The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-05 00:00:00

(From, the Daily News.)

It is desii-able that there should be no mistake
with -•respect to the exact nature of the news of a
projected declaration of war at Constantinople,
which we published yesterday. The different
statements which have been put in circulation on
this head are derived from sources which have
nothing else in common but their conveyance by
electric telegraph from Vienna. The information
received at the Foreign-office, and at some of the
Foreign Embassies, is simply that the Great Coun-
cil of the Ottoman Empire has; resolved to advise
the Sultan to declare war against Russia. Other
information—promulgated ostensibly on the autho-
rity of some unofficial telegraphic message—goes to
affirm that the Sultan had actually signed a decla-
ration of war. This latter account is liable to sus-
picion from difficulties as to the time for conveying
it from Constantinople to Trieste ; from the fact
that there has been of late a regular, manufactory
of alarming and exaggerated rumours at Trieste ;
and also from its having been published along with
some reports of actual hostilities which could not
possibly have been brought by the same route, yet
were so printed as to have the appearance of resting
on the same authority. The only intelligence
therefore, that at present appears to be entitled tc;
any credence is, that the Great Council had recom-
mended a declaration of war.

This restricted version of the story appears liable
to no other doubt than arises from the obscurity
which uniformly, if not necessarily, attaches to the
curt phraseology of the electric telegraph. A day
or two must probably elapse before the detailed
explanation is brought by a human messenger, who,
if he move more tardily than the electric spark,
can at least carry more bulky and more explicit mes-
sages. That even the official version of the story
increases the probability of a warlike solution of the
Eastern difficulties there is no doubt ; but in this
there is no cause for panic. This contingency,
however deprecated, has all along been contem-
plated as possible, and should it come will be met
without any flutter of the national pulse. The agi-
tation of the public securities yesterday is no index
of the national feeling ; for the funds are prover-
bially as nervous and vapourish as a fine lady.
The Ministers at present in town have been as-
sembled to deliberate on this news. The meeting
can scarcely have been a very pleasant one. No
English Minister likes to look the contingency of
war closely and directly in the face. In the first
place, the responsibility is inreality onerous enough
to weigh upon the spirits of anyman. In the second
place John Bull, however enthusiastic he may be at
the outset of a popular war, is very apt to get tired
of it when the bills come to be paid. or any tempo-
rary reverses occur, and to blame Ministers for do-
ing what he entirely sanctioned. But worse than
either of these considerations some, at least, of the
Ministers present must have felt painfully that to
their own half-hearted,' undecided policy was wholly
and solely owing the possibility of all their fine-
spun negotiations ending in a war. We explained
yesterday how the lowered tone of Russia and the
professed readiness of Austria to act once more in
concert with the Western Powers, was owing en-
tirely to the conviction which the failure of Count
Brentano's wind-raising mission had flashed upon.
the Emperor and Czar of the impossibility of re-
plenishing their exhausted treasures. Had those
two Powers been sooner put to the push, they
would sooner have discovered that they cannot
well afford to go to war. In that case their re-
treat before a determined expression of will by
France and England would have been unqualified.
Now, the vanity of Russia at least has been brought
into play. Its retreat will be too obvious for its
proud stomach. There will be a haggling, and it
may be a brief local war on the Danube to save ap-
pearances ; for a pampered despot does not for a
moment weigh the sufferings and bereavements of
other men in the balance against his own wayward
will.

