The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-29 00:00:00

upset. go effort wiLsi made to retrieve either of
these most important positions on the 26th. We
may therefore judge how "heavy was the blow,"
how great the discouragement, inflicted on the
Muscovites.

But while our gallant Allies were making such
mportant progress, the French and British fleets

were not idle. The expedition to Kertch, which
was so strangely abandoned, was resumed, and
crowned with the most signal success. On the
24th instant, the anniversary of the birth
of our most gracious Q ETEE.N, the Allied
expedition arrived off the Straits of Kertch.
The troops landed and ascended the heights while
the small steamers went up to the town. There
was scarcely an attempt at resistance. The Rus-
sians blew up their fortifications, destroyed
several of their vessels—about thirty in number
—while thirty more were captured, together with

fifty guns, and on the following day Sir GEORGE
BROWN reached Yenikale, having previously
destroyed a foundry, near Kertch, where shot,
shell, and Minie balls were manufactured, and
which doubtless contributed largely to the appa-
rently boundless supply of missiles, of which the
garrison of Sebastopol so largely availed them-
selves.

It is scarcely possible to estimate too highly
the consequences of this most important move-
ment. The Sea of Azoff is now as completely
under our control as the Euxine Has been since
the commencement of the war. The most copious
channel of supply to the Russian troops has been
totally blocked up. It is, indeed, the first
decisive blow against Russia, and one that will
create consternation not only in Sebastopol and
throughout the Crimea, but at St. Petersburg
itself, for it will be evidence that the Allies have
indeed resolved to carry on the War in earnest,
'and to conquer the peace that could not be
obtained by fair means or peaceful negotiations.

When we consider the importance of this re-
sult, and the ease with which it was accom-
plished, we are only astcnished that it was not long
since attempted. We can, however, only attribute
this to the restrictions imposed by those at home,
We must recollect that it was on Monday, the
21st, that Mr. MILNER GIBSON'S dodge was prac-
tised, that hopes of accommodation were not then
abandoned by the English Cabinet. The feeling
then excited among the people was too power-
ful to be resisted. Mr. DISRAELI gave notice
of his motion on the 22d, and on that night the
French attack was made on the I-lace d'Armes, on
the 23d the admirable letter of Count WALEWSKI
was written, on the 24th Kertch was captured,
and on the 25th the lines of the Tchernaya and
Yenikale were taken possession of, and Lord JOHN
RUSSELL made his war speech. On the 26th no-
thing was done by the Russians to retrieve their
losses, and Lord PALMERSTON came out strong,
hinting that the Peelites would not be re-elected.
These are strange coincidences, which seem to in-
dicate the real causes of our past want of success.
We only hope that we may not be cajoled into
new negotiations, calculated to produce apathy
and indifference where all should be zeal and
energy, and to damp the spirits of our soldiers
and sailors, as well asof those who, though "living
at home at ease," submit cheerfully to the sacri-
fices required by the war.

To say of a man that he is both audacious and
vacillating may appear to be a contradiction in

terms. Far, however, from this being the case,

few quiet observers of human nature but must
remember individuals they have met with in their
career whose rashness found its only counterpart

in their timidity, and who seemed entirely inca.

pable of the golden mean. Such men have their

use, but they are somewhat dangerous, often do

mischief, and invariably disappoint, at one time
or another, those who put their trust in them.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL to wit.

If any doubt existed as to his Lordship belong-
ing to the above category, the correspondence

between him and Lord ABERDEEN in reference to
the Duke of NEWCASTLE and the mismanagement
of the War must have gone far to remove it.
The case was a very serious one. Day by day
the public ear was thrilled with details of suffer-
ing and death that were positively heartrending.
Official authority vainly questioned their accu-
racy, as vainly, though less feebly, than official
energy strove to remove the cause. Among those
impressed with the magnitude of the evil, and
who doubted the fitness of the Minister charged
with the conduct of the war for his post, it is
impossible to deny his Lordship a place. We
have no doubt he sincerely deplored the fearful
havoc mismanagement was playing with our brave
troops, and would willingly have seen. a stop put
to it ; and it is quite certain that he possessed
the power to do this, at least in part, as it is
that on occasions of infinitely less importance he
has shown himself bold, even to rashness. What
did he do ? Addressed himself to Lord ABERDEEN,
declaring that such mismanagement must go on
no 'longer, and resolutely demanding a change ?
No ! he did " the diplomatic." He wrote
paper No. 1 to Lord ABERDEEN, suggest-
ing the weakest possible reason for the
most urgently needful step, and had the copy
filed and docketted. Then came No. 3 in reply
to No. 2, and No. 5 in reply to No. 4—the army,
the noble gallant army reeling daily with weak-
ness in the trenches, and dying of pestilence by
hundreds in the hospitals. The Lieutenant-
General to the Bishop of DURHAM, who had
sounded a blast that echoed through the Vatican,
could not find the manliness to say in plain terms
to his political chief, "My Lord ABERDEEN, his
Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE ought no longer
to be Minister of War ; therefore, in the interests
of this great country, and for the salvation of its
perishing army, I demand his removal." The de-
mand bad only to have been resolutely made and
persisted in to have insured the change. But no ;
his Lordship had not as yet rallied from the ex-
haustion following on his ridiculous anti-Papal
blast. He was all vacillation when he should
have been all decision and promptitude, and only
found determination when no man could call it

courage.
Not that Lord ABERDEEN could for one moment
have been in doubt as to the means of his subor-
dinate. The cold-blooded Thane knew it from
the first, and succeeded the better on this account
in bamboozling his Lordship. " None so deaf,"
says the proverb, "as those who will not hear,"
and on the same principle, none so obtuse as those
who will not understand. So the Eirl of ABER-
DEEN replied to what Lord JOHN wrote, and
took no notice of what he wishel to say. The
whole affair reminds us of those strange old plays
where farce seems to speak with bloody chops.
One could laugh at the fencing of these two diplo-
matists were it not for the indignation which their
misconduct inspires. Only look at it ; one of
them hesitating to say what his feeble virtue
suggestedinaiffer eutheteoutghhet,
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to maintain, at all
hazards and all costs, the Duke of NrivcAsTLE in