The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-11 00:00:00

chief factor of the company at Victoria, Mr. Dallas, son-in-
law of Governor Douglas, came to the island in the British
sloop of war Satellite, and threatened to take the American
(Mr. Chester) by force to Victoria, to ans .v or for the tres-
pass he had committed. The American seized his rifle, and
told Mr. Dallas if any such attempt was made he would kill
him on the spot. The affair then ended.' "
Did it ? Let us read on, and see :

" Under these circumstances the American settlers pre-
sented a petition to the general, 'through the United States
Inspector of Customs, Mr. Hubba, to place a force upon the
island, to protect them from the Indians, as well as the op-
pressive interference of the authorities of the Hudson's Bay
Company, at Victoria, with their rights as American citi-
zens.' The general immediately responded to this petition,
and ordered Captain George E. Pickett, 9th Infantry, to
establish his company on Bellevue, on San Juan Island, or
some suitable position near the harbour, at the south-
eastern extremity.' This order was promptly obeyed, and
a military post was established at the place designated. The
force was after wards increased, so that by the last return
the whole number of troops then on the island amounted,
in the aggregate, to 691 men."

So that the maintenance by the United States of
this arrangement mutually entered into with
England—was the occupation of the disputed ter-
ritory of General HARVEY'S troops to the number
of close upon seven hundred! Upon the plea, too,
that the British authorities were acting harshly,
because, forsooth, they proposed to deal as justice
required with some Yankee sportsman, either as
felonious a shot as a poaching gipsy or as bad a
shot as Mr. WINKLE—as bad, perhaps we should
say, as the hero of the nursery ditty who shot at
a crow and killed a pig! Remembering the shoot-
ing of that miserable " animal" of San Juan (Mr.
BUCHANAN is ashamed to say point blank in his
Message that it was " a pig")—and remembering
that the immediate result was the monstrous and
wholly unjustifiable seizure of the island
by 691 of the American soldiers under General
HARNEY, and that the proximate consequence
threatened at one time to be an open rupture be-
tween Great Britain and the United States, one
can only marvel with PoPE—

" What mighty contexts rise from trivial things I"
The credit of the dissipation apparently of these
ominous and portentous clouds threatening war
between England and America, the President
coolly and complacently arrogates to the wisdom,
prudence, moderation, and magnanimity of his own
Government ! It is only of a piece this with the
curious maintenance of the agreement by means of
the abrupt descent of just upon seven hundred
United States' troops upon San Juan. It caps the
climax of this last edifying specimen of calm
Yankee effrontery.

Our remark the other day that a very little time
would suffice to place us au courant with the views
of all our public men in succession in reference to
the rifle corps movement is being rapidly verified.
Since then a large number of other notabilities
have spoken out frankly, to the point, and to the
purpose. Yesterday we gave a glimpse of the
sentiments with which the National Arming is re•
garded by one of our learned Recorders and also by
one of our leading Statesmen. Both, it will doubt-
less have been already remarked by many of our
readers, regard the progress, the advance, and the
development of this grand movementwith sentiments
of profound and patriotic complacency. Elsewhere
in to-day's paper it will be seen that two others
have spoken out quite as earnestly and explicitly—
the one a gallant old tar (Admiral WALCOTT,
M.P.), the other a leading statesman of the Oppo-
site side (the Earl of MALMESBURY), ex-Foreign
Secretary. The arguments of both will be found
elsewhere in this evening's impression of our jour-
nal, and to the consideration of these arguments
we earnestly commend all who have at heart the
completion, as speedily and thoroughly as possible,
of the machinery of our National Defences.
Already we have commented upon the justifiably
exultant tone with which Mr. WARREN, as Re-
corder of Hull, availed himself of a not unfitting
opportunity in which to refer to the wide and rapid
spread of these evidences, at once of our.loyalty and
of our civism. It is but right, now, we think, that
we should revert for a moment, however cursorily,
to the views expressed more recently at Watford,
in Hertfordshire, by the Earl of CLARENDON, K.G.,
the views and sentiments expressed by him in re-
gard to the same identical movement. The superior
advantages of these Rifle Corps, or, in other words,
of a regularly organised National Gaard,drawn from
the ranks of the people—the superior advantages of
this system of defence, over that to which England
has a peculiar repugnance, namely, that of a large
standing army,the Earl of CLARENDON thus forcibly
indicated :—" If," said he, "they were to have a
large standing army there would always, be a
danger to freedom and liberty, and other Powers
might be justified in asking if our intentions were
pacific ; but they could not ask what were the in-
tentions of volunteer rifle corps, the formation of
which was merely a defensive measuro for the pro-
tection of our homes, not calculated to give um-
brage in the slightest degree to foreign Powers."
Than which conclusion nothing surely could be
more just and reasonable. The noble lord added,
"The movement, although as yet only in its infancy.
had produced a very salutary effect throughout
Europe." Observing yet further, that "It was the
most complete scheme that had been devised to
secure peace, and place us beyond the recur-
rence of unmanly panics of which English-
men should be ashamed." The next words
we cannot but regard as an admirable ex-
ample of that peculiar mode of argument
known as the reductio ad absurdum: It is an
argument, in fact, we take it, quite unanswerable—.
as unanswerable as the position it describes (and
which has often been that of England hitherto)
is simply ridiculous. "To see a danger," re-
marks Lord CLARENDON, "to be frightened,
and yet to do nothing to avert it, was
worthy only of a nation of old women ; to see it
and to shut their eyes to it was pusillanimous ; but
to look the danger steadily in the face was the part
of freemen and patriots, and worthy the people of
England." Thus the matter is now viewed on all
hands. Our voices upon this long-vexed question
of the National Defences are, at length, thank
Heaven, fast becoming accordant.

The interest taken by the country at large in the
regulation of Indian affairs has fortunately greatly
increased of late years. Before *the mutiny which
brought home the sad consequences of mis-
management with such startling violence
to so -many English' 'hearths and hearts.
people generally troubled themselves very little
about the internal arrangements of the Board of
Control. It was supposed to be much on the same
footing as the other pUblie offices, where the
disposal of the patronage would not • always
bear examination, but with which it was no one's
particular business to meddle. Some politicians
.)bjected to the system of the double Government,
hut unless the appointment of a Governor-General,
or a change of Ministry, brought Indian affairs pro-
minently forward, the subject was thought little of.
Since 137, however, matters are very different.
l'he destruction of
Assumption of directtlpteowoelrd monopoly, and the
by
Go-
vernment, have brought home th the
esen
slemope Imperial
respon-
sibility to the English public, who are honestly
anxious 'to do their best for the extensive territory
`And vast population counnitted to their charge.
A deep interest is, consequently, very gene-
rally felt in the management of this