The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-25 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE,

THIS DAY.—Morning, 7h. 59m.—Afternoon., 812. 41m.
To-mosuow.-Morning, 9h. 27m.—Afternoon, 10h. 12m.

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 18e0,

The speech of Lord PALMERSTON, in answer to
Mr. KINGLAKE, last night, showed something of
his ancient spirit, and was worthy of his position
as First Minister of the British Crown. Now that
he has shaken off the timorous councillors who
fettered his language at the commencement of the
session, we are able to gather his real opinion
respecting the transfer of Savoy, which he ex-
presses with an uncompromising fearlessness
worthy of the occasion. " The cession of Savoy to
France was a very peculiar transaction," said Lord
PALMERSTON, " and does not come within
the ordinary category of cession of territory
made by one Sovereign to another. It was
not competent for the King of SARDINIA to cede,
nor, as I hold, for France to accept that territory,
thus emancipating it from the conditions under
which it stood as part of the dominions of Sardinia.'
After referring to the position in which Savoy
stood towards Switzerland Lord PALMERSTON said
plainly that France being a much stronger power
and differently situated in many respects, it was
clear that there was much greater danger to Swit-
zerland from that Power than from Sardinia. That
the difference of situation referred to the character
of the Government as well as to the relative
strength and position of the state, is manifest from
the subsequent paragraphs. " The cession," con-
tinued the Premier, " was objectionable not only on
that account, but on account of the manner in which
it was made. All the circumstances connected with
it from first to last, the denials at one time and
avowals at another, the promises made, as reported
by the President of Switzerland in his message of
March, the promises made in January and Feb-
ruary by the French Government to the Minister
of Switzerland, that whenever the cession should
be completed Faucigny and Chablais should be
transferred to Switzerland—a promise afterwards
retracted, and apparently never intended to
be performed ; all these circumstances must pro-
duce a most painful impression in the minds
of every man in regard to all the parties who
were concerned in the transaction. It had cer-
tainly produced a painful impression on the minds
of all the other States of Europe—an impression
showing that they considered that, for the future,
forethought and precaution must be the duty of
every Power." This is language sufficiently ex-
plicit and straightforward, worthy of the lips of an
English Minister. We can only regret that our
statesraen should have suffered themselves to have
been no long deluded by the diplomatic subtleties
and professed magnanimity of other Cabinets.
Why were not Lord PALMERSTON'S perceptions
equally clear, why was not Lord J. RUSSELL'S
"study of the character of that great man" equally

correct when they suffered themselves to be en

gaged in that Treaty of Commerce, which is already

anathematised in many of our manufacturing dis.

tricts, and condemned by the sound judgmen

and deliberate resection of the general pub.

lie ? Why was not the tone of our Govern-
ment equally fearless and outspoken when they
forced that treaty through the Legislature by

the threat that its non-acceptance would endan-
ger the French alliance. If " forethought and

precaution" had been the duties of the past as well

%a the future, England would never have consented
to such an absurd sacrifice—a sacrifice made with-
out motive and accepted without gratitude—which
will .yet lose more to the Government by,its ur.-
popuht,ity in
this country, than it will gain them
in the friendship of an ally whom already they
distrust. we _
rejoice, however, to see Lord PAL-
MERSTON
1128.111/ling so dignified an attitude.
He seems of IP.te to hay° abandoned
the flippancy and levity which he once adopted,
and to have resumed instead that honourable it-
dependence of tone and manner which no one
can more worthily bear. Let
preserve this
attitude and these sentiments,no longer fettered by
the intricate theories of a crotchety colleague,
or by the pacific platitudes of a quondam friend.
Let him be true to his own early career, and to the
sympathies of the English people—sure that the
strength of position acquired by an upright and

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