The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-12 00:00:00

transaction. Let Commode re WATSON be properly
supported before it is "to,o late." Let not that
stereotyped phrase be again applicable to the Bri-
tish Government. We have already suffered enough
from the effects of apathy and negligence. Such
results must be avoided fox the future. We have
been too seriously injured by the positive results
of the Armistice to receive any consequential
danger. The Sovereign assured the nation that
no precaution would be relaxed, and that every
preparation would be na ade for the vigorous
maintenance of the War. Let that pledge be
faithfully redeemed by Ministers. There are
many points in which it must be attended to,
but none of greater importance, or where the
consequences might be 'more serious, than those
relating to the Baltic riquadron, or a possibility
of an attack thereon, by the Russian skulkers,
who would gladly avail themselves of the ab-
sence of those who could prevent the possibility
of their interference.

We trust, then, that "My Lords" may be
better informed as to the nature and extent of
the armistice than the community at large. The
secret of the proceedings at the Conferences has
hitherto been well kept;. But nothing could ex-
cuse any negligence that would endanger any por-
tion of the British navy, or could give the enemy
even the appearance of, or plausible pretext for,
claiming a triumph where England has hitherto
claimed to be invincible, and put forward the
proud boast of "infallibility." We have had
reverses by land. They have been submitted to;
but let Sir CHARLES WOOD and his coadjutors take
care that nothing can happen that may affect the
honour of the " wooden walls," in which the
nation has reposed so implicit, and hitherto, hap-
pily, well-founded reliance.

What it may be precisely that Sir DE LACY
EVANS has latterly been aiming at by his pro-
ceedings in the British House of Commons, it
would be rather difficult, we conceive, for the
most astute observer to conjecture. Is he the
apologist of the rotten old system now fast crum-
bling away to nothingness at the Horse Guards ?
Or is he, on the contrary, a Military Reformer,
going heart and soul with the comprehensive pro-
jects of innovation set on foot, of late, by such
thorough-going advocates of improvement as the
hon. members for Sheffield and Aylesbury ? Is he
the most arrant of courtiers ? Or is he, on the other
hand, what many have believed him to be for a long
time past, the out-and-out radical representative
of the out and-out radical constituency of the
City of Westminster ? Which ? Black or White ?
Hot or cold ? " Pale or red ?" Blustering
with BOBADIL after the true braggadocioso
fashion " Twenty more—kill 'em ! Twenty more
—kill 'em ! Twenty more—kill 'em !" Or chewing
the leek with " mine ancient" PISTOL, with an eye
askance at the half-drawn sword of Prave FLUEL •
LEN ? How shall we have him—this gallant old
soldier, with the heart of a BAYARD, and the face
of a QUIXOTE, and the tongue of a shrew t His
meaning wriggles out of our grasp like the slip-
pery-est of eels—the colours of his argument
change as surprisingly, and unexpectedly, and
bewilderingly, as—what shall we say?—as those of
an expiring dolphin, or of a living chameleon, or of
a shaken kaleidoscope. For example, there was
that very masterly speech of his, delivered in the
House of Commons, on the 29th of this last month
of February—(a speech in every way worthy of
signalising a rara dies like a 29th of February)—
followed three nights afterwards, namely, on the
3d inst., by one that might be characterised as a
" most tame and impotent conclusion l" Look at
the two—compare them—place them side by side.
They are absolutely, and without the smallest
exaggeration, as different from ono another as
black from white, as hot from cold, as pale from
red, as light from darkness.
And no wonder ! For Sir DE LACY EVANS,
with an effrontery but seldom witnessed in
the most callous browbeater at the bar, re-
tracted on Monday evening, March 3, verbatim,
et literatim, et seriatim, word for word, every
opinion, everi sentence, every syllable he
had articulated, with such a flourish, and in tones
so sonorous, on Friday evening, the 29th of
February ! He not only most meekly chewed
the leek but—what was much worse, because so
much more rank in flavour than the most acrid
specimen of the national emblem of Wales—ate
his own words with their own natural sauce !
Assuredly, after all which, we must henceforth
regard him as one endowed with the digestive
powers of an ostrich—the bird of the de-
sert of whom DOUGLAS JERROLD has some-
where spoken, as indulging occasionally
in the luxury of a tenpenny nail ! Wonderful,
indeed, are the powers of deglutition of the
honourable and gallant member for the City of
Westminster. He cries Peccavi ! to everything.
Mr. GLADSTONE reproves him as Mr. GLADSTONE
can reprove when he so pleases—with the air of
a hedge-schoolmaster, whose birch is no other than
a bunch of nettles culled from the cool margin of
the contiguous ditch. Smarting under his casti-
gation, Sir DE LACY EVANS avows himself " very
sorry, and will never do so any more !" And so,
with a wry face—a wryer face than
usual !—he repudiates everything he has
said but a very few hours previously in a
crowded house and with such confident and ag-
gressive declamation ! On Friday he is very
funny about a queer name abbreviated by the
electric telegraph : asking, as LISTON might have
asked yesterday, or as KEELEY might ask to-day—
" What on earth is Down ? What in the name
of fortune could taking care of Down ' mean ?"
And more than hinting, while he said it, at some-
thing excessively like nepotism on the part of the
Noble Lord the present Minister of War ! Well—
two or three days pass by, and General EVANS
rises in his place in the House of Commons, penitent
almost to tears, still as ordinarily "the knight of the
rueful countenance"—and laments his cruelty in
regard to " Dowe"—says c DOWB " proves to be
a very fine fellow after all " though he said it as
shoulsia't"—declares " I am sorry I made any
reference to him (Major DOWBIGGIN)"—adds, " I
am extremely glad that he obtained the promotion,
which I am convinced that he amply merited"—
observes in conclusion, " I am so convinced of
his merit that if I see his name in the Gazette
again it will afford me great pleasure." Very
handsome no doubt, as an apology, as an amende
honorable—but, as a piece of inconsistency,
rather gross of its kind, we take it par-
ticularly when followed up, as it was,
immediately afterwards with such sugarplums for
bolusses, such plasters for sore heads ! Par
example, there was General SIMPSON—not a
junior officer like poor "Down," we beg pardon,
like the gallant and distinguished Major Dow-
BIOGIN, but one who happened to be once upon
a time no less important a personage than the
Commander-in-Chief. Well, on Friday the 29th
ult., General SIMPSON, if not in himself an ex-
tremely witty man, is made the source of consi-
derable mirth and laughter in the House of Com-
mons by that very slashing joke-master, Sir DE
LACY EVANS, who is particularly droll for the time
in his reference to a message which he described

as having rendered General SlmrsoN's mind more

obtuse even "than it naturally was I" And 00