The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1354.

England and France are at length at war with
the Russian AUTOCRAT. Yesterday the announce-
ment of this important event was made at Paris
and at London simultaneously--,to the Lords and
Commons by a Message from the Quimr—to the
Senators and Legislative Body by a Message from
the EMPEROR. According to those memorable
documents, every effort to bring about a pacifica-
tion has utterly failed, and there is, actually, an
end of mere negotiation. A collision has, there-
fore, become inevitable, and the responsibility of
that collision rests, of course, notoriously, not
with the French, or English, or Turkish, but
entirely and exclusively with the Russian Govern-
ment. It rests thus entirely and exclusively with
the Russian Government, because, from the first
step to the last in these deplorable transactions,
the Russian Government has been the aggressor.
It is a fact, patent to the knowledge of the whole
world, that with the Chief of that daring and flagi-
tiousAutocracy, the cause of quarrel now about to
be committed to the dread issues of battle, origi-
nated. It originated in his insatiable cupidity,
in the lust of his ambition, in his greed of ag-
grandisement. As fax back as the time of PETER
the GREAT, the policy of the Russian Cabinet has
been directed towards the absorption of the Otto-
man territory and the ultimate seizure of Constan-
tinople. During the reign of the present AUTO-
CRAT, that lawless policy began to attain at last its
point of culmination. Nay, so long ago as ten years
from the present date, in 1844, circumstances so
propitious appeared to indicate the approach of
this point of culmination, that the Czar NICHOLAS
deemed it advisable as a preliminary movement
to visit this country himself for the purpose if
possible of securing the complicity of England by
secret consultations with the heads of the then
dominant Administration. Thwarted for a while
hY unavoidable incidents, the Emperor -NrcsoLAs
deemed it advisable to postpone the attempt at a
consummation of his wishes, consoling himself,
however, for the delay by embodying the result of
his adroit machinations so far, in the ingenious
and confidential memorandum, penned by the
hand of the astute and experienced NESSRLRODE.
Subsequent efforts were made to bring about the
desired arrangement as to the partition of Turkey,
but each of those efforts in succession as ineffec-
tually as the one, already particularised. It was
in this manner, for example, that the Russian
troops were conducted across the river Pruth,
and marched into the heart of the Danubian
during that
Pro-
vinces in 1848, agitating period of
revolutions. Occurrences multiplied ; the hour
was not encouraging ; the r
_ossacke
were with-
drawn into Bessarabia ; the aggressive policy of
the Czar NicHoLAS was again doomed to an un-

willing postponement.
At length the hour so long, so eagerly,
and
hitherto so vainly looked for, appeared to have
arrived. The Cabinet of Vienna had.
been
bound over by ties of gratitude to the CZAR, Whose
forces had trampled out the flame which had
threatened to consume the throne of the Hapsburg
Dynasty, the flame kindled in Hungary by the
genius of KOSSUTH into the conflagration of the

War of Independence. Austria was, moreover,
,0 apArently at the moment, pre-occupied by the
, 0
~aftitioiAtraonc, the marauding people of Monte-
• zmir.O. 741). tobinet of Berlin was well known to
kri.a beep pledged by family bonds to an obsequi-
ous Ockiiii With whatever imperious mandate
• , 4
might myttii4te from the King's imperial
brotheTein4a* at St. Petersburg. Austria
thus tranamelled by gratitude and Prussia by mar-

