The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-11 00:00:00

paper Stamp. Into the difficulties of this matter
he does not descend, but contents himself with

merely arguing against the continuance of a com-
pulsory law. That no one who does not wish it
shall be henceforth compelled to take out a stamp
was settled by the vote of the House of Commons
the other night, but we should have been glad to
hear an opinion from the Vice-President of the
Board of Trade on the _part of the measure which
yet remains to be debated. Is he, an advocate, as
he tells us, and, we doubt not, with the utmost
sincerity, for the doctrines of free trade, prepared
to sanction the anomaly of taxing a newspaper on

its passage through the post, be-cause it contains
more matter for the same price than its rivals ? Is
there to be free trade for everybody but the Times,
and for us alone a system of differential duties,
graduated so as to strike with the greatest force the
article which is sold the cheapest ? On these points
we gain no information. What is already gone
Mr. Bouverie is willing to concede, and we doubt
not that, if a majority of the House of Commons
Ahall settle the question in our favour, he will on
the next occasion inform his constituents that he
is willing to concede that also.

(From the Morning P tof this clay.)

Baron Von Muffling, in his interesting memo-
randa upon the events and characteristics of the last
great continental war, says that the thing for which
the army of the Duke of Wellington was remark-
able above all other armies whimh had ever come
under his observation, was the distinctness with
which the duties of every person attached to its
administration were defined, the perfectness with
which they were known and recognised, and the
activity and promptness with which they were dis-
charged... The army of Lord Raglan has, unhap-
pily, made itself remarkable for the exhibition of
phenomena the very opposite of. those enumerated
by the able German officer as distinctive of the
British forces in 1813. ,Of the degree in which
this contrast is to be attributed to a defective sys-
tem, or of the proportion in which it has been the
result of want of capacity in functionaries charged
with the government of the army and its depart-
ments, we are not yet in a position conclusively to
form a judgment, nor would it be just to individuals
to attempt it till the further proffress of the inquiry
delegated to the Sebastopol Committee has fur-
nished us with more materials than we as yet pos-
sess ; and we have refrained, and we shall continue
for the present to refrain, from any attempt to fix
blame absolutely upon any particular authority by
any enunciation of opinion with regard to the
prima facic case which has been published.
There is, however, one branch of the service with
regaPi t Which the propriety of this reticence does

There is inuch.in this miserable and unbusiness-
liAe conWitu•ion of our liospitali, and in the ano-
malous and ill-defined position of those employed
iu them, to account for their horrible condition, and
much that may be
,fairly nrge.l inju's ti Heat ion of
those connected with their management against
whom such a storm of indignation has been directed.
And we feel this to be strongly the case with
regard to Dr. Smith in particular, that we aro
induced to give a prominent position in our im-
pression of to-day to the correspondence which
took place between that officer aad the au,herities
at home, but which, in consequence of its being
put in as a paper, instead of read in evidence in
the course of Dr. Smith's examination, has not
before; we believe,. appeared in the public
communnews-
papers. That coriespondenco-7-or rather, we
should say, those letters, for the
entirely a one-sided one—not only joation is
completely
exonerates Dr. Smith from the charges Which have
been so repeatedly and so strongly urged against
him, but show that he possessed and exhibited no
common share of forethought, sagacity, 'and syste-
matic arrangement, and that, had representa-
tions met the attention they merited, $ great por-
tion of the unnecessary misery and suffering to
which our soldiers were exposed Would, even.under
our present defective system, have been avoided.
To one of these letters the Military Secretary to
the Commander-in-Chief sent a tardy answer after
the lapse of a considerable time. Of the most im-
portant he took no notice at all, and no steps
whatever appear to have been taken to carry out
the suggestions contained in any of thorn. The
public unquestionably ought to knbw how and why
is this, and we would suggest that-the first witness
called by the Sebastopol Committee on their re-
assembling should be the Military SecretarY.to time
Horse Guards, and that ho slum" nd required to
produce his books slmw4-,„ wnen those letters from
Dr. Owith -,uci-d received, and what was done upon
them--whether they were communicated to the
Commander-in-Chief, and if so, whether he gave
any and what instructions with regard to them. -

