The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-16 00:00:00

in reality as well as in name. The Ballot is the
terror of Toryism, whether it openly asserts itself
or puts on the sheep's clothing of Whiggism. We
hope Mr. WYLD will not relax in his efforts to
compel attention to the Ballot. A member who
cannot be put down must, indeed, make up his mind
to many uncomfortable remonstrances from his
party, but for the public he is an invaluable man.
There is all the difference in the world between an
impracticable man and a man of decision. It is the
latter we want. Mr. WYY.D has made his position
as a man of decision ; let him determine to keep it,
and he will find his more pliant friends content to
be followers of MAHOMET, at least in one point of
the prophet's creed ; for if Mr. WYLD will not come
11 to them, he will find that they will come to him.

An extremely unpleasant article closes the cur-
rent number of the Quarterly. It is not by any
means apropos des bottes—or, if so, the Boots can
be no other than the seven leagued boots of the
Invader. The reviewer has (before sitting down to
write this lengthened argument) been carefully ex-
amining the views entertained by HANS BUSK, in
regard to " The Navies of the World," and those of
A Naval Peer, in reference to " Our Naval Position
and Policy," to say nothing of the "Notes on our
Defences," by General SHAW KENNEDY, and the
"Military Opinions" of Sir JOHN BURGOYNE. And
after reading, marking, and learning these several
publications, the writer in the Quarterly has evi-
dently suffeied in a frightful manner from a severe
attack of literary indigestion. Such waking night-
mares have surely never disturbed the imagi-
nation of an Englishman since TOM HOOD
depicted that unfortunate Wight who was
haunted by the grim and ghastly inter-
rogation, Why did you sup upon Pork ? Here,
however, the reviewer has certainly got the wrong
sow by the ear. Whether he is at all aware of it
himself or no—he is certainly, from first to last, a
flagrant example of that patriot with the white
face, the white liver, and the white feather, known
as An Alarmist. He appears to be almost out of
his senses with terror at the bare idea of an " Inva-
sion of England." Nowhere can he discover any-
thing but the portents of disaster. Nowhere can
he conceive to himself the possibility of our being
attacked without seeing, with dreadful distinctness
beyond that, the all but certainty 'pf our being de-
feated.

Before, however, taking into account the
possibilities of the Future, the writer entertains
himself for a while by conjecturing what he deems
to have been among the probabilities of the Past.
Referring to the far-famed, but purely hypo-
thetical, Campaign " De Londres," sketched out
in 1804-1805 by the master-hand of the
Great NAPOLEON—the campaign, the triumphal
completion of which was celebrated by antici-
pation through that exquisite bronze medal,
indicative of the Conquest of Angleterre, still pre-
served at the Monnaie among the glories of Gallic
Medallurgy—referring to this simply theoretical
or suppositious campaign, the writer says of the
naval part of it, that " the plan was conceived with
the most consummate tact, and with ordinary courage
and ability might easily have been carried into
execution. In that case it would have been easy
for the French to have mustered in the Channel a
line of battle exceeding by at least one-half, both
in number of ships and weight of metal, what the
English could have opposed to them. The British
Admiral must either have accepted battle under
such circumstances as would have rendered defeat
almost inevitable, or he must have retired to be
blockaded in Spithead till reinforcements arrived
to enable him to meet his enemy on equal terms.
In either case NAPOLEON'S object would have been
gained. The Channel would have been bridged ;
England would have been joined to the Continent;
and his army might have been taken over with as
great or even greater facility than it could have
passed the Rhine or any large river. Whether the
campaign that followed would have resembled those
of Moscow or Leipsic, or those of Austerlitz or
Jena, must remain a mere matter of speculation ;
but he is a bold man who would assert that so con-
summate a commander, at such a period of his
career, should deliberately have planned, and
so long adhered to the execution of a scheme which
did not offer at least a reasonable chance of success."
Extremely agreeable reading this, of course, for a
patriotic Frenchman, but anything certainly
rather than pleasant for the perusal of a
patriot Englishman. Particularly when it is
said afterwards, in pursuance of the same kind
of conjectures, by the Quarterly Reviewer, that,
"looking, at the genius of NAPOLEON, and the in-
competence of those to whom the British army
would have been entrusted, it is highly probable that
the result would have been as at Borodino, and that
London must hare pllen." From this kind of de-
lightful hypothesis in regard to the past, our
readers may judge what are the species of anticipa-
tion indulged in by the reviewer in reference to the
future. Judge of those, say we, by the foregoing—
ex pede Tlerculem. It is the first peeping forth of
the cloven hoof of the alarmist in the argument—
in which decidely he, the alarmist, has beyond a
doubt put his foot in it. He has done so, we are
bold to assert at once, beyond a doubt, because we
believe in our conscience that scarcely kalf a
dozen men will be found to regard these anticipa-
tions of his otherwise than with feelings of pro-
found indignation.
We believe, of course, as we have again and again
proclaimed through these columns, that our national
defences require complete, instant, and thorough
reorganisation. We believe that, notwith-
standing all that has been done recently for the
most part in regard to the army through General
PEEL, and almost entirely for the navy through
the zeal and determination of Sir JOHN PAKING-
TON—we believe that, notwithstanding all this,
we are but now at the very commencement of that
great labour of defensive organisation. We be-
lieve that our maritime forces have yet considerably
to be extended—that the manning of our fleets as
a system demands the most comprehensive revision
—that our militia admits at once of considerable
extension and enormous improvement—that our
army might be simultaneously rendered both more
economical and more efficient—that our ordnance
hardly less than our navy requires in a manner
complete reconstruction. But firmly persuaded of
all this, though we admit ourselves to be most un-
questionably, we do not by any means admit at the
same time that there is any reason whatever to look at
the possibilities of invasion for one single instant
with sentiments of utter dismay, almost amounting
indeed to a feeling of craven trepidation. Accord-
ing to the Quarterly, "supposing every regular
soldier that could possibly be spared from Scotland
and Ireland brought into London, all the militia
called out, and every man who was sufficiently
drilled to stand in the line of battle being
mustered together, and by no conceivable
means could 80,000 or 100,000 men be ga-
thered together in the neighbourhood of London."
According to the Quarterly, " Such an army
dare n otmove to the west to meet the invaders
coming
in
that direction, for they would have the
Colchester division in their rear, and the Chichestermeto
y on their flank, and they dare not move
, attack either of these smaller bodies in their en-

