The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-16 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEIIBER 16, 1856,

know their own strength. Their ()yes have
been already opened by the admirable brochure
of the veteran " QuiNcir," who has so clearly
and distinctly pointed out the ca uses by
which " a miserable minofity" has kith erto been
enabled to defeat those who hold the trump
cards and have the game in their own hands, if
they only play it boldly and independently.
They can only lose by allowing their insidious
opponents to sow dissensions upon min or points.
Now that the House of Representp►tivos has
yielded on the rider to the appropriation, that
it has abandoned the position which it so nobly
assumed and manfully sustained for a time, the
battle of the constitution must be fought on the
Presidential Election. As we have long since ex-
plained the real contest lies between :FREMONT
and BUCHANAN. FILLMORE is only put forward
as a mere stalking-horse to divide the votes of the
Free-soilers. Every vote given to him is praoti-
cally the same as ono bestowed on BUCHANAN.
His personal influence may also be used to pre-
vent Congress from agreeing, so that the prize
may remain for BRECKENRIDGE, which would be
but a faint improvement on BUCHANAN.
Should that gentleman be pitchforked into
power, the same policy that has characterised the
PIERCE Presidency will be maintained. The
hopes of the Federal Republic, and of all the
well-wishers cf freedom throughout the world,
rest on FREMONT. A few months must reveal
he issue whereon the happiness of the human
:amily so greatly depends.

It is impossible to estimate too highly the vas.
importance of the existing trans-Atlantic diffi-
culty. It is not merely the fate of the model
Republic, or the interests of twenty-five million
of men, the large majority of whom are of flit
Anglo-Saxon race, speaking the same language
and professing the same religion as ourselves,
but the peace and tranquility of the world, thai
are involved in the result. The future welfare
and happiness of the human race greatly depend
on the issue of the Presidential election. TIN
parties immediately concerned are fully aware of
the magnitude of the stake for which they are
contending. Should BIICIIA.NAN unfortunately
succeed, filibustering quotations will rise mate.
rially in the market. A course of piratical
aggression will be entered on that must lead to a
sanguinary and ruinously expensive war. Cuba
will be the first object aimed at, inasmuch as it:

acquisition would at once lead to the addition o 1
a New Slave State to the Union—an additional
stripe to the Yankee banner. The example of
General WALKER will be generally followed by
the pro-slavery men, and visions of new acquisi-
tions will be inclulg^d in throughout the whole
of the Southern States.

There is, in fact, no possibility of the slave-
owners resting on their oars. They must
progress or fall from the position they have
a=sumed. The proceedings in Kansas— the
fierce invasion of one of the States of the Union.
and the civil war now raging therein, proves the
utter recklessness of the Missourians and their
coadjutors. They have set their lives upon the
cast, and will stand the hazard of the die. Should
they obtain a renewed tenure of power for four
additional years matters will be brought to such a
pass that a general war between the Old and the
New World will become inevitable, and in that
war England must take a leading part, not only
for the sake of her North American and West
India colonies, but for the maintenance of that
prestige which she has hitherto enjoyed, and the
sacred cause of truth and justice, the abandonment
whereof would be the signal for her speedy downfall.

The success of Colonel FREMONT, on the other
hand, would immediately allay the well-founded
apprehensions that have been entertained. It
would at once be seen that there was but little
danger to be anticipated from a firm and well-
organised Government, which had the vast majo-
rity of the free population on its side, and which 1
set out with an earnest and unflinching determi-
nation to suppress all these buccaneering expedi-
tions so greatly to be deprecated. The further
extension of " the domestic institution"—that
atrocious system that so contemptuously disregards
all natural ties, paternal and marital—will rigidly
be prohibited. It is, perhaps, impossible to an-
ticipate the immediate enfranchisement of all the
unfortunate victims of man's cupidity and lust of
power ; but the good seed would be sown and en-
abled to take permanent root during the FREMONT
Administration. Even men past the middle
age might reasonably hope to see the day when
the crying abomination would be numbered
with the past, and the sanguinary sta'n for ever
eradicated from the banners of all civilised na-
tions.

prophetic inspiration, for certainly the marked
disregard shown to the. advice given in the follow-

