The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-04 00:00:00

perfect generalship ; and every approach to it is to
the credit of the commander, while needlessly ex-
I
posing men is foolhardiness, if it be not military
murder. With :such ideas have a WELLINGTON
and a CLYDE, and all truly great commanders, ever

fough__
Then there is the _lmperial argument ; Mr.
LINDSAY used it ; Mr. BRIGHT used it, of course;
even Mr. OSBORNE did not disdain it. You have
no reason to suspect the Emperor of the FRENCH.
He always carries out your policy—in Italy, in
China, in Syria—as to Savoy and Nice, he
deserved a fee for doing so much for Sardinia ; and
as to coercing Portugal, in defiance of right, of
honour, and of English remonstrance—oh, unluckily,
that was forgotten, and many other little things
were forgotten, too. But did he not say, before
last year, that "the Empire is peace ?" Does he
not withdraw all his naval operations from Cher-
bourg when they are most likely to look hostile ?
Does he not need nearly had-a-million men under
arms, surrounded as he is by States who are ob-
liged, because he does so, to keep armies large in
proportion? Does he not write frank and noble
letters ? And does he not conclude with us gene-
rously one-sided treaties ofcommerce? What madness
to fortify your dockyards against such anEmPERon ;
—which argument we shall not undertake to refute.
And then there is the Manchester argument. It
will cost money. So, alas, does fire insurance
so does marine insurance ; so do bolts
and bars ; and the police, who try sometimes
at our windows to see whether we have used
them as we ought. But, we fear, orders from the
the War-office for cotton goods are not quite so
large as orders for materials such at; Birmingham
and similar worshops manufacture ; Manchester's
share in equipping the army and navy is probably
less than that of any other great trade. However,
we do admit the Manchester argument as valid
except against necessity, and most of us think it a
simple necessity that our arsenals should be as
safe as engineering skill can make them. We
regret the millions it may cost ; yet we think
them about as well spent money, as using every
possible precaution to make a Manchester ware-
house fire-proof. As the latter saves annual cost
in the insurance premium—and saves, besides, the
derangement to business caused by a fire—so
attack•proof arsenals save the cost of a large navy,
and the vastly greater cost of encouraging a foe to
attempt the attack.
For one thing, as we have indeed already said,
we ought to be thankful. Those who rejected for
Portsmouth the fortifications which would make
a few defenders inside equal to an army outside,
did not entrench themselves, as they might have
done, behind those forms of the house which would
have enabled them to resist for weeks together. If
their arguments would not convince, they did not
condescend to tactics designed merely to coerce.

In the Augustan age of Rome, as in the Vic-
torian age of England, there were audible from
time to time (so HORACE, among others, has re-
lated), all kinds of sinister prophecies of disaster,
and solemn forewarnings of the general disruption
of the empire dreaded by each more patriotic or
more far-seeing Civis Romanus. " Barbarus, heu 1"
the Roman Lyrist exclaims, one while—(Epode

