The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1855.

Thirteen months since we earnestly protested
against the mode in which Lord ABERDEEN':.
Government conducted the War, then recently
declared against Russia. The only principle
which the then Premier seemed to recogeise was
to make the evils inseparable from hostilities,
and to make them as little onerous even to our ad-
versary as possible. Russia was still to be enabled
to carry on her trade and commerce with few im-
pediments, and to obtain the sinews of war, that of
which she was in greater want than men, or what
are usually termed " articles contraband of war,"
even from English coffers. It is true that our
merchants could not directly deal with Russian
subjects, or import the produce of Russia from
Russian ports. But they were enabled to evade,
with the greatest facility, every illusory restric-
tion, and to obtain, albeit by a circuitous route
and at a small additional cost, all that they re-
quired. This extra cost did not fall on the Rus-
sian producers ; it was defrayed exclusively by
the English consumers, and was divided between
the Prussian agents and the persons engaged in
the land carriage to the Prussian ports. Had
the British Government bona fide determined to
cripple the finances of Russia, and to induce
Prussia to take a manly and decided part, they
might have done so with a very trifling additioe
to the inconvenience necessarily sustained by the
consumers of Russian produce. But under the
plausible pretext of averting this slight inconve-
nience—of preventing any unnecessary obstruc-
tion to trade and commerce--they provided the
unscrupulous aggressor with the means of
carrying on the contest and of persist-
ing in his untenable claims, while they held
out a direct pecuniary inducement to Prussia to
persevere in its pretended neutrality, and to avoid
the honourable and decided course that would
long since have led to an honourable and satisfac-
tory Peace. These have been some of the result:.
of the very injudicious attempt of the late Go-
vernment---the elder Dromio—to wage "a rose-
water war," and to avoid any unnecessary injury
to the enemy.
e oPeeple now clearly perceive the grievous
th then committed. They can directly trace
Cdftrea ter,,:ortion of the calamities they have
and, still ,4_ enormous expenditure of money,
the folly of
tmehesirof the lives of their brethren, t(
"senile" mi and the puerile—perhaps
2 138 attempts at the more appropriate phrase—
conciliation.
proclheziosi:
ofid hostilities,
bad rouble, which, at the first
bad been depreciated to the extent of 8017E18 16 pe: cent., recovered its value on the
of the iil-advised order in Council, which
declared
that her MAJESTY would " waive the •
right 0
seizing enemy's property laden on board neutral
They also beheld with disgust and in.
aignation the conduct of the Prussian Government.
"which found the new trade created by the folly
the British Cabinet too profitable to be willingly
" Non old Nummus" was the
motto of FREDERICK WILLIA3f, and so long as we
continue
the inducement, so long will he parse-
Tere in the •
clucreditable course he then adopted.

Most unexpectedly be found a trade created which
he had never previously possessed, which he held
by no previous use or habit, but which sprung
entirely from the War, and which he could never
have enjoyed but for the maritime supremacy of
the Western Powers, which enabled them practi-
cally to close up the Russian Ports. By his conduct
in not merely permitting, buteven encouraging, his
subjects to engage in that trade, to lend one of
the belligerents the assistance she required, in
order to exchange her produce for money, he
practically neutralised the exertions of the Allied
Fleets, and thus grossly violated the neutrality be
professed to observe—a course that would long
since have called down the punishment it so
richly merited but for the undue truckling to
"Germanism," which is so deeply to be deplored,
and which has produced so many untoward re-
sults.

We fully appreciate the patriotic motives
which induced Lord ALBEMARLE to sever himself
from those with whom he had previously been so
long connected. The course adopted by the
Noble Earl was that of a true-hearted English-
man, one who keenly felt the magnitude of
the present emergency, and was resolved
to spare no efforts— to refuse no sacrifice
necessary to produce a just and honour-
able peace. For so doing he will obtain the
thanks and gratitude of his countrymen, and,
better still, the approbation of his own conscience.
He can bear with profound equanimity the taunts
and sarcasms of the friends of peace at any price
or on any conditions. Indeed we cannot imagine a
more honourable tribute to an Englishman's con-
duct in relation to the War than the vituperation
of Earl GRKY, respecting whom, we may parody
his own expression, and declare that the country
" would now regard his accession to office not
only with regret, but with dismay."
Lord ALBEMARLE has for the time being failed
in his object. His motion has been rejected by a
majority of 16 in a House in which only 78 Peers
divided. But he has the proud consciousness
of having discharged his duty ably and efficiently,
and of knowing that an overwhelming majority
of his countrymen participate in the sound and
patriotic views to which he gave expression. He
may rest assured that the verdict returned by the
majority will not be acquiesced in by the nation ;
that it will be reviewed in another place ; and, if
the new judges be really independent, really de-
sirous of expressing the opinions of their respec-
tive constituents, unhesitatingly set aside. We
must, now that the delusive expectations so long
persisted in have been unequivocally dis-
appointed, adopt decisive measures, to prevent
our enemy from fighting us with weapons provided
by ourselves, to prevent Prussia, under the garb
of a specious neutrality, from encouraging the
enemy, and striving to maintain the state of
affairs by which she has avowedly been so great a
gainer. If the people are in earnest, as we be-
lieve them to be, let them set their own shoulders
' to the wheel and compel both Ministers and Legis-
lators to respect the voice of public opinion when
clearly and unequivocally expressed. Give, we
repeat, office to any men who will faithfully and
zealously discharge its duties, and direct all the
national resources to conquering the honourable
and satisfactory peace which cannot be obtained
on other terms.

