The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-05 00:00:00

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Spirit of the Public Journal!. ,
(From A. Times of this day.)
%, • 144 A -*)
In war moral influences are even more impor-
tant than material. A beaten army, though its 'Ai
numbers may only have been diminished byte
fifteenth or twentieth part, cannot properly be re-
presented as the army before the defeat minus those
who have perished in action. It is another and a
different army ; it has lost its identity, it is terri-
fied at dangers which it would have despised, and
cowed out of the confidence which it once felt in its
own bravery and discipline. On the other hand,
a victorious army is twice itself ; its difficulties, its
dangers, its despondencies are forgotten, and it
goes forward in the confidence that its past suc-
cesses are only the preludes to future triumphs.
These are not merely abstract truths, but are the
principles ou which every great General in ancient
or modern times has avowedly acted. It was not
Cesar alone who delighted to urge on his success
and press upon the favour of Fortune • the
same was the maxim of Hannibal and Napo-
poleon, of Marlborough anti of Wellington.
When the allies threw themselves on the shores
of the Crimea they undertook a difficult and
dangerous enterprise, but one which, if success-
ful, must have the greatest material and moral
effects. They attacked a fortress which they could
not invest, and by so doing challenged the whole
force of the empire of Russia to meet them in nar-
row lists behind enormous fortifications, and to
avert, if they could, the destruction of the strong-
hold Russia had built for the subjugation of the
East. But in proportion to the magnitude of the
enterprise was sure to be the moral efect of its sUC•
cessful termination. The success of the Bth of Sep-
tember was something better than a surprise ; it
was a victory gained in despite of all the power
that an empire boasting a million of men under
arms could put forth to prevent it. It was a clear
proof of superior strength—it was au undeniable
demonstration of the ascendancy of the allies.
Let even the least imaginative of our readers
compare the feelings of the Russian troops as, by
the light of their blazing town and to the sound of
their exploding forts and magazines, they crossed
over a' precarious bridge which ksingle chance
shell, -might let any moment h*areleff-ketantee,
leaving behind them their wounded, •six thousand
cannon, enormous stores of ammunition and provi-
sions, their splendid arsenal, their beautiful dock,,
tho city which so many of the best and bravest of
their comrades had died to defend, and, above all,
the great name and world-wide reputation of Rus-
sia ;—let any one, we say, compare the feelings of
these men with those of the allies, placed, by a
success at the rapidity and decisiveness of which
they themselves were astounded, in possession of:a
prize so long sought and so dearly earned ; and
let him then judge whether the relative force of
~he two armies could fairly be computed by their
respective numbers, or whether the victorious had
not gained a moral superiority over the van-
quished which no arithmetical statement could
adequately represent. Who was there who did
not expect, as soon as the news of that mighty
overthrow reached him, that the glorious
opportunity would be seized to follow up this
blow by another, and efface present success in the
brightness of future exploits ? Never was there
a more commanding situation. The allied armies
were flushed with victory, in high health, and pos•
sessed, in their enormous fleet now set at liberty,
the means of moving with speed and secrecy to any
part of the coast which they might think proper to
occupy. Kaffa, and Arabat seemed only to await
the advent of the conqueror, and the communica-
tion from Simpheropol to Perekop seemed open to
their attack in its whole extent. Opportunity
called them trumpet-tongued to action. The very
seasons fought for them, and two months and a
half of the calmest and most beautiful weather that
can be imagined invited them to commence and
complete a new and glorious campaign before the
coining of winter.
They had just achieved a victory at which the
world stood amazed, and in comparison with
which everything else seemed easy of accomplish-
ment. i What has been done with this splendid
army and this glorious situation—these elements of
triumph, these materials of almost certain success ?
Let us see. Omer Pasha has been sent to Asia
to rouse Christian populations against Christian
Russia, without a single brigade of the allied
troops to bear him company, and counteract the
prejudice of the inhabitants against the Turks.
Yet, even so, his success has been far greater than
anything achieved by the allies. Kinbourn has
been taken, but no atterrpt has been made to ad-
vance from the basis of operations thus obtained
upon Cherson or Nicolaieff. From Eupatoria,
place fortified with so much care and cost as if for
the express purpose of throwing ourselves upon the
communications of the Russian army, the opera-
tions of the allies have been ludicrously ineffective
and inidequate. After one sharp cavalry action,
in which just enough was done to show how much
eeeee west posnil.le, t.bn oiling have oontonted them-
selves with advancing towards the Russian posi-
tion three or four times, and then returning by the
way they came without honour and without loss.
Equally energetic has been the conduct of
the main army. It has walked into defiles and
fastnesses only to walk out of them again, and
after a series of objectless manceuvres finds itself,
after a wilful waste of ten invaluable weeks, just
where it was when the IVlalakhoff fell into its
power. The Russian communications are not
interrupted, and they are left, by a force of
200,000 men and a fleet of unexampled strength,
to make their preparations as best they may against
the coming of the winter—the only enemy they
have to dread, and the rigours of which are happily
not under our control. Meanwhile our fleet is
coming home ; our marines—a force fully equal to
any we possess—are being landed in England ; the
Imperial Guard has returned to France ; Malta,
Scutari, and Pera are looking forward to a winter
enlivened by the presence of many a Crimean
hero ; and our cavalry, having done nothing at the
camp, are about to repeat the same process in the
suburbs of Constantinople. Road-making arid
hut-building have been the occupation of the vie-
tors during the best season of the year, and the
sterner pursuits of war are agreeably relieved by
theatricals and steeplechases. Except for the
enormous cost—except for the great anxiety,
for the risk of disease, and the possibility
of calamities like the great explosion of the
15th of November, this mighty land and
naval armament, adequate in competent
hands for the conquest of the world might
as well have been anywhere since the Bth of
September as in the dominions of our obstinate and
vigilant adversary. We talk at home of " the
vigorous prosecution of the war," and here every-
body is in earnest, but since the Bth of September
that great business seems to have stood entirely
still.

