The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-04 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1853.

It is wonderfully instructive to watch the pro-
gress made in their inquiries by the Committee
(now sitting) on Dockyard Promotions and Ap-
pointments. Seldom has the country, at any rate
of late years, enjoyed the opportunity of any such
amusing, but at the same time melancholy revela-
tions. For once we are admitted behind the
scenes at the Admiralty. We hear for once the
official whisper. We observe for once the
" aside"—generally inaudible to the vulgar com-
munity. Confidential remarks, uttered within
closed doors, are reported before Committee, and
noted down verbatim et, literatim by the attendant
short-hand-writers. Confidential letters have
their seals broken, so to speak, in the mar-
ket-place, and their contents flaming in the
printed columns of the newspapers. At
one moment we are standing at the elbow of the
late Secretary to the Admiralty, listening to his
candid confession—" There's no use blinking the
question ; I can't help myself, I am so pressed by
the Government." At another we are watching
Vice-Admiral PARKER, as he tosses behind the
fire that important missive in which Sir BALDWIN
WALKER, as Surveyor of the Navy, takes the
liberty of respectfully tendering his resignation to
the Lords Commissioners.

Already we have commended the really sur-
prising lucidity of the evidence given by Sir B.
WALKER before the Committee of Inquiry into the
subject of Dockyard Promotions and Appoint-
ments. It is deeply to be regretted that
the evidence subsequently " taken down "
from the lips of Mr. AUGUSTUS STAFFORD,
is by no means comparable either in coherence or
explicitness. Throughout his replies there is a
painful sense of hesitation, if not indeed of actual
reservation. Beyond which, while there is not a
link wanting in the whole chain of evidence given
by the late Surveyor of the Navy, there is per-
ceptible here and there in the evidence given by
the late Secretary to the ♦dmiralty a hiatus at
once suspicious and bewildering. _ _

Another remarkable witness was examined
before committee only yesterday—one Mr. Join;
Bloods--who during the last twenty-seven years
has been reader to the Board of Admiralty. His
evidence, it must be allowed, is sufficiently enter-
taining from its delightful preciseness. Witness
—as we learn from one part of these amusing
revelations—remembered distinctly the notable
interview which took place between Sir BeLnwriv
WALKER and Mr. AUGUSTUS STAFFORD, in refer-
ence to the former olficiars memorable letter of
resignation. In fact, he seems to have blundered
in upon them during their conference. "On
11 entering the room," remarks the wit-
ness,: " the Surveyor of the Navy appeared
to be labouring under great agitation of mind,
as if SOrn,etiLing very unpleasant had occurred."
That, at least, is the surmise of Mr. JOHN BRIGGS,
reader to the Admiralty. Thereupon his curiosity
became naturally excited, more particularly when
he adds, " I heardaSsonlae wotrds [delightful indefi-
niteness !], and w to
BRIGGS !], thinking something had retire [bashful
taken place"—
marvellous instance of astute in
nation ! Can it possibly be our ratioci-
friend, Mr. BRIGGS of p,),, the dear old
„
beloved
Of JOHN LEECH, and " the bright particular star"
however,
of the London Charivari ? To return,
from idle surmises to this delectable evidence,ae
wit-
ness adds, "The Surveyor was standing at the t
folding up his papers and I beard him say these
words :•—‘ Very well, Sir, I ill go to Somerset-
house, and return by and by.' Seeing that he
was much agitated, I said to Mr. STAFFORD [we
presume by this time Sir BALDWIN WALKER had
quitted the apartment], hope the Surveyor
has not resigned.' He [meaning of course
he has re-
Mr. STAFFORD] said 4No :
signed.' I said, What do you mean ?' "
Now let it be observed that Mr. STAFFORD'S reply
was simply, "No: he has resigned"--a reply
to any ordinary mind as plain as a pike-staff. But

