The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-29 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.
Madame ALBONI.
GRAND EXTRA NIGHT. —TO-MORROW EVENING
(Friday, May 30th), will be repeated Bellini's Opera,
LA SONNAMBU LA.
Amina, Madame Alboni ; Lisa, Madlle. Rizzi ; Teresa,
Madlle. Borgaro ; Elvino, Signor Salviani ; Alessi°, Signor
Vario ; and Count Rodolpho, Signor Beneventano.
To conclude with the new Ballet Divertissement,
LA MANOLA.
Madame Albert Eellon, Mdlles. Katrine, Rosa, Lisereux,
Clara, Pierron, M. Venafra, and M. Vandris.
The Scenery by Mr. Charles Marshall.
Madlle. PICCOLOMINL—On Saturday, Madlle. Piccolo-
mini will make her fourth appearance.
Applications for boxes, stalls, and tickets to be made at
the Box-office of the Theatre, Colonnade, Haymarket.

ROYAL SII:ZREY THEATRE.
Lessees, Messrs. Shepherd and Creswick.

ON FRIDAY EVENING,
Will be performed
MARTIN CIIUZZLEWIT.

To be followed by
A THUMPING LEGACY.

To conclude with
TWICE KILLED.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Win. Cooke.
A GRAND MORNING PERFORMANCE, THIS DAY,
at Three o'clock, when will be presented, for the first time,
a Patriotic Allegorical Pageant Drama, entitled THE FES-
TIVAL OF PEACE, or Honour to the Brave; with a bril-
liant series of Scenes in the Circle.
Box-office open from Eleven till Four. Stage Manager, Mr. W.
West. Equestrian Director, Mr. W. Cooke, Jun.

HIGH. WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAT—Morn. 28 min. aft. 9—Evening 1 min.aft. 10
Ta-Molutow—lforn. 23 min. aft.lo —Evening 2 min. aft. 11

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, MAY 29.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
69—highest since noon yesterday.
86 —lowest this morning and during the night.
61—this day at noon.

BAROMITIII 29-98.
Wym, N. to N.N.E.—Rather fresh, with dull weather
and glimpses of sunshine.

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115 at
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•—•

11,114

LONDON, TIIIIRSDAY, MAY 29, 1856.

THE ILLUMINATIONS.

The greatest fools make the rarest shows

We hope that the evil consequences (yet to
come) of this patched up mock - Peace
may teach Posterity to beware of being
parties to such national humiliation in their day.

The once proud land of the Free is now betrayed
to Continental hypocrites, in order that a foreign
nobody of yesterday may be the future purveyor
of kindred despots :
" Trust not your freedom to the Franks ;
They have a King who buys and sells :
In native swords, and native ranks,
Your only hope of freedom dwells !"

The day of illumination for the bitter first
fruits of a mismanaged war has at last arrived.
And of all days in the year, as we took seca.sion
to notice last week, it is the anniversary of the
restoration of that debauched traitor, CHARLES
11., who sold his people for French gold, and
suffered that glorious flag, which the genius of the
Great OLIVER and the enterprise of the heroic
BLAKE had elevated to the highest pinnacle of
renown, to be draggled. in the mud—brought
England, in point of fact, to so sorry a pass
that a Dutch Admiral, with every circum-
stance of insult, swept the Channel, and,
sailing unimpeded up the Thames, menaced with
the thunder of his guns the safety of the me-
tropolis ! Royal Oak day ! Could there have
been a more appropriate day selected for the cele-
bration of a truce dictated and enforced by a con-
spiracy of foreign despots and domestic traitors !
Corporal NYM must have admired " the humour
of it " had that veteran conveyancer been still in
the land of the living.

" Sold again !" cried the sententious parrot over
the victim of a huckstering espousal. "Sold
again." Not all the guns in the Park will this
day be able to drown the ominous words, " Sold
again"—a thorough unmitigated "sell !" The
very artists employed by Government to furnish
designs for the illumination seem to have been
influenced by a consciousness of the fact. At
Somerset House, for instance, the wreath of
national glory is painted. waving feebly upward
from beneath the anchor in the salt 00z:
where it lies drowned. Never was wit-

nessed a greater poverty of invention, nor a
more straggling array of paltry devices on the part
of private individuals. When the people of this
country do rejoice they do so handsomely. The
inference is obvious, and the absence of all enthu-
siasm in the streets confirms it—everybody feels,
to a greater or less extent, we have been " sold
again." We are only surprised that the illumi-
nation at the Horse Guards is not in keeping with

that at Somerset House. The device there should
have been the Gallic Cock, in the act of crowing,
perched on the shoulders of the British Lion,
muzzled. The motto of the Garter is, however,
well enough in its way. Boni soft qui mal y
pense—evil be to him who evil thinks—an indi-
rect confession, as we take it, of guilt. So poor,
in fact, is the display, and so little proof does
it afford of any rejoicing on the part of the
people, that were the Government designs with-
drawn there would be little more to be witnesses
than on an ordinary Birth-day.
The people are wiser than their rulers give
them credit for. What have they to rejoice
over ? Rejoice, in May, over a German Peace,
concluded in March ; a peace in the making of
which they had no say, and which was ratified
without the semblance of their concurrence. It
is bad enough to be sold ; it is intolerable to be
called upon to rejoice over such a bitter humilia-
tion ! The triumph is a German triumph, and a
triumph over, and not of, the people. Let
German hearts and German voices rejoice over it,
together with those grovelling traders who would

as readily illuminate if the Cz.ut were in posses
mon of London. The population having to pay
for all, whether they like it or not, may choose
to witness the exhibitions which Government has
provided, but they neither will nor can do more.
Too many noble lives have been sacrificed, too
much national treasure has been wasted, too
bitter a pill of national humilia►ion has been
swallowed, to admit of that. Their forefathers
rejoiced over great victories gloriously won and
followed by great results. How should they rejoice
over a German Peace—fiver the stoppage of the
national arms, just as a career of glory and sue•
cess, following on a period of ever-memorable dis-
aster, was opened out to them ! The people have
not forgotten Agincourt, Cressy, the victories of
the Peninsula, and the glorious 18th of June.
NELSON and his achievements are not quite erased
from their recollection. Prince ALsratT has not
got them sufficiently Germanised for that. They
cannot rejoice. Not a few, indeed, are to be
found who go so far as to deplore the fact that her
MAJEsry's Birthday should be celebrated on a day
characterised by so much national humiliation.

It would, indeed, have been fortunate if the
irresponsible and secret directors of the Govern-
ment, and the responsible and avowed Ministers
had been as solicitous for the honour and welfare
of the United Kingdom as they showed theal-
selves to be to prevent any humiliation, or loss
of power to Russia. Had it been so we never
should have heard of " the nijserable CLABENDON