The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-19 00:00:00

planation between diplomatists upon a very impor•
tint subject.'" Captious disputants may perhaps
urge that, if he meant a Conference upon the Danish
question, he might as well have said so while he
was about, it. ; but objections aro easily made by
those who arcs reaolved to make them. Concerning
France, the prophet observed that " the entente cor-
diale may perhaps receive a slight check. There will
certainly be some points of difforence between Eng -
land and France.' This was spoken with reference to
the Emperor Napoleon's propo=ml of a " Congress of
sovereigns," which " England refused, not over-
courteously, and perhaps not over-wisely." The
good man knows that this refusal " was very pain-
ful to the Emperor ;" and, without pretending to
anything like Old Moore's profundity of informa-
tion, we believe we may say that we know this too,
and that the fact is within the cognisance of most
men, But why, oh sage, why did you not tell us a
year ago that the Emperor desired to hold a Con-
gress, and that he would be' much pained at our
refusal to join him ? However, we must riot ques-
tion a prophet ; we must only listen. OA Moore,
in his last issue, told us all about France and Mexico,
and he now warns the world that "much will be
said and done in 1865 about this usurpation, com-
menced under fallacious and deceitful pleas." We
are also advised that for many a long day Algeria
will be very troublesome and onerous to her con-
querors—which we see not the slightest occasion to
doubt. The star-gazer informed us last year that
there would be a protracted struggle and a
sanguinary contest in America ; and he now
points with something of gloomy satisfaction to
the proof that his prophecy was no alarmist
chimera. Then, moreover, he said that " China
would be the scene of more warfare and struggle ;"
and have not the facts borne out his words? These
marvellous successes must inspire the student of
Moore's vaticinations for 1865 with immense confis
dente; and we therefore turn, with mingled hope
and fear, to the magic glass which reflects the for-
tunes of mankind in the coming twelvemonth. We
are rather daunted to find at the very outset that
dark aspects are prominent, " Surely England is
not again at war ?" exclaims the soothsayer, shud-
dering. Alas !he " much fears it." But let us
not entirely lose heart. Moore reassures us as far
as he is able by bidding us recollect that sometimes
even at the eleventh hour favourable symptoms
appear unexpectedly, and the patient is saved.
Most true, oh Moore ! and we think none the
worse of you for saying so ; besides, it is always
better in prophesying to be prepared for both con.
tingencies. Sometime in February, it seems, " Mi.
nisters will be engaged in the consideration of
measures involving the safety and honour of Eng-
land." We are glad to hear they will be so well
employed, since in the opinion of many they have
recently let the honour of England go rather too
much by the board. We are hardly surprised to
find that " much difference of opinion will prevail
as to the best measures to be adopted," because that
always is the case ; but, with regard to another
matter, we must confess we should have been bet-
ter satisfied had the information given been more
precise and certain. " Probably a change in the
Ministry about this time." Probably, but not
assuredly. Perhaps so, and perhaps not. It would
certainly be pleasant to know one way or another,
and to have a list of the new Cabinet (if any); but
the prophet knows best, and next year we shall be
told exactly how events shaped themselves. Under
the head of March it is intimated that " affairs in
Spain do not progress very satisfactorily" (we do
not recollect that they ever did) ; that there will
be a "frightful calamity on lan, and," Moore
fears, " disastrous havoc at sea," which indeed is
only too probable; that there will be more insur-
rections in Algeria ; that Canada will be trouble-
some, and China in a state of rebellion ; and
that " the Continental news" will be " by no means
tranquilising." In April " Garibaldi will again
attract attention," which we can very readily be-
lieve, and there will be danger to royalty either at
home or abroad," Moore also expects to hear of
" much religious discord" in Belgium, which country,
with a sweet forgetfulness of recent events, he de-
scribes as " usually so quiet and so free from excite-
ment." Furthermore, he fears acoramericial crisis

in England, and darkly warns his readers "not to
join too rashly in the many new schemes of the day."
Undoubtedly, to join " too rashly" in any schemes,
whether new or old, is una,dvisable ; but it would
have been very handy if the names of the questionable
companies had been given. Perhaps, however, the
wizard was afraid of an action of libel. One cannot
very well plead a justification before the fact. Pro-
phecy is not evidence. In this way we are conducted
through the whole year. We see a few allusions to
the deaths of eminent men, but of course Old Moore

