The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-18 00:00:00

quently is, to , oc.ver the most detestable and iniqui-
tous traffic that has ever affected and outraged

humanity :,

This i s .strong language, but every word of it is
to the pc)int, and we rejoice to find that Mr.
BuciLt s takes so just a view of the slave-trade,
which, th rough the cordial co-operation of Ame-
rica, may be completely annihilated. We have so
often e: rpressed our opinions on the subject of pri-
vateer. ing, that it is scarcely necessary to repeat
them., It is one so closely allied to piracy that
aim( ist any
.person who could engage in the
one could easily be persuaded to enter
into the other. We know that in the olden
time 3, even within the present century, it was
con sidered not only justifiable but praiseworthy,
and that some conscientious men engaged in it.
A . sounder judgment has, however, since prevailed ;
and we can 'congratulate not only Great Britain,
but the whole of the civilised world, on the aboli-
tion of one of the terrible nuisances by which our
ancestors were tormented.

The difficulty with Paraguay, it is hoped, may be
satisfactorily arranged, through the friendly offices
of England and France. Mexico, however, must
be prepared to indemnify the citizens of the United
States for their losses, or to witness the occupation,
and possibly the annexation, of a portion of her terri-
tory. A covetous eye is also directed towards Cuba,
which it is desirable to purchase; but the acquisition
whereof seems to be looked for in the same way
that King AHAB, or rather his Queen, obtained
the vineyard of his neighbour.
The MUNRO doctrine, as it has been termed, has
been reasserted a very convenient one for " the
States," but which must also be taken into account
by other nations. It never has, and, we
believe, never will, be recognised by Euro-
pean diplomatists ; and whatever may be
the desire of the Cabinet of Washington, it
cannot oppose its single will to the rest of the
world. American messages should, however, be
read with American spectacles, and, perhaps, like
many other documents emanating from the same
quarter, it may be found that "sayings and doings"
arc very different.

The enthusiasm of all classes, of all parties,
colours, and creeds, appears to have been awakened
in India by the Royal Proclamation. It is a happy
augury that such should be instantaneously the
unanimous reception accorded to the historical
document inaugurating what some of the Hindoos
have aptly designated the VICTORIA Era. That
no prejudices should have been anywhere raised,
that all opinions, however various, should have
been simultaneously conciliated, must certainly be
regarded as an incident in many respects remark-
able, in some altogether unprecedented. Here is
a vast territory, numbering within its limits nearly
one entire quarter of the human race—alien to our
religious, social, and political systems—kept under
our authority less by the arms of 100,000 fighting
men (the QUEEN'S soldiers) than by the influence
of our national character : suddenly declared an
integral portion of the British Empire, after hav-
ing been, during the whole century last past, an
insulated proconsulate, half governed by the
CROWN, half by a mercantile Company !
Yet the transference of the sovereignty,
or rather its entire absorption by the Crown, is so
wisely and judiciously announced to the millions
most deeply interested in the change effected, that
the event is welcomed as the augury of a happy
and glorious future far her Britannic MAJESTY'S
Empire in Hindostan.
Several of the most important sources of the
popular enthusiasm awakened among the Hindoos
by the Royal Proclamation deserves to be here
especially particularised. They are matters, we
conceive, in many respects of especial significance.
The oriental imagination, as we remarked in these
columns a few days since, appears to have been
especially and powerfully impressed—nor, indeed,
can this for one moment be wondered at—by the
sublimity of that literal and strictly accurate de-
signation of the English Sovereignty, which
forms, as a matter of course, the preamble of
this famous Proclamation. VICTORIA, by the
Grace of GOD, QUEEN of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of
all the colonies and dependencies thereof in
Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia :
VICTORIA, by the Grace of GOD Monarch of this
world-wide dominion, greeting her Asiatic subjects
collectively, claims from them, through this his-
torical document, their future allegiance—the
allegiance of nearly 200,000,000 souls ! Her Bri-
tannic MAJESTY having but very recently with a
strong arm put down in a few months, crowned
with victory upon victory, a disastrous and san-
guinary rebellion, asserts in no boastful mood, but
with an awful consciousness of power—the will
henceforth to maintain rigidly intact her Royal
authority over all those vast dominions. Our
Sovereign Lady accompanies this haughty assur-
ance to the population of her Asiatic empi-e with
another, that mercy will temper justice in her
treatment of the repentant participators in
the late bloody insurrection. Beyond this, the
people of India appear to have marked with pecu-
liar wonder and satisfaction that the liabilities of
the Company are accepted wholesale and retail by
the Crown—to us a mere matter of course ; to the
Eastern multitude a subject of admiration and
astonishment. To the Hindoos—never was there
such exalted honesty, such superb magnanimity.
Even the bold but temperate reference made in the
Proclamation of the SOVEREIGN to the future re-
lations henceforth to subsist between Paganism and
Christianism—has been accepted with one unani-
mous and unconditional outburst of satisfaction.
Nothing, indeed, could be more auspicious altoge-
ther than the one universl feeling with which the
Asiatic subjects of the Crown have welcomed the
establishment amongst them of the Royal authority
of the SOVEREIGN.

His Highness the Prince Carraccilo has taken his
departure from the Brunswick Hotel, for Paris, en route for
Rome.

The Marquis of Hastings and Lady Constance
Hastings, accompanied by Capt. Yelverton and the Hon.
Barbara Yelverton, have left Wallace's Hotel, Hyde-park-
corner, for Willeslek Hall, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, the
seat of Mr. and Lady Edith Clifton.
Baron Frederick de Grote, has arrived at the
Clarendon, from Paris.

Capt. Barclay and Mrs. Barclay have arrived at
Wallace's Hotel, Hyde-park-corner.

The Right Hon. Sir John and Lady Pakington
have left town for their seat, Westwood Park, Worcester-
shire.

DEATH OF THE COUNTESS OF WILTON.—We
regret to announce the demise of this much-respected lady,
who died on Thursday morning at Egerton Lodge, Melton
Mowbray, after a brief illness, from an attack of typhus
fever. The deceased lady was the youngest and only sur-
viving child of Edward, 12th Earl of Derby, by his second
countess, Miss Eliza Farren, the celebrated actress. She
married, in 1821, the present Earl of Wilton, by whom she
leaves a family of two sons and three daughters. Few
members of the aristocracy have enjoyed in a higher degree
than the lamented countess the esteem and admiration of
their compeers. In every relation of life her ladyship's
conduct was unexceptionable ; and whether in the promo-
tion of any good public work, or in the more congenial duty
of furthering the happiness and social comfort of her de-
,pendents, the countess was ever foremost. Her loss will be
keenly felt, not only by the members of her family, by whom
she was affectionately beloved, but also by a very numerous
tenantry, whose heartfelt regard has long been secured to
her by the practice of virtues of a very
benevolent charac-
ter. The deceased countess, although junior in years, held
the relation of aunt to the present Earl of Derby,