The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-28 00:00:00

TIIE CRIMEA.

Now that English troops really have landed and are
actually marching in the Crimea, some exceedingly soli-
citous patriots at home lean forwards to gaze after them,
with clasped hands and invocations to the loCal gods, as
if our good fellows were stalking into the pit of Avernus,
or going behind the sheet of water at Niagara, or enter
ing the Arctic Sea. We do not refer to the anxiety about
the fighting necessary to the taking of Sebastopol. Teat
solicitude is natural and universal. We have in view the
mysterious mis4ivings that some people are venting in
whispers about what is to come afterwards—about the
winter in a land which is declared to be singularly un
known to us. Now, we do not hesitate to say that this
is exceedingly absurd. Some people may think it a for-
midable, and others a safe and agreeable thing, for a
portion of the allied armies to pass the interval between
two campaigns in the Crimea ; but we contend that the
means of forming a judgment are abundant. We know
the position and relative distances of the country itself,
and every considerable place in it; infinitely better than
we knew either Portugal-or Spain when Wellington en-
tered upon the Peninsular war. We know what roads
there are, and what is their condition. • We know.what
the crops are, and what is their average amount. We
know what the climate is, and who the inhabitants are ;
and. we may have a ehrewd..guess at their comparative
affection for the Turks and the Russians. So much is
known indeed that we have some hesitation about repeat-
ing the facts which must be familiar to our readers. Butt
considering ,the general and engrossing interest now
attaching to the Crimea, we will briefly indicate what
the life of the British, French, or Turkish soldier there
is likely to be if they stay there for five or six months
to come. _ _

Supposing Sebastopol taken, and that the Russian
troops have laid down their arms, the peninsula will have
to be held till every Russian fort on the Black Sea is dis-
posed of—this season or next. This supposition is fair
enough, because the apprehensive patriots we refer to
have no doubt that Sebastopol will be taken, and the
Russian army rendered harmless. We have never had
any doubt of it ; and now that we know how ill•fed and ,
disheartened the Russian troops are, and that all the
hard work at Sebastopol is done by deserters and aliens,
and that the inland forte there, and much of all their
forts, are made of freestone, which will not stand a can-
nonade, and that the masonry of the defences is dislo-
cated or shaken by the firing of mere salutes, and that
the conquest of the Telegraph Battery insures that of
Fort Constantine, and that of Fort Constantine the whole
town and shipping, we have a confidence as strong as
can be entertained about any unaccomplished event that
Sebastopol will presently be at the disposal of the allies.
The feat accomplished, and a part of the forces gone, what ,
will be the winter prospect of the occupiers of the Crimea?
They have no invasion, rior any kind of warlike
assault, to fear. They can be reached only in two
ways—by the sea or by the steppe. The captors of
Sebastopol will of course have taken care that-no Rus-
sian vessels shall get out of that harbour. "If they
will not when they may, when they will they shall have
nay." There ought not to be a vessel left there by that
time. If such as are not burnt are really as worm-eaten
as Russians pretend, they should be broken up for fuel,
or made use of as prisons or hospitals ; and, if they are
sound, they will •have been taken away as prizes. For
that matter, however, Russian seamen make no hand of
navigating the Black Sea in winter. As to the land
side, the steppe is passable only for four months in the
year. It is only on occasion, and with difficulty, that
the Czar's own couriers and chief officials can traverse
the steppe after autumn has rendered it impracticable
for pedestrians ; and it is thoroughly understood in Rus-
sia that all movements of troops become impossible after
September. At which end the Russian troops now in
the Crimea are to get out of it we shall soon see. Mean-
time, we may be very certain that no more can come
during the next six months. Prince Menschikoff's talk
of levying the Critneans en masse shows that he expects
no more soldiers from the north. As for his Crimean
"mass," we wish him joy of it. The total population
is only 200,000—women and children, old men arid boys,
gypsies, deserters, aliens, convicts, Tartars, Jews, Greeks,
Germans, monks, and serfs, all included. "The masses,"
as the Americans say, will, we rather think, be very hos-
pitably disposed towards their guests of the coming win-
ter, who will bring more custom into the Crimea than it
has ever known since the Genoese left it. Being safely
harboured there, where will the occupierslive ? Not among
the sulphur pits and salt marshes of the north ; nor
on the bleak steppe. A naval gaurd, left in the unfrozen
harbour of Theodosia on the one gide, and Sebastopol
aRA-Mtilistoriteeste the 'other. must .14 .aufficeent for the-
safety of everybody within the raminsula. S .me of the
soldiers may be quartered in the towns, but both health
and comfort seem to indicate the southern 9.lopeg, with
some of the lateral valleys, as the best conceivable places
fur etic •mpineut. The nnineas.irable wools of those
slopes and valleys afford the finest materials for building
huts—like those of the French camps at Boulogne. Toe
French at Boulogne would have been glad enough of
such a supply and choice of wood as their comrades may
have in the Crimea. Everywhere below the great lime-
stone precipice on which Simplieropol stands, at the
edge of the steppe, the climate of elle Crimea is one of
the finest in the world. There aro slight frosts in winter,
but few or no storms. Tne sky is cloudless for days to•
gether ; the pastures remain verdant, and the cattle do
not leave them. • The torrents which tumble from the
steep leave no icicles ; and the blue waves below kiss
the sand in the sunshine, as on an October day in Corn-
wall. On those green slopes, amidst the reflected
warmth from the precipitous wall above, enclosed by
evergreen thickets, and beeohwoods abounding in red
deer, an encampment of soldiers resting on duty need
not be objects of any great compassion to us in London.
So much for where they may live. As for how they
are to live, who has not read of the valley of Baidar and
its fruitfulness ; Lord Derby must have been thinking
of Baitlar and its district when the name Tamboff
slipped off his tongue by mistake ; and those who have
read of the wheat produced in that valley 30 miles in
circumference have probably read of the other products
of the region, which would be truly a land of the
blessed, if corn, oil, and wine made a paradise, or man
could live "by bread alone." There are herds of cattle
on every pasture ; goats abound.; and there are three
races of sheep which, degenerating on the bleak steppe,
aro here found in their highest perfection. If the ruth-
less Czar should compel the destruction of all the food
that can be burnt or slaughtered, there is still much that
Le cannot reach. Game and fish abound. The oyster
beds in various places are inexhaustible ; and the bays

