The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-27 00:00:00

The Peace of Villafranca bids fair to end in
smoke or to engender still more bitter animosity
between Austria and Sardinia. Nor will all the
manoeuvring of NAPOLEON be able to reconcile
their differences. The fact now turns out to be
that the Emperor of the FRENCH overshot the
mark in setting aside the very existence of his too
confiding ally. Emperors look, or affect to
look, upon kings much is the same mag-
nanimous spirit that mastiffs bear with
terriers. If they seem to endure them, it is only
for a purpose of their own. So the closet conference
of the two Emperors seemed to ignore the case of
Sardinia altogether. Indeed, the Emperor NAPO-
LEON overreached himself in paying such hypocri-
tical court to FRANCIS JOSEPH, who felt so flattered
by the Imperial deference paid to himself at the
expense of his Royal opponent, that he swallowed
the bait and signed the peace of Villafranca.

But now comes the test. The Austrian will not
meet the Sardinian—no, not even in a friendly
spirit. The war is over, but only for a time, for
the original poison was left to rankle in the wound
of their enmity, and it will take all the inge-
nuity of NAPOLEON to make matters pleasant
—pleasant he never can while Sardinia holds
Lombardy, and Austria keeps possession of the
Quadrilateral fortresses, with Venetia to boot. Thus
it comes of self-overweening conceit ! No man, be
he Emperor, King, or knave, will ever forgive
being overreached in evil-doing. His very pride
revolts at the idea of the conceit being taken
out of him by the sleight-of-hand cunning
of his rival. We may, therefore, suppose
that this botch of an over-hasty peace
is only a truce to still fiercer strife, which in
the end may prove better for the people and worse
for those who would use them, as they have not
scrupled to abuse them without making dne allow-
ance for the consequence.

However frequently we may have scanned the
position of our naval armaments of late, it becomes,
if possible, more than ever advisable to revert yet
again and again to their consideration. The Royal
Navy is the right arm of England. Our wooden
walls are our true defence. The ordnance of this
country floating upon the deep in our ships-of-war
form the true offensive and defensive weapons of
BRITANNIA—her sword at once and her shield—
beyond all the Martello towers that could be con-
structed along our coast line—beyond all the forti-
fications that could bristle from the crown of our
white cliffs—beyond all the rifle corps, the
militia, and the yeomanry, that could be
organised by any means among our aggregate
population of 26,000,000. According to the ordi-
nary calculations the British Empire has, for some
years, been understood to maintain, upon the aver-
age, a navy of from 600 to 700 vessels of all classes,
manned by between 40,000 and 45,000 seamen,
with an army ranging, in round numbers, from
200,000 to 300,000 men. But those numbers have
for years past• notoriously fluctuated in an extra-
ordinary manner. The infantry, for example, at
one time closely approximating to a grand total of
very nearly 250,000 men, while, at another time
it has fallen considerably below 100,000—
that branch of the public service numbering, in
1814, 237,329 men, and in 1823, 81,940—the total
of the British infantry alone in 1858 being in a man
ner intermediate, or, to give the precise numbers,
150,569 men. Mere aggregates, however, mere
estimates in round numbers, afford but an indiffe-
rent notion of the actual strength or efficiency of
either service, in reference to a gigantic and scat
tered dominion like that obedient to the sceptre of
VICTORIA—" Sovereign Queen,,, as her magnificent
Proclamation upon assuming to herself the empire
of Hindostan, avowed her most gracious MAJESTY
to be, it Sovereign Queen of Great Britain and
Ireland, and of all the dependencies thereof,
in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Aus-
tral& ia i" Rememberin g tb at by no figure of speech
(but that literally) upon this empire of
ours the
sun, in truth, does never set, that our rule extends
into each quarter of the habitable globe, north and
south, and east and west, into the arctic regions
and into the torrid zone, it is obvious that no kind
of comparison can ever in reason be drawn between
the apparent numerical equality of army or of
navy—here in regard to an empire like France,
here in regard to an empire like England.
The forces of France, whether military or maritime,
are in a manner perpetually, and by a geographical
necessity, in a state of vigorous concentration ;
whereas those of the British Empire are scat-
tered in all directions, over the length and
breadth of the two hemispheres. As at
present constituted, the whole of our military
forces, including among them, in 1858, an em-

