The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 24, 1859.

GBEAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—NOTICE
IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the next HALF-YEARLY
GENERAL MEETING of the Proprietors ofthis Company
will be held in London, pursuant to Actof Parliament, at the
Paddington Station, on FRIDAY, the eleventh day of Feb.
next, at One o'clock precisely, for the Election of Five Direc-
tors in the place of A. K. Baker, Esq., John William Miles,
Esq., Henry Simonds, Esq. , Rowland Jones Venables, Esq.,
and John Williams, Esq., retiring by rotation, and for other
general purposes of business.
It is also intended that the said General Meeting shall be
made Special, 'for the purpose of submitting agreements en-
tered into respectively with the Directors of the Bridport
Railway Company and with the Great Western and Brentford
Railway Company, for the consideration and approval of the
Proprietors upon terms and conditions for the lease and
working severally of the said Bridport Railway, and of the
Railway between Southall mid Brentford, and of the Docks
at Brentford connected therewith. •
The Chair will be taken at One o'clock precisely.
FREDK. PONSONBY. Chairman.
• BARRINGTON, Deputy Chairman.
The Directors retiring are re-eligible under the provisions
of the act, and, in compliance with a bye-la*, notice must be
given to the Secretary, on or before the 28th day of January,
of the names of any Proprietors, who are to be nominated for
election as Directors at the said Half-yearly General Meeting.
The Transfer Books of all Stock and Shares will be closed
on and from the 27th day of January instant, and will not be
re-opened until after the said Half-yearly General Meeting
on the 11th day of February.—By order of the Board.
CHAS. A. SAUNDERS, Secretary.
Piddingtoi Station, Jan. 21, 1859.
•

INTERNATIONAL LIFE ASSURANCE
SOCIETY, 142, Strand, London.

January 10, 1859.
NOTICE -IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the Half-yearly In-
terest on the Capital Stock of the Society, at the rate of 5 per
cent. per annum, to 31st December last, is now due, and in
course of payment at the Society's office, between the hours
of 11 and 3. . EDDIOND S. SYMES, Chairman.
142, Strand, London, W.C.

LAW LIFE ASSURANCE OFFICE,
FLEET-STREET, LONDON, Ist January, 1859,

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That a GENERAL
MEETING of the PROPRIETORS of the LAW LIFE AS-
SURANCE SOCIETY will be held, at the Society's Office,
Fleet-street, London, on WEDNESDAY, the 2d day of Feb-
ruary next, at 12 o'clock at noon precisely, pursuant to the
provisions of the Society's deed of settlement, for the purpose
of receiving the Auditor's Annual Report of the Accounts of
the Society, up to the 31st December, 1858 ; to elect two direc-
tors in the room of Richard Harrison. Esquire, and James
Valiance, Esquire, both deceased, and one auditor in the room
of William Frederick Higgins, Esquire, resigned; and for
general purposes.
The Director to be chosen in the room of Richard Harrison,
Esq., deceased, will remain in office until the 24th of June,
1862, and the Director to be chosen in the room of James Val-
iance, Esq., deceased, will remain in office until the 24th of
June, 1860 ; and the Auditor to be chosen in the room of Wil-
liam Frederick Higgins, Esq., will remain in office until the
24th of June, 1859,

By Order of.the Directors.
WILLIAM SAMUEL DOWNES, Actuary.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL-JAN. 22.

No change in• prices to-day of any article of the grain
trade. Holders appear to possess firmness, but the buyers
are reluctant to pay any, advance.

OXFORD-JAN. 22.

There was a moderate supply, and generally a heavy
market for wheat, but the prices remained without much
change. Barley and oats in dull demand. Beans, in
consequence of the near approach of the planting season,
were a brisk trade, at an advance of 2s to 3s.
Wheat ... 40s to 44s Oats. „ „Ds tp
White
Barley .44i to'4Bi Bemis" ~ . ,4443 0,485_
.31s td 38f4 Petti::' 50g to 54s

PABLIAMENTARi- REFORM.

