The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-26 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

NEW THEATRE - ROYAL, AD ELPHI.
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
THIS EVENING, the performances will commence with
NEVER DESPAIR. Mr, and Mrs. Henri Drayton.
And (4th time) a new comic drama, in two acts, entitled
AN OLD OFFENDER. Mr. J. L. Toole, Mr. C. Selby, Mr.
.Billington, Mr. C. J. Smith, Mr. Eburne, and Miss H. Simms.
Followed by the new burlesque, THE BABES IN THE
WOOD. Messrs. J. L. Toole, Paul Bedford, C. J. Smith,
Eburne ; Miss Woolgar and Miss K. Kelly.
And a Grand Ballet by the Celebrated Spanish Dancers.
Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.
Doors open at a quarter-past six—Commence at seven.ox
B
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 Swanborongh
THIS EVENING, QUIXOTE, JUNIOR. Mr. J. Clarke.
After which, A SCHOOL FOR COQUETTES. Misses
Nwanborough, Oliver, and Lavine.
Followed by THE VERY LATEST EDITION OF THE
LADY OF LYONS.
Commence at 7 o'clock.

VERDI'S OPERA OF NIACBETII. The
whole of' the first Act of this Opera,
.now produced
for the first time in this country (the remaining
at the CAN-
three acts
being in course of rehearsal), is sung nightly
TERBURY HALL CONCERTS.
THE DELEPIERRE FAMILY,
Jtte,
Consisting of three Juvenile Violirespectively, nists, viz., Jules,
SlXuli, eand
and Julia Delepierre, aged, FOUR,
EIGHT years.
The perfect execution these Lilliputian Artistes of some
of the most difficult and brilliant Solos, Duets, and Trios ever
written for the violin, has excited mingled wonder and admi-
ration in Continental Musical Circles, and drawn forth enthu-
liastiC 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.-SUN OFFICE, JULY 25.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
69—highest since noon yesterday.
63—lowest this morning and during the night.
70—this day at noon.
Banomrrzn-30.19.
WIND, Southerly ; light, with fine weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tnis DAY.—Morning, 9h. 50m.—Afternoon, 10h. 30m,
To-Molutow-Morning, llh. 9m.—Afternoon, llh. 47m

The foreign news are made up more of guesses
and recriminations than of facts. Indeed, nothing
is more clear than that they are waiting for the
chapter of accidents to feel their way more surely.
They are all uneasy with respect to the coming
Congress, if Congress there be. For our part we
shall wait the opinion of our Cabinet, as it will be
expressed on Thursday evening by Lord JOHN
RUSSELL. One thing is certain that feelers are
thrown out to test the pulse of the public ; but the
baiters may miss their would-be victims at the last
moment. We know their tendency, but they had
better mind their nets, for th ere are such mishaps
as clever people being caught in their own traps
sometimes.

The Moniteur of this morning contains an
article which clearly evinces the disquietude
felt on the other side of the Channel at
the pr'eparations of armaments continually and
wisely made on this side. It endeavours
to prove that they are only made to deceive the
English people in order to carry the budgets.
Well, it may be so. But we are not going over the
water for advice on these matters. It is far better
to be forearmed than to be warned too late.
We have more at stake than our gallant
neighbours seem to appreciate—our wealth—but,
dearer than all, our freedom ! We must maintain
that at whatever cost—and wishing well to others,
we must not forget that our own welfare depends
on ourselves. Let our own saving motto be in the
words of the Athenian LYNDHURST—distrust—
distrust of all specious hypocrisy or foreign blan-
dishment. We know wherein consists our true
security, and we will cherish that—let come who
may—we will not say—dare!

Yesterday, in Committee of Supply, there was
voted a sum amounting to something less than
£4B,ooo—to a total, in fact, precisely £75 short of
that amount—for the British Museum. It is espe-
cially noticeable at once, in regard to this amount,
that it shows for the present year a decrease in
expenditure of £1,875 as compared with its imme-
diate predecessor. The committee, in other words,
have voted in 1859 not quite £48,000, whereas in
1858 it voted very little short of £50,000. To put
the affair as plainly as possible before the public
in the matter of this annual disbursement for the
support of our national collection of curiosi-
ties and literature in the British Museum,
the committee voted to that end in 1858 the
sum of £49,800—while it has voted for the
same purpose in 1859, £1,875 less, or (to give
the precise amount) exactly - £47,925. This
decrease of expenditure upon the British Museum
is simultaneous with a manifest and even extraor-
dinary increase in its general usefulness. In illus-
tration of which it is only necessary to bear in mind
a few of the remarkable facts culled from the report
(placed previously upon the table of the House of
Commons) by the right hon. gentleman the member
for Cambridge University, who, in his capacity as
one of the Trustees of the British Museum, moved,
and, as a matter of course, moved successfully, for
this vote of £47,925 by the Committee. Conspi-
cuous among these selected particulars in regard to
the past year's development of the British Museum
as art establishment for the indirect diffusion
of the advantages of national education among
the general multitude, is the surpising mag-
nitude of the general ratio of increase in the
number of readers and in the number of the
books
perused by them during the last and the
preceding twelvemonth. It is because of this in-
crease in the number and in the assiduity of the
students frequenting the British Museum dur-
ing the year last past, that we observe upon
the estimates of the institution an appreciable
increase in the charges for the establishment ! An
increase consequent upon the necessity there has
been found for additional attendants by reason of
the increase both of readers and of visitors. The
diminution notwithstanding this, the remarkable
diminution, upon the whole of the estimates
of the British Museum taken together—a dimi-
nution amounting in the aggregate, as we have
seen, to nearly £2,000 in a single year—is trace-
able, it may be observed at once to several
sources. It is traceable, among others, to the de-
crease in the house expenses, consequent upon
certain wholesome, economic, and scientific lin-
improvmeents in the system of warming a❑d
ventilation. Besiil es which, as Mr. WALPOLE
observed last evenirig, " there has been a consider-
able diminution iii the item for printed books,
owing to the lard ,e expenditure which had been
incurred of late yet ►rs in the binding of books, to
make up for the si iortcomings of previous years."
[An expenditure, by the way, which we, for one,
cannot help reg arding as having been most unne-

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THE SUN.
TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1859.