The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

that the enemy (a fact of which he appears to have
been entirely ignorant) are mustered in a force
nearly double his own, prepared to dispute his carry.
ing out his intentions. This unexpected state of
things rather staggered the commanders of the allied
fleets, and tended much to damp the ardour of the
crews ; for, being in perfect ignorance of the ap-
proaches to the barrier of piles which extends from
the island to the shore on the north side—being
unaware of the exact position of a very narrow
entrance or passage made through the said piles (all
of which it was the intention of the authorities deli-
berately to survey, had it not been for the unexpected
Russian threatening force)—it was decided by a wise
and perfectly justifiable opinion, that with our small
force of vessels of light draft it would have been
absurd to have attacked the enemy in their own
waters. Three times the number of gunboats, and
twice the number of mortars—and what was there
to prevent them having been got ready ?—would have
put the admirals in a position to have acted. As it
was, they could do nothing—the force they bad
being perfectly useless. So much for Cronstadt.
What might have been done there still remains a
matter which, perhaps, admits of question. But few
who have seen the position can doubt that our
flotilla would have held a most important point of
attack had they succeeded in establishing them-
selves behind the barrier—a point from which, ac-
cording to our recent experience in mortar-firing,
many maintain all Cronstadt and the Russian fleet
could have been burnt, and from which the sea, even
to the environs of St. Petersburg, would have been
at our command. A few words as to Sweaborg, and
I have done. The bombardment of that place has
been so often described that I will not take up your
valuable space by repetition. I will only say that a
most unexpected blow was struck against one of the
strongest fortresses of Russia, which must have
shaken the prestige of the Czar even to the very
heart of his empire—that dockyards, arsenals,
barracks, two rne-of-battle ships, and immense ma-
gazines were burnt, destroyed, and blown up—and
that awful loss of life was caused to the enemy, with
a very trifling loss on our Side. Helsingfors was at
our mercy; and there perhaps a mistake was made;
but I affirm positively that feelings of humanity,
backed, perhaps, by an ill-judged policy, prompted
the course that was taken. As to the ships going in
after the bombardment by the smaller vessels, I ask
any person who is of opinion that they ought to
have done so to study carefully the charge, to
remark well the immense earthworks on the island of
Bakholmen, to consider what object would have been
gained by hammering batteries cut out of solid rock,
without an army to land to storm the place, in case
of the enemy deserting his guns. Let him consider
well bow little we should have received in return for
the loss of three or four ships, when the enemy, who,
if driven from their guns, would return at leisure,
and the damage done by your fleet would be never
known. A moral defeat would have been the result.
I have weakly endeavoured in this letter to show
that as much as could have been expected from a
fleet acting under orders from home has been done
by the Baltic fleet this year; and that, if sufficient
foresight had been used in employing enough vessels
of light draught of water to place under the orders
of Admiral Dundas, much, very much more would
hare been attempted—and, I doubt not, executed.
Let us hope that during the winter the Russians
will not be able to keep pace with this great nation
in building gun-boats, but that we may find the
balance of force much in our favour the next time
we approach his barriers in the Gulf of Finland.
The gales of wind in the Gulf of Finland are per-
fectly fearful, but the cold has not yet set in. The
admiral is still at Stockholm. Edinburgh is gone
home. Vulture takes mails.

grtlant.

THE MURDER OF MISS HINDS.

THE quarter sessions for the Belturbet division of
the county Cavan were opened at Ballyconnell on
Thursday week last by Mr. P. M. Murphy, the
chairman, who in his address to the grand jury
alluded in marked and severe terms to the horrible
outrage lately committed upon that unfortunate lady.
The learned gentleman opened his address in the
following words
Mr.llForernan and Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,—l
deeply regret I am unable to repeat on this occasion those
congratulations on the peaceable condition of the district
which I have had so much pleasure in addressing to you
for a considerable time back. I regret it the more because
there is but one solitary case for your investigation during
these sessions : this, however, only proves what experience
has long taught us, namely, how fallacious a criterion the
calendar, either at sessions or assizes, affords of the condi-
tion of society which exists among us ; and how strikingly
exemplified has this observation been by the appalling
event which has taken place !
He then alluded to the existence of Ribbon societies,
and such secret confederacies, against which he
spoke in words of solemn warning, and sketched

SATURDAY,

their history and their results with painful fidelity to
truth : _ .

