The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-25 00:00:00

AM4

LONDON, THI3RSDAY, MARCH 25, 1847.

Whatever may be thoughtnoaftohe morality or utility
of ordaining certain days of national humiliation, it is
impossible to deny that they oricinateal h
in amentortous
d
motive, and that they are calculated to impress the
million with the advantages of mutual dependence.
In accordance with a venerable custom, PaenCuesntee
sanctioned by the Mosaic Revelation, and practised
in all the ages and principalities of Christendom, our
most Gracious Sovereign VICTORIA has proclaimed
such a period of humiliation. When the Asiatic
cholera was depopulating the empire, a similar act of
homage and intercession with OMNIPOTENCE was re-
quired from the country and the Legislature. If we
examine all history, whether profane or ecclesiastical,
we find the tribulations of a community, a city, or
even of an individual family, have been invariably
marked by some such testimonies of anguish. We

complished towards rendering her condition equal to
that of England, and more has been done thereby
towards the fulfilment of the articles of the Legislative
Union than had been effected during the preceding
half century for the improvement of her social and
especially of her agricultural system. Her proprietary
have found themselves tottering upon the brink of a
bankruptcy to which they had been driven by their
own atrocious selfishness. Let them profit by that
terrible warning, and in gratitude for the cordiality
with which the Government has advanced for their

salvation, let them foP.ow the injunctions of the Supreme
People by acting trxwards their tenantry with honesty
and justice. Otherwise the hour of retribution will
have been only procrastinated, otherwise the
L•_ •

famine
and the mortality will return with in-
creased
vain 'horrors, otherwise the whole nation may in
'..prinkle dust upon its head like Jon, and grovel
do'Nn in sackcloth and ashes like the men of Nineveh.

However much the follies of public men intrusted
with the highest political functions may tend to pre-
vent the formation of that good understanding which
should subsist between different states of the civi-
lised world, or, what is worse, to disturb the harmony
which may have happily prevailed amongst them for
a considerable period; yet is it gratifying to know
that there are frequently under currents at work
which legitimately serve to soften national asperities,
engendered by the selfishness, ambition, or reckless
conduct of statesmen, and ultimately to heal up the
breaches which they have untowardly provoked.
The interruption of the entente cordiale between Eng-
land and France has, we know, been occasioned not
by differences which have been largely or seriously
entertained by the great masses of the population in
either one country or the other. International
amity was wantonly sacrificed in consequence of
LOUIS-PHILIPPE'S determination to consult the private
interests of his family, and to pursue a purely dy-
nastic policy, regardless of the faith of treaties, and
the general welfare of France. Without underrating
the grave inconveniences attendant upon the mutual
distrust existing between the Cabinets of the Tui-
leries and St. James's
.by reason of recent events,
we firmly believe, that beyond the immediate pre-
cincts of the respective Courts, the affair of the
Spanish marriages has made no serious inroad upon
the improved feeling which a thirty years' peace has
begotten in the national minds of England and
France towards each other. Commerce has been
vigorously prosecuted by both countries according to
their respective means ; and, as is invariably the case,
whenever its pursuits have been liberally followed, a
rational intercourse has been established. The en-
terprise and honourable vocation of the merchant
exercises indirectly a passive and no inconsiderable
influence over the turbulent instincts of men in
power. To the extension of the reciprocities of com-
merce are we indebted beyond any ether cause for the
blessings of peace which we have almost uninterruptedly
enjoyed since 1815; and the vast facilities which the
introduction of steam power has of late years given to
inland and transmarine intercourse with distant parts
of the globe, affords us the fairest promise that every
year will render the chances of war more and more
remote. The freedom with which our countrymen
have invested large amounts of capital in various
public works, undertaken in foreign countries, and
particularly in France, is a strong proof of the
reliance which they place in the continued mainte-
nance of peace in Europe. On Saturday last the
Paris and Havre Railway was opened. This
important line of traffic owes its accomplishment, in a
great measure, to the contributions of our wealth and
mechanical skill. Mr. Loma was the head engineer,
and Messrs. MACKENZIE and BRASSY the contractors.
The railway has been formed through a line of coun-
try in which the greatest difficulties had to be over-
come. The distance between the capital and Havre
is now travelled in six hours and a half. Two
years since, it required six-and-thirty hours
to make the same journey. With the excep-
tion of Rouen, where a strong local jealousy
existed against the scheme, the directors were re-
ceived, during the progress of their inaugural trip,

with the liveliest demonstrations of public approba-
tion, at every town along the railway. The civil and
military authorities greeted them with enthusiasm.

