The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-09 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1855.

The progress of affairs in the Crimea is still
involved in mystery. The telegraph is silent, and
we are compelled to look to the Russian reports
to know how matters are going on, and then to
form the best guesses practicable from the crude
materials at our disposal. There is an old pro-
verb, which tells us, "fas est ab hoste doceri ;"
but it certainly was not intended to bear this in-
terpretation. It is right to profit by the tactics
of an opponent, but it is scarcely judicious to
suffer the people to be dependent for information
on rumours coming from the enemy's camp, and
licked into shape by the fertile imaginations of
our writers. We know that reinforcements have
despatched to Eupatoria. and that some skir-
mishes have taken place, and that a very decided
advantage has been obtained in a cavalry combat
between the Allies and the Russians. It would
also seem that the enemy have been threatened
front and rear, and that while one division has
been pressing forward from Eupatoria, the gallant
PELISSIER has passed through the valley of the
Upper Belbek and scoured the plain of Baidar.
It is indispensable that peculiar vigilance should
be displayed under existing circumstances.
Much will depend on the skill of the tactician
during the present crisis. It is an object of great
importance to Russia to maintain her position
while her German satraps are feeling their
ground, and striving to obtain terms that will
leave her at liberty to pursue her traditional
policy, and to carry out, at a more convenient
time, her nefarious designs against Turkey !
With judicious management the whole
of the Russian army in the Crimea
might be compelled not merely to retreat
upon Perekop, but to lay down their arms and
to surrender themselves prisoners at war. If the
supplies are cut off, as we have repeatedly ex-
plained in these columns, no choice will remain,
they must make an unconditional submission,
and that will be decisive as to the fate of war,
if the Allied Governments be only true to them-
selves and turn their triumphs and military suc-
cesses to proper account.

In another part of our impression will be found
the Second Address of the Committee of the Ad-
ministrative Reform Association, and also the
draft of a bill for regulating the appointment of
clerks in the Civil Service, which will, we are told,
be introduced next session, the object being to
take the whole of the patronage of the officer,
from the Treasury, and to bestow the appointments
on those who have passed through the ordeal of a
public competitive examination. We are rejoiced
to find that the sleeper has at length been awakened
—that the modern Rip Van Winkle has even at
the eleventh hour displayed some symptom of
vitality. Better late than never. Let the Com-
mittee only now vigorously follow up their re-
sumption of activity. Let them shake off the
culpable apathy so long displayed, and prove
themselves to be "the right men in the right
place," and we shall freely forgive all past short-
comings, and gladly co-operate for the advance-
ment of the good cause. In the beginning of
their Address they bespeak indulgence, and show
that they are themselves not unconscious of
their faults. They say that "at this period
of the year, and until the close of the
harvest, there is invariably a pause in every
public movement." They have, however,
taken rather a long vacation—so long as to
induce the public to suppose that they had aban-
doned their self-assumed task. Palma n3n sine
pulvere is a sound and wholesome rule. No
great results can be accomplished without corres-
ponding efforts. If they require an example it
may easily be discovered. Let them look to the
labours of " THE LEAGUE," and profit by the
glorious precedent. It was not by indolence or
by relinquishing all appearance of work for a pro-
tracted period that the Free Traders succeeded in
emancipating the food of the people from fiscal
burdens and artificial restrictions. The men who
undertook the task of agitation were indefatigable
in their vocation. They never rested—in season
or out of season. They kept the public attention
alive to the complicated iniquities of the villanous
system. On the rail, in the steam-boat' even in
the omnibus, it was made the common topic of
conversation, and truth was invariably elicited by
the discussions. But why was this? The leaders