Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-12-02
WASHINGTON.
"Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable."
SATURDAY, DECEMBER ,, 1854.
THE wAR.

firms in the opinion that the war is to extend over
several eventful campaigns. The date of its close
seems to us further removed and its results less
distinctly foreshown than at the commencement Of
military operations last spring This very Crimean
expedition, in many respects the most stupendous
exhibition Of national strength that the world has
witnessed, operating upon that distant theatre al
most without the bounds of civilization, with we'll
appointed military force Of one hundred and fifty
thousand men, accompanied with an ample and per-
feet ntateriel of corresponding magnitude the whole
conveyed and supported by the most numerous and
powerful navies that have ever been collected for
the accomplishment of warlike ends--ths Crimean
expedition, wasteful as it is of human life and ma
tonal treasure far from conquering the peace that
is desired, will it is to be feared only render that
peace of more remote and difficult attainment. The
efforts of the Allies met by corresponding efforts
on the part Of the Emperor of Russia; equality is
restored, and the immense disasters Of this conflict
of giants in the Crmea will not be followed by
those conclusive consequences which might be ex-
pected FROM humbler combatants with inferior
means. IT, expenditures Of this campaign, vast as
they are, wi not exhaust either party; the result,
however successful and glorious for one, will not
be overwhelming and decisive of the war as to
the other.
If Sebastopol be taken, heavy blow indeed viii
have been inflicted upon Russia. But it will not
be disabling and mortal blow. Her right arm
for offensive warfare will have been struck down
and temporarily palsied the means laboriously
amassed for the pursuit Of her traditional policy Of
external aggrandizement and of aggression upon
Turkey will be lost, and the further accomplish
ment Of that policy adjourned perhaps to illustrate
the reign of a successor of the actual Czar But
the solid granite body of the Russian Empire will
be unweakened its vast defensive resources will not
be materially diminished The ris inertiG of the
Russian Empire, Distinguishing it from all contem-
porary empires and which it owes perhaps even
less to its immense yet compact dimensions and
Its dense masses Of population than to its slightly
advanced civilization as compared with other Euro
pean nations, viii, we apprehend, be found in
yincible by the utmost efforts of the Allies The
naughty Gar, conscious of his strength, confident
in the future, wounded but not struck down, dis
comfted upon his frontiers but not conquered, will
retire into the interior, repelling the conditions
Of peace offered by the Allies as peremptorily and
Indignantly after his armies shall have been de-
feated (if they are defeated) in the Crimea, upon
the Danube, and on the Pruth, as he does now, as
he did six months ago. Confning himself, within
his own dominions, to the very formidable and
comparatively slightly exhaustive operations Of de-
fensive warfare he will wait till the exhaustion
reverses of the Allies shall have restored that equali
i Il
Of reasonable conditions Of peace the appearance Of
compulsion, which his pride will not brook and
which his power rejects.
! Nor may we doubt for an instant that chivalric
France and glorious old England, with her in
domitable energy, her stubborn perseverance, and
her national pride, founded on centuries of great
achievements, will, whatever the result of the
paigns the ends sought to be accomplished by
the present war If Sebastopol falls this year,
Sweaborg must fall next year, and Cronsadt the
next, till all the accessible agents of Russian ag-
gandzement, her maritime commerce, her fleets,
her seapors, her whole naval power actually exist
ing, shall be destroyed. Then, probably, if the
civilization Of Russia were advanced to the same
point with that of France and England, the ends
and the end of the war would be attained The
Allies would be able to dictate conditions of peace
Neither France nor England could bear this iso-
lation, the stoppage Of all commercial intercourse
with other nations. Modern civilization, with its
arts, manufactures and commerce, has produced for
them such intimate and extensive relations with
the rest of the world-relations upon which the
comfort, the material wellbeing, it may be almost
said the daily existence of all classes of their popu-
lation depend-that it may be confidently asserted
fearful social revolution would inevitably attend one
years exclusion from intercourse with the family
of nations. Not so with Russia. Doubtless strict
blockade of the whole Russian sea-coas., stopping
totally all maritime intercourse with other nations
would produce in Russia a certain degree of disconi-
fort and suffering The comparatively small mer-
camille class would suffer most; the mobiles would
have to dispense with some articles of Partisan
luxury to which they are now accustomed but it
may be questioned whether the happiness and ma
terial wclbeing such it is of nne-tcnths Of the
Russian population would be injuriously affected to
any perceptible extent by such exclusion. 1t may
well be doubted whether the civilized Powers them
selves, whose navies would effect this blockade,
would not even more suffer- by the privation of the
raw materials which they had been accustomed to
draw from Russia as aiment for their manufactures,
thap Pncsio from hnr INABILITY n coll 4bar We