The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-28 00:00:00

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MI 0
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L°111)01i. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1854.

anything more sinister or more ominous could
scarcely have been announced, in regard to the
war, than the fact of the Austrian occupation of
the Principalities. The meaning of this move-
ment
is perfectly obvious, It signifies nothing
less than this—that Austria (unable, from then
delicacy of her position, t 6
pronounce openly in
favour of Russia and against Turkey) is determined
at least _to shelter the CZAR as much as Possible
fromfurther disaster by interposing between the
victorious forces of the SULTAN and the retreatinet
the Muscovites. Never
and defeated army of
was: any movement on the part of a nominal ally—
a power hitherto virtually neutral, but henceforth
secretly, hostile—more irritatingly inopportune,
.
Precisely at the juncture when the Turks,
i__ the small
un-
aided by- any one, excepting only by
worsted the
Egyptian contingent, have effectually
mighty legions of their antagonists—precisely at
the very crisis when the Ottoman forces under
OMER PACHA have, by their own valour, extri-
cated themselves from a desperate strait, and
so contested every point with the Russians, that
the latter are compelled to beat a hasty retreat
frOrn the Danube to the Pruth—precisely at this
momentous period, the Cabinet of Vienna under-
takes to aid the, Sublime Porte, by causing the
Austrian troops to occupy the reconquered Princi-
palities ! It is exactly what Dr. JOIINSJN said to Lord
CHESTERFIELD. It is complacently watching from
the bank some unfortunate adventurer while he
is within an ace of being drowned in the current,
and when at last he has by his own muscular
''efforts and cool determination contrived to struggle
out of his difficulties to dry land —• then

" encumbering him with help !" A little earlier,
the Austrian troops might have done good ser-
vice by pouring across the frontiers into Moldo-
Wallachia. Now, they can only be in the way.
Under present circumstances, they can only im-
pede the triumphant progress made durisnogldirtehes
past months of the campaign by the
of the SULTAN. This movement, consequently,
into the provinces evacuated by the discomfited
Russians must be viewed, to say the least of it,
as at any rate most suspicious.
Hitherto the results of the campaign of 1854
have been altogether and wonderfully in favour of
the Turks, and at the same time of course disas-
trous, very terribly disastrous, to the army of the
Northern AUTOCRAT. It is calculated that the
Russian forces since the commencement of the war
have lost in round numbers no less than 50,000
men altogether I General SCRILDERS has been
placed hors de combat. General LUDERS has been
killed by a desperate gun-shot. Prince PASKIE-
wiTcyr has been so severely wounded that he can
by no possibility retain his position as Com-
mander-in-Chief. The Russians were driven
back from before Kalafat—they were beaten at
Citate--they were compelled at last to retreat
from Lesser Wallachia, in the direction of the
Dobrudscha. At the outset, they had already
been signally defeated at Oltenitza. Very re-
cently, they have been yet more signally defeated
under the walls of Silistria. Insomuch have the
Turks proved their superiors, even when aided by
none but the Egyptians, that the siege of Silistria
is reluctantly raised by the Muscovites, and a re-
trograde movement on their part carries them
back precipitately to the violated boundary of their
own province of Bessarabia. At this moment—the
Austrian troops undertake to occupy the Princi-
palities ! At this moment—when the armies of
France and England are at length in full
march. towards the Turkish head-quarters to join
the victorious troops of OMmt PACHA, and decide
the struggle with the discomfited forces of the
CzAn—the Imperial Council of Vienna undertake
to interpose, with the Austrian armament, between
defeated Russians and their triumphant and
materially strengthened antagonists ! Every-
thing tends to convince our judgment that we
are right in designating this curiously inop-
portune movement on the part of Austria—omi-
mous, and sinister, and suspicious. So ominous,
so sinister, and so suspicious, do we conceive it
Ito be, that we are satisfied it behoves the people
iof England to be at this particular moment more
-than ever watchful in regard to the foreign
policy of the Government.

