The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-03 00:00:00

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L ONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 184?.

The closing month of 1849 has witnessed the death
of Queen ADELAIDE, an event of no political import-
ance whatsoever, but yet a subject of very general
concern. Death has at all times a powerful interest
for all the children of humanity, and the de
cease of a royal personage, even in these de-
mocratic days, is the subject of no ordinary
attention. During life the gorgeous para-
phernalia of rank and the stately parade of royalty
may seem to exclude a peculiar class from the circle
of general sympathies, but when once the purple and
the ermine ere for ever laid aside, and the guards at the
palace-gate are become useless, then all the distinctions
of prince and peasant are forgotten, and men and women
lament that a man or woman has passed away. So
it is in thepresent instance. ADELAIDE, for seven years
Queen Consort, and for twelve years Queen Dowager
of England, is no more—an Extraordinary Gazette
has announced her demise, the theatres will
be closed, a general mourning will be assumed
for a brief period, and then her royal history will be
consigned to practical oblivion. But if the memory
of the Queen be thus transient, the memory of the
woman will survive it. The private friends to whom
she had endeared herself, the sufferers her
bounty had relieved, and the good works
her charity had made prosperous, will perpetuate the
name, and shower blessings upon the memory of the
kind mistress and generous benefactress. SHAIES•
rEas has
,enumerated three kinds of greatness, but one
only is of an enduring nature. "Some are barn great,',
but their glory is illusive in its character and fleeting
in its existence. " Some have greatness thrust upon
them," and too often the pride of their position only
enhances their individual insignificance. The greatness
which we "achieve" is the only one which will
really add lustre to our life and give perpetuity to our
name. The crowd uncover their heads in the presence
of a king, but their hearts thrill at the
sight of one who has achieved great things.
Mourning garments are assumed when the Gazette
announces a royal decease, but unbidden tears are
showered on the bier of one who has effected good.
In this, as in all other instances, we

see that although the gifts of fortune
and the facilities of circumstance are differently
awarded, although some may with seeming justice
repine over the unusual sufferings and privations
of their lot, yet the greatest blessings of earth,
like the promises► of Heaven, are within the
reach of the greatest number. Few are born great,
few have greatness thrust upon them; but who shall
dare to affirm of any one that (be he who he may)
he cannot achieve greatness for himself ?
" Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Foot-prints on the sands of time."
These reflections, these encouraging reflection!, are
naturally suggested by the death of one who, after
occupying a throne and wearing a crown, is now
regretted and remembered not on account of that
peculiar position which is within the reach of the
few, but for the sake of those individual virtues which
are in the power of the many. Sermons, we are
told, may be found in stones, and most assuredly
among the best are those suggested by tombstones.
We allude not to the too often fictitious
panegyrics inscribed thereon, but to the
moral warning which their very presence inspires.
Like the skeleton at the Egyptian feasts, the announce-
ment of a public death appears among us as a re-
minder of our inevitable mortality. Happy for us if
it be something more—happy for us if the
thought of death, instead of being a shadow to sad-
den, be a stimulant to excite. Life is transient, shall
we, therefore, waste it in apathy, or consume it in
regret ? Death is inevitable, and therefore, while
we have breath let us live—live the life of men and of
Christians, and not vegetate merely like the grass,
which to-clay is and to-morrow is cut down. Let
us live that our passage through the world
may be marked by the good we have effected, and our
memory kept perennial in the love of those we
leave. Such reflections are surely the fitting accom-
paniments of a public death, and more especially are
they appropriate to the death of one whose virtues
have won for her a regard and a regret which her
regal position (without them) would have failtd
to secure.

Earnestly is it to be hoped by all well- wishers of
the Royal Navy of England that the disposition
already manifested by the authorities at the Admi-
ralty to forward the combination of the grand motive
powers, sailing and steaming in our ships of war, may
he yet more rapidly and practically developed. One
consideration ought of itself to be sufficient to confirm
our maritime administrators in the disposition recently
manifested by themselves to apply the screw-pro-
peller not only to frigates, but to vessels of yet larger
dimensions. The reflection that the expenses in-
curred by this addition to the structure produced by
the -science of marine architecture, are in no respect
comparable to the advantages accruing from
the improvement, should Most assuredly be
rc garded as sufficient to render the change one
of rno-:•e frequent and general application. It is im-
poi,;ible, indeed, adtquately to.,estimate th 3 benefits
which would inevitably result to the service in the
way•of developing its resources and increasing its
efficiency by the adoption of a simple resolution such
as this—that the screw should be applied to every