The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THE BALTIC FLEET.
(From our Own Correspondent.)
I%ARGEN, August 20.
THE calm has succeeded the storm, and we are
principally anxious now to hear how the news of the
destruction of everything in Sweaborg except the bat-
teries will be received in England. The day after
we left, the rain came down in a perfect deluge ; so I
presume that the fire which was burning briskly
when we left it must have been extinguished. The
weather, indeed, has been bad and unsettled. No
two days have been so well adapted as those which
we fortunately pitched upon for our work of revenge
and destruction ; in fact, I doubt if anything could
have been done on any other days. Various and
diverse are the rumours of Russian statements having
arrived at Revel (from which place we are constantly
supplied with vegetables, milk, &c.) as to the number
of killed, damage done, &c., at Sweaborg, one of
which is to the effect that all Government stores,
dockyards, vessels building, &c., are utterly destroyed,
and that three hundred men were killed by the grand
explosion ; but I am not inclined to believe anything
from such a source. We ourselves saw the arsenal,
barracks, and several large storehouses in flames—
and such flames ! flames that must affect and set
fire to any house within a quarter of a mile. At full
fifty miles distant our cruisers in these waters clearly
saw the conflagration.
The mortar•vessels, having nobly done their work,
are ordered home. Four 01 them have started, under
charge of the Basilisk. Three other divisions of
four each start this evening, under the care of
Euryalus, Magicienne, Lightning, and Princess
Alice, to Elsinore, whence they will find their own
way. The vessels which have the care of them will,
with the exception of .Basilisk and Prinesss Alice,
which proceed to England, return here. Admiral
Seymour started yesterday in Exmouth to take com-
mand of the fleet off Cronstadt ; and I hear that
Admiral Baynes will rejoin the commander-in-chief.
At this place or at Barosund all active operations I
should conceive are at an end this season. The
weather is already getting cold and windy. Arrogant,
Cossack, and two gun-boats, Magpie and Weazel, are
gone to their old ground off VV iborg, and I do not
doubt, if there is a chance, will harass the enemy in
that neighbourhood.
I regret to have to tell you that the Cottenham
transport, which started from here two weeks ago
with invalids, has become a perfect wreck on the
Island of Gotland. Her invalids are all landed in
safety, and the Geyser has been sent to look after
them. This is the only casualty we have had since
we came up here, and it yet remains to be ac-
counted for.

The Calcutta sails in a day or two for England,
considerably lightened of her cargo, which princi•
pally consisted of shell for the mortars. The Aolus
is also under orders for home. I expect daily to
hear that the gun boats are ordered off also. Lucky
tellows ! They will go home with laurels in their
caps, and I hope will be rewarded as they deserve by
their country. It is to he expected that all the
energies of the country will now be directed to build-
ing mortar and guu boats, for goodness knows how
long our huge liners might have enviously gazed on
the frowning batteries of Sweaborg before they would
have attempted to astonish the enemy's mind
as they have done. What is the use of puffs about
the Marlborough, or any other monster of her class?
We have more than sufficient line of-battle ships
wherewith to blockade the ports in the Baltic and to
keep the enemy in check ; and one hundred mortars,
with a similar number of gun-boats, could do wonders
up here next year (provided they came up early
enough). Let us hope the hint will be taken in
time.

From the Gulf of Bothnia we hear that the Har-
rier and Tartar have been carrying destruction
before them in every direction. The news of the burn •
ing of Sweaborg has spread like wildfire, and appears
to have entirely changed the tactics of the troops at
the outposts, for now, instead of tiring on our boats
as they advance to demand vessels, &c., in any small
port in which they may be, they retire out of reach
of the guns of our ships, and allow us quietly to
help ourselves. In one instance, the governor of a
small place. on being threatened that his town would
be burnt did he not acquiesce, absolutely sent
thirty miles up a river to bring down and deliver up
a small passage-steamer that was demanded by
Captain Storey, when it was well known that 2,000
or 3,000 troops were in the immediate neighbour-
hood. A shell was thrown on the deck of the Con-
flict from the ports at Riga a few days since, but
fortunately did no harm, only acting as a caution to
her to keep at a respectful distance, unless backed by
a sufficient force. Admiral Baynes has arrived here,
and I believe starts in a day or two for the Gulf of
Bothnia. The ships here are all on the move, but
as 7.1 their destinstion 4 not halm Nothing new

827

from Cronstadt, with the exception of an occasional
chase by our steamers of gun-boats who now and
then show their noses off the port.. The fleet have
a very monotonous life. I should think that in •

month's time they must make a move to the west-
ward. All hands are well iu the Baltic fleet, and
thank Heaven the cholera time has passed over.

