The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-11 00:00:00

Ito YA L ITALIAN OPERA, in the House of Commons—what possibly can Mr.
Covent-garden. WILLIAMS have been at now, so as to call down
There will in next week be five opera nights, viz., Monday,
TueslaT, Thursday, Friday, and ,tattirday. upon himself words of reprehension that certainly
Mdlle. L grua ; Signori Graziani, Attri, Neri-Beraldi, and
Tamberlik sound like an exaggeration ? What has he
THIS EVENING (Saturday), June 11, will be performed, been at ? Those, however, who are already aware
for the first time these five years, Rossini's celebrated opera,
OTELLO. Desdemona, Mdlle. Emilia Lagrua, her first ap- n
01 the nature of last night's proceedings in the
e p arance in that character in England; Emi la, Madame
Tac,liatico ; lago, Signor Graziari ; Elmiro, Signor Attri; lower house of the legislature will understand, only
Rodrigo. Signor Neri-Beraldi ; I 1 Doge, Signor Polonini ;
and Otello, r.lignor Tamberlik, too painfully, upon the instant, that allusion is here
Conductor, Mr. Costa.
After wh'cll, the new Ballet Divertissement, L'lle En- made to the opposition raised, we do not hesitate to
chantee. Sttporte t by Mdlle. Saivioni, Mdlle. Carmine,
aldlle. Navarre, 3ldlle. Assunta, M. Desplaccs, and Mr. W. say, to the singularly discreditable opposition raised
H. Payne.
by Mr. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, M.P. for the borough
of Lambeth, to the proposed grant of £20,000 to
Sir ROWLAND HILL.' A grant, recollect, which
was recommended to the House of Commons by a
Royal Message—and the instant and loyal accept-
ance of which recommendation had just before last
evening been very cordially and eloquently urged
upon the House by Lord PALMERSTON, as an act of
simple gratitude to a Great Public Benefactor ! The
raising of any objection whatever to the passing of
a vote of £20,000 as a grant to a man like Sir
ROWLAND HILL we take to have been nothing less
than an indignity, not alone to the QUEEN and to the
Prime Minister, but also, in a direct manner, to the
House of Commons and to the whole nation. Mr.
WeeLiams'sproceeding in this matteryesterday was,
in truth, nothing less than a flagrant indecorum. It
was an insult to Sir ROWLAND HILL himself, and
hardly less of an insult to every one of us whom Sir
ROWLAND HILL has so largely benefitted indivi-
dually ! There is literally no extravagance at all in
saying this. It is simply and purely a plain matter
of fact. it is a matter of fact, moreover, that was
proclaimed last year (1863) between the Ist of Jan-
nary and the 31st of December—how many times
do you suppose ? Why, no less than 642,000,000
times! How ? By the passage of so many
letters through the Post-office! When ? As we
have but just now intimated—not a hundred years
ago, but—only last twelvemonth ! Where ? Not
a hundred miles off—in St. Martin's-le-Grand,
under the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral !
Here is a good and gifted man, who has per-
sonally benefitted all classes of his fellow-country-
men, from the patrician to the peasant, from the
palace to the cottage—not once in a way, observe,
but continually, perpetually, during a long series
of years—and who has himself personally,
during now very nearly a quarter of a
century, been sedalously engaged in carrying out
his magnificent scheme of a Penny Postal System,
setting it in full and energetic operation, develop.
ing it as a system in a variety of new and in-
calculably important depertments, instance this the
Money Order Department and the Book Post De•
partment—and who now, in the seventieth year of
his age, having nobly earned repose from his long
labours—it is suggested by the QUEEN herself, in
a Royal Message to Parliament, shall receive
from the People ho has so largely benefited,
from the nation of which he has been so vast a bene-
factor—shall receive as a token of the national gra-
titude the sum, not of 1100,000, not even of £50,000,
but of merely £20,000 sterling ! MACADAM, another
great benefactor, another of the great developers
of modern civilisation—also (as in the instance of
Sir ROWLAND HILL), by the suggestion of a very
simple idea, yet an idea that, with all its simplicity,
had never before occurred to any man, a scheme
as Simple in its contrivance es COLUMBUS'S
plan for making an egg stand on end—MacaD.am
for his suggestion of breaking blocks of granite into
little bits and strewing them over the highway,
there to be ground into a level road by the very
traffic it was to be the means of facilitating—
MACADAM received in his time from the nation
£lOO,OOO sterling ! Her MAJESTY suggests that
Parliament should give Sir ROWLAND, us author
of the penny postage system, not £lOO,OOO, but
merely £20,000, after a life cf severe labour,
and when he is already in the seventieth year
of his age—and, immediately upon this gracious
suggestion from the Crown has been made,
Mr. IV ILLI.SMS, the member for Lambeth,
interposes between the Nation and the great
National Benefactor with his most indecorous, his
most discreditable, his little less than disgraceful
objection. It was an objection only heard with
pain and impatience, immediately to be set
aside by the House of Commons as one
altogether of its kind simply beneath con-
tempt. But, the discomfort of it is this—that it
should ever have been raised—even for an instant—
even by a captious economist, such as this member
for the borough of Lambeth. If it were possible
we should like to have the record of this flagrant
gaucherie on the part of Mr. WILLIAMS erased
from the entries upon Hansard. We should be re-
.oiced, if we could, to obliterate the incident from

Commence at half past Eight
Pit tickets, Ps. ; amphitheatre ,ta Is, 10s. 6d., Ps., and ss. ;
smphitheatre.:2s. Gd. Boxes, stalls, and tickets may be had
at the box-ofnc under the portico of the theatre, which is
open from tea to live, and at the principal ruusicsellers' and
libranans'.

