The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-22 00:00:00

ters.

FRANCE.

The treaty entered into by France and England
with Sweden is an act of the highest importance.
Its execution will place a limit, once for all, to the
encroachments of Russia in the North of Europe.
The Baltic will be rescued from her aggression,
and Sweden saved from her fatal influence. In
those latitudes she can no longer expect an inch of
its territory, or shelter for her war vessels, or harbour
for her fishing-boats. lt is, indeed, a fatal blow
struck at her maritime and commercial power.
The treaty fixes no date for expiration. It is
for ever, then, that Sweden
engages to resist
Russian encroachment, and it is for ever the Allies
will support her in he. r resistance, and it attaches
indefinitely the policy of Sweden to the policy
' and interests of the West. It is a proof of
the confidence and union, the community of inte-
rests which subsists between the contracting parties
for their mutual protection against the common
enemy. It is an immense step in advance, if we
consider that Sweden also had proclaimed her
neutrality, and, up to this, maintained it ; and
with whatever indifference Russia may affect to
regard this act, or to
reduce its importance, she
cannot but feel that it is one of hostility against
her, and, if words mean anything, the policy thus
proclaimed will be transformed on the very first
occasion into an open rupture.
A defensive treaty is only yet before us ; but it is
more than probable that another part exists which
provides for other " eventualities " than those now
mentioned. The services we engage to render
Sweden by supporting her against Russian aggres-
sion are doubtless reciprocated. If we send our
armies and our fleets to cooperate with those of
Sweden in her own defence, it can hardly be with-
out the certainty that Sweden will aid us when we
call upon her. There would be no great merit in
King Oscar employing his own forces with ours in
repelling the enemy from his own territory. Were
he single-handed against Russia he would try to do
so. If we engage to protect Sweden, it is because
we intend that Sweden shall do something for us
which will expose her to the hostility of Russia ;
and that something can hardly be less than
co-ope-
ration with us next spring in our operations in the
North. There is clearly an eventuality of a con-
flict in the treaty, and it is absurd to suppose that
in such case a complete accord does not already
ex-
ist, and that stipulations have not been agreed to in
providing for events which may occur at any mo-
ment. That we shall try our strength in
.those
parts next year is hardly to be doubted ; and is it
to be believed that, in the event of our needing
assistance in those seas or on those shores, we shall
not have that of Sweden, in return for the de-
fence we promise her ? At all events, this treaty
may justly be considered as among the most
important facts of our times. In the north as
in the south, in the Baltic as in the Black
Sea, Russia is stopped short in her career of
aggression ; Sweden will be as fatal to her as
Turkey, so long as both rely on the combined
strength of England and France. For us the ad-
hesion of King Oscar is an additional guarantee for
the independence of Europe.
It having been reported at Marseilles that the
steam-packet France was lost, with all on board,
in the Black Sea, Messrs. Arnaud and Touache,
the proprietors of the vessel, have thought proper
to contradict that rumour.
The dramatic company engaged for the theatre
of Kamiesh embarked at Marseilles on the 17th,
for Constantinople, in the steamer Eephrate.