The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-04 00:00:00

should be totally unprepared to enter on the
inevitable conflict. It would even be better that
England should fortify Sinope, and maintain a
large navy in the Euxine, although, as we have
already pointed out, such a course would be tan-
tamount to an addition of some 20 per cent. to
the public debt, and a matter of thousands of
valuable lives in every ensuing year ! Such matters
prove beyond the possibility of doubt the impera-
tive necessity of decision at the existing crisis.
We must not suffer " the light cloud " to pass
away before the necessary measures are taken.
The suspicious conduct of FRANCIS JOSEPH, the
ominous neutrality of King LEOPOLD, prove that
we are, and have long been, leaning on a broken
reed, in hoping for the active co-operation of
Austria. We must not suffer the bitter but salu-
tary lesson to be misapplied. Our real Ally is
France. We should more closely cement the bonds
by which we are united to her, and firmly eschew
any course by which the hold which her chosen
EMPEROR, the elected of eight millions of French-
men, has on the affections of hi 3 people, might be
impaired or destroyed. The chivalry of France
and England are unanimous iu their views, and
woe to any Minister who shall dare to conclude a
Treaty in opposition thereto !

The occurrences of importance which have
transpired in various parts of the world contem-
poraneously with the progress of the European
war between the Allied Powers and the Russian
Autocracy, occurrences to which we yesterday made
a sort of generalised reference as entitled to popu-
lar consideration, are sufficiently manifold to be-
wilder one at the first blush in their mere
enumeration, and sufficiently varied to embarrass
for a while whoever might venture upon their
simple classification. A few of the more promi-
nent among these great popular events we took
occasion to mention cursorily towards the
close of our remarks last evening. Numerous
others crowd upon the memory at the first mo-
ment of retrospect. It appears to us that, in the
throng of these arresting recollections, the only
escape from a chaotic confusion of all, jumbled
promiscuously together, into anything like lucidity
in the arrangement of each in its proper sequence,
distinctly and individually, will be to recall to
remembrance for an instant how it is that the
principal powers of the earth are situated in
regard to the struggle now raging in the East.
considering, in other words, what their precise
position may be at this moment in reference to
the somewhat momentous alternative of maintain-
ing to the last an inflexible neutrality, either
armed or unarmed, as events may necessitate, or
of directly participating in the struggle as among
the actual and recognised belligerents.

Whatever may be declared to the contrary by
the more credulous votaries of our great political
hobgoblin—Red-Tapist Diplomacy—it is still, up
to this instant, matter of doubt how far Austria
has embarked upon that ocean of difficulties—the
war against the Russian Autocracy. Whether, in
short, the Cabinet of Vienna has yet resolved
upon a complete accordance with the Allied
councils of St. James's and the Tuileries, or abso-
lutely broken, for once and for all, in this contest
about Turkey, with the Imperial Court of St.
Petersburg. It is perfectly well understood, on
the contrary, what it is that may be expected
from Prussia ; to speak plainly upon the matter,
that nothing else can be looked for from the di
rection of Potsdam beyond duplicity, insincerity,
hypocrisy, and vacillation whatever may at
any time have been hinted at Paris by M.
WEDELL, or at London by M. USEDOM, as to the
possibility of any more favourable result to their
frivolous and protracted negotiations. It is re-
cognised by the discovery that nothing advan-
tageous to the interests of the Western Powers
can be wrested from the tenacious servility of
M. MaNTEusTEL to the crooked and despicable
policy hitherto in vogue at Charlottenburg. It
is perceived no less plainly that little benefit to
the same cause can be seriously anticipated at the
instance of M. Duos, as the mouthpiece of the
scarcely less csooked and despicable policy
of Schoenbrunn. It were hardly more absurd,
in either instance, to expect fair play and
honest dealing in regard to the cpiestions now at
issue, from the wily words and tortuous state
craft of the smooth spoken but unyielding and
wholly inexorable M. DE NESSELRODE. Turkey
has long since come to the decision of looking for
little, in the way of active support in her antagon-
ism to _Russia, beyond what is derivable from
that twofold tower-of-strength in which she has
until now, neither idly nor vainly confided, the
energetic and strenuous assistance magnanimously
afforded by France and England united. The
warlike aid yielded to the Divan by Egypt can-
not, of course, be included in any way within
the same category—the powerful contingent re-
cently disembarked at Eupatoria, being in truth
nothing more nor less than a splendid attestation
of loyalty from a faithful Viceroy to his liege
Lord and Suzerain. Something different, it is
true, might be said as to the contingent about to
be conducted to the shores of the Crimea, by
General DE LA MARMORA, as the leader of the
gallant soldiers of Sardinia. Nevertheless, all
else becomes subordinated in this particular to
the attitude assumed towards the giant enemy of
civilisation, on behalf of his Imperial MAJESTY
the Sultan AED-UL-MEDJID, by the two most
influential among the mightier powers of the earth,
those respectively presided over by the constitu-
tional sway of Queen VICTORIA, and the autho-
ritative sceptre of the Emperor NAPOLEON. Sus-
tained by this momentous alliance between
the French and English Governments, it signifies
coormnpoarthateis.sreelsyt loitfttlleitt:osttahteesSublime
oPp oer
refraint Porte wh et hael
together from participating in the perils of the
contest, or evince an anxiety to share in the glories
of the struggle by the contribution of a contingent
to the armies now, during the last six months, en-
camped before Sebastopol. Nevertheless, it still
continues worthy of note to every impartialw while
ob-
server of these extraordinary events, that
most of the lesser powers of Germany betray an
agreement with the more timorous policieshioththeretros
cherished both at Berlin and Vienna, many
among the minor States of Europe reveal, on the
other hand, a manifest, and wise, and magnani-
mous accordance with the more chivalrous course
pursued from the outset by the councils of Paris
and London, as well as more recently by the Ca-
binet of Turin, iu furtherance of the cause which,
in the first instance, summoned forth against the
giganticand e n
authority
ae
tCZARino.
the then unassisted
fleets and armies suddenly collected together from
Alexandria
There can be
would
amongst trlaaewriangls
neleyly:ny doubt, for example, that ;Sweden
pity
of
oil itself. of the earliest reasonable opportu-
nityall thi
the sword from the scabbard as
la sof the Allies, if merely with an eye
to the vague ohmic
of Finland. 17.1:)f some possible reacquisition
little question, ue naanner there can be but
Den-
mark would hail with
that that Den-
that might reasonably opentl
up
any prospect
neat and secure reclamation from Prussian influ-
P t° her the porma-
ences of the entire of the Schleswig-goys •
lations. Belgium, meanwhile popu-
maul
, re •
' tree to