The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

THE ATTACK ON SWEABORG. THE view which we took last week of the nature of the operations of our fleet against Sweaborg has been fully verified by Admiral DIINDAS'S despatches. As we surmised, the storehouses, arsenal, and Government buildings upon the principal islands have been burnt, but the sea defences at the conclusion of the born bardment, to use the Admiral's own words, " appeared but little (injured." In fact, so far from being an assault upon the fortress of Sweaborg, the attempt of the 9th, Admiral DUNDAS clearly states, was limited to the destruction of the dockyard and arsenal, no attack against the defences being con templated at any period. The modest, manly tone which pervades Admiral DIINDAS'S de spatch contrasts favorably with the bom bastic fustian put forth by the Times last week, and re-echoed through the country. Upon the first receipt of the telegraphic message briefly announcing the bombardment on Wednesday week, the Times declared that "Sweaborg was "utterly destroyed." Not content with this sweep ing assertion, it even went into detail, and informed us that " a few shattered earthworks " and batteries are all that survive (?) of a " mighty link in that chain of fortresses pre " pared for the conquest," &c. &c. ; in fact, " Sweaborg was no more." Such extravagant and unwarrantable asser tions as these, at a time when nothing was really known of the details or results of the operations, were unworthy of a paper in the position of the Times, and serve to make us rather the laughingstock than the "admiration " of Europe. It would be scarcely just to the Times, however, after having noticed these ridiculous exaggerations, if we did not bear witness to the creditable facility with which, on Tuesday last, it ignored all that it had the week before so triumphantly boasted of, and informed us that Sweaborg was now reduced to its "naked bat kries," against which " the allied fleets did not " venture, as it was scarcely possible we could " destroy them without suffering terrible loss, " and were hence compelled to leave them " comparatively intact." We leave the comps rison between these two statements on the same subject to be drawn by our readers. In another page the admirable letter of our "Baltic Correspondent" will be read with great interest ; it is undeniably one of the best and most clearly written which has appeared in print. From his account it appears a miracle almost that the gun and mortar boats, though at a range of 3,300 yards, should escape with so little loss, for the fire of the Russian batteries was at times very heavy and of commanding range ; but the most remarkable good fortune favored the attack throughout. 1121 gun-boats seem to have been handled in the most seamanlike .ner, and every man and officer to have Jrted himself to the utmoz*t. though it is Imarkable a d worthy of no'ice here that gallant Admiral in his despatch corn ,ds no officer under the rank of captain. two such days there must surely have n some inferior officers worthy of common- AUG. 25, 1855. of the Napier symptoms into the congested malignity of the Netherb3 type. Spectators must avoid infection ; but, at the proper time, we shall give our opinion on the whole alarm ing case. The catalogue of Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S awkward collisions of a most unpleasant kind, is painfully long. They began with Mr. O'GORMAN MAHON in 1831—with the Melbourne Whigs in 1834—with sundry of the Cumberland yeomen in 1837—with Lord JOHN RUSSELL in 1841 (when the Noble Lord took a memorable distinction between the characters of Lord DERBY and Sir JAMES GRAHAM)—with Mr. DUNCOMBE in the letter-opening case, and with Mr. MACAULAY (July 2nd, 1844)—with Recorder SHAW in '46—with Mr. LAYARD in the late session. To these is now added what threatens to be the most serious of them all. There is no House of Commons now sitting, and Sir JAMES will have no opportunity for firing off his hoarded rhetoric, and showing how great a proficient he is in " the oratory of terror." been inani exert relna the men In t been THE PRESS. dation for the activity and zeal which they displayed ; but with Admiral DIINDAB the cap tains claim all the credit. The means at the dis posal of the Admiral were, of course, insuffi cient: we had about forty-three gun and mortar boats, where we ought to have had three times the number; and, in consequence, half the mortars were rendered useless by too constant firing, and the resources of the Admiral seriously crippled for ulterior operations. As an experiment of mortar practice the attack has proved highly successful, but the loss in flicted upon the Russians, in a military point of view, is trivial ; the real strength of the position remains intact, and by next year will be materially increased—barracks and bat teries will be rebuilt and casemated, new arsenals sunk in the solid rock, and every precaution which science and ingenuity can devise will be put into practice to avert a recurrence of the results of such an attack as that on the 9th. Had the Government done its duty, and fitted out a fleet of gun and mortar boats sufficient in number and force to cope successfully with the Russian defences, we should not have heard of the retirement of our fleet after inflicting on the enemy a forty five hours' bombardment. At first the coun try was disposed to accept Sweaborg as a triumph to its arms ; it is beginning to feel now that the affair is hardly a victory—little more, indeed, as we said from the first, than a simple success. NASMYTH'S WROUGHT•IRON ORDNANCE. IT is nearly a year ago since we first heard a great deal upon the subject of wrought-iron guns. We were informed that a large Manches ter house was to make mortars and guns of monstrous calibre, that the shells were to be from half a ton up to a ton in weight, and the power of the ordnance great enough to throw them from three to four miles. It was gratify ing to hear such promises from people whom it was fair to consider must have given them selves great trouble to ascertain the practica bility of the manufacture of these huge agents ofdestruction, and we were prepared to welcome the realisation of their designs with becoming pride. We pictured the security of our ships lying far out of range of the enemy's fire, and with these mortars battering down the most formidable strongholds. We say we were pre pared, at the time Mr. NasmrrEt's letters appeared, to