XVI. Ad liomanos)—
" Barbarus, hen ! cineres insistet victor, et nrbem
Eques sonante verberabit ungula."
It is the very . prediction heard at intervals
now-a-days, as to that possible advent of that
other " Barbarous Victor" from across the Chan-
nel, who is to trample upon the ashes
of London while leading along its resounding
streets the Chasseurs d'Afrique and the Chasseurs
de Vincennes!
" Qua3que carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini,
Nefas videre I dissipabit insolens."
Is it not the boast again of scattering to winds the
contents of those twin tombs under the dome of
St. Paul's—the bones of NELSON and WELLING-
TON ? A vengeance to be completed, of course, in
the western portions of the capital by ridding the
Triumphal - arch at Hyde-park corner of that
hobgoblin effigy of the Duke, and by un-mastheading
the Admiral in Trafalgar-square. It is noticeable,
however, that after the enumeration of these various
prophecies of ill to Rome audible in his time,
HORACE, in this famous Epode of his Ad Romanos,
adds immediately afterwards—
" Forte, quid expediat, coramuniter, aut melior pars,
Malis carere qua3ritis laboribus.
Nulla sit hac potior sententia : &c."
which, familiarly rendered into our homelier
idiom, may be said to signify—" By the way,
the generality, or the better part of you
all, 0 fellow-citimens, will ask with what
precise policy or with what measures it may be
most expedient that those dreaded evils may be
averted "—adding in so many words, words that
might really have fallen from the lips of Mr.
BRIGHT nowadays just as well as from the pen of
HORACE in his Epode—" Than what I am going
to utter, nothing better can possibly be said by any
one—therefore listen !" " Nulla sit hac potior sen-
tentia." That is precisely Mr. BRIGIIT'S dogmatism.
(And what we may ask in parenthesis, what is the
origin of all dogmatism, according to LA BRuvERE
what but profound ignorance ? "Crest la profonde
ignorance qui inspire le ton dogmatique.") HORACE
recommends his fellow-countrymen to fly elsewhere
if possible to the fresh fields and pastures new of
Arcadia, by way of evading the calamities impend-
ing over the empire and the capital. Mr. BRIGHT
laughs to scorn all the prophecies, (which pro-
phecies he is nevertheless so careful to enume-
rate), derides the dangers pointed out and
proclaimed by a crowd of Cassandras, and
then recommends us all, in the name of pru-
dence ! and of common sense ! ! and of economy !! !
to sit down and do nothing whatever. This, re-
member—With a military despotism, armed to the
teeth, upon the opposite shores of the Channel—the
Channel bridged over long since by a steam fleet,
second only to our own—the army there numbering,
according to different computations, a stupendous
total of from 400,000 to 600,000 of the finest
soldiers of the European continent !
Everybody who thinks differently from Mr.
BRIGHT—is an ass. Military men especially are
the objects of his peculiar derision upon all matters
relating to (what he himself, of course, is so pro-
foundly versed in) their profession ! The great
Duke of WELLINGTON, he has the matchless inde-
cency and ingratitude—(seeing that Mr. BRIGHT
really Is, what at times we can hardly be-
lieve him to be—an Englishman !)—the match-
less indecency and ingratitude to scoff at
as one notoriously, towards the close of his life, a
dotard and a driveller ! If a soldier of more
modest reputation writes (as it is after all not so very
surprising that a soldier should write sometimes)
a pamphlet upon the subject of our national de-
fences, Mr. BRIGHT, with a fine irony, can discover
nothing more sarcastic to say in his -regard than to
mention him with the precisesfexactitude byhis name
style, and title, as " another gentleman, Lieut.-Col.
VALENTINE BAKER of the 10th Hussars I" There
is a veteran, too, who is indecorously dragged into
notice in the person of General Sir R. GARDNER,
for the purpose of being ridiculed as one who " cer-
tainly had not shone as a statesman and a gover-
nor," viz., at Gibraltar—Sir R. GARDNER'S gOYCT.

norship thei.e having nothing whatever to do with
the subject of our fortifications ! " Then again,"
says Mr. BRI GUT in another part of his
speech on Thutsday, speaking throughout it
with a dogmatism perpetually reminding us
of the abliolute truth of that axiom of LA
BRUYERE'S :Already quoted :—" Then, again, pro-
posals had bow. made by Colonel JEBB—a gentle-
man whom 20 years ago he (Mr. BRIGHT) consi-
dered a very sensible man. Colonel JEBB had pub-
lished a pamphlet, from which it appeared that he
was in a state of great alarm as to the necessity of
' defending London. He proposed to begin at Tun-
bridge-Wells, to go on to Reigate, Guildford, Read-
ing, and Henley, and probably he also included Col-
chester in his line of defence. Yet the gallant officer
quoted with apparent approbation an expression of
General LEWIS, ' It may be considered an axiom
that no landing-could successfully be effected in
the presence of 2,000 men well prepared.' If he
(Mr. BRIGHT) had said anything of that kind he
would have been treated as a person utterly igno-
rant and foolish in the matter. Surely, with rail-
ways all round the coast and telegraphs as frequent
as railways, it would not be difficult at any time to
assemble 2,000 men at any given point." And so
forth. The tone and manner of all this, it
will be observed, is so exquisitely gentle-
manlike ! The reasoning, too, is so perfectly
logical! It requires no wild hypothesis, by
the way, we can assure Mr. BRIGHT, to imagine
him saying anything that could be designated
as he has above indicated. And if he must needs
be so pragmatically ironical even in the designa-
tion of a military officer by his right title, we
would remind him that " Colonel JEBB" is alto•
gether a misnomer, that gallant officer being by
this time (and well has he merited both decoration
and promotion) a K.C.B. and a Major-General.
What a missed opportunity for Mr. BRIGHT ! who
might—but for his " profonde ignorance" even
in these little details of military etiquette—who
might, but for this, we say, have sneered so very
effectively at " Colonel JEBB," as " Major-General
Sir JOSHUA JEBB, K.C.8." Then, observe too, the
cutting irony of his scornful allusion to the gallant
officer here particularised as a gentleman whom he
(Mr. BRIGHT) considered to be a very sensible man
about twenty years ago ? Why ?—Because,
forsooth, Colonel JEBB'S ideas twenty years ago
harmonised with Mr. BRIGHT'S ! Their ideas clash
nowadays—therefore Sir JOSHUA JEBB is no longer
a sensible man ! The cool effrontery of all this is
something in its way truly delicious—quite de-
lightful. At this rate JOHN BULL will certainly
be heard one of these fine days gasping out, with
the tears running down his cheeks—like the stout
old gentleman in the pit when LISTON was acting
Take him away, or he'll be the death of me !"

