The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-18 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, DEC. 18, 1857.

Russia, defeated in her great scheme of aggran-
disement, is now turning her attention to smaller
gains. She has been compelled for a time to re-
linquish active operations against Turkey, but
still she occupies herself with uprooting one of the
moat formidable impediments to her progress in
any future aggression. At present, her attention
is directed towards Circassia, and she is endea-
vouring in every way to subvert the independence
of its inhabitants. At the time of the Treaty of '
Paris 'We expostulated on the strange neglect that
consigned this
A_lrroc_garllant nation to the tender mercies
of the
"4 by making no stipulation for
its protection. Th©
omission was generally
noticed, and interrogatories were exhibited in the
Commons to the Premier on
the interesting and
important topic. He, however, treated the sub-.
ject in the true red-tapist spirit. The Circaesiar.s
had done nothing for us, and we were not bound
to do anything for the Circassians. Besides, the
provisions for the neutrality of the Euxine would
virtually prevent any undue operations on the part of
the greater Power. These were the excuses put for-
ward by the " First Lord of the Jokery," and,
which, according to custom, were deemed quite
sufficient 137 an overwhelming majority of the
popular branch of the Legislature. We are really
grieved at being compelled to disturb the pleasing
hallucinations in which these very respectable
gentlemen indulged at that time, with respect to
the sufficiency of the alleged guarantees.
Russia is already at work, just as actively as if
the 12th Article had been expunged from the:

Treaty. Although Consuls were to be appointed, '
and commerce liberated from all restrictions, she
refuses to recognise the former, and establishes a
virtual blockade, by which the latter will be, if
not annihilated, at least subjected to serious re-
strictions. Three ports only are to be opened.
All others are to be hermetically sealed against
mercantile enterprise. And the pretext for this
is " the internal state of the provinces of the
Caucasus," or, in other words, the continued re-
sistance of the people to the intolerable yoke, un-
der which they would otherwise be forced. The
pretext is founded on the exception respecting
regulations of " health, customs, and police,"
which were to be framed "in a spirit favourable
to the development of commercial transactions."
But how has this been carried out ? " Health
and customs" have been thrown overboard. The
specious fallacy has been disregarded—the mask
flung aside. "If, hereafter, circumstances shall
permit, the establishment of customs
and quarantine authorities at other points
of the coast where foreign, vessels can be ad-
mitted, due notice will be given of the fact. In
the meantime, the approach to the ports, bays,
and harbours, with the exception of the three
referred to, are interdicted to foreign vessels.
The English Government have borne, and will
bear a great deal ; but this is really too bad. We
shall have other cases analogous to that of " The
Vixen," if the sharp end of the wedge be inserted
without remonstrance. The manly remonstrance
of the Circassian chief points out the danger
clearly and distinctly. It proves that Russia has
no real authority—that its attempted usurpation
is resisted to the utmost—that at most she only
holds a few points on the coast, and that the
fortifications which she is now seeking to re-build
were deliberately abandoned and destroyed durin'g
the late war.

The following statement is perfectly convincing,
and the demand for a " consul" to facilitate
the traffic of his own countrymen, and the
promise to maintain the requisite police and
sanitary regulations, should decide the question.
They are as follows :

"But now, in defiance of the Peace of Paris,
the treaty of which declared. the Black Sea to be
neutral, the Russian Government prevents vessels
from approaching our coast—and assigns as the
reasons for this measure, that we Circassians will
not maintain the requisite police and sanitary re-
gulations.
" Now the 11th and 12th articles of that Parisian
treaty forbid all hostilities in the Black Sea, and
declares that trade shall be free at every harbour
and for every nation. For this reason we beg
your Excellency to adopt suitable measures to
the end that Russia may observe the Parisian
treaty of peace, and that our poor country may
not continue to be devastated.

"As for the organisation of a naval police, and a
sanitary office, we engage to organise and main-
tain the same, as they are in Europe.
" Lastly, we beg your Excellency to send to us
a consul to facilitate the traffic of his own country-
men, and to instruct us, to the end that we may
attain the same grade of civilisation as has been
reached by other peoples."

We trust that Lord CLARENDON will no longer
maintain the apathy and indifference which he
has hitherto manifested. But for his extraordi-
nary negligence, there would now be no difficulty.
It is, therefore, his bounden duty to endeavour
to repair, at the earliest possible moment, the de-
plorable consequences of his own carelessness.
We trust that he may do so. If not, the matter
will assuredly form a topic of discussion on the
earliest day available after the 4th of February.

