The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-14 00:00:00

speaker was, " at the same time that we are sup-
porting the War enthusiastically and ardently, not
to tie down and weaken the hands of those whohare
to conduct it !"—an argument which the Prince
enforced by pointing out the advantages enjoyed
by our despot foe in carrying on war, compared
with the elaborately set forth disadvantages, in
time of war, of a constitutional Government. The
Prince added, doubtless in appropriate imitation
of the warnings so often addressed during the
winter to our aristocracy, his solemn warning to
the nation that " our constitutional Governmen t
is undergoing a heavy trial, and we shall not get
successfully through it unless the country will
grant its confidence—patriotic, intelligent, and
self-denying confidence—to her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment." (Loud cheers—from the gentlemen
dining at the Trinity-house.)
It naturally occurs to us to hope that many
ungracious rumours which have reached our ears
must be entirely without foundation. The Prince
unquestionably spoke from the fulness of his
heart. He has tasted the bitterness of a " self-
denying" support of her MAJESTY'S Government,
and has realised in reflection the sweetness of
such " intelligent patriotism." The affinities of
the Continental COBURGS, their sympathy with the
countless pro-Russian despots of Germany, and
probably with Russia herself, the marriage of his
cousin to a cub of the HAPSBURGS, the palpably
un-English leanings of his Belgian uncle, and the
recent presence of his relative here in this coun-
try, must altogether have entailed upon him
severe self-denial ever since the War began. So near
to the Throne, the Private Secretary of herIVIAJEsTY,
yet higher as a subject than any of her responsible
advisers every Russianised and Austrianised
COBURG was of course fully aware of his power
and influence. Prompted by their own predilec-
tions, and doubtless secretly stimulated by the
treacherous Austria and the lesser despots, it
seems hardly possible to doubt that they calcu-
lated on the subserviency of his Royal Highness
to Coburg wishes. All the big and little Royal-
ties of Germany reckoned on influencing the man
of the QUEEN'S right hand, and through him on
" tying down and weakening the hands of those
who conduct the War." It is plain that they

reckoned without their host. All the absurd

rumours of the Prince pledging Lord PALMERSTON
to a German—i.e. German-despot policy, when
he took office, and of his upholding the
Austrian and peace-at-any-price party in the
Cabinet, are clearly without foundation. Is
it for a moment supposable that the man
who exhorts his fellow-subjects not to tie the
hands of Ministers—not to weaken them—that
he can have pressed them to a hang-back policy,
or urged upon them the solicitations of Austrian
and German cousins 7 Doubtless every Russian-
ising misdemeanour is chargeable on Lord ABER-
DEEN and his colleagues. Mr. GLADSTONE'S speech
pretty well proved that—Prince ALBERT'S Lecture
to us on self-denial confirms it. It shows how he
could sacrifice every feeling of his own, if he had
any, and all the COBURGS too, to his English
patriotism.

We must add, however, that according to Lord
PAL3IERSTON, the people do not need the PRINCE'S
Lecture. His Lordship had no complaint to utter
against tke people on the score of " tying hands," (isc.
Adverting to the PRixeies remarks he observed, "I
am bound to saywe havereceived thatsupport honour-
ably and generously from the country, and that
the unanimous feeling of the nation supports us
in the course which we feel it our duty to pursue."
We presume the difference is that the Prince was
urged by all his foreign connexions to tie, if pos-
sible, the hands of the Cabinet in well-known
foreign modes, and to hinder it from pushing
Austria aside, and the War with vigour. The
people, on the contrary, were only desirous, fear-
ful of unseen bonds, to untie the hands of Mi-
nisters. We naturally think others' temptations
like our own ; hence the Prince thought the
people were for the binding and fettering policy.
No, ns ! says Lord PA LMERSTON ; the people gave
us all the support we wanted, and most nobly
too. He could have added, they would have
liberated us, if they could, from those Vienna
Conferences, and, from every fetter imposed by
the Austria they detested quite as much as they do
Russia, if only certain things or persons, no matter
who and what just now, would have permitted.
Well, we are glad anyhow to see Prince ALBERT
the advocate for Cabinet independence. Of
course we mean independence in regard to its
modes of carrying out the objects for which the
nation has voted the present Ministers into her
MAJESTY'S service.

If there is one subject of legislation that re-
quires the amplest consideration, and ought to be
dealt with in the fairest and most liberal spirit,
it is whatever relates to the moral and physical
well-being of the masses ; and if ever there was
an instance in which such consideration and fair
and liberal dealing was wholly wanting, it will be
found in the history and clauses of the Sunday
Trading (Metropolis) Bill.
Although it was notorious that the obser-
vance of the seventh day as a day of abstinence
from toil was owing to the intelligence of
the great body of the people steadily increasing,
and that measures of restriction enforced ►without
the general approval infallibly lead to license—a
bill must be introduced to limit the hours of
trading on Sundays in the metropolis, and this
characterised by such severity, that, if passed, it will,
to vast numbers, amount to a sentence of deprival
of the opportunity to get their " bread " on that
day ; for it is well known that a large number
of employers do not—possibly cannot—pay their
workmen's wages until so late on Saturday night
as to render the purchase of the necessaries of life
impossible. And were this obviated, there still
remain those who have no fixed wages whatever,
but live from hand to mouth, and who, we sup-
pose, are partly included in the 30,000 to 50,000
persons who, according to Mr. MAGUIRE, cannot
leave their occupations in the street before mid-
night. What is to become of all these ?
To restrict the hours of sale to nine
o'clock on Sunday mornings is the next
thing, if it is not that, to restricting the great
majority of them from the use of food that day
altogether. And where flesh meat can be purchased
over-night hew are the 150,000 families who
live in one apartment to preserve it in a whole-
some state? Surely the promoters of the Bill
never dreamt of these things ! If they did, and
in their wilfulness have steeled their hearts to
sacrifice the poor of the metropolis to the Moloch
of a pernicious principle—in the name of common
fairness and honesty let us ask, why are the rich,
with their clubs, sex vants, equipages, and
luxuriespur-
h-caeyveorsilfnditn becausenot
t theyis t
o
friends
while t o
theescape appoeo
r?
be feared that such is the case. Another ques-
tion,halvse
and when is. this most Pharasaical and
and it cannot be too extensively circulated—
Whereunchristian sort of legislation to stop ?

DESTRUCTriTE FIRE IN BISHOPSGATE.—Last night at a
late hour, a fire, atten sled with a considerable destruc-
tion of property, broke out on the premises of Mr. Cook,
picture•frame maker, ad)oining which were the workshops
of Mr. Gibson (on the 2: time floor), situate in Dunning's-
alley, near Bishopagate Church. It was not extinguished
until a serious amount of damage was done.