The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-17 00:00:00

Spirit Mthe Public Journals.

( From the Times of this day.)
There are, perhaps, those who had expected that
the Emperor of the French would close the Paris
Exhibition with a speech full of arts, science, and
civilisation, and with scarcely a passing allusion to
the war. That would, indeed, have been more in
accordance with the anticipations of millennial
peace in which we were all indulging at the close
Of the Exhibition in Hyde Park. But it would
have presented a tremendous discord with fact ; it
would have offered a hollow flattery to the heart
of every thoughtful bearer ; and it would have be-
lied the emotions of the man who uttered the
words. The Sovereign who wields the whole force
of a mighty empire against the most powerful an-
tagonist that earth can supply to the lists of war
could not, on such an occasion, even pretend to
forget the burden laid upon him. Called on to
address the representatives of many nations, he
could not but dwell upon those first duties which
andalnationslwitho u
towe
which t
to the world
d
eworoldnoant deatronthe
themselves,sweet
guerdons of peace. It is not merely that
the ter-
rible events of the day, in their majestic
import,
pale and pageantry of art and dwarf the festivals
iof civilisation ; it s that no generous mind can
abandon itself to lighterinterests in the presence
of the more heroic and painful struggle. Every
pursuit of peace must yield to the preservation of
that liberty and independence, without which peace
itself is only the livery of bondage, and art only the
craft of a slave. Greatly as we appreciate the indus-
try and skill that minister to the common wants of
the body or the high instincts of the soul, we feel
that nothing is more precious than national
honour. The two great Western Powers have
been foremost in inviting the nations of Europe
to the competitions of peace. They have also led
the way in the nobler cause of European
freedom. It is by no fortuitous coincidence, nor
yet only of set purpose, that they have placed
themselves in the van of two such different move-
ments. It was their greater freedom and stronger
self-dependence that placed them where they stand,
at the head of commerce, manufacture, and art,
and that prompted them to make their capitals the
marts of the world. To the very same qualities
they owe their prominence in another field. They
are at once foremost in arts and arms, and lead in
the one because they do also in the other. Thus
(it naturally comes to pass that the throne of an
" Exhibition" is the fittest place for appealing to
the patriotism of nations and tho common honour
of Europe. Indeed, why are the artists and manu-
facturers of Europe there at all—why, amid the
crash of arms and the wide apprehension of evil,
do they flock first to our insular metropolis, then
to that other capital, which forty years ago was
not safe from hostile intrusion ! We are safe, be-
cause we are forward, just, and free. Wo respect
ourselves, and the earth respects us. Of two
nations we will say what it might have been
egotism if applied only to ourselves, and to our
particular form of government. When other
capitals have witnessed such assemblages, we shall
then have better hopes of the freedom and peace of
Europe.
The Emperor very opportunely appeals to that
public opinion which ought to have so declared
itself as to supersede the appeal to arms. It is,
in fact, public opinion, suppressed elsewhere from
a false prudence, that the Western Powers have
had the courage to represent and avow. War
has its vicissitudes, and the greatest victories have
but a passing effect. Opinion, under
.Heaven,dis-
poses human affairs ; and they who aid to direct
and assert it are the true conquerors, liberators,
and statesmen of the world. Had the German
Powers two years ago only acted up to the
opinion they held in common with us, Europe
would not have seen the lamentable spectacle of
the three greatest nations in the Old World,
besides lesser States, inflicting upon one another
an amount of loss that ages will not repair. The
conscience of Europe spoke plain enough, but the
tongue that should have spoken faltered, and the
hand that should have struck trembled, before the
scowl of the aggressor. It is not the audacity of
England and France, but the palsied arm of shifty
Austria and the weak treble of cowering Prussia
that have inflicted this great wound on Russian
pride and power. Had they been true to opinion,
omarsund, Sweaborg, Kertch, Sebastopol, Kin-
bourn, would still have been unscathed and unex-
plored, the Emperor Nicholas would probably have
defied " the juggling fiend" that betrayed him to
his doom, and his representatives might have stood
the day before yesterday before the Emperor of the
French with a brilliant display of Russian produce
and. skill. To the great defaulting Powers Europe
owes the loss of 1,000,000 men. Yet is their own
loss still greater than that of the Powers they have
left to fight out the battle. Austria and Prussia
can only exist under pressure. The many explosive
elements of the population can only be kept down
by the neighbourhood of other Powers representing
cimpler principlc., anti more able to take part in
European struggles without fears from within. If
that day should come, which possibly German po-
liticians may be foolish enough to hope for, when
the exhaustion of the belligerents is to leave them
at the mercy of the untouched neutrals, it will then
be seen how Central Europe will reap the harvest
and divide the wreck, and whether bursting opinion,
insurgent class, and groaning nationality will do
meekly the biddings of despotsleft alone on the earth.
In that day we confidently predict the greater the
strength of Central Europe the greater her weak-
ness, for she will find her resources only reserved
to be uncontrollable, and that when she has no
rival she has also no friend. Austria and Prussia

