The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-12 00:00:00

out the details iu a way which will astonish
us by its generosity. We sincerely hope
prophet. If he do, we must
he will prove a true
believe that our policy, not his, is the cause of it ;
that our strengthened army and our rifle volunteers,
and our £15,000,000 for the army, make the French
think it will be better to make the best of us as
peaceful neighbours, since we do not choose they
should visit us as hostile guests. At the very first
we intimated that the sturdy man of commerce was
propitiated by a Manchester budget to accept so
gentle a Reform Bill, and, now we see him submit
so resignedly to its death, because its twin, the
budget, survives, we are even still more inclined to
think that the " little bill" and the large budget
formed part of one scheme.
The question of Reform is, Lord JOHN says, to
be resumed early next year, but on that point there
is much to be said. With the uncertainties which
overcast Europe at this moment, and which surely
are likely rather to increase than diminish by that

time—with the certainty of a Chinese war on hand,
which may not be ended then—with the Budget
necessities of 1861, and the fortification measures
furnished us by the Commons—we may have an-
other session too full of foreign and domestic work
to permit the easy passage of their Reform Bills.

But there is more than this. We cannot now
enter the subject, but it will have to be gravely
considered, whether the next attempt shall be, a
Reform Bifl for the people, or a Reform Bill for
the present Nouse of Commons. We see how
small a Bill the' House will hinder from passing.
We may have to :Ty whether it will dare to hinder
one large enough for *the people to raise again
the old cry—" the Bill, the whole Bill, and
nothing but the B 01." For one thing we
may be even thankful now. Lord JOHN had
actually suggested on Thursday night that his
£6 franchise was matter for dNussion, and altera-
tion if necessary—it might be xaised or be con-
verted into a rating franchise. litld this been done
in committee, the result would have been such a
miserable remnant of such a miserable Rt'form that
it can be no matter for lamentation that the bill
has died a premature death.

As distinctly as CATO in ADDISON'S stilted classical
tragedy—ltaly has before her at this moment " her
bane and antidote !" The fate of Italian Unity and
Italian Freedom is now suspended in the balance as
it were between the two extremes. To the north
there is a grievous loss—to the south a magnificent
gain. Well may the aspirants for the political
emancipation of the Roman peninsula passe
awhile in this breathing time to look seriously and
meditatively—" on this picture—and on this !"

Yonder in the north-west—NAPOLEON is stealing
the precious diadem of the Italian KING and put-
ting it in his pocket—the beautiful province of
Nice, the ancient and chivalrous little kingdom of
Savoy ! Yonder in the south-west—GARIBALDI is
adding to the dominions of the Italian KING
the noble island of the Sicilians. It is
a startling contrast a telling and impres-
sive antithesis. Yesterday (June 11th, 1860)
the Council of State, at Paris, formally examined
the Senatus Consulte in the matter of the Savoy
and Nice annexation. That Senatus Consulte has
probably been submitted to-day to the Senate.
Upon the 14th of June France will take possession
of her new dominions. There, too, will be held a
grand military review in the presence of the con-
quering Sovereign—a re _Deum being sung in
Notre Dame Cathedral, and the public buildings
being resplendently illuminated. Altogether the
victim is to be tricked out with consolitary garlands
for the sacrifice. Conscious of all which proceed-
ings—ltaly would surely have only bitterest cause
for grief as over a profound humiliation. But
happily for the Italians themselves, they can
look elsewhere for consolation—and find it. All
is not fairy gold in their grasp. If they have lost
Savoy and Nice, they have gained Lombardy and
the Island of Sicily. The sword of GARIBALDI has
won Sicily for the Sicilians, and therefore for the
whole aggregate of the Italian population. The
sword of France has at any rate severed the bonds
which united some of the fairest portions of the
Peninsula to the motley despotism of the Austrian
EMPEROR. If Italy has her sources of anguish,
there are at any rate these grand and substantial
consolations for her in the north and in the south
to hearten her on in the daring effort to secure en-
tirely and permanently her own independence.
Prince METTERNICII called Italy—a geographical
expression ! It remains for the Italians to render
it an expression having henceforth a peculiar,
powerful, and recognisable significance.

What a vista of noble improvements has there
not already been opened up to view by the com-
mittee of which Sir JOSEPH PAXTON is chairman
—the committee appointed to inquire into what
may be the best means for providing for the in-
creasing traffic of the Metropolis by a double line
of Thames Embankments ! We will enumerate a
few of these suggested improvements—leading off,
as a matter of course, with the Thames Embank-
ments themselves. First and foremost, then, the
Thames Embankments. Secondly, Hungerford
Market transformed into a grand railway terminus.
Thirdly, the widening of the Poultry. Fourthly,
the opening of a new street southwards by the
Mansion House, through Bucklersbury. Fifthly,
the abolition of tolls on Waterloo Bridge. And—
not to be tedious—subsidiary to all this, the effec-
tual carrying out of that Main Drainage scheme
which would secure the river from further con-
tamination, would enable it to clear itself out
within a brief interval from all past abominations,
and, while most signally securing the greater salu-
brity of the capital, restoring the Silent Highway
to its pristine pre-eminence as London's noblest
adornment and greatest thoroughfare.

In calculating upon all this, and a great deal
more of the like kind, we are not brooding over
the reveries of a few eccentric old dreamers, bent
upon turning the chief city of England into an
Arcadian metropolis ! Looking forward to the
restoring of an annual Fair in May to that site of
the old forgotten revels, still bearing in remem-
brance of that past time—w ith its pastime—the name
of Mayfair! Or projecting the astonishment of
her MAJESTY'S lieges by erecting anew in the
middle of the Strand (where it actually stood, not
so very long ago, 'garlanded about with sweet
flowers and tricked out with parti-coloured ribbons
in streamers) the old tapering Maypole. We are
not imagining ourselves back in the days when
blackberries might be picked by the wayside in
Tottenham-court-road. When there was really a
suburban village, with a village cross, midway be-
tween the cities of London and Westminster !
When St. Martin's, or rather the predecessor of
St. Martin's, was, in point of fact, as well as in
name, St, Martin's-in-the-fields. We are simply
just come fresh from the examination of the evi-
dence given before the Parliamentary Committee
already mentioned—the evidence chiefly of Mr.
TIIWAITES, the chairman of the Metropolitan
Board of Works, and that also of Captain VEITCH,
Engineer to the Board of Admiralty. Captain
VEITCH has a plan—thought of by him some years
ago, and since then elaborately conned and im-
proved—a clear, bold, rational, perfectly feasible