The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-23 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTZMBER 23, 1854.

POSTSCRIPT.

THE TROOPS IN THE CRIMEA:
THE following statement respecting the latest
movements of the troops is from the Globe of last
night :—" To arrivellit Sebastopol, the allied army
will be obliged to make a &tour towords the left, and
then to bend to the right on Simferopol, where they
may probably fall in with the enemy. The allied
troops will have to cross two rivers, the Kaltcha and
the Belbek, and it is not improbable that the ex
istence of these two streams has been one of the
causes which have determined the generals-in-chief
to select Eupatoria for their landing-place, in order
o ensure water for the troops; for in other parts of
the Crimea there is no water fit to drink, except in
wells, which the Russians could poison if they
pleased. About two or three days will be required to
effect the landing and entrench the position taken
up. The movement on Sebastopol could not, there-
fore, have taken place before the 17th or 18th ; and
as the distance to be gone over requires at least
three days' march, it is only the 21st, or the next
day, that the first encounter of the Anglo French
troops with the enemy will probably have taken
place, unless, indeed, the latter should have thought
fit to come forward and meet them. But that sup-
position is not very probable. It seems more likely
that the Russians, not having been in a position to
oppose the landing, will await an attack by support-
ing themselves on Simferopol and Theodocia.
The following is from Dantzlc, dated the 18th :
The screw-steamer Balmoral entered the port this
morning. She left Ledsund on Saturday. The
French and English admirals were at that time in
Ledsund, and on the point of sailing for Narga.
Seven French men-of-war were towed by steamers
from Ledsund, on their way home, on Saturday.
The Sappers will embark in the Cumberland imme-
diately.
Measures have been taken, it appears, to forward
to Europe, as rapidly as possible, the news of the
expedition. Light steamers are to transport news to
Kustendje, where couriers will bp in readiness to
carry the intelligence on to Kronstadt by Czernovada,
Slobosia, and Plojetsehti. The intelligence will be
sent on then by telegraph to Vienna. Sebastopol is
about 250 English miles from Kustendje, and a light
steamer can pass the distance in four and twenty
hours. The couriers go at the rate of nine miles
the hour, and thus the land journey can be made
in from thirty to thirty-six hours, so that news from
Sebastopol can be had in I'aris in four days.

A letter from Compiegne, in the Journal de St.
Quentin, says :—" The Emperor and the Empress are
expected here towards the end of the present week,
and it is said that their Majesties *ill remain here
much longer than was at first supposed. If our in-
formation is correct, the Empress will reside here
the whole of the month of October, asithe Emperor
can arrive in a few hours from this place at Boulogne

TRE PRESS.

to direct the mmiceuvres at the camp of the army of
the North."

In letters received from Stockholm it is men-
tioned that the allied fleets had entirely quitted the
Aland Islands, but that the Gulfs of Bothnia and
Finland were still blockaded. It is not stated
whether the allied fleets which were at the Aland
Islands intend reinforcing the blockading squadron.
Many more of the members of the two Chambers
in Denmark had resigned, but they were ordinarily
replaced by other candidates belonging exclusively to
the party opposing the existing Ministry. At Copen-
hagen, three Liberals were elected by a large majority.
The trade from Russia acrbss to the Prussian frontier
was carried on with great activity, an immense
number of carts being employed, and the steamers
from Hamburgh every week were largely freighted
with hemp, linseed, &c., bought on English account.
Although this partial trade must benefit our enemies,
the Russian producer will unquestionably suffer
by having to sell cheaper in order to meet the extra
cost of conveyance, as well as by seeing his stocks
accumulate.
A third private telegraphic despatch, dated Vienna
yesterday, repeats the news given above, and states
that the reserve at Varna, for which a division of the
fleet had returned, consists of 15,000 men. The
Emperor of Austria has returned, says this despatch,
to Vienna.

THE RUSSIAN PRISONERS.
Tax Russian acid Finnish officers on parole at
Sheerness were ordered on the 20th to assemble at
the Clarence Inn to receive their subsistence money
due up to that day. The paymaster and the com-
mander, in the presence of Major Gahn (as senior
officer here), attended to the payment, and they all
appeared much gratified at receiving the allowance
granted them by the Admiralty.
Thursday Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore visited
the prisoners of the Jewish persuasion in both ships,
and each of the Jewesses received ss. and the Jews
10s. each, to enable them to keep their coming holi.
day in every respect in accordance with their reli-
gious duties. Cabins had been previously set apart
for them during their holiday by the commander of
the Devonshire, and every facility was offered for
their performing all their wonted religious cere-
monies.
Lady Montefiore presented the prisoners, through
the respective commanders, St. each.
Dr. Hahn, missionary to the British and Foreign
Sailors' Society, and Mr. Cox, from the Merchant
Seamen's Bible Society, have paid a second visit to
Sheerness ; the former has been distributing reli-
gious publications in various languages, and the
latter the Holy Scriptures.
The prisoners have expressed the greatest grati-
tude to both those gentlemen for their unremitting
attention to them as regards their spiritual welfare.
The officers on parole on shore have given Mr. Hahn
their assistance in every way possible. Mr. Hahn,
being able to converse with the prisoners in three
different languages, has had a very warm vote of
thanks from the o cers for his kind and gentle-
manly conduct towards the prisoners.
Captain Beck, of the Russian barque Carl, was
granted his parole yesterday, and came on shore.
He, being a merchant captain, has no subsistence
money allowed him. His mate signed the parole
yesterday, and came on shore, he preferring day
parole for want of funds to reside on shore. His
parole, on similar terms to Captain Beck's, was
offered him.
One of the women on board the Devonshire was
confined of a fine boy a few days since. She was
attended by the surgeon of that ship, and is doing
well, all necessary comforts administered to her by
order of the commander of the Devonshire.