As Radetzky said, however, " the battle will be
brief" (der Kampf wird kurtz sein). The battle,
indeed, to which he referred is not yet fought out,
and his declaration was premature. But any war
in which Russia may, to save appearances, engage
with the Porte, and its allies, must be brief on ac-
count of the condition of the Russian treasury. We
urge this not as a reason why France and England
should stand true to their engagements with Tur-
key. We do not even lay so much stress as
some do upon the treaty-engagements which bind
these powers to support Turkey ; except in so far
as the observance of treaty stipulations is indispen-
sable to the existence of a system of international
law, as opposed to a state of international anarchy.
We rest the obligation of England and France to
support the independence and integrity of the Otto-
man empire against Russian aggression, upon its
being necessary to the defence of civilisation, impe-
rilled by a threatened irruption of barbarism.
There are two causes which ought to be sacred in
the eyes of every European of this ago. The first
and holiest is the individual liberty of the citizen,
guarded and regulated by constitutional laws. The
second is national independence as necessary to pro-
tect parliamentary government where it exists, or
to promote its development where it has yet to be
called into being. The enemies of the one are the
enemies of the other. The ultimate object of the
Bourbons, when they trampled down the national
independence of Spain, of the Hapsburgs when they
trode out the spark of national independence
nin.
Naples, was to sweep from the earth principles_ and
institutions the mere existence of which migh,t.l._..t
spire emulation in their own subjects.. Tpuerk°Deiyns
of the House of Romanzow in attacking
to gain a vantage ground, whence it
sm.naYEautoapnY.
time march to assail constitutional state lit Turkey
In England we are called upon to sundividuai
both by our devotion to the cause. France they
liberty and national independence;
rineonsideration.
, thea
stand,.thaid of which the
are called upon by at least
15 threatened
The European civilisaticT
French and English nations
by Russia. . • tem are, of course, likely to
Ministers .
Our English t as regards the course
persist in thteirticiturni
pursue. it is of no use repeatine,
they intend
+iont render this inconsistent with the
the reasons
frank understanding which ought to exist between
and its Government. a free people
A day of reck-
oning will come at last. If the policy of Ministers
hall then appear to have been worthy of the na-
tion, their reticence will doubtless be forgotten and
forgiven. But if their silence shall prove to have
been a cover to a policy which they must have
known would outrage national feelings, the retri-
bution will be increased tenfold.

(From the Morning Post.)
The intelligence from Constantinople, which we
published yesterday, if it cause no surprise, cannot
but excite regret that the diplomacy of Europe and
the efforts of her statesmen,. have as yet, so signally
failed to settle a dispute m which right is all on
one side and wrong alone on the other. There ap-
pears now to be every likelihood that the force of
arms and the chances of war will soon be engaged
in solving difficulties which the negotiations and
conferences, the notes and circulars of the. Cabinets
of Europe have been so slow to overcome.
On the 26th ult., a Grand Council, convoked by
the Sultan, and numbering one hundred and
twenty-two civil and religious dignitaries, from
amongst the most experienced and distinguished
of his subjects, met to consider the rejection of the
modifications of the Vienna Note by the Emperor
of Russia, and the course to be pursued consequent
on that rejection. It was resolved by the Council
that it would be contrary to the dignity and sub-
versive of the sovereign authority of the Sultan)
to sign the Vienna Note without the modifies.
tions suggested by the Divan ; and that, inas-
muchs as the Czar declared those modifications
to be totally inadmissible, and refused to abandonot.e
his demand for an engagement destrucititvoenlyf h
independence of the Ottoman Ern
necessary for
at once to adopt the measures
to free his
re-
mained for the Council to advise thpeisrSenu:ltan to pro-
ceedthe preservation of his empire,heir
invader. ( Front the Morning Advertiser.)
dominions from the presence of t
ph that the resolu-
We gather from ale_ The problem is at last solved. The knot is at
distinctly to this effect, and length cut. The die is now cast. The day of
be dlt
that the next intelligence doubt is past. Suspense
1 tionswe
have in
has been succeeded by
have
er
war was effectually limits been acted upon, not ;certainty, ' t
flair
toy.
will inform they
question were
nwbetr
but that
us that We
forbearance
r hhase ara beennee e
f nations,proclaimed.
as Therewell a
sa are
th
declaration of war—,
by a
and
hostilities commenced by the pas- 1 individuals. Turkey has been patient. She has
proclaimed.
th—but by a summons to the Rus- ; borne much ; few nations, even of those making
sage of the Pruva,cuate
the Principalities atthe •philosophy, 1 ' troops to e
sian once, greatest pretensions to would have

