The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-14 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Bnckstone.
THIS ETENING the performances will commence with
THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE.
With THE CONTESTED ELECTION.
After which, OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND.
And :HALLOWE'EN.
Commence at 7.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborough
THIS EVENING, THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN
EGGS.
After which, A SCHOOL FOR COQUETTES. Misses
ilwasborongh, Oliver, and Lavine.
Followed by THE VERY LATEST EDITION OF THE
LADY OF LYONS.
Commence at 7 o'clock.

CAIgTER HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERYBURY erdi EVENING.—The Music of V's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
verts), the extraorAnary Violin Performances of the cele-
brated Infant DELEPIERRE FAMILY, and the usual
Vocal Concert.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfleld, 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.

7 - _
THE WEATHER —SUN OFFICE, SEPTEMBER 14.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
62—highest since noon yesterday.
48—lowest this morning and during the night.
56—this day at noon.
BARomwrza-29.50.
Wtm, Northerly ; fresh, with dull rainy weather,
This is the coldest day we have had this season.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 2h. 58m.—Afternoon, 3h. 12nt
To-Mosso-w-Morning, 3h. 27m.—Afternoon, 3h. 42m

We this day present our readers with the melan
choly details of the late attack on the Chinese forts
at the mouth of the Peiho River. It will at once be
seen that the attack was as daring as it was disas-
trous. On Monday we stated our suspicious that
some European or American guile was at the
bottom of the defence. We now have great plea-
sure in doing a bare act of justice to our Cousins
across the Atlantic, by withdrawing the supposition
that they could have pandered to Chinese cunning
or be parties in such nefarious transactions. No.
The guilt or complicity lies all at the door of
Russia, whose double-dealing policy it is to offer
the hand of friendship in open day, while she plots
in the dark to insure the destruction of those who
trust in her professions. It now turns out that
Russians were seen on the battlements—not only
seen, but heard to call out for more powder to over-
whelm the gallant hearts who were struggling
against terrific odds, and almost engulfed in mud—
up to their knees—aye, and to their very hearts,
while showers of destruction were pouring down
on their devoted heads!
The mouth of the river was barricaded after the
fashion of Sebastopol, while the shallowness of the
water on either side the stream prevented our heavier
ships from approaching the forts. However, in
spite of all these complicated difficulties whatever
heroism could attempt was done, and the capture
of the forts would have been achieved but for
the obstacles interposed, and the small number
of our forces. Admiral HOPE behaved as a gal-
lant sailor always does. He was everywhere.
Notwithstanding his being wounded early in the
action, he shifted his flag front one ship to another
always courting the hottest place in the battle,
and directing the energy of his men in the most
chivalrous manner. Nor were the sterling spirit
of his officers less conspicious than his own.
Wherever enterprise could best be displayed there
they were cheering on their eager companions in
the very face of death, amidst dangers unheeded.
It is, indeed, a sad pity that such heroic gallantry
should have failed in accomplishing its purpose.
But, after such desperate resistance on the part of
the Russian-Mongol forces, and the loss of so many
brave men, it was hopeless to continue the attack
with a force so inadequate, seeing that a whole
army estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000, or even
40,000 men, were amassed behind the ramparts.
To Russia belongs the credit of this outrageous
act ~of guile. Russian perfidy now bids fair to
rival Chinese chicanery ; but cunning, like all other
machinations, will find its due reward when honesty
steps forth in its straightforward daring and takes
the bull by the horns, We have much to settle
with these same Russians before another year passes
over. They may hate us for our manliness in fight-
ing our way in China, and for opening the trade
with the inside barbarians, not for our own benefit
alone, but for our strange generosity in letting other
nations—and Russia among them—reap the advan-

tage of our labours. Men often hate others as
much for goodness conferred as for benefits with-
held.. And Russia finds a kindred spirit after this
fashion in the Chinese, who act the dog in the man-
ger with devilish sympathy of soul.
That a prompt and fearful retribution must be
taken by England and France, or by England
single-handed, is most imperative, both on account
of the treacherous conduct of the Chinese, and as a
signal punishment in revenge for the loss of so
many brave men. This time it must be no bay's
play, nor paper-treaty ,;oquetting with a set of in-
famous thimbleriggers, but a bona fide capture of
Pekin, Nankin, and all the principal places assail-
able by land and water. We did wrong at the out-
set in giving up Chusan, which commands the
mouth of the great river leading to Nankin. We
should have held that as a hostage or security for
the good behaviour of the Chinese in all time, for
they understand or respect nothing but force. And
force they shall have to their heart's content, or
more properly, to their heart's dismay and utter
confusion. We must see that the sycee silver be
this time composed of pure metal.

