The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-26 00:00:00

HALF PINE,

Dress Circle
Upper Boxes
Pit.. • •
Amphitheatre
Gallery ............Os. 6d.
Private Boxes, £335.,-£2 25., and £1 11s Ed. Orchestra Stalls, Ss

Is. 6d.

Stage Manager, M^. J. M. MORTON.
*rector of Spectacle, Mr. W. WEST.
The whoje under the management of
Mr. BUNN, LESSEE.

TREATBE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Mr. B. Webster, Sole Lessee and Manager, Old Brompton.

HI zi sinlaN
Will be performed au entirely new comic Oper, entitled A3IINTA
TILE COQUETTE.
After which a new Fairy Burlesque, called THE PRINCESS RA-
DIANT AND THE STORY OF MAYFLOWER. Characters by
Messrs. Buckatone, H. Bedford, J. Bland, Caulfield, Clark, Flimmeri,
Mrs. Fitwilliam, Mrs. Buckingham, and Miss Collins.
_ To conclude with the Farce, called. THE TWO BONNYCASTLES.
Mr. Bonnyc.astle, Mr. Buckatone; Mrs. Bonnycastle, Mrs. Vick-
mgham.

THEATRE ROYAL, ADE--
LPHI.
Lessee, Mr. B. Webster ; Directress, Madame Celeste.
Enormous success of the Yankee Comedian, Mr. Josh Silsbee.
THIS EVENING,
Will 1-..,
Psrformed the Farce of TH
ARE DOING WELL. Lieutenant O'Scupper, Mr.
Mr. Felix Fluffy, lsr. Wright;ul Bedford
s;
E MOTHER AND CHILD
Emma Harding. ;
ht Maxwell, Mr. Worrell ; Emily', Miss
To be followed by a characteristic sketch, called THE
YANKEE
PEDLAR ; or, Old Times in Virginia. Hiram Dodge, Mr. Silsbee ;
Iforiand, mi..
Worrell; Miss Nancy Bantam, Miss Emma Harding.
After Winch My PRECIOUS BETSY. Mr. Bobtail, Mr. Wright.
To conclude with a new and original Christmas Tale, called LIT-
TLE RED RIDING HOOD, Wolfram, Baron of B mil btirg (sur-
named the Wolf of Biberich), Mr. Paul Bedford ; Scraggenheim, Mr.
Butler; Trudehen (eemara•nlY called Little Fed r Riding Hood), Miss
Kathleen Fitzwilliam.

_KOVAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE, OXFORD-STILEET.
Linde: the Managementot Mr. C. Beal.
THIS EVENING,
Shakespere's Comedy of THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Principal characters by Messrs. Bartley, Keeley, A. Wigan, Mea-
dows, Addison, Harley. 3. Vining, C. Kean ; mesdames Winstanley,
Keeley, and C. Kean.
With a new grand Christmas Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN
The Flying Dutchman and the King of Ra-
yt ILLY
,orkr. Cormack ; Clown, Mr. Flexmore ; Panta-
TtlYartOqßtlin;
rit'°ng°.
Mr. paplo ; and Columbine, Miss Carlotta Leclercq.

dOl,ll. LYCh'ILA
Under the Maze
EVENING, zt e Vest
THIS
Will be performed

VIII GAME OF SPECULATION. Principal char
Messrs. C. Mathews, F. Matthews, U.
Re
IbY, B. Baker ; characters by
Airs. e
Horn, and Miss M. Oliver.
To conclude with
A new and original Fairy Extravaganza, by J. R. Planehe' Esq.,
entitled THE PRINCE OF HAPPY LAND ; or, The Fawn
1,-
`4,“i
Forest. Characters by Madame Vestris, Miss St. George, A,:3
Lanza, Miss Martindale, Miss Grove, Miss Ellis, Miss Rosins
Wright,s—
mews. F. Matthews, B. Baker, Suter,
liorucastle, Butler, and
Vernon

