The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-04 00:00:00

TRIAL OF THE BEAGLE.

The Beagle screw steam despatch gun-boat, Lieutenant-
Commander Hore, was taken out of Woolwich basin on
Saturday evening, and left yesterday mornin at 10 o'clock
for Greenhitho, having ou board Lieutenant-Commander
Luce, of tho Lynx screw steam-despatch gun-boat ; Mr.
Taplin, second-assistant to the chief engineer at Woolwich
Dockyard; Mr. Harding, inspector of shipwrights; Mr.
Tennant, of the firm of Humphrys, Tennant, and Dykes,
the constructors of her engines ; and Mr. Dykes, to su-
perintend their working on their first trial. Mr. Dykes
proceeds round to Falmouth in her, the only port at
which she is to touch on her passage to the Black Sea.
The Beagle, although manned entirely by a newly-
raised crew, presented a remarkably clean and neat
appearance. The engines of the Beagle are very com-
pact, and worked to the entire satisfaction of Mr.
Taplin and all on board. Although not down to her water-
line, as she had to take her powder in at Greenhithe,
she sits remarkably upright in the water, and did not yield
in the least degree to the strong fresh breeze that was
blowing when she passed through Long Reach. The time
was not officially taken at the measured mile at Long
Reach, as it was intended to make several runs, and take
the average of her speed •at the measured mile at the
Lower Hope, in the afternoon. It was evident, however,
that she will attain an average speed of about 11 knots per
hour, as, although. her engines were not working up to
their full number of revolutions on their first trial, she
passed over more than 12 miles distance in going down the
river within the hour.

THE VACANCIES IN THE BLACK SEA. FLEET.
le So much progress have the "lads" made in the Illus-
trious, 46, training-ship, at Portsmouth, under the able
tuition of Captain Harris, that the Board of Admiralty
have ordered the death vacancies in the Black Sea fleet to
bo made good from the Illustrious. The best of course
will be sent to the most active ships, and between 300 and
400 will be thus disposed of, and will do credit to their in-
structor.
Several fine lads have daily gone on board the Illus-
trious, and it has been often proved that the " farmer's
boy" makes the best sailor.
" H.M.S. --, Varna, Aug. 19.
"The malady among some of the ships in the fleet has,
I regret to say, been fearful up to the present date. The
Britannia, Albion, Trafalgar, and Furious have suffered
severely. We have, I rejoice to tell you, had but six cases,
four of which proved fatal. I trust we may improve daily,
as sickness is on the decline. gome of the ships are at sea
still, others with the flag-ship at Baltchik. The steamers,
under command of Sir E. Lyons, are concentrating here.
Troops continue to arrive, and report says we are to com-
mence the grand embarkation on the 21st inst. Whether
Sebastopol and the Climes are the first objects of attack is
not known—some say one place, some another, but time
will shortly place the matter beyond a doubt, and I thi
by the Ist of September we shall be fully occupied. I a
fearful, with our present amount of troops, it may not ter
urinate so speedily as we desire. We must do our duty
and trust to an overruling Providence for the result. I
shall write you again, should an opportunity offer, if but
a few lines, to tell you of our destination. It is dreadfully
hot here, and we shall all be glad to got away ; any change
almost would be preferable to our present monotonous
life. Both
.army and navy are anxious to bring affairs to
a conclusion as soon as possible, and, if it is to be under-
taken this year, it must be without delay, is the present
opinion."

