The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-05 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1855.

" They manage these things better in Franee."
So it was in the days of LAWRENCE STERNE, and

so it is at the present time. Our theory seems per-

fection itself, but unfortunately the practice is very
defective, owing chiefly to red-tapism or ridicu-
lous adherence to " precedent," without consider-
ing whether that precedent be beneficial or other-
wise.

At present it would seem as if no information
were to be doled out in any matter where there

has not been a pitched battle, and a long and
deplorable catalogue of killed and wounded. The
accounts of the sanguinary contest at the Al!na,
of the flank movement at Balaklava, and of the
Russian attacks en the British lines at Inkerwan on
the 25th of October, and subsequently on the sth
November, were published ; but we hear nothing
of the progress or prospects of the siege at other
times. Unless there is something on which to
hang a laudatory notice of some of the generals

or their respective staffs the public anxiety is

totally disregarded, and we are allowed to glean
our information from French or Russian sources,
and to decide for ourselves on the amount of con-
fidence to be placed.
Fortunately our Allies are better informe,-1.
LOUIS NAPOLEON does not consider it essential,
or even judicious, to keep his people in the dark.
He does not shroud that which may be communi-
cated without the slightest prejudice to the pub-
lic service under a flimsy veil of official reserve.
He is sufficiently clear-sighted to perceive the
advantages of publicity. Thus, frequently when
the
public mind is agitated by the highly-coloured
statements of Prince MENSCILIKOFF-statements
that Lave been carefully revised and c=ected
at St. Petersburg before publication —we
have been relieved by the despatches of
General CANROBERT, which furnish more authentic
versions of the true state of affairs—our own
General maintaining a total and unbroken silence,
or, what is far more probable, Ministers withhold-
in,g the trustworthy intelligence they have received.
But why, or wherefore, nobody is able to cLn-
ceive. They do it, because such has been the
practice, and cling to the abuse, because it has

becomo " an aged vice—a grey iniquity."
The despatch of General CANROBERT, which will
be found in another part of this day's impression,
is a very satisfactory document. It is true that

it details no exciting events, no fierce encounters,
calculated " to harrow up the soul" or make the
blood curdle in the veins ; but it simply and
truly narrates the existing state of affairs, and
affords fair data to persons desirous of judging for
themselves. Thus we learn that, although the bad
weather had continued with rare and short inter-
vals of improvement, the Allied Armies, never-
theless, contrived as much as possible to encircle
the place with their trenches, and that all the
siege operations become perfect and solid, not-
withstanding the rainy season, which renders 0,4:

transport very difficult.
This is a perfect answer to the croakers who
are prophesying the total destruction of the
Allied Forces, and the decided triumph of the
Russian arms. It shows that although matters
have not proceeded quite so rapidly as we " who
live at homo at ease" had anticipated, there is
yet no cause for despair, and the solution of the
difficulty may be nearer at hand than has been
supposed in England. Although we should not
on that account relax our exertions in any re-
spect, it is yet satisfactory to learn that there
are strong hopes of our gallant fellows extricating
themselves and overcoming all obstacles, even
before the completion of the arrangements for
their relief on which we have so tardily entered.
The strong testimony borne to the excellent re-
lations and perfect cordiality " between the two
armies," and the brief but graphic account of the
interchange of good offices—the English providing
for the transport of the cavalry, while the French
have lent their mules for the conveyance of the
sick, and ammunition—is peculiarly cheering. The
bonds by which thetwo nations are united will thus
become indissoluble, for they will be founded on
mutual esteem and respect. France and England
may henceforward exclaim " Quis separabit
It will be far beyond Russian wiles to creato dis-
sensions or heartburnings between those whose
future friendship will be as remarkable and en-
during, as it will be far more reasonable, than
their former disputes and distrust.

For the other points we refer to this highly-
interesting document. It will be seen that there
are almost daily, er rather nightly, sorties, which
are invariably repulsed, and frequently with con-
siderable loss to the garrison ; while the various
reconnaissances made show that the great body of
the Russian army has been withdrawn, while
those that remain are merely pickets observing,
from a distance, the proceedings of the
besieging troops. From this we may hope
that something will speedily be effe3ted with
respect to Sebastopol. It is probably the con-
tinued landing of the Turkish troops at Eupatoria,
which has led to the withdrawal of the Russian
forces from the vicinity of the Siege. They are,
perhaps, striving to make some great point, but
we hope that it will merely prove a coup manrptc,
doing more injury to themselves than to those
against whom their efforts are directed.

Ina letter to a morning contemporary,M EDWARD CREstintz • r.
icnogßeonEioNu.s pTliadussibillisttietes some plain and ineon_
testable facts wliie
a%omootfplemttheeelsyssrtsa. demolish all the
BRIGHT and
statement 15, indeed, but an ex-
je,o'enrntitlled to the credittn of a disin-
atrnaactisf,rotmhertehfoer
terested witness. Mr. BRIGHT
have found the blue books, written Yinverylanliukegly
made to veil our thoughts, somewhat managggafbai;e;
but there is no means of distorting the bare
to which we allude. The first bundle of facts is
contained in the sentence that Russia has extanded3
her territory in sixty-four years SEVEN HUNDRED
MILES, on an average, in every direction 111 fere
are the four leading particulars :—Her encroach-
ments have advanced her frontier towards Berlin,
Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and Paris, about '4'oo
miles ! towards Constantinople about 500 miles!
towards Stockholm 630 miles ! towards Teheran
1,000 miles! Nothing seems to stop her but the
frozen sea and the desert ; ncr even these, indeed,
as the borders of China and Kamsliatscha can
attest.
Yet this is the insatiable nation-murderer whom
our great Free Welders would leave to PROVIDENCE.
In their view it is no part of the system of PROVI-
DE=TCE that violence should be resisted by force,
and that society should disarm the convicted

