The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-27 00:00:00

1024 THE WEEK. GENERAL SIMPSON, whose certain resignation we announced in THE PRESS of the 29th September, has at length been relieved of his com mand, and General CODRINOTON been appointed his successor. There was some difficulty, we believe, felt in passing over Sir COLIN CAMP BELL, but this Gallant Officer has now a separate command at Eupatoria, which it is believed he will for the present, at least, hold, independent of the Commander-in-Chief. We may mention at the same time that General AIREY will come home and take the place of Mr. FRITH as Quartermaster-General. General MARKHAM has arrived in England, and General JONES and General BENTINex aro both shortly expected. The Fourth Division, thus left vacant, has been conferred upon General WINDHAM, and the command of the Engineers upon Lieutenant-Colonel LLOYD. The capture of Kinburn—which we briefly announced in our Second Edition of last week—is at length a substantial success for our Black Sea fleet to boast of. The operations up to Monday last had been entirely satisfactory. The strong fortress of Kinburn, which was partially bombarded on the 16th, was attacked by a combined move ment of the whole fleet. ,and land force disembarked, on noon of the 17th, and, after a short but severe bombardment of one hour and thirty-five minutes, the Russian force surrendered with the honours of war. Fourteen hundred and twenty prisoners, including General KorsowiTew in command, and forty officers, with one hundred and seventy-four guns, and a large depot of military stores and ammuni tion, fell into the hands of the Allies. The loss of Kinburn was a severe blow to the Russians, as the fort commands the entrance of the Liman, and its possession by the allied troops opened the passage to the mouths of the Bug and Dnieper to the fleet. On the ensuing day the Russians blew up the fort at Otchakoff, and retreated on the approach of our gun-boats. From the absence of any announcement of farther movements for four days, we may infer that the fleet is engaged in buoying the passage up to the mouths of the Bug and Dnieper., and making preparations for a further advance. The depth of water up the Liman, though not enough for a three-decker, has an average of about twenty-two feet; and from Nicolaieff down the Bug, we know that, only in June last, the river was carefully dredged out, and the passage deepened, in order to afford depth of water for the Russian liners buildine. at Nicolaieff. The real strength of the military force on board the e fleet has not yet been stated, but a letter from the camp affirms that it consists only of 4,000 English and 6,000 French troops, with a small detach ment of artillery. If this be the positive strength of the land force with the expedition, we doubt much whether any attempt will be made against Nicolaieff. or even against Kherson, except by the gun boats. There is not the least doubt that the Russians have powerful corps placed at all the principal points of the coast. At Odessa the garrison was estimated at some 40,000 men, while a similar force is said to be collected at Nicolaieff, and 30,000 more to garrison Perekop. In the face of such strong forces, unless we have something more than 10,000 men in band, it is clear that they will not be risked away from the protective guns of the fleet. On their part the Russians ap pear to be making the most desperate efforts to save Nicolaieff. Fresh batteries and bastions were being daily thrown up under the eye of the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE, and large supplies of a new destructive shell are announced as being on hand ; but such reports will only stimulate the allied Commanders the more to achieve the destruction of this young Sebastopol, if it be possible. The occupation of Otchakoff would be a most important strategical position for the Allies, as commanding a road to Nicolaieff ; while Kherson, on the other leg of the triangle which Nicolaieff as the apex forms with Otchakoff, is on a second direct road to Nicolaieff also. But speculation is useless upon any possible plan of operations for the allied Commanders. Their present object, perhaps, is less the capture of Nicolaieff than holding the garrisons of Nicolaieff and Perekop in check, in combination with the advance of the Allies from Eupatoria, and an attack upon the Russian army of the Tschernaya from that front by PELISSIER and the main English army. From the Sebastopol and Tschernaya camps no decided intelligence had yet been received. The French army under PELISSIER were certainly advancing, and had reached within very few miles of Baktchi-Serai, but the hilly nature of the country, and the necessity of making roads for his artillery as he went, compelled him to be slow and extremely cautious in the presence of so powerful au enemy. The Russian plan of defence, or probable tactics, seem difficult to define. GOETS CHAILOFF appears to be taking no active steps to cover his retreat, although we know, by his despatches, that he is well aware of every movement of the allied armies, either in his front or on his rear. He appears to have confidence in his position, or else to be unwilling to retreat without the special authority of his master. It is announced positively from Odessa that he has despatched his sick and wounded to Perekop, as well as several detachments of troops and one field battery of guns. The probability is that the Russians have prepared for the worst by sending off all their impedimenta during the last six weeks, and that GORTSCHAKOFF, feeling perfectly safe in his rear from the powerful reserve at Perekop waiting on the allied Eupa torian force, will concentrate his army round Simferopol, which is well fortified, give battle to the Allies, and, if beaten, retire behind the line of the Salgbir, or evacuate the Crimea at once. SATURDAY, The possessor of one of the finest fortunes in England—au accomplished scholar, a graceful