The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-23 00:00:00

OXFORD COMMEMORATION.

DURING the past week the various ceremonials and
festivities attending Commemoration-week have
been celebrated at Oxford. The chief interest,
however, centred in the performance of the " En-
ccenia," which took place on Wednesday as
usual in the Sheldonian Theatre. On the ar-
ival of the Chancellor, the Earl of Derby, accom-
rpanied by the Vice-Chancellor, heads of houses,
doctors of divinity, law, medicine, and music, tbe con-
vocation was opened. A decree received the approval
of the house, accepting from the Earl Stanhope, who
has, during the last tt rrn, undertaken the office of
senior examiner in the law and modern history
schools, an annual donation of 201. during his life
and to be bequeathed at his death, for the purpose
of founding a prize for the best composition on a
modern history subject.
The Chancellor then read over the names of the
distinguished individuals on whom it was proposed
to confer the honorary degree of doctor of civil law,
and as each name was mentioned more or less cheer-
ing followed. After the list wag gone through, the
bedels retired to the divinity schools to usher in the
proposed doctors, who, headed by the deputy-professor
of civil law (Dr. Somerset), walked in procession
across the court leading from the divinity schools
to the theatre. The cheering on their entrance was
most enthusiastic. The Chancellor put the names
seriatim for the approval of the house in the follow-
ing order, viz. :

The Hon. James Buchanan, Minister of the United
States—Le Comte de Montalernbert, a Member of the
French Academy—Sir John Beverley Robinson, Bart.,
Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and Chancellor of Trinity
College, Toronto—Lieut.-General Sir John Fox Burgoyne,
G.C.B.—Lieut.-General Sir De Lacy Evans, K
William Gore Ouseley, K.O B.—Sir Charles Lyell, Knight,
F.R.S., M.A., Exeter—Richard Monckton Milnes, Esq.,
M.P.— Colonel Sabine, F.R.S., of the Engineers—
Thomas Graham, Esq., F.R.S., Master of the Mint
—The Rev. Humphrey Lloyd, D.D., Trinity College,
Dublin—Philip Bury Duncan, Esq., M A., late Fellow of
New College—The Rev. Frederick William Hope, M.A.,
F.R.S., Christ Church—Alfred Tennyson, Esq., Poet
Laureate—George Gabriel Stokes, M.A., F.R.S., Lucasian
professor.
and Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge—
John Couch Adams, M.A., F R.S., Fellow of Pembroke
College, Cambridge—John Muir, Esq.
There was scarcely a dissentient voice, but as the
veterans Burgoyne and De Lacy Evans mounted the
platform to take their seats as doctors, they were
greeted with the most vociferous and enthusiastic
applause, which lasted several minutes. The recep-
tion of the Poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, was
scarcely less enthusiastic.

WESTBOURNE COLLEGE,' situate in Porchester•
terrace, Bayswater, was publicly inaugurated on
Tuesrlay in the presence of a number of the clergy
and gentry resident i n the vicinity. This institution
de,tiued for the education of the sons of gentle-
men, under the management of a committee, and
having for its patrons the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Lincoln.
The principal and head master is the Rev. Charles
Mackenzie, prebendary of St. Paul's, and recently
head master of St. Olave's Grammar School, South.
wark. The education to be given includes classics,
mathematics, French, German, drawing, vocal mu,ic,
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English history, and litera-
ture, chronology, elements of physics, fencing, and
gynnostioi. it portion of each day in the week is to
be devote l to religious instruction in harmony with
the Church of England.

TIIE PRESS.

THE WAR.

Subsequently to the arrival of the despatches an-
nouncing the successful attacks on the Mamelon and
the Quarries sevtral days passed in which no tidings
were received, or at all events acknowledged, either by
the English or French Governments. The telegraphic
wires, it was said, were out of order. Afterwards the
public were informed that the communications were
re-established, but that no news of importance had
been transmitted. The advises received were, how-
ever, dated four days back. Finally, there arrived
early yesterday (Friday) morning advises, still three
days old, announcing the first serious check which
tie allies had received at the hands of the enemy
since the commencement of the siege. The event is
thus stated by the Secretary for War :
Lord Panmurc regrets to announce that he has received
information that the English troops attacked the Redan
and the French the Malakoff Tower at daylight on the
morning of the 18th instant, but without the success which
has heretofore attended our efforts. Both the French and
ourselves have suffered considerably. The names of the
officers who have fallen will be forwarded immediately ;
but it will be impossible to receive complete returns of all
the casualties before the 30th instant at soonest.
A corresponding account from General Pelissier
was published in yesterday's Moniteur, as follows :

June 17.
The combined movements agreed upon with our allies
are being carried out. To-day the Turks and the brigade
of Chasseurs made a reconnaissance towards Akhtiar.
_ _

General Bosquet occupies the Tschernaya.
To-morrow, at daybreak, in concert with the English, I
attack the Grand Redan, the Malakoff Tower, and the bat-
teries connected with them.

