The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-07 00:00:00

The siege of Sebastopol seems likely to give almost
equal employment to the civil and the military engineer.
Strangely enough, it is from the science of peace and
industry tbat the highest exertions and the most inge-
nious devices are being demanded in this most obstinate
of warlike struggles. Where is the disciple of Vauban
now, with all the elaborate mystery of his art—his
scarps and counterscarps, his raveling and lunettes ? A
mound of earth, strong and broad as the embankment
which carries a railway over a valley, with heavy can-
non at a series of apertures, is the last result of the
great theories of fortification. Veterans of Badajoz and
distinguished young men from Woolwich have alike
been foiled by what is only the old Tartar system of for-
tification, by which the Sultans of Adrianople strength-
ened their c Imps at Belgrade or Varna, and
which might be to the Russians a reminiscence of the
days of Ivan Vasilievitch. While each succeeding
month has lowered the reputation of military science,
and while events have falsified the predictions of its
great authorities, the services of the civilian have be-
come more and more appreciated, and are now declared
necessary to the safety of the four armies. The great
discoveries which 40 years of peace have given to man-
kind are now found the best aid to success in warlike
enterprise, and it may be some consolation to those who
think, perhaps justly, that England is behind her ally in
military preparation ard military skill, to find that in
the application of these discoveries under unprecedented
conditions she takes the lead, and that to the judgment
and science of British civilians important military works
have been committed by the commander of the most
scientifically educated army in the world. Tb•
Black Sea has for months been spanned by the
longest electric wire yet laid down, and the weary
distance between Balaklava and the camp made
less exhausting by a railway. The former of these
enterprises was viewed with dislike by many in camp,
wno foreboded early intelligence to the Russians and a
commander-in-chief in Downing-street ; while the rail-
way was expected to do little, and regarded rather as
the expedient of a desperate Minister than as a reason-
able scheme. Most complete success has attended both
these works, which have added not a little to our repu-
tation in the East. The advantages of the summer have
been mainly due to the railway, and the speedy trans-
rnis-ion of news has deepened the interest of both na-
tions in the war, while it gives greater facilities for its
efficient conduct. Now that preparations for a second
winter divide with warlike plans the attention of the
generals, the presence of Mr. Beattie, the constructor of
the present railway, is looked upon as opportune, and
we learn that his services have just been secured for two
other works. The one is a railway from what is called
the Col de Balaklava to Kamiesh, to be worked by
horse-power ; the other is from Kadikoi to the Woron-
zoff-road, past the Sardinian position. The labour on
both lines will be supplied by the French and the Sar-
dinians, for whose use the works are de-tined. It cannot
be doubted that the positions near the Tchernaya would
be untenable without such facilities of transport as it
has been resolved to create. Last winter, although the
traffic between Balaklava and the camp was carried
along what was actually a road, yet men and beasts sank
into a depth of mud which no artist has had the courage
to delineate. A passage across the plain of Balaklava
after weeks of rain would probably be entirely impractic-
able for animals. Either, then, the immense army of the
Allies must quit its present extended and advantageous
positions, to crowd together on the narrow plateau which
fronts Sebastopol, or it must have means of transport of
which former warfare was ignorant. This advantage mo-
dern, and we may say British, science will give it. Greater
facilities may henceforth be expected in the conduct of
military operations. When, in the old times, an
army went into winter quarters, it was not only because
the troops would otherwise perish from cold, or that they
could not live in huts of their own construction, as well
as under such shelter as they often found in a narrow
fortified town. It was hecauce all transit was impos-
sible, and the army must starve unless stationed in the
close vicinity of its stores. The allies have no winter
quarters to retire on, and necessity has taught them new
expedients, which will pass into the system of future
warfare.
