The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—In course of time we may possibly arrive
at something like general principles upon which we
may all agree to judge the spontaneous and unex-
pected acts of our army and navy on the other side
of the world, Such acts there must inevitably be, so
long as we retain the wide and spreading dominion
of commerce and arms which we inherit from our
fathers. Even with the electric telegraph it is evi-
dent that a British Admiral in the Japanese or
Australian seas will frequently have to act on his
own responsibility, and determine the precise mo-
ment when a tedious negotiation is to result in
the last appeal. We only hear when the deed has
been done and is a matter of history. Under suoh
circumstances there is a great and very natural
temptation to take a sentimental view of the affair,
and to blow either the trumpet of triumph and
praise, or the hardly less sonorous, though not
equally musical note of the philanthropic or saintly
objector. Everybody would read with pleasure
Lord Clarence Paget's very handsome professional
advocacy of Admiral Kuper. His Lordship is a good
fellow, and so, no doubt, is the Admiral, and it would
be very shabby if they did not stand by one another.
The Admiral, says Lord Clarence, went to Kago-
sima on an errand of mercy and peace ; while dis-
charging it as quietly and civilly as he could, the affair
was precipitated by the violence of the Daimio, and
when the crews rose from dinner to point their guns
on the batteries blazing upon them, the sudden storm
and swell of the sea sent the shot and shell flying
in all directions among the rows of bamboo huts
before which the Daimio had imprudently built his
forts. So far as the Admiral was concerned, the co'.
lision was inevitable, and met with the utmost consi-
deration. All this sounds very proper, and no doubt
it is the decision which the British public will have
to accept. For our part, we feel that we have to deal
with such an operation as a whole, and that cer-
tainly at the distance of many weeks and twelve
thousand miles we must be content to leave the smaller
incidents to the critics who deal with trifles. If we
send out the beat men we can for the purpose, and
find them acting to the best of their ability, we are
bound to continue our confidence in them till we see
the plainest ground for withdrawing it. We must
pronounce a favourable judgment, if only because
we have no means of pronouncing unfavourably, and
are aware that the situation is always one of the
greatest difficulty. In this case, a murder having
been committed, the murderers having been pro-
tected, the protector having defied both us and his
own Government, his Sovereign having been at last
reluctantly obliged to confess his inability to enforce
the law, and every stage of negotiation having been
gone through, an armed expedition is sent to ob-
tain satisfaction. The squadron finds immense pre-
parations made to defeat it, the natural difficulties
considerable, and these difficulties suddenly aggra-
vated by a storm. The question really was whether
the squadron should accomplish its task as well as it
could, or retreat if it could without striking a blow,
leaving the rebellious harbourer of the murderers to
proclaim a victory, to double his preparations, and
wait for more chances in his favour. The Admiral
took possession of the steamships prepared against
us, and after that had no alternative but to proceed
vigorously by the rules of war in such cases. Being
attacked, he had to defend himself, and did no more
than destroy his prizes and silence the hostile bat-
teries—if, indeed, he did not silence them entirely,
for that is denied by the enemy. It seems to us
frivolous to divide such a work into so many sue.
cessive stages and particular incidents for the pur-
pose of showing either that the work was done as
well as possible or not so well. No course of action
in the world will stand that test. Nobody charged
with a difficult responsibility ought to be required
to defend every particular step in a complicated
operation, for in a succession of difficulties it is in-
human to expect that every difficulty has been met
with infallible wisdom. Jurisprudence, legislation,
and:government have all their difficulties and draw-
backs, even though they have days, weeks, years,
generations at their command,—even though men
After
may sleep over them, take them up and lay them
down and take them up again, live through
sons.them
them,
and hand
a, ll them
who
odaonwenayto sons and sons'
that these affairs
of civil life are done with perfect wisdom and entire
success We cannot apply a more stringent criticism
to the actions of men who, in an entirely new situa-
tion at the other end of the world, find themselves
pitted for life and death with unknown swarms of a
strange enemy, and have to negotiate, to fight, to
conquer, to perish, or to fly, all in the space of two
or three hours. A minute or two is all the time
which the exigency will allow for the most momentous
deliberation, and it is on a rising sea, in blinding
' rain and wind, and under a shower of missiles,; the
commander of the little squadron has to make deci-
sions which Mr. Cobden pulls to pieces over a lib-
rary table, and others undertake to prove the
perfection of wisdom, if not matter of positive congra-
tulation. The truth is we have only just arrived at
the substance of this shadowy realm which has so
long mocked all the efforts of curiosity and commerce.
Our treaty with the supposed Central Government
turns out to be worth very little, that Government
being incompetent and illusory. Its engagements
have only led to a further collision with the real
heart and core of the Empire, the feudal chiefs who
appear to possess the country with an overgrown
pomp and an utter selfishness worthy of an irrespon-
sible and rebellious aristocracy. The Central Govern-
ment by Tycoons, of which we have heard so much
from our childhood, turns out a political fiction for
the apparent responsibility of duties which the real
possessors of the country only discharge as they
overnmeWnteand er,
please. What we had brought to terms previous to
this affair is as much a sham as the paper walls of
Chinese warfare.
are
pnoowwfa. No face to face withwonder h
t thea
reality of g t
the collision has been serious,) But we ay and must
protest against the collisionbeing; treated as a mere
accident, as an unfortunate result of personal indis-
cretion, national arrogance, and professional over-
zeal. It was certain to come some time or other, as
certain as we are to reachthe terra firma of a
country by sailing over the shoals that accumulate
before its harbours. In
the case of Japan there
always was, and still is, the disposition
and to insult us, it being rightly to exclude
inferred that our
presence will be dangerous to the pret • ensions of
men who stand by brute power and act accordingly.
The Japanese Princes rule a nation of
clever, in-
genious, and useful slaves. They know
well their
own fate if these slaves should be infected vn •
leaven of European civilisation. Their fearsth
the
are not
without reason, but it is too late to exclude us
They must now be held to the treaty made in their
* behalf for the admission of the rest of manki •
nd to
the ordinary privileges of humanity.
POST.—Whatever may be the decision that Aus-
tria and Prussia may take with reference to the
personal claims of Prince Frederic of Aug
p usten-
bug, it cannot be too strongly pointed out that they
form but one out of many elements of which the
complex Holstein question is composed. On this
head there appears to be a remarkable confusion in
the public mind. There was a Holstein question
before the claims of Prince Frederic were put for-
ward, and there still would be a Holstein question
if his pretensions were to be now universally repu-
diated. Peace or war between Germany and Den-
mark depends, therefore, not so much on any deci-
sion which the two great German Powers may take
with reference to this pretender to the throne of
the three Duchies, but on the spirit of moderation
or violence which utuy 'nark tleir counsels on