The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-21 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1857.

The principal merit, as well as the conspicuous
characteristic of the Commander-in-Chief of our
forces in the Crimean War—so far as wo have
ever been able to understand it was his Amia-
bility ! It is very ridiculous', of course—but it
was so I Fancy an amiable Commandei-in-Chief !
Amiability his principal merit—his conspicuous
characteristic. Really the notion of choosing a
man to conduct a great army to battle because he
happened to be particularly suave and agreeable,

has from first to last in this matter appeared to us

to be in its way about the utmost ponible stretch
of absurdity ! One might almost as well go in
quest of a Great Captain to that curious
place somewhere upon the Rhine, described so
facetiously by the Mont Blanc Lecturer, where
everybody is remarkable for bowing to everybody
else ! And where, if you only chance to lounge
by. any fine afternoon in the whole season—your-
self a total stranger, oberve, to every one in the
crowd—the people are flourishing their hats in
the air, in your especial honour, for perhaps
twenty minutes at a stretch. In fac', long after
you yourself are far away, and out of sight ! Why,
really this does appear to us to be the very place,
of all others in the wide world, where the Genius
of the Horse Guards should go a-hunting in
search of the old approved kind of a model-
amiable Commander-in-Chief ! Quite a hot-bed,
we should conjecture, for the cultivation of Great
Captains of the stamp of the RAGLANS, the
SIMPSONS, and the CODRINGTONS !
Well—Amiability had its day under the NEW-
CASTLE regime. And now it seems that another
hardly loss astounding quality is to have its day,
in turn, under the PANMURE Dispensation. That
quality being—Discretion. A discreetly-amiable
Commander-in-Chief—an amiably-discreet Com-
mander-in-Chief—put it which way you will, this
then is simply ridiculous. Yet Discretion and
Amiability are actually to rule th© choice under
the asOuuding War system now in vogue among
our administrators. And so—under the guidance
of this extraordinary principle, the Commander-
in-Chief of our grand warlike expedition against
the Chinese is General ASHBURNHAM ! General
Who ? almost everybody will ask on hear-
ing the name mentioned. And no wonder—
seeing that about the only thing over brought
under the notice of the public at large

• regard to General Asinumsznam, was the fact
that once he commanded a hr igale—aed that on the
occasion of the Battie of ChilliiinwallAh. A con-

test renowned among all our great contests in
Hindostan as a Soldiers' Battle As much a
soldiers' battle as the Battle of Inkerman !
Why, at Chillianwallah there was What is
called no generalship—meaning literally very
bad generalship. It was a sanguinary struggle,
won in the end by sheer brute force—at the edge
of the sword—at the point of the bay.onet ! A
horrible hand-tc-hand encounter, in which be it
said, so far to his glory, our dauntless Com-
mander-in-Chief, the Lord Gouall, then Sir HUGH
GOUGH, bodily participated ! But in the midst
of that battle—terrible and bloody though it was
—General AsmnunNuem maintained the command
of his brigade with serene composure. And
for this discretion be is now entrusted with the
responsibility of conducting our troops against the
Chinese ! He quits England invested with this
magnificent appointment. The very first place
he lands at, on his way to the seat of war—he is
incapacitated. Of course, in this he is obviously
the victim of unforeseen circumstances. A war-
like genius of the very first kind can protect
obviously no one out of all the infirm
race of man from the accident of being
seized with fever immediately on reaching Malta.
We are not arguing, of course, in favour of an
absurdity. All we are maintaining is—that
Amiability and Discretion are really an truly,
after all, not by any means the qualities we ought
to look for first of all as among the principal
merits and conspicuous characteristics of a Com-
mander-in-Chief.

