The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-27 00:00:00

Corps of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After refuting
the arguments of those who would check the move-
ment 1) J ridicule, as a movement unnecessary under
the circumstances, Lord GREY immediately added—
" Far be it from me to impute to the Emperor of the
FRENCH, or to the gallant nation which he governs,
that he or they cherish hostile designs against this
country." And observed further, " I am willing
to give him credit for those assurances of a friendly
disposition towards England which we are told are
constantly reiterated by the EMPEROR, but still I
say that within the last few years circumstances
have arisen which make it expedient that this
country should increase its means of defence." Earl
G REY thereupon enumerated ♦ery pointedly a few
of the more important of these strikingly illustra-
tive circumstances. He spoke of France always
having a much larger military force than we have
ourselves. He reminded his hearers that in Algeria
alone our Imperial Ally has a land force there
four times as large as that of England.
He referred to the magnitude and efficiency' of the
French navy, to her active preparation of a fleet
of steam transports, to the organisation during the
last few years throughout her dominions of a vast
and admirably united system of railroads, and
finally to the latest of all these " great facts,"
namely, that " at a moment when we were told that
she could not disarm, because she had never armed,
in an incredibly short space of time she was able to
assemble beyond the Alps an army of 200,000 or
300,000 men." Adding, " Now, gentlemen, I say
that when we see all these measures we are bound
to look to our own means of protection." Will any-
body gainsay the reasonableness of this? "I have
no doubt," Lord GREY at once subjoined, " I don't
mean to throw any doubt upon the declarations of
the Emperor that these preparations do not imply hos-
tility to us, but when I consider the nature of these
measures, that they are not all of them of a defen-
sive character, I think it must be admitted that
their object is this—namely, that if France
should be unexpectedly engaged in war with
any Power she may be enabled promptly to
strike a severe, if not a fatal, blow upon her
antagonist. Now, gentlemen, it is possible that
we may be that antagonist ; and if France is
ready to strike, I say we ought to be ready to de-
fend." It is a remark, by the way, not applying
to France exclusively, but equally to every
other Power or to any number of the
other powers combined. England, surely, in rea-
son, ought not simply now, but always, to be pre-
pared to defend: herself against any antagonist,
or any number of antagonists. She ought to pos-
sess at all times a naval force capable of preventing,
and ready upon any emergency (however sudden),
to prevent the landing upon her shores of any
hostile armament. And, together with an efficient
Channel Fleet, she ought also to have ever orga-
nised within her seagirt boundaries a National
Guard, skilled in the use of the rifle, and capable,
by means of her railways, of rapid concentration.
A movement like this is only rational. "We
must not," as Earl GREY says, " owe the
safety, we must not owe the security of this land,
which has been for centuries unpolluted by the foot
of an invader—we must not owe our safety to the
forbearance or to the good faith of any other nation
—but, under GOD'S providence, we must rely upon
ourselves." There is the good old proverb that
tells us " GOD helps those who help them-
selves." It is the recognition of the force
of this great truth, it is the vivid recognition
of it at last by England that has led to
the enrolling of her new National Guard under the
name of these Rifle Volunteers. It is an enrolment
purely Defensive. And one, therefore, that need
give umbrage to no ally, however sensitive both by
temperament and by propinquity.

The communications of Mr. Muni and Baron
LIEBIG to our leading morning contemporary de-
serve notice. Long ago, befofe the construction of the
Metropolitan Parliament and the determination to
construct the enormous sewers for which we must
all pay so heavily, we insisted strongly on the im-
possibility of such a system being the final one.
We knew, indeed, that it was hopeless to think of
staying the new-born zeal to carry off our sewer-
age by this sort of Cyclopean underground archi-
tecture ; but we felt then, as we now do, pretty
certain that in no great length of time these vast
constructions would be found to be useless, that
they would be used for drainage only, not for
sewerage. Our principal reason for thinking so
was that we had read with no little interest Baron
LIEBIG'S views on agricultural chemistry, from
which it follows with, we may say, ma-
thematical certainty, that the rejecta of
the towns, as they came from the soil, and are
essential elements of its fertility, must be returned
to it. The unwholesome effects of such vast quan-
tities of fever-producing fluids circulating beneath
our feet, and sending up their noxious efluv:a
through innumerable apertures, as our senses can
but too well testify, are indeed, a strongly corrobo-
ratory argument against the sewer system ; but
the main fact is that the excreta which form the
worst part of these fluids, are imperiously de-
manded back by the fields -which have furnished
our towns with food for their inhabitants.

Mr. MECHI and Baron LIEBIG are much in
the position just now of Col. THOMPSON and Mr.
COBDEN before the Corn-law agitation commenced
and gathered strength. They plead for a cause
the justice of which is as yet, apparent
to a resolute thinker only. It is surmised
in regard to them, as it was in regard to the
Free-traders, that plausible as their case seems,
some overlooked considerations will turn up, or
that the rough-and-ready practice of agriculture,
as of commerce, can afford to laugh at the reason-
ings of philosophers, and of the few practical men
who are convinced by them. The misfortune of
the case is, that we must be prophets. The crisis
of the evil is not visibly urgent. Twenty or five
and twenty years must elapse before the guano of
the tropics will cease to be a substitute for our own
sewerage ; for so long,at least, it is calculated that,
at an enormous price, we may bring across the
globe what might be supplied by good arrange-
ments at home, to the great advantage of the
health of our towns and the purity of our waters.
But we can hardly doubt that the time must come
when, if war and pestilence does not reduce the
populations of England and Western Europe, the
price of food will becomo one of the greatest diffi-
culties in the government and administration
of nations. We hardly need advert to the
notorious fact that the cost of bread has had not a
little to do with most revolutions from those of
ancient Rome to those of modern France. While,
however,
food is at a reasonable price, and wages
on the whole good, LIEBIG and his followers may
be listened to, and thought clever fellows, but no
public action will follow. It required the stench of
the Thames for two or three years, and the flight
of members of Parliament from Westminster, to
compel the purification of the river. And it will
take high prices and discontents, and farmers com-
plaining of the impossibility of getting artificial
manures; and, above all, landlords unable for this
reason to keep up their rents—it will require all
this to move our practical nation. The time must
come, and when it does there will be kind of