The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-09 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

A GREAT change has taken place in the position of parties this week,
and at last the conduct of the Government is being fairly brought
under the review of the House of Commons. The declaration of Lord
PALMERSTON that the Vienna Conference finally closed on Monday con-
trasts most strangely with his previous declaration, after the return of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, that the Conference would remain open. The
great fact now stands forth that the negotiation has proved utterly
abortive, and no pretence remains for avoiding a searching examina-
tion of the conduct of the Government in reference to it. If the
country owed nothing else to Mr. DISRAELI, it would be deeply in-
debted to him for the discussion which he has forced upon the Ministry
this week. It has brought forth some sound and brilliant speeches,
and shown the general opinion of the House to be wholly adverse
to the conduct of the Government, in adopting as au ultimatum a
principle which could not possibly lead to a satisfactory result. On
this question there has been exhibited against the Government an
overwhelming display of ability and force of argument. The amend-
ment of Mr. Lows was, de jure, the declaration of the policy of the
Cabinet, though Lord PALMERSTON dared not, through fear of an
adverse majority, give his vote in support of it. And thus has been
exhibited the pitiful picture of a Ministry forced to condemn their
policy in order to preserve their places.
The great war-policy debate came to a conclusion last night, or
rather this morning. Some mamorable additions were made by Mr.
WALPOLE and Mr. Disaasti to the criticism upon the conduct of the
Government in diplomacy and in war, from which Lord PALMERSTON
and his colleagues have sustained so much damage during the pro-
tracted discussion. At the end Mr. LOWE and Mr. J. G. PHILLIMORE
either withdrew their amendments or allowed them to be negatived
without a division. There remained, then, nothing but the resolution
of Sir F. BARING, which simply pledged the House to support the
Crown—not the Administration—in carrying on the war. This pledge
Mr. WALPOLE, in the name of the Conservatives, declared their readi-
ness to give, and the motion was accordingly carried unanimously.

The despatches and letters received this week from the Crimea
give a full detail of the Kertch expedition. The resistance met with
was exceedingly trivial, but the brilliant little coup de main made by
Lieutenant MeKimoe in the Snake steam gun-boat, by which he
chased and cut off three vessels from under the batteries of Yenikale,
formed an agreeable episode in the proceedings. We are glad to
hear that the Admiralty have conferred promotion upon this gallant
young officer.
After bombarding Arabat a squadron of steamers proceeded off
Jenitchi, landed a body of seamen and marines, drove out the Russian
troops, burnt the stores collected in the town, and re-embarked, with-
out loss. A vast quantity of stores of all sorts—grain, clothing, and
war materiel—has been destroyed or captured by the allies, and the
Russians appear to be in full retreat towards Kaffs. or Kara-Su-
Basar. What are to be the operations of this allied force
is not yet known, but it is highly probably that the 5,000
Turks who accompanied the expedition will be left in Kertch,
and that the main body of the troops will proceed to Arabat, or march
direct to Kaffa, and commence a series of combined operations by sea
and land against these places should any serious resistance be offered.
The facility with which we acquired so easy a victory would argue a
preconcerted plan on the partof the Russians to relinquish their posi-
tions without loss, so as to concentrate the whole of their force in the
Southern Crimea for the defence of the more important position of
Kara-sa-Basar. The success which must attend the advance oi Sir
GEORGE BROWN must be very much dependant upon the combined
operations which the grand army will carry on against the Russian
positions outside Sebastopol. Should those positions be stormed the
road to Simferopol will be almost open to Sir GEORGE BROWN ; while,
on the other hand, should they prove impregnable, Sir GEORGE will
create a most efficient diversion in favour of the army on the Tscher
nays. The campaign has fairly commenced. Much must now depend
upon strategy and tactics, but more upon the unwearied activity and
ready resource of our generals.
The news from the camp is meagre. The third bombardment re-
commenced on Wednesday last, and it is expected that an attempt
will be made to carry the Mamelon. The army on the whole is
healthy, in high spirits, and eager for action.

