The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-01 00:00:00

. .
Doors open at half past 6—Commenee at 7.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.-
THIS EVENING, Grand Equestrian performances—
The Great Excitement for the Race Week only—The Rocky
Mountain Wonders en the Flying Trapez, the Ladder Feat,
and their extraordinary acrobat performances —Concluding
with the New Ballet, entitled " The Mill in an -Uproar," sup-
ported by M. Lauri and a numerous Corps de Ballet.
In active preparation, JOCKO, the Brazilian Ape.

CANTERBURY -HALL CONCERTS
AND FINE ARTS GALLERY.
EVERY EVENING,
Two Grand Selections from celebrated Operas, including
Verdi's new Opera, THE BAL MASQUE (first produced
in England and only to be heard at this Establishment), with
a Chorus of Forty Voices, and upon a sale unequalled at any
other Concerts.
Miss Russell, Miss Ernst, Mr. Greville, Mr. Herbert, Signor
Tivoli, Mr. Bernard ; the popular Solos on the Cornet-a-
piston, by Mr. Levy (the first performer of the day) ; the
Brothers Conrad (in an entirely new and original entertain-
ment on the double rope, not to be seen elsewhere); con-
tinued success of Mr. Wood and his talented little Son.

The Combo Department comprises the following favourites :
—Mr. Marshall, Mr. Hollingsworth, Mr. Blanchard, and
numerous other artistes.
Re-appearance at these Concerts of Mrs. Lawrence.
Musical Director, Mr. JONGHMANS.

TH E 0 X FORD,
6, OXFORD-STREET.
Mr. LEVY, undoubtedly the best performer of the day on
the Cornet-a-Piston—Grand Selections (on the most complete
scale) from Dinorah, Martha, Stradella, &c., and other vocal
and instrumental music, by Miss Russell, the Misses Stuart,
and Miss Ernst, Messrs. Charles Greville, Fornari, Kimber-
ley, Bernard, Beaumont, Bervon, Huish, Signor Tivoli, and
Mr. Henry Herbert, with full band and powerful and selected
chorus, conducted by Mr. F. Jonghmans.—The following
Comic talent, Messrs. W. Randall, J. Blanchard, W. H.
Wie-
land, llollingsworth, E. Marshall, Harvey, and French, and
the Brothers Conrad in their latest and best entertainment,
every evening. Admission, Hall, sixpence ; Balcony and
Stalls, one shilling-. Private Boxes, 10s. 6d.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TH/B DAY.—Morning, 7h. 54m.—..kftcrnoon, Bh. 26m.
To-monno-w.-Morning, Bh. 58m.—Afternoon, 9h. 28m.

TB WEA.THER,Strx OFFICE, MAY 31, urn.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
72—highest since noon yesterday.
52—lowest this morning and during the night.
66—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-30.04.
WIND—N.-Westerly—fine breeze, and sunshiny weather.

•
,-4,„;.%
)8,-;4. 4 iiii ‘,-,:..-7ii.,,-, '•
`,;_,,
• ,1.; g , - , ,-'
(it----f 7t;-:2?-•-7V -'', ~e
.. , .
,c7t,f rzt-,--- 'T'c --wp • 1.4 '
%..,i,,-.
-;t-r, ,k,_. s• 1 , .",,, r...--,,_ ~.,, ... 0
.....,___ b, .-- --.),,,, . -,--7,--- - .-4
•I---1,,,.4-L...#q.- l'" -- n iTDI,-, t , -
___ t..,-;Talk: , ~._ ... t ' ~
,;,,,--,...

THE SUN.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1881.

