The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-12 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1856.

Bitter indeed was the disappointment experi-
enced by the friends of free institutions and
liberal principles throughout Europe at the lame
and impotent conclusion of the late war with
Russia. It was not the revolutionary party or
the Red Republicans who felt most deeply on the
occasion. It was not even the political exiles
who had been driven from their native lands, and
were pining for the homes of which they had in
the majority of instances been very impro-
perly deprived. It was the ,admirers of
constitutional Government all over the world,
those who were • as much opposed to
anarchy as to despotism. Those rational and
moderate men rejoiced at the golden opportunity
afforded by the insanity of the AMTOORAT. He
had previously been the champion of autocracy—
the powerful and unscrupulous opponent of con-
stitutional Government. It was his troops that
crushed the brave Magyars, and sustained the
power of Austria when it was tottering to its
very foundation. Every petty potentate was
encouraged to resist the just demands of his
people, by the assurance that Russian bayonets
would restore him to the position from which be
might be driven by his indignant subjects.
When, however, he provoked the coalition of the
Western Powers—when time-serving Austria had
seceded from his party, and the minor absolutists
were ratting from his side, it was naturally anti-
cipated that something would be done for the op-
pressed and down-trodden nationalities, to restore
the high-minded sufferers to their natural rights
and privileges.

Austria had no claim to any indulgence. She
bad deceived and betrayed those who foolishly
trusted in her professions, and violated every
pledge that silo had previously given. It wanted
but the utterance of the talismanic words—Po-
land, Hungary, Lombardy, to have insured the
triumph of freedom, and brought CZAR and
Xitsaa to a sense of the precarious position in
which they were placed. But these words were
never spoken. The spirits of Imperialism and
Germanism combined to shelter the guilty
parties. It was determined that the honour
Of' -Russia should be maintained intact, that
the arch offender should suffer neither
humiliation nor loss of power. Sardinia had
nobly come forward in the cause of truth and
justice, but VICTOR FatuarruEL wielded a consti-
tutional sceptre, and though Imperial France
availed herself of his generous assistance, she was
by no means inclined to offer a suitable return.
The peace, the precious peace that neutralised all
the sacrifices of men and money to which Great
Britain had cheerfully submitted, was cobbled up,
and Absolutist Stock rose to a high premium,
while the hopes of the true Liberals were all but
annihilated.

There can be but little doubt that a thorough
understanding was arrived at between the Govern-
ments of Paris and St. Petersburg during the
late conferences. There is a verisimilitude in the
speech attributed to Count ORLOFF, on his return
to Rusk*, that induces us to lend an easy cre-
dence thereto. " What a pity," said the veteran
diplomatist, " that your MAJESTY'S lamented
father did not know the Emperor NAPOLEON. If
he had he would never have gone to war with
him!" Yes, the object of the Empßaons are now
too closely assimilated to permit the occurrence of
any serious difficulty. " Hawks don't pick out
hawks een," and none of the Imperial triumvi-
rate will permit any groat
injury to be
inflicted on the others until they have by their
*sited efforts crushed the Constitutions in every
nation of Europe. When that has been accom-
plished they may strive for their own aggrandise-
ment at the expense of their former coadjutors.
The Austrian LEIFI.I7BS will easily be got rid of,

and fearful will be the ultimate struggle between
the Russian CESAR and the Gallic ANTONY.
The time may come when the latter will feel
deeply the folly of not having consolidated the
throne founded on the popular will by popular
support, and when too late deplore the fatuity
that permitted the Aurrocurr to escape scatheless
from the toils by which he was environed, and
gave him breathing time to carry out at leisure
the traditional polioy that aimed at reducing
Europe under Cossack Government.

The first onslaught on Constitutional Govern-
ment has been made in Spain. The complicity of
the SOVEREIGN was unfortunately but too easily
obtained. The treachery, duplicity, and ingra-
titude necessary to play out the game had irre-
sistible attractions to the weak and unprincipled
woman, who, in her passion for absolute power, be-
came unconscious that she washerself undermining
the foundations of her throne, and destroying the
title under which she wore the crown. The sym-
pathies of the Moniteur were loudly abd unequi-
vocally expressed in favour of the movement,
which it asserted was not a coup d'etat. The
cloven foot was thus clearly displayed, and it
became manifest that Sardinia and England, the
only really constitutional Governments of any im-
portance in Europe, would in time receive similar
treatment. England may, perhaps, be "the last
to be devoured ;" but if she sees those who would
array themselves by her side under the banner of
freedom crushed one by one, the time will certainly
arrive whenshe will have to fight single-handed and
alone, for very existence, against the leagued and
handed despots.
We must not, then, yield a single point. We
can only maintain peace by showing that we are
prepared for war—preserve our own liberties, by
vigilantly watching over those of our Continental
brethren. We forfeited the great opportunity
by yielding to unconstitutional influence at home
—by acting under German rather than Anglican
inspiration. We see clearly the mistake into which
we were betrayed, but no decided effort has as yet
been made to avoid the shoals, and rocks, and
quicksands by which the vessel of the State is
menaced on every side, and which require a care-
ful, experienced, and trustworthy pilot.

