The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-01 00:00:00

did it make him innocent with ages to come ? Listen I
For 18 centuries there exists a profession of faith in 12
articles, which every Christian lip recites daily. In this
summary of our faith, drawn up with conciseness by the
Apostles, appear, besides the three adorable names of the
divine persons, the name, a thousand times blessed, of the
woman who gavo birth to the Sox of GOD, and the name,
a thousand times accursed, of the man who delivered Him
to death I And the man thus branded as the God-mur-
derer—the man thus nailed to the pillory of our symbol,
who is he? This man is not HEROD, nor CAIPHAS, nor
JUDAS, nor any of the Roman or Jewish executioners.
This man is Pontius Pilate ? It is but just. HEROD,
CAIPHAS, JUDAS, and the others had their part in the
crime ; but without PILATE nothing would have been done.
PILATE Could have saved CHRIST ; and without PILATE
CHRIST could not have been put to death. From him
only could the signal come. It is not lawful for us to put
this man to death,' said the Jews. Wash thy hands, oh,
PILATE I Declare thyself innocent of the death of CHRIST !
But our answer, day and night, to the most remote pos-
terity, shall be, 'I believe in JESUS CHRIST, the only SON
of the FATHER, conceived by the HOLY GHOST, born of
the VIRGIN MARY, and who suffered and was put to death
under PONTIUS PILATE !"

It is fair, however, to remind the Bishop of POITIERS
that if no mention is made of the Jewish Bishops
of that day, it is not because of their less de-
linquency. And, that the pious EMPEROR may
well reply—Even if I be the PONTIUS PILATE, you
and yours are the Caiaphases and Chief Priests who
have stirred up the people to demand that I shall
deliver, not CHRIST, but the temporal PorE—a
small difference—into their hands.

The Foreign Secretary insisted last evening in
the House of Commons upon the expediency of the
French occupation of Syria being speedily brought
to an end. The pre-arranged period of six months
set apart for that occupation now expiring, no
reasonable pretext is left for the continuance there
any longer of the Gallic expedition. Any indefi-
nite prolongation of the time originally defined by
the terms of the Convention could not possibly be
regarded as other than most suspicious under the
circumstances. The hon. gentleman the member
for Horsham intimated this not one jot more
plainly than did Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself
in his very lucid and outspoken reply during the
cursory discussion of these matters in the House
of Commons yesterday, Her MAJESTY'S Foreign
Minister, indeed, closed his remarks upon the
subject with this formal and volunteered assurance—
an assurance addressed by him to the country at
large through Imperial Parliament. " I will cer-
tainly use my best endeavours," he said, "to put an
end to this occupation. I believe it was useful at
the beginning, not only in the places I have men-
tioned, but in other parts of the Turkish Empire,
when there was a notion that but for it mas-
sacres might have occurred which would have
been attended with dreadful consequences to
Turkey itself. Now, however, the danger
and the occasion have passed away, and I wish
to see the occupation at an end." It had been
previously announced by the noble Lord that,
unlike himself, that unlike the British Government,
the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, the French
Government, deems the danger of the crisis in
Syria not to have yet terminated. That of itself is
suspicious. And so—regarding the situation of
things in some of the late deplorable massacres the
French Minister aforesaid does distinctly propose
(as we have so long had a suspicion that when the
stipulated half year drew towards its conclusion he
would propose), the French Government does dis-
tinctly propose that the original period of six
months should be extended, and that—as yet—for
the time being—as everybody on this side of the
Channel has been all along conjecturing would
be the ease—Syria should not be evacuated by the
French soldiery ! When the conference met very
recently, Lord JOHN RUSSELL now explains, " the
French Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the autho-
rity of his official despatches, stated that serious
apprehensions of another outbreak were entertained
in Syria—of another outbreak the moment the
French troops were removed. That statement
having been laid before the conference, the Turkish
Ambassador said, on the other hand, that he believed
the tranquillity of the district to have been restored,
that the Turkish power was quite sufficient to
maintain it, and that he saw no reason why the
occupation should not end at the time appointed."
Precisely. That, as we have said, is just to the ♦ery
letter what has all along been foreseen. France
insists—now that the period for her troops leaving
Syria has arrived—that the peril those troops went
thither to put an end to has not yet quite terminated.
Turkey—who it should be especially borne in mind
most " runs the risk" in the contingency of
that peril really not having actually closed--
Turkey, whose opinion therefore ought to be re-
garded as of some value in the matter, seeing how
the compliance with that opinion must prove to
herself of the most vital importance--Turkey, in
direct opposition to France, maintains at this
moment, just as England herself maintains through
the lips of her Foreign Secretary, that the peril
referred to has absolutely in the main, so far as
human judgment can understand the matter at
issue, terminated, and terminated, so far as
we can see, definitively. So regarding the past,
the present, and the future of Syria, the Ottoman
power declines to accede to the proposal of France
for the extension of the original period of her
occupation of the lately disturbed and blood-
deluged province. It is the Austrian diplo-
matist—actually no other than the Austrian
diplomatist—who throws out at the Con-
ference the amiable hint of a compromise !
Suggesting that the Ist of May should be fixed as
the period until which the French troops should
remain in Syria, by which time the Lebanon might
be expected (oven by France) to be in a reasonable
state of tranquillity. "There the matter rests"—
says Lord JOHN RUSSELL. The decision of the Otto-
man Porte, the decision of the European Conference
has yet to be learnt in regard to this plan for the pro-
longation of the French occupation of Syria until
next Mayday. Upon the understanding that then
at least, that upon that Ist of May, and not one
single day later, the French soldiers shall absolutely
quit the Syrian soil and tecross the Mediterranean,
the extension by two months additional of the pre-
arranged interval of half•a year may be quietly
tolerated as a matter of European convenience.
Meanwhile—however Turkey, however England,
however Europe may act in regard to this particu-
lar (Austrian) suggestion of a compromise—it is
in the highest degree satisfactory to note and to bear
sedulously in remembrance the fact that Lord JOHN
has, in words in every way worthy of him, insisted not
only upon the expediency but upon the imperative
necessity of speedily, if not immediately bringing
to a close this purely temporary occupation of Syria
by a French military expedition.

The resolutions of Sir J. ET,PFETNSTONE—
aIthough, as one ir ay say, introduced into the House
of Commons last evening only for the purpose of
being withdrawn—so far did good service in a great
cause, inasmuch as they helped once more to ven-
tilate, effectually, the whole question of our mari-

time administration. These resolutions, it will be
recognised upon the merest glance at them, in-
volved no less daring a design than the reconstruc-
tion of the entire framework of that maritime
Administration. And audacious though any such
project cannot but appear in itself, it cannot at the
(same time be regarded as altogether so very extra-
ordinary or extravagant undor the circumstances,