The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-04 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1854.

Speaking of the security of Europe from the
recurrence of aggressions similar to those recently
undertaken by the AIITOCRA.T, and defining this to
be = the real object of the war against the CZAR
adventured upon by the Allied Governments—
Lord PALMERSTON exclaimed very haughtily on
Monday evening, the 24th of July— " That
security must be accomplished by the united arms of
England and France : I care not who else joins us,
or who may stand aloof !" Then, in. the name of
common sense, why has there been all this coquet-
ting with Austria and Prussia ? Why all these
delays to secure, if possible, the co-operation,
and not the armed neutrality only, of Den-
mark, and of Sweden and Norway ? Why this
protracted and almost interminable diplomatic
correspondence with the Courts of Berlin, and
Vienna, and Stockholm, and Copenhagen ? Why
that provokingly inopportune visit of H.R.H. the
Duke of CAMBRIDGE to the 'Austiian Capital, upon
the occasion of the young EMPEROR'S marriage ?
Why the particular stress laid by the Mem-
bers of the Cabinet, at the opening of the
present session, upon the probability (according
to their view of things at the time) of the King
FREDERICK WILLIAM and the Kaiser FRANCIS
Josses being induced to'enter into a cordial and
active alliance—[against the Czar NICROLAS]—
with her Britannic MAJESTY and the Emperor
NAPOLEON ? Why all this—if Ministers are so
perfectly well satisfied with the union between
France and England that they care absolutely
nothing for any one's neutrality or co-operation ?
The Home Secretary did not confine himself to
this on the 24th ultimo, when addressing the
House of Commons. He said—speaking of France
and England—" These two great countries united
in cordial alliance for the accomplishment of any
object—the two greatest military and naval
powers in the world—are surely able by their own
energetic action to accomplish such a peace as
shall satisfy the conditions upon which we think
the security of Europe should be based !" Surely.
We echo the noble lord's own earnest and almost
indignant adverb. " Surely " England and France,
united in cordial alliance, are able to bring about,
by their warlike operations together, a peace of
this precise description ! At least we have believed
this of them- hitherto. And yet month after
month has passed by since the circumstance of
their being united i. n cordial alliance has been uni-
versally recogAised as a simple a.nd.altouether ineon-
trovertible matter-of-fac quarter after quarter
has elapsed since the simultaneous declaration of
war through the Lond4;l Gazette, and the Paris
Moniteur, by the 'chiefs of the ; greatf 4
Allied
Governments—and here, in the August
are matters just in the same deplorable uncertainty.
Europe is to all appearvee about as far as ever
from the chance of a satisfactory settlement. No
decisive action has been fought by the combined
fleets either in the Baltic or in the Black Sea,
either before Odessa or before Sweaborg, before
Cronstadt or before Sebastopol. Whatever
successes . have since then been obtained
over the Russians by land have been eb..
tained by
the Turks alone, or aided only.by. their I
energetic Egyptian auxiliaries—certainly without
theassistance
of the much-talked-of and long-
tarrying Anglo-
as
French contingents.
It is certain that Prussia hangs like a weight
upon the councils of the Austrian Government.
Is it not just barely possible that England may be
dragging in like manner not merel upon a weight
but like a palsy or a paralysis
aid those of
France ? Otherwise than by the of some such
supposition—a supposition clearly justifiable under
existing circumstances--the bearing of our imme-
diate neighbour at this juncture is altogether in-
comprehensible. For France is at this moment
presided over by one dominant and energetic in-
tellect, and not by the conflicting views and vacil-
lating sentiments of a Coalition Government. A
Government--this latter—which, as we have learn t
in England by recent and very bitter experience,
can speak the most valiantly when acting with the
most deplorable and notorious feebleness ! A Go-
vernment, one of. I
whose members can say, in refer-
ence to the war with Russia, and in allusion to ;
the alliance with France—,, I care not who else
joins us or who may stand aloef'—after upwards
of twelve-montlisuhave been frittered away in

