The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-09 00:00:00

BELGIUM.

The Telegraph is stern on the subject of Belgium. Were
England, it says, to forsake Belgium in the hour of need,
she could no longer hold up her head in the community of
nations. She would be attainted of cowardice. She
would be outlawed from the Republic of
honour, and henceforth would indeed be La Perflde
Albion. Better for England to subject herself
to a conscription, and add a hundred millions to her
debt, than thus to skulk away from the fulfilment of her
obligations in the face of a jeering Europe. After such a
display of cowardice, she would be made the butt of con -
temptuous aggression, until, stung to madness by the
taunt. of 33...pe, she might plunge, half-armed, into
the first war which gave her a chance to win back her fair
fame, and might reap in disaster the fruits of angry
haste.

The Standard does not think the treaty of much value
in itself. Its only possible value is that which limits the
part of England in the war to so much of the war as
might take place in and off Belgium, that is to say, pre-
venting England from striking where her blows would
be most effective. Still the Standard receives with satis-
faction the announcement that such a treaty is about
to be signed. It will put distinctly upon re-
cord the determination of England to fulfil her
obligations, we will not say to Belgium, but to
herself and to the world ; and it will pledge emphati-
cally the two belligerents to the line of policy which
honour certainly, and, we should add, interest clearly,
enjoins upon them. England is now bound in the most
solemn manner to protect at all cost Belgian neutrality
and independence. There is no longer any room for
question as to the validity of the engagement or the
expediency of fulfilling it. Lord Granville, by this pro-
ject of a treaty, has disposed altogether of the con-
tention that England ought not to interfere to protect
Belgium.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—THE SEAT OF WAR.—The
great pictorial map of the country surrounding Metz and
Nancy, and also giving the course of the Rhine and the
rcenes of the recent great battles, will be exhibited this
day in the Great Concert Hall at the Palace. This map,
which has been expressly painted for the company by Mr.
Fenton, the scenic artist, is on a large scale, and shows by
moveable indicators the positions of the six corps of the
two armies day by clay. The progress of events may
thus be better understood by an ordinary observer than
by any written description and reference to painted
maps. Mr. Arthur Sullivan's comic operetta, " Box and
Cox," will be played this afternoon. The number of
visitors present yesterday was 6,397.
EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF FORGERY.—AT-
TEMPTED THEFT OF £7o,ooo.—An extraordinary system
ro f
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veoarlge forging g
at ordersthe to
Dale-street
obtain deposited
ro li
cec Police-court,
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ropxoe w
os
,oans
Saturday, in a case which was heard before Mr. J. Wood-
ruff. James Joseph Tully Egan, a man who walks with
crutches, and has been employed in the capacity of
clerk, was charged with forging three separate orders,
which were uttered for the purpose of obtaining
possession of cash-boxes left in custody. Mr. Davies, who
prosecuted, said the evidence showed that the prisoner
Egan had written orders for obtaining deposited cash-boxes
in order to steal their valuable contents ' • and that the
other prisoner who would be charged with him in one of
the cases—in the two other cases the persons who uttered
the forged orders had not been identified—would be shewn
to have acted in concert with him by presenting one of
the forged orders and obtaining a cash-box, which for-
tunately contained only a comparatively small sum,
about £ll. In another case the cash-box, which the
operators very nearly succeeded in obtaining, contained
nearly £6OO in cash, and securities amounting in value to
about £60,000, and in a third case the
cash-box contained about £2,000 in cash, besides valuable
securities. The evidence against Egan was
the identity of his handwriting with that of the three
forged orders, and his having been seen in company with
the other prisoner, M,Evoy, who obtained one of the
boxes. Evidence having been given against both prisoners
they were committed for trial at the assizes.