The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-27 00:00:00

Commence at 7o'clock.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.
Lessee and Manager Mr. William Cooke.
SPLENDID EASTER NOVELTIES.
' THIS EVENING, the performances will commence with
a new grand spectacle, founded on Sir Walter Scott's popular
work, entitled IVANHOE ; or, The Lists of Ashby, intro-
4neing among the vast resources of this great Hippodramatic
Temple,Tournaments, Processions, Banners, Combats, Tilts,
Victories, and A.chievemer is in extraordinary magnificence.
Ivanhoe, Mr. R. Phillips ; Isaac of York, Mr. Jas. Holloway;
Richard of England, Mr. Herbert ; Rebecca, Miss Bathurst.
After which, the matchless and uurivalled SCENES IN
THE CIRCLE, introducing Mr. John Henry Cooke, the
greatest equestrian in the world : together with Miss
Emily Cooke, Madame Blanche, Madame Bridges, Madlle.
Fleurette, and Madame Francisco, being the greatest amount
of female equestrian talent ever seen in one night in any
theatre. Grotesques—Messrs. Hemming and Thorne.
To conclude with the Farce of BATHING.
Dress Circle, 4s. ; Boxes,.3s. ; Pit, 2s, ; Gallery, ls. ; Upper
Gallery, 6d.
Private Boxes, .£1 4s, £2 2s, sad £1 ls.
Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips

OAN TER BUR Y HALL AND FINE ARTS
%-) GALLERY, Westminster-road.—Open at Seven.

EVERY EVENING during the week will appear
THE DELEPIERRE FAMILY,

consists' of 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 ever
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 EVERY EVENING, at NINE and
ELEVEN o'clock, in addition to the usual Entertainments.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, APRIL 27.

TIFIERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
64—highest since noon yesterday.
52—lowest this morning and during the night.
50—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.95.

WIND, E. ; very high wind, and cloudy weather,

The plot is thickening rapidly. The conspiracy
against the peace of Europe will speedily be deve-.
loped. We can now understand the causes which
led to the proposal for THE BUBBLE CONGRESS, and
the appearance of Russia at the critical moment
when the mediation of England would have pre-
served the general tranquillity, and averted the
impending hostilities. Russia has never for a
moment ceased to remember the conduct pursued
by Austria during the late war, and, true to her
ancient traditions—mindful of the policy inculcated
in the will of PETER—she would gladly see
any one of the great Powers reduced in posi-
tion, and, if possible, erased from the map of
Europe. It is now positively asserted that
an alliance, offensive and defensive, has been
concluded between France and Russia, and
that in consequence thereof Ru:,sia is to make her
first mobilization of four corps d'armee, two of
which are to be advanced towards the Austrian,
and two towards the Prussian frontier.

It now appears that the conspiracy has been a
considerable time maturing, and that the proposal
for the Bubble Congress was but a portion of the
deep laid scheme! It was clearly understood that
no beneficial result could be achieved, but time
would be given to France and Russia to complete
their preparations, and to come into the field with
what they fondly imagined to be irresistible force.
We have not, at all events, been in any degree
hoodwinked. On the 18th of April The Sun con-
tained the following paragraph in its leading
column :—" The fact may turn out to be that
each of the great Powers,' as they please
to term themselves, is trying to outwit
its fellow by throwing dust into its rival's
eyes for the ostensible benefit of mankind,
but in reality for its own ends. Russia has the
merit of proposing a Congress for the sake of
peace! and backs its quiet suggestion by asking for
a loan of some twelve millions, in order the better
to preserve the peace ! The believers in despotism -
see no harm in this modest proposal, resting fully
satisfied with the extreme moderation of the
EMPEROR of all the slaves, from Finland to Siberia,
and the far regions to the East ; while others, more
seemingly awake, suspect there's a screw loose
zomewhere between the paddle-wheels of St.
Petersburg and the Tuileries. In other words,
they fancy that the idea of the Congress is only to
gain time for the ice to melt in the cold regions of
the Baltic, so as to
let out the fleet cooped up in
Cronstadt into the milder waters of the Mediter-
ranean, or, it may be, into the more congenial im-
pregnability of Cherbourg. That feat once
achieved, JOHN BULL may begin to open his eyes
and look around in wonder, but not in dismay, for
JOHN'S British pluck will then assume the true-
blue of defiant independence, and the Minister of
the day, whoever he be, may look out for squalls of
no ordinary retribution."

