The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-29 00:00:00

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'ME SUN, LONDoN, IVIOADAY EVENiNi) DECEMBER 29, 1862.

LIVES of EMINENT STATESMEN,
in PUN, every week. One Penny

Lions ?" What can Mr. Seward mean ? Is it that, like
the famous.'coon, who, when he saw the gun pointed
at him, said, " Don't fire, captain, l'll come down," we
ought to give up Canada at once ? What did Lord
Russell answer? For ourselves we rushed in this
perplexed position to the inspired pages of Zadkiel
the sage. There was in the hieroglyphic for 1862
a picture of a black man preaching from a book, with
a dove hovering over his head. In the Almanack
for 1863 we find •I
he following expl, nation :—"The
dove over the negro indicated the peaceful condition►
of the slaves, notwithstanding the raging of the
civil war around them." Really this is very poor.
We believe, for our part, that the preacher is Mr.
Adams, painted black to represent his abolition ten-
dencies. The dove is Mr. Seward prompting him.
The book from which he reads is a copy of Mr.
Seward's voluminous despatches, and Britannia with
a drooping head in the next compartment of the
hieroglyphic is Lord Russell dozing under the in-
fliction. Zadkiel Tao Sze really does not do himself
justice.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Now Ready, handsomely bound in Magenta cloth, gilt, price
4s. Cd.; post free, 55., the
ECOND half-yearly VOLUME of FUN, with
Li numerous Engravings by talented artists, and humor-
ous Articles by the following distinguished writers :
W. Bailey, Esq. W. S. Gilbert, Esq.
W. Barber, Esq. T. Hood, Esq.
E. L. Blanch ird, Esq. T. S. Jerrold, Esq.
G. W. Bridgeinan, Esq. W. J. Prowse, Esq.
F. C. Burnand, Esq. Godfrey Turner, Esq.
11. J. Byron, Esq. &c., &c., &c.
Office, 80, Fleet-street, London.

THE NAVY.
The screw steam sloop Gannet, 11, Commander
the Hon. it. M. Nelson, from the Mediterranean
station, arrived in Plymouth Sound on Saturday
morning. She left Malta Nov. 26, and Gibraltar
Dec. 9, and experienced fine weather until midway
between Cape Finisterre and Ushant, where strong
gales from north-west and north-east prevailed, and
continued from the 20th to the 23d inst. Since then
she had high winds from the north-west, and very
thick weather. She spoke, Dec. 15, let 41 45 N,
long 12 19 W, the ship Agricola, of Shields, Capt.
Parrott, with grain, from Alexandria, and the Busy
Bee, of Falmouth, Capt. Juniper, from Palermo,
both for Falmouth. The Gannet left at Malta the
screw steamship Marlborough, 121, flag of Sir VSTm.
Fanshawe Martin, K.C.8.; the screw steam frigate
Liffey, 39, Capt. George Parker ; the screw steam
sloop Chanticleer, 17, Commander Charles Stirling ;
and the paddlewheel steam frigate Firebrand, 6,
Commander S. B. Piers ; and at Gibraltar the gun-
boat Procris. She brings as passengers from Malta
Assist. Surg. Torrens, of the screw steam corvette
Malacca, and a few supernumeraries from the Medi-
terranean fleet. The Gannet was commissioned on
Jan. 27, 1859, and has been employed principally
in the Levant, on the coast of Syria, and in Greece
and Turkey. The ship is in good condition. The
crew will be paid off at Plymouth. In the afternoon
she was inspected by Capt. George Wodehouse, of
the Meeanee, 60, also in the Sound. After her am-
munition is discharged she will proceed into Ha-
moaze to be dismantled and placed in the third divi-
sion of the steam reserve.

