The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-23 00:00:00

111 HE OPERA-COLONNADE HOTEL (late
.1 Fedilade's), Charles-street, Haymarket, IS NOW
OPEN. •

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Under the Management of Mr. Charles Kean.
On EASTER MONDAY, will be produced Shakspeare's
historical play of KING HENRY V.
King Henry V., Mr. C. Kean ; Chorus, Mrs. C. Kean.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
On Easter Monday will be performed the new and original
Comedy, entitled THE WORLD AND THE STAGE. The
characters by Messrs. Compton, Buckstone, Howe, W. Far-
rell, Rogers; Miss Amy Sedgwick,
After which, a new Classical Extravaganza, entitled
ELECTRA IN A NEW ELECTRIC LIGHT. Messrs.
Compton, Braid, Clark, Mrs. Wilkins, Misses Fanny Wright,
Eliza Weekes, and Louisa Leclercq.
And A DAUGHTER TO MARRY.

Commence at 7.

NEW THEATRE - ROYAL, ADELPHI.
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
On EASTER MONDAY, THE SERIOUS FAMILY.
Messrs. B. Webster, &c.
After which, THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. Mr. J.
L. Toole, P. Bedford, Misses Woolgar, Keeley, Arden, and
Kate Kelly.
Followed by THE PRETTY GIRLS OF STILBERG.
Mr. B. Webster, Killington, Eburne, Misses Woolgar, Keeley,
and Arden.

Acting afanager—Mr. Wm. Smith.
Doors open at a quarter-past six—Commence at seven. Box
Office open from 10 to 5 --no charge for booking. No fees to
servants permitted. A registry kept of all articles found.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborongh
On Easter Monday will be produced a new Comedietta, by
J. 31 Morton, Esq., supported by the company.
After which, THE MAID AND THE MAGPIE.
To conclude with VANDYKE BEOWN. Mr. J. Clark.
and Miss M. Ternan.
Commence at 7o'clock.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.
Lessee and Manager Mr. William Cooke.
On Easter Monday, with extraordinary magnificence, the
splendid romance of IVANHOE; cr, The Lists of Ashby.
Ivanhoe, Mr. R. Phillips ; Isaac of York, Mr. Jas. Holloway.
After which, the matchless and unrivalled SCENES IN
THE CIRCLE, introducing the great Star Riders and Miss
Emily Cooke, Madame Blanche, Madame Bridges, Madlie.
Fleurette, and Madame Francisco, being the greatest amount
of female equestrian talent ever seen in one night in any
theatre. Grotesques—Messrs. Hemming and Thorne.
To conclude with a Farce.
Dress Circle, 4s. ; Boxes, 3s. ; rit, 8
2, ; Gallery, Is. ; Upper
Gallery, ftd.
Private Boxes, £4 4s, £2 25, aid £1 Is.
Commence at Seven : Carriages at 11.
Stage Manager. Mr. R. Phillips

CANTERBURY HALL AND FINE ARTS
GALLERY, Westminster-road.—Open at Seven.
On and after MONDAY, the 25th inst., will appear
THE DELEPIERRE FAMILY,
consisting of three Juvenile Violinists, viz., Jules, Juliette,
and Julia Delepierre, aged, respectively, FOUR, SIX, and
EIGHT years.
The perfect execution by these Lilliputian Artistes of some
of the most difficult and brilliant Solos, Duets, and Trios ever
written for the violin, has excited mingled wonder and admi-
ration in Continental Musical Circles, and drawn forth enthu-
siastic tributes of praise from the Public Journals of France
and Belg,ium.
They will perform EVERY EVENING, at NINE and
ELEVEN o'clock, in addition to the usual Entertainments.

THE ROYAL. ACADEMY OVER THE WATER.
Vide " P uNcts."
CANTERBURY HALL, Westminster-road.
OPEN EVERY EVENING.
The Musical Entertainments commence at Seven.
Comic Vocalists :—Mr. E. W. Mackney, J. G. Forde, as
Miss Kate Harley. The Fine Arts Gallery is open from :
in the morning until 12 at night.