CPur foreign news are more problematical than
real. The journey of the modern Ulysses to
Biarritz is shrouded in mystery worthy of the
occasion. Its purport may be guessed without
much difficulty. It is simply to beg the question
of the Duchies for Austria. King LEOPOLD is
married to Austria as to England, and lat-
terly to France. He hopes
to win over
the conqueror of Solferino to espouse the
cause of the Bourbon Dukes by re-seating
they on their forsaken thrones in spite of the
wishes of the people. LEOPOLD is a wary Prince,
with, more head than heart. All his ambition has
been ,concentred in political match-making--but
we int her suspect he will find his match in the
presen t instance rather too much) for -him.
NAPOL EON is not to be caught by German
sausage s, however spicey they may taste. No.
King L FOPOLD, though backed by a large and very
imposiniA • assumption, may find out that Emperors,
at least one of them, are not to be taken in by
German ;flummery. Indeed, we cannot help won-
dering at the cool audacity of the tco lucky King
in vent xt ing, on the strength of his relative con-
nectiow ;, 10 seduce or turn aside the Emperor from
his pur poce for the benefit of a set of runaway
despots from the just indignation of those whom
they ha d first betrayed, and then fought against
thei r de. liverers. But some people are spoiled by

too much good fortune, and presume that there's no
end to good luck. Wait a bit. It may so turn ou±
some of these untowards days that the EMPEROR
may find it convenient to return the King's visit at
the Palace of Laeken, and ask him civilly to turn
out. Verily there is too much of this family
manoeuvring • in royal circles, and too little
respect for the rights and liberties of the people.
Everything is sacrificed to family compacts,
while mystery—mystery is the order of the day.
We cannot but wonder how long this hocus-
pocus intriguing is expected to last. King Time
can tell—and will in due season.

It is not so impossible—" Out:of the Nettle Dan-
ger to pluck the Flower Safety "—in the instance
of this terrible casualty onboard the Great Eastern.
To the Messrs. BOLTON and WATT ought, at once, to
be entrusted the reconstruction of the two paddle
funnels, upon the wise and cautious and rational
plan upon which they have already constructed the
giant funnels in connection with the screw engines
and boilers. Let it be remembered that they had

nothing whatever to do with the original paddle
funnels—one of which was so disastrously shatterod

by that terrific explosion on board the Great
Eastern, at about six o'clock on Friday evening,
when the Leviathan was steaming majestically past
the coast off Dungeness. Messrs. BOLTON and
WATT had not only nothing whatever to do in con-
nexion with those rashly-constructed funnels, at-
tached to the paddle engines and boilers, but it is
now remembered that they resolutely " refused to
round their funnels, or attach to their engines
the screw engines— that outer feed-pipe casing
(" rising from the boilers to about 8 ft. above the
under deck "), the casing filled with cold water to
cool the saloons where the funnels passed through
them—the bursting of which easing (from the
generation of steam within it) was the cause, on
Friday night, of this deplorabla catastrophe.

