The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-13 00:00:00

T 7 ,e

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1854.

It is seriously and earnestly to be hoped—we
repeat it—that Austria and Prussia may withdraw
betimes from the cause of the Western Powers,
and boldly take up their position as the allies of
the Russian AUTOCRAT. We have not hesitated
to avow as much before this, and we do not shrink
now from the reiteration of the same candid avowal.
Better, therefore, we once more assert—better
that we should be opposed than that we should
be joined by the two great German Govern-
ments. Associated with the councils of Vienna
and Berlin, those of Paris and London would be
trammelled by the notorious leaning of the
Austrian and Prussian policy towards that
of the supreme despotism at St. Petersburg.
At heart we all of us know very well
that the CZAR really and truly exercises
a paramount sway over the imperial Cabinet
at Sahoenbrunn, and over the royal Cabinet
at Charlottenburg. The fact of the Emperor
NICHOLAS possessing this dominant authority
beyond the apparent frontier of his own enormous
dominions we all know. Talk as we may about the
hope of his sinister influence being gradually
diminished and ultimate;.' sub-v-ertal—..;nere is
not a momen..'s doubt about di.) reality of its ex-
istence. No more doubt, indee 1, than There is as to
the circumstance of the H mg:lrian War ef Inch-
peudence having been crushed oat, taller the feet
of the Cusaack3 p aired down upeu the ranks of
the Magyars under the banners of the Princ3
PASKIEWITCH ! NO more doubt than there is
as to the reality of that Prussian Princess, MARIA
CHARLOTTE, sister of Ring F
REDERICK WILLIAM
IV., being identically the
same with that Rus-
sian Empress, ALEXANDRA pEODOROWNA, wife of
the Czar NICHOLAS ! No—Austria is ustria bound to
Russia by ties of political gratitude, Prussia is
bound to Russia by the yet closer ties of dynastic
relationship. If they join with the Western
Powers, it will only be to betray them. If they
Oppose the Northern AUTOCRAT, it Will
only be in
compliance with his secret suggestion—to throw
off the mask at a more perilous moment for Eng_
land and France, and, with that end in view, at
the first fitting opportunity. The German Courts,
in fact, are, to our thinking, more dangerous as
allies than as antagonists. As antagonists,
we should know at once how they required to
be dealt with—as allies, they could only be
regarded from first to last with a para-
lysing suspicion and an enervating jealousy.
They have been permitted, as things go, to
play fast and loose quite long enough al-
ready. Their intentions in regard to the contest
with Russia should now be demanded forthwith
in tones and words sufficiently peremptory. Other-
wise the Western Powers cannot fail to be im-
peded in a deplorable manner by this ceaseless
and sinister vacillation. It is a vacillation that
must he at last, in one direction or another, ter.
urinated. Let it be terminated now—and even
if a new difficulty be created, a still greater
,one will have been averted. Decision in this par- 1

ticular, decision on the part of France and Eng-
land towards the Councils of Berlin and Vienna,
must be allowed by the least resolute amongst us
to be at any rate very desirable. In reality,
it is much more than desirable. It is ab-
solutely and imperatively requisite—requisite
for the safety of the cause in which we have
embarked, the cause not alone of Turkish
Independence, but of the future tranquillity
of the earth—the continued reform of its abuses,
and the conservation of whatever social, political,'.
or commercial changes may have already been
eff,:ctcd for the advantage of its more civilised
population.

