The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-24 00:00:00

Conductor, Alfred Mellon.

Ballet, LA FIANCEE. Messrs. W. H. Payne, H. Payne,
F. Payne, Mcllle. Icquine, Pasquale, Pierron, Clara Morgan,
and Mons. Vandris.. _ _ _

Doors open at half-past 7—Commence at 8 o'clock.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.

-rills F,ITENING the performances will commence with
LLOWE'EN.

After which, THE BACHELOR OF ARTS. Jasper (his
oriy moat character), Mr. C. Mathews.
Followed by a new Comedietfa, entitled THE LATE
LAMENTED.
And MY WIFE'S DAUGHTER.

Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.-
Lessee, Mr. A. Harris._

THIS EVENLNG, the performances will commence with
a new Petite Comedy, entitled GOSSIP. Messrs. Ryder,
Meadows, Shore; Miss Wadham and Mrs. C. Young.

After which, a new farce, in one act, entitled NURSEY
CHICKWEED. Messrs. Widdicomb, Meadows, H. Saker ;
Miss L. Keeley and Mrs. Weston.
. _

To be followed by THE MASTER PASSION. Messrs
Ryder, G. Melville, Graham, R. Cathcart, Garden ; Miss C.
Lec'ercq and Mrs. Charles Young.

EW THEATRE - ROYAL, AD ELPHI.
1.11 Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.

THIS EVENING, THE DEAD HEART. Messrs
B. Webster. J. L. Toole, David Fisher, Paul Bedford. Stuart,
Billinzton, C. J. Smith, Eburne, Moreland; Miss Woolgar,
and Miss K. Kelly.

Followed by the successful piece of extravagance, called
DINORAH UNDER DIFFICULTIES. Messrs. J. L. Took,
P. Bedford, C. J. Smith, Eburne, and Miss K. Kelly.
Doors open at half-past- six--Commence at seven. Box-
Office open from 10 to 5. No charge for securing seats,
nor fer bills of performance. All fees to servants of this
establishment arc strictly prohibited.
Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

THEATRE-ROYAL LYCEUM.—SoIe Lessee
and Dire.stress, Madame Celeste.—The Public is re-
spe:tfully informed this Theatre will OPEN for the Winter
Season on MONDAY, Nov. 28, with a new and original
Drama Fantasfique, written by a popular author, entitled
PARIS AND PLEASURE ; or, Home and Happiness. Full
particulars will be duly announced.

ROYAL ST. JAMES'S THEATRE,
King-street, St. James's. Lessee, Mr. T. B. Chatter-
ton. The nearest Theatre to Chelsea, Pimlico, and West-
minster, the Park being open to carriages and foot passen-
gers all hours of the night.
THIS EVENING, a new Comedy, LONDON PRIDE ; or,
Living for Appearances. Messrs. R. Robins, Barrett,
Charles Young ; Mesdames Frank Matthews, Murray, and
Nelly Moore.
Atter which (Bth time) a new Fairy Extravaganza, entitled
THE SWAN AND EDGAR. Messrs. Barrett, Francis,
Miss Lydia Thompson, Miss Clara St. Casse, and the Corps
de Ballet.
To conclude with A DEAD SHOT.

Reduced Prices—Gallery, 6d ; Pit, ls. The Box-office open
from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past six ; perform
ante commences at 7.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.

Sole Lessee' Mr. William Cooke.

Continued successfnl career of the new Drama, by Tom
Taylor, Esq., called GARIBALDI ; illustrating the principal
events in the Life of the Great Italian General. Supported
by a Powerful Company, including the fallowing popular
favourites :—Mr. R. Phillips, Ennis Belmore,Raymond, Miss
Kate Carson, &c. - Great Dramatic Tableux—Full Stud of
Trained Horses--Scenes in the Circle by the Star Equestrians
of Europe, John Henry Cooke, Madlle. Marguerite„ Miss
Ilosina, and the world's wonder, Little Menoui, also, the
Extraordinary Performing Elephant—Clowns, H. Croneste,
Rowella, French Pierrots, Gymnasts and Acrobats innumer-
able, concluding with the exceedingly laughable Comic Ballet
called LOVE'S VAGARIES.
Stage Manager, Mr. It Phillips

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.—
EVERY EVENING.—The Music of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
certs).

And a Grand Se'ection from Meyerbeer's new opera'of
DINORAH.

Comic Vocalists —Messrs. GeOrze ifodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Crltchfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified. and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.

ROSA BONFIEIIR'S celebrated PICTURE of the HORSE
FAIR is now added to the already magnificent Collection of
Paintings in the Canterbury Ball Fine Arts Gallery. The
gallery is open from 9 am. till 12 p.m. Admission, Six-
pence.

