The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1855.

It is currently reported, and with some appa-
rent foundation, that Austria is again about to
reduce its military force, and that no less than
20,000 men are forthwith to be struck off the
effective strength of its army. Should this be
true and we have no reason to doubt the state-
ment, it will furhiFih the best answer to the posi-
tive assertions respecting the tardy repentance of
the Cabinet of Vienna, and its determination to
send, evenatthe eleventh hour, a real ultimata»!
to Russia, on the refusal whereof it will withdraw
its representative from the Court of St. Peters-
burg. If any additional proof wore required of
the continued duplicity and insincerity of the
Austrian Government, it Would be supplied by an
act so thoroughly inconsistent with any energetic
or decisive proceedings. If Austria contemplated
anything approaching to vigorous action, or even
a strong demonstration, she would rather recruit
than diminish her military power, already
seriously reduced within the current year. She
would strive to give weight to her remon-
strances by snowing the means of avenging
any neglect thereof. She would endeavour to
render herself " respectable" in the eyes of the
AUTOCRAT, by the only means to which he would
pay attention, viz., by an augmentation rather
than a reduction of her armies ; and her not doing
so during the Present emergency is conclusive as
to her actual policy.

Twice before she has taken steps highly favour-
abießussia, while she w
to as professing the
roatest g sympathy for the cause in which the
,
Western Powers bad so unequivocally embarked.

The first time she prevented the operations of
the Turkish troops against Bessarabia, and thereby
enabled the adversary to bring into the Crimea
the imposing forces which made the desperate
attacks on the allied positions at Balaklava and
Inkerman, and which it was believed would
have led to the speedy evacuation of the Crimea
by the invaders. That hope having been
foiled by the unflinching valour of the allies,
Austria entered into the Treaty of the 2d Decem-
ber, one clause whereof distinctly recognised the
right of Turkey and the Allies to make all move-
ments that might suit them for the purpose of at-
tacking the Russian troops or the Russian terri-
tory. The mischief, however, had been effected
—the danger incurred ; and if it was averted it
was not to Austria, but to our own strong arms
and unflinching courage, that we were indebted
for safety.

Again when, through the flagrant violation of
the spirit of her undertaking, the Vienna con-
ferences were broken up, one of the first acts of
Austria was to disband a large portion of her
army. She thus rendered the Russian troops sta.
tioned on the frontiers available for service in the
Crimea, or any other district in which the CZAR
might choose to employ them. This might,
and was doubtless intended to have proved
very injurious to the Allies. But it totally
failed in its probable effect, for which, however,
no thanks are owing to Austria. She did all in
her power to help the twin despotism without
irrationally committing herself to the cause op-
posed to France and England.
Now, at the very moment that she has promised
to take a decisive part in the contest, or at least
to withdraw her Ambassador from St. Petersburg
if her suggestions or demands are not adopted,
she again reduces her army, so as to neutralise
the effect of her illusory proceedings. She pre-
tends to threaten Russia, and at the same
time reduces her forces ! It would be
a work of supererogation to comment on
this novel and extraordinary version of
"sayings and doings." We do not believe, how-
ever, that Lord PALMBRSTON can be bamboozled
by the obvious trap. Should he suffer himself to '
fall into it, he is not what we suppose him to be
—and cannot be regarded as " the right man in
the right place."

An authentic narrative has at length appeared

minutely descriptive of the ever-infamous 'Tango
Massacre. It will already doubtless have bean
perused by very many of our readers with the

liveliest interest—the document here alluded to
being no other, indeed, than the enthralling letter
addressed by Lieutenant GENESTE to the
Secretary of the Admiralty, and published
in, extenso in our impression of last evening.
From this authoritative record of the trans-
action, it will now be observed that the ear-

liest account of the affair was not in any essential
particular overcolourecl, or, for that matter,
in any way whatever characterised by

