The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-03 00:00:00

NOTICE.

All remittances are► henc?fortb, to be made to
Mr. JOHN CHAPLIN, at The Sun office, 112,
Strand, who has been appointed, by the Lord
Chancellor, Receiver and Manager of The Sun
newspaper, and the outstanding debts due in
respect thereof.

4% ~
...X.
(i.,,c4,-:1 ..-:3:,
i,
,„,,,..
\ ~,,- -...,-,.-7,-,:yr-,t.4 ,
~ .
+kV - .'
..:: .' .:
' ' '''.
,
.5 L_,...,`, ' '-, ' >." :-....; ''' e , ,
' ''''' ''' -Fyt-- ,17:: at if,- 's ; -..
;2,- -7
• ~..-•,, . i, 4' • 1.,^,,,,,,,_.ii,_........,L.,...%,
~t.,-/-r- ~ ,-.1,.....: / i".. , I , ,_. sd4.-.....4'
.:
P 7 ''''' -i'.
- t''',l-7Z17:-'i:.,':?. 'A. : ' ,
,:a....e.... :tii:'------7r
' ' " -
. , .

41'

THE STN•

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1862.

Hope for Italy has been so often disappointed
when it seemed best founded, that almost any asser-
tion now, by the most responsible person, fails to
give anything like assurance. Yet surely the
King of ITALY'S speech, which appears in to-day's
telegrams, ought to have some meaning
in it more than anything we have yet
beard. The programme of freeing Italy from
the Mediterranean to the Adriatic was uttered
before Solferino had been fought and the Qua-
drilateral reached. Count CAYoR's and Prince
NAPOLEON'S speeches were either very cautious, or
uninvested with the authority of office. But now
we have the word of the King of ITALY to the
Italians, concluding thus :—" Public safety is not
yet re•established, because Rome is the centre of
conspiracies ; but, believe me when I say, that as
much as the Italians wish to recover Rome the
French wish quite as much to terminate their
occupation of it."
These sentences for a Monarch who is, first, no
man of words—no orator ; who is, secondly, well
acquainted with Roman facts ; and thirdly, who
must as well know the mind cf the EMPEROR,
nre very remarkable. He publicly, in the face of
Europe, for it is for all Europe his words are
meant, charges Rome with being the fountain of
conspiracies and the disturber of public safety.
He next affirms with the strongest possible
illustration, the wish of the French to get
away from Rome. What does this mean ? We
know that General GoToN has returned, though
the Constitutional affirms that it means nothing;
that nothing has been changed, for the very excel-
lent reason that nothing can be changed. Ifs

however, the King of ITALY really knows the mind
of the French Government, which can hardly be
doubted, and if the old proverb be true, the will
of the French must find a way to its accomplish-
ment. We shall cherish therefore the hope
that the EMPEROR will not show his face in
London till he has fulfilled what all English-
men hold to be his first duty, and has given
up Rome to those to whom it belongs. Should he
visit this country without having performed this
first duty of political honesty, we can only hope
that he will never move abroad without hearing
from every quarter, loud and repeated cries of "Borne
, for the Italians !"

How are we to decide when one account from
America tells us that General BEAUREGARD, the
hero of the recent great battle, has 100,000
men with him at Corinth, his headquarters
near the Mississippi, while another gives him but
35,000 ? According to the former account the best
of the Southern Generals might stem the progress
of the Federals in the West for a long time, per.
haps till winter; according to the latter, unless he
can he reinforced, they will soon drive him further
South, for their late check will be soon recovered.
Both statements are probably exaggerations, but
that which assigns to him the smaller number is
probably nearer the truth. The first, doubtless,
comes from gentlemen with " Southern proclivities,"
in New York; they wish to represent the Confe.
derate cause in the most hopeful light possible.
But the latter account comes from General BEAU-
REGARD himself, who, in an intercepted telegram,
asks for help. He, therefore, states to his own
Government the worst of his case.

We may, however, reasonably suppose that he
feels it to be a somewhat urgent one, since he
suggests the desirableness of withdrawing the
armies which are defending both Charleston and
Savannah for the purpose of defeating BUELL.
This at least implies that he does not no w feel
strong enough for that object. He must have
with him the entire remainder of the troops,
which gained the first day's victory at Pittsburgh,
and as his forces there amounted to fifty or sixty
thousand, he must have suffered severely in the
fearful two days' struggle. BEAUREGARD repre-
sents the loss of the Mississippi Valley as
certain, in the event:of his defeat at Corinth, and the
loss of their cause as not improbable. Indeed we
know that all the troops from the Gulf of Mexico
except what were indispensable for the defence of
New Orleans, were brought up to BEAUREGARD,
and if, therefore, he were beaten, there seems no-

thing to prevent the Gulf States being overrun, so
far as a country of swamp, forest, and cotton plan-

tations can be.

Though M'CLELLAN seems to be brought to a
stand at stand at Yorktown, the firing on both
sides being as harmless as that at Fort Sumpter,
the other Confederate Generals from the Potomac,
BANKS and McDowELL are not idle. They are
advancing from the North and North-West upon
Richmond. McDowELL has got as far as
Fredericksburg, which he finds unfortified. BANKS
has driven JACKSON before him to Gordonsville; and
is therefore making progress towards the capital.

