The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-04 00:00:00

'Y44 ceivable that any satisfactory reasons can be urged tor this strange resolve. We read here : The change was regretted by the English artillery offi cers, who were very confident of rendering the Russian batteries nearly harmless in a fire of three hours. To ordinary apprehensions it seems obvious that a second error of equal magnitude was committed, in not making the attack more general. The guarded words of this intelligent observer are well worth note : Supposing, for the sake of argument, that to prosecute the siege actively was the right strategic policy, and that the Alalakoff and Redan were the beat points of assault, yet the execution of the measure was such as to invite failure. I have already mentioned how feeble were the attacks in themselves, and how much it was to be regretted that the original plan, by which the artillery was to fire for some hours before the infantry advanced, should have been changed. But, though the immediate cause of failure is to be found less in the plan of assault than in its very defective execution, yet it seems extraordinary that, with the vastly superior force which the allies could command, attacks were not made on points so numerous as to be wilder and divide the garrison, especially on the bastions before the town, from whence, if the enemy had been induced to place there a large proportion of troops, they could not have been easily transferred across the creek. But, so far from making any demonstration which might induce the enemy to believe that point menaced, the French batteries in that quarter did not open in the first day's cannonade till afternoon, and on the day of the assault scarcely fired at all. The small number of Russians who opposed Eyre's brigade, and the circumstance of the riflemen in front of the Barrack Battery leaving their post to meet our people in the ravine, seem to warrant the conclusion that the great mass of the garrison was placed in support of those works which alone were threatened. The real facts of the repulse are fairly stated in this paper. The Itusiian lire was so tremendous that it was impussi'ule for any troops to stand against it : In vain the officers stood up amid the iron shower and waved their words—in vain the engineers returned to bring up the supports—the men could not be induced to quit the parapets in a body. Small parties of half a dozen or half a score ran out only to add to the slaughter. The party of artillerymen, whose business it was to follow this column and spike the guns, sallied forth, led by their officer, and, of the twenty, only nine returned unwounded ; and the sailors who carried the scaling•ladders, and the naval officers who led them, also suffered very severe loss. Sir John Campbell, calling to the nearest troops to follow, left the trench, led the way to the &battle, and was shot dead under it. We cannot read these details without pain. The morale of an army is cruelly shaken by such mis takes as seem to have been made on this day. There are four other articles in this number of Blackwood bearing on the war. That one on the Baltic expedition of this year gives a minute descrip lion of the harbours, forts, and defences of Cronstadt. Ssill, foresight, energy, labour, and perseverance on the part of the Russians during the last sixteen months have produced a fleet of seventy-nine steam and row gun-boats; while apathy and incompetence on our part give us—the greatest naval power in Europe—a fleet in all of twenty-three such vessels! Speaking of the increased armament of the Russians upon the northern shore, the only really practicable point for attack, the writer observes:— An attack, to be practicable, even here, must be under t ikeu by gnu-boats and mortars. Last year we had none, or none fitted for the purpose; this year the enemy actually outnumber us iu that arm. How can this be? Is there a suspension of work in our yards ? Are our builders paralysed or rebellious? Is there no English oak? —or how comes it that we, the ship-builders of the world, should be beaten by the enemy at our own work ? Were the question asked in the House, the voice of Red. tipism would repeat some plausible contradiction, or recount the list of a paper flotilla, long and vague as the catalogue of Homer's ships. But the facts are these—all men, who saw the place last year, agreed, that the only hope of destroying Uronstadt, its dockyards, fleet, or maga zines, partially or wholly, was by an attempt in this quarter ; that the only force available fur it was gun-boats, and that they must be sent in such numbers as to over whelm and nullify any armament of the same description possessed by the enemy. It would be thought that this was no great demand on England's energies, or England's resources, and that they would have come forth by hun dreds. Altogether, there are seventeen of these vessels attached to the Baltic fleet ! The enemy shows twenty nine steam, fifty sailing and row boats, making a total of seventy-nine. With such disparity, it would be impossible to assault barrier or blocks, in presence of a force pus. Bossing the same advantages, and strong enough to become the assailant. How could such