The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-23 00:00:00

Li rON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, list 7.

Scarcely eleven days more arid Parliament will
again have assembled. It is unlikely, however,
that the legislative session of 1857 will be opened
in person by the SOVEREIaN. The anticipation
of a very different event in all likelihood preclud-
ing her MAJESTY from thus favourably inaugurat-
ing with the customary royal pageant the dull
debates afterwards fated to resound during so
many tedious months in the ear of the country
from that gorgeous Legislative Palace at West-
minster, which- annually proves to JOHN BULL
(thanks to the reverberating echoes of the gallery)
a veritable Cave of TROPHONIUS.

The subject of the principal. discussions in the
Lords and Commons may he very readily, of
course, anticipated. It may be conjectured, with-
out any very extraordinary exercise of sagacity,
that the majority of those prominent themes of
debate will be rapidly foreshadowed in The
Speech from the Throne, that labyrinthine puzzle
of Ministerial platitudes and political generalities!

As to our foreign relations, we shall at any
rate be denied this once the repetition of that old
stereotyped phrase in which the Crown felicitates
the country upon the continued amity preserved
among the Family of Sovereigns. There will be
a little exultation, of course, at the reference
which must inevitably be made to the friendly
close of the late sanguinary struggle with the
Russian AUTOCRAT. Satisfaction will be expressed
at the prosperous issue of the second and last of
the Paris Conferences. It will be speciously
hinted that the objects of the War have been
fully realised by the preservation to the Sublime
Porte of the integrity of its dominions. Compli-
mentary allusions may then follow as to the
continued maintenance of the Gallic Alliance,
notwithstanding every sinister effort to break
asunder the bonds of that noble and rational
friendship. It may be added that there are reasons
for allusions scarcely one iota less complimentary
to the Republican Government of Washington—a
Government whose momentary petulence in giving
Mr. (now SirJoHN)CRAmrToN his abrupt exequatur
has been in a manner obliterated from the re-
membrance of England by that act of most grace-
ful magnanimity
VICTORIA, in the -_the presentation to Queen
name of the United States, of
her missing Arctic vessel " The Resolute 1"
Notwithstanding the causes for satisfaction, real
or imaginary, discoverable in the international
"situations" enumerated —in the revival of
friendly relations with Russia, in the revival of
friendly feelings with America, in th®
continuance
of friendly alliance with France--there are dis-
cernible still east, west, north, and
south,
sources of no inconsiderable disquietude. Italy
still groaning under the weight of her long
op-
pression. Lombardy silently writhing at the
passage through her fairest cities of the Alien
Prince to whom she is constrained to proffer the
homage of an ignominious allegiance. Hungary
still brooding resentfully over the crimes and the

treason which in 1849 brought to an end so dis-
astrous what had begun so auspiciously—her
grand, and heroic, and ever-memorable war of

liberation. Poland dead and buried long ago,
bat still awaiting in her grave what sooner or
later will yet inevitably be heard—the sound of
the Trumpet which will be the signal for her
Resurrection. Switzerland but very recently
threatened by the wine-bibbing King of PRUSSIA,
and hardly even yet escaped from the perils of a
brutal coercion. Spain with the rights of her
people and the prerogatives of her Crown now in

the clutch of O'DONNELL, tow in the grasp of
NAUVAEZ—the bauble-stakes passed from hand
to hand by the Ministerial trickster ever playing
at Madrid a grand and desperate Game of political
Speculation. Thus much—in Europe. In Asia—
something wondrously different. Instead of merely
ominous discontent, open ruptures and sangui-
nary collision. War with Persia! War with China!
Canton bombarded. Bushire threatened with a

similar catastrophe. Troops marching from
British India against the SHAH—by the Bolan
Pass, under Colonel JACOB—by the Khyber Pass
underßrigadier CHAMBERLAYNB. The warlike Aff-
gbans—commanded by the Ameers of Cabul, led on
by our former foe, but now our present ally, old
DOST MAHO3M—enrolled as our auxiliaries. The
Celestial Empire, simultaneously drawing down
upon its most salient points the thunders of our
ships of war—at the very time when it is itself
crumbling away under the decomposing influences
of a great politico-religious revolution.
These are among the international events—this
is, after all, "About the English" of the present
Situation of Things Generally—which will have
either collectively or individually, but at any rate
seriously and deliberately, to be taken within a
very few days into the consideration of the
British Parliament. Besides which, the Legisla-
ture will have almost immediately to take into
account matters of a still more imminent charac-
ter, affecting the nation, not merely in regard to
its foreign relations, but in reference to its inter-
nal Administration.