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, APRIL 22.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
54—highest since noon yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during the night.
51—this day at noon.

BA.RomETEIL-29.89.
'WIND, South-Easterly ; fresh, and very squally.

That there will be a war, and that of a very
formidable character, is now all but certain. Ano-
ther day will dispel all doubts on the subject. And,
as we have already stated, Easter Sunday, the day
of general festivity and rejoicing, has been appro-
priately selected, by FRANCIS JOSEPH, the Papal
champion, for the commencement of hostilities. He
has flung his gauntlet into the arena, and invited a
contest, as decidedly as the Irish belligerent of
humbler rank, who with shillelagh in hand, was ac-
customed to invite the visitants to Donnybrook Fair
to tread on the skirt of his coat, which he trailed
along the ground for the purpose. It is possible
that, having no faith in the proposed "Bubble
Congress," and foreseeing that war was inevitable,
he was determined to take the initiative and strike
a formidable blow, gratifying his vindictive feel-
ings against Piedmont before France can possibly
take part in the contest. He may, however, have
ample reason to regret his reckless haste. A fair
and reasonable proposition had been put forward by
the British Government,•and acceded to by France,
Russia, and Prussia. Even Sardinia had consented
to the disarmament, as proposed by Austria. What

plausible pretext, what adequate excuse can be put
forward for this most unjustifiable conduct—this
flinging away of the scabbard, and proclaiming
" war to the knife" against a neighbouring nation,
which, although unable to bring equal force into
the field at the moment, will speedily have such
auxiliaries as will incline the scale very much in
its favour, and against Austria ?
All these considerations have, however, been
set at nought. Anger and irritation have mani•
festly influenced the decisions of the Cabinet of
Vienna, as must invariably be the case under a

despotic Government, where " the Sovereign is the
State.," We know not what may be the private
asstranoes of support which may have been given.
The placing of 70,000 Prussian troops on a war
footing, although declared to be " merely for defen-

sive purposes," bears, as we stated yesterday, a
very significant aspect. We have had too long expe-
rience of such matters, to place implicit faith in the
"sayings" either of diplomatists or official organs.
Preparations for war, made at vast expense and
great financial inconvenience, far exceed the most
pacific assurances that can be tendered. It will be
for Austria now, if possible, to justify or even ex-
tenuate her rash and hasty proceed'ng. When all
the other great Pow'ers had acceded to the condi-
tions which might have averted any conflict—when
her own proposals had actually been accepted—she
thought proper to " let slip the dogs of war," and
fling the firebrand.

One duty now remains to be discharged by the
British Government. They have endeavoured

nobly, energetically, and ably to avert the threa

It has not been through any act of
• commission or omission on their part that matters

ened evil.

have arrived at the present untoward stage. There
has been no failure on the part of the Cabinet of St.
James's, and if war should unfortunately arise it
will be from causes wholly beyond their control.
But they owe a great obligation to the people of
this country. They must take care that we are not

to be implicated in the struggle under any pretext.
We cannot sympathise with any of the parties,
Neither France nor Austria arc descry-
engaged.
ing of support ; and although circumstances may
arise to render action indispensable, we should wait
until the last moment and do nothing that could
possibly render Great Britain a purticcps ceiminis
on either side.

