The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-31 00:00:00

THIS EVENING,

Will be performed SERVE HIM RIGHT.
After which MY HEART'S IDOL ; or, A Desperate Remedy. In
which Messrs. C. Mathews, G. Vining, Bellingham ; Madame Ves-
tris, Miss Kenwortby, and Miss I. Dickenson will appear.
To conclude with the Extravaganza of OLYMPIC DEVILS ; or,
Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Miss Eosin Wright and Mr. H.
Horacastle will appear.

s TLE Y'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.
Under tho Patronage of her Majesty and his Royal Highness
Prince Albert.
Proprietor and Manager, Mr. W. Batty.
In consequence of the crowded Houses to witness the attractive and
magnificent Spectacle of Mazeppa, which, with brilliant novelties
is the Wonders of the Arena, form the most varied and attractive
Entertainments in the Metropolis, it will be continued for a few
more nights.

THIS EVENING,
Will be produced Lord Byron's gorgeous Spectacle of ILLZEPPA
and the WILD HORSE. Mazeppa, Mr. N. T. Hicks.
To be succeeded by an inimitable Display of Batty's Feats of
r.quitation in the Cirque Olympique, by the male and female Eques-
trians of the Establishment, Vaulters, &c.
To conclude with the last new laughable Farce.
Box-offlce open from Eleven till Four.
Stage Manager, Mr. T. Thompson.

iliGll WATER Al LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAY Morning 37 min. after 10 I Evening 12 min. after 11
To-Xorutow— Morning 42 min. after 11 Evening 0 min. after 0

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, OcronEa 31.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
49—highest since noon yesterday.
39—lowest this morning and daring the night.
50—this day, at noon.
_

BAROMETER, 29.72.
WIND W.—Morning, dull, cloudy weather; Afternoon, fine.

DAILY WEATHER TABLE.

The State of the Wind and Weather at each of the following
places at Nine o'clock yesterday morning.-The stations
are arranged is order of latitude.
KINGSTOWN (DUBLIN) -Wind N.W., gentle breeze - rain.
PLYMOUTH - Wind W. calm - foggy.
PORTSMOUTH-Wind S.E., gentle breeze-overcast.
BRIGHTON-Wind N., calm-overcast.
HASTINGS -Wind N.W., gentle breeze-overcast.
OUTIIAM P rox-Wind W., calm-foggy.
FoLKEST•NE N.W., gentle breeze-overcast.
BASINGSTOKE—Wind W. calm-rain.
BRISTOL - Wind S., gentle breeze-rain.
(xftEENW IC El-calm-overcast.
SwispoN- Wind S., gentle breeze-rain.
OXFORD-Wind W., calm-rain.
LEIGHTON - Wind S.W., gentle breeze-overcast.
CO LCH ESTER -Wind S.W., calm-overcast.
CAMBRIDGE -Wind S. W., gentle breeze-overcast.
BIRMINGHAM --Wind S.W., gentle breeze-rain.
YARMOUTH - Wind S.W., gentle breeze-cloudless.
CREWE-. Wind S., light breeze-rain.
FIoLTHEAD—Wind W.S.W., gentle breeze-rain.
MANCH ESTER - Wind S., gentle breeze-overcast.
LANcAsrati-Wind S., gentle breeze-scud, rain.
I.Viirrny--Wind S.W., gentle breeze-rain.
DAHL NGTON—Wind S.S.W., strong breeze-rain.
S :"NDEIt LAND -Wind S., strong breeze - overcast.
BI ArrocK-Wind N., strong breeze-cloudless.
_-,-Bawicic-Wind W., gentle breeze-overcast.
EDINBURGH-Wind S.W., gentle breeze - rain.
The returns from the following places indicate the state of
the wind and weather on Tuesday morning at nine
o'clock :-
Coat -Wind N.W.' light breeze-overcast.
MULLIN GAR-Wind N. W., gentle breeze-overcast.
DUNDALK-Wind N.W., gentle breeze-frosty.
PooLF.- Wind N., gentle breeze-cloudless.
Yo nd N.W., calm--cloudless.
LANcAersR-Wind N.E., calm-foggy.
DUNDEE-Wind N.W., gentle breeze-cloudless.

LONDON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, Isso.

