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

MAY 6, 1854. THE W A R. THE ARMIES. THE military chiefs are gradually concentrating towards the scene of action. The Duke of Cambridge lingered in Vienna, as he had lingered in Paris, for several days beyond the time fixed for departure, but he actually left for Trieste on Sunday last, and on Tuesday sailed thence for Corfu in the Lloyd packet. At the island his Royal Highness was to wait the arrival of the Caradoc steamer, and embark in her for Constantinople. Lord Lucan left Mar seilles on the 28th in the Louepor for the East. Lord Raglan arrived at Malta on the 25th, and sailed in the evening of the same day for Gallipoli. He was accompanied by Lord De Ros, Military Secre tary ; Rear-Admiral Boxer, Lieutenant-Colonel Steele, A.D.C. ; Major Wellesley, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General; Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Raglan Somerset, the Hon. Captain Blackwood, and Lieutenant Boxer. The departure of the Earl of Cardigan from England was announced for Wednes day, but has since been postponed. On the French side we learn that Prince Napo leon reached Syra on the 25th, and proceeded thence to Constantinople; and that Marshal St. Arnaud, the French Commander-in-Chief, sailed from Marseilles on Saturday last, the 29th, in the steamer Ber thollet. The marshal would not wait for the Chaptal, which required some repairs. THE RENDEZVOUS IN THE EAST. The detachments from the combined expeditionary forces that have already arrived in Turkey are dis tributed between Gallipoli, Scutari, and Varna. At the first-mentioned place it is announced that the English and French Gcvernments have now aban doned any idea of maintaining any large number of troops. Some ten or fifteen thousand men may pro. bably be retained there as a sort of depot, and to guard a military post which may become important if the tide of war should approach nearer Constanti• nople, but for the present the bulk of the allied army is to be transferred upon points more proxi mate to the immediate scene of action. At the date of the last advices there were at Gallipoli a battalion of the Rifles, two companies of Sappers, the 44th, 50th, 93rd, 14th, and 28th Regiments. The French have done wonders at Gallipoli, having, after about three weeks' occupation, made it almost a new town. They made broad streets, and paved them, writing up the names of all the streets, and numbering all the houses. Every fifty or sixty yards they have er.cted lamp-posts, and burn large lamps all night: they have made a large bazaar, published a tariff of all the prices, and built a beautiful quay to land the troops from the vessels. " That quay alone," say the Turks, "would have taken us three years to accomplish." The entrenchments at Boulahir (Plajor), near Gallipoli, were commenced on the 20th ult, when the plans were traced by French engineers, assisted by Lieutenant-General Sir G. Brown. The works will be constructed half by the English and half by the French troops, 2,000 men of each army being employed. The Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the Gulf of Saros are all open to these works, and a very small force could hold them against an invading army, which would run the risk of having its communications cut off in the rear, and could be hampered on every side by an enemy in command of • the sea. At Scutari splendid barracks were built or cleared for the occupation of the English forces, a first de tachment of which arrived in the Himalaya. These consisted of the 41st and 53rd Regiments, and were followed in a day or two by the 47th, 49tb, rth, and 88th, in the Niagara. The French troops arrived late, and, by the last accounts, only four thousand of their troops had reached Constantinople. A military commissariat has been formed in that capital by General Baraguay d'Hilliers, composed of Turks, Englishmen, and Frenchmen, who are to provide for the material wants and for the billetting of the foreign troops. The English Government have sent despatches to Constantinople advising the establishment of a Polish Legion in Turkey, to operate against the Czar. From Varna the latest intelligence is of the 18th ult. Generals Brown and Bosquet are already at that important place, where the following troops are expected to arrive by the 4th of May:—The 33rd, 4!