The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 12, 1863,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TMES.—The proposed, purchase.. of the site and
buildings of last year's Exhibition on behalf of the
Government has already created so much attention,
and been made the subjtxt of such violent and per-
verse misrepresentation, that we think a consider-
able service may be rendered to the cause of truth
and justice by a fair and dispassionate statement of
the numerous transactions and the discordant views

and motives which have brought things to the pecu-
liar position in which they now stand. The surplus
attained by the Exhibition of 1851, amounting to
about £150,000, was invested by that Commission
in the purchase of the Kensington Gore estate, to be
held and disposed of by them for the purposes of
art and science. Upon a portion of that estate was
placed the iron shed which was originally built as a
receptacle for the undisposed of objects of the first
Exhibition. Oa one side of this unsightly, but

cheap and convenient structure, have risen, on the
same estate, the buildir.gs in which are contained
the Pictures, Museum, and Schools of the Depart-
ment of Science and Art. To the north-west of
these have been erected, on the same estate, the ar-
cades and conservatory of the Horticultural Gar-
dens; and south of those gardens lies the land on
which was erected the Exhibition Building of last

year, with the exception of the two annexes. In
the spring of last year it was thought proper that a
building should be provided for the reception of
the Natural History collections of the British Mu-
seum. "We have often explained in these columns
the necessity of such a step, and shown how grie-
vously the main objects of the Museum are defeated
by the manner in which its specimens are crowded
together or piled up in vaults, unseen, unknown,

and unregaracd. -Whatever may be the result of
the discussion of next Monday, we are convinced
that nothing could give so great an impulse to the
study of natural history as the exhibition in a suit-
able building, with proper amplitude, of the animal
and mineral kingdoms. The first struggle was to
retain these collections at Bloomsbury, but that

appears now to he given up, and the question has
narrowed itself to a choice of the place to which
these collections arc to be removed. Not only

had the Commissioners of 1851 lent 162 acres Of
their lend for the purposes of the Exhibition

of 1852 ; they were also bound to the pro-
moters of that Exhibition to leave the land free

'or the purpose of all future Exhibitions. It

was therefore not competent for them last year to

offer any portion of the 161 acres to the Govern-
ment for the reception of the Natural History col-
lections of the British Museum. Last year's pro-
posal was that Government should buy the five
acres comprised in the western annexe, and upon
them should erect a building for the reception of
the Natural History collections, the whole estimated
to cost about £700,000. The House of Commons
rejected this proposal, partly on the ground of the
uncertainty of expense, and partly, it may be
presumed, because even the large sum so demanded
would not supply the wants of the Government.
Since then those wants have been more carefully
examined. We require at once a large acreage for
the Natural History collections and for many other
purposes. The Patent Museum, which has a fund
of £130,000 for the purposes of building, is incon-
veniently crowded into a portion of the iron shed
irreverently styled the " Brompton Boilers." The
most interesting relics, which future generations
will make pilgrimages to see, are huddled together
in a most discreditable manner. The first steam-

engine and the first locomotive are treated with as
little respect as if they really were what they
appear—nothing but ricketty frames of rusty iron.
The Geological Museum has outgrown its elegant
residence in Jermyn-street, and must either be ex-
tended by buying or leasing, at the public expense,
some of the most valuable houses in London, with
one front in Jermyn-street and the other in Picca-
dilly, or find a resting place elsewhere. The
National Portrait Gallery, the Vernon pictures in
the South Kensington Museum, and the magnifi-
cent collection of prints hid away in the British
Museum, all need exhibition. These, omitting many
minor particulars, are our immediate and pressing
wants. The question is, how shall we supply them?
The Commissioners of 1851 have undertaken to
answer this question. As last year's Exhibition
left no surplus, the Commissioners of 1851 re-
ceived back the land which they had lent dis-
charged of the covenant to preserve it for
the purposes of future Exhibitions, and covered
with the building, which the contractors who
had erected it were bound, upon receiving
notice, to take away. The land of the Commis-
sioners on which the Exhibition building stands
is, estimated to be worth at least £15,000 per
acre. This land they offer to the Government for
0,1300 per acre. That is, they offer for £lOO,OOO
that which is now worth £250,000, annexing to
their offer only the condition that the land should
be applied for purposescontemplated in their charter
—that is, for purpose of science and art. The 161
acres may be obtained by the public for the same
sum as two acres contiguous to the British Museum.
The motives by which the Commissioners are actu-
ated are plain enough. They have the alternative
of disposing of their estate to the Government for
the purposes of science or art or of realising the
property, and thus possessing themselves of half a
million of money, in the disposal of which they
would doubtless find more difficulty than a Chan-