It will be indeed disgraceful if the nation which, in
addition to great material resources, possesses such
scientific skill, should a second time fail to insure the
means of comfort, and even of existence, to its compara-
tively small army. It cannot, however, be denied that
anprehensions prevail, and the opinions of those on the
spot are, no doubt, well expressed in the letter of our
cerrespondent which appeared yesterday. Balaklava is
well known by description. A small narrow harbour is
entirely surrounded by steep and lofty hills. Its waters,
of great depth, admit the largest steamers and Indiamen
of the British marine, and, so far, the place is invalu-
able. Outside is an ironbound coast of perpendicular
rocks, in the creeks of which are still to be seen timbers
of the ill-fated ships dashed to pieces in the November
gale. Here the transports which cannot find room in-
side ride in 30 fathoms water, in compulsory disregard
of that terrible warning. Balaklava was too small for
the army of last December ; now the effective strength
is largely increased, while there is a vast number of
subtlers, muleteers, Land Transport Corps, and their
animals, who must be fed. The British Commissariat
issues more than 60,000 rations, and the number is said
to increase. Balaklava will also have to supply the
needs of the Turks and Piedmontese, and pertly of the
French.. It will he the terminus of two railways, and will
be the sole landing-place of supplies for 100,000 men,
with all the mules and horses. which belong to them.
No doubt space and transport will be economised, but
these improvements are slow, and facts now and then
appear which throw a doubt on the reality of the much-
lauded progress. It is certain that up to the summer,
and long after Ministers were self-complacent and the
public satisfied, chopped straw was stored in ocean
steamers hired at a cost of 121. per month, and the prac-
tice may still prevail. But, if Balaklava be to serve
three armies, great energy and great powers of organi-
sation must succeed whatevr r has hitherto been indolent
or narrow in the conduct of affairs.
Many other matters we hear that deserve praise
ase open to censure. It is gratifsing to learn that, in the
opinion of its constructor, the railway is likely to last
when certain repairs shall have been made. Other reads,
however, are required, many more storehouses must be
built, and, above al, strict and intelligible regulations
promulgated for the conduct of transport and commis-
sariat affairs. Our French allies are busily engaged on
all these things, and only a similar forethought can pre-
vent a repetition of our former disasters. On the whole
while we admit the good intentions of Government, and
do not doubt the exertions of those intrusted with duties
on the spot, we cannot but think that there are reasons
for vigilance, if not grounds for apprehension. The pre-
parations may be complete, but their sufficiency should
be so evident as not to leave a sceptic.
If the prospects of our own army are such as to cause
some anxiety, thoseof the Russians are, as far as we can
learn, gloomy indeed. We are not among those who
would encourage the pernicious belief, so natural to na-
tions at war, that our enemies are always at their last
gasp. There has probably been too much of this, and
the consequences have been hurtful in no small degree
lenorant and reckless writers have much to answer
for. Yet they may be proud, for they have de-
luded not only the nation, but its rulers. The
Czar had not a general he could trust ; the guns
of Sebastopol could not be fired without bringing
down the rotten batteries ; the Commissariat
plundered everything; the bayonets were tin, the round
shot wood, the powder sawdust. A year ago how many
of these things were believed ! Yet, though we think
it better to overestimate than to undervalue the enemy.
and deem it a wholesome opinion that the Russians will
not be starved until we starve them, facts become known
which show their sufferings and losses with a clearness
which removes all doubt. From the statements of pri-
soners it is ascertained that the troops at Mackenz;e's
Farm are almost without water ; and, ghoul I the pre-ent
month not bring rain to renew the sprit g 4, the position
will have to be evacuated. The men who were sr rueht
down, ill and thirsty, to fight on the Tchernaya, were
told during the march that they would find a noble
stream guarded by a few weak outposts. After the
murderous repulse they marched back to Mackenzie,
ender the burning sin of an August day, to their miser-
able camp of parched grass and dried-up wells. But
these are sufferings to be evaded by a day's march to
the rear. The real season of endurance will be the
winter. The Russian generals have the same difficulty
as ourselves ; the number of those they have to feed is
largely increased ; the Grenadiers are in camp, and the
army of Poland has for months been marching south-
ward. The transport which must supply these increased
necessities must be actually diminished. Carried on en-
tirely by cattle, it has a tendency to exhaustion, for the
beasts must centinually be sought for over an increasing
radius, and to this extension there is manifestly a limit.
