The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-12 00:00:00

could, if he pleased, have broken through
the red-tapist trammels. If he did not
do so, under the exciting circumstances of
the case, he was not competent to discharge the
duties of his situation. Every ono has heard of
the rough but effective remedy by which PICTON
excited a leading member of the Commissariat
into efficient action, and the significant manner in
which his leader, the Iron Duke, listened to the
complaints of the indignant official. Great suf-
fering was averted from a division of the British
army by the zeal and energy then displayed. But
unfortunately we have neither a PICTON nor a
WELLINGTO:I in the Crimea. That we have many
brave and gallant soldiers is certain, men deserving
of the highest honours, but they do not pis
independent commands, and while Lord RAGLAN
is on the spot, they cannot interfere efficiently.
Even the attempt would be a total contravention
of the " military system."
It is to that system that we owe all our mis-
fortunes. Never did British soldiers more bril-
liantly distinguish themselves than in the Crimea.
They achieved the glorious victory of the Alma
by sturdy and unquailing determination, and
superior physical power. It was the triumph of
the men, not of the generals. Much of the blood-
shed by which the first collision in the Crimea
was so painfully distinguished might have been
averted by more judicious arrangements. The
country, however, will not feel disposed to cri-
ticise too severely the matters connected with
that memorable day.
On the 25th of October, at the battle of Lther-
.
naya, we saw our cavalry all but sacrificed to the
overpowering
sense of duty that led them to obey

but with the United States, that the manu-
facturers in every department must thank
themselves for glutted markets, enormous sacri-
fices, and want of orders. Figures are not pleasant
reading, but let the reader only glance at three
or four facts. From 1846 our exports went en
gradually increasing at the rate of from two to
four millions per annum, but in 1853 they in-
creased in a single year by the almost fabulous
amount of 20,857,0001. ! ! In that marvellous
year the increased value of goods sent to the
United States was 7,091,0001., and to Australia
their increased val ue actually reached 10,221,0001. !
Surely Mr. BILIGHT and his fellow-spinners and
weavers may, if they will but open their eyes,
see plainly enough the reason for the present de-
pression of trade. It is the ebb of the spring
tide of 1853.

Man-traps and spring-guns ! Why should we
not go on in the beneficent task of setting them
Have we not prisons--most thriving, carefully
tended, and economical of hospitals---in abund-
ance Ts any trapped or wounded by these play-
ful machines the worse ? Nay, on the contrary,
are not all infinitely the better for their experi-
ence as patients' Is not their step mere free,
their head more erect, and the respect of society
for them and their respect for society the greater
on their dismissal? Are they not thoroughly
cured, and made " better as new ? " Why, then,
should not the blessings of a system so approved
in its results be extended to the utmost ?
We are not talking of steel-traps and air-
guns, instruments admired and beloved of
yore by country squires and the proprietors
of cockney villas, sacred to the memory of
sixpence worth of mignionette seed, and four
and sixpence worth of eighteenpenny shrubs,
developed in painted flower-pots, candle-boxes,
and wash-pails—though the admiring reader may
be excused if he thinks so. These things are
old-fashioned and obsolete, and quite out of the
pale of recommendation in refined society. The
squire nowadays must rely for the protection of
his grounds and his wild poultry or game, ox
the stalwart arm and holly or other grained
bludgeon of his keeper, and the vigilant eye and
ready truncheon of the rural police—the cockney
on the yelping of his house-dog and the non est
inventus genius and pervading protection of the
metropolitan and the horse patrol. The squire-
led parson of the parish, and the most orthodox
of antiquated village spinsters have alike at the
present 'lay the courage to denounce such instru-
ments as wicked and cruel. Their day must

orders, although at the almost certain sacrifice of
their lives. But whose remissness, whose
fatal sense of security, afforded the enemy
the opportunity of attack t Who issued
the order, the " unfortunate misconception "
whereof led to the self-immolation of these gallant
men. Again we say Lord RAGLAN. It is upon
his shoulders the responsibility must rest. He
cannot shake off a single particle of the onus.
In like manner at Inkermaa I The surprise,
which so nearly proved fatal, would have been
prevented if proper precautions had been taken.
There was the blot, and that it was not hit may
be attributed to the men, who unflinchingly with-
stood the attack of more than five times their
own numbers, and repelled it with a loss to
their assailants, iu killed and wounded,
exceeding the numbers of the defenders.
We do not mean of the reserve, on whom it ap-
pears to be the fashion to bestow all the rewards,
but of those actually engaged in the fearful en-
counter.