Mr. BRIGGS'S was not an ordinary mind. He was
evidently bewildered, for we find him adding—
" I said, c What do you mean ?' " Fortunately,
Mr. BRIGGS was bewildered—fortunately, because
his bewilderment elicited from Mr. STAFFORD the
following explanation—" The Surveyor of the
Navy has been to the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND,
and the Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND informed him
that he had never seen the resignation, and that
if he had seen his letter of resignation, he should
immediately have taken it to Lord DERBY ; that
the Surveyor had been to Admiral PARKER, who
had told him that he had not thought fit to bring
his letter before the Board, but that he had de-
stroyed it." According to witness, Mr. STAFFORD
added—" In fine, cuffed by the Duke, snubbed
by Admiral PARKER, with his letter of resignation
in the fire, the Surveyor of the Navy not
only
comes to me and recites this in his own proper
person, but asks me what he had better do." Mr.
BRIGGS'S sensitive nature is startled by this plain
speaking. "My remark was," says he [by the way
he has never spoken of his remark before, any more
than Mrs. GAMP, but that en passant], Mr. gTAF-
FORD lam astonished at you, I am.' " And so
the evidence of Mr. JOHN BRIGGS was conducted
throughout. Garrulous, minute, scrupulous as
to the most trivial circumstance, Mr. BRIGGS de-
poses from first to last, as the report informs us,
with " great importance and preciseness." His
evidence has been about the most amusing episode
in these entertaining and occasionally grotesque re-
velations. The whole transaction breathes rather of
the age of the Merry Monarch th an of the age of Queen
VICTORIA. Conning these odd exposures of the
doings at the Dockyards, and reading them by
ttle light of Mr. BRIGGs'S evidence, we are almost
fain to imagine ourselves in the days when good
cc M:r. SAMUEL PEPYS his Diary" recorded the
thoughts and deeds, official and domestic, of the
Secretary to the Admiralty Board of Commis-
sioners.

Slowly, but surely—we believe—Mr. CHARLES
PRIIRSON is breaking ground for the erection of
his proposed City Terminus. Under any circum-
stances he may be said to have already prepared
for the laying of its foundations. Additional
pros nice of this was afforded on Monday afternoon
by a, cluster of representatives, described correctly
enough as "a very numerous and most influential
deputation," who waited upon the Home Secretary
according to special appointment. Altogether,
thy; interview proved more satisfactory than such
things are accustomed to do. Instead of leaving
tho. Members of the deputation just about as wise
on going out of the official apartment as they had
helm on entering it, Viscount PALMERSTON ex-
pressed his views upon the subject of this pro-
jecded metropolitan improvement with so much
energetic candour and lucidity, that it were idle
to ' doubt now for a moment the opinion enter-
tained upon the matter in question, by one at
least of the most influential members of her MA-
JESTY'S Government. It could scarcely have
been otherwise. The feasibility of the sug-
gested enterprise has already long since been
clearly demonstrated. The advantages certain to
accrue from it to the community at large have
been for some time past duly appreciated by the
majority of the inhabitants of London and West-
minster. Besides all which, the Noble Lord, her
MAJEBTY'S Principal Secretary of State for the
Homo Depal (anent, was addressed in language of
such peculiarly forceful appropriateness, as applied
to himself personally, that it became in a manner
incumbent upon him for once to break through
that Ministerial reserve which is no doubt as con-
venient to statesmen as it is annoying and bewil-
dering to the general population. Viscount PAL-
MERSTO24, for example, had heard those closing re-
marks of the Hon. Member for Northampton (Mr.
RAIKES CURRIE), in the course of which, speaking
for himself and the gentlemen associated with him,
he assured the Home Secretary—" They (the
members of the deputation) believe that the pecu-
liar energy, the pre-eminent ability, the indefati-
' gable devotion to the public service which have
long signalised. your Lordship's career in one of
the highest departments of the Government, way
now, under PRovIDENUE, be the means of con-
ferring domestic benefits no less remarkable, no
less deserving the labours of a great stiAesmn, on
millions of your fellow-countrymen : and in this
point of view, and wide- these impressions, they
respectfully submit this important undertaking to
your Lordship's attention and favourable conside-
ration." He had heard one of the Representatives
of the City of Loudon (Sir JAAES DUKE) bearing
witness to " the unanimous and cordial approba-
tion" with which, out of doors, the project is
hailed and supported. He had heard another
(Mr. MASTERMAN) assert that " there could be
no doubt of the state of public opinion on the
subject, or of the advantage which would accrue
to the City from its being suppor'Led by the Go-
vernment." He had been reminded by the Mem-
ber for Lambeth (Mr. W. WILLIAMS) that " the
objects of the deputation were not merely local,"
and by the Hon. Member for Southwark (Mr.
A. PELLATT), that the execution of the intended
works would, by diminishing the present crowded
condition of the streets of the metropolis, and by
materially promoting the cause of sanitary im-
provement, be received as a great boon by the
inhabitants. Another of the Hon. Members, the
Representative of Lambeth (Mr. W. A. WILK:N-
SON) had corroborated the assertions made by
his colleague ; while " last, but not least " in the
group of Legislators, the Representative of
the Borough of Finsbury (Mr. THOMAS
DUNCOMBE) had insisted, with some con-
siderable show of reason, that, "as upwards
of a thousand houses were now in progress of
removal in Fleet Valley," it became necessary that
no time should be .lost in securing to the public
the benefits of the projected enterprise. Listen-
ing to all these arguments, and remarking that
they were arguments of a really authoritative
character, as coming to him from the lips of
Metropolitan Representatives, Lord PALMERSTON
could hardly have ventured to evade something
approximating to a definite explanation. Instead
of doing so, in fact, he avowed that, while " re-
serving to himself a discretion to consider any
fair objection that might be brought forward," he
gave the matter his most willing consideration,
and, as far as he was at present informed, believed
that it was deserving the support of her Majesty's
Government." Naturally, of course, he reminded
the deputation that the details of the under-
taking fell entirely within other departments.
For example, the Noble Lord observed, that "the
railway portion of the measure would devolve upon
the Board of Trade for consideration, and the
proposed street improvements would be inquired
into by the Board of Works ;" but apart from
this, the Home Secretary distinctly avowed that
1 r.-; regarded the project, as a whole, as highly de-
seevlng all the support that could fairly be given it
by the Government and the Parliament. After
this bold acknowledgment on the part of so emi-
nent an authority, it were frivolous to question the
probabilityof that same project being speedily real-
ised. An interval will, of course, be required for fur-
ther preliminary labours before the enterprise can
be commenced in earnest. Ultinudely, however,
we may now count upon its completion, without
any degree of extravagance. Wherefore, once in
a way, at least, good may be said to have actually
resulted from a deputation.

