The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-30 00:00:00

Commence at Seven,

• rEA it i) HAY MARKET,
Leksee. ilf;okstm.t.

THIS EVENING, Dec. 30. Sterling Coyne's Comedy,
EL ACK smtEr. Messrs. Buckstone, Compton, Howe,
Villiers, Mrs. C. Young, Mrs. Wilkins, &c.

After which, a Comic Christmas Pantomime, LITTLE
MISS 11IIIFFET AND LITTLE BOY BLUE • or, Harle-
quin and Old Daddy LonEtleg.s. Louise Leclercq, Charles Le-
clercq, Hen Cole, C. Becket, and Miss EtAine.

Ccarirnenoe a 7

OYAL• LYCEUM THEATRE.
A. IL: Manager—Mr. Edmund Falconer.
entitled TUTS EVENING, Dec. 20, the new and original Drama,
PEEP O'DAY ; or, Savourneen Deelish. Messrs.
Zrt,X.er Lacy, Ilermann Vezin, Charles S',lby, Edmund Ea1.4,411,R.
.4,411,R. D. P. Bowers. Mss Clara Weston.
IZ:Vt!=awfa.V,fi a new and original Burlesque Extravaganza,
terisiP,%l th,l-itylelp RIDING HOOD ; or, 'IIH Fairies of
Miss i,y4LNIEL.. ;te.k% "d the Shanircck. Principal charac-
A ...I,,fq-i,,„„1, Warlow, Miss Cicely Nott, and
. Chatterton.
Prices as usual. Ifeer:,,7:r.ll`
Y. 13ox-office open daily trefillitt half -PaSt 6, t
tin s.commence at

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TRE SUN.
LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. 30, 1861.

The reception of the intelligence from England
in America was very much what was anticipated.
From the complacent assurance that we could not
be even " kicked into a war" with the potent
States, who cannot move their half million of men
from the Potomac, the Northerns were suddenly
and rudely awakened. They heard that the Eng-
lish nation would need no kicking, that her sailors
were even asking to be sent to avenge the insulted
honour of their flag, and that the Government had
sent over a demand " strong in its moderation,',
but one of which not only no refusal, but
not even any evasion would be accepted. What
could it mean ? Did England really intend
to assert that she would no longer submit
to any indignity young America choose to offer ?
Could it be that England would for once in-
sist, under the last penalties, on having right and
justice done her by the great American Republic P
Yes—it was even so, and New York and Boston,
and Washington itself, must look the matter in the
face. The excitement, we are told, and we quite
believe it, was intense. The Patriots, who hold
saltpetre and brimstone were the first to show their
zeal for—making money. For the first they wanted
sevenpence half-penny per lb. more, while the brim-
ston e patriots would not sell at all. The Peace
Society ought to send their thanks to both, since
surely no better means to preserve the
peace between two nations could be devised
in the nineteenth century, than to put the
saltpetre and brimstone of one nation under lock
and key.- They should also vote their thanks to
our own Government, if the statement be correct
that it has just seized, at Queenstown
one of our large steamers for having on,
board arms and ammunition for the Fede-
rals. That stocks should go down only 4 or
8 per cent. looks rather peaceful than otherwise ;
for if war were really expected the value of
American securities would be next to nothing on
this side the water, and in America itself, where
the war is carried on almost entirely by loans, they
would sink, one might suppose, 50 per cent. in
the prospect cf a double war and an annihilated
commerce.

One day later, and a little additional intelli-
gence having arrived by the Jura, sends us rather
conflicting accounts of the excitement of our
worthy descendants. On the one hand we are told
the people are calmer, and there is a general belief
that there will be no war, but the same dav, al>
pthe areNntelwy f
yr oomr
ker e what
werew a
as heardgai
nin
ro of
littleu
us byoonithmeoJtuiorra:
and the general impression was that, under.,n no cir-
cumstances would the Commissioners be given
The New York Herald is, of course, confident t 1.1113.
the Government of America will not bend; and
mentions the certainly not very startling fact that
the Cabinet " had been in session many hours that
day." No doubt they had ; and, perhaps, had been
virtually in session many hours more than the
public were aware of.
The Government has in truth but one difficulty—
its mob masters. It knows doubtless both the law
and right of the case as well as we can do. The
•
difficulty is to do right, and to satisfy the clamour
of a mob which it has hitherto propitiated chiefly
by bullying England, and accosting France with a
fulsome adulation which must sicken the 'heart of
every educated Frenchman. The demand made by

our Government we now know, on the best autho-
rity, that of Lord RUSSELL himself, to be as
moderate, but also as inflexible, as has been
always supposed. His Lordship told the
deputation which went to him last Friday that the
Government had demanded much less than it might
have demanded—that it might have demanded the
rebuke or punishment of the offending officer ; it
might have demanded pecuniary reparation, and
other humbling conditions—all these it had passed
over; it had limited itself to requiring that the
Commissioners should be placed in Lord LYONS'
hands, and an apology made for the insult to the
national flag.
But his Lordship suffered no mistake to go
abroad respecting his determination not to be
cajoled into arbitration, or to flinch from a
war. He pointed out to the deputation that
this was not, like a boundary question, a suitable
one for arbitration ; the honour of our flag had been
insulted. France, Austria, and Italy had declared
their mind on the question ; they would not suffer
persons seeking the protection of their flag to be
taken from beneath it—Was America to be able to
say that she dare not take a refugee from under the
flag of France, from under the flag even of Austria,
but that she would take him from under the Bri-
tish flag. He pointed to a sentence in the memorial
presented, which expressed the wish that the Go-
vernment should do everything in its power, con-
sistently with the honour of the country, to
preserve peace. That, he observed, was the view of
every member of the Cabinet. All wished to pre-
serve peace, but all were united to resist any insult
to the honour of the country; and if, under these
circumstances, war should occur, it would be a mis-
fortune, but a misfortune which they must bear as
became them.

