The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-05 00:00:00

~.. IP THE PRESS. THE WEEK. THE war excitement appears to have sensibly cooled down since the authoritative announcement that the great fortresses in the Baltic are not assailable by our naval force. Our amateur strategists who had profoundly studied charts of the Baltic and the Euxine, and were ready to predict to a day when Cronstadt would be destroyed, and the Crimea be occupied, are now silent, and the public are half ashamed of their credulity in anxiously expecting from day to day intelligence of decisive events, and in believing that the Baltic forts, built on rotten piles, and supplied, through the rascality of contractors, with cannon balls of painted wood instead of iron, would fall at the first discharge of our guns. The practice of sending forth random expedi tions is of recent-date. In former times counsel preceded action. Attempts were made by Government to procure all available in formation of the strength of places to be attacked, and commanders, by sea and land, were sent forth with some notion of the work they bad to perform, and of the duties expected from them. But in the present case no plan of operations seems to have been even thought of. Our fleets and armies have been sent on from point to point with no better instructions for their guidance than that, when they reached this place or that, they were to see what was to be done. It is, to be sure, in favour of this cautious mode of proceeding—of advancing troops from Malta to Gallipoli, and from Gallipoli to Varna, and of employing the most powerful fleets ever fitted out on reconnoitring expeditions—that if it misses success it avoids failure ; and, were it the object of war to avoid fighting, we might have reason to be satis fled that we have to lament no greater disasters than the destruction of the Tiger and the unfortunate affairs at Old Carleby and Rustchuk. If the war, however, is ever to bo brought to a conclusion, it must be by a bolder course of action ; and, whatever may be said in favour of delay, it appears probable that it will tend more to the advantage of Russia than of the allies. That " sharp, short, and decisive work " which was anticipated from the improvement in all implements of destruction seems little likely to be realised. The Aland Islands, threatened as the grand point of attack in the Baltic, are inhabited by a scanty population, miserably poor ; and, if any operations are under taken against Sebastopol, it is supposed they will be conducted by a lengthened series of approaches by land. The evacuation of Wallachia appears to have been at last decided on by the Russian commanders, but whether the movement takes place in concert with Austria—and is, in fact, the result of diplomatic arrangements—or proceeds purely from military considerations, is yet uncertain. All we see is that the retreat is systematically con ducted—that it is entirely undisturbed—and that the Russian com manders fix dates for their retirement from certain places, as if they were acting in concert with friends rather than in the face of foes. The 31st of July was named as the day for their evacuation of Bucharest. It is supposed that they would concentrate on the line of the Sereth, and their retirement from Wallachia may probably be the signal for the occupation of that province by the Austrian army, which would then interpose between the belligerents. In Asia the Turks have sustained great reverses. Szum Nona, with his army, was defeated in an engagement with the Russians, under General ANDRONIKOFF, on the 4th of June. The Russian bulletin says that the Turks lost eight thousand men, with three fortified camps, their ammunition, thirteen pieces of cannon, and thirty-five flags; but private letters from Kars state his loss to have been only one thousand four hundred men, with two guns. Another battle, of which the details are wanting, has been fought between the Kars army, under ZARIF PACHA, and the Russians, under Prince BILBUTOFF, resulting again in the defeat of the Turks. As its result the victorious army invested Kars. Meanwhile the allied fleets have been idle, and the troops have remained at Varna, unless a telegraphic announce ment dated from Constantinople, July 24, is to be credited, that a portiou of the Anglo-French force was advancing towards Bucharest. The intelligence from the Baltic is of some moment, as showing that an attack on Bomarsund was to be made as soon as the French land forces joined the allied fleets. The ships left Bare Sound on 18th July, and on the 20th anchored in Led Sound, the southern most point of the mainland of the Aland Isles. Hence the squadrons under the English and French admirals sailed to Bomarsund, where they were greeted with some shot from the batteries, which fell short. The ships did not reply, the admiral, it is said, having express orders not to fire a shot if he could help it until joined by the troops. The fleets were still at Led Sound on the Ist inst., and were joined by the first division of French troo p s on the 31st of July. General BARAOUAY D'HILLIERS, in the Reine Hortense, had entered the port of Stockholm on the 29th July. He was presented to the King of SWEDEN by the French Ambassador, and left to join the fleet on Monday last. The telegraph from Stockholm, under date of Thursday, reports that he had actually joined the fleet, and that the French troops were off Aland. Intelligence of the attack may now, therefore, speedily be looked for. • The appointment of Mr. LAWLEY to the governorship of South Auitralia has been the most important, or, at least, the most in teresting, subject of debate in Parliament, and has since been the principal topic of conversation in all circles. When the appoint ment was first announced, the public saw in it no more than a poli tical arrangement, convenient to all the parties concerned, by which SAIIIRDAY, a young Whig M.P., notoriously addicted to the turf, had been raised to an important colonial post, while his vacated seat for