The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-31 00:00:00

most notorious, but, until very recently, wholly
unsuspected criminals ! JOllli SADLEIR'S gigantic

forgeries and wholesale embezzlements, consum-
mated by his craven suicide upon Hampstead-heath

on the Gth of February, being followed not long

afterwards by the discovery of the enormous pecula-
tions of Wu. ROBSON, and a lit tle later on by the still
more startling revelation of the complicated frauds

of his accomplice, laoroLD REDPATH—frauds ex-1
ceeding, it is actually calculated, the gross aggre-
gate of 200,000/. sterling Again, the crash of
the Tipperary Bank, in the spring, finds an un-
happy balance of ill in the autumnal crash of the
Royal British Bank, announced in the Gazette as
bankrupt on the 24th of October. Associated
with all which forging and swindling, with all
which systematic peculation and wholesale em-
bezzlement—there comes to us in this dreary
financial and commercial retrospect of 1856, the
dismal remembrance of the more than doubled
Income Tax still iniquitously weighing down the

resources of the nation 1 And with this Monster
Evil yet glowering like a hideous and paralysing
incubus upon the prostrate strength of the Em-
pire—the thought of some 80,000,0001. or
100,000,0001. sterling, of some 20,000 or 30,000
brave soldiers, of much blood and of many
tears, squandered to no end upon the late calami-
tous war with Russia—or if to any end at all that
can be exactly estimated, to the end of a grand
Diplomatic "Sell," to the end of a great political
"Do," to the eid of a notorious national Degra-
dation.

Secondly, in a Social point of view-1856
has surer been productive of little that can be
regarded -SI matter for self-gratulation. Apart
from the bursting open of so many " whitened
sepulchres," as evidenced in the revelation of the
monstrous crimes of a mercantile character,
already particularised—there has been, as it ap-
pears to us, a most deplorable stagnation even in
the "efforts" towards any comprehensive im-
provement. Reform, as a watchword, has all
this while been held in abeyance. In spite of
the boasted Peace ! Precisely as though we were
still engaged in a momentous and all-absorbing
contest with the Russian Autocrat ! Everything
almost still sustained at war prices—every-
body hampered more or less onerously by the
drag of a doubled Income-Tax—everywhere the
signs amongst us of the ill effects resulting from a
sanguinary and utterly futile Struggle against
Russian domination : we have had no compensa-
tion at all, not the smallest, not the shadow of
the shade of a compensation, in the way of an ap-
preciable boon in any one of our great reform
movements. Acircumstance accounted for, perhaps
—apart from the deadening influence of a War
without any good results, without even the
secondary advantage of an Indemnity wrested
from the foe—by the simultaneous downfall
of almost all our great political reputations.
Statesmen, by twos and by threes, like the
masts of the State Vessel—have we not seen
them suddenly, as it were, go by the board? So
rapidly, entirely, and disastrously for their in-
fluence upon the country at large—that we might
as well look to the Ticket-of-leave System, the
System productive only of murders, burglaries, and
I;arottings, for the diminution of our criminal
population—as look to my Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
or to Sir JAMES GRAHAM, or to Mr. WILLIAM
GLADSTONE, for any great boon to the people !
Or for the building up in place of the present
Nlinistry upon Sufferance, in lieu of this
Cabinet of an Emergency, instead of this
faineant dictatorship, as it may be called,
of Viscount PALMERSTON—of some strong, popu-
lar, energetic Administration. Otherwise to ex-
press the existing very remarkable " situation "
—We :night as reasonably look for the evidences
of social probity amongst us in the Adulterations
of our Food, and even (horrible to tell !) of the
very drugs sold for the alleviation of human suf-
ferings by our Apothecaries (Adulterations,
"proved" through the Lancet, by Dr. HASSELL)—
we might, we say, as reasonably look for the evi-
dences of social probity amongst us in these
notorious and undeniable Adulterations—as look
for the auguries of legislative benefactions in the
" burst-up " fame, and influence, and popularity,
of so many of our grand " Conscript Fathers,"
the Did Majores of the Imperial Legislature !
Thirdly and lastly, Politically considered-
-1856 must perforce, we take it, be admitted to
have proved rather a Failure. Not simply by its
dearth of good in the way of Reforms: Not
merely by the Parliamentary decease of so many
distinguished Athletes in the arena of Statesman-
ship. But viewing the year 1856 politically, we
mean, in a wider sense—regarding it, that is
to say, in reference to our Foreign Relations
True, without doubt—and we thank HEAVEN for
it gratefully and with all imaginable reverence—
the glorious Alliance, knitting France and Eng-
land together by the bonds of a most intimate
friendship, has still been uninterruptedly sus-
tained, as we hope it will yet, please Gon, be
indefinitely perpetuated ! But—beyond this—
where in our relations with the rest of the world,
where during the past twelve months can there
be found any substantial or even specious advan-
tages ? With Russia we have made Peace—so-
called. But—scarcely havewe done so when we find
ourselves plunged into a contest with Persia, by the
instigation—notoriously and incontrovertibly—of
the councils of the AUTOORAT Our interposition
between the Sing and the people of the Neapoli-
tan Sovereignty is despised and of no avail. Our
Ambassador is suddenly and almost ignominiously
expelled by the United States Government from
Washington. And fast upon the gulping down of
this insult from Brother JONATHAN with the wryest
of faces—JOHN BULL has to stand, hat in hand,
bowing and smirking his thanks for the courtly
gift of his old arctic venture of the Resolute.
Receiving, as best he may, and precisely as Van-
keedoodledom wills it—first his " kicks" and then
his "halfpence." If, moreover, we are, at one
end of the year, nominally making peace with Rus-
sia, and at the other end of it virtually going to
war with it again through Persia—we are, in
this same muddling 1856, getting once more at
loggerheads with JOHN CHINAMAN at Canton,
bombarding his forts, and placing his jeopardised
dynasty between two fires, that of British war
vessels and that of the army of the Re-
volutionists ! Open war to the east and to
the west of Asia—war with Persia and
war with China—a hollow truce in Europe—un-
certainty, if not ill-blood, in America : these are
among the foreign boons of 1856 for England 1
Have we much cause, therefore, let us ask—now
that we have cast a retrospective glance over the
past twelve months—have we much cause, com-
mercially, socially, or politically, for self-gratula-
tion ? Alas about the only solace left to us is
to obey the great Drill-Master Time—" Right-
about-Face !" And to look onwards to 1857
hopefully

In another part of this day's impression will be
found a considerable portion of the report of the
Federal Council of Switzerland on the affair of
Neuchatel. This very important and interesting
document, -which was laid before the Federal
Assembly at Berne on Saturday last, enters fully
and clearly into the history of the negotiations