The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-27 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Admiral of the Fleei, Sir,t,Tho,pas Byam Martin,
G.C.8., much better, at the resAdence of Rear-Admiral
Superintendent Martin, iu Portsmouth Dockyard, who has
also recovered from his recent indisposition, and returned
to his duties.

Seventy labourers for the Keyhsm works and 12 ship-
wrights for the dockyard are ordered to be entered at Ply-
mouth.

A singular fact occurred on board the Miranda, which
may prove useful and instructive. In the case of King
Marshall, the ordinary seaman who was killed in the bom-
barding of Solovetskoi by a 61b. grapeshot, the shot
entered in the centre of the breast, just above the region
of the heart. He had a thick worsted comforter tied
round his neck outside a black silk handkerchief, that was
tied in a reef knot with the two ends hanging down about
a foot. The comforter was four times thick. The shot
went through all the parts of the comforter, but carried the
silk handkerchief before it, driving it through under the
blade bone of the shoulder : both parts were through quite
six inches, and when taken out and opened there was not
the slightest cut or rent in it. It has been preserved. This
is considered to be a most strange occurrence, perfectly un-
accountable.

• MR. MACGREGOR'S SPEECH Ar
GLASGOW.

We promised to recur to the speech which Mr.
Macgregor delivered to his constituents at Glasgow
on Thursday last. There are, as we yesterday re-
marked, portions of the hon. gentleman's address
which are well deserving the attention of the pub-
lic. The manner in which Mr. Macgregor was re-
ceived by so large and intelligent a constituency as
that of Glasgow, concluding, as the proceedings of
the evening did, by a cordial vote of confidence,
must have been to the hon. gentleman an ample
reward for the legislative labours which he had to
go through during the sessiun lately closed. That,
however, is a matter which is chiefly of interest to
the representative and the represented. What we
wish to invite attention to is, some observations
which fell from the hon. gentleman on questions of
great national and European importance.
The reference which Mr. Macgregor made to the
alliance between France and England, which it is
to be hoped will be lasting as these two coun-
tries themselves, possesses a special interest from
the circumstance of the hon. gentleman having
been on terms, not only of intimacy, but of
friendship, with Louis Napoleon when an exile
in this country. " The alliance," said the
member for Glasgow, " between England and
France was a most blessed thing for the liberties
and civilisation of Europe. It was his good fortune
to be on terms of acquaintance with Louis Napo-
leon when he was an exile in this country. His
house in London was one of ..the few houses he
visited. He did not boast of this; but he valued
the sentiments Louis Napoleon entertained •with
regard to a perpetual alliance with this country—
au alliance which would constitute the greatest
epoch in the history of civilisation. He knew it
was the desire of the Emperor to bind the people
of the two countries together by material interests,
and to do away with those commercial and mer-
cantile restrictions which had so long existed, and
of which the Bourbons, and especially Louis
Philippe, were the greatest supporters. The Em-
peror of the French knew it was the best policy he
could pursue. It would unite the people of Prance
and England in close intimacy with each other, for
the advancement of social progress and the culti-
vation of all the virtues which adorn humanity.
He knew, also, that by so doing he would bind them
together by the strongest of ad ties—that of mate-
rial interests. The French required many of our
products, and we required many of theirs. We
taxed their wines and some other articles too high.
Let us meet on fair terms. He had reason to be-
lieve that shall be before long."
" The alliance between France and England is a
most blessed thing." Wo cordially echo the sen-
timent, and it will be re-echoed by the people of
every country in the civilised world, however much
it may be execrated by despotic rulers. So long
as the Western Powers are knit together in the
bonds of a cordial union, neither country can have
aught to fear from the royal absolutists on the con-
tinent. It is no unmeaning phrase, that France
and England united can smile defiance at a world
in arms. The Czar is just now having some little
-taste of this. It is to bo hoped that before long ho
will have a still beiOer proof afforded him that the
phrase is something more than a mere rhetorical
flourish.

Nor can we doubt that the existing alliance be-
tween France and England will be as enduring as
it is cordial. It is not a more union of the Govern-
ments. In that case we might not have much faith
in its permanency ; but it is happily a union of the,
peoples of the two countries. The alliance is be-
tween the French and the English nations, and it
is not therefore bible to be broken up with any
governmental or dynastic changes which may take
place.
Mr. Macgregor entered into an elaborate and
able vindication of the present Government from
the attacks which have been made upon it, on the
assumption that it had resolved on assisting the
Austrians to put down the Hungarians, in the event
of their rising against their oppressors in the pre-
sent troubled state of Europe. The defence of Mr.
Macgregor was complete, but we must say that it
was altogether unnecessary. We cannot believe
that any sane man ever for a moment allowed him-
self to suppose it possible that Ministers seriously
contemplated anything of the kind. We have
often arraigned the foreign policy of Ministers, but
certainly we should never have dreamt of charging
them with an intention to aid Austria in putting
down an insurrection in Hungary, in the event of
one taking place in that country. No British
Ministry, be their politics Whig, Tory, or Radi-
cal, will ever be so unwise as to interfere in the
domestic affairs of any other country, much less to
interfere as the friends and abettors of despotism.
Such a Ministry would, by that one act, inflict a
fatal blow on itself. It would not survive a week.
There is one part of Mr. Macgregor's speech from
which we altogether differ. He lays down the
principle that no country ought ever to go to war
that cannot pay the yearly expenses of that war
out of its yearly revenue. " I want," said the
hon. gentleman, "to say one or two words with
regard to the taxation of the last session ; and
when I speak of that taxation, we came to the
resolution that it was much more wise for us to
pay the expenses of the year during the year, and
be done with it, than to add to the already too
heavy national debt of this country, I know
that the taxation for the present year must be
very high, but I believe ours was the wisest course
of policy ; and in one of the addresses of one of
the greatest men I have ever read of—George
Washington—he says, ' Never make a war unless
you pay the expenses within the year.' You have
not the power to consult posterity with regard to
the justice of the war, and you ought never to
tax people without consulting them. It was on
these grounds that we made up our minds in the
House of Commons to raise the expenses within
the year. I believe that it will soon come back to
your pockets by extending the commerce of the
country, and that it will be seen that the Govern-
ment have done right in acting as they have done."
This is all very fine in appearance, but it will not
bear the test of examination. Mr. Macgregor's
principles never can be carried out. We are sure
he cannot mean seriously to lay it down as an
axiom, from which there must never be a devia-
tion—that under all circumstances the annual ex-
penses of a war ought to be paid out of a country's
yearly revenue. Has it never occurredto him that
such a thing would be both morally and financially
impossible ? And what, we should like to know,