The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-14 00:00:00

Russia will accept the propositions." Still
more earnestly we say—lt remains to be seen, in
the event of their acceptance by the CZAR, whe-
ther those propositions are honourable to their four
great originators ! Wherefore, it may be asked,
the doubt thus thrown up6n the integrity of the
mysterious ultimatum, only just now forwarded to
St, Petersburgh ? Wherefore ? The inquiry
admits of being very speedily satisfied. Simply,
then, for this sufficient reason—that the Note of
the Fonr Powers, the Note accepted by the Porte
and now forwarded on to St. Petersburgh for the
final decision of the AUTOCRAT—is declared
by the apologists of Aberdeenism to amount
literally to this, to nothing more and no-
thing less than this, the guarantee, by Tur-
key, of the maintenance of the rights and
privileges of the Christian subjects of the SULTAN
of all denominations. Nothing more ! Now this
is precisely in accordance with the view announced
on Monday last by the chief of the organs of the

Coalition, when, in answer to the inquiry as to
what were the advantages to be secured to France
and England by the settlement of existing diffi-
culties between the CZAR and the SULTAN, the
1 writer answered epigramatically and explicitly—
NONE ! None ? Will such a decision, we ask,
be honourable to the allies of Turkey, or conso-
nant with our dreams of security to Christen-
dom ? Asssuredly not. We aspire to wel-
come no peculiar benefits to France and
England as the fruit of these prolonged
struggles and protracted negotiations. No. But
at the same time we do yearn to witness the
extension to the whole of the European family of
nations of advantages such as should constitute
substantial guarantees that Russia would never
again be in a position to repeat her lawless expe-
riment upon the. dismemberment of Turkey, and,
of course, as a crowning consequence, upon the
ultimate capture of Constantinople. Guarantees
such as the following. Guarantees such as the
permanent opening of the Black Sea, not to Eng-
land alone, but indifferently to the vessels of all
the nations of both hemispheres ! Guarantees
such as the unlocking from henceforth, and
for ever, of the Bosphorus and the Dar-
danelles ! The Euxine should no longer
have even the semblance of being a Russian lake
—it should be as free at all times to any and
every flag as the Mediterranean. As additional
securities to Europe, it were well, moreover, if
the Crimea were seized, and the two confronting
ports of Odessa and Sebastopol. Europe has long
felt, indeed, that in right, and in justice to the
commerce of the world, the mouths of the Danube
should be rendered accessible to the whole trade
of Christendom. Along the current of that vast
river the merchandise of all the industrial races
indiscriminately should long since have been per-
mitted to float upwards and downwards at plea-
sure, without hindrance. Here at length is
fitting opportunity for the realisation of these
visions of comprehensive improvement. Unless
some energetic effort be made towards the accom-
plishment of designs such as those we have just

mentioned, the tranquillity of Europe may seem
for a while to be restored, but in reality it will

still be perpetually liable to be jeopardised. Every

opportunity will still be afforded to the CZAR for
the fulfilment of his hereditary day-dream of

Turkish subjugation. The seeds of future war

fare will still be allowed to remain in 'the
temporarily occupied Principalities, there to

ripen at the the earliest moment that may seem
fitting into a contention such as may then be
more disastrous to the Porte, more pernicious to
Europe ab large, and more beneficial to the then
CZA.R and his vast autocratic government. Every-
thing, therefore, should now be done to prevent
the possibility of disasters so gigantic and (as they
might prove) irreparable. By extorting guaran-
tees like those already enumerated from
Russia, the allies of Turkey might at this
moment effectually secure the future integrity
( of the Ottoman Empire, and while commanding
extraordinary advantages to be shared among the
nations of Christendom, provide for the political
hereafter of the world in such a manner that no-
thing short of a. miracle could ever enable the
standard of the Russian AUTOCRAT to flutter from
the mosques and minarets of Constantinople.