The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-08 00:00:00

THE' SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 8, 185

ter as the Government remembrances.
" ventilated " the subject over, and over again in
all 'directions; He has collected together large
audiences in most of our principal towns, particu-
larly in the northern and central provinces, and has
there discussed before them the grand problem of
Parliamentary, Reform time and again, upon this
side and upon that, in every conceivable light, and
in every possible point of view. Last of all, yes-
terday, in the metropolis itself, in that elaborate
oration given by ourselves elsewhere this evening
upon the occasion of the Conference of the Reform
Committee at the Guildhall Coffee House, Gresham-
street, in the City of London. Again, however,
even in the otherwise manly speech of this frank
and generally uncompromising champion of Reform,
we observe, that pernicious disposition which was
so deplorably manifested last session in quarters in
which we should hardly have looked for it—the
disposition to concede the Ballot to the prejudices
of the Whigs, to give the go by to
the Ballot for the sake of the personal comfort
of those paltry and paltering reformers ! " With
regard to the Government," said Mr. BRIGHT, in
one part, " he should be very sorry to say a word
that appeared ill-natured, or that was calculated to
increase their difficulty in dealing with this ques-
tion"—of course not ! This, observe, is to the Whigs,
to the hotch-potch Coalitionists ! The same gentle-
manly magnanimity could not be displayed to-
Wards the members of the ex-Government by our
'high-principled Tribune of Birmingham ! But
then, of course, so much more is to be looked for
from the Whig-Peelite-Radical Coalition ! Is it ?
Indeed! We will look a little farther down Mr.
BRIGHT'S speech to find some evidence of this.
Let us see. " Unquestionably the Government
would have difficulties, and very considerable diffi-
culties, to overcome." Well, no—that's not it.
That, forsooth, is little:else than an echo of one of
SAM WELLER'S immortal aphorisms, when he says
to MARY, or to somebody else—" It's a self-evident
proposition, my dear—as the cat's-meat man said to
the servant•girl when she called him No Gentle-
man !" The Government will, as Mr. BRIGHT
observes, have difficulties to overcome, and very
considerable difficulties, too—that is, as he him-
self acknowledges, " unquestionable." " It needs no
ghost to tell us that"—nor yet even this shadowy
phantom of one of the old classic Tribunes of
the People ! We must look lower down in the re-
cord of his utterances than this, if we would find
anything like a pertinent indication. Ha! here,
surely, at last we have it ! Yes—observe. Mr.
BRIGHT says, Mr. BRIGHT has the consu-
mate coolness to avow, literally, in so many
words that—" lie should not oppose the Government
Bill, because it did not include the ballot, if it should
so happen that the ballot formed no part of it ."
Now this we do not hesitate to pronounce at once
quite plainly to be the threat of a Dishonest Com-
promise ! Why, a Reform Bill as good that, a Re-
form Bill minus the most important, the most essen-
tial reform of all, we might have had for certain
any day this last session from the Tory Govern-
ment! Yet Mr. BRIGHT connives at the unfair
expulsion from office of that Government by a
dodge, as Sir HUGH CAIRNS happily and truth-
fully phrased it, by nothing less disgraceful
than a Parliamentary dodge —to what end ?
That we might have the Whigs and Peelites
and Radicals back again in office, bound
together by the bonds of an unnatural, and we
might go the length of calling it an unprincipled
Coalition, from whose hands a Reform Bill, without
THE BALLOT, will actually be acceptable frQm the
pure and honest hands of Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, the
high-minded and immaculate Reformer of Bir-
mingham! In regard to this astounding avowal on
the part of Mr. BRIGHT, we again declare that we
do not hesitate, for an instant, to designate it as
nothing less shameful than the threat of a Dis-
honest Compromise.

We are now to be in some shape parties to the
Congress. In whatever way we appear there sub-

