The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-25 00:00:00

to every one alike ! Thqt, we take it, is the only righte-
ous principle upon which a political writer can act, and
that principle we conceive to have been entirely beyond
the calculations of John Hampden, junior. His disser-
tation% are one-sided to a most glaring extent ; the
whole history of aristocracy, according to him, is com-
posed of the grossest deceit, the most usurious avarice,
and the most nefarious machinations, without a single
redeeming feature ; no solitary ray glimmers over the
bleak and gloomy expanse of its career, from the mo-
ment the Conqueror planted his foot upon the shingles
of Albion to the present generation and the present
hour. Individual merit is swallowed up in the rotten-
ness of the system. The aristocracy are shown to have
teen invariably the aggressors, the people as invariably
the aggressed ; the aristocracy have always been the
evil-doers, the people the innocent victims of their
cruelty and perfidy. One side is immaculate, the other
diabolical—like the stout gentleman, seen by Dickens
in the carnival at Rome, " one half black and one half
white; as if he had been peeled up the middle r It is un-
necessary for us to observe that this mode of viewing
historical facts is unfair, ungenerous, and nnphilosophi-
cal. Besides which, the picture is so clearly impossible
from its monstrous exaggeration, that none but the very
superficial will accord it one iota of credence. We must
confess we opened this volume with a predisposition to
be pleased ' • the very name propitiated our good humour ;
we yearned for an honest English exposure of those
many abases, of that overweening vanity, of that unna-
tural accomul4tion of power and wealth which had been
acquired by the aristocracy during various periods of
our history. We longed for that exposure in its Durest,
boldest, honesteq style : we close the book, however,
with chagrin—we acknowledge ourselves disappointed.
Not but what a prodigious fund of tiuth is accumulated
n its pages; on the contrary, its substratum is sound,
sterling reality, but its superficies, its froth, its scum is
nere petulance, mere balderdash. For instance, the
author mentions Henry VIIT.'s "bloated hands"—now
what on earth has the condition of those bands to do
with the evil genius of aristocracy ? Again, " bloody
Mary" is pushed aside as unworthy of more lengthy
notice from her " burnings and bigot-3,,,_ whet have her
old hacknied " burnings and bigotry' to do with aristo-
cracy ?—and so on, incessantly. A much better preli-
minary would have been the celebration of all the
glorious deeds, and all the truly great names connected
with the Peerage. The condemnation would have fol-
lowed this with double energy, and justice would, more-
over, hare been satisfied. We speak thus strongly be-
cause we go heart and soul with Pope, and his mis-quoter
John Hampden, junior, in thinking—
g, What can ennoble sots, or knaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards."

And becsuse, believing and feeling this truth, we are
desirous of seeing the true history of the aristocracy
penned; a history in which their virtues and vices will
be alike recorded, a history in which will be seen how
many benefits they have conferred upon the nation, and
how many and how grievous are the injuries they have
entailed upon the people. The author's heart has alone
guided his pen, let his judgment assist henceforth in that
€uidance, and he will prove not altogether unworthy of
the mask of Hampden.

STEAM NAVIGATION OF THE

BLACK SEA.

Steam navigation of the Black Sea has within the
last few years materially increased. Scarcely eight
years have elapsed since the inhabitants of Trebisond
were seized with astonishment at the first sight of a
steam-boat belonging to the Austrian Company of the
Danube, which made its appearance on the coasts of
Anatolia for the purpose of establishing direct relations
with the numerous inhabitants on the borders of the
Black Sea and with the capital of the Ottoman empire.
This first attempt of the Danubian Company did not
meet with encouragement, and for a long time after the
travellers and pilgrims who were proceeding from Persia
and from the centre of Asia to Constantinople or to
Mecca, preferred, to the easy and certain:mode of steam-
boats, the frail Turkish vessels which from time im-
memorial trafficked between Trebisond and the Turkish
capital.

Fortunately the Austrian Company persevered in its
enterprise. Its vessels re-appeared, and the Greek and
Armenian populations, as well as those of Anatolia, at
length ventured to trust themselves and their property
on board the " fire-ships," as they were then called, and
shortly after the Mussalman population followed their
example.
At the present time there are three companies whose
vessels ply on this line.
Soon after the success of the Danubian Company be-
came established, an Armenian Company was formed at
Constantinople. The principal Pachas of the empire
took part in it, and it received the warm support of the
Turkish Government. The second company was that of
the Austrian Lloyd's, of Trieste, which now plies
through the greater part of the Levant, and to whom
the Danubian Society has this'year ceded all its steamers
in the Black Sea. The third company is composed of
English capitalists. This company is running in oppo-
sition to the Austrian and Armenian, and sends a fine
steamer every week from Trebisond for Malta, touching
at Constantinople, Smyrna, and Syra. The passage
from Trebisond to Malta is made in fourteen days, and
the number of passengers carried each voyage is seldom
under four hundred.

The Russians have now four steam-boats running be-
tween Odessa and Constantinople, commanded by
English captains ; and three Russian boats regularly
run between Odessa and Kertch.

From lierteh, and even from Bedul Kertch, travellers
arc taken gratuitously by the Russian steam-frigates,
which make their voyage twice a month, touching at all
the intermediate ports and at the fortified posts estab-
lished by the Russians on the coast of Circassia. The
permission to embark on board these vessels is easily
obtained ; the voyage is very interesting, and the views
of the coast of Circassia most magnificent. It is, how-
ever, sometimes dangerous to approach too near the
.oast, for shots are occasionally fired at the vessels by
the Circassiane, from the almost inaccessible peaks
which jut into the sea ; and only a short time since the
commandant in chief of the army narrowly escaped a
ball, which passed closed to his head as he was proceed-
ing by one of those vessels to the fortress of Ardier.

