The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-23 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1848.

So! the AUTOCRAT is waking up from his sullen.
ness. The sword of Russian despotism is to decide
the doom of Europe : and the prophecy of the Im-
perial Exile of St. Helena is about to be fulfilled—
that prophecy which declared that within fifty years
the European Continent would be either inundated
with Cossacks or transformed into democracies.
NICHOLAS is girding on bis armour : he is about to
descend from the north into the plains of Germany,
and to chastise the rebels who have revolted against
his brother of Prussia. The EMPEROR. will march
to the rescue of the absolutist of Sans Souci, at the
head of 500,000 men, attended by a vast and effective
force of artillery. So says, at least, the Frankfort
Journal of the 19th instant, and the Frankfort
Journal is published in the very heart of Germanic
intelligence.
Possibly the Potentate of all the Russias hugs
himself in the idea, that the people of Christendom
will shudder with awe at the advent of himself and
his barbarian legions—that the political institutions
of Europe, in short, are ready to crumble into ruins
at the first stamp of his mailed foot. Let him away,
with these silly notions of his omnipotence. The
insurgent democracies of Europe are, on the con-
trary, ripe for the struggle, which seems to become
every day more inevitable. Vast and almost inex-
haustible as are his powers, filled though his treasury
be to repletion, the Emperor NICHOLAS will find a
different destiny awaiting him than that which wel-
comed the barbarian hordes of antiquity—the Goths,
and the Ostrogoths, and the Visigoths, and the Van-
dals. When ODOACEH descended into the frightful
valleys of Italy, and penetrated even to the golden
palaces, and the hanging gardens, and the marble
temples of Rome, he found a population enervated by
luxury and paralysed by despotism. When ALAEIC
adventured beyond the Alps he found his way
smoothed before him by the pomps of a patrician
race. When ATILLA, " the scourge of Goo,"
traversed the vineyards of Lombardy, he
was preceded by the subjugating influences
of refinement. The modern Scythians will find
themselves opposed to nations placed in an exactly
contrary situation. The BELISARIUS of Europe will
not have to weep over the prostrate glories of her
capitals. Democracy has strengthened where tyranny
weakened. The civilization of the present day
has conduced simultaneously to the development of
the physical and intellectual energies of the multi-
tude, whereas the civilization of anterior times tended
only to drowse both the mind and the body in the lap
of the DELILAH of luxury. Among ourselves, it
has evoked the steam-engine and the rinti -
press, while it has given birth to a IsTzwiTON gd
a Jomesoar. Among the ancients it elicited a4cooalner
unguent for the bath, and a softer conch for the
symposium, while it was reflected in the
poeustice
of enamelc:
of HOIACII, or embodied in the wanton m
Tuktus. Again we say, Democracy has stren A
thened where tyranny weakened ; and in this consisgts
the solidity and the security of the democratic insti-
tutions of the European continent. The Russian
Emrznou fails to recognize this great truth; he is
even, according to the rumour already mentioned,
preparing to act as if the vigour lay in the op-
posite direction ; and, by so doing, if he
be not rushing deliberately on his own
destruction, he is at least aiding, very materially, the
development and the consolidation of the European
Democracies.
Tbat in speaking thus we are not guilty of a gross
exaggeration, that we are not expressing ourselves in
the stilted language of braggadocio, is sufficiently
demonstrated by the situation of affairs throughout
the continent, and especially on the southern and
western frontiers of Russia. Besides which, neither
the Parolles of SHAKSPERE, nor the Thraso of
TERENCE, nor the Bobadil of BEN JoNsolv can be
found very easily, elsewhere than in the courts
or in the camps of Absolutism. When we
allude thus calmly to the prospective invasion of
Germany by the AuTocaxr, our thoughts are directed
to the countries contiguous to his dominions. Those
countries are ripe for an explosion of democratic
enthusiasm. Hungary is already in arms from Peter-
Waradin to Presburg. Bohemia is not indifferent as to
her independence. Poland is mad for the sound of the
WSP.inPsiiiiivhich shall tell of her emancipation. The i

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Posen are prepared; the Silesians are on the
r Moravians have imbibed a passion

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