ROYAL OLYMPIC TIIE.A.TRE Farrell.
Loma and Manager, Mr. W.
Will be THIS EVENOTG, H. Farren ; 'ago
Mr. Hoskins
Performed OTHELLO. Othello, Mr.
Saville. ; Deadernona Miss Louisa HoWard ; Emilia, Mrs. J. F.
Fact, Fiction, and
To conclude with RED RUFUS ; or, inalequin
Fancy. Red Rufus, fir, Shalders • Miss Lees.
Clown, Mr. Edwards; Harlequin,
Mr. Forrest ; Pantaloon, Mr. 'Tanner; Columbine,

PLAYHOUSEAIM " TIMAT".
Lessee. Mr. w, R. COPELAND, LiVerP°°l'
The Warmest Theatre in Lendon.
THIS EVENING.
Will be per THE TWELVE LABOURS OF HERCULES'
After which, The JUVENILE PARTY.
To be followed by a new Chinese burlesque, called THE MANDA-
RIN'S DAUGHTER , or, willow pattern Plate. Characters by
Messrs. J. Reeve, Rogers, Romer, Attwood, Hudspeth Mesdames
Marshall, Sanders, Bell, Egllnten, and Maskell.
To conclude with MY SISTER FROM INDIA.
The prices of admission are arranged as follow —Orchest•a stalls,
4s, hcaes (first circle), 35.; (second circle), 22.. Pit, Is.
Doc i% to be opened at
„,Half-pa" Biz, and the lerformanCeS to
commence at Seven precisely.
A second price will be taken to the Boxes only at Nine o'clock
—nrSt.circle, 2a.; second circle, Is.
Private Boxes One Guinea and a Halt each.
Stage Manager, Mr. E. Stirling.

~YAL A3OIIITUEATItt.
ASTLEY' ''''''' 3/..iesty and his Royal HIM.=
ct
her ..,
Under tht PatrOnageAlbert.
Prince
Proprietor and
31, nular Theatre in London.Pr ne
ager, Mr. W. Batty.
The most suceessful and r
ns Mr. Batty begs to inform his Pato that he has entered into an
u• BENSOO, the great Rope
engagement with Mons. FRAN- . every evening.
Dancer, -.out Vienna,who will make Ins appearanceTlLTS EVENDIG,
entitled BLUE
Q ot acle, Will be Told a magnmeent -Pe- ' •
BEARD ; or, Fennile Cariosity, allowed to be the most
)11011y-trained Elephants, male and female,
in which will be introduced a pair of
*Jolla pair ever brought into Europe.
With itatty's Inimitable Scenes of the Arena, combining talent
of the highest over, both Native and F regn •
'With the rar:st
PePinar and only EquestTia.n Pantomime
entitled MX. and Silts. BRIGGS ; or, Lunch's Festival—:Furth,very;
in London,
pittawi, and Jollity. Harlequin, Mr. Harvey • Columbine, Miss A
m in the
loon, Mr. Ruclunan; Clown Arthur' Nelson, who will
the
airs on
coarse of each evening play a ,number of favourite
B,ck Harkonicon.
A Grand Juvenile Night on Thursday next,
r_tera to be lead at uao lies-ofilce nom Eleven till Fotlr daily.
.itaze mp
'mrer, Mr. T. Thera:-“, ~
,-----.___

ba reiteraetwedpirteoo frequently
etpheantatetstoan-
bility of the British
It cannot
the various
ized
parts system t some rapid and properly organ..
the establishment of
this bond of union, it were
tntiecrae
itsem vastof acn°dnisinu
ca
so peculiarly, we
tdicjildo bt
ne it. nwi eo
en
ns
.
idle to hope for any very
protracted continuance of a power
may even go so far o to sap, •SO unprecedentedly
gigantic and heterogeneous.
Distributed as our ter-
ritories are over the western, as well as over the
eastern hemisphere, separated as they are from each
other, here by oceans and there by continents, sur-
AN TINILE,
ISONABVE PROPDSAL.—A.IIIrish labourer, ! rounded as they are on all sides by enemies
who was in the employment of au English gentleman, re- ! puissant as they are envenomed and ambitiou3,
siding in Ireland, was on one occasion about oing to a fair ! as - held annually at a neighbouring village, when his master' i the possessions of liogland are obviously liable at all
endeavoured to dissuade him from his design. 4‘ You always," s '' 1 times to the danger of experiencing some tremendous
said he, " come back wit,h a brtiken head; now, sta.; at' ' h is
home to-day, Darby, and 111 i
merit. Insonnic
give `ken
five shillings," I'm i effort at spoliation or encroach
for ever and all obliged to your honour," replied' Darby,• " but ; this necessarily the case, that it is impossible for the
his shillelagh I
does it stand to rason," added he, tieuris, .no.
over this head, " does it stand to raft, ni .
, that I'd take five I students in the. Philosophy of History not to detect
shillings for the grate bating I'm to get to-clay r
1 in the very evidences of our national greatness the

