The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-27 00:00:00

Doors open at half past 6—Commence at 7.

CANTERBURY-HALL CONCERTS!!
Westminster-road.
Proprietor.. C. Morton.
A Grand Selection from Verdi's new Opera,
IL CORSARO,
furls opera has never been produced in this or any other
country, except at these Concerts), having met with that de-
cided success which charactise,‘ the most popular works of
this great Master, will be performed EVERY EVENING ;
together with a Selection from LA FIGLIA DEL REGGI-
MENTO, by Donizetti,
Principal Artistes—siiss ttussell, Madame Maria, Miss
Tyrrell, Mr. li. llerbert, Signor Tivoli, IT. Drummond, and
C. W. Bernard. Director, Mr. F J311211E12 ills.
lii comic Department comprises Messrs. E. Marshall, A.
B. Hollingsworth, .1. Blanchard, F. Bell, W. H. Welland, and
the Brothers Conrad.
John 311trtin's Three celebrated Pictures will remain on
view a short time longer in the Fine Arts Gallery of the
Establishment,

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, P.h. rm.—Afternoon, 3h. 38m.
To-mormow.-Morning, 4h. Om.—Afternoon, 4h. 26m.

THE WEATHER.—Strx OFFICE, Arnu. 27, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHAM
61—highest since noon yesterday.
36—lowest this morning and during the night.
35—this day at noon; a range of 26 points since yes
terday.

- BAROMETER-30 ' IS.
WlND—North-Easterly—fresh ; with very cold, rainy
weather. It has been snowing during the night. A shower
of sleet about noon.

Nw-t,
4-fV. 4,1%, ;•,„
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THE SUN.

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1861

In answer to a variety of questions—particu-
larly in reference to our Foreign Policy—Lord
PALMERSTON spoke out last evening in the British
House of Commons in a manner eminently worthy
of himself, of his country, of his audience, and be
it added also of her Britannic MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. It used to be said of ono of the ablest Ad-
ministrators England has ever possessed—a states-
man happily still living, still a member of the
House of Commons, but in spite of that already
some time since virtually retired from public life,
at any rate as an Administrator—it used to be said of
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, that when an awkward ques-
tion was put while he-(Sir JAMES GRAHAM) was in
Office as the Lieutenant and Fidus Achates of Sir
RotERT during the existence of the PEEL Admini-
stration, the responsibility of reply was ever adroitly
thrust upon the Baronet of Netherby. And this
simply—because Sir JAMES GRAHAM could contrive,
better than any other Minister of the Crown open
the Treasury Bench, to rise in reply, to talk for any
given time, with the utmost show of plausibility,
with the most charming display of candour and
frankness—resuming his seat amidst the plaudits
of his hearers, amidst the applause even of his
interrogators, without even having answered one
syllable of the question actually put to him Sueh
certainly is not the kind of merit appertaining in
this matter to Lord PALMERSTON. Question after
question was addressed toiliim last evening point-
blank, and, one after another, these point-
blank inquiries were answered by him quite as
explicitly. It is the one course we recognise, we
believe, we feel, to be in any way possible with
Lord PALMERSTON—he of whom the Poet of "King
ARTflun." wrote so many years ago—
" Ile rides to war no vizor to his helm !"

