The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

Commence at 7 o'clock.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
. Westminster-road.
Sole Lessee, Mr. William Cooke.
The New Tariff :
Dress Circle, 3s. ; Upper Boxes, 2s. ; Pit, is. ; Galleries, 6d.
Great and Extraordinary Sensation produced by the new and
brilliant Decorations—Splendid Act Drop—Magnificent
Chandelier—Appropriate Scenery.
During the week the new and successful drama of
THE BATTLE OF BOTHWELL BRIG.
With -THE SCENES IN THE CIRCLE, comprising the
evolutions and equitations of the first Professors in the world
and their unequalled Stud of Horses.
To conclude with a Farce called FAMILY JARS.
No fee for booking.
Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips.

CNNTERtURY HALL, Westminster-road.--
OPEN EVERT.' EVENING.—The following Company
of Vocalists are engaged for the performance of Selections
from all the popnlar OPERAS, MADRIGALS, CHORUSES,
GLEES, DICETS, &c., viz.:—Miss Russell, Mrs. Badsey,
Miss Brunell, Miss Ray, Madame Bartoletti, Miss Montague,
Mrs. Lawrence, and Mrs. Anderson; Herr F. Jonghmans,
Mr. Renshaw, S Jones, J. Barker, W. Melling, Senor Antonio,
L Hime, Mr. Badsey, Senor Tiroli, Mr. Cozens, Mr. Bell,
Mr. Barnard, and Mr. St. Albyn. Mr. John G. Forde, Mr. E.
Taylor, and E. W. Mackney. Pianoforte, Mr. Cecil Hicks
—Harmonium, Mr. Courtnay -Director, Herr F. Jonghmans.
Commence at 7 precisely. Suppers, &c., until 12 o'clock.

NOTICE.—The Proprietor begs respectfully to announce
that

THE FINE ARTS GALLERY
IS NOW OPEN,
From 11 o'clock am. until 12 o'clock p.m.,
Containing an extensive Collection of Pictures by Ancient
and Modern Masters.

THE WEATHER.-SuN OFFICE, OCT. 30.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
49—highest since noon-yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during the night.
49—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.57.
WIND, North-Easterly; light, with bitter cold weather,

THE SUN.

SATURDAY. OCTOBER 30, 1858.

Nobody must on any account presume, for one
moment, to imagine the possibility of Mr. BRIGHT
ever being in the wrong. That, really and truly,
is the gist of the great speech delivered yesterday
by the gifted and bumptious member for Birming-
ham.

We are not allowed the privilege of according
anything like a mere discriminative admiration to
whatever falls from the oracular lips of our Despotic
Demagogue. We must accept all or nothing.
How, he asks, does any one " dare "—it
is literally his z:pssissimmuni verbum—how shall
any one " dare " to contravene his assertions,
to question the validity of his data, to hesitate
over his deductions as by the remotest chance
being capable, on scrutiny, of proving in any way
inconclusive? He acknowledges himself to stand
astounded at the mere idea of there being any one
department of governmental affairs on which he
is incompetent to offer an opinion to his countrymen.
Now, again, we protest that while we do cor-
dially recognise the abilities, the eloquence,
and the honest sincerity of Mr. BRIGHT, we
cannot consent to his thus perpetually riding
roughshod over the judgment of everybody else in
the land. In spite of his own astonishment and
indignation at the mere conjecture of srch a possi-
bility in any other mind, we do certainly conceive
that even his unquestionably great and brilliant
intellect may just perchance at momenta be devoid
of the attribute of infallibility. It does appear to
us just barely within the limits of probability that
Mr. BRIGHT, being a man and not an archangel, may
peradventure be mistaken--may upon some subject or
another have come to a conclusion slightly erroneous
—may have been reasoning upon premises in a
trifling degree fallacious—may (by the rarest pos-
sibility, of course, but still, we venture to hint, by
a possibility) have formed a wrong idea upon
" one" of the great departments of Government.
If Mr BRIGHT had wings, or a halo, or appeared
horned like MosEs, so that he were constrained to
walk the earth with his face veiled from the gaze
of the vulgar multitude—he might, of course, then,
with some show of reason, look for this implicit
and reverential faith in the wisdom of his utter•
But coming before us, no doubt as a
very gifted man, but still as a man, we
must yet, in spite of his own amazement
and horror at such scarcely conceivable audacity,
venture to‘eall in question the idea of his perfec
infallibility,

antes.

