The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-10 00:00:00

L ONDON, MONDAY, MAY 10, 180.

Although essentially in its character a non-poli-

tical Pleasure Excursion, the recent, tour made by
their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of

IVALEs through Egypt, through Greece, through
France—to Cairo, to Constantinople, to Athens, to
Paris--an excursion in the course of which they
have been the honoured guests, successively of
the PACIIA, the SULTAN, the Hellenic KING,
and the French EMPEROR —has been, dis-
tinctly, in furtherance of the interests of Peace,
and in confirmation, one after another, of our amic-
able relations with four of the reigning Sovereigns,
or Chiefs of Government. During the interval
of this holiday, journeying through eastern
Europe, and then homewards across France the
future Sovereigns of this country have enjoyed the
opportunity, first of all, of examining, immediatelyprior
to its inauguration, one of the grandest engineering
feats of the Nineteenth Century, and afterwards of
familiarising themselves with those historical scenes

in the Crimea associated with the last of our great heroic
glories, the siege and the eventual capture of the stu-
pendous fortifications,of Sebastopol. Closely related, as
their Royal Highnesses are, to the still stripling Sove-
reign of Greece, their visit to King GEORGE at Athens
naturally possessed a peculiar interest of. its o wn , corning
as it did, so immediately after the hair-breadth extrica-
tion of his forces from the peril of collision with those
of a far more formidable power, the power of the
Sultan Caliph, ABDUL Azziz. Extricated, Greece
and Turkey were, from the otherwise inevitable
necessity of open war, by the opportune interposi-
tion of European diplomacy. And it was almost, as
it were, in testimony of the sincerity of the recon-
ciliation effected, at any rate for the time
being, between the Ottoman Porte and the
Hellenic Monarchy, that the Prince and Prin-
cess of WALES, the sister and brother-in-law of King
GEORGE of Greece, immediately after their having
partaken of the hospitalities of the SULTAN, visited
their Royal relative at Athens—proceeding, directly
and quite naturally, from the Bosphorus to the
Pincus. Having been feasted on the banks
of the Nile, within view of the Golden Horn,
and under the shadow of the Acropolis, the
licit Apparent to the Crown of England, and his
Consort, immediately before returning homewards
across the Channel, have just now celebrated the
close of their delightful tour through Egypt, Turkey,
and Greece, by becoming the guests for a while,
within these last few days, of their imperial
Majesties of France, the Emperor NAPOLEON
111. and his Consort the Empress EUGENTE. It is
but just and fitting that theirroyal highnesses should
thus have indicated their cordial friendship for the
Imperial dynasty of thV BONAPARTES, by paying a visit,

nmedia tely before crossing over to Euglatd from the

European Continent, to the mostsincere and faithful of
all the allies thig country has had during these lasttwo
decades--in point of fact, ever since the reigning
Sovereign of France attained power as the deli-
berately chosen head of. the French. Government. In