The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-18 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1856.

Secret societies for political purposes are the
curse of any country in which they are organised.
Ireland owed much of her misery to the opera-
tions of Defenders and Whiteboys, Sharavests
and Caravats, Peep-o'-Day Boys, Rockites,
Ribandmen, &c., who, under innumerable deno-
minations, vexed and disturbed the island. Nor
were the operations of Orangemen and Purple-
men much less injurious to the country. It is
true that they did not deal in assassinations, as
their opponents, nor was there a " black sheep
office" to condemn to death harsh landlords, too
zealous agents, "informers"—under which generic
term they classed all who gave evidence fairly
and truly before the criminal courts—or persons
who took vacant farms contrary to the regulations
of the agrarian legislators. But they created and
kept up an irritation that was productive of the
most mischievous consequences. A single Orange
lodge produced twenty Ribaad lodges. The
secret signs and passwords in the former
were imitated in the latter, and the oaths
sworn by men who fancied that they were acting
the part of loyal subjects and patriotic citizens
were parodied by others with fearful additions.
Whatever the colour, the results were almost
equally destructive to the peace of the district
and the welfare and prosperity of the nation. Of
course, we do not include in this censure Free-
masons, or the numerous benevolent institutions
known as Odd-fellows, Foresters, &c., &c. It is
only the secret political societies of which we c• n-
plain. _ _

It is to be regretted that the objectionable
system appears to have taken deep root in France,
and that its ramifications are spreading through-
out the length and breadth of the land. " The
Marianne" is the most important, and perhaps
the most objectionable of these confederations.
The proposed objects are the overthrow of the
present Government, the establishment of the
Social and Democratic, and the complete triumph
of the ouvriers, or working classes. To achieve
these purposes the predominant principle is that
" the end justifies the means." Therefore, murder,
robbery, forgery, any and every crime, however
atrocious, must be perpetrated in order to attain
the great end. The ties of family, property, or
religion, are all to be disregarded when compared
with the paramount demands of the " Marianne"
—that exacts a blind and servile obedience
from its subordinate members. In other words,
they are to be blind tools in the hands of the san-
guinary ruffians by whom the business is managed
and the orders issued.
We do not deny that the republican party in
France may have many grave causes of complaint,
and that they may feel bitterly the consequences
of the "coup cr etat s" which established the Em-
pire on the ruins of the republic. But they may
rest assured that any cause, however meritorious,
was never benefited by such means as those con-
templated by the founders and members of " The
Mariecnne." Assassination in any form must dis-
gust every right-mincled man, and induce him io
throw his weight into the opposite scale. How
many amides and disturbancea have been directly
traced to the Police bureaus under despotic Go-
vernments ? And why have they been got
up
Merely because the acute and wily agents
ar6 well aware that they can get rid of all
suspected or dangerous characters under the spe-
cious pretext.
They are also Dept fully informed as to the

most private transactions of these secret societies,
and are thus enabled to form countermines and
defeat the objects of the conspirators. Persons
of all grades in the society aro actually receiving
police pay, and are neither more nor less than
spies on their unsuspecting brethren. Every
project is thus defeated, save when it suits the
purposes of the guardians of the public tranquil-
lity to permit the fall of some petty victim, in
order to exact bitter retribution for a crime which
could have been prevented if it were considered
desirable to do so.

We would therefore earnestly impress on the
minds of all who may have been induced or been
solicited to join this or any other secret political
society the absolute folly of the scheme, which
can only damage the cause it professes to advocate,
and may ruin the comparatively innocent members.
No good cause was ever advanced by bloodshed,
murder, or secret conspiracy. They are the chief
weapons of despots, by which chains are rivetted
on the people. Let those who feel that
here are objectionable points in any political sys-
tem, meet openly and proclaim their wants and
wishes. We are aware. that public discussion is
not in accordance with Continental usage. But
still the voice of public opinion will penetrate

into the most secret recesses of Palaces, and will
cause itself to be respected, whenever it resorts
only to legal and constitutional means for the
purpose of obtaining legitimate objects.

