The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-15 00:00:00

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[PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD•

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(hoes the Times of this day. )
A wearied, and it must be said a disappointed
Parliament was yesterday prorogued with the dull
formality of a Royal Commission. Up to the very
last moment the anxious Premier expected either
from the North or the East the 'news that was to
gild the closing session ; and, so long had hope
been deferred, that it had yielded at last to mis-
givings. So utter was the blank, so little was there
to show for the labours and the enormous sacrifices
of the Legislature, that when Sir De Lacy Evans
arose to insist on a more searching and unreserved
application of our national resources to the prose-
cution of the war, her Majesty's Government
seemed to lie at his mercy for any rebuke he might
choose to administer. But while he was speaking
the telegraph was already at work, and, but for
those national jealousies which impede even the
electric fluid at every capital and frontier, we
should already have learnt the utter destruction I
of the second Russian stronghold in the Baltic.
Sweaborg has been almost utterly destroyed. A
few shattered earthworks and batteries are all
that survive of a mighty link in .that chain of
fortresses prepared for the conquest of Europe.
It is impossible not to remark on the fatality
which has permitted a zealous session to pass with-
out receiving the tidings already on their way. The
Roman poet laid his hero under the spell,—At nun-
pant regno, ant optata Luce fruatur, sed cadat ante
diem. That certainly has been the fate of this
session ; but when Ministers and Commanders
have toiled all their lives, and sunk heartbroken
in the hour of reverse, though their cause was
finally to prosper, Lord Palmerston has no great
reason to complain. It is but an imaginary dis-
appointment. The papers that take the Queen's
speech down to the country, and can report no
more than her Majesty's confident hopes and un-
daunted resolution, will now convey the news of
Sweaborg destroyed. We shall not be suspected of
any idle or vindictive .triumph at a blow which
doubtless involves much human suffering. We re-
joice because we believe ourselves to be so much
nearer security and peace. Whether Russia will
admit the moral argument of the defeat, or will
await the successive destruction of all her strong-
holds, this event brings us nearer the day when
Europe will be relieved from the incubus of Rus-
sian domination.
Sweaborg cannot, indeed, be classed with Cron-
stadt for strength or Sebastopol for importance.
Its defences are not of the same character as those
which protect the mouth of the Neva. The approach
is by channels of sufficient depth and width, but
through granite rocks everywhere covered with
batteries. As to the value set by the Russians on
the place, on the one hand, it appears they took
advantage of the winter to convey to Cronstadt the
few vessels of war seen last year at Sweaborg ; and,
on the other hand, they have employed the interval
in strengthening to the utmost the fortifications
which have just been so summarily destroyed
It was said a few months ago that, having
let slip the opportunity of last year, we should
find Sweaborg impregnable. It appears, however,
that with a proper disposition of the fleet, and by
keeping a proper distance, we have disposed of this
threat, and shown that wood can sometimes beat
granite. Let us hope that when a boast has been
proved idle in one place it may in another. Ac-
cording to the programme, the mortar-vessels and
the gunboats were to commence the bombardment
at two miles' distance, and the liners were only to
come in to finish the work. If this is the arrange-
ment which has been so signally successful, it
augurs well for the operation of the flotilla, pro-
mised by Sir Charles Wood, in the grander sphere
of the Neva, or wherever else it is to be employed.
From the scanty particulars that have reached us,
it appears that the bombardment lasted about 45
hours, so that during the whole of that time the
allied fleets remained in position more or less within
gunshot distance of the Russian batteries ; yet our
loss is said to be trifling in men, and nothing what-
ever in material, not a ship or a boat sunk or dis-
abled. In so large an amount of damage inflicted
on the enemy and so little suffered by the allies
may be seen the result of that close calculation
which will probably be our best game in this war.
Doubtless more glory is to be won by dashing en-
terprises done with small means by one master
mind ; but where the command is divided, the
power immense, the risk great, and the defence in
proportion, nothing should be risked, and nothing
need be risked. Success is ours if we only have
patience to use sure, though perhaps slow means.
This most welcome intelligence need not blind
our eyes to the importance of the topics in Sir D.
L. Evans's speech. Unquestionably the British
force in the Crimea is not in proportion to our re-
sources or the work to be done. We have at this
moment not far from a hundred thousand good
British soldiers in various parts of the world where
there is no immediate need for their present num-
bers. India ought to contribute something to the
war in return for the 40,000 British soldiers with-
drawn from our wants at home, and some regi-
ments of irregular cavalry are precisely what we
should most require in the case of an advance into
the interior of the Crimea. At all events, the em-
ployment of that force at the Cape would liberate
for the Crimea some of the seasoned British bat-
talions now thrown away in doing watchmen's
duty against the Caffres. With a larger military
force we might attempt more enterprises, such as
those in the Sea of Azoff, and that whose trivan-
phant result we have this day to communicate
'role the Gulf of Finland.

The actual successes of this year have been of
a chiefly naval character. That is quite in ac-
cordance with the earliest anticipations of the
war, when it was assumed that the immense
armies and impenetrable territories of Russia
must give her the advantage on the land. Lat-
terly, however, the Fabian policy she has pursued
of leaving the open sea, hiding her fleets deep in
her harbours, and sinking them if necessary, to
block up the ports made for their reception, has
turned the attention of the world rather too ex-

elusively to siege and other land operations.
Heucc,, fleets have fallen into discredit as a useless
pageantry of war, and doubtless the want of craft
better adapted for the purpose has favoured this
impression. Yet it is from the sea that the greatest
blows must be struck against Russia, and in this
part of the work it will evidently be our honour
to take the lead. As there was no military force
worth notice engaged on the attack on Sweaborg,
we conclude that the work has been done by the
fleet, which contains a large preponderance of Bri;
tish vessels. If this happy intelligence has come
just too late for the Royal speech and Lord Pal-
merston's valedictory address to the Commons, it
is happily in time for the Queen's visit to Paris.
Indeed, ou the very day, and almost the very hour,
that her Majesty is making the round of the Bou-
levards, the actual despatches brought by the Pe-
lican yesterday morning to Dantzic will probably
be placed in the hands of the Parisian newspaper
readers. We are sure that our gallant allies will
feel the happy omen, and welcome with their
usual chivalry the illustrious lady who, on the
very first visit of peace ever paid by an English
sovereign to Paris, comes also the bearer of the
brilliant success that has crowned our united arms.

WOMAN'S DEVOTION'. A novel. 3 vole.—" A story
cleverly conceived, and pointing an excellent moral, is
worked out with exquisite taste in this singularly well
written novel. Characters the most varied are intro-
duced into the plot, and greatly add to the general effect
by the life-like naturalness with which they are pour.
trayed ; while, above them all, the heroine of the tale
stands aloft in commanding virtue and loveliness, illu,--
trating in her affectionate devotion the lesson which the
writer has so happily adorned, that elevation of charac-
ter founded on a deep sense of religion rises superior to
all the trials and calamities of life. Whoever the author
may be, a more felicitous debut never was made in the
field of novel literature."—John Bull.
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