The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

DESTRUCTION OF FORT NICHOLAS.
An agreeable and rather exciting incident in the
dull routine of camp life occurred on the 4th inst.
The long, massive stone Fort Nicholas was to be
destroyed that afternoon. Soon after noon groups
of officers were seen riding and walking towards
Sebastopol. At about half-past twelve Marshal
Pelissier, in his carriage, drawn by lour greys,
attended by his staff and followed by his escort of
Chasseurs, drove through the light division camp
along the Woronzoff road, and pulled up on the
Picket-house Hill. Soon after General Codrington,
his staff, and a group of Sardinian officers of rank,
rode into the Redan. A large number of officers,
English, French, and Sardinian, to the right and
left, on every elevated point, were seen crowding
Cathcart's and the Picket-house Hills. At one o'clock
the explosion was to take place :

`;;;,The Russians were evidently in complete uncertainty
re,pecting what was about to happen on the south side.
They directed all their fire toward the dockyard, not know-
ing, perhaps, that the destruction of the docks lied been
emnpleted, and thinking that some operations were in
progress in that neighbourhood. This fire was going on,
and serving t 3 distract a little the attention of the specta-
tors, who were now assembled in great numbers, when
a sudden exclamation among the crowds drew all eyes
toward Fort Nicholas. The gaze of the enemy was equally
fascinated towards the same direction, and all firing front
their batteries ceased. From the west extremity of the
long fort, partly concealed from our view by other build-
ings, was slowly rising and swelling a huge dense cloud of
smoke, which as it rose and spread enveloped all the
neighbourhood in a thick fog. At the same time came a
slight sensation of trembling of the ground, and a dull
rumbling sound like a distant clap of thunder. It was not
loud, and there was no echo. While watching this scene
the massive•looking east end, where it turned round to-
ward the south harbour, and the arched galleries for some
distance tcwanl the centre—all very conspicuous as the
sun was lighting up the white stones of which they were
built, and without anything to intercept a full view of their
structure—appeared suddenly to be split and rent
asunder, and as the walls fell and dissolved away great
blasts of smoke end dust rose out of the ground and stood
in their stead. It was a most exciting sight to witness
such destruction accomplished, noiselessly, as it seemed at
a distance, and as if by magic, for there was no visible
human agency, in the midst of a bright st_il atmosphere,
and therefore without any of the usual concomitant cir-
cumstances of a natural convulsion.

The cloud which rose from this end of the building was
very dark—almost black in the centre. It rolled and
dilated over the ground from whence it had issued, but as-
cended very gradually. A thick sprinkling of white spots
in the water of the roadstead showed that fragments of
stone were tailing there; and as they continued for many
seconds after the explosion, some of them had evidently
been projected to a great height. Nearly five minutes
must have elapsed after this second discharge, the great
canopies of smoke were bending over towards the town.
the spectators were remarking that only the two ends of
the fort had been blown up, when another explosion took
place on the west side, and was succeeded, almost imme-
diately afterwards, by a fourth, at what remained of the
east end. The two reports from these explosions seemed
louder than the reports which had followed the two former
blasts. Still a part of the fort remained upright, and be-
tween the dark folds of drapery which shrouded the wide
spaces left vacant by the fall of the two wings might still
be seen, though mistily, the high central tower and ob
servatory. These did not exist long. A fifth and then a
sixth mine was sprung, and the whole of the gigantic work
which, not long ago, stood offering defiance to the navies
of the whole world, was levelled to the ground. The
clouds of smoke cleared away slowly, and, driven gently by
the breeze from the north, passed over the ruins of the
town, for a time enveloping it in fog and throwing it into
dark shadow. The removal of the accustomed outline,
and the long gap which was left by the destruction of the
fort, was then seen to have changed in its most striking
feature the aspect of the whole town of Sebastopol, and to
have left it more wrecked in appearance than ever.—D.
News cor., Feb. 4th.

The success of the operation was complete—not one
stone was left upon another to define the form of the
fort. The whole demolition took about six
minutes.

