The Sun. — 1854-10-12 (London, England)

CZA.R from being carried into execution, and affording a material guarantee for future peace. We shall only further notice a rumour, which our readers may credit or not, at their pleasure, that Prince MENSCHIKOFF, overwhelmed by the complete overthrow of all his hopes, had attempted suicide by cutting his throat, but that it was defeated by his followers. If true, it only shows the utter hopelessness of his cause, and the despair that had taken possession of his soul—that he dared not meet his despotic master. After such ample proof of the falsehood and mendacity of his statements, death, even by his own hand, might be preferable to the knout and Siberia.  Severely as we have sometimes been obliged to criticise the Premiership of Lord ABERDEEN, we can yet take sincere pleasure in the honours awarded him by the Town Council of the place whence he derives his title. However we may condemn the public measures or the supineness of public men, we cannot wish to detract from their social or local merits and deserts, or refuse to their political conduct all the praise. we can honestly bestow. Lord ABERDEEN has deserved well of that part of Scotland where his patrimonial possessions lie. GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON, Viscount GORDON, and fourth Earl of ABERDEEN, is a nobleman of whomhis native country and county may reasonably be proud. He has not been an absentee landlord, though so much engaged in public life. He has enjoyed the attachment of his tenantry, and the respect of the county and town in which he filled high offices ; his character is, we believe, as unimpeached as that of any of his predecessors in the service of the State ; and it is thoroughly gratifying to see the personal and general merits of our leading men appreciated and honoured by such intelligent and respectable public bodies as the Town Council of Aberdeen. 'We congratulate his Lordship, and the burgesses also, on the honours they could with such good reason award to one who had already been enrolled amongst themselves as a citizen.  Of course the Liberals of Aberdeen must have been as much opposed to the long Tory policy of the noble Earl as we have been, but they were justly willing on an occasion like that which brought them together to forget the Tory in the Corn-law Repealer. Lord ABERDEEN'S merits and services in the great final struggle on that all-important question were very great. We have now the fullest evidence that he cordially supported the cause of the people and of humanity, that PEEL was deeply indebted to him for encou• ragement and aid, which materially contributed to decide the battle in favour of the nation ; and as in PEEL'S own case, we can forgive long years of obstructive and anti-popular policy, for the one redeeming act which has inaugurated a really new era in this country. Pro' bably Corn-Law Repeal could never have been carried with the Earl of ABERDEEN'S help had not a Reform Bill been first carried in spite of him. But for its social as well as its commercial results, for the successful invasion of aristocratic privilege and commercial monopoly, the Act for the Repeal of the Corn Laws has been a basis of operations not less important than the Act for the Reform of our Representation. Thus far, then, we cordially agree with the worthy burgesses of Aberdeen, nor will we censure them harshly for their commendations of the Noble Earl's more recent policy. They were his hosts. They could but praise their guest. At a time, too, when Scotland is suffering such cruel heraldic and other grievances, it would have been imprudent in the extreme not to glorify all the doing:; of a native Scottish Premier. Of course we do not number ourselves amongst the " unscrupulous opponents" of the Nolele Lord, and cannot therefore be angry with the adjective which saves us from civic condemnation. Opponents, however, we have been, and, as we still fear, but too justly, though most happy should vie be, upon satisfactory proof, to retract every hostile word we have ever written ; and happy have we been of late to commend the doings of our Cabinet, if its doings they really are, in the Crimea at least. Heartily also do we now welcome the energetic  declarations of the Earl on the necessity of carrying on a war, once begun, with unrelenting ' vigour. We acknowledge, too, the vast prepa- 1 rations that have been successfully made ; still, it were impossible to deny that the clinging- to peace, which his lordship himself characterised as " desperate," is, as we honestly believe, answerable for half the bloodshed in the Crimea, and half the mourning now worn by those bereaved on the banks of the Alma. We may respect the peace policy as sincere, but we must condemn it as .weak. We may own it to be loyal to the kinsfolk of Royalty, but we must deem it a wrong to the honour, to the lives, and to the property of England. Our opinion is yet unchanged as to the mischief of the timid policy which in August, 1853, permitted the passage of the Pruth without declaring . it a casus belli ; which so slowly sent our fleets to the scene of action, and which left the Black Sea open for the transport of Russian troops and! war materiel, and open, also, for the privateering massacre of Sinope, even till the 30th of November ; nay, which, after that villanous deed of perfidy, cowardice, and barbarity, gave orders for our fleet to salute the Russian flag ! Would it have been less degrading to bow to an incarnation of Satan himself ? Not Oltenitza in November, nor Citate in January—not the victories of the Turks, nor the barbarities inflicted on, the Moldo-Wallachians, could move our Cabinet from sending again and again kind last words to the convicted liar of the North—till the 12th of March, this work, so inglorious to us, so encouraging to the fraudulent bully with whom we had to do, so dispiriting to the Turks, but so pleasing at Vienna and Berlin—this " desperate" peaceseeking, directed to one who only used it to strengthen his own pcsition, went perseveringly on. Explanations in Parliament were inconvenient, and no wonder. We had a