The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-07 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 7, 1860.

In commenting upon this astonishing movement
only last week down at Chester, Mr. GLADSTONE
gave utterance to several remarks that, coming
from any Minister of the Crown would at any
momentbe entitled to the popular consideration, but
that they demand this scrutiny from the public in a
very particular manner at this present juncture, an d
as coming to us from the lips of no.other than the
Chancellor of her MAJESTY'S Exchequer. Speaking
of the Volunteer Rifle Corps Movement—"l confess,"
said Mr. GLADSTONE last week to the patriot
bands of the Chester Riflemen—" I confess that I
think that those would take a very narrow view of
your institution who founded it upon any appre-
hension of immediate danger to the country. No
doubt there have been those who have felt alarmed,
and it is not for me to pronounce opinions
which could be of no authority upon the
subject, but I must confess that for my
part I don't believe that the shores of Eng-
land are at this particular period in danger."
The right honourable gentleman adding—" It
would be, I think, placing your claims on too low
a ground. It would be placing them upon a ground
which probably would only assign to you a tempo-
rary rather than a permanent existence, if we were
to suppose that it ,was actual apprehension only
that had induced you to make the great efforts and
the great sacrifices which you have made in a noble
cause. But undoubtedly," said Mr. GLADSTONE, " I
must admit that there has been in some countries
at least of Europe an idea propagated, and there
have been those who have thought it for their, in-
terest to propagate the idea, that England, especi-
ally of late years, had been so devoted to the arts
of peace that she had entirely lost those energies
which made the forefathers of the present race of
Englishmen so distinguished in war. I do not
believe there is a man in this room who ever
imagined that that really was the case ; yet
still there were those who did propagate
such an idea." Precisely. Mr. GLADSTONE was
enunciating a simple fact, when he spoke thus, an
obvious truism, an unmitigated platitude, what
may be called just in three more plain words—a
selfevident proposition. And it was to do away
with this " idea" that our Volunteer Rifle Corps
have started into existence. That is Our "War
for an Idea"—the bloodless but perfectly effective
war waged now for some months past upon their
practise-targets by our Rifle Volunteers. The thun-
der of which harmless but significant fusillade has al.
ready served, we believe, to clear the political atmos-
phere not only here amongst ourselves in England,
but in our regard in a great measure also all over
the European Continent. A hundred and fifty
thousand men have all this while been doing that
duty which England is ever expecting, and never
in vain from the hands and hearts of her good citi-
zeni. If requisite, a hundred and fifty thousand
more will follow in the path already traversed by
the footsteps of these orderly and disciplined Vo-
lunteers. The rest we may now therefore humbly
leave to GOD—in whose hands lie the issues of life
or death for nations as for men. At least England
is now not unprepared for any emergency that may
arise : and Christian philosophy teaches us through
the familiar aphorism that GOD helps those who
help themselves.

