The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

1092 THE WEEK. THE history of the war continues to bear its double aspect—on one side brilliant with glorious achievements, on the other dark with dis credit and foreboding peril. Upon everything that has been done, and much that has been planned, by our gallant soldiery and its chiefs in the Crimea, we can dwell with emotions of unreserved pride and admiration. Words are weak to describe as they deserve the energy, the courage, and the self-devotion exhibited in the Crimean army ; the heroic qualities, active and passive, displayed alike by officers and men at all times and seasons, and against all foes, in the face of privation and disease, as well as of Russian shot or steel; in the wearying night-watch or the laborious trench, as well as behind the attacking battery, or mingling in the headlong charge upon the foe. With incidents like these our columns are filled to-day; and their recognition may furnish an appropriate theme for the gracious mes sages in which Royalty expresses its approval of gallantry, its sympathy with suffering, and its grief for bereavement. History reserves for them hereafter some of her brightest pages. In the eleven days from October 25 to November s—days so eventful that in this place we cannot even attempt to catalogue their chief occur rences—there were deeds of daring performed which it would be difficult to match and impossible to surpass from the records of any war in any time or country. Nor is it the least subject for gratifica tion that this well-doing was universal. English and French soldiers and sailors all stood, and deserved to stand, shoulder to shoulder as approved brothers in arms. There was no faltering, even for a moment, or by an individual. None shrunk from labour—none quailed in peril. Thus have our soldiers deserved of their country. But how have those deserved who are entrusted at home with the guidance of those soldiers? A British army, after all, is but a weapon—patent, trenchant, and precious—to be used with deadly effect, but only in hands that know how to wield and direct it. In able hands that army has con quered in every clime, and against almost any odds. Even in prudent bands it might have conquered the Russians with little risk or difficulty. But, as it is, we cannot attempt to look forward without many misgivings. We do not wish to impugn for a moment the military talents of Lord RAGLAN. We believe that he has done everything which it was possible to do with the means at his disposal, and under the instructions sent to him by his political chiefs. It is tho Ministry at home, or rather, perhaps, that Peelite section who have monopolised all the war departments of administration, who have neutralised the achievements of a noble army, and endangered the success of a most momentous enterprise. For the three months' delay and inaction at Varna they only are answerable, and its conse quences, it appears, no heroism and no sacrifices upon the field can altogether redeem. And now that the troops are pledged to their hazardous undertaking, their triumph, and even their preservation, are hourly imperilled by the want of adequate support. Why also has the Times—which until lately could see no coldness in ABERDEEN, no incapacity in NEWCASTLE—for this week past, in daily leaders, exhausted its resources of emphasis and capital letter in demanding the instant despatch of reinforcements to the Crimea, declaring that the British army was living on its capital of men, melting away with sickness and war, and threatening to disappear, from the waste Of its own victories, before New Year's Day? Much has been said of the fatal military error committed in launching the light cavalry brigade unsupported against the Russian batteries. But what is that compared with the criminal recklessness of sending a whole army upon an enterprise equally fruitless and destructive, through a similar want of due support? Begirt as it was already with difficulties, the allied army in the Crimea has now to contend against winter, which is rapidly closing in with all its vigour. Letters from Constantinople report the breaking up of the weather, and the commencement of furious storms in the Black Sea In correspondence from the Crimea, published last evening, it is stated that the winter began on the 30th, the night of that day being " the most miserable of the many miserable the army had spent in the Crimea. The wind swept under the tents, half freezing the unfortunate occupants. Many of the tents were torn, and many more blown clean away. Towards one o'clock the cold grew so intense that half the men got up awl ran about to keep themselves from being frozen." The prospect of a termination to the siege seems at this moment more distant than ever. When the last letters were written (on the 3rd instant), it was believed that orders for the assault might be ex pected every hour ; but the battle of the sth, glorious as it might be, seems to have put all thoughts of a storm out of the question. The brevity of the later Menschikoff despatches may be a favourable symptom; but we learn from them, at all events, that no attack had taken place up to the 9th. With a town only half invested, a be sieging force too weak even for the due execution of such duties, and of the enemy, which is strong and bold enough to , e of attack at any moment, and has more than once the characters of besiegers and besieged, it is obvious of Sebastopol is a task of enormous difficulty. id hereafter that it has been a mistake ? progress of the siege may be described in a few words. SATURDAY, The French have restored their damaged batteries and constructed new. These lines have been pushed up to within 200 yards of the outward Russian works ; and they have ran a mine towards the formidable out ports called the Flagstaff Battery. On the way their