The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-13 00:00:00

PRDICESS'S THEATRE, OXFORD-STREET.
THIS EVENING

Will be performed Shakspere'a Tragedy of HAMLET. 'Cha-
racters by Messrs. Macready, Granby, L. Murray, Ryder, Fisher,
James Vining, Wynn, Hornier, Walton, Compton, Oxberry, and
Cooper Mrs. Ternan, Miss Emma Stanley, and Miss E. Honner.
After which, a New Grand Fairy Extravaganza, entitled LADY
CODIVA AND PEEPING TOM OF COVENTRY. In which
Messrs. Walton, Wynn, Compton, Granby, Oxberry; Miss Taylor,
Miss E. Stanley, Mrs. Fost.roke, Miss Honner, &c., will appear.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL Axi Pll ITEXATI:.
Proprietor, Mr. W. Batty.
Patronised by her most gracious Majesty the Queen, Prince Albert,
and the Princess Royal.—Entertainments Extraordinary for the
Holiday Visitors.—First Appear ance of the celebrated Clown
Wallet, in conjunction w th Barry and Rochez.
THIS EVENING
Will be performed an entirely new Equestrian Oriental Spectacle,
entitled, THE ARAB AND HIS DESERT STEED; or, the
Pearl of the Euphrates. The Characters personified by the principal
members of the Company and numerous auxiliaries.
New and Popular Scenes in the Circle, by the Foreign and British
Professors.
To conclude with a favourite Aftcrpiece.
Box-office open from eleven till five o'clock.—Doors open at slx
and commence at seven o'clock.

ROYAL VICTORIA THEAT;tE.
The most powerful and varied Entertainment ever offered to the
Public !
THIS EVENING
Will he performed an entirely new Drama, entitled LAID IT
IN PORT ; or, Sharks along Shore. Principal characters by Messrs.
Fredericks, Saville, Raymond, 'Lindell, Iliggie, Searle, Burton ;
Miss Vincent, Miss E. Terry, &c..
After which, THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT ;
Georgette, Miss Vincent.
To coaclude with a romantic Drama, entitled THE DEVIL'S
DEN ; or, 'the Mint, the Maize, and the Maiden. Supported by
the entire strength of the Company.

NEW STRAND THEATRE.
ENTIRE CHANGE.—NOVELTIES AND MAGIC EFFECTS.
" La galete eat la sante de fame,
La tristease en eat le poison."

his gr'iLieKil thanks to his
PHILLIPPE, in returning
kind
Patrons, and feeling anxious to merit a continuance of past favours,
so liberally bestowed upon him by the discerning Public of this
great metropolis, begs leave to announce that he will Resume his
TE RTA 1.N31 EN T at the above Theatre,
T IS EV E NING,
When ha will have the honour of introducing an ENTIRE
CHANGE in his PERFORMANCE, w
F which has been prepared at a
great expense and labour. The Neeats and Miraculous Scientific
Experiments are of the !mat extraordinary and astounding tie-
scription, and must be ;een to be believed.
M. PHILLIPPE will commence the Entertainment by Lighting
Two Hundred and Fifty Wax Candles by a single Pistol Shot !
This unique and brilliant Experiment was originally performed by
alone. Phillippe for upwards of 700 consecutive nights in Paris.
During the Evening M. Phillippe will introduce his GRAND-
MOTHER'S CAP, with all its Rapid Transformations.
During the Easter Week there will be a Morning and Evening
Performance each Day. The :Morning Performance will commence
at Two o'clock ; Evening Performance at a quarter to Eight.
Stalls, 35.; Boxes, 2s.;_ Pit, Is.. Gallery, 6d. ; Pevate Boxes,

