The Press. — London, England, 1856-02-23 00:00:00

176 further provision for reformatory schools (Scotland). The Select Committees on Adulterations of Food, &c., on Civil Service Superannuation, on Silver and Gold Wares, and on Ecclesiastical Commission, &c. were nominated on Tuesday. • The Civil Service Superannuation Bill was read a second time on Tuesday, and referred to the select committee appointed to consider the whole subject of superannuation allowances. The House of Commons Offices Bill, Metropolitan Police Bill, and the Vice-President of Committee of Council on Education Bill, were read a third time on Tuesday. In the House of Commons, on Wednesday, the Episcopal and Capitular Estates Bill was read a second time, and referred to tLe Select Committee on the Ecclesiastical Commission. The Drainage Advances Acts Amendment Bill passed through committee on Wednesday, after an explanation of its objects by Mr. WILSON, in reply to Mr. W. WlLuAzds and Mr. HENLEY. THE WAR. LETTERS from the camp, of the 9th, bring but little intelligence. Fort St. Nicholas bad been blown up, and most completely destroyed by the French, on the 4th inst. Fort Alexander was about to be blown up shortly, and every public building was to be destroyed as soon as possible. The Russians still continue to fire from the northern forts, and from their batteries on the Tschernaya heights. The allied guards bad been strengthened in the town and Karabelnaia suburbs. Tlfe pr►vate of the 77th, " Day," who murdered artilleryman Kirkley, had been condemned to death by sentence of a court-martial. The weather in camp was wet, severe, and frosty. Letters from Erzeroum of Jan. 22 announce the arrival at Trebizond of some 7,000 Egyptian troops, which, united with the army of Erzeroum, will in crease that force to 25,000 men, with 100 guns. English officers were expected at Erzeroum to super intend the military dispositions. Some 5,500 redifs had arrived from Kars. The Russians had left but a small garrision in the town ; the bulk of their forces remained in their old camp outside. At Soukham Kaleh, Omer Pacha's force of 25,000 men was suffering greatly from typhus. A despatch from Marseilles, on the 19th, stated : The allies are about to complete the destruction of the Russian ships sunk in the harbour of Sebastopol. It is stated that the French artillery has received orders on the subject. OFFICIAL DESPATCHES. Lord Panmure received on the 19th the following despatch from General Sir William Codrington : Sebastopol, Feb. 4. Marshal Pelissier informed me a few days ago that this day Fort Nicholas would be destroyed, and he sent again to say that at one o'clock p.m. the mines for this purpose would be fired. The view over the whole harbour is well obtained from the interior slope of the Redan-hill, and from other points within the Russian lines. The day was magnificently dear. Every sentry on the opposite side could be been, every working party watched, every soldier that was lounging in the sun. Occasional shot and shell were sent from the enemy to the Karabel rtin and the town, bat otherwise nothing disturbed the nival appearance of quiet, almost of desolation. On our (the south) bide, we looked down on the large ruined barracks in front, on the inner creek of the dock yard, the quay, and the remains of Fort Paul, the spacious inlet from the harbour on our left, beyond which stand the roofless buildings of Sebastopol itself. There also is the well•remembered long line of pointed arches, the case• mates of the interior of Fort Nicholas, of which the em• braanres in double tier pointed to seaward and away from us. It juts out into the harbour built on an inner tongue of land, Fort Constantine forming a similar but more out ward defence for the sea approach on the north. The scene and feeling of expectation were of great inte rest, for another tangible proof of power and success was to take place, and 106,000 lbs. of powder were in the several mines. At the hour named a burst of smoke, dark and thick, rolled from our left of the building—it was followed by another—the heavy sound arrived, the stones were shot into the air and into the sea, the exp osions of the extreme right and the centre mingled at little interval into one drifting cloud, which veiled the destruction below. The light of the sun played beautifully on the mass of smoke, of which the lower part lay long and heavily on its ♦ictim. The breeze passing it away over the remains of the town showed that a low line of ruin was all that re• mained of the pride of Fort Nicholas, and one standing menace of the harbour lay buried under its waters. The state of the docks has been given in detail in my letters. They are all destroyed, whilst the earth surround ing them is shaken into cracks—basin, docks, masses of broken granite, capstans, gates, beams of iron and of tim ber, are tumbled into one mass of destruction. W. J. CODRINUTON, General Commanding. THE PRESS. DESTRUCTION OF FORT NICHOLAS. An agreeable and rather exciting incident in the dull routine of camp life occurred on the 4th inst. The long, massive stone Fort Nicholas was to be destroyed that afternoon. Soon after noon groups of officers were seen riding and walking towards Sebastopol. At