The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-07 00:00:00

R')YAL OLYMPIC THEATRE.

her dangerous neighbour, save " with bated
breadth and deep humility." Would Austria

thus degrade herself if Sebastopol were razed to
the earth ? Most decidedly not. She would no
longer be the fawning and obedient lacquey, the
ready instrument to carry out the behests of the
Northern Despot. Then she would exhibit some
degree of independence, and woull dare to speak
and act for herself.

Prussia, too, is testifying her unbounded devo-
tion to the new Autocrat. Her ingenuity is
taxed to the utmost to do him honour. Chosen
regiments are named after his deceased father to
preserve his memory to all future generations.
The minor Powers of Germany are follow
ing the example. Even Belgium herself,
not contented with the ominous neu-
trality she has so long observed, is despatch-
ing new emissaries to the Court of St.
Petersburg. We learn by a letter from St.
Petersburg, of the 24th ult., that " Count de
BRIEY, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary of the King of the Belgians, had, on
the previous day, presented his new credentials to
the Emperor ALEXANDER." This is the unkindest
cut of all. Well may England exclaim "et-tic
Brute," when she sees the Sovereign who owes
everything to her—who was taken from petty
lodgings to espouse the presumptive heiress to the
British Throne—who has so long been the well-
paid pensioner of the United Kingdom, and whose
nephew is the consort of our dearly-loved SOVE-
REIGN, paying such masked compliments to
Russia, sending an Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary, possibly to nego-
tiate respecting " the kingdom of Thurin-
gia" should he induce England to waive
her just demands. These are matters that should
not be regarded lightly. At such a crisis every-
thing is important. A straw thrown up shows
the quarter from which the wind blows, and the
mission of the Count de BRIEY should only induce
the peoples of France and England to insist with
more inflexible resolution on that which alone can
lead to a permanent and honourable peace—to
repeat with unanimity throughout both countries,
" DELENDA EST SEBASTOPOL," as an indispensable
condition of any treaty that may be concluded by
their representatives.

Lessee and Manager, Mr. A. Wigan,
ON EASTER MONDAY

Will be performed a Comedietta, called LAW FOR L IDIES,
and
Characters
Miss Ca b
st!ety Messrs. A. Wigan, G. Vining, H. Cooper, ranYers,
cn.
To be followed by the Fairy Extravaganza, called THE YELLOW
DWARF ADD THE RING OF IHE GOL MINES.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHE-ITRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Wr.a. Cooke.
Mr. William Cooke begs to acknowledge one of the most successful
seasons of the Royal Amphitheatre, and announces that on EAI,TER
MONDAY there will be produced an original Eqatdrama, to be called,
THE FIELD AGAINST fHE FAVOURITE; developing events 01
peculiar character and general interest !
Novel SCENES in the CIRCLE, and a variety of amusements, will
end their aid t, the evening's entertainment.
Box-office open from Eleven till Four. St
West. Acting Manager,ag r. W. H. Cooke, Equestrian Director,
Mr. W. Cooke, Jun.e Manager, Mr. 14:::

ROYAL STRAND TIIEATRIt.
Under the direction of Miss Rebecca Isaacs.

THIS EVENING,

The WIZARD of the WORLD will appear in his Nagle Saloon,
With a variety of amusements.
To be followed by TUE BARBER OF CADIZ, introducing the
Drury-lane Ballet Com; any.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tme DAY —Morning 39 caiL.after 4 f Evening 56 mimift. 4
To. roaram Morni4 17 min.after 5 Evening 36 inin.aft.

TUB WEATHER.—gnu 07/101, April. 7.
Tarancomrrzß, IN THE SHAD&
63 —highest since neon yesterday.
50—lowest this morning and during the night.
57—this day, at noon.
BARorarrn, 30'18.
WIND, N—Light breeze, with fine, sunshiny weather.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1855.

