The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-17 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1855.

There are many conflicting rumours in circula-
tion as to the proceedings likely to follow the
triumphant termination of " the Siege of Sebasto-
pol," the destruction of the Russian fleet, and
the occupation by the Allies of the chief portion
of the stronghold, under cover whereof that fleet
had so long been sheltered and protected. Some
boldly assert that the north side will be as obsti-
nately defended as the southern district had pre-
viously been—that a great battle will be fought,
and another determined effort made to expel the
invaders from the Crimean soil ; while others,
with greater apparent reason, declare that the
chief efforts of the Russians will be to escape
from the difficult position in which they are
placed, and to avoid if possible the degradinL:
alternative of laying down their arms as pri-
soners of war. The latter course seems by
far the most probable under existing circum-
stances, and the utmost vigilance should be dis-
played by the Allied Generals to turn to the bee
account the important triumph already accom-
plished. The Russian army has been too com-
pletely exhausted by previous exertions, its spiril
too entirely broken by the discovery of the fruit-
lessness of all its efforts, to render practicable an-
other attack against an army flushed with nume-
rous victories, holding an impregnable position,
and numerically (as well as in all other qualities)
superior to the half-fed and desponding serfs by
whom it could be assailed. The great object of '
the stubborn and pertinacious defence has been
defeated. The enormous stores, accumulated
during a long succession of years, are either de-
stroyed or in the hands of the Allies. Why, then,
should the most reckless desperation hazard an-
other pitched battle, from the result whereof the
Russians would have so much to dread and so little
to hope. We can understand a despairing effort
like that on the Traktir Bridge so long as Sebas
topol still held out. But when the standards of
France and England floated over its blood-stained
ruins, what adequate motive could there be to
justify so wanton a sacrifice of human life ?
We do not believe, then, that the Russians will
risk the chances of another battle, if its can by any
possibility be avoided. Nor do we think that
they will so earnestly defend the northern forts,
more especially as they will have a more formi-
dable adversary to encounter than any that even
France or England could send forth. They will
have to bear the ravages of famine in its
most frightful aspects. What has already
been accomplished will render the cutting
off of all communication between the garri-
son and the army in the field not merely
practicable, but easy. Without losing a single
man by fire or sword, they must succumb to the
fearful privations to which they will necessarily
be subjected, and from which they have alread‘
suffered in no ordinary degree.
We believe then that the suggestions respect-
ing a pitched battle to be the suggestions of Mus-
covite sympathisers, of the advocates for Peace at
any Price or on any condition, and that the object
is to prevent the Allies from taking duo advan-
tage of the golden opportunity still available.
They well know that nothing can be done at
1-3('`'La3toPol, or in its vicinity, to endanger the.
position of the Allies—that it is most probable
that the great body of the Russian troops have
already been withdrawn from Northern
Sebastopol, and that, as we suggested or,
Saturday, a similar course has been fol-
lowed on the Mackenzie heights, a show
merely. being kept up of
a defence, the futi-
lity whereof will be apparent at the first serious
trial. It is to prevent the much dreaded opera-
tion in the rear, the despatch of powerful rein-
forcements to Eupatoria, or the closing of the
various channels of communication in the neigh-
bourhood of
the Teheterlik, that they have ao in-
dustriously circulated these canards. Their great
fear is that the retreat by Perekop, as well as the
cwibility of obtalawg ii:ipplitifrwa that quartin',

may be cut off, and either an escape, or the main-
',onance of their position iu the interior, rendered
alike impossible. _

This is what they dread. This is what our
Generals should aim at. We cannot admit a
supposition so injurious to the commanders
who have already so gloriously distin-
guished themselves, as to imagine that they
will unnecessarily give breathing-time to the foe,
or enable them in any degree to neutralise the
beneficial results which the Western Powers may
reasonably anticipate, from their great triumph.
We repudiate, therefore, with scorn the unfounded
insinuations alike of pro-Muscovites and timid
politicians, and demand that the consequences of
the victory shall be adequate to the sacrifices by
which it has been achieved. We are no longer,
fortunately, bound by " the Four Points." Aus-
tria has no longer a right to hamper us by its
sinister interference. The selfish and contemptible
Policy of Germanism has freed us from a terrible
incubus. We may, by the permanent occupation of
the Crimea, or its transference to friendly hands,
obtain the most suitable guarantees against the
restoration of the naval predominance of Russia
in the Euxine ; and also insist that, in strict ac-
cordance with the dictates of equity and expediency,
is well as of the precedent established by Russia
itself, an ample indemnity be given for the ex-
penses occasioned by its wicked and wanton ag-
gression to all those who have resisted its attack,
viz., to France and England—to Turkey and
Sardinia ! Without such an indemnity, we Gan-
sot obtain a permanent and honourable peace ;
and if we are only firm, it will unquestionably be
)btain ed.

