The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-07 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 2h. 32m.—Afternoon, 2h. 54m,
To-monaow.-Morning, 3h. 15m.—Afternoon, 3h. 35m,

THE POST-OFFICE AND
NEWSPAPERS.

Scarcely a day elapses that we do not
receive complaints of newspapers missing,
being too late, or arriving several posts be-
hind time. This is an intolerable nuisance
to our subscribers, and is, besides, highly
prejudicial to ourselves. Where rests the
evil ? It is idle to complain, for polite
answers and promises avail nothing.
Surely Sir Rowland Bill will have some
merciful consideration, and endeavour to
redress the grievance. It is a double griev-
ance, for we are made to pay for not send-
ing the paper, which is often kept back till
next morning, which loses a day to our
subscribers, who truly say that old news is
no news, causing anger rather than benefit.
If the General Post-office be not large
enough, then extend it, or build another
capacious enough for every purpose, be the
cost what it may. It will serve for all
tune. H e make this suggestion in a spirit
of good-will, and hope that good may come
of it.
Sun Office, April 4, 1860.

4
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THE SUN.

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1860.

Another instance is now being afforded, in which
the dust of departed genius is receiving from sur-
vivors the double tribute of a grateful admiration
and an affectionate remembrance. Latterly, in-
cidents of this kind have not been unfrequent. Not
but that, at the same time, it should be borne iu re-
collection, how similar acts of tardy but spontane-
ous homage have attested repeatedly before now the
vitality of the posthumous popularity still apper-
taining to some long dead and buried celebrity.
Illustrations, these, in a more practical form than
even the Eleg:.st himself intended that amongst
the tombs of the departed, often, in truth and in very
deed—

" Even iu their ashes live their wonted fires 1"

It is not so very long ago that the
honoured remains of Sir THOMAS PICTON, who
died gloriously on the famous 18th of June, 1815,
leading a charge at the battle of Waterloo, were
removed from their obscure resting place, for more
fitting sepulture under the roof-beams of St.
Paul's Cathedral. A similar though a less public
testimony of respect was accorded to the disinterred
coffin of the celebrated JOHN HUNTER, the greatest
of all our great surgeons, and about the first and
foremost of the world's most gifted anatomists. Did
not the player YOUNG give half-a-crown to the
stonemason—who was covering over that grave in
Poet's Corner in which stood vright the buried
form of the author of " Every Man in his Hu-
mour"—to chip on the slab with a rude touch or
two of his chisel that most eloquent of all tributary
epitaphs P

" 0 rare BEN JONSUN :"
It will be in the recollection of our readers how it
came to pass, but a very few years since, that in
answer to an earnest and affecting remonstrance in
verse, penned by the sympathetic genius of ELIzA
COOK—there was raised by public subscription over
the hitherto unmarked grave of TinntAs HOOD, in
Kensal Green Cemetery; a monument worthy of
the sculptor's art, not unworthy even of the dead
poet-humorist's reputation. A kindred appeal has
now been recently addressed to the lovers of song
in the three kingdoms—in answer to which
appeal a memorial is about to be raised
in the parish church of St. Anne's, in Dub-
lin, to the pure fame of FELICIA HEMANs,
—the mortal remains of that beloved songtress
lying entombed in the vaults of that sacred edifice
without any token whatever in the way of appro-
priate commemoration. To Mr. and Mrs. S. C.
HALL belong, in this instance, the merit of having
suggested to the admirers of the genius of Mrs.
HEMANS the opportunity thus afforded to them of
attesting in a substantial form the sincerity of their
admiration. As we are solicitous to aid in carrying
out the intentions of those whose efforts are be-
ing now combined for the purpose of raising this
testimonial to the memory of FELICIA HEMANS, we
conceive that we can hardly do better than repeat
here the ipsissinta verba of the appeal issued by the
working Committee at Dublin, in the manner fol-
lowing :—" There are few names," says this appeal,
"more honoured in female literature and in the
records of women than that of Mrs. HEMANS. Her
works are read with interest by nearly every one,
and her personal character still warmly lives in the
memory of many. Yet, strange to say, these feel-
ings of admiration and respect have not yet found
expression in any public testimonial, such as has '
been given to others not more deserving of it than
she was—nut more entitled to the love and honour
of all classes. Irelend ought not to forget that
by her father's side,
FELICIA I.lE3Lors was,
an
liishecon2an ; this _fact, stated in her memoir, should
surely be recorded in the land which claims her.e
The published Address' then, referring to the remarks
which first awakened attention to the forgotten
grave of Mrs. HEMANS—rernarks penned jointly by
Mr. and Mrs. S. C. HALL in a recent number of the
Art Journal--goes on to observe Its follows :—" It
has been justly, therefore, alleged as a reproach, by