- • ' (Froin'the Daily .2.lrew 8.)
Anti-Reform cherishes two hopes—the one, that
some pretext may yet be found for another adjourn-
ment sine die of the great question now ripe for
adjudication by Parliament ; the other, that should
that device fail, conditions and stiprlations may be
made during the discussion of. the measure that may
have the effect of neutralising to a great extent its
popular tendency. Various schemes are' afoot for
this purpose. It is part of the general plot that
they Bhould be-put forward at first as isolated sug-
gestiond" of a practical kind," as is said, egregiously
unpretending in their aspect, and philosophically
recommended to unsuspicious attention. Our old
acquaintance, the " voting-paper system," will no
doubt be reproduced with an effrontery as good as
new ; and no end of projects for creating select and
special constituencies for the use of squeamish and
infirm politicians, are ready to be propounded in
committee. Our immediate business, however, is
with a more audacious proposition than any of
these. It is neither more nor less than a plan to
render it unnecessary for certain members of the-
Government, whose presence is requisite in Parlia-
ment, to have.any constituencies at all!
In the course of a long and elaborate speech
against any and- every attempt to deal effectually
with the too long deferred claims of the people to
constitutional rights,. Mr. Edward Ellice the
younger coolly told his hearers the other day, at
Cupar, that should any bill seem likely to pass this
year, provisions ought to be inserted .eiabling the
Minister of the day to.nominate to offices hitherto
filled by members of the Legislature, indiViduals
too obscure or unpopular to get returned by any
descriptien..of constituency, whether pure or venal,
large or small. It is often found very inconvenient,
says this worthy Mouthpiece of oligarchy, not to
be able to place on the Treasury Bench the particu-
lar men who are most in the confidence of Govern-
ment, and who would be the most unfaltering and
effective apologists of -its measures. The fear of
their electors paralyses the courage of some ; and
the mere liability to re-election damps in many the
desire to put-on the livery of office. Not a doubt
of it ; and that is precisely the reason 'why the
great constitutional principle was long ago estab-
lished that the responsible members of the Execu-
tive should be chosen from the men whom the
people were presumed to have sent to Parliament to
watch. over their interests, and that a corrupt or
usurping administration might never be permitted
to pack, even for a session, the seat of legislative
rule with its un-elected and irresponsible creatures.
The founders of our liberties well knew that a
popular Minister would. never experience any, diffi-
culty in, finding clever and aspiring members of
Parliament to join the Government ; and that so
long as the policy he. pursued was national and
enlightened, such men ,would seldom, if ever, fail
to be re-elected after they had done so. Excep-
tional cases now and then prove rather than inva-
lidate therul.e. ,d3nt,(ip lite main, it when
--a Cabinet is Felt to be wanting, in public twit, or
negiedftil duty the people, that` he embar-
rassment is ever known to arise. Good measures
are easily defended ; it is only bad measures that
need the aid of hard-faced advocacy and support of
merely mercenary partisanship. The want of hire-
ling aid of this description has, indeed been some-
times felt by Ministers who, beginning by•specious
professions of zeal for freedom, have apostatised in
office from their early pledges. It may possibly
also with reason be anticipated by men wild, de-
spairing of acceptance by the nation on their
merits, hope,to climb up into power by the favour
of the Court and the strength of their family don
nections, and who would like when they :get there
to have the aid of their un-parliamentary auxi-
liaries in Parliament, to talk• down opposition to
their anti-liberal. and anti•national schemes.. They
fear, and justly, any change in the composition. of
the Commons House that would reduce still fur-
ther the number of rotten boroughs. The member
for St. Andrew's distinctly says so. Echoing the
words of his kinsman and leader,. Lord Grey, he
laments the extinction of so many of that useful,
class of seats by the 'Act of 1832. He despairs of
actually restoring them, but he is not ashamed to
propose that the same purpose they served should
be accomplished henceforth by other means—
namely, that -the Government should have the
power, of introducing always a given number of
office-holders, not returned by any portion of the
community to Parliament, and compelling that
assembly to submit to be bullied, or worried, or
tired out by these " mere mercenaries,"
We cannot be surprised that this hopeful propo-
sition commandsthe signal favour of a cotemporary
distinguished for intrepid'admiration of the wisdom
of the Coup d,'Etat, and consistent advocacy of the
policy of the'Napoleonic regime. Whatever diffe-
rences of opinion may prevail as to the origin or
tendency of that remarkable system, all agree' that
its essential characteristic is the completeness of the
way in which political power is concentrated in the
smallest possible number of hands, and the manner
in which, while certain forms and ceremonies of
representation are presumed, all real responsibility
is withdrawn from the people. The administration
is everything in France; public opinion nothing.
Our oligarchs would fain take a leaf out of the book
of the Bonapartist Empire; and the journals whose
devotion is divided between French Imperialism
and English counteraction of popular tendencies,
naturally dwell with delight on whatever seems to
be common to the two.