are now earning nothing from either side in the
present struggle ; they best know themselves what
store of merit they are laying up with their own
populations.
Is it possible that these Great Exhibitions have
done us mischief, by inducing a belief that the
Western Powers, taught by a painful experience
and enamoured of luxury and show, had forsworn
war and preoccupied themselves with more agree-
able pursuits ? Certainly we can imagine the Rus-
sian exhibitors carrying home some such idle com-
ment, for they certainly saw what at St. Petersburg
would have been deemed fatal to a purely military
Power. But can the Austrian and Prussian exhi-

bitors also have concluded that wo had lost our

national character, and were no longer formidable
If this entered into their reckoning when they
withdrew
e
withdrew from the councils of Eurp and left
England and France either to fight alone to give
iu, they must by this time perceive their mistake.
They must see that, together with Exhibitions and
other works of peace, we can still make as great
efforts as ever in the battlefield, and on England's
own more congenial element. Now that the deter-
mination of the Western Powers can no longer be
doubted, and their success has commanded respect,
it is time for Europe to remember our Exhibitions
as arguments, not of our commercial predilections,
but of our great enterprise and power. The nation
which in a brief twelvemonth raised such a struc-
ture as that in Hyd© Park, and then swept it away
when no longer•needed, might be depended on to
spare no cost or trouble when its honour was con-
cerned. Nor could any one doubt that of France.
What we have done in the Crimea is in keeping with
our more peaceful achievements. In spite of mis-
takes, in spite of aged Generals and newly-raised
armies, in spite of divided commands, in spite of
positions. There we
uncertain counsels and even suspended operations,
at last by a lavish use of our resources and unwearied.
perseverance, we have so far beaten a colossal Power
and
a ossi if the s
in it
now stand, with all the arts of peace transferred_ to
Ica7,naa
52 ti F b:lleh o expectedr es w ere
ourf
rom
the
on ito own terasfirrinitolr, yy
establishedsio
own.
Thatth is just what
auorsoßf the twin
Sea
i g Great Exhibitions." Wh
be-
trayed some diversion of .. at, indeed, if they
peaceful channel ? it the national spirit into a
the bow which has ' SCAB but the unstringing of
since dealt destruction on the
foe. Our neighb displays only ours will now see in these peace-
fuldetermination yan
evidence of the industry and
that will overcome all opposition and
survive all d.scouragements ; they will see in them
0 i
the proof
f that self-reliance which will proceed,
even
single-handed, when others fail, and will carry
off the prize, with or without a competitor.

THE LATE FOG.—The density of the fog on Thursday
last led to four fatal accidents in the East and Wo_i!
India Docks, and several persons met with ver):Soacrif°,;
escapes through falling overboard. About 0 ,
6ic-ng r,
that evening the fourth mate of the ship
si ie
which is loading for Bombay, on the eastue officers
Import Dock, applied to one of the Custom-ho
so him (as he
on duty at the Brunswick Pier Gate, t?edh w
to the request,
d of the
had a light) to the ship. The man acceded
of the Import
and proceeded safely as far as the
ehithat it was impossible
the dock flatter, who
Dock ; here the fog was so densm, in endeavouring to
to discern a yard before
ctrhoesms,to .
the splash, has.
drag to the
ees hearing
landn ain c
find the bridge so as tclap.. Tuit, the King Lear, both
walked into the lookr. () ,
s, edge
happenedten
toned
immediately,t o b e
of the lock, and with the assistance of the foreman suc.
saving the ns.
the other t se officer, but was drowned. The body
tom-house
for nearly two hours afterwards. Just
a dock labourer fell in on the north side of the
ceeded after threeneatbriotthhweelisfopefoltithn,
kPwrxaepsvoi r° tu siDock,Y
recovered. In the West India Dock two similar accidents
occurred ; one man,Milne, belonging to the ship Florence
Nightingale, discharging in the south dock, in attempting
to get on board his vessel, walked over the quay, and
was drowned ; the other man Rossiter, belonging to
the Florence Nightingale, loading alongside of No. 3
shed in the export dock, met with the same fate. Three
other accidents took place in other parts of the docks by
men walking over into the basin, but by timely aid thel
were saved.