The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

So that really and in sober earnest, in order to introduce
the same distinctions of rank among beasts that exist
among men, and in order to establish a social hierarchy
among game, English sportsmen deprive themselves of the
greatest attraction that country sports possess—variety
and the unknown. And this rule, like all others, becomes,
from the moment it is admitted as such, so inflexible, that
it does not even enter into the thoughts of an otherwise good,
kind hearted, hospitable man, to disfranchise his host from
such a penalty for a day, and to give to a stranger, who
will not be in England on the Ist of October, the permis-
sion to shoot a pheasant on the Ist of September.
Alas what pleasure in spoiling all that is agreeable,
what harsh and despotic manners! Upon contemplating
such a state of things, I asked myself, not where is the
equality—for who does not know that England is the
country of castes as much as India or Egypt ever were, and
that the population is composed of beds or layers superim-
posed one upon another, like the beds of a tertiary forma-
tion ?—I asked myself, Where is Liberty ? In the law,
possibly so ; but most assuredly not in the manners. The
one is praiseworthy, the other is detestable. It is a
powerful, magnificent secular tree, that holds forth
promises of shade and peace, and yet under its branches
nothing but rushes and brambles thrive, or as Werther
Potier before said, " L'ou ne pent naturellement faire un
pas sans s'emberlificoter lea jambes." How strange it is
to see, on the one hand, such jealous efforts to gain and
to preserve that personal independence which has for ages
its proper and accepted name in legal language, the Habeas
Corpus—so many guarantees obtained for the inviolable
sanctity of the home; and, on the other hand, such a
servile submission to the moat puerile exigencies of
habit!

In the " Diary of a First Winter in Rome " the fair
writer observes that "people have an idea that the
" Italians are becoming more civilised, and eschew-
" ing the use of the stiletto; that a bravo is a
" chimerical animal only; that wives are virtuous,
" husbands faithful, and cicisbeism quite out of
" date." But all these charitable surmises appear
to be mistakes. One day last year (1854), we are
told,
S— and a friend were cooling their outward and inner
man by a siesta at Nazzari's and an ice, when their atten-
tion was attracted by people running to and fro, and loud
talking, and swearing, and exclamations—a general ex-
citement, in fact, all tending towards the Via Babuino.
They joined the crowd, and heard that an assassino bad
been committed in broad daylight, and that the corpse lay
there On they sped to where a circle was gathered, and
pressing forward, they saw extended ou the stones, quite
dead, a lovely girl weltering in her blood, flowing from a
deadly wound in her side. They at once recognised her as
a well-known model, renowned for her beauty and grace.
There she lay, pale and bloody on the cold stones, until
some of the brothers of the Misericordia came—they that
wear the deep masks and long dark robes, looking more
like mummies than men—and composed her limbs, and,
laying her in a great sheet, carried her away. She had been
walking with un (Trio amico, it seems, in the Via Babuino,
when her husband passed. His ire was kindled, his
jealousy aroused; her drew his stiletto and slaughtered
her there on the spot where she stood, then ran away.
But the cerlo amico, her cavaliere, ran after him when the
poor thing dropped from his arm stone dead, and watched
and dodged him into a certain house, and when in the
evening he came out, having his stiletto ready hid in the
sleeve of his coat, he struck him down then and there, as
the husband bad struck his wife, and left him weltering in
his blood as she had lain. Whether this valiant lover es-
caped or no I cannot say.

An article upon " Country Papers and Editors " is
entertaining ; and a number of minor contributions
form an issue which exhibits to advantage Mr.
Ainsworth's tact and taste as an editor.

Bentley opens with a review of the war during the
past month, and finds ample subject in the fall of
Sebastopol, though the argument of the impossibility
of the capture of the town by assault after Alma, on
the strength of the formidable intrenchnients which
it now possesses, scarcely holds good. The in-
trenchments on the side of the .Malakoff and
Mamelon were never commenced in any strength
till the winter. It cost the allies about 13,000 men at
last to take the Malakoff: would it have cost them
so many eleven months before? The writer, who
throughout has appeared a keen critic, seems to
think that Gortschakoff has even ere this com
menced a general retrograde movement, and that his
attitude of defiance on the Tschernaya is only a feint
for the more easy execution of his plan to save his
army. Time will show ; but at present we see no
reason to believe this. One hundred and twenty
thousand men do not require such feints to be saved.
We forget the vast masses of men which Gortschakoff
yet can command, and with which, if he wishes to re-
treat, he will force his way through any opposition a
single corps of 40,000 or 50,000 of the allies can
offer. In addition to this paper on the war, we have
a review of a German work, which, as the journal of
a surgeon in the Russian army during the siege, will
be found interesting. It is curious to read of the
feelings of the Russian army just before Inker-
mann :

On the 3rd of November the two younger eons of the
Emperor, the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, ar•
rived from Petersburg to be present at the intended battle.
There are great rejoicings in the camp and the town, and
we heard scarcely anything spoken of but the indubitable
annihilation or capture of the entire hostile force—surely a
sign how greatly the temper of the troops has changed

SATURDAY,

since the first rumour of the landing of the enemy, and
how immeasurably superior our troops now think them-
selves to the once so greatly-feared allies. At the present
moment the strangest things are going on among us. The
praying and consecration of the troops alternates with the
exercise in the fighting positions, winch the Emperor has
recently insisted on his generals attending to, and with
which they hope to astonish the enemy next day. There
are, as far as I know, three or four of them, both for cavalry
and infantry, and according to the assurance of our officers,
their employment renders the Russian army superior to
any other in the world. On the battle-field I only saw
them once employed—by our hussars at Balaklava, and
then with a most unfavorable result, and on the exercising
ground the experiments end with most hopeless confusion
—bat I understand too little about the affair to permit my-
self a judgment as to their value. At the same time, how-
ever, the great Russian passion—drinking—is not forgotten,
and there is much politicising, from the staff down to the
private. Generally at the end of these conversations the
whole world is cut up into little pieces, and given to each
brave Russian soldier as a reward of merit ; for when the
enemies on the rocks above have been driven into the sea,
Europe will be open to the victors, and nothing can pre-
vent their onward progress. On the evening prior to the
battle of Alma I heard no such boasting, and yet the men
then were not less decided on an obstinate fight. In fact,
1 almost fancy that the Russians can endure danger and
misfortune better than good fortune.
Then we have an article on Nicolaieff, Kherson, and
Perekop, in which the writer holds that the allies
might more safely and commodiously establish
themselves in the Crimea, by retaining the fertile
lands south of the Crimean steppe, than by seizing
the whole peninsula :

In the Crimea, whatever amount of success the allies
may meet with, we should always consider the country as
held to the greatest advantage—as till the time of the Rus-
sians it has always historically been held—by the posses-
sion of the line of uplands—Taurian Alps and Apennines
—which overlook the steppe. Any power in pustassion of
those rich lands, which are watered by so many fine
streams, with Sebastopol for a basis of operations, and
flaktchi•Serai, Simferopol, and Karasu Bazar for military
strongholds and winter quarters, could afford to look with
more quiet assurance upon the approach of a hostile force
across the steppe of the Crimea than could ever be at-
tamed by however strong a force stationed in the saline
and malarious desert lines of Perekop, with no resources
in the immediate neighbourhood, no good water, and, at
certain seasons, such prejudicial and fatal miasmata, as to
have ever prevented a place, otherwise so much favored
by its topographical position, from becoming a town of any
importance.

A review of Klapka's recently-published work, a well-
informed paper on the interior life of women in
Turkey, with some nouvellettes, and a quaint criti-
cism by Monkshood on Sydney Smith, make up the
number.