The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-11 00:00:00

occurred, whereupon we cannot refrain from com-
menting in language the most deliberate, decisive,
and energetic. This circumstance is nothing less
than the official communication addressed in Feb-
ruary to M. BRUNNOW, by Count NESSELRODE7 ex-
pressive of the indignant astonishment with which
the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh has viewed
the recent movements of the British squadron
at the Pireeus. An interposition or remon-
strance of this character coming from the Russian
government, to say the very least of it, is a huge and
glaring impertinence, an impertinence than which the
annals of diplomacy do not furnish us with an instance
of more preposterous extravagance. What, the
Cabinet of the AUTOCRAT presuming to charge
England with precipitation and duplicity ! What,
an accusation of this flagrant kind levelled
against the Ministerial Councils of Great Britain
by that power which connived at the insurrec-
tionary movement in Gallicia, that power
which adventured upon the absorption of the Craco-
vian principality, that power which dared to pene-
trate beyond the mountainous frontiers of Transyl-
vania, and to carry terror, and havoc, and devastation
into the provinces of Hungary ! Is England—thrice
deceived as she has been in this atrocious manner by
IN icuoess—is England, whose sentiments were never
referred to, whose feelings were never consulted,
whose interests were never regarded until after the
embroilment of Gallicia, the occupation of Cra-
cow, and the invasion of Hungary —is
England ignored again and again by the
CZAR and his Ministerial advisers—to be taunts l
thus insolently by that potentate and those minions
of his despotism, and by them to be charged, forsooth,
above all, with duplicity and precipitation ? The
audacity, not to say the indecency of the accusation,
coming as it does from such arch-criminals in the
way of duplicity and precipitation, is so surpassingly
monstrous as to render almost impossible anything
like adequate reprobation. _ _ _

If nothing else throughout the whole of this
audacious document demanded the scorn of
England, the opening sentence would inevitably
do so. "No sooner," rays the note of NESSELEODE,
"no sooner had the dangers that menaced the peace
of Europe, and caused by the precipitation with
which Admiral Paroesu entered the Dardanelles,
been removed than the appearance or his squadron
on the coast of Greece perilled it anew. Russia
finds it difficult to comprehend this anxiety to create
complications in the east at a period when the repose
cf the west is exposed to so many dangers:' Russia
finds it difficult to comprehend any attempt to create
complication Russia, who twice complicated the affairs
of partitioned Poland! Russia, who endangered the
tranquillity, not only of eastern, but also of western
and central Europe, by its recent connivance in the
conspiracies and participation in the butcheries
carried on under the authority of the Austrian Go-
vernment ! For ourselves, in reference to the recent
conduct of Sir WILLIAM PARKER, we can only re-
cognise in Lis latest movements additional corrobora-
tions of our estimate Of the policy adopted by him ever
since his appointment to the supreme command
rof the squadron in the Mediterranean. Those pro•
ceedings of his which have transpired since the
publication of our opinion upon his conduct as a
British Admiral entrusted with tremendous respon-
sibilities during a period of awful emergency, appear
to us to have only most emphatically justified our
panegyrics. With a promptitude worthy of his an-
tecedents along the eastern and western coasts of
Italy, and subsequently at the entrance of the Dar-
danelles, he proceeded directly, boldly, and openly
to the shores of Greece for the purpose of bringing to
a close a complication of calamitous intrigues,
and of preventing the continuance of a con-
temptible and ruinous procrastination. But it
is objected by the Russian diplomatist that no rea-
sonable, or rather just and necessary, intimation of
any such intended movement was previously given to
the Cabinets of Paris and St. Petersburgh. And this
from the Minister of the AUTOCRAT ! " Greece," says
he, "is a state created by Russia and France, in
Virtue of the same rights, and on the same terms, as
it was by England." Equally well might it have
been remonstrated, much more rationally might
it have been remonstrated by Lord PALMER-
STON in 1847—" Cracow is a state created
by England and France in virtue of the same rights
and on the same terms as it was by Russia." But the
pertness—for the matter is not deserving any more
dignified designation—the pertness of the subsequent
inuendoes defies anything like a parallel.;" It is true,"
says the document, "that England communicated to
Russia a list of her claims, but judging from the
information supplied by the opposite party
they appeared somewhat exaggerated." Was
ever such petty spite exhibited in the way
of a hinted belief of a fraudulent transaction ;
and this, be it remembered, not from one gossip to
another on the occasion of a temporary "tiff," not
from Mrs. BETSY PRIG to Mrs. SAIRET GIMP, but
from the Councils of his Imperial Majesty the Ees-
reaoß of all the Russees indirectly to the Councils of
her most Gracious Majesty the Queen of ENGLAND !
The circumstance, we believe, will speak for itself—
the circumstance of this insolent and splenetic re-
monstrance coming in a round-about way to the
knowledge of the Cabinet of St. James's, through M.
Ilitumeow, through a note addressed to him by the
Cabinet of St. Petersburgh itself, speaking through
the lips of Count NESSELRODE!

