The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-30 00:00:00

Allies for the purpose, it is said, of asking assistance, or other-
wise he could not answer for his holding that city, and he
was told the Allies bad not a man to spare, Here is a state
of things But what are we doing to meet it ? Why, we
have not sent any reinforcements to speak of for the last two
mouths. It's a question of reinforcements, and we are send-
ing. none. It is not quite because we have not the men to
send, for we have some Guards at least, and others besides.
The Turkish contingent does not vet exist. The Sardinian
contingent is not yet afloat. • There is now a rumour that the
French are ready .to send .5-, !00 men, if we will convey
them.. But all this belongs to the future. The Russians are
bringing up other men now, and that very fast. But we have
something else to ask. When these immense reinforcements,
these 41,000 Turks, 15,000 Sardinians, and 50,000 French
arrive at the Crimea, will they find all the additional material
ready for them ? Or will they lan 1, as our troops did at Galli-
poli, at Varna And in the Crimea, with half the necessaries of
war still to belooked out and waited for ?

, .
Our officials and ex-officials at home are always assuming
the most perfect aequaibtance with . what has been done,
is doing, andis to be done, and on the strength of it " con-
tradicting" tho papers. Let us hear our correspondent,
writing on the spot :—" I can solemnly declare that I have
not heard oire single official •statement- with respect to any
transaction of this expedition which has not contained more
or less error and inaccuracy. Even Mr. Gladstone, in Making
a statement respecting Captain Christie's recall, committed a
strange, and, to us, an inexplicable mistake, when he in-
formed the house that• Captain Christie had reached Malta on
his way home to England, but that he was ordered back to
stand his trial by Court-martial. Now, the fact is, Captain
Christie never left his pest at Balaklava for one moment, and
that he is hors at present, so that he could not have been at
Malta, and consequently could not have been ordered back."
We will leave the authorities at home to state who is now the
presiding genius at Balaklava. But our correspondent men-
tions an instance which grows that Captain Christie survives,
in his successors, to some extent at least. " Within the last
few days it has occurred that a steamer of 1,000 tons burden

has come into Balaklava laden with stores and with potatoes
in casks for the use of the army. Scarcely had she cast anchor,
when she receives orders to proceed at once to Eapatoria. To
do what ? Of course, to provision the Turks or to land stores
for our Allies, or on some other busiaess of great importance?
No ; nothing of the kind. This steamer, stores and all, is sent
to Eupatoria in all haste to convey a Greek contractor, one
Mr. Falanga, from Eupatoria to Balaklava 1" Now, through-
, out the whole of this war there has been a want of
steam tugs and other small steamers. They wore
wanted in the Bosphorus, to tow sailing vessels through,
' and to ply between Constantinople and the hospitals.
They were wanted for messages between Varna and Bala-
klava, and small errands of all sorts. Yet there are none
even now. That, at least, is the only account that can be
given for the employment of a steamer of 1,000 tons, full of
important stores, for the purpose of fetching a contractor.
Another use of these magnificent steam transports we have
already heard a good deal of. Certain officers seem to have
the power of appropriating steamers for their residence,
either for the benefit of their spacious cabins, or for the ex-
cellence of the cuisine, or some other reason of public im-
portance. " There are officers here," says our correspon-
dent, " whose lodging alone cost, or has cost, the country
at the rate of 22,000/. a-year, that being about the expense
of the ves.els in, which they have their quarters. It would
be a curious and instructive return for some member to move
for the services rendered by each vessel, the trips she has
made, and the sums paid to her owners for her service since
the expedition was determined upon to the present time."
Elsewhere in the same letter we are told that the harbour is
very much crowded, so much so that order is established
among the vessels and their crews only as far as possible. So
we may conclude the above transports are not kept there for
the contingency of a sudden re-embarkation.

There is one other point that we wish to press at this mo-
ment. It is stated on all sides that the authorities in the
Crimea are overborne by the enormous amount of purely
clerical labour. Paper, pens, and ink, some one says, aro
the plague of the Crimea. Mr. Filder assure a Mend of
ours, with tears in his eyes, that he had been sitting at his
desk for 72 hours, without stirring except to his meals.
Lord Raglan has been represented as signing his name,
writing letters, making returns, and so forth, till one or two
after midnight. Every return the House of Commons
may please to demand imposes fresh labours of the pen ; and
now it is added by the friends of the anti-inquiry Ministers
that Mr. Roebuck's committee will entail fresh labours on the
authorities whose conduct it •impugns, and so aggravate the
evil it professes to cure. That is the case against us. No-
body can deplore so much as we that any one in the position
of Lord Raglan, Generals Airey and Esteourt, or Mr. Filder,
should have to spend so much of their time at the desk. We
beg, however, to remind our Ministers that it has been seve-
ral times authoritatively stated that Lord Raglan has the
fullest possible powers to make what orders and regulations
he pleases. If it be so, why has he not dispensed with all
the unnecessary penmanship ? Why has he not put a stop to
requisition in triplicate, and to everything, in fact, which,
under the pretence of chocks against dishonesty, really put a
sty to the conveyance and distribution of supplies, and con-
sumes the strength of important functionaries to no real pur-
pose Has be the power to do this? If not, what becomes
of his " full powers ?" .If he has, let him be directed to eco-
nomise his own strength and the strengh of his officers. •

