The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-31 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.-
Lessee, Mr. A. Harris.
Re-engagement of the Wonderful Dancer, Mons. Espinosa.
First appearance of Mdlle. Marietta Rosetta, Principal Dan-
sense of La Scala, Milan ; and first time of the Delapierre
Family. These highly-talented Children will appear every
night. The Royal Princess's Rifles on parade every evening.
THIS EVENING (SATURDAY), the new drama, HOME'
TKLITHS. Messrs. G. Melville, J. G. Shore, F. Matthews,
Miss C. Lec'eroq and Hrs. Charles Young.
After which, a new Christmas burlesque pantomime, by Tr.
J. Byron, called .JACK THE GIANT KILLER; or, 'Tarte-
quin King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Jack, Miss Louise Keeley—harlequin, Mr. Cormack - Panta-
loon, Mr. Paulo—Columbine, Miss Caroline Adams—Clown,
Mr. A. F. Forrest.

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

Three Morning Performances of the pantomime of JACK
THE JIANT KILLER, universally acknowledged the best
of the season, MONDAYS, January 2,9, and 16. Doors open
at halt-past one; commence at two o'clock.

NEW THEATRE - ROYAL, ADELPHL
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
Holiday Attractions.—The Christmas Carol and the New
spectacular Extravaganza, by H. J. Byron, Esq., the Nymph
of the Lurlyberg ; or the Knight and the Naiades.
THIS EVENING, THE CHRISTMAS CAROL. Messrs
J. L. Toole, C. Sielby, Paul Bedford, Stuart, Billington, C. J.
Smith. Romer: Miss Woolgar, Mrs. Billington, Mrs. Chatte-
rley, Miss Laidlaw.
After which THE NYMPHS OF THE LURLEYBERG ;
or, The Knight and the Naiades. Messrs. Toole, Bedford,
Eburne, Smith, Powell, Romer, Miss Woolgar, C. Webb, K.
Kelly, Laidlaw.
Doors open at half-past six—Commence at seven. Box-
Office open from 10 to 5. No charge for securing seats,
nor tar bills of performance. All fees to servants of this
establishment are strictly prohibited.
Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

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 the performances will commence with
GARIBALDI'S ENGLISHMAN. Messrs. Barrett and C.
Young.

Followed by a new sketch, A HOUSEHOLD FAIRT.
Miss Wyndham and Mr. H. T. Craven.
To conclude with the new pantomime of PUNCH AND
JUDY. Introducing Yfiss Lydia Thompson and the Corps
de Ballet. Clown, Harlequin, Columbine, and Pantaloon, and
the wonderful Perpormint.,, D og,s
Reduced Prices=allery, 6d; Pit, is. The Box-office open
from 11 to 5 daily. Doors open at half-past six; perform •
ance commences at 7.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.

Sole Lessee—Mr. William Cooke, his Farewell Season

Great Attraction for the Holidays. The new bombastic
hippodramatic, operatic Pantomime, abounding in comicality,
called HARLEQUIN TOM MOODY; or, Old Towler the
Huntsman and the Goddess Diana, with songs by Miss
Esther Jacobs.—Gorgeous and Dazzling mechanical transfor-
mation scene. Harlequin, M. Richarde ; Pantaloon, Mr. P.
Abbot, Columbine, Maddle. Mazzoni ; Clown, Mr. Hilde-
brand ; a family of Sprites by the Elastic Incomprehensibles.
Scenes in the Circle by the Star Riders of the World. Three
Morning performances of the Pantomime, and Scenes in the
Circle, on Monday and Saturday, Dec. 26 and 31, and Monday
Jan. e, 1860, at Two o'clock each day.

CANTERBUR Y HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING. Sterndale Bennett's MAY

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

Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfield, 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 BONHEUR'S celebrated PICTURE of the HORSE
FAIR is now added to the already magnificent Collection of
Paintings in the Canterbury Hall Fine Arts Gallery. The
gallery is open from 5 Lill 11 on Sunday Evening.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, DEC. 31.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
54—highest since noon yesterday.
63—Lowest this morning and dui taao =WA.
57—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29.69.
WIND, South-Westerly; rather fresh, with dull rainy
weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 6h. sm.—Afternoon, 6h. 21m.
To-m 0 RICO w.-Morning, 6h. 44m.—Afternoon, 7b. 3m.

