The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-04 00:00:00

IN, MONDAY EVENXN G, JANUARY 4, 1864.

While the best parts of Mr. Thackeray's regular novels

belong to the class of relined comedy, his Christmas stories
his contributions to Punch, and his minor writings in gene-
ral, overflow with the gayest and wildest humour. No mo-
dern parodies approach in excellence to the imitations of
Mr. Disraeli and Sir Bulwer Lytton in " Codlingsby" and
" George de Barnwell." The profound philosophy of the
interesting murderer's argument to prove that he had com-

mitted no crime because he felt no remorse, is the more ad-
mirable because it approaches the limits of possible sophistry.
Major Gahagan, "the slayer of elephants," furnishes a
subject for one of the wittiest of burlesque romances. In
"Rebecca and Rowena," where Mr. Thackeray vented his

humorous irritation against the heroine of " Ivanhoe," his

unfailing dislike to famous warriors is expressed in the melo-

dramatic ferocity of Richard Cceur de Lion. Like all great
comic writers, he derived a special amusement from certain
favourite types of character. Of the mendacious Irish ad-
venturer he was never tired, and Barry Lyndon was only the
possible or credible forerunner of The Mulligan. The
Jeames of the " Diary" and the Charles of the " Yellow-
plush Papers" are still more fabulous representatives of
the imaginary London footman; but Mr. Thackeray knew
how to produce the most amusing results by adopting the
gratuitous supposition that uneducated magniloquence was
combined with a practice of phonetic spelling. He always
took pleasure in playing with the language of which he had
obtained perfect mastery. His puns and his unexpected
rhymes were surprisingly ingenious, and the flowing metre
of his humorous ballads was not far removed from the music
of genuine poetry. His ordinary style was in a high degree
pure and idiomatic, and his habitual cultivation of the nice-
ties of language taught him to appreciate, in his maturer
years, the classical studies which he had too much under-
valued in his youth. He sometimes said that his highest
aspiration would be to produce a few short poems as finished
and perfect as the Odes of Horace.--Baturday Review.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNALS,

EXAMINER.—We did some injustice to Colonel
Crawley when we characterised as of unmatched
irrationality his argument that the guilt of the un-
tried prisoner Lilley was to be assumed from the
fact of the legality of his arrest. IVe had, indeed,
overlooked the reasoning of the President of the
Court upon the same point, and carrying the absur-
dity still farther. " We may assume," said he, " that
Sergeant Major Lilley was a culprit to the fullest
extent, in consequence of the stringent orders given
by superior authority for his close arrest," It, is a
corollary, then, that the close arrest of an untried
man under the stringent orders of an officer in
superior authority is tantamount to a conviction of
his guilt to the fullest extent. What need, then, of
trial, unless:indeed it be to conform to the model of
justice established by the famous judge in the courts
below, Rhadamanthus, who heard what his prisoners
had to say in their defence after conviction and
punishment. If it is to be presumed that a man is
guilty because by high authority he has been
placed in close arrest, the fact must carry with it
such a load of prejudice as to make the forms of trial
a mere mockery, Ex parte the prisoner is con-
demned. To hear both sides is a rule of justice
ignored by the President of the Aldershot Court
Martial. The hearing of one side is, in his judg-
ment, enough to warrant an assumption of guilt.
The Colonel had made his charge to the Generals,
and the Generals, assuming it to be true, had di-
rected the close confinement of the accused, and from
that, says the President of Court of Military Jus-
tice, it was to be assumed that the prisoner was "
culprit to the fullest extent." Assumption of
guilt throughout, and nothing but assumption ! To
what purpose, then, do the Articles of War so
carefully provide trial for the accused within reason-
able time, if the orders of a general officer in high
command can prejudge the whole case, causing guilt
to be assumed to the fullest extent alleged ? The
great Roman satirist asks, in the case of a man con-
demned under the worst tyranny—

. . . Sed quo cecidit sub crimine ? Quisnam
relator? Quibus indiciis ? Ruo teste probatit ?
Nil horum. Verbose et grandis epistola venit.
A Capreis : bene habet, nil plus interrigo.
In Lilley's case there was, indeed, the delator, but all
the rest was wanting—the proof, the witnesses; but
not wanting the letter from head. quarters, grandis
et verbosa, which settled the matter. The close arrest
was directed without any view to trial, and from
that close arrest it is asserted that guilt was to be

presumed to the fullest extent, no trial following to
enable the prisoner to prove his innocence if indeed it
could be possible to do so against the avowed preju.
dice arising from the mere fact of the orders for a
strict sequestration. A preliminary injustice may
thus be made the warrant for a final injustice.