" What went ye out for to see ?" We don't
mush fancy, as a matter of taste, the practice of
quotation from Scripture ; but not a few passages
are so striking in their phraseology, so welded
into the language, and so apposite to passing
events, that, if desirable, it is somewhat difficult
to refrain from turning them to account. In
connection with the spectacle about to be pre-
sented in Moscow the temptation is irresistible ;
and as most of the adventurous British sight-
seers who are to be present at the approaching
coronation of the Emperor of RUSSIA are now on
their way to or arrived at St. Petersburg, We
may repeat, without any alteration of tense, the
inquiry with which we set out—" What went ye
out for to see ?"

It may be necessary to premise that the par-
ties to whom the question is addressed are Eng-
lishmen, citizens of a free country, confessedly
indebted to liberty for its greatness, and to religion
for the tone of its morals, and rightfully claiming
at the hands of all whom it has nurtured respeot
for those principles which have contributed so
materially to its grandeur and renown. "What
went ye out for to see?" A solemn ceremonial,
in which the recognised ruler of millions of human
beings binds himself before GOD and man to wield
the sceptre he inherits in accordance with human
rights and to the development of the better in-
stincts and capacities of humanity ? He would
be a bold individual who returned an answer in
the affirmative. The spectacle actually to be pre-
sented is that of a monarch to whom directly and
by implication the ineffable misery and the
slaughter of countless thousands of his subjects
are owing, and who nurses at his heart an insane
ambition, which must be productive of like re-
sults, invoking from HEAVEN a recognition of " the
right divine to govern wrong "—the right to im-
prison, torture, exile, or put to death all who
oppose his will—to put down every rising germ
of liberty, and erect barrier after barrier to the
progress of intelligence in every quarter to which
his power extends. That is part of what so many
Englishmen, with a special Imperial ambassador
at their head, have gone " out for to see."

As a matter of course, then, it is not to a spec-
tacle in which religion, any more than freedom,
will be honoured their curiosity is leading them.
Religion is merciful, progressive in its tendencies,
has respect for the rights of the meanest human
being, and holds forth in terrorerm the DIVINE
vengeance to the oppressor in his pride. The
spectacle to be presented is that of crowds of
priests in garments blazing with gold, censer in
hand, and with all the accessories of pontifical
pomp, paying solemn homage to a tyrant, and,
as ministers of HEANENT, invoking on his head all
the blessin gs throughout his career, whatever it may
be, the most just and merciful ruler can possibly
receive, and pronouncing him the god of Russia
ou earth. A pretty spectacle for Englishmen to
travel so many miles by sea and land to honour
by their presence, and for a special English am-
bassador to be sent by the English Government,
at an enormous cost, to take part in !

To the abstract impropriety of such a proceed-
ing, however, must be added a peculiar infelicity
of time. It is at the conclusion of a war brought
on by Russian aggression, of which the monarch
to be crowned has expressed his entire approval,
and to which, in addition to the injury inflicted
elsewhere, the waste of thousands of British lives
and millions of British treasure are entirely owing.
It is with the massacre of Sinopo and Hang° freda
in the recollection, and with not an ap)liry nor
a stivor in the way of atonement for injury done
of any sort forthcoming. It is while a Russian
campaign is being carried on against the inde-
pendent tribes of the Caucasus, gun-boat upon
gun-boats is being launched at Cronstadt, and an
imposing Russian fleet scours the Baltic. It is
while the latest Russian perfidy is the talk of the
hour, and shows its audacious front at Kars, and
on the banks and at the mouth of the Danube.
It is while we aie saddled with a debt of a hun-
dred millions for the expenses of the War, and a
double Income Tax oppresses the energies of labour
—all owing to Russian aggression—that English-
men hasten to honour by their presence a bar-
barous ceremonial, and a special ambassador is
sent, at an enormous cost, to signalise our respect
and good-will for the monarch whose treachery
has cost, and is costing, us and our ally so dear.
Liberty outraged, religion desecrated, mala fides
honoured, and English gold wasted—all this, and
more, is to be witnessed at the Emperor ALEX-
ANDER'S coronation !