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THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 31, 1859.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED and FIFTY-NINI; will leave
its mark on the Continent. The war which began
in March, 1854, and terminated in March, 1856,
will not probably be so visible in its future effects
as the short one of the present year. The designs
of Russia at Sebastopol and in the Black Sea, were
anticipated and checked ; but, for the rest, things
remained ♦wry much as they were. This year a
campaign of little more than two months seems
likely to modify the map of southern Europe,
and its effects will shake Austria, and thrill through
other States.

It was on New Year's-day, of the year now 'ex-
piring, that the first dark cloud arose on the hori-
zon of Europe. From the Tuileries the warning
was given that Austria was to mend her ways in
Italy, or to bear the displeasure of the Emperor of
FRANCE. Ten days after, the King of SARDINIA
addressed his Chambers in terms which pretty
plainly pointed to a war in the spring with Austria,
who, after the French EmrEr.or.'s menace, had
strengthened her Italian possessions. The Germans
were strongly suspicious of some secret designs of
LOUIS NAPOLEON, and growled very angrily
through their press; and, to increase their fears,
January ended with the marriage of H. I. H.
Prince NAPOLEON and CLOTILDE, the daughter of
the King of SARDINIA--a sacrifice, both as a parent
and as one of the oldest of the reigning houses of
• Europe, which he never would have made but for
some most weighty object;

The first week of February was a perplexing one.
First the celebrated pamphlet " NAPOLEON 111.
and Italy" appeared. It was by the same pen which
has just written again on " Congress and the POPE,"
and then, as now, it was not doubted that the in-
spiration was Imperial. Its object was to gain
the good will of the more ardent friends of Italian
liberty. Yet it had hardly appeared, when, on the
7th of the same month, the EMPEROR, in a speech
to the Legislative Assembly, endeavoured to re-
move
the impressions which were prevalent of
any peculiarly hostile feeling on his part towards
Austria. The Sardinian Ministry, however, pro-
posed to the Legislature a loan, on the ground of
unusual preparations on the part of Austria. Aus-
tria naturally beCame increasingly alarmed at the
threatening tone of the EmPEr.ou, and even made
proposals to this country and to Prussia for a auiet
adjustment of existing misunderstandings ; while
Lord COWLEY went on a secret mission to Vienna.
Thus February passed away. In the beginning of
March the POPE, thoroughly frightened, asked the
Austrians to withdraw from Ancona and the
French from Rome; of whic;i, however, nothing
came. Austria now proposed to retain her rever-
sionary claims on Modena and Tuscany; but offered
to annul her special convention with these States,
which were considered so generally objectionable,
but she required in return the guarantees of this
country and of Prussia against any attacks by Sar-
dinia and the revolutionists in Italy. Of course, I
this was not acceded to ; Lord COWLEY'S friendly
t tempts at reconciliation proved abortive ; and to-

vraDds the end of the month Austria rejected the!
proposal of Prussia for a Congress, because France
demanded that Sardinia should be represented
there. Count CA` our., at the very end of the
month, paid a visit to Paris, and then came the
Austrian offer to agree to a Congress if Sardinia
would cease from her military preparations, which
Sardinia reasonably enough declined to do.