How fully and completely has this prediction
been verified! How clearly were the views and
intentions of " the .Emperor of all the Slaves from
Finland to Siberia, and the far regions of the
East " exposed. He has been compelled to cast
aside the mask a little sooner than he had antici-

pated, but it is now manifest that a thorough un-
derstanding has long been arrived at between the
despots of St. Petersburgh and the Tuileries. And
these are the men who have assumed arms in the
cause of Italian freedom (!) Many abuses .have
been perpetrated in the name of liberty, but never
perhaps was it so greatly desecrated as on the
present occasion. The Trojan Prince and Priest
exclaimed when the horse containing the armed
soldiers was received with unwise acclamations.

" Timeo, Danaos, et dons ferentes,"

And every prudent Italian may well dread the
constitutional freedom tendered by the Imperial
Autocrat. Once more we quote from our prophetic
article of Monday week. We there said :—" If
coming events cast their shadows before, Louis
NAPOLEON has shadowed forth the course of time,
according to his reading of the book of fate. His
new year's gift to Austria may prove a bitter pill
to Europe under the patriotic badge of liberty
to Italy. Yes ! liberty to the Italians—poor slaves
as they were—made poorer slaves by the very
man who, professing freedom at the head of some
forty millions of Frenchmen, sent an army to put
down freedom in Rome in order to propitiate the
rancour of priestcraft ! And this is our august
ally !—the snake who keeps coiling around us
the more stealthily to betray ! But, not feel-
ing too secure in his own power, he wants
to make assurance doubly sure by enlisting
the willing aid of a kindred despot. And England
is all the while cajoled by the semblance of mode-
ration by the bubble of a Congress ! Well, it may
turn out ' all right,' but we much fear that we
shall awake some fine morning and find ' all in the
wrong' to be the order of the day. Once more we
warn our watchmen to be more wide awake, and
keep their powder dry." We now find to our cost
that " all in the wrong" is the order of the day,
and that notwithstanding the energetic and firm
proceedings of the British Government, the plan
was too deeply laid to be averted by any merely
human foresight or exertion.

We believe that Austria had, even at the eleventh
hour,once more agreed to accept En glish m ediation on
the terms indicated by Lord DERBY in his brilliant
oration at the Mansion House. She was well
aw are that the proposed Congress was nothing
better than " a mockery, a delusion, and
a snare," intended merely to exhaust her
resources, while France and Russia were
arming for the strife. But she had faith in British
honour and British justice ; and, although aware
that on some points the decision must be adverse
to her untenable pretensions, she was willing to
yield with a good grace, provided the judgment
was pronounced by England.
LOUIS NAPOLEON aspires to military distinction.
Italy is a more convenient field than the Crimea,
and he will have plenty of experienced " dry
nurses" to give him the benefit of their advice and
assistance. He is making extraordinary efforts to
fill the role which he has assumed. A loan of
500,000,000 francs (X 20,000,000) has been already
announced. As usual, the great moderation (!) of
the EMPEROR has been insisted on. He only makes
war because he has "been forced and constrained
so to do by the aggressive conduct of Austria."
This is a repetition of the lupine argument when
a casus belli was desired against the lamb. It will
not, however, deceive any disinterested and unpre-
judiced person, either in France or throughout
Europe. The recent treaty with Russia is the deep
blot that stains the entire transaction, and clearly
indicates the animus by which the Emperor NAPO-
LEON has been influenced during his warlike pre-
parations.

