The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-03 00:00:00

AN OVERLAND ROUTE FROM DOVER TO

CALAIB.

But were I, the writer. of this, a civil engineer,
and could I catch the ear or the eye of men in
authority, I would suggest for their grave con-
sideration, that if the world is beginning to be tired
of the slow, sea-sick, but safe passage over the
waters of the Channel from Dover to Calais, and
from Volkestone to Bologne—if it hesitates before
the awful dangers and difficulties, and the enor-
mous, utterly-iucalculable expenses of a more rapid
transit under the tidal stream, by means of the
submarine tunnel which has been roughly described
—and if the said ambitious, progress-loving world
is still willing to combine rapidity, safety, and the
aLsence of sea-sickness by the execution of a work
which, though less costly and less wasteful of
human life to execute than the subaqueous road,
would yet leave the mightiest monuments of
Egypt for behind in point of magnitude and utility,
as it would be in advance of themin time—let the
grand problem he boldly solved by the formation
of a solid embankment capable of bearing a triple
or quadruple road, on its summit, through the
waves of the Straits of Dover. Let us have an
Anglo• Gallic Isthmus. Is this more impossible, more
k xaggerated above the proportions of common sense,
than the tunnel scheme ? I think not, after calm
reflection. A Plymouth break Water or a Cher-
bourg dique, has only to be constructed cf the re-
quisite 1 ngth, and the thing is done. 4f a man
can make a mile of dique, he can make 20 miles of
d quo. As to deep water, Algiers will show what
I.as been done in spite of depth ; as to the length,
breadth, and thickness of a construction, there is
the Wall of China to encourage us to out-do the
performance of barbarians. Suppose that M.
Thome de Gawond had already built up his thir-
teen islets to the requisite altitude above the level
of the sea, which of the two would then cost the
most, both in treasure and in'sacrifice of life, at
that epoch the work ;to k.ink the shalt and com-
plete the tunnel, or to connect the islands by a
causeway of rock raised far above the reach of the
highest tides ? Of material there is abundance
near at hand, at least on the French side of the
undertaking ; and any quantity could be made to
come by permanent or temporary railways from
the interior. Only a few miles from the southern
ex,remity of my isthmus are the inexhaustible
quarries of Ferques. The embankment scheme
saves and spares the very long tunnels on either
side by which the coast lines are reached before
the subterranean tunnel itself is entered. And
when once completed, which mode of passage would
be the easiest to work, the cheapest, and the safest ?
No lighting up to be done by day, no drainage, no
ventilation, and scarcely any repairs, would be
needed on the international embankment. In
point of comfort, security, and sense of satisfaction
is there a choice between the two Whence is all
the oxygen to come, to feed gaslight, locomotive
fires, and human lungs ? Would you net involun-
tarily fear that the tunnel—as ill-natured people
say of the Leviathan—was a clever contrivance to
drown the greatest possible number of human be-
ings at once ?—Dickens's "Household Words."

THE EMPELOR NAPOLEON.