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
The Electric Telegraph Company have lately supplied
the Government with a very complete and portable set of
electric telegraph apparatus, adapted for use in the field,
to accompany the munitions sent out to the East, where
it will doubtless prove a valuable auxiliary to the service.
It consists of two waggons, each containing a complete
set of instruments, batteries, and telegraphic apparatus,
and a sufficient supply of insulated wire, to establish at a
moment's notice a telegraph communication to a distance
of 10'or 12 miles either on land or under water. Each
waggon is intended to be drawn by six horses, and to be
accompanied by a staff of mounted officers and men, and
Sappers and Miners are now being educated for that duty
at the company's central station, at Lothbury, and have
already acquired great proficiency in the use of the signal
instruments. The appliances for laying out the wire over
irregular ground, and through marshes and rivers, are very
ingenious, and the instruments are so thoroughly portable
that after being shifted from place to place they -can be
fixed in working order in a few seconds.
For communications by day and night between distant
points, such as the banks of a river, a distant outpost, or
battery in entrenchments, between vessels at sea, and
especially between the fleet and the shore, this novel auxi-
liary will doubtless prove of the highest utility.

by a juvenile officer •ser
The followingextract from a letter written
Dwina. The Russians have "Her Majesty's ship o the White ea .
is
an
" S •
of their force for the last two "The ... is now anchored —, White Sea, July 6.
guns and rowing their gunboats off the bar of the river
been making a great display
o or three days, such as firing
about, and.their steamers
getting up their steam, but °flats
yet showed their figureheads one of their fine vessels have
the last one or two days wehave kept ourselves in readi-
ness to weigh at an instant's
always keep their fires banked
notice ; the two steamers
to get up their steam quickly , so that they may be able
it fall calm, and the gun-boat, taking advantage of the
and take us in tow, should
calm, come and attack us.
was quite calm and oppressively
day before yesterday
a summer's day in England, Y hot. It was as hot as
out for duck trousers and whiteid every one was crying
wanted to bathe. To-day the waistcoats, and some
little breeze to oppose it, which
is hot, but there is a
able, and nice and cool, but in no makes it very comfort-
whether I told you of our little pri7ay cold. I forget now
found on the coast on our way be('a little schooner we
looking little thing, but, unluckil re.
She is a beautiful
trying to stop her leaking now /9 very leaky ; we are
All the caulkers of the three ships by caulking her afresh.
board of her for the last three days, have been at work on
finished her. We have got the skip and have almost
per and mate on board
us as prisoners ' • the rest of the crew are on board the
Miranda. It does not look as if we
Buld
service if we continue in this Way, standing still, and
doing nothing. July 7.—Last night about
without any one expecting it, the captain ten o'clock,
the bands to be turned up, and the ship to ordered all
be got under
weigh, and the Brisk to take us in tow. Before long
we were going through the water at the rate of five
six knots an hour, with fore and aft-sails or
o'clock this morning we cast off
from the Brisk and
set. At 10
made sail, and at about 1 p.m. we
arrived
at a place
called Cross Island. Our prize, the Volga, •
is anchored
close alongside of us, and the Brisk a tle way ahead.
We have sent the boats away to get some
water, but
they have not returned yet, and it is coming o
It is now 6 o'clock, and the boats have returned,
n to blow.
ex-
cept one (the pinnace), and she is a long way off astern
to leeward, on the opposite side of the ship from which
the wind blows, and she is drifting further away- Sa-
turday, July B.—lt is 12 o'clock, and the pinnace has
not yet returned. She has been cruising about nl
and I should think the crew were very tired andi night,
cold,
for it is blowing so hard that we have struck our top-
gallantmasts and yards. 6 o'clock.- —The '
eli)frinnace has
not yet returned, and we have sent the V ato look
for her. She is now running before the wind
with
her jib set, and she has just loosed her foretp'ail.
only
We have very good fare here. At Hammerfest. laid
e-
up a good stock of reindeer meat, and it is not all gone.
morning, We get hot rolls for breakfast every
pea soup for dinner every other day, ae. have
goose-
berry tart every Thursday and Sunday, with
Vpudding on Thursday and rice pudding plum-
ANOTHER RUSSIAN PRIZE. on Sunday. We
i have also got lots of wine, but all ourale '
The Problem, a Russian prize schooner, Brobrich master, v p cannot get g t any more. Will is gone, and
you please ask them
from Memel, laden with rye, left Sheerness on Saturday' '''' 'l° small if they all
to write a note
leaving
morning direct for London, where she arrived in the even- England for the White Sea?
lug. The pilot and prizemaster died on the passage, and 1
" Cross Island, July 19.
she ran into Grimsby, where she got another pilot to bring 1 "We are still at anchor
between Cross
Island and
her round. she bas had adverse winds and bad weather, the mainland of Russia, but we expect to sail hence to•

