The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-17 00:00:00

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THE SUN,
LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 17, 1861.

Gradually, little by little, we are beginning to
appreciate more at its true proportions the magni-
tude of the dreadful loss recently sustained by Her
MAJESTY and the loyal subjects of the Crown. As
we set forth by remarking yesterday it was diffi-
cult upon the instant to realise this—so abrupt and
altogether unexpected has been this dire calamity.
Eo suddenly has it descended upon the nation, and,
we may confidently assert, we believe, even upon
our gracious SOVEREIGN herself, that we are not in
any way writing at random when we observe
that—but one brief week ago:the mere thought of the
Death of His Royal Highness had not entered into
anyone's imagination. The catastrophe involved in
that lamentable demise has dropped like a thunder-
bolt upon the palace-home of our Royal House at
Windsor Castle—it has flashed like disastrous
lightning gleams (literally, thus, disseminated as
the tidings have been far and wide, and as they are
still being farther and wider upon the wings of the
electric telegraph) hither and thither to all parts of
the United Kingdom, and already even to the
remotest corners of the European Continent. Every-
where there is—how, in fact, could it possibly be
otherwise P—but one single emotion awakened,
that of the profoundest, the most unaffected, and
the most instantaneous commiseration. A com-
miseration, first of all, with the most afflicted
mourner among all the mourners, the bereaved
wife, the widowed QUEEN. And afterwards an
earnest commiseration with the loyal nation
mourning with her in the bitterness of her irrepar-
able loss. In saying this there is not one particle
of exaggeration. Never has public sympathy been
more sincere, more thoroughly genuine, more pro-
foundly heartfelt. Not even when, nearly half a
century ago, as our contemporary the Post re•
marked yesterday, a remark impressively echoed
by the limes this nlorning, the people of England
wsptraerirnee,ie startlingCg
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Similar the afflictions have been, that is to say, in
their appalling suddenness. For—viewing the two
events apart from that there is perceptible
between them simply an
affecting contrast
rather than any mournful analogy.
Then the
loss to the nation was entirely prospee•
tive. Now it is that undoubtedly to the full—but,
while it is so, it is amply retrospective likewise.
The Hopes of the Country then were dashed ex-
clusively. The Gratitude of the Nation as well as
its Hopes, we have now had pierced to the very quick
by the anguish of this astounding affliction.
We have had reason to be proud of this adopted
Son of England—espoused at the very dawn of his
manhood, two and twenty years ago, by the