The spectacle, no doubt, not too deeply consi-
dered, will be imposing. The picturesque and the
barbaric are often synonymous, and no doubt the
Russian nobility, and the representatives of the
various tribes of which the empire is composed,
will don their bravest apparel to harmonise
with ambassadorial pomp and the magnifi-
cent array of the'. Greek priesthood. A fine
thing, too, it will be to win expressions of
good-will from the mercantile population by a
lavish expenditure of gold, inure especi illy at the
Embassy, where nobody will bo the poorer how-
ever much may be wasted. But we submit that
a recognition unworthy of Englishmen at any
time, and above all unworthy at the present, had
bettor for the credit of the country have
been dispensed with, and that the squan-
dering of thousands of the public money in
doing honour to the unscrupulous Potentate
whose misdeeds have altevly cost us so much,
and are likely to cost us much more, is an act of
folly not far removed from the very wantonness
of wickedness. Who cares to honour a tyrant,
who, being the scourge of his own subjects, lacks
only opportunity to be the scourge of Europe—
who is least dangerous when opposed in arms, and
t to be fi
when challenging most trust ioaus-

pea ted Y Say that the Embassy to the Corona-
tioil is a mere form, still it must be condemned
as 21 degrading farce, the cost alone of gettirg
which up should have prevented its being
eau cted.

THE CAB FARE AT THE MANSIOIV-

110 USE.

Under this head we inserted a report stating
that Admiral Collier was summoned. There being
two Admirals of that nam,a, we regret that our Re-
porter did not specify which it was. It should have
bean Rear-Admiral. Henry Collier, Grosvenor-
street, Grosvenor-square, who was summoned, and
noi!; Rear-Admiral of the Red, Edward Collier,
C. 8., who was at that time on the Continent.

COURT CIRCULAR.

OSBORNE, AUG. 17.

The Queen and Prince, the Prince of Wales, Prince
Arthur, the Princess Royal, and Princess Alice, atteradcd
by the Ladies and Gentlemen in Waiting, left the Royal
yacht in Plymouth harbour at a quarter-past 9 o'clock on
Friday morning, and landed at the Royal victualling
yard, where her Majesty was met by the Port-Admiral,
Sir W. Parker ; the Lieut.-Governor, Major-General
laden ; the Rear-Admiral Superintendent, Sir J. Plum-
ridge ; and the authorities of the victualling-yard. Her
Majesty proceeded to the South Devon Railway station,
'retorted by a party of Artillery.
At Exeter the mayor end corporation presented an
address.

Her Majesty, having left the train at Salisbury, Wa3
►.•eceived by the mayor and corporation and the Right
Hon. Sidney and Mrs. Herbert.

The Queen and Royal party pai:;ook of luncheon at
the White Hart Hotel, and afterwards proceedet to the
Cathedral, where the dean and canons were in P:ctendance.
Her Majesty then proceeded by the South-Western
Railway to Southampton, and embarlied there in the
Royal yacht Elfin, and arrived at Osborne at a quarter
before 7 o'clock.

The Hon. Emily Cathcart has succeeded the Hon.
Beatrice Byng as Maid of 'Honour in Waiting.

Despatches were ;eat from the Colonial•office on Sa-
turday. Governor of Gibraltar and to the Go.
verh
er to h
of
thet e
Vest India Islands.

DEPARTURE OF THE DUCHESS AND
BRINC.ESS MARY OF CAMBRIDGE.

