The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-12 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1356.

There is the Manifesto, for example, just issued
The existing state of affairs must excite grave at St. Petersburg, by the second Muscovite
apprehensions in the mind of every thinking man. ALEVCANDER ! According to our judgment, it
We drifted into War, from which we have wriggled appears for all the world just exactly of a piece with
out in by no means a respectable manner. We every one of the ukases penned by the hand of
behold the sitting of a Congress, at which the his great progenitor, the Czar NICHOLAS. And
Peoples of Europe are not represented, and which we all of us surely remember what were the
may possibly lead to the formation of aaother un- conspicuous characteristics of those renowned
Holy Alliance, intended to check every aspiration Proclamations. What were those conspicuous
after freedom, and to fetter the nations in ada- characteristics by the way—my Lord PALMERSTON,
mantine chains. Meanwhile, the British Parlia- when you were propounding to the House of
meat remains quiescent, and awaits with exam- Commons, in your ministerial capacity as Home
plary, patience the information which may be Secretary, the advisability of embodying themilitia
doled out, when it is too late, to avert the mis- as speedily as might be found in any way con •
chief that may be hatching. The representatives venient ? What were they, my Lerd JOHN
of free and independent constituencies make no RUSSELL—when you were denouncing them in
sign, until the fetters and handcuffs have been language of indignant eloquence uttered in your
duly affixed, and the first blow administered, that official capacity as its leader within the walls of
may be far morn than half the battle. the lower branch of the Imperial Legisla-
There are, as we have already stated, elements ture ? What were they—these conspicuous
of disturbance in operation that should be con- characteristics of each successive Manifesto
tinuously and vigilantly watched. Troops have given to the world at the commencement of
been raised, for whom occupation must be found, the recent War by the Czar NICHOLAS—you,
who, like the demons in the time-honoured myths, noble- lords and right honourable 'gentlemen,
will turn on their employers and rend them limb then so vituperative, now so mealy-mouthed—
from limb, unless adequate work be provided. We then so blatantly belicose, now so bleatingly paci
have German and Italian Legions, Turkish Con- fic—then talking about the "crimes," now about
tingents, and other bodies, which cannot be dis- the " honour," of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg ?
carded the moment that their services seem to be They may be epitomised now, as they were epi-
no longer required. Experience has proved, tomised then, in two very
beyond the possibility of doubt, the perils • - . significant and expres-
met- sive words—words nobody "then' hesitated to
dental to the discharge of mercenaries, who
can• use—words we do not now hesitate to use, as
not dig and are ashamed to beg. We pointed Strictly significant and accurately expressive of
out clearly and distinctly, at the time when the what were really the salient or conspicuous charac-
Foreign Enlistment Bill passed, the dangerous teriBt' •
os of the Manifestoes of the late E nperor
consequences of such a line of policy ; and, un-
Nrenoese—
eheracteristics which, to our think-
happily, our gloomy vaticinations have been too in-s, are juat as
glaringly observable in this
completely verified. We showed the obstacles recent Imperial Manifesto of his son and
to their enlistment, and the difficulty with successor the Czxr Araxeeroma If. The Mani-
the Government of the United States has shown festoes of the Czar isr
--stetioLas, thou, to be plain,
that there was no exaggeration in the statement, were especially remarkable, they were notorious
that we were rather below then above the mark. throughout Europe, for their lying and their im-
for a lequate reasons, refrained piety ! Their blasphemy and untruth, indeed,
Prussia, no doubt)
from embarrassing our Gevernulent. Setisaed were simultaneously reprobated in the Ep-disli
with _convicting, she rofraine'l from punishing our journals and denounced in the English Parlia-
consular agents, who were impticeted in the illegal ment. They were viewed at the time with
transaction. The hope of a well-dowered Royal mingled sentiments of horror and incredulity..
Princess for the presumptive heir of the Prussian Scarcely any one could at the outset credit the
Throne, and the possibility of one of the House authenticity of demi:lents so openly violating the
of BRANDENBURG eventually wielding the sceptre nobler principles of Civilisation, and so flagrantly
of the UVited Kingdom, together with the anticipa- outraging the holier dogmas of Christianity. It
tion that she would be permitted to escape with im- was felt at once instinctively to be heinously
punity from the position to which she had been criminal on the part of a great Peince, the irre-
reduced by her despicable and tine serving nen- sponsible ruler of sixty millions of men,
trality, averted that danger for the time being,e to develope a policy of unprovoked and
and we could afford to disregard the remonstrances lawless spoliation by f dsehoocle the most
whose dominions the
of the petty . Wers, iu men glaringly undeniable, and to enhance the
word otually enlisted, although the illegality was guilt of %truth by the impiety of invoking

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