The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-05 00:00:00

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TUESDAY

MORNING, DEC

5, 1854

THE WAR

So overwhelming was the effect of tl

e news of

the momentous struggle at Inkerman, the
been followed by a kind of lu

it it has

[—a cessation of

even the desire to hear more. The public anxiety
to learn all that was doing in the Crimea seemed,
for once, to be satisfied with the astounding intelli-
gence that the gallant little band of British heroes
had stood the tremendous shock of fifty thousand
Russians, and beaten them back with frightful
slaughter. All the interest was centered on the
details, and then no one seemed to expect that any
more could be done for some time. The Russian
forces had been so completely paralysed with their
reception, that, as a burnt child dreads the fire,
they feared to come within the reach of the British
guns, while the Allies, weakened, though victorious,
were quietly resting after their gigantic exertions,
and waiting the arrival of the tardy reinforcements,
which subsequent accounts state were being landed
in the Crimea. It appears, from the Russian
accounts of the Battle of Inkerman, that the blame
is very conveniently thrown on the General who
was killed—a style of argument peculiarly Rus-
sian—though in the acknowledgments of the
extent of the loss, there is an admission of defeat
which proves the completeness of it. But even
this admission was accompanied with the out-
rageous falsehood that the defeat was owing to
the superiority of the British forces—a remark
which could only apply to their superiority in
bravery and soldierly conduct, though evidently
intended to apply to their preponderance in num-
bers, notwithstanding the disparity was so palpably
in the other direction.

The great question of interest now is the course
of future proceedings. As soon as the accession
of reinforcements shall have placed Lord RAGLAN
in command of an efficient army, the assault on
Sebastopol will no doubt be proceeded with, until
not only the fortress has been captured, with the
Russian fleet in the harbour, but the Russian
forces must also be expelled from the Crimea, and
such a military possession taken of it as to render
any subsequent attempt of Russia to re-capture it
utterly hopeless. In the mean time, however, it
is said that negotiations for peace have been
opened, and that the CzAR, being more convinced
by British artillery and British valour, than he
was by all the arguments of diplomacy, of the
untenable nature of his position, is now willing to
concede those points which, admitted in the first
instance, would have saved the necessity of entering
into the war. Circumstances have, however, materially
altered the case ; and it will be the grossest trea-
chery on the part of the English Government, if
any concession, such as is now proposed, is for one
instant permitted ; and the question will demand
the closest investigation on the part of the legisla-
ture, as the constitutional representative of public
opinion. We shall no longer be satisfied with a

joint protectorate of the Five Powers over the
Christians in Turkey, even though accompanied
with the evacuation of the Danubian principalities
and the free navigation of the Danube. We have
incurred an enormous outlay, in common with
France and Turkey ; above all this, we have lost
many valuable lives, and ought not to be satisfied
with the empty glory of having achieved the most
signal victory ever recorded in history. The loss of
human life is, of course, irremediable; but the Allies
will require compensation for their pecuniary sacri-
fices.-- The Crimea must be surrendered, as well
as Odessa and the other ports in the Black Sea ;
Circassia must be declared independent, and such
other material guarantees obtained, for the future
peace of Europe, as will satisfy the most scrupulous
advocates for the liberties of nations. The blow
was struck to avenge the aggression committed
by the Russian army crossing the Pruth ; but the
progress of the war has enlightened the public
mind on the previously little-understood question
of the balance of power, and developed the course
of Russian policy to an extent which was before
unknown. Step by step, since the reign of the
first PETER, has Russia been absorbing the neigh-
bouring territories into her own vast empire ; but
so insidious has been her progress, that no one
advance has been deemed sufficient to provoke
hostilities. Now, however, that the sword has been
drawn, and the prestige of her invincibility,broken
through, the time has come for the redress of
European grievances. The perfidy of her protec-
torate system has been exposed ; and it would be
worse than folly to leave the work undone,
or only half performed, when the staff is in
our hands, the British lion fairly aroused, and
England and France, for the first time in their
career as nations, united in the ever-triumphant
cause of truth and justice.

In the settlement of such a question, it is of the
first consequence, the most stringent necessity,
that the direction of public affairs should be trusted
to men who are animated by purely patriotic feel-
ings, who have no old friendships with Russia to
bias their judgment, who have no antiquated
crotchets about peace on any terms being preferable

to war, and who, above all, possess the confidence
of the people, who have the largest interest at stake
in the transaction. Can it be said that the present
Cabinet occupy this position ? Is there an English-
man in his senses who would leave the negotiation
of this great question to the judgment, the patriot-
ism, or even the honour of the Earl of ABERDEEN ?
If he did, he might expect to see a peace concluded
on the terms proposed by the EMPEROR of RUSSIA,
the Allies evacuating the Crimea instead of their
enemies, all the expenses incurred thrown upon our
heavily-taxed population, the advantages won by
British valour surrendered by diplomatic treachery,
and Russia, in a year or two, prepared to repeat
the aggression, with, perhaps, no capability on our
part of resisting it, even at a far more awful sacri-
fice of blood and treasure.

Under such circumstances, it becomes a national
duty—a duty we owe to ourselves and to Europe—
a duty rendered more incumbent on us by the
sacrifices we have already made, to demand, with
a unanimity which will brook no refusal, the
dismissal of Lord ABERDEEN' from his present
responsible position, and the direction of public
affairs being entrusted to men who know no interest
but that of their country. We have surely had
sufficient experience of the Coalition Cabinet in the
handful of British troops kept for weeks in the
Crimea, taxed to the verge of physical endurance,
and vainly waiting for the reinforcements, which
were delayed until ithe treturns of the thousands
100 _and wounded exulted one general burst of