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

THE PRESS.

In the foreground Were hundreds of market-boats, win'
a busy multitude on the shore, moving to and fro, a picture
full of life and animation. Ranges of noble buildings
lined the quays, above which rose other splendid edifices—
the university, senate-house, courts of justice, observatory,
and palace of the governor, displaying their painted iron
roofs, of brown or green, yellow or red.

- - -
This prosperity must be set for what it is
worth against the expressions of opinion we
meet with here, that the industry of Finland
is in a declining state. Sweaborg, in Mr.
Scott's opinion, is the strongest of all the
Baltic fortresses :

The harbour is remarkably fine. Closed in on every
side, and sheltered from all winds, it is capable of containing
the largest fleets, protected towards the sea by the gigantic
fortress of Sweaborg, of immense natural and artificial
strength. Indeed, it conveyed to us the idea of being even
stronger than Cronstadt, or Sevastopol, though not so
showy and effective in appearance. Built upon seven
islands of granite, many of its bastions and batteries are
cut in the Aolid rock, and every available spot where they
can be placed with advantage bristles with cannons of the
heaviest metal, and largest calibre. The principal en-
trance to the harbour is narrow, and as we passed out of
it we looked into the great yawning mouths of these huge
guns, which appeared ready to vomit forth their deadly
projectiles.
The voyage down the Volga presents many
attractive points. The scenery was often ex
tremely grand or beautiful, and the country
almost uniformly fertile. As a consequence of
this fertility, provisions were abundant and
very cheap ;

We landed to do our usual marketing at the small town
of Kamashin, and returned to the boat laden with eight
pounds of beef, a couple of dozen eggs, a large water-melon,
and a great batch of potatoes, all for the large sum of thirty
kopecs, or one shilling.

In other places on the line of the Volga our
travellers found marketing equally cheap, but
the villages were in general poor, and the
homes of the people excessively dirty. From
Astrachan Mr. Scott travelled across the
Steppe to the northern shore of the Sea of
Azof, inhabited chiefly by the Little Russians,
formerly Cossacks of the Ukraine :
The costume of these men differs but slightly from that
of the Don Cossacks ; consisting of a cotton tunic confined
at the waist with a sash; loose trousers tucked into large
boots, and a cap with a deep border of lamb-skin.
The women, however, are more picturesquely attired.
They wear a shawl or large handkerchief wound round the
head, somewhat in the form of a turban, and often orna-
mented with artificial flowers or fruit: the hair of the un•
married girls falls in long braids over the back, tied at the
ends with coloured ribbon. The gown of printed cotton
is worn beneath another of the same material, but much
shorter and of different and bright colours; some had on
Wellington boots, others coloured slippers. Both men and
women are fine, and their carriage is good; many of the
latter being well-looking.

Continuing to skirt the Sea of Azof, he visited
Taganrog, and reached Kertch by the narrow
tongue of land running along the north-east
coast of the Crimea, and separating what is
called the Putrid Sea though our author
could detectno fetid exhalations from it—from
the Sea of Azof. kertch evokes great his-
torical reminiscences :

We stood upon the hill where tradition states that Mith-
ridates often sat to view his warlike hands ere they went
forth to meet their enemies in deadly conflict. Before us
lay the broad waters of the Euzine Sea tranquilly reposing;
abd beyond far away, darkly outlined on the blue firma-
ment, stretched the lofty range of Caucasus, the birthplace
of man's noblest race ; where the children of the hills fur
the last thirty years have grappled and still wrestle with
the boasting colossus of Muscovy. The despot's slaves
and the sons of freedom
.in a death struggle—these to
ravage, and the others to defend their wives and children
and the mountain homes, loved with such deep, such wild
affection.
We turned to the plain on the eastern edge of which
once stood a Panticapieum ; it appeared like a great amphi-
theatre, covered with numberless mounds. In the valley
and on the encircling hills alike stood boldly out those
tumuli, the abodes of death. • . . . Every buntline of
any size in this huge cemetery has been opened, pillaged
of the gold and precious things it contained, and the dust
of heroes and legislators scattered to the winds. First
broken into for their wealth, they are now systematically
searched for antiquities to till the museum of the her-
mitage at Petersburg.
We descended and wandered through this plain. How
many associations of the pant arose, how many painful
feelings of the present ! We entered a large tomb, by a
passage of beautiful masonry, forty paces long and twenty-
four feet high, the upper tiers of stone projecting one over
the other until they met to form the roof—a simple plan
adopted before the arch was known. The mausoleum
itself was of the same excellent workthanship, the stones
eat with such accuracy that, laid without mortar, the lines
of junction were scarcely visible : a cone-shaped roof was
clued in by projecting tiers as in the passage.
Ascending to the top of the great mound, an admirable
view was obtained of the Sea of Azof, the Hill of Nit hri-
dates, the modern town of Kertch, its harbour studded
with shipping, Ind the opposite isle of Tinian.

