The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-24 00:00:00

THE f" SIIN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 24, 1860.

of Free Trade, to use another figure, opened thus, it
may be, but a chink, are, at any rate, so far opened.
They can never be closed again—the mere force of
the current they are beginning to admit must fling
them wide eventually. Again, we say it is
only a matter of time—the good work has actually
commenced. If Sir ROBERT PEEL could but have
survived to see it ! To see that, fourteen years
after he himself, with the Ministerial hammer of
Thor, had given the death-blow to Protection, the like
coup de grace would be administered across the Chan-
nel by the Chief of the French Government. It may
ben ot unnaturally matter of regret to us—it is, let us
avow as much at once, it is unquestionably matter
of regret to us that the full scope of our own imme-
diate concessions to France through the new Com-
mercial Treaty, dating from yesterday, cannot upon
the instant, eannot for that matter simultaneously,
be reciprocated by the French Government. The
reciprocation is to come to us later on—that assu-
rance is our solace for the moment—and meanwhile
the reconiolidation of differences or discrepancies in
our accounts we hand over to that fiscal and finan-
cial wonder-worker, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer ! Until we can hearken to the scheme pro-
pounded by him in his Budget for 1860, we are
left to the merest conjecture as to the manner in
which Ministers propose to extricate themselves
from the difficulties of revenue resulting from this
very Boon of a Commercial Treaty inaugurating
Free Trade as the guiding commercial and finan-
cial principles henceforth in the councils of our
imperial ally, the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.
And meanwhile, after all this diplomatic "to
do"—we are to have No Congress. That i—the
next surprize. It follows hard upon the heels of
the Free Trade Treaty yesterday. It will be wel-
comed far and wide in England, in France, in
Italy, in Germany, anywhere, everywhere almost
with a sigh of relief. What an immense quantity
of paper will be saved, what an incalculable length
of time, what an unimaginable waste of words.
The illusion has vanished—bit by bit at first—
and then at last the final remnant of
it has gone out quite suddenly. It seemed at
the outset to resemble a dissolving view that might
turn to something else. But the colours have paled,
the outlines have faded away one by one, and it
has ended at length in—Nothing. Its President
received at the outset his exiquatur. Count
WALEwsm, who was to have taken his place in
the largest gilded fauteuil, withdrew from the
Foreign Office into domestic retirement. Then fol-
lowed, soon afterwards, an improbability, as to the
embarkation from Civita Vecchia of his Eminence
Cardinal ANTONELLI, the POPE'S Prime Minister
and Chief Plenipotentiary. His Eminence's arch-
antagonist, the Count CAVOUR, was next in his turn
precluded from hastening to Paris by having
devolved upon him, once again, the responsi-
bility of constructing at Turin a new and powerful
Administration. The sequel being, as we now
recognise, not simply the indefinite postponement
of the Congress, but its absolute abandonment.
Free Trade for France—No Congress at Paris—
these are the twin Napoleonic surprises "startling
the isle " not from its propriety, but from its doubts
and anxieties immediately upon the opening in
1860 of this new and momentous session of Parlia-

ment.

It is not without pleasure that we learn that the
return of Count CAVOUR to office has been due, in
a great measure, to the action of our own Foreign
Office. We have always gladly done jastice to the
goodwill of the leaders of the present Cabinet
towards Italian liberty. Ever since their accession
to office they have adhered to their antecedents, and
have asserted the rights of the Central States of
Italy, in opposition to Austrian notions of the rights
divine of her exiled Lieutenants. They have had,
we fear, a double temptation to another course. Of
the first, though a near one—too near—and most
difficult of all for the QUEEN'S servants to resist, we
shall say nothing. The proof can only be inferen-
tial ; and, however clear to us, could at any time
be easily denied. The other is open to the know-
ledge of the world. The Conqueror of Austria, in a
fit of that generosity to the vanquished by which
he had purchased the friendship of Russia, had
sacrificed at Villafranca the independence of the
country which he had entered as a liberator. Like
many others who have made a blunder, he was long
unwilling to own that it was one. He must have
seen very early that it was so ; yet he felt bound
by his engagements, and by his wish to show that
his diplomacy was as good as his soldiers' fighting,
to persist in translating the stipulations of Villa-
franca into a treaty of peace at Zurich.
Much as our Cabinet must wish to agree in its
policy with the Emperor of the FRENCH, it yet re-
mained firm to the cause of Italian independence.
The consequence was a seeming opposition between
the Governments of France and England, yet one
which never went beyond a conflict of opinion
between two equally honourable opponents. The
EMPEROR had on his side the right to say, " To me
it is due that the Central States of Italy have had
an opportunity, without shedding a drop of theie
own blood, to throw off the yoke of all—is it not
fair that the Government which has spent blood
and treasure for their freedom should be -listened to
with considerable respect when counselling them
how to use it." To this our Government has op-
posed the inalienable rights of independent States.
Acknowledging the services of the French, and fully
appreciating their generous sacrifices, we could yet
say, and did say—" That to force on the States any
particular form of Government, abol e all, to enforce
the return of the old and detested despots, would
be to deprive the Italian war of its greatest glory.
LOUIS NAPOLEON ought to find his great reward
in enabling oppressed nations to exercise the most
prized rights of nations." It is equally to the credit
of the EMPEROR that he early took the oppor-
tunity to repudiate the employment of force on
behalf of the tyrants who had pointed their
cannon at Solferino against their own country-
men, and of our Ministry, that they have persisted
in the right course for Italy till the
EMPEROR dismissed the pro-Austrian IVALEwsiii,
and he has done all he could to repair the great
blunders of Villafranca.

