The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-07 00:00:00

Commence at 7 o'olocL

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.—
EVERY EVENING.—The gusic of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
tees), the extraorAnary Violin Performances of the cele-
crated Infant DELEPIERRE FAMILY, and the usual
'focal Concert.

Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George 110 ison (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.

Will shortly be produced, a Grand Seection from Meyer-
beer's new opera of DINOIZAH.

THE WEATHER.—SuN OFFICE, OCTOBER. 7.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
69—highest since noon-yesterday.
62—lowcst this morning and during the night.
68—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.8P.
WIND, South-Easterly; light, with dull weather, and
partial sprinkling of rain.

HIGH WATER. AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 10h. 49m.—Afternoon, llh. 26m.
To-Monnow-Morning, Oh. Om.—Afternoon, 12h. Im.

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THE SUN.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1859.

The Chinese disaster was—no doubt of it—the
result of a mistake. But for making that mistake
no one is found, upon careful scrutiny, to have been
in any respect really blameworthy. And this de-
cision, let it be particularly observed at once, is not
the result of that old stubborn system which leads
by a sort of a habit to a hush-up in cases of any pre-
sumed and even glaring delinquency. When first
the intelligence of this repulse encountered by our
steam gunboats on the waters and mud banks of
the Pciho reached this country there was a disposi-
tion on the part of some of the more captious and
cynical to direct the popular indignation at once
against the gallant old Admiral in command of that
little maritime expedition. It was precipitately,
and therefore most ungenerously, insinuated that
upon Admiral IIoPE rested the whole painful and
grievous responsibility. We ourselves could not
help feeling instinctively the harshness, not to say
the cruelty and injustice of any such instant, un-
considered, and even it might be said (for we had
hardly at that moment the materials before us
for farming any reasonable conjecture), even, we
repeat, it might be said, anticipative condemnation.
We shrank from breathing a whisper of reproach
against Admiral HOPE—remembering that, in addi-
tion to the total absence of any authentic particu-
lars as to the incidents which had led to the attack
and the repulse—remembering, especially and above
all, that Admiral HOPE had borne his part in that
disastrous and sanguinary encounter like a daunt-
less old tar, as he is ! Remembering, too, that he
himself was then suffering from the effects
of wound after wound, of a splinter in the thigh,
and a fall from a considerable height on to the
deck of the vessel to which he had been removed,
when the one upon which his flag had been ori-
ginally flying had become unseaworthy, that one of
his ribs had been broken, that his frame had been
shaken, that his heart was depressed by the bitter
knowledge of the destruction and discomfiture of
so many of his heroic followers. Aware now of
the full particulars of the case, we cannot but re-
joice in our intentional avoidance of any words in
any way condemnatory of the naval Commander-
in-Chief.

The voluminous correspondence published in
our columns yesterday in extenso, more than
justifies this disinclination to jump to a cot
erasion. What in fact is it that Mr. BRUCE himself re-
marks, in plain, honest, manly words upon this very
point. Why, the Envoy declares positively in these
precise terms—the following are the ipsissinza verba
that had the Admiral " expressed doubts [namely
as to the result] they would not have been shared by
the Squadron nor by those who had most experience
of warfare in China !" The Admiral, we all know,
of course, by the very fact of this little squadron
of steam gunboats having been led by him into the
Dragon's Jaws of that deadly and formidable am-
buscade of the Chinese gunners lurking there, to
the number of 20,0013, and waiting, match in hand,
behind the Peiho fortifications ! the Admiral himself
had no fear whatever as to the inadequacy of the
forces he was conducting, apparently but to the
removal of a few booms and stakes—but really to
destruction and discomfiture: But neither for that
matter had Mr. BRUCE himself, according to his
own volunteered acknowledgmmt, nor yet, as we
have seen from his own notable words already
quoted, had any one in the whole Squadron, but
more particularly those who had most experience
of what Chinese warfare signified. The Mongol
Prince who had secretly prepared that deadly
ambush of 20,000 skilled archers, rifle-
men, and bombardiers, within the forts

at Taku, acted in this without any pre-

cedent. Europeans, in all their experience in
China, had never met anywhere, in any of their
encounters, with a reception like that prepared for
em "on thesly," with what we should call admira-
'lig, and forethought, but that it was

at the same time an infamous and execrable viola-
tion of all international law by the wily and
pitiless Commander-in-Chief of the Pechelee pro-