The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1854,

We have two, or rather three, distinct and very
conflicting accounts of the attack by the Russian
troops under General LIPRANDI on the position
of the Allies near Balaklava. A fourth, which in
this country would be received as decisive, is,
however, wanting. General CANROBERT has
spoken ; but Lord RAGLAN is silent. Lord
STRA.TIORD DR REDCLIFFE has transmitted the in-
formation " gathered " by an anonymous captain
of an English steam-transport "from several per-
"sons who were eye-witnesses of what took place ;"
but the Noble diplomatist has not sent any account
of a strictly official character, on which im-
plicit reliance might be placed. He has
at bast acted on mere hearsay evidence, which,
under the circumstances, he was not merely justi-
fied in sending, but imperatively bound to trans-
mit without the loss of a single hour. But he
Was likewise bound to give, at the earliest mo-
ment, such supplementary intelligence as would
have confirmed, or in any wise contradicted or
modified, the former statement. He must have
known that it did not rest on satisfactory grounds,
and that the people of England would impatiently
await the further tidings. He must have received
the necessary information. The 'French mail
steamer Which left the Bosphorus on the 30th
has arrived at Marseilles. The Minister of War
at Paris has received
a despatch to the 28th
instant, from the French Commander-in-
Chief in the Crimea. Lord
STRATPORD must
have had the means of obtaining full and authen-
tic accounts of all the particulars respecting these
important days, the 25th, 26th, and 27th ; but he
Las not condescended to transmit any information
on the subject.

Thus, then, the matter stands. Lord RAGLAN
bag not taken the slightest notice of the transaC-
lien. General CANROBERT pooh-poohs it, as a
matter of but trivial co isequence, which could not
be dignified with the name of a "serious engage-
meat," Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE an-
nounces a very severe conflict that might have led
to, exceedingly dangerous results, had it not been
Dor the steady and determined bravery of the Al-
lied Forces. He also speaks of three regiments of
English Light Cavalry having "suffered immensely
ori this melancholy occasion. But all this is but on

- •
hearsay and vague rumour, while Prince MENSCHI-
KOFF narrates the details with a particularity that
entitles him to a certain degree of credence, more
especially as he has been, on several former oc-
casions, proved to have been tolerably accurate as
to the main features of the different events.
There are also a variety of other rumours, but for
the present we shall only look to those which may
be regarded as official.
It is apparently impossible to reconcile the de-
spatches of General CANROBERT and Prince
MENSCRIKOFF. These come from persons on the
spot, who had abundant means of ascertaining the
facts, and who were bound to tell, not merely the
truth, but the whole truth. In a case of such
gravity the suppressio yeri would be just as
bad as the suggestio falsi ; and concealment,
with the manifest intention of deceiving
the people, and inducing them to arrive at errone-
ous conclusions, would be just as bad as the pro-
mulgation of a wilful and deliberate falsehood.
Now we cannot for a moment suppose that Gene-
ral CANROBERT would be guilty of such mendacity.
He has displayed too many high and sterling
qualities to induce us to credit on anything short
of the most decisive and unequivocal testimony a
charge so serious. We are bound to give him
credit for candour and honour ; and the claim
is the more urgent, inasmuch as he has never yet
attempted to varnish matters, or to depict the ex-
isting state of affairs too.much coleur de rose.
We yesterday gave the despatch of the French
General, but as so much may depend on the
ipsissima verba, we here repeat it. It is of the fol-
lowing tenour

" The siege works continue. On the 25th the
Russian army showed itself 6n the plains of Bala-
klaTa ; there had been no serious engagement, but
the English cavalry had sustained some loss, owing
to a charge pushed too far against the enemy.
On the 26th, 5,000 men of the garrison made
a sortie against the left wing of the English.
This attack was repulsed, and the enemy thrown
back into the place with considerable loss."
Now the attack of 30,000 men, or even of
half the number, could not be spoken of in these
terms—more especially if they had taken posses-
sesion of sundry redoubts, and held even two of
them, from whence they could greatly annoy the
lines of the Allied Forces, and impede the commu-
nications with the base of operations from whence
all the supplies of provision and ammunition
should be drawn. Nor would a loss of 400 or
500 men in killed and wounded have been spoken
of in such terms. To judge from the tone of the
French General it was a mere Russian demonstra-
tion followed by a slight skirmish, which could not
be termed a serious engagement, and which left
no results worth speaking of. He also speaks of
the sortie of the 26th as having been made by
5,000 of the garrison, and declares that it " was
repulsed, and the enemy driven back with consi-
derable loss."

