The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-27 00:00:00

Ztlyz

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1854.

_ _ s
According to the view taken bylkhe Right Hon.
Gentleman the Secretary at War, of the progress
of our recent military and maritime operation;,
—a defeat is a subject of rejoicing and a catas-
trophe a matter for congratulation. It is oddly
enough, precisely the same sort of conclusion
a,rrivel at by the Russian authorities in regard to
incidents that one might reasonably have sup-
posed would have been relater of dismay and
humiliation to the Russian Government. When
intelligence of the infamous massacre of the un-
fortunate and helpless inhabitants of Sinope reached
the knowledge of the CZAR, a Te Deum was chaunted
in obedience to the Imperial mandate in the
Greek Cathedral at St. Petersburg. When news
bad been obtained of the bombardment of Odesss
during several hours by the British and French
war steamers, the AUTOCRAT signalised the
.cala-
mity by lavishing fresh honours upea the very man
to whose rashness and mendacity Was attributable,
fir the most part, that same calamity—thereby
strangely metamorphosed into a brilliant and
happy achievement. Ili' a similar manner the
retrograde movement -of the Russian army
from the Danube towards the Sereth, has
been accompanied by the issue of that noto-
rious document, addressed by NESSELRODE to
BUDEERG, in reference to the Boyards of Wal-
lachia, in which it is asserted, in defiance of dis-
comfiire after discomfiture of the most com-
plete and disgraceful character—that success still
continues on the side of the Muscovites ! Fact
yields to fiction. Romance takes the place of
reality. And this so systematically, that the dis-
regard of truth by the Russians, from the CZAR
downwards, has long since become a byeword
throughout Christendom. Yet, after all, may not
the enemy, in these derelictions of veracity, be
labouring under an amiable delusion ? The ques-
tion may not unreasonably be asked, now that it
is manifest that the warmth of somewhat kindred
delusions has so grotesquely warped the judgment
of one at least among the members of our own
Administration. Allusion is here made to a
rathee:ifemarkable speech, delivered on Tuesday
evening by the Secretary-at-War --according•
to the drift of which speech the coun-
try is to regard the loss of the Tigerand certain "grievous Casualties" in
them),
Baltic
(as Mr. SIDNEY HER.BERT himself ile]:
not with anguish and gin them),
'egret, but actually
with feelings of exultation ! Instead of giving
way to useless regrets'—these are the exacttrhdes
of the Secretary at War Words
, after alluding to
loss of the Tiger, and those " grievous casualties"
—"lnstead of giving way to useless regrets we
should rejoice that that spirit, whose manifests_
tions had raised this country to the summitof
fame as a naval power, still continued to exist,
brilliant and unchangeable !" Why, it is pre-
cisely in the same way that the Russians are
called upon by their authorities to exult over the
bombardment of Odessa, and over the retreat
from the Danube and the Dobrudseha, and over
the placing of 50,000 Muscovite soldiers hors
(lc combat, during the campaign which has
not even yet been concluded, and which
numbers amongst the Russian Generals killed
LUDERS and SCHILDERS, and among the Russian
Generals wounded PASKIEWITCH and GORTSCHA-
IiOFF ! After the singular remarks which fell, as
we have shown, from the lips of the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Member for South Wiltshire, on
the 25th instant, in the Rouse of Commons, we
need feel no surprise whatever about the decora-
tion, by the Cas
immediately after;ofthe Odessa,
its Governor of
being
disastrous bombardment—
about Te Musa
a chcheNsf Russia 0: chaunted in the Greek
. . -
-sarnts. _,. . the arrival of every suc-
-44ty,4,,, , = disastrous arrival of
. ss swath of a ion—or about
:7 , • ; i
aixt ft; the Russian
'07.1;,_.0,1,
4.5.qc. 1„,. , rom Wallachi
raftte,: I=o
irl _
,_,..„.. ninterrupted victor
to army, defeated
a, being followed
such unblushing
. btlhue side its ". of filßCA:*sitarr, put forth with
4:;•licrue'lliCeit6l-1,141
44.
e.raecioCushanNeellortwo- sza-
the Em re
picl7a rbl)l9, however, as the orat' iozoxade ixt

