The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-20 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1853.

Another movement in advance towards a war-
like solution of the fhstern difficulty ! The
Sublime Porte (after repeated delays in compliance
with the request of its allies) has at length be-
sonata the British and French Ambassadors to
summon the combined Fleets from Besika Bay to
the Bosphorus. In consequence of this, M. DE LA
COUR. and Lard STRATFORD DI; REDCLTFFE had
forthwith exercised the extraordinary authority
entrusted to their discretion by their respective
Governments. They had, according to the latest
accounts from Stamboul (received by way of
Trieste), instructed the leaders of the maritime
forces placid at their disposal to conduct their
vessels of war without farther delay from the
waters of the Levant into those of Constantinople.
It is by despatches dated from that city up to the
10th instant inclusively that we acquire that irn_
portant information.
Intelligence up to the same date has been received
in this country from St. Petersburg. Intelligence
of equal import and significance. It appears from
these latter advices that the CZAR, having returned
from his suspicious excursion through Germany,
has adventured on warlike measures upon a scale
of unexampled magnitude.
Couple these facts together, and then draw
from them their only obvious deduction. Exa-
mine the purport of the latest accounts received
from Russia and from Turkey, and then hit upon
the one manifest and inevitable conclusion. What
is that conclusion ? Why, in one word—War.
In testimony of the accuracy of the statement
reiterated by us for a long time past in these co-
lumns, fron mouth to month, from week to week,
and almost, we might venture to say, from day
to day, to the effect that sooner or later war would
prove the necessary sequel of the pitiable, be-
cause both craven and abortive, policy of the
Earl of ABERDEEN'S Government—in testimony
of the accuracy of this, our oft-repeated state-
ment, we have simply to direct attention to the
latest advices received from Russia and Turkey,
advices datin,-, down to the 10th instant inclu-
sively, both from St. Petersburg and Constan-
tinople.

Nevertheless, the Viennese journals still warble
about the prospects of a beatific pacification. Nay,
nearer at hand, under the shadowing smoke of
our metropolis, the Arcadian publicists of the
Coalition still carol in dulcet tones about the pro-
bability of a happy settlement. It is the old,
blundering infatuation. While Russia is securing
her hold upon the Danubian Principalities, while
the haughty and sinister designs of the CZAR are
becoming more than ever apparent through the
preparations of Prince MENSCHIKOFF to assume
the government of Moldo-Wallachia, while the
whole army of Russian Poland is being placed on
a war footing, while the most threatening activity
displayed simultaneously at Odessa and Sebas-
topol—the Aberdeenites and the sympathisers
with the Aberdeenites, are still at the eleventh
hour and three-quarters babbling about further
negotiations ! Assuredly with
reason may we
exclaim of conduct like this, that it is, indeed, the
result of a blind and desperate infatuation,
the Vienna Note notoriously waste With
-paper ; with
the Turkish modifications refused by the AUTO-
CRAT ; with the evil designs of the CZAR, boldly
avowed through the explanatory phrases of RE%..
SELRODE ; with OMEn PACHA and a vast Turkish
army on one side of the Danube, demanding the
immediate evacuation of the Principalities ;
with GORTSCHAKOFF and his Russian soldiery on
the other side of the Danube, refusing to retreat
from that scene of their lawless occupation—the
common sense of the nation is still to be insulted
by a talk about further negotiations. Further
negotiations with the combined fleets of France and
England passing through the Dardanelles and cast-
ing anchor in the waters of Constantinople ! Fur-
ther negotiations with both Russia and Turkey pre-
paring vigorously for the encoun ter—Bus,Aa, after

tempting Austria and Prussia to consent at least
to favour the CZAR by their neutrality, Turkey
after securing the tardy but still formidable, and
even, it may be said without exaggeration, over-
whelming support of France and Great Britain.
Confronted by these terrible realities, the Aber-
deenites have still the frivolity or effrontery to
persist in romancing about further negotiations.
As if we had not already had quite enough and
to spare of these evidences of a blundering and
fatuous diplomacy—a diplomacy that has not pre-
vented even an ABERDEEN Cabinet from finding
itself called upon to despatch our maritime arma-
ments in the Mediterranean through the Dar-
danelles to Constantinople ! A diplomacy that
has altogether failed either to secure accord
among the Four Powers, or to bring about
a reconciliation between the SULTAN and the
AUTOCRAT ! Upon a diplomacy like this we
are expected even now to found our hopes for
a satisfactory settlement. Than this, certainly,
no expectation could by possibility, under exis-
ting circumstances, be more preposterous. It is
like asking us to lean again upon a reed that has
already broken under our hand, and wounded us
to the quick
No—England is doing now, at the end, what
she should have done at the commencement. She
is at last sending her fleet, together with that
of France, into the Bosphorus. She is at length
making the evacuation of the Principalities the
sine qua non of a pacification. She is reluctantly
sustaining the Sublime Porte in the demand of
that most requisite evacuation. Had England
adventured upon precisely the same course in the
beginning, the Eastern difficulty would long ago
have been dissipated. Had she caused Admiral
DUNDAS to conduct his fleet through the
Dardanelles immediately the Pruth was
crossed by the Russian soldiers under Prince
GORTSCHAKOFF, we should speedily have witnessed
the consolidation of European tranquillity. The
CzA.R, with all his ambition, with all his audacity,
with all his enormous self-confidence, and all
his gigantic dominions, would never have ven-
tured to take up a formal position against Turkey
had Turkey been supported from the first with
vigour, promptitude, and resolution by the repre-
sentative and the armaments of hei Britannic MA-
JESTY'S Government. The opportunity was lost,
however, shamelessly lost by England, thanks to
the timidity, or the incapacity, of the man hold-
ing in his hand at this momentous juncture the
responsibilities of the Premiership. Instead of
striving to settle the difference by promptitude, we
have been endeavouring to solve the problem by pro-
crastination. Whence during the interval the entire
question has become deplorably complicated. And
now with no good whatever, but with incalculable evil
effected by the delay, Turkey is being at last
permitted by her Western Allies to adopt a bold
and energetic policy, while France and England
are at length doing what they should have done
chivalrously in the first instance—despatching their
combined fleets to the waters of Constantinople.
The delay, we fear, may prove in the end to have
been singularly ill-advised, because calculated, we
believe, to prove fraught with the most disastrous
consequences. It has fostered hatred, arid fo-
mented jealousy under the garb of friendship and
the mask of conciliation. It has rendered war
unavoidable, and, what is worst of all, it has done
this under the pretence of more effectually secur-
ing the blessings of a protracted tranquillity.

