The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-04 00:00:00

SUNS LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, 'FEBRUARY 4, 1862.

more ludicrously preposterous mode of reasoning
than this.

" My wound is great because it is so dull,"
quoth one of the characters in a forgotten tragedy
of DRYDEN'S :

" Then 'twould be greater if 'twere none at all I"
cries the witty Earl of ROCHESTER from a side box
on the night of its first representation. And yet
this is, in truth, the kind of paradoxical solecism
put forth now by the Regius Professor of History
at Oxford at the very epoch when England is at
her grandest and best. It is the self-same perverse
and flippant absurdity if only we accept Mr.
SMITH'S declaration as proven, and (having
acted upon it) for " wound" read " Power."

As evidence
of the exceeding perversity of the
Regius Professor's judgment in studying, among
all Modern Histories, the History of Histories to us
as free-born Englishmen, the History of our own
country, of this "dear, dear, England," as SHAK-
SPERE three centuries ago apostrophized it, "this
precious stone set in the silver sea"—as evidence,
we say, of the exceeding perversity of Mr. GOLD-
WIN SMITH'S judgment when he comes to examine
into the records of our English annals, it is enough
to mark the very curious circumstance that Canada
of all our colonies, in this year of grace, 1862),
that Canada is the one looked upon by him as
irresistibly suggestive of the reasonableness of an
immediate dismemberment of the British Empire.
Canada! ye Gods! Canada, forsooth, that by
its recent display of loyalty, of devotion to
the Crown, of a recognition of its identity of
interests, and of sympathies with the old mother
country, only hints, on the contrary, to the rest of
the citizens of this vast Empire that as an
Empire it never was more ONE than it is now in
this latter half of the nineteenth century. Not thus,
however, thinks Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH, who actually
commences his extraordinary, and, as we have
already been constrained to call it extra-
vagant, letter, addressed (on the 27th ultimo)
to our contemporary the Daily News, in
these singular words :—" Ought not, " he
asks, " Ought not the narrow escape of a war
in defence of Canada to lead the nation to think
seriously not only of the reduction of colonial ex-
penditure, but of all colonial emancipation ? Eng-
land has long promised herself the honour of be-
coming the mother of free nations. Is it not time
that this promise should be fulfilled P" Why, in
the name of common sense, is she not so now—
already ? Not (Heaven knows !) that allusion is here
made to that anything but enviable offshoot from
the old parent tree, the British heart-of-oak—the
American sapling now threatening to become split
up like the memorable wooden leg of Mr. GAMP
(when that gentleman was at his last gasp, accord-
ing to his veracious relict), namely, " for matches in
the rough." We have not a thought just now of
Yankeeland when talking of England as already
virtually to all intents and purposes the mother of
free nations. It is of that very colony of the
Zealand, we are here
colonies,Canadas twoeTaarsemtahnk
niia,ing
to New
ewlt is to the Australian
making reference ! It is to our vast Asiatic empire
in Hindustan, as recently reorganised since its
transference from the effete and now vanished power
of old JOHN COMPANY to the firmer yet kinder
and more liberal rule of JOHN BULL, as symbolised in
the grand and gentle sceptre of VICTORIA, that our
allusions tend. Here in our Colonies as they are
respectively organized, as they are now swayed by
the Majesty of England, and as they are now inter-
nally administered by themselves, we have already
an opportunity of recognizing exultantly the
world encompassing title of THE BRITISH EMPIRE
_England the Mother of Free .Nations. Mr.
GOLDWIN SMITH, Regius Professor of Modern
History at Oxford though he is, can-
not recognize it. Yet for all that it is
so nevertheless. Does there come at length, we
will suppose, however, any hazy glimmering notion
of the kind dimly shining in upon the judgment of
Mr. SMITH (a judgment seemingly overlaid and
obscured by erudition), the Professor may ask per-
haps for the colonies en mance, or it may be for
each of them in detail and in succession, a yet larger
amount of freedom than they already possess. He
may insist upon it that they should be endowed, one
by one or all together, with an actual and nominal
and not simply as at present with a virtual inde-
pendence. Ala bon heure—we will go with him
even that length—we will suppose, for the
sake of the argument, merely for the
sake of his particularly ridiculous argument,
that what he would thus insist upon is in itself
reasonable. We will grant all that, but while con-
ceding thus much, we will add something like an
echo of that wise and witty reply, addressed by
King LEOPOLD, in 1848, to the leaders of the
Belgian enzeute,—" Very well, messieurs; so be it,
if the nation wishes. Let Belgium be a Republic,
if she pleases—l can pack up and leave. But let
us have no Revolution !" That precisely might be
the tone, should in reason be the tone, in which the
majesty of England may reply to the fantastic pro-
positions set forth by crotchety daydreamers like
the learned Professor of Modern History at the first
of our great English Universities. Let our colonies
if they care, break, one by one, the last golden links
that bind them to the benignent glory of the British
SOTEREIGN, that knit them together as integral
parts of the empire governed under the shadow of
the British Flag, and under the dEgis of the British
Constitution. Let these sixty colonies of
ours, in all parts of the habitable globe,
snap asunder, we repeat, one by one those last
golden links if they will. But at least England
herself will not do so—at least England herself
will:persevere to the end of her noble annals in the
discharge of the solemn duties and responsibilities
of Government devolving upon her from the very
vastness of her Empire, waiting the while humbly
and reverently the decrees of Divine Providence.

The Queen will hold a Privy Council to-morrow
(Wednesday) at Osborne.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Down -
ing- street. The Ministers present were :—Viscount Pal-
merston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, Sir George
Grey, Earl Russell, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir G. Come-
wall Lewis, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, the Duke of Somerset, the Right Hon. Thomas
Milner Gibson, the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, and the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers.
LORD LYNDIMRST.—We are happy to say that
the prevalent unfavourable rumours respecting Lord Lynd •
hurst's health are greatly exaggerated. The noble and
venerable lord is confined by a slight attack of gout, but in
other respects is in excellent bodily health.

The Recordership of Hastings, with Rye and
Seaford, has become vacant by the death of Mr. W. W.
Atreet, barrister-at-law,

TLeir Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess
Leiningen have returned to Howchin's Hotel, from Osborne.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Exeter have
been entertaining a select party at Burghley House, Stam-
ford.

The Marquis of Downshire is expected at his
residence in a few days, from his seat in Ireland.
The Earl and Countess Russell and family come
to town on Thursday, from Richmond Park, for the season.
The Earl and Countess Stanhope arrived at
their residence in Grosvenor-place lust evening, from
Chevening Park, near Sevenoaks.
Viscount Sydney has arrived at his residence in
Cleveland. square, from Prognall Lodge, Footscray, Kent.
In connection with the rise in the Turkish Loan
of 1868, there is a rumour that the Turkish Government
has confirmed the proposed tobacco tax, which is expected
to be extremely productive.