LONDON RETlEW.—Without allowing ourselves
to indulge in over-sanguine speculation, it is impos-
sible that England should not interest herself in an
event at once so strange, and so flattering to this
nation as the election of Prince Alfred by the
Greek people. We cannot help asking, what does
it mean ? France with her profound belief in gene-
rous ideas and noble sympathies, exclaims at once,
"Oh ! they only want the lonian Islands." We
shouid like to know what France would have said
if the Greelaigtf4piten,od,to elect a French cm-
&date. -= gilt:add/1e not have ffird from every voice
of the press, official, semi-official, and unofficial,
how the nations of the earth rallied to la grande
nation, and attached themselves to the car of the
leader of civilisation ? If we do not brag quite in
such a high-flown style, it is because boasting is not
the national habit with us to the same degree as it
is with our neighbours across the Channel. Never-
theless, in a quiet way, we can enjoy an internal
chuckle at a popularity which has all the zest of a
surprise. After all, peace, liberty, commerce, good
government, and respectability, are qualities which
have value quite as much as despotism draped out
in swagger ; and the Greeks, who with all their
faults, are a remarkably sharp people, have not
failed to discern what they think will best conduce
to their own interest. There is something striking
and almost imposing about the simplicity and de-
termination with which the Greeks have set
to work to carry out the object on which they
have so unexpectedly set their affections. They
are like the woman in the parable, and their faith
is such as should enable them to remove mountains
of obstacles out of their way. They have been in-
formed, with as much explicitness as is permissible
in declining an offer not already made, that Eng-
land cannot bestow upon them Prince Alfred. Con li
-
tinental writers are pleased to impute to the English
Government a deep-laid scheme of intrigue, in which
they are supposed to have put up one horse by which
they did not intend to win, but only to cut out the
running for the animal intended to supplant the
Russian favourite. We believe that this profound
and Machiavellian plot is a pure creation of the
brain of foreign journalists. As England did not
originate, and has never encouraged, the election of
Prince Alfred, it is superfluous to inquire what were
her motives in doing what she has never done. The
fact is, that newspapers Writers, especially abroad,
are never satisfied unless they are either denouncing
or extolling some wonderful eyeteme. According
to their ideas, politics are carried on much after the
fashion of the plot of the well-known " Woman in
White." Lord Palmerston, as he rides to cover
in the New Forest, or Lord Russell, as he saunters
about the grass-plot at Pembroke Lodge, is for ever
hatching some desperate scheme of unfathomable
policy. The truth is, that the action of the Foreign
Office as little resembles iu reality the ideal of these
ingenious gentlemen as the proceedings in Sir Per-
cival Glyade's establishment represent the normal
stateE
e young
xito
fml E society
in English country-houses.
—ln one of Foote's amusing farces
some en who have determined to make a
row are asked the simple question, What is the
cause of their displeasure ? upon which the ring-
leader says to his followers, " Aye, by the by, what
is it we are so angry about ?" to which there is no
reply. America is in the predicament of these
youths. She is resolved on a quarrel with us, but
is at a loss to explain what she is so angry about.
She is like a fractious child that will sob and bel-
low, and cannot for its life tell what it wants or
what makes it so cross. She cannot beat her way-
ward little sister in the South, and so she must
vent her vexation on some one, and on England it
falls inarticulately. It is a roar of rage denoting
a feeling of animosity,
not a cause. America makes
faces at us, shakes her fist at us, vows vengeance
promises to pay
US off the first opportunity, but
will not, cannot tell us what we have done to pro-
voke all this fury. Like the witch in Macbeth she
yells, " I'll do, I'll do, I'll do." The New I ork
7snzes has some perception of the absurdity of this
resentment without an ostensible cause, and ap-
plies itself to the question, What are we angry
about P Going methodically to work, it ob-
serves :

His Netherlands Majesty's screw steamvessel De
Appeldoorn, 4, Capt. Van Hugenholtz, which left
Dieppe on Dec. 23 for the East India station, put
into Plymouth Sound on Saturday morning short
of fuel.

The crew of the screw steam corvette Doris, 32,
Captain Sir F. M'Clintock, were paid off at Devon-
port on Saturday.

The Meeanee, 74, Captain Wodehouse, having
embarked supernumeraries for the fleet in the Medi-
terranean, was under orders to leave Plymouth
Sound yesterday morning for her destination.
The Alfred, target frigate, has been brought down
Porchester Creek and berthed alongside Portsmouth
Dockyard on the conclusion of the firing at the
sample and experimental armour plates on her sides,
under the direction of Capt. R. S. Hewlett, C. 8.,
commanding H.M.S. Excellent, the gunnery ship
at that port. No very important results were ob-
tained. Messrs. Brown and Co., of Sheffield, aHd
the Thames Iron Works Company stood first and
second in the comparative list. The Powerful, sail-
ing liner, has been also brought alongside the yard
to receive a number of other armour plates for fur-
ther experimental practice.

His Netherlands Majesty's screw corvette Djambi,
Capt. Van Rees, which arrived at Spithead on the
24th inst. from Holland, bound to Rio, Australia,
and Batavia, with severe damage, suffered from the
effects of a heavy gale of wind in crossing the North
Sea on her passage to Spithead, is ordered to be
placed in the large double dock at Portsmouth to
repair damages.

