The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-08 00:00:00

Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips.

CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.—
Proprietor --C. MORTON.
The public is most respectfully informed that the FINE
ARTS GALLERY, in connection with the above Hall, IS NOW
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT, from 11 o'clock a.m. until 12
o'clock p.m. The New Gallery contains an extensive Collec-
tion of Pictures, by Ancient and Modern Masters and is also
devoted to Art productions generally. The Proprietor feels
he may confidently assert that, viewed altogether, the exist-
ing 3lusie hall, the New Fine Arts Gallery, and the recently
added Ante-Hall, will present an attraction which, whether
as regards the architectural beauty of the structures them-
selves, or the varied and hitherto unatternpted combinations
within, will be found to be wholly without parallel in the
Kingdom.
The MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT commences as usual at
Seven o'clock.
In addition to the usual entertainment. the SAUVLET
FAMILY, of Amsterdam, Eight in number, whose varied
instrumental performances have created so marked a sensa-
tion in the principal cities and towns of the Continent, will
perform every Evening at Nine and Eleven o'clock.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, DEC. 8.

THERMOMETER, TN THE SHADE.

43—highest since noon yesterday.
41—lowest this morning and during the night.
41—this day at noon.

- BAROMETER-30.28.
WIND, South-Easterly; light, with dense foggy weather.

THE SUN.

WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 8, 1858.

King BOMBA is beginning to discover that a re-
newal of diplomatic relations with the Western
Powers would be no such bad thing after all. It
is not pleasant in private life to be cut by your
wealthy and powerful neighbours; and it is even
more disagreeable to a minor State to have its ex-
istence virtually ignored by any of the great
Powers. It is injurious alike to the amour propre,
and to the position of the nation thus slighted, and
although bontbastic pretensions may provoke such
treatment, and perverse obstinacy lead to its con-
tinuance, it must prove very satisfactory to the
offending kingdom to have the diplomatic inter-
dict removed, and to be restored to its quondam
condition.

We do not wonder, then, at the anxiety of the
Neapolitan authorities to be restored to friendly
relations with France and England, or at the ad-
vances said to have been made by King FERDI-
NAND for that purpose. But before his wishes can
be accomplished he must fully and com-
pletely redress the grievances that led
to so decided a step on the part of the
Western Powers. It would be puerile to retreat
from the position they have assumed, unless the
causes that led thereto be altogether removed.
Naples must cease to be a firebrand that may lead
to the most serious disturbances-in Italy, and even-
tually to grave complications in Europe. The very
properremonstrances offered to King BOMBA were
treated with sarcasm and contempt. He seemed to
think that "he had a right to do what he liked
with his own," forgetting that, in so doing, he must
neither injure nor endanger the property of others.
The State of Naples was a political as well as a
social nuisance, which it was the duty of every
friend of humanity to abate with all convenient
speed. It was impossible to sanction or tolerate
the vagaries that were indulged in by one who
was by no means even a favourable specimen of the
Bourbons themselves.
It is positively asserted that the English Go-
vernment has replied that everything will be
subordinate to a satisfactory regulation. This
is what might be expected from Lord DERBY
and his colleagues, and doubtless the Cabinet of
Paris will likewise insist on the performance of
what had previously been demanded, before send.
ing back an ambassador. It could scarcely be ex-
pected that the French Ministers would consent to
a drawn game, and it would be far worse if King
FERDINAND could show that by sturdy resistance
he had carried his point against France and Eng-
land. It happens by some strange coincidence that
Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE is at Naples at
this moment. Although not officially accredited,
his services may be peculiarly useful in bringing
round proper arrangements. He is, perhaps,
one of the best men for such a purpose.
No one is better qualified to deal with
stubborn parties ; and to maintain the honour,
dignity, and prestige of Great Britain unimpaired.,
He certainly will not permit himself to be cajoled
or hb.mbuggedi and there is no danger of any

British minister submitting to be bullied by
Naples ! The great points are—first. to ensure that
every demand, the refusal whereof led to the
withdrawal of one Minister at the Neapolitan
Court, should be entirely conceded; an? secondly,
that any further grievances that ma: have arisen
in the interval should be redresse I. By asking
for a renewal of intercourse, KING FERDINAND
admits his mistake, and he must be prepared to re-
trieve his error, when 'virtually suing for pardon
from the Great Powers which he had wantonly
offended.