June 18.

The attack of today was not successful, although our
troops, who showed very great intrepidity, gained a partial
footing in the Malakoff works.

I was- obliged to order a retreat in the parallels. The
retreat took place in order, without our being harassed.
It is not possible for me to-day to state our precise loss.
Prince Gortschakoff sends to St. Petersburg an
account of bur operations in the Sea of Azoff. He
says :

The inglorious devastation of the coasts and the de-
struction of a few corn magazines. But it has had in no
respect the influence they anticipated on the general pro-
gress of our operations in the Crimea. Among the corn
magazines and the ships burned by the enemy along the
coasts of the Sea of Azoff, there was hut a small number
of those intended for carrying provisions for the troops.
The Journal of St. Petersburg gives the report of
Lieut.-General Krasnoff on the bombardment of
Taganrog. He describes it 11.9 " infernal cannonade
kept up for six hours and a half."

The town was set on fire at the Bourse, in Greek•street,
and at the Gostinoi•road ; and at half-past three the assail-
ants landed about 300 men, whom they sent towards the
height near the church of the Czar Constantine. This de-
tachment commenced a rifle fire behind some bushes, but
at the critical moment Count Tolstoi, confiding a com-
pany to Lieut.-Colonel Matcedonsky, ordered him to
repulse the enemy. This distinguished officer placed his
men in an inclosure protected by an orchard, instantly
forced the enemy's infantry to retire, then charging them
vigorously with the bayonet, routed and drove them down
to their boats. The squadron then opened a terrible fire,
which however only lasted a quarter of an hour.

It is almost unnecessary to quote the concluding
sentence :

By the most special favour of God our loss during this
bombardment was inconsiderable; a Cossack was killed.
MASSACRE OF ENGLISH SAILORS UNDER A

FLAG OF TRUCE.

A despatch from Admiral Dundas announcing the
particulars of the outrage committed upon the boat's
crew of H.M.S. Cossack, as briefly announced in the
telegraphic advises published in our last paper, was
received at the Admiralty on Monday. The admiral
states :

A short time ago her Majesty's ship Cossack took and
destroyed some coasting vessels near Hango, and three
persons—the captain of one of the vessels, his son, and
another Finnish sailor—were taken prisoners. Admiral
Dundas, anxious not unnecessarily to injure the trade of
the country, directed the Cossack to hear up to Hango, in
order to put on shore the persons who had been so cap-
tured, who had requested to be put on shore there, and
four other persons, who had also been taken prisoners
near St. Petersburg, and who had also requested that they
might be put on shore there. The Cossack ventured to
Hango in order to put these persons on shore, and at
some distance from the place she anchored, and sent the
cutter on shore with the seven prisoners and the ordinary,
boat's crew. A flag of truce was displayed for at least half
an hour before she reached the jetty. Nobody was per-
ceived but one person, who ran away at once. The boat
arrived at the jetty, and landed the prisoners and their
baggage. Every man remained in the boat. A body of
Russians, who are reported to have amounted to from 300
to 400, came down to the jetty. Lieutenant Geneste, the
officer, waved his flag of truce, and explained why they
came on shore. The Finnish captain also took the flag
of truce, and tried to explain, both in Finnish and
English, the reason why they came on shore. The officer
in command of the Russians not only understood English,

SATURDAY,

but spoke it. He said, " They did not care in the least for
a flag of truce, and they would show how the Russians
would fight," whereupon some 100 Russian soldiers imme-
diately tired upon the officer and the prisoners on the
je:ty, and killed them all. They then fired into the boat
till every man in the boat fell. The Russians rushed into
the boat, and threw some of the bodies overboard, dragged
one wounded man out, threw him on the jetty, and
bayoneted him, and left five bodies for dead in the boat.
The cutter not returning later in the day, the gig was sent
in, and it was ascertained from a distance that the cutter
was moored to the jetty, and that there were some dead
bodies in it. In the night, a black man, wounded with two
balls through the arm and one through his shoulder, cut
the fastening, and tried to scull the cutter from the jetty to
the ship. In the meantime the Cossack, standing in in
order to ascertain what had become of the men in the
cutter, sent in a boat, and brought off the single survivor,
on whose evidence it is that the whole story rests.
Some additional particulars are stated in letters
from the fleet. One writer gives the following nan a-
tive of the disgraceful affair:—

Captain Fanshawe having received orders from Admiral
Dundee to land three (7 ?) Russian prisoners—taken out of
different prizes, and to whom he had given liberty—on any
convenient point of the coast of Finland, this officer des..
patched an eight-oared cutter, under the command of
Lieut. Louis Geneste—lt. T. Easton, surgeon, and Sullivan,
master's assistant, accompanying him—under a flag of
truce flying in the bows, towards Hango, the Cossack in
the meantime standing off and on outside.

