The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

THE history of the war continues to bear its double aspect—on one
side brilliant with glorious achievements, on the other dark with dis-
credit and foreboding peril. Upon everything that has been done, and
much that has been planned, by our gallant soldiery and its chiefs in
the Crimea, we can dwell with emotions of unreserved pride and
admiration. Words are weak to describe as they deserve the energy,
the courage, and the self-devotion exhibited in the Crimean army ;
the heroic qualities, active and passive, displayed alike by officers and
men at all times and seasons, and against all foes, in the face of
privation and disease, as well as of Russian shot or steel; in the
wearying night-watch or the laborious trench, as well as behind the
attacking battery, or mingling in the headlong charge upon the foe.
With incidents like these our columns are filled to-day; and their
recognition may furnish an appropriate theme for the gracious mes-
sages in which Royalty expresses its approval of gallantry, its
sympathy with suffering, and its grief for bereavement. History
reserves for them hereafter some of her brightest pages. In the
eleven days from October 25 to November s—days so eventful that in
this place we cannot even attempt to catalogue their chief occur-
rences—there were deeds of daring performed which it would be
difficult to match and impossible to surpass from the records of any
war in any time or country. Nor is it the least subject for gratifica-
tion that this well-doing was universal. English and French soldiers
and sailors all stood, and deserved to stand, shoulder to shoulder as
approved brothers in arms. There was no faltering, even for a
moment, or by an individual. None shrunk from labour—none quailed

in peril.
Thus have our soldiers deserved of their country. But how have
those deserved who are entrusted at home with the guidance of those
soldiers? A British army, after all, is but a weapon—patent, trenchant,
and precious—to be used with deadly effect, but only in hands that
know how to wield and direct it. In able hands that army has con-
quered in every clime, and against almost any odds. Even in prudent
bands it might have conquered the Russians with little risk or
difficulty. But, as it is, we cannot attempt to look forward
without many misgivings. We do not wish to impugn for a moment
the military talents of Lord RAGLAN. We believe that he has done
everything which it was possible to do with the means at his disposal,
and under the instructions sent to him by his political chiefs. It is
tho Ministry at home, or rather, perhaps, that Peelite section who
have monopolised all the war departments of administration, who
have neutralised the achievements of a noble army, and endangered the
success of a most momentous enterprise. For the three months'
delay and inaction at Varna they only are answerable, and its conse-
quences, it appears, no heroism and no sacrifices upon the field can
altogether redeem. And now that the troops are pledged to their
hazardous undertaking, their triumph, and even their preservation,
are hourly imperilled by the want of adequate support. Why also has
the Times—which until lately could see no coldness in ABERDEEN, no
incapacity in NEWCASTLE—for this week past, in daily leaders,
exhausted its resources of emphasis and capital letter in demanding
the instant despatch of reinforcements to the Crimea, declaring that the
British army was living on its capital of men, melting away with
sickness and war, and threatening to disappear, from the waste Of its
own victories, before New Year's Day? Much has been said of the
fatal military error committed in launching the light cavalry brigade
unsupported against the Russian batteries. But what is that compared
with the criminal recklessness of sending a whole army upon an
enterprise equally fruitless and destructive, through a similar want of
due support?
Begirt as it was already with difficulties, the allied army in the
Crimea has now to contend against winter, which is rapidly closing in
with all its vigour. Letters from Constantinople report the breaking up
of the weather, and the commencement of furious storms in the Black
Sea In correspondence from the Crimea, published last evening, it is
stated that the winter began on the 30th, the night of that day
being " the most miserable of the many miserable the army had spent
in the Crimea. The wind swept under the tents, half freezing the
unfortunate occupants. Many of the tents were torn, and many more
blown clean away. Towards one o'clock the cold grew so intense that
half the men got up awl ran about to keep themselves from being

frozen."
The prospect of a termination to the siege seems at this moment
more distant than ever. When the last letters were written (on the
3rd instant), it was believed that orders for the assault might be ex-
pected every hour ; but the battle of the sth, glorious as it might be,
seems to have put all thoughts of a storm out of the question. The
brevity of the later Menschikoff despatches may be a favourable
symptom; but we learn from them, at all events, that no attack had
taken place up to the 9th. With a town only half invested, a be-
sieging force too weak even for the due execution of such duties, and
of the enemy, which is strong and bold enough to
,e of attack at any moment, and has more than once
the characters of besiegers and besieged, it is obvious
of Sebastopol is a task of enormous difficulty.
id hereafter that it has been a mistake ?
progress of the siege may be described in a few words.

