The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

m

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1834.

Tho charm is broken—Ministers have at length
condescended to relieve the very natural anxiety
of the community. At 12.45 a.m. this day the
Duke of NEWCASTLE forwarded to the offices of
the different journals copies of a telegraphic des-
patch from Lord STRATFORD DE RIMCLIFFE7 dated
" Constantinople, 28th October, at midnight,"
in order that by immediate publication it might
be made known to the public some hours sooner
than would be possible through the usual channel
of the London Gazette. This is as it should be.
We are happy to have it in our power to applaud
this timely concession to public opinion, and for
which we are indebted to the courtesy of the
Secretary for War. Had it depended on him, we
should probably have had the same prompt
information that was given of the battle of
Alma, of its details, and of the justly celebrated
Sank movement on Balaklava. We cannot doubt
that his Grace would be not merely willing, but
most anxious, to discharge the pledge voluntarily
given, that anything which arrived at the War-
Office should be forthwith communicated to the
public' /311 t, unfortunately, he had colleagues,
t° one of whom he was subordinate, and who,
therefore, possessed a controls ng power, which
was doubtless exercised in the suppression of the
despatches of the 10th ultimo, delivered by Lieu-
tenant KIRBY ; of those to the 13th, subse-
quently delivered ; and of those to the 25th,
which came per the Trent to yam,. All these
were deliberately withheld, although men of all
classes and stations in society were
Yearning for
authentic intelligence, and the people
were
suffered to be victimised by Stock Exchange
canards, got up for the purpose. Even the
present publication might not have been given
had it not been for the previous circulation
of the MENSCHIKOFF despatches, and the im-
perative necessity for allaying the appre-
hensions thereby occasioned. We only trust that
the laudable example may be generally followed,
and that it may not be regarded as an exceptional
case, which will no:; apply to others of less mo-
ment.

It now appears that there vas, after all, con-
siderable foundation for the i'LLENseIIiKaFF state-
ments, that a serious conflict took place at the

place indicated by the Russian general—that is to
say, at Inkerman, on the Tchernaya ; that if not
a surprise it was something very like it, and that
the English cavalry suffered very severe y. So

far the Russian accounts appear to have been
tolerably accurate. They omitted, however, to
state that the Russians were subsequently repulsed
with very considerable loss, and that eventually
the English remained masters of their position.
We, however, readily acknowledge that there
was far greater foundation for the- assertions than
1 the total, and we may add inexplicable, silence of
the crew and passengers of the Trent, which

steamed from Balaklava on the' day of these thril-
ling events, led us to infer.

It appears that the attack took place on the
25th ultimo, against certain forts in the vicinity

of Balaklava, and that the number of the assail-
ants was estimated at the very amount stated by
Prince MENSCRIKOFF, 30,000. The attack was
unexpected, or, in other words, it was a complete
surprise. The position first assailed was that

held by Ottoman troops and the Scotch. The
former were unable to sustain the onslaught of
the Cossacks who rushed on in advance of the
infantry. The Turks retreated, having previously
spiked some of their guns, but not effectually,
for it appears from Lord STRATFORD'S despatch,
that they were subsequently turned against them-

selves with very deadly effect, the 10-s being pro-
bably more than would have occurred had they
stood their ground boldly, lika the gallant North
Britons, who, we are told, " remained firmly in

