The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-14 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1870,

THE plot thickens; the Funds fall. For some
weeks past we have been warning the public to
expect that the war in Western Europe would lead
to complications in Eastern Europe. Our readers
have been told repeatedly that Russia has not
been neutral for nothing ; but that she would
expect to be well paid for allowing Prussia
to work her will in France. The Times
of Saturday publishes the following significant
and conspicuous paragraph :—" Russia and the
Treaty of 1856. According to a letter received from
Berlin, dated the 9th of November, Prince GonT
SCHAKOFF has addressed a circular to the Great
Powers who were parties to the Treaty of 1856
respecting some of its provisions, which it is thought
might now bo modified in The interests of
Russia." In a word, Russia, warned by
the fate -of France in 1860, is urging her
claim before it is too late to enf,rce it. Accipe
dreg dolor urget is always a wise motto. NAPOLEON
111. forgot it, or rather Prussia passed through her
critical stage so quickly that there was no time to
put the aphorism in practice, and so BISHARCK was
enabled to keep his fee in his own 'pocket, and re-
tain Saarbriick for Prussia. But thanks to the
obstinacy of M. FAVRE and his associates; thanks to
their reiterated determination not to yield an inch of

French territory nor a stone of French fortresses,

Prince •GORTSCHAKOFF has had time to make his
arrangements, and will be able to insist upon pay-
ment. That BISMARCK will lu Dour the bill, we
have little doubt. nu re have already been many

indications of it. During the last few days we have
heard for the first time of unfriendly relations between
Prussia and Austria. Austria, as one of the neutral
Powers joined in the recent attempt to effect an
armistice ; but Austria has been ru lely told that she,
having armed at the beginning of the war, has little
right to interfere in behalf of peace. From the very
beginning --of the campaign Prussia has been dili-
gently seeking cause of grievance against England,
and it has been found in the export of arms to
France, though the United States have been per-
mitted to do likewise without eliciting a word of com-
plaint. It would not suit BtErmaucx to quarrel
with the United States. lie relies upon the existing
differences between the two great Anglo-Saxon
nations for the completion of his plans. The position
is as follows. Fratice is of course out of the reckon.
ing, for the Power which cannot avenge its murders(
subjects in China, and whose capital is abo
to -

be reduced by starvation, cannot trouble
tself about the entrance of Russian ships of

war-- into the Black Sea.. -Austria, beset by
Poissia on the one side, and Prussia on the other,
and not yet recovered from the terrible blows of
1866, is too isolated and too :weak to make bead
against her powerful neighbours. The Sardinia of
1856, become the Italy of 1870, has to settle her
difficult business with the POPE, and it is not at. all
probable that she will take up her sword for the Pro-
phet. Turkey herself, with Egypt,always ready to re-
volt, and Candia longing for union with Greece, cannot
possibly hold her ground against the Giant of the
North. Looking to the West, she'•finds the Anglo-
French alliance dissolved, and England alone, of all
the Powers that fought for her &keen years ago

free to fight now.
Is England free to fight? That:is a very doubtful
question. With Ireland garriSoned by more than
20,000 troops, with the Russians: close upon her
Indian frontier, with British North. America exposed
throughout its whole length to invasion, with the
Alabama quarrel purposely kept ppen by the other
disputant, with merely a rudimentary army, with a
fleet of ships that we cannot be sure will not
turn :bottom upwards in the first gale—surely
England is scarcely fit to make head against Russia
alone, much less against the only too probable
combination of Russia, Prussia, and the United
States. More than that, if England were able to
fight, would Englishmen consent that she should fight?
That is another doubtful question., Constantineple
is ►.ot like Antwerp, " a pistol held at the throat of
England," and though we might have been prepared
to take up arms for llelgium, it is quite another.
matter taking up arms for Turkey, Moreover,
we have got to' be rather ashamed
,of our old
Mussulman enthusiasm. The Sultan's visit to

infidel London three years ago did not
impress us very favourably, and an English
Ministry would find Englishmen very unwfillmr
to spend another hundred millions in keep-
ing Russian iron-clads out of the Euxine. The
feeling will rather be (if we alone are unable to keep
the SULTAN safe on his throne, and the other signi-
taries.of the Treaty of 1850 are not disposed to help
us) that we may as well Make the best of a bad job,
and get some solid advantage out of the changes that
are impending and inevitable. •

SIR HENRY BULWER'S interesting life of Lord
PALMERSTON suggests a very delicate question. How
far may a statesman sink his pornonal convictions in
order to co-operate with other statesmen ? Mani-
festly there ?rust he a certain amount of giving and
taking if a. politician ever means to be a Minister.
It is because Earl GREY, one of the ablest
men of the time, will not give and take, that he has
been excluded from every Cabinet of the last
tctenty years. There must have been a good deal of
giving and taking at WILLIS'S Roonis in June, 1859,
when Palmerstonians, Peelites, Russellites, and,
Radicals made up their quarrel, and formed that
powerful combination which was terminated only by
the death of their selected chief. But 'there are
limits beyond which no politician can honourably
or honestly go ; there are certain principles
which he must deem of too much importance
to -surrender, unless, indeed, he be a mere
place 7 'hunter, and no statesman at all.
Of late years the tendency has been to straiten these
limits, to magnify the points of difference which
cannot be yielded. It may seem anomalous to say
that this fact arises from the closer approximation of
parties. Yet this is true. Of old there were so
many and such great questions on which me'
differed toto ccelo that it often became necessary
to surrender more than one of them, though
one alone would suffice in our own time
to divide politicians into hostile camps. When we
find the nation convulsed and a general election
taking place as to whether the Irish Church shall be
disestablished or not, it is difficult' to imagine that
for about a quarter of a century the admission of
Roman Catholics into Parliament was an open ques-
tion, and that it was thought no improper thing for
the same Cabinet to contain a CASTLEREAGH and
a LIVERPOOL on the one side and a CANINNG and a
PALMERSTON on the Other. Parlitunent was not

