The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-24 00:00:00

what should we do without Austria neutral, or
vith her, if hostile ? We have been guilty of the
wicked folly of putting her into the provinces,
instead of Oases PACHA. and ourselves—What
can we now do? The treasonable folly we admit,
and the increased difficulty we admit. ; but we
affirm that Austria is an empire of sand, and better
as an avowed foe than a fatal clog. She is ripe
for another 1848. Her troops are composed of
varied races, all hating each other, but hating her
'ar more. She cannot rely on them. War with
the Allies would be to her utter dismemberment.
Poles, Bohemians, Hungarians, Croats, Lombards
would all fall asunder at the watchword of national
freedom, and leave her a poor naked Dukedom to
repent of her bloody atrocities and perjuries in
long centuries of insignificance.
But perhaps Prussia would add her troops to
those of Russia ! Let her try it. She too ht:s
an 1848 to recollect, and her Monarch has broken
promises and oaths to be atoned for yet. She has
Pules in her present despot-made and despot-
ridden Chambers, who yet dare to tell her that
they refuse all participation in her present course,
and that the interpretation of their silence is loud
rebuke—Cum tacent clamant. She has Rhenish
provinces speaking the French language, and she
has a Baltic coast which an English fleet could do
what it pleased with. Prussia, i.e. her Monarch,
would like to fight for Russia ; but he fears
his people, fears France, fears England, fears
neutrality, shudders at fighting for independence,
is racked to death with the ignominy of being
nothing, yet quakes at the effort to become any-
thing. Prussia is perfectly harmless. Amidst
all the horrors of war she has at least the merit of
keeping up our spirits ; she kindly enacts the fool
for us, and makes herself the laughing-stock of
the business. We owe co her, every now and
then, the exhilararion of a good, hearty
laugh. Contempt and detestation will some-
times give way to irrepressible merriment over
her merry-Andrew attempts at bigness.
Well at length the Conference is at an end,
and time it should be. Now then if war is to be
a cosily- reality instead of a costly sham, let us in
all conscience get to work as we ought. The first
thing is to strip to it. We are encumbered with all
the appointments and arrangements of place both
in the civil and military service. Away with
them ! Merit and ability must now be put into
every post, and incapacity dismissed or pensioned.
No more seven millions wasted in transport blun-
dering, to be made up by taxes on commerce and
income—the country cannot and will not endue e
it. We are encumbered also with Prussian and Aus-
trian diplomacy. Strip off all that too, and let us
get to work with the zeal, the ability, the energy
of France and England. We can do-it. But one
thing is wanted—fling all cant and aristocratic im-
position to the winds, and this summer's cam-
paign would, we believe, bring Russia to terms.
A. loan (however badly managed) and the enlist-
ment of Poles and Fins are good signs. We only
want more such signs.

The Conferences at Vienna have been adjourned
sine die, and the representatives of France and
England are now en route to the scenes of their
respective duties. We earnestly congratulate the
country on these auspicious tidings. It is well

that the solemn farce should be brought to a con.
elusion on any terms. It had for a long time
been manifest—in fact since the commencement
of the discussions on the Third Point—that Russia
had no intention of making any real concessions,
or abandoning the aggressive Policy which she had
so steadily pursued for a succession of ages.
Although she deliberately entered into engage-
ments to negotiate on the basis of the Four
Points, after resorting to every species of subter-
fugefor the purpose of procrastination, she peremp-
torily rejected every suggestion offered by the
Allies, at the same time refusing or neglect.
ins to bring forward any counter-proposi.
tion on her own account. The proposals of
the Allies were indeed of a very diluted character.
No mention was made of Sebastopol; that "stand-
ing menace to Europe" was still to remain in all
its strength and power, ready to shelter any fleets
which the AUTOCRAT might think it advisable to
construct. Not one inch of Russian territory
was to be surrendered, and, in fact, no security
given beyond the personal recognisances of Russia
to keep the peace. We should have been satisfied
with mere promises, although experience has
proved, by iumerous examples, that the pledges
of Russia are not worth the parchment on which
they may be inscribed. All that was demanded
was that the amount of the Russian naval forces
in the Euxine should henceforth be limited by

treaty, or that the Black Sea should be declared
wholly neutral ground, and all ships of war, of all
countries, wholly excluded from it, so that hence-
forth it should be a sea for commerce only. Even
these meagre and unsatisfactory conditions were,
after a further delay, absolutely rejected by the
Russian Plenipotentiary, and hence the breaking
up of the Conferences, and the departure from
Vienna of Lord JOHN RUSSELL and M. DROUYN
DE L'HUTS.

