STATE OF THE WAR.

New Zealander, Volume 11, Issue 964, 11 July 1855, Page 3 (Supplement)

STATE OF THE WAR.

(From the Times, April i.) U is exactly half a year since England Larnt the -Truth of the battle of the Alma, and the falsehood of the capture of Sebastopol. At that time we had ad been kept on the tenterhooks of expectation for three J months, that being the period occupied in collecting, embarking, conveying, disembarking, ami marching the army from Varna to its present position. Somewhat fidgetty at this delay, and dreading a campaign so late in the season, the British public were requested to “ suspend their judgment” and wait tor the result of the next week or two. But the prevailing thought in even body’s mind was, th til the work was not done in October it would not be done at all that tear, and then we should have a winter campa.gn. ‘ Moscow” whs on everybody’s tongue, and there was hardly a man who did not say that the assault ought to he attempted at any risk, rather than incur the certain horrors of a winter in the Crimea. these forebodings became stronger when, at the end of the month, it came out that the batteries had failed, and that what it had cost more than a fortnight to make it would take a mouth to renew and improve, it was evident, indeed, that another month would bo expended in repiuriii" the shortcomings of October the 17th, and that when the batteries were ready to open tire it would he mid-winter,—so quickly did the seasom lor action slip out of onr hands. Now, at this moment we are in precisely the same situation as we were on the 4th Of October last year, with the immaterial difference that then we had winter fast approaching, and no\v we have summer. Of the two it is hard to say which is the more formidable in the Crimea. We shall probably settle the question by suffering both. But that is our present prospect. By the Ist of May the sun will strike with terrible power on the moist soil of our camp, and on the vast area of half-buried corruption, and no mortal man can say what our armies will not suffer. There hj, then, this month for work. We do not speak Of the Russian reinforcements and supplies poured into the Crimea m one sontinuous stream ; we are speaking only of times and seasons. By the end of this month, fever, thirst, prostration, and all the more violent or more insidious forms of disease will begin to attack our army, And it will be fqurd quite as much as we can do to maintain out position and our numbers, which at this moment we do not believe th amount to more than 15,000 bayonets-perhaps 25,000 men in all—for the work before us. . , , , . As IVliament is not sitting and them is nobody

else to put the question, we think we may ask Lord Panniure and his colleagues whether they are satisfied with the present state of things, with the prospect of April slipping away, as October slipped away last year, with the slow pace of our own preparations and the quick pace of the llussians, or with the fact that all this time the llussians afe actually gaining ground on the allies and pushing them into a corner, not here or there only, but along the whole line, so that we can neither get our batteries up nearer nor even make a reconnaissance to bee What the llussians are doing in our rear? is not a single point on which we can look with satisfaction or hope, unless it he that at the date of the vernal equinox the army was in better health than it had been at the summer solstice in Bulgaria, or at the winter solstice in the Crimea. For that, of course, we were entirely prepared, and therefore see in it small matter for congratulation. But, if we look to what is out of the calendar, to what depends upon presence of mind, forethought, energy, and courage, and not on the ordinary operation of the elements, then we look in vain tor anything to re-assure us. A r e see only the greatest probability that this year will he as the last, and that before the end of the session we shall have our ministers deprecating censure, On the ground that nohodv expected a summer campaign, and that the summer had turned out rather hotter than the average of summers in the Crimea. We are forced to this unpleasant importunity, because when Parliament meets again on Monday, the loth initant, it will then be vain to urge preparations for the spring campaign. Before a single regiment or piece of ordnance, sent on that suggestion, could reach the Crimea, the spring of that climate will he past, and the sun will be in fearful ascendancy. The present is the time ; now is the day for doing something : and what is being done there ? What are we doing here t . . We don’t want to croak about our own position on the heights before Sebastopol. \Ve will assume that it is very strong ; that after the result of the 25th of October, the Russians will not hastily attack Balaklava, and after the sth of November, they will be shy of attempting to surprise our camp. We will assume that they have generally a judicious reluctance to come to close quarters with us, and that, though they seem to have nightly co lisions with our allies, thanks to the greater numerical force of the French, and thanks also to those excellent Zouaves, they are not likely to drive their besiegers yet into the sea. We will assume that the railway will do wonders, —that there will be no more deaths by mere famine and nakedness. We will assume that the new Turkish contingent and the Piedmontese army will find their way into the Crimea in time at least for an autumnal Campaign; we will assume everything that may reasonably be required. What we want to know is this ; Supposing everything to be done that has been promised or promulgated hitherto, what more likelihood is there of taking Sebastopol before the Dog-days than there ever was ? What more chance is thereof our taking Sebastopol during the Dog-days than was during the dead of last winter ? What more chance is there of taking Sebastopol next October than there was last October? In tine, what chance is there 6f taking the place at a 1 under existing auspices, and as long as the present estimate of the odds of war prevails at head quarters ? Has Lord Panmure any reason to believe that something will bo done this April ? It is for this April, for the very purpose of being on the spot, in position, and with our supplies about tis by this month, —that the allies determined to stand the rigour of a Crimean winter in their then unprepared state, instead of re-embarking after the failure of the 17th of October. If this month is passed in inaction, in vapouring, in waiting idly upon Providence, or in expecting successes that never will come Of themselves, it is evident that the fearful sacrifices of the winter campaign will he entirely thrown away, and our army might as well have passed the winter pleasantly on the Bos; horns, and returned to the Crimea last month as fresh as if it had just come from barracks in England. If the Government at home has no assurance, and can give no assurance, that April will he made use of before it is added to the months that have been lost, we have one more quest on to ask, and that is. how long they mean to leave the conduct of the war in the present hands? It cannot be our r taiga to spend twenty millions of money year by year, and twenty thousand lives, merely to maintain a position in the Crimea. The British people do not contemplate a second siege of Troy, which, at the present rate, will cost us f3i)(l,0OU,0O(i and 200.00 > men. They expect something to he done. They are not to he satisfied with a mere exhibition in the Crimea of those excellent defensive qualities which have won so much respect at the Horse Guards. They want something to be done ; and, if something is not done before long, the same public impatience which has already effected great things will certainly insist on some radical change in our present system of government.