The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-29 00:00:00

GENERAL JOMINI.

The veteran writer on military tactics, General Jomini,
who has just died, began life in a counting-house, and
afterwards became secretary to Marshal Ney. He rose to
the rank of brigade-general, but Napoleon, through
j a'ousy, refused to give him a division, and he went over
to the Russians, and served on the Emperor Alexander's
staff. He was a Swiss by birth. The great military writer
preserved his faculties to the last, and at the age cf
nearly ninety was able to write a criticism on the
manoeuvres of the war in 1860. He considered it fortunate
that King William was not opposed to a general like
Napoleon. The remark is not very profound, for it would
have applied to almost any commander ; but Jomini pro-
bably thought that a smaller man than Napoleon might
have given the Prussians trouble.

ROEBUCK'S GIFT TO THE NA7ION.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

Mr. ROEBUCK, late M.P. for Sheffield, has left
something valuable to the English people. Mr.
ROEBUCK is still in the land of the living, but fol-
lowing, and perhaps stimulated by the example of
Mr. PEABODY, he bestows his benefaction while yet
alive. He does not give sordid gold like the American
philanthropist, for though he takes it, he soars above
such dross, but he tenders to the nation his political
testament, his solemn warning, " beware of Trades'
Unions, beware of Ireland, beware of America."
The time draws near when the foot of the United
States will be on the neck of England. It is a time
Mr. ROEBUCK has long foreseen, and which he en-
deavoured, to avert during the great civil war by
urging Lord PAL3IERSTON to recognize the South
and aid in the establishment of its independence.
Then it would have been comparatively easy to oppose
Americans ; now, it is more difficult ; soon, it will
be impossible. " They are determined to be
dominant on the earth, and they will be; our only
chance is to oppose them now. Whatever we do
or say to conciliate, no conciliation, no prostration
on our part, can satisfy them. One of the points
of my political testament is, Beware of the people
of the United States." This is a valuable donation,
and though the money-loving people of England
may prefer the golden god erected by PEABODY,
there are some less grovelling in their propensities
who will be able to appreciate the worth of ROE-
BUCK'S gift. It was some such great statesman who
got up the war with France, arguing precisely on
the same grounds. " Beware of the French,
they will put their foot on your neck; now
is the time when you can get up a coalition
to cri,sh them.;" and hence a quarter of a cen-
tury of slaughter, and an additional six hundred
millions • sterling to England's debt, making it a
public burden that never can bo lifted from her
shoulders. Time has soothed the asperities thus
generated, and the France, Europe attempted to
conquer, still as free and great as ever, is the friend
and ally of the England at whose cost she endured so
much. Mr. ROEBUCK mistakes in imagining there
is anything original in his political testament. It
is the principle upon which CAIN slew ABEL, and
its discord has agitated the world from that time to
this. Cannot he see that Irishmen are actuated by
the same feeling towards England that he desires to
excite in Englishmen towards America? but against
the Irish his political testament is, "Be firm, and
suppress them." The combination of labour against
capital he regards as the mutiny in the citadel, the
struggle of the poor against the rich, which ought at
any expense to be put down. Mr. ROEBUCK, being
an advanced Liberal, his political creed is worth
considering, and a casual glance fills us with amaze-
ment, if his, represents, even in a remote degree,
the Liberalism of England ;—jealousy as regards
America; tyranny as regards Ireland; injustice and
oppression as regard the labouring classes of Eng-
land ; this is the sum total of ROEBUCK'S testa-
ment. His Liberalism would have aided a slave-
holding oligarchy to establish an empire founded on
slavery on the ruins of a Government, built on the
broadest principles of liberty ; indeed aid expressly
given to break down that Government, actuated
by the mean motives of fear and jealousy. As a
man of ability, and a member of Parliament,
being able to impress a section of his country-
men with his own ideas, he, iu conjunction with
Mr. LAIRD and Lord WHARNCLIFFE, did much to
generate that ill-feeling in America, which he now
declares no consideration or prostration on the part
of England can satisfy. The very. animus thus
created by himself he nses to excite the dread and

dislike of England towards the United States, and
urges, we cannot see what else he can mean, an
immediate war, by way of checking the progress of
America " The Northern States said that I was a
wild enthusiastic," exclaims ROEBUCK; " that I was
worse than that ; that I wanted to do something
very bad." If the Northern States had insinuated
that he ought to change his name from the grace-
ful, bounding ROEBUCK, to an animal with very
long ears and a very loud bray, and added" vicious"
before it, it would have been about right. Cuba may
furnish, if we understand this Liberal, the plea for
war, as resolutions have been introduced into Con-
gress to recognize the independence of that island,
"although the rebellion is without an army and
without a Government"—" What is sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander ;" and Mr. ROEBUCK
maintains that England's right to recognize the South-
ern States with a powerful army, a Government, and
victory in the field, was far greater than the right
of America to recognize the independence of Cuba.
Of course that goes down with people who neither
know nor care about the difference between the
goose and the gander. A cook may tell them that
a tough old gander requires a different sauce from
a tender young goose; in fact a different swt of
treatment altogether. The American people openly
advocate the independence of every nationality ear-
nestly . and patriotically seeking independence.
If the Irish people, as a body, were to rise against
England, they would attract the sympathy and aid
of America. If England were conquered by France,
and rose against the French, the English would
have the hearty support of America ; the Cubans
in insurrection against their Spanish rulers at once
command sympathy throughout the States. This sym-
pathetic principle is largely shared by the English
also. But the case of Cuba is peculiar, for it em-
braces the Monroe doctrine, dear to the heart of
Americans. That island is American territory
under foreign dominion, and the Monroe doctrine
is the assertion of " America for the Americans,"
Not only then does the cause of Cuba involve the
principle of upholding the rights of people to self-
government, but it also involves the liberation of
American territory from European thraldom. Eu-
ropeans may see little difference between the recog
nition of States struggling to found a Slave Em-
pire by splitting the American Republic, thereby
introducing the division 9f the Continent into hos-
tile Governments (which scores of thousands would
rather die than see realized), and the struggle of a
nationality for freedom from the grinding domi-
nation of oppressors they detest ; but in America
the difference. is considered very wide indeed, and
the people who use these arguments, or are impressed
by them, are held to be very ignorant. %Viser men
than ROEBUCK have failed on erecting themselves
into a little Providence ; and that he and Mr. LAIRD
made so much mischief, bringing humiliation, loss,
and suffering on their own and another great coin-
try, might have taught Mr. ROEBUCK the danger of
imitating the fools who rush in where angels fear to
tread. Even -his late speech on the " fecculent
torrent " helped materially to thwart Mr. REVKRDY
JOHRSON'S diplomatic efforts, and to re-kindle
American irritation. After these disastrous results,
it is surprising that the English press should give
prominence to what is said by such a person ; but,
as it has done so, it is natural that we also should
discuss the value of this political testament which
he deposited with the Sheffield people on receipt
of three thousand guineas.