The Press.
London, England, 1854-10-28 00:00:00

1020

THE WEEK.

OF the four Governments whose subjects abroad are engaged in dire
ful strife, of which their subjects at home are awaiting the issue with
anxious expectation, it is the Russians alone— our enemies—who
have published any official information touching the progress
of military events. Their despatches:may possibly be somewhat doctored
and adapted for general circulation. But we are glad to obtain any
glimpse of the history of days whose every hour is big with fate, even
although forced to go to St. Petersburg for it. From these despatches,
dated respectively the 18th and 21st inst., we learn that the besiegers
opened fire against Sebastopol both by sea and land on the 17th, on
which day 500 Russians were killed and wounded ; that on the 18th
the bombardment was resumed, somewhat feebly, says the Prince, from
the land batteries only ; and that up to the 21st the cannonade had
continued with very trifling damage to the fortifications. A portion of
the expected reinforcements, it is also stated, had arrived, and the re-
mainder were expected immediately. Of the loss to the allies during
the four days firing Prince MENSCHIKOFF says nothing. Admiral KoRNI
i.orr, who was killed on the first day of the bombardment, held high
command in the Russian fleet which perpetrated the massacre of
Sinope, so that punishment has already overtaken one of the authors
of that massacre.
Direct news from the allied camp before Sebastopol continues to
arrive in broken and dilatory fashion. Our daily contemporaries publish
letters from correspondents on the spot to the 13th inst., and the
telegraph supplies some brief items of intelligence of two days later
date. These accounts represent the siege operations as progressing
slowly by dint,of intense efforts, both of the soldiers and seamen en-
gaged, and amidst a lamentable deficiency of almost every requisite
for the comfort and even the health of the men. Although an entire
month had elapsed since the British troops first landed in the Crimea
the great majority were still without tents, and forced to bivouac in
the open air, exposed to the chill dews and night breezes of the
rapidly-advancing autumn. We may feel sorrow, but no surprise, to
learn that under these circumstances our gallant soldiers continue to
be mowed down by cholera ; and that even of the Guards, the battalions
which mustered 3,003 effective bayonets on the 30th of July, only
1,740 are now fit for service. The officers have suffered in even larger
proportion, but fourteen out of forty to each battalion remaining on
duty.
As for the siege works themselves they appear to have been in
such a chaotic state when the last letters were despatched that the
writers failed to convey any definite idea of their character or pro-
gress. The first " parallel' had been opened on the 13th, but at a
very respectful distance from the Russian batteries. All the trenches,
we are told, averaged 2,000 yards from the enemy's lines. If no works
had been pushed nearer when the fire actually begun, MENSCHIKOFF'S
statement that the fortifications had received little damage becomes
exceedingly credible. To accomplish much effectual destruction the
siege guns, it is calculated, must be brought up to within 700 yards ;
and, if it is necessary to battle in breach, they should not be further
off than 600.
No symptom of neglect or mismanagement on the part ofthe
Rome Government has provoked more general dissatisfaction thanseat the
want of a regular and speedy communication with the army
at the
of war. To say nothing of the important events which crowd one upon
another every day and hour, the bare number of our fellow-subjects
now in the Crimea constitutes a mass of interest which it is equally
cruel and culpable to leave without the means of ready intercourse
with England. In and around Balaklava there are Englishmen enough
to furnish a respectable colony with which it would be thought indis-
pensable to establish a post-office communication if situated in any
part of the world. And the non-fulfilment of this duty cannot arise
from any intrinsic difficulties in the way of its execution. Between
England and the Crimea there are many routes by which a rapid con-
veyance of letters and intelligence could be secured. Such steamers
that did not stop by the way could reach Marseilles in seven days,
whence letters can travel to London in thirty hours, and news in half
as many minutes. Or the route could be laid by steamer to Constan-
tinople, and thence by courier to the electric telegraph stations at
Belgrade or Kronstadt in Transylvania. Despatches from the army
could and should reach London three times a week as regular as the
Guernsey mail-post, and with dates not later than seven days, or eight
at farthest.
The fortunes of war oscillate strangely in Asia. The Turkish
army, which not long since was reported to be utterly disintegrated, if
not annihilated, has obtained, it is said, a striking success, having
attacked the Russian force that covered Gumri (Alexandropol), and comand
-
pletely dispersed it, with loss of tents, baggage, ammunition,
thirty guns. A second corps, which advanced to the rescue from Eriven,
was repulsed and driven into a defile, suffering heavy loss. On other
1 sides Russia is bearing a bold front. A large force, comprising 150,000
men, is being pushed forward into Poland, and will be stationed during
the winter at Cracow. In spite of the hostile armies around his
sourthern portion, NICHOLAS dares to withdraw from the scene of active
• war an army twice as numerous as that with which the allies have in-
vaded the Crimea, and will keep it as a menace against Austria, within
1 a few days' march of Vienna. Upon the Pruth also the Czar is resum-
ing the character of invader. Large bodies of troops are retransferred
to the right bank of the river, and the Russian occupation renewed
poiof Tultscha, Isatchka, and some minor points in the Dobrudscha. The
question loudly asked is, What has OMER PACIIA been doing with his
army of the Danube during the last two months?

