The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-06 00:00:00

as they►, happily for the country, had occasion to do
last evening, in a minority of "five," in a house of
Ino less than 204 members. "Pride will have a
fall" sometimes, and that, moreover, occasionally
in very miry places. And this is precisely
what has already happened twice at this early
date of the Session—once in the matter of the
Income Tax, once in the matter of the Admiralty—
it is precisely what has happened thus upon two
successive occasions even to the great Liberal
Party, even to the Strong Government.
Incidentally in the course of the discussion last
evening there was an unfortunate little squabble
of a personal kind between Admiral WALCOTT
and Sir JOHN PAKINGTON : one in which the
gallant Admiral appears most unquestionably and
unluckily for himself to have been so far
carried away by his feelings as to have lost
his temper for the moment, being even called
to order for a curt and somewhat discour-
teous interruption. Apart from this little
parenthetic incident, the animated debatt leading
to the division was conducted in all good humour
by those who participated in the discussion—though
the subject itself was one fraught, we cannot but
feel, with sufficiently irritating influences.
It has been significant of the whole rotten,
bungling, jumbling system of things at the Admi-
ralty—it has been especially significant of the love
the officials have there to hush up everything in
the way of inquiry—it has been surely very signi-
ficant of all this—that little ridiculous incident
relating to Admiral Sir BALDWIN WALKER! That
gallant officer was, first of all, sent away in a great
hurry, and, in the very nick of time, manifestly to
get rid of him opportunely. And then, when his
recall, for the purpose of obtaining his evidence, is
forced upon the Government, after his departure,
the Admiralty sends out in chase of him the old
Avon, one of the slowest ships in her Majesty's
service ! The whole proceeding is exceed-
ingly suspicious at the same time that it is
also excessively absurd. No wonder that the
House laughed when Lord C. PAGET got up gravely
to inform it that the Avon had been actually
sent out yesterday morning to endeavour to
intercept Sir BALDWIN WALKER in the Narcissus !
Whereupon Sir J. PAKINGTON rose for the purpose
of saying—" After the statement made by the
noble lord, I wish to ask whether it is true that
no telegram was sent from the Admiralty until
half-past eleven o'clock to-day; and, secondly,
whether the Avon is not reckoned one of the
slowest ships in her Majesty's service ?" The
Admiralty Secretary being compelled to acknow-
ledge Yes that this was perfectly true, but
that it was yet quite possible the Avon might
succeed, after all, in catching up the Narcissus. It
is a way they have with them—of doing things
at the Admiralty !

As to " the way the money goes" under their
amazing system of mismanagement yonder at
the Admiralty—well, some timely notion may be
formed of that, too, upon a glance down another
column of our impression of this yesterday. That
somewhat important column of The Sun of to-
night, in which a keen-witted correspondent of
ours, signing himself "Prudent Economy," analyses
by anticipation the on-coming Naval Estimates.
It will be seen from that analysis how it virtually
takes 316 clerks to mismanage matters, as they
are mismanaged down at the Admiralty-316 clerks
at an average salary of £277 each, making in all
the pretty total of £87,822 ! It will be seen, again,
that these 316 clerks require to be waited upon by
no less than 81 messengers—one Mercury for four
clerks, or thereabouts, at an annual outlay of some
£7,000 sterling additional. These, and a crowd of
other kindred items are opportunely brought to
light just now and grouped together by our
merciless correspondent. It is like a glimpse into
the Circumlocution Office, as described by Mr.
DICKENS. It is like an initiation into the great
Admiralty Mystery of How NOT TO Do IT.

The disturbance at Warsaw, now that fuller
information has arrived respecting it, appears to
have all the significance, to say the least, which we
attributed to it. No doubt can now remain that it
will take but little indeed to call into vigorous life
the sentiment of Polish nationality throughout all
the country once belonging to that long suppressed
people. There is something almost awful in the
vitality of the feeling of nationality. Italy, Hun-
gary, and now Warsaw, are proofs that no oppres-
sion can suffice to extinguish it. Small, indeed,
must be the district, and conciliatory the mea-
sures of amalgamation with the conquering coun-
try, if any European people is to become by degrees
merged into a larger one. Nations, like the three
just mentioned, evidently cannot be extinguished
by the mere will of the rulers who have sub-
jugated them to their despotic sway. Poland
looks now, almost like one risen from the dead to
warn the despots of Europe that they may crush a
people but cannot kill it. Give it tine, and it is
found that the very children of the vanquished
grow up, not with the spirit of slavery, but with
the spirit of resentment and of freedom, and are
ready at any moment to resume,—all the wiser for
past lessons—the position of their fathers.
The signs of national feeling were of the two
kinds which show that it is a permanent, unaltered
sentiment. The sight of 30,000 people of all ages
and classes falling on their knees as soon as they
saw the White Eagle of Poland displayed, the
tears they shed, the national hymn which
ascended to Heaven, and all spontaneous—without
even the slightest prearrangement or concert, all
show that there was in the hearts of those thou-
sands a settled and cherished love for,, their nation
which needed but the slightest safe occasion for
displaying itself. And then, on the other hand,
there was the deliberate, the calmly-considered
address of the more educated classes to the EM-
PEROR, inspired by the same sentiment as that
which brought the multitude to their knees before
the flag of their country. They say to the EMPEROR
—" Every inhabitant of this unfortunate country
entertains in his heart a deep•rooted sentiment of
nationality quite distinct from that of the other
people of Europe. This sentiment resists the effects
of time and of events ; misfortune, instead of weak-
ening it, has strengthened it. Whatever Rounds
it or insults it upsets the public mind." Advert-
ing therefore to the calamitous events that
had just occurred, they inform the EMPEROR that
they were no mere street disturbances, no bursting
forth of the turbulent and disorderly, glad to lay
hold of any occasion to create a tumult. " These
events—they tell the EMPEROR—the heartrend-
ing details of which we abstain from describing,
were by no means called forth by the sub-
versive passions of any particular class of the
population ; on the contrary, they are the unani

mous and eloquent manifestation of sentiments
discarded and of wants ignored. More than
half a century of suffering imposed upon the
whole nation, upDn a nation which for centuries
was governed by liberal institutions ; this nation

deprived even of a legal voice to bring before the
throne of the Sovereign the complaints and ex-
. .. _

pression of the general wants ; all this state of
things has forcibly reduced this people only to make
its voice heard by the cry of its victims, and thus it
never ceases to offer up a holocaust."
Blood was shed no doubt hastily and wantonly