The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-12 00:00:00

TII BLOCKADE IN THE BLACK SEA

The Lords of the Admiralty have at length though
proper to communicate to the Secretary at Lloyd's, and
to the mercantile community, the determination of the
Governments of England and France to extend the
blockade of the mouths of the Danube to all ports in the
Black Sea and in the Sea of Azoff which remain in the
possession of the enemy, and it is added that this block-
ade will take effect on. and after the let of February.
next. This notice is, of course, a complete corrobora-
tion of the statement, which has been frequently made,
though hardly credited in this country, that during the
whole time of the command exercised by Admirals
Hamelin and Dundas in the Black Sea, since the decla-
ration of war, no effective blockade whatever has been
established ; and we must say that this fact involves a
serious charge either against those officers or the good
faith of the Allied Governments. The mercantile public
were uul,,,,btoLtly sea to believe, by Luc repeated decla-
rations of Ministers in Parliament and elsewhere, that a
rigorous blockade of the Russian ports would be esta-
blished. During the whole period, from the beginning
of April to the sailing of the expedition from Varna. in
September, the naval forces of the two fleets hal little
duty to perform. The confident expectation that a
blockade would be established had paralyzed the ordi-
nary trade, but the Greek houses on the spot were ena-
bled to take advantage of the facilities of communica-
tion still open to them, and of the increased prices
of Russian produce in the foreign market. Great
efforts had been made by our merchants to obtain from
India and elsewhere some of the commodities habitually
imported from Southern Russia ; but, when their
consignments arrived, they had to compete with an
almost unabated supply of Russian produce ; and, while
the Government complains that the Baltic trade of
Russia had been carried on too successfully through
neutral ports, they have allowed Odessa and the Sea of
Azoff to remain free. We really can discover no excuse
whatever for this 'extraordinary neglect. If it was the
intention of the allied Governments to leave the Russian
ports in the Black Sea unblochaded for the space of ten
months from the declaration of war, they should have
made that intention known ; but to lead the public to
believe, as Sir James Graham has repeatedly done, that
a blockade has been established, when in fact no block-
ade existed, is to revive the mischievous and exploded
system of paper blockades, and to encourage neutrals to
contest a right which is applied with so much laxity and
irregularity.
The only portion of the coast of the Black Sea which
has been notified to be under blockade is the mouth of
the Danube, though that is, in fact, the passage we
ought, both for military and commercial reasons, to en-
deavour to open. The month of the Danube is only to
be regarded as Russian territory inasmuch as Bessarabia
is a Russian province ; but the exports of the Danube
are in no sense Russian since they proceed from Austrian
and Turkish possessions ; and if they can find their way
to the sea during the present war, we have no interest
in preventing theme But it is far other Nis° with the
Gulf of Odessa and the ports of the Sea of Azoff. The
greatest vigilance is required not only to stop the main
channels of Russian commerce there, but to intercept
supplies which have been used for their military opera-
tions.
Our attention has been the more directed to this
question of blockades by the arguments which have
taken place in the course of last week in the case of the
Franciska, a Danish vessel brought in for breach of
blockade, and now awaiting the decision of the Prize
Court, This ship is one of a numerous class of cases

We hope that with the commencement of another
campaign a total change will be effected in these opera-
tions by greater precision on the part of the Govern-
ments at home and greater ♦igilance abroad. Of all
the weapons we can use against Russia the mastery of
the sea, and especially of the Black Sea, is the most
complete ; yet even in this respect, for want of distinct
administrative arrangements, our fleets have failed to
check the trade of the enemy. We entertain strong
hopes that Sir Edmund Lyons will promptly repair
these omissions in the Black Sea, and infuse greater
energy into all the operations of the fleet ; and we have
equal confidence in his French colleague, Admiral Bruat.
The moment i$ come when every effective blow struck
at the enemy will accelerate the negotiations for peace ;
and, if the war continues, all the maritime communica-
tions from the ports of Russia to be—as they ought long
since to have been—hermetically closed.—Times.