The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-21 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1863.

" A barking dog is often more useful than a
sleeping lion," remarks WASHINGTON IRVING, in a
letter given by his biographer in the second volume
of his Life. And the phrase now recurs to us with a
whimsical appropriateness, immediately after the
wonderful noise made by Tear'em, with a view to
the rousing up at last of the drowsy old constitu-
tional lion, as personified by Lord PALMERSTON.
The usefulness of the barking dog, however, in this
instance, as compared with the sleeping lion, re-
mains, we grieve to think, rather dubious, to say
the least of it. The advantage accruing to any
question whatever, it 'Ratters comparatively little
whether it be one intrinsically of large or small
importance—the advantage accruing to any ques
tion from the mere discussion of it, that discussion
being raised upon some motion which is eventually
withdrawn, must always be regarded as problema-
tical. We have no faith in the good coming to any
-cause in the wide world from the mere ventilation of it.
A motion ushered in, as Mr. ROEBUCK'S was, for
example, with so very sonorous a flourish of trum-
pets, only, after all, to be quietly dropped, comes
before the world as the Lptest possible illustratiot
of " mere sound and fury, signifying nothing!'' It
has all the effect of an anti-climax. The result
arrived at under these kind of circum-
stances, is assuredly, if there ever be one,
a "most tame and impotent conclusion."
A withdrawn motioL, whether in Lords or Com-
mons, might, like the epigrammatist's infant expiring
at its birth, dictate its epitaph quite as aptly—

" 'Tis strange, so soon that I am done for,
I wonder what I was begun for I"
It was fortunate, last night, all things considered,
that Lord CAMPBELL decided upon not bringing
forward his query in regard to the Confederates.
Lord CAMPBELL, acting thus in the exercise of a
wise discretion, we presume upon one of those
judicious afterthoughts, the obvious excel-
lency of which has given rise to its being
said, very ungrammatically, that second thoughts
are best—meaning better ! However this may be,
the reventilation in the Lords of the whole complex
question in regard to the American war, supposing
it to have been necessitated by Lord CAMPBELL'S
persistence iu his original intention, could not pos-
sibly have occurred at a moment more signally in-
opportune. Remembering the actual situation of
things just now out there in the seat of war, to
north of Washington, it could hardly have been
otherwise than distinctly inopportune. It would
have been peculiarly and especially so, however,
upon the very morrow of Mr. ROEBUCK'S rather
ignominious hushing up in the House of Com-
mons. Ostentatiously introduced, but in the end
moatmeekly withdrawn, motions upon matters of
vital importance in themselves, appear, neverthe-
less, just now to be singularly in the fashion. If
remarkable for nothing else, the present Session of
Parliament will, at the very least, be remarkable
enough in that particular. The most brilliant, and
the most effective speeches of the year have inau-
gurated debates that have led to these
feeble results of immense
displays, or, at
any rate, se
mblancest power, whether
in argument or in rhetoric.
Now, the hon, mem-
ber for Liskeard has been the
Hero of the occasion.
Now, the right hon. member for Stroud has, by
the delivery of an oration remarkable, even from
him, for the brilliancy of its oratorical excellence
and for the scarcely resistable cogency of its rea-
soning, has afforded the House first, and the Country
afterwards, the opportunity of witnessing, in the
very manner of his conducting an important motion
up to its withdrawal, a sort of parliamentary illus-
tration—in the way of sheer antithesis—ot the
closing couplet of a sonnet as defined by KEATS
rising loudly
• Up to its climax, and then dying proudly."

It came certainly moat ludicrously last night, the,
effect of this sudden dying out of this abrupt
thunder, raised by another sham Jupiter Tonans,
among the Parliamentary Independents, this new
SALMoNEIJS of the back benches, or from below the
gangway, &icing across the brazen bridge of a
resolution, the mere promise comprised in
which seems to be made, like childrens' toys,
or lik3 piecrusts, just simply to be broken.
It comes all the more ludicrously from the circum-
stance of its arriving simultaneously with the appa-
rition, before the world at large, of that notable reply
of Prince GORTSCIIAKOFF, which, if it be, as it
certainly is, most unsatisfactory as a reve-
lation of the policy of the CZAR, is, at any
rate, bold, consistent, and perfectly comprehensible.
All which the Foreign Policy of England most cer-
tainly is not The which, who shall deny ?
Whether we look at this present moment, or through