April came, and in the middle of it a demand, on
the part of Austria, for a general disarmament as a
condition of admitting anything like arbitration.
Her unreasonable demands, in regard to it, found
no support anywhere ; and on the 22d she forwarded
her famous ultimatum, which was of course rejected
by Sardinia, and war was precipitated. Media-
tion, offered by England, being now rejected
by France, Austria placed her army rapidly on
a war footing ; Prussia mobilised 70,000 men ; a
loan of £30,000,000 was Promptly raised in France,
a contingent of 140,000 men demanded, and her
troops.began to assemble on the frontiers of Savoy ;
the Grand Duke of TUSCANY fled, and his subjects
named VICTOR EMMANUEL their king, and on the
29th the Austrian troops crossed the Ticino at three
points, while by the next day the French had
reached Turin, and 40,000 of them had landed at
Genoa. The campaign was now opened.
We have recalled the leading points of the pre-
liminaries to the war, as being most likely to have
escaped the memory of our readers ; the striking
events of the war itself they will not so easily
forget. The rapid advance of the Austrians after
a day or two ; their being then afraid to attack
General LA AIARMORA'S line on the Sesia ; the
able manner in which the French turned their
enemies' flank, which led to the victories of Palestro
and Magenta; the crossing of the Ticino by the allies;
the exploits of GARIBALDI at the foot of the Alps; the
enthusiastic reception at Milan ; the abandonment
of Piacenza, Pavia, and all Milanese Lombardy to
the allies, and the final stand on the Mincio, was all
the work of but six or seven weeks. Meantime all
the other States of Central Italy had revolted as fast
as Austrian support failed their rulers. Italy was
lost to Austria and her influence, except the country
east of the Mincio and north of the Po. On the
24th of June the great battle of Solferino followed,
the Austrian EMPEROR being determined not to
await the allies, but to attack them on the right
bank of the Mincio. On the Bth of July the Em-
peror of the TRENCH made his proposals for an
armistice at Villafranca, and thus terminated a war
which had begun only on the 29th of April. Both
sides were frightened; Louis NAPOLEON, as he
said, at the attitude of Germany, at the
anger of the French clergy trembling for
their PorE, at the strength of Verona,
and at the rapid spread of liberty. Austria, at the
prospect of further defeats and hopeless bankruptcy,
above all, at the success of KOSSUTH in the forma-
tion of a Hungarian Legion, the rising spirit of
Hungary itself; and, as she also said, at the atti-
tude of Germany—one moment complaining that
Germany was hostile to him, the other that she
would not help him. Both probably were right.
The stipulations of Villafranca, of course,
astounded Italy—she saw the promise to expel the
Austrians stopped midway; indeed the territory
Austria was permitted to retain was, in a mili-
tary sense, stronger than all she yielded. Then
followed the game of the Italians planning to secure
their independence, and Austria to recover the
Duchies for her satraps. The States voted the
decheance of their rulers, and annexation to Pied-
mont ; but Count CAVOUR retired ; France pro-
fessed to support the Dukes, and Sardinia recalled
all the Commissioners and Delegates whom she had
sent to preserve, in her name, order lo the
and Legations. The later diplomatic dealings of
the Monarchs and the emancipated States need not
be recounted—January, 1839, found them almost
hopeless at the feet of Austria, December of the same
year leaves them free, with no small prospect of con-
tinuing so. A Congress impends as the result of the
monitory words of last New Year's Day —a Con-
gress in which all Europe seems inclined to take a
part. France has shown her latest sentiments by
permitting Count CAVOUR to be there, and by M.
DE LA GUERRONIERE'S pamphlet; England's views
are well known; and the Russian lecture to Austria
in the Invalide Busse pretty plainly shows the side
which will be taken by that Power ; Prussia says
nothing, which is equivalent to saying that she will
go with the strongest. The great continental affair
of the year closes, therefore, hopefully for Italy ;
whose freedom, perhaps including that of the Ro,
mans themselves, we may hope to see recognised in
1860.

Looking beyond Italy, north, south, east, and
west, we may easily see that the movement there
has not been without its influence elsewhere. In
France itself, notwithstanding the return to attacks
by the Government on the Press, there has been
a much stronger assertion of the principles of popu-
lar rights. An army and a kingdom, baulked of
their promised glory in Italy, had to be conciliated
at home, and the power of the priesthood, which did
so much to stop the war, has evidently diminished.
Germany is posed. She knows not what to think.
She has to submit to seeing Austria stripped in
great part of its Italian power and territory, and
France proportionately exalted above her. Austria
herself trembles under the blow to her utmost ex-
tremities. Fact showed that KOSSUTII could soon
have raised a Hungarian Legion; she attempts,
therefore, in vain to conciliate Hungarian Protes-
tants by a juggle which even Hungarian Catholics
resent; while Transylvania, Croatia, Bohemia, and
the Tyrol, all murmer more or less loudly since the
Italian war. Austria is a paralysed power. Russia,
her mighty neighbour, on the contrary seems
stronger. She has vanquished SCHAIITL ; she is
improving her commercial arrangements ; she is re-
solutely converting a nation of serfs into a nation
of freemen, and she feels herself in a position to
instruct Austria in the duty of progress ! Prussia
is as usual an ignoble, selfish non-entity. The mi-
nor states of course remain where they were.
Naples has gained the loss of one of the most brutal
of tyrants, replaced indeed by a younger one little
better ; the remorse of the dying wretch availed
however to liberate the noble POERIO and his
companions. Spain ends the year seeking military
glory by a crusade against the Moors. But she
has it all yet to win in 1860. On the whole,
whatever the motives with which Louis NAPO-
LEON began the campaign in Italy its results to
all appearance will be favourable to a cause so
dear to Erglishmen—that of National Indepen-
dence. We must defer till Monday remarks on
home matters and our own foreign relations.