The Confederates seem to have denuded that part
of the country in order to meet M'CLELLAN at
Yorktown. But if they detain him there long,

they seem to hazard the occupation of Richmond
by the junction there of McDowELL and BANKS.
This fresh development of Northern strength in
the North-West of Virginia must cause some
anxiety at Richmond; it would seem as if the
choice were between falling into the hands of
BANKS or of M'CLELLAN, and that Virginia could

not spare troops to face all the armies of the North
successfully. The importance attached to York-
town seems evidently the greatest—there the far
largest armies on both sides are concentrated; and
if the capital can be reached from that part, it will
enable the Federals to hold it with communication
open to the sea.
The PRESIDENT'S short message will show how
half-hearted, politically, he still is on the subject
of slavery. He only half relishes the bill which
abolishes slavery in Columbia, though he always
acknowledged the right of Congress to do it, and
wished that it should be done " in a satisfactory
way." By which we naturally understaml that he
is not quite satisfied with the bill. He signs
it however. It contains the two principles
of which he is so strongly in favour, compensation
and :colonisation ;" and, therefore, " if there be
matters about this which might have taken a coursl
or shape more satisfactory to his judgment he does
not attempt to specify them." It seems as if even
Republicans, in the A merican party sense we mean,
could not do what should be a graceful act in a
graceful way. One would have supposed, fond of
outrageous claptrap as the Americans, and Mr.
LINCOLN among them, are, that we should have
heard at least a little self laudation, and boasting
of this commencement of negro emancipation.
Could we think, indeed, that Americans had grown
more modest we should be quite satisfied ; there is,
however, no alteration in that respect, and we must
set down all the chilly language of the PRESIDENT
respecting the best bill the Federal Government
has passed since it was entrusted with the govern-
ment of the district, as want of heart in the object
itself. "Colonisations" getting the negroes out of
the way—in Hayti, Liberia, or Florida—this is the
President's hobby. The Great Republic cannot find
room in its vast space for a population of the most
docile, if not the most muscular and effective
' labourers on the earth ! A race manageable, wil-
ling, to work for pay ; capable of becoming good
artisans, as well as field labourers, susceptible of a
considerable measure of education, and, if kindly
treated, capable of becoming a source of great
wealth in a state of freedom. Against all this,
there is but one thing—the citizens of the Free
States will not endure among them the negroes
whom their Government and country has wronged.
Yet England is asked to sympathise with the North I

At the commencement of Tuesday's sitting in the
House of Commons Mr. BAILLIE COCHRANE de-
livered a capital speech, a really refreshing and
delightful speech, in regard to our Public Buildings.
It is true that the hon. gentleman's motion then
submitted to the House, at the close of a very in-
teresting discussion, came to grief in the end,
being summarily rejected upon a division by con-
siderably more than two to one, only 49 voting for,
and as many as 116 against it. The motion was,
it should be remembered, simply this—" That an
humble address be presented to her MAJESTY,
praying that she will be graciously pleased to issue
a commission to inquire into the state of the pudic
buildings erected by Parliamentary grants within
the last 20 years, and also of the house rented for
the public service ; and to inquire whether, by
adopting more comprehensive plans of building,
greater public convenience, greater economy, and
unity of design, may not be attained." So that it
obviously and avowedly pledged the House of Com-
mons to no►hing : transferring in effect the respon•
sibility of suggesting a decision, after due inquiry,
from itself to a Royal Commission. Against the
notion, however, of any such transference of respon-
sibility the right hon. gentleman the Chid Commis-
sioner for Public Works—[as his title was with
sylvan grandeur until very recently "or Woods

.......... —,—.
and Forest! !" as it is nowadays, with more elegant
fastidiousness, " of Parks and Palaces !"]—against
the notion of this delegation of an inquiry to a set
of Royal Commissioners, Mr. CowrEß on Tuesday
evening raised his voice with something like indig-
nation. - The Minister frankly acknowledged that
he objected to it be;ause it distinctly tended to super-
sede the responsibility of the Executive Govern-
ment. And, certainly, for inasmuch as that
was his objection, we cannot but very heartily ap-
plaud it. For it was a manly objection enough
upon the part of "the" responsible administrator, in
the very department the motion related to. But
not satisfies with giving that right-down good rea-
son, Mr. CowrElt must needs at once damage his
argument, so far, by backing up the good reason at
once by an unmistakeably bad one. The right hon.
gentleman actually objecting to the motion of Mr.
BAILLIE COCHRANE upon the score that, at the
present moment, its acceptance by the House would
be exceedingly inopportune, for inasmuch as the
inquiry by the Royal Commission therein proposed
would, in all human likelihood, lead to delay. Now,
really and truly, unless Mr.CowrEß has made up his
mind to take the initiative here himself forthwith,
in his ministerial and administrative capacity, we
don't exactly perceive how the non-appointment
of a Royal Commission of inquiry, just now, will
guard us, in any respect, from the possibility of
any further delay ! Of course all that the right
hon. gentleman could seriously have before him,
in his mind's eye, at the moment of raising this
objection to Mr. COCHRANE'S proposal, could only
be the delay that might interfere with the now
imminent labour of reconstructing the Foreign
Office. But that one exceptional difficulty might
have been readily enough guarded against.
Allusion was only made to it at all parenthetically,
and quite by the way in the course of Mr.
COCHRANE'S speech introducing his motion to the
House. It was thrown out purely as a casual
suggestion by the hon. gentleman ; and might)
therefore, at once have been got rid of. It was
in no way essential to the integrity of the motion
then before the House. In point of fact, strictly
speaking, it had nothing whatever to do with it.
The reasonableness of the motion might have been
admitted by the House of Commons, the Royal
Commission might have been appointed by the
Crown—and the reconstruction of the Foreign-
office need not necessarily have been thereby inter-
fered with or definitively postponed. However, as
the event fell out, it was rejected, as we have seen,
by a clear majority of 67 in a house of 165. And
therefore all we have now left for us to do in
regard to it, now that the notion is thus quietly
cushioned, is to consider for a while—and for our
future guidance—a few at least among the abundant
reasons there are for a reconsideration (shall we
say, at any rate may we not hope, next session ?)
of the whole question relating to those among our
Public Buildings which are set aside for the use of
the various departments of the Government.