Other explosions are to follow, and by all accounts
there will be little left of Sebastopol but loose
rubbish :

Our engineers, now that the docks are entirely de-
stroyed, are ordered to blow in the quays along the Dock-
yard Creek, aid hastily demolish the barrack and hospital
buildings, terrace wall, and dockyard stores and work-
shop,. The French are to blow up Quarantine Battery,
and all the principal buildings in Sebastopol Proper, such
.s the Lecture-room— or, as it is called by many, the
Theatre—Sailors' Home, &c. In the barrack buildings
our engineers have found, by slight experiments, that
every foot of foundation in length will require 1 lb. of
powder, or 100 lbs. to 100 feet. Immediately atter the
destruction of Fort Nicholas—in which during the siege,
after the fire became too hot, Generals Osten-Sacken and
Todtleben used to live, with most of the engineer and staff
officers—a shave got about that intelligence had been re-
ceived at head quarters that the Queen had declared peace
in the House of Lords : but I do not think that these con-
tinual explosions, although very necessary and advisable,
will tend to increase the Russian friendship. At this
moment Point Nicholas looks from a slight distance like a
nice beach sloping towards the sea. 'During the summer
mouths the cascmates and arcades of Fort Nicholas were

SATURDAY,

made use of as a barrack by the Russians, and up till lately
the French did the same. On the 9th the enemy tried to
fire it, but failed.—lb.

tortign 6ornsponbout.

FRANKFORT, Feb. '2O.
WHILST the journalists of every shade in Germany
were loud in condemning the exclusion of Prussia
from the conferences, and asserted that a decision
had been affirmatively given in favour of the hostile
neutral, an account appeared in the official papers
of a large table and twelve chairs having been sent
to the " salon des conferences" at Paris, and placed
in position under the superintendence of the proper
functionaries. This quaintly settled the matter.
When the preliminaries and actual conditions of
peace shall have been ratified, and European ques-
tions, in their turn, come to be discussed, it may
then be a proper time to invite the powers of Europe
to a general congress. M. de Buol came here from
Berlin, and, having had the necessary consultation
with the members of the Diet, proceeded vii Stras-
bourg on his way to Paris, without stopping at
Heidelberg. The warm reception given by the Pari-
sian public to M. de Brunow, and the precise loca-
tion of the several ambassadors at the conferential
table, are the subjects gravely discussed by forma-
list circles.

Count Orloff, the coadjutor of M. de Brunow, who
is at. Cologne to-day, comes of a race that has fur-
nished more than one tale in Russian annals. The
family descends from a strapping soldier of the
Strelitz Guard in the time of Peter I. His regiment
was engaged in a conspiracy, and with his brothers
in revolt he was condemned to death. History
relates that Peter recreated himself in performing
the functions of public executioner; that after
dinner, surrounded by Russian bacchanals, he was
wont to order the State prisoners to he brought
before him, and when en their knees, with their
hands tied behind them, he cut off their heads one
by one, drinking a glass of brandy between each
decollation. Orloff was one of the doomed. Peter had
passed him repeatedly without inflicting the fatal blow,
until the prisoner, getting impatient at the neglect,
addressed the Czar, " Batuscha" (little father) "you
have forgotten me." "No, I have not," replied
Peter, " but you are too fine grown a fellow to be
killed in this way." The Strelitz Grenadier was
taken into favour, and became the father of five
sons, of equally noble proportions and feature. Gre-
gory Orloff was the murderer proprici mane of
Peter 111., and afterwards became the favorite of his
widow Catherine 11. When the partiality of Catherine
declined, and was lavished on his successor Potem-
kin, Orloff, with his brother Alexis, happened to be
in the room alone with the rising favorite; they
quarrelled, and setting upon him with fury knocked
out his left eye. The present Cuunt is an imme-
diate descendant. He is systematically and per-
sonally adverse to Lord Palmerston and his policy—
is possessed of sound views, and by no means dis
posed to follow blindly the dictates of an ultra
Russian policy.
M. de Buol Schonstein, after the usual prelimi
minaries of diplomacy, became Au-trian Minister f.t
Turin in 1848, where lie displayed great sagacity and
behaved with promptitude and decision in circum-
stances of a difficult character. He was sent the
same year ambassador to St. Petersburg, and after-
wards cams to London on a special mission. He
enjoyed the entire confidence of Prince Schwartzen-
burg, whom, after his decease, he succeeded in office,
and has adopted a policy of Austrian independence
which, if honourable in motive, is not tree from
hlame in the means employed for accomplishment.
With the opinions he has inherited the prejudices of
Prince Schwartzenburg ; and the memories of 1848
embitter his relations with Lord Palmerston and i
England. His colleague, Baron de Hubner, s a
pupil of Metternich, brought up under the Count
Appony at Paris. He was at Milan in the revolutitn
of 1848, where he was made prisoner At thein-
surrection of Vienna he made himself conspicuous
for his utter fear of danger, by passing the revolu-
tionary lines amidst a shower of balls, to conveya
message to Prince Schwartzenburg, and again
quietly facing still greater peril, when sent for by the
Emperor at Thoenbrunn. It was this Miuister who
drew up the acts of abdication of the Emperor
Ferdinand, that of the Archduke Francis Charles,
and the Imperial declaration of Francis Joseph.
The task to be fulfilled by M. de Buol is neither
plain nor easy. He is equivocally charged by Prussia
and the Diet to protect Germanic interests and poli-
tical unity. Baysria, Wurtemburg, Hanover, Hesse,
Baden, ltenmark, and other minor principalities, are
at variance with their several Governments, and
utterly disunited in opinion; the majority are innnt•