cellor of the Exchequer does in the disposal of his
surplus. On the other hand, the object of their
charter is accomplished if they can dispose of their
land so as to promote the interest of art and science,
however much below its value that land may be
sold. They naturally think that nothing can be
done more suitable to the purpose of their incorpora-
tion than to gather in one spot as many collections
as possible illustrating the works of nature and of
man, to rescue from oblivion and decay so many
valuable and beautiful objects, and to meet for a
time at least the perpetual demand for further space.
The Exhibition Building is the property of the con-
tractors who built it, but for the purposes of valua-
ble ownership it can only be considered as a mass
of brick, wood, iron, and glass. They must remove
it if required, and, as it must be taken to pieces in
order to be removed, the workmanship goes for
nothing as an element of value. The contractors
are to receive £BO,OOO, and this sum represents, we
believe, very accurately the value of the materials
over and above the expense of pulling them down
and taking them away. The cause of the cheapness
of this offer is not, as has been said, the worthless-
ness of the buildings, but the fact that they, exist,
only. .on _sufferance.
,There are, besides, refresh-
ment-rooms, erected by the Commissioners on the
north side of the Exhibition, which are to be sold
for £20,000. Thus, by a curious conjuncture of
circumstances, the public are offered for £200,000
land which could be sold immediately for £250,000,
and buildings the actual cost of the erection of
which only last year- was £250,000 more. But it
would be ridicfiloUs to' assert that the Exhibition
Buildings would in their present condition be fit
for the purposes which we have mentioned. The
flooring, as everybody knows, is temporary; and the
glass roof must be replaced by something more sub-
sointial. The glass domes also, generally and justly
condemns d by public taste, can hardly be allowed
to remain as they are at present. The brickwork is,
we believe, thoroughly solid and substantial. After
:he flooring and roof have been renewed it will be
necessary to divide the building by interior walls,
so as to separate one department from another.
When this has been done something will be de-
manded to relieve the extreme plainness of a build-
ing neither ill-planned nor ill-proportioned within,
but totally void of the least semblance of ornament.
For these purposes £284,000 will be required. So
that we have the offer, if we please, of entering into
possession—and that in a very short time—of 16i
acres, covered with buildings adapted to our wants,
for a sum under half a million, or £200,000 less
than we were asked to pay last year for five conti-
guous acres and the buildings upon them. This is
the question which the House of Commons will have
to decide on Monday. We have taken some trouble
to ascertain the facts of this rather complicated case,
and we believe they may be thoroughly relied on.
We cannot doubt that the proposal i 3 eminently
economical. If it is rejected, it must be on the ground
of taste—a subject to which argument is prover-
bially inapplicable. We only hope that it will not
be rejected under the idea that the expenditure can
be saved, and that no alternative proposition need
be contemplated. If we do not provide for our col-
lections thue, we must seek out some other scheme,
unless we mean to sacrifice the jewel to the casket.
We do not press the proposition of the Government
on the acceptance of the public; we only say that
those-who reject it should be prepared, among other
reasons for its rejection, to prove that they can offer
us something better.
DAILY NEWS,—The wretched faction which
usurps the place of statesmen at Berlin may learn,
from what took place last night in the House of
Lords, that their conduct is as much despised and
deprecated by the great Conservative party in this
country as it is by the advocates of those liberal and
progressive principles of which they in Prussia can-
not bear the mention. The Prussian people also
will observe that the men they permit to govern
them are degrading their country abroad as