riagc—there remained only for the consideration
of the Czn:, among the great Powers of Europe,
France and England. And France and England
seemed to be at loggerheads. There appeared
at least to be every cause for estrangement be-
tween their Governments. NICHOLAS knew very
well that England was agitated from one end to
the other by the dread of a French invasion—that,
in consequence of this panic, there had been
effected in the national system of the militia a con-
siderable extension and a thorough reorganisa-
tion. He knew, moreover, that while the
most friendly feeling was maintained between
the British Court and the Orleans Princes,
several of the members of the British
Government had so far forgotten the dictates of
prudence and of statesmanship, as to vilify at pub-
lic dinners and from the elevation of the hustings
the thrice-elected ruler of the French population.
Everything, indeed, seemed to intimate the abso-
lute impossibility of a cordial. alliance being
brought about between the two Governments.
Besides, the CZAR manifestly observed, with no
common degree of satisfaction, at this most de-
sirable moment, the installation of the complaisant
Foreign Secretary of 1844 as the Prime Minister
of England, the chief of a powerful Coalition.
Evidently at that moment the pear was ripe, ac-
cording to the belief of the Russian AUTOCRAT. It
was so ripe that it had only to be shaken down with
one bold move by the rude and daring hand of a
Russian noble of the old school like Prince MENS-
CHIKOFF. The question of the Holy Places had
just been settled amicably—in consequence of the
magnanimous concessions made, at the instance of
the Cabinet of St. James's, by the French Im-
perial Government. Nevertheless, NICHOLAS was
resolved even then to bring the aid of religious
fanaticism to bear upon the development of the
designs of his political enterprise. Thereupon
arose his demand of the Protectorate. Prince
ATENSCHIKOFF was sent to Constantinople. The
dream of PETER the Great was at last to be rea-
lised. The project of 1844 was, before the
arrival of 1854, to be fulfilled. Again—but this
time not as hesitatingly as in 1848—the Cossack
hordes were led across the Pruth into Moldo-
Wallachia. Thereupon the European Powers
interposed, by their emissaries, between the as-
sailant and the assailed. In the desperate hope,
even then, of preventing the horrors of a general
war, after nearly forty years of almost uninter-
rupted tranquillity, they exhausted every de-
vice of diplomacy, every effort of negotia-
tion. During the course of which protracted
endeavours more than twelve months sped
by--,twelve months not altogether lost, how-
ever, seeing that within the interval, for the
first time in the history of the two countries, a
really cordial alliance was effected between France
and England, while gigantic and almost un-
paralleled efforts in the way of warlike preparations
both by sea and by land, were being made simul-
taneously by their respective Governments. It is
at that moment that we have now arrived.
That is literally our present situation. The
twelve or thirteen months spoken of, have
just now elapsed. The last device of diplomacy
has failed signally and definitively. The nego-
tiations so long persevered in have at length ter-
minated. The fact of their having terminated,
no less than the consequent fact of open war being
the next necessity, has been formally stated by a
Message addressed (each by its respective Sove-
reign) to the French and British. Legislatures—
stated thus as recently as yesterday. So that,
to-day at last, for the first time for nearly
forty years, we are brought face to face
not merely with the dread necessity, but with the
actual fact, of war—and no little war either, but a
great European conflict : on the one side Russia,
on the other England, France, Turkey. A war,
too, not coming, but actually arrived. Arrived,
moreover, with intelligence as 'startling and incit-
ingas the advance ofa Russian army 30,000 strong
across the Danube, opposite Ibraila, in pursuit
of the Turkish forces, then retiring upon Adrian-
ople. Intelligence such as this, coming to us at a
moment like the present, cannot but act as a
timely incentive to the allied Governments. It
cannot but impel those Governments upon a course
of action so prompt and energetic that the great
war, entered upon by them with such humane re-
luctance, may, with corresponding rapidity, be
gloriously and brilliantly consummated.

The QUEEN has announced to both Houses of
Parliament the termination of negotiations with
the AUTOCRAT, and that "she feels bound to
afford active assistance to her Ally the SULTAN
against unprovoked aggression." Her faithful
and efficient collaborateur the Emperor NAPOLEON
VIII.
has made similar declarations to the Corps
Legislatif of France, so that at this moment we
are in a state of war. The Temple of Janus has
thus been re-opened after the thirty-nine years
during which its gates rusted on their hinges.
We must now be prepared for an arduous struggle,
on the results whereof depend the destinies of
civilisation. It cannot be a "little war" in which
the principles of liberty and despotism are engaged,
and each struggling for existence. We cannot
doubt the result, nor do we feel the slightest.
hesitation in accepting the unprovoked challenge.
Boldly we enter on the contest, which we spared
no effort, becoming men of honour, and lovers of
peace, to avert. But while we shrink not from
the encounter, it would be an act of the most cul-
pable folly to undervalue the enormous powers
and almost miraculous resources of the adversary.
Let us not lay the " flattering unction to our
souls," that we can "double up Russia like a
sheet of paper," that a single campaign will decide

the contest, or that the increase of the income
tax for six months will be the only primary sacri-
fice necessary to the honourable solution of the
great problem. No, we must be prepared to
strain every nerve—to spare no exertion to bring
matters to so auspicious a conclusion. But we
must, at the same time, while making those
vigorous efforts, act as if hostilities should be pro-
tracted for an indefinite period, and should husband
all our resources, so as to render them available
for the grand struggle in which we are embarked.
Our attention, then, is specially directed to the
state of the Money Market, and the position of
the nation with respect to " the sinews of war,"
the great means of carrying on our operations
vigorously and efficiently.
When, then, does the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer mean to do to arrest the stream of bullion
departing from our shores ?—to prevent a monetary
crisis of unparalleled magnitude ? We know to our
cost what he has done to strip the Exchequer of
the large balances that would, at the present
moment, be of such peculiar value. We know
the direct loss he has occasioned to the nation by
the attempted conversion of the South Sea and
other Stocks, despite of warnings that might have
deterred any man of ordinary prudence from ven-
turing on so hazardous an experiment. We are,
therefore, entitled to ask, what he means to do
';o repair the enormous damage he has inflicted
on the country by the ill-advised and injudicious
attempt. It is, indeed, time that the currency
question should be ventilated in Parliament, not
merely by a casual allusion flung forth during
a debate on another subject, but by a sub-
stantive motion. The question as to the ap-
plicability of the Bank Charter Act of 1844
—while we aro engaged in hostilities with such a
nation as Russia—while the • Colossus of the
North is defying tho mazitime Powers—must be
calmly debated, and seriously considered. It
requires no extreme views, no strong opinions in
favour of monetary reform, to perceive that the
time has arrived when something must be done.

