The Sun. — London, England, 1859-01-29 00:00:00

THEATRE -ROYAL, HAYMARKET. Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone. tiTHIS EVENING, THE HONEYMOON, Juliana, by Mrs. W. C. Forbes. After which, a new grand Comic Pantomime, entitled UNDINE ; or, Harlequin and the Spirit of the Waters. R OYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT GARDEN, under the sole Management of Miss Louisa Fyne and Mr. W. Harrison THIS EVENLNG will be pi l e, entitl ed entirely new and romantic Opera, by Mr. W. Balfe, entitled SA TANELLA ; or, THE POWER OP LOVE. Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. To conclude with the new Pantomime of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD ; or, Harlequin and the Wolf in Granny's Clothing. Commence at Seven, T HEATR E -R-3OYAL, Smith D RURY-LANE. sseelr E. T. . THIS EVENING, LAT EST FROM NEW YORK. Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams. To conclude with the new pantomime, ROBIN HOOD ; or, Harlequin Friar Tuck and the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest. ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE. Under the Management of Mr. Charles Kean. THIS EVENING will 'be performed THE CORSICAN BROTHERS. Mr. C. Kean. After which, 'a new grand Christmas Pantomime, entitled T HE RING OF THE CASTLE ; or, Harlequin Prince Diamond and Princess Brighteyes. Commence af 7. ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. Manager, Mr. Edmund Falconer. THIS EVENING, will be per f or med THE SISTER'S SACRIFICE. Messrs. Emery, Barret , and Rogers. Madame Celeste, Mrs. Keeley, and Miss Julia St. George. After which, will be produced the new Burlesque, written expressly for the Lyceum Company by Robert B. Brough, and entitled THE SIEGE OF "TROY. The principal cha racters by Mrs. Keeley, Miss Julia St. George, Mrs. Weston, Miss Portman, Miss Talbot, Miss Kate Saxon, Miss E. Romer, &C. Mr. Emery, Mr. Charles Young, Mr. Merton, Mr. J. Rogers, Mr. Barrett, Arc. ; Miss Rosins Wright, Miss M. Charles, Miss Harriet Dalton, &c. To conclude with the new Comic Pantomime, replete with new tricks and mechanical devices, entitled HARLEQUIN TOY HORSE • or, The remorne Fete. Clown, Mr Charles Lauri ; Mr. John Lauri ; Pantaloon, Mr. Henry Lauri ; Columbine, Miss Jenny Lauri. Reduced Prices—Dress Boxes, 4s. ; Upper Boxes, 3s. ; Pit, 2s. ; Stalls, ss. ; Gallery, ls. Box-office open from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past 6, to commence at 7 every evening. NEW THEATRE - ROYAL, ADELPHL Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster. First Night of a New Drama. THIS EVENING, THE BORGIA RING: A Legend of Stonehenge. Mr. Ben. Webster, Mr. C. Selby, Mr. J. L. Toole, Mr. P. Bedford, Miss Woolgar, Mrs. Billington. To be followed by THE LAST OF THE PIGTAILS. Mr. C. Selby, Mr. X. L. Toole, Miss Henrietta Simms. To conclude with the grand Christmas Pantomime, entitled MOTHER RED CAP ; or, Harlequin Johnny . Gilpin's Ride to Edmonton. Clown, Mr. Croueste ; Harlequin, Mr. Hilde brand ; Columbine, Miss Hayman ; Pantaloon, Mr. Luptno ; Sprite, Mr. Le Barr. ROYAL STRAND THEATRE. Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborougb. THIS EVENING, THE RULE OF THREE. Atter which, the new Extravaganza, KENILWORTH ; or Ye Queene. ye Earle, and ye Maydenne. And THE LITTLE SAVAGE Commence at 7 o'clock. ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE Westmittster-road. Lessee and Manager Mr. William Cooke. Crowded Houses Nightly. Great and glorious Success of the gorgeously-appinted Pan tomime.—The celebrated continental equestrians, Mr. A. Brydges and Madame Brydges, every Evening. Dress Circle, 48. ; Boxes, 3s. ; Pit, 2s, ; Gallery, Is. ; Upper Gallery, 6d. THIS EVENING, and during . the week. the grand Spec tacle of THE GIPSY GIRL OF MADRID ; or, The Edict of Spain. After which, the inimitable SCENES IN THE CIRCLE, Introducing Mr. Wm. Cooke's beautiful and highly-trained palfries and ponies, and the Starßiders of Europe. To conclude with the great Operatic and Burlesque Eques trian Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN BARON MUN CHAUSEN, AND HIS COMICAL CREAM COB CRUISER. Baron Munchausen, Mr. W. Anson ; Harlequin, Mr. H. Hemmings ; Pantaloon, Mr. Morley; Clown, Mr. A. F. Forrest ; Columbine, Miss Julia Weston. Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips. The last grand Morning Performance of the matchless Pan tomime on Saturday next, January 29, at Two o'clock. Carriages for the day 'performance at half-past four, and night representation at half-past eleven, CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road. — Proprietor —C. Mon Tori. The public is most respectfully informed that the FINE ARTS GALLERY, in connection with the above Hall, IS NOW OPEN DAT AND NIGHT, from 11 o'clock a.m. until 12 o'clock p.m. The New Gallery contains an extensive Collec tion of Pictures, by Ancient and Modern Masters and is also devoted to Art productions generally. The Proprietor feels he may confidently assert that, viewed altogether, the exist ing Music Hall, the New Fine Arts Gallery, and the recently added Ante-Hall, will present an attraction which, whether as regards the architectural beauty of the structures them selves, or the varied and hitherto unattempted combinations within, will be found to be wholly without parallel in the Kingdom. The MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT commences as usual at Seven o'clock. In addition to the usual entertainment, the SAUVLET FAMILY, of Amsterdam, Eight in number, whose varied instrumental performances have created so marked a sensa tion in the principal cities and towns of the Continent, will perform every Evening at Nine and Eleven o'clock. THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, JAN. 29. THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE. 52—highest since noon yesterday. 43—lowest this morning and during the night. 52—this day at noon. BAROMETER-29.79, WIND, South-Westerly; light, with dull weather. THE SUN. SATURDAY. JANUARY 29, 1859. Mr. BRIGHT is pursuing an honest and straight forward course, so far as the Reform Bill is con cerned. Even those who may differ with respect to some of the details of the proposed measure will cheerfully recognise the manliness and integrity of purpose by which he is actuated, and the unflinch ing determination with which he has flung himself into the breach, and planted the Reform standard on the very citadel. Rotten boroughs, which obey the dictates of patrons, and all those which have not a sufficient number of inhabitants to justify the returning a member to the repre sentative branch of the Legislature are to be disfranchised. Others are to be shorn of a moiety of their Parliamentary representation and the seats thus obtained are to be bestowed on populous districts well entitled to the privilege. But, above and beyond all, there will be full pro. tection to the voters in the exercise of the extended franchise which is intended to be bestowed on them. These are good points ; but, will compel the production of the measures an nounced by the rival competitors for ship, and render it indispensable that they fully come up to the mark required by the • community. Lord PALMERSTON will scarcely congratulate him self on his protracted taciturnity, or the elaborate care which he took to prevent the slightest inkling of his intention from oozing forth, or the public from being enabled to even grasp at the nature of the dainty dish prepared for its palate. Mr. BRIGHT has grappled with the Times in respect to the disfranchisement scheme. The lion. gentleman is so fully capable of speaking for him self that he requires no advocate. We therefore give his own words • they are as follow : " The Times said the other day that it did not find So much fault with my scheme of disfranchise ment, but with my redistribution ; and I think it said it was a gigantic fraud to take eighty-seven seats, as I proposed, from boroughs in schedule A, from one side of the house and interests, and put thorn on the other side, meaning the commer cial or popular interests ; that it would make a difference on a division of 174 votes ; and the Times assum e d that these 87 seats were seats in very small town s connected with the landowners in the neighbourhood. Now, the Tin les h as a short me mory, for but six weeks ago it proposed, what