The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-13 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 13, 1863.

Mr. ROEBUCK, so far, in a Parliamentary sense,
is Master ot the Situation: To him the House of
Commons looks at this moment with a glance of
eager curiosity. The enigma of the house is—
What the course may be that he, the member for
Sheffield, will adopt at this period of supreme
emergency. In the very height of the dog days—
tha alarm suddenly is that TEAR'EM, Immuzzled, in
a high state of excite went, and agitated by an
excess of wreh caused by two or three most irritat
in:,;- circumstances—means mischief! Niching
maleclto, more completely, it is to be conjectured,
than any other sententious motto that could be
selected, expresses his feelings at this juncture the
most aptly. The motion submitted to the house by
Mr. ROEBUCK, the motion now lying before the
house for its adoption or its rejection, ib
explicit enough in its way in all conscience.
About its meaning there cannot, of course,
be ' one instant's misapprehension. It je
in less than half•a-dozen blunt words—as plain as
a pikestaff. And viewing it, as we may, from any
point of view it is brought forward, as things fall
out, at a time the most peculiarly critical that well
could be, At the very tail of the session ! At the
very crisis of the war! While Mr. SPEAKER is
beginning, probably, to indulge in pleasant antici•
potions of autumnal leisure in his sylvan retreat at
Osaington Hall down in Nottinghamshire. While
General LEE, at the head ot his victorious army, is
knocking, as one meg say, at the very gates of
Washington. Precisely at this moment it is, and
at none less deeply interesting, that Mr. ROEBUCK
throws the apple of discoid, or the bone of conten-
tion, or however else we may typify it, between
the confronting ranks of the Government and
the Opposition in the British House of Com-
mons. The juncture is so imminent—the query
now put to the House is intrinsically of such
vital importance that it might be considered as only
comparable in its way—in its importance, and in its
luminesce to the momentous question sung or by the
Rev. GEORGE CRABBE in one of the most famous
of his homely tragic poems—a picturesque incident
with which the hand of a female artist a few years
back familiarized even the non-reading public who
perhaps never vet handled a volume of CRABBE.
Here immediately prior to the death of the session,
Comes Mr. ROEBUCK with his Momentous Ques-
tion adtiressed to the bewildered, and it may even be,
could we but kcow their hearts, the somewhat
remorseful Government.

Shall the in& pendence of the Confederate
States at length be tecagnised ? that is
the Question! As yet Mr. ROEBTJCK has be-
trayed no faltering whatever in his way
of putting it. Supposing he were to hesi-
tate now in driving it to a division be wouid stultify
himself, as even he, the member for Sht !field, the
amateur diplomatist to Schoennbrun, and more re-
cently, to Fontainebleau, has never stultified
himself previously. Supposing any con-
sideration—ith matters just absolutely nothing,
wide supposing any consideration in the
"I" world were to induce him now, in deference

to the wishes of Lord PALMERSTON, of the Emperor
NAPOLEON, of the North, of the South, of the
Opposition, or of the Government to withdraw his
motion without requiring a division—the position
in which he would stand would be nothing less than
simply ridiculous. It would be ridiculous, and yet
it would have about it, too, infallibly a spice of crimi••
nality. For, having once put the Question to the
House of Commons, as he has, Mr. ROEBUCK, as the

propounder of it, has at this moment devolving upon
him a heavy weight of responsibility. So far from
the altered position of the belligerents out there,
westwards, at the seat of war, so far from their al-
tered position, relatively to each other, having ren-
dered the putting of this vital and momentous
Question to the British House of Commons in any
way inopportune, it is precisely the very reverse.
Never yet has there come a moment, since
the commencement of the war, when an
independent member of the English House of Com-
mons could more opportunely, could so opportunely
put it to that House, Whether or not the Indepen-
dence of the Confederate States shall be recognised ?
By the answer accorded to that inquiry the
Gordian Knot may be cloven asunder. Its involu-
tions defy unravelling. Sooner or later it must
needs be severed. Whether shall this be by the
blood-dripping
blade of one or other of the two in-
furiated belligerents, or by the keen stroke of policy
(it matters little at whose instance) causing
at the same moment of time a remark-
able division of the House of Commons
and the virtual settlement, upon the opposite
shores of the Atlantic, of an otherwise inextricable
Difficulty ? Upon Mr. ROEBUCK'S firmness,
probably, there devolves at this moment the
solemn and weighty responsibility of pronouncing
the decision in this alternative. Will he pronounce
it— or, rather, by insisting upon carryieg his
motion to a division, will he enable the House of
Commons itself to pronounce it ?