SARDINIA AND FRANCE.

(From the Morning Acivotiser)

From trustworthy information which has reached
me, we are inclined to believe that Count Cavour is
beginning to ponder seriously over the possible
consequences of his rashness in deserting England's
alliance for that of two despotic Sovereigns in whose
friendship both nature and sound policy forbid him
to confide. It would appear that the alternative,
long balanced in his mind, was either liberty or
territorial aggrandisement, and that he has finally
preferred the latter.
But, as we all along foretold, even this consum-
mation is not to be attained by sudden resolves and
violent means, so easily as some of the visionary
politicians of Turin seem to fancv. Before Victor
Emmanuel can hope to be crowned King of Italy
he must wade through torrents of human blood,

He must reconcile the discordant feelings and
passions of rival Princes. He must unite, in one
common league of fellowship and amity, the con-
tendenies and antagonistic interests of
which Italy has been for centuries the battle-field,
and to whose sinister influences his father, and so
many Italian leaders before him, have fallen vic-
tims. Nor is it to be overlooked that Austria is in
possession of the best strategic positions and the
principal fortresses of Italy, and that to dislodge
her from these strongholds might possibly be the

work of years.
Sardinia, as we have so often warned her, would
live acted more wisely had she been satisfied to
abide her time—had she trusted less to physical
means than to her moral influence as the only con-
stitutional State in Italy ; for the irresistible pro-
gress of events would have opened to her, sooner or
later a glorious career, and thus she would not have
been tempted to contract intimate engagements
with despotic Powers. From this unnatural friend-

ship she may, very possibly, never obtain the
golden prize she is contending for; while to it she

will probably one day ascribe, with bitterness and
anguish, the loss of what now raises her above her
station in the councils of Europe,—her constitu-
tional liberty.
When. a State is topographically and politically
situated as the Sardinian kingdom is, it will b e
impelled by the instinct of self-preservation to seek
for a protecting alliance. This ally ought to be
neither too contiguous nor too distant; not too near
lest the- connexion give rise to the very 'danger
through which it is sought to be avoided ; nor too
distant, for then the ally's assistance would be of
little or no advantage in time of need ; or else, upon
the special plea of rendering it more attainable, he
would strive to gain a footing in the smaller State,
and might eventually reduce it to the conditions of
a dependency. •Thus Spain and Portugal, thus
Austria and Sardinia, thus Sardinia and France

may exchange international civilities ; they may
enter into a transient intimacy, more or less preju-
dicial to the weaker party, but they can never be
natural allies. Nor can Russia, removed far off a's

she is-, ever become for, any lengthened period an
efficient ally to the Sardinian States, -For in time of
war her approach' might be iMpeded and altogethek
frustrated by the naval superiority, of Great Britain
unless she were to establish 'settlements in the

kingdom, taking possession, of the strongest posi-
tions, and to garrison them at once ; and in this
case the peril which we have juit pointed, out would
necessarily arise. Moreover, even'on this supposi-
tiow, Sardinia could hope to derive during the course
of a protracted war but little benefit from the pro-
tection of Russia, unless the latter power formed
part of a great coalition. Otherwise the Russian
garrisons and auxiliary stations in the Sardinian
dominions would be soon completely cut off from
all intercourse with the mother country.
That France cannot be the natural ally of the
kingdoni• of Sardinia is equally evident, for the
reasons we have already, assigned... History indeed
can tell us that under the first Napoleon Piedmont
became 'a French province, while the Princes of
the House of Savoy, like the Bourbons of Naples,
owed their salvation to British men-of-war. The
Second Empire, weare told, is peace. Consequently,
Napoleon 111. has not as yet annexed Piedmont to
France.' His aim, if we rightly understand his
character, is to follow, as closely as circumstances
may allow, in the footsteps of his great uncle—to
approach as near as possible the samegoal—but by
means , totally different, and more peaceful. In
union with Russia, he has contracted a very inti-
mate friendship with the little kingdom of Sardinia;
and as friends are bound to be mutually agreeable
to each other, Count Cavour has sacrificed a portion
of his country's liberties to the Emperor, whilst
the generous Emperor, in return, has granted the
hand or his cousin, Prince Napoleon, to the King of
,Sardinia's daughter. Now, if so grave a concession
as the law curtailing the liberty of the Press was
conceded to French importunity before this new
intimacy had been strengthened by the endearing
ties of affinity, what may not be expected from it
hereafter ?