Had we, in looking to tho Washington Govern-
ment, to take into account merely such considera-
tions as would influence our own in a parallel case,
we could not doubt what the reply would be. We
will not do their capacity and ability the injustice
to suppose that they are not so fully aware of
what they ought to do, as we are ; we must, how-
ever, with all Governments make allowance for the
influences which each finds it difficult to overcome.
In the States, and in the North more than the South,
the mad irresponsible multitude, the thousands
who have nothing to lose, and who may gain some-
thing by war, are the real masters of the Govern-
ment, and the Government created by them, hae
not of late had the courage to lead its creators,
and to act on the assumption that they are put in
office on account of their superior wisdom. The
question at Washington will doubtless be, how they
can do right, how they can save the country a war
with England, and yet satisfy the CERBERUS whose
bark and bite they dread.
In all probability the French advice will be the
hobby on which Messrs. LiNcour and SEWARD
will ride out of the difficulty. The 4th of July
orators and mobs can be told the old story of Ame-
rican obligation to France, and traditional regard
(for 80 years) to her wishes. With perhaps open
or sarcastic advertence to this country, garnished
with some legal rhodomontade, deference to the wish
of France can be pleaded as a reason for concession
now, and a quarrel with England must be waited
for, till their army will not have more than
enough work on its hands already, and when
France will be on their side—Then--will they not
let the Britishers know what the gallant Yankees
can do ! Such, we should think it most likely,
will be the cue given to the Northern multitude
and its pen and stump orators. England is to be
let alone till "a more convenient season"—which
convenient season, like that of the originator of
the phrase,may possibly never come. Before then
the centrifugal force may have whirled off several
respectable States from the Washington centre,
and even Canada may hardly need British rein-
forcements if attacked by any of them. One thing
we shall certainly lose by a long war—the oppor-
tunity for rectifying the boundary on the South
East of Canada, of annexing Maine to our colony,
and securing a good winter port in our own territory.

A passing glance is certainly due to the late
Nottingham Election. It is one that takes us back
to the good old times—when the potwollopers were
in their glory. When bludgeons and brickbats were
as familiarly known to the non-electors as—to the
electors, let us say, their parti-coloured, or rather
party-coloured, rosettes. Reading the accounts
that came to us piecemeal from Nottingham at the
latter end of last week, it was like a pleasant re-
miniscence of the famous contested election for the
loyal borough of Eatenswill. It reminded one of
the incidents bringing into collision the conflicting
bands of her MAJESTY'S lieges down in Yorkshire
when the Hon. Mr. DELAMERE streve in vain with
the ridiculous popularity that carried the grotesque
name of TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE, Esquire, to the top
of the poll down at Yatton. Even the melancholy
circumstances under which the young heir apparent
to the dukedom of Newcastle sought but just now
the suffrages of the Nottingham constituency failed
to remove the last contest in that borough, from the
atmosphere of absurdity in which it was enveloped.
One could not possibly help regarding with a
qualm of solicitude the apparent rashness with which
Lord LlNCOLN—prematurely quitting his sick room
for a while—ventured to address large open-air
meetings contrary to the advice, we believe, of his
friends, and with the reluctant consent of his phy-
sician. All these unnatural exertions, moreover, on
his part, as ill luck would have it, just going for abso-
lutely Nothing. Or rather—as it happened—for con-
siderably worse than Nothing ! For no sooner did
"my lord" appear before his soi-disant " hearers" (a
preposterous misnomer!) than he was generously and
humanely greeted with that indescribable hubbub
known amongst our Gallic neighbours under the
expressive title of a genuine charivari. Hootings,
yells, cat-calls, shrill whistlings upon keys
usqu, a l' extermination—drowning the voice
and deafening the ears of the poor invalid
candidate. While—in contrast to these out-
rageous discourtesies—his jovial, roystering,
almost low-comedy opponent, Sir ROBERT CLIFTON,
was cheered to the echo, at
.his mere appearance,.
Then, too—(just like any other great Popular
Comedian !)—Sir ROBERT CLIFTON had but to give
a turn to his head, to give a glance of his eye, to
open his lips just wide enough to let out a mono-
syllable, and lo ! instanter his watchful admirers
were in convulsions of merriment.

With him upon his legs, it was always a willing
audience enough down at Nottingham. A wink,
for all the world, was, in truth, as good as a nod to
that blind horse : and so—the waggish, good-
humoured baronet fooled his ardent supporters to
the top of their bent from the beginning to
the end of this most amusing contest.
He had to pay for it, however. But—it must
not be imagined for an instant, that in saying this
we imply any scandal whatever about the purity
of the Nottingham electors, any more than about
QUEEN ELIZABETH ! Sir ROBERT CLIFTON had to
pay for it—not sr, much through his pocket as
through the sacrifice of his personal convenience.
Fancy among o',her things, his having to endure
the luxury of being dandled in the arms of four
of his (literil) supporters !—carried pick-a-back, or
somehow yr other, above the heads of the mob from