The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-11 00:00:00

Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips.

CANTERBURY lIALL, Westminster-road.—
Proprietor -C. MORTON.
The public is most respectfully informed that the FINE
ARTS GALLERY, in connection with the above Hall, IS NOW
OPEN DAY AND NIGHT, from 11 o'clock a.m. until 12
o'clock p.m. The New Gallery contains an extensive Collec-
tion of -Pictures, by Ancient and Modern Masters :and is also.
devoted to Art productions generally. The Proprietor feels
lie may confidently assert that, viewed altogether, the exist-
inf, Music hall, the New Fine Arts Gallery, and the recently
added Ante-Hall, will present an attraction which, whether
as regards the architectural beauty of the structures them-
selves, or the varied and hitherto unattempted combinations
within, will be found to be wholly without parallel in the
Kingdom.
The MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT commences as usual at
Seven o'clock.
In addition to the usual entertainment, the SAUVLET
FAMILY, of Amsterdam, Eight in number, whose varied
instrumental perlhemanees have created so marked a sensa-
tion in the principal cities and towns of the Continent, will
perform every Evening at Nine and Eleven o'clock.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, DEC. 11.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.

42—highest since noon yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during the night.
40—this day at noon.

BAROMETEn-30.34.
WIND, S.W., ; light, with dull hazy weather.

fre.
•

THE SUN.

SATURDAY. DECEMBER 11, 1858.

Last night the grand Manchester soiree to Messrs.
13niGuT and GIBSON came off with all the honours.
It certainly left the defeated party at the last elec-
tion little to desire, except the formal retrieval of
their supremacy; and that, so long as they are sup-
posed to be identical with the old League, will not
be achieved. " Dictation:of the League" was, as
every one now knows, the real cry which caused
the rejection of the formerly popular candidates,
but last evening furnished abundant evidence that
the members themselves are still as popular
speakers as ever.

Mr. GIBSON had made his speech just before at
Ashton „'an d though he could not but take a prominent
place, yet of mrse the principal part was reserved
for his old colleague the member for Birmingham,
and the Reform Bill-maker-elect of the London
Parliamentary- Reform Committee. Mr. BRIGHT
was, naturally enough, in high feather, and had at
least a happy oratorical fling for most of the critics
of his Birmingham orations. He has at least the
advantage of replying to his opponents in a style
which induces the public, as well as his antagonists
themselves, to read what he says; and if it be
easy to see, often, where the logician could slip
in a puzzling question, it is easy also
to see that, at the meeting, the logician would have
little chance with the ready and felicitous turns
and broad assertions of the speaker.

Novelty of topics, or even of illustrations, was
not, now, to be expected. Reform was to be the
topic,and the illustrations have long been before us all,
yet everything was.well freshened up, and we travel
over the old ground with pleasure in Mr. BRIGHT'S
speech. He denied the plea of " indifference,"
for in the course of his experience he had never
known such a concurrence of all Prime Ministers,
and all parties on the subject ; the Whigs, Conser-
vatives, Peelites—Lord DERBY, Lord PALMERSTON,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL—aII are Reformers now.
Forty years ago the very place on which the meet-
ing was held was the scene of the Peterloo Mas-
sacre—now the political successors of the men who
ordered it, were busy on a second Reform Bill ! !
Retrenchment of expenditure, and a better supervi-
sion of our foreign policy, Mr. BRIGHT thought, were
two things for which Reform was at least ob-
viously needed.

He praised quite loyally the present wearer of the
Crown, and repudiated all nonsense about hostility
either to the Monarchy or the House of Lords,
although he denied that a hereditary Legislature
could be a permanent institution in an in-
colligent and free country ; but, he demanded
that as the QUEEN and the Lords each
held their share in the government of the
country, so 'the people should have theirs ; that the
House of Commons should not be the deputy of the
Lords, but the real, not the sham representation of
the people. How can this be said to be the ease,
when, on the testimony of Lord DERBY himself, if
you could tell the politics of a few principal land-
ords in a county, you could tell the politics of the
county itself ? How can represention be real, when
only one million out of five millions of adults have
votes, and when out of that million one-sixth of the
number return a majority of the House
of Commons. In regard to the counties them-
selves about 200,000 tenants of £5O and upwards
were now the strength of the landlords' constitu-
encies, while, by arecent return, there were double
hat number, occupying between £lO and £5O, who

had no vote at`' all. The long light for corn laws—
needing, in truth, a famine to abolish them—and,
the present existence of a special and exceptional
code of murderous game laws, to protect, not pro-
perty, but a mere amusement, were the natural
consequences of such a,state of things.
Mr. BRIGHT defended, with great good humour
and good sense, his proposed rating suffrage. It
had the great convenience of being already in exist-
ence in boroughs and unions ; andthe names of Lord
GREY and CHARLES Fox were invoked in its favour.
He was also happy in his observation on the Ballot,
and specially so in his retorts on those who charged
him with wishing to Americanise our institutions.
The only reason why they refused the Ballot was,
not because they did not understand our arguments
in its "favour, but because they understood them
quite as well as we do, in fact, too well. And as
to America, why, they were quite ready to borrow
reaping machines, printing machines, horse tamers,
poetry, and revolvers especially from America—
anything but politics. '
He gave one salutary warning to both Whigs
and Tories. Should the latter bring in a bill
below the fair expectations of the people, and
should the Whigs, with aristocratic selfishness, join
to force it on the House, then the really
popular and liberal members would occupy
one side of the house, and the two sections
of the aristocracy the other. The result would be
a distinct pitting of aristocracy against democracy,
an increase of democratic strength at each election,
and the creation of an animosity against the now
governing classes, against which they would be
wholly unable to contend. Well, it will not long
be said that the towns, at least, are indifferent or
apathetic. Birmingham and Manchester have made
a good beginning, and others are following their
example.