stantially it must be in one of two characters—as
integral members of it, bound in honour by its de-
cisions, although we may be in a minority ; or as
simple .advisers giving the benefit of our counsel,
but accepting no responsibility beyond that of
honestly advising in the interests of right and
justice, and of the general advantage.
If the first position is chosen we need a man as
plenipotentiary who shall speak with authority as
well as with wisdom—some one who shall be able
to enforce such terms as he could consistently sign
in behalf of the nation. Could not this be done, the
plenipotentiary of England would have to retire
from the conference and leave the remaining
Powers to agree to such arrangements as they
pleased, while his own country would remain
in the unpleasant attitude of a political
protestant. A • plenipotentiary must, above
all other representatives, be held to commit
his country to the course he sanctions ;
and if he went to Congress, and continued there,
however objectionable its resolves, we do not see
how we could escape being bound by the final con-
clusions of the assembly. He might, indeed, not
sign all the articles agreed on, but the only efficient
protest would be to withdraw, and leave the delin-
quents to themielves.
But if we send merely an adviser, though we
might avow our intention not to insist by any
strong diplomatic measures, much less by another
approaching hostile measure on what we thought
right, what would be our position ? apparently that
of friendly mediators. It is notorious in the pre-
sent case that there will be strongly antagonistic
parties to reconcile to one course of action, however
opposed their views and wishes ; would the advies
of England render unpalatable stipulations more
tolerable ? What that advice must be, all parties
concerned well know ; hence Austria may be in-
clined to regard England as a partisan and a special
pleader rather than as a mediator, and to attach
little value to her advice. On the 'tither hand, if
Austria must yield, it will less offensive to her
pride to give way in proportion to the number and
rank of those to whom she concedes. Sardinia and
the revolutionised Duchies she would not hearken
to for a moment ; but it would be quite another
thing to accept the proposals of a first-rate Power,
which has been only too considerate of Austrian

wishes in times gone by.
For the first position, that of a plenipotentiary,
wc, know of no man, as from the first we sub,►-

Bested, we could compare in influence, in expe-

rience, and in adroitness combined, with our
Premier ; we might add, in determination also,
when he. really has a point to carry. And iu the
present case, notwithstanding his friendship with
Louts NAPOLEON, we should think he has so
\ much reputation at stake with Europe and with
his own country, some, too, to retrieve her, since the
Conspiracy Bill affair, that we can hardly doubt
he would have his way in regard to Italian rights .1
t and liberties, or would leave the Congress to itself.
But we think he would succeed. Indeed, he must
do it if he went. Is this the reason why he does not
ao ? Or is it really, what is true enough, that the
head of the Government, when the House of Com-
mons is so nearly balanced, can hardly leave home ?
The nanic of Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR, who dealt
so cleverly and firmly with NICHOLAS of Russia,

has also been mentioned ; a valuable man, doubt- I
less, and trained in a school of the most instructive
kind. With decided instructions he would do as
,
much as any mass of equal standing to give effect to
them. It is haraly needful to advert to Lord JOHN
RUSSELL or Sir. JAMES HUDSON, our ambassador
at Turin—for rea sons pretty well known, they would
not do. The former has made one great failure in
this line ; the latter is thought to be too obviously,

bassv.dors.

though by no means too much so, a friend of Sar

dinia.
The upshot seems to be that we shall send to the
Congress a clerk, namely, a respectable lord of the
name of COWLEY, who has long been employed in
receiving a handsome salary and living in a hand-
some house at Paris, to be the channel of our offi-
cial communications with the French Government,
He may be a very worthy lord, for all the country
knows about him, but it does know that his letter,
in the affair of the Conspiracy Bill, was such a
miserable affair that, had he been a member of a
Cabinet, it would have been sufficient to overthrow
it. He has notoriously neither the parts nor the
spirit which are needed as our representative at such
a Congress as this will be. He may do as
well as anyone else to read to it the telegrams
and letters sent to him from England, but it is cer-
tain that he is not even equal to Lord CLARENDON,
who yet failed so sadly at the last Paris Congress.
The important point to keep in mind respecting
our position in the Congress is, that we, as a
nation, neither have fought in Italian affairs, nor
mean to fight. We have purchased no right to in-
terfere, nor do we mean to purchase it. We have
merely the position of a bystander amongst the
nations ; and a bystander of very pronounced opi-
nions. True, these opinions are simply the opinion
of the law of nations. We do but declare the prin-
ciple in reference to nations, which is the bond of
every civilised society, that right not might should
prevail, that the weak are to be as independent as
the strong, that every man's house is his home,
and so forth. But, these very principles we
ourselves ignored at Vienna in 1815, and consented
to the grass interferences with national rights which
have caused a great part of the wrongs we now
want to see rectified. We are, however, fully entitled
to the benefit cf confessing our error, and of the
superabundant proof since furnished that all the
Italian arrangements, except, perhaps, that of Pied-
mont, were blunders. Even, in fixing the extent
of the kingdom of Sardinia, there was sad injustice
done at the time to Genoa. Genoa, however, has
probably condoned this. Sicily; the Duchies, and
Venetia never have and never will ; and, we are
certainly entitled to ask justice and right on behalf
of all those whom. we contributed to wrong. We go
to the Congress as penitents for 1815, preaching
righteousness for 1860.
When to the difficulties of obtaining the right
man to send, and of our uninfluential position in
regard to physical force, we add those of the known
object of Austria, of the similar course marked out
for France by the EMPEROR'S letter, of the legiti-
mist tendencies of Russia and Prussia, combined
with their unfriendly feeling towards Austria, it is
evident enough that our part is not a very easy one.
It is useless to predict ; we can only hope that
Sardinia and the Duchies will be able to resist any-
thing like intervention, that they will fully assert
their right to combine as they have resolved to do;
and that the issue will be one strong State in the
north of Italy. Best of all if Austria could be
persuaded to sell Venetia, the French to evacuate
Roane, and Italy be left to settle accounts with her
Popes and Kings and Dukes as she sees fit. This
were, however, to expect grapes of thorns and figs
of thistles. A Congress of Monarchs is not the
assembly to confer liberty on nations.