fruitless endeavours to win over to the allies of
Turkey the co-operation—not the neutrality, but
the co-operation—of the Austrian and Prussian
Sovereigns ! We repeat it—unless upon this sup-
position of the councils of the Tuileries being palsied
or paralysed by the influence of the councils of
St. James's, now that the latter are represented by
my Lord ABERDEEN and his jangling Coalition—
the conduct of France, meaning by that, of course,
the policy of her EMPEROR, is, in truth, entirely
incomprehensible.
England and France united in cordial alliance
—says the Home Secretary—" are surely able,
by their own energetic action, to accomplish such
a peace as shall satisfy the conditions upon which
we think the security of Europe should be based."
Then, in the name of GOD and of humanity,
let them accomplish that peace by a display of
that energetic action ! If ever they had, they
have now, indeed, the capacity of so doing at their
command—armies and fleets, the like of which
for general R illsiency they have neither of them
before this era orth to do battle with a lawless
oppressor. The sword has been drawn—it has
been flashed long-enough before the eyes of men
for the purpose, it would seem, of winning the
world's idle admiration. Let the inevitable blow
without further delay" • be stricken at once, and
boldly—and that two-handed sword of France and
England not sheathed again until the peace of
the earth and the rights of nations shall have been
accomplished.

Germany is now the millstone on the neck of
Europe. The Calmuc-hearted tyrant, who pre-
tended to converse, "as a gentleman," with an
English Ambassador, and whom courtly English-
men were weak enough to - believe to be one in
their sense of the word, is not the real danger.
The agglomeration of despots, great and small,
who speak the noble language of the Teutons, will
seal the slavery of Europe, if enslaved it is to be.
The savage ancestors of the Germanic races had
the hearts of freemen ; they were at once the
terror of Roman Emperors, and the admiration of
the greatest of Roman historians. Their kings
ruled, but dared not tyrannise ; and if they had
slaves, in common with all the world, they were
not slaves themselves. Their very conquests
sowed the germs of liberty. England owes her
national soul to them. But, oh ! how changed !
Where free tribes once made Roman legions trem-
ble—behold, now a whole territory of crouching
little States! For even its two great Governments
are but a bundle of small States hardly kept
together by military chains. Some score or
two of little Principalities and Dukedoms,
&c., &e.,— all dapperly bowing under the
rods of their petty despots, these again all
trembling before the contemptible man whom
the Prussian army is content to support, or before
the boyish inheritor of the Hapsburg virtues ; and
these despised or hated greater despots in turn
cowing under the scowl, or supplicating the help
of the " Mighty Tzanr —this is Germany. Were
German soldiers as noble minded as Spanish
soldiers now prove theMselves to be ; would they
but refuse to submit to the infamy which brands
them in the eyes of every honourable and free
country, and were the German people but as set
on freedom as their untutored ancestors, Poland
and Hungary would then leap into life again; and
the CZAR might again, like his ancestors, for aught
Europe would care, lick the spillings of milk
dropped by Tartar Ambassadors from the manes
of their horses. An ignoble-minded soldiery, and
a bureau-drilled people keep civilisation and free-
dom beneath the varnished Tartar of St.
Petersburg.

