The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-17 00:00:00

ing general throughout the Continent, and the Press of
England, once respected, is losing much of its weight
abroad, because one or two of your contemporaries
insist on supporting their own blunders about France
and passing events by detraction and abuse.
A popular English writer has reminded us that
" Shakspeare has declared detraction less excusable
than theft, and slander amongst uncivilised men is
considered worse than murder." Time will correct,

with silent contempt, the detraction and slander of
those who seek to weaken the growing good-feeling

which all honest men wish to maintain on both sides
of the Channel ; a sentiment in which the people of
the Continent universally participate, if we may

udge by the tone of the newspaper press through-

out Europe.
I have received communications from Naples, dated
August 13. The victims of Mazzini, and the heroes of
the Sapri expedition, are in irons, and on their way
to the penal islands. I presume the British public
must be tired of hearing that injustice and persecu-
tion arc the order of the day in Naples, now as of
old. The lawyers who defended the prisoners dur-

ing the Salerno trials are being annoyed by the
police. Some " influential person," says the letter
before me, hinted to his Majesty King Ferdinand the
possibility of renewing relations with England.
" Rene ! bow !" grunted the King through his nose.
"I can do very well without either an English or French
Ambassador at Naples." There is some truth in
Ferdinando's reply. He can do very well without
an envoy from either France or England, since he
has no intention of allowing the Western Powers to
have the slightest influence in the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies. The consular agents of any Power
are, in fact, all that is now necessary for Naples ;
and it would be well if each of the powers friendly
to England and France were to suspend diplomatic
relations with a court which scarcely belongs to the
family of European civilization.
The passing dull days of the political year are
euusht en be animated with political pamphlets,
bearing such titles as " Napoleon et rAngleterre,"
" Napoleon et les Principautes," " Cherbourg et
l'Angleterre," &c. They are legitimate book specu-
lations, and nothing more.
The banquet given by Count Walewski, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the occasion of the
Emperor's fete, was attended by the Pope's Nuncio,
the Ambassadors of England, Austria, and Russia,
Fuad Pacha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey,
the Cabinet Ministers, the members of the Commis-
sions of the Principalities and the Danube, General
de la Hitte, M. de Parieu, Vice-President of the
Council, M. de la Gueronniere, Councillor of State,
and the principal functionaries of the foreign depart-
ment. The Pope's Nuncio proposed a toast to the
Emperor, and Count Walewski responded by one to
the Sovereigns and Governments friends and allies
of France.
The subscriptions for purchasing the Protestant
chapel at Paris have, during the last few days, aug-
mented. Mr. Brassy has given £lOO, and Earl
Cowley collected £45 at Cherbourg. Some few names
have also been added of late to Messrs. Galignanre
list of subscribers. The Revue des Deux Mondes has
the following interesting article
:
" We cordially approve of the great political act which
has just been accomplished at Cherbourg. We are sincere
partisans of the English alliance. We witnessed with sor-
row the want of tact and the painful incidents which shook
that alliance at the commencement of the present year, and
we remark with delight the generous effort which has just
been made at Cherbourg to re-establish in the face of the
world the good relationship between two nations who may be
powerful without having to make any mutual sacrifice of in-
dependence. We consider this effort to have been perfectly
sincere on both sides. Facts,' according to the just remark in
the Imperial toast, ' speak for themselves.' The presence alone
of Queen Victoria at Cherbourg, in spite of the murmurs
which the journey of her Majesty excited among a portion of
her subjects, is a striking testimony of the value which the
heads of the British Government attach to friendly relations
with France. As to the French Government, the language
of the Emperor Napoleon 111. on such a solemn occasion
needs no comment. If barrack politicians had already
greased their boots' fer the passage across the Channel,
their over-zeal has been decidedly disappointed. The intel-
ligent and enlightened declarations of the Emperor have
completely blotted out what is called in England the ad-
dresses of the colonels.' "
The Revue then proceeds to discuss the practical
merits of the Cherbourg fortifications :
"We shall not presume to offer an opinion on the value
of Cherbourg as a naval fortress. We arrived there under
the impression of the well-known words of the Emperor
Napoleon, comparing the works of Cherbourg to the
Pyramids of Egypt and to Lake Mceris, and of the
clamours of some English journals which represented
that port as a position of attack against England. An in-
spection of the place and the judgments we have
heard expressed by military and naval men have, we
must avow, singularly modified that impression. Cher-
bourg is a wonderful and admirable work, but as a military
position it evidently bears the mark of its artificial origin.
When Louis XVI., after the war of American independence,
which was so glorious for the French navy, was present
at the sinking of the first cones employed in the construe-
et or roe that erection was chosen
in correspondence with the means of attack and defence
employed at that period. Neither the gunboats non
constructed nor the long-range guns such as are now
adopted were then known. Experience had made
but little progress in such matters when the works
were resumed and continued by Napoleon. The re-
sult of this is that whatever may be the strength of
the batteries and of the fortifications of Cherbourg, the
breakwater, if the present means of attack be taken into
account, is at too short a distance from the port and from
the dockyard. This circumstance unfortunately deprives
Cherbourg of a great part of its force. It is evident, in the
hypothesis of a naval war, that the struggle for the rule of
the cea will be conducted on very different terms than in the
past. In case that the dominion of the seas should not be
possessed by France, it would be a serious imprudence on
her part to eoncen ti ate her principal naval resources at
Cherbourg. Her squadrons would be in safety only at
Toulon or at Brest. The same reason deprives Cher-
bourg of that power of aggression against England
which has been so loudly denounced by the Eng-
lish press. Before assembling at Cherbourg the
fleet necessary far embarking an expedition against England
it would be necessary at least to risk an irreparable disaster
by solving in the Channel, against the English squadrons,
the question of the empire of the seas. Cherbourg is un-
doubtedly a great defence for France, and no English squa-
dron would attempt to insult it; but there would be so much
rashness in collecting there the means for eff,eting a land-
ing in England that it can never have the offensive charac-
ter which has been attributed to it. Such are the conclu-
sions which are left in the minds of those who have seen the
place, and it is this opinion which has been carried back to
England Isy the visitors from that country. We therefore
hope that the alarm recently excited by a portion of the
press in England will be soon dispelled."
The following reflections on the tribe of pamph-
leteers which has sprung up lately in Paris is wortby
of extract :
"We cannot express sufficient contempt for those
pamphleteers who speculate on old prejudices, and who
choose the very moment when the two Governments
so solemnly protest in favour of the alliance to deceive
public opinion in the two countries, to excite recipro-
agu asors their of
calculationst e
cal mistrust, and to inspire doubts in the sincerity of
the great acts of which we have just been witnesses. The
plrloucdeee dairneg
as s
or
fe
vtohletin thm
p h lear ets to wliich w e
adisgraceful.
They transform pretended conversations at St. Helena into
, a sort of political Koran ; they profane the memory of their
prophet by attributing to him all ,kinds of absurd and apo-
rcyphal divagations, on the faith of domestics who passed
themselves off to the world as his posthumous secretaries.
They seek to stupify France by an absurd glorification of
herself, which would lead us' if we were to tolerate it, to
the infatuation which has led the Turks and Chinese to per-
suade themselves that they are the first people in the world.
Under favour of these gasconades they preach to France A
sort of Islamism against England. The Government has many
singular and compromising friends. For want of sufficient li-
berty of the press, men of business, so prompt to take alarm,
foreigners who are ignorant of the origin of these warlike in-
spirations, regard these shameful pamphlets in a serious
light. The latter would not even give the Government the
trouble of a disavowal, were the currents of serious opinion
left with open confidence to their natural movement."
Surely some of these remarks mightapplied to be
one or two prostitutes of the political
press in Eng-
land !
PARIS BOURSE.—The settlement of the Share ac-
count to-day has gone on well, and prices have
improved. Dente has
Threes have been done at 69fr. 15c. ; Mobilier
varied from 697 fr. 50c. to 692 fr. 50c.; Orleans,
1,305 fr. to 1,310 fr. ; Lyons, 800 fr. to 807 fr. 50c.;
Southern, 538 fr. 75c. to 542 fr. 50c. ; and Austrian,
640 fr. to 645 fr. The market continued firm to the
close, when the following were the last quotations

