The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-25 00:00:00

as good, sound, instantly recognisable reasons, this
Christmas time, for elevating, enlarging, intensify-
ing the national sense of gratitude to HEAVEN.
With all the good intentions in the world, and
with all the laudable efforts that may have been
made towards carrying them into effect—it can
hardly be said that, in regard to any one of these
four conspicuous boons, we can, as a People, trace
very much of them (that is, in their character as
realised advantages) to ourselves, or in other
words, to our endeavours. To la certain extent,
no doubt, but, it should be said, to a very
moderate extent, indeed, in each of these
four instances, the boons thus beneficently vouch-
safed to us simultaneously tend to the verification
of the good old Gallic axiom, Aide toi, et Dieu
t'aidera. In this sense the crops area benignant
result of our agricultural industry and enterprise.
The moderation of the distress in Lancashire is in
some measure consequent upon our earnest attempt
to mitigate the horrors of it—when at its worst.
The preservation of peace, moreover, between
ourselves and the rest of the European family
of nations, we can regard with all the more satisfac-
tion, from a consciousness that we at least have
the past twelve
done nothing whatever during
months towards the imperilling of it. Finally, in
reference to the happily dwindled mortality of our
own vast city, hero, peopled by three million souls,
we have the consolation of knowing that a rational
system of sanitary improvements has at
length, at any rate, been very earnestly com-
menced, and is now, in point of fact, being
most actively and energetically carried out.
Here, however, we are again reminded by the very
words in which these reflections naturally find
utterance, that while Man sows the seed, GOD
gives the fruition. That, in other words, the be-
nignant results at this season forcing themselves
upon our recognition, are altogether disproportioned
to our own stammering, feeble, often misguided en-
deavours. In regard, for example, to the extraordi-
nary diminution of late noticeable in the general
mortality in the metropolis, it is impossible not to
have very vividly indeed in our recollection, while
observing it, while commenting upon it, the
consideration that our sanitary precautions,
though now spreading out before us in
perspective upon a scale most comprehensive,
and according to a *system thoroughly well
organised, has yet, as already remarked, up to the
present moment, been merely commenced. When
the Thames Embankment has been completed, that
Embankment merely the first few piles of which
have as yet been driven into the bed of the river,
when the Main Drainage system, slowly creeping
its way under our roaring thoroughfares, shall
have been not merely completed, so far as the
fabrication of those gigantic subterranean channels
is concerned, but shall have come to be in actual
operation as a system, purifying the water
of the Thames and the very atmosphere breathed by
the London population—then, but hardly until then,
can we begin to believe that we have ourselves done
anything appreciable towards the possible diminu-
tion of the mortality in London by means of vast and
practical sanitary improvements. As to the mainte-
nance by European peace, again, during 1863, while
we have certainly given evidence of our strenuous
solicitude for it by our almost unparalleled conces-
sion of thelonian archiplago to the again revolu-
tionized, and, as we may even call it, reconstitu-
tionalized, kingdom of Greece—we have very
recently, on the other hand, done much towards
jeopardizing that Europeon peace in the future, in
this next and now fast approaching year of grace
1864, by our isolated policy as discourteously
expressed under the hand of the Foreign Secre-
tary, in the rejection (the solitary rejection by Eng-
land) of NAPOLEON'S project of a Congress. As to
the mitigation of the sufferings of the manufactur-
ing population of the eortb, but more particularly
in the county palatine of Lancaster, it is almost
needless to say in written and printed words, the
fact is in itself so very obvious, that it is altogether
out of proportion to the efforts, generous though
those efforts have undoubtedly been, the strenuou,
and long sustained efforts that have been made with
a view to their diminution. While, therefore, in
regard to all of these four great boons we have
enumerated, the utmost we can say of ourselves as a
nation is that we have been at any rate not alto-
gether negligent—the results are such, in regard to
each of them, they are, in a word, results so abound-
ing its their beneficence, that the mere thought of
them at this Christmas time is at once suggestive
of, instantly necessitates, so to speak, more than
ever vividly, this profound sense of national gra-
titude to Divine Providence'

It is always interesting to notice the reception
accorded to those who have returned from foreign
lands, where they have rendered important services
to the cause of science and done credit to their
country. Captain SPEKE deserves well of all who
at all appreciate the great benefits he has conferred
on the community, and even those who may not
possess sufficient discernment to recognise to its full
extent the nature of the discovery just made, can
readily give their testimony and accord their ap-
proval to the merits of the man who has toiled and
striven so strenuously to do honour to their country
and associate the name of England with one of
those mighty discoveries which must remain as
landmarks in the history of nations, and eras in the
achievements of men until the last syllable of re-
corded time." Captain SPEKE commenced by
stating that he was not unmindful of those who had
been before him. He also spoke strongly in favour
of the project ho has in view, which is no less than
the "regeneration of Africa." Certainly, one who
has penetrated so far into its interior has a pre-
eminent right to give his opinion, and it may be
said of him without exaggeration, that he speaks
:What he does know, and testifies of what he has
ee°. It is most gratifying to read of Captain
S
l'tl(VE cheering •
view of the prospects of a place
long
I et,
utafidered as almost hopeless, and it is
amazing
:.sefiect that he has ample opportunity of forming
IS
°Pinion and can, therefore, be relied on
by the most titil '
prone as a safe guide, and regarded
by the moat scsDu
sal as a trustworthy informant.
On the Slave-trade Captain SPEKE comes out mos+
forcibly, and douistls„ his earnest and energetic
langa3ge will gladden the minds of many who are
lamenting the prevalence Of that iniquitous traffic,
but are powerless to do ttub,L
' 'ging in the cause of
its extinction.
Many plena
were sketched by
the Captain, in his able address'
-
ss-il,. ea aro draws
on. One
in a masterly wsy'y
and can hardly ss'
s -t of SHCCESS
l
if only carried out with zeal and &terns-nation. '
of these is to send men with authorisation from G
vernment to trade with the Kings, and thus
put it
stop to the vile system of is sow
"traders'' which
in vogue, and which causes the greatest evils, and is
prolific in nurturing the " diabolical system of the
slave trade," as Captain SK emphatically styles
it. When a man so experienced in the locality as
this speaker declares that "we are
paying thousands
upon thousands in a fruitless manner in our
efforts
to stop the slave trade" in Africa, it is high time
that we take the alarm and set to work in real ear
nest, and with right good will to rectify errors that
are so productive of mischief, and to remedy defects
in a system that bears reference to a subject which
is one of the ',most vital that can affect humanity.
If Captain SPEKE can show us how to combat suc-