The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-08 00:00:00

IROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
tinder the Management of Mr. Charles Kean.
THIS E VENING will be presented Shakspeare's historical
play of KING HENRY V.
King Henry V., Mr. C. Kean ; Chorus, Mrs. C. Kean.
After which, IF THE CAP FITS.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING the performances will commence with
a new Comedy, entitled THE CONTESTED ELECTION, in
which Mr. and Mrs. C. Mathews will appear,
After wbieb, )ff MOTfIER'S MAID.
To conclude with THE WATER WITCHES.
Commence at 7.

W THEATRE - ROYAL, AD ELPHI.
NSole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Beni. Webster.
THIS EVENING will be producedETE JUDGE BY
APPEARANCES. Mr. and Mr-s. Henri Drayton.
Followed by THE HOUSE ? or, TH E HOME ? Mr. A.
Wigan, C, Selby, Billington ; Mrs. Alfred Wigan, Miss H.
Simms. Miss Laidlaw.
Followed by THE FIRST NIGHT. Mr. Alfred Wigan,
Mr. Billington, Miss M. Keeley.
After which, THE RIF I.E VOLUNTEERS. Messrs. C.
Selby and Moreland ; Misses Woolgar and K. Kelly.
Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.
Doors open at a quarter-past six—Commence at seven. Bo
tx
Office open fmlo to 5 -no charge for bookin. No fees o
servants perromitted. A registry kept of all artigcles found.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborongh
THIS EVENLIG, the performances will commence with
THE SPITALFIELDS' WEAVER. Mr. J. Rogers.
After which, A SCHOOL FOR COQUETTES. Misses
Swanborough, Oliver, and Lavine.
To conclude with KENILWORTH.
Commence at 7 o'clock.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE—This Evening
LOVE'S SACRIFICE. Mr. and Mrs. H. Vezin.
After which, HUSBANDS, BEWARE.
Followed by THE MASKED MOTHER.
ro conclude with OUR RIFLE VOLUNTEERS.

....:----------------
ANTERBURY HALL AND FINE ARTS
CGALLERY, Westminster-road.—Open at Seven.
EVERY EVENING during the week 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 execationthese Lilliputian Artistes of some
of the most difficult and b
brilliant Solos, Duets, and Trios even
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
mad Belgium.
They will perform EVERY EVENING, at NINE and
ELEVEN o'clock, in addition to the usual Entertainments.
-------------------'

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, JULY 8.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHAME.
81—highest since noon yesterday.
68--lowest this morning and during the night.
77—this day at noon.
BA.noMmTBR--30.28.
WIND, West North Westerly ; light, with very fine
weather.

THE SUN.
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1859.

AN ARMISTICE !

Well,—Wonders never cease, more especially in
war time. For what was bright but yesterday
looms as black as death for to-morrow. Yet there's a
silver-lining to every cloud, and so the Emperor
FRANCIS JOSEPH may bless his lucky stars that
there's clemency in the heart of his Imperial
antagonist and conqueror, even at the twelfth hour
of Austria's troubled fate. Yes, the EMPEROR has
stolen a march both on himself, the Austrians, and
the braggart cowards of the " Fatherland" all in
one coup de grace, which promises to bring about
that peace which none but himself, at the head of
his conquering legions, could so mercifully and so
gracefully accord ! Honour be to him and the
cause he has so well supported ! In the golden
hour of his victory he has withheld the burning
ardour of his troops from the final dash of victory,
and now finds his triumph enhanced by the unex-
pected moderation of his power ! When will con-
querors learn this enviable quality of tempering
victory with humanity, and so redoubling their
power in the apparent moment of its weakness ?
NAPOLEON has done it —and so far has displayed
to Europe and the world that a man may become
greater by conciliation, at the proper time, than by
the ostentatious display of hundreds of thousands
of warriors in all the glaring pride of their might.
The Emperor of AUSTRIA must be too glad to
snatch at this forlorn hope. Indeed, destruction
seemed so imminent that little or no chance was
left but sudden and consequently a most disastrous
retreat—if retreat he could ? For looking around,
what did he perceive ? In his very front and
almost staring him in the face there were the
pressing legions of victory burning to settle his
doom ! On his right was the heroic and enter-
prising GARIBALDI, cutting busily off his commu-
nications with the passes of the Tyrol. On his
left were the advancing columns of Prince NAPO-
LEON, eager for revenge ! while in his rear closed
in the army just landed to the east of Venice.
And at and in Venice were thousands of
Italians, only restrained by the sense that their
time was all but come for avenging the Past !
They but awaited the signal—and woe to the op-
pressor !
Now, in this state of accumulated and still
accumulating dangers, how must, the heart of the
KAISER have changed from utter dismay to grateful
hope! He must feel that it is far better to make a
virtue of necessity than to dare his fate. Let him
frankly yield what he cannot any longer hold,
and thereby save the remnant of his army, for to
do them justice that army behaved like men who
deserved a better cause and more competent leaders.
To save life while yet in one's power is a glorious-
homage to humanity, but to waste the lives of
thousands of brave men in a reckless and foolhardy
strife, were worthy only of demons, and we do not
think theyoung
Emperor, FRANCIS JOSEPH, if left
y
to the natural dictates of hiA own heart, would
hesitate a moment in yielding to mercy.
The Emperor NAPOLEON has by this sudden
stroke of policy taken the wind completely out of
the sails of the Prussian Prince and the vaunting
petty Princelings of the beggarly Fatherland, who
so blustered to keep their courage up that they
seemed in their insensate alarm to be
" Scared at the noise themselves had made :"

