The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-12 00:00:00

to take
t b
.e initiative, or adopt any measures that
might
; desir ed when assured that the requisite
te
aid and . assist'ance would be forthcoming at any
time it might be required.
The r e are many ominous tokens a' road that in-
dicate I he ,coming storm. There is e sacrifice of a
yonna 2 Royal victim, which seems to be an essen-
tial in ,4 3ident to the commencement of hostilities
since t; he days of IPHIGENLt to the present day.
In th, 3 olden time it was the priesthood that claimed
the ri'ctim. Now it is rendered in the less revolt-
ing, but probably not less dreaded, shape of a Royal
mar riage. In full accordance with the precedents
ins ,uch cases made and provided, we find that a
mat zrimonial alliance has been arranged between
Pri ace NAPOLEON and Princess CLOTILDE,
claug hter of King VICTOR EMMANUEL, a young
lady who has not as yet attained the mature
age pf 16 years. At another time this might not
be ti tought much of, but under existing circum-
start, es, coupled as it is with the rumours of war,
and t he extraordinary speeches of Louis NAPOLEON
and \ TICTOR EMMANUEL, it looks as if an alliance,
offen flive and defensive, had been contracted, to be
carri ed on through good report and through evil
repo l •t, and that thenceforward VICTOR EMMANUEL
woul d be held in the traces of his formidable neigh-
bour--becoming, in fact, a mere political cypher in
his hands.

Another inauspicious omen is the establishment
of a Russian naval establishment on the Italian
coast—Sardinia having granted the requisite facili-
ties therefor. This seems strange. But a few
years since VICTOR EMMANUEL heartily joined in
opposing Russia, and sent his troops to the Crimea,
where they rendered very efficient services. But
now we find the constitutional ruler currying favour
with the autocrat. There is more in this than
meets the eye in the first instance, and it cer-
tainly does not promise well for the peace and
tranquillity of Europe. On this part of the case
we would earnestly invite attention to the letter
of "An Italian," which we have extracted into our
own impression of this day. It will be found well
worthy of perusal.

At ali events England is now out of the scrape,
and it is the duty of our rulers to keep her so.
She may for once safely practise " the policy of
abstention," without any impeachment of her
honour, or injury to her interests.

According to the last advices from North
America, the Governor-General of British Columbia
had issued proclamations revoking the Crown
grant to the Hudson's Bay Company--organising
the Colonial Government—legalising the previous
acts of his Excellency—and adopting the laws of
the mother country. Simultaneously with this
important announcement comes the intimation
that the Bishop Designate of the New Colony,
the Reverend Doctor HILL, late of St. Nicholas,
Yarmouth, will take his departure for his diocese,
accompanied by twenty missionary clergymen.
Already the heads of the departments have
sometime since left the shores of England for
their remote and deeply-interesting destination,
Colonel MOODY, as the head of the military and
engineering expedition, carrying with him a novel
title as Commissioner of Lands and Public Works
in the gold country. Judge BEGBIE is the indi-
vidual intrusted with the weighty responsibility of
administering the law of England among the new
colonists, most of them bynecessity as gold hunters,
mere adventurers—and so with the other branches
of the colonial administration. Obviously, there-
fore, no time has been lost by Sir EDWARD LYTTON
in the rapid development and regular consolidation
of a project which but yesterday was little more than
visionary. It was only towards the very close of
the last session of Parliament that the Colonial

Secretary—himself, but newly installed in office as

the chief of that difficult and most responsible de-
partment—introduced in the House of Commons
the memorable Bill Which has thus swiftly led to
the realisation, in a very great measure, of the
cherished dream of those who have, like ourselves,
long aspired to witness the substitution—in our
North American possessions west of Canada—of the
authority of the CROWN in lieu of the old; effete
authority exercised during the last two hundred
years by the Hudson's Bay Company's Govern-
ment. The fortunate discovery of these new and
splendid gold diggings along the banks of Frazer
River happily came at last to afford us the long-
desired opportunity. Doubly fortunate, as it has
proved for our imperial interests, that opportunity
arrived at a time when a statesman wholly uncon-
trolled by the red tap bonds of routine held the
seals of office as her Britannic MAJzsTY's Colo-
nial Secretary. Sir BULWER LYTTON at once
recognised that upon the comparatively narrow
spot marked out as the site of the new goldfield on
the mainland immediately confronting the Island
of Gandia or Vancouver—the required standing
ground might, at once be obtained, whence with an
Archimedian lever to lift at last from North Ame-
rica the oppressive incubus of the Hudson's Bay
Company's Government. These commenced simul-
taneously with the new Colonial Minister's in-
stallation in the office at Downing-street—
yet already before the prorogation of the
Legislature in August the rapidly-prepared bill
for the establishment of the new Colony of British
Columbia had been carried by the energy of Sir
EDWARD LYTTON through Parliament. During
the lapse of what was to almost every one else a
long vacation, the Right Hon. Baronet has (with-
out any detriment whatever to the discharge of his
ministerial duties in regard to the rest of our vast
colonial empire scattered over both hemispheres)
been rapidly carrying into effect the proposed organi-
sation forßritishColu mbia of a regularand permanent
Colonial Administration. So completely have these
labours been accomplished that the whole machinery
of the new Government in British Columbia will
have been in actual operation some time before the
meeting of Parliament at the commencement of
the ensuing month of February. A development
so speedy and complete, of a design in itself so vast
in its geographical bearing and political import-
ance, augurs happily not only for the future
of British Columbia, but for that of our
whole North American possessions. What that
development may be one simple contrast will suffi-
ciently indicate. The territory of the North Ame-
rican Republic, consisting of thirty-two Sovereign
States, comprising an area of 3,260,000 square
miles, contained in 1800 a population of very little
more than 5,300,000—a population increased in
the next fifty years by nearly 18,000,000—the
United States according to the census of 1850,
comprising within their boundaries upwards of
23,000,000 of inhabitants. Recollect—in contrast
to this—that the British North American posses-
sions, extending over an area of 2,600,000 square
miles, comprised within their frontiers according to
the last census, that of 1851, exactly 2,517,401, as
the aggregate of the population. Not one man to
each square mile of territory !

The Duchess of Tnirerness entertained a select
circle at dinner, last evening, at her apartments in Ken-
sington Palace.

The Duke and Duchess of Manchester arrived in
town on Monday night, from Berlin and Hanover. The
noble duke and duchess left yesterday for Rimbolton, Castle
HUntinirtioaahires