The state of our relations with Japan have, as
might have been expected, been brought under the
consideration of :Parliament. The tragic events
which have lately occurred in that country must be
fresh in the recollection of our readers. It is not
very long since the ports of that peculiar and isolated
people were opened to English commerce, and our
merchants were congratulated on the important
extension of their Eastern trade. It is true that
the terms of the treaty which conferred these privi-
leges on the European trader were limited and
partial ; but it must be remembered that the very
sight of a foreigner was new to Japan, and we had
no right to be unreasonable in our expectations. For
a time we felicitated ourselves on having conferred
a mutual benefit on the English merchant and the
Japanese trader as well, in having opened the way
to progress and civilisation in that long-benighted
country. Our gratification proved, however, some-
what short-lived. The first thing that disturbed it
was an attack on the British Legation, evidently with
the object of taking the life of the Consul. In this
attempt the assassins were fortunately unsuccess •
ful, but they were only repulsed by fire-arms. Not
long after two marines on guard near the Legation
were fatally wounded, and in the month of
September, last year, occurred that unpar•
donable outrage for which the English Go-
vernment have, very properly, demanded
reparation. An English lady and some gentlemen,
residents in Japan, were riding along a high road,
which is one of those which it is expressly stipu-
lated in the treaty shall be free for the use of Eng-
lish subjects. They were unfortunate enough to
meet with a procession accompanying a Daimio or
great Japanese official from YeadOto Miako. They
got on the side of the road to allow it to pass, but
the opportunity for injuring the bated foreigner
was not to be loot. They were surrounded and
attacked by the retainers of a Japanese bearing the
dignity of Prince of SATSUMA. Unarmed and
defenceless as they were, their only
idternative was flight. Mr. RICHARDSON
fell covered with wounds, his companions
escaped with difficulty, and the lady reached the
nearest town, , terror-stricken and covered with
blood, to tell how the pleasant mornings ride had
been converted into a tragedy. Earl RUSSELL,
in defending the course pursued by the Government,
said very truly that no doubt many of the Japanese
objected to the permission accorded to foreigners to
take up their residence in Japan, and considered
that no such intruders should be suffered to remain
on the road during one of their grand official pro-
cessions. But the noble lord added that it was
impossible that we should accept such sentiments,
or even religious motives, as sufficient reason
excuseßoriitisli for the murder of unoffending
subjects. Reparation was very justly
demanded in each of these three cases. With regard
to the attack on the Legation the punishment of the
offenders was asked for; a pecuniary compensation
was demanded on behalf of the families of the mur-
dered marines; while in the case of Mr. RICHARD-
soN, our Admiral has been directed to obtain from
the Prince of SATSUMA the punishment of the
assassins. We do not see how less could have been
done. It would have been most unwise as well as
highly unjust to have suffered such offences
to pass without notice, unless we wished to see
the lives of every English man
and woman
in Japan fall a sacrifice to the frantic
ariaticism of the semi-barbarous population.
t by no means follows that the enforcement of our
demands by the presence of an armed force will oc-
people like the
In dealing with a
casion war.

Japanese, we must remember that anything like
hesitation or uncertainty is at once attributed by
them to fear. If they can be brought to realise the
stupendous strength of their debpised ally, they
will not only be more careful of the lives of the
British subjects, but considerably less likely to pro-
voke a war. It is mistaken lenity which for fear
of incurring hostilities between this country and any
other would adopt a timid and vacillating policy,
.n cases of real urgency. It has been truly observed
that weak persons do as much harm in the world
as wicked ones, and though England can hardly be
called weak in resources, yet her foreign policy has
roo often been of that character.. " Fais ce que

dolt, advienne que
pourra" should be the motto
tor nations as well as individuals : otherwise
' Fiat justitia rust velum. If it be true, as
Lord CARNARVON and Lord GREY asserted, that
the English merchants, traders, and residents in
Japan have been greatly to blame in irritating,
overreaching, and insulting the people, such
conduct should be inquired into and punished

with the same severity as we should

exact from the Japanese in similar caees. Inquiry
should especially be made into the story of the Eng•
iishman a ho trespat-sed on a portion of tha Tycoon's
dominions to shoot wild fowl, which were esteemed
sacred, and who shot the official who endeavoured
to stop him. In a case like this a severe penalty

should be inflicted on the offender, and the Japanese
should be made to feel that W 6 Will not tolerate
injustice or aggression on either side on any ground

whatever. But it is not the way to "tire peace or
respect for property to overlook such dire offences

as the attack on the Legation and the

assassination of Mr. RICHARDSON because Eng-

lishmen have in certain cases disregarded the law.
On the contrary, it will induce the reeidents to