I thought wa s a little extreme, to disfranchise every borough under 10 0 , 00, and that no borough under 25,000 should return more than one member. Now, if I had carried out that plan I should obtain from disfranchised seats not less than 47 seats more than those which I have obt • ained. Now that I call extreme, and I say that my plan is more reasonable, for I only go up to 8,000, and I take 120 sea t s , whereas the journalist would take 170 ; and for getting what he had written six weeks before, h e condemns my plan as very extreme, and, happily for us, introduces a rival scheme of his own. I am told that in the Times of this day there is a con siderable correction of this rival scheme. That scheme was what is called a plagiarism. I don't wish to speak offensively, but the scheme was stolen from my schedule. They took my child and stripped it of its decent clothing. They put on it rags of their own, and they scarred its countenance in order that it might excite pity." He was no less powerful on the extension of the 1 franchise—more especially to counti2 e lectors. It I is really hard that because a man lives outside an imaginary line he should, although paying rates and taxes to a greater amount than the born egh voter, that he should be made a political cypher on the mere question of venue. Mr. BRIGHT says, on this point :—" I have not the slightest doubt that when the next Reform Bill passes, if it does establish a county franchise -at the rate of £lO, very few years will elapse before there will be motions in the House of Commons for the purpose of bringing it down, if not to the level of the borough franchise, at least to a lower level than it is likely to be fixed by the coming bill. The fact is, the more the people who look at the question of the franchise examine it and handle it, and see how it works, the more their fears vanish. The fear of the rich and the great of the votes of the people is a fear arising from a suspicion which I believe is based almost entirely upon ignorance— first of the character of the people, and secondly of the effect which the possession of a vote has upon the minds and actions of the men in possession of it." He also states what he wants, and that dis tinctly and explicitly. There can be no mistake in the following declaration :—" What we want is this—not that you should transfer great political powers from great landowners to great merchants or manufacturers. What we want is that equally through all parts of the kingdom all interests, all wishes, all opinions should be equally represented, that the members who get into Parliament should feel that they are not the members of any section, but the members of the great body of the people, and you would then find that as opinion grew it would act gently, steadily, omnipotently on the House of Commons, and instead of our having to contend. with our rulers for every change, we should find one sole incentive in the Government, the Parlia ment, and the people." But although we give Mr. Bright full credit for what he has done, and is doing, we cannot accept all that he boasts of. He has spoken of his esta blishing cheap newspapers—that 300 journals are published for a penny each. He has forgotten to say how many receive, and a still more difficult point would be to say how many pay their expenses. We do not wish to assail any contem porary, but as we cannot understand how the necessary expenses can be defrayed, we do not think Mr. BRIGHT entitled to claim much credit on that part of the question. There may have been 300 cheap newspapers. Of how many have the obituaries been recorded ? It would have been far better if the Honourable Member had taken greater care to instruct himself on the currency question, to have proved that he was fully informed on every important topic. We are, however, proud of Mr. BRIGHT, and if compelled to censure for any mis takes, it is in sorrow rather than in anger. Since the establishment of the English Protec torate over the Septinsular Republic in 1815, the lonian Islands have had about the worst imaginable kind of Government. It has been all along a sort of complicated and elaborated political experiment. And the experiment has failed—totally and noto riously failed. At the best the Government out there has been all these four-and-forty years past simply a Provisional Government. It has worked ill throughout. It has been a perpetual source of disquietude. It has proved altogether unsa tisfactory to the lonians themselves. It has caused a chronic vexation and annoyance to be experienced at frequent intervals by its protecting rulers in this country ever since the period of its anomalous inau guration. It has existed all this while, so to speak, upon sufferance, as that incongruous and impossible and preposterous phenomenon among Governments —a State having republican institutions under a monarchical protectorate. The government of the 'lonian Islands, under these circumstances, has alternated between anarchy and despotism. The policy pursued in its regard by the English has been relaxed to the utmost stretch of conciliatory weakness, as during the recent epoch, when Sir JOHN YOUNG held the reins of office loosely—ready to slip from his grasp at any moment apparently—as Lord High Com missioner. At other times the lonian policy inaugurated in Downing-street has been as severe and rigid as delegated tyranny could well be ; as when General Sir CHARLES NAPIER, in his work entitled " The Colonies," wrote in regard to the Lord High Commissioner in 1822, " The feudal chiefs were still intent to make both the law and MAITLAND [Sir THOMAS MAITLAND] bend to their passions ; wherefore he created himself Dictator and his Residents Despots." It is true that NAPIER added to this intimation the words—" but to sus tain, not overrule law." Remembering, how ever, that the course pursued in any case depended upon the fallible judgments of these Despots the Residents, and of that formidable Dictator the Lord High Commissioner—the margin left for possible injustice and possible cruelty was suffi ciently alarming to disquiet any nationality, how ever sanguine or however susceptible. Take, as a case in point, one of these vicarious despots, NAPIER himself, the Resident at Cephalonia—for tunately a man of noble heart and resplendent genius, at once most humane and most conscien tious. But what a licence was that committed to his trust—supposing in his place there had chanced to be a bad man, a cruel man, or one in any way incompetent. Take his own account of his position out there, as described by his own hand, in a letter addressed to his mother, on the 12th of March, 1822, and dated from Argos _ toli—" Dear mother," writes Sir CHARLES, " kingdom is of sixty thousand people, and martial law exists send any s s ;that,is the courts of justice are closed; and i can in app t e h a e l. ha T n l as iis o ," f honeone to death without trial or eTn adds an h ; i b m u s t e l f f e , insga no oe inclinationpow er to be unjust or cruel, it does not annoy me ; I eve I like it. If compelled to hang any one, it shall be done on the perfect conviction that it is right to do My hope is not to be very cruel ; but, &c. Added to this, however, there is no small elcis res ponsibility and exertion ; for y ou litigious, and all the financial as well as r the Greer crimi nal and military business is on my hands "—and so forth. For an unconscientious man there were op portunities not merely for cruelty, but for corrup tion also. Recollect what had occurred to another-- years previously, among more tempting oppor tunities—when after the victory won at Plassy, as the great biographerof the Indian hero has written of him in the famous Essay, " CLIVE walked between heaps of gold and silver, crowned with rubies and diamonds, and was at liberty to help himself " - MAC.kULAY adding, thereupon " lie accepted between £200,000 and £300,000." A proceeding in regard to which Lord CLIVE exclaimed, with characteristic impetuosity when under examination before the Committee of tha House of Commons, " B Y God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand SO. . • • ,0N , ..U 1: MA L.' LY );" , 4 v •• 7 %1.4 'Apia - 1 4 - ti"4 4 110 0 1. 1 4, : r fIiZAS ' •, . . 