The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-07 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, FEB, 6,

TIEERHOMF,TER, IN THE SHADE,

.51—highest incA* noon yesterday.
42-lowe,st this morning and .during the night,
45—this day at noon.

BAROMETER.-29'28.
WIND, W.S.W. ; light, with fine weather; very dull in
the morning, with rain in the night,

FEB. 7.

48—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
48—this day at noon.

-
BADOMETEIV-29.35.
WIND, South-Westerly ; fresh, with fine weather.
Two o'Clock—Heavy ram.

THE SUN.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1859.

The desired Austrian loan has now closed. The
little draft for six millions sterling has been re-

fused acceptance. The English capitalists did not
bite quite so readily as had been anticipated. They
were not quite satisfied as to the security tendered,
nor as to the certainty of peace being maintained
in Europe. As to the political consequences of such
a transaction, it was a question of minor impor-
tance. The prospect of a quarter per cent. more
would render the result a matter of the most pro-
found indifference. It might rivet the fetters on
Lombardy, maintain the disturbances in Italy,
and prevent any improvement in the Papal or
Neapolitan Governments. But these are but mere
bagatelles, provided there be good interest and a
handsome premium, which will enable the original
investors to realise handsome profits.

Sardinia, too, is entering the field as a borrower,
The two millions sterling which she has already
received from the English Government has stimu-
lated her cupidity, and she is desirous of doubling
the obligation. We wish well to Piedmont, as the
only constitutional power in Italy ; but it would
be a cruel kindness to comply with her request in
the present instance. It would be like pleasing
the depraved appetite of a sick child, when the
greatest injury might be occasioned by the tem-
porary gratification. The pretext, too, on which
it is put forward is so palpably ridiculous,
so ludicrously absurd, that it shows what
a humble estimate must be entertained of our
judgment and intellectual capacity. Never was
there so plausible and unfounded a pretext put
forward to obtain money. Austria is threatening (!)
She is the wolf against which the innocent Pied-
montese lamb must protect itself, and wants
just fifty millions of lire, or two millions sterling,
to provide and support the watchdogs, or, to use the
ipsissima verba," for the defence of the country,
and for the safeguard of its honour, its liberty, and
its national independence."
This is really something too rich. Austria is
bound over in very heavy recognisances to keep
the peace. She cannot afford to go to war, and the
failure of the projected loan has rendered her dis-
position even more pacific than it might otherwise
have been. She certainly will not provoke a con-
test, although she may strive to resist any attack.
But we see Sardinia regularly preparing for an
encounter. Its fifteen years' old Princess has been
delivered over to a fat epicurean of forty, and it is
said that VICTOR EMMANUEL himself is about to
marry the widowed Grand Duchess of LEUCH•
TENBERG, heedless of the little responsibilities
which she has incurred since the death of her former
husband. Ties, which can only be for political
purposes, are thus contracted with France and
Russia ; and yet, poor innocent, he dreads aggres-
sion on the part of Austria, and requires means
" for the defence of the country and for the safe-
guard of its honour, its liberty, and its national

• - - lITI,

menaced, will be the universal interrogatory ? It is
one by no means easy to answer ; but Count
CAVOUR fancies he can blindfold Europe, and under
such mendacious pretexts obtain the means of
flinging a.firebrand into the heart of Europe, and
occasioning a conflagration which cannot be extin-
guished save by an immense sacrifice of blood and
treasure, as far exceeding in amount the sum now
demanded as the stacks of wheat consumed
by an incendiary would the value of the
lucifer-match which created the blaze. We
cautioned the gentlemen of the Money Market and
Stock txchange against having anything to do
with the Austrian loan ; we still more emplaaticaPy
advise them to abstain from the Sardinian.
If granted, it would not only occasion bloodshed,
but would depreciate the value of every public
security, and, as we have stated, far more than
double the loss of sixty millions sterling already
sustained.

The pamphlet " L'Empereur Napoleon 111. et
l'ltalie," to which we alluded in our impression of
Saturday, has not by any means alleviated the
apprehensions that previously existed. The com-
plete disregard of existing treaties, whenever they
may prove inconvenient or annoying, exhibits in
the strongest light the views and feelings of the
Gevernment that has expressed or even sanctioned
such opinions. " Treaties are the international
laws of peoples, and would only be invariable if the
world was immoveable!" But who is to decide the
time and extent of change ? Who can say what
should be the alteration ? Certainly not one of the
contracting parties. It should if possible be re-
ferred to the arbitration of disinterested parties.
Austria might get out of the scrape by withdrawing
her troops from the papal States, and conceding many
essential reforms to the Lombardo-Venetian king-
dom. But if she has not the good sense to adopt
the remedial measures of her own accord, there
should be another Congress before the armies have
come into hostile collision. Hitherto the blow has
always preceded the word. Surely it would be
right that the order were reversed, and that there
should be no hostilities until negotiations and arbi-
tration had totally failed, and that one or both
parties were determined on war.

To-morrow Sir
to promise, H. WILLOUGHBY will, according
lery under the notice
bring the question of the National Gal-
Government. He will ohfavtehetheHcooursdeialansudppoofdthoef
and Mr. CONINGHAM. He
men like Lord PLcuo
will find, we are satisfied, no antagonism either in
i mss
the Noble Lord the Chief Com •
ioner of Parks
and Palaces, or in the Right Hon. Gentleman the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was the latter, in-
deed, who at the period of his first tenure of office
—when in 1852 he was, as he is now once more in
1859, the leader of the House of Commons, and the
custodian of the public purse—first kindled the
popular aspiration for a palace of painting
and sculpture worthy of containing the art
treasures of the United Kingdom. That che-
rished project has since then been post-
poned and postponed with the most tantalising
pertinacity—as the phrase is, left in abeyance. The
Tory Reformers again in office we may hope that the
design may at length be realised. Additional reasons
accumulating round it encourage us in this belief.
The half of the present unsightly and inadequate
building (at all times affording insufficient accom-
modation) has now become wholly unequal to the

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