SATURDAY,

The French have restored their damaged batteries and constructed new.
These lines have been pushed up to within 200 yards of the outward
Russian works ; and they have ran a mine towards the formidable out-
ports called the Flagstaff Battery. On the way their suppers encoun-
tered a countermine already heavily charged with powder. The
danger from this particular source was avoided, but the discovery
rendered their subterranean proceedings more cautious in future.
The English, besides maintaining their former works, have built a
battery on a spot looking down the inner harbour of Sebastopol, from
which t*o sixty-eight-pounder guns have committed great havoc
among the shipping, arsenal buildings and other waterside edifices.
Meanwhile, the garrisons are reported to have been seen busily con-
veying stores across the harbour with the view apparently of defending
the forts lying ou the north shore, even if compelled to abandon the
town and fortress on the south.
Round Balaklava there are strong lines of entrenchment thrown
up to defend the British store and communications. Beyond these
the Russian General LIPRANDI has also constructed a formidable in•
trenched camp, with its left resting on the sea. if Sebastopol falls,
therefore, there will still be work enough to do. The Government
journals in England are becoming gradually awake to the arduous
nature of the operations in which we have engaged, and are throwing
out feelers calculated to prepare the public for a possible continuance
of the siege throughout the winter.
Ministerial journals have found out that it was the unpropitious
weather which kept the inhabitants of Westminster away from the
" Patriotic Fund " meeting on Thursday last, an occasion that
appealed so strongly, not only to their feelings of charity, but of
patriotism and Aberdeenism. But whether it wero the November
clouds, or the Coalition Premier, who really threw a " wet blanket"
on the meeting, we must leave the public to decide.

If we lived in the days when omens were heeded, an incident
which occurred just before the company sat down to the Lord Mayor's
dinner on the 9th would impress us somewhat unpleasantly. As one
of the attendants was lighting the illuminations in gas which lined the
walls of the Guildhall, the Union Jack, in a group with the Tricolor
and Turkish ensign, took lire. The flame quickly leaped on to the
French colours, and then caught the banner of the Crescent. Further
mischief was prevented by one of the servants mounting a ladder and
hewing down the three flags and smothering the flames.
A lively correspondence has taken place between Major Powys,
Secretary to the Association for the Relief of Widows, &c., of soldiers, and
a clergyman who recommended one Mrs. BRIOHTWELL to the notice of
the Society. Her husband deserted her, enlisted in the 19th Regi-
ment as a single man, and was killed at Alma. Major POWYS says that,
to relieve Mrs. BRIGHTWELL, would encourage per jury and wire-deser-
tion. We are inclined to agree with him. A man bad enough to de-
sert his wife might not be deterred from doing so by the dread of
leaving her in destitution ; but might not many a man who never con-
templated such a step be lured into it by the prospect of leaving her
and his family honourably provided for at the national expense ? The
position of the wife cannot be dissevered from the conduct of the
husband. It is not because they are destitute wives, but destitute
soldiers' wives, that they are relieved ; and, but for BRIORTWELL'S per-
jury, his widow would have had no claim at all. If he had confessed
he was married he would most likely not have been admitted into the
service. Let those who think his widow—who lost nothing by his
death—deserving of relief subscribe for her themselves ; but do not let
us, either nationally or in association, hold out an inducement which
would fill the land with widows and orphans, and reinforce the army
with bachelors, each with a ife and a quiver full of children on
his back.

A statement has been copied from the Staffordshire Advertiser into
the daily papers to the effect that " last week fifty tons of lead were
" shipped from London to Memel via Hull, which it was known would be
" taken from thence to St. Petersburg. The Custom-house authorities
" at Hull refused pass it, but a telegraphic message was received from
" London, authorising them to forward it, and that was accordingly
" done." When Parliament meets, we trust that some inqui►y will be
made as to the authority by which nearly two millions of rifle bullets
were so obligingly furnished to the Czar. Not that there is much
doubt on the subject, however. In the same columns Lord CLAREN-
DON informs some patriotic Prussian merchants from Dundee that the
subject is still " under consideration," only anxiously assuring them
that the recent mission of Mr. WILSON to Belgium had no reference
(as eve►ybody hoped) to the restriction of the Prussian trade. Can
this deadly foole►y be endured much longer ?

