The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

STRAWS IN THE AIR.
Ter: Times newspaper has been looked to with more
than usual curiosity this week, to see if it would
make any remarks upon the pacific negotiations
which are known to be proceeding. That journal,
however, avoids any direct notice of the great
topic of the day, but in its leading articles of
Wednesday and Thursday last it plainly indicates
the probability of a speedy termination of hostilities.

The following extracts are significant :

We know what we want and what we will have. . . .
We know very well that if the Euxine were declared
a commercial sea, only open to the merchant ships of all
nations, bat to the fleets of none—if the ports and fortifi-
cations ou its coasts were demolished and dismantled—if
the Danube were opened to the commerce of all nations,
and its free navigation secured by the cession of so much
Russian territory as would be required to guarantee both
banks from hostile interference—if the Danubian princi-
palities were erected into a State, guaranteed, like Belgium,
from the attacks of the great powers—if all military or
naval establishments on the Aland Islands were to be pro-
hibited, or, better still, if they were given up to Sweden and
Norway, we should have obtained such securities and
guarantees as would render peace honourable and desirable,
and the prolongation of the war alike a folly and a crime.
Perhaps such conditions are little enough to ask; they are
most assuredly the least that would be taken. lint it has
never been the policy of this country to press hard on a
vanquished enemy, but rather to rely—and experience has
justified her reliance—on her own power than on the
harshness of her conditions.—Tistes, Wednesday, Nov. t4B.

The reader may instructively contrast the above
with the Times of Oct• 24:

Our course is clew•. We must persevere until the
aggressive power of the enemy is destroyed.
The leading journal, on the contrary, now doubts
whether the preparations for the "next campaign"
even may not be rendered nugatory :

Give us another twelvemonth, everybody seems to say,
and you will see what we can do. Should peace be made
before that twelvemonth is past, we will venture to say that
more pi eparation, more material, and more enthusiasm
will be wasted than ever were got together before. That,
however, we freely confess, is not a consideration to stand
in the way of a real and honourable peace. We have been
hidierto fighting, not for honour, but for the liberty and
independence of nations. When that object can be really
and permanently secured, we are bound to be content ;
only, as our preparations for the next campaign are. all
but completed, and as we are prepared to launch the bolts
of war upon Russia at every point when the elements
give us an opening, we certainly shall not quit our grasp
till we obtain the most substantial security that she shall
not break the peace again, in our time at least.—Time4,
Thursday, Nov. 29.
The following, from the Paris correspondent of the
same journal (Paris, Wednesday), is in the same
key :
Some three or four years ago an observation fell from
a person who is well informed on German affairs, that the
French Government appeared to be very well satisfied
with the conduct of Austria. This has been so often, and
I must add, so vainly said, that it attracted little or no
attention at the time. Since then, however, not only has
the same remark been made, but it is whispered rather
mysteriously, that this time at least Austria is on the
point of showing more determination than for a long
time past. Austria, then, appears to come forward once
more, after a long interval of repose, but in what manner?
Has she at last determined to take an active part in the
war, or is she inclined to offer her mediation between
Russia and the allies? This 1 cannot say; I can only
assure you that the move made by Austria will coast-
derably advance the prospects of peace, and bring them nearer
to realisation then is supposed. lam unwilling to offer any
conjectures on the subject, but the action of Austria will
soon be felt in a manner not unacceptable to this Govern-
ment and that of England, and, above all, involving no
sacrifice of honour or consistency on the Governments
who have taken up arms in a just cause. That she is
doing much, cautiously but steadily, with the view of
persuading, or, it may be, compelling, Russia to come to
terms is certain. —Times, Friday, Nov.
It is satisfactory to find that when reason is likely
to prove predomment, the powerful advocacy of the
Times will be enlisted on its side!

GENERAL CAN ROBERT'S MISSION.
THE following article in the Morning Post of Monday
last evidently originates from an official source. It
will be seen that it exactly confirmQ the information

given in THE l'itEss of leat Saturday on General
tiontonEwr's mission to Sweden
As the din of active war grows fainter, u the Baltic
threatens to freeze, and the Crimea to become impassable,
greedy public attention fixes on diplomatic politics, and the
" Own Correspondents" of our morning contemporaries
prepare for the insatiable appetite of their readers the most
prodigious stories of military conventions ooncluded, of
treaties entered into, of alarming additions to the war, un-
known to everybody except themselves, but which will
come out with full force in the spring. The most circum-
stantial of these accounts has been that which we contra-
dicted the other day, of the military conventioa which was
said to have been successfully concluded by General Can•
robert with Sweden. Tho general goes to Stockholm

