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

424 THE WEEK. TEE mist which has lately shrouded the politics of Europe is rising— not, indeed, to give place to sunlight, but to reveal a sky of settled gloom. A nice distinction has been drawn in relation to the Vienna Conferences. They are not broken off, but only " suspended." They are to be kept alive, it appears, that Austria may ripen some scheme for asserting her neutrality without positively breaking faith with the Western Powers. Lord CLARENDON obligingly declares, in almost the words one hears at a mock auction, that he is open to any offer. He will not feel insulted by any bidding—he wants only something to commence with. The haughty rejection by Russia of the conciliatory proposals of the Allies seems to have taken the whole diplomatic world I.y surprise. Does she rely most on her own strength or on the weakness of her foes? Evidently she makes small account of the power of England, and perhaps conceives that the moment is favorable for engaging in a mighty contest for the sovereignty of the world. The problem now to be solved is, where and how she can be fought to the most advan , tage. An able correspondent suggests that we should evacuate the Crimea, and content ourselves with blockading the Russian ports. But might we not, by such a course, be playing the Russian game? Now that her military power is fully roused, how long would the Turkish territory be secure from her armies? Ought we to allow her to overrun Asia Minor? If she must be met on land, is not the Crimea as good a battle-field as any other? While the war lasts, to aban , :on the Crimea would be to confess a defeat. Our recruiting service is not nearly so brisk as it should be, con sidering our urgent want of men. Recruits are to be had, but Lord PANMIIRE cannot yet make up his mind as to an advance of the bounty. Some fifty millions are voted for the service of the war, yet we hesitate to pay the price which would secure us the best men for tha army. No money can be so well spent as that which secures a superior class of recruits. Say, we require a hundred thousand good men—does any one doubt that our recruiting parties would have the pick of the agricultural population by shaking twenty sovereigns in the rustic's ears? Could two millions be spent so well in any other way? Nay, if fifty pounds' bounty had to be given, the necessary five millions would be well spent. On one point we should make up our mind—to get the number of men, and the class of men we want, cost what they may. With our army once raised to the required amount, there would be no difficulty in recruiting it afterwards. There has been little to excite attention during the week save the war and the Conferences, and the latter are now of little importance we imagine, except as they relate to the attitude of Austria. The proceedings in the Legislature have excited little interest, except as they bear on these subjects. Attempts have been nightly made to screw from the Government some information as to the intelligence re ceived by telegraph from Balaklava, but without any satisfactory result. The House was principally occupied last night with the adjourned debate upon " The Tenants' Compensation Bill." The bill was sup ported by the Government, the Irish members, and was carried by a majority of 113. Mr. BETHELL, in the course of his speech, rather astonished the House by indulging in a little Socialism. " Between the knife of an assassin and the heart of an honest " man there is a wide gulf," said DE RETZ, and the miraculous escape of the Emperor of the FRENCH on Saturday last proves the truth of the remark. That any man should miss his object when within half a dozen paces of it seems incredible, and to nothing but the trepidation of conscious villany can be ascribed the failure of the assassin. We may well congratulate ourselves upon the escape from the disgrace of having had such an attempt made in our streets, for it is stated that PIANORI has acknowledged he followed the Emperor about in London, with the intention of shooting him had a favorable opportunity pre- sented itself. The enthusiasm of the people, however, and the vast crowds in the streets, perpetually destroyed his chance. The inte resting details which will be found in our " Foreign Correspondence" may be fully relied upon as coming direct from the best authority. We have at length received decisive intelligence that the bom bardment of Sebastopol has been suspended, to use a mild tone, for some days, from want of ammunition ; and that the Russian works are not yet sufficiently injured to admit of an assault being made with any prospect of success. The rumours of the camp anticipate the recom mencement of the bombardment very shortly, and some combined attack by land and sea ; but private letters speak in any but confident terms of the result of the attempt, and freely admit the difficulties to be overcome. Meanwhile the Russians carry on their nightly sorties, which are as often repulsed ; and on the night of the 19th a most gallant attack was made by the 77th on some Russian rifle-pits in front of our advanced works on the right attack. The Russians, taken by surprise, were driven out in a moment and both pits secured, but in a couple of hours four heavy columns of the enemy attacked and recovered the more distant pit, overpowering our men, who fell back upon their supports in the first pit. Attempting to carry this, the Russians were driven back by the bayonet, and relinquished their of to remove it. In this little affair the capture of a single pit, we lost two gallant officers killed, Colonel EGERTON (the colonel of the 77th, to whom the expedition was intrusted), and Captain LEmeamax, as well as six officers wounded, and about seventy men killed and wounded--a severe loss for the possession of a single pit. Uporktheir side the French also had had a desperate encounter for the postessiOri SATURDAY, of similar ambuscades, losing some 157 men killed and wounded in