The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-27 00:00:00

policy ! Perseverance. To accede to the proposed terms
would not only not attain the object for which the war
was undertaken, but would disgrace ourselves in the
eyes of the world. Character was power ; we should
have lowered ourselves in the sight of other nations,
whilst our rival Russia would have ascended in the
scale. She would have been considered by the
Eastern nations as possessed of supreme power ; no
one would have dared to oppose her, and the in-
fluence she had acquired in the West would have in-
creased a hundredfold. The chains of the German
States would have been rivetted, and a severe
blow would have been struck at oivilisation. (Hear.) He
rejoiced, therefore, that the terms proposed were not
accepted. He felt as deeply as any man could do the
arduous nature of the struggle in which we were engaged,
but he felt confident as to the result. In the seat of war
we now occupied, with the command of the sea, we could
maintain and support a much larger army than could be
brought against us, and even with equal forces he did not
doubt as to the result. But what were we to do in the
event of success ? He ventured to say, if he might give
an opinion at the risk of some little sarcasm from the
noble earl, that we must destroy Sebastopol. That for-
tress had been constructed forthe subjugation of Turkey ;
for 20 years the Russian Government had been expending
enormous sums of money in order to make sure of that
object. Its destruction, therefore, would be an act of re-
tributive justice, and would be so regarded by
Turkey and by the world. A noble lord, distinguished
in that house for his clearness and sagacity of
intellect—the late Prime Minister—stated in one
of his speeches last year, that if there was one
thing more vital than another to the safety and indepen-
dence of the Turkish empire, and more fatally injurious
to the power of Russia, it was the destruction of the
fortress of Sebastopol, that this was the direct object of
the war, and that which every one must have had in
view from its commencement. If he were supposed to
hold extravagant opinions, it was at least a consolation
to him to reflect that he was sanctioned in them by the
most cool-headed members of their lordships' house. The
Duke of Newcastle, in his evidence before the late com-
mittee, expressed himself in the same terms ; and the
noble lord who conducted the recent negotiations spoke
of Sebastopol, in the other house of Parliament, as a for-
tress which every combination of art and science had
been employed to make impregnable, and the continu-
ance of which could only be regarded as a standing me-
nace to Turkey. He might be warned of the dangers
attending an eager pursuit of vengeance, but he could
not forget that the same doctrine would apply to inor-
dinate and unmeasured ambition. He was not deterred
by the misfortunes which assailed us during the last
campaign, because he ascribed them to the misconduct-
ing of the war by the late Government. For 50,000 men,
enfeebled by disease, the cholera raging among them,
with a scanty supply of cavalry and a very insufficient
materiel for operations in the field, at an advanced pe-
riod of the year to make an attack on the greatest mi-
litary power in the world, with the view of laying siege
to one of its strongest fortresses, was a most injudicious
enterprise. It was well known to every man that, as far
as regarded siege defences, nothing would be stronger
than the north side ; but there was some vague surmise
that on the south side these defences were not complete.
A little reflection might have satisfied any man that there
could be no foundation for such a belief, since the com-
pletion of its fortifications was a favourite object with
the late Emperor Nicholas. The design of the Govern-
ment was supposed to have been to surprise the place; but
the Russian sovereign was not taken by surprise ; he had a
sufficient noticefrom the declaration made by the noblelord
then leading the other House of Parliament. Anyone who
had read the work of General Mackintosh, who had had
an opportunity of viewing the precincts of the fortress,
must have been satisfied that there was no foundation
for the belief to which he had alluded. It was supposed,
also, that the Government were ignorant of the real
strength of the military force which Russia had stationed
in the Crimea, though they had it in evidence from the
right honourable gentleman lately at the head of the Ad-
miralty, that a person thoroughly acquainted with the
Crimea, and with Sebastopol, informed him that it num-
bered 70,000 men, of which 40,000 formed the garrison of
that fortress. Now, it was an axiom in war that, in
order to besiege a place with success, besides a covering
army in the field, the besieging force should amount -Co
three times the number of the army invested. It was
hardly necessary to do more than state that proposition
in order to satisfy their lordships/of the injudiciousness,
the absolute extravagance of this undertaking. He knew
he might be reproached with rashness in giving an opi-
nion on military matters, but some points wero so clear
and apparent, that even a civilian might discover and ex-
pound them, and he considered this to be one. He must
say also that he had not met with a single military man
who had not expressed the same opinion. Sir Howard
Douglas stated, while the siege was going on, that the
undertaking was hopeless, and could never succeed, and
if any person wished to know the foundation of that
opinion let him look to the excellent publication of that
gallant and distinguished officer, and the unanswerable
reasons therein stated. Having forced the entrench-
ments of the Russian army at Alma, it was found vain
to attempt to besiege the northern side of the place,
with an army inferior to the besieged in force, and our
efforts were therefore restricted to the southern face.
