The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-17 00:00:00

QUEEN'S THEATRE, LONG-ACRE.
Manager, Mr. W. H. Liston.
THIS EVENING, A RACE FOR A DINNER. After which,
NOT GUILTY: Messrs. J. L. Toole. L. Brongh H. Trying, S.
Fmery, Miss Hodson, &c. With THE BIRTHPLACE OF
PODGERS: Mr Toole.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HOLBORN.
Tim EVENING, MIRIA IPS CRIME• Messrs. E. Price, George
Honey, F. Drew, Parselle, and W. Howard. Mesdames Lydia
Foote and Larkin. After which, TURK() THE TERRIBLE :
Messrs. F Hughes, W. Arthur, Brunton, and George Honey;
Mesdames Larkin, Weathersby, Turner, Lovell, Ashton, Miss
Fanny Josephs, &c. To conclude with AUNT CHARLOTTE'S
ALAI U.

THEATRE-ROYAL, OLYMPIC.
THIS EVENING, at 7, SLASHER & CRASHER: Messrs Atkins,
raughan, G. Vincent, &c. ; Miss Lennox Grey and Mrs Caulfield.
After which. at 7.45, PAPER WINGS : Messrs. H. Wigan ,
H. Nev illo, E. Atkins, H. Vaughan, H. Cooper, and Smithson;
Mesdames Furtado, Schavey, N. Harris, and St. Henry.

ROYALTY THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss M. Oliver.
T 1173 EVENING, at 7.30, A LOVING CUP. Mr. Dewar, Miss
M. Oliver. To be followed by CLAUDE DUVAL; Mr. Dewar,
&c. To conclude with FAMILY TARS.

PRINCE OF WALES'S ROYAL THEATRE.
Under the Management of 141 iss Marie Wilton
This EVENING, SCHOOL: Messrs. Hare, H. J. Montagne,
Addison, Glover. and Bancroft: Mrs. Buckingham White. Miss
C. Addison, and Miss S!arie Wilton. After which, A WINNING
HAZARD. And INTRIGUE.

ROYAL KAPHITHEATR Pi AND CIRCUS, HOLBORN.
Tins EVENING, the Great Carre Troupe and magnificent Stud
of 50 Horses; also Alfred Bradbury, A. Carre, &c.

ST. GEORGE'S THEATRE, REGENT STREET.

THIS ETENING, at 8, THE ROYAL ORIGINAL CHRISTY'S
MINSTRELS' Ethiopian Entertainment: and the Burlesque
Extravaginza,, THE VERY GRAND DUTCH—S.

CBRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLETS,
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. Is. Box-office
open from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, Is.; on Mondays, 6d.; Children
under twelve, 6d.

