The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 17, 1860

ing the whole net revenue of estates, and com-
pelling the proprietors to offe r the estates them-
selves to the Government, on condition of being
exempt from the taxes impose d on them. What
would our territorial aristocracy think of one
direct tax alone on the net income of thoir
estates, amounting to twelve shillings in the pound ?
Were Mr. BRIGHT to mention anything like that
at any meeting of manufacturers, he would be
branded as a revolutionary confiscator of property
through all the counties and in every country seat
in England. Yet this is the regular income tax
levied on Hungarian landlords by the Austrian
Government.

The whole country is indeed in a kind of passive
commotion. All classes are aggrieved, seriously
aggrieved. There is no Austrian party now but
that of Government officials. Nobles who were
Austrian and Conservative have now become
amongst the most earnest " patriots." Indeed the
taxation, or confiscation, is such that their very
existence seems to depend on passive resistance.
The Protestants are indignant at a patent which,
merely to exhibit arbitrary power, subverts the
ancient synodal arrangement of th• districts, and
which places their religious administration at the
mercy of the Government. The Catholics, to
whom it was supposed the Concordat would be a
sufficient bribe, are above being bribed. They
were Hungarians, they say, before they were
Catholics ; they insist on the old liberties of the
Protestants as Hungarian rights.
The liberties and independence of Hungary are
the complement of those of Italy. One will be the
guarantee cf the other. The former were subverted,
wholly illegally, in 1848-49. The Emperor of
AUSTRIA is not to this moment the legal King of
Hungary. He has merely sought to amalgamate
into a centralised bureaucratic administration the
Government of Hungary, and that of all the other
provinces he has obtained by violence or fraud ;
but he has not a shadow of moral or legal right to
his present despotic position. All the defrauded or
oppressed territories of the Empire are feeling this
now, and are making common cause against the
Hapsburgs to regain their long-lost rights. Mean-
time the Exchequer of Austria is worse than bank-
rupt—it is an Exchequer which has committed
forgery to get a little ready money ; and the army,
which it cannot pay its wages, is made up of men
from the offended provinces. That Hapsburgism
can maintain itself longer seems inconceivable.

The Right Hon. B. Disraeli, in consequence of a
domestic affliction, will not give a Parliamentary
dinner at the opening of the session.
His Excellency the Belgian Minister and Ma-
dame van de Weyer give a ball at New Lodge, Stindsor
Forest, on Friday next, at which a distinguished circle are
invited to assemble.

His Excellency the Swedish and Norwegian
Minister has left town for some days on a tour of visits in
the country.

his Excellency the Earl of Carlisle left Trent-
ham, where the noble earl has been staying with the Duke
and Duchess of Sutherland, yesterday morning for Dublin
Castle.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Clanricarde
will return to Carlton House-terrace on Thursday from
Portumna Castle, county Galway.

The Earl and Countess of Derby and Lady
Emma Stanley will return to town on Friday from Knows-
ley Park, Lancashire.
The Countess of Craven and the Ladies Craven
have left town on a visit to the Earl and Countess of Veru-
lam at Gorhambury Park, Herts.

The Earl and Countess Grey will return to their
residence on Carlton House-terrace to-morrow from a tour
of visits.

The Countess of Sefton and Lady Celicia Moly-
newt have left town on a visit to the Earl and Countess of
Vorulam at Gorhambury Park, Herts.
The Earl and Lady Constance Grosvenor came
to town yesterday from Calverley Park, Ckeshiro, and to-
day go to Windsor Castle on a visit to her Majesty.

s con nt and Viscountess Palmerston arrived ai
Cambridge House yesterday afternoon from Broadlands,
Hants.

The Right Hon. E. Cardwell, M.P., and Mrs.
Cardwell have arrived at the Oatlands Park Hotel, from
Windsor.

ORDER or THE THISTLE.—We understand that
the Order of the Thistle, vacant by the demise of the Earl
of Camperdown, has been conferred by her Majesty upon
the Earl of Fife.—Scotsman.