their position."
While the contest was thus fiercely waged by
the Scotch regiments assistance was rapidly ap-
proaching. Three regiments of English Light
Cavalry—Lord CARDIGAN'S division —hastened
up. They were unfortunately exposed to the
crossfire cf the Russian batteries—probably
those previously vacated by the Moslems—
and, we are told, suffared immensely. It
will be in the recollection of our readers that
the MENSCHIXOFF despatches estimated the loss of
" horses" at 500 ; that is to say, that there were
that number of killed or wounded. This IV:IS
nrobably greatly overrated, but. even under the
most favourable circumstances we must look for-
ward to a fearful catastrophe of casualties amongst
our gallant fellows.
Nor were our noble Allies, the French, idle dur-
ing the emergency. We are told that they took
part in the affair with admirable bravery, a matter
which we can easily credit, when we remember
their ancient reputation fully sustained, aye, en-
hanced, by their exploits on the Glorious Alma.
The Russians were thereby obliged to yield the
ground they had gained. They remained, how-
ever, masters of two forts, from whence they kept
up a galling fire upon our troops, by which it was
that our light Cavalry suffered so severely.
On the following day, the 26th, the French
position was attacked by a corps of 8,000 Rus-
sians, coming simultaneously from the side of the
town and from that of Balaklava. The assailants
were, however, repulsed witlb " great slaughter."
Indeed the Russian loss must have been terrific,
and we greatly fear that the bloodshed on all
sides on the 25th and 26th October must have
been equal to that of , the 20th September, and
that many a widow and orphan will have to de-
plore these fatal days.
There seems to be but little, if any, doubt that
the ground lost in the first sudden and unexpected
attack was Completely regained. We trust, how-
ever, that greater vigilance will henceforward be
displayed, and that we shall hear of no other sur-
prises. Our Generals seem to have been fully
warned of the necessity for watchful care. It
was not the first time that the position in the
vicinity of Balaklava was threatened. The new
attack should, therefore, have been anticipated,
and every necessary precaution taken ; and we
trust that full explanations will be rendered as to
the party or parties responsible for so serious a
catastrophe.
Meanwhile, we hear that the fire from the bat-
teries of the town had materially slackened, and
that there is every reason to suppose that Sebas-
topol cannot long resist the steady and determined
approaches of the Allies. It would seem as if
the determined onslaught of the Russians were a
last desperate attempt to relieve the beleaguered
city, on the failure whereof it must speedily fall
into our hands.

One of the favourite calumnies of NICHOLAS is
that the Allies are fighting for Mahometanism
against Christianity. Of course the Allies know
as well as the inventor of this lie the impudence
of the falsehood, but the poor soldiers of the Im-
perial liar know it not. They, poor souls, be-
lieve that they are fighting for GOD and the true
Church, not for the lying ambition of a tyrant.
They are in their own eyes holy crusaders, not
vulgar warriors ; and half that his unlucky con-
scripts are worth, and more than half the support
he gains from his superstitious millions, is due to
their fanaticism and his shameless appeal to it.
They die for despotism, and believe themselves
martyrs. We grieve to remember that there
were Englishmen who ought to have known better,
but who, in a kind of forensic clutching at any
argument, attempted to raise also the base cry
that we were fighting against Russian Christians
for Turkish infidels. We disposed of that argu-
ment at the time, if argument it deserves to be
called ; for, independently of the Christianity of the
Russians being a superstition inferior to the
Mahometanism of the Turks, if professed Chris-
tians will rob and steal, we hope other professed
Christians will always be found ready to pro-
tect even Atheists from such beliers of their faith.
The pretext, however, of resisting Christians in
defence of infidels will utterly fail if the present
war should be ennobled by%the flag of Poland.
The Poles are at least as good Christians as the
Russians ; their oountry was indeed once famous
for its Christian literature, an honour which will
never belong to the merely imitative Muscovites.
The cause of Polish, independence, religiously
viewed, is the cause of religious freedom against
the atrocious persecutors of the nuns at Minsk,
and the oppressor of every creed but that of which
the first article is the Deification of the CZAR.
Thanks* to Western enlightenment, we believe
a religious war now almost impossible. The reli-
gious supremacy of the POPE or of Queen ViCTORIA
would be but an uninspiring watchword for the
Allies. Not so, however, the name of Poland. Not
a soldier in our camps who would notfeelthatP
lish nationality and Polish independence was
cause worthy of a soldier. It would be doing
battle, not for a set of Spaniards or Portuguese,
ever ready to yoke themselves to superannuated
despotism, even while British troops were driving
out intelligent, albeit foreign, domination ; but
for a people who, though they lost liberty through
Republican and party quarrels, have never lost
their love of it--a people whom the hoof of the
oppressor treads with bitterer malice, and whom he
hates the more cordially, because, almost singly
in his vast dominions, they know what freedom
means, and prize itsat its worth. Poland aloe,
among his absorbed nations, sternly refuses to be
denationalised. The life-blood of freedom stilt
beats warm in her breast. The despot has
maimed and crippled his victim with unrelenting

