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

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1853.

Immediately a resolute attitude has been
assumed towards Russia, the AUTOCRAT has given
signs of his readiness to consent to a pacification.
Directly the SULTAN has resolved upon a declara-
tion of war, and has betrayed a disposition to
concentrate his forces upon the Danube, the CZAR
reveals a willingness to recross the Pruth and to
withdraw the savage bands of his marauding
Cossacks from the Moldo-Wallachian Principali-
ties. No sooner has the Divan at Constantinople
evinced a determination to be no longer trifled
with, but to adventure at last upon a bold and
resolute enterprise of retaliation—no sooner have
the Cabinets of St. James's and the Tuileries
resolved, after many lamentable delays and much
pernicious hesitation, to support with arms, both
military and maritime, the rightful cause of the
Sublime Porte, as opposed to the lawless aggres-
sion of the Russian Government--than the Em-
peror NICHOLAS betrays his reluctance to stake
the triumph or failure of his ambitious de-
signs upon the hazard of a struggle against the
fanatical patriotism of the Turks, aided by the
mighty powers of France and England combined.
England and France—after the lapse of so many
deplorable years of estrangement—being at length
(for the very purpose of affording that assistance)
united, closely and cordially united, in the
council-chamber and on the battle-field, in vindi.
cation of the outraged laws of Christendom and
of the imperilled interests of civilisation.
The coincidence is significant. The coincidence
of these conciliatory rumours from Olmiitz and
Warsaw coming to us at the precise time when all
the more generous hearts in Europe are stirred by
the warlike news arriving from Constanti-
nople. It is significant, we say—that glaring
coincidence of the pacific and moderate tone
adopted by the AUTOCRAT becoming only first
audible when the SULTAN is at last assured, in
plain terms, of the certainty of his being ener-
getically supported if necessary by the British
and Gallic Governments. Significant ! Why,
the deductions from all these facts must
be obvious. The meaning of all this
is perfectly transparent. It signifies, we take it,
that had the course pursued now at the eleventh
hour been adventured upon bravely and promptly
at the first, we should have had none of these
disastrously protracted negotiations—we should
not have had the funds down to 90 and a fraction
—we should not have had the Exchequer of the
unfortunate Moslem drained by a series of gigantic
armaments—we should not have had the public
mind disturbed by the panic of a ruinous uncer-
tainty—neither should we have had the whole of
the complicated machinery of commerce disordered
by the errors of a bungling diplomacy, or the
timidity of a vacillating Government. Nothing
of all this would have occurred, we maintain,
but for the blundering interposition and the ma-
lign influence of the Marplot of the entire pro-
ceeding. If the CZAR consents at last to bow be-
fore the peremptory decision of the French and
English Government; he would have done precisely
the same had the same resolution been displayed
at the commencement.

What, in reality, has effected this happy change
in the policy of the AirrocaA.r ? Let us ask that
—What has effected this wonderful transforma-
tion ? Why, the circumstance of Turkey backed
by France and England having at length revealed
something like determination ! What has meta-
morphosed the blustering despot, whose representa-
tives were appropriately the insolent ME.NSCELIKOFF,
and the arrogant GORTZCHAKOFF, and the inflexible
NESSELRODE—what, w say, has thus suddenly meta-
morphosed the blustering intimidator of the Hospo-
dars of Moldo-Wallachia into the amiable potentate
"fraternising" With FRANCIS JOSEPH at Olmiitz,
and with FREDERICK. WILLIAM at Warsaw, into the
meek--hearted conciliator from both places of the
French and English Governments ? What ? Why
the fluttering of the union jack and the tri-colour
over the forbidden waters of the Bosphorus—the
recommendation of a warlike policy by the Na-
tional Council assembled by order of his MAJESTY
the SULTAN at Constantinople--the complete ac-
cord at length prevailing between the rulers at
Faris and at London—the friendly intercourse of
Admirals DUNDAS and lIAMMELIN at Besika Bay,
signalised as that intercourse has been lately by

the former having conceded to the latter the en-
viable privilege of precedence—briefly, in fine, by
the sounding of the trumpet and the glittering of
the crescent along the banks of the Danube, by
the more intimate alliance of France and England,
by the simultaneous passage of their ships-of-war
through the channel of the Dardanelles ! Had these
proceedings been adopted earlier, we should—we
repeat again and again—have been spared the
ruinous and discreditable effects, the ignominy
and the injury of these craven and protracted nego-
tiations.