er ly
of
the analysiseffects
ee t ofsome a
eof
Free
Tradem ong d theu rj e
gmoretheremarkable Arna
six or seven years which have elapsed since the
period of its formal adoption in this country as
' the guiding principle of our commercial policy,
appears in the number of the Edinburgh Review
just published. It is a paper eminently worthy
of perusal, and appears as the last of the eight
contributions, being presented to us under the
suggestive title of " Consumption of Food in the
United Kingdom." Extraordinary difficulties are,
of course, in the way of any one who adventures
upon any calculations of the nature here indi-
cated. Several of the more important of these
difficulties have in the present instance been
adroitly overcome by the reviewer. But under
no circumstance,, perhaps, has there been
reason for a more painful sense of the want of
some reliable statistics in regard to the extent of
the toil and of the fruits, in reference to the pros-
perity or adversity, the success or failure, the ad-
vance or retrogression of our own Agriculture. As
matters are now, as they have been hitherto, there
is no possibility of learning the amount of the
cereal produce of the three kingdoms. We can-
not obtain even a proximate notion of the extent
of land at any time employed in these islands in
grain cultivation. Whereas, after proper attention
to the subject, it were easy enough not only to learn
thus much in round numbers and in the aggregate,
but periodically in minute detail, so that an esti-
mate might be readily arrived at as to the
number of acres sown with wheat, barley,
and oats respectively. Information of this cha-
racter might be placed from time to time at
the command of the public through the
Board of Trade, or of some other of the offices of
Government. It was so suggested, indeed, by
the Agricultural Distress Committee of 1836. It
was declared before that committee by Mr. STURGE,
the corn factor, that he thought it might be done
at very small expense, with sufficient accuracy to
be valuable as matter of reference. Nay, the
Protectionist ex-member for Wakefield (Mr. SAN-
DERS) then and there avowed in so many words—
"l cannot conceive a duty more imperative on
Government than to ascertain the quantity of food
that the people are likely to be supplied with."
While the Right Honourable the representative of
North Hants, the present Speaker of the House
of Commons, intimated shot tly afterwards in an
elaborate address to his constituents his entire
coincidence with the opinion that this was indeed
a matter of " infinite importance—suggesting at
the same time that the scheme for collecting this
accurate statistical information might be advan-
tageously grafted cn the present division of Eng-
land into parochial unions, and might also be
adapted to the Scotch counties and baronies in
Ireland. The Speaker went further, and proposed
the publication of these returns periodically in the
London Gazette, returns which he maintained
would aff )rd information of singular value to
persons engaged in the corn trade, and, by so
doing, would tend to diminish speculation,
and to adjust the balance between supply and
demand, thereby reducing the elements of fluctu-
ation in price which are so fatal to the interests
of the agriculturist. Furnished wish these
vitally important statistics, we might not only
appreciate the condition of the farmers with
something like accuracy, but might even calculate
within reasonable limits the probable produce of
each approaching harvest. Eighteen years have
elapsed since the throwing out of these very
rational and comprehensible hints for the e.itablish-
ment of a regular system of agricultural organia-
tion. Eighteen years have elapsed since then,
and two decennial censuses have been taken within
the interval—that of 1841 and that of 1851
—and now, as then, we are as far as
ever from the realisation of any such plan
of internal improvement. What says the Edin-
burgh ? " While at this moment we could easily
tell in any year the number of herrings caught
and cured on the British coast, of the bales of
cotton grown in Georgia, or of chests of indigo
produced in India, no man can do more than
guess the quantity or proportion of agricultural
produce in his own country, or even his own
parish." The acknowledgment is made, remem-
ber, not in the year of that Agricultural Distress
Committee, from whose records we have just
quoted—not in 1836, but in 1854, as we have
said, nearly twenty years afterwards.
Wherefore it has come to pass, naturally enough,
that those who still hanker after the revival of the
dead and buried system of Protection object to the
arguments, drawn from the fact of our increased im-
ports under the system of Free Trade, that for every
bushel that has come in from abroad a bushel
less has been grown at home. How utterly this
sophistical mis-statement has been demolished,
may be seen by any one on reference to this impor-
tant contribution to the pages of our Whig quar-
terly contemporary. It will there be seen, more-
over, how between 1846 and 1853, there have
actually been produced in this country, as among
the prominent results of the Free Trade system—
I. The addition of nearly a third to our BREAD !
11. The nearly doubling of our SUGAR !
11. The addition of a third to our COME !
TV. And the nearly doubling of our TEA !
Patting these facts before the world in another
form, the reviewer arrives at the subjoined results
in regard to the Consumption per head at the
periods here specified :

