The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-24 00:00:00

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
tinder the als.nagement 0 tr. Charles Kean.
THIS EVENING, THE WIFE'S SECRET. Mr. and
Kr*. C. Lean.
To calends with A 3IIDSUMICER NIGH rs DREAM.
Commence at 7.

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THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING the performances will commence with
THE HA.PPIEST AY OF MY LIFE.
Followed by THE D
CONTESTED ELECTION.
After which, OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND.
And HALLOWE'EN.
Commence at 7.

W THEATRE - ROYAL, AD ELPHL
STEW
Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
For the Benefit of Mr. Paul Bedford.
THIS EVENING, the performances will commence with
THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST. Messrs. Billington,
Stuart, P. Bedford, C. Marshall' C. J. Smith, Garden ; Miss
Marian Lacey, Miss K. Kelly, and Mrs. Billington.
After which, NORMA. Mr. P. Bedford.
Followed by the new burlesque, THE BABES IN THE
WOOD. Messrs. C. Marshall, Paul Bord, C. J. Smith,
Ebunie ; Miss Woolgar and Miss K. Kelly.
rd'
Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.
Doors open at a quarter-past six—Commence at seven. Box
Office open from 10 to 5 —no charge for booking. No fees to
servants permitted. A registry kept of all articles found.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanberough
THIS EVENING, THE MAID WITH THE MILKING
PAIL,
After which, A SCHOOL FOR COQUETTES. Misses
Swanborongh, Oliver, and Lavine.
Followed by THE VERY LATEST EDITION OF THE
LADY OF LYONS.

VERDI'S OPERA OF MACBETH. The
whole of the first Act of this Opera, now produced
for the first time in this country (the remaining three acts
be in course of rehearsal), is sung nightly at the CAN-
TERBURY HALL CONCERTS.
THE DELEPIERRE FAMILY,
oonsisting, ot three Juvenile Violinists, viz, Jules, Juliette,
and Julia Delepierre, aged, respectively, FOUR, SIX, and
EIGHT years.
The perfect execution by these Lilliputian Artistes of some
of the most difficult and brilliant Solos, Duets, and Trios eva
written for the violin, has excited mingled wonder and admi-
ration in Continental Musical Circles, and drawn forth enthu-
siastic tributes of praise from the Public Journals of France
and Belgium.
They will perform TWICE EACH EVENING, in addi-
tion to the usual Entertainments.

THE WEATHER.—Strx Orncz, AtorsT 24.
THERMOYETER, IN THE SHADE.
76—highest since noon yesterday.
62—lowest this morning and during the night.
75—this day at noon.
BARomETEn-30.07—falling.
WIND, South-Westerly ; light, with very warm fine

weather,

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tnxs DA:Y.—Morning, 9h. 21m.—Afternoon, 10h. Bm.
To-Monnow-Morning, 10h. 55m.—Afternoon, 11h. 38m.

THE SUN.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1859.

According to all accounts the affairs of Italy are
going on swimmingly—the Italians, being left to
themselves, are acting with promptitude and
moderation. The true end of liberty is the
general happiness of the people—thereby adminis-
tering the greatest good to the greatest number.
The Italians in the several Duchies seem bent on
achieving this great desideratum, and we earnestly
hope they will be left to themselves in order to
consolidate their institutions, based on the sound
principle of doing unto others as they would be
done to themselves. _ _

The conferences at Zurich may be making pro-
gress, but until their work be finished or
until the plenipotentiaries quarrel among them-
selves or at the instigation of thue who pull
the secret strings of diplomacy, little can be known.
If rumour may be trusted, everything seems to
go smoothly as yet, for the instructions from
Vienna would appear to be much modified of late.
Perhaps the Emperor FRANCIS JOSEPH may now
consider discretion to be the better part of valour,
seeeing that the turn of public opinion in Ger-
many seems as much against him as it was pre-
viously in his favour. From this we may augur
a more speedy, as well as more satisfactory,
solution of the questions at issue—more especially
the national interests of the Italians.

In that wretched National Gallery of ours in
Trafalgar-square we have evidence of the extraor-
dinary results of misapplied niggardliness. In that
ornate and magnificent Palace of the Legislature
down at Westminster we have on the other hand

evidence quite as remarkable in its way of the no less I
extraordinary results of an equally misplaced ex-
travagance. The unfortunate architect of the Na-
tional Gallery, cut down in allhis estimates, cramped
in the area allotted to him, with his darling de-
signs contracted and forshortened—is said to have
shed tears of anguish and disappointment when,
standing at Charing Cross, he gazed at that ridicu-
lous fagade with pilasters and sham windows in
stone, with a central flour-dredge and a prepos-
terous pepper-box at each end. Ever since then that
"finest site in Europe" which might also, without
much difficulty have been rendered nearly the
finest sight in Europe—has been disfigured by
an edifice that looks far more like the
back entrance to the royal stables (originally stand-
ing there) than a building dedicated to the pur-
poses of a National Gallery. As we have intimated
this ludicrous result was really and truly owing
less to the architect than to the economists by whom
his designs were dwarfed and distorted. Inso-
much that the National Gallery remains there to
this day as a disastrous token of a mean and nig-
gardly thrift on the part of the wealthiest of all
the Governments of Christendom. It is more than
that, it is a warning, and one that appeals to future
Ministries irresistibly.

Exactly opposite that unfortunate edifice, within
view of it, far away there at Westminster, there is
a contrary token—a token, not of national mean-
ness, but of national extravagance. And this,
too, is a warning for after Administra-
tions—though a warning in an exactly opposite
direction.. That superb and majestic pile of build-

'lugs called the New Palace at Westminster,
-while it undoubtedly will attest to after times the
genius of Sir CHARLES BARRY, and the skill in
*any rare and important crafts by English artists
and artizans in the middle of this nineteenth cen-
tury—will no less surely, and no less plainly, when
its origin comes to be examined into, proclaim also a
monstrous prodigality in the expenditure upon this
one edifice alone of moneys dragged from the
p
pockets of an over-tared people, to be squandered
around by a series of comp/
-a-sant Governments.
When the design was first delivered to
us by Sir CHARLES (then Mr.) BARRY__
the cost was estimated by the architect
at £BOO,OOO or thereabouts—at any rate at consi-
derably less than one million sterling. Already—
and the last saw has not yet rung there. the last
nail has not yet been driven home—some X 3,000,000
or £4,000,000 have been swallowed up
in that
sumptuous Gothic palace of the Legislature down
at Westminster. We have paid dearly enough for
the lesson—but still it is a lesson through which we
have learnt a vast deal for our future guidance.
We have learnt, first of all, from it—that the course
most advisable to be followed here, as almost
everywhere else, is unquestionably, as usual,
the medium course—midway between the two ex-
tremes—between the Scylla and the Charybdis—
between niggardliness and extravagance. We see
only too plainly what shipwreck was made upon
the stubborn rock, on the one hand, in the instance

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