trenchments without exposing the capital to be '
attacked by the other. In fact," continues the
reviewer, " no strategy, nor any conceivable amount
of heroism, will render an army of 100,000, in any
position this country affords, equal to one of
200,000 placed, as we have just supposed the in-
vaders to be, within three or four days' march of a
given central point. To make a stand against such
odds would be simply to expose the English army to
the fate which awaited the Austrians under MACK at
Ulm, of being surrounded by superior forces and
obliged to lay down their arms without striking a
blow. The only thing an English general could
do in such a case would be to abandon the capital
and all the country to the south of London, retreat-
ing to the north, and, adopting a Fabian line of
policy, he might eventually save the State from
actual extinction." All this and a great
deal more of a like kind—According to
the Quarterly.! Now, instead of " all this,"—and
without the smallest atom of braggadocio—
we ourselves should look confidently (in the dread-
I ful contingency of an invasion) for results entirely
and diametrically the reverse. We believe that
were 80,000, were 100,000, were 200,000 men
landed anywhere from a foreign fleet upon our
shores, that—our troops, our militia, our ordnance
remaining exactly as they are now—the whole male
adult population of England, or Ireland, or Scot-
land, or of all together, would have given a suffi-
ciently good account of that army before any
lengthened interval could very well have elapsed.
" For," as the Poet Laureate, ALFRED TENNYSON,
sang so nobly but four years since, when there was,
as there has been now more recently, this talk of a
possible invasion :
" I trust if an enemy's fleet came yonder round by
the kill,
And the rushing battle-bolt sang from the three-decker
out of the foam,
That the smooth-faced, snub-nosed rogue would leapfrom
his counter and till,
And strike, if he could, were it but with his cheating
yardwand, home."
Instead of drawing disastrous pictures of the pos-
sible sequel of the history of a foreign army landed
on our shores, let us rather dedicate the whole of our
energies to the prevention of any such landing taking
place at all. With the wires of the electric telegraph
trailed all round our coasts, in connexion with each
and all of our coastguard stations—with those ma-
gical fibres of copper converging from the circum-
ference to the one grand central point of the capital
—with the Government at that central point hold-
ing perpetually in its grasp (through the same
wondrous agency) the capacity of instantaneous
communication with all the dockyards, and all the
arsenals, and all the military stations of the
United Kingdom with the power afforded
through our railways of rapid concentration
of any amount of our forces, sea and land, upon any
given point, according as circumstances might ren-
der that concentration advisable—above all, with
an adequate Channel Fleet ever in readiness, and
a sufficient and efficient Navy perpetually prepared
—we might laugh to sc3rn these periodical panics
about Invasion. The spectacle presented by us
should in reason be always what was described by
Holy Lips as that of—" The Strong Man Armed
keeping his House." The Sword of the Nation
should be sheathed, it is true, during Peace, but
not hung up as useless. Rather than that it
should remain slung ever by the side of BRI-
TANNIA, ready to her grasp upon the instant !
The motto arabesqued upon its blade—semper
paratus!

