The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-26 00:00:00

LONDON, THUEZSDAT, JULY 26, 1855.

"Nothing new from the Crimea !" That nm.
appears a stereotyped paragraph in every journal
We must not, however, suppose that the time i
wasted, or that our gallant soldiers indulge in an:,
unnecessary inactivity. No ; although no dt-
cisive action has been attempted since the info:-
tuna.te attack of the 18th June, neither officer,
nor men of the Allied Armies have been idl
They have been steadily and laboriously pre-
paring for a repetition of the onslaught under mon
favourable auspices. They now know the rea'
difficulties they have to encounter ; and, while
they can rely ou their own prowess and resolu-
tion, they will yet take care that no obsttuctim,
which can ho got rid of shall remain. I,
may be all very well to be prodigal of hums'
life when any great object is to be achieved.
An apparent prodigality may be true economy ;
but a reckless disregard of life, where it can b
spared, is anything but true bravery. A Judi.
cious General will always have to consider many
conflicting points. He must be competent to
balance the advantages belonging to different
promptly and correctly on
courses, and to decide
that which combines the greatest number. The
climate, the supplies, the health of his army, the
quantity of work, and the time within which it
elements in the
must be accomplished, are all
calculation—to each of which due weight must
be accorded, and without full and accurate know-
ledge of all the premises it is difficult to criticiE,
the existing state of affairs.
The time has not, as we have stated, by any
means been wasted or misspent. Not only
have our approaches been carried close to the
points of attack, but our men have acquired much
valuable experience respecting, the Russian tactice.
We now know the necessity of
promptitude against
such a any success must be rapidly fol-
lowed up, and that there must not be the slightest.
rest afforded to such inil2fati
gable labourers, who.
reversing the conduct aPF-z•rELoPE, have invari-
ablyrepair during
contrived to the night the
damage of the day. The result of the 18th Juno i
might have been very different had then© been a I.
few hours' cannonading in the morning before tha
actual assault, and had the enemy been driven
into confusion by the fire of the Allies
before the escalade was attempted. We,
have had a severe lesson not to undervalue
the adversary, and we are convinced that it will
not-se= disregarded on the next 7 occasion, whic'e,
may arrive more speedily than we
have
notion of. Indeed it should not at all surim'in
us if we heard that the failure of the 18th Jun.;

lead 1 een signally avenged during the current

on th,

Tha conduct of the Russian war steamers which
iflicted such serious damage on the Allied ranks

is also taught us tho necessity of silencing their
lire on the next occasion. There are ample means
JZ doing so, and we believe that they will not
,lotv be disregarded. The Russian navy has been
reduced, and it requires but steady determination
io complete the work commenced by their own
hands, and to bring the Black Sea Fleet

vithin narrower limits than those suggested by
the French and English Plenipotentiaries at
the Conferences of Vienna. This can and must
ie accomplished ; and it will not only greatly
:'Acilitate the chief object in view, viz.—the cap-
tire or destruction of Sebastopol, but it will,
aken per se, be a very important achievement,

which. will materially add to the stability and
,ecurity of the Ottoman empire.
Many well-informed and sound-judging persons
tssert, and with much apparent reason, that the

very difficulties we have experienced during the
siege will be productive of beneficial results, and

go far to reduce the Russian Power, and to change
the policy inaugurated by PETER, and steadily

- -
kept in view by CATHERINE, by NICHOLAS, and
the two ALEXANDERS. They say that had Sebas-
topol been captured by a coup de main imme-
diately after the victory of the Alma, it
would, in pursuance of the ABERDEEN policy, have
been restored uninjured to Russia, and that our
then Government would have acted on the dan-
gerous and injudicious principle of " saving the
honour of Russia," and of patching up a peace
which, if not inglorious, would be transitory,
Affording no permanent or binding security to
Turkey or Europe. The successes so easily
Achieved might have been undervalued, and the
restoration of a fortress, the capture whereof was
so speedily effected, might be looked on as a mat-
ter of comparatively trivial importance. Now we
know better. We can form a more correct esti-
mate of its great value to Russia, and of the
magnitude of the perpetually impending menace
to Constantinople. Palma non sine pulvere is
A sound principle, and the blood and treasure
already expended will not be thrown away, if we
Ire thereby induced to keep what we have so la-
boriously attained. All matters, too, are looking
Wore favourable for our aims. The climate is
rather better than was expected, and the disease
and sickness are already dying away. Oa the
whole there is no reason for repining, or sup-
posing that we shall not accomplish that on which
we have set our hearts—the complete destruction
of Sebastopol, arid the annihilation of the Russian
Fleet in the Ermine, so that they will be com-
pelled for the best possible reasons to assent to
he complete neutrality of the Black Sea, and its
becoming, so far as they are concerned—a " mere
commercial lake."

