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

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LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1853.

Disgraceful indeed is the position to which
England has been reduced by the malign influence
of Aberdeenism—by that unfortunate influence
which, during the past ten months, has perpetu-
ally oscillated between the extremes of incapacity
and pusillanimity. It has so far deteriorated the
authority hitherto ex.ercised by this country in the
maintenance of the balance of power among the
nations of Christendom, that the only hope of a
solution of existing difficulties can be discovered
in the temporary triumph of the soldiers of Russia
over those despatched to the banks of the Danube
by the Divan of Constantinople. A considerable
portion of Germany, as we remarked the other
day, is asking, through the columns of the Aus-
trian Lloyds, What will NAPOLEON 111. do ? not
What will be done by England ? And meanwhile
England herself, or rather the Ministers of Eng-
land, are eagerly looking for intelligence of
that catastrophe which can alone justify
their anticipations of a pacific settlement. Yes_
for it is preposterous to imagine for an instant
that the haughty spirit of the CZAR of all the
Russias will consent to yield to the demands made
upon him through the Plenipotentiaries of the
Four Powers without having first wiped away
from his Imperial escutcheon the disgrace of his
recent discomfitures at Oltenitza. Turkey having
triumphed over her Muscovite antagonists—nut
once, but repeatedly, in their present encounter,
and this not merely on the Asiatic soil, but on the
soil of Europe in like manner—it were absolute
folly to expect that the AUTOCRAT would select
such a juncture for making those concessions to
the Western Powers which he had perempto-
rily, and again, and again, refused while
the reputation of his army was yet un-
tarnished by the loss of fort St. Nicholas, and
by the double defeat experienced a little to the
South of Bucharest. Nevertheless, the Aberdeen-
ites still babble about another patched-up Confer-
ence, and about the prospects of more successful
negotiations. General BARAGUAY D'HILLIERS talks
to the SULTAN encouragingly about his Imperial
Master supporting the cause of Turkey, and in-
suring, if necessary, by force of arms the inde-
pendence of the Ottoman Government. Lord
STBATFOED DE itEDCLIFFE energetically as-
sures his MAJESTY that Great Britain is pre-
pared to repel the unjustifiable aggression
made by the AUTOCRAT upon his dominions.
Whereas, nearer home, the language employed is
somewhat more delicately modulated—states-
men clinging desperately to the last feeble
chance
of an amicable arrangement of the
contention between the CZAR and SULTAN, and
the acknowledged organs of Aberdeenism, espe-
cially, insisting Upon
the certainty of a happy re-
sun to sundry mysterious and supplementary ne-
gotiations.
It may readily be „np .
etured, therefore, the
satisfaction secretly felt in
cont Downing-street.o on the
arrival of these rumours, ing us this morn-
ing by way of Vienna, to the effect that a Turkish
squadron had been destroyed in the Black Sea, on
the 30th ult., by some Russian men-of-war,
Which
had hastily despatched intelligence of their pie_
tory to the Emperor NICHOLAS, via Odessa, and
had afterwards retired with flying colours, but
battered hulls, to Sebastopol. For, it must be at
once recognised that in the accuracy of some such
information lies the only substantial probability
that the AUTOCRAT could consent to comply
with the "tersOlreisition of the rest of the great
Powers s iatendwn. Without some success either
at se or`Oriland-to tVe>fetces of Russia, it is
posi,s2l7),pre•poStOOxitf..44.,,repeat, to dream of
the ispiritoPNx4i:onAs yielding to the
condi*ins,loOUChed-..4°Vim by the newly re-
organised ,‘
Confereficp-7-46se conditions which he
has airesitclY' more—than' Once rejected with loom)