The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-22 00:00:00

mere revenge.

The excuse is the conduct of the North in " in-
vading their territories, burning their houses,
ill-treating their women, and stealing their negroes."
Whether it is " invading" or lawful endeavours to
suppress rebellion is, as yet, the question in dispute
between North and South. "Stealing the negroes,"
if a crime, is the crime which England only de-
mands that the North should commit more fre-
quently—but as between the two parties the South
boasts, justly, of their value in the war, and the
North has therefore a right to treat them as " con-
traband of war." The other two accusations might
doubtless be retorted on either side—they are but
too common in the train of armies, but certain it is
that the orders of the officers are distinct and their
threats severe against such offences. The charge
against PEAGRIM, is, not that any of his men
in blind passion set the ship on fire
contrary to his commands and desire, but
that he, the commander, in cool blood,
ordered his men to do it. It was an act of heathenish
savagery, and will do, as it ought to do, much to
make Englishmen loathe a cause in which command-
ing officers, on such vague provocation, can retaliate
in such a wanton manner. We have not adverted
to what would have been more worthy of a spirited
sailor—namely, to have put a small crew on board,
and to have attempted, as the Nashville herself did,
to run the blockade; or if that were not practicable,
to make for South America. We hope the inhabi-
tants of Southampton will not fail to let Captain
PEAGRIM understand what they think of such
Vandalism.

One thing both Federalists and Confederates,
we suppose, both understand, that the less we
have to do with the ships of war of either of them
the better we like it. We do not like
.their war;
we do Rot like the way it is pursued on either side ;
we do not like the causes of the war ; and feeling
no interest in it we do not want to offend either.
American impudence is so great that either side
will make a boast of getting all it can out of us,
each at the same time looking angrily at us for
helping the other. We would beg them, therefore,
to keep their ships of war from our coasts. They
are very unwelcome ; though perhaps the know-
ledge of that will only bring them oftener; we
hope they will keep as much as they can on their
own aide the water.

Right glad are we to find that the Premier
avows himself to be entirely in favour of a double
Embankment of the river Thames ! Its embank-
ment, that is, not only on the Middlesex side, but
on the Surrey side as well. This is, really and
truly, of course, the only rational view that could
be taken of the proposed enterprise. But, then, it
is not always the rational view that is taken in re-
gard to projected metropolitan improvements—
particularly by Prime Ministers. And it is there-
fore, because the view taken by oar veteran Pre-
mier is essentially the rational view of this magni-
ficent scheme of a Thames Embankment, that we
hail the avowal of it by the lips of Lord PALMER-
STON himself, with such peculiar satisfaction.
What is worth doing at all--a good old proverb
tolls us—is worth doing well. And it is an axiom
just as applicable to large undertakings as to small.
It is peculiarly applicable to an imperial project
like this of the Thames Embankment. For what,
in point of fact, does that project of an Embalik-
meet undertake to do ? In a few plain and simple
words, it proposes, among many other things, to do
this—to transform the back entrance to London
into the grand and noble and picturesque front en-
trance to the most wonderful city in the world—
the largest, the wealthiest, and the most populous !

Time was when our river afforded to the inhabi-
tants of the capital, their favourite and the most
frequented channel of communication. The Thames
was then the Silent Highway. Instead of the cab
and the omnibus clattering and lumbering over the
crowded causeway—the wherry shot hither and
thither to the stroke of the dapper oars wielded by
that now almost extinct race, the race of our Lon-
don Watermen. Alas! the " Jolly Young Water-
men," sung of yore, in the popular ditty—he who
erstwhile " used for to ply" near the ancient bridge
at Blackfriars,has long since degenerated into that
amphibious animal, the Surly Old Waterman, so
called, we have been facetiously informed, because
he opens the cab doors ! Then—in the good old
times (" all times when old are good" as BYRON
sings)—the Thames actually had a poet of its own ;
as though its current were that of another Helicon :
TAYLOR, the Water Poet ! Fancy the Thames
with a Laureate of its own now ! Supposing we
could witness such an incongruous phenomenon,
1 TAYLOR'S success as the Bard of the Thames, if he
invoked any
ought in reasnionYthtooloiuglial divinity,cokenotone foro
f inspiration,the attend-
ants upon APOLLO, not one of the virginal off-
spring of MNEMOSYNE; but---as a matter of courso
—no other than CLOACINAI But, in former times,
when the river Thames was really, in truth, a river,
and not, as now, a vast open sewer
green turf
grew down to its margin between bridges, just as
it does sti;l in some favoured localities above bridge,

