The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

1044

THE WEEK.

TuE expectations confidently entertained by our public of the speedy
fall of Sebastopol, when the allied guns had got into position, have
been wofully disappointed. Our intelligence this week has been
almost wholly derived from Russian sources. Bulletins are published
daily, or nearly so, at St. Petersburg, of the state of the siege. But our
Government issues nothing. The anxiety of all those who have rela-
tives and friends engaged in the war meets no response. We hear of
severe skirmishes, of terrible cannonades, of redoubts taken, of ships
fired and disabled, of guns silenced,—all these acts of warfare being
attended with great loss of life, yet our Government remains silent.
There is no wife who has a husband,—no parent who has a child,—no
child who has a parent—in the fleet or army of the Crimea, who is
not at this moment in doubt whether the relative was not among the
slain, in some one or other of these actions.
The bombardment commenced on the 17th, and our loss then ap-
pears to have been severe. Appears, as up to the time at which we
write no authentic intelligence has been received. Nine or ten days,
even with the imperfect arrangements now in force, is sufficient time,
as former occasions have shown, for the transmission of intelligence
from the Crimea. On the 27th, at latest, some official details of the
action of the 17th might have been, or were received, by the
Government; but if any despatch was received, it has been with-
held, though the Duke of NEWCASTLE promised that intelligence
should be communicated to the public as soon as received by him.
It is understood that a despatch from Lord STRATFORD DE RED-
CLIFFE, relative to the bombardment, was received by the Government
on Saturday evening last, and the report current as to its non-publica-
tion is, that a word was omitted which rendered it unintelligible. It
ran, as we hear, like this :—" The French have silenced Fort Quaran
" tine, and the English have Fort Constantine." Despatches
were also, we believe, received by the Government in the middle of
this week, and for their non-publication no like excuse can be pleaded.
It is noticed as a significant fact that nothing has been published
since Lord ABERDEEN returned to town. The Duke, we must suppose,
prefers rather to forfeit his word than sour his chief. Secrecy is still
Lord ABERDEEN's principle of government.
Full details will probably be brought by the steamer which has ar-
rived at Marseilles with Constantinople dates to the 20th. From the tele-
graphic reports of her news the firing on the 17th and 18th must have
been tremendous. The French works were greatly injured, and two
magazines exploded. The great cause of " wooden versus stone walls"
seems to have been tried, and to have resulted in an open verdict.
The ships engaged were terribly mauled, and suffered heavy loss. The
Russians fought desperately, and from their heavier guns seem to
have materially damaged the works of the besiegers. Thus far, little
progress seems to have been made. The Russian fire appears to have
been equal to that of the allies, and, judging from these scanty accounts,
neither side could claim the advantage. The despatches of Prince
MENSCHIEOFF received in London on Wednesday in last week, ten
days ago, describing the operations of the 17th and 18th are now
therefore exactly confirmed. Surely it is most strange that we should
receive our intelligence via St. Petersburg ten days earlier than we get
it through our own sources.
The Moniteur notices a report from General CANROBERT to the
23rd. It is to be assumed that our Government must have received
news equally late. The public must decide whether they are justified
in withholding it. Calculations have been made that by small steamers
between Balaklava and Varna, and a line of couriers thence to the
nearest telegraph, intelligence might be regularly conveyed from our
army in four days at most. The expense would be trifling, and it is
one of the most astounding instances of ministerial neglect yet
brought to light that the service has not been organised ere this.
In the absence of other information, we must assume that the
despatches of Prince MENBCHIKOFF, of the 25th and 26th of October,
are correct. The extreme right of the English camp was attacked on
the 24th, some redoubts destroyed, eleven guns taken, and 500 of
the English light cavalry cut to pieces. If this be true, the loss of our
horses must be severely felt.
The Russians, by their account, have been reinforced by 30,000
men, under General LIPB.ANDI, by whom the " surprise" was effected.
The " relieving army," therefore, altogether, does not probably fall
short of 60,000 or 70,000 men, in addition to the ample garrison.
MENSCHHEOFF maintains his communications open with the northern
side of Sebastopol, and still has all the resources of the Crimea at his
disposal, with all the roads to the mainland in every direction free,
while the whole allied force is confined in the narrow district between
Balaklava and the southern heights of Sebastopol. We must suspend
our judgment, then, as to the result. The resistance has, undoubtedly,
been much stouter than was expected. Should the allies be success-
ful on the south side, and succeed in expelling the enemy from the
town, the forts on the north side would still demand another siege,
and, as their fire commands the town and harbour, the allies might be
unable to make any use of their conquest, until the second siege had
been successfully accomplished. Meanwhile winter is advancing
surely on, and the Russians yet expect further reinforcements. In
presence of a contest so tremendous, all notes of premature triumph
should be hushed. The victory, if gained, must be purchased by a
total sacrifice of life fearful to contemplate, and the country must
wait the result with a sentiment only one word can describe—awe!
A despatch of MENBCHIKOFF has been published, detailing his
•
movements after the battle of Alma. As the result of that battle, he
feared to be shut out from the open country, and enclosed in Sebas-
topol. He executed a flank movement, therefore, to keep in the field,

