The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-07 00:00:00

and hoe sever wonderful the achievements of modern
ocience, the invulnerable mammoths, the death-
dealing guns, the invisible terrors of monitors and
steam rams, there is still an undefined notion in
the public mind that the palmy days of British
seamanship were the days of the Nile and Trafalgar,
that the true type of an English naval hero was the
dashing fearless hero who stood arrayed in his
orders" on the deck at Trafalgar. Such being the
strength and endurance of the general feeling then,
it is natural to suppose that it has found
some expression. The most usual mode of
paying honour to a great man dead is to entomb him
in a costly sarcophagus, and raise monuments to
his memory. This has been done with NELSON, as
the iekteriors of our great cathedrals testify, but our
doings have stopped here. Our grateful recollection
of the services rendered, our admiration for the con-
queror's achievements has not induced us to seek
out more sentient tokens of his memory than stone
or marble. At this very moment there is living in
an English county, enfeebled by age and per-
manently incapacitated from work, an old sailor
who shared the perils of Trafalgar, who fought by
the side of the great commander, who saw him fall,
and was one of the four men who had the melane
choly duty of carrying him off the deck which he
should never tread again. Surely the recollection
of such a scene and such associations give him some
claim on the national regard. A foreigner on hear-
ing that a survivor of that desperate strife still
lingered among us would naturally suppose that so
rich and liberal a country, so tenacious of its
national honour, so proud of its naval history, would
have long since placed the old sailor in a position of
complete independence. It would not cost so much
to provide for the wants of the old man, to give him
in his age the guerdon which his brave youth fairly
won, to enable him to tell his tale of NiLsoN and
VILLENEUVE, of HARDY and COLLINGWOOd, of the
Victory and the Santissima Trinidada, without
thought of the future darkening the past, without
dread of a pauper's funeral or fear of wanting bread.
We cherish the memories of great men passed away,
we celebrate their centenaries, their tri-centenaries,
and a host of other festivals. We pay large sums
for trifles once belonging to them, for houses where
they have been born, or lived, or died, for
books they have corrected with their pencils, for
manuscripts they have left behind. But here is a
living being who cannot ' only remind us of the
glories of the past, but recall them viva voce to us ;
who has the claim nit only of having been closely
associated with one of our national boasts, but of
having himself shared, however slightly, in the
danger, of having taken a part, however insignifi-
cant, in the triumph. And each a man in our
wealthy England has no resource but the work-
house ! He must die in a pauper's bed, and be
buried in a parish coffin for lack of a few shillings
a week, while thousands are lavished annually on
pensions and sinecures, on ex• Ministers of State,
and supernumerary officials. And England has not
the excuse of ignorance. Three years ago an appeal
was made on behalf of this old man, when some
money was collected for him by subscription, but
the most careful management will scarcely spin £5O
out for ever in maintaining a poor bedridden old
man. Lady NELSON, in token of the name she
bears, allows him three shillings a week, but the
parish will allow him nothing ! It was not SANDI-
LANDS' fate to die in the hour of triumph, or to fall
beside his commander on the blood-stained deck of
the Victory, but when the news of blended triumph
and disaster was wafted quickly homewards,
it would have been thought stranely in-
credible that any who took part in so glorious
a struggle, more especially one who was so
closely connected with the last hours of the hero,
should have to say that England outlived her gra-
titude. Yet in trophies, and testimonials, and me-
morials to those who need them not, we lavish our
means and attention ; and while we celebrate
three hundredth Shakaperian anniversary it seems
that a century has not passed before we have for-
gotten NELSON. Let us make some amends before
it is too late, and let a sufficient amount be raised
by private benevolence, or, better still, provided by
the Public Treasury, to ensure the old sailor's pass-
ing his few remaining days in comfort, to save him
from the last resource of vagrancy and destitution,
and to remove so disgraceful a reproach from the
Government and the people.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE deserves great
credit for the spirit with which he has taken up
the subject of the removal of the British consuls
in the Confederate States of America, The noble
lord very fully and fairly explained the leading
circumstances of the case, and they are certainly
such as call for investigation, and are altogether
of too important a nature, and too significant a
reference, to be passed over in silence. From his
statements it appears that the Federal Govern-
ment, as usual, are very much to blame, and Earl
RUSSELL, with the prejudice and partiality that
ordinarily characterises him on this subject, de-
clared some time back that the Confederate Go-
vernment was to blame for the removal of the
Consuls. Lord CLANRICARDE very properly de-
nounced the language of the noble earl, and said
that he spoke in haste, and in anger, and that
the facts of the case did not bear the aspect
which ho had put upon them. The charges
brought by the Federal Government against these
consuls that they had committed or sanctioned
illegal acts was Most unfounded, and the best
proof that they went too far is that Earl RUSSELL
himself acknowledged that in the case of Mr.
BUNCH, the Government of Weshington had un-
justly taken away his exequatur. When the
noble lord, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
allows so much, we are full justified in assuming
much more. Another thing that undeniably presents
itself to our notice is that we heard no mention of
this aff,ir before, and certainly Earl RUSSELL did not
allude to it, when he discoursed upon the subject
some time back. A want of ingenuousness like this
on the part of a public functionary is very repre-
hensible, and must produce the most disastrous
effects on the feelings of those who analyse the
events in toto when they are cleared from the mists
that Ministerial and official routine cast around all
important matters. The Federal Government must
have conceived a very low opinion of the spirit of
our Ministers before they presumed to interfere
with such impertinent conduct, or dictate terms
with such arrogant assumption as they have done
throughout the whole course of this protracted and
most disastrous struggle. When we read and hear
of thebombastic declamations and the grandiloquent
asseverations with which the Ministers and their
friends and adherents proclaim the grand principle
of non-intervention and descant upon the meritori•
ous management of our Cabinet, it naturally sug-
gests itself to the mind that there is a great deal of
clap-trap in all this fine sounding tirade of " neu-
trality." There never was such glaring want of
faith exhibited by statesmen as that displayed by
Earl RUSSELL and his colleagues in this affair of
the America war. Matters have gone so far that
the noble Secretary for Foreign Affairs has agreed
to the motion of the noble marquis, with few
trifling alterations. This is a ()int gained,

at any rate, and many dike ent reasons

will doubtless be given as an explanation
of the somewhat extraordinary stcgaieecence.