The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-21 00:00:00

ASTLETS AMPHITHEATRE.

A. new equestrian spectacle, entitled The Woodman's
horse, or the False Knight, was produced here last
night, and met with great and well-deserved success.
Owing to the crowded state of our columns, we aro un-
able to give a detailed description of the piece ; but we
may briefly say that is is admirably adapted for display-
ing the splendid troop of horses belonging to Mr. Cooke,
and bringing out the scenic resources of his establish-
ment. Every scene has its excitement. The events are
supposed to take place in the middle ages, and we have
a baron's castle, a birth-day festival, with old English
dances, which were much relished; a hawking party ; a
forest, with the lonely woodman's but ; a ravine, down
which horse and rider are precipitated ; a tent of a
baron of the feudal times, very picturesquely arranged ;
corridors of a castle ; and finally the attack and burning
of the grand Norman pile. The woodman's horse, who
is the means of relieving the heroine in every distress,
becomes an immense favourite with the audience, and,
after all the actors and actresses were called on to re-
ceive the approbation of the audience at the end of the
piece, there was a general clamour of the four-legged
performer, and he was led across the stage with tumul-
tuous applause. The house was crowded in every part.

We have heard that Lieut.-General Lord Raglan, late
Lord Fitzroy Somerset, attended by his staff, including
Capt. Poulett Somerset, of the Coldstreams, are not ex-
pected to embark for Constantinople, en route to the seat
of war, until the 23d inst. at the earliest.
THE FIRST ACT OF THE SESSlON.—Yesterday the first
act of Parliament was issued. It is to explain and
amend the Assessed Taxes Act of last session, and also
to amend the Income Tax Act. It is now enacted that
the duties contained in the schedule F of the Assessed
Duties Act are to be deemed to have been granted and
made payable thereby. The exemption No. 2in the
act is to extend only to the duties contained in schedule
Ein certain cases. Horses used by common carriers,
occasionally conveying passengers, are to be charged
only under schedule F. The time limited by the act
for giving notice to determine any contract of composi-
tion is extended to the sth April next, and every such
notice given on or before the said mentioned day shall
have the same force and effect as it would have had if
it had been given within the time limited by the section.
The zoncluding section of the act is to empower and
, authorise justices of the peace in Ireland to administer
! the oaths required by the Income Tax Acts.
ALARMING FlRES.—Yesterday morning, shortly before
two o'clock, a fire, nearly attended with fatal conse-
quences, happened in the premises belonging to Mr.
Francis Ireland, a chandler, carrying on business at No.
16, York-street, Westminster, facing the Wellington
barracks, St. James's Park. The-proprietor of the pre-
mises was formerly in the L division of the Metropolitan
police, and some months since, whilst endeavouring to
rescue the lives of some persons at a fire in the New
Cut, Lambeth, he fell through a skylight, and was so
seriously injured that, after remaining in the hospital, he
was unable to resume his police duty, and with the su-
perannuation money granted by the commissioners he
opened the present place of business. The firemen were
unable to get the flames subdued until the premises were
all but destroyed, and those of Mr. Jeal, licensed
victualler, severely damaged by water and breakage.
Considerable damage has also been done to the premises
of Mr. William Maul, confectioner, No. 17 in the same
street. Mr. Ireland was insured in the County Fire
Office ; Mr. Jeal was also insured in the Guardian Office ;
but Mr. Maul was not insured. The origin of the fire is
unknown. The same morning a fire broke out at No.
90, Tottenham-court-road, in the premises of Mr. John
J9nes, cl ina and glass merchant. It commenced from
some unknown cause in the stables, and rapidly extended
towards the shop, so that the inmates had great difficulty
in effecting a safe retreat. The Royal Society's escapes
promptly attended, and the conductor exerted himself
in an admirable manner ; but in spite of which a valuable
horse was burned to death. Mr. Jones, it is under-
tood, was uninsured.
METROPOLITAN SEWERS COMMISSION.—Yesterday a
special court was held at the chief office, in Greek-street,
Soho-square, "To consider and determine upon recom-
mendation of the general committee as to the loan of
200,0001. from the Rock Life Assurance Company, on
the conditions mentioned in an intended deed of agree-
ment between the said company and the Metropolitan
Commissioners of Sewers ; and as to ordering the seal of
the commission to be affixed to such deed." The report
of the solicitor to the commission having been read, the
above-mentioned loan received the sanction of the court,
the terms being 4i per cent. interest. No other business
was publicly transacted by the commissioners, of whom
there were present—the Chairman, Mr. Baker, Mr.
Gordon, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Smith, Mr. Redhead, Mr.
Hawkshaw, and Mr. Gibson. After the adjournment
of the court a meeting of the general committee took
place, at which the reports of Messrs. Bazelgette and
Donaldson, "On the sewage interception and main
drainage of the districts north of the Thames," were
taken into consideration. A conference with the city
members of the commission was likewise appointed for
twelve o'clock,

