The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-24 00:00:00

FIIE SUN,' LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DEOMMBER 'NI, 1861.

bilities of those who were present at it

were—how far more profound and poignant. !
The August Dead in this instance was not only one
rarely gifted, and with countless claims upon our
veneration, love, and gratitude. Here was the
gentle Father, here was the tender Husband
snatched suddenly from the midst of the home in
which he has left behind him so many endearing
remembrances—here was the first and noblest Pillar
of the State abruptly prostrated—the Prince being
struck down in the very pride and glory of his life :
full of honours—certainly: but—of years—alas! No.
It is not at every Funeral that the voice of the
officiating clergyman fails altogether, as the
voice of the Dean of WINDSOR failed him utterly,
yesterday, so as to become at length quite inaudible.
It is not again at every State sepulture that Garter
King-at-Arms becomes inarticulate from emotion,
so as to be absolutely incapacitated from reciting
the style and titles of the deceased over his tomb.
Yet eloquent incidents like these are henceforth
to remain among the touching records of the
PRINCE CONSORT'S Funeral. As to the grief
of the Royal Mourners who were present, headed
by the Chief Mourner, his Royal Highness
the Heir Apparent, we regard that as too
sacred a sorrow to be here expatiated upon—con-
tenting ourselves with a simple reference to the
account given by the hand of an eyewitness
of yesterday's ceremony—to the mention there
made of the profound emotion manifested by the
PRINCE CONSORT'S brother, the Duke of SAXE
COBURG, by his Royal Highness'a son in-law the
Crown Prince of PRUSSIA, but most of all by the
young Prince ARTHUR—and—at the very last
especially, while with clasped hands, taking his last
look at his father's coffin—by the youthful Prince
of WALES ! The last exquisite tokens of affection,
coming by the hands of a QUEEN'S mes-
senger from Osborne to Windsor, arriving
immediately before the closing up of the
tomb : emblems of love, laid upon the coffin, from
the hands of the widowed QUEEN and the three
elder of the young Princesses—poor little perish-
able wreaths of moss and violet from the hands of
the latter—from the hand and heart of the Royal
Relict a simple bunch of violets with one white
camellia. Not now—

" I would give you some violets ; hut they withered all,
when my father died :"

But rather—for rue and rosemary reading still
violets—

" There's rue for you, and there's some for me :"

And—

" There's rosemary, that's for remembrance."

The hero WILKEs has now given us his own
account of the feat pronounced so "gallant" at the
Boston dinner by Governors and Judges. He de-
scribes his legal studies and their conclusion, and
wonderfully clever they are for a sea-captain.
Only the better captain the worse lawyer, and
therefore we are in no way surprised to find the
gallant WILKES not able to supersede by gallantry
the necessity of legal learning. Never was the
adage—ne sutor ultra crepidam, better illustrated
than in the miserable upshot of the aged seaman's
law.

He committed only the small mistake of over-
looking the most vital fact of all—the one on which
M. THOUVENEL, doubtless instructed by the able
jurists of France, lays his finger. He overlooked
the fact that the neutral vessel was sailing neither
to nor from a hostile port ; that she was bound
from one neutral port to another neutral port, and
that under those circumstances Railing on board of
her could by any possibility be contraband. We
do not say that an intelligent sea captain, like all
public persons, should not study international law,
but we do say, that a sensible captain would con
fine himself to obedience to orders, or he can never
tell the trouble into which he may bring his coun-
try. He may rely upon it that on a question which
sends him to legal studies he must be as likely to
he wrong as right. The most intelligent public
writers in England did not venture to
commit themselves to an opinion before the gentle-
men "learned in the law" had delivered theirs.
This was surely an indication of soundness of
judgment, and Captain WILKES'S conduct was
equally a presumption that he was sadly wanting
in that quality. When he found that the ship was
°Le which he could not venture on public grounds
to seize and detain, it might scarcely occur to him
that that very fact was against him. It might have
taught him that there really was something special
in the character of a vessel by detaining which,
numerous peaceful passengers, and numerous
writers and expectants of letters would have been
put to serious inconvenience. Condemn the
Trent as a prize! We could wish he had.
We much doubt whether even American lawyers
would not have quailed at the thought, and then a
handsome sum would the gallant captain have had
to pay for attempting to act the part of marine
policeman and judge at the same time. But even
had such judges proved faithless to international
law, we may be quite sure that Lord PALMERSTON
would instantly have ordered such reprisals as
would have brought judges and captains, too, to
their senses.

The " learned and gallant" Captain doubtless
well knew the sort of people he had to do with on
his own side the water. He could calculate on being
a lion or a hero, in proportion to his defiance of
England. The Bostonians exulted in the fact that
he fired a shot across the bows surmounted by the
British Lion ; if it was not much to fight a ship
without guns, it was something to insult the ship
of a country which bad sa many guns at command,
but which would never dare to use them against
America or —. We may hope, however, that
Captain WILKES has, by his mingled learning
and gallantry, brought this style of thought and
talk to an end. America will understand, we
hope, henceforth that after having bullied us out of
everything in Muir e, in Oregen, and in Cen-
tral America—after having sent our Ambas-
sador home with impunity, and done
fifty other things almost as bad that—after all
this we have seen our last of being bullied into
concession. If fighting they must have, they will
have it in future to their heart's content. Tire
knowledge of this seems essential to inducing them
to keep the peace, but they do know it now, and we
hope therefore that it will prove that the INTILKEs
exploit has put an end to Yankee bullying of Eng-
land, and English concern for peace and quiet.

THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.—On Saturday, the
21st of December, Major Graham, the Registrar-General,
attended at Windsor Castle for the purpose of superintend-.
ing tile civil registration of the death of his Royal Highness
the Prince Consort, previous to the funeral. The death.
was recorded in the register-book of the Windsor district by
Mr. Towers, the Registrar of Births and Deaths, his Royal
Highness the Prince of Walcs signing the entry as in-
formant " present at death." The fatal disease was re-
corded, " Typhoid fever; duration, 21 days," as certified
in writing by the physicians who had been in attendance
on the deceased.

The private letters from New York state that
the financial report of Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the
Treasury, had produced a very unfavourable impression
among the principal; bankers and merchants, and that on
the evening previous to the departure of the present mail a
meeting of New York Banks had been held to discuss the
question of a suspension of specie payments. No decision
had been arrived at, but the result appeared to be inevit-
able at an Parly date. Meanwhile, it was understood that
the Banks would intimate to the Government their inability
to enter into any further loan commitments.