The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-02 00:00:00

THE WAR IN ThE EAST.

The town of Odessa was founded by Catherine IL
after she had extended her dominions, in 1792, to the
banks of the Dniester, and in 60 years it has become the
emporium of the trade of Southern Russia. Its popu-
lation, exclusive of the garrison, exceeds 70,000, and the
total amount of its export and import trade was valued
in 1849 at about four millions and a half sterling. The
town is built on cliffs, which rise to a considerable height
above the sea, and form a sort of amphitheatre round
the bay. It is fortified according to the modern prin-
ciples of defence, and the citadel, on the east side of the
town, commands the port. The port itself is formed by
two large moles, one of which is regularly defended by
a parapet, with embrasures for cannon. The anchorage
in the bay is good, and the water so deep that vessels of
the first class may lie within reach of the shore. It
seems, however, by the brief account which has reached
us from Vienna, that the only practicable harbour was
attacked on the 23d by nine steamers of the fleet, and
that one small battery was destroyed, and the ships in
the harbour burnt. It is added that the city was bom-
barded with shells and rockets for ten (or, as another
account says, two) hours ; but, as this information has
probably been transmitted to Vienna through Russia,
we must suspend our opinion upon the details of this
affair until they are made known to us upon more trust-
worthy authority.
The evacuation of Little Wallachia is not only con-
firmed, but it is already known that the Turks have ad-
vanced into the country as far as the river Schyl with-
out seeing an enemy. It is further known that on the
24th the Russians commenced their retreat from Kra-
jova, and have broken up their position in that town,
which was for some time the head-quarters of Prince
Gortschakoff. The right wing of the Russian army
will therefore probably rest on the river Aluta, with
its head-quarter at Bucharest, and the main interest
of the campaign is once more concentrated on the
operations below Nicopolis, and especially between
Rustchuk and Silistria. There is reason to believe
that the bombardment of the latter place was confined
to the fire of some heavy guns placed by the Russians
on the opposite bank of the Danube ' • but the river in
that place is 1,000 yards wide, and Silistria itself lies
about 600 yards from the right bank, so that this fire
must have been directed against the place at a range of
nearly a mile, and no very important results could be
expected.
Now that the moment has arrived for the more
active operations of the allied forces by sea and land,
and the season has also returned at which the waters of
the Danube rise, we hope to learn that the Admirals are
in a condition to open the navigation of the Danube to
at least the smaller steamers of the fleets. It must
surely be practicable to force a passage which was open
until last summer to the steamers of the Austrian
Lloyd, and is now only stopped by the bar recently
allowed to accumulate at the Sulina mouth ; and it is
obvious that the command of the river is one of the most
essential conditions of success. The forts at the mouth
and at Tultscha and Isaktcha are inconsiderable, and
our seamen, who have found their way up the Yang-
tse-kiang and the Irrawaddy without pilots, can surely
be left open to the navigation of the Danube. Both for
this service and in the Baltic we have no doubt that the
Admiralty would find great advantage in multiplying
our small steam craft, which ought to form a flotilla for
the navigation of shallow waters. Such vessels, fitted
with screws, and armed with one heavy gun for and
aft, are invaluable for desultory warfare. Their speed
enables them to get out of danger from a vessel of supe-
rior force, and they are admirably adapted for cruisers
or coasting operations, especi;lly in waters where three-
deckers and heavy frigates cannot be brought without
danger within reach of the shore.—Times.

MR. COBDEN.

