The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-22 00:00:00

THE OXFORD. 6, OXFORD-STREET.-
EVERY EVENING.
HENRI and PFAU, in their intrepid Double Feats on the
Flying Trapeze.

- _
Two Operatic Selections alternately from " Ernani,"
" Macbeth," "Il Trovatore," "La Traviata," "La Circas-
sienne," &c., by Miss Russell, Madame Enderssohn, Messrs.
NTorley, Greene, C. Greville, and Albert. Full Band and
Chorus—(Conductor—Mr. F. Jonghmqns.) Violin Solos—
Mr.Viotti Collins, and other Vocal and Instrumental attrac-
tions. The Comic portion by Messrs. Sam Collins, Harvey
and French (the Nerves), E. Marshall, and W. Randall.
- - - -

Hall, ed. ; Stalls and Balcony, ls. ; Private Boxes, 10s. 6d.
A Grand Morning Entertainment EVERY THURS-
DAY, at Two, HENRI and PFAU and the whole of the
Company, appear.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—?Morning, 6h. 2m.—Afternoon, 6h. 28m,
To-Mojutow. -Morning, 6h. 59m.—Afternoon, 7h. 30m,

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, MARCH 22, 1862.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
:7—highest since noon yesterday.
32—lowest this morning and during the night.
38—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.02.
WlND—Southerly ; light, and very variable, with dull
weather.

NOTICE.

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THE SUN.

7t~

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1862.

Instead of vague complaints of the vastness of
our taxation, and its enormous augmentation of a
million a•year during the last twenty years, Mr.
BAXTER takes the practical course of his, in this
line, distinguished predecessor. He perseveres in
fixing the attention of the House on a large item
of useless expenditure till the interest of all
parties is aroused. In the matter of expenditure
Ministries, of whatever party, run very mush in
grooves. Perhaps we ought now to change the
old figure, and speak of their running, financially,
on rails, when twenty millions, additional, repre-
sents their advance since the days of Sir ROBERT
PEEL. One thing is certain, the break can be
only gradually screwed up by such guards as Mr.
BAXTER, who will not, when a good turn is gained,
let the screw twist back again.
Mr. MILLS, about a fortnight ago, did good ser-
vice by his resolution putting the break on Colonial
expenditure, so far as related to providing for the
internal order and security of the colonies at their
own expense. Mr. BAXTER then proposed an addi-
tion to the effect that the colonies should also be
called upon to aid in their own external defence,
especially pointing out that the Imperial Govern-
ment should not be called on to provide fortifica-
tions for the colonies, except as the great naval
and military posts, such as Gibraltar and Malta.
On this latter part of his resolution Mr. BAXTER
thinks that faith has hardly been kept, or that at
least there was a misunderstanding. The mention
of the fortifications was dropped, because according
to Mr. FORTESCITE'S representation, no Govern-
ment would think now of multiplying these
fortifications. A few days afterwards, .how-
ever, the Secretary of State for War affirmed,
in apparent opposition to the Under-Seere-
Lary for the Colonies, that the Government
i dissented from the part of Mr. BAXTER'S
addition relating to colonial fortifications,
and actually £43,000 was obtained by thell
Secretary for
War for the very purpose to which
' Mr. BAXTER E 0
atrongly objected. It was certainly
therefore, the beat
course to tiring the subject defi-
nitely before the Souse, and to elicit its opinion in a
way which should influence
the Government. The
result of the debate, notwithstanding the deprec-

atory speeches of Mr. CAVE and the Minister
chiefly concerned, was entirely on the right side.
Mr. CAVE naturally said the best he could for the
Mauritius, and a case was made out for Bermuda,
whether for Corfu we can hardly say. The two
positions of Gibraltar and Malta, if they are what
they ought to be, would render Corfu of very
little value to us. The chief difficulty would be
who should have it, though the noisy Greek
patriots, whose compatriots are fighting against
King OTHO, have had very little difficulty hitherto
in preferring the Bavarian dynasty in Greece to the
Hanoverian dynasty in England,

