The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-11 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, sErrEmßEtt 11, 1855.

SPIRIT 0 THE PUBIC fOURNALS.

THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL.
( From the Times of th..;s day.)
On Saturday, the Bth of September, within a few days
of the anniversary of the landing of the allied forces in
the Crimea, and 316 days after the opening of the be-
sieging batteries against Sebastopol, on the 17th of Octo-
ber, 1854, a final and victorious assault was made upon
the southern part of the town. Before night the French
flag waved in triumph upon the Malakhoff Tower, which
had fallen before the indomitable courege and perse-
verance of the assailant:, and within a fey hours more
the Russian garrison had evacuated 'the Karabelnaia
suburb and the southern portion of the tot tresP, after
blowing up the magazines and principai works, Netting
fire to the town in many placez,, and then endeavouring
to withdraw by the bridge across the harbour from this
terrific scene of devastation and defeat. So fell Sebas-
topol. The catastrophe surpasses in horrible interest all
the preceding scenes of this gigantic coi,te4. The co-
-1 lumns of the allied armies, combined in a fourfold attack,

.—_ ........_._ .. __ _ ,
struggled all day with equal valour, though with un-
equal success, against the principal points marked nut
for assault. The extreme right et the French attack was
directed against the work called the Little Redan, which
was at first carried by the impetuosity of our allies,
though they were subsequently driven back by the fierce
resistance of the Russians The second awl principal
assault of the French army was again-t the Malakhoff,
which was carried by storm, and determined by its fall
the fate, not only of the day, but of the siege. A third
attack was maile by the British forces on the Great
Redan, and, although we learn that the salient angle of
this formidable work was at one moment carried and
occupied by our troops, it must be added that they were
subsequently driven out of it by the fire of the Russian
batteries which commanded it, and this check in some
degree diminishes the exultation which will be felt
in this country at the triumphant termination of
the siege. The French celutrins on the left also assailed,
in the fourth place, the Central Battery, but failed to
establish themselves in the work. We have no doubt
that every man who attacked the defences of Sebastopol
on that eventful day fought with the same undaunted
gallantry and the same determination to carry the place
or to perish in the attempt ; arid although the results of
these several attacks were unequal, all were animated
by the same spirit and cootributel to the great result.
The first pries of this glorious victory belongs of right
to our gallaut allies the French, since the Malakheff
Tower, the key of the main position, fell before the
vigour of their assault ; hut with that, chivalrous feeling
which is the noblest bowl of men who have fought and
conquered together, the names of all those who carried
the rugged defences of Sebastopol deserve to stand side
by side on one page, and no invidious distinctions shall
sully or lessen their centime' renown.
The Russians on their side unquestionably defended
the place with the utmost determination, and no more
than one point they had the advantage over the le. sieg-
ere. But it was the courage of desperatien, for this effort
was their last. No sooner was the outer works taken,
which laid the town and the pert at the mercy of the
allied forces, than the reeler& war and steamers in the
harbour were all set on fire, hl ) wri up, sunk, or destroyed,
either by the fire of the allied batteries, or by the orders
of the Russian authorities. Such ea- the fate of the Res-
sian Black Sea fleet, on which the briperia,l Government
had expended incalculable sums of money and incessant
labour—that fleet which two years ago threaeeneil the
very existence of the Turkish empire, but whose solitary
naval achievement was the atrocious outrage up es a far

inferior force at Sinope. Of the author: of that -nefarious
Attack what remains? Tue E riper r Niche as sleeps in
the vaults of St. Peter and Si. Paul, no lonze? conscious
of the chastisement his wicked ambititin bas brought down
on bits empire and bis heirs The admirals who com-
manded and the crews who fought on that occasion have
most of them fallen in the batteries of Shba,toool. The
very ships for which Rii,sia contended at the Confer,
ences of Vienna as essential to her dignity and power
are torn plank from plank and scattered upon the
waves. The dockyard and arsenal were already, on
Sunday, in possession of the allied !mops ; Prince Giuit-
schakoff hal, it keeing, solicited an arays,ic-i, though we
know not whether it was granted ; but his. troops were
hurrying away with the utmost pre,ipitat ion ; and, con-
sidering the moral and physical results of such a defeat
upon the remnant of his army, it may be doubted whe-
ther the Russian General can attempt to make any fur-
ther stand on the north side of the harbour.