Last evening Sir JOHN PAKINGTON in the
House of Commons made a most remarkable State-
ment. It had reference to the extraordinary pro-
ceedings of the French Government, in the rapid
and systematic development of the imperial navy
of France. Sir JOHN PAKINGTON'S statement was
based upon no merely vague and idle rumours
coming to him anonymously. His information, he
informed the House frankly, he obtained directly
and avowedly from Admiral ELLIOT, an officer, as
he justly termed him, of high honour and character,
and of considerable experience. Admiral ELLIOT,
said Sir JOHN, had himself seen within the last
fortnight the facts of which he forthwith deemed it
to be his duty to apprise the ex-First Lord of the
Admiralty. Before entering into these particulars,
however, the latter, that is, Sir JOHN PAKINGTON,
recalls to the recollection of the House the amaz-
ing assurances given not long since to the
hon. member for Sunderland, by no less an autho-
rity than M. MICHEL CHEVALIER. These
assurances, however, being quite upon a par with
similar statements put forth before now by our
English MICHEL CHEVALIER, meaning thereby, of
course, the hon. member for Huddersfield. M.
MICHEL CHEVALIER then wrote, it may be remem-
bered not long since to the hon. member for Sun-
derland, " You have a full statement of our navy—
tbat we have only one iron• cased vessel, and that a
full year must elapse before we have any more ; and
yet, notwithstanding all this, you talk of France in-
vading England." Have we not heard just the
same sort of story again and again before now from
Mr. COBDEN, and his fellow-dreamers in the mild
delusion of Peace-at-any-Price ? So often have we
in truth that, remembering them, and reading the
above we can only exclaim, in utter amazement at
their own credulity—arcades ambo ! and so pass on
from the consideration of Mr. COBDEN and M.
CHEVALIER.

Now what have the facts of the case since then
proved in regard to the numbering up of the iron
ships in the French Imperial Navy ? Why, as Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON yesterday reminded the House
of Commons, the noble lord the Secretary to the
Admiralty had himself some time since told a very
different tale from that wonderful little microscopic
fib of M. MicHEL CHEVALIER. Lord CLARENCE
PAGET then stated, " that the French navy was not
what M. CHEVALIER represented it to be, but that
the French Government had at that time six
frigates coveted in armour, either built or being
built. La Gloire was one ; and he added that, ex-
clusive of the old batteries of the Russian war,
they had either built, or were building, five iron-
cased gun-boats and four vessls of a foridable
character, which heal cled floating batteriesm." Not
" one" only M. CIIEVALTER, observe! But "six"
La Gloire—
iron-cased frigates, including
" five" iron-cased gun-boats, and " four" vessels
vaguely designated as of a formidable cha-
racter ! Even that shows assuredly a very
notable difference. It is not " one"—but it
threatens to be " legion." Yet CVO] this is
not all. For yesterday, as we have intimated, Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON goes down to the House of Com-
mons, primed by Admiral ELLIOT, and carrying
with him, thus primed, the " latest intelligence."
Intelligence, remember, not gained by Admiral
ELLIOT simply upon hearsay—Admiral ELLIOT,
writing to Sir JOHN with the authority of an
actual eye-witness. Empowered thus to speak
with some degree of emphasis, Sir JOHN FAKING-
TON yesterday remarked, as the first instalment of

this his latest reliable infornaatiou, that " while
there were two other frigates building at Toulon

which Admiral ELLIOT had nest visited, there were
ten others, which Admiral ELLIOT had seen build-
ing, every one of which would be larger than La
Gloire, and every one of which also was intended
to be an improvement upon that vessel!" " Ten of

the new ships," said Sir JOHN, " would be like La

G:oire, of wood plated with iron ; and two of them
wholly of iron. Besides these 13 frigates, there
were two ships which had been described by the
noble lord as ships of a large size, and as
carrying 52 guns each, instead of which they
were really vessels of a most remarkable character.
They were line of-battle ships cerrying two decks