It seem s that the Government engineers subjected

the extraordinary works to the severest tests, which
have established the fact that the railway is as solidly

constructed as any in existence.

When men of

different races are thus found uniting their energies
fur the completion of undertakings such as these,
it augurs favourably for the progress of civilisation.

In the observations which we on Tuesday offered on
the Indian intelligence that had just been received,
we alluded briefly to the general order, or manifesto,
which had just emanated from Sir C. NAPIER, on
the occasion of the diminution of the army of Sinde.
This singularly able document affords the clearest
and most comprehensive view of the civil and political
advantages realized by the acquisition of that pro-
vince and its incorporation with the Anglo-Indian
dominions, but Sir CHARLES goes something
further; he establishes, in a manner intelligible
to the dullest comprehension, that these benefits
have been attained not only without the
considerable increase of
expenditure of a single rupincome,ee, but that in fact a
has been thereby
the company over and above
secured to the coffers of

have not the presumption to discuss the advisability
of this ceremony, seeing that such a discus-
sion would compel us to drag into the
columns of a newspaper the holiest names
and the sublimest principles of the Great Religion.
The duties of a journalist are altogether apart from
polemical disputation and ethical commentaries.
Besides which it would be indecorous to cast derision
upon a proceeding which has been elicited by circum-
stances of an appalling character, and originated in
sentiments at once solemn and affecting. Was there
a necessity to impress upon the multitude the extre-
mity of the national distress, the soreness of Irish
affliction, or the vastness of our insular wretchedness ?
The Public Fast enjoined upon this day, Wednesday,
the 24th of March, 1847, will convey that knowledge
to the least reflective mind in language the most im-
pressive. Was there a necesssity to prepare those
who have escaped the visitation for the unmurmuring
disbursement of monies for the relief of the real
sufferers ? This Public Fast will convey to them
a beneficial conviction that their aid is not required
on any exaggerated pretext. Was there a necessity
to remind the Members of this magnificent and
flourishing empire of the mutual reliance and fra-
ternal sympathy which are absolutely and perpetually
requisite to preserve the vigour and insure the happi-
ness of the body corporate ?—This Public Fast will
enforce the principles comprised in that necessity.
A spectacle of woe only paralleled by the
scenes depicted by DEFOE in his " Diary of
the Plague," or by those of. the Pestilence in Italy,
as conceived in the imagination of Sir BULWER
LYTTON and delineated in his "Rienzi," a spectacle
of sorrow and disease such as makes;the heart sicken,
has continued before us with little intermission from
the autumnal season of 1845. Some emphatic
expression of our sympathies with the starving pea-
santry of Ireland, some expression of sympathy more
consolatory than pecuniary assistance, because asso-
ciated with their spiritual predilections, was required.
We are now giving voice to that expression ; we are
now averring our humble credence in the mutability
of things terrestrial ; we are now showing that the
warnings of moralists, and even of hilarious poets,
such as HORACE, in their moods of pensiveness, are
not forgotten or despised.
" Pallida mors equo pulsat pede
Pauperum tabernas reguemque turres."
Although the accounts given by Commander
CAFFIN as to the destitution of the Irish peasantry are
even now being corroborated, there is little reason to
acticipate that the sorrows of Ireland are to remain
undiminished in spite of a more genial season, and a
more active benevolence. We would hope that from
the quarter, dating from this day of national humilia-
tion, the assuagement of the miseries of that peasantry
will commence. We are fain to believe that the gulph
in the forum has been for ever closed for Ireland by
the deplorable immolation of so many of her chil-
dren by famine, and that out of the very profundity
of her present calamities will emerge the guarantee
for her future redemption. It is indisputable that the
potato-murrain and its consequences have at-
tracted to the sister island more of the serious
consideration of Parliament and of th• entire Le.
gislature, than all the gaudy and brilliant
demonstrations of her populace. More has been ac•