The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-07 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 7, 1855.

SPIRIT OF THE PITECIC JoUR NA LS.

( From the Times of this day. )
Ths result of the Vienna Conferences has lowered
Austria very considerably in the opinion of Europe,
and also, if we mistake not, not a little in her own.
She has tried how a war with Russia would feel,
and the sensation has been so disagreeable that she
has evidently no intention whatever of repeating
the experiment. She has deliberated, but the end
of her deliberations has been that which is usually
ascribed to the consultations of a council of war—
a determination not to fight. She is highly ap•
plauded in this magnanimous resolution by Mr.
Gladstone and politicians of his stamp, but Austria
is au eminently practical power, and seems deter-
mined to show us that we are no more now to rely
on her love of peace than we ought to have relied
before on her resolution to make war. Austria no
longer threatens the Russian frontier, her troops
are withdrawn from Galicia, and 200,000 or
300,000 men, it is said, released by the retrograde
movement of our ally, are to pour themselves into
the Crimea. But Mr. Gladstone, who professes to
be a lover of Italian independence, will hear with
little satisfaction that in proportion as Austria is
weaitening her forces on the Russian frontier she
is strengthening her army on the side of Italy.
159,000 men, least, are said to be concentrated
under Marshal Radetzky, and the attitude becomes
every day more threatening. There is, indeed, con-
siderable cause for alarm both in the present position
of the Austrian Government, the tendencies and the
aspirations of the Marshal, and the movements on the
part of the Liberal party,which seems only waitinv the
signal to break out. So long as. Italy is governed by
the civil tribunals, it is difficult for the military chief
to assume absolute power, and the central Govern-
ment, though always weak in its control over
generals in remote provinces, still retains over
them some semblance of authority. But so soon
as martial law is proclaimed all things pass under
the dominion of the sword, and the substance of

power is to him who wields it. The Field-Mar-

shal is well known to be Russian in his feelings
and tendencies, and he and his staff are said to be
seen constantly decorated with orders received
from the Court of St. Petersburg. Placed at the
head of a numerous and well-disciplined army,
with no prospect anywhere except that of imme-
diately enforcing his will at the point of the
bayonet, the Austrian Marshal seems to be ga-
thering up his strength as if to strike some mighty
blow, and create, on behalf of Russia, some se-
rious diversion. France is said only to retain
2,000 men to garrison Rome, and it is not sup-
posed that Piedmont, with the flower of her army
absent in. the Crimea, could bring into the field
above 18,000 or 20,000 regular troops. The
crisis is indeed inviting, and might tempt a
more scrupulous man than Marshal Radetzky has
ever proved himself to be. Still, with so much
power, and so much will to do mischief, the exe-
cution of the plans of conquest might probably
have been held in abeyance had no excuse offered
itself for commencing so ominous a struggle.
Italy, in addition to her other misfortunes,
possesses a Republican party, and a leader of
that party apparently more thoroughly devoid
of reason and common sense than the beads of
such combinations generally prove themselves. In
Mazzini the reactionary party and their police
have an agent ever ready to carry out their designs
with the fullest conviction that he is carrying out
in the best manner possible the interests of liberty,
fraternity, and equality. He is a conspirator who
is for ever revealing his plots to any one who
thinks it worth while to listen to them, and a
leader who would, in the simplest good faith, take
any sum of Russian money for the purpose of as-
sisting him to promote his principles, without re-
flecting that the funds must be supplied for pur-
poses diametrically contrary to those for which he
means to employ thein. This unlucky personage
is at this moment believed to be active in Italy,
and all that we know of his previous indiscretions
leads us to suppose that he will be deterred by no
prudence or warning from once more ruining the
mopes of his party, and once more giving their
enemies the desired excuse to crush them. In this
matter, as in all others, Piedmont is setting a
glorious example to all Italy. She is seeking
by every means in her power to arrest these in-
cendiaries, and to prevent the breaking Gut of a
combination so perilous to Italy and herself. It
is, however, highly improbable that she will
succeed in this prudent and praiseworthy attempt,
and much more likely that the gold of Russia, the
reckless folly of Mazzini, the discontent of the Re-
publican party, the irritating conduct of the Aus-
trians, and, perhaps, some little assistance from
their own police—incomparable at getting up a
conspiracy to order—will produce some outbreak,
add thus give Marshal Radetzky the desired oppor-
tunity of making the weight of his sword felt, not
only in the Milanese and Venetian provinces, but
in the States of the Church, the Duchies, and pos-
sibly even in Piedmont herself.
It has been felt to be very difficult all along to
prevent this war from passing, like the Thirty
Years' War, into a war of opinion, and it will at
Least be singular if that Power, which has more
than any other in Europe to lose by a war of
opinion, should be herself the very first to provoke
it. By what judicial blindness is it that Austria
fails to see that, though she may begin such a
struggle, she can form no reliable opinion as to
where it will end ? Made up of discordant elements,
existing by balancing the hatred of one portion of
her subjects against the other, she has everything
to dread from an excitement of that national feel-

