The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-30 00:00:00

THE WEEK. The startling announcement made yesterday morning that Lord RAGLAN had tendered his resignation as Commander-in-Chief, on the ground of ill-health, was contradicted in both Houses of Parliament last night. For the present Lord RAGLAN is invalided, and, though his retirement may not be immediate, it is not likely, we imagine, to be long delayed. Opinion is much divided on the choice which should be made of his successor. The name of General SimrsoN has not been very favorably received. He entered the army in 1811, and received his commission as captain in 1813. He has, therefore, seen forty-four years of service, though he has not been often employed in actual warfare. Should Lord RAGLAN have to return at last without succeed ing against Sebastopol, his case will be a hard one, as he will have to incur the reproach of failure in an enterprise which he undertook against his own judgment by the express orders of his Government. We have repeatedly drawn attention to the necessity for increas ing the rewards to our soldiers. The War-office has at last made a move in the right direction, though the details of the new system relative to pay and pensions are not so clear as could be wished. The scheme is radically defective in one respect. It indicates distrust of the soldier. It supposes that he is not to be trusted with his own money. He is to be regarded as a kind of infant of the State, and his money locked up for him in the chancery of the War-office till he comes to years of discretion. His pay while in the field is to be doubled, but he is to be none the better for its accumulation until— (to use a bull)—he is shot, or until he is superannuated. This is a part of the absurd routine system which the common sense of England has resolutely set its face against. If you wish the soldier to become a rational being, treat him as one. Trust him with his pay as a labourer is trusted with his hire. In some cases it may be squandered, but, on the whole, it is much better that he should feel himself at liberty to dispose of the rewards of his service as he pleases, than that the State should persist in keeping him in leading-strings in matters relating purely to his personal interests. As regards the State the question has another aspect. The great object is to quicken the recruiting service. Is that object likely to be best promoted by giving the soldier on active service double pay at once, or by hoarding up the amount for him, or his survivors, for an unknown period? The chief point with the Government should be to get the men, and, in our opinion, it would be good policy to let recruits hear the jingle of a few sove reigns in their jacket pockets. The bounty money was as high as 231. in the last war, and now it should be as high, or even higher, if the men of thew and sinew required for the ranks can be got on no easier terms. Fifty thousand prime fellows would be cheaply pur chased at this moment for 50/. a piece ; arid why hesitate if they can he tempted with no less offer? How tardy is the pace of the Govern ment ! It raises its terms for recruits only just to the point necessary to attract numbers to repair the waste of the war (and barely that), but never takes efficient steps to raise our army to the strength Par liament has sanctioned, and thus its reinforcements are always " too late." From the Crimea the week has brought little else but despatehes in confirmation of the news which we had previously received by telegraph up to the date of the 18th, but the details relative to the attack upon the Redan and Malakoff have not yet arrived either in Paris or London. The rumours which are abroad are very contra dictory as to the real cause of the failure of the attack on the 18th. But as authentic accounts are now hourly expected we forbear to state the rumours which are current. The numbers of killed and wounded which have been returned are not so severe as were antici• pated. The French losses are naturally greater than our own, and the immense disproportion between their totals returned as killed and missing (1,544), and as wounded (1,644), leads us to believe that the assertion of the Russians that they had captured 600 French prisoners is substantially correct. The French journals explain the disproportion by stating that while the English returns give the total number of soldiers wounded, however slight their hurts, the French returns give as wounded those only sent to the ambulances, the men with slight flesh wounds retiring to their tents. Still, making every allowance on this se)re, it is to be hoped that a considerable number of the 1,544 missing from their colours were not among the slain. The health of the army is, we regret to say, far from satisfactory Cholera has already carried off many victims. Generals ESTCOURT and Ataxy, DE LA MARMORA the younger, and Admiral BOXER, have rapidly followed one another to the grave, and the pestilence is far from abating. The French and Sardinian troops have suffered severely, as well as the division of the Guards at Balaklava, and the latest tele graphi reports a ffi rm that both Sir GEORGE BROWN and Lord RAGLAN are su ffering from a severe form of dysentery, and though Lord PANMURE in the House of Lords last night stated that there was every reason to hope that they would speedily return to their duties, yet we have every reason to believe that the health of Lord RAGLAN, at least, is very seriously impaired. The despatches of Sir EDMUND Liam which have arrived give full accounts of the late operations in the Sea of Azoff under the direction of his gallant son, and the only loss which we are called upon to mourn is that of this young and brave officer, who has fallen a victim to a too zealous attention to his duties and neglect of his own health. It is reported that, wounded by a rifle ball, he refused, in the spirit of a hero, to submit to the retirement necessary for his