the door to universal order. No one can read a report of proceedings at Assizes, Englishmen who have landed estates, or money, or conintermeddling, would, pro hac vice, close that dangerous or Sessions, without being struck by the disproportion in nexions, that make it worth their while to take out a game door, and put an additional bolt on the inside. It would the sentences. The Bench will hold forth upon the extra-license. Beyond that class, it is not in the power of an simply enforce actual and known rights, the most oppo- ordinary wickedness of some offence against the person, English Rifle Association to raise up a nation of riflemen site thing in the world from what is called realizing the and award a few months' imprisonment with hard labour; such as exists among the free natural rifle ranges of the political ideal. Nobody better understands all this than and for the next offence against property it will, without Swiss.

the French Emperor. Nevertheless his Paris organs a word of comment, direct many years of penal servitude The report, we may add, suggests sensibly that the time exhaust every form of speech to prove the contrary, and six, ten, or twenty. But even for grave offences against is come when rifle matches are so much of a national to convince their readers that the arbitration of the property there is great discrepancy in the measures of institution that a uniform set of rules should be established, Powers who were signatories to the Treaty of 1852, is a punishment for crimes of the same class. and that as the Rules of Marylebone govern cricket, so the

Rules and Byelaws of the National Rifle Association might water. At the distance of about nine hundred yards she delivered a be adopted with advantage by all other associations in the broadside with her 15-inch mortars and 200-pounder rifled guns. Lieutenant-Colonel Yates, an officer of engineere, of great merit, country. This would have, in fact, a double advantage, who commanded the barbette battery on the east face, sprang to the for it would not only secure uniformity, but would also 7-inch Brooke, and pointing it himself, sent four successive shots into bring the National Rifle Association to the utmost degree the Keokuk. The first struck the Pilot house, and ploughing down under the wholesome government of public opinion. below, is supposed to have passed out below water. The second shot struck her poop, knocked away large plates of iron, and tore up her Under such a system no rule could stand long that was not deck. The third hit her turret. The fourth went clean through based on sound reason and experience.

UNCONTROLLABLE IMPULSE.

her.

The Keokuk scrambled out of the action, but eventually sank at her anchorage. The Brooke 7-inch gun carries with ease and safety twenty pounds of powder, and that is Captain Brooke's secret. We are putting on board our armour-clad William Stephenson, clerk, has been convicted of stab-fleet our old 68-pounders and Armstrong's 110-pounders, bing one of Turner's pictures in the National Gallery in with their ineffective cartridges; every newspaper teems several places with a knife. He pleaded guilty to the with that degrading intelligence. This state of things is, I charge, and said he did the mischief in a moment of un- do not hesitate to say, disgraceful to the Admiralty, an opprocontrollable excitement. stabbed a man, for in that case the plea of uncontrollable impulse would have obtained him acquittal, on the ground that he was not an accountable agent.

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He might more safely have brium to the War Office, and dangerous to the country.is Abeokuta--Understone-chief town in the whole dis-
Nothing, however, ever will and nothing ever can spur on
our public departments to proper and adequate exertion but
disaster, and who shall say in the present case that it does
not threaten to follow in the wake of imbecility?

The INDEX to the EXAMINER for 1863 is given as a Supplement with to-day's number.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-We forward to-day twenty shillings, which have been sent to us for Lilley's father in addition to the ten from our last week's correspondent, "One who was drilled in 1798."

CAVETO.