Accordingly as the system now stands, we are
actually spending for the hire of ugly, scattered,
and incommodious houses to be used as public
offices, for the repair of those building and for the
expense of furnishing them, an annual rent of
£BO,OOO ! Otherwise over and above the yearly
interest of £2,500,000. Now, let it be borne in
mind at the same time, that by the expenditure of
precisely that very sum of £2,600,000 we could
secure, for once and for all, to the nation a magni-
ficent site and build thereupon a noble pile of build-
ings, capable of containing under its roof the whole
of the now scattered, and many of them ill-housed
departments of her MAJESTY'S Government. The
feasibility of this has been demonstrated. It was
proved upon authentic and reliable evidence before
the Committee a 1856. It was shown be-
fore that Committee that the whole of the
houses and grounds lying between St. James's-park
and the river Thames, skirted upon one bid
George-street, and upon the other by Richmond-
terrace, could be purchased for £lOO,OOO. And
that the huge block of Government buildings then
and there proposed to have been erected would
have cost £1,500,000 additional. So that
literally for £2,500,000 altogether—the very sum
the interest upon which we are now paying down
to the tune of £BO,OOO in the miserably unsatisfac-
tory way already particularised—we might perma-
nently bring together the whole offices of the
Government and house them in a structure for
ever afterwards belonging to the nation, and cal-
culated by its architectural beauty to lend its aid
in the lasting adornment of the capital.

Surely if it could but once tend to confirm
beyond the possibility of denial the perfect accuracy
of these really startling estimates, a Royal Com-
mission, such as was proposed on Friday night to
be prayed for from her MAJESTY by an economic
Home of Commons, would be no waste of time
after ill! It appears upon the very surface so
ignoble and peddling a course to pursue—this
one which in this matter we have so long, and
systematically, and perversely been pursuing !
Hiring bindings for public offices at great expense
and at miserable inconvenience ! Instead of the
Nation haring its own offices : and those offices
worthy of being the home and habitation of the
British Government. In lieu of adopting any bold
and imperial determination with a view to rid
ourselves at last of what in regard to this jumbled
question of our Public Builings, is here again
in STEPHEN BLAoKroofs despairing phrase,
"aw a muddle"—we are so enamoured of this muddle
by usage that we must still cling to the chance of
its continuance in spite of all remonstrances! If
anything whatever is done in the way of improving
our public offices, those that are, by right of posses-
sion and of ownership, our public offices—we must
yet persist in doing it piecemeal. We must spend,
as we did not very long ago, £lOO,OOO in building
up a bran new edifice as an office for our Inland Re-
venue Department. And yet we must so do this
that that same department shall still require (as it
actually does to this day) as many as ninety rooms
in Somerset House ! Ex uno disce omnes : it is the
same throughout. For instance—what could well
be a more reckless piece of stupidity in its way
than the purchasing, as long ago as in 1825, of that
piece of ground near Downing-street, which was
actually so purchased at a cost of about £25,000 to
the nation, with a view to the enlargement of the
site of the Foreign Office, and which has neverthe-
less during all these thirty-seven years past been
lying there, a local eyesore, a bit of waste land, a
litter of dead cats and broken potsherds ? 0 ! but
for one or two years of a really bold and sagacious
despotic Improver,of the Public ,Buildings of the
Metropolis! We should then, at last, have a clean
sweep made of all these unsightly and melancholy
anomalies. We should then, at length, see some-
thing in the way of a series of really comprehensive
improvements. We should then no longer be
patching and cobbling at Public Buildings alto-
gether unworthy of the name. We should, at
length, have a grand palatial edifice down at West-
minster, not unbefitting a structure set apart for
the abode of the British Government.

Irish starvation fed a rather long debate last
night. The real object, of course, was to attack
first and chiefly Sir ROBERT PEEL, and also the
Government which he represents. Professedly Mr,