The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-15 00:00:00

THE WEEK. THE great event to which this week has given birth, has caused universal rejoicing throughout the country. At length Sebastopol has fallen, and the first act of the gigantic drama played between Russia and the Western Powers has terminated. We have received no details yet beyond short telegraphic reports mostly from General, now Marshal, PELISbIER, for Lord PANMURE appears unreasonably jealous over General SIMPSON'S messages. The allied batteries opened fire in tremendous strength at daylight on the sth, and continued without intermission day and night, burning ships, exploding magazines, and firing the town, till the morning of the eighth, when, about noon, a terrible storm of shot and shell, " un feu Weider," as Prince GORTS CHAKOFF expressed it, heralded the assault of the allied columns. Upon three salient points, the Great and Little Redan and theMalakoff, were the columns of the French and English launched with terrible force. How long the struggle lasted, how often beaten back — the struggles of eleven months of desperate warfare now to be termi nated exciting all—we have yet to learn. It was a war of Titans for the moment. The Russians appear to have fought with desperate courage. Supported by tremendous reserves, and covered by a sweep ing fire of initraille, they successfully held both the Great and Little Redans against every attempt of English and French ; but the massive columns of our Allies, once in the Malakoff, found themselves shel tered from the Russian fire, and, with solid persistance, sustained and beat off every attempt of the Russians to dislodge them. Night closed the combat. At a frightful cost the French retained their hold of the Malakoff; upon every other point the Russians were successful; but, worn out and beaten at the key of the position, feeling further resistance to be useless, and desirous of saving his army from capitulation or death, GORTSCHAEOFF set fire to the town and retreated in the night to the northern forts. Such was the abrupt and sudden termination of this memorable siege. The vast lines of defence which TODTLEBEN had erected, immense stores of provisions and mati riet, and upwards of 1,200 guns, and some 1,000 prisoners, including the wounded, were all abandoned by GORTSCHAKOFF. His object was evidently to preserve his army. By prolonging the contest he might have gained honour, but he would have lost his line of retreat. Our rejoicings at this glorious success—for it is a triumph, without being an absolute victory—are damped by the heavy loss we have to deplore. From the scanty details which have reached us, it appears evident that our army was inadequate to the work it had to perform. We have not the least doubt that when the particulars are learnt we shall hear that our columns of assault consisted of a few hundreds in the place of thousands, and that the cause of our second failure at the Redan was the same as on the 18th June—too few men and insufficient means. Of the ulterior operations of the campaign it is impossible to speak with anything like certainty. Ardent amateurs propose every possible measure to insure the capitulation or destruction of the Russian army. But armies of 150,000 men, and those men Russians, are neither easily destroyed nor forced to capitulate. The probability is that the cam paign for the year is over. We have not means of transport to enable our army to leave its sea-board and advance in the interior; and most likely GORTSCHAKOFF will entrench himself upon the Inkermann heights, and there await attack. The Emperor of the FRENCH has signalised his appreciation of General PELISSIER'S distinguished services by creating him a Marshal of France. In the Malakoff PELISSIER knew his marshal's baton lay hid. " Aut Caesar, aut nullus "—or, in the words of our NELSON, " A peerage or Westminster Abbey "—must have been his resolution on the Bth, and by the desperate courage of his troops he is successful. It is said that a baton was likewise offered to General CANROBERT, who refused the honour on the plea that PELISSIER'S distinguished services would not be sufficiently enhanced if he shared the Marshal's promo tion. The General is to proceed to Vienna upon a high military mission. Her Majesty the Queen has been pleased to address a telegraphic message to General SIMPSON, in reply to his despatch announcing the fall of Sebastopol. Her Majesty, while acknowledging the receipt of the intelligence with " deep emotion," congratulates the army upon the " triumphant issue of this protracted siege," and thanks them for the fortitude and valour which they have displayed. The closing paragraph offers a well-deserved tribute to the indomitable courage and heroic constancy of our brave Allies and their gallant commander in the attack upon the Malakoff. The speech of General Baows, at the Elgin dinner, has attracted much attention. The Gallant General's graphic sketch of the opera tions of the war from the first to the last adds another to the many proofs we have had of the utter ignorance and misconception of the Government at the time they entered upon the war. The testimony borne by the Gallant General to the superiority of the Russian artillery over both that of France and England is frank and manly. We can afford to allow that our foe was superior to us in many points now that we have surpassed him in all. The remark of the Duke of RICHMOND, speaking of the prospects of peace, that " he for one would " never agree t) any patched up compact, and that he trusted that not " only would the south but the north side of Sebastopol soon fall and " the Russian flag be driven for ever from the Crimea," is indicative of lthe tone public feeling is assuming. This speeth of hit Grace was met by the most enthhiiastic cheers. THE PRESS. SATURDAY, The Bank has this week raised its rate of discount to 4} per cent., a consequence of the decline in its