The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

THE IP'REIBIS.

The weather is still fine, but it has become extremely
cold, and there was a severe frost last night,
I beg to submit to your grace the nominal returns of
casualties amongst the non•commissioned officers and rank
and file from the 22nd October to the Ist November, bt.th
days inclusive, and a list of officers killed and wounded
between the 27th October and Ist November.

Captain Maude, of the horse artillery, an
officer, is, I am assured, doing well.
likewise enclose the naval return of casualties.
RAG LAN.
Letters of the 3rd inst. from the camp state that
the assault was then hourly expected to take place.
The Russian batteries are described as being nearly
destroyed. Long intervals occur between the firing
of any shots from them, even when the allies open
the fire early in the morning.
The French have made a large breach in front of
their battery, where the enemy are constantly planting
fresh guns. The besieged in this quarter have been
compelled to mount some guns on the roofs of the
adjoining houses.
The French are carrying a mine under the
main fortification in their front. If they are able
to do this successfully, the town will be entered with

excellent

ease.
The enemy ar3 carrying stores to the north side
of the harbour, from which it is hoped that they
abandon all hope of retaining possession of the
south side of the town.
The Russians in the rear continue to annoy
the allied forces. They have retired as far back
as the river Tschernaya, but retain possession of the
redoubt captured from the Turks on the 25th
ultimo.
The rear of the allied forces has been greatly
strengthened, and no apprehensions from this quarter
are entertained.
Major Nasmyth is ill, and unable to attend to the
duties of his new appointment.
The weather had become very cold at the date of
the mail leaving.
In last evening's Globe we find the following an-
nouncement, which we publish " with all reserve :"
We regret to say that intelligence has been received at
the War Department of the deaths, in the action of the
sth of November, of the following distinguished officers :
Lieutenant-General Sir George Cathcart, K.C.11., Briga-
dier-General Strangways, and Brigadier-General Goldie.
The sad intelligence reached his Grace the Duke of New-
castle by telegraph in cypher yesterday, but was withheld
from the public until to-day, in order to afford his grace
the necessary time for communicating the painful intel-
ligence to the widows and relatives of the deceased.
The following is an authentic summary, from the
best sources, of the allied progress in the siege up
to the 3rd instant:—
The French are steadily sapping towards the town. Our
engineers have been equally active. A large covered way
has been constructed, which extends from Gordon's Bat-
tery towards the Russian reilan fort, and, taming off at a
right angle, faces the latter 'formidable defensive work.
This will serve to cover our storming party when the de-
cisive day arrives.
The French advanced battery is nearly complete, and
their mine is going rapidly forward, though the engineers
seem to intimate that the enemy have received notice of
their intention in this respect against the Flagstaff Bat-
tery. The ground occupied by the French is represented
as unusually favourable to siege operations. The soil is
of considerable depth, firm and -light, and without starlet'.
The huge masses of the latter which cover the ground all
round our positions offer formidable difficulties to carry-
ing out any new works.
Selecting the officers who had distinguished them-
selves more especially in the combat of the 25th of
October, Lord Lucan, in his official despatch, recom-
mends the following as having entitled themselves
to notice :
Major-General the Earl of Cardigan, commanding NIA
cavalry -brigade ; Brigadier-General Scarlett, commanding
heavy brigade ; Colonel Lord George Paget, commanding
4th Light Dragoons ; Lieutenant-Colonel Shewell, com-
manding Nth Hussars; Lieutenant-Colonel Hodge, cont•
mantling 4th 'Dragoon Guards; Lieutenant-Colonel Grif-
fifths, commanding 2nd Scots Greys; Lieutenant-Colonel
Yorke. commanding Ist Royal Dragoons ; Lieutenant-
Colonel White, commanding (kb Enniskillen Dragoons;
Lieutenant Colonel Douglas, commanding 11th Hussars ;
Captain Jenyna, commanding 13th Light Dragoons; Cap-
tain Morris, commanding Vith Lancers; Captain Burton,
commanding sth Dragoon Guards; Captain Maude, Royal
Horse Artillery ; Colonel Lord William Panlet, Assistant
Adjutant-General, cavalry division ; Lieutenant-Colonel
Mem/. Brigade-Major, light cavalry brigade ; Major Mc-
Mahotii, Assistant Quartermaster-General, cavalry dilieion;
Captain Conolly, Brigade Major, heavy brigade ; Captain
B. Walker, 11th Dtiigoon GuardS,-tity Ist Aide-de Camp ;
Captain Fellowee, Nth Lowers, Deputy-Assistant Quarter-
master-General, ennalry division.
Our latest tidings from the seat of sear as usual
arrive vitt St. Petersburg. Fortunately they are
brief. Prince Menschikoff reports, thatirom the oth
to the fith inst. nothing of importance hart occurred
at Sebastopol. The allies were fortifying their posi-
tion on the left bank of the Tsehernayaas strongly as
possible. The bombardment continued, but the
breaches were always repaired.
~A,telegraitk • dhsligte reeeiired eree' 0-
66titietti thit Loa Issaa*Al,9lPr. •