There is no remedy. There is the treatment upon
which is based the assumption of guilt, and
there an end, no trial following, nor having
been contemplated by the superior authority,
whose avowed object was to prevent, not to deal
with offence. Sir Wm. Mansfield, indeed, had to
confess that there was not evidence to support the
charge of conspiracy, upon which, nevertheless, he
ordered the prisoners to be detained in custody, in
defiance of the Articles of War, which would have
given them the benefit either of trial or liberation.
But of what avail are articles of war if military
Dogberrys can be permitted to assume guilt from
the arrest which follows accusation, whether false
or true. And how monstrous is it to hear this pro-
pounded as doctrine by the President of a military
tribunal, and what a key it gives us to decisions
that have ttitherto seemed unaccountable. The first
maxim of justice, the presumption of innocence, is
reversed if a rigorous confinement be directed by a
superior authority, and though in the very order,
the admission be made that there are not grounds
to support the charge ! Lilley was a culprit to the
fullest extent, because confined by the direction of
the Commander-in-Chief, who found no evidence
against him to go to trial. We have to thank a cor-
respondent for re-citing the memorandum of the
Duke of Cambridge, of December, 1862. We
thought at the time that the force of the reprimand
conveyed not only to Colonel Crawley, but also to
the two generals, was not sufficiently understood,
nor the justice inspiring it duly appreciated. And
we are more than ever confirmed in that opinion.
There is no acquittal in that judgment, and none of
its effect is cancelled by the court-martial, which
has sealed the condemnation of courts-martial as
now constituted and conducted. We may indeed
wish that the Duke of Cambridge had gone further
and brought to justice the injustice he censured,
but to the extent to which his Royal Highness
went nothing could be better, and never in fewer
words was so much merited censure conveyed.
LONDON REVIEW.—The Schleswig-Holstein ques-
tion becomes daily more threatening to the peace of
Europe. Led on by the minor princes, the German
people have cast off all the restraints of prudence,
and all regard for the probable consequences of the
war towards which they are recklessly hurrying.
Meetings of delegates from the various representa-
tive assemblies clamour for the immediate separa-
ratien of the duchies from Denmark. Prince Fre-
derick of Augustenburg is openly raising an
army for the invasion of tae provinces which he
claims. And as the forces charged with the levy
of Federal execution in Holstein take possession
of town alter town, his Grand-ducal Highness
is proclaimed sovereign of the country. It is
true, the Federal Commissioners formally dis-
avJw complicity with acts that are utterly
inconsistent with their own proceedings which im-
pliedly recognise Christian JX. as Duke of Holstein.
But they take no steps whatever to arrest the revo-
lutionary movement; and their feeble protests only
serve to show how powerless are the Governments
most interested in preserving peace, to control or
even to check the mania which has seized upon the
Teutonic race. Indeed there is too much reason to
fear that Austria and Prussia have given up the at-
tempt, are on the eve of throwing off the obligations
imposed upon them by the Treaty of London, and
are preparing to cast themselves hea along into the
popular tide. Their proposition to the Diet to occupy
Schleswig as a means of compelling Danmark to
revoke the 'November Constitution is little, if at all,
short of a declaration of war. If it be adopted—and
there is no reason to hope that it will be rejected—
the Danes have but one course open to them. They can-
not submit to such dictation on a point on which the
Diet have no jurisdiction without virtually placing
themselves at the feet of a conqueror. If the
Federal execution had been conducted with a decent
regard for the rights of Christian IX. as Duke of
Holstein, and if no threats of occupying Schleswig
had been held out, it might have been expedient to
withdraw the Constitution in order to give time
and opportunity for negotiations. It is, doubtful,
however, whether the high spirit of the Danes
would even then have tolerated this measure, al-
though it is understood to have been urged by Eng-
land, Russia, and Sweden. h is impossible to advise
a concession which is evidently meant as the first
step towards that dismemberment of Denmark which
is the avowed object of the German people. Nothing
appears left to the Danes but to make the best re-
sistance in their power. We cannot believe that
they will be left without allies. The other Scandi-
navian nations must see that the cause of Denmark
is their own; nor can England, France, or Russia,
without violating their plighted faith, permit the se-
paration of Schleswig. We tear there is but little
hop of averting war now that statesmen have resigned
the reins to agitators. And if war once breaks out who
will venture to speculate on its extent or duration ?
Austria, at any rate, should feel some alarm at the
prospect before her. For the Italians arc already
preparing to welcome the long desired opportunity
of liberating Venetia, and Kossuth is once more ad-
dressing the Hungarians. Louis Napoleon makes no
sign, but the most demented German professor can
scarcely fancy that his apathy indicates indifference.
The new year does indeed open stormily. To all
appearance Europe is on the brink of a general
war, arising out of a dispute of the paltriest charac-
ter, and brought on by the maddest telly which ever
took possession of a nation. It would be ludicrous,
if the possible consequences were not so terrible, to
see men who are themselves tyrannised over by a
host of petty despots embarking on a crusade for
the liberation of those who are already in the en-
joyment of freedom ; to see a country which has long
bewailed its internal dissensions recklessly exposing
itself to the threatened attacks of two powerful
neighbours for the sake of fi ching a petty province,
and to see in the van of this war of nationality
Powers which, like Austria and Prussia, hold in
subjection Poles, Italians, and Hungarians.
SPECTATOR.—At the late Buckinghamshire elec-
tion the hero of the nomination day was, to our
mind, the Liberal candidate, _Dr. Lee, of Hartwell
Park. He is describe -I as a mild and gentlemanly
looking country squire, of very venerable mien,
and his antagonist, Mr. Harvey, courteously an-
'flitted him to be " of acknowledged ability, of wide
astronomical and meteorological celebrity, of broad
acres, and of good county family." If to this we
add that from his courtesy and benevolence he is
equally beloved by his friends and tenantry, it
would seem that the Liberals were provided with a
model candidate, and so indeed they were, for a
Caristmas election. When the venerable old man,
with his gray hairs, and voice " feeble, but dis-
tinct," came to the front of the hustings, it
seemed as if we had got back to an older election
in Worcestershire, which is as real to this genera-
tion as if it had actually happened. For of the can-
didete for Buckinghamshire we may truly say that
"all who know that, shire are very well acquainted
with his parts and merits. He is a gentleman that
is very singular in his behaviour, but his singulari-
ties proceed from his good sense, and are contradic-
tions to the manners of the world, only as ho thinks
the world is in the wrong. However, this humour