The Press. — London, England, 1855-05-26 00:00:00

MAY 26, 1855. We arrived off Balaklava yesterday morning, but in con sequence of the number of vessels which had to enter were unable to come in till yesterday night. The artillery, land transport corps, and small force of cavalry which accompanied, went round to Kamiesch. The infantry and stores came to Balaklava. None of the High. hinders have yet disembarked, and the sanguine still cling with fond hope to the expedition being yet carried out in spite of all. I have seen our troops discontented from hunger, from cold, from neglect and overwork, but I have never yet seen, and should be sorry ever again to see, the same feeling which now appears to prevail among all the regimeats, more particularly those which have formed a part of the late expeditionary force. To say that they are discontented will give no idea of the disgust and intense dissatisfaction which is prevalent among them. To be hurried off on a secret expedition—to come within sight of the peninsula of Kertch, sufficiently near to thoroughly alarm the enemy—sufficiently near them that our victory was certain—and then to return without striking a single blow, is surely enough to dispirit the bravest, and weaken ie discipline of the best-trained troops in the world. The Highlanders—though courage and loyalty itself—are the very last troops in the world with whom such tricks can be played with impunity. Had they less courage and less loyalty, there would be less risk ; but now they brood over the expedition as a personal slight to themselves. It will take weeks of hard fighting and bra. hant successes to remove the despondent, disappointed tteling which this miserable expedition has given litre to. And now it will naturally be asked why did we return? The answer is the simplest in the world—we were recalled by a message from Lord Raglan and General Canrobert, who had received a despatch from the French Emperor, order. ing the allied troops to be concentrated with all speed. This is the whole reason—hardly a sufficient one—as it no v turns out that a great mistake has been made, and the *Atctric telegraph message mistranslated. The message was, that if the details of the expedition to Kertch were not already arranged, the allied troops should be concentrated, and the expedition abandoned. lint the first and most im portant part of the message was overlooked—only the order for the concentration of the allies was translated, and though the expeditita was arranged—had started— arrived—and in two hours more would have landed, this was deemed sufficient to abandon the whole design, and return the troops to their different quarters! The authorities are now annoyed that the message was mis understood, the troops that it was ever sent ; only the Rnssians are pleased. All here who are well acquainted with the Crimea and its inhabitants consider that the fai lure of the expedition is tantamount to s defeat. They say that as regards the fortunes of the campaign t'ie capture of Kertch would be little less important than that of Sebastopol itself. The troops, the ammuni. ton, and immense supplies of all kinds, which are now received by that route from South Russia, would all have fallen into our hands almost without a blow. Now our chances have gone, and gone for ever. The Cossacks from the heights saw us, and watched andcornmunicated the des. tination to the enemy, and in a few days all its details will have transpired ; the Russians are sure to take proper pre cautions against another attack—the rear of Kertch will be made to bristle with earthworks, like another Sebastopol ; all chance of a coup de main is out of the question, and a regular siege almost equally so. And all this because the allied commanders did not know their minds in time, and because their messages are mistranslated. Ido not exag gerate when I say that the failure and abandonment of the expedition has produced an impression in the allied troops which I could hardly have believed that even a defeat would h we caused. The following is extracted from a private letter, written by an officer who accompanied the expedi tion : Off Sebastopol, May 6, 1855. We left this place on Thursday last with thirty line of• battle and other ships, with 17,000 troops on board. We started as if for Odessa, and at midnight altered our course for Kertch, expecting a severe action on the morrow. We were to lead the way, sounding as we went. The troops were to be disembarked in the evening. We cleared for action, took our topmasts and topgallantyards down, and made a strong network of ropes aloft, to prevent the spars when shot away from falling down upon and crushing ns. Every man had his orders from the doctor what to do in case of being wounded : beds were got ready, and the chests arranged to receive them, and all were ready and anxious for what we expected would prove a hard-fought action. I wrote a kind of will, saying what I wished to have done with my things if I was killed. In the morning all the ships had arrived, and we were quite ready, with longing hearts, to begin, when the admiral made a signal to hold a council of war. Then all our plans were altered. The French admiral had been recalled, and as with him went the troops, which we could not do without, all I can add is that all was given up, and we returned to our old quarters. • THE GUARDS' " BROWN BESS." The Daily News correspondent writes from Bala klava on the 7th instant:— I am glad it is in my power to give a satisfactory expla nation of one point respecting the Guards, which has struck many as equally inexplicable and mysterious. The fresh drafts came out with Brown Bess, and as the older 'ldlers are armed with Minies, the confusion of the two w !apons in one and the same corps seemed dangerous to th efficacy in battle. Upon inquiry in the proper quar t rs I find that the men were sent out on purpose with tieir drill muskets, because at least 15,000 /dinies of the k lled and non-effective—in short, of the army that perished d wing the winter--are in store at Balaklava. .esterday aid to-day detachments of the new arrivals were marched d)wn to the store, and exchanged their smoothbores for