The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-08 00:00:00

[I3P.TCY 4D. SITAY•PED

spirit of the Public Journals.

(Front the Timms of this clay.)
Will Russia accept the terms offered to her by
the allies ? They reached her on the 28th of last
month, and as yet the telegraph records nothing.
She has neither thrown the messenger into a well,
as the ancient •Greeks did the emissaries of the
Great King when,they Caine to demand from them
earth and water, nor rua him up to the yardarm
of one of those frigates which, though secluded
from the sea, may yet perform indifferently well
the functions of a gallows, nor dismissed him with-
out an answer. Russia is silent, and we presume,
therefore, is meditating, and in the interests of
peace the more profoundly those intrusted with
her destinies meditate the Outer. We cannot, in-
deed, expect that she will hurry herself to gratify
our impatience. She has oar si3net and may rea-
sonably take her time before she imparts to us hers.
A simple " No" would have been soon sent, and
the fact that it has not been uttered for ten days
is some proof that " No" does not fly so readily to
her lips as her English admirers and supporters
would have led us to suspect. Doubtless her wary
diplomatists are turning Over and over the proposi-
tions of the allies, and seeking for a soft place on
which they may hang an assent, a negotiation, and
then a refusal. At any rate, we can wait, for we
are in the position of a chess-player who has got
the best of the game, and ought not to rap the
board with his knucides if his antagonist be rather
long in choosing between the embarrassments which
are set before him. .

