The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-21 00:00:00

OUR COTEMPOR,ARIES---Thi, Morning

THE EASTERN QUESTION.
Talk as we may please, the Times observes, of our own
insular immunities, we are exposed, naked, and storm-
tost in comparison with the Power for whose special
security the earth seems to have been planned and the
very skies ordained. Only onco has a wild and desperate
ambition attempted to penetrate that deep interior;
and even had Russia failed of her duty the elements
would have crushed the rash intruder. All that
the reasonable part of mankind has hoped for is that, by
supreme efforts, it may keep within tolerable bounds
the immense bulk which itself can hardly help crushing
its weak neighbours. The one only fear that Russia can
truly and honestly feel is that, without intention and
hardly knowing it, she may stifle or overwhelm the small
and decrepit States abut her. They who preponderate
cannot but over-sway. If there ever was a Power that
could exhibit to an admiring world a single instance of
that honour which it laments to find rare, and which
could thereby rebuke the instability of public •
principle, that Power is Russia. On the contrary,
she has thought fit to adopt for her rule the necessity of
peoples and States struggling for very existence, and
driven to choose between self-assertion and extinction.
It is impossible to deny that the races which have fought
their way to unity, or independence, have a holy cause
and a valid plea, whatever may be objected as to the ways
and means employed. But Russia can allege no such
cause or plea without transparent hypoerisy. She is encum-
bered by the immensity of. her existence, restricted by
its independence, and overcharged with its strength.
She has herself only to fear. She may topple over by her
towering height, or outgrow the possible scale of earthly
unities. She may provoke the Nemesis that ever waits
upon excess. She may reach the numbers which are
not strength, and the union which makes not
force. But could all the world combine, it
would leave Russia alone, except for self-protection-
against her imminent out-pouring. If such a Power is
to rend a treaty whenever it suits its purposes, there
is an end of treaties altogether, But Russia has a
destiny, and looks at the stars. The treaty which
chafes her has lasted half a generation. Of its two
chief authors, France lies on her back in mortal
strife and helplessness. England is blowing blasts
about her own providential insularity. With the victo-
rious side Russia can exchange smiles. Now is the time.
Here goes. The famous Treaty of 1856, which cost Eng.
land and France a hundred thousand men and two
hundred millions of money, is torn into fragments and cast
to the winds.
The Daily News says: What the opinions of the Foreign
Minister anod of his colleagues may be with respect to the
provisions of the Treaty of 1856, which limit the sove-
reignty of Russia in the Black Sea, they will doubtless state
for themselves, if Prince Gortschakoff will give them a legi-
timate opportunity of doing so. They would approach the
question, we trust, with fair and open minds. The pre-
sent Government is not pledged to the conclusions either
of the Ministry of 1853, which drifted into the war with
Russia, or that of 1856, which stumbled into peace with
her. But though we should not in 1870 voluntarily
and for the first time undertake the responsi-
lities which we rashly assumed in 1856, we are not
free in 1870 to abandon the responsibilities which
we assumed in 1856. if Russia renounces her
obligations to us, we do not thereby acquire the
right to break our promises to Turkey. Interest and
policy do not hold us to the fulfilment of our plighted
word, but the bond of honour ought to be sufficient to
keep to it. The intellect and conscience of England will
not be darkened or perverted by the immoral pleadings in
favour of a breach of faith which have been put
forth, in a moment of inconsiderate impulse, by men
from whose political logic and ethics better things might

have been hoped. The scandalous doctrine of repudia-
tion will be indignantly disowned by the Government
and Parliament of England. We cannot release Russia
from her obligations under the Treaty, because we can-
not release ourselves from our own obligations
under it. There is only one path honourably open to
either Power out of the difficulty, and that is a formal
revision by the contracting parties, and modification or
amendment as may seem necessary, of the portions of the
Treaty which are objected to. This course, we are san-
guine enough to hope, will be adopted.
The Telegraph says the world has united to condemn
Napoleon 111. because he was not wise enough or strong
enough to hold back the French people, " straining like
greyhounds in the slip," anxious to be let loose ; but what
is to be said of the Emperor Alexander, who deliberately
rouses a pacific Russia to the mad fury of a
warlike France. We still hope that he will pause. If the
second despatch of Prince Gortschakoff be meant sin-
cerely, there are within its four corners ample materials
for a discussion to end in peace. It is perfectly true,

