The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-24 00:00:00

11HE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 24, 1863,

to bring forward the question this evening in the
following manner, while we regret to observe
that Lord PALMERSTON, true to the manoeuvring
policy of all previous Administrations, is going to
waterlog the motion by referring it to a committee
so famous for their alacrity in sinking :
" Sir J. HAY —That this house will, upon Thursday next,
resolve itself into a committee to consider of an humble ad-
dress to be presented to her MAJESTY, submitting toher MA-
JESTY that,in the opinion of this house-1. The position of the
officers of her MAJESTY'S naval service, in respect of promo-
tion and retirement, is not satisfactory, and ought to be
amended. 2. That with a view to the increased efficiency
of the naval service, and to meet the just expectations of
officers with respect to promotion, it is desirable to adopt
for all ranks the principle of retirement by age. 3. That
the pay of naval officers ought to be so adjusted as to
enable them consistently to maintain the rank they hold,
and to give them fair remuneration for honourable service.
4. That, in case these regulations shall cause any further
expense, This house will be prepared to enable her Majesty
to make good the same."
" Viscount PALMERSTON—To move, as an amendment
to Sir JOHN HAY'S motion :-1. That this house, having
on the 13th day of March, 1861, instructed a select com-
mittee to consider the present system of promotion and re-
tirement in the Royal navy, is of opinion that its decision
should be suspended until the subject shall have been ac-
cordingly considered and reported upon. 2, That a select
committee be appointed to consider the present system of
promotion and retirement in the Royal navy, and to report
their opinion thereon to this house."
Mr. FERRAND, too, of devil-dust notoriety in
times gone by—and now returned for Devon port—
is going to try his hand at the Dockyards, to see if
he can revive the chips lately struck off the old tree
of promotion in the Royal Dockyards, by the Order
in Council of October, 1861. Mr. FERRAND will
amuse, if he cannot convince the House, to agree to
his motion. We only wish that he had a better
ship for his money.

Lord CLARENCE PAGET last night brought for-
ward the Navy Estimates for the current year in a
lucid speech, all the more pleasing from the fact
that the saving, as compared with the estimates of
last year, amounted to £1,058,273. This decrease
in the estimates did not interfere with the effective
state of the navy. The chief saving was in the
article of timber, amounting to £410,123 ; but
there were two reasons for this—one, that timber
was not so much in demand now ; and the other,
that a quarter of a million was diverted last year
from another purpose, and applied to the purchase
of timber, of which the noble lord made no mention,
as probably he remembered to forget the circum-
stance. But the other cheering points in the
statement were well worthy of commendation.
Our iron fleet was making good progress. If
not rapid, still it was sure. The public are
already well aware of the iron squadron afloat—
which have proved excellent sea boats, having just
returned from a voyage of experimental cruizing
across the Bay of Biscay, in which they weathered
the roughest sea most satisfactorily. Then the
ships in progress would be ready with all possible
expedition—indeed some of them were now so far
advanced that three or four would be ready in the
course of the summer—and by next year we shall
have a fleet of some twenty-one ships armour plated
or iron plated men-of-war, of a capacity never seen
before. We would thus maintain our supremacy
on the ocean as of old, though we did not want to
make comparisons with the fleets of other nations in
order to avoid giving cause of jealousy and irrita-
tion. In this we thick the noble lord was quite
right, for our chief business is to look at home and
be well prepared for contingencies, for no one can
tell what may be looming in the future. And even
now the genius of misrule seems to be at cruel work
in the North , which bodes no great hope for the

continuance of peace.
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON complimented the noble
lord on the fair promise of his statement, which he
characterised as being in every way satisfactory.
The number of seamen was the same as last year,
76,000—and the men were of a superior class as
compared with former years. Indeed they had
weeded all the indifferent men out of the service,
which improved the character as well as the com-
fort of those who formed the mainstay of our navy.
Altogether, the estimates were well received by the
House, and passed unanimously, with some remarks
on trivial subjects of little import. Barracks are to
be provided for the comfort of seamen waiting to
join new ships, or while the old ones are under-
going repair, which will be a great convenience to
the men, as well as a saving:to their pockets, and
some protection to their morals.

