The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-13 00:00:00

THERMOMETER,

This morning:
This day at Two o'clock 75
Barorneter-30.44.
Wind—W. ; light, and fine weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
To-monßow.-Morning, 12h. 10m.—Afternoon, 12h. 40m,
-Ems DAY.—Morning, lh. sm.—Afternoon, elh 29m,

- ,s
un

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 13, 1863.

Mr. ROEBUCK, so far, in a Parliamentary sense,
is Master of the Situation: To him the House of
Commons looks at this moment with a glance of
eager curiosity. The enigma of the house is—
What the course may be that he, the member for
Sheffield, will adopt at this period of supreme
emergency. In the very height of the dog days—
the alarm suddenly is that TEAR'EII, unmuzzled, in
a high state of excitement, and agitated by an
excess of wrath caused by two or three most irritat-
ing circumstances means mischief ! Miching
malecho, more completely, it is to be conjectured,
than any other sententious motto that could be
selected, expresses his feelings at this juncture the
most aptly. The motion submitted to the house by
Mr. ROEBUCK, the motion now lying before the
house for its adoption or its rejection, is
explicit enough in its way in all conscience.
About its meaning there cannot, of course,
be one instant's misapprehension. It is
in less than half•a-dozen blunt words—as plain as
a pikestaff. And viewing it, as we may, from any
point of view it is brought forward, as things fall
out, at a time the most peculiarly critical that well
could be, At the very tail of the session ! At the
very crisis of the war! While Mr. SPEAKER is
beginning, probably, to indulge in pleasant antici-
pations of autumnal leisure in his sylvan retreat at
Ossington Hall down in Nottinghamshire. While
General LEE, at the head of his victorious army, is
knocking, as one may say, at the very gates of
Washington. Precisely at this moment it is, and
at none less deeply interesting, that Mr. ROEBUCK
throws the apple of discord, or the bone of conten-
tion, or however else we may typify it, between
the confronting ranks of the Government and
the Opposition in the British House of Com-
mons. The juncture is so imminent—the query
now put to the House is intrinsically of such
vital importance that it might be considered as only
comparable in its way—in its importance, and in its
imminence to the momentous question sung of by the
Rev. GEORGE CRABBE in one of the most famous
of his homely tragic poems—a picturesque incident
with which the hand of a female artist a few years
back familiarized even the non-reading public who
perhaps never yet handled a volume of CRABS&
Here immediately prior to the death of the session,
comes Mr. ROEBUCK with his Momentous Ques-
tion addressed to the bewildered, and it may even be,
could we but know their hearts, the somewhat
remorseful Government.

Shall the independence of the Confederate
States at length be recognised? that is
the Question! As yet Mr. ROEBUCK has be-
trayed no faltering whatever in his way
of putting it. Supposing he were to hesi-
tate now in driving it to a division he would stultify
himself, as even he, the member for Sheffield, the
amateur diplomatist to Schoennbrnn, and more re-
cently, to Fontainebleau, has never stultified
himself previously. Supposing any con-
sideration—it matters just absolutely nothing,
what ! supposing any consideration in the-
"wide world were to induce him now, in deference