The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-05 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1855.

One valuable result may at least be anticipated
from the visit of M. DROUYN DE L'HUYS t(
Vienna. It will bring the system of procrastina-
tion hitherto adopted to a speedy and unequivocal
conclusion. The French statesman will not linger
doing nothing, or, what is tantamount thereto,
seeing the fancied progress of one day completely
annihilated on the following. As the Minister
presiding over a very important department, he
will not easily consent to any course involving
prolonged absence from his official duties.
Months, weeks, even days, will not be recklessly
wasted, while business, for the efficient discharge
whereof he is responsible, is entrusted to others
who have quite enough to do in matters in which
they themselves are peculiarly concerned. We
may also add that the French Minister has not
transferred his establishment to the Austrian
capital—is not accompanied by wife or children,
tutors, governesses, nurses, or servants. He has
not resigned himself to the anticipation of a long-
continued course of diplomacy, during which the
labours of the day are to be alleviated by all the
domestic enjoyments, all the comforts, which men
can hope to obtain during their earthly pil-
grimages.

There is therefore every reason to hope that
the specious humbug may be brought to a de-
cided termination—that the Austrian PENELOPE
may decide in favour of some one of her suitors,
and at once enter into a Russian or French and
English alliance. She is manifestly desirous of
selecting the most eligible "parte," but unfortu-
nately she has not yet materials sufficient to
enable her to form a sound judgment on that
part of the case ; she therefore temporises with
all, and as her feelings are in no degree engaged
she can hold out sufficient encouragement to all,
to keep up the hopes of her suitors to the requi-
site point. She is waiting for further intelligence
from the Crimea sufficiently decisive to warrant
her in putting an end to all the doubts and fears
of the rivals, by flinging herself into the arms of
the fortunate competitor. Up to this time she
has managed. to distribute her favours with
strict impartiality ; but France now demands
a plain and decided answer to a simple question,
and it must be rendered without further coquetry
or vacillation.

It is ridiculous for Austria to put in argumen
tative ple9.s,to attempt to show that she will join
the Western Powers heart and hand, because, she
asserts, it is her interest to do so. This is a mere
petitio principii, a literal begging of the question.
The plain and obvious answer is by another inter-
rogatory—a demand, " Why she has not already
done so ?" If it is decidedly for her advantage that
the predominance of Russia in the Euxine should
be abolished, or at least her power materially
limited, so that she can no longer have at her dis-
posal the means of mischief, why has she not
joined the Western States in demanding the de-
struction of Sebastopol as a fortified port ? It is
"a standing menace" to the trade of the south
and east of Germany, as well as to the integrity
of the Ottoman Empire. It commands the
mouths of the Danube as completely as the Bos-
phorus, and while it remains with unabated
strength there is no security for that com-
merce. Alid yet almost the only decided
step taken by Austria has been to induce
France and England to abstain from pressing for
that which can alone offer a satisfactory solution
of the difficult problem, and enable itself to shake
off the incubus
by which it has so long been op-
pressed. The arguments based on her apparent
interests thus fall completely
to the ground. If
worth anything, they must be carried to
a much
greater extent, and shculd
2 as we have stated,
lead to the most energetic co-operation of Austria,
in obtaining the cession or d' isrnantling of Sebas-
topol.

Ther© are, however,
so
many
windings in the
devious path of German policy--so many wheels
within wheels, that it is impossible to form an
accurate opinion as to what is really d„ired.
N.Lany counteracting influences are in operation,
for which it is impossible to make adequate allow-
-1
antes. There are too many unknown quantities
to permit a just solution of the complicated equa-
tion; we can only judge from actual results—from
what has been in place of what ought to have been.
Regarding matters in this point of view, we can-
not avoid being forcibly struck by the past
conduct of Austria, and still more by the extra-
ordinary neutrality of Belgium. We might
have supposed that the ULYSSES of the House of
Saxe Coburg would be the first to array himself
(lido by Aide with the Soyegeignii
of France