America has now a rival in importance. Poland
divides with her the interest and attention of
Europe. Nevertheless, however great our spa-

pathies and earnest our hopes for Poland, we
watch with unabated interest for the arrival of
news across the Atlantic. It is true that we are
all beginning to feel that this war ie more or less a
question of time—that the point at issue must soon
be, not the subjugation of the South, but the terms
on which the States shall separate. The increasing
financial difficulties of the North, the growing dis-
content of the people, the incapacity of the generals,
and the disaffection of the soldiers, are obstacles
against which a stronger and wiser Administration
than that of ABRAHAM LINCOLN would find it hard
to strive. The conviction, moreover, must be grow-

ing upon the great body of the people, in spite of
the vehemence of fanatics, that the reunion of the
States is an impossibility; that supposing all the
efforts of the North to be crowned with extraordi-
nary success, and the so-called rebellion effectually
zubdued, the Southern provinces could only be
held as conquered States, at an outlay of men
and money simply impossible for many a long year
to come, to the crippled resources of the North.
The question must, therefore, arise in the minds of
unprejudiced men as to what they are fighting for ?
It is certainly not money, for the conquest would
involve immense expense ; it cannot be fame, for
the public opinion of Europe is against them, and
their sympathses are undoubtedly on the other side ;
it is scarcely national honour, when this unhappy
war has been conducted in the barbarous spirit of
the middle ages ; neither can it be a desire for the

.
welfare of the country, which has been thrown
back many hard paces in the march of civilisation
and progress by this fratricidal contest. It can
scarcely be a war of principle on the part
of the North, when the very principle on
which the South is acting is the keystone
of American independence. Could they have fore-
seen this struggle, GEORGE the THIRD and Lord
NORTH might have thought that they lived some
century too soon, for the arguments that were
thundered at them in support of American inde-
pendence might be as well addressed to the suc-
cessors of Washington on behalf of the vast tract of
country that goes by the name of the Southern States.
The war is most certainly not a war against slavery,
for who can doubt that LINCOLN and his Cabinet
would gladly declare the South free to continue
slave dealing for time immemorial, did they make
that permission the condition of their re-entering
the Union. The retention of slavery in the loyal
States sufficiently testifit:s the insincerity of the
PRESIDENT'S abolitionism. The much-vaunted Pro-
clamation was, in truth, little more than an attempt
to raise negro regiments in the heart of the enenay'h
i country, without the preliminary inconvenience and

delay of enlistment and bounty money, The fervid
eloquence and vehement denunciation of enthu-
siastic abolitionists, on both sides of the Atlantic,
have failed to rouse public emotion. The motive
for the act was too plain, and its execution too
partial, to impose on the most short-sighted.
At present the interest of the war is
centred on the two points of Vicksburg and
Charleston. Until they are captured, the North
feel it is idle to talk of supremacy. Until they
are proved invincible, the South feel their trial is
yet to come. What the result of that trill may be,
all Europe is now waiting with breathless expec-
tation to learn ; but we know what the courage of
desperation can do, and we know how often daring
and determination have outweighed superior num-
bers. At Vicksburg the mighty waters of the Mis-
sissippi fight the battle of the Confederates—at
Charleston they must rely upon themselves ; and
we shall not be surprised to learn the result of that
reliance in the repulse of the Federals.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

BONNIE DUNDEE.

Mr. Falconer's long-expected novelty was pro-
duced at this theatre last evening with great care
and completeness, and in the presence of an audience
that crowded the theatre to the roof. The drama
is an historical spectacle, which takes for its central
figure the celebrated Jacobite hero, James Graham
of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee; and which,
commencing with his visit to the Highlands
to raise the clans in support of James the Second,
winds up with the Massacre of Glencoe, which
occurred some three years afterwards under the rule
of William 111. the first act is devoted to an inci-
dent in the life of Dundee, his venture from Edin-
burgh to Lochaber, to meet the Highland chiefs,
when, unattended and on foot, he is waylaid and on
the point of being murdered by a band of Low-
lenders, and owes his rescue to the presence of mind
of the daughter of Lochiel and her Highland
foster sister, as well as the arrival of some
friends. The second act is employed by the
meeting of the Highland clans, and ultimately the
gathering of the clans around the person of Dundee
in a wild valley of Lochaber ; and the last act, as
we have stated, is given to the massacre of Glencoe.
There is an under plot, which turns on the adven-
tures of Helen, the daughter of Lochiel, who,
escaping from her father's roof to avoid a distasteful
marriage, is rescued from the hands of the Whigs
who are lying in wait for Claverhouse, by Alaste-z
M'Donald, who guards her home in safety, and who
wins her love and hand for his service—he proving to
be a member of the APlan clan in the end, and there-

