The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

THE sur4, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 15, 1855:

interest and partly by money ;" that " these two
form the double hedge by which the brigade '
is kept alike free from the taints of plebeianism '
and of poverty." Mere money will not do with-
out aristocratic connexions and aristocratic influ-
ence—connexions which will be recognised by,
and influence available with, the high-born com-
manders. It is not merely that Prince ALBERT,
as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, receives
3,0001. per annum, and H.R.H. the Duke of
CAMBRIDGE and the Earl of STRAFFORD 2,000/.
each, but they also have the nomination or ap-
pointment of the respective commissions—the
Commander-in-Chief having only nominally to
confirm their several "fiats." We may then
easily judge respeeting the nature of the " in-
terest" that may succeed in obtaining admission
within these strictly-guarded portals to the exclu-
sive and highly-favoured class. The result is not
surprising that there should be so much of what
the talented writer denominates " the upper
crust," the men with " handles to their names,"
which render the gentlemen of the " yellow
plush" attentive, in the favoured list.

Much money is also required. The first
step in the Guards, according to the "regulation"
scale, costs 1,2001., while that in " the Line" is but
4501. But, per contra, as business men say, it
must be taken into account that the first step of a
guardsman ranks with the second of " a mere
officer," and that he may forthwith exchange with
a Lieutenant iu the other branch of the service,
and thus obtain a striking advantage at the very
first stage in the proceedings. The next stage is
proportionately expensive. The Lieutenantcy in
the Guards costs 2,0501., while that of Lieuten-
ant in the Line is but 7001., and that of Captain but
1,800/. Then comes:the third step, in the one case,
the fifth in the other. The Captain and the Lieut.-
Col. of Guards costs 4,3401., the Majority 8, 3001.,
and the Lieutenant-Colonelcy 9,0001.! We may
thus perceive the amount of interest and capital
required, when the merely regulation prices are
such as we have above set forth, and we need
scarcely say how greatly the actual exceeds the
nominal price of those valuable commodities, a
difference that will be greatly enhanced, if not
more than doubled, should the memorial to which
the name of the Prince Consort is appended elicit
a favourable response.

We must say, however, that we also prefer
" the baptism of fire "to that of s. d. that we
desire that those who have really earned renown
should recaive its legitimate rewards, and that
ten or twelve years at Windsor or London should
not give higher promotion than double the num-
ber spent in climates the most trying to the con-
stitution, and arduous labours while encoun-
tering formidable dangers. We do not say that
the officers of the Guards may not be constitutionally
as brave as their rivals. Bravery is, we believe,
the characteristic of Englishmen ; there is nothing
very exclusive in its possession, and, therefore,
nothing on which the Guards can found any ex-
traordinary claim. If, however, they think
themselves badly used, or wish to be placed on a
footing in every respect with their more " fortunate
brethren of the Line," let the matter be fairly
tarried out, so as to place them on an equality in
all respects, and we venture to assert that there
will be no opposition to their reasonable
requests.

Austria the friend of England and France
Austria in their interests, theirs the cham-
pions of liberty and civilisation ! Austria sincere
in desiring a peace that will be safe and honour-
able for them ! Austria neutral ! Austria a
mediator they should trust Austria, whose wis-
dom is chicane, whose valour is braggadocio, whose
faith is perfidy, whose sway is brutal suppression,
whose instincts are those of the vulture, whose
progress is retrogression, and whose policy to this
hour has utilised all the vices that can degrade,
so that they might but profit, a nation making
pretensions to civilisation !
Never believe it. In the very nature of things
Austria is not to be depended on. All her sym-
pathies, all her interests are in opposition to those
of the Allies. A crumbling despotism whose very
being is under protest, whose people have been
sold body and soul for bare life, and that totters
beneath the curses, loud, deep, and prolonged, of
oppressed nation; cannot but favoUr
Russia—
cannot but recognise in the rescue of that Power
from humiliation a pledge for the perpetuation of
her own ill-omened and unwarrantable existence.

Turn to the earliest pages of the history of the
War, and follow the course of events up to tho
present time, and the truth of this will stare you
in the face. The dullest perception should be
equal to the recognition of the most palpable
facts. What was it, or who was it, that caused
us to drift instead of sailing boldly, as became us,
into war ? What was it, or who was it, that
caused us to suffer our Turkish Ally to
contend single-handed with the preponderating
forces of the CZAR; while the heroes of Alma
listlessly basked in the summer glow of Gallipoli,
Scutari, and Varna ? What was it, or who was
it, that kept the Allied Fleets
,from the task of
scouring the Euxine ere the heroes of Sinope fell
beneath the shot and flame of the dastardly floe.
What, or who was it, that stayed the tide of
Ottoman success, and relieving the Russian army
of the Danube from a succession of disasters
enabled it to march to the Crimea? Wh%t, or
who was it, that exposed our gallant army to all
but overwhelming odds at lnkerman, that has
branded the Allies with shame in the Principali-
ties, and made our statecraft • the mockery
of the world? That has never been heard of
but to our humiliation, and never
.deviated from
neutrality but to our loss ?

