The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-22 00:00:00

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nople repeats what we have heard from many other quarters
of the general expectation this.war has excited in all that part
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necessary also to keep'up our army, and to conquer with it.
Weie peace now to follow upon war as rashly anti-lightly
as war has followed_ upon peace—that is, were Englanl to
conclude a peace on disgraceful terms—the British public
would soon -open' their eyes to the unpleasant 'foot that
they had lost caste in the • world. Every Englishman
would begin to be ashamed of himself, and no doubt we
should have people insisting upon some sunedsary way of
wiping out disgrace and defeat. But this is not to be done.
So no peace at present, till the of of war have been_ at-
tained, unless we would lose the respect of our neighbours in
Europe, and our subjects, in Asia. But it seems ridiculous to
'talk of a discreditable peace at the very time when we are in
better condition than ever 'for war. Nov. that the whole of the
French force has sailed, and the Sardinian Contingent is on
its way, the Allies will soon have in the Crimea not less than
200,000 of the best soldiers in the world, ready to u”dertake
anything, and able to do it. They cannot and mast not re-
turn Niitllout taking Sebastopol, unless they would show us
on how flimsy a basis a great military reputation can rest.
England cannot afford this downfall, nor can the Emperor of
the French. His throne rests on opinion. , He represents his
people.• He is of their election ; he is their idol, their voice ;
and, so long as he prospers, the!r pride. Should his legions
return with nothing to show for their campaigns but an enor-
tnOus bill of costs and list of killed and winded, he will have
to fight a harder battle at home t an his generals have been
doing in the Crimea. So, also, will the Government of this
country, which is on its trial, and which will not escape the
fate of its predecessor, unless it can point to some material
success and to some guarantee better than Russian words.

But there is not een safety for a nation such as ours when
she once begins to recede, for when our tide no longer flows
it will begin to ebb. The battle we are now fighting at Sebas-
topol we shall, before long, have to fight nearer home, and
even at home, if we confess our incapacity for' war. It has
ever been the boast, and even comfort, of this country, that
whereas no other can be at war but its own territory is out-
raged, its own towns and villages destroyed, and its own
streams stained with blood, our soil is sacred. We neither
hear nor see the war others wage, and have it in our own
power to chose our battle-field. We have been rather apt to
choose it a good way from home. This reqUires that we keep
to the ground we have once chosen for the decision of our
quarrel. , But, in point of fact, one place is much the same
as another in these days, and to be beaten in the Crimea
is the same thing as to be beaten all over the world.
There is no such thing as a mere geograp. ical re-
putation, and a man may as well expect to enjoy a cha-
racter for probity in ono place which he does not in
another, as to have a military reputation restricted to certain
longitudes. We have to secure not only the fear of an enemy
that is distant, but the respect of an ally that is very near,
and of neighbours that are also within reach. Even now;
when we press Austria to take the side of honour and advan-
tage, she taunts us with the smallness of our own contributions
to the war, and tells us we are not in a condition to ask the
aid of others while we do so little for ourselves. This, at least,
shows the spirit we have to deal with, and it is a spirit that
will be ready enough to assume the aggressive should the oc-
casion ever occur. We have to teach-not only Russia, but all
Europe and the whole world to respect us —not for our num-
bers, not for our home territory, not even for the number of
men we can bring into the field, but for our evident ,:etermi-
nation to fight out, at every hazard and cost, the cause we
have at once embraced.

THE APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL PELESSIER.
(From the Daily News of this day.)
The Emperor of the French has given another proof of his
being in earnest in the war against Russia. The Ilioniteur of
Friday contains the appointment of General Pelissier as Com-
mander-in-Chief of the French forces in the Crimea. It is
said in the same official paper that General Canrobert has re-
signed the post he held in consequence of ill-health. But as,
the following paragraph announces him to have taken General
Polissier's place as commander of a division, the public are not
to believe any more of the alleged reason than they like. Au
officer who is too unwell to remain at the head of an army can
hardly be fit to continne on active service at all ; and, there-
fore, it is not unnatural to conclude that General Canrobert
has received from his imperial master a hint that he could no
longer be at the head of the French army before Sebastopol,
but that, being a brave man and a good soldier he is unwilling
to leave the seat of war so long as there is a chance of a shot
being fired. Further than this it behoves us not to examine the
cause of so important a change. With that courtesy for which
their nation is so celebrated, the French have abstained all
along from commenting upon the conduct of many English
General officers, who, although too sick to remain in the
Crimea, have been well enough for several months past to
dine out at public dinners twice and three times a week, and
to take part in every festivity- public and private—to which
they have been invited since their return to England. Sir
De Lacy Evans is an exception to this almost universal rule,
and we wish he was not 'the only one. Let us, therefore,
follow the example set us by our neighbours, and neither talk
too much nor inquire too minutely as to the why and the
wherefore a General officer belonging to the army of our allies
has been placed in an inferior position to that which he pre-
viously filled. Whatever may be the reason for the change,
it cannot be said of General Canrobert that he has made his
health an excuse for leaving the seat of war. Iu his reply
to General Canrobert, the Emperor congratulates him on his
desire to remain with the army (" E vous felicite du senti-
ment qui vous fait demander de rester a Pawnee"), and names
him not merely to the command of a simple division, but to
that of the corps d'armee which Pelissier has been at the
head of since his arrival from Algiers. The soldier-like senti-
ment of General Canrobert is precisely that which induced
General Evans to rise from a sick bed in order to be present
at Inkerman, although he declined taking the command of his
division out of Major-Gen. Pennefather's hands. Would that we
could record a few more similar instances of devotedness to
their profession on the part of English General officers since
the war began. The Emperor of the French has now given a
fresh proof of his earnestness in the prosecution of the . war ;
could he not impart a portion of his public energy to his
friend Lord Palmerston ?