stock of gold, and an indication that the export of bullion is anticipated to continue. This drain in the face of the continued productiveness of the mines of California and of Australia, and of the large supplies regularly received from the latter country, is remarkable. What should we have done had not the gold discoveries taken place ? A return to the paper currency of the last war would have been inevitable, and we should have had the sovereign worth—according to the scarcity of gold -258. or 30s. in the pound notes of the Bank. The effect anti cipated from the greater abundance of gold, a general rise in the price of all commodities, is now beginning to be sensibly felt. After a most favorable harvest, and the report of immense abundance on the other side the Atlantic, wheat is still rising to 90s. a quarter, and the advance is general over the whole of Europe. We read, for example, in a letter from Vienna in yesterday's Times, " the price of bread and ' meat is higher in this city than it has ever been before." The war may partly account fur this rise, but the main cause must be looked for deeper. The great increase in bullion has most unexpectedly dis- concerted all calculations formed on the probable effects of free trade. The cheap loaf has gone, never, we believe, to return ; and while the thriving farmer is inclined to regard Mr. COBDEN as having, in some way or other, vastly benefited him by the agitation of which he once stood in dread, urban communities are inclined to deride him as an im postor. The advance, however beneficial to agricultural producers, must be severely felt by persons with small fixed incomes, and by those classes of operatives whose labour does not command an advance in proportion to the rise in the price of necessary articles of subsistence. Their condition will be still further deteriorated should the scarcity of money restrict the manufacturing industry on which they are de pendent for support. The Times Baltic Correspondent, who appears to be a mild Whig, suggests the probability of further operations being yet designed in the Baltic, and of an attack being imminent. Our Correspondent, on the contrary, roundly asserts that the Admirals have concluded de fering operations till next spring. We fear not much is to be hoped for now the fine weather is breaking up. It is singular that NELSON in one of his despatches from the Baltic remarks that Cronstadt, Riga, and Revel, are " strongly fortified, but British admirals "do not care for an enemy's guns." He would hardly have been rash enough to pen such a paragraph now. The fleet, it is believed, will winter in one of the Swedish ports, but nothing definite is yet arranged. The disinclination of the Russians to fight at sea was singularly exemplified the other day. Two of our ships cruising of Cronstadt suddenly bore up for the Tolboukin Light, when they discovered a Russian squadron at anchor. The moment our ships hove in sight, bearing down upon the enemy, the Russians, though more than double their force, tripped their anchors and ran into Cronstadt, chased in the most ignominious manner by our two cruisers. The credit of our navy is certainly not upheld in this war with that vigour and earnestness of purpose which is so necessary to its support. The capture of Petropaulowsky, with its four inhabitants and one gun - carriage, is another of those questionable successes which it appears to be the fate of our ships only to achieve. Fortune even denied us in this instance the capture of a single prisoner to grace our triumph, for, of the four inhabitants, three were American and one an ally. But what is to be said of the vigilance of those officers blockading the ports of Petropaulowsky and Amoor, which permitted the three Russian frigates and two transports to escape from the former place in one fug, and get safely into the latter in another? The Russians are not content with resisting us manfully on shore, but they outwit us even on what we are pleased to term our own element. It is impossible to help reflecting upon the ridiculous figure cut by our large squadron as, full of expectation, it entered the desolate harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul to find that the enemy's squadron had effected one of the cleverest escapes and safe arrivals in the annals of naval blockades. From Mexico some rather important news has arrived this week. SANTA ANNA has been forced to abdicate, quit the capital, and embark for Cuba. Sic transit, (Ec. Scarcely two years ago SANTA ANNA was be• sought by all classes to leave his retirement at Cuba and accept the Presidentship of the Republic ; but no sooner is he fairly seated than his bad government completes what intrigue. had already begun. Unless the Mexicans make an end of this interminable state of in trigue, civil war, anarchy, and confusion, the fate of their country will be that of all nations torn by faction and weakened by internal dissen sions, while a keen and eager neighbour foments the quarrels, and looks on in expectation. General CARRO has been chosen President for six months by the successful party. Le boulet qui me tuera n'cst pas encore fondu," NAPOLEON may exclaim with his uncle, for the second attempt at assassination has failed more signally than the first. The miserable assassin this time missed the Emperor altogether, and fired upon the Dames d'Honneur. A Medical Commission have pronounced him insane. The Emperor probably does not wish to sully his triumph by an execution, though the madness of BELLEMARE appears to possess in it considerable method. His future safe custody is insured by the Biciare. An important treaty has lately been concluded between France and Persia It is stated to be one of commerce as well as of alliance, and conferring considerable benefits upon the French flag. The ratifications have been exchanged, and perfect amity and the most cordial understanding exists between the Shah and the French Government.