Exeter-hall can create saints as well afs the
Vatican, and in some respects much more efficient
ones. Rome canonises the dead, but the English
beatifiers confer their honours on the living, and
however many of us may doubt the omnipresence
of departed spirits, or their prowess in sublunary
affairs, none of us disputes the occasional advan-
tage of fighting a political battle under the pa-
tronage of a flesh-and-blood saint of Exeter-hall
notoriety.
At elections some of these unetherial
guardian genii of Protestantism have laid occa-
sionally a large constituency under a most holy
Anti-Maynooth spell, and returned
the favourite candidate • in triumph
of those who invoked their
aid. In the House of Commons,- since Mr. PER-
CIVAL'S exit, this race of beings has been nearly
extinct ; some specimens of the
cies do indeed remain, but using only the argu-
ments of the canonised ones of old, without the
testimonials of canonisation, they pres4u_ t rather

a ludicrous than an imposing appearance. In the
House of Lords, however, there is still remaining
a specimen of the species now extinct in the

other hemisphere of Legislation ; one, more-
over, of such sterling worth, that we much
regret the unworthy purposes for which his aid has
been invoked. As the patron saint of Sabbatarian
movements, Protestant Alliances, Stafford-house
Addresses, baths and washhouses, model lodging-
houses, ragged schools, and of everything indeed
which bears the stamp of benevolence or anti-
Popery, the Earl of SHAFTESBURY has enjoyed the
long and just admiration of all the Protestant
MACHALEs and LUCASES, and of all who delight

