The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-29 00:00:00

deeds that fill the prisons with hardened crimi-
nals, and scare respectable people from their pro-
priety. If nothing can induce the authorities to
enact the law with more justice, cannot the Legis-
lature appropriately interfere, and not leave so
much to the option of the magistrates? An arbi-
trary line might be drawn between cases where a
discretionary power may be safely exercised and
where any leniency would be fatal to the interests
of society and the cause of justice. If the present
reading of the laws relating to gross outrages and
excessive cruelty are not sufficiently stringent, in
the name of sense and reason let them be altered.
The state of things now prevalent will not be rec-
tified until it shall be no longer possible for the
perpetrators of barbarous inflictions on the weak
and helpless to escape scatheless, as it were, from
the grasp of the law. Civilisation is disgraced by
the commission of such crimes with such frequency ;
and it is a blot on the vaunted laws of the land
that no power is sufficiently strong that is rested
in their hands to check, much less to put a stop to,
the commission of fearful evils, and the perpetra-
tion 3f horrors that make one shudder to read of,
and deplore the inability or unwillingness to exter-
minate them,

The despatches relating to the recent transac-
tions which have ended in the removal of a very
competent and experienced public servant from a
post of considerable responsibility and importance
have just been laid before the public. The com-
plimentary letter, in which Earl RUSSELL bows
out the parting Minister, Sir JAMES HUDSON'S
courteous but cold reply, the Foreign Secretary's
explanatory note to Mr. ELLIOT, and that gen-
tleman's report of his audience with the KING,
are all open to inspection, and a very curious
page of official correspondence they represent
Ia the first epistle of the series we find Earl
RUSSELL informing Sir JAMES HUDSON that her
MAJESTY has taken the opportunity of his pro-
posed retirement to express her approval of his
long course of public services, by the bestowal of
the Grand Cross of the Bath. He further states
that the Royal approval has been obtained for
the grant of the retiring pension belonging to a
mission of the first class. After this declaration
of the Royal favours Earl RUSSELL goes on to
declare his own satisfaction with the exertions of
Sir JAMES, and his conviction that " no man has
obtained so completely the confidence and regard
of the Italian Government and people" as him-
self. " Nothing," says the Foreign Secretary,
"could have induced him to recommend the
QUEEN to appoint any other representative, but
Sir JAMES HUDSON'S own wish," and then comes
a somewhat singular passage, " had any of the
principal embassies been vacant I should have
asked her MA4ESTY'S permission to offer it to you."
If Sir JAMES really wished to retire, from ill
health and long services, how was it the Secre-
tary of State esteemed it probable that he would
be willing to accept another and even more re-
sponsible post ? As no such convenient vacancy
was perceptible, however, Earl RUSSELL thought
it advisable to forward Sir JAMES'S letter of re-
call. This letter, cordial and complimentary as it
seems, bas yet one noticeable omission. We find
no expression of surprise or regret at Sir JAMES
HUDSON'S proposed retirement —no attempt
to persuade him to reconsider his deter-
mination. It was not to be expected that
an ELLIOT was to be kept waiting for such com-
fortable quarters, and Earl RUSSELL'S satisfaction
at the convenient vacation of the coveted post is
pretty plainly perceptible under his plausible and
complimentary phrases. Sir JAMES HUDSON, with

true diplomatic ingenuity, contrives in reporting
his interview with the KING, to remind Earl Rus•
SELL of the cause of his resignation. VICTOR
EMMANUEL having very naturally asked of Sir
JAMES the reason for his retirement—a retirement
which his frequent intercourse with the KING must
have convinced his MAJESTY could not be ac-
counted for on any plea of age or infirmity—Sir
JAMES replied that he had thought himself bound
by an engagement with Earl RUSSELL. " Offered
promotion in March, 1862, I had obtained permis-
sion to decline it and to continue at his MAJESTY'S
Court till such time as my pension for public ser-
vice was due to me." It will be observed that Earl
RUSSELL'S allusion to the pension tallies very well
with this part of the supposed agreement. This

answer appears to have been too plain to give satis-
faction, for the next news is that Earl RUSSELL
thinks it desirable to give his version of the affair
in a letter to Mr. ELLIOT, his successor. According
to this everything has been done out of pure kind-

ness and consideration for Sir JAMES. There was
a report ayear or two ago, says the noble earl, that
it was intended to appoint Sir JAMES to an em-
bassy, an intention which did not exist. In March,
last year, it was supposed that a vacancy would
soon occur in an important embassy. Thinking
Sir JAMES HUDSON the fittest person for " a diffi-
cult and very responsible post," Earl RUSSELL con-
sulted him privately about the matter, i.e., gave
him a gentle hint that his room would be better
than his company at Turin. Sir JAMES declined
the proffered embassy, but taking the hint given
had expressed his willingness to retire so soon as
his years of service entitled him to a pension, and
accordingly the required period having bee❑
reached this autumn he tendered his resignation.
Now, Earl RUSSELL'S version of the story
does not explain away two or three
awkward facts. What should have made Sir
JAMES HUSON, whose sagacity was keen enough
and:whose understanding was clear enough to steer
through all the difficulties of the Italian question,
take such an idea into his head as the engagement
with Earl RUSSELL, if really that noble Earl had
given him no foundation for it ? Why should he
be co firmly convinced on the point as to refer to

such au engagement openly in communicating
directly with Earl RUSSELL, and to feel bound by
•,

it to resign an office for which he was eminently
adapted, and which he particularly liked ? It is
strange that if he was mistaken in such a supposi-
tion, the Foreign Secretary should have left him
under ao singular a misapprehension during all

hese months, and stranger still that when his re-

signation was at length tendered there was not the
slightest hesitation in accepting it. This readiness
to superannuate a valuable and active public ser-

vant could scarcely arise from a belief that his

working days were past, seeing that Earl RUSSELL,
by his own showing, thought him " a fit person to

recommend to her MAJESTY fora difficult and very
responsible post" co lately as the spring of last

year. Unless, therefore, Sir JAMES'S health and

:acuities have very suddenly failed him, he is at the

present moment more than equal to the fulfilment

of his duties at Turin. It could hardly have been
that he failed to give satisfaction in either Laly or
England, since we find VICTOR. EMMANUEL giving
utterance to kindly feelings towards the departing
Minister, and the political chef himself profuse in
his expressions of approval. What, then, is the
answer to the riddle? Is it that the new comer at
Turin bears the charmed name of ELLIOT ? Would
the same drama have been played, had the
patronymics been exchanged, and Sir J. Ht;DSON
expressed a desire to fill an officd held by Mr.
ELLIOT? It is an unfortunate
coincidence that the
gentleman 'who hasperseded 6% long tried public