The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-26 00:00:00

PRET rSUNPLONDON, MONDAY:-E'VENING, DECEMBER 26, 1859,

no feelings—feelings, and proud, but too often
ill-deserved promotion, only belong to men in high
place. Your old Admirals and Tartar Captains
are the best men in the service, if we credit
their own modest account of themselves. But
your able seaman, who has so fearessly faced the
storm, and gallantly weathered it too, is only a
subject for the caprice of his officer and the tender
mercies of the cat-o'-nine•tails. The very men
who have merited well of their country are con-
sidered but as fitting slaves for the lash of the
commander when he " gets them into blue water."
Really the forbearance of men who have so often
risked life and limb to obtain promotion for
their officers are surely worthy of better treat-
ment than that accorded to their valour and
patriotism. For one patriotic officer we suspect
there are thousands of the true blue tar. But
the successful exertions of the many arc too coolly
concentrated into a " puff of glory" for the benefit
of the few. Whatever merit has been achieved by
the seamen is appropriated by the officer who as-
sumes all the honour, while Jack is left to rumi-
nate over the pleasure of his hard knocks, as a
reward for his valour,
We have for many a long year and oft called
public attention to this subject—to appeal to those
in power were as idle as it was useless. But
now that the exigencies of the country are
pressing trumpet-tongued on our national sal-
vation, and that some mere attention must be
directed to better the condition of our hearts of
oak—why, even the Admiralty begin to feel that
the times of cruelty and hard:discipline are past,
and that justice must at length be awarded to
those from whom it has been so long denied, but it
is now allowed to be due.
On this subject. we have much pleasure in copy-
ing the following" from the Times" :
" The prisoners from the Princess Royal are to
be released to-morrow. It is a pity that, since the
favour was to be granted, this course had not been
taken on Saturday last. There is somewhat of
churlishness, even at the moment of grace, in the
refusal to release the men for Christmas-day. The
authorities have, no doubt, been led astray by their
love of arithmetical symmetry. The sentence has
been commuted from imprisonment for three months
to imprisonment to one month, and it happened un-
fortunately that the month did not expire till the
second day after Christmas-day. With this slight
expression of regret that one drop more had not
been added to the cup of grace, we are bound to
add that this decision will be received with univer-
sal satisfaction throughout the country. The sen-
tence was a harsher one than the offence de-
served, even if it had been fully made out. It was
felt, besides, that the Port Admiral had not been
altogether free from blame, even though the men
were in the wrong. As the remission of the sen-
tence, however, implies that the men had been too
rigorously dealt with, we are not anxious to re-open
any discussion which might result in censure of
the course adopted by Admiral Bowles. No doubt
he, too, has been on bread and water ever since the
sentence was passed, and will now be restored to
more genial fare. The whole affair was one grand
blunder from beginning to end, and now that it has
been put to rights as far as may be it is best forgot-
ten, save in so far as it may prove a profitable warn-
ing for the future. If, on the one hand, It be true
that the existence of a naval force which is not
amenable to discipline could not be tolerated for
one moment, on the other, our naval officers—espe-
cially our old Admirals—must be prepared to re-
oognise the fact that the condition of the Navy is
very different from what it was some years ago.
The delusion of hoping to maintain order in ships
of war by means of the cat-o'-nine-tails and terror-
ism must be dismissed from their thoughts as a
thing of the past. The simple result of such an
endeavour would be that our ships of war would
lie idle in our ports for want of hands. A good and
able seaman can command his own service in the
market of the world, and he will not consent to be
flogged and imprisoned when he can obtain better
wages elsewhere without a slight drawbacks. There
is nothing for us but to look the truth boldly in the
face ; if we would have the pick of the market in
the way of seamen for our naval defence we must
offer the most favourable terms of engagement.
The conditions of service should be made such that
dismissal alone would be a punishment, and a naval
officer be able to keep his men in order without
scored backs and county gaols. If, as in the pre-
sent case, the men misconducted themselves just as
their term of service was at an end, let it be re-
membered against them exactly as such an occur-
rence would be remembered against a discharged
servant. We most heartily rejoice that there is
now an end of this series of mistakes, that the pri-
soners will he set free to-morrow from Winchester
Gaol, and that Admiral Bowles will be enabled to
spend his Christmas week without the reflection
that 108 seamen are suffering to expiate what was
at least partially his error."