Mr. G. Cavendish Bentinek, M.P., met with a
severe accident whilst hunting with the Belvoir hounds on
Friday last. The hon. member sustained a severe fracture
of the collar-bone, and was conveyed to Syston Park, the
seat of Sir John Thorold, Bart., where we are glad to learn
he is going on satisfactorily.

A telegram from China has been received with
unprecedented rapidity, the date from Hong Kong being
the 15th of December. It brings, however, no news of
much importance. Tho exchange was rather less favour-
able at Shanghai, and rather betterfor this country at Hong
Hong, the respective quotations being Os. 81d. and 4s. 101 d.
The deliveries of silk to date were 36,000 bales, and of tea
43,000,0001 b. The
.quotations for silk were firm, and the
arrivals small. The settlements had amounted to 2,503
bales. The import markets were healthy, and stocks of
most descriptions of goods had experienced a reduction.

ROYAL VlSlT.—Yesterday (Monday) afternoon
her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses the Prince Con-
sort and Prince of Wales visited the Windsor Royal Dis-
pensary and Infirmary. The Queen was attended by the
Lord and Lady in Waiting, and the Prince Consort by Col.
Francis Henry Seymour. The visit being of a private cha-
racter, the only officials present were the hon. secretary
(the Rev. J. A. Miller), the house surgeon (llr. Gooch),
and the matron (Miss Walton), by whom the Royal party
were received and conducted through the wards and other
apartments connected with this valuable institution. Her
Majesty and the Prince made full inquiries as to the num-
ber of patients, their treatment, &c., and on leaving ex-
pressed themselves much satisfied with the whole arrange-
ments of the establishment. The Royal party afterwards
drove to the model cottages, erected by the Windsor Royal
Society for the improvement of the labourers' dwellings, of
which his Royal Highness is president. The Queen and
the Prince alighted from their pony carriage and inspected
several of the cottagers' dwellings ; these are about 50 in
number, the whole of them being occupied ; the Royal visi-
tors were much gratified on witnessing the comfort of the
occupants, and neatness of their apartments. Mr. Towers,
the secretary, was in attendance, of whom the Prince made
numerous inquiries relating to the workinr, of the society.
UNIFORM FOR TIIE VOLUNTEERS.—In consequence
of numerous applications having boon made to the Secretary
of S'*e for War on the subject of an authorised pattern uni-
form for artillery and rifle volunteer corps, a committee was
appointed to select a set of patterns for the guidance of vol-
unteers, and have recommended a pattern suit to be adopted
for colour and shape, the quality of the material being de-
termined by the circumstances of each particular corps.
The pattern suits are respectively faced with red and black,
and with grey, but the committee do not recommend that
these colours should be universally adopted for facings,
many counties having colours of their own. Tho pattern
suits recommended by the committee are deposited at the
War-office, where they can be seen, and coloured drawings
may be had upon application, on and after the 24th of
January. Although this dress is recommended by the com-
mittee to be generally adopted, it is not intended to be com-
pulsory, tho selection of the uniform being left to the mem-
bers of each corps, subject to the approval of the lord lieu-
tenant of the county. . _