It has pleased " a few gentlemen" to republish
,n a form intended to enlighten the million, or at
least the ten-pound householders, the wisdom of
trl GREY. They add as a quasi, reason for this
itep that the statements contained in this very
on; speech, delivered in the House of Lords on
he 25th of last May, have never been contro-
ierted ! We cannot undertake to re-peruse all
the better journals of the day or tho week, but
)ur recollection is quite different to that of these
eNs, gentlemen. They were doubtless so in love
with the " statement," that they supposed all
journalists called upon to follow sentenc3 by sen-
ence a speech which, in their own closely-printed
:)amphlet, occupies some forty octavo pages. The
mportant points in this long oration may now be
Jasily disposed of in a leader or two, of the length
which readers care to peruse.

Perhaps our readers will scarcely believe, hay-
ng probably forgotten the speech, that its object
s to prove that Ministers ought to have continued
he Vienna Conferences on the basis of the Rus-
sian suggestion which. Austria pressed, and on
vhich M. DROUYN DE L'HuYs retired from office,
rand Lord JOHN RUSSELL was forced from it.
lie Russian proposal for putting an end to her
m-eponderance in the Black Sea was the notable
" that the SULTAN should be at liberty to
Ldmit the ships of war of allies to these waters
.vhenever lie considered himself menaced by
Russia, and not as previously to wait for a de-
31aration of war." Earl GREY contends that the
lifference between this scheme and the limitation
Ale of the Allied Governments was not sufficient
to demand a continuation of the War. In this
many will be prepared to go with him. We
have never written of the limitation scheme
as worth a twelvemonth's fighting, nor even worth
'.he parchment for a treaty, and we concur in
wary word in which Lard GREY points out how
'asily and in how many 'Ways it could be evaded.
But here lies the whole strength of this part of
:Earl GREY'S speech. It is a Redan fort, such as
ve have heard so much of. All its arguments
mint but one way; they are irresistible against
he Ministry in the front of the conflict, but it
►as no arguments against the views with which
be nation has insisted on anefficient war. The
few gentlemen" who reprint the speech appeal
o " the intelligent and reflecting ;" but persons
if this character cannot need to reconsider
,vhether either the limitation or the Russian
theme were reasonable objects of a war, and if
lot, neither can be a satisfactory basis of peace.
Lord GREY lays stress upon this War having
oeen at its commencement of a strictly defensive
;haracter. No doubt the Allies did, as we think
nost absurdl7, put forward that view, and very
orominently. Absurdly, we think, because, as
he event has proved, it is impossible to draw the
ine between defensive and offensive war. Our
int dealings with a burglar, or murderer, are, of
ourse, strictly defensive, but in the result a
)rison or a gallows are included in the list of
rarely defensive measures ; the Allies, in like
nanner, soon found that they must at least de-
n.ive the aggressor of the means of future
aggression.

In one short sentence, indeed, to this effect,
T4ord GREY certainly opens the way for all that
Are may see fit to demand. He admits the pro-
)riety of one demand of the Allies at Vienna,
,vhich Russia conceded, because "it tended
uaterially to diminish the danger of future wars."
Lord GREY means, no doubt, the danger of their
)ccurrence. But once allow this as a guiding
ulnciple, and iu the judgment of all the freedom-
loving portion of Europe, the crippling of Russia's
military strength, and the restoration to their
lawful owners of the nations she has enslaved, are
essential to preventing the near probability of
future war. Lord GREY, indeed, asserts some-
cThere, that a peace could not last which took
from Russia what her people had • been accus-
tomed to regard as a part of Russia. But we
beg to remind him that, from Circassia all round
the Black Sea to the Danube, the nations have
sot forgotten that they are under the hoof of
Russia by fraud even more than by conquest,-
and that, notwithstanding the fiendish barbarities,
of Lord GREY'S amiable NICHOLAS in Poland, the
Poles retain vividly their national feelings, and
long for deliverance from a yoke not less infernal
than that of Austria. We see, indeed, that the
Times argues that the horrid cruelties of Russia
have made Poland into Russia. Cruelty never
yet changed a nationality. It did net amain-
inate Ireland with England, nor has it Poland
with Russia. The flight of Polish peasants into
Prussia to avoid enlistment is proof of that.
But for the police of the "Eeangqic al and clever"
despot of Berlin, thousands of Poles would have
found a refuge in his territories.
It were almost endless to cite illustrations of
the unfair reasoning into which Lord GREY is
betrayed while professing so much calmness. For
instance, he mentions that " the differences which
led to this unhappy War began with threats of
the employment of a French fleet to coerce
Turkey into concessions which could not be justly
required of her"—but he overlooks that they could
be required of Turkey quite as justly, that is on
the ground of old treaties, as what NiouoLls and
his bully MENSCHIKOFF demanded of her. And
:;till worse, he overlooks the grand contrast that
the French EMPEROR withdrew his claims rather
than provoke a War, while NICHOLAS pushed his
demand for a fresh and mischievous treaty with
an independent Molaaatea by invasion and profuse
bloodshed. •

