The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-11 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1853.

A memorable event has this day been wit-
nessed in the British Channel by a considerable
concourse of our fellow-countrymen, by the as-
sembled Members of our Government, by both
Houses of our Legislature, and in person also by
our august SOVEREIGN. After the military spec-
tacle at Chobham—it was deemed only reason-
able that the nation should have a grand naval
review at Spithead. Neither incident we feel
confident can fail to exercise at this particular
period of our history a salutary and appreciable
influence upon the great mass of our „intelligent
population. It has been thrust forcibly in either
instance upon the national recognition, that
England has still both the capacity and the
resolve to maintain at all hazard the glory
of her independence. It cannot, however,
be misconstrued into being any idle boast of our
strength, or into any vain-glorious parade of
our magnificence. It constitutes briefly an illus-
tration of the old motto, si vis pacem para
which was the truth really symbolised in the pal-
ladium of every strong and sagacious Government.
Regarded in this light, and in no other, the Spit-
head Review and the Chobham Encampment will
be understood in their actual significance. But
not otherwise. It were but a miserable per-
version of reality to suppose that they originated
simply in a love of parade, or in any feel-
ing yet more offensive to the common sense
and honest convictions of Englishmen. As calcu-
lated to reanimate sentiments of a patriotism long
dormant by reason of nearly forty years' uninter-
rupted tranquillity, a spectacle of this character
may be welcome, even (one might conjecture) to
the most infatuated believers in the Peace Move-

Bullying has so far succeeded with A the _ AUTO,
MIT that considerably " more privileges the
even Russia had asked for them" will. be accorded
to the Greek Christians in Turkey by firmans
about to be dispatched to St. Petersburgh from
Constantinople °. Such is the glorious triumph of
e diplomacy for which England is now being con-
gratulated. Such are the conditions upon which
the CZAR, has consented that his troops shall eva-
cuate the Danubian Principalities. In considera-
tion
Iltr.vwsked for them" being granted by the Sultan ABR-
.-, IM-MEDJID to those among his subjects who are
Greek Christians—the Emperor NICHOLAS will
vouchsafe to recal his army across the Pruth and
to consent to the terms of a formal pacification.
That is our victory ! That is the magnificent
success by -which the Four Great Powers of
Western Europe ar
longed and energetic
e about to crown their prc-
negotiations ! In this we
are not drawing upon our imagination for facts—
we are simply quoting
journal know
the
c.ea
(lit language of a r and
the confidence of the Earl ofn
Ato be in
to the expressions
Government. According EtnnEEN's
of that contemporary expressions .8
•
° re-
markable that they cannot be too frequently
repeated—the CZ.AE, will consent to a pacific
settlement of exiJing difficulties, upon the un-
derstanding that firmans dell be issued by
kv, the athliwo Porto, allour;,nz to the Chriz-
tia43 throug4xat xO:4 PA= -47,03 TUN'

