The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-13 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTE?IBER 13, 1353

The AUTOCRAT has profited by the painful but
salutary lesson taught to him by the results of
the late war. He has discovered that the attempt
to appropriate the assets of the " sick man" IVA%
to say the least of it, premature ; and that, if he
hopes eventual!y to carry out the traditional
policy of the empire, he must play a waiting
game. Had there been a well-devised system of
military railroads, by which he o3uld have con-
veyed the personnel and materiel of war with
speed and certainty from one portion of his vast
dominions in almost any direction he pleased,
the event might have been very different. The
grave mistake committed was in not waiting
patiently for the construction of these important
lines, which would, according to all human cal-
culations, have insured the objects at which he
aimed. Grown wiser than of yore, he is now trying
to achieve with French and English money the
means of defeating France and England. He has
therefore granted concessions for the creation of
more than 3,000 English miles of railway, offer-
ing a Government guarantee of 5 per cent. on the
sums required for their completion !
This is a tempting bait for the gentlemen of
the Stock Exchange. It is beyond the limits of
Capel-court patriotism, to resist the prospect of
handsome premiums, although in the oper ition
they may be providing weapons to destroy them-
selves and their country. Non olet nurnmus is
the maxim adopted amongst the speculators. If
large temporary profits can be acquired they are
little solicitous as to the means, or to the ruin
which may be brought on parties who, hoping for
higher rates of interest than they can obtain on
good security in this country, may be induced to
invest their capital on non-paying lines, and who
will have to sustain the full loss when the original
speculators have washed their hands from the
transaction.

A mere superficial glance at the liberal con-
cessions made must satisfy any unprejudiced per-
son that the lines are marked out for military,
rather than commercial purposes. " Fro►n Mos-
OJW to Nishni Novogorod, to Theodosia, or Kcqra
on the Gulf of _Kea, in the Black Sea, and also
to Laybau, from Petersburg to Warsaw—with
branches to join the Prussian lines." It requires
no extraordinary degree of prescience to announce
the intent and object of these various roads,
which would serve more to consolidate the
strength and power of the Great Northern Poten-
tate than any other scheme that could be devised.
The execution of these several projects would
fully retrieve all the losses sustained during the
late war, and resuscitate the Muscovite hope of
Cossackising Europe ere many years had elapsed.
Need we remind the peoples of France and
England that in Russia everything is made
subservient to the military power. The im-
pediments thrown in the way of travelling
and commercial undertakings by the passport sys-
tem (Far more onerous in Russia than in Austria
itself) must prevent any railway from becoming a
paying property. Noothing but perfect, or at
least a modified, freedom of trade; and privilege of
locomotion, can render the speculations proclue.
tivo. The ambition of the CZAR may be gratified,
but the anticipations of the shareholders will
inevitably bo disappointed !
Many influences arc brought into operation to

persuade JOHN BULL to unbutton his purse strings.
The gorgeous spectacle now being enacted at
Moscow is but a part of the game. Men who are
getting up a great swindle generally commence
by taking gorgeous offices, and indulging in a
lavish outlay. It is well worth the ( ZAR'S while
to expend the greater part of a million sterling,
in exhibiting to the gobernouches assembled at
Moscow an ostentatious display of the miraculous
powers, and apparently illimitable resources,
of his extensive empire. With absolute con-
trol over the lives and properties of his sub-
jects, with the knout and Siberia as potent
instruments for exacting obedience to his Ukases,
it is easy to get up an imposing spectacle, calcu-
lated to deceive better-informed persons than the
gaping sight-seers, who (as Dr. FRANKLIN said)
are "paying so dearly for their whistles."
We would, therefore, once more, emphatically
warn our countrymen who have more money than
wit not to be taken in by the gorgeous bubbles.
No true-hearted Englishman would touch the
accursed thing—would invest his capital in mat-
ters calculated to deteriorate the prospects of per-
manent peace and tranquillity in Europe, and to
call for exertions and sacrifices, ere many
years have elapsed, that must tell heavily
on the prosperity and welfare of his
native land. But to those who are regardless of
higher motives we address ourselves. Let them
carefully examine the position and prospects of
the contemplated undertakings before they part
with their money. Let them consider what will
be the prospects of payment in the event of an-
other war. They may even yet find more pro-
fitable investments at home or in the colonies.
They should also remember that under the existing
monetary code the exportation of so large an amount
of specie must necessarily damage the money
market, and lead to pecuniary embarrassments
likely to cripple the sinews of industry, and pro-
duce difficulties and distress among the working
classes greatly to be deprecated.
Let every man well consider the probable con-
sequences before he participates in the transac-
tion ; and should he do so when thus
warned, he will be unworthy of British sym-
pathy however serious the losses he may sustain.

