The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-25 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 25, 1855.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From the Morning Post of this day.)

It has been well remarked that the innumerable
sorties of the garrison of Sebastopol are explicable
only by the fact that the fortress has remained unin-
vested from the beginning. Restricted to no parti-
cular amount of reinforcements, unfettered in draw-
ing them along its line of communications, and plac-
ing them successively upon its ramparts—with a
blank cheque-book, Vin short, upon the whole
Scythian race—the town has been as prodigal in the
expenditure of blood as in that of ammunition. It
was never forced to live upon its own means—never
confined to its own resource:. Relieving armies
would be a misnomer for the procession of hosts
who have • proudly marched to the last bourne of
their stratagetic wanderings and removals in that
devouring gulph of war. They had nothing to
"relieve," in the military sense of the word,
but much to replace. They came but to sink
with a clash of arms into that huge, ever-
open pit, which still cried to all Russia for
more—more ! Sebastopol is still besieged, if be-
sieged be the word ; it is not shut away, but it is
still assailed on the front originally selected ; and
as its outworks fall, and its defences recede inwards,
it displays, under the most advantageous circum-
stances under which a city ever yet defended itself,
the inadequacy of resources far different from its own,
and far greater, to meet indefinitely the fierce, the
increasing, the persistent movement which is steadily
eating, as it were, through those bulwarks. The
great service which Sebastopol has rendered to
Russia, the great experiment for which it has af-
forded fair and full scope, is this—that it has given
time for more than half of that empire to come into
collision with the besiegers of a single one of its for-
tresses. No besieged city could ask from time itself
to effect more for it ; yet, though all this has been
effected for Sebastopol, the result is that every por-
tion of that time, every month, week, day, and almost
each hour, shows that the attack gains instead of
losing strength, and that the position of the de-
fenders is worse in comparison, at each of these in-
tervals, than at the preceding. Sebastopol can no
more free itself from the augmenting stringency of
the siege than a nut can free itself from the nut-
cracker ; on the other hand, all the efforts to wrench
our vantage-ground from us have been frustrated;
all the sallies of the defenders have been defeats ;
army after army has crowded into the town to
choke it up with their dead ; and now, as we re-
cently pointed out, the last desperate efforts to
answer the incessant drafts on the empire portend
a sort of military insolvency. Our Paris corres-
pendent may well pause to reflect upon the deso-
latino• march, at this time of year, over the water-
less Steppes. But what is the direction, and what
the lenoth of this march ? Dreary is the
expanse of burning tracts over which a
panting and diseased soldiery are now hurried
towards the provinces of Kherson, from Pultava,
from Kieff, from Tchernigoff, from Minsk, and.
Smolensko, and even from the Valdai Hills and
the fine forests of Ingria. They come fewer than
of old—they come more slowly, more painfully—
the need of them is greater—the enemy they will
encounter is more numerous, better equipped—
more terrible. The allies are indeed in a state
which, in every respect, presents an extraordinary
contrast to the hardships of their former situation.
All necessaries and all reasonable or attainable
comforts are theirs. The railway literally bears
" the sea's wealth" from the secure and now cheer-

f ul-looking emporium of Balaklava to the very
bosom of the armed leaguer. The electric tele-
12.raph shoots the intelligence of its most casual or
most unexpected wants to the distant seats of
empire ; ready and resolute, and able to supply
all these demands as fast as they can arise. The
encampment of the allies is really like the home of
their country—it is the devoted city beneath them
which resembles an abode of intruders a
place filled, like a charnel-house, with the misery,
the necessity, and the despair of a sojourner and
the stranger.
NGr is the comfort of their present posture more
remarkable in the Allies than the tenacious vigour
of their grasp. While every sally against them, as
ithas been truly noticed, is invariably knockerl down
the steep hills again, like a drunkard who is hurled
hack reeling and discomfited from some mighty arm
wh;oh he had flung himself, only two of
their own innumerable offensive or ext, ....0....w.-
ments of a precisely analogous nature have been suc-
cessfully resisted, and one of these was victoriously
renewed the next day, with complete and bloody
compensation for that solitary and temporary failure;
all the rest—all the other attacks (sallies, let us call
them, since the allied camp has itself undergone, it
is represented, a sort of counter-siege), all the other
sallies, then, from the beleaguering lines having
been so many distinct, permanent, and firm ad-
vances, from which there has been no retreat or
retirement ever afterwards. Had the measure of
success attending the Russian defence been at all
similar to that which has crowned our attack with
continually renewed victories, and led it onwards in
slow, indeed, but undeviating, unintermitted pro-
gress, our forces would long since have been lying
many a fathom deep in the Euxine. They are
otherwise circumstanced. And shall it be said—
will such men as Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladston e cause
it to he said—that our enemies persevere amidst re
verses, and that we falter in a career of triumph ?
that these barbarians, as some of us love to designate
them, can exhibit to us in their misfortunes a lesson
and an example which we have not the spirit to
emulate in our prosperity ?—that they bear a brave
heart through the still gloomier and gloomier sha-
dows of their truly awful situation, and that we sink
exhausted and dismayed under the light and encou-
ragement of advantages incessantly brightening ? If
so, the Russians have vanquished us already in all
the noblest qualities that war ever demanded or
warfare ever elicited. The question is now, as it
always is in such encounters, not merely which side
can inflict the severest pressure upon the other, but
also which side can bear the same amount of pres-
sure with greater constancy and more unyielding
faith.