It will be seen that the above statement rests
OD no doubtful authority. We are not compelled
to give it either as the guesses or accounts of
" well-informed correspondents." The Premier
has announced the facts in his place in Parlia-
ment, and further explanations will doubtless be
accorded on the return 1.1 Lord Jonx RUSSELL
from his abortive and futile mission. We shall
then see what dependence can be placed on the
promises of Austria, and how far she is prepared
to carry out the engagements—such as they are—
into which she entered by the Treaty of the 2d
December, as explained by the memoir of the
28th December. We are told that she "agreed
to"—perhaps elicited might be a more correct
phrase—the principles laid down by England and
France, and that her Plenipotentiary joined with
those of the Western Powers in• pressing either
branch of the alternative above referred to on
Prince GORTSCHAKOFF. It is time, therefore,
that she should be prepared to act decisively and
energetically, unless willing to be held forth to

the reprobation of Europe as an example of per•

fidy and bad faith. As we have repeatedly stated,
neutrality is impossible. She must henceforward
array herself either for or against the Conserva-
tors of the peace of the world. Her course must
be clearly defined ; and it is scarcely possible to
suppose that the French and English Ministers
could have taken their departure from Vienna
before a complete understanding had been arrived
at on that important topic. We suspect, from the
ominous silence of Lord PALMERSTON, that the

anticipations which we long since put forward
will be completely verified, and that, as in the
olden time, she will still show herself to
be
"Fortune% champion, that does never fight
But when her humorous ladyship ii by
To teach her !way :"
But whatever be t
the drop-scene he result, we rejoice that
trminatedhas fallen—tha.t the farce h:is
. we now know have obtained that we could only
a. dishonourable and precarious :
peace, which would only
a suitable o last until Russia found
pportunity for violating its proviions.
We no longer trust to negotiations. The valour
of our naval and military forcae vat compg far,

better terms than any yet submitted for considera-

tion. Russia will find when she becomes au
humble suitor for peace on any terms that her
past treachery has not been forgotten, and that
ample retribution will be exacted for the sacri-
fices we have made—the blood we have shed—
the millions we have expended. We now know
tohat we have to encounter, and France and Eng-
land will prove themselves to be worthy of their
ancient reputations, and prepare to make amends,
by the most energetic efforts, for the time they
have wasted in consequence of their too credulous
belief in the protestations and professions of their
faithless adversary.

Lord GREY the other night, we suppose lest
his inborn Whiggery should be forgotten, actu-
ally went out of his way to tell the Noble Lords
that Church Rates are no longer a hardship ! A
majority only can vote them now, therefore it is
no hardship to pay them ! Why, the Noble
Lord has out-Whigged the Whigs. They them-
selves, before that absurd wresting of the law and
common sense which gave a minority the right 3
of a majority was propounded at Westminster,
made efforts to abolish them. Why did they do
so t They surely thought them a hardship on
Dissenters then. Can they be less a hardship
now, when the law is declared to be precisely what
it was then understood to be? The truth is, no
sophistry, legal or political, can alter the
plain fact that every sincere Dissenter
feels it a grievance to be forced to
pay a penny for a system of Church government
and worship which he never uses, and of which, in
addition, he probably disapproves. On men so
bigotedly wedded to the dominance of their own
Church as not to understand the galling nature of
such an enforced tribute to a hated supremacy all
argument is lost. They need a higher, a more
generous morality, and a more living religion, not
a better knowledge. The defect is in the heart,
not in the head.

Some few well-meaning persons are really per-
plexed about a substitute. The answer is, you
have it. You have used it. You have used it
munificently. You have raised millions by
ye/lc/dory subscription to build new churches, and
sometimes in country places too. Do the same to
maintain them. You will never miss the amount
required ; it is but a fraction of what is raised
yearly for church building. Boldly repeal the
impost altogether, and in six months people will
wonder how it could have been the subject of so
long a quarrel. Even poor Church-Rate LORD
JOHN will smile at his own fatuity.