about half-past twelve Marshal Pelissier, in his carriage, drawn by lour greys, attended by his staff and followed by his escort of Chasseurs, drove through the light division camp along the Woronzoff road, and pulled up on the Picket-house Hill. Soon after General Codrington, his staff, and a group of Sardinian officers of rank, rode into the Redan. A large number of officers, English, French, and Sardinian, to the right and left, on every elevated point, were seen crowding Cathcart's and the Picket-house Hills. At one o'clock the explosion was to take place : `;;;,The Russians were evidently in complete uncertainty re , pecting what was about to happen on the south side. They directed all their fire toward the dockyard, not know ing, perhaps, that the destruction of the docks lied been emnpleted, and thinking that some operations were in progress in that neighbourhood. This fire was going on, and serving t 3 distract a little the attention of the specta tors, who were now assembled in great numbers, when a sudden exclamation among the crowds drew all eyes toward Fort Nicholas. The gaze of the enemy was equally fascinated towards the same direction, and all firing front their batteries ceased. From the west extremity of the long fort, partly concealed from our view by other build ings, was slowly rising and swelling a huge dense cloud of smoke, which as it rose and spread enveloped all the neighbourhood in a thick fog. At the same time came a slight sensation of trembling of the ground, and a dull rumbling sound like a distant clap of thunder. It was not loud, and there was no echo. While watching this scene the massive•looking east end, where it turned round to ward the south harbour, and the arched galleries for some distance tcwanl the centre—all very conspicuous as the sun was lighting up the white stones of which they were built, and without anything to intercept a full view of their structure—appeared suddenly to be split and rent asunder, and as the walls fell and dissolved away great blasts of smoke end dust rose out of the ground and stood in their stead. It was a most exciting sight to witness such destruction accomplished, noiselessly, as it seemed at a distance, and as if by magic, for there was no visible human agency, in the midst of a bright st_il atmosphere, and therefore without any of the usual concomitant cir cumstances of a natural convulsion. The cloud which rose from this end of the building was very dark—almost black in the centre. It rolled and dilated over the ground from whence it had issued, but as cended very gradually. A thick sprinkling of white spots in the water of the roadstead showed that fragments of stone were tailing there; and as they continued for many seconds after the explosion, some of them had evidently been projected to a great height. Nearly five minutes must have elapsed after this second discharge, the great canopies of smoke were bending over towards the town. the spectators were remarking that only the two ends of the fort had been blown up, when another explosion took place on the west side, and was succeeded, almost imme diately afterwards, by a fourth, at what remained of the east end. The two reports from these explosions seemed louder than the reports which had followed the two former blasts. Still a part of the fort remained upright, and be tween the dark folds of drapery which shrouded the wide spaces left vacant by the fall of the two wings might still be seen, though mistily, the high central tower and ob servatory. These did not exist long. A fifth and then a sixth mine was sprung, and the whole of the gigantic work which, not long ago, stood offering defiance to the navies of the whole world, was levelled to the ground. The clouds of smoke cleared away slowly, and, driven gently by the breeze from the north, passed over the ruins of the town, for a time enveloping it in fog and throwing it into dark shadow. The removal of the accustomed outline, and the long gap which was left by the destruction of the fort, was then seen to have changed in its most striking feature the aspect of the whole town of Sebastopol, and to have left it more wrecked in appearance than ever.—D. News cor., Feb. 4th. The success of the operation was complete—not one stone was left upon another to define the form of the fort. The whole demolition took about six minutes. Other explosions are to follow, and by all accounts there will be little left of Sebastopol but loose rubbish : Our engineers, now that the docks are entirely de stroyed, are ordered to blow in the quays along the Dock yard Creek, aid hastily demolish the barrack and hospital buildings, terrace wall, and dockyard stores and work shop,. The French are to blow up Quarantine Battery, and all the principal buildings in Sebastopol Proper, such .s the Lecture-room— or, as it is called by many, the Theatre—Sailors' Home, &c. In the barrack buildings our engineers have found, by slight experiments, that every foot of foundation in length will require 1 lb. of powder, or 100 lbs. to 100 feet. Immediately atter the destruction of Fort Nicholas—in which during the siege, after the fire became too hot, Generals Osten-Sacken and Todtleben used to live, with most of the engineer and staff officers—a shave got about that intelligence had been re ceived at head quarters that the Queen had declared peace in the House of Lords : but I do not think that these con tinual explosions, although very necessary and advisable, will tend to increase the Russian friendship. At this moment Point Nicholas looks from a slight distance like a nice beach sloping towards the sea. 