The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-02 00:00:00

~~ .Q

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1854.

It is said, that a Treaty of Alliance has
been signed between Austria and. the Western
Powers—that FRANCIS JOSEPR has at length
made up his mind to abandon the neutrality so
humiliating to a nation arrogating to itself the
title of a " Great Power," and to act for the
future with energy and decision ; not covertly
helping the guilty party, to whose unconscientious
aggression the entire war may be justly ascribed.
If this be so, indeed, we may attribute it to the de-
termination of the Western Powers to send troops
to the line of the Danube, and to assume offensive
operations in Bessarabia, and other parts of
Southern Russia, as well as in the Crimea. The
knowledge that France and England could no
longer be trifled with, that they would treat those
who were not with them:as against them, and that
the time had arrived when Austria should choose
her side—when she should give an unequivocal
answer to the interrogation,
" Under which. King? BszoNutf, speak or die,"
may have induced the act. But even if it be so,
and that the vacillation, procrastination, and, we
will add, habitual deception, have, indeed, been
brought to a conclusion, and that a treaty has
actually been signed, we can express no opinion
as to how far it will be acted on, or how Austria
may feel disposed to assist the Allied Powers un-
til we have it before us verbatim, et literatim, and
are enabled to scan every clause, and maturely
weigh every sentence, to see whether any and
what quibbles can be raised, or point made by any
Party desirous of evading its just responsibilities—
" paltering " with its 0.-contractors, and while
"keeping the word of promise to the ear, break-
ing it to the hope."
Ws have heard of Acts of Parliament being
enacte'l to explain previous statutes of new
treaties to interpret former ones, and show in
what sense they were to be received. DANIEL
O'CONNELL wax accustomed to declare that he
could drive a coach-and-six through any law, and
diplomatic casuists apparently possess equal facili-
lities for getting rid. of obligations imposed
by treaty, at least such of them as it may be in-
convenient to submit to. The announcement
that a treaty has been signed. is really nothing
on which even the advocates for an Austrian allie
ance (and we were never among the number)
could greatly pride themselves.

• We do not at this moment even know what are
the terms which those acting on the part of
France and England suppose that Austria has
agreed to. They may be very stringent, or they
may be quite the reverse. And as we have al-
ready witnessed some extraordinary bungling on
the part of those concerned in framing a former
Treaty of Vienna, which might have led to very
calamitous results, but for the acuteness of the
Turkish Government in detecting what was alto-
gether overlooked or disregarded by the French

and English diplomatists, we cannot place very
great reliance on anything emanating from the
same parties. This is—even supposing that any
treaty has been signed—a matter as yet by no
means certain, and that it even apparently binds
Austria to any decided course—a point at present
involved in equal obscurity.
The wisdom of the Trojan seer, when he uttered
the celebrated warning,
" Timeo Daneas, et Bona ferentes,"

has been recognised by all succeeding generations.
It has passed into a proverb, trite and hackneyed,
it is true, but the very universality of its appli-
cation, the readiness with which the veriest
schoolboy uses it against those whom he is begin-
ning to detect as treacherous and deceitful
friends (1) proves its sound practical philosophy.
We distrust the Austrians, even when making the
fairest promises and most specious professions. The
recollections of byegone years, the memories of the
past, when the Joint-Stock Empire--the nation com-
posed of shreds and patches, ever proved "fair and
false "—when the modern Agamemnon, the grand-
father, be it remembered, of FRANCIS JosErrt, could
sacrifice a daughter on the altar of expediency, all
combine-to inculcate a wholesome distrust to those
whose avowed rules of action aro altogether
selfish, and whose political morality is by no means
of an " uneasy character." We do not say that
the destiny to which the daughter of FRANCIS the
First was offered was not a glorious one, that the
proudest monarch the world ever saw might not
have rejoiced in a son-in-law such as NAPOLEON.
But the destruction of that son-in-law was decided
on at the very time when the daughter was
offered to his arms, and a stronger illustration of
perfidy and treachery could not be afforded. We
must, therefore, watch Austria vigilantly and
ceaselessly ; and it is an additional cause for
rejoicing at the rapidly approaching meeting
of Parliament, which will enable us to
obtain explanations on the subject, which we
could. scarcely hope for from the free will of Lord
ABEBDJUIN.

