The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-13 00:00:00

monarchs look upon England and its constitution as
nuisances which they have no hopes of removing and
must endure. English Ministers are rather apt to pre-
sume on their knowledge of this, and fancy that a
chronic, inactive grudge of this kind bodes them no
harm. But the Eastern despots look upon the liberty of
France as a new stumbling-stone in their way, which
can be removed, and their hatred of it is as active as it
is relentless. They are anxious to subvert the present
dynasty of France, because it is of revolutionary origin,
because it professes to reign in virtue of the people's
choice, and because it is, therefore, by its mere existence,
a standing protest against the legitimacy of the titles by
which they claim to occupy their thrones. Knowing
this, the Emperor of the French knows that though
there may be occasional truces, and even alliances,
between the English Government and the old
despotisms, he has no such intervals of peace to
expect ; that so long as these Governments exist he
must sleep with his arms under his pillow, and keep his
powder dry. This is another reason why French dis-
trust of the equivocal conduct of Austria should be pro-
claimed earlier and with less reserve than English.
These considerations afford good ground for hope that
the sentiments of the two great Western Allies on this
score are the same, and that England is only behind
France in expressing distrust of Austria, not of enter-
taining it. The two great Western Powers of Europe
have nothing to fear from the enmity of the Eastern
despots ; but they have much to dread from their friend-
ship. The entire, unreserved confidence of France and
England, and their distrust and defiance of all other
powers, present just now the only security for the future
of both and of all civilised Europe.—Daily News.

THE WAR.-THE VIENNA PROPOSALS.

The Czar refuses the new Vienna proposals, and Aus-
tria declines to accept the refusal as a emus ball,. Aus-
tria continues satisfied with her position of "perfect nen:
trality." At any rate she will wait for the capture of
Sebastopol—or the Greek kalends.
Such is the course which, after eighteen months spent
in negotiation, the chivalrous young Emperor of Austria
has decided on pursuing. A morning contemporary who
has steadfastly supported the policy of the Austrian Go-
vernment, under the most trying circumstances, is much
astonished and chagrined at a result which every one
whose knowledge of the empire extended beyond the su-
burbs of Vienna perceived to be highly probable, if not
inevitable. For, however much the foreign interests of
Austria may be endangered by the admission of Russia,
her domestic policy essentially depends upon Russian
support. No one who was not blinded by Austrian as-
surances, or Austrian prejudices, could for a moment
have believed that the Cabinet of Vienna would declare
war against that of St. Petersburg, at a time when an
essentially
_Russian policy was still pursued towards

Croatia and Hungary.
The Times informs us that the active operations of war
have been delayed for so many months for the sake of
obtaining the concurrence of Austria ; and our contem-
porary admits that the expedition to Sebastopol could
have been undertaken with at least an equal prospect of
success at the commencement of the campaign instead
of its conclusion. To Austrian diplomacy, therefore, we
are indebted for the irreparable losses we have sustained
by the delay of our army at Gallipoli and Varna. We
must thank our neutral ally for the cruel ravages com-
mitted by disease in our camp, and for the additional
sacrifices which will be occasioned whenever Sebastopol
is attacked, in consequence of the preparations that Rus-
sia has made during the last six months for our recep-

