The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—AII's well that ends well. The cession of
Venetia will be effected by an arrangement satisfac-
tory to all parties concerned. The Emperor of the
French has found an issue out of the difficulty
created by the inconsiderate haste of the Emperor
of Austria. Indeed, it may be said of all the Poten-
tates engaged in the late hostilities that, however
improvident some of them may have shown them-
selves in matters connected with their own interests,
they have, on the whole, behaved more handsomely
to each other than the leaders in any war which
history records. Even the Emperor Francis Joseph
must be acquitted of any illwill towards the Italians
in the resolution he came to after Koniggratz to
make over Venetia to a neutral Power. Placed
between two enemies, both of whom he hoped to
overcome, he adopted from the beginning a very
different policy with each of them. With Prussia
he knew that he was struggling for very life. But,
as to Italy, he was from the first resigned to the
loss of Venetia, and was only bent on administer-
ing a severe humiliation. to the Italians before he
had done with them for ever. To gratify this
vindictive feeling, which he justified on the plea
of maintaining the honour of the Austrian arms, he
sent the elite of his troops to the south of the Alps ;
but he purchased his victory of Custozza dearly by
the necessity it involved of leaving Saxony and the
Bohemian passes exposed to the inroads of the Prus-
sians. Warned of his fatal error by the disaster of
Koniggratz, he endeavoured, though too late, to re-
trieve his fortunes by cutting short the Italian
struggle, and by a concentration of his forces for
the defence of his capital. Recurring to his
original resolution, he was only too anxious to
be rid of Venetia, and would at once have
marched out of its fortresses could he have found
a retreat consistent with his safety and honour.
He could, however, even had his pride allowed it,
come to no terms with the Italians, as they had
their hands tied by their treaty of alliance with the
Prussians ; nor could he address words of peace to
the Prussians, as he knew they would insist on con-
ditions he was not yet prepared to accede to. In
this complication of difficulties he turned to the
Emperor Napoleon, and as in 1859 he had given up
Lombardy to France, although he was perfectly sure
that it would immediately be transferred to Italy,
he now thought that a cession which was really and
solely to benefit King Victor Emmanuel might be
effected with less loss of dignity if it were made to
the Emperor Napoleon. He was hardly aware of
the mischief he was doing. Neither he nor the
Emperor Napoleon doubted the readiness of the
Italians to accept the proffered boon, no matter
under what circumstances it came to .them ; but
they were mistaken. A chivalrous sense of duty to
their Prussian allies, and the consciousness of un-
merited defeat, prompted the Italians to spurn as a
gift the prize they were bent on winning by might
of arms, and they marched upon the disputed ter-
ritory little caring whether it still belonged to their
enemy, or had actually become the property of their
former benefactor and ally. Had not the French
Emperor's patience and moderation, or, we may
well say, his sense of justice, been proof against all
provocation, had he resented Cialdini's advance as
an attack upon himself, and had he, as it was then
said, issued orders to the Toulon fleet to proceed at
once to Venice, it would be difficult to calculate the
consequences of such a resolution upon the desti-
nies, not only of Italy, butof Europe.
Emperor Napoleon Was in this matter actuated
throughout only by two great motives—the welfare
of Italy and the restoration of peace. To bend
Austria to peaceful counsels, after her overthrow
at Koniggratz, was easy. It was only necessary
that he should clearly give Austria to understand
that he neither could nor would do anything
for her. Austria had to accept Prussia's terms,
and among the Articles of the Prussian Treaty
the unconditional cession of Venetia was dis-
tinctly stipulated; That cession, however, had been
made by the Emperor Francis Joseph to France,
and Italy had refused the boon at the hands of the
French Emperor. Happily, he was too magnani-
mous to take offence at the stubbornness of the
Italians. He honoured in them that feeling of
jealous pride which had borne up against a long
series of undeserved misfortunes, and he determined
that Venice should be ceded neither to France nor
to Italy, but to the Venetians themselves, and the
emancipated people are now to dispose of themselves
by a popular vote. What the results of an appeal
to universal suffrage will be, under such circum-
stances, in Venetia, it is easy to foresee. Neither
the French Emperor nor any man in the world can
have a doubt on the subject. The Venetians had
already pronounced in favour of annexation to
Piedmont by a vote of their National Assembly,
under the Dictator Marvin, in 1848. That vote has
been confirmed by the unmistakable yearning of the
population for the last eighteen years. The King of
Italy is already in possession of at least three-fourths
of the territory. His commissaries have promul-
gated the Italian Constitution in their seats of Go-
vernment. They have re-organised the municipal
authorities. The liberators have everywhere been
hailed with frantic joy.. In Venice itself women are
busy night and day preparing tricolour cockades and
standards for the happy day of deliverance. No one
knows better than the Emperor Napoleon what the
vote of the Venetians will be. No one can be better
convinced than be that a restoration of the ancient
Republic of St. Mark must appear to those people
scarcely more desirable than a continuance of the
Austrian yoke, for Venice has only a chance of re-
vival if reunited to Lombardy. Abandoned to her-
self and her province, she would he in almost a worse
condition than that from which she hopes now at
last to escape. The Emperor Napoleon, however,
has only, as we said, put forth that condition of an
appeal to the population to save the susceptibilities
both of Austria and Italy, and to relieve himself
from a province which was never intended for him
and which he could never turn to any good pupose.