Savage Africa: being the Narrative of a Tour in Equatorial, South-Western and North-Western Africa; with Notes on the Habits of the Gorilla; on the Existence of Unicorns and Tailed Men; on the Slave Trade; on the Origin, Character, and Capabilities of the Negro; and on the Future Civilisation of Western Africa. By W. Winwood Reade. With Illustrations and a Map. Smith, Elder, and Co. About sixty miles from Lagos, now an English colony, trict of Yoruba. This is explored ground; but although something has been written of the capital of Egba Land, Captain Burton's shrewdness of observation and experience of African travel make his account of a visit to Abeokuta the first that may be substantially relied upon. There is a mission here, and a fortnightly local paper, Sir,-"Be sure that you can walk before you attempt to partly printed in English partly in Egba, called 'Iwe run is a valuable old adage. Would that you could persuade our Government of its value. Common report, in my Isohin, the Book of News: profession, has for some time given us to understand that the The subscription is two shillings per annum, and the editor is our great gun built by Sir W. Armstrong, not properly a 600- host, Dr Harrison, a man who, not undistinguished at Cambridge, pounder beyond the possibility of its carrying a shell, but has brought himself down to writing leaders "adapted to the meanest still so called, has been so damaged in its first attempt that intellect." The superiority of a regular coinage over the local it must have a great deal of mending before it can be used cowrie; the propriety of supplanting the hoe with the plough-such to astonish the gentlemen from the War Office and Admi- are the abstruse theses which now attract his facile pen. The printer's devils are black youths, some of them Abeokutans, paid ralty at Shoeburyness; and we hear that a foot or two are four dollars to five dollars per mensem. They handle their "long to come off the 300-pounder Armstrongs. Of course the primer" with some dexterity, and there is a handy little press, paper AMERICAN GUNS AND ARMOUR-CLAD SHIPS. people must not mind this; it is not the first time that Arm- only being now wanted. strong has mended his broken work, nor will it be the last; Sir,-Where discussion has so long existed, and still knows and it will all be very nicely cooked and appear in one bill, no cessation, on the subject of guns, and the proposed resist-so we shall be contented, and the people's representatives will ance to their effects, and since you have permitted your pass the account. This is all as it should be, but don't you On the east and north sides of the compound are the native correspondent to take a somewhat decided position in your think, Mr Editor, that, instead of trying to make such vast employés of the establishment,-Mr Allen, one of the schoolmasters; columns on that subject, perhaps a few words may not be pieces of ordnance, which when completed, if successful, Mr Wilhelm, a "Christian visitor;" and Miss Vincent, who has amiss to call the attention of your readers to the develop could be of little use, it would be better to attempt something charge of all the little converted misses. The most interesting part ments that take place from day to day in the improvement of on a smaller scale, and which others have already succeeded of the mission grounds is the village of New Christians: it is called artillery. in. For instance, Parrott has battered down Fort Sumter Wasimi, or Come-and-Rest, an "Alabama" in Africa, and it clings to We naturally look to America at the present moment with his 200-pounder guns, made on Blakely's principle. mortal energy which the Anglo-Saxon has so successfully distributed the eastern wall of the compound. As might be expected from that because, although the experiments made by our Govern- Captain Brooke has sunk an armour-clad vessel, the Keokuk, about the world, poor African Come-and-Rest is approached by all ment with great guns must be interesting, yet it is unfor- carrying enormous ordnance, by four shots from a 7-inch the preparations for severe and protracted toil, gins, saws, cottontunately too true that they are of a confined and one-gun, also made on Captain Blakely's principle; and Captain presses, and what not. "Come-and-Rest" is in fact a would-be sided description, and not calculated to give any decided Semmes, with one shot from a gun made by Captain Blakely workhouse. facility or character to the science of projectiles as cultivated himself, sank a Federal cruiser of from 1,000 to 1,500 tons. But again Anglo-Saxon impetus has failed in converting the haven in other parts of the world. In America we have now Now, since Captain Blakely is taboo'd at the War Office and of refuge into a workshop, and the African vis inertia has here also reliable evidence that guns of 200-pounds calibre have been Admiralty, why is not Sir William Armstrong to try his been successful. I never saw more than four men at work amongst fabricated, which, carrying heavy cartridges, are enabled to hand at something less expensive, more feasible, and more the gins, and then half a dozen squatters were chatting with and give great penetrative force as well as great range to the shots useful than his last broken-down "Big Will?" which bids staring at them, whilst a woman or two sat by with baskets of popped propelled from them; and these guns are fabricated by fair to be "Dear Bill," as your correspondent terms it, with North America the gin-house is the proper working place of "old maize and boiled palm-kernels to recruit exhausted nature.

Correspondence.

vengeance.

Great George street, 7th January, 1864.

AN ENGINEer.