tion there.
There are, indeed, some persons who believe that the
retreat of the Russians has been occasioned by the
threatened hostility of Austria ; but they should remem-
ber that the Russian army retreated before the Austrians
advanced, and that when the Russian troops halted the
Austrians halted also. The retirement of the Russians,
and the occupation of Wallachia by the Austrians, bears
every appearance of having been concerted between
Count Buol and his brother-in-law, Count Meyendorff.
For, in the first place, the Russians have not, as we now
know from authority, anything to dread in the way of
hostility from the occupying army ; and in the second,
the latter are playing to admiration the game of the
Russians themselves, by forcing on the reluctant Wal-
lachians Prince Stirbey, a man devoid of energy and
destitute of popularity, instead of the able and patriotic
General MaghtSro, who had been called to the post by
the unanimous voice of his countrymen, and whose ap-
pointment had received theapproval of the Porte.
Of course the Czar had nothing to say to Count Buol's
propositions. Why should he ? Why should ITe con-
sent to tear up existing treaties, the price of a century's
policy and war, unless absolutely compelled ? What
excuse would he have to offer, after all his braggadocio ?
Why, he dares not now do it, unless beaten. And we
have not gone the way to beat him. We have avoided
his armies in the field, and have not sought them in
their fortresses.
A single month has sufficed to destroy the illusions
respecting the strength of granite batteries and the
value of the Austrian alliance. These delusions have
followed to the same limbo the opinion so decisively
pronounced previously to the commencement of the
war, that the first shot fired would be the signal for the
destruction of Turkey. And. we are happy to find in
some admirable letters which are now appearing in the
Times respecting the various Christian races of Greece
and Roumelia, full confirmation of the opinion which,
in opposition to our contemporary, we from the first
ventured to express, namely, that the project of forming
a Byzantine Empire, based on Greek nationality, to re-
place the sway of the Sultan at Constantinople, was a
scheme almost as chimerical and absurd as Lit undoubt-
edly was perfidious and revolutionary.
A passage in the Moniteur of last week has escaped
our contemporaries. It gave, extracted from an Eng-
lish paper, descriptions of Kars and Erzeroum, and
added that such accounts were more than usually inte-
resting, as it was the intention of the allied Governments
to occupy those towns by Anglo-French troops. Though
this was not in the official part of the Moniteur, it im-
plied the belief of the editor of the journal that Anglo-
French troops were going into Asia.
We do not know if such an event is rendered more
or less likely by the unfavourable news of the battle
which has reached us this week. No doubt Kars and
Erzeroum might by this time have been secure. Enough
might easily have been done to prevent the possibility
of Russian conquest. Twenty or thirty thousand Anglo-
French would have expelled the Russians from Georgia.
But it has been the rule of the present war to sacrifice
everything to small and secondary aims, as if great
ones were beyond our spirit and grasp. We fortified
Gallipoli when we ought to have attacked Sebastopol,
and we take Bomarsund when we should have bom-
barded Cronstadt.
Under cover of preparing for the capture of Sebasto-
pol, we have tarried for months at Varna, and the re-
sult is a greater loss than we could have suffered in
action, without any result whatever. No doubt it was
Austria's hope from the first to occupy the Principalities
without incurring the actual hostility of Russia. But
since the latter has returned a defiant answer to Count
Buol's proposals this may have become less certain, and
who knows but that Marshal St. Arnaud may not even
yet, notwithstanding his order of the day and the em-
barkations already begun, find himself under the sup-
posed necessity of recommending that the bulk of the
army should be kept near the Danube, in order to pre-
vent Austria from being crushed ? Austrian neutrality
is an expensive thing.
It is now six weeks and upwards since the first an-
nouncement that the flower of the Anglo-French army
was to proceed to Sebastopol. The Russians, we may
be sure, have not lost these six weeks. We know
that a Russian steamer which got out of Sebastopol
looked in at Odessa, as if for experiment, and returned
safely to the fortified harbour. The blockade had been
relaxed for the purpose of bringing the army to Sebas-
topol. We have not yet accomplished that design, and
we have done what we could to enable the Russians to
baffle our attempt at its accomplishment.
Grave impttations have this week been levelled at the
naval commanners. It has been asserted that the ad-
mirals in the Baltic and the Black Sea have not done
all that even their orders enjoined or would have em-
powered them to do. This statement, from a journal
known to receive ministerial communications, the naval
commanders must meet as they can. The same journal
could not find words of reprobation strong enough when
Lords Clanricarde and Dudley Stuart criticised the
movements of the fleets. It was so ungenerous to attack
the absent commanders. And when those members of
the houses of Parliament declared that their censure was
directed against the ministry and not against the admi-
rals, the indignation of the Times was by no means en-
tirely appeased. Now, however, we are told by the
same authority that these brave officers have not done
all that was expected of them. We must observe, how-
ever, on their behalf, that the declaration accords
strangely ill with the positive assurance from the same
quarter that the effective prosecution of the war was
suspended until the concurrence of Austria could be se-
oured. It will be poor encouragement to men burdened
with such heavy responsibility as that which weighs
upon Sir Charles Napier and Apmiral Dundas, if they
are to a.e made the scape-goats of deluded diplomatists.—
iner.