Whatever 'errors may be attributed to his policy in
other parts of the world, there is no doubt that his
conduct to Italy has been consistently generous and
considerate. The liberation of Italy was the dream
of his youth, when he and his brother joined the
patriotic ranks in Romagna thirty-five years ago.
It was his mature design as Emperor of the French
when, in his Milan proclamation of 1859, he bade
the Italians be soldiers, that they might become free

men. The engagement he then entered upon to
make Italy " free to the Adriatic" he now announces
as fulfilled to " his brother," King Victor Em-
manuel—fulfilled not altogether through his exer-
tions, yet not without his friendly interference; and
it will not be long, in all probability, before that
right of the people to dispose of themselves by
universal suffrage which he now calls upon the
Venetians to exercise will be extended to another
people whose destinies are more immediately under
his control. The termination of the Venetian diffi-
culty will soon be followed by the solution of the
Roman question.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON WHY DO MEN Go
INTO PARLIAMENT.—The disclosures before the elec-
tion commission all illustrate one point—the great
anxiety of many men to become members of Par-
liament at any price. It is clear that there are in
England several scores of men anxious, not only to
find opportunities of spending sums varying in
amount from £5,000 to £lO,OOO on a contested
election, but also to celebrate their success by the
regular payment of annuities of more than £l,OOO
a year to their constituents. It becomes a ques-
tion of considerable public interest to inquire, who
are these men, and what do :they want ? We are
not speaking of county members, or of bar-
risters. Their Parliamentary raison d'etre is ap-
parent enough. County members for the most
part represent, not only the present opinions of
certain constituents, but the traditions of the
counties, and, in some degree, of the country itself.
Dismissing, then, the cases of territorial and legal
M. P.'s, the question remains—Who are the men
that represent the larger and more costly boroughs,
and why do they take the trouble of paying so
much for the position ? Looking over the lists of
members, we are struck with the great number of
contractors, merchants, bankers, brokers, colonial
landowners or traders, directors of financial and
other companies, and capitalists, or quasi-capita-
lists, of every description. In a commercial and
speculative age it is natural enough that a certain
number of representatives of the people should be
the representatives of commerce and capital. But a
further reference discloses the fact that those whom
the boroughs have sent to the House of Commons
are not among the best informed, or the most ca-
pable of giving information, even on their own spe-
cial subjects. The reason is plain why such men
wish to get into Parliament. The position of a
member of Parliament is the highest—nominally all
but the highest, practically the highest--in the king-
dom. It is not quite equal to that of a Peer ; and it
isnot permanent, like that of a peer; but in other
respects it is as good. The House of Commons has
gradually absorbed more and more of the Govern-
ment of the empire. On all great and momentous
questions which stir the heart of the country it
does, de facto, make or unmake the policy and the
administration. The most ordinary M.P. may re-
gard himself as the 658th part of the great govern-
ing machine which wields or modifies the policy of
England. This is of itself an abstract satisfaction
for which a rich parvenu is content to pay hand-
somely. But it involves a concrete enjoyment
which is more palpable and immediate. It is not
enough to have " begun life" with 55., and to
have made £300,000 or £400,000 in 20 or 25 years.
That will not win admission into the' best society."
