The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-23 00:00:00

time that they are endeavouring to estrange from
each other, if possible, the Cabinet of St. James's
and the Cabinet of the Tuileries.

Extravagant though it may appear to some of
the more credulous, or, at any rate, to some of
the less suspicious observers among the commu-
nity, such we distinctly assert to be the course
pursued in regard 'to this Oriental Question by
some of our more daring and unscrupulous con-
temporaries.

Aware of this, we for one, at least, would raise
our voice in words at once of warning, of remon-
strance, and of indignation. Unhappily there is
I but too much reason for the utterance of these
1 words at the present juncture, and therefore it is
that we would here call public attention the
more eagerly to the events which have re-
cently transpired, or which are at this mo-
ment still transpiring within the walls of
Constantinople. According to the systematic
apologists of Northern Despotism, the en-
tire blame of these events is traceable, not to
Vienna or St. Petersburg, but to—the' French
Government. The herring is being assiduously
trailed betimes, and it is hoped that, by this old,
old trick, the judgment of the community may be
deceived, and the CZAR and the KAISER may de-
velope adroitly, sub rosa, the whole of their
nefarious designs against the Ottoman. Porte.
Acting upon this scheme, the admirers of the
Austro-Russian Councils throw the entire onus of
the late contentions near the Golden Horn
upon tha unfortunate M. DE LAVALETTE, and,
therefore, of course, directly by implica-
tion, upon the Imperial Government at Paris.
Unluckily, however, it so happens that the
absurdity of any such argument as this may be
rendered, in almost half-a-dozen words, glaringly
conspicuous. Why, the pretensions put forward
by M. DE LAVALETTE in - behalf of his Majesty
the French EMPEROR, as Protector of the Sanc-
tuaries, were advanced last year, and not yester-
day. They were laid before the advisers of the
SULTAN in a moment of enthusiasm, and they
have been withdrawn in a moment of prudence.
M. DE LAVALErrE has been recalled from his
post as Ambassador at Constantinople. The
thing is gone by—it is blown over—it was a
blunder of zeal, but it is a blunder that has been
formally rectified. Then came the real source
of these recent difficulties. Then came
the predatory incursions made upon the do-
minions of the SULTAN by the lawless and san-
guinary Montenegrins. Then came the bold,
and beyond all doubt the most justifiable, effort
made by OMIR PACHA to crush the assailants of
Turkey byinstant and vigorous measures of re-
taliation. Here was the occasion—long, eagerly,
and vainly looked forward to by the councils MI6
Vienna and St. Petersburg. It was an oppor-
tunity too tempting of its kind to be overlooked
either by the RED EMPEROR or by the AUTOCRAT.
It was consequently, we repeat, seized, first by
the Austrian, and ultimately by the Russian, Go-
vernment. Austria had an old hatred and
a recent grudge to satisfy in regard to Tur-
key. It could not be forgotten so very speedily
how the young SULTAN had interposed be-
tween the EMPEROR of AUSTRIA and the fugi-
tive leaders of the Hungarian War of Inde-
pendence. It was requisite that ABD-UL-MEDJID
should expiate his magnanimity. Baulked in her
efforts to seize and destroy the Magyar chieftains,
Austria resolved at least that her revenge should
be at length glutted vicariously through the me-
dium of the Turkish Goverum6nt. Russia, on
the other hand, was still incited to a descent upon
the Ottoman dominions, as she had continued to
be incited uninterruptedly since the days of PETER
the GREAT—namely, by the perpetual goad of
that lawless but gorgeous ambition which
will only be appeased when the Cossacks shall
water their horses in the Bosphorus, when
the Greek ritual shall be performed under
the dome of St. Sophia, and when the
banners of the race of ROMANOFF shall flutter
from all the mosques and minarets of Constan-
tinople. NICHOLAS had to satisfy his hereditary
ambition, and FRANCIS JOSEPH his personal
appetite for vengeance. Both had the plea of
fanaticism. Russia on the part of the Greeks,
Austria on the part of the Catholics. The dis-
turbances at Montenegro came at once, as the
excuse and the signal for the explosion. The
torch of war lighted by the VLADIKA among his
mountains may be said, without much figure of
speech, to have fired the train which had long
been laid, and extended in opposite directions from
Constantinople to Vienna and St. Petersburg. It
was in this manner that the merest child might
with the utmost facility spell out the meaning of
these really simple; though apparently complicated,
transactions. Let us repeat—for the sake of
lucidity—the outbreak provoked with Turkey by
the half-civilised barbarians of Montenegro, pre-
sented an opportunity for the gratification simul-
taneously of a- great ambition and a great ven-
geance—the vengeance that. of the Austrian, the
ambition that of the Russian, Government. That
opportunity we have said was grasped at with
avidity—first, by the councils of Vienna, and
afterwards by those of St. Petersburg. In the
former instance, the world has witnessed the
exorbitant demands made upon the SUBLIME PORTE
by Prince LHENINGEN. In the latter instance, it
has seen the haughty attitude assumed towards
the same councils by Prince MENSCHIKOFF. The
endeavours of Austria in this particular were frus-
trated by the panic inspired at Vienna by the at-
tempted assassination of the Emperor, and by the
abortive but still sufficiently startling insurrection
in Lombardy. The endeavour of Russia, let us
hope, may be not less summarily or less effectu-
ally thwarted by the resolute course adopted dur-
ing the late emergency by the French and British
Charges d'Affaires at Constantinople. For, by a
singular coincidence, it so happened that the re-
cent crisis arrived when neither England nor
France had her interests watched over at the
court of the SULTAN by an accredited Ambassador.
Happily Lord STRATFORD, on the part of Queen
VicToßiA, and M. DE LA COUR, on the part of the
Emperor NAPOLEON, have within the last day or
two hastened on from Paris to Constantinople. ,
Aided by their skilful diplomacy, the young
Sultan, ABD-UL-MEDJLD, will ultimately, we doubt
not, disappoint both the vengeance of FRANCIS
JOSEPH, and the ambition of NICHOLAS—our an-
ticipations of this result being none the less confi-
dent because of the perfectly goodunderstanding—
perhaps we should rather say the perfectly cor-
dial coincidence—in regard to the whole of the
Turkish question, which has been established by
mutual consent between the French and English
Governments.

