The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1854.

We hardly recover from the accounts of a seri-
ous onsla*ght by the Russians, and a glorious
-victory by the Allies, when we hear of another
conflict, with a. similar result. The Russians
have unquestionably proved themselves to be
brave and energetic opponents. They have dis-
played extraordinary activity in bringing up rein-
forcements to the seat of war, and great resolu-
tion in attacking an enemy by whom they have
been so repeatedly foiled. We must not, there-
fore, pay either the enemy or our own men the
bad compliment of under-valuing their exertions,
Or supposing that success
,is a matter of course,
which can certainly be achieved without our being
called on to make any vigorous effort, or to submit
to any serious sacrifices. It is useless denying
the fact that we have met with a far more vigor-
ous opposition than we had at all anticipated.
But we should not on that account be discouraged.
On the contrary, we should only be animated by
a more unflinching determination to carry out
our projects without reference to cost, and to
succeed—decisively and unequivocally succeed—
in an object in which not merely the influence,
but the safety and honour, of the British nation is
at stake.

We cannot, even if we would, now hang back.
The stake for which we are contending is of too
momentous a character to admit of doubt or hesi-
tation. The lives of our men—of those who
have faithfully and unflinchingly discharged their
arduous and important duties—are involved in
the desperate issue. The maintenance and per-
manency of that cordial alliance with our neared
neighbour—respecting which our fervent aspira-
tion, esto perpetuc, will receive an earnest and
unanimous response from the entire community

—mainly depends on our conduct during the
present crisis. It would inflict an indelible
brand on the national escutcheon, we shall
nct say, if we were to desert our gallant
Allies for that is absolutely impossible, and
could not enter into the mind even of an
ABERDISS !-but if we hung back or displayed any
vacillation, timidity, or " penuriousness" under
existing circumstances. We are engaged in a
truly noble cause, and we must be prepared to
submit to sacrifices proportioned to the magni-
tude of the object we haie in view. This is the
course which iot merely honour, but prudence
demands. We may be assured that every pound
saved during the present emergency will lead to
a tenfold expenditure at no distant date, and that
without reference to the question—all important
as it will be admitted to be—of strengthening
and cementing the bonds by which we are united
1 to France.

Earnestly as we should be resolved on attaining
all our resources to the utmost, in order to insure
an unequivocal triumph, our Allies have interests
no less important—motives no less irresistible.
The "future" of France would ba as seriously
°°'promised as our own, by the substitution of
Russian for Turkish power at Stamboul. Be-
sides, there are traditions of " the Empire" which
cannot be forgotten. If we look only to the
"hereafter,"
France has ancient injuries to
fearful avenge, a lila reckoning to cast up with the
Russians.
As a
the world, it must great
now
military power, the first in
has arisen to vindicateit sees f that the opportunity
ormer wrongs as well
'
as its present reputation . and
we do not suffer- the "wetb
blanket,"
it will do so, if
anket," which we
still tolerate, to damp or smother its ardour.
It is now stated that there has been another
desperate conflict before Sebastopol—that the
13th has also been signalised by a Russian
de-
feat. The rumour, which purports to
come from
Constantinople, under date of the 16th, is to the
effect that it was the French lines which Wore
attacked, and that the Russians were repulsed, but
with great loss on both sides. It also announces that
the Russians had received further reinforcements
—a matter which, whatever opinion we may form
jto the alleged battle, we can easily credit ; for
1 we'. Mist remember that Lord RAGLAN an-
',
IldulAgea in his despatch that the 4th corps

':!