Now Prince MENSCHIKOFF makes a regular
pitched battle of the affair of the 25th, in • which
a most important triumph was achieved. He says :
" Our offensive operations against the besiegers
began to-day, and were crowned with success."
This is a grandiloquent commencement, be-
speaking the Imperial attention to the sub-
sequent events. He narrates, in the tone of a
victorious General, the arrangements made, and
the brilliant manner in which they were carriel
into practical execution—how four redoubts, in
which were captured eleven pieces of cannon,
were still in their possession. (It will be recol-
lected that this despatch purports to have been
written on the evening of the 25th.) He also
declares that the principal redoubt of the enemy,
which was defended by Turks, was carried by as-
sault by the Azoff Regiment of Infantry, and then
adds, " The English Cavalry also opposed our de-
tachment, under the command of Lord CARDIGAN.
It charged with extraordinary impetuosity the bri-
gade of Hussars of the 6th division of Cavalry,
but, taken in flank by four squadrons of the com-
bined regiment of Lancers of the reserve, and
thrown back on the cross fire of the guns of the
12th and 16th infantry divisions, which fired
grape, the enemy suffered considerable loss. At
the same moment that it attacked our Hussars the
English cavalry also charged at full gallop the
heavy guns of the Don battery, No. 3, where
some artillerymen were sabred."
From this it will be found that MENSCHIKOFF
does not in any way allude to a conflict with the
English infantry or the French troops. He would
have it implied that there was such a contest, but
does not expressly mention it. He also speaks of
his own losses in the following manner :—" Our
loss in infantry does not exceed 300 killed and
wounded. The loss of the cavalry and artillery is
not yet known, even by approximation." But when
speaking of the English loss, only alludes to that of
the English cavalry, which, it is believed, amounts to
500 men. From this statement we may readily
conceive that the affair has been greatly mag-
nified, not only by the Russian General, but by
the captain who gathered the accounts for Lord
STRATFORD, and that General CANROBERT is not
so far wrong as might be imagined on
the first cursory perusal of the other accounts.
A view that is materially strengthened by the
silence of Lord RAGLAN, who must have forwarded
some communication if the affair were so serious
as had been represented. We must, therefore,
beg our friends not to be disheartened, or to suffer
their spirits to be depressed by the gloomy ac-
counts in circulation, but hopefully and patiently
to abide the result of the authentic intelligence,
which cannot much longer be deferred.

So, then, the boasted Austrian co-operation in
the Principalities has come to this, security for
Bessarabia against the Allies, the consequent
liberation of reinforcements from that province
to the Crimea, with the further consequence of
harder work and heavier sacrifices for our troops
before Sebastopol Even the Times is now
obliged to take up the very position occupied by
The Sun from the hour that disgraceful move-
ment was encouraged by our Government, and
lauded by our great compeer as the perfection of
diplomacy. Even the Times now laments over
the transference to the unfortunate provinces of
" the same obtuse and unrelenting despotism as
saddens the plains of Lombardy, or the marshes
of Venice," and admits that Austria has attempted
to act the sovereign where she came as :an
Ally. Probably, however, Austrian despotism
might have passed unnoticed but for Austrian
military villanies. What language of execrat ion
can suit the cool selfishness, and the base injuLry
inflicted on the Allies by the following conduct ?
Austria, through the infatuated counsels of E ag-
land, is admitted by the SULTAN into the provinc !,s ;
she enters only as fast as the SULTAN'S tro ops
clear them for her ; she fires not a gun, draws not
a sabre, loses not a soldier, if soldiers such cowards
ought to be called. She promises to hold the pro-
vinces for the SULTAN, and insults all his supekri or
officers,c ia
ls su civilffre
onliynftarmanyspires now and then. :But
the crowning
is
gained,yee
elsewhere
e two h
ecarone that
m,d
fu it was T
tory of the Alma wasss
cur-
lent at Vienna,
" consequences" h
poltroon sends straightway to the
more splendid he
Mill
aydr
eolnlho wEedn
pe ;theror

to congratulate the Allies on the victory and " its
consequences !" Austria will unblushingly pro-

