The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-28 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Trtig DA.v—Morn. 12 min. aft. 3 —Evening 32 min. aft. 3
TO-UORROW—Morn.S2 min. aft. 3—Evening 10 min. aft. 4

THE WEATHER.—SIN OFFICE, Sept. 28.
THERISOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
67 - highest since noon yesterday.
62 -:OW9Ft this morning and during the night.
65 —this day, at noon.

BAROMETER, 2911.
wry"), S.S.W. to S.W. Light breeze, with dul
weather, inclining to rain. Slight rain last evening.

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LONDON, FRIDA_Y, SEPTEMBER 28, 1855.

THE RUMOURED DEFEAT OF THE
RUSSIANS NEAR EUPATORIA.

The telegraphic despatch published this morn
ing by some of our contemporaries, that the Bus.
sians had been defeated by the Allies near Eupa•

toria, reached us in due course last evening ; bu

doubting the truth of the report of such an extra

ordinary event occurring so soon after the evacuation
of Sebastopol by the Russians, and the source

from which it appeared to have emanated, we ab-

stained from publishing if.

We can positively state that her Majesty's
Government, at half-past two o'clock this after-

noon, had not received any information from the

Crimea relative to such an occurrence.

With the facilities afforded by the telegraph,
it is utterly impossible such an event could have
occurred without the • Government being in pos-

session of the fact.

We have the highest authority for stating that,

"had such an event taken place, ani the Govern-
ment not been in possession
one of the most extraordinary circumstances that

had ever occurred."

It was some time since jocularly remarked, at
a dinner at the Cry stal Palace, that the Govern-
ment ought to have contracted with Messrs. Fox
and RENDERSON for the taking of Sebastopol. This
was, of course, intended to show the unlimited ex-
tent of the industrial power, and the almost mi-
raculous results achieved ,by great engineering
skill combined with adequate re-ources to carry
welt-considered plans , into practical execution.
There was also sound truth in the suggestion.
The protracted defence was occasioned by the
enormous earthworks so judiciously thrown up, and
the -ultimate capture was achieved,, if not by the
toil of navvies, by labour of a similar character.
d by a,
it has been well renazirke very powerful

writer, that " Sebastopol was defended by the
pickaxe, spade, and shovel, rind likewise won by
these implements."
It was unquestionably the close approaches of
the French lines that enabled our gallant Allies
to possess themselves so rapidly of the Malakhoff,
the " key " which speedily opened up Sebas-
topol, with all its accumulated stores, to the
besieging force. It was the " open sesame,"
which rendered admission easy, and placed the vast
treasures of the " forty (thousand) thieves" at
the mercy of the possessors of the charm. The
incessant and terrible bombardment maintained
from the sth instant to the very moment of the
onslaught had not merely thrown the Russians
into confusion, but had compelled them to take
shelter in the bomb-proof casements. The French
storming party had but a few yards of open
ground to cross. It was merely the business of a
few seconds, and " the forlorn hope " had estab-
lished itself within the defences before the Rus-
sians were sufficiently aroused from their astonish-
ment to offer a serious resistance to their daring
assailants. Then, indeed, they fought fiercely—
desperately. But the first coup had been inflicted,
and it fully verified the apophthegm. It was even
more than "half the battle." The Russians
could never recover their lost ground, or succeed
even for a moment in dislodging the vigorous
escaladers. The capture of the Malakhoff was but
the work of a few minutes. In less than a quarter
of an hour after the time appointed for the at-
tack the tricolour was floating proudly over the
Round Tower, gave the anxiously-looked-for sig-
nal that the time had arrived for the Britons to
" strike home," and to test their power against
the defences of the Great Redan, and up to that
time the losses of the conquerors of the Mala-
khoff had been comparatively trivial when the
magnitude of the undertaking and its vast con-
sequences are taken into consideration.
The awful bloodshed was chiefly occasioned by
the attacks on the two Redans, and en the Cen-
tral and Quarantine Bastions—all of which were
unsuccessful. There considerable spaces should
necessarily be traversed under concentrated fires
before the assailants got at their work—and ter-
rible losses were inflicted before a single ladder
could be planted, or an attempt to scale the
frowning batteries. General SrmrsoN has been
censured for not having had his advances as
forward as those of our brave Allies. It was,
however, a necessity of his position. It was im-
possible for him to do so. The ground was com-
manded by a flanking fire, and the working par-
ties would have been annihilated in the front
trenches halla they even the power of constructing
them, or found them ready made for their use.
It is easy for those who "live at home at ease" to
criticise the arrangements made by those who had
to bear the brunt of the encounter, and who
freely and lavishly shed their blood in their coun-
try's cause.

Besides, although nominally the several attacks
failed, they accomplished all that was required—
viz., to create such a diversion as would enable
our brave allies fully to establish themselves in
the Malakhoff, and to prevent the Russians from
directing their whole attention and their entire
force against the great prize of the day. While
the various onslaughts were taking place, the
victors had the opportunity cf establishing them-
selves in their position, which they nobly and
manfully held against the repeated and energetic
attacks of the Russians, who bravely, but vainly,
strove to regain that which they knew to be de-
cisive of the fate of the entire city. Let us, then,
not be disposed to treat in a captious spirit the
brilliant deeds that have conferred so much honour
on the Western Powers generally, or on vague
guesses, or inadequate data, to condemn those
of whom their country may well be proud.

