The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-11 00:00:00

SOHO ESTATE. HOUSE, AND GENERAL
BUSINESS AGENCY OFFICES.—Persons requiring:
Freehold or Leasehold Property,
Tic uses to be dispose I of, should apply to Mr. CHARLES or having Business and
,
71{ RAY, Auctioneer and Valuer, 2G, Gerrard-street,
Soh o. W.
V ablations for Probate Administration, Fire claw, E4ll-
- Compensatipne, 40, Rents Collected,

The Weather—Sun Office, April 11, 1864.

THERMOMETER.
This day at Two o'clock .. 60

Barometer-30.37.
Wind—S.W.; light breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tine DAY.—Morning, sh. sm.—Afternoon, sh. 24m,
fO-monnow.-Morning, sh. 46m.—Afternoon, 6h. 10m

„
SUM

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1864.

We live in a busy time ; so busy :that we are
apt sometimes to grow impatient of matters
the momentary excitement of which has passed
away—nay, sometimes, to neglect duties that
have ceased to preas upon our immediate at-
tention. We have half-finished undertak-
ings the interest of which has been already
superseded by newer and more absorbing themes.
Time moves so fast nowadays ; events crowd so
thickly one upon another, that we lose our hold
upon them almost before they have passed from
before our eyes. Each brings with it such a fund
of fresh and stirring incident that the story of
yesterday is already a half-forgotten tale, its in-
terest lost, ita moral pointless, its places and
purposes thrown neglectfully aside.
It is not so very long ago since tidings came to
us across the sea of one of the most terrible catas-
trophes of modern times. All England thrilled with
horror and indignation, The spirit of the nation
was aroused. Every nerve was strained ; the whole
strength of the country was put forth, and the rebel-
lion which had drenched some of out; fairest pro-
vinces in blood, and threatened at one moment
to wrest from Great Britain the empire of the
East, was crushed with a vigour and determination
that left us tenfold more powerful there than we were
before. Then came the question of our future policy.
The shock of imminent danger had awakened us to a
sense of insecurity, and had aroused the most care-
less to a sense of the immediate necessity for prompt
and effective measures of precaution. For once an
Indian debate became a thing of interest to the
House of Commons and to the country at large.. The
whole theory and practice of Indian policy was
eagerly and minutely scrutinised. Ligisiation,
sharp, vigorous, and comprehensive, followed with
a rapidity that approached closely to revolution.
The entire system of government was less revised
than swept away. The grand old Company flint
for so many glorious years had ruled the destinies of
a continent fivefold greater than England herself,
vanished suddenly from the scene, and an empire
changed hands with hardly more of ceremony than
might accompany the transfer of an estate. Then
came reaction. The Indian mutiny had not more
effectively obliterated the memory of the Crimean
war than it in turn became eclipsed by the rapid
incidents of Italian revolution. Italy passed from
the scene, and America and Poland divided the
fleeting interest of the world. Now, even these are
yielding to a newer and more absorbing topic. The
Polish correspondents of English newspapers are
recalled; American telegrams give place to more
exciting news from Denmark, and the great melo-
drama still hurries breathlessly on from ocean to
ocean, from sensation to sensation, each in its turn
forgotten almost before the prompter's whistle has
ceased to sound.

This should not be. The affairs of a great nation
are no mere matter of passing interest to be flung
aside from our consideration for every thrilling
novelty that may arise. Th© legislation that in-
volves at once the powe'r of our country and the wel-
fare of millions of our fellowmen is a task of deep
and serious responsibility, and must be executed
faithfully and thoroughly to the end. For good or
for evil, we have done much for India, but the work
is not yet complete. It were far better not to have
begun the work at all than to leave it half undone.
There is great danger that it may be so, and we
cannot too strongly point out the evil
that must come. An opportunity will
now be given of showing how far
we are really led away by the excitement of the
hour; how far we are prepared to follow up ate&
fastly and carefully the course we have begun.
To-morrow evening will bring before the House of
Commons a question of the utmost importance in
Indian affairs, affecting most clearly the interests
of the men on whose combined effectiveness and
devotion our hold upon that splendid empire must
practically depend. We trust that no carelessness
or impatience may prevent the House from giving
it that full and anxious attention it so thoroughly
deserves.

