The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-27 00:00:00

vice. The owners of property in the district em-
braced in the confines of the Middle Level are
numerous, and it would be only just to empower
the Commissioners to levy a rate to liquidate their
moral if not legal liabilities t, those who have
suffered by this calamity. This would be a prac-
tical and reasonable way of settling the difficulty ;
but if legal technicalities are to upset and pervert
the obj'cts for which the C3mmission was appointed
the sooner the whole system is altered the better.
If the Commissioners aro not responsible for the
negligence of their servants or the non-fulfilment
of works which they had undertaken to execute,
let the shadow of responsibility be removed from
them to be replaced by the substance.

The correspondence on the subject of the Con-

'ederate Steam Rams is very well worthy of atten-

tion, and may serve to furnish topics of conversation
and food for reflection. As usual, Earl RUSSELL

appears to great disadvantage, and his attempts to
get up a stock of virtuous indignation are signally

'utile. Lord LYONS was placed in an awkward

position when he was directed to forward such a

communication. A man of his spirit and sagacity
must have felt that the message, or despatch, was

quite unsuitable to the occasion, and aline unfitted

to the country from whence it came and the State
to which it was sent. He acquitted himself of this
difficulty task in a very creditable.manner. The

extracts taken from the despatch of Earl RUSSELL
are most marked in their expression, and the general
tone which prevails throughout his lordship's com-
munication is very adverse to those to whom it is
addressed. It is quite unwarrantable for him to
assume so much and to prove so little, to impute
motives to others that are not founded on fact, and
which rest only on the basis of his own imaginings,

or the exaggerated statements of interested parties
and unscrupulous informers. In the first place, he
sets out by protesting against the practice of
building war vessels in this country, which he

says it is the habit of the Confederates to do. This

!ormal. remonstrance comes ill from a Minister who

has been aftlid to prove his words in a Court of
law. The day after the communication is made

public that was forwarded to President DANIS by
our Foreign Secretary, the official decision of the
Government is made known not to proceed with
the case of tha Steam Rams. This is an untoward

ncident, because it shows that we cannot make the

allowance for the noble lord that he acted upon
conviction. If he had been sure of his case he
would never have given up at the eleventh hour,

and withdrawn from the struggle before it had

commenced in earrest, but when ad was ready and
prepared. Such a climax is a very unpropitious

one, and deep in the mind and long in the memory
of the land will live this unpropitious conjuncture.

The English are not at all a sentimental people,
they will not rush to war for an idea, they do not
like extremes in anything, but fiat contradiction in
action and wards is rather too much for solid sense

and straightforward feelings. As if injuries were
not enough, the SOLON of the Foreign-office must

add insults to them. He has the cool impertinence

.o style his correspondents as the authorities o!

,he ;' so.called Confederate States." Such paltry

subterfuge and mere spite is totally unbecoming
the representative of the majesty of England in

holding communication with a people whose
courage and constancy have pined them the
applause and admiration of all judges of spirited

conduct in the Old and New World. Earl Rus
SELL had better have taken a lesson from his col

league the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who long
ago had the wit to appreciate and the candour to
avow the superiority of the claims of the Confede-

rates. He said that 7:7F FaiSON Dallis had made
the South a nation. It is not likely that Mr.
GLADSTONE would risk his reputation by ignoring
the influence of such actions, or the importance of
such victories as those which have taken place in
the struggle for independence now for a second
time waged in the fields of America. Earl Reis-
SELL applie3 himself to a very ungracious task in
censuring the conduct of Vie Confederate States for
building the rams, when all the time the case has
not been proved, nor has the trial taken place. It
seems as if, half ashamed of his perverse prejudice,
he sought a decent excuse or a plausible pretext
for his extreme measures and extraordinary conduct.
After all, he falls back en the flimsy pretext of
flattery, and expresses a
hope that the "frankness,
courtesy, and discernment" of Mr. DAVIS will re-
cognise the necessity that exists for the measures
he has adopted. Earl RUSSELL has often shown
that he has no frankness or courtesy in the affairs
of this long and arduous war, now he seems re-
solved to show that he is equally deficient in dis-
cernment. A ruler who would countenance pro-
ceedings such as have been attributed to the
Confederates by their opponents would not possess
any of the qualities so pretentiously cited. Ac-
cording to this despatch, the conflicting statements
have been tried before a court from which there is
no appeal, and that is the opinion of Earl RUSSELL
and his coadjutors. A more insolent and overbear-
ing communication has seldom been sent from a
ountry like this. Well does it deserve the signal
setting-down which it receives from the man to
whom it is addressed, and no one who has read the
one can fail to appreciate the other. President
DAVIS could not have been more happy
in his
reply to this absurd and insulting despatch. In
every line of his bold and unflinching statement
he vindicates his right to his eminent position, and
proves himself equal to the occasion, which is a
great thing to achieve. 11Iany who can
originate
and send forth a fulminating decree, and enunciate
a policy for themselves cannot always be up to the
mark when called upon to make a retort. President
DAVIS is great in reply, and b©
comes out of the
contest with flying colours. It is derogatory to the
dignity of the Foreign Secretary to be told the
truth so plainly to his face,
and to be assured
that he is assuming a position which he does not
really possess, and cannot therefore claim the regard
to which he considers himself entitled. Some of
the retorts here met with are capital, and very fully
reveal the state of the case. In the first place, we
meet with a dignified repulse for the unwarrantable
insolence which was displayed in Earl RUSSELL'S
appellation of the "so-called Confederate States."
This imeertinence is tru'Y characterised as a
" studied insult ;" and, furthermore, it is averred
that, if repeated, such documents will be returned
unnoticed. The chief magistrate of mere that,
twelve millions can well spook in this style, and it
is only a proper retort watri he goes on to state
eegdom. As at present
that the territory of theseroiilians
is many times
larger than the United IC
constituted, our foreign policy seems calculated to
do little else besides drawing down the scorn and
ridicule of other States awl divers nations. Can
anything be so silly, as well as so uncalled-for, as
the novel mode by which Earl RUSSELL seems to
have essayed to extinguish the prestige of the
Confederates, and to crush out their attempts at
nationality ? No one likes to be ignored, and it is
enough to irritate the most placid, and to excite
the calmest, to witness such injustice as that which
actuates the course pursued by eur Cabinet. Pre-
sident DAVIS speaks the sentiments of many not
only in his own dominions, but on our shores, and
the also throughoutevents an dou
dthieesseo thevra in several
States, who now study
principles of the great