needs be over.
No, the springes and lethal tubes we speak of
are Lilliputian enactments, owing their existence
to Westminster. Enactments which affix to
offences the most slight a punishment in its effects
the most cruel and deadly. Enactments which
consign to the pestilent atmosphere, morally speak-
ing, of Coidbaths Prison and Newg,ate, childhood,
youth, and manhood, with the ruddy flow of
moral health and pride swelling in their veins,
and prompt on occasion to raise the crimson to
their foreheads. Those are the man-traps
and spring-guns we speak of. These are
in a large measure the cause why we have so
many police and gaolers, so much prison accom-
modation and magisterial business, and so little of
childlike simplicity in the children of our large
cities. Incapable, apparently, of comprehensive
legislation—(that legislation, we mean, which goes
to the root of existing evils, and eradicates them
most effectually, by planting seeds of moral recti-
tude in their place}—the termination of every

But the losses in the field have been compara-
tively trifling to those in the sick bed, or at least
to what passed as such. " Plague, pestilence,
and famine," the boasted auxiliaries of the CZAR,
were far more destructive than their sister Furies,
" battle, murder, and sudden death."
Many more perished from disease or want, al-
though within the sight of abundance, than from
the adversary's swords or missiles. We must
discover the real delinquent. There is a prima

facie case against Lord RAGLAN. It is for him to
repel the strong presumption, and transfer it, if
he can, to the actual offenders. It is ridiculous to
say that all these misfortune; have arisen without
any person being in fault. It will be the duty of
Mr. RoEnucK's Committee, when appointed, to
dispel the mists and bring the light of truth to
bear on the entire transaction.

According to Mr. Joint BRIGHT all England is
fast going to the workhouse for want of Russian
corn. The sufferings of our troops in the Crimea are
deplorable enough, but what is the wasting away
of 54,000 soldiers compared with a nation perish-
ing from famine. The honourable member alas
now produced his last and crushing argument for
instant peace—" ISafore two years are at an end,
unless Russian corn come into this country, you
will shoot your own citizens in the street."
Such is his prediction. " The population cannot
be prevented from sinking deeper and deeper in
suffering; if into suffering, then into discontent—
and then at length into insubordination." These
are the inevitable consequences of wheat at 701.
per quarter, and wheat at 70e. per quarter is the
inevitable consequence of the loss of six millions
of quarters of Russian corn ; therefore, &0.,
Q.E.D.
But this six millions of quarters—we must own
we do nut understand it. It is the basis of the
whole argument which terminates in citizen-
shooting ; and therefore we should like to know
the truth of the matter. Mr. BEIGIIT quotes from
the circular of an eminent friend in the corn trade ;
he gives no name, but we may suppose it was his

vista leading to reform and redemption seems in
the legislatorial eye to be the gates of a prison.
In an age, with so few exceptions, of little states-
men, " cabined, cribbed, confined" in spirit, this
faith in prisons is, perhaps, after all, not to be
wondered at. The fact is, we trust too much to
members of Parliament. We are not enough our
own statesmen. We don't recognise as we ought
the fact that enlightened public opinion is or
ought to be iu effect the Preader and the Cabinet
of the country. In short, the truth must come
out. We have been dwarfing morally in our aims
and. the scope of our aspirations, while we hare
been expaiding materially. We have bridged
our valleys and straits, levelled our mountains,
and girdled the earth with electric fire; but we have
done but little in the way of moral elevation. We
have the best of moral codes, but a feeble inspi-
ration, a desultory will, and a will-o'-the-wisp
benevolence. We can see the immorality of break-
ing a pane in our neighbour's window, but are
-stone blind to the evil we commit in sending our
thoughtless youth to prison (there to strike up an
acquaintance with felons), because they cannot
expiate the irregularity of their volition in cur-
rent coin of tho realm. And what wo sow in

brother friend who was one of
.the Quaker depu.