shown the endurance she has done. In addition to
an original injury of the gravest kind, she has daily
been subjected to fresh acts of insult. At length
the accumulation became so great that she could
bear it no longer. She would have been unworthy
a place among the nations•of Europe if she had.
Patience ceases to be a virtue after it has been tried
for a certain length of time, and to a certain ex-
tent. Then it degenerates into a loss of all-self-
respect. It becomes pusillanimity, and sinks the
nation exhibiting it to the lowest point in the esti-
mation of all whose good opinion is . worth pos-
sessing.
Longer forbearance on the part of Turkey would
have been discreditable to her character, and sub-
versive of her position among the nations of the
worid. The time had arrived when it was fitting
that resentment should take the place of patience.
Turkey has acted as her best friends would have
wished her, in boldly telling the Czar to his face
that she would submit to his insolence no longer,
but would meet him on the battle-field, to resent
the insults he had offered to her, and "to attempt at
least to visit him with righteous retribution for the
wrongs widcb she had received at his hands.
Those who are in the habit of reading this jour-
nal will be prepared for the intelligence which has
just reached this country from Constantinople.
We have not only, day after day, affirmed that
the Sultan would not recede a single inch from the
ground which he had taken up, but that the com-
mencement of actual hostilities might be expected
at-any hour. The meeting of from 100 to 120 of
the magnates of Turkey, who unanimously coun-
selled the immediate declaration of war, was a pro-
ceeding which merely gave due formality to a course
of action which the Divan had before determined.
to adopt.
The great question now is—To what extent are
France and England prepared to support Turkey t
France, we presume, will do in the matter precisely
what England does. What, then, will England
do ? Before answering the question, it may be
right to remind our readeia that whir., we have
never ceased to say that we have no faith in the
imbecile Russia-ridden Aberdeen, nor in the see-
tion of the Cabinet who share his views, we have,
within ejast-ten-days, inclined to the belief that
rston„ -Cleateirdon, and Russell have
'v'erffrearly, if not quite, worked up their determi-
nation to the sticking point, and that they will in-
sist on England acting, in the crisis which has oc-
curred, in a manner worthy of her character.
The Morning _Herald, for whose zealous and able
co-operation with us on the Turkish question, we
feel the greatest gratitude, is afraid that our confi-
dence in these noble lords is misplaced. Our con-
temporary- says :—" We observe that one of our
contemporaries, the Morning Advertiser, with whom
we have all along agreed upon the merits,or rather
demerits, of the Eastern question, has taken it into
his head that the Government of England is at
last going to act an honest and straightforward part
in this hitherto disgraceful business. We confess
we are of a totally different opinion upon this
matter, and cannot help thinking that the ' last
stage' will be, if possible, worse than the first.'
Upon what data the Morning Advertiser grounds
its supposition that Lord Clarendon will at last act
boldly and honourably, we really cannot discover.
We look back in vain through the history of the
noble lord's life for any precedent, and Ending
nothing but a long tissue of mystification and mis-
representation in everything in which he has ever
taken a part, we must reluctantly conclude that
similar characteristics will mark his career as long
as the British public is content to tolerate him in
an cfficial capacity."
The data on which we ground our opinion—only
a modified one, be it remembered—in favour of
Lord Clarendon are, first, the assurance given by
Lord Palmerston at Perth, that if he be backed by
the country, he will, in this crisis, act with that
energy which the honour of England, the interests
of Turkey, and the wen-being of Europe demand ;
and, secondly, that the Noble Lord is well known
to have written of late some bold dispatches to St.
Petersburgh, in which the Czar has been explicitly
told that in certain contingencies, entirely depen-
dent on his own conduct, England, acting in con-
junction with France, will not hesitate at any
course, however extreme, which may be necessary
to check his ambition, repel his aggression on an
unoffending neighbour, and chastise his insolence.
The Morning Herald goes on to show, that the
modified confidence which the Morning Advertiser
has of late felt a disposition to repose in Lords
Palmerston and Russell, is also misplaced. Our
contemporary will remember, that we grounded
this confidence in a very great measure on the in-
tense and universal feeling in favour of Turkey,
which now possesses the public mind. How they
would act, did no such public feeling exist, is
another matter. We are inclined to think that
they may prove the men for the occasion, if they
are drilled and driven up to the mark by public
opinion, expressed at such great gatherings of the
people as took place on Monday in Leicester and.
Hanley. Let a sense of their duty be only thus
whipped into them, and they will, we believe,
perform it.

As, on the other hand, for Lord Aberdeen, no-
thing can be made of him. He is incorrigible. He
will neither lead nor drive. He is the friend, and,
in effect, the Minister of the Czar. Nothing will
induce him to do aught that is really adverse to the
Russian interest. We therefore give him up to the
Herald, and have not a word to say in the way of
objection to its portraiture of the ",travelled
Thane," when it thus expresses itself :—" The no-
minal. Premier, of course, must be included in the
same category, and from him nothing can be ex-
pected, except that he should continue to practise
tee commit lion down—shall
our
c destinies
weth es
to
men who have
the same genuflexions to autocracy which Byrort
described as being too much the tendency of English
statesmen as long as 30 years gone by :
' What, shall reviving thraldom again be
The patched-up image of enlightened days?
Pay the wolf homage, proffering lowly gaze
And servile knees to thrones?'
"The •
picture is true to this hour, anti- always
will beShsallo weas who
long as struck w
no strk h
spirit of public honour or
generosity."