We recoil from pursuing the obvious train of the
argument. It would lead us, were we to take a
wretched minority for the exponents of any consi-
derable portion of our community, to the most
humiliating conclusions. Doubtless it would be
more pleasant to achieve definitive success with-
out perseverance than with it. But we did not

go to war to consult what would be pleasant-
est. We have everything to cheer us. Never
was there a stronghold which has enjoyed such
means of throwing off its assailants ; never was
there, in all history, a• defence of any fortress
made under more favourable circumstances ; yet,
despite of all these things, and—far more—despite
of all our own mistakes and errors, we have
now to look back on a continuous course of triumph.
We are not far from its crowning attestation.. If,
under such auspices, we do not stand to this work
like one man till it be thoroughly done with, we
are unworthy of the associates by whose side we
fight—nay, unworthy even of the very enemies
against whom we contend.

(Front the
_...tM
tears.
rhr
se:ing Herald of this day. )
Yesterday Lord Palmerston took an affectionate
agreeablecde toousatryat sbla) andlilestablished hndei d their
farewell of the Tenant Compensation Bill. The
nr:igigPnterludo ; Antyeisifkaorfeethheandobgloenleorodnwioars
IfPiotersd; deputations and divisions made an
the Irish members" had
to retrospective compensa-
tion for their deeds of patriotism on the recent
divisions ; and the wrongs of Ireland have been left
as fresh as before the noble lord entered upon the
office of Premier. Was there ever such a mockery
and delusion practised on a British Parliament ?
c. I must yield" (said the noble lord) " to the force
of circumstances. Time, and time only, compels
me to abandon this most important measure."
To estimate the candour of this announcement
it is but necessary to refer to the simple facts of the
case. The bill was compounded of two bills ; one
of which had been much disapproved by the
House of Commons in 1853, and was unanimously
condemned and rejected by the House of Lords in
1854 ; the other was the Leasing Powers Bill.
which passed both houses, and was generally ac-
cepted as a valuable and useful measure. Sergeant
Shee stitched the two together, and introduced the
compound as his bill, and after some coquetting,
?
left it in the arms of Lord Palmerston, to be dan.
died and nursed. What was the duty of the Go-
vernment on accepting the charge Plainly this—
to revise the entire, to reduce it to a shape in
which they could stand by it as safe and useful,
and so that it might fairly be expected to pass the
house of Lords.
So long as the first seventeen sections remained
its rejection by the House of Lords was secured ;
for the Duke of Argyll, as chairman of the com-
mittee of 1854, had pronounced on this portion
1 the sentence that it was mischievous and absurd,
and therefore it had been rejected by the committee
and the house. The Government, however, now
proceed with these very sections, and these only,
on most of which, in 1853, in the House of Com-
mono, the Couseryative party had voted is sword.

ante with the subsequent opinions of the Lords ;
and after protracted and repeated discussions,
which ended in the deputation to the Premier,
which was headed. by Mr. Sadleir, the noble lord
having gone through the farce of pretending to
support clauses which, if passed, must have secured
the rejection of the bill as a matter of course in the
Lords, yesterday laments that the 24th of July has
arrived, and that a measure so dear to his heart
must now be withdrawn !

" Quis talia fando, temperet a lachrymis ?"