EVEN RUSSIA HAD ASKED FOR THEM !! ! " A
matter worthy of remembrance. A revelation
justifying, surely, some few of the doubts recently
expressed by us as to whether we shall find such
really vast cause to exult over the consequence of
all these protracted negotiations. Stripping the
truth of all extraneous and sophistical palliatives,
we shall discover that it amounts simply to this--
Russia, with perfect impunity to herself,
will have compelled the SULTAN to ac-
cord to all the Greek Christians through-
out his dominions more privileges than the
CZAR himself has at any time demanded for them,
and Russia will have driven the Sublime Porte
to the necessity of making these enormous con-
cessions by the most odious insults, and the most
flagrant intimidation ! Remembering the in-
solent and desr oijc bearing of the Emperor
NICHOLAS throughout these transactions—remem-
bering the arrogant and impertinent tone of
MENSCHlKOFF—remembering the summary move-
ment of the troops under the command of GORTS-
CHAKOFF remembering the treatment experi-
enced by the Hospodar of Moldavia, the duplicity
shown towards the chief Powers of Christendom,
the indignities offered to the Divan, the atro-
cious manner in which the laws of Europe have
been outraged, and in which the integrity of the
Turkish Empire has been violated—we cannot,
for the life of us, understand how a settlement of
the question, like that above indicated, can be
regarded by England and her allies as matter for
such loud and boastful self-gratulation.
We maybe remindedthat the Russian troops will
at once retire across the Pruth—that the Danubian
Principalities will be forthwith evacuated. Why,
that, of course ! Assuredly the least that could be
looked for, as among the more inevitable results
of diplomatic negotiation. But the complete
evacuation of Moldavia and Wallachia only brings
matters again to their original position. Nothing
is thereby effected in the Way of vindicating the
independence of Turkey, or of extorting repara-
tion for all the duplicity and indignity with
which the Russian Cabinet has borne itself towards
the rest of the European Governments. In lieu
of attempting which we are to secure the issue of
firmans which shall accord to the Greek Chris-
tians, subjects of the SULTAN, " more privileges
than even Russia had asked for them !" A mar-
vellous cause, truly, for exultation ! No
wonder the CZAR is so ready at the
eleventh hour to accede to the proposals
transmitted by the representatives of the Four
Powers from Vienna to St. Petersburgh. Why,
of course the Russian Cabinet is willing to accept
a proposition which shall secure to the Greek
Christians in Turkey more privileges than even the
CZAR in his most arrogant moment had demanded !
Of course the troops of the AUTOCRAT will be
withdrawn beyond the waters of the Pruth upon
the understanding that the Greek Christians in
Turkey shall henceforth enjoy more privileges
than had been required for them prior to the
Russian occupation of the Danubian Princi-
palities ! Of course the Emperor NICHOLAS is
not by any means reluctant—with England,
and France, and Austria, and Prussia allied
against him at the back of Turkey—of course,
we say, the Emperor of RUSSIA. is not at all re-
luctant, in the presence of such odds, to consent
to terms like these—terms to himself so eminently
convenient and. advantageous ! All this is ob-
vious enough ; but we will confess that, to our-
selves at least, it is not by any means so apparent
that a pacific settlement of this nature is subject
fur joy or self-gratulation. It is not precisely
the kind of result that might have been expected
from that resolute act of the 20th of March—
that act by which a nobler and more chivalrous
policy was opened up to the nations of Christendom
—that act upon which the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.
then entered upon his own individual responsi-
bility. We allude to the prcmpt dispatch cf the
French fleet to Salamis, so as to be within easy
distance of Constantinople. Had the Cabinet of
the Tuileries been properly supported from that
moment by the rest of the great Powers, we should
long ago have witnessed a very different and a
much more decisive pacification. Unhappily, how-
ever, there was more than one preventive to a set-
tlement of the Eastern Question thus rapid and satis-
factory. Austria was still deeply in the rut of Russian
influences. Prussia was infected by the dread of
political aly,orption. England was presided over
by a Coalition, and that Coalition by an ABER-
DEEN. Hine Rice lacrymce. Hence the proposal
which has been so cordially welcomed at St.
Petersburgh. Nevertheless, though we may be
compelled to receive the official record of . these
diplomatic proceedings, we can scarcely be expected
to swallow, without a wry face, the accompanying
congratulations.

" Truth is stranger than fiction." The accu-
racy of the time-honoured adage has been fre-
quently exemplified, but never more powerfully
than in the case of SMYTII v. SMYTH, which yester-
day terminated in an exposure of one of the most
nefarious impositions ever attempted in a court
of justice, and the committal of the detected
impostor to stand his trial on a charge of perjury.
The advantage of rendering the evidence of
the parties to suits admissible was also exhibited
in a very powerful light, for there can be no
doubt that the failure would not have been
so signal—the triumph so decisive—had it
not been for the self-contradictions to which
the claimant of the ample estate and ancient
honours of the SMYTH family was driven, by th e
stringent and searching cross-examination of Sir
FREDERICK THESIGER, which completely upset his
case, and left not even a shadow of doubt on the
mind of the most credulous. Had it not been
for that ordeal, the damning fact could not have
been elicited so speedily and conclusively, that the
so-called Sir RICHARD HUGH SMYTH had gone, so
lately as the month of January last, to an en-
graver at No. 161, Oxford-street, for the purpose
of having the name " GOOKING" engraved upon a
placed.have aile rrdhe
seal, one of the "ancient" family relics, on the
possession of which so much reliance was
impudent demand- would probably
under any circumstances, but the de-
tection woad not have been so complete and une-
quivocal,
p
Th
rotectidefendant might still have been
harassed by
furtherlitigation,protecting
h
andi s
rights.exposed
to a ayn,
enormous outlay in
more, the impostor might still have found
pretensions, and
anis
sym-
pathisers and dupes wh,,
,Would have credited his
ted the cc - •
I who had been so long and so un- suffering heir,"
ustly deprived of
his inheritance, and perraittecl to languish in
poverty and obscurity,
n in 0- the station towhich'euPY-
by birth and fortune. What was entitled t,
now
becomes
of the cautious scruples of those who objected to
the improved system, under which parties were
rendered eligible witnesses in their own suits, not
only that it would have a very demoralising ten-
dency, holding out a strong temptation to false
swearing, but that it would also perplex juries by
the almost incessant clashing of evidence, op-
position -
of conflicting testimony which would ren-
der their duties more arduous, and the task of
discrimination almost impossible ? Whatever may
be said on the first point, it is now manifest that
the second difficulty is entirely removed—that
juries are materially assisted by hearing the
evidence of the parties ; and there is not
so great a distinction between subornation
of perjury and the commission of the actual.
°l-itoo, to render the possibility .of the COM-
mission of the latter in extreme cases to be con-
sidered a adEt t elezi. reason for the excluzion of the
°4)ll2r4ete 4814 which the 34,4itiow en •
deZigo

