The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-10 00:00:00

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§llll,

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1854.

If there be any truth in the despatches from
Berlin which appeared in our impression of yester-
day the CZAR is beginning to feel that he has
carried matters " a leetle too far" for his own
honour, or, what is far more important, his own
safety. It is said that " there are preliminary in-
dications of what will be his answer to the Prussian
note." In other words, feelers have been thrown
out in order to ascertain how far he may rely
upon the co-operation of " the Angel of Peace"
in obtaining better terms than he could otherwise
hope for. The operations in the Crimea, the pro-
bable loss of Sebastopol, and with it his fleet and
stores in the Euxine, have opened his eyes to a
sense of the grievous error he had fallen into, in
supposing that the Western Powers were
not sincere in their determination to humble
his pride, and reduce the strength of which ho
boasted within dimensions more suitable to the
true interests of civilisation, and the permanent
maintenance and tranquillity of Europe. He sees
that the time for bullying has gone by, and that,
if he hopes to escape, even with scorched plumes,
from the conflagration he has enkindled, he must
be prepared to abate his arrogant pretensions,
and submit to terms which he formerly repudi-
ated with contempt and indignation. He now,
therefore, thinks of former pro
positions in the
same spirit that "the old maiden of fifty-three" did
of her quondam lovers, and vain 1
yhopea that the can
be brought back, at any moment,y
on evincing
a disposition to accord a more favourable recep-
tion. He is, therefore, reported to have arrived
at this conclusion—viz., that " if Prussia will ob-
tain an undertaking from the Western Powers and
Austria that they will not go in their demands
beyond the four points, Russia will be willing to
negotiate on that basis."
We cannot, of course, say whether there is any
foundation for these rumours. Our own opinion
is against them, inasmuch as the AUTOCRAT had
so obviously hardened his heart against all pru-
dent counsels, that it seemed as if he had fully
determined to " set his all upon the cast,
and stand the hazard of the die." We cannot

orget that he, when these very " poin ts"
were first indicated, has declared that rather than
consent thereto he would " spend his last rouble
and lose his last man," and that more recently he
had expressed his unbending resolution to main-
tain the Russian supremacy in the East, and not
to abate one particle of his pretensions, or in any
degree modify his policy with respect to the Otto-
man Empire. These views have, however, been
prominently put forward, and received a certain
degree of credence. We also know that habitual
bullies are seldom quite so brave as they would
wish to be thought by the world. It is, there-
fore, possible that such an intimation may have
been given, and that the CZAR may make a
merit of relinquishing that which is already
irretrievably lost, and strive to retain
what he still possesses by a pretended surrender
of what is no longer his to relinquish. It is,
therefore, worth considering the subject, as if the
statements were really well founded, so that Lord
ABERDEEN and his coadjutors may understand the
true state of public opinion, and that in his ser-
vile aspirations after peace at any price and any
conditions, he may not commit the nation by
treaties which could never receive the sanction of
the Parliament or the People of the United King-
dom. It is the more urgently required- that the
independent Press should sound the tocsin, inas-
much as the ABERDEEN Organ has this very day
put forward a feeler, by descanting on the
horrors of war, and. lavishing praises on
the imbecile policy displayed in what it
is pleased to designate as "an almost excessive
reluctance to unsheath the sword."

