The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-08 00:00:00

ASTLEY'S ROYAL .kIiPFI.I ME &TILE.

Lessee and Manager, Mr. Wm. Cooke.
THIS EVENING,
Attraction Extraordinary ! Three Great Battles In one Spectacle !
those of BALAKLAVA and INK ER CANN being now aided (by the
introduction of a Third Act) W the BATTLE of the ALMA, whlch
this week reaches its I2ld representation
To conclude with Novel SCENES in the CIRCLE, introducint,
(first time) Herr Johann Endersohn, le Fil-de-Fer, and the Entree
du Clown a la Foustitise.
Box-oflice open from Eleven till Four. Stage Manager, Mr. W.
West. Acting Manger. W. H. Cooke. Equestrian Director,
Mr. W. Cooke, Jan.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tin DAT min.after 4 Evening 51 inin.aft. 4
To- loamy Morning 4 min.qter 5 Evening 22 min.sft. 5

THE WEATHER.-3u n • Chrinni. March. 8.
THERMONLETII3. IN THII BB ADZ.
46 highest since noon yesterday.
34—lowest this, morning and during the night.
43—this day, at noon.
BABoitrrza, 30'19.
WIND, N.F.—Fresh breeze, and fine, annßhiny weather,

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§llll,

not be sacrificed to the crotchets of the Prime
Minister or the interests of " Germanism." We
know, however, on the unexceptionable testi-
mony of General EvANs, that " the War
was commenced under the delusion that
it would be settled without any explosion of

gunpowder, and that there was no necessity for
any magazines." This delusion was the source of
all the evils. It was this which led to the financial
policy of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer,
which starved the War, and to the indifference as
to the efficiency of what were regarded as merely
temporary measures. Where, then, is Lord
HARDINGE ? Where Lord ABERDEEN ? Another,
or others, may possibly be required, but these are
indispensable, for whose absence no excuse can be
received or sanctioned.

Whatever the abstract fitness or unfitness of
appointing national days for solemn fasting,
humiliation, and prayer, the circumstances of the
QUEEN'S command is the present instance are of
the most objectionable kind ; the Indeed all kinds
of most undesirable reflections. , we won-
der that the author of the letter to the Edinburgh
Presbytery should have advised the Royal Procla-
mation. Perhaps he finds that English bishops aro
rather more formidable than Scotch D.D.'s. Be
it observed that the bishops did, in fact, steal a
march on the Premier. One of the most pragma-
tical, and another of the most adroit among
them, advertised their clergy of the importance of
directiog their congregations' thoughts to prayer
for the army—exhorting them at the same time
not to venture a public prayer for it, lest they

should thereby modify the Liturgy to the urgency
of the hour. At a moment when the nation is
half frantic with the fatal results of routine in the
army, these worthy Fathers in GOD paraded be-
fore the nation the inflexibility of routine in the
Church. No one might have noticed it had they
but kept their glib pens still. Their missives, of
course, had only the effect of enabling every dissent*
ing teacher to declaim on the incompetence of a clergy

who could not be trusted to shape one brief peti-
tion to HEAVEN for the nation's army, or on the
miserable slavery and high-handed tyranny which
restrains them, if competent. Was it wise to
place the Church before the community in such a
light ? To tell its members to think and think
again, but not to venture to pray till his Lordship
of Lambeth had found them words, and my Lord
PALNIERSTON had found them a day ?
In one respect, however, they were wise. Lard
PALMERSTON could not answer letters not written