might cast upon the case. Would the soi-disant,
Sir RICHARD HUGH SMYTH, be in a bit better
position, if he had not been required to sustain
his iniquitous claim by the personal appeal to the
DEITY ? According to the old system, he would
merely have been guilty of a most atrocious fraud,
of a coolly and deliberately planned robbery of not a
few paltry pounds, but of property of the estimated
value of 30,0001. per annum—of systematically
swindling a young gentleman out of his birthright,
and that by means which it is not now necessary
to characterise. Is his guilt, then, so greatly
aggravated by the fact, that he pledged his own
oath, in addition to those of the persons who
either wilfully or innocently—it matters not
for the purposes of the argument—were induced
to come forward as witnesses on his behalf ?
Certainly not ! His offence in either case would
have been equally flagrant—his crime equally
black ! There has been, so far as the wretched
individual is concerned, not the slightest cause of
regret—nothing to impair the concurrent testi-
mony of the Bench, the Bar, and the community
in general, that the new regulation " works admi-
rably, and contributes in an eminent degree to the
due administration of justice."
We cannot now enter into the extraordinary
facts connected with this most extraordinary case.
Neither time nor space would admit of the effort
this day. They are such, however, as could
scarcely have entered into the mind of the most
accomplished writer of fiction, and prove that
" romance" is once more immeasurably exceeded
by " reality." That there are stranger events in
life than could be devised by the most brilliant ima-
gination. The case of SMYTH V. SMYTH will hence-
forth take a prominent position among the " causes
celebres" that have hitherto astonished the world,
and from some extraordinary coincidences between
this case and another that was some fourteen or
fifteen years since attempted in the sister king-
dom. We should not feel surprised if the present
audacious attempt was not the first or the most
striking attempted by the impostor ; or if " Sir
RICHARD HUGH SMYTH, Bart. (?)" should turn
out to be the identical individual who, under the
designation of " The Lost Heir," attempted to
gain possession of a large property in the South of
Ireland, and to inflict disgrace, dishonour, and
pecuniary loss upon the representative of one of
the most respected and most ancient Milesian

The life of an English Bishop is generally sup-
posed, both by laymen and by all the " inferior
clergy," to be a tolerably easy one. Perhaps the
advanced age to which they generally enjoy their
episcopal incomes has generated the strange delu-
sion. Delusion it certainly is, since our legisla-
tors, who ought to know best, have more than
once sought to " relieve" them of their cares.
Immediately after the passing of the Reform Bill
it was even proposed to " relieve" them of their
legislative duties in the Upper House ; their
Lordships, however, much preferred to retain the
burden, and the proposal never even commanded
a majority of the Lower House. Next Bishops
were actually " relieved" of a portion of their
superfluous wealth, which was placed in the hands
of Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who were to leave
them only the proceeds of estates equal to a sum
fixed by Parliament for them. They were re-
lieved, however, not of the management of their
estates, but of the redundant wealth only ; and
how London, Durham, Salisbury, and others con-
trived to retain as much of the pecuniary burden,
as well as that of the management too, is
known to all whom it concerns, especially to
Sir BENJAMIN HALL, whom Lord JOHN endea-
voured, we fear in vain, to console for having to
record again that the Bishop of DURHAM, having
pocketed 19,0001. a year, instead of the 8,0001.
allowed him by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Act, has this
last year actually rejoiced in an income of 24,0001.,
and defied the Commissioners too.