_ ':.,tureh _
e the
recent travellers in Ireland, that,.
which entombs the body of FELICIA. HE:..(4l"' there
is to be found no public record worthy of 1::er pure
fame and lofty genius.' This has suggested. to some
of her readers that the most suitable testimonial
would be the erection of a memorial window In the
chancel of that church which is her earthly resting-
place—the Parish Church of St. Anne, Dublin.
They have formed themselves, therefore, into a
committee for the purpose of receiving subscriptions
to carry out this project. The execution of the
window will be intrusted to first-rate artists. The
probable cost will be £200." And the committee
add, as they are surely justified to the full in doing,
that they "have no doubt that many will feel plea-
sure in uniting for the object contemplated. They
beg it to be understood, that while they do not de-
sire to limit the subscriptions, they are ready and
willing to receive donations of EVEN THE SMALLEST
AMOUNT." A list of subscriptions already published,
ranging, in the respective amounts contributed, from
ss. up to £lO, gives good augury that the required
sum will, before long, be realised. To this end,
however, the hearty co-operation of the admirers of
Mrs.HEMANs'genius is requisite. That co-operation,
we doubt not, will be accorded, so that there
may almost be realised vsrbatim the glowing picture
painted by the hand of KEATS in the 25th stanza
of "The Eve of St. Agnes." Realized so far that
we might write the opening of the stanza thus :
Full on the casement shines the silver moon,

Throwing warm gules on fair Felicia's grave,
As calm she waits for sweet heav'n's grace and boon ;
Rose bloom strown o'er the pavement towards the nave—
And on her Epitaph soft amethyst,
And on her Name a glory, like a Saint."

At length the full peal of the Vatican thunder
has reached the shores of England. We listen
doubtless with more curiosity than awe, knowing
well enough that to us it is sound, and nothing
else ; still we would fain learn whether there was
anything besides the mere sound elsewhere, and
we hurry along over the preamble, and over the
formal part, to ascertain whether the bolt really
has been hurled at the devoted heads of VICTOR
EMMANUEL and Count CAVOUR. But no ;—the
telegrams have told truth. The Holy Father
dared not individualise. His descriptions seem
indeed to be pretty circumstantial ; no one can
well doubt at whom the anathemas chiefly point,
yet those who are aimed at need not recognise the
description. "If the cap fits you," says the Holy
POPE, " put it on ;" but the King of SARDINIA
and his Minister may look at it very coolly, and
pass by it as not fitting them. The Sardinian
Government is indeed especially named, but Go-
vernments, like all corporations, have broad shoul-
ders, and can very easily bear their corporate sins
and submit to corporate anathemas—each indivi-
dual confessing his personal sins and performing
his personal penance with entire self-composure.
It is pleasant, certainly, to see in this affair
the waning of superstition. We look back to the
time when not merely a JOHN LACKLAND, but our
proudest PLANTAGENET trembled before the ful-
minations of a Pope ; and when an Emperor of Ger-
many must endure the lowest humiliation and

severe bodily inflictions to appease the wrath and
wounded pride of a Pope. Christianity and civili-
sation have visibly advanced since then ; and this
Allan tion or Excommunication,or whatever we may
term it, is the last evidence of it. We have here
a Pope brandishing his spiritual cudgel around a
King, but afraid now to strike him ; and we have
on the:other hand a King coolly telling the world
that when Popes wield their ecclesiastical censures
for secular purposes, Kings of SARDINIA and Dukes
of SAVOY have cared and still care nothing about
them. If the POPE declares himself the Vicar of
CHRIST, the KING shares his title, for he
,holds

himself responsible to GOD and his peoplo only

Verily, excommunications are now worn to rags;
Europe laughs at what once made her tremble ; not
a soul concerned fears for his soul's safety or com-
fort, where formerly he would honestly have be-
lieved himself devoted to purgatory, hell, and the
devil, and have been terrified into making his
peace with the being who had the keys of the In-
quisition, both above and below, in his hands.
Popes, like a judge of whom we have so often
heard, should give their judgments, but not their
reasons—indeed, an infallible judge would appear
to have little need to assign reasons. Infallibility
is surely reason enough. When the Roman Infal-
lible ventures among the facts, or would wield the
logic of ordinary mortals, we are apt most any°.
rently to criticise his reasons, and inquire into his
alleged facts. Even those who have learned against
the testimony of five senses to believe in transub-