Whatboots itto have made moneyand bought a fine
place and become a squire ? The rich parvenu
fancies that he is only a Brummagem squire after
all. He Curses the condition of all things. He curses
the aristocracy. He recalls the Radical creed of
his youth, and regrets he ever abandoned it. He
wishes he were a dissenter. He would then build
a chapel and preach his own politics to his own
tenants. While he is viewing all things iu general
through the lurid glass of a morbid imagination, the
tempter appears to him in the guise of an election
agent. This man knows a borough which is ar-
dently seeking just such a member as he would be.
As to the expenses, the legitimate expenses, they
are only a few hundreds; and as to the illegitimate
expenses, why should gentlemen talk of such things?
From that moment the whole current of his thoughts
is changed. Life assumes another and more cheer-
ful colour. Parliament is the " open sesame" of his
every aspiration and Lunbition. Once enter the
portals of St. Stephen's, and everything else opens
before him. He becomes forthwith a governing
entity. Ile sits on the same bench with men whose
forefathers have sat there in every Parlianient since
the Revolution. He pairs with a viscount or a
marquis. If he makes a few observations, he is
spoken of by Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Disraeli as "my
honourable friend." Invitations to dinners and
soirees inundate him. His daughters dance with
peers and the sons of peers. Before six months
of a London season have passed over their regene-
rate condition, they find they can cut their hum-
bler neighbours from the country as gracefully as
ever they were cut themselves. The father's hap-
piness is restored, and the mother's heart swells
with triumph.
" THE EXAMINER" ON THE FOLLY OF FOLLIES.
—Well may Colonel Sykes say that the millions
expended upon our fortifications have been thrown
away. If an individual had wasted his means in a
similar way he would have been pronounced in-
competent to manage his affairs, and shut up in a
lunatic asylum. Here and. there the country is dis-
figured by unmeaning obelisks and towers, stuck on
hills, to which the name of Follies is given, Snob's
Folly, Acres's Folly. The Portsdown works are a
gigantic State Folly, crowning the bill, as it were,
typically, with a fool's cap. It is true that the hill
overlooks Portsmouth, but no enemy could get to
it who had not the command of the country, and
having that command he would have something
better to do than to besiege Portsmouth.
Upon examining the country it will be
seen to be so intersected by waters and marshes
that from whatever point an enemy might be
supposed to land he could not get to Portsdown
without a great detour. To make such a circuit with
the heavy material necessary for a siege would be
impossible without the complete mastery of the in-
terior, possessed of which, as we have before observed,
an invader who lost time upon a bombardment of
Portsmouth would be as stupid as the wiseacres who
have covered Portsdown with fortifications against
such a contingency. The works are permanent, of
course, as permanence carries the cost to the highest
pitch. But the field-works answering the same
purpose, or more effective, might be thrown up by
navvies in ten days or a fortnight, properly planned
beforehand, and would not cost a twentieth part of the
money. Resort to them, too, would not be had till
the highly improbable occasion arose. But these
considerations had no weight with a Govern-
ment regardless of expense, and guided by mili-
tary engineers who held nothing like leather.
But bad as the Portsdown Folly is, it is not the
worst, for nothing there is spoiled except some
grazing downs. To Alderney we must look for the
most complicated and consummate folly. Alderney
is quite out of the track of ships going up or down
channel, the rule with all such being to hug the
English rather than the opposite coast. • But the
brilliant idea struck the Government of making
Alderney a harbour of refuge and naval station.
And for this object the engineers have gone to
work so cleverly as to destroy the little natural
shelter which the island possessed at St. Ann's.
