The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-17 00:00:00

N, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEVIBER 17, 1861.

', LON

then equally youthful and almost girlish SOVEREIGN '
in these realms. Together they have lived
in the midst of us, continually surrounded,
encircled wherever the Court went, by that
truest and most enviable loyalty of all—
the mingled affection and respect of a race of free-
men recognizing in the constitutional Head of the
State, the chosen guardian, the firm but gentle
custodian of our rights and liberties. Saving and
excepting only upon very rare occasions—as for
example when the Royal pair were on a visit to
King Louis PHILIPPE at the Chateau d'Eu, or
when they were more recently the guests of his
Imperial Majesty the Emperor NAPOLEON 111,, in
the Palace of the Tuileries, or again when previously
and subsequently to that Holiday sojourn at Paris,
when his late Royal Highness the PRINCE CON-
SORT took his QUEEN Wife to the haunts of his
boyhood in the old Teutonic Fatherland—saving
and excepting upon these very rare occasions,
Her MAJESTY and his Royal Highness have lived
amongst us—now at Windsor Castle, now at Buck-
ingham Palace, now at Osborne, now at Balmoral,
presenting to view the Model Home in the midst of
many million Families of loyal Englishmen. And
now that the central figure in that long familiar
Home group—[has not the courtly pencil of WIN-
TERHALTER perpetuated in the famous picture for
the admiration of after times P]—now that the Father
and the Husband has suddenly disappeared from
the midst of it, one's almost instant reflection is this
(a reflection that comes to: each of us not without
an inward gush of emotion)—How well, how
nobly, how truthfully, how consistently, how
untiringly this young Prince acquitted himself of
his most delicate and elevated responsibilities as
the chosen partner and chief adviser of the Consti-
tutional SOVEREIGN of these vast and world-wide
Dominions. An indiscreet or-injudicious Consort '
might have readily found perpetual opportunities
fqx stumbling among the threads of that jealous
maze of etiquette which is woven, we may say
unavoidably woven by the Constitution itself,
around the footsteps of the Foreign Husband of
a QUEEN REGENT here in England. In the instanee
of the accomplished and illustrious Prince, whose
untimely end we are now d eploring,the stumbles—we
can recognise this now deliberatelyin the retrospect
of those two-and-twenty years now traversed—are
after all but very slight and very exceptional. So
far, moreover, viewing his position amongst us now
dispassionately, it might almost be added they were
ii a manner (to that casual and partial extent) un-
avoidable under the circumstances. Affections
called into existence with his birth, and knitted
and twined among his heartstrings by all the loved
associations of childhood and youth, still bound the
generous hearted Prince by the tenderest ties to
the memory of the Old Vaterland. Yet was he, we
are willing to believe that, though still a true German
by birth, none the less an Englishman by adoption.
Whenever these sympathies clashed upon the rare
and fleeting occasions we have alluded to—and upon
which incidents we never scrupled frankly to
break silence at the period of their occurrence
—the fault lay not so much with the
Consort of the SOVEREIGN, as with that arbitrary
Royal Marriage Act, necessitating this liability to
the chance collision of conflicting interests. Con-
scientiously the Royal Husband of Queen VICTORIA
—we do most confidently rest assured of this—
conscientiously ALBERT the Prince Consort of Eng-
land, strove all through his happy married life of
two•and-twenty years' duration, to do his Duty
by the QUEEN he had taken to wife, and by
the country of his adoption and of her
rule placing the performance of that
twofold duty before him as the golden mean of his
ambition in the position in which it had pleased
GOD to place him. He it was, himself, we now
learn, who was the first to recognise the fact that
his last hour was approaching. This, it proves in
effect, was really the case on Wednesday, three
days before his actual dissolution. And it was only
on the day before his death that his Queen-Wife
had any glimmering notion of the coming
calamity, when, upon Her MAJESTY'S re-
turn from an afternoon drive in Windsor
park the Royal patient wasso far advanced towards
death that the extremities were already cold. Then
only upon the evening of his death, or rather upon
the early morning of the very day upon which his
Royal Highness expired, the Prince of WALES, his
eldest son, was suddenly telegraphed for, to hasten
at one, by express, to his father's death-bed. This
occurring, in fact, only between one and two
o'clock a.m., in the dead of night, between Friday
and Saturday. The PRINCE CONSORT having him-
self recognised as early as upon Wednes-
day last that the term of his earthly career
had arrived; Lying there upon his death-bed
from Wednesday until Saturday night, the date of
his actual dissolution, the Prince had the consola-
tion at last of humbly reflecting that in that posi-
tion, in which, as already remarked, it had pleased
GOD to place him, he had consistently and ener-
getically striven to do his duty by employing the
talents confided to his charge for the advantage of
his fellow-men.

