The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The friends of Sir James Hudson, with
a natural anxiety that the services of so eminent a
public man, though lost to us in the position in
which he could render the greatest advantage to us
and the greatest honour to himself, should not be
wholly withdrawn from the public, have, we are
told, entertained the idea of bringing him forward
as a candidate for a seat in the House of Commons.
We are not sanguine as to the fraiccess of Sir James
Hudson in such a career. A life spent in the toils
of the Chancellery is but a bad preparation for the
conflicts of a popular Assembly, and few men
have attained success in the House of Commons
who have entered it in the decline of life. The
very idea, however, of such a thing reminds us
that it is time our countrymen should know what
manner of man Sir James Hudson is, and what are
the circumstances which have occasioned his loss to
England and to Italy. We are not in the habit of
looking to our diplomatic service as one of those
institutions of which Englishmen have any parti-
cular reason to be proud. It often happens that
when an unseen emergency arises at a foreign
Court our diplomatic representative proves him-
self unfit to meet it, and we have not un-
frequently invited comparisons between our own
State papers and those of foreign countries by
no means to the advantage of England. It is
only the barest justice to Sir James Hudson to
say that during a service extending now over
a period of nearly 30 years he has acted in different
diplomatic capacities with great energy, ability,
and success, and in a manner exceedingly conducive
to the interests of this country. We will confine
our attention to the last two missions which he has
filled. In Brazil he succeeded in putting an end to
the slave trade, and thus not only greatty promoted
the cause of humanity, for which England has made
so many sacrifices, but, by shutting up one of the
principal marts for human flesh, reduced the
blockade of the African coast and the labours of our
squadron within much more manageable dimen-
sions. If another diplomatist were to arise who
would do us the same good office at the
Court of Spain, he would occasion a considerable
relief to our finances and a very grateful diminu-
tion of the most unhealthy and dietastefal duty
which the English navy is called upon to perform.
In 18M Sir James Hudson was sent to the Court of
Turin, and the object or his mission was communi-
cated to him by Lord Palmerston in these memorable
words :—" You have been so successful in liberating
black bodies that I send you now to liberate white
minds." The task which devolved on Sir James
Hudson was in all respects a most important one.
Shortly before his arrival at Turin the liberties of
France were overwhelmed by a sudden blow, from
which they have never since recovered. The reaction
against the excesses of 1848 was general and de-
cisive all over Europe. The Emperor Nicholas
was at the very summit of his grandeur and in.
fluence, and freedom of speech, printing, and
action was tolerated nowhere in Europe be-
yond the limits of the British Isles, the Repub•
lie of Switzerland, and the little monarchy
of Belgium. The duty which Sir James Hudson
undertook was to watch over the movement which
was destined to rescue Italy from the crimes and
miseries of nearly 400 years, and to restore her to
her legitimate place in the first ranks of European
civilisation. Sir James Hudson had the sagacity to
see the real importance of the small kingdom of
Piedmont. He established a personal friendship
with the King which, free from servility on the one
side or undue assumption on the other, has been
highly honourable to both, and of the greatest ad-
vantage to Piedmont, to Italy, and to England. He
recognised in Count Cavour the man whose talents
and energies—nay, perhaps, whose very faults—
eminently fitted him to work out the regeneration
of Italy ; and, having found his man, Sir James
Hudson gave him all the assistance which his posi-
tion as the representative, and his experience as the
citizen, of a free country enabled him to give, and
which his hearty goodwill to the cause of Italian
independence prompted him to give to the utmost.
It is the nature of services rendered by persons act-
ing in a diplomatic capacity to the nation at the
Court of which they reside never to be fully known
or completely understood. But the instinct of Italy
has truly divined that Sir James Hueson has been
one of the most efficient causes of that " good
estate," as Rienzi would have called it, which she
has at present attaiued. Since the premature death
of Count Cavour the presence at the Court of Turin
of a person notoriously the partner of his plans and
the depositary of his secrets has been of inestimable
value. We know not why we should confine our-
selves to the past tense. Unhappily the state of
Italy is not yet so sure or so tranquil that she can
dispense with any of that guidance under which she
has succeeded so far beyond her hopes. The lancet
of the learned surgeons of Turin has cut short the
inestimable life of Count Cavour, but France
is still
in Rome, Austria in Venice, and murder is still ri e
under the pretence of political parti_sandsabnni
P in
still
Southern Italy. Cavour is gone, but H
remained, all the more valuable from the Hudson
of the
statesman with whom he so heartily
cooperated. Supposing him to exercise hi
man office with no more
.s
than average ability—which oby
no means the case
Sir James Hudson
—the presence of such ainestimable value to
would be at this moment of at,
Italy. Whoever his successor might be, he must
labour for many years before he could attain the
same position of influence and authority as Sir
James Hudson enjoyed. He may counsel as wisely,