Bread, statei in bushels of wheat
S',N,tr in lb,
Cnif,,, In ounce 4
Tea in ounces

1833. 1843. 1853.
8 8 10i
18 16 30
14 16 2)12
19 22 34

--
So that, literally, uu:ler Free Trade, the
British people eat nearly a third more bread
than they did before, under Protection ! They
eat, double the quantity of Sugar ! They drink ,a
third more Coffee ! Thy consume nearly double
the quantity of Tea ! For the present we content
ourselves with this general reference to the ela-
borate analysis of the effects of Free Trade put
forward by our Edinburgh contemporary. It
presents a mass of statistical information, how-
ever, so suggestive and extraordinary, all the cir-
cumstances of the case considered—namely, at
this remarkable conjuncture, when seven or eight
years have elapsed since the passing of the
measures of 1846, and when a general European
war is at the instant of its commencement—that
a recurrence to the arguments of the reviewer
cannot but be desirable at the earliest available
opportunity.

If it be the prime merit of a Government mea-
sure to pass a second reading, like the response to
the QIINEN'S Speech, without a division, then the
Oxford University Bill must rank as highly as
could be desired. We are so used, however, to a
vote on the principles of every important mea-
sure, that the absence of it almost provoke 3 sus-
picion. We are tempted to inquire whether such
a bill, like the address 'to the Throne, is much
more than the echo of the known views of those
before whom it is laid ; whether conciliation has
not been more attended to than principle, and
whether there was much worth the country's
having when no patrons of vested abuses ven-
tured to show determined fight. 'English pug-
hardly thanks a Government for what has
not
oa pug-
nacity
t
ieost it even a political battle, and it is very
slow to believe that the good of any such measure,
is so great and evident as to over-awe opposition.
We must candidly confess, however, that this last
eazon has united its force with the less noble one
firs: suggested. The actual system of govern-
meld at Oxford is so utterly bad, so at variance
with the best antiquity, so opposed to the repro-

' sentative and constitutional forms which pervade
both our local and general government, so
wholly without defence from expediency, from
its actual working Or from its results, that it
has not secured a solitary advocate amongst
the numerous Oxonians who assisted at the
debate. The Hebdomadal Board, the oligarchy
of Heads of Colleges, interested in nothing but
the pecuniary good plight of the Colleges, and the
necessary fees of the University proper, has fallen
unwept at a single blow; and fallen for ever.
NERO and Sir CHARLES WOOD allowed wealthy
citizens and East India Directors to immolate
themselves, but even this last sad consolation was
refused to Heads of Colleges. Whether those
members who absurdly craved enabling rather than
compulsory clauses, really thought the Board might
be induced to commit suicide does not appear.
The questions mooted by Sir W. ILEA THCOTE,
as to preserving intact the connexion now existing
between some Schools and the Colleges, is worthy
of• careful consideration, which it will doubtless
receive in committee ; also, that of making the
fellowships prizes sufficient to stimulate• active
competition ; but we much hope that Mr. GLAD-
STONE and Lord JOHN RUSSELL will be vei y firm
against the insidious proposal to permit ea cli sec-
tion of the new Council to be elected by the own
class. This would truly be, as Mr. GriAlusToNz
observed, to fix and perpetuate class distinctions
to the end of time. The Congregation, iich is
to elect the Council, ought to be as coinpre'h•eosive
as possible of all the elective residents in the
University, and, as we pointed out at the first,
it ought to have been left free to elect
Heads of Houses, or nit, at its discretion.
The least which could he done was to :place
their election iu the hands of a general 1> idy,
and thus to insure as far as possible that ;such
Heads of Houses. as were placed on the Col
should be the best and the most liberal minded of
their class. As might be expected from the name
of Mr. GLADSTONE on the back of the bill, it its of
the most complicated character. Mr. BLACKI TT
pointed out how its most liberal clauses were n e u-
tralised by others, prohibiting with one hand the
free exercise of those powers by the Commission ers
which it gave them with the other. And thka re
can be no doubt that it was this balancing a,l d
temporising adjustment throughout which secur ed
its walking the course, so far as principle was co a-
cerned. None had all they wanted, but all ha tl
something. One complained that it left the laity
still to be educated by the clergy, another rejoiced
that it did so, but he again had to deplore some
liberal-looking clause. Of course all these minor
matters will be fully ventilated iu committee, but
we surmise that few important alterations will be
made.

