The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-11 00:00:00

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.—On
SATURDAY NEXT, Jan. 13, will be produced an original
adaptation of Casimir Delavigne's celebrated Historical Play of
LOUIS THE ELEVENTH. Louis the Eleventh, King of France,
Mr. C. Kean.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
gyms DAY —lYEeruinß 46 min.after 6 I Evening 7 RILL ark' 7
To-llnalow —Morning 32 eiln.after 7 Evening 2 raln.aft. 8

THE WEATHER.--Sum Ovvios, Jan. n.
TaItiIOMITES, IN THE SHADA.
44—highest since noon yesterday.
41—lowest this morning and during the night.
, 42—this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 30'56.
►WIND, S.E.—Light, with hazy weather. There was a
very dense fog last night and this morning.

. 4 .

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1855,

Suppose we toss up ; Does NICHOLAS lie or not
his time ? Is the CZAR for a Four-Point Peace ?
Much may be said on both sides ; a capital thing
for him, no doubt, to swallow whole, pure et sim-
ple used to be the phrase, any peace which the
four Allies would give him. His own sense
might teach him that ; for he'll never get such
offers next winter. Still, it's an even toss whe-
ther he have the sense, or whether, as phrenolo-
gists might say, self-esteem has not overpowered
it. A capital thing he may also think it to jilt
the Allies again, to make a boggle (we beg pardon,
of diplomatists—" complication" is what we meant)
of the famous Treaty of December 2d, and to
spin Austria once more like a tee-totum for some
months to come in mid-Europe, expecting some
luckier number to turn up next fall, and if not,
why spin her again. Russia knows how to do that ;
she has done it cleverly for oue twelve months ;
she may well hope to do it for another.
Russia could not do a more sensible thing than
press on peace rapidly. Suppose the Allies to
demand that they shall blow up Sebastopol ; the
odds are they will have done it before prelimi-
naries can be signed. Suppose they demanded
the Crimea, not, we fear, a very likely thing
while Lord ABERDEEN clings to office ; they can
have it if they choose next summer, whether he
will or no. Suppose they ask anything whatever
on the Black Sea coasts and the Danube, NICHO-
LAS could hinder them from nothing. As to Po-
land and Scandinavia, forall that our Ministry cares
they may bide their time, and another Sebastopol
rise on the ruins of Bomarsund. So of all other
matters. The Allies will not, as an alliance, ask
more than is now either certainly theirs, or certain
♦ery quickly to be theirs. Well if they asked as
much. A little mortifying, to be sure, to see his
MENSCHIKOFF mountain bring forth at last such a
ridiculous mouse ; but better that for his ambi-
tion than a liberated Poland, and the Baltic Se-
bastopols all dismantled next summer or the fol-
lowing one. Moreover, the War has borne hard
upon his people. Their taxes are raised, and
their means of paying them diminished. Their
trade is woefully crippled—their nobles feel the
cost of comforts and luxuries, and the drain of
their serfs ; while the cruel conscription carries
untold agonies amongst the peasants into every
district. Add to all this, he has already lost
everything for which ME,NSCHIKOFF blustered and
bullied at Constantinople. or for which his armies
crossed the Pruth, and his great robber fortress
nods to its fall. His war ships are sunk or im-
pounded in their own harbours—his mercantile
navy has ♦anished. Hard has war hit him the
first year—he may well shrink from tho blows of
the second. The miseries of his army in the
Crimea no mortal is permitted to know ; perhaps
he does know. His two sons were glad enough, at
any rate, to escape from them, au.d to take refuge
in their mother's sick room.

On the other hand, if his Romanoff temper is
master of his judgment—if he has resolved to
dare his utmost both in the Crimea and against
Austria—what better could he do than accept
with all apparent frankness the Four Points of
the Allies They probably even leave the razing
of Sebastopol an open question, or one vested in
pliable language, and to a certainty furnish plenty '
of disputable matter for the GORTSCHAKOFFS
and BuoLs to pervert vs they please ; and either
to befool the Western Allies if they persist in ne-
gotiation, or to drive them to war again just at
the moment most convenient to the CZAR. Sup-
pose the Crimea taken, he can be, invisibly, con-
centrating such a force in Poland and the adjoin-
ing territories, that the very day on which he
orders Prince GORTSCHAKOFF to demand his pass-
ports he can advance on Gallicia, and march on
to Olmutz and Vienna, despite all his base quon-
dam protegee could do in the field to hinder him.

We believe that this is well known or believed

among all the great parties concerned. The
rumours about a Russian king of Hungary Were

not sot afloat without a 'purpose, and they serve
at least to show where Russia will apply for aid if
driven to desperation. If she cannot persuade
the Magyars to become a principality of Russia,
she would not perhaps scruple to make them a re-
public, with Louis KO3SITTIE for President, provided
it became needful to the prostration of her insolent

subordinate, Austria. The Allies could not per-
haps render Austria much direct help. To master
Bessarabia, and distraot attention in the Baltic,
would be the aid they would probably furnish.

Should, however, the CZAR really take this course,
then would become apparent the suicidal folly of

having overlooked in an earlier stag• the rights of
Poland. Austria can never be independent till

Poland is so.

ITionotas has certainly read to some purpose
the BnIQIIT and COBDBN speeches and letters, with
the comment of the equally divided meeting at
Manchester. Re understands that these gentlemen
are the great platform and. Parliamentary orators
of the middle classes of Ragland. He knows full
well, also, the leanings of the larger half of our
Cabinet. Well, therefore, may he calculate on
good support in St. Stephen's, and On a
party
anxious for peace at any price, even more than
himself. With a fast friend of forty years at th
head, 'with a Chancellnr of the Exchequer anxiouse above all things to see the funds at par again,
and with a people's orator ready to denounce the
War as the wickedest of all modern wars, no
wonder if he expects, by peace thrown amongst
all as an apple of discord, to paralyse the national

councils, as well as its military and naval vigour.
We trust any such cunning will bo signally de-

feated by the plain good sense of the people, and

that any symptom of relaxation before thofirat

preliminary of peace, the fate of Sebastopol, is
sealed, would be met with an immediate storm of
irresistible indignation. Whatever else be reit
undone, Sebastopol delenda est! ABERDEEN might,
but England will not, consent to do her task by
halves. She deprecates, above all things, a hasty
termination of the War ; she would make solid
Work for a century now she has begun ; but the
proposal to fling away our Crimean victories, and
oil,
siege immus, and to accept instead a costly