ing which might well unite Poles, Hungarians,
Croats, and Italians in a league against their
common oppressor. Thoroughly prepared as she
seems now to be, and even anxious for an outbreak,
she cannot, perhaps, be easily put down by armed
force in the first instance, but France and England
will hardly stand by and permit her to derive a
scandalous and undeserved profit from her with-
drawal from the Western alliance, and from con-
centrating her forces in that part of her dominions
where they can give least umbrage to Russia, and
least defend those points which Austria was bound
to assist France and England in defending.
And yet we are accused by Mr. Gladstone and
his friends, in tones of almost frantic bitterness, of
having needlessly protracted the war by refusing
our assent to a proposition at Vienna which Aus-
tria never promised us to support by a recourse to
arms, and which she told us at the same time Rus-
sia was not likely to accept ! The line of conduct
which Austria is adopting in Italy is the best an-
swer to such reproaches, for it were surely better
to leave to Russia at once the power of naming to
use the terms of capitulation than to intrust the
power of arbitration to a Government feeble and
vacillating whenever it finds itself in the right,
and only strong and resolute when its cupidity is
excited by the hope of fresh plunder, and its ener-
gies renovated by the congenial stimulus of beinoo.
entirely in the wrong.

(From the Morning Post of this day.)
We regret that Parliament is about to be'pro-
rogued without discussing a question important
alike in itself and in its relation to the war, but
which, amid the noisy struggles of party, has been
of late entirely lost sight of. We allude to the
overland traffic in Russian produce, which, in
spite of our entire command of the Baltic Sea, is
not only still uninterrupted, but is now carried' on
with greater facilities than ever. As doubts have
been expressed upon this point, we shall state one
or two circumstances which have lately come to
light, and that ought to convince even the most
sceptical of the great advantages derived by the
enemy from that mistaken policy which has been,
most unfortunately, as we think, adopted by Eng-
land in the present war.

The House of Peers, as might be expected from
its inherent distrust of all violent changes, has paid
much more attention to this subject than the lower
branch of the Legislature, and the public is, in our
belief, much indebted to Lord Aihemarle, who, in
spite of the ties of party, has considered it to be his
duty to protest, upon various occasions, with equal
energy and ability against our new doctrines of
maritime war. On the last occasion upon which
he spoke, he read a porti▪
on of a letter to the house,
written by a person on the spot, from which it ap-
peared that the expense of the overland transit of
Russian produce had fallen considerably in the
present as compared with the last, and, moreover, '
that next year it would fall lower still. Nor can
we be at all surprised at this. We know that
commerce adapts itself with difficulty to a strange
channel at first. But, li▪ kea streamdammed up,
and compelled to seek for itself a new course, it
readily accommodates itself to the change as soon
as that course is found. When we consider, there-
fore, the intimate relations sub sisting between
Russia and Prussia, and the facilities for export
afforded by the British Orders in C ouncil, it is easy
to comprehend why the obstacle s which at first
stood in the way of the overlan 1 traffic should
steadily diminish. The results tl 'us pointed out
by Lord Albemarle are fully confirmed by the
latest returns of the Board '.Trade. We find