Norwich has received full justice at the hands
of Mr. DIINCOMBE'S committee, both for the past
and the present. Its elections have equalled, if
not surpassed, any in the United Kingdom for
almost every species of corruption, but it is a fact,
most certain to all acquainted with the city, that
the last election was not only the most pure known
there within the electioneering memory of even
Sir Wm. FORSTER, extending back fully forty
years, but that not many elections last summer
were conducted more satisfactorily. Perhaps this,
however, is not saying much. Not only have
vulgar force and boundless pecuniary bribery been
always matters of course, but " cooping," or car-
rying off voters, sometimes in great numbers and
keeping
them intoxicated till the election was
over, has generally been done at Norwich on a
peculiarly
graconincil eestceacile.withTihteharivveerwiatnndessbeedamutanifuly
little
lakes
naval cooping; by means of the fine wherries be-
longing to the navigation. Sometimes anchored
at a sufficient distance from the shore to secure her
living cargd, a vessel of this kind would quietly
duringthedays of excitement in a little
woodland shades, like a pirate in the
cr
oe pv
eo s
ofe
the
islands of Greece, evading all observation but
sometimes also hostile wherries, duly equippeduon
thefor
electoral. nautical warfare, would peep in upon
jolly crew, and carry it back in triumph. There
can be no doubt, however, that in 1852 the
Members and the committees on both sides acted
up to their pledges. The Liberal party took the lead,
as became them,.ancl T ;01.a I),)(Tut9 at least cordially
dincurred,::dthough CAA. Dickson Was reluctant,
according to his own confession, to sign the anti-
bribery pledge. If a constructive case of bribery

