The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-28 00:00:00

mot Toyer, not, as hitherto, partially and hesitatingly,
but on the contrary, deliberately and wholesale !
Thi ;ir doing this (as one might express it) with a
quiet laugh of derision at their dupes (meaning the
nation) a manifestation of scorn visible and audible
at .every turn in the whole bearing of our sprightly
veteran the First Lord of the Treasury—all this, if
there were anything ever deserving of this particu-
'lar reprobation, has been and is, to the very last
extremity, unprincipled on the part of a
great body of administrators. So much, in a gene-
ralised way, in regard to what Ministers have not
done, have avoided doing, have, to put the matter
in yet plainer terms, deliberately shirked, in the
shape of responsibilities, ostentatiously assumed, in
the first instance, only in the end to be coolly set
aside altogether ? While, as to the manner in
which they have repeatedly laid themselves open to
attack in respect to things said and done, whenever
Ministers have really ventured to say or do any-
thing—it is in relation to these, that the
numerous censors confronting them, have shewn,
if they have shewn anywhere, a semblance, at least,
of magnanimity. Lord RUSSELL'S escapade as a
diplomatist, by his perverse reversal, for a while, of
all England's policy in respect to the Schleswig-
Holstein difficulty. Sir GEORGE GREY'S bungling
and ill-advised onslaught upon some of the
some
smoset
inoffensive, and, at the same time,
of the most cherished rights and privileges
appertaining to the ancient municipality
of the City of London. Mr. GLADSTONE'S
abortive attempt to impose a license duty on Clubs,
and, yet more perversely, as a fiscal experimentalist
to inflict a petty and galling tax upon Charities.
The whole Cabinet's complicity in the endeavour to
commit the nation to the purchase, at a monstrous
overcharge, of the hideous Exhibition Building at
South Kensington, an endeavour all the more repre-
bensible
seeing that it obviously springs from
some wretched feeling of Court subserviency !
These, together with a variety of other stumbles
and blunders, too tedious or too trivial for re-
capitulation at this moment, have tempted the foes
of the Government to deal with it pitilessly and un-
compromisingly. In regard to the one conspicuous
incident last mentioned, that relating to what is
called FOWKES'S Folly, and certainly also to a most
mistaken sense of loyalty on the part of a small
minority of the British House of Commons, it must
nevertheless be acknowledged, somewhat in mitiga-
tion of the conduct pursued by Ministers, that there
were associated with them in that minority, one or
two of the leaders, among them the Leader, of her
MAJESTY'S Opposition.

Otherwise than in that one exceptional instance,
the Government and the Opposition have, as usual,
marched into opposite lobbies. Yet, though re-
peatedly defeating h€r MAJESTY'S Ministers, de-
feating them again and yet again upon a singular
variety of subjects, during the five months of this
session now dead and gone, the Conservative party
have simply contented themselves with sweeping
the Ministerial blunders aside one after another.
They have never degenerated, we repeat, in any
one instance, into an unfair, much less—be this said
once more to the credit of the Tories—with a fac-
tious Opposition.

Mr. LAIRD has just published some letters which
concern the late debate in the house. In the first
place he refers to Mr. GIDEON WELLES' assertion
that " he has an indistinct remembrance that his
department was importuned by more than one per-
son on behalf of Mr. LAIRD." This he denies, but
states that it gives room for supposing that the de-
partment over which Mr.WELLEs presides does ad-
mit of foreign proposals to build ships for the
Federal Government. Next, reference is made to
the assertion of Mr.AVELLEs that it is not true that
any person approached the firm of Mr. LAIRD with
the object of getting ships built for the Federal
Government. In allusion to this Mr. LAIRD states
that he then believed, what he does now, that his
correspondent had the authority of Government for
writing the letters, and he encl.jsed copies of them.
Before deciding to publish these documents Mr.
LAIRD has taken the opinion of both sides of the
House, and the result is that he is to be at liberty
to publish any document required for his own vin-
dication, but not to make known the name of his
correspondent.