SATURDAY,

Letters from Marseilles represent the determina.
tion of the French Government to increase the force
in the East to 80,000 men.
M. Rouher, the Vice-President of the Council of
State, is to become President of that body. M.
Baroche is to leave the Presidency of the Council
of State for a seat in the Cabinet. M. 'Vague,
Minister of Public Works, is to become Minister of
Finance.

Convocation was prorogued yesterday by commis-
sion from the Primate, to the 15th of December.
The proceedings were merely formal.
At the Sydertham Crystal Palace, the number of
visitors, including season ticket-holders, was 5,87(1
for the six days ending yesterday (Friday) evening.
THE CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY.—The twenty-
third public drawing for rights of choice on the
society's estates took place in the offices in Norfolk-
street on Saturday last. The rev. chairman (Dr.
Worthington) afterwards stated that the East
Itetford estate in Nottinghamshire would be dis-
tributed amongst the members on the 11th of
January, and that allotments of other estates would
speedily follow. The twenty-fourth public drawing
would be held at Exeter-hall on Tuesday, the 12th
of December, at the annual general meeting of the
shareholders. He added that the balance•sheet for
the financial year would exhibit satisfactory evidence
of the continued prosperity of the society.

an Otinttes.

A MOST TERRIBLE RAILWAY DISASTER has occurred
in Canada. A passenger-train left Niagara Falls on
the 26th of October, and suffered several delays in
its journey, and passed the Hamilton, London, and
Windsor stations. At the last place the convoy was
many hours behind time, but proceeded at a rate of
twenty miles an hour, when at a point about thirteen
miles from Chatham, on the Baptist Creek Flats, it
came into collision with a train of gravel cars. The
shock is described as being frightful in the extreme.
The engine was overturned, the express car thrown
over, crushing the first and second class cars into
splinters, making a wreck of the third car, and
driving in the end of the fourth ; the passengers in
the last car escaped unhurt, or with slight bruises;
almost the entire load of the second-class cars were
killed or wounded, some cut completely in two, others
with mangled heads and bodies, and without limbs.
The screams and groans of the mingled were awful
in the extreme. Every effort was made by the con-
ductor and passengers to relieve the suffering, but, not-
withstanding their exertions, all were not extricated
until more than four hours after the collision.
Heaps of the dead and mangled were found in the
ruins, piled together in all mangled shapes. One
poor fellow was cut out of the express car, his limbs
hanging out of the side, fifteen feet from the ground.
One of the strangest features of the accident is, that
all the gravel ears were demolished and piled upon
each other, with the tender of the engine stove in.
The conductor of the gravel train was on the rear
car, with his signal light and a negro boy at his side.
The conductor saved himself by jumping ; the negro
was killed. At the time of the collision there was a
dense fog, it being almost impossible to see lights.
Where the blame belongs in this awful catastrophe
was not known. About fifty of the passengers
were killed outright, and many of the wounded, it
was believed, must die, of which there were about
forty still living When extricated.
A Seamits ACCIDENT occurred on Saturday last,
by which seven persons met their death, at a mine
known by the name of Belifield Colliery, near Roch-
dale. The mine has been in working about eleven
years, and at present 100 men and 120 boys are em-
plbyed in it by Messrs. Knowles. The depth of the
shaft, is seventy-five yards, and the men and coals
are wound up and down upon an iron platform,
called a cage. Seven men and boys were descending
by this cage on Saturday morning, when the props
gave way and both the platform and the men were
precipitated to the bottom of the pit. Ail of the un-
fortunate persons were killed on the spot, some
having their arms off, others legs broken, and other-
wise dreadfully bruised. The cause of this fatal
Catastrophe is attributed to the fracture of the chain.
Much neglect is assigned to the person whose duty
it Was to examine the soundness of the whole
apparatus.
THE GATEKEEPER, nettled Charles Street, at the
Fling gates on the Southampton and Dorchester
line, waS killed on Tuesday night by the 5.30 p.m.
'down than. He was not quick enough in opening
the gate to let the train pass, and the latter caught
him, threW him down, and cut him to pieces. He
had been Warned several times to be more careful in
attending to the gate. The poor man has left a
widow and two children.
TOE 'FITE AT Mtntr.T, destroyed 3 churches, 5 schools,
public edifices, 2b6 private dwellings, 83 warehouses,
133 stables, CI sasolsbonses, mid 2 mills, valued at 848,000

thalers, exclusive of aierchaadise.