Avowing himself upon every possible opportu-
nity, and under all' circumstances, an advocate of
Pecc2, at any Price, he yet 'expresses himself as
astonished at any man " daring " to accuse him of
being un-English and_ anti-national. Certainly
we do regard him in this particular as to our think-
ing indubitably un-English and anti-national. We
have the consummate audacity to think this, and
to say this. But in the presence of such very
monstrous accusations, Mr. BRIGHT repels them
triumphantly, by appealing to the sentiments
articulated upon the alternative of War and Peace
by the best and most revered of English statesmen.
He goes back a hundred and twenty years to a
period when, he tells us, " Sir ROBERT WALPOLE
declared, speaking of the question of war as affect-
ing this country, that Any peace was better than
the most successful war." That Sir ROBERT
WALPOLE ever gave utterance to any sentiment so
base and so dastardly, we for one cannot find any-
where recorded in the pages of our national
history. It is a monstrous imputation cast
upon the fame of a dead Englishman who
did good service to his country in his
generation—and we challenge Mr. BRIGHT to ad-
duce his authority. We have yet to learn the
occasion upon which Sir ROBERT WALPOLE uttered
a sentiment (we repeat) so base and so dastardly,
as that Any Peace was
better than the most sue."

ful War." Taking for granted, however, that that
sentiment WALPOLE really did utter—because he
uttered it, it would in if-;elf be none the less base
or less dastardly. Itin opinion which we cer-
tainly do regard, by whomsoever it may be uttered,
as entirely nil. En glish and thoroughly anti-national.

When, however, Mr. BRIGHT asserts that the
whole matter resolves itself into the question For or

Against a War Policy, he himself is simply—" beg-
ging" the question. It is nothing of the kind. The
questi° question about a War—and_ not

about a War Policy. Mr., BRIGHT is for Peace at
any Price. We are not. The English, ns a. nation,.
are not. But it does not follow that; titer fore, we
are always for WAR at any Price. The matter in
dispute is whether A War is right or wrong. It
is not, we repeat, a question about a War' Policy
—meaning (or else the phrase has no mean-
ing at all) perpetual pugnacity, a constant
appetite for wholesale slaughter and an un-
limited expenditure of gold and blood. We
thought, and still think, that the war with Russia
was perfectly right and, indeed, necessary under
the circumstances. Mr. BRIGHT repudiates the
notion altogether by the very broad and compre-
hensive declaration that All War is necessarily
wrong under Any ciroumstances. We believe him
to be monstrously in error in arriving at any such
conclusion. We do certainly regard opinions like
those as intensely and entirely un-English and
anti-national. The history of the country declares
it to be so. It is because of this that the little
kingdom ruled by EGBERT has expanded into the
gigantic empire obedient to the sway of VICTORIA.
Mr. BRIGHT'S notion is, that the sceptre of Britain
ought to be transformed into a yard-measure for the
measuring out of so much calico and broadcloth:
Effect this transformation—disband our army, dis-
embody our militia, break up our maritime arma-
ments, spike our cannon, explode all our magazines,
dismantle every one of our fortifications—and we
shall (for the purpose of having them snapped
asunder piecemeal), find we are untying the bundle of
rods making up the fasces of our imperial dominion.
Instead of retaining among us what Mr. BRIGHT
facetiously calls our old friend the Balance of
Power, we shall be precipitating the advent of an-
other old friend, Lord MACAULAY'S hypothetical
New Zealand.;

