The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-14 00:00:00

THE WEEK. CONTRARY to established custom, the weightiest business of Parliament has been reserved for the dog days. In political circles the conduct of Lord JOHN RUSSELL has been the sole topic of discourse this week, and among independent men of every shade of political opinion a convic tion is expressed that it is time a stop should be put to his mis chievous vagaries ; though whether the public votes of some M.P.'s we could name will accord with their private declarations the division-list next week must be left to show. On the question of personal honour it is impossible to reconcile the speech made by Lord Join on ,the 24th of May last with his conduct in the early part of the month when supporting the Austrian proposal. No sophistry can explain away the contradiction between the part he played at Vienna and in the Cabinet, and the part he played in the House. On the other question of his political immorality in retaining a seat in the Cabinet after the rejection of that proposal, which he con tended ought to be and might be accepted, there is equal unanimity. Such adhesion to place might be justified under a despotism, as Ministers are but the servants of the Monarch, but is felt to be directly subversive of the spirit of free institutions, which require Statesmen to act on their own sentiments that they may throw into their conduct all the energy of their will and the force of their convictions. The excuses set up for Lord JOHN are scoffed at. He is no longer favor able to any pacific proposal ! But what from his point of view has occurred to change his opinion, except the unjust and unwise rejec tion of what he held to be a just and wise proposal? If it is pre tended that he did not anticipate the proposal would be accepted by Russia, and that he favoured it only to secure the co-operation of Austria, what is to be thought of his sagacity, considering what the relations of Austria with Russia are, and what of his principle in at tempting to catch a diplomatic advantage by deceitful concession ? We state here but the universal opinion held in all companies out of doors, that it is impossible for Lord JOHN RUSSELL to remain longer in the service of the Crown without degradation to the character of the British people and Government. The colossal frame of the Russian empire seems roused to the utmost exertion of its strength. The intelligence which has reached us from Berlin may be relied on. We presume that the armies of 60,000, and of 80,000 men, now rapidly advancing towards the Crimea, have been liberated from their position on the Austrian frontier by the reductions in the Austrian army, and the declarations of the Court of Vienna that it will maintain an attitude of strict neutrality. Last year Russia was enabled to pour immense reinforcements into the Crimea through the occupation by Austria of the Principalities, and this year she will be enabled to dispose of still larger corps for the same purpose, through her army of observation on the Austrian frontier being uo longer required. Bloody, but glorious Inkermann testified to the skill of Lord ABERDEEN'S diplomacy. What new field shall bear witness to the diplomatic achievements of our Vienna Plenipotentiary and his chief at home ? By the latest telegraphs from the Crimea the allies appear to be prosecuting their works and advancing en regle to a fifth general bom bardment, and the delivery of an assault as soon as a practicable breach is formed. The fire, which General SIMPSON states was opened against the Redan on the 10th, was carried on only by the English batteries, and we take it was a mere precautionary step to the safe and speedy advance of our works, and not undertaken as an immediate preparative to a general assault. Both French and English are pushing forward their works with great energy, new mortars of immense range have been added to the French batteries, and great reliance is stated to be placed upon their fire. The next week or ten days will probably bring us eventful news. There is no doubt that the allies have now attained such a superiority in artillery that the fire of the Russians in a fair trial would be as certainly " snuffed out as that of the French batteries was by them on the 17th of October ; but it is impossible to say whether their fire is entirely subdued by that of ours during a bombardment, or whether they do not withdraw part of their guns for the time, and so economising their men and material as to offer a very feeble fire in return, though really tho roughly well prepared in case of an assault. The result of the next assault it is hard to foresee. A general assault is always more favor able to the attacking army than a particular one, and we have reason to believe that a combined attack will be made throughout the whole extent of the lines. When we have taken the outer works we have yet the inner line of defences to carry, and of these nothing is very clearly known. The gun-boats, which in shelling the town have approached close to the mouth of the harbour, report the existence of a large star fort with sunken batteries immediately in the rear of the Redan, and of still more extensive works behind the Malakoff. There is no reason to suppose that the Russians have neglected a single point in which art and science could help them in their defence ; and, although we may in our next assault capture both Malakoff and Redan, yet we can Scarcely expect that Sebastopol will fall at the same time, but rather that every inch of ground will be.contested, and that what we win we shall win only at the point of the bayonet. The health of the army is Oated to be good, and cholera to have considerably decreased. Axa PacHA, and the French and Sardinian divisions, have made no flardtir &Irmo' itiptinst the Itheeisu lini of eoknunicatieni. Indeed; SATURDAY, " taking the field" appears to be impossible from want of transport. But the project has more probably been