/nd, 49th, and 97th, English infantry regiments, and the whole of General Bosquet's division, con sisting of the Bth and 50th regiments of the line, the 7th light and the 3rd Zouave regiments, two r tie battalions, three field and two mountain bat teries. Voluminous particulars of arrivals and departures, movements and preparations, reach as from Malta by every mail. Eleven of the transport-vessels, with THE PIES 'l the horses of the Royal Artillery and field batteries on board, arrived there during the 25th and 26th ult. They were nearly all five or six weeks from England having met with fine weather, but light and variable winds. Of all shipped only twenty horses had been lost. The gross number that landed were 550 artillerymen, 19 officers, and 537 horses. A month would probably still elapse before they could expect to reach Gallipoli. The mail-steamer Egyptas, independently of her ordinary passengers, brought 514 officers, non-com missioned officers, and troops, but they did not land at the island. On the 26th Malta harbour presented an animated appearance. Upwards of sixty vessels, most of them laden with coal, were signalled at an early hour, and not long after came into port. Lieutenant King had left for Tunis with orders to buy 1,000 horses. Lodgings for 5,000 French troops were being pre pared at Malta. Military commissaries have been sent to the different points of the theatre of war. Rustum Pacha, the go vernor of Adrianople, has gone to Rodosto with officers charged by Ueneral Canrobert to study the question of the formation of a camp at that spot. Colonel Desaint, the head of the French topographic department, had gone to examine the military route from Gallipoli to Adrianople. THE FLEETS. BALTIC FLEET. Our news from the Baltic still reports little but preparations and anticipations. Admiral Napier, on the 20th ult., was cruising off the Gulf of Finland, having with him the Duke of Wellington (flag), St. Jean d'Acre, Cresar, Cressy, Royal George, Edinburgh, Imperieuse, Leopard, Mu.. gicienne, Driver, and Gorgon. The rest of the fleet were cruising, under Admiral Corry, between Dager fort and the coast of Sweden. A letter written on board the Duke of Wellington on the 27th ult. states :—" We are about to attack Hango Hinch harbour, which will be the opening of the ball, and of which I hope to render you a good account." Sir C. Napier, as we stated in our last Pnuss, paid a flying visit to Stockholm on the 24th of April, and on the following day had an audience of King Oscar. His reception in the city was enthusiastic, and although his arrival was quite unexpected large crowds had assembled to greet h' by the time he reached the landing-place. Th eempathies of the Swedes are said to be decidedly in favour of England, and the visit of the admiral was believed to have been inspired by the hope of obtaining from King Oscar an active co-operation in the war against the Czar. It is said that several Swedish ships-of-war are to be put into commission forthwith. Sir C. Napier left Stockholm on the 25th ult. Cruisers are stationed off Revel, Riga, Memel, Dantzic, Stockholm, Gothland, Bornholm, in the Sound, Cattegat, and Gulf of Kid, so that the whole Baltic Sea and coasts are under strict guard. The number of prizes taken in the Baltic has been very great, many of them laden with arms, hidden under cotton, &c., and intended for Russian harbours. A coal depOt is being formed for the fleet at Fahroesund, on the island of Gothland. Many Finnish and other seamen have entered our fleet from the northern harbours. No expense has been spared in obtaining the assistance of pilots. Not less than 1,0001. has been paid, in an instance or two, for the services of this class of men during the whole season, till the navigation closes ; and the same sum has been given to a Norwegian linguist., who speaks Russian and Finnish, on board the Wellington. The smallpox has appeared among the sailors of the fleet, but the disease has not broken out with any intensity except in a single vessel, the James Watt, which has lost a good many men. Several ships have had their crews revaccinated at Elsinore. A flotilla of steam gun vessels, destined for cutting out service in the shallow waters of the Baltic, is being rapidly formed. The Pigmy, Otter, Jasper, Lynx, Cuckoo, and Minx will form the advanced squadron. All the ships of the French fleet under the com mand of Admiral Deschenes, with the exception of two, left the Downs on Wednesday for the Baltic. Those left. behind are the liners Jemappes and La Tage, the ships that came in contact with each other, and have gone to Sheerness for iepairs. According to a lettter from the Baltic, the Emperor of Russia has ordered that all the boats belonging to the members of the Yacht Club of the Neva shall be placed at the service of the State, to form part of the flotilla of armed row-boats which is being formed at Sveaborg and Cronstadt, to act as a species of naval guerrillas against the British fleet. 