morrow ; where, I do not know, but we rather expect
to a place called Randalax, where I believe there arc
some large forts. I hope we shall, as I want to have
something to do, instead of having to come home and
say that we have done nothing. On Monday, July 18,-
we sent 10 seamen and 10 marines, with some officers,
to the Brisk, and 10 seamen and 10 marines to the
Miranda, and the captain went on board the Brisk. As
soon as the captain got on hoard the two steamers got
under way, and went towards a place called Salretski,
which is strongly fortified ; this they bombarded ; they
commenced firing at 8 a.m., and finished at 4 p.m. ; but,
as the walls were 10 feet thick, they could not make very
much impression on them, so they left itand went to some
other places, and thelast one they went to they burnt, and
took ever so many cows, calves, sheep,&c., and brought
them on board the ships. We are going to have our
first veal dinner to-day since I left England. We have
been living on fresh salmon for the last five or six days
certainly, but we have not had any fresh mutton or any-
thing of that sort. The Brisk came back the day before
yesterday, and the Miranda anchored yesterday,, but in
the evening she left again, and • went out cruising so as
to burn some of her coal, and to be able to fill up again
with some coal brought from England by a collier for
the steamers. The collier is almost empty now, having
filled up the Brisk and Miranda once before, and, having
about 100 tons over, and wanting to get rid of it, the
Miranda has gone out to spend some of hers, and then
fill up with what remains in the collier. Our pinnace
and that of the Brisk are ballasting the coal brig with
stones, &c., and they continue going to and from the
brig all the day long, except when they are having
dinner."

ABSOLUTE REJECTION BY RUSSIA-7F

THE VIENNA NOTE.

consolation from a display so little encouraging to the
hopes of the aggressor.
. In the meanwhile it may perhaps be necessary to re-
mind our readers that there was once in the North of
Germany another first-rate Eur:opean Power. The com-
plete isolation of Prussia could not be more strikingly
shown than by the fact that it is possible to discuss
the most important European questions without even
mentioning her name. We have enumerated the con-
ditions which it is necessary to exact from Russia, and,
in obtaining ithese we neither need the help nor fear the
hindrance of the Court of Berlin. Solicitation and argu-
ment have been sufficiently employed to arouse Prussia to
a sense of her duties and her interests ; and the Western
Powers may now leave her to reap the fruit of her own
sowing. Her future position in Germany will be the
severest judgment upon her policy, and no reproach which
can be addressed to her can possibly increase the hu-
miliation she is doomed to encounter. Her subserviency
to Russia is properly requited by the total disregard of
all her representations ; and, in a great crisis in Euro-
pean politics, the part which she had chosen for herlself
is suddenly superseded. There is now no possible middle
course left open to Prussia' and her confederate States ;
for they must either actively enforce against Russia the
principles to which they have committed themselves, or
make common cause with theaggressor at the expense of
the most vital interests of Germany. To declare that
those principles are essential to the peace and well-being
of Europe, and yet to refuse to stir a man or spend a
shilling in their support, is a depth of abasement to
which we can hardly yet believe it possible for a great
State to stoop. The wise and also the generous part has
already been taken by Austria, and she is rapidly draw-
ing to her side many of the minor German Soverei ns ;
while Prussia, by her temporising policy, has fort ite4
all influence and respect, even if she should now d, ter- '
i
'
act rightly.
sern g
the She fourmast
principles either adopt
of
the
the policy of
Amuinsetrtioa in asserting
Note, or openly league herself with the Czar in a con-
spiracy
ies of
liheratgainstEtehreerpietsmaetirnd interests
Chronicle.
teres,trsofGermany, and
the

