The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-19 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

.1."1i00:1,?.:1597'..TN41410N OF THE WAR.

' : (Prom, the Times.)
We have.no wish to, offer premature criticisms on the
cofiduct of a war which may yet tax all, and more than
all, 'the patience which the nation haslo 'bestow. We
are also perfectly aware how difficult it\ is at the great
distance, of time and place at which we find ourselves to
form a perfectly fair opinion of the conduct .of, these
placed in 'command over our fleets and our armies ; but
we must confess that we have been unable to read the
account which we translate elsewhere from the laralide
Rune without, feelings. of impatience almost amounting
to indignation. It appears, according to this statement.'
that the Itiessians had formed on the eastern coast of the
Black Sea, 'between Ghelendjik and Gagri, a series of
posts', for the purpose of preventing the- abominable
traffic, in human beings 'Carried On bv -the inhabitants Of
,the. Caucasus With the Turks. this is' the Russian
version. A . hostile critic in"ig ht, no doubt, suggest
other motives, but the".inotive is for the present purpose
immaterial.- Ori the breaking. out of the war these posts
became completely isolated_; and Prince() Menschikoff
received orders to destroy the posts and remove their
garrisons, a task which he-• executed,' says the 'llya-
lide Runt with that. success uniformly
accompanies the operations, of the Russian fleet in the
Black S(4, A squadron; consisting of 12 'vessels of dif-
ferent descriptions, the: names of eehich are pompously
enUtneiated in the Russian journal, started on this.ex-
pedition, which, 'Considering the ticinity of the French
and English fleets, may_ truly be called Advetituroue, And'
eptitles those.who planned andoarried it out to just and
well-earned credit: 'Naver was expedition More success-
ful. • s,ollo,troops,,the deck of provisions belonging to
the Goverment, the
,artifteers, and the families-of all
employed, were conveyed without loss or difficulty to a
place of safety, in defiance of the imaginary dangers of the
Black Sea and the near presence of our fleet, al:A—what
no doubt gave addititinal zest to the triumph—an Eog-
lieii sari steamer were fallen_ in with, and thus
secured as witnesses of the exploit. Thus coribludellithe
Invalide Ri .se .--" Our military resources have been in-
creased by an effectiee force of picked troops, trained
war by, a long ,service in
,an ,unconquered country ;
,no unacceptable addition, we should suppose, to the gar-
rison of Sebastopol. It is time we should know whether
we-are or are not masters of tbeßlack Sea, and whether
the lire fleet we have sent
,thither, is to leave the Rus-
Blahs an unlimited license to range at "will over the
waters which we so idly pretend to close against them.'
The country will require to be told what condition of
weather that could be which rendered the Black- Sea
inaccessible to our.fleets, but offered no obstacle to the
enterprise .of Prince Menschikoff. Are 'the English
become such fresh-water sailors that they .are forced to
Permit an enemy to snatch a prize from their grasp be-
cause they dare not trust themselvqs to the elements.
which he braves with impunity ?-- We have taken Upon
ourselves the blockade of ,the Black Sea, and the man-
ner in which we appear to execute that duty is by lying
snug in harbour ourselves,, and vainly 'hoping that our
antagonist will do the same. - It was not by such timid •
and sleepy proceedings as these that the reputation of
the English navy was made, nor is it by these that it
can be maintained. What avails our naval -superiority
if it be so slothfully and negligently put forth as to leave
the seas open to our enemies, and enable them to act
as if. an overpowering naval force were not present ?
Our fleet has been a witness of the disaster of Sinope,
which, if it could not prevent, it might' at any rate have
avenged, And it--now sees our enemies reinforced with
the same impunity as that with which our friends were
destroyed. Better to peril our ships 'in the storms of
-the Euxine than to keep them safe at such an ingloriods
price. 4 they are to avail nothing towards checking
the operations of our enemies or protecting the weakness
of our friends; it matters not greatly whether they are
preserved to us or not.
If we turn from the sea to the land, it seems not un-
natural to ask, what is being done with our cavalry ?
Are they really to gnor are they'to stay ? If the army
,is to be kept waiting-for theni, why are they here ? Why
are their commanding officersestill in London ? We are
counting too much upon Russian complaisance. Whether
their movements be judicious or not, they are con-
ducted with vigour and decision, and are the acts of
men who.thorougly appreciate the value of time. The
moment the first, relaxation of winter made operations
practicable they were in the field. Not a day was lost
in crossing the Danube and putting matters to the arbi-
trament of a battle. But these enemies, so active and
*so intrepid, we oppose with generals. not yet emanci-
pated from the-silken dalliance of London drawing-rooms
and Parisian saloons ; with infantry whom we havekept
for a month e 'tine, oranges on the rock of Malta, while
idle transports stood ready for their conveyance, and
with cavalry, three troops' only of whom are yet em-
barked. We shall probably. be. informed that it is'
great presumption in the. press to remark on matters
of so le.drely a professional nature, -but we appeal
from • such -conventional exingwers to the common,
sense of our readers;-and ask, without fear of con-
tradiction, ,whether there be any one who either
thinks that our army is not very greatly needed in the
EaSt, or that it has been despatched with the vigour
and celerity which the resources of the country permit
and the situation of our affairs demands. The speed
with which our men were sent to Malta showed, what
could be done with the means at our disposal, and the
delay which has since sepervened how easily those means
could be wasted and misapplied. The public can only
attribute such mortifying and unexpected remissness at
the very moment when • events call most loudly for dee-
patch to the evils of that system
,of divided authority—
that multiplication of department 3 andirittering away of
responsibility which attaches so conspicuously to our
adminietratian, of war. War has• hitherto been the Sa-
turnalia of Government, responsibility has been relaxed,
and the public eye, intent on the more prominent actors
in the game, has 'had little attention to spare for thoie
not less potent agencies that are placed behind the scenes.
But this will not be so. now. The mechanism of govern-
nient is better understood, the difficulties to be sun
mounted and the means' of surmounting Mem are tho-
roughly appreciated, and, in proportion as the resources
of war are greater, the responsibility of those who put
them in motion will be greater. also. - We are bat just
launched on the contest, but already we have seen our-
selves twice baffled 'without striking a blow, an "our
fleet and our army loitering in compulsory idleness,
while the 'game in which they should bear a part. is
played out by other hands.

