The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-08 00:00:00

DUPLICITY OF AUSTRIA

To the careful watcher symptoms begin to be
apparent that Austria is found to be in the way in
the, solution of the Eastern question. We need not
remind our readers that in our view AUstria has
been terribly in the way, from first to last, of our
great enterprise ; and our opinion is well known—
that, to prevent Austria being in the way, the
easiest and shortest method would have been to go
about our proper business in the most direct and
peremptory manner—certain that she would thus,
and thus only, be induced or compelled to commit
herself to some distinct course of proceeding. But
the dynasties wanted Austria to'help them to settle
the war on dynastic principles, and they secured
her countenance for their proceedings. Now, how-
ever, a new feature in the case seems to be in course
of disclosure. It may be gathered from various in-
dications that both diplomatists and generals, Eng-
lish and French, aro becoming uneasy and disheart-
ened at the decline of their influence, and the growth
of that of Austria, at Constantinople. We do not
see how any one can wonder at this. In a case where
everybody promises, and nobody achieves, the party 1
that promises most will be the preferred one, If
the French and English had beaten the Russians at
the beginning of the summer, the Sultan would not
have ben tempted to turn from them to listen to the
wily old Metternich and the martial young Francis.
Our conduct has been a direct invitation to Austria
to bid for the confidence of the Porte ; and we
have won no right to complain if the Porte closes
with the offer. The immediate importance of
Austria to Turkey is made obvious by the merest
glance at the map ' • and we are 'not entitled to
wonder at the Sultan and his Ministers for any
degree of stupid trust in Austria, after our ewn
weakness of the same sort.
If this be the state of affairs—if Austria be either
interposing in the Principalities for the benefit of
1 the Czar' or supplanting us at Constantinople for
her own benefit or that of despots in general—in
either, of those cases, or in any other, our duty and
policy are clear—to strike a blow in the Baltic. It
will be very good to capture the Crimea, but that
is not enough. We must do something real in the
Baltic. Any attack upon the Aland Islands and
Bomarsund must be regarded simply as preliminary
steps. If we want to do our duty to ourselves, and
to our allies, and to prevent Austria from cheating
us, we must strike a heavy blow in the Baltic. Neither
Austrian nor Turk can interfere with us there.
There our ground is our own ; and there the war
—or the first act of the great, complicated, pro-
tracted war which men are beginning to anticipate
—may be brought to a close shortly, sharply, and
decisively, as far as any connexion with Austria is
concerned. All will probably go well in the Black
Sea and on the Danube if we do our work well in
the Baltic ; and it seems as if nothing decisive
would be done in the East till we have fired the
train at the North. If it is objected that the para-
lysing influence is the same in either sea, because
it acts through our Cabinet at home, the answer
is that we--the English people—will soon ascer-
/
1 tain that. If the watch that, in the absence of
Parliament, the people will set upon the Cabinet,
should yield evidence of our commanders in the
Baltic being seriously restrained or hampered by
orders from home, the next beaten party will be
the Cabinet. We will have no Russian alliances
at home under an Austrian name : and if there
are difficulties with any body professing to re-
present the Turks, as our rulers profess to re-
present us, then the English and French in
the Baltic, who have no trouble with each other,
shall have fair play, and full liberty to show what
they can do, if the strong will and hearty sym-
pathy of their respective nations can secure it for
them.

