The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

RUSSIAN CORONATION FETES.

A GRAND display of fireworks closed the famous
Moscow fetes. The night was unfavorable, not wet,
but misty, and half the people saw nothing. The
other halt', however, enjoyed all they did see:—

When the Czar arrived, and was informed of the uu•
favorable condition of the atmosphere, he expressed much
concern. At the discharge of the first firework the
manager (M. Constantinoff) said, " Sire, they will be a
failure." " Would it not be possible to defer them to
another night?" he asked, and was answered in the nega-
tive, inasmuch as the pieces were all placed and were
ready to be discharged.

The multitude was so enormous that it would not
have been easy to get them away, or to explain the
cause of the delay, and
,so it was resolved to pro•
ceed

Before us all is utter darkness—not a star is visible, and
the only glimpses of light that can be seen are the lamps
in the distant city on the left, and the feeble gleams of
those which indicate the entrance to the palace beneath.
Now and then a spark, as it were, is seen moving about in
the distance, like that which wanders through the embers
of burnt paper; these indicate the presence of the assis-
tants arranging the fireworks. Suddenly, as though so
many different suns had burst through the clouds in meri-
dian splendour, five distinct paths of dazzling light flash
from some invisible places above our heads on the roof of
the building, and with blinding brightness lead through
the blackness of night to myriads of human faces. I t
was so sudden—so unexpected—so startling, that for an
instant no one could applaud or speak a word. The effect
was like nothing earthly—it resembled nothing I had seen
before, except one of those extraordinary pictures of Mar-
tin, representing Pandemonium or the great warnings of
Scripture history, where thousands of figures are seen in
the strongest light and shade, tapering away in remotest
perspective. Here, however, as far as the light reached,
the limits of the picture were seen extending and en-
larging to the confines of the wood which fronts the
palace in a wide semicircle. Al! the faces were of course
turned up towards the front of the palace to the points
whence the lights issued, and the wonderful intensity of
the electric blaze made them as clear and distinct as if
the sun himself shone on them, and at the same time
threw the deepest shadow below each from the figures
standing before. There was a hoarse murmur of delight
from the astonished people, and at the same moment, in
the centre of them, before the palace, was displayed a sort
of shrine or great pedestal, decorated at the top with
acanthus and flowers of great size, on which were perched
a flock of butterflies (each six feet from wing to wing),
which opened and folded their pinions (covered with the
brightest tinsel) to the strains of military music, and con-
tinued to do so with great perseverance, till they were
consumed by an outburst of pyrotechny from the interior
of the deceitful shrine. While the people were thus
lighted up, the spectators in the Ecole were in the deepest
shade, and could thus enjoy, without any annoyance, the
effects of the electric light. These were very well man-
aged, and I observed that the light seemed better regulated
and under more certain control than I had ever seeu it
before. The streams were directed from place to place,
shifted, and increased or diminished in intensity, appa-
rently at pleasure, and as they strayed over the faces of the
immense multitude so lightly and uncertainly the whole
scene reminded one of those strange dreams which come to
a man now and then to give him in his sleep an idea of in-
definite number and indefinite space. When the fireworks
began those lights were shut off and all was in darkness. To
give the names of those who were present at the Ecole des
Cadets would be only to repeat those you nave read so often
already. There was a sort of justice by no means poetical
in their being deprived of a sight which many of the people
enjoyed, and on being obliged to look for pleasure and
amusement at the laces of those very people, instead of
rejoicing in what they had come expressly to witness. The
programme has already obtained publicity, and it is impos-
sible to describe that which is invisible. What more can
be said of the arrival of the Emperor—of the shrill cheers
of the people—of the glory of the first outbursts of the war-
rockets—of the beautiful, and to me quite novel, effect of
the globes of coloured fire slowly descending, as if from
the skies, through the smoke, like stars through the clouds
—of the thunder of the final explosions, which raged Us
a great battle, of the bursting of bombs, and the rattle
which recalled to some that were present the infernal
tumult that raged that very day twelvemonth, when the