905

From Kertch the author proceeded to Theo-
dosia, the busy seaport of the gulf of Kafla,
presenting all the characteristics of a Persian
town, and thence to Simpheropol, a town to
Which great importance now attaches, as it is
probable that the main body of the Russian
army is stationed there :
The new part of Simpheropol is indeed but another;
sample of a Russian provincial capital, in addition to those
we have so often described, though better than the gene-
rality of them. It has wide streets, straggling houses,
painted roofs, conspicuous churches, fine public buildings;
well-kept gardens, rattling droskies, and a tolerably good
German hotel, at Much we took up our quarters.
A population of about twelte thousand souls, of which
half are Tartars, a quarter Russians, and the rest made
up of gipsies, Jews, Greeks, and Armenians, produces a
mixture of costumes, and a clatter of tongues, which we
now heartily desired to exchange for the more interesting
sight of the sitnple Tartar, in the quiet little villages of his
mountain haunts

The Tartar bazaars of Simpheropol differ but little from
those of Karasubazar, excepting that they are rather
cleaner. The manufactures are of the same deserip:iou.
We remained two nights at Simpherupol, much enjoying
the luxury of clean beds.
At Sevastopol the author was fortunate in
finding Colonel Upton, under whose superin-
tendence some stupendous engineering works
had been accomplished, and during the ten
days he remained, the Colonel accoinpanied
him to see what was most noteworthy in the
place. Mr. Scott confirms all that has been
said respecting the strength of the fortifica-
tions seaward :

The port is defended to the south by six principal batte-
ries and fortresses, each mounting from fifty to a hundred
and ninety guns ; and the north by four, having froth
eighteen to a hundred and twenty pieces each ; and besides
these are many smaller batteries.
The fortresses are built on the casemate principle, threo
of them having three tiers of guns, and a fourth two tiers.
Fort St. Nicholas is the largest, and mounts about a hun-
dred end ninety guns ; on carefully counting them, are
made a hundred and eighty-six. By great interest, we ob-
tained permission to enter this fortress. It is built of
white limestone ; a floe sound stone, which becomes hard,
and is very durable, the same material being used for all
the other forts. Between every two casemates are furnaces
for heating shot red-hot : we medsured the calibre of the
guns, and found it to be eight inches, capable of throwing
shells or sixty-eight pound solid shot.
Whether all the gtu►s in the fortress were of the same
size it is impossible to say, but my belief is that most of
the fortifications of Sevastopol are heavily armed. We
entered Fort St. Nicholas through the elegantly-furnished
apartments of the military commandant, situated at its
south-western end.
At the period of our visit there were certainly not more
than eight hundred and fifty pieces of artillery defending
the port towards the sea, and of these about three hundred
and fifty could be concentrated on a ship entering the bay.
Other batteries, however, are said to have been since built.
We took some trouble to ascertain these facts by counting
the guns of the vorious forts; not always an easy matter
where any suspicion of our object might have subjected us
to grave inconveniences. Sevastopol is admirably adapted
by nature for a strong position towards the sea, and it will
be seen from what we have stated above that tbis has been
fully taken advantage of to render it ony of the mon for-
midably-fortified places in that direction which could be
imagined.
At the time of Mr. Scott's visit there were
no fortifications of consequence on the land
side :
The town of Sevastopol is situate on the point of land
between the commercial and military harbours which rises
gradually from the water's edge to an elevation of two
hundred feet It is more than a mile in length; and its
greatest width Is about three quarters of a mile, the streets
entering the open steppe on the south. It was partly de-
fended on the west, towards the laud, by a loopholed will,
which had been pronounced by one of the first engineers of
Russia as perfectly useless ; and plans for completely fbr-
tifying the place in that direction were said to have been
made ; but whether the work has since been carried out we
know not, though we haven deep conviction that strong de-
fences will be found to exist there by the time a besieging
army arrives. These, however, being hurtle raised, can

_
neither be of sufficient magnitude nor strength to offer a
serious resistance to a long•coutinued fire of heavy artillery,
and unless these fortifications are on a most extensive
scale, and embrace a very wide circuit, they may he °em-
it:landed from so many points that, attacked with heavy
gnus of long range, their speedy reduction becomes a
matter of certainty.
None of the sea batteries or forts are of the slightest ser-
vice for defence on the land. side. Indeed the great fort,
" St. Nicholas," has not a gun pointed in that direction;
and such an armament would he perfectly useless if it ex-
isted, as that part of the hill mi which the town stands rises
behind it to a height of two hundred feet. In fact, all the
fortresses and batteries. both to the north and south of the
great Lay, are commanded by higher ground in the rear.
Mr. Scott's whole description of Sevastopol
conveys a forcible idea of the magnitude of the
works accomplished there. They may be fitulty
in particular rotpects, but thdt enema cha-
racter exhibits the 'resource's of a vast military
empire. Here, as elsewhere throughout
Russia, the traveller is struck with the aspect

