The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-13 00:00:00

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contemporary against Sir CHARLES NAPIER. He
is declared to be too old ! while the Earl of DUN-
DONALD is lauded as the man for the emergency.
GOD forbid that we should ever utter a word
in depreciation of the gallant " COCHRANE"—

that we should for a moment be supposed to slight
any of the brilliant exploits of which he has been
the hero. But when it comes to be a question of
age, we cannot forget that the Noble Earl
was born in the year 1775, and that he is
consequently in the 79th year of his age,
having, as we believe, entered the navy
before the birth of Sir . CHARLES NAPIER.
Twelve years certainly constitute an important
difference of age between persons, the youngest of
whom only wants three years of the appointed age
of man. Under all the circumstances of the case,
we believe that Sir CHARLES NAPIER is all but
unanimously looked to as the future Commander-
, in-Chief of the Baltic squadron ; and we have
no doubt that the Government will yield to the
voice of public opinion so freely and unequivocally
expressed. But if need be, have DUNDONALD and
NAPIER too. One brave wan will never hesitate
to fig!it miler the command of another, his senior,
equally brave and gallant as himself.

What, then, may we look fur from the appoint-
ment of such chiefs to the command of a well-
appointed, and fully-manned, and fully-equipped
fleet, where the duration of the war and the in-
terests of the country alike depend on the vigour
and promptitude displayed, in the first instance.
Just what we have sketched in the imaginary
yarns to be hereafter spun by one of their gallant
followers. The defeat of the Russian fleet, and
the deitruction of the Russian arsenals in 'the
Baltic, the capture of Riga and St. Petersburgh,
the landing of a military force on the coast of
Livonia and Courland, the uprise of Poland—of
long-suffering, but indignant Poland—would fol-
low as .a matter of course. Nor would the people
of Galicia, nor the gallant and chivalrous Magyazs,
remain idle or inactive. Every arm would be
nerved by the sense of unmerited injury, by vio-
lated treaties,, and irreparable wrongs. What a
diversion in favour of the Turkish troops
would thus be effected ! Their opponents
would find themselves placed between two
fires—their supplies cut off. They could no
longer think of crossing the Danube, or invading
the Turkish dominions, when provided with
such ample employment at. home. The AIIWCILAT
would then, too late, deplore his audacions*aficl
insolent aggression. The intentions of Austria or
Prussia would be no longer doubtful. They
would speedily perceive the necessity of crush-
ing the general enemy. The abdication of
NICHOLAS and the paring of the claws of
the Russian. Bear would follow as a' matter of
course. Russia would be stripped of her unjus-
tifiable acquisitions, and Europe would for ages
be preserved from the untoward consequences of her
nefarious machinations. Such would be the re-
sults of a naval victory, in the Baltic, and the
landing of 100,000 French and English 'troops on
the coast of Courland and Livonia—which, the
Russian flag being swept from the ocean, could
easily be effected early in the spring, aye, before
the Ist of May. Thus, then, we would not only
bring the war to a speedy conclusion, but would
obtain ample guarantees against its resumption,
and we would. secure the enjoyment of permanent
peace and tranquillity by the prompt display of
vigour and resolution when forced into a contest.

Preparations for war are actively going on
amongst ourselves, both in the military and mari-
time departments. A similar movement has for
some time past been apparent among our Gallic
neighbours. The martial enthusiasm manifested
during a considerable interval among the Turks,
has become still more ardent throughout the
masses of the Ottoman population, according to
the account conveyed by our latest advices from
Constantinople. Looking, moreover, further
northwards, we learn that " matters wear a war-
like and sombre aspect" at St. Petersburg. Yet,
in spite of all these incontrovertible facts—Lord
AB.E.E.DEEN cannot for the life of him see that, .even
now, war has become inevitable. Even now,
when the Russian Ambassadors have with-
drawn from their diplomatic positions at the
Court of St. James's and at the Court of the
Tuileries. Even now, with the truth before us
that Sir Haarriaorr SEYMOUR and General DE CAS-
TELBAJAC have been peremptorily recalled from the
Russian capital by their respective Governments.
Certainly the Prime Minister of England has earned
for himself the right of being regarded as among
those who illustrate the memorable phrase of Holy
Writ, crying " Peace, peace, when there is no
peace." According to the view taken by the
Premier, there is nothing whatever of importance
in the inhuman butchery at Sinope, in the pro-
longed struggle at Citale, in the double victory
achieved by the soldiers of the Sultan at Oltenitza.
Neither is there anything out of the ordinary
course of pacific occurrences, according to the
same sagacious statesman, in the presence of the
combined fleets in the Black Sea, no matter
whether the direction taken by Admirals DUNDAS
and HAMELIN be towards Batoum, or towards
Varna, or towards Sebastopol. Negotiations
may have passed, diplomatic relations may
have been interrupted, the Vienna Conference
may have been broken off positively for the last
time—emulating in this the penultimate Benefit
of Mr. VINCENT CRUMMLES of immortal memory
—nevertheless, the Earl of ABERDEEN will still
insist upon obdurately believing in the possibility
of effecting at the eleventh hour, and at the last
gasp, the long-talked-of, but vainly-looked for,
pacification. It is altogether a touching instance
of credulity—an affecting evidence of the faith
still cherished by the venerable under-secretary of
fl. GUIZO; in the integrity, of the Czar Nionoras.
A faith, remember, which has survived the pas-
sage of the Pruth, as well as the Mission
of MENSCRIKOFF-- the seizure of Moldavia
and Wallachia, as wall as the unsuccessful attacks
made previously upon the Turkish position in the
neighbourhood of Oltenitza, and in the neighbour-
ho )d of K dafat—the massacre of the inhabitants
of Sinope, as well as the sanguinary conflicts which
have taken place simultaneously along the banks
of the Danube, and along the whole line of the
Caucasus. Never was there such official fatuity
or ministerial infatuation.

