The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-05 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tina DAT —Morning 32 min. after 11 Evening 0 mit Lat. 0
ro-Moaaow—Morning 7 rain. after 12 f Evening 40 mix Lat. 12

DAILY WEATHER TABLE.'

SATURDAY, FEB. 5, 1853.

State of.the wind and weather at each of the following
nieces at nine o'clock yesterday morning. The stations
are arranged in order of latitude.
HASTINGS—N.E., gentle breeze—overcast.
FOLKESTONE-E., light breeze—rain.
TUNBRIDGE-N.E., gentle breeze—scud, rain,
GREENWICH--N.E., gentle breeze—overcast.
SWINDON-N.E. gentle breeze—rain and BROW.
CAMBRIDGE-NE' . gentle breeze—cloudy.
YARMOUTH-E., strong breeze—overcast.
The returns from the following places indicate the state
of the weather on Thursday morning at nine o'clock :
LIMEBICK—N,,gentIe breeze—cloudless.
MULLINGAR-N., calm—partially cloudy.
TUNBBIDGE-S.E., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
LEIGHTON--S.E. calm—overcast.
HoLvHEAD—S.Ik, strong breeze—rain.
WHITBY-S., gentle breeze—overcast.
DARLINGTON-S.S.E., strong breeze—partially cloudy,
light frost.
SNAP—S., gentle breeze—sleet and rain.

THE WEATHER.—Sun OFFICE, FEB. 5.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
36—highest since noon yesterday.
30—lowest this morning and daring the night.
37—this day, at noon.

BAROMETIN, .29.85.
WIND, E.N.E.—Fresh breeze, with elands and sun-
shine. A good deal of rain in the night.

~
,7C Y ....„.._ ,--
: .
11
,‘ „ipptat --$l3-4114,
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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1853.

We would solemnly warn the people of Eng-
land to be watchful of the course pursued at this
moment by their Government. There is need that
all impartial observers—that all men not truck-
ling to the holders of place in Downing-street—
should lift up their voice to bid the multitude
Beware of the policy now being adopted by the
Leaders of the Administration. Mr. COBDEN has
not issued his pamphlet from the press too soon.
The evil scheme, against the revival of which he
and all honest citizens in the realm would protest,
is even now making its deplorable renewal mani-
fest, and doing this, moreover, in a manner re-
markable for its astounding effrontery. A
considerable proportion of the journals prepared
the way for the renovation of the old
policy, for the renovation of that atrocious
and pernicious policy which the more sanguine
amongst us had fain imagined to have been long
ago altogether abandoned. It is the old aristo-
cratic element again rampant, again egging us on
into a contest with France—in the hope that
once embarked in war the national attention
must necessarily be diverted from the great aim
of carrying out a comprehensive system of poli-
tical alterations, or legislative improvements. In
illustration of the truth of this assertion, we have
witnessed of late the encouragement of the horrible
old War, panic. We have it dinned into
our ears unceasingly that the French are
certainly coming to land on our shores, to indulge
themselves in a razzia more terrible than the world
has ever witnessed, to carry off the gold from the
Bank of England, to sack London, to convey the
QUEEN from Osborne House close prisoner, and
to destroy the prestige of our insular glory, is
not to wipe the name of the British Empire from
the chart of Christendom. It began with a de-
parted warrior, grey in years and in renown.
It has been echoed since, in all the changing
notes of alarm, from the magnificent volume
of the merry old man of Brennen, to
the single sheet octavo of the most melancholy,
pamphleteer. From the outset we have acknow-
ledged that more care ought, in reason, to be
taken of the maintenance of our National De-
fences. We have insisted all along that we have
too much at stake not to render ourselves, by every
ratlipnal precaution, as nearly as possible impreg-
nable. Satisfied that the adoption of this course,
under the circumstances, was, all things considered,
only reasonable, we have observed with compla-
cency the increase of our Navy (an increase,
indeed, for which we had, for one, during
many years past loudly and unremittingly cla-
moured), and the general re-organisation of our
militia. We have never closed our eyes to the
weak points in the coast defences of the United
Kingdom. On the contrary, we have been
among the foremost of those who' have besought
the rulers of England to watch more carefully
over their conservation. But throughout the
whole of this period we have recognised
the atrocity of those insults which have
been continually directed against a friendly
Government a Government doing us no in-
jury whatsoever, but, on the other hand,
giving reiterated assurances of a wish to maintain
intact a cordial and lasting alliance. The con-
duct
of those who have hurled these insults across
the Channel, has from first to last glared upon us
in their true light, namely, as being no less foolish
than it is criminal. Latterly, indeed, the
men who have acted thus, have done the utmost
to render Jour Burr at one moment ludicrous,
and at another detestable in the presence of civil-
ised Europe. They have endeavoured to exhibit
him before the face of the whole world under
two aspects of most odious degradation—now,
as a whimperer, and now as a blusterer. They
have pourtrayed him after this fashion—as
though having stuffed his pockets and his carcase
to repletion, he had sat down in his old
age (and, one might almost fancy it,
in his dotage) to drivel over the hor-
rid presentiment that he was going to be
kicked by Somebody ! Again, not satisfied with
this, they have represented him, if that were pos-

