The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-17 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIIIAY. AUGUST 17, 1855.

What are our people • about that they suffer
their enemies to make a mock of them, and to
doubt their very existence ? We can fancy the
veteran METTERNICH exclaiming, with a sneer,
" Either they are talking, or pursuing, or in I,
journey, or, peradventure, they sleepetl'i, and
must be awakened." Never had they so favour-
able an opportunity for asserting their principles
and manifesting their power, and never in our
recollection were they so apathetic. Since this
War began they seem to have lost that zeal for
liberty which formerly distinguished them. They
have ceased to think and act for themselves,
and have, with a blind credulity, to which we
know no parallel, resigned themselves to the
direction of the Government of the day.
We are satisfied that this apathy is but appa-
rent ; but to those who labour in their interest it
is discouraging. The popular cause is never safe
apart from open, frequent, and decisive expres-
sions of public opinion. The people are false to
themselves when they are silent on such great
questions as are laid before them. It is for them
to have a policy of their own, and to insist on its
adoption. What have they not lost in times past
by their neglect ? They hare been powerless,
because they believed themselves powerless, and
have been made by turns the toys and tools of
despotic power, because they would never rise to
a sense of their own importance and a percep-
tion of their true interests.,
At the present day we expected, and we had a
right to expect, something better. In this country
their will is irresistible--there is no force that can
stand against it—and for this very reason states-
men are weak and Governments are vacillating
when the popular voice is silent, or when it is
expressed with uncertainty. Ministers, of then
own motion, will do no more than they can help.
They fear change—they hate disturbance of any
kind. They must be impelled forward by pres-
sure from without, or they will stand still. It is
vain to hope for large views or generous senti-
ments from them. They are ready to
catch them up when they pervade large
masses of the people, and when it is tolerably
certain that they must ultimately triumph in some
way or other, but they will never of themselves
originate a line of policy widely departing from
the beaten track, and calculated to effect a revo-
lution in the world, though the revolution may
be essential to safety, and certain to produce the
most beneficial results.

Therefore, we say, the question we brine. for-
ward is eminently a people's question. If they
refuse to entertain it, drop it must. Professed
politicians—men who push their way by small
arts of jobbery and intrigue—who in a bumble
station have caught some smiles of Ministerial
favour, and picked up some crumbs of Ministerial
patronage, and in a higher rank have dippedtheil
hands deeply in the public purse and basked in
the sunshine of Courts—these men will no mort
take up the question of their own will than th,
persecutors of GALILEO would admire his theory
of the earth's revolution. Principles of policy arc
important to them only as they indicate a win
ning or a losing game. Let any principle be once
taken up by the people in a manner which show
they are determined to carry it through, and the
will not want' the support of both the creature:
and the leaders of party.
The simple question for the people is whether
they wish the War to be directed to the liheratio'
of Europe, or to the rivetting of its fetters. 1
the tyranny of Austria is left untouched the Wai
against Russia will avail nothing. Our viotorie,
will be bootless triumphs. The despotic principlt
will escape from the contest unscathed, if, it does
not in the end rally, and by some daring con
spiracy plot the destruction of Europeau freedom
We implore our people to regard the facts.
Austria is next door
neighbour to Russia. Austria
feels that her very existence as an empire depend
upon the despotism of her rule- The population
of Austria Proper is set down in the ,official re-
ports at two millions three hundred thousand.
The population of her Italian provinces is-upvvard
s
of five millions, of Hungary upwards of ten
millions, of Austrian Poland five millions more,
while slavonian and German provinces make up
the remainder of the thirty-five millions she
boasts. Thus Hungary, Italy, and Poland con-
atitute more tlr.n I;•tlf of her entire nonulation•
who haL he—

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with

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C;lte 1-ms, by pc,paLci:
ust laws have conciliated their affection ; but
the day for that is past. She chose to have-slaves,
not subjects. Bey reign is now a reign of

terror. Between her and the races she tempo-
rarily keeps down by her bloody despotism an un-
dying animosity has been engendered. This feel-
ing is increasing in intensity, and Austria is so
conscious of it that her vigilance grows with the
danger, and her rule becomes continually more
arbitrary. Is this an empire to oppose an effec-
tual barrier to Russian aggression ? Is it not evi-
dent that as respects principles of government her
interests and those of Russia are the same ?
Freedom in every shape must be equally hateful
to both. They are allies by nature ; and while
Austria guards the Russian frontier, the CZAR,
' safe from attack on the most vulnerable side of
his empire—the side of Poland—will always be
able to put forth enormous strength at the extre-
mities of his dominions.
How different would be the position were Italy,
Hungary, and Poland free, and Germany liberated
from the dead weight of Austrian despotism.
We do not speak now of the invigorating influ-
ences that would shoot through Europe, when the
vivid genius of the Italian, and the chivalric
nature of the Pole, and the highly ingenious and
enterprising disposition of the Magyar, were once
more animated by freedom, and were encouraged
by its holy and exhilarating breath, to fertilise
countries which would then be their own, to
spread their language--to enhance their prosperity
—to multiply their numbers—to vivify those arts
and pursuits for which they have peculiar apti.
tude, but which are now crushed by that prostra-
tion of spirit consequent on a degrading sense of
brutal domination. We do not speak now of the
bounding and elastic life which so great a change
from bondage to liberty would diffuse through
Europe—of the jealousies and restrictions it would

extinguish for ever—of the new sources of trade
and intercourse it would open to art—of the
rellowship between States united by one great

bond of free government it would produce.
do not speak of these things now (though never
was there a time more favourable to tue
.ion of oppressed races, and to their erection into
independent States, from the solid establishment
Hof principles of unrestricted commerce as most
conducive to national prosperity), but we want to
view the question in a political light alone. Is it
more for the security of Europe that the Austrian
.mpire, constituted as it is, and perfiiious as it
has ever proved itself, should continue to exist, or
that the order of nature should be restored, and
that races should be called to the inestimable

