The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

in a long written statement as to the circumstances attend-
ing the loss of the ship, alleging that De la Cour, as pilot,
was wholly responsible.
The Court having consulted together for some time,
Mr. Traill said the inquiry was most important, and the
misconduct of the captain so gross, in leaving the pilot
De la Ceur in the manner described, that it would be a ques-
tion whether the Court would not feel themselves called
upon to deal with his certificate. The case required very
serious consideration, and in order to consider their decision
the inquiry would stand adjourned.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

POST.—After much and anxious consideration,
th,:ee rejoinders to Prince Gortschakoff's three de-
spade; have at last been forwarded to St. Peters-
burg. It wh.? proposed at one time that the three
should be welder► into one strong identical note ;
but upon reflection it has been thought more
we. began, and to retain
judicious to persevere an
1 best allow of
our identity of character, ill ough imbued with
rlnce similarity of purpose. Thin whi
suitable answers being returned to
Gorts-
chakoff, who, having been more civil in his lan-
guage to us than to the French, will now receive
from our nearest ally a sharper rejoinder than N•ce
are called upon to give. The object of all is, how-
ever, strictly the same ; and we believe we shall
prove to be correct when we affirm that the three
notes will be found to have, as nearly as possible,
identical conclusions. The purpose of the three
Powers is to bring Russia to the observance of the
provisions of the Treaties of 1815 with respect to
Poland. In that attempt the three are acting as one
and none will take action without the others. All
notion of coercion has passed away for the present.
For ourselves, we regret this, because we doubt of
obtaining what we wish by diluted diplomacy. Had
we firmly held our course, and had the three Powers
taken up a strong and positive position, Russia
must either have given way at once, or must have
yielded in a short time to the great pressure brought
to bear on her. There would have been no neces-
sity for war in the common acceptation of the term.
There would have been no question of give
and take in blows to be dealt; no great struggle—
the colossus of the North would have been held
paralysed in the grip of all Europe. From Sweden
to Turkey a vast encircling pressure might have been
applied which would have been irresistible in its force.
Teat this is the truth is proved by the article which
we publish in another column fro:n the Gazette of
Moscow. That journal, full of the ncZion that we
would, if necessary, take up a hostile position
with-
out war, writhes in anticipated impotence and pain,
and cries aloud against the wickedness of a poliCy
which, after all, would have been but the em-
bodiment of the moral force of universal opinion.
If, however, the step the three Powers now
take is not so trenchant as we could have
wished, it is not to be interpreted as a siol
of vascillation in their general intentions.
Prince Gortechakoff will do well to read the signs
of the times honestly and simply as they are
written. He has failed to detach Austria from our
alliance. Let him not think on the one hand that
England and Austria are holding back from France,
or, on the other, that he could provoke France into
a false position, and precipitate her into isolated
hostilities. He would only encounter another failure
in any such attempt. France will not step one foot
without her allies. He should therefore look his
opponents in the face, and resign for ever the idea
of cajoling, seducing, or irritating any of them into
divergent action. If the more formidable aspect of
the question is adjourned, it is only from the con-
viction that the Cabinet 'of St. Petersburg must
now realise the truth of its position and the neces-

sity of a return within the limits of treaties. If
the warning now given be again misinterpreted, and
if, as there is every prospect, the Poles sustain the
arduous struggle in which they are engaged, tho
question will ultimately have to be put in the most
decisive form—a form in which Russia cannot afford
to meet it. The great empire is much disorganised,
badly off in its finances, and indifferently supplied
with military resources. Bombast is a favourite
Russian weapon, but on this occasion its empty
sound will produce no effect, and we therefore hope
we shall have no more of it. Our demands must he

met in a spirit partaking of the sincerity in which
they are made. We have every desire to avoid even
the semblance of danger to the general peace.
Neither ourselves nor our allies have the least
present hostile intention, and we should only adopt
coercive measures in the last resort when they are
forced upon us. But step by step, in negotiation or
in action, we shall advance together in the inten-
tion of obtaining from Russia the recognition of
what is just, and a consummation claimed by the
voice of Europe.
HERALD.—The removal of Sir James Hudson
from the post of British representative at the Court
of Turin, and his replacement by the Hon. Mr.
Elliot, savour very strongly of a rank Whig job.
job. We say the removal of Sir James Hudson,