4 1 -+' 71 :4 ealik -he WIT eo - ' 'ethech e THE SUN, LONDON, gATUR:DAY EVENING, JANUARY 29, 1859. astonished at, my O' wn. moderation." If the finan cial matters off *..'e island at the absolute disposal of the despot at Cephalonia in 1822 were utterly in significant and con-temptible as compared with the Indian spoils within reach of the plundering hands of CuvE, there is also to be borne in mind that the Resident then holding supreme authority was as good in heart as he was great in genius, that his hand was ever as unsullied in holding the balance of justice as it was terrible w hen wieldin g the I sword of battle. But the fact was there, neverthe ct—the opportunity was clearly there for both crueltZ and peculation. Latteri7 our policy in reference to the lonian Islands has been running into the very opposite extreme of And over-indulgence. Sir JOHN YOUNG w as instructed to conciliate as much as possible, and his efforts dt, conciliation have been rewarded, as we haw e,een, by the most flagrant and :the most insolent insubordination. To put an end satisfactorily to a series of difficulties that have only been growing more and more complicated during the Jest forty-four years, re quires obviously for its accomplishment the exercise of no ordinary abilities. Insignificant though the lonian Islands are in themselves as a state, the Sep tinsular republic is so associated directly or in directly with the Greek interests and the Turkish interests, with the Russian interests, with the interests of the eastern part of Europe generally, that it assumes to itself a certain inferential and relative importance. It is because of his recog nition of this importance that Mr. GLADSTONE has entered upon his remarkable mission— first as Extraordinary, and more recently as Ofdinary, Lord High Commissioner. The:comple tion ( . .f the design sketched out in that mission has it is true, b e en somewhat retarded and increased somewhat in delicacy and difficulty in several re spects by the in :toward publication of the GUERN SEY Despatches. But eventually—there is scarcely a moment's doubt of it~--Mr. GLADSTONE will succeed in the enterprise upon which he has with such manifest self-abnegagon thus chivalrously and magnanimously adventured, It is expected, indeed, that the spring will not long' have advanced when the Lord High Commissioner will have re turned to give an explanation 4 his pro ceedings to Parliament. Until Ids return of course a respectful reticence will be shown in regard to the lonian Question, both within and without the walls of the Legislature. When the Right Hon. Gentleman has returned to his glace in the House of Commons will be time enough for the elucidation of a hitherto obscure difficulty—a difficulty that there is now every reasonable expec tation will, by that time, have resolved itself into one of the most signal triumphs, won in the teeth of every imaginable obstacle by the accomplished Statesman now guiding the delicate and complex machinery of the Colonial Department. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess d'Aumale are staying on a visit with Frances Countess Waldegrave and Mr. Harconrt, M.P., at Nuneham Park, where a distinguished circle of guests are assembled. The party will separate on Wednesday next. His Excellency M. Isturitz has returned to the Spanish Legation, from visiting Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston, at Broadlands, Hants. The Duke of Rutland, who is entertaining a select circle at Belvoir Castle, is expected in town on Wed nesday next. The Marquis de Croisie has left the Brunswick Hotel, Jennyn-street, for Paris. The Earl and Countess Cawdor will arrive in own on the 7th proximo, from their scat in Wales, for the season. Count Alexander Mensdorff Pouilly, formerly the Austrian ambassador at the Court of St. Petersburg, will, it is positively stated, be sent as military governor to Milan. The Marquis of Hastings, who accompanied his Hoyal Highness the Prince of Wales to Munich, has ar rived at Vienna from Prague, and intends proceeding in a few days to Corfu. A correspondent at St. Petersburg states that the Government, "in order to prevent any embarrassment to the financial state of the country," is on the point of in terdicting the creation of any new joint-stock companies for some time to come. APOTHECARIES' HALL.—Names of gentleman who passed their examination in the science and practice of medicine, and received certificates to practise, on Thursday, Jan. 27, 1859 :—James Buckley, Manchester, and William James, Harris. A SIGN OF WAR.—On Tuesday a large quantity of saltpetre was sold by a firm in London to the Sardinian Government. On Thursday a still larger supply was pur chased here for the French Government, to be delivered in Piedmont. THE HON. Mn. SUMNER.—An American paper sayS :—" Charles Sumner, we much fear, will never stir the senate of the nation again with his eloquence. It is stated that Paris physicians, who have been consulted in his case, agree in the opinion that he will never recover from the effect of the injuries from which he has been suffering for the last two years." STATIONERY FOR PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS.—In the year ended the 31st of March, the stationery for public departments amounted to as much as £349,630. The Red Sea Telegraph Company have notified that on the 14th of February the Treasury will pay the guaranteed interest of 4-1 per cent. upon the paid up portion of the capital of that undertaking for the six months ending January the 31st. The report of the Peel River Company, pre paratory to their meeting on the 11th of February, states the sales of live stock for the half-year at £1,137, the land sales at £344, and the receipts from licenses at £3OO. A purchase has been effected of 34,043 sheep, 47 cattle, 30 horses, and stores for £32,297. THE RED SEA ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. — The screw steamers Imperatrice and Imperatore left the Mersey yesterday (Friday) morning for Madeira, Cape of Good Hope, and Suez. These vessels carry out a portion of the electric cable which is to be laid down in the Red Sea, and which was manufactured at Birkenhead by Messrs. CIJRIOTJS EFFECTS OF A THUNDERSTORM.—It is now rather more than two years since that a foreign family went to reside at Bideford. One of the young ladies was then bedridden, and continued so up to about a month since. - At that period the neighbourhood was visited by a terrific thunderstorm, and the effect of it upon the patient was that she was suddenly restored.— WeBtern Times. Mr. Brunel has left Cairo on a trip to the upper country, and Lord Dufferin has also sailed from Alexandria for the latitudes of Southern Egypt and Nubia. Mr. Brunel on his return to Cairo will probably visit Suez in accord ance with a request made to him by the Viceroy, who is desirous of having his opinion as to putting into execution the long-talked of project of transferring the port of Suez to the Bay of Ataka, some ten miles south of the present landingplace. THE FATAL AFFRAY IN THE HAMPSTEAD-ROAD. —Yesterday, an inquest was held at the Primo of Wales' Feathers, Hampstead-road, respecting the death of John Henry Burrows, which occurred in .the manner described in our report of the examination of John Plews, at the Marylebone Police Court, on Thursday. The coroner hav ing staled it was desirable that Mr. Flews should be pre sent, the summoning officer was despatched for him, and on - his return stated that he was unable to find him. The inquiry was then adjourned till Thursday next. BILLS FOR RAILWAYS AND PUBLIC IMPROVE MENTS.—Yesterday the examiners, Messrs. Smith and Frere, declared that the standing orders of both Houses of Parliament had been complied with in respect to the fol lowing bills.—Before Mr. Smith :—Fishguard Harbour Improvement—Travellers' and Marine Insurance and Ac cidental Death Insurance Companies—Bury St. Edmunds Gas—Droitwich Roads—Hinckley and Melbourne Roads— Shepton Mallen Waterworks—Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway (Station at Manchester)—Hertford, Luton, and Dunstable Railway—Poole and Bournerqouth Waterworks.