It is most deplorable to think of the contrast
between the past and the present. As we have
just said, Germans planted with their race the
living stock of freedom in the lands they con-
quered, although they have suffered it to wither
and die in their own ; and their Emperors of old
did not do penance at the gates of Rome without
a long and a hard struggle ; but modern German
monarchs voluntarily kiss the toe of the LLAMA. of
the Muscovites and Calml3cs, and humbly thank
him that they are despots by the grace of
NICHOLAS, and bless him for " keeping down their
people under them." The "TZAR, moreover, and
his hordes, unlike the old Germans, carry the
seeds of the most debasing slavery wherever they
go. The people are no better than their prince.
They glory in their despot and are proud of their
chains. Abject and unhesitating submission to
the will of one man, a man like themselves, is
their inborn creed. Not that they ignore the
usual vices of slavery ; of honour they literally
know not the meaning ; their most cultivated
men, after long residence in France or England,
can hardly comprehend the idea ; they confound
it with cleverness ; and downwards from the Chan-
cellor of the Empire, princes and nobles, to officials,
serfs and all, dissimulation, concealment, fraud,
and imposition, aro universal. What an excellent
supreme example of these qualities they have in
their TZAR all Europe knows too well. This is
not mere declamation. Not to mention other
more questionable sources, let any one read DE
CusTENE's Russia, now to be had for a trifle, and
that most truthful of writers will satisfy him that
we use but the language of sober truth. How
wretched the thought of such a people blighting
the civilisation of Europe by their influence, much
more by their conquests ! With all deductions
for Mussulman ignorance, conceit, and oppression,
the Ottomans are a noble race compared with the
Muscovites. They do know what honour is.
Their word is as good as an Englishman's. That
alone draws an eternal boundary between the
base serfs of the TZAR and the subjects of the
almost equally absolute SULTAN. Yet it is the
TZAR and his slaves to whom Germany is now
willing to subjugate itself, and also the bodies and
the minds of the nobler part of Europe.
And this ignoble Germany it is which paralyses
Franco and England, through paralysing the
governors of the latter. The Monarch to whom
German potentates denied a wife owes them
nothing—or, rather, owes them what he will one
clay surely remember ; but our country, to which
the said potentates have always been ready to
furnish matrimonial accommodation, is in a diffe-
rent plight. We see Prussia pinned to the
TZARINA'S petticoats, and Austria mesmerised by
the TZAR'S glances, and yet we dare not cut loose
from our Royal cousins, and send them to their
proper place—to Coventry. Our Ministers have
openly pleaded that they have protocolled away
the precious days of the spring, to get the co-ope-
ration of Austria and Prussia. We were promised
a glorious union of the Four Powers (?) against
Russia—a promise resulting in the contemptuous
slinking off of Prussia, and the unfulfilled engage-
ment of Austria to clear the provinces of Russian
troops—an engagement which proved to mean,
what,,all but the English Cabinet knew it did, that
if the Russians would walk away, Austria would
take care that 031 ER PASHA should not bayonet
them in the back.
Here; then, we are, through the most culpable
truckling to Austria. Here, we are, in the un-
healthy heats of autumn,.and winter to supervene
quickly upon them, without one serious blow struck
at the Lord of the Muscovites and Calinucs. The
Government prated about making peace at Constan-
tinople or St. Petersburg; but with knowledge and
design sent neither the gun-boats nor the soldiers
essential to making peace in the place of supreme
advantage. They have talked of protecting the
Turks in the Black Sea, and of the impossibility
of leaving the menacing navy and fortifications of
Sebastopollpe,h
and
i s gave
the
Gibraltar
a sthey are.o Yet they permitted t
Si-
Hope,
fortify -
ioenemyfti
e Ex i everyo opportunity e
ymholding
moment.
ent
back both ships and troops to the f by
m
What can be the real cause of this r It is not.
the power and the efforts of opposition Toryism ;
that has all been exerted to make our Ministers
Englishmen. It is rather because the Court of the
day must look at the connexions of the Head
of the Court; if they be tyrants and oath-breakers,
they must yet treat them as " Most Gracious
Majesties ;" they must wait upon their pleasure,
must uphold them against their subjects, must
keep brutally oppressed dominions in obedience to
them, and waste England's treasure and our
warriors' blood to save their goodwill.
We hope, when Parliament is prorogued, a
watchful press will do its duty. Its first one is

to knock off the German clog, or at least to expose
its unbearable weight ou our Councils, our pockets,
and our military and naval movements. Its next
to make fully known the utter badness of the
despot and the Government with which we are
at war. We are persuaded few of our readers
imagine how ignoble is the nation which seeks to
domineer in Europe. We refused to see Europe
prostrate beneath civilised and intelligent France
and its great Frenchman, but to see it at the feet
of Muscovites, Mongols, Calmucs, and Cossacks,
with such a heartless barbarian as NICHOLAS at
their head, would be to put back the clock of the
world for a thousand years.