Russia, has, indeed, much to consider. We are
now beginning to see and she to feel something of
those effects which the fall of Sebastopol was sure,
sooner or later, to produce. There is a perceptible
alteration in the attitude of the smaller States .of
Europe. The Scandinavian kingdoms have taken
a decided step in advance by entering into the
alliance of the allies, who are the avowed enemies
of Russia. What is more extraordinary still, those
States that appeared to be the most entirely under
the control of the modern Macedon—Saxony, Ba-
varia, and Wurtemberg—are faltering in their
allegiance, and, true to the principle of being
strong upon the stronger side, are afflicted with
doubts whether their side be not now the weaker.
The great passive and inert bulk of Germany is be-
stirring itself in a lumbering and hesitating man-
ner ' • visions of national unity, of merging indivi-
dual interests in a truly German policy, of substi-
tuting patriotism for individualism, and many
abstruse logical entities for many others equally
abstruse, flit before the German mind, shadowed
forth in pamphlets of pages innumerable and sen-
tences interminable, and the duty of considering
whether something having some remote relation
to concerted action ought not to be be considered
of is enforced with the subtlest dialectics and
most recondite terminology of Kant and Hagel.
Germany, if not wholly awake, is certainly not
entirely asleep ; if a little fuddled, is not en-
tirely inebriated ; if a little giddy with
tobacco-smoke, is not wholly stupified ; and is,
indeed, gradually awakening to the conviction that
she has talked and written rather too much, and
done and adventured rather too little. The Rus-
sian mind has never evinced much proneness to
metaphysics, but enough is disclosed to occasion
some anxiety as to the permanence of an influence
which, until the war came, she believed to be inde-
structible. Nor is it easy to say what effect these
symptoms of incipient mutiny may have upon the
counsels of Austria and of Prussia. To Austria
such an awakening of the public mind is no incon-
siderable encouragement to advance in the course
on which she has just entered, since it not only
promises to her that support for which she has so
long been seeking, but gives an earnest that, far
as her policy has fallen short of her duties and her
obligations, it has still been of some advantage to
her in comparison with the far less excusable tactics
of her rival, Prussia. The Court of Berlin, on the
other hand, seems to be threatened not only with
a descent from the position of a great Power, but
with complete isolation from those States the sup-
port of which she has with so much crooked policy
been courting. These things must tend to con-
vince the one German Power that it has been
friendly over much to the Czar, and the other that
safety and ambition alike point to a course of more
decided hostility. The work of 40 years of intrigue
is being rapidly undone, and a further continuance
of the war bids fair to uproot an influence in Ger-
many which 40 years of like intrigue and corrup-
tion may not restore.
• Tot we cannot being ourselves to beliew that
the Emperor of Russia, though he hesitates to re-
fuse, will make up his mind to accept the terms
offered him by the allies. In the interior of his
kingdom the German party, usually regarded as the
friends of peace, has been prostrated, and the Old
Russians, the implacable advocates of war and con-
quest, reign in their stead. Out of Russia the Bel-
gian organ of the Czar keeps up bravely the note
of defiance, and challenges the allies to try the for-
tune of a campaign in the north. With great
ability, and with not more unfairness and effron-
tery than the exigencies of a rather unmanageable
case demand, this journal strives to create dissen-
sion between England and France, and to prove to
both that any hope of a success in the Baltic is
utterly futile and absurd. To be sure, it a little
over-argues its case when it states that the Baltic
is only open four months ; but there is no doubt
there is great justice in what it says with reference
to the impossibility of wintering in those inhospita-
ble regions. Since the time of Charles XII. no
enemy's army has wintered in the dreary confines
of Russia, and the success of that experiment was
not so great as to induce its repetition ; but when
the Nerd tells us that we can only scratch the feet
or pull the hair of Russia its metaphors carry it a
little too far. Our scratches have drained the ar-
teries of the giant, and, though applied at the ex-
tremities, have been only the more effective on
that account.
We anticipate, then, from Russia neither a re-
fusal nor an acceptance, but such a modified
counter-proposition as may give rise to negotiations,
and enable her to play off upon us the devices of
another mystification and another conference. Un-
less there be a broad and clear acceptance of every
main point—unless the proposal relate only to
matters of secondary importance, and such as might
fairly and reasonably form matter of difference be-
tween negotiators agreed on essentials, we trust
that such insidious overtures will be peremptorily
refused. On the conduct of our own Government
we have no doubt, and as little of the course which
a sense of his own dignity and interest will induce
the Emperor of the French to pursue. It must,
indeed, be abundantly evident that it is absolutely
requisite for the very existence of our Government
that it should meet Parliament with a decided an-
nouncement of peace or war. In announcing either
Government may reasonably expect the support
of the nation, but a repetition of the uncertainty
of last April the House and country cannot and
will not tolerate. War to be successful must be
carried on not only with the assent, but with the
enthusiasm of the people, and enthusiasm cannot
he maintained if we are perpetually halting in mid
career, and teaching our friends and enemies alike
to believe that we are unequal in spirit, if not in
strength, to the task we have undertaken. It were
presumptuous to speculate as to whether it be
for the ultimate benefit of Europe and the world
that peace slionld now be concluded. It may be
that an immediate cessation from toil and danger
may be dearly purchased by giving Russia breath-
ing time ere her strength be thoroughly exhausted;
but we cannot be wrong in thinking that whatever
be the merits of either alternative, the course that
halts between the two is fraught with mischief and
disaster.

(Front the Morning Post of this day. )
Now or never ! This is the conviction of the
country, and the Government will . in its duty
if it do not act in accordance witht it. As the open-
popular ques-
tionsg of a Parliamentre: a s
to t h
the
apipnroo.uanc eosf,
the he
new loan—the
possible increase of the income-tax—and the pro-
ying the ballot to the militia. These
priety of applying
and such like matters, are earnestly debated, ant.
in every quarter the utmost readiness is evinced to
afford the Government the assistance it may re-
quire, however large, to enable it effectually to
settle our dispute with Russia.

The immense importance of this is felt, because
it is behoved, and we think rightly, that if our
resolution be not of the boldest nature, and our
blows of the severest, we shall risk dragging on
for years a profitless and costly struggle, involving
endless anxieties, complications, and disasters.
On the other hand, if we concentrate our energies
and our material, and pour down upon Russia the
whole force of which our colossal organisation is
capable, we shall deal blows so staggering, so pros-
trating, that next winter there will be no mistake
as to the identity of the real " sick man."
With this view, the whole nation applauds the
giant proportions of the Baltic Armada, and urges
every measure that can promote the efficiency and
the success of our arms. Peace is looked upon
as to be reached only 11 dedoixe eCorth and