LATEST NEWS.

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY NIGHT.

The steamship Europa, from Boston on the 14th,
and Halifax 16th, arrived at Queenstown this morn-
ing. She brings no specie.
The steamship America arrived at Halifax on
the 16th.

The House of Representatives was still unorga-
nised. No Speaker was yet elected ; and it was
quite uncertain when the organisation would be
effected and the President's message delivered.
Californian dates to the 7th ult., and 1,900,000
dols. in specie had reached New York.

General Scott had returned by the steamer.
News unimportant.

Affairs at San Juan are without change.
Affairs in the South Pacific were in a very dis-
tracted state.

General Blanco, of Bogota, had been assassinated
by his brother.
In Peru civil and foreign wars were imminent.
General Castilla had left Callao for Guayaquil with
10,000 men and 14 vessels.
The British Consul at Havannah had made a
return showing that 10,000 Africans had been
landed in Cuba within three months.

The King of the Sandwich Islands had abdi-
cated in favour of his son.
VERA CRUZ, Nov. B.—The victories of Miramon
were confirmed, and it was thought probable that
Miramon and Robles would attaek Vera Cruz.

Her Majesty's ship Amethyst had captured three
Mexican vessels, and some firing had taken place.
The Amethyst was blockading the port, in order to
obtain reparation for the imprisonment of the Bri-
tish consul.

HAVANNAH, Dec. 10. Sugar unchanged.
Freights dull. Exchange on London 161 prem.
NEW YORK, Dec. 13.—Money market was with-
out ',material change. Stock market was steady.
Sales of New York Central shares, at 80: ; Reading
shares, 40k; Erie shares, 91 ; Illinois Central shares,
59. Cotton was firm. Sales of the day 3,000 bales, at
unchanged rates. Breadstuffs and provisions were
without material alteration. Produce generally
steady.
NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 13.—Cotton in this market
is stiffer, but not quotably higher. Sales to-day
10,500 bales ; ditto, three days, 31,002. Receipts,
41,000.

MOBILE, Dec.l3.—Cotton easier. Sales to-day
3,000 bales.

The Halifax latest was not landed at Queenstown,

The City of Manchester had also arrived at
Queenstown from New York on the 10th. Her
advices are anticipated by those of the Europa.

THE INVASION OF ENGLAND.