------- ___ _
in benefiting the humbler classes of society by
direct charity. The sincerity of his charity, more-
over, has never been called in question. The
most rabid curs on the other side of St. George's
Channel would not venture to denounce him as
guilty of " soup-ticket proselytism." His Lord-
ship is, however, but one of too many instances
in which the narrowest interpretation of a meek
and expansive faith is combined with a high de-
gree of religious and social excellence. This, no
doubt, was the reason why he was selected as the
standard-bearer of mediaeval bigotry and intoler-
ance on Friday night. Had Lord DERBY been
put forward, it would have been held all pretty
fair as a political opposition in his peculiar
position, but it would have been accounted
a purely political opposition. Had the Bishop
of EX.ETER moved the amendment, all his
resistance ' would, by worldly and malicious
minds, have been ascribed to views and habits so
uncourteously described the other night by Sir
WM. MOLESWORTH. But, if Lord SHAFTESBURY,
whose motives none ever ventured to impugn—
Lord SuArrEssuny, who has such a constituency
of the benevolent on his right hand, and the zeal-
ous Protestants on his loft—if he will but head
the ill-omened phalanx of civil and religious des-
potism, his name would be an answer at once to
many a taunt, and an authority with thousands
of followers. Nothing harsh could come from
the noble patron of factory operatives and ragged
schools ; nothing contemptuous to th© Jews from
one who vies with BENJAMIN DISRAELI in extolling
" the Hebrew mind," as destined to make them
" the future sovereigns of the earth." Lord SHAF-
TESBURY'S name is sufficient to prove that it is both
Christian and benevolent to do to the Jews as we
would not that they should do unto us—to prove
that it must unchristianise the kingdom since he
thinks it would. Lords who, at bottom, chiefly
desired to give Lord JOHN RUSSELL a well-deserved
snubbing, since he chose to try his hand at " lead-
ing" their Lordships, as well as the House of Com-
mons, where he ought to have settled the whole
business ; Lords who wished to tantalise the Coalition
a little ; Lords who wanted to take breath after such
a mighty liberal effort as passing the Canada Clergy
Reserves Bill ; Lords who really believed that
there was such a thing as unchristianising a Legis-
lature by permitting Christian electors to choose
a Jewish Representative—and there really are a
few such Lords—chiefly those, no doubt, who
have personally retired' from public life and com-
mitted themselves to the care of their wife and
the chaplain ; but chiefly the far greater number
of Lords who delight, in any safe contest, to nail
the good old Tosy colours to the mast, and show
that they are Tory Lords still, and not the foot-
ball of a Reformed (?) House of Commons—all
these various classes of Lords could play their
part in this annual sham-fight to the very best
advantage under a leader far too good a man to
be a party politician. " I voted with the Earl of
SHAFTESBURY." That's answer enough to all" the
gentler sex assuredly, and more than answer
enough to all who care for " our Protestant insti-
tutions." His Lordship performed the office of a
legislative CALCRA.FT, of course, with his wonted
blandness. He strangled the last offspring of
Religious Liberty with a silken cord, but it was
strangling of the noblest kind of freedom still, and
gave a Bishop the opportunity to remind the
House of the " grievous wrong they had done the
Church in admitting Catholics and Dissenters into
the Legislature, and that admitting the Jews
would be but to perpetuate a greater wrong." Lord
SHAFTESBURY himself partly adopted the same argu-
ment, and ought, logically, to have adopted the
whole when lie urged that a Christian Chinch
oiight only to be legislated for by Christians.
Lord SHAETESBUR I" and the Dishopr::, however, must
take care. Ti:ey may find that the sentiment of
:Religious Liberty is becoming hourly much stronger,
and the policy of State Endowments and State
Churches more and more extensively questioned.
We regard it as perfectly certain that if the two
should come of necessity into conflict, Religious
Liberty would gain the victory, and speedily too.
If the greater part of our politicians at all believed
that a system of exclusions from civil privileges
and offices were necessary to the preservation of
English Episcopacy, they would neither dare, nor
probably wish, to take their stand on the ground
of exclusiveness. On the debate generally we
have already expressed our opinion. We suppose it
is hopeless to expect the House of Commons under
a Coalition to assert the rights of Electors, or Lord
JOHN RUSSELL to kick at the House which snubs
him at pleasure. To us the People's Representa-
tives appear unendurably degraded when they
suffer the Upper House to hold the keys of the
Lower one—when, year after year, they invite
Baron ROTHSCHILD to take his seat among them.
But the Lords see fit to bar the door, not of their
own, but of the People's House, in his face.
Surely the day must be at hand when the good
old motto, that " Every Englishman's house is
his castle," will be adopted in good earnest by the
Englishmen who compose the House of Commons.
We want a " House of Commons Reserves Bill,"
of which the first clause should enact " that the
settlement of qualifications for a Representative
of the People should be determined by the Repre-
sentatives of the People ; and a second, that all
matters pertaining to the right of suffrage, the
mode of collecting votes, and the arrangement of
electoral divisions, should also belong exclusively
to the People's House."