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

Mr. BRIGGS'S was not an ordinary mind. He was
evidently bewildered, for we find him adding—
" I said, What do you mean ?' " Fortunately,
Mr. BRIG-GS 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. STAF-
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 Monaxch than of the age of Queen
VICTORIA. Conning these odd exposures of the
doings at the Dockyards, and reading them by
the light of Mr. BRIGGs'S evidence, we are almost
fain to imagine ourselves in the days when good
" Mr. 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
PEARSON 15 breaking ground for the erection of
his proposed City Terminus. Under any circum-
stances ho may be said to have already prepared
for the laying of its foundations. Additional
promise 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,
the interview proved more satisfactory than such
things are accustomed to do. Instead of leaving
the Members of the deputation just about as wise
on going out of the official apartment as they had
been on entering it, Viscount PALMERSTON ex-
pressed his views upon the subject of this pro-
jected 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
MAJESTY'S Principal Secretary of State for the
Home Department, 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-
MERSTON, 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, may
now, under PROVIDENCE, be the means of con-
ferring domestic benefits no less remarkable, no
less deserving the labours of a great statesman, on
millions of your fellow-countrymen : and in this
point of view, and under 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 London (Sir JAMES 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 supported by the Go-
vernuient." 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. WILKIN-
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
DIINCOMBE) 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
he regarded the project, as a whole, as highly de-
serving 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
probability of 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. Ultimately, 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 as 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
ti a large constituency under a most holy
An-Maynooth spell, and returned in triumph
the favourite
aid. In the candido ae
otef oefotmhmosoenwshosinineveoked
Mr.
rt hei r
ER
CIVAL'S exit, this race of beings has been nearly
extinct ; some specimens
spe-
cies do indeed rem •the extinct
Onesof •
old without the
argu-
ments of the canonised' but
ofmg only the
testimonialts of canortisatio
they preaent rather