The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 24, 1855. THE BALTIC FLEET. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—A considerable portion of the Baltic fleet having already arrived in England, the remainder (excepting the blockading squadron under Admiral Baynes) being either at Kiel or homeward bound, it may not, perhaps, prove uninteresting to take are • trospectite view of their proceedings; as the public will naturally be desirous of forming an opinion as to whether the magnificent flotilla that left these shores in the beginning of the year have answered the expectations formed of them. The event of the greatest importance that has occurred has been the bombardment of the fortress of Sweaborg,—an occur rence which, although resulting in incalculable damage to the enemy, with but very few casualties to the allies, has been deprived by public opinion of much of the credit due to its results, apparently fiom the idea that more should have been done, or that the success that must so greatly have surprised the garrison of Sweaborg should have been followed up by either the batteries having been attacked by the line-of-battleships, during the confusion that necessarily existed on shore, or that Helsingfors s hould have been burnt. Regarding the opinion that the ships should have gone in after the place had been bombarded by the gun-boats, such an attack doubtless might have been made; but it must be borne in mind that the advancing ships would have been exposed to a heavy raking fire from the nume rous earthworks on the Island of Bakholmen, on the right, and from the battery called Stora-Ratan, on the left; these batteries being situated in so lofty a position that it would have been impossible for the ships to have elevated their guns sufficiently for the purpose of silencing their fire. Supposing, however, that they had succeeded in getting within, say, 400 yards of the forts (which, it must be remembered, are cut out of the solid rock), and opened the tire of their broadsides, I do not doubt that within a quarter of an hour the Russian guns would have been unmanned, and perhaps capsized, and for the time rendered useless; but the garrison would (as they must have done during the frightful conflagra tion of everything not casemated by solid rock) have retired into the cavities of the rock behind their batteries, and been prepared to resist any attempt to land—an attempt which, without a con siderable body of troops, would have been sheer madness. In fact, after he ships had fired a con siderable number of broadsides, under a fire from the neighbouring islands, and, until silenced, from the rock-bound batteries of Sweaborg itself—after they had lost many brave fellows—they would have been extremely fortunate if they had come cff with out two or three of the ships being burnt, blown up, or sunk. If one of the ships had got on shore on the unbuoyed and unsurveyed position they must have taken it would have been certain destruction, and Sweaborg would have remained to this day ignorant of the effect of their fire,—which fire, indeed, would have had no further effect than to have capsized or destroyed the guns, leasing the embrasures intact. Now, had there been 20,000 soldiers in the fleet, I consider that a dash might have been made, and the troops possibly have taken possession of Sweaborg ; but even this opinion is a matter of great question. Last year, when General Junes recommended that Sweaborg should be attacked with the 15,000 men then at the disposal of the allies—which recom mendation was not agrees to by General Baraguay d'Hilliers or Sir Charles Napier, on the ground of want of force to take possession—the Island of Bakholmen, the quarter from which it was proposed to commence operations, was undefended by earthworks, but it literally commands Sweaborg ; and this year it is one mass of earthworks from one extreme to the other. I think you and your readers will, on calm reflection, be of opinion that to take the ships in against Sweaborg would have been, to say the least of it, a rash act, and that what was done, so far as Sweaborg was concerned, was satisfactory ; for, with out going into minute details, suffice it to say that the whole place, arsenals, s tores, vessels building, magazines, Sm. Sic ., were burnt, excepting, of course, the fortifications above alluded to. Regarding Hel singfors, I have good authority for stating that political reasons alone prevented that splendid city from being burnt; we had quite sufficient effec tive guns and mortars at our command to have carried into effect a similar result as had occurred to Sweaborg. On this line of policy I will not com ment, not being in the diplomatic secrets of either the commander-in-chief or the Government; but many, I think—l may say the majority—of those present are of opinion that sparing it was a mistake. If you will allow me, in my next I will endeavour to show the general opinion amongst naval officers regarding Cronstadt, and what might and should be done there next season.