The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-03 00:00:00

4b2

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LONDON. WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1854.

DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIANS.

A startling victory over the Russians—start-
ling even among the many brilliant triumphs
already won by the Turkish army over their
antagonists—will be found recorded elsewhere in
our impression of this evening. News of this
victory, it will be observed, passed through
Vienna as recently as this (Wednesday) morning.
It rests upon a report in circulation at Bucha-
rest. A rumour that the Russian forces
under General TAMERS had been signally defeated
between Rassova and Silistria—OMEß PACHA hay-
ingadvanced with 70,000 Turks in a sudden march
towards the Dobrudscha. Nothing, it would
appear, could have been more masterly than the
skill displayed by the Ottoman Commander-
in-Chief as a tactician. His right movement
would seem to have been a masterpiece
of generalship. By detaching a division
of his army, under cover of the darkness,
in the direction of the Black Sea—and,
then, during the crisis of the battle, on
the following day, when the conflict was at
its height, directing this corps unexpect
edly upon the rear of the Russian forces,
OMAR PAcHA is stated to have thrown the enemy,
and no wonder, into " unexampled confusion and
consternation."

Have not the Turkish soldiers by their valour,
not less than the Turkish statesmen by
their moderation proved themselves, up to this
moment, in every way worthy of the support of
the Allied Governments ?

The dastardly conduct of the Government of
Greece has been emulated by that of Montenegro.
With this difference, however, that the ruler of
the latter has done openly, and so far bravely,
what the rulers of the former have only ventured
upon doing meanly, because surreptitiously. It
will have been remarked, we doubt not, that a
Proclamation has been addressed to his subjects
by Prince DANIEL, the Vladika of the Monteneg-
rins, calling upon them to rise in a " holy war'
against the Ottoman Administration. This flagi-
tious document, it will bs perceived, was dated
some time back from Cettina, and is throughout
of a character most irritating and inflammatory.
It reminds the Montenegrins that they
are the descendants of the old Czernagores.
It tells them that they are the children of
those who formerly worsted three Turkish
Viziers, who defeated the troops of France, and
who took by assault from the SULTAN some of his
strongest fortresses. Recalling all these things
to the minds of the people, it gives them the
formal summons to share honour and glory with
their leader by fighting in defence of their coun-
try, of the Orthodox Church, and of the sacred
symbol of the Cross, bidding them " combat
in the holy name of Gon," with which words the
Manifesto is brought to its conclusion. The docu-
ment is, in every respect, consonant with the
latest Proclamation put forth by the Russian
AUTOCRAT, the Proclamation recently issued to
the world through the official Gazette at St.
Petersburg—representing the war against Tur-
key and her allies as a contest undertaken
for the defence of the Orthodox Faith and the
Christian Religion. Throughout the whole of the
subordinate, or rather subsidiary, movements
along the European frontiers of the Ottoman do-
minion, it is perfectly manifest that the move-
ments made, whether by signal from Athens or
from Cettina, whether in Thessaly, or Epirus, or
Montenegro, are all arranged with the entire cog-
nisance of the CZAR, if they have not been actu-
ally organised under the direct and immediate super-
vision of his Government. The inspiration in
every instance comes from the Cabinet of NEsSEL-
RODE. There is a perceptible consistency through
all the mazes of these apparently confused risings,
or insurrections. It would be nothing less than
wilful fatuity to regard these movements made
simultanecusly near the opposite extremities of
Albania—here in Thessaly, there in Monte-
negro—as other than portions of the preconcerted
scheme of the Czar Nuarones. And viewing
them as such, it would be worse than folly to