After the solicitude of a fortnight's suspense,
and the recent excitement of vivid details of the
tremendous bombardment and assault, we almost
need the relief of some domestic scene of quiet
and pleasing interest. Such a one is the forma-
tion of an agricultural sbciety in Tipperary, with
Lord STANLEY taking the lead. The reputation
of Tipperary has been as bloody for times of peace
as that of the Crimea itself for a time of war.
The cruelties of the agrarian assassin may well
match with Russian barbarities to the wounded.
But the former are now happily, and, we may hope,
f)r ever, matter of history. The strong arm of law
lias broken up and scattered the secret conspi-
racies which knew uo mercy. Organisations for
civil protection have overpowered and suspended
organisations for murder ; and, better still, the
iocial causes of such atrocities may be said to have
vanished from Ireland. Just legislation and the
mysterious visitations of PROVIDENCE have altered
the relations of society. The religion of the many
is no longer proscribed either by statute-books
or by the bestowers of patronage. Orangeism is
I)ecome as odious to our law-makers as Riband-
:sm, while famine has led to the voluntary de-
parture of the myriads who starved each other,
and necessity has compelled the nominal pro-
prietors of land to give up beggaring themselves
and their miserable tenants with them. The un-
trustworthy potato has given place extensively to
the more reliable cereals—the diminished number
of labourers earn wages enabling them to live on
the proper food of human beings ; indeed nothing
seems wanting but the abolition of the sinecure
Church of Ireland to render it one of the fairest
portions of the three kingdoms. When Russian
ambition is quieted it may be hoped we shall
find leisure to overthrow the ecclesiastical am-
bition and covetousness, which are the only re-

maining blot on the condition of Ireland, at least
so far as its condition depends on the uprightness
of legislation.
The interesting feature of the association, whose
formation Lord STANLEY honoured with his pre-
sence, is its comprising, even in Ireland, so large
a number of subscribers. It commences with
120 members, and subscriptions amounting' to
Poi., and much more than half the amount raised
in subscriptions of 1/. This, considering that the
association comprehends only the union of Tippe-
rary, is a large number of the loss wealthy class.
In Lancashire, Lord STANLEY found that so small
were the holdings that even a 10s. subscription
was too much for the majority of the farmers ;
Tipperary would seem, therefore, agriculturally,
bidding fair to rival that district, at least, of Eng-
land. The 'association is formed, like associations
of a like character in this country, to interest
farmers in all the agricultUral improvements of
the age, whether mechanical, chemical, or those
of a more strictly agricultural character, such as
draining and fencing. Within quite recent me-
mhoirmyerta ;he very idea of forming an association with
such objects in Ireland would have seemed like a
c
especially if formed, as in this case,
with the expectation of its being merely the pa-
rent and model of numerous others all over the
island. Great, indeed, is the change from the
time when the potato patch and the bog seemed
to contend for the
dominion of the surface of Ire-
land, and when any inroad upon that dominion
brought upon the too
enlightened aggressors de-
nunciations at the ,altar, and the slugs of the
skulking assassin. „

We are not to ouppo;le, howeve-r, that the sys-

tem, or rather no system, of generations can be
rectified in a few years. Lord STANLEY has still
to warn against the fancied " dignity of occupying
land," by which whole families, which he had
seen, were induced to live in ragged misery and
destitution ; the patch of land which gave them
their squalid rank not being large enough to
maintain them three months in the year ! There
are, it seems, many still who prefer the dignified
idleness of occupying, and starving on, a wretched
patch of land, to the comfort of good food, and
decent raiment, earned by labour for their
wealthier neighbours. This can, as Lord STANLEY
observes, only be the result of a lingering, but we
trust fast vanishing, prejudice, since Irishmen are
industrious enough in England and America, and
perform, indeed, the most laborious parts of the
great works in both countries. There is, how-
ever, no doubt something repressive of improve-
ment in the ignorance fostered by Popery and
essential to its dominance ; for wherever the Irish
can congregate under their priests in our great
towns, and in America, they retain their degraded
habits ; and it is only when scattered amongst
more enlightened communities that they dovelope
the better endowments of the Celtic race. The
Protestant and Popish states of the Continent
are evidence of the same social truth.
What with the education of English and Irish
farmers in sounder views of their general require-
ment and capacities ;—of adult mechanics in the
better class of reading through the instrumen-
tality of free libraries ; and cf Ecclesiastics in the
Christian duty of refraining from fleecing their
neighbours to pay for religious services which
they object to,—Lord STANLEY has undertaken
no ordinary task. We fear he will find the in-
tolerance of his last-mentioned pupils even harder
to breach than the ignorance of farmers and
mechanics. As for us of the Press he has effec-
tually taught us our lesson. We have learned
the mysteries of the new Stamp Act at last. Our
uustamped penny rivals seem, however, to need a
little instruction yet in the art of going alone, and
even of maintaining life. They are Lord STANLEY'S
children, he must teach them.