SATURDAY,

and maintain open his communications with the mainland. By a
singular coincidence the allies at the same moment executed their
flank movement on Balaklava, and the enemy's rear-guard, which the
van of the allies encountered, it is now discovered, was the rear-guard
of MENSCHIKOFF.B main army. It is impossible to deny to this
manoeuvre of the enemy the praise of accomplished generalship.
" Too late," are words often inscribed in characters of fire on
enterprises which otherwise might rank among the finest conceptions
of human genius. How different would have been the fate of the
Crimea expedition if undertaken but two months earlier, before time
had been afforded for the erection of those works which now resist
the advance of the allies, or for the arrival of those large reinforce-
ments which now render our position one of perplexity, if not of
peril !

War is again rolling towards the banks of the Danube. Specula-
tion has been busy with the name of OMER PACIIA. What has he been.
about for some weeks past? Russian forces are again mustering
strongly on the Danube, in the Dobrudseha. The Austrians still pre-
serve their neutral attitude ; and the Turks, it is rumoured, were con-
structing pontoon-bridges for the passage of the Danube at Braila.
Prince GORTSCHAKOFF has been nominated to the supreme command in
Southern Russia, and his instructions to march towards the Crimea
have been countermanded. We have no authentic accounts of his
strength. Some German papers talk wildly of 150,000 men. He may
possibly have half that number. The Grand Dukes MICHAEL and
NICHOLAS, the youngest sons of the Emperor, have arrived in Odessa,
to cheer the spirits of the troops and people, and afterwards went
to join the army of GORTSCHAROFF, and win their spurs on the Da-
nube. This, as an evidence of the determination of the Emperor, is a
significant fact. What if GORTSCHAHOFF were meditating an advance
into Turkey, while the French and English, and the best portion of
the Turkish troops, were busy in the Crimea? For strategic reasons,
the movement might be threatened, the Emperor trusting to his
powerful camp at Cracow to overawe the Cabinet of Vienna.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER is bringing home his fleet from the Baltic,
and the inhabitants of the coast towns are celebrating his departure
with joyful fetes. The navigation of the Russian waters will now,
therefore, for a short. time, be again open. The Aland Isles have been
reoccupied, and immense warlike preparations continue to be made
at St. Petersburg.

The Emperor of the French has explained the sense in which he
used the words "timid counsels" in his letter to Mine. de St. ARNAUD.
He referred solely, he says, to the difference of opinion among the
French authorities themselves. Large reinforcements for the theatre
of war are being despatched from the French ports. A squadron is
lying at Toulon ready to take 4,000 men on board.
Increasing difficulty seems to exist in getting recruits among our
population. The standard has been reduced one inch, and the bounty
raised from 4/. to 61.

