The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-14 00:00:00

Commence at 7 o'clock

eIANTERBUR v HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING.—The Music of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
certs), the extraor .inary Violin Pertormances of the cele-
brated Infant DELEPIER.II.II FAMILY, and the usual
'Vocal Concert.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Tforlson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Crrtchfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified. and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
Will shortly be produced, a Grand Seectlon from Meyer-
beer's new opera of DINORAH.

TIIE WEATHER.—Strm OFFICE, OcroßEn 14.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
60—highest since noon yesterday.
55—lowest this morning and during the night.
63—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.68.
WIND, Northerly and Westerly; light, with dull wea
ther.

-
HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
This DAY.—Morning, 2h. 57m.—Afternoon, 3h. 13m,
To-Moßuow-Morning, 3h. 29m.--Afternoon, 3h. 4Gm

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THE SUN.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1859.

The intelligence received by this time from the
mouth of the Peiho, both at London and at Wash-
ington, can hardly fail to allay whatever irritation
may naturally have been excited in the United
States and the United Kingdom by the very dif-
ferent news coming to England and America im-
mediately prior to this from the north-eastern
shores of tho Pacific. Nothing, we all know but
too well in this country, nothing could possibly
have been more calculated to endanger the peace
between Great Britain and the United States,
than the insolent predatory incursion made by Ge-
neral lIARNEv's filibusters upon the disputed soil
of the little island of San Juan. The occupation of
that island was in direct and flagrant violation of
one of the first articles in the law of nations. It
was nothing less than an insult of the most unpro-
voked character, offered by the Commander-in-
Chief of the American forces in that locality, to the
British Crown, actually then claiming over that
very island of San Juan the inalienable rights of
Sovereignty. It was a matter of notoriety indeed
in both hemispheres that the rival claims of Eng-
land and the United States, to the possession of San
Juan, remained at that moment, had remained un-
happily for months past, a problem committed for
solution, if possible, and that, moreover, at
as early a date as might be in any way
-xacticable to joint commissioners duly ap-
pointed by the respective Governments. Sud-
denly tidings were brought to us that while the
Commission was yet in deliberation upon that Gor-
dian Knot the lawless sword of General HARNEY
had been abruptly drawn 'from the scabbard, awl
that it had been endeavoured, by a foul blow from
that pitiful little buccaneering brand, to sever the
knot in twain, after the fashion set according to
PLUTARCH, by a certain King of Macedonia. The
particulars brought by the last mail or two from
Victoria, in Vancouver, have only tended to en-
hance the inignation felt in England at this unjus-
tifiable attempt at spoliation,aml direct infraction of a
mutual and perfectly amicable arrangement. Gradu-
ally, bit by bit, we got to know the worst of it. We
learnt that the sixty-six men first landed upon the
Island of San Juan from American war-vessels,
had been rapidly increased to the number of five
hundred. We heard that fortifications were being
constructed. We read of batteries raised, of guns
mounted, of ammunition and stores accumulated—
of an admirable site for a city having been coolly
marked out—of the whole surface of the island
having been yet more coolly given over to a nume-
rous and mushroom squatter population. Not one
ingredient was wanting to embitter the cup prof-
fered to us—a cup brimmed up with insults and
provocative of indignation.

s—while Go-
Happily—in
the midst of all thi
vernor DOUGLAS was there, with admirable skill, I
tempering an inflexible regard for the dignity of
the British Crown, and for the inviolability of
British interests, with a moderation beyond all
praise, and a temperate bearing entitled to our
fullest admiration—there came news from the
Peiho vividly reminding es of those bonds of
fraternal sympathy and affection knitting to-
gether the population of the States and
that
of the old immemorial fatherland- The Ame-
rican flag-officer in command of the United
States' squadron off the mouth of the Peiho
acted towards our wounded fellow-countrymen
there in that scene of our recent disaster, and in
the very midst of the late calamitous slaughter be-
fore the Tabu fortifications, in a manlier calculated
to sweep out of mind the recollection of a dozen
ii,kaNEYs, acted in truth as became a loyal ally of
chistdronB magnanimity. The treatment of our

wounded officers, and our sailors and marines on

board the United States ship the Toey-wan, on

the night after the sanguinary repulse of our ten
gunboats off the Taku forts, will not speedily be
lost to the recollection of Englishmen.

An additional and a very acceptable light,
however, has now been thrown upon these
incidents by means of an official commu-
nication, which will be found in another column
of our impression of this evening. The docu-
ment referred to is no other than the despatch
written off the Peiho River on the 4th of July
by Admiral JOSIAH TATTNALL, flag officer of the
United States squadron in the Chinese waters, the
despatch formally addressed by him to the Secre-
tary of the American Navy at Washington. From
this deeply interesting narrative of the late trans-
actions on the coast of China, we learn that the
feeling of cordiality—a cordiality throughout fra-
ternally spontaneous in its character— has been
reciprocal out there to the fullest extent
between the Americans and Britishers. What
is yet more, it now turns out, from the American
flag officer's own showing, that the Britishers in
point of fact took the initiative in its manifestation
at the mouth of the Peiho !

