The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-05 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, FEB. 5, 1863.

The Imperial Parliament of these realms, having
been formally opened this afternoon by Royal
Commission, the Speech from the Throne, as but
just now read from the foot of the Throne by the
Lord Chancellor, can be already turned to in an-
other part of our impression, and there examined
at leisure by those who list. From the nineteen
paragraphs of this State document, it will be seen
that our anticipations in regard to it have been
realised in every particular. It announces no start-
ling programme for the session. ft hints at no great
projected innovations. Its chief interest lies,in truth,
in the references therein made, as usual, but this time
with a peculiar significance, to the amicable charac-
ter of our relations with all the other Powers of
the earth, not alone in Europe, bu-t alike in all
quarters of the globe. Coupled with this pre-
eminently satisfactory reminder, comes also
the opportune recognition by the Sovereign,
through the medium of her MAJESTY'S Commis-
sioners, the singularly opportune recognition by
her MAJESTY of the tranquility at this epoch pre-
vailing throughout all parts of her vast dominion.
Grateful indeed is that consideration to every loyal
subject of the Crown at this moment—now, when,
simultaneously, in the old world and in the new, the
most conspicuous and powerful states, whether
republican or despotic, arc passing through an
ordeal of apparent disruption. The giant democracy
of North America more widely than ever it would
seem rent asunder irreconcilably—North and South
still contending with each other in deadly conflict.
In an exactly opposite direction, both geographi-
cally and politically, the giant autocracy of Russia,
moreover, is known to be engaged, at this very same
juncture, with another of those periodical evidences
of the hatred in which it is held by the various
minor nations around it, who, at different intervals
have been brought under its rule, either by diplo-
matic fraud or by sheer force of arms—the military
despotism of the CZAR being now vigorously occu-
pied, in point of fact, in the suppression of another
vast Polish Insurrection. In proof of which, Cossacks
and Uhlans, regiment after regiment, and bearing
with them a whole battery of artillery, have, it
would seem, according to to-day's telegrams, been
despatched in hot haste to the insurgent districts
by express orders flashed with laconic precision
from the Imperial Cabinet at St. Peters-
burg.
Not only, however, is civil war raging
within the dominions of the Republic of North
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within the compass of the British Empire, there are,
if not open revolt and bloodshed, overt or latent
sources of profound disquietude. Turkey is still
struggling with ber financial embarrassments—con-
strained while so engaged to keep the unsheathed
sword yet firmly within her grasp, with an
eye perpetually turning askance to one part
or another of her northern frontiers. Prussia ap-
pears to be unavoidably committed to a fierce com-
bat—the fatal issue of which must come sooner or
later—between the SOVEREIGN and the Parliament.
Germany and Scandinavia have still lying between
them, as it were, upon the very verge of their inevi-
table struggle in the end, that long recognised pro-
vocative to war in the North, that constant plea of
contention, more especially between the Councils of
Berlin and Copenhagen—the Schleswig-Holstein
difficulty. Turning southwards, there is Italy, still,
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difficulty that perpetually appears to
Preclude the nation from the possibility of
anythiag like a secure and satisfactory settlement.
The latest phase in regard to which diplomatic
difficulty is seemingly—to put the matter, in plain
terms—that Prance, Turin, the Papacy itself, have,
for art interval at least, determined, at this latest
mention of the Roman Question, to evade it,
to ignore if, in Parliamentary phrase, to pass
to the Order of the Day. And that Order of the Day,
in reference to the Italian People and the Roman
Peninsula, may, for the time being, be expressed