(From, the Morning Herald.)

Nothing can be more insulting or humiliating to the
common sense and good feeling of the English people
than the poor and transparent shams with which that
portion of the press devoted to Peelism and Russia at-
tempts to mislead them, from straightforward and manly
opinions, into a false sentimentality utterly unworthy of
them. There is, however, one of those wretched plausi-
bilities which is at the present moment more promi-
nently put forward than any of its brethren, and which
it is especially necessary to expose, as, however, con-
temptible in itself, its prevalence to any extent would
be fearfully dangerous to the honour and interests of
the country. We are happy to observe that one of out'
contemporaries, with whom we have always co-operated
on the Turkish question, and who was at first inclined
to give more weight to the delusion than it merited, has
now repudiated it with the contempt it deserves.

The sham to which we allude is this—that it is
" unpatriotic" to expose the misdeeds of the Coalition,
because they have involved the country in a war, as by
so doing we might cripple their energies ! ! !
Really this is the most daring and dangerous assump-
tion we ever recollect to have heard put forward. Because
this Government by a long course of fraud—nay, of abso-
lute treachery—has at length involved us in a contest with
Russia, we are to place implicit confidence in their future
proceedings ! I This certainly is a singular doctrine—
that the more untrustworthy our Administration has
shown itself to be, the more unflinching confidence we
.are to place in it hereafter. Why, what must the mental
condition of a country be reduced to in which so won-
strous a sham can obtain a moment's approbation ?
has
One of our ministerial contemporaries, the Globe.
amused itself by stating that Mr. Urquhart must be in-
sane because he announced his belief that our Ministry
are not even now sincere in their efforts to aid the Turks
Wh where
against the assaults of the modern Ait that Attila.
a. y,
if he parades
does, the writer live ? We
romisu him
the first ten of his
acquaintance whom he m
the streets any day, andi;
inquires
encounter, he will find that
Mr. Urquhart's opinion isay shar d by atill e least nine out of
irrefutable circuinstan4
e
the number, and that many of them w be prepared to
demonstrate its truth by almost
tial evidence ; and, for the satisfaction of the Globc, we
will now undertake the task.
Lord Clarendon's expression of confidence in the Czar's
peaceable intentions, when he had in his desk the com-
munication from the Turkish Prime Minister that Prince
Menschikoff Lad offered the Porte the assistance of a fleet
and an army of 400,000 men, to make war against his
well-beloved English ally, proves to demonstration that
an assertion made by the Coalition Cabinet is simply ut •
terly unworthy of the most infinitesimal portion of belief
that can be attached to any declaration ; and we shall,
therefore, confine ourselves to facts which cannot be de-
nied, and leave the deductions to our readers.
We are now going to make an admission that we are
well aware will astonish our readers, but we hope to ex-
plain away satisfactorily the sorpnss which they will
undoubtedly feel. The admission is this—that through
the whole of these proceedings Lord Aberdeen may have
imagined—nay, we believe, did fancy that he was
acting a patriotic part. We utterly and entirely repu-
diate any appearance of approval of the means by which
he carried out his policy ; those means were utterly un-
warrantable, being simply a system of chicanery and
double dealing of which the most ardent disciple of
Loyola might have been ashamed—but we do concede
that in the main he imagined his policy to be the best
for England. This very belief is, however, one of the
mcst important reasons why that policy should be well
enderstood, as we aro firmly convinced it is a most de-
structive one, and that the present Premier will ell= to
it. pertinaciously through evil and through good. • Let,
Englishmen, then, ponder upon this fact, that Lord
Aberdeen believes, and will always act upon the belief,
that the future safety of England and the peace of
Europe depend upon the close connection of the Br..itsh.
empire with the (jesrlatic powers. -The probable results ', o
a continued attempt to coeree.or deceive the nation into
t Mit 6. wee, awl terevistenee witiorkiot it will be at