Authorised so to do, or at any rate encouraged so

to do by the coincident opinion of the American Am-
bassador Mr. WARD, the flag officer of the United
States squadron decided, he tells the Secretary of the
Navy, at Washington, "to enter the river we had
known as the Peiho in the steamer Toey-
wan as far as the barricades, as though igno-
norant of access having been refused the
English and French." This, we must premise,
was prior to the disastrous conflict under the walls
of the fortifications. "If the forts," wrote the
American nava( commander, "should fire acmes our
bows to bring us to, we would anchor and commu-
nicate ; if into us, having no guns, we would retire
and act accordingly." The manner in which this
plan was attempted to be carried out will be
found minutely described in the despatch, elsewhere
given in extenso. Sufficient for us if we come at
once to the incident it gave rise to, and which we
are here anxious to particularise. "We had ap-
proached," writes Admiral TATTNELL, to within
three hundred yards of the first barrier, at which
point, should we not be fired on, I had proposed
anchoring, when we grounded, and failed in all
our efforts to back off. The tide was falling fast, and
our situation was critical, not only from the facility
with which the batteries might demolish us,

but, as we were on the edge of a steep
bank, from the probability of the steamer
falling over and filling." The position was ob-
viously eritical. When, continues the American
Commander, " I at this moment received from
Admiral JAMES HOPE an attention and kindness
which must place me under lasting obligations to
him. Although he had reason to think that she
would be fired upon by the forts, he sent a gunboat
to my aid, with the message that, had he known of
my intention to pass up, he would have furnished me
a pilot, and that he expected to see me fired on.
The gunboat failed in her efforts to extricate me,
and there being, as I have said, a probability of the
Toey-wan falling over and filling, the admiral de-
spatched a second gunboat to me, placing her en-
tirely at my disposition, with the handsome and

generous offer that I should hoist on board of her
the American ensign and my own personal flag.
I declined the offer, with a just appreciation, how-

ever, of the personal kindness to myself and the
delicate compliment to our service. The Toey-
wail was more fortunate than I expected, and a
favourable wind having sprung up, we got her
off at high water." This incident was certainly
worthy of commemoration. Remembering it—we
cannot wonder when we read further on in the
despatch, after the result of the treacherous Chi-
nese ambuscade has been recounted, we cannot
wonder, we say, to read there, in the simple words
of the American naval commander —" I held a
consultation with Mr. Ward, and he agreed with
me perfectly that, under all the circumstances of
our position with the English, and the aid the ad-
miral had tendered me the day before, than to tow
the boats to his relief." And, yet later,—when the
fighting is all over—" After anchoring I thought of
the admiral and his chivalrous kindness to me the
day before, which, from an unwillingness to in-
trude upon him when he was preparing for action,
I had in no way yet acknowledged." Whereupon
the American flag-officer accompanied by his flag-
lieutenant pays the old English admiral a visit, as
he lies there severely wounded on the quarter-deck
of the Cormorant. It is immediately upon having
mentioned this complimentary visit that the Ame-
rican pays this noble and deserved tribute to the
gallantry of Admiral HOPE—" The Cormorant
after this was sunk, and the admiral shifted his fag
to a fourth vessel, the Coromandel (a thing I believe,
I unprecedented), thus evincing an indomitable va-
lour under very disheartening and almost hopeless
circumstances." Well might Sir JOHN PAKINGTON
—who " had the honour of appointing Admiral
HOPE to the command in the Chinese Seas,"—
" selecting him solely because he was well known as
a man of ability, and an officer of great experience
and skill"—observe—(as the right hon. baronet
did observe yesterday down at Worcester)
that " It was unnecessary for him to add that
he (Admiral IIorE) was a man of the most
undaunted bravery !" And cordially will every
Englishman echo back the heartfelt wish expressed
by the ex• First Lord of the Admiralty, that there
upon those Chinese coasts that gallant old tar may
speedily have an opportunity of proving to the
world that he is in truth, " what every man in the
British Navy knows him to be—a distinguished
ornament to the service"—brave amongst the
brave—driven back, it is true, the other day, but
not conquered !

We have now had seventeen days of the weary
examinations of candidates, agents, sub-agents, and
bribed voters at Gloucester, and only about a week
less of it at Wakefield, and what does the country
really think of it all? We may as well ask now;
for how much longer the costly work is to go on
it would puzzle even a Chancery lawyer to predict,
or even to conjecture. Inquiry into the election of
1857 will plainly follow that into the election of
1859 ; and if commissioners do not weary of what
we may presume is well paid work—indeed, for
justice' sake it ought to be so—or if the Gloucester
public does not tire of furnishing evidence, there
seems no reason why the inquiry should not run
back to the date of the Reform Bill at least ; or
even for the five centuries and a half during which
the old city has had the privilege of sending re-
presentatives to the Great Assembly of the nation.
'Wakefield is but a mushroom borough, and we will

leave it for the present, as it comes under another
category. It owes all its electoral merits and de-
merits to its birth—being begotten by the Reform
Bill of a West Riding town constituency, and it
may be worth while to inquire how much of its
original sin, which seems to have been great in-
deed in amount, it owes to either parent.
The old Episcopal city, then, and its electoral
doings shall have a glance first. And one thing is
plain enough on the face of the evidence, that the
old city is like so many other bodies, it has two
leading parties, and a third which holds the scales.