The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-17 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1855.

What are our people about that they suffer
their enemies to make a mock of them, and to
doubt their very existence ? We can fancy the
veteran METTERNICH exclaiming, with a sneer,
" Either they are talking, or pursuing, or in a.
journey, or, peradventure, they sleepeth, and
must be awakened." Never had they co favour-
able an opportunity for asserting their principles
and manifesting their power, and never in our
recollection were they so apathetic. Since this
War began they seem to have lost that zeal for
liberty which formerly distinguished them. They
have ceased to think and act for themselves,
and have, with a blind credulity, to which we
know no parallel, resigned themselves to the
direction of the Government of the day.
We are satisfied that this apathy is but appa-
rent ; but to those who labour in their interest it
is discouraging. The popular cause is never safe
apart from open, frequent, and decisive expres-
sions of -Public opinion. The people are false to
themselves when they are silent on such great
questions as are laid before them. It is for them
to have a policy of their own, and to insist on its
adoption. What have they not lost in times past
by their neglect ? They have been powerless,
because they believed themselves powerless, and
have been made by turns the toys and tools of
despotic power, because they would never rise to
a sense of their own importance and a percep-
tion of their true interests.

At the present day we expected, and we had a
right to expect, something better. In this country
their will is irresistible—there is no force that can
stand against it—and for this very reason states-
men are weak and Governments am vacillating
when the popular voice is silent, or when it is
expressed with uncertainty. Ministers, of their
own motion, will do no more than they can help.
They fear change—they hate disturbance of any
kind. They must be impelled forward by pres-
sure from without, or they will stand still. It is
vain to hope for large views or generous senti-
ments from them. They are ready to
catch them up when they pervade large
masses of the people, and when it is tolerably
certain that they must ultimately triumph in some
way or other, but they will never of themselves
originate a line of policy widely departing from
the beaten track, and calculated to effect a revo-
lution in the world, though the revolution may
be essential to safety, and certain to produce the
most beneficial results.

Therefore, we say, the question we bring for-
ward is eminently a people's question: If they
refuse to entertain it, drop it must. Professed
small
politicians—men who push their way by
arts of jobbery and intrigue—who in a humble
station have caught some smiles of Ministerial
favour, and picked up some crumbs of Ministerial
patronage, and in a higher rank have dipped their
hands deeply in the public purse and basked in
the sunshine of Courts--these men will no more
take up the question of their own will than the
persecutors of GALILEO would admire his theory
of the earth's revolution. Principles of policy are
important to them only as they indicate a win-
ning or a losing game. Let any principle be once
taken up
,by the people in a manner which shows
they are determined to carry it through, and they
will not want the support of both the creatures
and the leaders of party.
The simple question for the people is whether
they wish the War to be directed to the liberation
of Europ% to the rivetting of its fetters. If
the tyranny of Austria is left untouched the War
against Russia will avail nothing. Our victories
will be bootless triumphs. The despotic principle
will escape from the contest unscathed, if it does
not in the end rally, and •
3Y some daring con-
spiracy plot the destruction of European freedom.

We implore our people- to regard the facts.
Austria is next door neighbour toßussia. Austria
feels that her very existence as an empire depends
upon the despotism of her rule. The population
of Austria Proper is set down iu the official re-
ports at' two millions three hundred thousand. 1,
The poptllation of her Italian provinces is upwards
of five •raillion„, of Hithgary upwards of ten
luilli"s'l- of Austrian Poland five millions more,
while Slavoniau and German provinces make up
the remainder of the thirty-five millions she
boasts. . Thus HungarY, Italy, and Poland COD-
s titute more than half of her entire population.
H ow is she, to rule these races, who hate her with
t,le just hatred inspired by her crimes ? She
might, at one time, by popular institutions and
uet laws have conciliated their affection ; but
Ira f. Shs clic;elo-have slave 3-
the d?,,, for that 1:;"
not BET leign is now
.a reign of

terror. Between her and the races she tempo-
rarily keeps down by her 1510°4 despotism an un-
dying animosity has been engendered. This feel-
ing is increasing in intensity, and Austria is so
conscious of it that her vigilance grows with the
danger, and her rule becomes, continually more
arbitrary. Is this an empire to oppose an effec-
tual barrier to Russian aggression ? Is it not evi-
dent that as respects principles of goverment her
interests and those of Russia are the same ?
Freedom in every shape must be equally hateful
to both. They are allies by nature ; and while
' Austria guards the Russian frontier, the CZAR,
safe from attack on the most vulnerable side of
his empire—the aide of Poland—will always be
able to put forth enormous strength at the extre-
mities of his dominions.

How different would be the po.sition were Italy,
Hungary, and Poland free, and Germany liberated
from the dead weight of Austrian despotism.
We do not speak now of the invigorating influ-
ences that would shoot through Europe, when the
vivid genius of the. Italian, and the chivalric
nature of the Pole, and the highly ingenious and
enterprising disposition of the Magyar, were onee
more animated by freedom, and were encouraged
by its holy and exhilarating breath, to fertilise
countries which would then be their own; to
spread their language—to enhance their prosperity
to multiply their numbers—to vivify those arts
and pursuits for which they have peculiar apti-
tude, but which are now crushed by that prostra-
tion of spirit consequent on a degrading sense of
brutal domination. We do not speak now of the
bounding and elastic life which so great a change
from bondage to liberty would diffuse through
Europe—of the jealousies and restrictions it would
extinguish for ever—of the new sources of trade
and intercourse it would open to art—of the
fellowship between States united by one great
bond of free government it would produce. We
do not speak of these things now (though never
was there a time more favourable to the libera-
tion of oppressed races, and to their erection into
independent States, from the solid establishment
of principles of unrestricted commerce as most
conducive to national prosperity), but we want to
view the question in a political light alone. Is it
more for the security of Europe that the Austrian
empire, constituted as it is, and perfidious as it
has ever proved itself, should continue to exist, or
that the order of nature should be restored, and
that races should be called to the inestimable
blessing of national independence, whose policy
must be antagonistic to despotism, as fatal to
their life, and favourable to the closest union
with the free Governments of the West, as essen-
tial to their safety and welfare ?

This is the question for our people. Do you
prefer that that immense tract of country—fertile
in the richest productions of nature—now known
as the Austrian empire, should be under the rule
of a despotism and in alliance with Russia, or that
it should be under free and national Governments,
and closely connected by bonds of interest and
sentiment with the Western league ? We will
not believe that our people can be indifferent on
so momentous a matter, nor shall our pen cease
its appeals to them till they return us some direct
response.

The great NAPOLEON, when pining in St. He-
lena, and standing on that threshold of both
worlds, whence, according to the poet, an intel-
lectual view is most wide and piercing, foresaw
the danger which menaced Europe, and predicted
the shape it would assume, and the time when it
would occur, with wonderful exactitude. In
OMEARA.'S " Voice from St. Helena," we find
that he said in 1817 :

" In about thirty-five years the Russians will either
invade India or enter Europe with a hundred thousand
Cossacks, and two hundred thousand Russians. Russia
must either fall or aggrandise herself."

The numbers are, perhaps, very nearly those
which Russia has at present in the field against
the Allies. What follows is yet more memo-