The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-23 00:00:00

riously known to be sickly, ill-fed, and,
generally speaking, in a dreadful state of disor-
ganisation. That such is actually the case, the
world has been enabled to see beyond the chance
of being deceived by unwarrantable exaggerations.
The magnitude of the disorder here
imputed
ti
ot
the nMuscovites in Moldo-Wa llachia has
been proved by the reiterated defeat sustained by
their advance-guard in Moldo-Wallachia--by the
repeated triumph of the Turks at Oltenitza, and
by their easily accomplished retreat across the
Danube without molestation. If such is actually
the condition of the Russian soldiers along the
southern frontiers of the Principalities—how
much more certain is the incapacity of their com-
patriots for a contest with Turkish enthusiasm
along the boundaries of the SULTAN'S Asiatic domi-
nions ! So obviously vulnerable, indeed, is the
army of the AUTOCRAT in the latter direction,
that we already hear it intimated that France and
England, in the event of their ultimately partici-
pating in the struggle, will inevitably direct their
maritime energies, in the first instance, to those
shores of the Black Sea nearest to the disaffected
regions of the Caucasus ! And this, with the
enormous temptations held out in quite
different directions, in the direction of the
Crimea, and in that of Bessarabia, in the
stores of Odessa, and in the dockyards of Sebas-
topol ! No—it were preposterous to regard with
any degree of serious anxiety the situation of the
Turkish forces in the vicinity of the Asiatic pos-
sessions of ABD-UL-MEDJlD—whatever at this par-
ticular moment may have been the fate of the
Russians under BARATYNSKI. If solicitude must
be felt in any quarter for the troops of the SULTAN',
it must be along the extreme southern point of Wal-
lachia. The principal portion of the Turkish army,
after crossing the river at Widdin, is known to be
strongly and comfortably settled in the neighbour-
hood of Kalafat. Another body of troops owning
allegiance to the Porte, everybody is by this
time aware, has contrived to occupy a good posi-
tion lower down the Danube, at Braila, so as to
intercept the Russians under GORTZCHABOFF in
the event of their falling back towards Moldavia.
It is towards the vicinity of Oltenitza that
our attention must turn, if anywhere, with feelings
of eager curiosity and solicitude. There, how-
ever, we have already seen, that the Turks have
contrived to be twice victorious, and after their
last successful engagements with their antagonists,
and (observe this !) when it perfectly well suited
their own convenience, they have contrived, more-
over, to withdraw deliberately to the right bank
of the Danube WITHOUT MOLESTATION ! Leaving,
as we have seen, on their way back to their old
position, a strong body of men with forty pieces
of heavy ordnance in the little island situated in
the middle of the stream immediately opposite
Turtukai ! So much for the actual situation of
affairs at the Seat of War—a situation as propi-
tious for the SULTAN as it is ominous for the
AUTOCRAT.

It is proposed to enfranchise the counties from
Landlordism by giving them the borough fran-
chise. Ten-pound householders in counties are
affirmed to be the very cream of the community.
" Free from personal interest or ambition, re-
moved from the corrupting influences of great
towns, passing their lives in quiet and in ease,
without anything to inflame the passions or warp
the judgment, these men are peculiarly competent
to form and express sound opinions on public
affairs." Perfect political philosophers, in short ;
and what better can be done than to make them
the sole electoral constituency for the kingdom ?
The borough constituencies, and the present county
electors too, should present their humble petition
to the county ten-pound householders to relieve
them from the charge of electing members of Par-
liament. The towns should come deploring their
"corruption," and, still worse, their "democracy,"
the counties lamenting their hopeless serfdom, and
both should implore the men of " quiet and ease"
to condescend to burden themselves with the Go-
vernment of the nation. They, of all classes in
the kingdom, are best able to save their unhappy
country, now likely to be torn to pieces in the
battle between the " unbridled democracy of our
towns" and the " artificial and factitious oligarchy
of the counties." They ought to be emphatically
the SoLom called to aid in a new Reform Bill ;
indeed, the shortest way would be to pro-
pose as the title of the new measure, "An Act for
transferring the electoral franchise to the Ten-
pound Householders in counties," or briefly, "The
County Ten-pound Householders' Act." The pre-
amble might state, that " Whereas the landlords
in counties will regard their tenants' votes as
landlords' property, and towns will return cotton-
spinners and Radicals to the House of Commons,
whereby long debates do ensue, to the great
weariness of Mr. SPEAKER and others, and Coa-
lition Cabinets are plagued -with inconvenient
questions, and whereas county ten-pound house-
holders are found to be endued with every poli-
tical virtue under heaven—be it enacted," &c.
The sober truth is, that a picture diametrically
the reverse of that drawn by our contemporary,
to whom we have alluded, is, we believe, the just
one. There are, no doubt, in counties many per-
sons of the class he describes, retired tradesmen
and officers, professional men, and the leading in-
habitants of small towns ; the three former as
Conservative as he wishes by nature, the last by
circumstances and necessity. They are, altogether,
however, not a large class, and assuredly a class
most opposed to progress. Their political merits
would certainly not lead us to advocate an increase
of the number of county members, because they
had been endowed with the franchise. They are
not enough implicated in the business of practical
life to be concerned to clear the way for the men
of action. They look upon all public affairs
through the most contracted medium, and should
rather be designated as men of stiff and unen-
lightened than unwarped judgments. Very re-
spectable persons, no doubt, some of whom take
rather long credit, though most of them duly
settle their accounts at Christmas ; but not per-
sons, we imagine,
very familiar with the trade
and navigation returns,
though regularly noting
the price of Consols--persons, in fact, who were
judgment
Trade, ad
exactly
born and brought up before the days
of Parlia-
mentary
Reform, or, at least,
of Free
who
at f u
,
ought, of course, to enjoy the full rights of citizens
thebut
salt
lho wouldoro
electoral
eoett be,ra con
in our-
stituottcy. idinei
The pre-
sent county members would have every One of
their votes.