—Your obedient servant, R. N. Who has served two campaigns in the Baltic. London, Nov. 22. THE PRESS. foreign 6ortrspo übtutt. FRANKFORT, Nov. 21. ONE of the chief causes of the apparent apathy of Protestant Germany proceeds from a disrelish to join the Romanist faction that would subject the country again to the Papal dominance of the middle ages. It is past contradiction that Protestant Germany would rather trust to an alliance with the Greek Church, having for its supreme head a Russian emperor, than place con fidence in a Hapsburg Lorraine sovereign—not free, not open—in subjection to a Jesuit confessor, and chained to the portal of the College of Cardinals. It has been affirmed in THE PRESS that the continua tion of the war would lead to a Protestant and Roman conflict, not limited, probably, to s battle of words. That opinion, dated from this the old city of Charlemagne, was proffered more than a year ago, and events are working gradually towards that end— that ominous end. But it must be endured. To check its onward course would be to cradle the torrent. "Now, in the time of this mortal life we must cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light," in duty to that Protestant Church militant here in earth. Let the integrity of Turkey be firmly guaranteed, and the Persico-Cir cassian path to India be barred, and then the Oriental question will give place to one of a nature far more grave and solemn fur the future destinies of Europe than that of Russian ambition. The whole length and breadth of Northern and Central Germany is less inimical to Russia than to Aus tria, from that just and unanswerable reason which is founded upon experience. Schiller's "Thirty Years' War" is not a fiction. The religious cause that once began in a Bohemian insurrection now finds another source in the incongruous protection of an Osmanli dynasty—for the spirit of the treaty of Westphalia is re-embodied and again unpacified, and will require the selfsame agency to allay its dange rous albeit conscientious excitement. Greece is not Latin, Italy is anti-Papal ; neither is Scandinavia less Protestant and anti-Austrian than she was in the time of Gustavus Adolphus. Whenever peace be made with Russia the forgetfulness of past injury and the sympathies of a renewed friendship will be firmly cemented by the imperative necessity of her alliance in contest against the Austro•Papal crusade for the arch-imperial supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church. Simultaneously and conjointly with the French Imperial speech are heralded forth the thirty-six articles of tile Austro-Papal Concordat. It is styled, "Convention entre notre Saint Pere le Pape Pie 121.. et sa Majeste Francois Joseph 1., Empereur d'Aa triche. Au nom de la tres saints et invisible Trinite." Art. ii. deprives the Austrian Emperor of the " pla cetum regium," "le pontife Remain ayant de droit divin, dana toute retendue de reglise, la primaute d'honneur et de jurisdiction." The supra-imperial and Divine right admits of no qualifying restriction. Art. iv. establishes the irresponsible power of the Roman Church in the management of its affairs within the Austrian dominions, exempt from civil and secular interference, and places the inferior clergy under the absolute rule of the bishops. Arts. v., vi., vii., and viii. vest the education of the people, "public ou privet' in the Roman priest 3, as a matter of exclusive right, and the bishops, " selon le devoir de leur charge pastorale, veilleront avec la plus grande vigilance ace pie rien ne soit contraire a la religion Catholique." All other religious teaching is prohibited, even in private families, urless with the express sanction of the diocesan. Professors and masters of every description are obliged to have " l'autorisation de l'eveque diocesain, qui pourra la revoquer des qu'il lui apparel tre opportun de le faire." Those who presume to disobey and to teach without such license shall be brought before the ecclesiastical courts, and be subjected to ecclesiastical and not secular punishment. Art. ix. confers the right of " censures des livres dangereux pour la religion ou les bonnes meeurs." This power is comprehensive. To cite a case in point, even under the old regime, a book was prohibited lately because it contained re marks eulogistic of the education given to the King of Sardinia and his late brother, the Duke of Genoa. Art. x. Ecclesiastical tribunals are to be established, according to ancient usage—that is as in the time of the dark ages—and ate to have especial jurisdiction over all cases, directly or collaterally, " qui ont rap port a la foi "—an elastic extension of judicature that by astute pleading may comprise almost any crime. Marriages are not valid without episcopal consent. Art. xi. The Roman and sacerdotal courts are to have their own particular and especial places of punishment, prisons, and dungeons, free from entry or examination by the civil power "dans des mona.s teres, dans