The letter is given, and appears quite authentic.
It is dated "Washington," and refers to the building
of an iron-plated ship, and the fullest directions are
given in regard to its manufacture, and it is stated
in confidence that the object is to take repossession
of the forts in one specific Southern port. There
is an important memorandum annexed to this letter
which refers to a floating battery that is required.
This is to be " planned with the specific object of
going into ports guarded with batteries, and
forts which are within from 300 yards to half a
mile from the channel, the floating battery or iron-
plated ship to be so constructed as to be able to pass
the forts comparatively unharmed by the fire of the
batteries, both horizontal and plunging. She is
wanted for no other purpose." No one who reads
these details but will give implicit credence to their
vraisemblance, and acquit Mr. LAIRD of making
any egregious error in putting faith in their vera-
city. There is another letter which states that the
writer has been very long absent with General
FREMONT'S army in the far West, but that on re-
turn to Washington he had laid the answers to his
inquiries before the Secretary of the Admiralty, and
that disappointment was experienced at not receiv-
ing a direct statement relative to the construction
of the battery. In confidence it is mentioned that
it was " intended to force an entrance into Charles-
ton harbour, defended by Forts Sumter and Moul-
trie." There is a letter written by Mr. LAIRD also
date of this is last April, and he
refers published.
to theT
he
debate in the Housea ode
his Commons
own
speech
with
regard to the Alabama case, n
firmthe
Navyhad h had
athneraepupploinca,
tiinenwfhriecmh hthe e
the Federal Government, through a friend of his, to
S statesecr et thaartyhoi Bt
s
he feels compelled to do so through the Federal
buildtha t hvee will e
illls of war.
not p u i s hMr.
the Lc
oA rileps p ogne de es n ec
ne
unlessto say
Government denying his statement, in which event
he will be compelled, in self-defence, to take a step
which he will otherwise regret. Mr. LAIRD truly
states, that to deny the truth of this assertion will
be most unfair to him, and also that they have en-
tered very fully into the class of vessels required.
Finally, Mr. LAIRD declares that he has never men-
tioned these applications until he was compelled to do
so by the repeated attacks of their friends in the
House. He has kept silent
himself and his , notwithstanding that
sons have been repeatedly assailed
in the American and Enc,lish
public meetings. Truly does hePrseas;
kept any longer silent
mwaoudled a
gahaveisbteen to admit the
that to taolsboavaet
justified itnhims
himself
truth
fore
ho considered
the
akfrin.g,k. nown
to affair it must
him, and. there-
his case. Impartially considering
appear that there is every reason
the justice of Mr. LAIRD'S remarks, and totigoiwleve hd•ge
credit for taking a fair notion of the state of things.
Why should the emissaries of the Federal Govern-
ain't take such pains to contradict what is most
probably a mere minor circumstance end an acknow-
ledged fact to many. It is quite absurd to go on in
this manner, and no one will believe that no such
applications were made. As Mr. LAIRD says, there

In a letter to our leading contemporary yester-
day Lord MALMESBURY gives an explanation of a
passage in his recent speech on Poland, which has
given rise to some misunderstanding. The noble
earl, after censuring the manner in which her MA-
JESTY'S Government have interfered in the Polish
question, proceeded to express his conviction that
milder measures, more consistently carried out,
would have been more effective. He reminded the
Ministry of the arguments which they had them.
selves brought forward in defence of the course they
had adopted with regard to America—a course
generally approved by politicians of both sides.
Those feelings of interest, of compassion, and of in-
dignation at the cruelties practised, which render
the affairs of Poland so deeply exciting, were, as
Lord MALMESBURY reminded us, equally called
forth by the American 1211 ar. The desolation spread
over the fertile lands, mostly inhabited by men of
our own race/and kindred, the bloodshed, the suffer-
ing, the barbarous acts which have disgraced its
annals, the hopelessness and the profitlessness of
the struggle, are considerp,tions which must force
themselves upon the most indifferent and unthink-
ing. The damage done to English interests, directly
and indirectly, might have served to stimulate our
feelings, but Ministers have resolutely maintained
the attitude they fist adopted. In the face of these
facts, Lord MALMESBURY felt called upon to pro-
test against our Polish policy, when another debate
on the prospects of that unhappy country brought
the question of English intervention once more
before the House of Lords. What is the position,
asked Lord MALMESBURY, that we are now occupy-
ing ? "First of all we gave advice, and then we
made positive propositions. These have been re-
fused, and what follows ? The controversy will be
continued by angry arguments, which will gradually
drift into reciprocal recrimination, and possibly
end in a war, that is what we have to apprehend.'
There is certainly some possiuility of such an issue,
though the English Ministers have generally
accompanied their strongest despatches with assur-
ances to Parliament that no such result was contem-
plated. It was impossible, however, to remain inac-
tive in the face of such barbarous proceedings, al-
though the apathy with which our ancestors looked on
the dismemberment of Poland, and the indifference
with which the English Governments of 1831 and
1846 witnessed proceedings which should at least
have called forth strong protests, considerably
weaken any representations founded on the rights
of the Treaty of 1815. Above all, the conduct of
England in hastily concluding peace with Russia
after the Crimean War, without securing some gua-
rantee for the future treatment of Poland, is open to
the severest censure. It may be said that treaties
and verbal promises had been proved to be fruitless,
but if the representative of England had expressed
the honest convictions of her people at the Confer-
ences of Paris, Russia, with the recollections of the