of guns upon each side, of a tonnage exceeding
4,000 tons, and but little inferior to that of the
Black Prince and Warrior. They were, however,
pierced for 100 guns each. They thus:were"' of a
strength never heard of before. Fifty-two of these
guns, 26 on each side, would be wholly covered
with armour, and it was intended that the rest
should be partially covered. These two ships were
to be called the Solferino and the Magenta, and it
was intended that they should be launched next
month (this present month of June), upon the anni-
versaries of the battles whose names they respec-
tively bore. Such was the strength of the French
armour-covered navy. They had these 15 ships;
and the nine mentioned by the noble lord, namely,
four formidable batteries and five gunboats—in all
TWENTY-FOUR !" Not simply "one," M. MIOHEL
CHEVALIER ! But—only one short of a round
quarter of a hundred ! A tolerably fair expansion,
that, in so brief an interval. Certainly—noting
this expansion—if M. CHEVALIER, like BOTTOM in
the play, can "roar yon like any sucking dove "
his Imperial Majesty, upon the other hand, can, so
to speak, coo in thunder ! L'empire c'est la paix.
Yes—so much so—that the imperial army is kept
up to the mark with its full war com-
plement, that the imperial navy is arming
rapidly with twenty - four iron - cased ships
of war, that Cherbourg has long since been com-
pleted, and that the frontiers of this peaceful empire
are bristling with guns, that France herself, by sea
and by land, is armed or arming cap-a-pie ! It
matters little to England, however, so long as her
administrators continue to do what they are now
doing namely, in sea phrase, " keeping
their weather-eye open," being, like the
NAFIERS, " Ready, aye Ready," or in other
words, semper paratus. If our Admiralty needs,
like the old sea-horses of mythology, both the spur
and the rein—it has a fair prospect of both now in
due time from the judicious control of the Legisla-
ture. And meanwhile the nation, even in regard
Ito the Admiralty, is not without its consolations.
It has a true-blue tar in the noble lord, the Admi-
ralty Secretary. And it has now for some time
been actively engaged in carrying out,
among other grand improvements in the Royal
Navy of England, one we ourselves have so long
advocated heart and soul in these columns—that is
to say, it is wisely, turn by turn, casing in iron its old
wooden war-ships, while, at the same time, new
steel frigates are being constructed, one after
another, with all the latest scientific improvements.
Our Imperial ally may therefore persist, with all
the energy he loves to manifest in this way, he
may still persist in numbering up his terrible war-
ships of steel and iron. But there is one thing
more he must contrive to accomplish beyond all
that, if he ever dreams of conquering England—he
must somehow contrive to man those formidable
metal fleets with salt water Jacks like our British
sailors ! Otherwise he is only pouring his treasures
into deep water. For say what they may about
the superiority of iron over wood—all the steel-clad
frigates in the world will be but of small avail un-
less manned by hearts-of-oak !

The Galway Packet Company, as the " Atlantic
Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company" is more
briefly termed in common discourse, may have
much to say against the misfortunes of the sea,
against fire and against ice, but it will surely be
a difficult task for it to meet the series of sins
of omission enumerated by the Postmaster-General.
The questionable origin of the Company must
clearly be left out of consideration. Whether
Lord DEBBY made a good or a bad, a political or a
commercial bargain with Mr. LEVER and his
associates, is a question which cannot now be
raised ; indeed, if raised, it will be answered en-
tirely under the influence of party feeling. Lord
DERBY, at least, acted as the agent of the British
public, and what our agent stipulated we are bound
honourably to fulfil ; and if failure to observe
stipulations by the contracting company have been
occasioned by accidents beyond human control, the
public would not deny that it ought to act the part
of a liberal, rather than a close-fisted bargain-
maker.

Unless, however, the material statements of the
Postmaster-General can be set aside, we do not see
how, with any decent regard to their financial
duties, the Government could do otherwise than it
has done. Mr. GLADSTONE is, we have no doubt,
but too willing, with the various items before him
so likely to curtail his surplus, not unwilling to
accept even £72,000 per annum, as an agreeable
relief to the Exchequer, but if the statements made
cannot be contradicted, he was not only authorised,
he was bound to demand the discontinuance of the
subsidy. When during eleven months since
the contract came into force it can be
said that " only two double voyages have
been performed by vessels built for the
purpose, as contemplated by the contract," when
at starting in June last, instead of " a sufficient
number of vessels," approved by the Government,
being ready, they had but one, the Connaught,
which failed to complete her first voyage—and
even she, though she got through the second
voyage, was burnt on the sixth ; when the inter-
vening voyages had to be made with ships not
equal to the requisitions of the contract ; when
the heavy penalties incurred were remitted, and
the indulgence of foregoing several voyages
\
was conceded ; when a second agreement was
entered into last January to recommence the ser-
vice with punctuality on the 26th of March, a fort-
night more being afterwards asked, and granted ;
when the Company had been warned that failure
under this agreement must incur the forfeiture of
wo
the subsidy ; when after all this tho ships and
voyagest
ese and other factsith n
ar one
h were failures;w
whened
o
exceptionfairly considered, ' not see how any Government could incur the re-
• sponsibility of not exercising its power on behalf
of the public service.

It may be, and is, a hard case for the share-
holders, but the hardship is one Constantly occur-
ing in this country when men have trusted their
money to incompetent Directors. Irishmen must

ben the loss as we have to do. If they can show

that there has been wilful mismanagement, or
that they have been duped by fraudulent represen-
tations, they may seek a legal remedy ; but the
taxpayers of the country cannot make good the
losses of Irish Directors more than of English Di-
rectors. A service from the nearest point in Ireland
to the nearest in America is probably a commercial
desideratum. We should be glad now of news
only five days old from America ; but we must have
the service, if we pay for it; and this is the con-
clusion of the whole matter.