TO WHE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—Mr. Horace Moule, in giving a lecture
lately at Dorchester, on the invasion of England,
alluded to the collision between Carthage and
Rome. Rome, he said, was the France of those
days, and Carthage was the England. Yes, in
those days Carthage was, as England now is—rich,
commercial, and confident in the command of the
seas ; but the grave question moots itself, is Eng-
land's present policy calculated to preserve and
maintain her maritime supremacy ? I fear not;
and I feel convinced that every practical, honest,
thinking man will agree with me when I say that
England is seized with the madness of Carthage,
so far as her maritime power is concerned ; her
eyes are shut to the vast progress of the French
navy and the French mercantile marina. We may
build ships of war, but the day is fast approaching
when we shall have no merchant sailors to man
them. Why? will be the question asked by thou-
sand■ of heavily-taxed Englishmen. Here is the
answer. By Act 12 and 13 Vic., cap. 29, England
repealed her old navigation laws—or, in other
words, she gave permission to ships of all nations
to trade with her and her colonies upon the same
footing and privileges as her own ships; but other
nations persist to this day in excluding British
vessels from their direct trade. Hence the reason
for the enormous increase, equal to nine to one Eng-
lish, that has taken place in all foreign mercantile
navies during the last ten years. By Act 16 and
17 Vic., cap. 131, British ships are allowed to be
manned entirely by foreign seamen. I think these
two Acts will prove that England is seized
with the madness of Carthage. For the sake
of £ s. d. we are sacrificing the honour and
safety of this sea-girt isle. England's main
bulwark—her mercantile marine—is fast going to
destruction. When the British sailor's avocation is
gone, can we depend on those foreigners whom we
are encouraging by our free trade nonsense, or
rather one sided trade, in supplanting our own
shipping in every quarter of the globe ? Can we,
I say, depend on them to stand by us in the hour
of danger ? Are not France, Russia, and other
maritime powers intently watching the effects of our
shortsighted liberality, in the unconditional repeal
of those navigation laws which made England the
mistress of the seas? Compare our present policy
with what it was in 1660, when the celebrated
Navigation Act was passed to remedy the evil of
our merchants employing foreigners, because their
freight was at a lower rate than that of the English
ships, whilst our own shipping was rotting in har-
bour, and our sailors, for want of employment at
home, went on board Dutch ships. In consequence
of the scarcity of British able seamen in 1859, it is
found necessary to put the country to a great
expense for the establishing of a reserve of Royal
Naval Volunteers ; bud where are the men to come
from ? Since the apprentice system was abolished,
and foreign seamen have been allowed to earn and
eat the bread of English sailors, the number of
efficient able seamen in our merchant service has
been reduced by tens of thousands.
May the people of England see the fallacy of our
present policy before we have given to the foreigner
that which we may soon find it too difficult to avert
—the supremacy of the seas.—l am, Pa.,
Dec. 23, 1859. A PROVINCIAL.

L.dDY FBAAKLIN TO CAPTAIN
MCLINTOCE.

Capt. M'Clintock's narrative of the discovery of
the fate of Sir John Franklin was published on
Saturday. It contains the letter placed in Capt.
McClintock's hands by Lady Franklin, containing
the only. instructions that he could prevail upon
her to give him :
" Aberdeen, June 29, 1857.
"My dear Captain M'Clintock,— You have
kindly invited me to give you instructions,' but I
cannot bring myself to feel that it would beright in
me in any way to influence your judgment in the
conduct of your noble undertaking ; and, indeed, I
have no temptation to do so, since it appears to
me that your views are almost identical with those
which I had independently formed before I had the
advantage of being thoroughly possessed of yours.
But had this been otherwise, I trust you would have
found me ready to prove the implicit confidence I
place in you by yielding my own views to your more
enlightened judgment; knowing, too, as I do, that
your -whole heart also is in the cause, even as my
own is. As to the objects of the expedition and their
relative importance, I am sure you know that the
rescue of any possible survivor of the Erebus
and Terror would be to me, as it would be to you,
the noblest result of our efforts. To this object I
wish every other to be subordinate; and next to it
in importance is the recovery of the unspeakably
precious documents of the expedition, public and
private, and the personal relics of my dear husband
and his companions. And lastly, I trust it may,
be in your power to confirm, directly or inferen-
tially, the claims of my husband's expedition to the
earliest discovery of the passage, which, if Dr. Rae's
report be true (and the government of our country
has accepted and rewarded it as such), these mar-
tyrs in a noble cause achieved at their last ex-
tremity, after five long years of labour and suffer-
ing, if not at an earlier period. lam sure you
will do all that man can do for the attainment of
all these objects; my only fear is that you may
spend yourselves too much in the effort; and you
must, therefore, let me tell you how much dearer
to me even than any of them is the preservation of
the valuable lives of the hale band of heroes who
are your companions and followers. May God in
his great mercy preserve you from all harm amidst
the labours and perils which await you, and re-
store you to us in health and safety as well as hon-
our. As to the honour I can have no misgiving.
It will be yours as much if you fail (since you
may fail in spite of every effort) as if you succeed ;
and,be assured that,under any and all circumstances
whatever, such is my unbounded confidence in you,
you will possess and be entitled to the enduring
gratitude of your sincere and attached friend,
"i4Ng