The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-19 00:00:00

VICARIOUS GENEROSITY.

The Broad Arrow says there is a rumour that It
the Government should increase the grant to the
volunteers the addition will assume the form of a
regulation great coat the necessity of which was
apparent at the Dover Review. The same paper states
that the War Office Committee is still engaged in its
labours, which daily tend to prove the advisability of
simplifying the machinery in several of the depart-
ments. The probability is that the Commander-in-
Chief will be made solely responsible for a conside-
rable amount of routine details which are now
unnecessarily,and merely as a matter of form, referred
to the War Office.
The Army and Nary Gazette says that Vice-Ad-
miral Sir G. Mundy will be succeeded in the West
Indies by Rear-Admiral Wellesley.

GOOD NEWS FOR THE OVEREND AND GURNEY
DIRECTORS.

Dr. Thom, the prosecutor of the Overenct and
Gurney directors has, as we have already mentioned,
given notice that he will himself conduct the prose-
cution. Dr. Thorn is a very public-spirited man, and
cannot be censured if he declines to spend any more
of his money in conducting a case which it is a scan-
dal to the country has not been undertaken by the
Government. At the same time we cannot but feel
dismay in learning his intention. It would be a
grievous and almost national calamity if the case
should break down through want of skill on the part
of the prosecution ; and as the defendants will have
the most eminent counsel to represent them, it can
hardly be expected that Dr. Thom, who is not a
lawyer, will be capable of meeting them.

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MANNERS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Some ten or twelve days ago the Daily News
published a letter from its American correspondent
—as usual, with him, an essay—the subject being
English and American Dlauners. The Pall Mall
Gazette, taking a long time for reflection, pursued
the theme in an article last Wednesday, and al-
though we must trust to the impression left by a
hurried reading of the American correspondent, we
will endeavour to give the gist of what both these
writers say. The American correspondent notices
two classes of Englishmen who visit the United
States, both producing a disagreeable impression on
the American mind. The one is the simple snob ;
supercilious, condescending, and showing in every
word and action his belief in the inferiority of all
around when compared with his belongings. Such
are more or less common to every country, but per
haps assume the most disagreeable type in the
British specimen. But the impression they create
is neither deep nor lasting ; for offensive and dis-
agreeable persona can easily be dropped, while ex-
cuses are made for ignorance and narrow-minded-
ness ; the other, moreover, creates real annoy-
ance, and the more as he does so unconsciously.
Englishmen of culture and refinement find their
way into American homes refined as theirs, and
occupied by people as cultivated as those with
whom they have been bred. Their astonish-
ment is the more freely expressed, as they think
it implies a compliment, while Americans receive
it with ill-disguised annoyance. If the English-
man does not say so, still he means that he came to
America expecting to find civilization advanced
but a few stages from life in the Back Woods.
Instead of well-read, nurtured, and travelled ladies
and gentlemen, with tastes cultivated as highly
as in any European society, he looked for
good honest men and women, who understood
how to buy and sell, crops and herds, wooden
houses, and labour-saving machines. That the

man should be surprised, is not surprising, when in-
stead, he meets people who know Europe better
than he does, whose pictures and statuary are of a
higher order of art, whose library embraces a
wider range,whose dwellings are superior, and where
the cookery and wines are at least as good. Ameri-
cans say their visitor ought not to have been so igno-
rant of American society. had it been of French, of
Italian, or of German society he would have been
ashamed to let such ignorance appear, and in openly
announcing it in America he shows that it is com-
mon to his whole class. What right have these
who profess to know the world to be thus complacently
unacquainted with a community now exercising
upon it the greatest influence of the age ? The
Pall Mall Gazette, limiting the discussion to the
wealthy of both nations, takes this strange ground.
What most distinguishes the aristocracy of Eng-
land is their epigrammatic mode of expression. The
effort is to give the pith of stories, cutting away
heads and tails. Not to be concise is to be a bore,
and instead of the full meaning the terse sentences
are only intended to convey an outline of it or hint.
With those in the lowerstation the reverse is the case.
They follow to the end the thought, argue out their
assertion, and tell the whole story, while the hearer
may vainly suggest that he has anticipated the
point. Now Americans being our offshoot, says the
Gazette, derive their origin from the middle not
from the highest class, and the difference chiefly dis-
tinguishing all even the most wealthy and refined in
America, who are precisely on the same level as to
externals with the wealthy and refined in England
from them, is the same, as between the aristocratic
and the middle and lower classes here. Americans
are long-winded in conversation, in speeches, and
even in wit. The American correspondent allows
that the English used to be considered in America
the guide and model in manners, though this is be-
coming an exploded error. What Englishmen consi-
der essentials often taking them as tests are generally
mere conventionalities to be found in no other coun-
try, a habit or perhaps a necessity of Great
Britain. Mixing a good deal on the Continent,
Americans have discovered that other Europeans re-
gard the English as any NIT but refined, and when
the only true test is applied to some of their con-
ventionalitiel it is found that these are not signs of

good manners, have nothing to do with manners, or
may be really bad manners. The true test is simple

kindliness, and the manners which embody most

consideration for others, are the best. Now, may

not the Pall Mall's marked differene3 be a mere

conventionality in imitation of the sparkling mode

of conversation cbaractcristic of Frenchmen fos-

.ered by their epigrammatic language, but which

comes out as a bad copy when tried by the English ?
A. Frenchman conveys more in a shrug and a
grimace than an Englisman can do in a long-
winded sentence, but the Pall Mall takes this servile

Among the Civil Service Estimates there is an
item of £3,500 for gifts and presents made by Prince
Alfred while touring in Australia. The gifts were,
no doubt, duly appreciated, and the generosity of
the giver highly extolled. Only one would like the
givers to know that it is we, the .British tax-
payers, not the Prince, who have paid for
the presents. In India, of course, this
sort of thing is understood. All the world
knows that the magnificent presents which Lord
Mayo has just made to the Ameer of Affghanistan
do not come out of his lordship's pocket. But the
other case is rather different. We give Prince
Alfred a handsome allowance, we have given him the
command of one of the smartest ships in the Biitish
navy, but we did not contemplate having to pay all
the " tips," which, in the fullness of his bounty, he
chooses to make.
TEE MILITARY SERVICES.