DOVER, SUNDAY.
-Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge and
b.er Royal Highness the Princess Mary of Cambridge,
attended by Baron Knesebeck, arrived here last evening
from. London, shortly after seven o'clock, and were re-
ceived at the station by Colonel Streatfield, the com-
mandant ; Captain M'llwaine' Admiralty superinten-
dent ; Captain Smithett, of the Royal and Imperial mail
service, and a numerous assemblage. The obliging
superintendent of the railway had made every prepara-
tion for the comfort and convenience of the distinguished
passengers.
__

A guard of honour, composed of the 79th Highlanders,
under command of Colonel Douglas, received the royal
party, with band playing and colours flying, at the en-
trance to the station, and a royal salute was fired from
the heights.
Their Royal Highnesses were conducted down the
Admiralty pier by Colonel Streatfield and Captain
M'llwaine, and were received on board the Imperial
mail steam-packet l'lmperatrice (specially ordered for
the occasion), by Mr. Churchward, the managing di-
rector of the service, and Captain Jenkins, the superin-
tendent. The Duchess and the Princess immediately
took possession of the handsome little deck side cabins
that had been fitted for their Royal Highnesses, and then,
under the careful convoy of Captain Smithett, the
steam-vessel proceeded on her swift passage to Calais,
whence the royal party proceeded this day to Colorne.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, attended
by Major Clifton, left town on Saturday morning for
Aldershot, to review the several regiments stationed at
the camp. His Royal Highness returned to town late
the same evening.

On Friday larit Princess Anna of Saxony, the fourth
daughter of the King of Saxony, was betrothed at Pill.
nitz to the hereditary Grand Duke of Tuscany.
The Queen Dowager and royal family of Oude, with
their 100 attendants, are expected at Southampton to-
morrow. Apartments have been taken for them at
White's Royal Hotel, in that town. The only sedan
chair in the town has been engaged for the purpose of
conveying the Dowager Queen from the docks to the
hotel, in order that she may be concealed from the pub.
lic gaze, in accordance with the Oriental customs. The
hotel is about a mile from the docks.
Mr. Baron Bramwell has been on a visit to Lord
Brougham, at Brougham-hall.

111:Kosiuth and-his family are residing at Ventnor,
at the back of the Isle of Wight,.

Mr. Labouchere will Tuna probably be the Secretary
of state in attendance upon her Mak sty on her visit to
Scotland.

Lord John Russell and family arrived at Vevay on
the 12th inst. His lordship will return to England, to
attend to his Parliamentary duties, in all probability
before the close of February—certainly before Easter.
Amongst the guests of the Earl of Lonsda!e, at Low-
ther Castle, are Lord Malme,hury, Lord Ranelagh,
Captain Lowther, M.P., and Mrs, Lowther, Rev. H.
Lowther, and Misses Lowther, Colonel Knox, and Mr.
Johnson.

Earl Stanhope is at Chevening Park, Sevenoaks, sur-
rounded by a distinguished circle, including Lord Stan-
ley, Right Hon. E. and Mrs. Cardwell, Sir Percival and
Lady Dyke, of Lullington-park, Sir E. and Lady Ker.
rison, Sir George and Lady Cornewall Lewis, the Hon.
A. Barrington, &c.
The Bishop of Norwich has collated the Rev. Robeit
Collyer, M.A., rector of Warhams, to an honorary ca-
nonry in Norwich Cathedral.
The Postinaster•General has given notice that a ship
mail be made up for the Cape of Good Hope, to be sent
oat by the Pioneer steamer, which is advertised to sail
on the 25th inst.

C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., the lord lieutenant of the
county of Cardiff, has presented the sum of 2001. to the
fund for the relief of those who have suffered from the
rtcmt explosion at Cymmer.
NORTH AND SOUTH WALES BANKING COMPANY.—
At the annual meeting of the North and South Wales
Banking Company, held at Liverpool, a dividend of 6
per cent. per annum was declared.
DEATH O MR. RAMIELL, C.E.—This gentleman,
who was the designer of the works of drainage and
water supply in this town, suddenly met his death a
sh art time since while on an Eastern tour. He was
thirty four years of age.--Dover Chronicle.

EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY.—A committee bag
bean formed for securing the election of the Hon. E. T.
Yoke, M.P., as chairman in the room of Mr. D. Wad-
dington, M.P., who has announced his intention to re
tire after the next half-yearly meeting on the 29th inst.
HAPPY TERMINATION TO A LAWSUIT.—The parties
who appeared in the case of breach of promise of mar-
riage, at tl:e recent Wilts Assizes (Satoh Powney, of
Br tmbarn, v. David Evans, of Liverpool), were married
at Bromham Church, by the Rev. E. Edgell, on Satur-
day morning.
The folio wing programme of Madame Ristori's pro-
jects has been communicated to her friends. She pro-
poses to be at Atnsterda n in September ; in Dresden,
October 10 ; Berlin, October 20 ' • Warsaw, November 1 ;
Pnsth, Nov. 12 ; Naples, from Jan. 10 to 30, 1857 ;
Paris, in April and May, 1857; and in London in June,
1857. _ . .

The Government Emigration Commissioners have
chartered the Marion to take out emigrants from Ply-
mouth to Adelaide on the 29th proximo ; the &mart, to
take out emigrants from Southampton to Melbourne, on
the 22d proximo ; and the Balnagueth, to take emi-
grants from Southampton to Belfast, Port Fairy, on the
29Gh proximo.
SITTINGS OF THE INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT.—The
court will sit on Wednesday, the 27th inst., for bail cases
and motions. By this notice parties in custody will be
enabled to obtain their liberation until the hearing in
September. The commissioners are not required by the
act, but appoint bail days to accommodate insolvents
who can procure bail.
THE BATH WATERS AND THE CRIMEAN SOLDIERS.—
The medical authorities of the army have advised that a
large number of invalid Crimean soldiers should be sent
to Bath for the benefit of the mineral waters of that
city. Accommodation is required for 150 men, and on
Friday a gentleman sent down by the Government, ac-
companied by Mr. W. Bush, the Mayor of Bath, in-
spected various buildings with a view to the selection of
one adapted to the required purpose.
MONSTER BLAST.--On Wednesday evening, about five
o'clock, a monster blast took place at the Trow Rocks,
South Shields. The contractors for the piers had made
a large chamber, into which they had put 7 cwt. of pow-
der, and the train being laid, it was fired by James
Mather, Esq., one of the commissioners. The explosion,
which was witnessed by a great number of persons, was
magnificent, and it was estimated about 5,000 tons of
rocks were dislodged. It will be immediately removed
for the core of the south pier.—Newcastle Oh,renicle.
THE AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN MAILS. —LIVER-
POOL, Aug. IG.—The Royal mail steam-ship Niagara,
Captain Leitch, left this port to-day for Boston, with
152 passengers, besides a large cargo and the usual mail.
Oa Monday, the clipper ship White Star, belonging to
Mcssrs. Pilkington and Wilson, goes into the river, and
will take her departure hence for Melbourne on Wed-
nesday, with the mails, a large cargo, and 200 passen-
gers, iccluding Mr. Lurmour, manager of the New
European and Australian Mail Steam-ship Cmnpany,
and family. The Marco Polo will sail on the sth of
September.
THE SILK TRADE.—The Salut Public of Lyons says :
" The high price of silk at present reacts in a certain
degree on the activity of the manufactories of Lyons and
St. Etienne, which the souvenirs of the Universal Exhi-
bition at first favoured with a large increase of employ-
ment. The deficit in the production of silk has been
general. Landed property in France losses millions by
it, and in order to avoid a recurrence of the calamity,
the producers have already sent to procure silkworms
from the most distant countries. Several persons have
lett for Broussa, in Syria, which is famed for its breed,
and others have gone on a similar errand to China. By
means of the rapid communications established by
steam a reply may be received in lees than three
menthe.