The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From the Times of this day.)
For some days there has been expectation among
men. It is whispered that a portent will shortly
attract their gaze and wonder. Three great lumi-
naries whose erratic course has hitherto baffled
calculation are to meet in full conjunction. They
have long been approaching each other, and by the
PTA of January next, or perhaps sooner, if there
is to be an autumn session, will be brought so near
that their mutual attraction will carry them for-
ward in one track. The most ponderous will

chiefly influence the motions of the others? and
Mr. Bright will henceforth draw with him the

meteor-like Disraeli and the nebulous Gladstone

in the path of peace. It is well that the country
has received a little warning of the policy which
this new Opposition is to pursue. It would cer-
tainly have been more prudent in its originators
to conceal at the present time their purpose and
taciis. Had they kept their counsel, the Pio-
tectionist, the Peacemaker, and the Peelite might
have come together in the Commons as if by an
undesi(Yned coincidence, and in the first moment of
national surprise might have achieved a triumph.
As it is, they will find an audience both within
arid without the House prepared to receive them
with a feeling in which so much of contempt will
mingle that it will hardly rise to indignation.
This is not a moment at which the country cau be

ested with. The minds of men are in a state

-which will not allow them to see with patience

office-seekers combine to gain their ends by a be-
trayal of the principles deepest in the nation's
heart, and by the frustration of the efforts which
it has sacrificed so much to make. England is now
devoted to a cause which, rightly or wrongly, she
deems of another and a higher nature than the
domestic questions of the last few years. Let Mr.
Disraeli, if he is wise, reserve his scheming for
matters connected with agriculture or finance.
Party has in some things a prescriptive right to
sport with patriotism, but he will find that the
war with Russia is not among the number.
The nation has hardly ceased to celebrate th
late day of triumph and disaster. The wounded
are still in pain ; the relatives of those who died
have their tears fresh ; every post brings tidings
of new victims, who have succumbed after many
days of agony. The comments of Europe and of
the New World are only now reaching us. The
British General has hardly learnt his country's
judgment on his conduct; who is to succeed him
we are, as yet, uncertain. All is breathless watch-
ing and suspense ; the world is still paralysed by
'he tidings of Sebastopol. This is the moment
chosen by the new party for the announcement of
its existence. Amid the dying and the dead, amid
'he orphaned and the destitute, amid the feelings
caused by the triumph of our cause and the dis-
tsters of our arms, Englishmen are to listen with
oatience to the news that a discredited clique of
politicians is once more to commence business with a
capital based on their sufferings, and to be increased
by their dishonour. Could not the Protectionist
juggler have waited a little longer before resuming
for the season his display of disagreeable clever-
ness ? Is this a time to gain applause by easy ter
giversation, or to attract novices to his school in
the hope of acquiring similar dexterity ?
The programme of the party sets forth that the
war was just arid expedient when it commenced,
but immoral and unnecessary now. This was to
he expected, for such a distinction will enable con-
verts to speak and vote in contradiction of their
former views without any breach of what they call
consistency. The dogma on which the new creed
rests is therefore due to the subtle intellect of Mr.
Gladstone, who was the first to discover the nature
and epoch of this great change in the justice of the
war. All therefore who have yet spoken openly,
in its favour since April, or whose obscurity has
caused their opinions to be forgotten, may boldly
denounce every act of the allies since the Viennese
diplomatists separated. Those who wish to pass
over as inconvenient the question of morality are
provided with another argument. Sebastopol was
the great object of the war ; this standing menace
to Turkey is destroyed, therefore the war is now
unnecessary. The moralists will condemn every-
thing since April, the politicians everything since
September ; the intervening six months form a
period on which the party will agree to differ. The
two, great points in their reasoning will be, it ap-
pears, the inutility of carrying on 'hostilities be-
yond a certain point, and the financial burdens
which a prolongation of the war must impose. The
aid of Mr. Bright will be invaluable in the statisti-
cal department, while the other two chiefs, though
differing as to the period at which peace ought to
have been made, will labour to show that it has
certainly arrived. It is hardly worth while to hold
discussion with a politician who merely wishes to
create a party ; but, as the reasoning on which
they base their hopes will often be heard during
the coming session, it is not unworthy of present
notice. We argue not with Mr. Disraeli alone,
but with those who share the opinions by which
he hopes to mount to power.
The Turkish territory is evacuated, the military
honour of the allies is safe, war is expensive—let
us now make peace. Such is the sum of all that
the Opposition will have to say. The three postu-
latesand yet the conclusion be
denie may
Thei gwraarntd,
with
e
Russia is not a question of
boundary nor of gratified self-esteem ; and woe to
the Western nations if they make it a question of
money. It may be admitted that Europe drifted
into war ; the problem now is to give it such stabi-
lity as will enable it to resist for the future the
blasts which would drive it into new calamities. Far
better would it have been never to draw the sword
than to pause at such a moment as the present. We
should only teach Russia her strength and weakness.
She would learn the probable points at which her..
territory would be attacked in any future war, the
probable nature of the alliances against her, how
far she can depend on her subject races, how far
the neutrality of Central Europe can protect her.
Although Sebastopol has fallen she would not have
lost the fame of invulnerability. Her internal
state may indeed be menacing to her Sovereign,
and full of the elements of convulsion ; but peace
would cause these d 4ngers to pass away and the
world would never hear of them. The Czar's iii
fluence would appear in a few years little shaken
by a coalition which at one time included all the
great European. Powers. France and England