bodied militia numbering 21,773 men, and 15,122
volunteers, make no more than a moiety of the dis-
ciplined army under the eagles of NAPOLEON. The
aggregate of our land forces during the last year,
making altogether no mere than 225,881 men—in-
clusive of the 36,895 militia and volunteers already
specified—our cavalry numbering in 1858, 17,819,
our artillery 20,598, and our infantry as herein
before stated 150,569. Contrasting with which
miscellaneous and scattered land forces of not quite
226,000 men, distributed under the banners of Eng-
land over our enormous and widely separated colo-
nies—there will be (as soon as the victorious
army now in Italy shall have returned
homewarls), there will be within the boundaries
of France upon the morrow of the return of the
conquerors of Magenta and Solferino, a stupendous
military armament of upwards of 400,000 troops,
an army that might be speedily yet further raised
by the recal of the Algerian forces and of the con-
tingent at Rome, together with a slight anticipa-
tion of the regular working of the vast and com-
plex machinery of the conscription, to an aggre-
gate very little short, if anything short
of 600,000 soldiers. It is preposterous, there-
fore, to draw any comparison whatever, as
the Moniteur, for example, has affected to do, so
very recently, between the armaments of France
and the armaments of England. One armament,
we repeat, is necessarily scattered—the other
is necessarily concentrated.

As with the land forces—so with those of a
maritime character. England must, with a view
simply to the maintenance of the integrity of
her empire, throughout her numerous and extended
colonial possessions, distribute her ships of war,
hither and thither, in every sea, along the borders
of all the four great continents. France having no
colonies, can hold her maritime armaments perpe-
tually in readiness along her own coasts, prepared
at all times for rapid concentration. Here again,
therefore, there is absolutely no room whatever for
analogy. It is true that our naval estimates reached
in Mr. DISRAELI'S last Budget the considerable
amount of £9,215,487 ; and that, thanks to the patrio-
tic energy of the late First Lord of the Admiralty,
that total has been enhanced, according to Mr.
GLADSTONE'S recent Budget to the yet more for-
midable sum of £12,782,000, or within a single
twelvemonth just £3,566,513 additional. But—it
should be borne in mind by JOHN BULL himself,
and by our friendly monitor the Moniteur, what it
is requisite for the safety (for the maintenance
of the integrity) of our empire should be done in
the way of distributing or scattering the naval
power thus munificently provided, and done, remem-
ber, not once in a way. but at all times, and under
all circumstances

Recollect, then, to begin with there are those
numerous and remote Naval Stations of ours
making perpetual demands upon our peace
establishment. There is the East India sta-
tion involving the surveillance of the Chinese
Seas and of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
During this last year—the war with China of
course there of the augmentations that one
station alone absorbed 68 ships of war,
manned by as many as 10,000 men altogether !
Since the triumphant close of Lord ELGIN'S famous
mission to China and Japan, the squadron em-
ployed upon the East India station has been re-
duced by about one half—yet one half still holds
there, in those Eastern seas, 34 of our vessels and
5,000 of our sailors. Somewhere about 2,000 more
of our seamen are always required, again, as the
complement of the squadron upon the West Coast of
Africa. As nearly as possible 3,500 others are kept
afloat perpetually as the crew of some 20 ships of war
constituting the regular squadron of the North
American station in the Atlantic. Another total
of 3,000 seamen we find required in 183 S, together
with twelve of our war vessels in the north-eastern
waters of the Pacific—by reason, more particularly,
of the gold fields of British Columbia. There is a
squadron at the Cape of Good Hope and along
the east coast of Africa, in the direction of the
Mauritius. The Mediterranean fleet—monstrously
allowed to dwindle down, about a twelvemonth
since, to no more than four ships of the line—has,
since April last (again, thanks to the patrio-
tic energy of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON), been
increased fully three-fold—the Mediterranean
fleet, now consisting of twelve ships
of the line, or thirty-two vessels altogether ! Scat-
tered abroad, then, upon these widely-dissevered
stations during the absolute European peace of 1858,
there were as many as 139 of our ships of war
actually in commission, with 21,948 of our seamen
and marines, or nearly one entire moiety of the
available force constituting the aggregate of our
maritime armaments. Stubborn facts like these
we commend to the Moniteur when next that
organ may feel disposed to make a few more of its
disingenuous comparisons !

