The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-18 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1855.

We had hoped that the unanimous and cordial
approbation of our gallant Allies, of the Govern-
ment, the Army, and the people of France, had
finally disposed of the unwarrantable and virulent
libels against the English General and the English
troops engaged in the attack on the Redan on the
ever-memorable Bth of September—that although
there might be no express recantation there would
at least have been no repetition of those wanton
and outrageous calumnies on brave and devoted
men who had nobly served their country in the
hour of trial, and earned for themselves the admi-
ration and gratitude of every disinterested and
unprejudiced person throughout the length and
breadth of the land. This reasonable expectation
was enhanced by perceiving that the journal which
had taken a prominent part in their publica-
tion maintained a remarkable and signifi-
cant silence from the. time of the appearance ,
of the admirable letter of Mr. JAMES AYTOUN,
which completely overthrew the false assumptions
and carping criticisms on which they had been
originally founded. Our respected correspondent
told us truly that " everywhere in Paris the
highest praise was not only given to the determi-
nation and bravery of our soldiers, but that the
French public attributed to the heroic resistance
of our soldiers the success of the day as much as
to those employed directly in the taking of the
Malakhoff !" lie also showed that the Redan
was not expected to be taken on that occasion.
All that was required or intended was that the
Russian attention should be diverted fox a certain
period while the captors of the Malakhoff were
strengthening their position, and firmly establish-
ing themselves in the fortress which they had
gallantly won. When they had done so, the
Great Redan, the Redan of Careening Bay,
and the Central and Quarantine Bastions
must share the fate of " the key of Sebas-
topol," and fall into the hands of the Allies
with comparatively little loss. Far more than
was demanded. was performed. In place of a
single hour, one hour and fifty-six minutes were
occupied in the attack on the Great Recian, and
the result was that two hours and a half had
elapsed before the, enemy could attempt the re-
capture of the MalakhoThe time thus obtained
ff.
was turned to the best advantage--not a minute
was wasted or misapplied by the gallant escaladers.
Tho Malakhoff was held as firmly as it had hem
vigorously acquired, and the following day the
great prize of the contest, Sebastopol itself, with
all the southern outworks and defences, was in the
hands of the besiegers !

It is singular that almost every change in the
fortunes of the War reacts in favour of Russia
with some of our English politicians. The miseries
of the mismanaged winter campaign, the termina-
tion of the Vienna Conferences, and even the re-
cent fall of Sebastopol, became successively occa-
sions of desertion to the COBDEN and BRIGHT
policy. Such men as GRAHAM, GLADSTONE, and
LAING fell off one after another to the party who
thought the Vienna Note an adequate protection
for Turkey and all Europe against Muscovite am-
bition. We do not wish to impute consciously
unworthy motives to our statesmen, but the
general observer cannot refuse to see that certain
very strong party or commercial motives did exist
at each juncture, which would prompt to precisely
the course actually taken. It did so happen
that a peace policy was a seemly name for an
attack by the Opposition upon the Government
which had superseded it ; and that it was a good
cry, when railway speculators and manufacturers
were disposed to attribute all their disappoint-
ments to the prosecution of the War. From the
country at large these attempts have received but
little encouragement, yet they have been perse-
veringly made as occasion has offered ; or rather
everything has been converted into an occasion for
them. The last attempt is, we hope, now effec
tually nipped in the bud. The avowed organ of
the Tories, after several of their leaders had shown
that they were too real Conservatives to sell their
English souls for place, comes forward itself to
oppose asking peace of Russia because we have
taken southern Sebastopol. It is deeply to be
regretted that some members of the Con-
servative cause in the House of Commons
should of late have pursued so negative a policy.
They may be assured that the country will not in
time of war place in power a leader who has not
heart enough to declare himself boldly for War or
Peace. Englishmen must now have Mr. COBDEN
or Lord PALMERSTON. A trimmer to whatever
course will upset a rival Minister is not the man
for the hour. It is not to read of party battles
that ine papers are daily sought for
.by our readers.
But for the deluding effects on Russia we should
feel perfectly indifferent to all these endeavours
to change the country's policy. Combined, that
of
"sparing"
thedecliniag the. how-
Therealli-
was no "enemy in the
to England ever, with
or the English in this. Never had the honour Baltic and the Black Sea, of
of our standard been more nobly maintained— I ante of Poland and even of a Polish Legion, they
never had English soldiers displayed in a higher must lead the enemy to think that care will be
degree that stubborn and enduring valour for taken riot to injure her seriously. It must
which their forefathers had been distinguished for pear to Russia as if the affairs of Bomarsund,
a long succession of ages ! And that valour was Sweabore Heisingfors, and Odessa, at least, were
a
duly appreciated by friend and foe, with one ex- intentionally so arranged as to satisfy this el:in-
th() managers of `sodthe grumbling shop " at was most valu-
or try and France with the show of something done,
While all that was done left what
printing House-square; and even before the full able untouched or as in the case of Sweaborg
particulars of the terrible conflict were or could
only enabled the enemy to
this country, a determined onslaught accounts al.
known in nerable to the next attack. Recent
make the place invul-
beGeneral Simrsox with that rock concur opened on concur that next spring the arsenals of
less malevolence for which the Times has acquired will be bomb-proof ; and what au ado Swcaborg
Nay more, it was not 01 m • -
an unhappy notoriety. mortars might have utterly destroyed thi
es oriented the cense-
merely the General who e adequate suppl)
summer will now be far more difficult to deal wi tl:
combined with the party
The very soldiers
(ponces of .its direful wrath. next. All this,
who had fought with such unflinching resolution cacy of Peace, must encouraae Russia to prolons
something like
•
were also grossly libelled, and the War to the utmost. Sh
e has always reher
cowardice and insubordination attributed to I quite as much on diplomacy and • • ad vo-
itcanpnooltitbicealdocuombtbe(ii-
nations as on her sword, and it those who had freely and willingly shed their blood
politicians' doings
that she hears of all our peace
in their country's cause
doing)
The Times recently, in a very extraordinary in the style most agreeable to her hopes. Her
article on the subject of consistency, professed it- chief hope, we fear, is through a quarter we Iva.
self to be " a Journalist, not a pope:,
ever, on all possible occasions, seeks It, how- not name just now.
to establish The grand argument of the last converts, or
the attribute of "infallibility;" and when once the perverts, rather, is, that we have now got all we
fiat has gone forth, however rashly or unwarrant- want. Russian prestige is gone in the East; her
ably, it seeks to abide by its first judgment. It I Black Sea navy is limited to annihilation ; the
ha 3 Gino v) in the Pr9se'ut jig tanC) end hadre. I Principalities Lave been long iuw clear l; the trea-
\"..i.a..mtks :Ail: •

