The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

We must confess to a very different set of men-
tal associations from those which sixteen years'
incessant sitting in the House and gazing at office
• have created in Mr. Disraeli. The first thought
that occurs to the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer on
hearing of the vote of credit for 3,000,000/., to be moved
• for next Monday, is, that on the strength of this request
her Majesty's Government will be graciously pleased to
promise us the delicious treat of an autumnal session.
Like the object of his life's antipathy, Sir R. Peel, and
his early patron, Mr. Hume, Mr. Disraeli appears to be
never so happy or so entirely himself as when he is sitting
on or opposite to the Treasury bench. For our part, cer-
tain as we are that an autumnal session will only be a fresh
drain on good time and strength, and will not really for-
ward the business of the nation, we wish such an inflic-
tion on anybody's head than our own. The first thought
that occurred to us was the hope that her Majesty's
Government would be able very soon to promise us
something for our money. The British people have in
one point a striking resemblance to his Imperial Majesty
the Emperor of all the Russias. Like him, they are
matter-of-fact, and think a good deal of "material
guarantees." Politicians there are who are always
talking of moral victories, of diminution of prestige, of
serious blows inflicted by fleets showing their topgal-
lantmasts just above the horizon, and occasionally sur-
prising a Fin. The mass of the people, including our-
selves, are much too gross-minded for this refined sort of
warfare. We don't insist on Cronstadt being destroyed,
St. Petersburg shelled, the Emperor brought home in a
cage, orßussia partitioned, but we remember the immense
odds on our side, the immense boasting we have all
made, the immense wrong that the enemy has done, and
we naturally expect something worthy of these things.
The Czar must be not only beaten, but the bit must be
put into his mouth, and he must be brought well under
command. It will never do to have all this work over
again two or three years hence. The enormous bubble
of Russian power has burst, and we are all beginning to
realise what, indeed, all might have known a year ago,
if they had thought about it. Why, the population of
Russia does not exceed that of England and France to-
gether, let alone the whole Turkish empire. To all
practical purposes we are much nearer the principal seat
of war than the bulk of the Russians ; we are richer be-
yond all comparison ; our soldiers and sailors beat the
Russians out and out, both in pluck and in mere physi-
cal strength ; and if, with all these odds on our side, we
don't bring home a good account of Russia, we are just
rendering ourselves the laughing-stock of the world.
Such were our own reflections on hearing of the three
millions wanted by Government ; and they led us to the
conclusion that it might have twice as much if it pleased,
BO as it had something to show for the money.
A campaign of bloodless demonstration may be very
scientific, but it is much too paradoxical for vulgar un-
derstandings. Here we have two of the finest fleets ever
launched on the ocean, and by far the finest army ever
sent from this country, besides corresponding armaments
contributed by France, and, so far, we have simply let
the Turks fight their own battle. We go on abusing
them and everything about them—the vapouring courage
and predatomy habits of their irregulars, the stupidity
and cowardice of their officers, the general want of
method in their Government, and the ridiculous poverty
of the whole race. Yet we stand by as idle spectators,
and content ourselves with cheering on the Turks, just
as a circle of big lubberly fellows at school will spirit up
a little boy to show fight against one double his size.
At all events, that is the look of things. Silistria held
out successfully against 60,000 Russians, who threw
into it 50,000 round shot and shell, and mined it in
every direction, while we were within hearing, and
never stirred from our tents. What may have hap-
pened within the last few days we know not, but the
people who were last heard of as driving the Russians
out of the Dobrudscha, and harassing their rear in
their retreat from Wallachia, were the Turks. If this
is all, and if the Crescent is to monopolise all the laurels,
the result will be very distasteful to this country. Not
that it is glory we want—it is actual security. Russia
has herself never been content with glory. She has
always obtained either a province, or a privilege, or a
sea, or a river, or something else substantial. In this
point she sets us an example, and if, as is likely enough,
we have to pay our twenty or thirty millions for our
war, we shall not be satisfied unless Russia disgorges
some of her ill-gotten gains, and a victory is marked not
only in treaties, in speeches and poems, but in the man
of Europe, so that any boarding-school Miss may see
the difference between Russia as it is and Russia as it
was.

It is not for man to forecast too confidently or too
precisely the event of a war, in which Fortune will still
have her sway, and the merest accident may do the work
of armaments and overthrow the decisions of councils.
But the most immediate objects of the war are the vindi-
cation of Turkish independence, and the permanent
clearing of the territory invaded, and the permanent
opening of the Black Sea and the Danube to all nations.
None of these objects can be attained without the entire
destruction of the Russian navy in those waters, and that
cannot be accomplished so long as the great stronghold
of the robber remains wholly intact. The capture of
Sebastopol and the occupation of the Crimea by the allied
forces is only a question of money and time, and when it
is once done Russia will be as powerless in the Black
Sea as in the British Channel. It may or may not answer
our purpose to hold Sebastopol for a longer time
than will suffice to bring away or destroy all the ship-
ping and stores, all the cannon and everything worth
moving, and leaving not one stone upon another of the
boasted fortification. But, if we thoroughly scour the
Black Sea of everything Russian, it will take years be-
fore the fortresses can be repaired and the armaments re-
placed ; and, meanwhile, with little help from us,
Turkey will be able to stand her ground. That, of
course, will not be the whole result. The civilisa-
tion and the ideas of the West have now been intro-
duced into the Turkish empire, and some of the finest
regions on the face of the earth are opened to our enter-
prise. Asia Minor, Syria, and all the shores of the
Black Sea and the Archipelago will now be visited and
even inhabited by our merchants, our men of wealth, and
possibly our agriculturists. When this has gone on a few
years there will be an end of Russia in that part of the
world, and she will be reduced to the humble but more
useful employment of cultivating and peopling her own
territory at home. All this is a matter of the simplest
and surest calculation, though it is possible other results
may mix themselves with those more directly aimed at.
The present generation will see the downfall Russia has
prepared for herself. The downfall of a vast increasing
power is at all times difficult to be believed or even ima-
gined beforehand. But other great Powers, that of
Charles IT., for example, have risen to just the same
dangerous pre-eminence, and just the same overweening
confidence in their fortune, only to fall the more sud-
denly and entirely. We put greater faith in Providence
and the moral laws of the world than in any one conspi-
racy against the liberties of mankind, and therefore think
that we may boldly put our hand to the work, and de-
prive Russia of the means of doing more mischief for a
generation to come.—Times.