treat either the rising provoked by the mandate of
Prink? DANTET„ +he insurrection encouraged,
ell,;(plri.g,:ti, if not actually originated,
by King OTHO and Queen AMELIA, as other than
of the gravest importance in the present extraor-
dinary complication of affairs in those parts of
Christendom.
We have said that there is a certain resemblance
between the movements made almost at the same
time against Turkey by order of the Montenegrin,
and with the connivance, br let us repeat plainly,
at the express instigation of the Greek, Govern-
ment. It is, however, as we have already ob-
served, a resemblance with a difference. The
VLADISA of Montenegro acts against the Sublime
Porte with the daring of an open foe, a
foe not afraid to draw the sword and not
ashamed to unfurl the standard. The KING and
QUEEN of Greece oppose the SULTAN and his
Divan somewhat differently. They oppose him
after the fashion not of valiant antagonists, but
rather of cowardly conspirators. They work
under a screen of pretended neutrality as they
had previously done under the blind of an affected
indifference. Latterly, their hostility to the
Ottoman rule has become more flagrantly mani-
fested. This was only, however, when the con-
cealment of their sympathies with the AUTOCRAT
had come at length to be altogether impracticable.
The truth in this matter is at last notorious. It
can no longer be doubted. It has been asserted
in the House of Commons by Lord JOHN RUS-
SELL. It has been proclaimed through an
official circular addressed to the British Consuls
in the Levant, by her Britannic MAJESTY'S
Ambassador at Constantinople. We scarcely
require the blue-book promised to be soon laid
before Parliament. It can only furnish us with
additional details in the way of corroboration.
In corroboration, that is to say, of the circum-
stances already before the public—circumstances
demonstrative of the fact that the KING and
QUEEN of Greece have given the fullest encourage-
ment to the Insurrection.
That insurrection is so far formidable that its
incentive is fanaticism ; that it is directly in aid
of all the known or suspected plans of the CZAR ;
that it is openly and notoriously made in common
cause with Russia for the carrying on of a war in
defence of the Greek Church, or, as it is called,
the Orthodox Religion. It is the same, as we
have seen, with the rising of the Montenegrins.
Upwards of 4,000 of the latter have been enrolled,
as we learn by intelligence coming to us by way of
Vienna, news, dated from that capital as recently
as yesterday (May 2), stating that these 4,000
subjects of the VLADIKA are determined to op-
pose the Turks in Albania and Herzegovina.
As to the identity of the course adopted respec-
tively by the EMPEROR of All the Russias, by the
KING of Greece, and by the VLADIKA of Monte-
negro—that cannot now for a single instant be
questioned. It is demonstrated clearly and boldly
by facts altogether removed beyond the reach of
contradiction. By the whole conduct of the Court
of Athens, in regard to the risings in Thessaly and
Epirus ! By the Manifesto addressed by Prince
DANIEL to his political and spiritual subjects, the
Montenegrins ! By the Proclamation recently
issued by the CZAR from St. Petersburg ! Every-
thing proves that the AUTOCRAT has undertaken
this war as a religious war against Turkey sup-
ported by France and England. Everything proves
no less clearly, that ifi declaring this religious war
with the Ottoman empire and her allies from the
west of Europe, the Emperor NICHOLAS is sup-
ported by King OTHO from the direction of
Greec by way of Thessaly and Epirus, and by
Prince DANIEL from the direction of Montenegro,
by way of Albania and Herzegovina. This, we
maintain, is altogether undeniable. It is a com-
plication of affairs that should not be overlooked
by the Allied Governments of France and Great
Britain. Now is the time to test the sincerity of
the Austrian alliance. It should be required
from the Imperial Councils at Vienna that mea-
sures should be at once adopted for the march-
ing of Austrian troops across the frontiers
of Montenegro to crush out at once, and
effectually, this new cr,usade preached by the
disloyal VLADIKA. As for the course which
should be adopted towards the Athenian Govern-
' ment, that rests entirely, we conceive, in the hands
of the allies of Turkey—not in the hands of any
allies of the allies, but in those, we repeat, of the
allies themselves. Arrangements, let us hope,
have already been made 15y England and France
for the prevention of further ill consequences from
these deplorable insurrections. Of this we shall
rest confident, until the nature of our proceedings
with regard to Greece have been explained. For
indifference upon the matter of these lawless
risings in Epirus and Thessaly would, according
to the phrase of TALLETRAND, be worse than a
crime : they would be a mistake on the part of
the allied Governments.

The bubble has burst ! The insane delusion,
so long and so fondly cherished, is dispelled The
operatives of Preston have again "struck," but
this time for a very different purpose. The pre-
sent is merely the abandonment of their former
strike—the acknowledgment of their decisive and
unequivocal defeat. We have, in common with
every unprejudiced person, long foreseen the in-
evitable result, and endeavoured to induce the
misguided men to abridge the term of privation
and suffering to which they had subjected them-
selves and their families by their unjustifiable pro-
ceedings. It required, indeed, no extraordinary
powers of vaticination to predict the discomfiture
of the delegates and committeemen, who, while
their dupes obtained barely sufficient to support
existence on the coarsest and commonest food, were
living on the fat of the land, and receiving, for
spouting in public-houses or making platform ora-
tions, more than twice as much as they could have
earned by honest industry at their legitimate occupa-
tions. They exercised, too, the most despotic autho-
rity, permitting neither opposition nor remonstrance
to their dictates, flattering their victims with
untenable hopes of a triumphant termination to
the internecine conflict, and putting forward
claims that rendered an amicable arrangement, or
anything like submission on the part of the
employers, impossible. If they did not directly
avow their ultimate end and object, they at least
indicated it so plainly that no possibility of doubt
or misconception remained. They clearly showed
that the concession of the " ten per cent." would
not by any means have led to the settlement of
the dispute. They had determined, in fact, to
keep " the ball rolling," by putting forward claim
after claim, interfering in every possible way
between the employers and their working people,
so that a certain number should always be on the
"turn out." By such means they hoped to achieve
their real purpose, namely, to "control ,he destinies
of trade," and to reduce the nominal masters to
the condition of mere puppets, the obedient execu-
tauts of their decrees, without a voice in the
management of their own affairs, but liable to
serious loss, if not absolute ruin, at the caprice
of an irresponsible and grossly ignorant body.
These audacious demands, these blustering
bravados, compelled the masters to defend them-
selves vigorously and energetically. They saw
that anything approaching to concession would be
fatal to their own interests—that it would lead to
the withdrawal of capital from these branches of
industry, and the transfer of the entire manufac-
ture to rivals who are already treading closely on
our heels, and who would speedily outstrip us in
the race of competition if we were so unduly
weighted. It is true that the working classes
themselves would be involved in one common de-
struction with their employers—that, like the
man represented by HOGARTH as sawing the siem-
post, the success of their attempt would occasion
a dangerous fall to themselves. But that would be
but little consolation to the bankrupt raillowners and
even a feeling of philanthropy, as well as the in-
stinct of self-defence, not only prompted a deter-
mined resistance, but that they in turn should
carry the war into the enemy's country. The
union of the operatives was met by the union of
the masters ; the " turn-out" of the hands by the
" lock-out" from all mills belonging to the asso-
Thus the secession from some
ciated employers.
half-dozen factories led
inl Preston.edtothe
U closingnercof ordinary
every establishment
circumstances this move would have proved deci-