cruelty, but ho knows that her life is in her, for 1
he still feels and fears its writhings ; and he knows
that a few years' liberation from his fangs would see
her fresh and vigorous as ever. He has threatened,
fiend as he is, to " make a Siberia of Poland," and
he must do it before ke can make a Russia of her.
The restoration of such a nation would, indeed,
be an object of enthusiasm ; unlike the impious
religious pretexts of NICHOLAS, it would be a
sacred reality. Its spirit would be unselfish,

generous, and noble, while its attainment would
reward Europe with the reasonable hope of last-
ing peace. Noble and generous is it to aid Tur-
key against the invader, and to destroy his offen-
sive strength in the Black Sea ; but incomparably
more soul-stirring through the magnitude of ths
wrong to be redressed, and the Catholicity and
completeness of the political conception, is the
liberation of Poland, and her restitution to the
honourable post of Europe's advanced guard
against the irruptions of Tartar barbarism.

Of course, it is easy for the lovers of the " wet-
blanket policy" to damp all political ardour, which
may prove inconvenient to their indolence, or
condemnatory of their past acquiescence in wrong.
The statesmen who sympathise still with the vil-
lanous sacrifice of national rights to despotic
greed in 1815, and those who looked on,
to say the least of them, like so many
&is, at every Russian violation of that
treaty ever since—they are all naturally afraid
of the simple mention of Poland. It is to them
a word of reproach. They winked at a crime, and
they are now paying its penalty ; but while Tur-
key is the ostensible cause of our sacrifices, their
inglorious and impolitic neglect of Poland is less
striking. Better, however, even for these states-
men to avow a manly repentance, and to throw
themselves heart and soul into a cause worthy of
the country they govern. It is no such chimeri-
c project in the eyes of the CZAR. He at least
knows the value of his railway from Moscow to
Germany, Austria, and Turkey at once. He
knows that to lose Poland is to lose not a territory
merely, but a means of ready aggression on
every European State. He needs jus!-, now all
his troops in the Crimea, or in Bessarabia, but

even while knowing that Sebastopol would
be attacked he pours them into Poland.
If ho must sacrifice one, he would rather part
with the Crimea ten times over. With the
Crimea he is powerful against one State, but with
Poland he is the dread of that S:ate, and of all
East of France at the same time. His efforts to
retain Poland are the proper index of our duty to
deprive him of it. What croakers and conscious
delinquents decry as chimerical, lie fears as but
too rational and too feasible. Well does he know
that from the moment when the Allied banners
are unfurled in Poland his most hopeless battles
must be fought. Warsaw would be a Moscow to
his troops, and the Vistula a Borodino. They
would have to fight the victors of the Alma, sur-
rounded by a population burning to revenge the
cruelties of IrAlf a century. Fearful and demo-
niacal, no doubt, would be his struggles to retain
his victim, but utterly vanquished he would be—
and then vanquished for ever.
But what will Austria, what will Prussia, do ?
Yes, what indeed ? That need not give much
trouble to France and England. Austria has as
many inducements ,to surrender her small share
of Poland as to keep it ; that is, provided she
get a strong neighbour State between her and
Russia. As for Prussia, contemptible as she is,
it would be unworthy of the Allied Powers to give
a thought to her. Prussians will never fight for
Poland as they did for their father-land. The
hands of all thieves are ready to let go their spoil
when justice dogs their steps. Prussia is, some
of it, beyond the Rhine, and speaks French.
FREDERICK WILLIAM and NAPOLEON 111. both un-
derstand that. The southern Baltic is accessible
to English men-of-war, and to English trans-
ports, too, if need be, and Prussia knows that.
Prussia is miserably anxious, no doubt, to
keep what she stole from Poland, but she will
not fight very earnestly for it ; and, if she did, it
would be to share the fate of Russia. To
be brief, the Allies have but to proclaim the
nationality of Poland, and to enter it north, or
possibly south, next spring, and there would be
a moral power in a demand, righteous in itself
and essential to European peace, which must,
sooner or later, convert the demand into an ac-
complished fact.*

* We again invite the- attention of our readers to the
pamphlet we referred to on Wednesday—" Letter to
the Emperor of the French on the Eastern Question,
and the re-establishment of the Independence of Poland."
—RIDGWAY.