NAPOLEON'S " Sayings" hardly less than his acts
are very memorable. A collection of some among
the most remarkable of those sayings were pub-
lished some years back, in a little volume that for
wit and wisdom, for shrewdness and humour might
vie even with the apothegms of BACON, the reflec- We have now before us all the communications
tions of LA BRUYERE, or the aphorisms of ROCHE- of importance from China which we are likely to
FOUGAULD. It wss said of NAPOLEON earlier than receive for some time, and can only meditate on
the date of that collection, and said of him, too, by them at leisure till the next China mail arrives.
no one less empowered by his own vocation so to In addition to the more graphic narratives of cor-
speak, than BERANGER, that he was the greatest respondents, we have the official accounts of the
poet of the earth—la plus grande poete du monde. English and French Commanders, each showing to
Reading all that he said and wrote during his six the other all that military courtesy could ask. But
years of exile at St. Helena, we may certainly we have also the documents—such, at least, as Lord
pronounce him to have been not the least of the JOHN RUSSELL thinks it not inconvenient to the
political sages of Europe. It was during the public service to give us—sent home by our Pleni-
stormy period of his warlike career, however, potentiary ; and they suggest some important con-
that those sayings of his, to which we have been siderations.
referring here more particularly of sayings half Just as the allied forces were leaving Pehtang,
caustic, half comic, almost always flavoured with and while they were attacking Sinho and Tangku,
wit and sparkling with a vivacity essentially Lord ELGIN received from the Governor-General
French, were uttered. Who does not recollect his of the province not less than three letters, written
recommendation always to have the dirty linen on immediately successive days, and intended to
washed at home ? Or his own self-derisive excla- arrest his progress, by persuading him to enter on
motion, addressed to the Abbe Du P RADT, during negotiations. The extreme urgency of the Governor-
the retreat, or rather the flight, from Moscow— General was enough of itself to induceesuspicion—
" There is but one step from the sublime to the their contents still more so. Anxious as the
ridiculous." Occasionally, however, some of these Chinese authorities were to treat, they did not in
whimsical witticisms of NAPOLEON'S recoiled more any of the communications even advert to the ulti-
sh "PIY and directly upon himself than at the matum which had been forwarded them through
moment of flinging them from him he could have Mr. BRUCE in March last. In the first letter the Go-
anticipated. They were intended by him, doabt- vernor informs Lord ELGIN that the EMPEROR had
less, at
those moments to be no more than poignant appointed a commissioner to meet our Plenipoten-
epigrams, feathered with wit and barbed with tiary in the capital, and that as they were at peace
sarcasm : but they turned out to be on the contrary no hostile operations should be attempted by us. The
—rather, perhaps, it should be said more literally second was of the same tenor, only turning to the
they turned back upon him_as so many boomerangs. best account a white flag said to be flying in the
About the most
fantastically recoiling among all allied camp. The third announced that an Impe-
these chance remarks of
NAPOLEON'S being, for iial Commissioner would meet Lord ELGIN at
example, that one in
which he insisted that so very Tientsin, the same with whom he had negotiated
much really depended in the history of mankind the treaty of 1858. After the capture of the forts a
upon the science of NasologY—that a small nose communication from the Minister of War also ap-
implied weakness, and a large one
energy of cha- prised Lord ELGIN that the guns and garrison of
ratter, or, in fact, general capacity.
"Give me a Tien-tsin, as well as ofTaku, had been withdrawn,
man with plenty of nose,"—said
NAPOLEON. And and it was therefore hoped that he would not come to
he certainly got one with just a little too flinch
at the former—which, it should be remembered, is the
Waterloo ! ' grand port of Pekin, and the largest Chinese port
Mr. GLADSTONE has but very recently been re- north of Shanghae—with many vessels of war, lest
calling to the recollection of her MAJESTY'S lieges, he should alarm the inhabitants.
in the good old city of Chester, another of
Lord ELGIN of course saw the drift of all this,
answer to
epigrammatic observations and therefore merely informed the Governor, in
these familiar and
that sufficiently
of the great NAPOLEON—namely., the three letters at once, that the mili-
famous one, which was wily too well remembered tart' had already been called on to act, in conse-
on this side of the Channel in 1815—the one in quence of the unsatisfactory reply to the ultimatum
which NAPOLEON dubbed us a nation of shop: of March last—that they were engaged in taking
keepers. That, also, returned avengingly upon possession of the Taku forts—and opening him a
himself towards the close of his wonderful career passage to Tientsin —that these objects must be
of victory. The nation of shopkeepers proved one first attained, and sufficient assurances given
y the Chinese Government before too many for him at last. As in the old sylvan by he could call
the military to suspend th • eir
days of ROBIN 'HOOD, when the weapons were the onoperations.
berw and arrow„ our cloth-yard was driven home After arriving at Tientsin, which was occupied
by our forces, Lord ELGIN appears to have been
agu•in and again to the hearts of the power of the . .
Ccon with the evident desire of the Chinese to
'Pierer of Continental Europe—say, for in- satisfied
s taace d to depart to Pekin not with a
on the dyadly struggle at la Haye Sainte, in) treat, and prepare

