The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-26 00:00:00

defensible ; and we must say that they have not, in
our upinien, as yet arrived at such a point. On
Monday we shall return to the consideration of this

subject.

Perhaps no circumstance could have reminded us
more forcibly of the relative position in which the
Russian empire stands towards the more civilized
kingdoms of Christendom than the monstrous ru-
mours which have been lately afloat of a revolutiock
breaking out simultaneously at Moscow and St. Pe-
tersburgh. Such an occurrence would have been
nothing less than the consummation of the regenera-
tive movement on the Continent. It would have
illustrated the extraordinary history of 1848 by the
final catastrophe of despotism. Nothing, however, it
must be acknowledged, as yet justifies the most san-
guine imagination in the hope of a convulsion such
as would result in the downfal of the Government of
Nicuones. A very considerable time must elapse
before the vassals of the CZAR will be able to compre-
hend the blessings of freedom, and the miseries of their
blind and infatuated obedience. Until the light of
this knowledge streams beyond the Dneiper
and penetrates even as far as the Volga, Western
Europe must await her destinies in patience, uncer-
tain whether the intellectual force of her influences
will prove triumphant over the brute barbarism of
the Tahtars, or whether the Voltjaks, and the Cos-
sacks, and the Kalmuks, are doomed to ravage the
fertility and the pomp of Germany, of Italy, and of
the Spanish peninsula, as the 01,trogoths desolated
the palaces of Rome and the Imperial gardens of the
Campania. According to these who view futurity
through a more timorous medium than ourselves, the
latter result appears to be the most probable—they
already recognise in CAVAIGNAC the BELISLRIUS of
Western Europe, they behold in THIEBS the GIBBON
of its overthrow, and the generals of the dynasty of
MICHAEL ROMANOFF seem to them only new examples
of the savage genius of ALARIC and ODOACBR. Con-
jectures like the foregoing are nevertheless unsuited to
a practical age, and we merely allude to them for the
purpose of reprobating their frivolity, and of pointing
to a more rational channel for the expectations of the
_Europeans—such a channel as has been already dug
out by the laborious researches of the ingenious and
erudite scholar, the historian FALLMERA TER.
As early as the spring of 1813 the Emperor NA-
POLEON perceived the accuracy of those ideas which
afterwards ripened into one of his most memorable
prophecies. He appreciated the vigour of the
Russian barbarians, their masculine power as con-
trasted with the enervation of the more western races,
the ambition which was even then breaking in
upon their passions, their lust of the riches of
Southern Europe, their envy of the luxuries heaped
together in the cities of the German principalities,
and the sullen wrath with which they would retire
again into their wildernesses to brood over the splen-
dour of which they had obtained a glimpse, over the
delicacies which their lips had tasted, over the pomps
which they themselves had, during one delicious in-
terval, partaken. NAPOLEON appreciated all this in
1813 ; his views were confirmed by the incursions
into France, in 1814 and 1815, of the Russian
soldiers under ALEXANDER ; he knew well enough
that those soldiers would carry back tales of
the wealth of the West enough of themselves
to render the most peaceful barbarians pre-
datory, and he knew, moreover, by the
wisdom derived from the records of history, and from
his own amazing experience, that those tales would
only be increased by tradition. Hence it was that
in the course of his profound
.and prophetic conversa-
tions at Longwood—those conversations which, more
even than the deeds of his heroic life, revealed the
vast and noble capacity of his intellect—NAPOLEON
predicted that the Russians would ultimately revenge
upon the European Sovereigns the insult inflicted by
them upon the liberties of the French nation. And
this prediction will be inevitably fulfilled, if the
kingdoms of Western Europe do not ward off the blow
by one of those great and historical acts of justice
which shed an imperishable glory on the human race.
Europe may confirm the progress already made in
the advancement of civilization—she may secure her-
self from the possibility of a disastrous invasion
poured upon her from the steppes of Russia—she
may even render the ultimate regeneration and en-
lightenment of Russia a thing capable of accomplish-
ment. And bow ? By the restoration of the
nationality of Poland. Not otherwise ! As things
remain at this moment it is impossible that civiliza

tion can be safe from the assaults of barbarism

Every month Western Europe is more liable to
attack—every month the power of the CZAR be-