415 A laboratory on the island of Cronstadt, occupied in the manufacture of cartridges, has blown up and deprived sixty human beings of their lives. The building contained 30,000 lbs. of powder, but was not within the rayon of the fortress, which sustained no injury. In the town, from which the laboratory was a league distant, a great number of broken windows attested the violence of the explosion. There seems to be some doubt of the truth of the statements that the Russians had evacuated the Aland Isles. A new policy has been adopted with regard to the crews of the Finnish and Russian ships lately , captured in the Baltic. Instead of being kept as prisoners of war, at a great expense, and to the ruin of their un fortunate families, they have been landed at Copen hagen, and allowed to go home over Sweden. More than 150 have thus been liberated already. Some of the prisoners taken on board Russian ships in the Channel and brought to England have been allowed at their own request to take service in British mer chant-vessels, those being selected that are bound for Australia or some distant voyage. The Russian prizes Ciejion and Ahlstran have been declared illegally captured according to the terms of her i lklajesty's proclamation, and were consequently released. THE BLACK SEA. aomeAtinmEsr OF 011EfaliA. The news so long expected, that the Black Sea fleet has at last struck a blow against the Russians, has now arrived. Odessa was bombarded on the 22nd ult. Full details are still on their way, and the outlines conveyed by the telegraphic wires through different routes, and derived from various sources of intelligence, vary very perplexingly in their state ments. However, of the fact there is no doubt. It appears that on the 15th ult. a division of ships left erne, and made sail for Odessa, in order to com mence bombarding it. On the 17th they arrived off its harbour, and in the afternoon four ships advanced close to the port and threw in a few bombs, when they shortly after retired. On the 18th eight ships made a reconnaissance towards Odessa, and fired again a few bombs into the harbour, probably also evidently with a view of ascertaining the exact range. On the 20th the whole squadron advanced to begin the bombardment. Finally, we learn by despatches received yesterday that on the 22nd of April the allied fleets destroyed, in a few hours, all the fortifi cations, the batteries, and the military stores. Two powder-magazines blew up, and twelve vessels-of war were sunk. The merchant-vessels were saved. The loss of the allies was only five killed and six wounded. Thirteen Russian vessels laden with mu nitions were taken. The fleet afterwards left in the direction of Sebas topol. The Austrian Correspondens gives an account of the affair, evidently from Russian information, stating that an attempt had been made to land 1,800 men, but without success. The Woronzow Palace at Odessa was totally de stroyed by the shells. The attacking squadron is stated to have consisted of nine ships. Odessa was garrisoned by 40,00 men. Before commencing their first attack, the English and French admirals sent a summons to the governor, demanding the delivery of the Russian ships-ot• war in the harbour of Odessa. For this purpose they allowed an interval of some hours. The summons being disregarded, the bombardment was resumed, and the ships sunk as above mentioned. There was a report that the Russian fleet had ventured out of Sebastopol, with the hope of driving the assaulting squadron from Odessa, but had retreated into port again somewhat precipitately. This, however, lacks confirmation, if not credibility. Besides the assault upon Odessa, we hear from Constantinople that the Russian batteries at the Sulina mouths of the Danube had been bombarded by a division of the allied fleets. The French are, it is said, about to reinforce their fleet in the Black Sea immediately by the addition of four more ships-of the-line. THE WAR ON THE DANUBE. Both the Turkish and Russian commanders were, according to the last accounts, withdrawing their forces with a view to their concentration. The rumour of approaching aid to one party, and of new antagonists to the other, had doubtless caused these preparatory movements on either side. The re ported evacuation of Little Wallachia by Prince I'askiewitsch is now confirmed. The Russians re treated through Slatina back upon Bucharest. It is further known that on the 24th the Russians com menced their retreat from Kralove, and have broken up their position in that town, which was for some time the head•quarters of Prince Oortschakoff. The right wins of the Russian army would, therefore, appear to rest on the river Aluta, with its head-quai ters at Bucharest, and the main interest of the cam