The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-05 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1856.

It is not merely from his physical strength, or
the intrinsic power which he possesses, that the
AUTOCRAT is formidable to other nations. It has
always been a leading principle of Russian policy
to act by means of well-selected tools, which, by
a mixture of bullying and cajoling, have been
made completely subservient to the dominant
will. One aim has been to sow dissensions and
jealousies on every side from which disturbances
might arise, which the wily Muscovites well knew
how to turn to their own advantage. In the
East these insidious intrigues were peculiarly suc-
cessful. On the one side were overwhelming forces
ready to compel concessions and the surrender of
important territorial privileges, or possibly the
territories themselves, should the time for annexa-
tion have arrived. On the other was the wide-
spread venality which rendered Russian gold
peculiarly acceptable to men in authority. An
" itching palm " is a very general characteristic
of the Eastern Statesman ; and what threats and
menaces could not achieve was sure to be accom-
plished by the all-powerful agency of bribes.
The Persian Court has been peculiarly suscep-
tible to these potent influences. All the leading
men were actuated to serve the Czart either by
fear, or love, or money. Even the SHAH himself
became little better than the obedient vassal of
his powerful and ambitious neighbour. It is true
that occasionally there has been an appearance of
insubordination. The resistance was carried even
to open hostility. But Russia has invariably been
enabled to dictate her own terms, although of a
very onerous and almost intolerable character.
It is the certainty that the step recently adopted
by the Court of Teheran has been taken at the
instigation of the CZAR, that renders it of vast
importance at the present crisis. There has been
a manifest desire moth° part of Russia to com-
pensate for its losses in Europe by additional gains
in Asia, and to sustain the prestige that has been
so seriously damaged by the loss of Sebastopol,
Kertch,- Eupatoria, and Kinbourn, by striking
successes in other quarters. The fall of Kars,
through the deplorable apathy and negligence of
those who ought to have spared no pains to have
preserved that important position, has been one
very important step in carrying out that object,
and the capture of Herat, the portal to the Anglo-
Indian empire,
.although nominally accomplished
by Persian troops, is another of scarcely less con-
sequence.

The removal of the intemperate imbecile who
occupied the Musnud in that city would, under
ordinary circumstances, be a matter of profound
indifference were it merely a change of dynasties
similar to those of such frequent occurrence in the
East, and if the new ruler possessed no strength
beyond that of the displaced Sultan. But, in the
present instance, the dominion has virtually passed
from the hands of one of our own Allies to that
of a leading satrap of the AUTOCRAT. We should
little care whether MALIOMED SAID KHAN or
Yuan,' reigned, notwithstanding the disgust that
must be entertained for the treacherous manner
in which the change was effected ; but MAHOMED
SAID KHAN was th
St tributary to our ally, DOST
MAHOMED, and YUBUS
ostentatiously proclaims
himself the vassal of t.l2e,,SgAjr, and has been
merely used as the instrument for carrying out the
project which led to a siege,
in 1837, nearly
as protracted as that of Sebastopol, and
which then was only foiled, after a ten months
struggle, through the skill and enterprise of a
British officer—Lieutenant ELDREDPOTTENCER, of
the Indian Army. The alteration, if permitted
•
• to continue, mist seriously prejudice the security

of I] 2dia, am 1 it is of the utmost importance to
sustain the Affghan Monarch in his attempt to
retrieve tb s 3 injury so deliberately inflicted on him.
Anothf CC symptom of the subserviency of
Persia to the AUTOCRAT may be discerned in the
differenc
,e that led to the striking of the flag of the
British Minister at Teheran, and the virtual sus-
pensioi a of diplomatic intercourse with the Persian
Court It is very well to ascribe this difference
to pe tty causes, but we fear that, on investigation,
the will be found to have a deeper and
mo re* formidable source. We may feel
as:i,u-red that the SHAH would not quarrel
with England about a matter so trivial as the
-prot ,ection of one of the native attaches to the
E Br. • .
tish mission, unless desirous of seeking a
-plausible pretext for " picking a quarrel." It is
Isaid that straws thrown up show the direction of
the atmospheric current, and the circumstance
assumes a painful significance, when we consider
that it followed so speedily on the receipt of the in-
telligence of the capitulation of Kars, and was
almost simultaneous with the capture of Herat,
mainly achieved through the treachery of the Per-
sian resident.
I That the success of General MOURAVIEFF over
the English Defender of the Turkish city
turned the scale, and induced the wavering
SHAH to place himself unreservedly in the
hands of Russia, seems more than probable.
Asiatics are incapable of understanding
the insouctence that permitted so important a
position to fall into the hands of the enemy, when
a decided effort on our part, or even by the Turks
themselves, could have saved it. They will not
draw the distinction between a few English officers,
lent for the purpose of organising the defence%
and a regular English garrison. But whatever
may be the cause it is essential that we act with
promptitude and decision, and teach Persia
a painful but salutary lesson, that England cannot
boo attacked or even insulted with impunity. There
arse many vulnerable points on the Persian terri-
to:ry, and as the attack is pointed against India,
and we may rely on the assistance and co-opera-
tion of Doer MAROMED, we may safely leave the
vindication of our honour and the protection of
our interests in the hands of Indian authorities,
who can readily perceive the point against which
the blow may be directed, and the best manner
in which it should be inflicted.