—Before Mr. Frere :—Tottenham and Ed monton Gas—Tralee and Killarney Railway—Cork Butter Market—People's Provident Assurance Society—Falmouth Docks and Harbour—Leeds and Huntslet Road—Liverpool New Exchange Buildinzs—Liverpool Sanitary Amend ment Act—lsle of Wight Ferry—North Western Railway of Ireland—Londonderry Bridge. REPRESENTATION OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY. —It is rumoured that should a vacancy occur in the representa tion of the University the Right Hon. T. H. Sotheron Estcourt, now M.P. for North - Wilts, and President of the Poor Law Board, will be solicited to become a candidate. The hon. gentleman was a " gentleman commoner" of Oriel College, and graduated in 1823, taking a first class in " Literis Htuinanioribus," in company with Lord Ashley, the Very 11ev. the Dean of of Peterborough, Dr. Pusey, and other eminent personages. Mr. Sotheron Estcourt is the son of the late Mr. Thomas Giinston Bucknall Escourt, who succeeded Mr. Richard Heber as M.P. for the Univer sity in 1826. Mr. Estcourt sat as the colleague of the late Sir Robert Peel until the latter vacated his seat by the acceptance of the office of one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State. Mr. Estcourt from that period up to 1841 retained the seat in company with Sir Robert Harry Inglis, being succeeded by the right hon. gentleman whose mission to the -lonian Isles will, it is expected, cause a vacancy.—./Ambuty Guardian, IVYLD'S NEW MAPS. The Islands of Japan. By iames Wyld. Pntilish May of Representation. By James Wyld. Our distinguished geographer has here given two really remarkable evidences of his enterprise. Immediately before the re-assembling of Parlia ment hp iM$ igracd tWO roapi that will be more welcome to the legislators of both Houses, and to the country at large, than any perhaps that he could very well have published. A blue-book of a deeply interesting and eminently historical character will, of course, speedily follow the re-assembling of the Lords and Commons—a blue-book recounting succintly the diplomatic triumphs of the Earl (soon doubtless to be Marquess) of Elgin in China and in Japan. With many of even the long-sealed mysteries of the Celestial Empire we have been made acquainted from time to time through the medium chiefly of the Jesuit missionaries. Of the hidden wonders of Japan we have, however, scarcely an inkling. Our information as to the marvels of Japan has yet to begin, as the story books say, with the beginning. The key-note will be struck by the blue-book to which we have now alluded by anticipation. Before one morsel, how ever, of this information is given to the country— here is Mr. Wyld instantly at hand with his magical map of the Japanese Islands. With that admirable map spread out before us, we wait with increased eagerness for the coming blue-book, certain of seeing our way more clearly through it, thanks to the prompt and timely labours of our great geographer. As prompt, as timely have been the labours applied by him to the other map, inns: trative of the distribution of representation in England and Wales. It serves to throu- a flood of light, in the very nick of time, upon the'eontrasting problems of enfranchisement and disfranChisement. SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY. EXETER HALL. The Sacred Harmonic Society gave Mendelssalm's ora torio of "St. Paul" at this Halllast night. The merits of this oratorio are alreadyfamiliar to the musical public, thanks to the exertions of this society and its competitori. It is not likely to become as popular as the "Elijah" of the same composer, not being its equal in dramatic effect; but there is no doubt that its merits, as a composition, are very great, and will always be fully estimated by those who appreciate a high order of classical music. Mrs. Sunderland, Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Signor Belletti, were the principal performers. Miss Sunderland has a fine voice, and sang carefully. Miss Dolby's abilities, as an oratorio singer, are well known. She displayed them to full advantage last evening, especially in the beauti ful air for the contralto, But the Lord is mindful of his own ; " a worthy companion to the '"Oh 1 rest in the Lord," of "Elijah." Mr. Sims Reeves sang the tenor part with his accustomed success. The long and difficult recitative, "Men, brethren, and fathers," demands a singer of unusual ability. In the air of "Be thou faith ful unto death," he elicited a burst of applause from the audience—the only occasion on which the strict rules of the society were infringed. Signor Belletti's correct and careful singing was displayed to full advantage in the bass part. He especially distinguished himself in the recitative and aria, "Oh wherefore do ye these things" and "Know ye not?" The choruses were given with precision and effect. The orchestra, under Mr. Costa, left nothing to be desired. The hall was crowded in every part. " Elijah" will be given by the same society on Thursday next, which will be the fiftieth anniversary of the composer's birth. NR. S. C. HALL AT WILLIS'S ROOMS. The ranks of those literary men who have made a per sonal and faCe-to-face acquaintance with the pubic last night received an addition in the person of Mr. S. C. Hall, who, at Willis's Rooms, delivered a lecture on " The Au thors of the Age." It would be unfair to judge Mr. Hall by the standard of Carlyle, Thackeray, and Dickens, his predecessors as literary lecturers ; he possesses none of their advantages. He is best known to the public as the editor of various annuals and periodical publications ; and his single original work was performed in conjunction with his wife, a lady whose varied talents, and the freshness and ac curacy of whose descriptions of Irish life, naturally induced the reading world to regard her as the better-half not only of the conjugal state, but of the joint publication. But that an intimate acquaintance with the literary world of 35 years standing has given Mr. Hall a certainprestige was evidenced by the appearance "of Willis's Rooms last evening, thronged as they were with an audience numbering very many lite rary and artistic celebrities, who received their veteran collaborateur with great warmth. The lecture itself is a semi-gossiping, semi-critical account of various departed authors and authoresses, of more or less renown, with whom Mr. Hall had the advantage of personal acquaint ance. Amongst the " great lights" treated of last night were Scott, Rogers, ,Crabbe, . the two Moitgomerys, Moore, Lamb, Lockhart, Barton, Sydney Smith, Words worth, &c. The character' of Moore was forcibly drawn: he was one with whom Mr. Hall seems really to have been on intimate terms, whose writings he eulogised, and whose private character he defended with an honest zeal and warmth which did him the highest credit. Many passages of the lecture were received with great ap plause, and if the desire to look upon a celebrity be an at traction, surely the next best thing to looking upon the great originals themselves will be to gaze at and listen to one who has been the friend of all the great men and women of the epoch. • LATEST NEWS. THE APPROACHING IMPE- RIAL MARRIAGE. TURIN, JAN. 28. This day the members of the Municipal Council of the City of Turin, and forty Communal Coun cillors had the honour to present to her Royal Highness the Princess Clotilde a rich work of art in silver, beautifully wrought. The Mayor of the city addressed Prince Napoleon in a speech remarkable for its patriotic sentiments; and his Imperial Highness, in reply, declared that he would do all in his power to promote the happiness of the daughter of the King, the worthy inheritress of the virtues of an illustrious and heroic family ; and requested the Mayor to assure his fellow citizens, in his name, how sincerely he prayed for the happiness and future prosperity of Sardinia. DEATH OF THE EARL OF RIP ON. We regret to announce the demise of the Earl of Ripon, who died at an early hour yesterday morning, at his villa at Putney-heath.. The deceased earl had been ill for the last three weeks, but about ten days back his indisposition assumed such- a serious form that the medical gentlemen in attendance at once pronounced his case hopeless. The lamented earl continued gradually to sink, and at a few minutes after one o'clock yesterday (Friday) morning, he expired. The Countess of Ripon, and Viscount and Vis countess Goderich, who had been unremitting in their at tention to the noble invalid throughout his illness, were present at the dissolution of his lordship. The late Earl of Ripon's public and political career had extended