THE WEATITER.—SuIsr Orricz, NOVEMBER 24.
THEIMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
52—highest since noon yesterday.
44—lowest this morning and during the night.
51—this day at noon.

BAnoivrETER-30.03.
Warm, East-South-Easterly; light, with fine weather,

lIIGII WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE

THIS DAY.—Morning, lh. 13m.—Afternoon, lh. 35m.
To-uouatow.-Morning, Ih. 56m.—Afternoon, 21i. 16m.

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-,_

THE SUN.
LONDON, T.HURSDAY, NOV. 24, 1859.

The Rifle Corps agitation has long since assumed
to itself the grandeur of a national movement. It
is not by any means surprising, therefore, that the
time has long gone by when it was the fashion to
sneer at the militia and the yeomanry. If there
h any one fact that has been rendered conspicu-
ously undeniable by the different historians of the
brief campaign in Belgium, ending with the crown-
ing contest of Waterloo, it is the fact that the
conquerors in that last of the world's great battles
were, for the most part, or at any rate in a very
considerable proportion, raw recruits. This
astounding fact demonstrated beyond the possi-
bility of misapprehension, we repeat, by all the
most exact and reliable authorities, from the earliest
to the latest, whether native or foreign, from
SIBORNE down to, in point of time up to, in point
of accuracy, BRIALy.o.yr ! How many, indeed, of
our gallant fellows under Lord RAGLAN, how many
of those brave troops who, at the man-
date of their chief walked up the embat-
tled acclivity of the hill of Alma, to a

complete and signal victory, to a victory ter-
minating in all but a rout, had never before, save
in review or sham-fights (as the phrase is) smelt gun-
powder? Experience indeed has long since demon-
strated, over and over again, that but a very small
modicum, a mere handful, so to speak, of hardy
and well-disciplined veterans suffice to give a heart,
a will, a vivid and not easily irresistible im-
petus to a vast numerical preponderance of newly
recruited, half-drilled, hastily-accoutred English-
men.

Another consideration beyond alI this has served
to forward the advance latterly of this newly
inaugurated Rifle Corps movement. The
growing conviction now is, that skill with
the rifle is, all things considered, readily
attainable. Hass BUSK and all his calla-
borateurs agree in this, if in nothing else.
A steady hand, a keen eye, a little common sense,
and a small share of perseverance, and your rifle
volunteer may calculate in reason upon becoming
speedily enough a credit to the corps of which he is
a brother in arms. Hitherto, it is true, the move-
ment has been spreading, as it were, by fits and
starts, in a desultory manner, according to the whim'
or Particular localities, or the ardour of this or that
individual. Nevertheless, even in this desultory
manner, we believe an aggregate has already been
arrived at that would sound scarcely credible if it
were at this moment masted together. We cannot
help thinking that a stage has at
,length been
reached in the development of the rifle corps move-
ment, when by a judicious interpo3ition of the
le is-
-I:iture (in aid and encouragement of the movement)
the whole complex and hitherto scattered scheme
might. be readily and effectually—there is no
bettzr - word for it—systematised. It militates
nothing whatever, of course, from the military
strength and preTiaredness of any country, that the
extent of its milaary and maritime armaments are
known (are ascei:tained and published) to a man, to
a ship, to a gun, to a bayonet. We cannot but
think it would immensely advance our insular pre-
paredness, and strengthen our position instead of
weakening it the estimation of all the rest of
the great poi' ,7ers of the earth, friend or foe, if we

had it ascelli.ained and officially published in returns
as authentic and as reliable as the returns periodi•

tally revised at the Horse Guards, that we have had
organised here voluntarily among the masses of
the educated and industrial population themselves
a vast National Guard of 200,000 or 300,000 skilled
Rifle Volunteers. An armament like that, guaran
teed to be accurate, so to speak, by having the
timbre of the Government affixed to it by way of
absolute authentication would be a judicious warn-
ing to any insidious enemy who might be meditat-
ing the heinous crime and bloodguilliness of an
unprovoked invasion. Regarding the matter in
this light, we cannot but think that when Parlia-
shall have re-assembled in February, it might be
advisable to have certain reliable returns moved for
and ordered to be printed in the form of a goodly
Blue-book of carefully collected and tabularly
arranged statistics, showing us How many Rifle
Corps have already been established throughout
the United Kingdom, How many are in course of
being established, and How many more are feasible
or desirable, or in actual preparation.

