The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-26 00:00:00

Antime Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

A STLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.—
Proprietor and Manager, Mr. WM. BATTY.
ImMense success of " Turpin's Ride to York."
2nd appearance of Mons. Hillier, the Greatest Equestrian
of the day, who has just arrived from Lisbon.
THIS EVENING. will be reproduced TURPIN'S RIDE
TO YORK, Art]) THE DE kTFI OF BACK BESS, in
which the Brothers Edwin will appear with L
their celebrated
Steed Black Bess.
To be succeeded by Scenes. in the Arena, supported by
talented Parisian and British Artistes.
Concluding with Batty's, Prize Equestian Comic Panto-
mime, for Good Little Boys and Girls, by T. L. Greenwood,
entitled HARLEQUIN AND THE WONDERFUL
HORSE :orb Percinet and Grociosa, the Ugly Duchess and
the Greedy ing, produced with Gorgeous Scenery, by Mr.
Cuthbert, new Costumes and Appointments, and introducing
in the comie scenes Ratty's Prize Equestrian Harlequinade,
and the celebrated Old Bob Ridley.
Box-offloe open daily from 11 till 4
Stage Manager—Mr. W. WEST.
Director of the Arena—Mr. Pearson.
Commence at 7.

CANTERBURY-HALL CONCERTS !! !
A Grand Selection from Verdi's Opera,

IL CORSARO,
consisting of the following Iliforceaux :
Preludio.
Coro Scena ed Aria. "Tutto parca Sorridere"
Coro di Odalische "Oh qual perenne"
Ca'vatina "Vola talor dal Carcere"
Coro ed inno
Scena ed Aria. " Cento leggiadre Vergini"
Terzetto Finale "Vol tacete io non"
will be performed EVERY EVENING, in the original key
and Italian language—in addition to the usual attractions.

Mr. F. JONGIIMANS, Musical Director.
Also. In preparation, Selections from Verdi's New Operas,
~11n Ballo in Maschera," " Simon Boccanegra ;" and Flo.
tow's celebrated Opera of "Stradella."

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tate DAY.—Morning, , 2h. 42m.—Afternoon, 3h. bm,
To-moßmow.-Morning, 3h. 22m.—Afternoon, 3h. 44n,

THE WEATHER.—SUN OPPICE, FEB. 26, 1661.
THERMOMETER, IN TYE SHAD'.
45—highest since noon yesterday.
37—lowest this morning and during the night.
44—this day at noon.

BinomirrEß-30.18.
WlND—Northerly ; light, with fine weather.

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THE SUN.
LONDON, TUESDAY, FEB. 26, 1861.

The fate of the Ministry will depend materially
on to-morrow's vote. It may seem rather singular
to say so much of a bill proposed for a second
reading by a private member, but we think we are
not far from the mark. It is not merely that if Sir
JOHN TRELAWNY be defeated, the side will be
defeated on which three of the chiefs of the Cabi-
net, as well as less conspicuous members of the
Ministry, have voted, but because of the position
the subject of Church rate Abolition now occupies
relatively to the Liberal and the Conservative

parties.
The leader of the Opposition has publicly chal-
lenged the Liberals to battle on the question of
Church rate abolition. He did so after Lord
PALMERSTON, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and Sir G. C.
LEWIS had all given in their adhesion to it. He
saw the clergyman of every parish disposed to
become a local agent for the maintenance of the
rate ; he adroitly turned to them—asked their
political aid to make it a party question, and almost
guaranteed them a victory. After all this it will
be useless for the Ministry to allege that a defeat
of Sir JOHN TRELAWNY is not a defeat of them.
It would not be in form, but it would be in fact.
The country would so regard it. The House of
Commons would so regard it. The Liberal party
would be made soon to feel that it was everywhere
so regarded. Mr. DISRAELI and Lord DERBY would
certainly look on a victory to-morrow as a victory
over the Liberals.

