The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-19 00:00:00

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NEWSPAPER

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THE ..11LVISTERIA_ ErPL.4NATIONS.
(From the L ,aily .21-orsp)
" Acta fabula est."- B( )th Irouggif ar- up,s}nd
the peace of the world is a. t the ihakrd "tif events.
Nothing was more noticeat 'le last 'night than the
absence of excitement out o f doors, and in the pre-
cincts of the Palace of West a tinSteri when the hour
for Ministerial explanation! 4, had struck. There
were few strange face s ..111 th' ' galleries, no mur-
muring crowd in the fiail„nt I hnshed impatience
at the doors, no shun'ldcring' expectation in the
lobbies. It was not, as on the memorable occasion
when the immediate and grain: taneous evacuation
of the Papal States by ,the occupying forces wag
announced to Europe with all the pomp,.pride, and
circumstance of a Disraeli's' measured music, and
a Malmesbury's splendid negligence of phrase.
Distance lends dignity to these explanations. All
Europe is on tiptoe to catclat an echo from the
British Delphi ; but the Island itself is familiarly
incredulous, and as you approadi the very temple
you find the native population amused lit'unbe-
lieving. It is the old story of leo= veduta fide
perduta. The frequenters of the m 3 -steries preserve
a religious silence while the Ministers •of the
Crown are uttering a mechanical voice from behind
the bar, and laugh in their sleeves at the so-
lemnity which imposes on a world of willing hm)es.
In sober truth, the apathy and indifference which
waited the long-deferred vaticinations of her Ma-
jesty's Government last night are only too easily
accounted for. It is not that our Tory .pastora have
used Wolf so often and so idly that no one is afraid,
but that they have cried Peace so feebly and so
falsely that even their silence is less alum-ring than
their speech. If any doubt survived in factious
breasts of the temper and sagacity with -which a
Tory Government contemplates a question intlic
issues of which nothing less than European peace
and freedom and the strict neutrality of England
are involved, assuredly that doubt is now dispelled.
One-half at least of Mr. Disraeli's deliverance,
spoken in a subdued and almost sonorous tone, as
of despairing expostulation with " some persons
unknown," was confined to a summary- of what
we may call the published history of the Italian
question. since New Year's Day, and it naturally
possessed the peculiar interest of a story .which. has
no merit but its plot, and of which -the plot
lis known. It was only ' when he approached
the two cardinal points on which the crisis
of the moment turns—viz., the disarmament of
France and Austria, and the admission of Sardinia
to the Congress—that the first taste of something
more pungent than a rechaufe was vouchsafed: to
public curiosity, and that the policy of our pies ant
Ministers pierced through the flimsy reticence
with a noxious and nauseous aroma of insinceigity
and mischief. Ingenuity the most supple and feliine
cannot escape a laboured and ineffective air of
hesitation and embarrassment, when it would f ain
disguise a policy it dare not avow, under. a Ai icy
dress of feelings it is forced to assume. Through an
affected inclination to speak with open symp:ithy
of Italy, a real disposition to act in cordial secrecy
with Austria is dimly and darkly discovered.
Through all those liberal antics the cloven foot of
Castlereagh peeps awkwardly out, and the trip-
ping heels of Neo-Toryism have the, fine ow Tory
limp of other days. Such information as Mr.
Disraeli affords is, we flatter ourselves, tolerably
known evento the most careless of our readers, but we
are willing to repeat it for what it is worth. France
and Austria accept the principle of disarmament,
but the mode is not yet agreed upon. Sardinia dis-
sents to the, principle, because, as our Ministers
believe, she is not admitted to the Congress. In
these few words the sum and substance of Mr.
Disraeli's statement is contained, and if the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer had, in his capacity of Go-
vernment organ,played no other voluntary than this,
we should certainly have abstained from an_y pedal
bass accompaniment on our own account. But the
soul of goodness in things evil is perceptible in the
indiscretions even of adepts who tell truth by
stealth, and blush to find it known.
It is due to Mr. Disraeli to remember that his
explanations require to be read between the lines ;
his most admiring hearers are conscious of a men-
tal process of turning the polished phrases inside
out in order to get at the meaning unexpressed.
But last night he was almost incredibly frank,
once or twice ; he commended the dignified con-
ciliation" of Austria, and described the conduct of
Sardinia as "embarrassing, perplexing, and even
ambigaous." Mr. Gladstone drew the German
sting from this censure and this praise when he
suggested in the form of a dilemma that either
there was " much that is unknown to us in the
meritorious conduct of Austria and in that which is
questionable on the part of Sardinia, er else that
the spirit in which our Government has dealt with
both parties has not been one of entire impar-
tiality." Thanks, however, to the laudable frank-
ness of Ministers, we are not left to a dilemma to
detect their " entire impartiality" in 'the present
European crisis. We trust the constituencies to
whom Lord Malmesbury and his colleagues are
about to appeal will well and carefully weigh the
concluding paragraphs of Mr. Disraeli's speech.
They are but the fisintest possible echo of the Aus-
trian harangues in the Upper House, but they give
us to understand palpably enough that in the opinion
of her Majesty's present advisers an Italian war is
a European war, and that any attack upon Austria
" beyond the precincts of Italy" implicates the
most urgent interests of England. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer assures us‘ in almost as many
words that the safety of the Austrian Government
is identified with the dearest principles of civilisa-
tion. This is only an official and Tory way of
hinting that England may be called upon to waste
her blood and her treasure on behalf of, Austrian
interests in South Germany, and to save bankrupt
despotism from being sold us. We fancy the
English people'are doubtfully inclined: to plrop up
a power whose moral assets are a league of dark-
ness with the Papacy—whose material assets are
assignats and armies—and whose actual subsistence
from day to day is sustained by the wholesale
plunder of fiduciary deposits.
We trust the common sense and honest feeling o
our countrymen will now perceive in what sort of
keeping the peace and freedom of Europe and the
strict neutrality of England are placed at this
anxious instant. It was reserved for the chiefs of the
liberal and independent party in the House of Com-
mons to indicate the character of that great assembly
of freemen in the face of Europe. Mr. Disraeli, it
is true, emitted an empty platitude about the supe-
rior might of public opinion, which was
.probably
somewhat more novel and striking when it was, we
will not say originally, enunciated by Lord Palmer-
ston half a century ago: Tory homage to public
opinion bears a sad resemblance to the proverbial
triliute of vice to virtue. Homage to public opinion
from the lips of the ardent apologists and ready
champions of Austria is to our thinking curiously
misplaced and ill-timed. At any I ate the public
opinion of England found no recognisable expres-
sion last night in the fatuity and insolence of that
Hospital of Incurables which is known to the
Commons as " in another place," and which, if its
obstinacy in some politics bore any analogy to its
infatuated talk on foreign affairs, would soon be
" another place" no more.
Thank Heaven we have a House of;Lordo--,that
is only a House of Lords !—will be the public sen-
timent wherever last night's discussion in, that
painted chamber is read to-day. For if whispering
courtiers, and dynastic go-hetweens, and diplomatic
jugglers hold the brief of Austria in the house of
hereditary un-wisdom, yet among the representa-
tives of the people, who, after all, do hold the purse-
strings, and bring giddy rulers to account, the
heart and the mind of England will, we confidently
anticipate, find eloquent and authoritative voices in
June next, as last night.