STAFFORD ELECTION.

STAFFORD, FRIDAY.
The poll commenced at eight o'clock this morning. From
the earliest hour the supporters of the Liberal candidate
(Mr. Alderman Sidney) were in the highest spirits, and,
bringing their men rapidly to the hustings at the Shirehall,
soon took the lead on the poll, and placed their candidate
in such a position as effectually to dishearten their oppo-
nents, and to leave them little chance of success. At twelve
o'clock the poll stood thus:—
Alderman Sidney 716
Lord Sandon 329
Majority for Sidney
Soon afterwards the friends of Lord Sandon withdrew
him from the poll, and Mr. Sidney is accordingly elected,
beating the Conservative by more than two to one.

THE PROROGATION.—It was generally rumoured
about the house on Friday night that the prorogation will
take place on the 25th inst.—Era.
THE FIGHT ON MONDAY NIGHT.—It was stated
in the lobbies on Friday night that the Government calcu-
lated upon a majority of twelve.—Era.
The Scotsman says, if there is a majority against
the Government on the question of the Customs' duty on
paper, Mr. Gladstone, we are informed, will certainly re-
tire, and, according to present intentions, and if Lord Pal-
merston can have his way, Mr. Gladstone's retirement
would be accompanied by a general resignation of the
Ministry. A meeting of the whole Liberal party, sum-
moned by Lord Palmerston, is to be held early on Monday,
when it is expected that the Premier will announce that
the defeat of Mr. Gladstone's proposal will be followed
either by a resignation of the Ministry or a dissolution of
Parliament.
His Royal Highntss the General Commanding-
in-Chief will hold a Levee at one o'clock on Wednesday
next, the Bth inst.
The Earl and Countess of Derby and Lady Emma
Stanley intend to remain in town until after the marriage of
Lord Skelmersdale and Lady Alice Villiers, second daugh-
ter of the Earl and Countess of Clarendon.
The Earl Spencer, who came to town from
Osborne on Wednesday evening, left by railway the same
evening for Yorkshire.
Viscount and Viscountess Barrington are about
to receive a distinguished circle at Beckett-house, Berks.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge and
Princess Mary, and the Hereditary Grand Duke and Grand
Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, will honour the noble
Viscount and Viscountess with their company.
Lord and Lady Headley and family have left
town for Orford House, Surrey.
LORD CLYDE AND THE LONDON SCOTTISH
VOLUNrEERS.—This noble and gallant officer has con-
sented in the kindest manner to become Honorary Colonel
of the London Scottish Volunteer Rifles.
LONGEVITY.—WiIIiam Ball, the centenarian of
Browne's Hospital, Stamford, entered upon his 104th year
on Wednesday last. His health is good, and he is tolera-
bly active ; he is an early riser, and yesterday morning par-
took of breakfast prepared by himself at half. past six.
Another inmate has reached the advanced age of 97.
Stamford Mercury.
DEATH OF MISS VANDENHOFF.--We announce,
with deep regret, that Miss Vandenhoff (Mrs. S`winbourne)
died in Birmingham on Tuesday last. She was the daughter
of Mr. Vandenhoff, the eelebrated tragedian, and was her-
self an eminent actress.
The Message?. de Paris, after mentioning the
arrival in Paris of General Turr from the Baths of Aix,
whither he had gone for the treatment of the wounds
which he received at Calatafima and Palermo, states that
the General is about to return and resume the command of
his brigade.
PORTLAND, August 2.—The fleet of blockships,
under the command of Commodore Yelverton, returned to
Portland to-day (Thursday). The following vessels are
now at anchor in that harbour :—Colossus, 80 ; Majestic,
80 ; Blenheim, 60 ; Ajax, 60 ; Russell, 60 ; Cornwallis,
60 ; Hogue, 60 ; Edinburgh, 60 ; Dauntless, 31; Pembroke,
60 ; Hawke, 60 ; the screw steam tender Argus, and the
gunboat Biter.
CURIOUS BEQUEST.—The Italian journals state
that a wealthy person, of Florence, just deceased, has left
a singular will. It declares that the greater part of his
fortune shall go to the man with the largest hump on his
back in all Tuscany, and that the persons entrusted with
the duty of selecting him shall be themselves 12 humpbacks.
To recompense the latter for their trouble he directs that,
in addition to travelling expenses. each shall be presented
with a gold medal bearing the effigy of 2Esop, their proto-