Prospects for Turkey brighten ; it may take a 1
long time, there as elsewhere, to put the right
man in the right place, and to keep him there.
In what may be called the SULTAN'S Cabinet, this
difficulty is augmented beyond anything experi-
enced in the other governments of Europe, by the
fact of each of the governments contending there
in the persons of their ambassadors to put the
man it thinks right at the head of the Turkish
Government. Only think of having the party
efforts of Whigs and Tories, Peelites and Radi-
cals, complicated by the interference of the French,
Prussian, and Austrian ambassadors, these ambas-
sadors having as much influence as those of Eng-
land, France, and Austria have just now at Con-
stantinople ! Were such a state of things possible
here our sontempraries who rejoice in the mys-
teries of party tactics would never want topics of
speculation ; and with our natural fondness for
betting, we might even have in time a political
Tattersall's.

What we refer to, however, is the hope sug-
gested by the movements of a better class than
the leaders of factions. Commerce will not be
kicked in and out of its position by the cunning
And tricks of in and ex-Court favourites, and it
seems likely now to supply Turkey with two things
which will indirectly, and, we believe, quickly
do more for its solid improvement' than all the
Hatti Humayouns and Hatti Scberiffs issued under
the political compulsion of this or that ambassa-
dor. Turkey has wanted chiefly roads and a
sound currency. Both appear likely to be soon
furnished. The Ottoman Bank concession has
now been accepted, and the acceptance sent to
Constantinople; and there is every reason to
think that the business will be conducted on the
best principles, verified by the experience of the
Banks of England and France.
One of its most important objects is to regene-
rate the currency of the country. If it only avoid
speculation, and arrange well the details of this
transaction, a handsome profit to the shareholders,
may, it would seem, be realised from this source
alone. The currency consists of Treasury notes,
and depreciated coins of various kinds ; it is esti-
mated at about 8,000,0001. ; the specie part of that
sum amounting to about 2,000,0001. Both are to be
ultimately superseded by issues of bank notes
payable on demand, a privilege conceded to this
Bank only, and by a fresh issue, we presume, of
un-depreciated coin. Whatever amount, how-
ever, the Bank may have to issue, it is to become
practically a Government debt ; the Government
engaging to pay six per cent. interest upon it.
We need not trouble our readers with details of
the calculations ; suffice it to say that wall-informed
persons consider that the capital will, if this
business alone be judiciously conducted, realise
not less than 14 per cent. interest. The whole
Turkish.empire will, in the meantime, acquire a

paper currency, which will probably in no great

time enjoy the con4lenca of its numerous races
from the Adriatic to the Euphrates ; while the
metallic currency will be preserved from depre-
ciation, on the part of• the authorities of course,
and also on the part of the holders, who will not
venture to mutilate the coins of a vigilant corpo-
ration as they have done those of an unbusiness-
like Government. There seems also every reason
to believe that, for purposes of trade generally,
the Bank must become the trusted medium of
trade with Turkey for the civilised world,
that it will, by acting on the same principles,
take rank with the other national Banks of
Europe, and will thus become the means of inde-
finitely facilitating commercial transactions. Tur-
key is a free-trade country, and will soon make
her great barbarian neighbour of the North look
small by her side.

Concurrently with the Bank, Turkey will pro-
bably now possess the new commercial roads which
have so expedited the traffic of civilised Europe,
The Euphrates Valley Line may now be consi-
dered as decided on, and must introduce a new
style of trade in that part of the East. It has
the guarantee of six per cent. from the Turkish
Government. Another railway has, however,
just been proposed, and we may say the concession
'obtained by Mr. LAYARD, which has obtained a
yet more promising guarantee—the guarantee of
1,000,000/. of the shares having been taken by
..the wealthy in Turkey itself, where we presume
-the merits of the line can be best estimated by the
subscribers. The Turkish Government is strongly
in its favour, probably for military as well as com-
mercial reasons; and is ready to do everything in
the way of concession of land, timber, and all raw
material at its disposal, serviceable for the con-
struction of the line.

Its object is to connect the Danube, in the centre
c ,f Bulgaria, before that river takes its long bend to
the north, with the pert of Eaos in the Arai-
p, 31ago. It is proposed, therefore, that it shall
lc :ave the Danube at Rustcbuck or Silistria,
ai passage of the
lidlkraunns awsildlirpeeertimYits,obuyth as
Shumtlhae and Adrianople
t,l Enos. There are no known engineering diffi-
el titles but the Balkans, which can hardly by any
pwsiibility equal those of the Alps. The greater parr,
of ti'te territory through which the line is to pass is
popu ions, very fertile, and ready for the entrance