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

Commence a 7

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.
Manazer—Mr. Edmund Falconer.
THIS EVENING, the nertorraances will commence with
THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING Mr. Walter Lacy
and Mrs. St. Henry.

After which, at a quarter to Eight '(29th time) the new
and original Drama, entitled PEEP O' DAY ; or, Savourneen
Deelish. Messrs. Walter Lacy, Hermann Vezin, Charles
Selby, Edmun i Falconer; M. D. P. Bowers, Miss Clara
Weston.
- -

To conclude with AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE, in
which Miss Lydia Thompson will Dance the Volunteer
Step.

Acting Manager—Mr. F. B. Chatterton.
Prices as usual. Doors open at half-past 8, to commence at
7. Box-office open daily from 11 till 5.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.--
Lessee and Manager, Mr. A. Harris.
THIS EVENING, THE LOST LETTER.
After which, THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. Mr.
Ryder, Mr. Widdicombe, Mr. Meadows, &c. ; Miss Carlotta
Leclercq, Miss Angell, &c.
To conclude with BLUE JACKETS.

EW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHL-
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
Great Attraction for the Cattle show Week.—Mr. and Mrs
Dion Boucicault in two pieces.
THIS EVENING, commencing at 7, the great American
drama of THE OCTOROON ; or, LIFE IN LOUISIANA ;
Mr. and Mrs. Dion Poucicault, Messrs. Billington, Emery,
Phillip , Jamison, Stephenson, Smith, Romer. Lewis, Mrs.
Billington. Mrs. 11. Marston, Miss C. Denvil, Miss Latimer,
and Mrs. H. Lewis

At 20 minutes past 9 o'clock the great Irish drama, TFTE
COLL MEN BAWN. Mr. and Mrs. Boucicault, Mr. Fisher,
Mr.!Emery, Mr. Billington, Miss W oolgar, Mrs. Billington,
Mrs. H. Lewis.

Doors onen at half-past 6—Commence at 7.
Box-office open from 10 till 5. No charge for booking.

NEW ROYALTY THEATRE
Dean-street, Oxford-street.
Under the Direction of Mdlle. Albina di Rhona.
THIS EVENING, to commence with THE GOVERNOR'S
WIFE.
After which, Mdlle. di Rhona will appear in CAMELIA ,
and Dance two National Dances.
After which, BAMBOOZLING.
To conclude with LES PIERROTS.
Box-office open from 11 to 4.
Doors open at 7—Commence at half-past 7.

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS,
AND FINE ARTS GALLERY.

MR. SAM COWELL at Eleven o'clock in several favou-
rite Sontzs, inclnding " THE HOUSE THAT JACK
BUILT."

Grand Selections from
STRADELLA and LA 'l' IiAVIATA,

By Miss Russell, MimsErnst, Mr. Herbert, and signor

with a poWerful Chorus.

The Comic department :—Mr. Sam Cowell ; Mr. Marshall,
in his new song, "John Bull, you don't bamboozle me ;"
Messrs. Harvey and French (the Nerves); Mr. Wood and
his talented son, the best negro delineators of the day ;
and Miss Harriet Coveney .
Musical Director, Mr. Jonghmans.
Admission —Hall, Bd. ; Stalls and Balcony, ls.

THE 0 X F O R D,
6, OXFORD-STREET.

EVERY EVENING.

Selections from " LA CIRCASSIENNE," "Simon Bocca-
ncgra," and "Ernani," by Miss Russell, Miss Ernst, and
Madime Enderssohn; Messrs. Albert, W. Morley, Greene,
and Greville. Full Band and Chorus.--Conductor, Mr. F.
Jonghmans. Balfe's new ballads by Miss Russell and
Madame Enderssohn (composed expressly for them). And
Varied Comic Entertainments by Miss Harriet Coveney,
Messrs. W. Randall, Sam Collins, Harvey and French
(The Nerves), E. Marshall, and SAM CO WELL, Hall, 6d. ;
Balcony and Stalls, Is ; Private Boxes, 10s. 6c,

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE,
THIS DAY.—Morning, 10h. Bm.—Afternoon, 10h. 38m.
To-MORROW. -Morning, 11h. 10m.—Afternoon, 1112. 40m.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, DECEMBER 12,1.1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
48 —kighest since noon yesterday.
43—lowest this morning and during the night.
50 —this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.97.
WlND—South-Westerly ; rather fresh, with dirty rainy
weather, but mild.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, DEC. 12, 1861.