type.
THE GREAT EASTERN.—The shares of the
Great Ship Company continue to decline, the last quota-
tion yesterday afternoon being_ Ss. 6d. to 95., partly on a
rope that the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada
are about to institute a claini of £60,000 for damages,
through breach of contract in the vessel having been sent
to New York instead of Portland. Ono of the members of
the board sent in his resignation to-day.—Times.
The command of the Cavalry DepOt at Maidstone
may be expected to become vacant very soon, as Colonel
Balders stands second on the list for promotion to the rank
of Major-General. Although the Canterbury Depot com-
prises the depot troops of six cavalry regiments, and the
Maidstone but three, the commandant of the latter receives
double pay, while the former is simply remunerated as a
lieut.-colonel of cavalry. Clearly the officer who has the
larger work and responsibility ought to receive the larger
remuneration ; and we trust that upon Colonel Balders'
vacation of Maidstone, either Colonel Gibson°, the present
excellent commandant at Canterbury, willbe be appoint
wi ed
th
to
it, or that the pecuniary advantage may associated
the more onerous appointment which he now holds.—Army
and Navy Gazette.
The vacant cavalry regiment, as we anticipated
in our impression of the 21st ult., has been conferred on
Major-General William Beckwith, whose service and senio-
rity very fairly entitle him to the preferment. Lieutenant-
Geseral Clark Kennedy is transferred from the Carabinoers
to the Scots Greys ; Sir James Jackson gives up the colonelcy
of the Inniskilling Dragoons for that of his old corps, the
Carabinoers ; and the Inniskillings will be filled by Major-
General Beckwith. The death of Sir Henry Murray ren-
ders vacant the colonelcy of the 14th Light Dragoons, to
which, in all probability, Major-General Maclean will suc-
ceed. His services are more distinguished than those of
any other civalry general not yet appointed to a regiment.
The 17th Regiment, vacant by the death of Lieut.-General
Weinyss, remains unfilled.—Army and LYavy Gazette.
RAPHAEL'S APOLLO AND MARSYAS AT ROME.—
The sensation created at Roane by Raphael's famous
painting of Apollo and Marsyas increases hourly. Romans
and foreigners vie with each other in extolling its beauty,
and so numerous are the applicants to see it that to show
it privately inN elves at times no slight inconvenience. Thb
president of the Aeadeloy of St. Luke and Professor
Minardi, together with var;aus other leading con
and
-
noisseurs, native and foreign, have loudly
repeatedly declared that the
that there it
shine as the long missing page in the work of the master,
the nudity of the figures, their transcendent and classical
beauty, the rarity of the subject and; he luxuriance of the
details rendering it a especial and p..ramount importance.
No one here has a olo4lt of its authentiCity.; for,
the
sur-
rounded as it here is by works of every period of
master, itself proclaims its high origin as forcibly as though
Raphael himself were come to attest it.