Beverley was made safe for a son of the Prime Minister. Presently, however, rumours got abroad that Mr. LAWLEY had gambled in °thar ways than on the turf. Sir JOHN PAXINOTON gave notice of his intention to bring the appointment under consideration of the House ; the Govern ment got alarmed; the appointment was revoked; and Sir G. GREY made a confession anticipating the charges Sir JOHN was prepared to make and to prove. Not only had Mr. LAWLEY in connection with the turf incurred " heavy liabilities and debts," but he had, while private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, engaged " iu " extensive speculations in the funds.' Neither the Duke of NEWCASTLE, one of whose latest acts as Colonial Secretary it was to offer Mr. LAWLEY the appointment, nor Sir G. GREY, who submitted his name to the Queen, nor the CHAN CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, whose confidential secretary Mr. LAWLEY was, had the slightest suspicion of these matters until Sir JOHN PARINGTON'S notice was given. The ignorance of Ministers on points which it most concerns them to know has become quite astounding. Mr. LAWLEY'S doings were the town talk long before a hint of his prac tices reached the ears of his official friends. Mr. LAWLEY was treated with great tenderness on all sides, and there was no disposition to press against him what Sir GEORGE re garded as the most serious imputation, that he had speculated in the funds on his official information as the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER'S private secretary. But how can a line be drawn between Mr. LAWLEY private secretary and Mr. LAWLEY private gentleman? By what pro cess of official reasoning could this one gentleman be made into two? How could the knowledge he received from the public papers and his broker be separated from the knowledge he gained in his office ? If ho speculated in the funds it must have been with the hope of winning. Like other speculators, he must have proceeded on the best informa tion he could get ; and it is not to be supposed that he could have dipped his head in a bowl of Lethe directly he ceased his official duties. That he lost is certainly no presumption that he did not act on the information he received from his principal, as had the CHAN CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER himself been a speculator he would have lost too. The schemes which Mr. GLADSTONE must have supposed would be favourably received proved failures, and, supposing that Mr. LAWLEY did act on private information gained from his connection with his chief, his loss would be rather more intelligible than on the supposition that he acted merely as one of the public. Had Mr. GLADSTONE'S schemes proved as successful as they were the reverse, Mr. LAWLEY'S speculations, too, might have had a different result, and he would probably never have coveted a colonial appointment. In his zeal to serve his friend, Mr. GLADSTONE made some awk ward admissions. He magnified the importance of the office of his private secretary, asserting that his duties were of an official and departmental character, and that he had " to conduct most important " transactions with the Board of Inland Revenue, the Customs, the " Bank of England, and the Commissioners of the National Debt; " and, in fact, had to discharge duties which in any other depart• " ment of the Government would devolve upon the chief." Admitting this to be the case, it only heightened the culpability of Mr. LAWLEY, who, having such duties to fulfil, engaged in Stock-Exchange specula tions. Sir GEORGE GREY was equally indiscreet in endeavouring to make out that connection with the turf was an excellent qualification for colonial rule. The Bribery Bill has passed the Lords, but in such a shape as to afford the Government another hint that it exists only on sufferance. It is turned into a provisional measure to last but for two years. Lord PALMERSTON struggled hard to induce the Commons to sanction his provisional Board of Health Bill, but so strong was the aversion enter tained towards the acting board that the reign of King Cholera was preferred to that of King Chadwick. The obnoxious official is, how ever, to be recompensed with a pension of 1,0001. per annum, and a new board is to be constituted with a Minister responsible to Parlia ment at its head. The week has been marked by some judicial proceedings worthy of being included in our causes celebres. Mr. CARDEN has been sen tenced for his attempted abduction of Miss ARBUTHNOT, amid such a display of sympathy as a century ago was manifested by fashionable audiences when Macheath was on the point of being led oft' to execution. A trial is proceeding at the Kilkenny Assizes scarcely less illustrative of Irish character, and opening scenes and incidents which throw the inventions of romance into the shade. The point in dispute is, whether the late Mr. HENRY BUTLER was really married to Mrs. COLEBROEE previously to his wedding the lady who gave birth to the present Lord MOUNTGARRETT. If such marriage took place his Lordship must be considered illegitimate, and the title and estates will go to the plain tiff in this action, the son of the late Colonel BUTLER. A third case is the court martial on Lieut. PERRY, which, whatever other result it may have, shows the discipline of the regiment to have been lamentably lax. The mortal and mysterious scourge of modern times, the cholera, has suddenly appeared in different quarters of Europe, and has spe cially visited the capitals of the leading belligerent Powers, St. Peters burg and Constantinople. The number of fatal cases is increasing in London to such an extent as to justify the best preventive measures which can be taken, though not to excite panic. ESPARTERO has made a triumphal entry into Madrid, and the Court is glad to find shelter under his protection. It is reported that there have been violent scenes in the palace between the Queen and her mother CHRISTINA. 1 3 B r. 1- Le o. 0 le er CE - is it ra, .s- -in •es he Led ;en ..W.l•7 , •ft