PAPER REMEDIES.
Six regiments and a battalion of Guards would be Indeed a seasonable reinforcement, and the
promised tilling up of the melancholy vacancies of our cavalry regiments would remedy in a great
degree the deficiencies hitherto experienced in that arm. if this were done, or even if it could be
done quickly, such relief would be only' an bistalment towards the justice we owe to our troops,
and , the support we ar EXIST e bound to &rd to a righteous cause a
Tinte4, Nov. 15, 185/.nd to faithful and courageous allies.
But unfortunately, THESE PLANS EXIST ONLY ON PAPEIL
When a Kalmuck is ill, in the place of a pill,
Or a powder, or draught of the usual description,
The literal Kalmuck (says the traveller Huc)
Bolts the paper inscribed with his doctor's prescription.
In a similar mode, our poor soldiers abroad
Are treated, it seems, by Tadpole and Taper,
Who consider them, perhaps, insured from mishaps
If preservative measures are taken—oft paper.

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NOVEMBER 18, 1854.

THE LEAP IN THE DARK.
The jealous and exclusise policy of the Emperor of Russia has been so far crowned with
success that our great enterprise, the invasion of the Crimea, has beau rendered necessarily a
leap in the dark.—Times of Thursday.
Yes ! slighted or smothered, the warnings of years
That were spent in professions, "remembrances," notes,
" Love of peace," and of place, and the delicate fears
Of the loss of the Czar, or the worse loss—of votes ;

The waiting for allies who meant not, to aid,
The senile endeavour to tread out the spark
In each true English heart, 'gainst the tyrant arrayed,
Quoth the organ, has led to—" a leap in the dark."

We've " gone farther than Malta," made more than " a show,"
The bourne of his sway to the Vandal have told;
And the Cross of St. George and the Tricolor flow
Where nor Gordon nor Herbert e'er wished them unrolled.

But the want of intention brought energy's want—
Those who mean no invasion no fortress remark—
So the end of the scheming, timeserving, and cant,
Is to tell our brave captains to " leap in the dark."
But little concealment St. Petersburg found
When our rulers declared we would fight but in jest,
That but halfway to battle our navies were bound,
That our armies were meant for show-soldiers at best.
So when, lest 'mid the hisses of Europe at last
The world's scorning finger our placemen should mark,
Remorseful and slow, they the Dardanelles passed,
'Twas, their organ informs us,—" a leap in the dark."

Ali! the darkness of Russia was light in excess,
She rested correctly on favours from friends ;
" Exclusiveness" ne'er did her prying distress,
Nor " jealousy " jostle her way to her ends.
In that sorrow—when England her mandate gave forth—
Which our statesmen (by courtesy) sought not to hide
In the weary delays of the East and the North,
In the tents unprovided and gun boats denied ;

In the shrill squeak of " peace," 'mid the cannons' deep boom,
In the corpses of Varna in pestilence stark,
In our Premier's forebodings of misery and gloom,
Can we wonder our foes saw " a leap in the dark?"

RUSSIAN VERSION OF THE GUILDHALL
DINNER
[From the Journal of St. Petersburg, Nov. 18th.]
[We have authorisation to make public a document which has bcen'received by the Chan.
eery of the Empire, and which is considered to bear incontestable marks of genuine.
ness, although not formally accredited to our Government. It purports to be such
an account of the proceedings at the recent banquet at London, upon the occa•
sion of the coronation of the Lord Mayor of the City, as the head of the English
Government would desire should be circulated throughout the dominioha of his
Imperial Majesty. Our gracious Sovereign having no doubt as to the feelings with
which that English nobleman regards the present blasphemous and audacious
invasion of Russia, is pleased to permit him thus to set himself right with our
millions.]

" THE annual ceremonial of inaugurating the Lord Mayor of London
took place upon Thursday, the 9th of November. But it was little re-
garded by the inhabitants of the metropolis. Ordinarily, they assemble
in myriads to gaze upon the gorgeous procession; but upon this occa-
sion a few scattered and melancholy-looking groups represented the
accustomed crowd. The grief and shame felt by the nation finding itself
unhappily at war with the subjects of the wisest and most beneficent
Sovereign in Europe prevented their taking any interest in the spec-
tacle of the day. As if in unison with the national feeling, the weather
was wretched in the extreme, and the rain descended in torrents from
an early hour in the morning until long after the close of the whole
ceremony, while a dense fog (like that which endured during the whole
time the French Guides were in England, cementing an unnatural
alliance) rendered objects imperceptible at the shortest distance. The
river was unusually troubled and turbid as the magistrates embarked
upon it, and its waves produced effects upon them nearly akin to sea-
sickness. It was also remarked that the judges who received them at
Westminster had all colds in the head. Nothing, in short, could be
.nore dreary or ill-omened than this day usually so consecrated to a
mirthful nationality.
" The procession, little regarded, wended its melancholy way, and
its progress was marked by a series of lamentable accidents, most of
which were fatal. The ponderous wheels of the Mayor's coach, hurried
on its terrific speed by the monster dray-horses -harnessed to it, in
several cases struck down and crushed wretched petitioners, who,
beggared by the war, came to implore Lord Moon to use his influence
for peace. A Russian officer on parole, who had been induced by
motives of curiosity to watch the spectacle, rushed daringly forward
upon one occasion when the wife and family of a Manchester mer-
chant, kneeling to ask for peace, were in imminent peril, and with his
single arm arrested the colossal machine, and saved the helpless
suppliants.
" The customary banquet was prepared at the Guildhall, butthe
wilding was hung with mourning, sand oypress and yew along the

