The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

Ar length we may congratulate ourselves that the season of listless
inactivity is over in the Crimea, and that vigorous operations have
taken the place of irresolute counsels and questionable successes.
The capture of Kertch, the destruction of the Russian stores, the
complete mastery of the Sea of Azoff, and the bombardment of
Arabat, together with the attack and capture of the outworks before
the Quarantine Fort, and the advance of nearly 100,000 of the allied
soldiers beyond their lines, preparatory to the attack of the fortified
heights of the Tschernaya, are the just results of one week's energy
and decision. True, that with the exception of the bloody struggle in
front of Quarantine Fort, and the repulse of the Russian sortie, we
have been unopposed ; yet the very facility of our success makes us
inquire why the Kertch expedition was not thought of or attempted
before ? Why have the Russians in Sebastopol for the last six
months been permitted to draw their stores and supplies, which have
been constantly seen passing into the town in files 'of hundreds of
arabas at a time by way of the Sea of Azoff, without interruption? Our
" active" and " energetic" Premier can, perhaps, answer this question.
The plan of the Allied Generals appears to he what we hazarded as
the most obvious plan last week, viz., an advance as far as Simferopol
and the occupation of that position, if practicable, as well as a
gradual drawing in round Sebastopol towards the north side. If the
communications of the town can only be seized, its capture is a mere
question of time. After our successes in the Sea of Azoff, the gaze
is naturally turned to the other extreme of the Crimea; and the
seizure of Perekop would be of considerable advantage to the
Allies. With the large fleet of steamers which we have now in
the Black Sea, and the vast army collected on its shores, why
should not a flying squadron conveying some ten or twelve thousand
men be kept constantly on the alert? Nioolaieff at one extreme, and
Theodosia at the other, are places which could be easily taken and
destroyed if necessary, the former, in particular, being the very spot of
all others which should be burnt, as containing the vast dockyards and
arsenal of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The health of the camp
before Sebastopol is not so satisfactory as we could wish. There is a
large amount of ague, diarrhoea, and low fever about, and a few cases
of cholera have'already been fatal. We are glad to see that summer
clothing has already arrived in the camp, and is being distributed to
the army. The Sardinian contingent was encamped outside Bala-
klava, and was to be reviewed by Lord RAGLAN. The letters of
correspondents speak in the highest terms of the discipline and
appearance of the men.
The siege-works meanwhile progress : fresh batteries are daily
thrown up, and guns and mortars put into position, while tons of
powder and shot are hourly being transported to the reserve parks
and front magazines. The French have successfully completed their
fourth parallel, and everything bespeaks the speedy opening of a third
bombardment.
OMER PACHA was daily expected at the camp with 25,000 Turks,
so that the rather impracticable project of an advance from Eupatoria
is definitively given up, the Allied Generals appearing to prefer acting
en mane from their sea-board off Sebastopol.

The summer months are rapidly approaching, and as yet our
Baltic fleet does not show any signs of active coast operations. The
crews of the ships are constantly exercised ; the gun-boats and boats of
the fleet, manned and armed, are manoeuvred in divisions ; wooding and
watering are daily performed ; and all the minutia; of strict discipline
and efficient training fully attended to, yet Revel and Helsingfors still
stand where they were, unharmed, unattempted. Revel, to show that
it is animated by the same feeling which pervades our fleet, daily
practises its great guns, firing at a target, while vast masses of troops are
concentrating round and in the town, and Helsingfors, after suffering a
reconnaisance by our gallant Admiral some ten days ago, now reposes
secure in the sense of its declared impregnability. Meanwhile, the
Admirals preserve a discreet silence on all points conneeted with future
operations. A look at Cronatadt is now and then talked of, but we
trust that a look and a blow will be synonymous terms this year.
Bearing in mind the numerous and, as a rule, successful expeditions
either in cutting out ships from under the guns of forts or blowing up
sunken vessels and destroying the defences of a town or harbour in
the last war, we do not seem at present to have displayed equal
enterprise in this. There is, or at least appears to be, a dearth of
inventive contrivance, of mechanical talent, among our naval officers,
which is unaccountable. In war there are no defensive means with-
out offensive resources always to be found ; and even vessels full of
granite, though sunk under the thousand guns of a fortress, may yet,
we should think, in these advanced days of science and discovery, be
removable. Unless something of this sortt be done, and that speedily,
we shall he compelled to acknowledge that at least in the Baltic the
Russian ➢ossessions are impregnable. Our gun boats, which, by-the-
bye, can only fight their guns in smooth water, and our floating
batteries, will all prove useless, unless we can open a way for them by
which they may bring their guns to bear at point blank range, the
only range at which any effect will ensue against granite for-
tresses.

The immense preponderance of the French army in the East, the
purchase, or treaty for purchase—for it is not quite clear yet whether
the ground is sold or not—of a large tract of land on the Asiatic side
of the Bosphorus for the erection of permanent barracks, the vast,
fortifications at Gallipoli, and filially the intrenchments at Kamiesch,
taken altogether are suggestive of the prospect, at least in the eye of
the French Emperor, of a long sojourn in thu East for the French

SATURDAY,

army. The Emperor, moreover, has indefinitely postponed his visit
to the Crimea, his camp furniture having been returned from Constan-
tinople to Paris ; and this fact alone affords much reflective matter.
It cannot escape notice that the French have produced a great sensa-
tion by the display of their vast power before the eyes of the Turks ; that
we have proportionately lost caste in the respect •f a nation who, in
common with all Eastern tribes, are moved solely by display ; and
that, come what may of this war, the position at this moment held by
our allies at Constantinople is immeasurably superior to our own,
both in a moral and physical point of view.