Sir G. C. LEWIS had really nothing to say
against the purport of the resolution, only he did
not like to have his hands tied. We do not know
that he was wise in this. True, he argued
that the House of Commons had the votes for
the Army Estimates always in their hands,
and could always refuse their votes for new fortifi-
cations—but we all know how difficult it is for any
independent member to oppose any special vote of
the kind with success. The Government has always
a prepared and plausible case ; the member has
not ready the special information to oppose it ; the
scheme for making some barren rock unavailable is
adopted on the Government assurance of its neces-
sity ; and, the woric once ordered, the cost of surveys
and plans, and preparation being once incurred, on
they go, year after year. The vote for the current
year is only a continuation of what had been done
in previous years, and thus at length it is found that
tens of thousands have swelled to hundreds of
thousands, and these it may be to millions—till at
last the question arises,—whether when all is done,
we should in time of war be able to spare a little
army to garrison works which ought never to have
been begun. Then arises the still graver question,
had not works better be blown up again P Will
they not offer positions for the enemy to wrest from
feeble garrisons, and positions from which they can
turn our own guns against us. Our readers who
trouble themselves with the debates on these votes,
well know that this is no exaggerated account of the
frequent story of a colonial fortification.
We cannot conceive that our colonists anywhere
will misconstrue the remarks made in this debate,
notwithstanding the touchiness of Mr. HALIBURTON.
Canada has already shown a spirit worthy of an
associated kingdom, not of a petty colony. She
will readily acknowledge that the tendency of in-
terference, for interference it is now, by the Home
Government, in constructing and manning her for-
tifications, is emasculating to the colony, and tends
to give a colour of military subjection to the mother
country, rather than of civil and political
union with her. If Canada, the principal
colony referred to, for instance, has her
own fortifications, defended by her own
garrisons, it becomes evident that the whole con-
nection with us is perfectly spontaneous. If
foreign war broke out, and she needed and asked
our aid, it would be as an independent appanage of
the British Crown, without the shadow of con-
straint. A kingdom of the extent and population
of Canada would willingly incur the cost of this
more dignified relation, and would repudiate, if
appealed to, the systcm of petting and nursing at
the cost of the old country.
The attention, however, both of this country and
of the colonies will be in future awakened to the
whole subject. Our administrators will not be
allowed to pursue unnoticed their old policy. New
Zealand and the Cape will be required to pay for
the wars, more properly quarrels, which they
provoke with the natives. Our Australian colo-
nies will not be snubbed again when they offer to
put chase at a fair price some of our old frigates as
floating harbour defences, and the military spirit in
the colonies will, we hope, be called forth rather
than chilled and repressed. As we no longer tax
our colonies—as they, we might rather say, tax us,
by Customs duties, frequently high, and in the lay-
ing on of which we neither ask nor receive any
favour, it is but fair that they should meet their
own regular military expenses out of the funds to
which we thus indirectly contribute. Our navy
must for a long time to come be indeed the chief
maritime reliance of our colonies; but for works on
their own soil, and for ordinary defences, they must
now rely on themselves.

TIING-CHE ! Does anyone recognise it ? Is it
still with the majority another abracadabra, "that
word of dread ? " A symbol of a mystery but dimly
perceived, even by the initiated, wholly inscrutable
to the uninitiated. It was but the other day that
English readers were puzzlin g,for the first time, over
that enigmatic name,NlL DaßPAN,which the earliest
telegrams about it informed western Europe repre-
sented a something then driving distracted her
Britannic MAJESTY'S Hindoo lieges as by the bite
of some little Oriental Tarantula. It:turned out soon
afterwards, as the public will very well remember,
that "Nil Darpan" meant nothing more, and
nothing less, after all, than a long-winded Ben-
galese drama upon Indigo-planting, and what not
—a drama in an unlimited number of acts and
scenes, with scarcely any diversity at all among
them, constructed upon the expansive fashion origi-
nally introduced by M. ALEXANDRE DUMAS, pere—
menus, of course (mais cela va sans dire), the in-
imitable vivacity and espieglerie of the Gallic
ALEXANDER the GREAT of literature, Scarcely
have we recovered from the shock given to our
etymological sensibilities, and, generally speaking,
to what might be whimsically called, for want of
some apter phrase, our nervous system as philolo-
gists, by the inexplicable riddle of "Nil Darpan,"
when quite as unpreparedly as in that instant, by a
sudden flash of electricity from beyond the seas, the
isle has been again frighted from its propriety by
another Sphinx-like utterance clicked to us I
audibly and visibly by the electric needles—spell-
ing out that last little wondrous Chinese puzzle, to
wit—" Tung-che." It is a sort of Asiatic reminder
of that famous Crimean riddle that provoked, once
upon a time (not a hundred years ago), such " in-
extinguishable laughter" both within and without
the walls of Parliament—that Shibboleth, ever since,
of Nepotism, " Take care of Dowb !" Poor Major
DOWBIGGIN ! Perhaps, however (unless his promo-
tion, by the way, unluckily got nipped in the bud,
under the influence of that universal outburst of
good-humoured derision), perhaps by this time
Colonel or Major-General, or we know not
what else, including C.B. and all the rest of
it—barring the Victoria Cross! Poor, harmless,
inoffensive Major DOWBIGGIN ! Under that most
ridiculous abbreviation of his (at the best) rather
eccentric patronymic—his merits—possibly in
themselves large enough, we know at any rate
nothing whatever to the contrary ! Under the laugh-
ter-moving influence, we say, of that nonsensical
"Take care of DOWB" his stunted or foreshortened
surname became for a while (in fact until very
simply explained by the ludicrous addendum of
—IGGIN !) became for a time, we say, as utterly
bewildering in its way as that amazing boast of
Mrs. SPARSIT in " Hard Times"—that—a° she was a
POWLER !" Leaving everybody who listened to
her in a tantalising uncertainty as to whether a
Powler signified a country, perhaps, or a creed,
or a profession ! And now—for all the world, at
any rate in Western Europe—as problematic as
that phrase of a " Powler," or as that of

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