It is observable, by the way, that the ABER-
DEEN Cabinet is at last excusing itself, through its
organ, by throwing the blame upon the diplo-
matists of the Vienna Conference. Those diplo-
matists failed, we all know by the egregious
blundering of the Note transmitted by them to St.
Petersburgh and Constantinople. That Note they
couched in terms so loose, or so ambiguous, that
the document was meant by them in a totally dif-
ferent sense from that in which it was understood
both by the Russian and the Turkish Govern-
ments. Never was there such an exhibition of
fatuity among plenipotentiaries. It is ad-
mitted at last even by the organ of the
Earl of ABERDEEN. In its impression of this
morning, the Times says—" They (France and
England) have agreed, in point of fact, to abide
by those conditions of settlement which the Four
Powers conceived themselves to be expressing in their
Vienna Note, BUT WHICH THEY FAILED TO CONVEY
WITH ANY ACCURACY OF LANGUAGE." Listen to
that, 0 shade of the great SULLY, 0 ghost of the
incomparable TALLEYRAND ! Again—" The terms
now categorically preferred are the identical terms
which have been required from the beginning, and
are none other indeed than the very conditions
to which France and England believed themselves
to be adhering when they assented to the Vienna
Note." Believed themselves to be adhering ! Was
ever such an admission made before on the part
of an enlightened Government ? Nay more :we
hear the Times adding, as the organ and apologist
of Lord ABERDEEN—" Had the work of these
diplomatists been properly conducted, the ques-
tion would have been brought three months ago
to the point it has just now reached, and Russia
would have received the ultimatum of Europe"—
blurting out, in addition to this, the bold confes-
sion—" But the Conference blundered—there is
no disguising the fact." There is no disguising
the fact now. But until this juncture, how per-
tinaciously have not both ABERDEEN and the
believers in that travestie of a statesman, re-
frained from making a clean breast of it—to
the extent of that most disgraceful of admissions !
Yet the fact that we have been maintaining all
along so loudly is at length admitted even
by the Ministerial journal itself —we may
guess with how much reluctance! " The Con-
ference blundered—there is no disguising the
fact." And if the Conference blundered, so, too,
did the Four Powers by whom the Note of the
Conference was approved—so, too, consequently,
of course, did the immaculate and patriotic Coali-
tion, the able and energetic ABERDEEN Govern-
ment. It may reasonably be inquired, after such
an acknowledgment of the incapacity revealed at
this extraordinary crisis by the Vienna Confer-
ence—it may be reasonably asked, who are those
egregious blunderers in diplomacy, and in what
manner is their blundering to be reprobated by
their respective Governments ? The representa-
tive of England we can alone have to deal with,
as one who has jeopardised the peace of Europe
and compromised the dignity of the Crown by his
admitted incapacity. Why, therefore, do we not
signalise the failure of the Vienna Note by politi-
cally degrading the Ambassador who took part in
that miserable Conference as our plenipotentiary?
Why not, by his abrupt recall to this country,
cover with the ignominy of condemnation that most
incapable of diplomatists, the Earl of WESTMORE-
LAND ?

A more fearful catastrophe than that which
occurred on the Great Southern and Western Rail-
way of Ireland, a report of which appeared in our
impression of Friday, has never occurred in con-
nection with the new and improved system of
locomotion. Fourteen persons killed almost in-
stantaneously, and perhaps thirty more seriously
injured, of whom eleven are reported to be still in
a very precarious condition ! No previous rail-
way accident ever produced such lamentable re-
sults, and the transaction itself is as strange and
unaccountable as its consequences have been de-
plorable. None of the dangerous elements existed
that had led to previous casualties in this country.
There was no sharp curve concealing the stationary
train from that which followed in its track. The
line was perfectly straight, and no interruption
occurred to impede the view for more than two
miles. The time that it occurred, too, was about
sunset. The train was due in Dublin at six o'clock
in the afternoon, and the occurrence took place
nearly fourteen miles from the terminus. The
witnesses, too, state it to have been about six
o'clock at the time of the collision. There was
nothing in the hour, then, to induce the supposition
that the persons in charge of the luggage train might
have fallen asleep on their posts, or that even if
no warning had been given, or signal exhibited,
they would have rushed recklessly on without no-
tice or observation of the carriages standing in their
way. But every possible precaution was adopted.
Mr. CROKER BARRINGTON, the solicitor of the com-
pany, whose father, Sir MATTHEW BARRINGTON,
and whose wife were passengers, had immediately
on the stoppage dispatched the guard and stoker
down the line with instructions to display danger-
signals, and warn the approaching train, whose
position was accurately known, of the impediment.
Under all the circumstances not the slightest
danger was apprehended. Many of the passengers
who had left the carriages in the first instance
resumed their seats. Mr. JOLLY, one of the suf-
ferers, got in after he saw the luggage-train ap-
proaching, and remained standing in the doorway,
looking at the fatal machine from which he was
speedily to meet his death. And Mr. KNAPP, an
English gentleman, whose wife and cousin also
perished, would have returned to his place but for
Mr. JOLLY preventing his entry. He also a few
1 seconds before the dreadful event dissuaded
his wife, to whom he was apparently greatly
attached, and her cousin, from leaving the fated
carriage. The unfortunate gentleman declares that
he saw " the lights of the train approaching at ap-
parently so slow a speed that every one said it is
all safe, and entreated the ladies to keep their
seats ; that he saw the approaching train pass the
guard, who had gone down the line to meet it a
distance of a quarter of a mile, or thereabouts ;
and saw the guard wave his light for the whole
time the train was approaching, which made him
think it was a signal all was right." He also gave
it as his impression, " that shortly after the train
all at once increased its speed, he then called to
his friends to jump out, but in an instant the
approaching train dashed into the stationary
train."

We shall not pursue the heartrending narra-
tive ; our only object at present is to see, so far
as it can be ascertained, what were the exciting
causes of the awful! occurrence not to enter
into its sickening details. The primary cause
was, undoubtedly, the stoppage of the express
train a little way—something more than half a
mile—from the Straffan Station. That stoppage, it
appears, was occasioned by the breaking of the pis-
ton-rod of the engine. It will, of course, be ascer-
tained whether the managers had suffered an express
train to proceed on its journey with a faulty en-
gine, the defects of which could previously have
been ascertained. If such were the case, a heavy
degree of responsibility would attach to them, al-
though nothing serious might have happened had