ing lines

" And luts'm away, my hearties,
To welcome this day with loud huzza
Old brave John Frost, the Chartist,"
betokened a 'want of sympathy with " brave (?)
old JOHN," AS the subsequent proceedings did a
good dealliof indifference about the Charter.
That Chartism is at present, as it has long been,
a lifeless ism will hardly admit of doubt, and
many will be of opinion that an ovation to a hero
like the hero of yesterday is not the likeliest way
to revivify it. It is natural enough in the leaders,
or would-be leaders, of a popular movement to
avail themselves of every eligible opportunity to
extend their influence and promote the spread of
the political doctrines to which they are pledged.
But, at the same time, their followers have a right
to look for some degree of judgment in the selec-
tion of such opportunities. How far the Oiler-
tists, as a body, are satisfied with the selection of
FROST as a Chartist hero we cannot undertake to
sa.y, but we unhesitatingly affirm it was a great,
a grievous mistake, and the apathy shown in the
•gathering of the procession goes far to show the
working classes so regarded it.
The Charter is not one of those things which
are so unmitigatedly bad that nothing short of
unmixed reprobation can be applied to them by
the honest admirer of the Constitution. Some of
the points are good, and possibly in course of
time the greater portion may be adopted. Per-
haps the worst of the Charter is—,the Chartists.
So far their leaders have contrived to offer the
greatest possible obstacles to the adoption of any
of the reforms they profess to seek. By the wild
extravagance of their harangues and the mina-
ciousness of their attitude they have frightened
the timid Reformer ; and by their questionable
dealings and impracticable policy have offended
and alienated the bold. Indeed so strangely have
they acted in times past that the good faith of the
majority, excluding such men asERNEsT JONES, has
been more than questioned. If the party, small as
it is, be now sincere, it could hardly be good policy
to attempt an ovation to an individual lately
punished for a crime, the temptation to which is
so generally associated with the maintenance of
the Chartist cause.
The selection of such a hero was, we repeat,
a mistake—a blunder—unless it be regarded as
indicative of something worse. It associated by
the newest ties ideas of violence in connection
with the Charter which, it was to be hoped, would
never be so associated again. The inference is that,
like the Bouueorts, the Chartist leaders have
learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing, during the
long abeyance of their power. What claim
had JOHN FROST on the respect or gratitude of
any honest Englishman ? The Mayor of New-
port—he was a rebel to his SOVEREIGN, and per-
jured alike to her and his fellow-townsmen. As
• magistrate and an educated man he abused his
privileges, to the mortal injury of the weak ;
while, as a Chartist leader, he displayed such wis-
dom and foresight as may consist with the array
of a few desperate men against the power of the
British CROWN. Some twenty individuals fell,
riddled with shot, from a conflict which he pro-
voked and contrived to leave unhurt. Many
were imprisoned, and some transported, himself
among them beside. And now, with her MA-
JESTT'S gracious pardon hardly crumpled in his
pocket, and indebted to the Cilowx for an escape
from the gallows, this man, of all men, must be
selected as a Chartist martyr, and must flout the
public oy© with hia prolence, and turn to ridicule
the commiseration which led to his recall from
banishment. This madman and ingrate, to call
him nothing worse, is, forsooth, deemed worthy,
on account of his misdeeds, of all the honour
Chartists could show a deserving Democrat !
There can hardly be two opinions among moderate
men as to the truth of our previous assertion that
the Chartists are, the worst of the Charter! We had
hoped that, taught by experience to avoid past errors,
and not without honest, if misguided, men among
them, they would have endeavoured to redeem
those errors by a junction, however temporary,
of their efforts with those of reformers of all
grades to obtain some points on which there is a
common agreement ; but we must confess to
having experienced considerable disappointment,
which nevertheless would have been greater had
the character of the vast majority of the assem-
bly on Primrose-hill been other than our re-
porter describes. Such a collection of roughs
must ever, save in extreme cases, be politically
r awerless, and prove obstructive to whatever
cause they disgrace or honour by their aid. The
only vital power of Chartism resided in the
laborious and intelligent working classes, and it
is not to these the roughs of the metropolis can
fairly be said to belong, much less to represent. As
the Chartist movement is now directed, we cannot
regard with regret the substitution of the one
class for the other, because the results will in-
fallibly be less prejudicial to the cause of reform.
One thing we are fairly entitled to notice in con-
nection with the meeting. In what other coun-
try would the like be tolerated In France,
Austria, the Sicilies ? No I It is in that Eng-
land the tyrants of the two latter countries de-
light to vilify that public opinion can control the
enthusiastic, and hold the rascally politician in
check without aid from the bayonet and sabre,
and the loudest vaunter of the success of secret
combination can be challenged to the outrance,
to the prostration of his power and his signal dis-
comfiture. It is only in England that the honest
and practical reformer can draw new spirit from
such manifestations, and be led to the discharge
of a duty he owes by the failure or rampancy of a
movement of which he disapproves. May such
result follow in the wake of yesterday's demon-
stration.