The Conferences at Vienna have been sus-
pended during holy week ! The arrival of M.
DROITYN DE L'HuYs was, almost as a matter of
course, the signal for further procrastination.
Prince GORTSCHAKOFF required fresh instructions
from his Imperial Master, which could not arrive
before the 10th inst., and accordingly the meet-
ing of Diplomatists has been adjourned until that
day, when it is to be hoped that something decisive
may take place. It is, indeed, time that the
solemn farce should be brought to a conclusion--
that the Russian Plenipotentiary should be in-
vested with ample powers to arrange the terms on
which a definite treaty may be concluded, and
that without further equivocation he will explain
his real intentions. We believe that, if possible,
the distinguished representative of France will
bring him to the point—but nothing save
the most energetic course can do so.
There must be an ultimatum, couched in
language so clear and unmistakeable, that
no quibbling disputes, or strained interpre-
tations can be put forward at any future time.
The answer to that demand must be a simple
Yes, or No. No explanations or qualifications can
be admitted, and the absence of such answer
within a limited—a very limited—period must be
regarded as a breaking oft of the negotiation, and
the signal for the return of the representatives
of France and England to their respective coun-
tries.

Such summary proceedings may be by no means
selon les regles. They may be altogether opposed
to diplomatic humbug, and may cause pert officials
to stand aghast with real horror. But it is time
to discard conventional rules, when they are opposed
to the national interests. Too many sacrifices
have already been offered up on the altar of "red
tapism." We may learn from the example af-
forded by Prince MENSCHIKOFF at Constantinople,
in 1853, how Russian diplomatists would act
under circumstances similar to those in which
Lord JOHN RUSSELL and M. DROUYN DE L'HUYS
are now placed ; and on such a point we may
condescend to receive a salutary lesson from the
adversary. Russia will not give away a single
point. She will make no concession so long as
there is the slightest chance of obtaining better
terms. She will cavil and dispute about " the
ninth part of a hair's-breadth," if, by doing so,
she can reap any profit, however trivial ; and, as
we have repeatedly pointed out, she is troubled
with no scruples respecting her character for
honesty or consistently. She possesses an im-
mense advantage in the wordy strife, being ready
at any moment to shift her position and to take
advantage of any contingencies arising during the
negotiations.

displayed, we may
From the mala fides already
learn how vain would be the hope, how futile the
reliance placed on the strict observance of any
verbal pledges on her part. We have seen the
many shiftings and evasions already resorted to
oa every possible occasion, and how can we hope
that the leopard will suddenly become immacu-
late—that the negro will cast his skin ? The
late Ater"saT Showed how indispensable he con-
sidered " material guarantees,"
re-
spect his memoand we may
rY for teachine, U 3 the word ; but
what he was so ready to
re-
fused to concede.
"heave us Sebastopol and
our Black Sea Fleet," say the Russians,and
everything else that can r
nably be required
will be granted. Very likely, indeed ! And
why ? Because all other tilinr%
are
Words are winds. Promises may be
valueless !
and Russia will not be tro bl
u broken,
ed with undue
scruples when the fitting opportunity arises.
Already she speculates on the period
when dis-
sensions niay arise between the Western —powers -
and she will be quite satisfied to bide
her time,
provided she retains the power in her hands,
ready to make a deadly attack on the arrival of
the auspicious moment.
We may also perceive from passing events how
completely the German Powers are under the
control, we had almost said the vassalage, of the
CZAR. Austria, solemnly pledged to the Western
Powers, still pays compliments to the adversary
against whom, if the slightest credence be attached
to her professions, she is speedily about to assume
arms. She also moves heaven and earth
to allow him to retain the means of
offence to preserve intact " the standing
menace to Europe," under which she herself quails,
and in consequence whereof she dares not speak to ' 1