thoroughly as they are enslaving it at home. The
observations which the Earl of Carnarvon made
on the behaviour of M. de Bismark and his
colleagues with respect to their Convention with
Russia, express with accuracy what English-
men of all classes and all parties say and feel.
It plainly appears from the explanations given to
our Minister at St. Petersburg, and from all we
know of the state of things in Prussian-Poland,
that the Convention with Russia was neither an
act of good neighbourship required by a powerful
ally, nor a necessary measure of self-defence, but
simply the expression in its foreign policy of that
blind and fanatical fear and hatred of free institu-
tions which constitutes the whole statesmanship of
the Prussian Government, and which at home is
seen in the suppression of the Parliament and the
press, and even of the right of petition. Lord Car-
narvon observed that the only explanation of the
origin of this Convention was a jealousy or fear of
the establishment in Poland of some Government
constructed on free principles with a liberal consti-
tution ; and he most truly remarked that " this con-
ductis alienating from Prussia the sympathy of
those nations which acted with her in former times,
and carries her back in her policy not by years, but
by generations." But if the policy of the Conven-
tion was despotic, the low cunning, the conceal-
ment, and prevarication with which its execution
has been attended is still more despicable. Truth
and frankness constitute the one virtue of which
absolute governments are capable, but to neither of
these has M. de Bismark the prudence, much less
the grace, to aspire. The Prussian Minister being
asked, on behalf of the Queen's Government, for
information on the subject, pretended to excuse
himself by the unwillingness of Russia ; but the
Russian Government has assured us that it had no
objection to show the .doeuinesit apart from the
strong wish of Prussia. Next, M. de Bismark pre-
tended, and for a moment induced our Government
to believe, that the Convention had become a dead
letter; but after this it was treated as a living
reality in the Prussian Chamber; and the Queen's
representative sent word home that it was still sub-
sisting. In February M. de Bismark produced and
read to our Minister at Berlin a paper purporting
to be the Convention, which subsequently turned
out to be nothing but a draft. At a subsequent in-
terview the Convention itself was read, as was again
believed. But here-again equivocation and conceal-
ment were resorted to, for, as was discovered at St.
Petersburg, there existed a " secret article," of
which no hint had been given by the Prussian
Minister. As Earl Russell was compelled to ob-
serve, " there has been every kind of contradiction
and concealment with regard to this Convention."
A Government capable of such conduct destroys
that confidence which is of the essence of friend-
ship, and Prussia is at this moment at once the
most exposed and the most isolated State in
Europe.
HERALD.--According to the latest accounts
Vicksburg had not fallen. The attempt to storm
had signally failed, and the coup de main was to
be converted into a regular siege. If the town is as
well fortified and provisioned as it is said to be, the
Confederates ought to have ample time to relieve
it and drive Grant's army once more to its gun
boats. The Federal army is said to number 60,000
men, and reinforcements are reported to be con-
stantly arriving. The Confederate garrison is at
the outside 15,000 strong. There are long lines to
defend, and many batteries to man ; there is an
active and enterprising enemy to watch. Still
Vicksburg was not invested on the Warrenton side.
The assailants were evidently not inclined to throw
out their left at too great a distance from the
friendly stream of the Yazoo. And if it be true that
Johnstone had already collected 15,000 men near
Jackson, and that Confederate forces were marching
from all quarters to his aid, we are likely very soon
to; hear that the siege has been raised. What is to
be feared is that reinforcements wiil not be forth-
coming. Nothing but the absolute want of men can
justify the smallness of the force with which the
defence of the state of Mississippi has been con-
ducted. General Grant's army was, no doubt,
overwhelming in point of numbers. But this must
have been perfectly well known to the Confede-
rate Government ; and we are rather inclined to
attribute the numerical inferiority of the Confede-
rates at Vicksburg to the urgent needs of their
position in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Virginia
than to want of foresight. General Johnstone is
stated to heve promised 100,000 men within a
certain interval. Half that number will drive every
Federal soldier out of Mississippi ; and we know no
quarter in which a decisive success would be of
more vital importance to the South than at Vicks-
burg. Another fortress might rise up in the course