then equally youthful and almost girlish SOVEREIGN
in these realms. Together they have lived
in the midst of us, continually surrounded,
encircled wherever the Court went, by that
truest and most enviable loyalty of all—
the mingled affection and respect of a race of free-
men recognizing in the constitutional Head of the
State, the chosen guardian, the firm but gentle
custodian of our rights and liberties. Saving and
excepting only upon very rare occasions—as for
example when the Royal pair were on a visit to
King Louis PHILIPPE at the Chateau d'Eu, or
when they were more recently the guests of his
Imperial Majesty the Emperor NAPOLEON 111., in
the Palace of the Tuileries, or again when previously
and subsequently to that Holiday sojourn at Paris,
when his late Royal Highness the PRINCE CON-
SORT took his QUEEN Wife to the haunts of his
boyhood in the old Teutonic Fatherland—saving
and excepting upon these very rare occasions,
Her MAJESTY and his Royal Highness have lived
amongst us—now at Windsor Castle, now at Buck-
ingham Palace, now at Osborne, now at Balmoral,
presenting to view the Model Home in the midst of
many million Families of loyal Englishmen. And
now that the central figure in that long familiar
Home group—[has not the courtly pencil of WIN
TERHALTER perpetuated in the famous picture for
the admiration of after times?]—now that the Father
and the Husband has suddenly disappeared from
the midst of it, one's almost instant reflection is this
(a reflection that comes to: each of us not without
an inward gush of emotion)—How well, how
nobly, how truthfully, how consistently, how
untiringly this young Prince acquitted himself of
his most delicate and elevated responsibilities as
the chosen partner and chief adviser of the Consti-
tutional SOVEREIGN of these vast and world-wide
Dominions. An indiscreet or injudicious Consort
might have readily found perpetual opportunities
for stumbling among the threads of that jealous
maze of etiquette which is woven, we may say
unavoidably woven by the Constitution itself,
around the footsteps of the Foreign Husband of
a QUEEN REGENT here in England. In the instance
of the accomplished and illustrious Prince, whose
untimely end we are now deploring,the stumbles—we
can recognise this now deliberatelyin the retrospect
of those two-and-twenty years now traversed—are
after all but very slight and very exceptional. So
far, moreover, viewing his position amongst us now
dispassionately, it might almost be added they were
is a manner (to that casual and partial extent) un-
avoidable under the circumstances. Affections
called into existence with his birth, and knitted
and twined among his heartstrings by all the loved
associations of childhood and youth, still bound the
generous hearted Prince by the tenderest ties to
the memory of the Old Vaterland. Yet was he, we
are willing to believe that, though still a true German
by birth, none the less an Englishman by adoption.
Whenever these sympathies clashed upon the rare
and fleeting occasions we have alluded to—and upon
whick incidents we never scrupled frankly to
break silence at the period of their occurrence
—the fault lay not so much with the
Consort of the SOVEREIGN, as with that arbitrary
Royal Marriage Act, necessitating this liability to
the chance collision of conflicting interests. Con-
scientiously the Royal Husband of Queen VICTORIA
—we do most confidently rest assured of this—
conscientiously ALBERT the Prince Consort of Eng-
land, strove all through his happy married life of
two-and-twenty years' duration, to do his Duty
by the QUEEN he had taken to wife, and by
the country of his adoption and of her
rule placing the performance of that
twofold duty before him as the golden mean of his
ambition in the position in which it had pleased
GOD to place him. He it was, himself, we now
learn, who was the first to recognise the fact that
his last hour was approaching. This, it proves in
effect, was really the case on Wednesday, three
days before his actual dissolution. And it was only
on the day before his death that his Queen-Wife
had any glimmering notion of the coming
calamity, when, upon Her MAJESTY'S re-
turn from an afternoop drive in Windsor
park the Royal patient was so far advanced towards
death that the extremities were already cold. Then
only upon the evening of his death, or rather upon
the early morning of the very day upon which his
Royal Highness expired, the Prince of WALES, his
eldest son, was suddenly telegraphed for, to hasten
at once, by express, to his father's death-bed. This
occurring, in fact, only between one and two
o'clock a.m., in the dead of night, between Friday
and Saturday. The PRINCE CONSORT having him-
self recognised as early as upon Wednes-
day last that the term of his earthly career
had arrived. Lying there upon his death-bed
from Wednesday until Saturday night, the date of
his actual dissolution, the Prince had the consola-
tion at last of humbly reflecting that in that posi-
tion, in which, as already remarked, it had pleased
GOD to place him, he had consistently and ener-
getically striven to do his duty by employing the
talents confided to his charge for the advantage of
his fellow-men.

President LINCOLN'S Message does not improve
upon further acquaintance the literary quality
and the contents, as illustrated by the communi-
cations of his secretaries especially, appearing all
the worse on re-perusal. And the perusal itself
is indeed no trivial task—probably not a hundred
persons in England, unless, .like unfortunate edi-

tors, they have special reasons for doing so, in-
flict on themselves the penance of wading through

