The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-31 00:00:00

Box Office open from 10 till 5.

NEW ROYALTY THEATRE,
Dean-street, Oxford-street.
Immense success of the new Operetta.
THIS EVENING, A NICE QUIET DAY.
After which Offenbach's Opera Buffo, entitled LE MARI-
AGE AUX LANTERNES. Mr. John Morgan, Mesdames
Stanley, Payne, and Mason.
To conclude with THE EARLIEST EDITION OF IL
TROVATORE. _

Commence at half-past 7.

CANTERBURY HALL
ARTS GALLERY.
"THE ENCHANTED HASH " (SECOND EDITION)
by Mr. E. Marshall, with Eleven Wonderful Transformations
(the most talented performance ever attempted by a single
person), at a quarter-past ten. Also the following extraor-
dinary combination of Comic talent, viz.: Mr. Randall, Mr.
Frederick French, Mr. J. G. Forde, Miss Harriet Covency,
and Miss Greene.

AND FINE

----- ---
Grand Selections from LA TRAVIATA, by Mdlle. Negri,
Mr. Herbert, Signor Tivoli, and a powerful Chorus, at Ten
o'clock.

Musical Director, Mr. Jonghmans.
Admission—Hall, 6d. ; Stalls and Balcony, is.

and horrible dabbling in nastiness.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 31, 18ft.

Jury, had to scrutinise, lynx-eyed, this protracted

Everybody knows that homeliest of all the
many wise and witty sayings of the Great

NAPOLEON the one urgently recommending

people to wash their dirty linen at home !

Never had it a more filthily direct applica-
tion than in the instance of this foul and nauseating
inquiry. An inquiry, by the way, in the course of

which the evidence of persons from all ranks and

classes of society had to be adduced. There were
tutors and railway guards, general officers and

clergymen, lawyers and timber merchants,
bailiffs and lodging-house keepers. There was,
among others, that keen-witted old parish clerk,
who, by the way, gave a quaint foreshadowing
of the verdict brought in but yesterday by the jury—
when,long ago,in the midst of this protracted inquiry,

he said shrewd old SOLOXON DAISY, village car-

penter and parish clerk, oddly turned the laugh
against the smart-spoken barrister just then sub-

,ecting him to the presumed torture of a cross-

examination, by saying, with a twinkle of the eye,
that Mr. WINDIIAM was as sane as his (the
witness's) interrogator, and would make just as
good a lawyer if he had but the wig on ! There,
moreover, among the motley characters brought one

after another into that wondrous witness-box, men
about town and valets turned wine-merchants,

surgeons and physicians, learned scholars and
rather questionable personages being on the
loose, sawney bumpkins and fast London
betting men, publicans and sinners too, for
that matter—the latter, by the way, rather in
superfluity. And—before closing this hastily.
penned and wonderfully chequered catalogue,

which is far from complete, even now, as expressive

of the diversity of character and of professions em-
braced within the compass of the 140 witnesses
subjected to examination and cross-examination—
it ought here to be added as horridly remi-
niscent of the applicability of NAPOLEON'S
saying to the case in hand, that among
the rest of the evidence hunted up there was a
"distinguished'. General's search after a fresh
witness of importance in the shape of a veritable
washerwoman I Remembering in effect the class
of evidence that was adduced in such nauseating
abundance, it almost appears to us that in the
course of this revolting investigation there was
one Americar. " institution" that it might almost
have been a§ well to have imported succes-
sively into tie Court of Exchequer, and after-
wards into the Sessions House at Westminster,
while Mesta. WARREN and his jury were
sitting there—meaning, if we may be per-
mitted to sal so, an adequate supply of spit-
toons. Notwithstanding the length, to which
the inquiry was protracted, it should in
justice not bt overlooked that the learned
Master repeatedy endeavoured upon every possible
opportunity to preclude the counsel upon either
side from bringing forward evidence in any way
irrelevant to the proceedings. Occasionally it is
to be regretted that altercations sometimes of a very
comprehensible, often almost unavoidable, and upon
rare occasions, evenbe it said of a somewhat unseemly
character, impedeC for a time the regular course
of these proceedings. Throughout the inquiry
the eminent counsel engaged upon either side dis-
played very remarkable ability, though frequently
but little command of temper—their mutual recri-
minations once or twice almost carrying to extra-
vagance the forensic license of speech assumed
with the horsehair wig and the silk gown or the
bombazene.