as he there alleges, that we wish to maintain
the Porte by "allaying differences between it and its
subjects," and that we wish to do so in " accdrd with
all the European Powers."
,Russia professes the
same desires, and asks for a " sincere understanding."
Such a despatch, standing alone, could have only one
answer—a reply of cordial recipro city. But it is im-
possible to discuss it until formally or virtually it does
stand alone. In.the north of England a " Scarborough
warning" means " a word and a blow, but the blow first,"
a proverb borrowed from some local little feat of old and
treacherous wars. Russia gravely mistakes us if she thinks
that any violation of the treaty can facilitate discussion;
if her " blow" comes first, it is not words that will follow
it. She has her chece, and she ,has now the chance of
rising to the wisdom of Prince Gortschakoff's second cir-
cular—am indication, we hope, of those " second thoughts"
which are so often "best."

The Standard asks what chance England would have of
asserting the right in a Congress to consider the revision

of the Treaty of 1856, in Which Russia herself would sit
with Prussia, with whom this shameless breach of faith
has been concerted, by her side, with Italy uncdrtain how
to move, and engrossed with difficulties of her
own making ? She might, indeed, have the
support of Austria, but then the support of
Austria, if Count Beust is the representative of the
Empire, must be given on the point of form rather than
of substance. But, adds the Standard, no Congress is
needed now to prevent war, and any Congress meeting
now would render the preservation of peace almost impos-
sible. The question is too simple for a Congress. In
the form the Russian' Government has chosen to put it
all the questions upon which differences of opinion
exist as to the desirability of the maintenance of tho
Turkish Empire are entirety excluded. There are only
two points to determine—the first, whether Russia has
any right to determine at her own will contracts into
which she has solemnly entered; the second—one that
ought, indeed, hardly to be entertained—whether the
infringement of some provisions of the Treaty
on non-essential points, considering the purpose of
the contract—and, moreover, if not with the assent,
without any protbst on the part of Russia—justifies
Russia in repudiating an article of the Treaty which was
allowed by everybody at the time it was signtd to be the
most important ? There can be no difficulty about
answering theselquestions. No Congress is needed to deter-
mine them, and no war need be dreaded so long as the
English Government maintains firmly the answer given
by Lord Granville on the 10th. Russia will not, we may
be pretty sure, in the face of such a protest, make the
slightest move to carry out her threats. If she should, the
Turkish fleet is ready to call her to account, and the Eng-
lish too. Our fleet can this time do the work. If Russia
persists in declaring that the Black Sea, shall not be neu-
tralised, the English fleet can soon make the Black Sea
a sea in which no Russian vessel will dare to show herself.
The Russian Government has made a terrible blunder, but
the English nation would make a far worse one, if,from any
idle or cowardly fear of war, it should submit to an insult
which it can punish most exemplary almost without an
effort.

The other day some German and French officers had a
friendly chat between two of the opposite outposts, near
Paris. The Prussians asked the French why it was they
fired so constantly with no apparent motive. The reply
was, " It is not we, the regular army ; it is those coehons
les Gardes Mobiles." These lemonstrations from
the forts, whether made by Gerdes Mobiles or
regulars, have been useful to the enemy. The German
generals know now the range of the guns on every fort,
and they confess that the ordnance is not to be despised.
Some of the guns in position on the forts have an unex-
pectedly long range. They carry not only to the outposts,
but to the reserves. Projectiles fail in villages occupied
by troops on the northern lines of investment, but
only now and then. They do little or no damage
because their limits have been ascertained and measures
taken accordingly. From the German foreposts before
Paris to the reserves, and from the reserves on to head-
quarters, there is a complete system of telegraphy. A
minute after a shot is fired against a forepost the tact is
known to the reserves. The appearance of a body of
troops moving from the forts is instantly communicated to
all the headquartersp—.Pall Gag4tc.