The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-10 00:00:00

they have been from the beginning. Now that the
hours of our trial are numbered, and that the Great

Republic is seen to be emerging more prosperous
and powerful than ever, the feeling towards us has
not diminished in cordiality."

When the news of the utter collapse of the Con-
federacy reached Europe, Count Mensdorff greeted
the Minister with his hearty felicitations. "You
know," he said, " that our wishes have always been
for your sucesss, and that his Majesty has always
frankly desired the suppression of rebellion."
One point which must strike the most superficial
reader of these despatches is this : —Mr. Motley in-
variably wrote of the War as one for slavery on the
one side, and freedom on the other. The taunt in
England has been that the North fought for em-
pire, but this is most strongly repudiated, and the
end and object as invariably enunciated by this repre-
sentative of the United States was that the struggle
was for the rights on which the Constitution of his
country was based, the freedom and happiness of
mankind.

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF BRI7 ISH ARMY

REFOIOL

The Nation of the 23d ultimo has an article on
Army Reform in England, which shows a better
acquaintance with the subject than five-sixths of
the newspapers of this country. It says public
attention in England begins to be more and more
turned to the questions with which a reformed
Parliament will be expected to deal, now crop-
ping up with ominous frequency. It is generally
acknowledged that the force is inferior in every ele-
ment of efficiency—except courage. That the Bri-
tish army has acquitted itself as well as it has done
is perhaps one of the most wonderful proofs in
existence, of the greatqualities of the race. But, as
may be expected, its great exploits are actually cited
by some of the Tory orators as proofs of the value
of the purchase system, just as so many other abuses
have been defended by pointing out how the nation
has thriven in spite of them. The present military
system is confessedly useless for anything but a
policy strictly defensive, and contains no provision
for the contingency of a sudden difference with a
first-class power. Besides which the army has ac-
quired an importance it never had before from the
England's maritime supremacy has dis-
appearedbefore the recent changes in the instru-
fmaeetttshoa ft En
naval warfare. The kind of army the
Liberals want is a middle-class army like the first
standing army that existed in England, that of
Cromwell, where the ranks were filled up by young
farmers, shopkeepers, and mechanics, and the offi-
cers were men who won their grades, in the ordinary
way, by courage or skill, or both.
The Nation is under the delusion that the Re-

!ormers have succeeded in the present Parliament

in reducing the maximum number of lashes, per-
mitted as a punishment in the army, to fifty, and
restricting it to two or three of the worst offences.
This was done many years ago, and the fight in the
present Parliament was to abolish it altogether.
There is neither more nor less reason why it should
be abolished in the army than why it should not be
abolished in prisons ; and it appears to us a mani-
fest absurdity that the right should be delegated
to magistrates to flog a garotter, but denied to a
commanding officer as a means of suppressing brutal
assaults on officers and non-commissioned officers,
more especially the latter, in the execution of their
duty. A few similar acts of personal violence
inflicted on the cicizens of London immediately
led to the flogging power being conferred, princi-
pally because one or two of the victims were mem-
bers of Parliament.

" The military and naval force may be said
to be the only instrument of government which
the aristocracy did not surrender to the middle
classes of 1832, and to the possession of it the
former doubtless owes a large portion of its
prestige. Nothing fairly killed the French aristo-
cracy but the proofs afforded by the war of the
Revolution that hostlers and linen-drapers could
command regiments and win battles. Once Soult
and Murat and Juuot had been seen chasing the
finest troops in Europe from bard-fought fields, the
value of the gentilho»une as a soldier—the one thing
on which he prided himself—was gone. So there is
now in England a kind of superstition, which the
upper classes do all they can to foster, that the
leading of soldiers is the proper business of
" gentlemen," and that there is something in-
herently absurd in a man of " low connections"
attempting such a thing ; and how much the pre-
valence of this feeling has to do with the political
..1„,_„,,y or the drisweraey nas, we tnimr, never
been fairly estimated. Once destroy this feeling by
showing what a democratic army, even of English-
men, can do in the field, and the political prestige
of birth and rank would receive a blow nothing
else could give it, and such, as many people, the late
Mr. Cobden amongst the number, have thought
it impossible for anything to give it."
It must be confessed that no class leads better
than the aristocracy of England, and this is readily
conceded through all ranks of the British army.
The soldiers know this so well, and estimate so
highly their gallantry, that they prefer taking every
risk of incompetency and blunder to follow the men
whose motto is noblesse oblige.

Spirit of the American Press.

SCIENTIFIC.

An exploring patty of more than usual import-
ance has just left the Atlantic for the Pacific coast
to make a survey, under the direction of the United
States Government, of a belt of land near to the
fortieth parallel of north latitude, stretching from
the Sierra Nevada to the Rocky Mountains.
Through or near this belt will pass the Central
Pa
as much information
as possible respecting the structure gRa
tahi lerro a di n
, and the object of the expedition
is advance
of the
country,
resources, the agricultural
capacity, and all the other physical characteristics
of the region. The expedition is s
acitoe
the mineral
o well organised,
and there is so little exact knowledge in respect to
the district to be examined, that high anticipations
are entertained of the scientific and practical results
which are likely to be reached. Believing that our
readers will be interested in watching the progress
of this party of young and enthusiastic explorers,
within the limits of our own domain, we have
gathered the following Particulars in respect to their
organisation. The survey is ordered by Congress ;
and, more particularly still,
it is to be conducted under the direction of the
Secretary of War;
under direction of the chief of the United States
Engineers, Major-General A. A. Humphreys, to
whom the willty par h
-- -4 report, and from whom they
have received their general instructions. This dis-
tinguished officer, whose name has long been iden-
tified with the explorations and surveys directed by
the War Department of the United States Govern-
ment, has shown the greatest interest in promoting
the objects of
much
hhiswiallndbeto
dhui:
experience and good judgment in fitting out
the party
Whitney.
The head of the party in the field is Clarence King,
of its
a gentleman of about five-and-twenty years of age,
expedition,succes s
'educated in the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale
College, and connected for a few years past with
Prof. J. D.
the State Geological Survey of California . under
The experience which he
has thus acquired as a mountain explorer admir-
ably fits him for the leadership in this new expedition.
He has travelled extensively among the great
mountain regions of the West, has ascended and
measured some of the loftiest peaks, is inured to
the exposure and hardships of frontier life, and ap-
preciates fully all the conditions which are essential
to success. Dine assistants are under his direction.
his friend and associate in the California survey,
Mr. James T. Gardner, who has lately been engaged
with Mr. Kingin surveying and mapping the famous
Yo Semite Valley and the adjacent mountain
region, is the first assistant in topography, and
Professor James D. Hague, of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, likewise au
experienced traveller, is the first assistant in
geology. There are also two other topographers,
two other geologists, a zoologist, a botanist,
and a photographer. On their arrival in,Calfornia
a squad of twenty-three mounted Californians,
under non-commissioned officers, will be detailed by
the military authorities as their escort, and Six