The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-14 00:00:00

THE RUMOURED FALL OF KARS,

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Nothing further oven now is known, positively,
one way or the other, as to the reported fall of Kars.
It is still—this bruited "Fall of Kars"—when the
very utmost has been said upon the matter, only
—rumoured ! Advices two days later from the
coast of Armenia, communications, that is to say,
dated from Trebizond upon the 21st of Novem-
ber, still breathe not a whisper about the flight of
ISMAIL PACIIA before the victorious troops of
General MOURAVIEFF, or about the capitulation of
General WILLIAms and his heroic garrison. Not
an inkling of any such disaster is permitted to
escape the sealed lips of the Cabinet. Vague re-
ports have alone been audible to the effect that
Kars has actually fallen. Until these same re-
ports shall have been confirmed in some credible
manner, by reliable information derived from
some authoritative source, we must still remain
prversely and incorrigibly incredulous. We have
been so, very wilfully, no doubt, even from the
outset—while our daily contemporaries, one and
all, have choruged their credence in the calamity.
To-day, however, there is a somewhat tardy glim-
mering of unbelief even from the Times—the
Times, whose first leader commenced point blank
only yesterday, with " Kars has Fallen." Tbi.
morning, on the contrary, there peeps forth,
however, in the Times, the admission through
" Our Vienna Correspondent," speaking from the
Austrian capital as recently as yesterday (Decem-
ber 13th, 11 a.m.), through the sententious
medium of the submarine telegraph, " Nothing is
known here (Vienna), in official circles, of the fall
of Kars." Soh ! as yet nothing is known about
the Fall of Kars, in official circles--at Vienna—
at Paris —at London ! Kars is still only
rumoured to have fallen—upon no authority of
Any note, upon no authority at all that is deafly
traceable. There is still, consequently, as we
have maintained from the beginning, a possibility
that Kars has—even now—not fallen. Let us
hope so to the very lag—remembering that up to

the present moment the " Fall of Kars" is only
vaguely, dimly, mysteriously reported. Not

stated
anywhere upon authority—but merely
reported !

There is confusion at the Horse Guards ! The
line, which so long complained against the supe-
rior privileges allowed to certain favoured regi-
ments of Guards, has had its grievances partially
removed, and the Guards are naturally indignant
at the abolition of any of the advantages to which
they may
entitled
consider themselves by severe
duty at London and Windsor, their highly aristo-
ratio commanders, and the large amounts of bard
cash paid for their respective coramisEions. They
cannot by any :means perceive the grounds on
which "mere infantry fellows" could hope to be
placed on the same footing with themselves, or
why hard service in the field should be weighed

.. ;,~~

It is, to say the least of it, unfortunate that

the name of the Prince Consort should have been
so unadvisedly introduced into the discussion.
The appointment of H.R.H. to what has been
justly termed by a contemporary "a highly lucra-
tive military sinecure, expressly reserved for the re-
ward of officers of long and distinguished service in
the field," created considerable excitement at the
time. Art excitement renewed and increased by
the statements respecting the interference of the
Prince Consort in matters which, properly speaking,
should have been reserved for the exclusive consi-
deration of the SOVEREIGN, and her responsible ad-
visers and Ministers. All these matters will be
renewed, and there is some danger that the ques-
tion raised may be extended to greater length
than could be desired. We should wish to pre-
serve the name of our most Gracious QUEEN from
any invidious remarks, and therefore would
respectfully, but earnestly urge the pro-
priety of the Prince abstaining from any
, demonstrations that may bring the " alter
ego" of her MAJESTY into any degree of
disrepute. "The QUEEN can do no wrong," and
the principle should not be brought in question
in any possible way. If the emolument of those
positions which seem incompatible with that of
Consort be the object—if 30,0001. per annum, in
addition to sundry Constableships and Ranger-
ships, Field-Marshal's pay, &c., &c., now enjoyed
by the Prince, be not sufficient remuneration for
his services, far better that there should be an
additional grant, sufficient to cover all that he
could require, and to.permit his exemption from
matters that may occasion controversy, and bring
him into discredit, with any class of herMAJEsry's
subjects.