-
'

IS A.t

cd'armee, which had been conveyed in car- 1
riaaes of the country and in the lightest
possible order was "to he immediately followed
by the 3d corps." The Russians had, therefore,
probably obtained a great addition of strength on
or before the 13th, and they would also, most
probably, avail themselves thereof—for they had
nearly gone to the full length of their tether,
and could look for no further assistance for a con-
siderable period, until the formation of snow-roads,
which could not be anticipated for many weeks.
The sea would, however, remain open to France
and England. They might at any time receive
further reinforcements, and there was every pro-
bability that the veterans who had so greatly dis-
tinguished themselves under OMan PACIIA would
not remain inactive, but that if prevented by Aus-
trian treachery from creating a diversion in Bes-
sarabia, they would be ready for service in the Crimea
either with the Allied Forces before Sebastopol, or
where they might be even more useful at Perekop
cutting off supplies, and keeping the Muscovite
rats in the trap into which they had entered !
A subsequent attack on the besieging army at
or about the time specified is therefore by no
means improbable. We muss, however, remem-
ber that we have had intelligence from Prince
MENSCHIKOFF, whose despatches are generally
founded on fact, which makes no mention of such
a contest—a matter that could scarcely be omitted,
if of a serious character. It would, therefore,
seem, if it occurred at all, to have been only a
mere sortie of the garrison, which the Russian
Commander would not think it nezossary to allude
to at length. The circumstance that it was on
the French lines would show that it must have
been a sortie from the town, inasmuch as the
position of the Allies is such that any attack from
the *pen country must be made on the English in
the first instance.

But whether the report be accurate or other-
wise, our duty, as well as that of France, is per-
fectly clear. It is comprised in the expression—
Reinforcements, reinforcements, reinforcements !
We "lust spare no exertion—no outlay—to ac-
complish this great, this paramount object. Every
available man must be -transmitted to the seat of
war, and we must be content to leave the defence
of the country to its 10,3a1 bands and militia, as
we may do so without the slightest apprehension.
France, too, having trained and disciplined men
ready, will be enabled to send them without a
moment's delay—England supplying, as in the
case of the Baltic expedition, a portion of the
transports required for the operation. It is said
that some divisions are, destined for the Danube.
Be it so. France can spare enough for both ser-
vices. But under any circumstances the para-
mount claims of the Crimea must not be forgotten.
That is the first demand on the resources of both
countries—one that will not be rejected or
evaded.

In one of the recent brave cavalry charges at
Balaklava our men foUnd the loose grey-coats of
the Russian horse soldier his best protection
against their sabres ; and hitherto Russia itself
has found in the " neutral" despots who hang
about her western frontiers her mast efficient
safeguard. By their good help she has parried
some of her greatest dangers, and, under cover of
their folds, has been able to wield her undistracted
strength against the Crimean vindicaters of the
common rights of Europe. She has been enabled
through Prussia to turn her produce into money
for paying her troops ; and, through Austria, to
send those troops where they could best resist
and annoy, even by their own defeats, the forces
of th 3 Allies. On these terms we seem likely to
get through one campaign. From Transyl-
vania to Lapland a grey-coat neutrality is the
curse of Europe's cause, and the shield of her
enemy. Is this to last through another cam-
paign, or is the thing to be torn to shreds before
next spring ? We think our Houses of Parlir.-
meat are unworthy of their rank amongst the
governors of the world if they do not insist on
neutrality being exchanged for hostility or co-
operation.