The Newspaper Stamp Bill has passed through
committee, with the exception of the propositions
relating to registration and securities, and the
penal clauses recently brought forward by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. These matters will
be further considered on Monday next, and we
earnestly hope that the proprietors of public jour- '
nals will not be excluded from the privileges of
their fellow-Englishmen, and deprived of that
which has been justly regarded as the great pal-
ladium of the national liberties—the trial by
jury. We hate already pointed out the vexatious
character of these provisions, and the constant
annoyance to which public journalists must bo
subjected when any degree of inadvertence, any
pretended violation of the law, and that inter-
preted by a single stipendiary magistrate, or two
of " the great unpaid," must be expiated by a
minimum penalty of five pounds, or poss!bly up to
thirty pounds, although a jury might consider that
there had not been the slightest infringement, or any
legitimate copyright ; or if there had been, that
tho smallest coin of the realm would afford ample
compensation for the loss. These are serious
matters, and even those who now loudly clamour
for the restrictions, who hold out their hands for
the gyves to be fastened thereon, will find that
they have committed a f ►tal error, and too late
deplore the grievous mistake into which they
have fallen. It is, however, much easier to
put on than to remove the fetters. " The
liberty of the Press" is a matter of too
great importance to be tampered with on
trivial grounds, or to gratify the crotchets of an
incompetent Minister. As we have already stated
there is not the slightest pretext for the change ;
the want of the alleged protection has not deterred
any journal from using its utmost exertions to
obtain priority of intelligence. There is under
the existing law a full copyright i❑ original
articles and literary compositions, but there can-
not be in news : that which is circulated on the
Stock Exchange and become the common
topic of conversation cannot be considered the
exclusive property of the first journ el that
contrives to ca•ch and embody the floating
rumours. Let the independent Members of Par-
liament just consider the probable consequences
that may result from the change-.how greatly
the public may be injured by any virtual mono-
poly conferred even for 24 hours. We unhesi-
tatingly declare that it will be impossible to pre-
dict the disastrous effects to all journals without
exception ; for even those who spare no expense
to procure the earliest and most authentic
intelligence must still either come within the
meshes of the law or supply a mutilated article to
their subscribers. Leo these matters be fully
considered, and let Parliament pause before it
enacts in haste that which will be repented of at
leisure, not only by public journalists, but by the
entire community.

The history of the Duke of NEWCASTLE as War
Minister, and not least that part of it which he
reveals himself in his examination before the Se
bastopol Committee, is exceedingly edifying and
instructive. It shows us in the most charming
manner how affairs of State are managed under
our aristocratic administrations, and beautifully
illustrates the celebrated remark—" See, my son,
with how little wisdom the world is governed."
" There is a Providence," says HAMLET, "in the
fall of a sparrow ;" but it requires a large gulp of
faith, after the late revelations, to believe that we
have not been delivered over for degradation and
plunder—as events have turned out—to the
absolute dominion of Chance.

In the first instance, how came the DUKE to be
War Minister? Simply because he was Colonial
Minister, and a Dake. Fired, as lalrd JOHN
Russia', tells us, with "a laudable ambition," he
chose an office for which he was pre-eminently unfit,
and, of course, he got it. Without experience,
without weight, without firmness, and without
resolution, he undertook a department that re-
quired them all in an extraordinary degree. And
what did he do ? In the first place, he had to
appoint two Under Secretaries of State for the de-
partment of which he had become the head.
Having, comparatively speaking, no knowledge
nor experience in war matters himself, it might
be supposed he would endeavour to supply the de-
ficiency. Vain supposition. He appointed his
cousin—a geirleman who at least knows his rela-
tionship to the Dake, and his Private Secretary,
who knows less of war than either ; and, with
similar wisdom and propriety, he went to work to
make a host of minor appointments I From an
Executive like this what could be looked for but
the most hopeless confusion and the most waste-
ful expenditure.

Take another example of the Duke's incapacity.
He actually allowed Lrird HARDING; another
imbecile in office, to foist certain colonels into
commands as generals in the Crimea without con-
sultiNg him ! In his own words, these officers
were appointed by "inadvertence." Men on
whose skill and prudence the fate of battles might
depend appointed by " inadvertence! " His
Grace may console himself with the reflection
that he meant well ; but this is poor satisfaction
for buried thousands and wasted millions—for
the domestic bereavements and the burdensome
taxation his and other men's mismanagement of
the War have occasioned. " Inadvertence," in-
ded .Ilor such acts there is a more appropriate
term.