The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-03 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, J ULY 3, 1854.

THE SOCIAL ECONOMY OF 1 Tzlß.

We sometimes have felt exceeding provocation
at the quarrelsome spirit of the United States.
They are always ready to fight—to seek an occa-
sion for fighting. They would at any time rather
go to war than not. They are perpetually seeking
satisfaction. Now, it is of ourselves ; again, it is
of France, or Spain, or Austria, or Japan. Their
very ambassadors make pretexts for duels if they
cannot find them ; their consuls demand compen-
sation for injured citizens ; their captains of the
navy are ever on the brink of a broadside in foreign
ports, either with the State in whose harbour they
are at anchor, or with some rival navy or com-
peting traders. Yet they are at peace with all the
world—have no national debt—their surplus
revenue is a nuisance—every body is civil to them
—every body concedes to them more than is their
due. To make war in words is enough ; to be
" sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble
reputation even at the cannon's mouth," turns out
to be the best way of superseding the necessity of
an appeal to the cannon. To a man bristling with
spikes, all are ready to give " a wide berth." So
it was with us in the days of the Protector. Old
Noll had enough on his hands at home ; but that
did not prevent him from keeping foreigners in
order. Being always ready to fight with every
body, nobody was willing to fight with him. He
had " enough of the Devil in him to keep the
Devil off him." He made England's rights to be
respected and her name to be feared. We our-
selves were at war with France for 30 years. We
fought to the last—lavished with our wealth upon
it—pawned our credit for it, We would never
give in. Often we rejected termsof peace. The conse-
quence is, we have had no war for 40 years. We
are riot sure that it is not to our peace principles we
are to attribute thefact that we are at warnow. Had we
shown our teeth sooner, and threatened to use them
earlier, the general impression appears to be that
we should have had no occasion for their use.
Armies and navies are, • indeed, expensive ; but
it is no bad economy which spends ten millions to
be prepared for war, to save a hundred millions in
the war itself. We would not seek to argue a jus-
tification of the maxim of doing evil that good may
come. God forbid we should advocate war for
war's sake ; or make war deliberately without
cause or provocation, merely from a politic con-
sideration of its material profits or moral advan-
tages. " It is impossible," says Luke, " but that
cffences will come, but woo be unto him through
whom they come." • An aggressor, an invader, a
general bully of mankind, an intriguer, a hatcher
of treason among subjects; and rebellion against
rival authorities—such require suppression as a
general nuisance to the world. Their organisation
should be abolished and their rule erased and
blotted out, by the common consent of nations.
Doubtless we must look at the spirit and motives
which dictate hostilities. Even a war which in its
results may be beneficial to the world is not on that
account to be palliated, even although i should
have been caused by ample provocation. It is in-
deed true that God makes even the wrath of man
to praise him ; but that does not excuse man's
wrath—it does no more than show that Providence
extracts good for the human race, even out of their
own tendencies to evil. But a mere indiscriminate
condemnation of war, without reference to its
causes or its end, is as absurd as a censure of that
form of destructiveness which razes hovels to
build palaces, or which pulls down good houses
on each side of tenements in flames, to cut off
the communication of the raging and devouring
element through a street or a city. We demur
entirely to the Quaker philosophy. We think
the broad-brimmed ethics of the Peace Society to ,
betray very feeble powers of analysis. They fasten
not upon the general principle of antagonism—on
the theory of strife—on the abstract hypothesis of
resistance or aggression. They know, indeed, they
cannot do so with truth or consistency, seeing that
life itself is a battle—that Christ " came, not to
bring peace, but a sword "—that the whole history
of the Society of Friends has been that of a warfare
against the " world and the world's law "—a re-
sistance to authority where it was wrong—an am-
bitious nonconformity—a pertinacious defiance of
custom—a resolute refusal "to follow the multitude
to do evil." No. They make war against the
Slave Trade by differential duties and twenty gun
frigates—they would pass a liquor-law suppressing
publicans, and abolishing the use of intoxicating
drinks—they bolt their doors against thieves, im-
prison burglars and transport footpads—they em-
body and call out an army of constables with
truncheons to take the field against crime. They
patronise the Mendicity Society—the Society for
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Protection
to Females' Society ; with almost every form of
aggression upon the rights, or temptation to the
weaknesses of mankind, they raise the standard of
a resolute opposition—but there they stop short.
The collision of swords, the concussion of gun-
powder,
the array of troops, the repulsion of broad-
sides—these they seem to regard as unmitigated
evil and mortal sin, not to be justified or excus d
by any demur of provocation, or plea of necessity.
Nay, with the most egregious inconsistency, they
actually sent a deputation to the Emperor of Russia
ettioal
ro
rsayes
nuwgrhe
wh o
were
mre r
peace
thatnetaione
ot
eTrt lufpieterci
principles
cyghi
pal
tdl
oe
as nnpi
dor
esympathy with
y their
lril
carrying out
ideal of social and civil perfectibility appears to
be a dispensition in which men save their
bacon and save their money. Slaughter and
debt seem to them the greatest of all evils. It is
high time this nonsense were exposed, and its tra-
ditional sapience exploded. It is not in the inte-
rests of morality, but in these of mere selfishness.
It is a
creature-comfort, body-coddling, purse-
hoarding rule of ethics. Carried to its conclusion,
it would rob us of our manhood, and so confirm
our effilninacy as ultimately to suck all power of
self vindication and even of self-defence out of us.
world—" Oh, my daughter 1
iiLkeet isthbyslotegkr,oowvueirsotnheus, and we would go bawling,
the least f
pe powerpeace,
ofw trhe reco-
ver, its-
vo he
r,
inmgy
either.ucats
rn
Alreadywtl u4t 40 years
piping times and its pursy. scanbtiinasestsoowfards breath
have given too many of us a
pol-
troonery. We have so beeswaxed and holystoned,
ia
tn
ind paintedou
hearts our shipst o
s e
war,eofshot and that
shell w
eell
cannot
doing
theirfind
office either in going to or coming from them. We
have been so frightened by our load of debt—so
accustomed to talk of dollars—so eager to reduce
taxes and nurse a surplus—so generally inocu-
lated with the mania for stock and share-monger-
ing, and, therefore, so accustomed to the idea of
postponing every consideration to that of keeping
the money market easy, North-Westerns up and divi-
dends progressive, that the very thought of war
makes us tremble for our solvency ; and when it is
threatened we feel, some of us at least, inclined to
make a debtor and creditor account of it, and to
see whether we will save most by giving in or going
through with it. Misers have been known to die
of starvation while they had half a million in the
bank—thus losing both life and money, that money
might be saved. So it will be with a people who
think of their pocket when they should look to their
duty—who would let their honour go, so that they
might retain their cash—who would for ever go on
compounding of felonies, so that thieves would but
always give them back a reasonable proportion of
the property of which they had plundered them.
It is high time we were roused out of these per-
nicious delusions. The world must be made to
know that in a just quarrel we are alway ready
with men and money, be the results what they
may. Why should the mere preservation of bare
life be reckoned by either Christians or brave men
as paramount to the cause of justice or the claims
of humanity ? What is there in bare property,
" in vile trash wrung from the hard hands of star-
ving peasants," that'to keep it, hoard it, increase it,
we should be ready to be spit upon, and should be
known for its sake to submit to any degradation which
pride may inflict or meanness endure ? This extreme
tenderness for bare life, this dastard "horror of
falling into nought and startling at destruction,"
this craven sensitiveness at pain and groans and
blood, may draw the manhood from our souls, may
unsex us, may turn us into cowards, and render us
ultimately incapable of facing the real dangers of
life, or braving the necessities of our fate. And
this nervous clutch of our money bags, too, when-
ever we are told that a tyrant would invade or
despotism insult ; let
,us but think of it often'
enough, and dwell upon it long enough, and the
time may come when all energy of self-help may
leave us, and when, like the Jews of the middle
ages, we may sink under any oppression which
gives us leave to gather and to hoard. It were
better that we had nothing to lose than that we
should part with our character and manhood, to
e scraped together. Better have
keep what we have
no life, than waste away in the terrors of the peril
of dying. Has it been by mere buying and selling,
by weaving cloth and spinning cotton, that we
have become great ? Is is by these that we teach
the nations how to live, and set our broad mark
over the world, and make our voice heard above
the din of the strife of peoples ? In all ages the