At this moment we have, in the diplomatic
vacancy at Naples, a rare and glorious opportu-
nity. Au opportunity for turning over a new
leaf in the manner of the general distribution of
our first-class appointments ! It behoves every
Administrative Reformer to be on the alert. It
behoves us all to mark what follows—to note
what manner of man it is we ought in reason and
iy right to see inducted into this luxurious but
responsible office of Minister Plenipotentiary to
the Court of the Twa Sicilies. Shall it be another
' WILLIAM BARNACLE " precipitated" into this as
already into so many other snug places according
to Precedent ? Shall it be another Lord DECIMUS
TITE BARNACLR soaring to this as already
he has risen to so many of the official,
heights upon the wings of one indignant
idea? Shall it be anothor TUDOR STILT-
SULKING, " despatch-boxing the compass" all
over the European Continent, wafted to this as
already to so many other pleasant capitals upon
winds blowing nobody any good save a BARNACLE
or a STILTSTA.LKING, mellifluous zephyrs, fragrant
and aromatic with " the odour of circumlocu-
tion ?"

A new Ambassador will have to be nominated.
as soon as possible to the post vasated very re-
cently by the death of the Hon. Sir WILLIAa
TEMPLE—own brother of the now Prime Minister
of England, the Lord Viscount PALMERSTON. Is
it to be the old, old story all over again—the
story we are all so heartily sick of ? A BARNACLE
replaced by a STILTSTALKING, a STILTSTALKING by a
1 BARNACLE—" not a square yard of ground in Bri-
tish occupation, under sun or moon, with a post
upon it, but sticking to that post a BARNACLE, "
or stalking grandly towards it across landd,
and sea upon certain hollow and stilted
pretensions a STILTSTALKING ! Are we to go
on thus, and thus, and thus down to the
very end of the chapter ? Or is there at last the
glimmering of a hope anywhere for Merit—for
Merit pPr go , ATPrit viewed alto ether apart from
Family? In Heaven's name let us now trust and
believe so—now that we have had tho cuckoo cry

about "The Right Man in the Right Place,"
dinned into our ears so often of late, now that we
have heard so much about the intentions and
aspirations of the Administrative Reform Associa-
tion, now above all that we possess in this diplo-
matic Neapolitan vacancy a priceless and really
golden opportunity !
We are unfortunately compelled to imagine that
there really are just a few more perhaps than
some half-a-dozen credulous individuals in this
country who are disposed to believe with Lady
BARBA'S& SINCLAIR, in Mr. CHARLES READE'S
sparkling little novel of " Christie Johnstone,"
-,-." that in England, Government is administered
not by a set of men whose salaries average from
eighty to five hundred pounds a-year, and whose
names are never heard but by the First Lord of
the Treasury, and other great men." Credulous
people these are, who conceive of course, and
quite as a matter of course, that diplomatists like
the late Hon. Sir BARNACLE STILTSTALKING,
Brother of the Premier, and Minister Plenipoten-
tiary at the Court of Naples, actually did " some-
thing" or other that (let us say) " earned the
salt" of his splendid embassy ! The con lition to
which our influence at that ill-favoured Gina had
dwindled down at the period of Sir WILLIAM
TEMPLE'S death "proves"---positively--to the
lontrary ! It "proves," moreover, that nowa-
days, more than ever, it has become imperatively
requisite to get the diplomatic wheel of fortune out
,f the old deep-worn rut of feudal, that is to
say, family or hereditary, appointment ! Now—if
ever ! At Naples—if no where else ! The evils
we have to ward against there are imminent.
There, at the Court of Bonsa, let the labour of
diplomatic reform begin in real earnest. It is
more than merely desirable that it should be so ;
it is essentially and imperatively requisite. Di-
plomatists are, of course, not made in a day. They,
more than any men perhaps, need a regular and
systematic education. It becomes necessary,
therefore, that we should select judiciously from
among the best of the materials already within
reach of our selection. Not from among men
who, as diplomatists, are notoriously valueless—
but from among those who actually do possess a
real and appreciable reputation. Leaving far
t while contemptuously overlooked at their seve-
ral posts—Lord HowDEN at Madrid, Lord WODS-
HOUSE at St. Petersburg, Lord STECITFOR.D DB
REDCLIFFE (under a taboo) at Constantinople !
And turning to such men of mark, and mind, and
merit as Sir HENRY BULWER, and Mr. THOMAS
WYSE, and Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR. The last
mentioned can scarcely be spared, it is true, from
his German post of responsibility. The first men-
tioned has just taken in hand the solution of the
, great European problem affecting the future go-
vernment of the Siamese Danubian Principalities.
The distinguished Ambassador intermediately par-
ticularised might, we cannot but conceive, be
transferred very judiciously from his irksome posi-
tion at Athens to this vacant post at Naples with
(or we are much mistaken) infinite satisfaction to
himself and immediate advantage to the national
interests he has so long and ably represented.
"A change," a thorough and radical change, we
believe, must, sooner or later (pray HEAVEN
sooner rather than later) "come o'er the spirit of
our dream" at the Court of OTLIO and at the
Court of BOMBA ! Now is our opportunity for
its inauguration.

