The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-26 00:00:00

TBE GREAT GENERAL CODRINGTON.

(From the Times.)
Sir William Coclrington is appointed to the com-
mand of—the Prince of Wales. The " Court
Circular" announces that this distinguished Gene-
ral has gone to Konigswinter, on the Rhine, to be
in attendance on the youthful Prince. The public
will perhaps, in these times of war and tumult,
have anticipated other commands for the great
Crimean soldier,—not more honourable, of course,
but perhaps more arduous. We will not believe
that his youthful Royal Highness really requires a
first-rate General to manage him. He is, from
everything we have been able to hear, a most good-
natured, amiable -young Prince, endowed with a
sweetness of disposition which softens down all the
siffness of rank, and endears him to all who are
placed around him. We allow that sixteen is a
trying age ; it is the age when manhood first
dawns, and life begins to open out with its new
impulses and activities. Sixteen is, indeed, pro-
nounced by the authorities of the drawing-room to
be an intolerable age. Mothers, aunts, and sisters
fear sixteen, and resign themselves meekly to the
approach of a period of trial. Sixteen puts the
schoolmaster on his mettle, and keeps his nerves
and courage braced, ready for the fight. We do not
underrate the difficulties of its management and
proper control. Still, even at its worst, "sixteen"
might have Leen controlled by somebody who had
not blown up Sebastopol, and, softened as it is, if
not quite subdued, by Royal rank and the best of
dispositions in the present case, it would most pro-
bably have yielded to the tutorial guidance of a
quiet, stoacious civilian, who had never brandished
a sword, or sent battalions to mortal strife. Even
clergymen have been known to undertake the task
of superintending our young Princes, so peaceful
an occupation has it been thought, and so little con-
nected with the art of war. Some rather less formid-
abh and less co:on-landing personage, then, than
Lieut.-General Codrington,K.C, 8., Grand ross of
the Sardin;an Order, Companion of the Legion of
Honour, of the Order of the Medjidie, &c., and late
General of the English Forces iu the Crimea, could
have directed the young Prince's lour up the
Rhine, could have pointed out to him the principal
towns and castles, and conducted him to the best
hotels.

The General, we observe, has crone to Konigs-
winter,' doubtless to be in time to head the arduous
ascent of the Drachenfels, which his Royal Highness
has resolved upon.. We do 'not say that a great
commander might not be of service in this under-
taking ; we know from our own experience that it
is not wholly devoid of difficulties. The -race of
donkeys is not always to be depended on; some-
tunes a humour of disobedience comes over them,
an inclination to do anything but facilitate your
progress, a determination in the tribe to congregate
in corners, with their riders upon there, and block
up their own pathway. Some address is required
to untie these Gordian knots, and no ascent, we are
quite sure, wss ever made in this world—not even
an txsoent of twenty minutes—which did not task iu
some degree the virtue of patience. Still, a less di
tinguished General than Sir William Codrington
could restore marching order on such occasions, and
lead the way successfully up these stupendous
heights. It is true that terrific legends and tradi-
tions of war hover round the top, and the story of
the awful combat between Siegfreid and the Dra-
gon might come suitably from military lips. But,
whatever may have been the horrors of the past,
the present view from the top of the Drachenfels is
eminently peaceful, exhibidug the am:)le reaches
of a magnificent river, flowing betwe n cornfields
and vineyards. And the same may be said of the
whole of the Rhine ; it is an eminently peace-
ful river now ; with the exception of Ehrenbreit-
stein, its fox tresses belong to the past ; its present is
an era of high cultivation and adornment, grapes
and gardens, s'eamers and hotels. The decli-
vities of the banks exhibit the triumphs of
spade labour, by which not a foot of the invalu-
able slope, with its - precious soutLern aspect
and sunshine, is lost to the ' husbandman.
The Prince would not, probably, look for much in-
struction in the art of war from the monuments of
the old medisev tl robbers who sallied forth to levy
blackmail upon merchant ves,els. These picturesque
ruins only heighten the luxurious peacefulness of
the scene, and probably Sir W. Codrington will be
the last person to " improve the occasion," like
Dugald Dalgetty, as he passes them, into a lecture
l
upon the science of war to his Royal pupil. H
be the first to yield to the triumphant peacefulness
of the scene, t ) wave war with its terrors aside,
v, dfrential
convert himself into the iale" "what need of
companion of future Royalty.geli
such a mighty warrior at all, and Then,hy enlist the
plume in
"adadsienrgvihcoerprs" of a Crimean Generals
the
We must frankly confess that this appears rather
a "drop" for Gen. Codrint.onna
—ealt-laerniy to
mean,o
a fall, w
from the command of the n
maud of—we say it with all respect and deference,
the language but still it is the fact—a boy of 16—or, to speak in
)yal Highness the Prince of Wales" in
his tour up the Rhine. When the late Arc
nupon g of the Court Circular, " to attend trice
his
Archbishop
of Canterbury was raised from the position of a pri-
vate clergyman to that of &shop of London, an old
peer asked what the qualifications of the fortunate
accomplishments,hesi-
tated, t a talked aboutscut theologicalholars
hrzca.
unknown were. The informant blundered and
dinAgtiaa
sn dt
bc e y
rical
acci-
dent he hit upon the fact that the late prelate was
a tutor to the Marquis of Abercorn's son, and had
always got on with the Marquis very well. The old
peer was immediately satisfied. "Oh, if he managed
Abercorn he could manage anybody, or any dio-
cess." Here is a rise from the management of one
to the management of many. Sir Win. Codrington
reverses the process. He rises from the government
of many to that of one. Ho has prepared himself