The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-06 00:00:00

♦itTLEY'B ROYAL AMPRITIMATSiE,

Lease and Manarrer. Mr. Wm. Caoks.

Last Week of the Pantomime

TSIIR EVF,NING,

THE All.&13 OF THE DESERT AND HIS FAITHFUL ‘TEED;
to which the ratimality of the hor.e. taught and traine,l by 11r
Williams Cooke, fills the audience w th delight and wonder.

After which. the EQUESTRIAN EVOLUTIONS in the ARENA.
The miraculous ascent of the haTe Elephants from the ring to the
stage.

To conclude with (the tact week) FLkIILgQI:IN AND ST.
GF,ORIiE AND THE DRAGON; or, the Seven Champions o
Christendom.
Box-offee open from Kievan till Four. Stage Manager, Mr. W,
West. Equestrian Director. Mr. W. Cooke, jun.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRiDGE.
TITS DAY—Morn. 26 min. aft. I—Evening 50 min. aft. 1
76-ifoußow—Morn. 12 min. aft. 2 —Evening 34 min. aft. 2

THE WEATIIEU—SLIN OFFICE, MA cu 6.

TlaltitOlfETlNl, IN THIA SHADE.
47—highest wino., noon yesterday.
42 -lowest this morning and dur:.ng the night.
43 —this day at noon.
RARMINTIR-30 23—riaing again.
WIND, N.N.E., rather fresh, with dull, cold weather.

sAI,I.

`-*",

~~^~s

panions f Ass triumphantly through the ordeal.
All that was possible for men to accomplish
was effected. They discharged their ardu-
otts ;and important ;duties with ability, fidelity,
and zeal , and had their urgent representa-
tions ro the attention to which they
were r a -e-eminentlyi entitled, Kars would
still rer a Turkish possession, and Russia
could of far r,o set-off against the capture and de-
structio nof Sebastopol. The greatest, most bril-
liant success that could have been achieved would
not ha' re reelected greater honour on General WIL-
LIAMS than -the truly noble stand which he made
under most discouraging and adverse circum
stances. Hard we had men of such sound judg-
ment and indefatigable energy in other situations,
we should not. have an inquiry pending into the
causes of the serious disasters that occurred to the
army before S ebastopol.
It is also right to say that the conduct of Lord
CLARENDON N ras much better than had been
generally sups ,used. So far back as the 11th of
January, 185 5, the Noble Earl remonstrated with
Lord STRATFOULD DE REDCLIFFE on his gross neg-
ligence, regret ling the silence which he, the natural
protector of the British Commissioner, observed
towards him when "surrounded by robbers and
traitors," and requiring the Ambassador to afford
all the assistance in his power, so as to have the
ortress put in a proper state of defence. We cer-
tainly cannot complain of any act of commission
on the part of the Home Government. Whether
they stand so clear from sins of omission is
another question. It seems to us that there
should have been a little more energy of
remonstrance on the imperative necessity of
forthwith relieving the beleaguered city, and
taking care that the money which was
lying idle in the Bank of England, and which
was absolutely essential, should be promptly de- I
voted to the chief object for which it had been
raised. These matters will remain fur future
consideration. We may also add, that Lord
CLARENDON strongly advocated the propriety of
OMER PAcui advancing by way of Erzeroum, but
he was unfortunately overruled in that respect,
and we have witnessed the melancholy result of
that grave mistake.
Another person, who seems entitled to rreat
credit for his conduct, is Mr. BRANT, formerly
consul at Erzeroum. This gentleman strenuously
and emphatically remonstrated with Lord STRAT-
FORD on the gross negligence displayed. He said
—" I ask your Excellency, is the Kars Army to
be allowed to perish ? Is nothing to be done to
relieve it ? for all that the Porte has lately done is
quite insufficient for the purpose. I have before
pointed out that OMER PADUA'S army should have
teen directed on Kars by way of Erzeroum, and not
on Georgia. And had that been done Kars might
long since have been saved. I now fear it must
surrender, and to confer honours on its gallant
defenders while they are left to perish, is a cruel
mockery and an indelible disgrace to the Turkish
Government as well as to those of the Allied
Powers !" This is the bold and straightforward
language befitting an English official, and such as
will command the unqualified approbation of the
Nation. He also on another occasion attributes
all the danger to the apathy of the Porte, and
the cowardice and imbecility of SELIM Paella
With these parties our approbation must cease.
A. very different feeling will be excited respecting
Lord STRATFORD, who left fifty•four urgent de-
spatches of General Winnrams unanswered, on the
shuffling and evasive pretext that he was anxious
" not to occasion disappointment by announcing
measures which might or might not be carried
into effect !" Would not anything have been
better than the total and unbroken silence that
must so greatly have discouraged the gallant ap-
plicant ? While he forgot to obtain, or even
to ask, from the Turkish Government the
recognition which would so materially have
strengthened his hands and enlarged his authority.
For these matters Lord STRATFORD will have to
render a heavy account to the Nation ; and his
tardy efforts in a right direction cannot re-
deem his culpable apathy and indifference,
to which much of the evils that followed may l:
ascribed.

We regret to find that the French authorities
did not pull with the English as strongly as could
have been desired. There are also just grounds
of complaint against, not only the incapacity,
but gross corruption exhibited by many Turkish
officials, and that led to -the strong language used
by Lord CLARENDON when speaking of General
WILLIAMS as " surrounded by robbers and

traitors."
All these matters must, however, be brought
before Parliament, when the truth will be fully
elicited, and every participator in these transac-
tions treated according to his merits or demerits.

JAMES THURGOOD has been found guilty of
being accessory to the wilful murder of WlLLr.tu
HALES, and sentenced to death. THURGOOD was
a poacher, HALES, a gamekeeper, and the latter
dies in virtue of a blood-feud between the two
elastics as embittered as any between the savage
clans of the desert tribes. Murder, whether in
Ireland or in England, must be put down at any
cost; society cannot tolerate, cannot well co-exist
in a civilised state, with blood revenge ; but,
assuredly it has something more to do th,:.n
merely to convict and execute the murderer. It
must first be asked whether the legal provocations
to murder are worthy of civilised society ; and if
eviction laws and game laws remain in a form
which converts men into ruffians, Legislators have
much to answer for if they do not modify or

repeal them. The " sacred right" of property
in land is not, however, what we wish now to
dwell upon, let it be ever so sacred—and we
would only ask, is it civilisation that property in
pheasants and hares should be equally sacred ?
There is a horrible fierceness gendered by the
attempt to maintain and enforce the latter right.
It is attacked and defended in mortal encounters.
Men armed with guns perambulate nocturnally
the game preserves of the squire, and poachers,
armed with guns, enter them to capture the arti-
ficially valuable prey. Sheep and pigs are
certainly worth much more than pheasants, and
we suppose outnumber them, and numerous
are the stomachs which need and desire the
food they would furnish ; even poultry
are not very much less valuable than game—
yet we do not read of night encounters
of shepherds, swineherds, or poultry keepers,
with sheep, and fowl
pecu-
liarity in the case of garne,
stealers. There is a
of which, argue as we
will, we cannot alter the fret. The shepherd is
net, like the gamekeeper, the Squire's pet, and
the enemy of half the village ; and the sheep-
stealer, on the other hand, is not commended or
concealed by his neighbours. It cannot be erali-
cated from popular feeling, that poaching, per se,
is no crime ; and the hungry villagers who will
give evidence willingly against the sheep-stealer,
or even the robber of the hen-roost, will screen
the poacher if they can. The English peasant
understands and respects the rights of property,
but he does not believe in the right of pheasants
and hares to that veDerated designation ; and all