The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TletEs.—A few days ago we took occasion to point
out the importance of the services of Sir James
Hudson as British Minister in Brazil and at Turin,
and the very ungracious return which those services
have met with from the Foreign-office. We asserted
in substance that the man among all our Foreign Mi-
nisters who had deserved best of his country and of
the world at large—the man whose reputation rested
on no personal popularity and no partial estimate, but
upon solid and durable achievements—had been, in
the evening of his life, in the fulness of his reputation,
and in the very height of his use fulness, substantially,
if not formally, driven from a post which he was well
contented to hold, and forced into premature retire-
ment. We stated that in 1862 Sir James Hudson
had been consulted as to his willingness to accept
an embassy, that he had declined the offer, but that,
under the impression that his removal from his posi-
tion as Italian Minister was desired he had sug-
gested that if he were allowed to hold his place long
enough to entitle him to his pension he would then
resign his appointment. We stated that, in com-
pliance with this agreement, Sir James Hudson, in
April of the present year, offered his resignation;
that his resignation was accepted, and his successor
in due time appointed; and we further stated our
conviction that it was impossible that the transac-
tions, by which England has lust her very best dip-
lomatic servant, at a post at which he was per-
fectly willing to remain, should be the result of an
alleged mistake on the part of the Foreign-office.
Some rather indiscreet friends have urged upon
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the
propriety of vindicating himself from these stric-
tures by the publication of the papers in question,
and our yesterday's impression contains so
much of the correspondence as the Foreign-office
has thought fit to submit to the public eye. We
say " so much of the correspondence," because
it is clear on a very cursory inspection that
the most important part of the whole has been
withheld. Lord Russell and Sir James Hudson
are evidently at issue on a point of fact, the
letters upon which that point of fact must be
decided have not been laid before us, and that
omission is the act of one of the parties to
the controversy. We do not want to be told that
Sir James Hudson has left the public service, but
we do want to know whether that act was purely
voluntary or the result of an engagement, end, if
so, what that engagement was, and how it came to
be entered into. We, therefore, very much regret
that Lord Russell has not seen fit to lay before the
public all the letters relating to the transaction,
and we are entitled to assume that these letters, it
produced, would not have assisted in supporting
the position which he maintains. The first letter
is dated September 10 of this year—five months
after the period at which Sir James Hudson
tendered his resignation. The whole transaction
was completed before the correspondence which we
are allowed to see begins. This letter begins with
the words, " As you have expressed a wish to retire
from your post of Minister at the Court of the King
of Italy," and proceeds to speak in terms of well-
merited praise of the conduct of Sir James Hudson.
ft then goes on :—" Nothing, therefore, but your
own desire to quit the mission where your efforts
had been attended with such memorable success
could have induced me to recommend the Queen
any other person to represent her Majesty at Turin.
Had any of the principal embassies been vacant, I
should have asked her Majesty's permission to offer
it to you ; but, as this was not the case, and the
post you hold has been one requiring incessant
vigilance and causing continual anxiety, it has been
my duty, reluctantly, to advise the Queen to con-
sent to your retirement." Why does Sir James
Hudson retire ? We are plainly told by his own
desire ; but then we are also told of his vigilance
and anxiety as being reasons for his retirement, the
obvious inference being that he is relieved from a
duty which he is no linger able efficiently to per-
form. We do not wonder that Sir James Hudson
was unwilling to leave matters in this ambiguous
state—unwilling to pass over expressions in a letter
addressed to himself from the Foreign-office, with
which, if he did not notice them, he would be held
to acquiesce, but which gave a version of his con-
duct entirely at variance with his own. We are,
therefore, not surprised to find in his letter of
October the 4th the following sentence :—" His
Majesty having been pleased to ask me why I
quitted his Court, I replied that 1 had conceived
myself bound by an engagement with your lordship
to do so. Offered promoted in March, 1862, I had
obtained permission to decline it, and to continue to
reside at his Majesty's Court till such time as my
pension for public service was due to me." This
letter directly contradicts the allegation that Sir
James Hudson leaves Turin at his own desire, and
confirms the statement which we presume the cor-
respondence was printed in order to impugn. These
words of Sir James Hudson entirely vindicate our