That the Russian army will be forced by famine to eva-
cuate its positicns cannot be predicted,i but that its
msto
make
fori t
b
supportable, and it is our duty to neglect nothing which
pri-
vations will be terrible, its losses n men unprecedented,
and the expense of supporting it ruinous to the state,
woet both n
fully
believe.
oe ; A
bdurte dreary h
r
can ward off the unnecessary horrors of war.
ye
seasonave t he
approachingean

(IPnetn, the Daily Ncies of this day. )
Why should Sir James Graham so delight to gloat
over the horrors of war, an I to magnify the rerils of the
nation ? If our fleets were annihilated, and the enemy
at the gates of London, the late First Lord of the Ad-
miralty could not be more lugubrious than he seems to
have been the other day, at the turning of the first sod
of the Silloth Railway. For the present, at least, we
have done with all discussion as to protocols, and A lIP.
trian proposals, ane: Russian offers t; make peace. The
Governments of France an& of England may have been
reasonable or unreasonable in rejecting the proffered
terms. But wherefore this spirit of exaggeration which
pervades the speeches of Sir James Graham and his
brother Peeiitee ? With shame and painful surprise
we heard Mr. Gladstone, in the House of Commons,
describe the repulse of the 18th of June as a great
military disaster ; though surely the indignant burst of
eager denial which overwhelmed his half-finished asser-
tion must have convinced that daring orator that the
right of misrepresentation has its limits. With not less
impatient and angry surprise do the squires, the manu-
facturers, the railway contractors, and the multitude ap-
pear to have listened to Sir James Graham—Mr. Glad-
stone's late brother in arms—whilst with mock solemnity
' be thanked the directors for pasn ittine him, "amid the
din of war—amid the prodigal and fruitless expenditure
of millions of the public money—amid the grievances
and disasters, the death, the sickness, the wounds, and
the groans of thousands of lis fellow-creatures, to be
occupied in a work worthy of a great and commercial
people." Is this, indeed, the man who, but a few months
ago, with an indecorum and indiscre`ion which surprised
even his friends, talked fustian over his cups with the
Admiral of his choice—tdes most indisereet that es er
hoisted the British flare-7nd, like another Pistol, in his
foolish vanity. anticipated. with three times three, the
destruction of the Russian fleet ! The wine-inspired
braggadocio of the Reform Club was as childish ae the
whining solemnity of Friday last. The grave Angel',
who, in the midst of his homilies on the necessity of
maintaining the law and punishing imtno,ality, was plot.
ting against the virtue of the sainted Isabel, was not a
more melancholy spectacle of audacious inconsistency
than this Minister of War who has become a preacher
of peace. The sensible men he addressed at Drumburgh
felt the anomaly, and we rejoice that there was one pre-
sent—Mr. James—who was bold enough to express his
own feelings, which by the cheers with which he was
greeted were shown to he the fee-Here of the assembly.
Sir James 3raham knows full well—no man knows
better—that this talk of the horrors of war is a gross im-
position. He who attempts to persuade us to make
peace because of the horrors of war treats us like chil-
dren or cowards. If the war be just, and, therefore,
necessary, the war must be waged ; and its horrors, as
an unavoidable consequence, mus' be patiently endured.
Are the people of Erp,.'aed to be awed into submission be-
cause they cannot endure wounds and death ? Are they
not. rather, having accel tad the reepen3ibilities oea great
nation, to make their power felt even to the ends of the
earth ? Sir J. Graham er Mr. Gladstone may convince us,
if they can, that the war is untiecessarilyprolonged ; but let
them not degrade their cause and insult their audience by
womanish arguments, which only serve to excite in it
impatience, not unmingled with contempt.