of a few months, rivalling Vicksburg in its natural
strength. But it is not to be doubted that the
capture of this town, which President Davis has
d" tinctly pointed to as the key to the defence of
t ceSouth-West, would be a tremendous triumph to
t e as ar party in the North, and would more than
compensate President Lincoln for his ill success on
the Rappahannock. We await the result with some
confidence. Things look well for the South. The
great hope of the Fed erals evidently lay in the
suddenness and rapidity of their blows, and this
hope has failed them, General Johnstone is not the
man to give them another chance.
POST.— As the debate upon fortifications is very
shortly to be resumed, any fresh matter that would
tend towards the more complete elucidation of the
problem of " S
Ships v. Forts" would be acceptable.
With this object in view we have examined the
accounts received on the arrival of each fresh mail
from America, but have been unable to discover
anyindications of a renewal of the threatened attack
upon Charleston being likely to take place. And
from the length of time that has now elapsed since
the first announcement by the New York journals
of the intended repetition of Admiral Dupont's ex-
periments, we may consider this prospect at an end,
or only to be placed on the same list as the other
aggressive movements announced for the purpose
of concealing Federal disasters. The minds of the
most experienced
.tacticians have long ago been
satisfied that it is impossible for any fleet of ships,
without the co-operation of an army, to effect the
reduction of a properly defended seaport ; and as
the only ground upon which it was attempted to
reopen an argument upon this well-established point
was based upon the alleged superiority of attack
afforded by Captain Ericsson's turret ships, we are
compelled, under these circumstances, to fall back
upon our :past experiences of the performances of
these vessels in order to show how little reason
there is for assuming that any alteration or delay
ought to take place in carrying out the system of
defence laid down for the protection of our dockyards.
In the first place it will be necessary to separate
two points which many persons are apt to confuse.
First, the application of steam power to ships has
enabled vessels to run the gauntlet of the guns of
a fort with more or less impunity.. But the ex-
pectations that had been formed, in the second
place, upon iron plating have not been altogether
attended with the results which were anticipated.
Vessels are not enabled to batter down the fortifi-
cations which they can so easily run past in conse-
quence of being armour-plated. Captain Ericsson
has clearly failed to establish the claim of invul-
nerability for his iron-clad vessels, and the asser-
tion that no lives were lost on board of them during
the period of their recent engagements was a state-
ment furnished from a Federal source of which
we have no positive means of ascertaining the
truth, and can only put down the alleged
immunity of life upon that occasion as something
marvellous considering the damage which was in-
flicted upon these vessels, the sides of which, it was
admitted in many instances, were pierced through
and through by the steel-headed bolts and other
projectiles launched at them. The loss of life which
may or may not have taken place on board these
vessels does not, however, affect the main point at
issue, which rests upon the acknowledged fact of
these vessels having been withdrawn from the
attack in a sorely discomfited state after an engage-
ment which lasted only 30 minutes. Let us com-
pare for a moment this account with what we know
of the performances of wooden ships. The Aga-
memnon at Sebastopol remained at anchor exposed
to the fire of Fort Constantine for four hours, and
the damage to the fortifications of Sebastopol by the
combined fleets was far greater than the damage
inflicted by the American iron-clads on the defences
of Charleston. It must not be supposed that, in
citing this particular case, it is our intention to assert
that wood is a substance better able to withstand
the effect of shot than iron. The failure of Capt.
Ericsson's vessels, when brought to the test at the
late bombardment, was chiefly owing to the mis-
taken principle of their being armed with few guns
for the business they had in hand, and not to the
material of which they were composed The evi-
dence given by Capt. Hewlett before the commis-
sioners appointed to consider the defences of the
United Kingdom on the subject is worthy of notice.
He was asked if he would prefer to man 20 guns
with fully trained crews, or 40 guns with half the
number of willing but untried men. His reply was
in favour of having the greater number of guns.
The fault of overcrowding small vessels with nine
and twelve pounder mous was found in the last
'American war to have been a great blunder, but to