A Bottle of Smoke—is about the best phrase
by which to describe Mr. LAYARD'S pompously
announced and timidly withdrawn motion for to-
morrow evening
.in reference to Lord ABERDEEN
and the foreign policy of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. For in it that redoubtable motion has ter-
minated. By his new concession to the Cabinet
the Hon. Member for Aylesbury has dissipated,
at any rate for the time being, whatever hopes
:might have been formed in his regard as to the
rise and rapid development of his political repu-
tation. It is a mistake, into which he has more
than once fallen already. It evinces, we cannot
but think, very little judgment, to say the least of
fit. Nothing, in effect, could well be more ludicrous
on the part of an independent Member like the Re-
presentative of the Aylesb ury cons ti t uency than these
precipitate motions, threatened in a manner the
most portentous, and hastily withdrawn just upon
the eve of their promised introduction. Mr.
LAYARD has called " Wolf" so often, that nobody
will believe him in earnest when he raises the cry
again, and formally undertakes to drag before the
notice of Parliament the shortcomings of the
Administration. " Mr. MANTALINI poisons him-i
self for the seventh time," is not one jot more
ridiculous than the notification will ultimately be-
come that " Mr. LAYARD threatens another hostile
motion upon the foreign policy of her MAJESTY'S
Government." It matters nothing that the Earl
of ABERDEEN, on Monday, favoured the
House of Peers with what the Noble Premier
was pleased to term his " explanation," but
what the Marquis of CLANRICARDE some-
what more aptly and more correctly termed his
"retractation." The speech delivered by the
Prime Minister on Monday, the 26th of June,
1854, was to all intents and purposes pretty much
the same as that delivered by him on that day
se'nnight—namely, on Monday, the 19th of June,
1854. And, as Lord CLANRICARDE happily re-
marked in the House of Peers the night before
last, a telegraphic despatch in a Continental
journal entitled L'independence Belge sententiously
and most happily epitomised the English Pre-
mier's oration of the 19th instant thus—" Lord
ABERDEEN a essays de justifier la conduite de la
Russie et plaide la cause de la paix." It was
precisely thus in regard to the second speech re-
cently delivered by the Prlme Minister, the speech
of the 26th instant, called for the nonce the speech
of Explanation. Like its predecessor, that remark-
able oration "roared like any sucking dove." it
was the realisation at last of that expression
which we might least have expected ever to see
realised, the expression in Festus about " buttered
thunder." Lord ABERDEEN undertook, on Mon-
day evening, to thunder against his "forty years'
*lend" the Czaß—but when the thunder came it
,was, after all, " buttered thunder." And for
•this—Mr. LAYARD has withdrawn his motion
.promised for Thursday. Because my Lord
ABERDEEN quibbled, and explained away, and eat
.his words, and chewed the leek, and in the midst
,of all this, talked as a Prime Minister of England
:never should have talked about the conditions of
peace being dependent upon the event of war
." according as we found _Russia at Constanti-
-nople or ourselves at St. Petersburg"—as if
England alone, much more England, and France,
and Turkey all united could consent to a peace
arranged with Byzantium in the hands of the
Muscovites !—because, forsooth, my Lord ABER-
DEEN, in explanation of his remarks on Monday,
,the 19th of June, could speak on Monday, the
26th of June, after this deplorable fashion—Mr.
:LAYARD has deemed it advisable to withdraw his
-motion announced for to-morrow evening, the
motion to which precedence was at once cour-
teously promised by the Noble Lord the Leader
of the House of Commons ! It is deeply to be
regretted, for the satisfaction of the public mind,
for the dignity of the Crown, for the credit
of the Cabinet, and for the Hon. Gentleman's own
reputation. Again, the mountain has groaned, and
according to the usual anti-climax brought forth the
ridiculus mus 1 Again has the threatened on-
slaught upon the Ministry by the Member for
Aylesbury proved betimes to be only mere "sound
and fury, signifying nothing." The country will
not, we rest assured, be any the less disposed to
reprehend the ill-considered precipitation with
which Mr. LAYARD has, once more, given pro-
mise of a substantial motion, only to withdraw it
immediately afterwards—the country, we say,
will not be any the less disposed to reprehend
this—to call it by no worse epithet, at any rate—
most inconsiderate proceeding, because, in so
doing, the Representative of Aylesbury gave
the House another half assurance, last evening,
of his - intention, "if nobody else will do
so," of bringing forward on some night or other,
before " the recess," some discussion on our fo-
reign relations : this, however (as Mr. LAYARD is
especially eager to inform the House and the
People), " with no hostile feeling towards the
Government." So the matter has ended—for the
time being, my Lord ABERDEEN no doubt hug-
ging himself on having cajoled the most noisy of
opponents--the
only positive result of the whole
disturbance being the
printed copies placed
within reach of the Public, the Press and
the Parliament, of an old ,
, and, for present
purposes, an utterly valueless despatch, penned
a notorious document, dated the
by Viscount GORDON, alias the Earl of ABERDEEN,
in
14th of September,
to
1829, and infamous in Euro-
pean history as the Treaty of Adrianople.

" 0 most lame and impotent conclusion !"

ELECTION FOR BRIDGEMASTER.—The third day's poll
for Bridgemaster oßened yesterday morning, at the
Guildhall, at 9 and closed at 3 o'clock, when the num-
bers were declared : Ledger, 350 ; Jardine, 19G ;
James, 151 ; Booth, 25. Mr. Secondary Potter an-
nounced that the poll would re-open at ‘i) o'clock this
(Wednesday) morning.

WITHDRAWAL OF MR. LA YARD'S
MOTION'.-LORD ABERDEEN.

Mr. Layard has formally withdrawn his motion.
This gentleman is very unfortunate in his movements.
He is acting in a very unwarrantable manner towards
the country. He is trifling with public feeling, and
sporting with the character of the House of Commons.
He is, moreover, sacrificing as fast as he can his own re-
putation. He gives notices of important motions only
to withdraw them. This is a game which he will not
be able to play for any length of time with impunity.
In the meantime, though Lord Aberdeen, so far as the
member for Aylesbury is concerned, is allowed to escape,
the noble lord will find that he has an account to settle
with the country. It is impossible he can remain in
office.—Morning A dvertiscr.