The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-29 00:00:00

altogether insarutable and impenetrable. It will
then be rem embered, not without an enduring

sense of surpri Ri and admiration, how so small a
force of Allied Englishmen and Frenchmen marched

from the shores of: the Gulf of Pecheli—pausing
but for a brief interval at Tie*-tsin—marched
directly, during the autumn of 1860, upon that
world-famous C ity of Pekin, that had never before,
in the annals of the human race, been approached
by a force of armed Europeans ! It will continue to
be borne in recollection generations hence with
wonder, and not 'without gratification, how that
little army of Analo-French warriors routed upon
their march again and again, apparently over-
whelming masses of the Tartar cavalry, led by
their most redoubtable leader the Prince SAN-KO-
LIN.SIN, the Chinese Generalissimo. How at their
nearer and nearer approach to the hitherto inviolable
capital of the Empire, the reigning EMPEROR over
four hundred million Chinese fled in terror from
his palace of luxuries, fled panic stricken with the
remnant of his defeated armies far away beyond
the frontiers of China Proper, into the savage wilds
of Tartary. Then will be read with hardly less
profound emotion, with hardly less eager curiosity
than that felt by ourselves the living contempo-
raries of the events related in them, those enthral-
ling records of Tartar craft and Tartar cruelty—
penned by the few fortunate survivors from among
the number of the little band of European pri-
soners infamously entrapped by these Asiatic
barbarians, the boasted conservators of a purely

and the minor provi t ices of the empire, have not
been backward to pci int it out, and to decline to
move in the path to hich they were invited. The
circumstances of the b . our might make all tempo-
rarily pretty safe, but the circumstances of some
future hour might show that confidence was weak-
ness and ruin. We have now the full text before
us of the circular of the new Minister of the Interior,
Baron SCHMERLING, and what shall we say to it ?
It seems ungenerous to be f©r ever distrusting. Its
spirit is unquestionably a great advance upon that
of the former documents which have appeared since
the battle of Solferino ; but if we think of it in
comparison with anything which could be thought
of before that event, it looks alto if "a change had
indeed come over the spirit of the dream" in
Austria. The Revolution, so far as it has gone in
Italy, is really not more wonderful than the issue
of such a manifesto as that which has just been
publishid by the Government of Austria.

THE t. SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING;

which Austria was one province ; and a strong
and free Hungary, to which all the eastern pro-
vinces would rally.
There can be little doubt that Baron SCHMER-
LING is very much hampered in his action by such
a colleague as Count ItICHSBERG and others; but
what he has offered both in regard to political con-
cessions and the public administration of justice, is
so much that he is entitled to say that " A long
distance will have been travelled in the path of
political progress when the things which at this
moment I recommend to your attention shall have
been carried into effect—shall have become part of
the people's habits." It will be so, but there will
be a long distance to travel still. Trial by jury,
and possibly a Habeas Corpus Act, are not part of
the programme, though the latter appears to be
pointed at in one passage. Publicity in trials and
oral examinations are great advances; but, when
we think of a genuine patriot in the hands of
Austrian judges, we feel the unspeakable value of
an institution which compels the Crown to submit
to the judgment of his peers the question of a
man's innocence or guilt.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge
has been pleased to appoint Captain Wm. P. Cust to be one
of her royal highness's equerries.

The Duke and Duchess of Argyll have been
unable to meet at Trentham this Christmas, owing to the
Duchess being confined by a severe cold at Roseneath
D umbartenshire.

The Earl and Countess of Warwick and family,
who came to town for a few days since from Warwick Cas-
tle, leave shortly for Torquay.
The marriage of Lord Delainere with Miss
Augusta Seymour, daughter of Sir Hamilton Seymour, was
solemnised on Thursday, at St. James's, by the Rev. Pitt
Cholmondeley.

ST. JAMES'S HALL.—Ths Buckley Serenaders
well maintain their ground, and on Wednesday were hon-
oured with overflowing audiences. Anna Maria Jones ap-
pears to be an immense favourite, whilst " A little more
Cyder" brings down a perfect hurricane of applause. Mr.
G. Buckley is the best bones we have ever seen, and his
solo from the opera of" Zampa" must be heard to be appre-
ciated. The entertainment is brought to a close by a plan-
tation festival dance entitled " Dixies' Land," the comica-
lities of which are irresistible, and the audiences never leave
excepting in the best of humour.
SIMIOUS CASE OF STABBING.—On Thursday
night two men, engaged in a cab-yard at Kennington,
quarrelled whilst in a state of intoxication, when one of the
men, named Nash, stabbed the other in the neck. The
wounded man was conveyed to St. Thomas's Hospital,'
where he now lies in a very dangerous state.
SNOW-BALLING.—A gentleman named Carley,
residing at Albany-street, Clerkenwell, was so violently
assaulted by snowballs that a fall ensued, and his collar.
bone was broken. One of the offenders, named Woodhouse,
_ _ _