We

blessing of national independence, whose policy

must be antagonistic to despotism, as fatal to
their life; and favourable to the closest union
with the free Governments of the West, as essen-
tial to their safety and welfare ?

This is tho question for our people. Do you
prefer that that immense tract of country—fertile
in the richest productions of nature—now known
as the Austrian empire, should be under the rule
of a despotism and in alliance with Russia, or that
it should be under free and national Governments,
and closely connected by bonds of interest and

sentiment with the Western league ? We wi

not believe that our people can be indifferent on
so momentous a matter, nor shall our pen cease

its appeals to them till they return us some direc
response.

The great NAPOLEON, when pining in St. He-

Lena, and standing on that threshold of both
worlds, whence, according to the poet, an intel-
lectual view is most wide and piercing, foresaw
the danger which menaced Europe, and predicted
the shape it would assume, and the time when it
would occur, with wonderful exactitude. in
O'MEARA's " Voice from St. Helena," we find
that lie said in 1817 :
" In about thirty-five years the Russians will either
invade India or.enter Europe with a hundred thousand
Cossacks, and two hundred thousand Russians. Russia
Inu,t either fall or aggrandise herself."
The numbers are, perhaps, very nearly those
which Russia has at present in the field against
the Allies. What follows is yet more memo-
rable :---

"In the natural course of things, in a few years Tur-
key must fall to Russia. The Powers it would injure,
and who would oppose it, are England, France, Prussia,
and Austria, tow as to Austria, it will be very easy
for Russia to engage her assistance by giving her Servia.
and other provinces bordering upon the Austrian do-
minions, reaching near to Constantinople.
" The only hypothesis that England and France may
ever be allied in sincerity will bein order to prevent this.'
Is not the man who could thus far foresee so ex-
actly the course of events entitled to some cre-
dence for predictions not yet fulfilled ? The
:entente following that above is the most impor-
tant of all :
" But even this alliance waned not avail. Prance,
England, and Prussia united cannot prevent it. RUSSIA
AND AUSThIA. CAN AT ANY TIME EFFECT IT."

This is the conjuncture we have to dread.
Events are fast hastening to the consummation
NAPOLEON foresaw. Austria and Russia are
drawing together. They calculate on the effect
which a War void of decisive results, and waged
on no principle, except it be to support the old
status quo, and to maintain despotism unimpaired
—must have in wearying the popular spirit of
France and England. When this has been ac-
complished, then will be the time to strike the
world with terror by an Austrian and Russian
alliance for the partition of Turkey. The first
step has been taken by Austria's military occu-
pation of the Principalities.
Who, looking fairly at the facts, can doubt the
imminence of the danger ? How is the full com-
pletion of NAPOLEON'S prophecy to be averted ?
We answer unhesitatingly by the immediate pre-
sence of the-Allied flags in the harbours of Venice
and Trieste, and by Austria receiving a peremp-
' P-ory summons to evacuate the territories she has
.:oo long usurped.

The complete and speedy demolition of " the
flibraltar of the North," as Sweahorg has been
arrogantly designated by
Vluscovite writers—' the Muscovite and pro-
overthrow of its quasi
:inpre,?,nable fortifications, without the loss of a
qingle life or a single vessel to the assailants, muit
prove how completely the Russian
strongholds in
he Gulf of Finland and the Baltic are at the
mercy of the Allied squadrons. Our Government
'las only to will it, and the " standing menaeeA"
ro the Scandinavian nations, the sources
of Rum=
iian influence with the Northern Powers, will be
numbered with the past. Let the orders be
given,
and the proper means supplied, and Helsingfors
and Hauge, Revel, and even Cronstadt itself, will
,hare the fate of Sweaborg ; and the Great
Northern Bear will learn that with kingdoms
as with individuals, " honesty is ever the
hest policy." It is now; in the language
of the P. R. " Lombard-street to a
China orange," on wood versus granite ; and
although much. valuable time has been wasted,
sufficient still remains to enable us to profit largely
from the results of the tardy but decisive ex-
periment.

There are still six weeks during which the ope-
rations of the Baltic Fleet may be continued,
and as Sweaborg cost only two days, we may easily
nlculato bow much y may ht accomplished
(L1172'.- Pcsiod. if Ulu pakies r.:. ti
" Nv0,04,lvlttLlb "
theta only go nLitly
and zeitiou6iy, while Cub lUalabul oi the IiICL ia
-excited to the highest 'pitch by the brilliant results
of their first greet triumph of the, Beam; and