The absolute rejection by Russia of the four guarantees
required by Austria and the Western Powers will con-
siderably simplify the relations of the leading States of
Europe, both with the Cabinet of St. Petersburg and
with each other. In particular, the policy of the Court
of Vienna must henceforth be identified with that of
England and France ; for, in the note of the Bth ult.,
Count Buol declared that his Government would not
treat except upon the basis of the four demands which
Prince Gortschakoff, as we learn from the despatches
we elsewhere publish, has now announced that his mas-
ter unconditionally rejects. Whatever reliance may
have been originally felt at Vienna upon the moderation
and magnanimity of the Czar, is now decisively shown
to have been without foundation. There have unques-
tionably been passages in the former intercourse of the
two Empires which gave Austria some reason to hope
that her wishes and intentions would not be altogether
disregarded; but all such delusions are now finally dis-
pelled, and the Emperor Francis Joseph must, however
reluctantly, conclude that the securities essential to the
tranquillity of Europe can only be exacted at the price
of an arduous and costly war. It was, on all accounts,
most desirable for Austria to preserve peace ; but, hav-
ing fruitlessly exhausted every effort for that purpose,
she has now no safe or honourable alternative but to
compel by arms the adoption of those principles which
she has in vain solicited Russia peacefully to accept.
It may be well, in order to provide againt disap-
pointment, to anticipate the probability of a protracted
struggle before the power of the enemy can be so far
broken as to enforce his acquiescence in terms by which
the peace of Europe may be permanently guaranteed.
While, however, a prolonged conflict may be requisite
to extort the concurrence of the Czar in a just and
honourable pacification, it will not be impossible to give
immediate effect to the four important principles agreed
to at Vienna, independently of his assent or refusal.
For example, it has been declared by England, France,
and Austria to be an indispensable condition of' peace
that the protectorate hitherto exercised by. Russia over
Wallachia, Moldavia, and Sorvia shall be discontinued,
and that the privileges accorded by the Porte to those
provinces shall be placed under the protection of the
leading powers. The Emperor Nicholas refuses to adopt
this basis of negotiation, and if he is resolved on an ob-
stinate resistance it may undoubtedly be a work of time
and difficulty to compel his formal adhesion to it. But
what, after all, does it matter whether the' Cabinet of
St. Petersburg will, or will not, declare its theoretieal
acceptance of a principle which we know it could not
be trusted to observe in practice ? The capital of Wal-
lachia will forthwith be occupied by Austrian troops,
who are now within the distance of a march of two
from that place ; and, as Russia has at last thrown
off all disguise, and, as the Court of Vienna has
no longer any object to attain by avoiding a col-
lision with her troops, we may expect that an
Austrian force will at once descend into North Moldavia
to accelerate the departure of the invaders, and
to prevent their return. In the meanwhile, if it be
really their purpose to retain their position on the Lower
Sereth and the Danube, Omer Pacha and his victorious
army will doubtless be prepared to make a vigorous effort
to expel them. By the exertions of the Ottomans—
aided, perhaps, by a diversion of the Western Allies in
the enemy's rear—we do not doubt that the Principali-
ties will be cleared of the Russians before the close of
the present campaign ; and it is certain that the same
force which will have proved strong enough to eject
them will be equally competent to prevent any fresh
aggression. The first of the four principles laid dotru by
the allies will, therefore, be practically asserted by the
presence, in the Danubian provinces, of Austrian and
Turkish troops in sufficient strength to preclude the possi-
bility of a renewed invasion. We do not see that any
security could have been exacted from Russia which
would have made it prudent to withdraw the forces of
the two allied powers ; and, on the other hand, by main-
taining a powerful Austro-Turkish army in the princi-
palities, it becomes very immaterial whether any further
security be obtained or not.
Again, it is declared, by'the notes exchanged at Vienna
on the Bth ult., that the navigation of the Danube at its
mouths must be freed from all obstruction. If, however,
this second principle were merely to be recognised by
treaty, it would be silently abrogated by Russia as soon
as the close of the war should have broken up the
combination against her. It does not seem possible
