The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-16 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(From the Morning Herald of this day )

One Conservative journal in London and two or
three in the provinces are beginning to raise the
question, " Whether enough has not been done ;"
"whether the oljects of the war have not been
attained ;" and " whether it is not time to consi-
der what of peace would be reasonable." _
What strikes us with astonishment is, that these.
journalists, who possess talent, and who must be
supposed to possess common sense, do not see that
talking about peace is the very worst way that can
be thought of for obtaining it.
Our antagonist is haughty and unbending, and
has never been accustomed to sue for peace. Even
when Napoleon occupied the Kremlin, Alexander,
instead of seeking for negociafion, refused to open
any while a single French soldier remained on
Russian ground.
In dealing with such a foe, what can be more un--
wise than to show any anxiety for peace ? Doubt-
less, peace, must always be desirable ; doubtless,
to terminate an outlay of fifty millions per annum,
must be an object of anxious hope. All the world
knows this, and the Emperor of Russia must know
that we are accessible to these feelings and motives.
But to be talking already of terms when no nego-
ciation has yet been proposed on either side, and
to he constructing a " peace party"—whit is it but
so to excite the enemy's hopes and expectations as
to remove the real probabilities of peace to a vast
distance.

Another thing that strikes us with surprise is,
that men do not seem to perceive that between the
present costly and aggressive warfare and a treaty
of peace there lies a large field of action as yet
wholly untrodden, and which, it appears to us,
has not been sufficiently thought of.
Let us suppose that, after another campaign or
two, we have carried our present system of war-
fare to its full extent; that we have bombarded
every fortress which it is possible to approach, and
rendered Kussia's whole accessible frontier a long
line of " blood-stained ruins." When all this has
been accomplished, would any one recommend that
we should send a message to the Emperor Alex-
ander. to say that, having done him all the injury
we could, we were now ready. to listen to terms-of
peace ? Surely no dreamer has imagined the pos-
sibility of such a thing.
What, then, would happen if every possible ef-
fort of aggressive warfare should be tried, and Rus-
sia should still remain unhumbled and silent ?
Surely we should then enter upon another course
of action—a course more tedious, but perhaps more
certain in its results, than that we are now taking.
Whenever the allied powers shall be of opinion
that enough has been done in the way of taking
towns and destroying armies, they can then reduce
their forces and their outlay, and deal with Russia
in a different but still more humiliating manner.
They can say to her—" For your outrageous
assaults on an unoffending neighbour, and your
evident purposes of universal dominion, you are
outlawed and banished from the society of the
European powers. We shall no longer chastise or
punish you ; but henceforward your own savage
territory shall be your prison. From no port in
your dominions shall ship or sailor find egress.
You shall be cribbed and confined within yourown
boundaries, in the sight of all Europe. Trade, by
sea, you shall have none ; navy, unless to rot in
your own harbours, you shall have none. This is
your sentence, passed in the hearing of all the
world. We utter it, who have the power to enforce
it. From henceforth you are banished."
This course, whenever the allied powers shall
choose to take it, is an infallible one. To protect
Turkey by a subsidiary force of 60,000 men—to
keep possession of the Black Sea, and to close the
Baltic year by year against the entry or exit of a
single Russian—all this could be done at a cost of
some twelve or fifteen millions per annum, in lieu
of the 60 or 80 millions which France and ngland
are now spending. And the great advantage of
this mode of action would be, that Russia might
be warned that this insulting blockade should be
carried on just as long as she pleased, be it five, or
ten, or twenty years. At present she hopes that
our efforts will, after a while, exhaust us. Apprise
her that without effort we mean to imprison her
in her own territory till she is repentant and hum-
bled, and she will begin to despair of her condition.
This is the best card in the hand of England and
France. It has not yet been played or even shown;
but it is there—and it wins the game. The only
question is, when will the time come for discon-
tinuing the present plan of aggressive assault, and
resorting to that of strict and punitive blockade.
On this question, of the fit time, many opinions
may prevail. Our own inclines to the belief,
that the time may soon arrive. And let itbe-re-
marked, that the calmer and less expensive course,
while it is more effectual for our purposes, is quite
as humiliating to Russia as the more active and
vigorous one. At Vienna, Russia would not hear
of a limitation of her Black Sea fleet,. Proclaim
to her, now, that on the Black Sea the Russian
flag shall never more be seen. Tell her, further,
that her Baltic fleet may be a splendid one, but
that it shall rot in its own harbours. Tell her that
all this is not to be the subject of a treaty; it is a
sentence passed upon her, and to which her con-
sent is not necessary. Tell her all this, and then,
indeed, the objects of the war may be considered to
be gained. But all this is quite independent of ne-
gociation—it requires no new Vienna Conference.
All that would remain would be for Russia to
repent, and to sue for re-admission into the pale
of European society. When she does that, with
proper dispositions, it will be time enough to consi-
der upon what condition she might be released from
her state of duresse. But until that moment shall
arrive, all talk about " terms of peace" is idle ; it
is worse—it is absolutely mischievous.