Our immaculate friends the Whigs—notorious
themselves as the greatest and most flagrant

jobbers in the three kingdoms—are suddenly scan
dalised, it appears, at the manner in 'which contracts
with various steam-packet companies; for the con-
veyance of the mails beyond the limits of these
islands (contracts, of course, extending over periods
of years), have from time to time been formed or
modified by her MAJESTY'S Government. So
scandalised haVe they become all at once upon this
matter, that last evening—putting their best man
foremost—inotion was made and question proposed,
at the instance of the right lion. gentleman Mr.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, " That a select com-
mittee be appointed to inquire into the manner in
which contracts extending over periods of years
have from time to time been formed or modified by
her MAJESTY'S Government, with various steam-
packet companies, for the cony eyance of the mails
by sea; and likewise into any agreements or other
arrangements which have been adopted at thy-' public
charge, actual or prospective, for the purposes of
telegraphic communications beyond sea, and to re-
port their opinion thereon to the house ; together
with anysrecommendations as to rules to be observed
hereafter by the Government in making contracts
for services which have not yet been sanctioned by
Parliament, or which extend over a series of years.°
The proposition, as will be seen on reference to our

--------
Parliamentary report, was quietly agreed to after
a little discussion, and the select committee ap-
pointed accordingly.
Now, the meaning of all this was from
the first instant sufficiently apparent from the
very wording of this proposition, and from
the significant time chosen for its introduction.
But, as if the imputation designed to be thus cast
spitefully at their immediate predecessors by those
extremely severe and straightlaced economists
of the public moneys, her MAJESTY'S present ad-
visers, the right hon. gentleman who introduced
the motion to the House of Commons, yesterday,
in his official capacity, was as plainly and coarsely
outspoken as he could possibly be under the cir-
cumstances. The bearing of the whole movement,
then, to put the matter at once in plain English,
was simply this—that a direct charge was thus
insinuated against the late Ministry, for inasmuch
as at its instance divers new contracts had
been entered into, or proposed to be entered
into, for the more rapid and regular trans-
mission of the mails, hither and thither, be-
tween the mother country and the more
remarkable and important of her remote and
scattered possessions. There was the con-
tract, for example, recently concluded with
a steam packet company for a new American mail
—along a new Atlantic route, between Galway and
our North American territories. Mr. GLADSTONE
finds himself upon a sudden stricken with dismay
at this novel contract, involving an annual outlay
(commencing with this next year of our Lord 1860)
of £75,000 ! It is so bold a measure, one so new
and so costly, so entirely running out of the old
groove of routine, one snapping asunder so very
abruptly the accustomed trammels of red-tape—that
Mr. GLADSTONE having, among other trifling respon-
sibilities, to see to the payment of these untimely
£75,000 sterling—becomes alarmed, thinks it
is time for the House of Commois to in-
terfere, insists that the continuance of this
audacious policy is calculated, undoubtedly,
to create, all over the world, where there are
British establishments, British interests, or British
settlements, a sanguine and confident expectation
that the purse of the British public would be avail-
able to supply a regular and expensive postal com-