believe all that was promised ; but as time flies, so does our confidence in the production of the " big guns." We heard that they were commenced last year, and, of course, we expected to see some of them in actual use this season; but up to this moment all that is known upon the subject is that one of them is forged, that it is a huge lump of iron, and that it has not yet been turned or bored. Until the latter operation is effected, it is, of course, im possible to say whether this monster gun will succeed or not. So much for the despatch exercised in the work. We are quite aware of the novelty of attempting the manufacture of such colossal masses of iron—of the time it takes to heat and forge them—and of the preparations required for handling them. But we cannot help expressing our conviction that it would have been well to have made a trial of constructing ordnance of malleable iron of such a size as would have guided the authori ties in their estimate of the utility of wrought iron mortars and guns before undertaking the prodigious experiment on which Mr. NASMYTH is engaged. The subject is by no means new. As re gards the manufacture of small ordnance, very successful trials have taken place ; but with large pieces the case is wholly different, and we are afraid that they cannot be pro duJed. The largest wrought-iron gun ever made in this country was forged on the banks of the Mersey, by clever men, for the Americans, and was proved heavily before it was sent out. It was placed on board the United States frigate Princeton, and in practice, shortly after, burst and caused a lamentable loss of life on board. Even since v,e heard of the present intention of making these enormous mortars, 799 a trial was made by a clever practical man in Staffordshire, who forged a huge Lancaster gun, had it finished by the most eminent cannon-makers of the day, and sent to Wool wich for trial. It burst with the first regular service charge ! From this failure we are justified in looking with distrust upon the experiment now in progress. If such monster ordnance of wrought iron can be produced, it is surely time we heard something of the completion of the one in hand, for if it takes ten months to make even half a dozen the operation is too slow to be of much avail. We believe the most sanguine amongst practical men admit the uncertainty of making sound work of such masses of iron : the larger the mass tl greater the risk of success, and the greater the extra cost on account of such risk. On the whole, we are strongly of opinion that it is impossible to produce ordnance of such magnitude as that projected to stand the ordinary wear and tear of war, and that the nine or ten months of procrastination and delay which have taken place will result in failure, through those practical considerations (which practical men alone can weigh and justly estimate) not having been taken into account on which the success or failure of the experiment must depend. GENERAL BEATSON. WITH reference to the report which prevailed in town about a fortnight ago of the murder of General Beatson by his Bashi-Bazouks, a friend, who has lately visited the camps at the Dardanelfes, writes us word that though the gallant General was happily not killed by his rebellious soldiery, yet that there was imminent danger at one time that such would have been his fate:— He had caused one of the men to be imprisoned for some grave offence. The prisoner's comrades seized their arms, rushed to the General's house, and vowed to massacre himself and all hie family, unless the culprit were released. General lieatson succumbed to their threats. The man was liberated and rejoined his com rades, who were more insubordinate than ever. It appears very doubtful whether, after all, the labour and expense bestowed upon these undisciplined hordes will not have been thrown away. The Arabs, who 'compose the majority of these irregulars, are arrant thieves. The Arnaouts ravish and murder, as well as pillage; and the Albanians are supposed to be far from well affected to the cause in which they are engaged. Discipline is out of the question. When they are drawn up in line you occa sionally see a solitary horseman dart away from his com rades, skirt the plain for a mile or so, yelling and firing his pistol at intervals, and then calmly ride back and take up his proper place again. They are superbly mounted, but most cruel horsemen, fretting their horses terribly with their great savage bits. They will never, I fancy—and my military friends agree with me—become useful soldiers. They are a picturesque set of villains, and if, in their first action, they do not she w that they are cowards as well as thieves and murderers, I shall be very thankful. For my own part, I believe they are dangerous only to the peaceful inhabitants of the country and to their English officers, who are by no means exercising an enviable command. A Greek merchant landed the other day at the Dar danelles I never saw so ludicrous a personification of • terror as this man, when he approached the place infested by the villainous Bashi-Bazouks. A cold sweat broke out on his face and forehead—he was more blue than white with fear—he trembled in every limb. I never pitied a man so much in my life, for God knows the poor fellow had cause enough to tremble. IRISH FISHERIES. THE Irish fisheries, like every other self-production of that unfortunate island, are as abundant as they are neglected. It seems to be the peculiar fate of Ireland to be blessed with abundant advantages of soil, climate, and production, which are doomed to be neglected precisely in the ratio of their real value. Upon the fisheries of Ireland much has been written, but for them little has been done, and we hail with plea sure the prospective formation of an English company which promises to work in a proper and businesslike manner, and, by a judicious system, develop to its utmost this invaluable and most profitable resource of the country. The success of the scheme turns solely upon the question of supply, for the demand in the interior of both England and Ireland is so great, and increases so rapidly with the opening of each new line of railway, that no fears need be felt on the score of its su ffi ciency, backed up as it is by the reports of the Irish Fishery Commissioners for 1854, and of the unanimous opinion of the London dealers. On the question of the supply every wiiter . upon the subject agrees upon one po int, that it is .1 •