HE QUEEN-MOTHER OF SPAIN is coming to dwell
among us, and to educate her children near the I
metropolis. Her Majesty has considerable invest-
ments in the funds and our four principal railways.
Another arrival from the Spanish Court is predicted,
General Nbrvaez will pass the winter in London, if
his health permits him.
ESTIMATES are being elaborated for the proposal,
frequently mooted, to carry the entire sewerage of
the city down to the mouth of the Thames, about
Shoeburyness. The covered duct is to run along
the route of the new Tilbury line, and thence by the
marshes on the Essex side of the river. A sewage
manure company is willing to assist the scheme, and
two of our largest capitalists guarantee its completion
if the negotiations with the City commissioners are
satisfactory.
THE CORN MERCHANTS of the Black Sea may well
I wring their hands at the Czar's prohibition of the
transportation of grain, &c. The harvest of the
whole of the south to the territories of the Don
Cossacks is as abundant as our own, and wheat has
been offered in vain at 103. per quarter.

SATURDAY,

TALL CHIMNEYS.

THE Government last session passed a bill for the
future Prevention of the Smoke Nuisance, which
we were told at the time was to be strictly enforced,
and would in some measure relieve our large towns
of one source of impurity. That this bill is either in-
efficient in its restrictive clauses, or that the due en-
forcement of the act is grossly neglected by the
proper officials, any person can see for himself who
will take the trouble to walk over Waterloo-bridge
during labour hours, when he may observe on the
Surrey shore certain tall chimneys, in all about a
score, vomiting forth their smoke in rolling volumes
as thickly and freely as if there were no such law in
force as the Smoke Prevention Act. Who is to blame
for this? Why are manufacturers allowed to poison
the air of London with their waste carbon, and
hourly inflict upon its inhabitants an evil which
modern invention has practically subdued?
It is reported that the act has been found suffi-
ciently efficacious to compel most manufacturers to
consume their own smoke, and why the owners of these
score of tall chimneys are to be allowed an immunity
from the law passes our comprehension. To be sure
some people say that the smoke is healthy during
cholera, and one lighthearted correspondent of a daily
journal tells us that we ought to be very grateful to
the tall chimneys for choking us with their smoke,
inasmuch as their carbon absorbs those deleterious
gases that issue from the gully-holes, and which
otherwise would spread disease and death through-
out the town. He is quite wrong in his theory ; but
were he right, we must be in a bad way to be com-
pelled when suffering from one evil to employ a
second as a remedy equally injurious. Are we to go
on in a sort of preventive-progression of nuisances?
for one of stench taking two of smoke, and for two
ofi smoke trying four of tan-pits or eight of tallow-
boiling establishments?
If the police can enforce the Beer Bill and sum-
mon the publicans, why do they not enforce this
Smoke Bill and summon the manufacturers? It is
monstrous that these persons, because they will not
incur the expense of fitting to their furnaces the
smoke-consuming apparatus of Lee Stevens, Juckes,
or Robertson (all of which have proved successful
under different circumstances), are to be allowed
daily to violate the law in a matter that so seriously
concerns the healthfulness of the metropolis, without
notice or restriction from the proper authorities.

THE CHOLERA.
(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)

THE CHOLERA began later than the corresponding
outbreak of 1849, which by the same date had, in
sixteen weeks, been fatal to 10,143 persons.
Will the epidemic pursue its ravages? Will it ob-
serve its own times, disregard the seasons, and exact
its full tale of victims? Such were the questions
that were asked with no little anxiety by those who
watched over the public health during the last week;
and the answer, notwithstanding the losses that are
recorded, is on the whole satisfactory.
The deaths from all causes have fallen from 3,413
to 2,836 in the week.
The deaths from cholera, instead of 2,050, are
1,549, or 501 less than the deaths from the same
cause in the preceding week. The total deaths in
the present eruption have been 7,669 ; in the erup-
tion of 1849 the deaths by cholera up to the same
date, within one day, were 11,825. In both of the
eruptions the mortality was highest on nearly the
same day of September ; its decline commenced in
the corresponding week, and we may now sanguinely
hope that it will descend as rapidly as it did in the
autumn of 1849.
But no exertion should be spared to save the
thousands whose lives are still threatened; and the
dread lesson, before regarded so little, should never
be forgotten—that men can no longer drink polluted
water, breathe impure air, and neglect sanitary mea-
sures year after year, with impunity.

SOME statistical retiums,just published, respecting
the growth of flax in Ireland, show that there are
about 160,000 acres under culture this year, against
175,000 acres in 1853. Althouh there is a decrease
in the extent of land sown, the produce is not ex-
pected to be marked by any deficiency—last year's
crop having been under an average, We may look
for about 40,000 tons of fibre this year, or 10,000
tons above that of 1853, and after supplying all the
Irish linen factories with home-grown fibre there will
probably be a surplus of some 8,000 tons to spare for
England and Scotland. At an average of 551. per ton,
the fibre of the Irish flax crop this year will bring
return of nearly 2,500,0001. to the agriculturist.
An
unusually large quantity of seed is being saved this
autumn, so that no fear need be entertained of a short
supply for the sowing of next year's crop.