11

charged with the Legion of Honour, and with good words
for King Oscar. His business tone there he is to adjourn
to Copenhagen. But what is that business? It is merely to
give his star; to speak his good words; to assure the King
of Sweden of the honest and kindly feelings of his Imperial
master towards him, and to the Swedish people; to receive
from that monarch the assurance that those feelings are
returned ; to satisfy himself that those who accuse the
Swedes of being ltussianised belie them grossly, to do the
Like in Denmark—to confirm, in abort, the friendliest feel-
ing between these minor States and the Western allies?
This, which is a plain and great object, does not satisfy the
gentlemen in question, so they furnish General Canrobert
with a convention full of gun-boats, troops, and warlike
armarneuta, and throw Sweden at least into instant war
with Ru►sia. We believe that a very abort reflection will
convince our readers that it is a matter on which they may
congratulate themselves that, in all these stories of conven-
tions and treaties, there is not one word of truth—that
General Canrobert took no convention in his pocket, and
forced none on the King of Sweden—that he merely occu-
pied himself with the establishment and confirmation of
a thoroughly good and cordial understanding with the King
of Sweden.

The allied powers are not yet reduced to such straits for
men and materials that they roust take the responsibility
of dragging into the vortex of strife all the small neighbours
of Russia—of kindling a European war, of which the flames
may run, heaven knows how wide, and way stop, heaven
knows when. That is a far later resource than yet belongs
to their tactics The immediate neighbours of
Russia might be very willing to form such cunven•
tions as that which we have contradicted ; but that
material aid is not the kind of support which the allies
need in Europe. They would be bound in honour, no
less than by treaty, to maintain and to protect these
minor States, whatever happened. They would have
their demands on Russia multiplied. New conditions
of peace would beibrought into the field by the new allies.
The war would be swelled in objects and iu bulk. What
the allies' really need from these powers is the expression
of their moral sense—the declaration that they think with
England and with Trance--that, if they acted at all, they
would act with them—the verdict of their public opinion—
the sentence of their common sense, against Russia. This
is the true need of the powers at war with her, and this it
is that Sweden has moat strongly shown on the visit of
General Canrobert. To expect more than this from a State
so small as [Sweden, without pledging ourselves to nature
her from all possible evil consequences of her acts—without
guaranteeing to her the possession of advantages which we
might gain, and which would be the seeds of some future
war—would be unjust and absurd—to give such pledges
and guarantees would be to leave legacies to our children
which we should think of twice ere we committed the act.

THE PAPAL 'Nuncio, who had proposed to be
absent from Paris this week on ecclesiastical busi-
ness, in order to avoid coming in contact with the
King of Sardinia, an excommunicated person, on a
hint from " high quarters " that such conduct would
not be satisfactory, put off the consecration which
was to call him away, and assisted in person at the
presentation of the corps diplomatique to the King
Emanuel.

Tuu Grand Dukes Constantine. Nicholas, and
Michael of Russia have arrived at St. Petersburg.
The two last, it. is believed, will return to the arm3i
of the south towards the end of December.
MONSEIGNOR VECCHIOTTI has been appointed Papal
Nuncio at the Hague.
PRINCE JEROME NAPOLEON though indisposed and
c,mfined to his apartments, on Thursday left his
palace for a few hours to visit the King of Sardinia.
M. DE Fowrits, Portuguese Minister of Finance and
Public Works, has arrived at the Portuguese Lega-
tion in Paris. The object, of this visit is said to be
to arrange matters for the establishment of compa-
nies to construct railways on an extensive scale in
Portugal.

AT THE HUME MEMORIAL COMMITTEE MEETING OD
Wednesday Mr. Roebuck stated the following as a
fact :—" The character of the late Mr. Hume," said
Mr. Roebuck, " was rather a peculiar one in Eng-
land, as he had never sought anything for himself.
But there was one thing to which Mr. Hume very
properly aspired, and it was a grace which would
have done honour to those that conferred it. Mr.
Hume desired very much to be made a member of
the Privy Council. That was a mark of respect on
the part of the country which might have been,
cheaply and easily conferred. His friends were in
power, and many applications, as he (Mr. Roebuck)
well knew, were made to them, but the thing was
never done."
The ballot for the militia is, we believe, about to
be resorted to by the Government. It is to be oar..
ried into effect, without reference to rank, from the
age of eighteen to forty. The term of service is to
be for five years ; while a fine of five pounds for not
serving will be paid to the Government, who will
provide substitutes for those who decline to enter the
force.

