The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-12 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY GAZETTE

IS ISSUED,

TOOET)IER WITH A LIST OF THE

KILLED AND WOUNDED.

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kfuTii -

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1854.

So great is the anxiety for farther intelligence
from the seat of war, that the public chafe at the
want of news on each succeeding day. Notwith-
standing the excellent accounts already received
more is looked for, and the publication which
does not contain fresh tidings is regarded as little
better than, however interesting, may be the other
contents. We cannot wonder at this impatience
and excitement. It proves how deeply we sym-
pathise with our gallant countrymen who are now
engaged in the formidable struggle, and gaining
imperishable honours, by land and by water, in the
Crimea and the Euxine. We know that men of
all ranks and classes, from the most distinguished
officers of both services to the private soldiers
and seamen, have zealously, efficiently, aye,
nobly, discharged their duties. It is true that
some have had superior opportunities of display-
ing their valour to others, that the brunt of
the deadly encounter was sustained by a
portion of the troops. But there was
re) failure on any side. Every man per-
formed admirably his allotted task. There
was not a single instance of misconduct ; and if
each had been a selected champion, on whose
prowess depended the honour and safety of his
country, he could scarcely have displayed greater
energy and determination. To render full justice
to these brave soldiers, who participated in the
brief but Ban •
gumary conflict, we must remember
that the great majority
had never previously been
opposed by an armed foe ; that it was the first
time that they had seen their comrades mowed
down on every side around them, or that they had
been called upon to cross bayonets with ferocious
adversaries. And yet, under such circumstances,
they displayed a coolness and intrepidity under
fire, a headlong and desperate " dash" when the
action anxiously-looked-for moment of had ar-
rived, that could not have been surpassed by
the tried veterans of the Peninsula, the heroes
veho had participated in scores, aye, hundreds,
of
fights. We could not have anticipated more from
the picked and experienced men of any nation.
We could not reasonably have expected so much.
The Russian position was more powerful, the
means of defence more formidable, than we could
have had any previous notion of. They seemed
fully to warrant the boast of MENSCHIKOFF, that
he could hold his ground for three weeks against
eighty thousand men, and yet less than quarter
`the number drove him •into ignominious flight,
and rook possession of his camp, his baggage; and
even his private correspondence within less than
SianyiffouelY We say less than quarter the
C-423)0ii we consider that two of

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our divisions, as well as the Turkish troops, ware 1
in reserve and scarcely fired a shot, while a large
proportion of our .brave Allies were never oa ed
on to sustain their valiant comrades, who did
their work fully and completely without requiring
assistance from their reserve, we are justified
that scarcely twenty thousand Frinch and English
were actually engaged in the glorious battle of
the Alma, and that twenty thousand achieved in
three hours what Menschikoff declared it would take
eighty thousand men three weeks to accomplish.