the long purposeless columns with which the
President fills all the daily papers of England
and America. Nothing can be more striking in-
deed than the unfavourable contrast of the Mes-
sages of the rival Presidents. Regarding them
as literary compositions and State docu-
ments, that of Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS is
condensed, brief, businesslike, intelligible, such
as no English statesman, so far as its literary
character is concerned, would feel ashamed to have
written. Mr. LINCOLN'S is inordinately long,
verbose, illiterate in expression and arrangement,
and such as few head clerks in a respectable solici-
tor's office here would like to have had the credit of
drawing. The two Messages are, indeed, illustra-
tions of the superiority of Southern to Northern
leadership. Considering the resources of the two
sections of States, it cannot be denied by the North
itself that the management south of the Potomac
has been superior to that of the North by all the
difference in literary and statesman-like character
of the two Messages.
The reasons for not adverting to the affair of the
Trent, we must leave with Mr. LINCOLN; yet it
is impossible not to feel that his Message without
it is, to use the hackneyed illustration, the play of

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day more anxiously looked for, both in England
and America. The omission renders the whole
speech inexpressibly lifeless and wearisome. Things
comparatively triv4l,such as the constitution of
the Supreme Court, and the Circuits of Judges, aro
dwelt on as if any one really could think of them
now ; and the speech is thus stuffed up to an inor-
dinate size with topics and paragraphs wholly
irrelevant to what really occupies men's thoughts.

We could wish to believe that Mr. LINCOLN had
made up his mind to accede to the demand which
he must expect from England ; but if he had, be
would surely have thrown in some preparatory
hint to give the cue to his friends, and to
prepare the multitude for what it is obvious now I
would be a very unpopular act with them. On the
other hand, had he been determined to bow uncon-
ditionally to the demands of the vulgar respectables
of Boston and the New York mob, he would surely
have not lost the opportunity of introducing an
" immortal' feature into a Message so certain other-
wise to be forgotten nearly as soon as delivered.
The vote of the House of Assembly, we are glad
to see, is regarded by the more reasonable portion
of the American press much as we .have felt some
hope that it might be, by men of sense and cha-
racter there. The paragraph is rather long, but
it is encouraging to read in an American
paper, the New York Times, such lan-
guage as this :—" Congress has signalised its
first sitting by passing a vote of thanks to Captain
Wilms for the seizure of Messrs. MASON and
SLID ELL. Nothing is more natural than that
which is uppermost in the public mind should leap
to expression through the voice of the people's re-
presentatives. In thus putting on record a formal
approval of an act which has called forth universal
public satisfaction there is of course no intention
to prejudge a case on which neither our own
nor the British Government has as yet pro-
nounced an opinion, and which is now pro-
perly a matter of diplomacy alone. We all liked
the bold deed, and we liked it all the better
because it seemed to be perfectly justified by the
principles and precedents of international law.
Should it not be justified, there can be no hesitation
as to the course to be pursued. However gratifying
the seizure of the rebel ambassadors may have
been, it is not worth the sacrifice of a single
principle of the public morality of nations.
Meanwhile, we can, of course, but await further
developments. The resolution of thanks which
Congress has voted to Captain WILKES, therefore,
embodies a perfectly just sentiment, without at all
binding the policy of the Government, or embar-
rassing the Secretary of State in the pursuit of
such a course as, on a full examination of the
question in all bearings, may seem to be dic-
tated by right and the law of nations."
It is well known how much the Southern States
relied upon the necessities of Europe in regard
to cotton ; they hardly believed it possible that
the French and English would allow the blockade
of their ports, to the injury and distress of
their own people, And we may well
acknowledge that the South had a right to
think so. Much as we desire that " America's
calamity may be India's opportunity," yet when
two countries who had but to speak the word, and
all the cotton of the South would have been at their
disposal, ware content to recognise an inefficient
blockade, it was surely an instance of unprecedented
forbearance. We might have insisted that the case
was wholly out of the ordinary course of things,
and unprovided for by international law ; that we
could not permit the domestic quarrels of the
North and South to destroy the means of subsistence
for our vast population, and we might, we believe on
justifiable grounds, have joined France, who it is
notorious wished to do it—in putting an end to the
blackade and opening the cotton ports. We sub-
mitted, however, and what is the reward—that our
forbearance is attributed to the mearest possible
commercial motives, instead of the desire to go to
the extreme of forbearance with a country which
had always shown the reverse of that quality in
all its dealings with us. We were looking out for
our own interests forsooth ! We thought a vast
United States better to deal with than several
smaller States ! We believe the reverse of this is
the truth. The size of the Union has been its
temptation to become a political nuisance in its
dealings with other countries.

