The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-31 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL, FIAYMARKET.

Farewe:! eason of bdr. Derjamin Webster as Lessee and Manager

THIS EVENING

Will be performed the popular and highly attractive Comedy Or
MASKS AND FACE-4; or, Before and Behind the Curtain—by
Messrs. Benjamin Webster, Leigh Murray, Stuart, and Parselle;
Mrs. Stirling, Mrs. Leigh Murray, Miss Rosa Bennett, and Miss
Fanny Maske]l.

After which, an entirely new Christmes Extravaganza, entitled
LEO THE TERRIBLE.
To conclude with THE TWO BONNYCASTLES.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Under the Management of Madame Vestris.

THIS EVENING, Dec. 31, will be performed the Comic Drama
called A PHENOMENON IN A SMOCK-FROCK, Characters by
Messrs. C. Mathews, F. Matthews, and Horncastle ; Miss F. Baker
and Miss C. Mitchell.

after which (sth time), a new and original Fairy Extravaganza,
entitled THE GOOD WOMAN IN THE WOOD, in which Messrs.
F. Matthews, Suter, Horncastle, and Templeton Madame Veatris.
Miss Julia St. George, Miss Robertson (her ith appearance at this
Theatre), Miss Martindale, Miss Ellis, Miss Wyndham. Miss :Eglin-
ton (her sth appearance at this Theatre), and
.Miss Rosina Wright
will appear.

To conclude with LITTLE TODDLEKINS.
Sole Agent for the Private Boxes, Mr. W. Aileron, 15, New
Bond-street.

THEATRE ROYAL ADELPHI.
Open for the Season.
Throprietor, Mr. B. Webster.—Directress, Madame Celeste.
THIS EVENING, Dec. 31, the already popular Drama of SLAVE
LIFE ; or, Uncle Tom's Cabin—by Messrs. Alfred Wigan, Cullen-
ford, 0. Smith, and Emery ; Madame Celeste, Miss Woolgar, Miss
Harding, and mrs„ Keeley.
After which (sth time), a new Grand Christmas Pantomime,
called NELL GWYN'NE ; or, Harlequin Merrie Monarch. Principal
Danseuse Mdlle. Anriol, and the inimitable Clown, Fie/more.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE, OXFORD-STREET.
Under the Management of Mr. C. Kean.
THIS EVENING
Will be performed Shakspere's Comedy of TWELFTH NIGHT.
Principal characters by Messrs. W. Lacy, Addison, Meadows, J.
Vining, Ryder, Everett, and Cathcart; Misses Murray and Mar-
shall, and Mrs. C. Kean.
To conclude with the new and original Grand Comic Christ-
mas Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN CHERRY AND FAIR
STAR; or, The Green Bird, the Dancing Waters, and the
Singing Tree. Harlequin, Mr. Cormack ; Clown, Mr. Huline (sth
appearance here) ; Pantaloon, Mr. Paulo ; Columbine, Miss Car.
lotta Leclercq.

ROYAL OLYMPIC: THEATRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Farren.

THIS 'EVENING, Dec. 31, will be presented ABELARD AND
/lELOISE.

After which, a new Grand Comic Christmas Pantomime, en-
titled ROMEO AND JULIET; or, Harlequin Queen Mab and the
World of Drettms. Harlequin, Mr. Forest; Columbine, Miss Marie
Charles ; Sprite, Mr. G. Thompson ; Pantaloon, Mr. Tanner ;
Clown, Mr. Edward Edwards, who will introduce his wonderful
dogs.

Box-office open from Eleven till Five, under the superintendence
of Mr. Edward Chatterton.

ASTLET'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.
Proprietor and Manager, Mr. W. Batty.
Immense attraction of the Christmas Holidays. Fifth Night of the
new Grand Equestrian Comic Pantomime. 34th Night of Uncle
Tom's Cabin. Entire change of Scenes in the Arena.
THIS EVENING, December 31, and during the week, the Enter-
tainments will commence with the highly successful Equestrian
Drama of UNCLE TOM'S C kBIN, with all its original-effects.
'm 0 be followed by unusually brilliant and novel Scenes in the
Circle,,by the most eminent Artistes of the day.
To conclude with, for the Fifth Time, the New Grand Equestrian
Christmas Comic Pantomime, entitled FORTUNIO AND ins
110ftsE COMRADES or, Harlequin and his Seven Gifted Men.
P oduced on an unequalled scale of splendour, and in which the
following talented Pantomimist% will appear for the sth time here.
Harlequin, Mr. Melbourne Ellar; Columb ne, Mdlle. Christine ;
Clown, Mr. Gardner Boleno ; Pantaloon, Mr. Priorson ; Sprite, Mr.
R. Hemming.

