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

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock 52

Barometer-30.08.
Wind—S.-W. ; light, and fine.

f 3,111,1
i'l-11113.7* 44444
- 11 it
• >, irAJ,

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 12, 1863.

Eighth Earl, who ought to have been the
privy,N iarquess, of ELGIN, Knight of the Thistle,
e
00ncillor, Governor. General of Canada,
Governor
to
ch?latin er al of India, Ambassador Extraordi-
nary
we now leara+A.rubassador Extraordinary to Japan,
news he must plir,clwhat it was dreaded by the last
th7e
service
be, no more—struck down
prematurely in
far indeed
of his country.
ELGIN was very Lord
indeed from being a great
man. But he was
mark-able man. He, at any rate, a very re-
ability. lie was
more a man of undoubted
a man of indisputable aueeeathan that—he was
tizt What is vulgarly
called luck went with
.n
gi,
itb
Not so much luck in brio public life.
u
vancement, but luck as affecting ht.Bllis own ad-
arious im-
portant undertakings in the interests
or
the Crown
and of the country. Luck of this ltisd iarblic
ELGIN
man is beyond genius. And while L,,,a
was certainly without the genius, he as certainly had
LIN
the luck. More than once—under very momentous
circumstances—though himself not in the least a
CESAIt in gifts or in temperament, he went, he
saws
and he conquered. Not by the sword, but by the
pen. Not as a soldier, but as a diplomatist. Twice
in this way ho restored the stupendous Empire of
China, in its foreign relations, that is, in its rela-
tions with the "outer barbarians," to tranquillity.
There was more of astuteness in the manly frank-
ness and decision or his policy, when dealing with
the Asiatics, than there could possibly have been in
the most wily and tortuous policy that might
have been contrived by the profound philosophy of
a MACHIAVELLI. or by the subtle tact of a TALLEY -
RAND. The damascened and poisoned scymiters,
0 to speak of the Japanese and the Chinese,
a:. mPped innocuously at the hilt, when crossed by
the iron brand that warded off their deadliest
bit)._ •
n the grasp of this good servant of the Eng-
ha,
served
the • For, many years now, Lord ELGIN
Crown and the country almost un-
inrrupted'
or. %now in our hemisphere, now in the
ih
the h'itc.elatallaboured assiduously all this while
policy
b,lti
erelsts. He has left his mark
upon our
in North America and isi
the remotest reginns
or
his last, now, he does so Asia. When he breathes
as
we
have
said,
prwehile yet in harness. He
dies,
orateturely, long before at-
taining the allotted age
yet in the ,
full vigour of his intellectual
di,
While
in
Et that deprived ,
in; physically from an org„ie aiitist: though suffer-
to the I
him of life from over-exertion
perils of which ho was doomed by hi:liate
of the onerous responsibilities of the highac:spttance I
vice-
regal authority capable of being delegated to a miab
ject by the will of the British Sovereign. "ad Lord
ELGIN looked merely to his own selfish interests,
subordinating to those the interests of the empire
at large, it would not be idle to assert that, in all
human likelihood, he would still have been
in existence, that in all human probability

he might have survived for many years to come.
It was to be otherwise, however. The able Gover-
nor-General of Canada, the brilliantly-successful
negotiator of peace with China and with Japan,
faithful to the part he had so long and so success-
fully sustained as the servant of the Crown and of
the Country, though he knew himself to be suffering
from a heart disease, unhesitatingly accepted the
weighty responsibilities devolving upon any ad-
ministrator who, as the successor of Lord CANNING
had to undertake the government of Ilindostan.
Although his suddenly interrupted career as Go-
vernor-General of India, has been in no way at all
eventful—perhaps we should rather say precisely
because it has not been in any way eventful—it has
been a career in the highest degreo honourable to
himself as Viceroy. It has set the seal to his repu-
tation, at once, as a loyal subject of the Crown, and
as a patriotic administrator.