November the 14th will witness the repetition of
that charitable entertainment which has in a great
measure tended to keep alive among us a feeling of
sympathy for an illustrious but unfortunate nation,
whose very name has been long since erased from the
map of the European continent. Than the sentiments
in which these festivities originate none can be more
noble, more pure, or more elevated. They are sen-
timents of a profound commiseration in the fortunes,
or rather the misfortunes, of a race as heroic as any
in Christendom—one, however, whose glory has been
obliterated from the face of the earth, and rendered
only a little less legendary than that of the Caliphs of
Bagdad, or of the Abencerrages of Granada. Stu-
dents of history may occasionally pause over the
melancholy annals of the past to bewail the disap-
pearance of a kingdom characterized by so many bril-
liant illustrations of prowess, and virtue, and patrio-
tism. Hero-worshippers may exult over the traditionary
memorials of SOBIESIiI when he conquered the pre-
datory legions of the Crescent under the very eyes of
the affrighted Viennese. The admirers of genius
and of civism may lament with an unutterable dejec-
tion the calamities of that great KosciusKo whose
downfall has been identified by a northern poet with
the destruction of his country's freedom. Some may
sigh over the broken sword of PONIATOWSICI, and
others over the broken sceptre of STAMSLAUS. Yet,
with all this refined sympathy and intellectual com-
miseration, no actual good might flow from emotions
as honourable as they are beautiful and persuasive.
It is to obviate this very probable, or we might even
very safely term it inevitable danger, that the benevo-
lent originators of the Polish Association have each
year appealed to the public bluntly and compre-
hensibly to come forward in aid of the desti-
tute children of Poland, those heirs to an ever-
memorable calamity. The practice has become at
b-ngth so established amongst us in the metropolis
that the occasion is scarcely so much looked upon as
the renewal of a demand for an exhibition of gene-
rosity as a sort of well-understood anniversary. The
Polish Ball, in fact, has come at last to be regarded
at once as a Liveurite charity and a popular amuse-
ment.

Against this most inoffensive and beneficent enter-
tainment frequent attacks have from time to time been
levelled, as against something injurious to the inte-
rests of the population. Any such insinuations as
have been thrown out against its promoters we cannot
sufficiently reprobate. Instead of wishing well to
scheme inimical to no one individual throughout the
community, it would seem that these assailants
of the friends of Poland are resolved, if possible, to
quash the charity by reiterated misrepresentation.
NN, e cannot but regret an evidence of so much and
such unpardonable malignity. For it is not as if the
subscribers to this same charity were in any way
fleeced out of their contributions. Their guineas are
paid down voluntarily. In addition to all which

they receive, so to speak, full value for their money i
in the brilliant reunion which each winter renders I
the otherwhe gloomy saloons of Guildhall animated-
with the votaries of Terpsichore. Yet this latter cir-
cumstance is the very one which has not unfrequently
been vilified as the most deserving of reprobation in
the whole enterprize. As if the harmless enjoy-
ment of the annual frequenters of the enter-
tainment militated in any one respect against
the excellence of the charity itself, or tended in any
one way to diminish its beneficial influence over its
recipients. When men and women are assembled
together after a bloody saturnalia like that of the
Reign of Terror, the beaux of the ball-room wearing
miniature guillotines in their buttonholes, and the
ladies placing them in their bosoms as appropriate
brooches—when in this manner the survivors of that
tremendous epoch endeavoured to gather funds for the
relief of the widows and orphans of such as had fallen
under the merciless rule of the Triumvirs—when in
this way the youths and maidens still left in Paris
,danced amidst the ashes and blood of that devastated
capital—the mind naturally recoils from a mode of
alleviating suffering so frivolous and will.bearted as to
be absolutely repulsive. But when years have passed
since the final partition of Poland—when at a remote
period, and in a distant country, an entertainment of
a most harmless character is contrived with a view to
relieve the privations of a body of ill-starred refu-
gees—it must be confessed that we can see only strong
reasons for approval and admiration. Hence, there-
fore, it is, that we are even solicitous to witness the
fortunate completion of a labour of love and kindnessso
generously and propitiously commenced—a labour only
pecuniarily profitable to a class of persons otherwise
helpless and unassisted.
During a now somewhat considerable period the
Common Council of the city of Londonhive permitted
these polish balls to be held in the Guildhall of
the metropolis, in this manner enabling the Associa-
tion to evade the expenses of rental, and at the
same time reflecting the highest honour upon
the liberality of the metropolitan municipality. We
have observed with satisfaction, consequently, that
the permission has in this manner been granted to the
committee notwithstanding the invidious endeavours
of a certain class of individuals to depreciate the
character of the entertainment. Every circumstance,
indeed, appears to yield promise highly satisfactory to
the members of the Polish Association—promise
which we most earnestly trust may be realised in
abundance on the approaching 14th of November.