Doors open at Half-past Six o'clock. To commence at Seven.
Box-odice open daily from Eleven to Four. Stage. Manager, Mr,
W. West.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
nTs DAr —Morning 52 min. after 4 I
Evening 14 min.aft. 5
' o-Monaow--Morning 36 Mill. after 5 Evening 59 min.aft. 5

THE WEATHER.--Sus OFFICE, Dec. 31.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
49—highest since noon yesterday.
37—lowest this morning and during the night.
45—this day, at noon.

BAROMETER, 30'23.
WIND, S.W.—Fine weather.

DAILY WEATHER TABLE.

FRIDAY, DEC. 31, 1852.
State of the wind and weather at each of the following
rlaces at nine o'clock yesterday morning. ' The stations
are arranged in order of latitude. •
HASTINGS—S.S.W., gentle breeze—overcast.
SOUTHAMPTON—W., gentle breeze—rain.
romucsroNE--S.W., strong breeze—overcast.
TUNBRIDGE=-S.W. strong breeze—overcast.
BASINGIBTOKE—S.*., hard wind-partially cloudy.
GREENWICH—S.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
STRooD—S.W., gentle breeze—overcast.
SWINDON—S., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
COLCHESTER—S.S.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
CAMBRIDGE—S. strong breeze—partially Cloudy..
YARMOUTH— S.W., gentle breeze—cloudless.
The returns from the following places indicate the state
of the weather on Wednesday morning at nine o'clock :
MULLENTGAR—S.E. storm—rain. '
HASTINGS—S.S.W., fresh breeze—partially cloudy.
LANCASTER—S., hard wfnd—scud, rain.
WHITBv--S., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
DARLINGTON—S., gentle breeze—partially cloudy, frost.
SHAP—S., strong breeze—partially cloudy.

Zbt

'zi* Allt
.

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1852.

Wonderfully strong though the ABERDEEN
Cabinet undoubtedly is in administrative ability,
it contains within it,--nevertheless, those germs
of weakness which. must, we fancy, ripen into a
very speedy dissolution. Among the numerous
obstacles to its consolidation into a stable Go-
vernment, two are, to our mind, very glaringly
paramount. It has already been remarked in
. these columns that the new Ministry has too
many Leaders. In addition to this really de-s
plorable fault, it must now be observed that
scarcely one of the various appointments made by
the Noble Earl the PRIME MINISTER of England,
is calculated to redound to the credit of his sa-
gacity as the organiser of an Administration.
Hardly one of his Ministerial nominations ap-
pears to be judicious in the distribution of All
the Talents placed at his disposal. Analyse the
ABERDEEN Cabinet, and the fact here referred to
will be at once transparent. Look at its principal
members and see with what egregious blundering
they are placed each one at the head of a wrong
department--each at the head of a department where
his capacities are the least likely to shine to the
best advantage. Beginning with the Earl of
ABERDEEN himself, we may be permitted to doubt,
from his rather well-known antecedents, whether
he will not make a very indifferent First Lord of
the Treasury—whereas he might have occupied
the position of President of the Council, in a man-
ner that would have reflected honour upon his re-
putation, and have materially facilitated the ope-
rations of a Coalition Government. Again, every
fact recorded in the political life of Lord PALMER-
STON sufficiently indicates that his powers qualify
him to undertake, perhaps, no other duties less
meritoriously than those connected with the Home-
office—while the whole character of h,is mind, his
diplomatic skill, his matured experience, his Euro-
pean celebrity, his genius, and his patriot-
ism, all point him out as the candidate
for the Foreign Secretaryship. Of the emi-
nent capabilities of Lord JOHN RUSSELL to
fulfil the labours of an Administrator, there can-
not assuredly by this time be any question what:
ever. We may complain, and we do complain,
that he cannot preside over the destinies of this
country in any way to the popular satisfaction,
but that he can direct.the machinery of the State
with the hand of a practised statesman, it would
be preposterous to deny in regard to one who,
(luring five or six consecutive years—in the midst
of famine, and pestilence, and revolution—main-
tained his position as the Leader of the British Go-
vellunent. Yet, admitting all this, we are bold
to declare that there is possibly no ministerial
post ui the gift of the SOVEREIGN which the Noble
Lord is less calculated for than the very one to
Which he has, within the last few days, • been
absurdly nominated—we mean, of course, the
post of het MAJESTY'S Chief Secretary of State
in the Foreign Department. As Home Se-
cretary, Lord a
-onN might have been spared
those blunders 17/hid,
are almost inevitable now
that he has been chosen to preside over the
Foreign Relations
of the United Kingdom.
be
What, again, can more ridiculous than the
placing of Sir JAMES GRAnm,
at the head of the
1.)0a-rd of Admiralty, where no civilian,
however
gifted, ought again to have been installed, instead
of entrusting to his rare administrative capacities
and experience the responsible toils of Chancellor
of the Exchequer ! Mr. Or
_LADSTONE might then
have been named to an office, for the creditable
discharge of the duties of which he is eminently
qualified by his abilities, namely, the office of
Colonial Secretary—by which means his financial
crochets (and if his intellect has any flaw it has
that undeniably of being egregiously and preter-
naturally crochetty) need not have been dreaded
as conducing to the unsettlement of our adroitly
balanced system of receipts and expenditure !
Briefly, than, we have protested, and we must
protest again and again, that the ABERDEEN ,
Cabinet is weak—in spite of all its grand array
of talents—weak, not merely from the circum- I ,