given up from the inaccessible nature of the country and from the impregnability of the Russian positions. General PELISSIER . B despatch with reference to the "last obse quies " paid to the remains of Lord RAGLAN could only have referred to the ceremony of embarking them, as they are expected to arrive at Bristol in the course of next week, accompanted by the whole of the personal Staff. The remains of our gallant General are, we believe, to be placed in the family vault at Badminton. Their more fitting resting-place would be by the side of WELLINGTON. The changes which death and sickness have wrought in the divi sional commands in the Crimea are very striking at this moment With the exception of Sir RICHARD ENGLAND and Sir WILLIAM CODRING TON, there is nut one of the old staff' of general officers left. Already: a new generation appears in the field ; a similar change is taking place in the French army; and on a yet more extended scale in the Russian. Their best generals are killed or retired, and more than 500 officers of all ranks have already been lost. A letter from Warsaw states that Prince PAsKtEwrrcif has been offered but has declined the command of the army of the South, which it is asserted is decimated by disease and suffering. The Baltic fleet still continues off Cronstadt. Several reinforce ments of both French and English gun-boats and mortar-vessels have reached the fleet during the week, and the arrival also of large adddi tional] supplies of powder and materiel will, we hope, enable the Admiral to relieve the monotony of a blockade by a little active service. The Admiralty, under the energetic impetus of Sir CHARLES WOOD, has at length bestirred itself upon hearing that the Russians, during the winter, have managed to turn out at Cronstadt a respectable fleet of some eighty-odd heavy-armed steam gun-boats (about double the number we have managed to build in the same time), and our Admiralty have resolved to build a model gun-boat forthwith. Orders have been issued to lay down this vessel at Sheerness, and the official intelligence from that dockyard informs us that "everything is ready but timber and sawyers!" Such an introductory state of fitness for the building of a ship reminds us somewhat of RABELAIS'S new coat, whick was made of, nothing before—nothing behind—and sleeves of the same ! The serious disturbances which have broken out in various parts of Spain, but particularly at Barcelona, threatened at one period of the week to jeopardise the position of the Government, if not of the Queen ; but the firmness of the Commandant at Barcelona, perched in his impenetrable fort of Montjuich, has saved the Royal cause: The latest telegraphic dispatches assure us that order is restored in that turbulent town, and the principal culprits arrested. "Aldershott Camp," which was marked out in the winter, and which has been supposed to have been gradually progressing to maturity throughout the spring, is yet, we regret to hear, in an extremely crude and incomplete form. Fiist of all, the wells arc dry, and there is no water in camp, and for the last week or two of hot weather, had it not been for the providential contiguity of the Basingstoke Canal, the troops would have suffered severely. Next, the huts are so in tolerably ill-ventilated that the men can neither sleep in them by night nor rest in them by day ; the kitchens are so defectively con structed as to cook the men instead of the meat ; the barracks are not yet built, the plan not even decided upon ; so that what with dry wells, bad huts, worse kitchens, and no barracks, after six months' trial, with the French camp at Helfaut to guide us, we appear to be in about as pleasant a pickle as we were last winter at Balaklava. The camp at Aldershott should be a camp in every sense of the word, and not a garrison town, which Aldershott promises speedily to become. The camp was instituted for the purpose of training and accustoming the recruit to the hardships of a campaign, and no troops in Europe require this training more than our own, and in the formation of the camp at Aldershott it is to be hoped this principle will not be lost sight of. At present, everything is in crude embryo, but the place appears to be becoming a vast military town more than a camp, and a sort of Balaklava in Hampshire. Seldom does an aspiring senator signalise himself in his first speech, though a conventional degree of success is obtained in such efforts. The platitudes are duly intoned, and cheered by "friends," and the speaker is at least looked at, if not listened to, with some little interest. "Let your impudence be betrayed modestly," said a veteran debater to a novice asking for hints about making a maiden speech. Mr. TITE showed on Tuesday that such advice would have been entirely thrown away upon him. The assurance of this precious specimen of a Drury Lane Lycurgus is unmatched in our recollection of maiden speeches. He commenced t w.t.. lec t uring Sir EDWARD LrrToN on political affairs, and he concluded with begging Mr. SCULLY not to divide the House! This was rather too much from a member who had been sent into Parliament on the cry of a political league, and who had excluded from the House of Commons a gentleman of high honour and ability like Mr. WHATF.LY, the Queen's Counsel. The electors of Bath, however, put " the Tite man in the wrong place," and we wish that some of them could have heard the cries of " divide" which significantly interrupted the speech of the mealy-mouthed member whom they pitchforked into the House of Commons. " Every one appeared desirous that Administrative Reform should prosper ," and so the new member, who won his scat under the auspices of the Drury Lane Society, did not wish to be troublesome. Mr. TITE is by profession aii architect, but we are sure that a sound Administrative Reform Hill never be erected of " Bath brick" of his composition. Constituencies should be mere bagful in ehoosing candidates. What did th THE PRESS. 664