The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

which we have always advocated, and which they
have a right to expect, Nay more, that even the
Times itself is becoming a convert to the opinions
which we have put forward on that point. It may
unquestionably be very inconvenient to have the
progress of legislation suspended at the very com-
mencement or in the centre of a session. But it
is an inseparable incident to Parliamentary
government ; and unless reasonable allow-
ances were made on the accession to
office of a New Cabinet, we should practi-
cally be exposed to a monopoly of power, even-
tually leading to irresponsible authority. When
a hostile vote has been arrived at virtually
amounting to a want of confidence, or such as to
lead to a resignation of those in office, Parlia-
ment must submit to the necessary consequences,
and give the new men time to mature their plans,
and to bring forward measures which they can
confidently recommend, and on which they are
prepared to stake their political characters.

opinion, which appeared in The Sun of Thursday,
Dr. PHILLIMORE states this exclusion from legal
advice to be "unjust and indefensible," on the
general grounds of international law. We have
accorded the just claim of a legal adviser to M. BER-
NARD from the first moment of his arrest ; and had
Lord CLARE) DON' demanded and enforced this right,
so utterly baseless is the charge, that we believe
it would have been impossible to have committed
the men, notoriously innocent as they are, for trial
at all.

However, for tan long months—during which
Lord CLARENDoN has bean is receipt of his salary
at the Foreign-office, and enjoying every comfort
which his official quarters and his own fireside
could furnish—for these ten long months have
the two wards of our Foreign-office been groan-
ing under a Neapolitan incarceration, and sub-
jected to treatment which has almost deprived one
of them of his reason. We repeat what we have
said before, that Lord CLARENDON ought, if he
held that the case must come to a trial, to have

It is impossible to complain of the course
adopted ; votes were only asked on account in
matters which could not be neglected consistently
with the interests of the community. There is no
desire to curtail in any degree the privilege of
discussion, or to avoid due criticism on the
acts of the Government, but while they are bring-
ing forward matters that have been bequeathed to
them as legacies by their predecessors, it would
obviously be premature to raise captious objections,
or to refuse the opportunities of full explanations
on every matter on which differences of opinion
may be anticipated.

insisted on the bail of the British Government
being accepted for their appearance on the day of
trial. Whatever the charge, the evidence was so

slight, that this demand might have been enforced
without violating the reasonable comity of na-
tions. It was never even suggested. It was
treated as merely an unlucky thing that the two
men had got into such hands. We believe a
CROMWELL and a MILTON would have written an
epistle to his Majesty that would have controlled
such luck as that. We have had Ministers and
Admirals, and Soldiers, and Ambassadors, who
held that bad luck was but another name for bad
management, and who would have scorned to
acknowledge the possibility of bad luck to Eng-
lishmen :in the hands of King 8031131'S police,
while the nation was at the vast expense of Gib-
raltar, Malta, and a Mediterranean Fleet.

The Navy and Army estimates were partially
brought forward last night, and votes for four
months taken on account. These votes have been
entirely framed on estimates prepared by the late
Government, and were essential to the efficient
management of the united services. It would
have been impossible for the present heads of
these important departments to have accurately
investigated all the multitudinous details. At a
later period, the sanction of the Houses will be
asked to the remaining balances, and then the
views of the Government will be expressed thereon.
Full liberty is retained to add, alter, or amend, as
occasion may require ; but the First Lord of the
Admiralty has candidly stated that he does not
think he will be able to propose any reductions
therein.

But the ten months cannot be helped. They
must remain as a lasting disgrace in history to
Lord CLARENDON'S administration of the Foreign •
office. It is now Lard MALMESBURY'S turn. We
have been disgraced as much as possible hitherto,
let the tide now turn. We were glad to hear that
a messenger was sent at once to Naples by the

