The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-05 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

On Saturday the 21st ult., at half-past ten a. m.,
the cannon of the fortress in St. Petersburg an-
nounced to the inhabitants of the capital that the
navigation of the Neva was open.
An Imperial ukase revives the state of war in the
Governments of St. Petersburg, Courland, Livonia,
and Esthonia, which were restored to civil rule when
the allied fleets withdrew from the Baltic in the
autumn of 1854.
The Austrian Gazette announces that a peasants'
war has broken out in the Russian province of the
Ukrain, and is fast extending. The ostensible cause
of this rising is the scarcity of salt.

MR. JOSEPH FULLER, to whose perseverance the
public are much indebted for the Crystal Palace at
Sydenham, of which, during the construction, and
for a short time after the opening, he was the WWI-
- director, has seceded from the board. It ap-
pears that Mr. Fuller submitted a plan to his brother
directors, whereby the capital upon which dividend
would have to be paid might be reduced by the crea-
tion of shares giving certain advantages connected
with the palace to the shareholders. This plan
having been rejected, and the directors declining to
produce an alternative of their own, Mr. Fuller felt
it his duty to retire from the board. In doing so he
expresses his fullest confidence in the ultimate suc-
cess of the undertaking, though he feels that the
capital upon which dividend has at present to be da
Blared is too largos

MAY 5, 1855.

6orrtspontutrt.

POLICY OF THE WAR.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,--It is not yet to my mind certain that this war
will continue, but if it does one course only is open
to us, unless we are prepared to disregard every con-
sideration of prudence and common sense. The
expenditure of the last year has been over eighty mil-
lions; the utmost income which can be raised with-
out seriously disturbing trade and deranging the
habits of the people is from sixty to sixty-five mil
lions. Beyond this limit of taxation I believe you
cannot go. It is not in England as it was when Ame-
rica was practically unknown, and working men bad
no option except to stay at home, work or no work,
high wages or low waps ; the Atlantic is bridged
over, emigration is free, the number of our country-
men who have found homes in the New World
already exceeds one-tenth of the entire remaining
population; it needs only a bad harvest, a rise in the
price of food, or a diminution in the amount of em-
ployment g.ven, and the exodus will proceed with
tenfold rapidity, increasing as the advantages of
colonial residence are more and more genera ly under-
stood. I repeat it, therefore, a large increase of
taxation is impossible, or at least dangerous. With-
out such increase, and with an expenditure approach.
ing that of 1854, a permanent annual addition of
fit teen millions to the debt must ensue—nay, pro•
bably of much more, for it is evident that the mill
tary means hitherto employed by us are inadequate
against the power of Russia. What then remains to
be done? To make war feebly is worse than not to
make it at all; to make war as we have been doing
is beyond our financial ability, if the struggle be in-
tended to last beyond a year or two; peace, if now
rejected, cannot be counted upon within that time ;
one alternative only I can see, and that is to make
war on a new and different system. We have had
enough of military expeditions. It is no fair match
when we invade Russia with 70,(00 men, and carry
on a campaign 3,01 X) miles from home, against an
enemy whose resources, enormous in themselves, are
close at hand. Once out of the Crimea let there be
no more land battles and sieges, but if we must fight
let it be on our own element, where the allied
strength is indisputably superior, and where dis-
asters like that of Sebastopol need not be feared.
To sweep the Baltic and the Black Sea, to destroy
the enemy's commerce, to keep his line-of-battle
ships cooped up under the shelter of impregnable
forts, is no small success, however it may fall short
of expectations unreasonably raised; and this degree
of success we have within reach if we choose to
secure and be content with it. A complete blockade
of both seas, while the French occupy Constantinople
and defend the Balkan, need not cost us more than
six or seven millions beyond the peace estimates;
and what greater injury, saving alwa)s the loss of
prestige, could the fall of Sebastopol inflict on
Russia? In this way, also, the inconveniences of a
divided command may be avoided. Let the French
marshal or general—Canrobert or any one else—
command his own army uncontrolled, with whatever
English contingent we choose to send him ; and at
sea let the supreme direction be in the hands of the
British admiral—an assumption warranted by our
superiority of naval strength, and which Napoleon
has too much good sense to resent. If this division
of labour be not thought equal, let England, in ad-
dition, undertake the transport of French troops to
the East, either wholly or in part. Thus may the
risk of collision between allies be avoided, a
reasonable economy maintained, and war protracted
for as many years as may be necessary, without im-
pairing our strength, wasting blood and treasure in
costly campaigns, and burdening the industry of the
next generation--I remain your obedient servant,
Loudon, ,flay 4, 1855. A CONSERVATIVE.