Another suggestion is likewise we cannot
but think deserving of being taken at
an early date now into the serious con-
sideration of the Government. The suggestion,
that is to say which has been thrown out for some
time past occasionallyinvarious directions to the effect
that one uniform system of clothing for these Rifle.
Volunteers should be adopted by them under the
advice and by the authority of Government. An
admirably sensible letter, extracted by us
from our chief morning contemporary, and
published- elsewhere in our columns this
evening, throws a refreshing flood of light
we cannot but think, upon this long-vexed
question, and does so in the very nick of time,
as follows :2—" The uniform ?" asks the Royal
Engineer, who immediately responds to his own
query with a rejoinder somewhat startling, it must
be allowed, in the prevalent bias in favour of grey
or olive green or other colours scarcely visible in a
sylvan or cultivated landscape—" The uniform ?
What better could they wear, than the common
hunting costume with the scarlet coat ? Well, to
save appearances and prevent the enemy having
any excuse to hang a man who fell into their hands
as an unlicensed soldier, let us throw in a helmet
or a hunting cap with a funny plume. Oh, but
how conspicuous a red coat would be ! Has it
never struck auy of the partisans of invisible coats
that in the confusion and smoke of action it is diffi-
cult to tell friend from foe, and that the introduction
of distinctive uniforms was, as with the rests in olden
time, to guard against such mischance ? Has the in-
troduction of rifles and distant fighting done away
with the necessity of this distinctiveness. Ask
any one who was at Inkerman if he did not hear
the men curse the hour when they went into action
in greatcoats, instead of as a thin red line, saying
that it was impossible till they came close upon him
to tell a Russian from an Englishman. It was a
drizzling, misty day ; are we not as likely to have
misty days in England ? Then we are at close
quarters, and one would imagine nothing could be
more dissimilar than the outlines of our men and
of the Russians in their flat broad caps and NOAH'S
Ark greatcoats." Certainly the reasoning in this
must be allowed to be sufficiently impressive. But
the writer has not yet done with his force- •
ful arguments. " When you come," he says, "to
long distance rifle shooting, no human being can
guess your country. Many, a poor fellow of the
Rifle Volunteers will, if ever the occasion comes
for active service, and he finds himself potted
at from- the rear, regret the hour when fancy
was allowed unlimited s-say in picking out
invisible grays. I should say the greater the dis-
tance at which you are to fight the more marked
should be your uniforms, and certainly neither the
French nor any other continental nation has made
their uniform less marked in consequence of the in-
troduction of rifles. Why, sir, with us every vo
lunteer corps has a different and more curious uni-
form; no human being except the tailor who de-
vised them knows what they belong to at 20yards'
distance. If you ask, you are answered, Oh, I

suppose it is a rifle volunteer.' In action a bullet
may ask the question." An unpleasant considera-
tion so put, but really and truly one that ought to
be dropped into his pipe, and reflectively smoked
out by every contemplative Volunteer.

Sir JOHN BowniNG has just now spoken to the
English public most oppOrtunely. His ex.-Excel-
lency yesterday delivered before the Society of
Arts a lecture, comprising within it the gist of all
he has to say upon China and the Chinese. There
condensed into that single prelection were the
majority of Sir JOHN'S observations upon that
twin theme during his protracted residence upon
the borders of China as her Britannic MAJESTY'S

Representative.
It is significant, we cannot but think, that at
the very outset of his remarks, Sir JOHN BowRING
took occasion to utter one pithy sentence of
warning to the British multitude, now that the
nation is again plunging into a contest with that
gigantic race which absolutely comprises within it
one entire third of the whole population of the globe
—Sir JoHN BOWRING actually estimating the
present total of the inhabitants of China at an
amount so stupendous as to be even in excess of the
wonderful aggregate of 416,000,000. It is in the
act-of repudiating any intention whatever to touch
upon political questions during the progress of his
lecture that Sir JoHN BOWRING utters this to us
peculiarly significant Warning—when he avows it
to be distinctly his opinion that as far as
territory is concerned we have already emough of
China. The mere Beware is a token of the direc-
tion in which the speaker conceives that we arc
now advancing—and the probability he beholds
before him of new territorial acauisitions by Eng-
land in those remote borders of the eastern hemi-
sphere. However this may be, there is the warning
—with a view to encourage us to attend to which
the lecturer immediately begins, it appears to us,
rather injudiciously, to sing the praises of
Hong Kong. He described it as exceedingly
well chosen as a settlement, and men-
tioned, among other tokens of its astonishing
rapidity of growth the circumstance that during
the period of his own residence there Hong Kong
had more than trebled its population. Whereas he
had found in it but 30,000 souls, he id; in it as many
as 96,000 ! And while he avowed frankly that
the pla2e could never be expected to attain much
commercial eminence by means of the exportation
of its own products, he certainly surprised us imme-
diately after wards with the information that the pub-
lic buildings Of the capital of California were con-
structed with granite quarried at. Hong lion g. Refer-
ing to theNastness of the Chinese population already
here E•pz:cified, as comprit,ing within it about a third
of the human race, Sir J,)mc tells us that " The