The grand error of the picture we have alluded
to is one of defect. Persons of the class just de-
scribed, out of harmony as they are with the age,
are but a small part of those who would be com,
prised in the enlargement of suffrage proposed.
The vast majority of county ten-pound house-
holders would be a mere increase of the number
of each landlord's electoral serfs ; they would con-
sist of village tradesmen as absolutely at the land-
lord's disposal as the farmers themselves. The
village population is the most numerous population
of the counties. And who are the ten-pound house-
holders in a village ? Why, besides the farmers,

try village. According to the size of the place
there are more exceptions, but, generally speaking,
the electors of small agricultural towns and bo-
roughs must go with the landlords.
Of course, we shall be asked whether we then,
as Liberals, object to extending the county fran-
chise. Our answer is very short. We do not ob-
ject to, we demand, a real extension ; but
we repudiate a sham. We would grant a
yet wider extension willingly enough, but it
should be by an increase of the number of
independent voters, not of the number of land-
lords' tools. The proposed extension would only
strengthen the power of the lords of the soil
by widening its base. Election agents would still
poll landlords, not farmers and tradesmen. The
" quiet and easy livers" would spontaneously vote
with the squires ; the farmers and tradesmen must
do it. And yet, on the ground of more voters
being put into their hands, the landlords are to
ask for more members ! It really reminds us of
the principle adopted in the Slave States of Ame-
rica, where though of course no slave has a vote,
yet they are to a large extent included in the po-
pulation estimates, according to which the number
of members to each State is allotted. The more
slaves in a State, the more representatives it has ;
and it would seem the more voters the landlords
can have placed at their disposal, the more county
members we must have—the slaveholders and
landlords being the only real voters in the respec-
tive cases. Very plausible ; but it will not do.
No, we mean to have independent voting to
begin with. That is the flag which all real Re-
formers must nail to the mast. Give county
voters the Ballot, or any other efficient protection,
and then give votes as freely as you please. With-
out this all else is but " a mockery, a delusion,
and a snare." A mockery to the voter to whom
I you offer a vote, indeed, but a vote which both
he and you know he dares not use as he pleases ;
a delusion in the aspect of liberality which it pre-
sents to those who demand an extension of poli-
tical freedom ; and a snare to the conscientious
elector, who is tempted to warp his judgment to
the necessities of his position. Our Peelite and
Whig Reformers may flounder as long as they
please amidst a flood of ingenious proposals and
suggestions, all intended to stave off the real thing,
but the country we think will not be so easily
gulled. Any measure which does not secure in-
dependent voting and large constituencies, which
does not vastly enlarge the number of England's
freemen, and make them freemen not in name but
in reality, will be sure of a fate as ignominious as
that of the Whig abortion of 1852—it will be
consigned to its grave without funeral rites and
without a monument.

d easy),
and here and there one of- the " quiet an
class above adverted to, the village shopkeeper,
the publican, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the
wheelwright, with perhaps a neat dwelling or two
tenanted by widows or single ladies, who, of course,
must wait the establishment of " women's rights"
In England before their legislative judgment will
be in requisition. Not one of these dare vote
against the surrounding landlords any more than
the poor farmers themselves ; yet they would, we
have little doubt, constitute three-fourths of the
proposed addition to the county electors. The
larger part of the other fourth would be the prin-
cipal persons in small towns ; the few of these who
are not in trade belong' to
the "quiet and easy
living" Conservatives, but the tradesmen of such
towns are, as the rule, as much concerned to
pleaze the adjacent landlords as those of the c0w1...!