and England ; that his near relationship to the
QUEEN and Prince Consort of the United King-
dom, as well as the personal obligations which he
owes to this country, could have left no doubt on
his mind as to the part that he should take ;
while, on the other hand, he should be equally
desirous of insuring the guarantee of France for
the integrity of his own territory, and interposing
an insurmountable obstacle to the extension of
the Empire to the banks of the Rhine. His neu-
trality must, therefore, excite grave suspicions as
to the motives and intentions of those by whom
he could alone be influenced to adopt such a course.
Looking to his recent connection with the House
of Hapsburg, and the matters which he is known
to have deeply at heart, and which can alone be
obtained through the intervention of FRANCIS
JosEPII, we find additional light cast on the
Austrian policy, which goes far to show that
❑o reliance can be reposed in her fidelity. Let
us then, at length, get rid of the impediment by
which we have so long been obstructed. We
believe that M. DROUYN DE L'HI7YS will insist on
a categorical reply as to the intentions of Austria
—that through his agency the suspense will be
terminated, the mists dispersed—and that ere
many days have elapsed the Governments will
repeat the demand so long put forward by the
peoples of France and England, and that the War
Cry " Delenda est Sebastopol" will reverberate
throughout the length and breadth of both lands,
and that without a dissentient or doubtful voice.

Russia beforehand, England behindhand, is,
we have too great reason to fear, still as ever the
case. Is there any invisible drag, or is the pre-
sent Cabinet as inefficient, or as unable to master
the vis inertice of routine, as the old one ? It is,
of course, as necessary to keep the Russian Baltic
navy in its nautical Newgate as it was last year.
It must not be allowed to commit piracy on civil-
ised coasts. Ice or cowardice must imprison it
all the year. We are glad, therefore, to see such
a powerful Baltic fleet ready for its work. Russia,
however, it is said, has repeated at Cronstadt the
ship-sinking policy of Sebastopol. Rather an
inglorious way, to be sure, of using a man-
of-war. The very proposal to an English crew
would hazard a mutiny ; they would demand
rather to place themselves in the required position,
and to let the enemy come and sink them if
they could, but they would like to try their broad-
sides on all comers before letting their gallant
ships go to the bottom. Not so, however, the
knout-trained gunners of Russia, and beyond all
denial their sunken ships beat or balk our ships
afloat in a style their guns would never have
done. But again Russia is beforehand. Last
year when, be it how it will, our Baltic fleet
would not attack the forts, there were no ships
sunk. This year, when steam gun-boats and
floating batteries are all ready, or getting ready,
we are a year too late with them. Sunken ships
are to be added to sunken rocks, obstructed chan-
nels to narrow and shallow ones.

In the East it is the same story. Russia
ahead. Everywhere she is rendering impossible
or difficult what might have been practicable had
our rulers meant to fight last year. Odessa, now
famous as the support of the Danubian army and
the reinforcer of the Russian Crimean army, might
have been easily demolished last year, or its stores
confiscated. Now we learn that forts and earth-
works are in course of erection which will prove
as troublesome to our fleet as some of those at
Sebastopol. Every day's delay will increase the
sacrifice of life with which the place must be taken.
We are informed, also, that Kertch and the other
forts on the Sea of Azof are now being • much
strengthened, and yet those forts must be mas-
tered if we are to stop reinforcements from the
east into the Crimea.
There seems also little-doubt that considerable
reinforcements of cavalry and artillery are on
their way from the north to Perekop, and that
the isthmus is being fortified. We might have
sent by this time troops, and stores with them,
in sufficient numbers to secure Perekop, to cut
the Russian line of communications,# and thus
practically to invest Sebastopol. If we had ade-
quate gun-boats and light vessels near Perekop
and in the Sea of Azeff, and adequate troops in
the northern part of the Crimea, the Russian
army would be starved fur all the Crimea could
afford them. But no—there is no need for
promptitude and energy. Peace is coining !
Pity it would be to hurt poor Odessa and such
places when they are soon to be friendly ports—
useless to send out troops soon to be recalled—.
and thus Russia, Austria, and Prussia are to be-
fool this Cabinet as they befooled the last, and a
few months hence the alternative will be, a dis-
graceful Russian and Austrian peace, or a tenfold
harder struggle with Russia—Austria looking on
and rubbing her hands.
Better at once declare Prussia the enemy she
is, and blockade her ports as well as those of
Russia ; bid Austria fight out her part, or take
the consequences ; and demand that Sweden, and
Denmark, and Belgium surely, throw off their
neutrality. England would rather see a European
War than throw away ber millions and her soldiers
in waiting on crowned rogues and despots.

