The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-03 00:00:00

"SUN" MAP OF CHINA.

x. 74 SUN ()FLUOR, 112, STRAND.
On Wednesday, the 10th of February, we
shall print an Outline 11cflp of China in The Sun.
The capture of Canton may be expected by the
next mail from China, so that our readers will
see the contiguous position of surrounding
places.

Orders received by all news-agents, and at The
Run Office, 112, Strand. Price only 4d., stamped
&d. by post free.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tat•' DAT—Morn., 11 min. aft. 5 —Even., 27 min. aft. 5
To-Moimovr—Morn., 45 rain. aft. s—Even., 2 min. aft. G

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, FEBRUARY 3.
TRAMMOMETER, IN THE SELMA.
40—highest since noon yesterdaT.
39--lowest this morning and during the night.
45—this day at noon.
BAROMETER. 29.83.
WIND, S. W. ; rather fresh. Yesterday a heavy fall of
now—to-day, thaw, and plenty of slush.

111

of much value. Unless nations and Governments 1.
feel that their interests draw them together, and
are favourable to friendly relations, they will not
be influenced by matrimonial connections.
" England has no cousins," and it would be well
for her if she never had any.. Hanover was
decided by a dainn,osa hereditas. The first
Gror.eiEs looked far more to the welfare of their
German territories than of their British dominions.
Their favourites, male and female, were selected from
their fatherland, and England was involved in many
difficulties and embarrassments from their very
decided predilections. In every matrimonia
alliance that has since taken place, the balance
has decidedly turned against this counlry. We
defy the most unblushing toady to point out a
single instance in which we received a single
benefit from any royal marriage since the acces-
sion of the House of Brunswick----indeed, we
believe we may extend the period to the so-called
Conquest, and the accession of the first William.

e again refer to the fate of the children of
George 111., the uncles and aunts of Queen
VICTORIA. What misery was entailed on that
promising and numerous family by the provisions
of the Royal Marriage Act; and what scandals
were occasioned in consequence ? " The Bill of
Pains =id Penalties,' the onslaught against
Queen CAROLINE, showed the impropriety of
looking only to the joinder of hands where
the feelings of the heart were disregarded.
The public sympathies were strongly enlisted
in favour of the unfortunate "bride of a night,"
where the union did not continue during even the
conventional honeyrn,qon. We shall say nothing
of the marriage of the Duke of YORK. Although
no issue resulted therefrom, there was at least
some reason to anticipate that it resulted from
affection. But the other sons eschewed matri-
mony until the death of the Princess CHARLOTTE
created a necessity for heirs to the throne, and
extraordinary inducements were held out to per-
suade them to take partners. One of the number
—the Duke of SUSSEX—to his honour be it
spoken, steadily refused to contract fresh nuptials
during the lifetime of the amiable, virtuous,
and high-born lady to whom he had been
united by a marriage valid in the sight of
GOD, if not in that of man, and, be it said,
with a deep regret that embittered his existence,
his truly noble children deprived of the inheri
tance and position to which they were justly
entitled. Here, then, were all the males of that
fine family, with scarcely an exception, deprived
of the freedom and independence, which, oven the
most humble of their fellow-subjects, enjoyed, in
a matter on which their happiness in this world
at least mainly depended.
The condition of the Princesses was still worse
Some were married. The aged and widowed
King of WURTE3IBURG accepted the hand of the
then PRINCESS ROYAL; the reigning Sovereign of
HESSE took another ; and the Duke of GLOUCESTER
a third, while the others were compelled to con-
tent themselves with private marriages, which
although they might have satisfied " moral"
obligations, were not recognised by the State, and
gave no legitimate protection to their offspring.
Surely it is time that the system which
le'l 0 such unfruinnatc results in one generation
should be altered before a new race are sacrificed
at the same shrine.

It is public opinion in this country that is to be
regarded, and we have no hesitation in saying
that there would not be the less devotion or
loyalty to the Sovereign or Royal family of
Great Britain, if there were a larger infusion of
English blood in their veins. Nor do we sup-
pose that Continental despots would slight the
English alliance, because we had thought proper
to break through the rules which they had es-
tablished for their own purposes, and to keep up
the system of kingeraft in its least eligible as-
pects.