The position lately assumed by the Papal Court is
eminently deserving of the attention, not merely of
the Protestant people of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, but also of those moderate
and well-disposed members of the Roman Catholic
Church, whose undeviating good conduct and exem-
plary patience, while suffering for a long series of
years under an iniquitous and intolerable penal code,
eminently merited and gained the heartfelt sympathy
of all right-minded men. Day by day the ancient pre-
judices that had occasioned so much mischief to the best
interests of the empire, that divided society into two
classes—the oppressors and the oppressed—wore away,
until at length the chief vestiges of intolerance—would
we could say the last—were erased from the national
statute-book, and our Roman Catholic brethren were
placed, as they ought to be, on a footing of perfect
equality with their fellow-subjects, every species of
civil and religious disability was removed, and a man
was no longer debarred from serving his country
because he worshipped his CREATOR in the manner
which in his soul and conscience he believed to be
most fitting.
But although Catholic Emancipation was calculated
to bring to a termination those unhappy differences
and disputes that had so long arrayed Irishman against
Irishman, something more was required to restore
peace to that unhappy land. " The snake was
scotched, not killed." The remembrance of former
feuds still survived and rankled in the bosoms
of the quondam belligerents. A broad line of
demarcation existed between the professors of
different creeds and those who worshipped the
same CREATOR, and trusted to the saving mercies of
the same Ban:maxim, still kept aloof and apart, re-
garding each other with mutual distrust and suspi-
cion. This untoward state of affairs, so injurious, we
might say fatal, to the welfare and prosperity of their
common country, so likely to produce

" Civil dissension, with its viprons tooth,
That gnaws the bowels of the commonweal,"
could only be ameliorated by the dispersion of those
mists which, accumulating during successive ages,
obscured the vision of both parties. It was necessary
that they should be brought together in early youth,
and made well acquainted with each other, that
they might no longer lend an easy cre-
dence to the wicked fictions or no less cul-
pable exaggerations of designing men, who for
their own vile purposes would divide the nation into
hostile parties, that they themselves, like the " scum
in a whirlpool," might be flung to the surface, and
enabled to sell for filthy lucre the interests of thov.
weak-minded and credulous persons wbo permitted
themselves to be made the tools of the unscrupulous
agitators. This could only be achieved by education
—education, not separate and exclusive, but mixed and
general, the rising generation of all creeds assembling
round the same rostrum, and receiving sound instruc-
tion from the same master, without having obnoxious
tenets forced upon their attention, in direct opposition
to th• wishes and reasonable desires of their parents
andlthe pastors and ministers of the faith in which
they were born, and which they were brought up to
reverence and venerate.

It was under such circumstances that the system
of national education, in Ireland, one of the most be-
neficial and admirable measures of the present, or of
any preceding age, was called into existence. It was
a wise and statesmanlike effort to assuage the irri-
tation, and soothe the angry passions of the
Irish people. But, unfortunately, it was not
received with the cordial unanimity which it so emi-
nently deserved. It was rejected by a majority of
those who should have been the first to hail the
golden opportunity afforded of general instruction.
Much misconception existed as to its aims, and un-
fortunately there were those who isou/d not be con-
vinced of its real objects. The clergymen of the
Established Church in Ireland, as a body, refused to
avail themselves of the advantages offered by the
State for the instruction of the people. Be-
cause proselytism and propagandism were dis-
couraged, they declared that the system was op-
posed to religion, and because they were not allowed
to inculcate their own doctrines and tenets on the
ductile minds of youth, they raised the cry of "God-
less and unscriptural education," denounced the
entire system, and refused to co-operate in any degree
with the Government. Never was a more grave or
serious mistake committed by any body of men.
They surrendered all share in the education of the
rising generation, and relinquished the position which
they might have occupied to the Roman Catholic
clergy. A few of the more enlightened, tolerant, and
liberal pastors alone gave in their adhesion, and esta-
blished schools on the national foundation in their
respective parishes, and they had their reward in the
great amelioration that many of them lived to witness
in the condition of their flocks.
As a body, the Roman Catholic clergymen acted
A wiser and more reasonable part. They appre-
ciated the boon offered by the Government, and
gladly and gratefully accepted the tendered aid.
They knew that it was not " a Godless education"—
that all that was required was that merely secular in-
stru2tion should be afforded during certain portions
of the day, when all the pupils were assembled toge-
ther, and that other hours were devoted to religious
instruction, when those whose parents did not object
might and would be instructed in the principles and
duties of their respective creeds. In practice it was
found to work admirably ; the priests had
no cause to regret the laudable course
they pursued, while more than half a million of
children of both sexes received a sound practical
education, which prepared them to enter upon "the
battle of life."
There were, it is true, a few ecclesiastical fire-
brands, a few intolerant bigots, to be found in the
Roman Catholic, as well as in the Protestant Church—
men whose vocation was to sow strife and animosity
among their respective flocks. They had " a Roland
for an Oliver." If we could boast " a HARRY of
Exeter," they could exult in " a JOHN of Tuam ;" if we
had " a PHILLPOTTB," they had likewise " a APHALE."
'there was, perhaps, but little to choose between the j

THE StN.,`

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