The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-20 00:00:00

to let their subjects eater our service, no one could have ob-
jected to such a measure, nor would any one have required
to express limitation to the case of States actually at war.
That, however, is a very different thing from coming before
Parliament with a measure avowedly for enlisting against
Russia men of all nations, at war with Russia or not, threat-
ened by Russia or not, sympathisers, mercenaries, revolution-
ists, insurrectionists, incendiarieS of all kinds, ready at every
call to lend a hand towards severing the bonds between na-
tion and nation, or people and rulers.
On the principles upon which the bill has been advocated
it would .bo difficult to . condemn what is called a war of
principle, or a war of nationalities, dividing into opposite
sides the whole population of Europe, and, indeed, of the
world. On such principles we must give up the stern old maxim,
that you may treat as a pirate, and hang without mercy,
every subject of a State with which you are not at war who
May venture individually to invade your territory or wage
war against your armies. It is said that Pbadetski made an
example of some Romans and Neapolitans whom he found in
Lombardy, yet no one eau pretend that they had less justifica-
tion for attempting to drive the Austrians over the Alps than
the Swiss would now have for driving the Russians
across the Pruth and destroying Sebastopol. So far, indeed,
as the, precedent of the Germau Logiciu will really cover the
present measure, the Emperor of Russia cannot object to it,
inasmuch as the Russians fought side by side with that Legion
iu the late war. We must, however, expect the Russian Gene-
rals and lawyers to scrutinise rather narrowly the application
of a precedent which is construed into meaning that everytnem-
ber of the whole human race may lawfully take up arms to-mor-
row against Russia,simply for occupying so extensive a territory
and having .so largo an army. If report speaks true, we have
executed summary justice on the Russian Major who was
caught assassinating won ded men ; and Prince Menschi-
koff, on being invited to sign the sentence, replied in a spirit
of cavil, which bodes ill for future controversies on interna-
tional law. Let ussupposethe case of a Milanese or Neapolitan
gentleman found in the Crimea in arms against Russia, but
pleading the commission of her Britannic Majesty. Should
the Rassian General pronounce him a bandit, and hang him
accordingly, we should certainly bo in a very unpleasant case
unless we could cite chapter and verse in the law of nations
in our favour, and have undeniable authority for protesting
against the act.
The second reading has been carried by a majority which
must- be considered very slight, when we take into account
the almost entire unanimity which prevails as to the object and
general prosecution of the war. We cannot help thinking that
a little tact, or rather a little more simplicity and honesty,
would have procured the passing of the measure, as every
war measure ought to be passed, without a dissentient voice.
The public ought not to have been taken by surprise. Some
intimation of the bill ought to have been given beforehand,
and it ought to have been alluded to in the Queen's Speech,
together with the bill enabling Government to send the Mi-
litia abroad. If one, why not the other i The measure is
introduced quietly and by stealth, and the very looks and
movements of its advocates betray their own misgivings, and
inform us that if we are conscientious, as they believe us to
be, we shall hesitate to "comply with their wishes. We are
now informed that the bill has been in hand several months,
anAl that its Speedy enactment is one 'of the chief objects of
this December sitting. If so, why not introduce so impor-
tant a measure into the Queen's Speech, which is not over-
charged with matter, and might have been even improved
by*the introduction of something like a real announcement ?
Never was there a secret so well kept, though we cannot see
why any. measure necessary for the prosecution of a just and
popular war should have been thoughta fit.subject for a close
conspiracy. But, according to Mr. Sidney Herbert, this con-
spiracy was as dark an affair to the conspirators themselves
as to the public at large. None of them can say how the
foreign legion is to work, whence it is to be levied, or where
it is to be posted. On this point all parties in the house con-
fess a delightful agreement; and at this moment Mr. Sidney
Herbert would be very much obliged if anybody could tell
him where he is to get the soldiers necessary for carrying out
the purposes of this bill. This is a very delightful state of
ignorance, and speaks well for the success of the measure.
