The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-26 00:00:00

THE SUN;I:LONDON, Tii.UitSDAy"EVENING, JITLY,,!,:r26, 1860.

get a perfect passion for drinking it, and, as it should
be taken in moderation, the effect on some fashionable
devotees who throng the fountain in the park all day
and drink till you yet alarmed for their safety is,
of course, anything but beneficial. Taken mode-
rately, to the extent of two or three glasses of a
morning, they are, I believe, justly reputed to be of
the greatest benefit, and some thousands of dozens
of Congress water, as it is called, are annually
bottled and sent off to England. In the evening
Saratoga seems a charming place—a kind of rural
Baden. Everybody sits under the colonnades of
their hotels till the sun goes down, when the ladies
saunter through the streets in evening dress, pass-
ing with their friends from hotel to hotel, joining
in dances, or listlessly promenading between the
trees. Sometimes when I look on this hotel life,

brilliant as it is, I cannot help congratulating my
self that we have no such hotels in England. To
an Englishman it seems an artificial, dressy state
of existence—a kind of high-comedy life where the
curtain is always raised and a critical more than
an admiring audience sits, judges, praises, or con-
demns. What it may be behind the scenes I do not
know or care to ascertain, beyond that all the bet-
ter class of educated and travelled Americans dis-
like hotel life for families, and can give their reasons
for it. As for Saratoga, of course, such a spot is
necessary, and seems charming enough, net that it
is gay. There may be excitement, but there seems
no amusement. The ladies dress " magnificently"
three or four times a-day, though there are only two
or three promenades through which to loiter and
display the toilettes—for the well in the morning, for
the drive, for dinner, and for the evening. Gentle-
men of course find it a great centre of attraction,
and the place is even more filled with them than
with ladies ; and Saratoga in the evening, when
the colonnades are lit, the visitors all abroad, the
bands playing and saloons filled with waltzers, looks
wonderfully well. In a word, it is at this season
not only the fashion but the rage, and no visitor
who wants to see the out-of•town amusements of
the Americans on the greatest and what passes here
for their gayest scale should omit a visit to Saratoga.
After his tour through Canada the Prince will pro-
bably remain there for a day. The finest route from
Saratoga to Quebec is via Whitehall through Lake
George and Lake Champlain to Montreal. Lake
George and Lake Champlain are the two chief gems
of American scenery, and have more historical as-
sociations connected with them than any other spots
which tourists "do" in North America. No one can
describe the former lovely sheet of water beyond
saying that of its kind it is without an equal. The
whole surface of the lake is studded with exquisite
little islands of every height and form, from little
sloping banks like villa lawns, to huge romantic
crags, standing bare and gaunt as granite castles or
covered from base to summit with magnificent
trees, laced together in a rich green network that
keeps the sun from penetrating, and makes them
dark as tombs inside. The vistas that open up be-
tween these islands, with all their wonderful effects
of light and shade, would throw the whole school of
pre-Raphaelites into despair to ever realise on can-
vass. Mountains close in the lake on either side,
and between the wild and rich though gloomy-
looking defiles of one of these in bygone times stood
Fort William Henry, the scene of that tremendous
massacre of the English by the Indians, which left
so dark a stain on the memory of Montcalm. It is
a mere wild now, and scarcely any traces of that
long-contested earthwork remain to mark the
fatal spot, on the events connected with which
the ablest American tale of fiction has been
built. It is curious that, though Lake George is
only separated from Lake Champlain by about four
miles of mountain, its waters are nevertheless 200
feet above the level of the latt&, into wllkich it pours
at one small outlet in a picturesque cataract. Near
this fall is a rough, gibbet•looking pile of massive
half-ruined chimneys, surrounded with fragments
of stone, irregular mounds of earth, and scrubby
patches of wind underwood, where rattlesnakes
may now be found. This is all that now remains
of what was once the keystone of British power in
America—the world-famous fort of Ticonderoga, so
often taken and retaken in the long struggles be-
tween the English and French, till finally in the
War of Independence it was surprised one night
by Colonel Allan, and given up to him, as he said,
" In the name of Jehovah and the Constitutional
Congress." Two or three shanties are erected in
this wild on the borders of Lake Champlain, where
tourists leave their luggage and inspect the silent
ruins, the name of which is still woven in gold on
some regimental colours, and which seem to possess
a melancholy interest for all. The upper part of
Lake Champlain is quite equal to Lake George.
Below Ticonderoga it widens out into a noble sheet
of water, some 12 miles broad, shut in by lofty
cliffs, and the beautiful outlines of the green moun-
tains of Vermont, and the mountains of Adirondac
rising steep on either shore. Gradually, however,
the coast gets flatter and less cultivated till Rouse's
Point, where the boat stops, and where returning
civilisation soddenly manifests itself by the pre-
sence of Custom-house officers. It is the Canadian
frontier, where English institutions prevail, and,
of course, where the railways are good, and the
hotels mean and ill-smelling.
Montreal is just now in a high state of ferment
and excitement, which is manifested at once by the
people occasionally coming out into the ordinarily
deserted streets. There is a ball-room being pre-
pared, a banquet.room for the intended dinners,
a reception room for the levees, addresses to be
read, a fete to be given in honour of the opening of
the Victoria-bridge, an Industrial Exhibition to be
inaugurated, a grand steamboat procession to meet
the squadron on the St. Lawrence, fireworks to be
let off, reviews to he held, the town to be illuminated,
and Montreal generally, from its tin roofs to its
wooden footpaths, to be dressed and decorated in its
best to welcome the Prince of Wales. There would
be great doings anywhere. Judge, then, of their
effect so long expected and at last so near at Mon-
treal ! All the arrangements connected with the
reception of the Prince have been committed en-
tirely to the care of the Hon. George Rose, the Chief
Commissioner of Works in Canada. That gentleman
has, of course, a hard time of it just now, and
seems to permeate all Canada, so rapid are his
movements, so wide-spread and well organised are
his arrangements throughout. While in this city
the Prince will stay in Mr. Rose's own private resi-
dence, a beautifully situated mansion a short dis-
tdnce from the town. Not much reliable informa-
tion is to be obtained here as to the future move-
ments of the Prince ; I, however, start for Quebec
this evening, where Mr. Rose is, and shall have
time, I hope, to send an accurate detail of the in-
tended progress through the provinces before the
mail leaves.

