The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-11 00:00:00

TIMiIIES.

Stephen Sly, a tall youth, about 17 years of age,
was brought before the llon. G. C. Norton, charged
with setting fire to a haystack.
It appeared that the prisoner addressed himself to a
police-constable named Cockerel!, No. 266 K, on
Monday night about nine o'clock, and said he had set
fire to a haystack in Bromley-marshes. The prisoner
had no shoes on, and was without coat and waistcoat,
in which state he appeared in the dock. On being
asked the reason for committing the crime, he said he
wanted to go out of the country.
Mr. Joseph Roberts, of the firm of Radford and
Robert, market gardeners of Bromley, stated that on
Moaday night, about eight o'clock, he received in-
formation that a stack of hay was on fire on his farm.
He went to the place, and when he arrived there the
stack was in a blaze.

A labourer in the employ of Radford and Roberts
stated that he saw the prisoner going towards the hay-
stack on Monday evening, and in consequence of his
deplorable condition he questioned him, and asked
him if he wanted any work, to which he made a vague
answer. About a quarter before seven he saw the
prisoner again, and he was then going towards the
haystack.
In answer to questions by Mr. NORTON, the wit-
ness said that he spoke to the prisoner very kindly in
consequence of his apparently deplorable condition, and
said he was looking out for a ship.
The prisoner, in answer to questions by Mr. NOR-
TON, said he had no relations living except an uncle ;
he had been at sea for some time, but he did not like
the service.

Mr. NORTON—Is it true you set fire to the hay ?
Prisoner—Yes, Sir. I want to be transported.
Mr. Roberts said he had no doubt the crime was
premeditated, and that the prisoner told the sergeant
at the station-house that he had made up his mind to
set fire to two other stacks of hay in an orchard at
Bow.

Cockerel), the policeman, stated that on asking the
prisoner what he had done with his clothes, he said
he had disposed of them to obtain bread.
_ _

Mr. NORTON said this was a very serious case, and
he had no alternative but to commit the prisoner for
trial.

SOUTHWARK.

Richard Collins, a journeyman furrier, was brought
before Mr. Seeker, charged with having caused the
death of his wife, Catherine Collins, by knocking her
down and kicking her in the abdomen while far ad-
vanced in pregnancy.
The circumstances were reported in this paper yes-
terday as they appeared in evidence before Mr. Payne,
the coroner.

