The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-31 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 3l, 1856.

for which our progenitors have so often struggled,
and which they sustained under the most adverse
circumstances. Any plea of "convenience" should
be promptly and decisively repelled by those who,
for the time being, should be the faithful and
vigilant guardians of popular rights and privi-
leges. There should be neither a civil nor a
military armistice until a final and satisfactory
peace—if that be possible had been con-
cluded. Until that event it will be not only
the privilege and the duty of every member to
elicit complete information on every point, but to
prevent, to the best of his abilities, any result
which he may consider injurious either to the
honour or the interests of their country.
We are told by a morning contemporary that
Honourable Gentlemen should " refrain from
thwarting in London what is doing in Paris,"
from " carrying the spirit of free discussion into
regions where for a time, at least, the public in-
terest imperatively requires that they should not
penetrate." We earnestly and emphatically pro-
test against this slavish doctrine, which may be
suited for a despotic clime, but not for the British
atmosphere. So far from freedom of speech and
of action being injurious under existing circum-
stances, it offers the only prospect of escaping
creditably from the serious difficulty in
which we are involved. Let the voice of popular
opinion be audibly proclaimed in the Imperial
Palace of Westminster, and it will reverberate
through all the Cabinets of Europe and of the
world, and secure for Great Britain the respect
which is not now obtained. Our Transatlantic
brethren do not allow themselves to be thus
gagged, and their freedom of speech does not lead
to any untoward consequences ; on the contrary,
it insures the objects which they wish to have
effected. It abates what may be termed social
nuisances, the sinister intrigues which irresponsible
parties may be disposed to carry on for their own
private purposes, but not for the benefit of the
community. If any objection be raised, the
answer is ready—We are free-born Englishmen,
not Russian or German serfs ; we are governed
for our own benefit, not for that of foreign rela-
tions 1 We wish to follow the example of "Uncle
Si"A rather than of " Uncle LEOPOLD." It may
be very well to ask for " generous forbearance ;"
but our representatives must be far more simple
than their constituents bargained for if they evince
it in a matter in which the safety, honour, and
welfare of their SOVEREIGN and her people are so
deeply staked, as in the forthcoming negotiations.

Great is JOHN BRIGHT of Manchester ! But
greater, in our opinion, are the people of England,
and between the two we must all make choice.
We have long made ours, and cannot repent of
it. If, however, we are, as Mr. BRIGHT declares,
but one of the modern four hundred lying pro-
phets who are the veritable antitypes of those who,
at SATAN'S instigation,
_counselled AHAB to go up
to Ramoth Gilead to battle, of course it were vain
to expect repentance of such judicially-hardened
sinners. Mr. BRIGHT must be thankful that he
tenders his advice to no Eastern despot, other-
wise, since he claims, in contrast to the lying
Press, to represent in his own person the faithful
MICAIAH, the sou of lA/LAI!'" he would surely
have been fed, like a faithful prophet, " with the
bread and water of affliction." His only affliction
now has been—political insignificance. Afflictive
diet this, no doubt, for an eloquent Leaguer ;
it has obviously been rather difficult of
digestion, and may account for his sending the
whole Press of England literally to the -, (but
we refrain from quoting too closely.) Soma
people may presume to question whether Micaiah,
the Member for Manchester, bad enjeyed. any
such special revelation as that vouchsafed to the
Hebrew prophet ; no such doubt crosses his mind.
He has lifted up his eyes, and behold he sees the
lying spirit inspiring all the journals, and all the
inhabitants of England scattered on the moun-
tains as sheep having no shepherd. Rumour
speaks of a Manchester penny journal to be pub-
lished in London, which is even to eject the
Times from its throne. As it is designed to con-
front and rebuke the universally lying papers, we
should suggest that its Manchester godfathers bap-
tise it after their Member by the name of " Meaner ;
or, the Lying Prophets Rebul,A. Price Id."
Clie Peelites and the Society of Friends will take
some thousands daily fur gratuitous distribution.
It were wearisome work to debate the question
with our MICAIAII whether our utterances have
all been wrong and his alone right. We cannot
fuel much interest in convicting him of error when
none of our readers believe him. We can all
stand and listen to tie rushing torrent of his peculiar
eloquence with interest, but it dashes by, and all is
over. It has modified no conviction. We perceive
that the speaker could, had his passions been en-
listed on the other side, been equally fluent and
vehement. One instance of his violation of all fair-
ness may be sufficient. He laboured to show that
the present Five Points were no advance on the
Four Points of last year. Now we have our-
selves been ready enough to expose their insuffi-
ciency, and to skew how miserably they fall short
of our fair demands, even in the present position
of things. Yet even we have never denied that the
difference is substantial and great ; if carried
out honestly very gre tt. If the Black Sea ports
are dismantled, if Nicolaieff follow Sebastopol as
a naval arsenal, if a fleet of frigates be reduced
to a few light vessels for each Power, if the Aland
Isles be neutralised, these things, added to the
cession of Bessarabia and the Swedish Treaty, are
surely a very different thing to the Four Points of
last year. They include, moreover, the great
difference that Russia is now compelled to confess
defeat. Before the fall of Sebastopol GORTSCHAKOFF
wrote "our fortifications suffer"—and before the
Conferences the EMPEROR'S journal wrote efficially,