President LINCOLN'S Message does not improve
upon further acquaintance the literary quality
and the contents, as illustrated by the communi-
cations of his secretaries especially, appearing all
the worse on re-perusal. And the perusal itself
is indeed no trivial task—probably not a hundred
persons in England, unless, like unfortunate edi-
tors, they have special reasons for doing so, in-
flict on themselves the penance of wading through
the long purposeless columns with which the
President fills all the daily papers of England
and America. Nothing can be more striking in-
deed than the unfavourable contrast of the Mes-
sages of the rival Presidents. Regarding them '
as literary compositions and State docu-
ments, that of Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS is
condensed, brief, businesslike, intelligible, such
as no English statesman, so far as its literary
character is concerned, would feel ashamed to have
written. Mr. LINCOLN'S is inordinately long,
verbose, illiterate in expression and arrangement,
and such as few head clerks in a respectable solici-
tor's office here would like to have had the credit of
drawing. The two Messages are, indeed, illustra-
tions of the superiority of Southern to Northern
leadership. Considering the resources of the two
sections of States, it cannot be denied by the North
itself that the management south of the Potomac
has been superior to that of the North by all the
difference in literary and statesman-like character
of the two Messages.
The reasons for not adverting to the affair of the
Trent, we must leave with Mr. LINCOLN; yet it
is impossible not to feel that his Message without
it is, to use the hackneyed illustration, the play of
" Hamlet," with the part of HAMLET omitted, for
never perhaps MIS the mention of a subject of the
day more anxior.sly looked for, both in England
and America. The omission renders the whole
speech inexpressibly lifeless and wearisome. Things
comparatively trivial, such as the constitution of
the Supreme Court, and
really
Circuits of
think
Judges,ink of thaerm
now ; and the speech-ise
dwelt on as if any
thus stuffed up to an inor-
dinate size with topics -
and paragraphs wholly
irrelevant to
WI IPA really occupies men's thoughts,

We could wish to believe that Mr. LINCOLN had
made up his mind to accede to the demand which
he must expect from England ; but if he had, he
would surely have thrown in some :preparatory
hint to give the cue to his friends, and to
prepare the multitude for what it is obvious now
would be a very unpopular act with them. On the
other hand, had he been determined to bow uncon-
ditionally to the demands of the vulgar respectables
of Boston and the New York mob, he would surely
have not lost the opportunity of introducing an
" immortal" feature into a Message so certain other-
wise to be forgotten nearly as soon as delivered.

