The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-29 00:00:00

VAn

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1855.

Red-tapism has received a heavy blow ! Rou-
tine a great discouragement ! We have now a
real live Admiral whose Captain's commissim
does not date back more than forty-one and a half
years. Yes, my Lards have for once deviated
from their usual practice, and rewarded distin-
guished service by promoting an Admiral ! All
those who have hitherto conceived that seniority
was the sole passport to promotion—that none
but an octogenarian could possibly sport the flag
of a full Admiral—will stand aghast at the start-
ling in telliegen ce, the daring innovation.
There is no knowing where the matter
may stop now that the portal has once
been opened. Imbeciles of every class
feel that they may as well be at once placed no-
minally, as they long have been virtually, on the
retired list—that the glory has permanently de-
parted from their house.

We, however, in common with the great body
of the people, hail the beneficial change with un-
alloyed gratification. We look on it as the inau-
guration of a new system, from which more aus-
picious results may be anticipated—by means
whereof we may yet live to see Admirals in the
very prime of life, nho have not been shelved for
some score of years, and practically disqualified for
the discharge of the onerous and important duties
of a naval command.
It is true that " patronage" has been grossly
abused—so greatly so, that it was for a time felt
that promotion by mere seniority gave a better
chance to real merit than that which subjected it
to the caprice of a body like that of the Board of
Admiralty. But it was soon found that
great evils arose under what was considered for a
short time a decided amelioration. An inflexible
rule, a self-acting regulator, would not work well
under any circumstances. It was, as we have
said, even worse than the capricious selection
of men, not on account of their personal
qualifications, but of their political influence, or
aristocratical connexions. The one might lie,
and no doubt had been, greatly abused—but
under it we frequently got good men ; while the
other prevented us from obtaining commanders
until they required careful nursing, and were
unable to endure the trials incidental to the posi-
tion in which they were placed.

Now that the rule has been most justly and
properly relaxed the promotions most be closely
watched, and the voice of public opinion b..4u,
on
every nomination. That of Sir EDMUND LYONS will
be joyfully accepted by all, and we earnestly
hope that there may be further progress in the
same direction—that promotion may in every in-
stance attend real merit, and that the rule found
applicable for the navy may be extended to other
departments of the public service. In the Artillery
and Engineers it will be particularly useful.
Officers who have displayed the greatest zeal and
efficiency have hitherto been shelved, while those
who have had nothinu, to do have still maintained
the lead, to which nothing but the accident of a
few months' seniority entitled them. This must
all be changed in
Navy, Artillery, and
Engineers, and in many other depar Linen te.
The rule of the Administrative Referraer,

must, -whenever practicable, be adopted, and
the right men put in the right places. The
almost insuperable obstacle that hitherto prevented
this great desideratum was the gross corruption
that prevailed in the very highest offices. That
must now yield to the spirit of the times. The
Augean stables must be completely cleansed, and
those invested with extraordinary powers held
strictly responsible for the mode in which they
are exercised.

The other day it afforded us considerable plea-
sure to be enabled to remark that the reception
awaiting the King of SARDINIA at Guildhall was
worthy so distinguished a visitor, and, conse-
quently, the Corporation, as in some sort the
representatives of the citizens of London. To-
day it is our gratifying duty to announee that her
most gracious Majesty the QUEEN, with that fine
sense of what becomes her as the ruler of a free
people, which she has always manifested, has
resolved to confer the highest honour in her
gift on her royal guest and ally, in other words
to create Vicroß EMMANUEL an honorary member
of the Order of the Garter. The satisfaction
with which this announcement will be everywhere
received throughout the kingdom it is unnecessary
for us to describe further than by saying that the
only drawback to it will be the fact that her peo-
ple were prepared for it, knowing her anxiety for
their honour and welfare.

What remains, then, for speculation is the re-
ception awaiting him on the part of the people ;
and with respect to that we have already expressed
a decided opinion. It is not in the nature of
Englishmen not to sympathise with the constitu-
tional ruler of a comparatively small State, beset
with despotic neighbours. On no occasion, for
many a century past, have their hearts and souls
not glowed with pleasure in hailing the approved
champions of civil and religious liberty. At no
period have they been insensible to the claims of
high statesmanship and chivalrous daring, or failed
to recognise in a manly and honest ally a new-
found brother. It were too late in the day, then,
to apprehend their according VICTOR EMMANUEL
less than the most cordial reception it is in their
power to bestow. Never came regal guest among
them with more indisputable claims to their gra-
titude and respect. In his title to admiration
there is no real or apparent flaw. Compelled by
no imperious necessity to play the dictator, be
comes among us the beloved monarch of a free
people. Slave to no priestly domination nor heart-
less scepticism, he comes among us an enlightened
and religious king. Impelled by no immediate
peril, he visits us as a voluntary champion
in the cause of liberty and civilisation. The head
of a numerically small people, he has dared, if not
alone, to confront the CZAR and his mighty hordes.
Of no immediate kin to England, and owing us
no gratitude, he comes among us our especial
friend. The honoured guest of our most gracious
QUEEN, his well-beloved ally, his chief anxiety, we
are told, is to become acquainted with her people
—to fasten on his memory their appearance, and
see for himself, so far as time will permit him to
see, the great things we have achieved—to know
us as we are, our temper, manners, and institu•

tions—to trace, however cursorily, the foundations
of our power, and treasure in his heart the recol-
lection of the intensity of our sympathy with the
great cause to which he has so signally proved his
devotion.