The investigation before the Coroner and a
jury of the County of Kildare into the cause of
the late deplorable accident on the Great Southern
and Western Railway of Ireland, has been brought
to a conclusion. The searching, patient, and fin-
partial inquiry has terminated. It will, we be-
lieve, be admitted by all disinterested and unpre-
judiced persons that the parties officially con-
cerned have well and faithfully discharged the
onerous anti important duties confided to their
charge—that they left nothing undone which
could by a possibility tend to elicit the truth, and
to place the responsibility on the right shoulders.
The most captious and unreasonable opponent of
the railway system could find nothing to cavil at or
find fault with during the course of the inquiry.
The Coroner well merited the eulogiums passed on
his conduct by the eminent gentlemen who attended
professionally during the protracted inquiry, and
the jury, collectively and individually, manifested
great intelligence, 'coupled with an ardent desire
to ascertain the real causes of the calamity, so
that the sad experience of the first formidable
railway accident in Ireland might be turned to
the best advantage. In one respect they were
better qualified for the task than an English jury
could have been. Ireland had, heretofore, enjoyed
a practical immunity from such lamentable events,
and none of the leading journals at the other side
of St. George's Channel had habitually endea-
voured to poison the minds of the people against all
persons engaged in carrying out the new and im-
proved system of locomotion. Neither railway
directors nor officials had been depicted as crimi-
nals of the blackest dye, who should suffer in
person as well as in purse for every accident that
occurred. The jury could, therefore, enter on
their labours without bias or prejudice, and they
received every assistance from the Company, so as
to enable them ti arrive at a decision in accord-
ance with "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth."
The result has been in accordance with our an-
ticipations. The Directors have been not only
fully and completely exonerated from all blame in
the melanchcly transaction—but have been com-
plimented on the judicious precautions adopted
for the prevention of accidents. The jury at-
tached a rider to their verdict, in which all parties
who heard and considered the evidence adduced
must concur. They say—" Having now brought
this important and painful investigation to a con-
clusion, we feel it incumbent on us to state that
we have minutely examined the rules and regula-
tions which have been issued by the Directors
to their officials. It appears to us that
those rules and regulations reflect the highest
credit on the judgment of their authors, and that
they are well calculated to secure the lives and
property of the passengers. It is our conviction
that no culpability can attach`itself to the Com-
pany on account of the late fatal collision ; but,
on the contrary, we think them fully entitled to
that public confidence which they have hitherto
enjoyed." Under such circumstances, it is diffi-
cult to say why any loss beyond the damage to
their property, which must reach to a considerable
amount, should be inflicted on those to whom
" no culpability can attach." And yet, if any
negligence can be proved against their servants,
they may have to pay enormous sums to the re-
presentatives of the deceased, and to every person
in any way injured by the fearful event. This is
surely no trifling responsibility ; and yet it is
thought not sufficient by those who seem to
think that the railway interest should be
victimised at every stage by shortsighted land-
owners, who extort tenfold the value of the laud
taken, and by stringent regulations that multiply
tu
the Parliamentary expenses to an extent sufficient
to construct a line in another country. And,ev.o y,
variouswhen the road has been constructed at
thanmore all
deoiutboliteiotahse
have
eessbaereyn osuutblmayi
• Itedwhteol,
there are systematic
1
the
down the fares to I 7
extraordinary and incessant attempts to cut
the lowest s3ale, and to demand
accommodation as if the honour
and glory of promoting
a the
o ought to be considered
Public welfare was
quite enough for those wh
as national benefactors, nd rewarded with the
highest honours that the State
could bestow
There re-
There must unquestionably be a legislative for this state of affairs—a remedy adequate
to the magnitude of the emergency, which, while
offering every degree of protection to the tra-

yelling community, will yet prevent Companies ;
from being severely muleed in consequence of
circumstances wholly beyond the control of their
Managers. If there be criminal negligence on
any side, by all means let the parties to whom
it can be traced suffer for the consequences
of their own want of caution. But if " the
rules and regulations adopted reflect the
highest credit on the judgment of their
authors"—if " they are well calculated to secure
the lives and property of the passengers ;" and if
due care be taken in the selection of the servants
that they are men of approved character and ex-
perience, in whom confidence may reasonably be
reposed, it is too much to charge those who
have well and efficiently discharged their func-
tions with the backslidings of others. Let Par-
' liarnent interfere by all means, but let it do so
fairly and equitably. The Directors do not re-
quire either favour or affection ; but they are
entitled to demand the absence of prejudice or
animosity on the part of the chosen representatives
of the people.