Mr. WALPOLE defended to the uttermost the
inviolability of the founders' wills, and throughout
the debate there was too polite a deference on the
part of many speakers to this kind of folly. The
public at large has little sympathy with it. It
justly demands that the property left for its
benefit should be so applied, and not locked up
for the advantage of a useless few, by unforeseeu
events perverting in reality the arrangements of
the genercus benefactor. It will ever remain
competent to the supreme L-gislature of
a nation to look to the adniinistration
of public trusts, and to guard them
from abuse and perversion ; but more than
this it never can be endured, that the dust and
ashes of centuries gone by should control the deeds
of a living generation. We should have small
cause to thank many of the noble-minded founders
of colleges, if they had really thought bun., beds
of years after they had mouldered to dust, of ' con-
trolling against the will of their country's Pz trlia,-
ment the property which they had quitted for
ever. This were, indeed, a rule of mortinaim—of
tha dead hand over the living mind. Those large-
minded friends of learning and education w.
however, have been the last to plead for so ab surd
a power. They, could they have foreseen the
August of 1854, would have felt rather honoured
than otherwise, that the Legislature of the con u-
try should charge themselves with the task .of
giving full effect to their real wishes.

Mr. BYNG, in a maiden speech which was well
received, and Mr. BLACKETT, spoke strongly on
the unfairness of excluding Dissenters from the
benefits of the University. We can see no rea-
son whatever, unless it be the umbrage it might
give to some whose votes are wanted, for pe.rsist-
ing in this exclusive policy. As a plain nn titer
of fact, a large part of the colleges were four. tded
by those whose religion is now denounced in the
Thirty-nine Articles which all must sign who en ter
Oxford. Small respect this for founders' wilfai !
Moreover, it seems intolerable that those wip.o
comprise one-half the worshippers in the country.
should be excluded from the National University.
Wnat earthly reason should hinder one or more of
the proposed private halls being managed by Dis-
senters, and what injury their listening to the
Professors' lectures should do the sons of the
Church, we cannot for the life of us conceive.
Mr. GLADSTONE'S ingenuity is soon to enli,ghlen
us. He may get votes enow no doubt, but we
expect more ingenious sophistry than h()nest
argument.

THE ICE IN THE BALTIC.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUY.

SlR,—Please insert the following account of the 'open-
ing of the navigation at Cronstadt for the last 11 yt p.rs ;
it will probably be interesting to your readers. four
correspondents have been rather premature in their elec-
tric telegraphic despatches.
A RUSSIAN MERCHANT
London, April 11, 1854.
1842—First ship came in 10th May, N.S.
1813
32 22
1Btl
1815 24th
1846
1817
1848
1849
1810
1851 - 2d 29 PP
1852
1853
.„

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, .4 PR IL 12.

The Queen and Prince Albert, accompanied by the
Prince of Wale, the Princes. Royal. the Pri ices • Alio.,
:old the young,:qr members of the Ro).al family, a !id at-
tended by the Ladies arid Ge,,tiemen in Waiting, a rrived
at the Castle about half-past 4 o'clock this alto, -noon
from town.

Iler Royal Highness the liuehes.s of Kent an rived
yester•:?ay at her residence, Frogmore, from London .

The (been will hold a Privy Council on Satur, clay
next. the 1.5t.h lost., at 'Windsor Castle.