to him ; they wrote at him, not to him. The won-
der is that he did not speak at them. However,
when Governments were shifting like dissolving
views, it was no time to quarrel with the Lor.,:s
Spiritual. In another respect, very wise, indeed,
were the men of lawn. Had the clergy been
thrown upon their impromptu supplications, who
can tell but that some confessions might have
been of sins in high places ? But of that presently.
One of the objections attending Proclamations of
this kind is their inevitable assumption. It
compels her MAJESTY to command the worship of
GOD ; to command humiliation, penitence, and
supplication for pardon. Command is the only
word for a SOVEREIGN ; but, unfortunately, the
thing commanded that which no SOVEREIGN can
enforce. It compels her MAJESTY also to assume
(following the invariable phraseology) that the
favour of ALMIGHTY GOD," or "His wrath and
indignation," await obedience or disobedience to
a command which half her subjects think beyond
her province. Catholics and Dissenters of every
class have already and spontaneously obeyed
what they deem a higher command in the matter.
Why should they now obey a second and inferior ?
As to the great body of the working classes, they
will either use it as a day;of amusement, or a day
of grumbling that fast they must if they are de-
prived of a day's work. The most inexcusable
assumption of all, at least the one most in viola-
tion of common sense, since the publication of
the Religious Census, is, that on these occasions
the QUEEN ignores all sects but the Anglican
Episcopal Church t She addresses all her loving
subjects, amongst whom she surely includes those
who do not belong to the State Church, adverts
to none of the millions who worship GOD sin-
cerely, although not by our Liturgy, and bids them
all to use the Archbishop of CANTERBURY'S
prayer r If it were said, we all know what
is meant ; the reply is, then why not say what
is meant. Roman Catholics and Dissenters
might as well be requested to fast and pray as
the Christians, of whom the QUEEN is the Eccle-
siastical Head, be commanded to do it.
But the extreme bad taste of the thing is the
time and the occasion. Why, supposing her
MAJESTY'S loving subjects to obey pretty generally,
what will they be thinking of ? We cannot for-
get cause and effect even in our devotions. Men
enraged with the destructive mismanagement of
our aristocracy are commanded to humble them-
selves, to fast and to pray ! What for, they will
ask. Are we, like Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, to stand
in awe of the PROVIDENCE which rebukes us by
storms and pestilence ? Or are we to humble
ourselves that we have tolerated an incompetent
aristocracy in the place of desert and merit ?
Are we not to mourn for the just but disappointed
hopes of thousands of meritorious men who have
died in penury and unhonoured, while the wealthy
and well-connected have bought the rank which
belonged to the deserving? Have we not gone to
the pestilence, and thrown ourselves into the
hurricane by the, gross delinquencies of those
whom we put in office ? Such reflections and
questionings will arise in the minds of all. Men
will feel before their MAKER that most of the
calamities deplored have befallen them not directly
from the hand of GOD, but directly through those
Court influences, owing to which War was not
prosecuted in earnest, Poland and a Polish Le-
gion contemned, Austria allowed to dismiss Rus-
sian reinforcements from the Danube to Inker-
man ; and to that aristocratic greed which had
filled every appointment from its own ranks,
ignored men of business, and thus starved and
decimated the army. We repeat that it is the
worst possible taste to proclaim a-day for men ids
assemble in the Sanctuary when men's thoughts
must fluctuate between the MOST HIGH and Mr.
ROEBUCK'S Committee ; and when the prayer of
so many hearts will really be for the substitution
of Worth,
ortahr,ismtoecrriat,cy a. n d capacity for a mere here-

At the commencement of the War we were told
i must soon come to'bl a
iconclusion, since measures
takeniseeffteoctually to prevent Russia .ade the Russian coasts,
and would
ou bi
ee r
v v
commerce. The export-
ing or importing articles of
consequence
as it
'orous,
Em-
peror, it was said, when trado
would be, and Russian merchanivt::::plemd
and Russian nobles disaffected in
would be glad to give way ; or the country, on
'
would compel him. Thin 'in:ty
the were of ruin,
have been true ; but, unfortunately, the experi-
ment has been so bungled that trade with Russia
has not been stopped, and her merchants and
nobles are almost as prosperous now as they were
before the War began.
This is the more startling when it is considered
that Great Britain received from Russia