The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-30 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1857.

The Archduke CONSTANTINE, having been the
recipient of so much adulation in France, is about
to favour England, in its turn, with his august
presence. He will forthwith exchange the courtly
ceremonial festivities of Fontainbleau for those of
Osborne. And, simultaneously with the visit of

his Imperial Highness to the two Great Powers
of Western Europe (not to say of the world), his
illustrious mother, the relict of the late Char
NICHOLAS, has been enjoying to her heart's con-

tent the applause and homage of the Sardinians.
It• only remains now for the Empress Dowager
and for the Archduke to return homewards to-

get'uer by way of Constantinople ! So that each

of the four Allied Powers in succession may have

duly " eaten the leek," after the manner of "Mine
Ancient PISTOL." CONSTANTINE, of course, the
FLITELLEN ! France has, for her part, been par-
ticularly meek in that ignoble task of reasticA-
tion. Sardinia in like manner. It only now re-
mains to be seen how it will be with England.

And to conjecture, after that, how it might be

with regard to Turkey.
CONSTANTINE is certainly coming in the Osborne
to Osborne. He may go further, and very
probably in that event may fare worse ! At the
most we cannot for an instant believe that, were
he to pass through London, his Imperial Highness
would be cheered by the people in the streets very
enthusiastically ! We don't think the English
multitude are so easily to be dazzled into un-
thinking demonstrations of applause by a haughty
title any more than by a grand uniform, or a
blaze of orders upon the breast of an
Imperial Highness. We are accustomed, a
good many of us in this country, to think
who it is inside the coat, whether it is a good or
a bad heart that beats under all that bravery of
gold and diamonds. When KOSSUTH passed, in
an open carriage, through our thoroughfares, he
came as an exile,, without fortune, and without
power---and every lane and alley sent forth its
throng of working men, in their fustian jackets,
or in their shirt sleeves, to greet him (as though
he were some great prince in his pride and autho-
rity) with acclamations. When the Austrian
hyena, HAYNAU, came over here, on the contrary
his evil reputation brought him into trouble
among the burly draymen of Southwark, who
could not, .for the life of them, understand why
they should not kick and hustle a Grand Foreign
Marshal, and all that. Why they should not
twist his long moustache if they could not get at
his nose in the- skrimtnage—knowing all the tine
that he was accused (rightfully or wrongfully
accused, it mattered not to them) that he was
accused of Flogging Women I Or, which comes
of course exactly to the same thing, of ordering
them tot be flogged ! KossuTkr they cheered
and (14,ffed :their hats to. 11 AY xsu
ihei yelled after "and pelted. We don't think
either kind of reception would be precisely the
reception accorded by the Londoners to the Arch-
duke CONSTANTINI. We sincerely hope neither
would be—in the event of his extending his visit
to this country from Osborne to London. Cer-
tainly neither are his due. But as certainly, to
our thinking, silence, stern and profound silence
would be the most fitting welcome, on the part
of Englishmen, to one of the bitterest and dead-
liest foes of Great Britain anywhere to be found
in all this present generation. Particularly
so soon after the miserable close of a
war of which he most among living men, was
the instigator ! A war growing out of the Pride of
his dead father, and out of his own lawless AO-.
bition A. war prolonged chiefly through his
instrumentality—and one which, during its bloody
continuance, desolated so many of our English
I hearths—laid so many brave hearts low in a fo.
reign land—made so many little children orphans,
and so many young wives widows. Silence, we ,
cannot tire of saying, stern and profound silence,
is of all welcomes. the fittest welcome t ) be
accorded,,by Englishmen to that deadliest foe of
Englishmen, the Archduke CONSTANTINE,

It is difficult to conceive a more distressing and
heartrending state of affairs than that relat-
ing to lunatics in Scotland, to which the
Honourable Gentleman the Member for the St.
Andrews Burghs last night directed the attention
'of the House of Commons. Those unhappy
beings, who are sustaining the most grievious
I affliction to which human nature is liable, should
be objects of the greatest sympathy and kindness.
No pains, no moderate expense should be spared
to alleviate their fearful lot, to restore them, if
possible, to reason, or, if absolutely incurable,
to render their condition as tolerable as possible.
So far, however, from this being the practice,
there is a tendency to treat them with the greatest
brutality, and to exhibit towards them a combi-
r nation of cruelty and neglect sufficient to drive
even a rational man into insanity. This too fre-
quently results from the inherent depravity of
human nature. Those who undertake the and ti-
OM duties of attendants on, or keepers
of, lunatics, are more disposed to com-
mand than to persuade, to terrify than to
coax. They prefer driving to leading,
and, even under the most favourable circumstances,
the utmost care and vigilance is required to
guard against this unfortunately natural dispo-
sition; but when a cheesepariug and parsimonious
economy is added, when the miserable beings are
farmed out, at a price less than they can be sup-
ported at, to parties whose only object is to
extract unhallowed gains from their sufferings,
the case assumes a truly terrible aspect. There
may be some trifling savings, but surely there is
not -a single rate-payer who would not gladly
contribute a trifle more, to be certain that those
wretched creatures for whose support he was
partially responsible, were properly cured, and
received all practicable comforts.
Nor is it only the public establishments that
require notice, or pauper lunatics that must be
looked after. There are still greater grievances
prevailing in private houses, where a constant sur-
veillance is not maintained. It is not merely that
obsolete instruments of torture are resorted to,
which experience has proved to be very injurious,
aggravating the disease, and preventing the
faintest hope of a permanent cure, but the grossest
neglect is habitually practised. Instrumental
restraint is the panacea, and those who do riot
require coercion are badly fed and worse lodged,
without the means of cleanliness, or free ventila-
tion.

The revelations made by the Commissioners, to
whose report Mr. E. ELLIcB, jun., alluded in his