present Foreign Secretary. What his instructions
were, and what the telegraph and express train
will yet convey to him, is everything. The subject
must soon be fully discussed in the House, for a peti-
tion has been sent up by the men of Newcastle on
behalf )f their fellow-townsmen Warr, and his
fellow-prisoner PARK, requesting that the House
will " instantly demand through the Government
the release of their unfortunate fellow-country-
men," also that satisfaction will be sought for the
outrage committed against England, and compen-
sation, such as is now possible, for the injured
men. These demands are by no means exces-
sive, and the petition must not lie dormant.
Under all the circumstances, nothing less ought to
be asked, nothing less accepted. We have ample
moans to enforoe them, for Sicily needs but the
word, and the sight of our ships, and a guarantee
never again to be recalled, and the gaoler of our
countrymen would find that in seizing and impri-
soning Englishmen groundlessly for ten months,
he had indeed caught a Tartar.
Since the publication of that able civilian Dr.
PHILLIMORE'S opinion, in writing thus, we write
not mere British sentiment, but the mere teaching
of international law. Lucidly has the Doctor
gene through all the pleas of the Neapolitan Court
for the seizure of the Cagliari, and shown how
utterly false and bad they are. The Neapolitan

There has been an increase in the number of
seamen and boys, and in the Coastguard of 3,680,
of which 2,000 are for service afloat, and 1,680
for the Coastguard, a very valuable branch, the
members -whereof can be made available for gene-
ral service at a very brief notice. As, however,
the number of seamen in actual employment
exceeded by 860 the number voted in
the original and supplementary estimates
last Session, the total nominal increase will be
reduced by that number, and the real addition
will be 1,356 seamen and 1,680 for the coast-
guard.

Similar Totes for four months were taken for
the Army, the nominal increase in the strength
whereof is 3,339 men. But this by no means
shows the real augmentation, as the troops trans-
ferred to the Indian establishment amount to no
less than 62,342. The real addition to our
military power will, therefore, be 65,881. We
are also informed that the number of enlistments,
which within the last six months amounted to
36,000 men, was no less than 7,500 last month ;
so that it is manifest there is no lack of the
military spirit, when so many could be found to
come forward freely and voluntarily to brave the
dangers of the tented field, and all the oasualties
of hard service.

judges plead piracy—Dr. PuILLIMORE shows that
they or the officers they defend were the pirates.
The Cagliari had not left Genoa 0.,1 a pirate ; when
seized she was not engaged in acts of piracy ; her
ripen, the admitted legal test, were papers regu-
larly granted by the Sardinian authorities. She

Under the existing circa mstances of the country
we do not believe that there will be the slghtest
disposition to cut down either branch for the sake
of any paltry saving, which would, indeed, be a
penny wise and pound foolish policy. The "pain-
ful misconception'' with the French Government
may have happily terminated. But still it is well
to maintain the national defences, and our brave
and hardy defenders in the highest state of effi-
ciency. The expense is a question of comparatively
trivial importance. A single week of war would
cost far score than the preparations which would
prevent any reasonable prospect thereof. They
may, therefore, be regarded as constituting an
insurance fund to guarantee the nation against
more serious cost and formidable injury.
We are glad to find that the Lords of the Ad-
miralty have directed attention to the gun-boats
now lying idle at Gosport, having directed in-
quiries in order to ascertain how soon fifty of
these very useful vessels could be got afloat,
if required for service. The answer was,
that they could be got ready, and under
steam, in little more than 48 hours. We trust
that this report will be forthwith acted on, and
that ere long every one of those available will be
commissioned and put in effective condition. We
have repeatedly explained the benefits that would
result from the operations of our little feet, both
as Coastguards and along the coasts and in the
rivers of India and China ; and should the Govern-
ment act thereon, it will establish for itself a
strong claim on the thanks and gratitude of the
nation.

had fallen, indeed, int) the hands of those who

might properly be called pirates, but no legal
maxim is more sure than that possession by pirates
cannot interfere with the rights of the lawful
possessor, and the Cagliari was, when taken, in
the hands of those who had been, and were, her
lawful possessors. But if one lie will not do, a
conflicting lie must be tried. First, the Cagliari
was a pirate—this being felt to be false ground,
she must next be brought under the category of a
vessel of war, and dealt with as the hostile ships
of a regular enemy I The Doctor shows the im-
possibility of both charges being true. But taking
the last, he proves that under no recognised in-
ternational law could the seizure of the Cagliari
be for a moment justified. Such of our readers
as may have passed over the Doctor's reasonings,
supposing them to be a dry legal document, would,
we believe, be gratified by turning to it again,
and following the Doctor in his careful and spirited
refutation of Neapolitan sophistry.
Wait—trimmers may say--for the result of the
trial ; yes, wait till the opportunity of asserting our
lawful position and our dignity has passed away !
If the men be acquitted, we retire in disgrace; if con-
victed by such creatures of corruption and perjury
as enabled B•xss to chain POZRIO by heavy irons
to a felon, what are we to do then ? Are we to
be judges of the judgment of a court which wo
have allowed to take its own course ? We have
one course fairly open—to support by our fleet
the Sardinian demand for the restitution of a
vessel and crew piratically seized by the Neapo-