to devise any satisfactory security for the freedom of
the Danube short of depriving the Czar of his terri-
tory on the northern bank. This result the confederate
powers are perfectly able to accomplish ; and when they
are once in possession of the district in question, it will
not be difficult for them to maintain it, if, instead of
trusting to the professions of Russia, they rely on the
constant presence of a military and naval force. Nor is
it in any degree more important whether the third and
fourth conditions specified in the Note be, or be not,
conceded by the Czar. The treaties under which Russia
claimed a privileged position in the Black Sea, and an
official protectorate over the Christian subjects of the '
Porte, have been extinguished by the war, and must
never be revived. We may at last feel assured that the
fortune of war will not turn so far against the Ottomans
as to oblige them to consent to a renewal of these trea.
ties ; and the claim which the Court of St. Petersburg
has founded on them may, therefore, be considered as
belonging entirely to history. Whatever arrangements
may be thought expedient for the security of Constan-
tinople will, of course, be made by agreement among the
confederate Powers. On these arrangements Russia
will not be consulted ; and, by the destruction of her
maritime ascendancy in the Black Sea she will be de-
prived of the power of interfering with them.
Although, therefore, it is difficult to foresee how long
the enemy may withhold his assent to the four principles
of the Note, their practical enforcement may be looked
for at no very 'distant time. When the armies of
the Czar shall have hen driven Irons Moldavia and
from the Lower Danube, and when the Crimea shall have
been conquered, and the remaining Russian garrisons on
the Circassian coast reduced, the allies will be in a posi-
tion to consult their' own convenience as to the continued
prosecution of offensive operations. It may probably be
advisable-to carry the war considerably further into the
enemy's dominions ; but should such a course be deemed
inexpedient, it might be sufficient, after attaining the
results we have indicated, to secure the safety of the
conquered territory, and to maintain a strict blockade
of the Russian coasts. Such a system of hostility would
cost the allied powers far less than their antagonist, and
they might safely persevere until the lapse of time, or
some change in the direction of affairs, should have
brought more moderate counsels into favour at St.
Petersburg, It may be hoped, therefore, that, in any
case, the war will, at an early period, cease to affect
seriously the general course of affairs in Europe. Rug-
sm has long aspired, though on somewhat slender
grounds, to rank as one of the great civilised powers of
the world ; but she must henceforth return into the cate-
gory of barbarian States, and her incursions must be
' restrained by the constant presence of an army, just as
the Romans guarded the Danube, or as we now defend
the north-west frontier of our Indian empire. The
peace and prosperity of Europe do not depend on the
moderation and equity of the Emperor Nicholas, but
on the unanimity and co-operation of the powers whom
his ambition has aroused to arms. The attainment of
the objects of the war will, no doubt, be very greatly
facilitated by the accession of Austria to the common
cause, and we most cordially hail the closer union of
such an ally with Turkey and the Western Powers.
But it is satisfactory to feel assured that, even without
her aid, England and France are able, if necessary, to
obtain by their own strength the conditions requisite
for the tranquillity of Europe. The Western Powers
have as yet Scarcely learned to realise the vas resources
at their disposal ; but enough has been done to show
beyond all question that the allied fleets and armies
aro capable of coedial and energetic co-operation, 'and
even it this should be the only result achieved in the first
campaign, there would he little reason for dissatisfaction.
That the most intimate union prevails beta een England
and France has been proved at Boniarsund, and, tinder
exceedincylv trying circumstances, at Varna; and 'the
same truth will be still more decisively declared
by the grand demonstration about to be made at Bou-
logne. The peaceful invasion of the shores of our ally by
Prince Albert and his detachment of Horse Guards, and
the eager and hearty welcome which the hospitality of
Napoleon 111. and his people will accord to the Consort
of the Queen, will afford a signal ilrustration of that
firm and cordial alliance between the two great nations
of the west, which common perils and common duties
have so powerfully cemented. We shall certainly be
curious to see whether the ingenuity of the official jour.
I • nab; of St. Petersburg will attempt to extract nutter for