Amid the strife and turmoil of Parliamentary
and Ministerial careers, there sometimes occur
periods of calm and quiescence when all goes merry
as a marriage bell. Mr. CARDWELL, in his recent
appearance at Oxford, has lighted on one of these
halcyon points; all seems to have been couleur de
rose, and the clouds and storms were put far away
out of sight. The right hon. gentleman certainly
made the most of his opportunity, and made a calm,
sensible, and temperate speech, which afforded great
satisfaction to his hearers. So far al: was right ; the
member was returned, the Minister installed in his
position in the Cabinet and the House, and beyond
al! this did there not work anything in the back
ground, and were there no momentous topics
omitted in the discourse which made it appear on
the whole like the play " Hamlet" with the part of
Hamlet omitted. Some things are as conspicuous
for their absence as their presence, and among this
class we may rank the omissions in the speech at
Oxford. This is a critical juncture for a member
of the Cabinet to meet his constituents; but although
this is the first time that Mr. CARDWELL has ap-
peared in that capacity, he exhibited a skid and
dexterity in evading all awkward and inconvenient
subjects that would have done honour to a veteran
statesman long practised on the stage of public life
and well versed ha the minutiae of official careers.
He had some reason for his complacency and self-
reliance, however, in the fact that this is the fourth
time in five years that he had enjoyed the advan-
tages of a " cordial and undisputed return." This
unanimity speaks well for the electors, and redounds
to the credit of the subject of their choice. The
course of Mr. CARDWELL'S career has been marked
by a judicious reticence and a uniform equanimity
that have offended none and propitiated all.
Apart from the jealousies of place, and the struggle
for power, there are always found plenty to recog-
niseand appreciate such qualities, and the recently
elected
member foe Oxford comes in for a share of
their approval. The allusion to the state of our
finances Was a very adroit subject upon
which to
dilate and descant ; it is about the only satisfactory
one in the whole range of ministerial machinations,
Putting his beet topic first enabled Mr. CARDWELL
to make a flourishing effect, and thus take his
audience by surprise, as it were. It was straining
a point, however, to infer from this that the posi-
tion of the country was better in many material
respects. The gratnls,tions as to the present free-
dom from Crimean impositions conats strangely,
after so long a period, more especia ly when the
present Chancellor of the Exchequer has been in
office for the greater part of the period referred to,

and has had, therefore, ample opportunities of re-
ducing the burden before now. The income tax is
no joking matter to many, but out of it Mr. CARD-
WELL contrived to elicit some mirth, and his men-
tion of the " unpleasant impost sticking •at seven-
pence like a barge upon a sandbank" was very ap-
propriate in its retrospection. When he came to
the more immediate subjects of interest that engage
the attention and engross the thoughts of all at
the present day, the orator was not so happy or
fortunate in his expressions. All he could do was
to put a good face on the matter, make the best of
a bad job, and expatiate on the blessings of peace
that are enjoyed, while others were suffering all the
horrors of war. It would have been all very well to
talk in this style it England could have combined
security with honour, and if her annalists could
say that all that could be done had been effected by
rulers to save others, and to mete out justice. Ame-
rica is a topic that causes endless sources of heart•
burning and vexations. A chance has been lost
which might have saved an immensity of suffer-
ing to all our subjects, and for the struggling
combatants themselves might have put a period
to their disastrous strife. Instead of this the
subterfuge that has guided the actions, the in-
justice that has marked the course, and the pre-
judice and partiality that have actuated our Minis-
ters in their dealings with the belligerent States,
are well-known to the world. It is a cold and
cruel thing to be always proclaiming to the world
that we are safe, whoever else is in danger.
Oar time of trial will come again some day, and
it is not the way to deserve success in the con-
test, or to secure sympathy in the strife, if we
now, in the plenitude of power, and the full
tide of prosperity, lead others astray by the hope of
support, and then ingeniously evade responsibility;
and, leaving them to their fate, exult that peace is
ours, whatever may betide or befall those who
trusted to our good faith, and deemed themselves
safe under the shadow of our strength. Peace is a
great blessing, an undeniable advantage, and a
crowning benefit. It is one of the choicest gifti
that a benignant Providence can shower down upon
a favoured land, but like other temporal goods it
may be bought tao dearly, and rated too highly.
The peace that is bought at the cost of reputa-
tion is worse than the most sanguinary war,
and the selfishness that bids us succumb
to the strong and bully the weak is quite a new fea-
ture introduced into the national character by the
tactics and devices of a Coalition Government. It
is all very well for their members to talk of their
services; the country may pay too dear a price for
them, and while they ex.patiate on the welfare cf
the community under their guidance, a feeling is
sprea!ing surety, if slowly, and murmurs are heard,
not loud but deep, which tell too truly of the spirit
of discontent and dissatisfaction that is engendered.
Here and there a constituency may appear quiescent
or a meeting or assembly applaud, but these chance
examples do not fully or faithfully represent the
feeling of the people. Public opinion has declared
against the cowardly policy that rules in Downing-
street, and while a remnant of the fire of older days
survives, the condemnatory judgment will be ratified
by posterity. •