germs of our future and inevitable dismemberment.
Let us not be accused of assuming to ourselves the
character of which we took occasion in our last im-
pression to speak in terms of the most decisive
reprobation. We are by no means alarmists
in our temperament. We do not, for example,
anticipate any speedy disruption of our empire. On
the contrary, we look to that catastrophe as to an
event certain to take place in the ordinary course of
things during some remote and as yet unimagined
generation. To deny altogether the ulterior fall of
our supremacy would be to gainsay the truth of the
inexorable teachings of the Past. To attribute an in-
destructible vitality to the power of Great Britain
would be to ignore the facts related in the pic-
turesque pages of VOLNEY and in the luminous
volumes of SCHLEGEL. Dreams of any such
national immortality would be tokens rather
of ignorance than of patriotism. Meanwhile, it must
be allowed as readily that the maintenance of the
strength of England may be protracted to an almost
indefinite period by the adoption of a regular and
reasonable system of precautions. Foremost among
such precautionary measures is assuredly that of
opening up proper and sufficient lines of intercom-
munication. Otherwise a state, consisting for the
most part of an enormous aggregation of colonies,
must, we repeat again and yet again, be liable at
any moment to the calamity of dismemberment.
Lieutenant WAGHORN, though grievously ill re-
quited in a pecuniary sense, obtained, even before his
premature death, the thrice-noble recompense of
being regarded by his contemporaries as one of the
most conspicuous amongst the ranks of our national
benefactors. His enterprise had carried out the
magnificent scheme of the overland route to Hindos-
tan. Thanks to his very remarkable exertions, we
have since then been, at intervals of a few
weeks, reaping the advantages of a rapid
interchange of correspondence between London
and Calcutta. Hitherto the line stretching
across Europe into the very heart of the Asiatic con-
tinent, and down to the southernmost extremity of
the Indian peninsula, has remained open to the British
couriers to and fro, their course along the overland
route having continued up till now uninterrupted.
Nevertheless, it has been manifest from the very
outset that such could not possibly be the case in the
event of any misunderstanding between ourselves and
the continental Powers, or, in other words, in the
event of an outbreak of an European war. Under
either of these contingencies the overland route to
India would be, of course, at once and effectually ob-
structed. Thereby, of course, as assuredly in these
days cf railroads and electric telegraphs, our power
in Hindostan would be subject to very grievous de-
triment. It is consequently evident that perhaps the
principal want of the empire at the present junc-
ture is that of some route across seas and over
the surface of our own dominions, connecting
together uninterruptedly our numerous and remote
possessions. Already we have repeatedly insisted in
these columns upon the advisability of directing the
national enterprise to this end in a westerly instead of
an easterly direction. Either across the territories
of the United States, or farther to the north across our
own provinces in the same continent, a route might,
we feel satisfied, be opened such as would conduct us
most readily to our acquisitions in Asia and in Aus-
tralia. The route by way of the Isthmus of Panama
has long since been set aside as impracticable
for a variety of reasons, not the least among which
is the dangerous 7.avigation of the Gulf of Mexico,
and the enormous increase of distance to be tra-
versed by following a direct course along the ex-
tended line of the equator. Not so the projected
route across the North American continent, either
through the United States or through our own do-
minions. As far as distance is concerned, the route
by way of the United States is of the two unques-
tionably preferable. As far as our national predilec-
tions are involved in the matter, it must ha admitted
that es e should rejoice more earnestly on the adoption
of the route by way of the British possessions. In
the latter event the golden fruits of the traffic, as well
as of all ulterior advantage?, would flow into our own
pockets instead of into those of Brother Jonathan.
Naturally, therefore, we should prefer the construc-
tion of a grand trunk railway via Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and the Hudson's Bey territory, opening
up a direct line of communication between the
Pacific and the Atlantic, and rendering North Ame-
rica the high road between the Asiatic and European
continents. Feeling this, as we have often before in-
timated, we are gratified to observe that a subject to
which we ourselves have already frequently directed
public attention, and which we have long considered
to be one of most vital importance to the stability of
our empire, has been formally brought, within the
last few days, under the consideration of the
Geographical Society by Captain SYNGE, of
the Royal Engineers. At an early opportunity
we shall take occasion to specify the nature of the
arguments adduced upon the matter under considera-
tion by this intelligent traveller : at present we can
merely allude to the circumstance of his recent ex-
ertions in the advancement simultaneously of science
and of commerce, as to a fact which has afforded us, as
one of the original upholders of the project, the
sincerest and liveliest gratification.

