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

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1356,

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" was,
to say the least of it, premature ; and that, if he
hopes eventually 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 could 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 committel 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 Franco 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 operation
they may be providing weapons to destroy them-
selves and their country. Non olet nummus 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. " From Mos-
oow to Nishni Novogorod, to Theodosia, or Ka 'a
on the Gulf of Kaffa, 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 thtt 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 produc-
tive. The ambition of the CZAR may be gratified,
but the anticipations of the shareholders will
inevitably be disappointed
Many influences are brought into operation to