The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-20 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1853.

Are we Germans—or are we Englishmen g It
would really appear as though our rulers had
arrived at the former conclusion, if we might
judge from the foreign policy of the ABERDEEN
Government. It would seem from that policy as
though the Administrators of Great Britain ima-
gined themselves to be the councillors of some
petty Germanic Principality, instead of the
councillors of the powerful, numerous, and en-
lightened Anglo-Saxon population. Otherwise,
it is impossible to account for the meanness
and fatuity displayed by them during the last
eleven months in the presence of the Auto-
cratic authority of the CZAR at St. Peters-
burg. Otherwise, we should never hear of events
so base, of incidents so degrading to the reputation
of England, as this execrable massacre of the
Turks at Sinope by the armed vessels of Russia,
while the fleet of Admiral DUNDAS was lying at
anchor in the Bosphorus ! Otherwise, we should
never hear of such detestable poltroonery on the
part of a mighty Power like that of Britain, in
tolerating, without the discharge of a single mus-
ket, or the explosion of one solitary howitzer, the
passage of the Pruth, the seizure of Moldo-Wal-
lachia, or the devastation of the Asiatic
ports of the SULTAN by Muscovite squadrons,
despatched thither across the Euxine from Sebas-
topol ! It is difficult, looking at these ignomi-
nious occurrences, to believe that the State thus
timorous before the insolent and cruel demonstra-
tions of the ambition of the Emperor NICHOLAS
can indeed be England—the kingdom of HENRY
V., the republic of Cnomwmr,--the land illus-
trated by the glory of Cressy and Waterloo, of
Agincourt and Trafalgar, of COLLINGWOOD and
MARLBOROUGH, of NILSON and WELLINGTON. It is
difficult not to imagine that the authority thus
supple under the weight of Russian arrogance is,
y G
not that of the great Anglo-Saxon Monarchy, but
that of some petty
German Principality. Some
craven little member of the Confederation allied
by the marriage of its Serene Highnesses and of
its Sublime High Mightinesses with the august
race of the imperial house of ROMANOFF—bound
by these and other debasing ties to the will of
the supreme and all-terrible AUTOCRAT. Yes, in
whichbitt have comeernessofh toear lightt—lo oking at the particulars
since
the commencement
of these pusillanimous negotiations conducted by
England in complicity with Austria, France, and
Prussia, with a view to the reconciliation of the
Governments of St. Petersburg and Constan-
tinople—we can scarcely credit our identity
as a nation, we can barely believe that we
are not dwellers on the banks of some one
or other of the more insignificant tributa-
ries of the river Rhine : we cannot but ask
ourselves with poignant regrets in regard to the
past, and with a sense of overwhelming shame in
regard to the present, and with torturing solici-
tude in regard to the future—Are we Germans,
or are we Englishmen ?
It is asserted—though we can scarcely trust
ourselves to rely on the accuracy of the assertion—

that the enormous maritime force despatched from
Sebastopol to Sinope, having crossed the
Black Sea adroitly, under the shadow of a fog,

yet further surprised the heroic Turks, who were
afterwards butchered with such inhuman barbarity,
by entering the harbour in which the frigates of
the SULTAN were lying peaceably at anchor—that
the war vessels of Russia, we say, dared to enter
the port of Sinope, bearing at their mast heads
not the colours of Russia, but the banners -of
England ! It is so asserted, not by some obscure
journal, but by the official organ, of the ABERDEEN
Government.

Meanwhile rumours come floating to us across
the Mediterranean that a British merchantman
has been fired into and boarded by the Russians
off the coast of Trebizond.

All the while diplomatic correspondence is being
carried on with a view to a pacific settlement.
Instead of the combined fleets entering the Black
Sea and retaliating upon the Muscovites for their
cruelty, and duplicity, and audacity, by bombarding
Sebastopol and seizing the Crimea !—instead of
this, we say the British Ministry is still drivelling
over further negotiations. Negotiations ! What
for ? To prevent hostilities. In the name of
Common Sense and Right Reason let it be in-
quired, Can anything—than this—be more miser-
ably preposterous ? To prevent hostilities—
we have prepared Note after Note, we
have despatched courier after courier, we
have imparted discretional authority to
our Ambassadors, we have sent our fleet to
Constantinople. All this to prevent hostilities !
And have we prevented them ? Answer it the
bloody and smouldering ruins of Sinope !