There are at present seven Russian steam-frigates
stationed in the Black Sea. Four of these remain at
anchor in the port of Sebastopol, and the remainder at
Kertch, where they are placed at the disposal of General
Badberg, commander of the forts on the coast of
eircassia.

It is said that Prince Worcnzoff is now actively en-
gaged in organising a line of steamers between Kertch
and Trebisond, which, if carried into effect, will be of
immense advantage to the latter port, as the communi-
cation between it and Georgia is now attended with
great danger from the frail character of the Turkish
sailing-boats, which now form the only means of transit.
The number of passengers between these two points is
very considerable.

The number of steamers which now regularly ply on
the Black Sea is 24, exclusive of four which ruu be-
tween Kertch and Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof, and
two between Bedul. Kertch, and Trebison, touching at
Batum, Pats, and Riach—in all 30.
When these steamers are all properly organised, the
tour of the Black Sea may be made in six weeks, in-
cluding fifteen days passed in quarantine at Odessa.

~ SOME LIE FAR OFF BEYOND

THE WAVE."

A friend, in Paris, has kindly sent us (Nation) some notes
of the life of a distinguished Irishman, lately deceased, from
which we extract the following :
"Died, on the 9th October, 1845, in Paris, where he had
resided for the last thirty-eight years of liz life. David
Bailie Warden, a native of Ballycastle, in the county Down,
a citizen of America, and a corresponding member of the
Institute of France.'
"M. Warden was born in 1778. He entered the Univer-
sity of Glasgow at an early age, and attended the
celebrated lectures of Dr. Millar. Having distinguished
himself in natural philosophy and mathematical science, he-
graduated as Master of Arts, and returned to the Ireland of
the United Irishmen. M. 'Warden was a Presbyterian, and
intended for the Church. His friends, nis principles, his
hopes, were involved in the Union.' lie loved his native
land and her freedom, and became one of that glorious
conspiracy. The military Committee in the North chose
him for its confidential agent and gave him the commission
of a Colonel. Through him the Committee transmitted its
instructions to the general officer, under its orders. The
Catholics in the South, after an heroical struggle of some
months, had been compelled to yield, overpowered by num-
bers. The North was occupied by foreign troops, and armed
bodies of Orangemen. The plans of the confederates, be.
sides, had been disclosed to the Government, and the insur-
rection failed.

" The part M. Warden had taken in those events, of course
attracted the notice of the authorities, and a price was set upon
his head. But his personal qualities, his distinguished character,
and his extreme youth, could not fail to excite interest in his
favour. After remaining concealed during several days, he
was received under the protection of a magistrate, who
volunteered to become his seem ity if he were allowed to con-
tinue at liberty. On the refusal of the Government, M.
Wardell was compelled to surrender himself a prisoner.
During his captivity, every means were used to induce him
to divulge the names of the superior officers recently ap-
pointed by the insurrectionary Committee. Promises and
menaces were in turn resorted to, but nothing could shake
the inflexibility of his principles. In those times, to appear
before a tribunal was to receive sentence of death.—
Thanks to the influence of some powerful friends attached to
the English party, Mr. Warden was not tried by Court Mar-
tial. After a detention of several months in the Provost's
prison of Belfast, and on board a ship of war off that har-
bour, he entered into a compromise, and bound himself, in
writing, to emigrate to the United States of America, never
again to set foot on the dominions of England. The pri-
soners who refused to subscribe to these conditions were
transported to Fort George, in Scotland.
" M. Warden sailed shortly afterwards for New York,
where, he met with a most cordial reception, particularly from
the Professors of Columbia College. On his landing, he
was offered the chair of Natural Philosophy in the Col-
lege of the Union; but an engagement which he had pre-
viously contracted, prevented him from accepting that offer.
In 18013, he was Rector of Kingston Academy, when Gen.
Armstrong, who had been appointed Minister Plenipoten-
tiary of the United States at Paris, chose him, with the
assent of President Jefferson, for his Secretary of Legation.
M. Warden, who had become an American citizen in 1804.
was called to that office, as he was more lately, to that
of Consul-General of America, in Pa-is, without any a )lici-
taticn on his part. Nevertheless, when he found himself
sacrificed, some years afterwards, to a political interest, he
embarked in the sloop of war Hornet, and, on his arrival at
Washington, was reinstated in his post by the unanimous
vote of the senate. He then returned to France, in the Con-
stitution frigate, with the new Minister, M. Joel Barlow, and
resumed his consular functions in the French capital.
"In 1812, at the death of Mr. Barlow, the power of that
Minister devolved on M. Warden, who, as the only agent
accredited by the United States at Paris, exercised them,
until Napoleon's return from Russia enabled M. Crawford to
present his credentials. Being the sole representative of a
neutral power then residing at Paris, his certificate was
required to validate the acts of foreigners of all nations,
detained or settled in France. It was in that capacity
he received the depots of the archives of the Russian
embassy, at the request of Prince Kourakin. M. Warden de-
dined any pecuniary remuneration for that service; but the
Linperig dOr: not WifilliPg it to mania wuecitlitcd,