Take as an illustration of Lord PALMERSTON'S
frankness in this way in reply—as an exact case in
point—the answer given by him last evening, in
the midst of a number of other replies equally out-
spoken, namely, the response to the explanation be-
sought by Lord ROBERT CECIL in regard to the
outrages inflicted at Bonn by the Prussian officials
upon Captain MACDONALD. Could anything be
more admirable as falling (in reference to such
outrages as those) from the lips of England's Prime
Minister? "I do not think any expression," re
marked the noble Viscount at the very outset Oi
this resolute reply—" I do not think any expres-
sion which has,. been used by the noble lord was
too strong to stigmatise the conduct of the Prussian
officials." Adding—(we give the whole of his reply)
—" It is not for us here to bandy vituperations
with Mr, MULLER or anybody else ; the whole pro-
ceeding was of a most unfriendly character ; and
I must say I am astonished that a Government
like that of Prussia, which is represented in its
foreign department by a distinguished nobleman
who had -resided many years in England and must
know the feelings and habits of the people of this
couutry—l am astonished that the Prussian Go-
vernment, looking, as it was bound to look, to the
circumstances of the case, should not have assumed
a different tone." Let the Prussian Foreign
Minister take what follows to heart : Lord PAL-
31ERC-TON continuing thus :—" If a similar case had
occurred in England we should have condemned
the conduct of the officials, and made every apology
and satisfaction. I think that, looking over
Europe, and casting our eyes over its political
relations, the Prussian Government has every
motive to conciliate the favour of the English
nation. I, therefore, say that in this case the
conduct of- the Prussian Government was a fault
as well as a:criaie. It is impossible to demand
from the Prussian Government compensation in
this matter, because we are told by the law officers
of the Crown that however unjust or arbitrary their
proceedings were, they were still within the limits
of the Prussian law. The event, h)wever, was to
b 0 lamented •
; it is impossible for the British Go
ver
nolent to press any demand upon the Prussian
Cove
I think
I.nillent when such was the state of the law.
however, a warning should be given to
the Peeet,,lati Government, because when they
as the
y do know, that universal indignation
which has been expressed against this proceeding
by every British subject, and the discussions it has
given rise to in the newspapers and in this House,
I think smell a proceeding"
observed Lord PALMER-
sToN in conclusion, " is not likely to happen again."
And so the matter ended—as far as the House
of Commons has anything to do in reference to•
the outrages inflicted by those 'wretched little
Prussian authorities at Bonn upon Our gallant
countryman. And not only, let ns say, in refer-
ence to those subordinate officials, but in regard
also tr, the chiefs of the Berlin Government. After
Wiaßt took place yesterday in the British "" of

Cotamons, after the words that fell last evening
from the lips of the Prime Minister of England,
the Prussian Government can, in this particular,
labour under no further misapprehension whatever.
The incident we have here particularised, we can•
not but repeat, on Cosing these remarks, is worthy
of England, is worthy of Lord PALMERSTON.