over forty years, and during that period he had occupied some of the highest offices in the Government, for, in addition to hay ing been once, for a few months, First Lord of the Trea sury, he had been a member of the Cabinets during the administrations of the Earl of Liverpool, the Right Hon. George Canning, Earl Grey, and of the late Right Hon. Sir R. Peel. •The decease(' peer, Frederick John Robin son, was second son of Thomas, second Lord Grantham, a distinguished statesman and diplomatist, and Lady Mary• Jemima Yorke, second daughter of Philip, second Earl of Hardwicke, by Jemima, Marchioness Grey. He was born Nov. 1, 1782, so that he had recently entered on his 77th year. He was private secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Irelandfrom 1804 to 1806, in which year he was first returned to the House of Commons for Carlow. At the general elec tion in November, 1807, he was elected a representative of the family borough of Ripon, which he continued to repre sent for 20 years, up to his elevation to the House of Lords in 1827, under the title of Viscount Goderich. His first office in the' Government was that of Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in 1809, and his last, that of Pre sident of the Board of Control, under Sir . R. Peel, from 1843 to 1846. Since then the noble deceased took no active part in politics, and may be said to have retired into private life, for beyond occasional support to the Earl of Aberdeen's Government by a vote in the House of Lords, he has but seldom appeared in that assembly. Brought up in the Tory school of politics, -he joined in the more liberal views of Canning, Palmerston, .Huskisson, &c. Since the dissolu tion of Lord Liverpool's Government in 1827 he had uni formly supported all the great measures of reform and pro gress, both social and commercial, many of which, he assisted to carry to a successful issue in his place in the House of Peers. The late Earl was a Governor of the Charter-house, a trustee of the National Gallery, a D.C.L. of Oxford (1839), and a Fellow of the Royal Society. The deceased.peer married, Sept. 1, 1814, Lady Sarah Albinia Louisa Hobart, only daughter of Robert fourth Earl of Buckinghanishire, by whom (who survives her husband) he leaves issue an only son, Viscount Goderich, M.P. for the West Riding of Yorkshire. A vacancy consequently occurs in the representation of that county by his lordship's accession to the House of Lords. GIANT TIMBER.—Our attention has been called to an importation of three cargoes of mast-pieces of timber, now discharging in the Commercial Docks, Rotherhithe. The sizes, both in length and square, are so unexampled as to be worthy of record. One vessel, indeed, the Bostonian, of 1,000 tons, has spars of a magnitude that we believe were never before made timber of commerce ; they run from 90 to 140 feet in length, and from 26 to 40 inches square. One mast contains 28 loads, weighing about 33 tons, and is (as are most of them) nearly as straight as a ruler, and without a knot ; biking 1391 feet long and 391 inches square. When felled, it measured 316 feet to the branching top, and for 150 feet . was. without any branch at all. It was squared to 41 inches ; but was of necessity reduced to 311 inches to admit of its entering the ship's bowport. The quantity of i timber in this enorm ous t ree s worthy of notice ; call it 300 feet by 41 inches square, it would contain 3,502 cubic feet, or 70 loads 2 feet as squared, or 116 loads as round timber. It would saw into 2,050 boards 41 inches wide, half an inch thick, and 12 feet long ; or, allowing about 12 per cent. for waste in sawing, 1,800 boards 36 inches wide by half an inch thick, and 12 feet long. If laid out quite close it would cover 72,000 square yards, or 1 acre, 1 rood, 2 chains, 6 poles, 10 yards ; or, allowing for unavoidable interstices, about two acres and a quarter. It is difficult to imagine a tree half as high again as the Monument before it branches out. The masts are considered worth from £l2 to £l4 per load, and we understand are secured for the British navy ; and it is said that the longest may perhaps be raised as a flag-staff at Windsor. We are indebted for these particu lars to Mr. N, Gould, F, S.A.—Pe Blakr. FRANCE. PARIS, FRIDAY: A Paris letter in the Nord of Brussels says : " A great difference was perceptible between the general aspect of the last ball at the Tuileries and the first. Evidently less anxiety was felt. The foreign presentations took place as usual before their Majesties entered the ball room, and the Em peior was observed to converse frequently with Baron de Hubner. Many eyes were turned to wards them, eager to catch from the expression of their countenances what was the subject of their conversation. M. de Persigny also talked very gaily with the ambassador, who withdrew imme diately after, his court being still in mourning. The Emperor and Empress entered at a quarter past ten. At midnight their Majesties came into the grand gallery, and after having made the tour of it, took their seats in the middle, and a waltz was danced before them. Their Majesties soon after left the rooms and retired ; the Emperor, having been shooting in the morning, was fatigued, and no. official quadrille took place. The toilette of the Empress was, as usual, most beautiful ; her hair was ornamented with leaves and diamonds. The. Emperor wore the uniform of a general of division, and his decorations in diamonds." According to recent intelligence from Hongkong, Admiral Rigault de Genouilly has despatched from Turon to China a staff officer and naval commissary with the view of freighting flat-bottomed boats proper for the navigation of the Hue, which is: in accessible to vessels of war on account of its bar. A letter from Hong Kong, of the 14th ult., gives some account of the accident which happened to the French corvette Laplace, which we have briefly mentioned :—" The vessel had appoached the Chu san islands with a strong breeze and during a thick fog, which caused one point of land to be mistaken for another, and the steamer, instead of entering, as was thought, into the regular passage, got into a place where there was no outlet. The moment this was discovered, her engines were stopped and anchors let go, but so violent was the wind and current that the cables parted, and in a moment after the vessel struck on a bank of mud. A boat was lowered to take a hawser on shore, but she was swamped in an instant and three men drowned. It was about noon when the vessel struck, and as night approached the wind and sea became more violent, and the vessel sank deeper and deeper. At eight o'clock in the evening the captain announced that he no longer had any hope of saving the vessel, and every one consequently prepared to reach the shore as best he could. Some time after another attempt was made to send a boat on shore, and an officer and some men were fortunate enough to effect a landing. Letters were immediately sent off by them to Shanghai and Ningpo, requesting prompt assistance. The next two days the situation of the persons remaining on board the Laplace continued to be critical. The vessel struck heavily and was sensibly approach ing the shore. On the Ist Dec. the weather be came finer, and Chinese junks began to make their appearance. They took on board the guns, the ammunition, the ballast and ether heavy stores from the corvette ; and when thus lightened she rode easier, and by means of an anchor, carried out at high water, she was hove afloat in about eight fathoms water. Her hull and her engines had not received any material injury." BOURSE, Jan. 28.—The market continues in a feverish state, owing to the important operations which must be closed for the liquidation. There have been vague reports of disturbances at Ravenna, and of the sending of reinforcements of troops to Civita Veccha. Threes, after having been done at 68f. 65c., declined to 68f. 45e., and afterwards rallied to 68f. 60c. ; Mobilier varied from 785 f. to 775 f. ; Austrian, 565 f. to 562 f. 50c.; Orleans, 1,330 f. to 1,325 f. ; Lyons, 837 f. 50c. to 832 f. 50c. ; Northern, 937 f. 50c. to 935 f. The following were the last quotations:— 41 per Cents. .... 96 90 Credit Fonder 650 Do. end month .. 96 90 Belgian 41 99 50 3 per Cents 6B 80 Piedmontese (5) .. 84 75 Do. end month 6B 75 Roman B7 Bank Shares.