These great events terminate the
siege of Sebastopol
properly so called, for the allied arsnies have achieve,
within the last three days the grand objects of their en
terprise. They have wrested from the whole military
power of Rue-ia a fortress which she had converted into
a place of extraerilioary strength and defended wish in-
numerable hors of her best tesiopse They have annihi-
lated the naval power on which she relied to secure her
authority from the shores of the Caucasus to the mouths
of the Danube. But, above all, they have shown the
servile and credulous nations of the East that the
Powers now paramount in the .world are not those of
fanaticiem and barbaric absolutism, but those of liberty
and of civilisation. In this struggle Sebastopol became
at once the test of strength and the reward of victory.
To reduce it by force of arms was to overthrow that co-
lossal fabric of Russian influence which a century and
a-half of rapine and intrigue had ca!led into being, until
it overawed the surrounding nations and tereatened .the
independence of Europe While the txpedition to the
Crimeaoffered theincalculable advantage of circumscribie g
within a few square miles of the enemy's territory all
the horrors of war, and of st ikingehe strength of four
empires on a single point, the result of our victory is ae
boundless as the globe. It tells the world that he alli
ance of Er gland and of France has stood the test of war-
fare by the sufferings of the camp and the perils of the
field. It aseiree mankind that their united policy can
impose its will and execute its re•olutions, even tieiugh
the timid kited aloof, arid though men of baser minds
may abandon the cause of their country in her hour of
need. We owe our success in no slight degree to the
unwavering firmne-s with which the -Emperor of the
French has pirated this enterprise and adhered to the
policy that dictated it. But we owe it no less to the clear
and unanimous resolivion of the people of England,
whose mind was made up the • this thine was to be done.
In the course of these events, which broke in so sud-
denly on our wonted avocations, we have had much te
learn and much to bear. At times the tedium of sus-
pended excitemeet became almost intoierable, and more
than once the fainthearie l or the factious lost confidence
in the result. Yet what is the tact ? What is it we have
done ? A year has not yet elapeeil since the allied armies
set foot in the Crimea. Within that time they have won
three pitched.battlese and twice assaulted a fortress of
extraordinary magnitude. They have encompassed the
works of the enemy with treeches extending over more
than 30 miles of ground ; they have armed these trenches
with the heaviest ordnance, and kept up so incessant a
fire that not only an incalculable amount of projectiles has
been consumed, but five or six siege trains have been
worn out. They have created at Kamiesch, Eupatoria, and
Yenikale three military stations which the Russians have
not dared to assail, and Balaklava has become a populeus
mart. A railroad connects the harbour and the camp ; an
electrio chain little the Crimea to Europe, and conveys to
us in a few hours the tidings of these triumphant suc-
cesses. Upwards of 200,000 men encamped within the
lines of the 'Tchernaya have been conveyed thither and
are daily fed, clothed, arid housed from the resources of
Western Europe. All this has been effected in spite of
the rigour of winter, the heat of summer, and the dis-
tance of 3,000 miles from our shores, and within one
little year from the sailing of the expedition the leading
objects of the campaign are accomplished and Sebastopol
is in our power. The military and political results of
this event open a new chapter in the -his Tory of these
transactions to which we shall shortly take occasion to
revert, but, be they what they may, the grand fact now
before us justifies the confidence we have never ceased
to feel and rewards our hopes, for within 12 months from
the commencement of this enterprise Sebastopol has
fallen, and the power of Russia.. in the waters of the
Euxine is at an end,

