The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-31 00:00:00

ha' belev'd it."

ing the Russian game.
As we long since stated, Russia never for a
moment abandoned the traditional policy, inaugu-
rated by the first PETER. At the moment of
signing the Treaty she was as fully determined on
Cossackising Europe as at any period during her
turbulent career. Whether the object was to be
,btained by fraud or force was a matter of pro-
found indifference—save that success by the
compound of dissimulation aad insincerity, which
she is pleased to dignify with the name of
"Diplomacy," would, of the two, be the more
agreeable, and would also probably cost the less.
As to the lives of the miserable serfs, who, by a
fearful system of military political arithmetic, are
used as counters in the tremendous game, they
would be thought nothing of but for the pecu-
niary value assigned to each. A Russian soldier
costs money as well as, although less in propor-
tion than, a French or English one—but no super-
fluous elements connected with humanity will be
permitted to encumber the calculations.
We have, from time to time, pointed out the
palpable bad faith of Russia—so far as the per-
formance of the undertakings for which she had
pledged herself were concerned. We know that
from the natural exhaustion that had necessarily
followed her energetic attempts to carry on the
war she had so wantonly provoked, she was com-
pelled to close with any terms that were offered.
Unfortunately the Allied Powers acted on the
principle of " saving the honour of Russia" rather
than of obtaining efficient and satisfactory gua-
-antees for the peace and tranquillity of Europe.
They released her on her own recognisances
trusting that she would have profited
by the painful but salutary lesson. The
Russian Plenipotentiaries were, however,
wise in their generation. They saw that " the
heart" of one of the Allies was by no means in
the War, and they fondly hoped that in pur-
uance of the suggestions of PETER, in his so-called
will, they could weaken some of the links in the
chain by which the alliance was cemented. Time
only can tell whether they were deceived in that
calculation. We regret to say that we do not
feel justified in speaking very confidently on the
subject I It is scarcely possible to suppose that if
equal cordiality existed that was believed during
the earlier stages of the War, the defences
of Kars would have been impaired, and those
of Kilia-Ismail and Reni demolished, that
the Isle of Serpent would hare been seized on,
or the despicable quibble respectng Bolgrad
put forward. Indeed it is now more
than hinted, and with much appearance of truth,
-hat many of these steps are not altogether
ascribable to Muscovite inspiration, and that some
parties holding official rank in France cannot be
!xonerated from every imputation in reference
thereto. The onslaught on the English
Press so wantonly adventured on by the Moniteur
nay be regarded as one of the preliminary symp
-mom of an intention to raise an argument. The
ifoniteur must know as well as its master that the
English Ministry is utterly powerless on such a
point ; and that the freedom of the Press or the
rights of hospitality will never be surrendered by
Great Britain. No matter what may be the cost
,hey will be defended to the last man and the
last shilling, and woe to those who enter on the
reckless attempt to subvert either of these highly
cherished institutions.
Russia is now talking of sending ships of war
through the Bosphorus to the Euxine, and giving
her Baltic fleet an airing. Specious pretexts will
easily be discovered for either course, and
it is by no means impossible that a squa-
dron, which at ono time manifested no
desire to stir from beneath the shelter of
the batteries of Cronstadt, may now be de-
tached professedly for the purpose of escorting
the EXPRESS, and that they may find refuge in a
French port, there to await the rapidly-approach-
ing crisis. It is said that we are fraternising
with Austria—that a perfect understanding exists
between the Cabinets of London and Vienna.
This is the unkindest cut of all. We fear the
friendship of Austria far more than the enmity of
Russia or the lukewarmness of France. Save us
from our so-called friends ! We can defend
ourselves against every open opponent. The
present state of affairs is of a peculiarly ominous
character. There is a dark cloud lowering on the
political horizon that may, ere long, involve
Europe in a sanguinary war, where neutrality
will be impossible. We must prepare ourselves
for that alternative, and tho extent of that prepa-
ration will be the best, in fact the only efficient,
preventive. The first step will be to check the
continued drain of bullion, and sake care that
neither France, Russia, nor Austria shall feather
their nests at our expense, and avail themselves
of our unwise and iniquitous monetary code, to
plunder us of the sinews of war, by means whereof
we can only maintain our former prestige in th e
hour of trial.

" I coom fra' Yorkshire, I coo'd not ha' be-
ley'd it," said the Yorkshire captain the other day
to Mr. SELF& ; and, indeed, Mr. SELFE himself
said, " It was strange, but true, that the captains
and mates of ships plundered by loose women were
generally Scotchmen or Yorkshiremen, or from
Newcastle-upon-Tyne ;" and well might the ma-
gistrate say so, for hardly had the Yorkshireman
done his tale, when a Newcastle man told another
pretty much like it. He had been kindly relieved,
a t Poplar,
of twenty-eight sovereigns, by a young
lakly of nineteen, by whom he was adroitly
inveigled into a dark corner, and who, of course,
handed the treasure to another lady, and could
tell the magistrate with truth that she had got
none of the money ; while he had no alternative
but to discharge her, and let her go to where she
might find it. The poor fellow who had " coom
Ira' Yorkshire " was not a whit more fortunate ;
thirty sovereigns and twenty half-sovereigns, 401.
of good hard-earned gold, had vanishe i at the
Kettle and Drum, in Ratcliffe-highway, while he
was "larking, with several women there, and,
when hemissed it, all the women had disappeared:'
most unaccountably the gold and the fair
houris had disappeared, it seems, together. One
of the larking damsels was brought up, but it
seemed as impossible to identify the lady as to
of the sovereigns she had taker,
iTdhe:rteify nyshaewas, and some others of the same
Eeluctive class were also somewhere, looking,
doubtless, very
assured, perhaps protesting ho-
nesty ; only one thins, noweyer, was certain