the evidences of exaggeration. Viewed de•
liberately after the lapse of half-a-year
from the date of its perpetration this great crime
rather expands than contracts, rather enlarges
than dwindles upon the exquisitely sensitive re-
tina of the popular appreciation. Recounted as
it now is in the conscientious language of the
principal eye-witness, it may be regarded as a san-
guinary blot, branded indelibly upon the imperial
escutcheon of the Russians. An atrocity the
memory of which can never be effaced,
any more than that of Sinope can be erased
from the general recollection. Lieutenant
GENESTE, of the Cossack, unlike Lieutenant
ROYER, of the Tiger, tells a " round unvarnished
tale" enough—uninfluenced by those exceedingly
preposterous sentiments, excited by what Mr.
CARLYLE would infallibly designate without any
gingerly compromise of phraseology whatever,
the veritable genius of Flunkeydorn. Sentiments
thus despicable and grovelling in their tendency,
it will be remembered, affected to a very consider-
able extent, at the very outset of the War, the
usually rigid and inflexible vertelirre of Quaker
SURGE and his awkward squad of Quixotic Peace-
mongers. Never were backs more supple, or
tongues more ready to lick the dust, than those of
the generally sedate and stiff-necked co-religiouisti
of the member for Manchester when they found
themselves bowed through the gilded corridors of
the Imperial palace of St. Petersburg into the
presence chamber of the Czar NICHOLAS. It was
pretty much the satue, we all know, with the first
lieutenant of poor Captain GIFFORD of the Tiger
prisoner of war transformed rapidly enougi
into the panegyrist of his captors by means of car!
tain persuasive pomps and potential blandish.

ments. Not thus has it been, however, with the
first lieutenant of Captain FANSITAIVE of the
Cossack—the uncompromising historian of the
great atrocity of the Hang° Massacre.
Listen, however, to the impartial sentiments
which may now be pronounced deliberately upon
this transaction—

We have an assassin Government to make
peace with, and a hangman Government for the
mediator. We do not write this to enkindle bad
passions, but to suggest ordinary prudence. It
were worse than folly to treat with the assassins
of Hango, and the kidnappers of Colonel Ten,
as we should treat with France, Turkey, or any
power possessing pretensions to honour and
reliability. These two acts are no mere casual-
ties ; they attest not only the temper of the
brutes who perpetrated, but of the Gove orntents
who adopted them. ; and adopt them they did.
The survivors of Hango have been liberated
only as prisoners of war by exchange, and
Colonel Tun is still a prisoner, Count Corto-
NINI still commands at Bucharest, and the Colonel
will be hung if FRANCIS JoSEPR dares to do it.
The Hango atrocity was indeed, as our readers
know, openly defended by Prince DoLoOROuKi
and the Russian Government ; and the insult to
England and Turkey of arrestor)); a person on the
SULTAN'S territory, and tearing off a British uni-
form, is still unredressed. We confess to the
utmost impatience to see how our Government has
behaved in this last affair. We cannot under-
stand on what terms Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR is
suffered to reach Vienna while our officer remains

in prison at Kronstadt, liable to FRANCIS JOSEPH'S
halter. Has he it in charge to demand his im-
mediate liberation and an immediate reparation ?
If not, is it through such a Government that we
are to receive proposals, via Frande, from the
Hango assassins ?
Most opportunely we have now before us the
unvarnished facts of this unexampled atrocity.
taeutettant GHNES'TE'S statement, bearing in every
line
intrinsic evidence of truth, appeared in our
columns yesterday. The British officer must in-
deed have been a DEFOE to have invented these
details, and all matter of mere opinion he reserves
to four very short Paragraphs at the end. In the
views he gives in those paragraphs all civilised
Europe, and even the most uncivilised portions of
it out of Russia proper, will certainly concur ; but
the statement of facts is what we hardly ex-
Muscovites themselves will pre-
pect even the old
slime to deny. What are those facts? Facts which
give the lie to every excuse of the CZAR'S chief
servants. The flag of truce was conspicuously