The Press. — London, England, 1854-05-06 00:00:00

paign . below Nicopolis, and especially between . itsehuk and Silistria. The latter fortress has been hard pressed by the Russians since the 14th ult., but on the 25th was still in the hands of the Turks, who had defended themselves with great gallantry. A grand attack was expected about the Ist inst., the Russians having made preparations for crossing the river with 30,000 men, covered by seventeen batteries. The garrison are resolute, and Mustapha Paella is confident of holding out until aid arrives. The Turks daily send about 1,000 cannon balls into the in • trenchments of the Russians, who up to the 19th had 800 men wounded, many of whom were officers. The number of killed is unknown, but it must be very great No confirmation has been received of the reported victories said to have been gained by the Turks at Czernav oda and in the Dobrudsch a. Deserters from the Russian army in the latter district, however, state that the Danube overflowed and carried away all the raft bridges : the communication with the right bank of the Danube was cut off, and for the last four days the army was without provisions. Their number is 60,000. They lost 4,000 in passing the river. The place on which they are encamped was very marshy, the frost was intense, and their loss was 100 men per diem. is ones more concentrated on the operations But, The Oat Deutsche Post of the 27th announces, as the most important military news from Bulgaria, that the special corps of Russian dragoons, 26,000 strong, which generally follows the footsteps of Prince I'askiewitsch, were now under march for the Danube. It was believed to be the intention of the prince to press on with this corps, and a select reserve of light troops, into the very heart of Turkey. Omer Pacha is in the meantime collecting his strength, and constructing formidable defences around Schumla. He has 40,000 regulars and 15,000 irregulars, including Redifs. This force is formed into six divisions—two for the plain, three for the heights, and one of reserve in the town. He is de termined to remain in position there and await the Russian attack. He has reason to believe that the Russians expected an offensive movement on his part in the Dobrudscha. Had he advanced in that direction the enemy might have thrown 00,000 men over the Danube at Rutachuk, Schumla might have fallen, and the whole country passed into the pos session of the Russians. The army of Bulgaria consists of 140,000 men, regulars and irregulars. Of the former there are 95,000 men, including the gar• rison of Sophia. In Widdin and Kalafat, 20,000 ; at Varna, 8,500 ; at Rutschuk, 7,000 ; at Silistria, 11,000; and in Schumla 55,000 men, and 320 guns, of which 138 are for field purposes. REVEL AND CRONSTADT. AT the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, after the navi gator has doubled the isle and lighthouse of Odensholm, the first points of interest are the fort of Rogervich and the great harbour called Port Baltic. Before Russia pos sessed the splendid harbours of Finland vast works were began by Peter the Great, and continued by the Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine, for the purpose of shutting in the port of Rogervich by a dyko and rendering it fit for a naval station. But the operations required wore not less for midable than those of Cherbourg, and the Government ultimately abandoned them. Revel, which lies eight leagues from Rogervich, has thus become the first or westernmost military harbour on the gulf. The city of that name is the capital of Esthonia, contains some 23,000 inhabitants, and is situated about 130 leagues from St. Petersburg. The harbour of Revel is extensive, with a great depth of water. Around it are building-docks, a naval arsenal, a cannon foundry, and all other works requisite for a military port. The town stands on an elevation, and is strongly fortified, especially on the able towards the sea. The guns of the citadel command the harbour, although from some distance. The channel leading into the port winds amongst islands and sandbanks, which render the naviga tion extremely difficult, especially when, as at present, the buoys and landmarks are removed. But, in spite of these difficulties, the Russians themselves have never considered Revel impregnable, as they do Cronstadt or Sveaborg. The Government has, however, taken vigorous measures to strengthen its defences. New batteries have been con structed ; its suburbs razed within the radius of a cannon shot ; the women, children, and infirm sent ontof the town ; and the civic and judicial authorities transferred to Veissenatein, a little town ten leagues inland. Finally, a corps of 30,000 men has been despatched to protect the city and its environs. Penetrating deeper into the Gulf of Finland, we arrive at Cronstadt, which may be considered at once the outwork, the arsenal, and the commercial entrepot of Pt. Petersburg. Eight leagues of water separate the two localities ; but that water is seldom more than eight feet deep, so that all large vessels, and even the packet•steamers, are obliged to stop and unload at Cronstadt. Ships-of-war are indeed built at St. Petersburg, where there are excellent building and graving docks, but they are always sent to Cronstadt to be rigged and armed ; and even the bare hulls of the larger vessels are transported down the shallow waters of the THE PRESS. Neva on " camels." Some years since the Emperor Nicholas ordered a gigantic ship-of-the-line, intended to carry 140 guns, to be built in his capital; but the proportions were so badly calculated that, when finished, it was found im possible to convey it to the sea, and the marine colossus was perforce taken to pieces without ever being launched. Cronstadt itself contains three ports—one used for com mercial purposes, another for the repair and outfit of ships of-war, the third as a station fur the Russian navy. Cronstadt lies upon the island of Eottliue, three leagues in length by half a league in breadth. Its western point is, however, much narrower. Sandbanks surround it on every aide except at the south-east extremity, where the town and harbour are situated. Opposite to the island on the south lies Oranienbaum, on the coast of Ingria. Along this shore another sandbank stretches, and extends so far into the sea as to leave but a narrow and winding channel by way of entrance to Cronstadt harbour. Within the port moreover the water is from six to seven fathoms deep, but the channel in places is barely four—a depth by no means sufficient for huge 131-gun ships like the Duke of TVelling tom, for whose passage even the Sound was not considered safe. Beyond this channel and the harbour, on the side towards St. Petersburg, there is a roadstead, but too shal low for ships-of-war, and only imperfectly sheltered by the island of Cronstadt and the heights of Oranienbaum. Far ther on, as we have mentioned, the water shoals to eight feet. All this part of the gulf is brackish the proportion of salt in the water diminishing as we approach the eastern extremity, where it degenerates into a series of lagoons leading up to Lake Ladoga. In its double character of fortress and trading town Cronstadt boasts a fluctuating population amounting sometimes to 50,000 souls. if we include some 20,000 garri son and the commercial and maritime residents. The town is built of wood. Except the Admiralty, the great hospital, and the military works of all sorts, there are no edifices either of strength or importance in the place. The batteries, the forts, and the vast moles which surround its three harbours are indeed of the most imposing magmifi cence. Russia has always been addicted to a kind of thea trical display in her public performances of all kinds. There is much of this developed in the fortifications at Cronstadt, although they also possess the reality of strength to a serious degree. Approaching Cronstadt from the west, we have on the left the western angle of the island forming a sharp point, extended into the sea by a line of rocks, of which the last is crowned by the lighthouse of Talboukin. After wards we pass the south coast of the isle, lined with batte ries, and in front a series of five forts placed chequerwise, on rocks or banks between which winds the deep water channel leading into the harbour. On the right, about two leagues off, are the heights of Oranienbaum, with its imperial park and château. In the distanoe, when the fogs permit, may be traced the outlines of St. Petersburg, whose lofty edifices, and the gilded dome of the Church of St. Isaac, stand out in bold relief against the sky. The most formidable defences which Cronstadt possesses are those that gwrd the entrance to its triple harbour. There are five Mils in the sea and seven on the shore or the moles. These forts are furnished with casemated bat teries, each of two or three stages, and the greater part of them built of huge squared blocks of granite, whereon it is said shot can make no impression. The position of these batteries has