, -14,1?
U, ONN

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17, 1869

THE gentlemen who three months ago were
engaged in the fierce battle of the elections must
have felt at the opening of the session that they had
spent a good deal of energy and no small amount of
money to very little purpose. The absence of the
impressive pageantry which used to mark the begin-
ning of the parliamentary year deprived their
victory of all its outward éclat. To walk
through Westminster Hall, and to hear shabbily-
dressed Londoners asking " Who is he ?" of the
stalwart policeman, and to hear the policeman's con-
fession of ignorance as to the name or history of the
man who a few weeks ago was the hero of a hundred
committee-rooms and beershops, was a piece of irony
worthy of mention in King SoLomoN's vanitas
vanitatum. Was it for this—was it to slink in like a
dog, unrecognised, perhaps unnoticed, that honour-
able members went through the toil and cost
of an election ? Was it that, with no pomp to
greet them, with no blare of trumpets and
glitter of helmets, they—many of them for the first
time—should make their entrance into the first legis-
lative assembly in the world ? Nor were they even
consoled by the privilege of hearing a few minutes
earlier than the rest of the world the Ministerial
programme for the session. That (by way of reviv-
ing a custom for some years more honoured in the
breach than in the observance) had been communi-
cated to the Ministerial journals over-night; and the
cads in towns 200 miles away from Westminster
were made confidants of State secrets before they
were officially revealed to the elect of the nation,
the statesmen of the future.
And now that we have all read this Speech, what
do we think of it ? That it is very much like other
speeches. 'Why should it have been otherwise,
indeed ? True, we have a Householders' Parliament
newly installed at St. Stephen's ; true we have a
Ministry more Radical and popular than ever we
have had before; an Opposition more dispersed and
diminished than we have had for a generation.
But, after all, such circumstances cannot affect
the main features of the history which we are making.
We have our foreign relations ; and as we do not go
to war now, except with the Maori, they of course
are peaceful and satisfactory. We have our colonies;
and they, being left to govern themselves, are going
on very well, always excepting that troublesome
Mr.ori-visited colony. There is the usual amount of
legislation to be effected ; orms which have been
promised yearly for a decade, and reforms of last
year's reforms; legislation to be done, legislation to be
undone. Of course there is the usual reference to
economy, which is made no less when an extravagant
Tory Government is in office than when a " cheese-
paring " Liberal Administration holds the purse-
strings. We knew it all pretty much before, never-
theless it is our duty to enter into detail.
The announcement that the QUEEN is at peace
with all the world ought not to be less satisfactory
because it is wanting in originality. The ancient
Greeks used to declare peace, for war was their
normal state. With us that state is peace, and
although the modern Greeks have done their best, or
worst, they have not induced us to declare war. The
Paris Conference has poured some water down the
Eastern crater, and put out the fire for the present,
Lord CLARENDON has special reason to con-
gratulate himself on that benevolent achievement,
for it has been mainly his work. The American
negotiations still go on ; and though, in spite of the
efforts of three Foreign Ministers, assisted
by the
most garrulous of ambassadors who ever performed
the secret work of diplomacy in public, the United
States and the United Kingdom have not yet settled
their differences, there is not the smallest proba-
bility that they will lead to serious difficulties, and
there is every reason to hope that they will be
arranged. The " disturbances which have occurred
in New Zealand," attended as they have been with "cir-
cumstances of atrocity," may well cause grief to the
Sovereign and to her Ministers. But this emotion
does not induce the Government to recommend a
renewal of Imperial help, which
proved
cious before. It is the ColonialGovernsomiennetffiaacnd-
people upon whose energy the QUEEN relies for
repressing the outbreak. The reference to
the estimates of the year contains some-
thing more than the stereotyped promise of
"a due regard to econ omy." There is a diminished
charge upon the country. There is good news for
Ireland ; she is no longer to bear the stigma of the
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. This, though
it is separated by many paragraphs, is logically con-
nectedwith the important one in which the ecclesiasti-
cal arrangements of Ireland are referred to. The
improved condition of Ireland is due partly to the
vigour with which the Fenian conspiracy was
repressed ; partly to the hopes which the promise of
just legislation has inspired. The outward evidence
of dissatisfaction has been stamped out. It is now
for Parliament to remove the sources of that long-
standing animosity which has so long been our
trouble and our shame.

The other matters brought before the House of Com-
mons are, if not numerous, of great importance. The

recommendation that an inquiry should be made into

the mode of conducting Parliamentaryand municipal

elections, with a view to provide guarantees for their

tranquillity, purity, and freedom, signiEes, no doubt,
_ _ ....

- -
the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire

into the working of the Ballot. The next paragraph

speaks for itself. The last of 3lr. DISE A ELI'S ten
principles, the personal payment of rates, is to
go the way of the other nine, and justify the
Conservative Duke of BUCCLEUCH'S sarcasm

hat of the original Conservative Reform Bill the only

part left is the word "whereas." With a BnircE
and a FORSTER in the Ministry, education, of course,

comes in for its share of attention, and it would
seem as if the Government were prepared to deal
with the large question opened by the Royal Com-
mission on Endowed Schools. A very substantial

boon is offered to the county electors in the
shape of a measure for the establishment of

county financial boards ; successful traders may

rejoice in the prospect of another Bank-
ruptcy Bill, and unsuccessful traders in the
abolition of imprisonment for debt, This last