The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-14 00:00:00

phlet, and, of course, its putative father, who alone
had made it worth his notice, with it ; and the po-
lite letter of the Emperor crosses on the road this
fiery " allocution." And then the bland letter itself
of the dutiful Eldest Son of the Church—what is it
but advising, in the most filial language, that the
Holy Father should bestow his benediction on the
"rebels," for whose silver and gold his Cardinals
still hanker, and should surrender as a boon to
Europe what ho wants to keep as a boon to him-
self.

And now, the latest, in all this series of per-
plexities, is—Mr. BOWYER and his letter. Any
Catholic mess, before it is done with, must, of
course, have the fingers of the Porn's advocate in
it. It is his official duty—his business—it would
be a slur on his professional reputation if the POPE
were offended, even about purely temporal mat-
ters, and Mr. BOWYER burned not. And we will
freely confess the counsel for the POPE has said his
best—his very best; we doubt not the best which
could be said for his Holiness's temporal rule ; but
what a damning defence is it ! We have looked
through it carefully and candidly, sincerely wish-
ing to find something worthy of an attempt at
refutation ; for it is a real pleasure to a journalist
to find something worthy of serious argument ; or,
we may truly say, something to which we could
concede that an opponent has advanced an idea, a
statement, an explanation deserving of notice. We
are disappointed to find nothing of the kind. Mr.
BOWYER has been cramming under his grinders at
the Vatican, but has not been able to pen a word for
which the most lenient examiner could award him
a single mark. _

He tries, indeed, to fasten on the pamphlet
charges of inconsistency with itself. To do this,
in appearance, may be possible ; since the author
of the pamphlet obviously thinks the POPE
ought to have no temporal power at all ; but
to conciliate, were that possible, the English
BowYERS and the French Ultramontists, he argues
for the Pope's having Rome to himself, to tyrannise
over and bless at his pleasure. Meantime he
merely declaims against the assertion of the pam-
phlet, that the civil and the spiritual swords can-
not successfully be wielded by the same hands—he
makes not the slightest attempt at disproof of this,
to most persons, self-evident position. There is the
usual rant uttered by any Irish P.P. to the igno-
rant peasantry about the beneficent reign of the
Pontiff; about the necessity of temporal power to
spiritual independence ; about the inalienable in-
heritance of the Pope; about the subversion of the
public law of Europe if the Pope were deprived of
his temporal throne ;—just as if the Founder of
Christianity and his Apostles, as D'AZEGLIO (a
Catholic) observes, had not renounced temporal
power, and cannot therefore have delegated what
they themselves rejected ; as if the gifts of temporal
power by dead princes and princesses could not be
revoked by the people of a succeeding generation;
and as if the public law by which the thrones of
England- and France, of Belgium, Sweden, and
Greece are filled was not as good law as Europe
needs. To such a stream of mere declamation it is
hopeless to attempt to reply. We will therefore
only warn Mr. BowYER and his clique that Eng-
land has already long determined to leave the Pops
to himself. She only asserts, with all the moral
influence she can, that no foreign power has the
slightest right to sacrifice the liberties of the Ro-
mans to the ambition of the Pope or of all the Ca-
tholics of Europe. Popery is a crime and not a reli-
gion, if it claims, as a political Moloch, an " ina-
lienable right" of victimising to its own glory the
right of all people to choose their own rulers and
to eject them at their pleasure.

The Crimean War unquestionably did good ser-
vice to the British Soldier in spite of many horrors
and much suffering. An army it is true was un-
happily consumed in the process—between 20,000
and 30,000 of our men were swept away in that
tremendous ordeal, and about £30,000,000 swal-
lowed up. But it were frivolous to assert, it were
even contrary to truth to maintain, that through
this fearful ordeal the soldiers of England were not
in very many ways, directly and indirectly, indi-
vidually and collectively benefitted. Through the
agency of Mr: ROEBUCK'S Sebastopol Committee
alone a broad flood of light was thrown upon the
mysteries of routine, and upon all the entangled
and entangling sinuosities of red-tapism, such as
rendered the perpetuation of the evil system, un•
disturbed and unameliorated, thenceforth little less
than absolutely impossible. As yet, however,
though as many as half a dozen years have actually
since then elapsed, it would be idle to assert that
we have made more than the merest beginning in
the great and complicated work of military
reorganisation. It was only very recently, in-
deed, that one of the most competent, and at
the same time one of the most dispassionate
witness in the matter, namely, Dr. RUSSELL, for-
merly par excellence TEE Times' " Correspondent,"
directed particular attention to this fact, that Eng-
land has yet a vast amount to accomplish the im-
mense labour of military re-organisation upon which
she has undoubtedly begun to adventure—but
upon which, as undoubtedly, she has as yet only
begun to adventure. Take, for example, as an
illustration of this—a comparatively slight illustra-
tion, it is true, yet one, it will be at once admitted
upon all hands, peculiarly and immediately effect-
ing the health and comfort of our soldiers—take as
evidence of the fact to which we are here advert-
, ing—(upon which we are unquestionably dis-
posed to animadvert)—take the arms, clothing,
and accoutrements of our soldiery l Where are the
improvements? There are improvements unques-
tionably, but these are only partial and subordinate.
Since the Crimean campaign, for instance, the old
prejudice against any other than the cavalry
regiments being exempted from the matutinal
martyrdom of shaving, has, in a very great mea-
sure,
if it has not as yet altogether, disappeared.
Again, dating back from the time of the Russian
War, even the authorities at the Horse Guards have
been brought at last to recognise the absurdity of
half throttling the men by means of that terrible
old black leather stock, which, while it perpetually
rasped the half shaved recruit under his jaws, often,
particularly during a long march in a hot
climate, resulted in all but strangulation.
Admitting, however, these one or two beneficial
disc,overies in regard to the cruelty and
inconvenience as well as unsightliness of some of
the old stubborn regulations as to the manners and
customs, and bearing and uniform, of our soldiers,
of our foot soldiers especially—we have, neverthe-
less, up to this present time, been doing no more
than potter over one or two comparatively trivial
improvements. It yet remains for the military
authorities to decide satisfactorily for once and for
all upon very nearly every individual item relating
to the soldier's arms, to his clothing, and to his
accoutrements.

The slovenly, hodge-podge, petty alterations ad-
ventured upon hitherto for the advantage, or, to
put it more distinctly, for the personal convenience,
of our infantry has, within the last week or two,
been evidenced in a manner somewhat ludicrous.
Every one who may have recently chanced to glance,
during the muddy weather, at one of our sentries
upon guard at the entrance to any one of our great