The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-14 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

CONTRARY to established custom, the weightiest business of Parliament
has been reserved for the dog days. In political circles the conduct of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL has been the sole topic of discourse this week, and
among independent men of every shade of political opinion a convic-
tion is expressed that it is time a stop should be put to his mis-
chievous vagaries ; though whether the public votes of some M.P.'s we
could name will accord with their private declarations the division-list
next week must be left to show.

On the question of personal honour it is impossible to reconcile
the speech made by Lord Join on ,the 24th of May last with his
conduct in the early part of the month when supporting the Austrian
proposal. No sophistry can explain away the contradiction between
the part he played at Vienna and in the Cabinet, and the part he
played in the House.
On the other question of his political immorality in retaining a
seat in the Cabinet after the rejection of that proposal, which he con-
tended ought to be and might be accepted, there is equal unanimity.
Such adhesion to place might be justified under a despotism, as
Ministers are but the servants of the Monarch, but is felt to be directly
subversive of the spirit of free institutions, which require Statesmen to
act on their own sentiments that they may throw into their conduct
all the energy of their will and the force of their convictions. The
excuses set up for Lord JOHN are scoffed at. He is no longer favor-
able to any pacific proposal ! But what from his point of view has
occurred to change his opinion, except the unjust and unwise rejec-
tion of what he held to be a just and wise proposal? If it is pre-
tended that he did not anticipate the proposal would be accepted by
Russia, and that he favoured it only to secure the co-operation of
Austria, what is to be thought of his sagacity, considering what the
relations of Austria with Russia are, and what of his principle in at-
tempting to catch a diplomatic advantage by deceitful concession ?
We state here but the universal opinion held in all companies out of
doors, that it is impossible for Lord JOHN RUSSELL to remain longer in
the service of the Crown without degradation to the character of the
British people and Government.

The colossal frame of the Russian empire seems roused to the
utmost exertion of its strength. The intelligence which has reached
us from Berlin may be relied on. We presume that the armies of
60,000, and of 80,000 men, now rapidly advancing towards the
Crimea, have been liberated from their position on the Austrian
frontier by the reductions in the Austrian army, and the
declarations of the Court of Vienna that it will maintain
an attitude of strict neutrality. Last year Russia was
enabled to pour immense reinforcements into the Crimea through the
occupation by Austria of the Principalities, and this year she will be
enabled to dispose of still larger corps for the same purpose, through
her army of observation on the Austrian frontier being uo longer
required. Bloody, but glorious Inkermann testified to the skill of
Lord ABERDEEN'S diplomacy. What new field shall bear witness to
the diplomatic achievements of our Vienna Plenipotentiary and his
chief at home ?

By the latest telegraphs from the Crimea the allies appear to be
prosecuting their works and advancing en regle to a fifth general bom-
bardment, and the delivery of an assault as soon as a practicable breach
is formed. The fire, which General SIMPSON states was opened
against the Redan on the 10th, was carried on only by the English
batteries, and we take it was a mere precautionary step to the safe and
speedy advance of our works, and not undertaken as an immediate
preparative to a general assault. Both French and English are
pushing forward their works with great energy, new mortars of
immense range have been added to the French batteries, and great
reliance is stated to be placed upon their fire. The next week or ten
days will probably bring us eventful news. There is no doubt that
the allies have now attained such a superiority in artillery that the
fire of the Russians in a fair trial would be as certainly " snuffed out
as that of the French batteries was by them on the 17th of October ;
but it is impossible to say whether their fire is entirely subdued by
that of ours during a bombardment, or whether they do not withdraw
part of their guns for the time, and so economising their men and
material as to offer a very feeble fire in return, though really tho-
roughly well prepared in case of an assault. The result of the next
assault it is hard to foresee. A general assault is always more favor-
able to the attacking army than a particular one, and we have reason
to believe that a combined attack will be made throughout the whole
extent of the lines. When we have taken the outer works we have yet
the inner line of defences to carry, and of these nothing is very clearly
known. The gun-boats, which in shelling the town have approached close
to the mouth of the harbour, report the existence of a large star fort with
sunken batteries immediately in the rear of the Redan, and of still
more extensive works behind the Malakoff. There is no reason to
suppose that the Russians have neglected a single point in which art
and science could help them in their defence ; and, although we may
in our next assault capture both Malakoff and Redan, yet we can
Scarcely expect that Sebastopol will fall at the same time, but rather
that every inch of ground will be.contested, and that what we win we
shall win only at the point of the bayonet. The health of the army is
Oated to be good, and cholera to have considerably decreased.
Axa PacHA, and the French and Sardinian divisions, have made no
flardtir &Irmo' itiptinst the Itheeisu lini of eoknunicatieni. Indeed;

SATURDAY,

" taking the field" appears to be impossible from want of transport.
But the project has more probably been given up from the inaccessible
nature of the country and from the impregnability of the Russian
positions.