It would be somewhat amusing to record the
notions entertained by the great body of the po-
pulation in relation to chemistry. No longer
suspected of intercourse with the Prince of Dark-
ness, nor credited with the possession of an impish
familiar—dissociated also from ideas of demonstra-
tive black cats, sweltering toads, curling snakes, and
the signs of the zodiac in burning brimstone, the
successor of the alchemist, if his pursuit is not
accounted a snare, finds it regarded by the unin-
formed as very much of a puzzle. Of late years,
to be sure, the notion of utility in connection
with chemistry has gained considerable ground,
more especially from its successful application to
the cultivation of the soil. The wonderful dis-
coveries previously made by its instrumentality—
discoveries which may be said to have furnished
the lever wherewith to upheave and vivify a
torpid world, were regarded, we apprehend,
rather as the result of accident than as in any de-
gree the fruit of laborious research. Wonder,
however, gave place to a modified and circum-
scribed faith when it was seen that the science of
the ehemist could supply the means whereby the
most barren soil could be made to bring forth fruit,
and ordinary yields of cereal and other produce
could be more than doubled. Just as the most
fragrant essences are eliminated from excremental
matter, the artificial manure of chemistry may
be said to have invested the professors of the
science with an odour of respectability in this
work-day world they were not known to possess
before. The credit they have for being
useful and capable members of society is,
however, as we have intimated, decidedly
limited, and having faith in the existence of latent
powers in nature whereby may be removed moun-
tains, the chemist pursues his toil depressed by the
knowledge of how little faith there is in his powers
and in the promise of the pursuit to which his
time and energies are devoted. The loss, how-
ever, is more the loss of the world than his own ;
and if the former is not benefited by his researches
as it might be, it has itself, in a large measure, to
thank for it. Of all the domain of science the field
of chemistry may fairly be said to be richest in
those treasures which are calculated to benefit
mankind, and improve the material condition of
the world. It would not be an altogether vain
belief that the great benefactor, humanly speak-
ing, of the rising generation will be the chemist.
Dr. DAIIBENY, in his inaugural address as Pre-
sident of the British Association, to which we the
other day drew attention, throws some useful
light on what may be expected from chemistry.
To the discovery of artificial manures has suc-
ceeded, our readers would perceive, the discovery
that manure may be dispensed with altogether in
the cultivation of the soil. That the innumerable
particles of which the soil is composed have only
to be exposed to atmospheric influences to be
re-endowed with the elements of fertility. A
discovery well calculated to dissipate all appre-
hension as to the failure of the supply of natural
or artificial composts, and holding out to labour
the prospect of better and more constant
employment. A discovery, though it may seem
to contradict, actually confirming the assertion
of Mr. MEOHI, that she soil of England is capable
of yielding, under proper culture, an adequate
supply of grain for the wants of the entire popu-
lation. From grain to animal food the transition
is easy ; and in connection with the supply of
this necessary but too much restricted article of
diet the chemist presents us with cheering intelli-
gence. While so many of our poor are unable
to purchase anything like the quantity of animal
food they require, and what they do get is bad in
quality or lapsed from wholesomeness into poison,
tons of flesh are cast aside as worthless in South
America and at the antipodes. Want here and
waste there the chemist will not away with ; and
in the concentrated juice of this hitherto wasted
flesh-meat, obtained .by boiling, he suggests the
means whereby it may make acquaintance with
grateful English stomachs, to the improvement of
their digestion. From food we may naturally
enough turn to cookery, and here we find the
chemist beforehand with us as a publie benefactor,
One of the principal earths of which the globe is
composed contains,
as glass, as ductile he tells us, " a metal as light
and malleable as copper, and
as little liable to rust as silver," and presumably
cheap--admirably adapted, in fact, to supersede
coarser metals, and to restore a lost zest
to the results or Culinary
operations to the
advantage of the many. By this discovery, too,
the advantages or disadvantages of locality are
likely to be equalised, and metallurgy thrown open
as an employment to all. Nor do the discoveries
noticed by the learned President end here.
Among others are a dye eliminlted from guano
positively from guano—bright as the Tyrian of
old, and likely enough to supersede the use of
cochineal, and—what will the Teetotaller say ?
alcohol from the distillation of coal ! From
small things the mind is accustomed to ascend
by degrees to greater, and the reader, we pre-
SUE", will be led by the instances before him to

the conviction tint, while much has been disco-

vered of a beneficial nature, more remains behind,
and will do his best to promote the pursuit of
the science to which these discoveries are owing,
remembering, by way of caution, that a weak
head never was, and never can be, that of a great
chemist.

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