The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-19 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock 69
Barometer-29.55.
Wind—S.-W. ; light. Heavy rain during the night and
morning.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
tHis Di.x.—Morning, 311. 50m.—Afternoon, 411. 16m.
To-mointow.-Morning, 4a. 30m.—Afternoon, 411.50 m.

. r
1-2/11 01144u0"i* CID Sun

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1863.

The power of the Press is a recognised fact in this
nineteenth century. Captain PEN holds at the
present moment a more unlimited and a more omni-
potent sovereignty than any royal monarch of
ancient or modern days. Apart from the political
influence of the Public Journals so conspicuous in
this country—" a country," as the late Lcrd
STRANGFORD happily called it, " which is governed
by its journals, though the names of its journalists
are unknown"—apart from the political power
wielded by the journalist, how great is the influence
continuously, perhaps unconsciously, but not the
less powerfully, exercised over the tone and morals
of society by the Literature of the day ! How
many abuses have been tolerated until the finger of
Genius pointed them out to universal scorn ! How
many gigantic hypocrisies have crumbled away at
a single touch from the same master hand ! It was
not a figurative thrashing that NICHOLASNICKLEBY
administered to the Yorkshire Schoolmaster, After
the revelation of the iniquities of Dotheboys Hall,
the days of that despotic Pedagogue were num-
bered. According to the definition of the School-
master himself, " the coat of arms of the SQUEERSES
was torn, and their sun had gone down in the ocean
wave." We might particularise many kindred
instances—the plaintive appeal of little OLIVER
"asking for more," the portentous incapability of
Mr. BUMBLE, the east wind raised by JAEN DYCE
and JARI4DYCE,, which blew so cuttingly through
the purlieus of the Court of Chancery—but the
enumeration is unnecessary. The many social reforms
which have been suggested by the most popular of
our novelists are recognised by all. Others, in like
manner, have done the State good service by their
fictitious representations of its real grievances, by
their imaginary exhibition of its actual offences.
And it is only right that so it should be. High in-
tellectual gifts entail upon their possessor a weighty
responsibility. It is a lesson impressed upon every
manly nature, from boyhood upwards, that the pos-
session of physical strength entails upon its owner
the exercise of great restraint and forbearance. He
is rightly dubbed " coward" who dares to assail any
one inferior in size or power to himself. The na-
tural chivalry of human nature has raised up this
potent barrier of defence, to protect the weak and
the helpless from the physical, power of the strong.
Bow much more is this law required in the moral
than in the material world ? How far more
cowardly and despicable is his conduct who, gifted
with intellect and genius above his fellows, employs
those potent weapons to injure the unwary—whose
eloquent tongue allures to destruction all who in
their blindness listen to the voice of the charmer
—whose craven hand deals the dastardly blow
which destroys not the body but the soul.
Happily it is far otherwise with the majority of
the authors and authoresses of our.day : some pain -
fal exceptions there are ; but the most gifted and
the most popular are exerting their talents for the
noble purpose of social regeneration. On this
theme the writer of a recent romance, which has
been the subject of much admiration and of much
censure, has addressed a long letter to a contem-
porary. Mrs. NORTON, in alluding to some com-
ments upon her new novel, " Lost and Saved,,' de-
clares that her object in its publication has been not
only to point a moral, but to arouse the attention and
startle the conscience of society. If she has laid
bare secret offences, it is with a view to effect their
remedy. Niheniiniinded that a single hand can
do nothing against
universal evil, the authoress
dauntlessly replies—a So far from individual pro-
tests being worthless, they are the small hinges on
which the great doors of change for ever turn ;"
and in this bold assertion she is certainlyonnzy t
aaty othersjusetsi
testify.
by the experience of the past, as
the examples we have alluded to above
It is assuredly the mission of the novelist, while
depicting human nature as it is, to exhibit in the
strongest light that Imagination can suggest or
Elcquence enforce, the errors and the faults and the
jollies which constitute the vast difference between
what is and what ought to be. In so doing the
fiction-writer is only following the teaching of that
best of models for every artist—Truth. The Lesson
of Life that might be summed up by every death-
bed is the same, and compared with such a revela-
tion, the romances of the mo-t imaginative would be
tame and commonplace. The men (or the woman)
of genius could not possibly have a higher ambition
than that laid claim to by Mrs. NORTON—We say
advisedly laid claim to, because we do not think
that her work has justified her intentions.