run into the opposite extreme of reducing the arma-
ment of large vessels to only two or three monster
guns will, we feel assured, turn out to be a still
greater mistake. It having been proved that any
vessel propelled by steam, and more especially if
plated with iron, can with impunity run past a
battery,
circumstances, appears the most natural and ad-
the system of defence which, under these
visable to adopt is that of making the channel
through which the vessel has to run the gauntlet as
long as possible, with the object of keeping the
vessel exposed so much longer to a destructive fire.
To accomplish this it is necessary to have an ex-
tended system of advanced works covering the ap-
proaches of an exposed harbour like Portsmouth.

If with what we now know of ciao capabilities of
attack posessed by armour-plated steam-vessels, we
were going to construct an entirely new dockyard,
it is only reasonable to conclude that we should
select a site as much inland as possible. Ports-
mouth, however, is our chief arsenal. Immense
sums of money have been expended upon the place,
and it is our duty, therefore, to do the best we can
to make it secure. The advantages of increasing
the capabilities of Chatham with a view towards
lessening the importance of Portsmouth is a matter
also worthy of the highest consideration. When
the works are completed at Portland we shall be in
the possession of a far more commanding position
in the Channel for the location of a fleet than any
point which we possess at the present, and with the
increased advantage of having no building yards
and other establishments that require protection.
Portland is essentially fitted to become a war port.
Naval stores of every description can be accumu-
lated in an impregnable fortress, and supplied to
ships with the greatest facility by means of a rail-
way communication from the crest of the hill to a
fort at the extremity of the breakwater. If the
advice of an old and experienced officer of engineers
had been followed in the Crimea, we might at once
have occupied ground which it required afterwards
Much blood and treasure to secure. Let us profit
by past experience, and not neglect to take advan-
tage of a point situated in the centre of the only
line of attack upon which an enemy could have any
reasonable hope of obtaining success. We can
imagine the President of the Southern Confederacy,
or the National Government of Warsaw, feeling
relieved when their generals succeed in placing
their-foes upon the edge of a shallow river, and can
understand how they must envy the natural posi-
tion of defence of which we, in our insular position,
are in possession •, but that is no reason for our
neglectine to take such measures as will prevent
the lessons of our past history being repeated in
the present c: ay.

The Prince of Wales at Merchant Taylors'

Hall.

The grand banquet of the 11th June, on the ex-
amination of the school by the President and Fel-
lows of St. John's College, Oxford, is regarded as
the chief annual event in the register of the Mer-

chant Taylors' Company ; and it is, besides, an
occasion of marked interest in civic annals. This

year the great festival of the livery of Merchant
Taylors has derived additional public interest from
the fact of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
being present as the chief guest. It is generally
known that, as the great Whig company is that of
the Fishmongers, so the Merchant Taylors' enjoys
a reputation for old-fashioned Toryism ; but a more
valid appeal to the Royal sympathy and regard
would be, that the excellent school maintained by
the company sends many scholars to Oxford. The
occasion of the Prince's visit was the presentation
to his Royal Highness of the.freedom of, the guild ;
and this ceremony took place in the Picture Gal-
lery overlooking the ancient hall in Threadneedle-

street.
The Prince of Wales arrived at half-past six, and
was received at the entrance by Mr. T. B. Spence

