The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-05 00:00:00

a similar charge for every fractional part of that
weight. That would be but a trifling concession
and the fact of registration, and the various points
incidental thereto, would be an ample equivalent
for the boon, for that which indeed would be
something for which we might be thankful.
In another part of our impression will be found
the resolutions adopted at a recent meeting of
newspaper proprietors. It will be seen that the
feeling was strongly opposed to the change, and
many cogent reasons were adduced in favour of
the propositions then adopted. We confess that
we cannot quite agree in all that has been put
forward. For instance, in stating that " the bill
proposes to remove all the securities against libel
or offences against public order and morality," they
go too far, and weaken the effect of a very strong
argument. The libel laws would still remain in
operation, reckless and unscrupulous publications
could still be repressed, although great difficulty
would be experienced and much litigation oc-

casioned.
Let us meet the question fairly. We shrink I
not from any just competition. It would be for
the public benefit that the best article should be
obtained at the cheapest rate. But it is not, there-
fore, indispensable that everything should be so
regulated as to suit a single journal—nor, so as to
make local publications essential. Weight should
be fairly paid for. If there were no limitation
the post would shortly break down—the additional
labour could not be executed without an enor-
mous increase of expenditure ; but some privileges,
such as those above alluded to, might reasonably
be conferred, so as to hold out inducements for
enterprise and capital. The extra weight de-
manded by the Times is not for the general, but
for its own exclusive benefit. At least eight
out of the sixteen pages of which it so
loudly boasts, are composed, not of news in
which the public have any interest, but of adver-
tisements, largely paid for, and which would fully
repay a special postage stamp, and which possess
no claim superior to any other description of
printed matter. Its appeal, then, in that respect
is just as preposterous as its fallacious assertions
some years since as to the small amount of
profit on each copy,
,when it debited itself with
the paper on which the advertisements appeared,
but abstain° 1 from crediting the price paid for

their insertion.
All we now ask in reference to the present bill
is that the matter should receive the attention it
deserves, and not be recklessly slurred over, in the
erroneous supposition that it will be regarded as
a boon either by journalists or the community at

large.

It was impossible at first, and is almost impos-
sible yet, to realise the fact that our great antagonist
is dead. He has so long been closely present to
our most frequent and soul-stirring thoughts that
it resembles losing some one with whom we have
been in constant association. It will long seem
as if we must meet him where he has been wont
to appear. But NICHOLAS has passed from us
for ever. We shall need no more to take account
of his personal qualities in our political calcula-
tions. His imperious and stubborn will, his in-
satiable ambition, his personal courage, his
fanaticism (duo chiefly, perhaps, to his success
in arousing it in hiS subjects)—these exist
no more; they may and probably will, be wanting
in his announced successor. Till Friday evening
we all felt that, politically speaking, a mighty and
unbending Satanic spirit -ruled from St. Peters-
burg to Sebastopol, from Warsaw to the wall of
China ; that it could make its will and its infu-
riate energy felt in the armies of the Baltic, of
Poland, of the Danube, of the Crimea, and of
Asia. The Czar NICHOLAS was the omnipresent
dread of every Russian general and every private
soldier, while his approval and rewards were
their ever-animating hope. But " the god of
the Russians " was a mortal god. While
he lived the symbols of his presence and
his commands were an ark in their camp ; they
have left a coffin in their place. The awful void
can hardly be filled up. It is rarely indeed that
an ALEXANDER the GREAT succeeds a PHILIP, or
that a GUSTAVUS AnoLritus leaves generals like
those whom he had trained. Time alone can re-
veal the future ; but certain it is that the intense
ooncentration of all the bad Muscovite and Tartar
qualities which made NICHOLAS in his sixth de-
cade the demon of Europe can hardly exist in
another CZAR. No, it is gone, gone for ever,
and by degrees we shall realise fully the magni-
tude of the fact.

We must, however, frankly confess our fears.
Russia appears now to be wholly wanting in great
minds—alas, we are equally deficient ! NESSEL-
RODE is still left to outwit, if that were necessary,
our leading statesmen, and in diplomacy, all
secret as it is, we are no match for even ordinary
Russians. But the truth is, we have no men
worthy of the crisis. Suppose ALEXANDER in con-
formity with his presumed character inclines
strongly to peace, we have now at Vienna a states-
man who, as an aristocrat, and as a Whig espe-
cially, is a mere hand-to-mouth politician.
Perhaps he dares not leave Sebastopol as it
is, but to quitting the Crimea and anything else
AT fear ho would easily consent. All the stolen
territories of course ho would leave to a peace-
making young CZAR. Circassia he would consign
to its ruthless enemies ; Persia would remain
bereft of provinces which form part of the Russian
high road to India ; Ismail and Bessarabia must
be left to obstruct the mouths of the Danube ;
Poland, of course, would continue under barbarian
rule, as a military road against Europe for the
next mad CZAR ; and Finland must still render
Sweden subservient to Russia. Indemnity to
Turkey, France, and England, for the cost
of the War, would be out of the question.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL is fond of denouncing
the narrow-minded policy of the " Man-
chester School." We fear his own is quite
As narrow. The key to Manchester policy
is cotton and trade. The key to Lord
JonN's, aristocracy and hereditary despotism.
The former is at least a policy for the many, the
latter a policy for the privileged or the tyrant few.
One aims to fill the purses of the community—_
the other to glut unrighteous dynastic ambition.
Wo think Lord JOHN is certainly now, if ever, too
small for his place.

Never probably will an opportunity occur
again like the present for undoing the misdeeds
of the Holy Alliance, and recasting on na-
tional principles the wickedly spoiled map of
Europe. We are now at war ; we have
the means of compulsion on a vast scale.
Prussia with her Rhenish provinces, Austria with
Iler Lombardy and Hungary, dare not oppose the
will of the Western Powers ; and Russia is de-
prived of the man whose indomitable energy made
something out of.her
will now be comparateiv°lenlym}.°:r-pallyacseedg.
e n el‘r a,
We
sd. Snhoet
o
believe her Muscovites could be induced to fight
for Poland as they did for Moscow. With the aid
of the Allies it would be easy to wrest Poland for
ever from its oppressors, and to circumscribe
Muscovite barbarism within its natural limits.
we have as our Plenipotentiary now one
oßfutthneci 5
Ministers who married our Sovereign to a
petty_Gerraari Fnnce and one who has Ger-