ACCIDENT TO THE WESTMINSTER CLOCK BELL.—
WEST HARTLEPOOL, Sept. 13.—An accident, fortunately
unattended with fatal consequences, occurred here this
afternoon to the great bell recently cast at Norton for
the new clock tower at Westminster. It was originally
intended to ship the bell by means of a pair of shears
erected for the occasion in the West Dock, none of the
cranes being sufficiently powerful to lift- the enormous
weight ; but the shears set up were found to be too
small, and a larger pair was erected in the Swainson
Dock, and this afternoon was appointed for shipping the
bell on board the billyboy schooner Wave, Moncrief,
Master, of Wisbeach. Every precaution that was deemed
requisite was taken in order to secure its safe shipment.
About one o'clock it wri lifted from the:carriage on which
it was deposited and safely swung over the hold of the
vessel ready for being lowered. While in this position
it was discovered that the aperture to the hold was not
sufficiently broad for its reception, and another deck
plank was cut out in order to admit it. When all
was in readiness for lowering, one of the chains was
found to have slipped on one side of the sheave, and the
block refused to work. A delay of an hour occurred be-
fore this could be remedied, and when all was once more
M readiness the accident we have to report took place. A
few minutes previous to the readjustment of the chain a
slight crack was heard 40 proceed from the woodwork,
but of this no notice was taken, as it was not deemed of
any consequence. As soon as a strain was again put
upon the tackling the shears immediately swerved a
lit cle to one side, and in an instant the ponderous ma-
chinery came to the ground, cracking and smashing like
firewood, and in its course bringing down the foremast
of the vessel and breaking it into splinters, besides doing
other serious damage to the hull. The bell descended with
a fearful crash to the bottom of the vessel, fortunately, it
was believed at the time this report was despatched,
without injury. The large crowd of people who were
standing.near had a narrow escape from the falling mast
and timbers. The captain of the vessel was in the hold
at the time, but fortunately escaped without injury. The
vessel immediately began to make a great deal of water,
and in order to prevent her sinking in the dock a couple
of steamboats took her in tow and removed her out of
the dock into the inner basin, where she was run on the
ground.

It is then, indeed, a question of vast import.
Never, perhaps, has one of equal magnitude de-
pended on a popular election. Every vote given
for BUCHANAN tends to rivet the chains on the
coloured population. Every one for .e REMONT
to relieve the weary and oppressed, and to hasten
the time when there shall be peace and good-will
amongst men. That the glorious cause Will
eventually triumph it is impossible to doubt !
But there must be serious misery and suffering
should the contest be protracted. The Northerns

The free and easy exhortation of the Chartist
minstrel to the class expected to participate in
yesterday's demonstration—
" Cheer up, cheer up, my gallant lads,"
appears to have been penned in a moment of

rHE SUN, _LON DON, TUESDAY EVE ;' SEPTEMB E R l6

THE THEATRES.

DRITRY"-LANE.

The winter season at this theatre commenced last
evening with 1% company of more than usual excellence—
the list of the company containing the names of Mr. and
Mrs. Keeley, Mr. C. Mathews, Mr. B. Sullivan, Mrs.
F. Mathews, awl Mrs. Emma Waller. The last men-
tioned lady comes to Us after having achieved great sue-
cess in Australia.

The opening play was Bulwer's " Lady of Lyons," and
the great event of the evening was the appearance of
Mrs. Waller in the character of Pauline. From the
manner in which the appearance of this lady has been
announced to the metropolis for the last two or three
months public curiosity was greatly excited, and we
confess we had our doubts as to the advisability of raising
such great expectations. We were prepared for a per-
formance in which great physical power would form the
principal characteristic, but wo were disappointed in our
calculations, and instead of which Mrs. Waller mani-
fested great intellectual ability, and a pathos undderio-
rated by the artifices of exaggeration. It gives us great
pleasure, therefore, to announce that the date of Mrs.
Waller was decidedly successful. Her delineation of
the character of Pauline, the petted beauty of Lyons,
was beautifully true to nature, and the impression she
created last evening gives promise of a most brilliant
career in London. In the earlier portions of the play
her manner and appearance was lady-like and gentle,
and as the piece progressed the emotions of the heart
were exquisitely delineated. Nothing could exceed the
beauty of Mrs. Waller's acting in the scene where Claude
relates the fraud that has been practised on the
unsuspecting loving woman. It was a perfect
triumph of art, and it elicited a hurricane of applause.
Mr. B. Sullivan's Claude Melnotte was a painstaking
and careful performance. Mr. Yonge, as Col. Dames,
was excellent. At the termination of the play, as at the
end of the third and fourth acts, there were loud calls
for Mrs. Waller, and on her appearance, led by Mr.
Sullivan, she was enthusiastically received. Oxenford's
farce of " Twice Killed," in which the Keeleys sustained
their original charcters, concluded the evening's enter-
tainments. The house was crowded almost to suffo-
, cation.

LATEST NEWS.