The Directors of the Bank of England yester-
day reduced the minimum rate of discount from
54;- to 5 per cent. The alteration had beeu for
some time anticipated. Many causes combined to
render it unprofitable to the Corporation to main-
tain the higher interest. The demand for pecu-
niary accommodation had materially fallen off,
and for the best of all possible reasons, because it
could be obtained on easier terms in Lombard-
street than in Threadneedle-street. Men would
not pay 51 per cent. to the "Old Lady" while the
discount brokers were ready and willing to supply
their wants at 5 per cent. The additional half
per cent. was just as well in their own pockets as
in helping to enhance the dividends to the owners
of Bank Stock. Besides, the effects of the exor-
bitant charges for the last ten weeks has been mate-
rially to curtail business operations, and thus fur-
ther to limit the demand. Their own intereststhen
led to the tardy reduction,which would not havebeen
made if they could otherwise have hoped to obtain
employment for their capital. They therefore
deserve no thanks for the concession, and cannot
claim any credit therefor when required "to set
their house in order," and to prepare themselves
for the discussions respecting the renewal of the
Charter, which is rapidly approaching to its
termination.

Some time since, such charges for discount as
5i- or even 5 per cent. were seldom attempted,
and only under circumstances of the most pressing
description. The general range was from 3to 4
per cent., and at these prices trade and commerce
flourished. It was neither unduly stimulated by
exceedingly low, nor unfairly repressed by extra-
vagantly high charges. During the Commercial
Crisis of 1847 it rose to 5 per cent., at which
price it stood when the celebrated letter of the 25th
October, 1847, virtually suspending the Bank
Charter, wasissued. Then there was a sudden spring
to 8 per cent. in consequence of the condition an-
nexed by the Premier and the Chancellor. The
commerce of the country was paralysed—many
merchants and traders were ruined—while all but
wealthy capitalists suffered severe losses. But
what signified the injury to the nation so long as
the Bank itself profited While others were re-
duced to the -verge of bankruptcy the Old Lady
realised immense profits, and divided handsome
dividends, accompanied in many instances with
an additional bonus. Since that period money
has been so abundant that it has been readily ob-
tainable at 2 per cent., at which rate it was freely
advanced on approved securities up to the close
of the year 1852. Since then it has been, from
time to time, advancing until the 21st of May last,
when it was fixed at 5i per cent., although there
was more than 12,608,079/. of bullion in the
Bank vaults at the time. There has been au
acknowledged increase of more than a million
sterling since—the last account stating the amount
at 13,633,677/. for the week ending the 22d of
July; and there is every reason to suppose that it
was even more favourable during the following
week, the statement respecting which will appear
in this evening's Gazette. And surely with nearly
fourteen millions of gold, even 5 per cent. is a
very inordinate rate, such as could never be main-
tained for any protracted period, at least without
a great sacrifice of profits ou the part of the B Lnk.

