The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 17, 1854.

" The fleets are still at Beycos 1" It was the
announcement made during several weeks, we had
almost Raid during several months, in each suc-
cessive despatch received from Constantinople. It
was the parrot-cry of Our Own Correspondent.
It was repeated with " damnable iteration. " It
became monotonous. People began at last to he
tired of it. It might have been stereotyped.
A change has at last been effected in our intel-
ligence from beyond the Dardanelles.

" The fleets are still at Varna, !" That is the
newly-arranged morsel of information. We sup-
pose we shall be fed upon it like a crumb of
comfort for something more than the next fort-
night.

Seriously, are these sorry illustrations of our
system of delay to be continued ? Are our sup-
plies of assistance—" few and far between "—to
be denied to the Sublime Porte until after a series
of these exquisitely tantalising evidences
of doubt, weakuess, and procrastination ?
Are our troops to be tarrying idly at
Malta, while the French contingent from Algeria
and Marseilles is being hastened, shipload after
shipload, past that island without stopping, di-
rectly on to Gallipoli, the place of appointed de-
barkation ? Not a scrap of a letter comes to us
from the East but contains the same assertion,
almost in the same words, reiterated over and
over again in terms of urgent entreaty and of
most sorrowful lamentation. From Gibraltar it
is the same, from Valetta, from the Morea, from
Cephalonia, from Constantinople. Every one who
has been watching events in the East for some
time past in those quarters, is impressed with
the firm conviction that both England and France
have been too late in rendering military aid to the
Tutkish army scattered along the borders of
allachia and Bulgaria. Every one on the spot
IS satisfied that the Western Allies of the Sultan
are at this moment deplorably behind hand in the
transmission of soldiers to the seat of war for the
effectual protection of his dominions. ft is felt
generally in those parts that not only are we
behind hand in forwarding our warlike aid to
031E4 PAOLA, but that the troops we have already
sent are in their aggregate number altogether
ina.dequate to the present emergency. It
aisted—and we rest assured not without ample
reason—that 25,000 men from England and 50, 000
inen from France will be literally but as driblets
doled out at a wonderful crisis to the rulers of
Turkey in the hope (save the mark !)of withstanding
the threatened incursion of the combined European
and Asiatic hordes which have already begun to
pour across the Danube from the frontiers of the
vast Russian territory.

Is it remembered that England and France in
aiding Turkey in the struggle with her colos-
sal antagonist, are opposing themselves to a
power that extends over about one-seventh of
the habitable globe ? Is it sufficiently
borne in recollection that we are entering
upon a contest with a despot having supreme
authority over nearly 70,000,000 souls ? A
population, in fact, of 69,660,146 altogether in
1852, having been, in 1846, 66,008,315. A
r, opula,tion of 50,000,000 of the Greek Church,
of 7,000,000 Catholics, of 3,000,000 Tshud
and German Protestants. Against an empire
containing thus. 70,000,000 inhabit-ants, we are
sending some 25,000 English, and some 50,000
French soldiers ! The inadequacy of these num-
bers, we rejoice to know, is already beginning to
be recognised. There are rumours in Paris of an
intention ou the part of the MIPEROn, not simply
to increase the both- of troops sent eastwards from
Algeria and Marseilles from 50,000 to 75,000,
but to despatch somewhere about 100,000 or
150,000 altogether. England must increase>
her military aid proportionately--that is to
say, if she seriously
purposes to take a
part, in the struggle worthy of her political
iPaportauce, An intention about which we may

be allowed to be somewhat reasonably dubious,
so long as the Earl of ABERDEEN, still babbling
about Peace, Peace, remains at the head of her
Britannic MAJESTY'S Government.
In taking into account the variety and extent
of the Russian population, the manner of its dis-
tribution is, at this critical juncture, not alto-
gether unworthy of consideration. If—as is actu-
ally the case there are amongst the inhabitants
of the Russian Empire, as the Baron AtrensTE DE
HAXTHAUSENhaS remarked, "more than a hundred
peoples, speaking a hundred different idioms"—
these various peoples speaking different languages
are confined to the number of the subjects of the
CZAR scattered along the frontiers of his enormous
dominions. Beyond the narrow boundary of those
frontiers, within that restrictedbelt of land crowded
by a motley and contrasting population—. the
whole of the interior of Russia is inhabited by one
isolated and homogeneous race, that of the Russians
Proper, a race numbering no less than 50,000,000
in the aggregate. Little more than 15,000,000
give the sum total of all the other tribes put to-
gether. For example—w2,ooo,ooo Letts and Li-
thuanians ; 500,000 Illyrians and Bulgarians ;
6,500,000 Poles; and 12,000,000 Germans,
Dacian Romans, Tshuds, Tartars, Mongols,
Munshus, Greeks, Jews, Gipsies, Caucas-
sian tribes, Hyperborean races, and Miscel-
laneous. From 15,000,000 to 20,000,000
of all time differing peoples put together, and,
beyond them in the interior of Russia, of Russians
Proper from 49,000,000 to 50,000,000 in the
aggregate. Everything considered, an awfully
kindred population to be directed by the strong
arm and. the puissant will of the head of an irre-
sponsible Autocracy ! Against whose ambition,
by the way, we are opposing a handful of 25,000
fighting men, allowing even these to dawdle over
dinners and reviews at home prior to their de-
parture, and even then, when' they are gone,
causing them to loiter about the streets of Valetta,
as if there were no necessity whatever for their
prompt removal onwards for rather severe work
in the Principalities !
Let us hope that before much longer we shall
hear no more of these delays of our troops at
Malta, or of our fleets casting anchor for several
weeks, first at Beycos and then at Varna, and
Ilze.vmr knows where afterwards.