(Front the Morning Advertiser of this day.)

We cannot find room for the various communi-
cations which reach us on the subject of the in-
tended marriage of Prince Frederick William of
Prussia, to the Princess Royal of England.
Though there can be no doubt, and is none, as to
the fact of such an alliance being contemplated by
the Royal Families of England and of Prussia, we
do trust, for the sake of our Sovereign, as well as
for the sake of the institutions of the country, that
the projected alliance will never become matter of
fact. If her Majesty has faithful and enlightened
counsellors around her Throne, she must have been
well warned before this time, not only of the ex-
treme unpopularity of the intended union, but of
the imminent jeopardy to which, if carried out, it
will expose the monarchy itself. Prussia is, noto-
riously, to all practical intents and purposes, a
portion of the Muscovite empire. It is a province
of the Czar ; and the King of Prussia is no more
than the veriest vassal of the Monarch who sits on
the throne at St. Petersburg. Is it then decent,
is it respectful to the people of England, that the
Princess Royal should be affianced to the heir pre-
sumptive to the Crown of Prussia ? Not one whit
more unseemly would it have been, had the eldest
daughter of our Queen been affianced to the heir
presumptive to the throne of Russia, had such a
person been eligible for matrimonial purposes. He
may be deemed uncourteous who will warn the
Sovereign of these realms of the grave perils which
will be incurred by carrying out the contemplated
marriage ; but he will assuredly prove the most
faithful friend, and most enligh toned adviser she
ever had, who will speak out plainly on the sub-
ject.

The people of England will not submit to such
an alliance. The event, should the match not be
broken off, will attest the accuracy of our words.
The very idea, the bare possibility of such a con-
tingency, has awakened feelings in the national
mind which none canimiStake, and whiih no well-
wisher to the present possessors and future expect-
ants of regal power, can contemplate without the
deepest anxiety and the greatest alarm. No one
can mix in society without being, forcibly struck
with the intense aversion with winch any further
matrimonial alliances with Germany is regarded by
all classes. It seems as if England existed for no
other purpose than to minister to German cupidity
and to furnish food to German ambition. That is
not the view which Englishmen themselves enter
tain. They have
a far
d to notion
o fulfil.othef missionAn d to
which their country is d
their convictions on the subject they will one day
give an unmistakeable expressionf
that d .
Let
Germans
in high places beware o ay. It were well if
the results should be confined to them. But such
will not be the case. Others will suffer. Institu-
tions as well as persons will be the victims when-
ever the sturdy and straightforward principles of
the people of this country come into direct col-
lision with the Germanism which has insinuated
itself into the high places of the land.
With regard to the new connexion which it is in
contemplation to establish between Germany and
this country, it is sought to throw dust in the eyes
of the people of England. and to diminish, if not
do away with, their hostility to it, by representing
the father of the affianced Prince, anu who suceca s
the present King on the throne of Prussia, as a
loan of Liberal principles, and as being favourable
to France and England. This is all a sham—a
mere pretext. It is a fraud on the people of this
country, to represent the Prince of Prussia as the
foe of despotism, and as the friend of the Western
Alliance. If the fact were so, how happens it that
he has never given any proof of it If There has
been no lack of opportunities. These have been
furnished in abundance ever since the war corn-
, menced. The. even now pre-ent themselves with
every succeeding hour. What has the father of
I the Prince to whom England's Princess Royal is
'affianced done to show that lie is in reality hostile