The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-13 00:00:00

THE ' SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 13, 1860.

session by our day-dreaming Chancellor of the
Exchequer. It is felt, nevertheless, to be a neces-
sary evil—besides which, in asking at length
frankly for this " lump-sum," the Secretary of State

for War is only proceeding in strict conformity
with all financial and administrative precedents.
He has carefully examined those precedents, he
tells us, for example, having reference especially to

,he two former Chinese wars, to that miserable war

of ours against the Kaffirs, and to that still more
recent, and still more expensive, and formidable war

Fought out by us in conjunction with France and

Sardinia (to so unsatisfactory an issue) under the
walls of Sebastopol. And in each and every in-
stance he has found that in this apparently

slovenly bat wholly unavoidable manner, " a
lump - sum has been put on a single

sheet of paper and presented to the House as a vote

of credit." This has hitherto been deemed quite

sufficient by the House of Commons when in Com-
mittee of Supply upon our War Estimates. It has
been, as the right hon. gentleman has shown suc-
cinctly and categorically, the invariable precedent.

As it has been in the past, he argues manfully, and

certainly not without reason—so it should

be in the future. As in each previous, so in

this present, war against the Chinese. And

the cause of our thus having always remained satis-
fied upon the like occasions hitherto with the pre-
sentation of the simple lump-sum upon the single
piece of paper as a vote of credit, is, as Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT insists, perfectly obvious and transparent.
The reason being solely the manifest one that Go-
vernment could not in reason be expected to foresee
to a nicety what would be the actual amount
of expenditure. Without a preternatural power
of prevision, the Government would not specify the
actual amount—it could only, by possibility, pre-

sent something in the form of an approximate
estimate. We cannot wonder in the least, there-
fore, that when the Secretary for War finds him-
self at last fairly put to it in Committee of Supply
to state the probable expenses of the Chinese
war now commenced or commencing—he does so
in that safe and rational manner which is strictly
in conformity with all known precedents. He lays
before the House of Commons (last night), in Com-
mittee of Supply, the lump-sum written down upon
a single sheet of paper, and presents it as a vote of
credit. This agreeable lump-sum turns out to be
no longer a moderate item of £400,000, or there-
abouts, but a good solid lump enough, to wit,
the predicted aggregate of£3,Boo,ooominus the afore-
said £443,896, being arrears .due by the Imperial
an d East Indian Government. Otherwise, as already
specified, the exact lump-sum (apart from the ar-
rears) of £3,356,104. It may be sufficient to cover
all the past and future expenses of the expe-
dition, quoth the War Secretary—it may be
iusufficient—it may be more than sufficient
—who knows ! It is merely, he reminds
us pleasantly, an approximate calculation—a simple
conjectural account set aside for a given purpose
upon certain uncertain contingencies ! We must
make the best of it that we can. We are unmis.
takeably in for another bout with the Chinese.
They are a nation, remember, numbering pretty
nearly half of the human race, namely, from
300,000,000 to 400,000,000. They are situ-
ated at the opposite extremity of the
globe. They have to be dealt with thus by
England under all those manifest disadvantages.
But they must be so dealt with, coute qui coute,
advantages or disadvantages. The commercial in-
terests, the political interests, the diplomatic in-
terests, the prestige, the honour, the glory, the
power of England, all demand that the question so
long and so often in dispute between ourselves and
the Chinese should this time be settled at last defini-
tively. It was the conviction of this that induced
the House last night—not, however, until after a
stormy discussion—to vote the required lump-sum
of £3,356,104 asked for by the War Secretary.
The other sum, the comparatively trivial amount
of £443,896 (for arrears), being still held back
grudgingly. This being somehow done, apparently,
upon a distorted view of the old axiomatic bit of
wisdom, assuring us that If we take care of the
pence the pounds will take care of themselves.