After the witnesses had been examined,
Mr. SECKER asked the prisoner whether he wished
to wk them any questions ? Prisoner replied in the
negative. He had nothing to say.
Mr. SECKER—Then you are committed for trial for
the manslaughter of your wife.
The witnesses were bound over to prosecute, and
the prisoner was removed to Newgate to await his
trial.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—A naval review on a grand scale is a
; sight not often witnessed even in our own waters, and
the spectacle acquires extraordinary interest when ex-
hibited by a rival power. Cherbourg has been the
scene of a most imposing display. Eight line-of-
battle ships, including two of enormous size and
power, a proportionate fleet of steamers and frigates
for discharging the light duties of the squadron, have
been manoeuvred with admirable skill and effect
almost within sight of our own harbours, and within
gun shot of our Channel possessions. A crowd of
titled and professional excursionists betook themselves
from these shores to criticise, marvel, or applaud,
and their less fortunate countrymen have been intro-
duced to the realities of the scene through the faith-
ful pictures of our reporter. Timid imaginations
may now feed upon the destructive capacities of the
majestic Valmy, pierced for 140 guns, each gun being
half as large again as those of a British broadside, and
so ingeniously mounted that the hand of a cabin boy
is competent to direct the ponderous machine. The
Friedland makes a worthy second, with its frowning
battery of wide-mouthed cannon and " all the gun
gear in its proper place." Even the two deckers
carry upwards of 100 guns, and the Jemappes and
the Hercule are evidently more than matches for
any three-deckers of ancient measurement. In
this magnificent array 90's take the place of common
rank and file ;—there are the Jena, the Henri IV., the
Inflexible, and the Jupiter, each and all as good as
100-gun ships ; while in their wake followed a squad-
ron of powerful steamers—those locomotive plants of
the ocean, which supply the floating batteries of the
line with the only aid needed to make them irre-
sistible. The very names of the vessels recall volumes
of history. The victories and conquests of the French
are illustrated from the last days of the old Monarchy
to the first days of the Empire, while more peaceful
triumphs find their commemoration on the sterns of
the steam-frigates. Our Admiralty might certainly
take a lesson at this point. While we have been
ransacking the rolls of infernal mythology to find
names for our steamers, a more appropriate nomencla-
ture was adopted by our neighbours, who made each
self-propelling vessel perpetuate by its designation as
well as its performances the wonderful conquests of
science. Nor have they been exclusive in their
recognitions, for by the side of Descartes
And Magellan we observe a name not dis-
coverable, we believe, at Sheerness or Ports-
mouth—that of the English Newton. There is
no reason why a naval review at Cherbourg
should be more psrticularly suggestive than
a military review in Hyde Park, nor do we suppose
that Parisian visitors connect our small parades be-
hind the Horse Guards with any inseparable anticipa-
tions of what may come to pass another day. Yet
so peculiar are the pretensions of this country to ma-
ritime power, that it is perhaps practically impossible
for Englishmen to witness without some anxious spe-
culation such a spectacle as that which our columns
of this morning record. Nor can mar neighbours be
insensible to the same impression, and we may safely
presume that the very best display which national
emulation could effect was exhibited on Saturday at
Cherbourg. The French are evidently on their met-
tle, and not only as respects seamanship, but good
breeding too. The order of their ships is perfect ; the
carriage of their officers unimpeachable. Every ves-
sel is thrown open to the admiring visitor, and as the
tri-colour is lowered in acknowledgment of the Bris
tish salute the band of the French flag-ship plays
" God save the Queen." The exposition of profes-
sional science on board is described as unimpeachable
—everything ship-shape and serviceable, with the
utmost cleanliness, effectiveness, and order. As
to sailing qualities, the palm of naval architectnre
has long pertained to the French. Even such inci-
dents as this review, with its interchanges of civilities
and compliments, must aid in promoting the good un-
derstanding between our neighbours and ourselves.
The more: we are brought into contact, the less we
are likely to be brought into collision. A respectful
appreciation of each other's strength may supply no
unlikely motive for general good behaviour. This is
not the kind of familiarity which breeds contempt.
We see the latent forces of the French people, and
can be in no way disposed to summon them into ac-
tion. No particular comparisons are necessary to
this deduction. They are reasons enough for peace
of all kinds, but a salutary conception of the perils
of war, though less honourable than some motives,
may perhaps be not less influential in the end. By
and by, perhaps, we may come to the point of re-
versing these expositions, and showing each other
with what scanty defences we can manage to get
along. After the general disarmament France may
exhibit her single guardahip, or England carry off the
palm of confidence by reducing the royal navy to a
revenue cutter. But is there not a wonderful
change to be wrought in the human mind be-
fore these metamorphoses can come to pass!
It is impossible to forget—perhaps, without the
slightest imputation on our. neighbour's good-will,