We, therefore, distinctly and unequivocally de-
clare that it will not be sufficient for the CZAR
now to yield the four points required. They
might have been accepted before we had lavished
the blood of our best and bravest, and spent the
hard earnings of our people in resisting his unjust
and unwarrantable demand. The lives that have
been lost can never be restored. We cannot get
back those who went forth in the full vigour of
manhood, in the plenitude of health and strength,
to shed their blood or breathe their last
sigh from disease, fatigue, or privation in the
Crimea. But the soil thus consecrated must
henceforwaid be holy ground, which can never
again be polluted by Russian tyranny. The
Crimea so dearly purchased must be disposed of so
as to promote the happiness and prosperity of its
long-suffering and deeply-afflicted inhabitants.
The blessings of a liberated population will supply
the best requiem for the mighty dead, the prospect
of a free nation, their noblest monument. Besides,
there are abundant reasons, not of a sentimental,
but a strictly practical character, why we should
insist on its independence as an indispensable con-
dition of peace. We know the CZAR'S feeling
towards Turkey and its defenders, more especially
England. He has proclaimed that the time had
arrived for obliterating the former from the map
of Europe, and " checking the materialism of
the latter." He has pledged himself to seek ven-
geance—and these are promises which he will
faithfully keep, if at all in his power so to do.
We cannot, then, accept his own recognisances for
his own future good behaviour. He must give
ample sureties that he will henceforward keep the
peace ; and, to use his own expressive phrase--
"we thank thee, Jew, for the word "—we must
obtain " material guarantees" for its permanency.
The chief of these guarantees—that which is in-
deed
essential, is the exclusion of Russia from the
Crimea. Other matters may be discussed, but if
he be permitted to retain the position from which
he could perpetually menace the Bosphorus, he
would speedily resume his former arrogance, and
another war would undoubtedly arise.
Besides, he must not only give satisfactory secu-
rities for the future, but ample compensation for
the past. England, France, and Turkey have all
had to defray vast demands, occasioned by hf s "o'er-
weening ambition—ambition that o'er-leaped it-
self." The outlay of the Allies must be recovered, if
not in hard cash, at least by adequate instalmentS,
and sufficient security given for the liquidation.
These are additional " points" to be added to the
" four" already referred to, and there are others
respecting Poland and Finland that may be no
less difficult of digestion, but which he will have
to swallow as he best can, albeit, 'with as much
disgust as "Ancient PISTOL" disposed of the ob-
noxious leek. We have, however, said enough to
show that it is absolutely impossible for the Allied
Powers to restrict their demands to the four
points which would have been accepted in an
earlier stage of the proceedings.

However widely we may differ from Mr. JOHN
BRIGHT, M.P. for cotton spinners, on the general
question of war or no war, we must all admit that
the oratorical Quaker is not guilty of mere decla-
mation when he describes the actual policy of our
Cabinet as " Imbecility, perhaps, without ex-
ample." Perfectly certain are we that if the pug-
nacious Friend had been our Prime Minister ; if
he had been also a foe instead of a friend to
NICHOLAS, and if he had believed military fight-
ing to be as lawful as word-fighting, NICHOLAS
would not have had quite so easy a time of it,
and quite so much leisure as has now been granted
him. He would not have been permitted to pre-
pare the Crimea and Sebastopol for an attack
through long months of convenience ; the Vienna
conferences would never have been endured by our
shrewd and choleric battler for peace ; LUDEaS and
the rest of them would have been tumbled into
the Danube for venturing on the wrong side of
it, and Sebastopol would have been stormed or
knocked to pieces, and time enough left to clear
the Crimea before winter too. Odessa would have
not had one brick left on another, if it did not
dismantle all its fortifications, and Sir E. LYONS
would have had orders to his heart's content for
every fort on the Black Sea. And the Baltic,
too—could the nettlesome Quaker have endured
for all the summer long a Russian navy skulk-
ing behind stone walls, and another winter left for
the CZAR, to warm his hands, in casting cannon of
longer range, to keep our ships still further off
his granite fortresses 7 John BRIGHT denounces
the war in most warlike style, but when he turns
to the conduct of affairs he becomes more warlike
still. We have no doubt his inward feeling
is, verily if I, minus my Quaker education,
had been at the head of affairs the CZAR should
have felt the difference; and we believe, indeed, he
would. " Where there's a will there's a way," is
the household word of Englishmen, and the will
of JOHN BRIGHT is hearty enough against anyone
who stands across his path. We believe he wouldoudl
have made but one campaign of it, and w
never have allowed NICHOLAS to make every pre-
parationor to half neutralise the efficiency of our
gun-boats and floating batteries, and all our de-
vices for next spring.
Tlgrand mischief has doubtless been " timid
counsels
"—we thank LOUIS NAPOLEON for teach-
ing us that word. Of course he politely tells us
he meant no offence ; he spoke to his own, and of
his own alone. Unluckily for the comfort of
some who were not of his own, they feel that
they are bracketed with the French
licays.piramntrs.
for the honours of a dare-nothing
BRIGHT felt that if he had entered on the
war it should have been with and ,