906

of newness presented to his eye in every direc •
tion. New streets, new churches, new quays,
new fortifications meet his gaze. They may
be hurriedly erected, and may not correspond
in substance and solidity with their splendid
appearance, yet the fact of their rapid progress
is surely an evidence of surprising energy on
the part of Government and people. It may
be argued that the haste displayed to carry out
a design once forrued is rather indicative of
the despotic genius of a barbarous State, which
is restless till its will be accomplished, than
the sure and healthy influence of a rising
civilisation ; but we must nevertheless admire
the activity with which, in one kind of way or
other, vast designs are hurried on to completion.
So much could not be accomplished without
great capacity and aptitude for enduring labour
on the part of the people.
Mr. Scott's book is strongly tinctured with
the war feeling of the time, and hence he does
not give us the impression of a candid and
dispassionate observer. Some of his tirades,
as, for example, his denunciation of the Rus-
sian Government for excavating the ground
about Kertch in search of antiquities, are
purely ridiculous ; but the public will readily
pardon faults like this, in consideration of the
information he supplies, and the general good
sense of his remarks.

Ida May. By Mary Langdon. London :
Sampson Low and Co.
Mae. STOWE has been goodnatured enough to
stamp this volume with the seal of her appro-
bation. It bears some family likeness to
" Uncle Tom," but is pretty plainly manu-
factured to meet the marketable demand for
such productions. A young girl, intended as
the model of a wonderful child, is kidnapped
to be sold as a slave, but ultimately is restored
to her friends, and distinguishes herself by
manumitting the slaves on her property. Her
guardian, Mr. Wynn, is drawn as a respectable
specimen of the slave-holding class, with his
mind totally warped by the malign influence
of the " domestic institution" he upholds.
One of his slaves, a superior " boy," Alfred,
has had the audacity to marry without his
permission : he sends for him, and this colloquy
ensues:—
" Give an account of yourself. Where were you last

night."
Alfred started visibly at this question, and, through his
dark skin, it was easy to see that every particle of blood
receded from his face. Twice he essayed to speak, and
his lips seemed too rigid to form the words he would
have said. He knew, from his master's whole manner.
that disguise was useless,—that, through some unknown
channel, his secret plans had been conveyed to the ear
that should never have heard them, to the heart that
would know no pity. Nerving himself at length to meet
his fate, he looked up, and, with an effort at calmness, he
replied, firmly, but still respectfully, " I went to see my
wife, sir,"
" Who is your wife?" said Mr. Wynn, with a sneering
emphasis on the last word.
Elsie Nellore," replied Alfred.
" Did I not command you, three years ago, to have
nothing more to do with her, or any of her family?" said
Mr. Wynn. And then, as his companion did not reply, he
went on, with increasing excitement, " And now is not
this just what I told you would be the consequence of as-
sociating with them ? You have grown sulky and discon-
tented, and full of notions that ought to have been whipped
out of you long ago ; but I have been foolishly indulgent,—
and to-night you were going to steal my best horse, and
run away, were you? You ungrateful dog ! is this the way
you pay me for all I have done for you?"
Alfred was proud and highspirited, and, in the despera-
tion of his circumstances, he could no longer restrain the
burning words that were struggling for utterance, like the
lava in a pent volcano.
" What have you done for me?" he exclaimed, lifting
himself proudly. " A mighty debt I owe you, sir, but not
of gratitude! What have you done for me? You made me
a plaything in childhood! You fed and dressed me well,
because you like to see fat and neat-looking servants about
you! You educated nie just enough to suit you own pur-
poses, and then rudely checked my craving for further
knowledge ! What more did you do? You persecuted
the girl I loved, and insulted me by offering rue another
woman in her place—"
" Silence !" thundered Mr. Wynn, stamping his foot on
the floor.
" I will not be silent !—I will speak now, if I die for it!"
cried Alfred. " Twenty-five years I have served you faith-
fully ; and because your oppressions at last made me sad
and gloomy, you have scolded and threatened me. You
did not like A because the man you had wronged would
not sing and smile, as well as work for you,—because I
had a human heart in my bosom; because God made
me with the same wishes and powers that he gives the
white man—"
" You insolent puppy!" exclaimed Mi. Wynn : dare
you talk that way to me !—to me ! your master ? Foe