Mr. Cobden is bold but not fortunate when he plunges
into general politics. His ignorance is of the obtrusive
and ridiculous kind, which is sure to meet exposure and
to provoke laughter. He has picked up just that very
little knowledge which is most dangerous, and lie applies
his remarkable events in history with about as much
judgment as Mrs. Malaprop. displayed. in " the nice
derangement of her epitaphs." Mr. Bright's superior
acuteness is hardly taxed, indeed, in cobbling his asso-
ciate's blunders ; but since the latter very sagacious and
strong-headed personage has the amiable condescension
to edit Mr. Cobden to the House, we are surprised that
he does not take some measures for keeping the original
text to safer channels. It is really very melancholy
to find an Educator-General making such sad work
of his historical parallels as the representative of
the Russian party in England did on Friday, when
taking up the cause of the Russo-Greek predatory
movements on the Turkish frontier. A short time
since he was good enough, in a pamphlet advertis-
ing other people's worn-out fallacies as his own new
wares, to recommend the study of a few elementary his-
torical books to the educated classes of England as an
aid in the formation of political opinions. Could he not
himself spare so much leisure front the pressing business
of national instruction as to learn a little of the nature
of such leading events as the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes ? Perhaps some of the short cuts to knowledge
which will doubtless be prepared for the coining age of
examinations might serve this purpose, and save the en-
lightened advocate of peace and progress from the pitt-
falls into which his unhappy audacity is at present so
continually betraying him. -
The cause which Mr. Cobden has taken up as a sequel
to his late homily on the pacific mildness which he sup-
posed the Russian national character to have imbibed
from English nurses is worse than the Russian cause it-
self by so much as the motives of his clients are lower,
and their course of action more base, than that of the
Czar, their instigator and master. A just indignation
has been excited throughout Europe by the direction
which the Emperor Nicholas has given to his ambition
and to his arms ; but nothing short of disgust will meet
the manner in which the Court of Athens has thought fit
to do the worst and most ignoble part of his work. The
crime of the unprincipled invader is bad enough, but there
is something thoroughly despicable and repulsive in the
conduct of those who, without the force for open war, or
the excuse of an avowed cause, fasten on an opportunity
for rapine and violence, in which they trust to buy im-
punity by insignificance. Such has been the conduct
of that weak and corrupt Court, of which Mr. Cobden
has ventured to take up the advocacy. Pursuing that
line of defiance to all law and honesty, which has long
been the rule of Independent Greece, the Court of
Athens has not merely authorised, but has absolutely
enforced on its subjects, a serious of aggressions on the
Ottoman dominions. The proofs of this, we are as-
sured, are strong and unquestionable. The Greeks
who are exciting the crusade against Turkey are not
" a few unsettled and vagrant persons," as Mr. Bright
would have us believe, but are men whose immediate
connection with the Court it is impossible to doubt ;
and the movement which has been excited is evidently
not the result of local effervescence, but of a direct
and forcible impulse from Athens. These are circum-
stances under which the interference of our diplo-
macy and the employment of our ships, of which Mr.
Bright complains so bitterly, were both justifiable and
necessary. The Porte is fighting our battle no less
than its own, and it would be intolerable and dis-
graceful if we were to sanction or connive at the
predatory war of revolution with which Russia, accord-
ing to its ancient system of attack, has incited the Greeks
to harass the Turkish fronties, and to endanger the safety
of the interior. But Mr. Bright would have the Go-
vernment of this country go far beyond the principle of
non-intervention with respect to the defence of our
allies. He urges that we should use our strength to for-
bid !the Sultan to defend himself. The English and
French Ambassadors, Mr. Bright is of opinion, should
have forced the Divan to abstain from a measure which
that sagacious and able Government considers essential
to the safety of the empire, but which Mr. Bright
objects to as injurious to the commerce of Manchester.
There will be but little English sympathy with such a
feeling. The whole course of the Turkish Government
in its arduous struggle has been wise as well as bold,
and we do not doubt that it can show good reason for
expelling the subjects of King Otho. Much individual
suffering, of course, must accompany such a measure,
but it is at Athens, not at Constantinople, that the suf-
ferers must seek redress. The Greek Court, not the
Ottoman Empire, is answerable for all damage:4 wkhnic
result from the lawless doings of the former. 'I hekui.gll-1
dom of Greece is, as Mr. Bright very justly remark`,
artificial production, made and maintained y the
ing Powers of Europe, and especially by thobseforce and
os e n
ments which have just thrown their, whole
energy into the support of that :sovereignty
which
Greece has lawle-sly and treacherously attacked.
That is certainly a fact to be remembered when
dealing with this subject, but in
a somewhat different
sense from that in which Mr. Bright regards it. It is
an additional reason,
if any be needed, for putting a de-
cisive and final stop to practices on the part of the Court
in question, which, if persisted in, must certainly be fatal
to the safety and independence of Greece itself, what-
ever might be the extent of damage that might, be effected
by them in Turkey. It is really intolerable that this
insolvent nest of bad government, while it cannot find a
piastre for honest purpose!, should be expending men
and money in assisting to its utmost the enemy of those
Powers to whom it owes its very existence ; and it is
lamentable that a single Englishman should be found
sordid and short-sighted enough to take up, on any con-
siderations, the cause of 611012 dishonesty and ingratitude.
—Morning Pout.