munication.
All this is designed to be expressive of virtuous
indignation, on the part of the Whig-Peelite-Radi-
cal-Palmerstonian Government, against the sus-
picious character, and profligate liberality of those
mail contracts recently entered into by the DERBY
Administration. There is an old saying about
the folly of people throwing stones when they
live in glass houses themselves. It is really nothing
short of an outrage to the common sense of the
public to hear these men, among our administrators,
declaiming against the suspicious character of the
mail contracts entered into without previously con-
sulting Parliament, and upon the consequent
liability of the national exchequer to the drain
of something very like a profligate expendi-
ture ! As if people had altogether forgotten
that outrageous mail contract with Australia which
was bungled into during the former P ALMERSTON lAN
Government, the mail contract which resulted only
in a series of failures and a glaring waste of the
public money—that Australian mail contract, the
cancelling of which by a stroke of the pen was
among the best of the many good services per-
formed during the twelvemonth of his colonial
administration by the right hon. baronet the mem-
ber for Hertfordshire. It ill becomes the Whigs
and Peelite members of the present Coalition to be
casting these slurs of imputation upon the late
Ministry, in the matter of mail contracts of all
things in the wide world ! It scarcely needed Mr.
DISRAELI'S confident remark last evening, that
"with respect to the Cunard line, as well as with
respect to the Galway line, we have been influenced
by no other consideration but what we thought
would be for. the public advantage"—followed, at
the close of his observations, with the yet more
explicit, and if possible yet more confident, assur-
ance—" I am perfectly prepared to vindicate our
conduct in this matter whenever an opportunity
may be given to us to do so, and I look with the
utmost confidence to the opinion of the house in
respect to what we have done." The interested
outcry of those who are, for sufficiently obvious
reasons, enamoured of the mercantile interests of
Liverpool, will have, should have no weight with
the eventual decision upon such matters of our
legislators and administrators, of the Parliament
and of the Government. For ourselves we love
not the mercantile interests of Liverpool less—but
the Imperial interests of the United Kingdom
more. As for the merchants of Liverpool, were
they not formerly dead against the first proposition
of Holyhead—and afterwards dead against the first
notion of Birkenhead ? Let them as vainly
strive now to gratify their selfish jealousy of the
development of the new designs of our engineers
and navigators in regard to the Galway line of
packet service between the mother country and her
North American dominions ! Common sense, the
public interest, economy of time, economy of money
—all are in favour of Galway and against the
envy of Liverpool. Notwithstanding the
£75,000 per annum, the new scheme is too allur-
ing to be set aside now very easily—even out of
purely economic considerations. It rests upon the
broad and solid basis of Truth—about which we
know, all of us long since—inagna est et prerdebit.

Cannot Mr. FITZROY do something betimes cal
culated to diminish the increasing labours of the
Registrar General. Here is this deadly annual fer-
mentation going on in the great open sewer of the
Thames in the midst of a population of from
[ 2,000,000 to 3,000,000, under the broiling sun of
midsummer. There are daily increasing probabili-
ties of the sudden outbroak of a pestilence. There
is creeping over London the shadow of that
possibly coming event the Cholera ! There
may be before this session is well over re-
turns of those placed thus by chemical or ele-
mental causes hors de combat, returns as appalling
as those caused by Minie bullets and cannon of
precision upon the foughten fields of Magenta and
Solferino. The douse of Commons requires the
report of no new Committee of Inquiry as a neces-
sary preliminary to the work of legislation. It has
only to keep its windows fully and fairly open to be
thoroughly convinced any time in the twenty-four
hours. The course to be taken by Parliament
under the circumstances is plain enough in all con-
science. It has only to follow its nose—that will
at once and infallibly guide it in the right direc-
tion. The newly installed Minister of Public
Works admirably efficient in his former
capacity as Under Secretary for the Home
Department—may forthwith, if he pleases,
demonstrate to the full the wisdom of his
official advancement. Let Mr. FITZROY but purify
the Thames with the same boldness, and prompti-
tude, and decision with which he reorganized the
cab system of the metropolis, and he will at once
Win a new andnobler civic crown to himself—add-
ing another and refreshing title to his administrative
position as her MAJESTY'S First Commissioner of
_Rivers, Parks, and Palaces ! In return for this
purification, under his CEdileship of the broad
current of the Thames, we would gladly vote the

right hon. gentleman a sic sedebat statue in Tra-
falgar-square, as a companion to that of good Dr.
JENNER —by right of the title Mr. FITZROY might
thus surely gain for himself as foremost among the
best of our popular benefactors and national
philanthropists.

