The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-05 00:00:00

" tired" in very earnest, but—this time—cer-

tainly not of " war's alarms :" on the contrary,
of the craven pipings of the hitherto all-
influential peacemongers. Insomuch that one
nervous versifier* (anonymously, but on that ac-
count none the less commendably) has found it in
his heart to cry out in an agony of epigrammatic
wrath—

" Britannia ! rise in all thy pride,
Or ne'er thy flag unfurl :
`No little war,' the great Duke cried ;
What cries the petty Earl ?"
Everything, indeed, that has recently afforded us
the most momentary glimpse into the feeling
roused among our gallant soldiers by the events
of the past deplorable twelve months, has tended
more and more clearly to satisfy us that there has
been the bitterest heart-burnings in the army of
England—a state of things such as would have
carried sorrow to the old warrior now slumbering
by the side of NELSON under St. Paul's basilica,
had he survived to witness the calamitous occur-
rences which have illustrated the misrule of Lord
ABERDEEN ever since the " travelled Thane" un-
fortunately, for this country, and unfortu-
nately, also, for the rest of the nations of
Christendom, undertook the guidance of her
MAJESTY'S Government. It has been felt
rather than " seen" or " heard" that undue in-
fluence has been exercised at the Horse Guards,
by one who had no sort of authority, direct or
indirect for that interference—one presumed, not
without ample reason, to have rather too many
German predilections. Englishmen have revolted
from this—English soldiers especially have re-
sented the notion of affairs at Head-quarters
being directed by an individual too supple and
complaisant in temperament to be the worthiest
successor of the courtly, but iron, stubborn, un-
yielding, independent WELLINGTON.

"Bowing down, bowing down !"
may, as CHARLES MACKAY has it, be in truth
and in deed—

"The way to get on in London town !"
But every one feels it is not the most befitting
attitude to be assumed at the Horse Guards, by
the one high in authority, whether as Commander-
in-Chief, or Commanding-in-Chief. British ve-
terans look for a General made of sterner stuff
than goes to the fabrication of the elastic v erte-
brae of a courtier. Wherefore, we believe that the
rumoured changes, above particularised, will be
awaited eagerly by the vast majority of the officers
of the British army—men who would hail almost
" as one man" the advent to supremacy over that
department of the public service of the beloved
Commander who has long come to be regarded as
one of the noblest and worthiest lieutenants of
WELLINGTON. However this may be, the feeling
of the soldiers of England is altogether against
being—Germanised. They ask themselves with
a bitter sense of abasement how it has come to
pass, so frequenly of late, that merit has been
overlooked, and promotion accorded elsewhere,
where it might least have been expected. They..
cannot understand the course recently pursued at
the Horse Guards, in reference to their organisa-
tion as a body, or rather, it should be said more
correctly, their disorganisation. Neither can
they comprehend the wretched paltering of our
diplomatists to the truculent ambition of a poten-
tate who has learned how to beard us with
impunity. The soldiers of Great Britain
behold recent events in this light : and the same
view is taken also by the soldiers of our Gallic
neighbours. They ask, as another has asked—
" France leagued with England, why these fond alarms ?
HOTSPUR AND DOUGLAS MATCH THE WORLD IN ARMS."
At such a juncture can any one indeed, with a
single thrill of patriotism in his veins, hearken
with indifference to a rumour of changes at the
Horse Guards, accompanied, as they are, with
feeble and scarcely audible whispers of the possi-
bility modifications in the foreign policy of
England under a really vigorous and capable
Government !