_
by becoming involved with her in the peril of the
massacre, from which they are rescued by the timely
arrival of a portion of the clan of the Camerons.
Mr. Falconer, in constructing his story, has not
relied very much on history, nor, on the other
hand, resorted to the admirable materials to be
found in Scott, in the tale of "Old Mortality." He
has neither drawn Dundee in the glowing colours
of the novelist, who presents as most conspicuous
the grace and gallantry of his demeanour, nor gone,
©n the other hand, to facts, which show that his
chivalric bearing was only a mask under which he
nursed the most savage passions and animosities.
Ho simply presents him as a loyal Jacobite, intent
on defending his master's rights. We regret: we
cannot add that his endeavour was very successful.
The structure of the piece was so very slight, and
the writing so unimpressive, that its entire
effect was thrown upon the great incident
of the second act—" The Gathering of the Clans."
This, however, was so admirably tnrnaged, whether
in respect to its numbers or vivacity—the High-
landers pouring in upon the foreground from every
cleft and pathway of their rocky rendezvous, until
the entire scene became a moving mass of beings—
that it formed one of the most exciting spectacle s
which we have 'witnessed for some time,
and succeeded in rousing the audience to a
great state of enthusiasm. The Valley of Glen-
coe was also a great success pictorially—being
a moonlight view on snow, from the pencil of Mr.
Telbin, which may be numbered among the most
magical of his many brilliant achievements. The
acting of this drama was tolerably sustained, by
Mr. Edmund Phelps in the character of Dundee,
who gave to the loyal partisan great dignity of
bearing; by Mr. Loraine, in Alaster M'Donald ; by,
Mr. Graham and Mrs. Falconer, i❑ a pair of High-
land peasants, and by Mrs. Bowers in the chief's
daughter. Mr. Haigh also was very successful in
his delivery of the song of "Bonnie Dundee," which
was appropriately introduced into the second act.

FIRST PRINCE ALBERT SCHOLARSHIP•

This appropriate and lasting tribute to the memory of
the late Prince Consort has been instituted at Liverpool,
and has been the subject of keen competition among the
students born or educated within seven miles thereof.
The Vice-Chancellor
aowardf the
of the UniveAlbert Scholarship,
rsity of Cambridge
has made the following
according to the result of the examination held at Liver-
pool last December :
Scholar—A. M. Watson (r e 1 f a) Birkenhead, Bre-
wood Grammar School, R. Wall, M.A.
2. G. J. Laidman (r 1 g m a), Everton Collegiate Insti-
tution, Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D.
3, J. B. Jones (r nr), Liverpool Collegiate Institution,
Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D.
4. J. G. Lewis (r 1 g f m), Liverpool, Royal Institution,
Wavertree, Liverpool Institute,
Rev. W• Turner, D.C.L.
nesv..Rj..
Jones,
nLelso,yis,(ll.(Am.
6. J. E. Thompson (f gn), Birkenhead Collegiate Insti-
tution, Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D.
r means distinguished in religious knowledge; e, Eng-
lish ; c, chemistry ; /;s, mathematics ; a, mechanics, or
applied mathematics ; 1, Latin ; q, Greek ; f, French ; go,
German.
* The only senior candidate distinguished in chemistry.
In addition to the above, who all obtained first-class
honours, there wore several candidates for the scholarship
who obtained minor honours.
The work of the first two candidates, A. M. Watson and
G. J. Laidman, who had a close contest for the prize, ex-
hibited a high degree of excellence. A. M. Watson was the
first amongst all the senior candidates examined at the 14
centres in religious knowledge and English, also bracketed
first in applied mathematics. G. J. Laidman was the first
in Latin and mathematics, and bracketed first in Greek and
applied mathematics.
The committee have awarded the following prizes to those
candidates who, being prevented from competing for the
scholarship by age or locality, attained first-class honours,
namely :