They have made an artificial reef, cutting up the
anchorage, small as it was. A writer in the Times, who
evidently understands his subject, gives this account
of the present state of things ;-•-•." My conviction,
as an entirely unprejudiced person, is that the public
money has hitherto been, and is still being, lavished
there on a gigantic blunder. In fact, a million ster-
ling flung into the sea has only done harm ; it has
partially filled up with a mountain of stones the
natural harbour of St. Ann's, without having contri-
buted to its safety in any respect; on the contrary,
the north and north-east winds are thereby drawn as
through a funnel into a narrow cul de sac, where
nothing can ride at safe moorings, if there is even
the most moderate breeze from those usual wintry
quarters, while at least half of the old anchorage
ground is rendered shoal and dangerous by the wide-
sloping sides of the breakwater. Whether or not an
arm thrown into the sea to screen the east—and its
cost a second million—may be worth while I cannot
undertake to say; it would look like obstinate persist-
ence in a fault, that common course so fatally ruinous;
but at present this vaunted national work is only a
source of maritime peril, worse than any reef of rocks
in these parts. The whole thing from beginning to
end is an extravagant blunder, disgraceful to its
promoters and abettors in. every way. No large
ship of war can safely anchor at St. Ann's ; as for
the secrecy of the matter, French telescopes en-
tirely command the breakwater eastwardly, while
5,000 men are required for the forts, and 1,111 l to
protect a roadstead not now available for our
craft,oyai
navy, and half ruined by filling in for small
through the blunders of our Government offitceialogi
this Who are personally to blame for all waste
thetain
ly the wmhoolneeyeansoe ocnaellsseleomudsltofkornoinwv;
ibryu.t„ cerA-
shtirsutocrtyiveo,fstihoaiswAlingdewrhnoeyfiarsfftaicronwcoyeuivldedbsedheigghrelygioinu-s
a folly, and by whom it was approved and carried
into effect, notwithstanding all warnings. And,
indeed, the design was so faulty that it told

Naval and Military Intelligence.
01110._
The most importaßt subject for the consideration
of the Lords of the Admiralty in their present in-
spection of the dockyard and other naval establish-
ments at Devonport is undoubtedly the present
extent of the dock, basin, and wharf accommodation
available for the repairs and outfit of our ironclad
fleets, and the proposed additions. The Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons recommended
that the establishment at Keyham should be ex-
tended by adding at least two docks and a basin, to
be accessible at all times of the tide, as with the
pew docks and basin at Portsmonth, the tenders for
the execution of which were received from the several
contractors, at the Admiralty on Friday last, Not-
withstanding this recommendation of the committee,
Sir J. Pakington and hiscolleagues will find that
no steps whatever have been taken in the matter.
That the engineer who designed the present docks
and basin foresaw and partially provided for the
future extension of the work is evident, for in the
north wall of the basin may be clearly traced the
necessary formation in the work to admit of a new
and capacious entrance being formed there in con-
nexion with any future extension. Indeed this was
one of the things specially provided for by Mr.
Scamp, the Deputy-Director of Architectural Works,
&c., to the Admiralty, in his designs for the docks
and basins as then carried out. No one will be in-
clined to dispute the assertion that the Select Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, after their long
and laborious investigation of the subject, arrived at
a sound conclusion in recommending the extension
of the present dock, basin, andwharf accommodation
at Devonport and Keyham, and in urging also that
the proposed additions should be effected with all
possible vigour. The Board of Admiralty during their
present visit to Devonport and Keyham may rea-
sonably be expected to deal with this important sub-
ject, and especially may they be expected to do this
effectually from the fact of the present First Lord
having been a prominent member of the committee,
which unanimously agreed for the immediate exten-
sion of Keyham's docks and basins. It is asserted
that Sir John Pakington has declared the present
visit of his Board to the dockyards to be strictly a
matter of business, and not a mere formal procession
as in previous years. Sir John is now very anxious
to increase our ironclad navy, and also to provide
adequate dock and basin accommodation, at the chief
ports for outfit and repair. The first he is likely to
carry out in accordance with his own ideas and those
of the Controller of the Navy, Rear-Admiral R. S.
Robinson. 'The second is all prepared to his hands,
and he has only to take care that the whole thing is
set fairly going to insure its success. Sir John is,
however, not the first declared naval reformer on first
accession to office, and he will find, as all his prede-
cessors have done, startling impediments in his path.
There is not an official surrounding " the Board" at
Whitehall who is not pledged, by virtue of his pre-
sent position and old traditions, to fight to the death
against any change whatever. Now, these are the
men to whom a new Board has to turn for informa-
tion, to learn from, in fact., the actual duties of their
new office. Sir John will find no advantage in any
encounter with these men by having previously held
the office of " First Lord." They will first of all
" give him plenty of rope," as they playfully term
the ancient usage, and when the proper time comes
check him sharply, and bewilder him with elaborately
filled sheets of foolscap. What chance can Sir John
have in any scheme for reform of the Admiralty and
the administration of the navy with the permanent
staff so entirely opposed to him, and holding him,
as they necessarily do, completely in their power ?
