The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-12 00:00:00

THE MISTAKE OF LORD ABERDEEN.

(From the Examiner.)
"My belief is," said Lord John Russell in his speech
on Monday night last, " that had the Prime Minister
been a man whose persuasions and dispositions
ratiwouons
ld
lead him to hasten on with eagerness the prepa
and arrangements for war, the Duke of Newcastle would
have been perfectly competent for the department which
be held."
In these words are explained the failure and the down-
fall of the Aberdeen Administration. Ne other result
could attend the deterrains.tion not merely to conduct a
government in accordance with the policy of peace, but
to persevere in that experiment even when its failure
bad been demonstrated by the commencement of war.
Well would it have been for Lord Aberdeen if he had
retired from office when he had exhausted all his powers
of conciliation ; when, having proclaimed on every pos-
sible occasion that peace was the first object of his po-
licy ; he had at length discovered that the Emperor of
Russia, utterly unmoved by such pacific demonstrations,
was only proceeding with increased insolence tar take
advantage and make profit of them.
At that time Lord Aberdeen had not only obtained
the enthusiastic approval of Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright,
and their adherents, but bad demonstrated the fallacy of
their principles. He had put them to the test of experi-
ence, with the direct result, however unintentional, of
alluring the "friend of peace and supporter of order" to
lay aside the mask he had so carefully worn for many
years. If Lord Aberdeen had then retired, it would
have been well for his reputation, and still better for hie
country. In all probability England would not now
have had to mourn the destruction, by a process far more
crud than that of actual warfare, by cold, by hunger,
and by disease, of the noblest army ever sent. from her
shores. There was a weakness in Lord Aberdeen's
character, in itself aimable, which made him shrink
from the probability of war up to the very day when the
sword was drawn ; and this fact, coupled with his fa-
vourite but fallacious maxim, that war is the greatest
evil which can befall a nation, rendered him surely the
moat unfit stateqman that coul be selected to nduct
what he had already shown himself se utterly co
incora-
potent to avert.
Who would choose, fur the purpose of performing a
long and painful operation, a surgeon liable to grow
faint at the sight of blood and suffering? Would true
'humanity approve of such a selection ? Yet it is easy
to see that a still lingering hope of avoiding extreme
hostilities directed all the earlier measures of the war.
If the English Government had been energetically di-
rected to the attack on Sebastopol from the first mo-
ment when a conflict, was imminent, can any one doubt
that the fortress must long ago have fallen with a loss of
life comparatively trifling to that which has been actually
sustained ? Whilst the English troops were halting at
Malta, at Gallipoli, in the Valley of Death by Varna,
the Russians were incessantly employed in those de-
fences which have hitherto successfully resisted us. And
there were other preparations making in the meantime,
while our troops were idly and usefully perishing in
Bulgaria, more formidable than even the intrenehments
and batteries of Sebastopol. The cold, the rain, and the
tempest were preparing in secret and unheeded ; and
the precious hours of spring and summer, in which a
campaign in the Crimea might have been undertaken
with almost the certainty of success, were allowed to
pass away.
In his farewell speech Lord Aberdeen referred to the
success of his Government in securing the alliance of
Austria, and expatiated on the advantages to be expected
from it. On this subject we will only here observe that
such advantages are still future and contingent, while,
on the other hand, the evils undergone to obtain the
alliance are positive and present. As Lord John Russell
told us at an early period of the session, the English
army was kept at Yarna till the autumn solely because
the Government was waiting for the Austrian Cabinet
to make up its mind. It was thought that an earlier
movement might weaken the chance of obtaining the co-
operation which Lord Aberdeen appears to think cheaply
purchased with even so many disasters ; as if any policy
could so infallibly have secured this eum2num, bonum, of
Austrian friendship, as boldness and success on the part
of the Allies. The pretext sometimes put forward for
the delay, that the expedition to the Crimea was neces-
sarily deferred until the Austrians had occupied the
Principalities, is entirely without foundation. Even if
the Russians had not been baffled at Silistria, any at-
tempt an their part to march upon Constantinople, while
the sea was commanded by the Allies, Schumla and
Varna garrisoned by Omer Pasha, and the road through
Servia closed by the linos of Kalafat, would assuredly
have been attended with discomfiture and ruin. The
Austrian troops, moreover, did not venture to enter the
Principalities until the Russians had begun to evacuate
them.

TEE WEATHER, THE PARKS, THE

RAILWAYS, &c.

The coldest night experienced in London for some con-
siderable time past was Saturday night, when the mer-
cury in the thermometer at the Royal Humane Society's
receiving-house, Hyde Park, fell to 19 degrees, being 16
below freezing point. At nine o'cl,k yesterday morn-
ing the thermometer indicated 23, and a►t noon it indexed
30. The barometer at the same institution yesterday
was 29.57. The wind yesterday morning at nine o'clock
was a little to the north, but during the day it veered
from the north to the north-east. The ice on the Ser-
pentine was five and a half inches in thickness, but of a
very dangerous character, arising from the surface having
been rotted and broken by the continuous falls of snow.

