The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-14 00:00:00

dered the proposal of France premature. How-
ever," he added, " the rumour of this proposal
transpired, and was not unconnected with the
unexpected impressement with which Russia—
weakened, moreover, and undermined by a cor-
rupt Administration which she is at present mak-
ing speed to reform—accepted the proposals of
peace, which were so strongly recommended to
her by her two German neighbours. You see,
gentlemen," remarked the PRINCE in conclusion,
" that the West, and more especially France and
the EMPEROR, were inclining in our favour—the
EMPEROR who ever extends to us his magnani-
mous protection. But circumstances frustrated
his calculations ! The peace of Paris has restored
Europe to the condition in which it was previous
to the war." "0 most lame and impotent COD-
0111Si011 !" It is here, precisely here, that we
conceive the atrocity of that disgraceful compro-
mise with Russia lies heavily and remorsefully
upon the conscience of the Allied Govern-
ments. Again Poland was sold, basely and
miserably sold, for the petty sake of a
purely temporary convenience. Every additional
fragment added to the history of her downfal and
disruption, is, in truth, but another damning
blot, another indelible brand of shame and guilt
upon the chequered annals of Christendom. It
is all, indeed, in perfect keeping from the earliest
date marking the very commencement of its Par-
tition : when—as one of the most eminent men
of our age has witheringly remarked (we mean
Lord BROUGE(A3l)—dropping these weighty words
of his upon the page with a blighting air
of mingled scorn and abhorrence " Was
arranged that execrable crime against the
rights of men and of nations, which has covered
the memory of its perpetrators with incomparably
less infamy than they deserved !" Elsewhere,
indeed, has it not been observed by the same
noble lord, when commenting upon that suns
heinous atrocity--has it not been remarked
by Lord BROUGHAM,4 in regard to the Par-
tition of Poland—(the words occur in his
masterly analysis of the character of FREDERICK,
milcalled the Great, Chief among those arch-
robbers) :—" Then it was that public prin-
ciples were torn up, and scattered before the
usurpers of the day ;—then it was that England
and France poorly refused to suspend their ani•
mosities and associate in support of right, when
other States, forgetting greater jealousies, were
combined to violate the law ;—that it was that
power became the measure of duty—that ambi-
tion learnt all the lessons which it has since been
practising of arrondissements, and equivalents,
and indemnities—that an assurance of impunity
and success was held out to those who might
afterwards abandon all principle, provided
they were content with a share of the
plunder, and that the lesson was learnt
which the settlers of Europe practised in
1814 and 1815, the lesson which they again
practised in 1839, of transferring from the weak
to the strong whatever portion of territory it may
please them to take without consulting the wishes
lof the inhabitants, more than the cattle that drag
the plough through the fields."
Possibly one of the longest, if not also one of
the most involved sentences in English Literature :
but one made up of very memorable words—
' words it would be well for us all to lay to heart at
some fitting opportunity !
Completing his impassioned commentaries upon
that great crime of modern Europe, Lord
BROUGHAM has yet further remarked in the same
place—" While we look back with detestation,
then, on the conduct of those Powers who perpe-
trated the crime, and most of all on FREDERICK,
who contrived it, let us also reflect with shame on
the pusillanimity of those who saw, yet helped not."
England to wit, and France : who have now in
these later times, with consistent pusillanimity,
refused, [not as of yore, "to suspend their mu-
, tual animosities," but even] to employ their
common friendship, their community of in-
terests, their offensive and defensive alliance
in arms for the vindication of outraged Poland, for
the revival of her national independence. This—
indeed—is a New Crime ! It is the deliberate,
and therefore the doubly infamous endorsement
of the first dastardly connivance at the ever-odious
Partition.

THE ENGLISH OPERA AT THE LYCEUM.

