The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

THE BALTIC FLEET.
(From our Own Correspondent.)
OFF REVEL.
JULY 10.—The excitement still continues very great
as to the intentions of our commanders, whose every
movement tends to increase the impression that we
are on the eve of striking a blow (an event so long
hoped for in vain) against the power of the great
autocrat in this part of the world. A compact fleet,
consisting of ten line-of-battle ships, twenty mortar-
vessels, two frigates, and ten gun boats, are collected
here. Constant reconnoitring parties are moving
about; the mortar-vessels are being tried, exercised,
and, last, though not least, these formidable vessels
are being painted a sort of lead colour, so as to
make a more difficult object for the aim of the Rus-
sian guns. I have said in the above all I can tell
you; for whatever project may be conceived by the
" powers that he " is very properly kept strictly
secret, and the greatest caution is obviously
necessary. Still, time flies, and, as we learnt at
school, " Procrastination is the thief of time." In
five weeks more the season will begin to be breaking
up, and we shall have to be thinking of sending our
smaller craft home ; after which we must settle down
into a blockading squadron.
JULY 20.—T0-day we have news from the Aland
Islands ; and it is with the greatest annoyance I feel
myself bound to tell 3ou that in that quarter we have
again been making geese of ourselves. The story is
this, and I leave your readers to judge regarding
the affair and its results. The Driver having heard
that several vessels were laying in a creek about
fifty miles from Abo, sent in her boats, with a flag
of truce, to demand that the vessels should he given
up, on the pain of, in the event of refusal, the village
in the immediate neighbourhood being burnt. The
governor of the said village replied that, rather than
suffer so severe a punishment, he would give the
vessels up, and that the English boats had better
take them at once. The officer in command (too
easily gulled) at once pulled towards the vessels,
but, thinking it hardly the thing to make captures
under a flag of truce, hauled it down before boarding
them. No sooner was the flag down than a mur-
derous fire was opened on the boats, who were forced
to make a hurried retreat, leaving the vessels at their
anchorage. Five men were severely wounded, two
of whom have since died. Of course the Russians
make a grand affair of this ; and really if our com-
manders will place us in these ridiculous positions
we can look for nothing but ridicule. I don't like
dwelling on these subjects, as they are most painful
to us all. One inference is to be drawn from all
this, which is that the enemy have more respect for
the white flag than they have previously evinced, as
not a shot was tired until it was hauled down,
although the boats were armed, and assumed a
threatening position. Arrogant, Cossack, and Magi-
cienne have had some fun in destroying an earth-
work, mounting sixteen guns, near Wiborg. They
threw so heavy a fire into the embrasures that the
guns were silenced in an hour and a half. The
Russian loss must have been considerable : on our
side we had only one man wounded. The only
excitement in the Baltic this year has been caused by
Captain Yelverton's squadron in that neighbourhood.
There at least the enemy have been kept alive and
in constant motion. The cruisers from the entrance
of the Gulf have been called in, and everything
bodes something. The mortar-vessels are put under
the command of the Hon. A. Hobart, first lieutenant
of the Duke of Wellington, and are constantly drilled
in the art of war. Several yachts have arrived here,
whose owners it is to be hoped will have something
to talk about when they go home. It is a great
satisfaction to he able every mail to tell you that all
the fleet are healthy. At this place cricket is the
order of the day, and tends much to relieve the
monotony of a Baltic campaign. The gun-boat affair
which I mentioned in my last has died a natural
death. Those concerned are doubtless ready and
willing to show that, if they were indiscreet, they do
not want courage, and that if an opportunity occurs
they will be "to the front." I regret much that my
letters should be so uninteresting, but let us hope
for better times. At Revel they are constantly prac-
tising firing with guns, which appear at least to be
of very heavy calibre.

THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT hes issued a notice
to the editors of journals, forbidding them to speak
of the plans of campaign of the allies, and requesting
them to confine themselves to the publication of
facts. Any infraction of this order to be punished
by the temporary suspension of the journal, and a
second offence will expose the delinquents to a severer
penalty.

SATURDAY,

Sortign ogorrEspithntt.

FRANKFORT, July 20.
IN the Trinity-house speech of famous memory it
was affirmed that the Constitution of England was
on its trial—that it would be judged by the evidence
of the acts furnished by the war in the Crimea, and,
that the verdict would be given, not only according
to the success, or non-success of military operations,
but in reference to the especial modus operandi of
the Government of England, weakened, as it was
said to be, by the indiscreet interference of Parlia-
ment, and the injurious license of the English press.
In private conversation with some of the leading
members of the Diet, M. de Prokesch-Osten, the
representative of Austria, accepted this definition of
constitutional error as just, and, moreover, he added
that no further trial was needed, appealing to the
revelations made in Parliament by a Minister of the
Crown, during the last ten days, as being conclusive
of the impracticability of dealing with the English
Government upon terms of administrative equality.
No satisfactory conclusion could be arrived at with
a discordant Ministry and an unpopular Adminis-
tration. The evil done to England by the example
of a divided Cabinet at so momentous a crisis
can scarcely be estimated at its full extent. It
has isolated entire Germany—made Austria quasi
hostile—permitted her indefinite occupation of the
Principalities on her own terms, under protest of an
infringement by the allies of the December treaty—
and has afforded an apology for the Bing of Prussia
in defence of conduct basely disingenuous and
cravenly dishonourable. But the naked truth is
now made manifest, without a rag of concealment,
and has been publicly announced by the members
of the Diet without any mawkish parade of secrecy.
It is stated by M. de Prokesch-Osten, in excuse for
Austrian confidence in the assurances of Lord John
Russell, that he is now convinced that the majority
of the present Ministry is opposed in its pacific policy,
at all cost, to the people of England—a fact thoroughly
belying the statement made by the English Plenipo-
tentiary at Vienna—and that they—the people—are
not truly represented by the so-called popular mem-
bers in Parliament, who have yielded more or less
to Coburg and Ministerial subordination. In order
to place the matter fairly before the German public,
the following Ministerial programme has just issued
from the Frankfort press. Its publication by a
German is a consequence of the conduct of Lord
John Russell, and the denunciation by Mr. Roebuck
of the Ministerial peace party in the Cabinet and in
the House of Commons.