Perhaps it is only a feint to cover the secrecy with which it
has been matured. Yet all this disturbance, this mystery,
this continued uncertainty about a measure intended to be
only a return to the manners and customs of old English wars !
Ministers at least deserve a fright, and a narrow escape.
They have obtained both, and we trust they will learn alittle
more wisdom or some other Christian grade for the future.

(From th,e Morning Post.)
The Government have carried, and Parliament has passed
by a majority of thirty-nine, a measure to which, there can-
not be the slightest doubt, the opinion of the country at
large is decidedly and strongly opposed. By what impulse
the House of Commons has been induced to this unexpected
course—whether they have been driven by the threat, we
believe empty threat, of resignation, of late so customarily,
and, we may venture to say, even unconstitutionally, used
by the existing Administration, or whether they have been
persuaded by the force of the singular arguments used by
Lord John Russell, we know not ; but whether the one or the
other circumstance \vas the motive, power, the conclusion to
which it has conducted Parliament is one which we are con-
vinced will be regarded with strong feelings of discontent
and distrust, both by the country at large, and by those
classes upon whom during the ensuing year we must draw
for that supply of money and of men without which we can-
not hope to carry to a successful issue the serious contest in
which we aro engaged.
It must be evident to every man anxious for the energetic
prosecution of the war by means in accordance with the sym-
pathies of the country, that the Government, with a fair field
before them, and with a course cleared by anticipation of all
ordinary obstacles, should have gone out of their way in so
singular and unaccountable a manner to build up a wall against
which to run their own heads and those of the people, who
permit themselves, by an unfounded belief in resignation and
au exaggerated view of its consequences, to be delivered over,
bound hand and foot, to their despotic dicta.
Even more mischievous than the conclusion to which Par-
liament has been driven are the bases upon which Govern-
ment, represented by the Lord President of the Council, has
placed it by his speech of last night, and by the language
which ho is currently reported to have held to the various
political parties with whom be is customarily in commu-
nication, in the event of such s party crisis as that over
which the Cabinet has just tided. Lord John Russell, Speak-
ing in Justification of the bill, assures the public that, but
for the strong conviction ent4rtained by her Majesty's Minis-
ters that this country is quite incapable, even with the alliance
and aid. of France and of Turkey, of waging war successfully
against Russia, the measure would never have been pressed
upon Parliament. When money only is in question, says the
noble lord the Leader of the Rouse of Commons, the English
people do, indeed, shine with a brilliancy quite reinarkable.
Start a Patriotic Fund, ask for blankets, demand jellies and
plum-puddings, t ike round a begging-box for flannels and
port winos, touch, in fine, only the pockets of the Eng-
lishman, and who can compare with him in the prompti-
tude and largeness of his answer- to the appeal. His
pockets gape wide, as it were, by instinct, and his money
rolls out uncounted in a stream inexhaustible. He may
be drawn upon in that line; says the noble lord, to
any extent, but you must not touch his person—you inns
not ask him to abandon his fireside, or to confront in his own
person the perils and discomforts of campaigns. No. Fro.
,digal of his money, he is careful of his limbs, and bent upon
commerce and thriftl—absorbed in the fluctuations of Thre,
per Cents. and enamoured of the endearment of domesticity,
he abhors the tented field, and shuts his ears against the
dram that beats so loudly, and the voice of the cannon that
screams the wild halloo of death to struggling thousands.
The Englishman's nerves cannot stand all this, and in pure
pity Lord John suggests that he should stay at home and pay
out of his willing pockets his German cousin to do all tilt*
disagreeable work for him.