As to the digererre of opinion which
arose towards the diose iof this prolonged ii.ves-
tigation between the learned Master who pre-
sided over it, and the bviliant Advocate who was
the chosen and foremost Champion of Mr. WIND-
HAM'S cause—as to the contention, that is, which
took place between Mr. WARREN and
Sir HUGH CAIRNS as to the examination
of Mr. WINDHAM himself publicly or pri.
vately, these are two considerations which
ought certainly not to be overlooked. It should be
remembered, in resolving, as Mr. WARREN did,
to have Mr. WINDHAM examined in private, con-
trary to the earnest wishes of Mr. WINDHAM him-
self, and contrary also to the emphatic and
reiterated entreaties of his gifted advocate, the
Master was assuming to himself (as he of course
bad a perfect right to do if he so pleased) a very
grave responsibility. That is the first considera-
tion. The second being sufficiently obvious now
that the WINDHAM inquiry has been brought to
a close—namely, that the Verdict of the jury is
in itself a perfect and final vindication of the course
pursued by the Master, in resolving that Mr. WIND-
HAM should not be made a public exhibition of—even
in compliance with his own individual wishes, even
in concession to the earnest and, at last, almost
petulant demand made in his behalf by Sir HUGH
CAIRNS. That the Master in resolving that this
course, and this course only, should be pursued,
was acting conscientiously, and even from the
humanest considerations, every one, not excepting
Sir HUGH CAIRNS himself, must all along
have been perfectly well convinced. It ap-
peared to Sir HUGH CAIRNS, however, and
and to many others, and we will frankly admit
to ourselves also, while the result of the inquiry
was still pending, was still problematic, that Mr.
WARREN was acting rashly, almost with indis-
cretion, when persisting in his refusal to comply
with the often repeated and most urgent en-
treaties for a Public Examination. Yet even then
it was so far removed from hostile criticism this
unflinching determination on the part of Mr.
WARREN, inasmuch as he was thereby, as already
remarked, assuming to himself voluntarily a
grave and weighty responsibility. As the
event has proved, however, we repeat, the
verdict is the complete vindication of the
Master's resolve. And so this in many respects
lamentable case is brought to an end at last—
Mr. WINDHAM being pronounced sane, but at the
same time being left, at any rate for very many
years to come, a ruined man so far as his actual pro-
perty is concerned. Not, let us hope, morally. For
it is the one good to himself that is likely
to come out of this infamously trumped-up
charge, and out of these con sequently fright-
ful exposures of his own early depravity.
Let him not, in heaven's name, misapprehend
the meaning of the ringing cheers that greeted
the Verdict in his favour, or of the BRIAREUS hand-
grasp of congratulations held out to him by the
General Public, or of the exulting shouts
that followed him on his quitting the
Court yesterday afternoon. Let him be quite
certain of this, they were simply and literally the
acclamations of warm-hearted Englishmen loving
Justice, but loathing mere gross vulgar Pro-
fiigacy.

The proposed British North American Associa-
tion has made an effective start in regard to its
preliminary meeting yesterday ; and will, we trust,
organise itself numerously and successfully. Mem-
bers of the British Legislature, by their attendance
in such an unusual proportion, show at least the
attention such an Association would receive from
the House of Commons. Hitherto our North
American cOlonies have not had fair play. During
tilf; days of their implicit dependence on the
Colonial-office, the English colonies were at a dis-
advantage. Emigrants to them did not enjoy the
political liberties which they would gain by beeom.