The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-23 00:00:00

C ANTERBUR Y HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EvENING,
• A Grand Selection from
MARTHA,
And Selections from
DINORAH, TROVATORE, MACBETH,
And numerous other Entertainments.
Balcony, Is, Hall. 6d.
Cc IMO Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), and C. Marshall.
e ETHIOPIANS, consisting of 17 performers (organised
expuissly for this Establishment), for the performance of
'woes l and Instrumental Music, Comic and Sentimental, with
Negro delineations, anecdotes, dm, in addition to the usual
enter tainments.
Th t Fine Arts Gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday
Even big.
1
TB WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, AUGUST 23, 1860.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
154—highest since noon yesterday.
48—lowest this morning and during the night.
433—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.90 ; a sudden rise.
nornrn—South-Westerly; fresh, and squally.
r-_

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIN DAY.—Morning, 6h. 7m.—Afternoon, 6h. 31m.
To-moanow.-Morning, 6h. 57m.—Afternoon, 7h. 25m.

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1860.

Happily—in spite of all the delays—we are get-
ting at last within view of the close of the present
session of Parliament. And by way of compensa-
tion for an extension of its labours in every way so
unusual and almost unprecedented, the best mea-
sures are bringing up the rear of the legislative
procession. The Fortification, Provision for Ex-
penses Bill, to say nothing of its more grandiosely
entitled pendant, the Defence of the Realm Bill—
supposing the former to stand alone before the
country as a wholesome enactment projected by
her MAJESTY'S Government—would of itself at this
moment afford us ample compensation for the post-
ponement of the prorogation from August into
September. An enterprise so vast could hardly
have been inaugurated under happier auspices, at a
period more peculiarly opportune, or with a more
judicious deliberation. It is a monstrous fallacy
to assert, that the scheme involved in this compre-
hensive undertaking has been decided upon in any
one particular precipitately. To hear the com-
ments pronoanced upon it by some of the peace-at-
any-price depreciators of the proposed enterprise,
we might be led to suppose that the notion of
strengthening our insular defences is an idea but of
yesterday; than which supposition none could well
be more extravagantly erroneous ; the insecurity of
our national defences having been for many years
past a subject of constant scrutiny and of public
discussion both within and without the walls
of Parliament. It has been thus more particularly
during the last fifteen years—within which interval
of time a whole library of books and pamphlets,
treating exclusively of the inadequacy of our na-
tional defences, will be remembered to have been
published by naval and military authorities, by
civilians and by engineers. It is a perfect absur-
dity to talk of the judicious and patriotic measures
at last resolved upon as the result of a sudden
panic or of some mere momentary hallucination.
Never before, perhaps, has England been less in a
panic—never before, perhaps, has England had less
reason to be in a panic—than at this present junc-
ture. And why ? For reasons certainly in their way
sufficiently obvious, and also in their way suffi-
ciently comprehensible. For example—at this
moment have we not once more—what we as-
suredly have not possessed for the last thirty
years and upwards a Channel Fleet ? Aye
a couple of them. Again, have we
not what we as certainly have not pos-
sessed during the last fifty-six years—a National
Guard spontaneously formed by the people them-
selves as Volunteers ? With an efficient and for-
midable Channel Fleet—with from one to two
hundred thousand Rifle Volunteers admirably
drilled and disciplined—with not one of the Euro-
pean Powers at war with us—with our two great
warlike services in an admirable state of organisa-
tion, with both of them at the same time perpetu-
ally undergoing a steady course of improvement
and development—we could not by possibility
have chosen any more propitious epoch in our
history in which to set vigorously to work to ex-
tend, to revise, and, as far as may be in any way
practicable, to perfect our system of insular fortifi-
cations. The combination of circumstances but just
now enumerated affords the whole world proof po
sitive that our labours in this particular are not only
undertaken by us calmly, without passion or panic
Of Say kind whatsoever, but on the contrary with
the te."nt-__A r •
at ion a 1 exercise of forethought and the most
equable premeditation. As if to demonstrate this
in the most
striking manner possible, the very mea-
sures proposal y
the Government for the revision
and reorganisation of
our comprehensive scheme of
fortifications have been laid before Parliament at
the very close of the seseion •
, upon the very eve, so
to speak, of the prorogation. Manifestly, therefore,
there has been no over eagerness
on the n the part of
t
Ministers in thrustingthis subjeetpreciate
p
the attention of the Legislature. Ministers,t in fact,
They have
have only taken too much time about it.
allowed the Royal Commission of Inquiry to close
its investigations, to complete its report, and in every
minute particular to bring its labours to a termina-
tion; and having thus during several months delayed

a As,
I.rifc „ 'AT•
• 31 ° "V

THE SUN.