from these that there has been, upon the whole, a
material increase in the import of those articles
for which we are largely indebted to Russia, during
the six months last past, as compared with the six
corresponding months last year. These figures,
which are strikingly illustrative of the practical
inefficiency of the blockade, as it is at present car-
ried out, are as follows :
IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE MONTH
OF JUNE. •
1854. 1855.
Flax ' 158,188 ewes
Hemp ...... 106,807 „
54,323 „ 98,000 „
Such were the total imports for the two periods
in question of the articles for which we have in
times past mainly depended upon Russia. The
exact proportion derived in each year from that
quarter we have not the means of ascertaining ;
but we have no doubt it will be found that the in-
crease in the imports both of hemp and tallow has
been considerable during the present year. Of the
latter article. Russia is still by far the largest ex-
porter. We can obtain flax from many quarters,
and our Indian dominions alone are capable of sup-
plying us with, hemp in any quantity, but it is from
Russia that our imports of tallow principally come,
and we have no doubt that it is to the increased
and increasing facilities afforded to the overland
traffic that the quantity we received in June last so
far exceeded that in the corz•esp )nding month of the
previous year. We regret the fact of this increased
importation for two reasons—first, because it
is a positive gain to,4useiai and, secondly, because
it must tend to clidtk constlmption of those
articles which serve as a substitute for tallow.
Should file war continue, as it is but too likely to
do, we may soon have to lament that we did not
from the first encourage the import of palm oil and
similar substances, which would both have deve-
loped a lucrative trade, and have rendered us in a
great measure independent of our enemies, whether
declared or wearing the mask of neutrality.
While the blockade of the Russian ports is thus
systematically evaded in the North, it appears that
means are being taken to effect, on the same grand
scale, a similar object in the South. In other
words, an attempt is being made to organise,
through certain of the provinces of Austria, an
overland traffic in Russian produce similar to that
which has been so successfullyestablished in Prussia.
The extract from a letter which recently appeared
in the columns of a contemporary, stated that
" active measures were being taken to organise a
regular system of transit for the produce of the
southern provinces of Russia through the Austrian
dominions, thus to neutralise the effects of the
blockade of the ports on the Black Sea. The agent
of an American house, established in Odessa, was
at Galatz making arrangements with the Vienna
Steam-boat Company for the conveyance to the
Austrian capital of a large quantity of Russian
wool to be shipped at Reni, and this appeared
likely to be but the prelude to much more exten-
sive operations," (3/e. If this intelligence is true,
and it bears every mark of probability, au outlets
may thus be found for the produce of Southern
Russia still more convenient than that established
in the North. It may be carried by the Danube
to Vienna, and thence by railway to Trieste, with-
out an obstacle of any kind. Shipped from the
latter port in neutral vessels, the produce of the
enemy will be secure on every sea, while our
cruisers are condemned to inglorious inactivity.
Such are the inevitable results of our present ma-
ritime policy, which, if the war continues, we be.
lieve it will be found impossible to maintain.

(From the Timm of this thy.)

