The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-14 00:00:00

JULY 14, 1855. THE BALTIC FLEET. (Front our Own Correspondent.) Jura 25.—The search for infernal machines goes on, and it is most amusing to see the number of amateurs that know that the way of extracting the sting has been found) are constantly fishing for them. I should think that nearly a hundred have been taken. Apropos to extracting the sting, I must explain to you that it is done by drawing the fuse, which is placed on the upper part of the machine, charged with an igniting substanoe that communi cating with the powder. To-day the Geyser and two mortar vessels arrived. They appear to be very efficient craft, and I trust that we may have an op portunity of proving their efficiency. Juwn 27.—The James Watt went Inshore to-day, taking two gun boats with her. On arriving in shore, some six miles from us, they discovered the mouth of a river, in which some ten or twelve coast ing vessels were lying. These they at once, under cover of the guns of the gun-boats, cut out, and found them, with the exception of one, laden with stone ballast ; the exception was full of coarse paper, of all sorts and descriptions. She was towed out to the fleet, and the signal was made, " Send for paper," and boatloads were taken away, for different pur poses. It was very soft, and I should imagine well adapted fur grocers, though our fighting men call it cartridge paper. JUNE 28.—T0-day being the Queen's coronation day, the combined fleets hoisted the national flags at their mastheads; and I hear that the ward-room officers of the Duke of Wellington entertained at dinner the French officers. The Volge, laden with powder, rocket*, &0., arrived to day. What can the powder be for, if we are to be (as is said) a block ading squadron? The enemy has brought down from the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg some forty gunboats (row-boats). These vessels, which are armed with two heavy guns each, are placed in. side the barrier I have so often told you of, so that it is evident they hive some fear of our having a slap at them. They have now about eighty gun boats, of all descriptions. The crews live on board the armed hulks anchored across from Cronstadt to Lisiness, and are merely during the day on board. JUNE 29.—This morning the ships of the fleet on the north side exercised firing at the Russian prizes, which were placed at certain distances, some at 1,109 yards and some st 1,900 yards, from the liners. The firing was very good, all the vessels being rapidly sunk. At four o'clock a Russian steamer, with a flag of truce, was seen coming out of the harbour. As she came out of the south side she was stopped by the Royal George, the officer from which vessel was told that the bearer of the despateh on board the Russian steamer was desirous to com municate personally with the admiral ; so he was allowed to proceed to the north side. On his ap proaching the fleet there, he was met by a boat from the Duke of Wellington, with an officer, who, after desiring him to stop, asked his object. He replied that he was the bearer of a letter from the Minister of War to the English admiral, and that he also wished to have a personal communication with him on the subject of his despatch (which it appears was connected entirely with the Cossack affair). The admiral, however, declined to see him, merely send ing him an acknowledgment of the letter, and a message to the effect that an answer would be sent shortly. The steamer was a very fast vessel. JUNE 80.—This morning a small boat was observed coming off from the point at the west extreme of island, and on one of our boats being sent to cut, her off she was found to have on board three deserters from the town—or rather one was from the Russian admiral's ship, and the others from the Telegraph. They state that ithey are Poles, and have the same story—tbat they are esicapingifrom the tyranny of the authorities. They spin all sorts of what sailors call " yarns" about Cronstadt and ha means of defence and offence, which are believed as they deserve. Still, by putting 2 and 2 together, we may pick up some idea of certain matters of importance. it is strange that the fleet is clear of every description of sickness, when this time last year we had cholera and other unpleasant epidemics amongst us to an alarming extent. We all begin to despair of honour and gory ; but maybe we are wrong. Admiral Bay ncs, with his flag in the Retribution, has arrived at Nargen, with seventeen pendants, in cluding gun-boats and mortar-vessels. He has been reconnoitring Revel pretty closely, and occa sionally exchanged shots with the forts. Our cruisers are employed along the coast destroying all the telegraphs and Government stations. There arc ceps everywhere, but they think it wiser to de. c imp when our ten-inch guns come within range of tl