be sustainable, which we more than doubt, it is
certain that the responsible parties used every
effort to prevent it. The tea party which was
spoken of, was paid for by those who attended it ;
and a very large watch committee, appointed by
the Liberals to keep careful guard over every elec-
tor supposed to be accessible to Tory gold, was
composed entirely of non-electors. Messrs. PETO
and WARNER were most certainly
_returned by a
triumphant majority of unbought votes.
It seems, therefore, singular that this particular
election should have drawn special public atten-
tion to the old city of the BIGODS. The wrath of
DICKSON is the
_origin of this Iliad. The gallant
Colonel, like a true ACHILLES, prefers the plea-
sures of vengeance to protecting his already
heavily-mulcted pocket, and his Patroclus,
Mr. KITTON, of course, shares every feel-
ing of his hero, besides a little private
stock of concern for his professional reputation
amongst the Toryhood of Norwich. In vain did
the Nestorian counsels of Mr. BROWN assure him
that a Colonel, known not to be a man of large
fortune, could never in Norwich fill the seat of a
PETO or a WARNER. Vengeance was the only
thing Colonel DICKSON would hear of. One grand
difference there is, indeed, between our sol-
dier of Norwich and his irate legendary
prototype. , Colonel DICKSON did not quietly
retire, and teach neglectful Tories, by his
absence, the worth of his prowess. His MINERVA
can hardly induce him to thrust back his sword
into its scabbard, - and he strains every nerve to
right himself, rather than leave his vindication
to events. Perhaps, however, he regards the
Select Committee as the council in which he is
first to vent his wrath, and then indignantly
secede. That he has done the first amply is
obvious enough, and, after so much quarrelling
with friends and foes, he is but little likely at
any future time to be numbered with the Colonels
Parliamentary, of whom, to say the truth, we
have already quite enough.
The Committee has, however, presented us with
quite a fresh election scene. The Derby has just
gone off, and now we have the Carlton, with the
Reform Club in the back-ground. The Election
Committees have been familiarising us with the
circumference ; we have now a clear view of the
centre of action. Only the initiated few under-
stood the thing before, but every reader is now
admitted to the very adytum of the Carlton.
The little dark room below ;—that is it. There
Colonel FORESTER and Mr. BROWN, of the firm of
DEBENHAM, BROWN, and Co., arrange all the
proceedings touching election petitions. (W. 8.,
we presume, belongs to the Dii Majores, and does
his work in the Olympian part of the Club.)
Near at hand labours Mr. COPPOCK in the
same vocation. When an adequate number of
rival petitions have accumulated in the hands
of each they commence a petition parley. Each
carefully examines his lists. It is ascertained in
how many places the petitions, are " weak ;" that
is, unlearned reader, not weak in point of sustain-
ing evidence, but in the political result of unseat-
ing the candidate. If it be found that, as at
Norwich, the unseating of a Liberal Member
would issue in the election of another Liberal
Member, the petition is weak, the business of
the Parliamentary agents being, of course, to
strengthen their party, and, not merely to turn
out any particular Member. And here we may
as well at once state plainly lies the whole error
of Mr. BROWN. He had not had explicit instruc-
tions from Mr. KITTON, the Norwich solicitor, to
withdraw the petition, but he clearly understood
from his communications with that "loquacious
gentleman," that he was at liberty to pair off the
petition against any "weak" petition but the one
from West Norfolk. The latter Mr. KITTON consid-
ered to be not a " weak" but a " sham" petition—
this class, of course, designating such as are got up
merely to compromise with, or to frighten if possible.
It appears, then, that the petitions are adjusted
in batches. B.—" I'll withdraw Norwich 2,
Kidderminster 1, Gloucester 1, Middlesex 1,
and. Youghal 1, six in all, -what say you ?"
C.—" I'll withdraw Down 2, and West Nor-
folk 2, four in all. " " Done, " says B. ;
and forthwith ten Members rejoice in secure
seats, and a lucky escape from cross-examination
before a Committee, and a return, upon oath, of
their electioneering Income Tax. " Batch against
batch," says 8., "is our plan. I cannot
say which is set off against which." The
Committee very properly reported that it was
worthy the consideration of the House whether
this trade in withdrawal of petitions should be
continued in the hands of the present agents, it
appearing rather a. grave question how far the
" batch" system may not be an infringement of
the rights of the true and independent electors
who sent the petitions to. the Honourable House.
The whole inquiry makes it perfectly clear that
many cases of provable bribery are withdrawn at
the eleventh hour from the public eye ; also, that
So deeply rooted is the habit in most places, that
Mr. BROWN, with his vast experience, declares
that almost any Member might be unseated on
petition—" he is amazed when a petition fails ;"
and further, Mr. BROWN, the same experienced
man, assures that "as constituencies increase
in size they increase in Radicalism, and' the Con-
servative principle declines." A sufficient evidence,
if any be needed, for the reason why Lord JOHN
RUSSELL refuses to do away with his 60 or '7O snug
little boroughs, and to increase largely the consti-
tuencies of all below 10,000 electors.