Fr. CL

41 per Cents... .
97
Do. end of month
3 per Cent. 69 50
Do. end of month 69 15
Bank Shares .... 3,150
Cr6dit Mobilier.. 695
Do. account..... 683 --

Fr. Ct.
Credit Fancier 6lO --
Belgian 41 99 75
Piedwonteee
Roman..
Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —

Orleans
Northern
New ditto
Lyons & Mediterranean
New ditto
Geneva
Western ,
Eastern
Grand Central

—Fr. at. Account—Fr. Ct.
,3V5 .. 1,312 h 0
950 -- 947 50
602 50 .. 803 --
803 808 70

540 -
(320 -

GOO --
542 50
622 50
685 --

FB6 25

Sardinian
Austrian

PAINFUL CASE.—We learn from the Scotsman of,
Saturday that the Hon. W. Yelverton, captaha in the Royal
Artillery, commanding at Leith Fort, was, on Thursday
evening, apprehended ou a warrant issued by the Procurator
Fiscal, and lodged in the Calton gaol, on a charge of bigamy,
the circumstances of the case being, we believe, not less
peculiar than painful. The 11011. captain had just cone!uded
the business of a district court-martial at Piershill when the
sheriff's officers arrived with the warrant. One of these
officials, we believe, left Edinburgh on Friday for Ireland,
with a view to obtain the witnesses necessary to substantiate
tht clarge.