— 2940 Austrian Credit Mobilier .. 790 Spanish Threes Do. Account 787 50 Home Debt 4O -- RAILWAYS. Cash. Account. Orleans Northern 937 50 .. 937 50 New ditto BlO Lyons and Mediterranean 842 50 .. 837 50 NOW ditto - • • --- Geneva 567 50 .. 562 50 Midi Southern Western 595 .. 590 Eastern Grand Central Sardinian 41:5 .. 416 50 Austrian Exchange on London, at sight, paper, 25f. 121-c. ; money, 25f. 10c.; three months, paper, 24t. 971 c.; money, 24f. 95c. MOLDAVIA. A Vienna journal gives the following account of the sitting of the Moldavian Assembly of the 17th, at which the election of Prince Alexandre Cousa took place :—" The preparatory sitting on the pre ceding day was an agitated one. After violent discus sions the candidateship of Prince Gregoire Stourdza was rejected by a majority of 35 to 19, and the pro position for placing Col. Cousa on the list voted with acclamation. After reading a petition, nu merously signed, the deputy Gogoinitschano pro posed that the Assembly should vote-Ist, the necessity of bringing about the union of the Prin cipalities ; and, 2dly, that the Prince who was to be elected, on the following day, and the com mittee of Fokschany, should swear to use all theii effortsto promote the union of the two countries under a foreign Prince. These propositions, were adopted by a large majority. On the following day the members of the Assembly, after hearing mass, went to their place of meeting. The sitting . • opened at 11, and on this occasion only the public were admitted into the galleries. Four new secre taries, MM. Lascar Katargi. Cantacuzene, Milo, and Prunkul (the last two belonging to the Con servative party), were appointed to draw up the proces-verbal of the election of the Prince. There were forty-nine deputies present. Prince Gre goire Stourdza, M. Balanesco-Rosetti, M. St. Katargi, M. Panajotti, M. Balsch, and M. Istrati did not attend. Each member, on his name being called out, advanced to the president's desk, and, with one hand on the Gospel, and the other holding a crucifix, swore to elect the Prince according to his free and unconstrained will and without allowing himself to be influenced by any improper interest. After this ceremony the names were again called out, and, one after the other, they all advanced, and with a loud voice declared, I vote for Colonel Alexander 'Coma as reigning Prince of Moldavia.' He was then pro claimed as such by the president, who, addressing him by the title of His Highness,' offered his congratulations and presented the new Prince to the Assembly. At the same moment, a: salute of cannon was fired to announce the fact to the people. Prince Cousa then ascended the tribune, and swore to maintain the constitution and to govern for the welfare of the nation and of the united principalities. Previously to this he had signed a declaration to the effect that, in case the union of the Principalities should take place, he would abdicate in favour of a foreign prince. The Prince, accompanied by the President and the Assembly, next proceeded to the Throne-room, and ascending a throne which had been prepared for the occasion, received the congratulations of the municipality ; the President then, according. to an ancient custom, offered him bread and salt. The Provisional Government next advanced and delivered the reins of Government into his hands. The Prince, after having received the congratulations of the consuls, appeared in front of the palace, where he was re ceived with the most enthusiastic acclamations by the crowd." TURKEY. CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 22.—The official journal declares the election of M. Courzas as Hospodar of Moldavia to be contrary to the treaties. A petition from the commercial community solicits measures against stock-jobbing. The difficulties in connexion with the telegraph between Syria and Constanti nople are surmounted. PERSIA. TREBIZONDE, Jan. 12.—Letters from Persia re ceived here state that the French military mission continues to be favourably looked upon at Teheran. After a review on Dec. 19, the Shah sent for all the French officers, and, paying them a handsome com pliment, said he should always be happy to receive from any one of them full suggestions in writing for any reforms in the service which might occur to them to be desirable. Ferukh Khan is still a great favourite at court. The Shah has just made him a present'of a splendid horse from the royal stables. This is considered in Persia as one of the greatest favours that can be conferred upon a subject. There is no doubt that Ferukh Khan will soon be made a Minister, but it would be an infraction of usage if the appointment were to take place before the Persian New-Year's- Day (16 Chaban.) Djedeffer Kouli Khan el Khani, the Governor of Astrabad, the capital of the pro vince of Mazinderin on the Caspian Sea, has just gained a decisive victory over the Turcoman hordes who have devastated that country for many years. He took possession of their camps and made many prisoners, after which the chiefs tendered their submission. .An article of the treaty of Erzeroum, concluded .ten years ago between Persia and Turkey, stipu lated that all merchandise imported from either country into the other should pay a uniform ad valorem duty of 5 per cent. The Ottoman Govern ment has, however, long been in the habit of ex acting 11 per cent., and notwithstanding the remonstrances made by Ferukh Khan when he was at Constantinople, the Sublime Porte has not yet taken any steps to put a stop to this abuse. It is much to be wished that the Sultan's Ministers would pay immediate attention to this subject, for I hear that, unless a change be made, the Persian Goverment is resolyed to retaliate, and to take 11 per cent. on their frontier. The question is one which affects not only the trade of Turkey but that of Europe. Mirza Melkoun Khan has received the decoration (first class) of the order of the Lion and Sun, as a reward for the services he rendered during Ferukh Khan's mission extraordinary to Europe. .AMERICA . (BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.) LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY MORNING. The Cunard screw steamer Alps has arrived with advices from New York to the 18th inst. inclusive. The Alps brings 55,498 dols. in specie. A revolution had taken place in. Hayti, and a republic proclaimed. The:special committee of the House had voted down all propositions respecting the immediate construction of the Pacific Railway. The following were the changes in the New York Banks for the week :—lncrease in loans, 810,602 dots. ; increase in specie, 980,894 dols.; decrease in circulation, 344,125 dols.; increase in undrawn deposits, 2,629,701. On the Stock Exchange the quotations in the active list of shares were I to ' B l - lower than those on the 15th. Sterling exchange for the Africa, to sail on the 19th, was 109•; to 1091. Flour less active, but without change in prices. Cotton steady, at previous prices. Iron firm. Sugar, molasses, and wheat ditto. Freights dull. SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. Palmatta, hence, at Galveston ; Shackaxmxon, hence, at Mobile ; Josiah Tarratt, from Chinchas, at Hampton Roads ; Queen of the Lakes, hence, at Charleston ; Manhattan, hence, at New York. The screw steamship North America sailed from Portland, for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 16th inst., for repairs. HIGHWAY ROBBERY BY FRENCH SOLDIERS. The Military Tribunal has just been occupied in trying two grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, named Calibeug and Borredon, the former decorated with the military medal, for highway robbery with violence. The facts of ti e case were simple :—A journeyman baker, named Drouaire, arrived at Paris on the 28th August last, by the Western Railway, with a sum of 1,150 f. which he had in herited. He gave himself a splendid dinner at the nearest restaurant, passed the night in a house of ill-fame, next morning made a sumptuous break fast, and then went to a shooting gallery, where he fell in with Calibeug. At this place Drouaire talked of the inheritance he had made, and showed a handful of gold. Calibeug and he and another man, after practising some time, went to different wine shops, and then Calibeug got rid of the third man, on the pretext that perhaps he