TIIEATRE ROYAL HAY ARKET.-
'o!e Leseee and Manager, Mr, Buckstoue.
THIS EVENING, THE BALANCE OF COMFORT.
Mr. Howe and Miss L. Angel.
After which, DAVID GARRICK. Messrs. Sothern,
Chippendale, Buckstone, Rogers, Clark, 'Neatheraby, &c. ;
Mesdames Snowden, Nelly Moore, Fitzwilliam.
After which, the new Easter piece, entitled VENUS AND
ADONIS. Messrs. Compton, Wm. Farren, Coe. &c.
dames Louise Keeley, Snowden, N elly Power, Bill, `Wright,
Ro;ers, &c.
To conclude with AN UNLUCKY MORTAL.
Commence at 7.

OYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
jl TA) Under the Sole Management of Mr. Fechter.
Mr. PECHTER will perform HAMLET THIS EVENING
(Saturday). Claudius, Mr. Emery; Poloniits, Mr. John
Brougham; Ghost, Mr. G. Jordan ; Laertes, Mr. C. Vanden-
hcff; Horatio, Mr. J. G. Shore ; First Gravedigger, 3lr. H.
Widdicomb ; Osric, Mr. F. Charles ; Messrs. W. M'lntyre,
F. Morton, Raymond, Mo,cland, Clifford, Edmonds, Wall-
bank, Collett ; Ophelia, Miss Kate Terry ; Actress, Alin 31
Heurade ; and Gertrule, Miss Elsworthy,
The Scenery painted by Mr. W. Telbin.
Notice.—The doors open at half-past
and Hamlet corn-
Hienccs at 8. .

Box Office open daily from Eleven o'clock till Five.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.—
Sole Lesee and Manager, Mr. Geo. Vining.
THIS EVENING will be performed a new and original
Drama, by R. Slow, Esq., entitled LIGHT AND SHADOW.
Mr. D. Murray, D. Fisher. J. W. Ray, J. Nelson, &c. ; Musa
Stafford and .)/iiss Caroline Carson.
After which, THE CORSICAN BROTHERS. Louis
and Fabien dei Franchi, Mr. Vining; Chateau Renaud, Mr.
Walter Lacy.

NEW THEATRE-RU VAL, ADELPHI.-
Sole Proprietor and Manager, M:. B. Webster.
Last Night of he Great Tragediene, Miss Bateman,
in the character of LEAH.
THIS EVENING,an apropos Sketch, SHAKESPEARE'S
MOUSE: Messrs. J. L. Toole, R. Phillips, Stephenson.
Af er which, at 8, LEAH : Miss Bateman, supported by
Messrs. A. Stirling, R. Phillips, Biliington, Stuart, Eburne,
Stephenson ; Airs. Bblington.
To cruiclude with THE AREA BELLE : Slesers. J. L. Toole
P. Bedford, t-t. Itcmer, 3liss Woolgar, and Mrs. 11. Lewis.
Commence at 7.

NISS B A TEM AN RS LEAH.-LAST
NIGHT of the Great Tragedierme in her original
character of the Jewish Maiden, in which she has appeared
before crowded, fashionable, and delighted audiences every
evening' for the past e ght months. '1 he great attractiveness
of this closing series of represent.tions render it necessary to
secure seats at once, as tht box book is being rapidly fi led.

ROYAL ST. JAMES'S THEATRE. under the
manazement of Mr. B. WEBSTER.
Crowded with rank and fashion.— The highly successful new
Comedy, by Dian Boucicault ,Esq., every Evening.

recollection.

Various indications are perceptible in the political
horizon which reveal to the initiated the desire of

Government to shorten the Parliamentary session

Other symptoms, tee, are very apparent, showing
the frail and feeble tenure by which they cling to
the benches on the right hand of the Speaker. In

he course of this very week they have suffered two
defeats, and have themselves withdrawn two mea-
sures—all of them tokens of grave import. In the
case of the Writs Registration Bill, withdrawn by
the Lord Advocate on Thursday evening, the oppo.
sition was so strong and so unanimous that it is not
surprising that its promoter should think discretion
the better part of valour. The object of the bill
was professedly to facilitate the transfer of lend in
Scotland, and especially to do away with the ex.
Pause attending the double system of search. But
its objectors, while readily admitting these ends to
be highly desirable, were of opinion that the means
proposed to be adopted were wholly inefficient, and
in themselves undesirable. The House of Commons
represents very accurately the general feeling of
Englishmen, When it steadily opposes all tendencies
towards centralisation.
t them
Long experience, in addi
common sense and independence
tion to theh hex
co
of spirit, the security afforded to
public liberty by a wise dissemination of authority
and the existence of power, that check and balance
manic pal system
one another.
Consequently, our
is warmly cherished by the People, and ell local
rights and privileges jealously preserved. Paris
may be France, but London is not England. The
centralising tendency of the Lord Advocate's mea-
sure was, therefore, one of the strongest objections
to it, but hon. members were not slow in bringing
forward other reasons. It was contended in favour
of the bill that it would effect a great saving, but
considerable doubt was expressed as to its ultimate
economy. Instead of the various registrars now
scattered throughout the country, it is proposed to
have all the work of registration done at one general
office in Edinburgh. Tire Lord Advocate argued
that it must be cheaper to employ one central staff
than twenty local registrars ; but, on a close exa-
mination, this loge is not conclusive. Sir J. FEB.
GUSSON, in opposing the second reading, asserted
that in his opinion the establishment of a central
general cfece would add largely to the expense,
since a great number of clerks would have to be
employed possessing that local knowledge which
would be indispensable to the transactions of the
business of the office. 'lhe commissioners who
sometime since examined into the matter, and upon
whose report the present pressure is mainly founded,
stated that they feared it would be impossible to