The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-14 00:00:00

seat on one evening, and rescinding them before a couple
of weeks have passed. There is a dangerous spirit
abroad. Mingle with what class of society you may,
you find it pervaded by a vague and aimless sense of die.
satisfaction. All men feel bitterly thatlhe war has been
mismanaged ; and that, in consequence, many ♦aluable
lives have been wantonly and unnecessarily thrown
away, and disgrace brought on the national arms. But
they know not exactly who ought to be blamed, or how
the evil can be amended. They are in a mood to be
angry with everything and everybody. They rail at the
Peelites as the main inane of the mischief ; they rail at
the Liberals who have stuck by them, for lendiag them
countenance ; they rail at Lord. John Rassell, both for
adhering so long to his ex•colleagues and for leaving
them. It is easy to say that all this is very unreason-
able ; it is not the less dangerous oa that account. But
it is not altogether unreasonable. It is the natural
temper of a nation suddenly awakened to the conscious-
ness that those whom it trusted with the conduct of its
affairs have led it into a position of extreme peril, and
unable, at the moment, to discover any means of extri-
cating itself from the danger. It is exactly the mood in
which a peopkt is in danger of being betr eyed into rash
and destructive anuses, unless it ca❑ find clear-sighted
and fearles lcadcrs.

And the aristocratic graspers at a monopoly of poli-
tical power, who are the principal cause of the danger,
are awakening to a sense of the peril to which they have
cxpored themselves and the country. You may read it
in their tremulous tones and pallid faces. They see that
a great crisil is impending : they cannot divine its nature
—they cannot conjecture its results—and the darkness
and mystery that obscure their own and the nation's
future appals their souls. The only persons among them
who remain imperturbable are the Peelites ; and their
self-possession is simply the result of that intense self-
conceit which blinds them to the feeling the country en-
tertains towards them.
The crisis is indeed full of danger ; but the country
has passed through many that have been more dan-
gerous. Some such rude shock as they have received
was necessary to awaken Englishmen to a knowledge of
the precipice upon which they have been slumbering.
The unmanly mood of aimless, universal grumbling will
not long possess them. Their confidence in their own
good sense and in the country's resources will soon
restore them to a more worthy temper. In the
alliance of Lord Palmerston and Lord Join Russell
they will see a ray of hope. They know that the most
prominent feature in the Premier's character is a san-
guine defiance of dangers, owing to which he is never
more thoroughly self-possessed than in extreme emer-
gencies. In his eagerness to obtain the services of
Lord John Russell at Vienna, they will see the high
estimation in which the Court and his late colleagues
hold that statesman. They will feel confident that
Lord John proceeds to Vienna with the view, if possible,
of makino• an honourable peace (and no peace that does
not give Europe entire security against the inveterately
aggressive propensities of Russia can be honourable) ;
or, if that be impossible, of carrying on a more exten-
sive war. So long as Lord Palmerston and Lord John
Russell remain united, they are mutual guarantees for
each other's good faith.

Every possible obstacle will, no doubt, be thrown in
their way by the friends of the Czar—by the Peelite%
the mammon-worshippers, and the puny eclectic politi-
cians of tie Cornewall Lewis sohool. But the people
will support them. And to be able effectively to sup-