7<t'‹

AMUSEMENTS IN PASSION WEEK.

Passion Week may be regarded as the general
festival of the " entertainers," when dramatia per-
formances are interdicted by the stern authority of
the Lord Chamberlain, and the thousand pleasure
seekers constantly on the look out for amusement
rush to any place where for a couple of hours they
may find a refuge from ennui and boredom.
Mr. and Mrs. German Reed were to appear at
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paul at Sadler's
moning
manr.offißeoldhal
admocunmnennnt,e,betahre-
Mr. Adams,
was to have exhibited his orrery at the Hay market.
ißnugt
licenser of plays, was
3t:ieteste sr i dganya er
of
received by each of the entre-
preneurs, setting forth that the advertised
per-
formances were illegal, performances within the
walls of a theatre during
Passion Week being
negatived by law, and none of the above-named
buildings having
a music license, under which the
proposed entertainment could be given.
In obedience to this edict, Mr. and Mrs *G erman
Reed did not attempt to open the Olympic, and
they will have to submit to a heavy
loss incurred
for advertising, printing, rent, &c., through the
enforcement of an absurd law, and the reprehensible
tardiness of the Lord Chamberlain's officials, whose
admonitory notice was not received until the actual
day of opening.
Of the course pursued by the others who were
honoured by an official warning we know nothing,
but it is obvious that the absurdity of the law Is
only equalled by the preposterous manner in which
it is administered. An entertainment given by
people whose well-known names are sure and cer-
tain guarantees of its respectability, is permissible
in a " hall," would be permissible in the Argyll-
rooms, or any place which has a music and dancing
license, and yet is taboocd in a theatre, a place
where, as it is well known, music and dancing are
never carried on.