Their conduct after the battle was equally
meritorious ; through the arduous and trying
evolutions that followed, until they took posses-
sion of Balaklava, they left nothing to be desired.
The army resembled a huge machine, that could
be worked under the direction of the General,
rather than a body of men actuated by human
passions and impulses. It was the perfect work-
ing of every part—the steady and irreproachable
behaviour of each unit in that multitude—that
enabled their distinguished commander to effect
_one of the most brilliant and effective strategetical
operations—one of the greatest acts of Generalship
ever recorded in ancient or modern times. Yes,
we deliberately declare our conviction that the
-rapid change of plan that led to the march on
possession of Balaklava, as well as the
mode in which the decision was carried
into practical execution, may challenge comparison
with any similar operation in the annals of war.
It is only due to our efficient and excellent allies
to say—and we cannot give expression to higher
praise—that they merited equal praise i that every
word we have spoken of the British might with
equal truth be applied to the French troops ;
that of and soldiers in every respect per-
formed their " devoirs" sans pear, et sans reproche.
Long may they continue faithful friends and
allies. Far distant may be the day when France
and England shall again stand opposed, with
deadly weapons, to test their well-proved courage,
vigour, and power on each other's bodies.
We yesterday gave the latest reports. It was
stated through the Vienna telegraph, and with
great plausibility, that "One hundred and twenty-
five pieces of siege artillery had been landed at
Balaklava, and conveyed to the heights command-
ing Sebastopol from the south, and that the bom-
bardment commenced on the 4th inst. at 5 o'clock
a.m." These rumours have at least probability
to sustain them. With the possession of Bala-
klava we obtained every facility for landing our
heavy guns, and conveying them without obstruc-
tion to the localities where their terrific powers
would be brought into operation. With similar
activity to that displayed since the landing in the
Crimea, six days would give ample time to make
all necessary preparation for the bombardment on
the 4th October. If the above statement, then,
be accurate—and although we cannot vouch it,
we see no reason to doubt it—the fate of the
Russian fleet and arsenal in the Euxine is,
humanly speaking, sealed. They will no longer
menace Constantinople, or remain, as the naked
sword suspended over the Turkish DAMOCLES,
ready to fall at any moment. Half the Russian
fleet had been previously disposed of. Seven vessels
—five men-of-war and two frigates—had been sunk
at the mouth of the harbour, to prevent the British
fleet from getting in, but which would be equally
effective in keeping the remaining moiety of the
Russians from getting out !—thus neutralising
their moral and material power. It signifies little
between the complete destruction and the transfer.
thereof. Either will be equally efficacious in pre-
venting the ambitious designs of the CZA.R from
being carried into execution, and affording a ma-
terial guarantee for future peace.
We shall only further notice a rumour, which
our readers may credit or not, at their pleasure,
that Prince MENSCHIKOFF, overwhelmed by the
complete overthrow of all his hopes, had attempted
suicide by cutting his throat, but that it was de-
feated by his followers. If true, it only shows
the utter hopelessness of his cause, and the de-
spair that had taken possession of his soul—that
he dared not meet his despotic master. After such
ample proof of the falsehood and mendacity of his
statements, death, even by his own hand, might
be preferable to the knout and Siberia.

Severely as we have sometimes been obliged to
criticise the Premiership of Lord ABERDEEN, we
can yet take sincere pleasure in the honours
awarded him by the Town Council of the place
whence he derives his title. However we may
condemn the public measures or the supineness of
public men, we cannot wish to detract from their
social or local merits and deserts, or refuse to their
political conduct all the praise. we can honestly
bestow. Lord ABERDEEN has deserved well of that
part of Scotland where his patrimonial possessions
lie. GEORGE HAMILTON GORDON, Viscount GORDON,
and fourth Earl of ABERDEEN, is a nobleman of
whomhis native country and county may reasonably
be proud. He has not been an absentee land-
lord, though so much engaged in public life. He
has enjoyed the attachment of his tenantry, and
the respect of the county and town in which he
filled high offices ; his character is, we believe, as
unimpeached as that of any of his predecessors in
the service of the State ; and it is thoroughly
gratifying to see the personal and general
merits of our leading men appreciated and
honoured by such intelligent and respect-
able public bodies as the Town Council
of Aberdeen. 'We congratulate his Lordship,
and the burgesses also, on the honours they
could with such good reason award to one who
had already been enrolled amongst themselves as
a citizen.