(From the Morning Chronicleof this day.)
The permanent and persevering advocates of a
compromise with Russia work with a better chance
of success that their operations are carefully masked.
Under cover of an unlimited imparAality, and an
unbounded desire to effect such an arrangement as
may meet that more ignoble- view A. the Eastern
einbget:viseceuns
question which is likely to find favoar with a corn-
even although a reluctant approralbtli:ctoghui
mercial people, they pursue steadily their object.
They do their utmost to paralyse our military
strength they sow dissension in our ' domestiC
councils—they spread temptingly before the nation
discouragements of the warlike spirit, and encon-
evidennaotnoilenthiiheee
ragements to peace. The cost ,of the struggle is
exaggerated, its practical results deipurseidctijoattuoesdm,airastrnoid:
national feealinndg
impedeexcited li:stilive:pmp:iodat:iancgtivoins.it of
the Emperor of the French, every
Used to undervalue our allianpcoeo.:
r e re
Therese r. tiss,
some ingenuity in the attempt
present the true position of Napoleon the Third
ts
lel de
as to the great questions which ar3 b
brought to believe that France,is ,uke warm inthe
at Vienna.
pr, sent struggle, there might bei, chance Of, dis-
h* the English
two nations, by' breeding mutual Euspicions and
turbing the cordial amity now (tilting
mistrusts. We have seen that o!(0 party in the
State has essayed this kind of marceuvre, and not
without a certain success. Inlinuations were
thrown out that the E ;-. peror..of .the French was
not so earnest as heretofore inhiadeteruiination to
arrive at; some compensatory solutbn of the struggle
which has cost the two greatestlations of Europe
so much—in men, in Money, am in the stoppage
of commercial and industrial profess. Ono effect
of such manoeuvres, which might I%vebeen despised
• had they not been carried oA inthe name of the
largest minority, numericallysPeaing,in the House
of Commons was althost immediatlyseen in the new
diplomatic arrangements, and inthe counterpoise
at once provided to the too ma.nilst peaceful lean-
ing of the. British Plenipotentianat Vienna.
We had hoped that these manctivres would not
have been repe'ated. The burst f national indig-
nation, which iustantaneonsly-fdowed the mere
suggestion of so ignominious a anolusion to the
war, ought, it might have been apposed, to have-
suggested to the fabricators of sue dangerous slan-
dea at least 4 Imo cautios use? tjg, intecki ja..
- - -

~:r-~ ~

(From the Daily News of this day.)
The internal administration of Turkey may be as
corrupt and feeble as people say ; but the Divan•can
draw up and interpret diplomatic papers. with skill
at least equal to that of any Christian Cabinet. The
ambiguous language in which the terms prounded
by the Government of St. Petersburg, at the first
Vienna Congress, for the settlement of the Oriental
disputes, were expressed, deluded the Ministers of
France, England, and Austria ; but the Divan de-
tected their subterfuges at once. And the instruc-
tions given by the Dtvau to their representative at
the present ViennaConferenees are characterised by
the utmost firmness and the most delicate tact. Not
a single 'phrase occurs in them that can compromise
one right of the Porte, and not a single phrase that,
by indicating distrust, can give umbrage to its
Ailies. Tne unaffected, quiet dignity of this docu-
ment cannot be surpassed. If the Ottoman Em-
pire is doomed to fall, as the admiring parasites of
Russia would have us believe, it will fall with the
heroic decorum of a Caesar at the base of Pompey's
statue. Aali Pacha's instructions prove that the
statesmen of Turkey are animated by a high and
delicate sense of national dignity that ought! to
command respect ; as the exploits performed' by
the army under Omer Pacha—notwithstanding the
wretched manner in which it is officered—prove
that the courage and poWer of endurance of the
Turkish people is unabated. Though we have not
hesitated to describe the grasping and lawless am-
bition of the Russian Government, the dissolute
avarice and falsehotss a ice agELL, and the callous
tyraesijs or noth, in the plainest words the Eng-
lish language affords, we have omitted no oppor-
tunity of doing justice to the natural high qualities
of the Russian people or race. Rude though the
nation be, and perverted as many of its best feel-
ings are, by the influence of a bad government and
worse church, we can trace throughout its whole
history scintillations of kindly dispositions, of
daring enterprise, and of indomitable powers of
endurance. Our desire for the-Russians is to see
them diverted from dreams of external conquest,
and thrown back upon their own resources, to de-
velope the natural wealth of their extended empire,
and work out their own emancipation from tyranny
and priestcraft. If the states of Islam can be
placed in safety from the aggressions of the Mus-
covite
Government, and Poland and Finland res-
cued from its talons, our prayer for the Rtusian
nation will be, esto perpetua. And our feelings to-
wards Turkey are the same. Widely though its
populations differ .in charaettir from the Russians,
they too have many estimable qualities, which na-
tional independence and more frequent intercourse
with peoples of the European civilisation cannot
fail to develops into excellence.
It could be wished that the friends as well as the
foes of Turkey showed themselves penetrated with
a more sincere conviction of this truth. French
and English statesmen profess to be animated by a
desire to defend the independence and promote the
regeneration. of Turkey as a nation ; but it may be
'doubted whether they adopt the best means to at-
tain these ends. Occasional assistance a nation
may -receive from more powerful allies, but to keep
it independent, to advance it in civilisation, must
in the main be its own doidg. It must be encou-
raged to work out its own salvation ; if it is to be
allowed or obliged to remain passive while others
are fighting-for it, or trying to drill it into some
alien form of civilisation, its case is hopeless. Now
it cannot fail to strike every one that, throughout
the whole of the present troubles, the Turkish Go-
vernment and people have been systematically kept
in the background. France and England fight for
Turkey. When Russia seeks to gain a point, by
bard blows or diplomatic wiles, it thinks of France
and England, and scarcely takes Turkey into ac-
count. IV hen Austria seeks to temporise---to com-
mit itself to nothing and gain some petty advan-
rsge—it is satisfied with bewildering the brains of
French and English diplomatists, and counts upon
rurkey following their lead implicitly. The chro-
niclers of the war, and the commentators upon it,
dilate upon the efforts of France' and England, and
rarely honour Turkey with a Passing notice. All
tiia is mainly owincto the imperious manner in whici; rs4c9 444 xpgl4,4 takc upon tenjelyes
_