Important events of a warlike character have
already been mentioned in these columns as hav-
ing transpired within the last twelve months else-
where than before Sebastopol. The retrospective
glance recently taken by us at these remarkable
occurrences of 1854-5 was preceded, it will be
remembered, by a rapid summary of the relative
situations in regard to each other of the different
States of the European Continent. In this par-
ticular it should be especially recollected that,
while Russia has been strenuously opposed by
Turkey, and while Turkey has been no less stren-
uously supported in this opposition to Russia by
France and England, the remaining great Powers
have occupied very contrasting positions indeed—
some maintaining a timorous neutrality, while
some, again, on the contrary, have evinced, more
or less openly, a sympathy for the cause of one or
other of the belligerents. Greece, for example,
betrayed her complicity with the CZAR by a
rebellious rising, only to be repressed by
the appearance of certain squadrons off the
Piraeus, and the marching of certain troops from
the Pirus to the Acropolis. Sardinia has since
then manifested a totally different feeling in re-
ference to the course pursued by the AirromtAT,
by valiantly placing at the disposal of the Allies a
very powerful and opportunely-contributed con-
tingent. Austria, instead of chivalrously enter-
ing upon any decided path like that chosen for
themselves by the lesser States of Genoa and Sar-
dinia, has, by playing fast and loose to the very
end of the chapter, been consistent even in the
midst of her apparent inconsistencies. Frussia all
the while successfully carrying out her own paltry
designs by the seemingly impracticable means of
notoriously unsuccessful negotiations. It has
throughout, moreover, been anxiously expected
by every more sanguine observer of these proceed-
ing that Naples and Tuscany might imitate the
decision lately arrived at by the Court of Turin,
and so far emulate the policy of the Piedmontese
Cabinet as to avow their sympathy for the cause
,f the Western Allies in the tardy, indirect po-
sitioh presumed to have been very recently re-
4olved upon for adoption by Spain and Portugal.
Whereas, strange to tell, nei:;her Belgium nor
Flanover, bound to an active co-operation
with this country—we might not unreasonably
have conjectured, if only because of the generally
Iffectual bonds of dynastic association, have ex-
tricated themselves from the paralysing influence
exercised by the insincerity of Austria, and to the
obstinacy of Prussia over the whole political con-
geries of the Germanic Association. Considerably
greater probabilities of an ultimate rupture with
the autocracy of St. Petersburg being manifested,
in truth, by Sweden and Denmark, if any degree
of reliance can be placed in the information de-
rived at intervals from Stockholm and Copenhagen.
such, we here take occasion to repeat, has been
the actual situation in regard to each other, dur-
ing the past year of warfare on the banks of
the Danube, and along the coast of the Crimea,
.ff the principal among the great European nation-
dities.

Meantime, as already observed, there have
,eeti events of enormous importance taking place
:ontemporaneously in various remote parts both of
he eastern and western hemispheres.
Recently we have particulazised several among ;he more remarkable of these political occurrences
in the last menticned, namely, in the western
aeraisphere. We have enumerated in this manner
—the continuance of the civil war in 31-exico ; the
mtbreak of revolution in Peru; the agitation of
View and sinister designs in California, with a view
to its organisation as an independent democracy ;
:he revival at Washington of divers nefarious.
schemes in the way of territorial spoliation, to the
Ind that the United States might absorb Cuba, for
,xarnple, as well as Senora and the Sandwich
islands, among the rest of its gigantic annexations.
(I,7ed to all which, a recollection has not been
oat of yet more distant incidents of a scarcely less
significance, incidents such as that sudden
_:rrtebsrteiakng a t
Ballara
t, from which some notion may
50 gleaned u
as to the nature of our imperial tenure
,ipon the loyalty of our far-off colonists in
4ustralusics.

A reference may subsequently be adventured
",1"'", We cannot but think not altogether injudi-
.:th'filaY;yazintao the political events of more than
of the Euxineg Porace
inously takiirtt;.lcle which have been simulta-
elsewhere than on the shores
ries of Europe, in :lien within the ample bounda-
t::e Old World, or,
ys of c
aseTs Scattered q
termed, since the da bas carters of
been distinctively
hemisphere. It will therefor°ll:e
occurrences perceived, rapidly
11uu8'
this eastern
he
zirc resolute
enough, beyond doubt, that
portance have not been restricted t
defenders of Sebastopol, or to the
the
of jai-
be reconisle d-
ants of that great fortress frotra will directionthe of
Kamiesh or of Ridaklava. It
that we have had reasons enow for insisting upon
the advisability of popular attention not being

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 7, 1855

entirely and invariably engrossed at this time by
the contemplation of the events hiking nice not
beyond the radius of some hundred miles or so
from Kidikoi and Eupatoria. In testimony of
which it may be enough fur the present if we ad-
vert thus briefly and cursorily to the prospect
recently opened to our rulers by the possible re-
newal of the war in Kafirland ; to the request
recently addressed to the viceregal authority at
Calcutta by his Majesty the King of AvA, that,
namely, for the restitution of Pegu to the Bur-
mese sovereignty ; to the assaults recently directed,
and as yet altogether ineffectually, by the united
arms of the Imperialists and of the French suppor-
ters upon the rebel city of Shanghai, an incident
—this last—sufficient of itself to distract popular
attention for a while from the Crimea—indicating.,
as it does so very notably, the progress, the
vigour, and the vitality of that most wonderful
perhaps among all the great events of our epoch,
the Chinese Revolution—a Revolution which
has already traversed the Celestial Empire from
one end to the other under the united banners,
for the blended interests, in the associated cause
of Democracy and Christianity.