It is true that our neutrality must be an armed
one—that our army and navy must be maintained
-on a war footing, arid that the necessary outlay
may compel a revival, and possibly an increase,
of the moribund income tax. This will,
however, be a comparatvely trivial evil
compared with a war, in which, as usual,
British blood would be lavishly shed, and British
gold would be required to subsidise those who
had occasioned all the mischief. It is certain that
we could not send a single man or a single shilling
to sustain Austria. Her gross injustice and mai-

administration of the important territory confided
to her charge in 1815, by, THE HOLY ALLIANCE (!)
destroyed every sympathy that could be entertained
inher. favour. She had, however, Treaty engagements
to rely on, and might insist on doing what sheliked
with that which was made her own some forty-four
years since. But there could be no possible
justification of her interference with States which
ought to be perfectly independent, and to
the level whereof she seeks to reduce Piedmont,
so as to become the absolute and autocratic mis-
tress of Italy. Had she even a better case, her
latest proceeding would prevent any assistance that
might be granted by this country to an ancient
•
ally.
France has scarcely a better claim. It was the
criminal ambition of the EMPEROR that has brought
about the crisis. He probably thought that a little
" bluster and bunkum" would make Austria yield
to every requisition which he might think
proper to put forward. He, however, " reckoned
without his host," and may well stand aghast at the
requisitions of the demon he had himself evoked.
Sardinia will be the chief sufferer. If not ruth-
lessly ravaged before French aid can be obtained,
and the Austrians clearly understand that portion
of military: tactics, her fertile plain, will be made
the cockpit of contending parties ; and no matter
what may be the ultimate result, the people will
have ample cause to deplore the events that led to
such a lamentable catastrophe. She has, how-
ever, brought it on herself by becoming the tool
and instrument of a despotic Prince, and the nation
may have as much cause to deplore the ruthless sacri-
fice so recently perpetrated as the unfortunate baby
Princess herself.

The truckling and shuffling now going on before
carious constituencies in regard to the Ballot can -
not be regarded as calculated in any degree to raise
the character of our leading statesmen. In some
instances this shuffling in regard to the Ballot is
carried to a degree little less than absolutely dis-
graceful ; insomuch that it cannot but inevitably
tend to lower the standard of political morality,
and to weaken the confidence of the public in the

leaders of party.
It was only the other day we found ourselves
constrained to point the finger of scorn and indigna-
tion against the gross and flagrant inconsistency of
the so-called chief among the champions of the
Ballot, the member for the City of Bristol, the
Chairman of the Ballot Society. The extraordi-
nary course pursued by Mn.. BERKELEY upon the
submission of Mr. WYLD'S admirable, well-timed,
and most manly amendment to the House of Com-
mons—the amendment declaring the necessity of
the Ballot in whatever Reform Bill might be even•
tually submitted to Parliament—Mr. BERKELEY'S
extraordinary conduct upon this occasion had
awakened the suspicions of every staunch and con-
sistent advocate of that most essential of all the
changes required in our system of popular
representation. Those suspicions were only
too painfully justified in that audacious
letter in which the member for Bristol
urged upon the electors of London the acceptance
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, notwithstanding—these
are Mr. BERKELEY'S own words—" his (Lord
Ram's) disinclination to afford the only true pro-
tection to the elector." In spite of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S direct and avowed antagonism to the
Ballot he is, according to Mr. BERKELEY'S written
declaration (dated the 15th of April, 1859), en-
titled "to the gratitude of all good Reformers,"
and ought, according to the Chairman of the Ballot
Society, to be returned by the City of London as
one of its four Liberal representatives ! This self-
same Chairman of the Ballot Society having
only ten days previously signed his name
to another document (dated the sth of April,
1859), equally pithy and equally positive—a
political round-robin, in which the electors of
the United Kingdom were told (even more plainly
than the electors of the City of London were told
ten days afterwards exactly the very reverse)—
" Reject every candidate who is opposed to, or
hesitates on the Ballot." So that Mr. BERKELEY
blew cold on the sth of April, and hot on the 15th
of April. A power of lungs, a toughness of con-
science, and an elasticity of principle to which we
do most earnestly commend the attentive considera-
tion of the Liberal Reformers who have been
hitherto his confiding constituents.
That is an instance of most flagrant shuffling
in regard to the Ballot on the part of one of its
advocates. To it we referred on Wednesday. To
it we have now even more briefly reverted, as per-
haps, of all, the most glaring case in point in the
whole catalogue.