was a police spy. Calibeug and Drouaire then dined together, and went afterwards to cafés, drinking a good deal. At a late hour Ca"beug in proposed to get Drouaire a bed in a public-hoagie the neighbour hood of the Hotel des Invalides ; and according to Drouaire's account led him up and down several deserted streets. All at once Drouaire was knocked down from behind with such violence that he re mained for some minutes senseless, and on recover ing he found that his pockets were rifled, and that his companion had disappeared. The next day, at the lac at Montrogue, he fell in with Calibeug, Who seemed greatly troubled on seeing him. He accused Calibeug of having robbed him, but Borredon, who was present, declared that he must be mistaken. It was subsequently ascer tained, however, that first one of these men and then the other had b'en Leen in possession of a watch which had belonged to Drouaire ; also that they had both been spending money very freely. Calibeug was first arrested, and then Bor redon gave up 340 f. which he said was part of a sum which a young woman, mistress of Calibeug, had liuried at the foot of a tree at Versailles, and which he (Borredon) had taken. Front all these * - 6Ventnstances, it was contended that it was pro bable that it was Borredon who had knocked Drouaire down, and that the two men had jointly robbed him. In answer to the charge Calibeug attempted to show that he had quitted Drouaire before the robbery was committed, and had returned to Versailles, where his regiment is stationed; Bor redon contended that he was innocent. The tribunal condemned Calibeug to five and Borredon to three years' imprisonment.—Ga4noni. THE PORT OF GLASGOW.—In consequence - of the great increase of business at the Port of Glasgow—the re venue in the last year having exceeded that of the former year by the sum of £60,725—it is presumed that an addi tional staff of cle r ks will be found - to be absolutely neces sary. It is to be hoped that when any alteration takes place a revised scale of salaries will be conceded to Glasgow with an annual increase, as in the London and Liverpool offices. There is no reason why the same measure should not be dealt out to all first-class ports.—a Service Gazette. MINES.--The general stock markets have been subject during the week to many fluctuations, and the want of activity the common remark. The minirg share market, however, continues particularly buoyant, with a large business doing in most descriptions of shares, while in a few considerable advance has taken place in prices. MEtals continue to rise, and offer the most encouraging feature to the miner. Rosewarne shares have been largely dealt in at 50 to 52f ; the next sampling, it is understood, will realise nearly £1,500, and the succeeding one more; the lode in the 70 will be cut in about a fortnight ; and a stope in the back of the 58, south of old lode, is worth £BO per fin. Wheal Trelawny shares have advanced to 34, 36, and a dividend of £2 per share expected in a day or two. West Caradon, 135 to 140; at the meet ing, the accounts showed a profit of £1,137 15s. 3d on the two months, _and a dividend of £3 per sh are d ec l ared, the shares being afterwards subdivided into 512ths. East Basset advanced to 200, 210, but left off at 195 to 200; at the meeting, on Tuesday, the accounts showed a balance in favour of mine of £4BB 18s. 4d. • and at the n ex t mee ti n g the dividend is expected to be 45 per share,—Mining hur nal, of this day, THE B URNS' FESTIVAL. (From the National Standard of this day.) On Tuesday, as the Centenary of Burns' birth, an ex hibition was given at the Crystal Palace, with songs, busts and pictures of the poet, and recitation of a poem to his memory. As the detail will be found in another part of our paper, we shall not enter into it here. The Crystal Palace Company have been blamed, as if assuming to them selves a right to commemorate the memory of the Scottish poet ; and, unquestionably, the notion of adding to the honours of any name by a celebration of this kind would be preposterous. But, the Company are traders; they have lately, in their opening on the Sabbath, displayed their appetite for finance in a very palpable degree, and we re gard the Burns' Festival in a much less objectionable point of view, as a mere commercial contrivance. On the same day, by the force of example, according to the well-known, and not very complimentary proverb, several celebrations of the same kind occurred ; one by the Caledonian Society ; one at St. Martin's Hall ; one at Bris tol ; and one at Edinburgh. There can be no harm in these things ; they gather people, they give them singing and playing, they break in on the general monotony of life, they furnish a topic for the day. Still, it is a pity that all this exuberance of sentiment did not glow, while its object was among the living ; and that an occasional bawbee was not wrung from the national heart, to relieve the poverty of him whom they now load with such tumultuous praise. Robert Burns was born near the town of Ayr ; the son of a small farmer, an industrious and intelligent man ; but, either pressed by the severity of his leases, or by that ill luck which sometimes ;pursues men, however industrious and intelligent, his life seems to have been spent in difficul ties. Robert was, of course, intended for a ploughman, and he laboured in the field, like his father. But, the habits of the Scottish peasantry have allowed, in general, of consi derable mental cultivation. He was sent to school, and learned English grammar, to which he added some know ledge of French. Books are frequent in Scottish cottages, and Robert read the miscellaneous collection which he found on his father's shelves. But, his inspirer was an old woman, whose memory supplied him with ghost stories, and those rude ramblings of adventure, which were to be found at every country fireside, yet unstripped of the spirit of poetry by the steam engine. We are now in an utilitarian age. Our intellect is gash our circulation is steam, our nerves are machinery, and our hearts are .Consols. The time will never come again when the young eye saw visions in .the hills, and the young blood was chilled with the imagi nar y night shriek ; we shall never believe in another Macbeth ; no Hamlet will make himself or his audience tremble while he questions ghosts on the doings of those regions "from whose bourne no traveller., returns." The generation i s i nev it a bly p rosa i c , ma tt e r et fact, stubbornly substantial ; the railroad is our oracle, Birmingham our Parnassus, and Mr. Stephenson our " Magnus Apollo." Yet, matters wore another hue, a hundred years ego' And we can conceive no fitter training for an imaginative mind than a wild Scotch farm, a cabin on the side of a storm' swept hill, a wintry climate, a hard life, and an evening's gossiping of all strange times and things, over a smoulder turf fire. Such was the training of Burns ; such, too, Was the training of Scott (with some slight advantage of scholar ship), and such will loe the natural training of every man destined to be an original poet, since Homer. The " sweet singers of Israel" never sang more sweetly than when they hung their harps on the willows of the Euphrates. The finest of the charming melodies of Ireland were the compositions of men hunted from hill to valley , in the day of poverty to themselves, and in the age of sor row to their country. Poetic greatness was never nurtured in the sunshine—it requires the cold wind and cloudy skies of life. Even Milton, with all his superb scholarship , would never have told us of the wars of the Cherubim, but for his poverty, blindness, and solitude. Byron, though born to rank, was trainee for distinction only through an ungenial infancy, the harshness of a wayward parent, and stung into the consciousness of his powers only by libel on the first feeble efforts of his poetry. Burns, if he had been planted at his birth in the aristo cracy, fondled in drawing-rooms; imbibed claret at his assuming the "toga virilis " and passed the next fifty years between the soirees of Belgravia and the levees of St. James's, might have lisped sonnets or scribbled epigrams, but he would never have written "Ta m 0' Sh an te r . ' The progress of Burns's life was all through adversitp He tried the trade of a flax-dresser, but was burnt out. lie then tried a partnership in a farm with his brother, but was forced to give it up. Tn his extremity, he even offered Wl!' self as a slave-overseer to a plantation in Jamaica! 