There is, perhaps, none of the great questions of
Parliamentary reform on which so little is known re-
specting the Ministerial intentions as that relating to
the future "duration of Parliament." On that point
we are completely in the dark, and there are few
data to assist us in forming a satisfactory opinion.
We know that a distinct and positive pledge has
been given by the PREMIER himself respecting
the " property qualification for Members."
"It needs no ghost to tell us" that the
total abolition of that impolitic and unjust restriction
on the privileges of constituencies has been finally
determined, and that no substitute will be offered in
its place. We are also aware that there will be con-
siderable extension of the suffrage. There may be
much speculatioa as to the nature and amount of the
concession. Some may suppose that the voter's
qualification may be in some degree lowered ;
others, that the proposition of the Hon. Member
for East Surrey, on which the Ministers have already
been so signally end ignominiously defeated, will be
adopted. Many think, with Mr. E. BAINES, that
the Parliamentary will be assimilated with the
municipal franchise; while the more sanguine
indulge in the fond hope that "house-
hold suffrage" will become the law of the
land—that every man who is subject to direct
taxation, or rated to the relief of the poor,
will at length have the right of being heard,
through his representative, on the application of that
taxation. Whatever weight may be attached
to these various opinions, there can at least be no
doubt that the registry will be materially enlarged,
and that we shall no longer find so large a proportion
of political cyphers as at present.
The St. Albans inquiry and many other significant
indications show that the smaller boroughs, whether
returning the nominees of the aristocratic patrons or
of " the Mr. EDWARDS" of the locality, will not
escape notice. There may not be a complete equali-
zation cf the districts, but there must be a more
equitable distribution of electoral power than at pre-
sent, so that the representation may be better propor-
tioned to the wealth and population of the several con-
stituencies.

Y.
The decisive defeats end the questionable triumphs
on the all-important subject of "the ballot"—the
number of persons connected with the Ministry who
have advocated, and that in the most unequivocal
terms, the propriety of affording some protection to
the voter from the corrupt influences that have
but too frequently been brought into operation,
' lead us to hope that the Government will avoid an-
other conflict with the Honourable Gentleman the
Member for Bristol and his faithful and consistent
supporters, of which the result must be deeply pre-
judicial and may possibly be fatal to them-
selves. On each and every of these impor-
tant points, then, we. have something to enable
us to form an opinion respecting the long-promised
and anxiously looked-for Reform Bill, the, first fruits
of the abandonment of the " finality" which was
so strenuously asserted by the First Lord of the Trea-
sury until the necessity of fuither progress was too
clearly indicated to admit of further delay. But
nothing of any practical importance is known as to the
feeling of any members of the Cabinet on the ques-
tion of the duration of
being Parliament, or the probabi-
lities Proposed on the existing
that Reformers
systenloif any
therefore, essential