An additional reason for extra precaution is to
be found in the fact that Austria and Prussia
have also signed a new treaty, or rather an addi-
tional article to the treaty of the 20th of April
last. Now, there can be no doubt as to the
nature and character of the good " Clicquot's"
wishes. He would—if he dared—assist his
brother-in-law with all his resources. That he
has not hitherto done so may be ascribed to his
apprehensions, rather than his feelings, or his
moral sense of right and wrong. And in the
Royal Speech just delivered, at the opening of
the Prussian Chambers, we find FREDERICK-
WILLIAM declaring that, " closely united with
Austria, and the rest of Germany, he shall con-
tinue to look upon it as his task to plead for peace,
therecognition of the independence of foreign states,
and moderation." Ho hints as to the possibility
of being compelled to "add force to this attitude;"
but against whom or in whose favour it is impos-
sible to say. The "Angel of Peace" might puzzle
sainaus if again restored to the world. His de-
clarations, his attitude, are, however, by no
means satisfactory ; and as he is so closely united
with Austria there are irresistible reasons for in-
sisting on full and explicit information so soon as
the meeting of Parliament shall subject Ministers
to the constitutional examination of independent
members.

Whoever wishes to understand Russia in the
East has but to look at Mr. Wimp's excellent
map of " The Ottoman Empire, with the frontiers
of Russia and of Persia." There he will see at .a
glance what she was, what she is, and what she
means to be. By a yellow tint (it should have
been a red one) the geographer has indicated her
successive acquisitions, with the date of the rob-
bery broadly stamped on each. Once she touched
neither the Black Sea, the Sea of Azoff, nor the
Caspian. But, within about the last seventy
years, she has obtained the almost uncontrolled
command of the whole of them. Her barbarian
hordes, aided by bribery, by cunning, and by
diplomatic perjury, have wrested province after
province from Turks, Cossacks, Circassians, Geor-
gians, and Persians, till she domineers without
an equal from the Danube round to the
borders of Persia. The Crimea itself is
hardly a conquest of seventy years' standing, and
Bessarabia on the Danube, and Georgia on the
side of Persia, are spoliations of the present
century, and that within the recollection of many
of us. The whole south of Russia, like, indeed,
in this respect to nearly all her boundaries, is
a territory to which she has no better title than
most of those who have expiated their crimes on
the scaffold at Newgate had to the fruits of their
murders. There are but two differences. The
rank of the robber and the scale of the robbery.
The grand robber fortress from which Russia
holds in awe all these stolen, and therefore uneasy
territories, is without doubt Sebastopol. This
ancient city of the Tartars, whose native designa-
tion, Ak-Tiar, she has almost effaced from
memory, is now a modern and purely
military city. It is the arsenal, depot,
and stronghold of Russia in the Black Sea. There
is no trade to it whatever, except what is origi-
nated by its warlike objects. How it is fortified
and provided with the munitions of war our
readers know but too well. The moral of it all is
this, that the object of Russia in the South and
Fast is conquest, not trade. The latter she en-
courages, indeed, so far as she can force it, by
stopping up rivers and by prohibiting tariffs, into
Russian hands, and so far as it may prove a source
of military funds, but aggression has been her
course, and aggression is still her untiring pursuit.
Every few years repeats the tale of some province
stolen from a neighbour, or some crafty over-
reaching in diplomacy or treaties. A powerful
fleet in the Black Sea, with an impregnable
fortress for its harbour, is the natural
device to sustain sueh a course. Sebas-
topol makes her formidable to Turkey in
Europe and in Asia alike, to the States on the
Eastern coast of the sea, and even to Persia
itself. In no spot whatever can her endeavours
at Eastern domination be so effectually repressed.
It cannot therefore, even in the review, be
regretted that we have determined to finish our
work in the East while we are about it. Sebas-
topol must be annihilated, or it would have been
of little avail to get the Russians away from the
Danube, and with that city the Crimea must also
pass away for ever from the bands which have so
abused their conquest. There can be no serious
difficulty in accomplishing this, if we attempt it
in earnest. Our readers will find in MONTAGUE
GORE, Esq.'s, " Description of the Harbours
and Towns of the Crimea," * a clear account
of the nature of the work to bo done.
There are but three places by means of which
Russia can send reinforcements to her army now
there ; and these three places are, or ought to be,
at our mercy.
prevent
a7Y along
Our new gun-boats could abso-
lutely
the succour
seaarriving
er A
z bffy; wanady ofif
Kertch or Arab
we occupied those places ourselves we might even
turn the tables on Russia, and draw supplies from
the adjoining Tartar tribes. But Perek•p, to
which from the beginning we directed attention,
laid. such stress at
and on which KOSSUTH properly

