The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-09 00:00:00

.iira at peace-making, and he would, we fear, let
Russia fawn or bully him out of almost anything.
No ; our good cannon, rifles, and sabres are the
only safe peace-makers now. Not till we have
tried these powers of negotiation a little more
shall we see Russian batteries and fortresses on
the Black Sea destroyed for ever, Turkey really
Tree, the Crimea put into safe hands, the Euxine
reduced to a purely commercial lake, and the
SULTAN safe in the metropolis of the East.
We do not wish to conceal our opinion that the
Austrian Alliance, even in its best form, is a
very equivocal good. It is a grand hindrance to
that great essential of a stable peace, the recon-
stitution of Poland, and will enable the too will-
ing Aberdeenites to blink that question altogether.
Should it terrify the CZAR into proposing terms
of peace at which our Premier and his colleagues
could clutch, while the Baltic provinces re►nain
intact, Sweden and Denmark in fear, Poland still
on the rack, and Germany subservient, what would
be the gain commensurate with the cost in life
and blood? We deem it certain that, if the War
be not hushed up, our engineers will settle it the
right way. They will put such weapons and
means into the hands of our brave soldiers as
will teach the CZAR the tremendous odds at which
he fights nations as distinguished by inventive
genius as by valour. Passion and sentiment are,
indeed, parents of invention equally almost with
necessity ; and it is most inspiring to see how the
men of our workshops, of the forge and the rail-
way, our Parros and our NASMYTHS, all breathe
the same patriotic feeling ; all are soldiers for the
time, and all bring their valuable powers to bear on
the great purpose of their country. Ten thousand
pities were it if the mighty devices of righteous
enthusiasm wore all thrown upon our hands before
they had done their work—if by the ill-working
of this alliance Austria should gain a few
more years' furlough for her hateful oppressions,
at the price to Europe of prolonging those of
Russia also. Give Russia ten years more in the
Baltic and in Poland, and her agents will have
placed in her fortresses there those very imple-
ments of English invention, whose superiority
would, next summer, suffice to make them fac-
similes of Bomarsund. The time would, then,
soon come, when the contest must be renewed,
and our own soldiers would be the first to feel the
results of a hasty and imprudent peace. Like
WALLIS'S and BYRON'S eagle,. we should have
winged the weapon which destroyed us. With
these views, we can hope little from negotiations.
But even if we could, it would be equally im-
perative on us to trust to nothing but unrelenting
war till Russia had *accepted our terms. No
,erms worth having will she consent to but at
he cannon's mouth.

The 18th Royal Irish have embarked on board
the Magdalena, hired steam-transport, at Spit-
head, en route for the Crimea. Eleven hundred
disciplined and well-trained soldiers are thus ven-
tured on board a single ship for conveyance to
the spot where their services are so urgently re-
quired, and where their absence would be severely
felt. It would be exceedingly difficult, if not
impossible, to replace them. No mere assur-
ance could cover such a risk ; there could be no
adequate pecuniary compensation for the destruc-

tion of so much " bone and sinew," so much effec-
tive power, in a department where "skilled
labour" is in such immense demand.

This may appear rather a heartless mode of
considering the question. But even those who
are influenced by few, if any, feelings of humanity,
who are not actuated by what they are acoustomed
to denominate " sentimental impulses," may yet

dread a calamity in which, in common with the
entire nation, they must themselves participate.
Why, then, should the voyage be rendered

doubly or trebly hazardous ? Why should we

endanger so valuable a commodity—look-
ing on the lives of these gallant men in
no higher poiht of view—by placing them
in dangerous proximity to a highly destructive
agent I The Magdalena did not come into har-
bour because she had a large quantity of powder

—upwards of 50 tons—on board, besides some
200 tons of shot. And this powder is to be
carried in the same bottom with eleven hundred
soldiers ! The fact speaks for itself—it requires
no comment. It will excite a feeling of profound
indignation throughout the length and breadth of
the laud, and add another item to the long list
of blunders for which the ABERDEEN' Ministry will
have to answer before Parliament and the nation