The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

Russia will accept the propositions." Still
more earnestly we say—lt remains to be seen, in
the event of their acceptance by the CZAR, whe-
ther those propositions are honourable to their four

great originators ! Wherefore, it may be asked,
the doubt thus thrown upon the integrity of the
mysterious ultimatum only just now forwarded to
St. Petersburgh ? Wherefore ? The inquiry
admits of being very speedily satisfied. Simply,.
then, for this sufficient reason—that the Note of
the Four Powers, the Note accepted by the Porte
and now forwarded on to St. Petersburgh for the
final decision of the AUTOCRAT—is declared
by the apologists of Aberdeenism to amount
literally to this, to nothing more and no-
thing less than this, the guarantee, by Tur-
I key, of the maintenance of the rights and
privileges of the Christian subjects of the SULTAN
of all denominations. Nothing more ! Now this
is precisely in accordance with the view announced
on Monday last by the chief of the organs of the
Coalition, when, in answer to the inquiry as to
what were the advantages to be secured to France
and England by the settlement of existing diffi-
culties between the CzA R and the SULTAN, the
writer answered epigramatically and explicitly—
NONE ! None ? Will such a decision, we ask,
be honourable to the allies of Turkey, or conso-
nant with our dreams of security to Christen-
dom ? Asssuredly not. We aspire to wel-
come no peculiar benefits to France and
England as the fruit of these prolonged
struggles and protracted negotiations. No. But
at the same time we do yearn to witness the
extension to the whole of the European family of
nations of advantages such as should constitute
substantial guarantees that Russia would never
again be in a position to repeat her lawless expe-
riment upon the dismemberment of Turkey, and,
of course, as a crowning consequence, upon the
ultimate capture of Constantinople. Guarantees
such as the following. Guarantees such as the
permanent opening of the Black Sea, not to Eng-
land alone, but indifferently to the vessels of all
the nations of both hpmisplieres ! Guarantees
such as the unlocking from henceforth, and
for ever, of the Bosphorus and the Dar-
danelles ! The Euxine should no longer
have even the semblance of being a Russian lake
—it should be as free at all times to any and
every flag as the Mediterranean. As additional
securities to Europe, it were well, moreover, if
the Crimea were seized, and the two confronting
ports of Odessa and Sebastopol. Europe has long
felt, indeed, that in right, and in justice to the
commerce of the world, the mouths of the Danube
should be rendered accessible to the whole trade
of Christendom. Along the current of that vast
river the merchandise of all the industrial races
indiscriminately should long since have been per-
mitted to float upwards and downwards at plea-
sure, without hindrance. Here at length is
fitting opportunity for the realisation of these
visions of comprehensive improvement. Unless
some energetiO effort be made towards the accom-
plishment of designs such as those we have just
mentioned, the tranquillity of Europe may seem
for a while to be restored, but in reality it will
still be perpetually liable to be jeopardised. Every
opportunity will still be afforded to the CZAR for
the fulfilment of his hereditary day-dream of
Turkish subjugation. The seeds of future war-
fare will still be allowed to remain in the
temporarily occupied Principalities, there to
ripen at the the earliest moment that may seem
fitting into a contention such as may then be
more disastrous to the Porte, more pernicious to
Europe at large, and more beneficial to the then
CZAR and his vast autocratic government. Every-
thing, therefore, should now be done to prevent
the possibility of disasters so gigantic and (as they
might prove) irreparable. By extorting guaran-
tees like those already enumerated from
Russia, the allies of Turkey might at this
moment effectually secure the future integrity
of the Ottoman Empire, and while commanding
extraordinary advantages to be shared among the
nations of Christendom, provide for the political
hereafter of the world in such a manner that no-
thing short of a miracle could ever enable the
standard of the Russian AUTOCRAT to flutter from
the mosques and minarets of Constantinople.

It would seem an impossibility now for the
Ministry to evade a Reform Bill ; one thing gives
us hope that it will be worth having—Sinope,
and, we might add, the Vienna Note. They will
have to retrieve a most inept blunder in diplomacy,
and a most disgraceful and distressing insult to
our flag. The timid deference to a mean, lying,
and marauding despot, which shrunk from announc-
ing that any seizure of our ally's territory would
be viewed as a declaration of war against us ; the
repression of our naval zeal until the fleet it most
concerned us to preserve was crushed in the seas
we were there to defend—all this, and much
more, may be palliated as it best can; but nothing
' can efface from the Coalition Cabinet the stigma
of being so overreached by threats and cunning,
that they have to meet Parliament with the lament
that they have been thoroughly drubbed by land
and by sea. Better behaviour will of course be
promised, still great will be the danger that a
Russo-German Cabinet will not do for a British
House of Commons, nor for a House of Lords
either, while Lord LYNDHURST'S voice can yet be
heard there. Something must be done to propi-
tiate. Finance will be but a sorry hope ; the war,
which they have lured on the enemy of Europe
to wage, will demand fresh taxes. Sanitary
measures and law reforms all parties will
do equally well for. A really telling Reform Bill,
one which would be worth keeping a Cabinet in

to get it carried—this seems almost the only thing
which can divert attention from a foreign policy
which the country utterly despises. The very
party also which they ousted is credibly rumoured
to be at work with a counter bill, and one of its
best accredited organs declares broadly that it
must be no patchwork business, but that the more
complete, the more calculated to satisfy for a long
time to come—the better it will be for us all !
The Liberal press, too, is kindly volunteering,
up to the eleventh hour, its reform lessons. The
Westminster vouchsafes a long semi-philosophical
semi-historical lecture, and the Spectator tabu-
lates Don, Parliamentary papers, and the like,
daguerreotyping most perfectly the whole of the
Reformed Parliaments, that of December, 1853,
being the centre of the picture. It is a picture worth
looking at, and does much credit to the skill of
the artist. It is unmistakably truthful—the very
best pocket likeness we have seen. With the
article in the Westminster we confess ourselves
somewhat disappointed—it agrees, indeed, with
much that we have already urged, but is for the
more part inconclusive, and gives up the Ballot
as " mechanical!"—an. argument equally valid
against locks and bars ; still, as our silver spoons
are in much the same danger as the vote of a
tenant-at-will, we, and probably the writer alluded
to, do not despise mechanical devices to prevent
the appropriation of our property by the dis-
honest. When landlords and others cease to
pilfer votes by the mechanism of the Poll-book,
we will cease to ask for. the protective mechanism
of the Ballot-box.
The tables of the Spectator certainly present
some striking results. The second table is a clas-
sification of the Members. The result stands
thus :

Percentage of
Seats. the actual Re.
presentation.
The relations of Peers possess 103
Irish Peers 6 17.0
The Country Gentlemen 266 .•. 41.3
Men of Letters and Science ..• 20 . 3.0
The Army and Navy ........... 3O •• • 4.6
The Commercial and Money
interest lO9
The Lawyers lO7
The Working Man interest none

17.1
17.0

Total Seats occupied 641
The disproportionate representation of ono class,