Cf4aPk4o

Who is to blame for this miserable and ludicrous
fifth act to the great and glorious tragoly, the first
act of which was Alma, the second Inkerman,
the third the repulse of the 18th of June, the
fourth the battle of the Tchernaya and the storm-
ing of the Malakhoff ? There is no difficulty in
answering the question. We have never been
slow to censure the English commanders ; but
with the English commanders, in this instance,
the blame does not rest. The recall of General
Simpson followed so immediately after the Bth
of September that it necessarily paralysed all
exertion on his part, and General Ciodrington has
been so short a time in command that it were
utterly unreasonable to censure his inaction. But
Marshal Pelissier was encumbered by no such
hindrances. The telegraphic wire that brought to
an
and d of
Paris the news of the fall of Sebastopol bore back
to him for answer the baton of a Marshal. Ile
possessed
h isarmy, them ene,onmfiadteenr
material,
,o
b d
f boundless
Governmentlessresources
opportunities, and from the Bth of September
to the present day he has done
nothing—absolutely
nothing. Was the season too far
advanced ? On
the 2d of December, exactly fifty c years ago,
Napoleon, with an array which he had marched
from Boulogne to Australitz, fought and won a
great battle, a portion of the conflict actually tak-
ing place on the ice. Were his forces inadequate?
In how many of the great battles of the world
has
ene-half the force the disposal
of the
Allies in the at , _
Crimea ever been brought into
action . ? Did he dread an attack from the
Russians ? On the 16th of August a few
thousand men defeated on the Tchernaya with ease
the attempt of five times their number to force his
lines. Then they had Sebastopol to fight for ;
now they could hope nothing beyond a barren and
most improbable victory. We have waited till the
last moment in hopes that something would be
done. There is hardly any enterprise in which the
French General had not a fair chance of success,
or in which, had he failed, we should hatvenvenat-
tured. to blame him ; but to attempt no hi
g
all—to waste two months and a-half of valuable
uabl e
time in utter inaction—to give the enemy time to
recover and the enthusiasm of his own troops to
, evaporate—to stand on the defensive when a thou-
, me
-ve warfare wer
sand means of offensi
—to play a losing g,
when a winning one was in.
Its so grave that we canlonger
his hands, are faults no A
keep silence, or P_ ~reiend to acqui
esce in the pro-
; priety of a line of conduct so fatal to our troops
- azid so inglorious to our arms.

DISCOVERY OF THli BODY OP A CHILD.--Yesterday
morning considerable sensation was created at No. 80,
Dudley-street, St. Giles's, in consequence of the dia•
covery of the dead body of a child in a deal box on the
landing. The legs and jaws were tied tightly up, and
little doubt is entertained but that the poor infant 'not
with an untimely end,