Her Majesty and H R.H. Prince Albert left Buckin.,.g-
ham Palace at 25 minutes before 4 o'clock yesterday a,--
ternoon for Windsor Castle. The Queen and Prinve
were accompanied by their Ropal Highnesses the Prince
of Wale.,, the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, Prince
Alfred, the Princesses Helena and Louisa, Prince Ar-
thur, and Prince Leopold. The Royal suite consisted
of the Viscountess Canning, Lady Caroline Barrington,
the Hon. Lucy Kerr, the Hon. Mary Bulteel, the Earl
of Listowel, Colonel the Hon. C. B. Phipps, Major-
General Berkeley Drummond, Lord Charles Fitzroy,
Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Hugh Seymour, the Hon.
and Rev. Gerard Wellesley, and Mr. Gibbs.
Her Majesty and the Prince were conducted to the&
carriage by the Marquis of Breadalbane, Lord Ernest
Bruce, Lord George Lennox, and Colonel Wylde.
The Royal party quitted the Palace in seven of the
Queen's carriages, escorted by a detachment of Carbi-
neers, for the terminus of the Great Western Ra.ilway
at Paddington, and travelled by a special tr 2 in to
Windsor.

The Lord Chancellor will receive the Judges, Queen's
counsel, &c., on Wednesday next, the first da y of
Easter Term, at his lordship's residence in Upper
Brook-street, at 12 o'clock.

CABINET COUNCIL.—A Cabinet Council was held mt
the Foreign-oflice,.Downing-street, yesterday afternoon.
The Ministers present were—the Earl of Aberdeen,
Lord John Russell, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the
Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the Duke of Argyll,
Viscount Palmerston, the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke
of Newcastle, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir
James Graham, Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon.
Sidney Herbert, and Sir William Molesworth. The
Council sat three hours.
THE LATE LADY JOHN MANNERS.—The demise of
the youthful Lady John Manners is -one of the most
lamentable deprivations which society,has sustained for
-some time past. Her ladyship was beloved and respected
in every relation in life, and her earlyrdeath will be, uni-
versally lamented.
DINNER To THE EARL OF BEAuctimmr.—A public
dinner is to be given to the Earl of Beancliainp at the
Shirehali, Worcester, on Saturday, the 2211 inst., on
which occasion the Right Hon. Sir John Pakington,
Bart., -MP., has consented to preside.

LATEST FOREIGN 24; E S.

THE WAR.

OPERATIONS IN THE DOBRUDSOHA.

A Vienna journal, the Ost Deutsche Post, gives
the following as the last intelligence from the
theatre of war :

" The news from Dobrudscha inform us that the
Russians are still advancing. General Luders is
marching at the head of three columns on Trajan's
Wall. On the 31st ult. he was with his right wing
before Tschernawoda, and with his left before
Kavasu. At the same time, the part of the corps
ofOstenSacken, which had entered the Dobrudscha,
commenced its movement towards Kustendjee. As
the port can receive only small vessels, that town
cannot reckon on the aid of the fleets. Mustapha
Paella has taken up a position between Rassova
and Karajue. The Russians have, it is said,
attacked him on his crossing Trajau's Wall ; but
this news, which is of April 4, merits confirma-
tion."

A letter from Widdin of the 2nd, in a Vienna
journal, says :—" No one here considers the opera-
tion of Prince GortPchakoff against the Dobrudscha
as purely defensive. The attack of the wall of
Trajan is the sine qua non condition of the siege
of Silistria and the surrounding forts. The te'te
pont of Tschernawoda was cannonaded on the 30th
ult. by gun-boats, and the Russians are said to
have taken possession of a small redoubt on the
road leading to Hirsova. This position, therefore,
which was not tenable, will be in the power of
General Luders, for a report is current that the
Russians had crossed the wall of Trajan, and were
iu march towards Rassova. On the same day,
several French and English vessels were cruising
off Mangalia, and the Rear-Admiral in command
of them had put himself in communication with the
gun-boats of Kustendje."
It appears by a letter from Bucharest, in the
Wanderer of Vienna, that the defence of the
Turks at Tultscha was a very determined one.
The attack was made bw the Russians on the 23d
ult., and the fighting continued till the 27th. On
the 23c1, the Russians having succeeded with a
loss of 1,500 men in getting possession of a battery,
the Turks, who were only 2,000 strong, took re-
fuge in the citadel, where they sustained a siege
until one o'clock' in the afternoon of the 27th.
There were different accounts at Bucharest re-
specting the fate of this brave garrison. According
to some, the Turks, reduced one-fourth in number,
and having no longer the means of resistance, ca-
pitulated ; others state that the Russians blew up
the fortress, and that the garrison perished in the
flames. The affair of Simnitza appears to have
been disastrous for the Russians. Not less than
800 soldiers wounded in it had arrived at Bucharest.