There is one authority to whose Income Tax
we submit with wonderful patience, and that is
the baker. Once in twenty years there may be a
local bread riot, resulting in a few hungry per-
sons or lazy scoundrels being thrown upon the
prison baker. Now and then we grumble at our
unreduced bill when we read for weeks together
of a shilling or two lower at Mark-lane. Still
the bill is paid, and the baker protests that he
cannot get a living profit out of it ; millers will
have their price of him despite the quotations in
the market lists ; and the farmers hold out now-
adays in falling markets, the manufacturer being
compelled to use up the old high-priced stocks.
So at least we are always informed by the knights
of the kneading trough, if the phenomenon of
successive falls in tie price of wheat, and the per-
manency of even the little halfpenny in the price
of bread, induce us to ask an explanation. Nature's
phenomena generally exhibit the influence of a
cause, and even most strongly, after its apparent
culmination ; the highest tides are a few days
after full and new moon, and the hottest months
follow the longest days; the baker is true to nature
in a falling market. For long weeks after he
shows the effects of "late high prices." " Old
stocks are yet to b• cleared off." Oar market
philosophy wonders that his stocks should be large
when " flour ruled high." We bear, however,
the great heat after Juno and the longest day,
and bear in like manner the high-priced loaf after
wheat has faller. But wheat and lour rise !
Our friend the baker immediately deserts his
fidelity to nature. He has no stocks bought at
lower prices, although his money should have
sufficed to lay in more ; bread rises virtually one
halfpenny at Mark-lane, and a penny rise is im-
mediately established on the loaf. The former
rises one penny, and our loaf forthwith rises

twopence!
Another mystery of the baking art we never
could penetrate, and that is why in different dis-
tricts of London the same quality of bread differs
from one penny to twopence in price. Even be-
tween the north and south sides of the one river
which brings nearly all the wheat and flour the
difference is notorious ; while the announcements
in the shop windows make it plain enough in other
districts to every pedestrian. Is it that in some
parts the residents will not pay more ? Or is it
that in the favoured regions the competition is
greater ? One thing we know, that all purchase
their flour, or ought to do, at the same price ;
coals and labour cost the same. Why the manu-
factured article should not, like worsteds or cot-
tons, be sold at the same prices everywhere for the
same quality we cannot understand. We are not
aware that bakers in Clerkenwell and Whitechapel
appear in the Gazette more frequently than those
of Islington or the West-end. Why should the
latter charge more ?

Giving up the bakers as indefensible, yet incor-
rigible, we turn to the farmers. Against them
we have but one charge--their unwillingness to
furnish agricultural statistics. We are injured by
this in two ways. One in which they suffer most
—when foreign nations, like France, with
better information, have actually come into
our markets, and bought our farmers' wheat
at perhaps twenty shillings per quarter less than
they would have sold it for had they known
earlier tie probabilities of the corn crops ; while
we again have supplied ourselves afresh from
abroad at the higher price ! Another injury
is don• us by the needless range of prices.
Of these the baker always takes the advantage ;
he gets the full benefit of every rise and every
fall, and of course his customers have to pay for
it. Even prices, or as nearly even as possible,
always bring the article to its lowest value.
Agricultural statistics would lead to this. They
would ascertain very early one element, the
extent of land sown with each crop, and
they might, by the end of July at least,
give a fair estimate, admitting of subsequent
correction, of the probable...yield of the cereals. It
is impossible that such statistics should not do
much towards equalising prices. They would
cause every rise and fall to be more gradual, and
would lead to earlier endeavours to obtain, when
necessary, compensating supplies from abroad.
We must own, however, that the blame of with°
holding the information wanted lies not with the
farmer who refuses it, but with the landlord who
causes him to refuse it. The feudal pride of our
aristocracy robs England, as we believe, of as much
increased home production as we now import
corn from abroad. The landlord cannot get rid
of the propensity to regard the farmer as his own,
and wants at the polling-booth to do as he will
with his ewn. Ho fancies, too, that the farmer
does not understand farming so well as himself or
his agent ; or he is haunted with fears about in-
jury to the land. Even the Duke of NORTHUM-
BERLAND, from Whorin iTeohouAdhave hoped bet-

ter things, has just compelled a first-class tenant
to leave a farm on which be had expended
thousands, by determining to dictate to him
in future how he should manure his land,
and prohibiting him from growing his
own valuable quality of turnip seed ! The
game laws come in aid of this intolerable spirit of
interference and dictation, till there is no man
who feels that he works under such surveillance
as the English farmer. But for this accursed
spirit of feudality, what hinders that leases of
ninety-nine years should not be taken of farms
just as of houses, and that tenants should improve
them largely and obtain improved rents as they
do on house property ? A few simple stipulations
would secure the estate from being restored to
the landlord in a dilapidated condition, and, if the
terms were fair, would even insure its returning
to the original holder or his successors, vastly in-
creased in value.

The farmer would be as glad as any of us to
know the best ascertainable probabilities of the
crops at the earliest possible period ; but with no
lease, or a short lease, he will not venture to let
his landlord know the actual yield of his farm.
He is right. No tradesman in Regent-street
would like his landlord to know the value of his
business, if the landlord could at once raise his
rent accordingly. In Scotland, where leases are
more general, the required statistics have been
almost perfectly collected, and have already proved
our best economists to have erred in their estimates
by one-half ! It were surely time that we knew,
and on the best system, the facts of the case for
England. To attain this result, however, we
must devise for the landlord-ridden English
farmer a plan in which he feels confidence.
He must be assured that by no possible means
will his landlord ever know the production of his
farm. He must not live in dread of its leaking
out through poor-law officials or local calculators.
Assure him of this, and he would send to a party,
where he was sure of secrecy, as faithful a return
as possible. Landlord reform would best attain
the end, but for that we may wait a century or
two at least.