The Norwegian and the Etna, the summary of
whose news we gave yesterday, have brought us
information of no facts of serious importance. It
will hardly be thought one, that Mr. EDWIN
JAMES, in return, we suppose, for the adulation of
some of the press, and the hospitality of the New
York bar, should have made such progress in
Yankeeism, as already to justify the seizure of the
Commissioners. Whatever importance that fact
may have, is destroyed by another—that
two leading American lawyers in Philadelphia
have written to the papers—one to show, what has
also been proved here, that the case of the seizure
of Mr. LAURENS was wholly irrelevant ; the other
to show that an exact precedent is yet wanting, but
that the opinions of President MADISON are against
the American claims.

The PRESIDENT'S Message was yet but matter
of conjecture and guess; that 700,000 men and pro-
portionate pecuniary supplies would be voted, was
the opinion of the Washington correspondent of the
New York Tribune. Numbers, therefore, still seem
to be the craving of the North. Religion comes
to their aid. Not indeed the religion of letting the
oppressed go free, but of Presbyterian Synods
asking the blessing of Heaven on a war to crush
rebellion against a Government " in which is centred
all the hopes of civil and religious liberty." A
rebellion " antagonistic to the advancement of civi-
lization throughout the world." Mr. SEWARD
thanks the Synod for its patriotism and its
prayers. It is certainly rather amusing to see
how the Americans seem to regard themselves as
the political hope of the world, the salt of the
earth. The PRESIDENT himself, Mrs. STOWE, and
other distinguished Americans, openly describe the
Northern cause as the cause of mankind and of
eivilisation,and as far transcending the small affair of
negro slaver,•y, To Europeans it seems unaccountable
how they can overlook the "beam in their own eye."
A Federal Union, one half to be slave-holding, the
other slave-eatehing, does not appear, compared
with European Governments, to be a cause of such
transcendent worth.

Respecting naval and military operations nothing
certain of any consequence had occurred since the
preceding mails left. The Southerners appear to be
abandoning the coast everywhere, ha •
ving nothing
able to cope with the powerful guns of the fleet.
They appear to take away their own guns for the
use of the army—which in numbers not inferior to
the Federal forces had already mustered about 20
miles from Fort Beaufort. The Canadians appear
to be quite alive to the desirableness of self-preser-
vation, and not yet disposed to be swallowed up, or
regarded as compensation for losses in the South.

While the Americans are occupying so large a
share of our attention, the Earopean despots are
playing their old game of cruel repression to the
uttermost. President LINCOLN and his democracy
in the Northern States are doing what they can to
show that tyranny may be many-headed as well as
single-headed, and that personal freedom, and free-
dom of the press, may be as unsafe in the hands of
the elect of 20,000,000 as in those of a ROMANOFF
911 a a Czar. The rulers of Russia and of Austria are,
illawe'rer) determined to show that they are not to