( From the Daily News of this day.)
All the south side of the harbour of Sebastopol is in
the possession of the Allies—not a single Russian re-
mains there except as a prisoner. To enable our readers
to form as clear a conception of the process by which
this important issue has been obtained, as the curt tel
graphic despatches admit of, we submit to them a resume
of the operations from the moment of re-opening the
bombardment. The French and English batteries opened
their fire at daybreak on the sth inst. The bombardment
WAS continued all that day and the next without slacken-
ing. On the night between the sth, a Russian two decker
was set on fire by a shell, and burnt to the water-edge.
Ou the afternoon of the 7th, another Russian frigate was
set on fire and destroyed. A great explosion was heard
from the Russian worksabeut midnight, supposed to have
been of a magazine on the north side. On the morning of
the Bth a great fire was observed to be burning about the
middle of the town of Sebastopol. At noon on the same
day a simultaneous attack was made on the Mals.kboff,
the Careening Bay Redan, and the Central Bastion by
the French ;on the Redan by the English. The two
first mentioned works were carried by assault, and our
gallant allies made good their position in the entrench-
ments of the Malakhoff, but were forced to retire from
the Careening Bay Redan by the heavy fire of the enemy.
The attack on the Central Bastion proved unsuccessful.
The English carried the salient of the Roden, but were
forced to retire befor-i the enemy's artillery and his
powerful reserves. General Pelissier says, c, Our loss
was severe :" General Simpson, " The casualties, I re-
gret to say, are somewhat heavy." On the morning of
the 9th it was found that the Russians had evacuated the
South Side. During the preceding night they had blown
up their magazines and set fire to the town. As soon as
their troops were withdrawn, the bridge connecting the
south side of the harbour with the north was broken np.
All the Russian men-of-war in the harbour were destroyed
during the night. General Simpson states that they
wer
Re"ubssuirann nay
edcSin Sir Eth.eLßyolancsk, thatsa e theyis now reducedwere"snnkt.o'
The
three small steamers, in the harbour of Sebastopol,
within rage of and exposed to the artillery of the
maytobceone
jnuarbeleudp, eav
lei nv
ebl yy
Allies.
thisThbealmdosatntdormp
prtst4tmea o the-WM of 4e fee's. For s;M time
iedaginireagninarartelotnive,

previous to the attack, we know that the Russians were
availing themselves of their newly-constructed floating
bridge to convey large reinforcements of men and artil-
lery across the harbour from the north. The antagonists
mustered their utmost disposable strength on both sides
for the death-grapple. Fur three days and nights did the
allies continue to pour an uninterrnitting storm Of shot
and shells upon the doomed fortalices, from artillery of
unprecedented calibre and range. For a time the enemy
coritinued to reply with a fire almost as heavy and
vigorously sustained. At intervals might be heard above
the roar of artillery the explosions c,f magazines ; the in-
termittent flashes of the guns were outshone by the blaze
of burning houses and ship. At noon of the fourth eay,
after a temporary lull, the assai'er.ts rushed tothe attack
under a sal 70 from all their batteries. Next was heard
in fierce and rapid succession the sharp cracks of thou-
sands of rifles. A deadly hand to hand struggle ensued
as soon as the columns of the assault crowned the
crumbling walls and mounds of the defences, and then
again the Russian artillery opened with redoubled roar.
Tue immediate result appeared doubtful. The Russians,
unable to regain the Malakhuff, receded from that posi-
tion ; the troops which had assaulted the two Recaps
and the Central Bastion retired within their trenches.
There was a brief pause on bath sides to recruit exhausted
nature. Then arose from within the fortifications, in
rapid succession, the explosions of magazines, and these
volcanic eruptions had scarcely ceased when the shades
of night were lit up by the lurid glare of a burning town
and a burning fleet. At an early hour of the morning
all the southern forts of Sebanopol were left untenanted ;
the broad waters of the gulf were interposed between the
combatants of the preceding day, and their surface was
only dotted at rare intervals by a few small steamers, the
fragments of a broken bridge, and the topmasts of sunken
ships. The silence of exhau,tion settled down on the
scene of strife, where for four continuous days the roar
of artillery, the crash of explosions, and ate shouts of
men preternaturally excited by the awful contest, had
reverberated through the hollow ravines with deafening