Institute ; and all the vulgar renown and praise acquired
by BONAPARTE in his great battles, even in the present
day, sink into the shade when compared with the illus-
trious labours of LEGENDRE, LAPLACE, andlguviEn.
NEWTON, " the greatest and the rarest genius that ever
rose for the ornament and instruction of the species,"
elevated the Royal Society of London to a degree of
honour and consequence surpassing all similar institu-
tions of the Italian and French schools ; and this pre-
eminence, to a certain extent, it has now enjoyed for a
century and a half. Any event, any misconduct on the
part of the Council or the Fellows, that can impair
this high character, and degrade the first institu-
tion of the kind in Great Britain, must excite deep
regret in the minds of Englishmen, and call for condign
puishment on those who from sinister motives, or jea-
lousy at superior merits, can descend to the most despi-
cable tricks for the purpose of furthering their own
grovelling and vulgar schemes. Such schemes we have
every reason to believe have been for some years in
operation in this august body, and what renders the evil
the more intolerable, the Council declare that they have
no power to correct the mischief already inflicted. In
another part of The Sun will be found explanatory ex-
tracts from the Lancet, that has devoted several interest-
ing articles to the subject. The question will be fully
discussed at a meeting of the Royal Society to be held
on the 23d inst., and in the meantime we give a brief out-
line of the case. Some years since Dr. ROBERT LEE
made an important anatomical discovery, the paper de-
scribing which was presented to the Royal Society,
and referred by the Council to a commit-
tee of medical Fellows, among whom was Mr.
LAWRENCE, one of the first anatomists of the day.
They reported most favourably, affirming that Dr. LEE
had made good his claims by the most unquestionable
proofs. The paper was approved, ordered to be pub-
lished in the " Philosophical Transactions," and it ap-
peared in due course, accompanied by beautiful plates
illustrating the discovery. These facts made a great
noise in every medical school in Europe, and raised the
name of Dr. LEE to much celebrity abroad as well as
at home. But, like the authors of other important dis-
coveries, he had his detractors. The same class that
wished to deprive HARVEY and JENNER, of their high
honours, so justly merited, formed a plan for robbing
Dr. LEE of his discovery ; a surgeon was appo;nted by
them to make a dissection of the part, and as far as is
known by report (for the paper has not been published),
he declared that no such nerves as those described
by Dr. LEE existed. For this paper, which
had not been read to the Society, which had not even
been seen by any one connected with the Society,
excepting the secretary and the two referees, and which,
contrary to the regulations of the society, had not been
printed in the Transactions, the royal medal was
awarded. In every respect the award was in direct op-
..

position to the acknowledged laws of this learned body,
and the committee that made the award was illegally
constituted. Mr. LAWRENCE, who knew the merits of
Dr. Lee's discovery, was first of all got rid off by being
told that there was no further business for the physiolo-
gical committee, and as soon as be had left a new com-
mittee was formed, at which a recommendation was
passed to award a medal for a paper that bad not been
read, and the medal was afterwards voted by the same
parties in viola:ion of a regulation approved by her
Majesty, that " the royal medals be given for such papers
only as have been presented to the Royal Society, and
inserted in their Transactions." No attempt even at
defence has been made by the secretary or any member
of this committee. The aff.tir altogether is most dis-
graceful, and unless the guilty parties be exposed and
the honour and character of the society vindicated by an
open disavowal of such clandestine and illegal practices,
as well as the infliction of a stigma upon the offenders,
the public will make their award, and reckon the Royal
Society among those defunct bodies which have perished
by their own acts.

One of the French journalists, in a very fair article on
he late victories in India, concludes with these words :

"If the rights of nations and equity have often to com-
plain of the means employed by England to obtain her
object, it is only just to admit that no nation more ex-
tensively fulfils its providential mission. In one and the
same year she opens to herself China, establishes herself
in Borneo, and crosses the Polar Sea. The conquest of
the globe, commenced in the 16th century by Spain and
Portugal, is completed in the nineteenth by England !
ils it not time for France to have her turn?" The