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legions of the Czar were hurled back from the walls of
Kars by the half starved, despised, and neglected Turks!
The transparencies were very successful :
The first was that of the monument to the peasant Sous-
sanni, to whom in a dream was revealed the hiding-place
of the persecuted youth who founded this great dynasty,
and who was led forth from obscurity to become Czar of
all the Rosales. The second was that of the equestrian
statue of Peter the Great. The third that of the Arch of
Triumph at St. Petersburg, with the cyphers of the reigning
Autocrat. These were visible through the smoke and fog
which settled down over the front of the Ecole. The
electric light alone was able to pierce this dense fume, and
it played with prodigious distinctness on the crowd, on the
uniforms of the Guards, and on the glittering square of
two thousand regimental musicians, who played with a
beauty and precision that spoke highly for their training
and proficiency. As to the chorus of cannon, it must be
understood that only one gun was fired for each bar, and
that there was no roar of artillery as we expected. On the
whole the effect, though not disappointing altogether, was
not such as would induce one to hope that this sort of ac-
companiment would become popular, and that you would
see announcements that "the celebrated performer on the
82-pounders, Napoleon Walker, has the honour to an-
nounce," or " that Signor Bomba's fantasia on the
new brass howitzer, sustained by Mr. Smith on the 1:1-inch
mortar, draws crowded houses," at Jullien's concerts or
the Surrey Zoological. The people melted away with their
ordinary powers of self-solution in this part of the world,
and marched quietly homeward when all was over, and
thus ended the fetes at Moscow.

THE EARL OF CARDIGAN AND COLONEL

BUCK, M.P.

THE Earl of Cardigan has this week addressed the
following letter to the newspapers :

On my return to Dublin, after an absence of some days
on duty in different parts of Ireland, I find a letter from
Mr. Buck, which has been copied into all the newspapers
of the day, and which letter appears to me to be a tissue of
ignorance, presumption, and slander. I consider that Mr.
Buck's conduct in this matter has been disgraceful, and
unworthy of his position as a gentleman and a member of
Parliament. I consider also that he has offered a gross
insult to me without the slightest provocation. It is there-
fore my intention to hold no further communication with
him. This individual has now identified himself with a
low slanderer, whose statements—dictated, no doubt, by
some person much above his own position in society—were
the origin of all those falsehoods which have been launched
at me ; for it is well known that not one word was ever
said on the subject in the Crimea for many months after
the b ale of Balaklava, or until those calumnies were in-
vented in England, and sent out to the East. These
calumnies met with no encouragement from the respect-
able portion of the press. It was therefore unnecessary
for me to treat them otherwise than with silence and con-
tempt. But it is different when a person in Mr. Buck's
position, one which is usually occupied by a gentleman,
thinks proper, at a public dinner, to make offensive allu-
sions highly derogatory to my reputation as a soldier. The
direct and personal allusions to me, made by that indivi-
dual at Torrington, bear no relation to the observations of
the Times newspaper, with which he so artfully tries to
connect himself. That newspaper did not reflect, and
never has reflected, upon my conduct in leading the charge
of the light cavalry at Balaklava. What the Times news-
paper alluded to as a " falsification of history" was the
praise of Lord Raglan as the commander-in-chief of the
army. This is a matter of opinion, but it would not prevent
me again stating my respect for the memory of that dis-
tinguished commander, and the high opinion I have ever
entertained of his qualifications as a general. Mr. Buck
then re era to the loss of horses on the heights of Inker-
mann ; but, considering that the whole of this matter has
recently been thoroughly investigated by order of the
Government, and that 1 and my brother officers implicated
have been relieved from all blame, I have only to observe
that Mr. Buck's opinion on the subject is an infamous
and disgusting slander.

With regard to being on board my yacht, the com-
mander-in-chief was well aware that I was too ill to live in
camp, and lie preferred my sleeping on board to my leaving
the army. I consider, therefore, that I had sufficient
authority for my conduct. It was from sleeping on board
this yacht that, on the 25th October, 1854, by order of my
superior officer on the spot, I placed myself at the head of
the light cavalry brigade to attack the Russian batteries.
Of my conduct on that occasion the following report was
made by the general commanding-in-chief :—" The order
was obeyed in the most spirited and gallant manner. Lord
Cardigan charged with the utmost vigour, and attacked a
battery which was firing upon the advancing squadrons,
and having passed beyond it, engaged the Russian cavalry
in the rear, dm ; " and by the lieutenant-general command•
ing the cavalry division, "This attack was of a very daring
and difficult nature, and was led by Major-General the Earl
of Cardigan in a most gallant and intrepid manner."
And now I have to state, in the most positive terms, that
after entering the battery, all rallying was utterly imprac-
ticable. Cavalry cannot rally with an immensely superior
force of cavalry in their front, and tw', batteries playing
upon their right and left rear, in addition to the fire of a
la-ge body of riflemen. In such a position troops must
either advance or retire. In advancing beyond a certain
point all would have been destroyed.
In my last letter I described what occurred to myself
until the period of our entering the battery. I stated that
advancing at a charging pace through obstacles which one
horse might pass, but a line of troops could not well follow,
I came alone upon a large force of Russian cavalry, that I
was attacked by two Cossacks in flank, slightly wounded,
and nearly unhorsed. I have now to add that an attempt