pressure on subsistence was in consequence so great,
that Chinese emigration might be reckoned by
Adding—" They pressed everywhere,
and in a port in the Philippines which had only
been three years opened, they already, consumed
British products to the amount of 400,000
dollars." Entering more fully afterwards into the
statistics procurable in reference to the Chinese trade
the Lecturer remarked that '1 the Chinese imports
into were above 11 millions in 1857, when
there was an extraordinary demand for raw silk, j

and the average annual export from China was
about nine millions. But there was a vast deal of
China trade which was not represented in the
British returns, so that he believed the real amount
would be nearer 50 millions than 40 millions ster•
ling, and our revenue from it upwards of four
millions. The exports, also, had gone up wonder-
derfully. In 1858 they were £2,876,447." And
these statistics, it iS especially observed, do not
represent in any way whatever either Opium or
Silver ! What Sir JOHN BOWRING now says upon
Opium we would most earnestly commend to the
consideration and the co:iscience (if they have any)
of all the thin-skinned MAWWORMS in the land.
The lecturer then remarked—" It had been said
that we carried on the opium trade in violation of
our treaties with China, whilst the fact was that
the treaties made no reference to the opium trade
whatever. It was said further that it was carried
on in contempt of the wishes of the Chinese
Government. Now he had resided ten years in
China, and had had much intercourse with man-
darins, and he had never heard opium men-
tioned except when he introduced the subject
himself. There was,-it was true, a warm con-
troversy constantly being carried on in the Pekin
Gazette, and hot arguments were held pro and con,
some writers-arguing against the legalising of the
introduction of the drug, and others urging that a
great revenue might be derived from it. If it were
so abhorred by the Chinese as was.alleged, he asked
was it possible that it should be cultivated in eight
provinces of China ; and so mach was that culti-
vation improving, that the monopoly of the India
'''Company was in great danger. His argument had
been always, legalise the trade, for you could not
stop it, and the frauds committed under the present
' system were raonstroas. It had been said that
the Chinese perished by thousands from the use of
opium. Now, from returns he had obtained in
Hong Kong, he found that more persons perished
out of €OO British residents of delirium tr•ernens
than among 96,000 Chinese from the use of opium.
•tie had stated these facts as he had found them in
returns, and had been accused of perverting them
to suit his purpose, and of concealing.the fact that
the Chinese victims of opium at Hong Kong went
to the main land to die. Nothing could be more
unjust. He found that in ancient times the Chinese
people had been notorious for habits of intoxica-
tion, but now he knew that they were perhaps the
most sober people in the world. Neither did it
seem to affect their longevity, for he knew one
man, an opium smoker, who was 104 years old, and
several others of ninety !" After this, what shall
be said of the immorality of both our war and our
trade with China? Certainly Sir JOHN BOWRING
gives us a couleur de rose view of both one and the
other. Listening to him, you would hardly think
there could be anything pernicious in that
insidious drug, of the evil influences of which we
have caught glimpses so appalling through the me-
lancholy hullucinations of the poet COLERIDGE
and through the eloquent ravings of THOMAS DE
QIIINCEY'S weird and impressive Experiences.
Altogether, however, the lecture is worthy of pro-
found consideration.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, Nov. 23.

The dinner party to-day included their Royal Highnesses
Prince Frederick William of Prussia, Princess Frederick
William of Prussia (Princess Royal), Princess Alice, and
the Princess of Leiningen, his Serene Highness the Prince
of Leiningen, Earl Cowley; Countess Lytytr, Countess
Hohenthal, Count Perponcher, Captain von Schweintz,
and the visitors who arrivel in the afternoon.

The first dramatic performance this season took place in
the evening. The following was the programme :

A comedy, in three acts, by Mr. Bayle Bernard, en-

titled—

TIIE EVIL GENIUS.
Hill Cooley, Esq:(aretired East Indian) Mr. Chippendale -
Tom Ripstone (his old acquaintance) Mr. Buckstone
Walmsley (his new one)
Docket (his lawyer) -
Barton (his surgeon) Mr Villiers
Joe Withers (the postman)
Parker
Bailiff
Lady Aurora Ringwood
Mrs. Montgomery
Clara Fielding
Time-1830. Scene—A Village and Park in Derbyshire.
- -- - - -

After which a comediatta, in one act, adapted from the
French vaudeville, " Un Service a Blanchard," by Mr.
Tom Taylor, entitled—
TO OBLIGE BENSON.