, stantiation, may find it hard work against the die.
tates of their understanding to believe in transub-
stantiation of bad arguments into good ones, and of
Papal fictions into mundane facts. A preamble,
therefore, intended to prove that a spiritual bishop
needs secular power, leads its readers back to the
times of the old Book,which the POPE at once pro.
hibits and quotes, and where unfortunately for in-
fallible arguments, we find the highest spiritual
authority destitute of as much secular
power as the humblest policeman—where,
also, we find " the First Bishop," as the Marquis
D'AZEGLIO terms him, renouncing such power alto-
gether ; and the awful conclusion forces itself on
the minds of oven sincere Catholics, that his In-
fallible Holiness argues very fallibly.
And then, if the arguments be worthless, why
fear the conviction and thepunishment ? The parties
arraigned—if such a general accusation can be said
to criminate any, may well reply, what we are ac-
cused of, is no crime—no crime so far as depriving
a Spiritual Ruler of temporal jurisdiction is con-
cerned. He never ought to have had it. View the
POPE as
a temporal ruler only—then, in that ca-
pacity he is as responsible to his subjects—as much
at their mercy to retain or to cashier, as other
rulers ; but, view the POPE as a Spiritual Sovereign,
and he has lost nothing by losing what PETER him-
self and his master equally renounced. The poor old
man indeed resuscitates the old tale that secular in.
dependence is essential to the head of the Catholic
thatatholhice
Church—to which the answer, of course, is
cannot be, in the secular sense, independent unless
his empire be so large that he need lean on no other
state—that he has been anything but independent
ever since he had a petty kingdom, and notoriously
so of late years—and that the Great Founder and
subordinate founders of Christianity sought secular
independence not in wealth and territory, but
con
sciences and in manifestation of truth to
sciences of men.
The whole document is evidence enough that the
POPE and his advisers live not in the " wide, wide,
world"—or that, if they do, they are not very
" wide awake" in it. All the nonsensical
stuff about the rights of the POPE to secular do-
minion, about the wickedness of those who seek to
subvert that dominion, about the intrigues of Sar-
dinia being able to bring about a unanimous vote
to kick his Holiness out of the Romagna, and the
like, makes one merely smile—but, when we read
the idle anathemas and curses, of prayers public
and private for the " light of the Holy Spirit,"
about these very earthly objects—of curses of all
sorts irremoveable except at the moment of death,
atunrdetoor yroeitlurn if the man recover—the hateful mix-
hypocritical cant with the malignity of

ecclesiastical bigotry, pride, and love of lucre, re-
minds one of the worst days of Popery. The spirit
which rules at its centre is still the spirit which has
animated the Papacy through all ages—the spirit
of gain and power.

The oddest little straw imaginable has just been
thrown up—and it certainly does contrive to show
pretty clearly, at a glance, the direction in which
the wind blows or rather faintly " sets," at ,this
particular juncture in the political atmosphere.
The straw alluded to is a certain letter addressed
to my Lord JOHN RUSSELL in his ministerial capa-
city as her MAJESTY'S Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, by Mr. LINDSAY, M.P., and Shipowner !
The communication in question is essentially and
avowedly the emanation from the mind, the ex-
pression of the opinions, the avowal of—

" The hopes and fears that nourish hope,
An undistinguishable throng
And gentle wishes, long subdued,
Subdued and cherished long"—
of one individual. They are hopes and fears, how-
ever, not the least atom in the world like those of
COLERIDGE'S Genevieve or her lover. They refer
not at all to THE master passion. Yet they certainly
do have reference to A master passion, their inspira-
tion being not love, but—(" not to put too fine a
point upon it")—cupidity. The incentive to the
composition of the epistle in question is obviously
and indisputably the auri sacra fames—an intense
and overweening affection for the meum, and a
terror almost beyond adequate indication of the
dreadful possibility of its transformation in the
contingency of war into the tuum. While 80,000
volunteers are beginning to handle the rifle with a
view to the better defence (in the event of that
same formidable contingency) of our "hearths and
our altars"—some of our British merchants and
shipowners, it would appear, are eaten up with a
dread lest their pockets may be needlessly ligh-
tened—lest their tills may be unnecessarily ran-
sacked. They have a pleasant fancy that if war
is again to be revived, it may, at least, be revived
upon an entirely new and a far more polite system
than of yore. They conceive, it appears, that
private property might be exempted from
capture and forfeiture among the belligerents !
They have a notion somehow that all war
may henceforth become, in the literal meaning
of the phrase, Civil War, as contra-distinguished
from internecine. They say, Let the quarrel hence-
forth be between Government and Government—
allowing private property to pass to and fro
scatheless. It is a pleasant fancy in its way, we
will admit, but rather arcadian. It is a proposition,
so far as it goes, decidedly good, but it is one also
that is decidedly green. The appeal made is very
pathetically an appeal ad misericordiam. But so
also was that final one almost blubbered out in the
Court of the Venetian Doge by SIIYLOCK—
" Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that :
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house ; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live."