things be? Where tests the blame? It cannot be with our Government, for they nightly proclain their impeccability. Whose fault is it, then, that England's beat arm is crippled from lack of means ? Eheu! Eheu! It is the old story, repeated over and over again, of the wrong thing in the wrong place. Has the curse of perverted judgment and fatuity really Won upon us ? The second part of " The Imperial Policy of Russia" sketches the progress of the empire under Peter and Catherine; and the "Internal Sufferings of Russia tiom the War," by a person who has lately returned from the interior of Russia, is directed to show that the contest cannot be prolonged without ,~ -- -T -~- ~- THE PRESS. ruin to the great body of landed proprietors in Russia. It is singular that those persons who have had most actual experience of Russian life should express so poor an opinion of the resources of the country, and should take a leading part in spreading and uphol►ling the notion that Russia would be un • equal to the maintenance of a vigorous contest. It is probable that these writers (who we suspect have done some mischief) have themselves been misled by their superficial knowledge, and that they in reality know very little of the true genius and animating motive of the country they have visited. The remaining war article, on " The Cabinet and the Conferences," reviews the conduct of " Little John " at Vienna. "To negotiate with a power like " Austria," says the writer, " was to invite deceit." The following paragraph is confirmatory of the view expressed in an article iu THE PRESS of the 21st July The last Austrian overtures were transmitted from Vienna on the 16th May, and they were not rejected by the British Government until the 29th;—what occurred iu the interval ? if the Cabinet were so united as we are expected to believe, and if no idea of accepting the Austrian proposals were entertained after the first week of May, how came it that Count Buol so grievously misinterpreted the language of the Cabinet as to send two new and elabo rate propositions on the 16th, and that the Ministry should have been so singularly tardy as not to have re jected these overtures till the end of the month? We must leave it to the future to fully expose the deceit of the Cabinet on this point ; but it needs something more than the word of the present Premier, or of the ex-Secretary of the Colonies, to convince us that Count Buol and the English public were alike wrong in imagining that the Ministry gave ear to the Austrian proposals, and that the well-informed leader of the Opposition was mistaken when he brought forward his famous motion ehirging the Mi nistry with " ambiguity of language and uncertainty of con duct" in regard to the Conferences. In fact, we know that Count Buol's final proposals must have been received at the Foreign-office on the 19th of May; in the miming of the 21st a Cabinet Council was held; and in the even ing the statement made by Lord Palmerston, which induced the withdrawal of Mr. M. Gibson's motion, was the ex press assurance that the Government " did nut consider all the modes of solving the questions at issue as exhausted, and that Austria was still charged by her own voluntary assumption with the task of discovering a means of bring ing about au accommodation between the contending parties." " There were no questions with regard to any fresh negotiations which created any long deliberations in the Cabinet," is the ambiguous phrase of Lord John Rus sell in his farewell speech (July 16); and Sir George Grey, on the same evening, while declining to make any direct statement in answer to the charges of the Opposi tion chiefs on this subject, expressed his defence to the Ministry in a form eminently suggestive of suspicion. " I at the close of that week,' he said—referring to the first week of May—" should have been prepared to assert, that it was the unanimous decision of the Cabinet that the Austrian proposals should be rejected." It is abun dantly evident that every word of the speech from which this sentence is extracted was carefully weighed before it was uttered ; and yet, what is the actual import of it, when stripped of its circumlocutory vagueness, but that Sir George Grey speaks only for the punctum imports at the end of the first week of May, and refused to vouch for the unanimity of the Cabinet in the three weeks that fol lowed? That there was a division of opinion, and a desire to accept the Austrian proposals, in the Cabinet, during the latter half of May, we firmly believe ; and in oorro beration it is to be observed that, contrary to his custom of answering despatches the day after receipt, Lord Clarendon's reply rejecting count Buol's proposals was not written till the 29th—the intervening period having been spent in feeling the pulse of the House of Commons, after a vain attempt to evade its vigilance. The country is not yet sufficiently aware of the debt of gratitude which it owes to Mr. Disraeli for his prompt interference on this occasion, and to the Opposition generally for the energetic following up of a debate which compelled the Ministry to abandon their deceitful efforts after an ignominious peace. Of the other articles we may briefly