Bible, under a still more despicable appearance—
indulging himself, in the midst of profound peace,
with all kinds of warlike vapourings, alternately
shaking his fist and his cudgel at his old friend
JOHNNY CRAPAII; on the other side of the

water—in short, they have tried to make him out
at once a, coward and a bully. In say-
ing this, we do not exaggerate the re-
cent outcry by one tittle. We call things
by their right names. We say that the
people who have fostered this war-cry of late,
have alternated siniply between an almost craven
timidity, and a wholly intolerable insolence.
Under all this, moreover, we have not failed to
detect the meaning of the hubbub—the cause of
all this vapouring—the reason of all this ro-
domontade. It is the old story over again.
The people are to be deluded once more
by that aristocratic influence which abhors
the idea of innovation, and loathes the very
name of retrenchment -- that influence which,
to avoid those two evils, plunged us into a
war that lasted during more than twenty years,
and which cost the toiling population of these
islands a debt of 500,000,0001.—and which, if
not guarded against very vigilantly at this moment,
will plunge the nation again into a no less ruinous
contest, exciting once more an insensate hatred
against the French, and weighing us down under
another debt this time, perhaps, a debt of double
50,0,000,0001. We say, therefore, to the coun-
jay at large—Beware ! We warn every calm
and unprejudiced spectator of events against the
criminal course being now pursued by men who
should guard them against calamity instead of re-
viving warfare, in order that they may the
more effectually retard civilisation. If it be
asked where are the tokens of this deplorable
cause being fostered by our statesmen, we point
simply to the remarks uttered recently by two of
our most eminent statesmen, when addressing
their constituents—one, some weeks back, at Car-
lisle, the other, only yesterday, at Halifax.
Through those two occasions the world witnessed
the extraordinary spectacle of Cabinet Minis-
ters speaking in terms of unendurable insult
of the thrice elected chief of a friendly
nation, the supreme head of a powerful and
neighbouring Government ! It was as if Sir
JAMES GRAHAM had, in so many words, urged
NAPOLEON 11.1. to retaliate, by descending upon
our shores—as if Sir CHARLES WOOD had cla-
moured eagerly for a positive attempt at a French
-invasion. Meanwhile, a general officer in the
army of the Queen of England so far forgets
his position both as an officer and as an Englishman
as to wager that the EMPEROR will bring his
soldiers down upon our shores, upon the un-
derstanding that in the event of our being in truth
thus assailed he—wearing the colours of his Mo-
NARCH, and carrying the sword of his country—is to
be rewarded by the sum of 10,000/. for the arrival
of that great danger to his fatherland I Beholding
all these disgraceful transactions, hearing all these
bitter and unstatesmanlike words, observing the
growth of this panic, and remarking the develop-
ment of these evil passions; we do, again and again,
beseech the more enlightened and conscientious
members of the community to review the whole
question in their calmer judgment, and to decide
which is assuming the nobler part—France or
England. L .

