The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-28 00:00:00

Church of any of its grandeur, or the Pon of his
independence." These are the general terms on
both sides. The only difficulty will be in giving
practical effect to them. This ought not to be
difficult. If the Bishop of ROME be secured a per-
sonal independence of all civil control, in return
for surrendering the mock civil power which he
now possesses, he will be quite as independent
as he now is. To reign purely by the help
of the French, over subjects whom they alone
compel to obey him, may be independence of his
poor slaves ; but it is absolute dependence upon
those who rivet their fetters, and could knock them
off at once if they were displeased. As to guaran-

tees, except those of solemn treaty engagements in
regard to the person of the POPE and his ecclesias-
tical property in Rome, with the POPE himself, and
perhaps with all Catholic powers who wish to be
parties to them, there can be none. Any foreign
army in Rome would be, of course, intolerable ; a
Papal native army, unless an army of bandit mer-
cenaries, would be an Italian army with Italian
sympathies. The EMPEROR'S note and the Baron's
reply would seem to show that matters are in train
for adjustment, and the demise of PIIIs IX. could
hardly fail to render it more easy:

It would seem that Mr. SEWARD has taught
England and all Europe a lesson. He threatened,
and Europe succumbed. If any Powers of the old
world ventured to recognise the commissioners of
the Southern Confederacy, Mr. SEWARD had a rod
for them—
the Government at Washington would
cease to hold diplomatic intercourse with them.
The rowers heard, bowed meekly, and forthwith
proclaimed that privateers would not be allowed to
sell their prizes in the ports of the old world and
its colonies. The bold tone of the American press
is also said to share with Mr. SEWARD the honour
of having brought the Powers of Europe to their
senses. Our readers may smile at such representa-
tions, yet there they are in the New York .Herald,
a paper of very large circulation in America. We
may suppose therefore that thousands of Americans
seriously think that Mr. SEwaßD,with thellera Id and
its like, have diplomatically "licked the Britishers "
and France too. It were probably vain to tell such
vanity that England and .France only laughed at
the silly rudeness of Mr. SEWARD, barely glanced
at the rant of the Herald, and simply considered
what was wisest and best to do.

Having " licked" us diplomatically, our best wish
for them now is that they may " lick" the
Southerners as effectually in whatever way they
can. In a recent conflict we see that this proved
not to be quite such easy work as was hoped. Near
Fort Monroe the Secessionists compelled the
Federalists to run for it, with disastrous loss of life.
At Harper's Ferry, however, the Southerners more
discreetly withdrew without fighting at all, believ-
ing, doubtless, in the old rhyme which celebrates
the usefulness of those " another day" who have
the prudence to " run away." Besides the Harper's
Ferry men sent away the manufacturing machinery
of the arsenal, and setting fire to the buildings, left
the Washington Government possession only of
the charred and empty walls. What the real
prospects of each party are must be conjectured by
the light of such facts as we can verify, for
the representations are as opposite as they well
can be. That the South is congregating its
strength for the defence of Richmond and the
Manassas Railway junction seems pretty certain.
That they will fight seems likely, but when General
SCOTT will move forward upon those positions no
one knows. Probably not even the Cabinet itself.
If the northern and eastern part of Virginia can
, be secured before the grand move southward in
November, it will be gaining a great start. But
General Scoz•r seems very cautious. The report
from Washington is that he has engaged
to put down rebellion by next May, but
requires time to make his volunteers into
soldiers, and to arrange his commissariat.
The Government itself is said to be still of the
opinion that a short campaign, at whatever cost, is
the most economical plan ; that if 500,000 men be
necessary to settle the business in one season, they
had better be called forth ; and that nothing, there-
fore, will be spared to make the demonstration in
November sufficient. Some go so far as to say that
the demonstration ought to be such as to compel
the seceders to make terms without fighting at all,
at least south of Virginia. Virginia is to be sub-
dued, and perhaps North and South Carolina, and
then the Gulf States may be starved into submis-
sion. Thus the Union, with Slavery, is to be re-
newed in all its vigour.

"F. P., so-many Feet." It is a cabalistic inscrip,
tion familiar to us at almost every street corner
Puzzling, doubtless, to many a foreigner. Signifi•
cant, only too significant, to ourselves. It is a sort
of übiquitous reminder that we are all more or less
trembling perpetually upon the verge of destruction.
It is an indirect advertisement for the Fire Insur-
ance Companies—an indirect, but, at the same time,
a very urgent, advertisement for them scattered
far and wide all over the metropolis. For, in
simple matter-of-fact words, the inscription means
in reality, nothing more or less than this :—At so
many Feet distance, upon any sudden emergency,
you may find, if you care to look for it, the Fire
Plug. But the chances are you will find no water, or
if any water, a most inadequate supply. So that in
nine cases out of every ten what might have been
extinguished in a few minutes is allowed (by the
time the water supply is really got at) to develope
itself into a destructive conflagration. All this—
observe—being entirely the fault of the various
Water Companies.
The grievance, or rather the calamity, of which
we
recuartre here
cioamtprluaein. in g is one of
But
f,
it has
s very perpetualrecently
had so frightful a result—it has led up, within the
last few days, to so deplorable a catastrophe, that
it becomes incumbent upon every
e
impunity. wh
a voice or wield a pen, to protest
oneagainst
can
its
con-
tinuance s
henceforth with Had the
water supply down by London-bridge, within the
distance of a pebble's chuck from the liver Thames
been (as it certainly ought to have been) imme-
diately get-at-able, and when got at abundant—the
bundle of jute that was seen smoking and smoul-
dering in a corner of that first-ignited warehouse
might have been readily and rapidly extinguished.
And had it been thus, seven acres of land in the
heart of London need not have been devastated
by this late destructive conflagration ! Had
it been thus, £2,000,000 of property need not have
been destroyed ! Mr. BRAIDWOOD—whom every-
one regrets—would still have survived amongst us
as one of the most valuable and energetic of our
public servants. Mr. SCOTT, also, who is understood
to have perished with him, would still have been in
the land of the living; and with him several others
whose names are most of them unknown, would
not have perished miserably, some by burning,
some by drowning, some by suffocation. Be-
sides which hundreds upon hundreds would not
then have been, as they must necessarily be now,
thrown unexpectedly and most ruinously out of
employment.

It seems strange that nothing has yet been done

effectually in the way of constraining the Water
Companies to do in this matter what certainly they
ought long since to have done, what assuredly they