Ample details have been received this week of the gallant actions
on the nights of the 22nd and 23rd of May, successfully undertaken
by the French against the Russian works in front of the Flagstaff
Battery. The high terms in which Lord Raglan in his despatch
speaks of the affair, and the desperate nature of the attack and defence,
undoubtedly render the operation worthy of being ranked among the
mkt brilliant and successful coups of the whole campaign. The
French had made such rapid advances towards the Flagstaff Battery,
that considerable uneasiness was felt by the Russian Generals, and,
after a careful reconnaissance of the French advanced works, lines of
counter approach were constructed by the Russians, and during the day
and night of the 21st an advanced trench which, at twenty yards, crossed
the French parallel at right angles, was completed, together with a

SATURDAY,

long flanking covered way which enfiladed the cross trench. So
rapid had been the Russian work, and so completely successful tha
manoeuvre, that the French working parties, though strongly sup-
ported, were immediately swept out of their advanced parallel and
unable to hold their ground for a moment in presence of the Russian
fire. The advantage of the position held by the Russians being great,
and the danger to the French imminent, General PELISSIER, after a
miuuto inspection, determined that not a moment should be lost in
attempting to dislodge the Russians from their ground. A plan of
attack was decided on, and soon after nine p.m. a force of some 2,000
men, and 2,500 in reserve, started. Unfortunately the columns of
attack did not act with that degree of concert which is so essentially
requisite to success in a night attack. One column mistook its road
altogether, and the other got entangled amid broken ground and
the dibris of exploded mines, was discovered by the Russians, and
swept down by a tremendous fire, which they were utterly unable to
return. However, the French pressed on gallantly, forced their way
at last through the breastwork, bayoneted the Russians, were
bayoneted in return, and, though five times dziven out, five times
recaptured the work Meanwhile, the Russian batteries opened a
precise and frighful fire of grape and shell upon the exact spot which
the French occupied, but the advance of the reserve and the return
of the lost column gave them fresh heart, and after the most desperate
hand-to hand conflict, every Russian was bayoneted, and the cross
trench won. Still the covered way was held by the Russians, and so
terrible was the concentrated fire of the batteries and troops that
towards morning the French were compelled to retire, with the loss
of 1,300 killed and wounded. The next night, however, a full revenge
was taken by PELIBEIIER for this unsatisfactory result. 10,000 men
were ordered for the attack—PELlsslEß himself superintending every
arrangement—and so well wore his plans laid, so thoroughly were they
executed, that in twenty minutes the whole of the cross trench and
covered ways were carried, and the Russians bayoneted to a man—
no quarter was asked or given. Surprised and disheartened, the
Russians fled in haste from their second parallel, which was imme-
diately occupied by the French, and a new battery, mounting ten
long guns, four mortars and cohorns, was levelled to the ground,
while the guns and mortars were spiked and otherwise rendered useless.
The Russians, who, and we admit with justice, have so often
boasted of the vigour and transient success of their own sorties, have
been taught a lesson in this,—by which their own works are not only
stormed but retained—which they will long remember. Their loss was
most severe, and from the desperate nature of the conflict few
wounded were saved. Altogether, it is one of the most successful
achievements of the campaign, and reflects the highest honour upon
the French army.

The quicksilver volatility of the Premier's reputation has gone
still lower during the present week. His popularity is now at zero.
In other circumstances it would be a matter of amusement to observe
the testiness of his former admirers while deriding the delusion under
which they laboured. The bran has come out of their puppet, and the
old toy is regarded as fit only for the lumber-room, or to be used as
fuel by the Administrative Reform Society for lighting up the fire of
indignation. The disclosure, through Lord ABERDEEN'S correspondence,
of the Premier's confession that " the Foreign-office was too much for
" him " has further injured him. Senile statesmen are getting out of
date, and the country looks anxiously for a Prime Minister whose pre-
tensions shall not be contained in the words " used up."

