The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-25 00:00:00

matic forms require that the Porte should take the
initiative, has our Government, by its accredited
representative at Constantinople, called upon the
Diyan to do so ? Turkey is the weakest of all the
Allied Powers, and to expect it to provoke the hos-
tility of Austria—unless it be well assured of the
support of the rest—by resenting an injury that
touches England as deeply as itself, is unreasonable.
If the Turkish Ministers shrink from a bold asser-
tion of its rights, it is for the English Government
to insist upon their making the formal application
to, Austria, and pledge itself to bear them. It is
for the English Government to insist upon the con-
currence of all its allies in its efforts to vindicate
its right and honour, assailed while making
common cause with them, and because it is
making common cause with them. There
can be no excuse for the British Government
if it abandons to his fate a faithful servant who has
been placed in a situation of extreme hazard in the
discharge of a mission which it has imposed upon
him. Let it go to work with all the formality that
the veriest diplomatic pedant can require, but let
I it avail itself promptly and energetically of the
forms which diplomacy offers it to work by. If
Colonel Turr is not liberated, unharmed, by the
Austrians, England is dishonoured.
The Times attempts to palliate the base and
cowardly course it instigates the British Govern-
ment to adopt with regard to Colonel Turr by seek-
ing to raise up prejudices against him. It talks of
" democrats called into existence by the abortive
revolutions of 1848, and scattered over the face of
the earth by the re-action of the next year." It
hints at the " ingratitude " of the exiles who have
been protected by Great Britain. It insinuates
that the proscribed have been " guilty of offences,
moral or political." All these inuendoes are part
and parcel o ithe insiduous attempts that have of
late been systematically made to persuade the
English public that the friends of liberty on the
Continent who were defeated in 1849 ought to be
placed beyond the pale of the protection of inter-
national law. They are proofs of the inveteracy
and pertinacious activity of a faction among us
who would fain see England making common
cause with the Continental despots against all sup-
porters of popular rights throughout Europe. If
Englishmen have any regard for their characters
as free men and lovers of liberty, they will at
once silence these insidious slaves by a stern
rebuke and disavowal of their servile principles.
The prating is doing us incalculable harm with
the liberals of the whole civilised world.
Everywhere men aro beginning to suspect that
the old English sympathy with heroic efforts and
self-sacrifice in the cause of freedom is becoming
extinct. The English Government is beginning to
be classed with those which combat ifree thought,
free utterance, and free action, at times with the
brute force of mere mercenary soldiers, at times
by the worse agency of police spies.

RUSSIAN RESOURCES ON THE CASPIAN.

A litrtfordshire incumbent, in writing to a contempo-
rary, says:—The possible transfer of warlilzeoperations to
Georgia in the course of the next few months makes it a
matter of some interest to ascertain the means of tran-
sport possessed by Russia in the Caspian Sea, which
may be employed for the purpose of conveying reinforce-
ments and materiel to her Asiatic army. As all direct
information on this subject is difficult to obtain, and as,

even if obtained, it would be desirab:e to have sonic test

of its correctness, perhaps the knowing inferences,
which are drawn from an analysis of the statistical tables
published by the Board ofirrade, may deserve a place in

your columns,
It appears that the total annual traffic of the Russian
ports of the Caspian, taking both entrances and clear-
ances, and an average of the four years 1849-1852,

amounts to 32,053 toes, borne in 451 bottoms.

Now, as no country has any ports upon the Caspian
but Russia and Persia, it follows that by deducting the
amount of the Perso-Russian trade from this total, the
reantinderawill represent the sea-borne trade between
the Russian ports only.
The annual Perso-Russian trade in Russian vessels
amounts to 23,151 tons, in 264 bottoms, which gives an
average tonnage of about 88 tons to each ship. From
the small extent of the sea we cannot suppose that less
than two double voyages are made every season by each;
from which it may be inferred that the number of such
ves,els is not greater than about 70.
The annual Perso-Russian trade in Persian vessels
amoui,t4 to 1,137 tons, in 35 bottoms, which gives
an average of 32 or 33 tons to each barque. It is
obvious that these must be mere coasters—such, for
instance, as the Per-i-bazaar boats, which go to
Baku for the purpose of getting rock salt and
naphtha, and take thither rice and other provisions
in exchange. The small importance of these craft makes
it scarcely worth while to estimate their number ;
from the shortness of the voyages which alone they can
undertake, it is clear that it must be very small,
Deducting, now, the Perso-Russian traffic from the