ielce of
e aggressionarparen t
(From the Daily News.)
Where is all this. to end ? Week by week the
plot
havedeepens—the circle
become
exorbita,ncy of the demands rises higher and higher.
It must
widens—thet
e m s t
apathetic and the least clear-sighted that Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte is bent on en ;aging
Europe
in the task of defending him, at whatever cost of
national independence and national honour, from
the machinations of his secret enemies, and the
consequences of his public—acts. In the pursuit
of this chimerical and impossible object laws aro to
be altered—rights surrendered—liberty abridged—
the privileges of asylum violated. The free nations
of Europe, for the mere dynastic purposes of a ruler
who has trampled down French freedom, are to be
reduced to the dead level of French bondae.
L'Einpire c'est l'Espionage is to be the new gospel
of the new era. The Sub-Alpine kingdom, the
Alpine federation, even the " inviolate" Island
herself, are to be pervaded by French spies and
French police agents ; are to exchange their free
and fixed laws, their solid safe-guard's of personal
freedom, for domiciliary visits and arrests on sus-
picion ; for vague charges and arbitrary punish-
ments. Why should this be endured I What
claim has Bonaparte more than other rulers to exact
fecal friendly nations ebat they should constitute
themselves into the protectors of his person, and
the defenders of his rule ? Self-protection is his
own business. He has no right to enforce on others
the task of watching the foes, or averting the con-
sequences, which have been the growth of his own
misdeeds. Power like his, won by force and fraud,
can only be held by the inevitable tenure of peril,
and suspicion, and fear.
Let it be assumed that we accept his rule as
a fait accompli ; yet we cannot forgot the circum-
staeces out of which it rose. We cannot be blind
to the means by which it is perpetuated. We pass
no judgment now on the one or the other. We look
merely at theie inevitable consequences. We cannot
ignore the plain truths taught alike by experience
and by reason, that a throne founded on blood will
be assailed by vengeance ; that no foes are more
inveterate than ambitious
and intelligent men,
victimised by proscriptior, and pining in exile ;
that wholesale deportation, on mere suspicion, to
penal servitude its pestilential marshes, creates a
certain feeling not altogether amicable, both in the
sufferers who bear the doom, and the friends who
deplore it ; finally, that to repress all intellectual
life—all freedom of thought, pen or tongue, in a
lively, volatile, and intelligent people, with a
necessity for news and a passion for discussion—
is about as safe an experiment as to tie down the
valves of a high pressure engine, or to light a cigar
with one of Palmer's Vesuvians in the penetralia
of a powder magazine. Now, what we want to
know is this : why should we be made responsible
for consequences which follow certain courses of
action an inseparably as shadow follows substance ?
Why should we be asked to alter laws, receive spies,
exercise surveillance over refugees, simply because
it has pleased Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to consti-
tute himself Emperor of the French under cir-
cumstances with which all the world is familiar ?
If once this course is entered upon it can never be
abandoned—as long, at least, as the present ruler
of France is on th;throne. The enmities that his
acts have created are not of a kind easily subdued
by time. The line of internal policy that he is at
present pursuing must infalliby tend to multiply
foes and intensify hatred. It really becomes a
vitally important question to ascertain how far
Europe is to be considered bound to defend
Napoleon and his dynasty from the inevitable con-
sequences of his own deeds.
This, in fact, is the problem now presented for
solution to all the free nations of Europe. England,
which has already hurled from power the strongest
Ministry since Sir Robert Peel's time, for un-
worthily paltering with this problem—England has
recorded her em ohetie determination—a determina-
tion which no Minister dare for a moment forget—
that she will not have her old laws stretched, or
strained, or altered, for the mere purpose of '
enabling her the better to keep the peace be-
tween Louis Napoleon and these enemies of his own
making. Sardinia and Switzerland are now en-
gaged in the consideration of the same question
under different forms. On no country in Europe
have the demands of the French Ruler been urged
with more undisguised and offensive insolence than
upon Switzerland. Our readers will not have for-
gotten the terms of M. Walewski's Swiss despatch
of Jan. 20, demanding, in the language of complaint
and menace, that all refugees iu Switzerland, espe-
cially those belonging to the Italian emigration,
should be removed from the French frontier and
ii,ternes in the more central cantons. This de-
spatch, it may be remembered, commenced with
complaints that the Federal Council had hitherto
met the representations of France on the subject
with dilatory and evasive replies, and. concluded by
declaring that "is the event of the Helvetic
Government not taking into con-ideration the
means of satisfying our just requirements, it would
incur a give responsibility, and would only have
to attribute to itself the consequences which its
determination might entail." From the date of
this despatch to that of the last advices, a struggle
has been going on between the Helvetic and the
French Governments. The Emperor, dissatisfied
with the extent of compliance accorde, rather in
semblance than reality, to the demands of Count
Walewski, next endeavoured to procure the recep-
tion by Switzerland of certain French police agents
under the guise of Consuls, with the real view,
hoWever plausibly disguised, of exercising an active
surveillance on all those who fell within the terms
of M. Walewski's communication,refugees
notoriously disposed to devote themselves to
criminal enterprises." Upon this point the Federal
Council have hitherto made a determined stand, and
we now learn that, irritated by their opposition to
this outrageous demand, the Emperor has resorted
to what almost amounts to a menace of war. Unless
the Federal Council will cement to receive the new

Consuls, the Imperial Government will withdraw
its exequatur from all the French Consuls now in
Switzerland.

