The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times, commenting upon the argument that I
generosity or chivalry softens the practices of war,
remarks that it is one of the essential conditions of
good generalship that you should be superior at the
point of attack, or, in other words, that you should
contrive to take your enemy at a disadvantage,
and
so overpower him. You select the weakest point,
not the strongest, of his defences. If you can
manage co exhaust him beforehand by famine,
pestilence, privation, or torments of any kind, so
that on the day of battle he is incapable of standing
before your batteries or bayonets, or even of re-
turning you blow for blow, the greater honour is
yours. The object, the legitimate object, of every
belligerent is not only to destroy the enemy, but to
protect himself. The other day, at Valparaiso, the
American commodore undertook to engage the
Spanish flagship, itself an ironclad, and in less than
thirty minutes to leave nothing but her mast-heads
above water. He said he was sure he could do this
from the measure he had taken in target practice of
the power of his own guns, and he added that he
could do it without the slightest risk of injury to
his own vessel. Perhaps there was good reason
for the boast, but in such a case what becomes of
the " chivalry " of war? We ourselves are build-
ing ironclads with the professed intention of making
them as superior to all other ironclads as the
Monadnock was to the Numancia, and so the rule
runs throughout. Perhaps the argument from
" chivalry" was reduced to the greatest possible
absurdity by the remonstrances of the Spanish
admiral himself on this very occasion. He, who was
preparing to lay his impregnable ship alongside a
defenceless town, and to pour destruction from his
batteries against all within his reach, affected the
utmost indignation at hearing that the Chilians might
protect their coasts with torpedoes and place such
abominable engines of destruction in the path of the
destroyer.

The Daily News is of opinion that the transfer of
Mr. Stephens from a position of some insecurity and
privation in Ireland to one of safety and, among
certain classes, of consideration in Paris or New
York is not only a pure gain to himself, but the
British Government has every reason to congratulate
itself on the latest addition to the ranks of the
Irish emigration to the United States. Mr. Stephens
has relieved it from the trouble and responsibility
of guarding against a mischief which, though it did
not amount to danger, was yet attended with con-
siderable inconvenience, and he has imposed that
obligation upon the Federal Executive. One class
of persons will, perhaps, suffer from the exchange.
The Irish maidservants and day-labourers of New
York, and of the other cities of the Atlantic coast,
will probably pay dearly for Mr. Stephens's presence.
unless they have lately learned a wisdom of which
hitherto they have not exhibited any trace. But
though Mr. Stephens's Irish dupes in America may
smart in purse for their folly, they will not smart
in person, like their unfortunate fellow-countrymen
at home. Native American sympathy with Mr.
Stephens is out of the question. The Irishry of
the cities regard him as a hero, and the less scru-
pulous demagogues of the Democratic party may,
perhaps, try to turn him and them to political ac-
count. But the American people feel towards him
as the English people do. Mr. Stephens will receive
only such attentions as are prompted by curiosity,
and not such as are dictated by respect. The inte-
rest
felt in him will be that which might be felt in
a political Jack Sheppard and a political Barnum
combined—in a clever prison-breaker and a clever
charlatan.

The Morning Star believes that Mr. Stephens will
spend the next few months in reorganising the cir-
cles, and in raising and expending the sinews of
war. He will then collapse as Colonel Mahony
and Lieutenant-General Killian have done, and
retire into private life amid the bitter taunts and
reproaches of a rancorous and disappointed faction.
There will then be an end to the Fenian Brother-
hood.
The Daily Telegraph thinks that the declaration
of Stephens that Ireland is to be invaded may be
dictated by the deepest sincerity. On the other
hand it may be a mere ruse, intended to cover ano-
ther attempt like that which was recently made in
the direction of Canada. It is hard to see how men,
even with the measure of intelligence which Stephens
must possess—men who are acquainted with Eng-
lish history—can believe in the possibility of erect-
ing an independent State at England's door—a
State which she would be obliged to conquer in order
to protect herself from ruin. On the other hand it
would be in the highest degree unwise in our Go-
vernment to take no precautionary measures against
attempts which a band of desperate conspirators
may make to establish their declining power.
The Morning Star thinks that to Mr. Whiteside
the knowledge that the Fenian leader is feeding off
roast turkey, tomato sauce, and pumpkin pie, in-
stead of prison bread and gruel, will occasion
genuine vexation of spirit ; but by the majority of
the British public the movements of this agile con-
spirator will either be regarded with indifference or
as a legitimate source of amusement, So long as