The bombardment opened, and at the expiration of the
very first day it was seen that a protracted siege must
be looked for. Then commenced that series of suffer-
ings, painful, horrible, heartrending, which no language
could exaggerate or even adequately describe. Strange
to say, a Government composed of enlightened
men expected to hear from day to day of the sur-
render of Sebastopol, and the noble lord then at the
head of the Government, in an address delivered to the
people of Aberdeen, said he thought it not improbable
that at. that very moment the city might actually have
fallen. The country saw with horror the indifference
manifested by the Government during the last autumn,
when, instead of every man remaining at his post to
watch over an enterprise on which the result of the war
depended, which involved the character of the Govern-
ment and the safety of our army, the members of the
Administration, with one or two exceptions, spread
themselves in all directions, some going to the High-
lands, some to their rural retreats, and a noble lord, to
whom he bad more than once alluded, lecturing upon
history to the agricultural audience of Bedford, and
amusing with philosophical speculations the industrious
inhabitants of Bristol. He could not be surprised at
the indignation felt by the country, or at that me-
morable outburst of aggrieved feeling which overthrew
the late Administration. As the ancient Romans
elected a dictator in the crisis of their destinies, so
the people looked out for some eminent statesman
to repair our disasters and restore our fortunes,
and the public voice was in favour of the noble vis-
count. How far the wishes and expectations which had
led to the noble lord's elevation had been satisfied he
would not say. But he begged to remind the noble vis-
count that those who depended on popular favour rested
on an unstable basis, and that the people were apt, after
a certain interval, like children, to break their favourite
toys. In a moment of indignation they bad been known
to destroy the idols an which they rested for sup-
port and defence, and the hierophants who engaged to
perform a miracle were greeted, when it failed, with
hoots and groans by the impatient populace.
The Earl of CLARENDON thought his noble and
learned friend, during three-fourths of the highly eloqtient
speech he bad just delivered, had deviated so far from
the subject of the motion of which he had given
notice, that he was warranted in calling the attention
of their lordships to this contradiction. Htis noble
and learned friend in the early part of his speech
made, as he was sure to do, a most able and lucid
statement, though he was not aware of the practical utility
of the course pursued, nor had his noble and learned
friend offered any suggestions, or made any particular
inquiries. His noble and learned friend had, however,
adopted a tone in speaking of the late negotiations, and
of our relations with foreign powers, of which he highly
approved. It was a very different tone from one that
had been too frequently held during the last few years,
both in speeches made in that house and in writings out
of it, and on which it had been more than once his duty
to animadvert. He was sorry to say that the course pur-
sued by heated and over-ardent partisans in this country
had done us much injury abroad, and especially in Ger-
many. When this war began we had with us the warm
sympathies and good-wishes of four-fifths of the German
people. They were exasperated by the thraldom in which
their Governments were held by Russia, whose influence
they well knew was directed to overawe Germany, to
repress progress, and to extinguish freedom in every
form. There was, therefore, at first, a feeling almost of
shame amongst the Germans that England and France
should be left alone in this contest. But he was sorry to
say that this feeling bad greatly changed, in conse-
quence of the tone that had been adopted here towards
foreign countries, and Germany particularly. There had
been so little cordiality on the one hand or discrimina-
tion on the other, so little care to distinguish between
our friends and our enemies, so great a proneness to consi-
der all those who were not entirely with us as being with
our enemies, that a feeling of resentment had been en-
gendered against us, and extreme industry had been
used, especially since the termination of the late confer-
ences, to spread abroad whatever could be injurious to
this country. He rejoiced to perceive that his noble and
learned friene did not add to these difficulties and embar-
rassments by the tone he adopted. For himself, he must
speak under a deep sense of responsibility—(hear)—and
in the position he had the honour to fill he was deter-
mined that he would not go beyond the strict line of his
duty, and he would rather expose himself to the censure
of their lordships for undue reserve than for indiscreet
loquacity. (Hear.) In the few observations he was now
about to address to their lordships, he would neither
be the apologist of Austria nor her accuser. He
agreed with his noble and learned friend, and he had
said so on various occasions in that house, that Austria
would have better consulted her dignity and interest,
with respect both to Russia and Germany, if she had
from the first adopted a firmer tone and assumed a more
elevated position. He believed that she would have
greatly promoted, nay, that she would have secured, the
restoration of peace, and would have prevented those
Russian intrigues and German compliances and submis.
sions which Nve had witnessed. But Austria was a great
and independent power, and although we might lament
that her line of policy should not be identical with our
own, we had no right and no reason to abuse her on
that account. Like ourselves, she was guided by regard
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