the affair ; while, at the same time, they have sustained an irreparable loss in the death of General Btzox, who died on the 15th from a bullet wound. The inactivity of the allied generals seems strange when the force at their command is now so large. One reconnaissance in force under Sir CoLIN CAMPBELL which failed in its object from want of ar rangement, but which, if successful, would have been productive of some result, and a second the other day under Lord RAGLAN, which had no object in view except to lionise 031E11 PACHA, and show him the ground, make up the sum of our field operations for the spring; for, according to appearances, the summer will be here and passed before the third bombardment and assault is tried. To judge from the admissions of the Minister of War we should say that the affairs of the-War-office were in about as hopeless a state as they were six months ago. Upon a point of such vital importance as exists between the respective qualities of " Brown Bess " and the Minie rifle we should wish to see our War Minister fully informed, the more so when relating to the description of arms issued to the troops proceeding to the seat of war; but the "jaunty style "is to carry us through, akd on Monday evening when the Marquis of &Lis som questioned Lod PANMURE as to the truth of the statement that the Guards when embarking for the Crimea had boen armed only with the old musket, Lord PANMURE, after a little preface about such state ments being apt to produce the most erroneous impressions upon the public mind, said "that he could not believe it possible that it could " be true that ally detachment of her Majesty's troops had left this " country armed with the old musket." "He could not believe it " possible !" No, nor anybody else. But what is the real truth which came out at length on Wednesday evening ? Lord PANMURE by that time having made inquiries, found it was not only possible, but true ; and the reasons which he gives in defence of the measure are quite worth recording :—" The men so far as possible had been trained to " the use of the Minie rifle, but, inasmuch as it was better to carry on " the usual drill, the Government placed in the hands of the men the " old smooth-bored musket, which upon their arrival at Constan " tinople were exchanged for a Minie rifle, a store being kept there for " that purpose. He hoped this explanation woald be sufficient." Lord PANMURE may well " hope ;" but Hope once told a flattering tale, which will not be repeated in this instance. Any reason more ridiculous, inconsistent, and absurd, we never read before. A man is to bo drilled to the use of one arm, and then put back for three weeks to the use of an obsolete weapon, and once more, if he is fortunate, return to the use of his first. Bearing in mind that the men and boys who went out in the last detachments of the Guards were scarcely perfect in their drill, many of them not two months from the plough's tail, the folly of this plan is apparent, if they are really to get the Minie rifle again at Constantinople. But we have no faith in Go vernment depots, especially of Minie rifles. A store of Minie rifles was carefully preserved at Balaklava, but when the arms were served out they were found rust-eaten and worthless ; and we strongly suspect that the Guards will go on to the camp with Lord PANBIURE'S pet " Brown Bessies," then into the trenches, and finally be picked off by every Russian rifleman who has the chance, OF FLATTERY. AN ADDENDUM TO LORD BACON. (APROPOS OF CERTAIN RECENT LEADING ARTICLES.) IT was cunningly devised by the Greeks—that saying—that " to prat e `' " a man inordinately is to raise a blister upon his nose." This is, in especial, the case in flattery of kings and men in great estate; for as the acts of such are, for the most part, done in the daylight of history and their thoughts and designs well known, so the exaggeration and puffing forth of these may end oft-times in a notable contempt. As when a silly fellow saith of a potentate who, albeit able and sagacious, hath yet had no lack of care for his own individual advancement, that when he falls " he shall not have fallen before securing with all future " ages the fame of the mightiest and the most illustrious champion " which the gland cause he had espoused had ever found in Christian " Europe," then the sarcastical reader may ask whether that great cause was not, in a chief degree, his own glory and greatness, and so, by jeeringly assenting, change the flattery to censure. Such adulators also are, as it were, temper parati, and seize the most frequently on tho wrong occasion to betrowel their idol with untempered praise. To pursue the instance of those in the purple, there is nothing more common amongst the dangers of great estate than that of assassina tion, by the hand often of the meanest and basest of the commoner sort, of their own insanity, or led on by others ; yet have I read, on the , occasion of the happy escape of a monarch, such prunella as is here, though, at the same time, had no " actual stroke ' whatsoever taken place If the'sworn foes of society, if the desperate emissaries of political chaos, were curious to know whether their illustrious vanquisher could undergo the actual stroke of assassina tion as calmly as he had all along confronted its worst menaces, they have now solved that problem, while putting the supreme, the finishing touch, to their own flagitious guilt, and irrevocably consummating their divorce from the sympathies of civilisation. Such flattereis as these put in one's recollection that merry conceit of the Orientals (which hath been made into an idle song), of an attendant who could have driven a buzztly from the face of the Great Mogul, but in making his blow the fly escaped, and the Emperor was thrown prostrate. They are not suited to the climate of the Western nations, wherein the heartiness of praise doth not, or ought not, to partake anything of the hyperbbiieal which most frequently proveketh derislon, THE PRESS.