II

(NOVEMBER 18, 1854.

Coutspontanct.

[IT must be understood that the PRESS is not identified with
the opluions of its Correspondents, though we insert no
coummuicatiou which does nut appear in some way deserving
of publicity. The letters of our Correspondents are open to
reply. We require uuly that the language of fair discussion be
employed, and that due attention be paid to the facts stated.
We beg that uu weutiou may be made of our " ability, in-
ilueuee." Ise., as we uuliesitatiugly strike our pen through
every allusion of the kind.]

RUSSIAN POLICY.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."
Sir,—The Czar of Russia in his Oriental policy
committed a mistake. A high authority has judged
such error to be the gravest crime in state affairs;
and in this case it was one both of time and circum-
stance. The advent of the Earl of Aberdeen to the

direction of English councils, and the frail founda-
tion (Ro declared) of the imperial throne of France,
were judged by the Muscovite to he opportune to
effectuate the hereditary plan for a partition of the
Ottoman empire. Upon the subserviency of Eng-
land and the impotency of France the Czar counted
for the completion of his Oriental scheme.
The Earl of Aberdeen commenced life as a literary
man and a politician, with determined acts and
opinions. His claims to literary distinction consisted
in the peculiar merit of having rifled and purloined
the more tangible part of the ruins of Greece. For
this we have the authority of Lord Byron* ; and his
public conduct was characterised by his joining the
Tories as an uncompromising partisan. For some
occult reason his lordship did not bring back suave
reminiscences either from the glowing isles of burn-
ing Sappho or from the Osmanli glories of Istambol.
But these are secrets

Known but to genii of the deep,
Which, trembhug iu their coral eaves,
They dare not whisper to the waves.
It is sufficient to confirm the fact by the subsequent
deeds of the official career of his lordship resulting
therefrom. He did not view with an approving re-
gard the re-establishment of the kingdom of Greece,
but he highly relished the refusal of that throne
by the Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg, the accep-
tance of which would have made a liberal and Wes-
tern policy paramount at Athens. It was also
pleasing to him to see a sovereign placed thereon
adverse to French interests, and who immediately
allied himself to an Oldenbourg princess bound by
close relationship to the Czar of Russia. Russian
intrigue straightway converted Greece into an attic
pandemomium under the presidency of the Olden•
bourg queen.
It must be borne in mind that the domi-
nant object of the Congress of Vienna was to weaken
France and to elevate the Czar of Russia to the
protectorate of continental Europe. It is from this
error that is derived the present complication of
European policy. The primary disease of this poli-
tical system is centered in the Czar, and the secondary
symptoms belong t ) Lord Aberdeen. The ulterior
views of Russia were clearly developed in the treaty
of Adrianople, which was a confirmation of that of
Karnadji, wherein the Porte had surrendered to
Catharine 11. the virtual protectorate of its own
Geeek subjects.
France, after the Congress of Vienna, had politi-
cally languished in a manner unbecoming her
European position, and this lethargic existence was
publicly lamented by the Duke of Wellington. The
state of paralysis was summarily dispelled by the
revolution of 1830. The old Bourbons—who were
pensioners upon European anti-Napoleonism—had
worn out their threadbare dynasty. Louis XVIII., a
plain and sensible man, foresaw the certain course of
events which would follow the accession of the
Comte d'Artois to the throne of France, and, stigma-
tising his brother as a fool, he shut himself up in
his cabinet with his Grand Chamberlain, and found
a substantial solace in those culinary arts which
pampered a gastronomy propitious to mental somno-
lency. The prediction of Louis XVIII. was fulfilled
in the revolution of 1830, which arrested for a mo-
ment the course of Muscovite action.
The Reform Bill of 1832, by throwing the reins
or Government into a party of which Lord Palmers-
tone was a prominent agent, compelled the Czar to bide
his time ; and not until the accession of Lord Aber-
deen to power did the Czar recommence the prosecu-
tion of his Eastern policy. Then ensued that singu-
lar correspondence in which the proposal of a parti-
tion of the Ottoman empire, after the manner of
Poland, was secretly but unmistakeably made to a
Minister of England, and by him not unequivocally
spurned. The Czar pinned himself to his friend.
By a dark intrigue, the details of which are now
accurately known, the enlightened Minister, who was
most hostile to Russian preponderance, was discour-
teously ejected from the high position he occupied
in the councils of his sovereign. The disruption of
the Cabinet followed. It was succeeded by the
Derby Administration, which again gave place to

• Come, then, ye classic Thanes of each degree,
Dark Hamilton and sullen Aberdeen;
Come, pilfer all the pilgrim loges t bee.
Suprrnsed passage in "Chil,lr Herold," canto