The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-30 00:00:00

WAR IN EARNEST.

War in earnest. This must be the watchword
of the 12th. Everything else will follow.. The
right measures, the right men, ample supplies for
the exchequer, stimulated and successful engineer-
ing invention, encoUraged Allies, waverers de-

cided, everything, in short, depends on the one

condition—War in earnest. With this demand
on the lips of all—Peers and Commoners, Opposi-
tion and Ministerial Liberals—the Legislature of

Great Britain must assemble. Party spirit, whe-
ther Ministerial or anti-Ministerial, will be infamy
to all who indulge it. Our Commoners are proud
of considering themselves legislators for the
empire ; they cannot misunderstand the spirit cf
Great Britain and Ireland. Let not a syllable then
misrepresent that spirit. We want no long
speeches, no declamation ; we want a phalanx of

grave men in our grave position, who can
place on record, in language as brief and
pregnant as that of a
.Lord SOMERS, the merits
of their country's cause, and the cool decision of
their country's judgment. If our Government
discern beforehand the spirit of the country
steadily animating all its representatives, if it

throw itself honestly, and with all the talent at
its command into the nation's object, then we for
(me would counsel oblivion for the past. We
confess no little fear of a Cabinet which first
wheedled away six precious months in negotia-
tions with known despoti and swindlers, which
then wasted still more precious time sufficient to
have razed Sebastopol, in holding back our troops
from the conflict, which dabbled in war when it
ought to have made it irresistibly crushing to the
enemy, and which has sacrificed thousands of
British and Turkish lives through complacency to
the wishes of a Government the most loathsome
of all on earth to honest Englishmen. We
should like, certainly, a War Ministry of
better antecedents—but if even they will
but come forward for war in earnest
they shall have our hearty support, and find that
we are Englishmen enough to let " byegones be
byegones." They will find also the same forbear-
ance from the country's faithful Commons.

Let our Government remember that Russia
has staked her grand chance upon the Crimea.
We accept her choice. Her obstinate defence of
a purely military town, one of no commercial
value whatever, shows how tenaciously she clings
to the idea of domination in the Black Sea, and
at Constantinople. She has drawn away her forces
from the Danube and the Pruth ; she has even
moved them from Poland itself to save, if she
may, the means of aggression on Turkey, and of
subjugating the whole of Eastern Europe. She
has chosen on the Crimea to measure her strength
against France and England. We thank her for
the choice. We had thought of dealing with
only Sebastopol there ; we have instead to fight
the strength and flower of the Russian army,
with Sebastopol merely as its mighty intrench-
ments. Now, then, is England's opportunity.
There stand the Allies safely ensconced in a Rus-
sian Torres Vedras. The sea open to them for
reinforcements and supplies, nothing to hinder
their obtaining all they need, while the Russians
have no means of supplying their vast numbers
but land carriage, becoming almost every day
more impracticable. The greater their numbers
the more hopeless their condition as soon as the
Allies can resume the offensive. Why, then,
should not every effort be made, cost -what it
may, to augment our present camp, and to cut
their line of communications at the isthmus, iu
which case surrender or destruction are their only
alternatives. This could be done. It requires
only money, which, whatever the amount,
would be a cheap strategical investment,
and men and materials, both of which are
at the command of the Allies. The work
Austria would then do for us, dirty as her mo-
tives might be, would be worth something. A
slave labouring for us under the lash is better
than one secretly helping our antagonist. War
in earnest means in the first place, then, the
Crimea inundated, if need be, with our troops,
the Black Sea towns and forts utterly demolished,
s and Austria set to show her pluck in bayoneting
her beaten friend.

War in earnest means much indeed. We are
reminded by the Polish meeting in Sussex Cham-
bers that it especially means no longer refusing
the service of the most legitimate and precious
aid we can command. Nothing in the course of
Cabinet delinquencies has galled our English
feelings more than that at the instance of England
—no, not of England, but of England's governors
—the SULTAN should have been compelled to
refuse the aid of Polish and Hungarian officers and
troops. Lord DUDLEY STUART is no more ;
but is there no one in the House of Lords
or Commons to demand that English
blood shall not be wantonly shed in every
way through thejbaseness of Austria ? Is that
reptile Government to be the curse of yet more
English hearths and homes, because she must
not only be accommodated without trouble in the
Principalities, and allowed to send Russian legions
from the Danube to multiply the sighs and tears
of English widows and orphans, but must also
detain from helping us the noble band of Poles
burning to share in the great duty of the hour ?
-We appeal to every bereft family, from that of the
Peer to that of the rustic cottager, whether we
shall be denied any longer the aid of these legiti-
mate, these brave, and these thrioe-valuable co-
adjutors. To hoist the Polish standard before
Sebastopol would intimidate its Russian defenders
mere than adding another vast battery of Lancaster
guns. To accept the offer of the Poles
ta) head a storming regiment would turn the face
MENSCHIKOFF deadly pale. And what stands
its the way.? Austria! Our bravest, most
natural, and rightful Allies, are to be denied a:
share in the contest, to please the one whose
villany has already clad our most splendid victory
in the deepest mourning.
War ix earnest will mot hesitate on the ques-
tion—Poland or Austria ? The wretched coward
who would not fight Russia herself, can have the
least title of all to forbid our acceptance of the
brave people who will. But, indeed, Austria,
poor thing, need not trouble herself in the matter.
She and Gallicia may square matters as they like,
but England and France mean all Russian Poland,
►t least, to be Poland again ; the two nations moan
this, and we are pretty confident the ruler of one
•,f them means it too. Austria may find it
-politic to let her share in the Polish
territory be joined ultimately to its other parts.
She had better look ahead and prepare for that.
:Meantime a Polish regiment, marching under
.Polish banners, i 3 one of the indispensable ele-
ments of war in earnest. We press this point
on our representatives' attention. The thing is
thoroughly right in itself. We owe it to our
=nay ; we owe it to the Poles. We owe
:it to their country ; we owe it to the
.great object for which we began the war—na-
-Ilona' independence ; we owe it to every one who