It must not be imagined that because on Tuesday
evening the Thames Embankment Bill was thrown
out upon the motion for its second reading, that
therefore one of the old obtuse obstructions has
again been raised to retard the progress of that
scheme on its often-baulked endeavour to reach at
last its practical starting point—the period that
we now more confidently than ever believe must
soon arrive for its formal and regular inauguration.
The incident of Tuesday evening was simply the
throwing overboard of another project, not of THE
project for the construction of a Thames Em.

bankment. That the Thames shall at length be
embanked the House of Commons has now, some
time since, positively decided. The Government is
pledged to it. The City of London, so far as its
active co-operation in the enterprise is concerned,
regards the notion of this grand design with com-
placency. The people of London have made their
minds up to it. The enterprise is already virtually,
in truth, so far as the general consent can in any way
ensure its eventual realisation, un fait accompli.
There is the Royal Commission, moreover, ap-
pointed by the SOVEREIGN, at the instance of her
MAJESTY'S Government, to inquire into the whole,
hitherto problematic, question of aThames Embank-
ment ab initio—a commission still sitting periodi-
cally, and now about, very soon we believe, to issue
the report of its proceedings. Until that report of
the Royal Commission upon the subject of the
Thames Embankment shall have been published,
and laid before Parliament, it must be obvious to
any one that it is premature at this moment
for Parliament to adventure upon legislation
in this matter. Having waited so long, and
having at length witnessed the appointment
of this Commission of Inquiry, the first thing that
now remains for the Lords and Commons to do in
the matter is at any rate to wait until they can have
the benefit of these careful, systematic, and com-
prehensive investigations. The bill thrown out on
Tuesday was so little of a public measure, partook
so much of the character of a private enterprise,
that Mr. CowPER only described it literally when
he said it was simply " a proposal of a railway
company'called the London, Chatham, and Dover
Company, to take possession of that embankment
and make a railway upon it." They proposed to get
their capital by shares, partly by taking £400,000
out of the funds of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, and the remainder from a vote of
Parliament. Nay, as an indication of the charac-
. ter of the Bill, in its aspect as an undertaking set

on foot for the enrolment of a particular class of
individuals, the right hon. gentleman instanced the
clause upon which the last-mentioned proposition
was embodied, quoting it as quite a curiosity in
its way, as follows :—" It shall be lawful for her
Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests to
contribute, out of any money which Parliament
may vote for the purpose, and to apply such sum of
money as shall be sufficient to defray the expenses
of compensation." In other words, as the Chief
Commissioner of Public Works put it with toler-
able distinctness before the House, " The Govern-
ment was to buy the land, and give the company as
much as they wanted for their railway—a most
convenient mode of proceeding for the company ;
but certainly the House and the Executive Govern-
ment ought to have something to say in the mat-
ter." It will be allowed, surely, that Mr. CowPER
had good and valid reason for adding that " If this
clause were allowed to be passed, it might afterwards
be quoted against the House in a very injurious
manner"—and for moving, in consequence, as an
amendment, that the Bill be read " that day six
months" instead of instanter. There was doubtless
a great deal of truth, at the same time, in what was
said by Mr. AYRTON immediately after this as to
the advantage of combining in these public works
private enterprise, or rather the enterprise of inde-
pendent companies, with the responsibility of a
scheme carried out directly with Government aid
and under Government superintendence. It was
certainly a good case in point when the hon. gen-
tleman reminded the House that while Westminster
Bridge, under Government superintendence, had,
at an immense outlay for years past, been slowly
in course of construction, Victoria Bridge had been
built by a railway company at a cost of no more
than £95,000, and within an interval of only ono
twelvemonth. Still, we want no railway company to
be picking and choosing its own ground upon what
must, at the best, turn out to be the somewhat re-
stricted breadth of these Thames Embankments.
As Lord FERMOY justly remarked on Tues-
day, the question of a Thames Embankment
is one of such considerable importance that it al-
most amounts to the character it does in one sense
really and truly amount to the dignity of a national
undertaking. The Government then must clearly
see in the very first instance that the public shall
get the lion's share of advantage in every way
from whg.tever scheme of embankment may even-
tually be adopted under the advice of the Royal
Commissioners. For the report of that commission
we are now looking in eager expectation—all the
more eagerly from the recollection that the session
is already so far advanced.