Lord MA.LMBSBURY has now an opportunity to
show the difference between himself and Lord
CLARENDON', and to let Englishmen see whether
the exchange was, so far as the Foreign-office is

litans, and to dare FERDINAND to refuse it. Of
course we are thankful for the assurances of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer last night ; but he
must be prepared with the arguments which alone
have weight with the King of NAPLE3.

concerned, worth making. We do not now advert
to the WALEWSKI despatch ; there is another affair
in hand, farther south, in which he may earn the
laurels both of diplomatic firmness and of humanity.
The Neapolitan insult, setting aside the cruelty,
is, we think, quits as great, we should say greater,

It is amusing, but at the same time, strange to
say, it is eminently saddening to remark the total,
the utter, the absolute incapacity of foreign
nations to understand the working of our Parlia-
mentary system. There was the Gazette de France

than that of WALEWSRI'S inconsiderate language.
The cruelty and injustice cannot-, however, be
separated from the insult, for it is by them—by
cruelty and injustice perpetrated on two poor

the other day pointing the finger of scorn, with an
air almost of commiseration, at England, because
of the latest result of this Parliamentary system
—the sudden change of our Governments. Scorn

sailors,—that England is treated with contumely. from one entirely unconscious of a native Senate,
Our Viscounts and Earls, when outrageous lan- without freedom of speech in the Tribune, and a
guage is addressed to them, ought to be able to deliberative Assembly without the capacity for deli-
take care of themselves and of the English name r beratien ! There is something pitiable in pity
too ; if they are not, it is now quite plain that such as this—pity so blind and so deaf, so inca-
the House of Commons will teach them their duty pable of discrimination, the subject of such
by rather sharp lessons. But two worthy Eng- bewildering monomanias, the victim of such
lishmen, of the mechanic class—they have no astounding hallucinations. It would, of course,
means whatever of taking care of themselves, and be altogether beside the mark to suggest to the
especially when they are not merely threatened in Gazette de France that, instead of a change of
words, but seized, shut up in a felon's dungeon, j Cabinets resulting from an unexpected division of
and for weeks or months, if we remember rightly, a chamber of representatives—there might pos-
denied all access to a legal adviser, and even the sibly, just possibly, be changes of Ministries con-
En lish Consul refused permission to see them. sequent upon. the whims of irresponsible Sove-
TtiEt just inthis last particular that our censure reigns. Those, however, who think as the Gazette
of Lord CI. AdtENDON'S imbecility begins. He de France thinks upon these problems of Govern-
oziti,to have insisted at once on a parson autho- ment, are not for a moment to be reasoned with.
ain(1,7'71:17, attenainliaalth: with
a
Y lams ju ,orapan
with
sons having free access tota6n 1 anti
on
Neapolitan legal Their
these per i 'opinions are only to be looked to as start-
m for tb,,,, vmalliatex-Atainatiorn, and watch- 'i linr, phenomena to be wondered at, but, as poor
ought to have denied t
right to exclude proper advise
\ ourcithil.:ll
Vir A.zr and .pAim. Alia ;
tmortals, without the chance of our comprehending
o any cluit* d
formed the brutal Monarch thr.as't, and I to 'have in_
conform in this point to the
nations, be should deal
amenable only to such with him as a great our
ad
ei
Is, State the \
through
We can only venture to gaze at them
e tefus©d to \
practice of civilised ' Eaerely
barb • anan, the
h force as a few days would jud
, marvel tarnou
ima
rsemcioi
pk
seed
0- smoked-glasses, li‘aisos ensd,
in this same humbles• .
comer
amenable
gment the 0 pirit of curiosity and
ajyurtsfttaersnwoeotim.ityWdeo
r attention for a passing moment to
Elation of the •
eclipse of the luminous
assemble at Naples. In his able English Parli 4zette de li'r
enable him to aro.ents. A. , ancs in the matter of
dpectade such as this