noble purpose. To back a burglar out of the
half feudatory dominions of Turkey, to take no
further security, and to inflict no penalty for the
robbery, was but a poor project of statesmanship;
yet that was about the sum total of the celebrated
Vienna Note. If it be imbecility to palter with
a knows liar while palpably over-reaching you—or
to show a haughty, reckless, ambitious tyrant
that you wished to get out of a scrape with him
on the easiest possible terms for the present, then,
beyond doubt, our Government has been the per-
fection of imbecility. The SEYMOUR correspond-
ence, tolerably creditable at the time, convicts
those who have dallied with the unprincipled
commencer of it, either of weakness or collusion.
What would have been the effect of really noble
conceptions entertained by our Statesmen, and
uttered before Europe Suppose we had had
Some CROMWELL for adviser to her MAJESTY, with
aMILToN to pen a sonnet on the bones of Polish pa-
triots bleaching in the snows of Siberia ; suppose
he had told the tyrant to cross the Pruth if he
pleased, that he was quite welcome to do so ;
that Europe had been stretched long enough on
the rack of the Vienna Treaty of 1815 ; that he
had been wicked enough to draw some of the
cords even tighter since then, as Poland, Cra-
cow, and the mouths of the Danube could wit-
ness ; that the HAPSBURG tyrants had done the
same in Hungary, and that an opportunity to
cut those cords for ever, and liberate the hands
of the cruelly abused nations, was the very thing
to be desired. Suppose such a manifesto had
been the reply to the impudence of MENSCHIKOFF
at Constantinople, it would have done its work.
Hope honestly held out to the wronged nationali-
ties would have been deadly terror to their guilty
oppressors.

And such policy would do its work now.
Hitherto our Ministry has " drifted" on from one
thing to another. No leading, no inspiring idea
has guided their counsels or united the ardent
aspirations of all the nobler elements of Europe.
A mere crusade for an idea we should denounce
as firmly as any ; but the restoration of the natu-
ral nationalities of Europe is no more a mere idea
than was the restoration of trade to its natural
laws and the overthrow of Protection. Europe
will never repose on the points of bayonets.
Violent struggles will continually recur, and des-
pots will continue to intrigue with the oppressed
of their brother despots. There is nothing for
it but to avow openly that Poland must be free as
the sine pet non of a settlement, and Hungary
and Italy would soon obtain all they desired.
To this gravest of questions our nation and the
French should now address themselves. Let it
be but once avowed that Europe has no security
while Poland is Russia, and we believe that half
the business is done. " Timid counsels" and
" imbecility" have made but 'poor work of it ;
let bold ones have a trial.

One consideration renders this even urgent.
There is danger that NICHOLAS may yet in his
craft begin to conciliate Poland, and that Poland
may give him a not unwilling ear. Impossible I
some admirers of Poland might exclaim. Not
quite so. Men are apt to be even more embittered
against neglectful or procrastinating friends than
against avowed enemies. To France and Eng-
land Poland has for half a century turned a sup-
plicating look. Opportunities have occurred when
decisive action might have been taken. They
have brought no succour to Poland. An oppor-
tunity now occurs. All Europe sees that Poland
is the word which decides whether Europe shall
be master of the Cziv., or the CZAR of Europe.
Polish liberation is needed now, if ever. Never
can the Poles hope for another occasion on which
it shall be so conspicuously the interest of England
and France to say, Poland shall be again a na-
tion. Should, then, this occasion pass away
like others, should the Poles be left as the CZAR'S
stronghold against all Western Europe, it would
be but too much in accordance with human nature
that they should turn to an obnoxious tyrant in
their bitter disappointment with illusive friends.
The Poles are Sclavonians, like the majority of
the EMPEROR'S subjects. If Europe will give
them no political status in her own defence, they
may assume one for themselves in a union of all
the Sclavonic tribes against the more civilised
races of the West. Let Poland but co-operate
heartily with Russia, even if it be but the co-
operation of anger with useless friends, and
Russia would forthwith be all she desired. All
our attempts to weaken her would have been
thrown away ; hearty Polish aid would, in a
military point of view, be more than a compen-
sation for the destruction of Sebastopol, and even
of Cronstadt.