It is possitively asserted that France has already
taken the first step, and that the French troops
have already arrived in the Sardinian waters, and
violated neutral territory in Savoy. The
EMPEROR, too, is starting for the frontier in
order to take the command in person, and to
prove that the mantle of the First NAPOLEON
has descended to himself. There is, however, no
Imperial or Royal road to military science, and
however the matter may have been studied theo-
retically, practice and experience is indispensable.
He may have " played at soldiers," have speculated
on the qualities of different descriptions of
ordnance—invented new guns ; but none of these
matters will assimilate him to the victor of
Austerlitz, and Marengo, or enable him to defeat
the Austrian cohorts that may be brought into the
field against him. It is true that the Duke of
MALAKHOFF may be at his elbow—that
BARAGUAY D'HILLIERS, MACMAHON, CAN-
ROBERT and NIELL may whisper their
suggestions, but a general commanding must
have the stuff within him to do so, and no
advice or assistance will compensate for incapacity

on his part.
The Stock exchange has exhibited the violent
fluctuations that might have been anticipated. The
mere rumours of war have occasioned unusual
mischief. We earnestly hope that no English
capitalist will meddle with any foreign loan, the
object whereof must be to carry on hostilities, and
which must greatly depreciate the value of the
other securities of which they may be possessed.

The experience of twenty years has now served
to illustrate in a remarkable manner the extraor-
dinary advantages accruing from the beneficial
system of the penny postage. A blue-book gives
the latest evidence of this in the shape of an official
report, duly sigied and countersigned. Lord COL-
CHESTER'S is the signature—Mr. ROWLAND HILL'S
the counter-signature. There is the radiant
puppet—there the potent hand pulling the string
beneath. Yonder is the marvellous automaton
chess player, crowned with an Earl's coronet, in-
stead of an Oriental turban, contemplatively smok-
ing the calumet—now and then impatiently tapping
the board, leisurly and (in the end) unerringly
moving the men that year after year win the
game through all its extending complications.
Secreted within, among all the complex machinery
—hidden from vulgar eyes—lurks the real player
to whom we are all of us indebted for the chief
glory of the whole contrivance--to whose guiding
skill we are still beholden for the annual triumph
of the performance.

Accustomed though we have become long since
to the marvels of the penny postage system—just as
we have come to regard it at last quite as a matter
of course that we should be whirled to and fro upon
our travels by the fiery dragon of the steam engine,
or as we have• our portraits painted in a twinkling
by the pencil of the sunbeam, or as we send our
messages hither and thither on the wings of the
lightning—we cannot but recognise the astonishing
benefit secured to us in this the last score of years,
as the fruits of that penny postage system, by one
momentary glance of retrospect.
Let us recall to mind, for example, how exactly
twenty years ago, namely in the year 1839—the
year before the adoption of Mr. ROWLAND HILL'S
suggested improvement—the number of letters de-
livered during that twelvemonth in the United
Kingdom amounted altogether in round numbers
to 76,000,000. And then let us epitomise in a
few suggestive numerals the astounding rate of
increase since then in our magnificent Post-
office
establishment. Since 1839, then—to begin
with—we find actually that we have already at-
taine4in these comparatively few years an increase

