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

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 rower 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 iu
the right place."

An authentic narrative has at length appeared
minutely descriptivg of the ever-infamous Hango
Massacre. It will already doubtless have been
perused by very many of our readers with the
liveliest interest—the document hero alluded to
being no other, indeed, than the enthralling letter
addressed by Lieu tenant GENESTE to the
Secretary of the Admiralty, and published
ii 6 &dens() 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 Flunkeydom. 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 vertebrae of Quaker
STURGE 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-religiouists
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 same, wo all know, with the first
lieutenant of poor Captain GIFFORD of the Tiger
—a prisoner of war transformed rapidly enough
into the panegyrist of his captors by means of c.3r:
tain persuasive pomps and potential blandish-
ments. Not thus has it been, however, with the
first lieutenant of Captain Faxsrta we of the
Cossack—the uncompromising historian of the
great atrocity of the Hango Massacre.
Listen, ho wever, 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
mratnaotesr;
but
tVe do not write this to enkindle bad
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 Prance, 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 Govern/wilts
who adopted th,ein, ; and adopt them they did.
The survivors of Hango have been liberated
only as prisoners of war b
Colonel Tun is still a prisoner,
r exchange,
and,
Colonel Count Cono••
FE. JOSEPH dares to
NINI still commands at Bucharest, and thu Colonel
will be hung
if ANcas
reload ei r.s
The liango atrocity was indeed, as our
know, openly defended by Prince DOLGOROUKI
and the Russian Government ; and the insult to
England and Turkey of arresting 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
iu 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 France, from the
Hango assassins ?

Most opportunely we have now before us the
unvarnished facts of this unexampled atrocity.
Lieutenant GBNESTE'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
moat Europe,
andeven)
the
r o 3 uenecritviilnislyedepoonrctuiroi;isbtoitf
it out of Russia proper, will a
the statement of facts is what we hardly ex-
pect even the old Muscovites themselves will pre-
sume to deny. •Whatare those facts? Facts which
give the lie to every excuse of the Czen's chief
servants. The flag of truce vas conspicuously

flying till the boat touched the jetty—the mus-
kets were, by order, not loaded, and under the
luggage, and the ammunition chest was locked—
no flag in reply could be looked for, for not a
soul was to be seen by good glasses at the station
—the five captains to be generously liberated were
landed under the flag of truce—then the reason
appeared why the flag, sacred all the world over,
was not answered—human tigers lay in ambus-
cade, and sprung upon their unarmed victims
with the weapons of civilisation and the
ferocity of cannibals. As an exemplifi-
cation of the quality of Russian officials,
a military and a naval officer, actually with their
own hands, bind an English officer with cords,
as if he could or would run away, and convey
him twenty-five miles, with others similarly
treated, lying on his back in a cart, and tied to
it ! Cossacks beat him on the back with their
lances, while driving him to the oart ! It is but
justice to the officers at Eckness, to which town
they were thus driven, to state that they indig-
nantly cut the small ropes with which they were
bound. This does not alter the fact, however,
of the behaviour of which other Russian officers
were capable ; and though Lieutenant GENESTE
had reason to believe the Hango officer was
placed under arrest, he had _ equal reason to
know that superior orders soon liberated him.
Throughout, the highest authorities appear to be in
disgusting harmony with the lowest. Prince
DOLGOROIIKI approves and defends Russia at
Hango ; General MOLLAIL, the commanding offi-
cer of the district, appeared to be ashamed of it.
Whenever terms of peace may be fairly offered,
HEAVEN forbid that we should remember revenge-
fully the outrage at Hango. It is too disgraceful
for punishment ; its own infamy is its proper
penalty. The Czar, ALEXANDER 11., and Hango
will go down to posterity together, just as
FRANCIS JOSEPH and ARAD will be associated
for ever. Political or military reverses may
chequer each of their reigns ; monarchs, however,
may be great under these, but nothing can dignify
the hangman ofsurrendered patriots, and the assas-
sins of menliberating prisoners limier a flag of truce.
If, however, it be sufficient to leave the CZAR and
the EMPEROR to the pillory of history, we are not
to forget that terms reasonable with Governments
not lost to all shame will be insufficient with
Russia. All her bluster about honour and dig-
nity is mere bluster for sinister ends. She has
no sense of humiliation but that of losing mate-
rial power. Loss of territory, loss of troops, loss
of military funds and resources, she can feel ;
but of honour, the impartial DE CIISTINE being
witness twenty years ago, she has not the concep-
tion. Hango has proved that to all Europe. There
is no other State, Austria probably excepted,
who would not instantly have sent back
the survivors, and have righted them-
selves with all Christendon, and we may
add, with all Mahomedanism too, by punish-
ing the guilty. It is, therefore, we affirm, essen-
tial to bear in mind, whenever peace is thought
I of, that we have to deal with a Government
which is not ashamed of Hango.