LATE

s

BETWEEN

We have a few words to say to our Bishops, and
to all who interest themselves in Bishops' business
in the House of Commons. In the days of good
old JOSEPH HUME, that indomitable exposer of
abuses got hold of one in which all the religious
people ought to have backed him heartily. He
attacked a monopoly—a monopoly of what would
the reader imagine ? Why, a monopoly of nothing
less than the printing of the Bible. Up to that
time the abuse had gone on nearly unquestionedl;
but some printers—Mr. CHILDS, of Bungay, we
remember, was prominent in the exposure--showed
that the Bible, like all other protected manufac-
tures, was enormously enhanced in price to the
public by the profits of monopoly. The result of
Mr. HUME'S committee of inquiry in 1830-31
established the conclusion that protection
doubled, if it did not quadruple, the
price of Bibles ; and the consequence of agitation '
was, that the Scotch patent, which was to expire
in 1840, was not renewed, and that the English
patentee lowered his price to about what it would
be on Free-trade principles.
As the English patent was to expire in January,
1861, and the price was so much reduced, although
the legality of the patent itself is more than ques-
tionable, there was a lull in the agitation, and the
public seemed disposed to let it ran its course. It
has run it ; and it must certainly never commence a
renewed one. Printing the Bible is as open to all
the trade in Scotland as the printing of SHAKE-
SPEAItE, and it must be made so here. There is
no reason why English printers should be de-
prived of any legitimate branch of their trade
more than Scotch printers. We, who have so
much to do with the printing-press, may be allowed
to feel a little sympathy with all who use it, and
to demand for them their full rights. On Monday,
as our readers may have observed, a brother editor,
Mr. BAINES, of Leeds, is to put a question to the
Home Secretary on the subject. We shall, there-
fore, soon know whether after the 21st of January
next the Government purposes to renew the patent,
or to place any restriction whatever on the free
printing of the Scriptures. We can hardly sup-
pose that a Free-trade Government can venture to
do so. The patentees have had their unfair, if not
illegal privilege long enough in all conscience ; the
pretext of superior accuracy will not do in these
days, when good as well as cheap workmanship is
secured by unrestricted competition, and we may
hope, therefore, that Sir G. C. LEWIS' answer will
save all further trouble.
We remember one remarkable incident in the
former agitation. There is a religious society called
the Bible Society. Its object was to buy Bibles
dear and sell them cheap ! lacir this purpose it
collected subscriptions all over the land, and num-
bers of well paid secretaries and agents scoured the
country, travelling post, or by mail, or, latterly,
" first class," in search of guineas. Thus were the
society enabled to sell to the trade and to sub-
scribers at less than cost price ! The Bible is now
printed, in consequence of this agitation, at a lower
price than the society used to sell it for, even by
help of subscriptions ! The subscriptions might as
well have been thrown into the sea. Yet this religi-
ous society supported the monopoly ! And that al-
though to abolish the monopoly would have saved
all need of subscriptions, and hav e furnished the Bible
cheaper than it could have been afforded by sweeping
the country for guineas. How men, professing zeal
for religion and the Bible, could sacrifice their ob-
ject to a kind of Tory sympathy with monopolies,
we could not comprehend at the time, nor can we
now. While petitions were coming up from all
quarters against the monopoly, we believe the
society itself—the society which should have been
the faithful steward of the guineas it gathered—
the society for cheapening and circulating the
Bible—was silent. What, then, are we to infer of
the spirit which animates what are termed reli-
gious societies ? We have not heard that this so-
ciety, even now, although the largest purchaser of
Bibles in the world, and that, too, with other per-
sons' money —we have not heard that it has taken
the lead against Bible monopoly ! We shall be
curious to note, on Monday, whether Mr. BAINES
has been prompted by the Earl-street gentlemen.
We suspect not. We rather suppose, from a pam-
phlet we have just received, that it is quite another
society -which has moved in the matter—that for
the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage
and control.

THE RED CROSOF THE S OF E.V
BRAVE.GLAN,-THE FLAG
D

Old England ! thy name shall yet warrant thy fame,
If the brow of the foeman should scowl ;
Let the lion be stirred by too daring a word,
And beware of his echoing growl.
We have still the same breed of the man and the steed
That wore nobly our Waterloo wreath ;
We have more of theblood that formed Inkermann's flood,
When it poured in t bhe whirlpool of Death ;
And the feeman will find neither coward nor slave
'Neath the Red Cross of England—the Flag of the Brave.

