The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-08 00:00:00

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

SIR BALDWIN WALKER.

For the first time in memory there has been a
chase after a British admiral. All the world—we
mean the British world—wants to stop the admiral.
" Stop the Admiral" has been telegraphed to every
port. " Stop the Admiral" is still the order at
Spithead and in Plymouth Sound. Where can he
be ? Ships have gone in chase of him, electric
sparks fly to and fro to summon him to surrender,
the House of Commons demands him; and, fore-
most among all, the energetic and frank and can-
did seaman who is now the Secretary to the Ad-
miralty makes himself almost übiquitous in his
eagerness to discover the fugitive. What can have
become of him ? He put to sea in a gale of wind
which would have blown the teeth out of the head
of any other admiral. Whether it was that he was
so anxious to go and fight the Kaffirs, or whether
he pined to shake hands with his old friend Sir
Harry Keppel, whom he is going to relieve, or
whether he was so accustomed to Admiralty vacil-
lation that he feared to be recalled, nobody
knows ; but he was in a terrible hurry to be off.
He sailed in a hurricane ; then we heard of him as
buffeting with the storm in the Channel, aad,
driven by sheer stress of weather, he was in Yar-
mouth Roads on Monday morning. Lord Clarence
Paget believed that he was boxing about the
Channel on Tuesday. Everybody thinks that he
cannot even now be very far off, but nobody can
find him.
But why do we want to stop the Admiral? Why
do want to interfere with his cruise ? He is going
to see that nobody steals all the turtle from the
Island of Ascension, and after that to take care
that the Table Mountain is not occupied in force
by the Gorillas emigrating southwards. These
are services not lightly to be interrupted. A day
—an hour, might be fatal to the success of either
of them. Should we not rather rejoice that the
Admiral has escaped his foes, and is away in the
tempest, exulting in his freedom and speeding to
his great destinies ? Perhaps a little explanation
is necessary. The chased Admiral is no other than
Sir Baldwin Walker, Bart., K.C.B. He has been
Surveyor of the Navy ever since Sir Robert Peel's
time. He knows everything that is done and
everything that is left undone. He knows
how the ships are built, and why they rot, and
how much they cost, and how much they ought to
cost, and why they won't sail and steam as they
ought to sail and steam ; and why heaps of money
are wasted in doing badly what might be well
done for half the money ; and why we break up
every crew and turn them adrift as soon as we
have got them into a state of efficiency ; and why
hosts of clerks are kept writing letters about half-
pennyworths of rope-yarn and half-pounds of can-
dles; and how and why the financial system of the
Admiralty is an ingenious system for saving at the
spiggot and spending at the bunghole. Sir Baldwin
Walker knows all this and a great deal more.
Well, suppose he does know it. Let him go to sea
I and take his knowledge with him. He has known
it a great many years, and has not been permitted
to unburden himself of his knowledge. Yes, but
by a carious coincidence there is a Committee of
the House of Commons' about to be appointed to
tap the Admiral and to draw all this out of him,
and bottle it off into blue-books. Some people
have actually been so base as to insinuate that the
Admiral is desirous of avoiding this process, and
that there are somewhere or other people who are
even more desirous than the Admiral himself that
he should not be submitted to it. This, however,
is calumny of the foulest kind. We have the best
possible authority for knowing—for we have the
debates in the House of Commons for the fact—
that all the Ministers have been most anxious that
everything connected with the Admiralty should
be made as public as debates and blue-books and
newspapers can make it. If it be an unfortunate
fact that the Admiral is gone it is they who have
most to deplore it.
The most ill-treated man in this business is not the
Admiral—for he has got off—but it is that frank-
hearted, abutspoken, candid seaman, who made
such capital speeches about reforming the Ad-
miralty and saving us £5,000,000 a-year when
he was in Opposition, and who is now
doing it, in his own way, as Secretary to
the Admiralty. If the House of Commons had
only told him in time that they wanted Sir Bald-
win Walker nothing would have been aagior than
to delay t h r;RJE of the turtles and the
Table Mountain. But the house never told hii
and how could he be expected to know walkout
being told ? It is true that Sir John Pakington was
continually boring about the subject, and that the
Admiral who was going to move for the committee
was importunate, and that the house seemed to
think that it would be too strong a measure, even
for the most candid of officials, to send away the
Admiral under existing circumstances. But then
the house had never come to any resolution upon
the subject, and how can the house expect that any
one shall know what it means unless it does come
to a resolution ? See, however, what happened
when the house did seem very much inclined to
come to a resolution, and when the Premier was
obliged to undertake, for the Admiralty, that the
Admiral should be stopped. Lord Clarence Paget
then showed what real vigour he possessed. He
seems to have feared a superfluous amount of zeal.
Like a dancer who scorns to dance a common
hornpipe, but loads himself with chains to show
under what difficulties he can do the feat, Lord
Clarence Paget scorned. to go into the lobby
of the House of Commons, and then forthwith
telegraph to " Stop the Admiral" in Yarmouth
Roads, or wherever else he was then reported
to be. He went home and slept upon it; he got
up the next morning and he considered it, and then
when he had generously given his game a good fair
start, he deliberately loosed the slowest dog in his
whole pack. Lord Clarence Paget is not the man
to take an unfair advantage of a flying friend. Sir
John Pakington, who we fear has little chivalry in
his soul, was not quite satisfied with this. He com-
plained that the Avon, being the slowest ship that
bears a pennant, was not likely to catch the Nar-
cissus frigate, which we may be sure has a very
different reputation, or Sir Baldwin Walker would
not have chosen her as his flagship. Lord Clarence,
however, explained that the Avon was sent out,
not to catch the Narcissus, but to " cut her off,"
and Sir Jol_n Pakington, probably feeling himself
" done," said no more. We apprehend that Sir
John was not very much surprised when he read
that the Avon returned to the Sound on Wednes-
day night, having seen nothing of the Narcissus.
So the Admiral is off, free as the bird which dEneas
tied to the masthead so long ago. Like that bird,
the arrow which Sir John Pakington shot at him
seems only to have set him free. But we will not
quite despair yet. Sir John Pakington will recol-
lect that after the Admiral had weighed anchor
he was recalled to Spithead by telegram, and
received a visit from the Port Admiral at
Portsmouth, who went aboard to communicate
the last orders of the Admiralty. At this
time the Duke of Somerset and Lord Clarence
Paget were in some doubt as to what the desires
of the House of Commons really were in this
matter. It is not probable that the last directions
from the Port Admiral were that Sir Baldwin
Walker should touch at some convenient port
before he got out of the home seas, in case the
House of Commons should make up their mind to
require his presence? If so, another arrow may
yet bring the bird down. We think this so very
likely that we should recommend the Committee
to ask the Port Admiral if any anything did pass
upon this subject at that last interview.—Times.