that the " threatening aspect of the coalition,"
and the "sacrifices which continuance of the War
will impose on Russia," are her reasons for not
delaying to accede to the proposed terms. No
dissatisfaction with the terms will prevent honest
naen from perceiving that the difference is great.
Mr. BRIGHT'S lengthy illustrations of the cost
and the miseries of the War were effectually
answered by General THOMPSON, who avowed that
he did "like to see something like a general
police in Europe, which should do as we did when
we heard of thieves in Market-street, put them
down, not saying that because we lived in St.
Ann's-square we had nothing to do with the
matter." The question of war was simply the
one of whether territorial burglary should con-
tinue to be the course of Russia, or should cease for
ever in Europe. With much said at the meet-
ing on the mismangement of the War, and the
base counsels which attacked the Crimea only, in-
stead of Poland also, we, of course, heartilyconeur.
We believe the chief reason why peace is cow
clutched at by all the Statesmen of the
occasion, is their fears lest another
campaign must bring them into Poland ; and
then the dirty interests of Germany in Polish
slavery would, of course, be touched. We have
but too often had to insist on the reluctance of
our statesmen to aim at noble soul-stirring ob-
jectszee dtoh
rnoowt
no na
wt ha
ya t.
ilt.eWhara,yebudt
in the preasnen
account thick

Russia has received a military check which will
surely curb her ambition in that line for long to
come ; and there is much reason to hope that the
tens of thousands of her martyred serfs are mar-
tyrs not only to the madness of their CZAR, but
to the future commercial civilisation of their
country. Thrown upon the course of internal
improvement by the rebuke of this War, Russia
may become deeply pledged to peace as the
largest exporting country for raw material of
Europe.

The Manchester and Peelite party are no doubt
well pleased to enter on a peace-making rather
than a war sessions of Parliament. We shall have
them furious with our Cabinet for every firm de-
mand. They will lament over every port and
arsenal which Russia is called on to demolish=
over every efficient guarantee required of her.
They will probably cabal to overturn Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S Cabinet if it first makes the best peace
attainable with the present preliminaries, and then
watches sedulously that they are complied with to
the letter. There is one motion, however, which Mr.
BRIGHT ought himself to bring forward at the earliest
period. He entertained his audience on Monday
with the whole history of the rise and progress of
our National Debt, compared it with the trivial
one of the United States (only omitting the nu-
merous heavy debts of the several Sovereign
States), and predicted the sad consequences of
the addition of 100,000,0001. more to ours. If
he be honest, let him then move " that an address
be presented to her MAJESTY, informing her that
no peace will be acceptable to this country which
does not include the repayment by Russia of the
entire expenses of the War."