we may say it was not intended we should forget—
! that the fleet which issued in such magnificent style
from behind the Cherbourg breakwater might some
day sail straight across the Channel; that those
I heavy guns might all be pointed in anger, and that
each of the black rakish•looking steamers might
throw a thousand men on a hostile shore without
warning given or suspicion raised. Such a sugges-
tion cannot be thought out of place or ill-timed,
for doings of this kind are the very vocation of the
vessels paraded before us. If guns were not meant
to be fired or steamers to be employed for transport,
there would be no use in manufacturing either one or
the other. From the extent of our liabilities we may
measure our precautions, and it is undoubtedly not
advisable that we should be without the wherewithal
to receive such visitors as might possibly be some
day dispatched from Cherbourg. The point is cer-
tainly a brave one for economists, who will appeal to
the folly thus palpably exemplified of nations urg-
ing each other forward in the ruinous race of public
expenditure. The argument sounds very plau-
sibly, but it is in plain truth impractical. To fix a
maximum in national demonstrations is just as im-
possible as to fix a maximum in market prices. The
old French Republicans tried by overwhelming ter-
rorism to establish a point beyond which competition
should not go, and M. Louis Blanc and his friends
have endeavoured by organiz ition and arbitration to
arrive at the same result in the present day. Neither
the one party nor the other succeeded in its efforts
against the laws of nature, nor will any efforts succeed
better as long as these laws remain the same.
National, like individual, passions will work them-
selves out as long as they subsist in force and vigour,
and mortals must suffer till penalties have taught
them wisdom. After all, it is a fact beyond dispute
that since we have maintained such respectable de-
fences we have had much more peace than before.
When the navy estimates were under two millions
we were at war every ten years. It is to be regretted,
no doubt, that we should be under the necessity e.f
supporting expensive armaments either for no purpose
at all or a very sad one, and the capacity of a fleet
must needs be equivocal when our first hopes are that
it may never be brought into use. But the same argu-
ment will apply to gaols, police establishments, and
all the machinery of justice and its penalties. Ali
the expenses thus entailed are alike burdensome, un •
satisfactory, and unproductive. War is a contingency
to which every nation under the sun has been liable
since the occupation of the globe by the human race,
and the general history of Europe during the laat
two years is certainly not suggestive of the idea that
the hazard has suddenly ceased. We must meet the
risk as best we can with all precautions of wisdom
and forbearance, but likewise with some provision
against less forbearance or wisdom on the part of
others. Nations will some day leave off equipping
fleets as gentlemen left off wearing swords, but it
must be in obedience to conviction and civilization
alone, for there is no higher power existing to enact
or enforce a law. The duty of every state and
people is to promote this civilization by mutual ac-
quaintanceship and good-will, and we may hope it is
a step gained in the work when the appliances of
strength and power are made, as at Cherbourg, to
serve the purpose of hospitable entertainment and
festive display.
HERALD.—We are not of the number of those
who look on the demonstrations and fetes of Cher-
bourg with any feeling of jealousy, much less of
alarm. In 1840 or 1841 such a demonstration in the
then excited temper of the French nation might
have been disagreeable, if not dangerous. But ten
years have not passed over the heads of great num-
bers of our neighbours without bringing, we would
fain hope, in their train a more correct appreciation
of English opinions, English feelings, and, we will
add, English interests. We desire no new conquests,
no new accessions of territory. Our motto is, to use
the epigraph of M. Dupin, cited eight or nine years
ago in the Chamber of Deputies, " chacun pour soi,
chacun chez soi." So long as the rest of the world
observes this golden rule, we are too glad to repose
in that strength which is our security and safeguard.
It is only when by writings, and by speeches, wild
passions, vain hopes, and chimerical desires are encou-
raged in the breasts of other nations, that it behoves
Great Britain to look on with a scrutinising, a jealous,
and a mistrustful eye. In 1840 and 1841, the greatest
and most mischievous pains were taken by some
leading public men, and some influential journalists
in France, to malign and calumniate England. Our
country was called an oppressor and a monopoliser.
We were designated as perfidious and faithless—as
desirous to extend everywhere our influence with a
view to material and- mercantile advantages. Oar
navy was pointed at as an engine equally powerful
and piratical ; and the worst passions of man's nature