At the dockyards the same feeling and nearly the
saire power exists with regard to the Admiralty. The
officers of her Majesty's dockyards seem very sub-
missive to the Board in its annual visitations,
and yet they know that they and their brethren
in London really govern the administration of her
Majesty's dockyards and the navy, and not " My
Lords." The system which commands a dockyard
official to return an even balance-sheet, but forbids
him to give a truthful return, and thus renders all
dockyard returns of estimates and expenditure not
worth the paper they are written upon, has not
been improved by the Stansfeld "labour charts"
and other new additions, which have only made it
more ridiculous than before. Sir John Pakington
can only effect permanent good at the Admiralty or
in our dockyards by first destroying this " system."
He may have the courage, but has he the power for
so great a task?
The recent successful trial of the "Philip's patent
rotatory cylinder" for cleaning ship's bottoms on
the bottom of the iron screw yacht Fairy at Ports-
mouth has induced the Lords of the Admiralty to
order the cylinder tried on the Fairy to be forwarded
at once to Portland to her Majesty's ship Achilles,
for Capt. Vansittart to try it upon the bottom of
his ship and report upon it to the Admiralty. The
cylinder is coated externally with diagonally fixed
brushes and scrapers. Inside it carries a screw,
the action of the water on the screw turning the
cylinder—either by the running through of the
water or the passage of the ship through the water
—and bringing the brushes or scrapers to bear on
the bottom of the ship. An arrangement of light
chains and ropes gives a certain means of moving
the cylinder upwards and downwards or forward
and aft as required in cleaning the ship's bottom.
So far as any judgment may be formed at present
of the capabilities of this invention it certainly ap-
pears that no ship supplied with them need ever be
allowed to have a foul bottom, or, having one, the
means of cleansing it is certain, and but the work
of a short time.
The East In diaman Walmer Castle has been taken
up by the Hon. Council of India for the conveyance
of reinforcements for the Royal Artillery and cavalry
and infantry troops serving in the Madras Presi-
dency, an order has been received at Chatham
directing her to be held in readiness to embark her
troops at Gravesend on the 11th inst. for Madras.
The Ist battalion 17th Regiment, under the com 3-
mand of Col. W. Gordon, and consisting of
officers, 46 sergeants, 19 drummers, 669
rank and ,
file, 110 women, and 189 children, left
Aldershott
Camp on Thursday, and proceeded special train
from Farnborough to Portllnth,
fboyr conveyance
Regiment
to Devonport. The 63d
is held in readiness to Test S
Aldershottolk at an early
leave
seafvollows :—Four companies
date, and will proceedies
ato Paisley, and four com-
to Ayr, two comp
panics and head-qaunarters to Glasgow.
During the past week the division at Aldershott,
under the command of Lieut.-Gen. the Hon. Sir
James Yorke Scarlett, K.C.8., has been exercised
in various field-day manoeuvres on different days.
On Monday the Cavalry Brigade, under the com-
mand of Major-Gen. Hodge, C. 8., was exercised
in the Long Valley, and on the same day the Ist
Infantry Brigade, under the command of Brigadier-
Gen. Renny, marched to the common and was put
through some field movements. Orders were issued
on Tuesday for a field-day of the whole division, to
be held on Wednesday, but, owing to extremely
unfavourable weather, the orders were subsequently
cancelled. On Friday, however, the division, with
the exception of the Royal Engineers and Military
Trains, turned out for field manoeuvres, and formed

The Military Store department at Woolwich was
'on Saturday engaged throughout the day, by
special order from the War-office, in embarking
stores on board her Majesty's paddle steam-vessel
Medusa, Commander Thomas Potter. The stores
are to be transhipped at Portsmouth to the screw
steam troopship Orontes, Capt. Henry W. Hire, for
conveyance with all despatch to Quebec. The
cargo includes 150 tons of powder, contained in
about 4,000 half and quarter barrels, issued from
No. 1 land magazine in the Royal Arsenal marsh
at Plumstead. Commander Potter reported his
intention to leave Woolwich this morning by the
early tide at daybreak, the Orontes being under
orders to sail from Portsmouth for Quebec to-
morrow. A large number of artillery, guns, car-
riages, and harness, and other stores for cavalry
and infantry will follow in a few days. A number
of 7-inch shells and other war stores were on
Saturday laden at Woolwich Arsenal, in Sales's
barges and lighters, for transmission to the ship
Her Majesty, now lying in the East India Docks,
for Hongkong, and a couple of light 3-pounder bat-
teries, intended for hilly country, and to be used in
case of need over the ploughed fields, are in readi-
ness for shipment for British Guiana.