Minies, and in another day o r two the whole of the corps will be provided with formidable weapon. It is THE PRESS. intended to distribute the smooth-bore percussion muskets to the Turks, iu lieu of their clumsy firelocks ; and I can only hope that iu the distribution of these favours the brave and hardy Egyptian troops *ill have the preference. Indeed it would pay well if the Egyptian sharpshooters were provided with Minks. They are capital shots, have a decided talent for mechanics—more especially as applied . to with a very little instruction they would soon learn to use their Minii rifles, and keep them in order. Since these dusky troops are our allies, and tight on our side, it is obviously our interest to make them as effective as they possibly can be made: THE SCUTARI HOSPITALS. The following account of the present state of the military hospitals near Constantinople is given in a letter of the sth inst. : There are now four hospitals at Scutari—the " Barrack," " General," " Palace," and Harem "—capable altogether of accommodating 3,000 patients. Fifty-four of the medical staff died last year. At present the wards are nearly empty—l,7so spare beds. This morning 800 English convalescents returned to the Crimea ; 300 more are ready, and nearly all those remaining are doing well. There are very few wounded left here ; nearly all the cases are of fever, of rather a peculiar form, from which the men rarely die. The internal arrangements of the hospitals are now perfect, though people who have never visited an hospital before, even in England, cannot, of course, be expected to think so. As the men in the field have now more com forts as well as necessaries, so it is found that the deaths in the hospitals decrease. The arrangements made here by that " King of Cooks," Soper, have also tended much to help the sick, who now revel in chicken-broth, jelly, Arc. The nurses and Sisters of Charity are a great acquisition ; they add very much to the comforts of our brave fellows. Miss Nightingale is every where. She was seen the other day standing and assisting at the bedside of a poor fellow whose arm was being amputated. She must be a woman of wonderful nerve to witness what she is daily obliged to do. When either the sick return to England, or the convalescents to the Crimea, each man receives from her a small bag: for the former the contents are a few oranges (turum()), tea, or something suitable for an invalid; for the latter (those going to the seat of war), pocket-knives, a looking-glass, tooth-comb, comforters, chocolate, tobacco, Ake. The difference between the departure of the convalescents and the landing of the sick is awful. It would make your heart bleed. Many of the latter are almost dying; others emaciated to the last degree, with dysentery or fever. One soon, however, be comes accustomed to such horrors, and thinks of nought but " duty." Many a grave in the burial-ground here is marked but with an old barrel-stave, with a name rudely carved thereon, and many are without any mark at all. Turning from these sad scenes, I may tell you that the Sultan's new palace is nearly completed, and is without exception the most elegant structure in the world, and placed in the finest possible position on the liosphorus. It is open to the inspection of the public, as the Padisha has not yet removed into it. Huts are being erected at Scutari on the ground where the Guards were encamped last year, for a strong force of artillery, daily expected. The weather is now sultry, the rains having ceased. We are thinning the rats and mice, and now expect muaquitoes. We find human hair the beat thing to stop a rat-hole. Now that the French camp is so near, Vera has all the appearance of a French city, and the Tuiks are beginning to ►aucy that the allies do not intend to vacate in a hurry. Miss Nightingale has just gone to lialaklava for a short time to look over the " nursing " in that hospital. BALAKLAVA HARBOUR. Among one of the most useful improvements in Balaklava must be reckoned the filling in of the end of the harbour. It had become a horrid swamp, hideous and nauseous to every sense—where water and land had contended for the mastery, and at last effected a compromise in the form of the most abominable mud, blended with floating offal from the ships, the debris of drowned animals from the sea and starved animals from the land, decayed vege tables, and slimy nastinesses unutterable. Thanks to Admiral Boxer or Colonel Harding, this devil's quagmire has now been covered over with gravel and with stones, and stakes have been driven ►nto the sea so as to form a quay all along the top of the harbour. The slough is covered over, and a hard, clean, solid bit of ground takes its place, banked up at the sea side, and fit for landing goods and stores on from boats with shallow draught of water. The facilities of the piers constructed under Admiral Boxer's direction on the west of the harbour of Balaklava are invaluable. The seamen under his orders have blasted away the solid rock which rose almost precipitately from a depth of ten or twelve feet from the bottom up to the height of several hundred feet above the sea, and have constructed a broad road winding along under these rocks from the top of the creek half-way down the harbour towards the sea. A branch rail runs along the centre of this road from the depot at the end to join the main line at the head of tile harbour, and very fine jetties have been also constructed, under the same authority, alongside which large vessels may lie with safety, and where horses, guns, dm., can be discharged even from such ships as the Himalaya with the greatest ease and rapidity. In fact, if we were going to establish ourselves here permanently we could not do much more to secure our facilities of communi cation, and I only hope that some fine day or other we shall find these things useful in hastening our return home.