General PELISSIER.B despatch with reference to the "last obse-
quies " paid to the remains of Lord RAGLAN could only have referred
to the ceremony of embarking them, as they are expected to arrive at
Bristol in the course of next week, accompanted by the whole of the
personal Staff. The remains of our gallant General are, we believe,
to be placed in the family vault at Badminton. Their more fitting
resting-place would be by the side of WELLINGTON.
The changes which death and sickness have wrought in the divi-
sional commands in the Crimea are very striking at this moment
With the exception of Sir RICHARD ENGLAND and Sir WILLIAM CODRING
TON, there is nut one of the old staff' of general officers left. Already:
a new generation appears in the field ; a similar change is taking
place in the French army; and on a yet more extended scale in the
Russian. Their best generals are killed or retired, and more than 500
officers of all ranks have already been lost. A letter from Warsaw
states that Prince PAsKtEwrrcif has been offered but has declined the
command of the army of the South, which it is asserted is decimated
by disease and suffering.

The Baltic fleet still continues off Cronstadt. Several reinforce
ments of both French and English gun-boats and mortar-vessels have
reached the fleet during the week, and the arrival also of large adddi-
tional] supplies of powder and materiel will, we hope, enable the
Admiral to relieve the monotony of a blockade by a little active service.
The Admiralty, under the energetic impetus of Sir CHARLES WOOD,
has at length bestirred itself upon hearing that the Russians, during
the winter, have managed to turn out at Cronstadt a respectable fleet of
some eighty-odd heavy-armed steam gun-boats (about double the number
we have managed to build in the same time), and our Admiralty have
resolved to build a model gun-boat forthwith. Orders have been issued
to lay down this vessel at Sheerness, and the official intelligence from
that dockyard informs us that "everything is ready but timber and
sawyers!" Such an introductory state of fitness for the building of a
ship reminds us somewhat of RABELAIS'S new coat, whick was made of,
nothing before—nothing behind—and sleeves of the same !

The serious disturbances which have broken out in various parts
of Spain, but particularly at Barcelona, threatened at one period of
the week to jeopardise the position of the Government, if not of the
Queen ; but the firmness of the Commandant at Barcelona, perched
in his impenetrable fort of Montjuich, has saved the Royal cause:
The latest telegraphic dispatches assure us that order is restored in
that turbulent town, and the principal culprits arrested.

"Aldershott Camp," which was marked out in the winter, and which
has been supposed to have been gradually progressing to maturity
throughout the spring, is yet, we regret to hear, in an extremely
crude and incomplete form. Fiist of all, the wells arc dry, and there
is no water in camp, and for the last week or two of hot weather, had
it not been for the providential contiguity of the Basingstoke Canal,
the troops would have suffered severely. Next, the huts are so in-
tolerably ill-ventilated that the men can neither sleep in them by
night nor rest in them by day ; the kitchens are so defectively con-
structed as to cook the men instead of the meat ; the barracks are not
yet built, the plan not even decided upon ; so that what with dry
wells, bad huts, worse kitchens, and no barracks, after six
months' trial, with the French camp at Helfaut to guide us,
we appear to be in about as pleasant a pickle as we were last winter
at Balaklava. The camp at Aldershott should be a camp in every
sense of the word, and not a garrison town, which Aldershott promises
speedily to become. The camp was instituted for the purpose of
training and accustoming the recruit to the hardships of a campaign,
and no troops in Europe require this training more than our own,
and in the formation of the camp at Aldershott it is to be hoped this
principle will not be lost sight of. At present, everything is in crude
embryo, but the place appears to be becoming a vast military town
more than a camp, and a sort of Balaklava in Hampshire.

Seldom does an aspiring senator signalise himself in his first
speech, though a conventional degree of success is obtained in such
efforts. The platitudes are duly intoned, and cheered by "friends,"
and the speaker is at least looked at, if not listened to, with some
little interest. "Let your impudence be betrayed modestly," said a
veteran debater to a novice asking for hints about making a maiden
speech. Mr. TITE showed on Tuesday that such advice would have
been entirely thrown away upon him. The assurance of this precious
specimen of a Drury Lane Lycurgus is unmatched in our recollection
of maiden speeches. He commenced t w.t.. lecturing Sir EDWARD
LrrToN on political affairs, and he concluded with begging Mr. SCULLY
not to divide the House! This was rather too much from a member
who had been sent into Parliament on the cry of a political league,
and who had excluded from the House of Commons a gentleman of
high honour and ability like Mr. WHATF.LY, the Queen's Counsel.
The electors of Bath, however, put " the Tite man in the
wrong place," and we wish that some of them could have
heard the cries of " divide" which significantly interrupted
the speech of the mealy-mouthed member whom they pitchforked
into the House of Commons. " Every one appeared desirous
that Administrative Reform should prosper ," and so the new
member, who won his scat under the auspices of the Drury Lane
Society, did not wish to be troublesome. Mr. TITE is by profession aii
architect, but we are sure that a sound Administrative Reform Hill
never be erected of " Bath brick" of his composition. Constituencies
should be mere bagful in ehoosing candidates. What did th