The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-31 00:00:00

eaw.e as nothing less than an exquisite relief to the
subjects of the QUEEN when at last there
al speared among those clouds of grief the two radiant
bi eaks, first on Saturday, the ,7th of March,
w hen the Princess ALEXANDRA arrived in England,
pi issing through London in a triumphal reception,
at id, finally, on Tuesday the 10th of March,
-Alen in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Her
Royal Highness was taken to wife by the
Royal Bridegroom. Those two dates marked the
auspicious commencement of the year. Parliament
had already reassembled at Westminster before the
close of the preceding month of February. But
Parliament was in no very notable way whatever
t c illustrate the twelvemonth politically, that is, by
any very striking legislative proceedings. Politi-
ca ily, in truth, the year has been very much like
t t.e ruck on the Derby—nowhere. The Parliament
diid little else than simply approve or reject
what had been done, or attempted to be done,
by the Ministers, apart from it. In the way
of innovation or improvement, it effected scarcely
anything, it may be said, in that way, to 'have
attempted scarcely anything. A reduction
of the Income Tax and a considerable modification
of the Tea Duty, were happily brought about, it is
true, by Mr. GLADSTONE, as constituting, together,
Dart and parcel of his highly elaborated, but not
altogether successful, Budget, The declension of
Mr.GLADsTONE'S influence over the House, in truth,
was, upon more than one occasion, signalised very
strikingly indeed during the course of this last ses-
sion, the session of 1863. And not only the decrease
of Mr. GLADSTONE'S influence, but the decrease
even of Lord PALMERSTON'S. The Chancellor of

the Exchequer's proj?ct for imposing licenses upon
clubs, for the purpose of adding a few wretched
little driblets to the Treasury, had to be ignomi-
niously abandoned by him—had to be eliminated by
him from his Budget. The like had to be done by him,
fearfully against the grain, with regard to his still
more vexatious, his almost scandalous scheme for
extorting some petty additions to the revenue by
means of a cruel screw put upon Public Charities,
namely, by the actual taxation of endowments !
Finally, among these very noticeable sessional re-
jection of certain pet ministerial projects, there was
the stormy, the absolutely tumultuous occasion
upon which Lord PALMERSTON'S influence and Mr.
GLADSTONE'S influence, combined, failed to save
the Government from a very signal defeat—i.e., by
the peremptory rejection in the House of Commons
of the proposal made successively by the Premier
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the pur-
chase for the nation of that hideous architectural
monstrosity the International Exhibition down at.
South Kensington. To this end, Lord PALMER-
STON, it is true, contrived to obtain a preliminary
vote to the extent of £67,000 for the pur-
chase of the land there. But, when a
subsequent vote of £105,000 came to be asked for
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the pur-
chase and alteration of the buildings there erected
upon that land, a vote involving an eventual
expenditure of some £300,000 altogether, and
this for a purpose wholly distasteful both to
the country and to the House—who does not
remember the result ? Mr. DISRAELI himself
being, then and there, refused a hearing !
The champions of an intermediate arrangement
—an arrant; ement designed to satisfy all par-
ties by one of those compromises safe, whenever
adventured upon, to satisfy no cree—were groaned
down in the midst of indescribable confusion ! The
livision showing the rejection of the plan to have
been decided by a majority of 287, as opposed to a
minority of 181. If we except merely the triumph
of a Bill against the Garotters, the bill authorising
the infliction of corporal punishment for robberies
with violence—we may say that but one Legislative
enactment of any value, or of any importance, was
inscribed by our Legislature on the Statute Book
in 1863. Namely, that generous measure whereby
the Crown, the Lords, and the Commons
of these realms, authorised in 1863 the
appointment of Roman Catholic Chaplains in
goals whenever prisoners of that communion are
found to be numerous. To the honour of the
Conservative leaders, be it said, they, in both
Houses, supported this measure although strenu-
ously opposed in so doing by their own party.
Among the other incidents of the session worthy of
note in any way, were the rejection of Mr. SOMES'
bill for the suppression of the sale of fermented
liquors on Sundays—the startling speech delivered
by Lord HENRY LENNOX revealing certain flagrant
indications of misgovernment in Southern Italy,
under the rule of the Liberating King—Mr.
COBDEN'S vehement attack, no ee on the Admi-
ralty system, now upon the popular Prime Minister
(preliminary tokens of ascerbity destined to even-
tuate in the same hon. member's flagrant personal
onslaught upon the Editor of the Times newspaper)
—Mr. POPE HENNESSY'S noble advocacy in the
House of Commons, and Lord ELLENBOROUGE'S in
the House of Lords, their noble and often re-
newed advocacy in both houses of the outraged
rights and imperilled liberties of Poland—Mr.
BERNAL OSBORNE'S brilliant, and i❑ many ways
admirable speech on the Irish Church Question—
and, to crown all, as perhaps the incident of
the session, the extracrdinary exhibition of
himself made by Mr. ROEBUCK in his novel
aspect as Tearem fawning about the ancles and
licking the boots of the Emperor NAPOLEON !
Tearem, who but very recently, indeed, before that,
had, when apparently in a half rabid state, been
so very noisily and spitefully yelping at the heels
of his Imperial MAJESTY !

Although England has alone among the nations
of Europe, not only refused, but discourteously
refused to accede to the French EMPEROR'S propo-
"nn of a Congress of Peace—a Congress that may
ha,.,,,
some been Utopian, but might have proved in
~'iiY, even though it were but partially
praciiem, le—has swept aside the mere chance of an
avoidance _
.qt the general war everyday becoming
more imminent--nevertheless
as
Perhaps
I--nevertheless England, in 1863, has
signal indications of her solicitude to
given two
of moderation and of magna-
maintain a charettv
magna-
nimity First of all, , y
b declining the Crown of
when proffet,
q to his Royal Highness
ALFRED. Ana
Greece Prince
secondly, by ceding to the
Greece the ,f,
nolo of those lonian
Kingdom of
Islands over arch of these realms
:thee tohfell/8117, ex .
. evcised the rights
has, since theviPhei
and form of a
under the title
of
Protectorate. Sovereignty
will to its
Altogether the year now
, .63, will •
close, this year of grace 10
drawing rapidly
be chiefly
remembered in the hereafter most
remarkably signalised as a most memorable
twelvemonth by certain startlingly
peculiarities noticeable in its Obituary. For, within
the compass of this one year, England has had to
mourn over the death of many of her chiefs, of her
chiefs in many ways, of her chiefs in many diffe-
rent departments and professions. The head of the
War Department, Sir GEORGE LEWIS! The Arch-
bishop of Canterbury,Dr. SUMNER ! The Archbishop
Dublin, Dr. WHATELY ! The Governor-General
of India, the Earl of ELGIN ! The Judge of the
new Divorce Court, Sir CRESSWELL CRESSWELL !
The most venerable of all the occupants of the Bench,
Hr. Justice WIGHTMAN ! One of the most illustrious
of her ex-Chancellors,Lord LYNDHURST ! Two of the