—Times Correspondent. THE TURKISH COMMISSARIA Great apprehensions are felt as to the • of the Turkish army. The writer of a Constantinople to the Times, on the says :-- There remains only about fifteen days' Eupatoria, and the stores which ought to hay, here are not forthcoming. I have been shown provisions nut accounted for, though paid hardly won 10111 l of last bear. Among the . was one of 2,3.50,00) okes of rice, sufficient to feed an army of 50,000 men for nearly three months. Other 'tra cks were missing in like proportion. There seems no doubt that intrigues are going on with the object of weakening and overthrowing Omer Paella. The Sersakier is said to make every excuse to avoid sending up provi sions in proper quantity and in good time. The Turks have a fleet of liue•of-battle ships and five large steamers of more than 2,000 tons each ; these, if properly used, would be quite sufficient to keep up the supply of food regularly ; but the Uovernment put every difficulty in the way of their employment. First, they insisted that the vessels of war might be wanted; when that apprehension was shown to be unfounded, they declared that steamers were necessary ; now that the allied Minister' have in sisted that the Turkish steamers shall be used for the purpose, the excuse is made that the machinery is out of repair, and that some time will be necessary to prepare them for active service. It is revolting to see these petty jealousies at a time when the destiny of the country is to be decided for ever. 491 [AT. provisioning letter from 14th inst., provisions at lYe been ready awn a list of fur with the e defalcstiuns THE RUSSIAN CIRCULAR. Count Nesselrode's note giving the Russian version of the proceedings at the late Vienna Conferences was published in the St. Peterabourg Gazette on the 12th inst. The document is dated April 2d (May 10) ; its substance is as follows : The deliberations 3f the Conference of Vienna, without being definitively broken oil; reinsin iu suspense, the pleni potentiaries of France and Great Britain having declared that their instructions were exhausted. In order to place the Imperial legations in a position to form a correct judgment on the actual state of the negotia thnis, 1 think it my duty to retrace the whole of them, to state the results they have produced, and finally to point out the circumstances which, by checking their progress, have opposed obstacles to their success. From the beginning the Imperial Government, without provoking a revision of the treaty of 1841, was prepared to renew the provisions of it. It was only with a view of exhausting all the means of negotiation in its power that the Cabinet believed it met the views of those of London and Paris, by proposing to them to open the navigation of the Black Sea to the flags of all nations. Their refusal to adopt this mode of concilia tion completely exonerated the Imperial Cabinet from in sisting on it. Far trom that, more than one reason, in our opinion, combined to favour the principle of the closing of the straits, which we had consented to renounce, not in the sense of an exclusive policy, but with reference to the graver considerations of the general interest. In the situation which resulted to us from the issue of the conference of the' Ist of April, our plenipotentiaries, liberated from the obligation to plead the cause of the open ing of the Black Sea, rejected as it was by our adversaries themselves, remained at liberty to propose a new plan. This comprised two articles. Thu tirst confirmed the ancient rule of the closing of the straits. The second left the Sublime Porte itself to be the sovereign judge of the cases in which the interests of its security might require exceptions from this principle, and in which it might feel bound to call upon, according to circumstances, either the fleets of the Western powers, or those of Russia. The French Minister for Foreign Affairs, reiterating the declaration that he considered his instructions to he exhausted, did nut think himself authorised to discuss the project thus actually offered for deliberation. The Otto wan plen.potentiaries abstained from giving an opinion upon its merits. The Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in taking into consideration this proposal, saw with satis faction that in Article 1 the principle of the closing had been substituted for that of the opening of the straits. Ho thought, moreover, that Article 2, which reserved to the Sultan the power of eventually calling to his aid foreign fleets, and of exceptionally ope ' • • tible of a practical application, him to be legitimately open ' elements of which Austria • approximation ; but, i still were, he could not On their side, the tained that it was they on the protocol the last proposal third point of the negotiations • seated, with the same view, the subject of the thirteenth by declaring that they h thus pn.posing several tendered by Prince Uortschakoff, 26th of April. On the followi for Foreign Affairs quitted v. Such ci a summary (26th) of April. In or character of simplicity historical statement, all recrimination. It v. their connection to enlib which the Imperial Cabinet each of the questions recapitulate them. The first was one considered the matter it in the sense of the which Russia had promised She has kept, and will kxs' malty opening the straits, was Nuseep- plication. The proposal appeared to y open to discussion, and to comprise usu•ia might avail itself as a means of in the crude state in which affairs of consider it as a basis of solution. e plenipotentiaries of Russia main- ty who, iu the 12th conference, placed last proposal ten-ling to resolve the gotiations ; and again, that they pre- e view, the new ideas which tanned irteenth conference. They concluded y had amply redeemed their word in sl modes of solution. 'lbis declaration, iortschakott, closed the sitting of the he following day the French Jlinister nitted Vienna on his return to l'ari►. y of the negotiations up to the 16th order to preserve fur this repose the ity and calmness which belongs to a we have been careful to keep clear of t was enough to establish the facts and enlighten you as to the intentions abinet has prominently put forth upon under deliberation. 11e will briefly eof political rivalry. The Emperor rin a higher point of view. He took e wellbeing of the principalities, of promised to guarantee the prosperity. I know how still to keep, this prong's.