The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-26 00:00:00

the Baltic, on which the possession of Finland and
the security of St. Petersburg depend. At the
worst, if the season has been so far thrown away
that all cannot be secured this year, it will cost
comparatively little to complete our work next
summer. The first great expenditure has been
made, and it will only be the difference of support-
ing our soldiers at home or abroad.
It will, therefore, be little short of treachery to
Europe, if Russia be suffered to negotiate as she
is, and upon the basis of her being able to hold
the stolen territories which make her formidable
against the armies of the allies. Silistria and
Bomarsund have settled that question ; we can, if
we will, take the material guarantees for permanent
peace ; and we are bound, instead of leaving a
faithless barbarian the means of future annoyance,
to cut them off at once and for ever. Were the
CZAR a mortal accessible to any notion of honour;
had not each of the allied Governments been
obliged to convict him of the meanest lying, there
might be some reason in talking of negotiation
and treaties ; but when his word is even more
worthless than his armies and garrisons, it
would be madness to make the least
account of it in settling this great quarrel.
The " ticket -of - leave " system can never
answer for convicted Czars ; an honest reign
over their own steppes will never content
them. They must be deprived of the means of
menacing the civilisation beyond them—must be
driven from the robbers' fastnesses which they
have constructed on territory not their own ; and
the guns of the very forts they have erected
against the liberties of their neighbours must be-
come their neighbours' " material guarantee"
against the aggressions of future Czars.
There is no security for peace without these
humiliating and now easy precautions. To leave
Russia one mile of coast, for instance, on the
Danube, is to insure another mud-bound mouth
in the course of a few years ; but to permit her
to retain both sides of any past of the principal
mouth would render certain another series of at-
tempts at ruinous quarantine devices and ob-
structed navigation. Turkey kept the Danube
open while she had it ; she will do it still, even
without a treaty, while Russia closed it in spite of
a treaty. A child would know what to do. No
treaty with Riissia is worth the paper on which it
is written ; but restore her own to Turkey, and
Europe, from east to west, would enjoy the full
advantage of that noble stream, and the trade
with the fertile provinces through which it flows.
In like manner any limitation of the power of
Russia in the Black Sea which left her any power
there at all would be equally mischievous. If
she retained Sebastopol, partially dismantled and
with a diminished fleet, who could prevent succes-
sive additions to the fortifications and ships, each
too small to become a cases belli, yet amounting,
in a series of years to a most dangerous magni-
tude ? The same remarks apply to the Baltic.
We could speak of Poland also ; but in the terri-
tories just adverted to the power of the Allies to
do what they must know .to be necessary is un-
questionable. Let all this be done, as done it
may be, and then will be the time to talk of
Poland. A glorious crowning achievement in- '
deed it would be if the royal robbers of that noble
nation were all made to disgorge, and if the land
of KOSCIUSKO became once more the barrier of
civilisation against Muscovite barbarism. But
whatever there may be across the Channel, here,
in this land of constitutional liberty, we have no
man amongst our governors able to rise to the
height of the occasion. An ABERDEEN Cabinet
and a liberated Poland are not likely to go down
to history together. We do sometimes hope that
the head of another Government may fulfil the
promise of his great ancestor.

The licensed victuallers are at length exhibiting
decided manifestations of hostility to the New
Beer Law. We cannot feel surprised that those
who are so deeply injured by its vexatious pro-
visions should take the initiative against a mea-
sure, hurried, as we have already stated, " through
both Houses of Parliament with indecent speed at
the fag end of the session." But, although we
willingly recognise the large amount of capital and
the magnitude of the interests involved in the ques-
tion, as well as the great personal annoyance in-
flicted on these gentlemen, we must look at it in
even a bolder point of view. Although the case
of the licensed victuallers alone is sufficient to
command attention, and the repeal of the obnoxious
statute, yet it must be dealt with on a still
broader foundation, and the community in general,
more especially the middle and labouring classes,
who are especially concerned, must grapple with
the intolerable grievance,- and endeavour to obtain
the reversal of these stringent and vexatious
enactments.

General action is requisite. Already we may
clearly discern evidence of the intention to follow
up the blow by something even more decided
next Session, if the people remain indifferent to
this unwarrantable invasion on their liberties (!)
Yes, we use the term advisedly ; every such re-
striction is an infringement, aye, and a very gross
infringement, on the liberty of the subject. The
next step will be the extension of the "FORBES
MACKENZIE Act" to the entire of the United
Kingdom ; and,. if that be tolerated, the enact-
ment at no distant day of a " Maine Liquor
Law." Persons not as yet personally interested
in the question, who have their own cellars and
their own clubs to resort to on Sundays, may
scoff at this assertion. But unless they
take a more enlightened and less selfish
view of the subject, they may possibly find
results following that will " astonish their weak
minds."

The Times has already thrown out a feeler,
without openly committing itself to the extreme
line ; and veiling its arguments under sundry
hypothetical statements, it yet clearly exhibits
the animus by which it is actuated, and the ulti-
mate object at which it is aiming. It admits
that it is treading "on dangerous ground when
it so much as doubts the right to be supplied with
all kinds of liquour, at all times and places, so long
as the soul may desire it and the pocket afford
it," and even acknowledges that "the odds are
against it, when it interferes with full libarty of
drinking !" But, notwithstanding this candour, it
unhesitatingly ventures on die dangerous ground,
and boldly takes " the odds" on the point in dis-
pute, for it shortly after declares emphatically,
that " self-preservation requires that we should
stop an evil where we can, if we should stop it
somewhere ;" and adds, " We cannot give up the
right and duty of society to stop crime in the bud,
and especially to prevent that day which should
have been our welfare and happiness becom-
ing to us an occasion of - falling." After
such declarations it scarcely required the addition
that it would " not-be-misled bya few exceptional
cases of inconvenience," when demanding the
" large classes" that would " suffer by the FORBES
MACKENZIE Act as it is called, or the correspond-
ing measure in this country," to show what it is
the Times wants.
Every argument is in favour of an absolute
prohibition of the sale of liquors by retail, al-
tllifoiutgbhe apparently,,theright and duty of limited to Sunday restriction.
Society stop
cdraiymien
tinhthe
weektyuti t o
,a"siotn the Sundayissurely
asm.ucllive areso on every
countenance immorality on any day, o
time. But is getting moderate and rnott at
temperateant
any
refreshment to recruit
beour exhausted faculties
cwriemed"isttihnacttlymaunstd
T"haa tnipped in in the bud."
not to cast aside the blessingsPve afforded ositnii
bWy
Pe
Raore.
vlDENekkbecause some men make ill use of them
We are not to prohibit the moderate and tem-
perate of the many because the " few" degrade
themselves by excess. Punish those who do
wrong, but do not inconvenience the entire com-
munity because there is the possibility of
some forgetting themselves ! The old proverb
says, " Where there's a will there's a way,"
and if the inclination for ardent spirits exists it
will be indulged in, no matter how stringent may
he the restrictions imposed by the Police.

We have repeatedly asserted that "men cannot be
made religious by Act of Parliament." We now add
that there is great danger to all classes in attempting
to do so. Why should we excite a feeling of
.az ;,utvlorabl© toL:o of vacaag, in any