The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-28 00:00:00

and the western mountains of Savoy, it is clear that
she must have the Maritime Alps. Look at the map
and read the wars of the first French Republic—
nothing can be plainer.
Why should we have these studies forced upon
us ? Such old claims and revolutionary precedents
disturb our reveries, which are just now of flourish-
ing financial statements and a large annual surplus.
There are no Montesquious, or D'Anselmes, or even
Pichegrus now-a-days to swarm over the French
frontiers; why should we go reading old histories
and pondering over modern maps ? We thought
we were shaking down into a settled state, that
every man was going to cultivate his vines to the
utmost, that our lively impulsive neighbour had
sown all her wild oats, and was going into business
with a steady resolution to make money and pay
her way. Surely she cannot be already back again
at her old tricks, casting covetous eyes upon her
neighbour's vineyards ? If we give way to these
notions, nothing would be easier than to persuade
ourselves that all our neighbours' possessions, on
both sides of us, would be much better in eur hands
than in theirs. Would it not be too tantalising to
a French army always to be encamped upon the
peaks of the Alps, looking down almost into the
streets of Turin ? Neither Hannibal nor the First
Napoleon could resist the temptation. The Zouaves
would be more than human if they did not, when
perched upon those lofty posts, find some excuse
from time to time for a foray in those fat plains. In
inns and houses where chamber doors communicate
it is always usual that the key should be left on
the side of the weaker and more assailable occu-
pant, Poor unprotected Piedmont sleeps next to a
strong and enterprising gentleman of rather liberal
morality. Surely, in fairness Piedmont ought to
have the key ? Not, perhaps, that it would be of
much use if lie were determined to force the door ;
but, still, to take away the key and put it on his
own side seems to be an unnecessary facility, if not
a public affront. But we hope that France does
not intend to do anything so shabby. It would rub
all the gilt off her Italian angles; it would take all
the glory out of that magnificent " idea" for which
she went to war. She might have it, of course, if
she pleased—that is to say, Sardinia would not say
her nay. Victor Emmanuel would not pause to
barter a couple of cities and a few mountain tops
against Florence. But what would the world say ?
What would that history which the French press
' is now pertinaciously insisting upon reading to us
say ? We might perhaps have a secret consolation
in knowing that the population which persecutes us
with monkeys, white mice, and h*.rdygurdies would
be draughted off into French armies and sent to
Africa, but we should all feel ashamed of the great
Italian liberator who had enveloped himself in the
misty halo of a tremendous " idea," only in order
that he might gain a beggarly bit of territory.
Therefore we must hope that there will be no oc-
casion for her Majesty's Government ever to ex-
press to the Emperor of the French, in that
"firmest and most friendly manner," the opinions
which they hold upon this " great European ques-
tion." Therefore, we cannot believe that there
will be any necessity for Lord John Russell to
remind the French Emperor of Article XCII. in the
Vienna Congress Treaty, which guarantees the neu-
trality of the provinces of Chablais and Faucigny,
and the whole of the territory of Savoy to the north
of Ugine, and places those provinces under the pro-
tection of the Great Powers, as " belonging to his
Majesty the King of Sardinia." It would not be
to the honour of Napoleon 111. or to the honour of
France for history to have to write that in the
year of grace 1859 France went to war for Italy
and repaid herself for her sacrifices by a scrap of
mountain territory. To state the case is to show
how impossible it is that it can ever occur. So let
Nice be composed and let the Savoyards be com-
forted. They are as safe from any interference
from France—as Austria was last December twelve-
month.

PONTEFRACT ELECTION....--.The election of a re-
presentative for this borough, in the place of Mr. W.
Cverend, Q.C., who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds,
has been fixed for Monday next. There are two candi-
dates in the field,—Mr. Childers, the unsuccessful can-
didate at the last election, and Mr. S. Waterhouse, of
Hope Hall, Halifax, who has come forward at the soli-
citation of the Conservati res. Both parties have declared
their intention to go to the poll, which will take place on
Tuesday.
THE ARMSTRONG GUN.—In reference to the
second article which appeared on this subject in the Times
of Thursday last, we have received a letter from Mr. Bash-
ley Britten, pointing out where that gentleman thinks an
inferential injustice has been done him. Mr. Britten has
misunderstood the drift of our remarks, which were simply
to the effect that the attempts to bring our old muzzle-load-
hagl iron ordnance into use by rifling them had not proved
successful. Indeed, so unsuccessful have they been, thet
it is more than doubtful if the War-office will resort to the,
costly process of strengthening these guns with wrought
e.gfi st_reug _.. i
thesheneiron hoops—without which they could not be used at all—
instead rather of having a sp9;al gun cast and
POWIS' CLAIM ON THE CLIVE FUND...—.
