The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-21 00:00:00

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No. 77.—VoL. 11.

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21,1854. PRICE SIXPENCE._

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the present will be a seven-years' war, or a
twenty-years' war, or a thirty-years' war, we
cannot tell; but we may predicate with c.a.
tainty that it will not be a one or two years'
war. It is not to be terminated by dis-
guising facts or by drivelling of peace. The
time for diplomatic intrigue and petty expo.
dients, for estimates of the expense of troops
"to Malta and back," and for doubling
income tax for one half year only, has gone by.
We must act on system, prepare for continued
hostilities on a mighty scale, and view peace
establishments and peace budgets as past
blessings not likely to be soon enjoyed
again.
But are we to believe that Lord Anzatizziee
Government—for his it confessedly is—will
ever vigorously carry out a war policy? For
such a policy there must be complete accord
of principle, sentiment, and aim. The resolu-
tion of the Cabinet must inspire every de
ment of the public service, and make i
felt in every Court of Europe. There
no looking back with regret, and no 1 l
forward with fear. Lord ABERDEEN'S
qualification for the post he fills—in the
opinion of those who know him most inti- ,
mately—is, that no one but he could keep
the existing Ministry together. Whether this
implies more of eulogy or censure we do not'
stay to inquire. The question is, whether the
country is prepared to cry content to a Premier
who is tolerated for no other reason than that
he keeps his colleagues from flying at each
other's throats. Of this we may be well
assured, that, while he remains at the head of
affairs, the Russian Government will never be-
lieve that England is earnest in the pro
tion of the war, and never credit that
cherishes the same high indomitable spirit
which has animated her in former contests,
and which alone can enable a nation to sustain
the burdens and sacrifices of protracted war-
fare.

their fire until they can deliver it with most
deadly aim; but it certainly supplies a pre-
sumption that the works of the enemy, which
such extensive operations are deemed neces-
sary to reduce, must be of considerable
strength ; and we cannot regard without ap-
prehension the effect which the near approach
of winter may have on the constitution of both
armies. Every day is now precious. The
delay at Varna has already cost us dearly.
The prisoners taken at Alma related that they
belonged to the army of Moldavia, and had
only arrived in the Crimea within twelve or
fourteen days. !Had the expedition landed
three weeks earlier, remarks the trustworthy
correspondent of a daily journal, " no one can
" tell what results might have been achieved
"by our arms at very little cost" What a
severe reflection is this on the folly which
boasted of the purpose of the expedition so
many weeks before it actually sailed ! Should
it obtain the complete success which is confi-
dently anticipated from it, the triumph may be
so much the more glorious from being achieved
under circumstances of almost unparalleled
difficulty. But it will be dearly purchased ;
and the most servile adherents of the Coali-
tion will hardly pretend that it is the duty
of a Government to test to the utmost its
soldiers' powers of endurance, or to multiply
their perils and labours that a heavier butcher's
bill may appear in the Gazette.
The indecision which occasioned the con-
test has infinitely aggravated its evils by inter
posing delays to its effective prosecution.
While the councils of our Cabinet resembled a
bear garden from its discordant noises, and
long debates ended with no decision, our foe
was enabled to collect his unwieldy energies
for action. At the commencement of the war
some sharp and sudden blows would have
gone far to prostrate the enemy's power ; but
the only business then done was to devise
commercial compliments and concessions,
and arrange campaigns which might be con-
ducted on a new and humane principle of
avoiding hostilities. By admitting Russian
produce, as we showed last week, we have
literally put arms into the hands of our op-
ponents. The enhanced price we have paid
for that produce is a tax laid on the British
people for the benefit of the Russian exche-
quer. Too late for its interests the country
has discovered that a great war cannot be
waged in white kid gloves. The stern reali-
ties of strife are now brought home to our own
door, and we are beginning to comprehend
the sacrifices it will demand from us. We do
not imagine that there will be any banquet at
the Reform Club to celebrate the return of
Sir CHARLES NAPIER.
Let our success at Sebastopol be as com-
plete as it may, it will but inaugurate the war.
The curtain has only just risen on the bloody
drama in which we have to play a principal
part. The contest must be protracted, and
must be desperate. If the Emperor NICHOLAS
is prepared to fight to his last soldier and his
last rouble we must be not less earnest- Our
people must dismiss at once from their minds
the illusions which, up to this time, have
amused them of a succession of brilliant vic-
tories, to be followed by the submission of the
Czar and a speedy peace. An empire which
for the last two hundred years has continually
made vast acquisitions to its territory cannot
be deficient in administrative skill, in re-
sources, in energy, in determination to main-
tain the strife she has provoked. Whether

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1854.

