The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-13 00:00:00

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.

Lessee and Manager, Mr • William Cooke.
The mostst varied round of entertainment in Lon
don is to be fonnd
at this vast Establishment'
Tremendous success of the Comic Pantomime !
A MORNING PERFORMANCE will he given on MONDAY,
the 15th, at Two o'clock,
The new Comic Pantomime and the Scenes of the Circle.
Eleventh Week of the BATTLE or the ALMA! which will be
acted every evening with its glorious and -vivid representation of the

After which the unrivalled SCENES in the CIRCLE !
Te
ii conclude with the new Comic Pantomime
ii?robation et the public and the press), called Gc
CP ---...eped by the
the LILLIPUTIANS ; or, Harlequin and Britannia! LLIPER or
Wesßox-cdSce open from Eleven till Four. Stage Menem Mr. „...
tt. Acting Manager, Mr. W. R. Cooke. Egtlefirian Director
Cooke, 11114

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
TO-DIY, SATURDAY, Jan. 13, will be produced an original
adapation 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.
rum DAY —Morning 33 min.after 8 I Evening 7 min. aft. 9
To-Voßaow—Morning 39 min.after 9 I Evening 15 min...ft 10

'OIIB WBATHBR.—Buz OrMI, Jan. 13.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
44—highest since noon yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during the night.
43—this day, at noon.
BAROMETER, 30'58—falling a little.
WThm, N.N.E.—Light, with fine weather. We had
some rain last evening.

Tfig
"

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1855.

INot more anxiously did BELSHAZZAR await the
prophet's decyphering of the mystic characters
than all England now listens for the Allied inter-
pretation of the Four Points. Are we made fools
of or net t Are we sold or not ? The solicitude
is now almost equallydivided between the trenches
before Sebastopol and the conference-room at
Vienna. Go into what circle we will, hearken to
the chatting of porters over their cups, of gentle-
men at their clubs, or questions and answers ex-
changed in the scant intervals of business, and tile
uneasiness of all is found to turn on the question—
What was the " interpretation" given by the
Vienna prophets, and caught at by the St. Peters-
burg despot ? Was the rasing of Sebastopol part
of it or not ? Every Englishman of every grade
feels that he has a stake in this. His judgment
is satisfied that it is a necessity, and his feelings
of national honour would bring the blood into his
cheeks if he could believe that any " interpreta-
tion" was so base as to sound a retreat from the
Crimea with the fortifications of Sebastopol stand-
ing. And well may every main quake. On the
one side ho has an Autocrat who cannot
be supposed to have consented to his own dis-
grace and enfeeblement ; on the other, a Govern-
ment whose Premier has whined about peace
when it seemed hopeless, and may be presumed
to have allowed very mischievous interpretations
in order to get it. netweem both is Austria,
without a single care for anything but trimming
the balance to save herself, let who will go over-
board.

At Paris, at Vienna, everywhere, indeed, the
anxiety seems universal. Every indication of vi-
gour in the pending hostilities is noted as showing
that peace is not hoped for by the Allies, but then
again it may equally be attributed to the uni-
versal conviction that Peace itself will depend upon
the energy with which the war is prosecuted.
Such a double view was taken, for instance, of
the EMPEROR'S dismissing the Imperial Guard from
Paris with the charge to go and gather the lau-
rels which yet remained to be won in the
Crimea. Possibly some French State document
may enlighten us sooner ; if not, our representa-

yes will, we trust, demand information on the
23d. There may be inconveniences in discussing
military or naval arrangements in Parliament; all
we can do is to commit them. to trustworthy hands,
and respect the secrecy necessary against an enemy.
In this case, however, secrecy can only serve
the enemy, enabling him to obtain from a pliable
Cabinet what he never could have filched from the
nation it represents. For otu-selves we strongly
incline to think that the " interpretation" is
another Vienna Note. That nothing explicit is
said about Sebastopol, that the " diminution,"
and, perhaps, the " carmine- to cease." (fairs
cesser) the Russian domination in the
Black Sea may be included, but that
there it stops. But what a pretty security
were it for the future to leave the pirate's nest as
unassailable as ever, and ready at any convenient
time to be filled afresh with successors to the
murderous, yet skulking, heroes of Sinope ! Rus-
sia was cunning (supposing here to mean peace)
in trying to get preliminaries settled before the 1
British Parliament meets ; and to set our Minis-
terialists and Opposition, if she can, to fight their
battle oillor an accomplished fact. After all, how-
ever, no mortal can tell whether the mad Monarch
is not merely endeavouring to gain time, to pat '
the Allies seemingly in the wrong, and then to
wreak his vengeance on Austria especially.
The adhesion of Piedmont to the Allies, men-
tioned in our last, is an event of pleasing inter-
est ; she will, perhaps, not be able to take any
direct part in the War, yet the verdict of the
most politically liberal of Continental States, of
the Government which has long been pursuing
such a steady, respectable course of reform in all
her institutions, must have its weight. It must,
if the War continues, rouse the blood of the
Scandinavian nations to see a State like Pied-
mont sharing the honours of an Alliance in which
they are far more interested. Belgium, mercenary
by nature, must yet blush for her position ;
the German States, and, above all, their would-
be leader, Prussia, must feel more than ever the
ignominy of their position. An unasked and
honourable act like this must have some effect
wherever anything of honour is still left in the
breasts of courts or people. Will it have any
weight in the United States of America 7 Every
liberal European, indeed every nobler-minded Ame-
rican, must be ashamed of much of the Anglo-
Saxon exhibition of feeling across the Atlantic in
respect to this contest. It seems to resolve itself
into " wishing that England may get a lick-
ing." Heedless of their old ally in the
American War of Independence being our
ally in this war of independence ; heedless
of our alliance being for the common rights
of nations, a vast portion of America seems dis-