St. Martin's Hall, is the place through which all
the Russian reinforcements have arrived hitherto,
and by which the greater and more important
part must always arrive. Here, too, gun-boats
only can approach very near the Isthmus ;
but the Isthmus is so narrow that an army of
small size could hold it against all the world
This has been, indeed, proved. It would seem,
therefore, to be the first duty of the Allies to
secure this indispensable post. It would cut com-
pletely the line of communication between the
Russians in the Crimea and the rest of the Em-
pire, and leave them, shut out as they are from
the sea, without a base of operations. MENSCHI-
KOFF and all his army would be completely caught
in their own trap.
We contend that such a result is worth all we
could expend on it between this and- the spring.
To overpower the Russian army in the Crimea,
now that so many of its best troops are concen-
trated there, would be to make the Crimea a
Moscow for the enemy. The military prestige of
Russia would entirely vanish with the evi-
dence of the vast superiority of our indivi-
dual soldiers, and the superiority, also, of our
means of placing them wherever we wish. Com-
plete success in the Crimea will be anything but
resultless. It will seal the first great effort of
the Allies, the liberation of Turkey. It will leave
them free to complete the liberation of Europe.
There are some other Blaok-Sea places, indeed,
to finish off. They ought to have been dealt
with long before now. Nicolaieff, the southern
dockyard of Russia, whose river, the Bug, NI-
CHOLAS has dredged for his 100-gun men-of-war,
while he has allowed the mightier Danube to
become too shallow for merchantmen ; Odessa,
to which he has endeavoured to divert the na-
tural Danubian trade ; Kherson, and one or
two Circassian ports. It is a pity these were left
for next spring. For ourselves, we cannot for
the life of us comprehend why we ourselves or
our enterprising ally France have not dredged
the Salina mouth of the Danube long ago. Not-
withstanding the War, it is understood that the
provinces have produced a large supply of corn.
Witk present prices we suppose our governors
will not deny we want it ; and a few steam
dredgers would have opened the river quickly
and ot the same time to our merchantmen and
to cur smaller men-of-war.

* Published by Ridgway.

"Many a true word spoken in jest." Some
facetious remarks uttered at a symporium at the
Crystal Palace have led to important results.
The post-prandial hilt, that it might be worth ,
Government's while to contract with Messrs. Fox
and HENDERSON for the taking of Sebastopol,
has produced one of the most important and
beneficial steps adopted since the declaration
of hostilities ; beneficial in many respects, for it
is the sacrifice of one of the most cherished
crotchets of "red-tapism " that nothing could
be done except through official sources—a princi-
ple that, as wo have already explained, probably
prevented the rescue of Sir JOHN FRANKLIN and
his brave companions from the dreadful fate
to which they were subjected.. It now appears as
if Ministers were determined to adopt the best
means, although net in accordance with official
regulations, and to select the best men, although
not holding commissions in any branch of her
MAJESTY'S service. This. is, indeed, a wise and
judicious departure from official trammels—one
which we have laut little doubt will lead to im-
portant alterations in every branch of the civil as
well as the military service.

It appears that Government applied to the Hon.
Gentleman, the member for Norwich, to point
out a suitable person to undertake the charge of
a body of " navvies," and all classes necessary for
carrying out engineering operations. Mr. PETO
at once recommended a gentleman, who, with his
staff, had recently returned from Canada, and
whose qualifications were of a very high charac-
ter. The result is embodied in the following
paragraph