We hear sometimes of the right of nations to
be neutral, if it please them, in a contest between
neighbours. But that doctrine has its limitations.
If the quarrel be on a subject exclusively concern-
ing the belligerent powers, it were unreasonable,
perhaps, to ask more of neighbour nations than
neutrality, or, at most, an expression of opinion.
BLit when those nations form part of one great
confederation, whose rights are also menaced in
the attack made upon another's, the case is wholly
altered. No man has a right to be neutral
while robbery and murder are being perpretrated
before his eyes. He is an accomplice, if he be
not a helper of the wronged. If his sole thought
be self-protection, and much more if he attempt
to baffle the officers of justice who would bring
the miscreant to justice, he must endure the doom
of the coward or the abettor of felony. Now,
we ask, is there an honest Englishman who does
not view the conduct of all the neutrals conter-
minous with Russia in this light ? Can we refuse
to believe that they all wish the great BARABBAS
of the day to escape from justice? Would they
not all sincerely • " congratulate" the Russian
representatives at their several Courts were the
Allied troops really " driven into the sea," and
their ships sent to its bottom These wretched
Governments stand like so many PILATES,
washing their effeminate yet despotic hands,
and proclaiming their innocence, while they
aro worse than conniving at all the efforts
of the wrong-doer to crush the vindicators of inter-
national justice. We know what to think of
cowards who stand by while a villain assaults, and
half kills a policeman doing his duty, and we also
know what to think of these dastard "neutrals,"
who see complacently the armies of the Allies
decimated by their own victories while bringing
to terms the violater of the public peace.
Whatever be the leanings of the German Go-
vernments, and the Scandinavian powers too, the
interest of their people is conspicuously the same
as ours. One of these contemptible neutrals is of
course the brother-in-law of the great thief, as
well as a brother thief, and sharer in the grand
Polish robbery ; another has bound himself to him
ley the oaths of a CATALINE in a bloody Hungarian
conspiracy. Both of them are pledged to his cause
by guilty bonds ; yet even they must but too
often feel their degraded position. They must,
as Governments, have many wishes that they
could rise to the dignity of honesty and indepen-
dence. But their subjects—they can have but one
wish. On them the Russian yoke must be, and
is, an intolerable burden. From Sweden and
Denmark, to Prussia, Hungary, Italy, and five-
sixths of the Austrian dominions, the people
groan under a despotism more or less irksome,
and are almost in rebellion against the degrada-
tion inflicted on them by their rulers. Swedes,
Danes, and Prussians, at least, are unmistakeably
az hostile to the CZAR as their Monarchs are
friendly, or afraid. Austria, and, indeed, nearly
all Germany,
have such obvious commercial inte-
rests at stake in the freedom of the Danube and
the Black Sea,
the Danube, that 't •
rm•
and the ramoval of Russia from
1 is not e+en. denied.
Let, then, these totte
their Paition. he chief g powers understand
officers of their artniea

may be with them in their treacherous neutrality;
their people are not. Let them not forget 1848.
There are times when peoples count for something,
and those times may be nearer again than they
think. They are provoking France and England
to appeal to the people against their rulers. The
Allied Governments are far enough at present
from wishing for more revolutions ; but the Allied
nations would rather see all the German States
blown to shivers, and their perjured tyrants put
beyond the power of deceiving their subjects again,
than go on sacrificing their husbands' and brothers'
blood to the hostile neutrality of Austria and
Prussia. We warn these confederates of Russia
that our people here will soon demand summitry
dealings with them. We are in the long run
masters of our Cabinets. We forced them
against their wishes into the war, we forced
them, though tardily, to do something more than
seed troops to die of the cholera at Varna. We
have forced them to commit themselves to the
ruin of Sebastopol and if Austria and Prussia
choose to continue in their present cause, we shall
yet force them to hold out the standard of Polish,
Hungarian, and Italian freedom, and it nay be
of freedom for all the little kingdoms and duke-
doms who have re-enslaved their subjects since
1848.

We repeat, much as we long for continental
freedom, necessary as we deem the reconstitution
of Poland to the safety of Europe, it will be the
despots, not the Allies, who will compel revolu-
tion. They have all owned that Russia was in
the wrong, that she has no more right to the
provinces than we have, yet they have chosen to
abet rather than to oppose her. Had they all
joined, as honesty demanded, in declaring the
passage of the Pruth a castes belli, there would
have been no war at all. Had they supported
the Allies when the conflict began, as from their
condemnation of the enemy they were bound to
do, the war would probably have ended with the
summer. If now they have to vacate their
thrones through the burning indignation of the
two Western nations, emboldening their subjects
to give them their deserts, let them remember
that it will be they, and not the Allies, who have
been the revolutionists.