ties with Turkey are cancelled ; all the original
grounds of the War are valid no longer ; we have
gained every demand—why incur farther waste
of blood and treasure ?

Now, we may ask, is it wished to stop ex-
actly where we are ? Is half Sebastopol and the
whole Crimea to be left intact to Russia ? Is she
to be left in command of the principal mouth of
the Danube ? Is Nicolaieff to become as mischie•
vous a nurse of gun-boats as Sebastopol was of
three-deckers ? Looking only at the East is it
meant that we are to offer peace after having done
an amount of mischief considerable indeed, but
which, if we give up things as they are, would as
certainly be repaired again, as the conquering
policy of Russia would remain unchanged if
this be not meant, what is meant ? Russia cer-
tainly will not occupy the Principalities again for
some years to come, but as certainly she would
lay her plans again to be mistress of Constanti-
nople at the first opportunity. Even Mr. BRIGHT
cannot doubt it, much less Mr. DISRAELI. Is
this, then, we ask, the purpose for which we have
embarked in so great a War ?
We might ask, too, whether it is likely Russia
would make peace on any terms which could be ac-
cepted. Inevitably one of the first must be pecu-
niary indemnity to Turkey first and chiefly, and
then to the other Allies. She made Turkey pay
last time on far less reasonable grounds, of course
she herself must be made to pay now ; the neces-
sity, too, of strengthening the finances of the coun-
try to which we have lent money to resist the
aggressor, and of enfeebling those of the
aggressor himself, is too obvious to need argu-
ment. If Russia did not think indemnity too
humiliating for Turkey, she must not think it too
humiliating for herself. Is it then believed that
Russia is so far brought to her senses yet !
Would she listen to proposals at all which
should assume that the Allies were conquerors ?
Would the Old Muscovites allow her to do so ?
We think she has not suffered enough yet even to
cede all that we have already conquered. She
would retain liberty to harass Persia, Turkey,
and. Circassia, in Asia ; she would restore her
Black Sea Fleet, and would infest the Danube as
before. What, indeed, seems most certain of all
is that proposals from the Allies must damage
their own cause. Russia would at once tell her
serfs, and would probably believe, that she had
worn us out. She would boast everywhere her
own power to weary any civilised enemy, and
laugh at the idea of magnanimity on our part.
Indeed it is not likely that a people so universally
and unscrupulously cunning can ever conceive
what magnanimity or forbearance means. With
such a race it seems to us useless to talk of peace
until the utter annihilation of all its maritime re,
sources at least have convinced them that they
' are hopelessly worsted. But for our wretchedly
administered Admiralty this might have been
done, we believe, already ; it may easily be done
in another campaign.