With regard to the Peace rumours still afloat, in
one sense there is room enough for them. The un-
conquered Crimea must naturally wear that aspect
to most minds ; and the more it is considered
the more will it appear impossible that orders from
head-quarters did not arrest the victors of the Bth
of September. Add to this the certainty that Rus-
sia is suffering dreadfully, that the Allies will be for-
midable indeed in the Baltic next spring, that the
German Governments are uneasy, that fresh alliances
bid fair to strengthen our hands in the North, that
Poland will soon be mixed up in the question-=.
and if ever a country had an interest in getting
timely peace it is Russia. Thus, the half mea-
sures of the Allies, with the necessities and inte-
rests of Russia, equally point towards peace. But,
on the other hand, Russia may be calculating on
the peace-men here, on Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S de-
claration, on the possibility of dissension between
her chastisers, on the chances of war, on the un-
pleasantness of war to commercial nations, besides
the danger at home of confessing defeat, and hence
she is little likely to agree to terms such as the
Allies ought to demand—such as they must de-
mand, if Lours NAPOLEON and Lord PALMER-
STON are not to be remembered with con-
tempt for losing in negotiation the fruits of vic-
tory. The real object of Russia we take to be
a repetition of the Vienna Conferences. She
sell remembers how cleverly she has by that
means delayed the fall of Sebastopol, and slack-
ened the preparations of the Allies this spring,
and it is natural she should try the same game
main.

The true policy of the Allies, even if they wish I
for peace, is to set their demands high—never to
flinch from them, and to make their preparations
accordingly. We have often enough indicated
the securities, which at the present stage of the ,
War we are entitled to demand. The way to ob-
tain them is to show that, if not conceded next
summer, we can take them. Russia, if dis-
posed fur peace, may then save herself If
the consequences of resisting again, and
finding our demands as much increased next
autumn as they are now in comparison with
those of last spring. A vast fleet of gun boats,
of floating batteries, and of boats with monster
mortars, coupled with an adequate increase of our
army, is more likely than anything else to be the
precursor of peace. For ourselves, however, we
decidedly, though reluctantly, retain the convic-
tion that another and an efficient campaign is in-
finitely more desirable for the future security of
Europe. We may add that we regard it as pretty
certain that we shall have another, and that we
had better all of us brace ourselves and our
Government to it.

To say that your English farmer is a true JOHN
BULL is hardly to do justice to his character. He
may be more correctly described as JOHN BULL
underaggravated oircumstances—JOHN BULL with
many virtues, more than a fair share of national
prejudices, and an intense desire to be let alone.
Noli me tangere is to be read in his face, and if
you meddle with him he bristles up like a porcu-
hpiinseg.ood, still he doesdemonstrationProvetonot
thankthat yo
youduo—sonfoorr,
if he is in
a manner compelled to adopt your
suggestion, and
i
posed to acknowledge
n itst edo
htlhi
gear et i showever
-
well satisfied he may be, in a pecuniary sense,
with the result. Not more aixious is the politi-
cian to maintain the balance of power in Europe
than he is to preserve intact 1 •us old relation to
the soil, so far as privileges
andimmunities are
concerned, with these exceptions—he would like
a lease, and has no objection to his landlord mak-
ing improvements provided the expenditure in-
curred does not come out of his pocket. Hence
he will seldom be found ahead of his land in cul-
tivation, but at best keeping pace with it. Of
course we would not have it understood that this
is invariably the case, or that there is not a con-
siderable number of enlightened and enterprising
individuals to whom these remarks do not apply.
Neither are we disposed to deny that much might
be said by way of extenuation on the part of the
great majority to whom they do. The farmer,
whatever be his faults, may ascribe many of them