Those revivalists amongst us who seek to introduce conventual
institutions will be disheartened at the conduct of the Sardinian
people. The fact of the successful movement against the convents by
the Sardinians is a most striking circumstance. This testimony
against such mediaeval societies is of more importance, as the Sar•
dinians still worship in religion according to the ritual of Rome. They
dwell in climes where the Bible has not been allowed to circulate, and
they are close in vicinage to the " centre of unity," so much boasted
of by the friends of Italian religion. The progress of convents in
these islands for some time past is really alarming ; they are manu-
factories of morbid sentimentalism, and are peculiarly infectious
amongst weakly natures with a sickly aversion to the real duties of
life. As auxiliaries of the creed •f Rome they are of prodigious
efficacy. The enthusiasm of their inmates, men or women, is skilfully
directed. Under the pretence of social utility they are advocated by
political Jesuits ; but the Sardinians are a gifted and intelligent race,
and they know the convents by their fruits, and will have no more of
them. Their freedom in politics, by an inevitable law, is bursting
their religious fetters; and though it may be precipitate to expect
them to pass at once to a spiritual worship, still some of the heaviest
of Romish evils will be removed from them. At the present moment
the internal condition of Sardinian society is one of the most interest-
ing problems in Europe for the political observer.

The attempt to organise an agitation to introduce the Maine
Liquor Law is one of the events of the week. Teetotalism by act
of Parliament is not likely to be popular in a free country like
England, and the proposition of such a measure savours of the dicta-
torial spirit of the tyrant majority of American democracy. The
teetotal interest, however, is a strong one, and is apparently rising
in influence. It seems an empirical mode of producing virtue, and
it may ho defined as the fanaticism of sobriety. It derives its strength
from a reaction against the excessive drunkenness and scandalous
insobriety which disgrace our working classes. But in the speeches
of Lord HARRINGTON, Sir R. W. CARDEN, and others, on Wednesday,
we heard no practical suggestions for putting moral excitement in
place of the artificial stimulants of the ginshops. To provide
agreeable amusements that can be lutUtually enjoyed by the humbler
portion of society is a great difficulty. Narrow streets, crowded
ouses, polluted airs, stunning noise, depress the organs of sensa-
ion, and hence there is a physical craving for a stimulus. Mechanics'
Institutes, with their learned oloyies, are of little or no use to the toil-
worn artisan. We could have desired, on Wednesday, that the whole
case of the lower classes had been more deeply illustrated. A. fertile
cause of criminality, drunkenness is also an effect from antecedent
circumstances. The working classes want more social sympathy,
vivid, personal, and active. They have its counterfeit at the ginshop,
and if the reality were given to them there might be no necessity for
even proposing the self-denying ordinances of teetotalism in its
various forms.

Lord STRANOFORD died this week at his residence in Harley-street.
He figures largely in the memoirs of BYRON and MOORE, and the first
has given him a place in his well-known satire, alluding to him as
" Hibernian Strangford, with thine eyes of blue." MOORE wrote to
him a farewell letter on the night before he and JEFFREY encountered
each other with " leadless pistols." Lord STRANOFORD had many
accomplishments, and was a great friend of Mr. CANNING, to whom ho
rendered important services. He had his share personal annoy-
ances from literary warfare, like others of his contemporaries. He is
succeeded by his son, the present (and ninth) viscount, formerly the
eloquent member for Canterbury.

That profound stateman, acute politician, and inestimable man of
business, Sir CHARLES WOOD, is so deeply employed upon the varied
duties of his office, that we understand he is never to be seen. He is
always " engaged," " extremely busy," and, contrary to custom, never
will submit to an interview with an officer, no matter upon what claim
or business. What is Sir CHARLES WOOD doing? Is he studying the
Navy List, or endeavouring to master the technicalities of the " Dic-
tionary of Sea Terms," or working out a plan for the destruction of
Cronstadt and capture of St. Petersburg? The public will naturally
expect some result from so much self-seclusion. For our own part, we
are inclined to believe that the Right Hon. Baronet is trying to dis•
cover the meaning of that popular cry " The right man in the right
" place." He has filled so many places himself, and been so unde-
niably bad in all of them, that he has perhaps seriously set himself the
task of finding out what he is really fit for.

Lord ABERDEEN has given a striking instance of the physical
incapacity of the present Premier for his onerous office. In his pub-
lished correspondence with Lord JOHN RUSSELL about the War De-
partment he records the following fact:—
At the formation of the Government I proposed to Palmerston to take the Admi-
ralty, but he preferred the Home•office : and as he told me himself that the Foreip-office
had become too much for him, I am sure that he would never think of undertaking the
business of the two offices in question.

The Foreign•ofiicc, with which Lord PALMERSTON With specially
familiar, was " too much for him," and yet he was the man cried up for
the War-office by 'certain persona. How the world is gulled 1