An interesting report will be found in another
part of our impression of this evening, descriptive
of the Annual Distribution of Prizes at the Seaham
harbour and Seaham colliery schools, by their
munificent patroness, FRANCES ANNE Marchioness
of Londonderry. These proceedings we conceive
have far more Clan a merely local interest. They
illustrate too remarkably the reciprocal duties
knitting together the lives of the wealthy and in-
dustrious classes—the Million and the Upper Ten
Thousand—not to demand some respectful com-
ment en passant, far beyond the boundary line of
the little county of Durham. The significance of
the ceremonial which took place this day
week at Seaham—when twelve hundred children
witnessed the distribution of prizes among those of
their number who had proved successful in the
competitive examinations previously instituted for
the purpose of exciting amongst them a wholesome
spirit of emulation—was admirably expressed by
that portion of the remarks uttered by the Mar-
chioness of LONDONDERRY, in which her ladyship
observed—" I believe, if we rightly understand our
calling's in life, it would be found that one of the
greatest blessings insured by the possession of
wealth is the power it ought to give the possessors
of doing good to their fellow-creatures ;" adding—
" I confess this is too often lost sight of, and, not
the least by myself, in the pursuit of objects and
ends of a more personal and selfish nature, and yet
the satisfaction that I cannot but feel at being per-
mitted to be instrumental in producing a result
such as this scene affords, is a proof of the truth that
property entails duties, and if you try to discharge
them, however humbly and inefficiently, you are
rewarded." It was in reference to the utterance by
Lady LONDONDERRY of these gracefully expressed
and truly ennobling sentiments that the his-
torian of Europe spoke, when, by an antithesis
as appropriate to the occasion as it was cha-
racteristic of the speaker, Sir ARCIIIBALD
ALISON reminded his youthful hearers that " labour
also had its duties." After expressing a hope that
there were many among those present who would
do honour to the training they were now receiving,
Sir ARCHIBALD observed, " It was at schools simi-
lar to those, and in this locality, that Lord ELDON,
one of the profoundest of lawyers, and afterwards
Lord High Chancellor, and Admiral COLLINGWOOD,
second only amongst our admirals to NELSON received
their education," :adding immediately upon this,
however, yet more effectively : "But why need I look
elsewhere for examples, when I can refer yoil to
the founder of these great works, who, although a
nobleman by birth, solely by his own courage, in-
tegrity, :and :ability, won for himself such emi-
nence and such honour in the state and nation."
A fitting tribute from the historian of Europe to
the memory of that chivalrous and heroic nobleman
whose deeds of daring on the field' of battle have
been recorded by the pen of Sir ARCHIBALD
ALISON, as well as by that of the veteran
annalist of the Peninsular war, Sir \VILLIAM
NAPIER—and the tokens of whose generous
public spirit as a patrician citizen during times of
peace yet survive, as in the instance of these
schools at Seaham, now flourishing under the pa-
tronage of his relict, Lady LONDONDERRY.

THE PRINCE OF WALES.—On Sunday his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales attended divine service in
the High Church. The Rev. Dr. M‘Letchie preached an
eloquent discourse from the 17th chaper of the Acts of the
Apostles—reading the whole chapter as a lesson. The
church was much crowded. On Saturday, his Royal High-
ness and suite visited the studio of Mr. Steel, her Majesty's
sculptor for Scotland, and seemed highly pleased with the
works in progress.
Lord Macaulay was in Edinburgh on Saturday,
and in company with some ladies paid a visit of inspection
to the Advocates' Library, Law Courts, &c.
The Southampton has arrived from Melbourne
with 29,551 ounces of gold, worth about £llB,OOO, and the
Africa and Borussia from New York, with £114,000.
CRICKET.—NORTH V. SOUTH. --The return match
between these two elevens was coguneneed at Canterbury
yesterday, when the first innings of each - side was con-
cluded, the North scoring 107, and the South 48.