say at Mortlake, here and there, and at Twicken-
ham. Our forefathers could think then, with an
anticipative sense of refreshment, of taking a
" header" after the fashion of the COLLEEN BAWN'S
lover, during the hot summer days, into a stream
—the notion of contaminating oneself by touching
which, in these times, produces only a sensation
very much like a shudder of disgust in every well-
regulated mind. Then the river shores, between
bridges, were not, as now, with a frightful literal-
ness of signification—river shores! Swans then
frequented those margins of the Stream which are
now only the haunts of those enfants terribles,
those wretched little gamins de Londres known
familiarly as Mudlarks. It is through the realiza-
tion of the magnificent scheme now about to be
adventured upon—this grand project of a Thames
Embankment, that all the old charms and beauties of
the river Thames can alone be brought back to us;
that all the existing evils and abominations now
polluting its current and festering along its banks
can be effectually got rid of ! And to dream of
doing all this siniply by halves—by having merely
one side of the Thames embanked, the Middlesex
side and not the Surrey side as well, the northern
bank and not the southern bank into the bargain—
would be the merest absurdity, the sheerest folly
well imaginable. It is precisely because we are
so thoroughly impressed with the conviction that it
would be so that we are so sincerely rejoiced that
the Roble Viscount the First Lord of the Treasury
has himself, betimes, so very distinctly avowed his
solicitude to see an embankment of both shores of
the river, and not simply of one shore. Thus, there-
fore, and thus only do we trust that the enterprise
will be carried out. Then—in that case—upon
those rational conditions—the main drainage of the
capital being carried away from the river, and not,
as now, into it—the filthy old ramshackle wharves
being swept out of sight, the current of the Thames
being restored to its original pellucidity ; a broad
roadway being constructed upon either hand, with
rows of houses raised beyond each embankment,
houses rivalling and, we dare say, many of them
surpassing the frontage of the Adelphi-terrace—
this one metropolitan improvement alone will do
more towards the adornment and beautification of
the cities of London and Westminster than all the
other metropolitan improvements that have ever
been dreamt of by our palladian daydreamers put
together. Only, however, if both shores of the
river Thames be embanked together ! But the
necessity of both shores being embanked we have
happily seen at length insisted upon by the Prime
Minister, and therefore we will encourage ourselves
to hope and believe that so—and so only—will it
be done.

Supposing we but carry out this one grand
project in the way of a comprehensive metropo-
litan improvement, as it is now proposed to be
carried out—supposing we achieve this single
scheme of a double Thames Embankment as it
ought to be achieved—and supposing we do this
promptly, and energetically, and with a will, we
may yet in more ways than one outstrip our
Parisian neighbours before very much longer in
the labour of developing a great series of metro-
politan improvements. Paris, for one thing, has
no such river to adorn as we have in our majes-
tic Thames—the Seine being insignificant by com-
parison. Besides which, if we have failed all this
while to build superb edifices like the Louvre, to
carry right through the most crowded quarters of
our capital broad vistas of Boulevard upon Boule-
vard, running straight as an arrow from point to
point—well, at least we have the consolation of
reflecting that all this while we have not been
plunging head over ears into debt like some others
that we wot off Yet, while there is a profound
satisfaction, of course, in remembering that hitherto
we have manifested this conspicuous prudence
in refraining from rash and ill-considered enter-
prises of metropolitan improvement—there is as-
suredly no reason why we should remain obdu-
rately apathetic when a scheme is at length un-
folded before us, by judiciously carrying out which
we may ensure immense adornments to the capital
—adornments that, while they will wondrously en-
hance its beauty, or we ought rather to say, perhaps,
at length impart something like beauty and splen-
dour to its general appearanca, will, at the same
time, increase its salubrity, and prove in the end
actually (it cannot fail to do this) remunerative.
Such a scheme, in truth, is this project of a double
Embankment of the river Thames.

