The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-14 00:00:00

THE S Ins!, LON DON, TII URSDA EVEI ori, Aua iisr 14, issti.

it was wort 11. The army was as superabundantly
provided for in the winter of 1855-6 as it was
defectively died the winter before. "Of all
the
thousands u i
writes a correspondent from Qon-
s
stantinople on the 31st of Jitly) who formed. the
British Army in the East there will be only 15
men remaining w7*,th General STORKS 48 orderlies,
,Vl., to-morrow.' ' It is marvellous to read of
what the Britis h. Navy, royal and mercantile,
has done in tl',e three months. Forty-five bat-
talions of Briti .8h infantry, 13 regiments of cavalry,
20 batteries 'of field and horse artillery, the largest
siege train the world ever saw, augmented by
great numbers of Russian gums, 15,000 Sardinian
troops with all their materiel, six regiments of
the Foreign
have 'peen all taken to Eng-
land
or
to
fr Legion,net ;
port'.; of the Mediterranera,
different:
er
while 20,000 Turks I,,ave been conveyed home
from Kertch. An F oglishman may well be proud
of
the
done the sr of
r e
powers
other
ilurope put together could not
have nautical
ame. It must be remembered also
that we were 'large carriers for the French at the
same time.

The historian of modern Europe, present him-
self when or where he may, will always command
the 7:espectful attention of his audience. Learned,
eloquent, and patriotic, the graphic vigour and
picturesqueness of his descriptions, and the genial
lucidity of his style, lend a prestige to his appear-
ance in public which will not admit of his claims
to a hearing being ignored. What he says is
always sure to be listened to by all, and accepted
as gospel by many. It becomes a matter of greater
consequence, therefore, that the Press should
exercise its right of censorship on his remarks,
and point out how far they may be consistent or
1 otherwise with its notions of what is the truth,
for error is never so dangerous as when advanced
by one whose claims to respect are so generally
admitted.

Candidly, then, we must confess we never read
a speech of Sir A. ALlsoN's with less satisfaction,
or found in oue more matter for exception than
that delivered the other day at Seabam. In point
of duration the speech in question was too long
a fault redeemed by no particular bril-
liancy of thought or felicity of diction, while
the matter of it was such as will not permit us to
pass it by unquestioned. This is the more to be
regretted, for however humble might be his audi-
ence, the termination of a great and most disas-
trously-conducted War afforded him a signal op-
portunity to benefit the country by the fruits of
his matured wisdom, and to establish his claims
to be the historian of a critical period in Eng-
land's history. It may be his misfortune rather
than his fault that he was unequal to it, and
stood confessed rather the champion of an ex-
ploded order of things, and the indirect apologist
of a ruinous system, tottering, thank HEAVEN, to
its fall, than the enlightened student of history,
who, in the retirement of the closet, liberates
himself from the thraldom of prejudice, and seek-
ing for nothing more nor less than the truth, re-
cognises it with aptitude, and reveals it with all
the candour of the patriot, and all the force and
beauty of diction at the command of the accom-
plished scholar.

It is far from grateful to our feelings to have
to speak thus of one whom we greatly respect,
and whose "History of Europe" has delighted the
firesides of so many thousands of our fellow-
countrymen both at home and abroad. The fault,
however, is not ours, and in doing so we but
discharge our duty. Sir ARCHIBALD lends the
weight of his authority to the pernicious plea that
the disasters of the war were owing mainly to the
unsparing reduction of armaments during the
forty years' peace ; that to this unwise economy
the ruin at one period pending over the country
was owing. False economy there no doubt -ws.s
to be met with, but it was an economy out-
balanced by reckless extravagance in other direc-
tions. The fleet, for instance, was ill-manned ;
but the means whereby the fleet might have been
manned as it ought to be was squandered in dock-
yard and other jobbery. The nation paid as
much as would insure the welfare of the country,
if properly administered ; and if ruin impended
over us it was the fault of the administrative job-
bers and incompetents to whose hands the safety
of the State was confided. It would have been
in better taste, and more to the interests of the
country if Sir ARCHIBALD ALIsoN had consulted
his beloved statistics on this head, and given the
honest results of a candid inquiry. In
better taste if, extending his research, he had
hunted out the iniquities of " the system,"
and in that glowing language of which he is so
great a master, had held up to public indignation
die horde of incapables at the Horse Gnarls and
in high quarters, to whose reckless imbecility and
extravagant self-reliance the disasters of the war
were mainly owing. It was no false economy on
the part of the nation to which these dis-
asters were owing. The economy for which the
wishes of the people are responsible was of a sort
that enabled the country to rise buoyant in the
hour of peril, able and ready to confront all
emergencies, however great and however unex-
pected. It was not an army so much as capable
commanders that was wanted at the pinch. The
blood and treasure wasted in the Crimea were
wasted by shameless bad management, and not
because of the forty years' practice of economy.
But for the latter the war might have run the
risk of being starved, as it certainly was not, so
far as the wishes and contributions of the public
were concerned. Equally unfortunate is Sir
ARCHIBALD ALISON in his illustrations. It is
really surprising, after all that has been said and
written on the subject, he should persevere in
attributing the disaster at Cabul and the imminent
peril of the Siekh War to a false economy. The
expedition to Cabul simply met with the fate
the rashness of its originator provoked and his
incompetency was unequal to avert. Possibly
Sir ARCHIBALD has access to information closed to
all the world beside. However this may ba, it
is quite a novelty to us to learn that the Siekhs,
who pressed us so hard in so many bloody actions,
were dismissed Sepoys of our Indian Army. We
come at last to his theory of finance, and are
landed in hopeless despondency. Sir ARCHI-
BALD has his credit as a protectionist pro-
phet to sustain, and that involves an ex-
planation of the reason why the country has
not been ruined by Free Trade, as he predicted.
The country, he fells us, has been saved by the
influx of gold, and the consequently higher prices.
How much has the value of gold really decreased ?
Who can tell ? Aud where are we to look for the
rise of prices ? Not in Mark-lane nor in Islington
Market—not even, we may venture to say, in
Seaham. When next we meet this deservedly-
admired historian wo trust to find him in better
vein than on the present occasion.

The Ducbess of Cleveland and Lady Augusta Paulet
are prolonging, their sojourn at Brighton. The duke has
gone to Raby Castle, Durham.
VISIT OF THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE TO COLCHESTER.
—We understand an intimation has been received by
Mr. Gurdon Rebow that his Royal Highness the Com-
mander-in-chief will probably visit Colchester for the
purpose of reviewing the German Legion at the end of
the present week, either Friday or Saturday being sup-
posed to be indicated.

hCCesary in the interests of the families of the deceased,
remembering at the same time that not one of the Aus-
trian prisoner 3 of Luino or of the Romagna, was ever
shot. Observe also that Ciceruacchio, his young son,
and Romarino, although they accompanied me in the
retrer:!7, never carried arms.—With respect, yours,
" Genoa, August 6 "

" G. GLIBALDI.

The unassuming temperate tone of the above, so
completely in character with the author, carries
a strong conviction of the accusation being founded
on substantial evitlence and it certainly will meet
with ready credence all over Italy unless the Aus-
trian authorities can produce any clear proof to the
contrary.