Those who at other times, and under very differ-
ent circumstances, supported that unwise and in-
judicious law, must now feel that its modification
in some respect is imperatively required. Even
the Times itself, the organ of the Moneyocracy—
the bullionist champion—many weeks since—in
the middle of February—admitted that " the
diminution of 700,000/. that has taken place
since 1844, in the paper circulation of the
country, partly through the failure of pri-
vate bankers, and partly from their having
entered into agreements to substitute the notes
of the Bank of England for their own, was a cir-
cumstance that was not intended, and which
should be remedied forthwith." After such an
acknowledgment, it is manifest that the question
is merely one of degree that as something
ought to be done, the nature and extent of the
fitting alteration should be taken into considera-
tion without a moment's unnecessary delay.
It was universally admitted that but for the
suspension of cash payments, and the enactment
of a Bank restriction law, we could not have car-
ried on the protracted and formidable contest in
which we were engaged at the close of the last
and the beginning of the present century. How
much greater would the difficulty have been if
there was not merely a necessity for maintaining
the convertibility of the Bank note, but also
if small notes were absolutely prohibited, and the
power of issuing the larger denominations re-
stricted within very narrow limits, and subjected
to the most stringent regulations? If Sir ROBERT
PEEL were now living, he would be the first to
recognise the necessity for an immediate change,
and that before an enormous amount of unne-
cessary mischief was inflicted on the trade and
commerce of the country, and great, and in many
instances, ruinous losses occasioned to respectable
families. Let his surviving friends act as they
believe he would have done if his services were
still available to the country. It is on Mr.
GLADSTONE that his mantle has descended. It is
to Mr. GLADSTONE that we look for relief by
means of measures suitable to the crisis.
Every day's delay is injurious, and be-
fore many weeks have elapsed the damage
may be irreparable. To use a homely
but expressive maxim, it is but little good " to
shut the stable door after the steed has been
stolen." Let not Great Britain be driven to the
futile and ridiculous expedient. While we have
some gold still left, let us adopt means to stop
the leakage, or to provide an adequate substitute.
We have already pointed out the mode in which
it may be effected. Great relief might be given
by permitting the issue of notes to any extent on
adequate security—still greater by the issue of
the smaller denomination of notes, which would
liberate thirty or forty millions of sovereigns now
absorbed in the transactions of every-day life.
But greater than all would be the creation of a
National Bank, whose notes would be the only
medium for the satisfaction of fiscal demands,
and which would, therefore, be useful to the
full extent of our taxation. We have no
doubt that the value of this potent instrument of
finance will bo fully recognised long before the
present generation has passed away, and that
the rejection of a paper currency will be regarded
in a similar light to the proceedings of the opera-
tives when they broke up and destroyed the
machines intended to economise and diminish
manual labour. The reasoning in one case is not
in any respect. more tenable than in the other,
and we have no doubt that before the close of the
19th century, the Acts of 1819 and 1844 will
be referred to as affording additional and most
conclusive evidence of " the little wisdom," or
rather the absolute want of wisdom, with 'which
the affairs of great nations have been mismanaged.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF

PORTLAND.

A telegraphic despatch, received from Doncaster to-
day, states that the Duke of Portland died on Monday,
at Welbeck, near Worksop, at 4.50 P.M.
For some time the health of the Duke had been seri-
ously declining, and great anxiety had been felt by his
family, his many friends, and the numerous tenantry to
whom he had always been a most generous and liberal
land!ord. Within the last few days his Grace became
much worse, and a disposition to fits of fainting gave
great alarm to his medical attendants. His daughters,
Lady Harriet, and Lady Mary Bentinck, and Lady
Howard de Walden, and Lady Charlotte Denison,
were at Welbeck Abbey. The Marquis of Titchfield,
who is himself very much indisposed, had been sent for
from London, and his remaining son, Lord Henry Ben-

tinck, had also been informed of his illness. His Grace
was in his 86th year, and was one of the few remain-
ing political characters contemporary with Burke,
Wyndham, Fox, and the great men of that day.