Now, as to the truckling to the growing neces-
sity for the Ballot manifested in rather a conspi-
cuous manner by one of the chief of its reputed
Antagonists.

Sir JAMES GRAHAM, who has the consummate
effrontery to accept as an accurate definition of
himself the derisive soubriquet of a weathercock—,
recently applied to him by a local antagonist—rather
piquing himself, indeed, upon the aptness of the im-
plied similitude—talks to the electors of Carlisle
about the Ballot. How does Sir JAMES GRAHAM
talk to the electors of Carlisle about the Ballot ?
How in the name of conscience does he talk to
them about it ? Why, in plain English after this
fashion. He says to the electors—the Ballot being
such an extremely ticklish question just now that
he feels he must be about as meally-mouthed as
possible under the circumstances—he treads on
this delicate corn thus tenderly—" Now there is
the Ballot"—he says—" of course it would be out
of the question to pretend for a single instant that
I am otherwise than against the Ballot. I AM
against it. I acknowledge that candidly and
frankly. But I have for some time past observed
such a growing disposition on the part of the
electors to have the Ballot in spite of my opposi-
tion to it upon principle—on my sacred honour
upon -the highest and purttt principle—that I
have carefully abstained from voting against it of
late whenever it has been dragged before Parlia-
ment. lam so perfectly aware of the advisability
of keeping upon the best terms with one's sup-
porters down in the borough of Carlisle that I
have :swallowed my high-principled objections to
the Ballot of late, and have. abstained from wound-
ing the mistaken susceptibilities and fantastic pre-
dilections of my own particularly free-thinking, and

liberal-minded constituents. I believe, even as
things are at present, that you really are begin-
ning to want the Ballot. Only say so now
plainly and point-blank by returning to Parlia-
ment my nephew—a capital fellow, by the way,
and a right good hunter across country, and one
who, as a politician, goes slap dash even over that
rasper, the Ballot—declare plainly now for the
Ballot by returning my nephew (who likes it) and
myself (who don't) and—[the right hon. baronet
lays the forefinger of his right hand significantly
on the side of his nose]—l have not the slightest
doubt of it, we shall manage the thing comfortably
for you in the new Parliament ! My nephew—(you
won't find him stick at a trifle)—he begins where
his uncle began before him, at that lowest rung
of all in the social ladder, the rung of Radicalism)
—will vote for the Ballot. As for me—just in the
nick of time I'll slip out of the way conveniently

and the thing's done ! Only make a judicious choice
like this from among the rival candidates : and let
other constituencies act in like manner, thus judi-
ciously—and the triumph of the Ballot is assured
in the new Parliament. True, no doubt, as I said
at the beginning—l don't like it—l am opposed to
it on principle. But you, on the contrary, do—
and therefore principles must slip away to a quiet
chop at BELLAMY'S, or to a cheroot in the
smoking room, or affect to be busy in looking
up some precedent in the library—at anyrate, somec
how or other get out of either lobby and out of the
clutches of any of those harpies the tellers. So—
my dear, honest, virtuous, unpurchaseable consti-
tuents, only put the weathercock upon the top of
the poll, and show the country which way the
wind blows !" That is the " high argument" of
the baronet of Netherby. That—as Mr. SNAGSBY
would say, " not to put too fine a point upon it "
is just about the English of it. A highly moral
tone this surely ! One calculated to raise the
standard of statesmanship—to elevate our estimate
of our public men—to enhance our appreciation
of their honesty, of their unswerving rectitude, of
their rigid consistency.