Let the opponents of Church Rates reverse the
conduct of their governments, if they wish for
success. We have all been denouncing the too-
late policy of our aristocratic Cabinets. We must
not be too late in our own war. Everything de-
pends on the number and quality of petitions pre-
sented before the second reading of Sir W. CLAY'S
Bill. The cause is truly a nisi prizes one, for un-
less all the preparations be vigorously made before
the bill comes on for its second reading, that es-
sential verdict will be lost, or as good as lost. A
feeble majority would consign it to a crippling
mutilation in committee, or to certain rejection in
the House of Bishops.
Easter Monday is next week. Every parish
vestry should be made a battle-field. Church-
wardens should be chosen favourable to getting
rid of this odious and unpopular part of their
office. Petitions should be got ready for the oc-
casion, and earnestly pressed. Every rate should
be resisted. This Easter is indeed the most im-
portant of all Easters in the Church-rate contest,
for, if well used, it would hush the contest for
ever. Neighbours would be spared an annual
quarrel, and good Churchmen would have an op-
portunity of showing hereafter that they loved
their churches as well as Dissenters do their
chapels.
All depends now upon the support furnished
\ from without. The Ministry needs pressure, and
! we believe would welcome it, as an unanswerable
reason for concedin°'
it but
ow must come ; they would be
entire abolition this session.
They
too glad to be r
done with the b
.oroed to accept it, and have
ore for ever. Scores of Liberal
members want the
support of their constituents
against the selfish ecclesiastical
difficult to resist. Th..)
which they find it or Whig solicita-
tionswaverers need a popular demonstration to con-
vince them on which side their interest lies. Even
some High-Church Members, who have an utter
contempt for paltry
compulsory exad•l°l3s, and
axo cOl 15C10115 Of theix Qw4 rtadhaeo4 tg
support

their Church, may find it pleasant to have, in
addition, the plea of political expediency.
We repeat, then, let all the friends of religious
liberty do their duty during the recess. Let them
use Easter better than we fear the managers of
the War are using it. Church Rates are doomed.
Their defenders know they must surrender
ere long. Why should the battle be drawn out
session after session because their opponents do
not unite for one general decisive assault ? If the
country now performs its part, every Liberal M.P.
will place his name, and place it aright, on the
division lists of the second reading. The Govern-
ment will contribute its weight, and the majority
will be one which the GLADSTONES and PARING-
TONS will not venture to tamper with in com-
mittee, nor the Upper House to ignore. Let all
remember, too, that a first reading is not a final
victory. The same victory was achieved last year,
and then, as now, by a majority of two to one,
though in a smaller house. Wo have had our
Church-rate Alma ; we must now learn wisdom
from the Crimea, and summon ali our forces to
the assault at once.

Every one who can contribute practical sug-
gestions for the reform of the Civil Service, de-
serves the thanks of the public. Amongst the
most practical which we have seen are many con-
tained in a pamphlet just issued, " Our Govern-
ment Offices" (Ridgway). The `author proposes not
a revolution, but a reform, and thinks he sees the
way from the present officials to bring unity, or-
der, and efficiency out of disconnection, confu-
sion, and inefficiency. He writes with evidently
experimental knowledge of the subject, and since
a .thorough rout out of the Augean Stable is, in
the utter absence of any political HERCULES, im-
practicable, his proposals are made deserving of
public attmtion. Our governing classes may be
well assured that less than he proposes will never
satisfy the demands of an aroused nation, and
that, unless thus much be conceded, very much
more will soon be required, and no denial taken.
We have row men of the stamp of Messrs. LIND-
SAY, LAING, and PETO amongst our representa-
tives, and the days of the " PETER DICKS" are
numbered ; either they :oust turn themselves
into something better, or be turned out for some-
thing better. We will not go on paying millions
a-year for officials to trip it to Greenwich in busi-
ness hours, or stand gossiping over the Times with
their backs to the fire, while a respectable mer-
chant must go away with his account unsettled.