claim herself the bosom friend of the supposed
omnipotent victors. Nor was that all. In an
official paper, lauded to the skies by the Anglo-
Austrian press—the same which is now compelled
to denounce her--she tells Prussia that she can-
not interfere with the operations of the Allies in
the provinces they suffered her to enter. Of
course not ; they did not admit her there
to impede them. But mark the consist-
ency in baseness of this degraded Power.
When she was entering the provinces the retreat- '
ing Russians faced about a little, and the craven
Generals of Austria halted immediately. It turned
ont after the congratulations that the Allies in-
stead of taking Sebastopol by a coup de main, at
the North or South, have some long and hard
work before them. Immediately Austria quakes
before Russia, eats her words about not interfer-
ing with the Allies, and hinders OMER PACHA
from making any movement on Bessarabia ! The
movement is essential to the plans of the Allies ;
the prevention of succour for Sebastopol depends
greatly upon it ; yet she coolly alleges that it will
embarrass her with Russia, if the latter should
think it necessary for strategic reasons to re-
enter the provinces. The brave congratulater
on the Alma victory and its consequences, the bold
respondent io Prussian demands, quivers like an
aspen at the thought of Russian bayonets, and
sends them to shed the blood of the Allies lest
they should spill a drop of hers.
Now, really, will our Cabinet, and that of
Lours NAPOLEON, endure such insufferable, such
revolting assumption and meanness any longer 7
Who and what are the perjured recreant Haps-
burgs that they should be parleyed with any
longer ? What does any country in Europe owe
to the last dregs of a long race of superstitious
and cruel tyrants that they should be permitted
thus to play fast and loose with all their en-
gagements, and with the very lives of our gallant
soldiers ? Unpardonable, indeed, was the blunder
of substituting HESS for OMER PACHA at Bucha-
rest. But are France and England afraid of him
.here ? Let him not deceive himself. Let his

master be informed—if a drop of English blood
still flows in the veins of our aristocratic governors
—that this game will be tolerated no longer ;
that we mean to use the provinces as Turkish
soil ; that we pin Austria to her original pro-
fessions, and to her language to Prussia, and that
we would sooner see all Europe in flames—all
Lombardy, Hungary, and Poland rising together
—than permit one Russian soldier more in the
Crimea, in consequence of her treachery and
disloyalty. Is she, forsooth, to lse permitted
to spare her tailor-made soldiers, the well-
drubbed survivors of Hungarian bravery, and the
saved by Russian intervention in 1848 ; and are
we to be so profuse of the lives of ours ? Why, if
OMER PACHA is not to keep the Russians from the
Crimea, why did not Austria advise him to go and
fight them there while she took the benefit of his
battles on the Danube ?

If this last insult be endured by the Western
Powers, however, let the ignominy be transferred
to the right backs. Let Austria have the repu-
tation of knowing but too well the stuff we are
made of, and bid us " hang a calf-skin on our re-
creant limbs"—she having worn it long
enough. Are not Turkey and we iden-
tified ? Is not a restriction put on her move-
ments a restriction put upon ours ? And are
we, then, to suppose that Lord RAGLAN and
General CANROBERT would permit these feather-
bed Generals in white to bid them let Ismail alone
if they were on the Danube and OSERit Peens. in
the Crimea 7 It is even known that Lord RAGLAN
had urged the Turkish General to give the Rus-
sians ample work in Bessarabia, and therefore this
Austrian insult is hardly less than a direct one.
We will assume, however, that " timid counsels"
cannot so prevail in our Cabinet as to respect
Austrian cowardice at the cost of our soldiers' lives.
We will believe rather that a special messenger is
on the road to Vienna, Bucharest, and the Danube
to inform Austria, her generals and the Turkish
generals, that England will not tolerate such
assumption, such perfidious and dastard selfish-
ness, one hour longer. If not, the time of Par-
liament's meeting is near at hand, and there are
Lords and Commons who will know how to vin-
dicate the respect due to ourselves and our Ally,
and to make Europe aware that English Cabinets
cannot sower before such a Government as Aus-
tria but at their peril. As to Austria herself—
detested by her oppressed subjects, detested by
Russia, detested by France and England—her
ultimate fate is utter dismemberment, and con-
traction to her own little hereditary states.

GUN-BOATS VERSUS THREE-DECKERS,