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

Doors open at half past 6—Commence at 7.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.-
THIS EVENING, Grand Equestrian performances—
The Great Excitement for the Race Week only—The Rocky
Mountain Wonders on the Flying Tripez, 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
up at this Establishment), with
a Chorus of Forty -Voices, and on a s ale 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 mt.. 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 Comic Department comprises the following favourites •
—Mr. Marshall, Mr. Holingsworth, Mr. Blanchard, and.
numerous other artistes.
Be-appearance at these Concerts of Mrs. Lawrence.
Musical Director, Mr. JONGHMANS.

THE OXFORD,
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, ac., 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, Hollingsworth, 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.
THIS DA.T.—Morning, 7h. 54m.—Afternoon, Bh. 26m.
To-uomatow.-Morning, Bh. 58m.—Afternoon, 9h. 28m.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, MAY 31, 1561.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
72—highest since noon yesterday.
52—lowest this morning and during the night.
66—this day at Boon.

BAROMETER-30,04.
Wrlcu—N.-Westerly—fine breeze, and sunshiny weather.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1861.

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—
that 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 covered 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 vessels of a formidable
character, which he called floating batteries." Not
e, one" only M. CHEVALIER, observe! But "six"
iron-cased frigates, including La Gloire—
I, five', iron-cased gun-boats, and " four" vessels
vaguely designated as of a formidable cha-
racter ! Even that shews assuredly a very
notable difference. It is not " one"—but it
threatens to be " legion." Yet even 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 PAKING-
TON yesterday remarked, as the first instalment of
this his latest reliable information, that "while
there were two other frigates building at Toulon
which Admiral ELLIOT had not 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
Gloire, 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 carrying two deck/3

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. ?hey thus were of a
strength never heard of before. Fifty-two of these
guns, 26 oia 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. MICHEL
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 you 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
NAPIERS, " 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
to 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 DERBY 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 ; in,deed, if raised, it -will be answered en-
tirely under the influence of party feeling. Lord
DEBBY, 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
lEt 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
the subsidy ; when after all this the ships and
voyages were with one exception failures ; when
these and other facts are fairly considered, we do
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
Irishmen must
money to incompetent Directors.
beat 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 Era-