been carefully adjusted so as to enfilade the different sinuosities of the channel, so that every ship approaching Cronstadt must be exposed to a series of raking fires in front, without having a chance of bringing her broadside to bear until she has arrived actually between the forts. A single vessel also sunk in mid-channel would effectually choke up the passage. A technical description of this mans of fortifications would be very uninteresting and altogether unintelligible without a plan. We must, therefore, content ourselves with a brief enumeration of the series of cannon-crowded piles of masonry which an intruding fleet will have suc cessively to confront. On the coast of the island, and lying to the left of the channel, there are—l. The Peters fort, presenting to the sea a rounded curtain, flanked by two casemated bastions. These bastions have a double tier of guns, of which the upper is " en barbette," i.e., un covered from above. The fort mounts altogether seventy six pieces of large calibre. IL The Kesel battery, mounting eight cannon on the water level. 111. A bat tery, commanding the landing-place, situated outside the walls of the town, on a projecting cape, comprising ten guns. IV. The great mole, covering the commercial harbour on the west, and presenting an immense battery of seventy cannon and twelve mortars right in front of all entering vessels. V. Fort Menschikoff, constructed oppo siteithe mole on the other side of the harbour. This fort constitutes a parallelogram, pierced with forty-four em brasures, and mounted with cannon of ten and twelve inches calibre. VI. A battery, which commands the second or outfitting harbour. VII. Another battery, on the mole of the military harbour at the south-east of the island and the town. The moles which we have mentioned are not mere jetties thrown forward into the sea, but con tinuous works surrounding and dividing the three harbours. They are formed of double ranges of piles, whose surface is broad enough both for the passage of vehicles and the manoeuvring of the guns. The three ports have two entrances apiece, each of the six openings being masked by a large demi-lune formed of piles, which are crowned with cannon, and flank the curtains of the moles. These land batteries mount about 250 large guns. In addition, there are a series of forts built in the sea, and containing about 400 more. The first of these, reckoning from seawards, consists of a pair of forts called Alexander and Ilisbank, between which all vessels must pass at &distance front each of about eight hundred yards, for the channel, which narrows afterwards, is nearly a mile wide at its entrance. Fort Alexander is, in its ground plan, of an elliptical shape—an enormous granite pate, it has been called—consisting of a front with four tiers of cannon, two flanks with three tiers, and a rear wall mounted with guns SATUR: en barbette. It is built of granite, on piles driven through eighteen feet of water. Ships rounding this fort are com manded by 116 eight and ten inch guns. Riabauk, which lies to the right, is also built of granite, on a foundation of piles in sixteen feet water. It contains sixty-two heavy guns in two tiers, the lowest of which is on the water level. Then comes Fort Constantine, nearly facing the Petersfort already mentioned, and containing twenty-five guns in a single tier ; and afterwards we approach the Fort St. Peter, facing the battery on the landing-place, and armed with f►fty cannon, twenty-eight of which are in casemates. Last is the grand fort of Cronslott, at once the most ancient and the nearest to the harbour. Its form is that of an irregular pentagon, flanked by five small bas tions at its angles. The armament consists of fifty-six guns in casemated embrasures, and thirty-two in open batteries. Cronslott fronts the Meuschikoff fort, the former to the right, the latter to the left, of the deep -water channel, which at that point is barely two hundred yards in width. Passing ships must therefore approach within one hundred yards of ono or other of these formidable batteries. The total number of guns, mortars, &c., mounted upon all the forts we have enumerated is nearly six hundred, and their fire crosses at almost every point. Their combined strength doubtless prompted the Emperor Nicholas when recently saying, with a smile of irony, " I am curious to learn by which end they will lay hold of Cronstadt." Many of the forts above described are assailable from the rear ; but their rear never could be assailed until Cronstadt