The present position of the Limited Liability
Bill is watched with the utmost anxiety by its
well-wishers—that is to say, by infinitely the
largest part of the public. We remember no
measure which has so entirely commended itself
by its own intrinsic merit, the success of which is
owinc, so entirely to unsolicited and unpremedi-
tateSco-operation, and which owes so little to the
authority or influence of the class of professional
statesmen. For a long while some members of no
very remarkable note had been nibbling at the
question, a committee or two had been appointed
which seem to have been totally unequal to grapple
with it, and this inability was .more strikingly
evinced by the report of a Royal Commission ap-
pointed at the instance of Mr. Walpole in 1852.
This body Must have been admirably selected for
their work, for being appointed to report on com-
mercial law, they state that they have not made up
their minds whether the usury laws should be re-
pealed or not. Little wonder, then, if they proved
ludicrously inadequate to deal with the far more
complicated and less thoroughly investigated es-
tion of limited partnership. They discountenanced
the change proposed, but the evidence they took
brought that conviction to the minds of thinking
men which it failed to impress on their own. From
the time this adverse report was published the prin-
ciple was virtually carried. The disfavour of the
Board of Trade authorities, and, as has generally
been understood, of the reelite section of Lord
Aberdeen's Ministry, might retard the course of the
changes, 'but its ultimate triumph was inevitable.
When Mr. Colliqbrought for ward the question in the
house last year, members were astonished to find that
on a subj ect which had enjoyed so little official patron-
age they wore all of one mind, and that the only
points left to be discussed were the extent to which
the change should be carried out and the machinery
best adapted for the purpose. It is due to the pre-
sent Board of Trade to say that they seem to have
considerably liberalised the bill bequeathed them
by their predecessors. The only complaint the
public can justly make is, that a measure, so ear-
nestly desired, so unanimously approved, so right,
so liberal, and so useful, should have been allowed
to linger in the House of Commons till its safety
has been endangered by the delay, while Tenants'
Compensation Bills, Scotch Education Bills, and
other abortions of ie same class, have been allowed
to occupy the precious hours that might have been
devoted to popular and practical legislation. At
last the time came, after everything trivial, useless,
or mischievous had been discussed to satiety,
and then it was seen how very little real
strength there was in the opposition to the bill.
Forty members to 120 were all that could be
mustered to vote for deferring the question, and
15 to 78 was the minority which divided in favour
of clauses intended to curtail and fetter the free
operation of the association of capital. With the
exception of Mr. Hastie and Mr. Mitchell, pro-
fessed opponents, the principle of the bill bad
none; its lukewarm supporters or scarce concealed
enemies were three—Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Glyn, and
Mr. Cairns—and, with these exceptions, men of all
parties, avocations, and positions, combined in
hearty appro val.
This is the measure which now awaits acceptance
or rejection from the House of Lords, and, were it
to be considered on its merits, we should not enter-
tain the slightest doubt of the result. It is only
due to the Peers to say that they have shown in
many instances of late years a commendable respect
for public opinion, and a liberality of sentiment—
as in the case of the admission of Dissenters to the
two Universities—fully equal to that which could
be found in the more popular branch of the Legis-
lature. We should also expect that the great law-
yers who adorn the House of Lords would express
the unanimous opinion of the legal profession, that
limited liability is nothing more than a term in a
contr act, and that, it that term be agreed upon by
both parties, it ought, according to the principles
of political economy and sound jurisprudence, to
be made by the law valid and binding upon both.
We might also expect that those who still smart
under the recollection of the battle of free trade
would feel a not unnatural satisfaction in rigidly ap-
plying to traders and manufacturers those very prin.-
ciples of unrestricted competition which the latter
were so ready to put in force against the agricultural
class, but from which, when tried upon themselves,
some of them appear to flinch. The law forbidding
contracts by which the aggregation of small capi-
tals may be brought into competition with large
ones is as purely protective in its nature as that
forbidding foreign corn to compete on equal terms
with English produce, and the Law of Limited
Liability may fairly be considered the Corn Law
of the capitalist. There are alsO several Peers
honourably known as interesting themselves in the
improvement of the dwellings of the poor, and in
promoting sanitary enterprise. There is no enter-
prise, from the foundinngy:ie the passingamscehroiotsl, thtotehrf
the making
of a sewer, from the buildingof
of a Law of
acottagetothe
draining of a marsh, which will not be immediately
Limitedasened no reason
regreatlyaLsoi facilitatedaubitloity we
thinkO b
that the measure of the Go-
vernment has any serious risk to run in its passage
through the Huuse of Lords. It has defied the
opposition of greedy traders and crabbed officials,
and it has little to dread from such a scrutiny as
the House of Lords will give it.
But there is some risk that the Lords will main-
tain that the measure has been sent to them too
late, and decline to consider it during the brief
remnant of the present session. We candidly con-
fess that, were the question one merely between

the House of Lords and the House of Commons—
were putting the Commons in the wrong sufficient
to put the Lords in the right—we sliculd have
little to object, with justice, to such a decision.
No reasonable or impartial man can contend that
the Lords are treated fairly by having measures of
such vast importance thrust upon them so late in
the session, and if the House of Commons could be
punished for such a proceeding we should beg the
Lords to use the rod and spare not. But, unfortu-
nately, it is not the House of Commons,—it is the
country at large that will suffer, if the Lords select
this bill for au occasion on which to vindicate their
own dignity. The fault is in the Commons, but
the penalty is to he paid by us. On behalf, then,
of that great public, which is entirely innocent in
this matter, we earnestly and respectfully submit
to the Peers that they will act wisely as, well as
magnanimously in not allowing their natural
feeling of displeasure at the period of the session at
which this bill is submitted for their consideration
to be made a cause of injury and offence to the
country at large. This question ought to have
been settled long ago, and has lagged behind in-
stead of outstripping or keeping pace with public
opinion. After the principle of granting charters
by the Board of Trade has been solemnly con-
demned,• without one dissentient voice, by the
House of Commons, it seems impossible that the
board should coatinue to exercise that power; and
it is to the last degree inexpedient that such a
power should continue in • abeyance for a week
longer than is absolutely necessary. There are
innumerable enterprises of -the soundest and most
beneficial nature ready to start into immediate
existence the moment this fetter upon their pro-
gress is removed. The rejection of this bill will
he received with bitter disappointment, and the
House of Peers must not expect that persons who
find their private plans thwarted and the public
interest compromised will be very nice in appor-
tioning the blame, or transferring it all from the
branch of the L4slature that passed the bill—
however tardily—to that by whose agency it will
have been rejected.