The Sun. — 1828-08-25 (London, England)

FROM THE SPECTATOR.)  It is a pleasant reflection for the panic-loving inhabitants of Great Britain, that so long as the world rolls round the sue, there is reason for hoping that Providence will supply a sufficient number of murders and mad dogs to keep them comfortably quaking ; and should these unaccountably fail, it is but stepping across the Channel to find in the disputes and contentions of our neighbours--the impotency of some, and the potency of others—ample subjects of fearful excitation. The " raw head and bloody bones" of the present hour—bating St. Swithin and Mr. O'Connell, M.P.--is the uncontreullable power of Russia. Our alarmists have adopted the motto of the old Baron of Bradwardine, " Beware the bear;" and Lieut.-Colonel Evans comes to their support with an essay, in the shape of decent octavo, proving that the Czar has only to open his tremendous mouth, and down goes Turkey, India, and perhaps Ireland ! It is not our intention, at present, to enter into a detailed examination of the gallant and intelligent officer's essay ; but it may not be amiss to state, in a very few words, our opinion of the proposition, which it is his object to demonstrate—that England should interfere for the purpose of attempting to diminish the power of the Emperor Nicholas ; we say attempting, for we do not find in Colonel Evans's book anything like proof that our interference would effect what he considers to be so desirable. On a glance at the map, it will be seen that Europe is virtually held by four great powers—Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France. Denmark and Sweden are too poor, too thinly peopled, and too far removed from the centre, to operate with effect; Italy is impotent, from its numerous subdivisions; Spain and Portugal from their political dissensions; and in the kingdom of the Netherlends, the Northern and Southern parts are so imperfectly cemented, that they would probably fall asunder at the first shock. Of the four great states, Russia and Austria are feudal aristocracies, Prussia is a military despotism, and France a limited monarchy. Of the whole, Prussia is the weakest, both from the form of its government, end the detached and dislocated nature of its territories. The singularly compact arrangeinent, the intelligence and activity of the people; but, above all, the free institutions of France, render that kingdom indisputably the most powerful. Austria, also, in the more perfect consolidation of its government, and the greater antiquity, even of its abuses, has an advantage over her unwieldy neighbour. Those who look to the surface that it claims rather than possesses, may form very magnificent notions of Russian grandeur; but for all the purposes of offence, and even of defence, its Asiatic possessions are about as available to Russia as the wilds of Canada or of New Holland are to England. We hear much of the armies of Russia. One of them was stated lately at the moderate amount of 300,000 men. We recollect, when Buonaparte returned front Elba, that some of the newspapers mustered against him a force of two millions ! We suspect that the troops of the Emperor Nicholas are similarly rated. It is, we admit, not at all impossible that Nicholas may march to Constantinople; that he may chase the Turk out of Europe ; that he may keep possession of Roumelia. It is also possible that France may occupy the Morea, and Austria push her boundaries eastward and southward, until they touch the limits of Greece. And it is 'tot only possible, but probable, if any such partition be attempted, that the three spoliators will quarrel about the terms. What would result, what could result from our threats, but to unite three thieves—if they be such—against one honest man ? There is, no doubt, a feeling of soreness in France against England; but it is mingled with respect. Into the dislike with which Frenchmen view the barbarians of the north, to whose frozen clime the greatest of all the disasters that ever bcfel the empire is to be attributed, there enters no such qualifying ingredient. We may safely calculate on this feeling. As to the cant about England's " decay," we must be decayed indeed were we to heed it. It is not by peace that the resources of a nation are exhausted; nor is it by war that they are recruited. We have fought for frivolous causes too often ; and hence, if we are weak, does our weakness arise. It would be a whimsical mode of cure to plunge into war again, without an overwhelming necessity; and such a necessity is not to be found in the dreams of political alarmists.  (FROn