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

THE TV.A.R IN THE CRIMEA.

We have felt it our duty to urge emphatically upon
our,own Government and on our own country the ab- ,
solute necessity of raising whatever force we can for the
purPose of recruiting our army in the Crimea, and con-
verting our present anxiety into speedy and glorious
success. But we must not forget that we are not alone
in this matter—that we have gallant and faithful Allies, •
whose blood has been mingled with our own on the
glorious battle-fields of Alma and Inkerman, whose
danger is our danger, and whose safety our safety.
Whatever support the English Government can send to
its army is also a support to France, and in the degree
in which the forces of the Freneh are augmented the
chance of preserving our own troops is proportionately
increased. We make no apology, therefore, for employ-
ingtoviards the Government of our faithful and valiant
all the same tone of earnest entreaty which we have not
scrupled to use towards our own. We have common
la ers and common interests, and, when speaking of
he henry managecco it of the war, axe assuredly dealing
sit a topic in which we !are most nearly and inti-
-1
nately concerned.
If England be not a military nation France may pre-
,m' entiy vindicate to herself the title of a people of
oldiers. The long catalogue of her victories goes back -
o the middle ages, and identifies • her with the most
orilliant achievements of modern warfare. Nay, her •
s•enerals may be said tii have created the modern art of -
war itself, and the generation has not passed away which
saw her victorious standards planted on thi ramparts of
every capital of the-continent of Europe. Nor do the
present military establishments of France degenerate
froth the renown she has won in so many brilliant en-
counters. She has probably at this moment within her
boundaries three hundred thousand men, completely
disciplined, admirably organised, supplied with every re-
quisite for immediate ,service, animated by the most
glowing enthusiasm, and commanded by officers trained
to `the highest oxcellenee amid the burning sands
and savage tribes of Africa. When we have done all
that it is possible for uis to do, lye can- do' nothing
in comparison with the power accumulated ready
to the hand of our great ally. To send out thirty
thousand *fresh men to succour our exhausted aid
beleaguered army appears: 4o us an effort beyond the reach
of possibility, while the Emperor of the French has only
to will it, and three times that number are ready at a '
week's notice to carry his standards into the heart of
the Russian empire. Had the gallant charge which de-
sided the Battle of Inkerman :been aided only by tan
thousand of those men who are awaiting the signal to
march in the camps of the North and of the South, or
had they been there to second the energetic attack which
followed the repulse of the Russian sortie, instead of a
barren and bloody victory we might have had to rejoice
over a day of signal and unlooked-for success.
France has undoubtedly the power, if she but put forth
her strength, in the course of a single month to restore
to the Allies the superiority of numbers in the Crimea,
and to divert any future reinforcement from the banks
of the Danube to those of the Tehernaya, and she is
urged to do so by motives even stronger than these
whose thrill is felt in every English heart. She has the
memories of former triumphs to excite her emulation ;
she has to show that the soldiers of the second empire are
worthy descendants of the conquerors of Austerlitz and
Friedland, and to avenge in a better cause, and on an
equally conspicuous stage,the misfortunes of 1812, That
same Russia whose troops, when in alliance with all the rest
of Europe, she routed in so many bloody battles, from
Yurich to Borodino, now boasts herself to be strong
enough, not merely to resist France alone, but France
in strict and binding alliance with England. The present
Emperor of France, though to his honour he has ever
shown himself desirous of peace, is, nevertheless, the
depositary of the traditions and glories of the Empire,
and can never hope to establish a throne on any other
condition than that of maintaining untarnished the lustre
of the arms of France and the freshness of her warlike
renown. France has shown herself tolerant of and even
anxious for peace, but she will not bear with•patience the
disasters of war, unless she be convinced that all that
human prudence and energy can do has been exhausted
to avert them. The Emperor of the French has an in-
finitely larger force than we, and has that force infinitely
more at his disposal. In proportion to his greater
means and greater powers is his greater responsibility.
He is even more deeply interested in the result than
we, inasmuch as his army in the Crimea is more
numerous than ours. He must feel, as we do,
that he engaged in a duel to the death with
a powerful adversary, from which there is no
flinching or drawing -back. Either the gallant
French army now, encamped before Sebastopol,
must perish to a man—for our enemies no longer offer .
us the option between death and captivity—or it must
be reinforced to an extent which will render it able to
resume the offensive, not only, against the broken and
dispirited troops of the sth of November, but against
whatever masses the despair of an absolute Government,
all powerful over the lives of its subjeCts, may precipi-
tate upon the Allied Armies. With our present num-
bers retreat and victory are alike impossible. We sin-
cerely hope, then, that the French Government, which
has acted throughout these transactions with so much
firmness, prudence, and good faith, will see the necessity
of limiting its despatch of soldiers to the East by nothing ,
except its means of transport. In this instance nothing
can be more wasteful than a niggard expenditure of life
and money. If we venture little, we shall lose all ; if
we venture boldly, we have every hope to win all.
Let a hundred thousand French and fifty thousand
English stand before Sebastopol, and where is the. ,
force that will strive for a moment to hold such an
army in check ? We should hear no more of sur-
prises aiiii investments, of successes relinquished be. - *
oause we are not strong enough to grasp them, and vic-
tories left half accomplished because we have not num-
bers to pursue them to their legitimate result. As citi.
zens of England, as allies of France, we feel still more
ashamed than dismayed at the position our united forces
occupy. It is not for us to sue Russia in form/ pauperis.
Immeasureably superior to her in wealth, in civilisation,
in intelligence—nay, more considerable in her own pecu-
liar element of numerical strength—we must not exhibit
ourselves to the world as having raised the Devil we
cannot lay, and provoked a power with which we are
unequal to cope. We ought to carry into the battle-field
that superiority which we have so long maintained in
the arts of peace and war, and exercised in the councils
of mankind. Neither France nor England meant to ex-
pose their soldiers to unequal combats, or to treat their
army as a forlorn hope, to be sacrificed in order to bridge
over with their bodies the path to future victory. To us
these considerations apply, though we never presumed
to consider our army a match for the embattled myriads
of the Emperor of Russia ; but France claims, and with
justice, to be the first military Power in Europe., and
is trifling with her glory and her prestige if she does
not assert that claim by signal and successful efforts.
Both nations find themselves in an unforeseen and new
position, and they will de wisely to adapt themselves to
tt. We have been awakened from a dream of easy vic-
tory by a resistance surpassing in obstinacy anything
that history records, and a sudden concentration of force
which has compelled us to owe our preservation, not to
the results of sober and calculated action, but to prodi-
gies of romantic and desperate valour. This must not
be again. Great empires should not make war upon a
nation occupying one-sixth of the habitable globe, if
they are not prepared to support armies capable not
merely of defending their intrenchments, but of meeting
and encountering successfully every force that may take
the field against them. Even France and England can-
not command success, but, it they are to meet with re-
verses, let them be the result of superior skill, courage,
or fortune in their enemies, and not of a niggardly
policy, which undertakes great enterprises with small
resources,
ar ct eos
n,
c r, sacrifices
lavish a
nd
results
parsimonious,in
to
devoteseconom oniseme eanspor-
tion of its army to destruction in order to maintain the
remainder in idleness.—Times,