posed. only to indulge its spleen against the mother
country, and to show its sympathy with the great
community of European slareholders. To see
England beaten, and slavery rampant, are their
patriotic and noble aspirations. Hence tho re-
joicings at St. Francisco, and the salutes fired from
anAraerican vessel when the English ships returned

unsuccessful fromPetropaulovski
; hence t}, e selfish
tone of much of the American press, rejoicing
like Prussia,
in the hope of keeping in with
Russia while we quarrel with her, and of thus
securing a splendid offering from the trade for
their god—Mammon. Fortunately, we believe
the War, notwithstanding their selfish prudence,
has done them commercially more harm than it
has done us. If the direct blows yet they had net the substance tWo
stere lighter,
and any
at all. Would that Prussia, America's European
counterpart, might suffer as severely ! We must
confess that the mean tone of feeling in the Great
Slave Republic, respecting this War with the
Great Slave Autocrat, has done much to cool
whatever Republican fire may have survived the
days of our youth.

IBaron HESS has represented to his Government
that he could not undertake to operate against
the Russians, unless assured of a Prussian army
of 100,000 men." Such is the statement which
has been flashed along the electric wires from
Vienna ; and, although we are unwilling to think
so badly of Austria as to yield implicit credence
to the humiliating intelligence, we cannot alto-

gether dismiss it from our minds as utterly un-
worthy of notice. We have seen too much of Ger-
man trickery and vacillation to remain satisfied
with mere words, and should certainly feel greater
confidence in Austrian professions if the Rubicon
were fairly passed, and some decided and irre-
vocable step taken. The time within which
Count BuoL pledged himself to adopt active
measures for the purpose of carrying out the
objects of the recent Treaty has expired.
Even the additional period granted at the solici-
tation of the Russian Plenipotentiary is rapidly
drawing to a close, when the eyes of Baron
fiEss are suddenly opened, and he discovers, to
his astonishment, that "he could not undertake
to operate against the Russians unless assured of
the support of a Prussian army of 100,000
men !" Why, what mockery is this ! Does
Austria intend to abandon her position as
a leading Power, possessing the means of per-
forming her deliberate and solemn promises
of discharging the duties she has undertaken ?
The Turks, under Om= PACHA, were enabled to
foil all the efforts of their opponents, although
made while they were still fresh and energetic,
and before the interference of the Western Powers
created a diversion to the Crimea, that drew off
all the available Russian troops.
Baron HESS must indeed have formed a very
humiliating estimate of the forces under his com-
mand if he be really sincere in his statement.
If (I)—that is the difficulty. It is that one
small word that creates the doubt. We fancy,
however, that the question is raised rather by
the civil than by any military servant of FBA:ruts
JOSEPH. It is used rather as an excuse for furs
ther procrastination by the diplomatists than an
expression of " cowardice "—the expression is un-
questionably strong, but we cannot discover any
one more suitable—by the military. We believe
that Austrian, aye, and Prussian troops, would
gladly unsheathe the sword and fling away the
scabbard—that they possess the hearts and cou-
rage of true soldiers ; and that it would be a foul
calumny to impute any hesitation to the men
who would have to bear the brunt of the
encounter.

But Ministers can instruct the Commander to
report as they think proper I If they were
unwilling to assume the offensive—if desirous of
ending a plausible pretext for backing out of
their pledges--nothing more plausible could
be found than such a representation from
the General commanding in the Principalities.
Th4t might be received as a valid excuse. It
would imply a want of preparation, which might
be used as an argumentutwad misericordiam--a
pathetic appeal, to induce the representatives of
France and England to become less stringent in
their requisitions. We trust, however, that they
will not be so easily humbugged, but that they
may insist on Austria liquidating her obligations
to the very letter. She can do so, if she pleases,
and should not be allowed to evade her just
responsibilities by any such disgraceful alle-
gations. If there is not a sufficient force
in the Principalities to withstand the Rus-
sian onslaught, that is the fault of th e Austrian
Government. It had ample time for mature de-
liberation. It received a full consideration for its
pledges, and, therefore, such a protest would not
aven, if well founded, constitute an adequate ex-
cuse for any failure in its engagements.