It is much more pleasant to commend than to
censure, and as few of our readers read long
speeches, however carefully we report them, we
will just give them the best sample of our win-
n owings from last week's Manchester orations.
Very long, and we must own lively and spicey,
was the declamation, whether in the Corn Ex-
change, or in the Free-trade Hall ; there was no
lack of various diet for this politically vegetarian
banquet. " The Services" were entertainingly
served up for the general amusement, so were
Emperors and Admirals, Prime Ministers, and
the Press ; Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Ameri-
cans, past alarms and present panics. Certainly
the entertainment did credit to the hosts, and
most peaceful were the peace debates, if so they
may be called, for every resolution was carried
unanimously. To our mind the really valuable
part of the whole affair was its tendency to rectify
common opinions—suppositions we should rather
say—respecting France. It must be confessed
that the English Press generally has been guilty,
since the 2d of December, 1851, of an undesir-
able propensity to see hostile intentions, or at
least suspicious indications in everything across
the water. We are not going to apologise for the
coup d'etat and its first consequences. The con-
scientious moralist may find plenty there to con-
demn ; we have only to do with it politically ;
and from that point of view we must hold that
after the French nation had fairly elected the
subverter of the Republic, we were bound to re-
gard the act as theirs ; tboy had appropriated it,
and it was for us to treat their Government as we
should wish the French Press to treat ours. That
is, their public measures were, of course, fair sub-
jects of European discussion ; but their Ministry
and their President or Emperor, should at least
have•been treated respectfully. Utterly alien as
the whole affair might be to our notions of politi-
cal and even moral fitness, Frenchmen expect we
should allow that they understand their own mat-
ters better than we do.

We were much struck with the good sense of
Mr. COBDEN'S remarks on these points at the
meeting on the 29th. It is, he observed, the
popular ignorance in England of the habits and
tastes of the French people which is at the bottom
of all our censures, and all our outcry about in-
vasion. Mr. COBDEN himself has long had much
personal acquaintance with France and French-
men, and is quite as good an authority as many of
" our own correspondents." He justly observes,
that the French have not yet acquired our full
appreciation of the value of Representative Go-
vernments ; and certainly they have had but
little since 1'792 to inspire them with lasting re-
spect for Houses of Parliament. Public meetings
and voluntary associations, also, they have never
been able to avail themselves of successfully; and
therefore their more sober men shrink from the
hazard of them in less qualified hands. The
Habeas Corpus Act, which we value as such a
guarantee of our personal liberty, has nothing
corresponding to it in France, nor have the French
people, when the fullest power has been in their
hands, ever bethought themselves of this first
safeguard against lawless despotism. The time
may come when they will prize these things as we
do, but it is a plain fact that they do not now.
The Freedom of the Press, also, is not, in their
view, what it is in ours ; and we may well re-
member that it is not very long since the Six Acts
were passed, and since chains were forged to
restrain the free circulation of English political news,
which are only lengthened a little at this hour,
but are not yet destroyed. Mr. COBDEN thinks
that, instead of self-complacently " stroking our
beards, and thanking Heaven that we are not as
other men are, we had better learn from their in-
difference to the Abolition of the Freedom of the
Press to take care that our Newspaper Press shall
be a useful organ in the cause of morality and of
truth, and, above all, of international peace ; and
that our public men and leading statesmen shall
be so truthful in their representative capacities,
show patriotism enough, for the people to trust
them, and cling to their Free Press and their re-
presentative institutions."
If, however, we wonder at the French indiffer-
ence to what we deem so valuable, Mr. COBDEN
well observes that they have their wonderments
also about us. What they do prize and praise
above all things is their Equality in Social Rank.
They have made a clean sweep of every vestige of
feudalism for upwards of sixty years ; they tole-
rate no arbitrary rank or titles, no entails, nor
anything indeed which creates social inequality.
They carry it into their religion, not even the
Church, which comprises nearly the whole popula-
lation, is selected for special endowment ; all
people are put upon a footing of perfect equality.
An hereditary House of Peers like ours would not
be endured for a moment ; Louis NAPOLEON'S
Throne would not be worth twenty-four hours'
purchase if he were to attempt it. Their system
of taxation is the most fair and equal in the world ;
and there could not exist in France such a thing
as a legacy and probate duty on one kind of pro-