" Leave ill alone"—seems to be the motto now,
in regard to the Thames. The stench arising from
it is daily becoming more and more intolerable.
Nor can this be wondered at, considering the ave-
rage height recently of the thermometer. What
is far worse, however, than the mere nausea pro-
duced by the effluvia rising from the river and
impregnating with subtle poison every cubic
foot of the London atmosphere the Death-
Rate continues steadily to rise,' and rise, and
rise Above the Average ! According to the
report of the City mortality during the past
week, the deaths have been as many as
seventy-one—whereas the average during the last
three years has been about forty-four : showing
thus an increase, not only of half as much again,
but, even with that, of five additional. The returns
from the City Proper, however, form, as it were,
but one moderate item in the terrible account fur-
nished to us now, from week to week, by that inex-
orable chronicler of events, the Registrar-General.
Looking down his black catalogue for the week
just brought to its conclusion, we find glaring before
fact that there is an increase dur-
us the appalling
ing those seven days of almost 600 deaths upon the
hebdomadal returns for the metropolis ! During the
ten years between '49 and '5B, " the average," We
are reminded by the Registrar-General's Report—
" the average number of deaths in the weeks cor-
responding with last week was 1,064." Whereas,
in contrast to this average—the deaths in London
last week reached the dreadful total of 1,605 !
Bearing in mind the increase, however, in the
amount of the population, the excess above the
average just given may be indicated correctly, the
Registrar-General adds not by 541, but as nearly
as possible by 435. Examining carefully into the
causes of this lamentable increase above the average
(even after making due deduction for the increase
of Population), it is not surprising to us to observe
as chief among
those sources of increased mortality
—deaths from
diarrhcea! The average number
of deaths from diarrhoea in corresponding weeks
from '49 to '5B inclusively was, we find, 108—the
returns throughout these ten years being duly
corrected with regard to increase of population !
Instead of 108-415 have died in London during
the past week from diarrhoea ! Actually 307 above
the average during the 10 years preceding ! Be-
sides which, there are observable in the report for
this past week 8 deaths from diphtheria and 48

from scarlatina! Several cases are recorded also
—some of them very sudden—of death from sun-
stroke or coup de soleil, the rays of the sun, accord-
ingto medical evidence, producing congestion of
the brain, convulsions, coma, or fatal inflammation.
An increase of nearly 8 degrees in the temperature
" acting with other circumstances that are necessarily
unfavourable to health" has been thus attended,
the Registrar-General remarks significantly in his
report, by this horrible increase of nearly 600 deaths
in the metropolis! And those other circumstances,
Do they require for one instant to be specified?
Don't we all understand at once that they signify
the Drainage and the Thames—the very channels
(if but properly managed) for the diminution of
the mortality instead of for the increase of it !
Yet people there are who, in the very presence
of facts like these, will assert still to the
last stubbornly that these objections to the
Thames as insalubrious (how mild a phrase !)
are exaggerations. The corn laws were only
abolished upon the morrow of a famine in Ireland.
Is the Thames only to be purified at last when
London shall have been stricken with a pestilence ?

A GAY DECEIVER IS IfE.

(Fox Music.)

Gallant and tall, and a soldier withal,
Sir Harry goes courting the fair ;
He has burnished his curls, and his white hand twirls
Through the tresses with tender care.
He is whispering low, but don't let your hearts go,
Maidens, just watch, and you'll see,
That Sir Harry can smile and mean nothing the while,
For a gay deceiver is he.
Scout him and flout him with pride and scorn,
For he'll sue you, and woo you, and leave you forlorn.
He holds up his head, and tells of the dead,
And the wounded his Beauty has left ;
Lightly he'll boast of the love-smitten host
By his charms of their peace bereft.
Oh! heave not a sigh at the blink of his eye,
Though melting its beam may be ;
He seeks to entrance your souls with a glance,
But a gay deceiver is he.
Scout him and flout him—he worships a stone—
For the image he dotes on is only his own.

This gallant and gay Sir Harry, they say,
Has reckoned his worth in gold,
Sir Harry is not to be given away,
He is only a thing to be sold..
Maidens, don't fret, though his whiskers of jet
Right daintily trimmed may be ;
Oh give him no part of a woman's warm heart,
For a gay deceiver is he.
Scout him and flout him with pride and scorn,
And leave him and his Beauty to live forlorn.
ELIZA COOK.

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THE SUN.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1859.