say, that the pretty story of "Zaidee," contrary to our expectation last mouth, when a general pairing of couples and distribution of happiness seemed to indicate the close of the tale, opens with fresh spirit; Mr. Warren's "Blackstone" meets with a competent and candid critic, Mr. Kingsley's " Olaucus " with plea sant comment, and the " Notes on Canada" supply an instructive chapter on the Upper Missis sippi. Fraser opens with a laudatory review of the policy of Lord Dalhousie as Governor-General of India. The article is too slight, and written with too little knowledge of the subject, to merit detailed notice. Persons really cognisant of the leading facts of his lordship's rule will only smile at the assertion that " he has earned the reputation of being India's most "successful governor." The review of Dr. Doran's " Lives of the Queens of Hanover" seems too sharp, as his work only pretended to be of a sketchy, anec dotical character. The only article bearing upon the war is that on " Austrian Nationalities," which gives in detail the component parts of the Austrian empire : Estimating the population geographically in the first instance, we shall state it with such accuracy as conflicting records may render possible SATURDAT, I.—EASTERN DIVISION OF THE EIEPTRE. I. Ibingary, about 4. Tnutsylrania 8. Military Frontier 4. Gallicia Total IL—SOUTHERN OE ITALIAN DIVISION. 1. Lombardy 2,800,000 2. Venetian Province's Total lII.—CENTRAL OR GERMANIC DIVISION. 1. Upper and Lower Austria 2,750,0(10 2. Moravia and Silesia 2,500,000 3. Bohemia _ 4:500,000 4. Styria and Tyrol O. Carinthia and Carniola 6. Littoral and Dalmatia Total 13,800,000 On the Vienna negotiations the writer asserts that Austria has not only evinced moral cowardice of no ordinary character, but has committed an " unpar " donable breach of faith " in not acting up to the treaty of December. Among the lighter contribu tions to the magazine is a short poem upon "Dream- Land," by Edwin Arnold. The opening lines ale exquisite : DH&AY•LAND. Wonderful Life! So sad with partings, and so sweet with meetings, Made up of wild farewells, and wilder greetings; Oh word, with wonder rife ! What do we here ? Whence come we with this longing loving breast? Why do we live to die? we fear our rest; And are afraid to fear ! Ah! tell us why, Why are our pleasures dead within the day, While pains make nest-homes of our hearts and stay ! Wherefore comes misery? And wherefore pain? And why on our sad Planet, else so fair, Dwell Hate, and Cowardice, and pale Despair, And the hot rage for gain ? Moon and sweet stars ! Hath God cursed us of all his orbs in Heaven? Drive we alone, rayless and unforgiven, Bloody with brother-wars ? Speak if ye know ! Why lose we what we love longest and best? Shine, Sisters ! shine upon our dark unrest Saying, it is nut so! I miss a face, • - - - - - - - A friend, whose love was to my life its heart; Why are our eyes and hands riven apart? Why—even for a space ? There are several other articles not calling for special remark. Colburn's New Monthly continues its instructive articles upon the continental armies, and this month relates in detail the number, organisation, and niate. riel of the smaller German Powers. Exclusive of reserves, garrisons, and depots, the writer estimates the available active force of the German Powers to consist of 186,200 infantry, 21,880 cavalry, 15,850 engineers, with 460 guns—a respectable force, which he observes could aid us materially in our opera tions. He proposes that, as we did last century, we should do now—buy up the regiments at so much a score, instead of seducing the riff raff to desert their colours and take refuge at Heligoland, The lighter articles are numerous and varied, including sketches of " German Student Life," and of " The Italian Re volution," " Notes upon French Literature," and light romances. Bentley opens with an able sketch of the "Pro gress of the War," iu which General Pelissier's despatch is quietly taken to pieces and shown to have been written chiefly with a view to save himself from reproach by casting blame upon every one else. The detailed account, of " The Battle of Inkermann " is good, and of some interest; it is an abstract from a pamphlet which has been printed at St. Petersburg. It is curious and gratifying to read how the Cold streams are called "the Giant Coldstreams," from their size, and how their indomitable bravery is eulogised. Twenty-nine thousand four hundred is all tLe Russians aver they had in the field, and the present writer in the magazine appears disposed to throw considerable discredit upon the French and English versions and bulletins of the battle. A review of Marshal St. Arnaud's letters, in which the originals are largely quoted, shows how thoroughly St. Arnaud regarded himself as the soul of the expe dition. It is always I—l did this, and I will do that. Lord Raglan must have had a difficult part to play iu reconciling the exactions of his impetuous coadjutor with his own sense of duty. Rossim is staying at the waters of Trouville. A correspondent of the Brussels Inckpendance says that the great composer travelled there partly by post horses and partly by water—railways inspiring him With great terror. MI 4