Among domestic topics the peaceful doings of our Ministers, in the midst
of the warlike din shaking Europe, have excited some notice. Lord Joint
RUSSELL has been persuading the Bristol tradesmen, just by way of a holiday
task, to write a "Humes History of England" with the part of "Hume" lett
out; SIDNEY HERBERT besmearing a "confidential" letter in lithograph to
Miss NIGHTINGALE, with a sneer at Protestant Lord RODIN'S daughter, herself a
soldier's widow ; and, finally, Lord PALMERSTON coming out as a theologian, at
(what the natives denominate) Romsey-in-the-mud. His doctrine was that we
are all "born good;' that human nature is quite perfect : it is only tobacco and
beer shops that are in fault. The man becomes a sot, and the parent a brute,
only "by mistake ;" and, apparently, Palmerstonian preachments are very likely
to rectify it. Before Lord PALMERSTON indoctrinates the world on this matter,
he should have learned a little in a nursery of his own; or, in default of more
experimental acquaintance with the subject, he should read the Church Cate-
chism, or buy a bible, or some stray Sunday go to church. Meanwhile, we have
a favour to ask of the Queen's Ministers. Warren's jet blacking used to boast
"we keeps a poet ;" will the Government be kind enough to keep a Christian!
It would save them some enormous mistakes.
The expediency of allowing Russian produce to be freely admitted is
neutral vessels continues to be debated. The leading Ministerial'organ, in a
most weak argument, decides that the trade should remain as it is. To its vague
assertions that Russian commerce has not benefitted by our relaxations to the
extent assumed, we may oppose the considerate judgment of our contemporary
the Economist, which, yet strangely enough, in the teeth of its facts, upholds
the Ministerial policy:—
tion
The export of Russian produce has proceeded with scarcely any interrup
i, throngh
the medium of Prussia; and the result, which we showed some weeks ago,
s tbat a
considerable transmission of gold is going on to St. Petersburg, and furnishes the Czar
with exactly those means for prolonging the war in which he was most likely to have
been deficient. The funds which he needs for carrying on hostilities he procures from
us through the instrumentality of Prussian neutrality.

The civilised world will be glad to hear that Captain liner, the noble com-
mander of the Arctic escaped almost by miracle. The crew, it is said, will be
tried for mutiny, for their cruel and cowardly conduct. Had they been obedient
to command all on board might have been saved by the boats and by rafts,
which could easily have been constructed. Captain Luca heroically stood The bY
his ship till she sank, and then caught his young child in his arm
suction of the sinking vessel drew him far, and into the depths of ocean,
but he rose, still with love superior to perildeath, clasping his darling to
his heart. By an unlooked-for piece of good fortune, he rose close to thuraft
he had constructed. His hand grasped it firmly. Heaven had been merciful,
be was in the act of raising the child to the place of safety, when, Oh !cruel fate!
a huge fragment of wreck sprang up violently from the depth to which
it had
been drawn down, struck the child from his father's arms, and sent him lifeless,
among the struggling beings covering the surface of thethe sea. Captain LUCEer
s
narrative of his escape, when hope seemed lost, is most affecUng ev
recorded among the perils of the ocean.

717

~.--.•1••••••.•Ipm•••••••

NOVEMBER 4, 1854.

THE P

THE PAINTER'S INTERVIEW.
" Sir Charles L. Eastlake had an interview with Lord Aberdeen yesterday at his °facial resi-
dence in Downing-street."—Morning Chronicle, Nov. 1, 1854.
The P.R.A. is apparently posed—
He cannot paint from the sketch as proposed,
But wishes to make a fitter;
So, turning the key in his studio door,
And leaving his canvass and paints on the floor,
He is off to confer with his sitter.
" If I paint your Lordship the usual way,
As a common Scotchman of every day,
Like, for example, Old Robin Gray,
The public," says he, " may be apt to say
The portrait is true, but bucolic ;
It looks for, in persons of your degree,
Especially when they sit to me,
A treatment refined and symbolic.
" I must have some type of your public life—
Of your Lordship's aversion to war and strife—
A feather-bed or a fleece,—
Or a dove, or a lamb with a silken band,
Or perhaps an olive-branch in your hand—
A something by which folks may understand
You're the Minister of Peace.
" On a table beside you I wish to display
A bust of Minerva, and, by the way,
Your Treaty of Adrianople;
Or, if you prefer it, the Vienna Note,
Or the Memorandum which somebody wrote
As the ' key ' to Constantinople.
" At the same time, I freely presume to observe,
If your Lordship wants an emblem of nerve,
It's done in a few easy dashes ;
Through an open window or door at your back
I can give a view in crimson and black
Of Sebastopol in ashes.
" The bursting of rockets or shells to combine
With the flames of a magazine or mine
I can manage well with a now carmine
Of which I've a specimen bladder ;
As yet it's exclusively used as a shade
In the Russian cotton export trade
By Bright and Co." * * The Premier made
A spring as if stung by an adder.
* * *
Sir Charles heard a sound half growl and half groan,
The door slammed hard,—and he was alone.

THE GORDON S.
The Gordons hae the guiding o't,
The Gordons hae the guiding o't ;
And while 'tis so the sounds of woe
Will be the only tidings o't.
The Gordons hae the guiding o't,
The Gordons hae the guiding o't;
If war maun be across the sea,