writer cannot be serious in putting the question. France
has had her turn ten times, and in every instance abused
it. Few nations have had such opportunities of benefit-
ing the human race, and if we except, perhaps, the effete
Spaniards, the dominion of no people has ever been so,
galling or insupportable, or attended by such fatal con-
sequences to the conquering power. At one time,
not more than a hundred years ago, sho had
the finest opening ever possessed by any country
of creating a new empire in India, and anticipating Eng-
land in her gigantic acquisitions in that vast continent.
But she could not make use of her advantages ; she
built forts, landed armies, drilled soldiers, and displayed,
in her usual way, all the insolence of military govern-
ment ; she failed to cultivate the affection of the natives ;
she did nothing to improve their condition by protecting
them against the tyranny and extortion of their Nabobs.,
and by encouraging trade and commerce with their new
associates ; she would rule over them solely by force, and,
thus, like all the conquests of France, her valuable set-
tlements in the East slipped from her on the first dange-
rous crisis. This brief outline of her policy will apply
to nearly all the attempts made to establish colonies. lf
we come to times of more modern date, the same cause s
will be found at work in obstructing every beneficial par -
pose, and in undermining a power that seemed impreg-
nable. What European ever had such means of doing
good, or abused them with such wanton recklessness,
as BONAPARTE ? During the Empire he was
master of the entire Continent. He bad conquered
Austria and Prussia, he had forced Russia into his
alliance—all the other minor states he could dispose of
at his will—ho ruled from Lisbon to Constantinople.,
and from Sicily to the Gulf of Finland ; but it was a
military, despotic rule—he never acquired or attempted
to acquire the affections of the people—he invariably
hurt the feelings of nationality of Germans, and Spa-
niards, and Russians—he was detested alike by all, and
when the crisis came they rose like one man against
hint ; the very Poles disdaining to aid him in the
depth of his distress, and his army of 800,000 men, hi
the short space of three years, was reduced to 120,00 Q..
What glorious opportunities he lost during his brie f
reign ! He might, and had he been possessed of a
particle of patriotism, he would have formed his native
land, Italy, into a separate, milted, and homogeneow;
kingdom : he might have regenerated Spain, he might
have improved the condition of the German
people, by destroying the league of the Great
Powers, formed only for their subjection. He
could with one word of his mouth, or one of those la,-
cone sentences by which he delighted in signalising his
despotic power, have established Poland as an indepen-
dent state, and bound every nation to him by the.
strongest ties—those of interest and gratitude ; but he
had not the magnanimity nor the grasp of mind—he was
cursed with the spirit which unfortunately chiefly ani-
: mates French generals and governors—he delighted
more in the display of power than in using it for any
useful purpose. In the language of one of his country-
, men," NAPOLEON did not fail through the Governments
opposed to him, but through the people ; he had
strangely abused his dictatorial power over Europe ; he
crushed down nations by his treaties, and gave up the
populations to kings of his own creation. In Germany,
above all, hi 4 policy appears most tyrannical ; he takea
away a province from one monarchy and gives it to
another ; he plays with the masses as if they were chess-
men. His is an unparalleled despotism, without reason or
excuse. Add to this the French spirit, the French cha-
racter, which, in his pride of a founder of a great empire,
he wished to force upon all Europe." This was the
mine which at last exploded and dashed him to pieces,
and to this very cause is to be attributed the utter failure
of the French to establish colonies. They must change
their nature, if that is possible, at all events their policy,
before the " time comes fur France to have her turn."
It is needless to comment upon the government of Al-
giers, and the causes of its utter failure. The same
baneful spirit there prevails. No means are adopted for
conciliating the natives. The people are more cruelly
used than their rulers and the soldiers ; plunder, and
razzias, and murder by sufft.catien in caverns, or in any
possible way, are the measures adopted by the French
to reconcile the people to their dominion. Success un-
der such circumstances would be a miracle, yet even the
noble and effective policy of England, by which she has
!rude herself mistress of India, and is looked up to for
protection by 100 millions of inhabitants, never seems to
enter into the conception of these military rulers. why is it
"that no nation more extensively fulfils its providential
mission?" Because she protects the weak against the
strong, makes war against plundering Ameers, and
tyrannical Sirdars, and treats the people as her own
countrymen; encourages trade and commerce, gives
security to property, raises moderate taxes, respects
native prejudices, and never by any incident makes war
upon the innocent and helpless population. Hence it is
that Sir CHARLES NAPIER is regarded in Sind° as a