The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-14 00:00:00

ESIA.t. t'gr,EY',4 S7,,VEN* .I.IIFA.OF

Every Evening at 8, and on Sturdays at 3.
Pronounced by the unaninm•n voice of the Dress, and by nichfiv
in7reasing audiences, to be the Greatest Artistical Triumph of the
day.
-- • -----

SAINT MARTIN'A HiLI,, Lon;-acre.

Area, la. P.siervehl Chairs, 2., 6(1.

HIGH WATER, AT LONDON BRIDGE.

pre ant the introduction of " contraband of war "
has 'become nearly useless through the quantities
intr nduced ! The reader will ask, perhaps, with
surf )rise, where are our cruisers ? We must re-
fer him to Sir CHAS. Wool) for an answer, who
will perhaps remind him of the loss of the Poly-
phe: cans, and tell him that the Royal Navy is not
to verdure for the honours or necessities of war,
where -the merchant navy sails fearlessly for sordid
gain.

The Russians have really behaved very badly
o our naval men both in the Baltic and the Black
Sea. The gallant fellows set out flushed with the
expectation of bringing the enemy's fleets in these
seas to action, and towing what was left of them
home ; instead of which, to their grievous disap-
pointment, they were compelled to play the part
of gaolers—the enemy, as from malice afore-
thought, declining to contribute to any such illus-
tration of British valour and enterprise ; nay,
going so far in the Black Sea as to read them the
most remarkable lesson of practical bathos pro-
bably ever administered, by deliberately sinking
her own ships before their very eyes ! Under
such circumstances, nothing was left them by way
of alternative but to sweep the Russian coasts,
take a turn at bombarding, and lend what aid
they could to the land forces of the Allies.
It certainly was too bad ; and we can therefore
heartily sympathise with such men as Admiral
LYONS in their disappointment. The nation,
however, is hardly less indebted to them than it
would have been if they bad met with better for-
tune ; for, though defeated by to fault of theirs
in their chief aim, they did all they were
permitted to do, if not all that re-
mained for them, and . did it well,
demonstrating, beyond dispute, what the fate of
the enemy's fleets would have been had they come
out and hazarded an engagement. Entertaining
these views, we have much pleasure in drawing
attention to the report, which will be found else-
where, of the Grand Banquet given yesterday, in
the Mansion-house, to Admiral Sir EDMUND
LYONS, the present commander of our Black Sea
Fleet. The Lord Mayor, it will be seen, did his
best to make the gallant admiral amends, waxing
positively eloquent in his description of the dis-
tinguished services of his guest, since the
commencement of the War, and of what might be
expected from him should it be continued. Elo-
quent, however, as he was, and warm as
were his eulogiums, he by no means over-
Bt*Pped the modesty of truth, and but few
will be found indisposed to agree with
hint in thinking the gallant admiral de-
serving of the honours of citizenship, or to
entertain the
hope to which his Lordship gave ex-
pression, that Sir
EDMUND " may be preserved
for many years to serve his country in that capa-
lS SO well fitted." It is not
city for which he
every admiral who has given proof of equal capa-
city and daring.
The speech of the evening was well worthy of
the occasion, being modest, hearty, and
generouß
—just the sort of speech, indeed, that might have
been expected from such an Admiral. Disfigured
by no braggadocio, it affords convincing testimony
to his anxiety for his country's welfare, and for
the due appreciation of the claims of others. The
gallant Admiral has a good word for Admiral
DUNDAS in the Baltic, and suffers his verynatural
pleasure at the present efficiency of her MAJIATY'S
fleet to be damped by the reflection that it should
not have had, nor be likely to have, the opportunity
of meeting the enemy face to face. "It is very
and, indeed,' he liege ; and who, reading hi 4

THIR DAY—lforn. 33 mi n. at`t. 7—Erming 7 min. aft. S
Tr)-110BROtV—Moro. 47 ruin. aft. S —l4:lvening 29 win. aft. 9