du siminaires, ou dans D'AT:TBES LILLX 1115 ce destinis." The civil power is not to have a right of interference with the bishops, "qui pourrout nulls meut etre empeches de frapper de censures les fideles, QUELS PUISSENT ETRE, qui transgres seraient lea lois ecclesiastiques." This is the estab lishment of the Jesuit Inquisition in its full force. Positive dungeons, possible torture and blood-stained " baisers de la vierge," the " oubliette," and agonising death, without the power of redress, await the Austrian and Lombardo-Veneto people, princes, counts, gentry, and beggars—" quels qu'ils puissent etre." Who is the barbarian? Is it Russia? Art. xv. accords the right of sanctuary to criminals. Art. xvi. empowers the ecclesiastical courts to call in the aid of the civil authority, "qui pretera main forte pour que les juge mens des eveques recoiveut leur execution." The blind obedience of the police to the command of the Roman priest is explicit and peremptory. Art. xviii. "Le Saint Siege, usant le droit qui lui est propre," is to have the power of changing the bounds of dio ceses and creating fresh ones, " lorsque lea Wens des fideles le demanders." Art. xxviii. places the " regu tiers " or monks under the superintendence of the " superieurs generaux" at Rome, and the priests " exerceront librement leur droit de visite, au sujet des religieuses "—that is to say, the " spouses " of the Roman Church are to be given up to the visits and uses of the Rumen priests. Art. xxix. The Roman Church is to have the right to acquire pro perty "a tout titre legitime," especially that bequeathed by moribund repentants, and all property, real and personal, " lui sera solennellement assuree d'une maniere inviolable ;" and by Art. xxx. the said Church property, real and personal, is to be controlled and managed solely by the ecclesiastical courts. Art. xxxiii. reestablishes the system of tithes, which had been suppressed " par lee vicissitudes du temps," and in places where they are not possible of collec tion " dotations " are to be levied:instead, " qui seront fixies, et seront tenues, et perches it titre onereux, et en vertu du -theme droit que les dimes dont elles sont destinees a tenir place." Art. xxxv. annuls all former ecclesiastical rules and ordinances of the Romish Church in Austria, et desormais cette convention sera en vigeur J perpe tuite cunime loi de lend dins toutes lee parties de l'empire. Donne u Vienne, le dizhuit AOut, de Fan de la Redemp tion dixhuit cent cinquante cinq. JOSEPH OTIINIAR DE KAUSCHER, MICHEL CARDriAL VILLE M.P. Archeveque de Vienne. PIELA, M.P. Let the Times, as the avenger of Roman intoler ance, and the defender of the rights of conscience, civilisation, and progress, take the place worthily of the Connetable de Bourbon. It will be in vain for the Emperor of the French to call upon Protestant and liberal Germany to de clare against Russia, in the teeth of this iniquitous aggression, Papal and Austro Lorraine, against the dearest liberties of the subject. The promulgation of this " convention " has neutralised any effect that the spirit-stirring appeal of the Emperor might possibly have had ; for it is held in Germany that the gauntlet has been thrown, as of yore, to the Protestant nations of the North, with whom the Byzantine and Russian Church will make common cause. Greek, Scandinavian, Dutch, and German will rise against this daring act to render Rome once more pontifically and imperially prepotent. So far, and in that sense, the Concordat may be auxiliary to smoothing the difficulties of a peace with Russia; but likewise it will be, sooner or later, a cause of the most desolating war. And where will be France? Where England? J. E. L. SIENA, Nov. 29. THERE is no truth in the reconciliation between the Sardinian and Tuscan Governments. When the ruling chiefs of two countries are—the one a priest-ridden Jesuit, and the other an excommuni cated prince—proclaimed by the Roman Church to be " hors la loi," for having abolished in his domi nions the profanities of the conventual system, common sense will suggest:the breach to be inca pable of real amendment. The excommunicated king, Victor Emanuel, having escaped the medicated fate prescribed by the Jesuit, is On the eve of depar ture to visit the Emperor of the French, upon whom the Jesuits falsely rely as a sure and trusty protector, and whose sincerity to the cause of civilisation and progress will be shortly submitted to a rude test, and Italy w ill be that same test. In this Grand Duchy things wear an unquiet aspect. Any other Minister of England than Lord Norrnanby would, by the force of circumstances, have wielded a power that, in his hands, has dwindled to a courteous submission to the Jesuit powers that ilbe ; and, indeed, his cul pability, both of omission and commission, merit an expression far less flattering, although more to the purpose, than the one used. At this precise period, teeming with earliest interest, and repleta with danger from intriguing combinations, the