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

632 victories in the Sea of Azoff, the evacsation of Cir cassia, and the storming of the Mamelon, threw a delusive light over our military operations. The conquest was imagined to half adcomplished ; the enemy to be disheartened; and his fortifications unable to resist our onset. We had only to choose the moment for the capture. Such opinions were general in England and almost universal among out troops before Sebastopol. It was in vain to point out that these achievements were but the preliminaries, that we had only cut off part of the sources of supply, and carried some of the outworks of the fortress,—while the real struggle was still to come, and there was no reason for believing that it would be an easy one. Nothing could exceed the confidence which was felt in the camp, or the ardour with which the assault was looked for at home. But the disaster of the 18th has forced upon us a sense of our difficulties. The attack, though ill-conducted, was yet well planned and extensive. Twenty-five thousand French were accumulated upon four different points of attack against the fortifications which extend from Careening Bay to the outskirts of the Redan ; five thousand English were ready to be launched in three columns against the Redan, and two thousand more against the vicinity of the Barrack Battery ; while an advance was made by OMEn PACHA and the Sardinian troops to threaten the communications with Baktchi-Serai. The attack began prematurely on the left, and was taken up in succession from left to right, each division coming into action almost at the moment when its next neighbour had been re pulsed. We were fairly beaten in detail, and forced to draw off to our own lines, after a bloody and fruitless struggle. Of all the movements that against the Barrack Battery was alone successful, and had it been fol lowed up with vigour the results might have been different—so says the camp. In reviewing the causes of our defeat we must admit that the skill and resources of the Russians had been underrated. Their artillery was thought to be dismounted, and their troops unable to stand before the allies. We were not prepared for the dense masses that lined the ramparts, the guns remounted, the fresh batteries unmasked, or the steamers that were brought up with so much precision to sweep the ground with their terrible broadsides of grape and canister. Success had been imagined certain, but it proved to have been almost impossible. Let us consider the position of the Russians. They occupy the whole of the centre of the Crimea, communicating by two routes with the Continent, the one being the military road over the Siwash, and the other that through Perekop, and they possess two roads from Simfero po to Sebastopol, one passing through Bakchi-Serai, and the other making a circuit to the north of Sebastopol. These lines of communication are almost unassailable. In the south they are defended against an invading army by impassable mountain defiles, fortified with the utmost art, and in the north they are protected by the want of water and the poisonous exhalations which surround both Perekop and the shores of the Putrid Sea. Upon these roads the greatest activity prevails; they are crowded with advancing troops and convoys of ammu nition and provisions. The anticipations of failure in the supplies do not appear likely at present to be realised. At the same time Sebastopol itself is well fortified, and its troops are animated with the most fanatical courage. The Allies have an army of 200.000 men encamped npon an unhealthy plateau, and pushing its recon naissances a considerable distance into the hill country. Unprovided with sufficient means of land transport, they cannot undertake any extensive ope rations in the interior. The alternative is to press forward with their main strength the attack upon the town. Of provisions there is no lack, but loss must be apprehended from the ravages of disease, counterbalancing the rein forcements from home. New batteries, bombard ment, diversions, land assaults—such is the re curring round of operations to which our forces seem destined, until one after another every position is won, and the enemy driven across the harbour. But who can tell how long or how short a time will elapse before this consummation? The telegraph may announce the news to-morrow, or winter may find our troops still dragging out a laborious ex istence on the heights. Such a state of things requires constant careful ness, not only on the part of a Cabinet, but from the country. One error of the Administration at home may produce incalculable results, and retard for years the conclusion of an honourable peace. We have to deal with a Government that is scarcely competent for its duties, that forms no enlarged views, that car ries out its plans without energy ; a Government that has already shifted from a peace policy to a war policy, and may without a moment's warning change bsck again. THE PRESS. THE BALTIC CAMPAIGN. WHAT is our Baltic fleet going to do this year ? Two months have rapidly passed away, and we have done nothing; two months more will close the navi• gation of those seas, and are we to do nothing? The one thing needful for attack has for the last twelve months been commonly understood, to be small vessels with heavy guns, but our Admiralty have hitherto appeared to concentrate the whole of their official energy upon the of leviathan line-of-battle ships, to the utter exclusion of all smaller, but not less serviceable, vessels. At this moment we have not a mortar-vessel belonging to us (a class of vessels so useful in the last war), though it is true that a couple of useless frigates are to be converted into mortar-vessels : but why, in the name of common sense, were Snot a dozen of them— and there are some few scores in the Mersey— lcng since so converted ? How is it, also, that we are unable in the same period of time to build a fleet of gun-boats equal, at least, in number to that which the Russians have constructed during the winter? And we might, in addition, well ask, why the floating batteries, which have been turned out of the private contractor's hands now for some six weeks, have not yet found their way to the Baltic? The Lords of the Admiralty appear to think that they have nothing better to do than to coquette with these models of modern ship-building, and day by day to go on trying, testing, altering, rigging and re-rigging, till weeks have slipped away and the time for action lost. We don't want a float ing battery to be a model of paint and holystone. What we want is a serviceable and a cheap vessel which will carry her guns and do her work effec tually ; one trial of her engines, if satisfactory, should be sufficient, and she should be sent at once to her destination. But our floating batteries, about which we have heard so much, are week after week undergoing trials and alterations to such an extent that the primary object of their construction—that of bringing guns of tremendous weight of metal to bear safely at a short range