recovery. The country will condole with Sir EDMUND LYONS upon the loss of his brave and distinguished son, The extreme shallowness of the waters SATURDAY, upon the bars at the mouth of the Don prevented our gun-boats from proceeding up the river to Rostov and Azoff, where a cannon foundry and immense stores, besides a flotilla of gun-boats, are collected. It is worth remark, that throughout all the operations of the sea of Azoff no stores of ammunition have yet been discovered or de stroyed, so that it is obvious the Russians must receive such supplies by the main route through Perekop. Since the success of the expe dition against Kertch, we see no reason against an attempt being made to destroy Nikolaieff, which is the dockyard and arsenal of the Black Sea. With the large force the allies can now command, and the occupation afforded to the army in the Crimea, the probability would be in favour of a surprise. There is a safe channel for vessels of light draught, a good anchorage, and the town lies open and undefended. The Baltic fleet have not yet commenced any serious operations. On the 14th they moved down from Cronstadt to Seskar, but had returned to their old anchorage off Cronstadt by the 29th. Forty-six infernal machines had been discovered and taken up, and a severe accident had happened to Admiral SEYMOUR (the second in command) while examining one. Tho squadrqn of ten-gun and mortar-vessels, under the convoy of Admiral BAYNES, and five liners had been passed off Nargen Island on the 28th, en route to Croustadt. The return of the fleet to their old anchorage, and the addition of strength which Admiral BAYNES'S squadron will bring, lead us to hope that, at least, some attempt will be made either against Revel, Helsingfors, or Cronstadt, but a strong land force would appear requisite to carry out effectively the ultimate end of a bombardment. The Maynooth Debate has been adjourned again to the 17th of July. The House appears to get wearied of a discussion which seems apparently got up for the purpose of long-winded Members talking against time. It is not business-like to be perpetually adjourning and never coming to a definite conclusion. Mr. MAGUIRE spoke at great length on Wednesday, and was more temperate in his language than Her Majesty's ATTORNEY-GENERAL for Ireland. Some of his assertions tended to show that, in spite of the greatly increased grant, the College is not well managed. " The students had nothing better " than a few musty text•books, when it was one of their most ardent " wishes to see the establishment of a good library." The College gets thirty thousand pounds annually from the public purse, and in this age of cheap literature a single thottsaad would procure a " good library " from Mr. WILLIS, Mr. BORN, or any of the other great book-purveyors. Statements like that make people fancy that giving money to improve Maynooth is like sinking capital in reclaiming Irish bogs. It was amusing to hear Mr. PATRICK O'Baizw quote the admirable FENELON as an authority upon the practices and principles of the Roman Catholic Church. The Administrative Reform Meeting at Drury-lane Theatre, on Wednesday last, introduced Mr. CHARLES DICKENS as a political speaker, though only, according to his own assertion, for the first and last time. Why he should step out of the haunts of his own calling for once, and once only, upon an occasion scarcely calling for such a sacrifice of principle appears whimsical enough, but the society wanted a trump card, and Mr. DICKENS played himself off. His speech was an elaborate and carefully-prepared effort ; he never once hesitated, but deliberately spoke it out, and though the audience con stantly lost the point of the sentence, from its interminable length and frequent parentheses, yet Mr. DICKENS extricated himself cleverly and made most of his points. Mr. LAYARD spoke very shortly, and the proceedings terminated, without any definite plan being proposed or any resolutions being passed. Mr. TOULMIN SMITH has made public a correspondence ho has held with Lord PALMERSTON on the case of the unfortunate, and as Mr. SMITH of course insists, avi•disant Baroness DE BECK. Mr. SMITH totally mistakes the character of the indignation expressed against himself. It was not for unmasking imposture, but for having done so in the very harshest manner. There was something of malignity in the mode of her seizure and the indignity she was compelled to suffer. This, however, is beside the point. Mr. SMITH charges Lord PALMERSTON, and under his own handwriting, with knowing that this woman offered her services to the Government as a spy before her exposure, and the subsequent action against Mr. SMITH. The follow ing statement, on the authority of a person in the employment of the English police, is also published by Mr. SMITH I beg to inform you, that the person styling herself " Baroness de Beck," is the same, who, accompanied by Dr. H-, offered personally her services as a spy and informer to the recently established [lBM] foreign branch of the English police force. I know likewise that fora fortnight or three weeks she has obtained for such services the sum of 51.11i5. 81. per week. Mr. Small adds, as a comment on this statement : To what foreign sum si. 16s. 4d. corresponds, is a question not difficult to solve. This sum, however, proves the complicity between the English and Foreign police. The correspondence is chiefly important as showing that spies in the pay of the Austrian Government were protected under Lord PALMERS TON'S administration of the Foreign-office for the purpose of keeping watch over the Hungarian refugees. The disorderly proceedings which took place in Hyde park last Sunday are, it is announced, to be repeated to-morrow. If such is the intentions, it will be the duty of the police to be at hand, as such riotous assemblages arc a scandal to the metropolis and to the day. Whatever may be the merits of Lord ROSZAT OROSVSNOIOI bill, them THE PRESS. 616