The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-01 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

A STLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.—
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. W. Batty.
Wonderful Performance of Mr. Bell's trained Elephants.
THIS EVENING, the Grand Eastern Spectacle of THE
RAJAH OF NAGPORE, introducing two colossal Asiatic
Elephants, pronounced by all to be the cleverest animals
ever exhibited.
To be followed by brilliant and daring feats by the un-
rivalled Troupe of Equestrians.
Concluding, with a comic Ballet of Action, introducing Mr.
Harry Croueste and the Misses Gunnis.
Stage Manager, Mr. W. Searle.

C ANTERBIJ RY HALL AND FINE
ARTS GALLERY.
The renowned ROCKY MOUNTAIN WONDERS, at ten
o'clock, for a few evenings only.
Grand Selections from " La Sonnambula" and "Dinorah,"
by Mdme. Negri, Signor Tivoli, and Mr. Raynor, with Band
and full Chorus, conducted by Mr. Jong-hmans.
The COMIC Department by Mr. Hollingsworth, Mr. J. G.
Forde, Mr. W. Randall, Messrs. Hildebrandt and Ormond,
and Miss Caroline Parkes. _

The miraculous STECKEL, from the Cirque Napoleon,
Faris, will make his first appearance on Monday, the 14th
ApriL

Admission—Hall, ed.; Stalls mad Balcony, is.

THE OXFORD, 6, OXFORD-STREET.—
EVERY EVENING.
HENRI and PFAU, in their intrepid Double Feats on the
Flying Trapeze.
Two Operatic Selections alternately from " Ernani,"
." Macbeth," "II Trovatore," "La Traviata," "La Circas-
sienne," &c., by Miss Russell, Madame Enderssohn, Messrs.
Morley, Greene, C. Greville, and Albert. Full Band and
Chorus—(Conductor—Mr. F. Jonghmans.) Violin Solos—
M Collins, and other Vocal and Instrumental attrac-
tions. The Comic portion by Messrs. Sam Collins, Harvey
and French (the Nerves), E. Marshall, and W. RandalL
Mall, 6d.; Stalls and Balcony, la. ; Private Boxes, 10s. 6d.
NOTICE.—The Morning Performance advertised for Thurs-
day next will NOT take place.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TAIg DAY.—Morning, 3h. 10m.—Afternoon, 3h. 28m.
To-moßitow.-Morning, 3h. 43m.—Afternoon, 3h. 47m.

With the heady strain kept all this while upon
our commerce by reason of the continuance
of the deplorable civil war yet waged be-
tween the Northern and Southern States
of the American Republic, no wonder there
should be a small deficit left upon the year—par-

titularly when it has to be borne in mind that this
very year shows such a considerable diminution on
the amount both of direct and indirect taxation ! A
diminution of indirect taxation to the tune of
£1,330,000, by means of the total abolition of the
Paper Duties—a diminution of direct taxation to
the tune of £1,130,000 by means of a dropped penny
on the Income-tax. All the more encouraging is
the result when we find, upon the last quarter of
the Financial year just expired, a single decrease
alone recorded, namely, the decrease of £lOO,OOO,
under the head of Customs—and opposed to this,
and counterbalancing it to the net sum, in excess, of
£1,070,628, by means of an increase under each of
the seven other divisions in the Revenue Table, to
wit—Excise, Stamps, Taxes, Property Tax, Post
Office, Crown Lands, and Miscellaneous.
The result upon a revision of the year's revenue
is not only, however, as we have said, a complete
corroboration and justification of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
calculations a twelvemonth since—always remem-
bering the American civil war, the dropped penny
of the Income-tax, and the abolition of the whole
of the Paper Duties—it is the last and crowning
attestation of the wisdom of applying the principles
of Free Trade to the regulation of our finances.

It might well be wished that some " forty
thousand" electors, scattered among the various
boroughs of the Kingdom, could have been got
together to back the numerous members who pro-

,ested last night against persisting in sinking the

national money in the Spithead forts. But the
men who used the " moral pocket-pistols," as Mr.

OSBORNE told us last Tuesday and Thursday,

against hon. members in the lobby, were fighting
to get the nation's money, while last night the

wiser majority of the members were contending to

save it. No individual of the public feels a specia'

and personal interest in Government economy, bu'

all Government expenditure gives to a number 01

persons a direct interest in sustaining it. Hence

he ease with which the forty thousand were Inns.

ered last week to insist on payment for services

not verified, because such useless work had been

paid for—hence, also, the absence of anything like
popular excitement to back the members who would

prevent the waste of millions on the Spithead forts.
It was hardly possible, however, for a debate
to be more conclusive, if the Government be as
ready to show deference to the House, when in-
sisting on staying expenditure, as it was to yield,
when the Opposition demanded increased expen-
diture. It was almost, literally, all the House
against Sir G. C. LEWIS and Lord PAGET—the
latter, indeed, being half against himself. Sir F,
SMITH made the proposal on which we insisted
yesterday—to suspend the works at Spithead.
He, too, did not ask for any precipitate action ;
the works could be resumed, if it appeared ulti-

