The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-19 00:00:00

NORNER.
Clotaracace at 7.

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee—Mr. J. B. Buckstone.

THIS EVENING, to commence at Seven o'clock, with
TWICE KILLED. Mr. and Mrs. Keeley.
After which, a new comic Christmas Pantomime, entitled
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOOD ; or, Harle-
quin and the Spiteful Fairy. Harlequin, Mr. A. Leclercq ;
Columbine, Miss Fanny Wright ; Pantaloon, Mr. Mackay ;
Clown, Mr. Charles Leclercq.
To conclude with the comedy of THE IRISH AMBASSA.
DOR. Sir Patrick O'Pleaipo, Mr. Hudson.
Orchestra Stalls (which may be retained the whole of the
evening), 6s. each. (No charge for booking.)
First Price. e. d. Second price. s. d
Dress Boxes 5 Dress Boxes 3 0
Upper Boxes
3 0 Upper Boxes 2 0
Pit 2 o,Pit 1 0
Gallery
1 OlGallery 0 6

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Proprietor, Mr. Charles Kean.
THIS EVENING, will be performed Skakspere's Tragedy
of HAMLET. Hamlet, Mr. Chas. Kean; Gertrude, Mrs. C.
Kean.
After which, a now grand comic Christmas Pantomime
entitled HARLEQUIN WHITE CAT; or, The Princess
Blanche Flower and her Fairy Godmothers. The Princess
Blanche (White Cat), Miss Kate Terry ; Harlequin, Mr. Cor-
snack ; Clown, Mr. Huline; Pantaloon, Mr. Paulo ; and
Columbine, Miss C. Adams.

THEATRE ROYAL, AD EL PHI.
Lessee—Mr. Ben. Webster.
THIS EVENING, will be performed THE FAIRY
CIRCLE. Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams.
After which, YANKEE COURTSHIP.
To conclude with LATEST FROM NEW YORK.
Commence at Seven.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.—SoIe Lessee
and Manager, Mr. C. Dillon.—

THIS EVENING, WILD OATS. Rover, Mr. Charles
Dillon. _

After which, a domestic tale, by Westland Mar3ton, en.
titled A HARD STRUGGLE. Mr. C. Dillon, dtc.
To conclude with the Burlesque and Pantomime, LALLAH
ROOKH, and the PRINCESS, the PERI, and the TROU-
BADOUR ; or, Harlequin and the Ghebers of the Desert.
Supported by Mesdames Charles Dillon, Buckingham White,
Eliza Webb, Maria Ternan, Esther Jacobs, and Woolgar ;
Messrs. Barrett, Calhaem, Holston, Poynter, and J. L.
Toole. Clowns, Messrs. T. Matthews and R. Stilt ;
Harlequin, Mr. J. Ricketts; Pantaloon, Mr. A. Stilt ; Sprites,
Herr Zaleski and Sons ; Columbines, Misses Malcolm and
Lees. Gorgeous Feast of Lanterns.—Fenton's Grand Trans-
formation Scene.
Doors open at half-past 6, to commence at 7.
Boz•office open from II to 5 daily.

STRAND THEATRE.—Lessee, Mr. T. Payne.
Under the management of Mr. W, H.
Swanborongh.

THIS EVENING, 3d night of a new Drama, adapted
from a work of Mr. Charles Dickens, entitled SILVER
STORE ISLAND; or, Perils of Certain English Priseners.
Supported by Messrs. H. J. Turner, Bolton, Howard, Dean,
Van Buren, dtc.; Misses Portman, Hastings, Victor.
To be followed by the highly successful Burlesque of THE
LADY OF LYONS; or, Twopenny Pride and Peany-tence.
Characters by Messrs. Gomersal, Bolton, Howard, Swan-
borough; Misses Victor and Tempest.
To conclude with the screaming Farce of A WOMAN
IN MY DUST HOLE. Messrs. L. Buckingham, Turner,
and Miss Craven.

Commence at Seven.
Boxes, 25.; Stalls, 3s. ; Pit, ls. ; Gallery 6d. Hal f-
price at Nine, Commence at Seven.

vED OYAL SURREY THEATRE.
IV Lessees, Messrs. Shepherd and Creswick.

THIS EVENING, will be performed an original English
Play, RIGHT AND WRONG.

After which, QUEEN MAB ; or riarlecoin Romeo and
Julliet. Clown, by the Surrey Buck ; Pantaloon, Mr. Brad.
bury.

CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.—
OPEN EVERY EVENING.—The follow-
ing company of Vocalists are engaged for the performance of
Sdections from all the popular OPERAS, MADRIGALS,
CHORUSES, GLEES, DUETS, dic., viz.:—Miss Russell,
Mrs. l3adzer, Madlle. Marietta, Miss Bruncll, Miss Ray,
Madame Bartoletti, Miss Montague, and; Madame Marietta ;
Harr F. Jonghmans, Mr. Henshaw, S. Jones, J.
Barker, W. Melling, Senor Antonio, E. L. Rime, Mr.
Badgey, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Bell, and Mr. Bernard; Messrs.
T. 3faclaga.n, W. T. Critchfield and E. Mackney. Piano-
forte, Mr. Cecil Hicks ; harmonium, Master Williams
Director, Herr F. Jonghmans. Commence at Seven o'clock
precisely. Suppers, dre., until twelve o'clock.
Mr. AUGUSTUS BRAHAM will appear every Evening.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Taxi DAY—Morn., 16 min. aft. s—Even., 35 min, aft. 5
TO•MOBBOW —Morn., 54 min. aft. 5 —Even., 14 min. aft. 6

abolished, and that henceforward the electors
should be only fundholders, possessed of a certain
amount of consols. The proposition would be
hailed with a universal shout of derision, and
yet it would be more rational than that India
should be handed over to the tender mercies
of the proprietors of 6,000,000/. of India Stock.
As we have already stated, the chief, if not the
only, objection to the measure is, that it does not
go far enough, that in place of rescuing the Anglo-
Indian empire from the hands of the Civil Ser-
vice, and throwing it open to every British citizen,
it perpetuates their ascendancy. The most flagrant
of the many grievances of which the natives had
to complain was the defective administration of
justice. Men who made bad diplomatists or in•
efficient collectors were pitchforked on to the
judicial bench, as if any dunderhead could
answer for that position. A knowledge of
law, or acquaintance with practice, was
totally uncalled for. A man who had
never witnessed forensic proceedings, in any
shape or form, might be called on at a moment's
notice to decide difficult questions affecting, if not
the lives, at all events the liberties and prospects,
of his fellow•subjecta. And yet no step has been
taken to remedy this terrible evil. The local
judges of India must still be selected from the
covenanted servants of the Company. No other
person, however great his knowledge of law, or
vast his experience, could obtain a seat on one of
the provincial benches. Should Lord ST. LEONAItDS
himself be willing to preside at one of the inferior
courts, he could not be appointed, owing to the
system which is still to be maintained with una-
bated force.

But, notwithstanding this grave omission, the
mik:are has good points, and will be a decided
improvement on the existing system. It unques-
tionably establishes Ministerial responsibility to
Parliament, and when that has been obtained
other ameliorations will follow in the due course
of events. It may be regaided as a large instal-
ment of justice, if not conceding all that the
people of India could reasonably demand or
require.

The Passport system was always sufficiently
obstructive. It offered a formidable impediment
to parties desirous of taking advantage of a brief
holiday, by making short excursions for business
or pleasure into France. It was not merely the
numerous petty extortions incidental thereto,
the necessity of employing Commissionaires
and paying fees to consular agents ;
but the delay . and procrastination, that
' constituted the chief grievance. It was true that
everything was done to alleviate the evil. A
traveller might obtain the necessary document
either at the port of debarkation, or wherever he
landed in France ; or, if he intended a mere flying
visit, it might altogether be dispensed with.
There could be no greater danger in permitting
any person to land at Calais or Boulogne, with the
understanding that if he intended to go into
the interior, he should before proceeding provide
himself with the requisite document.
But now all this is changed. A new regulation
has been established, which will render the pre-
vious annoyance absolutely intolerable, and put a
total stop to all brief visits to the other side of
the Channel. Before a British subject can even
land on the sacred soil or sand, he must
not only be armed with a passport from
the Foreign-office, but must have it v ised
in London. No one can therefore cross even from
I Dover to Calais for a few hour. without first com-
ing to London, procuring his recommendation,
and then retracing his footsteps to the point
from whence he is to start for the land of promise.
No matter whether friend or relative were pros-
trated by disease, and anxiously awaiting an in-
terview ; whether serious losses must be incurred
from the want of immediate action, there must still
be a delay of at least two or three days, the pay-
ment of 65. to the Foreign-office, and the expenses
of two or three days' sojourn in London. It mat-
ters not that no real protection can lae afforded
thereby, that no conspirator could be kept out by
so paltry an obstacle. It is sufficient that it is an
annoyance to the great body of the English people,
and that gratifies the petty spite of the officials,
1 if not of the EltrEitoß himself.