stance of having `too many Leaders, but from the
fact of its principal statesmen being so blunder-
ingly distributed among the different offices of
the Government. Perhaps the • best portion of
the ministerial catalogue is that relating to the
minor appointments. Nothing could be in better
taste than the tardy recognition of the services
rendered to the country by the Hon. CHARLES
VILLIERS—in his nomination to the place formerly
occupied by poor CHARLES BuLLER, that of
Judge-Advocate-General. There is tact, more-
over, in the selection of WILLIAM KEOGH, as the
Irish Solicitor- General —in that of BERNAL
OSBORNE as Secretary to the Admiralty —as
well as in the choice for Under-Secretaryships
of . such men as ROBERT LOWE and AUSTIN
LAYARD, the Learned Member for Ayles-
bury and the astute Representative of Kiddermin-
ster. Occasionally, too, there has been mani-
fested by Lord ABERDEEN a laudable sense of
hitherto unrequited ability, in the elevation of
one or two " outsiders" to the higher departments
of Administration. Such, we take it, is the merit
of his nomination of Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH
to the Chief Commissionership of the Woods and
Forests—a nomination which, we trust, may be
justified by the Hon. Baronet the Member for
the borougi of Southwark, by his advocacy in
office of such popular questions as that of Vote by
Ballot. But—saving these well-selected names,
" few and far between "—the New Ministry dis-
plays little more than talent of the very highest
order erroneously applied, without any other
apparent purpose than that of unsettling
still more An already sufficiently distracted aid
heterogeneois Government. It was said of
MA CHIAVEILI that his greatest crime was that he
dared to write what the Princes of his time did
not fear to do. It may be said, however, still
more of the Earl of ABERDEEN, that his greatest
political fault—(and we say this in the face of
his whole ;breign policy, of his subserviency to
M. Glom, of his truckling to King Louis
PHIL, and of his share in the Spanish Mar-
riages-the greatest political fault of this
" dear " and "excellent " ABERDEEN is, that
he has dared to do what the Statesmen of his
time had not ventured to contemplate. He
has constructed a Cabinet which we have not been
extravagant In christening the Happy ' Family

He has joinei together in a single Ministry men
diametrically opposed to each other in principles !

And, not satisii.ed with this, he haS contrived to
scatter yet further confusion among their ranks,
by distributing the principal Members of his Ad-
ministration as mistakenly as possible among the
different offices of her MAJESTY'S Government !

