The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT by all the sinews of war, and crowned with the
GARDEN, under the sole Management of Miss Louisa glory and the glamour of many, recent victories.
Pyne and Mr. W. Harrison
On MONDAY EVENING will be presented an entirely Simultaneously with the success achieved by our
ew and original romantic Opera, by Mr. W. Balfe, entitled SA-TANELLA ; or, THE POWER OF LOVE. diplomacy and by our armed forces, both military
Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. and maritime, in the uttermost extremities
To conclude with the new Pantomime of LITTLE RED •
RIDING HOOD ; or, Harlequin and the Wolf in Granny's of the Eastern hemisphere—comes to us in
Clothing.
1858 the promise, and not only the promise, but as
we may reasonably term it the substantial gua-
rantee of a grand and remarkable achievement in
an exactly opposite direction, namely, at the
extremity of the western hemisphere. The costa-
blishment, that is to say upon the opposite shores
' of North America, along the sea-board of that great
continent upon the Pacific Ocean, of a new and
splendid colony—notable, henceforth, as the colony
of British Columbia—the energies of which
.working in-land towards the opposite colony
upon the Atlantic coast of North America, the
twin colony of the Canadas, will lead at last
by inevitable necessity to the opening up of the
fruitful, but yet wholly uncultivated, regions
known hitherto only as the haunt of the wild
beast and the furtrapper, under the same style
and title of the Hudson's Bay Company's Terri-
tories. So that the year marked by the extinc-
tion of the East India Company's monopoly
in Asia has been further illustrated is the deve-
lopment of our imperial resources, by the promise
of the eventual extinction (probably in 1859),
of the companion monopoly, that by which
the Hudson's Bay Company has :for two hundred
years, closed against the Anglo-Saxon race a vast
portion of the great northern American continent.
Memorable, in this way, by the triumphs won by
us both in the Eastern and Western hemisphere-
-1858 will for ever be regarded as a year peculiarly
deserving of remembrance in the history of science
and civilisation, by the glorious incident demon-
strative of the fact that, by an electric thread of
metal, trailing under the depths of the Atlantic
ocean, these two hemispheres can be brought together
—lreland and Newfoundland, Europe and Ame-
rica talking to each other in the twinkling of an
eye by means of the subtle thrills of electricity
along those 2,000 miles of submerged cable. The
temporary interruption of this mystical and all but
miraculous intercourse has only delayed for a time
the enjoyment of the advantages that must accrue
to the world at large from the establishment of the
practicability of this sublime achievement. That
one grand feat—the successful submergence of
the Atlantic cable--would be sufficient to render
this wonderful year of 1858 distinguishable among
its predecessors.
Together with all the foregoing achievements of
1858, however, are there not within the scope of
comparatively recent recollection a variety of events
and incidents specially deserving, at this moment,
of satisfactory remembrance ? Miscellaneous oc-
currences of the most diversified character, each of
which it is impossible to recal to mind without
some degree, more or less vivid, of really unaffected
gratification. From the happy marriage, in the'
spring, of England's Eldest Daughter-
gathering in at last, in this recent autumn, of
vintage unknown for years and years past, unpre
cedented, in fact, by a curious coincidence, for abun.
ante and general excellence since 181 I—a year
memorable, like that of 1858, as one in which a
great comet was for many successive weeks flaming
resplendently in the heavens. The catalogue of
the happy events of all kinds marking 1858 will
add largely indeed, and very notably, to the world's
chronology. Glancing down that catalogue, how-
ever cursorily, we cannot, as a nation, but recall
to mind upon this Christmas-day the events of this
year of grace last past, with a sense of profound
gratitude to the beneficence and wisdom of Divine

Commence at Seven,

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Under the Management of Mr. Charles Kean.
On MONDAY EvENING next will be presented
THE JEALOUS WIFE. Mr. and Mrs. C. Kean.
After which, a new grand Christmas Pantomime, entitled
THE KING OF THE CASTLE; or, Harlequin Prince
Diamond and Princess Brighteyes.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
On MONDAY EVENING, Dec. 27, the performances will
be performed SHE STOOPS TO COWQUER. Messrs.
Bnckstone, Chippendale; Mesdames Reynolds and Poynter.
After which, a new grand Comic Pantomime, entitled
; or, Harlequin and the Spirit of the Waters.
Commence at 7.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Manager. Mr. Edmund Falconer,
A MORNING PERFORMANCE on MONDAY (Boxing
day), Dec. 27, when will be produced a new Burlesque, written
expressly for the Lyceum Company by Robert B. Brough,
and entitled THE SIEGE OF TROY. The new and gor-
geous scenery by Mr. William Callcott. The principal cha-
racters by Mrs. Keeley, Miss Julia St. George, Mrs. Weston,
Miss Portman, Miss Talbot, Miss Kate Saxon, Miss E. Romer,
; Mr. Emery, Mr. Charles Young, Mr. Ellerton, Mr. .1.
Rogers, Mr. Barrett, &c. ; Miss Rosina Wright, Miss M.
Charles, Miss Harriet Dalton, and a numerous Corps de Bal-
let will also appear.
After the Burlesque a new Comic Pantomime, replete with
new tricks and mechanical devices, entitled HARLEQUIN
TOY HORSE ; or, The Cremorne Fete. Clown, Mr Charles
Lauri ; Harlequin, Mr. John Lauri ; Pantaloon, Mr. Henry
Lauri ; Columbine, Miss Jenny Lauri.
To commence at two o'clock precisely ; doors open at half-
past one.
The Performanees will commence on Friday, Monday and
Tuesday with the Comedietta of TOO MUCK' FOR GOOD
NATURE.
Reduced Prices—Dress Boxes, 4s. ; Upper Boxes, 3s. ; Pit,
2s. ; Stalls, fis. ; Gallery, Is.
Box-office open from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at hall-past
6, to commence at 7 every evening. -