That an English Minister should have been permitted—
should have permitted himself, indeed—to make to the Par-
liament; and to the country of Great Britain, se ridiculous
and so unfounded a statement, must be a matter of deep re-
gret—we
had almost said of deep shame—to every British
subject. We will not believe that the majority of last night
was gained by faith in it. We will rather believe that it was
given to the Grrernment on ground less shameful, but equally
impolitic, as affecting the future government of the country,
.that, in the event of the bill being rejected, Lord J. Russell
and his colleagues would leave in this great crisis England
without a responsible Executive Administration. We warn
Parliament, we warn the country, that, in yielding to this
tricky sort of coercion, they are perilling very seriously that
important control over public affairs with which the constitue
tion has invested them. The doctrine of expediency has been
now for many years in this' kingdom the bane of wise and
complete legislation.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—The Duke of Newcastle, with a strange presumption
told his brother lords that, except Lord Hardinge, no officer
of capacity and experience remained in England with whom
he could consult to avoid the errors he had committed as a
War Minister—all were in the Crimea! He must now be
taught that there are officers still in England with sagacity
heroic
roey thea n introductionni a makes
E ng.
enough to see through his incapacity, and with indignation
enough to rebuke the grovelling spirit which has dictated the
degradationwen
of foreign soldiers to fight, our• battles at the very moment
h the Bt steam of the
country and
blood the
from armyiuk. bn: a
o
Eng-
land snort and start like a warhorse in the 'midst of carnage.
I will not say that the German Legion in the last war were
not good and trusty soldiers—their cavalry was excellent
but, despite of the Duke of Richmond's generous eulogium, I
will, with Lord Efienborough, say, that neither they, nor any
foreign troops, were able to equal tire fighting of the British
soldier. That legion was well composed ;it was, indeed,
a national force, with high moral motives, and with the
gentlemen of their own country as officers ; they were
thus presented in the best possible form that foreigners
could assume in another nation's service ; and gallant
things they cou'd and did do ; but emulate the terrible
fighting of the British soldier they could not. And
shall a mere mercenary band, picked up for gold, without
national feeling—poor miserable hirelings, sellinc, their limbs
and lives, aye I their very souls for lucre —ready, without a
cause, if paid, to murder, to slay, or be slain, and, of course,
ready to change sides for higher pay if good occasion offer—
shall such varlets stand in the line beside our noble soldiers
who fight shouting " England ' England'!" and dying mur-
mur, " We have done our duty ?"
When did German or Switzer, Prussian or Austrian, stand
before the gallant French in equal battle ? And those bril-
liant, fierce, impetuous French, could even they sus-
tain the might and terror of British battle, though, glorious
soldiers that they are and ever have been, they returned
to the combat as unceasingly as waves boating against rocks?
Such as they are indeed fit and worthy to stand abreast with
the unconquerable " red line that never yields," and, to-
gether, they will trample in the dust any troops in the
world that presume to oppose them. But let them not be
shamed by finding a hired third-rate selection from in-
ferior sources between themselves and their British com-
rades. Let them not be, told to depend
up on the dressed-
foreigners—poor frauds, like the camels of Semi-
ramie, accoutred as elephants, and sure to leave dark
silent gaps where loudest shouts and fiercest fires
should stream forth iu the hour of need. Shall the stern
infantry of lukerman, striding in blood ; shall the proud
cavalry of Balaklava—those noble horsemen who accepted,
not an order, but a doubtful sign only, to go bounding on as
it were to the open jaws of death ; shall they have as comrades
the refuse hirelings of Germany and Switzerland ? God
forbid !
You, sir, say that the Ministers will go out if the country
refus -is to accept their degrading measure. So let it be. Let
them slink away, while the universal shout arises of "jGod
and our right."—L am, sir, your obedient servant,
W. NAIII3II, Lieutenant-General.

The Sumroo, a fine ship of 1,000 tons, under the com-
mand of Captain Henderson, arrived in the Southamp•
ton Docks yesterday afternoon to take on board wooden
houses for the French troops in the Crimea. The Swift-
sure, Captain Price, of 1,800 tons, is expected for the
same purpose in a day or two, and several other ships
of large tonnage have been engaged to follow as soon as
possible. As soon as ready for sea they will be towed
across the Bay of Biscay and to their destination ,by
French war•steamers, which are to come to South,
ampton for the purpose. Several French officers
have arrived at Southampton, who are specially de-
puted by the French Minister of War to superintend
the embarkation and despatch of these houses, which
are being manufactured at Gloucester. The quantity
ordered will.prvvido accommodation fvr PM() men,