The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-14 00:00:00

;
_
Stitt

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1863.

Everyone remembers, of course, the little cluster
of Quaker doves flitting all the way from Liverpool
to St. Petersburg, for the express purpose of con-
verting that wily old serpent, the late Russian
Autocrat, from the error of his ways. As amusing
a piece of impertinence, though one of a totally dif-
ferent character, has just now' been thrust under
our observation. A preposterous pamphlet, extend-
ing to the length of exactly six pages—one of these
six pages being the dedication and another the title-
page—lets us into the secret. It is, as one may say,
a word spoken in the strictest confidence—to the
universe. Something equivalent to a whisper
through a speaking trumpet. One of those stage
" asides" audible to a whole houseful!, in boxes,
pit and gallery, but supposed to be unheard by the
person standing close by the speaker's elbow. We
take this atom of a pamphlet to be an expression
of the most consummate vanity, and of an effron-
tery wholly matchless of its kind. Although
the writer of it is an obscure Mr. Somebody,
whose name has never been heard of before by
the public, before whom the bearer of it may be
said to come now smirking and swaggering down
to the footlights, that name is coolly given in
its simple integrity upon the titlepage as though
it were a Duke's ! And again, in its simple
integrity, that is, without the prefix of any Chris-
tian name whatever, at the close of a dedica-
tion such as even a right-minded costermonger
must, one would think, perforce, with an
instinctive sense of delicacy, pronounce, upon the
instant of glancing at it, to be " owdaeious."
" Basis of a Plan for the Abolition of War"—this
astoundingly nonsensical brochure is entitled—
"By ;,—." We here purposely suppress the
avowal of the insignificant authorship. Between
the name of the writer and the title of his pamphlet
appears this utterly ridiculous paragraph, in the
middle of the title page, by way of preliminary
annoucement :—" Submitted to Lord PALMEItSTON
and Earl RUSSELL, with Mr. —'s respectful com-
pliments, on July 16, 1863, in order to obtain the
sanction of Earl GREY, Mr. ROEBUCK, Mr. BRIGHT,
and Mr. COBDEN,before presentation to her MAJESTY
the QUEEN, and her MAJESTY'S Ministers; but,it is
presumed they have come to no determination on
the subject." Better even than this, however, in its
exquisite absurdity, is the outrageous dedication,
"To the QUEEN'S Most Excellent MAJESTY"—
beginning with a sublime impertinence—" My Dear
SOVEREIGN," and signed by this human emmet as
from her MAJESTY'S " sincere friend "—then follows
the isolated surname of this " illustrious obscure."
A Bugg, calling himself Bugg, and yet affecting to
be a HOWARD—signing his homely patronymic
with a flourish, as though it were " NORFOLK," or
" SHREWSBURY " at the very ]east! The letterpress
embodying the proposition of this preposterous
Peacemaker extends, in straggling lines of very
large type, barely over four small pages, the gist of
it being comprised within a passage of less than
twenty lines altogether. " I want a Congress,"
says the writer, at the commencement of his revela-
tion, and these few words may be said, strictly
speaking, to contain within them the whole of his
proposition. He might far more reasonably have
said, 'while he was about it—" I want a
strait-waistcoat !" If anything were really
required to demonstrate the utter absur-
dity and fatuity of the peace-at-any-price
principles—that demonstration would be found
ready to hand in such nonsensical escapades as that
revealed to view in the Quaker Deputation of some
ten years since, or again at this moment in the por-
tentous folly, penned, printed, and published by
the blatant egotism of this prig of a pamphleteer.

The history of sieges forms one of the most in-
teresting chapters in military annals. It is felt,
and lastly so, that it requires courage of a far
higher standard, heroism of a nobler type, to sustain
such a trial unflinchingly than to turn the flight or
to lead the forlorn hope. The days and nights of
anxious watching under the most depressing in-
fluences, with failing ammunition and insufficient
food, the constant presence of the enemy, . the
gradual diminution of
the little body of defenders,
by casualty and sickness, the double
within the walls and the foe siege of famine
without, all these in-
fluences combine to render a protracted sieee one
of the sharpest teats of a soldier's prowess and en-
dueance. It is not surprising, therefore,
that in
most campaigns the interest centres on the story of
a siege; 'Deese which fill a foremost piece in
history are too numerous to mention ; but the sieges
of Acre, of Kars, and of Sebastopol
of Badajos, are
not forgotten by this generation, while the sur-
and the defence of Lucknow
render ol CAwnpure
can scarcely be ranked as mere historical events, so
warmly did they enlist our sympathies. But if our
feelings are always enlisted on the side of the be-
siegers, such is doubly the case when their situation
is a desperate one ; and if the story of the trium-
phant repulse of the allied besiegers from the reeky
coasts of Gibraltar be a thrilling one, still more do
we pay homage to the inflexible resolution that
some two centuries earlier held the little island of
Malta against the whole power of the Turkish
force. The great civil war that is now raging
before us has proved no exception to the general
rule, and for many menthe the names of Charleston
zutl Vick4burg have been fe,mitio 45 household