" To put a tongue in every ' social' wound,
And'raise the very stones to mutiny,"
is, indeed, a task worthy of the highest intellee:

and the noblest aspirations. Every author and
authoress (and their number in this day is legion)
who reads Mrs. NORTON'S protest and ponders over
her opinion as to the power of as individual voice,
" the small hinge" on which so much may be made
to turn, will do well to take the lesson to heart.
" And I, too, am a Painter ! (ed io anche son pzttore)
was the ambitious exclamation of the Italian
student, enraptured by the work of some great
master. Would that a kindred spirit might animate
our "sensation" writers, and, looking at the reforms
brought about ere now by their brethren of the
pen, they might emulate their ambition, even if de-
void of their great gifts. Inasmuch as such was
her desire, honour Mrs. NORTON'S undertaking;
but, as we have said, we cannot consider that she
has been successful in her attempt.

The motion of Sir J. HAY, on Wednesday last,
attempted to introduce a very necessary and long-
called for reform in the distribution of our naval
prize money. At present the grievance is of a very
serious character, and one likely to receive very
little attention at the hands of the Admiralty, who
seem to consider abuses of the kind as venerable
from their antiquity. The hon. baronet, in moving
the second reading of his bill, said that its main
object was to enable the captors to appoint an
agent to protect their interests and to secure their
rights, and to provide that he should be paid at the
rate of 21 per cent. out of the money he received.
It would seem that little objection could be taken
to such a measure ; but, however, we are told that
the Admiralty intend bringing in a bill of their
own on the subject, probably next session, and
therefore Sir J. HAY was advised by Lord CLARENCE
PAGET to withdraw his own measure, and to lend
his energies to the support of the Admiralty bill.
But the facts which were addaced did not exactly
tend to show the readiness of the Admiralty to
mend matters. The Kertch prize money, due for
six years, has only recently been tendered, while
the amount due for the agent's services is not
allowed. Colonel DUNNE remarked that a
similar delay had taken pace in the army,
and mentioned the case of a man who
was now in a state bordering on starvation,
though money had been due to him by the Govern-
ment ever since the Kertch and Yenikale expe-
dition. Sir JOHN ELPHINSTONE referred to a
similar incident. A midshipman of the James
Watt brought home a prize and found himself and
his crew of 15 without any means of livelihood.
He applied to the Admiralty, and received the
gratifying intelligence that he and his party would
receive the necessary means when the proceeds of
the prize had been realized. An exactly similar
case, he added, had occurred to an officer and crew
belonging to the Euryalus. Under the old law the
officer in charge would have been consigned to an
agent who would have made the necessary advances.
This is certainly not the way to incite our seamen
to extra exertion, or to reward them for acts of
bravery. It is more likely to disgust them with
the service than to stimulate their efforts, and
really it would seem as if such were the object of
our Admiralty, who deserve the severe rebuke of
Sir JOHN ELPHINSTONE, who declared that our
naval administration had done more harm to the
English navy than had ever been done by the
French. Sir JOHN ELPHINSTONE pointed out
further differences between the new act and the old
one, showing the inferiority of the former. He said
that Lord BROUGHAM had expressed apprehensions
at the time of the change as to its possible result, and
those fears had been only too well founded. It is a
shameful fact, that the system cf distributing, or
rather of not distributing, our prize money is alike
discreditable to the nation and irritating and inju-
rious to the men. Every obstacle and delay possible
is put in the way, until, perhaps, the brave men
who have justly earned their reward, die off one by
one, and considerably reduce the number of appli-
cants. Such a result may be satisfactory to the
Admiralty, but it is certainly most unsatisfactory
to the public, as Col. DUNNE indignantly said in
reference to the military side of the grievance.
" Burmah, Lucknow, Delhi, the Deccan—not one
of these names can be mentioned without recalling
scandals of the worst kind." Before the decided
tone adopted by the numerous and influential sup-
porters of the bill the Government opposition was
compelled to withdraw—Lord CLARENCE PAGET
giving the House a solemn warning that it was
assuming a responsibility properly belonging to the
Government. The First Lord did not apparently
see that his reproach was in reality directed against
himself, or rather against his office—that it is the
incapacity or unwillingness of our naval adminis-
tration to fulfil its responsibilities that has trans-
ferred the duty to independent members. It is
time that some one undertook to fight the cause of
the men who have been so long kept out of their
rights ; and we trust that hon. members will not
relax their efforts until a thorough change is made
in the system of distributing both naval and mili-
tary prize money, and the cruel injustice that has
so long disappointed and disheartened our best men
shall be rendered a future impossibility.

