The Sun.
London, England, 1824-02-23 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.]

In the discussion which took place on the
Army Estimates, on Friday night, Mr. Hume ex-
pressed his astonishment at so large a number of
men as 80,000 being voted for the services of this
year. Our astonishment is, that at least half
as many more were not proposed by the Go-
vernment. Surely Mr. Hume must never have
taken into his consideration th© immense terri-
tories England now has to guard in every quar-
ter of the world. He must have forgotten
Ireland ; the West Indies; Canada ; Africa ;
the Cape of Good Hope ; the East Indies ; New
South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land; And he
must have put out of his recollection the wish
on the part of a great number of the people
of Ireland, to be independent of the people
of England ; the often-expressed wish of the
United States people to become possessed of
Canada ; the example of St. Domingo, which
naturally operates on the minds of the Blacks
in the West India possessions, who would
like to be as independent of Great Bri-
tain as St. Domingo is of France and Spain ;
the active competition of France, in her pos-
sessions bordering on those of England in
A frica ; the longing of Holland for her lost co-
lony of the Cape of Good Hope ; the competi-
tion and settlements of the French and the
Dutch in the East Indies ; the competition there
also of the United States people, and probably
a secret wish to possess themselves of some por-
tion of the East Indies ; and the necessity for a
military force in New South Wales, to prevent
the people transported thither from getting the
upper hand. To all this may be added, the
necessity for a large military force in England,
as well to keep those in order who wish for a re-
volution, should there be any such, as to be pre-
pared to meet the increased power of France,
in consequence of her conquest of Spain,
should there at any time be a necessity. Also
to keep up the appearance of being well prepar-
ed to talk to the Holy Alliance, should it take,
it into its head, through its Ambassadors, to
complain of the galling speeches, as applied
to the Holy Alliance, of our Opposition in the
Houses of Parliament ; or of the freedom of the
remarks in our various publications. The Holy
Alliance have obtained what they wished in
the two latter respects in Italy, Spain, France,
and Switzerland ; and as soon as an opportunity
might arrive for doing the same thing in England,
we believe that they would avail themselves of
it, and that it is not the speeches of the Whigs
or Redicals of England that would oaultsl sufficiency of
from attempting the same game that they have
played in these countries, bu
well•disciplined soldiers and the dread of cannon
balls.

MUSICAL ASPULL, the
Musical Phenomenon, had the honour of being in-
troduced to the KING, for the first time, on Fri-
day last, at Windsor Palace. He had been in
attendance for some days previous, in Windsor,
at the express desire of his Majesty, under the
care of Sir Edmund Nagle, and on Friday a se-
lect party was invited to cline with the King for
the purpose of witnessing his performance. Among
the company present, were the Princess Au-
' vete, Lady Mary Taylor, the Marchioness of
Conyngham, Lady Conyngham, the Duke of
Dorset, Lord St. Helens, Count Lieven, Prince
Polignac, Baron Fthe Marquis of Conyng-
lip',
ham, Lords Francis aid Arthur Conyughain,
Sze. &c. Young Aspull took his station at the
pianoforte at about half-past nine o'clock ; and
for the remainder of the evening; during more
than three hours, had the eclat of absorbing
nearly the whole attention of the Royal party.
The specimens given or his proficiency were se-
lected from composers of every style and of eve-
arypvearrreieett over which he exhibited
The more elaborate pieces
dHTicullty,
of Beethoven, Mozart, Hummel, Kalkbrenner,
variety
mastery.
Moscheles, Kreutzer, and Clemente were played
in succession, with a force and precision that
drew repeated exclamations of surprise from his
hearers. The King) who the greater part of the
time sat at his side, frequently interreipted his
performance by cries of bravo; and encouraging-
ly patting the young performer on the back.—
The Princess Augusta, who is herself said to
have studied music with great success, honoured
the juvenile pianist by turning over the leaves of
the book from which he played, in which she
was occasionally relieved by Lady Mary Taylor.
Between the instrumental pieces fur the sake of
variety, young Aspull, from time to time, sang
simple airs, himself accompanying his voice on
the pianoforte. The impression made on his Ma-
jesty and the whole company was that of une-
qtralified admiration, and the King, to afford ano-
ther opportunity of estimating his extraordinary
powers, gave orders when the party separated,
that young Aspull should remain at Windsor,
and be in attendance at eight o'clock the follow-
ing evening.