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.

NOVEMBER 21.

The Swedish brig Aegir, Petterson, from Lulea for
Rochfort, with a cargo of deals, put in here last night with
loss of bulwarks and stanchions and stern frame started,
having been struck by a sea during the gale of the 14th
inst., when on the Doggesbank.
The Aegir fell in with the Nowegian barque, Nouna, from
Uleaborg for London, in a sinking condition, on the 15th
inst , and took off her captain and crew, 12 in number, and
landed them here.

CHUROII RATES. —A vestry of the parish of Northwood
was held at the Town-hall, West Cowes, this day, to take
into consideration the propriety of making a church rate.
The parties for and against the rate mustered strongly, and
after a long struggle a rate of Id. in the pound was carried
by a majority of three votes.

REMOVAL or TOLLS.—The public have been for years
seriously annoyed by the vexatious tolls demanded at the
pier at Southampton. These have been at length removed,
and now all poisons leaving Southampton for the Isle of
Wight, or arriving from it, pass over the Royal Pier toll
free.

The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough have re-
turned to Blenheim Palace from visiting the Marchioness
(Frances Anne) of Londonderry at Seaham Hall, Durham.
The Marchioness of Ely has arrived at her resi-
dence at Prince's-gate from Windsor Castle.
The Earl and Countess of Ellesmere have arrived
at Bridgewater House from Worsley Hall, Lancashire.
Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston entertained
a party at dinner last evening at Cambridge House. A
select circle assembled later in the evening. Her ladyship
has issued cards for an assembly on Saturday next.
Lord Llanover arrived at his residence in Great
Stanhope-street on Wednesday evening.
_ _ _

The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli, M.P., and
Mrs. Disraeli have left 'Hughenden Manor on a vist to the
Duke and Duchess of Northumberland at Ainwick Castle.

The Right Hon. Sir George C. Lewis arrived at
Kent House yesterday from visiting her Majesty at Wind-
sor Castle.

A memorial to the Court of Aldermen is in pre-
paration on the part of the members of the Stock-Exchange,
for an abolition of the annual tax known as " Broker's
rents."

The commercial telegrams from China received
this afternoon are dated the 16th of October from Hong-
kong. The import-markets were still very dull from the
pressure of large stocks. Canton had been evacuated by
the British. The quotations of exchange were 4s. 50. at
Hongkong and 6s. at shanghai, showing no alteration.

Loss OF THE SHIP BRITISH FLAG.—Yesterday
a despatch was received in Liverpool from Queenstown,
announcing the :arrival there of the ship Ernst, having on
board the captain and craw of the Liverpool ship British
Flag, Captain Campbell, bound fi otn Liverpool to Bombay,
with a large and valuable general cargo. Tho British Flag
was a fine first-class ship, of 1,395 tons burden, belonging
to the well known East India and China merchants,
Messrs. Bates, Stenhouse, and Co., of Liverpool, aid' left
Liverpool on the 6th c f the present month. There is no
doubt but this vessel must have been caught in the recent
heavy gales, for on the 13th inst. she was dismasted in lat.
45 N, long. 11 W, and shortly afterwards abandoned by
the crew, which were, as we have already stated, saved
by the Ernst, and landed safe at Queenstown this morn-
ing. The abandoned vessel had a crew of 37 men on board
at the time of the disaster.

THE FINSBURY ELECTION.—A requisition was
yesterday got up by a number of influential members of the
Court of Common Council, calling upon Mr. Lusk, one of
the late sheriffs, to come forward as a candidate for the re-
presentation of the borough of Finsbury. The requisition
islalready very numerously signed, and it is thought that if
, Mr. Lusk should come forward, there is every probability
Of:Illa being successful.

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