---- -
Inquire, then, in the first instance, of any man, the old-
est and the moat experienced in the community, if he can
point out one single benefit arising to any human being
from this association. Now, let this question be fairly con-
siderel and canvassed in a candid spirit, and I pledge my
experience there will be but one answer, and it is this—
that misery, and misery alone, has been the result. Let
us next examine the object of these associations. That
object is clearly this : by the influence of terror and in-
timidation to establish an authority paramount to the law
of the land, and, through the instrumentality of this
machinery, to deter men from prosecuting their rights,
whether for the recovery of lands or rents, or the
execution of any legal process in connection therewith.
This I conceive to be a succinct but perfectly aceui ate
description of their objects. Now, suppose for a moment
that these confederacies bad even a temporary success ; is
it to be believed that any man having the power to cast
his fortunes in any part of the world out of lie-
land would remain among us? What, then, won d
be the inevitable result ? Why, that all the evi!,
of absenteeism, which are so generally deplored, would
be aggravated tenfold ; rents would be collected—of course
they would—by the agents of absentees, and enforced with
increased rigour; all avenues and approaches to the
proprietor would be shut up, he would be far away in a
distant land, while the poor cultivator, bound down by
necessity to the soil, would be compelled to struggle op hi.
adversity and distress, unregarded and unpitied; and, if)
complete the picture of this misery, in no respect overaidtvn,
all these calamities would fall indiscriminately on thi3 iw
nocent as well as the guilty. Now mark well, thni ie the
result of the Ilibbonman's success—his complete success.
Let us now turn to the consequences of his &Univ. Helm
brought down the vengeance of the law upon his distrift ;
he has stimulated the activity of every magistrate and
policeman around him; he has compelled the Government
to put forth all the terrors of the law, and, if fleet rgp
found insufficient, he has induced the Parliament to forge
new fetters for the Irish peasant. He it is who has revived
the Coercion Acts, the Arms Acts, the Insurrection Acts.
the Whiteboy Acts ; in fact, he it is that has drawn forth
the sword that has long remained rusty in the scabbard
to fall upon the devoted heads of his countrymen then,
let him count the gains. He has turned the be of the
landlord against the tenant, of the tenant against the land-
lord ; the kind and affectionate regard he has converted
into the averted look of mutual distrust, and thee, perhapfl,
he terminates his guilty career by becoming the informer
against 'those very associates in crime whom he first seduced
and afterwards betrayed. Is this an exaggerated picture,
or is it the experience of every man among us? Trace
the career and progress of the youthful Irish peasant
who has been seduced into these illegal associations, and is
met, perhaps, at some gathering or dance by some artful
' knave, who, at the very moment the unconscious boy con-
sents to take the unlawful oath, is gloating over the price
he will receive for his betrayal. How many and many an
artless lad has thus been inveigled ? His youthful vanity
is first flattered by being " enrolled," as Itibhonmen call it,
in this association. His young heart would then have re-
coiled at the bare contemplation of murder, but soon,
through the vile companionship of wicked and dissolute
associates, he becomes familiar with crime, the barriers of
virtue are broken down, and, step by step, he descends in
the paths of guilt. He is afraid either to advance or
retire ; he is oppressed with terror at every step lie hears,
and at length he terminates a wretched existence either
by the hands of the hangman or the assassin. Who,
then, that has a heart to feel, or a tongue to give his
feelings utterance, will not join me in imploring all men
to unite in crushing in the bud the reviving efforts of this
hell-born confederacy.

Of the cruel murder of Niss Hinds, and of the
determined resolution of the law to search out the
murderers, and punish every one who harbours or
assists them, the learned chairman spoke shortly but
with marked effect:—