The obituary of 1859, closing to-day, shows a
lamentable abundance of great names. Great,
we mean, rather in regard to genius than with
reference to station. For it is comparatively in-
significant, in our view of things, that the list of
the departed in this dying twelveraouth displays at
" the head and front of its offending" (socially) the
names of many of our English peers (including
among them two Earls of JERSEY, sire and son,
both dead within one month of each other, together
with the Earls of NIINTo, WALDEGRAVE, and
WESTMORELAND), besides those of several crowned
heads. The royal and imperial dead including among
them the youthful and newly-married Queen Con-

sort of PORTUGAL, the Bey of TUNIS, the
Emperor of MOROCCO, the late unpopular
King of NAPLES, and the late popular King
of SWEDEN, the last-mentioned being the
son of the- famous, some might say rather
the infamous soldier BERNADOTTE! More pro-
foundly interesting to ourselves, and, we believe,
also to the world at large, is that melancholy cata-
logue of men of rare talent or of rarer genius,
closed with about the grandest and the noblest
name of all (commented on by ourselves yesterday)
that of THOMAS BABINGTON, first and last Baron
MACAULAY. This catalogue of great names pre-
sents, in truth, an array of intellectual worth now
dead and gone (in the flesh), that renders this
fatal year of 1859 a subject for mournful contem-
plation. What two delightful embellishers of
English literature have we not lost in WAsEt-
INGTON IRVING and LEIGH HUNT—the authors
of the " Sketch Book" and the " Indicator,"
of "Ralph Esher " and " Bracebridge Hall,"
and of 'so many other charming and trea-
sured productions of taste the most exquisite,
of humour the most delicious, and of ripe and varied
scholarship ! Previous to the pre-eminent and
irreparable loss sustained by English literature, just
upon the close of this December, through the abrupt
and quite unexpected death of Lord MACAULAY,
1859 had bereft England of HENRY HALLAM and
America of WILLIAM PRESCOTT—names shining
luminously among those of the world's later his-
torians. France too within this same year has had
to grieve for the loss of M. DE TOCQUEVILLE.
Germany, Europe, the whole world has had to
mourn the demise of the giant author of " Kosmos,"
the venerable and patriarchal HUMBOLDT. As
early as April last we had to record sorrowfully the
decease of Dr. LARDNER, in May that of Professor
LEE, in September that of Professor NICHOL, in
November that of Professor WlL3ON—each of them
more or less radiantly a luminary of the scientific
world. Besides these Edinburgh has in 1859 lost
Lord MURRAY; Cambridge, Sir JAMES STEPHEN;
both Dublin and London, Lady MORGAN. While
other men of letters (as the names already given above
will have intimated) breathed their last, either in
their prime or in their old age, one full of promises
of good in a fair way towards their brilliant ful-
filment, died prematurely—BATLE ST. JOHN,
author of the "Purple Tints of Paris," and other
works of singular ability. The engineering world
has had a double (and, coming as their deaths did
almost simultaneously a wholly irreparable)
bereavement, through the demise (here, too
as in the instance already given of the,
Earls of JERSEY) within a month of each
other, of ISAMBARD BRUNEL and ROBERT
STEPHENSON. Among the more celebrated modern
adorners and illustrators of the fine arts we must
note the passing away from us this year of BACON
the eminent sculptor, of HAMILTON the distin-
guished architect, of SPOHR the illustrious musical
composer, of DAVID Cox the great master among
water-colourists, of two Associates of the Academy,
and of two Royal Academicians ! The Associates
being FRANK ' STONE and RIPPINGILLE—the
Academicians, JAMES WARD (the Father of the
Academy) and CHARLES LESLIE the illustrator of
so many of the masterpieces of our native literature,
from POPE'S " Rape of the Lock" to SCOTT'S
" Heart of Midlothian !" Bosio the singer is
dead in 1859—YEN the Chinese magnate and
mandarin METTERNICII the veteran Austrian
diplomatist. The Indian army has had to
mourn the death of General JACOB—the British
army, the deaths of Generals EYRE and Lusu-
INGTON. Conspicuous, too, among our most
not pnrtieularised here as recently
deceased, have we not reason to note with regret
the death of THOMAS DE QUINCEY, renowned as
" The Opium Eater ?" Such, with a few other
names of eminence not specified, for the list is
melancholy enough and ample enough as it is
—such are the remembered notabiiites darken-
ing with funereal gloom the going out of
fifty-nine. May the coming year of our Lord
1860 prove less destructive of men distinguished
above their fellows by their moral worth or their
intellectual attainments.