-be•outdone in the policy of repression and suppres-
sion,
and opposition to concession.
The CZAR seemed at one time likely to become
somewhat of an idol with English Tories, and even
to gain the smiles of English Liberals. He suc-
ceeded in issuing his decree abolishing serfdom, in
the teeth of a nobility almost ready to assassinate
him. He has, it is said, been personally favourable
to the University and Education, and last of all he
has created a responsible Ministry, indicating an
intention to bring Russian Government near to the
lowest level of modern civilization. Can such a
Prince be anything but a real Liberal, though born
a despot ? Will he not do as much as the length
of his reign will permit for the political liberties
and the social advancement of his people ? Un-
happily, the Liberal CZAR is King of Poland also,
and he rules there by even a worse right than
Austria does in Venetia. He has not at least ful-
filled the engagements into which his preiecessor
entered at Vienna in 1815, and his government
of Poland from St. Petersburg is a defiance
of his obligations to Europe. The events
of the spring are yet fresh in our me-
mory—the peaceful urgency of the people, the
treacherous plots of the Government, and the
murder of the unarmed by the soldiers. To all
this has now followed civil vengeance. The CZAR
is Pope of the Greek Church—in its actual con-
dition one of the most unenlightened, superstitious,
and servile Churches in Christendom. Popery in
Spain and Naples cannot surpass in superstitious
beliefs and practices the Church of the CZARS.
In Poland, by dint of cruel persecutions, Pro-
testantism was almost extirpated, and Roman
Catholicism took its place ; and now, as in the
Austrian dominions, where it was established in
like manner, Roman Catholicism is the general
creed.

The Catholic Priests, however, as in other
countries where their religion is not, the domi-
nant one, side with the people, and defy the
ruling powers. Hence the Czar-Pope of all the
Russias, and the clergy of Poland, have been
in constant collision, and the Popery of the Poles
is in opposition to absolutism, and is held to all the
more firmly as a national distinction from the Greek
Church of Russia. This is the reason of the insults
offered to the Cathedral by the Roman soldiery, of
its being closed in resentment of the desecration by
the Archbishop, and of the wrath of the CZAR at
measures which so excite the people against his
Government as the assailant of their religion. The
churches, our readers may have observed, have been
very much used as the means of national demon-
strations, by services, hymns, and other means.
Hence, we read in one communication that—" In
the Government of Radow, to cite a fresh instance,
the governor has enjoined the authorities of the
districts to proceed with the utmost rigour against
all priests, organists, and sextons of the churches in
which any national emblems are preserved, and in
which there still exist crucifixes and banners bear-
ing the arms of Poland—the white eagle or the
Lithuanian horseman. The order extends to ceme-
teries as well as churches. Tombstones are to be
carefully examined, and defaced or removed if neces-
sary. The crosses erected in honour of the victims
of February at Warsaw are to be taken away.
The execution of these orders is sometimes resisted,
but if the clergy do not voluntarily carry them
into execution, the priests are to be arrested and
sent to the citadel of Warsaw ; the sextons and
organists to be enrolled as common soldiers, if fit
for the service, or if not, placed in companies
of discipline. Several ecclesiastics have been
arrested in virtue of these instructions."
Most barbarous of all is the recommenced war of
the CZAR against Polish nationality and liberty, by
seizing old and young persons of education, often
feeble health, and generally of a class little used to
hardship, and sending them to Siberia, or to the
army in some distant province to serve as common
soldiers. We read not only that one hundred and
sixty-two priests have been imprisoned in the cita-
del of Warsaw, but that forty persons—of whom
eight are priests—have been sent as recruits to the
army at Orenburg ! Medical students, Jews, all
classes indeed of respectable citizens, share most
impartially these favours of the brutal emancipator
of the Russian serfs.

The Emperor of AUSTRIA, of course, does not, in
his way, fall behind his cousin of St. Petersburg.
He thinks himself now safe for a while in Italy,
and is, therefore, doing his worst in Hungary. We
were told a few days ago by Vienna papers, that it
had been found quite easy to fill up the places of
the county officials who had universally refused to
act unless legally appointed by the comitats; but it
now turns out, that all who refuse to accept office
on the illegal and arbitrary appointment of the
EMPEROR, are punished by having eighteen soldiers
each quartered on them! This morning, also, we
learn that the highest officers are seized and
fettered, and placed before a court martial on a
charge of treason ! Paternal and constitutional
all this. It will, however, serve to keep up the
spirit of the country for the day of retribution.
The intention, doubtless, is to provoke premature
insurrection. The Hungarians are too wide awake,
we trust, for that,