Lord GM; however, even atterapt4 to argue

(page 20), that Russia was in the right not to be
satisfied when the original claim of France was
withdrawn, in a manner which ho owns to be en-
titled to great praise ; the EMPEROR of Russia
"had a claim for reparation for the flagrant
offence he had received, in a form to give security
for the future against the repetition of any similar
offence !" Yet this is the very Lord GREY who
'thinks that the defensive objects of the War were
attained when Russia was driven first over the
Danube, then over the Pruth into her own terri-
tories. Surely, to repeat his own words, the
Allies were entitled to ask for reparation for the
flagrant offence of invading a neighbour's territoiy,
and of trying to force a treaty in time of peace
from an independent Power which had entire
right to refuse it ; and, for reparation, too, in a
form to give security for the future against the
repetition of any similar offence. All Europe,
Lord GREY and his " few gentlemen" excepted,
consider that security to be, first, Sebastopol and
the Crimea ; then, Ismail and Bessarabia ; next,
Poland ; and, lastly, Finland. Lord GREY con-
descends also to praise the GORTSCHAKOWS cant
about "the blood of Russia, belonging to Russia
alone, and being expended only for Russian objects."
Was it, then, a Russian object to trample down
Hungary for Austria, to say nothing of murdering
Polish liberty? If so, we deliberately say—would
that every ounce of Russian blood were spilt be-
fore it could be spilt for such atrocities again !

France is not without her BAYARD even at the
present day, when the spirit of chivalry has so
many opposing influences to contend against.
She numbers among her brave defenders a CAI-
ROBERT ! and proud as she is, and may well be,
of the conquerors of Sebastopol PELISSTER,
BOSQUET, and AIWAHON, none of them is likelier
to be embalmed in after times in the national
heart.

Say that his command-inchief before Sebasto-
pol was a comparative failure, and that though a
first-class general of division, and a thorough
soldier, he proved unequal to the task of illus-
trating the high military genius of France, the
honour is still his of having done his best for his
country, and of having succeeded—better perhaps
than any other Frenchman, save his Imperial
master—in cementing the alliance between Eng-
land and France, by his frank courtesy and con-
stant solicitude for the welfare of all about him ;
while the higher renown is his also of illustrating,
in his own career, that fine, chivalrous, self-sacri-
ficing spirit which throws such a sacred halo over
the annals of France. Sentiment in matters of
stern actual business is regarded nowadays with
suspicion, and is apt to be set down as affectation,
but it is impossible for the most hard-headed
anti-sentimentalist to deny this illustrious general
the merit of sincerity. His modest resignation
of the chief command, accompanied by his nomi-
nation of a successor among his subordinates—
his request., though entitled by his services
and impelled by his wound to repose, to
be entrusted with a division—his persistence in
refusing anything higher than such a command,
or to return home—his daring valour in the as-
sault, and his. prompt return when circumstances
seemed to indicate its propriety—all these things
were but in harmony with his daily life. They
have not surprised the soldiers of his own nation,
who loved him, the Allied armies, who admired
him—any one, in short, who knew him. And
now that, with a noble simplicity, a generous
humility that is positively affecting, he declines
the baton of a field-marshal, lest his acceptance of
it should dim the lustre of PELISMER'S, the voice of
universal opinion pronounces him to have, uncon-
sciously it may be, achieved a higher honour,
and to have illuminated an antique page with a
modern blazon inferior in spotless brilliance to
none that have preceded it—to have reflected
glory on France, and especially her Imperial
head—than whom none better appreciates desert.
Honour, then, to the Bayard of the nineteenth
century. There is not an Englishman worthy of
the name but will say so. Honour to General
CANROBERT.

