The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-18 00:00:00

THE WEEK. A Lose period of expectation has at last been terminated by a series of telegraphic messages, bringing us most important and stirring news from the seat of war. First came an announcement yesterday after noon of a great battle on the Tschernaya, the Russians having attacked, on the morning of Thursday last, the allied position in great force and been driven back with immense loss by the French and Sar dinians; and later came a message from General SIMPSON announcing that he had decided, in concert with General PELISSIER, to reopen the bombardment on the morning of yesterday, the 17th. It is tolerably certain, then, from these announcements that the Russians, having re ceived information of the intended attack of the allies, had resolved to anticipate it, in the hope of repeating the surprise of Inkermann. They attacked at daylight on the morning of the 16th, their whole force consisting, it is believed, of 50,000 or 60,000 men, under General LIPRANDI. It is probable that this corps was one of those which, on the 14th of July last, we announced as advancing to the Crimea by forced marches. The attack was met by the French under General BOSQUET and the Sardinians under Gene ral DELLA MARMORA. The action lasted three hours, the enemy being at last repulsed with a loss estimated at between four and five thousand men, and four hundred prisoners. It is evident, from the results of this engagement, that our gallant allies the French must have fought with their accustomed bravery, and that they must have been nobly seconded by the Sardinians. It is pecu liarly gratifying that this intelligence—which will gloriously efface the remenibrance of our repulse on the 18th June—should have been received on the eve of her Majesty's departure to visit the Emperor of the French. The enthusiasm of the Parisians will be raised to a high point by this intelligence, and we must hope that it will speedily be enhanced by news of still greater successes consequent on the bom bardment fixed to commence at daylight yesterday. We are on the verge of great events. If the Russians decide on maintaining their po sition in Sebastopol to the last, forty-eight hours may be required to silence their batteries, and drive the shipping to the northern shore, and the assault would probably immediately follow. It seems, therefore, not unreasonable to expect that we may very speedily hear of some decisive success on the part of the Allies. Letters from the camp, and an admirably lucid one which we publish to-day in our columns, speak confidently of the success of the next attempt. Nothing, this time, has been left to chance. Eight weeks of constant preparation and labour have produced most tre mendous batteries which encircle the doomed town with a terrible grasp. As far as human skill and ingenuity can foresee, the Malakoff ought to fall this time ; but a fortress is so seldom captured at the intended point, that if we only assault the town in one or two places, ..and allow the Russians to reserve their whole strength for the defence of those quarters, our chance of success is considerably diminished. No mention is made of the fleetpartaking in any operations, though it is not probable that the ships would be idle in any general assault. From the concentration of naval strength off the harbour, we are inclined to infer that a grand and combined assault was intended. The other news from the camp is meagre. The health of the troops generally is good, though a few cases of cholera and fever have occurred. The Duke of NEWCASTLE, who was up at the front in General BICNTINCIE'S quarters, was suffering severely from the Crimean fever and diarrhoea. Sir RICHARD ENGLAND has relinquished his command from ill health, and is about to return home. General EYRE is to succeed him. Lord PALMERSTON'S first Royal Speech reminds us of HOOD'S defini tion of home-made bread, " a heavy compound of putty and lead." Royal speeches are not famous for brilliancy ; this one by Lord PAL- Nzasunr, by its length as well as by its intolerable dullness, outstrips all former compositions of the kind. So great a dearth was there of real matter to congratulate the nation upon, that Lord PALMERSTON was driven to unqualified approbation of his own small measures. The allusion to the Militia was not happy, and the expression with reference to enlistment into the line, " aslar as was required," sounded peculiarly infelicitious after the able exposé of the inefficient state of the army by Sir Ds LACY EvAss an hour previously. The dullness of the Royal Speech was in some degree relieved a few hours afterwards by the arrival of the news of the bombardment of Sweaborg. The extravagant amount of "flattering unction" which the gentlemen who do the editorials in the morning and evening papers put into their pens upon this occasion seems incredible at this sober distance of time. Like Panurge anticipating his revenue from locusts and periwinkles on the Island of Salmagondin, these gentlemen appear to have "eaten their corn while it was grass," and to have twisted what was really only an experiment into a " Triumphant Success and a Glorious Conquest," to which " Copenhagen " or " Trafalgar " were trifles in comparison. The visit of her Majesty to Paris will be a most gratifying event, as it must tend to confirm that alliance between the two nations which Lord MALmassusy, with such prescient statesmanship, founded in 1852. The Queen embarked at half-past six last evening from Osborne, and the Royal Yacht was to weigh anchor this !morning at four o'clock, so as to reach Boulogne at mid day, whence, accompanied by the Emperor, she will proceed direct through Paris to St. Cloud, where her Majesty will remain during the week, visiting Paris daily. The State visit to the opera takes place bri Tuesday; the grand ball THE PRESS. SATURDAY, at the Hotel do Ville on Thursday; the grand review in the Champ de Mars on Friday; and on Monday, the 27th, her Majesty, as at present arranged, will start on her return