Altogether the most effective and admirable
speech yet delivered within our recollection, by
Lord STANLEY, during the ten years of his public
life, is the one he has but just now addressed to the
cadets at Addiscombe. The harangue was emi-
nently practical and to the purpose throughout.
It was stirring and inspiriting, and in every respect
worthy of falling from the lips of the First Secre-
tary of State for the Administration of the
affairs of ilindostan. The noble lord spoke
with a tempered and wise discretion, strangely
beyond the years of one who only ten winters since
.was himself a student at one of the Universities.
Scarcely have ten years elapsed when one of the
alumni of yesterday at Cambridge is descanting
upon the great duties of life, illustrating his pre-
lection with wise saws carefully chosen, and modern
instances judiciously selected, before an assemblage
of the passed cadets at the Military College of Addis-
combe. Lord STANLEY spoke to the eager throng of
" bright and young adventurers "—in his capacity
as head of one of the great departments of the
State, and ruler over the destinies of from
100,000,000 to 200,000,000 of the human race. He
reminded his hearers, at the outset, how truly
everything in Asia—" public safety, national
honour, personal reputation "—is dependant upon
the sheer force of individual character. And as an
anticipative encouragement in every probable future
interval of despondency, revived vividly to recollec-
tion the careers of General Sir Wm. NOTT and of
General Sir HENRY HAVELOCK. It was surely
enough to mention those two illustrious names to
justify to the full Lord STANLEY'S authoritative
assurance that—in India—" talent, with perseve-
rance, need never despair of an opportunity."
BothNoTT and HAVELOCK had long passed middle
life before that golden opportunity arrived for
either. It came at last, and in each instance the
man at once proved more than equal to the occa-

Years of obscure but honourable and con-
scientious discharge of duty were rewarded at last
upon a sudden with the heroic recompense of a
world-wide and enduring reputation. Frequently,
in all likelihood, had both one and the other sighed
over the monotonous and undistinguished destiny
that seemingly gave no promise whatever
of fixing upon either the regard of their
fellow-countrymen —of reusing their sym-
pathy, much less of kindling: their admiration.
Eventually, however, we repeat, it came at last,
the all but despaired of opportunity—it came in
their declining years, when their hair was already

sion .

whitening with age. It came, moreover, that
grand reward of great historical Fame, in India
not many years ago—between the career of Non
and the career of HAVELOCK—to a yet more re-
markable soldier than either of those mentioned
by the Secretary of State for India. It came tar-
dily but resplendently, in the sixty-first year of his
age, to one of the most glorious warriors in our
annals,to Sir CHARLES JAMES NAPIER,whose 60 years
in 1843, as his gallant brother the Historian has

written of him—" had not prevented him from
defeating a great army, capturing two strong
fortresses, and marching under a Scindian sun
above two hundred miles, all in sixteen days." Not
that the Conqueror of Scinde was obscure until
sixty years had gone over his head; but that his
heroic career, as one of the young majors of WEL-
LINGTON in theif'eninsula, and his eminent ser-
vices as chief in command :at Cephalonia,- had
given to none, perhaps, but himself and his
appreciative brother, auguries of his grand
ulterior reputation. Remember, however, that
when he qUitted the shores of England, upon
his Indian staff appointment in 1841,
when he took his departure from this 'island to go
and conquer the Lion of Meerpoor and his heroic
warriors the Ameers, he had already entered upon
old age, he was so indifferently off for money that
on paying down for his passage before starting he
received a guinea change as his whole worldly
wealth ; that his health was so poor and
his constitution so shattered that his life was
refused at the insurance office. Yet this
impoverished ailing man of nearly sixty went
out there and earned for himself a grand'historic
reputation in India, added a superb province to our
Asiatic possessions, routed an army of 30,000 dis-
ciplined warriors of the East with a handful of
Europeans, won a splendid dominion at the point
of his sword, and, thereupon, in the very midst of
the debris of battle, created and organised a Go-
vernment. Assuredly, after this, Lord STANLEY
might well say that, in India, none with perse-
verance need ever despair of an opportunity. Not
that every one is a NOTT or a HAVELOCK, or
much less a NAPIER ; but that those heroic men,
that great general and conqueror, are standing
proofs in even Anglo-Indian history, that none at
least need ever despair of—the opportunity. When
it comes—it will be then to use it. But come it
may at anyana pmeurilotidploicritythe day, in spite of every
variety at
a disappointment.
:later De-
spondencyaer everyi m
is at
may
yts n ID-appearance. Sooner
o
look forward in India to
that ultimate opportunity.
In further illustration of the r,Tal frivolity of the
temptation of despondency, Lord STANLEY re-
minded the young cadets at Addiscoliabe "that that
most valuable public servant, Lord , METCALFE,
once wrote back from .India entreating tobe allowed
to give up a service for which he felt no taste, and
in which he had no hope of success"—hem who ulti-