The Turkish corps at the command of Mustapha
Pacha, who at the last dates stood at Karassa, con-
sisted of 45,000 or 50,000 men.
According to the best authorities the Russian
invading force was on the 23d ult. 36,000 strong,
and has since been considerably reinforced, uot,
however, from the Principalities, so as to weaken
I the army there, but from Bessarabia. The reports
from this last district represent it as swarming with
troops, and, making allowance for the illusion pro-
duced on non-military observers by the aspect of
large bodies of men in motion, it may be admitted
that by this time the Czar has in Bessarabia a very
considerable force as far as mere numbers are con-
cerned with which to repair his first losses. A di-
rect communication between the Dobrudscha, below
Ilirsova, and Wallachia has been secured by means
of a pontoon bridge across the Danube. Six
Turkish transport ships, which were stationed in
the St. George's Canal, and mailagea to escape
from the Russians, have reached Kasteadjee. From
Kalarasch it is stated that 40,000 men and 130
guns are preparing to attack ilistria. General
:3childer was on the spot directing the operations.
The heavy siege guns anal the rocket batteries had
arrived. The garrison of Silistria is stated to be
10,000, including two Egyptian regiments.
The Invalide Busse of St. Petersburg of the 241,
says :

" The Emperor yesterday evening received from
General Prince Gortschakoff an account of a new glut y
acquired by his Maje-ty's arm. On the 23:1 ult., our
troops rendered theinse!ves masters in a most brilliant
rnahner on the right bank of the Danube. They effected
the passage of the river on three points ; from Galatz
under the command of General de Luders, commanding
the sth corps of infantry ; from forail under the corn-
niand of Prince Gr,rt,,ich.ikoff in person. and from Cape
Tchetaia under the commatid of Lieut.-General Ouc-clia-
koff, chief of the 7th division of infantry. On the last-
named point the combat wa4' .yery ont. not -
witbstanOing the desperate resistance of the enemy, our
brave regiments carriedseveral strong redoubts by assault
and took 9 pieces of artillery and made 150 prisoners.
On the other points, the Turks astonished at our bold
attempt, took to flight, an ! did not even dare to defend
themselves either at Toultcha or at Matchin, places
which, surrounded by strong fortifications and contain-
ing garrisons of 15,000 men, mL4-lit have cost us con-
siderable sacrifices. The.ie two fortresses were aban-
doned by the enemy and taken possession of by our
troops without firing a shot. General Prince Gortscha-
koff renders his testimony to the exemplary prudence of
the measures and of the brilliant valour of Generals de
Luders, de Schilder, de Kotzebue, and Ouschakoff, as
well as to the bravery of General-Major Doubensky, who
had been attached to General de Schilder and of Colonel
de MirbaCh, aide•de-camp of the Emperor, who accom-
panied the troops of the advanced guards. Prince
Gortschakoff concludes his report to the Emperor in
the following terms The troops of your Imperial
Majesty, from the General down to the private, are wor-
thy of the highest praise. They burn with ardour, and
.are ready to die for your glory. "
The St. Petersburg journals officially announce
th,l appointment of Prince Paskiewitsch as com-
mander-in- chief of the armies of the Danube. The
ukase orders that Prince Gortschakoff shall act un-
der him as chief of the staff, except when he is not
present, and then Prince Gortschakoff is to exercise
the command-in-chief.