The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

THE WEEK. Ar length we may congratulate ourselves that the season of listless inactivity is over in the Crimea, and that vigorous operations have taken the place of irresolute counsels and questionable successes. The capture of Kertch, the destruction of the Russian stores, the complete mastery of the Sea of Azoff, and the bombardment of Arabat, together with the attack and capture of the outworks before the Quarantine Fort, and the advance of nearly 100,000 of the allied soldiers beyond their lines, preparatory to the attack of the fortified heights of the Tschernaya, are the just results of one week's energy and decision. True, that with the exception of the bloody struggle in front of Quarantine Fort, and the repulse of the Russian sortie, we have been unopposed ; yet the very facility of our success makes us inquire why the Kertch expedition was not thought of or attempted before ? Why have the Russians in Sebastopol for the last six months been permitted to draw their stores and supplies, which have been constantly seen passing into the town in files 'of hundreds of arabas at a time by way of the Sea of Azoff, without interruption? Our " active" and " energetic" Premier can, perhaps, answer this question. The plan of the Allied Generals appears to he what we hazarded as the most obvious plan last week, viz., an advance as far as Simferopol and the occupation of that position, if practicable, as well as a gradual drawing in round Sebastopol towards the north side. If the communications of the town can only be seized, its capture is a mere question of time. After our successes in the Sea of Azoff, the gaze is naturally turned to the other extreme of the Crimea; and the seizure of Perekop would be of considerable advantage to the Allies. With the large fleet of steamers which we have now in the Black Sea, and the vast army collected on its shores, why should not a flying squadron conveying some ten or twelve thousand men be kept constantly on the alert? Nioolaieff at one extreme, and Theodosia at the other, are places which could be easily taken and destroyed if necessary, the former, in particular, being the very spot of all others which should be burnt, as containing the vast dockyards and arsenal of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The health of the camp before Sebastopol is not so satisfactory as we could wish. There is a large amount of ague, diarrhoea, and low fever about, and a few cases of cholera have'already been fatal. We are glad to see that summer clothing has already arrived in the camp, and is being distributed to the army. The Sardinian contingent was encamped outside Bala klava, and was to be reviewed by Lord RAGLAN. The letters of correspondents speak in the highest terms of the discipline and appearance of the men. The siege-works meanwhile progress : fresh batteries are daily thrown up, and guns and mortars put into position, while tons of powder and shot are hourly being transported to the reserve parks and front magazines. The French have successfully completed their fourth parallel, and everything bespeaks the speedy opening of a third bombardment. OMER PACHA was daily expected at the camp with 25,000 Turks, so that the rather impracticable project of an advance from Eupatoria is definitively given up, the Allied Generals appearing to prefer acting en mane from their sea-board off Sebastopol. The summer months are rapidly approaching, and as yet our Baltic fleet does not show any signs of active coast operations. The crews of the ships are constantly exercised ; the gun-boats and boats of the fleet, manned and armed, are manoeuvred in divisions ; wooding and watering are daily performed ; and all the minutia; of strict discipline and efficient training fully attended to, yet Revel and Helsingfors still stand where they were, unharmed, unattempted. Revel, to show that it is animated by the same feeling which pervades our fleet, daily practises its great guns, firing at a target, while vast masses of troops are concentrating round and in the town, and Helsingfors, after suffering a reconnaisance by our gallant Admiral some ten days ago, now reposes secure in the sense of its declared impregnability. Meanwhile, the Admirals preserve a discreet silence on all points conneeted with future operations. A look at Cronatadt is now and then talked of, but we trust that a look and a blow will be synonymous terms this year. Bearing in mind the numerous and, as a rule, successful expeditions either in cutting out ships from under the guns of forts or blowing up sunken vessels and destroying the defences of a town or harbour in the last war, we do not seem at present to have displayed equal enterprise in this. There is, or at least appears to be, a dearth of inventive contrivance, of mechanical talent, among our naval officers, which is unaccountable. In war there are no defensive means with out offensive resources always to be found ; and even vessels full of granite, though sunk under the thousand guns of a fortress, may yet, we should think, in these advanced days of science and discovery, be removable. Unless something of this sortt be done, and that speedily, we shall he compelled to acknowledge that at least in the Baltic the Russian ➢ossessions are impregnable. Our gun boats, which, by-the bye, can only fight their guns in smooth water, and our floating batteries, will all prove useless, unless we can open a way for them by which they may bring their guns to bear at point blank range, the only range at which any effect will ensue against granite for tresses. The immense preponderance of the French army in the East, the purchase, or treaty for purchase—for it is not quite clear yet whether the ground is sold or not—of a large tract of land on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus for the erection of permanent barracks, the vast, fortifications at Gallipoli, and filially the intrenchments at Kamiesch, taken altogether are suggestive of the prospect, at least in the eye of the French Emperor, of a long sojourn in thu East for the French SATURDAY, army. The Emperor, moreover, has indefinitely postponed his visit to the Crimea, his