lain. Did these reasoners ever master that text-
book of liberal English education, BUTLER'S
Analogy ? With him we must believe that in-
stinctive resistance to wrong is one of the provi-
dential punishments of crime ; and further, that
if we are too indolent or selfish to make the re-
quisite sacrifices for maintaining the order of
society, greater eventual suffering is the inevitable
result. Now, beyond all doubt, if any man had
murdered as many individuals as Russia has mur-
dered nations even the Quakers would be
ashamed to petition for his life ; but had he only,
before and behind, right and left, appropriated
his neighbours' property in this style, JOHN
BRIGHT himself would think it time to put on
the handcuffs, to tear off his disguises, and
to restore him to his individuality in soli-
tary confinement. He would not venture to
excuse his last felony or burglary because his own
cotton-mlll or his own mansion was untouched ;
or because it had been perpetrated on some indi-
vidual who was not religious in Mr. BRIGHT'S way,
or not administering his property so well as
Mr. BRIGHT was doing. Possibly the villain
might prove a CANNON, and half-kill the police-
man who arrested him, yet Mr. BRIGHT would be
willing, we presume, to incur tkat hazard, and
maintain that the burglar must be put down, or
that cotton-mills and mansions would be useless.
We profess ourselves utterly incompetent to dis-
cern the want of appropriateness, when the
same principle is applied to the community of
nations. PROVIDENCE takes no more care of
burglars than of conquerors, and knows no dif-
ference between them but that of degree ; and if
we may piously or supinely leave the latter to
PROVIDENCE, so we may the former.

Here is a nation, sixty-four years ago, number-
ing but fifteen millions of people, swelled now, and
chiefly by absorbing more civilised countries, to
some sixty millions ! A nation which has so
unblushingly mingled confessed fraud and open
violence for the sake of acquisitiox that it is
equally impossible to be on our guard against
either ; a nation of slave-conquerors, which has
spread. the bane of her serfdom over every terri-
tory she has absorbed ; an insatiable military po-
lypus, which has made each successive growth tho
preparation for further extensions. She robs
Persia, and locates her troops en route for India:
She seizes the Crimea, and builds, not a port and
dockyards to civilise the Asiatic csasts and her
own people by commerce, but a fortress and navy
which could at any time crush Constantinople.
She receives, at the Treaty of Vienna, the Go-
vernment of Poland as an independent gtate.
She provokes it by unheard-of barbarities to rise;
and then, in the face of Holy-Alliance treaties,
swallows and attempts to digest it., and Warsaw
and other fortresses are forthwith put in array
against Germany. By fraud and violence com-
bined she seizes Finland and the Aland Isles ; im-
mediately she makes Sweaborg and Bomarsund
into Sebastopols for the conquest of Sweden aid
Denmark. Everywhere the story is the same—
the most unprovoked seizure of nations which
were doing her no wrong, except, perhaps, that
they spared her CZARS, even the groat CZAR him-
self, when they might have led them captive.
Gratitude these varnished savages want a word
for. We desist, however, from the endless topic
of Russian villany. The politician who cannot
perceive that it is now or never, cost us what it
may, is beyond our power to reason with. We
have not learned all our political logic in the
counting-house and the till. The following quo-
tql;ou ought to settle the question :—" The ac-
quisitions of Russia from Sweden, equal the re-
mainder of Sweden ; from Poland equal the Aus-
trian empire ; from European Turkey equal
Prussia, exclusive of the Rhenish provinces ; from
Asiatic Turkey equal the small German States,
Rhenish Prussia, Holland, and Thlgium ; from
I%rsia equal England ; from Tartary• equal Eu-
ropa= Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Spain. The
total acquisitions of Russia in 64 years equal her
whole European Empire before that time I"

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

SOUTHAMPTON, FRIDAY MORNING.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Euxine, with the heavy portion of the East
India, China, and Mediterranean mails, has just
arrived.

ADMIRAL DUNDAS'S FAREWELL TO

THE BLACK SEA FLEET.

The following is the address of Admiral Dundas
upon quitting the command of the Black Sea fleet:
(General Memorandum.)
Her Majesty's ship Britannia in the Bosphorus,
22d December, 1854.
My term of service, as Commander-in-Chief, in the
Mediterranean and Black Seas having drawn to a close,
I am about to return to England and give up the com-
mand of this fleet.

During the past year many trying circumstances have
occurred—pestilence in its most aggravated form, action
with the enemy against land defences such as ships
hardly ever encountered, and a tempest of the most
awful violence.

In all those events the good conduct and gallantry of
the fleet have been evinced and proved.
In taking an affectionate leave of the officers, seamen,
and marines of the fleet, I can hereafter experience no
higher gratfrication than the assurance that they pre-
serve their high character for discipline, enterprise, and
devotion to our Sovereign and country.
J. W. D. DUNDAS,
Vice-Admiral, Commander-in-Chief.
To the Admirals, Captains, Commanders, Officers,
Seamen, and Marines of the Fleet in the
Mediterranean and Black Sea.