effect.
The universal tilled of London was last night fairly
thrown off its balance by the announcement of the tri-
umphant issue of the dread struggle. Fora time the rush
of the multitude to obtain early copies of the evening jour-
nals bore a strong similitude to an enteute. The excitement
spread rapidly through ail the crowded streets. From
every church tower and steeple the bells rang out the
']arum of victory with deafening clamour. The French
Embassy was the first to illuminate, atel the example
was followed in many places. All this exultetion, after
months of anxious expectation, was irresi-tible. All
ranks, all ages, all temperaments were carried away by
the spring-tile of contagious enthuAaeni. By the time
these lines meet the eyes of our readers the electrifying
intelligence will have produced the same effect through
every province of the Uoited Kingdoms. We may say
with the poet, "Now universal England getteth drunk"
—at least with !meted intoxication. But it behoves
those upon whom has devolved the guiding of the reins
of Government to preserve. amid this whirlwindof tem-
peetuous jubilee, a traieieil wind aril a relentless pur-
pose. The triumph has been dearly bought by long
months of suffering, heroically endured by our noble
army, and by a lavish expenditure of life, and it is yet
incomplete. The foe whose insatiable ambition has dis-
turbed the peace of Europe rnu4 be incapacitated from
renewing his outrages for a long period. His navy in
the Euxine has been destroys i ; his arsenal, where was
febiecated and repaired the artillery which enabled him
to make so protracted a defence, has beeie reduced to
ruins and wrested from him ; his warlike stores have
been in a great measure wasted and exploded. The
troepc which have been .riven hack from the Tchernaya,
and forced to recross the harbour of Sebastopol, are
doubtless dismayed and dispirited. But he has still a
numerous army in the field, covered by the inlet of
Sei.astepol, the fortifications which brisfe along the
beigh,s on its north side, and the entrenchments which
exteial from those strongholds a'ortg the Mackenzie
heights to the base of the mountain ramp that over-
haeve the road to Simpheropol. The blow which has been
struck ought to be followed up before the enemy hae time
to recover hem it. The Russian army in the Crimea
must be haeasied and assailed unit it is forced to sur-
render. No mistaken generosity tou=t be displayed to-
wards a power whose threatening ambition has for nearly
half a century hung like a dark thunder-cloud over
Eur pe, and has at last burst in storm. Oar armies have
done their duty, and are ready to do it again ; the nations
are still animated by the same deliberate resolve with
which they mitered on the strife ; it is for the Govern-
ments to take care that such heroism and sef-sacrifice
shall not have been displayed iu vaiu.

( Fronzthe Morning Herald of this day. )
The 80.014;1)0W of tie Criinea is at length in possessiou
of the allies. After a defence of eleven months, con.

ducted, it must be admitted, with remarkable ability,
and su.tained with unflagging: energy, the enemy have
abandoned the ,outb side of Sebastopol, after firing the
town, magazine=, and t.hipping. It is the well-known
practice of the Rued ins, when a place bac:woes-a° longer
tenable, to carry out the work of destruction on all sides,
so as to leave nothifig to the aisailauts but smAing and
ruinous heaps, and it appears they have not departed
from that practice in the present instance. The de-
spatches of General Pelt seer and of General Simpson
give, so far, but a mere outline of the operations and
their grand result. We learn that the assault was de-
livered at the Great and Little Redan, the Malakhoff,

ani the Central Bastion. The French carried by storm
the redoubts of the Malalch.off, together with the Lesser
Redan ; but they failed to carry the Central Bastion,
although attacked twice ; meanwhile the English carried
the salient of the Great Redan. The French found it
impossilde to hold the smaller work, in conq.equetwe of
the irresistible fire of artillery whicti swept it, nor did the
English succeed in their first assault upon -the Great
Redan. Ni soontr, hu.a ever, were the French