" The water," writes the most lucid of all the
narrators of the calamity, " is pumped in at the top
of the casing while cold, and gradually passing
down into the space round the furnaces, becomes
gently heated, when it is discharged into the
boilers by means of an ordinary stop-cock." And
the same eye-witness of the dreadful incident of
Friday evening adds—" A plan by which so much
coolness is supposed to be gained in the berths and
saloons, and so much fuel saved by the ample sup-
ply of hot water to the boilers, promises such obvi-
ous advantages, that for the last 10 years attempts
of every kind have been made to carry out the prin-
ciple successfully on board most of the sea-going
steamers." Experiment after experiment of this
ingenious but perilous plan, however, has, during
these ten years past, proved incontestibly the dan •
ger by which it was invariably accompanied ; in-
somuch that we are told, " in but too many cases,"
the funnels, so constructed, have done precisCly
what the funnel of the Great Eastern did on such
a colossal scale on Friday evening." As reason-
able men, therefore, as men guided by common
sense, from a peril exposed to view, again and
again, by the glare of actual experience, Messrs.
BOLTON and WATT, the eminent engineers, deter-
minedly set their minds against the adoption of this
most hazardous plansin the treatment of the screw
funnels. In spite of their opposition, however, the
experimental scheme—for failure after failure, still
constituted it, to the very last, nothing better than
" experimental "—was applied, as we know now
only too well, to the paddle funnels. By reason of
which five unhappy firemen have " died the death''
under the most lamentable circumstances—another
poor fellow (also believed to have been fearfully
scalded) having been driven in panic over the side
of the vessel, beaten to death, as he fell, by the re-
volving paddle-wheel, and his remains drifted off,
beyond recovery, in the waters of the Channel.
Lamentable though the calamity undoubtedly is
in itself, it has brought to light several facts fraught
with encouragement to every one interested, directly
or indirectly, in this magnificent undertaking. The
Great Eastern has now passed through the most
tremendous test of her strength that could have
been applied to her colossal framework, and she has
passed through that test triumphantly. Her engines
have been subjected to the most fearful concussion
with perfect impunity. The whole force of this
terrible explosion has been confined, indeed, to the
compartinent in which it occurred, the longitudinal
and transverse bulkheads resisting the shock en-
tirely. Apait from the good ship herself, the offi-
cers in command ,of her appear to have acted, upon
that abrupt and terrific emergency, in a manner
worthy of the highest admiration. The conspicu-
ous 7art at once taken by the gallant,
and we may certainly now add without
one particle of exaggeration, the heroic Captain,
redounds to his honour, and can have been read by
few without emotion. Perhaps the most graphic
and animated account of Captain HARRISON'S con-
duct, upon the instantaneous occasion of ihe explo-
sion, is the one given in the Daily News—where it
is thus related by our contemporary : " A foolish
passenger," writes the correspondent, " had raised
a cry of the boats !' and assisted by some of the
sailors, was madly attempting to let them down.
In one moment all would have been lost, for the
rush to the boats would have been universal, and
hundreds would have been drowned, whilst the
noble ship would have been left to certain destruc-
tion. But the voice of the captain was heard like
a trumpet, calling out, `Men to your duty, officers
to your posts, give me a rope, and let six men
follow me.' The effect of this short address was
electric. In an instant he had slid down the rope
into the saloon, followed by his brave boatswain
HAWKINS, and six volunteers were not long wanted
for the forlorn hope. One after another he dashed
open the gilded panels, but the splendid apartments
had, strange to say, only two inhabitants, his own
little daughter EDITH and her pet dog. It was
the reward of his gallantry, that his own child
should be thus the one to be so providentially
saved." Few but will cry " Honour to the gallant
Skipper !" as they read on in the Times' narrative
that Captain HARRISON merely gave orders to have
his little girl passed up through the skylight, and
continued his search past all that splendid rubbish
of the ladies' cabin, further and further, down into
the actual scene of the disaster. Reverting to the
vivid description of the Daily News' correspondent,
we read there—" Mr. ATKINSON, the pilot, a little
unpretending man, stood at his post on the bridge,
and, undismayed by the loud explosion, the de-
scending fragments, the suffocating chasm, or the
yawning gulf immediately beneath him, and in the
firm conviction that all the boilers would go in
succession, continued to direct the movements of
the ship as calmly as if he were only turning her
into a harbour. Some frightened fool shouted,
ATKINSON, come down and save yourself,' but the
gallant veteran replied with grave nonchalance,
I'm no engineer, I'm a pilot, I've charge of the
ship, and Pll stick to her r " Here, as it
theworthy g
ship and of her gallant Captain. While
the officer
then at the wheel—Mr. SEwELL
—was, in
his
turn,
worthy of all three, being, as we learn, " equally
self-possessed." " I saw his tall figure through the
smoke," continues the same eyewitness,
working
and turning the wheel with the regularity of clock-
' work." Public confidence in the Great Eastern

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THE SUN.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1859.