accuracy, since we could hardly have been expected
to know his motives better than he knew them him-
self. To this letter Lurd Russell replies, "I found
that Sir James Hudson, though ready to accept an
embassy, did not wish to leave Turin ;" whereas Sir
James Hudson says distinctly that he declined offi-
cial promotion. Lord Russell says he made no
engagement with Sir James Hudson ; Sir James
Hudsons says he considered himself bound by an
enagement with Lord Russell. Which of these two
statements is correct? Did, as Ma. Elliot told the
King of Sardinia, Sir Jamas Hudson labour under
an entire misapprehension in entertaining the belief
that Lord Russell wished to remove him from Turin,
or did Eord Russell labour under an entire misap-
prehension in entertaining the belief that Sir Jas.
Hudson resigned of his own accord ? That question
would best be settled by the production of the cor-
respondence of 1862, which correspondence unfor-
tunately Lord Russell omits to produce. The ques-
tion turns on the fact whether there was or was not,
expressed or virtually, such an engagement as is as-
serted on the one hand and denied on the other, and
the party who withholds the means of forming an
opinion- has no right to complain if that opinion be
given against him. One thing now, however, is per-
fectly plain. If an engagement did exist, Lord Rus-
sell has been the means of depriving the diplomatic
service of one or its most valuable members; but
even if such an engagement did not exist Sir James
Hudson acted under the belief thot it did, and Lord
Russell, therefore, may be referred to his own asser-
tion, that noting but Sir J, Hudson's own desire to
quit the mission would have induced him to recom-
mend any other person to it. The practical conclu-
sion is inevitable, that if Sir James Hudson has been
forced out of the service, or if he has acted under
the impression that such pressure was exerted, he
ought in either case to be restored. There has either
been mistake or misconduct on the part of the Fo-
reign-office, and when this has been made cle.r the
public service should not be permitted to suffer by
either. It is disagreeable to admit misconduct ;
to some persons it is almost as grievous to con-
fess a mistake. Be it which way it may, we
have a right to ask that neither shall prejudice
English or Italian interests. The mistake, if mis-
take there be, is not irrevocable. The mischief
admits of a simple cure. As nothing but Sir James
Hudson's desire could have induced Lord Russell to
remove him from Turin, the fact that such desire
did not exist would have furnished an excellent
reason for his restitution. We see, however, very
little reason for hope for such a consummation. Sir
James Hudson has been held to his resignation,
after it had been ascertained on his own evidence
that such resignation was made not of his own free
will, but under the belief that he was bound to offer
it. Nothing can be more full than the admission of
his services, and yet for some reason or other there
is nu wish to retain him in the public seavice. We
do not therefore think that the case of the Foreign-
office is in wuy mended by the portion of the cor-
respondence it has seen fit to publish.
POST.—The commemoration of the anniversaries
of great men in the world of letters belongs to a
high state of civilisation. The earliest nations of
antiquity deified their victorious generals, but not
their orators and poets. Poetry and literature
have but little praise in their own day. Their
merit is seen in after years, when they have had
time to work their way and do their part is en-
riching the mind, directing the affections, and
moulding the thoughts of men. The Greeks com-
memorated Pericles, but not Homer; and the
haßo-
mans, who filled their Pantheon with soldiers,
Mantua.
no place for Cicero, Horace, or the Poet of
these
Much as in the later empire they gloried
names, they knew not how worthily
their
their memory or to put into enduring e formin
appreciation of the men who had united in
the calm
them-
selves the ardour that makes heroesale the trials,
philosophy that deals with the totirnansm it
when the storm of
thisth e progress,
belongs toa nadhuominaaihkiisntdo.ry. All
is the growth of laterthe deepsoteihnimi!lenss,omf
whenwat• is
phuulsehre d,
heroism is felt to derive its no-
bilitymEonregl
rstancdrehdas thingsb a been
objectsw h pehenancoeafitYaolmntablithiaontrteabreefqorueiesmceenn,ts,
eyes, and military
that it defends.
from the yet
Ine :obi]; r a
sincend
blessed
withsed halfin wee centuryaltb and a ofdvpaenaceeed—sininceevesrhye
form and variety of social progress—that she has
has
i increased e r
ea
begun to commemorate the men who have enriched
her literature, adorned her arts, and promoted her
moral good. Even this is but of recent growth in
this country. The example was before our eyes for
some years in Germany, but Englishmen, who can
never be made to act together without difficu;tYy,
have been slow in learning the lesson.
are learning it, and one by one, as their turnShiertaeiatllc, b
l andt
comes
formedround,
nd mofe n
Ewnhgolahnadvermerjoevivee d
thethe heart
not unworthy, honour of a public commemoration.
The tendency to get up commemorations is now