QUEBEC, JULY 13

I have at last, through the kindness and cour-
tesy of Mr. Rose, got the clue through the laby-
rinth of visits and progresses which his Royal
Highness will make during his stay in these
provinces. It has not long been decided on,
and, allowing for the difference of a day sooner
or later in his arrival at Newfoundland, it will
be observed accurately throughout. The squadron,
with his Royal Highness and suite, is expected
at St. John's, Newfoundland, about the 23d.
Here, while the vessels coal, the Prince pays a short
visit to St. John's. On the following day the
squadron sails for the Bay of Pictou, about 40 miles
north of Halifax, where the Prinee disembarks and
proceeds by rail and carriage across the country to
Halifax. Already a great gathering of mayors and
civic dignitaries is assembling there to meet him
with becoming state and ceremonial. After a stay
of nearly two days at Halifax he proceeds by land
to Frederickton, and thence to St. John's, New
Brunswick, stopping at each place a whole day at
lead. He again embarks on board the hero and
visits Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward's
Island, where he remains the greater part of two
days. From Prince Edward's Island he proceeds
with the fleet to Gaspe Bay, at the mouth of the
St. Lawrence, where the Governor-General of
Canada, Lord Lyons, the Minister to Washington,
and the chief members of the Canadian Government
proceed by sea to receive him. Thence he comes by
the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Saguenay
River, up which he will steam for the best part of
a day, to see the wild and sombre magnificence of
its rocky shores. From the Saguenay he comes
straight to Quebec, where he is expected to arrive
about the 12th of August. He will, it is believed,
remain at Quebec at least five days, Jilting which
time there will be a ball and a levee. His High-
ness will also visit the Falls of Montmorenci, and
the still more beautiful and extraordinary rocks
called the Natural Steps, above that cataract. If
there.is time he will visit the Falls of St. Anne,
which, always excepting Niagara, are considered
the finest and most beautiful in America. He will
leave Quebec on the evening of the 18th or
19th, and as, through the care of the colonial Go-
vernment, the bad of the St. Lawrence has during
the last few years been much deepened, he will be
able to proceed in the Ariadne to Montreal. He
anchors for the night about 31 miles below that
city, whence a fleet of river steamers, with visitors,
has been arranged to go out and meet him. At
Montreal he remains some days, one day being de-
voted to opening the Exhibition of Arts and Manu-
factures, another to opening the Victoria bridge.
On other days there will be levees, banquets, and
balls. As, however, Princes—even though of
Wales—must rest, two days are set apart for riding
out privately (if possible), and visiting the fine
scenery round Montreal.
Fifteen splendid horses have already been pro-
vided for the Prince and his suite for this purpose.
Two days are also devoted to a visit to Brockville,
to witness Indian games, and to go thence by water
down the rapids of the St. Lawrence to Montreal
again. From Montreal he ionrneys by water direct