firmly installed in the Malakoff than the enemy
must have seen that the game was up. That work
commands and enfilades both Ratans and the entire
easter) portion of the town, while it is in its turn com-
manded only by 111,,unt Saponne, which is i❑ possession
of our gallant allies. There is a heavy battery immedi-
ately in-ide the Ma!akhoff, mounting, it is said, 800
gnus. It was anticipated that this formidable work
would have rendered the occupation of the. Malakhoff
impossible, but the Russians seem to have turned it to
little purpose. The tact is that the Malakhoff is nothing
el-,e than the key of the whole position. The enemy
seem to be quite conscious of this, and to have taken
their resolution, once its possession by the French had
been secured, to abandon the town, and throw them-
, selves into the defences of the north side.
At whatever cost achieved —and the carnage mast
have been terrific—the *spire of Sebastopol is a splen-
did success, and one on which, with the deepest sin-
cerity, we congratulate the country. In the absence of
all particulas of the numbers engaged and the various
features of the assault, it is impossible to do more than
speculate upon them. Our allies, no doubt, displayed
that fiery courage which has so often borne the French
eagles to victory. Our own troops, we are satisfied, be-
haved, as they ever do, with determined courage and un-
Inching resolution. United, they have, after a struggle
as arduous if not as prolonged as any in the history of
sieges, planted their ensigns on the ruins of the Gibraltar
of the Euxine. They have seized the reward of months
of privation, watching, and patient endurance. The Rus-
sian boast and the,Russian falsehood are alike unavail-
ing. The enemy has been signally routed in the field,
and he is now driven from the defences which he flat-
tered hiinself were proof against the united arms of
the allies, which he boasted would defy the armies of the
earth.
The effect of this glorioue news will be electrical. It
will scatter the delusion of Russian invincibility, and
will ruin the confidence of the Cabinet of St. Peters-
burg. True, the Czar and his advisers may have looked
for this catastrophe, but the actual event will for the
time confound them. It will be seized at Vienna, no
doubt, as an opportunity for pressing negotiations for
peace, and we have a Government but too willing to
listen to overtures, however insincere and worthless.
But let no man imagine that the fall of the southern
defences of Sebastopol will change the fixed policy of
Russia, or afford as yet the opportunity for an honour-
able and secure peace. It is too probably but the true
commencement of the war—the first great event of a
struggle that the next 10 years may not see concluded.
It is good earnest of future conquest—a well-directed
blow at the vulnerable heel of Russia.
e-

( Front the Morning Post of this day.)
The great southern stronghold of Russia exists no
more. Its arsenals are ruins—its forts shapeless heaps
—and the vast fleet, built at such cost, and cherished
with such pride, is burnt or sunk, without one excel).

tion.
As we indicated yesterday, the possession of the
Malakhoff Tower placed the Allies at once in the position
of commanding the whole of Sebastopol. So strongly,
indeed, was this felt by the Russians, that without de-
lay, alter having lost the Malakhoff on Saturday after-
noon, they proceeded to sink all their ships, totde,-troy
everything that allowed of it, and to evacuate the
southern side of Sebastopol with the utmost possible
speed.
Our success is as complete as it is rapid ; and, to un-
derstand it aright, it may be well that we recapitulate
the events which immediately led to it, adding to the
outline of the official statements such information as we
have best reasons for believing to be accurate.
After a tremendous bombardment, which was kept
lip unremittingly on Thursday and Friday, the Allied
Generals gave the word for the storming of the forts on
Saturday, at mid-day. Then ensued what is historically
known to be the most fearful scene in the hideous pro-
gress of war. Thousands of gallant men rushed to an
almost certain destruction—the more terrible in appear-
ance that it was concentrated in so small a space. The
English attacked the Redan. The French assaulted
the Central Bastion, the Redan of Careening Bay, and
the Malakhoff Tower.
The last attack wai alone successful from causes which
our readers will at once appreciate, and which we are
most happy in being able to state, as such elucidation at
once clears away the apparent disparity of success be-
tween ourselves and our noble Allies.
The Malakhoff Tower is, as is well known, thebighest
point of the fortifications which defended Sebastopol. It
is flanked on either side by the grand Redan, the object
04 the Fng.ish attach, =4 the &Wan of Chgeezipg j)py