A magnificent future, we do confidently hope, is in
store for our Anglo-Indian Empire, as a sequel to
her MAJESTY'S royal and gracious Proclamation.
It is surely noteworthy that from these Islands—
the central point of the world-wide British domi-
nions—emanated during the last autumn a message
of clemency of a very remarkable character, trans-
mitted almost simultaneously to the east and west,
to the great Asiatic and American continents. The
message, in each instance, emanated avowedly and
directly from the SOVEREIGN. In each instance
the medium for the conveyance of the message was
altogether unprecedented. Here it was the sub-
merged wire of the electric cable, thrilling under
the great deep, along the bed of the mighty At-
lantic. Here, again, it was a Solemn Proclama-
tion, addressed for the first time by the QUEEN in
Council to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India
--an imperial proclamation, issued by one of the
mightiest monarchs of the world. " VICTORIA, by
the Grace of GoD, of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and of the colonies and depen-
dencies thereof in Europe, Asia, Africa, America,
and Australasia, QUEEN, Defender of the Faith." Cer-
tainly one of the sublimest titles of sovereignty of
which history in ancient or modern times hath re-
cord a title before which the one indicative of
the fabled empire of the world, won by the
sword of ALEXANDER, pales to insignifi-
cance a designation worthy of implying
the wielder of the sceptre having authority over an
empire on which literally and not merely figura-
tively the sun never sets. And the QUEEN REGNANT
of this sublime and awful dominion, it is even espe-
cially worthy of remark, holds her own as the chief
neither of an autocracy nor of an oligarchy, but of
a purely representative and constitutional Govern-
ment. Her sceptre is typical more truly of an olive
rod than of a rod of iron under its outward seeming
of gold encrusted with jewels. Her diadem presses

more lightly upon her fair brow than those
weightier baubles worn in the old feudal days of
despotism, and of which alone it was that ono
great national poet sang with so much pathetic
significance—

" Happy low lie down, -
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

In the very preamble of this ever-memorable pro.

clamation of VICTORIA to the Princes and People
of India, her Britannic MAJESTY intimates clearly
enough, though quite incidentally, the source of her
own pacific sway, the pledge to her vast empire of
its security and tranquillity. • It is when imme-
diately after the stately array of the superb titles of
her sovereignty, the QUEEN observes that " where-
as, for divers weighty reasons, we have resolved'
by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spi-
ritual and Temporal AND COMMONS in Parliament
assembled, to take upon ourselves the Government
of the territories in India," &c. A Proclamation
so headed, so introduced headed by titles of
sovereignty extending far and wide over all the
four quarters of the globe, introduced by words
illustrative-of the broad basis upon which the
colossal superstructure of that stupendous empire

has been raised, the combined energies of the whole
of the great Anglo-Saxon race—can hardly fail to
impress what is in itself so very impressionable,
namely, the Oriental imagination. The Proclama-
tion, moreover, will have come before the Hindoo
subjects of Queen VICTORIA at a moment in the his-
tory of British Rule in India when the vigour of
that rule had been most distinctly and emphatically
manifested. Hence the haughty syllables in which
the crushing out of the late Sepoy revolt is briefly
referred to in the
,Proclamation, when VICTORIA,
after showing to the Princes and People
of India " Our power has been shown by the
suppression of that rebellion in the field,"
adds, "we desire to show our mercy by par-
doning the offences of those who have been

thus misled, but who desire to return to the pai

of duty." And happily, at this critical epoch in
the annals of our Anglo-Indian rule in Hindostan,
the man chosen by her Britannic MAJESTY to be
the first Viceroy and Governor-General of India
under the new (royal) organisation of her Asiatic
dominions, is a statesman whose benignant policy
in India has long won for him in that sense the
honourable soubriquet of " Clemency CANNING."
The policy towards India enunciated in the Royal
Proclamation signifies mainly, if not entirely, a
solemn message of peace and goodwill to the whole
Asiatic population. The SOVEREIGN repudiates
any design for the future aggrandisement of her
dominions. "We desire no extension of our pre•
sent territorial possessions," says the Proclamation.
Those possessions have, within the compass of a
single century, expanded from an insignificant
mercantile settlement into a gigantic empire,
peopled by races numbering a vast total of from
100,000,000 to 200,000,000. Henceforth the con-
quests of Britain in this quarter of the world need
only be pacific—conquests over the soil, and over
the minds and hearts of the community. Reticu-
late the country with:an iron network of railways,
thread it from end to end with a magic maze of
electric wires, systematise its irrigation, ad-
minister the laws with justice, encourage
education among all classes, facilitate by every
possible means the diffusion of art, science, and
litercture, and be sure that we shall not only, by
so doing, strengthen our dominion in Asia, but indi-
rectly among the Pagan multitude of Hindostan
render civilisation the pioneer of Christianity.

What is the necessity for gold as a circulating
medium P Simply to adjust the balances on foreign
accounts ; to pay to, or receive from, other nations
the amounts that may be due for goods in excess
of what the indebted nation may have supplied to
the other. It is not all required for domestic use.
In fact, as the Times admitted some years since,
" The internal commerce of the country could be
carried on without a single ounce of gold. A
deposit of Consols, or the fact that the notes would
be received in payment of taxation, would render
them universally acceptable." For the supposed
benefit of our foreign trade, then, it is that all the
crushing restrictions are imposed, which, by perio-
dically producing an artificial scarcity of gold,
sesthe energies of the industrial population
paraofthley country, suspends production, and converts
the creators of national wealth into unprofitable
consumers. In order that gold should be kept
available, it is rendered the only circulating
medium for sums under £5 sterling, and fifty to
sixty millions of sovereigns are required for the
adjustment of everyday life, and thus deiverted
from their original purpose, for which they would
be really valuable.
Never was there such a waste of power. Notes,
of small and convenient denominations, would

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