Why give a further thought to Austria ? Be
she coward, traitor, or selfish knave ; or be she,
as Lord ELLENBOROUGH would have us believe, in-
capacitated by our own plans in the East from
joining us in humbling Russia, the result is the
same. Those who do not with us regard her as
the Srs-yrnus' stone of the Allies, ever rolling back
upon them after every renewed and weary effort,
must yet regard her as useless lumber in the
business. We want to march straight and quick
to our task, and, to say the least, we have been
as much hampered with her cumbrous diplomatic
formalities, as our soldiers were with their cross-
belts, stocks, and head gear.
All England detests her. We may except a few
peers and aristocrats ; a few personal friends of Old
NIETTERNICH, a few Jews who enrich themselves
by "loans" to save her from beggary ; a few
engrained Tories whom neither the atrocities of
S'pielberg, nor the perjury and brutalities under
which Hungary groans, can wean from their des-
pot love ; and a few dynastic Whig families of
the Lord J. RUSSELL stamp. With such paltry
and unworthy exceptions, all England detests
Austria. Dark, perfidious, Jesuit-led ; intolerant
in religion even to exile and to blood ; the sworn
foe of all liberty of thought, speech, and action ;
bloody in her revenge as an Italian or a Spaniard,
without the excuse of their passion, Austria is
and ever must be the most odious to every high-
souled Englishman of all European States. The
folly of our statesmen in wooing her aid
so unweariedly has sickened the country ;
they have had her in tow too long
for the patience of the country. Let them cast
her off and shoot ahead without her ; and they
would have the confidence of the nation. Every
Englishman's heart would best lighter.

Turn her adrift. She can do us no harm.
She dares not join Russia. HEAVEN grant she
!night. The hounds she now hunts with would
devour her in a trice. KOSSUTH and MAZZINI
would in forty-eight hours be at the head of
armies. The miserable HAPSBURGS would in vain
appeal again to the cheated CROATS; Russia would
te unable to help them. Poland and the Allies
would give her plenty to do. H tppy for the per-
jured HAPSBURGS if this time also they got off
without the reward of our own Royal Martyr
to Royal perfidy. Austria attempt war against
~he Allies for national independence I Why, it
Twould, be the signal for every defrauded- State
Test of the Vistula to seize back its own.

Leave her, then, to her contemptible and im-
poverishing neutrality. Let her bully and swagger
tmong her disarmed populations, but let her be
Ls neuter as she claims to be—the very eunuch
,European States—with Prussia for a fellow.
Never again make her the president of a peace
conference, or the arbitrator for nations of men
and soldiers. If neuter she wish to be, let her
have her fill of neutrality. Let neither party care
for her. As her policy is destitute of the slightest
oretensions to honesty, honour, or manliness, let her
receive not the slightest consideration from thosena-
tions whose present alliance is cemented by the
'noblest of all bonds. Post her neutral in the face of
Europe. Afraid to attack Russia, afraid to attack
;he AllieF, afraid to attack any one, indeed, un-
less perhaps an unarmed Englishman in Tuscany,
)r an unarmed Wallachian in Bucharest. Yes,
)OSt her coward—for that is what neutral means
—and shut her out from all honourable society. 1
How is it, then, that Ministers are fir ever
loud in their own praises of their splendid
liplomacy with Austria, while not a single echo
of those praises is heard in either House of
Parliament, or in the country ; and when
en ev
,_ leviathan contemporary, who said the
oest for them
and their Austrian doings till the
lasts begin, t
no
tr,
wto turn round? Austria has ac-
tlallY tired
friend of
her old friend the Times, the
lisyrr a
the defender of Russian wicked-
ness in Rung
9, and
tion Ital of
Austrian abonaina-
y th_
Timms feels com-