Finally—there is the once arch-type of Finality
There is Lord JOEIN RUSSELL, who dodged his
way into Parliament at the last general election
by one of the sharpest bits of practice recently in-
dulged in, in regard to any constituency ! There
is Lord JOHN, who contrived to get in (the third
on the poll) for the City of London, just two years
ago—because of a declaration, made rather boldly
it must now be confessed, by the noble lord's
brother, Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, the Serjeant•at-
Arms of the British House of Commons. Recol-
lect that Lord JOHN RUSSELL has very recently—
because driven to it—declared most positively
within the house and out of the house, by word of
mouth and by writing—that he is still (in 1859)
against the Ballot, that he will continue to oppose
the Ballot, and that he pledges himself to vote
against the Ballot if it should be introduced into
any further Reform Bill to be submitted to the
House of Commons by the DERBY Government.
And then recollect what it was that his own
brother, Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, said upon Wed-
nesday evening, March the 25th, 1857, at a meet-
ing of the electors of the City of London, then
holden -in Threadneedle-street, at the North and
South American Coffee-house ! Lord CHARLES
RUSSELL there and then said, upon the very eve of
that critical election—" But was his brother so
determined an opponent of the Ballot as some gen-
tlemen seemed to suppose? lie had heard his
brother say that in the abstract he was favourable
to open voting,. BUT THAT HE MIGHT BE DRIVEN
TO THE BALLOT." A great deal more to the
same effect was uttered by the same speaker, at that
same time and in that same place. We content
ourselves with a revival of those few words, how-
ever, as altogether quite sufficient. They give the
gist, the pith, the marrow of the whole " artful
dodge"—a dodge, however, so extremely artful as
not to be by any means easily repeated.
Everybody knows how it was, once upon a time,
said of the Noble Lord by the present Chief of her
MAJESTY'S Government—

"JOHNNY'S upset the coach."

Since then he has done the same trick over again I
repeatedly. And by all manner of ingenious and
disingenuous contrivances—by slipping the lynch-
pin out—by teazing the leader—by unbuckling an
important strap in the harness—by turning a diffi-
cult corner rather too abruptly—by dropping off 1
himself with an affected cry of alarm, causing a
general bolt of the whole train down hill just be-
fore reaching some narrow toll-bar. This last time,
however—instead of upsetting the coach—he has
only floundered) nto a slough of despond by the way-
side. Will the electors of London endanger a few
splashes to themselves by picking him out of it ?
If they care not for having been dodged the last
time—if they care not for that first and most essen•
tial of all Reforms, the Ballot—if they want par-
ticularly to oblige Mr. HENRY BERKELEY—sureIy
a matter of the very first consideration. In any
such extraordinary contingency, then, of course,
they will return Lord JOHN RUSSELL as one of
their four representatives. Not otherwise. •Unless,
that is to say—unless the electors of London have
set their hearts upon sending to the House of Com-
mons what the present leader of the House was
at the outset of his political career, down at
Wycombe, taunted with being, by a flippant Whig
aristocrat—namely, a Conservative in disguise ! It
was the first, as it was also one of the most brilliant
witticisms to which Mr. DISRAELI has, even in his
happiest moments, given utterance. "A Conserva-
tive in Disguise ! " exclaimed the young author of
Vivian Grey—"l will tell you who is a Conserva-
tive in disguise—it is a Whig in place." If the
electors of the City of London want such a repre-
sentative, they will meekly do the bidding of the
Central Committee, and return Lord JOHN RUSSELL
as M.P. for the most important of all our great re-
forming and ballot-loving constituencies.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, APRIL 21

His Royal Highness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg dined
with her Majesty yesterday, attended by le Baron de
Meyern, le Capitaine de Reuter, and Colonel Francis Sey-
mour, C.B.
Lady Caroline Barrington, and Sir James Clark had the
honour of being included.
The Queen and Prince Consort, with Princess Alice and
the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, attended Divine service this
morning and received the Holy Sacrament.
The Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor offi-
ciated.

The Hon. Eleanor Stanley and the Hon. Horatia Stop-
ford, have succeeded the Hon. Caroline Cavendish and the
Hon. Flora Macdonald as Maids of Honour in Waiting.

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THE SUN.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1859.