While we look to the exemplary punishment of
the Indian rebels, we must also see that the Go-
vernment of that important province be rendered
as beneficial as possible, and best calculated to
produce the safety, honour, and welfare of our
Sovereign Lady the QUERN and that portion of
her dominions. It is manifest that such a result
cannot be obtained under the double, or rather
the treble, government, to which the Anglo-
Indian empire is subjected. Between the Boards
in Cannon-row and Leadenhall-street and the
Governor-General in Council, there is no efficient
administration, no real responsibility. The mo-
dern Mogul, Mr. 'SMITH, excuses his gross ignor-
ance, and still grosser negligence, under the cover
of the duties of the directors. He is a very small
TEETER, discharging his pointless shafts under the
protection of a Brummagem Ajax ; while, on the
other, the spurious son of Telamon seeks to cover
himself by exposing his puny half brother to the
missiles of the enemy. At a proper distance,
Lord CANNING and his coadjutors regard the contest
with grim satisfaction, "It is a far cry b
Lochou," exclaimed the CAMPBELLS of the olden
time, when any threat was fulminated
against their chief, and notwithstanding the in-
creased facilities of communication, the Governor-
General, and the respectable old ladies with whom
he is associated, rely confidently on the dis-
tance between Calcutta and the metropolis of the
United Kingdom, which they hop ) and believe
will afford them practical immunity.
But there is a spirit abroad that will not easily
be suppressed. Wo have too long remained
apathetic and indifferent, have permitted our
fellow-subjects to be misgoverned, and the whole
of the miraculous natural resources of that mighty
Empire to be appropriated for the benefit of a
petty clique. The regular system was that India
and all its products should be for the benefit of the
Civil Service, and for the friends and relatives
of its members. The rest of her MAJESTY'S
subjects, English and Hindoo, were eliminated
from the calculation. The prosperity or comfort
of the natives was of no importance. They could
be tortured with impunity, and their humble pro-
fits wrung from their hard hands by the most
unjustifiable means. The so-called courts of jus-
tice were so many mockeries of their designation,
being presided over by men ignorant of the primary
principles of law. If a man made a bad magistrate,
an indifferent collector, or a very so-so resident, he
was forthwith pitchforked on to the judicial bench,
which was the very refugiura peccatorum--the
place where every degree of mediocrity could find
shelter. These grievances must be removed.
Adequate remedies must be provided. The meet-
ing at St. Martin's Ball, last evening, shows that
the British People are at last in earnest, and
*hen the pressure from without has been
sufficiently potent, full redress must be
afforded. The Indian question will form one of
the great topics for discussion at the termination
of the Parliamentary vacation, and it will be well
for Lord PAL3fERSTON and his colleagues if they
should be found in advance, rather than in the
rear, of public opinion.

The Overland Route is so terrible an ordeal—
according to Mr. VERNON SMITH that the
Minister who should seriously propose it for the
transport of our troops to India would—again,
observe ! according to Mr. VERNON SMITH —be
deserving of impeachment.
Certainly, rather a bold assertion, to say the
very least of it 1 And an assertion that im-
plies an absolute oblivion of such a historical
f4ct, for example, as that Lugo bodies of
French soldiers have been conducted to and fr.)
across that very route, through thaL
identical
cc howjirg wilderness" (about sixty years ago) by
General NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Conducted
across the desert, remember, before railways were

heard of, before the steam-engine, either by land or

by sea had been applied to the purposes of locomo-
tion 1 And conducted, moreover, not simply
down to the sea-beach to be leisurely conveyed on
shipboard—but to meet a formidable enemy in
battle array, first on one side of the de-
sert, and then on the other. Mr. VERNON
SMITH, however, ignores the existence of
General BONAPARTE, and afterwards of
course of General A.BERCROMBIE—counts as nought
the Egyptian campaigns of 1798 and 1799—
never heard, we suppose, of the defence of St.
Jean d'Acre by Sir SIDNEY SMITH, or of the
bloody fight at Mount Thabor has not
even the superficial acquaintance of the schoolboy
with certain feats of arms, said by one Cun-
TIVS, and by another, ARRIAN, to have
been accomplished once upon a time by ALEWDER
of Macedon. No—the route by way of Suez is
all but impassible to English soldiers ; or, at any
rate, would be so fearfully haaardous and destruc-
tive that the Minister who should recommend it,
would be deserving (Mr. &ma thinks) of im-
peachment.

Now putting altogether on one side what has
already been accomplished—before the age of
steam engines, and railways, and screw pro-
pellers, and electric telegraphs by such
men as NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER, let
us consider candidly for a few minutes what the
conveyance of troops across this terrible overland
route nowadays really necessitates.
Supposing our war-transports to have arrived
at the end of their voyage across the Mediterra-
nean, and to have entered the harbour of Alex-
andria.

It would then take just ten minutes to row a
boatful of them from thevessel to the wooden pier or
jetty at the mouth of the Mahmoudieh Canal—or
less than ten minutes, supposing that interval of
smooth water to be traversed by the light draught
steamers, there, ready at all times to be employed.
Disembarked on the wooden jetty at the mouth
of the Mahmoudieh Canal, our soldiers could
thence, easily, in another ten minutes—after
gathering their baggage together—march straight
on to the adjacent Railway Terminus.
At the station of this railroad, 130 miles long,
extending from Cairo to Alexandria, there is
ample " room and verge" enough for a couple of
thousand men to be readily and comfortably mus-
tered.

