The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-16 00:00:00

MEM 'l' THE WEEK. Tins week has been fruitful in great and deserved successes in the Crimea, and although the despatches have not yet arrived giving full details of the attack and capture of the Mamelon and Quarry Works, yet sufficient can be gleaned from, the telegraphic reports to assure us that it was the most brilliant success we have yet gained against Sebastopol. The bombardment, which had commenced upon the 6th, had been continued with some effect for thirty-six hours, when, on the evening of the 7th, a combined attack upon the Mamelon and the Quarry Works was organised and carried into effect in the most gallant manner. The French columns advanced to the attack with the greatest intrepidity, and after a short., bloody, and decisive light, in one hour drove out or bayonetted the Russians, and remained masters of the battery, with 602 prisoners and 73 guns, as the proof of their success. Meanwhile the British troops engaged in the attack and capture of the Quarry Works at the point of the bayonet forced their way over the sandbag parapet at the top of the slope, upon which a battery was being prepared, and after a severe hand-to-hand conflict succeeded, with the loss of 647 killed and wounded, in establishing themselves upon the ground. Upon the whole, considering the great strength of the position and the slight damage it had received from the bombardment, the Russians in the Mamelon do not appear to have fought with so much intrepidity as on previous occasions. They certainly fought much better, and defended their psi front of the Flagstaff Battery, on the 22nd and 23rd with much more energy and resolution than they did Mamelon, a position of infinitely greater value to them. Pro suddenness of the attack surprised them, but it requires singular powers to be equal in both offensive and defensive Without underrating the brilliant gallantry of our allies ,wn troops, the Russians do not appear to have fought with characteristic obstinate tenacity of purpose; but we must not this comparatively easy success that we are to get into in a day or two. We may, it is true, for nothing is impossi troops _ which never fail under any circumstances to achieve that ay undertake. But we believe that every inch of ground will uted witit the utmost tenacity, and as yet we know little of -limes within the town, but from the skill and energy which displayed in the construction of their outworks we may rest that they have not neglected to apply every means of defence The loss of the French was very severe, Prince GORTSCHAROFF it at 2,700 killed, wounded, and prisoners, and moreover having captured two guns ! But the arrival of the despatches will afford us every detail. In the Sea of Azoff the steam have been extremely active, the sea has been swept of every , essel. Arabat and Jenitchi have been bombarded and Ld, although we have received no despatches of later date from Captain LYONS of the Miranda, telegraphic despatches .1s from Vice-Admiral BRUAT announce that Taganrog, Marioupol, Gheisk, in the Gulf of Azoff, have been bombarded and immense provisions, and numerous coasting vessels destroyed. . PACHA is still at Head Quarters, and the rumour of the ad the Turks from Eupatoria does not seem borne out by facts ; contrary, the allied Generals appear disposed to concentrate of their forces for a combined assault on Sebastopol, or on Its more advanced works, and an attack upon their position at chorgoum. During the ensuing week we may fully expect to hear of id and combined operations, and we trust with every hope of corresponding successes, The Baltic fleet is at length off Cronstadt, and Cronstadt is pro by the Admirals impregnable on one side and only assailable other by vessels of heavy armament and light draught. Twelve ago we were told precisely the same thing, but the right prin __ building such vessels is not to be discovered in one year—by Admiralty or its officers. There was a good old time when a certain tiled Copenhagen, was bombarded, that such vessels could not built in time, but could so far answer their purpose as to take position under the Crown Battery as materially influenced mion. Can we not fifty years and odd afterwards find men to ships again ? Even the model of these old ships would be to those which have been adoped, for our present boasted batteries which we were told in the winter, were to compete granite forts of Cronstadt in this Baltic campaign, are a wretched they will neither carry their guns nor their stores, nor answer in point. We may rest assured that we shall do nothing this year Baltic—a fruitless bombardment or two will, perhaps, take the close of the year, so that we may retire with some show but beyond that we can expect little. The annoyance and It in the fleet at the utter neglect evinced by the Admiralty the only means by which some effective success may be can be understood by every brave man. Seasonable acts of severity are necessary from time to time to military discipline. The public has seen, with satisfaction, Commander-in• Chief has at last decisively interfered about and ungentlemanly practice of coarse practical jokes. For scandals of that kind L ieutenant WEBSTER and Cornet have been dismissed the service, and another officer severely blicly reprimanded. It is not fair that the character of a whole should be jeopardised by a few underbred and overgrown and Viscount HARDINGE'S decision is backed by a large opinion, military and civil. We trust that we have heard the such IthotEcer-liice eandtmt. The thrift are too serious for such themselves upon the fi strength of the positi the bombardment, th have fought with si They certainly fougl Lion in front of th of May, with much the Mamelon, a posit bably the suddenness troops of singular pot measures. Without or of our own troops, their characteristic o infer from this comp Sebastopol in a day or ble to troops which ne which they undertake. be disputed wito the their resources within they have displayed ii assured that they ha` within. The loss of t estimates it at 2,700 boasts of having captt next week will afford squadron have been e : Russian vessel. An burnt, and, although than those from Capt., to Paris from Vice-Ad: and Gheisk, in the GI stores of provisions, OD/ER PACHA is at vance of the Turks fr on the contrary, the the whole of their for some of its more advr Tchorgoum. During some grand and comb corresponding success The Baltic fleet nouncep by the Admi on the other by verse months ago we were I ciple of building such the Admiralty or its c place, called Copenha only be built in time, up such a position ur its destruction. Can build such ships agail preferable to those floating batteries whi with the granite forts c failure; they will neit] any one point. We m up the Baltic—a fn place at the close of of dignity, but beyon disgust felt in the fic , to supply the only n pined, can be under Seasonable acts c ensure military disci that the Commander• the odious and ung er the recent scandals EVANS have been distil and publicly repriman regiment should be je schoolboys, and Visco amount of opinion, mi last of such uftotilcer.l atiliaoss% THE PRESS. SATURDAY, Last night Mr. LAYARD'S long•suspended motion on the subject of Administration was brought forward and discussed for several hours. The member for Aylesbury was vehement, as usual, in hs denunciations of official incapacity, of Ministerial favoritism, and the " aristocratic element." Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE followed up the subject, only showing a too copious acquaintance with instances and details, but refusing nevertheless to accept Mr. LAYARD'S suggested remedies, which he lather pooh-poohed as being vague and unprac-- deal. Sir E. B. LYTTON afterwards moved his amendment in a brilliant and most telling speech, to which the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, whose address was so dull and clumsy that the House maintained a nonchalant buzz of conversation while he was speaking, responded by adopting the alternative presented. Mr LAYARD'S resolution, Sir G. C. LEWIS declared, contained a vote of censure, and if affirmed would have led to an immediate resignation of the Goverment. Ministers were evidently too glad to accept the shield held out for them by the member for Linconshire. The debate was subsequently adjourned to Monday next. Prince ALBERT was not happy in his speech at the Trinity 83i7. on Saturday last. His allusion to the " morbid exaggerations " of the press suggests the reflection that he has not yet forgotten or for given the public discussions which cut down his annuity some 20,000 1. a year. His German nature will not allow him to understand Englis h liberty of speech ; he cannot discern the advantages of a free press, and perhaps would prefer a censorship to restrain its license. That effervescence of public opinion which foams and sparkles pleasantly to the eye of a masculine statesman he regards as poison bubbling in a Venetian glass. It is to be regretted that on a public occasion his Royal Highness should have given expression to sentiments which indi cate something like distrust of public intelligence, and falls into the great error of identifying the existence of a Ministry with the welfare of the Crown and the good of the nation. We are afraid it will be asked whether the late Ministry was really so deserving of confidence as from this speech might be inferred. We must take the liberty of hinting that, whatever may be the faults of the press, they are not likely to be corrected by his Royal Highness's admonition, however well intended it might be. During the week Parliament has been engaged upon various bills. On Monday Sir JOHN PARINOTON, in reply to Mr. HENLEY, upon the adjourned debate on the Education Bill (No. 2), entered into a clear statement of the state of education in this country, and reviewed the various schemes which from time to time have been proposed. The debate was adjourned till Monday week. On Tueaiay the Government were defeated on the Decimal Coinage Bill, and on Thursday Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S "Victoria Constitution" was read a second time, in spite of the strenuous resistance of Mr LowE. An extremely curious case was mooted by Lord DERBY in the House of Peers on Monday. The point is raised as to whether the patent for the new Baron of " Fermoy" in the Irish Peerage is not ab solutely void. By the " Act of Union" three Irish Peerages must become extinct before the Crown can create a new Irish Peer. The provision was introduced in order to guard the Irish nobility against being swamped by profuse creations. According to Lord DERBY'S singularly lucid statement only two Irish Peerages have recently be come vacant, but the Ministers have tried back upon the Earldom of Montrath, which became vacant in 1802, and which they allege was never counted before by the Herald's Office, This seems a singular fact (if true), when we know that the Irish Commoners are keenly alive to the vacancies in the Peerage. The whole matter is to be brought under the Committee of Privileges. On the polical propriety of making Mr. BURKE ROCHE a peer Lord DERBY did not dwell at any length. The Administrative Reformers boast so much of the competency of mercantile men to manage the affairs of State, that of course we may assume they are perfectly capable of managing their own. As a class, however, some ugly cases have turned up lately, and if report speaks truly we shall in a few days have as flagrant a case made public as has been exposed for some years. We allude to Messrs. STRAHAN, PAUL, and Co., the bankers, who stopped payment on Monday last. The city article in the Times of yesterday states that revelations have been made which place this case "as oue of the worst on record." Their liabilities, which they represented to be about 800,0001., is more likely to reach double that amount, and this enormous deficiency is perfectly at variance with the causes which they offer for their failure, so much so that, continues the writer " there is every reason to fear that for a " long period the house has been existing upon the property of those " who confided in them," so that these gentlemen for the last year or two have been grossly violating every principle, not only of honour, but of commercial and banking laws, in a manner scarcely to be credited of the merest tyro in business. The late case of DAVIDSON and GORDON is another equally flagrant example, and how many more could not be added to the list of late years ? With every respect for the talents and honour of the British commercial class, we beg to demur to their assertion that they could, transact the public business of the State in so faultless a manner. In the management of their own affairs, they give us none so great a proof of discretion and care. Railway and other companies do cook accounts to make things pleasant, and even some associations, according to Colonel FREESTINO, will descend so low in the art of cookery, as to embellish their bill of fare with a list of absent and never intending•to.bapresent honourable bietnberti 568