Now, behind these forts the Russians had constructed a
formidable second line of earthworks, heavily armed,
which commanded all the works in front, with the ex-
ception of the Malakhoff Tower, and this exception was
due to the over care of the Russians, who, in their aux-
ie,y to strengthen the Malakhoff, had built its works in
three tiers, the one rising above the other, whereas the
Redans were constructed with only one tier of guns.
The consequence of this was, that when the French
swarmed on to the first tier of the Malakhoff, the second
tier saved them from being hurt by the fire of the works
in the rear of the Tower ; and, in like manner, when
they attained the second tier, the third saved them in its
turn. Consequently thousands
.of men thronged its
ramparts, protected from the Russian fire. The combat
raged on the flanks, where the enemy could only attack
them with his musketry, and their own rifles and brilliant
impetuosity were ten much for him. Under the protec-
tion of a galling fire from the French, their sappers
slipped round the work, threw up an entrenchment, and
thus, effectually covered on all points, the whole work
was theirs.
Here, then, to brave men success was as natural as
their own enthusiastic courage, but alas ! upon other
points courage availed not. The gallant assailants of
the Redan and of the Central Bastion no sooner had
carrie I these works, as they did triumphantly, than they
found themselves exposed to a terrific close fire of grape,
which rendered life impossible. The forts, built in one
exposed tier, were open to the full range of the second
line of earthworks, and in vain our gallant men, in vain
our chivalrous allies, tried to hold their position. They
would not retreat, but were swept away as corpses by
the pitiless storm of grape. The tenacity of our struggle
may be easily conceived when it is known that in car-
rying, and in endeavouring to hold, that one Redan, our
loss amounted to two thousatd men.
Our allies, and we ourselves bad, therefore, to retire
from these points ; but the Ma!akhoff was in the hands
of the French, and that was everything. The proof of
that is in the result. The Russians set at work, at once,
to burn and destroy. They sunk or burnt their ships,
and the latest accounto left them suffering under the
fire of our bombs, but still exploding mines in all direc-
tions, and raising such havoc, that General Pelissier de-
cribes Sebastopol as one vast circle of conflagration.
The Russians thee escaped en masse, breaking the
bridge they had recently constructed, and without time
to carry off their killed and wounded, for whose re-
moval Prince Gortschakoff was compelled to solicit an

armistice.
The naval power of Russia in the Black Sea is thus
annihilated, and the huge arsenal the Czar had con-
structed at so much labour and expense is utterly ruined
and destroyed.
We have nothing to fear from the North Fort. It
will soon be ours. We command its fate with certainty.
It cannot hold a large garrison, and the troops encamped
near it or in its neighbourhood are in a most precarious
condition. The army of General Liprandi, on Mac-
kenzie's Heights, is in great want of water, and provi-
sions are scarce. In the southern side of Sebastopol
great quantifies of provisions must have been destroyed,
and on the north side there are no sufficient places of
depot for any sufficient amount of stores.
The r-,ad to the North Fort is commanded by our
position at Efipatoria. to which we are now free to
transport large and adequate forces to cut off the com-
munications of the fort, to take the armies in the rear,
and ruer.ace the safety of every Russian in the Crimea.
Of two things, one, either we shall menace their post
Boras, aiA force them to battle or capitulation ; or they
will play the desperate game, and at once attack us
with a view to a final struggle. We are ready for them,
and doubt not the result.
The consequences of the fall of Sebastopol will be
im-
mense, both strategically and politically. Our enemies
have received a great blow, and many of our friends will
probably he roused to a more lively sense of their posi-

tion and our own.
Let us not boast, but ascribe the victory to that
Power to whom alone it is due ; but whiist we deplore
our losses and those of our gallant Allies, let us resolve
that our sacrifices shall nut have been made in vain ;
that the torrents of blond shed in the cause of right
shall, by the blessing of Providence, not have been spent
in vain ; and that so fir as in us lies we will steadfastly
pursue our ris!hteous and single object—not deluded by
false protestations of anxiety for peace, but determined
to secure on firm and lasting bases the restriction of
Russian power and the future liberties of Europe.

(Front the Times of this day.)
We would much rather not be under the necessity of
believing that there are some at home to whom the glo-
rious news from the Crimea will he a disappointment.