nation that • fights best and fears the least is the
greatest. In all times the fall of States has been
marked by a preference of ease to duty, and of
wealth and safety to honour and independence.
This war has been none of our seeking ; but it has
been of priceless value to us if it have awakened in
us the energy of valour and kindled the dormant
energies of our combativeness into the " ancient
mettle of our pasture." And if it have made us
less sordid—if it have made us postpone the thought
of stocks and specie to the higher concerns of human
right and the progress of mankind in truth and
liberty, it is worth much blood and some treasure.

Oh what is death but parting breath?
On many a bloody plain
I've dared his face and in this place
I scorn him yet again !
In this spirit is real peace and true safety. He who
has a contempt of death is the last man whom
bullies will put to the proof. He who will let his
guineas gladly go, so they bring the money's worth
of respect for his power and fear for his firmness
and resentment, may keep them in his coffers, as-
sured that nobody will seek to afford occasion for
their employment. It is quite possible to be too
prosperous rich and secure. Gross and undisturbed
abundance may make us

Duller
Than the fat weed that rots itself in ease

On Lethe wharf.
It may be well for us that the strife of battle should
bring us face to face with the grim realities of fate
—that the race of mortal enginery should energise
our souls, and make us still lords of the creation
and tamers of its brutes. We may all become so
rich as to be bribed to lazy idleness, or only to the
busy mischief of vice. The discipline of poverty is
necessary until we have overmastered the tempta-
tions of wealth, that leave _ta us. my the lack lustre
eye of sated avarice, or take from us the induce-
ments to enterprise and the springs of industry and
knowledge. When men work by slaves and fight
by mercenaries the greatness of their country is
hastening to its setting. He who would have
peace at any price will soon have no price at
which to buy it. He who with Lord Aberdeen
goes to war with the avowed object of procuring
peace commits an egregious folly. We don't want
peace, as we didn't desire war. What we want is
to punish aggression, and to secure the world
against its recurrence. It is for the wrong doer
to sue for mercy—not for the judge to ask for a
cessation of the wrong. We go to war to crush the
power of Russia. If she desires to be saved she
must ask for a truce, offer any indemnity, and
tender securities for the future.--Dispatch,