It is the fable still of the Satyr's bewilderment
at the man's blowing hot and blowing cold with
the same breath—to warm his frozen fingers and to
cool his hot porridge ! The Warsaw Conference,
we are now told through the Austrian note—the
circular note addressed by Count RECHBERG to all
the representatives of the Viennese Government at
the various Courts of Christendom—that formidable
meeting at Warsaw of the three Northern Sove-
reigns, we are now assured by the Austrian note,
means everything that is pacific 1 The Austrian
note declares that the Princes met thus
simply to draw closer the bonds of their per-
sonal friendship. The Austrian note adds yet
further that in that genial meeting—at which,
we may presume, the three Princes sent round
the loving-cup, filled to the brim with the
milk of human kindness—decided definitively, in
regard to the affairs of Italy, upon a policy (fancy
this from Austria, Russia, and Prussia!) of non-
intervention. Meanwhile there is concentrated at
this time in Venetia and the Quadrilateral, it is ac-
tually estimated, an army of no less than 200,000
men! The soldiers (we are left to conclude of course)
of the Austrian principle of non-intervention ! And
at the same time the "Pacificator of Europe," the
"Regulator of the Revolution," or whatever else
his Imperial Majesty of France may please to call
himself through the speaking-trumpet of the
Constitutionnel—in the same way and at the same
time that Austria is doing all this in the
name of the policy and the principle of non-
intervention, NAPOLEON 111. has been pouring his
troops rapidly regiment by regiment into Rome
and the surrounding districts, also, we presume—
indeed we are solemnly assured as much, that it
really is so—in the furtherance of the policy and
principle of non-intervention ! All which is certainly
blowing hot and blowing cold in the same breath
with a vengeance. We can only wait patiently
now and see what will come of this elaborately
organised system of political hypocrisy and diplo-
matic contradictions.

THE HOMEWARD _BOUND VESSELS.

NOTICE.

ADMIRALTY, Nov. 6, 1860.
Sir,—l am commanded by my Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty, to acquaint you for the
information of the Committee for Managing
Affairs at Lloyds, that her Majesty's steam sloop
Spiteful has been ordered to proceed from Devon-
port to the Chops of the Channel, to relieve the
homeward bound trade. Also : that the squadron
about to sail from Plymouth, under the command
of Rear• Admiral Stopford, will render assistance
to the trade, if required.
. (Signed) C. PAGET.
Capt. G. A. Halsted, R.N., Sec., Lloyd's.

THE EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE STEAMER
TONNING.—An inquest was commenced yesterday at Yar-
mouth by the coroner, Mr. Chamberlin, respecting the
deaths of three of the persons killed by the explosion on
board the steamer Tonning. The inquiry was merely a
preliminary one, and no new facts in addition to those
already known were elicited. The inquiry was adjourned
for a week, and the jury proceeded to Lowestoft to inspect
the steamer. By the return made by Captain Rivers, the
commander of the onning, the number who perished by
the explosion is 12—Robert Spooner, fireman, of Lowes-
toft; John Langley steward, of Kessingland ; and James
Cummings, seaman, were landed dead, and another
sufferer, a cattleman, has since died. The following are
missing—they disappeared at the moment of the explosion,
and are supposed to have been blown overboard :—Richard
Barr, fireman ; John Jenkerson, carpenter, of Lowestoft ;
John Fawcett, fireman; the Tonning pilot; William
Arms,of Lowestoft, deck-boy; Alderman, a fireman; John
F. Reay, jun., boy in engine-room ; and a cello, boy, pas-
senger, believed to belong to Liverpool. Those injured and
lying at the hospital are—James Worsp, first mate, dange-
rously hurt and recovery doubtful; John F. Reay, sen ,
first engineer, going on favourably ; Edward Peck, seaman.,
of Lowestoft, recovering; John Hall Cook ; and Timothy
Bitten, fireman. The names of those saved are—Captain
Geerge Rivers, commander; George Wilkinson, second en-
gineer ; Thomas Jago, boatswain ; James Hardthorne,
Samuel Absolon, John Read, and Golder, seamen ; Wil-
liam Golder, boatswain's mate ; James Conner and John
Mullett, firemen ; and two (Danes) cattlemen. The Board
of Trade will inquire strictly into the circumstances at-
tending this explosion. The seven wounded mon at the
Yarmouth Hospital are progressing favourably.
TIrE EARL CAWDOR.—We regret to state that
the Earl Cawdor lies dangerously ill, at his seat, Stackpole
Court, Pembrokeshire. Two medical gentlemen from town
are in attendance, and the whole of the noble peer's family
are around him, except Viscount Ernlyn, and he is on his
way home, having been telegraphed for from Geneva. The
Countess of Ellesmere, Countess of Desart, Lady Dun-
combe, and the Hon. Captain Campbell have arrived at
Stackpole. The most serious results are anticipated.
APPOINTSMENTS.—The Lord Bishop of London
has conferred the honorary canonry in St. Paul's Cathedral, ,
vacant by the death of the Rev. J. T. Round, 8.D., upon
the Rev. F. G. Blomfield, M.A., rector of St. Andrew •
Undershaft (City) ; and the honorary canonry in the same
cathedral, vacant by the death of the Rev. T. B. Murray,
on the Rev. James Augustus Hessey, D.C.L., head master
of Merchant Taylors School.