Captain Carpenter, late 41st Regiment, who waa
severely wounded at the battle of the Alma, has, by
the decision of the Court of Chancery, come into
poseeseion of 00,0001.

1

1138

Original yettiers from itt (crintta.

(From a Correspondent.)
CAMP, THIRD DIVISION, Friday, Nov. 16.
YESTERDAY the camp was the scene of a most fearful
accident. At four o'clock in the afternoon the entire
magazine of the French siege-train was blown up.
It is impossible for words to convey an adequate
idea of the appalling nature of the explosion. It is
probable that at no period of the history of gun-
powder has so large a quantity been ignited at one
instant. Those who had their eyes turned in the
right direction were first made aware of the cata-
strophe by a light streak of flame reaching to the
skies, and apparently springing from the very bowels

of the earth. This was instantly succeeded by the
dense column of black smoke, with the cauliflower-

shaped head, whose appearance has been familiar
to all who witnessed the many explosions attendant
on the recent evacuation of Sebastopol. Then fol-

lowed a shock so tremendous that the ground
literally reeled with all the semblance of an earth-
quake, to the distance of eight and ten miles from the
centre of destruction; and before the con',ulsion had
subsided a shower of stones and shells, the latter as
far off as two miles, fell thick and furious around.
The black column of smoke was now turned into a
lurid cloud; and what little wind there was rolled it
slowly and continuously from the spot in a southerly
direction. Thousands of rockets darted like flashes
of lightning hither and thither about it, marking
their jagged paths in pale blue relief against the dark
mass behind, while an incessant feu de joie of shells
kept up a roar like the opening of another bombard-
ment. As a pyrotechnical display it could not have
been surpassed, save that it occurred an hour or two
too early for its full effect to be perceptible. But, as
you may imagine, it was but for a moment that one
could pause to admire the grandeur of the scene ;
thoughts of the killed and wounded filled the
hardiest with horror and dismay, and many a gallant
fellow paid dearly for a noble but premature effort to
rescue those immediately involved in the flames. It
was not for more than an hour that it was possible
to approach within seven hundred yards of the spot.
Sir William Codrington, attended by one aide-de-
camp, was on the ground in an incredibly short time ;
and soon afterwards the chariot-and four of the
French Commander-in-Chief, with more daring than
prudence, dashed recklessly through the glowing
ruins. Both applied themselves at once and
vigorously to issuing the necessary orders and direc-
tions ; and it is mainly due to their promptness and
decision that the evil spread no further.
The park of the French siege train was situated on
our extreme right, and to the extreme left of their
own right attack. In immediate juxtaposition lies
our own siege-train, a portion of the magazines of
which necessarily shared the same fate as the
French, a few seconds only after the explosion of the
latter. By far the greater portion, however, was
stowed about a quarter of a mile off, in an old wind-
mill, the situation of which was, of course, emi-
nently critical ; and every effort was made to shield it
from the fiery missiles. The course pursued was a
good one, and, providentially, successful. It con-
sisted, in the first instance, in covering the top with
wet blankets, and afterwards in keeping them con-
stantly soaked with water, carried up in relays of
buckets.
I am unable to procure a correct report of the
killed and wounded. Our loss must have been heavy,
and that of the French still more severe. I regret
to add that the surgeons report rather unfavorably of
the nature of the wounds that have come under their
treatment. Gun carriages and other stores in the
immediate vicinity were, of course, wholly destroyed.
Tents and wooden huts that were just too far off to
be ignited were, in most instances, cut into shreds by
the storm of shells and falling debris. So that this
morning the neighbourhood presented a scene of
utter desolation. Numbers of dead horses strew the
ground in attitudes of severe suffering. All over the
camp glass and crockery were thrown down by the
shock, and in Balaklava itself a window is reported
to have been broken. Certain it is, that the ships
in the harbour were sensibly affected, and officers
and men hurried up on deck to trace the cause.
The Russians, too, were roused into a more than
ordinary alertness at their guns, utterly, however,
unattended by any ill consequence. We may, how-
ever, feel very thankful that they were prevented by
an arm of the sea and the deep ravine of the

THE PRESS.