Who or what else but Austria, with her perfi-
dious counsels ? Austria, with her pretences of
sympathy and friendship ? Austria, with the in-
terests of Russia at her heart, and sympathy with
us on her lying lips ? Austria, with her unwar-
ranted proffers of mediation, her treaties, her
contingent promises, her Four Points, her wily
Statecraft, her brutal mercenaries, her utterly
selfish instincts ? Austria, too cowardly to incur
the risk of openly aiding Russia, and too subtle
to withhold from her the rascally assistance she
could lend ? Austria, dastard and knave, that
would head the great Germanic Confederation,
yet carries her brains in her heels. That would
arbitrate as an equal between the greatest
Powers of Europe, yet has openly sold herself to
be the bond slave of the POPE ! DJ we not well
to be angry when we think of all this ?

Yet would to IlravzN, this were all ! She is
at her work of intervention. She is playing the
mediator again. Led as easily by the nose "as
asses are," there is a tribe of politicians both hero
and in France, that, acquiring larger credulity
the oftener they are duped, would have us once
more recognise her title to a position she has
utterly forfeited, if she ever was entitled to it,
and avail ourselves of her good offices. What can
be thought of such men? Knowing all that we
have described, with the perfidy of yesterday—
we mean the return of Baron DE LINGENIU, the
Austrian Minister, to Stockholm, notoriously to
undo all that General CANROBERy has done

fresh in their remembrance, they would have us be-
lieve in Austrian good faith, and accept her media-
tion. What right has she to play the mediator at
all ? There is none needed, and if there were, why
should she be chosen ? Prussia, oven, degraded
as that power is, almost to the lowest level, has
better claims than she. The very fact of her
attempting to bring about a peace at the present
time is all but absolute proof that such a peace as
she could oompass is not desirable, that her
only aim is to stave off the utter prostration await-
ing Russia at our hands, that with the keenness
which selfish cunning lends the base, she perceives
what the result of a campaign in the Baltic next year
must be, and would do anything but be bold or
honest to prevent it. To listen to her were folly,
to be led by her madness—a madness we cannot
believe for a moment Lord PALMERSTON would
willingly be guilty of. He is one of those who
profit by experience, and cannot, therefore, but
feel that the peace the Allies want is not forth-
coming, and that the results of another campaign
will be of priceless value.

Nothing displays more plainly the universal
interest taken in the War than our agricultural
meetings. If anywhere we might look for obli-
vion of the subject, or for pacific sentiments, it
would be at these rustic gatherings. The plough-
share and the sickle are the very emblems of
peace, and they furnish text enough for any num•
ber of speeches. The agricultural mind, however,
is in ardentt sympathy with the general mind ;
and when landlords and farmers meet to award
prizes for the best stock and implements, this
business is no sooner over than the ploughshares
and sieklesr are beaten into spears and swords.
The morning is spent in promoting the growth of
food, and ghe afternoon in encouraging the de-
struction of corn-stacks by the mile, and of the
life to sustain which is the sole use of food.
There will not be wanting those who attribute the
interest or farmers and county members in the
War to its supposed influence on the prices of ag-
ricultural produce. Such a view has, how-
ever, nothing to do with it. Farmers
know that. the high prices began before the War
began ; awl they know, too, that if they con-
tinued long, it would result in such an advance of
rents, and. certainly of tithes, as would be slow in
finding a tower level with lower prices. No, the
whole tone of the speechifying reported in yester-
day's Sum, at the Guildford and Bath Agricul-
tural diallers, like that at similar meetings all
over the country, is quite unselfish ; the honest
sentiment which commands universal applause is
" Russia lad pushed her aggression on liberty
and civiliaation till the danger became intolerable,
and now we have undertaken to avert it we
must do our work thoroughly."