This view must be the right one. Should a vir-
tual or actual majority be gained by Mr. DISRAELI,
it would prove that Liberal members were apathetic
or recreant in a cause with which the profession of
Liberalism has been identified for many years on
all the hustings of the kingdom. It has, indeed,
been taken almost as a matter of course that Liberal
members would vote for the abolition of Church
Rites. The Liberal party cannot now repudiate
their acceptance of this cause. Too many thou-
sands have heard their candidates' glib answers
or ready professions, to admit of evasion ;
too many votes have been given in un-
doubting faith that the member would be " all
right," at least on this point, for any tergiversation
or lukewarmness at this crisis, not to be deeply and
lastingly resented. No excuse but absolute neces-
sity for absence will be tolerated by those who
elected men to vote right on what they regarded as
one of the accepted tests of a liberal member.
Liberals throughout the country will, therefore,
feel that the Liberal cause is either betrayed or
overpowered, according to the Division Lists, if

they find them to be unfavourable. To-morrow,
every Liberal absentee will compromise both his
party and the Government.
We say the Government, not merely because of
their connexion to a certain extent with the
bill, but because any discouragement to-morrow
will react on their position. It will be held either
that the Government did what it could to support
Sir JOHN TRELAWNY, or it did not. If the former,
then it will be considered to have mlnaged very
badly, and to have suffered a somewhat direct
defeat. If the latter, it will be even worse for the
Cabinet, as its supporters will maintain that they
were bound to use the Government whip to the
utmost in what had now become a party
object. The successive electoral defeats,
the income - tax defeat, and other defeats

which will be then certainly impending, will all

Oatisfy the country that the PALMERSTON Ministry

is doomed. Its most energetic supporters all over
the country will care no more about it, when it is
seen that it can suffer the Hon. BENJAMIN DISRAELI
to trample on them. Let us divide, they will say,
its only assets, the Bankruptcy Bill, among us, and
let it then be adjudicated a bankrupt, with a heavy
debt due to the Liberal party.

One good will certainly result from Conservative I
energy and Whig apathy, should, as some have
predicted, the result be a practical victory for the
Conservatives, and much more should it give
them an actual majority. It will give the
Reform question an impetus which even the
eloquence of Mr. BRIGHT could not do. Nothing
can be more certain than that were the votes of
the present constituency protected, and much more
were a few hundred thousand added to them, the
representatives of the people so elected would vote
Church-rate Abolition by a majority which
would force the measure even through the House
of Lords. Those who care more for the ballot and
for extension of the suffrage than for the aboli-
tion of church-rates, would wish, therefore, nothing
better than a good, unmistakeable defeat of Sir
JOHN TRELAWNY. The country well knows
that the vast majority of the electors and of
the people would abolish Church-rates to-morrow if
they could, and hence the direct argument would
be—we are not represented—we should carry our
point easily enough if we were—we must change
our tactics—to abolish Church-rates we must first
have a real representation of the people. Dis-
senters, especially their respectables, have shared
too much the Whig apathy about Reform—a good
Church-rate defeat will make them all hearty
Reformers.

VICTOR EMMANUEL having now received from
the Parliament of the Roman peninsula that
grand and heroic title by which his Majesty
was first apostrophised by the lips of GARIBALDI—
" KING OF ITALY !"

