The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, I,ONDoN, TUESDAY •EVENING, JUNE 26, 1860.

circumstances, it will be admitted upon all hands,

of peculiar delicacy.
All which, as might have been imagined,
were results that proved, to use a popular
idiom, anything but nuts to General HAn-
NEY. A lover of hot and tart sayings and
doings there—these lukewarm milk-and-watery
proceedings were anything but palatable to the
intended Lord of Misrule. They had no savour to

his palate. They palled upon his appetite. His
gorge rose at them—and there were rumours at
last that Captain HUNT was likely to be recalled.
The gallant officer was said to be too partial to

the English; he was described as having too many
English proclivities ! Besides, was there
not the very man for his substitute dis-

coverable in the person of his well-known pre-
decessor, Captain PICKETT ? Captain PICKETT
was the original occupier of the island of San Juan.
He it was who first carried out the filibusteTing
designs of General HARNEY upon San Juan,
by suddenly landing upon its shores and
seizing it in the name of the Republican
" powers that be" at Washington. It is equally
certain, it is true, that Captain PICKETT was pur-
posely, designedly withdrawn from San Juan
by orders of General SCOTT, thereby making good
his claim to be regarded as a diplomatic pacificator
by carrying out the amicable compromise already
particularized. Captain PICKETT was then with,
drawn by General SCOTT'S express direction
for the simple reason that Captain PICKETT was
so furiously, rancorously, rabidly un-English, or,
in other words, so much of a thick and thin
Harneyite. Captain HUNT being on the contrary
an officer and gentleman of the most conciliatory
manners, and one with his mind wholly unwarped
Iby any of these narrowminded and irrational pre-
judices against the Britishers, was selected for
that very reason, expressly upon that ac-
count to be the American officer in com-
mand during the delicate juncture of this joint
occupancy. For that very reason, upon that express
account, General HARNEY at length, when he could
endure the " situation" no longer, determined upon
exchanging Captain HUNT back again for Captain
PICKETT. Than this nothing could well be, under
the circumstances, more insensate. Nothing cer-
tainly could be more exquisitely irritating. It is
a retrogressive step, however, that has actually
now been taken—that has not simply been medi-
tated. Half General Scott's good work has by this
one act been undone. The partially unravelled
difficulty is again being tossed back into
its former state of entanglement. Not
only does General HARNEY send back his
anti-English lieutenant to the disputed island,
in the person of Captain PICKETT, but he
sends him back to San Juan with an official
order containing instructions haughtily intimating
that he has no authority whatever to accept a joint
occupancy ! In other terms, the United States still
obdurately lays claim, through General HARNEY,
and General HARNEY, in his turn, through Captain
PICKETT, to exclusive possession of the Island
of San Juan by right of Sole Sovereignty.
Now, everything considered, this iniquit-
ous claim, thus insolently revived, cannot
possibly be allowed by England without turpitude,
without degradation, without seriously militating
against her interests and lowering her prestige in
that portion of her vast and world-wide dominions.
We sincerely believe that the question at issue has
only to be discussed with candour between the two
Governments to be set at rest very speedily
to the complete satisfaction alike of Ame-
ricans and Englishmen. It is sheer folly
however, it is nothing less than absolute
fatuity to allow of its remaining any longer as a
soi t of bombshell charged with detonating mercury
to be tossed to and fro at the whim of a flippant
fillibuster like General HARNEY his supe-
rior General SCOTT, the Government at Wash-
ington itself to the contrary notwithstanding.
Matters have at length reached that point that
England can no longer with dignity admit of
slurring over for the time being this San Juan diffi-
culty by means of a compromise that can be whistled
to the winds at a moment's notice. In lieu of a

temporary compromise we have the necessity
thrust on us of insisting upon a speedy and per-
manent settlement of the long disputed line of
demarcation between the United States territory,
and the British North American possessions.

It is interesting to record, as another evidence of
loyalty to the Crown, in one of its many small,
remote, and scattered possessions that the legisla-
ture of Bermuda has just now voted unani-
mously, and by acclamation, a thousand pounds
sterling to defray the expenses of any entertain-
ment that little colony may possibly have the
privilege of according to his Royal Highness
the Prince of WALES, in the event of
his Royal Highness touching at those islands on
his return from his approaching visit to the
two Canada. Viewed in relation to the resources
of the little colony, the sum itself is nothing
less than munificent ; and the spontaneous
and enthusiastic manner in which it has thus
been voted upon a mere contingency im-
parts to it, as an evidence of loyalty, a
peculiar value and significance. We can only
hope that circumstances will admit of his Royal
Highness paying the wished-for visit to the Ber-
mudans prior to his return homeivards; so that
another bond of sympathy may thus, through the
agency of the heir to the Crown of England, him-
self, link more closely and indissolubly than ever
another of our far off colonies with the old Impe-
rial father-land.