The newspaper editors and writers are more
generous titan Mr. DRUMMOND. They don't
get angry with the Honourable Member for
Surrey, however personal he may be. The worst
they do, and they don't always do that, is to
laugh at his whimsicalities, and lay bare the ab-
surdity of his statements, while they are at all
times prepared to give him credit for the utter-
ance of a good thing. Yesterday, it will be
seen in our present impression, he " came out
rather strong" in relation to the War in the capa-
city of Chairman at the Guildford Agricultural
Society's annual dinner. A perusal of his speech
will show that, as usual, among a good deal of
amusing chaff, he threw out a few grains
of wheat, and most of these in the direc-
tion of Austria. In dealing with the
claims of that great European humbug to join
with us in promoting the progress of civilisation,
he gave utterance, it must be admitted, to some
hard if somewhat exaggerated truths. " What!"
he indignantly remarked, " Austria, that has
now, for the first time in the world, given up the
whole of its subjects bound hand and foot and
body and soul unto the POPE. Is that part of
the progress of civilisation ?" To this inquiry we
would emphatically answer—No ! The deliver-
ance of any people over to the absolute dominion
of the spiritual, as opposed to the temporal,
power, is fraught with evils the most prolific
imagination -would find it difficult to enumerate.
Without civil liberty, dissociating it if you
can from religious liberty, the case of a people is
bad enough, but when deprived of the latter it is
well nigh hopeless. There can be no progress in
civilisation, in the development of the moral and
intellectual faculties of a people placed under such
a regime. Deprived of these blessings, their
only hope, the only chance for them, is revolu-
tion. So strongly do we feel this, that we can
almost go along with Mr. DRUMMOND, when he
adds, " Why, Turkey, bad as she is—Russia, bad
as she is—are infinitely better than Austria ;"
for really what we know of history leads us to
anticipate less toleration of opinion, of the active
exercise of man's noblest faculties in Austria,
under the Concordat, than even in Russia, little,
HisavEN knows, as is to be found there. A purely
spiritual dominion may be of a nature sufficiently
deplorable to excite pity, but when we see the
civil power virtually committed to the hands o:

- -
priests, we contemplate a spectacle at which every

feeling of our nature rises in unmitigated revolt.
In connection with the above speech, it will be

well for the reader to peruse that of Mr.

MANGLES, who, it will be seen, puts the policy of
the War in relation to the progress of civilisation

n its true light. The attention of the reader

may further be directed to the speeches of Cap-
tain SCOBELL and Mr. TIT; the members for
Bath, delivered at the annual meeting of the
Bath and West of England Agricultural Asso-
ciation. These gentlemen, it will be seen, are
for such an earnest and active prosecution of the
War as will lead to a solid peace, and not a
merely patched-up truce, to be broken when
Russia has recovered from her exhaustion, which
she may possibly do in a few years.

The claims of J•sErg Hunts to a testimonial
for distinguished services to the cause of liberty
and good government in this country and else-
where are too eminent to need much advocacy.
Abler politicians and more distinguished orators
there unquestionably have been, but one more
honest, consistent, and plain spoken never. Fall
away from the good cause who might he was
ever to be found at his post—zealous, enlightened,