folly, we reap in anxiety, injury, and cos

,ation to th© CZAR. His friend make an esti-

Tho boyish culprit thus imprisoned in defaU

mato that Russia exported 6,000,000 quarters of
wheat before the War ; and since Mr. BRIGHT
argues as if all this quantity came to England, we
must suppose his friend to state as much. But
the fact is that for the eleven months end-
ing December sth, 1853, that is the year
before the war, we imported altogether but
4,609,414 qrs. of wheat, and last year 3,353,918
qrs. This, of course, disposes of the absurd im-
pression which Mr. Btu IT'S speech might pro-
duce, as if we really had a less supply this year
than usual by the enormous quantity which he
mentioned. It also settles another point, namely,
that the deficiency of imports is certainly
not equal to the excess of our abundant
harvest. The late harvest at least exceeded those
of ordinary years by more than 1,245,496 qrs.,

and pupilled in dishonesty " comes," we have
the authority of the able and enlightened Chaplain
of Newgate for it, " a second time to prison, is
sent to a refuge" (we don't lack benevolence ;
what we want is judicious beneficence), "appren-
ticed, quarrels with his master, who will not let
him go to plays, shoots his master, and, finally, is
executed at the Old Bailey." So with the sweep
who dares to slip his muzzle, to the consequent
disturbance of aristocratic ears ; from his
first imprisonment may be dated the commence-
ment of his training as an expert and daring
burglar. Better far that the whip should bo
entrusted to the hands of the exasperated dealer
in sundries, or the distracted Sir FANCIFUL
FLUTTER, than that we should have to lament
over results like these !

which is the difference of imports between the Society, doubtless, must be protected as
last eleven months of peace and the same period far as possible, in reason, from annoyance,
of war. Indeed our imports do not seem to be but society may be protected to its loss ;
lessened at all in proportion to the abundance of and as the price of security from annoyance
the harvest ; and there must be other co-operating have diminished immunity from rapine and vio-
causes, all of which time perhaps alone will reveal. fence. To the long list of offences by enactment
Indeed it is demonstrable how little the cease.- we have added, and are perpetually adding new
tion of Russian supplies can have affected prices ones. It is only of late years ringing of door
here. The last returns prior to the War, bells, shaking a mat, stealing a turnip, an egg, a
which apprise us of the sources of supply penny under circumstances of great temptation by
inform us that in the first ine months of 1853, a mere child, trundling an iron hoop, getting
the last year of peace, we imported 773,50'7 drunk, &c., have been numbered on it, and there
qrs. from Russia, and 209,000 qrs. from can be no question have been " fertile sources of
Moldavia and Wallachia ; while in 1854 we re- mischief by reason of imprisonment." They have
ceived front Russia 505,000 qrs., and from produced, we are told, a fresh supply of persons
Moldavia and Wallachia 118,000 qrs. It ruined in character by imprisonment, aid stimu-
is therefore perfectly clear that Russian fated to crime by felonious associates, with whom
supplies, or the want of them, cannot have they became acquainted in prison, by want also,
seriously affected our market. Mr. 151tIelET lays and the consequent increase of temptation. We
the blame of the whole difference between 50s. have been overstepping the mark in this direction,
per quarter and 753. to the War—with what and demonstrating a deplorable ignorance ef
justice our readers can now judge for them- human nature in connection with the repression
selves.
We must think that had we continued of crime. What we have now to do is to look
at Peas©, it . _
would have made a difference of but round us and endeavour to discover some means
a few aliillinge a
quarter at most. The serious de- to spare a first imprisonment. Among these edu-
ficiency in the American harvest has probably had cation, by
example, no less than by precept and
a much greater influence in raising prices than the rote, will assuredly occupy a prominent place.
Russian War or any other cause whatever. It To be successful in the repression of crime we
should also be remembered that wheat is really must be humane as well as vigorous and firm ;
fully 3s. or 4s. per quarter cheaper than it appears and the constant setting of moral man-traps and
in compari with last year,l account c
son on
the spring-guns nearer and nearer the beaten track
I great difference in quality.
As to our commerce generally, it is noto- to be—if we are not to retrace our steps—let us
lima that the over-trading of late years has
of life is palpably cruel. If, however, this is not
Ibe
consistent—let us develope the principle at
not only with Australia I
been so exoes3lvet issue to the uttermost—let us have ;sumptuary