The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-26 00:00:00

THE CONDUCT OF PRUSSIA.

(F;'oim t7te 0020it2ttionnel.)

The Cabinet of 'Berlin, which had constantly
postponed the moment when it would be neessary
to give its final decision on the question of the East,
is said to have asked France and England to con-
clude a special treaty with Prussia. M. de Man-
teuffel hopes for two advantages from that course
—one, to gain time ; and the other, to elude such
of the engagements of the treaty of Vienna as
would place Prussia too much in suspicion at the
Court of Russia. But it will require only a few
hours for M. do Usedom to comprehend that his
mission must inevitably fail. Prussia complains
that when she is invited purely and simply to ac-
cede to a treaty which she has not been called on
to aid in drawing up, she is driven to the rank of
a secondary power. Whose fault is that ? Have
England and France held apart in the Eastern
question ? Is it not Prussia who has remained in
arrear of Austria ? What can Prussia complain of
which she has not to blame herself for ? Has she
not refused to adopt the part which belonged
to her in Germany in the war of the East ? Has
she not by her tergiversations, subtleties, and
choppings-about lessened her importance by show-
ing that she was feeble and fearful ? And if the
war disquiets her, when it menaces to extend,
ought she not to reproach herself for having con-
tributed to keep it up by giving the Emperor of
Russia, by her hesitations, a dangerous confidence.?
Let Prussia, therefore, blame herself for the situa-

tion in which she is placed. That situation as yet
only interests her in her pride of a great power ;
but if she does not hasten to get out of it
by adhering simply to the treaty of Vienna, she
may soon have to look to herself as an independent
State. Perhaps a prompt and vigorous resolution.
of Germany could still put a stop to the develop-
ments of the war. Let Prussia not allow that
last chance of quiet that remains to her to escape,
for if the war goes on, it must extend, and once
that it has extended it will become impossible to
escape its grasp by a chimerical neutrality. If M.
de Usedom, as is announced, is to visit Paris on
leaving London, the spectacle which strikes him
in England will strike him in France. France,
who had no idea of war, and who wished for peace,
has not merely her interests to protect ; she has
reverses to avenge. She was thinking merely
of the peaceful and fruitful struggles of industry,
when Russia came imprudently to arouse her old
military instincts and to remind her that she had
to exercise against her terrible reprisals. As the
Emperor Nicholas has 'thus offered of himself
an occasion which she did not call for, but which
she accepts resolutely, of effacing the remembrance
of 1812, it is not she who will be wanting in soldiers
or who will calculate her sacrifices. And even if
she had not the immense resources of which she dis-
poses, she would not hesitate for a moment. What
then must it be, when everything concurs to render
the struggle more easy and success more certain ?
According to the news from St. Petersburg to
Warsaw, the Emperor Nicholas is collecting con-
siderable forces and is fanaticising his people. Let
it be so ; but let him not forget this, that since he
has placed arms in the bands of the France of
Napoleon 111. she will not lay them down until she
has avenged the France of Napoleon I.

THE TREATY OF 2d DECEMBER.

(From the Siecle.)

