The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-28 00:00:00

ignominious termination, has been from the very
commencement of the difficulty but a foregone
conclusion. We can now judge of the motives
which led to the sparing of Odessa, and the Rus-
sian fortresses in the Baltic and the Gulf of Fin-
land, and to the infamous desertion of Kars and
of the brave Englishmen who undertook what, we
fear, was intended to be " the forlorn hope" of its
defence. There was to be peacoat any price and on
any conditions, and nothing that could tend to the
humiliation or weakening of the AUTOCRAT could
be sanctioned by the irresponsible and unconsti-
tutional power that unfortunately controls the
Cabinet, and affects the destinies of Great Britain.
It is but too palpable that " dynastic" have
greater weight than national considerations ; that
tke interests and wishes of the people of Great
Britain are totally disregarded when they come
into collision with those of petty continental
States, with whom the English people have, or
• desire to have, nothing in common—who would
not lend the slightest assistance ii any emer-

gency.
Who, then, we repeat, is the traitor ? What
is the malign influence that has operated so pre-
judicially for the cause which we have all so
earnestly at heart ? That is a question which can
only be answered by the honest and unprejudiced
representatives of the English people. They alone
can put the proper machinery in motion, and in-
stitute the inquiries that will eventually elicit the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, and teach the criminals, whoever they may
be, that the best feelings of the nation are not to be
outraged with impunity. It will be their first duty
to institute a strict and searching investigation,
from which they shall not, and v;il/ not, be de-
terred by any high-sounding phrases or pompous
platitudes, to discover who is the real Premier and
the bona. fide Foreign Secretary, and to show
that there is but one person in the nation—our
most gracious and well-beloved QUEEN—who is
beyond the reach of the law, or who, in the lan-
guage of the Constitution, " can do no wrong."
Any one else, whether high or low, who assumes
the function of a Minister, must be prepared to
take with it the full measure of Ministerial re-
sponsibility.
It is said, and with much apparent reason,
that France is unwilling to be kept on in a
" shillys-hally " manner, without a thorough un-
derstanding, as to all the eventualities that may
arise. With the most honourable determination to
carry out every engagement into which it has en-
tered, there is still a disinclination on the part
of the French Government to strain all the mighty
resources of their magnificent country without
some prospect of a corresponding result. We
cannot complain of this very natural feeling, nor
do we see why England should spread the 2Egis
of her protection over Powers that have hitherto
held aloof from the ccntest, or distinguished
themselves only by a scarcely-disguised sympathy
with our opponents, and a disposition to render
all assistance practicable without a clear breach of
neutrality, and involving themselvesin the scrape.
What is Prussia or Belgium, or even Saxe-Coburg
to England. We do not seek any further relations
with FREDERICK WILLIAM, and in the payment
of the good round pension which King LEOPOLD
' enjoys, his claims on English consideration ter-
minate. Let France have the Rhine for her
boundary by all means if she desire it ! So long as
she is our firm friend and ally any accession of
strength or honour to her will be highly accept-
' able to the British people, and no past or future
matrimonial arrangements should be permitted to
interfere. King LEOPOLD has already received
ample compensation at our hands. And what
has been our reward ? We have seen tho Bel-
gian Court the hot-bed of intrigues—the head-
quarters of Germanism—the publishing office
of philo-Muscovite journals ! What has Prussia
done ? The answer springs to every British tongue
in terms by no means favourable to the good
CLICQUOT. Let us, then, be prepared to concede
anything that France may require, rather than
consent to an ignominious and temporary truce.
England has no uncles, no cousins, no sons-in-law,
and the fact should be proclaimed, trumpet-
tongued, by every independent constituency as an
instruction to its chosen representatives. Let no
peace, no armistice be concluded until Parliament
has had the opportunity of discussing and decid-
ing on its provisions. Little, if any, time can be
lost in paying that constitutional tribute of re-
spect to the true source of legitimate authority in
this free country.
To Lord PALMERSTON we would address a few
words of warning. He is at present the most
popular man in the country ; but should he suffer
himself to be made a tool for the purpose of
patching up a disgraceful peace, that popularity
will speedily vanish, and great indeed will be his
fall. He may gather experience from the past,
may know that he is not a favourite at the Ger-
man Courts, and if he once relinquish the mighty
power he at present wields he may possibly find
that at the last moment he may be thrown over-
board, and the more yielding CriansToNE substituted
in his place. Let him consider this fully, and
remember that if he cast himself on the English
people, they will nobly and effectually respond to
the appeal.
It is said. that the Russian signature has not
yet been attached to the demands put forward on
behalf of the Western Powers. If so, there is
yet hope that the ill-omened negotiations may be
broken off, and that we may have reason to be
once more deeply thankful for the ill success of
our diplomatists.

Had all the political and military proceed-
ings of the last two years been secretly
guided by some petty German Prince in
the interest of Russia and Austria they could
not have been better devised. The refusal to
declare the passage of the Pruth a cams
which was the negative but immediate cause of
the War; the long delay to employ our navy in
earnest, and the consequent destruction of the
Turkish fleet ; the treacherous withholding of aid
from Silistria, which but for being better supplied
with food might have anticipated Kars as a
douceur to the ornolie piopre of Russia ; the
odious Austrian occupation of the provinces,
instead of a pecuniary advance to enable
OMER PAcnit to engage the Russians in Bes-
sarabia, while we went to the Crimea ; the
" sparing Odessa," which with Austrian help
in the Principalities cost us the battle of hiker-
man ; the long neglect of the Sea of Az3ff ; and
the sending of a fleet to the Baltic unfitted for
offensive operations there—what could &or. and
NESSELRODE have asked more for their respective
masters if we were to fight at all ?

Even the winter and spring were sold to Russia
and Austria by the famous Four-point Conference,
and though this year has been somewhat better,
yet it has left the Russians in the Crimea ; has
sent an Admiral to the Baltic with not a teuth
of the gun-boats he needed, and one who despaired
of naval attacks on stone walls ; and has wound
up by leaving to starvation and the Russians the
noble defenders of Kars. Throughout both years,
too, the Poles, the grand resource of the Allies
against Russia, were huffel and converted into
enemies and now winter finds us again