The arrival of the explorers of the Nile is a very
interesting event. It is always gratifying to wel-
come home the successful explorer, and the wonder-
ful discoverer, but it is rendered doubly so by the
fact that so many valuable lives have been lost in the
cause of these arduous undertakings in distant lands.
As soon as it was known that the Pera had arrived
at Southampton, the Mayor, accompaniad by the
town clerk and several gentlemen, waited on the two
Captains, and presented them with an address. In
the course of that brief address, a very apt allusion
was made to the great achievements of the tra-
vellers, and the object of their presentation could
not have been more forcibly explained than as fol-
lows:—" It would ill beseem the representatives of
an ancient seaport, whose history is connected
more or less with every period of the annals of Eng-
land, to neglect an opportunity of most respectfully
greeting travellers whose recent discoveries have
solved the perplexing problem of all ages, by ascer-
taining the true source of one of the most wonder-
ful rivers on the face of the earth." It must be a
source of satisfaction to the inhabitants of South-
ampton that they should have been the first to
hail the presence of these illustrious men, who
have earned a place in history side by side with
those who in all ages have striven to improve the
knowledge and extend the experience of theft fel-
low men. There is no royal road to such attain-
ments ; it must be won by individual exertion, and
gained by personal sacrifice. As the services are
arduous, so should their recognition be com-
plete; and it is therefore a step in the right
direction that the officials or local authorities
should have hastened to do
the threshold ofthem honour upon
Mayor congratulated them on
land. When the
on that " Divine pro-
d them unharmed through re-
. tection which carried
tolepevstoitfaerrioeussofelisraci
me science
which Inany
ghaiovnes either h e r f al e victims
of their savage in-
,
or have perished by the hands
habitants," they must have felt deeply grateful that
they had been permitted to return to their Country,
and there to enjoy the fruit of their labours in the ap-
prc ciation of their fellow-countrymen. After a short
time there is no doubt that these xplorers will
publibh an accuunt of their wanderings, which
will • be certain . to prove most attractive

and interesting. It is said that they
have already testified to the fertility of
the regions through which they have passed. Cotton
and every tropical product was seen by them grow-
ing in lavish abundance, and vast accumulations of
ivory strewed their route for many leagues. This
will be deeply interesting information for those who
study such subjects, in reference to their social
advantages and political importance. The ex-
plorers appear to have met with great difficulties
and dangers in the course of their wanderings. They
went on undaunted, however, and made their way
where even their guides shrank from proceeding;
on their journey to Lake Nyanza being, however,
robbed of everything by the barbarous tribes they
encountered. Only a portion of their followers
remained with them to the end. Nevertheless, they
have brought home with them many trophies of
their expedition. The skull and bones of a gigantic
buffalo, which was shot near the Equator, and the
photographs of some huge savages of various
tribes, are among the collection. It seems almost
impossible to over-estimate the importance of the
services that have been rendered to science by the
successful result of this arduous expedition ;
and it is to be trusted that the ener
getic explorers will long be spared to witness
the satisfactory consequences that ensue from their
toil. Their exertions and endurance have not been
thrown away. They have triumphed in the good
and great cause they had undertaken ; but because
they have met with no serious casualties, and not
fallen by the wayside, in their arduous pilgrimage,
their perils on the road to fame must not be for-
gotten, nor their services thought less of. They
have a right to that eminent position and distin-
guished consideration which England has ever
awarded to those enterprising sons who have carried
her fame to the uttermost ends of the world, and
rendered the name of Englishmen as celebrated for
discoveries and as renowned for explorations as they
have ever been for gallant and glorious services in
the field.