It is indeed with the greatest difficulty that we can ima-
gine the state of those minds that have blundered into
Si) morbid and ridiculous a position. Yet we cannot
doubt the fact. These persons, drawing largely on the
obscurity and uncertainty of the future, and encouraged
possibly by some sinister auguries of their own, have
dwelt incessantly on the delay and comparative failure
of our military operations—on the patriotism and devo-
tion of the foe—on the inexhaustible extent of his re-
sources—on the presence of a religious idea on his side,
and the absence of it on our own—on the fatal neglect
which, in a way known to none but these mystic politi-
cians, had converted England and France into 'the
authors of a new war, instead of the imulte I, aggrieved,
and threatened parties in an old one. On these and
other topics, fabricated in a workshop of their own, and
more or less unintelligible to ordinary people, this select
knot of politicians have brooded and declaimed till they
have forgotten they are Englishmen, They cannot but
think that a great misfortune has happened to England
and to the common interests of humanity in the fall ol
Sebastopol. On Mr. Gladstone's own premises, that
event which this day fills with honest joy every sound
heart among ourselves and our noble allies is the triumph
of criminal ambition, obstinacy, and revenge. Accord-
ing to him and his handful of political associates, a hide-
ous crime has been perpetrated, and the flames of Sebas
topol, with the thousands who lie buried in its smoulder-
ing ruins, cry from the ground for vengeance upon 51.-.
As far, indeed, as regards their own country, there is
one small consolation. In the plain, modest language
of the British Commander-in-Chief, the French sue-
ceeded in their main attack, while our :attack failed. But
for this the gentlemen we refer to would scarcely wish
to show themselves in public during the prestnt re-
j icing. To the air of satisfaction which every English
face will wear this day, notwithstanding the destiny,
not to call it by a higher name, which has given the
palm of victory more to our gallant ally than to our
own arms, these gentlemen are now able to reply, " You
have not much to boast of ; it was not you that did it."
This saving clause in the victory will render their ex-
istence tolerable for the present, and of course we can-
not hut he content that such able and excellent men
should have some encouragement to live a little longer,
and to hope one day for some event more entirely ac-
cording to their wishes.
As for the people of England, in the broad sense of
that word, which we will not allow to have any excep-
tion, they will rejoice on this occasion with a deep, a
chastened, and a rational joy. They now know more of
the horr ,rs of war than they did a twelvemonth ago.
They have parsed many months of anxiety and grief,
and have been brought to the verge of despondency ;
they have learnt that they must make great sacrifices,
and expect great reverses ; and, what is even more,
runny, very many, have had the sorrows brought home
to them in the loss of near and dear friends. But
people who have suffered so much, so cheerfully, so
hopefully, and with so increasing a determination to
persevere at all costs, are better able to appreciate suc-
cess when it comes. We all know by this. time that we
cannot snatch a victory ; we do not come upon it by
lucky chance. That would, indeed, be robbing it of
its highest significance. There have been many great
deeds of heroism which to this day live in fame.
There hate been many national deliverances which,
after the lapse of centuries, still claim our personal
gratitude. But in all these the splendour of vic-
tory shines on a foil of.. disaster -and death. Men-
tion any name of glory in the annals of Greece
or Rome, of England, of France, or of any other nation
of Europe, and that name only serves as a torch to throw
light on a long period of unsuccessful labour, unrequited
sufferings, and unredeemed losses. None have lamented
and remonstrated so much as we that we do not bring
our vast mechanical resources more to the sparing of our
There was a time when we did hope that possibly
we might compound with money and the toil of the ar-
tisan for the blood of the soldier. The result, however,
shows that the character of war and the game of the
battle-field are much the same as ever. It is still life
that is staked, and personal courage that must carry the
day. When the artificer and the engineer have done their
best, there remains the contest of maa with man. In
that contest the utmost we can hope for is somewhat less
loss on our side than that of our foes. With that whole-
some conclusion forced upon us by bitter experience, we
are in a better coalition to read the glorious news that
Sebastopol has fallen to the arms of the allies.
After the lessons of this long struggle, it would be
vain to exaggerate the success, even were there any
reasons for doing so, Our armies no stand on a heap
of ruins. As far as the skill of the Ruesian engineers
could devise it, not one stone is left upon another of the
vast works south of the harbour ' • and we may be sure
that, in the event of the Russians finding it necessary to
retire from the north, they will complete the ghastly
amphitheatre, and from the water's edge the Western
conquerors will see nothing but blackened mounds,
shattered walls, and many a hideous spectacle of mortal
decay. What next—whether we shall complete the work
of destruction, or establish within its circle some portion
of our vast host, or whether trusting to the, force of that
host and the abundance of our supplies, we shall drive
the Russian out of the Crimea, and hold it against him,—
is possibly not yet decided on. But we are satisfied that
the only way to bring the war to a close is to carry it
on with all our heart and soul, all the opportunities in
our reach, and all the means in our power. We are tied
to no terms, except such as the allies may have agreed
to between themselves, and such as, in the exercise of
their discretion, they may think best for the security and
peace of the world. The only object, then, that we need
at present recognise is to reduce the enemy to the lowest
possible condition, and compel him to sue for his very
existence. Let England know that we have to deal
with a foe who knows no rule but necessity, and who
will only be restrained from resuming his long-cherished
§Ol2l/12, of universal doil4ain by tk9 mat of pica' au4

men.