The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-29 00:00:00

about the few pounds of salt pork for which credit was
given to our correspondent in the East, many a poor
wounded and sick man at Scutari and Balaklaya, will
not think that the paltry boon was ill-bestowed upon
any one who applied in tie nam6 of the Times.

LORD J. RUSSELL'S EXPLANATION.

( From the Press of Saturday.)

The explanation of Lord John Russell last night must
tend to raise his character in the estimation of his friends
aid the country. Disapproving of the constitution and
condnct of the Cabinet, he has taken the only course
open to him, and withdrawn from ax Administration
which he conscientiously believed was not equal to the
exigencies of the public service. We learn from his own
lips that he has for some time past been dissatisfied with
the feeble conduct of the war, that he was opposed to
the appointment of the Duke of Newcastle as War
Minister, and that he has frequently remonstrated
against that deplorable mismanagement which has proved
so fatal to our army. Satisfied from personal knowledge
of the grave errors committed, he could not resist Mr.
Roebuck's motion for inquiry. He was unable to affirm
that there had been that vigour and vigilance at the head
of the War Department which were imperatively de-
manded at the present time. Holding these views, he
had no alternative but to resign. Lord Aberdeen loses
a troublesome colleague, and the country the only minsi-
ter in whose resolution and manliness it had the
slightest confidence.
It is impossible to view his retirement in any other
light than as a protest against the inefficiency of his col-
leagues. They were perfectly satisfied with existing ar-
rangements and content to let things remain as they
were. The War Administration worked admirably
in their eyes. If there is now to be any shifting of
places, any transfer of the Duke of Newcastle to this
department, and of Lord Palmerston to that, it will only
be because Lord John Russell's exposure has rendered
some change inevitable. But that change cannot be for
the better while the constitution of the Cabinet remains
essentially unaltered. It must, indeed, be for the worse,
as, in losing Lord John Russell, it loses the only man
who, it now appears, consistently and strenuously urged
the more vigorous prosecution of the war.
The vice of the present Cabinet lies deeper than in the
distribution of its offices. It is systematically feeble. It
committed the great error of entering into the war re-
luctantly, even when it acknowledged the war to be in-
evitable. To this cause may all the disasters of .the
Crimea campaign be traced. Preparations were tardily
made, and when hostilities began it was hoped that each
week of the warfare would be the last. How could it
be expected that a ministry would in autumn provide its
army with the necessities of winter, when it daily ex-
pected some terms of pacification from Vienna ? To
this hope, and to the delay engendered, our troops have
been sacrificed as effectually as if they had been delivered
unarmed into the bands of the enemy, though unhappily
their death has been more lingeringly painful than if
they had fallen by Russian lead or steel. To this same
cause may be traced the dilatoriness cf all our depart-
ments and the restrictive orders imposed on our naval
commanders. The object has always been not to impair
the power of Russia, but to avoid a final rupture with
her. Hence the continued adiu ssion of her produce, the
sparing of Ode: si, and the rkfasAl to blockade the port
of the Rack Sea, neglects to whiek Russia owes at Ws
nicm,nt her power to maintain the contest in the Crimea.
The great necessity of the country at this hour is a
War Cabinet, constituted with the single purpose of pro-

- .
secuting hostilities with energy, of repairing past errors,
of saving the remnant of our army, of sustaining tho
reputation of our arms, and of grappling with our foe
till he confesses himself♦vanquished, and sues for peace
en terms which will effectually save Europe from his
further aggressions. The greatest calamity which could
now befal the world would be an accommodation which
would leave Russia unchastised, and England humiliated
by a sense of uuretrieved disaster. No terms can be
satisfactory which do not pluck from Russia her fang.
We would cheerfully leave.her a first-rate Power for all
purposes of social and industrial advancement, but not
a first-rate Power to assail the tranquillity of other
nations.

The practical question before the Commons is, whe-
ther it will longer leave the conduct of the war in hands
which have so grossly mismanaged it t If confidence is
really felt in the Administration, all discussion and all
inquiry must needs be useless. But before a decision be
pronounced in its favour there is this point to be con-
sidered—that the practical effect of such ♦ote would be
to secure the ascendancy of Lord Aberdeen in the Cabi-
net. What his present views way be we do not pretend
to know, hut his predilections are notorious, and it would
be mere idiotcy to expect that he will ever engage in the
contest against Russia with the spirit which the country
requires.
The retirement of the President of the Council is a
proof of the skill with which the chief of the Coalition
is playing his subtle game. is the head of a party
Lord John Russell was to be conciliated ; he was offered
a principal share in the Government ; and he was treated
with some consideration until his friends and followers
were detached from him. That object accomplished,
his resignation is received with secret pleasure ; the
Government organs c ,mbine to sneer him down ; and he
finds to his cost that the sacrifice of his party has been
the prelude to the sacrifice of himself.

The Coalition, by its unscrupulous arts, has obtained
so large a numerical following in the Legislature that it
may possibly be able to escape a vote which would expel
it from office. But the country will nct be thus satis-
fied. It has remained quiet so long under the impres-
sion that the Legislature truly reflected its sentiments.