The records of the police afford daily evidence
of the magnitude of the evil. But yesterday, a
gentleman, from Brighton, complained at the
Guildhall that he had been compelled to come
from Newhaven to London, at a cost of 21., in
order to :obtain the necessary recommendation.
This outlay will be more than doubled by the
expenses during his sojourn at an hotel, while
awaiting the magical documents ! This is but
one of a thousand of similar transactions.
The result will necessarilly be to limit
the intercourse that previously subsisted
between the peoples of England and France, and
of course to diminish the cordiality mutually
entertained. It may have one effect to which we
shall offer no objection. It may prevent parents
from sending their children to be educated in
French seminaries or French convents, to the
imminent danger of their religious principles ; or
it may make intending tourists content themselves
with a visit to the magnificent scenery of the Bri-
tish Isles, and save them from the exactions of
French hotel-keepers. Henceforward a brief
trip to France will be attended with almost as
many difficulties as a visit to Timbuctoo,
or to the interior of Japan, and the adventurous
traveller who details his experiences in the
upper town of Boulogne or on the ram-
parts of Calais, will be regarded as a rival to Dr.
LITINGSTONE-a would-be successor to MuNGO
PA.RIC. Far better that the system of exclusion
should be rendered perfect, and that French
ground should be tabooed to the people of Great
Britain. The restrictions will unquestionably be
very vexatious, but they place the parties impli-
cated in a very ridiculous position, showing the

length to which nervous apprehensions may
carry persons •nce supposed to be possessed of
sound judgment and masculine courage.
The second reading of the Conspiracy Bill stands

for this evening. The new regulations will, of
course, render that unpopular measure totally un-
necessary and uncalled for. We may, therefore,
anticipate its summary and decisive rejection by
the popular branch of the Legislature.

Ministers have been beaten, that's the plain
fact. Well did they deserve it. Lord PALMER-
3TON had the folly to play off his jokes and smiles,
but a few weeks ago, with a large and respectable
deputation of earnest men, who left their homes in
the country, and their business everywhere, to lay
seriously before him their complaints of the
Church-rate grieTance. They, of course, left
disgusted, and though too polite to tell his lord-
ship so in his own house, they adjourned to the
Thatched House Tavern, and told their friends all
over the country what they thought of the
Minister and his reply. They urged energetic
action on Church-rate Abolitionists, since the
Premier's shifts and evasions made it plain that
ciu
if en
we ee
they must rely on themselves.
.Doubtless hon.
from their constituents ;
members have had many
alnetdteztsheir
result,
consequence
giyg it in the Board of Trade style, stands thus ;

The abolitionists in 1853 were in a minority of
48. In 1854 in a minority of 27. In 1855 they
had a majority of 28. In 1856 a majority of
43, and this year they had a majority of 53, and
that in a house of 373 members.
Lord PALMERSTON, as his wont is on unpopular
topics (unless indeed the topic happen to be some
piece of complaisance to foreign despots), held his
tongue—indeed, kept out of the way—and Sir
GEORGE GREY and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
joined to lead the forlorn hope of religious oppres-
sion,
on the part of the Government. Their
trick was a promising one ; and but for it they
would have had most certainly a much severer
drubbing. They renewed their promise of a
Government Bill as soon as they saw it to be cer-
tain that a bill there would be ; the opposition of
towns where rates have been long practically
abolished, was bought off by promising that they
should be declared legally abolished ; dissenters
elsewhere might escape payment by a declaration
before a magistrate that they were not members
of the Church of England ; power might be given
to churchwardens to assess a small rent on pews,
and landlords might be permitted to charge their
estates with a rent-charge in lieu of rates. If
the house, said Sir GEORGE GREY, would but
reject total abolition for these proposals, he would
embody them in a bill, and bring it in himself.
The House, however, preferred total abolition,
and rejected the paltry offers of Government,
which has thus incurred a signal defeat from its
own supporters. This game cannot be safely re-
peated. The degrading Conspiracy Bill, though
admitted to a first reading, was suffered to be read
at all, only because its rejection at this stage would
have been a positive insult to the Government, or
a vote of no confidence, and parties were hardly
prepared just theia for a Ministerial crisis. Lord
PALMERRTON'S Liberal supporters, however, must
inwardly have resented being dragged through the
dirt by their own leader and the Torie. How
long is this to last ? Is it to be the rule in this
Parliament, too, that Lord PALMERSTON is to be
sure only of the little maudlin band of Conserva-
tive Liberals and Liberal Conservatives, and that
he is to beat now the Tories by the help of the
Liberals, now the Liberals by the help of the
Tories ? If there be one thing to which Liberal
Members pledged themselves more than another
at the last election it was to the abolition of
Church-rates, Hardly any one ventured, or pro-
bably wished, to oppose the almost universal wish
on that subject.