The busy events of the last few years have
partially obliterated from the public mind the fer-
vour of sympathy and indignation which was ex•
cited by the first suffering winter which our army
passed in the Crimea, Though years have rolled
by, it is difficult even now to contemplate with
patience the records of the miserable mismanage-
ment, the lavish expenditure and profuse supplies,
on the one hand, and the deaths from absolute want
of common comforts and neglect on the other, The
crowded harbour and the starving camp, the shoe•
less soldiers tramping merrily to the trenches, while
the stock of hoofs went down with the good ship
Prince for want of due precaution. The
money so eagerly voted by Parliament and people
at home, and the green coffee served out to the
troops abroad, the densely packed and ill-managed
hospitals, the fodderless horses, the rigid adherence
to a routine that was only suitable to peace, the
utter absence of all genius for control or organisa-
tion—all combine to form wellnigh as melancholy

and humiliating a spectacle as our military history
can furnish. But there was as usual some compen-
sation for the trouble. Good grew out of evil. The
suffeaings of the poor wounded and invalided men
called forth the kindly charity of 'FLORENCE NIGHT-
INGALE, and her noble self-devotion to the cause of

military sanitary reform has since then worked
most important effects. The outbreak of irre-
pressible indignation which swept Lord ABER-
DEEN'S Cabinet from office produced also some
substantial changes in the administration of our
military affairs. Such terrible mistakes are not
likely to cccur again, even should we continue
as destitute of eminent generals as we were in
the Crimea. The changes, limited and capable of
improvement as they were, were still improvements
on a system that had retained the abuses and
shortcomings of a long series of years. The
reduction and concentration of our military offi-
ces did not, however, give universal satisfaction,
and one of the malcontents has just given utterance
to his sentiments in a comparison between the
present and the past.* The brochure in which
he explains his theories has been already before the
public, and the. tact of its having passed throuri
more than one edition would seem to indicate either
that its author's views are congenial to the general
feeling, or that he has set them forth with some
degree of power and ability. Both these reasons
are partially true, for he expresses himself clearly
and vigorously, while his opinions will, doubtless,
find a good many advocates and sympathizers in
military circles. When we come to look closely
into them we shall find, however, that our au-
thor is somewhat too much of a soldier to be
accepted unreservedly as a reformer. The
present War Administration, he says, consists of a
military triumvirate—the Secretary of State, the
Commander-in-Chief, and the Under-Secretary,
since the Judge-Advocate who is really a member
of the Administration, takes no part in adminis-
trative affairs. Under the Premiership of the Iron
Duke the military administration consisted of no
less than thirteen officers, all in Parliament.
It certainly appears, on the face of it, to
be a substantial reform and important economy
which has reduced thirteen offices to four,
thirteen salaries to less than one-third of the num•
ber, and has simplified end concentrated the admi-
nistration of affairs in a manner quit©
impossible
among so many conflicting authorities and influences.
The famous distich, which tells us how, on a
memorable occasion—
" Lord Chatham, with his sword half drawn,
Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strahan ;
Sir Richard, longing to lbe at 'em,
Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham ;"

was verified figuratively, if not literally, itt the
delays, commands, and countermands of the Crimea
War; and, certainly, among Secretaries, and Clerks,
and Treasurers, Masters-General, Lieutenants-

* Our Military Administration, Past and Present, con-
sidered in a Letter to the Premier, By W, 0, Third
Edition, stamped.