The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-27 00:00:00

dation for the alleged loss of twelve English

ransports.

We rejoice, however, to find that some, although
inadequate, reinforcements are finding their way
to the seat of war. MAYRAN'S division, among
which were the French troops lately quar-
tered in Greece, sailed from the Bosphorus
on the 6th, too late it is true to participate in the
splendid victory of Inkerman, but ready to supply
the places of those who fell on that glorious day,
and to relieve the survivors from their too
arduous duties. All the reserve formerly main-
tained at Varna or Gallipoli, indeed we may say
anywhere in the " direction" of hostilities, have
been transmitted to the scene of action, and with
them some 10,000 Turks, and 6,500 Egyptians.
It is also asserted that the Ottoman Government
will send 40,000 more, and that the French are
prepared to send a numerous body also, for whom
13 large English steamers have already arrived at
Marseilles. These exertions of our Allies are very
creditable, but they will not dispense with
equally energetic efforts on our parts.
We should blush for shame if we hung
back when others were displaying such
earnest determination. We shall not do so—
for Parliament will shortly be assembled ; and
whatever may be the views of Lord ABERDEEN, we
can trust to the representatives of the British
people to give expression to the views and feelings
of their respective constituents. Even Lord
ABERDEEN himself will be convinced before many
days have elapsed after the appointia day of
meeting.

It is said, after all, that we are really to have
a winter Session of Parliament, and that the 12th
proximo is fixed on for that purpose. Matters have
proceeded to such a length as to rouse the " good
and excellent" Old Lady at the head of her MA-
JESTY'S Government from the protracted slumbers
in which she has so perseveringly indulged. The
CZAR'S " friend of forty years' standing" is at
length becoming aware of the position in which
he has involved the country, and beginning to
think that it may be just as well to divide his
responsibility with the chosen representatives of
the people. Previously he had determined to
retain the disposal of everything in his own
hands, and he was enabled to do so through the
singular improvidence of Parliament in granting
a vote of credit for 3,000,0001., which he, in
conjunction with his colleaguesi were authorised
to dispose of as he thought proper. Whether the
fund has proved inadequate, or his colleagues res-
tive, we know not. Possibly he has been
himself startled from his dream by perceiving the
magnitude of the difficulty in which he has in-
volved the country.
Whatever be the cause, however, the great fact
of a meeting of Parliament will be hailed with
exultation by the entire community. We believe,
and fervently hope, that a section of the Cabinet,
headed by Lords JOHN RUSSELL and PALMERSTON,
insisted on this constitutional course being
adopted. It would, indeed, rejoice us to find
that those in whom we had trusted were still
worthy of unlimited confidence—that they were
Englishmen in heart and soul, jealous of the
honour of their fatherland, and determined to
place it, as it ought to be, beyond all reproach.
We shall cling to this hope until it be completely
dispelled, for, as we have declared, we should not
wish the ties by which we have so long been con-
nected with the party of which they were the re-
cognised leaders to be rudely severed, or in any
degree weakened.

The meeting of Parliament is, however, the
" great fact," which, we trust, will lead to the
folioitous solution of the important problem On
which the nation is now pondering. It is at
length discovered that we are engaged in no
" rose-water war," which can be brought to a
conclusion with scarcely a perceptible effort on
our part. Taught by sad experience, and in

