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

RIGS WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tsui DAT —ltornini: 14 min.after 8 Eveni .g 7 min. aft. 9
To-Inasow —Morning 55 min.after 9 j Ev fling 42 min. 111.10

?HZ WZATHER.—Sun Ornci, April. U.
Tilinumurris. TIN TEA SLUM.
55 highest since neon yesterday.
44—lowest this morning and during the night.
52—this day, at noon.
BARON ITER, 29.63—rising.
WIND, N.W. to N.N.W.—Fresh, with fine sunshiny
weather. The equinoctial gales have been blowing for the
last few days very hard. When they come after the equi-
sox they are always more severe.

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gbet .
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313.41310
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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 1855,

Mr. JOHN BRIGHT has been figuring away
again at a weekly meeting of the Peace Society.
Angry he is, and justly, that Parliament takes a
fortnight's holiday out of April instead of August ;
but especially that he cannot speak from "his
place in the House of Commons," while the
Vienna Peace Meeting is proceeding. He
would like to drag to light, if possible, some
of the secrets of diplomacy ; we heartily wish
he could. Never did- •we more abhor our
" secret diplomacy" than just now, when
a set of aristocrats and despots are snugly squar-
ing the result% of all our waste of blood and
treasure ; and that while. we, who have only to
pay and to bleed, are not allowed to know what
their Lordships and Imperial Majesties are doing.
Why not have the biddings open ? If they are
honest men what have they to conceal ? Why are
we to know only when knowledge is useless what
these Lords who govern us at 5,000/., at least,
per annum, as Mr. BRIGHT obierves, do with our
interests ? Austria and Russia would not endure
it perhaps ! Then give up the whole thing if
they are such knaves that they are afraid to trans-
act Europe's business in the eyes of Europe. Has
not the assertion been throughout, that this is a
war in the interest of European independence.
If so, in all conscience let Europe say whether
she thinks her servants at Vienna are securing
her independence as the result of the War.
The wliole Continent, as well as England,
has the same concern in reading the debates in
the Vienna conclave as our country has in reading
the debates in Parliament. If courts of justice
to individuals cught to be open, surely courts of
justice between nations ought to be much more
so. We believe in our hearts that the only rea-
son for secret sittings is, that such Congresses are
conspiracies of Autocrat* and "Aristocrats • against
the righta of peoples.
Mr. BRIGHT declared "he would be no party
to concentrating the indignation of the people
upon what was termed the mismanagement of the
War." We might have censured his shirking this
duty more severely bad he kept his promise ; but
if he did not enter into details of hospital neglects
and Balaklava confusion, he certainly gave it our
Governors pretty roundly for their general incom-
petency. They were " distinguished- men.
diltinguished for lines of ancestry kept more
carefully than those of Manchester men ;
men quite above the business by which
honest livelihoods are earned in Lanca-

---
shire ; men who kindly consent to govern us al

5,000/. a-year each for their hereditary services ;
yet men who " cannot manage the business of
the nation with ordinary ability." At the
present crisis they keep an ambassador at
Constantinople of the worst possible temper,
and another at Vienna too old and feeble
for his duty, to aay the best of him. In the
Crimea, a general who is the son of a Duke, the
brother of a Duke, and the uncle of a Duke, and
who, therefore, despite proved incapacity and old
age, keeps his post—Lords all three ! Such is the
algiumee of our peace-maker from exciting " in-
". „ .lleartily do. we subscribe to it all;
7* friend Jowl' is a political soldier, at
least
do ri'cluellY w„
Member hx e.oncur with the Honourable
enomfbon„iy beh• ° nig that there is " wisdom
• stren-••
lea enough, moraut KEn enough, power of intel-
better G"erninent t7itrugas to afford us a much
and that possibly when we have seen of late,
into our own hands, t'ar-e'lette-ra a little more
we
r e naY
managed somewhat better find
th the national affairs
recent years." The Speaker he". they have been of
remedy. We know of no re,
the true
ever did or could prosper unlessman °'n the
Which he looked
eention. ed
himself. Nations are no ex to it
not see to getting the right sort of
will
if they
4 win
to keeping them right too, they will he-I"N and
not governed, to the end of the sto fleeced,
ry,
..• Even
Lord DEBBY, who professed to have dug a new
vein for a Cabinet, never departed farther from
the • Aristocratic clique than necessity com-
Pellet' him- And, now, amidst the calamities of
war iteelf—ealamities caused entirely by un-
paralleled- incapacity and mismanagement—office,
even °ace-all Which thousands of lives depend, is
but a shuttlecock between two or three hereditary
Parties. - Let fir, B
anour rest assured that
nothing but a settled indignation against the
culpable authors- of such -lavish and wanton expen-
&lra et liamsY aza apstru •
_
- "!?.41 4:0 rig F 441

From Vienna we hear that the nirth Conference
was held on Easter Monday, that it was very
short and by no means satisfactory, and that it
was uncertain when the next meeting would take
place 9. There has, in fact, been an adjournment
sine die, until Prince GORTSCITAKOFF has received
the expected instructions. We were not at any
time so credulous as to suppose that the Russian
Plenipotentiary would receive plenary powers to
conclude a definite arrangement while further
procrastination was at all practicable—until, in
fact, the- representatives of France and England
could no longer be cajoled, and a day was peremp-
torily fixed on which they would depart from
Vienna unless the requisite authority had been
obtained in the interval. It has long been ob-
vious that Russia has adopted a Fabian policy—
that she hopes to retard the preparations of the
Western Powers for the spring and summer cam-
paign in the Crimea, while she intrigues with
Austria, so as not merely to detach her from the
alliance into which she promised to enter,
but, if practicable, to obtain her cordial
co-operation, so that there may be a
new "Holy Alliance" of Russia, Austria, and
Prussia against liberal opinions and liberal
Government in the rest of Europe.

