The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-08 00:00:00

9,600,0001. worth of her exports, or 38 per
cent. of her whole produce ; while France received
8 per cent., and Turkey 5 per cent—the Allies,
wards of one-half of the whole

!ivi4

exports of Russia. The cessation of this traffic
alone could not but have had a paralysing effect
on Russia, and common sense indicated the pro-
priety, not to say the necessity, of securing such
cessation.l Yet the: fact is our importations of
Russian tallow land flax have greatly increased,
and during the first eight months of last year
there was an increase of wheat from 1,600,000 to
3,000,000 qrs. How this has taken place is easily
enough explained. Prussia, the German States,
Holland, and Belgium have had matters their own
way; and, while affecting neutrality, have been act-
ing as brokers for Russia, at all events facilitating
and profiting by the transit of Russian produce
through. their territories. The neutrality of
these States has been our bane.

The most remarkable thing of all, however, is,
that there is every reason to believe that articles

contraband of war have been exported largely
from Great Britain and Ireland to foreign pOrts

since the commencement of the War. It was

bad enough one would have thought to suffer the
enemy's produce to be imported—but to
suffer the very weapons he needs to
fight us with to be exported to Russia,
however indirectly, is worse. For any Govern-

ment official to authorise such exportation is
really monstrous ; and yet, according to the
editor of a Hull paper—as stated by Lord BERNEES
in the House of Peers the night before last--

fifty tons of lead were shipped from Hull the
other day, via Memel, to St. Petersburg. The
Customs-house authorities at that port, it would
appear, refused to pass the lead as an important
munition of war, but a telegraphic message received
from London authorised them to forward it, and
they did. The reader will imagine this must have
been a blunder. However well persuaded he may
be of the foolish infatuation of men in office, hie
will hesitate to believe that the Custom-house
officers at Hull were wrong, and the superior au-
thority they appealed to was right. Yet so it
was. Before the beginning of the War, as Earl
GRANVILLE tells us, the exportation from this
country of arms, ammunition, and naval and
military stores was prohibited by proclamation ;
and, when War was declared, the prohibition was
limited to three classes of articles : (1) arms, (2)
gunpowder, saltpetre, and brimstone, and (3)
marine boilers and engines—additional restrictions
being subsequently placed on blue lias and
cement! Possibly it was thought the Russians
would have trowels to spread the cement, but
arms, gunpowder, and the materials to make
gunpowder being prohibited there could be Lo
harm in the lead ! So our neutral enemy Prussia
has been kindly helping us to get rid of it,
thereby serving Russia, and improving her own
finances. All things considered, it was time for
Lord JOHN RUSSELL to interfere and obtain
the renewal of the promises of Prussia
on the subject of contraband trade pass-
ing through her dominions, and the ex-
pression of an intention of rendering more
effectual the means iu her power of preventing
such traffic. An imperfect blockade ; Odessa
spared ; Prussia., and other. States, suffered to
serve the enemy, under the guise of neutrals ;
thus the prolonged defence of Sebastopol ; the ha-
rassing of cur forces, and the continuance of the
War, are accounted for. Bungling everywhere,
and all throughout. If peace is net speedily
concluded, something should be done in reference
to neutrals. Things cannot go on as they are.

WANTED, a nominative to a verb—the verb
is active, and requires a masculine nominative in
the third person singular. No one unconnected
with the Government or the army need apply.
Address to Messrs. MUN. TZ, LAYARD, NEWDRGATE,
&c., House of Commons.

We have been led to insert the above adver-
tisement by noting the difficulty in which several
Honourable Members were placed on Monday
night. They found themselves most inconveniently
restricted in their phraseology; the passive verb,
generally a plural one, was for ever recurring.
Each speaker wanted to come to masculine gen-
der, nominative case, third person singular, but
nowhere was the desideratum to be found—there
was nothing for it but to play on the everlasting
passive, and that, too, with no cause, agent, or
instrument attached. For instance—" orders
were issued" that no medical man should peach to
the Crimean commissions without permission from
head-quarters. Oh, could Mr. LAYARD but have
phrased it M. N. or N. M. issued orders ! So,
" boots were sent out too little for the men's
feet ; " " crooked sights were fixed " on rifles
which were all but sent to the Crimea. " The
fusees to the shells were so badly made" that
—LAYARD being eye-witness—not more than one
in ten exploded ! and they cost us more than 61.
each. " The frieze for the men's great-coats was
manufactured" of such wretched quality that it
might be seen through like gauze. The "pat-
terns for the arms were given out months after
the order ;" consequently, the orders could not be
executed in time. It would seem as if verbs of
administrative offending rejoice in the passive
voice. It is to be hoped, however, that Mr.
ROEBUCK'S Committee will succeed in answering
our advertisement. If so; we shall not fail to
put the verba delinquendi into the active voice,
with their appropriate third person nominatives.

The nation has happily got rid of Lord ABER-
DEEN. Who will abate the intolerable nuisance
of the Peace Society ? Who will, for the firm)
being, undertake to muzzle Mr. JOHN BRIGHT on
all matters relating to the War? The man who
can do so will render important service to the
country—one deserving of the highest recom-
pence that can be offered. We should be very
unwilling to sanction any impediment to the most
perfect freedom of discussion. Oa domestic con-
cerns we can tolerate the utmost latitude of
opinion. When parties choose to utter/unmitigated
nonsense, to neglect their own legitimate business
for matters of which they are profoundly ignorant,
the mischief corrects itself—the poison carries
with it its own antidote. But it is otherwise in
foreign affairs, more especially in matters relating
to war. They cannot mislead their countrymen,
but they may deceive the enemy—may induce
our opponents to suppose that the opinions so
prominently put forward, so improperly obtruded
on the community, are participated in by any
but a small and insignificant clique. They well
know that if England were polled from end to end
not one man out of a hundred would be in favour
of the armistice which they suggest; that it must
bo fatal to any Ministry by whom it was sanc-
tioned ; and yet, without the possibility of doing
any good, they endeavour to encourage our adver-
saries by gross misrepresentations of the state of
public opinion. This is worse than a mistake—it is
a positive crime. And if something cannot be de-
vised to deter them from so impolitic a course—
ifeeto they cannot be induced to act in a manner
nmoreation a demonstration
stra true-hearted
should
ou l d
be
m made Englishmen
detoprove
p—ae
how completely unwarranted they have been in
the unauthorised and incorrect assumptions so im-
properly put forward,