at floodtide, and every year sees some honoured
name held up to universal admiration. Some in-
stances, we will not hesitate to say, have been both
unworthy and ludicrous, and names not really great
have been puffed into notoriety with no other °eject
than that of making a commercial profit of thepro-
ceedings held ostensibly in their honour. ibis
ought everywhere to be protested against and.
frowned down. By all means let us heap all the
honours which the best arranged commemorations
can express upon those who deserve fame, but let
such schemes be single-minded, let them be acts of
devotion, expressing real homage—homage
that
costs something; homage that comes of sacrifices
made, and not of self-interest subserved. We are led
to these remarks by finding that, quite in accordance
with the tendency just stated, there is to be a grand
tercentenary commemoration of the immortal Shak-
spere in the ensuing year. We believe that the
scheme is at present only in its earliest stage of dee
velopment ; but we cannot allow even the meagre
details which have a- et reached the press to go forth
without expressing our earnest hope that nothing.
will be left undone to make the occasion worthy of
the unapproachable genius in whose honour it is to i
be held. Let it be genuinely and honestly what t
professes to be—the homage of a great and en-
lightened people to a poet, a moralist, a philosopher,
and an actor, who preceded them in all that is great
and enlightened by no less a period than three
centuries. Let it be the expression of Englishmen
in the most advanced stage of their progress, that
nothing which they have since learnt has made it
necessary to unlearn Shakspere—that he is not, and
never can be, obsolete—that with all the accume-
lated acquirements of a highly cultivated age
they cannot dispense with his plays, can-
not excel his poetry, cannot supersede his philo-
sophy, and cannot amend his morality. Let the
Shaksperian commemoration be all this, and more,
but let it be, as we said, single-minded, united,
self-denying, spontaneous, practical, definite, con-
gruous, and thoroughly genuine. Above all, let it
not be vulgarised after the fashion of Burns and.
Schiller, by a demonstration for the benefit of the
shareholders of the Crystal Palace. It will be the
death-blow of greatness if it can never escape the
questionable posthumous honour of a Crystal Palace
celebration—to be chronicled in an annual report in
the same category with rabbit shows, pigeon shows,
flower shows, poultry shows, rope dancing, and
Pepper's ghost, as auxiliaries to the small dividend
which the directors have to announce to the de-
pressed shareholders. Stiakspere deserves better
things at our hands than this, and we earnestly trust
that the gentlemen who are initiating the movement
will propound to the British public something
worthy of the man, and of the age and country .
n
which we live. We believe that nothing is yet de-
finitively decided, and that plans are only in process
of lucubration. Oar remarks, therefore, have refe-
rence only to broad general principles; the advocacy
of details is not within our province. To us it seems
that there are two leading ideas at the foundation
of the subject—the one general as belonging to all
England, or we may say of all the world; the other
local, as belonging to those places and particulars
inseparably associated with his life and history, and
which through that association have become histo-
rical. If England has a general interest in Shaks-
pere, Stratford-on Avon has a particular one. There
he was born ; there he gained that education which
he afterwards turned to such account ; thence he
married his wife ; thither, in his declining years, he
retired to enjoy his well-earned leisure and compe-
tency ; and there his ashes lie. If thesethings do not
consecrate a place, what can ? It is impossible, there-
fore, that Stratford can be left out in any adequate
commemoration of the great bard. A demonstra-
tion which should only deal generally with Shak-
spere's memory, and should ignore the local asso-
ciations which have led to so many thousand pil-
grimages to his early home, would be wanting in 6
very important particular, and be as unsatisfactory
as one which should seek to centre all interest is
Stratford, and overlook the fact that the homage
of the civilised world is the poet's inheritance.
To do justice to these two ideas—the general and
the local—is the problem which the promoters of
the commemoration have to solve ; and if they
bring to the task a largeness of mind worthy of the
occasion, they can hardly fail of a success that will
be at once creditable to themselves, and not un-
worthy of the immortal bard who, ages ago, won a
fame to which no public demonstrations, however
perfect, can add, bat which narrow or ill-con-
ceived schemes of commemoration might grievously
insult.