SIR JOSEPH PAXTON AT COVBNTRY.

Sir Joseph Paxton addressed the electors of Coventry
on Thursday, and was extremely well received. The
corentry Herald considers there is little chance of sue
cess for any other candidate. In his speech on Thursday
Sir Joseph declared himself‘for a wider extension of the
suffrage than that proposed by Lord John Russell. He
was in favour of household suffrage, which he considered
" just, necessary, and safe." Adverting to the ballot,
Sir Joseph said, " I have never had anything to do
with town elections, but I have had a good deal to do
with county elections, and I have seen the screw
t
put on—(laughter)—and have bees well awaretath
a man could not venture to record his vote
knife
he liked. You might just as well give
tox cwu histh think
that
athroat aus
givethe franchise h
pe
le ina him
that cas
privilege,e
they
u
oughtonno t t
ht
eo sufferhanot fora as
iJoseph remarked, "1
exercisingneo espseaoryit,
protection."
e clt ihoany
lookeds
.
With respect to the war, s
ho cannot sheaywtahra th
ale
cnare of our bravo troops—of
ought to have taken more approve altogether adleteetgeedt.herlefthtihnekmeuanrnreurleirna
tfiogo,htthoueyr
gelnbeelcieurtet,o
thhaottsleeswaognadienrsftulssnoolhdi
might have brought forward
taken into oonsidera-
for carrying on the
efersari
more of the appliances of
best means at their command. I
war, and used.
t i modernon all sci
thee noc pe'etrhaanoti fact,
have
nauecict eoshdo aad vrgye.
so, out of thehave got
should have liked to see
200,000navviestweopol
20,00.0 s ocountry—men quite accustomed to earthworks
aand who would have done all that kind
fianrg'better than soldiers, and would have relieved
ooinufnrdwtthorrokionps from all duty but that of fighting. I think
we have a right to complain, too, that they have not
from the first taken measures to procure the best intel-
ligence from the seat of war. Yon and I, and all of us,
are interested in the fate of our brave soldiers. We
ought to have correct news front the seat of war in four
or five days. They might have taken a number of
couriers, of whom there are plenty in London, and sent
them out to organise a regular system of obtaining almost
daily news. We should then have saved ourselves
from much of that anxiety and uncertainty from which
we have suffered, and we should, moreover, have been
able to send out, as required, supplies and stores to our
brave fellows, and have saved them from much peril and
privation."

The amount paid into the treasury of the East India
House for bills on India from the 9th to the 24th of No-
vember inclusive amounts to 55,0121.
Money was rather less in demand for commercia 1
purposes yesterday, and in the-Stock-Exchange the sup-
ply on Government securities was also adequate at 3 to
3 per cent.
AUSTRALIA.—The telegraphic accounts from Australia
by the overland snail reach to the 25th of September,
and are exactly a month later than those previously re-
ceived. They seem very favourable as regards the gold
production, but unsatisfactory with respect to the im•
port markets.