•
We have jackets of blue, still as dauntless and true
As the tars that our Nelson led on ;
Give them room on the main, and they'll show us again
How the Nile and Trafalgar were won.
Let a ball show its teeth, let a blade leave its sheath,
To defy the proud strength of our might,
We have iron-mouthed guns, we have steel-hearted sons,
That will prove how the Britons can iight.
Our ships and our sailors are kings of the wave,
'Heath the fled Cross of England—the Flag of the Brave.
_ _ .

Though a tear might arise in our women's bright eyes,
And a sob choke the fearful " Good bye,"
Yet those women would send lover, brother, or friend,
To the war-field, to conquer or
Let the challenge be flung from the bragg,art's bold tongue,
And that challenge will fiercely be met ;
And our banner unfurled shall proclaim to the world
That " there's life in the old dog yet."
Hurrah ! for our men on the land or the wave,
'Heath the Red Cross of England—the Flag of the (rave!
ELIZAOOK,

THE" SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING,

W S.

SUSPENSION OF HOSTILITIES

FIANCE AND AUSTRIA.

PARIS, TliunsAY, 9.45 P.X.
An Extraordinary Edition of the Moniteur con-
tains the following :
L'ENIPEREUR A L'IMPERATRICE.
VALLEGGIO, 7 JUILLET.
Une suspension d'armes est convenue entre I'Em-
pereur d'Autriche et moi.
Des Commissaires vont etre nommes pour en
arreter la duree et les clauses.

The following telegrams have been received a
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, JULY 7, 9.50 P.m.
OFFICIAL DESPATCH.

THE EMPEROR TO THE EMPRESS.
An armistice has been concluded between the
Emperor of Austria and myself.
*My commissioners have been appointed to agree
upon the last clauses.t
* The word " des" in the original has evidently been
mistaken by the translator for " mes."
t This does not accurately convey the meaning of the
French " la dur6e et les clauses."

PARIS, FRIDAY, JULY 8.

FRANKFORT-ON-MAINE, JULY 7

FIUME, JULY 6

BERNE, JULY

FIUITE, JULY

The Moniteur of this morning, after having
given the official despatch sent yesterday by the
Emperor to the Empress, adds :
"It is necessary that the public should not
misunderstand the extent of the armistice ; it is
limited merely to a relaxation of hostilities between
the belligerent armies, which, though lea7ing the
field open for negotiations, does not enable us for
the present to foresee how the war may be ter-
minated."

In to-day's sitting of the Federal Diet, Austria
proposed that the whole federal contingent should
be mobilised, and that the Prince Regent of Prussia
should be requested to assume the command-in-
chief of it.

Two French war steamers have been reconnoitr-
ing off this place. 1,000 French soldiers have
occupied Cherso. The occupation of Fiume by
Austrian troops continues.

Advices have been received from Samaden to the
6th instant. All the Austrian troops have left
Windschau, and are now concentrated on the
Stelvio Pass, where a conflict is expected to-day.

Yesterday evening the French frigate Julie and
a war steamer appeared off the port. Upon one of
the vessels discharging a gun, the Mayor and four
Consuls went on board. The commander explained
that he had received orders to reconnoitre Fiume,
Buccari, and Porto-Re, and asked whether Aus-
trian war steamers were in the port, and also con-
cerning the strength of the garrison. He further
gave his word that nothing was intended against
the population, and that the garrison, authorities,
and archives might be withdrawn. This morning
the vessels have left, and everything has returned
to its former state.

TRIESTE, JULY

The Archdukal Yacht Fantasie, after having
successfully broken through the blockade, has ar-
rived here from Venice.
The French squadron before Lussin numbered
on the 3d instant 16 vessels, of which three were

liners.
The inhabitants of Fiume were yesterday even-
ing alarmed by the appearance of hostile vessels
off the town. The sailing of fishing boats and the
nightly traffic between Venice and Chioggia has
been strictly forbidden.

RAILWAYS.