Besides this there is another and a more con-
temptible absurdity about our abortive efforts at
interference. We have been pretending to inter-
pose between the belligerents by sea—but have left
them, without even a- show of mediation, to fight
to their hearts' deadliest content by land ! We
have sent hundreds of sailors to the entrance of
the Euxine—but not one soldier to the banks
of the Danube. And—remember—it was on
the banks of the. Danube that the struggle
between Russia and Turkey commenced. The rea-
son for our thus not directing even the mockery
of an endeavour towards the actual scene of war
on the southern boundaries of Wallachia, while
we were ostentatiously despatching a powerful
fleet into the waters of Constantinople—can only
be explained, indeed, by the prevailing fatuity
and pusillanimity of our Government.
As a crowning evidence of this fatuity and of this
pusillanimity,--take the following astounding par-
ticulars—capping the climax of the enormous
errors already committed in this Russo-Turkish
difficulty by the ABERDEEN Government. Observe,
moreover, at the outset—before the perusal of a
syllable--the nature of the authority from which
these extraordinary statements are derived. That
authority is the recognised organ of the
Coalition Government. The passage may
be found in the Times of this morning,
under the head of its Austrian intelligence.
The writer is the Vienna correspondent of our
contemporary—who dates his communication from
the Austrian capital, the 14th of this present De-
cember, and thus expresses himself in regard to
recent occurrences :—" The news of the destruc-
tion of the Turkish squadron at Sinope was known
to the Prussian, French, and English Governments
before it was made public here. It is said that
Count BuoL was so anxious lest the Western Powers
should decide on assuming the offensive against
Russia, that an uninterrupted telegraphic commu-
nication was maintained t.ith Paris and London. for
some h.urs after the intelligence of the Turkish
disaster was known at the Austrian Foreign-office.
1:11ERE IS REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THE APPREHEN-
S lONS ENTERTAINED BY THE AUSTRIAN STATESMEN

WERE SPEEDILY RELIEVED, AND THE ASSITRANCE

GIVEN THAT NO STEP WOULD BE TAKEN BY THE
WESTERN GOVERNMENTS THAT COULD TEND TO

:INTERRUPT THE NEGOTIATIONS WHICH HAD SO
'RECENTLY BEEN RESUMED. This important point
being settled, the ominous despatch was pub-
lished here." Have we not reason, after
-these shameful and degrading accounts in
the Ministerial organ—remembering, at the
same time the massacre of the Turks at Sinope,
-while our maritime armaments is lying at anchor
in the Bosphorus—have we not reason over-
much to ask, Are we living in England, or in
some petty German principality ?

" Who shall I make my executor ?" There is
no question more puzzling to the man who is
about to arrange his affairs, to set his house in
order, in contemplation of the last great change
that awaits every human being ! " Who shall I
make my executor ?" To whose care shall I con-
fide the future welfare and prosperity of my
family, in whose integrity and efficiency can I re-
pose such implicit reliance, such unbounded con-
fidence as to render me perfectly easy with respect
to the future management of my affairs, and con-
vince me that the accumulations and savings of my
life will be disposed of to the best advantage, and
in strict accordance with my latest earthly act of
volition—the directions contained in my last will and
testament? How many persons who have maintained'
fair and unimpeachable characters have even-
tually been " found out," and discovered
to be " traitors" of the deepest dye, heartlessly
and deliberately violating the trust that had been
confided to their hands—the duties they had un-
dertaken to perform. How frequently have widows
and orphans been 'plundered by the specious arts
of deceitful hypocrites, who left them exposed to
all the sufferings which poverty inflicts, sufferings
from which the dying husband and father had
vainly hoped he had preserved them by providing
adequate funds for their maintenance in the sta-
tion to which they had been born. If the fearful
destitution, the awful misery, occasioned by simple
" breaches of trust" on the part of executors or
trustees could be brought to light, innumer-
able volumes would be filled with heartrending
narratives, and we should be compelled to ad-
mit that " truth is indeed stranger than fiction."
"Who shall I make my executor ?" It is indeed
a momentous question ; a problem, the due solu-
tion whereof would remove the bitterest cares
from the mind of the sick man, and take at least
a portion of the sting from Death. For how
many different elements must enter into the cal-
culation ? How many links are there in the chain,
any one of which, if defective, would not merely
endanger but completely destroy the stability of
the whole ? Will the man I select be faithful and
vigilant in the discharge of his duties ? Am I
certain that he can resist the temptations to which
I am about to expose him ?—that an alteration in
his own circumstances may not induce him to
make free with the trust fund—to use for his own
purposes the provision I have set aside for
the support of my family. He may suppose
that he can speedily supply the deficiency, that
he can restore the money with which he is
about to make free. There may not be any de-
liberate intention of doing wrong, but even an
error is fraught with the most dangerous conse-
quences, and the mind speedily becomes familiar
with what it could not previously have contem-
plated without horror. It is, indeed, a perilous
experiment to tempt a needy or a speculative man
with money for which he can not or may not be
called to account for a considerable period ; until
infants of tender years have attained their majori-
ties, and the executors are required, as JOHN
WESTLOCK termed it, "to book up." If once he
enters on the road to ruin, if once he ventures to
tamper for any purpose with the assets of his de-
parted friend, it is impossible to say when or 1
where be will stop, or to what fearful depths of