UNION BANK OF AUSTRALIA.—At the half-yearly
meeting of this company, held yesterday, the dividend de-
clared was at the rate of 16 per cent. per annum, payable
in London free of income tax on the 31st inst., and in the
colonies, with the addition of income tax, as soon as the
inspector shall arrange, on the receipt of the necessary ad-
vices. The report and accounts presented were of course
adopted, but it was intimated by the chairman that the
position of affairs in the Australian colonies had not re-
cently been of a satisfactory character. Although caution
has been exercised losses have been experienced which
have rendered it imperative to increase the reserves to cover
doubtful dependencies, which has been done to the full
extent of the estimated amount. Competition in business
seems to have produced this discouraging influence, but it
is yet thought that alter this reaction shall have passed
trade will assume in the various localitie: a more healthy
condition. The amount available for division is £51,606,
and the rate proposed will absorb about £BO,OOO. The in-
vested reserve fund is maintained at £200,000, £130,000
being placed in the New Three per Cents., and £70,000 in
New Zealand Imperial Four per Cent. Debentures. In
the course of the discussion the species of trading activity,
which has existed in the colonies was alluded to, but, not-
withstanding the dark shadows thus temporarily created,
sanguine anticipations are said to be entertained for the'
future, full confidence being placed in the strength and
solidity of the bank. The principle of allowing interest on
deposits was also referred to, but while it was allowed that
the losses of the half-year have been considerable, other
banks, it is affirmed, have been still greater sufferers. The
total cost of management, it was elicited, reaches £60,000;
and, in answer to •a questiln, the aggregate amount set
aside, to meet bad and doubtful debts, is said to be suffi-
cient to meet every conting-ency.
THE RAINFALL OF 1859.—Mr. A. Stephens, in a
letter to a contemporary, gives the following account of the
rainfall of the past year :—There fell in January, 1.38 in ;
O.F. e7b,rui
na;ry 22
June,
un.e2,
0it.165;
in ; March,jul
July,
in;
nApri l;
August,, 2.2-5 in;3
61 in
in;
September, 2.29 in; October, 3.39 in; November, 3:25 in ;
63
hinfell
s,Dieocsetmrabienr,w% ortianlg2i amounthotno.sf, rot fallen,A August
t 8
Number of days on which rain fell, 151; 28 days of which
the amount was scarcely anything. Large meteor seen on
June 9=l October 23.

TBEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.

ENGLISH OPERA.

The new opera of " Victorine," and the success-
ful pantomime of " Puss in Boots," attracts crowded
and fashionable audiences, among which we have
lately noticed the following :
The Duchess of Inverness, the Duchess of Wel-
lington, Baron and Baroness Brunnow, Baron and
Baroness Oxenchild, Viscountess Torrington, the
Countess of Fife, Earl and Countess of Sefton, Lady
Mountcharles, Lady John Somerset, Lady C. Rus-
sell, Lady Mary Churchill, Lady Mary Stephenson,
Lady Carew, Lady Laidley, Lady Harrington,
Lady Vincent, Lady Molesworth, Lady Lake, Lady
Savage, Lady Wilson, Lord and Lady Ernest Bruce,
Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood, the Earl of
Verulam, Viscount Exmouth, Count Brandenburgh,
Lord Garvagh, Lord Suffield, Lord W. Lennox,
Lord Charles Fitzroy, Sir G. and Lady Armytage,
the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, Sir Edmund and
Lady Antrobus, Sir Thomas Hare, Sir A. Webster,
Sir Charles Douglas, Sir Thomas Seaton, Sir Thos.
Walworth, Sir C. Stanhope, Sir John Wollesley,
Sir W. Ball, the Hon. Mrs. Ponsonby, the Hon.
Mrs. Irby, the Hon. Mrs. Endell, Hon. Mrs. Wil-
loughby, Mrs. Egerton, Col. Seymour, Col. Wheat-
ley, Col. Campbell, Hon. Col. Coventry, Cul. Brown-
low Knox, Capt. Macdonald, Capt. Baring, Lieut,-
Col. Meyrick, General Sands, Gen. Oakes, General
Ramsay, Capt. Buchanan, Col. Tullock, Col. Haynes,
Capt. Phillips, Gen. Hall, Col. H. Boys, Captain
Paget, Mr. Lane Fox, Mr. Vansittart, Mr. Robarts,
Mr. Billings, Mr. Brackenburg, and Mr. Delafield.

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

THE BOMBAY MAILS.

The Bombay, with the above mails, arrived at
Suez on the 10th inst.
The Valetta left Malta for Alexandria on the
9th, and the Ceylon on the 14th inst.
The Indus, with the Calcutta and China passen-
gers, &c., left Malta for Southampton on the 9th
inst.