FINAL EVACUATION OF THE RUSSIAN TERRITORY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 430, 17 December 1856, Page 7

FINAL EVACUATION OF THE RUSSIAN TERRITORY.

(From the Times, July 18.) The Crimea was completely evacuated on the 9fch instant. The plateau of Sebastopol, the ports of Kamiesch, Balaklava, Kevtch, and Eupatoi'ia are once more in the hands of the Russians. So ends the great Crimean war. If grandeur and unity be the two qualities which iit an event to be the theme of the historians, certainly the story of Sebastopol will not want narrators. It is beyond any event of modern times, dramatic, and we may say sublime. Just two years have elapsed since the allied Generals at Varna" received orders to prepare for a campaign against the great Russian fortress, which had so longthreatened .Constantinople. V\ Te are now so well acquainted with this spot from plans, models, photographs, as well as despatches and the narratives of the Press, that we can hardly recall the strange curiosity which its name formerly inspired. The great harbour, with its many-tiered forts, its sunken ships, its bridge so hastily and ingeniously constructed under an '' infernal fire," are better known to Englishmen than the plan of their own naval ports. But two years ago, Sebastopol was almost what Mecca or Pekin is at present. The sailors of the Black Sea had seldom been admitted into its p •ecincts. If an English traveller had looked o\ its colossal buildings he might justly be considered adventurous and skilful. The force to which the allies might- be opposed, the nature of ihe country, and the strength of the city were all unknown. No wonder, then, that experience and discretion hesitated to undertake so a-duous a task. Perhaps no enterprise was ever commenced ho unwillingly by those who were to bear the chiof command. In that moment of uncertainty {he country owed much to those who laboured to infuse a spirit, of confidence into its armies, and held, with the Government, ami public, at home, that in the Crimea alone could that aggressive policy which had so long disturbed Europe be fully checked. Ail through the month of August preparations never ceased, and then the largest armament of modem limes was collected in the neighbourhood of Varna and lialtshik. Although the struggle ultimately acquired such dimensions that the armies which landed at X)ld Fort would a low

I months afterwards have seftrned Meanly for even a part of the operations, yet the spectacle of 50,000 men at sea at once and lunled on an enemy's shores within 48 hours rnu.-st long remain unparalleled. When the great expedition was ready, it narrowly escaped a disaster which might have changed the prospects of'tho war. In the first days of September, the equinoctial gales burst forth before their usual time. But the .Russians were not fated to proclaim, " Ajjlavit Derus et dissipantur," The fleets were still in port, and when the storm a had passed away they set forth, and in their hazardous navigation met with no misfortune from the elements or from the efforts of the enemy. We need not give an abstract of the campaign or deduce once more a moral from its events ; but it may be interesting to recall the incidents of the occupation -which extended from Eupatoria to the Sea of Azoff, and the number to which the expeditionary force finally grew. In September, 1854, the English landed 27,000 and the French 23,000 men. At the close of 1855, the French army amounted to 120,000 men, while the English, including the Foreign Legions and the Turkish contingent, could not have had in the East less than 80,000 troops. If to these we add the Sardinians and the Turks under Omar Pasha, it may be said that 250,000 men were ready to commence the campaign of 185G for the final expulsion of the Russians from the Crimea. Xow, from every part of the peninsula the four armies have vanished. Three months have been sufficient to convex! the thickly-peopled plateau and the busy valleys into a solitude, and in a year or two the vines will once more spring up on every side, and nothing will be left to mark the scene of so much heroism and suffering except the graves, which the Russian authorities have bound themselves to respect. With the embarkation of the last battalion the war may be said to have come to an end. What it has achieved we are scarcely able to judge: we are not far enough oif to contemplate it in its full magnitude. Some leading results we can perceive. Russia is no longer the arbitress of European politics: Turkey is now in no immediate danger, and has at least a respite of a human lifetime for regeneration, if regeneration be possible. The fear of a Eussian march through Central Asia to our possessions on the Indus and Ganges is now forgotten as an uneasy dream. But whether the Czars will abandon their hereditary policy, or have only yieldedto the forceof circumstances, we have yet to learn. Whether the world is to have peace, or whether the east is some day again to be the scene of a crusade against Muscovite encroachment, the Englishman of the present generation must be content to leave in doubt. The immediate effect, however, is the lowering of the Russians in the opinion of the world, and perhaps in their own, while France is correspondingly exalted. The Emperor Xapoleon and the country he governs have, by the greatness of their exertions, their unsparing sacrifice?, and the energy and skill of their measures, produced an effect on Europe which must mtlueuee the course of events during many years. England has gained many and solid advantages by the struggle just concluded, but the admiration of enemies and neutrals is almost wholly reserved for the people who took the leading part in all that lias been done. We have, however, this reflection to console us, —that a short war has nevor been favourable to the display of English prowess; and that, if we have Won denied an opportunity of proving it on the present occasion, yet the exertions which in a short twelvemonth doubled our tinny in the field and i/lneed it in a state of perfect efficiency are suv'eieut proof of what would have been achieved, L-d not peace taken away the opportunity. In the evacuation of the Crimea it ii-ay be considered that the allies have only withdrawn troops and military establishir.or.is, whvh will remain in e(\ual efficiency elsewht-rc. i>ul there is one body which by tlv ooui'hisuni of the war has ceased to exist. The Turkish C-e.iuir.geivt was established ag.iinst' the prejudices vi the Porte, and with lirile sr^o-'wiil ewn in-:u „iir allies. Oilieers hr.u!e;l in the K::st. v.uCi waited long for the troops lluv v.,«v .■ . ..-.■■j.u^. Delays were interposal by t'1-- ' ' •■: . ■■ .: /.sh:-'*, and it was expected. ;nu! p. '■■;■•' : ■■ •'■'•*" "be Turkish soldiers would piw- :..-.. •. .i > usuUh* their new eonnr.ar.ders. ; . . : ' disappointed all such vak-uL';!■>■.■■. ; ' ■■ v \ :;:::;t;ent was from the be.gi:'.;ii::ir <' ' . —■■' v.-'.Hitig1. and became in no long t ■ -t efficient i force. That it would have . .^ ..■•v.*. L-.ivL-e in

n campaign is not doubted by my who have been aV<psainiod with i«. The Turkish conhii«er,t however, now exi>ts no in ore. The officers return to Knd.in.l : the nnlsw siibonhnntos whom they have pnnnolol «re ivduoca to their Ibnsior v.-uik ; it is s:»iil <hat tlio ivpincnts ihemsolvW'are to be hnAum up. so iliai all remem-l-nnjcc mr.v be lo>t thai such n forco ever osi<ievi, Tnrln-y will wipe away all (.races I the mfinoneo i-o "which it has hoen iindebtod tor i the intrcriiy :sau inclepeiKleueo wliich it can now j lx>a,si. The (li>-]H-rsion of the eonlmsrent jrivesa j painful ?i,irrjiiic:uice to ihe »>vaeuat-ion of the ] Kii!--sia» territory. We shall leave no trace on | the. soil of tlie" enemy: are we to be equally j obliterai^l from the memory and the gratitude j of those whom we have .served ? j