Oar author attributes the deficiencies of the
civil service to the fact that its members are
placed under " a system where they have few
honours, few rewards, and little fear of penalties
for want of zeal or ability." They know that
their situations are practically permanent, and if
the pay be low, and the promotion slow, yet they
are in for life. "Every man, when he enters the
civil service thinks he has got a safe berth." If
he attends from ten till four, and does not disobey
orders, he is secure against dismissal. We all
know that these statements are simple facts, and
certainly any system which must prove more fatal
to energy and the development of ability can
hardly be conceived. The three gentlemen we
have just mentioned, or the wealthy heads of any
four large commercial establishments, would have
been sent by it long ago into the Bankruptcy
Court, instead of the House of Commons.
In remedying all this our author begins with
the conciliatory proposal of using all the present
staff ; no man is to be dismissed unless, perhaps,
incurably idle or incompetent ; he would merely
winnow, sift, and sort the present materials, and by
altering their prospects, responsibilities, and super-
vision, would bring all the latent and varied talent
to light, employ it where it is most wanted, and
leave the ordinary minds for ordinary and routine
work. Unity in the service is the first thing.
Instead of a number of independent departments
he would make the whole service so far one, that
all the ability should be available anywhere, and
capacity for one department showing itself in another
should be on system transferred to the former. The
first thing to be done, and here every man of
business will thoroughly concur with the author,
is to make the " chiefs of departments responsible
for the efficiency of their departments." He would
dismiss every man from a chief post, however
great his merits in other respects, who could not
make his clerks do their duty. The dismissal of
'a few weuld encourage the others to sacrifice with-
out weakness bad clerks. It follows, of course,
that considerable powers of promotion, and dis-
missal, and of other rewards and punishments
must be placed in the hands of the chiefs of de-
partments. Unless the head of an office could
make his authority felt very much as the princi-
pals in a commercial firm can do, lie could
nut be held responsible for the conduct
of the office. The author does not enter very
minutely into detail, but quite sufficiently se to
show the thorough practicability of his plan, all
his minor arrangements being directed to obtain-
ing a faithful record of the ability and zeal of the
servants of the public, and of insuring them pro-
motion and pay in proportion. There is really
nothing proposed which Lord PALMERSTON could
not set in motion to-morrow, while, to say the
least, the improvement must soon be great and

conspicuous.
There is one fault which he has not noticed al.
most peculiar to Government offices—we mean
official impudence. With many honourable excep-
tions there are not a set of clerks throughout the
kingdom so rude, unaccommad ating,an.d "snobbish'
as those in the pay of the State. Men of busi-
ness require their subordinates to treat their cus-
tomers with respect, and to facilitate the tram-
action of business to them. Railway companies,
and even omnibus proprietors, would dismiss an
uncivil servant after the second offence. The
PETER DICKS of the Government offices, however,
send you about perplexed from one office to
another ; and when, after all your bewilderment
in lobbies and corridors, you have opened the
right door, ten to one but you have to wait the
convenience of the idle, or to be snubbed, and
told, "We do not give information," by some
puppy of the desk. Nothing disgusts the pub-
lhirceam4 more the itthhe tahheszenef who
ae aptp a
rt
ehne t pdui
sbpl
ei c-
sit ion to oblige. You must pay them money ;
you must go through their forms ; you
cannot go to a competing office ; they are thorough
monopolists of the business you have to transact,
and like most monopolists they do not care for
your. The public will reasonably think that when
persons go to pay money for the public service
they ought to lie treated civilly; that every neces-
sary denial ought to be in courteous terms, and all
information possible afforded ; but they find it too
commonly the very reverse. The next remedy for
all ail ill-behaviour, this looking upon the nation's
customers as if they disturbed the repose of its
servants, is, to punish it ; and one step towards
doing so would be to require each clerk to give
his card to any one who asked for
it, b
no
book,"
akeep
s
in a prominent place a " complaint ,
done by railway companies. If incivility stood
in the way of promotion, or were visited with
ao
decided censure, we should hear no more of it, j