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IT would be unjust to the heroism of our
troops in the Crimea to conceal their hard-
ships and sufferings. They advance to the
conquest of Sebastopol under heavy disad-
vantages. From the date of their landing in
the Crimea, on the 14th September, until the
latest advices left, on the 3rd October, they
had never once slept under shelter, but had
bivouacked in the open field. This exposure
was at first little felt from the mildness of the
weather, but with the advancing season it
began to tell severely on the health of both
officers and men. The cold night dews suc-
ceeding to the parching heat of the sun, and
acting on the frames of men sleeping heavily
from fatigue, bred rheumatism, ague, and
dysentery; and this cause of disease would,
of course, operate with greater severity as the
cold increased, and the physique of the men
became lowered. The cholera had again
broken out with great virulence in both camps ;
and, if some accounts are to be believed, four
hundred men of the English force, and one
thousand of the French, perished from this
pest in the two days' march to Balaklava—a
greater number, we imagine, than were actually
killed in the battle of the Alma. More fatal
than the arms of the enemy, this terrible
disease was still thinning our ranks, aided by
the privations to which they were necessarily
exposed from the zeal of their commanders to
hurry forward the operations of the siege.
The peculiar circumstances of the expedi-
tion rendered it next to impossible to make
proper provision for the comfort of the troops.
The enterprise partook of the character of an
adventure. The time for accomplishing the
designed exploit was 'short, and delay was to
be avoided, not only from the sure approach
of winter, but from the opportunity it would
afford the enemy of receiving considerable rein-
forcements. We have no trustworthy account
of the addition made to Prince MENSCHIROFF's
force since the battle of the Alma, but, from
the position of the armies, it is certain that he
has the whole resources of the Crimea at his
command, that the roads to Kertch, in one
direction, and to Perekop, in another, are
open to him, and that his communications
with the northern side of Sebastopol are
entirely uninterrupted. These are no slight
advantages in his favour, and they may, in the
event of his being joined by the corps under
General OSTEN-SACICEN and that under General
LEPIIANDI, enable him to prolong the contest.
Accounts from St. Petersburg report that up
to the 12th instant the allies had made no
movement against Sebastopol ; and this state-
ment appears probable from the consideration
that direct advices from the Crimea would
reach London in seven days, and that Lord
RAGLAN would not have failed to transmit
reports to his Government if any important
event had occurred. This time of preparation
which now appears to us so tedious may tell
with powerful effect when the moment for
action arrives. It may resemble the policy
which prompts our regiments to withhold

OUR NEW LAWS OF WAR.
AN impression is gaining ground that some
change in our commercial relations with
Russia will soon be found inevitable. As the
war progresses the pernicious policy of allow-
ing her to carry on au unrestricted export trade
through the ports of Prussia becomes every
day more apparent. The wealth of the Mus-
covite empire, as everybody knows, consists in
the abundance of her raw produce, and by far
the mast extensive market for her corn and
hemp and tallow, is England. Our Ministers,
by encouraging the free import of these com-
modities through Prussian ports, are delibe-
rately placing in the hands of our enemies the
means of protracting the present struggle.
The amount of British gold which has found
its way to Russia in return for Russian goods
since the commencement of the war must have
been immense, for we pay in specie for some
nine-tenths of her produce. To dwell upon
the vast importance of this traffic to our enemy
would be wholly superfluous.
This novel mode of carrying on war is a
pure invention of the Coalition. By the com-
mon law of England, and by that of every
civilised State, all trading, whether direct or
indirect, with a public enemy is forbidden.

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