" The Constitution is on its trial," quoth
PRINCE ALBERT, at the banquet at the Trinity-
house. We cannot be accused of uncourtly pre-
cipitancy if, after the expiration of a twelvemonth,
we demand—What is the verdict ?
" Why, that it is a glorious Constitution, stout
and enduring as our native oak. A Constitution
whose elasticity and buoyancy are such that
foreign fraud has not been able to contract it,
nor German phlegm to sink it. A Constitution
that has in it the elements of immortal youth, and
gives promise of surviving, in renovated vigour,
the crash of falling dynasties and the wreck of
empires whose only cement is blood." Not so
fast, dear reader, with that English face of yours,
radiant with the noble enthusiasm of a freeman.
The jury impannelled was a jury of Germans,
and the verdict asked for must come, not from
your, but their hands.
" The Constitution is on its trial." What is
the verdict? Wo pause for a reply. In de-
fault of an answer, wo must have recourse to
speculation, and cast about to discover of what
na`uro it is likely to be. And we have not far to
seek ; for the very fact of its being put on its trial
by a German argues a foregone conclusion on his
part, and affords but a sorry augury of the de-
liverance of his compatriots. We are not left,
however, to a logical deduction which may be
lartfully evaded. Oar foreign intelligence helps
us to something more conclusive. The reader
liar but to turn to another column, and he will
find—" A royal proclamation has just been issued
abrogating all the articles of the Hanoverian
Constitution of 1849, relative to the interference I
of the Chambers with questions of finance !"
Decidedly a verdict against our unfortunate Con-
stitution ! Though nourished from his infancy on
the British soil, and with the help of Biitisli gold
though indoctrinated in the principles of the
British Constitution by his ostensible tutors—
though impressed with the greatness of the Throne
between which and him there was long but a
single life, and having had abundant opportunity
to ascertain the source of its greatness, the poor
blind King, cousin though he be to our most
gracious SOTEREIGN, once surrounded by German
bureaucrats, has cast every principle of Constitu-
tionalism aside, and thereby testified, in a manner
the most. decisive, how he has learned to regard
our Constitution, and what fate must be antici-
pated for it should Germanism be suffered to gain
the ascendancy.

With the utmost soberness, let say—regret-
ting, as we must, this inroad on Constitutionalism
—our regret is sharpened for the moment by the
confirmation it affords of our often-expressed ap-
prehensions. For the moment, be it remarked,
for we cannot doubt what will bo the effect of
the revelation. If the people of this country
have not lost all claim to their traditional cha-
racter for prudence and forethought—a contin-
gency we cannot for an instant entertain—a
decided check will be administered to Germanism.
The lesson following on the practical over-
throw of the Spanish Constitution, and the
abortive onslaught at Neufchatel, is too clear, for-
cible, and apropos, not to be seriously entertained.
The interference of the Chambers with questions
of finance is an interference essential to the very
existence of a free constitution. Without it a
constitution is a farce, with it a stern reality—
or may become so. The levying of shipmoney
or the interference of CHARLES the First with the
indisputable right of the Commons to vote or
withhold the supply led that wretched tyrant to
the block, so all-important was the right of the
Commons believed to be to the existence of the
Constitution. Since his day no English monarch
has dared to :lay but a finger on it by way of
menace. Hanoverians, to be sure, are not Eng-
lishmen, and possibly may not resent this glaring
invasion of their liberties as Englishmen would.
The catastrophe in such case is so much the more
serious, as it affects liberty. What, however, the
Hanoverians are likely to do or not do it is not
our intention to discuss. The interests and the
welfare of our own country and our fellow-country-
men are nearest our heart, and in enabling our
readers, by considering this and that fact together,
to draw their own conclusions as to the reality of
a danger frequently adverted to in these columns,
we have fulfilled our intention and discharged a
duty not without some hope of success. Against
individuals we have no animosity—but German-
ism as antagonistic to constitutional liberty
challenges not merely' the hatred but also the
watchfulness of every free-born Englishman, and
in this light we cannot but regard it.

The Marquis of Exeter has arrived in town from
Germany.
The Earl of Maimesbury has returned to Heron Court
from a tour of visits in the north.

The Countess of Glengall and the Ladies Butler are
making a round of visits in Scotland.
Viscount and Vicountess Campden have been visiting
Mr. James Duff, M.P., and Lady Agnes Duff, at Cor-
riernutzie Cottage, N.B.
Lord and Lady Lyndhurst and the Hon. Miss Copley
are still sojourning at Dieppe, and will visit Pa: it prier
to their return to town.

LATEST N EWS.

TRIESTE, SATURDAY MORNING.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Sept. 6.—The Russians are
fortifying the entrance of the Boug, and the
banks below Nicolaieff. The English fleet has
returned.

The Isle of Serpents is evacuated, and the

Gladiator has left.
The Sultan has bestowed the sword of the Med-
jidie on Admiral Sir Houston Stewart.

THE INDIA MAIL.

MARSEILLES, FRIDAY MOR NINO.

The mail from India and China arrived last
night at ten o'clock, and will leave here at ten
o'clock this morning.

MADRID, SEPT. 11.

The Gazette publishes a Royal decree accepting
the resignation of M. Escalante as Spanish minis-
ter at Washington. A Royal ordinance limits
the exercise of extraordinary powers to serious