in the number of letters delivered annually amount-
ing to 446,000,000 ! The gross amount of the letters
delivered in the United Kingdom in 1858 amount-
ing to 523,000,000. So that the letters of 1858,
as compared with the letters of 1839, are really, to
put it simply in other words, more than seven times
76,000,000! Taking the sister island alone into
account in this matter, we may positively assert
that whereas the number of letters delivered in 1839
showed a total equal to just one letter to each in-
dividual member of the population—the number of
letters delivered in that island in 1858 yielded a
total equal to just seven letters for each member
of the population ! The aggregate increase
amounting, as we have seen, to 523,000,000,
showing beyond this an equivalent of no less than
16 for each person in Scotland, and of as many as
22 for each person in England.
What is hardly less remarkable in regard to this
vast total of 523,000,000 letters in 1858—is the
surprising circumstance that very nearly half the
whole amount passed through London : and that
actually one entire quarter was delivered within
the metropolitan districts. Little more than one
fiftieth of the whole, comprising the sum of the
English postage in relation to the foreign and
colonial. Out of these 523,000,000 letters as many
as 1,300,000 were registered—showing one regis-
tered letter as compared with some 400 ordinary
communications. The miscarriages in the Post-
office still yield in all a rather formidable aggregate,
last year having witnessed the "return" of no less than
1,700,000 letters and 570,000 newspapers. Almost
every one of the letters being returned, we do honestly
believe from some informality on the part of those
sending them—the majority of the newspapers
probably from the accidental bursting of the covers.
Together with the increase of the " letter post"—
there is a notable increase observable in two other
departments that have more recently sprung into
existence. In regard to Book Packets-1858 shows
a total of 7,250,000 ! In regard to Money Orders
—there were issued for that same year 1858 as
many as 6,689,396! The amount thus passing
current in 1858 through the Post-office reaching a
surprising total of £12,662,105 ! That ex-
traordinary total of £12,662,105 giving a net
profit, after the payment of all expenses in the
labour of transmission) of fully a quarter of a million
sterling, in part of just £25,936. Remembering
that ten years ago (1849) the amount of net profit
realised by means of money orders did not exceed
£322 in all, and that the year afterwards (1850)
that total of profit had increased to £3,236, the
total already mentioned for 1858 of over £25,000
must be allowed to give proof of an astonishingly
rapid development.
Altogether, it is curious to note, in addition to
the ,before-mentioned items, that the report con-
tained in this latest blue-book from St. Martin's le
Grand gives evidence that we have already in these
islands not far short of a thousand head post•
offices, and considerably more than 10,000
sub - post - offices —in all 11,235 ! The distance
traversed diurnally in the transmission of the
national correspondence, according to the same
reliable authority, considerably exceeds 100,000
miles a day—in fact, 3,000 miles a day more in
1858 than in 1857, the aggregate of the space thus
traversed during the year last passed being in
effect just 133,000 miles a day ! There have been
two or three blunders during the year just
completed, but these blunders have fortunately
been repaired in time—thanks to the repugnance
with which they were received by the public, and
the indignant remonstrances with which the
intending innovations were greeted by the press.
So unmistakeable, indeed, has been the triumph
thus jointly won by the press and the public, that
we may content ourselves with this merely inci-
dental allusion to it. We have every confidence
that we shall hear no more of these perilous
experiments. At any rate—should they unhap-
pily at any time be ever repeated—we arc perfectly
certain they ,will be put an end to quite as
summarily.

THIRD EDITION.

POSTPONEMENT OF
DECLARATION OF WAR BY

AUSTRIA.

We have received the following telegram from
our correspondent at Vienna :

" VIFNNA, Wednesday Morning, 11 o'clock.

" The British Government has offered its direct
mediation between Austria and France upon the
basis of Lord Cowley's proposals. Austria having
accepted this offer, has postponed the declaration
of war for a day or two,

" The French troops arc now crowding into Sar.

dinia."

We are sorry, however, to add that France has
declined the offer made by the British Government.
—Third Edition of the Times.

ACCEPTANCE BY AUSTRIA OF THE

MEDIATION OF ENGLAND.

We are enabled to state that her Majesty's Go-
vernment received yesterday the official intimation
of the acceptance by Austria of the mediation pro-
posed by England. The promptitude with which
Austria has acceded to this last proposal on the
part of our Government will, we believe, have a
beneficial effect. Our rulers have acted through-
out this complicated affair with rigid impartiality,
which cannot fail to make a favourable impression
on the various parties in the quarrel. Lord
Derby's speech must have convinced our own pub-
lie, as well as the people of other countries, that by
her Majesty's present advisers the influence and
the power of England will, either in war or peace,
be directed with energy and discretion. Their
great object has been to preserve that harmony,
which has now, with the exception of a short
interval, prevailed for nearly half a century.
The disturber of European tranquillity, whoever
he may be, will not find in them an accom-
plice. We hail this amicable act on the part
of Austria as a pledge that she has not irre-
vocably committed herself to a rash policy, and that
she is still willing to make some sacrifices in the
interests of peace. Lord Cowley's mission produced
the best effect, and would, had not the Russian
proposal for a Congress intervened, have been
crowned with success. Our ambassador at Paris is
intimately acquainted with the feelings and wishes
of the French Emperor, and in his intercourse with
Count Buol speedily established a basis on which
France and Austria might work together to pro-
duce a satisfactocy settlement of the Italian diffi-
culty. It is therefore with infinite satisfaction we
learn that Austria has consented to resume the
negotiations at the point at which they were sud-
denly suspended when the idea of a Congress was
first broached. It affords a proof not only of her
reliance on the impartial conduct of the English
Government, but also of her desire to avoid an
appeal to arms ; and we sincerely trust that it may
lead to important results.—Morning Herald.

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THE SUN.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1859.