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 23, 1853

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS.

which we confide to its responsibility until further
orders.
" GREGORY ALEXANDER GRIKA.
"Jassy, Nov. 18."
A private letter from Constantinople, of the 9th
inst., announces that news had been received of the
Turco-Egyptian squadron, of whose operations
Trebizond is the centre. It is stated f hat a divisiOn
of that squadron, composed of the Egyptian ship-
of-the-line Fayoum, the Turkish ship-of-the-line
Fevysen, and the frigates Fadoullab. and Sirigiad,
had perceived a Russian division proceeding to land
supplies at Poti. The Russian ships, inferior in
number, had escaped in consequence of a thick
fog ; but a transport, laden with troops, had run
aboard a Russian frigate, and went down. The
Turco-Egyptian squadron kept a strict watch on
the coast of the Black Sea, from Trebizond to
Redout Kaleh, in which district the army of Abdi
Paella is operating. A Turkish garrison Ipialadcebdeeinn
stationed in fort St. Nicholas, and it was
an excellent state of defence. It is ascertained
that the Russians are inferior in number in that
country.
We read in the Patric :—" All the letters which
have been received from Vienna to-day confirm the
accounts of the capture of Krajowa by the Turks.
The town was not taken, as has been stated, with-
out firing a shot, but after a warm rencontre with
the Russians under General Fischbach. Krajowa,
a town in Wallachia, is situated on the left bank
of a small river called the Chyl, only a short dis-
tance from Kalafat. It has a strong fort well
placed, and which, although in a bad state, would
powerfully aid in its defence. It is announced
that, according to the last accounts, Omer Paella
is to fortify himself with a body of 40,000 men in
the triangle between Kalafat, Krajowa, and Nara-
cat. He will thus secure his communications be-
tween the two banks of the river, and establish a
very strong basis of operations to act in Lesser
Wallachia."
As the Constantinople letter of the 7th in the
Wanderer contains much matter which appears to
be incorrect, it will, instead of being given in ex-
tense, be worked up into the following summary of
news from the east. We read in the paper just
mentioned, that the French and English Ministers
had presented notes to the Porte, in which it was
declared, " that France and England would stand
by the Porte, although they could not act on the
offensive against Russia. The sentence is given as
it stands in the original, but what its real meaning
is no layman can pretend to say. M. de la Cour
disapproved of Omer Pacha's passage of the Danube.
" The English ambassador, who will let the British
fleet enter the Black Sea, to protect the coast
against any attack on the part of the Russians, has
offered vessels for the transport of troops to the
Asiatic coast." It is learned, from Odessa,
that the Ist and 2d Infantry Corps will advance
towards the Pruth, and Poland be occupied by the
gUard and grenadier corps. On the 7th, the whole
of the Turco-Egyptian fleet was to enter the Black
Sea with orders to attack the Russians wherever
they might be found. Suleiman, who appears to be
the wisest of pashas, has placed the rlemahs and
Christian priests in Aleppo on the best possible foot-
ing. On the sth Namik Pasha left Constantinople
on board of a French vessel. On the Gth, the
Turkish, French, and English Admirals held a con-
ference on board the Mahmoudie. It is said that a
part -of the Turkish fleet will go to Batoum, and
four French and English steamers cruize off the
Russian coast. The strength of the army on the
Asiatic-Russian frontier is about 70,000 men, of
whom one-third are regular troops. 24,000 are at
Batoum, under. Selim Pasha, and 46,000, under
Abdi Pasha, on the frontier of Grusia. As horses
or oxen could not be procured to draw the artillery,
the inhabitants of the different districts relieved
each other, dragging 30 guns, weighing 1,500 cwt.,
all the way from Trebizond to Kars. The English
are said to display a singular longing to try whether
Sebastopol is really impregnable. " The arrival of
French and English auxiliary troops has been
officially promised by the representatives of the
Western Powers." The information contained in
this last sentence is of a very questionable kind,
but it cannot well be omitted.
From Belgrade we learn that on the morning of
the 14th an important event occurred there. The
new Russian. Consul-General, who arrived there
three weeks ago, took down his flag and was to
leave Belgrade on the morrow. The Servian Go-
vernment, after a great deal of hesitation and un-
questionable embarrassment, thus makes a public
acknowledgment of the Sovereignty of the Porte,
and an announcement of the determination not to
co-operate with Russia at present. The Councillor
of State, de Munich, came to Belgrade three weeks
ago with aletter from Count Nesselrode to the
Prince, accrediting him on the Russian part as Con-
ul-General, but of course without any berat or
exequatur from the Porte addressed to the Pasha of
Belgrade. The Servian Government was there-
fore in a very great embarrassment ; for although
the Russian agent was technically no consul, and
could not be so in the dominions of the Porte, yet
the power that Russia has frequently developed in
this principality, and the incontestable prestige of
Russia among the people, made the Government
pause before they put an affront on the Russian
agent, who had, avoiding the Turks, sought to
establish himself, not only not within the purely
local Turkish district of Belgrade, nor even in the
mixed district, but in the purely Servian one. A
few days ago the Prince paid him a state visit in
full uniform in return for his presenta:ion, and
M. de Muchin himself, aware of his equivocal
position, had gone in uniform to the Prince, but
only in plain cothes to the other Consuls-General,
and when informed by the Servian Government
that the Pasha would require his expulsion, he
answered that " Servia had only to pay her
tribute to the Porte, which was an acquit-
tance in. full of her obligations to Turkey." The
Servian Government in all this painful crisis,
having gone upon the principle of speaking fair
to both Russia and the Porte, and avoiding a colli-
sion with either, has at length, as far as forms
go, cut the Gordian knot, and the Pasha of
Belgrade, backed by the Consuls of England and
France, having distinctly told the Government here
that an agent of Russia on Ottoman ground was
no Consul without his berat or exequatur, and that,
moreover, his presence after actual war had com-
menced was an abnegation of the Porte's Suzerain
rights, and that M. de Muchin . himself, remaining
on Ottoman ground, placed himself hors de la loi
Internationale. The Prince has very prudently
yielded to the indisputable soundness of these
reasons, and M. de Muchin has been requested to
withdraw (which he has done with a very good
grace), having said that, being unprovided with a
credential to the Pasha, his diplomatic position
was incomplete. He goes to Semlin.
The following letter has been addressed to the
journals :
" I feel myself compelled by a sense of duty to con-
tradict all the accounts which have given to General
Prim a command in the Turkish army. When I quitted
the general I left him full of gratitude for the atten-
tions which had been lavished on him by the Sultan, and
by the principal personages in the empire ; but the ques-
tion was never entertained of his entering the Turkish
service—a thing morally impossible, seeing that there
vas never an instance of a Christian commanding an
Ottoman corps d'armee' and that it was not probable
that the general would renounce the brilliant position
which he held in his own country. The recent news
which I have received from him proves to me that he
has followed with impetuosity the movements of the
armies, exposing himself with his officers to the thickest
of the fire ; but I can assure you that he has never de-
parted from the instructions which lie has received from
his Government. You will oblige me by inserting this
letter in your estimable journal.
(Signed) " Marquis DE SERAVALLE, Secretary
of the Special Mission presided
over by General Prim.'