There is a story of two lads on board a man-of-
war who were playing the game of " follow your
leader"—suddenly one of them lost his h.)ld, and
was falling from a great height down to the deck
and almost certain death ; in the act of falling, how-
ever, he caught a rope and saved himself,oanhdi; with-
outt a moment's hesitation, looked up com-
panion and:shouted, Follow yourlbeealdieevrer in the
The
other, it need not be added, did not
possibility of repeating such an exploit with im.mu-
nity from fatal consequences. Will those who are'
nowtie game of secession and coercion in
America
equally wise ? Or will they try again
playingb e
whether they can cannonade and bombard each
other for two days without loss of life.
The very full details which at the last moment
we were able to publish yesterday of the attack
and surrender of Fort Sumter, confirm what was
only reasoning and probable conjecture when
we wrote our remarks, that no one on either
side was killed! After a bombardment and
cannonade between a fort and seven or
eight batteries, after the firing of above two
thousand cannon balls and bombs at each other,
there was no bloodshed ! Chimneys were knocked
down, embrasures were destroyed, combustible
buildings were fired, smaller magazines were
blown up, but no one on either side was killed
Spectators from a safe distance gazed on the sport ;
as, at the siege of Antwerp, Englishmen went
over and sat astride on housetops to witness the
fight from a safe distance ; and it would seem
that humanity needed not to revolt at the spectacle,
for it was artillery practice only—it was not an
affair of life and death. Well if all the quarrels
of the world, as well as in America, could be settled
in this way. It is a very reasonable one. The
best shot's the winner ! Why not ? Justice
would be done quite as certainly by giving
the decision in favour of the best marksmen, as by
giving it for the stronger and richer of two nations.
It is of CURRAN, we believe, the tale is told, that
having received a challenge, he sent back the pro-
posal that a man should be chalked on a barn-door,
and that whichever of them hit it first or oftenest
should apologise to the other. There is as much
philosophy and equity at least in this, as in appealing
to that Supreme Court which the folly of our race
has made the ultimate arbiter in international dis-
putes ; only it needs two parties equally philosophi-
cal or equitable. CURRAN'S would-be antagonist
laughed, met him, and shook hands. But if the
challenging nation persists in a trial of gunnery,
not on inanimate matter only, but on the living men
who are behind it, why there is nothing for it but
to fight it out. It is not at the option of one side
only whether it will appear in the court of war.
Were the New Englanders a little nearer the
days of their Puritan ancestors, they would cer-
tainly, and with most undoubting faith, believe
that the bloodless defeat and victory at Charleston
were the special work of Providence. They would
say as the Hebrew Monarch did, " The LORD hath
kept nre from coming to shed blood," and they
would see in it a lesson to both sides. As a mighty
triumph by the little band in the fort, would have
taken as a commission from Heaven to go forth
and utterly destroy or subjugate " those sinners
the Southern Amalekites," so a tremendous fire,
destroying all around without mischief to life on
either side, would have been interpreted as
a warning to pause before they came to
actual bloodshed. We much fear the modern
unbelieving descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers
will not be so ready at peaceful interpreta-
tions. They are the beaten party. Their officer
has surrendered; without the slightest impeach-
ment of his military honour, it is true; but as
matters now stand, the populous rich and ener-
getic North has been beaten by the despised
South. \lre fear it is not in Northern nature to
sit down by such an open defeat. The merry
bells of Charleston which welcomed Major AN-
DERSON and the garrison as prisoners of war
into the city, will be a tocsin to the whole
North. Feeling must be strong indeed when the
man of commerce forgets his gains ; yet we are
told that nothing could be thought of on 'Change
at New York but the war. An inquiry about
the price of cotton would be answered by,
" Cotton •be hanged, what is the last news from
Charleston ?" A shipowner spoken to about
freights would reply, " Let freights go to Halifax.
Has the fleet arrived off Charleston ?"
The spirit of the Routh is, of course, even more
warlike than that of the North. WALKER, the
Secretary of the Montgomery Congress, told the
people not only that the flag of the Southern Con-
federacy would, in a few hours, float over Fort
Sumter (from which, it seems, that the attack was

a concerted thing on the part of the Government),
but that before the Ist of May it would float over
the dome of the Capitol itself; and if the North
dared to "try Southern chivalry, and test Southern
resources, it might float eventually over Fanueil
Hall itself." We have seen that the PRESIDENT is
really alarmed for Washington ; and situated as it is
with the small district of Columbia, in the midst of
a Slave State, and with the powerful old Slave
State of Virginia close at hand, ready to secede by
the last advices,.and not improbably gone over by
this time to the South, there is, probably, real
cause for fear. All has been done yet with
promptitude and by surprise in the South.
Action there has not, as was at first

somewhat reasonably expected, relaxed, and cooler
eounsels returned. And, as it is known that Presi-
dent DAVIS has called for 25,000 men, popular fear
in the North Points to Washington as their pro-
bable destination.

That the North will be, in the long run victorious,
with the command of the sea, and double or
treble the free population, no one can doubt. But
that the North can conquer and retatn the South
seems equally impossible. 1t is plain that the
South has long laid its plans, that it possesses

numerous clever practical men of great determina-
tion, and, above all, it knows its mind. It means
to form a Southern Confederacy ; nothing will con-

ciliate it. When ejected from supreme power at
Washington, it determined to assume supreme

power in its own district. It will be master, if not
in the union, then out of it. The North hesitates. It