em. All this, however, I should think would not su:li,•e to satisfy the public at home—they naturally aspect more. Arrogant and Magicienna have de stroyed about fifty vessels in the neighbourhood of THE PRESS. Wiborg, the greater part of them being laden with large blocks of granite, marked and cut, all ready for building forts. A few shots were fired at the Magicienne from a field-piece, but fell harmlessly wide of her. The Royal Georges gun-boat Is blazing away at this moment at a small encampment about six miles off. Sortign (fortzspolOntr. BRUSSELS, Thursday. Le Nord has made its appearance since the let of July. Temperate, and written with ability, the danger to constitutionalism and public freedom is the more prominent and sure. The liberty of the press is turned against its very existence by an advocacy of despotism repugnant to its nature, and a Government is held at defiance simply Incense it is true to the principle of national liberty. It is a becoming justice to acknowledge frankly that the Belgian Government exerted its powers to prevent the issue of the journal, but, so long as the establish ment is conducted actually by Belgians, it is beyond the province of the Minister to interdict its publica tion. In France the journal has been summarily prohibited, and at the Belgian stations orders have been peremptorily given to expel it from the railway platform. This has been a hard and unpalatable blow to the Creptowitoh party, since an extensive sale had been counted upon, together with the im • portant advantage of the " oonvoi" taking and dis seminating the several Russian manifestos into far countries. The price of twenty cents, or twopence, places it within the reach of the people. The political news under headof Englani bear a cha racter purely Russian, of course synonymous with mis representation. For instance, the self-exposure of Lord John Russell in the House of Commons, and his confession that the possession of place was superior in his judgment to the honourable duty of resigns tion, is made to appear as if the question of peace depended entirely upon Lord John Russell, and that the breaking up of the Cabinet would be followed by a peace Ministry, representing the pacific determi nation of the country, with Lord John Russell as Premier. The Minister of the Colonies is thus cen sured :—" De reveres paroles tie bl&me, auxquelles touts conscience eclairee et droite applaudirs, ont ete infligees at Lord John par MM. Cobden et Disraeli." Here the designing Russian insinuates that Mr. Disraeli, in opposition to Lord Palma-Mon, would, if in office, endeavour to substantiate a peace de facto disgraceful to the allies. Notwithstanding the efforts of Lord John Russell to accomplish a Russian object by Russian means, and after a Russian fashion, Le Nord thus reviews his mode of action, and deduces the moral : II est desormais oonstate qua les Gouvernements de France et d'Angleterre avaient cependant dans leur seiu des hommoa a qui cette politique meurtriere repugnait ; M. Drouyn de Lhu3s 1 Paris, Lord John Russell it Londres. Seulement M. Drouyn de Lhaya a pris une position nette, et 11 est an moms difßcite de comprendre comment un homme d'honneur et d'intelligence a pu st plier d prendre cello a laquelle Lora John Russell s'est risigaa. Even Russians appreciate the dereliction of public duty at its proper value. The position of Turkey is desctibed as aeplorable, and dependant entirely on the tyrannical will of Lord Stratford de Redc}iffe, who is vituperated for being the cause of the war, and the main impedi ment to peace. To him solely is attributed the Crimean expedition, and the disasters which have followed. On the unhappy Turks Le Nord affirms Lord Bedell& vents his ill humour, Your n'avoir pu realiser he plus beau rove de toute la vie politique du diplomate Anglais, l'expedition de la Crimea." A specimen is here afforded of the precise spirit of Le Nord, not openly offensive, but couched in terms of flagrant duplicity, and employing falsehood with out reserve to establish its one grand point of directing continental opinion against France and England. The publication of this journal, with its tendencies, with its wilful perversion of fact, with its avowed hostility to the allies, and in defiance of the Belgians, the Belgian Government, and of the King, is a direct invasion of the principle of neutrality. E. R. FRANKFORT, July 12. " C'EST done une conduite monstreuse que Lord John Russell a tcnne. 