Mr. John Maddox, so well known in connexion
with the Princess's Theatre, expired on Tuesday morning
at his residence at Brompton, after a protracted and painful
illness. The deceased, who was of the Jewish persuasion,
was lessee of the theatre in question at its opening, and re-
mained so till his death. He was also manager of the house
for many years.
THE LATE M. SCRIBE'S MARRIAGE.—A letter
from Paris says :--i" Now that Scribe is no more. several
matters known only to a few are more generally talked of.
His marriage took place late in life (age 67), and was quite
as dramatic as any in his multifarious stage imaginings.
Calling one day at his notary's office, a lady in deep sorrow
was going out from the establishment, her grief being so
poignant that he had the curiosity to ask about her, and
was informed that her husband was on the verge of bank-
ruptcy, not being able to meet liabilities unexpected and
unforeseen. Scribe asked what amount would stave off the
misfortune, and being told 50,000 f., left orders to have that
sum advanced on the husband's note at a year's date. The
year had not elapsed before a second meeting occurred at
the same office, when Scribe remarked that the lady was in
deep mourning. The husband was dead. The same lady
was to be seen in the church of St. Roch last Friday.
This
Madame Scribe was in widow's weeds once more."
Dover and Calais are now within hours of each other.
The James Penn crosses the channel in that time.
rapidity is due to improvements in the marine engine. Grey
hair is restored to its natural colour, and tic doloreux and
nervous headache cured by Herring's magnetic brushes.
Their undeviating success is due to late improvements by
.the inventor. N.B.—Counterfeits are being made. Offices,
32, Basiughall-street, London.