The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-08 00:00:00

SITUATION OF THE WAR.

THIS same Crimean Telegraph is at times rather I
bewildering. Occasionally intelligence is received of
an affair that has taken place before Sebastopol only
four-and-twenty hours earlier—a curt, laconic state-
ment of an isolated event, unaccompanied by any of
those details that are required to mako its bearing
and importance folly felt. Some twelve days later
comes the mail, with ample despatches containing
all the outs and ins of the story. But in the mean
time public attertion has been led on step by step to
a period far in advance of that to which these des-
patches relate. No small exertion of attention and
memory is required to prevent the various dates being
confusedly apprehended, the moat adventurous com-
binations of facts made, and the most erroneous con-
clusions resnecting the actual position and prospects
of the contending forces drawn.
At present our detailed information relates to a
period as far beck as the 24th of last month. At
that time the bombardment was still in progress,
though the hope. of its leadiog to any immediate
result appear to have bi en daily glowing fainter ; a

recomaiasarace had been made in the direction of
Tchorguo, some thought as a prelimioary to active
operations against the R4198h11311 in the field ; and
OMER PAlll 1 had returned to Eupatoris, with a
considerable portion of h.§ troops, either to guard
against a Russian attack, or to make a diversion in
favour of the Allies.

This news enables us to form a tolerably correct
notion of the positions of the whole Allied forces in
the Crimea on the 24th of last month. But it has been
made a matter of remote history by telegraphic not icts
of isolaail operations of a much more recent date. First
came the intimation that the bombardment bad been

suspended. Ministers have declared in Parliament
that the swept ninon was only temporary ;
bat the fact that a new siege train for
the Frerch army has been ordered to be shipped
at Marseilles would seem to indicate that the
intermission of the tiro from the besieging batteries
might last for a considerable time. Next comes intel-
ligence that the Russian Flagstaff Battery had been
so ibjuattl as to be rendered incapable of further re-
pair, coupled with the intimation that new defensive
works had already been constructed by the besieged
immidistely behind those that were no longer tenable.
Lastly come the accounts of the brilliant affairs in
front of the English attacks on the lit and 6.h of May,
and in front of the French attack on the 2nd, 3rd,
and 4th of the same month. So far as we can under-
stand the tecessarily brief telegraphic despatches,
the result of these affairs has been that in front of
the Fri Itch attack the enemy have been driven
within the line of their defences; that in front of
the English attacks, most of the Russian rifle-pits
hare been taken, and either incorporated into the
works of the assailants or destroyed. But not a
word is said of the renewal of the bombardment.
We have confined ourselves in our retrospect to
those statements which, as being poaitive and dis-
tinct, and contradicted by no one, may be regarded
as perfectly reliable. The inference we would
draw from them is, that the Allies continue to
maintain that moral and physical superiority over the
enemy, whenever they come intoactual collision, which
they maintained in the bloody struggles of Alma,
Balaklava, and Inkermann, but that there are as yet
no visible prospects of an immediate termination of
the strife.

We say this in no spirit of despondency, and with
no fear that the remark will cause despondency in
others. Now, as from the first landing in the Crimea,
whatever advantages have been gained have been
gained by tho Allies. The French and English occupy
an unassailable position in the Chersonesan penin-
sula; the Turks a very strong one at Etipatoris.
The Russians, although their communications with
the interior of the empire are uninterrupted, and
although au unbroken intercourse is kept up between
their army in the field and Sebastopol, feel it neces-
sary to keep on the defensive—for the numerous
sorties of which we read are merely intended to harass
and distract the besiegers. Of the amount of rein-
forcements that the Russians have already sent to the
Crimes, or that are likely to follow, it is impossible
to judge, but. the Russian accounts are palpably ex-
aggerated. On the other hand, the Sardinian Con-
tingent is on its way to the Crimea, the Turkish
Contingent is being organised, and reinforcements
are being despatched both from France and Eng-
land. The pressure of war, though not unfelt in
these two countries, has not yet imposed any serious
strain on their resources, or depressed tho national
enthusiasm. On the contrary, it appears to be severely
felt in Russis,m the communications from Warsaw and
Odessa, which we publish to-day, and others which
have previously appeared in our columns, sufficiently
testify. _ _

It items clear from this review that the war needs
only to be urged on by the Allies with energy, saga-
city, and singleness of purpose, in order to ensure the
required humiliation of the barbarous and encroach-
ing Muscovite power at no distant date. The only
misgivings that haunt the public in France and Eng-
land arise from the equivocal positions maintained by
the Germanic Powers, the changes in the French and
Turkish ministries, and the mystifying silence and
apparently utter planlessness of our own Govern-
ment. Some consolation is drawn from the circum-
stance that the appointment of a commission by the
Emperor of RUSSIA, to inquire into the whole subject
of the war, seems to evince a confusion of counsels in the'
enemy's camp quite equal to what Fovei . in our own.
—Doily News.

THE ATTEMPTED

LTION.

-e -

Putsoat has been convicted, and his eeatence is
death. Whether the sentence will be carried into
execution, it remains with the Ex?Eacia to deter-
mine. His fate excites little interest in this country :
few Englishmen have sympathies with an assassin.
If the judgment of the Court be carried into execu-
tioa, it will be considered to be nothing more than
the crushing of a wasp. It is, however, a curious
coincidence that the record of the payment to Cate-
Timms, the miusin who shot at the Duke of WlLL-
uxorox, of 10,354 francs, the principal and interest
of the legacy left him by NAPOLEON 1., should appear
in the same number of the Moonless that con-
tains the congratulatory address of the English
residents in Peril to NAPOLEON 111., on his escape
from the murderous attempt of Plssoiti. The terms
of the bequest make this payment in some degree a
sanction by the existing French Government of the
principle of political assassination. We can perfectly
enter into the feelings which have induced the Ex-
rmon to pay all the other legacies of his uncle; but
surely payment of this one might have been withheld
on the valid legal plea that it was contra bona mores.
Connected with this payment the murderous attempt
of PIANOS' almost appears like a providential rebuke
of a tacit approval of nomination.
Si a we have got upon this theme, we may be
allowed to offer a brief comment on a pastor in
the act. damnation (or indictment) of PIANORL
London is described, in that document, as "that centre
of the most audacious agitators—of these men whom
rage and defeat have driven to madness, and who
have Lome to each a point that appeal to crime is their
only means to serve their ambitious designs, their
material appetites, and their lust for power." We