FRANCE.
The subject of the coronation of the Emperor is
again mooted ; and it is believed that the ceremony
will be performed on the anniversary of the mar-
riage, the 29th of January, by the Archbishop of
Paris, who will have previously received a car-
dinal's hat. The rumour also prevails of a projected
marriage between the young King of Portugal and
the daughter of the King of the Belgians, who is
now in her 14th year, Dom Pedro V. is in his
17th.

The Count de Walewski left Paris on Monday
night for London, after a stay at Fontainebleau of
only two days. It is understood that he has not
only received instructions from the Government as
to the course it means t) take with respect to the
Eastern question, but that he is the bearer of an
offensive and defensive treaty—or, more properly
speaking, a treaty of pacification—which has been
agreed to between England and France, and in
which the other European Powers will be invited
to join. It remains to be seen whether the
Northern Powers will submit to this sort of arbi-
tration. Among diplomatists it is thought that
the plan will be as unsuccessful as the negotiations
at Vienna, or the conferences at Olmutz.
The news that the English and French fleets had
entered the Black Sea has created au immense
sensation in Paris ; and the fact is confirmed by
other telegraphic despatches which have reached
Paris direct from Vienna. On the other hand, it
is confidently stated that the Emperor of Russia,
on learning that his troops had met with a defeat,
gave immediate orders to Prince Gortschakoff to
assume the offensive.
Reports were current yesterday of an insurrec-
tion at Lyons, caused by the high price of bread.
It has already been mentioned that the cholera
has shown itself in Paris. The number of cases
does not exceed nine a day, and the disease is con-
fined to the sth, Bth, 9th, and 11th arrondissements.
A Council of Ministers was held at Fontaine.