The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-25 00:00:00

FUNERAL OF THE DUCHESS OF KENT.

- -
In consequence of the Funeral of her Royal HighneAs the
Duchess of Kent, the above establishment will be CLOSED
Trus EVENING.

TH E 0 X
OR D,
No. 6, OXFORD-STREET.
Madame .Parepa, Miss Russell, Madame Marietta, and Miss
Poole ; Mr. Swift, Mr. George Genge, Mr. Charles Grevillc,
and Mr. San tley ; Miss Rosina Collins (the celebrated Vio-
liniste), and Mr. Levy, in addition to a host of talent, will
appear at
THE GRAND INAUGURATION CONCERT
To-morrow Evenim.Y, (TUESDAY), March 26.
THE OXFORD, 6, Oxford-streeet.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tkus DA.T.—Morning, 12h. 48m.—Aftethoon, lh. 10m.
To-m08.8.0iv.-Morning, lh. 30m.—Afternocm, lh. 52m.

TIM WEATHER.-.-SIIN OFFICE, MARCH 24, 1861.

THEEMOKETER, IN THE SHADE.
59—highest since noon yesterday.
39—lowest this morning and during the night.
55—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-29,84.
WIND—Westerly—light; with fine weather.
MARCH 25.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADR.
57—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
58—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.92.
Wnco—North-Easterly—moderate ; with dull weather.

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T E S UN.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1861.

The EmpEnon has again spoken, and again in
language characterised by the most extraordinary
ambiguity. His reply to Messieurs the Deputies
extends to no more than three sentences or two
paragraphs. Yet within that, narrow compass the
Riddle of Europe contrives to compact together
phrases sufficiently enigmatic and bewildering to
mean—just nothing or anything. It is, of course,
perfectly true that still to this day, as when MIL-
TON sang the familiar words originally—
" The oracles are dumb,
No voice or hideous hum,"

being by any possibility audible in the neighbour-
hood of the old ruined fane of APOLLO'S shrine at
Delphos. But so long as his reigning Majesty
NAPOLEON 111. can speak from his throne there,
across the Channel, in the Palace of the Tuileries,
all the oracles are not dumb, there is still
one voice that can be heard speaking most
oracularly—there is literally the " hideous hum"
the poet specifies as peculiar to the old Pythonic
utterances, and all ends here as the oracles of
old ended, according to the blind bard's description,
in "words deceiving." There is one thing, however,
about the Imperial declaration of the present French
Sovereign that when he speaks the most clearly
his assurances are the least to be relied upon. As
when he intimated, as positively as words could inti-
mate anything, that his Government had no inten-
tion whatever—observe, no intention even of seem.=
ing the annexation to France of Savoy and Nice—
immediately before that very annexation was actu-
ally accomplished. So that when his MAJ ESPY deals
now merely in generalities, when he indulges chiefly
in the most ambiguous phraseology there is the
largest amount of probability that something good
may just within the limits of possibility result from
it. Judging of him simply from experience, esti-
mating his policy purely from precedents within
every one's recollection, we might aver quite
frankly and with perfect reason that supposing
the French EMPEROR on Saturday afternoon, in
answer to the loyal address of the deputation from
the Legislative Corps, headed by the President,
had given a solemn assurance that he guaranteed
Peace to Christendom, people might naturally have
looked shortly after Easter for an explosion of
war in Europe that would agitate more or less
all the various Powers of the Continent. The
match having been applied of course by the
very hand of NAPOLEON himself—the Moderator of
the Revolution ! Inasmuch, therefore, as the
EMPEROR speaks this time not at all plainly, inas-
much as he gives no promise whatever that can be
construed into a promise of peace, there is a hope
therefore left for the maintenance of tranquillity.
"I thank the Chamber," says his MAJESTY, "for
the sentiments which it expresses towards me, and
for the confidence which it places in me." Adding
—autocratically—" If that confidence honours me
and flatters me, I think I deserve it from my con-
stant solicitude of only looking upon questions in a
point of view of the real interest of France." And
then comes, in truth, that " nut to crack "—the
wonderful closing sentence of the Imperial reply
to the address of the Legislative corps on Saturday
afternoon. "To be up to the age," quoth his
MAJESTY, " to preserve of the past all that is good,
to prepare the future by sweeping off the path of
civilisation all the prejudices which obstruct
it, or utopias which compromise—that is how we
shall bequeath calm and prosperous days to our
children." Whatever anybody may like to make out
of that of course he may. The words may mean,
as we have said, just anything or they may mean
just nothing. And probably the oracular ruler of
40,000,000 Frenchmen, the enigmatical Captain of
600,000 soldiers, was as satisfied with those marvel-
lous words of his on the 23d at Paris—as President
A BizitirA m LINCOLN himself with that final meta-
phorical flourish of his on the 4th of this present
month of March at Wasington--that amazing
figure or speech about chords stretching frem, battle
fields to .hearts all over the (shall we say?) ,
--chord::--chord:: played upon by the Angel of Everybody's
Better Nature ! An astonishing metaphor likening
the whole of the North American Republic to a sort
of cobweb harpsichord, dreadfully out of tun 3 just
now, and with evidently more than one or two