The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-28 00:00:00

TEE CRIMEA.

Now that English troops really have landed and are
actually marching in the Crimea, some exceedingly soli-
citous patriots at home lean forwards to gaze after them,
with clasped hands and invocations to the local gods, as
if our good fellows were stalking into the pit of Avernus,
or going behind the sheet of water at Niagara, or enter-
ing the Arctic Sea. 'We do not refer to the anxiety about
the fighting necessary to the taking of Sebastopol. That
solicitude is natural and universal. We filve in view the
mysterious misgivings that some people are venting in
whispers about what is to coins afterwards—about the
winter in a land which is declared to be singularly un-
known to us. Now, we do not hesitate to say that this
is exceedingly absurd. Some people may think it a for-
midable, and others a safe and agreeable thing, for a
portion of the allied armies to pass the interval between
two campaigns in the Crimea ; but we contend that the
means of forming a judgment are abundant. We know
the position and relative distances of the country itself,
and every considerable place iu it, infinitely better than
we knew either Portugal or Spain when Wellington en-
tered upon the Peninsular war. We know what roads
there are, and what is their condition. We know what
the crops are, and what is their average amount. We
know what the climate is, and who the inhabitants are ;
and we may have a shrewd guess at their comparative
affection for the Turks and the Russians. So much is
known indeed that we have some hesitation about repeat-
ing the facts which must be familiar to our readers. But,
considering the general and engrossing interest now
attaching to the Crimea, we will briefly indicate what
the life of the British, French, or Turkish soldier there
is likely to be if they stay there for five or six months
to come.

Supposing Sebastopol taken, and that the Russian
troops have laid down their arms, the peninsula will have
to be held till every Russian fort on the Black Sea is dis-
posed of—this season or next. This supposition is fair
enough, because the apprehensive patriots we refer to
have no doubt that Sebastopol will be taken, and the
Russian army rendered harmless'. We have never had
any doubt of it ; and now that we know how ill-fed and
disheartened the Russian troops are, and that all the
hard work at Sebastopol is done by deserters and aliens,
and that the inland forts there, and much of all their
forts, are made of freestone, which will not stand a can-
nonade, and that the masonry of the defences is dislo-
cated or shaken by the firing of mere salutes, and that
the conquest of the Telegraph Battery insures that of
Fort Constantine, and that of Fort Constantine the whole
town and shipping, we have a confidence as strong as
can be entertained about any unaccomplished event that
Sebastopol will presently be at the disposal of the allies.
The feat accomplished, and a part of the forces gone, what
will be the winter prospect of the occupiers of the Crimea?
They have no invasion, nor any kind of warlike
assault, to fear. They can be reached only in two '
ways—by the sea or by the steppe. The captors of
Sebastopol will of course have taken care that no Rus-
sian vessels shall get out of that harbour. "If they
will not when they may, when they will they shall have
nay." There ought not to be a vessel left there by that
time. if such as are not burnt are really as worm-eaten
as Russians pretend, they should be broken up for fuel,
or made use of as prisons or hospitals ; and, if they are
sound, they will have been taken away as prizes. For
that matter, however, Russian seamen make no hand of
navigating the Black Sea in winter. As to the land
side, the steppe is passable only for four months in the
year. It is only on occasion, and with difficulty, that
the Czar's own couriers and chief officials can traverse
the steppe after autumn has rendered it impracticable
for pedestrians ; and it is thoroughly understood in Rus-
sia that all movements of troops become impossible after
September. At which end the Russian troops now in
the Crimea are to get out of it we shall soon see. Mean-
time, we may be very certain that no more can come
during the next six months. Prince Menschikoff's talk
of levying the Crimeana en masse shows that he expects
no more soldiers from the north. As for his Crimean
" mass," we wish him joy of it. The total population
is only 200,000—women and children, old men and boys,
gypsies, deserters, aliens, convicts, Tartars, Jews, Greeks,
Germans, monks, and serfs, all included. "The masses,"
as the Americans say, will, we rather think, be very hos-
pitably disposed towards their guests of the coming win-
ter, who will bring more custom into the Crimea than it
has ever known since the Genoese left it. Being safely
harboured there, where will the occupiers live? Not among
the- sulphur pits and salt marshes of the north ; nor
on the bleak steppe. A naval ga.urd, left in the unfrozen
harbour of Theodosia on the one side, and Sebastopol
and Eupatoria on the other, must be sufficient for the
safety of everybody within the peninsula. Same of the
soldiers may be quartered in the towns, but both health
and comfort seem to indicate the southern slopes, with
some of the lateral valleys, as the best conceivable places
for encampment. The immeasurable woods of those
slopes mid valleys afford the finest materials for building
huts—like those of the French camps at Boulogne. The
French at Boulogne would have been glad enough of
such a supply and choice of wood as their comrades may
have in the Crimea. Everywhere below the great lime-
stone precipice on which Sirupheropol stands, at the
edge of the steppe, the climate of the Crimea is one of
the finest in the world. There are slight frosts in winter,
but few or no storms. The sky is cloudless for days to-
gether ; the pastures remain verdant, and the cattle do
not leave them. The torrents which tumble from the
steep leave no icicles ; and the blue waves below kiss
the sand in the sunshine, as on an October day in Corn-
wall. On those green slopes, amidst the reflected
warmth from the precipitous wall above, enclosed by
evergreen thickets, and heechwoods abounding in red
deer, an encampment of soldiers resting on duty need
not be objects of any great compassion to us in London.
So much for where they may live. As for how they
are to live, who has not read of the valley of Baidar and
its fruitfulness ; Lord Derby must have been thinking
of Baidar and its district when the name Tat-111)0ff
slipped off his tongue by mistake ; and those who have
read of the wheat produced in that valley 30 miles in
circumference have probably read of the other products
of the region, which would be truly a land of the
blessed, if corn, oil, and wine made a paradise, or man
could live "by bread alone." There aro herds of cattle
on every pasture ; goats abound ; and there are three
races of sheep which, degenerating on the bleak steppe,
are here found in their highest perfection. If the ruth-
less Czar should compel the destruction of all the food
that can be burnt or slaughtered, there is still much that
he cannot reach. Game and fish abound. The oyster
beds in various places are inexhaustible ; and the bays
and shores swarm with fish. The red deer and the fal-
low deer throng the woods and parks ; and wild goats,
hares, and various birds are plentiful. Fruits and honey
are to be had for the gathering ; and no doubt the cattle
will be well enough taken care of up in the dales, to
yield plenty of dairy produce, as usual. There are some
Tartar dainties besides ; such as roast jerboa., and mares'
and camels' milk. It may be said, finally, that the pos-
sessors of the Crimea this winter will have the virtual
command of all the stores on the Black Sea coasts. it
is to be hoped that the ganaries from Odessa to Yeni
Kaki will not be burned by the Czar ; but, if they should
be, there is more corn where that carne from and else-
where ; and the commanders who have carried stores for
100,000 men for two months, while the Crimea was still
open to the Russian armies, must surely be able to feed
the guard they may leave there, if the land were as bare
as the glaciers and storm-beaten shores where our sol-
diers and sailors have often wintered. It is insulting to
our national defenders to pity them for occupying the
Crimea, while the snows of Canada and the sands of
Africa are remembered as the encamping ground of their
fathers.—Daily News.