However disagreeable it may be, we are bound to take a
political view of the subject. We may not like the Turk ;
we may deplore the condition of twelve million Christians
under a semi-barbarous yoke ; we may anticipate little posi-
tive good from any issue whatever of the present quarrel ;
and we may be shocked to find the strange company in which
we are fighting the battle of independence. These, how-
ever, are the accidents of the question, and if, after suffer-
ing Russia to have her way with Turkey, we should
find the battle still to be fought with worse vantage
than before, we should derive small consolation from
the thought that Turkey, then no more, had never been a
very respectable Power, and that the origin of the struggle,
then to be made for our own existence, was shown by Mr.
Cobden to be a trivial one. Mr. Cobden admits that the in-
terference of Russia in behalf of the Greeks is not quite disin-
terested, but ho scarcely hints at the condition to which those
Greeks themselves would be reduced, iu the event of a Rus-
sian Government at Constantinople. In any given policy
there may be passages open to criticism, but the great test is
the result—that is, the result of one policy as compared with
that of the other ; and, so long as Mr. Cobden, and the hand-
ful of gentlemen ou his side, cannot ex, lain, and do not pre-
tend to explain, satisfactorily what would have become of
Turkey but for our i terferenee, and what further conse-
quences would have followed upon her subjugation, we beg
to prefer the Ministerial policy, with all its assailable points,
to that of Mr. Cobden's. We know where the former has
placed us, but we can only form the most :loomy conjecture
as to he fate of Turkey and all Europe had the latter been
adopted.
But, painful as a discussion must be which concerns the
responsibility of a continental war, and difficult as it must be
to show good cause for every step in a long ueg tiation, there
is this singular felicity in the position of the Government,—
that it need only sit by, and hear one-half of its assailants
demolish the other half. On the one side it is attacked with
great force and ingenuity for not having gone to war earlier,
at the very threshold of the quarrel, for having put faith in
Russia, and preached moderation to the Turks ; while on the
other side it is reproached with equal ability for having gone
to war at al,, and for having so much as taken any part in the
aflhir. To please both sides was impossible ; but perhaps
it may be said that it was possible to please one side, and that
a good Government would have taken such a course. But
the mere fact of there being in this country two such contrary
opinions, two such contrary schools, and two such different
views of the position and duties of this empire, proved the
necessity of the middle course actually adopted. On the eve,
as we seem to be, of a war, the duration, the horrors, and the
consequences of which no man can imagine, it is natural to
recur to the precedent of the last war, the greatest the world
had ever known. To this day it is angrily discussed whether
that war could not have been prevented, cud whether the
British Government did not bring it on by an unwarrantable
jealousy of the French Republic, and a too slight estimate of
its powers. Thirty years hence our children may ask whether
it was indeed necessary that the Western States of Europe
should march across that continent to join the quarrel of two
semi-barbarous and despotic States, the one belonging to a
schismatical and superstitious sect, the other to a gigantic
apostacy. The origin of the war will be traced with all the
minuteness of historical research, and it will be asked whether
greater firmness would not have stopped the quarrel, or better
discretion and temper would not have kept us out of it alto-
gether. When there is this diversity of opinion about a war
so disastrous as the last, it certainly behoves a statesman to
take care that his case is good, and that at least he has not
rushed into war without due cause and proper deliberation.
It has never been doubted or disguised that we were deal-
ing with a formidable Power, whose unscrupulous intentions
and dishonesty of language partook more of its Oriental than
of its European character. The question throughout has
been how to deal with such a Power, making war under the
guise of pacific intentions. It was easy to say at the time,
" Put no faith in the words of Russia, but meet her by force,
a.‘_ld drive her out of the Principalities, or blockade her in her
ports." It is not less easy to say now that we ought to have
done so. For not doing so Mr. Disraeli attempts to fix the
alternative of connivance or credulity. Yet the charge is
incredible, and it is not even credible that Mr. I oisraeli can
think the charge anything more than a rhetorical topic. We
neither put implicit faith in the fair words of Russia, nor did
we willingly permit her to prosecute her aggressions. knowing
her words to be false. But it was right to give Russia a fair
trial, that she might be without excuse, and as it happens,
that moderation has not been without its advantage. Turkey,
England, and Europe arc now better prepared for war than
they could have been had they rushed into it when the
Czar crossed the Pruth. Unquestionably, in whatever way
it has come to pass, we are now in a much more fa-
vourable position than last spring ; and not the least favour-
able circumstance of that position is the almost entire unani-
mity of the country, which now goes to war with all the
better conscience and spirit, inasmuch as it knows that no
pains have been omitted to procure peace on any tolerable
terms. It is not so much the Government which is now
going to war as the whole British people by one simultaneous
act. As that people will have to bear the burden of the war,
it is best they should enter on it with the fullest concurrence.
This we believe to be the case, and, whatever our feelings on
reading some portions of the debate in the Commons, it is at
least satisfactory to know that before a blow is struck the
British people have been put fully in possession of the sub-
ject, not merely by Ministers and their advocates, nor even
by their usual Parliamentary antagonists, but by two parties,
both accusing the Government, the one for being too slow to
proceed to actual hostilities, the other for being too fast.