It may be, therefore, that Sweaborg, having
been made doubly strong now they have learned
its weak points—saltpetre, sulphur, and American
firearms having been largely disembogued from
traders who feared not a Baltic winter, and Po-
land having been strengthened in the military
sense, Russia may become hard at a bargain, and
too hard for Lord CLARENDON. Add to all
this the supplies she will certainly obtain should
she get more than a three weeks' armistice, or
even that, from the Allies. We have no doubt
that her secret agents are already making pur-
chases of supplies, and perhaps loading ships with
them, ready to sail for her ports the day the armis-
tice begins. Why does not Mr. ROEBUCK or Lord
LYNDHURST move an address to her MAJESTY on the
duration and necessary commercial restrictions of
an armistice ? Even Mr. BRIGHT ought to do it.
Nothing will so much endanger a resumption of
hostilities as a long and unrestricted armistice ;
or, if the negotiations result in peace, nothing
will so mar its turns as feeding our enemy.
MOURAVIEFF might as well have sent a convoy
with provisions for Kars, as we give to Russia a
long and unfettered armistice.
Our Negotiators must remember that this war
will, even if they do their very best, furnish but
a very discreditable chapter in English history.
The English will figure in it as hewers of wad
and drawers of water to the conquerors of the
Malakhoff. It will be recorded that the sheer
incompetency and indolence of aristocratic officers
destroyed one-third of the men, and almost all
the horses, while an able railway contractor alone
saved them from destruction. It will be told that
the War-office garnished the returned incapables
with honours and promoted them in the service,
to huddle up the fatal blunders ; and that the
campaign closed by starving to capitulation
the General and garrison who had immortalised
themselves at Kars. We cannot wish to pen an
indictment against our country's fame, but we
cannot refuse to foresee the inevitable verdict of
posterity—and that will be that the War was
ignobly shrunk fron, perfunctorily carried on, the
enemy spared, our own troops sacrificed, and the
odious Austria alone rewarded—that even our
navy, with the exception of the first attack on
Sebastopol, ventured next to nothing ! Nothing
but a peace better managed than the War can save
the Administrators of these three years from the
contempt of posterity.
Above all, posterity will condemn our governors
for paltry, peddling counsels when a great issue
lay before them. How ashamed are we now of
the men who tolerated the amalgamation of Poland
in 1831, and the invasion of Hungary in 1849.
We blush- for such miserable successors to a
CROMWELL and his MILTON, whose letters alone
could make continental despots let go the op-
pressed. We have now had before us an opportunity
to restore Poland to nationality and Germany to
freedom. We shall leave the former still ab-
sorbed, the latter still enslaved. Even the
Northern. Bee says—" Spend twenty or thirty mil-
lions on railways, and thus prepare to move our
troops irk' five years more in any direction !" The
most commercial of Russian journals still points
to future war. Conquest is the only and barba-
rous idea of the Russian Court. It wants to ex-
tend its Asiatic despotism and slavery to free
countries, not to teach its own people to be free.
The despots just now help one another. Tli.y
will do so till the grand struggle in which one
or two shall eat up all the lesser ones, and all to
end, possibly, in a grand attempt at European
empire. The negotiators who are now engaged
in squaring among themselves a despot peace are
bequeathing this legacy to possibly a near po-
sterity.

TIE wavrilEa-STIN OFFICE, FEB 14.
TIMAIIOIIETER, IJT THE SHADS.

hicthest since noon yesterday.
50 —lowest this morning and during the night.
5i --this day a noon.

DABOITETER, 29.85.
WIND, S.W.—Frosb, with showers of rain and sunshine.
It has rained for about three days, more or less, but now
promises to be fine.

r.
; • 'kV Alin-

LONDON, THURSD kY, FEBRUARY 14, 185 g.

Consols rise. Austria continues to disarm ou
the Russian frontier, withdrawing pontoons and
siege trains, and selling cavalry horses. Prince
CONSTANTINE has added his vote for peace. The
Northern Bee, the Court journal of Russia, pre-
mises tenfold wealth to her io five year: time,
through peace and new railroads. Ie Nord
proves, biographically, that the plenipotentiaries
of Russia are the men to make peace. The 1110-
niteur and M. BILLAULT set the Senate of France
to the long and pacific task of studying the annual
volumes of -reports from the provinces as -the
basis of suggestions for works of public utility.
The English Cabinet keeps our Parliament to its
work, giving them valuable measures at once,
and, so pressing them on that it will be hard to
interpolate a war debate or any importance.
From Vienna, lastly, we are told R that • ussia is
far more exhausted than is generally supposed,
and that after a third campaign the Allies would
certainly have made very different conditions of
peace. Surely the political atmosphere is rosy
with the coming peace. One little cloud is visible
in the Baltic offing—the unwillingness of
corn merchants to insert in agreements for a
spring delivery of corn a proviso cancelling the
agreement should the War be renewed.
Far more pregnant, however, with uncertainty
is the ineradicable knavery of the nation we have
to 'do with. Russia is a nation of TALLETRANDS
in, Posse, and is served by a staff of diplomatic
TALLEYRANDS in es3e. Distressed as we believe
her to be, her cunning, as at Vienna last year,
may overreach itself. She may expiet to gain
more than ewes her " inaltnan;110118 " opponents
will concede' ; and, intending only to over'reac'h,
she may be forced again into the tight. We do
not think this likely, but we are confident it is
quite possible. Two facts are unquestionable—
one, that she is vigorously strengthenine. her
Baltic and Polish defences, notwithstanding the
withdrawal of the Austrian troops from that quar-
ter ; another, that she has so availed herself of the
open weather in the Baltic that already at Libau
imports begin to be a drug, and that a blockade to

