The Press. — London, England, 1854-10-14 00:00:00

962 in the Exchequer on the 10th of October would amount to 4,600,000/. We are curious to know whether the result bus answered his anticipations. Some financial explanations at this time would be valuable, and for this if for no other reason 14 short 'wagon sessi94 would have been very desirable. CLAIMS OF FALLEN BRAVE 4, THERE can be only one sentiment a the duty incumbent upon us all of generously regard ing the sacred claims of the widows and orphans of the gallant spirits that have so gloriously upheld our national credit in the present campaign. We have participated in the exultation of the victors, and shall we show no sympathy for the bereaved mourners of the heroes who have left the wives of their bosoms and their fatherless children to mourn ever the brave whose bones rest thousands of miles away ? We feel assured that to the forthcoming royal commission there will be a tnunifieent response from the first commercial Country in the world. The most pathetic incidents, indeed, relating to the late .battle were those which brought the softer emotions into striking contrast with those raised by the sanguinary strife. Many sensitive hearts would be touched with the natural incident of the dead Russian officer and the little dog seated between his knees viho could by no persuasion be coaxed away. Yet, if the beautiful instincts of one of what CHARLES LAMB called " the mute creation " eau touch the feelings, what fervent sympathy ought not to be felt towards those human beings, with bowed heads, weeping over their .husbands' fate, while sounds of joy and fierce exultation ring from outside in their ears ! .0! these wars have many sad passages which often cast gloom over victory ! The brave man falls in front, or by the side, of his comrades ; he dies for his flag, his sorrow is at an end, his pilgrimage in thin life ceases as the trials of those he loved are about to begin, encounter ing the hardships of the world without the aid of • the bold heart, or the stalwart arm, that would have cheered and upheld them under pain. The beams of glory that play for a time .otAciel the hero's grave are often • dimmed by showers from the tearful eyes of the bereaved. The nation exults, but by the fireside there is Ogiiish, and the hurrahs of the crowd wake strange echoes from desolated hearths. Some of the details of the battle-field are thrilling, and preach to us lessons that we hope shall not be lost. We read, not without pinution, of Russian officers found dead with pietures of their mothers or their mistresses upon their persons. And many a gallant English spirit fell near the Alma whose last Thoughts as he sunk mortally wounded were .of the wife of his bosom or the far-awa y home of his little ones. " Kiss baby for me a thou " sand times ; I thought of you all in the '' battle," writes a private artilleryman, and in the artless strokes of his untutored pen we feel the touches that move the human heart with the electric sympathies of nature. We get glimpses of the soldier's home that affect us with the sight of so much tenderness joined to rough manners and bluff bearing. We read in another letter—" JACK N— is all right. " He desires his love to Mrs. N— and the ." children, and to be remembered to you. "Like me, he is annoyed at there being no " means of sending you both home what we '" have for you upon us." Again, we read of a letter found upon a Russian officer, forwarded to the British in terpreter, on the surmise of its containing `military news. It was a love-letter from the fallen one's mistress, wishing him a speedy victory, and a happy return to her arms. And bow many counterparts were there to that `letter in the English tongue ! How many 'who gloriously fell on that fatal and famous 20th of September perused for the last time before they marched to the battle-field affec tionate notes from fond hearts that are now 'disconsolate, and wail in anguish for those manly forms whom at this side of the grave they *WI rover see again ! THE PRESS. The feelings awakened by the incidents of the battle•field should not evaporate in send ment. We must turn our emotions into acts, and practically fisiudnakate our sympathy for the orphans of Ole State, the widows of the n0.441a. .I..et us pcoljact, also, that as a duly it lies prof} u• tp allow strong sympathy.lifir the sufferings lf those pho sustained our country's hones in tho day of trial. The, hardships our soldiers have endured were terrible. The shoisra," wrote Lord RA, LAN, " pursued thee even to the battle " field," and numbers, it is to be feared, have perished for want of medical aid. Let us, then, think of these things while we "live at " home at ease," and read I - f the fates of the brave fellows whoin we all cheered a few months since as they left our white chalk cliffs, to carry the fame of our arms to the East, and to show to the whole world that the strength of Old England had not degenerated, or her spirit been tamed by years of peace. Yes ! when the Crown appeals to the nation for the widows and orphans of the army, let us answer with full hands the claims of the fallen brave. At a future time it may become a practical question how tq devise some plan by which, in certain departments, the sons of those who have died for their country may have the paths to the public service liberally opened to them. But at present our duty lies in hushing the sorrow of the fond ones, and in helping the fatherless who weep for those noble soldiers who fell in the field of fame. THE WORKING OF " FREE SHIPS, FREE GOODS." THAT the Ministers are not chargeable with the military successes of the war we showed sufficiently last week. Its mercantile bless ings, we grant, arc all their own. Lord ABER DEEN, in his speech the other day, makes a great point of them, and we freely allow the claim. The orders in Council, as finally issued, settled the principle (or something very like it) that " free bottoms make free goods. Bon4 fide Russian property is, of course, lawful prize ; but " neutral " States are a sort of fumigators, and remove the infection. Russian goods, by passing through Prussian hands, are purified, and pass free to England, and vice versa. The advantages to us of the first half of this left-handed bargain have been lately pro claimed in the Invalide Busse. It has been crowin g with too much truth over the fact — one of the few favourable facts it has had to chronicle for some months past—that Eng land receives as much Russian produce as ever, only she pays a double price for it. The trade returns for the eight months ending September 5, in 1852, 1853, 1854, give our im ports of the main articles as follows :- 1852. 