suppers encoun tered a countermine already heavily charged with powder. The danger from this particular source was avoided, but the discovery rendered their subterranean proceedings more cautious in future. The English, besides maintaining their former works, have built a battery on a spot looking down the inner harbour of Sebastopol, from which t*o sixty-eight-pounder guns have committed great havoc among the shipping, arsenal buildings and other waterside edifices. Meanwhile, the garrisons are reported to have been seen busily con veying stores across the harbour with the view apparently of defending the forts lying ou the north shore, even if compelled to abandon the town and fortress on the south. Round Balaklava there are strong lines of entrenchment thrown up to defend the British store and communications. Beyond these the Russian General LIPRANDI has also constructed a formidable in• trenched camp, with its left resting on the sea. if Sebastopol falls, therefore, there will still be work enough to do. The Government journals in England are becoming gradually awake to the arduous nature of the operations in which we have engaged, and are throwing out feelers calculated to prepare the public for a possible continuance of the siege throughout the winter. Ministerial journals have found out that it was the unpropitious weather which kept the inhabitants of Westminster away from the " Patriotic Fund " meeting on Thursday last, an occasion that appealed so strongly, not only to their feelings of charity, but of patriotism and Aberdeenism. But whether it wero the November clouds, or the Coalition Premier, who really threw a " wet blanket" on the meeting, we must leave the public to decide. If we lived in the days when omens were heeded, an incident which occurred just before the company sat down to the Lord Mayor's dinner on the 9th would impress us somewhat unpleasantly. As one of the attendants was lighting the illuminations in gas which lined the walls of the Guildhall, the Union Jack, in a group with the Tricolor and Turkish ensign , took lire . The flame quickly leaped on to the French colours, and then caught the banner of the Crescent. Further mischief was prevented by one of the servants mounting a ladder and hewing down the three flags and smothering the flames. A lively correspondence has taken place between Major Powys, Secretary to the Association for the Relief of Widows, &c., of soldiers, and a clergyman who recommended one Mrs. BRIOHTWELL to the notice of the Society. Her husband deserted her, enlisted in the 19th Regi ment as a single man, and was killed at Alma. Major POWYS says that, to relieve Mrs. BRIGHTWELL, would encourage per jury and wire-deser tion. We are inclined to agree with him. A man bad enough to de sert his wife might not be deterred from doing so by the dread of leaving her in destitution ; but might not many a man who never con templated such a step be lured into it by the prospect of leaving her and his family honourably provided for at the national expense ? The position of the wife cannot be dissevered from the conduct of the husband. It is not because they are destitute wives, but destitute soldiers' wives, that they are relieved ; and, but for BRIORTWELL'S per jury, his widow would have had no claim at all. If he had confessed he was married he would most likely not have been admitted into the service. Let those who think his widow—who lost nothing by his death—deserving of relief subscribe for her themselves ; but do not let us, either nationally or in association, hold out an inducement which would fill the land with widows and orphans, and reinforce the army with bachelors, each with a ife and a quiver full of children on his back. A statement has been copied from the Sta f fordshire Advertiser into the daily papers to the effect that " last week fifty tons of lead were " shipped from London to Memel via Hull, which it was known would be " taken from thence to St. Petersburg. The Custom-house authorities " at Hull refused pass it, but a telegraphic message was received from " London, authorising them to forward it, and that was accordingly " done." When Parliament meets, we trust that some inqui►y will be made as to the authority by which nearly two millions of rifle bullets were so obligingly furnished to the Czar. Not that there is much doubt on the subject, however. In the same columns Lord CLAREN DON informs some patriotic Prussian merchants from Dundee that the subject is still " under consideration," only anxiously assuring them that the recent mission of Mr. WILSON to Belgium had no reference (as eve►ybody hoped) to the restriction of the Prussian trade. Can this deadly foole►y be endured much longer ? PAPER REMEDIES. Six regiments and a battalion of Guards would be Indeed a seasonable reinforcement, and the promised tilling up of the melancholy vacancies of our cavalry regiments would remedy in a great degree the deficiencies hitherto experienced in that arm. if this were done, or even if it could be done quickly, such relief would be only ' an bistalment towards the justice we owe to our troops, and , the support we ar E XIST e bound to &rd to a righteous cause a Tinte4, Nov. 15, 185/.nd to faithful and courag eo us allies. But unfortunately, THESE PLANS EXIST ONLY ON PAPEIL When a Kalmuck is ill, in the place of a pill, Or a powder, or draught of the usual description, The literal Kalmuck (says the traveller Huc) Bolts the paper inscribed with his doctor's prescription. In a similar mode, our poor soldiers abroad Are treated, it seems, by Tadpole and Taper, Who consider them, perhaps, insured from mishaps If preservative measures are taken—oft paper. X► a covering army o take the initiative Yr - ohnoat reversed ti t the Capture 4 t,•,5• 4 .; , ,)*lito add a - i'Vr . 't: ) ,M. si r ~ c /t* # __ki k .. lei ilk . 1 '.. iliEl v Avaß %AN, THE PRESS.