The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-22 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Ting DAY—Morn. 25 min.aft. 11—Evening 0 min. aft. 0
To-Molutow—Marn.sl min. aft.ll —Evening 19 min. aft. 12

THE WEATHER.-SIIN OFFICE, Oct. 21.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.

63 highest since neon yesterday.
57—iowest this morning and during the night.
62—this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 30'19.
Witco, Westerly.—Fresh, with heavy clouds and sprink-
ling of rain in the evening.
OCTOBER 22.
62—highest since noon yesterday.
55 —lowest this morning and during the night.
62 —this day at noon.
BAROMISTER, 30'28.
Wlwn, S.W.—Light. In the morning it was N.E.,
with slight rain. Now very fine.

~~j~

'2"-

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1855.

It I was not merely that the Allied squadrons sue-
cee, led in rendering a strong fortification on which
gr( At exr (ense and labour was lavishly employed,
ui itenabb 3—that they could do if enabled to come
v. ithin roasonable distance—but the enemy had
1 nanifestly placed considerable reliance on the
shallowness of the water, which, as they vainly
suppose( I, would prevent the larger class of vessels
from ini ;offering in the contest. They were, how-
ever, bi tterly disappointed. Sir E. LYONS ex-
tended NELSON'S axiom, "that where there was
water bar an enemy's ship to swing at anchor,
there loas also room for an English vessel of
equal size to float beside her." He made
his calculations so nicely that the steam
line-of-battle ships and frigates were
enabled to participate in the bombardment,
although, in some instances, there were but two
feet of water under their keels i This is a remark-
able feature in the transaction, deserving of pe-
culiar notice, and which has perhaps never been
i paralleled in the annals of naval warfare. The
line has frequently been drawn very close, but
never within our recollection so exceedingly fine
as on the present occasion, and it is to that judi-
cious and well-calculated bravery that we are in-
debted for the completeness of our comparatively
bloodless triumph.
There is nothing, literally nothing, to prevent
the occasion from being fully improved. Our
only fear is with respect to the instructions from
"My Lords." If Sir EDMUND LYONS and his
coadjutors be left to themselves, and permitted
to act in accordance with their own judgment and
enterprise, Nicolaieff will be completely destroyed,
the Portsmouth of Southern Russia will be ren-
dered incapable of producing substitutes for the
fleet now blocking up the bay of Sebastopol ; and
Kherson, the storehouse of the Crimea, can no
longer supply the wants of its starving army.
The important co-operation of the land troops can
also be obtained. There is an admirable military
road betwen the towns, which would admit of
any movements of troops that may seem desirable,
and the possession whereof would completely cut
off the communication between them.
While so much has been accomplished in the
Euxine, we look with greater regret—a stronger
term may possibly be applicable—to what sports-
men would term the " blank season" in the
Baltic. There the most powerful fleet that ev©r
sailed from a British port has enjoyed
inglorious ease. It certainly made the Rus-
sian ships stay at home, and prevented
them from enjoying many excursions during
the summer, but a much smaller force would have
done the same thing, and could, perhaps, have
given a better account of Sweaborg than is within
the power of Admiral DUNDAS to render. We
cannot record our complete approbation of half
measures, and although willing to make ample
allowance for the deplorable deficiency of
gun-boats and mortar-vessels, we cannot see
but that the work well begun might
have been properly finished. Besides there
were many other points inviting attack, even if
Cronstadt was " too strong," or that Helsingfors,
like Odessa, should be spared. We will not,
however, blame Admiral DUNDAS. We believe
that the party really responsible is much nearer
home, and that Sir CHAREES WOOD is the person who
will have to account for and explain the inactivity
of the Baltic Fleet. It is due to Admiral DUNDAS
that the matter should be fully investigated, so
that he should not be unnecessarily or improperly
made the scapegoat on whose devoted head the
sins of the clique at Whitehall should be visited,
or be sacrificed to shield the scanty remnant
of the unenviable reputation of the political
" Jack of all trades"—who has in turn tried his
hand at financial, Indian, and naval affairs, and
proved himself the veriest botch in each and all.

Our great contemporary, who seems deeply
affronted whenever its own correspondent is not
admitted to the secrets of a Council of War in the
Crimea, or when a Cabinet Minister at home does
not appoint and recal Commanders-in-chief at its
bidding, is now busy in denouncing the Ministe-
rial autocracy of the recess, and in stringing to-
gether a breviary of prayers for information, which
can be granted only by a Minister in his place in
Parliament. But for the physical necessities of
our jaded legislators we could not, at the end of
summer, as our readers may remember, reconcile
ourselves to a recess at all. We could have wished
for short adjournments only, and for frequent
opportunities for Ministerial explanations and com-
munications. Usage, however, and the plea of
members' health, with the necessity of attending
to field sports, and other agreeable duties, carried
the day, as a matter of course. Lords and Com-
mons were emancipated ; Lord PALMERSTON left
to himself and the CODURGS ; Sir C. Wool) to
make a splendid ruin of the combustible part of
Sweaborg, that it might by next spring become an
incombustible and indestructible fortress ; and
Lord PANMITRE to adjust as he best could the
Floise•Guards' demand for routine and promotion
for birth or money, and the public demand for
promotion by merit.
It seems little likely now that a winter session
will be vouchsafed ; but what would the country
say to a winter election instead? The present Parlia-
ment was chosen to settle the Free-Trade and Pro-
tection question; it is naturally, therefore, about the
most unfit conceivable to superintend questions of
War and foreign policy. It is no expression of the
national mind on those subjects. We do not mean
that it may not represent roughly the views of its
constituents, but it does not do it authoritatively.
It is surely time that the nation itself should utter
its opinion in the constitutional way. Individual
speakers, among the numbers who on all kinds of
occasions seem
constrained to adverb to the War,
seem pretty fairly, by the cheers they elicit to un-
veil the mind of the people ; the Press also may
naturally enough be
judged to be in harmony
with the sentiments of
the vast newspaper read-
ing majority. Indeed, when it is net so, " Mr.
Editor" is sure of an ample supply of antagonistic
and
letters from " Constant Readers" and others, A
-
many of these of such a character forability and
honesty as no respectable
Editor even wishes to
exclude. Yet letters on the War, hostile to the
general tone of the Press, are but few indeed.
Still there are ono or two great speakers who
revile the Press as not really representing the
mind of the nation which supports it. Is it not
time, then, that the country should express itself
unequivocally ? We have now had almost two
years' experience of the War ;
w© allby
know more or less of the general bearings of the
this time
i
whole question. We are competent
as a country
to send the right men, or such as we think so, to
the right place. The CZAR, the King of Pituss")
and the oppressor cf Lombardy and Hungary,
would know for certain the temper of the English
nation, and the position which its Ministry
must take. The Peace Party would have
full opportunity to plead their cause with
their constituencies, and the Peelites would
understand how far their desertion was approved
by the public.

There is one domestic question, too, which
ought not to be shuffled with or evaded longer.
We mean the Bank Charter. It •ought• to be
settled, once for all, whether the great principle