The Himalaya, screw troopship, Capt. E. Lacy,
under repair at Portsmouth, will be out of the
hands of the engineering department by the 31st
inst. She has received a new stern tubing, part of
screw shaft, and other extensive repairs, and refit
in her machinery, &c.
The Egmont, old sailing line-of-battle ship, con-
verted by Messrs. I. White, of the Medina dock and
building yard at Cowes, to a Government depot
ship, has been commissioned at Portsmouth by
Captain F. A. B. Cranford for service at Rio de
Janeiro, to supersede her Majesty's sailing frigate
Madagascar.
The Pylades, 21, screw steam corvette, 1,278
tons, 350 horse power, Capt. Arthur W. A. Hood,
recently commissioned at Chatham, has had her
compasses adjusted at moorings in Sheerness har-
bour, and has also been inspected by theCommander-
in-Chief, Sir W. J. Hope Johnstone, K.C.8., and
staff. The Pylades will proceed to the measured
mile off Maplin Sands to-day for the final trial of
her machinery. Should the trial prove satisfactory
she will proceed without delay to her destination,
the West Indies station.

The Scylla, 21, screw steam corvette, 400-horse
power, Capt. Rowley Lambert, which has recently,
returned from the Mediterranean, has been dis-
mantled in Sheerness Dockyard, preparatory to
being paid off, when she will be placed on the 3d
division of the Steam Reserve at Sheerness.

On Friday last the Lily, 4, screw steam gun-
veseel, Commander Henry Harvey, having had her
boiler bars replaced at Sheerness, was, in accordance
with Admiralty orders, taken from her moorings in
the harbour for a 12-miles run at full speed to test
her fitness to proceed to her destination. The trial
having proved satisfactory, the Lily left Sheerness
on Saturday direct for the West Indies, to which
station she is appointed.
The following appointments were made on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—John T. Hugo and John
M'Dougall, clerks, to the Egmont ; Alfred T. D.
Nettleton, clerk, to the Shearwater ; Algernon
Yockney, clerk, to the Sutlej, as supernumerary;
John B_ Creagh, assist.-clerk, to the Russell ; Frank
D. Aubin, assist.-clerk, to the Colossus ; Charles
H. Crane, assist.-clerk, to the Hawke; F. D.
Tongue, assist.-clerk, to the Dauntless ; Nevinson
J. Beale, aciaiet.-olerk, to the Indus; John H. Wal-
lace, assist.-olerk, to the Ajax ; George H. Bradley,
assist.-clerk, to the Pembroke ; and Henry Foster,
assist-clerk, to the Formidable. Mr. George Wil-
son has been nominated to a naval cadetship.
The following appointments have been made in
the Royal Naval Reserve :—To be Lieutenants,
Charles Rawle and William Ladds ; to be Sub-
Lieutenants, Chas. Dimsdale and James Tidmarsh.

It is not, as Englishman generally assume, against the
official action of the British Government, With that
action thus far we have no very great fault to find. It has
been confined to four procedures— First, the acknowledg-
ment of belligerent rights ; second, the proclamation of
neutrality; third, the demand for the surrender of Mason
and Slidell; and fourth, the refusal to join France in in-
tervention.

The New York
times discusses these counts
fairly enough, and acquits our Government upon all
of them except the acknowledgment of belligerent
rights, but upon this
point it blames only the pre-
cipitancy, confessing the convenience of the pro-
ceeding even for its own Government and cause.
What, then, is our offence ? What is it that has
so maddened America ? Is it that "the great body
of the upper and middle classes have,throngh almost
every organ of opinion, defamed, maligned, and
damaged the sacred cause" of the North. A des-
patch of Napoleon is now before us, in which he
writes to his Minister:—" I pay no attention to
general complaints, for they mean nothing." To
say that we defame, malign, and damage, means
simply that we express wbat is disagreeable, and
the New York Times shows as much wh en it comes
to exemplification. Earl Russell, Foreign Secre-
tary, took the earliest opportunity of stigmatising
the conflict as a struggle for empire on the one side
and independence on the other. And this, forsooth,
is defaming, maligning, and damaging! Why, if
there was stigma it was upon the South as well as
on the North, but stigma there was none. A fairer
and truer description of the struggle could not pos-
sibly be given in any number of words than is con-
densed in this brief compass. What is the argu-
ment for the preservation of the Union, but an ar-
gument. for empire ? What is it that makes the idea
of separation alarming to American pride, but di-
minished greatness, that is, diminished territory,
and with it diminished empire. And not only was
Lord Russell's definition most strictly true, but it
conveyed no reproach, implied no blame. Did not
England struggle for seven years to preserve the
colonies that constituted a part of her then great-
ness? It was for the preservation of empire that
she then contended, exerted all her powers and
exhausted her resources in vain. No nation will
willingly submit to a loss of territory. And we
blame not Federal America for its struggle for em-
pire any more than we blame the Confederates
for their struggle for independence. What we
blame is the persistence in the conflict
when it seems certain that the object is un-
attainable, or that the South cannot be subdued
without an amount of destruction and desolation
such as the world has never yet seen, and humanity
cannot contemplate without horror. The love of
empire is natural, but it has bounds beyond which
it becomes a lust capable of every wicked excess,
and regardless of the price at which it compasses
its bad enjoyment.