Poor BRUNEL ! One cannot help regretting still,
however vainly, that he could not have survived
yet a little longer, so as to have himself witnessed
the virtual fulfilment of all his boldest predictions
as to the Great Eastern Steamship. Those predic-
tions of his have actually been fulfilled either liter-
ally or virtually. The monster of the deep, emanat-
ing from the engineering enterprise and genius
of BRUNEL, has made, by the longer route,
one of the quickest passages upon record across
the Atlantic. She has, in so doing, attained
at times the maximum speed claimed for
her by BRUNEL, namely, that of 141 knots an
hour. Her average speed has been over thirteen !
But it must be borne in recollection, especially,
that her bottom is so excessively foul as to
retard her course through the water, to an
extent almost beyond the credence of a
landsman. Those who are competent to
pronounce an opinion upon the matter, assert
that, with her bottom properly cleaned, the Great
Eastern will easily maintain an average of from
fourteen to fifteen knots an hour, if not more.
However this may be, it is no longer matter of
conjecture merely that the discomforts of sea-
sickness are, by means of this glorious
floating island, done away with—so fo
speak annihilated! To appreciate this to the full
from mere descriptions, it is only Necessary to
glance through the entertaining narrative given
elsewhere from the correspondence of one who has
just participated in the comforts and amusements
provided all the way across the Atlantic on board
the Leviathan. As to the amusements indulged
in during this ocean voyage, only imagine
a quiet game of skittles among the passengers !
Enough, however, if we here add that we do most
cordially felicitate all those who have had any share
whatever in developing this unprecedented enter-
prise of The Great Eastern, upon the now indis-
putable fact that her first voyage has been thus
signally triumphant.

SHIPS FOIL GAUIBALDI.—The patriotic Dictator
of Sicily has, through his agents here, been successful in
negoti tting the purchase of some noble vessels for the
flotilla which he is forming. There can be no hesitation in
now stating that one of these is the City of Aberdeen paddle-
wheel steamer ; and others, if not yet gone, may be shortly
upon the way. The last purchase of the kind, which was
completed yesterday, is that of a magnificent screw-steamer
of about I,soo:tons, built upon lines designed to combine
speed and carrying capacity, and which is considered by
competent surveyors to be well adapted to carry the heavy
armament of a steam sloop of war. As a troop or passenger
ship she has few equals, having a full poop 80 feet long and
'twixt decks 6 feet 4 inches clear in height, and ventilated
throughout. Her engines are oscillators ; cylinders 63 inches
in diameter, 300-horse nominal power, but capable of
working up to 750 horses, with all modern improve-
ments, and which aro now, with her boilers, in tho-
rough sea-going order. The screw being fitted with lifting
sa
tpepaamr ae tru shewit
tehooms
ab i
on
fe thesa fa
sadvantages
iopfp
ear full-pored
vessel. we
s
She
was bought, we believe, with ample stores, which include
cabin and other requisites for a large number of passengers.
Her name, of course, is prudentially reserved for the pre,
sent. The money for her purchase is already in hand, and
the necessary papers will be completed to-day. Garibaldi's
agents here are in possession of ample means, and we are
not surprised, therefore, that their attention should have
been directed to an inspection of the stock of arms and
other warlike munitions with which some of the warehouses
of our large wholesale exporters abound. They are said to
have especially admired a stock of 23,000 rifles, of the value
of about 355. each. Materials for a siege train, with heavy
guns of modern manufacture, seem an object of solicitude,
but no purchases have been effected.—Teiverpoo4 Daily
, Times of July 12,

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, JULY 13.

The Moniteur of to-day publishes the usual
monthly return of the Bank of France, which
shows the following results, as compared with the

June account :

Cash .

DECREASE.

37 millions.

Current accounts

POLITICAL COWARDICE.