camp furniture having been returned from Constan tinople to Paris ; and this fact alone affords much reflective matter. It cannot escape notice that the French have produced a great sensa tion by the display of their vast power before the eyes of the Turks ; that we have proportionately lost caste in the respect •f a nation who, in common with all Eastern tribes, are moved solely by display ; and that, come what may of this war, the position at this moment held by our allies at Constantinople is immeasurably superior to our own, both in a moral and physical point of view. Those revivalists amongst us who seek to introduce conventual institutions will be disheartened at the conduct of the Sardinian people. The fact of the successful movement against the convents by the Sardinians is a most striking circumstance. This testimony against such mediaeval societies is of more importance, as the Sar• dinians still worship in religion according to the ritual of Rome. They dwell in climes where the Bible has not been allowed to circulate, and they are close in vicinage to the " centre of unity," so much boasted of by the friends of Italian religion. The progress of convents in these islands for some time past is really alarming ; they are manu factories of morbid sentimentalism, and are peculiarly infectious amongst weakly natures with a sickly aversion to the real duties of life. As auxiliaries of the creed •f Rome they are of prodigious efficacy. The enthusiasm of their inmates, men or women, is skilfully directed. Under the pretence of social utility they are advocated by political Jesuits ; but the Sardinians are a gifted and intelligent race, and they know the convents by their fruits, and will have no more of them. Their freedom in politics, by an inevitable law, is bursting their religious fetters; and though it may be precipitate to expect them to pass at once to a spiritual worship, still some of the heaviest of Romish evils will be removed from them. At the present moment the internal condition of Sardinian society is one of the most interest ing problems in Europe for the political observer. The attempt to organise an agitation to introduce the Maine Liquor Law is one of the events of the week. Teetotalism by act of Parliament is not likely to be popular in a free country like England, and the proposition of such a measure savours of the dicta torial spirit of the tyrant majority of American democracy. The teetotal interest, however, is a strong one, and is apparently rising in influence. It seems an empirical mode of producing virtue, and it may ho defined as the fanaticism of sobriety. It derives its strength from a reaction against the excessive drunkenness and scandalous insobriety which disgrace our working classes. But in the speeches of Lord HARRINGTON, Sir R. W. CARDEN, and others, on Wednesday, we heard no practical suggestions for putting moral excitement in place of the artificial stimulants of the ginshops. To provide agreeable amusements that can be lutUtually enjoyed by the humbler portion of society is a great difficulty. Narrow streets, crowded ouses, polluted airs, stunning noise, depress the organs of sensa ion, and hence there is a physical craving for a stimulus. Mechanics' Institutes, with their learned oloyies, are of little or no use to the toil worn artisan. We could have desired, on Wednesday, that the whole case of the lower classes had been more deeply illustrated. A. fertile cause of criminality, drunkenness is also an effect from antecedent circumstances. The working classes want more social sympathy, vivid, personal, and active. They have its counterfeit at the ginshop, and if the reality were given to them there might be no necessity for even proposing the self-denying ordinances of teetotalism in its various forms. Lord STRANOFORD died this week at his residence in Harley-street. He figures largely in the memoirs of BYRON and MOORE, and the first has given him a place in his well-known satire, alluding to him as " Hibernian Strangford, with thine eyes of blue." MOORE wrote to him a farewell letter on the night before he and JEFFREY encountered each other with " leadless pistols." Lord STRANOFORD had many accomplishments, and was a great friend of Mr. CANNING, to whom ho rendered important services. He had his share personal annoy ances from literary warfare, like others of his contemporaries. He is succeeded by his son, the present (and ninth) viscount, formerly the eloquent member for Canterbury. That profound stateman, acute politician, and inestimable man of business, Sir CHARLES WOOD, is so deeply employed upon the varied duties of his office, that we understand he is never to be seen. He is always " engaged," " extremely busy," and, contrary to custom, never will submit to an interview with an officer, no matter upon what claim or business. What is Sir CHARLES WOOD doing? Is he studying the Navy List, or endeavouring to master the technicalities of the " Dic tionary of Sea Terms," or working out a plan for the destruction of Cronstadt and capture of St. Petersburg? The public will naturally expect some result from so much self-seclusion. For our own part, we are inclined to believe that the Right Hon. Baronet is trying to dis• cover the meaning of that popular cry " The right man in the right " place." He has filled so many places himself, and been so unde niably bad in all of them, that he has perhaps seriously set himself the task of finding out what he is really fit for. Lord ABERDEEN has given a striking instance of the physical incapacity of the present Premier for his onerous office. In his pub lished correspondence with Lord JOHN RUSSELL about the War De partment he records the following fact:— At the formation of the Government I proposed to Palmerston to take the Admi ralty, but he preferred the Home•office : and as he told me himself that the Foreip-office had become too much for him, I am sure that he would never think of undertaking the business of the two offices in question. The Foreign•ofiicc, with which Lord PALMERSTON With specially familiar, was " too much for him," and yet he was the man cried up for the War-office by 'certain persona. How the world is gulled 1 THE PRESS.