ti le House of Commons on Tuesday, by Mr.
S SIDNEY HERBERT, undoubtedly was, that which
was subsequently delivered, in the course of the
same discussion, during the same evening, by Ad-
miral BERKELEY was in a manner still more ex-
traordinary. The Gallant Admiral, in one of the
most singularly inconclusive and unsatisfactory
harangues ever listened to by the representatives
of the people of England, attempted to vindicate
the Board of Admiralty, of which he himself is
one of the most conspicuous, and therefore of
course one of the most responsible, members, from
any charge whatever, whether of blundering, inde-
cision, or remissness. He repelled the particular ;
accusation directed against the Admiralty, by none
earlier or more repeatedly than by ourselves—the
accusation of disregard for the wants of the Baltic
fleet, in not having provided NAPIER at the period
of his departure, or at any rate as quickly after it as
possible, with an adequate, and, as it happens,
an absolutely requisite supply of gun-boats
having a light draught of water, so as to
render them available for purposes of attack
between the mouth of the Neva and the insular
batteries of Cronstadt—that inner extremity of the
Gulf of Finland being notoriously remarkable for
its shallow navigation. Admiral BERKELEY re-
pelled this particular charge against the Admiralty
in regard to the lamentable lack of gun-boats in
the Baltic, by directing a frivolous sneer againse
the suggestion of the Noble Lord the Member for
Marylebone. The gallant First Naval Lord of
the Admiralty talked ou Tuesday evening as if the
construction of gun-boats suitable to the shoal-
water navigation in the neighbourhoodviousand
goiarin
of St.
Petersburg were a matter of obvious
impracticability. When it has been long known to
be quite otherwise ! When the house of Mr. Seorr
RUSSELL, formerly known as that of the Messrs.
ROBINSON and RUSSELL, has intimated plainly
enough a readiness to undertake the build-
ing of a sufficient flotilla of this charac-
ter ! Why, the possibility of gun-boats being
made such as those laughed at by Admi-
ral BERKELEY on Tuesday night as altogether
out of the question, has been clearly enough proved
by the construction, by the firm we have just
mentioned, of the now celebrated little gun-boats
the Nix and the Salamander. No—had the
Admiralty acted promptly, and, with due sagacity
and foresight, we should no longer have been
compelled to listen to the reported observations of
Sir CHARLES NAPIER, that it would be hopeless
for the fleet to dream of making any impression
at Cronstadt upon the dread array there made by
the granite fortifications. Admiral BERKELEY
quoted in the House of Commons, the night
before last, the declaration made to him by Ad-
miral SEYMOUR, in his capacity as Captain of the
Baltic Fleet, in these extraordinary words—" We
have never been at any time in want of anything,
thanks to the provident measures adopted by
the .Admiralty." What ! Admiral SEYMOUR—
" never," do ybu say, "at any time in want
of anything ?" How, then, about the French
troops now on their way, in English vessels, steam-
ing and sailing hurriedly towards the Baltic ?
Unless they had been wanted, they never
would have been sent. They have been sent,
therefore they have been wanted. And the speed
with which they are being hastened out shows the
urgency with which they are required under the
circumstances. In that particular, therefore, not-
withstanding the extravagant encomium pro-
nounced by the Captain of the Fleet upon Sir
J. GRAHAM, and Admiral BERKELEY, and their
colleagues--" the provident measures adopted
by the Admiralty" do not, we must protest,
thine forth very conspicuously. The Admiralty
have been in fault in not sending out
troops long ago to aid the operations of the com-
bined fleets under NAPIER and DESCUENES. They
have been equally culpable in not providing also
t proper supply of gun-boats suitable for the shoal-
water navigation beyond Cronstadt. A body of
10,000 French troops have only just 'been de-
ipatched through the Cattegat to make up for one
deficiency. Gun-boats must, in course of time,
follow, to make up the other. Both troops and
;urhboats we have declared months and months
Lgo, over and over, and over again, to be abso-
`utely and imperatively necessary. The necessity
is only now being recognised, and that seriously
only in one particular, by the Admiralty. Had
the Admiralty shown in this matter due
aromptitude, foresight, and decision, instead of
bind obstinacy and most culpable negligence—
maple time would have been afforded since M treh
For the building and getting together a flat-bot-
tomed flotilla, such as would now have proved or
inestimable advantage to the Anglo-French mari-
time armament sent up the Gulf of Finland for
in attack upon St. Petersburg.