It seems that the duty, and the honour, and the
privilege of keeping up the national principle and
spirit to the great occasion of this war are now clearly
devolved upon the people themselves, for the Go-
vernment influence works all the other way. At the
beginning of the enterprise, nothing could be finer
than the national purpose and spirit : and nothing
can be finer than they would be now and always, if
any justice were done to them by the Executive and
the Legislature. To speak plainly—what we desire
clear 1••• v
this war is one-of fundamental principle on behalf of
all nationalities. We should like to see our citizens
calmly resolved to settle, once for all, by a resolute
and sustained effort, the questions which will other-
wise plunge the nations in war from generation to
generation, till a conflict, terrible in proportion to
the delay, must be enacted and endured by all
Europe. We believe that the choice between now
and then will hardly be left to us ; for the
symptoms of restlessness and tokens of changes at
present arising from day to day cannot but afford
broad hints of many things likely to happen soon.
But, however this may be, it is clearly our duty
and our wisdom to contemplate and prepare for
the settlement of the whole case which is conti-
nuously arising. If we had fulfilled the national
intention and expectation of last winter, we might
pos ,ibly have concluded the immediate Russian
war in a single campaign. As we have not done
so, we must rise to the contemplation of a more
extended action. We should like to see that we
are all aware that we must make large and willing
sacrifices in a cause so noble as that of the eestab-
lishment of, nations in the true conditions of free-
dom and progress. Our officers and troops, our
tars and our citizens at home, are devoted ; and
we desire to see their devotion joyfully accepted.
They do not grudge life and ease—they throw into
the cause their toil and pain and sacrifice ; and we
may not dare to decline the offering in such a cause.
It is by fearlessness and cheerful daring that the
English and French have won whatever they have
at any time gained ; and thus only can they
gain their Object now. We otto
feel—thatdeclare—
declare—
what the best citizens of both countries
world in its accomplishment.
nweecehsasvaerya
vsp,ourdpeofsyethoepen and avowed, and that if
flung it away—with
tlot shdhowuld be
hatwefeslatytro
.hpuegahcoeuht
atvhie wonghrld oeotmheat wein
theincom-
patible
aai tthi principle,
oi
rc
selves joyfully
so. The next thing is to address our
apilnelywtehhaatvweefl were right iu doing
conflict
—not
edeput
food, or treat
ditches, or to grumble over our with
fgo or earnestly
cholera
no theth e
yabaountd
still
to see how many of the foe will sink witiiou
linter in such a
bystanders over the hedge, or stand stockt
our
touching them—not to loiter and lin, g
way as this ; but having invoked the rightquer. We are at war, and it will be worth, toa nllctohe-
men
despotismsan da all lo
fthe
Europem one yc
athh act
stth et o
overthrowa
to of the
re-
presentative syStem can hold its own, and that a
People's Parliament, with their responsible Minis-
ters, can wage war as gloriously as the Edwards
and the Henrys, and any Gustavus and Charle-
magne of them all. If we cannot do this with an
Aberdeen, a Herbert, and a Newcastle for our Exe-
cutive, why then the Aberdeens, and the Herberts,
and the Newcastles must go down, and yield their
place and function to men more true to the British
name and nature.—Daily News.

HOTEL KEEPERS IN DIFFICULTIES.—The Sala of Beer
Bill prohibits the keeper of a tavern from supplying his
liquors during the greater part of Sunday, " except as
refreshment to a bona fide traveller, or a lodger therein."
The Glasgow Chronicle states that the proprietor of the
Wemyss Bay Hotel, by Greenock, having considerable diffi-
culty with respect to selling exciseable liquors in theprohi-
bited time to persons journeying along the road, forwarded
to the Lord Chancellor a petition praying the House of
Lords to take the opportunity of defining the expression,
"boneifidetraveller," but has received foranswer from his
lordship's secretary a communication stating "that
there exists great difficulty in obtaining a clearer or
better definition than what is implied in the words them-
selves I" In the act in force in New York, it seems that
the term " boarder" is used ; and the New York Herald
received by the last mail, after stating that notice had
been given that the law for Sunday closing would be
strictly enforced, adds, "In this city the liquor-sellers,
with the exception of the hotels and the restaurants on
the European plan, very generally complied with the
notification. But the European plan did a flourishing
business. Every individual whose digestive organs were
,case
m ad ae
er
was thereafter capable of mastering that singular production of nature
termed a six
boarder, an
and provided, to drink an unlimited quantity."—Morn-
ing Advertiser.
sixpenny beefsteak,
bythe statute in such considered

THE TERM OF HUMAN LIFE.—As there is no apparent
reason why the mean "lifetime" in England should be
40 years, and as it is found to range in extent, under
different circumstances, from 25 years in Liverpool and
Manchester, to 45 years in Surrey, and in other locali-
ties to a number of years still higher, there is good ground
for believing that it may gradually be raised yet nearer
to the complete natural lifetime. The way is not closed
to great and immediate ameliorations ; but as it has
pleased the Author of the universe to make the food of
mankind chiefly the product of labour, their clothing of
skill, their intellectual enjoyments of education, their
purest emotions of art—so health and the natural life-
time of the race are, in a certain sense, evidently to be
the creation of the intellect and the will ; and it is only
with the observation, experience, foresight, prudence,
and decisions of generations of men at command, that
the battle of life can be fought out victoriously to the
e14c1,--Cinvws Revort,