An aphoristical writer has observed, that we should
seldom have a very great desire to obtain any object
if we had a perfect knowledge of what we desire to
possess—a remark that can be justly applied to the
Sabbatarians. Their ignorance and narrow-minded-
ness, together with their gross infatuation, that among
themselves are exclusively congregated all the virtues
that adorn the human heart, and all the wisdom f
men, past, present, and to come, may lead us to
mingle pity with our contempt for their fanatical
aberrations. But out of evil comes good ; and it
affords matter for congratulation, that whilst a few
stray petitions find their way to the table of the
House of Commons for the suppression throughout
the country of Sunday labour in connexion with the
Post-office, we have, every now and then, emanating
from the press, in every variety of form, and from
writers, clerical as well as laical, and as unimpeach-
able for their piety as they are remarkable for their
intelligence, arguments and refi ections, and accurate
information, to prevent the public mind from
being misled upon a subject of vast social im-
portance. The Sabbatarian case is precisely
of that specious nature wherein the plausible bigot
may easily entrap the consciences of the ill-informed
and weak, though virtuous-minded portions of the
community. We owe a deep debt of gratitude, then, to
those who enter the field of controversy, and calmly
and antagonistically array themselves to prevent one
of the greatest social exigencies from being unwar-
rantably interfered with by the overweening conceits
of obtrusive and:pseudo-religionists. Moreover, the
contest may ultimately serve this end—albeit a far-
fetched. supposition—that the Sabbatical agitators
may, in the long run, be themselves awakened to the
folly of their proceedings. But when once bigotry
has usurped the throne-of reason, to the restoration of
the latter human pride, with superstition for its con-
comitant, offers tedious impediments. We have
looked in vain for any cogent reasons for the cessa-
tion of a Sunday post delivery throughout the country.
Were the desired object to be conceded, how much
more concession should we not be called
upon to make in order to be consistent in
principle ! If we :were to relieve a few Post-
office clerks from their duties on a Sunday,
which they have voluntarily undertaken,i,,urefor spiritualuponthe
ground that they should have full leisure
elevation on that day, the same argument could be
irresistibly advanced for enforcing the cessation of all
travelling on the Sabbath ; and a variety of other
social usages would come to be denounced as evils,
which are now righteously held, by:truly Christian
minds, to constitute some of the valued privileges of a
free and enlightened people. Even with the alleged
grievance of which the petitioners complain, in no
portion of Europe is the Sabbath so well observed as
in this empire. From conscientious motives, and in
deference to established custom and spiritual, coun-
sel, all professional and mercantile business is stayed
on the first day of the week throughout the pro-
vinces, notwithstanding that no check is imposed on
postal intercourse. Legislation on religious sub-
jects has ever been invidiously regarded, and has
generally failed to accomplish its object. Expe-