The vote of the House of Assembly, we are glad
to see, is regarded by the more reasonable portion
of the American press much as we have felt some
hope that it might be, by men of sense and cha-
racter there. The paragraph is rather long, but
it is encouraging to read in an American
paper, the New York Times, such lan-
guage as this :—" Congress has sipalised its
first sitting by passing a vote of thanks to Captain
WILKES for the seizure of Messrs. MASON and
SLIDELL. Nothing is more nature. than that
which i 3 uppermost in the public mini should leap
to expression through the voice of the people's re-
presentatives. In thus putting on roord a formal
approval of an act which has called forth universal
public satisfaction there is of course no intention
to prejudge a case on which nether our own
nor the British Government has as yet pro-
nounced an opinion, and which is now pro-
perly a matter of diplomacy alone. We all liked
the bold deed, and we liked it til the better
because it seemed to be perfectly justified by the
principles and precedents of international law.
Should it not be justified, there can be no hesitation
as to the course to be pursued. However gratifying
the seizure of the rebel amlassadors may have
been, it is not worth the sacrifice of a single
principle of the public morality of nations.
Meanwhile, we can, of course, but await further
developments. The resolution of thanks which
Congress has voted to Captaii WILKES, therefore,
embodies a perfectly just seniment, without at all
binding the policy of the Government, or embar-
rassing the Secretary of Sta e in the pursuit of
such a course as, on a full examination of the
question in all bearings, nay seem to be dic-
tated by right and the law of nations."
It is well known how mud the Southern States
relied upon the necessities if Europe in regard
to cotton ; they hardly believed it possible that
the French and English would allow the blockade
of their ports, to the injwy and distress of
their own people, Ant we may well
acknowledge that the Souti had a right to
think so. Much as we desi'e that " America's
calamity may be India's opportunity," yet when
two countries who had but tc speak the word, and
all the cotton of the South wculdhave been at their
disposal, were content to recognise an inefficient
blockade, it was surely an instance of unprecedented
forbearance. We might have insisted that the case
was wholly out of the ordinary course of things,
and unprovided for by interraticnal law ; that we I
could not permit the dontsti3 quarrels of the
North and South to destroy tie means of subsistence
for our vast population, and ye might, we believe on
justifiable grounds, have joned Frances who it is
notorious wished to do it—ie putting an end to the
blackade and opening the otton ports. We sub-
mitted, however, and what .s the reward—that our
forbearance is attributed b the mearest possible
commercial motives, insteal of the desire to go to
the extreme of forbearance with a country which
had always shomn the reverse of that quality in
all its dealings'with us. We were looking out for
our own interests forsooth! We thought a vast
United States better to deal with than several
smaller States ! We believe the reverse of this is
the truth. The size of the Union has been its
temptation to become a political nuisance in its
dealings with other countries.

But what of the slavery luestion ?—nothing but
pettiness itself. There is the old silly cumbrous
phraseology, with the old tttempts at compromise
and staving off the question. The UNION is still
set up like NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S image, and all
must fall down and worship it. Human liberty is
of course but a trifle to offer up to such a deity. As,
therefore, it is assumed thit the loyal slaveholders
will be injured should thei• slaves be emancipated,
provision is made for their compensation should the
accidents of war give then freedom—this is fair;
but the President looks mad, further—he wants
by
to regain the loyalty
of rtehteentinoof slavery
Secessionists.
He has kept, he says,
doubtless alluding to FREmoNr's proclamation, to
the letter of the Act of Congress in regard
to the confiscation of slaves, atd tells Congress that
radical and extreme measures must be avoided. In
other words, he can't consent to abolition. The
anion of Freedom with Slavery is still his reply.
He has, however, one little morsel even for the
abolitionists—he proposes to recognise Hayti and
Liberia, the recognition of the former being doubt-
less a rebuke to Spain, who in return may think
the Southern Government deserves recognition on
her part. The Secretary ef War feels so rur-
gently the necessity of accepting slave aid in the
South, and of not returning the slaves to their
masters to be by them emplo3ed in sustaining the
war by raising supplies, or even by direct military
occupations, that he pleads for the necessary emanci-
pation of such as resort to the armies ; but he is also,
of course, greatly concerned for the loyal masters.
There is not on this subject the slightest indication of
anything more than a hand to-mouth policy adapted
to immediate military exigencies—nothing like
raising the banner of emancipation as the standard
by which the North might conquer, with the ap-
plause of the civilized world, Motions are already
before Congress on the subject, but they seem little
likely to end in anything. Indeed, the Message
points to colonizing the free negroes at any cost on
land purchased for the purpose, rather than tolerate
their free presence amongst the white lords of the
North.

FIRE AT THE THAMES IRON SHIP••BUELDING
COMPANY'S WORKS.—Yesterday a fire destroyed the
mould-room and roof of some of the most important parts
of these premises. The mould. room of the Warrior and
the models of other vessels were destroyed.