" The loss of Calais will be found engraven on
my heart." The language of an English Queen,
to whom, among other possessions of her royal
sires, the custody of that English stronghold in
France had descended by inheritance. " The
loss of Calais will be found engraven on my heart."
With such bitter royalty of feeling did she regard
that apparently disastrous event. It was a wo-
manly sentiment the words conveyed ; for the
speaker was of the right royal race of the TUDORS.
What will history have to record of the fall of
Kars ?

The loss over which she pondered, it is true,
was the loss of part of her inheritance ; but the
grief that weighed at her heart was for her sul-
lied renown. Kars never formed a part of the
British territories ; but it was the key of the
finest possessions of our Ally the Turk, and he
had confided the vindication of his rights and the
safety of his territories to the direction of his
Allies, and they suffered him to lose so important
a stronghold, How bitterly he may ponder over
the event, we are unable to say, but the fall of
Calais was not more disgraceful to the royal
Tudor than the fall of Kars is to the Allies, and
more especially the British Government.

Into the secrets of royalty we have little desire
to penetrate, but we make bold to say that the
British nation is stirred to its depths by that
crowning disaster of the War, and chafes with
universal bitterness of feeling over it. Hitherto
Her Majesty the QUEEN has been celebrated for
her sympathy with her people, and in the insti-
tution and vigorous prosecution of a real and not
sham inquiry into the fall of Kars, we are pre-
pared to recognise an equal share on her part in
their present regrets, and resolution to have the
secret causes of the disaster anatomised, and ren-
dered palpable to observation.

As we all but too well know the prosecution of
the War, if prosecution it can be called, had won
us little honour, though it had eost us much
treasure and blood. The dread artillery of our
fleets, bef4e one-half of which in olden times all
opposition had succumbed, had been paraded
almost as innocuously as a "raw head" before the
unintimidated foe. The inadequacy of our
preparation to meet assault, and the rottenness of
our military system, had been laid bare to the
whole world. We had struck up an alliance with
an old enemy—our enemy, we trust, no longer—
as it were but to show him what a bugbear it was
that France had held in awe. Our commanders
had demonstrated their utter want of scientific
generalship, and our Statesmen, up to the advent
of the present Premier, the shallowness of their
heads the hollowness of their hearts, and the,
wanton exaction of their hands. Sinope grimly
upbraided our supineness. Odessa stood a monu-
ment of our folly. Inkerman glowed with the
needlessly spilt blood of our heroes. The exhala-
tions of thousands of our gallant dead rose dreadly
before Sebastopol ; and the curses of the Princi-
palities thronged in our ears. The tribes of the
Caucasus waxed impatient for the kicking of the
beam. Persia was quick with treachery, and the
naval powers of the North looked on for
an opportunity to strike home at our
foe. Nothing but one-half of Sebastopol, a
few easy captures, the proved devotion of our men,
soldiers and sailors, testified to our present great-
ness as an offensive Power, and but hurried prepara-
tions, whatever their magnitude, to the immensity
of our resources, when the defence of -Kars be-
came the theme of every tongue—a defence glo-
riously conducted by one of our countrymen in
the teeth of every conceivable obstacle, and in
which he had received no aid, though he had
eagerly sought for it. But little exertion was re-
quired. An efficient force could have been sent
to raise the siege and relieve the exhausted
strength of its half-starved defenders ; but none
was sent, and Kars fell, a prey to famine rather
than the sword, laying open Syria itself to the
march of the Muscovite invader, and avenging ,
the ruins of Sebastopol. The nation may be ex- 1
cured for having entertained the strongest desire
for the rescue of Kars on all eoaceivable grounds, i
and for being sorely disappointed and ag-
grieved by its fall. Surely it has a right to be
informed of " the reason why," and resolutely to
insist on being so. Right or not, it will. 1

law in Great Britain and in Ireland will. be pro-
posed to you, which will, I doubt not, receive
your attentive consideration.

Upon these and all other matters. upon which
you may deliberate, I fervently pray that the
blessing of Divine Providence may favour your
councils, and guide them' to the promotion of the
great object of my unvaroing solicitude, the wel-
fare and the happiness of my people.
At the conclusion of the reading of the Speech
her Majesty and suite left the house.
Their L'rdships then adjourned till five
o'clock.