comes more formidable—and latterly there have
been a multitude of almost irresistible inducements
to invasion on the part of Russia. The distraction
of Germany, the agitation in the Italian peninsula,
the occupation of the Prussian arms at Schleswig,
and of the Austrian arms in Lombardy, the excite-
ment of the Hungarians, the ardour of the Walla-

chians, the hesitation of the Bulgarians, have all
tempted the Emperor NICHOLAS to precipitate his
plans and to march with his colossal forces across the

plains of Lithuania. Of the facilities afforded to
Russian ambition by the successive partitions of
Poland it is scarcely possible to speak in lan-

guage too ominous. When we say that the last
of those diabolical acts of spoliation brought
the Russian frontier within sixty German miles from
Vienna, and within fifty from Berlin, it is surely
unnecessary to pronounce the positions of Prussia
and Austria, as compared with the superior 4ominions
of the CHAR, as fearfully perilous. With the
assistance of steam, Russia might transport an army
of overwhelming power in a very few hours from the

remotest corner of Podolia or Volhynia to the very
centre of Galicia—it might be at Prague, and even
at Vienna, before RADETZKY could cross the Carpa-
thian mountains. In like manner the Russian forces

might be hurried forward to the seizure of
Breslau and the occupation of Silesia. Aa far as the

lines of territorial demarcation are at present mapped
out upon the eastern hemisphere, there is no safe-

guard to Europe—none whatever—against any such

incursion on the part of the Russian EMPEROR. One

only means of security—of security not only to her.

self but to her awful and holy heritage, the cause of

civilization—remains to continental Europe. Thai

means of security is the restoration of the kingdom

and the nationality of Poland.

According

to the Count VALERIAN KRASINSRI, in his late

remarkable work on " Paoslavistn," Europe

is laying herself open to a double danger by the
delay of this great work of justice—she is repelling
the divided powers of Poland from herself into the

arms of Russia, for the augmentation of the already
monstrous strength of that barbarian empire, and for
the consolidation of the various Slavonic races into one

concrete and gigantic nation, resistance to the autho

rity of which would be madness on the part of the
continental Sovereigns. How far these anticipations
of the Polish Count are correct we shall explain at
an early opportunity, by examining more in detail
his dream of a predominant Panslavism.

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE IN A CAB.—This morn-
ing at an early hour the following extraordinary act of
suicide was committed by a gentleman unknown, in the
hackney cab, No. 2,397. The driver thereof, Henry Pethers,
was hired near Westminster-bridge by the deceased, who
told him to drive to Gower-street, and then pulled up the
windows. On reaching Store-street, Pethers heard a sound
as of glass breaking, but on glancing round, seeing that his
vehicle was not damaged, he proceeded on. On arriving at
the end of Gower-street he alighted and opened the door, and '
found deceased reclining in one corner of the seat, his head,
from which blood was flowing, frightfully shattered, and a
pistol firmly grasped in his right band. The cabman imme-
diately raised an alarm, and deceased was conveyed to the
University College Hospital, where, on examination, life was
found to be quite extinct, a bullet hiving entered the roof
of the mouth and lodged in the brain. The deceased ap-
peared to be between 25 and 30 years of age, of dark com-
plexion, dark brown hair, and grey eyes, dressed in a brown
shooting-jacket, a blue striped shirt marked F. R. S. 1845,
low shoes, grey stockings, and black silk hat. No money
was on his person, but in his pockets was a small bag of
bullets, a quantity of percussion-caps, a snuff-box, comb,
seal, two watch-keys, whistle, box of lucifer-matches, four
old
written
copper coins, several latch keys, and a card on which was
" Thomas Debenharn,l, Queen's-row, Pimlico." The
body lies at the hospital to be owned, and awaits a coroner's
inquest.

PRINCE ALBERT'S BIRTH-DAY.—This being the
natal day of her Majesty's Consort, the morning was ushered
in by peals from the parish bells of the metropolis, and the
roy standard hoisted on the Tower, Somerset House, and
Royal Artillery
other public buildings. In the forenoon the members of the
Company, with their band assembled at their
rooms in Bunhill-row, City-road, in honour of the day, his
Royal Highness being Colonel of that distinguished corps,
the members of Which dine together this evening at their
mess. The
ther in honour tra
of the event'se
o Royal Highness will sup toge-
Dispatches were sent off yesterday evening from the
Colonial-office for the Governor of Canada, and also for
the Governors of the other North American provinces.