The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-30 00:00:00

him not humble by hand( 3Uffing some one—a'
CANNON, for insta nce—wh o had half-7A-illed an
honest man. Equally * absurd . is it to br tender over
the reputation and ef.. of,:racsia mp nation . which, for a
century past, has bean the and the
appro-
.,Thich has gone on
to this hour converting
pria
Ler spoils into the
ter of border natbous, and
. There is obviously
not a shadow of reasr.in why 0
dessa might not have
means of plundering yet more,
Ate of KeY :teh and Yenikale last
N icolaieff and all the
syheaarre d; thenone
recent i
nde f; ate h y
Black Sea port might not have been reduced to.
ruins. Hr. td. that been first, done Sebastopol, if
not carri ed. by a coup de In ain, would have been
starved, out before Christraas, and the battles of
Inkeirman and Balaklava, would never have been
foright ; both shores of the Danube, would have
been ours, and the tra, le of 'die Principalities
' would have been open to all Europe. However,
it is needless to particul arise. The whole policy
would have been the ye ry opposite of what it has
been. Poland, Finland, Bessarabia, and Circassia
would all have been of 300, as allies. No means
would have been negle eted to reduce Russia to
deprive her for ever of the
Russia again, and to
means of offence age
inst her peaceful neighbour
I states.

We write thus:, plainly and openly because we
think the pres',lnt is the very crisis for the people
to,do their 'part. It is plain that the debates of
last, week, have not been without their effect in
'ilhe Crimea. We did not cease while the Confer-
ences lasted to denounce their baneful influence
on our camp. Even a capable and energetic
general would have been loth to hazard the
lives of his troops, when the next day he
might learn that all his sacrifices were
for nothing. Vienna paralysed the besiegers of
Sebastopol. But that- mischievous farce and folly
being mercifully over, and our Houses of Parlia-
ment showing themselves not a little indignant
with the paltriness of the Four Points, Ministers
now seem to have felt that stir they must. It
rests with the people to compel them to go on, to
forbid any more conferences with a marauder and
a highwayman. Let the whole nation refuse to
tolerate again this compounding with a felon. The
task of civilisation now is to arrest Russia, to try
and to condemn her. She ought never again to
be permitted to offer terms, much less to be
asked to offer them ! She must be told the sen-
tence she is to submit to, not asked whether it
suits her ; the terms must be dictated, not offered
—enforced, not discussed. Nothing ought to be
left to her option ; she has no character which
can be a guarantee for her observance of any
treaty. She never observed any yet, except so
far as it favoured her. The only security Europe
can now take is to strip her of all her conquests
which have made her formidable, and to make
her pay the entire expenses of the War, thereby
crippling her military finances for a generation to
ceme.

The people should not remain idle during the
recess. There are important questions pending,
and every independent constituency should lose
no time in instructing its representatives as to the

course to be adopted. Every line of policy is re-

presented, and although we can scarcely doubt

hat the bolder councils will prevail, it is still de-

sirable that there should be popular demonstra:

tions, of such a character as to avert or neutra-
lise the mischief occasioned by the notices of
Lord GREY, Mr. MILNER GIBSON, and Sir WIL-
LIAM HEATSCOTE, and the pro-Russian speeches
of the erotehetty Earl in the Lords, and the no
less crotchetty Peelite leader in the Commons.
The amendment of Sir FRANCIS BARING, which
will be put from the chair as a substantive pro-
position on Monday or Tuesday, is equivalent to

a vote of confidence in Ministers. It is virtually

a declaration that the House of Commons will

persist in that "abnegation of its functions" for

which it has become go painfully conspicuous,
that it will leave everything in the hands of the
Government, and willingly acquiesce in any deci-

sion that may be arrived at, whether for peace

or war. It is for the electors to say whether they

are contented that their representatives should
continue to display such apathetic indifference re-
specting matters in which they are so deeply in-

;erected, whether secret diplomacy is still to pre-

vail, and the People have no voice in anything
save in assenting to the extra taxes which the
War Minister may think proper to demand.

The Oxford amendment, brought forward under
lie sanction of the Peelites and the Peace party,

is virtually that of Mr. MILNER GIBSON'S. It is
in favour of an ignominious and transitory peace,
and of placing Great Britain at the feet of Russia.

There seems to be an impression amongst those

peace-mongers that if we only displayed due sub-
mission Russia would graciously accord pardon for

our past misdeeds; that she would become wearied
of striking one who bore every insult without re-
sistance or remonstrance. But those who, if
allowed to live and make calico, would patiently
endure every indignity, are totally mistaken in

their estimates of Russian forbearance. It is
only in that country that the stipulated number
of blows must be inflicted, should they fall merely
on a senseless corpse. The knout will not be
stopped by the death of the victim. The sticks
will still fall on and strike a mass of bleeding
clay, from which life had departed ; and were
England at the feet of Russia, her fate would be
deplorable indeed—worse, if possible, than that
of plundered and outraged Poland.
The other issue before the public is that framed
by the Honourable Gentleman the Member for
Kidderminster, which, while it carefully avoids in
any degree damaging the Ministry, binds the House
by a resolution which would prevent Ministers
from concluding any peace on the basis of the Russian
propositions or either of them. Mr. LOWE puts
forward a positive fact, and draws the natural
deduction therefrom. Ho truly ascribes the
failure of the negotiations to "the refusal of
Russia to restrict the strength of her navy in
the Black Sea," and declares that " the means of
coming to agreement on the third basis of nego-
tiation were by that refusal exhausted." It is
this latter point on which the contest will take
place—and on the result will depend the power
and stability of the 'democratic element of the
Constitution. The Premier is willing to concede
that it was owing to the refusal of Russia to re-
strict the strength of her navy in the Black Sea
" that the Conferences of Vienna have not led to
the termination of hostilities." He therefore
acknowledges that Russia has violated the pledge
and refused her assent to that to which she
expressly bound herself so late as January
last. But he shrinks from the. legitimate
conclusion. He will not say that " the
means of coming to agreement were, by that
refusal, exhausted." He thus holds out the hope
to Russia that she will he permitted to evade the
solemn
obligation into which she deliberately en-
tered ; that she may still menace Constantinople,
and increase her ships-of-war to any extent she
may think proper.
Ition ; it would induceThßis,
Russia
tdo bheo
lad f
oa
ut at l
aagdami
ni
ss t-
every bona fide
gressive policy to the bat, engagement, to cling to her ag-
Mr. GLADSTONE has
shown the danger to which the country was ex-
Cabinet. He has
posed under the ABERDzzx