Well, while captains are captains, such surprises
we fear are likely to happen on the banks of the

Thames, at the East End of our huge metropolis—
and even to captains who " coom fra' Yorkshire."
Long heads have enjoyed no exemption since the
days of SOLOMON from the power of temptation if
they do not keep out of it. JOSEPH'S plan is the
only one, and even he paid a heavy penalty for
virtue. We must set it down, therefore, for
certain, that long heads will be beaten by seduc-

tive faces at the East End if they venture among I
them. We wish, however, it were at the East
End only. There are certain gentlemen who
" coom fra' Tiverton," and the House of Lords,
and a few other places, and who locate them-
selves in a well-known public office on the banks
of Father Thames, at the West End, who seem to
be quite as strangely at the mercy of known
tempters in their line. A wary old Captain in
Ministerial service, who has served with crews

innumerable, and been Secretary at War or Fo-
reign Secretary some five-and-thirty years, who
knows right well the object of the coaxing ones,
who has shown his temper at their misbe-
haviour so often, at least, that people began to
think he would not be duped by them, and yet—
we " doo'd not ha' belev'd it"—he, too, comes
before us bewailing, like others, that he's done
out of his gold, or rather out of •ur gold.
When we so luckily cut loose from Hanover we
all hoped that Germany would plague us no
more. We had had enough, and more than enough,
of the Electorate ; and often did we heartily wish
that the Elbe had carried it out to sea, and sub-
merged it for four-and-twenty hours. PROVIDENCE
gave us a better release. But, alas ! we were in
for it elsewhere. Kings must have Queens, and
Queens must have, if not Kings, fathers of Kings,
tnd no one at home being of blood divine enough
for that honour we must be married to some
foreigner ; and if to a foreigner, where could ono
be found Royal and Protestant, too, but in Ger-
many ? The result is that all the influences of
kindred bearing on the Court are German influ-
ences--German uncles and aunts, cousins, male
and female, and all the host of affines, as well as
consanguiAei, till Austria, and we know not how
many of the little Powers, and Prussia in the
patio post, have fairly got hold of our Court;
and whoever is offended, every connection of
the little German Dukedom must be kept in good

temper.
But would not the Noble Lord the Member for
Tiverton be proof against all this ? He had shown
some little respect to KOSSUTH, and had dared to
think, after his long practice, he could write a
foreign despatch without Lord JOHN RussELL's
and the Coburgs' censorship ; he had been duly
lectured for such impertinence, and even
.ent about his business. He had, more-
over, taken no steps to punish the Banksiders, and
poured no oil and wine into the cartwhip wounds
of the woman-logger ; he rather wickedly stood
by and laughed at the wry faces of the Coburgs
and the Hapsburgs. Surely he, of all Cabinet
Captains, would not get into dark corners, on a
German Drum and Kettle, and lose all the repu-
tation he had acquired ! Alas ! the well-known
deceptiveness of political hopes ; the War Minis-
ter surrenders at last all the way through to
Austria. She was allowed to sketch the plan of
a peace when the war would have reached Poland,
and shaken Hungary and Italy ; was allowed to
aid her votes to those, already numerous enough,
of the despots at Paris ; was allowed to escape
all the cost of the war ; to feed her troops, the
expense of the Principalities ; to break every
promise ; to liberate Russian troops to attack our
army ; to enact the coward, the bully, and the
villain at once ; and then to swagger or smile as
she pleased at the Peace Conference, as one of
the greatest of the great. Surely if Lord PAL-
MERSTON had not been cajoled by Austrian Syrens
nearer at hand he would have kicked such a
political prostitute out of the Council Chamber.
He would never have allowed his pocket to be
picked of the honourable policy open to him and
to his country.
We will freely own that Austria was very dee p
with him, and with some one else too. She had
cut Louis I\TArerzoN out of a wife, yet she got
him over to her view, and he knew Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S weak side. Like other seducers,
Austria did not set about her victim alone. The
parvenu Despot, she well knew, needed the aid
of an old Despot. She had also plenty of argu-
ments to show that despots must now hang to-
gether. Free and Constitutional England was not
a convenient associate for subjugated France, and
Sardinia too was not a pleasant looking-glass for
neighbour tyrants. So the HAPSBURG and the
NAPOLEON, and the COBURGS (via the Duke of
BRABANT) all combine to do the Herr Voa
Palmerston. And just now how completely
is he at the mercy of Austria and of Louis NAPO-
LEON. He would have liked, no doubt, left to
himself, to have at least left a trace of the PAL-
MEP.sTON administration in the condition of Italy.
But no, Austria and the elected Emperor forbid.
A little show of vigour would upset the BOURBONS
in Italy for ever, but republics or constitutions
would follow. For dear Austria's sake that must
not be. Italy must be in fetters, and England
and PALMERSTON lose their reputation and influ-
ence with all Europe, because PALMERSTON is
cajoled by the COBURGS, Austria, and Louis
NAPOLEON ! We " coo'd not ha' belev'd it."