As it is—by despatching additional troops,
English as well as French, after those recently
sent out to the Baltic under General BARAGUAY
D'HILLIERS, and by following this military
force with as good gun-boats (having a
light draught of water) as could be collected
together under the circumstances—Admirals
NAPIER and DESCHENES might yet be enabled to
set at nought both at Sweaborg and at Cronstadt
the dread Russian array of granite fortifications.
Land an adequate body of Anglo-French troops
on a convenient pa.-it of the coast of the Gulf of
Finland—make. a simultaneous or co-operative
attack upon the Russians with fleets and forces—
and you will encourage the. Swedes to take an
active part with the Western Powers in
the war against the Russian AUTOCRATS The
batteries of Sweaborg and Cronstadt might, with
such a combination against them, fall successively
before the united daring and skill, prowess and
tactics of the allies, and the seizure of Helsingfors
might prepare the way for the capture or destruc-
tion of St. Petersburg. By destroying the Rus-
sian fleet at Sweaborg, the whole of Admiral
CORRY'S fleet would be at full liberty to go on
with NAPIER'S and DESCHEIsTES' fleet to Cronstadt.

Very conclusive evidence has been afforded
with regard to the differences existing in the
Cabinet with respect to the Russian war, and the
mode of dealing with the AUTOCRAT. The pro-
ceedings in reference to the Russian Government
Securities Bill has placed the matter in a new and
very striking koint of view. We feel even more
poignant regret at the culpable weakness of the
popular branch of the Legislature, in transferring
its constitutional functions to other hands, either
from a desire to avoid " the delicious treat of an
autumnal session," or from the dread of an early

undertaken. The Noble Lord had obtained a
promise of support from the Ministerial Leader
of the House of Commons. More than that, he
received energetic and powerful assistance from
the Home Secretary, the accredited Leader in the
absence of the President of the Council—assist-
ance without which the bill must have either been
defeated, or at least shelved for an indefinite
period, until its utility would have been completely
lost ; and yet the Secretary of the Treasury offers
the most strenuous opposition to the measure thus
strongly advocated by his official superiors, and
other Ministers exhibit not merely a strange hesi-
tation, but an intense anxiety to maintain neu-
trality. Surely there must be some extraordinary
influence at work in the back ground to explain
these singular phenomena, and the public will not
fail to ascribe its exercise to parties whose vacil-
lating conduct has already given rise to serious
apprehensions among those desirous of seeing a
proper measure of retribution inflicted on the
unconscientious disturber of the peace of the
civilised world.

The plain and simple principle on which the
bill was founded, is that parties shall not be per-
mitted to do indirectly that which they are pro-
hibited from doing directly. If they took any
part in a loan to Russia, they would, under
the existing law, be guilty of a grave offence
against their QUEEN and country, for which they
would be justly stigmatised as traitors, and incur
the stringent penalties due to such enormous
guilt. Would it not be worse than ridiculous to
allow them to take at second or third hand that
which was expressly forbidden in the first instance ?
Such under-hand dealings would have the effect of
encouraging capitalists, over whom we have no
control, to make the advances required by the
CZAR for the purpose of foiling the efforts of the
Allied Powers, and purchasing weapons and
munitions of war to be used against the armies
and navies of Great Britain. It is notorious that
the AUTOCRAT is endeavouring to negotiate leans
for the purpose, as described by Lord PALMERSTON,
" of killing our soldiers and sailors, of destroying
our commerce, and of frustrating all our national
policy." It is equally notorious that there are
parties ready and willing to contract for any sum
or sums of money he may think proper to ask,
provided they could anticipate such a demand as
would enable them to dispose of it at a trifling,
premium. The certainty that no English or French-
man could or would " touch the accursed thing"
on any terms, that no English or French gold
would be available at any time during the con-
tinuance of hostilities, would materially limit the
supply, and enhance the terms to the AUTOCRAT.
It must be, indeed, a grasping cupidity, an
" auri sacra fames" that could induce any Eng-
lishman to seek after unholy profits. But, un-
fortunately, no dependence can be placed in some
persons where there is a clear prospect of gain.
They would sell their countries without hesita-
tion, aye, even themselves, to appease the
" itching of their palms." No moral considera-
tion, no dread of public reprehension would deter
the avaricious.

Speculator—Poptdus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo.
The people may condemn, but I applaud myself,
would be the exclamation of the successful pur-
chaser of the New Russian Stock, and he would
not lift his head less proudly " on 'Change" be-
cause the thousands or tens of thousands by which
he had augmented his banker's account had been
acquired in so very questionable a manner.
The arguments used against the bill were,
indeed, "sheer nonsense." If of any avail, they
only proved that the measure did not go far
enough, and that the old as well as the new se-
curities of Russia should be tabooed during the
continuance of the war. Mr. WILSON showed
that money my be withdrawn from the one to be
invested in the other, and to that extent solely
were his opinions worthy of attention. We
commend this part of the case to the attention of
Lord PiLmuus.row and Lord D. STUART, to ascer-
tain whether an efficient remedy might not be found
against so glaring an evil—so flagrant a grievance.