Mincio opposite this place. The river is there very
rapid, about 160 feet wide, and its banks are
steep. Although cannon placed at Valeggio could
have commanded the passage, not a musket shot
was fired. But the general took all possible pre-
, cautions against a surprise ; he made two squadrons
of light dragoons swim across at a covered point,
each dragoon with a rifleman behind him. On
landing, the riflemen deployed as skirmishers,
minutely examined the ground and took possession
of the heights. Some inhabitants who were ques-
tioned having declared that the enemy had retired,
a bridge was thrown over the river, and two hours
after we entered the town. The place was com-
pletely pillaged ; we could not even find a
glass of wine for the general, the enemy,
before leaving, having turned the cocks of all
the casks in the cellars, and let the wine run
off. Last evening, four soldiers without arms
having gone to a neighbouring farm for water,
found ten Austrian soldiers armed, who had just
arrived on a similar errand. One would have
thought that the French would have retired; but
no—with true French boldness they ordered the
ten Austrians to surrender. Six of them ran away,
and the four others gave up their muskets, consti-
tuting themselves prisoners. The French then
made the Austrians fill the vessels with water, and
carry them to the camp."
The .Nord publishes a despatch from Vienna,
of the sth, stating that two of the Generals
commanding corps d 'armee in the Austrian
service, Count Clam-Gallas and the Prince
Edward of Lichtenstein, have resigned, and
that General Zedwitz has also withdrawn from the
service. Another despatch from Trieste, of the
same date, announces the institution of a council of
prizes at Zara, and a council of appeal at Trieste
also that General Clam-Gallas had arrived in the
latter place from Verona.
The Piedmontese Gazette, of the sth, publishes
lists of Sardinian officers killed or wounded since
the commencement of the war ; whence it appears
that 2 colonels, 2 lieutenant-colonels, 3 majors, 17
captains, 21 lieutenants, and 17 sub-lieutenants
were killed ; and that 2 major-generals, 4 colonels,
1 lieutenant-colon e 1,12 majors, 59 captains, 58 lieute-
nants, and 74 sub-lieutenants were wounded up to
be 24th ult.

FRANCE.
PARIS, THURSDAY

PARIS BOURSE, July 7.—A report of a fall of 3
per cent. at Berlin produced a slight depression at
the opening of the market, but prices rallied after
the first few operations. Threes have been done
at from 63f. 75c. to 63f. 85c.; Mobilier from 675 f.
to 680 f.; Orleans, 1,255 f. to 1,260 f..; Lyons, 837 f.
50c. to 840 f.; Eastern, 610 f. to 612 f. 50c. ; Nor•
there, 910 f. to 915 f. The following were the

tuotations :-
41A- per Cents. .... 95 Credit Fonder.... 625
Do. end month .. —1 Belgian 4i .......
3 per Cents. 64 Piedmontese (5): . 84
Do. end month.— . 64 Roman ..........
Bank Shares 2720 Austrian
Credit Mobilier .. 682 50 Spanish Threes
Do. Account 685 Home Debt 39

Cash. Account.
Orl -
Nort eans
hern . 9lO .. 910
New ditto 795 .. 795
Lyons and Mediterranean B4O .. 840
Geneva — .. 495
South
ern
Western
Eastern
S
ardinian
Austrian
Exchange on London, at sight, parr, 25f. 10c. ; money,
1 25f 21c. ; three months, paper, 24f. 90c.; money, 24f. 90c.

THE FR.

