The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-20 00:00:00

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
• Westminster-road.

Sole Lessee—Mr. William Cooke, his Farewell Season.
%HIS EVENING, the grand melo-dramatic production,
by Tom Taylor, Esq., called GARIBALDI; illustrating the
principal events in the Life of the Great Italian General.
To be followed by New and Brilliant Equestrian Changes in
the Arena, introducing a vivid Four-horse Scene by John
Henry Cooke, as the Nemwan Conqueror—More Wonders by
the Educated Elephant—Elegant Equitation by Miss Emily
Cooke, the Queen of the Circle—Young Alf red Cooke's sur-
passine, evolutions on a naked Courser—Electrifying, Feats
by the Athenian Athletw, J. H. Cooke and Crouses—Novel
Flag Exercises on horseback by Madlle. Jenny—Varied by
those heralds of fun, the Clowns, Mimes, and Drolls.

To commence at 7.
Espebtil Notice.—Three Grand Morning Representations
of the grand new Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN TOM
MOODY ; or, Old Towler the Huntsman and the Goddess
Diana, en Monday and Saturday, Dec. 26 and 31, and Monday
Jan. 2, 1860, at. Two o'clock each day.

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY lEVENEIG. Sterndale Bennett's MAY

QUEEN.
And a Grand Se'ection from Meyerbeer's new opera of
DINORAH.

-
Comic 'Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfleld, and E. W. Ma.ckney.
- -

Several interestinz Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery,. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
ROSA BONFIEUR'S celebrated PICTURE of the HORSE
FAIR is now *added to the already magnificent Collection of
Paintings in the Canterbury Hall Fine Arts Gallery. The
gallery' is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

TILE WEATHER.—Strx OFFICE, DECEMBER 20.
THEEMOHETER, IN THE SHADE,
45 —highest,since noon yesterday.
31—lowest this morning and during the night.
36—this day at noon.

BARomzrzn.-29.80.
WunD, South-Westerly; light, with fine wintry weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE

THIS DAY.—Morning, 10h. 25m.—Afternoon, 111. Om.
To-monnow.-Morning, Ilh. 32m.—Afternoon, Oh. Om.

It is well known that the late Duke of WEL-
LINGTON—the Great Duke of WELLlNGTON—re-
garded the National Defences of his country,
towards the close of his long,life, with profound
and peculiar solicitude. That he did so, is not
mere matter of conjecture, is not mere matter of
rumour—it is matter of absolute notoriety. It might
almost be said, without exaggeration, that the
closing period of that prolonged and prosperous
career was embittered by the Duke's vivid and
painful sense of the liability of England to the
horrors of some sudden and overwhelming catas-
trophe. And whatever else we may think of him,
we may be quite certain of this that the victor of
Waterloo was, constitutionally, no alarmist. We
may go further, and say with confidence, that had
Lord NELSON survived to the same epoch, that
he, too, must infallibly have partaken somewhat
of that rational anxiety expressed by the Duke as
an octogenarian. For common sense tells us at a
glance that even the dauntless valour of the
mightiest sea-captain that ever trod the deck of a
line-of-battle ship would have been of no avail—
must necessarily and ,quite obviously have been of
no avail—without a fleet to lead on against the ar-
maments of an invader. At the time at which the
Dukaraised his voice in remonstrance against the
apathy of the country and the indolence o f the Go-
vernment, we actually bad no Channel fleet what-
soever ! Until yesterday, as it were, we still had
no Channel Fleet. We have one now, it is true-,
once again, as we had in the days of NELSON
—we have one now again, thanks neither to the

parsimonious Whigs nor the cheese-paring peace-
at-any-price. economists of Manchester, but thanks
to the patriotism of the Tories, thanks to the
energy of the Conservatives, thanks to the resolu-
tion and the civism of that great party (so long
abused and so long banished from power by the
jealousy of the great Whig families), that party
which. has thus again earned for itself in a nobler
sense than of old their pristine title of PROTEC-
TIONISTS ! [Thus applied to them anew, it is a
word, in truth, of good omen. For never was Eng-
land more powerful, more safe from the chance
of invasion than when under the guidance of
a Lord Protector.] Once more then, thanks to the
late Government, England has her Channel Fleet
cruising hither and thither, always in trim, ever on
the alert, "Ready, aye Ready," between the cliffs of
our " Snug little Island" and the confronting
coasts of the Continent. Again, too, thanks in a
very great measure, to the encouragement of the
ex-Cabinet, the National Guard of England is rising
far and wide all over the land, as it did the last
time•now fifty-six years bygone, as it did in 1804 !
When the first Imperial ruler of France had
mustered his legions near Boulogne, under
those eagle banners that through his wondrous
guidance had already so often conquered, and
were again so very frequently afterwards, to con-
quer so very many of the great Powers of Christen-
dom! Could the warrior Duke but now revisit once
more " the glimpses of the moon," like the Royal
Dane in SIIAKSPERE'S tragedy, he would find his
old anxieties in a fair way of being utterly and
effectually dissipated. Already even, though we
have as yet, as it were, but just commenced our de-
fensive armaments already England is not by
any means. in that precarious plight, the vivid re-
cognition of Which awakened the solicitude of a re-
solute and powerful intelligence, like that of the
late Duke of -WELLINGTON.

Several excellent speeches have recently been
delivered by men of mark in furtherance of the
great movement leading in all directions , to the
formation of corps after corps of Rifle Volunteers.

Perhais the most admirable among all these recent
speedhes was the one delivered on Friday afternoon
to the rifle corps for the district of Sevenoaks,
by that accomplished peer and man of letters,
the Earl STANHOPE. " I take it," said Lord STAN-
110PF, at the outset of his remarks, "that we are
here animated by the most sincere love of peace ;
we are determined that we will never, without
the most just cause, either suffer ourselves, or in-
flict upon others, the dire calamities of war. We

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•, • •0R••••••• •

THE SUN.
LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 20, 1859.