It will thus be seen that the Act of 1844,
among its other shortcomings, has entirely failed
in preserving an equitable value of money, or
averting those violent fluctuations, which have been
truly described as "occasioning greater mischief
than all the failures of the several banks of issue
that ever suspended payment." At one moment
we see interest charged only 2 per cent.,
money abundant in every quarter, and the
greatest activity prevailing on all sides. Within
a few weeks, before the contracts entered into
under such very different circumstances can be
completed, before the bills then drawn and ac-
cepted attain maturity, we find a stringent appli-
cation of the screw, and the charge enhanced from
2 to 4 per cent., at the mere arbitrary will and
pleasure of the Directors.
Surely this is not right or proper. They should
either be allowed full discretion as to their issues,
so as to suit the nature of the demands, or that
over the rate of interest should be taken away !
Why should there not be a sliding scale for that as
well as for the issue of notes, rendering both de-
pendent on the amount of bullion. The Directors
have abused their power as to the rate of interest
far more than as to the amount of their issues. If
one restriction be right the other must be still
more so. At present we confer a virtual mono-
poly. We prevent the wholesome competition that
would insure fair play to the public, and
then we allow the monopolists to fix the price of
a commodity which cannot be obtained This is
too absurd. If " free trade" in money is to be
still prohibited, and the stringent restrictions
established in 1844 retained, then give some pro-
tection to the merchants, and traders, and manu-
facturers of the country. Let the operation of
" the self-acting currency regulater" be extended,
and made applicable to the rate of interest. The
I machinery is just as appropriate for the one as for
the other.

Our readers will, of course, not suppose that
we are .giving up our demand of the establishment
of a really national Bank, and the issue of a na-
tional small note currency. We shall never relax
our exertions for the attainment of these great
desiderata. But we are pointing out for the
edification of bullionists an additional defect in
their favourite measure, for surely if the auto-
maton principle be good for any thing, it ought
to be fully and fairly carried out in all respects,
and the Directors should be bound as to the rate
of interest as well as to the amount of notes cir-
culated.

COURT CIRCULA R.

OSBORNE, AUG 3.

The Queen and Prince, with the Princess Royal,
Princess Alice, and Prince Arthur, attended by the
Cotr,tess of Dysart and Lord Alfred Paget, cruised in
the Fairy yesterday afternoon.
The Earl of Clarendon arrived on a visit, and returned
to London this morning.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent has post-
poned her intended visit to her Majesty in consequence
of the indisposition of Lady Augusta Bruce, who is in
waiting on her Royal Highness, and has a slight attack
of scarlatina.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent has returned
to Clarence-house, in consequence of Lady Augusta
Bruce, her Royal Highness's lady in waiting, having
experienced a slight attack of scarlatina at Frogmore-
house.
A deputation of the Royal Asiatic Society, consisting
of Mr. H. H. Wilson (director), Colonel Sykes (vice-
president), Mr. H. T. Prinsep, Mr. J. Ferguson, Colonel
Bagnold, Mr. E. Ravenshaw, Dr. Bird, and Mr. Norris
t(lise officesistan o
t secretary),fvvorksa ntdrapnrbeliteedßubiuldsiinngesss
inyevtehridteayhalait
h.

place.
Despatches were sent yesterday from the Colonial-
office to the Governors of Malta, Hong-Kong, and
Ceylon, and to the Governors of the Australian Colonies.
Despatches were received yesterday from the Governor
Itar.

of 6ibral

His Excellency the Portuguese Minister and the
Countess de Lavradio have left town for Tunbridge
Wells. His Excellency, who was suffering in his health,
has, we are happy to say, already derived some benefit
from the change of air.
Viscount and Viscountess Maynard have left Gros-
venor-square, for Easton Lodge, Essex, where they
purpose remaining till the close of the present month.
Lord and Lady Poltiinore will leave town on Tuesday,
for their seat in Devonshire.
The marriage of Mr. Douglas Holford and Miss
Lindsay, the daughter of General Lindsay, announced
to take
,
place yesterday, will be celebrated on Saturday,
at St. George's Hano;er•square.
through
gChlatrheits, dpolnacet,o 8
aLyosr
ad
BNeVrleisntml
eotrteerlaon.fd
t, h havee
Two extra Queen's messengers, with despatches from
communications has been, it is
the last three or four reply the
Austrian days. The English to
Austrian
by one of them. said,
conveyedpwaiths ei
nd