There is but too much reason to suppose that
Austria is already listening to the insidious coun-
sels. We have already commented on the very
suspicious neutrality of King LEOPOLD, who, if
uninfluenced by his Austrian connection, could
scarcely hesitate as to arraying himself on the
same side with England and France. Unfortu-
nately, however, his English wife has long since
passed frgm this world. Her French successor
has shared the same fate, while the Duchess DE
BRABANT is living, and likely to live. He, there-
fore, cultivates the friendship of her relative, the ,
youthful EMPEROR, whose influence must, indeed,
be powerful when it induces the Ulysses of the
House of Saxe-Coburg to disregrd what, to a
less worldly mind, would seem to be the para-
mount claims on his friendly assistance and z3alous
co-operation.

But another, and no less ominous, symptom
has recently been added. The constant bicker-
ing between Prussia and Austria have long been
notorious. Each is earnestly striving to obtain
predominance in the German Diet, to aggrandise
itself at the expense of its opponent. Prussia
has especially endeavoured to thwart her rival on
every possible occasion. Every opportunity has
been anxiously sought after, and made available
to the greatest extent. When in the early stages
of the present difficulty Austria seemed disposed
to lean to the side of Russia, her eager rival made I
corresponding demonstrations in favour of the
Western Powers. The moment, however, the
Government of FRANCIS JOSEPH varied its tactics,
that of FREDERICK WILLIAM made a correspond-
ing move to the other. They seemed, in fact,
agreed on but one point, viz., to cordially detest,
and zealously to oppose each other.

Now, however, they are reconciling their past
differences, and professing boundless friendship
for each other. The earnest struggle for ascend-
ancy in the affairs of Germany is, for the time,
being apparently forgotten. They are once
more friendi and brothers ! Nothing seems
to be taken into consideration, but the
interests, or rather the supposed interests, of the
Fatherland. We say the " supposed interests,',
because really Germany is far more concerned in
checking the aggressions of the AUTOCRAT than
the Western Powers. Influenced solely by the
antiquated considerations of honour and justice,
and in the cause of right versus might, they entered
boldly into the arena and bearded the Leviathan
of the North, while those more urgently called on
held aloof from the contest, which a decided de-
monstrationt on their part would have speedily
terminated, if it had ever commenced. What,
then, does this sudden ." friendship"—this un-
expected healing of deep-seated differences por-
tend? That is an important problem, to which
it behoves the Cabinets of Paris and to
discover an accurate solution with Londonpossible
speed. It requires not the skill of "an cEorrus
to discover a correct answer. We have seen the
part hitherto played by Prussia—we have seen
how the maudlin temperament of CLICQUOT has
been influenced by the latest injunctions of the
dying AUTOCRAT. He WOlll3 do anything--
' risk any danger—submit to any humilia-
tion—if he could thereby detach Austria
from the Western Alliance, and thereby
save his nephew from any substantial loss of
power, or even any blow to his pride. He would
Ihimself readily swallow the leek, provided the
new CZAR could be spared the unsavoury morsel. 1
The reconciliation between the Cabinets of Berlin
and Vienna incontestibly proves ilia .the latter
is no longer—if it ever were so—sincere in its
professions to the Western Powers, but that it
has been won over by the concessions made respect-
ing the two first points, and possibly by some other
inducements not yet publicly announced. The
only results hitherto arising from Austrian policy,
have been that she has contrived to get peace-
able possession of the Principalities, the occu-

pation of which by Russia led to the.. War ; that
by her conduct, while in such possession,
she enabled Russia to detach so many troops from

Bessarabia and other districts as to warrant her
assuming an offensive attitude, which led to the
sanguinary encounters at Balaklava and Inker-
man---that she has kept Belgium neutral ; and,
through the co-
finally, i,a,
P • russia. Th. •
it is time that tihs
Patched up her own differences with
the Lion
that has been attained 1
con4°lenl
ePeration of Austria ; and surely
at'the shortness torsion, uns .‘l7-
brought to a mockery should be
Lord Jonl4
e cannot then wonder
aonnd
msorze:ousl
Conference on moo aualantoly nature of the
Russzu were
greatly surprised if °Y
; n" should we feel
11 speedily to return to the chit'
witiso-melonetc,
pwahricit,h46nas bet en dude 4.af
the department
Y neglected.
tions will then to required whiclf ' will, we explana-
terminate-the Vienna farce, and lead t" 879
t'l9*.'
_ ..
_o some
.set'. !
Qickla_ kOt4CII Qll the AO gt tho Gamma Powing.
• - - ..::. ;., 4 ,-; ' •- - := - --! -- - - - -- '
. ~.. _ _

_-~v'„ ,

' the incompetent out and the competent in. There
are men in the army who could and would have
taken Sebastopol beforewinter ; men who could and
who would have kept the army sheltered, and fed,
and clothed with needful comforts, and at half the
cost which has been incurred—men who are known,
"or might easily be known, to hondst governors ;
but they were not " eons, uncles, or brothers of
Dukes ;" they were not in routine order for
high commands ; they had only given
proof of vast capacity in organising large
commercial undertakings, and had not been
threatened with hanging for incompetency
in the Peninsular War ; so, they could
not be thought of—old generals, old commissariat
officers, and old doctors blocked the way ! We
need not advert again to Mr. Baranfs
pacific boastings ; it is pleasant to concur with him
for once, if but in part. Our readers would
hardly suppose, perhaps, that the orator who
could say so much to the purpose would have
them believe that they do not know why they are
at war with Russia ! Lord PALMERSTON could
tell him. He could explain what the people
wanted, and what the Court and Cabinet do not
want.