POLAND—LORD PALMERSTON'S ANTECEDENTS.
(From the Morning Herald of this day.)
The House of Commons was occupied for several hours on
Tuesday night, at a period when the fate of England and
Europe are actually treanb:ing in the balance, by two of those
most useless debates which have characterised the present
session even more ilrm its predecesiors.
The first 'ras a discussion upon the mode of granting com-
missions iu the army, which we cannot help thinking might
have been postponed until it was ascertained whether the
army itself could be saved from destruction ; or, at all events,
until the house had compelled the Government to adopt some
measures for that purpose, which would have at least the ap-
pearance of being in earnest.
The question of promotion lies in a nutshell. You cannot
get rid of the system of promotion by purchase, which has
Produced most admirable regimental officers, unless the na-
tion is prepared to repay the value of the commissions it has
sold, and this proposition would be sufficient to bring that
deceased Reformer, the late member for Montrose, from his
grave. By a return to the honourable house, dated the sth
of March, and signed by General Yorke, it appears that the
value above alluded to amounts to 8,068,5351. If to this we
add the necessity of raising the pay and pensions of the offi-
cers -to at least a level with those given by the East India
Company to their servants, we think we need hardly calcne
late the possibility of the present House of Commons entail•
ing such an expenditure on the country in order to gratify a
crotchet.
A good deal was said on Tuesday about promotion bymerit
and seniority, but we recpmmend the people of England to
consider that it is to those two influences combined that they
are indebted for the able and efficient services of Dr. Andrew
Smith, Admiral Boxer, Captain Christie, Commissary General
Filder, and Dr. Menzies, not one, of whom either purchased
haii.sisteooemrameyis.sion, or was iu any way connected with the
The second " cross"- was the insult conveyed to the suffi-
ciently unfortunate Poles, in making them the means of pro-
curing a little political capital for Mr. Phinn. We hope the
electors of Bath will see through the humbug as plainly as the
members of the Commons did when the house rang with the
ironical cheers which saluted the hon. member's statement
that " after the appeal of the noble lord"—Palmerston—
, " the only course left him was to withdraw his motion."
Doubtless it was the only course he ever intended to adopt.
It is very easy for the Premier to hold out delusive hopes
to the unhappy refugees'of Paris and London ; but the noble
lord knows better than any one else that after his abandon-
ment of Poland after the insurrection of 1830, Russia adopted
means which practically annihilated the Polish nation in her
dominions • and that all that is left of the intelligence,
wealth, and courage of those who constituted its essence,
must be sought for in the deserts of Siberia, if alive i and if
dead, their bones may be found whitening the Caucasus,
where they have been sacrificed in myriads. Russia does not
do things by halves.
The eyes of all Europe are now fixed upon the negotiations
carried en at Vienna ; and although, unless the " cask leaks,"
as it has done before, nothing can well be known of the pro-
ceedings of the plenipotentiaries, rumours are abroad of a
disgraceful peace, by. which Sebastopol will be still left as a
permanent aggresszon," to threaten Turkey and help in
carrying out the designs of the ;Czardeee against the " sick
man" as soon as the inevitable coolness between England and
France, consequent upon mutual disgrace, shall have ren-
dered another coalition between them for the defence of the
Sultan impossible.
Oh I but say the gobemouthes, no English Minister would
venture to do such a thing with Tower-hill staring him in the
face. Alas, Tower-hill it a tradition ; there is not energy
enough among nations calling themselves civilised to punish
traitors. That we may leave to the barbarian Turk and his
penal resources in the island of Cyprus.
Again, men say, "If such a thing were attempted, there
would be a revolution." Revolution, indeed! Why that
gigantic delusion, the " people of England," have not courage
or energy enough for getting up a respectable meeting. Revo-
lution !—in England ? Talk of a tornado 'in a wash-tub I
As for what the Minister dare do, let us see what he has
dared. We would wish to know—Was Lord Palmerston in
office when our influence in Persia was sacrificed to that of
Russia in 1830 ?
Was he in office when the Anglo-Dutch kingdom was broken
up to please Russia, and our fleet ordered to take Antwerp
from the Only ally that never deserted us during the revolu-
tionary war ; and when England undertook the guarantee of
the so-called Russo-Dutch loan, the payment of which helped
to build Sebastopol ?
Was Lord Palmerston in office when Poland was crushed
Was he. in office when the treaty of Hunkiar Skeleasi was
signed ?
Was ho in office when, in 1841, a new treaty was signed
within seven days of the expiration of the first, in order to
Perpetuate Russian ascendancy in the Black Sea ?
Was ho in office when the Affghan war was waged and an
English army sacrificed to secure the Czar's domination in
Central Asia ?
Was he in office when Lord Minto was sent on his roving
commission to get up limn-motion in Italy, when the Sicilians
were induced to revolt, but afterwards given up to King
Bombs, while Austria was prevented making a peace that
would have given the Milanese to Sardinia, and this in order
that The might be so weakened as to be forced to call in the
Czar against Hungary, and so bring Russia into central
Europe t
Was he in office when the Oporto junta was sold to " our
cousins" in Lisbon, as they were then termed by the present
Premier •
Was ho in ()Mee when a treaty was concocted to hand over
the Danish succession to the house of Romanoff ; and which
was pushed to such a point that the in-coming Government
of Lord Derby could not evade signing it without sacrificing
the'pledged honour of the country ?
Lastly, was he in office when Lord Aberdeen, during a pe-
riod of two years, sacrificed our noble army and betrayed our
Ally.

To all these questions we answer unequivocally yes ; for
the interregnum of Lord Granville was of no sort of conse-
quence in the matter of the Danish succession, which was all
arranged before Lord Pahuerston's dismissal from office.
The Houses of Parliament aro about to adjourn for a fort;
night, and we warn our readers that before they meet again
it is perfectly-possible that the climax may be put to all the
iniquities we have enumerated by the signature of a Russian
peace, and the commencement of that alienation between
France and England which it is the great object of Russian
diplomacy to insure.
It has been well remarked that the only nations of the
world which are invariably successful in negotiation are Rus-
sia and the United States of America. The first, because she
_ employs the greatest talent of Europe wherever it is to be