But let us hear our contemporary's words.
" On the other hand," says the evening exponent of
the views of the Palmerston Administration, "on
the other hand, the responsible Executive in Eng-
land is liable, at any time, to be upset by a single
vote of the House of Commons. While this is so,
a strong Government is impossible, except at crises
(they are few) which impose forbearance on factious.
Our Executive and Legislature, in our judgment,
both suffer some loss of respect from a state of re-
lations in which a caprice of the latter is a death-
blow to the former. Parliament has usurped om-
nipotence • bat has somewhat, survived the rever-
ence which attends that attribute. It has too little
cohesion in its own body to exert much positive
influence over the measures of any party in power ;
and the merely negative effect of its action is, that
no party can be in rower long. We do not quite
see that ' the administrative example of the United
States ',helps us to cure this growing evil ; but
we should bo very thankful to any example that
would do so. It is the weak point of our reformed
Parliamentary regimen."
It may be all very well, far party purpOses, for
the Ministerial advocate to characterise a hostile
vote, as a capricious vote, but such language is
not, assuredly, in accordance with the spirit of
the Constitution. If Governments were still to
cling to office, after adverse vote's of Ile House
of Commons on important questions, the Con-
stitution would no longer, in effect, exist ; and
the House of Commons would not only cease to
be an efficient representative of the will of the,
people, but it would be an anomaly in the institu-
tions of the country. If Ministers might, with
impunity, set at defiance the votes of the House of
Commons, come to after ample discussion and due
deliberation, then the question would present itself
—of what utility is the House of Commons at
all It would 'be zo better than a mockery. If
the members of that house are not to have the
power of turning out a Ministry which is bringing
disgrace on the national name, and disaster on the
country, then why send them to St. Stephen's at
all ? But the proposition of our evening contem-
porary is much too preposterous to be seriously
discussed. And yet it is brought forward with all
imaginable gravity.
The truth we take to be, that Ministers them-
selves are anticipating more than one defeat very
soon after the re-assembling of the -Legislature ;
and, as they..have no.wish to resign, they have in-
structed their organ to prepare the public mind
for their retention of office, if at all possible, by
endeavouring to show that there will be nothing
wrong in retaining their, places after they have
been defeated. But though that doctrine may
be all very well for them, it will not suit the poli-
tical palates of the people. The latter will still
prove staunch in their adherence to the good old
Constitutional doctrine—that when a Ministry has
lost the confidence of the Commons, we are bound
to assume that it has equally lost the confidence of
the country, and that, therefore, the only alterna-
tive left for it to adopt, is to return the seals of
office to the Sovereign, that they may be placed in
the hands of others more qualified for the discharge
of the duties which devolve on those to whom they.
are entrusted. All preVious Governments have
found, that there was no other course for them,
under the class of circumstances we have supposed,
and Lord Palmerston's Cabinet will find, as soon
as it is placed in a minority on someimportant ques-
tion, that there is no other course but resignation
•
open to it.

( Prom the Morning Herald of this day.)
"The Vienna Conferences !" Who knows anything
about them ? Certainly not the people of England,
whose dearest interests are at stake,
Nothing can exhibit the preposterous system of secret
orHeergelawrie have
the glaring
light than the present
spectacle of what
is called a self-governed people, whose honour—whose
positiondiplomacy
m
pecuniary interests—whose position among the kingdoms
of the earth—the lives of whose army—and whose very
existence as a nation—are all cast on the hazard of a die
—and who yet, neither by themselves nor their represen-
tatives, can exercise the very smallest influence on the
, result of the discussiotm Nat ouly that, but the very
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