to England. It is stated in the French papers that the Empress will be precluded from doing the honours of reception to her illustrious visitors from reasons of health of a delicate nature. The French papers have been raking up every historical fact in connection with the visits of kings of England and France, and among those cited some amusing inaccuracies occur. For instance, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, it is asserted, never left England after he had once conquered it: our memory serves us badly unless the sturdy Norman left England for the last time in his life to show a French king that he was not so impotent as had been rudely asserted. Among the English kings who have visited France are enumerated " HENRY 111., " who lost the battle of Taillebourg in 1242," and " HENRY VI., who " was crowned in France in contempt of the rights of CHARLES VII. and "of the Salic Law." In chronological order the visits of HENRY V. should have been noticed between the two. For one monarch of the French, it is said, whom the fate of a disastrous war sent to die in London, fate willed it that four kings of England should find a last asylum on Gallic soil ; but RICHARD the Lion-hearted, HENRY 11., and HENRY V., ought not to be placed, by implication, in the same cate gory of the French Jonx, who died a prisoner iu London, or with the banished JAMES 11., whom LOUIS QUATORZE vainly endeavoured to restore to the throne he had lost. These historical reminiscences are a little too courtly for truth, though, to be sure, on the occasion of a Royal visit, events of the past will bear to be presented in a dress of masquerade. The guns of the Baltic fleet have at length been heard in earnest. The " squall," which our well informed correspondent warned us from Nargen last week to look out for, has burst upon Sweaborg. The cluster of islands at the entrance of the harbour of Helsingfors, which comprise the town and fortifications of Sweaborg, have been bom barded for forty-five hours, and tremendous conflagrations among the buildings and stores of the islands have ensued. Yet it is by no means certain that so much damage has been done to the forts as was at first anticipated from the loose expressions of Admiral PENAUD'S telegraphic despatch, for the fleet, so far from attempting to force the passage of the harbour, returned to Nargen on the 13th. However, it is difficult to calculate exactly the amount of destruction and loss suffered by the Russians. Our own loss was happily very trifling—two officers and thirty men Iv( unded—and the success of the experiment, as far as regards the power of the mortar-boats at a long range—some 2,500 yards, we hear—very satisfactory. The few hnos of our correspondent this week state that the French mortar-boats were left at Nargen This would almost appear to he a precautionary measure consequent upon the uncertainty of the success of the attempt that was to be made. Now that success has been in some degree satisfactorily proved practicable, we may hope, if there is yet time before the bad weather sets in, that more general and decisive results will be obtained from the use of the whole of the mortar squadron either against Revel, or against Sweaborg a second time, with the view of completely destroying all defences and laying the town under contribution. The details of the affair of the 9th and 11th are anxiously looked for. The Vulture arrived at Dantsic on the 16th with the mails, so that but a short time will elapse before we receive the despatches in full. The fleet at Nargen was preparing for fresh operations. It is reported from Konigsburg that the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE asked leave of the Emperor to sally forth from Cronstadt and attack the blockading squadron, but was refused. The Austrian Government has, in the Vienna Gazette of the 11th, given a direct denial to Sir GEORGE GREYS statement in the House that had England and France agreed to the ultimatum of Austria, and " Russia had refused the terms, Austria was not bound to view that " refusal as a casus belli." To this the Austrian Government have em phatically replied that Austria would have made a mu* belli of the re jection of her proposal by Russia, and have instantly signed a military convention with the Western Powers. This assertion is made by Austria with so little show of after-thought about it, and the secret despatches are so boldly challenged in corroboration of her statement, that either Sir GEORGE GREY must have been strangely kept in the dark, or he must, with a view to suit the purpose of the moment, have deliberately uttered that which he knew to be incorrect. Statecraft is said to admit of resources which ordinary honour would repudiate, and throughout the whole of this Austrian question Lord PALMERSTON'S Government, from the Premier downwards, appear to have fully availed themselves of the license of their position. Some further operations in the Sea of Azoff have been conducted with the greatest success by the light squadron there assembled. Immense stores of salted fish, fish-tackle and gear, together with a great number of fishing vessels, and large granaries of corn, have been destroyed upon the different spots where these extensive establishments had been permanently founded for the purpose of supplying the Russian army with such provisions. Altogether, the expedition has been highly successful, and great credit is due, as much to the admirable arrangenents of Commander OSBORN as to the excellent spirit with which ho was supported, both by the French and English officers in the squadron. The resources of the Russians will probably be seriously crippled by this destruction of stores and food, and the Vienna Gazette declares that the regiments of Grenadiers, en route from Warsaw to Sebastopol, have been stopped at Nicolaieff on account of the scarcity of provisions in the Russian camp at Sebastopol. Com mander OSBORN'S despatches come down to the 21st, but a Russian despatch of the t3rd; as a balance against these Sitceesses, announce d ~. 111 784