Every sincere Fiscal Reformer will consider it
an imperative duty to exhibit an extraordinary
degree of zeal and energy at the present crisis.
It is certain that the Property and Income Tax
must be renewed in some form, before the conclu-
sion of the financial year. And it is essential

that the great work should be accomplished, in
accordance with " the principles of Equity and
Justice." The significant hint given by the new
Premier in his Ministerial. Statement, and to
which we directed public attention on Wednesday
night, maybe accepted as an implied pledge tha4the
distinction between permanent and precario4 in-
come would at length be recognised; but with a
Cabinet in which GLADSTONE presides over the
financial department, and Lord JOHN .RUSSELL
and Sir CHARLLS Woon are .prominent Members,
it is well to make assurance doubly sure; and to
prevent the advocates of the present iniquitous
system from asserting that the people are
indifferent or lukewarm on the subject. If
they remain apathetic until the Government are
firmly committed to the future Budget, they will
only have themselves to blame for the result, how-
ever unpalatable it may prove. This is, indeed, a
golden' opportunity, which should not be wasted or
misapplied. A similar one may not again occur
for a long series of years. The Right Honoura-
ble and Noble Gentlemen, who, by their accep-
tance of office, have vacated their seats, are com-
pelled to solicit a renewal of confidence from their
respective constituents. That renewal should not,
in any case, be granted until they have been
closely interrogated, and returned clear, explicit,
and satisfactory answers on the point. We do
not, of course, desire that they should be called
upon to give the details of the forthcoming
Budget but . they should be unequivo-
cally pledged to the principle that a dis-
tinction must be recognised, for fiscal pur-
poses, between income arising, more or less,
from intellectual or physical labour, . and from
accumulated and realised property.
The citizens of
,London, and the electors of
Halifax, and Of the University of Oxford, should
more especially impress their own views on the
candidates for their suffrages. The opinions so
earnestly enunciated by Mr. GLADSTONE during
the late financial discussion, show that he con-
siders the question not merely one of expediency.
He placed it on a very different foundation in-
deed, declaring that the national honour, and the
maintenance of public faith with thepublic creditor,
were involved in the result. His feelings on the
point were so strong that he could not remain
silent for even a few days until the debate on the
finanoial scheme afforded him a fitting opportu-
nity for expressing his sentiments. Not a mo-
ment could be lost ; and, therefore, at the
very next meeting of the House, after the delivery
of the Budget, he rather irregularly, but very
emphatically, announced his invincible repugnance,
his inextinguishable hostility to that portion of
Mr. DISRAELI'S proposition, relying on the sup-
posed authority of WILLIAM PITT in corroboration
of his arguments. 'Now, we have ever believed,
and still believe, the Right Honourable Gentleman
to be a strictly conscientious and high-minded
man ; and we are convinced that he would not
sacrifice what he believed to be a matter of duty,
of honour, of national faith, for any benefit to
or the party to which he has
himself personally,
allied himself. He might be content to record his
vote against the principle without withdrawing
his assistance from those by whom it was sus-
tained and carried yielding to the decisive
and overwhelming majority of his colleagues with-
in the Cabinet, and generally of the popular Re-
presentatives in the Commons House of Parlia-
ment.. But how could he be directly instrumen-
tal in carrying into execution 'that which he
believed to be not merely erroneous,, but radically
wrong ? It is but an act of common justice to
the Right Honourable Gentleman to declare our
belief, that he would be and is incapable of such
conduct. •

Now, it must not be forgotten that from Mr.
GL A DSTONE'S position, the arduous and important
duty will devolve upon him of bringing forward
the financial scheme of the New Cabinet. The
most interesting portion thereof—that, indeed, on
which the.
remainder must altogether depend,
be the renewal of the Income Tax, either in its
Present shape, or with some modifications. Can
we, then, suppose that he will so totally
forget his, former opinions as to propose a satisfac-
tory measure in accordance with what Fiscal Re-
formers believe to be "the principles of Equity and
Justice ?" We fear not ! It seems to us that
greater reliance is to be placed on the energetic
and unequivocal denunciation of the comparatively
trifling distinction proposed by Mr. DISRAELI
than on the rather vague expression of Lord
ABERDEEN. How can we know what may be
considered " the principles of Equity and Justice"
by the Noble Earl? We know that Mr. GLAD-
STONE considers those principles involved' in the
maintenance of the present system, and it is im-
possible to say by what crotchets his Ministerial
colleagues may be actuated. The great majority
have hitherto opposed what we believe to be the
principles of Justice and Equity ; and it is,
therefore, peculiarly desirable that we should
ascertain, at the earliest opportunity, what
the people have indeed to expect on this
Point, that they may be prepared for the emer-
gency. This should be obtained from the best
authority—the very fountain head—Mr. GLAD-
STONE himself.

Lord Jones RUSSELL and Sir CHARLES WOOD
have, on previous occasions, expressed themselves
strongly on the same point. But they are con-
" squeezable materials." They
fessedly made of
are, long since, but too painfully aware of the fact