The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-11 00:00:00

E R MAJEST Y'S THE A T R E.— ; been made safe--that the expectant legatee of
It is respectfully announced thither MAJESTY'S THEATRE ,
Will RE-OPEN early in May. Engagements of great interest have the "sick man's"' assets had nothing to fear from
been effected both in Opera and Ballet, and the best exertions used
1.8 make the arrangements worthy of the occasion. their interpositiom And yet, in place of indig-
The prospectus will shortly be issued.
nantly repudiatin g the insult, they merely ex-
hibited the " valuable financial demonstration,"
that denuded the Exchequer of its balances, and
deprived the nation, for some time at least, of the
means of waging a vigorous and energetic war.
How different would have been the state of
affairs, if the 8,000,0001. squandered on the
GLADSTONE abortion, had remained in the Trea-
sury and been made available in the earliest stages
of the complication, when the arrogance of MENS-
C/lIKOFF sufficiently displayed the intentions of
Russia, and before the crossing of the Pruth and
the invasion of Turkey offered a cases belli that
should at once have been accepted.
From the first to the last " mistake"—to
use the mildest terms—from the truckling to
Austria to the apathetic indifference as to the
state of Kars—the connivance at the sanguinary
massacre of Sinope to the unaccountable sparing
of Odessa—the neglect of providing the gun-
boats and mortar-vessels, the absolute necessity
whereof was pointed out, not only by ourselves,
in common. with other journalists, but also, as it
now appears, by the late Sir CHARLES HOTHAM
and many distinguished naval officers, to the dis-
reputable truce, so hastily and recklessly patched
up, everything has been done for the interests
of Russia and Germany rather than of
Great Britain. If our so-culled Statesmen were in
actual receipt of Muscovite gold, as so many of
the petty German States notoriously are, they
could not have acted more efficiently in her be-
half. We believe that they have had a very diffi-
cult card to play—that there was a paramount,
although unconstitutional, influence in operation
that controlled their deliberations, and forced
measures on their adoption which some of their
number would have resisted, if practicable. But
they should have relinquished the responsibility
when they found themselves unable to pursue the
course which honour and duty alike demanded, and
not have lent the sanction of their names to what
they must have known was not for the benefit of

HFIATRE ROYAL, DEURY•LA3 E,
Leswe. Mr. E. T. Smith.
THIS E rENI 0,
THE BOHEMIAN GIRL.
c n lude with
THE ENCHANTED GARDEN.

THEATRE ROYAL, H.A.YMARKET.
Under the Management of Mr. Backetone.

THIS EVENING,
THE EVIL GENIUS.

Followed by
EL Gllf BURY() ; or, The Meate3.n Galdaseker.
111 wEiloh PER EA NE NA and the Spanish Dancers will appear.

After which,
THE POSTMAN'S KNOCK.
To conclUde with
ONLY A HALFPENNY.

UOTAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE, OXFORD-STREET.
Under the Management of Mr. Cu Aim Kali.
THIS EVENING,
♦ WONDERFUL WOLIN.
To be followed by
FAUST AND 3f ARGURRITE.
To conclude with
A. PRINCE FOR AN /TOUR.

their country.
That influence still exists. We may have to
endure far more than anything that has yet oc-
curred. But, unfortunately, Parliament has not
as yet shaken off its apathy—is not awakened to
the formidable position in which Great Britain is
placed. Oh ! for one of the patriots of the olden
time, who suffered nothing to divert his attention
from the national welfare ! Oh ! for another
HAMPDEN or a SYDNEY, who would never lose
sight of the rights and privileges of the People
and of their chosen representatives. Had we a
few such men in the House of Commons we could
no longer be sold or sacrificed to dynastic
considerations. A proper use would have been
made of the golden opportunity that has now for
ever passed away. We should, at all events, have
profited by past experience, and guarded for the
future against evils which are every day becoming
more palpable, and which must, ere long, force
themselves on public attention. We may, before
many months have elapsed, again "drift " into a
war. Care should be taken that it be not so
grossly mismanaged as that with Russia, and that
the spirit of " Germanism" should no longer be
in the ascendant.