RAILWAY BILLS IN PARLIAMENT. Yesterday, the
examiners passed the following bills :—West London
Railway ; Caledonian Railway (Purchase of part of Ge-
neral Terminus) ; Scottish Central and Scottish Midland
Junction Railway ; South Wales Railway (Branches) ;
Great Western, Shrewsbury, and Birmingham and
Shrewsbury, and Chester Railways (Traffic Arrange-
ments) ; Caledonian and Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail-
way Companies ; Inverness and Nairn. In the case of
the North Wales Railway (Revival of Powers and Ma-
nagement), and Greenwich and South Eastern Docks,
there was " no appearance."
SLIGO BOROUGH ELECTlON.—Yesterday this committee,
consisting of the Hon. M. Lascelles (chairman) Mr. Ingham,
Mr. Ker Seymer, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Egerton', reassembled
at one o'clock, when Mr. Holmes, the Parliamentary agent,
stated that owing to a severe attack of rheumatism Mr.
Patrick Somers was unable to attend, but that in a few
days he would do so. Mr. Somers had, however, furnished
him with a list of eight witnesses, which was banded in to
the committee. Mr. Coppock, agent for Mr. Sadleir, here
handed in that gentleman's list of five witnesses. The
committee having declared that they would not hear either
counsel or agents, then adjourned to twelve o'clock on
Monday.
THE MAILS.—SOUTHAMPTON, Monday.—The steam-
ship Sultan, Captain John Weeks, belonging to the
Peninsular and Oriental Company, left to-day with the
heavy portion of the East India and China mails. She
takes out specie to the amount of 112,635/. for India and
China, and 58.2301. for Malta and Alexandria. The
passengers by her number about 60, amongst whom are
Admiral Sir James Sterling, who is to succeed Sir An-
drew Pellew ; Sir John Bowring, lady, and two daugh-
ters ; and Colonel and Mrs. Eckford.
AUSTRALASIAN PACIFIC MAIL STEAM COMPANY.—
' The meeting of this company was held yesterday, when
the report was agreed to. The chairman (Mr. G. Hibbert)
explained that the progress made with the vessels had
not been so satisfactory as could have been wished, but
that it was considered their superiority of construction
would compensate for the delay. The directors were
aware that their fleet was regarded with interest, be-
cause they had received overtures from a French com-
pany to purchase it at 50,5001. for each vessel, but the
negotiation had not been completed, owing to a difficulty
in connexion with their naturalisation. They had offered
the Government the Etneu for the conveyance of troops,
considering that the employment of their steamers
on short voyages would return some revenue, and
at the same time show to the authorities the ser-
vice they were capable of performing. In the pre-
sent position of affairs it was doubted whether the
original plan of at once commencing the line of commu-
nication with Australia would be desirable, the enhanced
cost of fuel, together with other contingencies associated
with steam enterprise, interposing difficulties of no
ordi-
nary character. A difference of opinion appeared to
prevail on this point ; some of the proprietors, regarding
the Pacific route as the shortest, urged that if it were
carried out it would prove highly remunerative, espe-
cially considering the vote of 3,0001. a month offered by •
the Assembly of Victoria for vessels making the trip in
a period under 60 days, and the prospect of the Govern.
ment of New South Wales paying an equal premium.
Others contended that an interval should be allowed to
elapse, in accordance with the terms of the report ; and,
the majority being favourable to this course, the re-
commendation of the directors was
.adopted. It was
stated that 141. per share has been paid up, and that the
remaining calls will be 61. per share, while there is not
more than 1,0001. in arr!.ar. The second vessel, the
Kangaroo, is to be ready in a few days.
WEST-END AND CRYSTAL PALACE RAILWAY.—The
preparations for the formation of this line, extending
from the new bridge at Chelsea across Battersea Parksto
the Brighton Railway at Sy denharn, and from thence
eventually to Farnborough, have commenced. The cost
of the line from Chelsea to Sydsithani, as estimated by
Messrs. Bedder and Fulton, the engineers, is to be
400,0001. It has been agreed with the Brighton Com-
pany that the West-end and Crystal Palace Company
shall receive a rental of B,OOC/, per annumn for the use
of the line to Sydenham and through traffic, and the
Brighton Company have agreed to work the line at the
rate of 421 per cent. on the gross traffic receipts. The •
lino is expected to be opened in 18 months.