The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-08 00:00:00

THE SUN,

e--ittentit

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1852.

The supercilious impertinence with which Captain
PENNY has been treated by parties connected with
the Royal Navy of England is, by this time, we
should imagine, become matter of sufficient notoriety.
Upon conduct so unbecoming the members of a gal-
lant and distinguished profession we have already
felt it our painful duty ,to animadvert. As Eng-
lishmen, and as patriotic lovers of the service, the
name of which has been thus miserably degraded
by the most arrogant assumption of the most petu-
lant exclusiveness, our feelings have revolted at
an exhibition of false pride so derogatory to the
Admiralty of Great Britain. We have recognized
in the proceedings adopted towards Captain PENNY
by the Arctic Committee, and subsequently by the
late Lords Commissioners, conduct such as could only
have called for the scorn of a NELSON and the regrets
of a COLLING WOOD. The " Blue Book," so frequently
referred to of late in these columns, is enough of itself
to show the consequential manner some officers in the
Royal Navy have deemed it theiright of,,their cloth to
assume towards the very able and intelligent
navigator who happened by ill luck to
be nothing more illustrious than a simple
captain of a whaler. Had
Captain PENN Y
been fortunate enough to inhale his first breath of the
salt-water-breeze with a " midshipman's curse" em-
broidered on his jacket, he would have had some little
more consideration shown towards him during the
coarse of the recent investigation. We should not
then have heard any impertinent allusions to him as
Air. PENNY either from the floor of the House of Com-
mons, or under the roof-tree of the Admiralty—either
by Admiral BERKELEY or by any other of" the Lords
Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High
Admiral of England." It might, one would suppose,
have entered into the remembrance of the Arctic Com-
mittee that history is fraught with proofs that the
letters R.N. are not by any means essential to the
professional capacity of any man as a Sea Captain.
The glorious discoverer of Polynesia was no less
admirable a navigator from the fact of his having first
learnt to handle a tarry rope among the colliers of
Newcastle. COLUMBUS, again, was surely not the
less entitled to respect because he belonged originally
to neither the royal navy of Northern Italy or of the
Peninsula, having acquired the rudiments of seaman-
ship in the merchant vessels trading from the ports of
Genoa and Lisbon. Countless examples of a very
distinguished character, though inferior, it must be
admitted, to the pre-eminent instances afforded by the
biographers of CooKE and COLUMBUS, might be
adduced to show that men may learn the difficult
iicieuce of navigation elsewhere than under the flag of
a royal navy, be it the Royal Navy of England, of
Spain, of Sardinia, or of any other state in Chris-
tendom. Because Captain PENNY was not
Captain PENNY, R.N., but simply the Captain
of a whaler in the Arctic seas—he was not, therefore,
we conceive, to be treated with the contempt and
contumely only displayed, under like circumstances,
to a man who has shown the grossest ignorance and
the most culpable incapacity. Such, however, it is
not for a moment pretended is the charge directed
against Captain PENNY by captain AUSTIN, by the
Arctic Committee, or by the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty. His crime was merely
that of not belonging to the Royal Navy
of England. He had behaved admirably through-
out the whole of the last expedition in search
of Sir JOHN FRANKLIN. Nobody denied that. He
had even acquired for himself the distinguished credit
of being the first, and as yet the only navigator who
had discovered any actual and substantial indications
of the route taken by FRANKLIN and his missing com-
panions. The Blue Book proclaimed the fact. It
was a circumstance notorious to everyone. It was
known, moreover, that, besides lighting upon
the track of the Lost Expedition, he: had cifered
to proceed at once some hundreds of miles further
upon the line of his discovery, if only allowed to pilot
a steamship on through the open water, beyond
Wellington Channel. Yet the responsibility of the
abrupt and blundering return was transferred to his
shoulders from those of captain AUSTlN—because
Captain PENNY was not Captain PENNY, R.N. ; and
in addition to this, he was studiously treated in a
manner the most overbearing and. consequen-
tial, as if the command of a whaler in the
Arctic seas was really one of the most degrading
and despicable duties that could possibly devolve upon
a created being. Against this course of proceeding
we have long since and repeatedly entered the
strongest protest to which our vocabulary could
enable us to give utterance. Against its recurrence
we shall always raise our voice in the loudest tones
and in the most decisive language.
As supplementary evidence that such has actually
been the bearing assumed by officers of the Royal
Navy with reference to Captain PENNY, we may
refer to a letter published elsewhere in our im-
pression of this evening, and addresseal to ourselves
by a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society—a
letter recounting the fact of the personalities indulged
in, before that society, by Sir EDWARD BELCH ER—
personalities so gross and ungenerous, as having
reference to one who was absent, that they twice
called forth the interposition of the President, Sir
RoDEßecKMtiacnesoel. The statements of our cor-
respondent will speak for themselves, and to them
we allude, therefore, as to additional testimony of
that professional arrogance which we shall always
take occasion to reprobate as frivolous in itself, if it
were not at the same time seriously detrimental to
the character of the Maritime Service of Great
Britain.

Whatever may be said on other points, the fate of
the Ministry must be decided on its fisez.l and com-
mercial policy. The post selected by Mr. DISRAELI
is, therefore, to all intents and purposes, at this
moment not only the moat onerous, but by fir the
most important in the Cabinet. As it is to his skilful
and energetic exertions that the creation of the pre-
sent Government may chicfly be attributed, so it is
on his shoulders-that the weight of sustv.ining it must
InaeinlY rest. Although opposed, in many respects, to the political views and opinions of the party in power,
we are yet disposed to make every reasonaHe allowance
for the difficulties of their positioe, and to exhibit
the fair play which
ppeovneerynt:Enwglt:sahrme a,n,
praceceo-rtrdasdeervsen
to his most bitter o”
in the most extendses7rsignification of the phrase, and
it is our anxi,oubsy
Which
htoo remove the remaining clogs
and shackles
fettered and impeded.
and until a considerable p
expect to achieve
wner
dtrade and commerce are
mar.iy an anxious
this great desideratum
struggle,
conaiderabieymnot
greater
e period has elapsed.
We must take it by instalme I.
we
ar n's, and we are
Administrationes
e more likely t
firmly convinced that tmbaetans
in
obtain a
on account from the present
than from their predecessors—that
in the right direction may be anticipated fromP ig3__.
JAMIN DISRAELI than from Sir CHARLus WOOD. ',`,
But it is said that a preliminary question arises_
that the most important branch of free trade may be
endangered, viz., the free and untaxed importation of
articles of primary necessity, such as cereals of every
description, meat, &c., by sanctioning the retention of
office by persona avowedly desirous of imposing a
tariff on all such commodities. It is necessary,
therefore, that the question should be fbrthwith
" settled"—that no breathing time should be afforded
to the new men---but that they should be com-
pelled forthwith to recant their former opinions, and
enter into the most solemn pledges to keep the peace
towards corn, flour, &c., binding themselves down,
under heavy recognizances, never at any Future period
to disturb the arrangement entered into in 1846.
This is the opinion of Mr. co
BD", 'which, it is
needless to say, must ever carry considerable weight
with Free-traders. It is to promote and gilin converts
to this line of policy that the Honourable. Gentleman '