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

the position and anticipations of the allied fleets in
that quarter. The writer says :
I regret having to recount an untoward event, which has
occurred through great want of foresight, to say the least
of it, on the part of our officers in the Gulf of Bothnia.
It appears that information was given to the Driver that
several merchant vessels were lying in the small harbour
of Ranmo, a port on the coast of Finland, fifty or sixty
miles from Ginnie Carleby, the scene of the Vulture and the
Odia's boats' misfortune last year. The boats of the Driver
were accordingly manned, armed, and sent into the harbour,
hoisting a flag of truce, to demand that these vessels
should be given up, threatening that if this demand were
refused summary measures would be taken to punish the
authorities in the shape of burning and destroying the
town, and otherwise ill-treating the peaceful inhabitants of
Haunt°. A venerable gentleman, calling himself the chief
magistrate of the place, most humbly informed the British
officer that for the sake of humanity he trusted that he would
not proceed to extremities; and that of course the vessels
were at his command, all he had to do being to take
peaceful possession. The boats accordingly pulled towards
the vessels. Previous to boarding, to take them in tow, it
was thought advisable to haul down the flag of truce; the
moment this was done, front every house and every hush,
from behind every corner, bang went the deadly Minis
rifle, and grape from field-pieces. Seven men were put
hors de combat at the first volley, two killed and five wounded.
Seeing nothing but certain death could result from either
opposition or perseverance in their object, a precipitate
retreat was made, and so ended this unfortunate affair,
which already is magnified by the Russians into a defeat.
As a set-off against this, our old friends, Yelverton and
Vansittart, in the Arrogant and the Magicienne, have been
pitching into the enemy. In the neighbourhood of Wiborg
an earthwork, mounting twelve guns, was thrown up,
which, after resisting for two hours, was entirely destroyed,
although they manned the battery three or four times.
Our loss was one man killed on board the Ruby gun-boat.
The preparations for a display of British valour continue
here. The mortar-vessels are rapidly becoming an organised
and compact force—sixteen English and five French (the
latter carry two mortars ),making in all twenty-six eighteen-
inch mortars, which it is calculated will throw a hundred and
forty shells an hour. Each mortar vessel has two hundred
and forty shells on board. Amongst these would be mixed
carcases, rockets, and other pleasant combustibles, which
would, at all events, show that we are not shut up here
merely to be looked at. A large fleet, under Admiral
Baynes, remains at Cronstadt. The Austerlitz (90), French
liner, has gone to cruise in the Gulf of Riga, and perhaps
will throw shell into the outworks of that place, or at any
rate keep the Russians on the look out. The admirals are
constantly away reconnoitring Sweaborg and Revel. What
we are to do is strictly kept secret. The mortar-vessels
are put under the command of the first lieutenant of the
Duke of Wellington, who is to act in concert with the
officers of Marine Artillery, who will work the mortars.
Everything looks like business. The Pembroke, and a
couple of gun-boats, have gone to augment the squadron off
Sweaborg, and to prevent their laying down any more
Jacobis, one of which exploded unpleasantly near the
Merlin, in one of her reconnoitring cruises, throwing up a
column of water five or six feet high, and making a great
row. It is supposed that these machines are fired by gal-
vanic wires from the shore, and are evidently much more
likely to do damage, so it is high time the enemy be pre-
vented from laying down any more. The Merlin, with two
gun-boats, have gone on a cruise to stop the trade which is
said to be carried on by means of small vessels between
Dago and Sweden : she returns in a day or two. All hands
are in good health and spirits, living in hopes.

A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS on a new war projectile
were made on Monday in the grounds adjoining
Chelsea Hospital, by Captain Disney, the inventor.
The invention is one of a very simple description,
and can be adopted with little delay or trouble in the
contest in which we are now engaged with Russia. It
consists in fitting shells with a bursting charge of
powder contained in a metal cylinder, and tilling the
rest of their space with a highly combustible fluid,
which upon exposure to the air ignites everything
with which it is brought into contact. This fluid
does not act upon the substance of the shell, is not
in itself explosive, and being prevented from leaking
by a nicely-fitted brass screw plug, enables the mis-
sile to be carried about without much risk. Water
only temporarily extinguishes its incandescent power,
which is so great as to make even woollen materials
burn with a quick flame. Captain Disney states that
by a similar use of another chemical fluid he can
cause blindness for several hours to all troops coming
within a quarter of a mile of its operations ; but this
portion of his experiments was, for obvious reasons,
omitted. Applied to hand-grenades, the substance
which be exhibited would be found very destructive,
but its chief use would probably be as a charge for
large shells.
Tits supplementary commissariat estimates were
issued on Monday. They comprise pay and con-
tingencies of the Commissariat division of the War
Department, 1,030/.; Land and Inland Water Trans-
port, including the supply of water provided by the
Com missal iat Department, 701,7501.; freight of specie,
including expenses of shipment, 15,0001.; provisions
issued to the Army Ordnance and Commissariat at
home and abroad, after deducting stoppages in aid,
wn,7851. ; forage, including money allowances
in lieu thereof, 786,8001. ; fuel and light, 78,0001. ;
miscellaneous services, 102,0001. ; making a total
supplementary vote required for the effective services
1855-58 of 2,588,3351.