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.

Sole Lessee, Mr. William Cooke.
On MONDAY, the great Eastern Spectacle of THE
REVOLT IN INDIA ; er, The Fugitives and their Faith-
ful Steed.
After which SCENES IN THE ARENA, istroducing Mr.
W. Cooke, and his beautiful horses, Mr. Runnels, Madame
Blanche, Miss Emily Cooke, Madame Fleurette, and the finest
troupe of equestrians in the kingdom.
Te conclude with a famous, magnificent, and matchless
Christmas Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN BARON
MUNCHAUSEN ; or, The King of the Pumpkins, unprece-
dented for comicality and splendour.
Two Performances of the Pantomime on Boxing-day, viz.,
at Two and Seven o'clock.
Dress Circle, 4s. ; Boxes, 3s. ; Pit, 25, ; Gallery, Is. ; Upper
Gallery, fid.

;o the

Providence.

It is quite needless for the Times to go across the
Channel, or the Atlantic, for illustrations of the ins -
possibility of working Democratic institutions in
England. Its own columns will furnish one, and
will show too that Democracy must ever seek relief,
as Mr. BUCHANNAN expresses it, under the shade of
"Despotism. The most democratic of our institutions,
one democratic in name as well as in fact, is in
danger of surrendering its liberty, because, like our
neighbours over the water it has abused it till the
public safety is in danger; and the aid of despotism
will be invoked, became those who put forward not
only " the many," but literally the whole com-
munity as their object, quarrel who shall serve the
said community, till the poor community is likely
to get the worst of it in the fierce struggles of its
benefactors. Whether " the Constitution " be for
all, or primarily for ten-pound householders and
fifty pound tenants-at-will, we must leave Mr.
BRIGHT and the Times to settle; but it is no fiction
that the Omnibus is for all. It is constructed for
all, it hails all, it admits to a seat, on the payment
of twopence, fourpence, sixpence, and occasionally
double the last sum, all residents in the United
Kingdom. It is supported not only by universal
or manhood suffrage, but by female and childhood
suffrage too. It knows nothing of privilege. If
Lord DERBY should condescend to ride in one, the
cobbler would not yield him priority of choice, and
if his Countess should step in, her milliner's assist-
ant would retain the best seat in the 'bus, if she
had taken it. There is, however, one take off from
such irrational Democracy. It will not work, it
never will work, and we see, now as ever, that the
Omnibus "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," is
altogether by the ears, and that Sir RICHARD
MAYNE and an Act of Parliament are talked of as
the only hope for our omnibuses.
Our readers may have seen that the grand in-
quiry before Mr. PAYNTER has been renewed this
week, and apparently brought to a premature close.
It is now hoped that arbitration may'do something,
though the very parties who indulge this hope seem
to think that an act of Parliament will yet be ne-
cessary. The general case, almost every one of us
who walks or rides in the streets of London, knows
just as well without legal inquiry and columns of
evidence, as we can do by their aid. We have all
of us seen the " nursing," and laughed or been
wroth, according to the temperament of the mo-
ment. We never laughed, however, if we were
about to enter the tenderly-cared-for 'bus, and
found our ears assailed by the oaths and curses of
quarrelling conductors, and our head or shoulders,
perhaps our honour itself, threatened by the pole
and horses of the nurse behind. This said nursing
must be a very effective system, but we should
think rather an expensive one ; otherwise we might
have recommended it to Lord MALMESBURY as a
solution of the great American Flag difficulty. Put
a man-of-war before and another behind a slaver,
which, appropriately enough, hoists the flag of the
great Slave Republic, and she would find some dif-
ficulty
in getting her complement of black passen-
gers. She certainly would, if res nautiece per-
mitted the men-of-war to keep as close a-head
and a-stern of her, as do the nursing omni-
buses in the Very busiest thoroughfares of
London. Expense, however, is nothing to the
chancellor of the exchequer of a great omni-
bus company. When he meets his house of
shareholders he can easily persuade them that the
outlay piece of most prudent foresight ; and
then,m asr. a
BRIGHT'S pacific hopes from an extended
w
suffrage notwithstanding, he knows that be can at
least appeal from the pockets to the pugnacity of