The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-28 00:00:00

rain.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 9h. 3611:I.—Afternoon, 10h. 12m,
To-volt.now.-Morning, 10h. 44m.—Afternoon, 11h. 20m.

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41 it

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1863.

Thanks to the hesitations and delays marking
the policy of her MAJESTY'S present advisers, in
regard to the Federal Government, it has
literally been just touch - and -go with the
construction that might have been put upon
our diplomatic proceedings. The manful ontspeak-
ing of the Lords and Commons of England has
extricated the Country—certainly the Cabinet—from
a dilemma. It has done so, briefly, this wise :—On
Thursday last (the circumstance cannot but be
recalled to mind now with a sense of gratitude,
no less than of earnest exultation) the resolute
course pursued simultanteously by both Houses of
Parliament—in reference to the audacious insults
offered to the British flag by the Federal
Navy, more particularly by Admiral Wilms,
insults endorsed by Federal diplomacy,
more particularly by Mr. ADAMS, the Ameri-
can Minister to the Court of St. James's—
the unmistakeable tones of indignation expressed
both by the House of Lords and by the House of
Commons on Thursday evening, was so far effectual
—as it happened, most opportunely so far effectual !
—that in the very nick of time (for our National
Credit !) it elicited a promise, or at the very least a
half promise, of vigorous action at last on the part
of the noble earl the Foreign Secretary. We have
said that this was done in the very nick of time.
And it is nothing less than distressing to the
" amour propre" of Englishmen to recall to mind at
this moment how truly it was so. Scarcely had
Lord RUSSELL spoken, as Parliament had really
constrained him to speak, and as he would in all
human probability not have spoken otherwise—
judging, that is to say, from his silence and apathy
in the matter previously—scarcely had the Legisla-
ture, by its scornful demands upon the patriotic
action of the Government, compelled the Foreign
Secretary to speak at last,as he ought long previously
to have spoken without any such extraneous incen-
tive—when intelligence is brought to us of the utter
discomfiture of the Federal forces directed against,
and now, as it appears, ignominiously driven back
from, Charleston.

Bed Earl RUSiELL'S speech on Thursday evening
immediately followed instead of immediately pre-
ceding it did ! thanks, however, entirely
and exclusively to Parliament ! ) the arrival of this
news from America—it would have borne the
appearance et having been dictated by a despicable
readiness on the part of England, or at any rate on
the part of her Ministry, to assume a haughty tone
towards the Government of Washington, simply be-
cause the Government at Washington Was just then
borne down by the pressure of a di„utrous
defeat.
As it is—thanks to our Legislature and not to our
Administration—the bold language drawn forth
from the Foreign Secretary by the indignant re-
monstrances of the Conservative Opposition, and of
the really Independent Liberals, will be remembered
to have been uttered at a time when the Federal
cause was supposed by many to be at length
in the ascendant ! And when the Confederates
at Charleston, at Vicksburg, and elsewhere, were
imagined to be very seriously threatened, if net, in
a manner,
virtually delivered over to speedy de-
struction. So that it was literally, we repeat, in
homely phrase—just touch and go with the construc-
tion that might have been put upon the attitude
assumed in the name of England by the English
Government, in its bearing, under the most irritat-
ing circumstances, towards the Federal Government
at Washington. For the imperilling of our national
credit at this juncture (let it not speedily be for-
gotten) we have reason to hold her Majesty's present
advisers, and them alone, responsible ! For our most
°PP"tvine extrication from the dilemma, upon the
Yerge of which we were all of us (quite unconsciously)
standing, we have, on the contrary, to thank the
independent and patriotic ardour of the Lorde