The Russian Railway scheme has been duly in-
troduced to the English market. Messrs. BAR-
INGs, Brothers, and Co., are its Stock Exchange
sponsors. Like the redoubted MONTAGUE TIGG,
they have reduced their demands to the ridicu-
lously small sum of only Two Millions Sterling !
"Two Millions !" Why, the BARINGS can do it
themselves without letting any of the cc roXXot
into so good a thing ; and it would seem as if, so
far as the management were concerned, that was
the case, for no other English name beside that of
the Messrs. BARING is to be found in the direc-
tion. It must, however, be borne in mind that
Two Millions is but an instalment. It forms part,
of the original twelve millions intended to be
raised in the first instance, and is to be fodlwed
by other demands until the full amount of
43,000,0001., or such other sum as may be required
during the progress of the works, shall be duly paid
up and satisfied. Messrs. BARING have a right
to do as they will with their own. We should,
however, have been better pleased had they ap-
plied their well-established credit and vast re-
sources to some more patriotic project, which
would.at the same time have proved beneficial to
the interests of their own country, and more
likely to render a remunerative return for the
capital that may be invested therein.
At present our duty is merely to persuade the
community at large, and more especially the spe-
culators of the Stock ExChange, to inves-
tigate closely the position and prospects
of the concern before they permit them-
selves to undertake any responsibilities in
relation thereto. We believe that under any
circumstances it never will become a favourite in-
vestment with the public generally. The reasons
we have repeatedly and fully put forward will pre-
vent a result that must be regarded as a national
calamity of no ordinary magnitude. The money
subscribed will all be taken out of the country
in hard cash. It is one of the means by which
other nations may be enabled to pay a handsome
premium, far exceeding 6f. per mille, for English
gold, and realise considerable profits by the irre-
gular operation. An adequate remedy must, as
we explained in our impression of yesterday, be
applied to the flagrant grievance, and that of a
nature that might press very severely on parties
who had contracted to supply large sums
to be sent abroad. But were it even
otherwise, should Parliament still continue
insensible to the legitimate demands of
our own industrial population, no return to
cheap money can be anticipated for several years.
The Russian scheme must, then, necessarily par-
ticipate in the depression of securities, better cal-
culated to find favour in the sight of true-hearted
Englishmen, and even of capitalists who look
solely in the -e. s. d. point of view. When a
minimum rate of 6i or 7 per cent. can be ob-
tained in England, it is not likely that men will
seek anxiously after investments in Russia at 4i
per cent., subject to all the contingencies of forfeit-
ure for the non-completion of the contract, or reduc-
tion from more being required than the Russian
Government have guaranteed. If the increase
were but 30 per cent., and those who have had
any experience in the difference between estimates
and actual expenditure well kno►v how very mo-
derate and usual would be such a change, the rate
would not be more than can be obtained in Go-
vernment 3 per Cents. at present prices ! We
need scarcely ask the most enthusiastic Phile-
Muscovite in which of these securities he would
prefer obtaining the same nominal rate of interest
for his own capital.

Flattering promises may be held out, and shares
may at present be quoted at nominal premiums 1
But all these matters must be taken cum grano
seis. All men who have attained middle life
recollect something of the inflated calcula.

tions attached to every prospectus brought
under their notice. In many instances the
promoters might not have intended to
deceive the public, or to hare obtained money
by fraudulent representations. Naturally of san-
guine temperaments they might have believed

that the results would have fulfilled the expecta-
tions they excite& But still they were always
willing to L.-Amin a point so as to place their
favourite schemes in the best light ; and, as
" Hudibras" long since deposed—
" You must know the difference is immense
Between a simple lie and false pretence."

"Embellishment," as it has been popularly
termed, is not a legal crime ; but still very serious
consequences may follow to those who improvi-
dently part with their money and render them-
selves liable for future payments on highly
coloured statements.

" Rigg►ng the market" has been resorted to on
previous occasions, and, to say the least of it, is
possib'e in the case under notice. It was usual
to devote a certain sum to buying up letters of
allotment, and keeping scrip at a premium in order
to induce the general public to pay. The "stags"
were necessarily propitiated ; and men subscribed,
not with any intention of fulfilling the contracts
they entered into, but merely of selling
on the first favourable opportunity, when a
few shillings, or even a few pence, per share
ceuld be realised. Bat the bona fide purchasers
suffered severely for the temporary benefits in
which they did not participate ; and solvent sub-
scribers found that they could not, even at a heavy
loss, dispose of the stock which they originally
tock for the purpose of immediate sale, not of
investment.

From the statement in the money article of
he Times, which will be found in another part of

our impression, it appears that something very
suspicious Las already leaked out. That clergy-

men have been asking for shares to be paid
for, not with their own money, but with that
of wealthy capitalists, who are pleased, for reasons
best known to themselves, to keep in the back-
ground. It is impossible to adduce a stronger
proof of the estimation in which the concern is
held by these " sleeping partners." It may
have suited Mr. REDPATH to keep his stock in
other names, and it was stated in evidence on
his trial that other persons adopted a similar
course. But, when it appears it seems to indicate
in our judgment, at least, that the parties are
desirous of having the opportunity of disposing
of their stock before the bursting of the bubble.
It may glitter for the moment, but it will as-
suredly fall to the ground sooner or later, and
leave the unfortunate speculators ample grounds
to deplore the undue credulity which induced them
to part with their money in such a scheme, where
they can have nothing to console them for the serious
Messrs. BARING are very influential gen-
tlemen, but we hope that their influence will, in
the present instance, be insufficient to lead Jourr
BULL into the trap so skilfully laid for his
reception.

The enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law con-
verted the Free States into hunting grounds for
slaveholders ; but the late decision in the case
of DEED SCOTT has converted them into slave
States. There is nothing now to hinder the
Slaveholder from setting up a slave factory, or
commencing a slave auction-room in the centre
of New York, or of Philadelphia I No legal
hindrance, we mean, for probably though is
person bristled with bowie knives and revolvers
he would find the cities of the north too hot for
him ; and betake himself, after a very short trial,
to his beloved " Kintuck" or " Old Virginny."
The decision is one which almost takes away
our breath in a land of thorough personal
freedom. This " DEED" is, indeed, a tale of a
Dismal Court, or we might as well retain the
epithet Dismal Swamp perhaps, with only the
difference of its meaning a moral or judicial
swamp, instead of a natural one. Never certainly,
in Christendom, has justice been so completely
swamped as in the Supreme Court of the United
States. There in' the broad daylight of the nine-
teenth century, and in the face of the whole world,
five Judges, if they deserve that name, have de-
cided that a man of African descent, although his
American ancestors may date almost froni the
commencement of colonisation in the States, can
never become a citizen of the Union, and can
never sue in its Courts I Not content with this,
they have declared in their judgment that an ori-
ginal compact between Virginia and the other
States, one entered into before the Union was
completed, as well as the lately repealed Missouri
compromise, were both of them null and void ab
initio ! That, in fact, every restriction on the exten-
sion of slave territory is unconstitutional, and
therefore illegal; and that Congress has no rightful
power to hinder the infernal pest of slavery
from blighting all the territory which the consti-
tution places under its zontrol !
The smooth-tongued President well knew what
he was saying when in his inaugural speech he
told his hearers that he expected in a few days
the decision of the Supreme Court, before which
he should meekly bow himself ; and hoped all
good subjects would do the same. Of course he
was quite aware what that decision would be, and
had he spoken out he would have told his au-
dience that in a few days the names of FREE
STATES AND SLAVE STATES must be dropped.
That the law would render all the States, Slave
States; that the Union was to become, in law, one
vast SLAVE RErumre, and that henceforth the stars
must disappear from their banner, and the sig-
nificant stripes alone remain. Our readers may
have noticed, also, his declarations about fair
dealing with Kansas, and his determination to
secure the free expression of their sentiments for
the residents in that territory. This he has done
by appointing as Governor there a man thoroughly
after his own heart, a Mr. J. R. WALKER, whose
antecedents are but too well known. He belongs
to the class who, like Mr. Buortalraw, know how
to combine inflexibility on all questions respect-
ing slavery with a certain respectability of charac-
ter and propriety of manner.
We had learned during the discussions on the
SuatNErt outrage, that the Supreme Court of the
United States had become a packed pro slave:ey
court. Some persons had thought—infle.enced
doubtless by the fact that the warmest politicians
in England prove upright judges when elevated
front the bar to the bench—that a packed bench,
in the present stage of civilisation, was almost an
impossibility. They are undeceived now. Five
judges against two have concurred in the decision
which has disgraced themselves and their country,
and which has consigned, so far as in them lies,
the unhappy negro to slavery through all genera-
tions Five judges, professing to be Christian
judges, have pronounced that their dark-coloured
brethren, the creation of their common MAKES,
and for whom their common SAVIOUR died, must
remain mere goods and chattels, both they and
their descendants, to the end of time !
Can this moral enormity, this blasphemy against
Christianity, this perversion of the highest powers
of the ltav to political domination, this insult on
the common sense of civilisation—can it be
allowed to 'stand ? True there appear to
be no recognised means of setting aside the
judgment. The Supreme Court is the revisor
not only of all decisions involving constitu-
tional question's, but of all laws affecting
them. Congress is powerless in its hands.
Its judges are appointed for life, and they
can declare any Act of Congress null and
void. And assuredly these men of Belial, who
could declare that a dark-skinned human being
in the United States could never have civil rights,
but must be a chattel for ever,,are not the anon
who would shrink from anything necessary to sus-
tain their revolting and brutal judgment. The
more intelligent journals in America totally deny
the conformity of the judgment to law, but they

are perplexed as to the means of getting rid of it.

There seems no power but that of Revolution
which could redress this wrong. Public meetings,
and even the decisirans of the Legislatures of indi-
vidual States, are of no legal force. The judg-

meat of the Supreme Court overrides all. Were

HEAVEN itself to smite two of the un-
just judges •pith death this year, unless
it smite thr) heart of Mr. BUCHANAN

also with dread, of the Free States, or with dread
of the murdered rights of man, two more prc-
slavery judges would fill the seats of those who
had gone V) their own place. In the ordinary
course of things, twenty or thirty years at least
might elaj )se before j ust judges could possibly occupy
the plateti of those who now disgrace the judg-
ment-seat. But in this time slavery might be
carried by -the bowie knife and revolver into all
the to rriVories of the far West !

We cmfess, then, that the prospect is most die-
CQU raging from the legal and constitutional point
of v tow. The only hope for America seems
to b 3 that of all despot-ridden countries, Itevolu-

tior la It is in tho position of Hungary, Lombardy,
Or Israples. An oligarchy of slaveholders control
e,verythiu,s,.. They occupy the Senate, the Preiii-