4

speech, will be disposed to say it is not ? Very
sad, indeed ! our ships " being as near perfection
as can well be imagined," their " captains and
officers equal to any who ever adorned the British
Navy in its brightest day," well manned iu point
of numbers, and manned by volunteers ! He is
and may be proud of that. The mercantile
marine, too—at least that portion employed in
the war—comes in for a share of his well-merited
praise. "It reflects," be tells us, " the highest
credit on the country," and he cannot but express
his admiration of those beautiful transports which
were commanded by men of such zeal, ability,
and gentlemanly bearing, "of whose services to the
country the proofs are endless." Those he has
given warrant the omission of others, being,
as the reader will perceive, highly satis-
factory. It is the Naval Brigade, however,
that elicits his warmest approval. "It behaved
nobly—most nobly ; and he doubts if the annals
of chivalry record anything finer than the conduct
of Captain PEEL and his two gallant aides-de-camp,
when they were wounded in leading the scaling
party at the Redan." Gratifying, doubtless, to the
individuals, but certainly deserved. Almost,
nay, quite as warm is his tribute of gratitude and
admiration to Miss NIGHTINGALE, the speech alto-
gether leaving the unintended impression, not only
that " our soldiers and sailors will always be
ready to serve their country," but that they haie
only to be led by such commanders as Sir ED-
MUND LYONS to serve it effectively.

- THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING FEBRUA RY 14. 1856.

CIVIL SERVICE ESTLII ATE&

Yesterday the estimates of the Revenue Departments
for the year 1856-57 were issued. The salaries and ex-
penses of the Customs are estimated at 840,0017., as
compared with 835,1821., showing an increase of 4,8191.
The cost of the coast guard is set down at 486,0281. ;
last year it was 483,2381. ; making the increase 2,7901.
The salaries and expenses of the Inland Revenue are
estimated at 1,459,2071. as compared with 1,365,9501. in
1855, showing an increase of 93,2571. The Revenue
Police of Ireland will cost this year 63,0251., as against
62,7201., the increase being 3051. The salaries and ex-
penses of the Post-office are estimated at 1,740,483/. as
compared with 1,638,8611. in 1855, showing an increase
of 101,6221. The total estimate exhibits an increase of
202,793/.; the estitnate last year having been 4,385,9511.,
while this year it is 4,588,744/. To these items must be
added the superannuation allowances to obtain the total
charge of each department. The superannuations of the
Customs amount to 241,5011., making the total charge
of collection for the year 1,567,5301. The Inland Revenue
figures for superannuations at 219,9584., making the
total charge 1,742,190/. ; and the superannuations of the
Post-office are put down at 32,724/., making the total
charge of that department amount to 1,773,207/. The
superannuations of'all the departments together amount
to 494,1831. for the year, and the total charge of the
whole civil service to 5,082,927/.

AGRICULTURAL SPATISTICS OF
IRELAND.

Yesterday returns were issued of the live stock in
Ireland in the year 1855, and of the extent of land in
statute acres under crops for each county and province.
The total value of the live stock in Ireland in each of
the years 1852, 1853, 1854, and 1855, calculated accord-
ing to the rates assumed by the census commissioners of
1841, viz., for horses, 81. each ; cattle, 61. 101. ; sheep,
225. ; and pigs,
.255. each, shows an increase in value
from 1852 to 1855, in horses, of 243,5841. ; cattle,
3,000,0691. ; sheep, 1,082,9811. ; pigs, 126,957/. ; mak-
ing a total increase of 4,453,5911. The increase in 111102•
bers in 1853 over 1852 was—in horses, 30,448 ; cattle,
461,549 ; sheep, 984,528 ; pigs, 101,566.
The total increase in the extent cf land under crops in,
1855 over 1854, is 112,382 statute acres. In 1855 there
were of acres under wheat crop in Ireland, 445,509,
being an increase over the previous year of 34,225 acres;
of oats 2,117,955, being an increase of 72,657; of barley,
Isere, rye, &c., 267,565, being a decrease of 19,589; po-
tatoes, 981,429, being a, decrease of 8,131 ; turnips,
366,497, being an increase of 37,327; other green crops,
95,094, being a decrease of 8,683. The total number of
acres under cereal crops was in 1855, 2,831,029 ; in
1854, 2,743,736, showing an increase last year of 87,293
acres; of green crops there were 1,417,607 acres in
1854, and 1,443,120 in 1855, being an increase last year
of 25,513 acres. In meadow and clover there was an
increase of 53,873 acres, but in flax a decrease of 51,297.