From every street, square, lane, and alley of the
metropolis, we look, therefore, for accessions to
the countless thousands altoady prepared to give
him hearty welcome. Let it be shown to the
whole world that the people of England, who
notoriously regard with scorn and indignation the
miserable despots of Austria and Prussia, and
hold the petty German princes whom they pay at
once for their relationship to the Crown, and their
friendship to Russia, in contempt, are as fully
alive to the claims of true greatness as over they
were, and have manliness enough to reeognise it
with as loud and prolonged British hurrahs as
ever kindled the sensibilities of friends or shook
the nerves of enemies since they were first heard..
In honouring VICTOR EMILINUAL the people will
honour themselves. Let them not forget that.

Patience is a very good thing in its way, and
not unfrequently brings out the noblest qualities
of those who are called upon to practise it. Care,
however, should always be taken to prevent it
from degenerating into passive indifference—a
state unworthy of any human intelligence ; and
especially should such degeneration be guarded
against in relation to nuisances, the direct ten-
dency of which is to shorten the term of life. To
weary of effort towards the removal of such de-
structive agencies, and tolerate their existence
with soulless pas;iveness, is sheer homicide. It is
undoubtedly a very unpleasant thing to many
persons to come into collision with wealthy and
influential neighbours, or to incur the risk of
being designated ignorant and fussy meddlers ;
but surely the certainty of deserving a worse ap-
pellation should be more unpleasant still. Bettor
at any time to be reputed what you are not, than
to be the thing you ought to be ashamed of being.
Better incur reproach than deserve it : better run
all risks of offending your most influential neigh-
bour than have on your conscience the crime of
suffering thousands around you to be rendered
miserable, and have their days shortened for his
aggrandisement, while any exertion you can
make remains unmade. The obstacles in your
way may seem insurmountable, but it is never-
theless certain that there is sufficient enlighten-
ment and virtue nowadays to arm the weakest
with a giant's might when pleading the cause
of suffering humanity. Suceesa in such a
cause is certain, however indirectly it may be
r as
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lleisle
The truth ofdthiensecornenmeacrtkiosni.swnitohwtbheeit
ingly manifested
nuisance. For many long years the entire popu-
lation within the radius of a mile from Maiden-
lane have been the victims to a nuisance of a
injurious nature. Daring
peculiarly offensive and
a lengthened period the air they breathed has
been impregnated to a greater or less extent with
odours the very opposites of those proceeding from
" Araby the blest," odours that "all the per-
fumes of Arabia" could not sweeten. Odours from
the slaughter-honse—odours from the glue fac-
tory, the printing-ink factory, and the factory for
the composition of artificial manure. Odours, in a
word, from decomposition of the worst sort,
and of every species. Villanous scents, whose
redeeming virtue it is that they produce nausea,
but so Isubtle' and all pervading, that no door
lattice or easement, unless hermetically sealed,
could prevent their access. Fumes calculated
to stunt all healthy growth on the one hand,
and stimulate to the rankest vegetation on
the other, and which,
if respectable testimony is
worth anything, have had, as science tells us, they
cannot fail to have, the most pernicious effects on
the Iniman system—effects not to be traced ex-
clusively in the bills of mortality, but to be found
also in the books of medical men, in once rosy
cheeks turned pale, in active energies reduced to

lassitude, and the continual emptying of houses
for fresh tenants.

Such a state of things, as a matter of course,
has not been suffered to continue without com-
plaint. Letter after letter to the papers,
at more or less distant intervals, have tes-
tified to its existence, and been recorded
in bitter protest against it ; but no well-organised
action has been taken by the inhabitants gene-
rally to put a stop to it, not even to this day, though
the general feeling pronounces most emphatically
against it. Fortunately, of late, some resolute
and persevering individuals have no far succeeded
by the agency of the Press as to bring the ques-
tion to an issue. What with their correspondence,
and the remarks of some of our contemporaries
and ourselves, Government, to their credit, have
seen fit to give the Islington authorities a quiet
hint that it might be as well if they did their duty
and instituted proceedings against the alleged offen-
ders, more especially since Government was pre-
pared to lend them a helping hand. "On this
hint " the Islington authorities " spoke " in the
Clerkenwell Court, on Saturday last, where and
when they made an application for a summons,
adducing medical witnesses to show that " faint-
ing sickness, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, and
typhoid fever" have resulted from these factories
for the commercial utilisation of corruption. The
summons was granted, and the complaint will, in
due time, be brought forward for adjudication,
when the defendants will have the opportunity of
rebutting the abounding testimony to the perni-

cious character of their works if they can. That
they will be able to bring a member of the medi-
oal professions to speak to its healthiness is more
than probable—that they may enlist an arch-
deacon in their cause is quite likely, that they
should succeed in justifying themselves is all but
an impossibility, involving, as it would, such
an amount of stultification as we shrink from con-
templating. The thing is bad—human nature revolts
at IT, and all who sympathise with their kind in the
metropolis at least will look with eagerness for the
result. Commercial enterprise is too important
a thing to be trifled with—but we trust it is be-
yond the power of an individual to convince an
intelligent magistracy that that is healthy which
no delicate frame can be exposed to for the briefest
period without sensible injury.