11 a renie sa foi." Such is the language emphatically used by an Austrian employe at the Diet, in censure of the sentiments expressed in the speech of the noble lord on Vri , lay last. Common hour sty and common sense were alike abandoned in the deed and in its nieistios, 661 and gime was, wherewithal, to be remarked in the precatm tone or the miserable disclosure an utter absence of high feeling which is the imperative con comitant of elevated and noble action. But the worst feature was displayed in the profligate avowal of the evil done and the evil doing, having for sole excuse and purpose the maintenance of the five Whig families in power. Such a disreputable acknowledgment is without precedent in the annals of politics. "Ca rejaillerait sur lui poor toujoure. On ne se fleraitjamais plus sur tut hotume ausai faux, taut pour les alum qua pour SS patrie. Sa conduite est impossible aveo une parfaite imam a bilite, ce premier devoir d'un homme public." Thus contemptuously remarked the head of a princely house allied to Austria. The effect of the conduct of Lord J. Russell has been crashing on the Conti nent, and its untoward influences cannot be exagge rated. Austria and Prussia, already approaching slowly towards a more favorable understanding, have had their policies accelerated by this Ministerial confess aion. On her part Austria stands more than justified for the apparent equivocation of her conduct ; and having been unfettered from the bond of the Deem her treaty, through the instrumentality of the English plenipotentiary at the Vienna Conferences, she is free to pursue the course most convenient for her selfish interests. And in her present position she may not unjustly urge a cause of complaint against the English Ministry. One thing is certain, that the Minister of England in the House of Commons and the Minister plenipotentiary at Vienna held language diametrically opposed to each other. lf the Minister plenipotentiary pleads the right, as a Cabinet Minis ter, to express views isolated, peculiar, and contrary to instruction, he betrays the trust of the plenipoten tiary national. Public honour is not invaded without injury to the faith catholic of nations. Austria is now, at all hazards, forcing on the Diet the propriety of her conduct in dealing with the four points as final, and is seeking to persuade the Con federation to adopt them Germanically with a view to prevent a continental war, or, if not to be averted, of declaring in self-defence and energetically against the Western powers. in this scheme she is seconded by Prussia and the princes in the pay of Russia. Such, no doubt, will be openly, such has already been secretly, the policy of the Diet. Looking at the behaviour of the Minister plenipotentiary of England at Vienna, the abandonment of public duty for party advantage, cunning and unfaithful server it be, yet based upon such an example, may find a ready apology difficult of refusal. This part of the policy of Austria, although favorable to Russia, does not dispose the latter to give up its advantages over Germany, bought by Prince Peter of Oldenburg during his late mission; and con-equently the organ of Russia thus cautions the Confederation, in- timating that it will hold the princes to the very letter of the bargain, and thus defies Austria and its non-potential empire L'Autriche ne tendrait a rien mins qu'it se placer en heritiere presumptive de 'influence tpte la coa li tion aetaelle a pour but d'eulever I la Itussie, et i se faire legitimer et garantir sea pretensions par la Confediratioa elle-useme. L'Autriche voudrait faire coneourir lee Otats de is coal. &ration a l'agrandissement de son importance Earupiene, luquelle aurait pour consequence d'accroitre son influence en Allemagne ; ce qui vent dire, ea d'autres mots, que les etas de In Confederation Germanique, et la I'russe ea par ticulier, devraieut de gaiele de cur et tout binevolement paver de lows propres mains la vole I la preponderance presque exclusive de l'Auiriche stir toute la Confederation. —Le Nerd. These be plain intentions in plain words, put forth by authority. Who will now say that Austria is a first rate rower? She is hound hand and foot, and at every risk to be obedient to a Russian policy. No- thing but a false courage, emanating from despair at her debasement and dependence upon I'russia, would induce her, and even then vainly, to pursue the path of rectitude. She was, without doubt, " heritiere pre somptive" of German influence; that influence has passed, via Prussia and the corrupted princes, to Russia, and which she would fain "enlever a la Em ilie." Can her tribatary state be made more pal pable? The words quoted and the menace contained came from St. Petersburg. It has been communicated officially to Count Buol, and by him to the Ge:inan princes, that the allies will not be content to restrict their demands to Ow four points—that the chances of war have made such a basis of peace impossible of acceptance. 'lbis has led to the pressure of Austria upon the Diet for an approval of the four points &E on ultimatum of peace, and has elicited the stinging reply of Russia. All external and internal influences are bearing down upon the Diet to effect the absolute disseverment of the Diet from the Western powers. J. E. fh 1