scandalised, nor was the country, at the spectacle of
the foremost opPOnents and the foremost advocates
of Catholic emancipation speaking from the same
Bench, and that the Treasury Bench. But, even
making all due allowance for the difference of the
times, we- 'must confess that Lord PA LMERSTON'S
awn journal and letters do reveal an
amount of inconsistency -which cannot be
justified, even for that age, much more
for this. This very question' of Catholic Emancipa-
tion for instance, was thought of so much importance
by the Ministerial chiefs that they actually sent down
candidates to Cambridge University to oppose the
re-election of their own colleague. Fancy the
scandal which such an incident would cause now.
Fancy the indignation which would have been
excited if" Lord CLARENDON had sent some one to
Halifax to oppose Mr. STANSFELD, because
the Secretary to the Treasury is a Mazzinian. What
did PAIMERSTON do ? He simply wrote and told
his colleagues that if defeated he would resign. Self-
respect, one 'might have thought, would have made
him threaten' resignation at once unless the Minis-
terial opponent of a Minister were withdrawn.
As it turned out, Lord PALMERSTON was
successful; but he, a Minister, owed his election not
to the supporters of the Ministry, but to the Whigs,
a position which appears to us absolutely incom-
patible. with self-respect. But we need not be
surprised at this revelation, when we find Lord
PALmEnsToN writing to his brother concerning the
Ministry as follows:

• . "The- Catholic and Anti-Catholic war is carried on
more vigorously than ever; and the. whole people are by
the ears, like an undisciplined pack of hounds. It is most
maryellous, to be sure, that sensible statesmen should be
frightened by the bugbear of foreign interference clashing
with domestic allegiance, and should see with calmness
and apathy a civil war raging; throughout Ireland engross-
ing all the thoughts and passions of the people, divertinc,
them from. the pursuits of: industry, and retarding the
progress of national prosperity, and increasing, in the
event of foreign- hostilities, inconveniences of the
most forinidable • and embarrassing description. I ,can
forgive old women like the CHANCELLOR (ELDON), spoonies
like LIVERPOOL, ignoramuses like WESTMORELAND, Old
stumped-up Tories like BATHURST, but how such a man
as PEEL, liberal, enlightened, and fresh-minded, should
run in such a pack, is hardly intelligible."

Was there ever such a case of the beam in one's
own eye being forgotten in the spectacle of the mote
in one's brother's eye ! PALMERSTON not only dif-
fered utterly from his colleagues on a point of policy,
which, as he declared, involved the very salvation of
Ireland, !Mt also held the greater portion of them to
be old women, spoonies, ignoramuses, and old
stumped-up Tories, that is, he had the most supreme
contempt for them. Yet, in despite of despising
his colleagues and believing their policy the cause of
civil war in Ireland, he continued to co-operate with
them, and then to express his astonishment that
PEEL could do so. When he left office at last, after
twenty-one years' tenure of it, he left most un-
willingly: It was not till his friend Mr. llusKlssoN
was unceremoniously driven out by the Mike
of WELLINGTON that PALMERSTON, who had
served. under Tory PORTLAND, Tory PERCIVAL,
Tory LIVERPOOL, Liberal CANNING, milk-and-
water GODERICH, and Tory WELLINGTON, re-
signed. :lie did so 'at a good time. The Tory reign
was nearly over; the Whigs were to be in power
very shortly, and PALMERSTON was to come
back to office as a Whig. This was by no means
his last transformation. The concluding years of his
life were spent as the Conservative leader of a Liberal
Administration, the only leader who could persuade
the Manchester party to accept China wars and home
fortifications ; the only politician who, while chief
of a Mii.istry Which had come in to pus a Reform
Bill, could venture to tell his conitituents that
hiS Cabinet; were not such geese as to
propose, --that measure. This may be policy ;
it is not Statesmanship ; and whatever Lord
PAL3l,Eniscisinerits as a foreign diplomatist--and
it is these which- have • endeared him to his biogra-
pher—it must be admitted that as 'a political leader
ho did much to demoralise public men, and his
career is to be read rather for the sake of warning
than for the sake of , example.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

ENGLISH ARMAMICNTS.

It is known from official sources that Mr. Card-
well is engaged in devising a scheme of army reform,
in order to, meet the demand for increased forces,
which has'been re-echoed through the country since
the opening of the German career of triumph. It

is now announced that the War-office project com-
bines elhciencY with economy, and that it will
ensure the great strengthening of the British forces,
without adding seriously to the military estimates.
If Mr- Cardwell can perform this great
teat, his name as an army Minister will be made. He
will ensure the rare distinction of pleasing both the
army reforMers and the expense reducers. For it
was by' no means certain that the loud outcry in
tavOur of increased armaments would have come to
anytl,44. 11Iany members
,of Parliament who have
floated down with the stream of popular opinion
during the recess would probably have reconsiders 1
their position when a large additional burden of
taxation bad to be voted.