The Sun. — 1855-09-25 (London, England)

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY 14:IV:ENING--; SEPTEMBER 25, 1855  troops that would otherwise have been fully occupied to th e Crimea. She deliberately refused to proceed ally further, or to fulfil her obligations, declaring tb at " the eventualities of the War" should decide ). They have decided, and she cannot resume the position she formally and definitively abandoned.  Whatever ` then may be her wishes she is debarred by b ,er own acts from further interference. She must co ,ntinue to observe the neutrality which she advised! ly professed. Nor can she again retard the mov era ants of the Ottoman or Allied troops across the Principalities. In that respect she is bound toe firmly to permit of any diplomatic quibbles o: r special pleading. Nothing but the culpable yr eakness of the Governments of France and England could enable her again to interfere ; and we ca nnot think so badly of the Cabinets of Paris or of London as to suppose that they, or either of them, could fall into so grievous an error—'ma rso destructive to their own reputation, i and that stability of their power and influence.  The atmosphere of official life is not good even for a brisk constitution. Some men's, it is true, are made of iron, and will pass unharmed through anything ; while others, by early training, have acclimatised themselves after a fashion to a moral Sierra Leone. The true test, however, is the effect produced on individuals of at least average health and mature age, wholly unused to it. If they are found generally to suffer, as they notoriously are, fail to be injured by it who may, tha inference is obvious—an official atmosphere is not wholesome.  Look at Sir BRILTIMIN HALL by way of illustration. That sturdy Welsh Baronet, whose Radical constitution seemed capable of resisting anything, what havoc the atmosphere has been playing with him ! You would have thought a people's champion with a better stamina was not to be found anywhere. Yet no sooner is he made Right Honourable than he begins to grow tottery, and his prowess of yesterday is put to shame by his recreantcy of to-day. He carries away like a SAMSON the gates of Hampton Court, and fills, with his wand of power, like PROSPERO in his enchanted isle, the verdant Gardens of Kensington with exquisite music (of a Sunday afternoon). Presto ! the scene is changed—the descendant of Princes, whose genealogy no mortal Englishman would presume to question unless suicidally disposed,' and therefore unappalled by the certainty of lock-jaw or insane bewilderment —the people's man, who comprehends their wishes, is acquainted with their necessities, delights to fight their battles, and cares not how many of their enemies he slaughters at the hustings the SAMSON, the PROSPERO, the knight of ST. DAVID, become the Right Honourable, is caught appropriating a portion of one of the people's conservatories, to grow not leeks, but a patent of nobility therein ; and when be is asked how he came to " try it on," 1 replies "he never did try it on, and if he did, 1 he did it for the best."  We put it to the reader whether a clearer case for a sanitary inquiry was ever made out. An individual with a vigorous moral constitution like Sir BENJAMIN, reduced to surreptitious appropriation of the property of his old friends ! It is satisfactory, however, to perceive that he is a little anxious about hia reputation, now he is found out, and that he has got a friend to stand by him in his trouble. Sir GEORGE SHELLEY has goodnaturedly taken pity on his mountain pride, and given him an opportunity for a hearing ; and what has the perturbed culprit to say for himself ? "He never did try it on—it was the Secretary of State (no less) that set him to do it." They thought he was going to steal from them when he was not —he was only, look you, going to see how the pit of ground could be pest laid out, pefore he took it, for their advantage. Really the Right Hon. Baronet's vindication amounts to that, distressing though it be to have such unmasticated logic from one trained as he has been from his youth, to grind consonants. In fact Sir BENJAMIN confesses to a bridge, not an ornamental, but worse than that, a substantial one, across St. James's Park being in contemplation. " Great inconvenience," ho tells us, " has been occasioned to persons in carriages (not having the entree of St. James's Park) being obliged to go by way of Piccadilly and Grosvenor-place, from Pall-mall, to Pimlico ;" and having, in his official character as Commissioner of Public Works, been desired by the Secretary of State to prepare a plan for a road, he has prepared one, according to which the road was to run direct from Pall-mall to Birdcage-walk, crossing the ornamental water over a good solid bridge, and to be open to carriages and cabs night and day. The Chief Commissioner of Public Works confesses that the design at which the public took alarm, and which they were assured had no existence save in their imagination, was and is really contemplated, and originated with him. So far good ; the public know now how to regard him. But he goes on to say —he never intended to proceed with the road until the meeting of Parliament. Credat Judccus, Sic. The public owe Sir BENJAMIN too little in this matter to be under obligation to give him credit in return. They will interpret the long poles in the Park by their own cipher and not his, and trust as much as he deserves the man they have found out. Even those who give full credit to his denial will reasonably look with suspicion on his conduct when they remember how many m.P.'s convenience the road would serve, and how often Acts of Parliament have been passed when only a few interested parties have been present. And all this while nothing has really been wanting for public accommodation but the removal of some iron gratings and th e widening of the entrances for carriages, &c. The roads required exist already in the Park, and a silly prejudice is only to be conquered to have them thrown open. No necessity is there whatever to destroy the delightful privacy of the gardens, and fill with noxious dust their salubrious retreats ; no necessity in the world to rob the industrious poor of a privilege they dearly prize, and which contributes to their health as well as enjoyment. Let the right of way be granted the public all round the Park, as a contemporary suggests, and the thing is done. Before he was Right Honourable Sir BENJAMIN would have been delighted to have fulminated against instead of concocting such a plan as his, and would have sought with more eagerness for the required permission even than he is said to do for a coronet. So prejudicial is an official atmosphere, more especially when radiating Court sunshine. But a truce to Sir