The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-15 00:00:00

~~~

LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1854.

It would seem as if the AUTOCRAT were pos-
sessed by an insane notion that winter would once
more protect Russia from her opponents, and that
a repetition of the events of 1812 would prostrate
the Western Powers at her footstool, and enable
her to carry out her original intention with re-
spect to "the sick man's" property. Under this
impression, he hardens his heart against more
prudent councils, and still proclaims his intention
not only of resisting any attempts that may be
made "to turn the tables," by demanding, at his
hands, "material guarantees" for the preservation
of peace, but also persists in his arrogant preten-
sions with respect to the Ottoman Empire and its
subjects professing, what he is pleased to term,
the " Orthodox religion." The conflagration of
Moscow appears to be the model which he has set
up for imitation, and the devastation of the coun-
try the mode of defence on which he mainly relies
for defeating any attempt to carry the war into
his own country.
There certainly is some resemblance between
the proceedings of 1812 and 1854. The con-
duct of Austria and Prussia is just as treacherous
and deceitful, and the Russian statements just as
mendacious at the present time as they were
forty-two years ago. But there the parallel ends;
and it is, as we have already remarked, absurd
.to
suppose that the tactics, which then succeeded in
baffling the attacks, and cutting off a large pro-
portion of the finest and most powerful army the
world ever saw, could be at all applicable to the
present crisis. NICHOLAS seems to think that,
because the burning of Moscow has been described
as "a sublime effort of patriotic devotion,"
future annalists might be tempted to regard the
destruction of Odessa in a similar light. Hence
the atrocious proclamation of General KRUSEN-
STERN', to which we recently directed public
notice, and
verting the in which he speaks of con-
town already spared by an enemy
more humane than
the CZAR or his myrmidons,
ruins " into a heap of
and ashes !" Such an act
would have no redeewing feature to divert atten-
tion from its infamous cruelty. It could scarcely
embarrass for a moment the
allied troops, who
would have all their wants
supplied through
numerous transports, protected by
a powerful
navy, from whose prowess the Russian ships-of-
war hide behind batteries destined not to afford
any prolonged protection to the skulking cowards.
He may recollect, too, that at the time such
was the abhorrence with which the cold-blooded
act was regarded, that neither the Emperor ALEX-
ANDER nor any of his officers d tred to acknowledge
any participation therein. Even ROSTOPCHIN,
. the Governor of the devoted city, and the person
cognisant of the original plan and the details by
which—if the conflagration were not the result of
an untoward accident or series of accidents—it
must have been carried out, many years afterwards
(in 1826) published a pamphlet, entitled "La
Verite sur l'lncendie de Moscow," in which lie
disavowed all claim to what was then beginning
to be considered " an honour." And Sir WALTER
SCOTT, in his " Life of Napoleon," declared that
lc-these-mere many, and those good judges of the
larßisar)qitieeof such an event, who have shown
, • strang r9,/sTio,n) for believing that Moscow shared
but the'fate of a deserted city, which is almost
always burner as_ well as pillaged I " It is &stain
rflos
tha rOPCHIN was ever afterwards regarded
- - 'with great disfavour at the Court of St. Peters-
' btirg ; for attinough we benefit greatly by a crime,