Fifteen or sixteen thousand sliders and skaters ven-
tured upon the frozen waters, in spite of the precautions
issued by the Royal Humane Society, and several
skating matches for heavy stakes took place, notwith-
standing that it was the Lord's-day. Fortunately no
immersion took place from the breaking of the ice, but
seVeral—probably 14 or 15— persons received severe cuts
on the head by being thrown down upon the ice. These
persons were forthwith taken to the receiving-house,
where their wounds were dressed, after which they were
removed to their respective homes.
The scene at one time upon the ice in Hyde park was
of a very animated character ; for owing to the immense
number of persons, it was found impracticable to cross
the river, and many of her Majesty's Foot Guards
mingling with the throng gave it quite a picturesque
.effect. At the same time, the carriage-drives were
crowded with sledges, drawn each by two horses, and
carriages,
members of the nobility or gentry.
Several females who had ventured upon the frozen waters
in this park were run down by the skaters, and were
also severely injured, either by the falls they sustained
or from being cut. by the 'capitate of the gentfemen's skates
entering their forehead. So great was the number of
promenaders in Hyde-park that many thousands were
unable to walk along the footpath, and they in conse-
quence were compelled to pass over the carriage-drives.
Had any portion of the ice given way in front of
the receiving-house, at least .1,000 persons must have
become immersed, owing to the vast concourse of per-
sons who had been drawn together to witness the evolu-
tions of the members of the Skating Club.
In the enclosure of St. James's-park a scene took place
yesterday that calls loudly for the interference of the
police on all future occasions. At one time, between
four and five o'clock in the afternoon, whilst the ice was
crowded by something like 10,000 or 12,000 persons,
and the men in the employ of the society were watch-
ing with breathless anxiety the movements of the skaters,
they, together with the park-keepers, were besieged by
a set of men and boys, numbering several hundreds.
who pelted them with snow-balls, by which the men had
their hats and caps kno,Aed off, and several gentlemen,
and even ladies, had to make a precipitate retreat to
get oat of the way of the unruly mob. Fortunately
they found a place of refuge in the society's marquee in
the park, which was sufficiently strong to bear the piti-
less storm of snow, and which reflects great credit on
the maker—viz., Mr. Benjamin Edginton, of Duke-
. street, Borough. Mr. Deputy Superintendent Parson.,
who has charge of this park, slates that the scene be,
witnessed yesterday was such as had not occurred dur-
ing the many years he has been en duty; but, with the
exception of several cut heads, which were dressed by
Dr. M`Cann, nothing of a serious accident took place.
About 8,000 persons risked their lives upon the Long
Water, in Kensington Gardens, including several mem-
bers of the Skating Club.
The Round Pond, in the same gardens, was literally
besieged with an immense mass of human beings, in-
cluding several fashionably-dressed females, No accident
beyond severe cut wounds on the head took place during
the day.
The Regent's Park had many thousand skaters and
sliders on the frozen waters during the day, and the ice
was of an exceedingly rotten and dangerous nature. In
some parts it had separated to such an extent that a man
could place his hands in the aperture. Up to six o'clock
last evening no fatal accident had been reported at Hyde
Park.
Great praise is due to Mr. Williams, the superin-
tendent, and also to Messrs. Deputy Superintendents
Murphy, Parsons, and Chitty, for the means they took
to preserve the lives of her Majesty's liege subjects.
_The snow which had drifted upon the different rail-

ways was clearei off during Saturday, and a read has
been made through the cross counties, se that the mails
can now he taken to, and removed from, the rails without
the least obstruction.
Owing to the state of the wind and the glass last night
there seems little chance of the frost breaking up during
the present quarter of the moon.

DIVIDENDS OX 1----;-------_,
ROTlwrir N
e&W,e
anent bas been recently published, 1-- CisassoaßT.—A doell- I
Chancellor, on the subject unclaimedoby
o rddievridoefntdhse,
upon
d
certain stocks belonging to
the Court of Chancery, which di: in"/ in litigation in
curious fact tbat in no lets that lace°tBweese the ~, b
mew at
suits some of the parties now entitled to reci,:"Aand ea°
have, either through ignorance of their ei,ibines-ividende
inclination to interfere in Chancery law, o„t or dis-
claim to the same for the long period of fifteen yeeaany
The document is headed as follows :—" The Lord char:*.
cellor bas directed public notice to be given of the fol-
1 swing causes, matters, and accounts in which it appear,
that the dividends upon certain stocks standing to the
credit of such causes, matters, and accounts have not
been dealt with for upwards of
ectin fifteenyeas.r In any
petition which may be made respg suchdividends,
the fact of such period having elapsed without any
dealing therewith inu,t be t-tited on the fr.co of the
petition." Hera follows a closely printed list of the
causes in question, amounting in number to upwards
of 550.
4*4,--11.,...... ,-• APPREHENSION OF A MAN FOR A MURDER COMMITTED
/s. -•,:;),I; r 70,. V'ENTY YEARS AQ0._....A man
tk,eri,l 6,:.:-!:-,L.,...:- so44‘ city, on the charge of being. .
lias been apprehended in
*;.:4 4. ...-:'1 ‘,:rnitted at Borrisokane
concerned in a murder
4-,,r1 ~,s,tiqi i ~1_,,,.
__,,,, in the
count , a small town between Birr
A.,:,:'
‘>,„e1.01.,. ,silts....senabo,
4414,1 g. •-• Asi:scars, The murdered man was a farmer of some re-
\..' ~...W:Anete.bility, named Michael. Bryan. The prisoner's
~,t.A...,a ~;.. . 4:15"..„ erne is Stephen Hogan, alias Michael Darcy.—Mai
='r l'ia.---441,40 cheiller Guardian, .