Alma and Inkerman fresh in her memory, would
scarcely have turned a deaf ear. It might have
impressed the youthful AUTOCRAT with a sense that
the Western Powers were watching his treatment
of his Polish subjects ; it might have altered his
opinion of the " illusions " of Polish patriots, and it
might have saved him from the cardinal error of his
otherwise enlightened and merciful reign. Europe
has more causes than one to regret the hasty con-
clusion of peace, which, like the Treaty of Villa-
franca, left the tale half told, and after the blood-
shed, outlay, and disturbance of a European war,
failed to secure even one generation from a renewal
of hostilities. From these and other circumstances,
the Ministry have undoubtedly been placed in a
difficult and delicate position with regard to Poland.
On the one hand, there is the natural sympathy for
a wronged and oppressed people, whose cause has
always been popular with the people of this coun-
try. On the other hand, is the hesitation to embark
in a war which would probably include our
Prussian ally, and the doubt with which
French interests in the matter are regarded.
Lord MALMESBURY suggested that the Ministry
might have acted with prudence and dignity by
withdrawing their Ambassador, after friendly re.
monstrances had been disregarded. Lord GRAN-
VILLE, in indignantly asserting that such a step
would have been ten times stronger than any which
had been taken, misunderstood the noble earl's
meaning, which he very clearly explains in his letter
of yesterday. He did not advi,e that our Ambassa-
dor should now be recalled, after what has taken
place, which would certainly be equivalent to a
declaration of war, but he said that we might at
first have expressed our honourable indignation by
withdrawing our representative at St. Petersburg,
where our friendly remonstrances had been disre
garded. "We should thus," said Lord MALMES-
BURY, " have shown that we would no longer hold
relations with a Power so uncivilised, so uncertain
in its faith, and whose acts so revolted the feelings
of this country." Such a course was followed with
regard to the late King of NAPLES, without involv-
ing us in hostilities, and if adopted at the outset,
would certainly have been the strongest protest we
could have made. If our Government have deter-
mined that no consideration shall induce them to
defend the rights of Poland with the sword, it would
have been a wise and dignified course to have fol-
lowed the policy re erred to by Lord MALMESBURY.
Scw
onoueunhl
tdlae
hsr
sae
vpderi opi
:flee
aoetmffi
cei negt t fhaonm
protests,t.oa Pol
sot wowfeoru
despatchesll ikd se how
tEnglandahnadt
rt
ehge
asrtdaet
de s
tmheenhoafu the
yf o raenmd oisnts
insolent
countrylent
ia
Russian th
the
world
autho-
rities as unworthy to be ranked within the pale of
that civilisation which they disgrace by the atro-
cities which they sanction, and the want of faith
which seems to form part of their political code.

THE O,PE MAlLS.—According to the new Cape
of Good Hope mail contract the Cape mails are to
be conveyed by the Union Steam-ship Company between
Plymouth and Table Bay in 38 days, exclusive of stoppages,
and vice -versa. The mail packets are to call at St. Helena
and Ascension on the return voyage. The penalty for de-
lay during the voyage is £5O per day, and for not providing
a packet t, start on the prescribed day £5OO per day. The
contract is for seven years. The subsidy, which is £25,000
for the first year, is to be gradually reduced to £15,000 per
annum. The Postmaster-General has the power to extend
the service to Algoa Bay. The mail packets are to leave
Plymouth on the 6th or 7th, and Table Bay on the 20th or
21st of the month. The course of post to the Cape will be
83 days.

EARWIGS.—A popular prejudice prevails
these insects, founded on an erroneous belief that
they get into the human air, and thence into the brain, a
against
wholely unphilosophical notion, as, were it not for tho bar-
rtier the wax contained in the ear woukl form to the en-
thraendcer of any living creature, there is no passage through
um ot that organ which could admit of the pas age
of the moat minute creature ill existences ,