up the Ottawa river to Ottawa. At this, the pre-'
sent capital of Canada, he remains two days, and
lays the foundation-stone of the noble Parliament
buildings to be erected there. On the Ottawa river
he will be met by a large gathering of the lumber-
men in their canoes. From Ottawa he journeys to
Kingston, and remains a day, and makes an excur-
sion up the Lake of the Thousand Isles. His next
visit will be to the Bay of Quinte, where he joins
the Grand Trunk Railway, and goes up to Toronto,
where he will remain, it is expected, for four days
or more. While here he makes an excursion to
Lake Simeoe, and to Collingwood, en the shores of
Lake Huron. After this he goes to Sarnia, near
Lake Huron, where there will be a large muster of
the chief Indian tribes in their canoes, to show
their games of strength and skill, and otherwise
do homage and obeisance. From Sarnia he visits
London for a day, and also Brentfora, and so on
to Hamilton, where he rests for a few days, and
there opens the Agricultural Exhibition of Upper
Canada. While here he will make another short
excursion through the woods in the neighbour-
hood. From Hamilton the Royal progress con-
tinues to Niagara, and there he will remain pro-
bably for a week. This tour will occupy alto-
gether to the end of September or begin
ning of October, and of course his arrange-
ments after that are as yet unknown, though it is
now supposed to be certain that he will visit both
Washington and New York. His route to the for•
mer city is most likely to be from the neighbour-
hood of Niagara to Saratoga by rail, and thence by
the tourist road I have already lescribed by White•
hall to Lakes George and Champlain, and back from
Whitehall to Albany and Washington. From
Washington he will travel privately as Baron Ren-
frew to New York, where, it is anticipated, he will
remain for a few days. The port of his departure
has not yet been fixed. The date is not likely to
be much before the middle of October; and, unless
his Highness uses great speed, it may probably be
even later. He is certain, throughout both Canada
and the States, to be received with almost bound-
ess enthusiasm.

.REFORMS 1N THE NAVY.