T for
oexunPdres'O purpose of being afterward. ri
f the claim are, we believe, the phraseology
The
egrounds
of the deed transferring the money to the benefit of the
East India Company, for certain purposes and under cer-
tain conditions. The question appears to be, whether the
beneficial interest of the company is transferable to the Se-
cretary of State for India, or whether it has not absolutely
ceased by the extinction of the company as a governing
body. We have not the words of the deed before us, but
be believe that they limit the grant to such period as the
company might continue to possess an army and ships of
their own. Whether this phraseology was intentionally
employed with etny provision of the abolition of the Rest
India Company, or was designed to express permanency
(as in oriental documents they say, "so long as the sun and
moon shall endure"), may be matter of historical dispute,
but we are afraid that legally the letter is with the Clive
family, and the Indian Council will have some difficulty 111
combating their claims.—Overland
LOSS OF A STORNOWAY CREW.—A melancholy
accident happened at the mouth of Byble Bay, near Stoma-
way, on the evening of Monday, the 16th instant. Two
boats, with their crews, belonging to that township, went
out in the dusk to shoot their lines, and when on the way
returning were overtaken by a shower of sleet and snow.
accompanied by sudden and severe squalls of wind. In
the shower the boats were separated, and one of them has
not been heard of since, nor has any of her gearing come
ashore, leaving no room for doubt that her unfortunate
crew—William M'Leod, skipper ; Malcolm M'Leod, his
brother; Alexander M'Donald, Malcolm M'Donald, Alex-
ander Graham, and Donald M'Leod, all belonging to the
township of Byble—met with a watery grave in sight of
their homes. William M'Leod and Alexander Graham
were married : the former leaves a widow and five children,
the latter a widow and two children. To believers in
" second sight" it may not be uninteresting to mention
that about three weeks ago the master of the mail
packet between Wick and Poolewe related that he and his
crew and passengers, when on the voyage south, and when
tacking three or four miles off Byble, heard dreadful cries
as of persons drowning. When he gravely mentioned
the matter on his return he was laughed at as a super-
stitious sailor, and he now appeals to the accident of Mon-
day night—the presentiment of which, he asserts, was
heard several weeks previously, and then mentioned. The
sufferers were respectable men and excellent fishermen.—
Northern Ensign
ACCIDENT ON THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN
d considerable e e n
destruction Crewe
RAILWAY.—An accident occurred about 4 o'clock on Thurs.
day afternoon at the Hartford station on this line of rail-
cwa asT yon et ad
w btw
and
of dWparerrpinegrty ann—dwshiericohueocly-
impeded the traffic for several hours. It appears a down
goods train was in the act of shunting across the up rails to
attach some trucks, when the up Scotch goods train, tra-
velling at its usual speed, and timed to pass through Hart-
ford station, came into direct collision with the shunting
train, tearing up both lines of rails for some distance. The
accumulation of wreck was so great that the work of clear-
ing the lines was a very formidable undertaking. When
the 5.15 p.m. up express from Liverpool arrived at Hartford
the lines were quite impassable, and an engine and car-
riages having been telegraphed for from Crewe the passen-
gers and luggage were after some delay transferred and sent
on to London, where they arrived at two o'clock yesterday
morning instead of eleven o'elock on Thareday night. The
up mail was also delayed considerably, and letters from the
north were not delivered until noon yesterday. Happily no
injury to life or limb occurred, and the line was in full
working order at an early hour yesterday morning. The
midday Scotch mail, due at the Euston station at eleven
a.m. yesterday, was two hours late in its arrival, having
been delayed by a snow drift six feet deep for some distance
on the Caledonian Railw_c_sty.
DEATH OF COL. W 00D, OF LITTLETON—The
death of Col. Wood, which took place on Thursday last, at
the advanced age of 84, is an event which may well claim a
tribute of comemmorative regret. It is by the dazzling
abilities of her few men of genius that a nation becomes illus-
trious and great ; but the quieter and less conspicuous vir-
tues of her citizens in the aggregate enable her to retain and
solidify the greatness thus achieved, and of this larger and
useful class the gentleman whose loss we now announce may
rank as an honourable and faithful typo. Col. Wood was
educated at Harrow and at Oxford. Shortly after leaving
the University he joined the Ist or Royal East Middlesex
Militia as Lieutenant-Colonel, and succeeded to the full
colonelcy on the retirement of the late Earl of Mans-
field, in April, 1803. This command he continued to fill
up to the time of his decease, serving with the regiment
at Aldershot when last embodied, and remaining. with
it during the whole time that it was stationed there.
in 1831 he WAS appointed to the honorary office of Aide-
de-camp to the Sovereign for the Militia force, an office
then first created by William IV., and constituting its
holder the representative, in a certain sense, of the whole
body of the English Militia. The conspicuous zeal and
activity displayed by Colonel Wood in the discharge of his
duties would amply justify his claim to this distinction ;
but the personal esteem in which ho was held by William
IV. must have rendered the honour doubly flattering. This
esteem never faltered, and was affectingly recorded in his
Majesty's will, by the terms of which Colonel Wood was
named executor conjointly with Sir Herbert Taylor. In
1806 Colonel Wood commenced his Parliamentary career
being returned for Brecknockshire, which county he repre-
sented during a period of 40yeare—retiring from the house
in 1847. Colonel Woad, though a Tory, voted for the Ca-
tholic Relief Bill, tho second roadingof the Reform Bill, and
the measures introduced by the Government of Sir Robert
Peel. The differences which his support of the principles
of free trade occasioned among his constituents at that
period of excited party feeling induced him, in the true
spirit of conciliation, to sacrifice his own ambition rather
than embitter hostilities already rife by a contested elec-
tion. Accordingly, on the dissolution of Parliament in
1847, he voluntarily retired from the political arena, closing
at that date a long and useful senatorial career. In Breck-
nockshire, the county he represented in Parliament, as well
as in the whole principality, Colonel Wood took a lively
interest, which did not rest contented with empty profee-
sions. He married, in 1801, Lady Caroline Stewart, daugh-
ter of Robert first Marquis of Londonderry, who was for
some years principal Bedchamber-woman to Queen Ade-
laide. lie has left a large family and a wide and influen-
tial circle of 00RRe1d.9124 to mourn his loaa.