Mr. DISRAELI has often eloquently spoken and written on the text
of " The Whig Oligarchy." It is now felt that the Right Honourable
Gentleman was perfectly warranted in critically estimating " the
Whigs" as an oligarchy The phrases used daily in society, and, still
more, the current illustrations even in " Liberal" journalism, attest
that the ideas promulgated several years since by Mr. DISRAELI have
taken deep root in the public mind. When first the present Member
for Bucks put forward those opinions they were regarded as illusions,
but it is now felt that his keen intelligence was in advance of the time,
and that the " Liberals " were the real visionaries in their notions
about the hereditary clique which has always kept its followers in a
state of feudal vassallage, while using the language and affecting the
tone of Republicanism towards the Crown.

Amongst the events of the week must be duly chronicled the
prodigious roar of laughter when, on Tuesday the Member for the
West Riding, looking to the Treasury Bench, declared that in all his
experience '• he had never seen so black a jet and so stiff a curl."
The aggregate mirth of all the Premier's multitudinous little jokes
could not come near the storm of laughter provoked by this clever
allusion to Lord PALMERSTON'S illustration of " Quantum mutatus ab
illo."

Maynooth, and " the Serbonian bog" of Irish polemics, occupied
a morning sitting of the House on Wednesday. Four barristers kept
up the shuttlecock between themselves, and on both sides there was
too much special pleading. Mr Sergeant O'BRIEN made a tolerably
temperate speech on the Roman Catholic side. Mr. WHITESIDE fol-
lowed in a copious and energetic address, delivered with spirit, but
occasionally inconsecutive, and wanting succinctness. We have often
had the pleasure of praising this gentleman's eloquence, to which Sir
JAMES GRAHAM paid an elaborate tribute on Tuesday. We echo a
general opinion in saying that Mr. WHITESIDE appears to more ad-
vantage when he is off and not on an Irish theme. On an imperial
question, as in the case of the war, he rises into the senator, with large
views and luminous illustrations, and at times he bursts into real
oratory. But on Irish subjects his tone is too provincial, and the
spirit of partisanship is made unpleasantly apparent. Mr. Moon, the

JUNE 9, 1855.

Attorney-General for Ireland, followed in an harangue of the Concilia-
tion-hall style, and, as usual, ho exhibited personality. Mr. THOMAS
CHA➢IBERS spoke in reply with some argumentative ability, but his
marked vacillations on the convent questions seems to have injured
him in the estimation of the House. His points did not tell. The de-
bate was again adjourned.

The quidnuncs say that since the memorable year of 1834 the
state of parties was not so shifting or transitional as at the present
time. It is just twenty-one years since the Liberal party broke down
and the Conservative cause placed on a broad foundation. All sorts
of ingenious parallels are made by the oracles of the clubs between
the Sir Robert "on bis return from Rome and the present remark-
able posture of Lord DERBY and his formidable bodyguard of distin-
guished adherents. The tone of the Liberal organs within the last
few days has also been intensified in their mingled attacks upon Lord
PALMERSTON and Mr. COBDEN. The Daily News has particularly dis
tinguished itself by the vigour of its assaults on the recent idols of
"advanced Liberals " On Thursday it happily called the present
Cabinet the " Hand-to-Mouth and Hap-Hazard Administration," and
it assailed Mr. COBDEN with cutting severity on certain conjectural
surmises about the manner in which news might be obtained. Its
attacks on the Member for the West Riding were recirculated on the
next morning in a marked manner by a leading organ. We coincide
with the opinion of the Daily News that the gentle sex, whether ap-
pertaining to peers or " editors," ought to be held sacred from
personality

A BALTIC CAMPAIGN.
IThe seclusion in which our excellent First Lord of the Admiralty has lately buried
himself has, as we surmised last week, been productive of extraordinary results
Sir Charles has been designing a brilliant campaign for the Baltic fleet ; the
duplicate letter which was picked up at the Charing-cross Post-office, and imme-
diately forwarded to our Office, will sufficiently explain the rest.]