the principal obstacle, we do firmly believe, has
been thereby removed—the principal obstacle
hitherto precluding him from the quiet cession
to France of the Island of Sardinia!
Until the son of CHARLES ALBERT could
assume that grander designation he could not,
without accepting an ignominous position in the
presence of Europe, he could not, without laying
himself open to the scorn of all the nations of
Christendom, yield up what he can now yield
up (now that he is KING OF ITALY) Without
derogating in any way from his nominal dignity—
namely, the possession of that very island accord-
ing to him hitherto his monarchical appellation as
King of SARDINIA. The lesser title is swallowed
up by the greater. The King of ITALY, having
aggrandised his power territorially by the acquisi-
tion of so many other States upon the Italian main-
land, or, more strictly speaking, upon the Roman
peninsula—the King of ITALY, having absorbed
into his dominions, one after another, Lombardy,
Parma, Modena, Tuscany, the dEmilian provinces,
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, may resign,
without any appearance of abasement, may deliver
over to France, without any degradation in the
eyes of the Italians themselves, that possession
which France herself has so long coveted, which
the Piedmontese Sovereignty has so little cared for
—the Island of Sardinia.
Granted that the Government of the French
Emperor has again and again solemnly
repudiated that, it still to this moment
distinctly and formally repudiates any de•
sign whatever of acquiring, as another insular
province of the Napoleonian Empire, that im-
portant island of Sardinia, th,e most important
of all the standing grounds of European power in
the Mediterranean. Granted that Count CAVOUR
has denied quite as plainly, deliberately, and
categorically any intention whatever of ceding
to NAPOLEON 111. the island of Sardinia, or, in
fact, any other of the Italian possessions, whether
insular or peninsular. We will admit all this
quite frankly, and we will then add that it is
precisely because of these solemn and deliberate
assurances on the part
„of the French EMPEROR
through his Government, and on the part of
the Italian statesman through his diplomacy—it
is precisely because of these denials put forward
by Count CAVOUR and the Emperor NAPOLEON
that we believe the cession of Sardinia to France
by the King of ITALY to be an event not only cer-
tainly preparing, but, at this moment, very
imminent.

Did we not receive exactly the same kind of
assurances from Paris and Turin in the early part
of last year, that no transfer of Savoy and Nice was
in any way meditated ? And yet, when the "pear
was ripe"—were not both Nice and Savoy, in
defiance of those imperial and royal assurances,
meekly handed over to the Emperor NAPOLEON 111.
by VICTOR EmmANITEL—for a consideration ? Yes
—the disgraceful story of that miserable transaction
is still only too painfully fresh in European
remembrance ! And what was done then so very
cleverly—may be repeated just as cleverly at the
next available opportunity. Only—base indeed
must be the Government in these islands of our own
that can once more in the same way allow itself to be
thus egregiously hoodwinked and deluded ! France
has denied any intention even to take possession

upon any pretext whatever of the Island of Sardinia.
That is precisely the very reason why our suspicion
of a deliberate intention on her part to do so should
forthwith be aroused! The Government at Turia
has said ditto in this matter to its Imperial Ally.
And that, too, is precisely the very reason why we
should look for the renewal in regard to the Sardes
of the same identical policy which was carried out
in regard to the Nizzards and the Savoyards !
Supposing anything to be accomplished under
the auspices of the French Emperor towards the
clearing away of the last two problematic impedi-
ments to the completion of Italian Unification—
supposing the difficulties now existing at Rome
and in Venetia and the Quadrilateral to be removed
thrcugh the agency of NAPOLEON lll.—that
potentate who has already the advantage in this
way of enjoying (and so far deservedly) the title
of Liberator of Lombardy—Supposing this last
act in the Italian Drama to have at length been
thus effectively performed—then especially, then
most speciously, there would be afforded to both
VICTOR EMMANUEL and NAPOLEON 111 , to the
Emperor of France and the King of Italy, the plea
for the transference from one to the other of the
Island of Sardinia ! A tranference that we believe
to be now not simply meditated, but resolutely
determined upon, and now in active preparation.
Whatever the plea advanced in extenuation of it,
the deed will be done, or at anyrate attempted.
It rests, however, entirely with the other European
Powers, but especially with England, to decide
whether it shall be debarred from the chance of its
entire accomplishment.

To England, in particular, it is of the utmost
importance, that this sequel to the absorption of
Savoy and Nice into the French empire should be

prevented. According to the returns of 1850 the

population of Savoy and Nice numbered altogether
395,566—according to the same year's return the

inhabitants of the island of Sardinia numbered as
many as 543,407, the probable total being estimated

now at some 660,000 souls. It is not, however, in