The worthy citizens of Norwich were, of course,
indignant at the Gallant Colonel's charge of their
having amerced Messrs. PETO and WARNER to the
tune of 12,0001. or 14,0001. It was truly mor-
tifying to such an electoral Magdalen as Norwich
to be thus reminded of old sins, in the very year
of recovered virtue : and we hardly wonder that
Mr. SINGER could scarcely brook the refusal of
the Chairman to listen to the self-vindication of
the Reformed City, of which he was the bearer.
Let not, however, the penitent be discouraged.
Two or three elections like the last (with some
slight improvements) will 'do as much to efface old
recollections, as the county magistrates and their
architect have done to hide from all generations
to come the uniquely interesting ruins of her fine
Od castle. What the House will do on Mr.
DuNcomßE's motion it is not for us to conjecture.
Were it possible, which we do not believe, to
unseat the sitting Members, or either of them, the
result would certainly be the return of two tho-
rough-going Liberals. The evidence would he
overwhelming, that the election of 1853, was wholly
free from " extensive" bribery and corruption.

LORD MALMRSBURY.--Lord. Malmesbury is at present
staying in Paris. He was present at the review on Sun-
day in the Place du Carrousel—that is, he witnessed the
Imposing sight from the balcony of the Tuileries. He
as received in the warmest manner by the Emperor,
;who would take no excuse, but compelled him to dine
iwith him nearly tote-a-t4te, though his lordship had been
engaged elsewhere. _

ACCIDENT TO THE DUKE OF, SOMERSET.—Tbe vener-
hble Duke of Somerset met with a most painful accident
On Sunday last. , His grace was in his library, and had
just taken a heavy volume from one of the bookshelves,
when, on. returning to his chair, he missed his seat, and
fell with considerable violence backwards. The duchess
;was close at hand, and summoned immediate assist-
puce. The duke suffered severely from the shock, and
has since been attended by Sir B. Brodie, Dr. Bright,
and Dr. Lathom. We are happy to hear that his grace
was considered much better on Monday evening.
THE NEWSPAPERS FOR AUSTRALIA, &C.—lt may,
perhaps, be interesting to those parties who had sent off
pewspa,pers to their friends at the "gold diggings," but
which were delayed being forwarded, in consequence of
the accident happening to the Australian, mail screw
steam-packet, to know that those for Port Philip and
Sydney, New South Wales, were transhipped and put
on board the Albemarle, which has sailed from Plymouth;
and those for South Australia were dispatched from
Gravesend by the Orestes. The letter portion of the
mails to Port Philip, Melbourne, and Sydney were for-
Warded by the Indus, Peninsular and Oriental steam-
packet, with the India mails, of the morning of the 4th
inst., from Southampton, and by the new contract from
Singapore to Australia, &c.

SALE OF A RENTER'S SHARE IN THE ITALIAN OPERA.
—Yesterday, Messrs. Foster and Son offered to public
competition, at the auction mart, a renter's share in the
Royal Italian Opera, at Covent-garden. The original
income was 251., but which has been reduCed to 121. 10s.,
by consent, 'which., it was stated,' was paid with the
utmost punctuality. It is held for an unexpired term
of 43 years, and the holder is entitled to a free admis-
sion to all the performances, transferable, each season,
whipir w6rth about five or six guineas a sf,.flson. It
Nal:sod [55 L;AtineaJ. - 'share -Was sold'
'weeks since, at the same place, for 200 guineas. ,The
original price was 5001. each, and they have been sold
as low as 701, each.