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1854.

We have pointed out the vast importance o,
speedily and definitively appointing the Com-
mander-in-Chief to the Baltic Fleet. The nomi-
nation of a popular Admiral would conduce more
powerfully to attract the able seamen whose
voluntary services we hope to obtain, than almost
any other course that could be adopted. "Jack"
has an eye to prize money—and still more to
fame. His heart is as strongly animated by the
love of glory as that of any of his officers.
Though his reward may be but a simple medal
or a good conduct certificate of having belonged to
*a ship that had efficiently discharged her duty in
an arduousconflict, lie will as freely hazard life and
limb for the distinction, as his leader will for the
more ample rewards of his merits, the titles and
pension that may be conferred rather as a recog-
nition of than compensation for his inestimable
services. Jack cannot look forward to the alter-
native of " a peerage or Westminster Abbey !"
Should he fall in the hour of victory, the ham-
mock, and the cold shot, and an unmarked
but holy grave iu that ocean over . which
he so often sailed in triumph, is his inevi-
table doom. Should he survive, mutilated and
disabled, unable any longer to maintain his posi-
tion in " the battle of life," a snug berth in
Greenwich Hospital is the full extent of his am
bition, and if he escape scatheless, all he asks is
that he may, while " spinning his yarns" with
future messmates. be enabled to tell how "he
belonged to the saucy Arrogant," or the "gallant
Prince Regent," at the time of the defeat of
the Russian fleet, and the destruction of the Rus-
sian arsenals in the Baltic, under " Old CuARLIE,"
when the peerage was graced with another
nobleman bearing the gallant name of
NAPIER, and that "he too participated in the
capture of Riga, peedily followed by that
of St. Petersburgh, just before 'Old NrarroLAs.
abdicated.' The opportunity of narrating such
tales, the delight of receiving the tribute of admi-
ration from his audience, would amply compensate
for all his toils and perils, and be regarded as worth
straining every nerve and exciting every energy
to achieve. Seamen would flock to the standard
of -a commander under whom they hoped to gain
such laurels, )vho, according to their own parlance,
"c meant fighting, and no mistake."

- Sir CHARLES Na PIER is such an officer. His n
is known far and wide, and his appointment, as
it would afford the most auspicious auguries of
the triumphant results of the expedition, would
bring thousands, aye, tens of thousands, flocking
.to the standard under which they hoped to share
in the honours to be acquired. He is, indeed,
the man for the emergency, possessing every re-
crnisite,qualification. We want no carpet knight,
11.0 'Piplomatifit capable of splitting hairs in an
argument, or of exhibiting extraordinary caution
or "diseretion,', as it may be termed. The
" hardest hitter" is required—the man who will
faCe any Odds.), lay
his ship alongside one
• or more of his oPlionents, and board them in the
smoke, or " sink, - burn, and destroy" the
enemy (while resisting)
according to the most
approved style of naval warfare, as prac-
tised by officers of the olden time—by NELSON,
DUN"Y' 11()WE' ji"fB, and a host of worthies,
whose names still remain "enshrined in the me-
moriea of their countrymen." For these matters
CHARLIE NAPIER is just the very man. Although
cgja
he declared in Parliament that r,
- was gettin gg
too old," age has not yet perceptibly abated
the
fiery ardour of his soul, the fierce determination
"to do or die" when his country calls for the
exertion. Although in hiAsixty-seventli year, his is
still " a green old age," awl, like his glorious
cousin, now lost to us for ever, his enthusiasm
is as earnest as that of the most youthful aspirant
for glory, eager to seek " the bubble reputation,
even at the cannon's mouth."

