The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-18 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1810:

ciating the fleets of other nations. But what evidence
has Sir Charles Adam afforded of his capacity to un-
dertake so difficult and onerous a post ? Absolutely
none.

( From the Courier.)
The tone of the French papers is becoming more
fierce and warlike daily, and the insulting language gra-
tuitously volunteered by the organs of the Foreign-office
here is duly retorted with defiance by return of post.
It is not difficult to foresee the end of this continued fire
of recrimination, of which all the guilt and folly is justly
chargeable upon Lord Palmerston alone, for by the
journals under his control the maddening war of words
was first commenced and exasperation is still fed. The
forbearance and decorum of the Ministerial Press at
Paris contrasts strangely, but advantageously, with the
Bobadil swagger of the morning and evening deposita-
ries of our Foreign-office vagaries ; and the extraordinary
contradictions may be remarked, that whilst the Minis-
terial voice of Paris, as represented by its organs, is all
for peace, and that of the Opposition or Anti-Ministerial
Press of all shades almost unanimously for war, here, on
the contrary, every article which issues from Downing-
street to its dependent papers is strongly as indecently
redolent of fire and fury, whilst the attitude of the whole
independent and Constitutional Press is that of digni-
fied moderation, and calm rebuke of the outrageous
extravagances perpetrated in our diplomacy. Although
the dawn be overcast, yet we cannot still persuade
ourselves that war is so imminent and immediate
as some of our Contemporaries would seem to be-
lieve. A correspondent of the Post indeed goes so far
as to indicate the outlines of a plot said to be laid, one
of the features of which consists in a sudden embargo on
the persons of the English resident in France, estimated
at the number of forty thousand. This we hold to be
impossible, under the reign of Louis Philippe at least.
He assuredly will not be the man to repeat the Vandal
barbarism of Buonaparte, and violate the usages of civil-
ized nations.

(From the Globe.)
One of the most curious, if not the most serious, con-
sequences of the present dubious aspect of affairs towards
the East of Europe, is that the " Old Commodore" of
the Times, with his half-dozen maritime aliases, who
used to figure in the correspondence-columns of that
journal during last recess, is now fitted out for active
service, and thundering broadsides in its leading
articles. Who does not remember how often the Old
Commodore (we borrow the description of him in this
.veek's Examiner)" and Philo-Admiral,' and ' Anti-
Autocrat-iensis,' and all sorts of maritime originals, were
employed at the seasons alluded to, in the Times and its
tributary journals, upon the laborious task of bringing the
Russian fleet to anchor at the mouth of the Thames—in
other words, of bringing the whole force of naval sta-
t istics to bear against the unassisted comprehension of
weak landsmen—counting the number of hands' in
each foreign ship by hands and not heads, so as to
double the complement with much logical address—
reckoning ships building as ships ready built, thus con-
founding the sea with the stocks—and finally showing
that the Baltic is within an hour or two's sail of Black-
wall ! Nobody, however, saw the Russian navy riding
in Thames water last year—for the reason mentioned
in the Critic relative to the fleet of Spain. " Threat-
ened men," says the proverb, " live long." The threats
of a Russian invasion of our coasts have been renewed
every recess till they had lost a good deal of their
terror. It was a godsend to the Old Commodore to
be able to add France to Russia in his threats of inva-
sion, at a slight sacrifice of common sense, and moral
possibility. It is now France or Russia that are to
anchor their fleets at the Nore.