The cutter not being met by any boatfrom the enemy,
and not seeing a soul on the beach, pulled in ; but just as
Lieut. Geneste and the surgeon landed, flag of truce in
hand, a body of Russian infantry rushed out of the neigh-
bouring wood, headed by an officer who spoke English, but
who declared he knew nothing of our flags of truce,
stepped back, and ordered his men to "fire." This was
at once obeyed, and the noble Geneste, as promising an
officer as ever lived, fell mortally wounded by the side of
the surgeon, who speedily shared his comrade's fate; then
followed volley after volley of musketry into the cutter,
murdering our unarmed crew, sparing none, not even the
three prisoners, their own countrymen, who held op th.
flag after Lieneste had fallen. Such a wholesale, dastardly,
and cruel murder, and violation of every law of civilised
nations, deserves no comment; the fact is one of unre-
deemed blackness, and can bear no justification. Even
supposing they had no business to land in a hostile country
without having the flag of truce responded to, the boat's
crew might have been detained or made prisoners, though
that would be stretching the point rather far, considering
the errand they were on ; but to allow 500 or more armed
infantry to fire into an unarmed boat and seventeen men,
is an exploit alone worthy of a Russian.

The soldiery, having 'completed this cowardly action,
retired, believing every soul dead, not however before the
bodies had been rifled of everything that had any value in
the eyes of these ruffians, when seeing the boat perfectly
riddled with shot, they decamped, leaving it to its fate.
One man, however, of the boat's crew, who had three
shots through his arm, and had been left for dead, revived
during the night, and at last after several ineffectual at-
tempts succeeded in getting the cutter off, and drifted out
to sea, where in the course of the following morning he
was picked up by the Cossack.

Thus ends -tins- melancholy catastrophe, unequalled in
cruelty to any in modern history, which has naturally
thrown a dampness over our spirits, and increased our
desire to come to close quarters with the enemy, in order
to revenge the blood of our brave comrades.
The following is a list of the killed :

L. Geneste, Lieutenant, age 25 ; R. T. Easton, surgeon, age 39;
Charles Sullivan, Master's Assistant, age 21 ; •Edward Thomp-
son, leading seaman, age 24; •William Linn, Captain's Steward,
age 32; John Lorton, Midshipmen's Steward, age 22; William
H. Banks, Gun-room Steward, age 84 ; •Benjamin Smith, A. 8.,
age 23; •James Cornwall, ordinary, age 21; J. Gliddon, A. 8.,
age 27; George Boyle, ordinary, age 21; William Roskelly, age
20, ordinary; Thomas Stokes, age 23, ordinary; John Haughey,
age 24, stoker ; Francis George, age 20, ordinary ; Owen Francis,
age 24, A.B. _
_ . _

Liberated Prisoners.—John Lunatronn, age 50 ' • Theodore
Lunstronn, boy about 11; A. F. Loonberg, age 21; and four
other Russian prisoners,names unknown.

The man who escaped is a man of colour, named John Brown.
• Thus/ were found deed in the cutter, and buried at sea.

Another account states:—
The Cossack, Captain E. G. Fanshawe, was cruising off
Hango-head on the fith ofJune, and, being ordered to laud
ten Russians she had on board, who had been taken from
some wood boats which the Merlin and herself had cap-
tured and burnt, she attempted to do so by sending them
in a boat carrying a flag of truce. In that boat was the
crew of nine men, Lieutenant Geneste in command, Mr.
R. Easton, the surgeon, Mr. Sullivan, master's assistant,
three stewards (who went in hopes of buying some provi-
sions), and the ten prisoners. On nearing the shore they
found about lAA) or UOO soldiers on the beach, and as the
boat ran alongside a sort of jetty the three officers jumped
upon it from her, when the officer in command of the
soldiers called out in English, " that he would have
nothing to do with the 1— flag of truce," and imme-
diately ordered his men to fire. Mr. Geneste, Mr. Easton,
and Mr. Sullivan fell at the first volley. One of the
prisoners then held up the flag, which Mr. Geneste had
when he fell, but he was instantly shot; some of the men
then jumped ashore to assist the others, but only to meet
the same fate, for volley after volley was mercilessly
poured upon them and the boat, until it was supposed all
were killed, when the Russians came down and robbed
them of everything worth taking away. The Cossack, after
waiting some time for the boat, sent another in search of
it, which picked it up a short distance from the land, with
one poor fellow in it struggling with one arm to scull the
boat, while the other dangled at his side with three bullets
in it. When wounded he had fallen to the bottom of the
boot, and as the water came in through the shot holes it