REINFORCEMENTS FOR THE CRIMEA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sra,--From the account in your journal of to-day, as
also from the Times, it appears that the army of the
Allies at Sebastopol is but strong enough to keep its po-
sition in the event of the enemy receiving large rein-
forcements, and your correspondent goes so far as to
wish that some reinforcements would arrive from Ports-
mouth or Marseilles. It has also been noticed that
there is a difficulty in obtaining steam transports. The
Exmouth, screw, 90-gun ship, at Plymouth, has just been
tried under steam and answers admirably. Why not
put first class frigate masts into her, a small crew, and
let her do the work of a troop ship ? For a short trip
she would take 2,000 men ; and we have others corning
home from the Baltic which could be made ready for
the same purpose very speedily. They will not Le
wanted again until the spring. Our Allies have plenty
of troops ready, but it appears they have been endea-
vouring in vain to charter transports here. If this
meets your ideas perhaps you will notice it.—l am, sir,
yours obediently, T. H.
Cowes, 9th Nov., 1854.
[Our correspondent is quite right, but perhaps there
is a screw loose at the Admiralty.—ED. Sun.]

According to statements in the continental papers,
the new line of communication from the Crimea to Len.
don, via Bucharest, has been organised, and the time
occupied by this route ought not, with the assistance of
the telegraph, to exceed three days and 18 hours.
The later advices from Peru give little further intelli-
gence regarding the progress of the revolution in that
republic. The town of Arica had been captured by the
troops of Castilla, but had been retaken by those of the
Government. There had been no battle, however, of
any importance.
The accounts from New Granada, received this week
by the American steamer, represent the partisans of the
insurgent General Melo as having been defeated in most
districts of the republic. Melo himself had still 4,000
men at Bogota, but was hemmed in, and a reasonable
hope seemed to be entertained that in a very short time
the legitimate Government would be re-established in
that capital. This intelligence is favourable for the bond-
holders, since their prospects can never revive until the
people shall have become sufficiently advanced to rely
Upon their power of putting down the military pests
by whom their progress has been constantly inter-
rupted.

A. meeting of the Imperial Brazilian Mining Associa-
tion took place yesterday, when it was agreed to appointa
committee to investigate the accounts, and to confer
with the directors respecting future operations. The
report states that the works at the Camara lode have
not made the anticipated progress, but that prospects
are still considered to be encouraging. The produce at
Gougo Soco has considerably diminished, while at Cata
Funda there has been thus far little improvement.
Owing to the position of the money-market, the direc-
tors have been unable to sell any of the estates, but a
portion is being brought into cultivation to supply the
company's labourers. The expenditure for the half-
year has been about 7,0001., and the receipts 4,6001. ;
showing a loss of 2,400/. It was further explained that
the reserve fund has been reduced to 3,0001., against
which there aro current liabilities of almost an equal
amount. The proposed call of 10s. per share is there-
fore necessary to carry on the undertaking. Arrange-
ments have been made for enforcing strict economy, the
abolition of the office of managing director, with other
reductions, insuring a saving of nearly 6501. per annum.
The health of the staff, &c., in Brazil is stated to be
satisfactory.
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—The opening meet
ing of the society for the session will be held, at the
Theatre of the -United Service Institution, on Monday
next, the 13th inst., at half-past eight p.m. A paper is
to be read ,on the late Arctic disco'yeries, by Dr, Rae
and others,