The Ring of SARDINIA appears also to have acted
with increasing freedom, which we must attribute
to the remonstrances of our Government with that
of France. We may be sure that the toleration of
the BUONCOMPAGNI Regency would never have
been tolerated had not the English Cabinet stood
very firm. It was a serious innovation on the side
of the Sardinian Government of the Duchies. But
now it appears there is no doubtthat Count CAvourt
has again come forward, we may say, at the express
invitation of England. Lord JOHN RUSSELL wrote
expressly requesting to have a conference, whether
a Congress were held or not, with Count CAYOUR.
By this step our Government placed the Count in
his right position. Ile was the man with whom
the most powerful nation of Europe wished to con-
fer on Italian subjects, And rightly so. He and
GARIBALDI, in their respective parts of statesman
and warrior, have been the two men who have acted,
in everything, as Italians, and not as the citizens
of any small State of Italy merely. Count CAVOUR
has preserved his policy against all opposition of
clergy and potentates at home or abroad. At the

Paris Conference, in the Piedmontese Chamber,
when an Austrian invasion was impending, and
when Italy's liberties were compromised at Villa-
franca, he was the Italian, not merely the Pied-
montese Minister. He acted in the interest of Italy,
resigned in the interest of Italy, and now resumes
office in the interest of Italy,
The late Ministry, we are told by the correspon-
dent of the Daily News, wished to employ him as
ambassador to London, and plenipotentiary to the
Congress. Count CAVOUR, however, insisted on the
immediate assembling of the Chambers as an indis-
pensable prerequisite. RATTAZZI and his colleagues
objected on account of the impossibility of violating
certain technical and legal forms which they them-
selves had originated. The Count continued firm.
The Ministry resigned and left him to form another.
Some think that having done their work by getting
through the Treaty of Zurich without compromising
Piedmont, they were not sorry for a pretext to give
way. This, however, is little likely. They had for-
tified their position by creating, and dispensing, all
the patronage they could; but the position given
to Count CAVOUR by England, with his manifest
right to it, was too much for less capable and
loyal men to resist.
We may surely hope well, now, for the annexa-
tion of the States to Piedmont, and the formation
of a powerful free kingdom in the north of Italy.
The statesman whose aim this has always been is
now at the head of affairs by the wish of England,
and with the good-will of France. His own Sovereign
trusts him as he does no other public servant. The
Duchies are taking steps to facilitate the union by
election of delegates tbl Turin, conducted on the
Sardinian model. And, it may be, that very soon
we shall hear that the Cential States and Sardinia
have exercised their undoubted right, and amal-
gamated their Governments without waiting to ask
leave of any congress of foreigners, who have no
title whatever to grant or to refuse it. Fortune
favours the bold is a proverb which was never
more applicable than in the present case. Let Sar-
dinia and the States join themselves together, and
what power will ever attempt to put them
asunder

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT

Parliament was opened to-day by the Queen in
person.

Her Majesty's State visits to the Senate of Great
Britain have ever been marked by loyal manifesta-
tions on the part of her subjects of all classes, from
the humblest of those who crowd the streets to the
peers and peeresses who have the honour to form
part of the brilliant assembly that receives the
Queen ; but to-day the crowds in the parks and the
streets leading to the Palace of Westminster were
almost beyond precedent; the display of coloured
flags and decked-out balconies and windows was
much more numerous than on former occasions. St.
James's Park, Whitehall, and Parliament street
were well lined at twelve o'clock, and at that hour
the equipages of the nobility were arriving in rapid
succession at the entrances to the House of Lords.