Let us cherish, moreover, at least some faint
notion of the possibility of a considerably larger
number of soldiers being sent out, and that at once,
from France and England to their preconcerted
rendezvous in the Dardanelles. Otherwise than
by some such prompt and energetic measures the
Western Allies of Turkey cannot hope to termi-
nate the war with Russia either speedily or
gloriously.

• " A nurse who was endeavouring to quiet a
froward, bawling child, among other attempts
threatened to throw it out of doors to the wolf
if it did not leave off crying. A wolf who chanced
to be prowling near the door just at that time
hoard the expression, and, believing the woman
to be in earnest, waited a long time about the
house in expectation of seeing her words made
good. But at last the child, wearied with its
own importunities, fell asleep ; and the poor wolf
was forced to return back to the woods empty and
supperless !"
Never was an ancient myth more powerfully
illustrated than the foregoing on Saturday last.
Truthful and instructive as were the tales ascribed
to the witty Phrygian, none ever went more
directly to the mark than that above ex-
tracted. There was the venerable Nurse Times
endeavouring to quiet the " froward, bawling
child" in the Bank Parlour, to induce it to swal-
low the dose prescribed by its good grandam,
ABBRDEMT, in the dear old lady's peaceful seclu-
sion in Downing-street, and insisted on by the
more vigorous and energetic housekeeper who
settles the weekly accounts at the Exchequer.
The urchin, however, proved rebellious, and
threats and reproaches fell from lips previously
accustomed to praise and pet. If it did not forth-
with cease crying, it should be thrown out of
doors to the wolf (the financial reformers) who
prowled about the sacred portals. With painful
accuracy the many extraordinary favours were
enumerated for which it was rendering so unworthy
a return. It was receiving naughty brat—no less
than 180,0001. per annum for paying the divi-
dends on the National Debt. It was also " in-
vested by Government with the exclusive power
of issuing bank-notes, which should be a legal
tender ; in other words, of creating capital to the
amount of some twenty millions annually !" Was
not that a nice little sugar plum for the petulant
darling But, that was not all. Those bold
children (the private bankers) should not get a
particle—all was for the pet of Threadneedle-street,
if it would only cease crying and go to sleep when
it was bid. "In order to make the privilege
more exclusive," says Nurse, " private bankers
are restricted from issuing more notes than they
did in 1844; and no new private bank is per-
mitted to issue notes at all." This is, indeed, a
snug monopoly !
" There needs no ghost come from the grave "

to tell us that " these are no inconsiderable pri-
vileges," or that the bold child had fallen into
very comfortable quarters. It was clearly a
foolish as well as an ungrateful brat to quarrel so
imprudently with " its bread and butter," or
rather the " rich cake," which it should thankfully
have accepted, and appropriated with silent satis-
faction, doing as it was bid in return. But if so
very bold and unreasonable, it may find to its cost
that it will not escape the punishment it has so
richly merited. If it continue " crying" it will
be cast out to the wolf, for it is told that " the
question of their" (the privileges above referred
to) " continuance may come before Parliament
next session, seeing that after August, 1855, they
may be abolished upon 12 months' notice." If the
child be disposed to run out into the wood and brave
its dangers, perhaps its indignant granny may
suffer it to follow its own foolish vagaries. "The
Government, on its part, might possibly be at
least equally ready to sever the connexion !"

So the Nurse tells us—aye, and argues power-
fully too to show the propriety of such a course—
so powerfully, indeed, that she might well induce
any inexperienced wolf to credit the sincerity of
the chidings. But the wolf has been taught a
salutary lesson. If he was once so silly as to be-
lieve that the Nurse meant what she said, he has
beeen convinced of the absurdity of such cre-
dulity, and though he may make use of the in-
formation afforded by the injudicious revelations
of the angry care-taker as to the weakness of the
defences, and the ease with which entrance may
be
We
elected, he will trust to his own exertions,
andtended to be not admit the realisation of threats never
in
carried into execution.
v
cannot indeed conceive how any of the
"Times-servers" can disregard the arguments put
forward by their organ. It is true that we have
uttered them for years, but what availed it unless
()lasses
the views, however accurate, could. be inspected
tthheroLugelviiatThiamneiss
pinned tNhow, however, that
the point---that it has !
enunciated that the functions
—tliat it declares' tloitarrt the payment
referred to are by
no means " peculiar to bankers
Governments"improper for
of the dividends " might
pwoewll,erboef ausacted by a
public office"—that
1,;:s i t, , for
icreating. twenty I,
cr thirty millions of money, and era
I oily purpose that may be thought proPpe°l3:l'l?
would om e
undoubted prerogative of the Crown"' . an
--- an,
that " the holding in its own hands some
ten millions of the public debt"
offer in the possession of a convertible property a
means for dispensing with the machinery of
balances and deficiency bills"—we may hope for
many converts from among the Times-ridden
population of the City, and the dabblers in the
Money Market. Since the Times has proclaimed
its adhesion to the cause of a really national bank
and a nay national note; we may hope for many