OLAND,

Yesterday the annual meeting of the members of
the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland
was held at the offices, Sussex-chambers, Duke-
street, St. James's, the Marquis Townshend, the pre.
sident, in the chair, supported by the Earl of
Ilchester, the Earl of Harrington, Lord Kinnaird,
Viscount Raynham M.P. General Count Zamoy-
ski, Col. Pinney, Mr.i R. Monckton Milnes,
M.P., Mr. J. Abel Smith, &c.
Mr. W. LLOYD BIRKBECK read the report, which
stated that during the past year the receipts had
been exceeded by the expenditure by above £3O.
It stated that as the legacy of the late Lord Dudley
Stuart was all paid, some means must be taken to
obtain fresh funds to enable them to continue their
assistance to the poor Poles. The number of
Polish refugees in London was 724, being a decrease
of 36 as compared with the previous year. The
report then mentioned the attempts of the Prussian
officials in power to entrap the Poles by sending to
them letters recommending insurrection. On the
part of Poland subject to Aussie, the hopes enter-
tained of Alexander 11. are far frOm realised ; reli-
gious persecution exists, newspapers are suppressed,
and the formation of temperance societies is for-
bidden, while the great measure of emancipating
the serfs, which originated in the petition of the
Polish nobles of Lithuania, makes very slow pro-
gress. There is reason to believe that during the
last two or three years the efforts of Russian dip-
lomacy have been incessantly directed towards dis-
solving the Anglo-French alliance. After pointing
out the danmer. to Germany from the Russian
position in Aland, mentioning Austrian atrocities
in Galicia, and the flagrant breach, by the annexa-
tion of Cracow, of the Treaty of Vienna, of which
the present Prime Minister observed—" If the
treaty is to be respected on the Po and
the Rhine, it must be respected also on
the Vistula and the Danube. It concluded
by stating that the dream of those politicians
who believed that peace could be preserved, how-
ever grossly justice might be outraged, has been
rudely interrupted. They may close their ears to
the just complaint of Poland, they may shut their
eyes to the clear evidence of her national existence,
they may misrepresent her history, and even re-
joice over her destruction or subjugation, as tend-
In to general tranquillity ; they said the same
thing and expressed nearly the same sentiments
respecting Italy; but, in spite of their most posi-
tive assertions, a day of reckSning had arrived for
Italy. It is not by continually crying peace when
there is no peace that her blessings can be pre.
served. A nation wounded in its interest and its
honour holds out a standing invitation to invasion,
and it is vain to charge solely on designs or revolu-
tionary tendencies the sure results of outraged jus-
tice and violated treaties. Let, at any rate, the
larger measure of censure be reserved for those who
render wars possible, and even necessary, by them-
selves treating with contempt every authority ex-
cepting that of the sword.
The Earl of HARRINGTON, in moving the adop-
tion of the report, said he was proud to meet them
on the present occasion, as their object was to sym-
pathise and assist an oppressed and virtuous race.
He addressed them as Conservatives, as loyal men,
as patriots, as men who stood up in the defence of
their country and their nationalities. (Hear, hear.)
They were charged with being revolutionists, but
in his opinion the revolutionists were those tyrant
sovereigns who deprived Poland of her liberties,
and who destroyed the Constitution of the brave
and the loyal Hungarians. (Cheers.) They were
the men who, properly speaking, should be called
revolutionists. When the present Emperor came
to his throne it was supposed that he was disposed
to render justice to his subjects generally and to
the Poles in particular ; and in consequence of that
profession it was deemed advisable that this asso-
ciation should not meddle much with political mat-
ters. They must never despair, for he felt that the
spirit of the brave Poles themselves and the feeling of
the country in their favour was such as to warrant
them in continuing the most active exertions. As
a proof of the desirability of that he referred them
to the fact of the present Emperor of Russia being
induced, as far as was in his power, to do away
with serfdom in that country. He then referred to
the conduct of Prince Metternich with regard to
Cracow and Galicia, which, he said, caused the
farmers of the former place to rise against their
landlords. In a despatch dated April 2, 1848, it
was stated that M. Figuelmont, the Austrian Minis-
ter for Foreign Affairs under Prince Metternich,
said, in a conversation with Lord Ponsonby, our
then Ambassador, " Austria will .be able at any
time to raise the peasants against the landlords, and
can easily compass the ruin and destruction of the
discontented." He would ask if that was not
sanctioning and encouraging murder. The result
was that the landlords were murdered in the
mutinous feeling aroused. Prince Metternich took
advantage of that state of things, and incorporated
Cracow with the Austrian empire. He again told
them they must not despair, for one day Italy would
be in a state of utter slavery, and the next—owing
to the King of Sardinia and Count Cavour—would
be rioting in liberty. (Applause.) In early life he
was personally intimate with Prince Metternich.
As a private man he was agreeable, sociable, hos-
pitable, but as a diplomatist—although considered
to be one of the greatest —he was one of the meanest
of mankind; he was no statesman, but a shallow-
minded man; and instead of being the enemy of
revolution, he was for ever sowing the seeds of re-
volution. The consequence was, that was now
going on in Italy was the result of the acts of his
arbitrary and despotic Government. He had just
been reading a blue-book, which was alike honour-