There are at least some advantages in that see-
saw system of party Government which wastes our
time and spoils the best measures by the necessity
for opposition, and which prevents a Minister from
proposing any substantial good if he should foresee
that it is open to some plausible objection. It is
true that a party Government is the most conserva-
tive in the whole world, for every little interest has
the power of delaying any reform, and things which
shock every one's common sense continue unchecked
and unchanged because it would cost a fight to re-
move them. But still all this curious zigzag plan of
Ins and Outs has its advantages. Thus, when a
statesman is in office he sees a great many evils he
cannot hope to remedy, and endeavours only to
cover up carefully and keep concealed; but the turn
of the balance comes, and out he goes free as air,
primed with all he has learnt, and with full right to
use it against his enemy who has just taken his
place. Forthwith all those vested abuses which were
his terror and his objects of concealment when a
Minister become his friends, his allies, his stock in
trade for opposition. As a Minister he would have
exposed them if he had dared to assume the task of
correcting them_; as an opposition leader it is at
once his duty and his policy to expose them, and to
cast them in the face of his successor. Thus the pub-
lic know what otherwise the public never would
have known. Thus attention is drawn to dark spots
in our body politic;-which, if we had those life-long
Ministers, such as Sully, or Richelieu, or Mazarin, or
Dubois, might have gangrened to the death. While
we complain of the evils, let us remember the ad-
vantages of a Constitution which, with all its
faults, we are not the less attached to because we
are all continually grumbling at its imperfections.
A rare illustration of the energy which a cold
bath of opposition infuses into a statesman occurred
in the House of Commons on Tuesday night. It is
not a very long time ago since Sir John Pakington
was First Lord of the Admiralty, and by common
consent he was one of the most energetic First
Lords who have held that post in recent times. He
did not jump into the place upon the competitive
system, bidding high, promising clouds and moun-
tains, and doing nothing or worse than nothing.
Sir John Pakington at least did something, or
rather he proposed to do something,—nothing like
what ought to be done, but still he proposed to do
something. His successor in the office of expound-
ing Admiralty councils to the Commons proposes
to do practically nothing. Moved by this weak
compliance of the present Secretary to the Ad-
miralty, Sir John now comes forward and makes
a clean breast of it ; tells us why it is our Admirals
are fit for nothing but to be wheeled about in
Bath-chairs; why our Vice-Admirals and Rear-
Admirais are, as a rule, fit only for home appoint-
ments; how it happens that our Senior Captains
are, for the most part, not fit to go to sea ;
why our best officers are, practically, turned out
of the service ; and why the commands of
our ships of war are given—and are compul-
sorily given—and through no fault of the Minister,
but through the workings of an evil system—not
to the best officers, but to the richest men. The
English people love their navy, but if they read Sir
John Pakington's speech, and refer to a Navy List
as they proceed, they will wonder that any service
at all can subsist under such a system as that now
at work. The Old Britannia should be taken into
dock and thoroughly cleansed. Her copper is so
foul that there is no speed left in her ; it is crusted
all over with parasitical sea creatures, which stick
tight even though life seems to have gone out of
them. You may rig her as you like and arm her as
you like, and put any quantity of steam power
into her, but she will never go, so long as you can-
not see her copper for the barnacles and the weeds.
We have at this moment 107 admirals of the three
ranks, and 101 senior captains, of whom about 30
perhaps are good for a five-years' seagoing commis-
sion, but who, if we may judge from what happened
in the Black Sea, would break down and invalid.
after a very little real hard service. The others
have no thought of ever serving again, and live on
for the single object of outliving each other, and of
enjoying at last for a little span the great emolu-
ments of Admiral of the Fleet, or the princely
establishment which forms one of the crying abuses
of Greenwich Hospital. Poor old gentlemen ! they
are still climbing the tree towards these great prizes.
It will be 20 years yet before the last present in-
efficient will be seated in the crow's nest on its top,
and by that period time will have created a long
line of inefficients to covet his place, and to pick up
the number of his berth. Sir John Pakington'tells
us that when he went to the Admiralty " his first
experience was that the service had reached a state
of absolute stagnation of promotion which was de-
pressing to the spirit of officers and injurious to
the welfare of the navy." He certainly did
modestly propose that officers should be compelled
to retire from " active" service at 70, but he went
no further than this, and even this was too bold an
innovation. Lord Clarence Paget, the present re-
prescatative in the House of Commons of the Ad-
miralty Board—his very grave and reverend good
masters, whose tottering counsels he seems willing
to work out—leaves all these 208 articles of vertu
precisely as they were, and propounds a scheme
whereby a Captain shall not command a ship after
60, bat may become an Admiral and command a
fleet at-10.0.
All this Sir John Pakington, being in opposition,
reveals and'developes, and spreads before On public
eye. He does not draw the somewhat evident con-
clusion that, while there are offices of high emolu-
ment which induce 208 old gentlemen to hang on
to the service after the majority of them have be-
come incapable of unaided locomotion, there must
be some sinecures in the navy very capable of being
abolished. He does not suggest that if the command
of the Fleet were made nominal in pay, as it is in
duties, and if the funds of Greenwich Hospital
were applied to the purposes of its foundation,
and if some few other sinecures were reduced to
their proper proportions, the present aversion to
superannuation might be overcome. Sir John
Pakington does not suggest this, but he proceeds
to show us very clearly to what purpose the savings
that could be made by any such reforms might be
most usefully applied. He demonstrates to us that
while we tempt old men to choke the profession
we starve and drive away the young men, who
would sustain its renown. This is an evil which
was pressed upon Sir J. Pakington in office, but
which he only reveals in opposition. We are ac-
customed to boast of our Navy, that promotion is
without purchase—and so it is. But yet it happens
that promotion can only be desired as a professional
advantage by rich, men ; for immediately a Lieu-
tenant becomes a Commander active service is a
luxury only to be enjoyed in proportion to his
private means. If he be a poor, hard-working
officer, who has climbed up the ladder by diligence
and good conduct, and perhaps by having seized
one of the rare opportunities that occur for doing
some dashing deed, he must go ashore, live oa
half-pay till he is 60 years of age, and then retire
from the scene. We shall be told, perhaps, that
the public voice will protect him from such a fate ;
that in these days of publicity his gallantry will
be known, and his countrymen will insist upon
his being placed in active command. The public
voice, even if it came in one universal shout
from every town and hamlet in England, would
have no effect in this matter. If a man had done
egregious service, the Admiralty would be ready
enough to offer him a ship; but he- couldn't take
her. He has no money. He could not fit her
out. Where is he to get £4OO to commission a
shie ? There is nothing for 11411, blit either 'to

