The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-22 00:00:00

SATURDAY,

knocked backed into their boats nearly the whole of the
assailants. The second subdivision, under Lieutenant
Williams, carried a lugger, but, in attacking a brig, the
Volean, met with a repulse, and was obliged to retire with
the other subdivision. The loss sustained by the British,
in the two subdivisions, proved with what obstinacy the
contest had been maintained."

Had the third any better success?—
"The third division, under Captain Cotgrave, displayed
the same gallantry, and experienced nearly the same oppo-
sition as the two others had done ; and was equally com-
pelled to retire without effecting the object."
And the historian closes a lengthened account of the
failure of our gallant officers and men by frankly
stating, " Of course the French boasted—most cer-
tainly not without reason—of the successful oppo-
sition they had made to the persevering assaults of
the British." Our naval records are so refulgent
with glory that we can read of such results without
the least sense of humiliation. At the same time, re-
collecting that such failure (in which there was
nothing dishonourable) took place at a time when a
St. Vincent was First Lord of the Admiralty, and
when the hero of the Nile and Copenhagen was the
chief of the expedition, one is disposed to subdue
that vaunting sense of looking for prodigies, and to
recollect that there are circumstances when the flight
of a foe prevents any contest for glory, and where a
singular assemblage of purely physical obstacles may
interpose barriers to the action of large ships-of-war.
The three-decker Neptune against a battery may be in-
nocuous in shoal waters. Accidents like that which
happened to the huge L'Orient at Aboukir are inci-
dental to ships of all nations. The winds themselves at
more than one eventful crisis have been the unsubsi-
dised allies of nations in peril. Fleets that would not
have flinched from the most dreadful cannonade have
been divided and defeated by a tempest. " Fortune
favours the brave," but with her peculiar fickleness
she often refutes ;he maxim ; when she does not put
to flight she can poison by disease. When she can •
not spread dismay she can sow the seeds of disap-
pointment.
It is a sense of the difficulty of getting close to the
foe in the Baltic that makes nautical men turn their
thoughts so anxiously to the course of the brave
" Old Charley" and his gallant followers. It is very
curious to observe that, though naval opinions are
not unanimous as to the exact course likely to be
followed by Napier in the North, there is little
difference as to what might, could, should, and ought
to have been done in the Black Sea. Between the
difficulties that meet a Napier and a Dundas there
is the same degree of difference as between riding a
steeplechase in Cornwall and West Surrey, or in
driving a four-in-hand in a dark night through the
Highlands, and whipping a curricle round the ring
at Hyde-park in an afternoon. The English, though
capable of great enthusiasm, are not prone to ex-
travagance of expectations. They can see how eases
differ, and how, on a change of circumstances, what
was deemed impossible might turn out to be prac-
ticable. They are ready to take account of difficul-
ties placed before them without exaggeration—to
exonerate a Keppel, to condemn a Byng, or to call
for explanations in the case (it may be) of a Dundas.
Innocence accused excites their sympathies ; in-
competence uncensured, and inactivity unaided,
provoke their indignation. Yet even in their anger
an English people would seek to be thoroughly
assured where the real cause of failure was to be
found. They would be too great—too magnani-
mous—to accuse a dilatory admiral without finding
out the secret instructions which, in bewildering the
council of his officers, might have paralysed his pur-
poses, and helped the enemy better than a hurri-
cane. They would not waste their volleys of dis-
approbation against the quarter-deck while they
could rake the Cabinet Council. An electioneering
admiral might excite a sneer. An effete Minister,
an intriguing Premier with cold heart and muddy
understanding, a distracted Cabinet, a Foreign
Secretary that gives " forked counsel," an impotent
policy, no results, beyond that of Europe wondering
at our delay—these are things that would raise a
national cry that England expects every man will
support a Napier, but scout an Aberdeen.
PILOT.