The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC ITOURNALS.

OPERATIONS IN THE CRIMEA.
( Prom the Times of this day.)
According to the latest accounts from the eridiett a large
portion of the gun-boats and vessels of light draught belong-
ing to the allied fleets were already assembled in Kamiesh
Bay, and expectations were confidently entertained that an-
other naval expedition to some parts of the adjacent coasts of
Russia was in preparation. The French squadron in the
Black Sea is now stated to amount to 61 vessels, of which 51
are steamers ; our own squadron must be somewhat larger,
including the mortar boats last Sent out ; so that the naval
forces of the Allied Powers, inending the Turkish ships, can-
not amount to less than 150 sail of armed vessels, without
reckoning an immense flotilla of transports. The improve-
ment which has taken place in the working of the coalpits at
Heraclea, on the coast of Asia Minor, now enables the fleet to
obtain very fair coal at a price not much exceeding the value
of that necessary article in this country, and our possession
of the waters of the Euxine is in all respects complete.
There is something burlesque, then, in the refusal of the Ca-
binet of St. Petersburg to entertain a proposition for the li-
mitation of its naval forces in the Black Sea, when the smallest
craft that ever bore a Russia flag has disappeared, and the
maritime armaments of the enemy have all but ceased to ex-
ist. If we would estimate the amount of positive success
which has attended our operations in the present war for
crippling the power of Russia, this fact alone is of the utmost
significance. Twelve months ago the Russians had 17 line-
of-battle ships, 9 frigates and corvettes, 12 steamers of war,
and about 70 lighter armed vessels in the Black Sea and
the Sea ef Azoff. The strength of the Russian navy at the
commencement of the war was such that Admirals Hame-
lin and Dundas were of opinion that it was unsafe to
trust either the French or English squadron, as
it was then composed, to cope with the enemy
separately ; indeed, several important operations were post-
poned, and even the blockade was neglected, from what was
then thought the imperative necessity of watching the Rus-
sian fleet in the harbour of Sebastopol: Had that fleet been
well commanded, it might at least have inflicted very serious
damage and inconvenience upon the allies, and it could not
have been more effectually and ingloriously destroyed than it
is at the present moment. The negotiators at Vienna, in-
cluding Lord John Russell, were ready at one time to consent
that this Russian fleet should be restored to the condition it
was in before the outbreak of the war ; but when that absurd
proposal was entertained we suspect the statesmen who dis-
cussed it had but an imperfect notion of the contrast pre-
sented by the magnificent Russian navy of 1853, and the
shattered, sinking hulks, which are all that remain of that
navy in 1855. So far, one of the -great objects of the war is
accomplished, and we hope that the conditions of peace will
not deprive us of this great and permanent advantage.
But is this the only result we might fairly anticipate from
the supremacy of the allied fleets in the Black Sea ? Let us
now -pit the siege of Sebastopol, the military operations, and
the presence in the Crimea of nearly 200,000 men altogether
out of the question, for their strategical position and means
of operation are distinct. Suppose France and England had
no armies there at all, but occupied the Black Sea with 150
vessels of war, and had expelled from it the enemy's flag ;
what should we expect from such a position ? We should ex-
pect that within a few weeks every portion of its coasts would
be visited as that gallant and lamented officer, Capt. Lyons,
visited the almost inaccessible shores of the Sea of Azoff, that
the towns and cities within range of the sea would everywhere
feel the presence of onr navy, that the mouths and estuaries of
the great rivers which feed this vast lake would be explored, and
that the enemy would be harassed by incessant attacks on
the fortified posts and garrisons along the coast. It is well
known that the supplies and reinforcements for the army in
the Crimea are drawn from every point, both in the Western
and Eastern provinces of Russia, from which they can be
made available, and that it is of vital importance to our fu-
ture success to stop these convoys wherever they can be in-
