The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-07 00:00:00

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atone will probably be able i 0 iit.oW that The sttviii
to this country by the abArni.oninent of our position
in the Septinsular Republic will he but little, if at
all, short of 1:200,000 a year, an item which he will
no doubt exceedingly rejoice to place to the credit
of his budget. In a financial point of view we shall
be considerable gainers, whilst we shall still more
largely benefit if the contemplated arrangement be
) found to conduce to the welfare of the Hellenic
kingdom and the permanent tranquillity of Eastern
Europe.
HERALD.—In former days it was the ambition of
great men to make their country great ; to extend
ber dominions by discovery, by colonisation, or by
conquest ; to increase her influence, her au; hoe it c,
her power, by judicious alliances, by prudent action
by a vigorous assertion of her lights And dignity,
and by a careful management of her material re-
sources. To widen the British Empire and spread
the glory of the British name was the hope and the
pride of English sailors, soldiers, and stat( eu le
All these antiquated notions arc now dissipeeee
Abroad, indeed, the old traditions still retain their
States,
in the
sway. Russia has not one whit relaxed her aggr,:,
her
Austria
Sive efibrts ; France is still labouring to inert te-e
not her territorial possessions ;
ii.desperately to every shred of her
making
en I
franticightn e deffortsto
empire ; Prussia hankers after new recruits for her
after a new capital and a better
afhrrooninnyot Lincolnieirr ;lotiefsavleyb ne
being remembered in history as the
America,
esPeraepsei d e
then t
million of and has
slaasetrifiPeerdesidneenatrlyet
hathlfe a United
vain hope to keep together a country too wide
to be ruled by one Congress and a people too
deeply divided by character and institutions to live
in harmony under one Government and one la*.
Only in England, thanks to the wisdom of Mr.
Cobden and the eloquence of Mr. Bright, we have
learned to be much better than our fathers, and are
doing our best to get rid of the heritage which they
toiled so hard and fought so nobly to secure for us.
The government under which it is our happiness to
live has contrived with admirable skill to disen-
cumber our Sovereign from all the alliances which
might entrammel her in relations of friendship or
common action with any foreign Power—to alienate
Russia, to insult the Scandinavian kingdoms, to
disgust Austria, to substitute a marked coldness for
the former cordiality of our understanding with
France, and, in a word, to secure for us the deep
dislike of one half the world and thorough distrust
of the other half. The Ministers have thoughtfully
taken care, each in his respective department, to
deprive the country of every element of strength
which might provoke the jealousy of other Stases
or induce us to give vent to our sympathies by any
interference in foreign quarrels, or to maintain our
pride by any violent resentment of foreign aggres-
sion. Mr. Gladstone has with infinite pains deli.
vered us from the temptation of an easy and expan-
sible revenue. The Admiralty has diligently avoided
creating for us a really effective navy_ The Colonial-
office has given our colonies to understand that the
sooner we can find an opportunity to cut them adrift
the better it will be for them and us. Lord Russell
has allowed the Americans to understand that they
are at perfect liberty to burn our ships, blockade
our harbours, and imprison our fellow-subjects, and
that so long as he remains in power they need not
fear that he shall indulge in the unholy and unpro-
fitable practice of retaliation. He has informed
France that England abnegates her place as one of
the Great Powers, and will not under any circum-
stances attempt to adj 'st the quarrels which dis-
-1 turb the peace of the world, or enforce the laws
' which regulate the intercourse of nations. Al
these things have been done, and yet Mr. Bright is
not satisfied. All is as nothing until the anti-
quated absurdity of empire is renounced. Even
for this sacrifice the enthusiastic conviction of his
ministerial converts suffices. The Gazette of Let
night announces that the first step to the dismem-
berment of the British empire has been taken. Her
Majesty's Government has intimated to the Provi-
sional Government of Greece that if the Greeks will
behave well, choose a King who will keep the peace,
and for a short time prove themselves fit:to be trusted
with the liberty they have invariably abused, Eng-
land will be disposed to hand over to them the
valuable possession of the lonian Islands, including
the fortress of Corfu, the key of the Adriatic. The
country is thus fairly committed to the final sacri-
fice which is demanded of her by modern enlighten-
ment, and which, of course, is to be in due time its
own reward. Of influence, strength, and friends she
has been already shorn ; she is now to be delivered
from the incubus of empire. We congratulate Lord
Palmerston and his colleagues on a feat hitherto
unparalleled in history, and on the further achieve-
ments which will, of course, follow in due succes-
sion. Already Spain stretches out her hands to re-
ceive the long-coveted gift of Gibraltar ; and one of
her senators actually expresses a hope that the Go-
vernment will not pay its debts to England anti
that fortress is surrendered—to which the Govern-
ment replies that it does not intend to do so. It
cannot be long before Italy will receive Malta, and
France the many possessions we have reft from her
before Canada will be annexed to the United States
if anything be left to which to annex her—and India
abandoned to its legitimate possessors, or to the first
power which, not having imbibed the new doctrines,
may think proper to seize it. And then at 'met
England, without colonies, without an army or a
navy, with no monument remaining of her past
follies or glories but her national debt, will be
happy, rich, and safe.