Along this railroad, going even at a moderate
pane, the distance of 130 miles might be easily
accomplished in seven hours—making an allow-
ance for the non-completion of the line at the
steam-bridge at Kaffre Azzayat. By means of
which bridge passengers are transported over the
broad bosom of the Nile pretty much in the same
way, and with pretty much the same facility, that
other passengers, nearer home, are conveyed
across the gap of water at Portsmouth.
Arrived at Cairo—carrying their own provi-
sions and supplied with water abundantly, when-
ever and wherever wanted—our soldiers could
then proceed straight on (without quitting the
line, without pausing beyond the time necessary
to make a meal at Cairo) could proceed straight
on fifty miles further—into the desert---by rail-
way

Thence—from that railway-statiou in th•
Desert—it is a march of just five-and-twenty
miles across the sandy wilderness to Suez I

And at Suez there would be our own steamers
of course, in readiness to receive the troops on
board and to carry them along the waters of the
Red Sea, on their way towards Hindostan.
And this is the Overland Route, the selection
of which, for the transport of our British Warriors
towards India, at a very fearful crisis in the his-
tory of oar Bengal Presidency, Mr. VERNON
SMITH conceives would render any Minister de•
serving of impeachment ! i

TEARS AND GLORY.

MEMORIAL SAPPHIOS.—BT W. Cg&iu KENT.
Tears for the fallen! glory for the victors !
Rapturous paeans ringing thro' her dirges,
England fresh garlands strows of interwoven
•
Cypress and laurel.
Garlands of honour, won and worn by heroes
Brave as the bravest poet ever fancied,
Grand as the bards of eld e'er sang to harpstrings
Trembling with passion.

Tokens of tender pity and remembrance
Scattered with drops of reverent affection
Over you' grimly dens of buried slaughter—
Delhi and Cawnpore.

Scenes of despair and unutterable anguish,
Haunts where the Hindoo glutting his abhorrence
Dragged thro' the filth and scorn of foul dishonour
Innocent maidens:

Delicate matrons, gentle wives and mothers,
Tended from birth with exquisite devotion,
Guarded by love as sacred for their weakness
Outraged—derided.

Mourn for yon' Dead—the calm, the grand, the dauntless
Martyrs to duty who sublimely perished,
>ied by the thunder-blasts their brands had lighted--
Willoughby, Scully !
Weep for the noble Heart that fell is harness,
Fell with his glaive yet dripping red with vengeance ;
Fell with his manly eyes yet dim with pity—

Neill, the Avenger

Mural the crown of purest gold awarded—
Radiant with triumph—for thy helm' untarnished,
Dinted and starred with lightning-b3lts of battle,
Wilson, the Victor I
Long shall the records of One fiery Exploit
And of Inaction grandly self-forgetting
'Blazon, for aye, as types of knightly valour
Greathed and Outram !

Vilest and loathliest Chief of the Assassins;
Dreadliest name of infamy and horror !
Whose but thy miscreant title Nana Sahib ?
Monster of Bithoor I

Brightest and bravest 'mid the throng of heroes
Twined with our heartstrings like some home affection :
Ruthless, resistless—as the flamey lightning
Cleaving the storm-cloud :
Leading his phalanx of veterans right onward
Straight thro' the raging tempest of rebellion,
Fluttering his banner bullet-tattered, blood-stained,
Desperate—dauntless I
Who but,the Saviour of the sore beleaguered,
Saviour and Champion of imperilled Luoknow ?
Whose bat the genius—keen and bold—inspiring

-
Havelock's Death-March ?
Tears, then, and glory blending, as the deluge
Rolls back from Bengal, leaving calm reconquered
Hope, with celestial sheen of dew and sunbeam,
Shines like a rainbow !

About 64,000/. In gold was taken to the Bank yes•
terday.
The Patna, Sir James, and Mirage have arrived from
Ckina, bringing in the aggregate 1,336,5001 b. of tea and
2,780 bales of silk.
The Pays says dates from China up to N0v.16 announce
the expected arrival of 1,200 men sent by the Governor
of India to Lord Elgin. This is the force which with►
others must arrive before Canton can be occupied.
The indictment preferred by Stowell against Joseph
Bingham', an attorney, for perjury, came on for trial
yesterday, before the Common Sergeant, at the Central
Criminal Court, but it entirely failed.

The Bank of France have-reduced their rate of dis-
count to 6 per cent. for all descriptions of bills. Since
the 6th instant the rates had been 6,7, and 8 per
cent. respectively f,,r bills under one, two, and three
month,.

TOLL REFORM IN SCOTLAND.—Lord Elcbo has given
notice of his intention to bring in a bill whed Parliament
re-assembles for the abolition of turnpikes in the Scotch
counties. Last year the government passed an ant for
the extinction of the system in Ireland.
INCENDIARISII Numerous incendiary fires have
occurred at lakbarrow, an agricultural parish on the
War wickshire border of Worcestershire, and although a
reward of 501. has been offered for the detection of the
perpetrators they have up to this time escaped. No less
than nine fires of this description have broken out in and
around lokharrow with tie last thr...e an -1 agri-
cultural property a considerable extent has been
destroyed.. Accordingly, at tho earnest request of the
parishioners, backed by the rev. vicar of the parish, the
Rev. G. R. Gray, a fire-engine has now been stationed
in the Tillage.