(From the London _Review, July 14.)
In private life there is scarcely to be found a more
objectionable and mischievous character than the
amiable man of, good intentions, who loves his own
ease better than high principle, who desires in all
emergencies to "make things pleasant," and who is
cursed with the inability to say "No." His moral
cowardice continually leads him into difficulties,
from which he can escape only by pecuniary or perso-
nal sacrifice. He tut ourns the unpleasantness which
he cannot hope to avoid. He encourages aggression
by t
his weakness, and in his weakness he succumbs to I
it. His children become undutiful, his servants
ungrateful, and his friends, even if they
affect to love him, despise hint in their
hearts. He is the prey of beggars and sN7indlers,
and of all the sharp-sighted knaves who learn
that to threaten is to subdue him. By dint of ,
being continually pleasant to everybody, he ends
by making an atmosphere of unpleasantness all
around him. He dies without securing that peace
and ease which were the objects of his life, and is
dismissed into oblivion, condoned but despised,
with the contemptuous epitaph, that he was " no
one's enemy but his own."
It will be a bad day for England if our states-
manship shall permanently assume a character such
as this, and if our leading public men shall become
the political cowards which some of them are. Of
late years there has been too decided a tendency to
this unworthy good nature—too strong a desire to
" make things pleasant," and to forget, despise, or
adjourn the consideration of those high and en-
nobling principles of conduct which have made us
a great and powerful nation, especially when their
assertion threatened to hasten the easy jog-trot of
political hacks, and to cost much exertion to men
in office, or much money to the State.
To tide over the evil day appears to be the highest
object of such men. To coneiliate opposition suits
them better than to conquer or overbear it, espe-
cially if the conquest be attended with any personal
sacrifice ; and to yield all demands, however de-
grading, which it is inconvenient to resist with no
other than a barren remonstrance against the
wrong, is the highest effort of virtue which they
appear to be capable of. It was in this way that
our statesmen made default, when the late Czar
Nicholas threatened to march his armies across
the Pruth for the conquest and humiliation of
Turkey. A bold message from the Prime Mini-
ster of Great Britain, at the very commencement
of those difficulties, notifying that such a step would
have been a declaration of war against this coun-
try, would infallibly have prevented all the horrors,
bloodshed, and bootless glory of the Crimean cam-
paign. But our responsible statesmen were timid,
and allowed the critical moment to pass by. The
consequence was one of the most useless and un-
satisfactory wars recorded in modern history--a
war in which we neither saved Turkey, nor seri-
ously checked Russia—a war in which our ally
gained all the credit, and we all the hard blows,
and which was brought to a termination against
our will, at a moment when our blood had just
been sufficiently roused to enable us to do some-
thing effectual for the future peace of the world.
A curt and decisive negative to the demand
of the Emperor of the French, when he
called upon the Ministers of Great Britain to alter
the criminal jurisprudence of their country in the
matter of the trials consequent upon the wicked
attempt of Orsini on the Emperor's life, would have
saved the Palmerston administration of 1858 from
an ignominious defeat, and raised not only the
moral status of British statesmanship, but the
prestige of the country thrcughout the world. But
such answer was not given, and the Anglo-French
alliance has ever since exhibited symptoms of cool-
ness and dilapidation ; not so much from the 'fact
that the ruler of the French was unreasonable, but
from the worse fact that the responsible chief of the
British Ministry was much too good-natured to
say "No ;" and far too anxious to " make things
pleasant" to a powerful neighbour, to perform a
disagreeable duty.
The same sortof amiable but mischievous weakness
is to be seen in the conflict of powers that has un-
fortunately broken out between the Lords and
Commons on the vital subject of taxation. As
usual, our excellent Prime Minister desires to
make things comfortable. The House of Lords is
told that it has done wrong in attempting to re-
impose the excise duties upon paper, after the
House of Commons has determined to abolish them.
It is softly admonished not to interfere with the
power of the purse ; and politely informed that its
breach of privilege, and usurpation of an authority
not belonging to it by the recognized practice of the
Constitution, is to be endured for this time only,
and must not be repeated,—otherwise the house of
Commons will have the unpleasant duty of remon-
strating again—perhaps a little more sharply than
before, but certainly not to the inconvenient extent
of an open quarrel and a counter course of action.
There could be no ranker political poltroonery on
the part of the House of Commons than this. Such
a tampering with a sacred principle, though it may
give the Administration a lease of office until
February, 1861, must of necessity create new and
greater difficulties—either for this Administration
or its successors—and will indubitably foment a
great and very serious quarrel, out of what might
otherwise have been a small one.
The country itself has a more earnest spirit, and
sees that Ministers and the House of Commons will
both be stultified, unless means be found to give
practical effect to the resolutions carried by the aid
of the too-willing Opposition on Friday last. To
collect, on the authority of the House of Lords, a
tax abolished by the House of Commons, whether
the tax be abolished by a great or a small majority,
or be in itself considerable or inconsiderable in
amount, is a beginning of strife for which no man
can foretell the close. Better to stop such an evil
at its outlet, when it is but a little stream, than
allow it to swell into a flood. Most people admit
the question of the abstract right of the House of
Lords to refuse its consent to the repeal of the
paper duty, or any other tax ; but, after the exer-
cise of that right, the functions of the House of
Corm-lions again come into operation, to assert the
prior and paramount right of the popular branch
of the Legislature, and to re-affirm its first deter-
mination. There are many abstract and theoreti-
cal rights which wisdom and common sense will
not exercise. It is a man's right, if it so please
him, to cut off his nose ; but none, except fools or
maniacs, would exercise such a power. It is the theo-
retical right of the sovereign of these realms to reject
measures passed by the Lords and Commons, and to
make successive appeals to the country to elect a
Parliament subservient enough to give effect to the
Royal will ; but what king or queen would be
insane enough to stake the tranquillity of the coun-
try and the popularity of the monarchy on such an
unworkable principle ? Had this country unhappily
such a sovereign to rule over it, a civil war, and
perhaps the destruction of the monarchy, would be
the result if the chief of the State unluckily hap-
pened to be as obstinate as he was unwise.
In the present state of Europe, we should deprecate
and deplore any dislocation of the British Ministry
that might tempt the despotic Powers of
the continent to combine for the extinction of
the nascent liberties of Italy, or for the mutual
aggrandisement of the confederates. For this
reason, among many others equally cogent, but
not perhaps so pressing, it is to be hoped that Lord
Palmerston, and the colleagues who agree with
him as to the inexpediency of resisting the }lowa°
of Lords, by acts as well as by words will recon-
sider their determination, and exhibit the moral
and political courage which the occasion demands.
Mr. Gladstone and Lord John Russell owe it to
their own honour and reputation, and to their
chance of future usefulness to the country, either
to convert Lord Palmerston to their bolder and
sounder views, or to leave the Administration.
Courage is the best peacemaker, and if a majority
of the House of Commons do not see their duty to
resist the encroachment at the present time, the
day will assuredly come when they will either have
to fight a still fiercer battle, or resign their place
as the governing power of the nation.