COURT CIRCULAR.

BALMORXL, SEPT. 14.

Her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness the
Prince, accompanied by their Royal. Highnesses the
Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Princess Helena,
Princess Louisa, and Prince Alfred, honoured the High-
land gathering at the Castle of Braemar yesterday with
their presence. The Royal suite consisted of Lady
Churchill, the Hon. Beatrice Eyrie:, Etrl Granville,
General the Hon. C. Grey, Colonel the Hon. C. Phipps,
and Mr. Gibbs. The approaches to the Castle were
lin..d by the Farquharson Highlanders, under Mr. James
Farquharson, of Invercauld, and the Forbes High-
landers, from Don Side, under Sir Charles Forbes.
Her Majesty and their Royal Highnesses were re-
ceived upon their arrival by Mr. and Mrs. Farquharson
and the, junior branches of their family.
The games then proceeded. They consisted of tossing
the caber, putting the stone, throwing the hammer,
foot racing, and reel dancing.
Her Majesty remained upon the ground about two
hours, when the R)yal party returned to Balmoral
Castle.

September 15.
His Royal Highness the Prince left Balmoral yester-
day morning at 11 o'clock, attended by General the
Hon. C. Grey, and proceeded to Banchory to meet his
Royal Highness Prince William Frederick of Prussia
who was expected at Balmoral upon a visit to her
Majesty the Queen.
His Royal Highness Prince William Frederick ar-
rived at Banchory by special train at a quarter past 3,
and, after partaking of some refreshment, proceeded
with the Prince to Balmoral, where the Royal party
arrived at 7 o'clock.

Prince William Frederick was attended by Colonel
Heintz.

Her Majesty the Queen, attended by the ladies and
gentlemen of the Household, received his Royal High-
ness upon his arrival.

Viscountess Canning has succeeded Laiy Churchit
as Lady in Waiting to her Majesty.

Despatches were sent from the Colonial-office on Satur.
day to the governors of the West India Islands.

Lord Panmure has intimated to Lord Haodinge that
two regiments of the Foreign Legion era now entirely
at his disposal for field service.
The Moniteur publishes a decree promoting Vice-
Admiral Bruat to the rank of Admiral. It also pub-
lishes the letter addressed by Lord Panmure to General
Simpson on the fall of Sebastopol.
A letter from Marseilles mentions on the faith of a
telegraphic despatch from Naples, that the Neapolitan
Government has just suppressed the quarantine on ves-
sels proceeding from Marseilles, Genoa and Leghorn.
wiTth" aIII(ETHAM TUNNEL.—Thu works are progressing.
Poseilele despatch. About 270 men are em-
ployed, the 'orickwork at the north end is being laid in,
and the excavations are being made at nine different
points of the line.
Levi Chesterfield and George Payne, Esq., have
accepted the stewardship of the Doncaster Spring Meet-
ing, 1856.
THE TYNE PIERS.—Tho River Tyne Improvement
Commissioners have let the contracts for these important
marine works to Mr. Lawten, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
The amount of works on the north pier contracted for is
1,400 feet ; on the south pier, 2,800 feet. The total cost
of both piers will be about 166,000/. They have to be
completed in five
years, and will afford important pro-
tection to the immense number of vessels that yearly
enter the Tyne horn all parts of the world.
I SIR JAMES GRAHAM ON THE MANAGEMENT or COB-
PORATIONS.-- It is said that on a certain occasion the
Earl of Aberdeen (confidentially) confessed to Sir James
Graham that he "knew not how to manage the Irish
members." "Doas I do with the corporation of Car-
!Me," raid the Knight of Netherby. "How's that',"
asked Aberdeen. "Oil them well—oil them well," was
the reply of Sir James. —Kendal Mercury.
Tree FIRST NEWS REWARDED.—The Queen has sent
a cheque of 501. to Mr. Middleton, stationmaster, at
Banchory, of the Dceside Railway, as a reward for
his exertions in " expressing " the news of the fall of
Sebastopol to Balmoral on Tuesday evening. The fol-
lowing is a copy Of the letter received from Colonel
Phipps .—" Balmoral, Sept. 12. Sir,—l have receieed
the commands of her Majesty the Queen to forward
to you the accompanying cheque for 501., in co:mimeo-
ration of your having been the fortunate person to bring
to -her Maj-eity the glorious news of the fall of Sebas-
topol. I am, Sir, your obedient iierva,tit, C. 11, PZIET Z 3,
ILL Middleton, Banchory."_