Of course the Liberals of Aberdeen must
have been as much opposed to the long Tory policy
of the noble Earl as we have been, but they
were justly willing on an occasion like that
which brought them together to forget the
Tory in the Corn-law Repealer. Lord ABERDEEN'S
merits and services in the great final struggle on
that all-important question were very great. We
have now the fullest evidence that he cordially
supported the cause of the people and of humanity,
that PEEL was deeply indebted to him for encou•
ragement and aid, which materially contributed
to decide the battle in favour of the nation ; and
as in PEEL'S own case, we can forgive long years
of obstructive and anti-popular policy, for the
one redeeming act which has inaugurated a
really new era in this country. Pro-
' bably Corn-Law Repeal could never have
been carried with the Earl of ABERDEEN'S
help had not a Reform Bill been first carried in
spite of him. But for its social as well as its
commercial results, for the successful invasion of
aristocratic privilege and commercial monopoly,
the Act for the Repeal of the Corn Laws has been
a basis of operations not less important than the
Act for the Reform of our Representation.
Thus far, then, we cordially agree with the
worthy burgesses of Aberdeen, nor will we censure
them harshly for their commendations of the
Noble Earl's more recent policy. They were his
hosts. They could but praise their guest. At a
time, too, when Scotland is suffering such cruel
heraldic and other grievances,
it would have been
imprudent in the extreme not to glorify all the
doing:; of a native Scottish Premier. Of course
we do not number ourselves amongst the " unscru-
pulous opponents" of the Nolele Lord, and cannot
therefore be angry
with the adjective which saves
us from civic condemnation. Opponents, how-
ever, we have been, and, as we still fear, but too
justly, though most
happy should vie be, upon
satisfactory proof, to retract every hostile word
we have ever written ; and happy have we been
of late to commend the doings of our Cabinet, if
its doings they really are, in the Crimea at least.
Heartily also do we now welcome the energetic

declarations of the Earl on the necessity of car-
rying
on a war, once begun, with unrelenting '
vigour. We acknowledge, too, the vast prepa- 1
rations that have been successfully made ; still,
it were impossible to deny that the clinging- to
peace, which his lordship himself characterised as
" desperate," is, as we honestly believe, answerable
for half the bloodshed in the Crimea, and half
the mourning now worn by those bereaved on the
banks of the Alma. We may respect the peace
policy as sincere, but we must condemn it as
.weak.
We may own it to be loyal to the kinsfolk of
Royalty, but we must deem it a wrong to the ho-
nour, to the lives, and to the property of England.
Our opinion is yet unchanged as to the mischief
of the timid policy which in August, 1853, per-
mitted the passage of the Pruth without declaring .
it a casus belli ; which so slowly sent our fleets
to the scene of action, and which left the Black
Sea open for the transport of Russian troops and!
war materiel, and open, also, for the privateering
massacre of Sinope, even till the 30th of No-
vember ; nay, which, after that villanous deed of
perfidy, cowardice, and barbarity, gave orders for
our fleet to salute the Russian flag ! Would it
have been less degrading to bow to an incarnation
of Satan himself ? Not Oltenitza in November,
nor Citate in January—not the victories of
the Turks, nor the barbarities inflicted on, the
Moldo-Wallachians, could move our Cabinet from
sending again and again kind last words to the
convicted liar of the North—till the 12th of
March, this work, so inglorious to us, so encou-
raging to the fraudulent bully with whom we had
to do, so dispiriting to the Turks, but so pleasing
at Vienna and Berlin—this " desperate" peace-
seeking, directed to one who only used it to
strengthen his own pcsition, went perseveringly
on. Explanations in Parliament were inconve-
nient, and no wonder. We had a JAMES I. at
the helm, when we wanted a CEOMWELD.
Even the ABERDEEN orgau has acknowledged
that the work in the Crimea had been better done
months ago. Assuredly it might. Had gun-
boats been accepted instead of refused, and had
promptitude instead of delay suited our Court
and Cabinet, our conviction is that Sebastopol
and Cronstadt might by this time have shared the
fate of Bomarsnnd, and at the cost of far less
French and British blood and treasure.

We fear, also, that the Noble Lord's concluding
remarks about peace, though not worth im-
pugning, if meant aright, have in them toe
much of the temper which has in our
view already cost us so much. We would fain
hope that Lord ABERDEEN ►ill not conclude a
peace which shall leave Poland and th• other na-
tions which Russia has robbed of liberty still en-
slaved, and still the CZAR'S engine for upholding
continental despots. If he do not secure their en-
franchisement now, although it might cost a year
or two more of war ; if he do not reduce
NICHOLAS from being the arch-oppressor of
Europe to a simple CZAR of Moscow, then we
shall be compelled to record that his premiership
has sacrificed liberty to despotism, civilisation to
barbarism, and the future peace of Europe to his
own mania for peace—it may be for generations
to come.