Apropos to the forthcoming International Ex-
hibition of 1862 some curious statistics have
recently made their appearance. They have been
raked out of the wilderness of " figures" annually
accumulated in the archives of the Board of Trade.
One item particularly notified of late is of a more
than ordinarily startling character in its way. It
is a revelation so extraordinary, in truth, that it sets
one's mouth watering, as it were, at the merely
tantalising reminder it affords us of a most memo-
rable missed opportunity. It is the fact revealed
upon a passing contrast of the number of railway
journeys recorded as having been taken in 1851
in this country, and the number of the same
kind of journeys performed also in this country
ten years afterwards. It should be premised, of
course, that within this decade last passed the po-
pulation has considerably increased, as a matter
of course, At the period of the last (that is at the
same time—the first) International Exhibition,
"There were," we are reminded, " 6,700 miles of
railway open throughout the United Kingdom."
Whereas, " next year there will be nearly 11,000
miles." Besides which, " The general system of
railway management has immensely improved also
since 1851, and managers have now learnt to ap-
preciate the return ticket system and the excursion
traffic at reduced rates, which they would not even
hear of ten years ago." Hence—under these com-
bined influences, i.e., the increase of population,
the extension of the railways themselves, and the
advancement of the general system of railway ar-
rangement last particularised—the aggregate of
railroad journeys performed within the year, from
the Ist of January, 1860, to the 31st of December
owis found, upon contrast with the aggre-
gfoaltleoifnigOurneys made in 1851, to have more
than doubled ! " To such an extent," we learn,
" have the increased facilities induced the public
to travel, that we find from the Board of Trade
returns that the number of railway journeys per-
formed throughout the kingdom has continued
steadily increasing at the enormous rate of nearly
10,000,000 a year, and that the number has more

than doubled since 1851." In testimony of
the accuracy of which computation, we are
then told distinctly from the official re-
turn that, "in that year," that is in 1851,
the year of the Great Exhibition in Hyde-
Park " there were 85,000,000 journeys performed ;
last year there were 177,000,000." It being further
! added that, " while in 1851 the railways could only
bring and take away from London 40,000 visitors
daily, it is now computed that they are equal to
a passenger traffic to and from the metropolis of
not less than 140,000 daily." Wherefore, it is
argued—we cannot think very extravagantly—" It
is not unreasonable to suppose then, that, with the
great inducements that will be held out by railway
companies in the way of cheap excursion trains
and long return tickets, the number of visitors
from the country will be nearly doubled this time,
and that, instead of 3,000,000, as in 1851, we may
not improbably get 6,000,000 next year." Certainly
a very encouraging look-out for the whole trading
population of London and Westminster ! To say
nothing whatever of the good news implied by all this
for the pleasure seekers—whether belonging to the
Million or to the Upper Tea Thousand.
Reverting, however, to the remark intimated at the
outset of these observations,we would explain simply
that the tantalising effect referred to has relation to
the remembrance of the proposal at one time put
forth, at the original inauguration of the Railway
System of the United Kingdom—to the end that an
impost should have been put by the Legislature, at
the instance of the Government, for the benefit of
the Imperial Treasury—a tax that is of so much
upon every railway traveller. Then, again, this
proposition seemed to have been listened to,
and formally adopted, first of ail, by the
then Administration, and afterwards embodied
in a substantial statute of the realm by the then
Parliament. Imagine a few pence, a sixpence, a
shilling, paid into the Treasury now annually for
every one of those 177,000,000 railway travellers !
And imagine, moreover, this source of revenue
showing also a steady increase upon every succes-
sive year of fully 10,000,000 ! Surely we may
with reason say, that it makes one's mouth water,
as it were, merely to think of it ! Particularly
remembering the war imposts still maintained
upon tea and upon sugar. But still more, and
beyond all, bearing in mind that Demon Tax,
the Old Man of the Sea to the Political Sindbad,
the deplorable and heart-worrying Income Tax !
Before quitting this theme incidentally thrust
upon our regard in connection with the ap-
proaching International Exhibition at South
Kensington, it is difficult not to comment with
particular satisfaction, no matter how briefly,
upon the rapid advance towards completion of the
works connected with the gigantic building des-
tined to contain it. Everything connected with
those works, it is gratifying to know, may already
be found by the visitor to be in a most satisfac-
tory state of forwardness—everything, saving and
excepting only the huge domes, half of glass,
half of iron. Nor can that exception be very
much wondered at, learning, as we do, upon com-
petent authority, that "never were so many awk-
wardly shaped pieces of ironwork designed to fit
into one erection :" that " it is, in fact, like put-
ting together a colossal puzzle, each of the com-
ponent parts of which averages three tons in
weight, and has to be bolted into its place at a
height of 200 feet from the ground." Even with
these difficulties remaining before us—yet to be
overcome—the works are visibly so far advanced
already that not one instant's further anxiety can
be seriously entertained as to whether the whole
of these colossal labours can be completed in every
minute particular long before Thursday, the Ist
of May, 1862, the day fixed for the solemn inaugu-
ration of the Exhibition by her MAJESTY.