SATURDAY,

The recent addresses of Lord JOHN RUSSELL at literary societies
exhibit the weaker points of his Lordship's character. His mind has
too much of the moralising and speculative character. Educated by
Scotch metaphysicians he affects to take large views of a question, but
he never thoroughly masters the facts of a subject, and he comes to
no definite conclusions. Mr. DISRAELI told the Noble Lord, in the
course of the last session, that "he had governed by open questions,
and putting the country into difficulties." Even when addressing
provincial Athentems, this tendency of the Noble Lord to raise issues
that he has not the ability to solve becomes quite ridiculous. What
can be more absurd than the sight of an English statesman moralising
aloud on the fall of empires, giving a cursory glance at the creation,
varied with allusions de omnibus rebus ! James the First was derided
as a pedant; England wanted a king, and it received a bookworm, who
discoursed a broad Scotch upon abstruse topics. The empire now
demands capacity for great affairs in the leader of the House of
Commons, and we behold a small essayist talking superficially of
speculative themes when grave emergencies are pressing for bold
determination. Oddly enough, at the very moment of a great crisis
Lord JOHN RussELL told the people of Bristol that England has had
no historian. The public mind heaves with anxiety about Sebastopol,
and Lord Jour; Itusszt.a. lays siege to the reputation of a great author.
The Coalition finds it easier to criticise Mr. DAVID Humx, who has
been dead for a century. than to crush the Czar who menaces
Europe.

While decreeing a pension of 20,000 francs to the widow of
Marshal ST. ARNAUD, the French Emperor accompanied the grant with
a letter of compliment and condolence to the bereaved lady. One
expression in this epistle has excited some comment both in Paris and
London. The late Marshal is said to have decided on lauding in the
Crimea "in spite of timid councils" (malgre de amides avis). Where
wore those timid councils ? There is no French origin to whom their
authorship can be assigned.

THE POPULAR EDITOR
" Do you read the Weekly Dustbin ?"
Asks a handbill which is thrust in
One's very carriage window as one to the Opera goes.
" If you don't,—why, then, you ought to.
See the talent it has bought, too,
For Varjuice now does edit it, whom everybody knows."
Yes, though you scarce may credit it,
Great Varjuice now does edit it;
And, woe upon the Tories, don't he cut 'em up and down!
Every week he's sure to fish up
Some poor clergyman or bishop,
And in the Dustbin's pillory expose him to the Town.
And, as all things have their uses,
There are certain stock abuses
Which are Varjuice's capital by which he gets his bread ;
If the world were all perfection,
What a state of deep dejection
The great Varjuice would be in with his occupation fled
Then the Dustbin has a series
Of imaginary queries,
By mythic " correspondents" to the Dustbin's pages brouglt ;
There's "The Origin of Vestries,"
And "The Age of Madame Vestris,"
" The Way to Cheat a Landlord," and " The Size of Cromwell's Wart,"
Then for verse the " people" hunger,
And the " people's" ballad-monger
Sends forth apoem weekly on the " people's " rights and wrongs
Or some " Old Familiar Tea-pot,"
For which half-a-crown will be got,
Which maudlin tap-room singers think the choicest of their songs .
" Mine Explosion !"—" Rail Collision !"
" Awful Fire," and, in addition,
Long accounts of women-bruising do the Dustbin's pages fill;
Then "The Wapping Pet and Smasher"
Fights " The Lambeth New-cut Slasher "
And Vaijuice gives a long report of this" excitilg mill!"
But a " Foul and Brutal Murder,"
Will great Varjuice spin out further
Than editors who do not know what food the ' people" crave ;
And, to heighten all the details
Of the horrors that he retails,
He gives the murderer's history from the esdle to the grave I
Then he'll strive to get possession
Of the "wretched man's confession,
With what he ate for breakfast as he head his death-bell toll !
He'll not omit a particle
To swell and spice an article,
And he prints a murder supplement to give the story whole.
And after this brutality
Comes Varjuice's morality,
In leaders proving " hanging is the cause of all our crime ;.
Full a thousand stamped coins cell us
To " See Varjuice on the Gallovs !"
A spurious advertising which greatVarjuice thinks sublime.