THE WARD OF LANGBOURN.—At the request of
many electors and inhabitants, Mr. T. Sidney Smith an-
nounces his intention, on St. Thomas's Day, to offer him-
self as a candidate for the honour of being elected one of
the representatives in the Court of Common Council for the
year ensuing. Ho is well known to most of the electors,
and his father is at present one of the representatives of an
adjoining ward in the Court of Common Council.

The Toronto Globe, of Nov.. 20, says :—Gen. Sir
Fenwick Williams, Commander of the Forc:s, will arrive
in town this afternoon, by the Grand Trunk train, accom-
panied by his staff, including Col. Wilmot, Col. Rollo,
Capt. De Winton, and Capt. Grant, for the purpose of in-
specting the defences of the neighbourhood. The excava-
tions for a new fort, a short distance from the old one, m ere
commenced a couple of days ago under the superintendents
of Col. Robertson, Royal Engineers."

A puisne judgeship in India has been offered to
Mr. M'Mahon, SL.P, for Wexford, and declined. '1 he ap-
pointment is worth £5,000 a year, with £1,500 for an out-
fit, but the locality, Agra, is extremely ill-suited to Euro-
peans until they have been acclimatised by early and long
residence.

EXTRAORDINARY LEAP.—Mr. William Harrison,
of SVharram-le- Street, on the Yorkshire Wolds, when
hunting with I.o)rd Middleton's foxhounds at Settrington
on the 12th, jumped, on his famed chestnut gelding Gari-
baldi, the immense distance of 31
_feet over high posts and
rails.

LATEST NEWS.

PARIS, FRIDAY, DEC. 17.

The Moniteur of to-day announces that, in con-
sequence of the death of the Prince Consort, the
Emperor will go into mourning for 21 days.
The Moniteur also contains an Imperial decree,
disbanding the 103 d Regiment of the Line and the
Ist Regiment of the Foreign Legion.
Another decree deprives M. Laprade of his Pro-
fessorship of Literature and Fine Arts. A Minis-
terial report, which precedes the decree, explains
the motives of this resolution, It states that M.
Laprade published a piece of poetry in the Correa-
pondent containing injurious allusions to the Sove-
reign elected by universal suffrage, and to the nation
which he gloriously governs.

VIENNA, DEC. 17.

The Oesterreichische Zeitung of to-day announces
that the Budget will be communicated to both
Houses of the Reichsrath to-morrow.
Baron Schmerling will make the communication
in the name of the Emperor.

The Parliamentary Clubs have agreed upon the
course to be pursued in reference to the Budget.

The resolutions of the Reichsrath on financial
questions will be as legal as if all the provinces of
the Empire were represented.

These resolutions will, however, only refer to the

non-Hungarian provinces.

TURIN, DEC. 16.

The Movimento of to-day publishes a letter,
addressed by Garibaldi to the Genoa committee
which says :—" We are near the final solution of
the national question. Notwithstanding the ob-
stacles thrown in our way by enemies, by false
friends, and by the timid, whereby our progress
has been arrested, we must go on to the end. The
rivalry of individuals must cease. We must leave
it to history to pass judgment on our task. Let
us be still more closely united around the flag of
our Re Galantuomo. Let us mutually and solemnly
agree to meet on the last battlefield at the side of
our brave army, which will still find companions
worthy of its brotherly cooperation. All Is a token
of victory."

Garibaldi concludes by calling upon the commit-
tees of the Provedimento Society to lend him their

active co-operation.

BERLIN, DEC. 16.

The news of the death of his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort has awakened the greatest sym-
pathy among all classes of the Prussian people, and
has plunged the royal family into the deepest
mourning.

On receipt of the sad intelligence the King and
Queen paid a visit of condolence to the Crown
Princess.

The King also sent his aide-de-camp to Lord A.
Loftus to express his sympathy for the royal family
of England.
The Prussian Court will go into mourning for
four weeks.

It is rumoured that the Crown Prince will pro•
ceed to Windsor on Wednesday next, in order to
attend the funeral of the Prince Consort.

The Crown Princess, it is said, will be compelled
to renounce her intention of accompanying the
Crown Prince, on account of the state of her health.