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tables took the place usually allotted to flowers. The figures of Gog
and Magog were shrouded in sackcloth. A large transparency, de-
signed by a celebrated undertaker, was placed over the Lord Mayor's
seat, and represented Britannia, Caledonia, and Hibernia, weeping
ovet an urn inscribed " Russian Alliance," a likeness of the Premier of
England as chief mourner, with crape round his hat, exciting much
approbation for its lugubrious fidelity. The guests assembled tardily
and reluctantly, the only one who manifested any pleasure was the
malicious Palmerston, whose spirits were felt to be so manifestly out
of place that all opportunity of further exposing himself was withheld
until the close of the evening, when he was permitted to propose a
trivial toast. There was an entire omission of the ordinary music,
but the chorus of British prisoners, from Fidelio, was given during the
dinner, and the overture to the Exiles of Siberia was played while the
dessert was placed.
" The usual loyal toasts were given with the appropriate formali-
ties, and that of the Army and Navy was received in silence, partially
broken by murmurs. Lord Harding() attempted to say a few depre-
catory words, but was instantly put down by the indignant feeling of
the audience. The representative of the navy, which has taken com-
paratively little part in the war, was somewhat better received, but was
inaudible. The Lord Mayor then gave the health of the Ministers.
" Lord Aberdeen, on rising, was received with enthusiastic
plaudits, waving of hats and handkerchiefs, showers of bouquets, and
other demonstrations, and, by preconcert, his lordship's crest, under
which was the word " PEACE," worked in dove's feathers and olive-
leaves, was hoisted on a standard at the lower end of the hall. This
was a signal for renewed cheering, which lasted nearly an hour.
When silence was restored. his Lordship proceeded to return thanks.
He said that they had met upon a melancholy occasion. (Cheers).
Last time he had addressed them there, war was most improbable.
(Lord Palmerston, " Had began.") Lord Aberdeen said that his
noble colleague—he would not say friend—for how could he call
a man a friend who was the enemy of Russia—(loud cheers)—had not
understood the signs of the times he alluded to. He might have
thought that the beneficent Emperor of Russia meant real war, but
he (Lord Aberdeen) happened to know that his sending armies across
the Pruth meant peace. (Applause.) However, let them not by any
shew of acrimony mar the melancholy sentiments of the day. They
had been forced into war, he would not say how, and by whom—
execrations)—and he could honestly say that lie had done his best in
the first place to avert it, and in the seeond to render it unpalateable.
(Cheers.) It was not his fault that the noble ritual of the Greek
Church was not at that moment being performed in the Church of
St. Sophia, at Constantinople, However, " man was like Don
" Ferdinand°, and cannot do more than he can du"—(laughter)---and
for the time the war, which was a deserved chastisement upon us for
our want of confidence in the wisdom and goodness of the Emperor
Nicholas, must continue until that just and powerful Sovereign choso
to accord us peace. He (Lord A.) had written to his Imperial
Majesty with the freedom his Majesty's condescending friendship
allowed, and had asked him as a personal favour to make peace, and
he was not without hopes that ho might succeed, but he could not say.
(Cheers.) He promised them, however, that the war should be
conducted in the same spirit in which it had hitherto been carried
on—they understood him—(Cheers.)—and ho hoped ere long that
the Emperor Nicholas, who was the most forgiving of men, would
announce in that very hall that he had pardoned England. (Loud
and renewed cheering.)
" After several other toasts, Lord Palmerston rose to propose the
health of the ladies, but all the ladies present instantly left the hall
in disgust, and the banquet broko up in great disorder, Lord
Palmerston with difficulty escaping the fury of the people."