mately desirable; but he held that the battle in
Hampton Roads had made out a case for delay
and reconsideration, in regard to attempting the
defence of the entrance of a harbour by forts.
The member for Chatham was followed by
stuorters, some of them converts, sustaining
wt seemed his unanswerable appeal. The mem-
ber for Birkenhead—Mr. LAIRD—who knows, if
any ono does, all about iron ships, told the House
that he looked on the action as the turning point
in the adoption of iron for all classes of the
QUEEN'S ships, and showed how the Government
might save considerably by at once accepting the
demonstrated fact. Mr. GREGORY saw in the
battle the proof of a great revolution in
naval warfare, and joined with Mr. LAIRD,
and the Americans, in recognising the inutility of
forts as harbour defences, in contending against
invulnerable and moving forts. Sir J. D. HAY,
the new member for Wakefield, who had written on
the other side followed, confessing his conversion,
and expressing his confidence, now, that it were
better the public money should be spent on the
construction of the new description of vessels for
the defence of ports. He declared that, now, the
best use we could make of our proud three-deckers
was to cut them down to the lower deck beams,
plate them, and arm their deck with Captain
COW PER COLES' cupolas—one such ship would cer-
tainly destroy eight or ten of our modern line-of-
battle ships. Mr. DUFF grumbled a little in favour
of the forts ; but Lord A. TEMPEST, who from per-
sonal inspection gave an account of the Merrimac,
swept away Mr. DUFF and his pleadings for the
forts, urging the Government to pause in the
construction of these costly, and as was now
known, probably useless forts.
At length Sir G. C. LEWIS arises,with many long
faced arguments. He would have it that the
recommendations of the speakers would involve a
demand by Lord PAGET of ten or fifteen millions,
in happy oblivion of the fact that we should save
that in the useless fortifications we were erecting at
home and in the colonies ; that the victorious little
Monitor was built for £60,000 in three months; and
that our liners could be converted for far less money
than the forts would cost, leaving, besides, the cost
of conversion to be still incurred in sight of the idle
forts themselves. He pleaded, also the now anti-
quated defence report, as an answer to a fate the
reporters could not have before them.
Mr. BRIGHT followed with, of course, a plea for
economy, but this time, with the best men of the
national party with him ; he could tell them that
from conversation, as well as from what had been
heard in the house that night, " those who voted
for the fortifications two years ago, were now very
much ashamed of their vote." Captain JERVIS put
the whole question in its clearest light when he
asked—" what was the use of solid fortifications
built in the water, if you could have an equally
solid fortification, which you could move about at
will, and which could run past a fixed for-
tress." Mr. BERNAL OSBORNE complained of the
meaningless speech of the Secretary for War, and
adverted to the fact that Admiral Sir R. DUNDAS
had offered, when First Sea Lord of the Admiralty,
to convert twenty useless old line-of-battle ships, at
a cost of £840,000, for the defence of our harbours ;
and he, too, demanded that the Government should
at least suspend operations. Sir JOHN PAKINGTON
added the weight of his high authority on the same
side, and expressed his regret that her MAJESTY'S
Government should still persevere in building the
forts at all hazards, attaching no weight to an
occurrence which has so impressed all other persoas ;
he acknowledged the difficulties of the subject, but
when such a large cost was involved, he thought
the Government ought to intimate, more clearly,
that they would not go on without considera-
tion or reflection. After all this, Lord PAGET
u
their When
made the best apology he could for the
Streoactrt fhettaoerrtyall.
estionor 'War ; the substance of it being
h
were stronger than ships—which was
ships would doit was shown that the
work on other ships without
heeding the forts, and indeed by their motion nullify
the effect of the fire of fort,
• However, Mr. BEN-

TINCK and Mr. CONINGHAM closed in again upon
the repress ntatives of the Government as earnestly
as precedin g speakers.
We do not remember to have read for some time
a debate, in which all the speakers, without the
slightest regard to party, were so completely on one
side—that s.ide being, too, the very rare one of stay-
ing the public) expenditure—and in which the Minis-
ters made so Lame a defence. It would seem hardly
possible, after last night, that the Government can
persist in the Spithead works. Little doubt can
be left on the minds of all those who will have
ultimately to pay the enormous bill for these forts,
that they will be worse than useless. First, they
/ will guide the enemy into the harbour ; secondly,
they will require 2,700 trained gunners, which
could not be spared them on the supposed emer-
gency ; thirdly, for what they will cost, we could,
as the American case has proved, have a fleet of
Monitors which in the waters between the Isle of
Wight and the mainland would defy all the navies
of Eurcpe; and fourthly, this fleet would be
moveable and could be taken elsewhere, should
removal be necessary. In the face of these truths,
we hope our ministers will do themselves the
honour of following the other converts, who had
the manliness to avow that they could learn from
' new facts.

While it still remains a matter of conjecture as
to Who will open the Great International Exhibi-
tion next month—the Submarine •Telegraph to-day
gives us a hint that the notion of the Emperor
NAPOLEON'S visit to us is not by any means aban-
doned. Whether her Most Gracious Majesty the
QUEEN, out of respect to the memory of her beloved
and lamented Consort, will so far do violence to her
own heart-sorrow as to preside over the ceremonial
inaugurating the latest, and, as we all yet trust the
event may prove, the greatest of his varied and
resplendent intellectual achievements—still remains,
of course, to the people at large, a matter of abso-
lute uncertainty. Whatever the QUEEN wishes in
regard to this event, her People wish. Supposing
the ordeal would be too painful by reason of the
poignant regrets, it might revive in the bosom of
the Royal widow—then the loyal subjects of the
Crown would, with one accord, be solicitous that the
SOVEREIGN should not in any way take part in the
religions and regal ceremonial of the Opening.
The Prince of WALES is precluded—without doubt
designedly—from occupying (in such a contin-
gency) the place left vacant by the non-appearance
of her Majesty the QUEEN, namely, by reason of his
Royal Highness's absence just now upon his travels
through Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land. Just
possibly, therefore, unless the QUEEN can, out of
her deep affection for the memory of her august
husband, so far do violence to her feel-
ings as to stifle her great grief for the one
day of the inauguration—just possibly, as
happens occasionally in regard to the Im-
perial Legislature itself, as happened in regard
to it indeed only this very year, the Sovereign
me
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