The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-29 00:00:00

pendent member, he puts himself in the position of a
minority in the House, intriguing with a foreign Govern-
ment for the purpose of forcing the hand of the English
Ministry. From either course an honourable man would in
• rdinary cases shrink; and in pursuing a contrary line Mr.
Roebuck does not consult his reputation. We are not
alone in stigmatising these officious interferences with the
natural channels of diplomacy as a piece of impertinence
to the nation on the part of the principal offenders. If the
French Emperor inquires of the first Englishmen he meets
what position Mr. Roebuck holds in the estimation of the
world, he will not thank the self-accredited ambassador who
has presented himself at the French palace. The answer
would be, that Mr. Roebuck is a gentleman who, in the last
ten years, has succeeded in winning the reverse of public
confidence and esteem ; that his violent displays in Parlia-
ment, or on the more congenial stage of a town hustings,
excite the contempt of quiet and educated politicians; that,
at best, his highest ambition seems to be to represent the
passions of a by no means exalted class of the public ; and
that his recent intemperance of language towards the Ame-
rican race has made him the last man in Europe who can
come forward with words of peace and dignified conciliation.

WEEKLY REGISTER.—The news from France is not
without serious significance. The Emperor has completely
remodelled his Cabinet—all the Ministers being changed,
with one exception. M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, alone retains his post. This is important.
[What possibly can our contemporary mean I M. Drouyn
de Lhuys alone retaining his post in the Imperial Cabinet I
When M. Achille Fould, as Minister of Finance, Marshal
Randon, as Minister of War, and M. de Chausseloup
Labat, as Minister of Marine, all remain as they were in the
French Government I] Next to the importance of retain-
ing M. Drouyn de Lhuys in the Foreign Office is that of
removing Count Persigny from the French Home Office.
Of the devotion of that gentleman to the Emperor there can
be no doubt. If it be true that adversity is the touchstone of
fidelity—that in re ineerta amieus certus cernitur—M. de
Persigny has given incontestableproofs of his attachment to
the Emperor Napoleon. But the most devoted friends may
become unconsciously a man's worst enemies. Indiscreet
and excessive zeal may do more harm to those whom we
mean to serve than even overt hostility. So it has been
with Count Persigny. In his zeal to serve the Emperor
and establish the Napoleon dynasty, he conceived a mor-
bid apprehension of the influence of the press and of the
liberal institutions— such as they are—which his master
has given to France, and has waged a fierce war upon
them. The la'e elections developed this monomania to
such an extent that it became positively dangerous to the
throne which M. Persigny desired to consolidate to allow
him to remain in the Ministry. Viscount De la Guerron-
nier's paper, La trance—which was strongly opposed to M.
de Persigny's violent proceedings, and was menaced with
suppression a fortnight ago by that Minister—expresses its
entire satisfaction with the Ministerial changes. It says :
—ln our opinion these Ministerial changes have but one
signification. They mean—Maintenance of the liberal con-
cession made with so much foresight by the empire. They
also mean—Calm for the public mind after the somewhat
lively emotions caused by the recent elections, and an ap-
peal to conciliation in the name of the tutelary guarantees
of right and respect for the law. As we have good grounds
for believing that the France draws its inspirations from a
high source, and that its opposition to the late Minister of
the Interior was sanctioned if not prompted by mere influ-
ential persons than even Count Persigny then was,—we
attach to its words more weight than they seem entitled to.

EXAMINER.—Calcutta is admitted on all sides not to be
the most fitting locality for the seat of government, as
British India now is. From a paltry Indian village it has
risen to be a city with half a million of inhabitants, and as
long as our territory was confined to three adjacent pro-
vinces, it became naturally, and not very inconveniently,
the capital. But the state of things is now wholly altered.
We are virtually lords of all India, and Calcutta is in a re-
mote corner of an empire which stretches for 15 degrees of
latitude north of it and 10 degrees south of it, to say nothing
of 20 degrees of longitude west of it. When it first became
the capital, our rule extended over a population not exceed-
ing 25 millions of people, the great mass of which consisted
of a single nationality, speaking one language. Our present
subjects are at least six-fold that number, and consist of a
score of nations, speaking distinct tongues. But indepen-
dent of its want of central position, Calcutta has local dis-
advantages peculiar to itself. It lies in the delta of a great
river, at nearly the level of the sea, without a mountain
range or even a hill-range within 300 miles of it. Its situa-
tion is almost on the very tropic.' Thus it has hot winds
for three months, when the thermometer is above 100
degrees, and continuous rains for four months with swelter-
ing heat ; while its winter, always too warm for fires, barely
lasts four months. Its mosquitoes in every season are nu-
merous and glutinous. Upon the whole, its locality neces-
sarily makes it the least healthy of all the great towns in
India, and certainly the least congenial to the European
constitution. It cannot be even considered especially
favourable to that of its own native inhabitants ; for it is
not to be forgotten, that in one of the provinces
near to it, and on the same level, sprung -up
the fatal malady which has nearly swept over the
whole earth, and which we call the Asiatic, but which
would be more correctly designated the Bengal cholera,
But supposing that we abandon Calcutta as the seat of
government, and leave it what it must always continue to
be, the great commercial capital of Eastern Hindostan,
where are we to find a locality more central, convenient,
and healthy ? Some speculators have fancied that they dis-
cover it in the elevated cold plateau of the Himalay moun-
tains. Such a position would, in point of centrality, be just
as advantageous as Calcutta itself, besides that although
genial to the European it would be uncongenial to the In-
dian constitution—and tha great mass of the population of
any Indian capital must always consist of the inhabitants
of the hot plains. The mountain locality, therefore, must be
given up at once, as wholly unsuitable. Our predecessors,
the Mahomedans, had their capitals at Delhi, Agra, and
Lahore; but this arose from an accident similar to that
which made ourselves select Calcutta, Their dominion was
for a long time confined to the provinces adjacent to these
places, and for a British capital they are wholly unsuited.
Indeed, no part of the great, fertile, and populous valley of
the Ganges is suited for a seat of government, notwith-
standing its four months' winter equal to that of Italy, for
the restgof the year is divided between scorching winds and
drenching rains. The Governor-General runs away from
Calcutta whenever he can, making an imperfect and emas-
culated government both where he is and where :he is not.
We venture to point at the elevated table-land about
Poonah as the most convenient site for a new Indian seat
of government. The plateau is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet
about the sea level, and consequently with a diminution of
temperature by from eight to ten degrees lower then on the
plains. Such a climate combines, as far as practicable, the
conditions requisite for both the European and the Indian
constitutions. With the help of railways and telegraphs,
the situation seems sufficiently central for the purposes of
administration. Such a capital would have the advantage
of being much nearer to England by land than Calcutta,
and greatly nearer by sea. Poonah is, moreover, not fur-
ther from Bombay than Hastings is from London, and
Bombay is the commercial capital of western—indeed it
may now be said of all India, for its trade already exceeds
that of Calcutta. The neigh!), urhood of such a place will
be a great advantage both to governors and governed, for
it will supply what no other site of a new capital can pos-
sess, the benefit of a public opinion, indispensable to the
healthy action of every British administratior,