'During the summer mouths the cascmates and arcades of Fort Nicholas were SATURDAY, made use of as a barrack by the Russians, and up till lately the French did the same. On the 9th the enemy tried to fire it, but failed.—lb. tortign 6ornsponbout. FRANKFORT, Feb. '2O. WHILST the journalists of every shade in Germany were loud in condemning the exclusion of Prussia from the conferences, and asserted that a decision had been affirmatively given in favour of the hostile neutral, an account appeared in the official papers of a large table and twelve chairs having been sent to the " salon des conferences" at Paris, and placed in position under the superintendence of the proper functionaries. This quaintly settled the matter. When the preliminaries and actual conditions of peace shall have been ratified, and European ques tions, in their turn, come to be discussed, it may then be a proper time to invite the powers of Europe to a general congress. M. de Buol came here from Berlin, and, having had the necessary consultation with the members of the Diet, proceeded vii Stras bourg on his way to Paris, without stopping at Heidelberg. The warm reception given by the Pari sian public to M. de Brunow, and the precise loca tion of the several ambassadors at the conferential table, are the subjects gravely discussed by forma list circles. Count Orloff, the coadjutor of M. de Brunow, who is at. Cologne to-day, comes of a race that has fur nished more than one tale in Russian annals. The family descends from a strapping soldier of the Strelitz Guard in the time of Peter I. His regiment was engaged in a conspiracy, and with his brothers in revolt he was condemned to death. History relates that Peter recreated himself in performing the functions of public executioner; that after dinner, surrounded by Russian bacchanals, he was wont to order the State prisoners to he brought before him, and when en their knees, with their hands tied behind them, he cut off their heads one by one, drinking a glass of brandy between each decollation. Orloff was one of the doomed. Peter had passed him repeatedly without inflicting the fatal blow, until the prisoner, getting impatient at the neglect, addressed the Czar, " Batuscha" (little father) "you have forgotten me." "No, I have not," replied Peter, " but you are too fine grown a fellow to be killed in this way." The Strelitz Grenadier was taken into favour, and became the father of five sons, of equally noble proportions and feature. Gre gory Orloff was the murderer proprici mane of Peter 111., and afterwards became the favorite of his widow Catherine 11. When the partiality of Catherine declined, and was lavished on his successor Potem kin, Orloff, with his brother Alexis, happened to be in the room alone with the rising favorite; they quarrelled, and setting upon him with fury knocked out his left eye. The present Cuunt is an imme diate descendant. He is systematically and per sonally adverse to Lord Palmerston and his policy — is possessed of sound views, and by no means dis posed to follow blindly the dictates of an ultra Russian policy. M. de Buol Schonstein, after the usual prelimi minaries of diplomacy, became Au-trian Minister f.t Turin in 1848, where lie displayed great sagacity and behaved with promptitude and decision in circum stances of a difficult character. He was sent the same year ambassador to St. Petersburg, and after wards cams to London on a special mission. He enjoyed the entire confidence of Prince Schwartzen burg, whom, after his decease, he succeeded in office, and has adopted a policy of Austrian independence which, if honourable in motive, is not tree from hlame in the means employed for accomplishment. With the opinions he has inherited the prejudices of Prince Schwartzenburg ; and the memories of 1848 embitter his relations with Lord Palmerston and i England. His colleague, Baron de Hubner, s a pupil of Metternich, brought up under the Count Appony at Paris. He was at Milan in the revolutitn of 1848, where he was made prisoner At thein surrection of Vienna he made himself conspicuous for his utter fear of danger, by passing the revolu tionary lines amidst a shower of balls, to conveya message to Prince Schwartzenburg, and again quietly facing still greater peril, when sent for by the Emperor at Thoenbrunn. It was this Miuister who drew up the acts of abdication of the Emperor Ferdinand, that of the Archduke Francis Charles, and the Imperial declaration of Francis Joseph. The task to be fulfilled by M. de Buol is neither plain nor easy. He is equivocally charged by Prussia and the Diet to protect Germanic interests and poli tical unity. Baysria, Wurtemburg, Hanover, Hesse, Baden, ltenmark, and other minor principalities, are at variance with their several Governments, and utterly disunited in opinion; the majority are innnt•