Well did Mr. Stafford, in his pleasant and
piquant speech, observe "that every year was
opening the eyes of the tenantry ; that the annual
flowers, in two or three years,. would be replaced
by imperial fruit, and Irishmen find out that the
law of property for England would answer every
useful purpose of landlords and tenants in Ire-
,7

safe and solid resistance Irish members and Chief
Secretaries, and even Premiers, can promise what
they pima& What may not a man promise, so long
as what he promises is not his to give? r When the
session brought round the annual ceremony of post-
poning the fulfilment of the promise for another
twelvemonth there was nothing to be done but
express the most bitter disappointrhent and the
most burning indignation. Two Englishmen, in-
deed, , ventured into the debate and looked rather
astounded. Mr. Phillimore was at a loss to under-
stand the violent language used in regard to the
withdrawal of the bill, which it would have been a
mere waste of time and a mockery to proceed with
under present circumstances. Colonel Greville
with equal simplicity, and more sobriety, thought
Lord Palmerston had exercised a wise discretion in
withdrawing the measure. This is like the rustic
spectator in a theatre who is ready to rush on the
stage 'to the rescue of the heroine, and save her
from her murderers. Why, all .that these Irish
members wanted was to be murdered by the Pre-
mier, and -robbed of the compensation clause. They
had to make a decent resistance, . and when the
deed was done, as it was already when the house
met yesterday, they could expostulate as much as
they liked—there was no longer any fear of their
succeeding. Now was the tithe to attack Ministers
without stint, and throw on them all the odium of
the failure. ' Could theft constituents doubt the
hard fight they had had, t 1 asmendous odds they
bad had to contend against ? Then, how did they
at the last show up. Lord Palmerston's doubledeal-
ing ? We have no doubt they will gain immense
credit with their electors, the expectant Irish
tenantry, doomed to alternate for ever between
hope and disappointment,, for the manliness and in-,
dependence of their tone towards the British
Minister.

( Prom the Daily Now of this day. )

As a matter of fair play we will continue to ab-
stain from comment on the conduct of the police-
men actually employed in Hyde-park on the Ist of
July until the witnesses for the defenre have been
fully heard. But the monstrous doctrine pro-
pounded by Sir Richard Mayne, when examined
before the Hyde-park Commissioners yesterday,
must be denounced and exposed without delay.
Sir Richard said that he regarded the meeting
as held for the purpose of intimidating the Legis-
lature. He added that, having arrived at this con-
clusion, he consulted with the Home Department,
and that the Under-Secretary and the L"gal Secre-
tary sanctioned his subsequent proceedings. Sir
Richard thereupon issued a proclamation warning
all people to keep away from the meeting, and mar-
shalled his force to put it down. Sir Richard
stated, as corroborative of the view he took of the
meeting, that Lord Robert Grosvenor withdrew
his bill in consequence of it. This is not strictly
accurate. Lord Robert withdrew his bill, not be-
cause the meeting had been held, but on account
of the irritation excited by Sir Richard Mayne's
highly iejudicious interference, and the conse-
quent collision. This, however, is a secondary con-
sideration : we take our ground upon the abstract
principle that the Chief Police Commissioner's
usurpation of authority was utterly unwarrantable.
If the doctrine maintained by Sir Richard Mayne
is to be received as sound constitutional law, the
Chief Commissioner of Police in the metropolitan
districts has the power to decide what public meet- '
ings are legal and what are not. The Metropolitan
Police becomes, in this point of view, a force kept
on foot to limit and restrict the right to hold popu-
lar meetings. Sir Richard ' chose to regard the
Hyde-park Meeting as a demonstration to intimi-
date the Legislature : he may put the same con-
struction to-morrow upon any open-air meeting to
promote Parliamentary or any other reform. And
he tells us that his opinion has received the sanc-
tion of the Home Department in a Ministry whose
leading members were, during the year 1831, in
close confidential communication with all the in-
fluential movers of the innumerable open air meet-
ings, held in the course of that year to promote
Lord Grey's Reform Bill. If the People and Par-
liament of England acquiesce without protest in the
monstrous doctrine of Sir Richard, they will place
their liberties at the mercy of a centralised political
police. They will soon find the Chief Commissioner
of Metropolitan Police an official functionary whose
powers are as dangerous and intolerable as those
of the Lieutenant de Police under the old French
monarchy. _ _ _

