The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

_ THE PRESS. 1044 THE WEEK. TuE expectations confidently entertained by our public of the speedy fall of Sebastopol, when the allied guns had got into position, have been wofully disappointed. Our intelligence this week has been almost wholly derived from Russian sources. Bulletins are published daily, or nearly so, at St. Petersburg, of the state of the siege. But our Government issues nothing. The anxiety of all those who have rela tives and friends engaged in the war meets no response. We hear of severe skirmishes, of terrible cannonades, of redoubts taken, of ships fired and disabled, of guns silenced,—all these acts of warfare being attended with great loss of life, yet our Government remains silent. There is no wife who has a husband,—no parent who has a child,—no child who has a parent—in the fleet or army of the Crimea, who is not at this moment in doubt whether the relative was not among the slain, in some one or other of these actions. The bombardment commenced on the 17th, and our loss then ap pears to have been severe. Appears, as up to the time at which we write no authentic intelligence has been received. Nine or ten days, even with the imperfect arrangements now in force, is sufficient time, as former occasions have shown, for the transmission of intelligence from the Crimea. On the 27th, at latest, some official details of the action of the 17th might have been, or were received, by the Government; but if any despatch was received, it has been with held, though the Duke of NEWCASTLE promised that intelligence should be communicated to the public as soon as received by him. It is understood that a despatch from Lord STRATFORD DE RED CLIFFE, relative to the bombardment, was received by the Government on Saturday evening last, and the report current as to its non-publica tion is, that a word was omitted which rendered it unintelligible. It ran, as we hear, like this :—" The French have silenced Fort Quaran " tine, and the English have Fort Constantine." Despatches were also, we believe, received by the Government in the middle of this week, and for their non-publication no like excuse can be pleaded. It is noticed as a significant fact that nothing has been published since Lord ABERDEEN returned to town. The Duke, we must suppose, prefers rather to forfeit his word than sour his chief. Secrecy is still Lord ABERDEEN ' s principle of government. Full details will probably be brought by the steamer which has ar rived at Marseilles with Constantinople dates to the 20th. From the tele graphic reports of her news the firing on the 17th and 18th must have been tremendous. The French works were greatly injured, and two magazines exploded. The great cause of " wooden versus stone walls" seems to have been tried, and to have resulted in an open verdict. The ships engaged were terribly mauled, and suffered heavy loss. The Russians fought desperately, and from their heavier guns seem to have materially damaged the works of the besiegers. Thus far, little progress seems to have been made. The Russian fire appears to have been equal to that of the allies, and, judging from these scanty accounts, neither side could claim the advantage. The despatches of Prince MENSCHIEOFF received in London on Wednesday in last week, ten days ago, describing the operations of the 17th and 18th are now therefore exactly confirmed. Surely it is most strange that we should receive our intelligence via St. Petersburg ten days earlier than we get it through our own sources. The Moniteur notices a report from General CANROBERT to the 23rd. It is to be assumed that our Government must have received news equally late. The public must decide whether they are justified in withholding it. Calculations have been made that by small steamers between Balaklava and Varna, and a line of couriers thence to the nearest telegraph, intelligence might be regularly conveyed from our army in four days at most. The expense would be trifling, and it is one of the most astounding instances of ministerial neglect yet brought to light that the service has not been organised ere this. In the absence of other information, we must assume that the despatches of Prince MENBCHIKOFF, of the 25th and 26th of October, are correct. The extreme right of the English camp was attacked on the 24th, some redoubts destroyed, eleven guns taken, and 500 of the English light cavalry cut to pieces. If this be true, the loss of our horses must be severely felt. The Russians, by their account, have been reinforced by 30,000 men, under General LIPB.ANDI, by whom the " surprise" was effected. The " relieving army," therefore , altogether, does not probably fall short of 60,000 or 70,000 men, in addition to the ample garrison. MENSCHHEOFF maintains his communications open with the northern side of Sebastopol, and still has all the resources of the Crimea at his disposal, with all the roads to the mainland in every direction free, while the whole allied force is confined in the narrow district between Balaklava and the southern heights of Sebastopol. We must suspend our judgment, then, as to the result. The resistance has, undoubtedly, been much stouter than was expected. Should the allies be success ful on the south side, and succeed in expelling the enemy from the town, the forts on the north side would still demand another siege, and, as their fire commands the town and harbour, the allies might be unable to make any use of their conquest, until the second siege had been successfully accomplished. Meanwhile winter is advancing surely on, and the Russians yet expect further reinforcements. In presence of a contest so tremendous, all notes of premature triumph should be hushed. The victory, if gained, must be purchased by a total sacrifice of life fearful to contemplate, and the country must wait the result with a sentiment only one word can describe—awe! A despatch of MENBCHIKOFF has been published, detailing his • movements after the battle of Alma. As the result of that battle, he feared to be shut out from the open country, and enclosed in Sebas topol. He executed a flank movement, therefore, to keep in the field, SATURDAY, and maintain open his communications with the mainland. By a singular coincidence the allies at the same moment executed their flank movement on Balaklava, and the enemy's