Should it be undeceived, we believe and hope that it
will make it. 3 voice heard, and carry its prayers to the
foot of the Throne.

AUSTRALIAN MINING COMPANIES.

Subjoined are the communications brought by the
overland mail to the various Australian companies

NORTH BRITISH AIISTRALA.SIA.N.

" The directors have received a continuation of advice,
from Mr. Mackay to the 20th of October. Mr. Mackay
advises further shipments of tallow, wool, and hides,
and the first supply of wool was at Moretown-bay for
immediate shipment, to be followed by other shipments,
in December and January. Mr. Beeger forwards tb•
report of Captain Bray on the workings of the Kawau
mine for September, and states that the steping of the
bottom of the 24 fathom level was finished, and that the
men were making a dam, and preparing to sink Ninnies
shaft below that depth. Every exertion was being made
in sinking the new engine shaft, perpendicularly (f•r-
merly inclined) to the 24 fathom level, and from the
activity with which the sumpmen were working, it was.
expected that it would be completed by the end of No-
vember."

PORT PHILIP AND COLONIAL GOLD.
"The company have received advices from their resi-
dent director at Melbourne up to the 22i of November
last. Ile states that the banks intended in future
mending home assayed gold, and there was therefore a
chance of the assay-office coming into general use.
" Mining—According to the new arrangements about
extended cla'ny' we should be entitled to 160 yards in
length of a creep, irrespective of width.

‘`Tin Ore-6 tons 4 Cat. have beea shipped by the
Kent for London, to sail on the 2,1 of December.
"Cartage from the Ovens had fallen from 201. to 121."
ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN MINING COMPANY.

"Advices from i the manager, Mr. Hamilton, have
been received, dated Adelaide, the 28th of November
last, of which the following are extracts :

Smelting Works.—four furnaces were lighted on
or about the 15th of November, and the refinery would
be lighted in December. At the end of this month we
hope to hays 100 tone of refined copper. This quan-
tity will make all square with the Burra Burra Com-
pany up to the end of the year.
" Cartage.—We are doing very much better with
the cartage of ere than t could have expected two
months ago ; we are carting—say of ore and coal toge-
ther—about 2,000 tens per month. We have about
1,600 tons of ore at the port ready for shipment.
" Ore.—Total stock on hand at date, 7,581 tons.
We shall receive from the mine at least 500 tons per
month, and shortly, when the large engine at the mine
is set to work, ores of a much richer quality than we
have bad for the last two years may be expected.
" Labour is more abundant in the colony, but fur-
nace-men are not to be had at any cost. We could light
more furnaces, an& keep them going with coal, if we
had but a sufficiency of that kind of labour. Mechanics
make still very high wages, but the tendency is most
decidedly towards a reduction.

-
" 'Mules, as carrying animals, it is feared, will be a
failur?, but in waggons the mules were working remark-
ably well ; sufficient time, however, has not yet elapsed
to form a correct estimate of thier capabilities as beasts
of burden or draught' "
" SOLIDI AUSTRALIAN COPPER MINING COMPANY.
" Extract of a letter received from Mr. Basset, dated
Adelaide,_ November, 27.

give ,you the various assays he
had ‘ '
madeM r
il tn otl
the
processt;otr w i fi
of disposing of the ore, and y
from wifl see that this ore is actually worth,
as broken,
151. to 24/. per ton. It must be borne in mind that,u
o
however small the quantity of gold, it will be nearly all
silver
profit, as the expense et its extraction from the
with which it associates itself is most trifling.
We have sent down 100 tons of ore, and we have
about another 100 nearly ready, besides SO or 60 on the
floors, but requiring bucking and sampling. This is from
not much more than a month's actual working, and com-
paratively but few hands (certainly not more than tea
men) were employed in actually breaking it.
"'(Our smelting experiments have, I regret to say,
been a comparative failure, but I shall be always endea-
vouring to meet with a practical lead smelter to put us
right. Since my last we completed the cross cutting of
the lode in the bottom, as I wrote you we were then
doing. The lode was there about 14 feet wide, solid
rnundic of most promising character. In doing this we
brought the water in so strongly upon we., that it was
useless to attempt to keep it any longer with the hand
engine, and I therefore diseentinued sinking until the
engine was. finished. The engine-house is completed
and just roofed in ; the engine is erected and ready to
go to work. We are now only waiting for the boiler and
I a lift of small work. When these are up here we
have only to put them in and go to work immediately.
With the engine at work, the difference of our costs of
productions will be very great. The water charges
would be greatly reduced by the engine, as well as the
expenses of hauling., and the grinder would do for a few
shillings what at present costs as many pounds while
breaking by hand.'
"Mr. Roberti on states, in reference to his essays,
2 014/
valued at , •at Port Adelaide,
that certain ores,
have been sold, -
arrangements
were making for
arid that
sending down continual
to
Adelaidewas g per ton.",
of cartage from the wines