able to Lord Derby and his Government. (Cheers.)
At the end of it Lord Malmesbury sums up the
whole case, and assigns the cause of the war to the
Sardinians. At first it appeared to be correct, but
when he came to reflect he thought of Prince Met-
ternich, His opinion was, that the Italians would
have been a dastardly set had they not acted as
they had done. He said, in the old cant phrase,
" Italy for the Italians," but, in addition to that,
the strength of Germany must be kept up. He
was not for universal suffrage nor for the law of
the bayonet, but he was for a constitution like the
English, than which none could be better.
If
they had a republic, let it be a Washington re-
public, without slavery, with filibustering, and
without lynch-law. He was for national liberty,
and not the liberty of the sword. (Applause.)
Lord KINNAIRD, in seconding the motion, said that for
some time past he had looked upon the cause of the Poles
as hopeless ; and, looking at the complicated state of affairs
on the continent, he was afraid that they would never live
to see the nationality of the Poles restored. But he be-
lieved that there were good grounds for very great hopes.
He felt that if the cause of civil and religious liberty were
spread it must extend to other countries, and then Poland
would rise to its place among the other nations. He be-
lieved the Emperor of the French was sincere in respect to
obtaining the liberties of the Italian people. (Hear, hear.)
He regretted that any remarks had been made upon the
Emperor Napoleon, as he believed nothing but taunts and
reproaches would alter him from being the firm ally of
England. He believed it was his wish and that of the
French people to maintain the best possible relations with
this country. (Hear, hear.)
The motion was then agreed unanimously.
The Earl of ILCHESTER proposed the next resolution :
" That the present time seems favourable for recalling
the question of Polaad to the attention of Europe, inasmuch
as the altered policy. of Russia towards Austria, her adop-
tion of the project of the Polish nobility for the manumis-
sion of serfs, and the national conflict now going on in
Italy, are circumstances of more than usual significance to
the development of the prospects of the Polish nation ; and
that these circumstances, 'far from estranging men's minds
from the immediate consideration of the actual condition
and probable eventualities 'of Poland, do, on the contrary,
tender it incumbent on all well-wishers to her cause,. and
especially on the Poles themselves, to maintain a position
of prudence and watchfulnOss for the present, and of hope-
ful preparation for the futuie."
Mr. MILNES, M.P., in seconding, expressed an opinicn
that the present was a most favourable time for the cause cf
Poland, if any time could be more favourable than another.
He felt that the present time was favourabl ial e to
i Poland, in
consequence of the mysteriously providentnterference
of this war in Italy. It was most important that the
people should retain the system of nationalities, and if
they had them not they should obtain them as soon as
possible. In the early part' of his life he resided in Lom-
bardy, and there saw everything going on right, but it was
ever present to the mind that he was not in a free country,
that it was a military Government carried on by an unccn-
genial race. One of two things must result from this war.
Poland must revert to national independence, or by her
spirit of nationality, and by her talents and intelligence,
she might become the conqueror of Russia. He felt that
one of these things must occur, if he was not mistaken in
the spirit and character of the Poles: (Hear, hear.)
This resolution was also lowed to.
M. J. ABEL SMITH next !proposed the re-election of
Marquis Townshend as president, and in doing so ex.pressed
a fervent wish that their efforts might soon be crowned
with success.
General Count ZAMOYSKI seconded, and said that on
behalf of the Poles he ventured to give themeciation the
assurance that they (the Poles) were sang.of
in
He complained of France and England being engaged
war with Russia without taking Poland on with them.
He did not charge the Governments of France and Eng-
land with doing this wilfully, but it was from a want of
intelligence. •
concurred with the gal-
The Earl of ILCHESTER entirel y
lant Count that the omission was the result of the want of
intelligence.
the office of president for pothera year.
The motion having been carried, the noble chairman ac-
ceptedTOVN,isaCnorotthßerA.s meeting,
apnrd. IVeo
following
g-
resolution was carried
" That the following noblemen, viz., his Grace the Duke
viarsha_l, his Grace the Duke of Suther-
h n the Earl of Harrowby,
YNiI
addressedAM t.h eA.
land,
oKrfo.Glk.: Ethaerl
Hon. K.G., the Right Hon.'
9legtonr, the Right Hon. the Earl of lichee-
the Right Hon-
the Earl of Ilattlionn
ter, the Right ,; the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the Right
z.etlan.d, be elected vice-presidents of the
for the ensuing year : And that the following
and gentlemen, viz., the Right Hon. the Earl
noblemenYarboroug h the Right Hon. Viscount Raynham, M.P.
the Right lion. Lord Kinnaird, K.T., the Right Hon. Lord
allsosonc.iathtieon
D3ury, the Hon. Mewatstuart Elphinstone, Colonel Wilson
my. Butt
, Colonel Pinkey, M.P., Richard Monokton Milnes
Esq., M.P., Scholefield, 2gq., 14,1%, Imo ,

Esq., M.P., John Ayshford Wise, Esq., M.P., A. W. King-
lake, Esq., M.P., Colonel Salwey, T. Abel Smith, Esq.,
B. Bond Cabbell, Esq., Edward Romilly, Esq., Joseph
Ferguson, Esq., Edmond Beales, Esq., Edward Johnstone,
Esq., Thomas Phinn, Esq., and W. Adams Smith, Esq.,
be elected members of the council for the ensuing year:
And that William Lloyd Birkbeck, Egg., be re-elected
honorary secretary."
A vote of thanks was passed to the Chairman, and the
meeting separated.

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