against the granite batteries of Cronstadt—is being quite lost sight of, and they are becoming nothing more or less than small frigates of peculiar rig, with flat bottoms, and with no very heavy armament. It is a matter so purely speculative to say how far they will answer when brought into action against granite batteries, that we forbear entering into the question of wrought iron versus granite ; but what we wish to urge upon the Admiralty is the necessity of submitting to the trial as soon as possible, and that if the results should be against them, why, one error the more among men who are proverbially famous for building ships which never do answer their purpose is a trifle, and the public no doubt will be willing to regard it so. The glorious inactivity of our fleet at present which appears to divide its time between creeping for infernal machines and looking on at Cronstadt, is anything but palatable to the men and officers afloat—day by day they are doomed to cast long and lingering looks at the prize, not which they dare not, but which the Admiralty appear desirous they shall not, have the opportunity of touching. The admirals with the inefficient means at then command feel res tricted and are naturally undecided what to do. They have discovered every place to be ten times stronger than it was last year; and, as Sir JOHN Bus- GOYNE said of Sebastopol, the more "they look at it "the less they like it." But it is the Admiralty who are to blame for this state of things. No lesson how ever dearly bought, no experience or remembrance of what we have met with before Sebastopol, appears to teach them that first law of war—" vigour of ac tion." Days, weeks, and months, are let slip by, and yet they go on trying and improving and altering a pet project—anything but finishing and sending off at once every available vessel of light draught which could carry a mortar or a heavy gun. Seventeen or twenty small vessels with one gun a piece, as affording less mark for the enemy's fire, would be infinitely preferable to one floating battery with her large hull and seventeen or twenty guns. But the Admiralty seem incapable of embracing more than one project at a time : they have taken up floating batteries at present, and we only hope that when they do get into action—if ever they do, for we have a shrewd suspi cion that they are meant at present only as a " moral intimidation "—they will not prove the usual rule about pet projects. Meanwhile the public awaits impatiently for a proof of that vigour and energy in the Baltic with which Lord PALMERSTON promised to emery on the war. SATURDAY, 61tttion (ittelligtnct. Evnsasm.—(From a Correspondent.) —Simulta neously with the intelligence that conveyed to our town the intimation that the Honourable Craven Berkeley, M.P., had died at Frankfort, came a rumour that Mr. Grenville Berkeley was about to desert Evesham for the family borough of Chel tenham. The insinuation was, however, so in dignantly denied by several of the hon. member's supporters, that the probability was becoming less credited, when an arrival by the evening train from London threw the constituents again into a state of anxiety. Mr. Verjuice, Superintendent of the Messengers of the House of Commons, bearer of an epistle from the " Right Honourable the Secretary of the `Treasury" to Mr. Holland, of Dumbleton, emerged from the train, and with incredible alacrity entered a carriage, the driver of which was desired in a low tone to proceed to Dumbleton. This parlia mentary emissary did not reach his hotel in Evesham until midnight, when he retired to rest, after giving express orders to be called for the early train at five a.m. Curiosity stood on the tiptoe of ex pectation, when just before the appointed hour the Dumbleton carriage brought in its worthy owner, bound, like Mr. Verjuice, for the metropolis. No recognition, however, took place,—" the Squire" taking a ticket for Paddington, the House of Com mons' truant causing himself to be carried to Easton square. By a telegraphic message just received, we find that " the arrangement" has been fully arranged by Mr. Hayter. Mr. Berkeley leaves us fcr Chel tenham. Mr. Holland, furnished with the Treasury aid, announces himself as the Independent candi date for Evesham. Captain Blayney has been named by several as a candidate in opposition to this at tempt at Whig thraldom, but as he opposed Sir M. Beach in Gloucester shire, and has voted for Mr. Gladstone on all occasions at Oxford, the captain would not secure the cordial aid of either party. The Conservatives have invited Lord Grey de Wilton nephew of the Marquis of Westminster, who is ex pected to commence his canvass this day. The French Legislative Corps voted on Thursday the bill relative to the loan of 750,000,000 f. A rising has taken place in Catalonia, the pre text being the question of salaries. Two manufac turers had been assassinated at Barcelona. The National Guard refused to march. The Captain• General (Zapatero) shut himself up in the citadel with the troops that remained faithful, whence he sent mediators to the insurgents, who received them with shouts of " Long live Espartero." General Peel will move the previous question, as an amendment to Mr. Roebuck's motion of censure on the late Government, which now stands for Tuesday week, the 17th inst. Mr. E. Wodehouse, M.P. for East Norfolk, is, it is stated, about to resign his seat immediately, on the grounds of failing health. Mr. Stacey, of Rackheath hall, near Norwich, has been mentioned as the Con servative candidate for the vacant seat. M. Peterssen, the Russian Secretary of Legation at Lisbon, who has recently visited France and England, was discovered on board the Peninsular Mail Packet, Tagus, soon after the latter left Southampton for Lis bon, on the 17th ult. It has been remarked as singular that while the coasts of Russia are rigorously blockaded 'oy us and guarded by them, the very heart of the country is daily open to our electric messengers. Commercial messages are daily sent from London and Paris to St Petersburg. All political messages are excluded. On Wednesday there was a private view of the costly effects at St. Dunstan's-villa, Regent's park better known as the Marquis of Hertford's. The in terior of the building is somewhat grotesque and ir regular, it having been erected at enormous expense and by instalments, fur the purpose of entertainin, the late marquis's numerous friends. THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN THE CRIMEA, Major General Simpson, served in the Peninsula from May, 1812, to May, 1813, including the latter part of the defence of Cadiz, and the attack on Seville. Served also in the campaign of 1815, and was severely wounded at Quartre Bras. He served as second in command to Sir Charles Napier during the campaign against the mountain and desert tribes situated on the right bank of the Indus early in 1845. SIR JAMES GRAHAM is at Netberby. The right hon. baronet's health is not good. It is said by the Carlisle Patriot that he will not again appear in the House of Commons this session.