total Russian trade on the Caspian, there remains only
7,765 tone, borno in 152 bottoms. It appears from the
tables that, during the three years 1850-1852, a very
few Persian bottoms were employed in the intercourse
between the Russian ports. Making allowance for
these, there will result an annual intercourse between
the Russian ports on the Caspian, measured by 7,600
tons, borne in 148 bottoms, which gives an average of
little more than 51 tons to each vessel employed ; and
the number of these, reckoning only two double voyages
in the year for each will be under 40.
If we only remember that this cipher measures the
amount of sea communication between Astrachan,
Gourien, at the mouth of the Oural, and Alexandrowsk,
on the eastern shore of the Caspian, as well as that be-
tween Astrachan and Derbend and Baku on the western
it seems impossible to believe that the supplies to the
Russian army in Georgia did, before the outbreak of the
war, came down the Lower Volga and thence into the
Caspian ; and, if so, it is perfectly certain that they
either were conveyed over the pass of Dariel, or—which
I believe to have been the case—were landed on the east
coast of the Black Sea, and thence beached Tiflis by the
route which now lies before the illustrious Turkish Com-
mander. It is, indeed, a melancholy reflection that
Kars should have fallen after so gallant a defence —moss
melancholy, if its fall should turn out to have resulted
from apathy, or anything worse, on the part of those
whose duty it was to succour it ; but that the misfortune
is one in the slightest degree likely to affect the pros-
pecte of the war is an idea which, so long as the Allies
hold possession of the seaboard of the Euxine, there is
surely no reason whatever to entertain. If the triumph
serves the purpose of saving the honour of the Emperor
of Russia, and inclines him to submit to reasonable
terms of peace, some good will come out of evil ; but
that it should be made a ground for modifying these is a
conclusion which, I should fancy, neither our own Fo-
reign Minister nor our illustriou, nits wiil be iso good-
natured as to accept kr an instant.

SHIP WRECKS-SERVICES OF A LIFE-
BOAT.

---

TENBY, Dec. 22..—An opportunity was presented on
Wednesday last of fairly testing, for the first time during
a gale of wind from S. E., the life-boat of this Place,
and the result of the trial was in every respect satisfac-
tory ; indeed it was well it was so, for the next day
(Thursday) both the life-boat and her crew were severely
tried, but they behaved admirably ; their unflinching
courage and untiring energy, dashing with the life-boat
through a succession of broken seas, against a strong
gale, was loudly applauded on shore.
About four p.m. on the latter day, the schooner Age-
.
norm, of Bideford, having been disabled in consequence
dthteor
beeaceoumale-
ties, while
of her sails hev
runningeg
fhoere
thiblowns
s pier, away, and
basnedrveo
ble and to drive on shore near St. unmanageaCathe-
rine's Rocks. The sea made a complete breach over her.
The life-boat was immediately manned and launched.
After a bard pull through the heavy breakers, the life-
boat reached the wreck, and succeeded in taking off the
crew of three hands. The mate of the vessel had been
unfortunately washed overboard in the Channel, and
drowned.
At 9 p.m. intelligence was brought to the life-boat's
crew that another vessel was on shore near Gaiter Point,
about two miles from this place. No time was lost in
Procuring horses to take the life-boat to the nearest
place for launching her. This was successfully accom-
plished, in the midst of a fearful sea.
The crew of the life-boat manfully persevered, not-
withstanding that each successive sea broke over them,
and about midnight they succeeded in reaching the
wreck, and took her crew on board in an exhausted
state. A lad, about 16, who was in a state of insensi.
bility, was dragged along the deck into the life-boat.
He continued in this state several hours after he wag
taken to a farm-house in the neighbourhood. Another
boy was forcibly drawn up from the cabin and placed in
the boat, and the crew, consisting
of five bands, were
safely landed. The vessel soon after began to break UP,
and subsequently became a total 'wreck. She proved to
be the French schooner Alexandre, of Nantes, from
Cardiff to Nantes, with coals.
This life-boat belongs to the Royal National Life-boat
Institution, London, and was recently altered at Lime-
house to Mr. James Peake's plan. She had only just
returned to her station before she was called on to
rescue the crews of these two vessels, who would,
in
all probability, have perished but for the life-boat's
opportune assistance.

l:ty°m led T utiCo SUDDENsevera
TuRiAwI.L_WThAY
eAsNuDddOeTnriEthßaAwcocrirS N
Saturday
r d
accidents in LancasThihree,teamndpemrinacuhredbeelgaayninto setuhiearrinithvaly
of railway trains.
evening, and soon after eleven; o'clock there was a fall
of snow. At twelve it was succeeded by rain, The
mail which left Manchester at twenty minutes past ten
that night, by London and North-Western line, was
much delayed by a fall of sleet. between Sandbach and
Crewe, and was run into by a heavy goods train follow
ing in the same direction. The guard was in great
danger, but was able to jump off before the collision
occurred. A gentleman in one of the carriages was see
verely cut about the face and head. The up-trains from
Bangor and Chester, and the dit)wn-trains from Glouces-
ter and Worcester were much 0 elayed by the change of
weather, and the consequent, slipperiness of the rails.
In Manchester a great number of water-pipes burst
during the night, and much vropertY was damaged la
the warehouses.