We are told that this is a mere brutum fulmen ;
that there is no probability of an actual breach be-
tween the two Governments on this ground. We
shall see : at all events, it is to be earnestly hoped
that the confidence thus felt is not based on any
well-founded belief that unworthy concessions are
likely to bo made by Switzerland. Let the diplo-
mates of the Tuileries put forth what representa-
tions they please, the plain fact remains incontest-
able, that the demands made by the Government
of Fiance on the Federal Council have been made
with an object the most chimerical, and urged in a
tone the most objectionable. That the advisers of
the French Emperor should not only require of
Switzerland to take precautions for their master's
safety by violent measures of internal repression,
but also to submit to the disgrace of receiving
French police agents in order to see these repressive
measures rigorously carried out—this is an in-
dignity to which no free State can submit without
an absolute forfeiture of all just self-respect. We
trust that the old Helvetic vir uo will resist such
meanness to the very death. We trust that
Switzerland, like England, will protest against the
absurdity and the injustice of being charged with
the protection of aPower, whose foes are the instru-
ments of that inexorable logic which in the moral
world visits lawless violence with lawless retribu-
tion—of a Power which, having trampled down
the freedom of France, now menaces the inde-
pendence of Europe.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

---- -
(Front the Morning Herald.)
Some months ago, as our readers may recollect,
we commented upon the report of the Royal Com-
missioners who had been appointed to determine
the proper site for a new National Gallery. Upon
that occasion, in expressing our hearty concurrence
in the recommendations of the majority in favour
of Trafalgar-square, we considered as well the con-
venience of the public as the grandeur of the situa-
tion itself, the proximity of the intended Govern-
ment offices, and the superb effect which might he
produced by the skilful grouping of our finest and
most stately edifices in the same neighbourhood.
But we strongly advised these with whom the ulti-
mate decision rested, that if they could not imme-
diately afford to purchase a sufficient space of ground
in that locality, they should rather delay the re-
erection of the gallery than allow it to be built iu a
less noble and commanding position, or upon a
meaner scale, than that originally designed. What
may have been the intentions of the late Ministers
in this matter it is hard to say ; but they caused
an estimate to be prepared by the Surveyor of
Works, by which the cost of adopting the plan
of the commissioners is roughly reckoned at
500,000/. That sum, if compared with the extent
of the contemplated improvements, certainly does
not appear exorbitant. For half a million of
money, according to the surveyor's computation,
the various buildings belonging to the parish of St.
Marlin, the baths and washhouses, and the work-
house, together with Archbishop Tenison's school
and library, and also St. George's Barracks, might,
be demolished and reinstated elsewhere, and a
magnificent gallery constructed upon the site thus .
enlarged.
Now, it is true that the merits of this scheme are
almost universally acknowledged, for which reason
we shall abstain from expatiating upon them ; for
it is idle to argue when nobody cares to disagree.
But the real question is, are the Commons willing
to vote that half million of money ; and if so, will
they forbear to grumble when the Chancellor of the
Exchequer comes to ask them for the ways and
means to meet that charge upon the finances of the
country which they have themselves created ? The
honesty of purpose with which her Majesty's Mi-
nisters are inspired is well known. The tenor both
of their speeches and actions leave no room to
doubt that they will confine expenditure of the
national revenue to strictly national objects, and
that in applying it to those objects they will neither
lavish it indiscretly nor fritter it away in mere
paltry shifts and temporary contrivances. It is
equally certain that they will not imitate the exam-
ple of their predecessors by seeking to evade that
legitimate guardianship and control which is exer-
cised by the popular representatives over the in-
come of the people. The present Government,
therefore, deserve and will repay the trust and con-
fidence of Parliament; but in everything which
concern the disposal of public money, the Ministers,
whoever they may be, must defer entirely to the
wishes of the House of Commons. When Parlia-
ment reassembles the subject of public buildings is
pretty sure to be brought forward ; and it is thre-