From the tenour of all the most reliable commu-
nications from Paris, it seems pretty certain that
Sardinia has succeeded in drawing the attention of
the Peace Congress to the condition of Italy.
The details of conversations and proceedings may
be many of them apocryphal, but it is hardly pro-
bable that the main fact is so. It would appear
that the Sardinian Plenipotentiaries have spoken
almost without reserve respecting the portions of
Italy not under Austrian rule, and the hollow-
neSs of the pretended amnesty for the Lombard
patriots of 1848, who have taken refuge in Pied-
mont, is complained of in direct terms ; but the
censures directed against the universal misgovern-
ment of Italy fall most heavily upon Austria, since
Naples, the Roman States, Parma, Modena, and
Tuscany are what they are because of the support
of the barbarous oppressor of Lombardy and
Venice. If our sentimental admirers of Popery
wish to see the object of their admiration in full
bloom they have but to turn their glance to Italy
itself, and if they have one drop of British blood
in their veins they will he cured of all hanker-
ings for the blessings of Catholicism.
In Italy they will see their PONTIFF and his
satellites in all the glory of Ecelesiocracy. One
corner only of the Peninsula—Piedmont—bas
become a kind of Gibraltar for the rights of lay-
men in this entire territory of the corruptest
church despotism. Not more completely have
all the petty princes of India been for the last
half century the mere puppets of the Eng-
lish Crown than are all the Governments of Italy
—the malignant Austrian one included—have been
the servile tools of the POPE and the Jesuits.
We need not disgust our readers with descriptions
of the superstition and immorality of the lower
orders, and the abject superstition and cruelties
of the King of NAPLES and the Duke of TUSCANY.
All that is matter of notoriety. What presses on the
statesmen of the day is that all the educated and
middle classes are in a atate of mental revolt against
the direct government of the Church, and against
its indirect government, through the stupid despots
who execute its decrees, and who are rewarded
by it with personal licence and political aid in this
world, and salvation in the next too. The Italians
are not yet sunk to the level of Prussians. They
are not prepared to sacrifice their aspirations for
liberty to the gains of a neutral commerce be-
tween au arch-despot and the vindicators of na-
tional rights. They still aspire to be free Italians,
and slaves neither to Austria nor to the POPE and
his minions. They do not as a people reject the
Catholic faith, but they reject the secular govern-
ment of ecclesiastics, of cardinals, priests, and monks.
At present the whole land groans under Church
rule. Austrian occupation and Papal domination
grind the people between them, and both work in
a perfect Concordat to the same purpose.

It is in the name of oppressed Italy that Pied-
mont now speaks. Austria would have kicked, but
found that M. CAVOUR had unexpectedly the good-
will at least of the EAIPEROR. The latter had previ-
ouslyia
grievancesB
17:1aiyanre arwdeirnetn memorandum,
hesnect .TileofcwolauiNclh
pressed his point ; in answer to the objections of
Austria to the right of Sardinia to speak for Italy
he retorted that he did so by as
g
that which Austria assumed of speakingood a right
for as G
e
r
.
many. Austria defended foreign occupation by
the fact of the Allies occupying the Ottoman ter-
zitory ; the Count replied that the latter was for
the defence of Turkey against the designs of
Russia ; and added yet more boldly that so long as
it lasted it was to enable the SULTAN to carry out
reforms, while the Italian occupation, on the con-
trary, was for the protection of the Government
which refused to introduce any reforms. The re-
sult appears to be that the Conference is discuss-
ing, among other topics, the rights of Italy, and
the evils of foreign occupation.
It would appear that even Lours NAPOLEON is
tired of the Government which he restored in i
Rome. Of the three objects obtained by his oceu-