We have been informed on the best authority that
one of the Finsbury candidates, and one of whom
we had little expected it, is much below the politi-
cal standard of the borough which Mr. THOMAS
DUNCOMBE so spiritedly and creditably represented
for so many years. Mr. REMINGTON MILLS is
doubtless a highly respectable citizen, wealthy
certainly, and a Dissenter ; yet he, of all candidates
in the world, comes short, on the subject of Church
Rates, of the representative whom he desires to
follow. Lord PALMERSTON, Lord JOHN RITS§,ELL,
and Sir G. C. LEWIS have improved on their creed
of 1832. They now confess that nothing but abo-
lition can meet all the difficulties of the case, but Mr.
MILLS has been applied to on the subject, and his an-
swer is that he will indeed vote for Sir JOIINTRELAW-
NEY'S bill, but that if a bill be brought in exempt-
ing Dissenters, and leaving Churchmen to rate
themselves, of course with compulsory powers, he
will vote for it. He is still an old Whig. He
sticks by memorials and petitions he presented
thirty years ago ; he has not, as Mr, DUNCOMBE
had, moved on with the progress of thirty years,
but is quite content if he can get what was thought
worth getting in 1832.
Now, we certainly thought the Dissenters never
showed to greater advantage than when resisting
the proposal to exempt them, and to ticket them off
from their fellow countrymen,as not bearing equally
every legal rate. They pressed two arguments.
They said, in towns, where indeed rates are sel-
-1 dom levied, Dissenters would not fear to claim
exemption, but in country parishes they dare not
claim it, the Squire and Parson's power to punish is
too great. But, secondly, they added, and this
has always struck us as most honourably consistent
—" even if you could exempt us by unobjectionable
means, we will be no parties to permitting Church-
men to coerce each other. Our opinion, is that
there ought to be no more coercion to pay for wor-
ship than to attend worship. We believe, religious
payment should be free."

This was Mr. DUNCOMBE'S creed on the subject.
Because a considerable number of Churchmen
would like to retain the power of ccercing their
fellow Churchmen, he did not think that a reason
why they should retain it. He was strongly in
favour of the short and simple process of requiring
each person voluntarily to support the worship he
wished for. We remember being with a deputation
to the present Premier, when in office before, and
Mr. DUNCOMBE was the member who pushed the
cunning and equivocating Prime Minister into
such a corner, that we believe it had more than
anything else to do with his subsequent

conversion. Now can it really be that
a rich dissenter is prepared to take lower
ground on such a subject than an aristocratic
Radical, whose consistency never wavered through
a long political career ?
It will not do to shirk this question now. It has
become almost the only test, for the moment, of
thoroughgoing liberalism. The ballot and church-
rate abolition are now the clearest distinctions be-
tween parties. Not but that some liberal Tories,
Lord STANLEY being a conspicuous example, are
ieadytovote for the latter. A section of the Tory
party, led by
one great name, have seen fit, un-
wisely
theirfor C o
hn sa et rt te.
hi somr
s,
ow. e t hTihneky, t
ho
amv
ea k e cpartiallyuc hr-
rateshsucceeded, by whipping up all who preferred to
give no rote on the question.—and they look strong
just now on a Wednesday—and is this the time
when Finsbury -is to send to Parliament a Dissent•