The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-04 00:00:00

" Warsaw, 27th February," there was that telegram
flashed on Saturday to St. Petersburgh—" Riotous
assemblages are forming in several streets. The
troops have been pelted with stones and replied by
firing on the people, killing six and wounding a
similar number." An I incident that, the very
counterpart of that collision between the
troops and the people in another February
not of 1861 but of 1848 —at Paris,
immediately opposite to the Hotel ,of the Minister
for Foreign Affairs! It is certainly added in a de-
spatch of one day latter, namely, in the telegram
dated " Warsaw, 28th February" that " Order has
been re-established," and that "In the event of
fresh disturbances taking place a state of siege will
be proclaimed." But—recollecting the source from
which those tidings emanate, remembering that they
come to us via St. Petersburg, it must be
obvious that they mean just anything or
—just nothing ! From Warsaw, as recently as
Friday, comes the intimation that " The town pre-
sents a most gloomy aspect," and that " everybody is
wearing mourning." From Warsaw, on Saturday,
comes the still later and more ominous announce-
ment that " the solemn funeral of those who
fell in the recent disturbances had taken place, and
that a committee of public safety, composed of
citizens, had been formed,"a proclamationlrequesting
the preservation of order having been promptly
issued to the population. Another proclamation,
also of a tranquilising character has been simulta-
neously addressed to the people by the Imperial
Governor, Prince GORTSCHAKOFF. An address to
the CZAR has been drawn up meanwhile, and
signed by great masses of the citizens—this address
appealing to the EMPEROR at one part in the
manner and words here subjoined ;—" The late
events have not been caused by one portion of the
people alone, but are the deepest and most unani-
mous expressions of the unsatisfied wants of the
country, and the result of many years of suffering.
The want of legal organs compels us to make sacri-
fices in order to obtain a hearing. In the soul of
every one of us there lives a strong and unalterable
national sentiment. The country will never attain
its development if the principles of nationality
do not meet with valid recognition. The coun-
try appeals to the EMPEROR'S love of justice."
How the event may end, it would be difficult at
this moment to conjecture, particularly now when
the whole political atmosphere is charged with
electricity. There, at any rate, at Warsaw, has
been visible for an instant the lightning flash of a
momentary insurrection. We cannot wait now and
hearken whether or not (according to the law of
storms in Nature, as defined by the young poet,
now Secretary to the University of Edinburgh)
there may. follow " the applauding thunder at its
heels." Certain it is that Europe is now prepared
for the sound of the great warlike explosion, for
the sight of the vast political conflagration—the
sight and sound for which we have all been so long
expectant.

The modern PONTIUS PILATE is more fortunate

than his predecessor 1800 years ago. After the
Roman had washed his hands he had done his best,
no one afterwards washed them for him. The
French PILATE, however, after washing his hands
himself in M. LAGUERROICIERE'S pamphlet, has a
cousin who could and did perform the operation for
him in the Senate, and with an ability which no

one had supposed to belong to him. Indeed, Prince
NAPOLEON, in the opinion of France, seems
to have washed not only his cousin's hands, but his
whole person, clothes and all.
The speech, of which we had a telegraphic
summary on Saturday, was a very long one. It
lasted four hours and a half, and fills nearly the
whole of the Ilfoniteur. It by no means pleased, it
appears, all the Ministers, and some of them has-
tened off to the Tuileries to set things right ; next
day, however, they were observed to be very obse-
quious to the PRINCE, and the EMPEROR is

' reported to have also written to him,
congratulating him on the success of his
speech ;—merely making the slight prudent
reserve, that he might not possibly share all its
opinions, but approved highly the greater part of

he " noble and patriotic ideas" which it contained.
The Speech may therefore be regarded as a fair
indication of all the more important views which
will guide the Imperial policy ; and we may, there-
fore, hope that the EMPEROR has fairly and frankly
accepted at last the " unification of Italy," and deter-
mined to strengthen France on that side by mak-
ing Italy entirely his debtor. That that prudent and
generous people will forgive many unwarrantable
vacillations—one of which has sacrificed, it seems,
at least a thousand lives at Gaeta—and will remem-
ber only the soldier of Magenta and of Solferino,
we have no doubt. And, after the announcement
that the Tiber is to cut off a Papal Rome from a
Royal Rome on the other side, the Italians will
not have much left to ask of the French.
No one wishes to deprive the POPE of
St. Peter's and the Vatican, and should
such be the arrangement, and should he treat his
little municipality decently, he may probably re-
main there in quiet for a long time to come. The
Venetian question is, now, chiefly an Italian one.
France is not seriously to blame there. Lours
NAPOLEON, no doubt, found himself, as he thought,
not strong enough to storm the Quadrangle, but
he has done enough to enable the Italians to
storm ?t`-themselves.

For the rest, weEnglishmen cannot be dissatisfied
with the way in which alliance with us is spoken
of. It is one made not with Cabinets merely, but
with a great and generous people, and which en-
ables the EMPEROR to defend the cause of liberty
and true progress. He refused to compel the Italians
to throw themselves on England alone by a second
expedition to Rome. lie bestowed the highest
praises on the Italians; they had nothing now to
de but to organise their army ; and when the right
moment arrived, by an understanding with France,
again to demand Venice ! Very much like declaring
war w ith Austria this ; so was the "waiting" of the
Sardinian King. But poor Austria has other work
on hand than resenting these insults.

To-day ABRAHAM LINCOLN will become Presi-
dent of the United States. Never, perhaps, since
the days of WASHINGTON, has England—indeed
we may say the civilised world, regarded with so
deep an interest the entrance of the American
President on his office. The violent and illegal
outbreaks consequent on his election; the semi.
treason and weakness of BUCHANAN, and his
puerile messages to Congress fanning the flame of
insurrection ; the firm reticence of Mr. LINCOLN,
the lengths to which the Southern States have
gone, all create the interest of a great struggle in
a great and free country, which bystanders
cannot behold without kindled emotion. Bat
besides that, we, and other countries too,
have great commercial interests at stake in the
United States, and we gaze NN ith the feelings of
those who may gain or loco immense sums by a
struggle of which we are spectators, only, perfectly
powerless for good or evil.

All that wo have seen yet of Mr. LINCOLN gives
hope that he is, if any one can be so just now, the
right man in the right place. All accounts
of his personal character are highly favour-