(the master), Messrs. Alfred S. Pigeon, Thomas B.
Pugh, Chas. Rickards, and Richard B. Boyman (the
wardens), and Mr. Samuel Fisher (the clerk to the
company), and conducted along the corridor and up
the staircase to the Picture Gallery, which over-

looks the ancient hall, where he was received by a
distinguished body of honorary members of the
company, by the Court of Assistants, &c.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge was
present at the ceremony of presenting the freedom.
The Prince of Wales was accompanied by the Earl
of Mount Edgecumbe, Major-General Knollys, and
Col. Keppel ; the Duke of Cambridge was accom-
panied by Col. Tyrwhitt.
Mr. FISHER the clerk, proceeded to read the re-
solution of the Court of the 22d December last, con-
ferring the honorary freedom of the company upon
his Royal Highness; after which the clerk admi-
nistered the oath in the customary form, much of
whose meaning is obsolete; calling on the Prince
to swear fealty to our Sovereign Lady Queen Vic-
toria, and further adjuring him to be good and true
unto the Merchant Taylors of the fraternity of St.
John the Baptist, in the City of London, to be obei-
sant to the wardens, and not to conceal any foreigner
using the handicraft of tailory or merchandise,
neither to entice nor withdraw any man's appren.
tice nor covenant servant till reasonable departing
may be made. These quaint obligations having
been duly subscribed by the Prince of Wales, whose
signature was added to an illustrious list of royal
names, including that of his revered father, his
Royal Highness was presented by the Master with
a magnificent casket in ebony and gold, with the
arms of the company on the top and the Prince's
on each side, containing a copy of the resolutions
beautifully illuminated upon vellum, and was ad-
dressed as follows :
" May it please your Royal Highness—As Mas-
ter of the Merchant Taylors' Company, it is my
pleasing duty and high privilege to present to your
Royal Highness the honorary freedom of the ancient
corporation, and to express our dutiful acknowledg-
ments for the distinguished honour which your
Royal Highness has conferred upon the company by
becoming one of its members. Your Royal High-
ness will pardon me for reminding you that from a
very early period this company has been honoured
with royal patronages. King Edward I. granted a
license which recognised its existence as a guild.
King Edward 111. granted its first charter, and tes-
tified his regard for the company by becoming the
first of its royal members. His grandson, and
successor, King Richard 11., and all the Sove-
reigns of the houses of Lancaster and York
(excepting Edward V.) became honorary free-
men of the company. They also con-
firmed its charter and extended its privileges.
King Henry VII. re-incorporated the company
under its present title, and presented the new char-
ter to the master and wardens from the throne. He
afterwards conferred upon them the great honour of
presiding as master at a festival held in their hall.
At a subsequent date King James I. was entertained
by this company on his accession to the English
throne, and his Majesty's two sons, Henry Prince of
Wales, and Charles Duke of York, afterwards King
Charles 1., were enrolled as honorary members ;
and it may be interesting to your Royal High-
ness to be informed that the National Anthem was
composed expressly for the occasion, and performed
for the first time in Merchant Taylors' Hall. King
James 11, and Prince George of Denmark were also
honorary members of this ancient fraternity. At a
much more recent date the company had the privi-
lege of admitting to its honorary freedom their
Royal Highnesses the late Dukes of York and
Cambridge, and the great captain the illustrious
resence of
on that occasion was honoured with the p
father his Royal
your Royal Highness's grand
left
t At a still later
Duke of Wellington ; and the entertainment given
Highness the late Duke of Ken .
to honorary freedom on
being permitted to confer i
' beloved and lamented father,
your Royal Highness s
late Pri onsort, whose
his Royal Highness the
every way the wel-
period the company had the distinguished honour of
fare of his adopted country call forth the warmest
gratitude—whose
thoughtful and earnest words,
precedents on • record, and spo a deep and
lasting
untkireinn
impression, and whose memory will ever
ar tni
do ns to pro
elsewhere,m o e
have
na
ve
live enshrined in the hearts of a grateful nation.
influ-
enced by the feelings expressed in the resolution
untiring
eerxee
,whlch h4O just been read, the Master,
With these