were evoked for the purpose of setting John Bull and
Jacques Bonhomme by the ears. These efforts
failed—happily failed of their effect at the time, and
every successive year has diminished the probability
of such ignorant and infuriate outbursts. English-
men and Frenchmen have become better known to
each other. Railroads and steamers—monster
trains and weekly excursions, have m :de than
better acqii ainte d, more especially since 1847
and 16148. Unless, therefore, in the very remotest
districts, or among the most ignorant and besotted of
the population, there is no Frenchman who believes
that John Bull has any designs on Calais or Dunkirk
—that he covets Touraine or Armories, or desires
:gain to rule in Normandy or Picardy. Why, in
Heaven's name, should he desire to rule there, where,
be it said without offence, it is no such easy thing to
rule? He has duties at home and abroad that occupy
his full time and tax his b: st energies, and lands and
colonies thrust upon him which, could he eterciee a
volition, he had rather not have. To think, then, that
England, so encumbered with territory, is desirous o'
adding to her stock by spoliating her neighbours, is
not merely preposterous, but unjust. There is not a
national guard who visited our shores in November,
1848—there is scarcely a Frenchman of sane mind
who has since arrived here by an excursion train, who
does not feel and know that this is the truth. Thus
is a vast stride made since 1841, when even in Havre,
Ingouville, Caen, Cherbourg, and Valogues there were
hundreds and thousands of Frenchmen who believed
that England was then the bitterest sworn enemy
of France—an enemy malevolently bent on ruining
French commerce and crippling French resources.
Such nonsensical notions are in a great degree dissi-
pated now, unless in particular coteries, and even in
such coteries the events of the past week must do
much to destroy them. Did it show any envy, jea-
lousy, or hatred, for example, that so many of our
admirals and post captains—that so many distinguished
members of our Royal Yacht Club—so many English
of all classes and conditions—viewed with feelings of
delight the aspect and trim of the French fleet in the
roadstead of Cherbourg? The salutes and cheers
given to the Vaisseau Amiral, to the Jemappes, the
Friedland, and the Henri 1.V., by British ships and
British voices, were not the least vigorous and enthu-
siastic. There was not an Englishman present at the
interesting spectacle of which we speak who felt one
particle of jealousy or of alarm, or who desired to se e
France otherwise than great, powerful, and prosperous.
But every Englishman of sense—whether present at,
or absent from, the fete at Cherbourg—feels that
France can only be great, powerful, and prosperous in
securing peace at home—in developing and in extend
ing the great resources of the fertile and beautiful
country, whose soil is washed by the North Sea, the
ocean, and the Meditterranean—and in religiously re-
specting abroad the faith of treaties and the indepen-
dence of other and rival nations. Maintaining ever in
view these objects, and accomplishing them to the
best of her ability, France has no interests opposed
to, or in conflict with, those of England. We
view her progress in the mental and mechanical
sciences—in the fields of literature and art—in the
crafts of shipbuilding and navigation—in preparations
for defensive or offensive war—with anxious interest;
but we view them also without dread. We feel and
know, that if the efforts of our nearest neighbour be
well and properly directed, they must be in complete
harmony with our own, and must ultimately
tend to the freedom, civilization, and happiness,
not merely of Europe, but of the whole human
race. We feel and know, that if they be impro-
perly directed, it will be not only the inte-
rest, but the duty, not alone of England, but of
united Europe, to interpose. As, however, in the
present exceptional position of affairs—notwithstand-
ing the wonderful efforts of Herr Cobby (as the
German papers call him), arid his hobby, the Peace
Congress of Frankfort—everything in Europe is un-
certain, transitory, and fluctuating—as there is little
stability anywhere out of E egland, it behoves us to
be prepared for every emergency, and to be girt up
alike f)r the service of friend or foe. Above all, the
praiseworthy efforts bestowed on the French navy by
the people in authority on the other side of the Chan-
nel, ought to convince our First Lord of the necessity
of renewed exertion in his peculiar department. The
progress of our neighbours should be to us new in-
centives to maintain that naval preponderance we
have so long enjoyed. It is not because the navy of
our country has been aggressive and piratical, that it
has thus become, and ought to continue, preponderant
Our navy has fl )urishsd and waxed strong because it
has been the wgis of Great Britain. And the safety
and strength of Great Britain are, it is admitted by
sane men of all countries, necessary elements in
the repose of the world.

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