The intelligence by the Overland Mail from
India is but of little practical importance. It is,
in fact, nothing but a twice-told tale. We
had already heard of the defeat of TANTIA TOPEE
by General MICHELL, and the new mutiny of
the 62d and 69th Regiments. They had long
been disarmed, and were receiving pay, rations,
and allowances for doing nothing. Nay, more,
some European regiments were necessarily kept
as a guard over the disaffected sepoys—so that
the nation was deprived of their valuable ser-
vices, and literally paying twice over to induce the
native troops to maintain neutrality. It was
manifest that such a state of affairs could
not be continued. It was, therefore, decided to
discharge one of the regiments, which had been
proved to be thoroughly imbued with the mutinous
feeling, while another, that was supposed to have
remained faithful and not to be tainted with the
infection, was to have its arms restored and to be
replaced in its original position. Strange to say, the
lenity:with which it was treated caused the out-
break which terminated in the total destruction of
the mutineers. Their suspicions proved their ruin.
In place of accepting thankfully the extraordinary
and unanticipated boon, they fancied that
there must be some treachery • at bottom,
and entered into a deliberate and cold-blooded
plan to seize arms and murder the Europeans at
the station. Their total failure has already been
narrated, and it is believed that not a single man
escaped. A native chief, GHOLAM MUSTAFA KHAN,
closely pursued one of the divisions, and, with his
own followers and the police, completely cut them
off. The fugitives had no aid from the peasantry,
who pursued and hunted them down in every
direction. It is quite clear from this that no depen-
dence can ever again, under any circumstances, be
placed in the high caste soldiers. The tra.hmins
and Rajpoots have shown themselves the deter-
mined enemies of the British rule, and they have
added to that enmity an inconceivable amount of
treachery and ingratitude.
Nothing has since been done in Oude. Lord
CLYDE could not take the field with any regard for
the health of his troops. The rains would prove
far more fatal to Europeans than the weapons of
their enemies. The brief respite has, however,
already expired, and a good account will soon be
rendered of those who still maintain a hopeless and
despairing contest—not with any anticipation of
eventual success, but merely of prolonging their
forfeit lives to the last.
The proclamation announcing the abolition of
the Company's Raj and its transfer to Queen VIC-
TORIA has not yet appeared. It is said that the
new Government is to be inaugurated by general
illuminations and a gorgeous display of fireworks.
We are not generally the advocates of such excep-
tional exhibitions, but they seem to be judicious
in India, where it is of peculiar importance to pro-
duce a great effect on the minds of the natives.
The gorgeousness of the display will be accepted
as proof of the invincible power of the new Go•
vernment.

From Shanghai we hear of the arrival of the

Earl of ELGIN from Japan. It was said that he had

entered into a very satisfactory treaty. As yet no
authentic account of the particulars has been given.
It is, however, positively asserted that it closely

resembles that recently concluded with the United
States. It provides for a resident. Minister at Jeddo,
and the opening of three ports within a year, and
two more at a later period. There is also a treaty of
commerce, by which exports are only to be charged
5 per coat. Imports are to be charged 20 per cent.,

but there are some important exceptions, the chief
of which arc cottons and woollens, in which a
large trade may be developed, and on these
only 5 per cent. is to be levied. Should Lord
ELGIN have succeeded to. this extent he will have
merited the thanks and gratitude of the country,
and nobly earned the Marquisate, which no doubt

awaits the completion of his task. The Chinese
Commissioners who were to enter on the revision

of the tariff had not yet arrived at Shanghai.
After the lesson which they so recently received,
it is scarcely probable that they will neglect their
appointment. They will twist and turn, lie and

quibble, but they will hardly set the British repre.

sentative at open defiance, more especially when

British men-of-war are sufficiently near to make

themselves heard, aye, and felt, in case of necessity.
The state of affairs at Canton is still eminently
unsatisfactory. The Chinese authorities affect
to desire that business shall be resumed,

but th© inhabitants still hold aloof, and

serious doubts my be entertained of the sin-

cerity of their piotlamations. It is said that

WIIANG has given us a specimen of what the
[earned call "rigmarole," susceptible of any inter-

pretation ; and, as it certainly has not produced

he effect of bringing back the people, we may be

allowed to pause for a more unequivocal intimation

of his intentions, before we can place any degree
of confidence in his good faith or his integrity.
Pix-win is another local authority ; but the
same may be said of him that has been asserted of
WHANG. They also appear to a certain extent to
be playing at cross purposes ; what one wishes to
do the other is disposed to counteract. Each
wants to be the originator of every movement,
and one will defeat anything that may redound to
the credit of the other.

But besides these recognised officials, there is
another irresponsible party which exerc4es far
more influence than either. • These may .be-eom..

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