I purposely abstain from alluding to the circumstances
connected with the outrage upon the hapless indy who now
lies almost in view of this court a lifeless corpse. The sad
story of Charlotte Hinds has reached every corner of the
earth. She, poor mangled and mutilated victim, has just
been released from the indescribable agonies of her seven
deadly wounds; her bruised spirit has been summoned be-
fore that dread tribunal where one day assuredly she will
be confronted face to face with her ruthless murderers.
There is, however, one caution which I desire to circulate
far and wide, it is this—that every man or woman who
harbours or conceals, or assists in any way whatever in the
escape of the murderers, does in fact by so doing become
an accessory to the fact, or, in more intelligible language,
an actual party to the murder ; and I have reason to know
that the Government is intent on hunting out and punish-
ing to the utmost extremity of the law any man wbo
bar-
bourn or conceals the assassin. Let every man, therefore,
use his best exertions to bring those wretches to justice.
In this way, and this only, can you wipe away the stain
which has been cast upon this district, by the perpertraPpp
of an outrage whibb, I will eay, amid all the dirk and Ma-
ma records of Irish crime, stands forth without a parallel.
The court was crowded, and the address, ON'
was listened to with breathless attention, crated the
most profound sensation. At the conclusion of its
delivery the grand jury and magistrates presented
an address to the learned chairman, and requested a
copy of his charge, as they considered its publicaticp
would be attended with the most beneficial resultt
The interest of the proceedings was heightened by
the fact that during the delivery of the learned chair-
man's charge the coroner was holding his inquest in
the immediate neighbourhood on the remains of the
unfortunate Miss Hind*,

NOVEMBER 3, 1855.

yittratare.

Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire. Vol. XII.
By M. A. Thiers. Paris :
THE twelfth volume of this great work was
üblished in Paris on Saturday last ; and we
hasten to give our readers some account of it.
Although of not fewer than seven hundred
pages, it comprises the history of little more
than a year, beginning with April, 1810, and
concluding with May, 1811; but in the narrow
compass of that year we see the mighty
Napoleon, who held the greater part of Europe
in his grasp, assailed with the harassing and
insurmountable difficulties arising out of his
continental blockade and his squabbles with the
Pope—we follow the development of his gross
injustice to Holland, and notice some of its
consequences—we are plunged into the vicis-
situdes of the war in Spain from just after
the battle of Talavera to the battle of Fuentes
d'Onoro and the siege of Badajoz—we witness
the commencement of the gigantic prepara-
tions for the war against Russia—and we see
here and there en passant decisive indications
that the stupendous tyranny of the great
soldier, though still, to the superficial observer,
in all its éclat, is about to be hurled down by
the implacable wrath of Europe. Through
the maze of these exciting and varied events
M. Thiers leads us with the sure and energetic
hand of the practised statesman, and he re-
lates them to us with all that marvellous
lucidity, and all that unaffected simplicity of
style, which have made him, beyond all dis-
pute, one of the most distinguished historians
of the day.
Before entering into his subject-matter, M.
Thiers makes an address to the reader, which
from its peculiar character will not fail to
excite general attention. First of all, he an-
nounces that after fifteen years assiduous
labour he has terminated his " History of the
Consulate and the Empire," commenced in
1840. It would have been possible, he admits,
to have worked more rapidly, but he says that
he entertains " such respect for the mission
" of history" that he is " covered with con-
fusion " at the idea of advancing au inexact
assertion, and that consequently he deemed it
his duty to spare no pains to ascertain the
roll truth about every person he had to men-
tiJn, and every incident he had to record ; f4.r
which purpose, says he,
I have read, and re-read, and noted with my own hand,
the innumerable documents contained in the archives of
the State, the thirty thousand letters comprising the per-
sonal correspondence of Napoleon, the letters not less
numerous of his Ministers, his generals, his aides-de-camp,
sad even his police-agents—and lastly must of the menu-
s iript memoirs preserved by families.
To such an assertion of M. Thiers assuredly
no corroboration is necessary ; but if it were
needed, we ourselves could bear testimony to
his extraordinary industry, for more than once
have we, on being admitted to his study,
found him literally buried beneath piles of
papers which he was examining with the
minutest care, or, perched on the top of a
ladder, tracing out step by step the march of
armies. We know, too, that no one, whether
of high or low degree, whether French or
English, Spanish or German, who had been
an actor in, or a spectator of, or knew anything
about, any of the events he had to relate,
could approach him without being eagerly
questioned thereon. But still we cannot help
taking the liberty of doubting that he has
done all that the public were warranted in
expecting from a historian of his standing
and authority Is he quite sure, for instance,
that he consulted foreign documents with the
same diligence as he did French ones ? Is he
quite sure that he has read even the English
versions, printed and manuscript, private and
official, of the battles, the events, and the
policy he had to record ? Does he, in fact,
possess a profound knowledge of the English
language ? Can he read a line of German ?
To what extent is he acquainted with Spanish ?
M. Thiers next makes some rather long
reflections on the manner in which history
ought to be written, and on some of the prin-
cipal writers of it. The great quality required
for the historian, and which he says is supe-
rior to assiduous 'observation of men and