is not so cruel as to mention names. One of these
men, we are told, is " the noblest Roman of them
all," and of another it is said that " we could have
spared a better man." A very extraordinary thing
is,to happen in October, 1865, for Convocation, which
is generally not in session at that time of year, is
" to decide upon some very essential and weighty
principles connected with the doctrines and disci-
pline of the Church of England." On the whole,
we are led to expect events of great magnitude and
gravity; but we are piously reminded that we are
in the hands of Providence, and that things might
be worse. Moore is certainly an entertaining and
a versatile author. By turns gloomy, grand, re.
assuring, didactic, descriptive, political, and scien-
tific, he impresses us with the idea of a rich and
comprehensive soul; and that he should introduce
us to the future on terms so infinitesmal—place us,
as it were, hand•in glove with the stars for the price
of an old song—proves that he has a heart as gene.
rous as his brain is large.
" HE EXAMINER" ON IGNORANCE ZVI3ICII IS
BLISS !—Colonel North has spoken well on a sub-
ject ho understands, namely, his own ignorance.
Let us not be understood in any offensive sense.
We mean what we write, and mean it not uncivilly,
but the contrary. It is not every man who knows
his own ignorance, but if ho does he knows much.
When Johnson heard a young man flippantly say
he did not know something that was asserted, the
Doctor remarked, " What you do not know, sir,
would fill a very large library." It is a common-
place that every step a man takes iu knowledge ex-
tends his consciousness of the extent of his igno-
aance. Newton, measuring what he knew with
what he did not know, said he was like a child

on the ocean's shore gathering pebbles. This is
the season when great cruelty is done to dumb
beings. There is a law against over driving oxen,
but there is none for the redress of over-driven
members of Parliament, and it is a marvel that none
of them go mad. Hear the sufferings of Colonel
North :—The month of September always opened
to him with two very different feelings—one of
pleasure at the prospect of meeting his constituents
at these meetings, and one of perfect horror that he
was obliged on seven or eight different occasions to
get upon his legs. How much better to be a par-
tridge, and seasonably shot and finished off at once.
The Colonel is required to attend the agricultural
meetings of his county, and to talk about crops and
manures, steam ploughs and implements, whereas
he has nothing to say except about soldiering, which
farmers do not care to hear of. He knows but one
kind of drill, and it is not drill husbandry. Here
is his frank avowal :—At the age of 16 he entered
the army, and for about 20 years, all that ever at-
tracted his notice in the shape of agriculture was
the grass that grew in his barrack yard, and he was
therefore more fit to discuss the merits of the fire-
lock than the plough. At these meetings politics
were most properly forbidden, as he hoped they
always would be, Under these circumstances what
on earth was he to talk about ? To attempt to give
them a lecture upon agriculture would be wholly
unwarrantable, for of all insufferable bores that
man was the worst whose vanity induced him to
offer opinions on subjects of which he was not a
master. To express an opinion on agriculture to
the present company would t ake up a great deal of
valuable time, and really would not be worth the
paper on which those dreadful but most necessary
gentlemen of the press were writing. Now this is
well said, we repeat, because the speaker is
talking of what he understands, his own
deficiency ; and our sympathies are with
him. His, indeed, is the cry of distress
of a much over-driven member of Parliament.
He has had to run the gauntlet of agricultural
meetings with no agriculture in him hut that blade
of grass of the barrack yard. He craves that people
should only be expected to speak of what they
thoroughly understand. But this would bring
spouting to an end altogether, and meetings would
be like Quakers' meetings unmoved by the spirit.
Col. North in Oxfordshire has made a better speech
than Mr Roebuck in Sheffield, and for this simple
and plain reason, that Colonel North spoke of his
own ignorance, which he did understand, and that
Mr Roebuck spoke of himself, the subject of which
every man is likely to make the greatest number of
mistakes. Colonel North chose his topic better,
but this extortion of speech, malgrd, is really a
great hardship where there is nothing to say with-
out the knack of saying nothing. In ancient Rome,
upon proper occasions, beasts spoke in the Forum,
but it is very remarkable that what they said was
never recorded. It was enough that they spoke,
more was not required of them. They would have
done sufficiently well at our agricultural meetings,
without knowing more what they were talking
about than in the Roman Forum, where there
were no reporters taking notes. The prodigy of
bestial speech went out when public speaking came
in, and silence is a far greater marvel now than the
utterance of dumb things need to be in ancient times.
The change is not, perhaps, to the advantage of the
moderns.

GREAT NORTHERN HOSPITAL, CALEDONIAN.
ROAD, ISLINGTON,—The number of patients for the week
evading Sept, 17 woe SO9, of which 233 were IIeNV Cages,