Mr. Benson (a barrister)
Mr. Trotter Southdown (his friend).. Mr. F. Robson
Mr. John Meredith (a pupil of Mr.
Benson's)
Mrs. Benson
Mrs. Trotter Southdown
Time—The Present Day. Scene—Mr. Benson's House in
....

Tliurlow-square. - ---
Under the Management of ....
and
_ _

Under the Direction of -
Mr. W. B. Donne
Her Majesty's Examiner of Plays.

The Theatre arranged and the Scenery painted by Mr.
Thomas Grieve.

Shortly after eight o'clock the Queen and Prince Con-
sort, with the Prince and Princess Frederick 'William of
Prussia (Princess Royal), Princess Alice, the Prince and
Princess of Leiningen, accompanied by the dinner company,
entered the Theatre in St. George's Hall, when the per-
formance immediately commenced.

The orchestra was composed of her Majesty's Private
Band.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.

A little comedy, adapted from the French, by Mr. Harris
and Mr. Williams, was produced at this theatre last night
with success. The dialogue is neatly written, and a moral
is worked out with point and piquancy.

The plot turns upon the evil propensity of gossip as'in-
dulged in by a MI s. Chatterton (Mrs. Charles Young), who,
during the dull period before the announcement of dinner,
enlivens the company with a description of an interview to
which she had been witness between a celebrated belle—a
Mrs. Beresford—and an unknown gentleman, in Kensington
Gardens. The husband of Mrs. Beresford happens to be
among the company to whom this is narrated, and he immedi-
ately insists on her giving him the name of the gentleman.
She is both unveiling and unable to comply, and he deter-
mines to persecute her into satisfying him. every day he
calls at her house, appears at her carriage door, follows her
into shops, always with the one phrase, " His name,
madam ;" he even telegraphs to her the same odious phrase
and renders her life insupportable by his constant persecu-
tion. She retires to the country house of a friend, and on
her still refusing he threatens to challenge her husband.
Then, finding from her grief at this threat that her heart is
not in fault, but thather gossipping propensities are merely

the result of an evil habit, he confesses that he himself was
tho gentleman who met his wife. The play was acted with
great spirit, and the applause at the fail of the curtain was
very great. The house was well attended.

LIFEBOAT jjERVICES CASTLETOWN, ISLE OF
MAN, Nov. 22.—0 n Saturday last, the 19th inst., the
barque Ohio, laden with salt, bound from Liverpool to
Stettin, was seen off Poolwash Bay (to the westward of
Castletown), with a signal for a pilot, and apparently un-
manageable. She shortly afterwards anchored ; but both
anchors dragged, and she went ashore near the centre of
the bay at 4 p.m. The wind was inshore, S.W., strong and
increasing. At the time of her striking she vas under the
lee of the Carrick, a half-tide rock, and a harbour boat,
which had left Port St. Mary with a pilot was enabled to
take eight of the crew ashore ; but as the tido rose and the
rock became covered, the surf prevented further communi-
cation with an ordinary boat. A messenger was then sent
immediately to Castletown for the lifeboat of the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution ; but she was fortunately
close at hand (earlier intelligence having reached the cox-
swain), and was launched at 5 p.m., reached the wreck at
-o'clock, and succeeded iu rescuing the remainder of the
crow—consisting of the master, mate, And two other hands

—who were saf;:ly landed at Port St. Mary, the nearest
practicable landing place at 8 p.m. The barque, belonging
to Prussian owners, will probably become a total wreck ;
she was in a leaky state when she struck. At the time the
lifeboat was launched it was very dark with a heavy sea.
The promptitude with which the lifeboat was on the spot
has given great satisfaction, as but an hour elapsed between
the barque striking and the arrival of the hoat, while two
miles of road, including a Mali and steep hill, had to be tra-
versed. This valuable lifeboat has also once or twice this
year saved shipwrecked crews. The station is iu first-rate
order.

• Amongst the new undertakings in respect of
which application is to be made for the sanction of Parlia-
ment next session is one called the Milford Haven Railway
and Docks.

TILE DEATU OF PITT.-4 paragraph has been
going the round of the papers giving a totally inaccurate
account of the death of this great statesman. We have the
best reason for knowing that in Mr. Rose's Diary, about to
be published by Mr. Bentley, the real facts connected with
his last illness and death will for the first time be made
public.