One speaker, Mr. MANGLES, the Member for
Guildford, alluding to the floatirig nonsense about
the Emperor of the FRENCH peculiarly desiring
peace, and the danger of our being left to fight
out the battle alone, truly enough remarked
that the EMPEROR was doubtless very desirous
of peace, and that all of us were equally
so ; buts that it were absurd to imagine
that ho, any more than we, desired a peace
without securities of such a kind, that it
should net easily be violated again by the wanton
aggressor,. This is, indeed, emphatically the
question of the hour. We have not much faith
in any intention on the part of Russia to nego-
tiate hontastly ; still we own that we all ought to
know what would satisfy us if she were to come
forward with pacific proposals. We ought to have
a minimum, for each stage of the War ; and we
confess that the minimum which would satisfy
even our War Statesman now, is not that with
which thig contest ought to conclude. Poland and
Finland ought to be restored to independence or
to their original connection, and the Caucasus
and the Kuban ought to become the Asiatic
boundary of Russia, if we are to conclude with a
peace worthy of the Allies and of the War.
When the disgraceful Four Points were under
discussiony we earnestly demanded that peace
should scot be conceded for a moment, ex-
cept on the terms now enunciated by
the Tissaes itself as the lowest worth
thinking of ; while we held that much
more (melt to be demanded. Our demands ought
to:be regulated not merely;by whatwe have already
seized, but by what we are manifestly in a posi-
tion to get. We can certainly, if the two Govern-
ments da their duty this winter, denude the Baltic
of every maritime defence next spring, and rouse
Poland to an unmanageable condition. We can
as certainty complete the Bankruptcy of the Rus-
sian 'Exchequer. Under these circumstances why
not make demands worthy of ourselves ? Why not
say Poland for itself, Finland for Sweden, Bessa-
rabia (at least on the Danube) for Turkey, Cir-
cassia for, the Circassians, Armenia for the Arme-
nians, the Crimea for the Sardinians, and two hun •
dred millaorzsat least towards the expenses of the War,
are our present terms; if you don't like them, then
use up half a million more serfs, make, as you
once did before, a three-rouble note worth half a
rouble, and accept the same or harder terms after
all. We are glad to see that the rational pro-
posal pay is coming more and
more before the public. We enforced it from the
first, not only as a reasonable punishment, but as
a political security. Russia made Turkey, al-
though the injured party, pay, and joined in
making France pay for the War to eject her First
Napoleon ; Austria made Sardinia pay for pa-
triotism ; even we math) helpless China pay. If
her pride will not accept the measure she has
meted out to others, she must bo humiliated till
it will. The difference of incurring the expense
of another campaign ought to be that we should
save the whole cost of the War.

The hitherto incurable mischief has been that
our Statesmen have looked on the War through
diplomatic spectacles and the people with the oyes
of common sense. The former also have had un-
worthy aristocratic objects to serve; the latter have
only wanted the right man for the right place,
and the right means fur the right ends. Hence
all the two years' waste of money, men, and time.
Hence the puerile endeavours to gain as an Ally
the hateful Prince who would have done us more
service as an avowed enemy. Hence all our
Eastern parades and our Baltic exhibitions
of big ships in shallow waters. Hence
our always warning Russia to fortify every
point in time for our attack, while we could,
by more easy promptitude, have made an easy con-
quest of these places—witness Odessa, Nicolaieff,
Kherson, Sweaborg and Helsingfors, and St.
Petersburg itself. At length our statesmen begin,
or seem to begin, to see what the people have long
o
and ammunition pre-
parationsbegin to gun-boattolooklike, what we demanded
last year,
cc war jib earnest." May it be so !
But there is one thing as essential
a"seen.
as guns and
gun-boats, and that is men. And of men one of
the best qualifications is an indomitable life and
death hatred of the aggressor ; and this qualifi-
cation no men possess like the Poles. Matters
ought not to be minced for these
four months.
SULTAN'S Cossacks are all very well for a make-
shift ; but every consideration of humanity to our
troops, economy in our Administration: effect ,

upon the enemy, and a safe future, demands that
Poland and the Poles be dallied with no longer.

We repeat that the hackneyed phrase "a vigo-
rous prosecution of the War" has no meaning if
we are not to avail ourselves of the most vigorous
of all measures. M. DE PERSIGNY, early in the
War, showed that a recognition of Polish inde-
pendence would prove the very soul of the War.
The sagacious KOSSUTH, a patriot whose prophecies
in exile have so generally proved true, has uni-
formly maintained the same, and in regard to
Poland, at least, he is a disinterested statesman.
If the War lasts, to this it must eventually come ;
but it will be after thousands of English lives and
millions of our money have been sacrificed to
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Austrian interests. Had
the Allies at first pronounced the word Poland
most probably Russia would not have risked a
war ; and had she done so, by this time her army
would have been swallowed up in the
double conflict with her conquered territories,
and the Allies. They would have been
at the same time decimated by the de-
sertion of thousands of her best troops. Six
thousand, we know for certain, were ready to be-
come the storming party instead of the defenders
of Sebastopol ! !
Lincolnshire Agriculturists at the first re-
sponded enthusiastically to the demand for Polish
Emancipation, and for fighting Russia through
the vengeance of those she has crushed so long ;
the country could not do more wisely than in
forcing this still upon on our Coburg-ridden
Cabinet. Gun-boats, and monster mortars, and
bombshells are well—are essential ; but what
traitorous madness is it to procrastinate the ex-
plosion of the awful mine on the Vistula !, The
former would shako a few marine fortresses ; the
latter would convulse all Russia. In the name of
economy, of justice, of humanity, and of a per-
manent peace, England should demand that that
mine should be sprung at once.

war footing, and this term was found tco short.
This fact will help us to judge how far the Em-
peror still preserves the intention of becoming our
active ally.