The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-04 00:00:00

;enure."

We said above that we were now as far from takine..
Sebastopol as we were on the Ist of September. We
were wrong in so saying, for most assuredly we are
much further.
At that time we had the game in our own hands.
If we had sent a sufficient force—nearly treble what we
did send—and insisted upon Austria allowing Omar
Pacha to act effectively on the Pruth, we might—not as
easily as the Tinier anticipated, however—have planted
our banners on its walls. -before Christmas. Having
neglected those conmon.sense precautions, —mere " by-
gones"—of course we have failed, and our army is be-
seiged, while the fire against the city lia4 stopped for
three days at the date of the latest hitelligence.
The worst of all these " bygones" is that they are
irreparable. We protest we have now our doubts as to
whether we shall ever take Sebastopol at all ; and we
believe that if we do, it will be after many, many
months blokade, and not by active siege operations.
The first process it appears which Ministers now con-
template is to leave our army to freeze through the long
winter months upon the coldest and most exposed pro-
montory in the proverbially " inhospitable" Enxine.
Surely they do not expect. that this force will be ready
fur active operations after such an exposure. If they
should be so, they are the must extraordinary troops in
the world, as remarkable for their powers of enduring
hardship as they 'are for fighting. Now this, with all
our admiration of them, we do not believe them to be.
Well, lot us suppose the long winter over, in what state
will things be in the Crimeaat the approach of spring
The Russian army, which will have passed its winter

in snug quarters at Simpheropol and 13;1 tchi-Serai, w
be reinforced probably to 200,000 men ; far, notwith
standing the assertions of the Timex, travelling in winter
after the frost sets in is easy in Russia—transporting
provisions still easier ; and they will be well supplied
with all necessary materiel and provisions, for as has been
well observed by a correspondent we have overlooked the
district above Tagranrogoltogetheras sources ofsupply. It
is obvious that commencing the siege a second time,
without investing the north Fide as well as the south,
would be mere folly. We shall therefore have to fight
a campaign in order to drive the relieving army out of
the Crimea, before we can attempt even to commence
our approaches.
Well, let us once more suppose the Crimea cleared of
the enormous army which the Czar will have collected,
the last Cessa,ck
.driven beyond Perecop, the isthmus
rendered as unattackable as Kalafat, and that the allied
army has returned to commence the siege. We can
hardly conceive all this to be aceompli3hed before the
latter end of July or beginning of August. We shall
thee require for investment 10,000 men a mile, accord-
ing to the Duke of Wellington ; at this rate, 13 miles—
at a calculation which even Mr. Gladstone could make
—gives us 139,000 men. Now, it must be remembered
that as the harbour of Sebastopol cuts off the investing
army from all power of assisting one wing by succours
from another—and, as the garrison—say 40,000 men—
will occupy a central position, they can bring a prepon-
derating force to Lear upon any point of the ciroumfer-
ence. We merely mention this as a fact, for we do
not expect the Russians to make sorties. No, they will
trust to their heavy artillery and formidable earthworks.
We have proved to our cost what canibe done in this way
in a month ; what may we not expect to find at the end
of six or eight ?
As a specimen of the preparations making by the Czar,
we :quote aeletter recently received from a friend at
Berlin ; •the writer is a Swede :
" Ina public-house (at nerlin) I mat six Enzlisinen.
They had conic through Hollend, cn route to Russia, to
superintend the casting Of lonerange Leneastee guns for
Cronstadt. Thousands of men are et weak on all the
Gulf ports."
Now, it is hardly likely that Saba ;topol will be nee-
lected, or that some of the patriotie. Enelishinen iW
question will not be sent to cast Lancasters iu the Rus-
sian Woclwich. Taking all Cave things into conside•
ration, wo ask, may we not file: ourselves approachiner
the white.. of 1355,.a,nd Seba;t6pel not yet taken ?
Meanwhillc, all thceo preperatione are going on, and
before the season for operations commences, our unfor-
tunate army will have team hung up to dry for eix
months in the north winds, like the souls of the departed
in Virgil's description of "Tartarus," we suppose, in
order to extract from their bodies the foul Miasma which
those who yet survive have absorbed during their four
months' residence in the Valley of Devna, called by the
Turks that of Death.
Good help our poor fellows ! for wo grieve to say that
England, at least as represented by her press, seems in-
- clined to Sacrifice theme for the purpose of keeping in