THE ALDERSHOTT INQUIRY AND THE
ARTICLES OF WAR.

a

Of the converts and the labourers about the mission Captain Burton writes:

In

Parrott. It is curious to note from a correspondence between Captain Blakely and Mr Parrott that they agree that if their guns are not one and the same, yet that it amounts to a mere distinction without a difference. Captain Blakely, however, when craving at his own entire expense a trial for his gun in his own country, is flatly denied it. The Times' Special Correspondent at Richmond has spoken of Parrott's guns and their effects, and at the same time mentions that Commander Brooke had, with a gun of his own invention, done as much for the South as Parrott had for the North. While the Times' newspaper is endeavouring to throw dust in the eyes It is the duty of the Judge-Advocate to put the Court and perhaps half of the machinery lies upon the ground, all dirt, of the public as to the effects produced by these guns, fresh evidence comes out in the columns of another journal, edited upon their guard against every disregard of military law; mud, and rust. Rusty it is landed from the steamer, rustier it is sent by another late and justly respected correspondent of the and should it happen that an illegal course or an unjust up in a canoe to Abeokuta, and there it lies upon the ground, rustiest, because the people will not work. I could mention a Times, Mr Russell, the United Service Gazette, which is con- opinion is nevertheless persevered in, the Judge-Advocate, respectable body of gentlemen which has spent thousands of pounds clusive that Commander Brooke has produced a rifled gun of though not warranted to enter his dissent in the form of a sterling upon such vagaries, in the fond belief, though perhaps not Only 7-inches calibre, carrying a charge of twenty pounds of protest upon the record of the proceedings, ought to insert wholly so, that the works of every glib-tongued negro are true, and powder, throwing a shot of less diameter than our old 68- therein the opinion delivered by him upon the controverted that all those ingenious implements are whirring and working at pounder gun, the calibre of which is 8-inches. The American point. This he should do, not only that he may stand ab- Abeokuta as they would whirr and work at Manchester. A small gun, so admirably adapted for maritime purposes, being little solved from all imputation of failure in his duty, but that any steam-engine might, indeed, do better; but fuel is dear, and then more than a 42-pounder, has done that which neither our 68- wrong may be fairly brought under the consideration of the who, as the Kanuri say, would "make his skin cold" with labour, pounder nor Armstrong's 110-pounder can do: perforated and power with whom it lies in the last resort, either to order when he can sit in the shade? Again, there are many who, like Mr gone through and through four iron plates, each two inches into effect or to remit the operation of the sentence. (Principle Leighton Wilson, decry introducing machinery into Africa, lest it thick, backed by eighteen inches of oak, and lodged a shell at and Practice of Military Law by Kennedy.) Is there, as should render the African lazy or lazier. I submit to the reader 1,000 yards in the strongest iron-clad ship the Americans have there ought to be, any such endorsement by the Judge- whether this be not a famous jump into the "pit called Absurdum." Captain Burton discusses by the way the schemes assoyet produced. The quibble that the American building of their Advocate of the proceedings at Aldershott? armour-clad ships may not be so strong as ours is only calcu- The Articles of War are supreme in the army, and no ciated with Dr Livingstone's pet river, the Zambezi; and lated to lead us astray. The Americans have always built finer officer of any degree can put his violation of them under the opinions of that experienced African traveller, in whose ships than we have, and be it remembered that while we were shelter of an illegal order, more especially if he obtained company Captain Speke first found his way to the flattering our national vanity, babbling, not o' green fields, such order on a false or illegal representation. N'Yanza, closely agrees with that which has been exbut of Sir William Symonds's unrivalled bows, there came pressed from the first by this journal. By the river Ogun, over a Yankee with his yacht, who not only beat our well-got up Cowesmen, despite of their costume à la T. P. Cooke, and he says: the nautical glasses slung over their shoulders, their pretentious club, signal post, and signal guns, but actually brought the long hollow American bow to be adopted by our Admiwith a South African shrubbery, which not a little reminded my ralty. This may be proved by going to the model-room in companion-a quondam member of the unfortunate Zambezi expediSomerset House, and comparing the short, bluff, round bows tion-of that splendid but useless stream, which promised, with giant might of humbug, to supply, besides quinine, "cotton, indigo, and of the Symonds' build with the long hollow bows of the other raw material to any amount." I say unfortunate, for 5,000%. A convicted man can only be sentenced to fourteen days' per annum, a sum sufficient to defray with due economy the expenses ships designed by Sir Baldwin Walker-in other words, the bows of the Yankee yacht America. We won't have Captain solitary confinement, and no man can be imprisoned for more of half a dozen expeditions, has been literally thrown away upon Blakely, of course not; he has no back-stairs' influence at than eight days without a Court-Martial. Yet the soldier this remote corner of South-Eastern Africa. A vile bar-there is no the War Office; but we shall be forced to have Mr Parrott, Lilley was not tried, but kept for thirty days in close arrest worse on the coast a shifting channel, shallow water, dangerous or he will whip us into the adoption of his guns. Your con- where death put an end to his misery, and then he was hurried rocks, and a labyrinth of shoals and sandbanks, with numerous small temporary, the United Service Gazette, and several other to his grave without an inquest. His Royal Highness, in islands, considerably detract from the chances that "this noble river is capable of being made a great highway for commerce, civilization, papers, quote a pamphlet by a Monsieur Girard, who has alluding to the confinement under arrest of certain non- and Christianity." The very fact that it is only approachable Just returned from America; it originally appeared as a commissioned officers on a charge of conspiracy, says that through the possessions of another Power, who has every right to memorial addressed to the French Emperor, and gives a was never attempted to be proved against them, and was impose any conceivable export and import duties, ought alone to glowing description of the attack by the Federal armour- charge "for which there seems not to have been a shadow of have been considered sufficient obstacles. Add to this, the sparseness clad fleet on Fort Sumter, and its defeat. Captain Brooke's foundation." of the population, the villainy of the natives, more especially the The Parliament of 1864 will have to call upon the Judge- "faithful Makololo," and the absence of all conveyance, which, with gun is there prominently brought into notice, and the extract from the United Service Gazette, which I beg leave to subjoin, Advocate to explain what he did in the matter; and if it be the length of the marshes, must prevent the transport of even ivory, will go near to establish the fact that if the Federal Ameri- found that the record and finding are at variance with the except on the shoulders of slaves destined for the coast markets, being remunerative. An unhappy and ill-judged mission has been the cans have gone beyond us with Parrott's guns, the Confede- Articles of War, ought they not to be cancelled? rate Americans are as far advanced with Brooke's guns, It was impossible for the Sovereign to read all the rigma- result of the labour of years; and, as all who knew the subject and be it observed that the structure of both Parrott's and role that occupied the Court for twenty-one days. Did the foresaw from the beginning, it came to a wretched and untimely end. and the same as that of Blakeley. Monsieur Girard, after in India were illegal, and could not be received by the Court blood of the natives has been shed by those who went to save themBrooke's guns, as far as their resistance to powder, is one Judge-Advocate advise the Court that the two orders issued Bishop and chaplain, missionaries and their wives and children, all perished miserably. Ships and boats have been lost-worse still, the describing the rough handling and retirement from action of because they contravened the Articles of War? Did he and the unfortunate promoter of the scheme has suffered even more explain that he had done this when the results of the case than he deserved, for want of moral courage to tell "the truth, the the Passaic, a Federal armour-clad, proceeds thus: I am, &c., whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Cotton, sugar, and indigo were submitted to the higher power? Vflourish, it will be remembered, in Western Africa, at one-third of Hyde-park terrace.