The State procession left Buckingham Palace
shortly before 2 o'clock in the following order :
A carriage, drawn by six bays, conveying the
gentlemen ushers, and exon in waiting.
A carriage, drawn by six bays, conveying the
groom in waiting to the Queen, the groom in wait-
ing to the Prince, and the pages of honour in wait-
ing.

A carriage, drawn by six bays, conveying the
equerry to the Queen, the equerry to the Prince,
the comptroller of the household, and the groom of
the robes.

A carriage, drawn by six bays, conveying the sil-
ver stick in waiting, the clerk marshal, the field
officer in waiting, and the treasurer of the house-
hold.

A carriage, drawn by six bays, conveying the
captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, the lord in
waiting to the Queen, and the lord in waiting to
the Prince.

A carriage, drawn by six black horses, conveying
the lady in waiting, the lord steward, and the gold
stick in waiting.
The Queen's marshalmen.
The Queen's footmen.
A party of the Yeomen of the Guard.

The State coach drawn by eight cream•coloured
horses, and conveying her Majesty the Queen, his
Royal Highness tho Prince Consort, the mistress of
the robes, and the master of the horse.
A detachment of the Horse Guards formed the
escort of her Majesty.

quests all to be seated, and the Usher of the Black
Rod proceeds to the Commons to summon them to
the Upper House.
The interior of the House of Lords, at this mo-
ment, with its magnificently gilded roof; its stained-
glass windows, of various hues, covered with pic-
tures of the kings and queens who through so many
centuries have sat on the throne of England; the
fine statues of the barons who signed Magna
Charta that fill the niches at each side of every win-
dow ; the elaborately carved oak pannels that back
the peers' benches ; and the brilliant frescoes that
adorn the walls in the front and at the rear of the
throne presents a scone of unparalleled grandeur.
The Peers of the United Kingdom wear their
scarlet robes ; while the peeressss and their
daughters, radiant with beauty, glittering with
priceless gems, are ranged upon each side, like par-
terres of variegated flowers, bordered by the scarlet
and ermine robes of the Peers who occupy the front
seats. They rise, tier upon tier, with more than
Iris hues, and the light streaming through the
stained windows, sparkles on jewelled cornets, or
pendant brilliants, like sun rays upon the dew-
drops or choicest flowers. All eyes are directed
towards one spot. The Queen is seated upon
her glittering chair of state, representative of a
long line of monarchs whose cyphers and mona-
grams are emblazoned upon the throne. The
centre of the throne is occupied by her Majesty ;
the Prince Consort is on the left. Her Majesty
wears a robe of white satin embroidered with
gold, a purple velvet mantle falls in graceful
folds upon each side of the *hair, covering the lions
that support it, and partly concealing the crimson
velvet footstool with its embroidery of fleur-de-lis.
There is a diadem upon her brow, and jewels flash
and glitter in the brilliant stomacher and ear drops
which she wears. The imperial crown is borne
upon its velvet cushion, upon her Majesty's right,
and close.by is the Marquis of Winchester, with
the cap of maintenance. Seated upon the chair on
the left of the throne is the Prince Consort in the
uniform of a field marshal. The Lord Chancellor
stands behind the chair of the Prince of Wales, the
Lord President on the right, and the Privy Seal on
the left of her Majesty. Behind the chair in which
the Prince Consort sits are the groom of the stole
and lord in waiting to the Prince, and at the back
of her Majesty's chair of state stands the stately
figure of the mistress of th 3 robes, and the ladies in
waiting.

Only a few minutes elapsed before the Speaker
of the lower branch of the Legislature, together
with the Sergeant-at-Arms and the Chief Clerk
(Sir Denis le Marchant), Lord Palmerston, Lord I.
Russell, the Right Hen. Sir George Grey, the
Right Hon. G. C. Lewis, the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert, appeared
below the bar, followed by a great number of
other members, who engaged in a rather uncere-
monious struggle for places in the confined space
to which they are limited.
The Lord Chancellor then, kneeling at the foot
of the Throne, handed the Royal Speech to her
Majesty, who, after waiting until the noise caused
by the arrival of the Commons had somewhat sub-
sided, read it with that distinctness and pleasing em-
phasis which have been so repeatedly remarked
and admired.

The Speech will be found in another column.
The Queen then left the Throne, and after grace-
fully bowing to the spectators, retired from the
house in the same order in which she had entered.
This concluded the ceremony of opening the Impe-
rial Parliament.