The proceedings in Hyde-park show clearly the
ITTrrt-ni . fr. wc.llll.7lLela-r vtrCklllCl•2,et. All
the special pleading -'of Sir Richard Mayne fails to
make out that the gathering in Hyde-park was an
organised meeting, with recognised leaders and a
definite aim. A few went, it would appear, to
tell the frequenters of the drive 'on Sunday what
they thought of the restrictions imposed by the
Legislature on similar Sabbath recreation of the
middle and lower classes. But the immense ma-
jority were mere curious spectators, most of them
attracted by Sir Richard's own proclamation. If
there was any rioting it was provoked by the un-
called-for interference of Sir Richard and his m 37-
midons. Sir Richard had predetermined that there
should be a riot and rioters, and had given orders
that every noisy and mischievous vagabond should
be invested with the dignity of that character. In
this, with all his energy, lie signally failed. The
Crown Counsel, after sitting in deliberation till
near five o'clock on the Monday, could not find a
single case that would warrant such a stretch of
the law ; and the only fruit of Sir Richard's amazing
energy was an intolerable and illegal degree of
hardship imposed on many respectable individuals,
who were refused to be admitted to bail on a pre-
text ultimately given up as untenable. _ _

We have here a glaring illustration of the danger
—of which we have often warned our readers—of a
centralised police placed at the disposal, not of the
local magistrates, but of the Imperial Government
It can at any time be used as an instrument to pro-
voke collisions with the people, which may be made
the pretext of encroachments on their liberties.
The business of Sir Richard Mayne is to preserve
the public peace, to enforce the awards of the ma-
gistrates and the courts of law, and to protect
honest men from rogues. But he has usurped
the authority of determining beforehand, when,
where, for what purposes, and in what numbers
the people of England may assemble; and to carry
into effect his own arbitrary laws. And he tells
us he is borne out and supported in the exercise
of this unconstitutional authority by the Home
Department.
An incidental admission made by Sir Richard in
the course of his examination warrants the belief
that this usurpation Of authority has been carried
on secretly and systematically for a considerable
time. He spoke in the highest terms of Superin-
tendent Hughes, but on cross-examination he was
obliged to admit that this model officer was 13
years ago fined for entering a house without a war-
rant. The Superintendent bad then been 11 years
in the force, and could not be ignorant of the law.
Sir Richard further stated that there is a regula-
tion to the effect that any policeman convicted be-
fore a magistrate shall be dismissed the force,
except in special instances. Are we to understand
that such special instances are those in Windt an
officer wantonly sets the restraints of law at de-
fiance ?
There appears to be only one means of escaping
from the danger of having the police force converted
into a political instrument that may subserve the
purposes of an arbitrary Administration ; and that
is by returning immediately to the old constitu-
tional practice of placing the police of every district
under the control of tho local authorities. If Sir
Benjamin Hall's bill become law, this step will be
materially facilitated, for that measure goes to in-
stitute 12 Boards in the metropolis, upon whom
the control of the police in their respective districts
might with advantage be devolved. We might
then have throughout the whole of the metropolis
an available police force as efficient and as free from
all suspicion of being a political instrument as that
of the City.

WHALES ASHORE.—The Glasgow Daily Mail says that
whales are dashing ashore in various parts of Skye, and
that considerable numbers of them have been stranded
and taken. At Sconser, a shepherd despatched upwards
of twenty of them the other week with an old scythe.
PRICE OF GOLD.--The quotAtion of gold at Paris is
about at par (according to the last tariff), which, at the
English Mint price of 3/. 17s. 100. per ounce for stan-
dard gold, gives an exchange of 25.17 ; and, the exchange
at Paris on London at short being 25.071, it follows that
gold is about 0.33 per cent. dearer iii Paris than in Lon-
don. By advices from Hamburg the price of gal is
4251 per mark, which, at the English Mint price of
31. 17$. 10, d. per ounce fur standard gold, gives an ex-
change of 13.51 ; and, the exchange at Hamburg on
London at short being 13.51. it follows that gold is the
same price in Hamburg and London. The course of ex-
change at New York on London for bills at 60 days'
sight is 1101 per cent. ; and, the par of exchange be-
tween England and America being 109 23-40 per cent.:.l
it follows that the exchange is 0.67 per cent. in favour
England :f
England ; and, after making allowance for
transport and difference of interest, the
Pld from the
leaves a small profit on the importatiOn.ef -
"United Btotee. .!*!cielarf er
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