FEBRUARY 23, 1856.

cal to Austria, the Catholics to Prussia, and Russia
has a strong party adverse to all others.
The late correspondence betwixt Prince Czartoryski
and General Reybinski, in reference to die appoint-
ment of Count Zamoyski to the command of the
Oriental Cossacks, by no means reveals the mysteries
of Polish dissension. There is a hidden meaning,
which the more headstrong of the republican party
are not desirous should obtain publicity, and is inti•
mately connected with the probability, or improba-
bility, of a durable peace. No Polish movement can
be perfectly free from Germanic influences; and
Russia, by reversing, in great measure, its Polish
policy, might fairly acquire a force of opinion—in a
Warsaw, Posen, and Gallician sense—which would
give a novel turn to the affairs of Central Germany.
In the meantime, let England be persuaded, be
firmly convinced, that the continental power she now
possesses results purely from the dread of her marl
time superiority, royal and commercial.

J. E. L.

SIENA, Feb. 10.
THE Austrian Government has taken exception to the
right of censorship exercised by the Archbishops of
Milan and Venice, and the Bishop of Bergamo.
Nevertheless, they only called into operation the
privilege truly and literally given them by the Con-
cordat. If science is the foundation of heresy, as
insisted upon by the Bishop of Bergamo, it is pro
Canto distinctly inimical to the Roman Church, and
its suppression is provided for by the articles of the
Concordat. To separate science from education is
impossible; therefore the Bishop admits Rome to be
fundamentally opposed to all knowledge. Physical
science explains the miracle of St. Gennaro, and
history records the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the
crimes of Alexander VI., and the sex and amuse-
ments of Pope Joan. The incestuous horrors of the
papal Lucrtzia Borgia are chronicled on the operatic
stage. Is the musical gem of Donizetti to be sup-
pressed? It was impossible for the Austrian Go-
vernment to avoid collision with the Roman priest.
hood, the instant that the latter acted literally upon
the powers granted by the Concordat. In Hungary
the sacerdotal confusion has assumed another shape.
The Magyar priests never employ in their private
establishments other than female domestics, by
whom they are deleciably served, as is known to all
who have travelled in that country. If the Papal
Nuncio and Archbishop of Gran persist in attempt-
ing to change the sex of servitude, the days of the
Hungarian primate will be full of sorrow, and per-
chance of short duration. The Concordat was
quickly signed, and the points are not slow of
display.
Some show of clemency is being made towards the
Lombard refugees in Sardinia, and the properties of
certain amongsi. them have no longer to remain
unaer sequestration. This is merely by way of a
blind ; and is a proof that the Cabinet of Vienna is
apprehensive of an effort to be made in favour of the
Italian cause by a party capable and having the
power. France, apparently, has abandoned her an-
cient calling, for the essentiality of Italian friendship
consists in opinions and interests not in strict con-
formity with those of the Cabinet of Vienna. Austrian
Italy—that is to say, Lombardy and all States adopt-
ing Austrian policies—aro adverse to English com-
merce, and would, if possible, drive British mer-
chandise out of the peninsula. The Italian trade is
most injuriously restricted ; but were it ree and
open—and it is, and has long been, the wish of the
Italians themselves that it should be so—nothing
would more tend to the independence of the country.
The intercommunications of commerce are not con-
fined to bales of merchandise. The barter of goods
leads to the interchange of ideas and the freedom of
thought,—word and deed have an intimate relation,
which the wisdom of Providence has decreed to be
necessary for the well being of mankind. This is
denied by Austria and Rome.

M. T. A.

alortign anb Ccionial inttlligtatt.

FR ‘NCE.
The movements of the plenipotentiaries now in
Peri?, with speculations upon, and solutions of, the
"five points" to be considered at the Conference,
have supplied the French papurs with ample matter
during the week.
The Earl of Clarendon with Lord Cowley arrived
on Saturday night, and on Sunday had a lengthened
audience of the Emperor. On Monday the Em-
peror received Count Buol, Baron Brunow, and
Count Cavour.
The Turkish Plenipotentiary arrived at Marseilles
on Thursday, and his Highness left for Paris at
seven p.m. ou the same day.
The conferences will not open in earnest before
Monday, The conferences will be held at the Hotel