THIS DAY'S SHIPPING.

LONDON, July 13.—Wind this day at noon—North ;
light breeze, and very fine weather.
PLYMOUTH, July 12.7 Wind S.W.—Arrived—Her
Majesty's ship Hawke. Sailed—Chinoto, screw steamer,
for Syria.
SOUTHAMPTON, July 13,—Wind N.E.—Arrived—
Shannon, steamer, from the West Indies. Sailed—Mas-
silia, steamer, for Alexandria.
LIVERPOOL, July 12.—Wind N.E.—Arrived—City
of Washington, screw steamer, from New York.
CARDIFF, July 12.—Wind NE.—Sailed—Homeward
Bound for Callao.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
SOUTHAMPTON, Friday Morning.

Wind N.E.
Arrived, July 12—Tenera, steamer, from London.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)

GRAVESEND, Friday Morninn.
Wind calm ; tide, first hours' ebb ; weather very light.
Arrived, July 13—Rosa, from Dunkirk.
DEAL, Friday Morning.

Arrived—Frisko, from Bremen for New York.

I 'FRANCE AND NAPLES.—The Government has
refused to "denationalise" the two French vessels lately
purchased for Garibaldi. The obvious conclusion is that
France means to support the Neapolitan Government in the
reforms and concessions it offers to its people, and to force
Piedmont to accept, as sincere and real, the declarations of
naples.