in the same scale with "playing at soldiers" in
Hyde-park, to the intense admiration of a large
body of nursery maids and too susceptible females.
A very pretty argument--we shall not call it dis•
puts—has therefore arisen between these respec-
tive branches of the military service, and a move-
ment has recently been made on behalf of the
Guards, which has occasioned considerable excite-
ment, and may lead to very important results.
A memorial has, it appears, been presented to
her MAJESTY within the last few days praying her
to rescind the warrant which she had been pleased
to issue, respecting promotions in the Army, and
under the provisions whereof the Guards affect to
consider themselves injured. It is asserted that
the originators of this movement have maintained
strict secrecy respecting the business in which
they were engaged, and suffered nothing to tran-
spire beyond the limits of the initiated and those
interested in the result. Some very high per-
sonages were concerned, and the signatures to the
petition or memorial were headed by the name of
the Prince Consort, whose "prayer" might be
considered to have almost the weight of a " com-
mand." Prince ALBERT interfered in his capacity
as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards ; but he should
have remembered that he was a pluralist,
and was also Colonel-in-Chief of the Rifle Bri-
gade, so that the influence which he exerted
in favour of those whom he commanded as
Colonel of Grenadier Guards was used ad-
versely to his companions of the Rifle Bri-
gade and the Albert Hussars, whom he so long
commanded. It is said, however, that the
weakest invariably goes to the wall, and H.R.H.
may have valued the 3,000/. per annum which he
receives as a Grenadier far better than one-third
of the amount payable to the gallant Rifleman.
He therefore yielded to the superior attraction ;
and, notwithstanding the mystery in which the
matter has been so carefully enveloped, we have
seen the result.

deter nlled, and doing good service. What
of u'inpprobation, what bitter personali
ties,what imi:zrepresentation, and what ridicule
stormshe had to encolitio; in the discharge of
duty, we need not attempt to describe. Suffice
it to repeat, what we said some time back
when his claims were canvassed, that the moral
fortitude displayed throughout his career was
positively heroic. Nothing appalled, nothing de-
terred him. Through evil report and through
good report he was still JOSEPH HUME—the
friend of the people—the advocate of judicious
retrenchment, and none other—and the vigorous
champion of liberty and progress. That lie had
faults, is certain ; but they were faults into which
he was led through judging others by his honest
self. Would to HWEN we bad more politicians
of his stamp, for England is in sere need of them
at the present moment. Entertaining these
opinions of the man and his career, it need hardly
be said that we cordially sympathised with the
proceedings at Marylebone Court House yester-
day, and feel deeply gratified with the result. A
testimonial to such a man is but a bare discharge
of an incumbent duty. Let us add to it a hearty
resolution to follow, eaeh after his particular
fashion, in the steps of a patriot so zealous, yet
so discreet an determined.

We have always vindicated the character and
conduct of Sir JAMES BROOKE from the charges
which have been so pertinaciously urged against
him. It is satisfactory to find that the views
which we have entertained have been fully con-
firmed by the Report of the Commissioners ap
pointed to inquire into matters connected with
the Rajah, and the unequivocal approval by Lord
CLARENDON of what has already taken place. The
chief points relate to the undoubted piratical
habits of the Serebas and Sakarran tribes, which
have been clearly established. The charge of
having wantonly and without cause attacked these
so-called innocentshas therefore "fallen completely
to the ground !" Lord CLARENDON also expresses the
satisfaction of the Government at learning that
the Commissioners were of opinion that Sir JAs.
BROOKE had not traded in the produce of the ter-
ritory under his control in any manner incompa-
tible with his duties as Consul-General and Com-
missioner.

The results may be very briefly summed up.
Lord CLARENDON declares that " the inquiry
which has ended in the complete exculpation of
Sir J. BROOKE from the charges made against
him, has, at the same time, brought to light
abundant evidence of the beneficial results of his
administration of the affairs of Sarawak, which
are exhibited by the establishment of confidence
and the increase of trade, and are such as to de-
serve the approbation of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment."

It may be assumed that the very unpleasant
controversy which has so long been carried on
has now terminated, and that all unprejudiced
persons may rejoice in the unequivocal and
honourable acquittal of a very meritorious public
servant, and the clear and distinct acknowledg-
ments of the benefits he has conferred on his
country, and those in whose affairs• he has so
energetically and usefully concerned himself.