rear-guard, which the van of the allies encountered, it is now discovered, was the rear-guard of MENSCHIKOFF . B main army. It is impossible to deny to this manoeuvre of the enemy the praise of accomplished generalship. " Too late," are words often inscribed in characters of fire on enterprises which otherwise might rank among the finest conceptions of human genius. How different would have been the fate of the Crimea expedition if undertaken but two months earlier, before time had been afforded for the erection of those works which now resist the advance of the allies, or for the arrival of those large reinforce ments which now render our position one of perplexity, if not of peril ! War is again rolling towards the banks of the Danube. Specula tion has been busy with the name of OMER PACIIA. What has he been. about for some weeks past? Russian forces are again mustering strongly on the Danube, in the Dobrudseha. The Austrians still pre serve their neutral attitude ; and the Turks, it is rumoured, were con structing pontoon-bridges for the passage of the Danube at Braila. Prince GORTSCHAKOFF has been nominated to the supreme command in Southern Russia, and his instructions to march towards the Crimea have been countermanded. We have no authentic accounts of his strength. Some German papers talk wildly of 150,000 men. He may possibly have half that number. The Grand Dukes MICHAEL and NICHOLAS, the youngest sons of the Emperor, have arrived in Odessa, to cheer the spirits of the troops and people, and afterwards went to join the army of GORTSCHAROFF, and win their spurs on the Da nube. This, as an evidence of the determination of the Emperor, is a significant fact. What if GORTSCHAHOFF were meditating an advance into Turkey, while the French and English, and the best portion of the Turkish troops, were busy in the Crimea? For strategic reasons, the movement might be threatened, the Emperor trusting to his powerful camp at Cracow to overawe the Cabinet of Vienna. Sir CHARLES NAPIER is bringing home his fleet from the Baltic, and the inhabitants of the coast towns are celebrating his departure with joyful fetes. The navigation of the Russian waters will now, therefore, for a short. time, be again open. The Aland Isles have been reoccupied, and immense warlike preparations continue to be made at St. Petersburg. The Emperor of the French has explained the sense in which he used the words "timid counsels" in his letter to Mine. de St. ARNAUD. He referred solely, he says, to the difference of opinion among the French authorities themselves. Large reinforcements for the theatre of war are being despatched from the French ports. A squadron is lying at Toulon ready to take 4,000 men on board. Increasing difficulty seems to exist in getting recruits among our population. The standard has been reduced one inch, and the bounty raised from 4/. to 61. Among domestic topics the peaceful doings of our Ministers, in the midst of the warlike din shaking Europe, have excited some notice. Lord Joint RUSSELL has been persuading the Bristol tradesmen, just by way of a holiday task, to write a "Humes History of England" with the part of "Hume" lett out; SIDNEY HERBERT besmearing a "confidential" letter in lithograph to Miss NIGHTINGALE, with a sneer at Protestant Lord RODIN'S daughter, herself a soldier's widow ; and, finally, Lord PALMERSTON coming out as a theologian, at (what the natives denominate) Romsey-in-the-mud. His doctrine was that we are all "born good;' that human nature is quite perfect : it is only tobacco and beer shops that are in fault. The man becomes a sot, and the parent a brute, only "by mistake ;" and, apparently, Palmerstonian preachments are very likely to rectify it. Before Lord PALMERSTON indoctrinates the world on this matter, he should have learned a little in a nursery of his own; or, in default of more experimental acquaintance with the subject, he should read the Church Cate chism, or buy a bible, or some stray Sunday go to church. Meanwhile, we have a favour to ask of the Queen's Ministers. Warren's jet blacking used to boast "we keeps a poet ;" will the Government be kind enough to keep a Christian! It would save them some enormous mistakes. The expediency of allowing Russian produce to be freely admitted is neutral vessels continues to be debated. The leading Ministerial'organ, in a most weak argument, decides that the trade should remain as it is. To its vague assertions that Russian commerce has not benefitted by our relaxations to the extent assumed, we may oppose the considerate judgment of our contemporary the Economist, which, yet strangely enough, in the teeth of its facts, upholds the Ministerial policy:— tion The export of Russian produce has proceeded with scarcely any interrup i , throngh the medium of Prussia; and the result , which we showed some weeks ago, s tbat a considerable transmission of gold is going on to St. Petersburg, and furnishes the Czar with exactly those means for prolonging the war in which he was most likely to have been deficient. The funds which he needs for carrying on hostilities he procures from us through the instrumentality of Prussian neutrality. The civilised world will be glad to hear that Captain liner, the noble com mander of the Arctic escaped alm ost b y miracle. The crew, it is said, will be tried for mutiny, for their cruel and cowardly conduct. Had they been obedient to command all on board might have been saved by the boats and by rafts, which could easily have been construc ted. Captain Luca heroically stood The bY his ship till she sank, and then caug ht his y oung child in his arm suction of the sinking vessel drew him far, and into the depths of ocean, but he rose, still with love superior to perildeath, clasping his darling to his heart. By an unlooked-for piece of good fortune, he rose close to thuraft he had constructed. His hand grasped it firmly. Heaven had been merciful, be was in the act of raising the child to the place of safety, when, Oh !cruel fate! a huge fragment of wreck sprang u p violently from the depth to which it had been drawn down, struck the child from his father's arms, and sent him lifeless , among the struggling beings covering the surface of the the sea. Captain LUCE er s narrative of his escape, when hop e seemed lost, is most affecUng ev recorded among the perils of the ocean. 71 7 • : a :.:: I I'