In these remarks we have avoided all advertence
to the emancipation of Poland and Finland,
though as firmly as ever believing that this, and
the strengthening of Sweden, should be the ulti-
mate aim of the War. We think, even taking
thing as they stand in the East, to think of the
Allies proposing peace, would be a suicidal folly.
Russia and all the East would regard it as a con-
fession of practical defeat.

Half the secret of success lies in having distinct
notions of what you are aiming at, and then pur-
suing your object patiently, prudently, and per-
severingly ; and perhaps the reason why we have
made so little progress in the art of dealing satis-
factorily with our criminal population is that we
have had no sufficiently definite ideas as to what
ought to be aimed at, and when we fortuitously
verged on the right track lacked patience to enter
fairly into it, and pursued our way in what we
may be permitted to designate a zigzag parllel.

The most summary mode of dealing with
offenders, so far at least as they are individually
concerned, is to hang them. Of course a nation
blessed with such an extraordinary degree of
practical good sense as the English took to it
kindly. Never talk of Draconic legislation if you
are a good Englishman and hate everything
foreign—talk of the legislation of the times of
GEORGE the Third. It will servo your turn, you
may rely on it. " You shockheaded fellow," the
benevolent moralist might in those good o'd times
be heard exclaiming, peering wildly through
that tumbledown fence, let them sheep alone or
you'll be hanged. You top-booted, drab great-
coated, flaxen-headed, and blue-eyed Saxon, with
that suspicious Yorkshire leer of yours, it's a fine
animal and has capital points ; but don't do it—
eave the animal where it is (however much it
,nay hurt you to see it.), starving in the penfold,
or you'll be hanged. You nice young man, so
;lever at caligraphy, and so well up in your elle-
thism and white neckcloths—practice doubtless
snakes perfect, but it's a dangerous thing to carry
the art you love into the higher regions of poly-
graphy ; stay where you are or you'll be hanged.
You poor shivering wretch, with whatever heart
you've got, but certainly possessed of thin pan-
taloons, keep your eye out of your fat friend's
pantry or you'll infallibly ho hanged. You poor
down-trodden, draggle-tailed woman, with that
.qualling bit of human misery at your bosom, and
he pangs of desertion, keener than of hunger, at
your heart, don't indulge in the womanly weak-
!less of gazing at the linen-draper's window, for if
you are tempted to steal that cotton rag of a
handkerchief it won't be my Lord High Chancel-
lor's fault if your miserable baby is not speedily
an orphan, and its " mammy " strung up by the
neck. But it wouldn't do. The system worked
well enough for the hangman, but not for society.
The judge's hatter was called upon for more hats,
the corciwainer for more rope, the poetaster for
more ballads, the Lisbon merchant for more
oranges, St. Sepulchre's bell for more tolls, and
one who shall be nameless for more souls. Sheep-
stealing, horse-stealing, housebreaking, area-sneak-
ing, and shoplifting grew rifer than over in the
calendar.

Slowly came a reaction. Hanging wouldn't do.
iThe blood shed at the scaffold for the above
offences only produced a more plentiful crop.
What was left but imprisonment and transporta-
tion. They were acted upon and answered much
better than hanging -
; but not so well as was de-
iirable. Imprisonment kept the reprobates for a
time out of mischief, but when they got out there
they were--at it again. Transportation answered
;)etter for us at home, but the Colonist didn't like
-0 be in perpetual fear of having his dwelling or
person plundered and his throat severed. What
1 vas to be done by the social Sinbad with these
,nveterate "old men" of crime ? The burden
more and more uneasy, and we took kindly
and our colonial brethren to no-
ielaafunrdtellisirnis°;tPaYnce. With many the philanthropy
real as it was discriminating ; in some it
in some it was simply selfish ; in
the frightful past, Which cannot
ab:wtiaosnsas
nte)aryesP:elcul'easalleed patriotic pang, it was to be
gaol chaplain stirred up his ears
respected. The
uncassocked Samaritan
as the Eureka of the
promulga-
heralded the advent of education—the
afterrhout a
tie% of -the do,ztrine that the culirit vras callable