Tschernaya from profiting by our consternation.
Had the accident occurred ten weeks ago, the conse-
quence might have been infinitely more serious.

(From another Correepondent.)
CRIMEA, Nov. 14.
THE last few weeks have wrought wonders in the
aspect of the country occupied by the camp of the
allies. Every day one is in danger of losing one's
way from the disappearance of some familiar object
or well-known track. It is true the " eternal hills"
afford landmarks enough to the traveller by daylight,
but in the dusky evenings and dark nights the most
experienced are often puzzled to trace their route,
and many have found themselves, when they least
expected it, at the bottom of a ditch, which only
owed its existence to the excavation of a few
hours ago.
Great as was the change from the wooded hills
and glowing vineyards of September, '54, to the
literally barren waste of September, '55, I doubt if
the transformations of the last two months are not
more striking. The one was gradual, and so syn-
chronised with the advance of the season that it
seemed little more than the lasting effects of a
severe winter ; the latter, instantaneous, magical—
cooking houses and canteens spring up like mush-
rooms in a single night—tents are metamorphosed
into wooden huts—macadamised roads and well-cut
drains intersect, ramify, reticulate, and decussate the
camp into more shapes than Euclid ever dreamt of
in his definitions of plane figures. Rapid, however,
as these improvements have been, it must not be
imagined that they were all completed in a day. All
revolutions, however salutary, involve an interim of
anarchy and confusion; nor has the British camp
proved an exception to the rule. And though the
main road from Ralaklava to head-quarters was
opened on Saturday, and everywhere things are
rapidly emerging from their chrysalis state, yet here
and there you may still see lines of unfinished roads
strewed with heaps of earth and metal. Confused
masses of stones, door-posts, sheet iron, bricks, and
window-frames (all "luted " from Sebastopol), still
mark the site of some officer's future mansion. Nor
is it an uncommon sight to see a land-transport cart,
laden with commissariat supplies, hopelessly en-
tangled in a labyrinth of obstacles, or fairly capsized
in some unforeseen drain. The French have been
much amused at the energy with which their allies
have set to work to make themselves comfortable for
the winter. Nor have they been idle themselves—
far from it: their works, though scarcely so solid,
are as likely to do them good service for the four or
five months during which they are required, as
OUT own.
Occasional shots are still exchanged between the
north and south sides, tbough with little damage to
either party. Along the Mackenzie heights, too,
you may occasionally see the smoke of a harmless
discharge across the Tschernaya against the lines
occupied by our allies. In short, the idea of any
active demonstration this winter appears now to be
mutually abandoned.
The recent appointment of our new commander-
in-chief has occasioned general surprise, as he was
scarcely considered "in the betting." We do not,
however, look upon him, as the Times newspaper
would wish us to, as " the general who failed at the
Redan." In fact, one great source of congratulation
to us is that the appointment, for once, appears to
have been made independently and in the very
face of that journal. I need scarcely say that the
remarks of that journal on the subject of the recent
assault of the Redan have occasioned universal dis-
gust among all thinking men, not even, I am told,
with the exception of its " Own Correspondent."

SIR DE LACY Everis has addressed a letter to the
Times this week, in reply to the attacks last week
upon Colonel Percy Herbert, by a writer signing
himself " Palmam &c." The gallant general in terse
and vigorous terms appealed to the distinguished and
arduous services of Colonel Herbert as sufficient
proof of his fitness for the post, and concluded his
letter in these terms :

But I shall only add that, after all, I am not sure that he
himself desires this appointment, respecting which he has
been so unfoundedly aspersed. I incline to think he would
prefer a brigade, which, should he succeed to the command
of, I am certain he will handle, take care of, and fight as
well as any brigadier in the army.
COLONEL TURK, the Hungarian officer in the
British service, lately seized in Wallachia as a deserter
to the Sardinians, in 1848, by Count Coronini, is ac-
cused by the Austrian Government of having em-
bezzled several sums of money before he deserted
from his regiment. The charge is regarded at
Vienna by the English authorities as false, and as a
trick to retain the colonel in prison.
THE EMPRESS OP RUSSIA'S subscription for the
wounded Russian soldiers is said to have reached an
amount of 1,300,000 f.

SATURDAY,

THE WAR.