hands or very young ones, of breeding women, sucklers, and invalids; "-here it is of sturdy men. There are seven presses, but seldom more than one at a time is in use; half an hour is required to fill it by five men, plus a dozen who look at the workmen, and who in due time take a spell. They average per diem, in the seven presses, sixteen bales of 112-125 lbs. each. and they have never exceeded eighteen. In a long shed hard by are two parallel lines of circular gins, which, though known to tear the cotton fibre, were Sir, I trust that the public will not be allowed to forget complicated roller, or even the modified East Indian charkha. They the treatment of the Articles of War at the late Court-judged better for Africa, as requiring less toil than the heavy and Martial upon Colonel Crawley. cost in England three pounds, here about four pounds ten shillings;

The Keokuk next quitted the line and advanced in a splendid manner, as if she were going to knock the fort clean out of the

It was in evidence at Aldershott that the unfortunate man Lilley was confined in close arrest from the 26th April until the 25th May, the day he died.

The 123rd Article ordains that when any Court-Martial shall award a sentence of imprisonment, and shall direct that such imprisonment shall be solitary confinement only, the period of such solitary confinement shall in no case exceed fourteen days.

it

a

The open earth-banks of the river-here less than fifty yards broad -are well raised, showing tall Guinea grass and plots of cultivation,

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