perty, and not on another. Candid Fr vnelimen
envy us our personal liberty, but confess, nation-
ally, to a stronger passion for ecpialit Y. Our
stronger passion is for liberty, indulging• wi aich,
we astonish them by our indifference to the : Social
distinctions which condemn the great major ity to
a permanent artificial inferiority. Now, if a
spirit of impartial comparison like this,. which
might be indefinitely carried out, be prop: gated
from the Manchester Meetings, it would be worth
all the trouble and expense incurred by th .e friends
of peace. Joins BULL is egregiously co-nceited of
his. own tastes, and contemptuous of those of
foreigners ; still he is fair-minded, and we. hope
will take this lesson to heart.

Our invasionists were also reminded of many
facts which it behoves them well to remember.
They were assured, if they have forgotten it, that
Frenchmen have something to lose by war as well
as we. That their Bank had contained more sil-
ver than the Bank of England contained of gold
and silver put together ; and that silver is far
more common there in even private familida
in middling circumstances than in Englai ad. That
instead of about 30,000 they have 8,000,000
landed proprietors,—farmers who plough their
own land, certainly not men likely to leave their
homesteads to enrich themselves by marauding in
England ; and that the rural population generally
are in a very far superior state to our own. But
then the French Navy and Cherbourg, and those
steamers to America I Well, we and they both
keep building together ; and we are in a condition
to have almost as many sailors and guns afloat in
the Mediterranean as we have on our own coasts
at home,—well, towards a thousand guns and ten
thousand men in both, not to speak of -our large
reserve and our comparatively immense mercantile
marine. And Cherbourg,—Mr. MILNER GIBSON,
who speaks like a Bailor, and seems to know all
about it from frequent personal inspection,
thanks the French heartily for it ; de-
clares that all who navigate there owe
them thanks also for such an invaluable port
of refuge on a coast which needs it so much, and
for the large sums expended on its fine but costly
breakwater. As to the fleet of American steamers
to be subsidised by Government, he affirms, from
personal knowledge, that Cherbourg is the only
port suitable for them, as being one adapted to
vessels drawing much water, and capable of being
entered in all weathers, by day or by night. We
have previously remarked on the reasonable call
of the speakers for more efficient employment of
our military and naval expenditure ;—with such
facts to tell of, as that military authorities dis-
puted in the House of Commons whether we have
9,000 men or 60,000 to meet an invasion with. ;
that Sir JAMES STIRLING himself, a man high irt the
Navy, stated, before a Committee of the 'House
of Commons, " that the number of officers in the
British Navy over and above what was necessary
for the work to be done, either in peace or war,
was equal to the keep of 20,000 seamen (a state-
ment never contradicted)—it is clear that revision,
economy, and efficiency, not increased estimates,
are the first work in this department for the new
Government.