and shores swarm with fish. The red deer and the fill-
low deer throng the woods and parks ; and wild goats,
•hares, and various birds are plentiful. Fruits and honey
are to be had for the gathering ; and no doubt the cattle
will be well enough taken care of up in the dales, to,,
yield plenty of dairy produce, as usual. There are some
Tartar dainties besides ; such as roast jerboa, and mares'
and camels' milk. It may be said, finally, that the pos-
sessors of the Crimea this winter will have the virtual
command of all the stores on the Black Sea coasts. It
is to be hoped that the ganaries from Odessa to Yeni
Kald will not be burned by the Czar ; but, if they should
be, there is more corn where that came from and else-
where ; and the commanders who have carried stores for
100,000 men for two months, while the Crimea was still
open to the Russian armies, must surely be able to feed
the guard they mayleave there if the land were as bare
as the glaciers and storm-beaten shores where our sol-
diers and sailors have often wintered. It is insulting to
our national defenders to pity them fur occupying the
Crimea, while the snows of Canada and the sands of
Africa are remembered as the encamping ground of their
fathers.—Daily News.

THE BALTIC FLEET.

If the most recent intelligence from St. Petersburg
may be relied upon, the Russian Government has made
up its mind that the campaign in the Baltic is over for
this season, in so far as the Western Powers are con-
cerned ; and that on the strength of this conclusion the
Czar has ventured to despatch to the southward a body
of the elite of his troops, which he had drawn together
and kept in hand with a view to operations in Finland.
The admirers of mystery and secresy look delighted at
this news, and say that the Czar has been led into a
trap ; that the appearances of an intention to close the
campaign have merely been assumed to deceive him ;
and that, now he has weakened his power in the north,
a serious blow will be struck at him before the Allies
leave the Baltic. This is an entirely gratuitous assump-
tion, and one which all known facts conspire to render
improbable. It may be in the recollection of our
readers, that Sir Charles Napier, in the banquet given
to him at the Reform Club before he left this country,
spoke of the fleet entrusted to his command as rather
weaker than the Russians in respect of the number of
ships and guns ; though, he added, the greater number
of screws and steamers on the part of the English might
make good the difference: Thi-i plain English of this
remark is, that is order to effect anything decisive
against the Russians in the Baltic, the force of the com-
bined fleet, French and English, must be brought into
play. NOW, though some of our contemporaries took
upon them to pooh-pooh the intelligence from the Baltic
which we published some time ago--that the French fleet
was under orders to return home—time has confirmed
the accuracy of our information. In yesterday's Journal
des Debate, an article to which is attached the respect-
able signature of Xavier Raymond, gives on the strength
of the 20th instant, an account of the farewell greeting of
the French and English Admirals at Ledsund
" Admiral Parseval, having despatched all his other
ships, as many of them as possible provided with tugs,
had retained only the steam frigate Darien ; but being
informed cf the grounding of the Austerlitz, he imme-
diately sent the Darien to conduct it to Kiel. It thus
happened that the Admiral's own ship the Inflexible
was the very last of the squadron to sail. Admiral
Napier, on his part, expected to receive by the courier
.of the 22d orders to return to England. At tie moment
of p&Oing, the !elmirals exchaaged ofalutel with epaula•