Russia knows that she has nothing to fear from an Aus-
trian army occupying the Principalities ; and if it be at
the same time evident that neither English nor French
are to pass the Lower Danube, the Russians, like our-
selves, can concentrate their whole force upon and around
Sebastopol, and the attack of that fortress, admitted to
be perilous by sea, would. become still more perilous by
land.

Is it better, then, that these isolated intentions against
Sebdstopol should be declared, and left to take effect,
than that the Turks and their allies should at once ad-
vance over the Lower Danube ? Pace Austria, we must
confess that we should be for making both attempts. If
occupation be found profitable and desirable by the armies
of Austria on the spot, why should we not try it our-
selves. Bessarabia is one of the finest provinces for the
support of cavalry, and why should not the thousands
of reaping-hooks which Marshal St. Arnaud has sent
into Adrianople be employed on the ,:astern bank of the
Pruth, instead of being plied upon the Turkish crops on
the boards of the Maritza ? Let Russia have a taste of
occupation. She has peopled her provinces with mili-
tary colonies formed for the very purpose of invading
Turkey, and surely these are the very fields and farms
which invite such a retribution.

Bessarabia, we are to remember, is one of Russia's
ill-gotten and ill-thriving gains. It was one of the
most prosperous of the countries on the Black Sea,
when it was independent, and when it could export
its produce to Constantinople. But Russian dominion
and the Ruazian custom-houses have reduced and
ruined it. So great is the weight of taxation, and so
heavy are the other disadvantages under which the inha-
bitants submit, that the price of land in Bessarabia
is about two-thirds less than in Moldavia. Not only
were the Danubian countries thus sacrificed tothe great-
ness of Odessa, but even Bessarabia. The rivers on each
side of Bessarabia, the Dniester and the Pruth, are both
navigable, or might be rendered so. Both have seaports
that might be made most available. But the Russian
government has set its face against any improvement in
the navigation of these rivers, and • compels all vessels
trading to the mouths of the Dniester to perform
quarantine at Odessa. In other words the trade and pro-
duce are all made to pass through Odessa. An invading
army would find as sincere welcome in Bessarabia as in
Moldavia, and although that part of the province next
the Danube is barren and thinly populated, the regions
to the north are rich and well capable of feeding an army.
If the country should not prove productive, the army is
as easily communicated with and supplied by the Pruth,
as it was at Varna. The reduction of the fortresses
on the Dniester, neither of them strongly fortified,
would give the allies the protection of that river, and
with their armies in this position, threatening the Polish
provinces as well as Odessa, the Russians could not con-
centrate the bulk of it at Sebastopol ; against which,
at the same time, an expedition from Bessarabia would
be quite as practicable and easy as from Varna.
There are other considerations, too, which ought to
be taken into account. One is, the decided deterioration
of the Russian soldier in the field or in offensive ope-
rations. Every military man knows the meaning of the
immense disproportionate loss of the Russians in ge-
nerals and officers. It is only to be explained by the
reluctance of the soldiers to do their duty, and the
necessity that officers and generals should sacrifice
themselves in order to overcome that reluctance. The
Russian soldier at Oltenitza, at Kalafat, and now at
Silistria, has shown himself decidedly inferior to the
Turk. But a demoralised army, which would not stand
an attack in the open field, or may make a rush over
grass entrenchments, may still fight valiantly behind
embrasures. It is precisely in such a place as Sebasto-
pol that the Russians might show, or be made to show,
most courage ; whereas every experience leads to the
conclusion that they could not stand the allies in the
field. It is in the field, too, that great achievements or
great victories are gained. Days such as those of
is
suffered,reo s .
decisive.he
in
n
Ma-
rengoisstloermc moreaianpngdt duaarr
ei
bnrogef
a Austerlitz
schho w
Sebastopol
b nu,
td as stchidewe well
would
ehuasel
usd l fateitinno rnsoeof
notelomss
T
with the loss of a battle on the Pruth or the Dniester.
The Pruth, too, is of evil omen to the arms of Russia.
respect compare
It was on the banks of that river that Peter the First
was overthrown by the Turks, and compelled to pur-
chase an inglorious retreat from the province which he
had entered as a conqueror.
- '

But even if this were not so, and Sebastopol
were the only conquest essentially worth winning,
still, for the sake of being able to attack it
without tremendous odds against us, we should
say, let the allied armies pass the Danube, and
menace New Russia, so as to compel the bulk of
the Russian army to remain on the south-west frontiers,
and not become in any considerable force concentrated
in the Crimea. We are not for surrendering our advan-
tages simply to give another advantage to Austria, and
render more easy and agreeable her occupation of the
Principalities.—Examiner.