because his voluntary resignation is out of the ques-
tion. He has for more than eleven years given, in
the name of England, the warmest encouragement
and aid to the policy of aggrandisement which King
Victor Emmanuel and his Ministers have so suc-
cessfully pursued. The Italian kingdom is almost a
child of his begetting, and he would not withdraw
his fostering care from the bantling of his own free
will. His devoted zeal and his great services have
been cordially recognised by the King and by all
classes of Italian politicians, and he enjoys an in-
fluence and an esteem which no foreign Minister
has ever possessed in any country, and which most
assuredly he could not acquire in any other capacity.
If England is the country of his birth, Italy is that
of his adoption, all his interests are centered in her
fortunes, and he could have desired nothing more
than to continue—with some increase of dignity
and emolument perhaps, if possible, but if that
could not be obtained readily, without it—in a po-
sition which enables him to advance so greatly her
cause. Sir James Hudson has only resigned upon
compulsion, and the fact that Mr. Elliot succeeds
him would indicate that the only reason for the
compulsion was the desire on the part of Earl Rus-
tell to find his relative a comfortable position. Mr.
Elliot has of late had no regular employment. He
has been sent upon a special mission or two,
which, as the case of Greece, had no other reason
than to give him something to do. He naturally
began to long for something certain, and is
anxious, as a judicious observer of the chances of
politics, to get it at once. His eye had long been
upon Sir James Hudson's place; he nearly got it
two or three years ago, but the loud and indig-
nant outcry which was raised as soon as the plot
was revealed, frightened Lord Russell and saved
Sir James Hudson. This time it is supposed all
will be right. Parliament is not sitting, and no
inconvenient inquiries are to be feared. The
business will be concluded, Sir James Hudson
will be in retirement, or employed in some other
part of the world, before the two houses meet
again, and then of course very little can be
said or done. The matter will have long been
settled, and after a few taunts at the noble lord's
inherent jobbery the fait accompli will be accepted.
We have never been admirers of Sir James Hudson.
Whilst recognising his ability we have often had
the conviction forced upon us that he has regarded
much more the interests of Italy than of England,
and that his object throughout his residence at Turin
has not been so much to serve the country in whose
name he was accredited as to advance the projects
of King Victor Emmanuel and his advisers. His
dispatches betray a desire rather to represent every-
thing in the most favourable light for the Piedmon-
tese, to bolster up the mistakes and deceptions of
their Ministers, than to give a truthful and accurate
picture of the real condition of affairs. But if he
did thus dress up his wares, he sent them to a mar-
ket which would only receive them so prepared. If
Sir James Hudson is an enthusiast for the kingdom
of Italy; if he has palliated all the mistakes of its
Ministers; if he has tried to explain away all the
steps that they have taken injurious to British in-
terests, to make out Naples
peaceful and abnedadcovnantetnatgeedd,
to prove that England alone w
by unity under Piedmontese rule, Lords Palmerston
and Russell have done just the same thing, and have
made their friendship to the new kingdom the chief
part of their stock in trade. And there can be no
doubt that Sir James Hudson is the great mainstay
of such British influence as there is in Turin. The
Ministers of the King and the King himself sought
his advice, and acted upon it when ever the neces-
sities of their obligations to France and their posi-
tion towards the party of action allowed them to do
so. Mr. Elliot will only follow, with less know-
ledge and far less influence, in the path which Sir
James Hudson has pursued. We have in Turin a
first-rate man for the place so long as the policy of
the last three or four years is to be pursued, and
we get rid of him, and appoint a man of whom
the best thing that can be said is that nobody
knows any great harm of him. Our Italian policy
now consists in a struggle for influence with
France; we seek to drive her out of Rome and
destroy her natural influence over the Italian Go-
vernment. It is not a policy which holds out much
chance of success ; not a policy, perhaps, the success
of which would be worth anything; but it is our
policy, and Sir James Hudson was the only man
who could pursue it with any chance of success.
His heart was in the work ; he had a rare know-
ledge of the instruments by which to advance it;
and yet our Whig Government, to find a place for a
member of a family of place-hunters, to provide for
a poor relation of the Foreign Minister, removes
this one capable man, and substitutes for him a
person who has never shown that ho possesses more
ability than would justify his appointment to a
clerkship in the Excise. There are, indeed, two
cases in which the removal of Sir James Hudson
would be legitimate. if the Government has deter-