We wish for nothing unreasonable ; nothing
which, in the slang of the Treasury benches,
vould be "inconvenient," or " detrimental to
he public service." There are, however, very
strong grounds for thinking that a distinct
tvowal by our Government of what they aim
►t by the War would be of the greatest ad-
vantage to the public service. The pleasures of
autumn will soon part even those attached friends,
our Cabinet and its Parliament, and hitherto we
have had nothing yet more explicit than those
elastic words, "a safe and honourable peace.''
The Vienna Conferences have but too plainly
shown how those convenient words may be twisted
to any meaning which sophistry and subserviency
to Austria and the COBURGS may wish. The
Treaty of December 2d proved that it was con-
sidered secure and honourable for us to be bound
to help Austria while she might evade helping us ;
but the Four Points proved that a peace which
no one now considers, to use the language of Lord
LYNDHURST, worth the paper its terms would be
written on, was capable of being thought by a
whole English Cabinet safe and honourable !
peace of paper securities against hereditary bar-
barism, perfidy, and violence combined—against
the most remorseless and shameless ambition
which ever sacrificed its own slaves to make slaves
of other countries. We believe our countrymen
now almost shudder to think of the ignominy
which they have mercifully escaped. Far better
for our reputation with posterity to have sustained
great military and naval reverses, and to have
made peace on disadvantageous terms, because
fairly beaten in the field, than thus, with a vast
army in the Crimea, and omnipotent in the Baltic
and Euxine, to have signed a cowardly treaty on
the basis of the Four Points. - Well may W.) be
alarmed at the idea of leaving for six months the
interpretation of this cant phrase in such con-
victed hands.

We cannot, moreover, forget that Lord JouN
RUSSELL was betrayed yet farther. He could
think it both a secure and honourable peace if
Russia were allowed to muster for another Sinope,
with a proviso fcr its prevention abGut as
good as that which we possessed at the moment
of that perfidious massacre. Nor was Lord JOHN
done ; other British statesmen of mark, some not
just now in power, but others it is to be feared,
intriguing under shelter of leaders, who know
better how to adapt their language to the views
of the nation, concur with him. A secure and
honourable peace, therefore, may, in the Ger-
manised conceptions of men in high positions, be
understood in a sense the very reverse of that in
which the nation understands it. Had Parlia-
ment not been sitting this spring, we think it quite
within the range of probability that an Austro-
Coburg peace might have been patched up for us by
secret diplomacy, which we could only have cen-
sured afterwards, but been practically powerless to
alter. -We much fear, however, that suspicion of
the secret
cause of such mean and un-English policy
would have shaken the security of the Throne,
and would certainly
have entirely destroyed its
popularity,
really tender herile rw
ST
ru'sst bade
vcisa reerfl taos mtahieny-
tain her throne on the basis .of English, not of
German, sentiments.

With. these facts before 1-13, then, we think it
would be most advantageous to the public service
for her MAJESTY'S Ministers
voluntarily, or by
compulsion, to declare in some
definite expressions
what they think will be a safe
honourable
ail
peace. The country has rejected lvit
of humiliation what has been offered in th '
- name
of England and h9r Allies—iu the name of irre-
sistible naval power, ImNvhdautuhiiaisuioteurrl
Gmijlvitearrnyol,t
and
pecuniary resources.
learned by the nation's contempt? Are they pre-
pared to give ns real securities instead of Russian
bonds ? We believe this is the kernel of the
question. Russia, for her villanous purpcmes,
fully understands this. When she wanted the
SULTAN to sign a suicidal treaty or note, she took
the real security of the Provinces. Russia is a
sound and safe political banker fur her own Fur-
obtaining the
-Pfoorseisi,ol:dt telinedcsomt:ttonoisienwshe oielif Englandnu approvessareliedl
ends of her ambition. The cause of
our ill-success
hitherto has been our infirmity of
prirpose.
otfo
~,hinitri,i:,,,ni, intimidate Rnueastatobybian
Our C. °BURG Cabinets have thought fit
apahrade of soldiers and
ar Ly paper bonds.