The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-10-04
IMPORTANT FOREIGN NEws-THE FALL OF
SEBASTOPOL.

The telegraph, ere this, has carried to the
remotest parts of the country the intelligence
of the fall of Sebastopol. The particulars of
the great event. and the view taken of it by the
London Times, we publish in another place.
We rejoice at this triumph of Western Civil
zation over Eastern Barbarism. From the be.
ginning of the Turco-Russan controversy, we
have entertained but one opinion in regard to
its merits. Rusaia was the aggressor-the gil
gantic wrong-doer. She had suppressed Free
dom in Central Europe, overawed its Govern
ments, and finally, in defiance of the public
sentiment of mankind, put forth her hand to
crush unofending Turkey, and absorb it into her
own empire. Her dream was universal sway !;
and had this last attempted usurpaton proved
successful, there would have been no security
for any Power in Europe.
We rejoice in her reverses not because we
have any antipathy or grudge against the Rus
sian people or Government, but because we
like to see wrong, rebuked, pride, humbled, self
ish ambition, baffled because we have been
one Power in this era can hope for supremacy
over the earth. The fall of Sebastopol shows
that the day when Europe could be overrun by
the barbarous hordes of the East has passed
away: the nineteenth century will tolerate no
modern Attila, no second Ghenghis Khan.
The advocates of Russia still cling to the
illusion of her invincibility. This, they say, is
but temporary reverse after all, she has lost
merely the south part of the town. She will
only be provoked by this event to still mightier
efforts, and we shall soon see hordes of Cos.
sacks rushing to the Crimea to overwhelm the
enfeebled Allies. They seem to cherish the
same reverence for the Gear, the same deusion
as to his inexhaustible resources, which our
weak brothers of the Celestial Empire enter.
tanned for their august Sovereign, before Brit
ish cannon taught them that he was nothing
but flesh and blood. The Gear has had whole
year to gather together his invincible Cossacks,
and he has crowded the Crimea with them, but
it so happens that in every pitched battle they
have been whipped, and now at last, fighting
behind such ramparts as have never been ex-
ceeded for purposes of defence, they are COM
PEELED to give way before the superior power of
Western Civilization.
For ourselves, we have never felt or ex-
pressed any doubt of the success of the AL
lies. Russia is prisoner. Her ships are
| swept from the ocean, her navy is annihilated.
| She has no commerce, no means of renewing
| her vitality from abroad. Manufactures exist
| to but limited extent within her borders, and
all her industrial operations must be paralyzed.
l hoc huf hat hon
| On the other hand, the Allies command the sea-
Their manufacturing industry, their trade and
commerce, are unaffected. Production, distri.
button, and consumption, go on within their
borders as usual. Heavy as are the drafts
upon their resources, these they are constantly
renewing, with just as much security and GER
tainty as if no war existed.
| With such advantages, we trust they will
persist in the struggle, till they have erected
impregnable bulwarks against the aggressions
of Russia, and introduced Turkey into the Eu-
ropean system, making provision for such re-
forms, as shall bring it under the legitimate in
| huences of Christian civilization.
AS to any peril to our interests from an Ali
ance which has proved itself so formidable, it is
imaginary. 1t was the instinct of selfpreserva
ton that united them, and, allied for defence
they are invincible. But, the instincts of both
peoples would prevent an alliance for purposes
of aggression. The two Nations can be hsr
monized in no common scheme of ambition
least of all as against the United States. The
great material interests of England, the founda
ton of her power, to say nothing of the senti
ment of the masses Of her people, demand thu
perpetuation of peace with this country; and
as for France, whateyer ambition her ruler maj
cherish, it moves in sphere that scarcely i'm
; pinges upon ours.
One lesson should be taught US by the fear
!, full struggle now going on, with its enormous
array of men and material, for attack and de