The Invalide Ruase publishes a long report from
General de Berg of the bombardment of Sweaborg.
General de Berg states the loss of the Russians
during the bombardment to have been forty-four
men killed, two superior officers, three subaltern
officers, and 110 men, wounded.
In addition to this, 111 men were killed on board
the man-of-war Russie, and one subaltern and eighty-
eight men wounded ; and one sailor wounded on
board the Ezechiel.

This report acknowledges the explosion of several
magazines of bombs. It says :
Shortly after the opening of the bombardment a large
fire broke out in the fortress, and continued without inter•
ruption, notwithstanding all the efforts of our firemen to
extinguish it. The depots of provisions were, however,
saved. The powder-magazines resisted up to the very
last, but four depots of cha►ged bombshells were blown up,
causing a loss of one man killed and three wounded.

Admiral Berg announces that several English
ships disabled were towed away from the combat.
He evidently mistakes the changing of the positions,
and the relief of t .e mortar-vessels, for the retire-
ment of disabled ships.
. .

From ti►e allied fleets it is announced that authen-
tic information has been obtained that the Russians
lost upwards of 2,000 men at Sweaborg.
A letter received in Glasgow from one of the crew
of the gunboat Stork, which took part in the bom-
bardment of Sweaborg, states that the officers of that
vassel, by means of their telescopes, saw the Russians
removing the dead in cartloads.
From Berlin on the 29th ult. it is announced
that :

The allied fleet which were before Cronstadt havehauled
further off at sea, and, to the number of fifteen vessels,
have taken up a position to the westward of the lighthouse
of Bobbockhine.

The average number of shells thrown by the mor-
tars during the late bombardment of Sweaborg was
about 220 each ; one was disabled by the breaking
of the pin on which it revolved at the 05th round ;
another burst at the 114th ; another at the 143 th ;
one became useless at the 213th ; and the Growler's
held out well until 355 rounds had been tired from
it, when it burst. The remaiuder of the sixieen were
all more or less injured.

The Swedish newspapers report an engagement
which took place off Riga on the 10th. Seventeen
Russian guu•boats, it is said, came out of Riga, and
fought for two hours with her Majesty's screw
block•ship, Hawke, 00, and the screw corvette
Desperate, N. The result it said to have been in-
decisive.

Her Majesty's cruisers have visited Uleaborg,
Simo, and Windau, and destroyed Russian Go-
vernment ships and stores.
Advices from St. Petersburg bring reports from
Revel that on the 10th two frigates, which had left
Nargen for that purpose, bombarded Port Baltic for
several hours, and then retired.

THE GOVERNMENT have authorised Sir Joseph
Paxton to organise another body of 1,000 men to
augment the Army Works Corps now in the Crimea.
The additional 1,000 will be composed of mechanics
and artisans, and a certain number of navvies, with
superintendents and foremen ; and will be accom-
panied by their own surgeons, and by a chaplain and
scripture reader. The principal duties of the corps
will consist in erecting huts, constructing and repair-
ing roads, and providing in other ways for the health
of the troops at the seat of war.
A FURTHER TRIAL was given in Woolwich Marshes
on Tuesday to Phillips's tire annihilators. A wooden
shed had been previously erected, and filled with
shavings and other combustible articles, for the pur-
poses of the experiment. Colonel Eardley Wilmot
and Captain Vaudeleur, of the proof department,
with Mr. Abel, of the chemical laboratory in the
Royal Arsenal, were present to witness the experi-
ment. The match was applied, and the fire allowed
to gain some force, when one of the engines was
brought forward to test its efficiency ; it failed, how-
ever, of the desired result. Twelve of the machines
were subsequently brought into action, yet the fire
was only partially subdued, to break forth anew,
and the experiment proved the invention thus far a
failure.
A YOUNG OFFICER, who has lately returned to
Lancashire, badly wounded when on duty in the
trenches before Sebastopol, declares (says the
Preston Chronicle) that he has travelled across
England free of expense, for neither hotel-keepers
nor railway clerks would take a penny from him
when they found he was "a poor and wounded
'elder,"

ortign 6orrzsprinttutt.