tercepted. Bessarabia has now been stripped of the
forces which were engaged last year in the ill-advised expedi-
tion into the Principalities, and it could be a task of no great
difficulty to enter the Sulina mouth of the Danube, and pur-
sue the flotilla of Russian gunboats to the Pruth. The en-
trance to the Bay of Cherson offers no insurmountable ob-
stacle to ships of considerable draught, for the largest ships
in the Russian navy were built at Nicolaieff, floated down
the Bug, and conveyed through this strait to Sebastopol.
Wherever the seamen of the allied fleets have been tried they
have succeeded not only in doing all that was expected of
them, but in performing more than was thought possible.
Their commanders, or, at any rate, the senior members of
the service, appear hardly to know their own powers : at any
rate, they have in no instance reached the limit of them.
The preparations made for the exppditions of Bomarsund.last
year and of Kertch this year, which have been the only two
brilliant achievements of the navy in the war, were wholly
disproportioned to the resistance which the enemy had it in
his power to make. At Petropaulovsky the reverse we sus-
tained was due solely to the singular suicide of one Admiral
and the inefficiency of another ; and this check will pro-
bably be avenged in the course of the summer. But no
operations on the coasts of Kamtschatka, of Lapland,
or even in the Gulf of Finland, can have the same di-
rect effect upon the questions raised by this war as the vi-
gorous application of our naval forces in the Black Sea.
If we had an opportunity to address a remark to the Rus-
sian nation, or to those interested in its welfare, it would be
to the following effect :—The operations of the present war
are twofold—the first, and that which most engrosses the at-
tention of the world, is the Crimean expedition and the siege
of Sebastopol; but, although the struggle now going on in
that peninsula touches in the highest degree the honour of
the Russian armies, the pride of the empire, and the political
designs of the Czars on Constantinople, this is not the opera-
tion which most affects the condition of the Russian nation.
Our second mode of attack is by a system of naval operations
which has driven the Russian flag from every sea, which in-
sults the Czar upon his throne by the presence of an enemy
within sight of the gilded spires of St. Petersburg, which
ravages the coast, which cuts of all the supplies of maritime
trade, and closes the Baltic and the Black Sea altogether
against the Power which claimed prponderance iu those
waters. It is evident that the people of Russia suffer infi-
nitely more by this latter mode of hostilities than by the
vehement contest carried on by their troops in defence of
Sebastopol. Yet this latter mode of hostilities, which presseS
so severely on the security of their coasts, the honour of their
flag, on their trade, on the• supply of their wants, and on their
credit, is a kind of warfare which this country is perfectly
able to prolong indefinitely. If we had not a man left in the
Crimea, and if the greatest Powers in the world were led by
any unforeseen cause to desist altogether from the attack on
Sebastopol, that circumstance would in no degree induce the
Allies to lesson the pressure which the war throws upon the •
coasts of the empire, or to restore to Russia the waters which,
as long as they are navigable, are in our possession. We do not
dispute the ability with which the defence of Sebastopol is con-
ducted, we do not deny the patriotic effort which have been
made by the Russians to maintain this struggle; but, except
the honour of a more prolonged resistance, they can gain
nothing by all their sacrifices. Even success would not re-
lieve them from that pressure of our naval superiority, which
is the more formidable because it is permanent, and can be
maintained without an effort by this country during the whole
continuance of the war. We are satisfied that nothing will
tend snore effectually to bring the enemy to submission than
the application of these coercive measures in every form of
hostility to all the points of his dominions which are acces-
sible to our squadrons ; and the inference we draw from these
considerations is, that the groat objects of the war may be as
much advanced by the incessant activity of the fleets as by
the great military enterprise in which the allied armies are
engaged.

" THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE."
(Front the Times of this day.)

We have great pleasure in announcing that Sir William
Molesworth is to succeed Lord John Russell in the direction
of the Colonial-office. We regard this appointment as amen.,
the first, and not the least valuable, fruits of the movement
for Administrative Reform. There is no public man who has
snore fairly won his way to this distinction than Sir William
Molcsworth. It has been the habit to appoint men Colonial
Secretaries because something must be done for them, be-
cause they were too intractable and troublesome to be trusted
in any other department, because they were lazy, or because
they were mischievously active—for every reason in the world,
in fact, except because they knew anything of the depart-
ment they undertook to administer. To this time-hououred
practice Sir William Molesworth is a first and most signal ex-
ception; he is Colonial Secretary because he understands the
colonies, and for no other reason whatever.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the services which
during his Parliamentary career the new Colonial Secretary
has rendered to the cause of the colonies, and the degree in
which, by so doing, he has consolidated and conciliated the
remoter portions of this great empire. He was the first to
denounce the intolerable evils resulting from the system of
transportation to the Australian colonies,
.with its inversion
of right and wrong, its material prosperity, and its moral
rottenness. If not the founder, he may fairly be termed the
regenerator and purifier of tliat great group of dependencies.
He was among the early colonizers of New Zealand, though
entirely free from the questionable acts which afterwards dis-
credited that noble undertaking. He possessed and imparted
to Parliament vast stores of knowledge as to the complicated
relations between the English settlers at the Cape of Good Hope,
the Dutch Boers, and the savage tribes by which they are
menaced and surrounded. To him we mainly owe the estab-
lishment of the principle, now recognised as an axiom, but
formerly ridiculed as a paradox, that to the colonies should be
intrusted the management of their own affairs, and the estab-
lishment of that double electoral chamber, which seems likely
to pervade all British communities, from Canada to New
Zealand. To his untiring exertions we owe it that the
country has been spared the enormous expense of maintaining
troops in these distant regions, and no ono has thrown more
light ou the best constitution for dependencies, and on the
manner in which Imperial should be distinguished from local
powers. These are solid qualifications for the office, and
augur well for the manner in which its duties will be per-
formed. Much will be expected from such a Minister, and
Sir William Molesworth must be indefatigable and successful
if he overcome the formidable rivalry of his own already
achieved reputation.

THE TURKISH LOAN.

( From the Times of this day. )

The two great Parliamentary contests of the week, believed
to be the last of the session, were over, and the House, which
had been swollen to nearly 500 members on Thursday night,
scattered rapidly during the morning of yesterday. Members
believed the session at an end, and assembled in small num-
bers, and without any strong, appearance of interest, when
the House met last evening. They knew there was to be
something about a, bill to guarantee a loan to Turkey, but
nobody apparently apprehended that any serious contest
would arise on the subject. Never was calm more delusive ;
the sentinels who first saw the Russian greatcoats looming
through the thick fog of the sth of • November, as their
columns crowned the heights of Inkermann, were not more
completely taken by surprise than was her Majesty's Ministers
last night, when they found that a measure which they
seemed to have looked upon, as indeed they had right to do,
almost as a matter of course, was menaced with a violent and
preconcerted opposition. We are astonished at the magni-
tude of the danger and the narrowness of the escape, and can
from the most serious risk
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Our readers are aware that, subject to the approbation of
Parliament, a convention has been concluded between the
Governments of France, England, and Turkey, by which the
two former Powers undertake to guarantee the payment of
the interest on a loan of 5,000,0001., to be contracted by the
latter. The Emperor of the French has already received'
the approbation of his Chamber to this treaty, and last
night Lord Palmerston introduced resolutions into the
House of Commons for the purpose of obtaining the
consent of Parliament to the convention. Strange to
say, he was encountered with every species of objec-
tion ; some disapproved of assisting Turkey at
all ; if he represented her wants, he was told that she would
be unable to pay the interest ; if he descanted on her unde-
veloped resources, he was told that she did not requre a loan
at all. Then the form of the loan produced endless objec-
tions, moulded into every form of financial pedantry ; some
objected to a guarantee, and would have preferred a loan
direct from eand and Franca to Turkey ; others approved