LITERATURE.

Post o.ffici e London Directory fur 1860. Kelly
and Co.

The appearance of another of these stupendous
volumes is a proof of the waning year. It returns
with its familiar features, and though truly " an
old friend with a new face," oa each occasion, we
find little change in its general character. If we
have fewer alterations to remark than formerly,
it is because , the indefatigable industry of
the proprietors has left less room for improve-
ment, and it would be difficult for the most capti-
ous of critics to suggest a change for the better.
Indeed, when we consider the immense size of the
volume, its careful subdivisions and classifications,
its faithful record of all tho varying official and
parliamentary authorities, its authentic analy-
sis of the highways and thoroughfares of
the modern Babylon, and the wonderful care and
Correctness with which this vast amount of labour
is accomplished, We shall consider the absence of
defecti; and deficiencies as a positive marvel. A
volume, which extends over 2,300 pages, and
whose index is nearly seven pages long, deserves
certainly to be ranked among the achieve-
ments of modern enterprise. In the brief preface,
the compilers, whose experience extends over 23
years, speak as follows :—" One great advantage is
that the entire contents of this huge volume are
always kept standing in type ; this not only affords
the opportunity of passing the sheets through the
press with much celerity,but prevents a large amount
of typographical error, which would be unavoid-
able in a work of the nature of the present
all newly composed. It may be doubtful whether
any periodical issues from the press in which there
is less obvious proof of the amount of labour involved
in its production, a considerable proportion of the
contents appearing as in former editions ; yet every
line of each of the elaborate classifications has been
tested as carefully as though it had been entirely
fresh matter. Among the various minor emenda-
tions it may be mentioned, that the surgeons who
have registered under the new act of Parliament
are distinguished at page 1832, and that in cases in
which streets have been renamed or renumbered
by the Metropolitan Board of Works, the old name
and number, as well as the corresponding new num-
ber for each house, are shown ; also that the recent
alterations which have been made in the postal dis-
tricts are shown in the Map of London, which is as
usual prefixed to the volume." It would be a work of
superfluity to commend this Directory to the notice of
the public, since it is an indispensable auxiliary to
every man of business in these days of constant
change and rapid communication. We need only
assure the subscribers that their old friend is as
deserving of their patronage as ever, and congratu-
late the proprietors on its proved efficiency and
e .tablished character in the sixty-first year of its
existence. The map, too, is worthy of all praise.

Post Oflice Directory (f :Hampshire,
and Dorsetshire, Kelly.
This is another of Messrs. Kelly and Co.'s valua-
ble series of county directories. It comprises the
three southern counties of Hampshire, 'Wiltshire,
and Dorsetshire. The plan on which it is conducted
is familiar to most readers, and considering the
clearness and comprehensiveness of its arrangement
we are not surprised to learn that its predecessors
have given general satisfaction • We arc assured
by the compilers that no expense has been spared ;
experienced agents having visited every town, vil-
lagc, and hamlet throughout the localities described.
The research and expense necessitated by the com-
prehensiveness of its details must, indeed, have
been considerable, and the advantages which such
a volume presents to a stranger in visiting these
parts of the country are innumerable. An efficient
index prevents delay or perplexity in turning to
any particular spot; a list of the principal streets
in each neighbourhood are given, and the nearest
money-order office has t een added to every village
not possessing one. We have only to add that
maps engraved for the work, and corrected to the
I time of publication, offer additional assistance to
the inexperienced traveller.

