The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-12 00:00:00

THE KNELL OF LEGITIMACY.

(Prom the Weekly Dispatch.)
It is said of a man blind from his birth that he
conceived of the colour scarlet that it was like the
sound of a trumpet. Henceforth, for perhaps many
years, these sights and sounds must, to this nation's
senses, be suggestive of each other. We must
never see scarlet but to think of the trumpet-call
to arms ; we must hear the bugle-horn, not any
more for the concert or the chase, but as the rally
of our red-coats. "To your tents, 0 Israel !'
Discussion was lawful and was wise, so long as
honourable negotiation was possible. It is trea-
son, after action has been decided upon, and our
honour and our power are committed to the cause
of the weak, clothed in justice, against the strong,
clad in mail. We must be all of one heart and one
mind. Neither the pipe-clay German Emperor nor
the Muscovite burglar must be left a "loop or peg
to hang a doubt on," from any vacillation in our
spirit, or distraction in our councils. We must,
Like the Pontic sea,
Know no retiring ebb, but hold due course
On to the Propontic or the Hellespont.
Those who most eagerly desire peace, and most ear-
nestly deprecate hostilities, will find it to their ac-
count to dismiss their dissent, and forswear their
nonconformity, and make their hearts beat in
timely unison with the general pulse. We must
have no half-faced fellowship. There must be no
"recreant limbs" to "hang a calf-skin" on. Hence-
forth let the Peace Society prove its objects by
holding its peace. Let Mr. Cobden, for whose
able counsel we have been thankful so long as
it was of use, and for whose moral courage and
great abilities we will ever retain a genuine re-
verence, learn to know when he is beaten, and
take the cudgel with the thankful meekness of a
calico martyr. We have doubted and hesitated,
as long as there was room to doubt, or reason for
hesitation. But there is no apology for either,
when this people are at last, as they are now,
fully committed to the final issue of " Pull devil,
pull baker." We must not any longer wait upon
the motions of our Government. The spontaneous
couclamation of a great people must demand of
their leaders to be led on to the terrible execution
of a providential justice. The whole power of
England must drive every blow home. No more
little wars for us. Ours now must be—" The big
war, that makes ambition virtue." He that is not
for us is against us—is against his country—is
against the exalted equity of a divine retribution.
If, at the end of years, there should remain but
two crowned heads in Europe, let the fate fall
upon those who temporised with the ras ca_
ldra o of
autocracy, and did not at oncei toanthcle
face.iwth instant King
peremptoriness, withstand t
Leopold may find that fusion means confusion. We
have counted the cost. We are in the centre of
the commerce of
Europe. There is not a continen-
tal seaport, capital, third-rate town, that has not
English money, goods, claims, or debts in it. We
shall lose more than anybody else in this melee,
simply because we own more than anybody else.
Commerce will be interrupted—the calculations of
enterprise baffled—the securities of industry
shaken—trade rendered illegitimate and irregular
.._production checked.—and progress arrested.
Our vast outlying provinces will call for stricter
defences, and require more extended protection
against surprise or aggression. Our gigantic colonial
trade will be interrupted in the very access of its
miraculous development--our merchantmen will be
threatened with letters of marque, and the profits
of our cargoes swallowed up in insurance. To
crown all, the great landmarks of European poWer I
and authority will be obliterated—new states and I
constitutions will disturb all the settled securities I
of intercommunion, and our lives will have run
down to their last ebbing sands, amidst the
troublings of the wicked, beore the full establish-
ment of a new order of things shall have enabled
mankind to shuffle off the mortal coil of nervous
anxiety, and to live—each man under his own vino
and fig-tree, with none to make him afraid. But
at the worst the picture has its obverse. Let our
readers take the map, and cast their eye over the
scene of the present struggle. Russia has no out-
lets but the Black Sea and the Baltic. The Dar-
danelles are the key to the former—the latter is
frozen a great part of the year ; and the outlet by
the Sound, the Cattegut and the Skagerack, is
easily blockaded. Our fleets will knock the Rue-'