The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-16 00:00:00

Well, the consolation is that hisblood has not been
shed in vain. To have spared him would do nothing
against slavery compared with his legal murder.
We in England remember how the legal murder of
a worthy missionary in Demerara, and the sending
home of two poor Baptist missionaries from Jamaica,
fired the eloquence of II F.NRY BROUGHAM, roused
a feeling here never known before, and was the
death-knell of slavery in our colonies ; and not
unlikely is it that the blood of this fine• old man
may yet be the death of the system to which he is
sacrificed.

One of the most brilliant among the subordinate
members of the late Government has very recently
spoken out as frankly and as forcibly as could rea-
sonably be desired upon the vexed question, as it is
termed, the particularly vexed question of our
National Defences, viewed under the glare of the
imminent possibility of an invasion. Mr. SEYMOUR
FITZGERALD'S admirable remarks upon this all en-
grossing theme of discussion we gave in extenso as
recently as our impression of yesterday. They
were delivered, as very many of our readers will
doubtless have observed already, during the course
of the convivial proceedings over which Mr. FITZ-
GERALD presided as Chairman at the Black Horse
Inn, at Horsham, upon the occasion of the Local
Cattle Show there annually opened for ex-
hibition. The circumstance of those obser-
vations upon a peculiarly warlike topic having
been made at a meeting of so essentially
peaceful and even bucolic a character can hardly be
regarded, upon second thoughts, as in any peculiar
degree either incongruous or inappropriate. It
was most natural surely that the ex-Under-
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, when ad-
dressing himself to an assemblage of jovial farmers
and yeomen, while proposing the toast of the Army
and Navy, should, at such a juncture as the pre-
sent, make some reference to the subject of conver-
sation and meditation far and wide throughout the
country—that naked, obvious, notorious " possi-
bility" of invasion, to the vivid recognition of
which is attributable the rising, mustering, and
drilling, almost, as it were, to the old spirit-stirring
Highland tune—

" Gather, gather, gather, Grigalaeh I "

man after man, company after company, corps after
corps of Rifle Volunteers. Why this is precisely
one of the very subjects just now coming (in
Baconian phrase) directly home to men's business
and men's bosoms!" Not to speak of it at such
a time, before such an audience, in the proposition
of such a toast would have been a monstrous and
ludicrous oversight. It would have amounted almost
to a supressio yeri. It would have been a most in-
appropriate, unpatriotic, and frivolous act of reti-

cence. Mr. FITZGERALD, moreover, by reason of
the sheer force, as it were, of his political antece-
dents, had really, one may say, no alternative—
he had only to speak right out under the circum-
stances. And this, as we have said, he did, and
did, too, let ns add, right manfully. Having
specified the subject of the next toast he had to
propose as Chairman, the ex-Under Secretary for
Foreign Affairs commenced then as follows :

" Gentlemen," said he, "It is I think a salu-
tary rule at all public meetings such as this,
that what are called political questions shall be
avoided, that is to say, questions which can by pos-
sibility raise discussion or create difference of
opinion at a meeting which ought to be
marked by a general accord of opinion. But,"
he added, I do not think that I shall
at all infringe upon that rule if I make an
observation or two upon a matter of public import-
ance, and yet a matter upon which there can be no
difference of opinion among all classes of people.'
The hon. gentleman immediately afterwards going
on to explain his meaning more explicitly in
the manner following :—" We are possibly," he
said, " I am afraid, entering upon troublous
times. After long years of general and happy peace
there seems to be such an uneasy feeling abroadthat
men's minds are full of the anticipation of war.
Now, lam not an alarmist. lam not one of those
who think it possible that there should be an inva-
sion of this country. On the contrary, I believe the
present ruler of France for a long time has shown
an earnest desire to cultivate an intimate alliance
with this country. Long may that alliance subsist
and endure, and I cannot conceive it possible that
it should be in, any danger. Heaven knows that on

this side of the water there is no man who does
not feel that anything like hostilities with
France would be the greatest national calamity
which 'could befall us. I believe that equally
among the people of France the same feeling is
commonly entertained. Such, at all events, is my
confident opinion, and I believe that I have very
goo?i reason for entertaining it. Surely, then, upon
the part of the Sovereign of France personally
there can be no desire to enter into anything like
a quarrel with this country. Let him for one
moment consider what his position is as ruler of
France in alliance with this country. So long as
France and England are combined what coalition
is there possible on the face of the earth which
could give a moment's anxiety either to the one
Power or the other." A remark—this last—which
was greeted upon the instant with cordial acclama-
tions. Having descanted thereupon, in earnest
words, upon the pacific advantages accruing to the
world at large from the increase of commerce gene-
' rally among the nations, Mr. FITZGERALD then gave
utterance to a sentiment worthy of having fallen
from the lips of any free trader amongst
us, where he added—" Nothing, in point of fact,
can be better or more durable than the fettering
together of nations by bonds of common interest
and association." Although the es-Under-Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs next observed inquir-
ingly—" If this, then, be the position both of the
• ,
people of France and theruin: et cance.
reason can there be to anticipate anything like a
rupture of the amicable relations which have so
long subsisted between this country and our French