We should not have deemed it necessary to
qbeak thus of a man whose achievements are so
well known, and high qualifications so fully esti-
niated, whose name is "familiar to our ears as
hciuSehold Words," but for the unwarranted and
1247raqtilt.ablo attias t 1 ,t lave app red in a

Examining c trefuily the latest documents ema-
nating from the British Cabinet, in reference to
this Eastern Question, we discover in words of
undeni able explicitness, that the hope of peace,
spoken of by the Earl of ABERDEEN, on Friday
evening,. in the House of Lords, is literally alto-
gether chimerical. It would be absurd to
dream, for a single instant, of a pacification
being practicable under existing circumstances.
Lord CLARENDON has entirely set the matter at
rest by his Note in reply to the inquiries ad-
dressed to him by the Russian Ambassador in the
name of his Government. Not only has the un-
welcome truth been distinctly asserted in that
manly and outspoken avowal as to the real nature
of the intentions actuating England and France,
at the present juncture, in sending their maritime
armaments into the Black Sea for 'the defence of
Turkey, and especially (to this end) for the pre-
servation of the Ottoman coasts from any other
attack like that which has reduced Sinope to a
heap of ashes—but the Foreign Secretary
of her Britannic MAJESTY has announced the
course which must henceforth be pursued in
the matter by her MAJESTY'S Government,
more boldly and more distinctly still, through the
despatch addressed simultaneously to Sir HAMIL-
TON SEYMOUR, and communicated by that Minis-
ter forthwith to Count NESSELRODE. Throughout
these documents, it is plainly enough intimated
that peace can alone be secured upon terms which
have been already more than once rejected by the
Russian AUTOCRAT. Consequently, it is quite
manifest that the Prime Minister of England can
nowhere discover facts capable of justifying his
extraordinary assertions made on Friday evening
—language which can only be accounted for chari-
tably as
being the result of some bewildering
hallucination.

egive Lord JOHN RUSSELL full credit for
-wishing to extirpate bribery. We believe. he
also wishes to annihilate " undue influence ;"1
but we may be allowed to doubt whether he would


THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 13, 1854.

cut through one of the most densely crowded por-
tions of the City, and which is rapidly hastening
on towards its completion. The changes effected
in the West by the alterations consequent
upon the building up of the great archi-
tectural masterpiece of Sir CHARLES BARRY,
augur likewise a marvellous variety of results
calculated to assure the adornment of some of the
most unsightly purlieus hitherto to be found under
the very shadow of the Palace of the Legislature
in the good city of Westminster. Another pro-
mise of kindred advantage to our metropolis has
lately been whispered about in connection with
the proposed New Law Courts somewhere in the
vicinity, or within the actual limits, of Lincoln's-
inn-fields. In connection with this scheme
an intelligent pamphlet* (accompanied by an
engraved plan of the suggested alterations)
—a pamphlet remarkable for the candour and
lucidity with which its purpose is argued through-
out—has very recently made its appearance.
Whoever the writer of this brochure may be (and
at this moment we possess not the slightest clue
to his identity), he comes before us under a nom
de plume at once calculated to excite our interest
and to propitiate our good will—viz., that of " Au
Old Law Reformer." It will be found on an exami-
nation of his argument, illustrated as it is by the
chartalready incidentally referred to by us in paren-
theses, that the suggestion therein advanced would
fix the site of the proposed New Law Courts in
the very centre of Lincoln's-inn-fields—having', of
course, every regard at the same time for the sani-
tary benefit. of the surrounding neighbourhood.
It will be perceived, moreover, that in connection
with the project, is the scarcely less notable design
of a new street leading across Wych-street, Vere-
street, and Duke-street, connecting Little Queen-
street with the Strand, immediately opposite
Somerset House, and opening up between the
Strand and Holborn a new and direct line of com-
munication. Alterations such as these naturally
require very serious consideration beforehand—
hut in many respects they must be at once allowed
to be' almost as desirable as the removal of Holy-
well-street, and Middle-row, and similar obstruc-
tions in the midst of our principal thoroughfares.

* " Where shall the New Law Courts= be built ?"
By an Old Law Reformer. Bm, pp. 23. T. F. A.
Day. London. 1854.

SIR O. P. MONEY.

The Hull Packet of Saturday states that Sir Cusack
P. Roney has made an arrangement to meet the mer-
chants of Hull on 'Change on Monday morning on the
stbject of the present peculiarly inviting prospects in
relation to the subject of emigration in Canada, and
also to show that in the event of hostilities preventing
Baltic timber coining to this country an inexhaustible
supply can be had from British North America.