Affecting as this very logical argument was, how-
ever, in the instance of the wealthy father of pretty
Mistress JESSICA—it was at the same time, to ex-
press the plain truth in one of the simplest idioms
in our vernacular—unquestionably and beyond a
doubt of it, "no go." We have a shrewd suspicion
that it will be equally "no go" in the instance
of the British merchant and the British
shipowner. Indeed, they have already had
an agreeable foretaste of this in the curt
but significant reply already elicited from the
Foreign-office by Mr. LINDSAY'S rather lengthy
communication. To that appeal quoth Mr. HAM-
MOND, our Foreign Secretary's Secretary, " I am
directed by Lord JOHN RUSSELL to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, repre-
senting the expediency of an agreement being come
to among the Maritime Powers for the exemption
from capture of private property on the high seas ;"
adding, " and I am to acquaint you that the obser-
vations contained in your letter will be duly con-
sidered by her MAJESTY'S Government, but
the proposal appears liable to grave objec-
tions." A delicate way of putting it !
" Grave objections ?" Well, yes—we suspect—
Rather ! We should like Mr. LINDSAY, for ex-
ample, to hear for a few moments the style of
objection—the, the "grave objections" (that is the
phrase) indulged in by some of the good old salts
of the good old school. We conjecture in that
case the hon. member would find his ideas (what-
ever they may be) in regard to the vocabulary
of Oaths pretty considerably extended. Why,
in very truth, the notions put forward in this re-
markable epistle by Mr. LINDSAY are, to write about
it in plain wordsjust simply absurd. Mr. LIND-
SAY, or Mr. Anybody else, might just as reasonably
suggest that all the cutlasses in the Royal Navy
should be made hen ceforthwith blades of barleysugar!
He might just as rationally put the inquiry to our
Foreign Secretary, whether it would not be pre-
ferable to substitute for those terrible pieces of
ordnance contrived by WHITwoRTH and ARM-
STRONG, let us say an equal number of syringes
for the sprinkling of rose-water and eau de cologne.
Imagine a really intelligent M.P. and an eminent
shipowner—both of which Mr. LINDSAY indubi-
tably is—seriously proposing to a Minister of the
Crown, or rather through a Minister of the
Crown to the whole Imperial Government, a plan
by which war may henceforth be carried on with-
out the chance of prizes being taken on either side
as the spoil of the belligerents. Fancy the epistle
in which this extraordinary plan is propounded by
a private individual being solemnly moved for in
the House of Commons, and by the House of Com-
mons, as though it was the manifesto of some great
people or of some powerful Sovereign. Fancy, more
than this, an address to the Crown being
adopted by the House of Commons in an-
swer to which this singular letter from the
hand of this isolated individual is actually published
at the expense of the nation, and laid solemnly
(so printed and published) before the country and
before Parliament. When you have imagined all
this--you will just simply have imagined what has
positively just now taken place in the instance of
Air. LINDSAY'S letter to my Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
It is a straw, certainly, this letter, the merest
spe re. The member
straw; but it is one, as already intimated, that
so far serves its purpose at the moment
by showing pretty distinctlyo
w it h er t e
ofPar-
liament
wind t nd
in the political atm
and the shi •
powner, who has thrown it up
—says in the course of
his
communication to the
Foreign Secretary, quite distinctly—",Though I
offer no opinion of my own on so delicate a
subject, it is iinpcssible to shut our eyes to the
fact, which the shipowners of
Liverpool and
Manchester emphatically express, that
, a deep and
abiding apprehension prevails b)th here and
abroad, that in the present unsettled political state
of Europe, a rupture between France and England,
if not imminent, is a contingency which many pru-
dent merchants consider probable in the course of
historical events, and which they, therefore, will
take precautions to provide against in such a man_
ner as may best protect their interests." All this,
if it means nothing else—" means mischief"—it
means in HAMLET'S phrase Illiching Malecho!
And we shall at lout 40 well to look to it.

STATISTICS OF REPI?,LWENTATIOA.