The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-28 00:00:00

FESTIVE 4FINUIiATIONS.

Our dread of festive t.0.,,,,44,..at lons amount almost
to a superstition: Mn may safely in-tri-
umphal calebrations of achieved. sueee.ss7-.-.no poWer
can alter the character of the past.- But too.confi,
dent an expression of anticipated success would
almost appear to call down reverses as apunishment.
The issue of *Sir:pharles Napiet's campaign in the
Baltic was a sorry Sequel to the Banquet-at.
Re-
form Club. It is .owing, perhaps, to this. preposses-
sion that we calk -never think of the .gorgeous
pageants abou); to be enacted zrt Moscow without
fancying we see "malignant deip.on' 1 tirkin g behind
them, and gloating over the prospect of-the trials
and tribulations .which are to ensue fur those who
are the chief actors •in them. •

....... __
The most pros-tic view that can be taken of the
position and, proflwets'of Russia suggests a similar
train of reflection. The finances of Russia have
experience I a: rude shock from the late war. The
treasury of t-he State has been drained ; there are
many outstanding bills that haVe still to be paid ;
there,are extensive' dilapidatioiis to be repaired.
No doubt the 'material resources of Russia, and
her fiumerous population, will -soon ' be able to
restore prosperity, if industrial, enterprise is left
undisturbed by foreign wars or intestine corn-
motions. But the enormous expenditure that
is about to be .incurred at Mosco.w. comporti;' ill
with the preent condition of. .ti,e- country. The
ontlav of the-Government alone•will•be enormotq
but
t a will be the least important item', From
every ,
elnarter of thecolossal
empire vas:4.W princes
and nobles hre
each
otherin
extravagant
to the capital to vie with
itiaebteirmber •
the war the ~rmatveargant sl'iendclir..• Even before
were - deeply
to the
of- .R,nsAari •nobility
.4ipprial Loan
Bill Ir. 'The inteti,,,plic
has materially augalentetklvb
of h trade, during the war
atasir liabilities. Their
preparation; to- make 3 t they deem an ap-
pearance befitting their rank a the coroneion will
completelrbegg4r not a few of them, T "
hese, then,
to be the results of ;he are not 'unlikely
display; for decourits of which all Enropine aarificent
Ame-
rica are nowclieening with sharpmed eartstcl
i in p o verisb el" Go ve r n rn en t. will he' utia'Ao to kcie'ie
a strong hand of coercive power on its subjects'.
The iniipoverished noloility will be obliged to.have
rezourse to all manner of shifts and devices to raise
the Wind. o,rie of the most obvious is their atility
to sqt4eezil their serfs. Among the mercantile
classes,in Russia are tnany.serfs who have accumu-
lated large.fortunes, who,.mix. on a .footing af ,per-
fect equality with their free animates, but who

have never been able to prevail upon their lords to
emancipate them. Freedom has been denied to
them more from a sense of gratified vanity on the
put of their owners, at being known as the pro-
prietors of wealthy men, than from any deliberate
sieve to oppression and extortion. They have al-
most universally been leniently dealt with, and
will continuo to be so as long as their masters are
in prosperous circumstances. But when poverty
invades the hall of the nobles, what is to be ex-
pected from men who have never learned to deny
themselves ono gratification ? The poor nobles will
seek to replenish their purses from the better filled
purses of their serfs ; these serfs will bear them a
grudge, in which the whole class to which they be-
long—freemen and bondsmen—will participate.
The war of classes will begin precisely at the mo-
ment when a beggared Government is unable to
organise the means of. repression. We speak not
of these things as certainties, but as possibilities—
we might say probabilities. Internal convulsions
in Russia—the social chaos out of which new insti-
tutions are to emerge—may take their date from
the joyous and gorgeous pageant of the Coronation.
Nor is Ressia the only country upon which
these festivities scowl a petrifying Medusa-like
glance, under all their beauty. The lavish expen-
diture of the French Embassy is the topic of the
day at St. Petersburg and Moscow. 'From what
funds is it to be defrayed ? A prominent feature
of the Imperial policy of France has been to dazzle
men with lavish display. Costly structures have
been erected, not in the capital alone, but in every
considerable town of France. The customary
magnificence of the Court exceeds that of any other
in Europe. Every excuse has been seized upon
for making one dazzling fete tread close on the
heels of another. When the Queen of England
visited Paris there was an affectation of costly gal-
lantry that reminded one of Oriental tales. The
Court of France has been living far beyond its
means. The State expenditure has been equally
lavish. The policy of buying the support of the
working classes by finding remunerative employ-
ment for them has been carried to an extreme.
When a monetary crisis threatened France last
year there were rumours of extensive sales of the
lands of the communes, and of the payment of the
proceeds into the Imperial Treasury. Now, men
supposed to have glimpses behind the scenes shake
their he ids when the funds of the Savings Banks
are spoken of. The amount of the postponed
credits continues to increase, and no explanation
regarding them is offered by the Government. A
sense of uneasy apprehension pervades Francs
with regard to the condition of the public finances.
It is the last drop that makes the cup run over
—the last feather-weight that breaks the back of
the overloaded camel. The Court extravagance
of the early years of Louis XVI. completed
the revolutionary work of the bad husbandry
of Louis XIV. and the Regency. The
display of Count de Morny at Moscow may do the
same bad service for the new dynasty.
It is with pleasure then that we hear that the
more modest state of the British Embassy, as con-
trasted with that of the French has afforded a tilt ms,
of comment for the gossips of St. Petersburg. We
would have the display of our country's represen-
tative on such au occasion rich, but neither tawdry
nor excessive in cost. The merchant princes of
Italy, in the middle ages, were rich in their ap-
parel, yet vied not with-the butterflies of the courts.
The best of the old French nobility, under Louis
XV., never cared to vie in expense with the fer-
miers-generaux. Like them, the Ambassador of
Great Britain at the Moscow coronation ought to
distinguish himself from the representatives of the
old feudal and patriarchal despotisms on the one
hand, and from the representatives of the bourse-
gambling despotism on tke other, by his sober and
unostentatious state. The substantial power and
wealth of Great Britain can dispense with much
of outward show. A time is coming when Eng-
lishmen may find a better use for their money.
The dismantled bulwarks of European freedom
will have to be rebuilt—as were the walls of Jeru-
salem—by workmen who wore their swords while
they toiled.—Daily News.