The news from the camp has been limited this
week to explanations of the details of the late explo-
sion. Everything appears to have settled down for
the winter, although there is some slight ground for
believing that an attack upon the north forts is not
improbable. The expeditionary force returned from
Kinburn have at length landed, and all hopes of an.

expedition to Kaffa have been given up. Sir
Edmund Lyons, following the French fleet, had left
the Black Sea with a portion of his fleet for Malta.
General Vivian at Kertch had been reinforced with
cavalry, and was considered capable of holding his
position against the Russians. The Russians, on
their side, appear content with making capital shell
practice at every individual who shows himself in
the streets of Sebastopol : beyond that they show no

signs of enmity, their whole occupation being in pro.
paring for winter and hutting their men.

OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.
Lord Panmure on Thursday received a despatch
from Sir William Codxington,containing the details of
the late explosion, of which we publish full accounts.
in other columns of THE PRESS. Sir William Cod-
rington's returns show one officer and twenty DOD-
commissioned officers and men as killed; fear
officers and 119 non commissioned officers and nets
wounded and missing.
Lord Panmure received on Tuesday a despatch
from Sir William Codrington, K.C.8., inclosing ad-
ditional reports from Brigadier-General Spencer,
relative to the operations before Kinburn, and Bri-
gadier-General Lord George Paget, detailing the
proceedings of the last reconnaissance from Eupatoria
on the 27th of October ; and, finally, of Lieutenant
Colonel Tottenham, commanding the English cavalry
in the coup de main of cattle on the 3rd ult

DESPATCH FROX GEN. CODRINOTON.
Sebastopol, Nov. 13.
Having so lately assumed the command of the army, L
have not sufficient materiels, nor do I consider it necessary,.
to write a separate despatch.
The return of the troops from the expedition against
Kinburn was announced to your lordship by electric tele-
graph, on the 9rd instant
1 do myself the honour to transmit the copies of reports.
received from Brigadier-General Hon. A. Spencer, giving a,
more detailed account of the proceedings of the force under.
his command than he had hitherto been able to make, andi
two reports from Brigadier• General Lord George Paget,.
with an account of two reconnaissances that were made
by the allied cavalry from Eupatoria.
W. CODRINOTON, General Commanding..
THE OPERATIONS AT EINBURN.
General Spencer in his report commences By
explaining the difficulties of tae landing, and. the
preliminary steps taken by the allied forces is order
to insure their own position, and to construct a line
of field-works in case the fort should not submit to.
the fire of the fleet. He then continues
The bombardment from the ships commenced on them
afternoon of the 15th, but from the state of the weather-itt
was discontinued; and on the 16tl► they were unable to
resume it from the same cause.
By the morning of the 17th, the field-works thrown up
by the troops were, as far as circumstances would admit of,.
very defensible, although too extensive. The outlying
pickets had also thrown up small intrenchments at their
respective posts; that morning at daybreak I made a recon-
naissance with the detachments of French and English
cavalry and the 57th Regiment. The weather becoming.
thick, the infantry returned after a march of four miles out..
The cavalry proceeded to the village of Paksoffka, a few:
miles further, which they found deserted; at 10 a.m. the,
ships opened fire, and at three o'clock the forts surrendered,,
with about 1,400 prisoners; 17 officers and 739 men were
given over to me by Gereral Bazaine, and were subsequently
sent on board her Majesty's ship Vulcan, to proceed te•
Constantinople. On the following imorning the forts at
Otchakoff were blown up by the enemy. French and Eng--
Bah commissioners were appointed for the taking over of
the materiel found in the forts of Kinburn, and for the.
temporary division of the place. On the 19th I moved tbe-
English camp to the immediate neighbourhood of the fort,.
and occupied the southern shore. The ground is here
nearly level with the sea, and so perfectly smooth that it is
easily protected by ships on both flanks. On the 20th the
English force, with the exception of the 21st Regiment,.
who were left to do the duties at Kinburn, joined the French
in a reconnaissance under General Bazine. The troops
carried three days' provisions, and the commissariat were
able to carry three more. We halted and bivouacked than
night at the village of Paksoffka, about eight miles' march
of sandy soil. The French occupied a village at a short
distance. We had no tents, but the weather was fume, and
there was plenty of wood and hay, and a large supply o V
cabbages and other vegetables. The inhabitants had all
left. On the 21st halted. The Nlowing day, with the
cavalry, artillery, and three battalions, I accompanied
General Bazaine, with a part of the French force, to the
village of Skadoifka, about five or six miles ; country very
open, with occasionally deep sand ; always plenty of water
in the villages. Having burnt the village, we returned
that day to Palmlike. The detachment of Carebineere,