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

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A vice of kings !
A cut-purse of the empire and of rule,
Who from the shelf the precious diadem steals
And puts it in his pocket !
To 'spare him, is to trust to the tameness of a tiger,
who cowers, for years it may be, under the eye,
and purrs under the caress, of a keeper, but who,
when least expected, finds the savagery of the
Lybian desert to steal upon him, and tears to
pieces those who have trusted to his tractability.
What better shall we, or shall Europe be, if we
drive him to a peace and to a treaty ? How much
safer ? How further remote from fresh pretensions,
renewed aggressions ? You cannot convince a
knave that honesty is the best policy. " Hath ho
not cooled our friends, heated our enemies ?" Does
he not intrigue and bribe at every barbarian court,
from Persia to Japan, to- set the world against
us, and to plant his foot firmly in our shoe prints ?
Without a perpetual army of occupation in the East,
how can we secure the neutrality of a man whom
no treaties can bind, by whom no rights are re,
spected, who uses religion only to invoke its aid to
help his treachery, and blasphemes Heaven by ad-
uring its testimony to his hypocrisy and his lies ?
He must be bound in his ancient chains of ice. No
more Emperor of Russia, he must be reduced to
his former title of Duke of Muscovy. Finland
must be restored to its lawful owner. His Asiatic
acquisitions must be rendered back to the dynasties
of the East. A king that would play the thief
must be handcuffed. A sovereign turned high-
wayman, and crying " Stand and deliver," to every
peaceful wayfarer on whose defencelessness he
presumes, must be hunted by having the
country raised upon him, and thrust into a
cage in fetters. A caution to our people is very
essential. England must not put forth her strength
feebly and in driblets. The war, for such we
see is impending, must not be starved by that par-
simonous penny wisdom which is pound foolish-
ness. Had we overwhelmed Napoleon by all our
force at first, we should have saved hundreds of
millions which we had to spend at last. Let us
prepare our minds to grant with alacrity to the
Queen whatever subsidies may be necessary to pro-
secute the contest with vigour, and to bring it to
an arbitrament ,with summary despatch. Up with
the besom of destruction at the masthead of our
Black Sea fleet ; lei another Stand by at the Baltic.
Punish Persia from the side of India, or let Turkey
win her and wear her. As for Austria, if she
moves a finger in, the quarrel, let Hungary loose,
and send the fiery cross through Italy, and call
Poland again to political life.
Now on, youtioblist English
Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war proof ;
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's a foot ;
Follow your spirit ; and upon this charge
Cry—God for Justice, England and St. George ! •

_~~~

St
„ •

. T
sian'seaports about their ears...land troops at w 4, A
assailable point we please—enable us to corn
" ' along with France, the monopoly of the sea-born "A"'
commerce of the world. We' had all the trade 'of-
Eutope in the last war—Lwe.shiill have it all in this. :4-4"rtfrf
Our nest is Aeii-girta We can produce, work, cal- hY
-
culate, speculate in security. We have coal and
iron,' the-great sinews of mOdern war, and .ma-- . ,
nufactuTets. If Germany, and Prtissialtal ,_
be-on our side; the contest 'wilfsbon come-
to -.0• clOse—if they be vainst us,
their in
legnai diAractions, and-the measures necessary to
'sustain the:mutest,- will render them incapable of
-Ole arts or to the
culture
sparing attention' to the ctil
reaping of the fruits of peace. Privateers and letters
of marque are no longer formidabl our merehan-
dise is in a great measure carried i steamera . and
steam- privateers -could not, .we..tbinlr, work„the-..
'constant necessity of coaling, and the absence-of
coals at any point uncovered by our war steamers,
'rendering them impracticable instruments of war ;
while.. mere sailing 'vessels would be chased by our
steam-frigates over the sea or into harbOur, without
the possibility of-escape. The Turks, like the Por-
tuguese or -Spaniards, may not be very formidable
by themselves ; but vertebrated by even ten thou-
sand Frenchmen, and there can be little doubt that
they will drive the Russians out of the Danubian
provinces " like smoke." The number of British
troops in Spain,•Portugal, even at Waterloo, was
„proportionately insignificant ; but their :. presence
makes other soldiers-as efficient' aS biir.epWn, and
nerves even the;sepoy,with•the,vigunr Bri_ •
tish-grena,dier." Should we so very deei)ly
• that the "exigencies. of ,alford Us a fair reason
for quartering an English and. Frenet nruiYaf_oe-
cupation• in.. EgyptLaudrlrusiccy 3; It AlioTtliiit not
inecessarily.cost usta-verylnaterial :O.XgiAts_ o.vser our
Ordinary e x penditurot tas -.our. troops :must be ra-
tioned aud quartered somewhere; , and Russia may.
fnd'the tables turned -upon her policy; and wheit-r
Ishe.thotight only of the Turls gan easy '
prey to, het ambition, she May, be deemed to find
the two most powerful nations in &rope in clan
herons proiimity to, her own frontier. in Turkey-
we shall civilise the Ottonianteacli- him the
'Art of 4overnment, and.- the_ roper mechanism
"of wise ailininistrati security to the .
people against the'fyian jand "extortion" of their
• rulers—reveal to-tirefir the inig.lity forces of hunia-
niV Wtol;itistipe-, and-strengthen tub bands thew(
• detiire' e ha pinem. of individual
suAec e • _ • lihife;afrd.the'poive-b-
-and progress of- the aggregated state and nation.
-I1
As for Persia—dde-ada est ! i She deserves no quar-
ter, and must have none. She-- must be annexed
either to our India or to Turkey. Her indepen-
dent existence can be no more tolerated than that
of a loaded blunderbuss iu the-hands of a highway-
man. She has lent herself, at the time of our ut-
most need, to 'our bitterest enemy; and declared -
war, against us without the ~slightest excuse except'
that of our extremity and her own opportunity. is
to the " Autocrat of all the Russian," it is our de-
liberate opinion that his:reign and kingdom must •
be declared to be at end. He .has put himself
beyond the pale of the humanities of international
law. He has disturbed the peace of all Europe
without the shadow of a reason, except that of his
own. "absolute shall," and the rule of the strongest.
He is not a Christian King; making war upon a 1
neighbour on account of any real materials of dis-
sension between theth, and owning himself amenable
to the ordinary casuistry of civilised contention or
diplomacy. It is as obvious as any spring of human
action can reveal itself by acts that his, quarrel is
that of the wolf and the lamb—that he has resolved
upon aggression, and trusted to invent a cause for
it afterwards—that he is a mere burglar and buc-
canier—