But what of the slavery question P—nothing but
pettiness itself. There :s the old silly cumbrous
phraseology, with the old attempts at compromise
and staving off the question. The UNION iS still
set up like NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S image, and all
must fall down and worship it. Human liberty is
of course but a trifle to offer up to such a deity. As,
therefore, it is assumed that the loyal slaveholders
will be injured should their slaves be emancipated,
provision is made for their compensation should the
accidents of war give them freedom—this is fair;
but the President looks much further—he wants
by retention of slavery to regain the loyalty
of the Secessionists. He has kept, he says,
doubtless alluding to FREMONT'S proclamation, to
the letter of the Act of Congress in regard
to the confiscation of slaves, and tells Congress that
radical and extreme measures must be avoided. In
other words, he can't consent to abolition. The
anion of Freedom with slavery is still his reply.
He has, however, one little morsel even for the
abolitionists—he proposes to recognise Hayti and
Liberia, the recognition of the former being doubt-
less a rebuke to Spain, who in return may think
the Southern Government deserves recognition on
her part. The Secretary of War feels so :ur-
gently the necessity of accepting slave aid in the
South, and of not returning the slaves to their
masters to be by them employed in sustaining the
war by raising supplies, or oven by direct military
occupations, that he pleads for the necessary emanci
pation of such as resort to the armies ; but he is also,
of course, greatly concerned for the loyal masters.
There is not on this subject the slightest indication of
anything more than a hand to-mouth policy adapted
to immediate military exigencies—nothing like 1
raising the banner of emancipation as the standard
by which the North might conquer, with the ap-
plause of the civilized world, Motions are already
before Congress on the subject, but they seem little
likely to end in anything. Indeed, the Message
points to colonizing the free negroes at any cost on
land purchased for the purpose, rather than tolerate
their free presence amongst the white lords of the
North.

FIRE AT THE THAMES IRON SHIP-BUILDING
COMPANY'S WORKS.—Yesterday a fire destroyed the
( mould-room and roof of some of the most important parts
of these premises. The mould- room of the Warrior and
the models of other vessels were destroyed.
THE WARD OF LANGBOURN.—At the request of
many electors and inhabitants, Mr. T. Sidney Smith an-
nounces his intention, on St. Thomas's Day, to offer him-
self as a candidate for the honour of being elected one of
the representatives in the Court of Common Council for the
year ensuing. He is well known to most of the electors,
and his father is at present one of the representatives of an
adjoining ward in the Court of Common Council.

The Toronto Glebe, of Nov. 20, says :—Gen. Sir
Fenwick Williams, Commander of the For&s, will arrive
in town this afternoon, by the Grand Trunk train, accom-
panied by his staff, including Col. Wilmot, Col. Rollo,
Capt. Pa Winton, and Capt. Grant, for the purpose of in..
specting the defences of the neighbourhood. The excava-
tions for a new fort, a short distance from the old one, were
commenced a couple of days ago under the superintendence
of Col. Robertson, Royal Engineers."

A puisne judgeship in India has been offered to
Mr. ➢'Mahon, M.P. for Wexford, and declined. The ap-
pointment is worth £5,000 a year, with £1,500 for an out-
fit, but the locality, Agra, is extremely ill-suited to Euro-
peans until they have been acclimatised by early and long
residence.

EXTRAORDINARY LEAP.—Mr. William Harrison,
of Wharram-le-Street, on the Yorkshire Wolds, when
hunting with Lord Middleton's foxhounds at Settrington
on the 12th, jumped, on his famed chestnut gelding Gari-
baldi, the immense distance of 31 feet over high posts and
rails.