itself
at
no a the
to
It may seem captioustcoellteaknte exceptionin
manner of an act so ex
glorious as the inauguration of a new policy—
new not only to England, but to the world ;
unprecedented, save in the annals of the
decline of Rome, when province after pro-
vince was abandoned, much as we now
propose to abandon the lonian Islands, until at last
even the capital itself gave up the vain and expen--
sive luxury of independence. The lonian dema-
gogues found it profitable to clamour themselves
into the Legislative Assembly and a salary of £lOO
a year by railing against the protectorate ; but it
natnhaceemabaaanni.d.s
is by no means so certain that the respectable in-
' habitants of the Seven Islands would be willing to
see the protectorate abolished and cast in their lot
with Greece, ill-governed, over-taxed, and overrun
by bandits, as she has been ever since she obtainedt
the name of independence and the shadow °tuber y.
And though we do not think thatanticiFis
asart Austria
1-
of the Adriatic trans--
Russia will have any objection to
her
rt
eo°ursri sure
let:
that
cation by Great Brbitaanidnsotfh
yersseelef ethnetitkleeyd to remonstrat
time dominion, can we be 4
wouldu d iNivotilfleienlghl
a state of chronic anxiety and periodical
e warmly
afegrariends
ti la:
no weaker
arrangement which would condemn
to a line of
her to
poliiicyefoNcrheibehinmdianyg
dhiismplseealts'eiorruervcoiecpabenly_
border wars.
dents, 'which must displease some of those to whom,
we are bound by treaties not yet abrogated, and
which may not find favour with all Englishmen,
would it not have been as well if the Foreign
Secretary had sought the counsel and support of
Parliament ? And has he not some reason to fear
that his neglect to do so will not be easily con-
doned ; that support may be refused and counsel
administered in the form of censure ; and that the
prompt interference of the House of Commons may
at once terminate his official career, and prevent the
realisation of his glorious dreams of a renounced
empire, an example set to the world, and a future
of peaceful wealth and prosperous isolation achieved
for England.

THE CALAMITOUS FIRE IN SOE[O.—T 1) e in quest
on the bodies of the six young children of Samuel
James Spencer, a porter, who lost their lives in the fire
which took place at 6, Portland-street, Soho, on the 26th
Dec. last, was reopened yesterday by Mr. Bedford, the
coroner, at the Vestry Hall in Piccadilly. Nearly all the
jurymen who were sworn on the first occasion answered to
their name& The jury, after a short consultation, statect
they were of opinion that the children lost their lives in
consequence of the fire which bad taken place ; but there
was no evidence to show the cause of the fire. They
strongly censured the conduct of the turncock, Danyer,,
" for not rendering that aid, when called on by the police,
which we consider the duty of every man in all simile,e
cases.", The inquiry then terminated.