As to the debate itself, novelty of argument or
illustration was not to be expected. The tirade
of the hon. Member for West Surrey, and apostle,
we believe, of th© Irvingite Church, was, as usual,
amusing enough ; having learned in the school of
the great Scotch prophet, he ventured to pro-
phesy, of course, in sackcloth, that the days ofthe
Church of England were numbered. He de-
nounced the Lords' decision in the BRAINTREE
case as scandalous, and contrary to law and equity !
He called for a bill to do away with the Establish-
ment altogether, rather than a " petty larcenous"
measure like this ; and ended by putting the
churches of the land on a level with Buckingham
Palace and the British Museum ! They were all
national buildings. Perhaps, therefore, Fie will
vote, ere long, for opening all national buildings
to the public on the Sunday. We grant, too,
that the parish churches are national, and not
church, property, but our inference is that the
tenants who have them on such marvellously easy
terms are bound:to keep them in repair, and ready
to be restored to the landlord at any time in good
condition. Lord STANLEY, as usual, took a manly,
statesmanly, and truly churchmanly view of the
question, and scouted, as every man who cares
about his church must do, the very thought that
the could not raise a few thousand, or even
hundred thousand pounds, to keep her buildings
in repair, General Tuomrsos, though he seconded
Sir JOHN TRELAWNY, went quite off the rails at
the close of his speech ; even suggesting a
land-tax as compensation ! As if there were
no dissenting landowners—and as if a hand-
tax—or at least putting the hand in the pocket,
on the part of the wealthy worshippers would not
much more than suffice. Besides, is a land-owner

like Sir MORTON PETO, who has built several
splendid and well-attended chapels for the Bap-
tista, to have his land taxed for the Church of
England too ?
As to the leading supporters of the odious rate,

they must, we suppose, be numbered with the
iecurables—with the fifty-three who to the last
voted against Free-trade. We used to hear of
Church•rate martyrs, and the men who would
suffer a distraint rather than pay half-a•crown to
the Church dominant were the subjects of the
laugh. They are now, we think, fairly entitled

to laugh at the Church-rata Saints—at those very
pious and devout lords and lay committee-men,
who identify the safety of their estaolishment with
the power to screw shillings and pence from the
oppressed dissenter. If it be little-minded to re-
fuse a little payment because felt to be unjust (a
temper surely somewhat British too), it must be
equally little-minded to insist on the payment.
It is against my conscience to pay, says the Dis-
senter ; it is against my conscience not to make
you pay, says the very Evangelical Churchman.
If, then, Mr. COURTAULD be dubbed martyr, we
ought surely to canonize the devout leaders of the
Laymen's Committee as SAINT SHAFTESBURY and
SAINT CECIL. We would advise convocation,

the next time it assembles for a talk, to chat over

the subject. Why should not the " unco gude"
Churchmen, who fight the battle of Church-rate
pence against the House of Commons and that
half of the nation which pays for its own worship—
why should they not be rewarded with a kind of
ecclesiastical VICTORIA crosa? The courage which
will insist on it that it is a hardship on the wil-

ling vestries hot to be permitted to force them-
selves to pay, and that it is no hardship on Dis-
senters to be made to pay, however unwilling—
the courage which can do this, deserves to be im-

mortalised, and its memory handed down to pos-
terity, prefixing or affixing the initial 3 C. R. ST.

HER MAJESTY'►S LEVEE.

Her Majesty the Queen held a levee, the first this
season, yesterday afternoon, in St. James's Palace.
At the levee Lieut.-Col, W. Tophaus, the Lieutenant
of her Majesty's Hon. Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, was
presented to the Queen by Lord Foley, when her Majesty
was graciously pleased to confer upon him the honour of
knighthood.
Major-General Travell Phillips, the Lieutenant of her
Majesty's Yeomen of the Guard, was presented to the
Queen by the Marquis of Breadalbane, when her
Majesty was graciously pleased to confer upon him the
honour of knighthood.
The Hon. George Deus (Lord Deas) one of the Judges
of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, had the honour of
knighthood conferred upon him by the Queen.
Mr. Andrew Orr, late Lord Provost of Glasgow, was
presented by Sir G. Grey, and received from her
Majesty the honour of Knighthood.
William Montagu Manning, LL.D., from Australia,
was presented to the Queen by Mr. Secretary Labot •
chere, when her Majesty was graciously pleased to confer
upon him the honour of Knighthood.

lish the following notice :—" Foreign-office, Feb. 18,
PASSPORTS FOR FaltiCE, —We are requested to pub•
1858.—Her Majesty's Ambassador at P,,ris having, in
pursuance of instructions from the Earl of Clarendon,
inquired of the French Government whether British
subjects will be permitted to land in France without
passports when they have no intention of proceeding
into the interior ; and also whether her Majesty's con-
i hout a passport, nor will a
atulo will have power to grant passports to ouch persons
informed
oiproceed Paris or elsewhere; his Excellency has been
n 0
00rmed by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs that
w tpersou whatever will lei permitted to laud in France
any one who maconsul's
y have landed • passport given to
i . uhied.. without ono be recog