essayist, and an amiable man—Lord ELLESMERE is sure to be heard with attention when he delivers his opinion on so important a subject as the war. With that fondness for rare ideas which marks minds rather fine than powerful, he claimed for the war an origin which few persons ever thought of before. The people supported it, he said, not as they had supported other wars, through a pressing sense of danger, as when an invasion was apprehended under NAPOLEON,—fbr no one feared invasion from Russia, nor from old animosity, for our commercial intercourse with Russia had been rarely interrupted, but from the words are his Lordship's own—a sentiment and an instinct of future danger. His Lordship really seemed to think that he was paying a high tribute to the magnanimity of our people by this view, when, if literally correct, it would only show that we had made one of the greatest blunders in our history. Wars are not to be justified by any such motives. It may seem to a very elevated, cultivated class of mind much grander to go to war for a sentiment than from the necessity of self-preservation, as a gourmand may fancy that it is more refined to eat for the mere pleasures of taste than to support nature. But in reality all wars are positively criminal, unless a direct positive necessity exists for them. As for the " sentiment " and the " instinct," it is a pity to puff up the minds of the people with any such nonsense. The war was supported by the sense of the country, because it was felt to be time that the aggressions of Russia in the South should be checked, and that Turkey should be protected. When those objects are attained, we trust that sentiment and instinct will remain nowhere but in his Lordship's lecture to show what curious views were at one time entertained by a nobleman of Lord ELLESMERE'S high intelligence on the great question of his day. LORD PALMERSTON, with the inherent quality of "young blood," is said to possess a pugilistic reputation; and, from the sudden announce ment of the Times and _Morning Post this week, that there is no very remote probability of our having a fight with our cousins across the Atlantic, this peculiar tendency of the Noble Premier seems likely to have an additional field besides the Crimea, on which to despoit its prowess. It is an unfortunate reputation, to be sure, for a Prime Minister, but we suppose it is one which must be indulged. " Boys Dill be boys," and so General PIERCE and Lord PALMERSTON must " have it out." Truly, we shall have our hands pretty full of work, if General PIERCE or his people think themselves capable of giving us and Spain an everlasting thrashing. At war with Russia and America at once, a doubtful truce with Burmah, and a half-suppressed insurrection in India, we should only require a bad harvest, a famine in Ireland, a Caffre outbreak, and Lord ABERDEEN in the Cabinet, to make things pleasant for the nation. The Yankees, it seems, are de termined to have Cuba, by fair means or foul, or at least to get a foot ing somewhere among the West Indian Islands, at any price. The only way to prevent these buccaneering gentlemen of piratical tastes indulging their peculiar notions of " meuiu and tuuni," is to take the initiative in defensive measures, and not offer a premium to their rapacity by any show of indecision or weakness. A war with America would be an event much to be deplored, and could only be " drifted into" by gross mismanagement and impolitic conduct Unfortunately in this case we have placed ourselves in the wrung, because, while we blame the American Government for permitting f ilibustering expedi tions to be fitted out in American ports, we send agents into America to engage American subjects to enter upon an expedition against tt country with which the American Government is ou terms of peace. The Daily News on Tuesday last, in an elaborate article upon free trade and cheap bread, operatives and agricultural labourers, stated a case of extravagance against the working classes which moderate ob servers like ourselves find it difficult to credit : When bread is cheap (says this writer) large pieces of it may be seen in the gutters of our manufacturing towns ; and the country folk who keep the market will tell that the earliest peas and potatoes, the 'spring chickens, and the lanne-fed lamb are bought by the workers who, at critical times, have not a crust of bread for their households. Now, this is the unkindest cut of all, for the working man's friend, the representative of Liberal opinion, to say that he (the working man) eats peas and spring chicken, potatoes and lamb, at the earliest sea son! The labouring classes, we know, are rather imprudent; but, for peas and spring chicken—and, worse than all, home fed lamb ! No, no, it won't do. Free trade may have done a good deal one way and the other, but we cannot believe in peas at a guinea a quart, with the spring chicken and home-fed lamb, garnishing the dinner-tables of our workers between February and June ! The policy of the Government towards the Militia has met with a practical reproof this week, which we hope will call attention to the error of the system, in obtaining a recruit by offering him, as a bounty, one sum, and paying him another. The case to which we allude is the mutiny of the Militia on Thursday last at the Horfield barracks, Bristol. A number of hot-headed Irish recruits, fresh caught with the offer of a 51. bounty, when paid their money, found that various deductions for uniform, &c., were first made, and the balance, rather diminished in value, handed over to them. Upon this the men, rightly enough, said that they had enlisted with the understanding that they should receive five pounds as a bounty, and not a balance of something less than three. The adjutant, upon this, remon strated with them, and very injudiciously threatened to confiLe them, when they immediately made an attack upon him and r knocked him down. Other officers attenipted to restore orde THE PRESS.