The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

SATURDAY,

Part of them might be contracted for when a really effective model
has been settled. With a powerful fleet of mortar boats and batteries,
in addition to the ships of the allied fleets, the defenders of Cronstadt
would have reason to tremble fur its safety.

A strong land force might be required to co-operate with the navy.
Might it not be better to prepare an army for this special purpose,
even though scant reinforcements were sent to the East. It is
probable that next year, when Russia has taxed her strength to increase
her forces in the South, she may be found more accessible in the Baltic
than the Euxine She relies on the impregnability of Cronstadt.
Its fall would shake Russian power through Europe, demonstrate in-
contestably the superiority of the Allies, and make our navy again the
pride and hope of our people So great an object is worth every
exertion and sacrifice. The fall of Cronstadt would be a far grander
triumph than the fall of Sebastopol, and would probably have a far
more direct influence on the fortunes of the war.

In a late number of THE PRESS we called attention to the way
the " Mone3 Went, Abroad ;" but from facts lately brought to light by
some of our daily contemporaries we perceive that the Government is
not only lavish on Bashi-l3azouks and Crimean Tatars, but displays
much the same ignorant extravagance nearer home. We allude to the
" New Record office." When GARGANTITA founded the Abbey of The-
leme, the only rule he thought it necessary to enforce for the Govern-
ment of the Order was the very simple ono, " Faz ce quo vouldras ;
" Do what thou wilt :" and with reference to the arrangement of public
documents in the New Record office, it would seem that the responsi-
ble authorities of the Rolls acknowledge no more stringent rule than
that which guided the actions of the happy regulars of GARGANTUA.B
monastery. The new repository was originally constructed for the
sole purpose of concentrating in one fire-proof building the records of
the four courts ; indeed, it is only an object of similar importance
which could have justified the very great expense incurred in its
construction. Into this building, erected at an outlay of upwards of
100,0001., an enormous mass of the most useless rubbish, carefully
rescued from appropriate obscurity in the War-office, Chester, and the
Welsh courts, has been lately conveyed, to the almost entire exclusion
of the valuable matter it was originally intended to contain ;
indeed, it has even been thought necessary, in order to
find room for the rubbish itself, to puchase and repair, at
an additional outlay of 6,0001., a dozen minor houses in Chancery-lane.
Meanwhile, the invaluable Public Records now scattered about in the
different branch offices between Westminster and the Tower must
remain where they are, to the continued inconvenience of the public,
who have laid out an enormous sum for the sole purpose of uniting
them, and them alone, in one central repository. We do not profess to
decide who or what is to blame for this wanton waste of the public
funds; whether it arise from that diseased passion for antiquarian
accumulation, that species of learned avarice which characterises the
old age of some archaeological dilettanti, or from a positive indifference
to public duties and interests, which hopes to escape detection from
the apparent obscurity and unimportance of the position which it
neglects. Judging from the published report, it would seem that the
Deputy-Keeper and the Master of the Rolls are equally to blame ;
" each is so like both that you can't tell neither from which," as the
showman said of his portraits of the pig and the porcupine. It may
be true that the Record•off►ee is one of the least important of the
Government establishments; but for that very reason the strictest
economy in its expenditure is the more imperatively required. If
the service be insignificant, however, the sum is certainly not so;
100,0001. is no trifle from any point of view ; but the Government "is
in for a good thing" and is willing to put on all its friends, from a
Master of the Rolls to a Bashi-Bazouk.

Our " Contingents" do not seem likely to do us much credit, or to
retarn us an equivalent for the enormous sums expended on them.
We read in the Constantinople correspondence of the Times, under
date of Nov. 5, that a great part of the cavalry of the Turkish Contin-
gent had been embarked for Kertch. The first regiment was to have
been first despatched; but while they were being shipped, the second
regiment took advantage of the opportunity to desert so fast, that the
men of the first were ordered back to laud, and the second were em-
barked in their place as speedily as possible. From Alexandria,
(Nov. 6,) we hear that an agent of the Land Transport Corps has been
busy engaging men since September:—
He has enlisted some five hundred or six hundred men ; they are daily fed and lodged
at an small cost to the British uovernment. They do nothing; no steamers come to
carry them off, and it is anticipated that when the time comes for them to embark, a lurge
proportion of them will disappear.—Times Cur.

The foreign drivers of this Laud Transport Corps, according to a
letter Elvin the Crimea, use, or rather abuse, their mules so cruelly as to
speedily render them unlit for service. Meanwhile, the German Legion

NOVEMBER 17, 1855.

109'

097
MMI111•1111
ion he
itch as
light."
Lo you
To
.ember
, when
S own.
your
es out,
wuing
ar, and
ne pro-
'tan to
ion by
•niched 1
ho had
!. Mr.
against
.gain re
Intl flew
Lowitzer
,ling his
taw the
)(Jut the
icket of-
rriug to
onished
Smith's
himself.
weiug a
member
obeyed,
hat that
irk that
ceivcd a
visit the
.thin six
He then
'self; so,
ered off. .4
1, and, at
vas being
Joys, and
Les seven
C. Lewis
not have
,rdasher's
tone, by
delusion
piece of
otediately
leaved up
ire so like
mistake."
of Vienna
. Russell,
igar-divan
ture, and
excellent
Jther Lord
ace." The
ter, losing
Lie Queen's
11 ordered
, declaring
A inherent
ao cognate
tices Erle,
tworth was
The only
Secretary,
ould resign
hours later
a religious
at the un-
of a party
Lion to his
sermon at
thing quite
fe, he made
ing him in
o told him
to Viscount
by declaring
o'clock—no
sympathise
:toad, instead