M. de Beust, the Saxon Minister of Foreign Affairs
returned to Dresden from Berlin on the 29th ult.

MUNIFICENT LEGACY.—At a meeting held yesterday
in the board-room of the Consumption Hospital at
Brompton the treasurer announced a bequest of 5,0001.
from the late' Mrs. Wilson, of Eaton-square. It was
added that, the hospital being entirely dependent upon
voluntary contributions, such bequests were of infinite
importance in maintaining and extending the usefulness
of the charity.
APOTHECARIES'-HALL.—The following are the names
of gentlemen who passed their examination in the science
and practice of medicine, and received certificates to
practise, on Thursday, Nov. 2 :—Joseph Egerton Sa-
vory, Wendover, Buckinghamshire ; William Arras,
Warwickbridge, Carlisle ' • John Roberts, Cricceith,
Carnarvonshire ; Stephen Nesfield, Whitby, Yorkshire.

DR. ALBERT COHEN'S ARRIVAL IN LONDON.—ThIs
worthy philanthropist, long celebrated for his services
iu Algiers, and who has recently visited Turkey, Egypt,
and Palestine, with the view of ameliorating the condi-
tion of his Jewish brethren of those countries, arrived
in London on Monday last. We are gratified to state,
that as regards the Jews in Palestine, he has succeeded
in bringing the efforts of the Messrs. Rothschild, of
Paris, and his own plans, in harmony with those of
Messrs. Rothschild, of London, Sir Moses Montefiore,
and the Rev. Dr. Adler, the Chief Rabbi. These bene-
volent men now co-operate in regenerating the fallen
position of our brethren in the Holy Land ; whilst Dr.
A. Cohen, of his own accord, and at his own expense,
has introduced the modern system of education among
the Jews of Constantinople, Smyrna, Cairo, Alexandria,
&a. Documents in connection with' a visit to the Em-
peror of Austria, the Sultan, and with the charitable
institutions he has founded in the Holy Land, such as
hospitals, benevolent loan societies, work-shops, &c.,
will be shortly laid by us before the public. We must
not omit to mention that Mr. Ald. Salomons takes also
a deep and active interest in these matters.—Jewish
Chronicle.
THE TOLL-BRIDGES OF THE METROPOLIS.—From the
evidence taken before the committee on the metropolitan
bridges it appears that Southwark-bridge, with ap-
proaches, cost 666,0001. The present annual income of
the bridge is 2,9001., and the necessary outgoings
1,2001., which leaves 1,7001. to be divided among the
shareholders. Before the opening of New London-
bridge, in 1831, the income of Southwark-bridge was
7,0001., but in 1832 it sank to 4,5441., and in 1834 to
3,9831. Waterloo-bridge cost, including approaches,
937,3911. lie. 4d. Of this, 476,0001. was raised by
4,763 1001. shares ; 300,0001. by 5,000 annuities' of 601.
each ; 200,0001. by 5,000 annuities of 401. each. A fur-
ther sum of 54000/. was raised by bonds, which makes the
whole sum raised 1,030,8521. The receipts of the bridge
for the year ending February last were 19,1971. Os. 11d.
About three per cent. interest is paid on the annuities
of both classes, which are now worth 291. 10s. and
251. respectively. The original shares fetch 51. 55., or
5/. 10s. The arrears due to annuitants amounts to
2,399,9371. 10s. About 113,0001. has been spent upon
the Hungerford Suspension-bridge up to the present
time, and it is calculated that the contemplated improve-
ments will cost 156,0001. more, making the whole cost
of the bridge 269,0001. More than 3,000,000 passengers
pass over the bridge annually, and about 2,500,000 pass
to and from the steam-boat pier at the foot of the bridge.
By the proposed alteration the revenue of the bridge, the
chairman of the company stated, would be raised to close
upon 30,0001. Vauxhall-bridge and its approaches cost
300,0001., exclusive of 70,0001. spent in Parliamentary
and legal expenses, which makes the whole cost of the
undertaking 370,000/. The receipts for the last year
were 11,0001., but the average annual receipts for the
seven years before the South-Western Railway terminus
was moved from Nine E'ms, were 12,7001. The expenses
f ket—‘ /0- hri f,,,r0 2 9007. t.. 2 2,07.
,
a year; aid the divideud paid la.dt.ye,u
The capital of the company consists of 5,800 shares, of
the nominal value of 641. each, but their market price is
but from 221. to 241. each.