COUNTRY MARKETS•

V. -

NEWARK-WEDNESDAY.

A moderate quantity of wheat on offer at our market to-
day, and the demand was fair.
Other articles the same as
last week.

White wheat new, 41s to 46s Barley, grinding.. 29s to 323
Red do 4os to 44s l Oats, old, .. ...... 258 to 284
Old white 42s to 46s t New d 0.......... 20s to 240
Red do 41s to 44s i Beans 37s to 40s
Barley) malting...36s to 40s 1 Beans, new 32s to 34s

HULL—TUESDAY.
Since our last the wheat trade has been steady, but the
demand very little improved. At this day's market the
show of English wheat was small, and sales were readily
made at fully late currencies. Foreign neglected. Ear'
ley was taken off slowly at is decline. Beans and peas ra.
their slow, in favour of buyers. Oats were dull, and rather
cheaper.
Wheat.... Old white.... per qr Ms Od to 46s 03
Old red
New white .. ~
New red .
Barley.... English malting
Grinding 233
687
sss
600
ddd
ttt
000
243 880
sss
001
Saal and Oderbruck
Holstein and Danish 3os Od to 31s 03
Grinding
Oats English, old 26s Od to 28503
Archangel and Riga, per st oBl2ld to 133
Friesland and Dutch osl3d to 03130
Swedish and Danish Osl2id to Osl3l
Beans ....English, old, per qr. 43s Od to 45s 0';
New pigeon 42s Od to 44s Oa
New tick.
Egyptian
Peas ..Foreign boilers ... 34s Od tc 35e 0';
Grinding
Tares .... Spring —s Od to —s !),1
Indian Corn
Linseed, feeding s2s Od to 56e Ot;
crushing .. ..... 40$ Od to 52s 0(t,
Linseed cakes Hull),(
iu,
Foreign Bl5 oto 9 0 ,v,
Rape cakes
Bones 6 0 oto 0 0 0
5 5 oto 010

LYNN—TUESDAY.
t., at,
At to-day's market there was a fair supply of wheat
with a more active business doing at prices rather hig'"
than last week.
White .. 415 s to 46s f Barley..
Red..
Beans- ..40s to 42s 1 Grinding 29536s to 331:
• .40
.40s to 449 1 Oats..
—8 to *--.
New 388 to 40s f Peas

COAL r
*foes of Coal per Ton al

.AKKET.
the dose of the market. A
0.

s. d.
Buddle'sWest Hartley 16 3
Davison's West Hart-

Walls End.
Hetton 20 g
Tunstall
Reugh Hall .. 18 g-
South ".....
11 6
8 -
Riddell ........ 1 0
East Hartlepool ...... 20
Hartlepool ......... .. 19
K elloe .. 8
Belmont . ... .. 17 °
Russel' s Hetton...... 19 0
Brsddyll'a Hetton ..... 19 0
Trimdon Hartlepool...l9 6
)t, 59 ; sold, 37.

ley
Carr'a Hartley . 16 3
Lambert's West Hart-

ley l6 0
West Hartley 16 3
Eden Main ..18 0
Cowpen Hartley 16 3
Holywell .. 17 0
vl, alker Primrose 13 9

Walls End.

South Hart1ep001......18 3
Ships at mark 4

------
Full benefit of reduced duty obtained by pur-
chasing Horniman's pure Tea; very choice at 3s. 4d. and
4s. " High Standard "at 40. 4d.
(formerly 4s. Bd.), is the
strongest and most delicious imported. Agents in every
town supply it in packets.