The English Opera season at this theatre is
rapidly drawing to a close, Saturday next being
the last night of the season. Most sincerely do we
congratulate Miss Pyne and Mr. Harrison upon the
great success which has attended their laudable ex-
ertions in the case of English opera. '.Chair com-
pany leave us we hope soon to return again ; for
that there is every inclination on the part of
the public to support an English opera, if pro-
perly done, the results of the present undertaking
abundantly prow. Mr. Harrison and Miss Pyne
take their company from the Lyceum into the pro-
vinces, commencing at Hull, on the 28th inSt , and
afterwards appearing at other towns in the north of
England, and in Scotland. Before leaving, how-
ever, each takes a benefit this week, Mr. Harrison
this (Monday) evening, when he will flay his origi-
nal character of Thaddeus in the " Bohemian Girl,"
and Miss Louisa Pyne on Friday, when she will,
for the first time for some years. in London, enact
the Sonnambula, ono of her (wheat triumphs. We
trust the public will show, by flocking in crowds to
the theatre on both occas-ons, their appreciation of
the exertions of the present managers of the
Lyceum.

PICCOLOMINI, GIUGLINI, AND THE " BERLIN CRITIC."
—ln a long artic'e on Piccolomini and Giuglini, the
celebrated German feuilleoniste, Herr Rellstab, writing
in the Berlinische Zeitung, thus speaks of Piccoloalini
and Giuglini's performances at Berlin :—" Signora Pic-
coloatini pours out. an entire cornucopare of graces and
charms. Her admirable technical skill is constantly
surpassing itself. She does not really sing the air, she
smiles it, she laughs it, she revels in it exultingly, with
graceful insolence, and yet the fl.avery, aromatic bond
of attractiveness binds up every detail into the most
charming whole. Most decidedly she has borrowed the
g.edlo of Venus for this bright blending of blessed hap.
piness and pert delight." Of Signor Giuglini, he says,
" his performance was masterly, delicate, always correct,
and also, even from a distance behind the scenes, so
skilfully supple, that the most perfect ensemble was the
result. He taught our singers a lesson, which hardly
any of them now know, namely, that a tone taken with
the fullest power may still maintain its artistic nobleness.
A volcanic bust of applause showed how these brilliant
lightning-flashes of tone had struck the audience.
Finally, the pair of artistes gave us the end of the same
opera, 'The Trovatore,' and their performance was so
extraordinarily beautiful, their execution so astounding,
that we must declare it to be the very acm6 of tragic
4ffort."
Madame Ristori is now in Paris, and was at the
Italian Opera on Thursday night.
Miss Kenab!e, a daughter of the late lamented John
Mitchell Kernble, is about to make her first appearance
in "The Messiah," which is to be the next of Mr. Hul-
lah's sacred concerts.
Madame Viardet has accepted a short engagement to
sing in opera at Warsaw and is by this time there.
Rumour says (we quote the Athenceum) that Madlle.
Piccolomini is studying the heroine's part in " L'Etoile
du Nord," with a view to that opera being presented
during the cot in season at her Majesty's Theatre.
SAM COWELL'S BENEFIT.-TiliS unrivalled comic
vocalist takes his benefit this evening at St. Martin's
Hall, and puts forward a most attractive bill of fare.
As provincial engagements demand his immediate depar-
ture from town, the lovers of fun and harmony should
avail themselves of the golden opportunity afforded them
to-night.

VISIT OF SIR JAMES BROOKE TO ENGLAZID.—We learn
by a telegraphic despatch from Cagliari that S: James
Brooke is a passenger from Singapore by the present
mail steamer.
A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday, at the offi-
eial rekidenee of the First Lord of the Treasury in
Do wning-street. The Ministers present were—Viscount
Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, Sir
G. Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Secretary Labou-
chere, Lord Panrnure, the Chancellor of the ExiAequer,
Sir C. Wood, the Right lion. R. Vernon ScaLh, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, the Duke of Argyll, and the Right
lion. T. Baines.
LIVERPOOL, Dec. 12.—This afternoon the Cunard
stearn-ship Persia, Judkins commander, sailed her ce for
New York with a small cargo, 70 passengers, the usual
mails, and about 10,0001. in specie.

DECEMBER 14, 1857,