fore high time that honourable members should re-
solve, which as yet they do not appear to have done,
what principle they will for the future approve
in regard to the erection of all national edifices.
Shall these be built of that commodious size which
will satisfy the requirements of posterity, and in
that august style of severe and simple beauty
which, in a civilised age, is not inaptly said to
typify the dignity of a country, inasmuch as it re-
presents a refinement of the intellect and the
growth of a purer taste among the inhabitants ; or
shall they still remain those tawdry, close, and
vulgar piles of brick and plaster, diversified here
and there by an expensive and elaborate mass of
profusely-decorated stone, which, as the phrase
goes, w
arieebnotbsoomonreermrubvneauT than le
soonerhlt men
th of sensi-
bility
of Commons makes up its mind on these points
the better it will be for the tax-payers. The earn-
ings of their labour will no longer be wasted ina
e House
multitude of fanciful or petty projects, precipitately
y
edevised,ach lice andss successive
iv
perhaps Government
which all must equally conform. Of late years the
ll
e
indications of a more elevated taste and discern-
mentkanbeav
know
bo abandoned
rule,
to
among all classes have been so conspicuous as
almost to preclude the idea that, if the choice were
made now between the two opposite principles we
aas
rashly
ivehi
have mentioned, it would fall upon the latter. It
is indeed difficult to imagine that in the nineteenth
century any of the leading European nations could
be found so unenlightened as to deny the abstract
truth of these propositions; that we ought not to
build until we can afford it, and when we do build
we ought to build both durably and well. Can we
not yet venture to practise what we feel to be true t
In making these remarks nothing can be further
from our thoughts than to press hardly upon the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose operations, es-
pecially at such an unfavourable conjuncture as the
present, it would be most unwise to embarrass.
Able as he is, we cannot expect him to work mira-
cles. From our experience of the financial adminis-
tration of the Whigs we can easily understand what
difficulties the successors of Sir G. Lewis must have
to encounter. What with Persian and Chinese wars
and other minor burdens, the Exchequer has been
so impoverished, and the drain upon it is still so
heavy, that very skilful management will be needed
to replenish it anew. Of course Mr. Disraeli cannot
spend what ho has not got, and no Conservative is
fond of borrowing. At the same time, as we are
convinced of Mr. Disraeli's talent and integrity, so
we leek for more from him than from ordinary
men. Moreover, the spirit which animate both
himself and his colleagues is so just, and fair, and
conciliatory towards foreign States—in them tem-
per and forbearance are so happily combined with
firmness and resolution—that it will be surprising
indeed if they involve us in any of those disastrous
quarrels abroad, during the continuance of which
all domestic improvements are suspended, the re-
sources of the country eaten up, and its labour
squandered in contrivances for the destruction of
our neighbours, and the surplus revenue thrown
away, not upon such trifles as bridges, museums,
and galleries of art, but in the forging of •warlike
muniments and the accumulation of vast stores of
gunpowder and missiles of destruction. We do not
hesitate. therefore. to predict that, as soon as the
Ministers have extricated themselves from the hos-
tilities by which the policy of Lord Palmerston has
unfortunately hampered and tied thorn down, the
Exchequer will be refilled ; and that so long as Mr.
Disraeli retains hispost the condition of the finances
will be steadily improved. But whilst he is en-
gaged in repairing the deficit which the Whigs have
bequeathed to him we shall be much deceived if he
prefers the character of the niggard to that of the
economist. No legislator has shown himself more
adverse to staving off difficulties by trick or
subterfuge ; and we may rest assured that,
among the weightier cares and anxieties
of his office, he has not lost sight of this
question of public buildings, with respect to which
he has more than once explained his liberal and com-
prehensive views to an admiring audience in the
Lower House of Parliament.

The first balloon ascent in the Australian colonies
took place at Creinorne Gardens, Melbourne, on the lit
of February, and was witnessed by an enormous con-
course of people. One of the torenauts brought out
from England by Mr. Coppin ascended, owing to an in-
sufficient supply of gas. The descent of the balloon snd
its passenger was safely effected at a spot about Eeves
miles north of the city.