1° obtain the means of an outfit, he published his poems 11 subscriptions, in 1786, and was on the point of sailing for ble unhappy destination, when he received a letter, not from any of the great, or the opulent, of his country, but from Blacklock, the blind poet, advising him to try a new editioll in Edinburgh. There he remained for a year, making friends, gained £5OO by subscriptions, and obtained an er ciseman's place ! In Edinburgh he was a lion for the tinlet but none can live on praise. The lionwasnot fed, and Bur' retired to a farm once more. He tried this chance for thre e years, and again failed. He was now reduced to his miser' able salary as an exciseman. His habits, at no tim e abstemious,. were now, by the temptations of his unfor tunate position, destructive of his health, and he died' (July 21, 1796.) In this sketch of his biography, it is scarcely possible re, , speak with patience of the national neglect, which suffered a man of known and even popular ability, to perish ; we see the profusion of shallow, honours showered on Iva tomb. That Burns was a poet, that he was in povertit that his talent was a credit to Scotland, that a hundredth part of the money flung away upon busts, inscriptions, an d anniversaries in his honour, would have made him a haPP7 man; and that his countrymen suffered him to live in die" tress, and die in penury, are all truths, which dishonour a l whole tribe of his admirers, panegyrists, speechmakers, an, adorers. Not a man of the thousands an d t ens o f thousanael who toasted him in taverns, and boasted of him everywhe,.l from the Line to the Pole, ever would put his hand in oiaw purse to cheer the dying poet ; not one of those lords," who once lavished their metaphors on"the native bard of Scotia old," 'would stir hand or foot to put 13,1 e: above poverty, by some appointment consistent with tlf.: pursuits of genius. A guager's place of some £5O a pp: was the sole bounty to be found in their patronage, 0.. 1 7 man whose temptation was excessive, and who speedily we' under the luckless opportunity. . In the year 1844, a f es tival i n hon o ur o f Burns was held t in the town of Ay r , L or d E g li n t on i n th e c h a i r . O n that occasion, the noble chairman indulged his applauding a„ 11 : diencewith a few of the follo w i ng fine things :—" How could the pious old man (B urns father) who dwelt in yolr, der cottages, have guessed that the infant ,prattling on n' knee was to be the pride of his nation, the chief araong, the poetic band ; was to be one of th e b r i g h test planets that glow round the mighty sun of the Bard of Avon. (Cheere° ) Well may we rejoice that Burns is our own That 07 other spot can claim to be the birthplace of our Homer Oh, that he could have foreseen the futurity of fala c f created for him this day, when the poet and the historian the peer and the peasant, vie with each other in paying th e tribute of their ad m i ra ti on t o the humble, but mig hyr genius of him, whom we hail as the first of Scottish poet s (Cheers.) At his na me every S cott i sh heart b eats high' He has become a household word, alike in the palace and the cottage. Of wh om s h ou ld we b e proud, to whom s hed wo pay homage, if not to our own immortal Burns ' (Cheers.) We are not objecting to this speech. It was clever, and appropriate to the occasion, if not to the man. Nor are N" objecting to the noble Lord's not being among the bella: factors of Burns, fifty years before he was born. But, object to offering national festivals to a man national/ glected during his life ; to assuming the ostent a ti on of feel ing for the dead,:while there was none for th e li v i n g; ft. to affecting a nati on al generosity to the g rave , w h e re living wants of the man of talent could not extract the most trivial tribute from the callous avarice of his gelle riP. tion. If we were the countrymen of Robert Burns, we shall be ashamed of all allusion to his name ; we should shriel from the mockery of posthumous patronage ; a n d w e should endeavour to conceal the parsimony which it is hopeless t° palliate. We utterly scorn the cheap atonement and th e tardy liberality. THE OUTRAGE ON OUR TROOPS 4 T MALTA. (From the National Standard of this day.) • We rejoice to find that the outrageous Garrison Order, t ° which wo have already called attention, will not pass e n ' noticed. The e a l Town Council i s a b ou t to Mr morialise her Majesty, praying that the official who ertsi nated such an order, m a y b e dismissed—the oTder cancelle d —and all proceeding s aga i ns t C aptain Sheffield stayed. The man who has dared to issue this disgraceful ord er is Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant ; the man who cons' manded • that Popish regiment which d ur i ng th e ge ner-i election of 1841 shouted for O'Connell in the streets Carlow; the man who, b e i ng on f ull pay in the Britt,9l Army, preferred the s erv i ce o f " H er Catholic Majes t y Isabella 11., to that of Great Britain, and went out to SP'; in the notorious Sp an i s h L eg i on, in 1836. From such - man it would be simply absurd to look for Protestant pri" ciple or high feeling. He is only fit to be the tool of Minister like the present Secretary of War, himself an utter stranger to such sentiments. We learn that an influential deputation is about to va st upon Major-Gerecal Peel on this subject. We are sorry for it. The man who has used his power in every possill manner to end ow an d pro p aga te Pop er y i n th e army ; f has furni s h e d th e " G ar d en o f th e S ou l , " at the expense of the nation, to the poor Romanist soldier, who has beetn guilty of flippant impertinence to the Scotch Reformatic: Society, is not likely to sympathise with Captain Sheffielt; Had the deputation decided upon remonstrating with Lord Derby as the head of the Government, it might perhal have been more likely to meet with a t tent i on, if not Ns• success. But, as for holding any intercourse or commui'l; cation with Major-General the Right H on . J ona th an Pee' , Secretary of State for War, we hold it to be beneath th e dignity of Christian Protestant gentlemen to submit to SI d e gradation of any contact or inte rcourse w i t h him. 1,7„ do not anticipate that it will be attended with a f avo urabl e result. - oniy a few weeks have elapsed since the nation was d lB gusted by the announcement from the military authoritie s that Popish priests were appointed military chaplaill anking according to their classes with colonels, m a j or s, a l ," ranking according to their classes with colonels, majors, a 0 captains. But this is not enough—and immediately fe'; lows this garrison orde r i n Malta, commanding (among!, ether monstrosities)? " all sent r i es t o presen t arms wH THE HOST rAssEs' in other w or d s , comman di ng B r itisli t soldiers to commit an act which the law and religion 01 England pronounced to be blasphemous and idolatrou s ' This (be it re mem b ered) is to be done in our own dominiot not in a forei gn f r i endly country. We know tolerably wei the various in su lt s to which Protestant officers and soldier ; , are subjected b y th e wretched subserviency to Popery wh i e'! is creeping i n t o every d epartment ; but we trust that thbl nation is at length roused from its apathetic slumber t and that in a voice of thunder the British Government will e' informed that such proceedings will be endured no longe r ; The time for m ild remon strance and h um bl e protes t 1 13 gone—the public must speak and act decisively and ever" getieally. There is a wide difference between toleratioP and apostacy. - - LIVERPOOL, Jan. 28.—1 n addition to the Cunard Royal mail steamer Africa, which sails to-morrow fo r Halifax and Boston, the Cunard Company's steamer Lobs' non will sail to-morrow for New York direct, carlying? ship's mail. Letters will bo received at the Liverpool Yos t office till 2.15 p.m., and with late fees till 2.30 p. m . Th screw steamers Imperador and Imperatiz, having on boar , ' tie new Bed Sea telegraph cable, have sailed this afternoo o for Suez, and 'on their arrival tho su b mers i on of t h e ca ble will be at once proceeded with,