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

ROME, DEC. 6.

The official invitations are to be delivered
simultaneously by the French and Austrian Am-

According to a telegram received from Vienna,
the Courier (hearer of the Austrian invitation) will
not arrive at Rome before the 10th instant.

VIENNA, DEC. 7.

Count Reehberg has been instructed by the Em-
peror of Austria to proceed to Paris, to be present
at the opening of the Congress.
Count Rechberg will afterwards be replaced by
another Plenipotentiary.

Count Buol, formerly Minister of Foreign Affairs,
is also going to Paris, whence he will proceed to
Rome, and stay there during the winter.
It is stated that Austria and France have agreed
that no delegate or representative of the States of
Central Italy, the Governments of which are not
recognised by the European Courts, will be ad-
mitted to the Congress, neither in an official qua-
lity nor with any titre ogiciettx.

BERLIN, DEC. 8.

The differences between Prussia and Electoral
Hesse are in a fair way of being settled by the
friendly intervention of the Federal Diet.

FLORENCE, DEC. 7.

The Provisional Government has just despatched
orders to all diplomatic agents and public func-
tionaries appointed by the Grand Duke, and being
at present abroad, to return to Tuscany within a
fortnight, under penalty of losing their pecuniary
allotments or pensions.

ST. PETERSBURG, DEC. 7

The French Ambassador and the Chargé
d'Affaires of Austria communicated yesterday to
Prince Gortschakoff the invitations to the Congress
of their respective Governments.
These invitations were brought to St. Peters-
burg by a courier of the Austrian Government.
Prince Gortschakoff will be first and Count
Kisselcff second Plenipotentiary of Russia.

PARIS, TITURSDAY.
The Moniteur of this morning contains the fol-
lowing list of nominations of Envoys Extraordinary
and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Foreign Courts
Prince de la Tour d'Auveizne, to Berlin ;
M. de Talleyrand, to Turin;
M. de Jurtiges, to Holland ;
Count Mercier, to United States of America ;
M. de Damreront, to Sweden;
M. Baudin, to Denmark ;
Count Rene de Comminges Guitan, to Portugal;
Count Reiset, to Hesse Darmstadt and Nassau;
M. de Bouree, to Greece.
Marquis de Banneville, to Bavaria;
Baron de Illalaret, to Hanover;
M. Sampeyo, to Besse Electoral.

PARIS, WEDNESDAY.

The Pays of this evening states that Russia and
Portugal have given in their adhesion to the

Congress.
The trial concerning the publication of the
apocryphal letter in the A7ni de la Religion ter-
minated to-day. Its responsible editor, the Abbe
Sessen, hi:s been sentenced to three months' impri-
sonment and a fine of 1,000 f., and the printer to
one month's imprisonment and a find of 500 f.

TURIN, WEDNESDAY,

The Pieilmontese Gazette publishes a decree
nominating M. Desambrois as Minister Plenipo-
tentiary of Sardinia to the Emperor Napoleon. M.
Desambrois left to-day for Paris.

The date of the Singapore message, which ap-
peared in our impression of yesterday, was erro-
neously telegraphed. It should have been "No-
vember 5," instead of " October 5."

the cardinal to say :whether the young Woman
should be procealed against accoiding• to the ordi-
nary la, s, or as a political 'offender. To this appli-
cation the cardinal sent the following laconic
answer, " Let the matter be treated as political."
Tun BOUPJ.T, Dec. 7.—Business has been ac-

tive, and. the market firm. Threes, after having
been dote at Gaf. 80c. ex div., improved to 69f.
95c.; Nlolfilier varied from 815 f. to 820 f.; Aus-
trian, 566 f. 25c. to 567 f, 50c.; Lombard, 560 f. to
562 f. 50c, ; Lyons, 917 f. 50c. to 925 f. ; Orleans,
1,407 f. 50e: to 1,415 f.; Southern, 525 f. to 527 f.
50c.; Northern, 970 f. to 975 f. ; Eastern, 652 f. 50e.
to 657 f. 50c. The following were the last quota-
tions:—

41 per Cents. .... Da 50 i Credit Fancier 700
Do. end month .. —; Belgian 4f —
3 per Cent 5....... 69 701Piedmonteso (5)
Do. end month.... 69 85 !Roman B3 75
Bank Shares 2900 I Austrian
Credit Mobilier .. 811 25 ; Spanish Threes
Do. Account ..... 813 75 Home Debt .. 43 50