Are we therefore to affect surprise if all those
who wish well to Piedmont anticipate, at this mo-
ment, the most unfavourable consequences from the
political engagements which the Government of
that country has recently contracted ?
Great Britain, on the contrary, from tbe consti-
tutional elements of her power and her felicitous
position, was, of all the countries in Europe, the
first and foremost to offer to the kingdom of Sar-
dinia those conditions upon which an alliance,
highly beneficial to the latter, might be perma-
nently founded ; while, to the most sagacious mind,
this alliance could not present even the remotost
danger. Our ancestors conferred upon the House
of Savoy very essential benefits, long before this
Royal race was permitted—through British influ-
ence especially—to extend their sway over the
States of Genoa. This important accession of mari-
time territory—the later irk ention and general
application of steam—the new road to India, hence-
forth irrevocably adopted—those commanding ports
in the Mediterranean and Adriatic, which British
valour first acquired, and the public law of Europe
formally assigned to us—by bringing both nations
into closer contact, must have greatly enhanced the
value of our alliance in the eyes of the more saga-
cious politicians of Sardinia.
But to a nation just emerging from absolutism,
just awakening to the enjoyment of constitutional
liberty, our friendship, indeed, became invaluable.
Through it the aroused fears and jealousies of sur-
rounding Governments, naturally averse to the new
order of things, were coerced; through it all ex-
ternal dangers whatever were warded off. For we
:•citerate the opinion which we have so frequently

expressed, had-the Piedmontese pursued with con-
stancy the course they had so successfully entered
upon, England, though little disposed to follow
them in aggressive operations, would never have
permitted that they should have been assailed with
impunity. So that the Minister of the day would
have been allowed, freely, to devote all the energies
of his mind to the removal of those internal diffi-
culties and embarrassments which endangered the
birth, and which still retard the progress, of the
Piedmontese Constitution.

How different is the state of things now ! Nor
do we believe that any man in Europe is better
able to appreciate the difference than Count
Cavour himself. He is no longer in that com-
manding position in which he stood twelve months
ago; backed, as he then was, by the admiration,
sympathy, and power of Great Britain. ,He
has estranged from his country the affections of
the English people, whose enmity, above that of all
others, Austria was anxious to avert, and has thrown
himself into the arms of Russia, and at the feet of
Napoleon ! He already beholds the first effects of
this Strange' lliance, in the darkening of the politi-
cal horizon ; 'in the gathering of approaching storms,
big, it may be, with the fate of Italy and of Europe.
Will war really ensue or not ? If not, the con-
dition of Piedmont will be intolerable; she will
have
exhausted her resources and witsted her energies in
vain, and will be doomed, on one hand, to endure
most of the disadvantages, without any of
the ad -
vantages of war ; and, on the other, to witness in
sad silence, after. such lively hopes have been
awakened, and such boasts have been uttered, and
such heavy sacrifices have been borne, the consoli-
dation of her enemy's dominion throughout Italy.
That enemy will continue to encircle her frontier
—in grim aspect, in Colossal form—and more threat-
ening than ever. But should war, as is anticipated,
break out in Italy, will Count Cavour's new allies,
or one or other of them, come effectually to his as-
sistance ? If they do not, he will discover, but too
late, that he has been their dupe, and will rue the
fatal hour when he sacrificed England's friendship.
If they do, isthere.a politician so blind as not at
once to percei▪
ve that . such an event would form a
new era in the history and destinies of modern-Eu-
rope ; that such an event might, possibly, establish
Russian supremacy in the East, and subject Italy
to France, but could not, permanently, serve the
cause of Itali▪
an liberty ? We are not, therefore,
surprised that Count Cavour should be, at this mo-
ment, a prey to misgivings and uncertainty ; for,
to us, it appears very problematical whether, through
such-a war, no matter how successful the King of
Sardinia would ever-be allowed to- extend Materi-
ally his dominions.