Now that we have got through all the stir
and ceremony of the Royal Marriage, we find

ourselves immediately upon the eve of the re-as-
sembling of Parliament. It behoves every think-
ing man amongst us, therefore, to reflect at once
upon what are among the chief difficulties which will
have to be brought forthwith under the considera-
tion of both Houses of the Imperial Legislature.
Foremost among all, of course, are the anxieties
originated, on the one hand, by the Bengal Mutiny,
and on the other, by the Monetary Crisis, arisit.E4
out of simultaneous commercial failures in Eng-
land, in Scotland, and on the opposite shores of
the Atlantic. Hence will the Lords and Com-
mons propound to themselves without delay the
enquiries--How is the currency hereafter to be
regulated ? How is India henceforth to be
governed Y There will be, of course, the custo••
mary old Parliamentary evasion or "put off"—a
Committee. An Indian committee will take in
hand the future of JOHN COMPANY. A Currency
Committee will ring the changes yet again upon
all the stock platitudes with which JONES LOYD
—we beg his lordship's pardon with which Baron ,

OYERSTONE—and his compeers have long s'r -;e
familiarised us. The latter " dodge," in fact, is

already un fltit accompli. Insoef.uch that we have
a tolerably fair prospect of finding the s3ssion of
1858 slip by fruitlessly in this matter by means
of one adroit delay upon another until the season
for grouse-shooting has come on, when members
will have to lay down their blue-books, or to put
up with the blue devils, to fling aside their Han-
sard and take to their Manton. The same fear-
ful possibility threate*s us obviously in regard to
the no less vital question of our sway in Hindos.
tan. A Parliamentary Committee, the mere dread
of a Parliamentary Committee is in this way to
the nation, as the hair-su3pended swortlabove the
head of DAMOCLES. We can hardly "fall to" at the
legislative banquet, through a perpetual terror of it.
It tends so often to make that political feast the
mere feast of the Barmi?.ides. It so often happens
to JOHN BULL, as it happened once upon a t me to
SANCHO PANZA, that—with au appetite whetted
to the finest edge imaginable—the dish (often, as
it happens, one to set before a king) is whlbked
away from him in a very twinkling by the t wand
of Doctor PEDRO REZIO —the beck of one of those
tantalising Parliamentary committees. Honest
JOHN' plays oftener than ho list; the starved and
hungering Governor of Barataria—famishing in
the midst of plenty, at the whim of some one
among his innumerable Quack Physicians.

According to Parliamentary slang at
least
(this must, under every circumstance, be some
consolation to us) the Currency Question' and the
Indian Question, will in this way, (luring the
present session, be ventilated.
Something more, however, than the mere yen-
tila"tiou of the Reform Question must tend to
console the country at large for many probably
disappointments. In regard to that one question
the Prime Minister is personally pledged to the
people and to the Parliament. And what is more,
that solemn promise of his has been very recently
and quite Voluntarily reiterated. There is no
pretext for further procrastination. The Bill—is
over due. The liabilities of the First Lord of
the Treasury in this matter require to be speedily
and satisfactorily liquidated. It is a debt of
Honour. That, in truth, is perhaps our chief
security
in regard to it. That is the principal

our belief, that upon this head, at
; may, to a very considerable extent,
ilastsbueeritefi: our justification
hopen of
realised. M -9. re, however, than many imagine
depends, in refe.renc,l to all such hopes, upon the
Opposition than upon the Government. It should
be remembered, howbe 'it, in our complex system,
that the Opposition i. 2 reality constitutes the
motive power of the A cluiinistration. It is this
which is the secret of so many undeniable advan-
tages having resulted to, the nation from the con-
flict of parties. The fear of the Opposition has
been the incitement of the Government. In tes-
timony of this, it is altogether undeniable that we
have never had such indolent Governments as
when we have had weak and powerless Oppositions.
Hence it is come to be almost a political axiom,
that a strong Opposition makes an active and
energetic Government. All this being, of course,
simply the result, in one word, of wholesome
—competition. It is not unreasonable, therefore,
to look for further advantages arising out of
wholesome competition of this kind between Con-
servative-Liberal, and Liberal-Conservatives.

THE ILLUSTRATED NEWS OF THE

WORLD.

Under this title we have been favoured with a
specimen number of a new paper, which is
to appear on Saturday next, and if the forth-
coming weekly publications be one half as
beautiful and promising as this specimen, it
will be a work rich 'in art and admirable in
execution. Here we have St. James's Palace, the
scene of recent grandeur and of Court ceremonials.
Then a bird's-eye view of Windsor Castle, splen-
didly delineated with its parks and gorgeous trees
—Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey
casting its "dim religious light" over the Sunday
evening services of the pious worshippers.
Again we are treated with Balmoral Castle and
its Highland scenery; facing which, by way of con-
trast, picturesquely illustrated, is Osborne House,
rearing its homely front to the broad waters of the
vasty deep—and then a fanciful sketch of dreams
of the Past, where

" Youth, age, and infancy lie."
very poetically pourtrayed with the motto of
"Peace on earth, and good will to men." Alto-
gether it is the most promising specimen of a first
number we have ever seen, and the price is only
fo u rpencel