letters written in the blood of our best and
bravest, we have discovered that every nerve
must be strained to the utmost to bring the
terrible contest in which we are engaged to a
speedy, honourable, and safe termination. We
know that we must spare neither men nor money
in the noble cause. We have seen how gallantly
the handful already despatched have conducted
themselves—maintaining the character of their
country at the highe point to which it has ever
been elevated, and eliciting the admiration alike
of friends and foes. We must not, from any
paltry considerations of L.S.D., desert these brave
men, or prove faithless Allies to-those with whom
we have entered into a firm and binding compact.
Our duties to our countrymen, and to their brave
companions in the Crimean campaign, alike de-
mand a strenuous and determined effort to re-
lieve those who are subjected to more anxious
trials than they could fairly be allowed to sustain,
and also to achieve the great object for which we
reluctantly entered into hostilities, after neatly
forty years' peace. Whatever views may be enter-
tained as to the original question---whether, like
ourselves, the people consider the Ministry to
have been far too cautious, and to have occasioned
irreparable mischief by their hesitation and pro-
crastination, or, whether, like Mr. Jowl. BRIGHT,
they look on Lord ABERDEEN as a rather fast
young man, who has acted with great recklessness
and impetuosity, all will agree that the scanty
remnant of our troops sent to the Crimea, who
still, although reduced to less than half their
original number, present an adverse front to the
far more numerous foe, must be succoured. We
must relieve our brothers, who are involved in a
dilemma so formidable. We must also show our-
selves worthy of the cordial friendship and co-
operation of France--not striving to sconce or to
half perform the task we have undertaken, and to
the performance of which vie have pledged the
National Faith. That which we have so unflinch-
ingly maintaind in all pecuniary matters—albeit,
at heavy sacrifices—must not now be forfeited,
or even placed for a moment in doubt, by any
lukewarmness or holding back in the noble
cause.

It is said that the primary cause of the assem-
bling of the Legislature is the necessity for re-
ceiving authority t• send the militia, er at least
certain regiments who have volunteered for the
duty, out of the realm to various parts in the
Mediterranean, the regular garrisons whereof are
about to be sent to more active service in the Crimea.
It is a very plausible excuse, but we are convinced
that questions of far greater importance will be
ventilated—that it will not be mere matters of
form on which Parliament will be occupied. It
is En Ofsli hearts that beat under militia jackets.
It is English blood that circulates through the
veins of the brave fellows that have not awaited
the
in Lfavourable chance' of the ballot, but came
freely :any willingly forward in the service of their
country. Although they might plead a binding
ntl :at..,t, and insist on their exemption from
.forei
,-,,u. service, we believe that not a single
man would hesitate or hang back. On' the con-
trary
!ed. for something
• the
~ desire Would
be that they should be
More onerous, and far
more perilous than the mere
garrisoning of for-
tresses i; in the Mediterranean, to which the wooden
ction.e
walls of England afforded ample prot,
Bi it although the embodiment of the entire

militia force, and the demand for permission to 1
send certain regiments out of the British Islands,
may form the plausible pretext for convening
Parliament, it does not follow that the business
transacted will be restricted 'within such
narrow limits. Our representatives are not
tied down to matters brought forward
under official sanction, or restrained from
taking the initiative whenever occasion may re-
quire. There never was a more urgent call for
the most determined efforts, and we are con-
vinced that " the chosen" of the English will
prove themselves, like the British soldiers, adequate
to any emergency, and ready to perform their
duty under any circumstances, however adverse.

Early in the campaign we pointed out the mili-
tary necessity of destroying Odessa, or, at least,
of rendering it, useless, as a base of military ope-
rations, and while it was contended by others
that Sebastopol was too serious an enterprise, we
showed that, even if it were, Odessa and Nicho-
laieff were neither impregnable nor unessential.
The past, of course, cannot be altered, but we
presume to ask whether it would not be most
desirable even now to demolish everything
Russian between the Sulina mouth of
the Danube and Sebastopol itself ; and, further
to dredge the mouth of the river and make it
practicable at least for our smaller war steamers ?
It has proved, as we always contended, that if
Odessa was not a powerful fortress, it was a most
serviceable base of operations for the army of the
Danube ; it was the grand depot for supplies of
provisions and other necessaries of an army. We
ought to have demanded the destruction of every-
thingmilitary in the town, and the transportation to
Turkey of all stores of corn and provisions in whose-
soever hands they were found, as being, under the
circumstances, the most important' materials of
war. This, or to be laid in ashes, was in truth
but humanity to all who might suffer directly or

indirectly by the too leiient conduct of the war.
The error of our fatal mercy was too soon ap-
parent in the loss of the Tiger ; and is now more
awfully to be seen in the prolonged siege of Se-
bastopol, and the losses of our gallant army in
repulsing the " reinforcements from the Danube."