We have not seen, like many optimists, a progress
towards peace in the treaty of the 21 Dec., but we have
welcomed it as giving a possibility of carrying on the
war under better conditions. The Emperor of Austria,
by engaging himself not only to occupy the Danubian
principalities, but to guarantee them against the return
of the Russian forces, and that without throwing any
obstacle in the way of the combinations and movements
of the French, English, and Ottoman troops in the oc-
cupied territom ies, has made a step in the Western Al-
liance. Every act which draws Austria closer to us na-
turally removes her from Russia. But does it follow
that we think that power, which is so cautious, will on
the Ist January find itself engaged with us in a defen-
sive and offensive action ? We do not believe it; but it
is already something—it is a great deal to have drawn
it into a treaty which it cannot abandon without flatly
declaring itself our enemy. The time of protocols has
passed away ; and when, after the delay agreed on, Aus-
tria shall declare that her new efforts have been without
effect, and that-Russia refuses to accept the guarantees
demanded, the Cabinets of London and Paris will only
have to propose to the Emperor Francis Joseph the
most efficacious measures for obtaining the object of the
alliance. We are of the opinion of Lord John Russell—
we think that, according to the terms of the treaty,
Austria, without failing in her plighted faith, can accept
or refuse action in common on the basis which must be
already settled between England and France, if the
Cabinets, as we willingly admit, have had the most or-
dinary foresight. But we object to the last remarks of
the same minister ou the subject. We believe that he
has gene too fir. It is impossible that France and Eng-
land do not intend to diminish the territory of Russia.
Responsible ministers are not always obliged to say all
they think, but they should never make use of imprudent
language. If Austria has not engaged herself, there is
an obligation arising from the treaty of the 2d Decem-
ber which has an incalculable value—and that obliga-
tion is that she cannot honourably b.oome the ally of
Russia. Cunniug, may ba employed for a time in diplo-
macy, but at length the moment arrives far speaking
explicitly. If Austria had only desired to give time
for the Czar to make more efficacious preparations
than he had done, she would have played for a
great stake. The force of France and England is not
only in their brilliant soldiers and their brave sailors,
but in a reserve which they ought in our opinion to have
made their advanced guard—that of oppressed nation.
alities which are only waiting for a signal to rise. There
is also in the treaty a very serious engagement ; Austria,
like the other two Powers, cannot enter into any ar-
rangement whatsoever with Russia without having de-
liberated in common. Except by an odious act of trea-
son, it is impossible for Austria to have a secret under-
standing with the Czar. Thanks to the progress realised
in Europe during the last sixty years, there is not a Go-
vernment which is not obliged to count with public
opinion—that superior power which every day extends
the limits of its empire. We have, no doubt, reason to
fear diplomatic lukewarmness and but we have
little dread of treason. There is in the present state of
things an element which diplomatists and party men
seem never to take into account, and which, however, is
not without importance—we mean the pride and obsti-
nacy of the Emperor of Russia. We cannot be-
lieve that the monarch, who is the most powerful
in Europe by the extent of his territories, and the
number of his subjects, can accept all the public
humiliation which flow from this treaty of the 2d
December. What ! can the Czar of All the Russias—
after having been forced to raise the siege of Silistria,
and to recross the Pruth—after sustaining grave checks
on the Alma and at Inkerman, after having had the
most magnificent of his ports almost blocked up with
his own vessels, and the fortifications of Sebastopol de-
stroyed—having, too, one of his most powerful armies,
at the head of which his sons showed themselves in
the saddest position ; what, we say, can it be supposed
that the Czar can abandon the fruits of a century's
policy, can consent to lose his prestige, which is his
greatest force in the East, can avow himself vanquished
without making the most supreme efforts ? No ! that
is impossible ! No one who thinks it can know the
conditions of existence of powerful potentates—or can
be well acquainted with the human heart. The Em-
peror Nicholas cannot either accept the conditions
of peace offered him by Austria ; lie cannot do it
without gaining a great victory, or being completely
defeated. 'We must expect then a terrible conflict,
and let us have the courage to prepare for it. But
there is no time to lose. We must summon subjected
nations to liberty and independence ; if the West re-
mains undecided, it will be outstripped by Russia. Such
is the position in which we now are. Events have
precipitated the crisis. There can no longer be a ques-
, tion of a circumscribed war, of what is called a political
war ; but it must be of a war of equilibrium in Europe,
of a war for remedying all the injustice which has been
so imprudently committed for nearly a century. Only
a few days now separate us from the period allowed to
Austria. It is at that moment that light will be made ;
it will enlighten all the world.
The security of a day will not suffice for the numer-
ous interests that have been compromised by the am-
bition of the Czar ; we must then exact guarantees
which shall for a long time, if not for ever, preserve
Europe from such misfortunes. We will not at this
moment discuss one by one the different guarantees
which should be obtained. But, first of all, we de-
mand that a barrier should be raised between the savage
ambition of the Czars: and the western part of Europe.
That can be done by giving satisfaction to the national
wish expressed at each meeting of the deputies of
France under the reign of Louis Philippe. Heroic
Poland must, so to speak, arise from the ashes of Se-
stepol.