FRANKFORT, August 28.
ALTHOUGH the utter annihilation of Sweaborg and
its fortresses from a distance of 2,500 yards—a result
barely possible to be effected at 800—was pompously
and circumstantially proclaimed by the Palmerston

organs, yet subsequent despatches have not verified
the event. The victory of the allies, however, at
Tschernaya, and the loss of the Russians, have been
even more important than was at first supposed. In
Sebastopol the situation of the enemy is daily be-
coming more unpleasant. A letter from a Russian
officer, bearing the date of July 27, says:—
Si Von pouvait purger la Crimes de la presence des en
nemis, et les chasser d'ici au plus vice, et transporter la
guerre quelque part en Autriche, que nous serious heureux.
The anxiety to be rid of the siege, and the eagerness
to have a slap at Austria, by way of hastening her ex-
tinction, bears a plain meaning. " Out of the fulness
of the heart the mouth speaketh." The Russian
officer does not evince much foresight in the wish to
do battle with Austria hand to hand. In that case
she would be assuredly assisted by France, and her
estate be preserved ; whereas, by being permitted to
follow out her present plan, the empire will crumble
away piecemeal. without public injury, and without
aid or effort. Not much consolation for any party
can be gathered from the following account :
On nous promet pour demain un surcroit de bombarde-
ment qua durera six on Sept jours. Ayres viendra l'assaut,
qui sera, comme de raison, repousse, et puis recotnnien-
oera de nouveau le siege, et pills le bombaidement, et puis
l'assaut, et pins l'hiver, et puis le priptemps, &c., &c. Cela
n'aura pas de fin, a moins que la Exance ne pend son gre-
din d'Empereur.
But the " grodin" gets stronger and stronger, and is
deservedly gaining in the estimation of the conti-
nental powers from his firmness, honesty, and
decision. " Avec lui on ne badine pas." Would
that the same might be said of the English Ministry !
The tilinisterial fever is intermittent—its irritation
proceeds entirely from a disorganised intetior ; and
the war is a remedial measure only,—" autrement
nous ne pourrions nous debarasser de to malheureux
Disraeli.' In fact, the dread of Disraeli stands in
lieu of patriotism, and is worked out under compul-
sion.
The Gazette Autrichienne, the organ of Count
Buol and "le petit Jean," in its newborn and
righteous indignation against England, accuses its
Rimer allies of conspiring to destroy Turkey. These
are the words of diplomatic indictment :
Je vous ai annonce que l'occupation permanents de la
Turquie sera la base des operations futures des puissances
allies contre la Itussie, des que l'expedition de Crimee
aura abouti it un resultat satisfaisant. Yarns, Gallipoli, et
les Dardanelles seront transformer en trois grandee places
d'armes, et ()wipes par des forts corps d'artuees allies,
prets it se porter dans toutes lea directions.
And then, painfully sore at the advancing influence
of Prussia throughout Germany, and in haughty
displeasure at the Diet of Frankfort, it ejects its
venom in hissing wrath :
Si la Prusse, au moment ou la guerre seoit aux frontieres
de l'Allemagne, et qua la nentralite est devenue impossible,
refusait de subordonuer aux veritables interets de I'Alle-
mague ou sea sympathies personelles pour la !tussle, tons
les ports Prussiens seront inevitablement blocues. Tel est
le sens funnel d'une declaration que le Comte Walewski a
fait au Miniatre de Prusse alum qua Bette puissance n'eut
point plus tard le droit do faire aux Cabinets Allies le re-
proche de perfidie.

And in reproachful tone for its Frankfort discom-
fiture—that is, for the triumph of M. de Bismarck
and the paid agents of Russia over M. Osten-
Prokersch—it adds .
L'intervention de l'Allemagne nnie aurait ete aasez puis-
sante pour awener les parties belligerents a se prefer a tine
transaction. Que oeux qui par des interets personnels et
particuliers out provoque la scission de l'Alicinagne, por-
tent le poids de Is responsibilite qu'ila ont assuwee.
This is a direct attack of Prussia in unqualified
term g.
Le Nord, after exulting over the fallen state of the
house of Hapsburg and Lorraine, joins in vilipending
the hypocrisies of England and France :
Cora me on voit ce n'est point a des nouvelles confe-
rences de pais grte l'on se prepafe, et c'est Bien decideinent
une eftroyante question de gloire, de venire niilitaire qni
vase debattre. De l'independance de la Tnrquie it nen
est plus question—on lui impose des garnisons pernisnentes
de deux armees, et les gnindes phrases sur la liberte du
croissant sont allies rejoindro les vieilles luues.
This savours little of the song of triumph.

It is impossibie not to appreciate the endeavour of
an honest enemy to make the evidence of his failure
less glaring, and to cheer and encourage the national
spirit to the last. The local distresses of Russia are
in alarming increase ; nor is it in the power of the
Executive to prevent the knowledge of the disastrous
facts from escaping, in spite of the efforts to restrain
them within the prison-house where they had been