fastingo u
sin g lyoailliasder
The Dissenters are beginningT to combine for
Parliamentary action,
public regular
n e approvedbusiness
plan
aadnodptinfiligtiattehde
are building a ClubbyH
forefathers built Met' of operations. Their
prayer. They
House, and propose to begin
their Parliamentary
atheirramakeni positionen
good
to Church-
men
au
tr andic
"eating
action by feasting and
speechi-
fying. We know not who
to all this. They can reasonably object
occupy by the laws of the land
a somewhat different political
if they choose to come to
men ; they have, therefore,
political points to maintain, own peculiar
ponpleardinognotthgemredigne
ory
and drinkin-,,,
g instead
fasting and sackcloth,
the more heartily.
Ludgate Hill, nor
we shall but welcome them
We onota
them their MILTON Club, in y
the dinner which its ,committee
the 16th, to " the Members
cognising the principles of Evangelicalof
Noncon-
formists," but we wish their
wish them as merry
can desire. The Dissenters
ques-
tion are v
the very numerous
respectable port'
manufacturers,a banquet
and it will
public advantage that
recognised public centre, where
.will naturally associate, Parliament re-
has advertised for
Meeting-houses,
success, and
c ion of the tradesmen much of
as their hearts
of the class in ,
and comprise
esmen and
be a political d
they should
their an
have a
leading men
and whence
exert the same kind of theylice can
other Clubs have long
done. By the term
" Evangelical," we presume they wish to
Unitarian exclude
and Catholic Dissenters. With the
pranks of the Irish Brigade before . their. eyes, the
wisdombof the latter
exclusion will b© disputed by
few ; but with so many able
Members of Parlia-
ment professing Unitarian
unquestionably improved ha c racter of Unitarian
theology in England, it appears somewhatunde-
sirable to separate themselves from such efficient
men, occupying a precisely similar politi • • cal posi-
tion. We acknowledge the deep
theological ells-.
unction, but we presume that
theology is to be
no subject of action or discussion, either at the
Club or the dinner. . These gentlemen, however,
of course know their own business best, and we
are sorry to own that there are not wanting mem-
bers of the Daily Press who would have made a
most unworthy use of it, had the Nonconformists
adopted a wider basis.
The Dissenting Members in this Parliament
form quite a noticeable body—one capable, if fac-
tiously inclined, of giving no small trouble ; they
are more numerous than the Peelites, and if they
do not include in their number so many "Talents,"
they are not destitute of it by any means; neither
are they likely to fold their talent in a napkin
and to bury it in the earth. There are amongst
them a full supply of men "who have a stake in
the country," and men of high social standing.
The City at least will do all honour to such names
as CHALLIS and PETO. We were somewhat sur-
prised to find what a large amount of population
and of electors the thirty-eight Dissenting Mem-
bers represent. They sit for counties and
boroughs containing 228,057 electors, and a po-
pulation of 4,290,905—one-fifth of the electors,
and more than a fifth of the population. Of
course our remarks exclude Ireland and its ine,al-
culables from consideration entirely. It has also
been observed that, omitting the county Members,
the Dissenting Members, although not more than
one-tenth of the borough Members in the House
of Commons, yet represent fully one-third of the
borough electors of the United Kingdom. Such
facts are very instructive. They clearly show
either that Dissenters are much more numerous
proportionally in the populous constituencies, or
admitting this to be in some degree the case;they
rather show, we think, that large constituencies
are much more free from religious bigotry, and
that a man's being a Dissenter is amongst them
no hindrance to his obtaining the honours and the
good citizen may justly
confidence to which every
aspire—the truth being, that in such constitu-
encies the electors concern themselves, very pro-
perly, not about a man's religious creed, but about
his political creed. No religious views probably
could be more diverse than those of the two Hon.
Members for Finsbury, but they were both known
as consistent and hearty Liberals, and' no opposing
candidate could venture to attack either on the
score of his faith without the certainty of arous-
ing the just indignation of the electors. Would
that as much could be said of every constituency
in the kingdom. America certainly surpasses us in
this respect. Lord CARLISLE declares that
Sir
he
envies them their religious freedom ; and
CHARLES LYELL states that it was a long time be-
fore he could find any one able to tell him to what
denomination the President belonged
in !
cal here
ng isl,
we conceive, no difficulty whatever lati
the course which Dissenters will pursue in the
House of Commons. With but one exception,
from Cambridgeshire, they are all Liberals, mostly
steady, and many of them very earnest, Liberals.
A great part of them are men of business, or well
acquainted with practical life, hence they have not
a tinge of faction about them. They will, doubt-
less, steadily and consistently vote against all fur-
tiler grants for religious purposes, but they will
bring in no Bill to Separate Church and State, or
even to relieve their old opponents, the Bishops,
i