Had we turned the cowardice of the Russian
navy to its proper account, and while its
ships were skulking behind stone walls
have employed ours in demolishing Odessa
and destroying Nicholaieff, the Danubian
battalions could not have been transported so
promptly to the Crimea, and probably Sebastopol
would have been taken before they could have
arrived at all. We have, therefore, not only the
villany of Austria, but our own half-heartedness,
to thank for our losses. Even our Cabinet must
now be convinced that tenderness to Russia has
been repaid only by the slaughter of our men ;
and the return for sparing Odessa and sending

the Russian wounded there has been the
bayonetting of our own fallen soldiers. Mercy to
barbarians is ever cruelty to ourselves. They
cannot comprehend it. Let them feel, then, the
full consequences of provoking our strength. Lot
us fairly destroy everything belonging to Russia on
the Black Sea which can shelter her troops, or
afford them means of transport from place to place.
We deeply pity the innocent victims of this cruel
necessity ; but let them know that their god,
NICHOLAS, cannot at the same time use them as
instruments of his accursed ambition, and save
them from being involved in its punishment.
We trust, therefore, the statements respecting
the renewed activity of OMER. PACHA on the Pruth,
and the sending of part of the French reinforce-
ments to his aid against Bessarabia, itre founded
in truth. Of course the first thing is to estab-
blish an unquestionable superiority for the Allies
in the Crimea ; but hardly second to this,. even
now, is the detention of the Russian Danubian
army to the west of Kherson, by operations
against Bessarabia. We have but played at war
all the summer ; we must now make amends
for it, alas ! during winter. We have
vessels which can bravo the winter
winds of •the Euxine. NICHOLAS will cer-
tainly avail himself of the impunity afforded
by the ice to his Baltic coast to pour down his
forces to his southern shores ; but we can also,
while our commerce is protected from his frigates
by the same ice, send our Baltic steamers to try
their broadsides upon his ports and towns in the
south. The splendid seamanship which brings
home such a feet safe from the shallows of the
Baltic will know how to handle our ships amidst
the winter dangers of the Black Sea. Measures
like these, war on the largest scale, must take the
place of the system of dalliance which lasted till.
the expedition against Sebastopol. The whole
question is now vastly enlarged. It is no longer
whether-Turkey shall be safe or not. That ques-
tion must be settled in the Crimea, and it will be;
but, though the overthrew of Sebastopol will
utterly destroy the military prestige of Russia in
the south, NICHOLAS will only be the more infu-
riate. The Baltic must also be denuded of Rus-
sian fortresses and Russian men-of-war next sum-
mer, and by that time there can hardly be a
doubt that Poland will have its turn. The Rus-
sian maritime means of offence against Europe
must be first annihilated, and then every voice
will pronounce that Poland must be its
awn, and be no longer Russia's out-works
against us all. By that time all Europe may
be in the flame of revolution, and it may be-
come the welcome duty of France and England
to bid the nations be free, and, as an act of un-
deserved merchto send a batch of Royal and Im-
perial despots to meditate on their folly and
perfidy on the rock of St. Helena.

One word more to our administrators, civil and
military. It was hardly a mere joke whon the
tfter-dinner proposal was made that the two great
contractors for the Crystal Palace should contract
next with Government for the taking of Sebastopol
Or Cronstadt. Sir JOSEPH PAXTON gave us at
least, quite seriously, a usefrl hint at Coventry,

the other day in the same vein. War is more
than ever become dependent on engineering
icience ; and our men of routine must not be
Move accepting the aid of the men who have
proved themselves equal to any engineering feat.
Some thousands of our navvies would, as Sir
JOSEPH suggests, have-saved our troops most in-
jurious fatigue in earthworks, and been thus prac-
tically a large addition to our army., Nor can
we doubt that, while the face-to-face and hand-to-
!land attack upon the foe must always be left to
disciplined courage and skill, our civil engineers,
were the responsibility thrown upon them, would
.levelope unexpected and most wonderful 113-
;oin-oes. Russia has no such ability. It abounds
in England. Let not official pride overlook our
national advantages. ,The battering down of
Oronstadt, with little loss to the invaders, would, ,
with the architect of the Menai Vubular Bridge, be
a matter of definite calculation. \lle would soon
compute for how many hundred thousand pounds
he could do it ; aye, and very likely could
get plenty of persons willing to take shares in
the profits of his contract. It was observed to us
but the other day that steam now can be got to
ally pressure in three minutes ; and. that if PER-
KINS' steam-gun could
_have, poured its unceasing