resign with a sigh the object of his dearest wishes,
or to take his ship, and involve himself in pecuniary
embarrassments, which can only end in personal
misery and in professional disgrace. All this was
pointed out in the report of the Wellington Com-
mission 20 years ago ; and, surviving Sir J. Paking-
ton's official life at the Admiralty, it has gone on
ever since unremedied. Sir J. Pakington in a pre-
vious debate cited actual cases, such as that we have

just put, where officers of great ability refused
commands because they could not afford to accept
them. On Tuesday night he had many others to
produce in corroboration. One letter from an
Admiral,whom the profession will readily recognise
from Sir John's mention of him, states that the
writer had spent more than £4,000 of his private
means upon the seven commands which he had
held between the day he was made a Commander
and that on which he got his flag. This, however,
is only the common case, of an officer of good pri-
vate means rising in his profession. Ent Sir John
was able also to give us instances of the mortifica-
tions that occur to a poor man commanding a ship
of war even after he had succeeded in raising the
money absolutely sufficient to put to sea. Sir
John had given a ship to an officer in these circum-
stances, and that officer writes to him :—" An
American Commodore and other foreign ships
were at anchor in the Bay, when, of. course, the
usual civilities of calling, &c., were exchanged,
and I was frequently invited to dine on board
one or other of these ships, when I was at once
placed in the painful end perplexing alternative of
accepting these invitations without the means of
returning them, or refusing them and feeling
ashamed to state the plain reason—that my country
did not pay me sufficiently to return their hospi-
tality." Other countries do not subject their naval
service to such paltry indignity. Sir John Paking-
ton contrasted the pay and allowances of our
Lieutenants and Captains with those of the French
service, and Sir John Elphinstone placed them side
by side with those of the American service ; and it
is plain that neither France nor America thinks
the duties of a naval officer can be efficiently per-
formed upon the scale of pay which we allow.
As to the Commission which Sir John Pakington
and his supporters desired; we cannot believe that it
would have been any use. There is no dispute
about the facts; they are notorious and they are
scandalous. Our Navy is afflicted with a moral
apoplexy. There is a morbid determination of money
to the head. What we want is, not a report of a
Commission—the waste-paper baskets of the Admi-
ralty are full of such reports—but some comprehen-
sive measure of naval reform. We want some scale
of pay and allowances which shall enable a naval
officer to live in moderate comfort so long as he is
doing our work, and to retire with a just recompense
for his services as soon as he is past work. The
present system effects exactly the opposite of this.
Sir John Pakington can give us, and has given us,
as good an exposition of existing evils as could be
made by a dozen Blue-books. The only pity is that
he did not apply the remedy when he had the
power. If, however, the service are to gain anything
by Sir John's advocacy it will not be through the
agency of a Commission.—Times.