At length, however, the right proposal is on
the fair road to a triumph. The good old plea of
grouse shooting alone prevented the second read-
ing of the Marquis of BLANDFORD'S Episcopal and
Capitular Estates Bill. It is now proposed to re-
lieve the Spiritual Peers of money and of manage-
ment too—to pay them only the sums fixed by
Parliament, to place all Church property under
cathedral control in the hands of the Com-
mi-sioners, and to leave the Bishops only the no-
minal title to the estates. It would be thought
at first sight that no ingenuity could contrive
any passable argument in behalf of the pre-
sent system. Already Parliament has fixed
the amount they shall receive from the estates;
and it has required them to make a return
annually of their receipts to the Commissioners.
Some of the bishops, deferring to public opinion,
or to still more efficient hints received at the time
when the bishopric was offered them, have agreed
to be strictly limited to the income appointed
for them by Parliament ; and it is clear that
hardly any future bishop can refuse to assent to a
similar understanding. There seems, therefore,
nothing left now for the Bench to contend for but
the empty honour of the title of landed proprie-
tors ; and this the Marquis of BLANDFORD pur-
poses to leave them. It is inconceivable, if they
renounce all but the income assigned them by
Parliament, that they can wish any longer to be
burdened with the cares of managing the pro-
perty. Any layman having but a fixed
yearly charge upon an estate would certainly
be thankful, for his ease and pleasure's sake, that
some one else should have the estates and the
trouble of them. If his income were secure, the
freer his hands the better he would like it ; and
surely men who have the supreme religious charge
of extensive districts, and the superintendence of
hundreds of clergymen, must rejoice to be at
liberty to give themselves wholly to their sacred
work. We have heard much of increasing the
number of bishops of late years. It certainly
seems desirable first to try the result of requiring
the present ones to give up Estate Agency. There
seems to common judgments no natural connec-
tion between the duties which PAUL, for instance,
assigns to a bishop, and those of a good manager
of Episcopal estates.
Of course, however, opposition there must be.
Want of time this session is conceded. But that
is not enough. The grand appeal is to our anti-
quarian sentiment. The Bishops are the oldest
landholders in the nation. "It might be said that
the property of these landowners was theirs a
thousand years before an acre of land could have
been held by the noble house to which the
Marquis of BLANDFORD belonged." Such was
the venerable moss and ivy covered argu-
ment which Sir ROBERT INGLT3 hoped would
weather the gathering clouds, which have only
rolled away with a clear certainty of returning
another Session. Very pretty, Sir ROBERT, very
pretty, indeed ; but WORDSWORTH is- gerne----we
live in a thoroughly utilitarian age. Railways
have cut through to Windermere, and steam-
boats profaned its quiet waters—

Audax omnia perpeti
Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas,

and it is too late to hope that men will tremble
before the fiction of non-hereditary landowners—
landowners who cannot leave an acre to their
heirs ; not at least of the acres conferring the
poetic antiquity. How many other acres, or acres'
worth they have often left, we know but too well.
We pass over, just now, the inquiry whether Pro-
testant Bishops in England can he said to inherit
a title remoter than the times of Henry VIII. and
his celebrated daughter.
hI na dd. e ed
very
earthly Then
Another more business-like objection is, that
the lands would not be so well managed by others.
mustminds.
these
I f Spiritualvieadmit L otirides
argu-
ment ment it almost upsets itself, ev. •
incina, as it would,
that the Bishops must have had °
far too much time
and thought absorbed in •
objects very foreign to
those for which they were consecrated to their
office. In the whole of the •
service alluded
to we find no injunctions to labour in
the calling of landowners. Most •
will think,
however, that the interests of •
the Bishops
on the lease, renewal, and fine system are diametri-
cally opposite to the general pecuniary interests
of the Church ; the interests of the former are the
largest sum which can be secured within the coin-
*- own e ; those of. the latter, the
pass of luz, life
lug* attainable t4a 1 410012:10. . inteptit%