The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-08 00:00:00

votes them to almost certain death ; but it is one
of the terrible necessities of war, to which all
must submit.

We cannot resist republishing a portion of our
article on the subject which appeared in The Sun
of the 28th ult. Our esteemed correspondent will
from that perceive that we rendered from the
beginning full justice to our gallant countrymen ;
and that we did not fall into the error which he so
justly condemns, and accorded the praise which
had been so nobly earned by the daring esealaders
of the Redan. It is as follows :

" 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 esta-
blished 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 on 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
crowning batteries. General Simpson has been
!ensured for not having had his advances as
forward as those of our brave Allies. It was,
lowever, a necessity of his position. It was itn-
,ossible 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 had 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
ro bear the brunt of the encounter, and who freely
and lavishly shed their blood in their country's
cause.

"Resides, although nominally the several attacks
wailed, 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 of establishing them-
selves in their position, which they nobly and man-
fully yielded against the repeated and energetic
ittacks of the Russians, who bravely, but vainly,
trove to regain that which they knew to be de-
;isive 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."

The interesting spectacle of a country fallen
into almost unexampled decay rising from its
ruins, and struggling with some degree of success
towards a new development, has for some time
past been exhibited in Egypt. At the present
lay we are happy to perceive indications of in-
creasing vitality, and a brighter prospect than
•ver of this Turkish province assuming its right-
'lll position in the fields of commerce and civilisa-
tion. The land of the PHARAOHS and the
PTOLEMYS, whose history is suggestive of the
4randest and most awe-inspiring associations in
connection with human prigress—the land whose
amazing fertility, immense resources, and utter
prostration have for ages been the subject of
poetry and song, has attracted the serious atten-
tion of the politicians of France and England, and
been subjected to the survey of the engineer, who
wants but capital to make her the highway of
nations, and thereby elevate her to a position in
which she may rival her former greatness, and be of
essential service to the cause of liberty and civili-
sation so long and seriously menaced by Russian
aggression.

In former times the Mediterranean and Red
Seas were connected by means of a canal, which,
Owing to various causes, has long ceased to exist.
The vast importance of Rych a communication was
not likely to escape the keen eye of modern enter-
prise, and the feasibility of re-uniting these seas
by the same means has of late years been the
subject of considerable discussion. The results
are that, after several preliminary surveys, it has
been agreed on all hands that the cutting of a
canal through the Isthmus of Suez is not only a
desirable but a perfectly practicable scheme, and
that two plans for its construction have been
oflered. The levels of the two seas are, it ap-
pears, nearly the same, and the engineering diffi-
culties so trivial that a canal, 30 leagues in length,
300 feet in width, and with a depth of water 30
feet below low water in the Mediterranean, with
all the necessary works, and available for the pas-
sage of steam-frigates and vessels of 1,500 tons
burden, may be constructed at a cost of about
half the amount expended on the railway from
London to York, or about five times as much as
was disbursed in law and Parliamentary expenses
in order to obtain the power to make the line.
These plans are known as the direct andindi•
rect lines, the former of which not only is the
most feasible, but is also the most likely to be
adopted, a concession having been granted for its
formation, by the Viceroy of Egypt, to M. FER-
DINAND DE LESSEPS, late Minister Plenipotentiary
of France to Rome. The superiority of this line
consists not only in its directness and the coun-
tenance given to it by his Highness SAID PAOHA,
but also in the facilities it offers for commerce,
and the fewer engineering difficulties to be encoun-
tered in its construction. The indirect line,
which has its point of departure at Alexandria,
joins the Nile below Cairo, and terminates at''
Suez, would, for instance, have to bridge the Nile
at a point where that river is more than a
mile in breadth, an undertaking, it must be