1853. 1854. cwt. cwt. cwt. Hemp 580,491 .. 563,92.5 .. 638,553 Hides (untanned) 311,710410,411 Tallow In every respect, so far as we can discover, our imports of essentially Russian produce are, on the whole, larger this year than they have ever been before. Even of corn the re turns stand thus 1852. 1853. ars. qrs. qrs. Wheat 1,6 i 9,230 .. 3,31)2.452 .. 3,072,246 Barley 413,681 .. 666,093 .. 495,217 Oats We had been fondly dreaming that the corn of Russia was rotting on Odessa wharves, that its finances were desperate, and its war carried on by the help of worthless paper roubles. No such thing. Our exports to Russia have been nil, except of " the precious metals." In a word, we have been paying with gold and lead. About the latter we shall presently have a word to say. We learn from au able article in our Parisian contemporary La Presse, a day or two ago, that, notwithstanding a new issue of paper roubles in Russia, their value has materially risen. The paper rouble is at par at 4 francs. Its value had fallen to 2f. 05c. ; it is now 8.80. It has risen in Paris from 3.20 to 3.80 within SATURDAY, the last week or tw•o, awl in London from 2s. Bd. to 3s. 2d., which is almost at par. The explanation of this rise is, that we have im ported as much of Russian goods as ever we did, and have exported gold in payment for them. Our Money Market has been conse quently tightened, while we have been fur nishibg the principal niemie that Russia has of prolonging the war, and have sustained the (otherwise ba.nkrart) credit, of her inexhausti ble " paper. How ell ilia has been managed is no mys tery, The fire at Memel has literally thrown a glaring light upon it. Memel, a Prussian " neutral" town, has become the entre* of - Russia and England. When the fire, a week ago, consumed the innumerable warehouses, or rather sheds, that had lately sprung up there, we are told that property to the extent of two million sterling perished. Memel is, in fact, or was, what Riga, Revel, and St. Peters burg togetherhad been; and so the wharfiugers of Memel are moaning, not over the two mil lions—for the goods, once Russian, were (when burnt) mostly English—but over the long array of sheds, which harboured this gigantic smug gling trade. So far we sacrifice to this " neutral" sort of warfare only our gold, di rectly, but, indirectly, the blood which that gold enables Russia to shed. The other half of Lord CLARENDON'S bargain, that which allows English produce to pass to Russia through neutral hands, —Belgian, Prussian, or other,—has a far more detestable aspect, of which, perhaps, we are now only beginning to feel the absurd abomination. Hitherto it has been a question mainly of gold : here it is one, directly, of blood. The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Daily News writes as follows, under date of September 30 : The Prussians are driving a lucrative trade under cover of their neutrality ; but whether lead—as the raw material of musket bullets—may not be fairly classed in the cate gory of contraband of war, is a question to be answered by the Government. This is, however, an undoubted fact, that the Russian Government steamer Sandonier has arrived at Bromberg, on the Vistula (in Prussian Poland), from Warsaw, to take on board 2,800 cwt. of copper wire for the electric telegraph between St. Petersburg and Warsaw, and also 3,000 cwt. of lead; and further, that a similar quantity of lead was shipped at the same place, for the same destination, last week. Is this neutrality? Musket balls run about fourteen to the pound ; conical minie balls, we believe, about twenty-four. So,. then, under this " neutra lity " system we are sending, or allowing to be sent, to our enemy more than eight million mime balls week after week. When is this mischievous nonsense to end ? We say nothing of the electric wires, though their British parentage is unquestionable, and they travel in very suspicious company. But let them pass. Let the Czar know, as fast as wire can tell him, that Alma is lost, his ships sunk, and that MENSCHIKOFF is a braggart. But do not, my Lord CLARENDON, give us the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that the eagle's feather has winged the bolt that lays the eagle low; that it is our own lead that slaughters our own men ; do not give the poor soldier's widow the tenfold misery of feeling that he who was her pride and life died, not because duty called him, but because trade shot him ; was sacrificed, not to the honour of Old England, but to the tom-foolery of Minis terial " neutrality." We shall he glad when our Ministers have discovered that war is war, and that its face is not less hideous for being muffled up in the nightcap of " neutrality." Englishmen and Frenchmen are paying, as nations, with their money and (by thousands) with their wounds and blood for this mischievous interference with the natural laws of warfare. SENT [MENTAL LEGISLATION. WHEN Lord CRANWORTH, some fifteen months since, introduced his plan for the abolition of transportation, we pointed out the extreme imprudence of abruptly abandoning a system which upon the whole had proved beneficial alike to the interests of this country and to those of the unfortunate beings for whom it was devised. We do not mean to assert that that system was faultless, but it was decidedly