Amid the numerous discourses with which our
Parliamentary representatives are whiling away the
tedium of the vacation, the public will turn with
some interest to tho speeches of two members of
some distinction, one of whom has held, and the
other is still holding, official position. As the re-
presentatives of two parties, the Government and
the Opposition, the views of Mr. I.AYARD and
Mr. FITZGERALD are not without importance. A
token of the stillness of the political atmosphere
is shown in their speeches—the former originating
little, but endeavouring to put the best face on
matters; the latter supporting the theory of " Rest
and be Thankful," and approving the course which
has been pursued by the Government in many
important particulars. Still the tone of the two
addresses is very different—Mr. LAYARD'S is depre-
catory, though occasionally indignant, while Mr.
FITZGERALD takes pains to assure us that he is hap-
pily indifferent which party is in power; and
indeed, of the two, ho would rather prefer a
lengthened continuance of Lord PALMERSTON'S
tenure. It is true that the ex-Under Secretary
:ook the opportunity of upholding the spirit of
party, of lamenting that indifference to political
differences which is growing but too common.
There was a good deal of truth as well as of satire
in his application of the story of the desperate
poacher who was reclaimed by converting him into
a keeper. The country side, which had been con-
tinually disturbed before, was left in happy tran-
quillity, and on this principle Mr. FITZGERALD
declares that some of his Tory friends would be
sorry to see the present Government disturbed, as,
while it is in Once, they feel tolerably secure from
any startling change ; whereas they know from old
experience that the moment their own party as-
sumes the reins of power, a universal outcry will
be raised by the Opposition, for reform and inno-
vation. " I shall be sorry," said a gentleman of
this class to Mr. FITZGERALD the other day, " to
see Earl RUSSELL and some of his friends removed
from office, because I am certain that so long as
they remain there we shall hear nothing of the
question of Reform." Alluding to the story we
have already quoted of the poacher and the keepsrs,
Mr. FITZGERALD expressed his conviction that these
statesmen would remain quiet so long as they were

our keepers. Mr. LAYARD, meanwhile, was of course

busy in upholding the proceedings of his friends. He
entered at some length into the various questions
now agitating Europe, maintaining, of course,
that in every case the acts of Lord PALMERSTON'S
Cabinet have been " wisest, virtuousest, discreetest,
best." He would not suffer his opponents to take
the credit of his acts. The Opposition were always,
ho declared, finding fault with the proceedings of
the Government, and therefore it was to be inferred
that they would not have acted in the same man-
ner had they been in power. They had blamed the
Government for not recognising the South, and for
stopping the steam rams; ought ho not to infer
from that that their opponents would pursue the
very opposite course, and plunge the country into
war with the United States. This it seems is to
be the argument with which Lord PALMERSTON'S
followers intend to meet the expression of public;
indignation respecting the unwarrantable inter-
ference of Lord RUSSELL at Birkenhead. Polish
affairs were, of course, discussed in both speeches,
and with much the same result. It was held by
both gentlemen that England was called upon to
exercise all her moral force in behalf of that long-
suffering and down-trodden peopis, but that her
duty stopped at that limit, and that sho was not
called upon to go to war in their behalf. Viewed in
this light, the course pursued by our Cabinet was
the only one open to an honourable and, at the same
time, a prudent
,and practical nation. Another
instance of similarity of opinion was manifested in
speaking of Denmark—a question which, however
perplexing and entangled, is certainly not to be
passed over 'at the present time. Both members
alike declined the task of unravelling the myste-
ries of German genealogies, and of diplomatic en•
tanglements, but on this matter, too, the unity of I

sentiment in the two parties was happily very
visible. The official, though passing briefly over
the subject, expressed a hope that the German
Powers might be induced to respect the faith of
treaties, while Mr. FITZGERALD boldly denounced
their present course as absolutely dishonest, and

declared that it was of the serf greatest importance
to England to maintain the independence of Den-

mark. " I hope," he remarked, " that whoever may

be in power, they will consider it the decided policy

of this country to uphold at all hazards the inde•

pendenee and integrity of Denmark, and resist an

aggression which is alike unjust in its objects and
dangerous in its termination." In the conclusion of
4sti eloquent address, Mr. FITZGERALD dwelt
t
unglY on the unity of sentiment and feel-
Log
in uleh pervades the different classes
thia
"tiatry
all joined, and the readiness with which
the prosecution of any cause
which had folt4.
L "a object the general good. On the
whole, these
th7v.speeches may be taken as fair
exponents of
canite:a of the two leading parties,
if p° es,lled where the distinction
lies arrattihesert the dews
r,,eu
than
measures.

.plate.galtodsticate when the'
it would be difficult to p,o
betweenhe chancesa rm onr•
are
will
oinnteesntd.
certainly
ordnance
do
os or
the guns, for as yet whatow „lot
tl:3:w in favour of
may be carried, or power of
resistancehize they
length of range may be obtained ; but we
with tolerable certainty to what extent a
oil:now
may
be plated and the limit of her capability „f
superincumbent weight. The late experiments
at
Shoeburyness, and those at Portsmouth, have ad-
vanced our experience to a certain extent. Last
Tuesday a target built to represent a section of Mr,
REED'S new ship, the Bellerophon, about to be laid
down, was tested at Shoeburyness. The plates of
this target are not less than six inches in thickness,
and although they were not submitted to the severe
test to which Mr. CHALMERS' or the ilVarrior
targets were, even then, notwithstanding their
extra thickness and the metal being of the best
quality,t they were severely damaged by the im-
petus of the shot both from the 110 Armstrong and
the old smooth-boreWh' 6B-pounders, as well as the
Whitworth and Armstron.. I'o
-pounders -pounders and the
riasa 300-poundershr . Although but one shot passed
°ugh the target,
of th and that by striking the junc-
tione Plates, it was
evident that even this