There was, indeed, something singularly humorous in
the way in whi, h the chairman endeavoured to extricate
the illustrious Baronst fr ,m the false position into which
his peace oration had broeght him. Having commanded
the inspiriting song of "The Englishman"—having ap-
plied to Sir James a treatment strineely analogous to
that applied by ingenious horse-dealers to their sorriest
jades—he called upon the distineuished guest to give
the toast, " The Glory of our Native Land." From the,
he hoped there would be no escape. But the Baronet
as fatally failed to answer the call of patriotic enthu-
siasm as did Balsam of old, who gave blessing instead
of cursing. Having touched lightly upon the glories of
our arms, he assured the meeting that the arts of peace
have their triumphs as well as the arts of war, and then
passed, by an ingenious metaphor—by converting the
fretful and ever-moving Solway into a powerful adver-
sary—from war to peace, and her triumphs—the bridge
across the Menai Straits, and the achievements of Tel-
fordt
andf
and Stephenson ; until at length by some ingenious
o
turns and a touch of solemn pathos he converted the
Native ianytop`o!
ctoeasssttoof
h "The
e Carlisle r Glorylis
The Wizard of the North himself never achieved so
startling a transformation, nor did Sir John Falstaff ever
extricate himself from his difficulties with more daring
ingenuity.
If Sir James Graham were a younger man we might
expostulate with him. But we have watched his career
too closely. Length of days, confirmed habits, and, we
fear, a certain natural depravity, have long extinguished
any aspiration after a wise and high-souled statesman-
ship, which the enthusiasm of youth may have fanned
into a momentary life. Now, alas ! Sir James is impo-
tent of virtue. He must go to his own place. But
when we contemplate this man—his grave and venerable
appearance, his place in the House of Commons, his in-
sidious and practised dexterity, his unscrupulous ambi-
-- Lion, together with the precarious uncertainty of popular
(Front the Morning Post of this day.) feeling—we are not without misgivings lest the public
England, France, Sardinia, and Turkey have each an mind, suddenly overwhelmed by the perplexities of the
army in the Russian territories, and the Russian army time, may compel the Ministers to stoop from their lofty
which opposes them is the only one of the five armies in enterprise, axed to follow the humiliating footsteps of
question which finds it difficult to subsist there. This those three or four disappointed men
who, to satisfy
Russian army, on the soil of Russia, encounters the their spleen, would sink the honour of their country,
difficulty which more usually besets a foreign and in- Let .us, therefore, anatomise this bacchanalian Minister-
vading force. Every intelligent person in Europe at of-War and navvie-preacher of peace—this spirit-rapper
present understands that anomalous and, for Russia, of the buried Peel, who would fain persuade us he has
humiliating situation, and
knows the causes of it. The Lad revelations.
allies rest upon a sea which their fleets securely corn. Sir James Graham is neither more nor less than a
mand, and their provisions are floated to ports actually political infidel. The apostle of inconsistency, he wants
within the cordon of their own military lines. As in the only quality which can redeem that creed. Unlike
forcing the passage of a river, when the assailants pos. Canning or Peel—who, although inconsistent, were yet
sess all the boats, it is easier to effect the operation great—it is impossible to detect in the long career of
where the farther bank offers a salient angle, because Graham that element of real consistency which charac-
then the debarkation cannot be molested on either flank, tenses a true statesman. No man can fail to discern
so, for a similar "aeon, and in a much greater degree, a the noble sympathies of Canting, even when be was fol-
peninsula furnishes to naval powers the most favourable lowing the chariot-wheels of Eldon, or to recognise Peel's
scene for attacking on the land a great empire like Rus- principles of free trade in his very measures to secure
sia. Not only is thi, Crimea all round its coasts suekti protection. Without the dignity of character or the
to the visits of the allied flags, but as all the roads by f Scope of mind to originate a policy, Sir James Graham
which Sebastopol was victualled, except one, were roads has been by turns everything, according to the humour
which, in part of their line, ran along the sea—one of of the chief whom for the moment he was content to
them actually bridging a great lagune—the commissariat i follow. His is net the maul to be possessed by a great
exertions of the enemy—maintained by means of but- idea, the wisdom of which, if he could only see it
locks and carts have become mare difficult, perhaps, realised, he would willingly consent that the future should
a statesman with.
'
than those of any great army in the field ever were be. vindicate. No ; Sir James isGraham
fere. It in not strange, though it was injudicious, that out a policy, ate', like the sbaffcev week jobber in Cape?.
coact, hie judgment is ruled by the rumour of the hour.
orders should have been sent from St. Petersburg to make
an attack at once upon the besiegers ; and it is quite With a base passion for power, heightened by a lin•
gular talent for administration (for all msn delight to
easy to understand the gloomy impression which the