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

IFIE

of much value. Unless nations and Governments
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
Hanover was
for her if she never had any.
decided by a damnosa hereditus. The first
GEORGES looked far more to the welfare of their
German territories than of their British dominions.
Their favourites, male andfemale, were selected from
their fatherland, and England was involved in many
difficulties and embarrassments from their very
decided predilections. In ev cry matrimonia
alliance that has since taken place, the balance
has decidedly turned against this country. We
defy the most unblushing toady to point out a
single instance in which Yfe received a single
benefit from any royal marriage since the acces-
Sion of the Home of Brunswic.k—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 chill ken of
George 111., the uncles and aunts of Qusen
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 and 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 honeymoon. 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--40 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 slid,
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 even 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 WURTEMBURO 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
led to such unfortunate results in one generation
should be altered before a new rac# 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 despote 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 kingcraft 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, arising
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 4 How is India henceforth to be
governed ? 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 JoffN CJMPANY. 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
OTERSTONE—and his compeers have long s'r
familiarised us. The latter " dodge," in fact, is
already gun fait acaompli. Insomuch that we have
a tolerably fair prospect of finding the session 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 Elan-
sard and take to their Manton. The same fear-
ful possibility threatens 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-suspended sword above the
head of DanoceEs. 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 Barmi3ides. It so often happens
to JOHN BULL, as it happened once upon a tame to
SANCHO PANZA, that—with an appetite whetted
to the finest edge imaginable—the dish (often, as
it happens, one to set before a king) is whisked
away from him in a very twinkling by that wand
of Doctor PEDRO REZlO—the beck.of one' of those
tantalising Parliamentary committees. Honest
JOHN plays oftener than he lists 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 t) Parliamentary slang at least
(this
must, under every circumstance, be some
consolation to us) the Currency Question, and the
gl will
in this way, during the
estion
present session, be ventillted.
Indian
Something more, however, than the mere yen.
tila.tion of the 11,,f ofra Qqesa •
At that console the country at large 'dun must tend to
;en; probable
one question
the Prime Minister is personally
for
disappointments. In regard
people and to the Parliaaerndtt.o pledged to the
that solemn promise of his has bee Ais more,
beers recently
and quite voluntarily reiterated. There is 110
pretext for further procrastination. The

over due. The liabilities of the First Lord o!

tho 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 Ole principal