itself had fallen. There is, no doubt, a northern shore to the island. But the channel on this side is com paratively shallow, and has been carefully obstructed by the Russians, who have driven in a double row of piles six miles in length, and filled up with massive blocks of stone. It is, however, in this quarter that an attacking force would, it is stated, find its best chance of success. A powerful fleet to keep the command at sea, a flotilla of gun-boats for the shallow waters, and a strong body of laud forces, comprising 25 or 30,000 men, well supplied with engineering tools and materials, might, it is believed, overcome all obstacles and effect a lodgment on the north west point of the island. There they might cover their position with entrenchments in the course of a couple of nights, and thence besiege the town and fortifications from the rear, or shell them from a distance. None of the sea forts, except perhaps Forts Constantine and St Peter, are near enough to do any damage to the invaders on that side. And though the higher guns of the great forts on the channel command the surface of the ground, the enemy may speedily place themselves in the shelter of en trenchments, where nothing but bombs could reach them. If once masters of the batteries along shore, they would not only diminish by one-half the danger to be encountered by the attacking fleet, but might silence the greater part, if not all, of the sea forts. The capture, from the land side, of Petersfort and the Kesel battery is said to be by no means impracticable, the chief strength of those places being turned towards the sea. Even their capture might not enable the assailing fleet to force the narrow pass between Cronslott and Fort Mensehikoff; but the ships would win their way into positions whence they could effectually bombard the harbour of Cronstadt, and co-operate with the land siege of the fortress. From another weapon of assault—faminr-- is protected by its climate. During four months, at least, of every year, the waters are frozen between the island and St. Petersburg, and a constant communication by means of sledges is opened with the capital. On the other hand, if the blockading squadron should allow itself to be raught In the ice, every ship would inevitably be destroyed by cannon brought over the frozen surface into advantageous positions, if not surrendered beforehand. " The taking of Cronstadt," says the Debate, in an article to which we are indebted for many of the foregoing details, " would inflict a blow on the Russian empire more terrible than the loss of ten provinces, since it would thereby lose its navy. St. Petersburg would soon find itself besieged at the entrance of the Neva, and bombarded by a flotilla which would be supported by the fleet in possession of Cronstadt. This danger is not, perhaps, imaginary. It is for this reason that the Russian Government has collected together round that port the most formidable means of de fence. Peter the Great, in founding his capital, also founded Cronstadt, in which his genius must be admired; for it must be seen that, without Cronstadt, l'etersburg the Superb, with its eight feet of water, would only be a small coasting port, that might be blockaded and bombarded by gun-boats." WAR-SHIPS IN THE CHINA SEAS. THE following is a list of the ships of war belonging to various nations whose presence in the China seas was known when the March mail left Hong-Kong : ENGLlSH.—Barracouta, Hongkong, 0, Parker; Bittern, Fuhchau, 12, Vansittart ; Cowls, Hongkong, 14, Fellowes; Encounter, Shanghae, 14, Captain O'Callaghan; Grecian, Hongkong, 12, Hon. G. D. Keane ; Lily, Whampoa, 19, Sanderson; Rattler, Shanghae, 0, Mellersh; Salamander, Shaughac, 6, Ellman; Spartan, Whampoa, 21, Captain Sir W. Hoste ; Styx, Amoy, 6, Commander Woolcombe ; Win chester, Hongkong, 50, Vice-Admiral Pellew and Com mander Wainwright. AmEstc tic—Lexington, Loochoo, Lieutenant Glasson ; Macedonian, Loochoo, 22, Captain Abbot; Mississippi, Loochoo, 10, Lee; Plymouth, Shanghae, 22, Kelly; INA - poise, Hongkong, 10, Davis; Powhatan, Loochoo, 9, Cap tain M'Cluney ' • Queen, Whampoa, 2, Lieutenant Taylor ; Saratoga, Looc hoo, 20, Walker; Southampton, Loochon, 4, Lieutenant Boyle ; Supply, Shanghae, 6, Lieutenant Sinclair; Susquehanna, Loochoo, 8, Commodore Perry and Commander Buchanan ; Vandalia, Loochoo, 20, Pope. FnEscti.--Constantine, Ningpo, Commodore T. de Mont ravel. RussuN.—Pallas, Japan, 52, Captain Ounkonaky ; VoE• took, Japan, 4, kozsakotr; Prime Menchikoff, Japan.